13 Oct
2002
13 Oct
'02
5:08 a.m.
--- Loboyko Steve <sloboyko(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
On the FOCAL issue, I think I read that FOCAL
can't
load text very quickly - you have to stop and start
the tape every line or two.
An ASR-33 for DEC hardware has a "reader run" relay and
current loop. The CPU steps the reader one character at
a time to prevent this sort of thing. My ASR-33 _is_
one of these.
I have noticed this with
my PDP/8e clone and not-very-fast (around 100 CPS)
paper tape reader. It may use its own intepreter to
store coding in RAM, so it might be very slow in this
area.
The DEC highspeed reader controls the tape feed, just like
a TTY. This sort of thing was a problem in the old days, so
DEC engineered solutions for it.
If you can load FOCAL itself in via paper tape,
this kind of proves that the PTR itself is OK.
The PTR itself is OK. Where I suspect the problem is in the CPU.
The BIN loader (which loads FOCAL) does not use a wide range of
instructions. I expect that I have a dirty card edge or blown gate
that is causing less-common instructions to fail in interesting
ways. I need to sit down with the diag tapes (which I have) and
the instructions (which I also have) and run this box through its
paces, one paper tape at a time.
--- Ethan Dicks <erd_6502(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> Got some minor processor glitch I haven't tracked
> down yet... I get the FOCAL prompt, but it won't load
> Hammurabi...
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