AN EMULATOR FOR THE




I've been working on an emulation of the Elliott 803 computer for a number of years, (more than I care to remember !) but it has never quite been ready to be released. However in 2009 I started to regularly visit The National Museum Of Computing (TNMOC) to use and  maintain their 803B.  This encouraged me to once again start working to get my emulator into a state where it can be used by others.

The emulator has been developed on a number of different Linux distributions over the years (Slackware,SUSE,Fedora) but currently developement is done on Ubuntu 10.04.  It should continue to run on any current Linux system.  For the best results you'll need hardware accelerated openGL graphics working on your machine.

As of July 2010 the following system components are working:
Wordgenerator/Operators Console

8K store processor with floating point hardware

Type 3A paper tape station (PTS) with Elliott improved reader, tape punch and Creed 75 online teleprinter

Calcomp 565 drum plotter

Film controller and up to 4 film handlers (*)

Creed tape editing station

A set of drawers containing paper tapes

Engineers 'scope

Hours Run indicator.

(*) Optional components

One of my Beta-testers has produced a set of instructions for building and operating the emulator.



Note: The above graphic is no longer used in the emulator.



The Word Generator or Console




The Paper Tape Editing Station (Creed 75)


500 Character / Second Paper Tape Reader


3D (openGL) Paper Tape Storeage Drawers


Closeup of tapes in drawer.


A Magnetic Film Handler


Calcomp 565 Drum Plotter


Paper Tape Station Control Pannel


Engineers 'Scope (showing the Accumulator (top) and the
Instruction and Sequence Control Registers (bottom).


Left: The Hours Run timer.
Right: Linux Filesystem interface.


I've also been working on a “gate level” model of the 803 CPU. I have a full set of the engineering manuals and logic diagrams to work from so I'm hopeful that I can complete the model. As a debugging tool I have a logical 'scope..



I'm also working on a PIC microcontroller based emulation. 
Details Here

Another PIC based 803 project is my 803 diagnostic unit.





Drop me a note at the address below if you are interested....

Peter-dot-Onion-at-btinternet-dot-com