search

jeffpar / pcjs.v1

PCjs Machines 1.0 (archived)
https://github.com/jeffpar/pcjs.org
GNU General Public License v3.0
475 stars 92 forks source link

PDP-10 #49

Closed larsbrinkhoff closed 7 years ago

larsbrinkhoff commented 7 years ago

Hello,

Which PDP-10 software are you planning to run?

I see there's a KA10 CPU in progress, but the latest version of TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 would run better on a KL10. ITS will probably run on a KA10, but requires some special modification to a stock machine.

jeffpar commented 7 years ago

I'm starting with the oldest PDP-10 (KA10). As for software, I'm going to start with PDP-10 diagnostics (eg, from paper tape or magnetic tape images). However, I'm not yet to the point where I can run any off-the-shelf software for the PDP-10. All I'm running so far are sequences that I hand-enter into the built-in debugger/assembler.

I haven't looked into what vintages of TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 are available yet, but there again, I would want to locate the oldest available version, start with that, then work forward to newer/newest versions. In any case, I'm assuming that I'll need all the KA10 functionality, at a minimum.

I followed the same strategy with the PDP-11, by starting with the PDP-11/20 (more or less) and working my way up to the 11/70, and starting with diagnostic paper tape images and gradually working up to disk images with complete operating systems.

larsbrinkhoff commented 7 years ago

That sounds reasonable. But be aware that the different PDP-10 models to some extent used different peripheral devices. I would advice you to not invest too much effort emulating a KA10 system if your ultimate goal is to run later versions of the operating systems.

larsbrinkhoff commented 7 years ago

If you want some simple programs for testing, I can provide paper tape or magtape images with standalone tools that can read and write to tape and disk.

jeffpar commented 7 years ago

That would be great. Please share or point me to whatever you can. Thanks.

larsbrinkhoff commented 7 years ago

It's here: https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/ka10-simh/commits/its

There's MAGDMP in bootable paper tape and magtape formats. MAGDMP can read/write/run files from a appropriately formatted magtape.

There's also DSKDMP in paper tape format. DSKDMP is like MAGDMP but for an ITS disk filesystem.

larsbrinkhoff commented 6 years ago

How's the PDP-10 emulator coming along?

jeffpar commented 6 years ago

Too many projects, too little time. This PCjs page demonstrates the state of that particular emulator so far. It's still just a CPU emulation at this point -- no device/interrupt support. I also wrote a MACRO-10 work-alike assembler in JavaScript that's baked into the emulation environment, so that I can inject diagnostic source code into the machine without requiring binaries (or any means of loading them). This PCjs section of the website documents the diagnostics that I had worked through.

larsbrinkhoff commented 6 years ago

Thanks for the update!