View source for Tektronix TekXPress XP338

== System Specifications & Linux Support ==

* '''CPU:''' [[IDT Riscore|IDT 79R3052E]] (MIPS [[R3000]] embedded core.  Big endian.  Should work using R3000 kernel option)
* '''RAM:''' 4MB standard, upgradeable to 52MB (mine has 16MB)
* Peripherals:
** 1x Ethernet Port (AUI and UTP) -- [http://www.amd.com/files/connectivitysolutions/networking/archivednetworking/14395.pdf AMD AM79C98 Chipset] (May be supported by DEPCA driver)
** 2x Serial Ports -- [http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/cgi-bin/pldb/pip/scc2692.html Philips SCC2692 Dual UART chipset] ([http://www-users.rwth-aachen.de/Michael.Mueller4/tekxp/patch-2.4.21-pre5-tekxp.gz Supported])
** 1x "ERGO" Port (Combined Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse -- see below)
* '''Video Chipset:''' Texas Instruments 34020 (main chip: [http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/smj34020a.html TI 34020AGBL-40], RAMDAC: [http://www.amiga-stuff.com/hardware/bt458.html Brooktree BT458LPJ135]) (GPU: Unknown, RamDAC: Supported in XFree86)

Note: Many of the errata docs for the listed chips are in PDF format.

== The "ERGO" Port ==

This port combines the keyboard, mouse and monitor into one single port.  The "ERGO Cable" that plugs into this port, provides 3 BNC connectors for the video (this box uses Sync-on-Green like SGI boxes do), and two PS2 sockets for the keyboard and mouse.

Parts Required:
* 2x PS/2 Sockets:  You may be able to purchase these -- I grabbed a dead ATX motherboard and took to it with a hacksaw.
* 1x DB15 female plug.
* 1x VGA 15pin female plug.
* About 30cm of cable (I used some headphone wire for the video signal wires, and a bit of CAT5e for the keyboard & mouse)

The wiring looks like this:

[[Image:Ergo_cable.png]]

Notes:

* If you hacked the PS/2 sockets off a motherboard like I did, you might find that the sockets share common Ground and +5V rails. (that is, a tracks connect pin 5 and pin 2 of both sockets together)  This is okay.
* If you'd prefer to use BNC connections, then do so.  It should be possible to substitute a BNC socket for each pair of connections on the VGA plug.

== Boot Monitor ==
The Boot Monitor is a built-in command line utility that provedes easy way to input boot commans. When the Boot Monitos is running and avaiting commands, the '''BOOT>''' prompt is displayed on the screen.

The NCD NCBridge Software [http://www.ncd.com/doc/REFERENC.PDF Reference Manual] is available at NCD's [http://www.ncd.com/doc/ documentation store]. Chapter 4 describes how to use Boot Monitor.

After initialization, Boot Monitor trying to get an IP address via [[BOOTP]]/[[DHCP]] and load OS (/xp330/os.330, an X-terminal software) via [[TFTP]].

The OS is a [[Wikipedia:Wind_River_Systems|Wind River]] [[Wikipedia:VxWorks|VxWorks]] v5.0.4 real-time OS. File format is big endian MIPS [[ECOFF]], ECOFF magic 0x160, load address is 0x80010000.

The API for Boot Monitor is unknown at present moment. Hardware addresses are unknown too...

Boot Monitor has a version signature at 0xBFC00004.

== Links ==

* [http://tekxp-linux.hopto.org Running Linux on TekXPress] Wiki.
* Page on AtomicDOC Wiki: http://atomicdoc.hopto.org/index.php/ULOS/Hardware/RISC/MIPS/Tektronix
* [http://www.technogoths.demon.co.uk/tekxp400/index.html Tektronix XP400 Guide], a next model, very close to XP330.

NCD have some software in the form of patches, accessible by anonymous ftp. There aren't any complete releases, but there are archives which contains much that is useful to be found in the ftp://ftp.ncd.com/pub/nwd/XpressWare/ directory.

== News ==

Went digging, it seems the AMD AM79C98 LAN controller is a cousin of the AM79C90 LAN controller which is supported by the DEPCA driver.  I don't know if this will work or not... but it's a hunch. :-)