20 Jun
2026
20 Jun
'26
3:51 p.m.
Yes, I did early development on both. At least the interface to the OS was Pascal. I
still have the early documentation buried in a box somewhere.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 20, 2026, at 2:02 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Sat, 20 Jun 2026, ben via cctalk wrote:
PL/1 and C are the only two high level languages
a operating system is written in, that I can think of that are well documented, and easily
found on the WEB.
I heard that all of the Lisa OS, and much of Macintosh, were written in Pascal.
(obviously other than some low-level drivers and performance critical routines?)
Is that correct?
http://pascal.hansotten.com/apple-lisa-pascal/
When did Macintosh development switch to C?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com 
22 Jun
22 Jun
6:35 a.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
> On Sat, 20 Jun 2026, ben via cctalk wrote:
>> PL/1 and C are the only two high level languages a operating system is written
in, that I can think of that are well documented, and easily found on the WEB.
That clearly is not even close to true. There is ALGOL (or rather its dialect ESPOL) used
by Burroughs. There's CYBIL, used by CDC. There's BLISS, used by DEC. And if
you include embedded RTOS, there's FORTH.
Just a couple I can think of in 30 seconds.
Did anyone use FORTRAN? I do remember IBM wrote the OS/360 FORTRAN (H) compiler in
FORTRAN.
paul
6:56 a.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On 6/22/26 09:35, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Did anyone use FORTRAN? I do remember IBM wrote the OS/360 FORTRAN (H) compiler in
FORTRAN.
PRIMOS, the OS used by Prime Computers was partially written in FORTRAN,
at least in early versions. I think they migrated to something else later.
Although I didn't work with the machines myself, I remember seeing my
colleagues digging in FORTRAN code chasing system problems.
-- Gary
23 Jun
23 Jun
6:08 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On 6/22/2026 9:56 AM, Gary Grebus via cctalk wrote:
On 6/22/26 09:35, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Primos was a conglomerate of a number of languages. Not including
C.
bill
(Who used to maintain a cluster of 850's as an NCO and later
as a beltway bandit.)
Did anyone use FORTRAN? I do remember IBM wrote the OS/360 FORTRAN
(H) compiler in FORTRAN.
PRIMOS, the OS used by Prime Computers was partially written in FORTRAN,
at least in early versions. I think they migrated to something else later.
Although I didn't work with the machines myself, I remember seeing my
colleagues digging in FORTRAN code chasing system problems. 
22 Jun
22 Jun
7:09 a.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Mon, 22 Jun 2026, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Prime computers were in FORTRAN.
Then there are many university projects - e.g. Edinburgh used Imp77.
Oxford used BCPL (OS6), UCSD Pascal, ...
Gordon
> On Sat, 20 Jun 2026, ben via cctalk wrote:
>> PL/1 and C are the only two high level languages a operating system is written
in, that I can think of that are well documented, and easily found on the WEB.
That clearly is not even close to true. There is ALGOL (or rather its
dialect ESPOL) used by Burroughs. There's CYBIL, used by CDC. There's
BLISS, used by DEC. And if you include embedded RTOS, there's FORTH.
Just a couple I can think of in 30 seconds.
Did anyone use FORTRAN? I do remember IBM wrote the OS/360 FORTRAN (H)
compiler in FORTRAN.
24 Jun
24 Jun
4:09 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Mon, Jun 22, 2026 at 9:09 AM Gordon Henderson via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Then there are many university projects - e.g.
Edinburgh used Imp77.
Oxford used BCPL (OS6), UCSD Pascal, ...
Indeed, and not just one system. EMAS (3 architectures), Deimos, Hamish
Dewar's PDP9/15 OS (not sure if it had a name), LEGOS, ISYS, APM OS,
Mouses, and even GUTS (Groeningen University Time-sharing System.)
Probably more that don't immediately spring to mind.
G
PS Imp, not just specifically Imp77 which is just one of many Imp compilers.
22 Jun
22 Jun
9:57 a.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Mon, Jun 22, 2026 at 8:36 AM Paul Koning via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Let's not forget HP's SPL used to write the HP 3000's MPE operating system,
on a machine that never had/needed an assembler.
G.
> On Sat, 20 Jun 2026, ben via cctalk wrote:
>> PL/1 and C are the only two high level languages a operating system is
written in, that I can think of that are well documented, and easily found
on the WEB.
That clearly is not even close to true. There is ALGOL (or rather its
dialect ESPOL) used by Burroughs. There's CYBIL, used by CDC. There's
BLISS, used by DEC. And if you include embedded RTOS, there's FORTH.
Just a couple I can think of in 30 seconds.
10:01 a.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
Gavin Scott via cctalk [22.06.2026 18:57:44]:
On Mon, Jun 22, 2026 at 8:36 AM Paul Koning via cctalk
<
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Let's not forget HP's SPL used to write the HP 3000's MPE operating system,
on a machine that never had/needed an assembler.
G.
Or Planck, used to write Norsk Data´s Sintran.
--
Hilsen Harald
> On Sat, 20 Jun 2026, ben via cctalk wrote:
>> PL/1 and C are the only two high level languages a operating system is
written in, that I can think of that are well documented, and easily found
on the WEB.
That clearly is not even close to true. There is ALGOL (or rather its
dialect ESPOL) used by Burroughs. There's CYBIL, used by CDC. There's
BLISS, used by DEC. And if you include embedded RTOS, there's FORTH.
Just a couple I can think of in 30 seconds. 
11:03 a.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Mon, 2026-06-22 at 09:35 -0400, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Did anyone use FORTRAN? I do remember IBM wrote the
OS/360 FORTRAN
(H) compiler in FORTRAN.
About forty years ago, FORTRAN was called "the universal assembly
language." People who invented new languages generated Fortran code
because it's easier than generating machine code, and your new language
would instantly run on every machine that had a Fortran compiler. Now
that's mostly done in C.
I wrote compilers for several "small" languages in Fortran. I use a
Pager's method LR parser generator written in Fortran. My 1401
Autocoder cross assembler is in Fortran.
11:15 a.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Jun 22, 2026, at 2:03 PM, Van Snyder via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Mon, 2026-06-22 at 09:35 -0400, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Wow. I've never heard of that, or seen it done. And I would certainly never have
considered doing so myself.
Then again, one of my DEC colleagues wrote a parser in COBOL, but that was more a
"watch this -- hold my beer" type of thing.
paul
Did anyone use FORTRAN? I do remember IBM wrote
the OS/360 FORTRAN
(H) compiler in FORTRAN.
About forty years ago, FORTRAN was called "the universal assembly
language." People who invented new languages generated Fortran code
because it's easier than generating machine code, and your new language
would instantly run on every machine that had a Fortran compiler. 
12:39 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Mon, 22 Jun 2026, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Wow. I've never heard of that, or seen it done.
And I would certainly never have considered doing so myself.
Then again, one of my DEC colleagues wrote a parser in COBOL, but that was more a
"watch this -- hold my beer" type of thing.
Wow
Was there also a wager involved?
It used to be traditional in graduate school compiler construction
classes, that one had to develop it until the compiler for a language was
written in that language and compiled in the final iteration of itself.
While being a traditional test of certain aspects of completeness, it
pointedly ignores the fact that any language has an "orientation" of its
own. Some languages are not optimized towards writing compilers, and will
require unnecessary amounts of work, and may result in a compiler that is
not as good as one written in a language oprimized for that sort of
programming.
Would a COBOL, FORTRAN or RPG compiler written in COBOL, FORTRAN or RPG be
as good as one written in a slightly lower level language? and how long
would somebody have to hold that beer? (room temperature, flat, and
stale?)
How many compilers written in the language that it compiles are as good
as one written in carefully crafted assembly language?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
12:47 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Jun 22, 2026, at 3:39 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Mon, 22 Jun 2026, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
No, but he was a member of the COBOL compiler team so it was a case of pushing the limits
of what he worked on every day.
I also remember running into him late one night, in the middle of a debug session. I
asked what he was working on. Answer "packed decimal exponentiation". My
question "what is that used for?" Answer: "compound interest in COBOL
programming".
Oh yeah.
paul
Wow. I've never heard of that, or seen it
done. And I would certainly never have considered doing so myself.
Then again, one of my DEC colleagues wrote a parser in COBOL, but that was more a
"watch this -- hold my beer" type of thing.
Wow
Was there also a wager involved?
1:33 p.m.
New subject: BCD (Was: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Mon, 22 Jun 2026, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
I also remember running into him late one night, in
the middle of a
debug session. I asked what he was working on. Answer "packed decimal
exponentiation". My question "what is that used for?" Answer:
"compound interest in COBOL programming".
Oh yeah.
That's what it is for
In beginning high level language programming classes (FORTRAN, BASIC, C),
I often gave compound interest as an early exercise in loops (displaying
each iteration, not exponential direct calculation of end result, not
BCD)
But, I used BCD a little in my sales tax TSR.
And, I have often [mis]used x86 BCD instructions for display of numbers:
AAM as a substitute for dividing by 10 for 0-99 two decimal digit number
in an 8 bit register,
and DAA in converting a single hexadecimal digit into ASCII numeral: (notice ADC to avoid
JMPs)
AND AL, 0Fh
DAA
ADD AL, 0F0h
ADC AL, 40h
or:
AND AL, 0Fh
ADD AL, 0
ADC AL,28h
DAA
That is extendable to full content (4 hex digits) of 16 bit AX register:
PUSH CX ; in case CX is in use outside of this
MOV CX, 0404h ; CH and CL are independent; CL as a ROL loop, CH as a manual
count down
N1: ROL AX, CL
PUSH AX ;gonna get stepped on in display output
AND AL, 0Fh ;disply single hexadecimal digit
DAA
ADD AL, 0F0h
ADC AL, 40h
MOV AH, 0Eh ;displays char in AL at cursor position
INT 10h ; or save registers and use DL, and INT21h display
POP AX ;bring it back after display
DEC CH
JNZ N1
POP CX ; put it back
23 Jun
23 Jun
8:28 p.m.
New subject: BCD (Was: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Mon, Jun 22, 2026 at 4:33 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Unfortunately (or not?) the x86 BCD instructions have been removed from
'64-bit mode' in x86-64. I assume those processors are fast enough
emulating BCD if required to keep COBOL users happy.
The PDP-11 CIS instructions include BCD types and are very
interesting/weird (e.g. EDIT instruction).
KJ
My question
"what is that used for?" Answer:
"compound interest in COBOL programming".
Oh yeah.
That's what it is for
24 Jun
24 Jun
7:22 a.m.
New subject: BCD (Was: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Jun 23, 2026, at 11:28 PM, Ken Seefried via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Mon, Jun 22, 2026 at 4:33 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Unfortunately (or not?) the x86 BCD instructions have been removed from
'64-bit mode' in x86-64. I assume those processors are fast enough
emulating BCD if required to keep COBOL users happy.
The PDP-11 CIS instructions include BCD types and are very
interesting/weird (e.g. EDIT instruction).
I never looked at PDP-11 or VAX decimal instructions all that much, but from a superficial
look they seemed to be inspired by the analogous instructions of the IBM 360 series,
including (I'm pretty sure) the EDIT instruction.
paul
My
question "what is that used for?" Answer:
"compound interest in COBOL programming".
Oh yeah.
That's what it is for
22 Jun
22 Jun
2:56 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
Burroughs ESPOL has been dead since the early 1980s. The B6700/B7700 MCP (OS) was
completely rewritten at that time in a new language, NEWP, which is somewhat MODULA-like.
It is still in use for the Unisys ClearPath MCP systems that have evolved from the
B6x00/B7x00 systems.
There are various stores about the name, one that it stands for No Executive Washroom
Privileges and other that when asked if the new compiler was ready yet, John McClintock,
the primary developer, would answer "newp!" This first is probably apocryphal;
the second probably isn't.
4:32 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Jun 22, 2026, at 5:56 PM, paul.kimpel--- via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Burroughs ESPOL has been dead since the early 1980s. The B6700/B7700 MCP (OS) was
completely rewritten at that time in a new language, NEWP, which is somewhat MODULA-like.
It is still in use for the Unisys ClearPath MCP systems that have evolved from the
B6x00/B7x00 systems.
I remember looking at various ALGOL dialects on the B6700 system back in 1975, when I was
trying to read DEC format tapes on the TUE Burroughs system. MCP doesn't make that
easy. I looked at DCALGOL, which didn't quite do the job. I see from the Unisys
ClearPath webpage that was mentioned that DCALGOL is still around. I don't think
ESPOL was suitable either, but that was mostly because it wasn't available in any way
shape or form for ordinary users.
I ended up using an OS/360 system instead, with EXCP mode I/O. Fun.
paul
4:34 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
The AMD 2900 microcode assembler was written in FORTRAN. As well as
the Z80 assembler, 1982.
On Mon, Jun 22, 2026 at 2:56 PM paul.kimpel--- via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Burroughs ESPOL has been dead since the early 1980s. The B6700/B7700 MCP (OS) was
completely rewritten at that time in a new language, NEWP, which is somewhat MODULA-like.
It is still in use for the Unisys ClearPath MCP systems that have evolved from the
B6x00/B7x00 systems.
There are various stores about the name, one that it stands for No Executive Washroom
Privileges and other that when asked if the new compiler was ready yet, John McClintock,
the primary developer, would answer "newp!" This first is probably apocryphal;
the second probably isn't.
23 Jun
23 Jun
7:55 a.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On 6/22/26 18:34, Jim Davis via cctalk wrote:
The AMD 2900 microcode assembler was written in
FORTRAN. As well as
the Z80 assembler, 1982.
I was building a machine for my own use around AMD 2903 bit
slices back in about 1981, planning to execute a superset of
the 360 instruction set. I wrote a microcode assembler in
Pascal.
Jon
12:32 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On 2026-06-23 8:55 a.m., Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
On 6/22/26 18:34, Jim Davis via cctalk wrote:
Did you use, PASCAL for any special reason, or was it the only thing around?
Ben.
The AMD 2900 microcode assembler was written in
FORTRAN. As well as
the Z80 assembler, 1982.
I was building a machine for my own use around AMD 2903 bit slices back
in about 1981, planning to execute a superset of the 360 instruction
set. I wrote a microcode assembler in Pascal.
Jon
12:40 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On 6/23/26 14:32, ben via cctalk wrote:
On 2026-06-23 8:55 a.m., Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
I actually LIKE Pascal! I had some version of Pascal on my
Z-80 CP/M system, and I used Pascal for all complicated
programs, like cross assemblers. Since I had already
written several cross assemblers in Pascal, I was able to
re-use a large chunk of the code and just write the
2903-specific parts.
Jon
On 6/22/26 18:34, Jim Davis via cctalk wrote:
Did you use, PASCAL for any special reason, or was it the
only thing around? The AMD 2900 microcode assembler was written in
FORTRAN.
As well as
the Z80 assembler, 1982.
I was building a machine for my own use around AMD 2903
bit slices back in about 1981, planning to execute a
superset of the 360 instruction set. I wrote a microcode
assembler in Pascal.
Jon
12:50 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
Did you use,
PASCAL for any special reason, or was it the only thing around?
I actually LIKE Pascal!
1:08 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Tue, 2026-06-23 at 12:50 -0700, Cameron Kaiser via cctalk wrote:
> I actually LIKE Pascal!
After I finished my first compiler class in the 1983 UC Santa Cruz
Summer Institute in Computer Science (taught by Frank De Remer and Tom
Pennello), a group in another section approached me to write a compiler
for a "little language" called MENDEL, for Menu Definition Language. It
was about putting boxes on a screen with response buttons, the kind of
thing that would be done today using HTML etc, which didn't exist yet.
Two guys in the group had worked for a year and produced nothing more
than some low-level run-time library, in Fortran for a VAX. I wrote the
MENDEL compiler in 90 days, in Pascal, using the framework I learned at
UC Santa Cruz. It generated FORTRAN 77 code. My group supervisor
reported it to the Section Manager to report to the Division as part of
the monthly Section Significan Events report. He suppressed it.
3:15 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Tue, Jun 23, 2026 at 3:56 PM Cameron Kaiser via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Turbo Pascal was my first language after FORTRAN. It was very nice on
CP/M. Then my freshman CS intro language was Pascal so I was ahead of the
game (tho I did most of it in C for other reasons). Pascal (suitably
extended) is a fine programming language.
and I even did some Modula-2 programming with MacMETH (worst name
> Did you use, PASCAL for any special reason,
or was it the only thing
around?
I actually LIKE Pascal!
I also enjoy Pascal. Any substantial program I wrote on DOS was in Turbo
Pascal,
ever).
The only Mac (OG MacOS 7) programming I ever did was with the Metrowerks M2
compiler. It was pretty great. You could even look at the Pascal examples
in "Inside Macintosh" and you were 90% of the way there. Metrowerks even
did a pretty good job at making M2 coroutines work on MacOS; I wasn't
pushing any envelopes but wrote some things with multiple coroutines
and didn't manage to crash things too often. Pretty wild considering the
state of the art at the time.
KJ
3:47 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
On Tue, 2026-06-23 at 18:15 -0400, Ken Seefried via cctalk wrote:
The only Mac (OG MacOS 7) programming I ever did was
with the
Metrowerks M2
compiler.
One of my supervisors insisted I write an FTP server for a Mac IIci in
about 1988 using Common Lisp. I used Guy Steele's CLTL2 text. He had a
good sense of humor. The index item for "kludges" says 1-954. My
supervisor wanted me to use T or Scheme but we wouldn't find a
compiler.
27 Jun
27 Jun
3:15 p.m.
New subject: Need MicroVAX-II / Emulex controller help
Hello,
Still trying to figure out what is wrong. I got an Emulex
QD22 from a guy at a recent VCF meeting, and am trying to
resurrect my MicroVAX-II (KA630-AA). I have a BA23 cabinet
with a H9278-A backplane.
I have the KA630-AA in slot 1, and the QD21 in slot 2 - A
and B connectors. I don't have any grant continuity
jumpers, but I don't think I should need any in this
configuration. I am trying to configure the QD21 by running
the built-in diagnostic program in the QD21 EPROMS. I have
done the procedure dozens of times as described in the
Emulex manual, but it doesn't work. I am supposed to get an
0400 (hex) in the CSR, but instead I get 0200, and there is
no code loaded at location 80. I can't figure out what is
wrong - bad QD21, bad backplane, typo in the manual's
procedure or something else.
Any ideas on how to diagnose this are very welcome. The
going price on a QD21 seems to be over $200, which is
getting a bit expensive. Does anybody know where I can get
one cheaper in the US?
Thanks,
Jon
3:17 p.m.
New subject: Need MicroVAX-II / Emulex controller help
On 6/27/26 17:15, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
Hello,
Still trying to figure out what is wrong. I got an Emulex
QD22 from a guy at a recent VCF meeting, and am trying to
resurrect my MicroVAX-II (KA630-AA). I have a BA23
cabinet with a H9278-A backplane.
I have the KA630-AA in slot 1, and the QD21 in slot 2 - A
and B connectors. I don't have any grant continuity
jumpers, but I don't think I should need any in this
configuration. I am trying to configure the QD21 by
running the built-in diagnostic program in the QD21
EPROMS. I have done the procedure dozens of times as
described in the Emulex manual, but it doesn't work. I am
supposed to get an 0400 (hex) in the CSR, but instead I
get 0200, and there is no code loaded at location 80. I
can't figure out what is wrong - bad QD21, bad backplane,
typo in the manual's procedure or something else.
Any ideas on how to diagnose this are very welcome. The
going price on a QD21 seems to be over $200, which is
getting a bit expensive. Does anybody know where I can
get one cheaper in the US?
ACK - SORRY - that should be QD21!
3:28 p.m.
New subject: Emulex QD21 controller help
Oh my gosh! I just found a document that says units with
A-D firmware rev levels do NOT have the firmware resident
diagnostics!
That seems to be the likely cause of the problem. Does
anybody have the EPROM dump from an E65E or above firmware
of an Emulex QD21 ESDI disk controller? I have plenty of
128K EPROMS here to reprogram.
Thanks,
Jon
3:50 p.m.
New subject: Emulex QD21 controller help
On Sat, Jun 27, 2026 at 3:28 PM Jon Elson via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Oh my gosh! I just found a document that says units with
A-D firmware rev levels do NOT have the firmware resident
diagnostics!
That seems to be the likely cause of the problem. Does
anybody have the EPROM dump from an E65E or above firmware
of an Emulex QD21 ESDI disk controller? I have plenty of
128K EPROMS here to reprogram.
I have dumps of E65G and E65J handy. Those are 32KB dumps so you need
a 256K EPROM, not a 128K EPROM. E65J is what I currently have
installed on all of my QD21 controllers.
I don't see any QD21 firmware dumps on Bitsavers currently.
3:57 p.m.
New subject: Emulex QD21 controller help
On Sat, Jun 27, 2026 at 3:50 PM Glen Slick <glen.slick(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, Jun 27, 2026 at 3:28 PM Jon Elson via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
The Rev G firmware has the following on board main menu:
========================================================
Emulex Corporation
Copyright All rights reserved
QD21 controller, firmware revision level IP address =
Option menu
1 - Format
2 - Format and verify
3 - Verify
4 - Read only test
5 - Data reliability test
6 - List known units
7 - Replace block
8 - Display Novram
9 - Edit / Load Novram
Enter option number:
The Rev J firmware has the following on board main menu:
========================================================
Firmware-Resident Diagnostic
Copyright (c) 1988 Emulex Corporation all rights reserved
QD21 controller, firmware revision level IP address =
Option menu
1 - Self Test Loop
2 - Format
3 - Verify
4 - Format and Verify
5 - Data Reliability Test
6 - Format, Verify, and Data Reliability Test
7 - Read Only Test
8 - List Known Units
9 - Replace Block
10 - Print RCT
11 - Display Novram
12 - Edit / Load Novram
Enter option number:
Oh my gosh! I just found a document that says units with
A-D firmware rev levels do NOT have the firmware resident
diagnostics!
That seems to be the likely cause of the problem. Does
anybody have the EPROM dump from an E65E or above firmware
of an Emulex QD21 ESDI disk controller? I have plenty of
128K EPROMS here to reprogram.
I have dumps of E65G and E65J handy. Those are 32KB dumps so you need
a 256K EPROM, not a 128K EPROM. E65J is what I currently have
installed on all of my QD21 controllers.
4:54 p.m.
New subject: Emulex QD21 controller help
On 6/27/26 17:50, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
Wow, thanks a BUNCH! I just loaded the E65J file to an
EPROM and the diag starts up just fine. Now, I need to
figure out what settings to use for this drive and I ought
to be able to boot VMS.
Thanks!
Jon
5:37 p.m.
New subject: Emulex QD21 controller help
On Sat, Jun 27, 2026 at 4:54 PM Jon Elson via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 6/27/26 17:50, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
Wow, thanks a BUNCH! I just loaded the E65J file to an
EPROM and the diag starts up just fine. Now, I need to
figure out what settings to use for this drive and I ought
to be able to boot VMS.
Nice. Thanks for the update. Hope you can figure out the correct
settings to match the drive you have.
-Glen
5:57 p.m.
New subject: Emulex QD21 controller help
Glen,
I have a QD21 that's waiting for its turn to get into a machine that still
needs some work, but thinking ahead, is there somewhere I can download your
firmware dumps from?
On Sat, Jun 27, 2026 at 5:37 PM Glen Slick via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On Sat, Jun 27, 2026 at 4:54 PM Jon Elson via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 6/27/26 17:50, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
Wow, thanks a BUNCH! I just loaded the E65J file to an
EPROM and the diag starts up just fine. Now, I need to
figure out what settings to use for this drive and I ought
to be able to boot VMS.
Nice. Thanks for the update. Hope you can figure out the correct
settings to match the drive you have.
-Glen
22 Jun
22 Jun
4:51 p.m.
New subject: What constitutes a dead computer language
Another dead language is FPL, Foxboro Process Language. It was a BASIC-like
multitasking/scheduling monitor for data acquisition and real time control that ran on the
PDP-11/15 in 1973. I scanned this sales brochure that describes the flavour of it:
https://archive.org/details/fox210minisystem
When I recovered the FOX system I found some paper tapes which I dumped a few years ago.
Unfortunately no FOXBORO labelled ones with the FPL development system per se, but one of
them was a complete 28KW core dump of the running system that quite possibly has the FPL
kernel along with the steelworks oxygen plant monitoring application on it. I've not
looked at it since then though, would be better left for someone who can knowledgeably
analyse them and see if there's anything interesting.
13
days inactive
21
days old
33 comments
19 participants
participants (19)
-
ben -
Bill Gunshannon -
Cameron Kaiser -
Fred Cisin -
Gary Grebus -
Gavin Scott -
Glen Slick -
Gordon Henderson -
Graham Toal -
Harald Arnesen -
Jim Davis -
Jon Elson -
Ken Seefried -
Mark Green -
Nadav Eiron -
Paul Koning -
paul.kimpel＠digm.com -
steven＠malikoff.com steven＠malikoff.com -
Van Snyder