[Simh] DEC Pro 350 Emulator

[Paul Koning]

> On Jun 3, 2016, at 8:07 PM, Tony Nicholson <tony.nicholson at computer.org> wrote:
> 
> ...
> I wasn't aware there was a version of RSTS for the Pro - is this available anywhere?

It was a "midnight project" as we used to call it.  I added Pro support to RSTS 9.3 or thereabouts, and merged it into 9.6 which found its way into the official source code base.  As a result, INIT will work on a Pro -- you can boot a floppy with INIT on it on a Pro, assuming of course it has the correct Pro-specific boot loader on it.  There's RSTS OS code as well but I don't think that made it into a shipping distribution.  I don't actually have recent kits, it would be interesting to check.  At one point I created a "delta distribution" -- 3 or 4 floppies which you can use to install Micro-RSTS on a Pro if you have a regular Micro-RSTS kit.  That was 9.6; I'd have to dig to find the pieces and I don't seem to have the full sources any longer.

Later on I moved much of that code to RSTS 10.1; that's basically operational but I didn't do the packaging again, and those changes didn't make it back into the official codebase.  I still don't have a CNA driver, which remains on the "to do" list.

The async DDCMP support that's in RSTS 10 (somewhat hidden) came from the Pro work; on the Pro it actually will run the comms port in sync mode if requested, and talk successfully to a DMR11.  That too needs some work for V10.1.  (I don't know how well known this is, but the comms port on a Pro is a USART, not a UART -- it supports both sync and async operation, including HDLC if you want though I've never used that.)

So the short answer is "not really" and the somewhat longer answer is "perhaps it could be".  

	paul

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