Olaf,
The header line says it all: another panel for BlinkenBone is there, the
classic PDP-11/20.
In function and style it fills the gap between the PDP-8 and the later
PDP-11's.
Looks great! How does it hook into the simh code?
With the frontpanel API? (of which a very simple VAX example is shown in
frontpanel/FrontPanelTest.c )
The adapter to SimH is implemented as a "REALCONS" device, which is
coupled to the CPU type. Internal logic is designed to support multiple
devices, such as "frontpanel" API does.
"BlinkenBone" is years older (it began in SimH 3.8) than "frontpanel".
Both systems are neither trivial, nor compatible.
Writing a panel adapter does not just mean to access some internal SimH
variables. Older panels (like PDP-8) expose lot of signals on circuit
level which SimH does not emulate by default.
To get a feeling, see the sources at
https://github.com/j-hoppe/BlinkenBone.git
and check out
.../projects/02.3_simh.4.x.jh/src/PDP8/pdp8_cpu.c
.../projects/02.3_simh.4.x.jh/src/PDP8/pdp11_cpu.c
.../projects/02.3_simh.4.x.jh/src/REALCONS/*
Clearly "BlinkenBone" and "frontpanel" should be merged and get part of
mainstream SimH sources. But whenever there's spare time to work on
"BlinkenBone", it seems sexier to add another panel than to dive down
into that system programming hell.
Joerg
-Olaf.
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