[Simh] Pdp8 terminals
Johnny Billquist
bqt at softjar.se
Wed Sep 7 14:54:30 EDT 2016
Hi.
On 2016-09-07 19:00, Ray Jewhurst wrote:
> My apologies. To be honest I am very ignorant about of the science of
> computers. I am disabled, cannot work but I am a total computer history
> buff. I want to learn and know and experience as much as I can and Simh
> is a major part of that. I want to help where I can so please excuse my
> occasionally confusion.
No worries. You never learn if you are afraid of making mistakes.
However, if you are not rather experienced writing code, I think that
implementing something like the VAX-11/782 might be quite a task... Not
to mention that I don't know where you'd find a version of VMS that
would support the machine.
Maybe find something a little simpler to start with? Like the talk about
expanding the PDP-8 to more generic support for devices than the current
implementation.
Johnny
>
>
> On Sep 7, 2016 12:46 PM, "Johnny Billquist" <bqt at softjar.se
> <mailto: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>
> <mailto: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 Tab® A
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com
> <mailto:ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
> <mailto: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>
> <mailto: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>
> <mailto: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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--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
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