Using DECmate III from terminal

From: allisonp <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Mon Jun 12 18:26:54 2000

>>To do thiswould require modding the slushware so that a normal console
>>requests are mapped to another port.
>
>Which is exactly what my suggestion to modify the address intialization
>table in the ROM does. Yeah, you need to have an EPROM burner, but that
>goes back to what the definition of "possible" is.


Well read on. I did say that the existant trapping ports 03/04 (603x and
604x)
that corospond to nominal PDP-8 console are also incomplete and cannot fall
into the interrupt skip chain as a nominal TTY (m-series) module would.
Sure
revised slushware can fix some ills but, not all. Add to that the printer
and COM
ports are using devices that are also off the PDP-8 track. It really ends
up
that despite slushware the hardware is enough odd that standard PDP-8
code (aka OS/8 and programming handbook examples) do not work or
have to be modifed from the source code side like OS/278 was.

Impossible, no. Reasonable, I don't think so. I've played with the 6100
and 6120 enough to know it's just enough different from PDP-8 that it does
make a difference with IO and most peripherals. Still, it's usability and
perfomance as a hybrid is nothing to ignore. For those interested in
programming the PDP-8 like 6120 it's a great platform to see how a
simple machine is anything but.

For my $.02 finding a tube (vr201 or any monochrome monitor) and
a DEC keyboard are not that bug a challenge as they were widely used
on rainbow, pro and terminals. Making the cable used is also not that
hard.

If there was any hack at all that is worth adding it's the real reset button
I have on mine. Saves power cycling.

Allison
Received on Mon Jun 12 2000 - 18:26:54 BST