[Simh] VAX 780 as a boot server

Wed Apr 8 17:55:03 EDT 2009

A DEQNA!  Boy does that bring back memories.  I don't recall what the 
final revision level was on those before the DELQA took over.  I worked 
for a reseller back in the late 1980's and it seemed that there was 
always a new release of that board coming out.  At one time we had a box 
of about twenty of the things in our warehouse that had been pulled from 
systems that were being exported and it was not legal, at the time, to 
export Ethernet cards to where we were sending the systems.  We thought 
we had something useful to sell only to find later on that they were 
several steps behind in revision level.  The release of the DELQA made 
them practically worthless.

It is interesting that the 3900 runs 4.6.  The 3600 was announced to the 
world at DECWorld in 1987 and VMS was currently at 4.6 back then.  5.0 
came out in 1988 and the 3900 hit the market sometime in 1989 IIRC.  The 
firm I worked for after the reseller had a 3600 purchased in 1988 that 
we had board upgraded to a 3900 in 1990.  We were already at 5.0+ by then.

Gad, that was all 22 years ago...

Robert

Robert Jarratt wrote:
>
> Yes indeed, the ultimate aim is to get a version of VMS running on a 
> MicroVAX II which is currently fitted with a DEQNA. The MicroVAX II 
> has an RD53 in it but I am not sure it works. I have no other machine 
> to put the RD53 into and no other disks I can put into the MicroVAX II 
> (as far as I know).
>
>  
>
> I was told that the 3900 would not run versions earlier than 5.1, but 
> I have just tried it with 4.6, it boots OK and I should be able to get 
> it to 4.7, so perhaps that will do. I don't have media for 5.0 through 
> to 5.3. I have media for 5.4 and, after a few initial difficulties 
> with the media, I am now in the process of installing it, but it is 
> also my understanding that 5.4 has limited support for DEQNA. We shall 
> see.
>
>  
>
> Thanks
>
>  
>
> Rob
>
>  
>
> *From:* simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com 
> [mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] *On Behalf Of *Stephen Hoffman
> *Sent:* 08 April 2009 18:42
> *To:* simh at trailing-edge.com
> *Subject:* Re: [Simh] VAX 780 as a boot server
>
>  
>
> Robert Jarratt writes:
>
>  
>
>     I want to try using the SIMH VAX 780 as a boot server. I can't use
>     the 3900
>     simulation as that needs a version of VMS that is too new (I need
>     a version
>     prior to 5.4, and only have up to 4.7).
>
>  
>
> I'm not working with Mr Jarratt here, but based on the postings and 
> discussions I've noticed scattered around so far, this is an attempt 
> to transfer MicroVMS V4.1M over onto a MicroVAX II KA630 box, and boot 
> it.  MicroVMS V4.1M being the first release with support for the 
> MicroVAX II box and the KA630 processor.
>
>  
>
> Satellite or diskless or InfoServer boot probably won't help here as 
> AFAIK none of this stuff was particularly ironed out and available 
> until rather after V4.1M.  Clustering didn't get going until the later 
> releases in V4 range and into the V5 range.
>
>  
>
> The usual load device for the MicroVAX II was floppy disk or TK50 or 
> RRD50-series CD-ROM.   Forty or fifty some RX50 floppies, IIRC, for 
> the full kit.
>
>  
>
> The usual hard disk was the RD52 via RQDX2, or (somewhat more rarely) 
> RC25 via KLESI.
>
>  
>
> With a spare RD disk or swapped RD disk, the system could be gotten to 
> boot a (far) more recent version of OpenVMS VAX via InfoServer 
> (present in V8.2-1 and later) or via some other swappable media (TK or 
> TF or disk), and that newer release could be used to restore V4.1M 
> onto an RD52 or RC25.  Or move the RQDX2 or KLESI forward to a newer 
> Q-bus box, and load the RD52 or RC25 with V4.1M there.
>
>  
>
> As for the "too new" question, creating a MicroVAX 3500 KA650 should 
> be a straightforward tweak in simh from the current MicroVAX 3900 
> (KA655), and the former boots on V4.7A and later.  But I don't know 
> that this approach or the use of InfoServer or such is going to be 
> effective here.  But I'd definitely try InfoServer here before I tried 
> the other sequences here.  The next approach would be a completely 
> satellite diskless boot of some V5-vintage OpenVMS VAX (that's new 
> enough to work and be available, and old enough to accept the DEQNA; 
> that's V
>
> 5.4-3 or earlier
>
> ) or temporarily swap the DEQNA for a DELQA or such, and then mount 
> the disk remotely and BACKUP /IMAGE V4.1M down to the RD52 disk (and 
> then swap back the DEQNA).
>
>  
>
>  
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Simh mailing list
> Simh at trailing-edge.com
> http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/pipermail/simh/attachments/20090408/3cae9582/attachment-0003.html>