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rsx20f-swskit/documentation/rsx20f-revision-history.mem
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| d i g i t a l | I n t e r o f f i c e M e m o r a n d u m
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Subj: Current RSX-20F New Features
Attached is a brief description of the new features and history of
RSX-20F since the last release. We would like to attempt to
release version 13-41 to both TOPS-10/7.00 and TOPS-20/4 if it is
feasable. Towards this end we will no longer be putting any new
features into RSX-20F for these releases without strong
justification.
RSX-20F New System Features
EXECUTIVE
0. Features prior to V12-45
- Security improvements to modem control
- Terminal driver improvements
1. Local processing of XON/XOFF on line enabled basis
2. FE status block created
3. Lines are shut down due to framing errors for 10 seconds
4. Lines shut down are logged to SYSERR
5. EBUS parity errors are retried and snapshot
6. Power fail recovery improvements
7. Autobaud to 1200 support
8. I/O page saved in dump
9. Bug fixes
- interrupt enable lost on DM11-BB
- KL10 memory written during protocol pause
- boot task looping on protocol pause timeout
- characters thrown away during protocol pause
- sendall race condition
KLINIT
0. Features prior to V12-45
- MOS memory support
- Record if bootstrap loaded in configuration file
- Selectively write configuration file
- Execute KL address 71 on keep alive failure
1. Tracking of hardware operations
2. Reverse memory configuration
3. CRAM/DRAM error reporting on parity errors
4. Force memory reconfiguration for MOS
5. Enviromental reporting or hardware
6. Bug fixes
- memory not configured correctly
- configuration file "WRITTEN" not "ALTERED"
- parity stops incorrectly initialized
KLERR
1. DTE-20 register print out
2. FM registers sweep on FM parity errors
3. Bug fixes
- KL forced into halt loop corrupts snapshot
PARSER
0. Features prior to V12-45
- Command to manipulate RETRY switch (XCT 71 flag)
1. CLEAR DATE made a legal command
RSX-20F Edit History
22-Jan-79
V12-45 RSX20F Executive
V11-02 KLI KL initialization program
V2-02 KLE KL error snapshot program
V4-33 PAR PARSER program
This is the base level that was shipped with the first field test
of TOPS-10/1090/1091 version 7.00 field test.
16-Feb-79
V12-46 RSX20F Executive
V2-03 KLE KL error snapshot program
The exec was modified to do local processing of incoming
XON/XOFF'S. A new protocol message was defined that the TOPS
monitor would send to RSX20F to tell it to start or stop
recognizing XON/XOFF'S on a particular line, otherwise it acts as
it always has (ie. downward compatable with old monitors). Once
local recognition has been enabled for a line the old technique of
sending the XON/XOFF through is done in addition to immediatly
processing the control character. [TCO 4.2181]
As part of the KL RAMP mini-project KLERR was modified to type out
the DTE-20 register contents when it is invoked and to just stop
the KL clock rather than force it in to the halt loop when it
starts up. [TCO 4.2203]
This is the initial TOPS-20 release 4 front end load test version.
28-Feb-79
V12-47 RSX20F Executive
Also as part of the KL RAMP mini-project the FE status block was
created. The status block contains all of the data and status used
by the executive while operating. The block starts at a fixed
location (1000) and its first location contains its length. [TCO
4.2212]
V12-50 RSX20F Executive
This release is a retroactive release. At the time of release
13-16 it was necessary to take release 12-47 and put the patch in
that fixed DH11'S. This was necessary so we could release a new
front end with the second field test tape of TOPS-10 version 7.00
that did not have all the untested KL mini RAMP project changes.
For more information on the patch for the DH11 see info on V13-16.
This release will be shipped with the second field test tape for
TOPS-10 version 7.00.
V13-01 RSX20F Executive
The terminal service handler was modified to check the DM-11/BB
interrupt enable bit during time-out servicing. There was a
complaint that the interrupt enable could be lost thus preventing
DM-11/BB datasets from being answered. [TCO 4.2206]
V13-02 RSX20F Executive
Several bugs dealing with the protocol pause state were fixed. The
boot task would loop on protocol pause timeout and the exec could
write KL10 memory during protocol pause. [TCO 4.2207 and 4.2208]
13-Mar-79
V13-03 RSX20F Executive
V11-03 KLI KL initialization program
Due to problems with open lines running wild on 2102 and crashing
the front end a change was made to the terminal service to no
longer throw framing errors away but rather count them per line and
shut the line down after four consecutive framing errors are
detected on any line till the next timeout servicing done (max 10
sec.). [TCO 4.2205]
As an aid to field service the internal debugging tracking aid was
permanently turned on in released versions of KLINIT. [TCO 4.2210]
V13-04 RSX20F Executive
There was a complaint that the front end should never conciously
throw away good data. The particular case was that during protocol
pause the front end through away characters it recieved from
terminals with out notifying the user. The terminal servicer was
changed to now queue the characters to the TOPS monitor until the
free pool ran out in which case the front end would crash with an
error code of B02. [TCO 4.2211]
20-Mar-79
V13-05 RSX20F Executive
V11-04 KLI KL initialization program
V2-04 KLE KL error snapshot program
It was determined that as an aid to field service in finding open
lines that when a line is shut down due to framing errors this fact
should be logged and sent to SYSERR. The error logging routine was
modified to send the device address and the contents of the first
two registers (control status register and next received character
register) of the device when a line is shut down. [TCO 4.2245]
As part of the KL RAMP mini-project the functionality of KLINIT was
modified to allow an operator bringing up the KL to configure the
memory controllers in reverse and then save this configuration in
the configuration file. Also because of a bug in the memory
configurator compatability package the package has been updated so
systems with a model A processor, external memory, and microcode
212 or higher configure memory correctly. [TCO 4.2204 and 4.2218]
When KLERR is run it dumps the DTE registers on the CTY.
Unfortunately this is done after KLERR runs its initialization code
which affects the contents of the DTE registers and therefore
invalidates the CTY dump. KLE has been modified to not initialize
itself before the registers are dumped.
V13-06 RSX20F Executive
In some cases an open line will run without generating framing
errors. Since this is undetectable as an open line RSX20F accepts
the characters as legal data. Since the data is coming in rather
rapidly the free pool is quickly exhausted and the algorithm at
this point is to slow the DTE down so as not to recieve any more
data from the 10. This was a reasonable thing to do because it was
usually the case that the free pool was used up by the TO11Q and
slowing down the DTE allowed this queue to run down. With this
open line problem if the DTE is slowed down few characters are sent
to the 10 and the front end quickly crashes to due an exhausted
free pool. Now the DTE is never slowed down. [TCO 4.2216]
V13-07 RSX20F Executive
V11-05 KLI KL initialization program
As part of the KL RAMP mini-project in order to get more
information on EBUS parity errors a retry of the guilty operation
is performed in an attempt to get the good data of the operation.
The DTE registers are saved in a buffer taken from the free pool
before the retry for subsequent typeout by KLERR and after the
retry the contents of the DTE registers are put into this buffer
also. The purpose for taking the buffer from the free pool is to
make it easier in the future to just log the error to SYSERR and
just continue if the retry succeeds. Currently the system just
reloads the KL. [TCO 4.2217]
As part of the KL RAMP mini-project KLI is to print an expanded
CRAM/DRAM error report. Now the microcode is verified and when a
difference is detected the address is typed, the good value is
typed, the actual contents are typed, and these values XOR'd are
typed. An attempt is then made to write the correct value to the
CRAM/DRAM. [TCO 4.2209]
V13-10 RSX20F Executive
In order to make the front end more defensive two new stop codes
were put in the exec. The first is SAQ which occurs if a send all
count is loaded as negative and the other is SAI which occurs if
the send all count goes negative at interrupt level.
22-Mar-79
V13-11 RSX20F Executive
It was discovered that the assembly time macros for the exec
generated DH-11 vectors for non-existent DH-11's. These vectors
were removed and replaced with vectors to the non-existent device
interrupt routines.
V13-12 RSX20F Executive
The terminal driver interrupt service was modified to enter the
framing error log information into a queue because the error
logging routine could not be run at interrupt level 6.
V13-13 RSX20F Executive
Inorder to reclaim some of the space that all the new code has
taken up the code used to declare a significant event has been
changed to call a subroutine rather than do it in line.
V13-14 RSX20F Executive
The global status word .PRPSE (protocol pause state) was moved to a
location in the FE status block in low core.
26-Mar-79
V13-15 RSX20F Executive
The framing error queue entries for logging are now transfered to
the 10 during the terminal time-out routine at task level. This
prevents deadlocking at interrupt level attempting to transfer the
data.
27-Mar-79
V13-16 RSX20F Executive
A bug in the DH-11 hardware was found that caused the front end to
be reloaded because of keep-alive failure was programmed around.
The problem was that when a line was shut down due to local
processing of XON/XOFF's the silo of the DH-11 is not properly kept
so the front end has trouble emptying it at interrupt level. The
solution was to not dump the silo completely at interrupt level but
just to remove one character, service it, return, then wait for the
next interrupt to get the next character in the silo. This
solution adds some overhead in processing characters but it gets
around the DH-11 problem. [TCO 4.2244]
V13-17 RSX20F Executive
Several typographical errors were found in the EBUS parity error
retry code and fixed.
28-Mar-79
V13-20 RSX20F Executive
V2-05 KLE KL error snapshot program
A bug in the terminal framing error logging code was found and
fixed.
As a result of the EBUS parity error retry the original contents of
the DTE registers are lost. Before the retry though the contents
are saved in a buffer taken from the free pool. The new KLERR now
runs and determines where to get the values for the DTE type out
when it is a EBUS parity error and whether the retry succeeded or
not.
3-Apr-79
V13-21 RSX20F Executive
It was found that during error logging it was not necessary to
inhibit interrupts because the routine was always called at
interrupt level with interrupts inhibitted. Space was saved by
removing the inhibitting.
V13-22 RSX20F Executive
Inorder to conserve space the 50 byte card reader overrun buffer
was changed to 2 bytes.
4-Apr-79
V13-23 RSX20F Executive
A bug was found in the DH11 framing error logging code. When a
call is made to the routine to allocate a buffer for logging it was
assumed that the routine stored the size of the returned buffer in
the second word of the buffer. As was the case the routine does
not store the size so when the buffer is returned to the free space
area problems occur. The fix was to store the requested size in
the second word of the buffer.
V13-24 RSX20F Executive
As with the previous bug fix the EBUS parity error logging routine
had to be fixed.
6-Apr-79
V13-25 RSX20F Executive
When the front end reloads the KL a possible race conditions exists
with XOFF/XON enabled processing where the KL doesn't know the
state of the line and assumes it is disabled. To prevent any
misunderstanding the enable bit is cleared by SETSPD when the line
speeds are sent to the KL.
V13-26 RSX20F Executive
V12-01 KLI KL initialization program
V2-06 KLE KL error snapshot program
Similar to the previous bug fix the enable bit is cleared during a
power up after a power fail.
A new output format of the DTE register type out in KLERR was
implemented. This output is a more condensed version of the
previous release.
The final format of the CRAM/DRAM type out for the command FIX and
RAM errors in KLINIT was implemented. The type out corresponds to
the type out done by KLDCP for the same functionality. It was also
discovered that when a power fail occurs KLI attempts to "FIX" all
the RAM locations. This takes about 30 minutes and 20 pages of
paper. An edit was made so that on auto reload if the microcode is
corrupted it is just reloaded if there was a power failure instead
of fixing all the RAM.
This release will be sent with the first field test tape of TOPS-20
release 4. It will also be shipped with the third field tape of
TOPS-10 release 7.00.
V13-27 RSX20F Executive
V5-00 PAR PARSER program
V2-00 RED Device redirect program
V2-00 REX Device redirect program ignoring protocols
While attempting to find a problem booting a system on 1042 it was
found that in the power fail recovery code when the eleven memory
parity registers are initialized the priority could be lowered from
7 to 0. As a result of this discovery the power fail recovery code
was reorganized to not 1.) save the registers, restore the
registers, and then smash 2 registers, 2.) start the clock before
initializing the memory parity registers, and 3.) not allow the
priority to be lowered during recovery. [TCO 4.2249]
The new version of the PARSER has no new functionality but has been
deoverlayed so as to run faster from floppies and DECtapes.
RED and REX were modified because it was found that redirecting SY:
to DT: the search for F11ACP took to long so that the redirect
timed-out and then failed. There had been reports from the field
of this problem but it was intermittent so it was assumed to be
hardware problems but the case was that the time-out loop was on
the border line of success and failure. [TCO 4.2250]
V13-30 RSX20F Executive
Due to SAI stopcodes occuring on 2137 and the hardware apparently
being in good condition the SENDALL facility was investigated for
possible bugs. A race condition was found where if sendalls are
supressed while a sendall is being queued up for a line and being
sent to other lines the sendall count can be decremented twice,
once during the queue up and once at interrupt level. The code was
changed so as to prevent this. [TCO 4.2246]
1-June-79
V13-31 RSX20F Executive
V12-02 KLI KL initialization program
V5-01 PAR PARSER program
During a demostration of TOPS-10/7.00 SMP it was found that the
KLINIK line would not work in remote mode. The problem turned out
to be an editting error that occurred during the terminal handler
reorganization. The problem was patchable on V13-26. The terminal
input service was changed to dump the silo if the input character
is not an xoff, this is a slight change from V13-16. [TCO 4.2265]
KLI was modified to type "CONFIGURATION FILE WRITTEN" instead of
"ALTERED" because the file is always written, whether it exists or
was used or not. This was requested by users so as to avoid
confusion in semantics. [TCO 4.2251]
The CLEAR DATE command in the PARSER was modified such that in
maintenance mode it would clear the date validity flag then prompt
for a new date.
This version will be shipped with the second field test tape of
TOPS-20 release 4. It will also go with the fourth field test tape
of TOPS-10 version 7.00.
V13-32 RSX20F Executive
It was found that it was possible that we might not service our
keep-alive fast enough because of I/O processing. Therefore the
keep-alive processing was moved before the IODONE servicing to
prevent keep-alive-cease. [TCO 4.2247]
V13-33 RSX20F Executive
Inorder to make the status block the same for all systems a pad of
10 words was added to the DECtape driver to make it the same size
as the floppy driver. [TCO 4.2263]
10-June-79
V13-34 RSX20F Executive
As a result of a temporary carrier loss (ie. carrier loss then
carrier on due to noisy lines) the line is put into auto-baud wait
when the carrier on is detected. Unfortunately the line speed is
not reset back to the base speed. When a character comes at what
ever speed the line was at it is compared to the auto-baud table
which assumes that the character came in at the base speed. This
causes a line to hang. Now on carrier loss the line speed is
resynced. [TCO 4.2264]
V13-35 RSX20F Executive
V12-03 KLI KL initialization program
V13-35 SAV RSX-20F core image save program
This version supercedes V13-34 in the way it handles carrier loss.
When carrier loss now occurs if carrier on is received before the
time-out period then the line is not touched(ie. the user never
knows that anything has happened). This is done by adding another
status bit in STSW1 that says the line is already connected so if a
carrier on occurs don't auto-baud the line. [TCO 4.2284]
A QAR was received that stated that KLI didn't set the parity stops
correctly on CPU1 of a 1099. It was found that the parity stops
are not set up if the KL bootstrap is not loaded, the parity stops
that are set up are due to a bug in the memory boot. The fix is to
do the final hardware initialization regardless of whether the
bootstrap is loaded. This QAR also brought to light the fact that
on CPU1 after the load bootstrap question is asked some people
abort KLI by typing ^Z. When this is done we can not guarentee the
status of the KL hardware. The KLI dialogue must be run to
completion to get the KL into a known runnable state. Also on a
manual reload via the disk switch the default operation on the
microcode is to reload it, this a change from verifying it. [TCO
4.2275]
A new bit in .KLIWD (KL.DEF) is set by SAV to specify that a reload
occurred from operator pushing the buttons. This change is so
microcode will be loaded not verified in this circumstance.
V13-36 RSX20F Executive
A change was made to the modem servicer to allow a 22 second base
period for the carrier detect timeout loop. This is an increase
from 10 seconds so as to allow BELL 212A modems at 1200 baud to
cycle. [TCO 4.2309]
3-July-79
V13-37 RSX20F Executive
V3-00 KLE KL error snapshot program
V12-04 KLI KL initialization program
To get more information from a front end crash about device status
the I/O page is dumped by the crash routine into a 4K word block
starting at the base of the GEN partition (100000). If an address
in the I/O page is non-existent then a 123456 value is placed in
the corresponding position of the buffer. [TCO 4.2314]
The final part of the KL mini RAMP project is completed with this
release of KLE. The requirement was for the front end to do a FM
sweep on the detection of a FM parity error. This sweep would
report on the CTY the block number and address of all AC's with a
parity error. [TCO 4.2308]
A FORCE memory configuration command was added to the memory
dialogue of KLI. This command will force the MOS memory code to do
a double bit error scan. Also on reloads if the memory is
"inconsistent" then this code is run. [TCO 4.2322]
23-Jul-79
V13-40 RSX20F Executive
V12-05 KLI KL initialization program
The KL serial number and hardware options information was added to
the FE status block. This information comes from KLI when it
brings up the system. Also added is that when a terminal line is
in a carrier wait state incoming characters are rejected to prevent
sending of invalid characters to KL.
KLI was changed to do an enviromental report when it brings up the
system. This report includes the KL serial number, model type,
line frequency, and hardware options (cache,MOS, extended
addressing). [TCO 4.2333]
V13-41 RSX20F Executive
V12-07 KLI KL initialization program
V13-40 SAV RSX-20F core image save program
Because of timing problems on TOPS-10 the edit for version 13-32
was removed. It turned out that when a ^\ was typed the terminal
time-out routine where keep-alive is processed was activated enough
times in less than the update period to cause a keep-alive-cease.
The hardware enviromental reporting in KLI was moved so as that it
will not occur if in responce to the "ENTER DIALOGUE" question a
BOOT or EXIT is typed or on automatic reloads the reporting is not
done. This was done so that the state of the machine is not
changed unexpectedly and to save time during reloads.
The data base for the hardware enviroment reporting is cleared by
SAV when saving a new system. This is so the saved front end can
run on another system without mistaking its serial number and
hardware options.