DEC-10-MRZA-D PDP-10 Monitor Table Descriptions 197010

This document, "PDP-10 Monitor Table Descriptions" (DEC-10-MRZA-D), published by Digital Equipment Corporation in October 1970, serves as a comprehensive technical reference for the internal data structures (tables) used by the PDP-10's monitor (operating system).

The document details numerous tables categorized by their function, including:

• Job Management: Tables describing job addresses, checksums, directories, privileges, status, queues, swap information, and runtime statistics.
• Device and I/O Management: Descriptions of available devices, device data blocks (DDBs) for general, disk, and TTY devices, buffer rings, disk access tables, interrupt routine tables, and monitor disk I/O queues.
• Memory and Resource Allocation: Tables related to core assignment, storage allocation, swapping space, and sharable resources.
• Command and Dispatch Handling: Tables defining legal commands, command dispatch routines, and User-Defined-Operation (UUO) dispatch mechanisms.
• Scheduling and Queue Management: Tables for clock requests, requeuing jobs based on device availability or wait state codes, quantum time, and queue progression.

Each table entry includes information on its purpose, structure (often with bit-level and word-level definitions), and where it is defined and referenced within the monitor's source code. It provides foundational documentation for understanding the internal workings and operational components of the PDP-10 operating system.