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<meta name="Author" content="Nigel Williams & Paul Kimpel">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Script-Type" content="text/javascript">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
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<meta http-equiv="cache-control" content="no-cache">
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<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache">
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<link id=defaultStyleSheet rel=stylesheet type="text/css" href="./website.css">
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</head>
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@@ -20,8 +22,7 @@
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<h2>Background</h2>
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<p>The Burroughs B5000 and B5500 were perhaps the first computer systems designed with the idea that they would require a significant operating system in order to run. Operating systems in the early 1960s were known as <i>control programs</i>. The designers at Burroughs envisioned a program that would automatically administer the entire system's operation, and thus created what became known as the
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<i>Master</i> Control Program, or <b>MCP</b>.
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<p>The Burroughs B5000 and B5500 were perhaps the first computer systems designed with the idea that they would require a significant operating system in order to run. Operating systems in the early 1960s were known as <i>control programs</i>. The designers at Burroughs envisioned a program that would automatically administer the entire system's operation, and thus created what became known as the Master Control Program, or <b>MCP</b>.
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You can read the story of how this came about in the
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<a href="http://purl.umn.edu/107105">1985 B5000 oral history</a> transcription.
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@@ -38,34 +39,38 @@ You can read the story of how this came about in the
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<p>Our license with Unisys allows us to make the Mark XIII software available to others under the terms of that license. There are three tape images, as enumerated below. To download one of the images, please click its corresponding link below. The resulting page will display the applicable terms of the Unisys license and a directory of the files on that image. Confirm your acceptance of the license terms to begin the download. You will need to download at least the <b>SYSTEM</b> image in order to run the emulator.
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="./TapeImage-SYSTEM.html"><b>SYSTEM</b></a> image (2.6MiB .zip)
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<dt><a href="./TapeImage-SYSTEM.html"><b>SYSTEM</b></a> image (2.6MiB <code>.zip</code>)
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<dd><code>SYSTEM</code> contains object code for the release, including the Datacom MCP, Timesharing MCP, System Intrinsics, CANDE timesharing system, compilers, and utility programs. It also contains source files for a few utilities, and a set of source-level patch files for the release.
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<dt><a href="./TapeImage-SYMBOL1.html"><b>SYMBOL1</b></a> image (2.2MiB .zip)
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<dt><a href="./TapeImage-SYMBOL1.html"><b>SYMBOL1</b></a> image (2.2MiB <code>.zip</code>)
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<dd><code>SYMBOL1</code> contains the source code for the Datacom MCP, System Intrinsics, and compilers.
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<dt><a href="./TapeImage-SYMBOL2.html"><b>SYMBOL2</b></a> image (2.1MiB .zip)
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<dt><a href="./TapeImage-SYMBOL2.html"><b>SYMBOL2</b></a> image (2.1MiB <code>.zip</code>)
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<dd><code>SYMBOL2</code> contains the remaining source code for the release, including the Timesharing MCP, CANDE, and utility programs.
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</dl>
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<h2>Format of the Tape Image Files</h2>
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<p>Each of the tape images above downloads as a standard ZIP archive file containing a single "<code>.bcd</code>" file. That file is a binary octet stream, i.e., it is a blob of 8-bit bytes. Each octet represents one data frame (6-bit character) from the 7-track tape. The low-order six bits of each octet contain the binary data from the tape frame. The next-higher bit is the odd-parity bit. The high-order bit in the octet will be a <code>1</code> if that frame is the first one in a physical tape block, and <code>0</code> otherwise. A tape mark (EOF) is represented by a block containing a single octet with the hexadecimal code 8F.
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<p>Each of the tape images above is a standard ZIP archive file containing a single "<code>.bcd</code>" file. That file is a binary octet stream, i.e., it is a blob of 8-bit bytes. Each octet represents one data frame (6-bit character) from the 7-track tape. The low-order six bits of each octet contain the binary data from the tape frame. The next-higher bit is the odd-parity bit. The high-order bit in the octet will be a <code>1</code> if that frame is the first one in a physical tape block, and <code>0</code> otherwise. A tape mark (EOF) is represented by a block containing a single octet with the hexadecimal code 8F.
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<p>The files on the tape image are formatted in B5500 "Library/Maintenance" format, which is described in the
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<a href="http://bitsavers.org/pdf/burroughs/B5000_5500_5700/1042462_B5500_MCP_Reference_Jun69.pdf">B5500 MCP Reference Manual</a>, 1042462 (June 1969), page 8-1. Tape label records are described in Appendix B of that reference.
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The format of disk file headers is described in the
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<a href="http://bitsavers.org/pdf/burroughs/B5000_5500_5700/1024916_B5500_B5700_OperMan_Sep68.pdf">B5500 Operation Manual</a>, 1024916 (September 1968, revised June 1971, PCN 015), p. 5-41. B5500 character codes are described in Appendix A of that reference.
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<a href="http://bitsavers.org/pdf/burroughs/B5000_5500_5700/1024916_B5500_B5700_OperMan_Sep68.pdf">B5500 Operation Manual</a>, 1024916 (September 1968, revised June 1971, PCN 015), page 5-41. B5500 character codes are described in Appendix A of that reference.
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<p>We have developed a couple of HTML/Javascript utilities to read these tape images and decode their data. See <code>B5500LibMaintExtract.html</code>, <code>B5500LibMaintDecoder.html</code>, and <code>B5500LibMaintDir.html</code> in the /tools directory.
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<p>We have developed a few HTML/Javascript utilities to read these tape images and decode their data. See
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<a href="../tools/B5500LibMaintDir.html">B5500LibMaintDir.html</a>,
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<a href="../tools/B5500LibMaintDecoder.html">B5500LibMaintDecoder.html</a>, and
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<a href="../tools/B5500LibMaintExtract.html">B5500LibMaintExtract.html</a>
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in the /tools directory.
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<p>
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<div id=footerDiv>
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Copyright (c) 2013, Nigel Williams and Paul Kimpel • Licensed under the MIT License
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</div>
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<div id=lastModDiv>Revised
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2013-07-07
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2013-07-10
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</div>
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</body>
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paul.kimpel@digm.com