[Simh] VMS Network device support

[Timothe Litt]

I found an official DEC letter from 1992.

First, VAX Wide Area Networking is a separate product.  The kit name is 
SYNC (e.g. SYNC012 on the CDs).
It has a separate PAK - one of which is WAN-DEVICE-DRIVERS.  The DUP for 
HDLC and Bisync requires it, but
apparently not for DDCMP.  But the DMC/DMR and other sync lines do.

Second, many of our plans assume a decnet router.  VMS VAX requires the 
DVNETRTG PAK to enable this.

I don't have current information, but 
http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/vms_hobbyist_faq.txt 
<http://www.aracnet.com/%7Ehealyzh/vms_hobbyist_faq.txt> suggests that 
neither is in the Hobbyist PAK.  This may be because no one thought 
they'd be of interest to hobbyists.  It's also possible that this 
information has been superseded - it's 13 years old, so we need to 
verify it.

Third, VAX DECnet/OSI Phase V officially withdrew support for the DMR11, 
DMV11, KMV1A, KMS1P and  KMS11 devices.
I don't know if they stopped working, or just stopped being supported.  
DEC suggested DMR->Ethernet, DMV/KMV-> DSV and KMS -> DMF32 as 
replacements. (The DMC had previously been retired as the DMR was a more 
capable device, and the DMC had some ucode bugs.)

This may mean that we have to use -11s for routers, if we can't get HP 
to include these PAKs in the Hobbyist PAK for VMS.

Of course, anyone who is replacing real hardware with an emulator can 
(as I understand it) move PAKs from real hardware to their emulator.

We can probably find enough PAKs this way for development, but someone 
will have to take on finding the right person in HP to help create a 
real solution.  Since the folks who set up the hobbyist program are long 
gone, it may be a challenge, even though I don't see any reason for HP 
to refuse.

Meantime, we should solve the technical problems first.  They're 
probably easier...

-- 
This communication may not represent my employer's views,
if any, on the matters discussed.


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