I am resurrecting an old HP64000 (non-HPUX) embedded application for
modification. I need to be able to transfer files from the HP64000
across the HPIB to the HP9000 series 340.

In the past I have been able to do this by connecting an HPIB cable
between the HP64000 and the HP 9000 (specifically the HP 98624A HPIB
card in the HP 9000) and issuing the "transfer -rsfxa" HP64000filename
HP9000filename command. I am now getting a warning message after about
30 seconds that limits have been exceeded. I have checked the switch
settings within the HP64000 I/O card and the HP64000 I/O bus cable. I
have also run the I/O performance verification tests on the HP64000 to
confirm HP64000 I/O subsystem operation.

On the HP 9000 side, I see that the HPIB card is recognized by the
system on bootup. It has the expected select code.

When the command is issued, there is a line of text that gets displayed
on the HP9000 that announces that the transfer is being attempted. The
the warning messages appears 20-30 seconds later.

I am at a lost as to what else I need to do. I would appreciate
hearing from anyone with any ideas. I have only a short time left to
get this to work or the whole project will be cancelled.

dukedombro wrote:

catalog it appears that a non HP-UX controller for the 64000
runs either RMB or Pascal.

FWIW, we have RMB running on an hp9000/320 and also have Pascal. I
have transferred many files (binary and ascii) using the serial
port and kermit on the 9000. Please let me know if I can help.

Regards,

Michael

dukedombro wrote:


<http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/facet.jspx?lc=eng&QueryValid=true&cc=US&cc=US&lc=e ng&k=HP64000&gen_search_go=Search>

I have a bunch of these in storage but they will be impossible to locate
in the short term

Andrew

Andrew Tweddle wrote:

Also

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/64000/

Andrew

Hi Michael -
The HP9000/340 is running uder HPUX version 8

HP had a proprietary operating system for the HP64000 workstation.
These workstations were fairly common during the 1980's.
The one I'm working with was manufactured in 1986.


msg wrote:

Thanks for the references.
I have been using these references over the last few months and believe
it or not, I was able to locate many of the manuals here.
Regards,
Jim



Andrew Tweddle wrote:

dukedombro wrote:

I am an ex-HP Apps Engineer who joined the company in the heyday of the
64000. What a wonderful machine! I still have some 64000 'crocks' and
hard drives. I fire them up every 6 months or so, just to make sure they
work. I also have a few HP-UX workstations, both 68K and Risc. They
haven't been fired up in a while.

The last time I tried to do any transfers from the 64000 to another
system, I used RS-232. You can actually run as fast as 56KBaud, going
from the 64000 to HP-UX. You can't go past 9600 the other direction.
You'll need a full RS-232 cable because the 64000 uses HW flow control,
in addition to XON/XOFF.

If you can get the RS-232 working, and log into HP-UX, using the
terminal program on the 64000, you can initiate transfers using
approximately the same command. I don't remember the exact options,
though. The best thing to do is create a file on the 64000 that lists
the files you want to transfer, then edit that into a transfer command
file. Transfer the command file, then use the command file to transfer
the rest of the files, unattended. I've transferred megabytes that way.

There's only thing you have to watch for. Every time there's any kind of
error, the last 'packet' gets retransmitted. Unfortunately, an error
counter also gets incremented. After a number of errors, the transfer
stops. It's easy to recover, though. Just figure out which files
transferred, remove those line from the transfer command file and
restart the transfer.

Overall, this might be a LOT easier to get going than the HPIB. There a
zillion things that could be wrong with your HPIB and diagnosing is not
fot the fainthearted. RS-232 is much easier to understand.

If you don't care too much about errors, and it's text, you can use a
program on a PC to just copy from RS-232 to a file, then on the 64000,
copy a file to RS-232. It'll also run up to 56K baud.

Good Luck

RB

Rube -

I did find the solution to the HPIB. Two issues were in the way.
First, the HPIB address of the HP64000 conflicted with a HPIB address
on the HP9000. Change the HPIB address of the HP64000 cleared this up.
Next was the cable being used (a new one) was too long (4 meters).
With these old systems, they have become more sensitive to noise.
Shortening the cable to 2 meters reduced the noise. The reporting
feature of the csib command was critical to diagnosing the problem.

THANKS FOR YOUR SUGGESTION!!
Jim


Rube Bumpkin wrote: