| 1 | Date: Sat, 11 Jul 92 15:00:00 EDT |
| 2 | From: Charles Lasner <lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu> |
| 3 | Subject: A few more release files for Kermit-12 |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Now available are two new versions of K12DEC and K12ENC, which |
| 6 | have a new feature for image transfer of an entire device optionally |
| 7 | split into two parts. This comes at the request of a user, and was |
| 8 | quite easy to add. As before, the sources document how to use the |
| 9 | programs, etc. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | The new files have been installed in the regular places: |
| 12 | |
| 13 | BITNET/EARN Internet |
| 14 | KERMSRV@CUVMA watsun.cc.columbia.edu Description |
| 15 | |
| 16 | K12MIT ANN kermit/d/k12mit.ann Announcement of KERMIT-12 |
| 17 | K12MIT UPD kermit/d/k12mit.upd Release update (this) file |
| 18 | K12ENB PAL kermit/d/k12enb.pal .BOO-format encoding program |
| 19 | K12DEB PAL kermit/d/k12deb.pal .BOO-format decoding program |
| 20 | K12MIT NOT kermit/d/k12mit.not Release notes file |
| 21 | K12MIT DSK kermit/d/k12mit.dsk Description of RX02 diskettes |
| 22 | |
| 23 | ------------------------------ |
| 24 | Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 15:52:25 EST |
| 25 | From: Charles Lasner <lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu> |
| 26 | Subject: A few more release files for Kermit-12 |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Now available are two new versions of K12DEC and K12ENC, which |
| 29 | have a new feature for image transfer of an entire device. This |
| 30 | comes at the request of several users, and was quite easy to add. As |
| 31 | before, the sources document how to use the programs, etc. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | I am working on an upgrade (specifically a handler) for OS/278 to |
| 34 | allow complete transfer of RX50 diskettes as an encoded ASCII-fied |
| 35 | file. This utility merely handles records available to the normal |
| 36 | file structure, but in the OS/278 RX50 case (from DEC) this is not |
| 37 | the entire disk structure. In part this is a safety feature, so you |
| 38 | can't access the "slushware" tracks; you can't transfer an entire |
| 39 | image of an RX50 currently. When the system is upgraded with a |
| 40 | suitable handler, the encoder and decoder gain access to the entire |
| 41 | device; all other system utilities can utilize the entire RX50 as an |
| 42 | effectively larger device. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | If the handler project takes too long (it is actually quite |
| 45 | involved surprisingly enough) I will possibly resort (by popular |
| 46 | demand) to releasing an interim program that does its own RX50 I/O as |
| 47 | a special case of encode and decode. That would be withdrawn later |
| 48 | when the handler is available. (DECmates are becoming available to |
| 49 | various people around the world, but they don't have the support |
| 50 | software to get it running; this method would allow them to get their |
| 51 | machines up after they had merely an OS/278 bootable disk (available |
| 52 | from DECUS) and the Kermit-12 files :-).) |
| 53 | |
| 54 | The two new utilities are currently useful for other devices. |
| 55 | For example, an entire OS/8 RX01 or RX02 can be encoded as a file. |
| 56 | With the WPS-oriented handlers installed (commonly available), images |
| 57 | of an RX01 WPS document disk can be encoded/decoded directly. (This |
| 58 | even includes bootable WPS RX01 systems diskettes, or even RT-11 RX01 |
| 59 | disks!) The existant WPS/COS-style handlers allow transfer of any |
| 60 | RX01 as long as track zero can be ignored. This is generally the |
| 61 | case on RX01/02, but NOT RX50, thus the above problem. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | The new files have been installed in the regular places: |
| 64 | |
| 65 | BITNET/EARN Internet |
| 66 | KERMSRV@CUVMA watsun.cc.columbia.edu Description |
| 67 | |
| 68 | K12MIT ANN kermit/d/k12mit.ann Announcement of KERMIT-12 |
| 69 | K12MIT UPD kermit/d/k12mit.upd Release update (this) file |
| 70 | K12ENB PAL kermit/d/k12enb.pal .BOO-format encoding program |
| 71 | K12DEB PAL kermit/d/k12deb.pal .BOO-format decoding program |
| 72 | |
| 73 | ------------------------------ |
| 74 | Date: Mon Oct 21 1991 12:00:00 EDT |
| 75 | From: Charles Lasner <lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu> |
| 76 | Subject: Release of Additional Kermit-12 Utilities |
| 77 | Keywords: .BOO, PDP-8, PDP-12, VT-78, DECmate, OS/8 |
| 78 | Xref: DEC PDP, See PDP |
| 79 | |
| 80 | This is a release of companion utilities to KERMIT-12 for the |
| 81 | purpose of enhancing file distribution. Two areas are addressed: 1) |
| 82 | Initial program acquisition, 2) Binary file encoding. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | 1) Utilities are provided to create and load copies of KERMIT-12 "on |
| 85 | the fly" from a server such as a remote time-sharing system or a |
| 86 | local PC on the other end of a "clean" connection to the PDP-8. |
| 87 | |
| 88 | Unfortunately, most PDP-8 family systems lack a communications |
| 89 | predecessor to KERMIT-12. Most communications applications were |
| 90 | limited to terminal emulation only, so it is rare that any PDP-8 |
| 91 | system has an existing utility sufficient to acquire KERMIT-12. (Of |
| 92 | course some sites have prior versions of KERMIT-12 already.) |
| 93 | |
| 94 | Assuming an error-free serial connection to the other system, it |
| 95 | is possible to down-load KERMIT-12 directly into the PDP-8 memory |
| 96 | without a protocol. This is similar to the process used for years by |
| 97 | DEC field service to load paper-tape copies of diagnostics. Loading |
| 98 | is limited to a single PDP-8 field at a time. Performing several |
| 99 | load operations yields intermediary image files which can be combined |
| 100 | into K12MIT.SV identical to the release version (except for |
| 101 | irrelevant loading artifacts which is a consequence of the operating |
| 102 | system itself). |
| 103 | |
| 104 | The format chosen for Initial Program Load (.IPL) is an encoding |
| 105 | that yields ASCII files that should pass through any system with |
| 106 | ease. The scenario of loading is assumed to be either direct |
| 107 | system-to-system, or between a remote system and one of its |
| 108 | terminals. All control characters (such as CR and LF) are ignored, |
| 109 | thus the encoded files contain frequent line breaks to make the |
| 110 | encoded file pallatable to the serving system. Strictly lower-case |
| 111 | letter messages are added at the beginning and end of the file to |
| 112 | serve as leader trailer fields as well as file documentation. Please |
| 113 | note that while spaces are insignificent, the rest of the ASCII |
| 114 | character set is used for loading information, so editing of .IPL |
| 115 | files must scrupulously avoid changes to the "body" of the file. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | A simple program (K12IPL.PAL) is provided for .IPL loading of a |
| 118 | single field. The user must customize it for local requirements, and |
| 119 | then enter two variant forms of the loader. (Future releases could |
| 120 | require additional variants to be created. The current release |
| 121 | occupies two fields.) This process is similar to customizing the |
| 122 | communications requirements of KERMIT-12 itself. The program is |
| 123 | sufficiently small to allow manual entry into the system debugger |
| 124 | (ODT) directly. Examples of such an entry session are provided as |
| 125 | K12IP0.ODT and K12IP1.ODT. The source program may also be retyped by |
| 126 | any available means (TECO, EDIT, etc.) if desired. Only standard |
| 127 | PDP-8 peripherals are supported such as KL8E, KL8-JA, etc., as |
| 128 | opposed to KERMIT-12 itself which supports various DECmate |
| 129 | communications hardware as well. It was felt that the greatly |
| 130 | increased complexity of supporting the DECmate communications ports |
| 131 | would make this process too unwieldy. However, it is possible to |
| 132 | load the data through the DECmate's printer port. The VT-78 and all |
| 133 | prior PDP-8 models are fully supported. |
| 134 | |
| 135 | Distribution files include K12FL0.IPL and K12FL1.IPL which are |
| 136 | the encoded copies of field zero and field one respectively. |
| 137 | K12IPL.DOC is a discussion of the .IPL encoding format itself. |
| 138 | K12IPG.PAL is the utility used to create K12FL0.IPL and K12FL1.IPL |
| 139 | from the standard release file K12MIT.SV. (K12MIT.SV is itself |
| 140 | distributed in encoded form as K12MIT.ENC and now also K12MIT.BOO |
| 141 | (see below). K12IPG can be used with other programs for similar |
| 142 | purposes if required.) |
| 143 | |
| 144 | 2) Utilities are provided for encoding and decoding arbitrary OS/8 |
| 145 | files using the popular .BOO format encoding scheme. .BOO format |
| 146 | should be compatible across dis-similar systems thus avoiding |
| 147 | intermediary "hazards." |
| 148 | |
| 149 | While quite popular in the MS-DOS world for file distribution |
| 150 | purposes, .BOO format as originally designed has an inherent weakness |
| 151 | that makes reliable use on OS/8 family systems impossible. I have |
| 152 | designed an extension to the format to make .BOO format sufficiently |
| 153 | reliable to allow implementation of an encoder and decoder for OS/8 |
| 154 | systems. Note that ENCODE format is still the format of choice for |
| 155 | file distribution because of its more robust nature, but the shorter |
| 156 | files created by a .BOO encoder may be desirable in certain |
| 157 | circumstances. .BOO format files cannot pass through WPFLOP "paths" |
| 158 | to distribute files on DECmates or VT-78, so ENCODE format is |
| 159 | mandatory on systems used this way. |
| 160 | |
| 161 | The relevant problem with .BOO format has to do with file length |
| 162 | anomalies that are a consequence of the format itself. .BOO files |
| 163 | either end on a repeat compression field or a complete three-byte |
| 164 | data field expressed as four characters, each only six bits |
| 165 | significant. Should a file end with only one or two eight-bit data |
| 166 | bytes, two or one additional null bytes will be appended to pad out |
| 167 | the last data field. This leads to files that are one or two bytes |
| 168 | longer than intended. At least this is the behavior on systems like |
| 169 | MS-DOS which maintain a file byte count. Since OS/8 files are |
| 170 | multiples of whole records, each of which can be viewed as a |
| 171 | collection of 384 bytes, any change in a file's length of even a |
| 172 | single extra null byte will cause the creation of an extraneous whole |
| 173 | record. Besides wasting space, it is conceivable that an OS/8 file |
| 174 | corrupted in this manner could actually be dangerous to use! Note |
| 175 | also that this problem can be cumulative in that repeated |
| 176 | transmission between systems where the file is stored locally in some |
| 177 | decoded form, and then encoded locally before transmission to another |
| 178 | site, can cause the problem to worsen indefinitely. Clearly, .BOO |
| 179 | format must be firmed up to prevent this form of file corruption |
| 180 | before it can be used safely on PDP-8 systems. (It has also been |
| 181 | noted that widely distributed .BOO encoding programs exist on certain |
| 182 | systems which exhibit defects such as erroneous appendage of |
| 183 | additional null bytes onto the end of the file not indicated by the |
| 184 | file's contents. This is clearly a program bug and not an inherent |
| 185 | problem with .BOO format design.) |
| 186 | |
| 187 | The method chosen to correct the existing .BOO anomaly is to |
| 188 | append a correction field to the end of every file requiring it. The |
| 189 | basic correction unit is ~0 which means literally a repeat |
| 190 | compression field with a count of zero. This construct is ignored by |
| 191 | most .BOO decoders because it contributes nothing to the file. (At |
| 192 | the bare minimum, .BOO decoders should implement the robustness of |
| 193 | ignoring this type of data. It is conceivable that due to design |
| 194 | error, a decoding program could "blow up" when encountering this |
| 195 | data. Imagine a file lengthened by 2^32 null bytes! The exact |
| 196 | amount of extraneously generated null bytes would likely be 2^{how |
| 197 | many bits wide are integers on the machine} or one less than that.) |
| 198 | |
| 199 | .BOO-encoded files may now contain either ~0 or ~0~0 at the end |
| 200 | to indicate whether one or two bytes are to be "taken back" |
| 201 | respectively. Tests on MSBPCT.BAS and MSBPCT.C as currently |
| 202 | distributed by CUCCA indicate that these corrections are perfectly |
| 203 | ignored, thus decoded files are erroneously inflated by one or two |
| 204 | bytes. This is the expected behavior of these older decoders. When |
| 205 | used with PDP-8 DEBOO.SV (distributed in source form as K12DEB.PAL), |
| 206 | the correct file length is maintained. PDP-8 ENBOO.SV (distributed |
| 207 | in source form as K12ENB.PAL) is the first encoding program that |
| 208 | creates the correction field as necessary. It is hoped that this |
| 209 | "pioneering" effort will cause other systems' encoders and decoders |
| 210 | to be similarly updated. |
| 211 | |
| 212 | Overall program operation for the encoder and decoder is |
| 213 | identical to the equivalent programs for ENCODE format. |
| 214 | Documentation is contained in the source files. As in the ENCODE |
| 215 | format decoding program, the target file name can be taken from the |
| 216 | original file name imbedded within the file, or optionally the user |
| 217 | can specify a target file name as well as a target device. When |
| 218 | encoding, the imbedded file name will always be the original name of |
| 219 | the file supplied as input to the encoder. The user can specify any |
| 220 | valid combination of output file name and device for the resultant |
| 221 | encoded file. |
| 222 | |
| 223 | OS/8 files passed through ENBOO/DEBOO are packed/unpacked |
| 224 | according to the standard OS/8 "3 for 2" scheme to ensure byte |
| 225 | accuracy where relevant. This allows files which are ASCII, but too |
| 226 | "delicate" for ordinary transfer to be sent between unlike systems |
| 227 | with total accuracy. This includes any file where the precise |
| 228 | placement of CR and LF may be critical, or contains unusual |
| 229 | characters in the file such as BEL or ESC. A perfect example of this |
| 230 | is the interchange of TECO macros between PDP-8s (used with OS/8 |
| 231 | TECO.SV) and IBM-PCs (used with MS-DOS TECO.EXE) with a unix system |
| 232 | as an intermediary storage site. Both end systems use like line |
| 233 | termination schemes incompatible with the intermediary system. Since |
| 234 | both systems support .BOO format, the files can still be sent without |
| 235 | loss. |
| 236 | |
| 237 | Most of the existing K12MIT-related files are unchanged. |
| 238 | K12MIT.DSK is updated to reflect all new files pertaining to .IPL or |
| 239 | .BOO utilities. K12MIT.ANN and K12MIT.UPD are updated per this |
| 240 | announcement. All files distributed in ENCODE format are replicated |
| 241 | in .BOO format. |
| 242 | |
| 243 | The new files have been installed in the regular places: |
| 244 | |
| 245 | BITNET/EARN Internet |
| 246 | KERMSRV@CUVMA watsun.cc.columbia.edu Description |
| 247 | |
| 248 | K12MIT ANN kermit/d/k12mit.ann Announcement of KERMIT-12 |
| 249 | K12MIT UPD kermit/d/k12mit.upd Release update (this) file |
| 250 | K12MIT DSK kermit/d/k12mit.dsk Description of RX02 diskettes |
| 251 | K12MIT NOT kermit/d/k12mit.not Release notes file |
| 252 | K12IPL PAL kermit/d/k12ipl.pal .IPL loading program |
| 253 | K12IP0 ODT kermit/d/k12ip0.odt ODT session creating IPL0.SV |
| 254 | K12IP1 ODT kermit/d/k12ip1.odt ODT session creating IPL1.SV |
| 255 | K12FL0 IPL kermit/d/k12fl0.ipl .IPL encoding of K12mit (FL0) |
| 256 | K12FL1 IPL kermit/d/k12fl1.ipl .IPL encoding of K12mit (FL1) |
| 257 | K12IPG PAL kermit/d/k12ipg.pal .IPL-format encoding program |
| 258 | K12IPL DOC kermit/d/k12ipl.doc Description of .IPL format |
| 259 | K12ENB PAL kermit/d/k12enb.pal .BOO-format encoding program |
| 260 | K12DEB PAL kermit/d/k12deb.pal .BOO-format decoding program |
| 261 | K12MIT BOO kermit/d/k12mit.boo .BOO encoding of KERMIT-12 |
| 262 | K12PL8 BOO kermit/d/k12pl8.boo .BOO encoding of PAL8 Ver B0 |
| 263 | K12CRF BOO kermit/d/k12crf.boo .BOO encoding of CREF Ver B0 |
| 264 | K12GLB BOO kermit/d/k12glb.boo .BOO encoded TECO file macro |
| 265 | |
| 266 | [Ed. - Thanks, Charles! Additional information can be found in the new |
| 267 | file, k12mit.not (K12MIT NOT), a message from Charles to the "PDP-8 lovers" |
| 268 | mailing list.] |
| 269 | |
| 270 | ------------------------------ |
| 271 | Date: Thu Sep 6 1990 11:00:00 EDT |
| 272 | From: Charles Lasner <lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu> |
| 273 | Subject: Announcing KERMIT-12 Version 10g |
| 274 | Keywords: PDP-8, PDP-12, VT-78, DECmate, OS/8 |
| 275 | Xref: DEC PDP, See PDP |
| 276 | |
| 277 | This is a maintenance release of KERMIT-12. A minor problem |
| 278 | relating to incorrect CPU identification messages has been fixed. |
| 279 | The problem only appeared when the CPU was a KK-8A single-board CPU; |
| 280 | this configuration was previously untested. Thanks to Johnny |
| 281 | Billquist of Sweden for his assistance in pinning down the problem. |
| 282 | |
| 283 | KERMIT-12 operation was not affected in any other way, as only |
| 284 | the DECmate-specific identification is crucial; earlier PDP-8 family |
| 285 | members are treated in a generic fashion except for the "frill" of |
| 286 | model identification (all PDP-8, PDP-12, VT-78 models use |
| 287 | software-compatible port hardware; all DECmates are incompatible and |
| 288 | must be handled individually). We are still looking for volunteers |
| 289 | to test the various DECmate III and DECmate III+ configurations. |
| 290 | |
| 291 | The rest of the release concerns the encoding of files into the |
| 292 | "ASCII-fied" format. The format has been modified to be more robust, |
| 293 | since the original method has proven itself to be problematic in |
| 294 | certain practical circumstances (as reported in K12MIT.BWR). |
| 295 | |
| 296 | The new ENCODing format is based on five-bit encoding with repeat |
| 297 | compression. As much as 256 repeated 12-bit words will be expressed |
| 298 | in a five character field. Any repeated 12-bit value can be |
| 299 | compressed, as opposed to simple zero compression, as in other common |
| 300 | encoding schemes. (PDP-8 files often have repeated strings of the |
| 301 | value 7402 octal, which is the HLT instruction.) |
| 302 | |
| 303 | The only printing characters required to pass through any |
| 304 | distribution "path" are 0-9, A-V, X, and Z. The alphabetic characters |
| 305 | can also be lower-case. All command lines are framed by ( and ); |
| 306 | all data lines are framed by < and >. These characters can be |
| 307 | changed if required, as they are not part of the data; they could be |
| 308 | replaced by W (w) and Y (y) if necessary. (Changing the framing |
| 309 | characters requires slight modification of the ENCODing and DECODing |
| 310 | programs.) |
| 311 | |
| 312 | The new format supports a 60-bit file checksum to ensure proper |
| 313 | decoding at the other end. The former 12-bit checksum could be |
| 314 | compromised on long files. |
| 315 | |
| 316 | The new ENCODing programs creates internal (REMARK commands |
| 317 | stating the ENCODed file's creation date, and the original file's |
| 318 | creation date. This will aid in distribution of PDP-8 files where |
| 319 | the user wishes to maintain proper file dates. The date algoritm |
| 320 | used is the one proscribed by the OS/8 DIRECT program. (OS/8 systems |
| 321 | only OPTIONALLY support file dates, and there is an eight-year |
| 322 | "anomaly" associated with identifying the year; the user must |
| 323 | determine the credibility of the year portion of the date. The value |
| 324 | provided by the ENCODE program for the original file creation date is |
| 325 | always today's year or the previous seven years as necessary; this |
| 326 | field will not be provided if the system doesn't support the required |
| 327 | AIW feature.) |
| 328 | |
| 329 | Overall file size is theoretically as much as 6/5 of the original |
| 330 | encoding format (as the earlier format was based on six-bit |
| 331 | encoding), but actual size varies downward due to slightly less file |
| 332 | overhead (wider lines mean less CR LF; there is now less |
| 333 | automatically generated verbiage), and the random improvement |
| 334 | afforded by simple repeat compression. |
| 335 | |
| 336 | Virtually all K12MIT-related files are re-released at this time. |
| 337 | There are several new files. Due to the "fragile" nature of TECO |
| 338 | macro files, the file K12GLB.TEC is no longer being distributed |
| 339 | directly; the file K12GLB.ENC is the same file in the new ENCODE |
| 340 | format. |
| 341 | |
| 342 | The new files have been installed in the regular places: |
| 343 | |
| 344 | BITNET/EARN Internet |
| 345 | KERMSRV@CUVMA watsun.cc.columbia.edu Description |
| 346 | |
| 347 | K12MIT ENC kermit/d/k12mit.enc Encoded binary of KERMIT-12 |
| 348 | K12MIT DOC kermit/d/k12mit.doc Documentation file |
| 349 | K12MIT BWR kermit/d/k12mit.bwr Updated "beware" file |
| 350 | K12MIT DSK kermit/d/k12mit.dsk Description of RX02 diskettes |
| 351 | K12MIT ANN kermit/d/k12mit.ann Announcement of KERMIT-12 |
| 352 | K12MIT UPD kermit/d/k12mit.upd Release update file |
| 353 | K12DEC PAL kermit/d/k12dec.pal Decoding program |
| 354 | K12ENC PAL kermit/d/k12enc.pal Encoding program |
| 355 | K12PL8 ENC kermit/d/k12pl8.enc Encoded binary of PAL8 Ver B0 |
| 356 | K12CRF ENC kermit/d/k12crf.enc Encoded binary of CREF Ver B0 |
| 357 | K12MIT PAL kermit/d/k12mit.pal Main source file of KERMIT-12 |
| 358 | K12PCH PAL kermit/d/k12pch.pal KERMIT-12 source patch file |
| 359 | K12CLR PAL kermit/d/k12clr.pal Memory clearing file |
| 360 | K12MIT LST kermit/d/k12mit.lst Symbols-only listing file |
| 361 | K12PRM PAL kermit/d/k12prm.pal Sample VT-78 config file |
| 362 | K12GLB ENC kermit/d/k12glb.enc Encoded TECO file macro |
| 363 | K12ENC DOC kermit/d/k12enc.doc Encoding format description |
| 364 | |
| 365 | [Ed. - Many thanks, Charles. Believe it or not, there are still quite a |
| 366 | few PDP-8 based systems out there, and even some PDP-12s. You won't find |
| 367 | very many other new software packages that support them!] |
| 368 | |
| 369 | ------------------------------ |
| 370 | Date: 05-October-1989 |
| 371 | From: lasner@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) |
| 372 | Subject: Announcing KERMIT-12 Version 10f |
| 373 | Keywords: PDP-8, PDP-12, VT-78, VT-278, DECmate, OS/8 |
| 374 | Xref: DEC PDP, See PDP |
| 375 | |
| 376 | This is to announce the release and availability of a highly |
| 377 | revamped KERMIT program for the complete family of Digital Equipment |
| 378 | Corporation 12-bit computers, known as KERMIT-12 (or K12MIT), Ver. |
| 379 | 10f. Unlike its predecessors (K08MIT and K278, upon which it is |
| 380 | partially based, as well as prior versions of KERMIT-12), KERMIT-12, |
| 381 | as now distributed, will run on any PDP-8 model (8, LINC-8, 8/i, 8/l, |
| 382 | 8/e, 8/f, 8/m, 8/a), PDP-12, VT-78, or DECmate (VT-278, aka DECmate |
| 383 | I, DECmate II, DECmate III, DECmate III-plus) under any OS/8 family |
| 384 | member operating system. Proper operation is accomplished |
| 385 | automatically. Companion utilities are provided to deal with |
| 386 | "ASCII-fied" binary files in ENCODE format (a mechanism designed by |
| 387 | Charles Lasner and Frank da Cruz as a proposed successor to BOO |
| 388 | format); ENCODE format has been employed to distribute the binary |
| 389 | portion of this release of KERMIT-12. |
| 390 | |
| 391 | Due to the myriad port requirements of the various models, |
| 392 | conditional parameters have been provided in the source (as well as a |
| 393 | separate patching file) for models prior to DECmate I. The program |
| 394 | auto-configures for all models of DECmate; parameters are available |
| 395 | to select the DECmate ports (DP278, communications, printer, etc.) |
| 396 | where applicable. |
| 397 | |
| 398 | Many improvements have been provided to get this KERMIT "up to |
| 399 | speed" relative to other KERMITs. KERMIT-12 has been tested |
| 400 | successfully with many KERMIT implementations and will run at the |
| 401 | maximum baud rate (and sometimes beyond the DEC-stated limit!) of the |
| 402 | relevant interface. Any console terminal configuration acceptable to |
| 403 | OS/8, etc. can be used at any baud rate as long as local flow-control |
| 404 | protocol is obeyed; remote flow control can be disabled at console |
| 405 | speeds higher than the remote line rate. Connect mode I/O is fully |
| 406 | ring-buffered in all directions with local flow control always |
| 407 | enabled for all console terminal operations. (This should satisfy |
| 408 | all console terminal requirements ranging from 110-baud teletypes to |
| 409 | built-in 350-Kbaud VT-220 emulators, since any of the gamut of these |
| 410 | ASCII terminals could be the system console terminal for any of the |
| 411 | KERMIT-12 supported computer configurations!). |
| 412 | |
| 413 | KERMIT-12 will run anywhere OS/8 does, so it runs on any perfect |
| 414 | look-alike suitably configured. Some known compatibles are: |
| 415 | |
| 416 | - TPA made in Hungary, this machine is an 8/l except for the silkscreened |
| 417 | letters which are Magyar, not English. |
| 418 | - Fabritek MP-12 |
| 419 | - Intersil Intercept |
| 420 | - Pacific CyberMetrix PCM-12 |
| 421 | - Digital Computer Controls DCC-112 and DCC-112H |
| 422 | - Computer Extensions CPU-8 (a drop-in replacement for the 8/e or 8/a cpu |
| 423 | for a PDP-8/A-400 or -600 hex-wide box) |
| 424 | - Computer Extensions SBC-8 (a single-board computer -8 compatible based |
| 425 | on the 6120 like a DECmate, but compatible with -8 peripherals, not |
| 426 | DECmate peripherals; it also supports up to 16 comm ports) |
| 427 | |
| 428 | Various emulators are available for PDP-10, 15 and the IBM-PC |
| 429 | which will also support KERMIT-12 if suitably configured. |
| 430 | |
| 431 | Distribution files are available from CUCCA. Testing is under |
| 432 | way for some of the more obscure configurations (e.g., DECmate III |
| 433 | with comm port); volunteers are welcome for this task. The author |
| 434 | can provide copies to interested parties on virtually all of the |
| 435 | popular PDP-8 media on a time-available basis. |
| 436 | |
| 437 | [Ed. - Many thanks, Charles! The files are in Kermit Distribution area D |
| 438 | with prefix K12, and the previous PDP-8 versions having prefixes K08 and |
| 439 | K278 have been retired. Internet users may ftp the files as kermit/d/k12*, |
| 440 | and BITNET users can get them from KERMSRV at CUVMA as K12* *.] |
| 441 | |
| 442 | ------------------------------ |