What's new in Beta 0.9

Two processors, ready to go

The Hobbyist Edition runs MPE/iX on a two-processor A400, and MPE confirms both at start-up: "Successfully launched 2 out of 2 total processors." You choose one or two CPUs, and 1 or 2 GB of memory, right from the launcher.

A clock you can trust

MPE/iX now keeps correct time even when your PC is busy, asleep or briefly frozen. If the host stalls, the system clock holds steady and then catches up smoothly, so time of day stays right and a :PAUSE 30 really lasts 30 seconds.

Now on Linux, too

Beta 0.9 ships for both Windows and Linux (x86-64), with the same launcher and the same experience on each.

Faster floating point

Floating-point work can now run on your PC's own FPU, and the results are bit-for-bit identical to before. Number-crunching batch jobs and compiled FORTRAN and Pascal code benefit directly.

Sharper PA-RISC fidelity

More than twenty instruction-level corrections bring the emulated processor closer to the PA-RISC 2.0 architecture:

• branch-and-link, store-bytes and control-register handling;
• protection-ID checking and the PROBE instructions;
• the recovery counter used by debuggers for single-stepping;
• trap ordering, and cache-flush faults;
• floating-point edge cases, including underflow, conversions and the FP assist trap.

Each correction is backed by its own regression probe.

Stronger multi-processor plumbing

The per-CPU hardware layout was rebuilt to match the A-Class, and a set of multi-processor correctness fixes tightens how the CPUs share memory and translation caches. The TOC (transfer-of-control) button now stops only the monarch processor.

Consistent networking

The LAN card now presents the same hardware revision however it is configured, and telnet to MPE/iX works either way.

It tells you what it is

qemu-system-hppa --version names the edition, and the emulator prints its edition and limits at start-up.

Runs on older PCs, too

Every kit carries two emulators: one tuned for modern processors (AVX2), and a compatibility build for older 64-bit PCs (roughly 2006 or newer). The launcher checks your CPU, starts the right one automatically, and tells you which. Add -Compat to choose the compatibility build yourself.

Update in place, keep your system

Already running ECHO3000? Download the small Update package instead of the full kit (Windows about 49 MB, Linux about 8 MB). It replaces only the emulator, firmware, launcher and documentation. Your MPE/iX discs, your data and your settings are never touched. Shut MPE down, unpack the update over your install folder, and start as usual.

Easy rollback

The kit keeps the previous emulator alongside the new one, so you can step back with one file swap.

A second machine: the HP rp2470

Beta 0.9's emulator adds an HP rp2470 (A500-class) running HP-UX 11.11. In our lab it has been put through the kind of work a real server does:

• Boots to login and stays up. HP-UX 11.11 boots cleanly to Console Login:, with all processors running and no HPMC, panic or stall in sustained running.
• Multi-processor. HP-UX schedules work across every processor, and a known start-up race on multi-CPU boots has been fixed.
• Real applications. The Eloquence database runs real export and reporting jobs under HP-UX, and its output is byte-for-byte correct, run after run.
• Networking and tape. The network on a host TAP adapter moves data with checksums matching in both directions, and the DDS tape drive reads and writes.
• Diagnostics pass. The HP-UX cstm floating-point diagnostics report SUCCESSFUL.
• Crash dumps work. A TOC writes a crash dump, savecrash saves it at the next boot, and crashutil reads it, just as an HP-UX administrator expects.
• Clean shutdowns and restarts. shutdown -r, halt and TOC all behave.
• Accurate time of day. HP-UX keeps wall-clock time.
• Snapshots. You can save a running HP-UX system and resume it, with every processor's timer back in step.

We rebuilt the heart of the emulator

How ECHO3000 translates and runs PA-RISC code has been reworked. The gains come from four kinds of change:

• smarter recovery-counter handling;
• faster branch lookups;
• cached address-space selection;
• a build tuned with profile-guided optimisation from real workloads.

Nearly twice the speed on a real database workload

On a real Eloquence database workload running on a single processor, Beta 0.9 is 1.9 times faster than the build before it, and the output was byte-for-byte identical. Measured with the Beta 0.9 engine on an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U laptop.

The Hobbyist Edition is built from the same engine source. The Windows build also carries the same profile-guided tuning. Every speed change was checked against the same database output, byte for byte.