Running UNIX V6 on an -11/23

It is possible to run UNIX Sixth Edition on a PDP-11/23, provided 'of course' that it has a KTF11-A memory management chip, but although this is not a configuration supported 'out of the box' with the Version 6 distribution.

There are three issues which have to be addressed before V6 will run on a /23:

• The lack of a console switch register
• The lack (normally) of a clock peripheral
• The ability of the /23 to have more than 256KB of main memory

All of them are fairly simple to deal with, but they require minor modifications to the system, so you will need a running V6 to do these; bringing it up under a simulator, e.g. Installing UNIX Sixth Edition on Ersatz-11, is therefore required.

Use the 'm40.s' assembly language file, as the memory management supported by the /23 is the same 'simple' kind (i.e. without split I+D) as that on the PDP-11/40.

Also, if it has a KEF11-A floating point chip, additional work is needed to allow its general use, since the -11/40 did not support FP11 floating point.

Switch register

V6 expects to see a switch register, and refers to it during booting to see whether to come up single-user or not.

The best general approach is to provide a 'software switch register'; a location in low memory whose contents are used as the switch register.

The following can be used to do so:

• insert four lines into l.s (in the appropriate location in the source):

. = 50^.
.globl  _SW
_SW:    memcsw
memcsw: 173030 

• change the last line of param.h to read:

extern	int	*SW;

• add the following three lines to main.c (the last two go just after

the check for the LTC)

#define SWREG	0177570

if (fuiword(SWREG) != -1)
	SW = SWREG;

• then recompile sys4.c and prf.c, plus the two files above.

Clock

V6 requires either a KW11-L or KW11-P clock, and will 'panic' unless one or the other is found. The -11/23 does have a 60Hz clock, but... there is no control register. There are two ways to deal with this:

1. Install a BDV11 card, which has a simulation of the KW11-L on it, or
2. Modify the OS

To do the latter, in main.c, change:

			panic("no clock");

to:

			{
			lks = 0;
			printf("No clock?\n");
			printf("On an 11/23, turn on clock now.\n");
			}

and change the:

	*lks = 0115;

to:

	if (lks != 0)
		*lks = 0115;

NOTE: It is critical to turn off the system's built-in clock (usually possible with a switch on the console) before and during booting, as a clock interrupt before UNIX is ready for it can trash the system (and has been observed to trash the disk, if you are really unlucky).

Larger main memory

All -11/23's after the (very rare) model A can support more than 256KB of main memory. If you put more than 256KB on an -11/23 and boot V6, it will ignore the extra memory above 256KB (technically, above 248KB).

That is because 22-bit operation must be explicitly enabled, using SSR3. So, make a copy of m40.s (m23.s seems the obvious name), and add the following:

	mov     $EN22BIT, *$SSR3	/ allow > 256KB

just before the

	inc	SSR0

You will also need to add:

SSR3	= 172516
EN22BIT	= 20

somewhere (probably at the end, with the other register definitions).

Finally, the PAR contents to reach the I/0 page are different in a 22-bit system from an 18-bit system, so change:

IO	= 7600

to:

IO	= 177600

You might also want to change this line:

	printf("mem = %l\n", maxmem*5/16);

in main.c to this:

	printf("mem = %l\n", (maxmem/16)*5);

to prevent overflow issues in machines with a lot of memory.

Edit the 'run' file that builds the system to use m23.o instead of m40.o, and that should do it.

See also

• UNIX V6 internals
• Unix V6 kernel memory layout
  • Unix V6 dump analysis
• Installing UNIX Sixth Edition
  • Setting up UNIX Sixth Edition
  • Upgrading UNIX Sixth Edition
• Installing Unix v6 (PDP-11) on SIMH
  • Running Unix v6 in SIMH
• Installing UNIX Sixth Edition on Ersatz-11