On Wed, 22 Jan 2014 08:11:45 -0600 Mark Jenkins <m...@parit.ca> wrote:
> > Justin wrote: > > We have another member interested in retro computing. See if you can > > locate Adrian Stoness sometime. > > Adrian has a hobby kit PDP-11 that Heathkit put out. > http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/Heathkit-DEC-H11.htm > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit_H11 > I like how some hardware manufacturers are doing this, there's also newer versions of the Atari in form of the "Atari Coldfire Project": http://acp.atari.org/ > Fun facts about the CPU in this thing: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSI-11#LSI-11 > * The CPU is spread out on 4 integrated circuits > > * The CPU is microcoded (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode) > (presumably the microcode ROM is one of the ICs) > > * There's no firmware, but the CPU microcode has built-in support for > bootstraping from the paper tape reader *AND* has built-in support for > low-level debugging over RS232 in the form of reading/writing memory > addresses, starting execution at one, and instruction by instruction > step through. Back in the day this RS232 support was there so you could > attach a terminal to it, but these days it allows for much more awesome > sauce, you could program a PC to program the PDP-11 over the wire, > sparing much slow manual handling time. I was working on a program > loader in python for this once upon a time... > I've seen someone load a modern LISP machine on an old Apple ][ using the audio in/tape jack. They jump into the Monitor and run a command to load data compiled from a PC through an audio cable into the Apple ] ['s memory and executes it. That was a pretty cool hack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tey9sFqICSk Frankly it's fun to see what you can do with old vintage hardware, especially with modern technology to assist in the process. > And folks should never use Skullspace as a dumping ground for something > "cool" they think others "might" want. Who was the dumb-ass who dumped a > Sun Sparc on us a few months ago? > (apologies if someone said there were going to take it before it arrived > and then they abandoned it, the recipient would be the dumb-ass then) I bought a Sun Sparc station awhile back from SyroTech Industries to play around it, used it as a Linux workstation for awhile, then turned it into an OpenBSD router/firewall. > > It's good that you're into emulators. I'm also interested in programming > real retro computers, but I know that it's best to master them by > emulator first. This is where I left-off on PDP-11 stuff, I had a C > compiler tool chain up and running, was using SIMH, wrote some programs > that worked, but also was having trouble with some instructions. Never > did figure out from inspecting the assembly if it was the compiler or > the emulator, though I suspect the compiler. > In my opinion it's much easier to access and use a vintage system via an emulator/simulator than it is to obtain the physical hardware. Some of the original hardware is extremely rare, except for that ET cartridge, I hear you can just walk into a certain landfill and fill a bag full... Oh, and Mike, I see that you use Debian as well. :) We should compare system setups one-day. Here's a very cool piece of software I found in the Debian repository recently and absolutely love playing around with it: Package: netemul Section: net Maintainer: Lisandro Damián Nicanor Pérez Meyer <perezme...@gmail.com> Architecture: amd64 Version: 1.0.0-1 Filename: pool/main/n/netemul/netemul_1.0.0-1_amd64.deb Description: program for simulating computer networks NetEmul makes possible to build, configure networks and verify its availability. This program allows beginners to see the principles of operation of computer networks and gives a scope for experiments. Homepage: http://netemul.sourceforge.net/ Install with: apt-get install netemul I record an introduction video of Netemul here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYJTy53ndF8 -- Kevin <m...@iamkevin.ca> _______________________________________________ SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/
