booting os/8

[Bill Gunshannon]

________________________________________
From: cctalk [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] on behalf of Don North via cctalk [cctalk at classiccmp.org]
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2017 5:30 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: booting os/8

On 3/22/2017 10:47 AM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
> ________________________________________
> From: cctalk [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] on behalf of W2HX via cctalk [cctalk at classiccmp.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2017 11:49 PM
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts (cctalk at classiccmp.org)
> Subject: booting os/8
>
> Hi folks,
>
> I have a PDP-8/e that I've been working on. I have completed construction of AK6DN's RX01/02 emulator. I got to the step tonight where I was trying to boot an OS/8 disk image and nothing was happening. I realized that I do not have the bootstrap diode board in my 8/e so begin the bootstrap triggered by the "SW" switch.
>
> Does anyone have the program I can toggle in for the bootloader? What I found is somewhat confusing. Here is a discussion on this topic.
>
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/alt.sys.pdp8/RX01$20boot|sort:relevance/alt.sys.pdp8/9-GCoA0PCLA/370T3R-Ru_AJ
>
> It seems one fellow was attempting to edit/improve the bootloader of another fellow. I was wondering if anyone has distilled this into something simple. At the moment, I care only about booting from RX01-Disk0.
>
> Any pointers greatly appreciated. Thanks
> Eugene W2HX
> ___________________________________________
>
> Well, I am sure glad someone posted this.  I had never heard of the work done by AK6DN and have considered
> looking into such a project in the past.
>
> So, has anyone looked at someting sililar for RL drives?
>
> bill

Look here:   http://www.vcfed.org/forum/blog.php?12663-AK6DN   for info on my Arduino based RX02 emulator using a microSD card.
Works on RX11/RXV11/RX8E as RX01, RX211/RXV21/RX28 as RX02. Passes DEC hardware diagnostics.

Reinhard has done an FPGA based RL01/2 drive emulator, see:   http://www.pdp11gy.com/indexE.html#file:///E:/homepage/indexE.html

Don
aka AK6DN
______________________________________________

I saw that.  I ordered a set of boards from OSHPark today.  Once they come I will see about ordering the
parts and building at least one.  I may wish I had more controillers. :-)

I will take a look at the FPGA solution.  But I still have to ask, is there any reason why it could not be done
with an Arduimo like the RX emulator?  I haven't researched it deeply, but I never thought the RL drive
itnerface was all that complex.

bill