[Simh] PDP-11/70 action

[Johnny Billquist]

Ok. Information uploaded and can be viewed at 
http://psilo.update.uu.se/~bqt/front.html

A couple of comments on individual questions/topics asked about.

In general the LEDs looks almost overexposed. This is because I was 
running in a semi-dark room, since I was worried about how well the LEDs 
would be visible otherwise. I was also running a bit low on my phone 
battery, so I didn't do that many takes. The room was about 32 degrees 
celsius (did I mention we have a cooling problem?), so it was a bit 
uncomfortable after a few hours in there... :-)


Sytse asked about perceptual lightness of LEDs with some know software 
running. He suggested diagnostics, and particularly ZQMC, so I shot a 
video of the front panel with that running for a while.

Peter Viscarola and Mark Matlock asked about benchmarks, with Mark even 
providing some. So I ran those, and took a photo of the console terminal 
after I had run them. Note that while I tried to make sure the system 
was idle, it was still on the internet, and there was still sometimes 
things happening, so take the results with at least a small amount of 
interpretation.

Stephen Casner asked about the uADD/FPP display when at RSX IDLE 
(basically just executing a WAIT), and also provided a guess that it 
would look like 275 when idle. Got a video of that as well, and yes, for 
the low byte, which is the CPU uADDR, it do look like 275. The high byte 
is the FPP uADDR, which looks like a 3 all the time. No surprise that it 
was stable, considering that the FPP isn't exactly doing anything when 
you execute a WAIT. I forgot to check when the CPU was halted.

Terry asked about when HALT was down and one pulled the START switch, 
essentially doing an INIT of the system, so I shot a video of that as 
well. And the LEDs after this are the same as before, it would seem.



I might take another shot at playing with Magica before I go back to 
Switzerland. Let me know if there is anything in particular that anyone 
would like to get more tests on. But I can't promise I will manage to 
find the time.
Otherwise, my next session will be this summer.

   Johnny




On 2018-12-29 14:10, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> I'm going to be playing with Magica tonight. So if anyone wants some 
> specific test or thing done on a real PDP-11/70, including stuff on the 
> front panel, let me know in the next 12h or so, and I'll try to 
> accommodate.
> 
> I have some work of my own that I'll be doing as well. But since the 
> cooling system isn't working well, I can't leave her on for now. So it's 
> tonight only this time. (Hopefully we'll get the cooling sorted soon, 
> and then she'll be back online full time again.)
> 
>    Johnny
> 

-- 
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