Re: [Simh] Design considerations in the J11

[Alan Frisbie]

On 07/12/2020 10:48 AM, Don North wrote:


VS60 terminals running off DEC KL10 systems running TOPS-10 were used.


I love the VS60.  I acquired one (for free!) about 1985, but didn't have
room in my old house to bring everything together in one room.  Now that
I have moved to rural Oregon I have space for my vintage computer "museum",
and hope to get the VS60 together this winter so I can run Lunar Lander
again.  :-)

Anything you (or anyone) can tell me about the VS60 would be appreciated.

Alan "Lunatic" Frisbie

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Re: [Simh] Improved CRT simulation

[Alan Frisbie]

On 12/17/2018 05:08 PM, Tom Morris wrote:

> When the Computer Museum was in MR2, they definitely fired up Spacewar!
> for receptions and open houses.
>
> I think later on they hooked up an external controller to save wear
> and tear on the front panel switches, but originally you played
> standing shoulder to shoulder at the front panel switch register,
> peering to your right at the display off to the side.

After they moved to Museum Wharf in Boston, they had an emulator running
on, I think, a Mac, with a pair of hand-held controllers.   Visitors
could run it any time the museum was open.   Which leads to this story:

Sometime in the 1980s, I was in Boston with a day to kill, so I went to
the Computer Museum.   It was early in the day, and there were very few
people there.

I came to the Spacewar! display and found a young lad and his mother
playing the game.   The kid, as his kind typically do, was beating
his mother every game, not even giving her a chance.   It wasn't a
fair fight.

The mother eventually noticed me and asked, "Would you like to try
it?"   You could almost hear the pleading in her voice, "PLEASE!"
"Of course", I replied, and sat down.   The kid then "explained" the
game to me, while I bit my tongue and kept silent about his mistakes.

The first game ended badly for me.   My reflexes were rusty, and the
controller was unfamiliar.   "Would you like to try again?", the kid
asked.   "Sure", I replied, as images of Dirty Harry ran through my
mind.

When he pressed "Start", the old reflexes kicked in. TURN, THRUST,
FIRE!   The torpedo looped around the sun and up his tail before he
knew what hit him.   The look of shock on his face was priceless;
he had never had an adult beat him at any video game.   He wanted
a rematch.

The remaining games went the same way.  He couldn't understand how
an old fart was beating him every time.   I glanced at his mother,
who now had a big grin on her face -- her son was getting a taste
of his own medicine!

Eventually I tired of this and got up to leave.   As I walked away
down the hall, I turned to look over my shoulder.   The two of them
were standing there, side-by-side, staring at my receding back.
I could almost hear them saying the words from the end of many
Lone Ranger TV episodes, "Who WAS that masked man?"   :-)

Kid, if you ever read this, I apologize.   It was not a fair fight.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] MicroVAX 3900 simulator fails BIST sometimes?

[Alan Frisbie]

So I'm not alone!   I have seen the same thing, but since it
wasn't causing me any problems I didn't bother reporting it.

Alan Frisbie

On 06/23/2018 11:55 AM, Mark Pizzolato wrote:
> This problem is not unique to you.  I have not been able to
> reproduce the problem with enough debug information to track
> down the details of the cause.  The problem report relates
> to the boot ROM’s internal clock/timer diagnostic.  In all
> of my test cases, with debug information being gathered,
> Heisenberg effects mean that the problem is never seen.

> Robert Armstrong wrote
> > I’ve found that on occasion the MicroVAX 3900 simh will fail
> > the built in self test.   Just to be clear, this is the self
> > test that’s in the MicroVAX-III EPROM image that’s failing;
> > it’s not VMS.


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Re: [Simh] best way to scan 172 column fanfold 80s printout?

[Alan Frisbie]

On 02/11/2018 09:45 AM, Timothe Litt wrote:

> Scanning code is a bit different from scanning books.  Listings tend
> to have headers, footers, (tractor feed holes), notations - in some
> cases, assembly code or other columns - separate from the code.
> Plus lines and/or colored bars.

Back in 1972, the place I worked at had a large Xerox copier with a
tractor feed for copying this sort of listing.   You dialed in the
page height, and it would copy your entire fanfold listing automatically.
The glass was curved, so the tractors could be adjusted to hold the
paper firm against the glass.

After all this time I doubt that any of these still exist, unfortunately.
Also, it only did copying, not scanning.

On a slightly related note:

Years ago, at a customer site, they had an Burroughs accounting machine
which loaded programs from paper tape.   The service company had a
diagnostic paper tape which I very much wanted a copy of, but they would
not let it out of their sight for me to take home and copy.   My solution
was to put it on the photocopier -- 16 inches at a time -- and image
it.   After marking the overlaps, I trained one of the clerks to read
the holes and write the octal value next to it, then type them all into
a file.   I then took the file home and punched a new tape.   Of course,
there were errors, but by laying the new tape over the images, they were
quickly found and corrected.   I repaid the service technician by making
him a few spare copies.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] DECnet-DOS

[Alan Frisbie]

> A few days ago someone on the list was asking about DECnet-DOS. 
> Lo and behold, today someone came into my office after cleaning
> out an old office with the DECnet-DOS manuals and floppies, plus
> the PathWorks for DOS doc set.

And, by a remarkable coincidence, I just happen to have a
new-in-box DEPCA network adapter (with manual).   Any takers?

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] Problems install RSX-11M+ v4.6

[Alan Frisbie]

On 05/07/2017 01:21 PM, Ray Jewhurst wrote:


RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6  BL87 128.KW   System:"Baseline"
 >RED DU:=SY:
 >RED DU:=LB:
 >RED DU:=SP:
 >MOU DU0:"RSX11MPBL87"
 >@[2,54]BASTART.CMD
12:46:19  *** GENCheckpoint space allocation failure
12:46:19  *** GENCheckpoint space allocation failure
12:46:19  *** GENCheckpoint space allocation failure
12:46:19  *** GENCheckpoint space allocation failure
12:46:19  *** GENCheckpoint space allocation failure
12:46:19  *** GENCheckpoint space allocation failure



This means that the disk you are running from (DU0:) does not
have enough free space for RSX to allocate a checkpoint file.

Start over and tell SIMH to make DU0: (rq0) larger.   I would
suggest at least 32 MB if you plan to do anything useful with
the system.   Don't go above 500 MB, however, as the ODS-1 disk
structures can't handle anything that large.

Alan
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[Simh] "Raw" disk access

[Alan Frisbie]

I see in the SIMH v4.0 User's Guide that Windows and Linux hosts
can use raw (real, physical) disk drives.   Is there any chance
that that capability will show up for VMS hosts anytime soon?

It would make it a lot easier to move entire disk file structures
back and forth between my emulated (PDP-11) system and the host
(Alpha) system.

Thanks,
Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] EXT : Sounds

[Alan Frisbie]

> Ok, fans are not that interesting.  But consider disk drives,
> tape drives, paper puches, teletypes, keyboard clicks, terminal
> bells and beeps.  They all have their distinctive characteristics,
> and I'm sure some of them could throw people right into a fit of
> nostalgia.

At a 1980s DECUS symposium in Atlanta, a guy did vocal sound
effects of popular DEC gear: an RK05 seeking, a TE16 tape drive
unloading, etc.   He got them dead-on and the audience was roaring
with laughter.

Does anyone else remember this?

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] DEC Pro 350 Emulator

[Alan Frisbie]

On 06/04/2016 04:27 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:

On 2016-06-05 01:24, Al Kossow wrote:



On 6/4/16 3:57 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:

On 2016-06-04 23:50, Ray Jewhurst wrote:

Speaking of files for the Pro, most of what I've found are IMD format
which xhomer does not support. How difficult would it be to this
functionality?


I don't know what the IMD format is.


David Dunifield's Imagedisk
a source-available replacement for teledisk.


Oh. So it's just a tool that can understand the teledisk format files.

Anyway, unless people really want to recreate RX50 floppies, using a

> 1.2M IBM PC floppy drive, those images aren't really that useful anymore.
> For an emulator, you just want the contents of the files. If you want
> RX50s, you're probably better off trying to find a real RX50 to write
> the images.

I'm slightly confused now.   I want to recreate real RX50 floppies
so I can install DECnet in my real PRO-350.   Which format should I
be using?

Of course, I still need to get a real RX50 drive working again on
another system -- probably on my old MicroVAX-II with a RQDX3.

Thanks,
Alan Frisbie

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Re: [Simh] DEC Pro 350 Emulator

[Alan Frisbie]

On 06/04/2016 03:46 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:

On 2016-06-04 18:46, Alan Frisbie wrote:



Where "out there"?   I have a PRO-350 and an ethernet card,
and would very much like to put DECnet on it.   Can you (or
anyone else) help me find a distribution?



Alan, I thought everyone knew about the Update ftp site. :-)
ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/professional/

But like I said, these are all in teledisk format. I have them

> as plain image dumps as well, which I'll make available. Check
> ftp://p...@mim.update.uu.se/. Uploading them right now.

Thank you very much, I'll download them tonight.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] DEC Pro 350 Emulator

[Alan Frisbie]

On 06/04/2016 07:59 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:

On 2016-06-04 16:54, Sampsa Laine wrote:

Wait you can get DECnet running on this?


Yes. Of course.


How? :)


You just install it. P/OS DECnet is out there. It can use the ethernet

> (not implemented in Homer), or serial port (asynch. DDCMP).

Where "out there"?   I have a PRO-350 and an ethernet card,
and would very much like to put DECnet on it.   Can you (or
anyone else) help me find a distribution?

Thanks
Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] Question about card readers.

[Alan Frisbie]

On 05/26/2016 12:29 PM, Rich Alderson wrote:


A card is 80 columns wide.[1]  (OK, there were special purpose 51-, 60-, and
66-column cards, but the data on them would fit into 80 columns.)  There is
no way to put more than 80 columns of data onto a Hollerith card.

...  Rich

[1] OK, there are the Univac "90-column" cards, which are the same
 dimensions as the IBM Hollerith card.  They record 90 6-bit characters
 across 45 columns, upper and lower halves of the card.  The holes are
 circular and larger than the rectangular IBM holes.  They would have to
 be special-cased in SimH.


You are forgetting the late-in-the-game (1969) IBM 96-column cards that
used the little tiny holes in an almost square card.   They were used
on the IBM System/3 and perhaps others, but only had six bits per character
(upper case only).

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] TU-56

[Alan Frisbie]

On 03/24/2016 04:27 PM, Mark Pizzolato wrote:

If you've got a driver we can put someplace I'll be glad to add
the TC11/TU56 to the Unibus VAX simulators...


I found the driver and build files and will send them to you
shortly.   Please let us know where you make them available,
so I'm not a single point of failure.

Andy even added some additional error handling and related features
in 1992, long after most DECtape drives had been scrapped.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] RT-11 Storage Strategy

[Alan Frisbie]

On 02/17/2016 05:43 AM, Clem Cole wrote:


That said, if you used RK05's you certainly would be building a

> simulated Unibus system that was close to what many people had.

Not necessarily.   Don't forget the RKV11-D Q-Bus controller for
RK05 disks.   I have one here, with both an RK05J (removable)
and an RK05F (fixed).   I used it with my original LSI-11 before
finally upgrading to an 11/73.   I usually use them to run RT-11,
but have booted the RSX-11M v2.0 RK05 on it.

Alan Frisbie
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[Simh] Mark's mailbox full

[Alan Frisbie]

If anyone know how to get in touch with Mark Pizzolato
outside of email, please let him know that he has a disk
allocation failure:

 This is a report on the delivery status of your message.
 
   Message-ID:  15080716022951_...@slug.flying-disk.com
   Subject: Re: [Simh] Problem with default builds
 
   --Failed delivery to:
   Address: MARK+SIMH
   Status:  error writing !AS
 
 Reporting-MTA: dns;infocomm.com
 Arrival-Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2015 15:25:38 -0700
 
 Final-Recipient: x-local;MARK+SIMH
 Action: failed
 Status: 5.2.0 (Other or undefined mailbox status)
 Diagnostic-Code: x-local;error writing !AS
  %MAIL-W-WRITEERR, error writing $DISK3:[MARK.MAIL]MAIL.MAI
  -RMS-F-FUL, device full (insufficient space for allocation)
 Last-Attempt-Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2015 15:25:40 -0700

Thanks,
Alan Frisbie
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[Simh] Problem with default builds

[Alan Frisbie]

Another build error.   Unfortunately, I do not have the knowledge
to fix it myself.

Today, 6-Aug-2015, I downloaded the current simh-master.zip from
github.

My host is an Alpha XP1000 running VMS v8.4

Using MMK from the VMS Freeware 8 CD, I tried to do a default
build of all SIMH simulators.   All went well until the build of
ID16-AXP.OLB Library.   At that point I got the error:

{ DP, SWMASK ('F'), 9, 0x32, o_DP0, o_DPF },
^
%CC-E-NEEDCONSTEXPR, In the initializer for dboot_tab[1].sw,
sim_swmask(...) is not constant, but occurs in a context that requires a 
constant
expression.
at line number 318 in file 
DKA200:[FRISBIE.SIMH.SIMH-MASTER.INTERDATA]ID16_DBOOT.C;4
%MMK-F-ERRUPD, error status %X10B91262 occurred when updating
target SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB]ID16-AXP.OLB


The log of the build (with lots of successful stuff snipped)
follows below.

Thanks,
Alan Frisbie

--

$ unzip simh-master.zip
Archive:  DKA200:[FRISBIE.SIMH]SIMH-MASTER.ZIP;5
7c7b44e409f05751c960a614dbb1e2abde22da60
replace [.simh-master].gitattributes? [y]es, [n]o, [A]ll, [N]one, [r]ename: A

  inflating: [.simh-master].gitattributes
  inflating: [.simh-master].gitignore
  inflating: [.simh-master]0readmeAsynchIO.txt
  inflating: [.simh-master]0readme_39.txt
...
  inflating: [.simh-master.swtp6800.swtp6800]swtp6800mp-a2.ini
  inflating: [.simh-master.swtp6800.swtp6800]swtp_defs.h
  inflating: [.simh-master.swtp6800.swtp6800]swtp_swtbug_bin.h
$
$ set default [.simh-master]
$ $ set file/attri=rfm:stm makefile,*.mms,[...]*.c,[...]*.h,[...]*.txt
$
$ mmk
$!
$! Building The SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB]SIMH-NONET-AXP.OLB
Library.
$!
$ CC/DECC/PREF=ALL/DEBUG/OPT=(LEV=5)/ARCH=HOST 
/NEST=PRIMARY/NAME=(AS_IS,SHORT)/DEF=(_LA
RGEFILE,SIM_ASYNCH_IO=1)  /OBJ=SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB.BLD-AXP]
SYS$DISK:[]SIM_CONSOLE.C
,SYS$DISK:[]SIM_SOCK.C,SYS$DISK:[]SIM_TMXR.C,SYS$DISK:[]SIM_ETHER.C,SYS$DISK:[]SIM_TAPE.C,
SYS$DISK:[]SIM_FIO.C,SYS$DISK:[]SIM_TIMER.C,SYS$DISK:[]SIM_DISK.C,SYS$DISK:[]SIM_SERIAL.C,
SYS$DISK:[]SIM_VIDEO.C
$ IF (F$SEARCH(SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB]SIMH-NONET-AXP.OLB).EQS.)
THEN  LIBRARY/CREATE SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB]SIMH-NONET-AXP.OLB
$ LIBRARY/REPLACE SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB]SIMH-NONET-AXP.OLB
SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB.BLD-AXP]*.OBJ
$ DELETE/NOLOG/NOCONFIRM SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB.BLD-AXP]*.OBJ;*
$!
$! Building The SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB]ALTAIR-AXP.OLB Library.
...
...
$! IBM1130 done
$!
$! Building The SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LIB]ID16-AXP.OLB Library.
$!
$ CC/DECC/PREF=ALL/DEBUG/OPT=(LEV=5)/ARCH=HOST 
/NEST=PRIMARY/NAME=(AS_IS,SHORT)/INCL=(SYS
$DISK:[],SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA])/DEF=(_LARGEFILE,SIM_ASYNCH_IO=1) 
/OBJ=SYS$DISK:[.BIN.
VMS.LIB.BLD-AXP]
SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID16_CPU.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID16_SYS.C,SYS$DISK:
[.INTERDATA]ID_DP.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID_FD.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID_FP.C,SYS$DISK:[.I
NTERDATA]ID_IDC.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID_IO.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID_LP.C,SYS$DISK:[.INT
ERDATA]ID_MT.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID_PAS.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID_PT.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTER
DATA]ID_TT.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID_UVC.C,SYS$DISK:[.INTERDATA]ID16_DBOOT.C,SYS$DISK:[.IN
TERDATA]ID_TTP.C

{ DP, SWMASK ('F'), 9, 0x32, o_DP0, o_DPF },
^
%CC-E-NEEDCONSTEXPR, In the initializer for dboot_tab[1].sw,
sim_swmask(...) is not constant, but occurs in a context that requires a 
constant
expression.
at line number 318 in file 
DKA200:[FRISBIE.SIMH.SIMH-MASTER.INTERDATA]ID16_DBOOT.C;4
%MMK-F-ERRUPD, error status %X10B91262 occurred when updating target 
SYS$DISK:[.BIN.VMS.LI
B]ID16-AXP.OLB
$

--
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Re: [Simh] DEC floppy disk interleave questions

[Alan Frisbie]

On 07/16/2015 05:40 AM, Hans-Ulrich Hölscher wrote:

 if you want to image your disks and floppies for use with simh,
 there's an easy way to do it.  All you need is a (Micro-)VAX
 having the appropriate drive(s) running VMS.
 MOUNT/FOREIGN device-name
 COPY/LOG device-name yourimagename.img
 DISMOUNT device-name
 Don't worry about the error message at the end of the COPY process
 - that's normal, just that copy discovers the end of media.
 You get an image containing all the blocks of your device in
 logical order - VMS will take care of the device details.

That sounds like the really easy way to do it.   Does it copy
track 0 of RX01/02 floppies?

I finally got a MicroVAX 3300 up and running again.   Most of
my RF3x drives seem to have died while in storage.  Now I have
to see if any of the RX02 drives will still work.

 Will you make your images available?

Absolutely!   I'm still working on the 9-track tapes, after a
several-week pause due to my Alpha XP1000 dying and me taking
time out for a couple of all-weekend endurance races (24 Hours
of LeMons -- the fruit, not the town in France).

I plan to put all my DEC media images on CDs so I can easily
make copies.   Each tape/floppy image will be accompanied by a
text file with the label and other information, and a .JPG photo
of the media and label.   I've done about 300 tapes so far, of
which 82 are DEC.   I have another 300 or so to do.   I should
be done in a couple of months.

Alan Frisbie
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[Simh] Problem with reading tape with PDP-11 SIMH

[Alan Frisbie]

Before I dig too deeply into this problem, I thought I would ask
if anyone else has seen it, or has some insight.

I am running a relatively recent (mid-April) version of the
PDP-11 simulator on my Alphastation XP1000 with VMS v8.4.
The simulated PDP-11 is a copy of the physical 11/73 system
I had running RSX-11M v3.0 back in 1986.

So far, all simple things work just fine.

For instance, I can ATTACH a .TAP tape container file to SIMH
TS0, and read it (as RSX device MS0:) OK using FLX.   I can
also use DMP and other utilities to read the tape.

The problem comes when I try to run TPC on the RSX system to
create a container file.   Since I was the TPC maintainer back
then, I am confident that it works correctly (at least for this
purpose).   What appears to happen is that the first 16 or so
reads of the tape complete OK, and the data gets written to
the new container file on the disk.   However, nothing happens
after that.

If I abort TPC and dump the next record on the tape, it appears
to be about 16 records in from the start.   (I'll verify the
exact numbers next time).

From this, it looks like SIMH may not be handling the read
requests after the first burst, or may not be properly giving
completion interrupts to the PDP-11.   Remember, TPC was written
to move a tape drive as fast as possible, so it will stress any
emulator.

I hate to blame SIMH so quickly, particularly with so few solid
facts, but this system (at least on physical hardware) worked
perfectly.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions before I start a deep
dive into the code?

Thanks,
Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] Problem with reading tape with PDP-11 SIMH

[Alan Frisbie]

Mark,

 Please follow Timothe Litt's suggestion and get back to me with
 the minimal value of DEP TS TIME which produces reasonable
 results for the original TPC problem you saw.

Here are the results:

5000 - TPC works fine
2500 - TPC works fine
1800 - TPC works fine
1500 - TPC works fine, RSX reported tape drive errors
1350 - TPC works fine, RSX reported tape drive errors
1200 - TPC hangs
0- TPC hangs

To be safe, I think I'll use 2000 from now on when using TPC.

Thanks a lot for all the help.   It saved me a lot of
debugging and head scratching.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] Problem with reading tape with PDP-11 SIMH

[Alan Frisbie]

On 05/21/2015 11:34 AM, Mark Pizzolato - Info Comm wrote:

 I need a little more detail here.  I don’t know what the TPC
 program is, but from what you are saying it might be a program
 which reads a tape and creates a TPC format tape image.

Yes, that is exactly it.   It is the original RSX tape copy program,
and I was one of the authors, and primary maintainer in the 1980s,
along with Glenn Everhart.

 If so, I wonder why you're doing this?

I wanted to see if I could use it to read a TAP image of a tape
to disk (as a TPC container file), then write a new tape in
TPC format.   I think that a TAP-to-TPC conversion utility exists,
but this idea came to mind and I wanted to try it.

 Can you configure a TMSCP device on the simulator and in your OS
 (simh device TQ) and try the same activity?

Not with the SYSGEN configuration I have at the moment, but I plan
to SYSGEN an RSX-11M-Plus v4.6 system soon, so I will add it.

 If it works with TQ and doesn't with TS then your recipe is
 good and there probably is a simulation issue.

Good point, and I will try that.

 Does the TPC program merely use the normal OS device driver to
 manipulate the device, or does it attempt to directly mess with
 hardware?

Ordinary RSX QIO requests to the O/S.   It was designed to work
with both RSX-11D (and IAS) and RSX-11M.

 If the OS driver is being used, then the simulator will behave
 differently than real hardware in one significant way.  Since
 you are saying  TPC was written to move a tape drive as fast
 as possible, it would suggest to me that it attempts to queue
 multiple I/O concurrent requests to the driver.

That is exactly what TPC is doing.   It fires off as many asynchronous
I/Os as it has buffer space for, then enters a wait state.   As
each read operation completes, an AST (RSX Asynchronous System Trap)
routine writes it to disk, then fires off another tape read request.
It only exits the mainline wait state when the end of tape data is
detected.

 The difference with the simulator vs the real hardware is that,
 in general the TPC program may never get a chance to queue more
 than one I/O to the device since the first operation will likely
 complete BEFORE control returns to the user mode program.  This
 may stress the user mode program in ways which it never saw when
 real tape operations took many milliseconds (or seconds).

An excellent point, which I had not considered.   I will have to
do some exploration in this area.

 If this is happening, some adjustments to the behavior of the
 TS device can potentially be made to slow it down.  Try
 sim DEP TS TIME 5000 or change 5000 to some other large number
 (the default is 10).

I will try this and let you know what happens.

Thanks for the information and suggestions.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] Problem with reading tape with PDP-11 SIMH

[Alan Frisbie]

On 05/21/2015 12:47 PM, Mark Pizzolato - Info Comm wrote:

  sim set ts0 format=tpc
  sim show ts0
  TS0 not attached, write enabled, TPC format
  unlimited capacity
  sim attach -n ts0 newrsx11s.tpc
  File open error
  sim

Simh does not support writing tapes in TPC format.


Darn.   Can I attach a raw SCSI tape device (TSZ07 on an Alpha/VMS
system)?

Thanks,
Alan
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Re: [Simh] TSV05 on PDP-11/VAX

[Alan Frisbie]

 There is one key issue with your configuration:

 As soon as you specifically set a device address or vector you
 implicitly disable auto configuration of all device addresses and
 vectors.  So early in your configuration you set an address for
 the RQ device.  The address you set is the default
 auto-configuration address for the first MSCP controller so that
 isn't necessary.  Leave out that line.  Your second MSCP
 controller is not at the auto-configuration address for a
 secondary MSCP controller, so that will have to be handled
 separately (move device setup for devices with non-standard
 addresses to the end of your configuration).  The TS device is at
 the default auto-configuration address (and vector) so merely
 enable the device and DON'T set any address.  The RY device is at
 a non-standard auto-configuration address so move that section to
 the end of the configuration.  The LPT device is at the standard
 auto-configuration address for the first LPT device, so don't set
 address and vectors for this device.

That fixed the problem and I can now read tapes from MS0:.

Now if I can figure out why CON ONLINE ALL is taking such a
long time to execute...

Thanks a lot,
Alan Frisbie
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[Simh] TSV05 on PDP-11/VAX

[Alan Frisbie]

Is anyone sucessfully using the TSV05 (TS) device with the PDP-11
(or VAX) emulation?   In particular with RSX (device MS0:).
I am getting a not ready error from RSX when trying to access
the tape drive:

  $ mount/for ms0:
  MOU - device not ready

I'm just getting started with SIMH, and am trying to emulate
a 1986-vintage PDP-11 system I have.   One of the devices is
a TSV05 (actually a Dilog DQ132 and Cipher drive), so I am
using the SIMH TS device.   The CSR and vector are the defaults,
both in SIMH and the RSX-11M+ system.   It works fine on the
physical hardware, with XXDP, RT-11, RSX-11M, and RSX-11M+.

Here is the SIMH configuration info:

  sim show ts
  TS  address=17772520-17772523, no vector
  attached to dka300:[tpc_images.aef]108_AEF_WD_DRIVER_RSX.TPC,
  read only, write enabled, TPC format unlimited capacity

(As an aside, why does it display no vector, when the physical
device (and hopefully the emulation) uses a fixed vector of 224?)

And here is the display from the RSX CON utility (RSX-11M+ v3.0):

  $ con
  CONdisplay all for msa
  MSA CPA Online,Accpath,Driver
  CONdisplay attrib for msa
  MSA Csr=172522, Vector=000224, Pri=05, Urm=01

Note that the CSR is the *second* word of the device registers,
hence some occasional confusion.   This shows up below in the
debug log.

As I said above, I am getting a device not ready when I try
to access (MOUNT/FOREIGN) the drive.

To try and debug the problem, I turned on debug logging for the
TS device:

  sim set console debug=tsv05_debug.log
  Debug output to tsv05_debug.log
  sim set ts debug
  sim continue

and then tried to mount the tape again:

  $ mount/for ms0:
  MOU - device not ready

I then looked at the debug log:

---
  Debug output to tsv05_debug.log at Sun Apr 12 22:23:57 2015
  PDP-11 simulator V4.0-0 Betagit commit id: a7d0b0e3
  sim set ts debug
  sim continue
  DBG(17063457354) TS REG: ts_rd(PA=0x003FF552 [TSBA], access=0): 0x0080
  DBG(17063457428) TS REG: ts_rd(PA=0x003FF552 [TSBA], access=0): 0x0080
  DBG(17063457441) TS REG: ts_wr(PA=0x003FF550 [TSSR], access=2): 0xFBCC
  DBG(17063457451) TS REQ: STRT: cmd=GSTA, mod=0, buf=0, lnt=8, pos=0
  DBG(17063457451) TS REQ: CMPL: sta=156, tc=0, rfc=0, pos=0
  DBG(17076286488) TS REG: ts_rd(PA=0x003FF552 [TSBA], access=0): 0x0080
  DBG(17076286562) TS REG: ts_rd(PA=0x003FF552 [TSBA], access=0): 0x0080
  DBG(17076286575) TS REG: ts_wr(PA=0x003FF550 [TSSR], access=2): 0xFBCC
  DBG(17076286585) TS REQ: STRT: cmd=GSTA, mod=0, buf=0, lnt=8, pos=0
  DBG(17076286585) TS REQ: CMPL: sta=156, tc=0, rfc=0, pos=0

  Simulation stopped, PC: 026004 (BR 25752)
---

RSX is touching the registers and getting a response, but the
operation (Get Status) fails.

What I find odd is that it is calling register 0x003FF552
(17772522 octal) TSBA, and register 0x003FF550 (17772520 octal)
TSSR.   In the real world, 17772520 is the Bus Address (BA) and
17772522 is the CSR (SR).

I don't know if the debug output just has the names reversed, or
if PDP11_TS.C is actully emulating them backwards.   I don't know
enough C to understand what is happening, or how to determine
where the failure is occuring.

Or, of course, I could be doing something wrong and it is just
user error, not a SIMH problem.

Could someone give me a hand here?

Thanks,
Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] SDS 940 TSS bring-up update

[Alan Frisbie]

 At the end of this e-mail are my notes on the current project
 status. In summary, I have a nice running SDS 940 time sharing
 system with components to edit, assemble and link code.

This brings back fond memories of using the SDS 940 on Tymshare's
network back in 1968/1969.   In particular, I really liked the
QED editor.   It had some nice features for working over slow
TTY lines.

Among the stuff I'm cleaning out of my storage units is a box of
Tymshare manuals.   Needless to say, I am going to scan them for
Bitsavers.   Would you (or anyone else) like the hardcopies when
I'm done scanning them?

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] PCL-11?

[Alan Frisbie]

 Does anyone know anything about the PCL-11 communications stuff
 and have any plans to implement it?  I can't find too much about
 it in a quick 20-second look, others will likely fare better.

I used it on both PDP-11/44 (RSX-11M+) and VAX/780 (VMS) systems
back in the early 1980s.   I even had to work on the VMS device
driver so that DECnet would work.

Unfortunately, I don't have any of the documentation or code from
those projects.   Just the memory that Field Service had a
terrible time adjusting the PCL bus timing so that they would
work.   Those wide cables were not pleasant to work with.

If you have any specific questions, it might jog some dusty bits
loose in my mind.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] Database of PDP-11 diagnostics

[Alan Frisbie]

 a new database about all PDP-11 diagnostics went online this week:
 http://www.retrocmp.com/tools/pdp-11-diagnostic-database

 The database contains
 - a list of all known PDP-11 / MAINDEC / X11 / XXDP diagnostic modules
 - links to all kind of bitsavers files: manual pages, binary files, 
 media images, listing scans, file images, and indexes
 - a list of all tested devices

Wow!   This is fantastic.   Thank you (and everyone else who
made this possible) very much.   It is a valuable resource.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] Database of PDP-11 diagnostics

[Alan Frisbie]

 If anyone turns up any other listings that haven't been scanned,
 I would like to add them to bitsavers.

I just acquired a bunch of Q-bus related XXDP listings from the
family of a deceased friend.   Actually, I acquired two storage
units full of stuff.   I'll be going through it over the next
few months to make sure it all goes to a good home.   The guy
liked to make copies of every manual he owned, so there are lots
to go around.   I'll post a list to the SIMH mailing list, but
would appreciate other suggestions.

There is lots of hardware too.   Anyone need DHV11 cabinet kits?
There must be at least 30 Q-bus cards in nice anti-static boxes.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] Resurrecting the ARPAnet IMP

[Alan Frisbie]

 This summer a group of us worked together to resurrect the
 original ARPAnet IMP software, and I'm now happy to say that the
 IMP lives again in simulation.

That is so cool!   It brings back many memories of working
at SDC in Santa Monica back in the early 1970s.

One memorable item was the teletype listing posted on the wall
showing the interaction between Doctor and Parry.   I
don't recall the sites the two programs were running at, or
even if the connection between the two had a human in the loop,
but it was quite amusing to read.   Does anyone else remember
that?

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] PDP11 reset

[Alan Frisbie]

 2. boot routines should jam PS = 340, which is what is expected today.

 #2 is based on an examination of the official boot ROM listings. While 
 there may be paths through the boot ROMs that don't set PS = 340, the 
 primary path does that, and it is known to work with all the existing 
 boot ROMs in the simulator.

My memory is far from perfect, but I recall a problem with
the DEQNA boot ROM (internal to the DEQNA, not external ROM)
in which it did not set PS=340.   As I recall, it loaded and
then executed code in low memory (the vector area).   If a
clock tick occured before the boot code finished, it would
dispatch to somewhere out in the weeds.

This was from a project I did in 1982, so my memory of the
details may be faulty.   As I recall, we were using an LSI-11/23.
If necessary, I can search for my notes on that project.

Alan Frisbie

--
This e-mail is a natural hand made product.  The slight
variations in spelling and grammar enhance its individual
character and beauty and in no way are to be considered
flaws or defects.

--  Alan E. Frisbie   fris...@flying-disk.com
--  Flying Disk Systems, Inc.
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Re: [Simh] smallest pdp-11 that can run TECO and sockets(*)?

[Alan Frisbie]

 And people who know PDP-11s are asking them self smallest
 pdp-11,  what is that?

The smallest one I recall was put together by John Crowell,
and was based on an 11/21 Falcon board.   My memory is a
bit hazy (hey, it was 30 years ago!), but it had one or two
TU58 drives and ran RT-11 (anyone who knows John would not
be surprised by that).   Since it was used for collecting
data in the field, he called it the Field-11.

Somewhere in my archives I have a magazine article about it.

I'm sure there were even smaller ones based on the T-11 chip.

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] SimH V3.9-0 released

[Alan Frisbie]

 Two-plus years in the making! Hundreds of bug fixes!  Tens of 
 improvements! Yes, it's the long-awaited V3.9-0 of SimH.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!   I'm sure that I speak
for all SimH users when I express my gratitude to you for
keeping this project going.   Without your tireless efforts,
SimH would not be the excellent product it is today.

Again, thank you!

Alan Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] VMS 4.6 won't boot from a Massbus disk

[Alan Frisbie]

 What would be most useful would be a VMS 4.X source set, but up  
 until now, no one in the community has found one.  So here are some  
 questions and ideas for debugging this problem.

I have a VMS v4.0 source kit (9-track, 1600 bpi), but tape #3 (of
4) was damaged years ago.   It stuck to the head or capstan and
stretched a foot or so of tape.   I have heard good things about
Backup's error recovery, so perhaps if it were spliced, Backup
could recover the remainder.   What do you think?

I also have a copy (tape made from a disk) of a VMS v4.4
source kit.

None of these tapes have been on a drive in 20 years, so I
don't know if they are still readable.   I do have a 9-track
drive (TSZ07) on my Alpha, so I can at least give it a try.

From what I have heard about tapes from that era, the binder
is a problem and tapes should be baked before attempting
to read them.   I've never done this, so I would appreciate
expert advice before proceeding.

Alan Packrat Frisbie
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Re: [Simh] DECUS C

[Alan Frisbie]

 What's with all the multipart/alternative mail and base64
 encoded no less?

I certainly can't read it using VMS Mail.

Alan
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