Freeware 3000 Emulator gets download link
December 17, 2012
After a mid-November teaser, Stromasys has made a 2-user, freeware version of its Charon HPA/3000 emulator available for downloading once again. The software that lets an Intel-based Core i7 PC, Linux system or Mac work like an HP 3000 has a new link, live from the Stromasys website in Geneva:
http://www.stromasys.ch/hp3000_freeware/
The webpage prompts downloaders for their name, phone number and email address, then asks them to affirm two licensing questions: agreeing to enter only a valid HPSUSAN number to identify their virtual HP 3000; and limiting the Freeware to be used only by individuals, for personal, non-commercial use, with no time restriction, or by companies for evaluation purposes only, for up to 60 days following the initial download.
Stromasys notes that the freeware emulator may not be used in commercial production environments. After submitting simple "yes" answers and contact data, Stromasys emails a download link and a link to a 2-page PDF Read Me file. Each emulator link remains good for only 24 hours. The download file is currently 1 GB, a collection of files which automatically works with VMware's Workstation or Player products on Windows or Linux systems, or using VMware Fusion on the Mac. It includes a 1GB LDEV 1 disc image.
"We've set everything up so that it's as simple as possible," said product manager Paul Taffel. "You don't need to know anything about Linux to actually run the emulator, although of course some knowledge will always be useful. VMware is an amazing product, and allows us to send the whole environment out, completely pre-configured."
The Freeware Edition emulator is a reduced-capability version of the company's commercial A-Class A400 emulator. The performance has been artificially limited to "approximately 2 EPUs, roughly 2/3 that of an HP 3000 A-Class A400 system (when run on a 3.4 GHz CPU) This A202 model is made available as a VMware virtual machine image of a Linux system, in which the HP 3000 emulator has already been installed and configured."
To run the emulator you just need to run the virtual machine using VMware on a Windows, Mac, or Linux-based system. When you start the virtual machine it boots into Linux, and the included HP3000 emulator then starts up automatically.
The CHARON-HPA/3000 emulator functions exactly as a "real" HP 3000 – you can load any HP, third-party, or user software onto the system, and it will run exactly the same as if you were running on HP hardware. It has no expiration date.
The 2-page instruction sheet also gives info on the Freeware Edition hardware requirements and installation process. After installation, the VMware Linux system places the Read Me file on the desktop.
The download link delivers a tar archive HPA-A202.tar.bz2, a file which when expanded provides the various files that make up the VMware virtual machine The tar archive is compressed using the bzip2 file compressor. it can be decompressed on Windows using the freeware 7-Zip utility, or by using the shareware WinRAR utility, as well as others. Stromasys reports that Mac and Linux users can expand the tar archive from the command line.
Stromasys says it will support the Freeware Edition on a best-effort basis. "However the emulator is supplied with no guarantees to its correct operation or performance. If you have technical questions, please email us at: [email protected]."
Hosting requirements for the emulator are a 64-bit Windows, Mac OS or Linux system, driven by Intel x64 architecture (Core 2 Duo, i5, i7, or Xeon) with SSE 4.1 instruction extensions, at least 2 cores, and a clock speed of at least 2 GHz. "We believe (but have not confirmed) that current AMD FX processors (starting in 2011 with Bulldozer codename systems) also implement SSE 4.1," Taffel said.
The Linux Virtual Machine is configured to use up to 3 GB. With VMware's overhead, you should be able to run Charon-HPA/3000 comfortably on Windows systems with 6 GB memory, and possibly less. The decompressed VMware virtual machine takes about 10 GB of disc, including the included LDEV 1 disc image.
When the Freeware Edition is run on a Windows box, you can connect to it using Reflection (or any other emulator) running on the Windows host. I don't know what your options are for terminal emulators that run on Mac OS.
You can also, in theory, connect to the virtual 3000 running inside VMware from other Windows systems on the same network, but it's considerably more complex to configure, and I'm still trying to work out the details.
Taffel added that the emulator's Freeware edition makes use of VMware's ability to define multiple virtual ethernet ports, so downloaders can run it on a qualifying machine with a single ethernet port.
"The regular full-blown Stromasys emulator is not (for performance reasons) officially supported inside VMware Workstation or Player, and Stromasys recommend two physical ports for all production purposes," he said.