Thursday, December 5, 2024

All simulations completed satisfactorily for the Virtual 2315 Cartridge Facility

VERY LIMITED TIME DUE TO FAMILY VISITS AND HOLIDAYS

However, I did grab time to work on the simulations of the FPGA logic for the emulator that will sit between the IBM 1130 disk controller logic and the internal disk drive, allowing it to operate in hybrid mode. I built more sophisticated testbenches and used them to scrutinize the operation and timing of everything in the design.

SIMULATIONS WORK EXACTLY AS EXPECTED NOW

The logic should give me exactly the behavior I want. When any 2315 cartridge is inserted into the internal disk drive (13SD) and a valid disk image on a micro SD card is inserted into the emulator box, the disk image will be read and written to by the IBM 1130 as the 13SD drive spins and moves the disk arm in and out. It will also work properly if the 13SD drive is not working, providing a fully virtual disk drive emulation. 

NEXT UP - CLEAN UP AND TEST THE C CODE FOR THE RASPBERRY PI PICO

I want the code to make use of the file format for disk files of the IBM 1130 Simulators so that disks can be moved between the virtual (simulator) and real 1130 system environments. The RK-05 Emulator upon which my facility is based has its own format for disk files, developed to support various DEC computer disk drives. These were derived from the IBM 13SD but have significant differences. 

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