Simplified software infrastructure for PiDP-11
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Hammurabi Mendes
Jan 5, 2026, 10:55:37 AM (7 days ago) Jan 5
to [PiDP-11]
Hello everyone,
I wanted to simplify my software setup for the PiDP-11, so I wrote an application that interacts with the panel and allows me to use OpenSIMH compiled without any modifications (or a stock install from apt). I launch the application (which I called "frontpanel"), which reads the panel switches and forks SIMH to boot the system. SIMH is launched using its sim_frontpanel API. Interactions with the panel are handled by the frontpanel application and also redirected to SIMH via its sim_frontpanel API. I run the frontpanel application using screen, and I interact with the console via a separate telnet connection.
I was wondering if someone else would be willing to try this out and perhaps help identifying bugs or shortcomings. One problem I currently have is that I did not figure out yet how to drop into SIMH's interactive prompt inside the telnet connection to the console. I can use the halt button on the panel to pause the execution, but I don't know yet how I can send those commands to SIMH. I have the impression that this is doable, though. It would also be good to have extra eyes to look into the timing I use to read and drive the LEDs in the panel. I'm using it without any problems for extended periods of time, but I thought that if I shared it here someone could be interested.
The code is here:
I wanted to simplify my software setup for the PiDP-11, so I wrote an application that interacts with the panel and allows me to use OpenSIMH compiled without any modifications (or a stock install from apt). I launch the application (which I called "frontpanel"), which reads the panel switches and forks SIMH to boot the system. SIMH is launched using its sim_frontpanel API. Interactions with the panel are handled by the frontpanel application and also redirected to SIMH via its sim_frontpanel API. I run the frontpanel application using screen, and I interact with the console via a separate telnet connection.
I was wondering if someone else would be willing to try this out and perhaps help identifying bugs or shortcomings. One problem I currently have is that I did not figure out yet how to drop into SIMH's interactive prompt inside the telnet connection to the console. I can use the halt button on the panel to pause the execution, but I don't know yet how I can send those commands to SIMH. I have the impression that this is doable, though. It would also be good to have extra eyes to look into the timing I use to read and drive the LEDs in the panel. I'm using it without any problems for extended periods of time, but I thought that if I shared it here someone could be interested.
The code is here:
Note that you still must make some changes into the boot.ini of the system you want to use, but those changes are documented in the README doc at github. If someone ends up running it, let me know if you see anything that I could improve on it.
Best,
- Hammurabi Mendes
Best,
- Hammurabi Mendes
Anton Lavrentiev
Jan 5, 2026, 3:52:36 PM (7 days ago) Jan 5
to Hammurabi Mendes, [PiDP-11]
Very nice! The only thing I notice right off the bat is that this:
git clone https://github.com/simh/simh.git
is not OpenSIMH; rather, the correct URL for it is here: GitHub - open-simh/simh: The Open SIMH simulators package
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