DM11-BB Modem Control Option

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M7807 Mux and Bus Control card of 'later' DM11-BB

The DM11-BB Modem Control Option worked with several early UNIBUS asynchronous serial line peripherals to allow the lines to be connected to modems. It could be set to interrupt the CPU when a modem control line (Ring, Carrier, etc) changed state.

The DM11-BB is logically a separate device from the serial line interfaces, albeit one housed in the same backplane. It was used with the DM11 and DH11 interfaces. Both of these interfaces themselves used a custom system unit backplane, containing multiple cards; flat cables connected this to a separate 5-1/4" high rack-mounted dual-height distribution panel.

There were two different versions of the DM11-BB (unfortunately, there is no accepted naming system for them). The DM11 and early models of the DH11 used the 'early version' of the DM11-BB; it used an 'active' (powered) DM11 distribution panel backplane. Modular 'line conditioning' units were plugged into the distribution panel backplane to allow support of EIA RS-232 serial lines connected to modems.

Later DH11s used the 'new version' of the DM11-BB, which was program compatible with the early version, but included built-in EIA level conversion, allowing the use of a passive (un-powered) H317-B distribution panel.

DM11-BB Device registers

Register Abbreviation Address
Control and Status Register DMCSR 770500
Line Status Register DMLSR 770502

The addresses shown are for the first DM11-BB in a system; additional ones (up to 16 total) are normally set to be at 770504, 770510, etc to 770674. It used one interrupt vector, allocated from the floating device vectors.

770500: Control and Status Register (DMCSR)

RING CARR CTS SREC CLRSC CLRMUX MAINT STEP DONE IE SCEN Unused Line
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
  • RING - Ring Flag; transition detected
  • CARR - Carrier Flag; transition detected
  • CTS - Clear to Send Flag; transition detected
  • SREC - Secondary Receive Flag; transition detected
  • CLRSC - Clear Scanner
  • CLRMUX - Clear Multiplexer
  • MAINT - Maintenance Mode
  • STEP - Step; increment scan line number
  • DONE - Done; scan detected a transition, scan halted
  • IE - Interrupt Enable
  • SCEN - Scan Enable
  • Line - Line Number

770502: Line Status Register (DMLSR)

Unused RING CARR CTS SREC STX RTS DTR LEN
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
  • RING - Ring; current status of Ring lead
  • CARR - Carrier; current status of Carrier lead
  • CTS - Clear to Send; current status of Clear to Send lead
  • SREC - Secondary Receive; current status of Secondary Receive lead
  • STX - Secondary Transmit; set Secondary Transmit lead
  • RTS - Ready to Send; allow modem to transmit
  • DTR - Data Terminal Ready; allow modem to enter data mode
  • LEN - Line Enable

Implementation

M7808 Mux and Modem Scan Control card of 'later' DM11-BB

The early version of the DM11-BB was connected to the DM11 distribution panel via flat cables which carried the modem control signals, which ran from the M7247 card (two per card) to single-width M971 cards which plugged into the backplane of the DM11 distribution panel (one for each group of 4 lines). The DM11-BB boards (all dual-width) were:

  • M7246 - Scan
  • M7247 - Data Mux (two)

and 2 single-width, non-DM11-specific cards:

  • M7820 - Interrupt control
  • M105 - Address selection


DM11 board locations

Board locations in the DM11 backplane (as seen from the board insertion side of the backplane, not the wire-wrap pin side, as is common in DEC documentation) were:

Connector
Slot A B C D E F
1 UNIBUS In M7240
2 M105 M7241
3 Power M405 M782 M782 M7242
4 M974 Cable M7245
1   M7244
2   M7243
3 Power M7247 M7246
4 UNIBUS Out M7247 M105 M7820

(DM11-BB boards were in the last two slots.)

Early DH11 board locations

Connector
Slot A B C D E F
1 UNIBUS In M7247 M105 M7821
2 M7821 M796 M7247 M7246
3 M7278
4 M7277
5 M7289
6 M7821 M405 M7280
7 M7360 M971 M7280
8 M7288
9 UNIBUS Out M7279 M405 M4540

(DM11-BB boards were in the first two slots.)

Later DM11-BB implementation

H317-B passive distribution panel with cover off

The 'later' DM11-BB used two new quad-width boards (the DH11 backplane, etc, were otherwise identical):

  • M7807 - Mux and Bus Control
  • M7808 - Mux and Modem Scan Control

These boards fitted into the same slots occupied by the DM11-BB boards in the 'early' DH11 versions - the M7807 in slot 1, the M7808 in slot 2. Two flat cables ran from each to the passive distribution panel.

See also

Further reading

  • DM11-BB Modem Control Option Engineering Drawings (not available online)

External links

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