using an FPGA to emulate a vintage computer
in [FPGA]
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From: James Dow Allen on 6 Feb 2010 06:29 On Feb 6, 1:19 am, Eric Chomko <pne.cho...(a)comcast.net> wrote: > Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? It's the answer to a different question of course, but a National Semiconducter subsidiary once tried to emulate an IBM 3033 at full speed using Fairchild 100k parts. .... the reason for failure is interesting ... James Dow Allen
From: Nico Coesel on 6 Feb 2010 07:35 Eric Chomko <pne.chomko(a)comcast.net> wrote: >Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? I >was wondering if it would be possible to take an entire SWTPC 6800 and >compile the schematics and have it run on an FPGA board.? Wouldn't >even have to be the latest Xylinx product, I suspect. Many people already did that. http://www.hat.hi-ho.ne.jp/tujikawa/esepld/esemsx2/ -- Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico(a)nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) --------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jonathan Bromley on 6 Feb 2010 08:23 On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:33:24 -0800, Mike Treseler wrote: >http://www.grc.com/pdp-8/pdp-8.htm Wow, thanks for that wonderful link, and thanks to the wonderful but certifiably deranged people who put together all those resources. I cut my teeth on PDP8s in various forms; FOCAL was my first programming language; a PDP8/a (yes, I know, not a real classic but a nice Classic nonetheless) was the first computer whose guts I got to mess with. That one was mostly 74-TTL, with quite a lot of small bipolar PROMs for its state machines. (For the youngsters: "small" here means 256 byte or thereabouts. Byte, not kilobyte, please note.) And I totally agree with all the hagiography on that site celebrating the 8's superb economy of design, in the days when that desperately mattered. It spilt over into programming too. OS/8 required you to write device drivers in only 256 12-bit words; I managed to do one of those myself. DEC got the entire FORTRAN runtime library into only 4K of (self-modifying!!) code. Sorry, I'm rambling. I'm still on a nostalgia high after a visit to the fabulous collection of old computer equipment in the Deutsches Museum in Munich a couple of weeks ago. Strangely, though, they had no DEC equipment at all! -- Jonathan Bromley
From: Al Kossow on 6 Feb 2010 12:10 On 2/6/10 3:29 AM, James Dow Allen wrote: > On Feb 6, 1:19 am, Eric Chomko<pne.cho...(a)comcast.net> wrote: >> Has anyone created a copy machine of an old system using an FPGA? > > It's the answer to a different question of course, > but a National Semiconducter subsidiary once tried to > emulate an IBM 3033 at full speed using Fairchild 100k parts. > ... the reason for failure is interesting ... > > James Dow Allen I would be interested in what the reason for failure was. I assume it wasn't the obvious chip-chip delays using commodity ICs.
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler on 6 Feb 2010 13:15
James Dow Allen <jdallen2000(a)yahoo.com> writes: > It's the answer to a different question of course, > but a National Semiconducter subsidiary once tried to > emulate an IBM 3033 at full speed using Fairchild 100k parts. > ... the reason for failure is interesting ... in the early 80s los gatos did custom hardware for chip logic simulation (LSM ... "losgatos state machine" ... then "logic simulation machine" for publication) ... dozen plus rack boxes ... ran 50,000 times faster faster than logic simulation in software on 3033 this mentions putting 4.5 meter dish in back parking lot of los gatos lab (and on east coast in field near yorkton research). http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#57 watches a dish also went into austin ... and austin credits the link and access to hardware logic simulation (relatively high bandwidth for the period .... for transmission of chip design files) with helping bring in the RIOS chipset 12 months early ... recent reference to six chipset RIOS (aka POWER, used in rs/6000). http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#20 Processes' memory later hardware logic simulators assumed synchronous clock ... but the LSM had clock support ... allowed simulation of digital chips with analog circuits ... (the then) new generation of thin-film disk heads and chips with non-globally synchronous circuit. however, the 3033 in bldg. 15 (disk product test lab) was used for air bearing software simulation (shape for floating disk heads) ... misc. past posts getting to play disk engineer in bldgs. 14&15 http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk misc. past posts mentioning LSM http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002d.html#3 Chip Emulators - was How does a chip get designed? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#55 Multics hardware (was Re: "Soul of a New Machine" Computer?) http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#77 Pipelining in the past http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#82 Future architecture http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002j.html#26 LSM, YSE, & EVE http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003.html#31 asynchronous CPUs http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003k.html#3 Ping: Anne & Lynn Wheeler http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003k.html#14 Ping: Anne & Lynn Wheeler http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003o.html#38 When nerds were nerds http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004j.html#16 US fiscal policy (Was: Bob Bemer, Computer Pioneer,Father of ASCII,Invento http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004o.html#25 CKD Disks? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004o.html#65 360 longevity, was RISCs too close to hardware? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005c.html#6 [Lit.] Buffer overruns http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005d.html#33 Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006q.html#42 Was FORTRAN buggy? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006r.html#11 Was FORTRAN buggy? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#73 Is computer history taught now? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007h.html#61 Fast and Safe C Strings: User friendly C macros to Declare and use C Strings http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007l.html#53 Drums: Memory or Peripheral? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#58 Is Parallel Programming Just Too Hard? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#61 Is Parallel Programming Just Too Hard? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#22 What if phone company had developed Internet? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#67 1401 simulator for OS/360 http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#68 CA to IBM TCP Conversion http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#68 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009k.html#75 Disksize history question http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009m.html#63 What happened to computer architecture (and comp.arch?) -- 42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970 |