What to do with a 68 K-based CPU board used in the 1990' for piloting a bank of modems.

[jplr]

Hi, when I changed of job in the 1990' I kept a 68K VME board that must have been used to drive a bank of V23 modems. If I remember correctly they were used to communicate with Minitels, the French videotext.
At that time I intended to use it to build later a computer with it. I had in that job already familiarity with VME hardware (SGTD for those in my field) and microprocessor boards in general.
Now I am 30 years older, retired and wonder what to do with that board. I forgot completely what I knew about 68K VME boards. The memory connector is rusty but it could be replaced. Could it be used as a SBC?
Does someone have some idea or pointers to resources to make a SBC from this board?

 

[cruff]

Looks like there isn't much on that board other than some serial chips, a RTC, RAM, ROMs and the CPU. It must have acted as a serial line peripheral controller for another computer, so the resources to use it directly as a SBC will be limited to that set of features. You'll have to reverse engineer the address space assignments of everything so you would know how to writer your own software for it.

 

[daver2]

It'll be fun !

I am looking to convert a DEC terminal server into an SBC. Fortunately, the documentation is available on bitsavers. This is a 68K board with 8 serial ports, DRAM, EPROM and various other peripheral chips. Interestingly, there is no hardware refresh for the DRAM. It is implemented in software via a timer interrupt. This is 'novel' because the timer interrupt vector is in DRAM and we use that to vector to the handler to refresh the DRAM. As I said, fun!

The MEX68KECB (http://www.easy68k.com/paulrsm/mecb/mecb.htm) contains a very nice little monitor called TUTOR. The sources are available for this.

Yes, the fun will be in ascertaining the memory map(s) for your specific card.

Dave

 

[dmac]

I would start by dumping the ROMs.

 

[jplr]

Thanks for all answers, I guess the easier would be to dump the ROMs. Is there some modern tool to do that?
Or maybe connect a console to the DB25 and see if there is a monitor?
Is there some quick and dirty way to simulate the VME bus power supply signals?

 

[Bruce Tomlin]

As an SBC, you could do worse than have four serial ports, I think that would be a good start.

Yes, dump the roms, a disassembly should give plenty of info about the address layout. Pop them out and read them with an average EPROM programmer. Then zip up the files. With my disassembler, it will be a fun couple of hours for me to make a passable disassembly, ha ha. It looks like 384K (6x27512), so it will be interesting to see exactly what is in there.

 

[Plasmo]

I have reverse engineered a 68K board and ported CPM/68K to it. CPM/68K needs only one serial port and you can put a small ROM disk in 384K EPROM.

 

[wrm]

I would definitely make an SBC out of that. Looks to have everything you need. Sure, dump the ROMs, but for starters hook up the serial ports one by one and see what comes out.

From what I remember one needs to do at least some termination on the VME bus for a board to come up, I have schematics... somewhere. In some format. But info should be available on the 'net. Lemme know if you need help there. Or if you decide it's too much hassle and you need a new home for it

 

[jplr]

> Or if you decide it's too much hassle and you need a new home for it

Thanks for the offer, it may be the wiser solution.
I noticed you are in South Africa. The French postal service website says it would cost 45,20 € for 2kg and there is some paperwork, I will have to gather more information about that. I estimate also to have maybe 5 or 10 euros costs for packaging.

 

[wrm]

> Or if you decide it's too much hassle and you need a new home for it

Thanks for the offer, it may be the wiser solution.
I noticed you are in South Africa. The French postal service website says it would cost 45,20 € for 2kg and there is some paperwork, I will have to gather more information about that. I estimate also to have maybe 5 or 10 euros costs for packaging.

I hang out in Slovenia too so can provide address there.

 

[Wildfire]

Haha, funny - those HEX displays look like TIL311 - DEC used them also in some PDP11/VAXen/Alpha for status codes

 

[wrm]

OK, jplr was so kind as to give this board to me, he mailed it to someone in France where my brother picked it up and brought it home. Somewhere in the middle it got delivered to the wrong address, someone picked it up in the street... all is well that ends well.

Some scans, as received -- the mail was not that kind to the RAM module.






So then I realised... this is not VME. P1 is I/O, from the MK68564 as well as from the four chips which are not fitted. P2 is the 68000 bus, buffered. VME has I/O on P2.

So I will have to buzz out the bus to figure out where to apply power etc.

I also dumped the EPROMs, found a few interesting strings.

X25 V1.9l 31/08/89

NuVRTX/68000 Rev. 3.20 Copyright 1986, Hunter & Ready, Inc.

BTSCB 01 (n_dis_id)
BTSCB 02 (n_dis_id)
BTSCB 03 (n_con_cf)
BTSCB 04 (n_con_cf)
BTSCB 05 (n_rdy_id)
BTSCB 06 (n_rdy_id)
BTSCB 07 (n_nrdy_id)
BTSCB 08 (n_nrdy_id)
BTSCB 09 (pt_appel)
BTSCB 10 (n_dta_id)
BTSCB 11 (n_dta_id)
BTSCB 12 (evt ???, INIT_TRANS)
BTSCB 13 (evt ???, REP_CV)
BTSCB 14 (evt ???, ATT_DTA)
BTSCB 15 (etat inconnu,bt_trans)
BTSCB 19 (etat inconnu,bt_trans_x25)

BASCB 01 (Arme TEMPO TEST)
BASCB 02 (Arme TSA)
BASCB 03 (Arme TPA)
BASCB 04 (Arme TAR)
BASCB 16 (Arme TRET)
BASCB 05 (env_exploit)
BASCB 06 (env_exploit)
BASCB 07 (env_vers_asso)
BASCB 08 (env_vers_asso)
BASCB 09 (hs_auto)
BASCB 10 (hs_auto)
BASCB 11 (auto_req)
BASCB 12 (auto_req)
BASCB 13 (ticket_chic)
BASCB 14 (ticket_choc)
BASCB 15 (Dem_occup)
BASCB 91 (SC_QPEND)
BASCB 92 (Message court !!!)
BASCB 93 (Evt ??? , INIT_APP)
BASCB 94 (Evt ??? , ATT_RES_TEST)
BASCB 95 (Evt ??? , ATT_MSG)
BASCB 96 (Evt ??? , RES_EMIS)
BASCB 97 (Evt ??? , ATT_FIN_COM)
BASCB 98 (Evt ???, ATT_FIN_ABORT)
BASCB 99 (Etat ???)

BSSCB 01 (n_con_rq)
BSSCB 02 (n_con_rq)
BSSCB 03 (emis_nok)
BSSCB 04 (emis_nok)
BSSCB 05 (emis_ok)
BSSCB 06 (emis_ok)
BSSCB 07 (n_dis_rq)
BSSCB 08 (n_dis_rq)
BSSCB 09 (ind_app)
BSSCB 10 (ind_app)
BSSCB 11 (asso_id)
BSSCB 12 (fin_com_rq)
BSSCB 13 (fin_com_rq)
BSSCB 14 (fin_com_req)
BSSCB 15 (abort_rq)
BSSCB 16 (abort_rq)
BSSCB 17 (fin_com_rs)
BSSCB 18 (fin_com_rs)
BSSCB 19 (sus_com)
BSSCB 20 (sus_com)
BSSCB 21 (res_test)
BSSCB 22 (res_test)
BSSCB 23 (n_dta_rq)
BSSCB 24 (n_dta_rq)
BSSCB 25 (n_dta_id)
BSSCB 26 (n_dta_id)
BSSCB 27 (dem_asso)
BSSCB 28 (dem_asso)
BSSCB 29 (dem_asso)
BSSCB 99 (bs_scb_asso)
BSSCB 98 (bs_scb_asso)
BSSCB 97 (evt ???, INIT_ASSO)
BSSCB 96 (evt ???, REP_CV)
BSSCB 95 (evt ???, REP_ASSO)
BSSCB 94 (evt ???, RES_ASSO)
BSSCB 93 (evt ???, ATT_REP)
BSSCB 92 (evt ???, ATT_MSG)
BSSCB 91 (evt ???,REP_FIN_COM)
BSSCB 90 (evt ???, REP_FIN_ABORT)
BSSCB 89 (evt ???,REP_CV_TEST)
BSSCB 88 (evt ???,REP_ASSO_TEST)
BSSCB 87 (etat inconnu !)

ALARME
PUB %2d incident(s) : %s- publiphone %s
PUB %2d incident publiphone - publiphone %s
PUB %2d fin d'incident(s) - publiphone %s
PUB %2d alarme(s) : %s- publiphone %s
FAX %2d incident(s) fax : %s- publifax %s
FAX %2d incident fax - publifax %s
TEX %2d incident(s) tex : %s- publivideotex %s
TEX %2d incident tex - publivideotex %s
PUB %2d changement d'etat - publiphone %s
PUB %2d mise au repos forcee de la ligne
PUB %2d article raccroche non recu
PUB %2d incompatibilite des articles SG 08 et 33
URP alarme(s) : %s
URP incident(s) : %s
SAM alarme(s) : %s- SAM %s
SAM incident(s): %s- SAM %s
SAM fin d'incident(s) : SAM %s
SGTD rupture de la liaison
SGTD temporisation inter blocs echue
SGTD bloc recu different du bloc attendu
SGTD authentification refusee 3 fois
SGTD message non reconnu
SGTD incoherence entre message et type de session
SGTD mauvais enchainement de messages
SGTD temporisation inter messages echue
SGTD abandon pendant %s
SGTD fin de transmission;
PUB %2d %s
PUB %2d resynchronisation de l'echange par %s
URP saturation imminente de la memoire
URP memoire pleine
REDALA 01

!!! SESSION CONNECTEE
!!! SESSION SECURISEE CONNECTEE
!!! DEBUT DE TRANSMISSION DES PARAMETRES CGP
!!! DEBUT DE TRANSMISSION DES PARAMETRES SGTD
!!! DEBUT DE SCRUTATION
!!! DEBUT DE TRANSMISSION DE LA LISTE %c
!!! DEBUT DE VIDAGE
!!! DEBUT DE VIDAGE TECHNIQUE
!!! SESSION DECONNECTEE
!!! SESSION SECURISEE DECONNECTEE
!!! FIN DE TRANSMISSION DES PARAMETRES CGP
!!! FIN DE TRANSMISSION DES PARAMETRES SGTD
!!! FIN DE SCRUTATION
!!! FIN DE TRANSMISSION DE LA LISTE %c
!!! FIN DE VIDAGE
!!! FIN DE VIDAGE TECHNIQUE
!!! REPRISE PARTIELLE DE L'URP (%1d C8V)
!!! REPRISE TOTALE DE L'URP (%1d C8V)
!!! CARTE COS NON RECONNUE : DIALOGUE SYSTEME DE GESTION IMPOSSIBLE
DIALOGUE SERVEUR BANCAIRE IMPOSSIBLE
DIALOGUE PRHM DEPORTE IMPOSSIBLE
!!! CARTE COS PRESENTE: SYSTEME DE GESTION SUR RTDP (J3)
SERVEUR BANCAIRE SUR RTDP (J3)
PRHM DEPORTE SUR RTCP - MODEM INTERNE (RCA)
!!! CARTE COS PRESENTE: SYSTEME DE GESTION SUR RTCP - MODEM INTERNE (RCA)
!!! CARTE C8V %d ABSENTE
!!! CARTE C8V %d HORS TRAFIC
!!! CARTE C8V %d PRESENTE
!!! DEBUT TEST CARTE C8V %d
!!! DEBUT TEST LIGNE PUBLIPHONE %2d
!!! DEBUT TEST PUBLIPHONE %2d
!!! MODULE DE SECURITE (SAM) INTESTABLE - ERREUR SUR 68692 CARTE COS
!!! MODULE DE SECURITE (SAM) INTESTABLE - ERREUR SUR LCM CARTE COS
!!! FIN TEST CARTE C8V %d
(anomalies:
%c %s
%c relais TD
%c relais CNX
!!! FIN TEST LIGNE PUBLIPHONE %2d
!!! FIN TEST PUBLIPHONE %2d
incident(s): %s
%c
!!! LIGNE PUBLIPHONE %2d DEJA AU REPOS
!!! MODULE DE SECURITE (SAM) ABSENT
!!! MODULE DE SECURITE (SAM) PRESENT ET EN SERVICE
!!! MODULE DE SECURITE (SAM) PRESENT ET HORS SERVICE
!!! MODULE DE SECURITE (SAM) PRESENT ET NON INITIALISE
!!! MISE EN SERVICE DU PUBLIPHONE %2d
!!! MISE HORS SERVICE DU PUBLIPHONE %2d PAR LE SG
!!! LIGNE PUBLIPHONE %2d MISE AU REPOS
!!! TEST CARTE C8V %d IMPOSSIBLE %s
!!! TEST LIGNE PUBLIPHONE %2d IMPOSSIBLE %s
!!! TEST PUBLIPHONE %2d IMPOSSIBLE %s
!!! TEST PUBLIPHONE %2d IMPOSSIBLE URP NON INITIALISEE
!!! URP HORS TRAFIC
FACTU SERVEUR %2d %2d
FS PUB %2d %2d
INEFF SERVEUR %2d %2d %2d %2d %2d
REDMES 01

And more error messages.

The EPROMs have this sticker on the underside:



(Sorry, terrible photograph) Silicon Software (c) 1989, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94 Microtec Research Inc ... Santa Clara CA.

And that's all I know for now.

Haha, funny - those HEX displays look like TIL311 - DEC used them also in some PDP11/VAXen/Alpha for status codes

They are in fact TIL311s.

 

[jplr]

Oh I know what it is, it's weird I forgot. It's part of a system used at France Telecom operator to manage smart card payphones ("publiphones").
This card belongs to a SGTD (système de gestion technique décentralisé), it was a VME system having a 10 or 20 Mbytes hard disk. It ran OS-9. It called another more decentralised unit called URP ("unité de raccordement de publiphones") with V22 modems. URPs were 68K systems without hard disk that managed smart card payphones.


The SGTD was made by Crouset in Valence (France). URPs were made either by Crouset or Dassault. Payphones were made by Crouset or Schlumberger. The payphones used NSC800 microprocessors.
There is a website showing payphones here (in French).
I was an adult teacher in this domain at that time.