Summary: RT-11 assembler/emulator?

[George Corliss]

In SunSpots Digest v9n106, I asked about an RT-11 assembler/emulator to
run on a Sun.  Thanks to all who responded.  I received responses about
two software packages and two offers of commercial assistance:

SOFTWARE:

From: wbc at cabot.dartmouth.edu (Wayne B. Cripps)

|I have something called the CHIP/HOCA system which is sort of what you
|want, a pdp11 simulator and c compiler and support.  The io is a bit
|different though, and in porting it from the vax to the suns, I may have
|bit reversed all the opcodes ( It doesn't make any differene to me - I
|just need something that students can write and run code on)
|
|You can ftp pub/sunchip/sunchip.tar.Z from killington.dartmouth.edu. Feel
|free to tell anyone! Let me know if it is useful or if the opcodes come
|out bit flipped.

From: dan at breeze.bellcore.com (Daniel Strick)

|I just happen to have an RT-11 emulator that I used to sell in a previous
|life.  (Don't laugh.  I actually made a little money on the RSX version.)
|It just happens that I dusted it off recently to use it for benchmarking
|sun-4s.  The problems are: 
|
|1. I can't provide the RT-11 assembler.  This a DEC product and I could
|   get my posterior severely bruised for giving out copies.  (I am not even
|   certain that I have one.  I do have an old RT-11 ZORK binary that runs
|   faster on a SPARCstation then it ever did on a PDP-11/40.)
|
|2. I am reluctant to let the RT-11 emulator go for free (and I get the
|   impression that you are operating on a real tight budget).  We might be
|   able to work something out anyway.  This would be an "as is" sale for a
|   relatively trivial amount that covers my time and effort.  There would be
|   a software license agreement (a contract) to be signed.  I think you would
|   have to indemnify me.  (For example, DEC could theoretically sue me for
|   helping you violate DEC's rights to the RT-11 assembler even if you got it
|   somewhere else (because I helped you to use it).) 
|
|Dan Strick, aka dan at bellcore.com or bellcore!dan, (201)829-4624 
|
|P.S. I am not sure, but I think I remember that my PDP-11 instruction set
|interpreter does not simulate hardware floating point.

COMMERCIAL POINTERS:

From: G B Reilly <reilly at scotty.dccs.upenn.edu>

|Subject: My company translates MACRO-11 to C
|
|We just finished an assignment in Switzerland to convert 250 000 lines of
|MACRO-11 and are currently working on a similar project for a company in
|New Jersey.
|
|Can we help?

From: fred at Sun.COM (Fred Zeise(SPD-systems))

|The RT-11 system macros would be the main problem:  There is no UNIX
|analog to .CSIGEN but most of your translation could be done by a macro
|processor to take PDP-11 assembler input and output SPARC opcodes.
|
|Failing that OMNEX a small DEC/UNIX consulting house at 415-866-8400 in
|Mountain View might be interested in helping develop the tools.

George Corliss, Marquette University
georgec at math.mscs.mu.edu