[Simh] Getting to the 780 console prompt

[Stephen Hoffman]

On Apr 24, 2009, at 18:35 , Robert Jarratt wrote:

> The reason I want to run diagnostics is because I am playing around  
> with an
> attempt to add a device to the 780 emulation and I want to see what  
> happens
> when something tries to use the device. I have very little  
> experience of so
> many things at this level that I am finding it a bit of a struggle  
> just to
> get anything to happen, and getting diagnostics to work might just  
> provide
> me with a bit more info.


Glad I asked the question, then.

The next question would be, well, which device are you working to  
emulate here?  It would be reasonable to assume one supported by one  
or more of the available diagnostics, of course.

Depending on the device and the diagnostic, some of these diagnostics  
can permit on-line testing; you could use various of the diags (more)  
directly.

Given it's an emulator, there's rather more flexibility around the  
particular hardware configuration and the OpenVMS VAX version, too.

(Why I remembered "EVRAC" is another discussion, but it made for a  
good search target.)

If you've not found this:

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/diag/VAX_Diagnostic_Supervisor_Users_Guide_Apr89.pdf

The other approach toward testing is to access the device from the  
host, using either an existing device driver, or a device driver  
you've written.

And there's a document around on adding to the simh emulation, though  
you've probably already gotten past that if you're starting to work  
with DS.