TOPS-20 Install a SW-tape

[stephan küppers]

I'm searching for information how to install a software(Pascal)-Tape to tops-20!

Stephan

[Noah Smith]

hi stephan, was facing exactly the same topic late last fall - !but for tops10!:)

no idea how applicable tops10 stuff will be for you, but here's a data dump just in case

examples and instructions from richard cornwell! https://sky-visions.com/dec/ is probly the crucial link.

simh .do scripts of installs from tape, most directly from rich! https://github.com/drforbin/decwar/tree/master/utexas/simh

notes, especially sec6 thru sec9 https://github.com/drforbin/decwar/tree/master/utexas/docs

cheers,

noah

[Clem Cole]

On Sun, Jun 22, 2025 at 12:32 AM Noah Smith <no...@statespace.dev> wrote:

hi stephan, was facing exactly the same topic late last fall - !but for tops10!:)

no idea how applicable tops10 stuff will be for you, but here's a data dump just in case

examples and instructions from richard cornwell! https://sky-visions.com/dec/ is probly the crucial link.

simh .do scripts of installs from tape, most directly from rich! https://github.com/drforbin/decwar/tree/master/utexas/simh

notes, especially sec6 thru sec9 https://github.com/drforbin/decwar/tree/master/utexas/docs

cheers,

noah

Noah - I'm not sure that will help.

On Saturday, June 21, 2025 at 5:05:50 PM UTC+2 stephank...@gmail.com wrote:

I'm searching for information how to install a software(Pascal)-Tape to tops-20!

Stephan

I could be wrong here, but I did not believe that DEC's Technical Languages Group released their own Pascal for TOPS-10, only for VMS and TOPS-20 at the time (the PDP-11 was a buyout/3rd party -TLG pretty much was distancing itself from the 11 for anything but FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC). I'm not sure that you'll find an installation script for DEC Pascal in Rich's cache for TOPS-10.  Most TOPS-10 sites used a flavor of the Pascal system, which is known as the Zurich Compiler: http://pascal.hansotten.com/px-descendants/dec-pdp-10-pascal-compiler/

Note that the Panda TOPS-20 distribution, based on Stanford's LOTS, already has it installed (be cautious because the DEC TOPS-20 documentation describes a different I/O system).   I haven't tried to install the DEC one, so I won't be of much help if you want the official compiler.   

I don't know all the politics (I'm still social with and often see many of the players), but by the time Pascal became important, DECs primary focus was VMS.   As I understand it, the TOPS-20 port was not a primary thing, particularly since it was seen as something for the educational market, which had been happy "self/supporting" with the Zurich Compiler, so it was one less thing for the TLG folks to worry about.

Clem

 

[stephan küppers]

Hello!

I found the necessary steps for installing software from a tape into the system in the manual
"TOPS-20 KS/KL Model A Installation Guide AA-P346A-TM" for TOPS-20 Version 4.1.0

It works as follows:

1. The following must be entered in the simh/Boot.ini file:
...
set tu0 enable
att tu0 sw-tape-name.tap
etc....
Where sw-tape-name.tap is the name of the software tape you want to install.

2. Chapter 3.3.4 of the above manual describes how to insert the following lines into
the TOPS-20 file: "4-1-config.cmd" using EDITOR (if they are not already there):
...
xxxx MAGTAPE 0 2003 TU70
yyyy MAGTAPE 1 2004
zzzz ENABLE TAPE-DRIVE-ALLOCATION
...

3. Chapter 7, Steps 156 to 169 of the above manual describe exactly how, as an operator with account group 100,
you can access the tape assigned as tu0 in simh/boot.ini with MTA0:  TOPS-20and then use it for software installation.

4. The actual software installation can be found in the corresponding software installation manuals.

I have successfully used this procedure to install Fortran-20 Version 10 and Pascal!

Stephan

[stephan küppers]

The manual can be found under URL:     http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp10/TOPS20/V4.1_Feb83/

Stephan

[Noah Smith]

nice!!! thanks stephan - away from laptop at the moment but the instructions look at least similarish to the tops10 stuff - fwiw fyi i've only been dealing with tapes for fortran-10 v6 and some later one (v9 maybe?). cheers!

noah smith - state space dev

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