Meaning of aie / aio / bvpssp in config file?

[Alan's Home for Wayward Notes File.]

In article <1363 at uakari.primate.wisc.edu>, bin at primate.wisc.edu (Brain in Neutral) writes:
> 
> I'm upgrading a VAX to Ultrix 3.1 (from 1.2, no less) and discover
> that the config file format has changed somewhat.  Most of it seems
> clear enough from the configuration file maintenance guide and the man(4)
> pages, but not everything.  Specifically, I find these two entries confusing:

> 
> For a tu81 tape drive, the entry seems to be something like this:
> 
> controller	klesib0 at vaxbi0 node 0
> controller	uq0 at klesib0		vector uqintr
> tape		tms0 at uq0 drive 0

	This is the normal entry for the KLESI-B, the native
	VAXBI controller for the TU81.  As long as you only
	have one "drive 0" tape, you can replace "uq0" with
	"mscp".

> controller	aie0 at vaxbi? node?
> controller	bvpssp0 at aie0		vector bvpsspintr
> tape		tms0 at bvpssp0 drive 0

	The AIE is a VAXBI module with the capability of supporting
	both Ethernet and a TK50.  Generally you see it supporting
	only one.  The "aie" is the base module.  I don't remember
	what the "bvp" part stands but there are two.

		bvpssp - BVP Storage Systems Port - (tape controller)
		bvpni  - BVP Network Interconnect - (Ethernet)

	The real module names for the AIE varients are:

		DEBNT
		DEBNK
		DEBNA
		DEBNI

	As far as I know the the xxxNK was the only one to support
	the TK50.
> 
> For ra disk drives, the entry seems to be something like this:
> 
> controller	kdb0 at vaxbi0 node?
> controller	uq0 at kdb0		vector uqintr
> disk		ra0 at uq0 drive 0

	This is the normal entry for a KDB50.  As long as you
	only have one "drive 0" disk in the system you can
	replace the "uq0" with "mscp".

> disk		ra1 at uq0 drive 1
> controller	aio1 at vaxbi? node?
> controller	bvpssp0 at aio1		vector bvpsspintr
> disk		ra0 at bvpssp0 drive 0
> 
	The AIO is a VAXBI controller for the RD54.  As far
	as I know it is only used in the VAXstation 8000.
	
> (Yes, I know that the same uq number can't be used for both.)
> 
> What are the aie, aio and bvpssp things?  I don't seen any explanation
> of these in the documentation.  Am I just looking in the wrong place?

	I don't remember what AIE, AIO and BVP stand for.  As mentioned
	earlier SSP is Storage Systems Port.  You might find something 
	if go searching through to some of the system include files.
	I'd suggest the /usr/include/vaxsysap and /usr/include/sys/errlog.h
	as places to start.  They might have buried in them somewhere
	the true names of those acronyms.

> 
> Are those parts of the entries >even necessary<?

	If you don't have those devices, then you don't need
	entries for them in the configuration file.  I'm
	guessing that you have a VAX 82xx or 83xx.
> 
> Paul DuBois
> dubois at primate.wisc.edu


-- 
Alan Rollow				alan at nabeth.enet.dec.com