S/3 Emulators
An IBM
System/3 model 10 emulator was written by Charles 'Dutch' Owen for SIMH in 2001
with some assistance from me.
Quoting Dutch: "...we were working on the sim (me writing, he testing and telling me where I screwed up)."
This emulator has support for:
A complete installation log can be seen here.
An aws tape with several 'add-on' programs can be downloaded here.
Warning: this version is written to run with the SIMH version included in the tar file.
Tip: when running the emulator you really need this IBM S/3 HALT guide and this OCL reference card.
In 2005 I started to write a model 15B emulator (with 3340 disk drives) and used Dutch's source code as starting point.
My plan was to write a model 15A with 5444 drives, but I didn't had a 5444 based model 15 System Control Program.
I did have a 3340 version of the SCP, so I started with that.
.
The 3277-1 operator console emulation is not perfect and needs a specialist who is familiar with COLOR ANSI on Linux.
Here are some screen shots:
(15A
emulator)
With a running model 15B emulator (with 3340 drives) I was able to re-create an 5444 version of the SCP. Unfortunately
all the 5444 specific software modules where missing (IOS driver: de12, 5444 initializer: init2, 5444 IPL record: sgipl etc).
Luckily I have the source code of all these modules on microfiche, so after typing in 2000+ lines of assembler source code,
assembling and linking it all, I was able to re-create these modules.
As already said the weak point of the model 15 emulator is the ANSI 3277-1 emulation. It is not possible to connect the well
known tn3270 to the emulator. The SCP does not generate 3270 BSC data stream to communicate with the 3277-1 console.
The screen data is transfered directly from storage via an internal channel to the adapter and then via coax to the 3277-1.
Then I got the idea to develop an async to IBM coax converter and connect a real IBM 3277-1 to the emulator.
Linux/S3emulator COM port <===/ RS232 /===> Converter <===/ Coax /===> Real IBM 3277-1
There are some pictures of the result:
Pic 1.
Pic 2.
Pic 1: the left PCB is an Atmel ATNGW100 running Linux and the System/3 emulator. The right PCB is the async to coax converter.
Pic 2: The converter is build with an ATMEL Atmega processor and 11 bit serial & deserial logic in an ALTERA fpga.
Here are some screen shots of the result:
YouTube demo movie.
The response is quite good and no difference with a real system. (except less power consumption, space and noise :-)
Detailed specification of the IBM-ANR protocol can be found here.
Currently I am working on a connection between a real System/3 operator panel and the emulator.
The hardware is finished and the software (modified SIMH S/3 emulator) is done.
Here are some pictures. The black box behind the panel is an 19" Industrial PC, the first type IBM made.
Two PCB's (as shown in the last picture) are needed to interface between the panel and the PC.
.
The interaction between the operator and the panel is besides error conditions and single machine / clock cycles operations identical with the reel panel.
Extra effort was needed to make the panel lights flicker as on the original panel. See this movie where I demonstrate this emulator.
A modified IBM Composer Selectric connected via a RS232 connection is used to emulate the IBM 5471.
Currently I have CCP running on this system. Dutch Owen is now working on a TN3270 connection with CCP
running in the model 15 emulator.
See also my 5496 project.
Greg Engelstad has written a complete IBM System/3 emulator in C#.
Please download the source from github.
Quoting Dutch: "...we were working on the sim (me writing, he testing and telling me where I screwed up)."
This emulator has support for:
- IBM 5410 CPU and 64 kbyte storage.
- IBM 5741 Printer Keyboard.
- IBM 5444 Disk Drive (two)
- IBM 1442 card reader (80 column)
- IBM 1403 line printer support.
- IBM 5424 MFCU (96 column)
- IBM 3411 Tape Unit
- IBM 3741 Diskette Station (under construction !)
- and solved some minor bugs.
A complete installation log can be seen here.
An aws tape with several 'add-on' programs can be downloaded here.
Warning: this version is written to run with the SIMH version included in the tar file.
Tip: when running the emulator you really need this IBM S/3 HALT guide and this OCL reference card.
In 2005 I started to write a model 15B emulator (with 3340 disk drives) and used Dutch's source code as starting point.
My plan was to write a model 15A with 5444 drives, but I didn't had a 5444 based model 15 System Control Program.
I did have a 3340 version of the SCP, so I started with that.
.
The 3277-1 operator console emulation is not perfect and needs a specialist who is familiar with COLOR ANSI on Linux.
Here are some screen shots:
(15A
emulator)With a running model 15B emulator (with 3340 drives) I was able to re-create an 5444 version of the SCP. Unfortunately
all the 5444 specific software modules where missing (IOS driver: de12, 5444 initializer: init2, 5444 IPL record: sgipl etc).
Luckily I have the source code of all these modules on microfiche, so after typing in 2000+ lines of assembler source code,
assembling and linking it all, I was able to re-create these modules.
As already said the weak point of the model 15 emulator is the ANSI 3277-1 emulation. It is not possible to connect the well
known tn3270 to the emulator. The SCP does not generate 3270 BSC data stream to communicate with the 3277-1 console.
The screen data is transfered directly from storage via an internal channel to the adapter and then via coax to the 3277-1.
Then I got the idea to develop an async to IBM coax converter and connect a real IBM 3277-1 to the emulator.
Linux/S3emulator COM port <===/ RS232 /===> Converter <===/ Coax /===> Real IBM 3277-1
There are some pictures of the result:
Pic 1.
Pic 2.
Pic 1: the left PCB is an Atmel ATNGW100 running Linux and the System/3 emulator. The right PCB is the async to coax converter.
Pic 2: The converter is build with an ATMEL Atmega processor and 11 bit serial & deserial logic in an ALTERA fpga.
Here are some screen shots of the result:
YouTube demo movie.The response is quite good and no difference with a real system. (except less power consumption, space and noise :-)
Detailed specification of the IBM-ANR protocol can be found here.
Currently I am working on a connection between a real System/3 operator panel and the emulator.
The hardware is finished and the software (modified SIMH S/3 emulator) is done.
Here are some pictures. The black box behind the panel is an 19" Industrial PC, the first type IBM made.
Two PCB's (as shown in the last picture) are needed to interface between the panel and the PC.
.
The interaction between the operator and the panel is besides error conditions and single machine / clock cycles operations identical with the reel panel.
Extra effort was needed to make the panel lights flicker as on the original panel. See this movie where I demonstrate this emulator.
A modified IBM Composer Selectric connected via a RS232 connection is used to emulate the IBM 5471.
Currently I have CCP running on this system. Dutch Owen is now working on a TN3270 connection with CCP
running in the model 15 emulator.
See also my 5496 project.
Greg Engelstad has written a complete IBM System/3 emulator in C#.
Please download the source from github.