out-of-mainstream minis

Rod Smallwood rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com
Fri Aug 21 17:09:02 CDT 2015


I'm sure they are very nice and totally harmless.
All that was required was ("in Danish") after the link.
I must say I could not make any sense of  the system models they seem to 
be refering to.
Was there a home grown system of some sort.? Kinda a Dansk Data

On 21/08/2015 19:09, Ian S. King wrote:
> My email wasn't 'go look at this site', it was 'I visited these nice
> people' with the link as a courtesy.  What 'norm'?
> On Aug 21, 2015 4:51 PM, "Rod Smallwood" <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Yes indeed "danger wears a coat of many colours"
>>
>> Rod
>>
>>
>> On 21/08/2015 15:45, Toby Thain wrote:
>>
>>> On 2015-08-21 10:30 AM, Rod Smallwood wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi
>>>>
>>>> Yes I know, but its not the norm to link from an English language email
>>>> to a site in another language with no warning.
>>>> I suppose they think everybody speaks Danish.
>>>>
>>>> You could be heading into some real dark places without knowing. RuleI'm s
>>>>
>>> No "darker" than any English language site.
>>>
>>>
>>> --Toby
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Rod
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 21/08/2015 13:35, Dave G4UGM wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Google Translate does a reasonable job...
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdatamuseum.dk%2Fddhf-samlinger&edit-text=&act=url
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Dave
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rod
>>>>>> Smallwood
>>>>>> Sent: 21 August 2015 11:41
>>>>>> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>>>>>> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>>>>>> Subject: Re: out-of-mainstream minis
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm sure its very intersting.
>>>>>> The website is designed for domestic consumption only as its all in
>>>>>> Danish.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Rod
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 21/08/2015 11:27, Ian S. King wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I had the privilege of visiting what Nico calls a 'museum-to-be'
>>>>>>> yesterday evening, and it is far more than most of what I've seen!
>>>>>>> They have a very substantial collection of all sorts of systems,
>>>>>>> peripherals and documentation, including a GIER from ca. 1962 that I
>>>>>>> saw
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> (and heard) run.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> As a debugging/operations aid, they had attached the overflow bit to a
>>>>>>> speaker so it could generate 1-bit sound - one demo they gave me was a
>>>>>>> program to calculate e that played a sound for each iteration so you
>>>>>>> could hear the steady progress.  But of course if there is a sound
>>>>>>> output, no one can avoid playing with it.  There were numerous pieces
>>>>>>> of computationally generated music composed for the machine (on paper
>>>>>>> tape), but also a program for playing a recorded, real-life sound in
>>>>>>> 1-bit
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> audio!
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The collection includes numerous other computers including pretty much
>>>>>>> the entire RC line, as well as pre-computer tabulators, keypunches,
>>>>>>> paper handling machine and the like.  The artifacts are well-ordered
>>>>>>> and in large part well labeled for even the uninitiated visitor.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Everything is laid out quite thoughtfully, with wide aisles, in a
>>>>>>> large, well-lit basement.  There are interpretive displays here and
>>>>>>> there, as well as a small but appealing lecture/display area.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The datamuseum.dk collection represents 25 years of accumulation, I
>>>>>>> was told.  But more importantly, I think their work demonstrates a
>>>>>>> very well-considered approach for presenting the history of the
>>>>>>> collection's machines to visitors.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My hosts were also warm and wonderful people who clearly love what
>>>>>>> they do and enjoy sharing it.  They made me feel among friends, if not
>>>>>>> family.  :-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks, Finn and everyone else (sorry, I'm bad with names), for
>>>>>>> sharing your time and your passion with me!  -- Ian
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 12:43 AM, Nico de Jong <nico at farumdata.dk>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I share your favourite(s). In the danish IT-museum-to-be (
>>>>>>>> www.datamuseum.dk) we have two P857-based systems running. We
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> have
>>>>>>> lots of spare parts and nearly all documentation, so if you need
>>>>>>>> something, you are welcome to ask.
>>>>>>>> I'm presently building a "table top" version of a system with the
>>>>>>>> P857 CPU, 35cm H x 60 deep x 19" wide, with a dual 8" floppy drive,
>>>>>>>> and a 80486 PC for program loading etc.
>>>>>>>> The system is built into a P859 box. The P859 CPU is special, as it
>>>>>>>> has a
>>>>>>>> V24 connection that goes to a LED display with push buttons. Very
>>>>>>>> nice indeed.
>>>>>>>> For that system, I have developped a Windows based Assembler, and a
>>>>>>>> Windows based simulator. The simulator takes assembled programs (in
>>>>>>>> my system called *.OBJ) and the original source. You can then step
>>>>>>>> through the instructions, and follow them through the text file on
>>>>>>>> the PC.
>>>>>>>> I am presently trying to execute various utility programs, sent to me
>>>>>>>> by a Belgion ex-Philips employee, who did a lot of work on the P800
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> series.
>>>>>>> I myself worked with the P800 series, disguised as the PTS6800 series
>>>>>>>> for
>>>>>>>> 4-5 years full time.
>>>>>>>> The PTS 6800 series was used extensively in banks, mainly in
>>>>>>>> Scandinavia, Greece, Barclay SouthAfrica, Philippines. In Sweden also
>>>>>>>> in the airline industry. In Denmark it was used mainly by local
>>>>>>>> authorities, PTT, Railway (ticket printing), and some other
>>>>>>>> small-time projects. In one of the project it was connected to an
>>>>>>>> ATM (fun
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> project).
>>>>>>> I know of one collector in the Netherlands (Camiel), and some guys
>>>>>>>> who have no hardware but a lot of knowledge /Nico
>>>>>>>>      ----- Original Message -----
>>>>>>>>      From: tony duell
>>>>>>>>      To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>>>>>>>>      Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2015 7:31 AM
>>>>>>>>      Subject: RE: out-of-mainstream minis
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      Not all minis came from the States :-)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      One of my favourite non-mainstream families is the Philips P800
>>>>>>>> series.
>>>>>>>> It's
>>>>>>>>      a 16 bit machine with 16 registers (0 is the program counter
>>>>>>>> and 15
>>>>>>>>      is the stack pointer, rest are mostly general purpose) and
>>>>>>>> separate
>>>>>>>>      I/O instructions (not memory-mapped I/O). There were several
>>>>>>>> models
>>>>>>>>      with various implementations of the architecture, including
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      P850 (TTL, hardwired not microcoded)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      P855, P852, P856, P857, P860 (TTL, microcoded)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      P851 (Custom bitslice ICs, microcoded)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      P854 (AM2900 bitslice, microcoded)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      P853 I think (Single chip)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      No, I don't have all of those...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>      -tony
>>>>>>>>      =
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>



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