Re: [Simh] Contributing to SimH

[Tim Stark]

Folks,

 > I am in the process of adding in help messages to my KA10 and Ibm7000
 > simulators. Once I get that in place I will put them up on github for
  > people to bug hunt before they get added into the main line. I have
  > added a RH10/RP04/5/6/7 controller but have not tested it. I all also
  > be adding a RH10/TM03 tape controller. I might eventually add support
  > for a KL10A (not the extended addressing). I am also willing to add
  > in support for the ITS pager to the KA10 if someone can gen me a
  > bootable image to test. Last time I tried to gen a ITS system it
  > failed with tons of Midas errors. 

  > I have also started to add the stuff in to the KA10 sim to support a
  > KI10, however there is not much software available. I need VMSER for
  > Tops 6.03 or a version of Tops 7.01. I will also eventually be
  > putting up older versions of Tops 10 that I have transcribed, I have
  > 4.5, 3.19, 3.5 and 1.4 (monitor only), along with Fortran 40. 

Good! I am looking toward KA/KI/KL code on SIMH emulator. I looked into
my 603A monitor sources and it does not have VMSER.MAC file! Other email
said that Rich Anderson has it for you. Can you send us VMSER.MAC file for 
603A monitor sources that is available on pdp10.trailing-edge.com? Also,
I would see your other TOPS-10 distro packages too. We still do not have 701 or
702 monitor sources/binary files that we are looking for many years.

Since last release of my old ts10 emulator, I implemented KL10B (extended
Addressing), IBM 360/370/390, and VAX 7000. I stopped developing it because
of cybersecurity at my work (can't access repository sites). Later I finally 
pulled
everything out of my work computer and put them on media. I brought it home.
I now have them on my home computer so that I can work on them on my own
time. With my IBM 370 emulation, I successfully loaded and run MVS 3.8 and
VM/370 operating system. Both are available on the Internet with source codes.

Also I have Jnet 3.5/3.6 software for OpenVMS that provides RSCS network
With IBM 370/390 mainframes. Also I found funetnje with source codes for
Linux operating system for transferring files in and out IBM and VAX emulators. 

I still am looking for old JNet 1.x/2.x packages and manuals. Does anyone
Have old JNet 1.x/2.x for old VMS operating systems and Alpha systems? 
With JNet software, we can communicate with sending messages and files
each other. For example:

$ send [@] 
$ send/file [@] 

I implemented VAX 7000 emulation (NVAX processor) that allows 3.5G memory
access (32-bit extended addressing).  I hit snag due to lack of documents about
two chips.  Later I finally found two documents about MC146818 RTC and 2681
DUART chip documents. 

I just started to work on my own new emulator from scratch right now. I am now 
Working on Alpha emulation for AlphaServer 400/600/800 (Advanti chipset).
Also I am now using git repository files and plan to set up Github repo page 
some
day.  I have FreeAXP emulator and successfully loaded and run OpenVMS Alpha.

Also I found out about HSC controller and VAX 8x00 emulations for SIMH on
Track9 website. I do not know when they would be out yet. I had not seen
MicroVAX 2000 emulation in SIMH source codes because track9 mentioned
MicroVAX 2000 emulator but only binary is available.  I found MicroVAX
2000 technical manuals.  Also, I want to see VCB02 or color graphics emulation
For MicroVAX and VAXstation. Current SIMH version have only monochrome
displays at this time.
 
Thanks!
Tim Stark

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Re: [Simh] Contributing to SimH

[Rich Alderson]

> Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 08:47:27 -0400
> From: Richard Cornwell 

>   I have also started to add the stuff in to the KA10 sim to support a
>   KI10, however there is not much software available. I need VMSER for
>   Tops 6.03 or a version of Tops 7.01. I will also eventually be
>   putting up older versions of Tops 10 that I have transcribed, I have
>   4.5, 3.19, 3.5 and 1.4 (monitor only), along with Fortran 40. 

We are running 6.03A on the 1070 at Living Computer Museum.  I typed in
VMSER.MAC from a printout of the 6.03A fiche (since it was nowhere to be
found in the wild).  The picture of Paul Allen, Robert Michaels, and me
in front of the KI on my Twitter page (Alderson_at_LCM) is from the long
night of debugging that followed.

I'm happy to send you a copy.

>   Bob also mentions CTSS, I put my CTSS sources up on Github and am in
>   the process of working on writing a new installer to possible solve
>   one of the issues with large directories on CTSS. The copy of CTSS I
>   have matches the original sources and will recompile itself producing
>   identical listings. I am however unsure of the original directory
>   structure, if anyone has any info as to how the source was kept,
>   please drop me a note. I will also slowly be putting up other
>   software that I have transcribed over the years. 

Have you asked Thom Van Vleck over at multicians.org?

Rich

P.S. It later turned out that we had it on an uncatalogued mag tape in the
 PGA collection.  Not a wasted effort, because I know way more than I
 ever thought I'd want to about KI/KL paging.


Rich Alderson, emeritus curator
Sr. Systems Engineer
Living Computer Museum
2245 1st Avenue S
Seattle, WA 98134

http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/
https://twitter.com/Alderson_at_LCM
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Re: [Simh] Contributing to SimH

[Richard Cornwell]

Hi,

On Thu, 12 May 2016 20:04:21 +1000
Nigel Williams  wrote:

> On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 5:29 PM, Bob Supnik  wrote:
> > I'm quite encouraged by recent developments, such as the HP 3000
> > simulator, the KA10/KI10 simulator, and the restoration of Unix
> > "v0" (PDP-7 Unix). But there's always more to do.
> 
> I'd like to toot Richard Cornwall's trumpet if I may as he produced a
> SimH implementation of the Burroughs B5500 - just for the record.
> 
> http://sky-visions.com/burroughs/index.html

  Thanks Nigel. 

  My new stuff will be available at my github soon.
  https://github.com/rcornwell

  I am in the process of adding in help messages to my KA10 and Ibm7000
  simulators. Once I get that in place I will put them up on github for
  people to bug hunt before they get added into the main line. I have
  added a RH10/RP04/5/6/7 controller but have not tested it. I all also
  be adding a RH10/TM03 tape controller. I might eventually add support
  for a KL10A (not the extended addressing). I am also willing to add
  in support for the ITS pager to the KA10 if someone can gen me a
  bootable image to test. Last time I tried to gen a ITS system it
  failed with tons of Midas errors. 

  I have also started to add the stuff in to the KA10 sim to support a
  KI10, however there is not much software available. I need VMSER for
  Tops 6.03 or a version of Tops 7.01. I will also eventually be
  putting up older versions of Tops 10 that I have transcribed, I have
  4.5, 3.19, 3.5 and 1.4 (monitor only), along with Fortran 40. 

> I do wish we could get better coverage of all the myriad of machines
> from the 1950s onwards to the late 1980s - truly the dawn of the
> computer age and the forerunner to the Internet age.

  I have some other sims in the works, however it will be a while
  before they are ready. 

  Bob also mentions CTSS, I put my CTSS sources up on Github and am in
  the process of working on writing a new installer to possible solve
  one of the issues with large directories on CTSS. The copy of CTSS I
  have matches the original sources and will recompile itself producing
  identical listings. I am however unsure of the original directory
  structure, if anyone has any info as to how the source was kept,
  please drop me a note. I will also slowly be putting up other
  software that I have transcribed over the years. 

Rich

-- 
==
Richard Cornwell
sky...@sky-visions.com
http://sky-visions.com
LinkedIn:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-cornwell-991076107
==

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Re: [Simh] Contributing to SimH

[Nigel Williams]

On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 5:29 PM, Bob Supnik  wrote:
> I'm quite encouraged by recent developments, such as the HP 3000 simulator,
> the KA10/KI10 simulator, and the restoration of Unix "v0" (PDP-7 Unix). But
> there's always more to do.

I'd like to toot Richard Cornwall's trumpet if I may as he produced a
SimH implementation of the Burroughs B5500 - just for the record.

http://sky-visions.com/burroughs/index.html

I do wish we could get better coverage of all the myriad of machines
from the 1950s onwards to the late 1980s - truly the dawn of the
computer age and the forerunner to the Internet age.
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[Simh] Contributing to SimH

[Bob Supnik]

Christian Gauger-Cosgrove's comment about contributing to SimH triggered a 
thought I'd like to share.

Not surprisingly, there has been a lot of focus on the systems many of us used 
in the past, like the PDP-11 and VAX, and on improving SimH's usability. 
However, the purpose of the project is to preserve historic systems and 
software through simulation. More than 40,000 different computers were designed 
before 2010, and SimH supports a couple of dozen. So anyone can contribute to 
SimH by:

1. Writing a new simulator.
2. Extending an existing simulator with new IO devices or models.
3. Debugging beta simulators that are not fully tested.
4. Debugging software that is available but not tested.

All of these activities tend to be well isolated from the core control package 
and libraries. Writing a new simulator is unlikely to break SimH.

Older machines tend to be simpler to simulate than recent ones, although if you 
go really far back (like the IBM 650), you may run into issues like plugboard 
programming that are difficult to understand, let alone simulate. Old software 
is invariably in assembly language, and if that is out of your comfort zone, 
debugging old software can be problematic.

Some random suggestions:

New simulators: Bendix G15 (software is available); Datacraft/Harris 24b 
systems (software is available); DG 32b systems (software licensing is a 
problem); Prime 16b and 32b systems.

New IO devices or models: KL10 (porting Ken Harrenstein's KLH10 to the SimH 
framework); other IBM 14XX models (for example, the 1440).

Debugging beta simulators: Sigma series.

Debugging software: SDS 940 timesharing; CTSS for the IBM 7094.

I'm quite encouraged by recent developments, such as the HP 3000 simulator, the KA10/KI10 
simulator, and the restoration of Unix "v0" (PDP-7 Unix). But there's always 
more to do.

/Bob Supnik

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