DECsystem-10 Data Communications Products For Software Specialists Jul78

This student guide, published in June 1978, outlines a course for experienced software specialists on DECsystem-10 Data Communications Products and Networks. The course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of these products, their workings, and associated networking concepts.

Key areas covered in the course include:

1. Introductory & Network Concepts: Definitions, network concepts (topologies like point-to-point, star, multidrop, multilink), and an overview of various DECsystem-10 communication products and hardware components (e.g., DN80 Series, DN92, DN61, DC76NP, DN75, DN98, DH11, DL11, DMC11). This also includes comparing asynchronous and synchronous communication techniques.
2. Protocols: A detailed discussion of general protocols (line, message, and task/process levels), error detection (e.g., CRC), and transparency. It specifically covers DECsystem-10 network protocols like DDCMP (Digital Data Communications Message Protocol), NCL (Network Control Language), and DAP (Data Access Protocol), including their message formats and fields.
3. Using DECsystem-10 Networks: Practical aspects such as network commands (ASSIGN, SEND, SET HOST, NODE, WHERE, LOCATE) and network-specific monitor calls (UUOs) like LOCATE, GTNTN, GTXTN, and NODE, along with their functions and examples.
4. Intertask Communication: Defining tasks (TSK:), facilitating file transfers (e.g., using TECO and PIP), and illustrating intertask communication through examples in MACRO, FORTRAN, and COBOL, emphasizing passive and active task roles.
5. TOPS-10 Network Internals: An in-depth look into the internal mechanisms of the TOPS-10 operating system related to networking, including monitor modules (COMNET, NETSER, TSKSER, RDXSER), network control blocks (FEK, DTK, NDB), dispatch tables (NDP, NDT, NETLAT), protocol control blocks (PCB), and NCL functions (startup, message acknowledgement, routing, data flow control, station control).
6. DN80 Series Internal Tasks & Materials: Details on user-written tasks running in the -80 series (DN80, DN81, DN82 remote stations), including task scheduling, core management, system macro calls (SEND, RECEIVE, WAKE, TRIGER, CNKGET, CNKFRE, TIMER, HIBER, EXIT, OPEN, RELEASE, GET, PUT, IMGPUT), data structures, and overall internal organization.
7. Installation: Step-by-step procedures for assembling and loading network software for PDP-11 and PDP-8 based processors using tools like MACDLX and PAL10. This includes creating configuration files, specifying assembly outputs, and initial hardware checks.
8. Testing and Debugging: Guidance on using diagnostic tools like CHK11 for initial hardware surveys and DDT11/DDT92 for dynamic debugging of remote nodes, including examining memory, inserting labels, dumping memory, searching for words, depositing into memory, and monitoring locations.

Prerequisites for the course include familiarity with DECsystem-10 Monitor Internals, Communications Fundamentals, and Introduction to the PDP-11, along with prior study of DDCMP and DAP modules from the DECNET Architecture. Hands-on field experience with DECsystem-10 is strongly recommended.