IBM 650 web simulator based on Open SIMH

[J.B. Langston]

Emulation + Vibe Coding: a surefire way to get chased out of your favorite retro mailing list? I guess we'll see, but for the open minded, I present my latest project, a web-based IBM 650 simulator based on Open SIMH.

Try it yourself: https://jblang.github.io/web650

Check out the code: https://github.com/jblang/ibm650

The web-based front panel, punched card visualizer, and simulator CLI have been built in React and TypeScript with the help of Claude and Codex. The user documentation is handwritten by me with no AI assistance, and I hope it makes for an enjoyable and informative read. The emulator core is Open SIMH's i650 simulator by Roberto Sancho, compiled to WebAssembly using Emscripten, and running inside a WebWorker with a TypeScript wrapper around legacy C code. The graphics have been made by painstakingly coaxing Codex into drawing the SVG that I wanted, one bezier curve at a time.

Enjoy!

J.B.

[7alken]

Hello J.B. :-) ... waiting for baking (dinner)) I peeked at this and it looks beautiful, but its really deep history for me (195x) ... 125kHz, cool )) wiki page is great ... uff, congrats :-)
Hope will be chance to play with these, blinkenlights ... but I expect it is not "trottelfest und idiotensicher" ))))
Petr

[J.B. Langston]

Thanks guys. I guess I'm still a little disappointed by Spencer's adverse reaction to AI on the RC2014 group, so I was a bit gunshy. I have always liked retro/modern mashups though. This was my debut project in the retro community: https://github.com/jblang/z80ctrl. 

I joined IBM last year through an acquisition and I'm computer nerd enough to be at least a little excited about going to work at the OG computer company, so that's how I got interested in the 650.  I'm on the next to last chapter of IBM's Early Computers: https://www.amazon.com/IBMs-Early-Computers-History-Computing/dp/0262022257/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0. 

Aaron--I've bookmarked your site and I'll check out the individual projects later. We definitely have overlapping interest in the CP/M and Z80 realm.

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[7alken]

btw, good read of your doc and few links from IBM...
is possible this is typo here?? " not yours ... )) Note that throllelling needs" https://opensimh.org/simdocs/i650_doc.html#running-demo-script
P.

[J.B. Langston]

Hmm, that's in the OpenSIMH docs. I don't have direct control over them. My fork with the Emscripten integration is here: https://github.com/jblang/simh.  So far I have sent two emails to their list and neither one went through. Idk if my post broke some rule or if the moderator is just asleep at the switch but since I'm already not getting through, I don't think pointing out typos will endear me to them :D. Maybe I would have better luck with a pull request.

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[J.B. Langston]

I've added quite a few new features to the Simulator tab this morning:

- it has been renamed from Emulator to Simulator to match the SIMH nomenclature

- integrated terminal with prompt instead of separate input and output controls

- sidebar buttons for common actions

- debugging and hardware tabs are completely new

Check it out at  https://jblang.github.io/web650/simulator/