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Motorola MVME133A-20 uses?

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Capt. 2110

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I just got a FREE Motorola MVME133A-20 VMEmodule, and I have absolutely NO IDEA how to use it. Nor how to power it. Nor how to interface to it. I do have a VMEbus mount, however. Anyone know how to use it?
 
Those seem difficult to put to use if you just get a bare board and not a complete system. It's hard to find manuals for some of the boards. I have an MVME117 68010 CPU board and I've never been able to find a manual for it. The CPU boards usually have the on board I/O interfaces connected through the P2 connector and you need a transitions board or special cables to plug in there, and those might be hard to find.

I don't know what typically ran on these. There was VERSAdos and there is some documentation and binaries for that available on bitsavers. These might have often been set up as embedded controllers running some proprietary vendor software.

I've given up trying to find anything to do with the MVME117 board I have.
 
I'm sure there's documentation for MVME133A SBC, but the issue is that it's not really enough to do anything with--it does have a serial port, but you'll need some sort of mass storage to be useful. VMEBus is a very nice bus, but like multibus, I don't think it falls into the hobbyist area.
 
Ok, so now I know it has ROM chips on board, and I see how to power the boards now that I've looked a bit, so how would I connect to that serial port? I see it's a DB-25 port, but I don't know what to do after that. I do have a fairly recent computer with DB-25 pins on the motherboard, but I'm not sure how to connect. Also, I looked up the typical storage drive... THAT THING IS MASSIVE! I'm just going to fiddle around with programming it in RAM, or writing my own OS for it, but I have no room for a drive like that. I'll have to build a small drive for it, if possible.
 
Capt. 2110 said:
Ok, so now I know it has ROM chips on board,

so how would I connect to that serial port? I see it's a DB-25 port, but I don't know what to do after that.
Click to expand...

Are you still working on this? I am trying to understand a machine that uses a similar board (MVME166-011A) board and have managed to find the user and programming manuals for it.

I think all the boards in the family are similar, which means I can predict that your board's ROMS contain a mini-OS called "Debugger". It actually has a lot of commands, including disk (or tape) access. But its a lot like working in assembler, for example, when you use the format command (IOP and IOT) you have to specify the number of blank bytes to leave at the start of the disk, and between track starts, and interleaving, etc. I mean, you have to work at a very low-level with a lot of details! The "save" command takes in the starting memory address and the number of bytes to save. But if you don't mind the learning curve, you can accomplish things.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Motorola sold a "developer" package that included a higher level OS (DOS or Unix System V) that had editors, compilers, and linkers to make binary code that would run on the MVME boards. I think this is how most embedded systems using these boards were created. I have read that at least one version of Linux was created for it though.

Talking to it is easy. Its designed to do everything through a "smart" terminal. Their 25 pin serial cable will support all the normal RS-232 pins. If you use RTS/CTS jumpers you can get away with just 3 wires: 2,3, and 7. You can use a terminal program in Windows, or a terminal prompt in Linux (or Apple) to talk to it. Its likely 7-bit serial, 1 stop bit, no parity. You will have to hunt for the right baud rate - start at 9600 and go up.

I'm posting this in shorthand, Wikipedia can explain my terms. But if you need more info or clarification, ask away!

Here are some links/sites I have found helpful:
- http://www.mvme.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?catselect=Motorola
- http://www.mvme.com/motorola-vme/
- http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/motorola/_dataBooks/1987_Microcomputer_Systems_and_Components.pdf
- http://www.bitsavers.org/


Rich.
 
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I actually am still working on it, I just put it on the back burner for a while. So, if I connected it to the DB-25 port on an old Win 98 desktop, I could talk to this? Assuming I wire the power correctly?
 
Capt. 2110 said:
So, if I connected it to the DB-25 port on an old Win 98 desktop, I could talk to this? Assuming I wire the power correctly?
Click to expand...

Power? I hope you don't mean in the serial connector!

Yes, I used a client's beat up Windows box he had lying around and cobbled together a serial cable from my bag of adapters. If your on that terminal when the board powers up, you should see its boot message (and copyright).

You can use a voltmeter, or a Serial tester like THIS ONE to tell you which pins are active (and need to be connected).

If the board has some custom software on it that runs after it boots, you can use the ABORT button on the front of the card to break out of it, and into the built in debugger. I posted links last time for places that have copies of the debugger manuals with all the commands and how to use them.

I think installing Linux on it - maybe an older version that supports the CPU - would be the easiest way to get some use out of it.
 
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Cool! And, no, not through the serial port. :) I have a little box for it, with this huge, messed up bundle of wires. It looks like it's all ATX voltages though, so I can probably boot it. Thanks! I've got an old Packard Bell I might hook up to it.
 
As you might already noticed mvme133a doesn't have mmu, so no linux/unix for it.
Most of 133 series came without eproms, instead of 133bug, which Motorola offered separately. If you still have interest I have 133abug version 1.0.

I've given up trying to find anything to do with the MVME117 board I have.
Click to expand...
If you have 117-bug eproms you could try versados. 117 has built in scsi controller, however it requires 117p2 adapter and mvme708 transition board.
You'll have better chances to install mvme320
 
kokoboi said:
If you have 117-bug eproms you could try versados. 117 has built in scsi controller, however it requires 117p2 adapter and mvme708 transition board.
You'll have better chances to install mvme320
Click to expand...

Not all versions have built-in SCSI. The MVME117-4 does not. From what I have seen in photos the built-in SCSI controller chip goes in a 40-pin DIP socket that is stacked on top of a couple of other ICs. The MVME117-4 that I have does not have that socket present so it wouldn't be a simple matter of just inserting the missing SCSI controller chip into a socket. Even if you could do that, then you still have to find the transition boards.

Without even a manual for the MVME117 to know how to configure all of the various jumpers I doubt I will ever do anything with the board I have.
 
Not all versions have built-in SCSI. The MVME117-4 does not. From what I have seen in photos the built-in SCSI controller chip goes in a 40-pin DIP socket that is stacked on top of a couple of other ICs. The MVME117-4 that I have does not have that socket present so it wouldn't be a simple matter of just inserting the missing SCSI controller chip into a socket. Even if you could do that, then you still have to find the transition boards.

Without even a manual for the MVME117 to know how to configure all of the various jumpers I doubt I will ever do anything with the board I have.
Click to expand...
I don't have 117 manual, however I hope this could help:




Finding 117p2 will not be easy - I've never seen an actual 117p2 adapter board - only drawings in strapping guide.
Btw does it have 117bug roms?
 

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Thanks for those MVME117 jumper images. That is a lot better than having no information at all.

Unfortunately no 117bug EPROMs. There are two EPROMs installed. Both have the same label:

(C)89 ASI ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED 2.29W ROM
U18 21-0002-013

(C)89 ASI ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED 2.29W ROM
U28 21-0002-013
 
Hello, I'm also looking for MVME117 information (manual, 117Bug).

The pictures about the jumpers above look interesting, but they are in low resolution and are hard to read.
Anyone has these pictures in high resolution ?
 
Same here; an MVME117-4 fell into my lap recently. High-resolution versions of the images mentioned above would be great.

-Dave
 
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