This fork of the Amsterdam Compiler Kit supports the Cray X-MP supercomputer and the COS operating
system platform. All other machines and platforms are disabled in this fork by commenting out
references to them in the LUA build scripts. Currently, this fork builds and runs successfully on
MacOS and Linux.
ACK requires the following tools to be installed on MacOS and Linux before it will build
successfully:
For example, on Debian Linux (and derivatives), the tools may be installed using apt, as
in:
sudo apt install bison flex gcc lua5.3 make
On MacOS, if you have installed Xcode, you will have bison and flex already. A package
manager such as Homebrew may be used to install lua. You will also need GNU gcc and
gmake. ACK will not build successfully using the version of gcc provided by Xcode and LLVM. Using Homebrew, lua, gcc, and gmake make be installed as in:
brew install gcc lua make
Another prerequisite for all platforms is that the tools from the following GitHub repository
are installed on your build platform. This repository provides a cross-assembler, cross-linker, and cross-library manager for the Cray X-MP. These are used by this fork of ACK to produce executables for the Cray X-MP and COS operating system.
https://github.com/kej715/COS-Tools
After installing all of the prerequisite tools, the ACK for Cray X-MP and COS may be built
using the script provided in the top-level directory of the repo, as in:
To install ACK after building:
sudo ./cray-build.sh install
After successfully building and installing ACK, the following cross-compilers will be
available, and you can use them to create executables for the Cray X-MP and COS:
- BASIC The ack command recognizes source files having the extension .bas as BASIC programs.
- C The ack command recognizes source files having the extension .c as C programs.
- Pascal The ack command recognizes source files having either the extension .p or the extension .pas as Pascal programs.
For example, the following command will compile a C program named hello.c and produce a file named hello.abs. hello.abs is an absolute binary that will execute on a Cray X-MP after uploading it there (see Running on Cray X-MP, below).
Similarly, the following command will compile a Pascal program named hello.pas and produce an absolute binary named hello.abs that will execute on a Cray X-MP.
Andras Tantos’ Cray supercomputer simulator,
cray-sim, supports the Cray X-MP with the
COS 1.17 operating system. He has published a delightful narrative of the project in
The Cray Files, and this
narrative includes documentation about installing and running COS 1.17 on the simulator.
Unfortunately, the copy of COS 1.17 recovered by Andras does not include any programming
language translators, and no other working copies of COS are currently known to exist.
This fork of ACK helps to resolve the lack of programming tools in the recovered
copy of COS by providing cross-compilers that will produce COS executables. This fork enables
hobbyists to create programs for the iconic Cray X-MP supercomputer and run them on the
simulator.
A significant challenge, however, is how to move cross-compiled executables onto a simulated
Cray X-MP. One solution is to install DtCyber and
leverage its ability to run Cray Station software. DtCyber is a simulator for
Control Data Corporation’s (CDC)
Cyber series of supercomputers. Installing the
NOS 2.8.7
operating system on DtCyber enables using Cray’s Cray Station software to exchange files
and batch jobs between the CDC and Cray supercomputers.
In addition to Cray Station, the NOS 2.8.7 operating system has a mature set of other data
communication software including TCP/IP applications (e.g., FTP),
Kermit,
and XModem.
For example, it is possible to use an FTP client to upload a cross-compiled Cray binary to
a CDC machine running NOS 2.8.7 and then use Cray Station to transfer the file to a
Cray X-MP running COS. Likewise, Kermit or XModem can be used to upload files to a CDC
machine running NOS 2.8.7.
Given this, the following log of a user session illustrates how a user could create a C
program, use ACK to cross-compile it, upload the cross-compiled executable to NOS 2.8.7 using
FTP, create a NOS CCL procedure to transfer it to and run it on a Cray X-MP, and view the
results returned.
First, display the source code, a C program that computes and displays the first 10 Fibonacci
numbers:
kej@Kevins-Air examples % cat fib.c
#include
#define NUM_FIBS 10
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
int i1, i2, i3, n;
i1 = 0;
i2 = 1;
for (n = 1; n <= NUM_FIBS; n++) {
printf(" %d: %d\n", n, i2);
i3 = i1 + i2;
i1 = i2;
i2 = i3;
}
return 0;
}
Cross-compile it:
kej@Kevins-Air examples % ack -o fib fib.c
The cross-compiler produces a relocatable object file named fib.o and an executable named
fib.abs:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 kej staff 48232 Mar 20 10:01 fib.abs
-rw-r--r--@ 1 kej staff 268 Mar 20 09:57 fib.c
-rw-r--r--@ 1 kej staff 600 Mar 20 10:01 fib.o
Use FTP to upload it to the NOS 2.8.7 system (kevins-max.local) as an indirect access
permanent file named FIB, in binary mode:
kej@Kevins-Air examples % ftp kevins-max.local
Trying 192.168.1.238:21 ...
Connected to kevins-max.local.
220 SERVICE READY FOR NEW USER.
Name (kevins-max.local:kej): guest
331 USER NAME OKAY, NEED PASSWORD.
Password:
230 USER LOGGED IN, PROCEED.
Remote system type is NOS.
ftp> bin
200 COMMAND OKAY.
ftp> put fib.abs fib/ia
local: fib.abs remote: fib/ia
227 ENTERING PASSIVE MODE (192,168,1,238,30,7)
150 FILE STATUS OKAY; ABOUT TO OPEN DATA CONNECTION.
100% |*****************************************************************************************************************************************| 48232 32.55 MiB/s 00:00 ETA
226 CLOSING DATA CONNECTION.
48232 bytes sent in 00:01 (31.57 KiB/s)
ftp> quit
221 SERVICE CLOSING CONTROL CONNECTION. LOGGED OUT.
Use Telnet to log into the NOS 2.8.7 system:
kej@Kevins-Air examples % telnet kevins-max.local
Trying 192.168.1.238...
Connected to kevins-max.local.
Escape character is '^]'.
Connecting to host - please wait ...
Connected
WELCOME TO THE NOS SOFTWARE SYSTEM.
COPYRIGHT CONTROL DATA SYSTEMS INC. 1994.
24/03/20. 10.11.34. TE04P06
NCCMAX - CYBER 875. NOS 2.8.7 871/871.
FAMILY:
USER NAME: guest
PASSWORD:
JSN: ABXC, NAMIAF
/
Create and save a CCL procedure file containing a procedure named RUN. This procedure will
use the Cray Station interface to submit a batch job to the Cray X-MP supercomputer.
When the job starts running on the Cray X-MP, it uses the Cray Station interface to
retrieve a file containing a COS executable from the NOS 2.8.7 system. After retrieving the
file, it runs it. When the job completes, the Cray Station interface will return the log
and any output produced by the executable to the NOS system, and this will appear as a
file in the user’s wait queue.
This procedure file needs only to be created and saved once and can be re-used again and again
later, either to re-run the original executable, or to run other ones.
/new,cray
/text
ENTER TEXT MODE.
.PROC,RUN*I,F=(*F,*N=CRAYBIN).
.IF,FILE(F,AS),LOCAL.
REWIND,F.
.ELSE,LOCAL.
GET,F.
.ENDIF,LOCAL.
COPYBF,F,ZZZCBIN.
REPLACE,ZZZCBIN=F.
CSUBMIT,CRAYJOB,TO.
REVERT,NOLIST.
.DATA,CRAYJOB.
JOB,JN=CRAYRUN,T=60.
ACCOUNT,AC=CRAY,APW=XYZZY,UPW=QUASAR.
ECHO,ON=ALL.
OPTION,STAT=ON.
FETCH,DN=F,MF=FE,DF=TR,^
TEXT='USER,GUEST,GUEST.GET,F.CTASK.'.
F.
EXIT TEXT MODE.
/save,cray
Note that Control-T is pressed to exit TEXT mode.
The CATLIST command displays all of the user’s permanent files. This confirms that the
cross-compiled executable, FIB, uploaded previously and the procedure file, CRAY, just
created have been saved as indirect access files as expected.
/catlist
CATALOG OF GUEST FM/CYBER 24/03/20. 10.29.45.
INDIRECT ACCESS FILES
CRAY FIB FTPPRLG LOGIN MAILBOX
DIRECT ACCESS FILES
GAMFILE LIBRARY RELFILE
5 INDIRECT ACCESS FILES ON DISK. TOTAL PRUS = 110.
3 DIRECT ACCESS FILES ON DISK. TOTAL PRUS = 72.
Use the BEGIN command to execute the procedure named RUN in the procedure file named CRAY
and pass the name of the file containing the cross-compiled executable as a parameter:
Use the STATUS command to monitor progress. First, the batch job destined for the Cray X-MP
may appear in the NOS system’s INPUT queue.
/status,jsn
JSN SC CS DS LID STATUS JSN SC CS DS LID STATUS
ABXL.B. .BC.XMP.INPUT QUEUE ABXC.T.ON.BC. .EXECUTING
Then, it may seem to disappear. While actually running on the Cray X-MP, it may not be
visible to the NOS system.
/status,jsn
JSN SC CS DS LID STATUS JSN SC CS DS LID STATUS
ABXC.T.ON.BC. .EXECUTING
However, the Cray Station interface will submit a batch job to the NOS system to
participate in transferring the cross-compiled executable from NOS to COS, so you might catch
the brief execution of that job.
/status,jsn
JSN SC CS DS LID STATUS JSN SC CS DS LID STATUS
ABXC.T.ON.BC. .EXECUTING ABXM.B.NI.BC. .EXECUTING
When the batch job on the Cray X-MP side has completed, its log and output will be
returned to the NOS 2.8.7 WAIT queue.
/status,jsn
JSN SC CS DS LID STATUS JSN SC CS DS LID STATUS
ABXC.T.ON.BC. .EXECUTING ABXO.S. .BC.MAX.WAIT QUEUE
Use the QGET command to retrieve the output by JSN from the WAIT queue, and then display it
using the LIST command:
/qget,abxo
QGET COMPLETE.
/list,f=abxo
1: 1
2: 1
3: 2
4: 3
5: 5
6: 8
7: 13
8: 21
9: 34
10: 55
1
09:40:43.4062 0.0007 CSP CRAY XMP-14 SN 302 LEADING EDGE TECHNOLOGIES 03/20/84
09:40:43.4091 0.0008 CSP
09:40:43.4126 0.0010 CSP CRAY OPERATING SYSTEM COS 1.17 ASSEMBLY DATE 02/28/89
09:40:43.4154 0.0011 CSP
09:40:43.4178 0.0011 CSP
09:40:43.4442 0.0013 CSP JOB,JN=CRAYRUN,T=60.
09:40:43.5433 0.0105 CSP ACCOUNT,AC=,APW=,UPW=.
09:40:43.5473 0.0109 CSP
09:40:43.5500 0.0110 CSP .......................................................................
09:40:43.5528 0.0111 CSP
09:40:43.5963 0.0122 CSP ECHO,ON=ALL.
09:40:43.6057 0.0128 CSP OPTION,STAT=ON.
09:40:43.6196 0.0158 CSP FETCH,DN=FIB,MF=FE,DF=TR,^
09:40:43.6256 0.0181 CSP TEXT=.
09:40:47.9952 0.0184 SCP ABXW 11.05.17.USER,GUEST,.
09:40:47.9972 0.0184 SCP ABXW 11.05.17.CHARGE, * ,
09:40:47.9990 0.0184 SCP ABXW 11.05.19. TRO - PF AND TAPE TRANSPARENT OUTPUT.
09:40:48.0009 0.0184 SCP ABXW 11.05.20.TRO: DATASET FIB , 14440B WORDS, 0.465
09:40:48.3294 0.0184 SCP SS004 - DATASET RECEIVED FROM FRONT END
09:40:49.7924 0.0200 CSP FIB.
09:40:49.9634 0.0466 CSP END OF JOB
09:40:49.9682 0.0469 EXP SY005 - FIB 6144 WRDS, 2 IOS, 2 REQ, 12 STRS, .060 SEC
09:40:49.9725 0.0469 EXP - 29-1-32A 18 STRS READ: 3 REQ, 12 STRS, .099 SEC
09:40:49.9780 0.0470 CSP
09:40:49.9804 0.0471 CSP
09:40:49.9866 0.0474 CSP CHARGES
09:40:49.9895 0.0475 CSP CS032 - DATASET NOT LOCAL:
09:40:49.9925 0.0476 ABORT AB025 - USER PROGRAM REQUESTED ABORT
09:40:49.9947 0.0476 ABORT - P=00001417B TASK-ID=0001
09:40:49.9969 0.0476 ABORT - BASE=00775000 LIMIT=01153000 CPU-NUMBER=00
09:40:49.9990 0.0476 ABORT - JOB STEP ABORTED.
