[cctalk] CDC and IBM Schoonschip
Hi, As some of you may recall, a few years ago I asked for assistance reading a 9 track tape containing IBM S/360 source for Martinus Veltman's computer algebra program, Schoonschip (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoonschip). With Chuck's assistance, we recovered all the code from the tape. After working with the principals involved, I am pleased to announce that the source code is now publicly available at: https://vsys.physics.lsa.umich.edu/ Actually, I was always more interested in the original CDC 6600 source code, as that is the more historically significant code. While that was not contained on the 9 track tape, I did receive a copy from the Veltman family, and that is also available from the above website. I have limited experience with big iron, but I had very good success getting Schoonschip compiled and running on dtCyber. Veltman also provided example Schoonschip programs (YNGLING), and as far as I can tell they run perfectly in CDC Schoonschip on dtCyber. However, I have not been fully successful in getting IBM Schoonschip to run on hercules under OS/360 MVT. The main issue I had was that the Fortran part of Schoonschip uses REAL*16, which apparently requires the H extended Fortran compiler that does not seem to be freely available. I did patch the Fortran code to avoid extended precision and managed to get Schoonschip running, but it would sometimes crash on some input files. I do not know if that is a problem with my patches or an actual bug in the original code (as the IBM version of Schoonschip was still a work in progress at the time development stopped). In any case, anyone who is interested is welcome to have their own go at the code. The third evolution of Schoonschip (m68k code, which was written after Veltman came to the University of Michigan) is also available at the same website. - jim -- James T. Liu, Professor of Physics 3409 Randall Laboratory, 450 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1040 Tel: 734 763-4314Fax: 734 763-2213Email: jim...@umich.edu
[cctalk] Re: CDC and IBM Schoonschip
> On Apr 25, 2024, at 9:43 AM, James Liu via cctalk > wrote: > > Hi, > > As some of you may recall, a few years ago I asked for assistance > reading a 9 track tape containing IBM S/360 source for Martinus > Veltman's computer algebra program, Schoonschip > (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoonschip). With Chuck's assistance, > we recovered all the code from the tape. After working with the > principals involved, I am pleased to announce that the source code is > now publicly available at: >https://vsys.physics.lsa.umich.edu/ Neat. I vaguely remember that program name from long ago, though I haven't used it. (Part of why it's familiar is that it's a nice Dutch word hard to pronounce for most others... :-) ) I wonder how difficult it would be to port to a present-day compiler like gfortran. paul
[cctalk] Re: Z80 vs other microprocessors of the time.
Fred Cisin via cctalk [24/04/2024 02.06]: Did the Dimension 68000 (a multi-processor machine) have Z80 and 6502? Commodore 128 had Z80 and 6502 Z80 and 8502, actually. -- Hilsen Harald
[cctalk] Re: CDC and IBM Schoonschip
On Thu, Apr 25, 2024 at 9:54 AM Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > > Neat. I vaguely remember that program name from long ago, though I haven't > used it. (Part of why it's familiar is that it's a nice Dutch word hard to > pronounce for most others... :-) ) Done on purpose of course :-) > I wonder how difficult it would be to port to a present-day compiler like > gfortran. I think the code is mostly interesting for historical reasons. It was originally written mostly in COMPASS assembly with the Fortran handling input/output sort of stuff and then translated (in a somewhat unusual manner) into IBM BAL by Hugo Strubbe. Later, when Tini realized that the CDC mainframes were on their way out, he ported Schoonschip to m68k assembly. In fact, he wrote his own m68k toolchain (ie assembler and linker) in order to do so! Tini Veltman is probably best known for his work on dimensional regularization and the Standard Model which led to his Nobel Prize. However, he also had a computing side to him. Of course, he had his own way of doing things .. like not trusting any high level languages. He was apparently quite proud of optimizing his code for the CDC 6600. But tying Schoonschip to the bare metal is probably one of the main reasons it hasn't survived beyond an important historical milestone. - jim -- James T. Liu, Professor of Physics 3409 Randall Laboratory, 450 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1040 Tel: 734 763-4314Fax: 734 763-2213Email: jim...@umich.edu
[cctalk] Altair 8800 50th birthday...
Based on what I have read, along with a few discussions I have had with people involved in the early S-100 "scene" around now is the 50th birthday (or conception day) of the Altair 8800. Certainly, next year could properly be called its 50th birthday. Anyway, I'm thinking about "painting the show blue" with Altairs and IMSAIs for the next few vintage computer festivals. Anyone else interested? Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com
[cctalk] Re: CDC and IBM Schoonschip
Looking at the webpage for the CDC version, I noticed the comment about SB0 B0 vs. NO and the "lore" about the divide unit. That issue is reported in Thornton's book. It wouldn't surprise me if it were a real issue on the "preproduction serial number 3" system where that code was first created. It clearly was fixed soon after, though. In the 6600 block diagrams manual where the flow of the execution machinery is documented in detail, it's quite clear that NO does not do any functional unit reservations (but SB0 does). So at least starting with serial number 8, and possibly on earlier machines after suitable FCOs were applied, NO is indeed the preferred pass instruction. On the other hand, 30 bit pass has by convention been done with SB0 B0+0, suggesting it's faster to do that than to do two NO instructions. I guess that's right in the absence of increment unit conflicts: 3 minor cycles for the SB0 vs. 4 for the pair of NO instructions. paul
[cctalk] Charles Stross, replay the bubble of 1995, alt history plus retrocomp
Well, if you are into this kind of stuff (I am)... Stross is an s-f author, formerly a programmer (ages ago but I think it still shows - perhaps he secretly writes his own tools in Perl) and he has a blog. This time, he explores the idea that internet "bub" delivered on its promises, rather than sucking investors up. http www.antipope.org charlie/blog-static/2024/04/the-radiant-future-of-1995.html Of course, readers make comments, so it gets a bit more interesting. -- Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:tomasz_r...@bigfoot.com **
