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CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP console ports can be configured to connect to an external terminal via the host system COM port or can be connected via TCP/IP.

 

ParameterTypeValue

rts[<line>]

Text string

  • "On" - assert the RTS (Request To Send) signal

  • "Off" - clear the RTS signal (default)

  • "DTR" - assert the RTS signal as soon as the DTR signal is asserted

dsr[<line>]

Text string

  • "On" - always reports DSR signal assertion

  • "Off" - always reports DSR signal deassertion

  • "DSR" - use the DSR signal of the physical serial line (if configured)

  • "CD", "DCD", "RLSD" - use the CD (carrier detect) signal of the physical serial line (if configured)

Info

This parameter is applicable only for line "2" of QUART.

communication [<line>]

Text string

  • "ASCII" - for connection to terminals  (default)

  • "BINARY" - for serial lines carrying binary (packet) protocols, which are used mainly for communicating with PLCs

line[<line>]

Identifier

This parameter is used to connect a particular serial line interface to the controller. See below for details.

Info

Note that the "line" parameter in the table above is applicable only in the case of QUART.

 

All the values in this table are case insensitive.

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Serial line controllers

Asynchronous serial line multiplexers are capable of serving up to 8 asynchronous serial lines (the DHW42-BA supports up to 16 lines).

The following asynchronous serial line multiplexers are supported:

 

VAX model

Asynchronous serial line emulation

PDP-11/93, PDP-11/94, MicroVAX II, MicroVAX 3600, MicroVAX 3900, VAXserver 3600, VAXserver 3900  (QBUS systems)

CXA16, CXB16, CXY08, DHQ11, DHV11, DZV11, DZQ11, DL11, DLV11, DZ11

MicroVAX 3100 - 96, MicroVAX 3100 - 98 (SCSI systems)

DHW42-AA, DHW42-BA, DHW42-CA

VAX4000 - 106, VAX4000 – 108, VAX4000 – 700, VAX4000 – 705 (QBUS/SCSI systems)

CXA16, CXB16, CXY08, DHQ11, DHV11, DZV11, DZQ11, DLV11, DHW42-AA, DHW42-BA, DHW42-CA

VAX6310, VAXstation 4090

N/A

 

The following names are used for the multiplexers:

 

Device name

Module name

DHV11

DHV11

DHQ11

DHV11

CXY08

DHV11

CXA16

DHV11

CXB16

DHV11

DHW42AA

DHV11

DHW42BA

DHV11

DHW42CA

DHV11

DZV11, DZ11

DZ11

DZQ11

DZ11

DL11, DLV11

DL11

 

The following example loads an instance of an asynchronous serial line multiplexer:

load DHQ11/DHV11 TXA
Warning

Only one instance of DHW42 can be loaded. There is no restriction on the number of the other multiplexers.

The multiplexers offer the following configuration parameters, specified with the "set" command:

 

Parameter

Type

Value

address

Numeric

Specifies CSR address. The address must be a valid QBUS 22-bit wide address in I/O space.

Default values are 017760440 for the DHV11-family controllers and 017760100 for the DZV11/DZQ11 family controllers, which are the factory settings for asynchronous serial line multiplexers.

Warning

 This parameter is not applicable to DHW42-xx serial line controllers

vector

Numeric

Specifies the interrupt vector.

The default value is 0300, which is the factory setting for asynchronous serial line multiplexers. 

Warning

 This parameter is not applicable to DHW42-xx serial line controllers

line[N]

N=0…3(7,15)

Identifier

Specifies the name of the serial line interface object in the configuration to which the N-th line of the multiplexer is connected. See below for details.

communication[N]

N=0…4(7,15)

Text String

  • "ASCII" - for connection to terminals  (default)

  • "BINARY" - for serial lines carrying binary (packet) protocols, which are used mainly for communicating with PLCs

rts[N]

N=0…3(7,15)

Text String

Controls the RTS signal of the Nth line of the multiplexer. 

  • "On" - assert the RTS (Request To Send) signal
  • "Off" - clear the RTS signal (default)
  • "DTR" - assert the RTS signal as soon as DTR signal is asserted

When left blank (initial state), the level of the RTS signal is as requested by the VAX/PDP11 software.

dsr[N]

N=0…3(7,15)

Text String

  • "On" - always reports the DSR signal assertion
  • "Off" - always reports the DSR signal deassertion
  • "DSR" - use the DSR signal of the physical serial line (if configured)
  • "CD", "DCD", "RLSD" - use the CD (carrier detect) signal of the physical serial line (if configured)
Info

This parameter is applicable only for the DZV11 and DZQ11 serial lines controllers

tx_q_max_depth[N]

N=0…3(7,15)

Numeric

Specifies the depth of the TX FIFO for the N-th line of the multiplexer. Possible values are 1…1000, initially set to 1, to properly represent the hardware limitation of certain multiplexers. Values greater than 1 improve transmission rate of the corresponding lines, but break correspondence to the original hardware.

Info

This parameter is applicable only for the DHV11 serial lines controller

 

Use the "address" and "vector" parameters to load several instances of the Qbus multiplexers. Both "address" and "vector" parameter values must be unique for every instance of a QBUS multiplexer.

Read the VAX/PDP11 hardware documentation and the VM system management documentation to understand how to correctly assign the "address" and "vector" parameters.

Example of loading DHW42CA:

load DHW42CA/DHV11 TXA

.

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Mapping Serial line controllers to system resources

Types of serial line mapping

 

TypeFunction
physical_serial_line

This type of mapping associates a COM port on a host system with an emulated VAX/PDP11 serial line controller virtual "line".

The COM port can be a physical hardware port or a logical COM port.

virtual_serial_lineThis type of mapping associates a network connection on the host system with an emulated VAX/PDP11 serial line controller virtual "line"

Example:

load physical_serial_line OPA0


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physical_serial_line

 

ParameterTypeDescription
lineText string

A defined COM port on a host system in the form of "\\.\COMn"

Example:

set OPA0 line="\\.\COM1"
baudNumeric

Forces the baud rate of the corresponding COM port to be a specified value.

The variety of supported values depends on the underlying physical communication resource (COM port). The most widely used values are: 300, 1200, 9600, 19200, 38400.

Example:

set OPA0 baud=38400
break_onText string

Specifies what byte sequences received over the physical serial line will trigger a HALT command.

This parameter works only for the console line (for the one UART line and "line[3]" of QUART).

Specify the following values: "Crtl-P", "Break" or "none" ("none" disables triggering a HALT condition).

Example:

set OPA0 break_on="Crtl-P"
stop_onText string

Specifies what byte sequences received over the physical serial line will trigger a STOP condition. The STOP condition causes CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP to exit.

Specify the one of the following values: “F6” or “none” ("none" disables triggering a STOP condition).

Example:

set OPA0 stop_on="F6"

Setting "F6" triggers the STOP condition upon receipt of the "<ESC>[17~" sequence. Terminals usually send these sequences by pressing the F6 button

logText string

A string specifying a file name to store the content of the console sessions or a directory where the log files for each individual session will be stored.

If an existing directory is specified, CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP automatically enables creation of individual log files, one for each session using the same scheme as used for the generation of the rotating log files. If the "log" parameter is omitted, CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP does not create a console log.

Examples:

set OPA0 log=”log.txt”

.

set OPA0 log=C:\Charon\Logs

Example of mapping a console line to a host physical serial line:

load physical_serial_line OPA0
set OPA0 line="\\.\COM1"


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virtual_serial_line

ParameterTypeDescription
hostText string

A remote host’s IP address or hostname (and optionally a remote TCP/IP port number) for the virtual serial line connection. If omitted, the virtual serial line does not initiate a connection to the remote host and will listen for incoming connection requests.

Specify the value in the following form:

set OPA0 host="<host-name>[:<port-no>]"

If the "<port-no>" is not specified, the virtual serial line uses the TCP/IP port number specified by the "port" parameter (see below).

portNumeric

The TCP/IP port number for the virtual serial line. A virtual serial line always listens on this port for incoming connection requests.

applicationText string

An application (a terminal emulator is assumed in most cases) to be started on initialization of this serial line emulation. The specified application startup string may contain all required parameters.

Example:

set OPA application = "putty.exe -load OPA0"

In this example the terminal emulator application: "putty" is started with the parameters "-load OPA0" telling it to load a specific saved session named "OPA0", (created separately) from the host registry.

The "application" parameter is often combined with a "port" parameter:

set TTA1 port = 10003 application = "putty.exe -load TTA1"
break_onText string

Specifies what byte sequences received over a virtual serial line triggers a HALT command.

This parameter works only on the console line (for CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP it is the only line of UART and "line[3]" of QUART).

Specify one of the following values: "Crtl-P", "Break" or "none" to disable triggering a HALT condition. The commands are case insensitive.

Example:

set OPA0 break_on="Crtl-P"
stop_onText string

Specifies what byte sequences received over the virtual serial line will trigger a STOP condition. The STOP condition causes CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP to exit.

Specify one of the following values: “F6” or “none” ("none" disables triggering a STOP condition). The commands are case insensitive.

Example:

set OPA0 stop_on="F6"
logText string

A string specifying the filename to store the content of the console sessions or a directory where log files for each individual session will be stored.

If an existing directory is specified, CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP automatically enables the creation of individual log files, one for each session using the same scheme as used for the generation of the rotating log files. If the "log" parameter is omitted, CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP does not create any console log.

Examples:

set OPA0 log=”log.txt”
set OPA0 log=”C:\Charon\Logs

Example of mapping a console line to an onboard serial line:

load virtual_serial_line OPA0
set OPA0 port=10003 stop_on="F6"

Notes on "virtual_serial_line" options:
 

Note: the examples above are mainly used for inter-CHARON communications. They are used to connect CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP to an application that communicates to CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP as described below.

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Example of two CHARON systems connected to each other:

On host "A":

load virtual_serial_line/chserial TXA0 port=5500 host="B"

 

On host "B":

load virtual_serial_line/chserial TXA0 port=5500 host="A"

On these two hosts, executing CHARON-VAX, the two TXA0 lines connect to each other, thus creating a "serial" cable between the two emulated VAXes. The sequential order in which the instances of CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP are started makes no difference.

 

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Linking serial controller port to host connection

The final step in the CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP serial line configuration is the association of each loaded serial port with a CHARON-VAX / CHARON-PDP host connection instance as follows:

set <serial controller instance name> line[<line number>]=<serial line instance name>

Example:

set quart line[0]=TTA0