780 simulator project

Patrick Finnegan pat at computer-refuge.org
Wed Jan 5 22:41:33 CST 2005


Bob Supnik declared on Tuesday 04 January 2005 09:09 am:
> I've finished, and am debugging, a VAX-11/780 simulator, with the goal
> of running VMS V1, early BSD releases, and other 'first VAX' code.
>
> There are a couple of critical missing pieces.  In particular, I need
>
> 1) 780 PROM bootstrap contents.  This was the 4KB of PROM located in
> the MS780 memory controllers.  A binary dump would be sufficient, the
> simulator can dissassemble VAX code.
> 2) LSI11 console PROM contents.  The LSI11 console ran out of a boot
> PROM.  This is less critical but would help with understanding the
> fine details of the console-CPU interaction.  Again, a binary dump
> suffices. 

I've most likely got copies of these in my /780.  Sometime I need to get 
back around to fixing that machine (IIRC, the CIB is probably broken, as 
I can't see the registers and PROM on it from the LSI11).  Hopefully 
that's something simple that's broken (and is easily replacable) like 
bus buffer chips or something.  But, I digress.  I'll go and grab the 
cards out of the machine in a few minutes, and hook up the EPROM burner 
tomorrow to read them.

> 3) VMS V1 floppy kit.  While early tape distributions have 
> been found, the console floppies have not.  The most critical ones are
> the tape restore program and the system bootstrap (VMB).  Getting a
> 780 online required

I should have copies of these, but I don't know if I can get them read 
in.

Pat
-- 
Purdue University ITAP/RCS        --- http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/
The Computer Refuge               --- http://computer-refuge.org



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