National Semiconductor SC/MP - new LCDS emulator available for testing

[JDMAC]

Hello All,

My first posting here, but I have been reading with great interest a previous thread on the
SC/MP Low-Cost Development System.

National Semiconductor - SC/MP LCDS manual needed

Thanks to the ROM listings and LCDS user manuals facilitated by GeoffC, I've updated a previous
SC/MP emulator that I wrote and now have what appears to be a working LCDS emulator !

However, I've never seen or used a real LCDS so wondered if anyone would be interested in testing it ?

Ideally someone with access to, or knowledge of the original LCDS to compare it against.

Teleprinter not required - I've patched the ROMs to support Telnet instead.

Thanks in advance,

Jim.

 

[GeoffC]

Hi, sorry to take so long to reply!

I'm glad the ROM images were useful. I would be happy to get it a try - however I'm a Mac user.

Would your emulator run on the Mac?

Geoff

 

[JDMAC]

Hello Geoff,

I tried this on a Mac before replying, and sorry, but the short answer is no.

Reason is that the emulator runs in Excel VBA, with several calls to the Windows API for timing and Winsock network access etc.

I don't know if these can be converted into similar Mac (Dynamic Library ?) calls though.

Regards,

Jim.

 

[GeoffC]

Maybe it could be converted to the Mac .. I don't know anything about VBA.

 

[daver2]

This is why I stick with either Java script within a browser, or enhance the source base for SIMH - both are largely cross-platform (if you stick to a set of rules).

Dave

 

[JDMAC]

Geoff,

I've got this partially working on Mac Excel now.

No telnet/serial/paper-tape yet, and lots of compatibility issues remaining.

However, it does run the LCDS monitor and the LED test program from the user manual.

Here's a screenshot first, I'll upload the actual emulator file shortly if you're still interested.

Regards,

 

[GeoffC]

Hi JDMAC I'd like to give it a try!

Geoff

 

[JDMAC]

Here you go Geoff,

First rough cut of Mac version for you.

Several ribbon icons have been commented out as they don't work on Mac yet.

Click Load on the main Emulator to load the LED Test program.

Be interested to see if it works for you !

J.

 

[GeoffC]

Hi, I gave it a try (I'm not an Excel whiz) and there is an error on this line:

Public Declare PtrSafe Sub USleep Lib "/usr/lib/libc.dylib" Alias "usleep" (ByVal dwMicroseconds As Long)

Compile Error: Expected: Sub Or Function

'PtrSafe' is highlighted.

 

[JDMAC]

My Excel gives a warning that PrtSafe is required for use on 64-bit systems.
You could try simply amending the line to

Public Declare Sub USleep Lib "/usr/lib/libc.dylib" Alias "usleep" (ByVal dwMicroseconds As Long)

 

[GeoffC]

OK I tried it on a newer version of Excel on a different Mac and it seems to work!

I got it started and got the initial 0001 PC display.

Looking forward to trying out some more of it soon.

Thanks for sharing!