--- Doc <doc_at_mdrconsult.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Jan 2002, Ethan Dicks wrote:
> >
> > The reason for using the other VAX is to use it to easily create the
> > filesystem on the emulated tape. If you had a way to read the tape
> > that you do have, you could just put the image on the PC, run the
> > TU-58 emulator and go.
>
> OK, the reason I haven't joined this thread before is that I'm almost
> entirely ignorant wrt console tapes. Plus, up to this point an emulated
> TU-58 wouldn't get data off the orphan tapes, so an emulator wouldn't
> help much.
Not if you were starting from absolute scratch. One idea I had was that
if you had another VAX, one that has the binary files that the console
tape needs (the text files can be fairly easily created - they are less
than a page of text each), there might be a way to squirt the files into
the TU-58 emulator that could be pulled back out by the target 11/730.
> My question is, why go the small-PC route instead of using something
> like the TU-58 emulator at
> http://www.sparetimegizmos.com/Hardware/TU58_Emulator.htm ?
>
> It is really a question, not a suggestion. I think I'm missing a
> point somewhere....
The point, at least for me, is that, while the hardware emulator is
cool, the software/PC emulator is cheaper by loads - more power draw,
but it doesn't have to be on full-time. Personally, I would probably
throw a 16Mb box w/multiple serial ports and an ethernet port, all
Linux-friendly. That way, I could log in remotely from another point
on my network, and play with the files used by the emulator. DOS would
not allow that. Hey... you could even throw up Apache and put the
emulator data files in a place that could be inspected by a cgi-script
for "web-u-lation". :-)
I think the hardware-based TU-58 emulator is really cool, but I'm more
likely to throw together something in a $10 PeeCee-oid box.
-ethan
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Received on Wed Jan 16 2002 - 22:30:38 GMT