Subject: PDP-8 emulator available

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1993 22:55:39 GMT

I've just put a few minutes into packaging the core of my PDP-8 emulator
into an exportable form.  The emulator is written in C and it should run
on just about any UNIX system.  It is tied fairly closely to UNIX by the
character-at-a-time I/O system.

As distributed, the emulator does not support any devices other than the
console terminal and the high speed reader-punch.  As distributed, it
is configured for 4K of memory, but it can be reconfigured with up to 32K.
The distribution is full of hooks for other devices.

The emulator comes with no nice front-panel support -- it supports a
small subset of ODT to fake up the basic front panel function, though,
from the console terminal, with extensions to allow files to be mounted
on the devices.  There is a minimal manual included with the emulator.
It, plus DEC's original documentation for the PDP-8, or perhaps, with
the material in the alt.sys.pdp8 faq files, should be sufficient to use
the emulator.  The emulator's paper tape reader can read the .bin files
produced by my PAL-subset cross assembler.

Support for an X-windows based front panel is pending, as is support for
other devices.  All devices supported by this emulator have simulated I/O
latency that should be very difficult to distinguish from real hardware
from the point of view of software running on the emulator.  This leads
to some performance penalties, and it leads to I/O speeds that are orders
of magnitude slower than you may expect from a modern system.  It is
particularly annoying (but educational) to deal with an emulated 110 baud
teletype when you're running on a modern RISC platform.  (There are,
however, "jumpers" you can "cut and solder" in the emulator to change
the speeds of the simulated devices!

The emulator includes a 4K core image dump of FOCAL 1969 as a test
program, in Lasner's .IPL format.  Thus, the most important use of this
emulator may be as a base on which to run FOCAL 1969.

If you want it, send E-mail.  I'll distribute it as a uuencoded,
compressed shell archive, about 813 lines long (which is under the limit
of 1000 lines that most internet mail forwarders are guaranteed to pass
without truncation).

				Doug Jones
				[email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (John E. Veness)
Date: 30 Nov 1993 21:09:31 GMT

[email-masked] wrote:
[snip]
: If you want it, send E-mail.  I'll distribute it as a uuencoded,
: compressed shell archive, about 813 lines long (which is under the limit
: of 1000 lines that most internet mail forwarders are guaranteed to pass
: without truncation).

: 				Doug Jones
: 				[email-masked]

Why not upload it to one of the ftp sites in the FAQ, like sunsite?

		Pel
--
hmm, still no .sig