[Simh] Pdp8 terminals
Christian Brunschen
christian at brunschen.com
Wed Sep 7 13:03:32 EDT 2016
An SMP Implementation - A Retrospective by James M. Flemming
and Christopher A. Beute
<http://www.brunschen.com/christian/VaxUnixSMP.html> may be interesting in
the context.
// Christian
On 7 September 2016 at 17:45, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
> The 11/782 are no more asynchronous than any multiprocessor system.
>
> The A in ASMP stands for assymetric. As in, the second processor did not
> run any kernel code, but is a slave processor to the primary processor. It
> gets scheduled with user-land code to run, but any trapping to the OS means
> it interrupts the main processor, who do all the work.
>
> Johnny
>
> On 2016-09-07 18:23, Ray Jewhurst wrote:
>
>> I think you are like I am. I would like to see every DEC simulator
>> possible. Right now I am doing some preliminary research into the
>> feasibility of a VAX 11/782 which is an asynchronous dual processor
>> 11/780. I will need help because I am not a real experienced coder.
>>
>>
>> On Sep 6, 2016 8:21 PM, "khandy21yo" <khandy21yo at gmail.com
>> <mailto:khandy21yo at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Just curious,. Is there any thought about emulating any of the Dec
>> mate Line? I used to deal with them, mostly as wps8. I don't know
>> what the hardware differences are, but I saw a large number of Dec
>> mates and only a few pdp8s. How compatible were they?
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my Galaxy TabĀ® A
>>
>> -------- Original message --------
>> From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com
>> <mailto:ethan.dicks at gmail.com>>
>> Date: 9/6/16 5:00 PM (GMT-07:00)
>> To: simh at trailing-edge.com <mailto:simh at trailing-edge.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Simh] Pdp8 terminals
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 1:03 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se
>> <mailto:bqt at softjar.se>> wrote:
>> > Hi.
>> >
>> > On 2016-09-06 18:55, Bob Supnik wrote:
>> >>
>> >> The PDP8 simulator is more or less a PDP8/A, and its terminal
>> >> "multiplexor" is a KL8-JA, which implements four discrete KL8A
>> style
>> >> interfaces. These are superset compatible with the PDP8/I's PT08
>> >> discrete interfaces, and thus TSS/8 will work. Note that TSS/8
>> supports
>> >> only four discrete terminal interfaces. To get more than four
>> lines, the
>> >> configuration must have a DC08(A), a multiplexor for the PDP8/I.
>> The
>> >> DC08(A) is not implemented at the moment.
>> >
>> >
>> > This can't be correct.
>> >
>> > The KL8JA is a single line interface, compatible with the KL8E,
>> but using
>> > different hardware. You can add lots of KL8E or KL8JA interfaces
>> to a PDP8,
>> > if you wanted to. Each have a different device code, and that's
>> all there is
>> > to it. (Talking about the actual hardware here.) In addition, as
>> far as I am
>> > aware, the programming of these interfaces are pretty much the
>> same as the
>> > console interface on all other PDP-8 models as well.
>> >
>> > The KL8A was a very late device for Omnibus, which require a hex
>> wide box.
>> > It is a 4 line multiplexor, but the programming interface is
>> nothing like
>> > the KL8JA or KL8E. In addition, not all lines are the same. And
>> again, you
>> > can add several of these multiplexers to a machine, if you want to.
>>
>> Agreed... here are the handle numbers to help clarify what we are all
>> talking about...
>>
>> M8319 KL8A PDP-8/A 4 channel serial I/O
>>
>> M8650 KL8E Asynchronous Data Control (current loop or RS232)
>> M8655 KL8JA Terminal Control (UART based substitute for M8650)
>>
>>
>> The KL8E and KL8JA are, AFAIK, not easy (or not possible?) to tell
>> apart in software. The KL8A is entirely different - the only time
>> I've ever used my KL8A was with RTS-8. I'm not sure I have any OS/8
>> code that knows how to talk to it. If it's out there, I'd love to
>> read it.
>>
>> >> There was a significant evolution in the PDP8 family's IO
>> controllers
>> >> from the original 8 and 8/I to the Omnibus-based 8/E and 8/A.
>>
>> Very true. I have a bunch of the real hardware spanning the entire
>> era and, yeah, Omnibus devices and pre-Omnibus devices are commonly
>> different (I think the console 03/04 interface is, up to the DECmate
>> era, the most compatible across the spectrum).
>>
>> -ethan
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