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A native SD Card controller for the QBUS

K

klapperp

Experienced Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2021
Messages
255
Location
Austria
Dear Community!

One of the newest developments which were made for PDP-11 minicomputers is the AZ controller:
MAXIOL_PDP-11_AZ_QBUS_v1_front.png

I purchased one some time ago and when I wanted a 2nd one, I couldn't get it anymore.

I contacted the people who originally offered it at https://az.maxiol.com/ and thy agreed to make the design available.
So I ordered some blank PCBs and @Konstantin made the rest:
AZ4QBUS-000.jpeg


At the end we sucessfully created some of these "cool" devices and whe I have time I will try to implement a Unix driver:
20251119_211427.jpg20251119_211453.jpgAZRun2.JPG


If somebody is interested in such a part I am sure that @Konstantin can do some more.

Kind, Peter
 
We are lucky to have enough from the critical components to build these cards:
20251114_150631.jpg20251114_150735.jpg20251114_151606.jpg

@Konstantin already produced some of these cards for other enthusiasts:
AZ4QUS_bestueckt.jpegAZCards_to_go.jpeg

Maybe someone else also wants to write a device driver, maybe for the MicroVAX :)
 
The AZ controller is not an emulator but actually a completely new development of an SD adapter for the PDP11 with QBUS from the East.

The background for this is that the Soviets at the time had reproduced the PDP11, and from that era there is still a lot of know-how and probably also huge amounts of chips in some warehouses. Many of these chips are functionally compatible with Western types but not necessarily pin-compatible. The same applies to the bus drivers and the interrupt controller of the AZ card.

For the AZ card, there is a well-documented "open source" driver for RT-11 as well as a driver for XXDP and one for RSX11. Although all the existing drivers are made for the PDP11, it should still be possible to use the AZ card on a MicroVAX with QBUS.
 
klapperp said:
The AZ controller is not an emulator but actually a completely new development of an SD adapter for the PDP11 with QBUS from the East.

The background for this is that the Soviets at the time had reproduced the PDP11, and from that era there is still a lot of know-how and probably also huge amounts of chips in some warehouses. Many of these chips are functionally compatible with Western types but not necessarily pin-compatible. The same applies to the bus drivers and the interrupt controller of the AZ card.

For the AZ card, there is a well-documented "open source" driver for RT-11 as well as a driver for XXDP and one for RSX11. Although all the existing drivers are made for the PDP11, it should still be possible to use the AZ card on a MicroVAX with QBUS.
Click to expand...
Where can I find those drivers?
 
A good opportunity!

Due to orders from other enthusiasts @Konstantin started to produce some of these devices:
AZ4QBUS-000.jpeg

If someone wants one, right now would be a good opportunity.
 
You can directly contact also @SuperMax the original creator of the AZ board as well and I am sure that he can answer you all your questions ;)

There is alos a related thread here:
SuperMax

Thread 'MicroSD disk controller for PDP-11'

Hi!

My colleague and I developed an original MicroSD controller for Russian PDP-11 clones.

The controller provides access to the images of RT11, which are physically represented as files on the MicroSD card.
This allows you to conveniently manipulate disk images.

The controller is also equipped with an Etherne network card, and a WEBDAV server. This allows you to manipulate disk images, as well as files in the image of RT11 from virtually directory in any external environment.

Recently, we tested the controller for PDP-11/73 . Everything works great.

Today I developed a printed...

@Konstantin just builds the boards in order to make them available for our community too!

The fact that these boards are not emulating anything, allows them co-exist with other hardware like MSCP controllers like in my Sigma SA-H147 based 11/73:
20260524_133803.jpg20260524_133856.jpg20260524_133901.jpg20260524_133948.jpg20260524_134000.jpg20260524_134023.jpg

Beside the AZ card there are two MSCP compatible Viking SCSI controller, one for MSCP disk drives and the other one for TMSCP tape drives.

@Konstantin is testing the AZ cards in an MDB systems chassis with an 18bit backplane:
20251119_211923.jpg

We want to support our community to get these boards again :)
 
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