View source for Talk:VAXstation 100 firmware notes

==Source?==

I assume the source for the firmware has been lost? Given that this is the bootstrap, I'm going to guess that it was originally in assembler? Do you have a dis-assembled version?

The results of dis-assembly can be quite tasteful; [http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/unix/rlboot.s here] and [http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/unix/rluboot.s here] are two [[RL11]] bootstraps for which the source had been lost; I dis-assembled and commented (to make them readable/understandable; I checked that the assembler output matched the binary I started with) them, and I think they are pretty good. The first is commented a little better; I read through the code in the second in order to be able to turn the magic numbers in the disassembled code into named constants, but I didn't do much more than that to make it readable.

Do you have any of the code (in any form) which was down-loaded into them once they had booted? [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 23:48, 18 February 2023 (CET)

: I'm adding comments to this as I go: https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/absolutely-not-a-vaxstation100-emulator/blob/stuff/firmware-5.00.txt
: I haven't added labels etc, so it's not in any shape to be reassembled.  I have done plenty of source code reconstructions for ITS binaries, but I'm not sure I'll make the effort for this one.  My main priority will be to get old X versions running; Jim Gettys seems willing to let go of his old tape files which should be interesting.

: X10 R3 and R4 have binary VS100 blobs.  I know someone who has X10R4 running on a real VS100 and VAX, so I know it's in good shape. [[User:Larsbrinkhoff|Larsbrinkhoff]] ([[User talk:Larsbrinkhoff|talk]]) 00:04, 19 February 2023 (CET)

:: Thanks for indulging my curiosity! Yes, that's too much code to be worth the effort to do a good job.
:: It will be interesting to see what's on Gettys' old tapes! Who's reading them, BTW? [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 00:45, 19 February 2023 (CET)

::: He says the tapes have already been read.  I don't know in what form the data is stored now.  Maybe untarred file trees, or something.  Fingers crossed, we will see soon. [[User:Larsbrinkhoff|Larsbrinkhoff]] ([[User talk:Larsbrinkhoff|talk]]) 06:30, 19 February 2023 (CET)