Re: [Simh] SimH and multi-core host processors
On Wed, 15 Jul 2015 13:01:49 -0700 Mark Pizzolato - Info Comm m...@infocomm.com wrote: On Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 11:14 AM, li...@openmailbox.org wrote: On Wed, 15 Jul 2015 10:21:20 -0700 Mark Pizzolato - Info Comm m...@infocomm.com wrote: Simh v3.8-1 did not detect idle for OpenBSD operating systems. The latest github codebase does. Throttling will probably not be necessary anywhere. Oh that is great news. When will this hit release? Or does that concept not apply? I know it's been a while since the last official release. Given the fact that the current code state is visible to all in the github repo, the need for formal releases is significantly lessened. Yes, I was thinking maybe the concept of an official release didn't apply but I wanted to ask because I didn't know whether the development sources were subject to breakage or not. You clarified that: The current code is in the best state almost all of the time. Great news. I'll use that from now on then. Issues raised in the github issue system (https://github.com/simh/simh/issues) or here on the simh list often are fixed quickly and the best code is then available to all. Thanks to you and everybody working on and contributing to SIMH. It's one of the few truly portable pieces of code I've seen in a while! -- Please DO NOT COPY ME on mailing list replies. I read the mailing list. RSA 4096 fingerprint 7940 3F02 16D3 AFEE F2F8 ACAA 557C 4B36 98E4 4D49 ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] vector images
Il 16/07/2015 01:12, Kevin Handy ha scritto: I was curious about the vector imges (for altairz80), but the only copy I can find is in a Microsoft install format. However, I don't have a spare windows machine to try unpacking this on. Anyone have copies that are not embedded in a Microsoft install file? I tried extracting them from the file, but ended up with a large number of files with horrible names and no way to translate them. I'm not sure of what you mean with vector images (for altairz80) but perhaps a look on Mr. Schorn itself's page on altairz80 can help, for example, at the end of this one: http://schorn.ch/altair_5.php Best regards from Italy, dott. Piergiorgio. ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] DEC floppy disk interleave questions
On 07/16/2015 05:40 AM, Hans-Ulrich Hölscher wrote: if you want to image your disks and floppies for use with simh, there's an easy way to do it. All you need is a (Micro-)VAX having the appropriate drive(s) running VMS. MOUNT/FOREIGN device-name COPY/LOG device-name yourimagename.img DISMOUNT device-name Don't worry about the error message at the end of the COPY process - that's normal, just that copy discovers the end of media. You get an image containing all the blocks of your device in logical order - VMS will take care of the device details. That sounds like the really easy way to do it. Does it copy track 0 of RX01/02 floppies? I finally got a MicroVAX 3300 up and running again. Most of my RF3x drives seem to have died while in storage. Now I have to see if any of the RX02 drives will still work. Will you make your images available? Absolutely! I'm still working on the 9-track tapes, after a several-week pause due to my Alpha XP1000 dying and me taking time out for a couple of all-weekend endurance races (24 Hours of LeMons -- the fruit, not the town in France). I plan to put all my DEC media images on CDs so I can easily make copies. Each tape/floppy image will be accompanied by a text file with the label and other information, and a .JPG photo of the media and label. I've done about 300 tapes so far, of which 82 are DEC. I have another 300 or so to do. I should be done in a couple of months. Alan Frisbie ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] DEC floppy disk interleave questions
Dying RFxx disks might be due to failure of FLASH memory in the controllers (either onboard the CPU or external chips). The charge in the memory cells in FLASH memory chips doesn't last forever, and slowly bleeds away. Early devices could fail after 10 years. Newer FLASH parts are better, but the lifetime is not infinite like it was with PROMs/EPROMs. The folks at CMU and LSI Corp wrote a good article about this: http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~omutlu/pub/flash-memory-data-retention_hpca15.pdf And to Alan's floppy archiving plans - Just remember to regularly refresh your CD collection. Those CD-R disks don't last forever either! If it was me, I'd be creating at least two copies. Cheers Jason -Original Message- From: Simh [mailto:simh-boun...@trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of Hans-Ulrich Hölscher Sent: Thursday, 16 July 2015 9:16 AM To: simh@trailing-edge.com Subject: [Simh] DEC floppy disk interleave questions if you want to image your disks and floppies for use with simh, there's an easy way to do it. All you need is a (Micro-)VAX having the appropriate drive(s) running VMS. MOUNT/FOREIGN COPY/LOG yourimagename.img DISMOUNT Don't worry about the error message at the end of the COPY process - that's normal, just that copy discovers the end of media. You get an image containing all the blocks of your device in logical order - VMS will take care of the device details. That sounds like the really easy way to do it. Does it copy track 0 of RX01/02 floppies? Every bit that is readable normally from VMS, hiding only strange sector orders and bad block information. Images from bootable devices are bootable within simh (as long as there's a suitable bootable simh device) I finally got a MicroVAX 3300 up and running again. Most of my RF3x drives seem to have died while in storage. Now I have to see if any of the RX02 drives will still work. So are my RF3xs :-(( My DSSI-VAXen run on HSD coupled RZ disks in BA350 boxes now. Will you make your images available? Absolutely! I'm still working on the 9-track tapes, after a several-week pause due to my Alpha XP1000 dying and me taking time out for a couple of all-weekend endurance races (24 Hours of LeMons -- the fruit, not the town in France). I plan to put all my DEC media images on CDs so I can easily make copies. Each tape/floppy image will be accompanied by a text file with the label and other information, and a .JPG photo of the media and label. I've done about 300 tapes so far, of which 82 are DEC. I have another 300 or so to do. I should be done in a couple of months. I'm very keen on your software pool, many thanks for preserving it! As you probably know I'm mainly after old VMS software (everything pre VMS V5) Regards Ulli --- Alle Postfächer an einem Ort. Jetzt wechseln und E-Mail-Adresse mitnehmen! http://email.freenet.de/basic/Informationen ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] DEC floppy disk interleave questions
On Thu, 16 Jul 2015 07:53:44 -0700, Alan Frisbie fris...@flying-disk.com wrote: On 07/16/2015 05:40 AM, Hans-Ulrich Hölscher wrote: if you want to image your disks and floppies for use with simh, there's an easy way to do it. All you need is a (Micro-)VAX having the appropriate drive(s) running VMS. MOUNT/FOREIGN device-name COPY/LOG device-name yourimagename.img DISMOUNT device-name Don't worry about the error message at the end of the COPY process - that's normal, just that copy discovers the end of media. You get an image containing all the blocks of your device in logical order - VMS will take care of the device details. That sounds like the really easy way to do it. Does it copy track 0 of RX01/02 floppies? I had some experience with RX01/02 floppies when reviving LSX using logical copies of the disks. Track 0 will be logically at the very end. The problem is with media size 256256: if the logical block size is 512, two physical 128-byte sectors (the boot sectors) will be lost, and the logical copy will be 256000 bytes long. Leo ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] vector images
Many companies builf computers that  used this operating system, like the altair, imsai, osborne, kaypro, and vector graPhics to name a few. Many years later, the rimh altairz80 emulator was written with the abiliry ro emulate the vector graphic machines, but the only copy of the necessary config and disk images was wrapped up in a miceosoft install file called setup.msi. 1. Vector Graphic, no s. 2. Most of the stuff in the altairz80 kits is probably available from vector-archive.org. De ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] vector images
Long ago, there was an ooerating system for intel 8080 based machines called cpm. Many companies builf computers that used this operating system, like the altair, imsai, osborne, kaypro, and vector graPhics to name a few. Many years later, the rimh altairz80 emulator was written with the abiliry ro emulate the vector graphic machines, but the only copy of the necessary config and disk images was wrapped up in a miceosoft install file called setup.msi. This file format requires a microsoft windoes setup to extract the files into a ubable form, whike installing many extra libraries ans applications sure to render your windiws machine unusable. What I would like is to get the disk images and config files witgout sacrificing a windows machine, which I would gave to borroe ftom an unsuspecting victim. The install file setup.msi was found by following the instructions in the altairz80 manual. Original message From pigi dott.piergior...@gmail.com Date: 07/16/2015 1:56 AM (GMT-07:00) To simh@trailing-edge.com Subject Re: [Simh] vector images Il 16/07/2015 01:12, Kevin Handy ha scritto: I was curious about the vector imges (for altairz80), but the only copy I can find is in a Microsoft install format. However, I don't have a spare windows machine to try unpacking this on. Anyone have copies that are not embedded in a Microsoft install file? I tried extracting them from the file, but ended up with a large number of files with horrible names and no way to translate them. I'm not sure of what you mean with vector images (for altairz80) but perhaps a look on Mr. Schorn itself's page on altairz80 can help, for example, at the end of this one: http://schorn.ch/altair_5.php Best regards from Italy, dott. Piergiorgio. ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
