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PDP-6 Emulator

This project aims to revive the PDP-6 computer by DEC.

I started by writing a very low level emulator in C based on the schematics. Later I also wrote an accurate verilog simulation that also works on an FPGA.

Both are driven by a virtual front panel but the plan is to create a replica of the original panel.

The maintenance manual has flow charts, schematics and explanations: Volume1 Volume2

Screenshot of the front panel

C Emulator

The code is more or less a transcription of the schematics into C. This means you will not understand it unless you're familiar with the maintenance manual. Pulses are represented as functions, when a pulse triggers another pulse it does so by the pulse function which queues a pulse in a list of pulses that are to happen, sorted chronologically. Between pulses that happen at different times various things are done like checking external pulses and advancing the simulation state. The timing is not yet 100% accurate but it's pretty close.

Building

The supplied makefile assumes gcc (there are flags to silence some stupid warnings). Otherwise you need SDL and pthread.

Running

The cpu (apr), console tty, paper tape and punch, the data control and DECtape are implemented. 340 display is also sort of working. The panel is missing the repeat delay knobs, but the functionality is implemented.

File tree

NB: not up to date

emu	the C emulator
emu/main_panel.c	main file for emulator with panel simulation
emu/main_serial.c	main file for emulator with panel over serial line
emu/emu.c	top level emulator code
emu/cmd.c	command line interface
emu/apr.c	Arithmetic Processor 166 emulation
emu/mem.c	core and fast memory emulation
emu/tty.c	Teleprinter 626 emulator
emu/pt.c	Paper tape reader 760 and punch 761 emulation
emu/dc.c	Data Control 136 emulation
emu/dt.c	DECtape 551 and 555 emulation
emu/netmem.c	network protocol for shared memory
emu/util.c	various utility functions
emu/util.h
emu/test_*.c	test code, not too important anymore
emu/pdp6.h	main header
emu/args.h	argument parsing
emu/elements.inc	panel definition
emu/cmds.txt	command line interface documentation
emu/init.ini	emulator init file
emu/mem_*	core memory backing store

tools
tools/dtr2dta.c	convert between raw (dtr) and simh (dta) DECtape format
tools/mkpty.c	make a pty and connect to the controlling tty
tools/mkpty33.c	as above but try to pretend an ASR33
tools/as6.c	an assembler, roughly modeled on MACRO
tools/ld6.c	a loader of relocatable files
tools/pdp6bin.h
tools/pdp6common.c	useful functions for PDP-6 code
tools/pdp6common.h
tools/rel.c	I have no recollection of this code
tools/reltest.c	old test code to create a REL file
tools/test.s	old test code for the assembler/linker
tools/test2.s
tools/ptdump.c	print a paper tape file in octal
tools/dtdump.c	print dtr DECtape

code	random code for the PDP-6, mostly testing
code/bootstrap.txt	a list of boot loaders
code/dtboot.s		loads the first block from a DECtape
code/main.s		random entry
code/tty.s		tty character IO

panel	stand alone panel with lots of duplicate code

art	image files for the panel

misc	nothing important

To do

  • repeat and maint. switches on panel
  • improve timing
  • do more tests
  • ...