microcoding a PC into a PDP-11 (was: RE: Classic Computers vs. Classic Computing)

From: emanuel stiebler <emu_at_ecubics.com>
Date: Tue Sep 18 12:01:21 2001

Jonathan Engdahl wrote:
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > [mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of emanuel stiebler
> > Jonathan Engdahl wrote:
> >
> > sizes. Prices are
> > > about $100 per meg. Something called "flash DIMM" shows up on
> > >
> > Looking at this prices, what happened to the old 3.5" floppy drive ?
> > If you can start a complete/compressed linux/firewall from there, should
> > be enough to start an emulator.
> > And, BTW, not all of the pc motherboard chip sets supports FLASH DIMM
> > (any ?),
> > so you're stuck then with some motherboards.
>
> Very good point. I was thinking that it would be nice to have a machine that
> was a PDP-11 as soon as you flipped on the power, but probably not worth the
> cost and hassle of the flash.

And, what I forgot to write is that the flash is slower anyway, so you
copy the
software from flash to *RAM anyway.

> Didn't some of the VAXen boot their microcode
> from a floppy?

yes
 
> Also, that way you could have one microcode floppy for each classic
> architecture.

works only if you have the OS on the floppy too.
 
> I think that my emulator idea can be made to work under Win32.

Sorry, I missed that. What is so special about your idea ?
(No offense, just missed you posting I guess ;-))

> It appears there are facilities allowing an application
> program to catch access violations.

Sure. But it is easier to check this yourself.

cheers
Received on Tue Sep 18 2001 - 12:01:21 BST