[Simh] Idling (was: several SIMH instances)

[Michael Unger]

On 2006-12-05 17:30, "Kevin Handy" wrote:

> Michael Unger wrote:
> 
>> [...]
>>
>>What about the situation when SIMH is started but an OS isn't booted
>>yet? I.e., is this code depending on a "counterpart" at the OS side?
>>
> Yes. If it doesn't see what it wants, it sucks CPU like
                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> crazy (100%), just like before. At the chevron prompt
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> ">>>", it uses 100% of the CPU time. Once VMS is
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> actually loaded, the idle code kicks in.

Why?? To run an OS (not limited to VMS at all) the BOOT command has to
be entered explicitely -- can't that be "monitored" to toggle a
"running" vs. "idle" state switch? Perhaps a similar mechanism could be
used to detect a "shutdown" of an OS.

> [...]
> 
> When VMS is doing something, it uses whatever host
> CPU resources it wants, but that is still usually less than
> 100%. (i.e. it idles while waiting for disks to respond.)

That's OK.

> [...]
> (And yes, I mentioned my problems and what I believe
> to be its cause on the development thread. Much
> discussion ensued.)

I haven't subscribed to the "developers" list so far. Is there a
(public) archive available?

Michael