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Simulating the video circuits

A project log for VT100 simulator and 3D printed replica

Simulator for the VT100 hardware. Running inside Gardi's 3D model.

lars-brinkhoffLars Brinkhoff 06/12/2021 at 16:390 Comments

To properly simulate the video hardware, I had to move off Angelo Papenhoff's code base and move the simulator to its own repository: https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/terminal-simulator

I rewrote a proper simulation of the video hardware, as close as the Technical Manual allows.  Now it renders one scanline at a time and will do most of the text attributes like double-width characters, double height, soft scrolling, reverse video, etc.

At first this incurred a large performance penalty but after finding just the right representation for the frame buffer I was down to a reasonable percentage of the host CPU.  And it even runs in real time on a Raspberry Pi 3.

Visually, it's a step back compared to Papenhoff's sleek character rendering.  There's now only a harsh monochrome display.

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