[Simh] VAX 8200

[Ethan Dicks]

On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 3:37 PM, Bob Supnik <bob at supnik.org> wrote:
> There's an almost total lack of 8200 (aka V-11 or Scorpio) documentation on
> the web.

So true.

I happen to have one (from when I worked for Jim Ebright).  It's the
only mid-sized VAX I have plugged in at the moment.

> I have chip pictures (http://simh.trailing-edge.com/semi/v11.html),

Nice.  I can scan my boards if the packaging/heatsinks are interesting
enough to capture.

> 2. The 8200 has a patchable control store. This was used to avoid updating
> the microcode chips (five of them, all VLSI) for every microcode bug.

I remember having to update one of my two T1001 boards so I could run
them together as a VAX8300 (our box was purchased with a single CPU,
then I picked up a second CPU board for ~$100 with some random
microcode rev, and got it all working as our first SMP machine).  This
reminds me I should probably archive my console RX50 media.

Nice little machine.  For us, it was a nice bump up from our 11/750,
but by the time it came along, it was mostly a development machine, so
it was pretty much a single-user workstation for me.  Our 11/750 was
still the general office machine with our productivity apps, e-mail,
etc.  The 8200 was capable of so much more but its big accomplishment
for us was allowing us to make our VAXBI COMBOARD, and for _only_
$13,000!

-ethan