On 2021-07-07 16:31, Paul Koning wrote:
On Jul 7, 2021, at 9:51 AM, Johnny Billquist <bqt%update.uu.se@localhost> wrote:...It would, but doesn't SIMH need work to be able to install VMS V1? I seem to remember that it requires a more complete emulation of the console than is currently available.Not sure. I believe I've read about people getting VMS V1 up and running, but I don't know if it required some fiddling around. But I still sortof fail understanding why something like the Ragge FPGA VAX would be interesting to have PDP-11 emulation on. Like I said, I seriously doubt it would be capable of running early VMS for multiple other reasons. And the PDP-11 mode in the VAX have limitations that makes it much less attractive than any normal PDP-11.In the words of Edmund Hillary, "because it is there". It's fun to try to run old software on new hardware.
I wonder/suspect it might be complicated to even use it.Did anything except VMS ever make any use of it? (NetBSD for sure not, but I don't think Ultrix or ELN cared either.) With VMS, I do believe you will need AME installed, and I wonder how that one will react if you come with some new machine, but which actually do have the built-in mode.
But it would also be hard for a user to tell. When AME is installed, you can run the PDP-11 software on any VAX. AME does it in software for machines that don't have the hardware.
It's close to useless to try and run any PDP-11 software without AME, since the PDP-11 mode have such limitations in itself.
So this becomes more a question of "fun to run old software on new hardware - it should work either with or without that HW, but in my head I know there is a difference".
I've run RSTS/E on an FPGA (in simulation) for the same reason. I still want to finish my CDC 6600 FPGA even though the DtCyber emulator is a lot faster.
I do consider this to be a rather different thing than the PDP-11 mode of the VAX...
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt%softjar.se@localhost || Reading murder books
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