sw/dumprest/original/README.TXT

   1 This directory contains the programs for dumping and restoring mass storage
   2 devices on a PDP8 to another system.  Precompiled exe for MSDOS are
   3 provided which will run under windows also but will only work with 8.3
   4 file names (up to 8 character file name with 3 character extention
   5 after the period).  When running under windows don't have any other programs
   6 running.  The serial port will not be usable by windows programs until you
   7 close the DOS window that these programs were run in.
   8
   9 Examples of how to use are at the end of this readme
  10
  11 The top of each program tells how to use them.  Most of these programs
  12 use two fields so you need at least 8k memory.  If they don't end at the
  13 normal halt they may leave the data field non zero so remember to do an
  14 extd addr load to clear.
  15
  16 The top of config.c tells the format of the config file needed to use these
  17 programs.  The top of the dumpxxxx and restxxxx programs will tell how to use
  18 them.
  19
  20 The PDP8 programs have preassembled .bin files which can be sent out the
  21 serial port in binary mode to the binary loader so no operating system needs
  22 to be running on the PDP8.  Under windows 95 the new hyperterminal from
  23 www.hilgraeve.com will need to be used, the one that comes with it does not
  24 seem to work correctly.  I have a config file for seyon under Linux which will
  25 make it work.
  26
  27 I have also provided a program sendtape which can be used to send paper
  28 tape images to the PDP-8.
  29
  30 I have also provided a dumbterm program and checkser to verify serial
  31 communication to the PC.  The dumbterm program will act like a simple
  32 dumb terminal so if you boot the PDP-8 to an operating system you should
  33 be able to use it to talk to the PDP-8.
  34    The checkser program writes the data sent to memory for testing.  Toggle
  35 in the following program, start it running at address 0200 then use sendtape
  36 to send checkser.dat.
  37
  38 00200 7340  START,  CLA CLL CMA     / Init all our variables
  39 00201 3017          DCA BUFLOC
  40 00202 6031  READ,   KSF2            / Have character waiting
  41 00203 5202          JMP .-1         / No
  42 00204 7200          CLA
  43 00205 6036          KRB2            / Get character
  44 00206 3417          DCA I BUFLOC    / Save through auto increment location
  45 00207 5202          JMP READ
  46
  47 See the top of checkser.pal for the expected results.  If the results are
  48 wrong try changing stop bits to 2, see below.  If it still is wrong then
  49 verify your serial card is set to 8 bits no parity.  Jumper settings are
  50 at http://www.pdp8.net/serial (http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/pdp8/hard8e/).
  51
  52 All of the programs will work up to at least 38400 baud if you have a modified
  53 serial board which will work at that speed.  The default serial port is
  54 the standard console port but can be changed by reassembling the pal files.
  55
  56 Files:
  57 (rest and dump have .pal and .c files)
  58 restrk05        - RK05 Restore program
  59 dumprk05        - RK05 Dump program
  60 readrk05        - RK05 Surface scan program
  61 testrk05        - RK05 Destructive read/write test
  62 restrx01        - RX01/RX02 Restore program
  63 dumprx01        - RX01/RX02 Dump program
  64 resttd8e        - TD8E Dectape restore program
  65 dumptd8e        - TD8E Dectape dump program
  66 sendtape        - Send paper tape image to PDP-8
  67 dumbterm        - Simple dumb terminal program
  68 comm.c          - Communication routines for dump and restore C programs
  69 config.c        - Config file read routine for dump and restore C programs
  70 compall         - Unix shell file to compile all C files
  71 compall.bat     - Dos bat file to compile all C files with turbo C
  72 palall          - Unix shell file to assemble all pal files
  73 checkser.pal    - Serial port test program, see below
  74 checkser.dat    - Data file to check serial port
  75 blkdectp.c      - Converts between old and new style DECtape images
  76
  77 Other useful programs:
  78 From ftp.dbit.com/pub/putr programs to read files from and write files to
  79 the images created by these programs.
  80
  81 From http://www.vobis.de/bbs/ari/files/cplus/library/en160.zip the library
  82 I used with turbo c to compile the dos version of the C programs.
  83
  84 From ftp://ftp.cs.uiowa.edu/pub/jones/pdp8/palbart.c.Z the pal8 compiler
  85 I use to assemble these programs.  They will also compile correctly will the
  86 OS/8 PAL assembler
  87
  88 If you have questions or comments let me know
  89 David Gesswein
  90 djg@drs-esg.com
  91 (or if that stops working djg@pdp8.net)
  92
  93
  94 Example usage of these program:
  95
  96 First create a dumprest.cfg config file or rename the file dumprest.dos
  97 under DOS or dumprest.unx under unix to dumprest.cfg and edit. See
  98 http://www.pdp8.net/serial for information on how to setup a PDP-8
  99 (currently 8/E cards only) serial card or see read the current
 100 configuration.  The M8655 serial card can support different numbers
 101 of bits per character and parity.  It must be set to 8 bits no
 102 parity for these programs to work.
 103
 104 The config file format is three lines
 105    baud rate
 106    0 if 1 stop bit or 1 if two stop bits
 107    serial device to use
 108
 109 The DOS default is com1 1 stop bit 9600 baud, the unix is /dev/ttyS0
 110 1 stop bit 9600 baud.
 111
 112 Next, if you can run a OS or stand alone program like Focal start it on
 113 your PDP-8.  Then run the dumbterm program to verify that the dumprest.cfg
 114 is correct and you can communicate with the PDP-8.  If what you
 115 type displays correctly things are probably set up ok.  If the transfer
 116 programs have communcatation errors you might want to try selecting
 117 two stop bits.
 118
 119 Next you need to start the stand alone binary loader.  If you are running
 120 OS/8 you can use the command
 121 BOOT/PT
 122 This should load the binary loader and then halt the PDP-8.
 123 If you can't start the binary loader with the operating system you are
 124 running you can manually load the RIM loader, start that running and then
 125 load the binary loader.  If you need help on doing this contact me.
 126
 127 Next set the switch register to 7777, load address 7777 and start the
 128 PDP-8 running.
 129
 130 Now run the sendtape program.  You can either specify on the command
 131 line the file to send or it will prompt you.  For example to dump an RX01
 132 enter the command sendtape dumprx01.bin.
 133
 134 The PDP-8 should halt after the sendtape program exits (if not wait a little
 135 while to allow all the serial data to be sent).  The accumulator should
 136 be zero after the halt.  If it is non zero the file did not transfer
 137 correctly, repeat the procedure.
 138
 139 If you are dumping a device on the PDP-8 to a file on the PC follow this
 140 section, otherwise skip to the next.
 141
 142 ******
 143 start the dump program on the PC and enter the file name to write the
 144 image to
 145 example: dumprx01 image1.rx01
 146
 147 Next load address 200 then set switches 9 to 11 (low 3 bits of switch
 148 register)  to the number of the drive to dump.  For your first RX01 drive
 149 enter 0, for the second enter 1.  For RK05's you can have a third, it
 150 would be 2, or 000 000 000 010 for the switch setting in binary.
 151 If you are dumping a TD8E tape the maximum field number should
 152 be in switches 6-8.  If you have an 8K machine (the minimum) set to 1.
 153
 154 Next start the PDP-8 running.  After a little bit the PC should start
 155 printing out Track # where # will increment as each track is received
 156 from the PDP-8.  For the DECtape is will print block instead of track.
 157 If you are running at a slow baud rate it may take a little while
 158 before the message appears.  See later in this file for information on
 159 setting baud rates on the serial cards.  If you are dumping RK05's you will
 160 want a high baud rate, at 9600 baud it will take about an hour.
 161
 162 After the entire image is received the PC program will exit and the PDP-8
 163 will halt.  If you wish to dump another media in the same drive you can
 164 start the PC program again and then hit CONT on the PDP-8
 165
 166 If a read error occurs the PDP-8 will retry several times and then
 167 send whatever data was received.  When this happens PC program will print a
 168 line with information on what data was unreadable.
 169
 170 ******
 171
 172 For restoring an image from the PC to the PDP-8
 173
 174 Next load address 200 then set switches 10 to 11 (low 2 bits of switch
 175 register)  to the number of the drive to dump.  For your first RX01 drive
 176 enter 0, for the second enter 1.  For RK05's you can have a third, it
 177 would be 2, or 000 000 000 010 for the switch setting in binary.
 178 If you are restoring a TD8E tape the maximum field number should
 179 be in switches 6-8.  If you have an 8K machine (the minimum) set to 1.
 180
 181 Next start the PDP-8 running.
 182
 183 Start the PC restore program and give it the file name to send
 184 example: restrx01 image1.rx01
 185
 186 After a little bit the PC should start printing out Track # (or Block #)
 187 where # will increment as each track/block is sent to the PDP-8.  The PDP-8
 188 should write to the device.  For the DECtape it will buffer up 4k to 28k of
 189 data (set when you started the PDP-8) before writing to the tape so you
 190 make need to wait a while before seeing tape motion.  For the RK05 it
 191 may be hard to see the write light activity but if you set the PDP-8
 192 to display the accumulator it will display an incrementing count as
 193 the data is received.
 194
 195 After all the data is sent from the PC the program will exit.  The
 196 PDP-8 will halt at address 140 after it receives all the data.  The
 197 accumulator should be zero if the transfer was successful.  Other halts
 198 or if the accumulator is not zero indicate that either an error occurred
 199 in the serial data or the device the PDP was writing to had an IO error.
 200
 201 *******
 202
 203 For information on setting baud rate on PDP-8/E serial cards, including
 204 how to run M8650 cards faster than the jumper selectable baud rates
 205 The M8655 serial card can support different numbers of bits per character
 206 and parity.  It must be set to 8 bits no parity for these programs to work.
 207 See http://www.pdp8.net/serial
 208
 209 If the PDP-8 halts at an unexpected location read the address from
 210 the PDP-8 and then look at the listing for the program you are running.
 211 The halt should be one less than the address displayed on the PDP-8.
 212 Comments should give you some information on what the error is.  If you
 213 can't figure out the problem email me. (djg@drs-esg.com)
 214
 215 *******
 216
 217 To convert a DECtape between the old 128 words/block and the new 129
 218 words/block format use
 219
 220 blkdectp infile output
 221
 222 It will convert infile to the opposite format
 223
 224 *******
 225
 226 I also have some other programs I wrote for testing.
 227
 228 readrk05        - RK05 Surface scan program
 229
 230 If you run this program from address 200 with switch register bits 10-11
 231 set to the drive number it will do a non destructive read test of the
 232 drive.  I use this when first mounting a stored pack which hasn't been
 233 used recently or one I just cleaned.  This verifies the pack is good and
 234 lets me listen for noise due to dust while it quickly goes across the
 235 entire surface.
 236
 237 testrk05        - RK05 Destructive read/write test
 238
 239 This does a quick read/write test of the drive.  It probably doesn't use
 240 the best data pattern but runs much quicker than the diagnostics since it
 241 doesn't do all the seeks.
 242
 243 David Gesswein
 244 djg@drs-esg.com
 245 (or if that stops working djg@pdp8.net)
 246