I believe it was a performance issue. The APL was so slow without the microcode assist that the system was unusable.
Lee C. On Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 8:22 AM Warner Losh <i...@bsdimp.com> wrote: > > > On Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 9:19 AM Lee Courtney via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > >> "Was Lee Courtney involved with the APL 3000 project?" - unfortunately no >> I >> was not. Just RTE on the 1000 and later MPE on PA-RISC. All I know is that >> there was microcode support required to run APL on Series II/III >> micro-architecture machines. That microcode was not moved to later >> micro-architectures (Series 3x, 4x, 6x, 7x) so there was no APL available. >> I don't think HP had enough customers using APL to justify the effort. Too >> bad because was an innovative APL. >> > > Why was microcode support required to make APL work? What did it enable > that couldn't be done in other ways? > > Thanks! > > Warner > > >> Stan Sieler et al are trying to get APL\3000 up and running on an emulated >> 3000 via SIMH. He's CC'd here and can comment. >> >> Al - it would be a Very Good Thing to get those APL ROMS dumped when >> possible. >> >> Lee Courtney >> >> On Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 6:04 AM Al Kossow via cctalk < >> cctalk@classiccmp.org> >> wrote: >> >> > On 9/16/20 5:30 AM, Rodney Brown via cctalk wrote: >> > >> > > It's possible that one of the SYSWCS64 files may match the assembly >> > listing on bitsavers, but that listing could allow guessing the >> > > architecture, assuming horizontal microcode and matching against the >> HP >> > 3000 stack machine instruction set it implements. >> > > >> > >> > I suspect the listing is for this machine >> > https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102691253 >> > >> > I remember looking at the microcode boards in it at one point, and it >> had >> > APL roms >> > Attempting to dump them isn't possible right now. >> > >> > Was Lee Courtney involved with the APL 3000 project? >> > >> > >> > >> >> -- >> Lee Courtney >> +1-650-704-3934 cell >> > -- Lee Courtney +1-650-704-3934 cell
