AN EMULATOR FOR THE
I've been
learning how to use a 3D design package called "blender". In particular I've been
looking at the blender game engine [bge] which allows your 3D models to
be dynamic. I'm only using a small subset of the bge's
capabilities, but I'm also having to learn Python 3 as that is the
scripting language blender uses to add "game logic". As you can
see above so far I've only modeled the basics of the Word Generator,
but all those buttons go up and down correctly, and the operator can
move around the computer room (which is still rather bare!) The
plan is for the 3D "game" to communicate with the existing 803 emulator
via a socket. Once all the functionallity is working I'll be
looking for some help with the more detailed 3D modeling that will be
needed to produce a realistic 803 machine room environment.
I'm not sure I've got a good solution to having tapes of lots of
different sizes but only a few colours, but as you can see above I've
got something working that can represent the paper tapes stored in a
set of drawers. However I don't thing it is going to be possible
to put the writing around the edge of the tapes as all the tapes of the
same colour share the same materials and textures. This is
a limitation of the blender game engine. Maybe in time I'll just
use blender to design the 3D objects and to lay out the room, and then
use my own raw openGL code to render the scene and implement the
"logic" in C as is currently done with the existing 3D tape drawers.
3/7/11
I've got all the buttons correctly positioned by using a picture of the
real Word Generator as a texture. And yes I know you can see my
image reflected in the shiny surface !
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.
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.
I've also built a PIC based interface to connect a real CalComp plotter
to the real 803.
Drop me a note at the address below if you are interested....
Peter-dot-Onion-at-btinternet-dot-com