Digital PDFs

DEC-08-XPDAA-B-D

May 1975

4 pages

Original

0.2MB

Document:	01.01.01 7509 4K PTS-8
Order Number:	DEC-08-XPDAA-B-D
Revision:
Pages:	4
Original Filename:	http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/spd/01.01.01_7509_4K_PTS-8.pdf

OCR Text

momoomo

Software Product Description
PRODUCT NAME:

4K Paper Tape Software Kit (PTS-8)

SPD 1.1.1

DESCRIPTION:
Provided with most PDP-8 family computers DIGITAL manufactures
is a set of paper tape software to aid the PDP-8 user in his
program development. Included in this kit are the following
programs:
EDIT (Symbolic Editor) is used to create and modify ASCII source
files so that these files may be used as input to other programs,
such as FORTRAN, or SABR. EDIT is very flexible: it may be
used to create symbolic programs or data files at the console
terminal; examine, edit, and correct the files; and then prepare an ASCII paper tape that is suitable input to a wide variety of processing routines. EDIT includes a search feature
which allows the programmer to scan a line of text for the next
occurrence of a specified character. Other commands permit
blocks of text to be inserted, deleted, appended, listed or
changed. Once the internal text buffer contains a correct image
of the file, EDIT may be instructed to punch a specified portion of the file onto paper tape for subsequent editing or processing.
EDIT runs on any standard PDP-8. It occupies about 1000 memory
locations, allowing maximum space for text buffering, and provides 15 powerful editing commands. Unlike many line editors,
EDIT permits individual characters to be changed witout retyping
the entire line. It is fully interactive, so that editing
changes may be verified and recorrected if necessary.
ASSEMBLERS - Program Assembly Language provides optimum utilization of the PDP-8 processor because there is a one-to-one
correspondence between PAL mnemonics and PDP-8 machine instructions. Maximum programming efficiency is maintained through
full provision for microprogramming, memory allocation, direct
or indirect addressing, and the like. Programs written in PAL
may be supplied as input to any class of PDP-8/E assemblers
which will translate the symbolic language program into its
machine language equivalent.
PAL III, the basic PDP-8 assembly program, is a two-pass assembler with optional third pass that uses either high- or lowspeed paper tape and console terminal I/O. The PAL III assembler
builds a table of user-defined symbols during its first pass.

September 1975

DEC-08-XPDAA-B-D

4K Paper Tape Software Kit (PTS-8)
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At the end of the first pass, the input tape is reloaded for
a second pass, during which PAL III generates a binary format
program tape. The optional third pass may be used to produce
a full symbolic program and symbol table listing on the console
terminal and/or paper tape, if desired. Like all PDP-8/E assemblers, PAL III performs extensive error diagnosis and identifies
errors by location and type whenever they are encountered during
an assembly. The PAL III assembler runs on any standard PDP8/E.
MACRO-8 is an advanced, two-pass assembler with optional third
pass that has the same features as PAL III plus many additional
capabilities such as user defined macros, double-precision
integers, floating point constants, arithmetic and Boolean operators, literals, text manipulation facilities and automatic
off-page linkage generation. These features were incorporated
by decreasing the size of the user symbol table, so that MACRO-8
requires only 4K of memory. The symbol table may be enlarged
by deleting unused features, if necessary. Like PAL III,
MACRO-8 uses console terminal and high- or low-speed paper tape
I/O.
FLOATING POINT MATH PACKAGES - Use of a floating point package
permits the PDp-alE to perform arithmetic operations that many
other computers can only duplicate after the addition of costly optional hardware. The three floating point packages available for the PDP-8/E represent three optimizations of the tradeoffs between speed, accuracy and hardware configuration. Two
23-bit floating point packages maintain 5 or 6 significant (decimal)
digits of accuracy. One package, designed for use with the KE8-E
Extended Arithmetic Element, is capable of adding any two numbers
in the range -10 6 14 to <10614 in less than 160 microseconds.
Floating point multiplication is accomplished in about 200 microseconds, while the cosine function, which is typical for routines
having longer execution times, is implemented in less than 2.5
milliseconds. The other 23-bit floating point package executes
without an extended arithmetic element and requires about 300
microseconds for a typical floating point addition, or 1 millisecond for a typical multiplication.
The 27-bit floating point package (not part of this basic software kit) is similar to the two 23-bit packages; however, it
maintains greater accuracy for a smaller range of numbers.
Without the use of an extended arithmetic element, the 27-bit
package will operate on any two numbers in the range -1038 to
<1038 in about the same amount of time required for the corresponding 23-bit operation.

4K Paper Tape Software Kit (PTS-8)
-3-

All three floating point packages contain interpreters which
will accept, decode and execute floating point pseudo-instructions.
Individual components of the packages may be called as subroutines, in single instruction mode, to perform such operations
as conventional arithmetic, trigonometric function evaluation,
square root extraction, exponential function computation and
calculation of natural algorithms. Alternatively, any of the
floating point packages may be employed in interpretive mode,
to operate on a string of pseudo-instructions. In this mode
of operation, a package functions as a versatile software floating point processor which performs all of the operations listed
above, as well as floating skips, floating point I/O, floating
jumps to floating point subroutines, and so on.
Anyone of the three floating point packages require only about
800 decimal storage locations in any memory field. They will
accept floating point data or pseudo-instructions from any field
of memory, and all three packages perform I/O operations on
floating point numbers in either FORTRAN I, E, or F format.
Other programs provided in this kit include:
Binary Loader and Help Loader - a short program which, when in
core, enables the computer to accept and store other programs;
ODT and DDT - are service programs which allow the programmer
to run his binary program on the computer and use the Teletype
keyboard to control program execution, examine registers, change
their contents, make alterations to a program, and much more;
octal memory dump - allows programmer to list various locations
of memory on the terminal.
MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIRED:
4K pOP-a
LT33 Teletype Terminal
OPTIONAL HARDWARE SUPPORTED:
PR8 High-Speed Paper Tape Reader or,
PC8 High-Speed Paper Tape Reader/Punch
Additional memory to 32K system maximum
PREREQUISITE SOFTWARE:
None.
OPTIONAL SOFTWARE SUPPORTED:
None.
TRAINING CREDITS:
None.

4K Paper Tape Software Kit (PTS-B)
-4-

SUPPORT CATEGORY:
C, Software Support will be provided as listed in the Software
Support Categories Addendum to this SPD.
UPDATE POLICY:
During the first year, Update Policy shall be in accordance with
the Software Support Categories Addendum to this SPD. After the
first year, updates, if any, will be made available according
to then prevailing DIGITAL Policies.
ORDERING INFORMATION:
This software is furnished under a license for use on a single CPU
and can be copied and modified (with inclusion of DIGITAL's copyright notice) only for use on such CPU, except as may otherwise
be provided in writing by DIGITAL.
QF080-CB

Software for PDP-8, 81, 8S, SL; binaries on Paper Tape,
documentation, ~ support services.

QF08l-CB

Software for PDP-SE, SF, SM; binaries on Paper Tape,
documentation,' no support services.

01.1.1