VAX 750/4.2 BSD + Emulex TC7000/tbuf fixes/Cipher GCR

[RSanders at usgs2-multics.arpa]

Whew!  We added an Emulex TC7000, then did the Rev 7 cpu upgrade, then
got the microcode patch & /boot changes, then tacked on a GCR Cachetape
in less than a month.  Things seem to have stabilized now, so this will
be a shotgun-blast status report.

In summary, everything seems to be working OK.  To recap, installing the
TC7000 Massbus tape coupler caused this poor VAX to report/flush tbuf
parity errors about every 2 minutes, making keyboard response quite an
adventure.  The cpu upgrade to Rev 7 fixed that problem, without the
microcode patch.  We got only one tbuf error in the following week, when
I got the microde patch from ARPAnet ftp.  In the two weeks since then,
no tbuf faults!

The TC7000 was installed with level J proms, and the Emulex rep said the
next rev level would be out shortly, though the J proms were supposed to
"fix all the Unix problems".

The GCR CacheTape seems to be working OK - we've swapped at least one
tape with some big STC(?)  GCR drives with no problems.  This drive
doesn't like to load 600' tapes always - I'm finding about a 1/3 failure
rate, though retrying seems to work.  Probably will start doing dumps on
this drive after the first of the year.  Also, I'm not impressed with
the speed of the drive - seems only 10-20% faster than my 125 ips vacuum
column 1600 bpi Cipher 920 on the Unibus.  Also, we've hung the drive a
couple of times after tape read/write errors.  Couldn't use the drive
again till reboot.  Sounds like a driver bug to me, but I haven't looked
into it yet.

We've had to make one change to our power-up sequence:  Before booting,
we must hit the white RESET button on the CPU.  This action seems to
reset both our recalcitrant CS-21s and the TC7000; otherwise, they don't
get recognized at auto-configure time.  (DEC equipment?  Well, the CPU
and FPA are theirs, and through some fluke we got a DECwriter console.
Otherwise all third-party memory, controllers, and peripherals).

Thanks to everyone for the advice.  I was pretty frantic for a while,
and my boss was not impressed with my purchasing decisions.

-- Rex

p.s.  This message does not consitute endorsement of anything or anyone;
your mileage may vary; don't ask me for advice - I'm just as lost as you
are.