Lars Brinkhofflarsbrinkhoff@mastodon.sdf.org
Oct 7, 2026, 5:18 AM@ChuckMcManis Here's my JTAG debugger.
Replies
ChuckChuckMcManis@chaos.socialOct 7, 2026, 5:19 AM@larsbrinkhoff Its so pretty. And I could probably still use it to bring up TOPS-20 (or TENEX) if I had it. The PDP-10 Replica is fun too.
- Lars Brinkhofflarsbrinkhoff@mastodon.sdf.orgOct 7, 2026, 5:20 AM
@ChuckMcManis Joking aside, the JTAG debugger I'm using right now does allow displaying registers and memory contents in real-ish time. So of course it would be entirely possible to do this much more stylishly with a blinkenlights panel.
- ChuckChuckMcManis@chaos.socialOct 7, 2026, 5:22 AM
@larsbrinkhoff Yeah, the trace unit in the Cortex-M architecture is pretty powerful. You can have it sampling a register in "real time" which would work well for this.
- Lars Brinkhofflarsbrinkhoff@mastodon.sdf.orgOct 7, 2026, 5:22 AM
@ChuckMcManis The PiDP-10 does run TOPS-20 which is kind of disconcerting to see on a KA10 panel.
TENEX keeps resisting revival efforts, but should be possible.
- ChuckChuckMcManis@chaos.socialOct 7, 2026, 5:25 AM
@larsbrinkhoff Agreed. USC ran it on their KL's, and TOPS 10 on the KA. When I was there they had like 7 different machines, I believe two of them were at the USC-ISI campus in Marina Del Rey. They had KA, KI, and KL variants to be sure.
- Lars Brinkhofflarsbrinkhoff@mastodon.sdf.orgOct 7, 2026, 10:00 AM
@ChuckMcManis As far as I know, USC-ECL was the only KL10 on ARPANET running TENEX. And possibly anywhere. Most sites seem to have moved to TOPS-20, and USC did too after a while.