nigwil_

2 yıl öncediscuss

screen capture of the present day PERQ emulator running a demo shown originally at SIGGRAPH 1982

https://imgur.com/gallery/3-rivers-computer-corporation-perq...

nigwil_

2 yıl öncediscuss

Richard Cornwell's emulator is implemented within the OpenSimH framework, and forms the basis of PiDP-10:

https://github.com/rcornwell/sims/tree/master?tab=readme-ov-...

From the GitHub entry: The KA10 sim has successfully run Tops 10 4.5, 5.03 and 6.03, ITS and WAITS. The KI10 sim has successfully run Tops 10 6.03 with VMSER. The KL10 sim has successfully run Tops 10 6.03-7.03, ITS and Tops 20 V2-V7. The KS10 sim has successfully run Tops 10, Tops 20 and ITS.

PiDP-10 can run a variety of PDP-10 operating systems, although the front-panel is specific to the early KA10 model.

nigwil_

2 yıl öncediscuss

Or a video introduction if you prefer: https://youtu.be/E0Pp63gsdZI?si=yJCX-CS1T6zsYiLY

nigwil_

3 yıl öncediscuss

The reason some of us MTBers switched: a single outing with rim-brakes in wet/muddy/dusty conditions would grind a set of pads to nothing (adding $25+ per outing for replacements), along with the wheel rim being ground thin to the point where the wheel wall would fail. Disc brakes last repeated use in adverse conditions and braking force remained consistent over many hours.

nigwil_

3 yıl öncediscuss

MPW had an interesting About box animation too. I recorded this back in 2011 using vMac emulator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJn3qxK9Br0

nigwil_

3 yıl öncediscuss

save a click: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03442

nigwil_

4 yıl öncediscuss

Detailed exposition here:

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/burroughs/B5000_5500_5700/Organick_...

nigwil_

4 yıl öncediscuss

I think it is worth mentioning that this was Robert Dewar's second or third Ada implementation (depending on how you want to count them). Robert was involved with the original Ada/Ed implementation from the late 1970s/early 1980s at NYU (targeting VAX minicomputers), and the re-implementation of that into a C-based implementation that ran on MS-DOS. Ada/Ed was the first validated Ada implementation, and it used SETL as its implementation language which Robert was actively involved in through the 1970s (so he had a long track record of language implementations).

What we are missing about the Ada story is the long line of languages and tools that inspired the Green design that lead to Ada, that is the language LIS (Pascal/Simula inspired) and its toolchain that Jean Ichbiah and associates used as inspiration for the Ada design.

nigwil_

4 yıl öncediscuss

Excel Versus Excel! EVE...

nigwil_

4 yıl öncediscuss

https://pushbx.org/ecm/8086tiny/doc.html

nigwil_

4 yıl öncediscuss

Could use Automator with AppleScript:

  x@Mac-mini-M1 ~ % cat ClearClipboard.scpt 
  on run
   tell application "System Events" to set the clipboard to ""
  end run
  x@Mac-mini-M1 ~ %

nigwil_

4 yıl öncediscuss

Unisys has been very supportive of our efforts to find and preserve early Burroughs software and generously provided corporate time to arrange licensing and provide copies of anything they still had. Burroughs B5000 series now has a rich library of software and several emulator implementations (web-browser, simh and standalone). However the B6000/7000 family software recovery is sparse with critical pieces still missing, we are unable to bootstrap a working MCP as yet.

nigwil_

4 yıl öncediscuss

"In the case of CHERI, this was to change the user-visible abstract machine exposed by hardware in a way that hasn’t been done for mainstream hardware since the PDP-11." - the authors should take the time to familiarise themselves with the Burroughs B6700 (designed in the 1960s) which provided tagged memory, and a similar mechanism to CHERI architectural capabilities through the B6700 descriptor mechanism.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_large_systems_descriptors

The PDP-11 minicomputer was a low-cost and undoubtably successful for its time system but a low bar for architectural sophistication or an exemplar for state of the art in computer architecture particularly in terms of memory design.

CHERI is a welcome development in producing safer systems, but it is packaging ideas that have been around for 50+ years, long overdue of course, but finally hardware costs have commoditised such that these ideas can be baked into mass produced hardware.

nigwil_

5 yıl öncediscuss

Dave Ackley explores this aspect here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXiqMGhn9rk

nigwil_

5 yıl öncediscuss

"PCI-e is descendant from Infiniband which in turn is decendant from ServerNet ..." When you say PCIe descended from IB, at the signalling layer or a higher layer? Can you suggest a starting place to understand this lineage please, was it in the PCIe standards group discussions? I've not heard of this relationship before and I'm not having much luck finding the original discussion.

nigwil_

5 yıl öncediscuss

I asked Wilm in Sep-2020 and three were produced as a one-off build, Wilm did not indicate any intention to produce more.

nigwil_

5 yıl öncediscuss

In computing history claims like "first" and "commercial success" need to be qualified and defined, and therein things become difficult since timing and thresholds matter to meet a generally acceptable standard of either claim.

In the 1960s, several companies were selling commercial database management systems (as a distinct product), for example: IBM IMS, Univac DMS and General Electric IDS. These ideas were established to a level that there was a database standard committee known as CODASYL active from 1959 onward.

There is a good overview of the 1960s here: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-0-387-3474...

nigwil_

6 yıl öncediscuss

IBM AIX (IBM's variant of the UNIX operating system) has long supported IPoFC (IP over Fibre Channel). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AIX

nigwil_

6 yıl öncediscuss

This map from Feb-1978 shows Illiac IV connected to ARPANET (top-left of diagram):

https://i.imgur.com/7hSaVVf.png

By this time Illiac IV had been connected to ARPAnet since Nov-1975.

The Illiac IV had various supporting systems: Burroughs B6700, DEC PDP-10 and PDP-11s.

Map is from this document: https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a482154.pdf

nigwil_

6 yıl öncediscuss

I have been attempting to locate software for the Illiac IV. I corresponded with as many of the people involved with it I could easily find online and with NASA Ames (which has a history office!).

I've been looking for software such as this:

ASK - assembler for the Illiac IV on the Burroughs B5500 and later B6700

SSK - simulator for the Illiac IV on the Burroughs B5500 and later B6700

CFD - a FORTRAN like language targeted at CFD

Glypnir - ALGOL like language, likely not used at Ames

VECTORAL - vector processing language used at Ames

So far nothing has been found except the manual for CFD.

Submissions

One petabyte in 1RU (one rack unit)

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