[Simh] VMS/VDE: Almost there

John Forecast john at forecast.name
Wed Oct 7 23:42:53 EDT 2015


On Oct 7, 2015, at 7:17 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:

> 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.
> 
	Phase II use NSP v3.1 so that’s probably another indication that it’s a Phase I product.

> 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
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