Is there a Prime Computer Emulator?

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Dennis Boone wrote:
>  > I was rewatching "30 Years in the Tardis" last night and came across
>  > an item on the tape I had forgotten about.  It's been years since I
>  > watched it, and the last time was long before I started tinkering
>  > with classic computer emulators.  Anyway, while rewatching it I
>  > was thrilled to come across a commercial with the Doctor and Romana
>  > advertising a Prime computer.  I found some info on the net on the
>  > Prime computer line, such as:
>  > 
>  > http://www.malch.com/prime/
>  > 
>  > on the net but no mention of an emulator.  I also found some manuals
>  > on BitSavers.org.  Having been a Doctor Who fan for years, and with
>  > Tom Baker being my favorite Doctor, I'd love to have the opportunity
>  > to experience a computer system he endorsed.
> 
> Aha, another interested person.
> 
> There's an unreleased emulator which is complete enough to run PRIMOS
> Rev. 21 and most of the utilities; last I knew it had not yet developed
> I-mode instruction support.  Documentation is slowly accreting on
> bitsavers; I have a few things I need to finish up and make available.
> PRIMOS tapes seem to be a bit scarce.  I have some tapes of utilities
> and such that I collected over the years I worked on Prime systems.
> 
> I've talked to a few list.folk who have machines in their garages
> awaiting enough parts and software to try to revive them.  Mine is
> a 2550.  I've talked to a fellow who has a mostly running 2450.
> 
> A machine in the UK recently sold on eBay, and one vendor has a pile
> of (overpriced, mislabeled) boards and parts constituting most of a
> machine except for cabinet, backplane and disk drives in his store.
> 
> I'd be interested in seeing that commercial if you can put it online
> somewhere.

Ian Primus <ian_primus at yahoo.com>, who has been a member of this list in 
the past, works for one of the few support shops that still supports 
Prime and PRIMOS *today*.

He collects classic hardware and runs one or two fully functional Primes 
in his house.  You might want to email him.

Peace...  Sridhar