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Re: bootstrap, was What is the oldest computer that could be used today for real work? [message #411391 is a reply to message #411334] Wed, 29 September 2021 18:10 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
John Levine is currently offline  John Levine
Messages: 1405
Registered: December 2011
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According to Questor <usenet@only.tnx>:
> Circling back to something on topic: this reminds me of bootstraping
> a DEC KI-10. From memory, subject to errors: first you set a code
> in a switch register that selects which device to use, for example, paper tape,
> then push another button. That loads into memory and executes a small
> loader program that reads a bigger bootstrap loader from disk, which in
> turn loads and starts the operating system (i.e., the monitor in TOPS-10
> parlance).

Sounds like S/360. You set the device number of the IPL (initial program load)
device in the switches and pressed the IPL button. That ran a fixed one instruction
channel program pretending to be at location 0, that read 24 bytes into 0-23, then
executed whatever was read into locaion 8, typically another read command to read
a disk or tape block with real bootstrap, then started the computer by restoring the status word at
location 0 which runs the bootstrap just read in to start up the computer.






--
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly
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