Second release of the HP 3000 Series III simulator

[js at cimmeri.com]

As always, amazing, Dave!

- J.

On 7/7/2016 10:36 AM, J. David Bryan wrote:
> The second release of the HP 3000 Series III simulator is now available
> from the Computer History Simulation Project (SIMH) site:
>
>    https://github.com/simh/simh
>
> This release adds a simulation of the HP 2607, 2613, 2617, and 2618 line
> printers and supports the use of custom VFU tape images, as well as the
> built-in HP-standard VFU tape.  The full set of configurable options is
> detailed in a new section of the HP 3000 Simulator User's Guide that is
> provided in Microsoft Word format in the "doc" subdirectory of the code
> base snapshot downloaded from the github site.  A PDF version of the
> updated manual is also available at:
>
>    http://alum.mit.edu/www/jdbryan/hp3000_doc.pdf
>
> In addition, the preconfigured MPE-V/R disc image available from Bitsavers:
>
>    http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/HP/HP_3000/
>
> ...has been updated to add the following features:
>
>    - The MPE cold load command files attach the line printer to the "lp.txt"
>      output file and specify the "-n" option to clear the file before use.
>
>    - Preinstalled User-Defined Commands (UDCs) provide access to the COBOL
>      74 compiler with the MPE-V/E :COBOLII, :COBOLIIPREP, and :COBOLIIGO
>      commands, and to the COBOL 85 compiler with :COBOLIIX,
>      :COBOLIIXPREP, and :COBOLIIXGO.  However, note that the simulator
>      currently does not provide the HP 32234A COBOL II firmware
>      instructions, so programs generated by the COBOLII compiler will
>      abort at run time with "ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION" errors, limiting the
>      current utility of the compilers to syntax checking.
>
> Thanks once again go to Frank McConnell for providing the HP line printer
> subsystems manuals that facilitated development of the new simulation, and
> to Robert Mills for providing the COBOLII UDCs.
>
>                                        -- Dave
>
>
>