This module contains a simulator for the AT&T 3B2 Model 400 microcomputer.
CAUTION: The simulator is under active and heavy development. It is usable today, but please consider this emulator to be a beta.
The following devices are simulated. The SIMH names for the simulated devices are given in parentheses:
To boot the 3B2 simulator into firmware mode, simply type:
sim> BOOT CPU
You will be greeted with the message:
FW ERROR 1-01: NVRAM SANITY FAILURE DEFAULT VALUES ASSUMED IF REPEATED, CHECK THE BATTERY FW ERROR 1-02: DISK SANITY FAILURE EXECUTION HALTED SYSTEM FAILURE: CONSULT YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION UTILITIES GUIDE
NVRAM can be saved between boots by attaching it to a file.
sim> ATTACH NVRAM <file>
On subsequent boots, you will instead see the message
SELF-CHECK FW ERROR 1-02: DISK SANITY FAILURE EXECUTION HALTED SYSTEM FAILURE: CONSULT YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION UTILITIES GUIDE
Once you see the SYSTEM FAILURE
message, this is actually an invisible prompt. To access firmware mode, type the default 3B2 firmware password mcp
, then press Enter or carriage return.
You should then be prompted with:
Enter name of program to execute [ ]:
Here, you may type a question mark (?) and press Enter to see a list of available firmware programs.
UNIX SVR3 for the 3B2 partially boots. To boot UNIX, attach the first disk image from the 3B2 “Essential Utilities” distribution.
sim> ATTACH IF <disk-image> sim> BOOT CPU
Once you reach the SYSTEM FAILURE
message, type mcp
to enter firmware mode. When prompted for the name of a program to boot, enter unix
, and confirm the boot device is FD5
by pressing Enter or carriage return.
Enter name of program to execute [ ]: unix Possible load devices are: Option Number Slot Name --------------------------------------- 0 0 FD5 Enter Load Device Option Number [0 (FD5)]:
To install SVR3 to the first hard disk, first, attach a new image
sim> ATTACH ID0 <disk-image>
Then, boot the file idtools
from the “3B2 Maintenance Utilities - Issue 4.0” floppy diskette.
From idtools
, select the formhard
option and low-level format integrated disk 0. Parameters are:
Drive Id: 5 Number cylinders: 925 Number tracks/cyl: 9 Number sectors/track: 18 Number bytes/sector: 512
After low-level formatting integrated disk 0, boot the file unix
from the first diskette of the 3B2 “Essential Utilities” distribution, and follow the prompts.