New version of the "B7094" emulator system for IBM 709x and 704x mainframes - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: intabits
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2023, 02:49:12 am
content: There is a new release of the "B7094" IBM 7094 emulator athttps://github.com/Bertoid1311/B7094.This new version, as well as fixing some long-standing bugs in the user interface, has updated demos to include an alternate IBSYS ("KSYS61"), whose FORTRAN II processor can do chaining and run binaries. Canned demos now include execution of relocatable object programs as well as compile-and-go from source.It's very easy to try out: if you're a "casual" user, and running Windows, just download the B7094V34A.zip distribution archive, extract it into a new folder, run either B7094.32.exe or B7094.64.exe in the created "Bin" sub-folder. Then click on the options displayed to select from the many demonstrations available. Removal is equally easy: B7094 makes no changes to the Windows registry or any other part of the system other than its install folder. Deleting the distribution archive and the install folder will completely remove B7094 from your system. Linux users with Wine can download B7094V34A.tgz (provided for convenience only; the contents are the same as the Zip).There's an extensive README.md at the GitHub repository, and more documentation in the ..\Docs subfolder of the distribution package(s).Grateful acknowledgement is due to Richard Cornwell for providing some of the sample demo jobs, and for providing technical assistance in getting this new release operational. And of course to Al Kossow for the bitsavers archive; to Bob Supnik, Dave Pitts, and Richard Cornwell for their work getting IBM 709x emulators operational in the mid-late 2000s. And to Paul Pierce, who got the ball rolling with his collection of tapes.This is a greatly enhanced release of the emulator previously announced in another thread back in 2019:-https://www.eevblog.com/forum/vintage-computing/an-emulator-for-the-ibm-7094-mainframe-computer-(big-iron-circa-1960)/msg2138575/#msg2138575That version was hosted on Fosshub, which has proven to be most unresponsive recently, hence the shift to Github for the new version.The Fosshub repository for B7094 should now be considered defunct, and will be removed in due course.This latest version represents a huge effort by my main collaborator on this project. Many bugs in the emulator have been fixed, enabling sucessfull running of the diagnostics. The demonstration scripts have been very substantially extended, providing more detail and background information, and allowing new modes of operation enabled by the KSYS61 system tapes. Last but not least, the documentation has been greatly expanded.I've mostly taken a spectator role in all of these recent developments, and so may not be able to quickly answer any queries related to the new release, and suggest that the provided documentation should be consulted first. I'm simply not up to speed on the nitty gritty details of the new version.Enjoy!

author: 50ShadesOfDirt
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2023, 11:06:53 pm
content: Very cool ... a system almost as old as I am!d/l'd & installed, tested a bit, and d/l'd more docs, like the "principles of operation" ... quite a journey ahead of me, before I get to "operator" status.Reviewing the vids & docs ...Thanks for the pointer to it!