Subject: VAX-11/78[05] hardware info wanted
To: None <port-vax@netbsd.org>
From: Eric Smith <eric@brouhaha.com>
List: port-vax
Date: 03/18/2000 05:50:41
With the help of three friends, I just rescued an 11/785 from being
scrapped.  Eventually I want to run NetBSD on it.  Unfortunately I did not
get any hardware docs with it.  So I have a few questions:

1)  Does anyone have spare hardware docs?  Maintenance manual, reference
    manual, prints, fiche, anything?  I'd be happy to pay for copying and
    postage.

2)  The machine only has 2 megabytes of memory.  Are there any good, cheap
    sources of suitable memory?  It appears that SBI can support 512
    megabytes of RAM; what were the biggest memory systems offered?

3)  Does the 785 use the same CPU and FPA backplane(s)?  I know the cards
    are totally different, but was the 780 to 785 upgrade just a card swap?

4)  The 780 apparently had 4K*96 (plus parity) of PROM control store,
    2K of WDCS (writable diagnostic control store), and optionally
    (KU780) 2K of user writable control store.  It appears that the
    control store configuration of the 785 is different; does it support
    user writable control store?  Are the same tools used to develop
    780 and 785 microcode?

There's some chance that I may be able to get a second 785 soon.  I wonder
if the 785s can be converted to a dual processor system on a single SBI, as
George Goble and Michael Marsh did at CMU:
    http://ghg.ecn.purdue.edu/vax/paper.html

Thanks!
Eric