Subject: RE: current on vax
To: Antonio Carlini <arcarlini@iee.org>
From: Johnny Billquist <bqt@update.uu.se>
List: port-vax
Date: 11/20/2003 15:44:59
On Thu, 20 Nov 2003, Antonio Carlini wrote:
> Were there different controllers for the XMI bus on the VAX 6000
> and the VAX 7000? News to me (but I've been wrong before). Anyone
> have any controller names?
Here's what the Datadoc - DEC/VAX 7xx0/10xx0 manual says:
[...]
You need to be trained to work on these systems. The VAX 7000 is not "just
like a VAX 6000". The only common part is the XMI, which is used only for
I/O and has a different backplane, power supply and options.
[...]
Table 4:
VAX 7000/10000 - XMI Options
Option Adapter type Max per XMI Max per System Min firmware rev
CIXCD(1 CI 4 10 70.00 [4611]
DEMFA FDDI LAN 4 7 1.4 [0514]
DEMNA NI LAN 4 16 8.02 [0802]
DWMBB BI 1 3
DWMVA VME bus
KCM44 CSS high end tape
KDM70 RA/TA/ESE storage 3 12 3.00 [1E11]
KFMSA(2 DSSI 5 12(3 5.06 [A2A6]
1( Must be CIXCD-AC (T2080-YA). Note, different ucode for AXP and VAX.
2( Must be KFMSA-BA (T2036-Ax)
3( Assumes 1 x CIXCD. Otherwise, maximum = (25 - No of CIXCDs) / 2
[...]
4.1 Unsupported XMI options
The following XMI options are not supported on DEC/VAX 7000/10000
systems. Be careful if upgrading from a 6000 to a 7000, you cannot tranfer
these modules.
Option Adapter type Module Comment
CIXCD CI T2080 Use CIXCD-AC (T2080-YA)
DWMBA BI T2012 Old BI adapter, use DWMBB
DWMUA Unibus Mythical XMI to Unibus adapter?
KFMSA-AA DSSI T2036 Old DSSI adapter, use KFMSA-BA
---------
Well, there you have it.
> Typically the VAX 6000 used BI-bus controllers for CI, although
> it could use the XMI-based ones for disk, tape, network and CI.
> AFAIK, the same ones worked everywhere.
Appearantly not.
> That doesn't mean all controllers would work in all systems. As
> an obscure example, the DSB32 VAXBI synch controller would not
> work in a VAX 7000 system. The microcode locked the VAXBI bus
> in a way that would not work when the VAXBI was hung off an
> XMI bus.
Maybe this is the problem for the other adapters (such as the CI) as well.
> Similarly, the XMI CI controller had carnal knowledge of the
> system page tables, so it needed different firmware depending
> on whether it was used on a VAX or an Alpha. But the only
> difference was the firmware.
>
> The XMI SCSI controller was Alpha-only: I expect that was mostly
> a firmware issue (not worth expending effort on a VAX variant at
> that point in the lifecycle), but I do not know for sure.
>
> So, names and numbers please, someone. I'd be interested to know -
> one day I'm bound to trip over a VAX 7000 and lug it home: it
> would be a terrible waste of effort to pick up the wrong
> controller :-)
Now you have the neccesary information. Well, I actually suspect you
already have it, but maybe you haven't been reading it like I have. :-)
Johnny
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt@update.uu.se || Reading murder books
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