[Simh] Deathrow OpenVMS SIMH Node.. Hosted by OpenVMS?

[Bill Korendyk]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your response.

On Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:13:06 -0500 "Hittner, David T (IT)" <david.hittner at ngc.com> wrote:
> Bill,
> 
> The reason you don't see any networking under OpenVMS Alpha is likely
> because you didn't install the VMS PCAP Execlet. I didn't see any
> reference to you doing so in the message below.

I believe the Execlet was installed; if I recall correctly, the 
behaviour and errors were very different before it was installed.
I'll check the next time I have a chance to work on this. In the
meantime, additional hints are welcome ;-)

> Regarding running SIMH VAX on OpenVMS Alpha: that would be a gross waste
> of the Alpha unless it had absolutely nothing else to do. The
> performance of SIMH on a recent PC will decimate SIMH performance on
> OpenVMS Alpha. Same for any Itegrity machines that you or I can afford.
> :-)

Hmm. I fear he doth exaggerate slightly :-)

> All Alphas were excellent then, but the lower-end ones are somewhat slow
> now compared to high-end PCs. Higher-end Alpha/Integrity machines might
> perform better, but still - SIMH really chews up single-stream CPU
> cycles, and a PC is much cheaper.

Yes, newer boxes are faster (and cheaper). But I already have the 
Alpha and wanted to avoid building and configuring (yet) another 
box needing care and attention, and adding to the power bill.
And since my "old" PCs are "really" old, buying a new PC for this 
task seemed silly with a perfectly good Alpha to use. SimH/VAX 
works fine (albeit off the network) and my benchmarks show it 
running as well as a smaller MicroVAX. 

So I find the SimH/VAX hosted on OpenVMS is adequate, especially 
for a hobbyist environment. Saves time and money, runs solid, 
responds well, and the process (unless very CPU-intensive) is
barely noticed (i.e. buried in all the other activity) on my 
lowly DS10 ;-)  I'd sure like to try it on an Integrity...

So, let's not offhand rule out OpenVMS as a SimH host shall we :-)

\bill
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     Bill Korendyk      Bill at korendyk.net    "Just call me Bill."
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         "Where am I going... and why am I in a handbasket?"
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