[Simh] EXT :Re: DEC Alpha Emulation

Fri Feb 2 20:44:33 EST 2018

Be careful.  The comment about many of the pci boards were only NT while that is true really is somewhat different.  For instance both vms an tru64 (and FreeBSD for that matter) will all boot and run fine with an Adaptec 1542 controller (the 500au in my office only had same in it)

The SPD never spoke of it because neither TruCluster nor VMScluster could properly do failover on them do to issues in the Adaptec microcode which they would not fix because the mass market never cared.  But the default controller for NT/Alpha was just that controller

I mention this because while the qLogic controller is the official one for getting simh running it is going to be a PITA and the Adaptec might be a better first start

Send me email offline if you want more info btw. 

Sent from my PDP-7 Running UNIX V0 expect things to be almost but not quite. 

> On Feb 2, 2018, at 4:06 PM, Hittner, David T [US] (MS) <david.hittner at ngc.com> wrote:
> 
> The Alpha target is the Digital Personal Workstation (PWS) 500au [codename: Miata], which qualifies as a single user workstation from a minimum licensing perspective.
> 
> Bob Supnik had one in his possession, and gave it to me to do comparisons. The Miata has both ARC and SRM firmware "full-flash", but the initial goal is to get SRM firmware to run OpenVMS and TRU64 using the serial console. Planned PCI boards are: DE500 ethernet, KZPAA(narrow) and KZP??(wide) SCSI disk/tape controllers, and the Digital PCI-to-PCI bridge which are all supported by every OS.  If someone writes a VGA controller in the future, it should be one supported by every OS, like the fairly basic S3 TRIO32/64+.
> 
> Windows NT support on ARC firmware could come later, but would require the VGA card emulation, unless you wanted to run NT "headless" over the serial port, which is allowed by the NT specification. ARC firmware is much harder due to having an x86 register emulator, and an INT 10 BIOS emulator, as well as running everything in 32-bit mode.
> 
> Yes, I would appreciate it if you would put something on your web page to have interested coders contact me. I could use the help.
> 
> Dave
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Zane Healy [mailto:healyzh at avanthar.com] 
> Sent: Friday, February 2, 2018 1:50 PM
> To: Hittner, David T [US] (MS) <david.hittner at ngc.com>
> Cc: "Vorländer, Martin" <MV at pdv-systeme.de>; SIMH <simh at trailing-edge.com>
> Subject: EXT :Re: [Simh] DEC Alpha Emulation
> 
> Thanks for the information Dave!  I’m glad to hear it’s still being worked on.  I can well imagine what a pain the firmware is, especially if you’re trying to support both the SRM and ARC firmware.  I wish I could help.  From my standpoint, getting SIMH to boot OpenVMS would be a big deal.  
> 
> Are you working to support a specific platform?  I’m curious since not every system supports SRM or ARC, and many of the PCI boards were only supported by Windows NT.
> 
> Would you like me to put a note on the webpage for anyone interested in helping to contact you via the SIMH mailing list?
> 
> Zane
> 
> 
>> On Feb 2, 2018, at 10:01 AM, Hittner, David T [US] (MS) <david.hittner at ngc.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Well, Migration Specialties is where the developer of ES40 went, anyway. :-)
>> 
>> I'm working on the SIMH Alpha simulator. It is quite a complex beast, where the firmware required to power up the system to the chevrons (>>>) is an operating system of small Linux complexity even before you can try to boot OpenVMS, TRU64 or WinNT.  I think the simulation currently runs some 56 billion instructions before encountering a missing hardware simulation, and it's nowhere near the chevrons - and hasn't even built the OS interface block or the FW-level device tables yet.
>> 
>> If anyone would like to help with the Alpha development, I wouldn't say no. It takes a long time to figure what the RISC firmware is trying to accomplish. :-)
>> 
>> Dave
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Simh [mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of Vorländer, Martin
>> Sent: Friday, February 2, 2018 3:16 AM
>> To: 'SIMH' <simh at trailing-edge.com>
>> Subject: EXT :Re: [Simh] DEC Alpha Emulation
>> 
>> Zane,
>> 
>> just had a look at your Alpha page, and noticed that you missed an emulator:
>> FreeAXP / Avanti from Migration Specialties, http://www.migrationspecialties.com/
>> This is where the ES40 emulator went, AFAIK.
>> 
>> cu,
>> Martin
>> 
>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>> Von: Simh [mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] Im Auftrag von Zane Healy
>> Gesendet: Freitag, 2. Februar 2018 05:56
>> An: SIMH <simh at trailing-edge.com>
>> Betreff: [Simh] DEC Alpha Emulation
>> 
>> I'm in the process of slowly updating my DEC Emulation website, which has been largely stagnant since 2007.  The first page I'm spending some significant time on is the DEC Alpha page, as I'm curious to see what the current options are.  In reviewing things, I notice that Alpha emulation was worked on at some point for SIMH (probably around 2006).  What is the current state of that work?  I had a quick google, and the most popular hit seems to be mirrored copies of my site. 
>> 
>> http://www.avanthar.com/healyzh/decemulation/Alpha.html
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Zane
>> 
>> 
>> 
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