19 Sep
2020
19 Sep
'20
3:48 p.m.
Noel Chiappa wrote:
I'm not sure CONS ever ran as a stand-alone
system; I suspect (but
don't recall for sure; RG, TK or Moon or someone could confirm one way
or the other) that it ran as a loosely-coupled co-processor to MC, the
way the Chess Machine did.
I believe you are entirely correct, except it was AI rather than MC. As
I'm sure you know, AI had the Rubin 10-11 interface with eight Unibuses
for attaching processors through shared memory. MC had the DTE20 and
DL10, but those were for PDP-11 front ends.
The Chess Machine CHEOPS was used with MacHack VI running on MC, but
communicating over Chaosnet. At least, that's how I interpret the code
in MacHack.
This doesn't make me less interested in emulating both CONS and CHEOPS.
Time permitting - which it doesn't. I don't see any technical
obstacles; we already have one of the 10-11 processors working. I have
reviewed the amount of preserved software, and I think chances are good
microcode and microassemblers for CONS and CHEOPS still exist.
There is some debate over whether the CONS had a display of its own, and
if so whether it could draw to a bitmap. Do you remember? As a mid-70s
technology, it might be a contender for one of the early GUIs this
thread is about.
The CONS and the Chess Machine were both in the same
room; 906-907 or
so: [...] When the first CADR was built, its console was in the room
next door (in the higher-numbered room direction); I remember watching
over Moon's shouulder the night they first tried to boot it.
I have talked to Lispm enthusiasts, and they have a hard time
pinpointing a birthdate for the CADR. Do you have a recollection when,
even what year, the first boot attempt was?
My information says room 907 at various points in time housed CADR-1,
"Chess, Lisp machines", Lisp Machine Consoles, GT40 (Lisp machine).