All this talk about the HP 64000 has got me thinking...
The HP 165xB Inverse Assembler Toolkit includes a DOS-based table
assembler that appears to be derived from something used on the HP
64000, and it spits out what the manual calls a "HP 64000 format
relocatable object file". This is what the analyser loads to run an IA.
Did HP ever publish a spec for the .R (relocatable object) file, or has
it ever been successfully reverse engineered?
This is one of those "curiosity killed the cat" type projects; I've been
wanting to use the HP LA inverse assemblers on a PC since I got my 1651B
(mainly because a PC can theoretically handle a much larger symbol table).
Writing an assembler / compiler for my own custom format and VM is
always an option, I suppose, but I'd rather like to be able to run the
HP IAs that I don't have the source code for (ISTR I've got a 68000 one
somewhere).
Thanks,
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/