"Carlini, Antonio" wrote:

>         Before you get *too* excited however, I'm pretty sure the
>         first one is STD 057, the VAXBI standard doc. This is to
>         BI as the VAX Architecture Reference Manual is to the
>         VAX. It tells you how the bus works in considerable
>         detail (hardware and software conventions) but it won't
>         say much about how a KDB50 works.

This is probably correct. It also includes pinouts and timing diagrams for
the BIIC chip. This is the DEC interface chip for nodes on this bus.
(probably the most useful part for driver writers) it also seems to be the
portion that got the most use. I am still unclear if 'VAXBI' and 'BI' are the
same bus, as the docs don't mention them on the VAX 11/78x series, just the
6000 and 8000 series. Could be they were extinct by then. (1986 is the
publishing date)

>         The second one sounds like a "DIY guide to building
>         a VAXBI board", but I've never seen it so I cannot be sure.

That is exactly what it is, a collection of articles on how to build a VAXBI
board. One written by Tektronix tells how to set up a logic analyzer to
capture bus cycles, one talks about layout and heat dissipation, etc.

--Chuck