;;; -*- Mode:LISP; Base:10; Fonts:(HL12 HL12B); Readtable:CL -*-

1TEXT AWAITING A DOCUMENT*

PAL CHANGES

	Daisy chips -- Falcon
	   Simulator by end of week (6/10)

	Daisy boards work but are currently untested.

	K is currently able to reset to a known state.


CURRENT LOWELL STATUS

	problems remaining are with individual bits only 
	TRANSMIT works
	RECEIVE works
	Functional pair projected by end of week (6/10)
	Of 20 MacMate units, 5 will go to Lambdas, 15 to Macs
	1 to be boxed/packaged for AAAI-88 -- should be functional,
	   transportable, painted.
	Awaiting a "working" prototype (i.e., "one we have faith in")
	6-ft cabling suggested in production 
	One 50-ft cable for test purposes
	   Rate the chips appropriately
	Memory Received
	Static Column RAMS -- 25 SIMS (none before January)
	Toshiba, Toyocom  
	6 full-speed 4 Meg machines (?)

SILICART

	Minor changes required to the K Technical Manual, plus sections
	    on Reset, Screen Spy, and Single Stepping

	Timing Simulations: 15 seconds per step
	Logic Simulations: somewhat faster
	    (simulating a 16-Meg Lambda using half a 2x2)

DATA TRANSFER RATES

	Driver writes 24-bit addresses

	[Consistent with:
	  Mac OS uses 24 bits address, plus eight flag bits = 32
	?]


GIGATEXT

	French/English translator (?)

MACHINE REGISTER ACTIVITY

	1. Register pool for new and discarded registers, local variables
	2. Important registers:
		
		Open (K:o0-15)
		Active (K:a0-15)
		Return (K:r0-15)

	3. Commands and issues fleshed out in some detail:

	OPEN (or CH-OPEN)
	CALL
	TAIL-OPEN
	TAIL-CALL
	MULTIPLE VALUES 
	     31
	    destination-return-mv (hardware)

	4. Other issues mentioned:
 
	DATA FORMATS
	MEMORY AND STORAGE CONVENTIONS
	LOW-LEVEL PROTOCOLS


OTHER SOFTWARE ISSUES

K compiler 
 benchmarks
 diagnostics

Bus coupler diagnostics in Cambridge are awaiting arrival
of a bus coupler and initialization code from RWK.  After
both have been produced and tested, they can be shipped to
Montreal for integration there.

TRAPS

Software trap handler decides who gets passed arguments
such as constants, variables, and certain state information.
The software trap handler lives in low-memory on the K, is
written in assembler, and consists of a sequence of 
instructions:

A. Save state
B. Determine whether trap is a synchronous or asynchronous one
C. Call the appropriate servicing routine
D. (Once serviced,) return to more trap handler code