Re: VMS drivers

[Sue Skonetski]

I am very interested in these drivers!

I am new to the group please let me know the proper procedure/process.

Thanks so much,

Sue Skonetdki
VMS Software Inc.,



 On Aug 28, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Jon Elson el...@pico-systems.com wrote:
 
 Hello, guys,
 
 While rummaging through recovered backups from my MicroVAX I found a few 
 items that might be of interest to the group.
 
 I got an MDB mag tape interface (quite possibly the ONLY Pertec Unformatted 
 controller ever made for Q-bus) that follows the MT-11 register format.  
 There was no driver for this.  I got a homebrew MT-11 driver for Unibus 
 machines from somebody at work, and hacked it up to assemble for VMS 4.7 and 
 adjust to the quirks of the MDB board (which were REALLY minor).
 
 I also have a driver for my Jupiter 7 for the MicroVAX.  Thus used a DRV11-WA 
 DMA interface with some wire-wrapped glue logic to adapt to the Jupiter's 
 50-pin interface bus.  It is based on the stock DRV11-WA driver, with some 
 additional logic to handle the handshakes between Jupiter and the DRV11.  
 Additionally, I built a graphics library based on the NASA min-Vicar image 
 processing suite, which was a hideous hack job that ran on the PDP-11.  That 
 used pre-assigned, numbered files.  I generalized it to use normal VMS files 
 of arbitrary size, but otherwise kept most of the original functions.  I used 
 the VMS table driven parser, tparse, to parse most of the commands.
 
 I also knew a fair bit about Versatec printers back then, if anybody ever 
 wants to get one of those hideous machines running.
 
 If anybody is interested in these drivers, etc. let me know.
 
 Jon

Sue Skonetski

VP of Customer Advocacy
sue.skonet...@vmssoftware.com
Office: +1 (978) 451-0116
Mobile: +1 (603) 494-9886







Mit freundlichen Grüßen – Avec mes meilleures salutations

VMS drivers

[Jon Elson]

Hello, guys,

While rummaging through recovered backups from my MicroVAX I 
found a few items that might be of interest to the group.


I got an MDB mag tape interface (quite possibly the ONLY 
Pertec Unformatted controller ever made for Q-bus) that 
follows the MT-11 register format.  There was no driver for 
this.  I got a homebrew MT-11 driver for Unibus machines 
from somebody at work, and hacked it up to assemble for VMS 
4.7 and adjust to the quirks of the MDB board (which were 
REALLY minor).


I also have a driver for my Jupiter 7 for the MicroVAX.  
Thus used a DRV11-WA DMA interface with some wire-wrapped 
glue logic to adapt to the Jupiter's 50-pin interface bus.  
It is based on the stock DRV11-WA driver, with some 
additional logic to handle the handshakes between Jupiter 
and the DRV11.  Additionally, I built a graphics library 
based on the NASA min-Vicar image processing suite, which 
was a hideous hack job that ran on the PDP-11.  That used 
pre-assigned, numbered files.  I generalized it to use 
normal VMS files of arbitrary size, but otherwise kept most 
of the original functions.  I used the VMS table driven 
parser, tparse, to parse most of the commands.


I also knew a fair bit about Versatec printers back then, if 
anybody ever wants to get one of those hideous machines running.


If anybody is interested in these drivers, etc. let me know.

Jon