On 23/09/22 10:22, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
I view the deadstart panel as a type of boot ROM, different from other boot ROMs only in that it's easy to change. It was tied to an I/O channel; the deadstart operation would run an I/O read operation on that channel to load the initial bits of code.
<pedantic>It wasn't tied to a channel, it forced the instructions into PP zero, which in turn interacted with the channel.</pedantic>
Otherwise, I pretty much agree with your original assertion; the 6000 and 7000 series had enough intelligence in the console to not need a traditional front panel; I'm also not sure given the architecture of those machines that things like single step or halt-and-inspect-or-deposit would make a lot of sense -- most of the heavy lifting is done by the virtual PPs with the CPU basically just doing math.
The 6000 and 7000 series had a crap-ton of lights, but they show up on the channel controllers. Hardware diagnostics weren't through the lights, but rather through the nine-zillion test points
I recall one FE unwedging a channel by applying a shorting plug to a TP. Fun times, fun times.
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