DVK MC1201 (PDP-11 compatible Soviet computer)

[xolod79]

This is my alpha version MiSTer port DVK core.

https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201

You can play original Tetris by Alexey Pajitnov!

[Alkadian]

This is my alpha version MiSTer port DVK core.
https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201

Hi,

Thanks for this new core. I will read more to inderstand its architecture!

[NML32]

Thank you for the new computer core.
I'm able to get the computer to boot from the secondary SD card and I'm able to issue the commands B RK0 or DX0 or MY0 and list the directories.
At this point, I'm not sure what else to do.

I didn't have any luck booting from my 1GB SD card. The drive light just stayed on. No issues using my SanDisk Ultra 128GB SD card.

[xolod79]

I didn't have any luck booting from my 1GB SD card. The drive light just stayed on. No issues using my SanDisk Ultra 128GB SD card.

Yes, supported SDHC card, SDSC not supported.

[tontonkaloun]

This is my alpha version MiSTer port DVK core.
https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201
You can play original Tetris by Alexey Pajitnov!

Hello,
Thanks for this new core

[antonie]

Hi if this Soviet clone is anything like the original, have a look at this very interesting youtube video about booting BSD Unix on a PDP-11.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYng1yypNCA

[azesmbog]

I'm able to get the computer to boot from the secondary SD card and I'm able to issue the commands B RK0 or DX0 or MY0 and list the directories.
At this point, I'm not sure what else to do.

The computer is certainly not for games, but there are also more than a dozen games on it.
In addition to Tetris, the MY disk should contain DIGGER - a game no less famous all over the world.
Here is some video:

[xolod79]

Hi if this Soviet clone is anything like the original, have a look at this very interesting youtube video about booting BSD Unix on a PDP-11.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYng1yypNCA

Now the project has implemented LSI-11 type processors, which can only address 64Kbytes. To run 2.9BSD, the minimum required 192KB, and for 2.11bsd 1MB. In the future, let's hope the reverse engineering of the F-11 processors will be completed and perhaps the J-11 will make it possible to run Unix and RSX-11M +

[pgimeno]

Would the simh source code be any help? I have a PDP-11 running UNIX 7 under simh with these instructions.

[xolod79]

Would the simh source code be any help? I have a PDP-11 running UNIX 7 under simh; I used these instructions: http://www.jdpressman.com/2015/11/27/ho ... 15%29.html

This article describes a pdp-11/45 that supports 256KB of memory. The simh sources won't change the situation. I will try running LSX http://www.mailcom.com/lsx/

[xolod79]

Would the simh source code be any help? I have a PDP-11 running UNIX 7 under simh with these instructions.

Yes, LSX works!

20210607-2304521.jpg (71.12 KiB) Viewed 30126 times

Image from https://zx-pk.ru/threads/24962-unix-dly ... post794013

[pgimeno]

Image from https://zx-pk.ru/threads/24962-unix-dly ... post794013

Thanks. How do you boot it? I've tried with B RK0 and I get a : prompt but entering lsx as in the picture doesn't do anything, the : prompt reappears.

Entering B DX0 or B MY0 seems to hang with the Disk LED on, as if waiting for a disk to be ready or something like that.

[xolod79]

Image from https://zx-pk.ru/threads/24962-unix-dly ... post794013

Thanks. How do you boot it? I've tried with B RK0 and I get a : prompt but entering lsx as in the picture doesn't do anything, the : prompt reappears.

Entering B DX0 or B MY0 seems to hang with the Disk LED on, as if waiting for a disk to be ready or something like that.

Update last core and Initdisk from github.
Select in OSD menu Disk bank 1 instead 0 and boot from MY0.

[pgimeno]

Thanks, I've done that and I managed to get a # prompt, but then it crashes (returns to the @ prompt after printing an hex number) at anything I attempt to do. Subsequent boots don't work, as if the SD card got corrupted. Rewriting it I can try again, but with the same result.

[xolod79]

Thanks, I've done that and I managed to get a # prompt, but then it crashes (returns to the @ prompt after printing an hex number) at anything I attempt to do. Subsequent boots don't work, as if the SD card got corrupted. Rewriting it I can try again, but with the same result.

Simple poweroff and poweron Mister and try again.
Curently core unstable sdspi module and after hangs need full power cycle.

[xolod79]

Thanks, I've done that and I managed to get a # prompt, but then it crashes (returns to the @ prompt after printing an hex number) at anything I attempt to do. Subsequent boots don't work, as if the SD card got corrupted. Rewriting it I can try again, but with the same result.

did you get LSX running?

[pgimeno]

did you get LSX running?

No. Whatever I enter at the # prompt, I always get: "NOT FOUND 051042" and it changes to the @ prompt. Pressing B and entering MY0 again makes everything hang. Reloading the core doesn't suffice; apparently I have to at least remove the secondary SD.

[JamesH]

Sorry to bump it up, missed this thread earlier. Trying less exotic software Specifically, the infamous STALK.SAV (booting from MY0, games DSK stored as MY1), none of the versions I tried working (other games seem to be OK, e.g. tetris, tir, patrul, xonix):

STALK.SAV - sha256:db28657202e16e1848aeaa002329bb2086e21d90db747f9a6eb766a430e385a8

Code: Select all

        ДЛЯ ПОДСКАЗКИ НАЖИМАЙТЕ "H"
 050376
@

STALKB.SAV - sha256:da54a1821b9417057366cda17050bcbf80aa026b043746716fc3a80453d65c2e

Code: Select all

 050400
@

STKPRZ.SAV - sha256:59aaecda7f4c887d5271c73e0567d2fa58641cfbdcdd64d95f9dce9bdfb4f3bd

Code: Select all

  ЕСЛИ ХОЧЕШЬ БЫТЬ ЗДОРОВ - ...
 050400
@

PIKNIK.SAV - sha256:11e200bcbbee582fd88e49d3f46ce754376e4372d59be802c5ca99293a3f7d99

Code: Select all

        УЗКАЯ И СКОЛЬЗКАЯ ДЫРА
фатал еррор: ресержед инструкцион трап
програм цоунтер: 146634
.

Note that PIKNIK.SAV doesn't bail out to the ROM promt, unlike other variants it returns back to RT-11. Have not tried to complite the Pascal sources yet.

Anyone else has issues with any specific software?

Thanks.

[Moondandy]

Managed to miss this one, good effort making this one xolod79! Do you have any plans to work more on this core and add it into the official repo?

[xolod79]

Yes, I updated this project https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201/blob/ ... 211022.rbf you also need to update the image to sd-card. But unfortunately the problems with sd-card have not been solved yet. I will try to solve them.

[xolod79]

Today's update works with disk images from the file system. A dedicated SDCARD is no longer needed.
https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201/blob/ ... 211030.rbf
While the core is not stable. WIP!

[JamesH]

Thanks a lot for your work, this is great!

I do have one question not related to SD cards. How do we use the core's UART? After using "uartmode 2" there are some meaningful bits avaiable via ttyS1, but it looks like some phantom input (?) is generated most of the time when using microcom (ssh to mister from xterm set to vt52 profile), as something like

Code: Select all

@
@@
000000/000000 
@@
000000/000000 
@
@0000/000000 
@
@@
000000/000000 
@@
000000/000000 
@
@00000000000 ?
@

is constantly scrolling.

Update: when I socat'ed ttyS1 to a mame instance emulating IE15 terminal, I am getting some sensible output. Would still appreciate if someone can confirm the expected way of using core's UART.

[xolod79]

Thanks a lot for your work, this is great!

I do have one question not related to SD cards. How do we use the core's UART? After using "uartmode 2" there are some meaningful bits avaiable via ttyS1, but it looks like some phantom input (?) is generated most of the time when using microcom (ssh to mister from xterm set to vt52 profile), as something like

Update: when I socat'ed ttyS1 to a mame instance emulating IE15 terminal, I am getting some sensible output. Would still appreciate if someone can confirm the expected way of using core's UART.

Hello @JamesH
Thanks for testing this Core.
I am not changing the terminal type in the MiSTer console.
using terminal programm:
picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyS1
In ODT, you need to give commands in capital letters, switch CAPSLOCK or hold Shift.
@B MY1

[cathrynmataga]

Is anyone running RT-11? That's closer to my experience with old DEC.

[JamesH]

picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyS1
In ODT, you need to give commands in capital letters, switch CAPSLOCK or hold Shift.
@B MY1

picocom did the trick, thanks again!

[xolod79]

Is anyone running RT-11? That's closer to my experience with old DEC.

yes, RT-11 works in the current release.
Also plans to port the processor from the PDP-2011 project with a 22-bit address space and MMU, which will allow to run RSX-11M, RSTS / E and UNIX

[JamesH]

Just sharing my experience of setting up a remote console for DVK/MC1201 core. Why? Because I wanted to have a shared clipboard and interested in running some compilers and stuff like that. Text based games are working, too Updated: Nov 4, uartmode typo. Nov 25, vtwrap page has gone south.

Pre-requisites:

• *nix system, using Debian myself

• GNU screen (apt install screen)

• vtwrap application to ensure VT52/15IE terminal support (link1, link2, link3 (tar.gz), pre-built static binary attached)

• SSH (apt install openssh-client)

Using a keyboard and a screen attached to the MISTer device launch MC1201 core, open OSD and switch "Console:" to "Console: UART". You may want to set "CPU slow:" to "ON" if you plan on running a game.

Start GNU screen to [indirectly] handle ancient KOI7 (vtwrap can translate KOI7 into more or less supported KOI8, which will be translated into your actual termial's locale by GNU screen). Note: this is not the only way to do it, but I find it easy (and it keeps your SSH session alive as well).

Code: Select all

debian$ screen

The rest happens "inside" the screen session, assuming you're using local UTF-8 locale for simplicity (google how to set up encoding if you don't)

Configure screen window to use KOI8-R encoding (this can be done at any stage before running software using KOI7)

C-a: (that's Ctrl+A followed by colon)
encoding koi8-r (you type that at the ':' prompt)

Start a wrapper emulating Soviet 15IE (see footnote 1) terminal:

Code: Select all

debian$ vtwrap -t 15ie

Some MISTer console output will look weird, just ignore it.

SSH to the mister

Code: Select all

debian$ ssh root@mister

set uartmode to "2" (1 - ppp, 2 - serial console on ttyS1, 3,5 - midilink)

Code: Select all

/root# uartmode 2

make sure the mode is set up properly (from time to time MISTer may reset it)

Code: Select all

/root# uartmode

you should see the following, if you do not, re-run "uartmode 2"

ttyS1: 115200

launch picocom (microcom seems to be working with vtwrap, does NOT without it), picocom defaults to 9600 baud, so specifing correct line speed is essential:

Code: Select all

/root# picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyS1

exit picocom when needed with C-a a C-x

At this point you better turn on CAPS LOCK as most of the commands are uppercase (lowercase English letters are mapped to Cyrillic when using KOI7)

Boot RT-11 with games image:

Code: Select all

	@B
	$MY0

Other images available:
RK0 - RT-11FB (S) V05.04.D
DX0 - XXDP+
MY0 - RT-11SJ V05.01 + Soviet games

1. vtwrap has the following command line switches: "-s - clears 8'th bit of each character", "-t TYPE" sets emulated terminal type, supported vt52, cm7209 and 15ie

P.S. https://pdp-11.org.ru/~form/ctakah.html mentions SET TRA:CM$7209 and SET NO TRA commands, have not tried those, I think these are really necessary if you need to use Russian software and have Soviet RT-11 (FODOS, RAFOS) variants. The page seems to be no longer available, here is the latest wayback machine snapshot. upd 2023: Original HTML pages describing vtwrap seem to disappear quickly and while it's possible find some bits with a clever search-foo when you know what you are looking for, project description has vanished from the Internet. Hence I decided to post the contents of the original tgz to GitHub. Happy to transfer ownership, if someone (original author?) wants to take over as I have no plans on enhancing/modifying it.

TODO: find out 15ie/vt52 reset sequence

[xolod79]

New test build with PDP2011 CPU 256kb and RH70 drives.
https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201/blob/ ... 211105.rbf

[JamesH]

Not quite important since it works well with a physical (HDMI) monitor, but I see a funny glitch when using a capture card (it's not static, flickers until something else is printed). DM1 and DX0 (XXDP), DK1 and DK2 (FODOS and RAFOS) seem to be glitch free.

[cathrynmataga]

https://pdp-11.org.ru/files.pl?lang=en

Should these files work? I tried to get this one to work, but not sure if I'm doing anything wrong. rt11v503.zip