[HECnet] Looking for VAX 8600 Diagnostic Supervisor (EDSAA.EXE)

[Johnny Billquist]

Hi, Mark.
A bit surprised you didn't ping me, as I thought you knew I have a 
working 8650...

On 2016-06-23 23:03, Mark Pizzolato wrote:
> Hi Bill,
>
> On Thursday, June 23, 2016 at 11:19 AM, Bill wrote:
>> The diagnostic supervisor was the same on all three in 1991 when I last ran it.
>> Only difference was console media type.
>
> Actually this isn’t true.

Right.

> I've found a Vaxpax tape image which had all the components to run the Diagnostic Supervisor from a local disk on a VAX 11/780 (not floppys).
>
> The boot process starts from VMB.EXE and based on /R5:10 being set loads DIAGBOOT.EXE rather than SYSBOOT.EXE.

Not so.

> DIAGBOOT.EXE then loads a CPU Model specific program that then presents the rest of the Diagnostic Supervisor experience.
> The 11/780 program is ESSAA.EXE.  It was on the tape image I started from.
> The 11/730 program is ENSAA.EXE.  I picked this out of a TU58 image I found somewhere.
> The 11/750 program is ECSAA.EXE.  I picked this out of a TU58 image I found somewhere.
> The 8600 program is EDSAA.EXE which I'm looking for.
>
> All of these things 'could' have been packaged together, but due to the limited console media size, the unneeded stuff for the other systems probably wasn't provided.  At some point, DEC stopped shipping Diagnostics to everyone as well....

Well, on the 86x0 they could have provided lots more. And they did, but 
at least my console pack do not have the 11/730, 750 or 780 supervisor.

> Someone sent me the EDSAA.EXE that I was missing, so I'm good now and have a single disk image which can be booted from for each of the VAX 11/730, VAX 11/750, VAX 11/780 and VAX 8600 simulators.  The Diagnostics which run now are EVKAA (Hardware Core) and EVKAB/C/D/E.  EVKAE currently reports a problem with some argument handling in compatibility mode.   Resolution to this problem is being explored.

As I said above, the description with VMB, and DIAGBOOT and so on, is 
not correct for an 86x0 machine.

Here is EDSAA.CMD, which is invoked at the chevron prompt:

====
.type edsaa.com
!
! Version: 001.000
! Load and start the diagnostic supervisor for VAX 8600/8650
!
INIT                            ! Do basic initialization
SET SNAP OFF                    ! Don't take snapshots
DEP CSWP 8                      ! Turn off cache
CLEAR MEMORY                    ! Clear blue sky
LOAD/START:0FE00 EDSAA          ! Load supervisor
DEP CSWP B                      ! Turn on the cache
UNJAM                           ! Unjam all existant sbia's
START 10000                     ! Start supervisor
====

As you can see, VMB is not involved. The FE loads EDSAA.EXE directly, 
and jumps right into it.

Also, assuming you got this far, once you have the CPU running EDSAA, 
the correct next step is normally to run EVSBA, which will then autosize 
the machine for you.

After that you can run various diagnostics in the DS. However, basic CPU 
testing in an 86x0 is not done in this environment. It is done in an 
environment called the MicroHardCore (or MHC). It's a special mode in 
the FE, and there is a long set of tests for the entire machine in 
there. In addition you then have macro tests, which tests the larger 
system blocks.
And then you have DS, which only should be used once all these other 
tests pass. (Running the full set of MHC and Macro tests takes more than 
half an hour on a real 8650, I can tell you.)

I'm trying to remember more details, but right now my brain is not 
recollecting anything more, but let me know if there is anything 
more/else I can help with...

	Johnny

through another set of tests.


>
>> You could build media with the Vaxpax tape and Exchange or flx...
>
> If a generic VAXPAX tape exists, then I can't seem to find it.  I would certainly like the latest VAXPAX set that included all the available systems since the versions of each diagnostic supervisor would then be consistent.  The pieces I've gotten from various places are different versions, but they do seem to work.
>
>> You sure you aren't talking micro diags?
>
> Nope.
>
> - Mark
>
>> Bill
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mark Pizzolato <Mark at infocomm.com>
>> To: "hecnet at Update.UU.SE" <hecnet at Update.UU.SE>
>> Cc: "simh at trailing-edge.com" <simh at trailing-edge.com>
>> Sent: Thu, 23 Jun 2016 2:11 PM
>> Subject: [HECnet] Looking for VAX 8600 Diagnostic Supervisor (EDSAA.EXE)
>>
>> I've been working on rewriting parts of the VAX simulator(s) to avoid some of
>> the undefined behaviors that the C language has relating to overflow and
>> shifts of signed integer values.
>>
>> Changing the details of how instructions are implemented comes with the
>> non trivial potential to break more things than are being fixed.  To manage
>> this, I've been trying to use the basic CPU diagnostics that DEC for the
>> systems being simulated.  I have found the VAX Diagnostic Supervisor for the
>> 11/730, 11/750 and 11/.780.  I'm missing the VAX 8600's diagnostic supervisor.
>>
>> If someone knows where I can find a version of this file it would be helpful.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> - Mark
>>
>


-- 
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