[Simh] SIMH vax.ini fine tuning

[Arpadffy Zoltan]

Hello,

1. Thank you Mark for the new master version.
It builds perfect now:

virtual:~/SIMH/build-master/markpizz-simh-a280dd2 # make BIN/vax
if test ! -e BIN; then mkdir BIN; fi
gcc -std=c99 -U__STRICT_ANSI__ -g -I . -DUSE_NETWORK -DUSE_TAP_NETWORK -D_GNU_SOURCE -DSIM_ASYNCH_IO -DUSE_READER_THREAD  VAX/vax_cpu.c VAX/vax_cpu1.c VAX/vax_fpa.c VAX/vax_io.c VAX/vax_cis.c VAX/vax_octa.c  VAX/vax_cmode.c VAX/vax_mmu.c VAX/vax_stddev.c VAX/vax_sysdev.c VAX/vax_sys.c  VAX/vax_syscm.c VAX/vax_syslist.c PDP11/pdp11_rl.c PDP11/pdp11_rq.c PDP11/pdp11_ts.c PDP11/pdp11_dz.c PDP11/pdp11_lp.c PDP11/pdp11_tq.c PDP11/pdp11_xq.c PDP11/pdp11_ry.c PDP11/pdp11_vh.c PDP11/pdp11_cr.c PDP11/pdp11_io_lib.c scp.c sim_console.c sim_fio.c sim_timer.c sim_sock.c sim_tmxr.c sim_ether.c sim_tape.c sim_disk.c -DVM_VAX -DUSE_INT64 -DUSE_ADDR64 -I VAX -I PDP11  -o BIN/vax -lrt  -lpthread  -lpcap

I have added to vax.ini on Ultrix
set cpu idle=ULTRIX

and on VMS
set cpu idle=VMS

and here is the result on ULTRIX V4.5 (Rev. 47)

# uname -a
ULTRIX ultrix 4.5 0 VAX

sim> sh cpu
CPU, idle=ULTRIX, idle enabled, stability wait = 20s, minimum sleep resolution = 2ms, 256MB, HALT to console

...and VMS

$ sh sys /noproc
OpenVMS V7.3  on node VAX  20-SEP-2011 06:33:43.99  Uptime  0 01:02:01

sim> show cpu
CPU, idle=VMS, idle enabled, stability wait = 20s, minimum sleep resolution = 2ms, 256MB, HALT to console

...and indeed it works perfect for the VMS client
 PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 4815 root      30  10  323m  77m 5232 S   11  1.0   2:34.99 /root/SIMH/vms/bin/vax

but not for Ultrix. It keeps taking 100% of the CPU
 PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 4881 root      30  10  323m 264m 5228 R  100  3.5   7:24.84 /root/SIMH/ultrix/bin/vax

I have tried VMS and ALL parameters too. That did not help either on Ultrix client, while the VMS client was nicely running consuming just about 10-15 % of the CPU.
Mark, can I help you somehow to solve this idle issue with Ultrix client?

2.
>The boot setting are stored in the simulated NVRAM. Simh only updates
>this file when you exit Simh. Do NOT kill the Simh process without
>exiting cleanly.

Thank you Craig. This was my problem. I always killed the screen process and never exited from simh cleanly.
Now it boots as it should :)

Thank you very much for all help.

Regards,
Z

________________________________________
From: Mark Pizzolato - Info Comm [Mark at infocomm.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 1:44 AM
To: Arpadffy Zoltan; simh at trailing-edge.com
Cc: Mark Pizzolato - Info Comm
Subject: RE: SIMH vax.ini fine tuning

On Monday, September 19, 2011 at 1:21 PM, Arpadffy Zoltan wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am so happy that thanks to Mark's master build I finally have a stable
> system used through the network.
>
> ...but there are still some fine tuning issues that, unfortunately could not find
> any reference in the manuals.
>
> 1. what is the proper method enabling of the sim_idle_enab flag? I have
> tested the "set cpu idle" command but the CPU is still in 100% usage

The, as yet unreleased, code which you are now using has a different (I believe more robust) idle implementation for the VAX simulator.

I believe that the current code will work correctly on most host systems given a host clock tick which is less than 10ms.  The real issue is the minimum resolution on sleeping (1ms is good, 10ms isn't so good).  The current code has a more robust means of determining the minimum sleep resolution.

What version of Ultrix are you using?

You should be using:

   sim> set cpu idle=Ultrix

I just updated the code to display the minimum sleep resolution when you enter the command:
   sim> show cpu idle

Please try the latest version to display the minimum sleep interval and let me know your Ultrix version.

Once again, the URL for the tarball is:  https://github.com/markpizz/simh/tarball/master

Good Luck.

- Mark Pizzolato