[HECnet] KLH10 noob questions

[Vern Brownell]

Hi folks,

I’m not sure if this will help.  I am the original author of much of DECnet for TOPS-10 and Tops-20.  The code base is the same for both OSes, written in Macro, and it was called internally DECnet-36.  It was developed with full DECnet routing capability and unless it was restricted in later releases should be able to act as a full routing node.  It supported KL and KS machines.  Real KL’s were only shipped with PDP-11’s as front ends using an adapter called the DTE - so that’s how they where connected to Ethernet.  KS’s had an UNIBUS adapter, so I could talk directly to NI adapters.  So even though a KL was a full DECnet node with routing, it only really acted as an end-node, since it’s only connection to Ethernet or DDCMP was through an -11.  I would imagine that you could configure a KS with multiple NIs.

At least that’s how I remember it through 38 years of fog.

Have fun!

Vern


> On Mar 10, 2019, at 8:23 AM, Supratim Sanyal <supratim at riseup.net> wrote:
> 
> On 3/10/19 10:40 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> As far as I am aware, it was never supported to have more than one NIA-20 on a KL10.
>> Also, since I think that TOPS-20 is endnode only, I suspect it would be of limited use, had it even been supported.
>> (Yes, you could have had a second interface for just fallback, in case the first one broke, but it was rare that you would have two separate ethernets in the first place, so then it would only be if the NIA-20 itself broke, but then you'd probably want to power down the machine anyhow.)
> 
> Very likely true. The original KL10 doc clearly says only one NIC is supported. I just try my best to keep my DECnet and IP subnets isolated if I can; two NICs help.
> 
>> I know of KLH10s, but I don't know if any have a guest account. Although, I'm not sure what you think you would see from inside TOPS-20.
> 
> Never seen or logged into a TOP-20 system ... as you say below, curious about what it looks like. Anyway, have a Panda release up now, working through tips for the basics.
> 
>> But it's a good question if there is any TOPS-20 machine on HECnet with guest account. I guess it could be interesting for others to just experience what TOPS-20 looks and feels like.
>> I don't have any myself.
>>   Johnny
>> On 2019-03-10 15:28, Supratim Sanyal wrote:
>>> Starting from zero with both KLH10 and TOPS-20. Newbie questions, surely:
>>> 
>>> 1) Is there a KLH10 distribution for Linux that supports VDE2? (It appears it was at the least added  to the NetBSD target by Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert after being reuested by Cory Smelosky, going by https://github.com/PDP-10/klh10/issues/2)
>>> 
>>> 2) Is it possible in KLH10 to have two network adapters, for example, something like
>>> 
>>> # DECnet adapter
>>> devdef ni0 564 ni20 dedic=true ifmeth=vde ifc=/tmp/vde-dnet enaddr=aa:00:04:00:XX:YY
>>> # IP adapter
>>> devdef ni1 1500 ni20 dedic=true ifmeth=vde ifc=/tmp/vde-ip enaddr=12:34:56:aa:bb:cc
>>> 
>>> 3) Are there any KLH10 TOPS-20 systems active on HECnet now on which I could have an account to look around?
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> Supratim
> 
> 
> -- 
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