[Simh] [HECnet] TOPS-20 V4.1 DECnet

Fri May 2 19:12:05 EDT 2014

On 2014-05-03 00:52, Cory Smelosky wrote:
> On Sat, 3 May 2014, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>
>> Hi.
>>
>> On 2014-05-02 20:02, simh at swabhawat.com wrote:
>>> Hi guys,
>>
>> Well, if it truly is Phase II, then yeah, I would not expect it to
>> work. But I was pretty sure it was Phase III, in which case it should
>> work.
>>
>
> There's a tape listed as Phase III...is it not Phase III?!

That's what I read Reindert message as. I do not know for certain myself.

>>> Further there is no difference between the functioning of a Rsts-E
>>> 10.1 and
>>> a Rsx11MP46 Pdp11 with respect to Dup/Dmc/Ethernet if Rsts-E will
>>> support
>>> the Dup/Dmc lines and will route as it is primarily an Ethernet system.
>>
>> Well, therein lies the problem. RSTS/E simply did not support a bunch
>> of thing that RSX did support.
>> But yes, assuming the OS support a device, it should work equally well
>> under RSTS/E and RSX.
>
> Huh.

Did I write something strange? I thought not.
To reiterate. DECnet under RSX supports things that is not available 
under DECnet/E. Unless I remember wrong, DECnet/E do not support 
asynchronous DDCMP links. DECnet/E also cannot function as an area 
router. DECnet/E also do not support path splitting.
And I do not believe DECnet/E supports all the hardware that DECnet-RSX do.
Looking at the SPD, DECnet/E do not have support for the DUP11 for example.

	Johnny

>
>>
>>> To make these things work the following has to be done:
>>> 1.    Upgrade Tops20-4.1 Decnet to real phase-III, it then will link
>>> to a
>>> Pdp10 Tops10 7.02 based phase-III router.
>>> 2.    Repair/upgrade the Tops10 7.02 router code so that it will talk
>>> to a
>>> phase-IV node.
>>
>> What is wrong with the Tops-10 DECnet phase III code if it don't
>> interoperate with a phase IV node?
>>
>>> Both things will require Tops monitor programming; the Tops10 7.02
>>> case will
>>> probably be the most simple of the two.
>>> On the physical plane nothing is wrong as the packets do flow; only the
>>> DDCMP communication process will not startup; it hangs around in the
>>> startup
>>> phase.
>>
>> That's sad.
>> But DDCMP should not be too hard to get working. And RSX support DDCMP
>> both on synchronous and asynchronous serial lines. And both using
>> devices that implement DDCMP, and software implemented DDCMP.
>>
>>     Johnny
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Best regards
>>>
>>> Reindert
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com
>>> [mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com]
>>> On Behalf Of Cory Smelosky
>>> Sent: Friday, May 02, 2014 19:31
>>> To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
>>> Cc: simh at trailing-edge.com
>>> Subject: Re: [Simh] [HECnet] TOPS-20 V4.1 DECnet
>>>
>>> On Fri, 2 May 2014, Paul_Koning at Dell.com wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On May 2, 2014, at 12:59 PM, Mark Pizzolato - Info Comm
>>> <Mark at infocomm.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Friday, May 02, 2014 at 7:36 AM, Paul Koning wrote:
>>>>>> ...If you want a RSTS system to connect to your Phase III machine,
>>>>>> you'll want to use a DMC (or DMR/DMP/DMV, they are all roughly
>>>>>> interchangeable).  In a sufficiently recent SIMH, the DMC emulation
>>>>>> speaks real DDCMP so it should talk with a software DDCMP
>>> implementation, such as one that uses a DUP.
>>>>>
>>>>> The DUP has only been tested talking to the KDP and DMC/DMR on
>>>>> RSX.  If
>>> someone wants to try on RSTS I'd like to know if any issues are found.
>>>>
>>>> I'll see what I can do.  Since a DMC/DMR does DDCMP itself, it
>>>> shouldn't
>>> matter what OS is talking to it; if you get success with DECnet/RSX,
>>> I would
>>> expect it to work with DECnet/E as well.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Or, since it doesn't know sync from async, it will probably talk to
>>>>>> a software DDCMP implementation that uses a terminal interface.
>>>>>
>>>>> I believe that it should also talk to an OS based DDCMP implementation
>>> which uses Async ports.   If someone is willing to test this, I'll
>>> work on
>>> any kinks which may be found which might inhibit this.
>>>>
>>>> I'm trying to make some progress on that (using RSTS V10.1).
>>>>
>>>
>>> Let me know.  I'm interested in using RSTS/E to link TOPS-20/KS.
>>>
>>>>     paul
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Cory Smelosky
>>> http://gewt.net Personal stuff
>>> http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Simh mailing list
>>> Simh at trailing-edge.com
>>> http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol