Overview of the MSCP Emulator Project. This is a dual width Q-Bus card for LSI-11 systems that implements the MSCP protocol to talk to the system and uses an SD-Card to store disk image files used by the PDP-11
Read moreIn this web page I will describe the how to install the Q-Bus MSCP Emulator and also how to build your own MSCP Emulator. The firmware is entirely written in AVR assembler and the PCB has been design using KiCAD.
Read moreBefore you can use the MSCP Emulator you need to prepare an SD-Card. PDP-11 diskimages are stored either as partitions or as disk image files on an additional FAT-32 partition. You can mix and match any of the options. In the simplest form you can just use a FAT-32 formatted SD-Card and copy your disk image files.
Read moreIn this page I will show the steps to use a minimal setup with startup configuration and just disk images copied to a FAT-32 formatted SD-Card. The emulator also has a feature to load a boostrap loader via DMA to the PDP-11 memory which is very handy in case you don’t have a bootstrap loader in your boot ROM.
Read moreBasic operational background of the hardware. The hardware in fact implements a generic Q-Bus interface to a microcontroller. With the appropriate programming of the CPLD and the firmware of the microcontroller you could implement many different devices.
Read moreThe microcontroller provides a command line interface with a lot of commands. Many commands are used for debugging and development and are typically not used during the normal usage of the disk emulator. Als implemented is a Apple II monitor like command to directly manipulate the SRAM of the microcontroller. As well this is mainly for debugging purposes.
Read moreIn the following page you can find links to all resources mentioned and also download links for the KiCAD Project, the CPLD Design files, CPLD JEDEC files, source code and hex file of the microcontroller firmware.
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