BESM-6 again

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2 total messages Started by a... Vadim G. Antonov Mon, 17 Sep 1990 18:09

#4531

Author: a... Vadim G. Antonov
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 1990 18:09

24 lines
1521 bytes

	I like to add a few words about some amazing features of
	BESM-6.

	Talking about how-to-turn-off-machine I forgot to say
	that BESM has a software feature to block power turnoff
	(I think it's a quite valuable idea, especially for Unix
	machines; what's about self-turning-on machines? ;-).

	Another piece of BESM's hardware is a drum printers ACPU-128
	(stands for Alphabetic-Numeric Printing Device, oh days of yore!)
	These printers have a funny control: each hammer can be moved
	by setting or clearing bits in the register. Interrupt per
	each rotating drum position generated. So, driver should catch
	interrupts and recalculate positions of hammers. As a result
	the best printer driver takes 12% of CPU per one device.
	Another feature of such printer control is *very* funny:
	if driver failed to handle interrupt at a time the line of garbage
	appeared. One can also calculate a loading of the machine by
	measuring distances between baseline and letters.

	Vadim Antonov
	DEMOS, Moscow, USSR
	(It is NOT a joke!)

Re: BESM-6 again

#4529

Author: d... Don Stokes
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 1990 16:46

21 lines
1554 bytes

a...@hq.demos.su (Vadim G. Antonov) writes:

>                 One can also calculate a loading of the machine by
> 	measuring distances between baseline and letters.

A recent Mini-Tasker (DECUS RT-11 SIG newsletter) described a load
monitor for PDP-11s running RT-11.  Basically, you attach a circuit to
a handshake line (eg RTS) on a spare serial port (working on the
principle that all real PDP-11s running RT-11 have more serial ports
than they know what to do with).  Then you patch the idle loop of
RT-11's monitor to toggle the line during each pass of the scheduler.
The circuit attached to the line simply counts the frequency of the
pulses coming from the machine, and displaying it on an analogue
meter...

Still doesn't beat the circling lights on the 11/70s I learnt real
world computing on though....  8-)

Don Stokes, ZL2TNM  /  /                            Home: d...@zl2tnm.gp.govt.nz
Systems Programmer /GP/ Government Printing Office  Work:        d...@gp.govt.nz
__________________/  /__Wellington, New Zealand_____or:_PSI%(5301)47000028::DON

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