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Don't Nurse Old Hardware - Emulate It

Posted by timothy on from the stand-ins dept.

gManZboy writes "Bob Supnik, former team lead for DEC's VAX microprossesor, has an article up on Queue about his Computer History Simulation Project and how emulating old servers may be a better way to keep them running that servicing the physical machines. So how many PDP-11's can you run on a Pentium 4 anyhow?"

15 of 403 comments (clear)

  1. or how many by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    pentium IV's can you emulate on a PowerPC?

  2. I disagree by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Funny

    emulating old servers may be a better way to keep them running that servicing the physical machines.

    I disagree. It's not the same thing.

    -- Signed: your friendly PDP-11 system operator downstairs, 3 years from retirement.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:I disagree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Totally agreed --

      How can you emulate the experience of getting a maintenance notice
      in the mail from DEC that included a software patch on DECtape and
      explicit instructions on how to patch the hardware via wire-wrap?

      Or getting out the oscilloscope to set the baudrate on your PDP-11/05? And then
      booting said 11/05 by
      1) entering a program in octal via the front panel that is just
      good enough to read a bootstrapper from paper tape,
      2) jumping to the boostrapper from the front panel thus
      3) reading a second boostrapper from paper tape
      which in turn has a boostrapper to read from disk,
      4) which in turn finally gets around to reading the bootblock
      5) which might actually know something about booting RTS from that RK05 or RL10 or what-have-you.

  3. It depends... by gschwim · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...on how many bugs your emulating under your Windows 2004 Emulator Edition.

  4. Re:A guess by doublem · · Score: 3, Funny


    It's called Wintux

    --
    "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
  5. Re:More important question: by proj_2501 · · Score: 4, Funny

    fold the disk a couple times. duh!

  6. Re:none. by TWX · · Score: 4, Funny

    "pdp-11 is much heavier than you think."

    Not to anyone who's ever tried to pick one up!

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  7. Re:Good idea... but... by MajorDick · · Score: 3, Funny

    5.25 ????
    Damm are you young, when someone says 5.25 disks I dont even think too old.
    Bring on the 8 Inchers, now those were the days they also fly great, late Friday afternoon we would all let loose by flying them around like frisbees, all fun and games till someone get a corner in the eye.

  8. You might be a vax geek if... by schnits0r · · Score: 5, Funny

    TOP TEN SIGNS THAT YOU'RE A VAX GEEK

    Key traits identifying individuals tendencies towards abnormal preoccupation with VAX computer systems

    9. When talking about building software you make reference to
    compilation times in weeks and days instead of minutes and seconds.

    8. You stopped purchasing new furniture when you realized that
    your computers work just as well.

    7. Your electricity bill is more than your monthly rent payment.

    6. You've been hospitalized with muscle strain injuries after
    performing some routine hardware maintenance on your computer.

    5. You don't have an SO, but it's okay because your computer keeps
    you warm at night.

    4. While doing laundry, you occassionaly have a mental lapse and try to
    wash your socks and underwear in your 11/750.

    3. Friends who visit you want to know why there are old-time movie reels
    stuck on your refridgerator(s).

    2. Your house is pleasantly warm in the dead of winter, even with the air
    conditioning turned all the way up.

    1. The lights in your home dim or flicker when you reboot.

    0. It doesn't matter to you if someone else's computer is faster because
    you know your system could smash theirs flat if it fell over on it.

    --


    -------
    Support Indy Music. Buy
  9. Re:Good idea... but... by savagedome · · Score: 3, Funny

    Bring on the 8 Inchers
    late Friday afternoon we would all let loose by flying them around like frisbees

    And then I saw your user id...

    --


    Free XBox, PS2
  10. Re:legal issues? by meringuoid · · Score: 4, Funny
    Nintendo owns the rights to "emulation"? Emulating anything?

    I think they patented some aspects of emulation, mainly to shut down people selling GBA emus for palmtops.

    Given the current state of patent law, chances are that any universal Turing machine now owes Nintendo royalties.

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  11. Just a guess ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny


    So how many PDP-11's can you run on a Pentium 4 anyhow?


    All of them? ;-)
  12. Re:All Well and good. by DLWormwood · · Score: 4, Funny
    Me on my Commodore 64 with my Microbits 300 baud modem (I was the fastest kid on the block. Everyone else had 110 or baudots). It was like NetHack, but in real life. Learned to get in. Learned to navigate. Learned about these great things called directories...
    I do not think that word means what you think it means...
    --
    Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
  13. Not very fair... by MooseByte · · Score: 3, Funny

    "The truth is, Slashdot is basically a Gamer site."

    Oh come on now, that's not fair. We also talk about pr0n.

  14. Re:My First by TWX · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The first laptop I had was a pdp-11"

    An LED-screen-based terminal emulator with a 300 baud modem dialing up to the PDP 11 shouldn't really count...

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.