On Jan 8, 10:44, The Wanderer wrote:
> Pete Turnbull wrote:
> >
> > OK. From what you've written there, and a few other places, I assume
you
> > have some manuals and/or printsets?
>
> Most of them, but from the MK11 memory box, only the MOS board and both
> controller boards.
That's a pity, bacause he manual for the MK11 system has a lot of
troubleshooting flow charts -- too much for me to try to reproduce. And
it has the setup instructions, of course.
> > > > That's an unusual address, and it's only 32K bytes (16KW). You said
> > you
> > > > had two 64KW boards. What type are they? They probably have
switches
> > Are they M8728-AA or M8728-CA? The latter is only 16KW. The easy way to
> > tell the difference, if there's no -A or -C beside the number, is that
>
> One is a '-AA' version, the other is a '-AC' one, and both are fully
> populated.
>From reading the manual, it looks like two arrays (M8728) is the minimum
for the box. It might work with one, though.
> There are no switches at the front of the box, unless you mean the
> control panel
> which contains the thumbwheel switches and a few other switches?
Yes, that's what I meant. The three thumbwheel switches on the left set
the start address of the box, in 32KW blocks. That's the smallest size you
can have in a box, and since the arrays are either 16KW or 64KW I think you
need to have at least two (but you can have an odd number, eg 3, after that
-- it just won't do any interleaving). Anyway, set these three to zero.
The other thumbwheel (?) switch sets the external interleave; it has to be
set to zero unless you are interleaving between multiple boxes.
Then the cards have to be in the correct slots. Looking from the front,
slot 1 is on the right, and slot 26 is on the left, PSU regulators are at
the back.
The address buffer (M8158) must be in slot 13, the data buffer (M8159) in
slot 15. The #0 Control A board (M8160) must be in slot 11 and the #1
Control A board in slot 16. The #0 Control B board (M8161) must be in slot
10 and the #1 Control A board in slot 17. The #0 controllers handle the
even-numbered arrays, in slots 2...9; the #1 controllers handle the
odd-numbered arrays, in slots 18...25. Slots 1,12,14,26 are not used.
You must set the power-fail jumpers on the M8158. The manual says W1 out,
W2 in; W3 out, W4 in. I'm not sure if that's always true. I don't know
what you do if you don't want the battery backup!
You must also put terminators on the outgoing connectors on the address and
data buffers of the last box (the only box, in your case). These are H873
terminator packs, four altogether, one for each BC06R cable. The incoming
cables go on J1 and J3 (nearest the long edge of the board), and the
terminators go on J2 and J4. You MUST put the screws in the terminators,
as that's how they get the power.
The first array, #0, must go in slot 9, and the next, #1, in slot 18. Then
work out from the centre if you ever add more. There must not be any gaps.
If there are some 16K boards and some 64K boards, the 16K boards must all
be before the 64K ones.
> Do you have documentation on the data buffer board? This one does have 2
> switchbanks, and all are currently 'open'. Those 2 boards are the
> only one for which I do not have any docs.
I didn't see anything about switches on the data buffer. The address
buffer is described as having three switches to set the CSR address of the
box. For the first box, set address 17777100 by setting S1, S2, and S3 all
closed. For the next box, open S1. For the third, open S2, close S1. And
so on. Ech box uses two words for the CSR.
> > It looks as though the box might be set to the wrong address -- 400000
> > is
> > 131072 decimal, or 128K -- and is only showing 16KW (32KB) of memory. I
> > don't know how you set the address of the box, though.
>
> I changed the size register on the 8143 to 32K, and it 'disappeared'
> completely
> from the system, i.e. no memory address was usable.
The MK11 logic checks the address on the bus to make sure it's between the
limits set by the size register in the CPU, and it's start address. If the
address on the bus is less than the box's start address, or higher than the
size register, it will not respond.
> > Why do you think address 777644 is the diagnostics ROM start address?
>
> That was a mistake, I did mean 765744, which is spoken about in the
> documentation.
That's not an entry point! It's not even executable code, it's the ROM
Identification word. It contains the ASCII characters "B0" to identify the
ROM. The only entry points are:
773x04 to boot without diagnostics
773x06 to boot with diagnostics
aaaaaa address dependant on the bootstrap ROM version, which jumps
to 765564 in the diagnostic ROM
765564 JMP to start of diagnostics
765000 start of disgnostic code
Obviously there are other points at which you could enter the diagnostics,
but you'd need to set some things in memory and registers first.
BTW, I discovered you can disable the cache by setting 000014 in the status
register at 17777746. If the cache is faulty, but enabled, the memory box
won't work properly, apparently. I don;t think that's your problem,
though. More like a start address error.
The first part of the troubleshooting flowchar starts by saying that you
want to boot XXDP and run the MK112 diagnostic program :-) Well, obviously
you can't do that, but it does say that if you can't boot, then first check
ALL the power supplies (sound advice anyway).
The next part of the flowchart goes like this:
1) Can you boot XXDP?
If "no", is the memory box ON LINE?
If "no", put it ON LINE and go back to (1)
If "yes", is MEM PWR READY lit?
If "no", "ZAP 200" [I have no idea what this means!]
If "yes", suspect (in this order):
BA11K regulator
7014251 battery backup regulator
11/70 Unibus problem
If "no",
reverse or replace the grey box control cable
If "yes", is "UNCORR ERROR"?
If "yes", go to next sheet [which is too complex to type]
If "no", is there an "ADDR ERROR"?
If "yes", suspect (in order):
bad or loose BC06R cable
address interface, M8158
11/70 cache fault
If "no", halt CPU
power memory box off
power memory box on again
Is there "CONFIG ERROR"?
If "yes",
install arrays properly
suspect Control A (M8160) on right side
If "no", is "SELECT PANEL" lit?
If "yes", go to next sheet
If "no", set "FORCE FRONT PANEL"
Is it lit?
If "no", suspect (in order):
"Reset Box" control cable
switch or light on box controller
data buffer, M8159
If "yes", suspect (in order):
data buffer, M8159
address buffer, M8158
Maybe this will be of some help.
> > All the 11/70 tests halt on error
[...]
> > So having it loop until you stop it, and then halt at some address
> > ending
> > in 344 doesn't make much sense to me.
I wonder if it was trying to store data in 000700...000706 (which it does
at the very start of the diagnostics), getting a bus error (no memory),
trying to access the trap vector at the bottom of memory, getting a bus
error for that too, and just getting stuck until you halted it.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Received on Tue Jan 08 2002 - 20:11:31 GMT