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Misleading PDP-1 help -- BOOT PTR does not load RIM loader into memory. #422

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Sgeo opened this issue Sep 19, 2024 · 0 comments
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@Sgeo
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Sgeo commented Sep 19, 2024

The PDP-1 help claims that "The paper tape reader supports the BOOT command. BOOT PTR copies the RIM loader into memory and starts it running."

As I understand it, this may mislead people as to how PDP-1 works, as the "RIM loader" is hardware functionality, flipping a switch for "Read In". That's effectively how it works in SIMH, running a subset of code from paper tape.

This is in contrast to PDP-8, where a "RIM loader" needs to get put into memory by the user.

Even though this is not functionality related, fixing this could help people learn better how these machines worked. I know I was confused when reading that help entry, and thought PDP-1 must have had a RIM loader program.

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