[Simh] VMS/VDE: Almost there

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2015-10-07 21:50, John Forecast wrote:
>
> On Oct 7, 2015, at 1:16 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>
>> On 2015-10-07 18:43, John Forecast wrote:
>>>
>>> On Oct 7, 2015, at 9:56 AM, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>> ...
>>>>> DECNET is available under RSX-11M and RSTS/E on PDP-11s, Tops-10 and TOPS-20
>>>>> on PDP-10s, and under VMS (and possibly Ultrix, I don't remember for certain)
>>>>> on VAXen, and on VMS follow-on systems.  It is as far as possible agnostic
>>>>> about what kind of system it was running on or connecting to.
>>>>
>>>> DECnet/Ultrix, yes.  There is also a limited DECnet for RT-11, and for DOS.  And VAXELAN.  And possibly IAS, I don't remember that one for sure.
>>>>
>>> 	Both IAS and RSX-11D (essentially the same code) were Phase II only. There was also a
>>> 	Phase II implementation for OS/8 but I seem to remember it being cancelled fairly early
>>> 	in the Phase II schedule.
>>
>> I thought IAS and -11D made it to phase III, but I can't find any evidence either way now that I'm looking.
>>
> 	I worked on the 2.0 release and I know there was a 2.1 bug fix update but I don’t remember
> 	any phase III implementation.

You might well be right. I tried searching for SPDs for DECnet/IAS and 
only found the 2.0 release that way. And the 2.0 release was for phase 
II. IAS itself got to at least V3.5 release in 1992. Surprised that 
DECnet was never updated, but like I said, can't find anything.

>> I have DECNET-8. It's not for OS/8 but for RTS-8. But yes, it is phase II. I have never tried it, though. So I don't know how/if it actually works, and I don't have any phase II or phase III nodes to test against.
>>
> 	Yes, you’re right, it was RTS-8. Looking at the date on the DECNET-8 SPD (May 1977) seems
> 	to imply that it was a Phase I product. Around that time we were just putting together the
> 	system-level architecture of DECnet-11M/11D/IAS and it would be another year before
> 	they would ship (SPD says June 1978).

I have always just assumed it was phase II, but now I sat down and tried 
reading through the code. And I'm not sure anymore.

It's clearly called V1A (some modules are at V1C) of DECNET/8, but the 
problem is that I can't find any clear mention of which phase it is 
anywhere.
What I can find is that it claims to implement NSP SPEC LEVEL 2.2. Not 
sure what that is worth. The TLK program also mention adding PDP11 
compatibility, so it would definitely appear that it worked, and could 
communicate with PDP-11 systems.

It's also clearly dated early 1977.

	Johnny

-- 
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