[Simh] Proposed Nova subsystem update

[bsupnik at comcast.net]

A couple of thoughts.

1) The device names <are> DG devices names, not DEC device names - they are precisely the RDOS device names: DK, DP, MT, LPT, PTR, PTP, TTI, TTO, etc. (I would have used software names on the PDP-11 and VAX, but DEC's mapping from hardware name to software name is illogical and hard to remember.)

2) If a user prefers the hardware device names, the logical name facility allows the default names to be overridden.  They can even be preassigned.

3) I don't see the point of changing the module names, and I certainly wouldn't want to redo all the build files for merely aesthetic reasons.

4) Use of 'official' DG boot ROMs requires legal clearance, since all of those ROMs are copyrighted.  This is why all the PDP-11 boot ROMs are 'workalikes' rather than actual sources.  Is there any way to get clearance on DG firmware these days?

/Bob Supnik

> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 13:13:19 -0600
> From: "Bruce Ray" <bkr at WildHareComputers.com>
> Subject: [Simh] proposed Nova subsystem update
> To: <simh at trailing-edge.com>
> Message-ID: <138e01c7a613$40197c70$f181b044 at netgear>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> G'day SimH'ers -
> 
> I have worked on an update to the SimH Nova system and would like to get
> some feedback regarding the effort so far.  The 'update_2007-Jun-03.txt'
> file contains a full summary of the fixes, enhancements, to-do's and
> suggestions made to date.
> 
> The 'nova.zip' file (~100 KB) contains the files modified so far, and can be 
> accessed from:
> 
> http://www.wild-hare.com/tmp/nova.zip
> 
> 
> To quote from the .txt file...
> 
> "Proposed Nova system update to SimH 3.7
>  ---------------------------------------
>    2007-June-03 snapshot
>      Bruce Ray (BKR)
> 
> 
> The purpose of this update for the SimH Nova subsystem is to:
> 
>  - fix errors with current Nova implementation
>  - correct deficiencies and device inconsistencies
>  - add enhancements
>  - propose code/enhancements usable by all SimH CPUs
>  - make the Nova environment more "DG-ified"
> 
> This is a snapshot of 'work in progress' and is presented for
> comments, ridicule and suggestions by the SimH community.  The
> official update should be presented to SimH for consideration
> within a week... depending upon community feedback."
> 
> Bruce Ray
>