Simulator for Classic 3000 gets third release
September 23, 2016
A third release of an HP 3000 Series III simulator is now available from the Computer History Simulation Project website. J. David Bryan of the project reports the software which simulates the old MPE V HP 3000 Series III now has a cold dump facility.
Entering the DUMP command simulates pressing the ENABLE and DUMP front panel buttons. The contents of main memory are written to an attached magnetic tape in a format suitable for analyzing with the DPAN4 program provided with MPE. The new SET CPU DUMPDEV and SET CPU DUMPCTL options specify the default device number and control byte for the dump.
Known as the SIMH project, the software is aimed at hobbyists who are using MPE V programs and utilities. Even though a power failure is not a desired event, the simulator has a capability of creating one. This is in addition to yanking the plug out of the laptop or PC running the simulator software.
"The user may simulate a system power loss with the POWER FAIL command and resume powered operation with the POWER RESTORE command," project notes from Bryan state. "The SET CPU ARS/NOARS command determines whether or not MPE automatically restarts when power is restored."
A full set of new features is listed in the release notes that accompany the simulator source files. Aupdated HP User's Guide covers the new commands is provided in Microsoft Word format with the source download. The guide is also available as a PDF file at an MIT website. A preconfigured MPE-V/R disc image available from Bitsavers was not changed for this release.