Notes from meeting of Aug 26, 1997
(Dan Edmunds, Philippe Laurens, Jim Linnemann plus Dan Owen and Nikos remote)


NT and Unix (on DEC Alpha) are on a par for compiling and downloading Alpha
code,  except that you can't do remote, source level debugging from NT: only the
standard  DEC Unix debugger (DECladebug) can connect to and debug the remote
node.

Philippe will develop all TCC code needed for downloading binary information
from  TCC to VME memory space in the L2 crates.  Global and Cal will need to
supply translation routines, which implement the interface between the ASCII
file emitted by COOR and the data structures needed to guide the alpha
administrator and worker node(s).  The latter interface may be in C data
structures (usable online by TCC or in the simulator) and will need further
specification/translation as a VME-space memory map for online transfer to the
L2  Crates. This interface will have to compile/run both on TCC (i.e. Intel NT)
and  all platforms supported offline for the simulator.

The result is that code developers can do needed development happily on a dec
alpha running unix with a C compiler; there is no need for anyone else to become
an expert in NT and TCC-VME Interface programming.  This includes code
development  for the COOR-L2 interface and for the L2 Global and Cal online
alpha code.

Developing the download interfaces is becoming a high priority.  

Philippe will also now attempt to verify whether we have successfully downloaded
a program into the PC164 card, now that the Unix debugger is available.

Philippe has already purchased one complete set of Bit3 cards to implement the 
TCC->L2Crate Interface. This includes the dualport memory option used by TCC to 
retrieve monitoring information without disturbing the L2 Crate VME bus.

We need to decide whether we can make good use of the first U of M prototype
(which will lack the "Fred" port and the MBus non-block transfer input
functions), or whether we should wait for the "final" prototype with the full
functionality.

We will discuss further at Fermi this week purchasing VME crates and begin
thinking about how to purchase parts for Cal, especially if the MRI money is
used for that purpose.

Manuals for the Dec Alpha PC164 and related software are available on the DEC
web site, but hardcopies come with the (inexpensive) software development kit
package for the PC164 board; Philippe has hardcopies and Jim has downloaded most
of the files to his PC.