[Simh] Re: SIMH on portable machines

[Greg Johnson]

Wow, that brings up memories of a discussion I was listening to at a
University way back in about 1980 or so....  Someone was predicting at
some time in the future a tech person would walk into a large computer
room full of huge expensive equipment -- all deadly silent --.  he would
come up to a small tape with some calculator sized boxes on it and say
'Oh, your cpu is broken', reach into his pocket, replace one of the
boxes and wa-la all the machinery would startup again...

(If you ever been in a computer room where everything is dead you know
what I mean by 'deadly silence' - really spooky....).

There was also a discussion about 'virus' programs running on large
corporate networks and people writting 'anti-bodies' software to combat
them.  This was *before* the 'internet' was well used outside of a few
sites.

Its truely amazing that what once would take an entire air-conditioned
computer room and all sorts of expensive equipment can now run on a
laptop or PDA.

BTW: I run the Vax simulator (VMS) on a laptop (3.2 Pentium IV with
hyperthreading).  Runs great.  Hope to get some of the other simulators
working as well (Interdata with an Interdata OS in particular...).  Just
for giggles - and I think its important to preserve some of the old systems
from the 'olden days'....

"Is that a VAX in your pocket or are you happy to see me?"

-- Greg
Kevin Handy wrote:

> ethan.dicks at icecube.wisc.edu wrote:
>
>>> A.Bucher at alcatel.de wrote:
>>> Small (simh)Vax is nice too!  I have a friend (slowly) running simh 
>>> on a
>>> HP/Compaq Handheld iPaq H5500 with Familiar Linux Distro --  about 85%
>>> the speed of 11/750.  It is scary to watch VMS boot on something about
>>> the size of a remote control for my television.
>>>   
>>
>>
>> I might be interested in that in the future (I might be getting some
>> flavor of PocketPC later this year)... what are the I/O options?  I take
>> it if one is on a wireless network or docked, one can telnet into 
>> SIMH and
>> log into the VAX?
>>
>> 85% of an 11/750 sounds like faster than 11/730 or MicroVAX-I speeds
>> (0.3-0.4 VUPs, where an 11/750 is nominally 0.6 VUPs)... fast 
>> enough... we
>> used to put a dozen users on an 11/730 for office work (MASS-11, VMS'
>> MAIL...)  Of course, our expectations were somewhat low, then (c. 1983)
>>
>> -ethan
>>  
>>
> Amusing to think up updating a data center from a large pile of
> Vax'n to a small pile of Handhelds. As visitors walk past
> the "Large Glass Window" (didn't everyone have one of these
> in the past), they can see a large room with numerous
> racks filled with assorted communucation equipment, power,
> magtape drives, etc.; all surrounding a small table with a  dozen
> PDA's and an ink-jet printer.
>
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