9 Dec
2004
9 Dec
'04
3:21 p.m.
I've got some documentation that might help.
I also have an Imlac, a very early PDS-1 'alpha' machine.
(it cannot run Mazewar).
There are several block loaders I have the source
code for, some written for paper tape, others for
the serial interface.
There are also two formats for the paper tape
code, 8-bit and 4-bit modes, each with its own
block loader program, for each interface of course.
I'll try to post a summary of the 8-bit and 4-bit
formats. Tom Uban has some information on
the loaders, and some code he used to get his
PDS-1D on the air listed on his web site.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ross Wilson" <wilsonr(a)iinet.net.au>
To: <cctech(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 4:50 AM
Subject: IMLAC - what happened to assembler, emulator?
Hi all,
I've been lurking here since a slashdot article on the
30th anniversary of Maze, the first lan/wan FPS, which was
run on an IMLAC.
I was very interested in this as I programmed an IMLAC -
PDS-4, I guess - in 1977/8 at Sydney University (au) and
have good memories of the machine.
I saw hints on the list that an assembler was imminent
and an emulator was under consideration. That was September
2002, and nothing since. I am really interested in an
emulator - I have an emulation of the main processor running
and got it loading 'paper tapes' from disk via the paper
tape boot loader. I've used this to load code from hand
assembled files to test the emulation and I would like to
go a little further a little faster.
Does anybody have information on the format of the data the
papertape block-loader reads and loads? The block loader is
the first thing the boot loader runs - it reads in the rest
of the tape.
Also, does anyone know of or has any software (source or binary)
on papertape or any other form? I have no idea of the current
ownership, if any, of the existing IMLAC software, and I could
write an assembler, but it's so much more cool to run the IMLAC assembler!
TIA,
Ross