phil@amd.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (08/07/84)
This question is being asked for a site with a 750 running 4.1 BSD,
soon to upgrade to 4.2 BSD. We've been getting machine check 2,
cp tbuf par faults. I don't think 4.1 knows how to deal with it
but 4.2 does. However it would be even better to eliminate them
completely. DEC is willing to upgrade the CPU from rev level 3
to rev level 7. But the rev 7 CPUs store their microcode in RAM.
Presumably there is a method that VMS sites use to load the
microcode but is it possible for Unix sites to get the microcode
loaded? Has anyone dealt with and solved this problem already?
--
I'm going to keep boring until I strike oil.
Phil Ngai (408) 982-6554
UUCPnet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd!phil
ARPAnet: amd!phil@decwrl.ARPAboylan@dicomed.UUCP (Chris Boylan) (08/08/84)
We are running at REV 7 with 4.2bsd. The microcode problem
is not as bad as it appears at first glance. In the event of
a powerfail, you have to (by hand) boot the diagnostic cassette
and then boot your system. This adds about 5 minutes to the
boot cycle. Happily, everything SEEMS to work ok if you don't
load the microcode. We leave the machine in auto-restart and
if it goes down during the night, we don't worry about it.
The only other problem that we have been having is the date frequently
gets bashed when the machine crashes (???) and the diagnostics cassette
seems to set the clock off consistantly.
If someone has a method to load the microcode from UNIX I would
like to hear about it. I dont have a complete 750 manual set it
appears since I cant find anything (except for a couple of sentences
in the maintenance handbook) about loading the micro control store.
--
Chris Boylan
{mgnetp | ihnp4 | uwvax}!dicomed!boylan