<REFERENCE>PRIME>DRB
The following documents are material I have gathered from various sources: indices to Prime documentation, lists of model numbers, snippets of reference material gathered into topical groupings, etc. As is usual with this type of hobby project, there are things I wish I had done from the beginning (mostly better retention of metadata on sources). Some of this material includes brief mention of where the reference was found.
Indices
- PCB model numbers
- A list of model numbers of controllers, CPU boards, control panel boards, CLAC cards, and the like, giving a brief identification of the board.
- Other numbers on PCBs
- A list of other numbers that may appear on boards, since those numbers are often more obvious, easy to read, or actually present than the real model numbers, whose stickers sometimes come unglued or are illegible.
- CPU board sets
- A pair of retyped memos we received from Prime as nth generation photocopies. These list the board model numbers that make up complete sets of CPUs for various machine models. The revision info contained herein was current as of 11/1/86. There was some additional info on hardware other than CPU sets which I did not retype at the time (200x).
- Key numbers
- A list of key/lock code numbers and key blank types for the locks on Prime cabinets.
- Manual part numbers
- A fairly exhaustive list of Prime-published documentation, with part number and title. Includes separate records for different editions and bindings of many documents.
- Microcode floppy part numbers
- A list of part numbers for microcode and diagnostics floppies, with CPU model.
- Prime addresses
- A list of addresses for Prime facilities listed in documentation, source code, sales material and press coverage.
- Prime terminal model numbers
- An incomplete list of model numbers and rebranded device identities for terminals, card equipment and line printers sold by Prime.
- The Prime Zoo
- A list of animal code names for various Prime hardware and systems.
- Random part numbers
- A messy list of part numbers that need to be stirred into other files listed on this page.
Notes and Guides
- All about boot
- A collection of information about the boot process: sense switch settings, halts, lights codes, command sequences for a few obscure operations, narratives from source code.
- Despooler formatting
- A description of embedded formatting codes recognized by SPOOL's despooler. These codes in spooled files can set page headers, carriage control type, plot mode, and other things.
- EXL architecture notes
- A collection of basic information on Prime's EXL lines (unix systems), drawn from the Prime FAQ and comp.sys.prime posts.
- PRIMOS installation overview
- An overview of installing PRIMOS and layered products. Gives an idea of what is required and why, but leaves details for version-specific documents like Installing PRIMOS below.
- Installing PRIMOS 21.0 on the emulator
- A detailed description of how to install PRIMOS Rev. 21 on Jim Wilcoxson' emulator. This is intended to provide a simple process for those not familiar with doing a PRIMOS install, and to add the emulator-specific details.
- Installing PRIMOS 23.3 on the emulator
- A detailed description of how to install PRIMOS Rev. 23.3 on Jim Wilcoxson' emulator. This is intended to provide a simple process for those not familiar with doing a PRIMOS install, and to add the emulator-specific details.
- Installing PRIMOS 24.0 on the emulator
- A detailed description of how to install PRIMOS Rev. 24.0 on Jim Wilcoxson' emulator. This is intended to provide a simple process for those not familiar with doing a PRIMOS install, and to add the emulator-specific details.
- Installing PRIMOS on the hobbyist emulator
- ==OBSOLETE== A detailed description of how to install PRIMOS Rev. 22 or Rev. 23 on the hobbyist version of Jim Wilcoxson's 50 Series emulator. Note that the full emulator is now open source, and that this document describes living within limitations that are no longer necessary.
- Patching PRIMOS for fast console output on the emulator
- A process for building a patch that can be SHAREd onto segment 6 which makes console output in the emulator run fast.
- Prime ASCII
- Prime used the 7-bit ASCII set in mark parity form, i.e. with the high bit set. This chart shows the characters, their decimal, hex, octal and binary values, and their values in the high-order byte of a 16-bit word.
- Prime extended character set
- A table of the Prime extended character set, showing decimal, hex and octal code points, the characters themselves, the Unicode mnemonic, and a description of the graphic or function. Prime's ECS was basically Latin-1 flipped upside down to account for the mark parity nature of Prime's use of ASCII.
- Ringnet notes
- A few snippets from patents and comp.sys.prime about Prime Ringnet.
- Telenet notes
- A few terse references to the Telenet X.25 network, which used Prime hardware for its early switches, and for its network management systems.
- The mythical 50 Series unix
- A couple of conference paper mentions of the University of New Hampshire port of UNIX to the 50 Series. This port never saw the light of day.