Further Emulator Discussion

[Chuck Guzis]

 Warren Wolfe wrote:
 > Much to my delight, an emulator which will function as several
 > different CDC mainframes exists!  However, upon further
 > investigation, this software costs US $12,500.00 for single CPU
 > copy.  CRIPES!  The university I attended GAVE AWAY the 6500 I 
used
 > to use.

A very common sense decision on their part.  Big, unreliable, power-
hungry (MG set, chilled water) and a pain to move (think about all of 
that coax running under the floor).  Not to mention the 
peripherals...

A lot of people were devastated when the one and only STAR-65 came 
back from Canada and was sold to a St. Paul area scrapper for so many 
cents per pound--and that was when the project was still very much 
alive.

But a 6000-series emulator wouldn't do it for me.  The constant 80-
some decibel level of the tape drive vacuum pumps, the screaming of 
the line printers, the clackety-clack and jamming of the card reader, 
the devastation to my social life because of dedicated block time in 
the middle of the night, surviving out of vending machines by eating 
cottage cheese and potato chips, Miinnesota in January, management 
complaining of being behind schedule--it just wouldn't be the same.

Running an emulator would be like watching a silent black-and-white 
film of the experience.  I've never wanted to even try it.  Besides, 
how many deadstart tapes of SCOPE 3.1.6 still exist?

--Chuck