Regarding adding reader control: I did just that for my PDP-8/L, as
even my old ancient 8088 could overrun the 8/L when I was sending it
diagnostics. I just put a level shifter on that control signal
consisting of a clamp diode or two and a couple of resistors to one of
the RS-232 model control lines (probably DTE or DCE). Worked great.
JRJ
On 12/2/2012 9:46 AM, Michael Thompson wrote:
For some reason the misbehaving TC01 controller on the
PDP-8/I at the
RICM decide work yesterday. Possibly due to the low temperature in the
RICM warehouse. We took advantage of the situation and formatted and
tested five DECtapes.
Following the procedure in Appendix-A of the 4k Disk System Monitor
System Disk System manual, we ran the DEC-D8-SBAF-PB 4k Disk System
Monitor System Disk System Builder. We told it that the 8/I system
does not have any disks or a high-speed paper tape reader. The System
Builder wrote the Monitor, Loader, Command Decoder, Directory, and
Storage Allocation Block Maps to the DECtape. We were able to enter
the DECtape bootstrap program and boot the 4k monitor.
The next installation step is to add programs to the DECtape. We
continued with the procedure in Appendix-A.4. When the console
displayed an ^ we entered a CTRL-P and then told the terminal emulator
to send DEC-D8-PDAD-PB Disk System PIP-DF32 tape image. After sending
about 1,500 characters the 8/I started echoing the characters from the
tape image on the console and the command processor tried to use the
input as commands. Somehow, after receiving 1,500 characters the 4k
monitor switched from paper tape input mode to command mode.
I am not sure if this configuration can be duplicated on one of the
emulators. If someone could try the monitor installation and
subsequent loading of programs from a real "Teletype" it would be
interesting to see if it works. If it does work, then maybe we need to
add the reader control circuitry to the 20mA/RS-232 converter that we
are using to connect a PC to the PDP-8/I.
Any advice would be appreciated.