IBM 1130 Console Entry Switches (CES) Emulator

The system at TNMOC is an IBM 1130 model 2B with 8KW 3.6us core store, internal IBM 2310 512KW removable disk drive, IBM 1132 printer and an IBM 1442 model 6 card reader/punch. We also have an IBM 29 Card Punch which is part of the TNMOC collection before the 1130 arrived. The 1130 system is on loan from The Museums of Liverpool and arrived at TNMOC on 22nd May 2009.

Below you can read the logs from the CES Emulator project.

The Project

Several limitations exist with the IBM 1130 which is limiting what further progress can be made with the system. These are:

Not having a DMS disk pack in order to run the system as it was intended.
- The system only came with a singke disk pack which turned out to be heavily corroded.
- It did include a full set of diagnostics card decks but not a DMS card desk. So I have no way to re-create a DMS disk pack.
- I have managed to source a couple of viable packs from the USA to prove the disk drive works, which is does, but without the DMS card decks that is as far as I can go.
While there are 1130 emulators around, the one I use is from ibm1130.org, it is possible to write stand alone assembler programs, but even though I can produce card images, I have no way to punch those onto card from a PC to load into the 1130.

Several ideas of how to get data into the system have been explored. These include:

Using the paper tape interface. This turned out to be a non-starter as the system has never had a paper tape reader or punch fitted so none of the wiring or cards were fitted
Converting the IBM 029 punch to have a PC interface, even though our 029 was somewhat unreliable. It turns out the ones that have been converted are IBM 129 units so that was also a non-starter
Using the SAC interface, which is actually fitted to the 1130 but not actually used. A fellow enthusuast, Carl Claunch, has designed and build a SAC emulator so this may be a longer turn option, but the complexity and cost makes it unviable at the moment.
Utilising the SCA (Synchronour Communications Adapter) fitted to the system. While this was feasable, it still required software to be written to accept data which still needed to be entered into the system. This would have had to be done manually via the Console Entry Switches so this is a catch-22 situation. This may be a future project

So currently the only way to get new programs into the system is via the Console Entry Switches, which is time consuming, boring and very error prone.

Then along came Carl again with an idea to replace the 1130 Console Printer (a very complex and difficult to maintain Selectric based printer on the system), with an emulator. This has several advantages:

It would help to preserve the actual hrdware by not having it running all the time
Help preserve the very rare golfball used on the 1130 which is almost impossible to find. This is actually made of plastic with a metal coating and will, at some date, break!
Allow the system to continue to operate when the Selectric or Galfball are no longer working
Enable APL to be demonstrated, which requires a different, and equally rare golfball with different character set.

That is certainly something I will follow up on once Carl has it working.

Having read about this Console project on Carls Blog - www.xxxxx - I asked Carl if it was possible to expand the Console project to include the Console Entry Switches (CES), which are located on the console itself. My thoughts were if we could emulate the CES on a PC, it would be possible to get programs and data into the system that way.

Carl liked the idea but felt it best to do this as a separate project to the Console Emulator as it would add too much additional complexity to is. Further emails occured to evolve the design and within a few weeks, he had come up with a design on how to connect an Arduino Mega 2560 and some relays to the 1130 keyboard switches and the CES on the colsole. It is this that this project is based on.

See how I progresed this here