Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) (02/07/91)
How many people who read this newgroup own a VAX 730? Personally own, that is. I know of about three people off the top of my head. I am curious. Maybe we can get our own mailing list started! (only private collector type persons) Anyhoo. Does anyone have a VAX 730 processor handbook they would like to part with? Its not desperate that I have one, but it would be a handy dandy little item to have around the house. Next, I thought that 'compatability mode' was built into all the VAX 700 processors? Only on some of the later models (6000, etc) is it a layered product... If thats the case, the perhaps I am missing some files, such as SYS$SYSTEM:RSX.EXE. (doing anything that uses it complains that the file is missing. I searched the drive but couldnt find it) Is there anyway I can get a replacement (or whatever one would call it), and how? Ive a bunch of software that runs under compatability mode, and right now, its rather useless to me... Thanx to all Billy D'Augustine Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com
tihor@acf3.NYU.EDU (Stephen Tihor) (02/07/91)
Compatability includes both the CM hardware or software package plus the RSX AME that handles system call conversion. I too though all the 7xx had the former but not necessarily the latter.
terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.) (02/08/91)
In article <38976@cup.portal.com>, Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) writes: > Next, I thought that 'compatability mode' was built into all the VAX > 700 processors? Only on some of the later models (6000, etc) is it a > layered product... If thats the case, the perhaps I am missing some > files, such as SYS$SYSTEM:RSX.EXE. (doing anything that uses it > complains that the file is missing. I searched the drive but couldnt > find it) Is there anyway I can get a replacement (or whatever one would > call it), and how? Ive a bunch of software that runs under compatability > mode, and right now, its rather useless to me... Funny, I believe I'm the perpetrator of that compatibility-mode software 8-) There are two pieces to being able to run that stuff on a VAX: 1) Some way of executing PDP-11 instructions. 2) Some software that pretends to be an RSX-11 operating system. The 7xx-series VAXen and the 86x0 have #1 implemented in hardware. VMS versions prior to V4.0 gave you #2 (you needed it to run some of the VMS utilities that hadn't been ported to native mode). After VMS V4 came out, the RSX compatibility mode software became a layered product (meaning, send DEC more money). This software product is called VAX RSX, and the current version is V2.5. Somewhere in the not-so- distant past, this software was changed to provide a PDP-11 instruction emulator so it could be used on the newer VAX CPU's. So, at the moment you have item #1, but not #2. I don't believe a V3 RSX.EXE will work on V4 of VMS, way too much changed inside VMS. Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, US terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (201) 915-9381