Pro/380 video
Christopher R. Zach
with a Professional 380. In it's former life it was a Vax console, but now
it looks like it will become a replacement for my Pro/350's. At least it is
faster, and has a lot more memory than my 350 ever did.
However, I have a few questions:
Disk:
The pro/350 and the 380 both share the same XTBus disk adapter, but the 350
could only support up to a RD52. Is it possible to use a RD53 with the 380
system?
Video:
I have my Pro/350 hooked up to an Aydin Patriot 19" Slow scan color monitor.
The scan rate is really slow (16Mhzish horozontal), but the Pro/350 loved it.
Unfortunately the 380 is having problems syncing up to it. Is there a
difference between the two systems in the video? The 380 I have does not have
the EBO option. If so, what is the sync rates for the 380?
ID:
Finally, are the Serial ID chips the same between the 350 and the 380? Ifso,
then I could run VENIX on it instead of my 350...
Thanks for any information
Chris Zach
Ken Wellsch
| with a Professional 380. In it's former life it was a Vax console, but now
| it looks like it will become a replacement for my Pro/350's. At least it is
| faster, and has a lot more memory than my 350 ever did.
I've dhrystoned the Pro-350 at a tad over 300 and the Pro-380 at a tad
over 600 (about double the speed). As you must know the 350 takes two
daughter cards and the 380 only one (ther other space is used by the video
EBO). I've only ever encountered the 256Kb memory boards for the regular
card slots. Of course we all know about the 128Kb versus 512Kb daughter
card upgrade (unless you've already got a 512Kb card in the 380).
| However, I have a few questions:
|
| Disk:
| The pro/350 and the 380 both share the same XTBus disk adapter, but the 350
| could only support up to a RD52. Is it possible to use a RD53 with the 380
| system?
The PRO bus is called the CTI bus. The MFM drive controller had a variety
of PROMs available depending on the vintage. Here is the bit of history I
collected when I lucked out and stumbled onto a controller with the latest
version of the PROMs (at least as far as I know):
DEC Pro 300 series HD controller, RDC50 (5415134)
PROMs are 512x8 fuseable-link type, e.g. 74S472 or 27S29
PROM ID # Data I/O Checksum
013 011B13
014 012B5A
021 0088A5
063 0088A8
071 0089E6
072 011DF3
073 012BE4
------------------------------------------------------+
|
=========== =========== =========== |
| 014/073 | | 013/072 | | empty | |
=========== =========== =========== |
|
=========== =========== =========== |
| empty | | empty | 021/063/071 |
=========== =========== =========== |
|
===================================== |
| | |
| SA N8X300 | |
| | |
===================================== |
Set 021/013/014 used on rev D boards (they have a fair amount of added wire)
Set 063/013/014 used on rev H boards (new PC reworking from rev D?)
Set 071/072/073 used on latest rev? (these do handle RD3x type drives)
| Video:
| I have my Pro/350 hooked up to an Aydin Patriot 19" Slow scan color monitor.
| The scan rate is really slow (16Mhzish horozontal), but the Pro/350 loved it.
| Unfortunately the 380 is having problems syncing up to it. Is there a
| difference between the two systems in the video? The 380 I have does not have
| the EBO option. If so, what is the sync rates for the 380?
I vaguely recall something about synch on blue rather than on green. I
admit I've never run a Pro on anything but a DEC monitor. With a VR241
I've mixed and matched between Pro's as I pleased. But as you likely
know, the Rainbow video cable does not mix with the Pro video cable (even
though they looks identical - I think one is BCC17 the other BCC03).
| ID:
| Finally, are the Serial ID chips the same between the 350 and the 380? Ifso,
| then I could run VENIX on it instead of my 350...
Assuming the ID PROM is not soldered in (I noticed a few early vintage 350s
where they soldered in the ID chip) the ID chip is portable.
Ken Wellsch
| meg board? i notice that the board has the necessary extra pin connected to
| _somewhere_. perhaps just chip swaps and an extra jumper or three?
Well, the memory daughter board upgrade was easy when you look at the
schematics. I have certainly stared at the 256Kb CTI cards and wondered
about them, but I don't have schematics and do know just enough that things
like PALs used for address decoding and relaying to the memory chips could
require changing. I too noted the "extra" pin appears to go somewhere but
am not a hardware type by training.
The CTI cards have local EPROMs on them with diagnostics etc. and I didn't
get very far interpreting the memory board EPROM (as in whether it would
shed any light on different capacity choices per board).
| what is the EBO board? i have a 380 and a dec colour monitor. the 380 does
| not have an extra video board. will it drive the display in colour (so far i
| have only got blue text out of it, but i haven't tried any graphics stuff).
There is a pretty daughter card (bigger than a memory daughter card) with
a couple of big gate arrays on it (and memory) that provides the other
two colour planes to match the single plane on the 380 CPU board itself.
It plugs in beside the single memory daughter card spot.
I believe installing the 350 based colour CTI board pair on a 380 is
useless (i.e. does nothing, hopefully doesn't zap anything).
I suspect you will find you have your choice of one colour (blue) without
the colour option.
It was an eye opener for me when I encountered the monochrome version -
the monitor derives its power from the lone cable to the Pro, running
on +12V from the Pro's power supply. I guess the VT240 does the same.
The video connector pinout I think has both RGB and monochrome output
(i.e. seperate pins for each).
Robert Rozee
[ stuff deleted ]
: EBO). I've only ever encountered the 256Kb memory boards for the regular
: card slots. Of course we all know about the 128Kb versus 512Kb daughter
: card upgrade (unless you've already got a 512Kb card in the 380).
is it possible to strip the 4164's and replace them with 41256's to get a 1
meg board? i notice that the board has the necessary extra pin connected to
_somewhere_. perhaps just chip swaps and an extra jumper or three?
[ stuff deleted ]
: | Video:
: | I have my Pro/350 hooked up to an Aydin Patriot 19" Slow scan color monitor.
: | The scan rate is really slow (16Mhzish horozontal), but the Pro/350 loved it.
: | Unfortunately the 380 is having problems syncing up to it. Is there a
: | difference between the two systems in the video? The 380 I have does not have
: | the EBO option. If so, what is the sync rates for the 380?
what is the EBO board? i have a 380 and a dec colour monitor. the 380 does
not have an extra video board. will it drive the display in colour (so far i
have only got blue text out of it, but i haven't tried any graphics stuff).
regards,
rob.
--
we are so blinded by our own existence that we
fail to see what is there when we are not.