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PDP-11 GPIB (IEEE-488) Software?

NF6X

NF6X

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I have an M7985 IEC11-A Unibus card, which I think is a GPIB interface (AKA HPIB, IEEE-488, etc.), though documentation I've seen also refers to the card as an IEC 66.22 interface (is this electrically similar to IEEE-488?). I'm also eyeing a National Instruments GPIB11V-1 QBUS GPIB interface over on eBay. Are there any drivers, programs, libraries, etc. for these boards loose in the wild for use under RT-11 or any of the other common PDP-11 OSes?

I've found a schematic diagram for the IEC11-A board. I will need to build a cable for it to adapt the card's header connector to the normal GPIB nesting connector. I've found a manual for the GPIB11V-1 board. I haven't found any software for either of them yet.
 
I have the RT-11 handler and the Basic-11 patches for the NI GPIB11-V2. In about 1998, NI actually mailed them to me on an RX50.

I have never been able to find the RT-11 handler for the -V1, nor any for the quad width dec qbus GPIB cards. I have an IEQ-11 which looks beautiful but is useless without any support handlers.

NI's manuals are very clear, there are specific handlers needed for the -V1 and -V2 cards that are different (mostly because they are not both TMS9914 based, if I remember right.) The handler we need is called IBV.MAC (the one we have for the V2 is IBV2.MAC).

However, the dual width IBV-11 (and IB-11 unibus brother) has fortran support routines in the Instrument Bus Subroutines, which I do also have.

All in all, I found the NI -V2 card very easy to work with in Basic-11. The IBV-11 Instrument Bus Subroutines can be compiled and patched for use in Basic-11 (in addition to Fortran) but I have not done that yet.

Lou
 
Lou - N2MIY said:
NI's manuals are very clear, there are specific handlers needed for the -V1 and -V2 cards that are different (mostly because they are not both TMS9914 based, if I remember right.) The handler we need is called IBV.MAC (the one we have for the V2 is IBV2.MAC).
Lou
Click to expand...

The GPIB11V-1 uses the Motorola MC68488P. I have been tempted to buy a GPIB11V-1 for a while to try to tinker with it, but the reality is I doubt I would ever find the time to actually do anything with it. I thought it would be cool to hook it up to an 1350A Graphics Translator.
 
Ok, it sounds like I shouldn't bother buying a GPIB11V-1 unless a dusty copy of NI's supporting software for it turns up. I probably wouldn't get around to doing anything with it, either. Maybe I should try emailing NI about it just for the heck of it? I doubt that anybody there still has a copy of such old software laying around, and even if they did, I doubt they would just hand it to me for free.

I hope that I can find some software for the M7985 board I already have. Since I have a schematic diagram, I can theoretically figure out how to drive it, but that would be buried in my long list of reverser-engineering projects that I'll probably never get around to.
 
I contacted NI to ask if any dusty copies of software were sitting around for the GPIB11V-1. Unsurprisingly, their support libraries don't go back that far. Well, it didn't hurt to ask.
 
Al Kossow said:
FWIW, I just put what I have up under http://bitsavers.org/bits/NationalInstruments/IB11
Click to expand...

That link isn't working for me.

We have an embedded NI engineer in our lab at work as a consultant. I mentioned the dusty old GPIB11V-1 board to him, and he says he'll look around on the internal servers to see if there's something that the NI engineer who answered my request missed. I still don't expect anything will be found there, but the hunt is fun anyway!
 
NF6X said:
That link isn't working for me.
Click to expand...

Works now. Probably just takes time to propagate to the mirror servers.

Code: 
ib11rt.dsk      03-Mar-2014 14:08	247K	
ib11rt.dsk.dir	03-Mar-2014 14:08	710	
ib11ux.dsk      03-Mar-2014 14:08	247K	
ib11ux.dsk.dir	03-Mar-2014 14:08	500	
ibrt10.dsk      03-Mar-2014 14:08	247K	
ibrt10.dsk.dir	03-Mar-2014 14:08	711
 
This looks to be for the GPIB11 (the unibus one.) This is great, but we still need the code for the GPIB11-V1. Mark, please ask your contact about that one (I have one and would really like to find that handler!)

Lou
 
Cool. I haven't stumbled over a Unibus board from NI yet. I hope I can find drivers for my DEC board.

I've asked the local NI guy, and he says he'll look around. I'm not holding my breath, but if he happens to stumble over any other drivers for old DEC machines, that would be cool.
 
Looks like there is some Q-Bus GPIB11V-2 code in those disk images, but I didn't see any GPIB11V-1 references.

.title IB2DP - GPIB11V-2 Driver
.title IBV2 - GPIB11V-2 RT11 Driver
.title IV2DRV - GPIB11V-2 RSX11M Driver
 
gslick said:
Looks like there is some Q-Bus GPIB11V-2 code in those disk images, but I didn't see any GPIB11V-1 references.

.title IB2DP - GPIB11V-2 Driver
.title IBV2 - GPIB11V-2 RT11 Driver
.title IV2DRV - GPIB11V-2 RSX11M Driver
Click to expand...


which is exactly why I replied the way I did.
 
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