[cctalk] Re: ...a .TAP by any other name...

On May 27, 2026, at 16:26, Vasile Buruiana via cctalk &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote: Hello and thank you for the hints. Short version: Would you please tell me some more details about where to find " *Johnny's tpw under 2.11BSD* " utility, which *"it achieved writing simh TAP to a real TK50"* ? It will be of great help. Long version: I'm working at a PERTEC-interfaced tape emulator using some Am2900 bit-slice processors and a STM32. Currently I somehow replicated the simh .TAP but it does not fully follow and respect its format. My emulator reads tapes, dumps content inside 4 x 32MB EDO RAM for the data, and 1 x 4 MB EDO RAM for the 'map of the tape' - file sizes, filemark separators and so on. When EOT is reached, the tape is rewinded while the big RAM content is dumped [AM2900 side] into a microSD card [STM32 side] while following the tape map from the smaller RAM, in such a way that the resulting file becomes a frankensteined simh tap file. It can also do the reverse - reads that frankenstein TAP [STM32] and writes it to the tape. The STM32 acts like an i/o interface to the microSD and also as a user interface. All the rest (i/o protocol, interrupts, ram transfers) is done with physical gates and some diode logic ROM, for me to keep the stm32 software part as simple as possible. Whatever I could implement with external hardware, I did. The big weirdness is as following: whatever format is dumped from the physical tape inside my "not-quite-simh TAP" file, it appears to be converted and written correctly back on another physical 9-track tape, as it can be correctly read by another frankensteined half-breed dinosaur made from some communist Romanian clones of PDP11 (called Coral 4030) - the boards - and French CII IRIS50 (called Felix C-256) - the i/o peripherals: tape drives, punched card, cassette tapes and so on. However my "not-quite-simh" TAP is not accepted by simh and also not accepted by the 'unvtape' program from you, mr. Jacob Ritorto, from your github. But if the STM32 sends data to its own RAM chip (the board containing the stm32 is *waveshare's core429i*), then extracts it back, the simh file format result is as perfect as it is supposed to be. But I can't use that RAM with the rest of the system, as there are not enough spare i/o ports left in order to talk to the AM2900 side. The EDO Rams are tested and they work absolutely fine. I made some mistakes for sure while building the physical board (bad/expired beer?), some little mess with the gates which I can't fully follow - unable to replicate the initial conditions, I no longer have that bad beer which gave me headaches during the design phase. Now I have only the good stuff. So I am asking for help in order to run that "*tpw" *program and follow the registers, while graphing the physical measurements logic using two HP1662 logic analyzers: would you please let me know where I may find it? This is an older version of my pertec tape drive emulator. The project advances slowly - not too much spare time available, not even to update with new pictures and progress. My wife, child and workplace demand 99% of my attention. Unfortunately I have limited knowledge about working with github, mostly because it is owned by Microsoft (and used for inspiring their business, that's why I refused to learn about it), and also because I am used to the old times when programs were stored & exchanged on cassettes and floppies, and version control was manually followed with pen and paper. At this time it is easier and faster for me this way. https://hackaday.com/2019/05/02/a-mainframe-tape-drive-emulator/ Thank you. Vasile > On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 8:00 PM &lt;cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote: > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 26 May 2026 12:08:09 -0400 > From: Jacob Ritorto &lt;jacob.ritorto(a)gmail.com&gt; > Subject: [cctalk] Re: ...a .TAP by any other name... > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > &lt;cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; > Message-ID: > < > CAHYQbfAspc+gs6mRZv5ePmt__kp_xb-WvFUBO9K-HiCsX8iNyA(a)mail.gmail.com&gt; > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Thank you for that ,Ken - good to have in the pocket! > I tried Johnny's tpw under 2.11BSD and it achieved writing simh TAP to a > real TK50. So I'm booting real hardware from that sept 1992 rsts/e image > now! > > > End of cctalk Digest, Vol 1186, Issue 1 > *************************************** >