I'm reposting this announcement from Jim Wilcoxson.
De
Newsgroups: comp.sys.prime
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2020 08:34:13 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <0c560b91-35d2-4dcc-b859-a8eb4d22b...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Prime emulator source released on GitHub
From: Jim Wilcoxson
Today, with much help fro
For those interested in playing with Jim's emulator, a few resources:
Bitsavers has some doco and bits:
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/prime/
http://bitsavers.org/bits/Prime/
I have been assembling what I hope will be the definitive Prime info
site. It's not complete, but contains manuals scanned by,
> something appeared to get stuck in a loop, displaying:
> Press Enter to continue, h to halt...
> over and over again. I eventually resorted to killing the emulator.
> It took a kill -9 to get it to end. In case it gives any clues,
> after killing it the error.log contained:
I've see
> [CPBOOT Rev. 19.0 Copyright (c) 1990, Prime Computer, Inc.]=20=20
> [BOOT Rev. 23.4 Copyright (c) 1993, Computervision Corp.]
> RUN FILE TREENAME=3Dmake.save
> BOOTING FROM MT0make.save
> MAKECopyright (c) 1991, Prime Computer, Inc.
> Enter command line options: -d
> That might have worked. There were some prompt differences in the next
> section compared to the install guide:
> Partition CMDDEV created successfully.
Yup, looks good.
Background: there were some changes from rev to rev of the options to
MAKE. E.g. some abbreviations changed or appe
> I think I'm making progress. I don't know if I've encountered an
> emulator issue, or if the primos_22.1.4_1of3.tap tape image from
> Bitsavers is bad. I didn't encounter any errors unzipping the zip
> archive it was in. When restoring logical tape number 2 from it, I
> got an MT read err
> I think I'm making progress. I don't know if I've encountered an
> emulator issue, or if the primos_22.1.4_1of3.tap tape image from
> Bitsavers is bad. I didn't encounter any errors unzipping the zip
> archive it was in. When restoring logical tape number 2 from it, I
> got an MT read err
A set of sample system images derived from the public emulators can be
downloaded from https://yagi.h-net.org/p50em_samplemachines.tar.gz to
get you started. The tarball is 309078820 bytes, and its sha256sum is
8fe261f7a9f19e9fab2814371387f9cef5c64161fe7cf4bdc542144202678ca9. We
may rebuild thes
> OK,CO SYSTEM>ED.SHARE.COMI 7 /* Share ED editor
> Not found. (CO)
> ER!
To continue through to the end of the startup process, tell it:
CO CONTINUE 6
Until this is fixed, you'll have to use the non-shared editor, NSED,
instead of the shared editor ED.
> Thank you for
> > So, how do I login a regular user? Does the emulator come up with
> > an open port that I can telnet into to get a regular serial line?
> Use the emulator -tport command line option to set its incoming
> terminals port.
Bill,
The inittab snippet from Jim's message that I reposted here s
> Great news. I look forward to trying it out. Other than compilers, is
> there much else to run on Prime at the moment? Do any applications
> still exist to try and run? Is Prime Information (apparently the
> platform's "killer app") available? Are there any games? Was there
> the equivalent
I realize I told a lie the other day. INFORMATION is actually installed
on the rev21 public emulator, and the samples. A few manuals are
online. I feel like I've seen one or two more that I can't find just
now. I haven't gotten these integrated into sysovl.info yet:
http://yagi.h-net.org/prime
I've uploaded an updated set of sample system images. Jim worked
through rebuilding the disk files with more filesystem and paging space,
and we enhanced the run script wrapper a bit. There are also a couple
of help text tweaks, system startup fixes, etc.
The tarball is 142882727 bytes, and its
Bill,
> Is there anywhere we can find a list of what is avaiable on each of
> those images? I tried a few and at least one has all the compilers
> but no emacs. Another has emacs but apparently no compilers. :-)
> I'm impressed so far but would really like to find systems that I can
> do s
> Does anyone have information on having a replacement PDP-11/05 key
> made?
I believe I can make these. I'd like to have a test. May I send you
one?
The key is a Chicago GRB2: cut 215 on an Ilco S1041T. You can use a
1041T and cut it down.
De
> Late to the party, but there’s PDP11 keys sold on ebay here:
Though that may be useful to many, it's the wrong key for this thread.
De
> I just noticed on comp.sys.prime that I missed a couple of sample
> system releases. I have a process set up to dump messages from some
> news groups into my IMAP server for easy reading with my mail client,
> but I don't have anything set up to easily reply via the news groups.
> Does anyo
> > > > I read this list on PINE, on a shell account at my ISP.
> > > Barbarian! At least upgrade to Alpine. (That's what I use.) :D
> > Philistines, all of you. I use a hacked version of Elm.
> mutt!
`less`, out of system spool.
De
> I want to use my daisy wheel printer to create letters and memos and
> similar (rather simple) texts. What can I use to write the text?
I worked on a v7 system that had a troff driver for iirc Diablo 630
printers, but I don't see it in stock v7. For groff, you'd probably
hunt up a dvi-to-630
> Alas I have no idea what they are or if there is hope of using them.
Megatek built graphics terminals and I think plotters that were used in
CAD shops. Prime used them with some of their CAD offerings. Megatek
also did boards for at least DG, -11, Modcomp systems, maybe others. In
fact, some
> What I know is that tape is subdivided in files by means of marks,
> and each file is subdivided in blocks of equal size.
Er, no. The blocks aren't necessarily of equal size. Unix people who
are used to tar often seem to have this mindset, but the general case is
that records can be of varyi
> > which would respond to ARP requests for non-local addresses and
> > reply with the router's MAC address (on that interface),
> > specifically in order to make classful-only hosts work on a
> > CIDR network.
> Yeah, Proxy ARP (an early RFC here:
You all talk about Proxy AR
> I've been using vtserver to transfer an OS to a minimal pdp11 (only a
> HD and console port so far). Works fine but it has a well-documented
> 32MB file limit. This website
> http://home.windstream.net/engdahl/vtserver.htm mentions some hacks
> but I've been unable to contact the author. Any
> Does anyone have an archive of classiccmp that goes back to the 90's?
> If so, could I ask you to "hunt down" an old message of mine? I once
> wrote a "reminiscence" of connecting to the ARPANET when I was a kid
> that I was rather pleased with. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost
> it in a
> I still looking for the OS media or any manuals for 2 systems 1 is a
> OSM Zues 4 Early Z80 System,the other is a Pertec p4010 mini. which
> uses coax to the terminals. I can find a little bit on the Pertec
> 3200 but nothing on the 4010.
A Datapro report I found indicates that the XL50 mac
> I am going to go back now and retest a bunch of the floppy drives and
> cables to see if there really is a problem or if it was just the
> images. Of course, this means my original floppy is bad so I need to
> find another copy as I think the stuff I need to use the GIDE was on
> there. I
> I see one about partitioning but not sure how one gets the FDISK
> utility onto a bootable P112 floppy.
The cpmtools has a diskdef for the p112 formats. One could therefore
copy from images to actual floppies, assuming the needed hardware can be
coaxed into connectivity with a supported os.
> Based on what I find in format83.c, this shouldn't be too much
> trouble, but I really want to know what "Intel HEX 83" is supposed to
> mean.
The easily findable specification document for "intel hex", which has
intel branding and copyright, is revision A and dated 1988, so perhaps
"83" is a
> Does anyone have source to a 6809 monitor program?
> I'm looking for something I can make work in a CoCo.
> Functionality I'm looking for is something that will let me read and
> write to memory.
Sources to the BUFFALO, ASSIST09 and MONDEB09 monitors are included in
the Alan Baldwin's ASxx
> Partially related to that is a program called “20HAL” which was a
> code uploader Microsoft used in the late stages to get code from
> Microsoft in Bellevue to IBM in Boca Raton, FL.
The TOPS-10 manual says that:
(SET) TTY FILL n
sets delay characteristics for the line to class `n`. Th
> Excellent! That's a great piece of info. Not sure why a TOPS-10
> command would be embedded in a program like this. The notion of
> filtering/delay itself makes sense but that command would make sense
> only if IBM had a DECSYSYEM too, no?
That part's a puzzler. Perhaps the link was from th
Folks seem to be mostly going at hardware here, but the o.p. indicated
emulation. I'll point out, since I haven't seen mention of it, that
Kevin Jordan's Nostalgic Computing Center has many of its emulated
systems linked via RJE - the Cybers, the Primes, and the VM/CMS machine
at least.
http://ww
Folks,
I've now seen two Burroughs tapes where some of the expected file marks
between labels and file data were apparently missing.
I think a reasonable description of these is "Burroughs/Unisys B6x00
'Library/Maintenance' tapes with ANSI-69 labels"
Reading drive is a Cipher GCR Cachetape with
Jon,
Thanks for your thoughts.
> Your tape dump looks very much like a classic ANSI tape label format,
> except for the missing file mark after the HDR2 record. Are ALL
> those file marks after HDR2 missing, or just some of them?
Right, and they're supposed to be ANSI69ish, though they are i
> I can't say that I've ever observed that, but then, I probably never
> looked for it either. 80 bytes starting with HDRx, etc. is a pretty
> good indicator of the nature of the block. I've seen lots of tapes
> with 81-character records, however. (Univac 36 bit systems for
> example).
Drat
> I'm curious to what degree people have used serial number
> intelligence gathering and countermeasures in the industry. Like
> were/are there market research firms that would go to Fry's and
> record numbers off of boxes to try to extrapolate sales for things
> like printer consumables, and
> I've now tracked down analogous manuals for all Pro drives except for
> the RD53, I don't know what kind of drive that is.
I believe:
RD53Micropolis 1325 71 MB
RD54Maxtor XT2190 159 MB
De
> I realized I also don't know the RD31 and RD32.
The rest of the list I found long ago is:
RD31Seagate ST-225 20 MB
RD32Seagate ST-251 42 MB
RD51Seagate ST-412 10 MB
RD52Quantum Q54031 MB
It's clearly incomplete, as you found there were two different devices
used for one
> Any gotchas with the PICKit-3 clones out there? I have the feeling
> that sticking with PIC would be better than trying to port to
> Arduino, and imagine that as things continue to age there will be
> more applications for interfaces. Any better but still cheapish
> alternatives for programm
FWIW, the plate on my 11/93 in BA123 cab just has "DIGITAL".
De
> Sold for $4,900. Looks like a couple of low score bidders got in a
> bidding war and really wanted to win.
Must be those deskthority people _really_ wanted those '220
keyboards. :)
De
> Also came across a TSX Plus reference guide and install guide, from
> 1985. These two fill a very large binder, have they already been
> scanned?
The 6.50 manuals, TSX Plus 6.50, and the COBOL and RTSORT layered
products are also available here:
http://tsxplus.classiccmp.org/
De
> And that is why there are SNADs! :D
"Systems Network Architecture Distribution Services" ? :)
De
I have a recalcitrant Cipher C995 9track drive. Does anyone have
manuals for this thing? It seems to be enough different from the M990
to matter.
Thanks,
De
Folks,
Does anyone have a design for printing card handles for QBUS / UNIBUS
cards? It seems a natural application.
Some grepping of the list logs, a brief plonk through the gadawful
thingiverse search, and various googling have produced no existing
designs.
Thanks,
De
> Does anyone have a design for printing card handles for QBUS / UNIBUS
> cards? It seems a natural application.
I suppose I should be more specific: the plastic kind that are just
handles, also seen on flip chip cards, -8 stuff, whatever. Not
extractor levers or s-box stuff.
TIA,
De
> There is an stl file on this page (4th down on the right):
> I had a few of these printed for a Unibone I put together, and they
> came out well.
Fritz,
Perfect, thanks!
De
> how about https://www.essentracomponents.com/en-us/p/pcb-card-pullers
Two thoughts -
* Not sure the mounting hole spacing is correct; the one from Vince's
site looks to be about 2" between centers; the Essentra says 1.25".
It's entirely possible I don't know diddly about DEC card handles
> I've been using them for a couple of weeks now. Easy to apply
> (compared to plastiands) runs perfectly in DC300-600 sized
> cartridges.
Is there a size that works for the minicarts?
De
> It was intended to be a stop-gap, to be discarded when the ICL was
> replaced with PR1ME. However the PR1ME was benchmarked with Fortran 66.
> When Pr1me Fortran 77 was delivered its performance was "pants" so the
> "stop gap" ICL compiler was ported to PR1ME...
Wish we could find that Prim
> Well you could ask Silverfrost who now own it. I think a lot of Salford
> Pr1me software was lost.
Vague memory suggests that someone did, and that they don't have it any
more. When I asked Rob Jung, ex-Primate, if he still had the Prime
version of his ARJ compressor, he didn't have that eit
> I'm interested in collecting examples of single instructions for any CPU
> architecture that are unusually prolific in one way or another.
The Prime 50 Series has a few candidates:
1. The procedure call instruction allocates a stack frame, saves the
calling procedure's state, then calculates
> Back in the 2007 time frame, Andrew Lynch had written a utility to read
> Vector Graphic hard-sectored diskettes on a Catweasel board. Called
> "CWVG", does anyone have a copy of the program?
The program doesn't appear to have made it onto vector-archive.org.
I'll add to Jay's comment about
> One used to (in the 1970s) be able to purchase off-the-shelf "long
> haul" modems that converted between EIA signal levels and
> current-loop.
Sometimes called "line drivers", because that's not confusingly
overloaded terminology or anything. I was about to say "e.g. Gandalf
LDS family", bu
> So I tested a bunch of (relatively modern, post-UART) vintage
> systems: 4.77MHz PC w/ 1.8MHz/8250, 12MHz 286 (with Unknown),
> 386/486, and a Pentium all null-modem connected to a modern-make PC -
> just to verify how fast they should be pushed (download) a data
> stream. None of them (not
> Steve, remember that digital electronics ( I.E. integrated circuits
> like uarts) weren’t around during the early days of data
> transmission. It was all analog back then, coils, capacitors, and
> resistors, so then ideas regarding fast transmission had to wait for
> the technology to evolve
> Those rack-mount Milgo units were built like battleships and very
> well regarded in the industry. My first "high-speed" modem was a
> Racal/Vadic 3451 that, IIRC, could do 2000 bps when talking to
> another 3451 using RV's proprietary protocol.
Vadic had a variant 1200 baud system that was
> As far as I know none of the modern Linux virtualization systems work on
> zVM. The main difference between a zVM Virtual Machine and an LPAR is in
> the management facilities.
Actually, KVM and qemu exist:
https://docs.kernel.org/virt/kvm/s390/index.html
https://qemu.readthedocs.io/en/v8.
Folks,
Apologies for the list outage. Jason thinks this has been going on
since roughly 11/16. I guess the sense of relief at no inbound list
emails kept me from realizing there were no list emails. :)
I think it's better. Will keep an eye on it.
De
> How likely do you think it would be for someone to machine the right
> kind of blanks out of stock? Or possibly existing key blanks that
> just need a few extra cuts on the sides?
It's really not going to be necessary to machine blanks. Download "Key
Blank Directory - Edition: 13" from here
> > Can you post a picture of what you can see?
> Can't post photos here,
Tony and I assembled a page of photos, which can be found here:
https://yagi.h-net.org/philips_p3800_lock/
Opine away!
De
> I have received no messages for a while. Is the list down?
All,
In sifting through the logs to check on this, I noticed that Google's
endless string of email-breaking demands has grown to include using TLS
encryption to send email to accounts there. That's enabled now; not
sure how it got mis
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