Every so often, someone will ask about whether or not they can get a copy of an old Univac/Sperry Univac/Sperry/Unisys OS for an 1100 or 2200 system, usually because they are thinking about/attempting to write an 1100 or 2200 system simulator/emulator.were supposedly written by Air France.
The usual answer (aside from "Why would you want to do such a thing as write an 1100 /2200 simulator when the Company is handing out PS2200?") is, no, you can't get there from here.
Maybe, just maybe, there is some old 33 level Exec that is now public domain, but Good Luck on ever finding a copy of the source or anything else (like a master or boot tape).
I assume that other Univac/Sperry Univac/Sperry/Unisys 1100 or 2200 "execs" like Sigma or Mate are in the same boat, but I've never heard anyone mention anything about OTHER M-Series 2200 OSs which was NOT OS2200 ... in particular the one(s) that was/
IIRC they got a fair bit of documentation from Roseville about the M-Series architecture before the 2200/900 was released, but I never heard anything about happened afterwards.Well, it does sort of depend on your definition of old, and whether a boot tape image is sufficient. Of OS2200, I mean, not that french stuff. :-D
And IIRC they (Air France) supposedly cooked up an earlier version they wanted on pre-M-Series machines.
I *THINK* a C-Series machine was the architecture they were interested in developing their own OS for.
Does anyone know whether or not Air France actually cooked up their own 1100/2200 OS and if so what happened to it?
As the old _National Enquirer_ ads used to say, "Enquiring minds want to know".
On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 8:12:04 PM UTC-7, Lewis Cole wrote:< snip >
Every so often, someone will ask about whether or
not they can get a copy of an old
Univac/Sperry Univac/Sperry/Unisys OS
for an 1100 or 2200 system, usually because
they are thinking about/attempting to write an
1100 or 2200 system simulator/emulator.
Well, it does sort of depend on your definition of old, and
whether a boot tape image is sufficient. Of OS2200, I mean,
not that french stuff. :-D
On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 3:54:12 PM UTC-7, Kurt Duncan wrote:The problem is that a boot tape, all by itself, is useful in some respects but not all respects.
On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 8:12:04 PM UTC-7, Lewis Cole wrote:< snip >
Every so often, someone will ask about whether or
not they can get a copy of an old
Univac/Sperry Univac/Sperry/Unisys OS
for an 1100 or 2200 system, usually because
they are thinking about/attempting to write an
1100 or 2200 system simulator/emulator.
Well, it does sort of depend on your definition of old, andIf you're suggesting that you have access to a boot tape image of just about any version of OS1100/2200 that you can pass along to others, I'm all ears.
whether a boot tape image is sufficient. Of OS2200, I mean,
not that french stuff. :-D
On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 10:18:47 PM UTC-6, Lewis Cole wrote:
On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 3:54:12 PM UTC-7, Kurt Duncan wrote:The problem is that a boot tape, all by itself, is
On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 8:12:04 PM UTC-7, Lewis Cole wrote:< snip >
Every so often, someone will ask about whether or
not they can get a copy of an old
Univac/Sperry Univac/Sperry/Unisys OS
for an 1100 or 2200 system, usually because
they are thinking about/attempting to write an
1100 or 2200 system simulator/emulator.
Well, it does sort of depend on your definition of old, andIf you're suggesting that you have access to a boot tape image of just about any version of OS1100/2200 that you can pass along to others, I'm all ears.
whether a boot tape image is sufficient. Of OS2200, I mean,
not that french stuff. :-D
useful in some respects but not all respects.
One could spend hours upon hours *after* developing
a dis-assembler, just making sense out of the
initial boot code.
So much is now handed off to the SVC instruction, [...]
[...] which is only partially documented (for the
public), [...]
[...] and so much more relies on the partition
data bank, which is not at all documented (for
the public)...
On Thursday, June 29, 2023 at 6:29:18 PM UTC-7, Kurt Duncan wrote:Mercury.
On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 10:18:47 PM UTC-6, Lewis Cole wrote:Ummm, okay.
On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 3:54:12 PM UTC-7, Kurt Duncan wrote:The problem is that a boot tape, all by itself, is
On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 8:12:04 PM UTC-7, Lewis Cole wrote:< snip >
Every so often, someone will ask about whether or
not they can get a copy of an old
Univac/Sperry Univac/Sperry/Unisys OS
for an 1100 or 2200 system, usually because
they are thinking about/attempting to write an
1100 or 2200 system simulator/emulator.
Well, it does sort of depend on your definition of old, andIf you're suggesting that you have access to a boot tape image of just about any version of OS1100/2200 that you can pass along to others, I'm all ears.
whether a boot tape image is sufficient. Of OS2200, I mean,
not that french stuff. :-D
useful in some respects but not all respects.
But with all due respect, that really doesn't answer the question that I asked now does it?
Do you have access to a boot tape image of just about any version of OS1100/2200 that you can pass along to others?
One could spend hours upon hours *after* developing
a dis-assembler, just making sense out of the
initial boot code.
Maybe even longer.
But I think I have an advantage that many others might not have in that I used to take care of the care and feeding of the ICLP and Bootstrap code before Mercury (AKA the 2200/900) and I (re-)wrote the ICLP and Bootstrap code originally used for the
Although I'm sure that things have changed since then, from my previous experience, I suspect one can probably make reasonably good guesses as to what the code is supposed to do ... but I might be able to make such guesses a bit quicker.
So much is now handed off to the SVC instruction, [...]
SVC? I think you're thinking of an IBM machine.
[...] which is only partially documented (for the
public), [...]
Other than their existence, ELF messages aren't well document outside of HSI-002, which various Unisys documents mention only in passing.
The IMI messages for the 1100/60 aren't documented anywhere that I am aware of except for in the code.
The Good News is that many of the 2200/900 ELF messages aren't/weren't really *REQUIRED* to boot with the main exception that I recall being the console ELFs.
Evidence to support this comes in the form of the fact that FLIT use to have no problem booting simulated 2200/900 and 2200/600 systems.
All of this is stuff that I think *I* may have mentioned many moons ago when the subject of simulating a 2200 system came up so you needn't try to enlighten me about these road blocks.
[...] and so much more relies on the partitionWell, I don't know how well the PDB is documented these days, but for some reason, I have a general idea of how it used to be structure, which I suspect isn't all that difficult to figure out, even although that wasn't intended.
data bank, which is not at all documented (for
the public)...
But let's get back to the question I posed before, shall we?
Do you have access to a boot tape image of just about any version of OS1100/2200 that you can pass along to others?
On Thursday, June 29, 2023 at 10:19:11 PM UTC-6, Lewis Cole wrote:Mercury.
On Thursday, June 29, 2023 at 6:29:18 PM UTC-7, Kurt Duncan wrote:
On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 10:18:47 PM UTC-6, Lewis Cole wrote:Ummm, okay.
On Saturday, June 17, 2023 at 3:54:12 PM UTC-7, Kurt Duncan wrote:The problem is that a boot tape, all by itself, is
On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 8:12:04 PM UTC-7, Lewis Cole wrote:< snip >
Every so often, someone will ask about whether or
not they can get a copy of an old
Univac/Sperry Univac/Sperry/Unisys OS
for an 1100 or 2200 system, usually because
they are thinking about/attempting to write an
1100 or 2200 system simulator/emulator.
Well, it does sort of depend on your definition of old, andIf you're suggesting that you have access to a boot tape image of just about any version of OS1100/2200 that you can pass along to others, I'm all ears.
whether a boot tape image is sufficient. Of OS2200, I mean,
not that french stuff. :-D
useful in some respects but not all respects.
But with all due respect, that really doesn't answer the question that I asked now does it?
Do you have access to a boot tape image of just about any version of OS1100/2200 that you can pass along to others?
One could spend hours upon hours *after* developing
a dis-assembler, just making sense out of the
initial boot code.
Maybe even longer.
But I think I have an advantage that many others might not have in that I used to take care of the care and feeding of the ICLP and Bootstrap code before Mercury (AKA the 2200/900) and I (re-)wrote the ICLP and Bootstrap code originally used for the
Although I'm sure that things have changed since then, from my previous experience, I suspect one can probably make reasonably good guesses as to what the code is supposed to do ... but I might be able to make such guesses a bit quicker.
So much is now handed off to the SVC instruction, [...]
SVC? I think you're thinking of an IBM machine.
[...] which is only partially documented (for the
public), [...]
Other than their existence, ELF messages aren't well document outside of HSI-002, which various Unisys documents mention only in passing.
The IMI messages for the 1100/60 aren't documented anywhere that I am aware of except for in the code.
The Good News is that many of the 2200/900 ELF messages aren't/weren't really *REQUIRED* to boot with the main exception that I recall being the console ELFs.
Evidence to support this comes in the form of the fact that FLIT use to have no problem booting simulated 2200/900 and 2200/600 systems.
All of this is stuff that I think *I* may have mentioned many moons ago when the subject of simulating a 2200 system came up so you needn't try to enlighten me about these road blocks.
[...] and so much more relies on the partitionWell, I don't know how well the PDB is documented these days, but for some reason, I have a general idea of how it used to be structure, which I suspect isn't all that difficult to figure out, even although that wasn't intended.
data bank, which is not at all documented (for
the public)...
But let's get back to the question I posed before, shall we?See my github account, kduncan99 and look for Kalehla
Do you have access to a boot tape image of just about any version of OS1100/2200 that you can pass along to others?
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