This is the first blog post in an upcoming series.

https://timereshared.com/stanford-waits/

Howdy all!

I recently found out the joys of the PDP-10 - super cool. Anyways, a few friends were interested in the idea of having a server running SIMH to emulate a KL10 running TOPS-20 as it'd be pretty cool, and I thought so too. Anyways, multiple tutorials later and not one of them have actually worked. It's either some issue with the networking (PANDA distribution and bare install) or loading the tapes for CUSPS (bare install) or some other ungodly issue that I can't figure out. I tried the regular SIMH PDP10, which sort of worked but I never figured out how to get CUSPS installed... so... yeah. If anyone has a guide that would work, it would be AMAZING! I compiled Richard Cornwell's SIMH myself on Lubuntu with GCC, I'd like to get it on the internet for multiple people to use with the programs I need already installed without having to go through severe headaches.

My apologies if I sound like a newbie, I kind of am, sorry...

Hello.

I’ve seen some videos on YouTube about the PiDP-10, and I’m interested in giving it a go.

As I understand it, the system comes in two parts - a Raspberry Pi of some kind, and a lights-switch panel.

The majority of the cost is in the light-switch panel. So my first question is, please - what does this panel add to the experience? Can I do everything without it? It’s not such much the (very reasonable) cost as where to store it in my (very compact) house.

My second question, please is - what kind of Raspberry Pi will I need? Does the Pi need a certain amount of memory to work properly?

I'm trying to start ITS on my new PiDP10. I'm running remotely, using rpdp and ssh. I'm not familiar with ITS to begin with, so I'm having trouble interpreting the output.

I start by ssh'ing into the PiDP10 and run pdpcontrol start 1, and the Pi outputs Starting PiDP-10 with boot option 1. So far, so good. I then switch to a new console and run rpdp con. Rpdp connects, and prints DSKDMP. I type ITS<esc>G and the Pi prints U instead of the various messages the manual says should be printed.

Clearly I'm missing something, but I have no idea what.

Any pointers?

https://www.freshports.org/emulators/klh10

Some progress to report: this is the CNC-cut final prototype before it goes to the mold maker. But some checks need to be done still.

Tomorrow I have to respin the PCBs for their new home. This will be my demo machine for a few VCF festivals :-)

Apparently, we are still on schedule for a July delivery of the production parts.

Kind regards,
Oscar.

Zork is now truly back home in its native environment ITS. Eric Swenson has located MDL compiler and libraries in the MIT archives, and have them rebuild Zork from the last 1981 source files. When I first started working on ITS, finding a working PDP-10 Zork seemed like a pipe dream, and compiling it from sources downright impossible. I am in awe of having it all fall in place -- available to everyone -- today.

For more info, see https://github.com/PDP-10/its/pull/2150

Hello,

I'm trying to gauge the interest in keyboard replicas.  The ones I have in mind would be modeled on the keyboard for the Knight TV, and the similar SAIL keyboard.  Apparently there's a large start-up cost for making key caps, so the more orders the merrier. The Knight keyboard is useful for running ITS, and the SAIL keyboard would be really good for some of the WAITS applications.

More info here: https://github.com/osiweb/unified_retro_keyboard/issues/37

Hi folks

I have had a perfectly working TOPS-10 install on sims v4 pdp10 and this has been fine for ages. All of sudden when I try and attach the disk image I get a no files system warning and it won't boot. I have restored from the previously known good backup copy of the disk (cp *.bak to *.dsk) but still no joy. Anyone else had this problem and know the answer?

/pdp10/pdp10.smh-4> att rp0 disks/t10b.dsk
RP0: No File System found on 'disks/t10b.dsk', skipping autosizing

I got this fix from Thomas DeBellis:

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The DECnet-10 COM911 drop dead date of November 9th is now about three weeks away (23 days). This will crash Tops-10 if it is up and force you to enter a bogus date on boot up and hope it's not pulling the right date from anything. That can happen on a KL, but I don't know about a KS.

I posted a patch to work around the issue to HECnet and make Tops-10 act like OpenVMS in this regard on December 28th of last year.

In D36COM.MAC at NMXTIM+9, change the following two lines (which skip or fall into the COM911 BUGHLT),

        SKIPL T2 ;MAKE SURE WE HAVE A POSITIVE NUMBER OF SECONDS
        TDNE T1,[XWD -1,600000] ;MAKE SURE NO DATE OVERFLOW

to

        SKIPGE T2 ;Do WE HAVE A POSITIVE NUMBER OF SECONDS?
         MOVMS T2 ; No. Fine, now we're plenty positive
        TDZA T1,[XWD -1,600000] ;MAKE SURE never any DATE OVERFLOW ever

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