Re: New Vax - future directions :-)

[Dave McGuire <mcguire%neurotica.com@localhost>]

On 7/7/21 9:34 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> On 2021-07-07 15:03, Paul Koning wrote:
>>
>>
>>> On Jul 7, 2021, at 8:02 AM, Johnny Billquist <bqt%update.uu.se@localhost> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 2021-07-07 13:37, Anders Magnusson wrote:
>>>> Den 2021-07-07 kl. 11:37, skrev Hans Rosenfeld:
>>>>>> ...
>>>>> And, can we perhaps get a PDP11 compatibility mode, too? Like the one
>>>>> early VAX-11 models had? Please? :)
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for breathing some life back into the VAX, and into port-vax.
>>>>> This is so amazing on so many levels. :)
>>>> Hm, I haven't thought of that before, but it might be quite trivial
>>>> to do that.
>>>> Almost no extra hardware, just a separate match for the microassembler.
>>>
>>> I'd be a little curious on why anyone would want it, though. (Even
>>> me, being a PDP-11 fanatic, isn't that interested in this
>>> compatibility mode...)
>>
>> It allows running early VMS releases.
> 
> Ah. True. But would you even try to do that on some new FPGA
> implementation of a VAX?

  I sure has hell would.

> If I wanted to run old VMS, seems like simh would be a simpler way.

  Simpler, and lesser...but that seems not to be the point.  Don't get
me wrong, simh is amazing and I use it all the time, but face it, it's
the computer equivalent of an inflatable rubber girl doll.  It will get
the job done, but real hardware is a whole lot more satisfying.

  Seriously, who where wouldn't be interested in, say, a 1U rackmount
current-hardware VAX?

              -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA