[Simh] PDP-6 and KA10 software kits

[Rich Alderson]

> Date: Tue, 7 May 2019 00:06:29 -0400
> From: Richard Cornwell <rich at sky-visions.com>
> 
> On Mon,  6 May 2019 23:52:00 -0400 (EDT)
> Rich Alderson <simh at alderson.users.panix.com> wrote:

>> WAITS never ran on a bare KA-10.  The PDP-6/KA-10, later the
>> PDP-6/KA-10/KL-10, then the KA-10/KL-10, and finally the bare KL-10,
>> were the SAIL WAITS systems. WAITS also ran on the Foonly F-1 at
>> CCRMA and a KL-10 at LLNL.

>   Define what you mean by bare KA-10. From what I can see early WAITS
>   ran on a KA10 with a custom IBM3330 disk interface. There appears to
>   be one version that ran on the KA10 that used the BBN pager. Note
>   Bruce's Javascript PDP10 appears to emulate a pretty standard KA10.

The KA-10 was always connected to the PDP-6 via shared memory as long as the
PDP-6 was in use (until the KA-10 and KL-10 were moved from the D. C. Power Lab
to Margaret Jacks Hall on the main quad).  In the sources, references to
processor P2 mean the PDP-6, until it was demoted to P3 and the KA became P2,
as the KL became the primary processor.

Yes, the KA-10 used the BBN pager.  We have it in Seattle.

The disk controller is irrelevant to which CPU(s) were in use.

>> (Having spent 4 years getting WAITS onto a KL-10 at the museum,
>> reading the source from top to bottom, I am quite confident of this
>> statement.)

>   If you can get me a copy of WAITS for KA10 I will give it a try.

Any pre-1974 WAITS.DMP will be KA/PDP-6 only.  Pick up the blob file, convert
the octal dump to binary, and you're good to go.

>> TENEX requires the BBN pager on the KA-10.

>    BBN pager support is in my simulator however it is not tested. I
>    have been unable to get TENEX to link, and don't think I have enough
>    pieces to actually build the thing.

>    Right now I have Tops 10 6.03 for both KA and KI (with VM), Tops
>    5.03 for KA. I should have a pretty complete 4.5/4.72 soon. Along
>    with a functional TSExec 1.4. Possibly also 3.19.

>    Once I get the PDP6 mods done I plan on adding the WAITS PMP disk
>    controller.

That will be fun.

                                                                Rich