26 Aug
2021
26 Aug
'21
6:46 p.m.
On 8/26/21 5:14 PM, Ray Jewhurst via cctalk wrote:
Hello all,
Long time lurker, extremely rare poster, I was reading the Wikipedia
article on the IBM 1620 and became quite intrigued. I know that there is a
simulator for it on SimH but I have never ran or simulated any card-driven
machines before. I have all the documentation and the ibm1620.zip file
from bitsavers but I am not sure what to do next. I know I would like to
try Monitor, Fortran-II and possibly GOTRAN but I have so many questions.
I read the SimH documentation which gave me some understanding but I don't
know exactly how the card decks work, how to install Monitor or how to boot
Monitor once it is installed since I know you have to boot off a deck. My
final question is, is there an easy to use card-driven machine to cut my
teeth on? Also, any anecdotes on any of the old IBM computers would be
both welcome and greatly appreciated.
Cards are just ASCII lines separated by newlines>
For more information, see:
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/3610586/ibm-1620-simulator-usage-01-…
It's been years since I used the SIMH 1620 simulator, so I can't even
claim to be remotely current. I used it to check out some sample code
back then.
My reaction: It's just not the same. I guess you had to be there.
Did anyone manage to snag a copy of Monitor IID? Or is the only extant
version Monitor I? The differences were significant.
Also, don't forget SPS!
If you're new to the 1620, I recommend the following book:
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/1620/Basic_Programming_Concepts_and_the_IBM_16…
If you want to use a totally (i.e. no disk) card-driven version of the
1620, I'd recommend that you start with simple machine language
programs. I (dimly) recall that using the card-only FORTRAN compiler
was a bit of a chore: read pass 1, read your program, while punching an
intermediate deck, read pass 2 and the intermediate deck, read the
subroutine library and wind up with an executable deck.
--Chuck