So, you may have heard that there is now an experimental DELQA module 
available for SIMH.  I ported the Ethernet layer of the simulator to
NetBSD (I have already sent patches back to the author) and started
playing around with it.  So far, it works well enough to load the boot
loader via MOP and then the kernel via NFS.

Here's a transcript, simulator running on my laptop:

dhcp7:thorpej 14$ ./vax

VAX simulator V2.10-0
sim> attach xq0 ex0
sim> set rq0 ra92
sim> at rq0 rq0.ra92
sim> set rq1 offline
sim> set rq2 offline
sim> set rq3 offline
sim> boot cpu
Loading boot code from ka655.bin


KA655-B V5.3, VMB 2.7
Performing normal system tests.
40..39..38..37..36..35..34..33..32..31..30..29..28..27..26..25..
24..23..22..21..20..19..18..17..16..15..14..13..12..11..10..09..
08..07..06..05..04..03..
Tests completed.
>>>boot xqa0
(BOOT/R5:0 XQA0)



  2..
-XQA0
  1..0..


>> NetBSD/vax boot [1.11 Mon Feb 18 15:08:05 PST 2002] <<
>> Press any key to abort autoboot 4
Press '?' for help
> boot netbsd.gen
Trying BOOTP
Using IP address: 208.176.2.173
myip: dhcp0.shagadelic.org (208.176.2.173)
root addr=208.176.2.162 path=/u1/diskless/vax
1509768+209472 [143792+103861]=0x1e0510
[ netbsd ELF symbol table not valid ]
[ no symbol table formats found ]
Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
    The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
    The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

NetBSD 1.5ZC (GENERIC) #4: Sat Apr 27 18:45:09 PDT 2002
    thorpej@yeah-baby.shagadelic.org:/u1/netbsd/src/sys/arch/vax/compile/GENERIC

MicroVAX 3800/3900
cpu: KA655, CVAX microcode rev 6 Firmware rev 83
total memory = 16328 KB
avail memory = 11852 KB
using 229 buffers containing 916 KB of memory
mainbus0 (root)
ibus0 at mainbus0
uba0 at ibus0: Q22
dz0 at uba0 csr 160100 vec 304 ipl 15
mtc0 at uba0 csr 174500 vec 774 ipl 15
mscpbus0 at mtc0: version 5 model 3
mscpbus0: DMA burst size set to 4
mt0 at mscpbus0 drive 0: TK50
mt1 at mscpbus0 drive 1: TK50
mt2 at mscpbus0 drive 2: TK50
mt3 at mscpbus0 drive 3: TK50
uda0 at uba0 csr 172150 vec 770 ipl 15
mscpbus1 at uda0: version 3 model 3
mscpbus1: DMA burst size set to 4
ra0 at mscpbus1 drive 0: RA92
Bus error (core dumped) 
dhcp7:thorpej 15$  

...it's crashing deep in the bowels of the XQ simulator module... I'm
going to try and debug that today.  But, in any case, progress :-)

Note that I'm not sure how well (if at all) NetBSD's "qe" driver is going
to work, right now ... the XQ module only currently simulates the DELQA;
the DEQNA mode hasn't been completed yet ... but the boot loader was able
to talk to it, so I'm somewhat hopeful :-)  (Incidently, can someone refresh
my memory as do the differences between the DELQA and the DEQNA?)

Anyway, once I get things working, I'll update pkgsrc with the current
beta versions of the sim and XQ module, and my patches.  It'll be nice
to be able to run the sim on my 2.4GHz Xeon with Ethernet support :-)

-- 
        -- Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@wasabisystems.com>