Contact us Heritage collections Image license terms
HOME ACL Associates Technology Literature Applications Society Software revisited
Further reading □ Overview □ Paper 1 □ Paper 2 □ Paper 3 □ Paper 4 □ Paper 5 □ Paper 6 □ Paper 7 □ Paper 8 □ Paper 9 □ Paper 10 □ Paper 11 □ Paper 12 □ Paper 13 □ Paper 14 □ Paper 15 □ Paper 16 □ Paper 17 □ Paper 18 □ Paper 19 □ Paper 20 □ Paper 21 □ Paper 22 □ Paper 23 □ Paper 24 □ Paper 25 rev □ Paper 25 □ Paper 26 □ Paper 27 □ Paper 28 □ Paper 29 □ Paper 30 □ Paper 31 □ Paper 32 □ Paper 33 □ Paper 34 □ Paper 35 □ Paper E
ACD C&A INF CCD CISD Archives Contact us Heritage archives Image license terms

Search

   
⟶ ACL ⟶ Literature ⟶ Progress Reports ⟶ Technical Papers
⟶ ACL ⟶ Literature ⟶ Progress Reports ⟶ Technical Papers
ACL ACD C&A INF CCD CISD Archives
Further reading ⇓

□ Overview □ Paper 1 □ Paper 2 □ Paper 3 □ Paper 4 □ Paper 5 □ Paper 6 □ Paper 7 □ Paper 8 □ Paper 9 □ Paper 10 □ Paper 11 □ Paper 12 □ Paper 13 □ Paper 14 □ Paper 15 □ Paper 16 □ Paper 17 □ Paper 18 □ Paper 19 □ Paper 20 □ Paper 21 □ Paper 22 □ Paper 23 □ Paper 24 □ Paper 25 rev □ Paper 25 □ Paper 26 □ Paper 27 □ Paper 28 □ Paper 29 □ Paper 30 □ Paper 31 □ Paper 32 □ Paper 33 □ Paper 34 □ Paper 35 □ Paper E

Paper No 7: FR80 System Tape Organisation

FR80 Project Branch

4 September 1975

This paper describes the tape storage system currently employed on the FR80 and also the method of generating new ACL displayers from the III supplied ones,

1. TAPE STORAGE SYSTEM

The tapes are placed in labelled slots as follows:

Current System

These are the tapes to be used for day-to-day running - 7 and 9-track copies are available:

Tapes 800
Displayers for 7-track data tapes
Tapes 801
Displayers for 9-track data tapes
Tapes 802
ICL and IBM print programs, SD4020 simulator, Forms Assembler (one per font)

The displayers themselves are in four directories:

RF
35 and 16mm
HF
Hardcopy
MF
Microfiche
CF
Colour

Before running data tapes for a given camera, the appropriate displayers must be loaded and then dumped into MON,

For example:

RF;FRFO$L 
MON;FRFO$F

There are two displayers for each camera (one per font).

ACL Master

7 and 9-track copies of all the information contained on the current system tapes.

Father and Grandfather versions are retained.

III Originals

These two copies contain all the original software from III. This includes the files used to generate the current system.

ACL Symbolics

7 and 9-track copies of the III standard subroutines, together with the logging source. The subroutines have been altered from the originals for the ACL configuration (DISC==1 ,BANKS==4 and III15==I in III109).

ACL Patches

These two tapes contain all sources and binaries needed to generate the displayers on the current system tapes. Their method of patching is described below.

ACL Permanent Pictures

These two tapes contain the 3 permanent pictures (in FR80 data form) that are required by the leader frame.

2. THE PATCH SYSTEM

New displayers are generated in stages. The first stage is to compile in the alterations, using the BINSYM feature of the assembler to load the original binary displayer first (together with all symbols).

For each camera, there is a set of symbolic files which generate the required displayer. The file-naming convention is as follows:

Files

FRFO FRFC FMFO FMFC FCFO FCFC
These are the main files, which will generate the appropriate displayers when selected by the editor (using ER) and assembled (using EG).
Each file loads the appropriate III binary displayer first, fallowed by a subset of the files listed below.
FRFO 0-0 etc
These are loaded immediately after the displayers and generate space for the patches.
FXXX 1-0
This is loaded by all displayers to generate £ sign, MT error message and Monitor display size.
FXXX 2-0
This is also loaded by all the displayers to generate large characters.
FCF 1-0
This is loaded only by the colour displayers to prevent re-selection of the clear filter in every frame.

In addition, the system requires:

III109
III109 FR80 
III109 CAMRA1
III109 CAMRA2

and also the macro library and subroutine library in:

LIB;MACR
and
LIB;LIBR

New patches can be inserted into the system by providing new files and using .INSERT in the appropriate main file (ie FRFO,FRFC etc).

The generation sequence (for one displayer) follows:

  1. Verify that directories RF, HF, CF and MF exist.

  2. Enter the editor.

    ERSYM;FRFO 
EG

    This will generate a binary in RF;FRFO. Patch names will be listed, together with some reference addresses for the patches. The message ERROR BANK OVERFLOW will occur if the patch area becomes too large.

  3. Load the displayer

    RF;FRFO$L

    and check that the LRAWRD is correct. Alter if not (note that the label is HSLBWD+1 for fiche displayers).

  4. Enter the displayer and select the correct monitor commands (such as TAPE TYPE, CAMERA, PULLDOWN and fiche parameters).
  5. Load the ACL permanent pictures tape and GO/ .
  6. When finished, FRAME/0

  7. Re-enter DEBUG, and zero lower areas

    0<20$$Z
22<37$$Z
53<57$$Z

  8. Dump the displayer after first deleting the previous copy (thus avoiding any disc overflow message).

    RF;FRFO$$D
RF;FRFO$F
  9. The HF displayers are generated from the RF displayers by changing the monitor commands. Lower core must be zeroed before the dump.
⇑ Top of page
© Chilton Computing and UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council webmaster@chilton-computing.org.uk
Our thanks to UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council for hosting this site