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Even if I were crazy enough to write microcode, there's a problem that we don't have the microcode assembler MU.RUN. Maybe it will turn up on one of the PARC di
by kens 9y ago
Even if I were crazy enough to write microcode, there's a problem that we don't have the microcode assembler MU.RUN. Maybe it will turn up on one of the PARC disks we're archiving...
- simcop2387 9y agoInteresting, I hope that the archives end up available to the public. It'd be really neat to build some kind of functional emulator like the visual 6502 to play around in. Do it on a block level for the CPU so you can examine the state as things happen.
- kens 9y agoFunny you should mention that, because the Living Computer Museum wrote a high-quality emulator (ContrAlto) for the Alto. It's super-accurate, even emulating the microcode and hardware, and runs at the speed of the live machine. It includes a debugging mode that lets you examine machine state and step through machine instructions and microcode. Source: https://github.com/livingcomputermuseum/ContrAlto https://github.com/livingcomputermuseum/ContrAlto ContrAlto was very helpful while getting the real Alto running, and I also use it for developing software such as the Mandelbrot. I wrote a guide to getting started with ContrAlto: http://www.righto.com/2016/10/simulating-xerox-alto-with-contralto.html http://www.righto.com/2016/10/simulating-xerox-alto-with-con...
- simcop2387 9y agoAwesome I'll check that out. I think I remember looking back when this started and found SALTO but it appears to be incomplete and buggy. ContrAlto looks interesting.
- edmccard 9y agoTheres a mu.run on (at least) one of the disks archived at the Computer History Musuem, listed at http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/_cd8_/alto/.index.html http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/_cd8_/alto/.index.html http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/_cd8_/alto/.mu.run!2.html http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/_cd8_/alto/.mu.run!2.ht... but I don't know if there's any way to transfer it from a disk image to an actual Alto disk?
- kens 9y agoThanks - I searched that archive for MU.RUN but somehow missed it. We got a gateway from the Living Computer Museum that lets us transfer files to the real Alto. So I guess I need another excuse for why I'm not writing microcode :-)