Asynchronous clocks are now built for all simulators which are built with
SIM_ASYNCH_IO defined. The default behavior has asynchronous clocks
disabled since this is still experimental, but it can be enabled with
SET TIMER ASYNC.
Catchup clock ticks are now available, but since they're experimental,
they aren't enabled by default. Catchup ticks are only available if the
simulators clock device calls sim_rtcn_tick_ack to acknowledge processing
of clock ticks. The VAX simulators have been modified to leverage this.
Catchup clock ticks can be enabled with SET TIMER CATCHUP
Additionally, an idle threshold is provided which can be used to
influence when clock calibration may be suppressed. The default is not
to suppress calibration activities.
The various timer behaviors are visible with the SHOW TIMER command.
The state of the operating timer facilities is visible with: SHOW CLOCK
Timer events which are queued are visible with the SHOW QUEUE command.
These changes facilitate more robust parameter type checking and helps
to identify unexpected coding errors.
Most simulators can now also be compiled with a C++ compiler without
warnings.
Additionally, these changes have also been configured to facilitate easier
backporting of simulator and device simulation modules to run under the
simh v3.9+ SCP framework.
This is necessary to avoid kernel type ahead buffer overruns when a user
pastes a chunk of data into a console session as described in issue #246
Other console input speeds can be set with SET CONSOLE SPEED=nnn
