Reproducing old machines with newer technology (Re: PDP-12 at the RICM)

[Jay Jaeger]

The reason I choose to use VHDL (or Verilog), both of which really *are*
IEEE standards:  future portability and broadness of access across
multiple manufacturer's devices in the future, and compatibility with
logic simulators.

The 1130 is more modern than the machines I am interested in.  While
there are still several 1401's our there in the wild I am aware of no
IBM 1410's anywhere, unless IBM has one squirreled away somewhere.

JRJ

On 7/14/2015 11:16 AM, ben wrote:
> On 7/14/2015 9:46 AM, Jay Jaeger wrote:
>> My work has been using structural models, at the gate level, in VHDL
>> (Verilog would be fine, too, of course).  Individual components (for
>> example, a piece of an IBM SMS card, or in my existing case, gates made
>> available to student engineers that were actually individual
>> gates/chunks of DTL chips) get little behavioral models.  As I
>> mentioned, so far what I have done is reproduce and test a 12 bit
>> computer designed in an electrical engineering course on logic/computer
>> design.  In August I plan on publishing my experience on a website.
>>
>> I would note that I also see value in the behavioral approach, which
>> really would be considerably more detailed than what you get form SimH.
>>   The IBM 1410 cycle-level simulator I have written is closer to what one
>> might get from a behavioral model, but even that is not quite so
>> detailed.
>>
>> Using the structural / gate level techniques, one does run into some
>> issues, most of which have (or will probably have) solutions:
>>
>> 1)  R/S latches composed of gates in a combinatorial loop.  The problems
>> this causes are several, including the latch getting folded into the
>> look up tables for gates which use the signal, and issues when one
>> brings such a signal out to an I/O pin to feed to a logic analyzer,
>> which can cause problems to appear and disappear.  My experience is that
>> one can add a D flip flop after the RS latch.  This typically works
>> because at 50 Mhz, it adds only 20 ns delay, which is comparable to gate
>> delays these old machines typically had.
>>
>> 2)  One-shots.  I haven't had to address this one yet, but I am sure
>> that I will.  I expect that one can simply use a counter to handle it -
>> no big deal at all.
>>
>> 3)  Flip flops which are clocked from combinatorial signals.  These tend
>> to cause timing/glitch issues.  For example, in one case the
>> combinatorial output was a zero-check on a counter.  Since the counter
>> flip flops did not all change at exactly the same time, that signal
>> could glitch during the simulated machines master clock edge.  They
>> respond well to the same general solution as #1 - stick a D flip flop
>> between the combinatorial output and the clock input.  In the case I
>> mentioned, that gave the signal an entire 50 Mhz clock period to settle
>> down.
>>
>> And of course, getting the detailed information one needs to develop
>> such a model can be a challenge.  Fortunately for the older IBM
>> machines, IBM produced ALDs - Automated Logic Diagrams - which I hope
>> will generally have enough information.
>>
>> My experience on FPGA forums during the development of my 12 bit
>> computer implementation was mixed.  I got some helpful comments, but the
>> majority of folks were not helpful, and instead preferred to bash me for
>> not redoing the entire machine design using FPGA's the way these
>> particular folks felt was "the only right way" to use them.  Bah.
>>
>> JRJ
> 
> I have felt the right way is NOT to use VHDL or VERLOG  sadly. I use
> altera and using AHDL is the best for me as it cleanest language so far.
> FPGA's have never been standard logic, so why force standards, if you
> can not even agree on gates latches and flipflops in fpgas.
> 
> Here is the link you have been waiting for, IBM 1130 in FPGA and in the
> FLESH.
> http://ibm1130.blogspot.ca/
> 
> Ben.
> PS: Don't use blog format for the web site, they are a pain to read
> or search if what you want is more than few years old.
> 
> 
> 
>