MicroVAX-II questions

From: Carlini, Antonio <Antonio.Carlini_at_riverstonenet.com>
Date: Fri Mar 8 13:26:40 2002

> Christopher Smith wrote:
>
>> From: Doc Shipley [mailto:doc_at_mdrconsult.com]
>> Everything VMS I've looked at says the DEQNA is unsupported in
VMS
>> >v5.2. Is that unsupported as in "don't call DEC/Compaq/HP", or
>> unsupported as in "it don't work"? Am I stuck with NetBSD then?
Does
>> anyone know if NBSD will mop-boot over the DEQNA? I don't have
VMS
>> older than 6.2.
>
>ISTR that's correct, and that's unsupported as in "We never could
get it
>to work right, so you're on your own..." The suggested solution
I've
>seen is to replace it with a DELQA board. :)

        The warnings about "we'll soon de-support the DEQNA"
        started in release notes round about 1987. It lasted
        for at least another five years.

        Ethernet drivers used to use an interface called FFI
        - allegedly Flaming Fast Interface but that was presumably
        just for management consumption :-)

        Round about V5.4[-x] or V5.5[-x] this interface
        was replaced with a new shinier one (whose
        name I've either forgotten or never knew) and
        at that point the DEQNA was stated to have stopped
        working. I never actually tested this, but the DECnet
        folks (in whose group I was working) told me
        it just plain would not work - by design.

        The DEQNA was DEC's first Qbus ethernet interface
        and was IIRC basically a LANCE chip on a Qbus card,
        the LANCE chip being essentially a DEUNA-in-a-chip.
        The DEUNA was DEC's first ethernet interface.
        The DELQA was the result of what they learned
        from that experience. The Turbo-DELQA was a ROM
        upgrade that improved performance further.

        Antonio
Received on Fri Mar 08 2002 - 13:26:40 GMT