DVK MC1201 (PDP-11 compatible Soviet computer)

[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).

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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:

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debian$ vtwrap -t 15ie

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

SSH to the mister

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debian$ ssh root@mister

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

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/root# uartmode 2

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

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/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:

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/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:

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	@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

[JamesH]

Not an expert here, but if I understand it correctly it should work provided that it supports the implemented devices and you manage to add image to the appropriate slot on the SD card (using sd-store). However, some of those downloads are already included in the disks image. The parent project has detailed description of all devices/drivers and included disk images, in Russian.

Here is a snippet from that doc (from section 10.1):

DM0 RT-11 V5.5 full distro
DM1 XXDP V2.5
DM2 RSX-11M V4.8 full distro
DM3 RSTS/E V10.1
DB0 RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6 full distro
DX0 XXDP with base suite of tests PDP11/70DX1 RT-11 V5.04 minimal
MY0 RT-11 V5.01 with games for ДВК
DK0 RT-11 V5.04
DK1 ФОДОС-ТМОС with test suite
DK2 RAFOS+ v2.1
DW0 RT-11 V5.04 D full distro

As author has warned us, the core is unstable. For me some images boot in the MC1202 core, and some images boot only in pdp2011 core.

[Beiriannydd]

Just want to say a big thank you for this core. I would love to see RSTS/e work. That would be amazing. I've compiled up a version of VTWrap for the HPS that isn't a static binary and attached it here. You can get the source tarball by clicking earlier in time once you have clicked the link for the tarball.

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$ docker run -it --rm -v $PWD:$PWD -w $PWD --platform linux/arm buildpack-deps:sid bash
$ gcc -g -O2 -o vtwrap *.c -lutil

[sharklodon]

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

Hi,

Thanks a lot for this core. It's awesome.

I'm trying last version (pdp2011 256kb BRAM), and I can't mount MY0 disk (selecting bank 1). With version MC1201_20211030 works (doing B and MY0 and bank 1).

Playing Tetris, from my point of view it's not so accurate, because although I selected set "CPU slow:" to "ON", Tetris game runs fast. Could you improve this point?

Thanks and kind regards,
Shark

[sharklodon]

Another issue... Release MC1201_20211030 and "CPU slow:" set to "ON".

INTEGER OVERFLOW

image_2023-04-06_105602839.png (1.12 MiB) Viewed 4351 times

Thanks,
Shark

[eLLuiGi]

Hi,

Is someone can help me running tetris please ?

i mount drive : tetris.dsk and choose bank1

then i type : B
my1

and nothing happened, what should i do ?

THX for your help.

[JamesH]

i mount drive : tetris.dsk and choose bank1

I don't think supplied container initdisk.img has anything in any banks besides bank #0. I'd say, you need to:

1. Mount the initdisk.img container (contrary to what OSD menu says, it's not a disk image, it's a container for all disk data)
2. Make sure you are using bank #0
3. Boot from MY0 (B MY0) and just start tetris by simply typing TETRIS

That's how the boot sequence may look like (using serial console as described above):

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 152462
@B
$MY0

RT-11SJ  V05.01  

?MON-F-Trap to 10 002212

.DIR TETRIS.SAV
 
TETRIS.SAV    29  04-Dec-86      

 1 Files, 29 Blocks
 18 Free blocks

.

[eLLuiGi]

THANK YOU very much it runs fine !!!!

[sharklodon]

THANK YOU very much it runs fine !!!!

Is it running fine? Don't you get INTEGER OVERFLOW when you play Tetris? Which core version are you trying?

Thanks,
Shark

[eLLuiGi]

No integer Overflow, i used last MC1201 core (MC1201_20211030.rbf). A little fast but it's playable, now we wish an elektronika 60 core

24qy.jpg (45.86 KiB) Viewed 2837 times

[sharklodon]

No integer Overflow, i used last MC1201 core (MC1201_20211030.rbf). A little fast but it's playable, now we wish an elektronika 60 core

Have you tried to set "CPU slow:" to "ON"?

Regards,
Shark

[eLLuiGi]

yes of course.

[xolod79]

Release 2023123 with CPU fixes and some slowdowns CPU.
https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201/blob/ ... 231213.rbf

[Alkadian]

Release 2023123 with CPU fixes and some slowdowns CPU.
https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201/blob/ ... 231213.rbf

Cool, many thanks!

[lroby74]

Release 2023123 with CPU fixes and some slowdowns CPU.
https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201/blob/ ... 231213.rbf

Hello,
just for curiosity and if i can ask, why this core is not present on https://github.com/MiSTer-devel section?

It's not an official core?

Thank you

[xolod79]

Release 2023123 with CPU fixes and some slowdowns CPU.
https://github.com/xolod79/MC1201/blob/ ... 231213.rbf

Hello,
just for curiosity and if i can ask, why this core is not present on https://github.com/MiSTer-devel section?

It's not an official core?

Thank you

This core is under development and requires some bug fixes.

[sharklodon]

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

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

Hi,

Which command I need to load LSX?

I'm trying (loading dvk.dsk image first) with:

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 152462
@B
$Y0

But nothing happens.

Thanks and best regards,
Shark