[cctalk] Re: Minicomputer front panel.

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Sep 23, 2022, at 1:09 PM, Joshua Rice via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> 
> wrote:
> 
> ...
> The Cray was often coupled witha DG nova for bootstrapping, which very much 
> did have a front panel on it. Indeed, many models of PDP-10 were bootstrapped 
> by PDP-11’s with front panels, even if the PDP-10 lacked one. The CDC Cyber 
> however, had “dead start” panels hidden behind shouding, which could be used 
> in a very similar way to a front panel.

I view the deadstart panel as a type of boot ROM, different from other boot 
ROMs only in that it's easy to change.  It was tied to an I/O channel; the 
deadstart operation would run an I/O read operation on that channel to load the 
initial bits of code.

It's definitely not a front panel in the usual sense of a set of controls that 
are used to interact with the machine while it is running.  It only comes into 
play when you hit the deadstart button to reset the whole machine back to its 
initial state.

        paul