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Emulator /
PC8EClass: PC8E, PtrPtpThis is how the PC8E looks in my emulator. At the left is the reader part with emulated fan-fold tape and at the right the punch part also showing the fan-fold tapes, but from another perspective. At the far right the switches positioned as in the original. The tapes move in a realistic way for the 2 units (reader and punch) implemented. The tapes appear when the tapes are allocated; the punch also shows the holes as they are punched. The various modes are selected by right-clicking on the window. For the reader one can select a normal speed and a high speed; the high speed is 10 times faster than the normal one (300cps). For the punch a high speed mode and also a 7 or 8-bit mode can be selected. The 7-bit mode was provided in order to be able to export ASCII data without the bit 8 in order to be compatible with the PC platforms (see ASCII code).
The emulation is based on the characteristics of the PC8E controller board and of the PC04 physical device. This hardware is detailed in Small computer handbook Chapter 6-10 and Maintenance Manual Volume 3-2. The only available copy of the Maintenance program was of such a bad quality that this program was retyped and reassembled (the new version in the next table).
In order to test the reader/punch you will need some of the test tapes shown above.
Other steps do also run correctly but do not add anything new. A good starting point for using the emulator is to mount the disk Build-11-03-07 from Disks.Working on unit 0 Fixed. The tests used are located on disk MyProgs-22-04-07 of Disks.Working in .SV format and can be mounted on unit 0 Removable. Go to Disks.Working and download to a directory of you choice. You can then always mount these disks from this location. Don't forget to write-enable this directory and all of its files! |