[Simh] FYI Non-SimH Prime 50-Series emulator

[Phil Budne]

Via Classic Computers mailing list:

> Newsgroups: comp.sys.prime
> Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2020 08:34:13 -0700 (PDT)
> Message-ID: <0c560b91-35d2-4dcc-b859-a8eb4d22bd17 at googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Prime emulator source released on GitHub
> From: Jim Wilcoxson <prirun at gmail.com>
>
> Today, with much help from Dennis Boone, I'm releasing the Prime
> emulator source code on GitHub for non-commercial use.  This is the full
> version of the emulator running on Linux and supports:
>
> - all Prime CPU modes: 16S, 32S, 32R, 64R, 64V, 32I
> - all Prime models, from the P400 to P6550
> - up to 512MB of memory, depending on the Primos rev and CPU
> - a system console
> - 128 incoming telnet terminal connections
> - 8 disk controllers, 8 drives each
> - support for all 25 disk drives sold by Prime
> - a tape controller, 4 drives, using the .TAP format
> - a PNC controller emulating RingNet over TCP/IP
> - a bypass for Primos system serial number checks
> - Unix utilities to read/write physical tapes & Magsav tapes
>
> Dennis owns the emulator GitHub repo and has also kindly agreed to take
> over hosting of the public Prime emulators that have been online since
> 2008.  There are 7 public emulators running in a virtual Prime ring,
> allowing both remote terminal sessions (netlink) and remote disk access
> via PrimeNet.  The Prime emulator on Linux is currently running 45-55
> Prime MIPS in 64V mode.
>
> A wide range of Prime software is loaded on the public emulators:
>
> - ftn screaming fast Prime Fortran 66 compiler, written in assembler
> - f77 the not-so-screaming but full-featured Fortran '77 
> - pl1g the PL/I Subset G compiler
> - pl1 the full PL/I compiler
> - plp the original Prime systems language (like PL/I)
> - spl the 2nd generation Prime systems language
> - cc the C compiler written by Garth Conby of Pacer Software
> - pascal the Pascal compiler
> - modula Wirth's successor to Pascal
> - dbg Prime's source level debugger rivaling modern debuggers
> - pma the Prime assembler
> - basicv the Prime BASIC compiler
> - cobol the original Prime COBOL compiler
> - cbl the Prime COBOL '74 compiler
> - emacs the full screen editor still used by many today (me!)
> - midas the Prime indexed sequential file software
>
> This week we are working on releasing Prime disk images for all of the
> public emulators to make it easy for others to get their own Prime up
> and running.  For the truly adventurous who want to bootstrap their own
> Prime system, there are links in the emulator readme to Prime tape
> images at Bitsavers and to a large library of Prime manuals.
>
> I learned more about operating systems, compilers, concurrency, and
> other systems programming topics by reading Prime source code, making
> changes to Primos, and fiddling with Prime hardware, than I did from all
> of my college degree work.  I loved Prime computers, Prime software,
> Prime hardware, and the Prime Computer company, and am grateful to all
> of the former Prime engineers that provided this robust and interesting
> hardware and software platform.
>
> I hope you enjoy it too!   https://github.com/prirun
>
> Jim