Getting required files

Before you can run MCP XIII on the simulator you need to get some files. First you will need to either build the simulator from source or get a binary for your system. The source for the simulator can be found at:

https://github.com/simh/simh

The development and test version can be found here:

https://github.com/rcornwell/sims

To build just the B5500 simulator for Linux or BSD, you can use the command:

git clone http://github.com/simh/simh simh
cd simh
make b5500

This will make in the BIN directory the file b5500.

Next you will need to get the system tapes for MCP. Burroughs became part of Unisys Corporation in 1986. Unisys still owns and maintains copyrights for the B5500 system software. There is an educational/hobbyist license from Unisys to use the Mark XIII release of that software and make it available to others. It is not open source software, however, and not officially part of this project, so this cannot include it on the open-source project site with the rest of the emulator files.

The Burroughs Mark XIII software consists of three binary tape image files from a release in 1971. Paul Kimpel and others are making these files available through a page on Paul's hosting service. Go to that page, review and accept the licensing terms (they are not onerous), and download one or more of the tape images.

At the minimum you will need to download the SYSTEM tape. If you wish to rebuild any of the system programs you will need to download the files SYMBOL1 and SYMBOL2. The links are:

To automatically rebuild or load MCP on simH B5500 simulator, you will want to download the files from the following location:

Or the files individually:

File

Description

CUBEB13.bcd

Cube tape B 13 also available at github retro-b5500 software.

CUBE_LBR-CORR.bcd

Cube library tape, also available at github retro-b5550 software.

README.txt

Readme documentation on these files.

build1.job

First job to rebuild MCP XIII from source.

build2.job

Second job to rebuild DCMCP which is running during job 1.

extra.job

Job to load in various useful CUBE source files and rebuild them.

load.job

Job to reload MCP without rebuilding. Also used extras.bin to load in the CUBE files.

tss_setup.job

Job to set up accounts for DCMCP remote access and TSSMCP remote access.

xiii_build.ini

SimH Init file that rebuilds MCP from source.

xiii_load.ini

SimH Init file that reloads MCP from SYSTEM tape.

xiii_run.ini

SimH Init file start execution of MCP after the system has been loaded via either load strip.

xiii_tss.ini

SimH file to run tss_setup.job and prepare MCP to run CANDE timesharing.

xiii_test.ini

Runs a series of jobs to stress the simulator and also verifies that remote access works.

stress.job

Stress test job stream

set_test.job

Job to set up for remote access test.

You will also want to go to www.bitsavers.org and download some documents to help you use the system, here is a list of helpful documents:

Link

Description

1024916_B5500_B5700_OperMan_Sep68.pdf

Basic operating manual for MCP. This is for an older version of MCP but most of the commands and procedures are the same.

1038205_B5500_TS_TerminalUG_Jun69.pdf

Good introduction to TSS/MCP CANDE usage.

Operating_the_B5500_Time-Sharing_System.pdf

Another operational manual.

1058583_B5700_TSS_RefMan_Sep72.pdf

Time Sharing system reference manual.

AA119117_B5700_MCP_Ref_1972.pdf

DCMCP system reference manual.

1028024_B5500_ExtendedAlgol_Apr69.pdf

XALGOL language document.

1031986_B5500_Handbook_Aug70.pdf

Good reference manual for MCP data structures and commands.

1051182_B5700_FORTRAN_Jan71.pdf

Fortran language document.

1032638_B5500_ESPOL_RefManOct67.pdf

ESPOL language document.

1038643_B5500_CompatibleAlgol_May69.pdf

Algol language document.