Hi, this is very interesting!
Are you sharing the design and code with the community for this?
The concept of the AZ driver working with a folder of files like TU58FS is very interesting, is the code and specification published so it can be tested / emulated in other projects? If it connected to a Windows or Samba file share it would be immensely useful and popular, I think.
Similarly, emulating a standard disk interface would make your hardware work with all operating systems, in principal - TSX, RSTS, Ultrix, BSD, RSX and so on with no need for you to write drivers - Are you looking to provide an MSCP emulation? - Or at least a simple RL02 or RK07 emulation that is already widely supported?
There are many more people with "real" PDP-11 systems than the PRO-3xx series, so Q-Bus systems are going to be the most popular target to address, I think
Just a thought - many, many people rely on SIMH to test and run their PDP-11 code, test, configuration etc. So anything that is not open source and cannot be integrated into SIMH and other emulators will automatically exclude itself from a large proportion of the PDP11 community, which would otherwise be able to use and contribute to it...
Robin
Good day!
I will answer in detail
Unfortunately I don't have the resources to develop a version of AZ for PRO-3xx series. There are only controllers that work on QBUS or similar buses.
There are 2 product lines of controllers:
AZ*
Boards for QBUS, MPI (Soviet QBUS, differing in connector size), UKNC - a Soviet computer in which a terminal with a separate processor is built into one case were released for this line. In other words, a PDP-11/34 monoblock with a keyboard.
A single firmware exists and is updated for this entire line.
AZБК
This is AZ + advanced graphic functions in one case. This line was created for BK-0010/BK-0010.01/BK-0011M computers. They are on the KR1801VM1 processor, which is "almost" PDP-11/34.
more details about these computers can be found here
forum.maxiol.com
AZБК is currently released in a single version and receives regular firmware updates.
A topic dedicated to all AZ is here
forum.maxiol.com
I think you can easily use google translate to read.
The project is proprietary (the sources are closed, since it uses my commercial code from other projects), but the project is open for independent repetition and assembly for yourself.
AZБК
https://forum.maxiol.com/index.php?showtopic=5619
AZ for UKNC
https://forum.maxiol.com/index.php?showtopic=5492
The version for QBUS is not yet open for independent assembly, but I plan to do so.
Drivers:
currently released drivers AZ for RT11*, TSX and for RSX11
more details are written in this topic
forum.maxiol.com
This API also describes in detail how you can work with the controller and how you can easily write a driver for any OS.
Compatibility with MSCP was not provided since we did not initially set such a task. The goal was to make the simplest controller with a higher level of abstraction - where the disk image is a file [or even a network drive on the server].
I will clarify right away, the microcontroller on which AZ is made is not able to work with SAMBA, this is too heavy a protocol for such a small controller. However, I solved the problem by writing a daemon server for Linux and it is already working for all.
I wrote about it here and an open Network API for working with it
As I think you already know,
Software and documentation archive is constantly evolving and now it has received the functionality of a network block API for direct access from retro platforms.
At the moment, network API support is implemented in the AZ* series controllers
this will allow you to use any disks from the archive via network access directly on the retro platform itself
Example - loading RT11 from a network drive:
This network API can be supported on any retro platform and for this purpose an open API has been implemented, which will allow you to...
The development plans include personal clouds for working with your own software repositories.
About testing and developing software for PDP-11:
I actively use the bundle - macro11 kit (de facto it is an RT11 emulator that understands the command line)
as well as CURL -
https://forum.maxiol.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=5490&view=findpost&p=59460
with which you can upload files directly to the RT11 disk image via WEBDAV.
I believe that according to the AZ API documentation, it is possible to write a module emulating AZ for SIMH.
Unfortunately, I myself have no idea how to do this because I have worked very little with SIMH, and I am limited in time.
However, I will be very glad if someone writes such an emulation. This will allow developing drivers for other OS.
. So it might just work. Well, except boot loader I am afraid.
