> On Jun 2, 2018, at 2:08 PM, Robert Armstrong via cctalk
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Tony Duell <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Incidentally, did DEC ever release any details (flowcharts, source listings,
>> etc) of the 11/730 microcode? And what about the control PROMs for the
>> memory system. The technical manual implies there was a listing of those,
>> but I've never found it.
>
> I thought that DEC had a whole microcode development suite for the 730 to
> support customer written extensions to the microcode, but I've never seen it
> nor any documentation for it. If such a thing did exist then I seriously
> doubt anybody ever bought it. The 730 was never a super popular machine to
> start with, and the market for a customized version would have been very
> small.
>
> I've heard a persistent rumor over the years that the WPS/8 and PDP-8
> software group at DEC had modified the 730's microcode to support a PDP-8
> emulation of some kind, and that they used that internally for development
> 'cause it was faster than a real -8. I've not idea if that's true, but it
> would be cool if they did. And no, I'm not talking about PDP-11
> compatibility mode - even the stock 730 had that (all the 7xx VAXes did, I
> believe).
>
That would be Ritchie Lary’s microcode implementation for the PDP-11/60
with WCS.
John.
> Certainly if you had the right tools and the right knowledge, it would have
> been easy to modify and replace the 730's microcode with something of your
> own. Just copy the binary images to the console tape and reboot.
>
> Bob
>
