The B-128 did come in a few models, they have been defined by case
design (low profile and high profile) some models came with integrated
monitors (looked like really advanced PETs, especially with the detached
keyboard).
The bulk of the information regarding the B-128 was 'loaned' to the
Chicago B-128 Users Group by Commodore (wow, that's a change, eh?) a few
years back, I have no idea what had ever happened to the group or where
the B-128 info now resides.
When Amiga Technologies was sold by ESCOM, ESCOM kept the Commodore
trademark and name, as the remaining profitable division was the IBM
clone division which used the Commodore name and logo to enhance their
image (Commodore is a 'good thing' in parts of europe.) It is still
under debate exactly where the technology for the 8-bits have ended up,
some say ESCOM, some say partly Amiga Technologies... Dunno.
Get the 8050 drive, Commodore IEEE-488 dual drives drives were very
expansive and are not as abundant as the later serial models. If you
need a cable for it (computer to IEEE-488 device or IEEE-488 to
IEEE-488), E-mail me, I currently have a source for a few...
Larry Anderson
P.S. I started work on the PET FAQ, I outlined it and I have quite a bit
of stuff to write!
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Message text written by INTERNET:classiccmp@u.washington.edu
>> The C-128 and B-128 are completely different. The B-128 was one of
the<<
>OK, I think we need some clarification here. What does your "B-128" look
like?<
You'll have to ask the guy that left the original message. I was replying
to him. However, his brief description made me assume it was a low-profile
B128.
>1. C128-40 "Advanced Personal Computer"
Basically this is a B128-80 with a 40 column screen (sounds like a VIC
chip to me) and comes in a low profile case (sorta like an amiga or 64)
Not to be confused with the more common C128.<
This one is also known as a P-500, and seems to have been the equivalent of
a super-duper C64. It had the C64's 40 column color display (the rest of
the line was monochrome) but had the faster IEEE drives, etc.
>2. and 3. B128-80 "Advanced Business Computer"
the manula says there were two versions of a B128. A low-profile model
and, of course, a high profile one. The low-profile model is like the
C128-40 but the high profile model has integral disk drive(s) and display<
Presumably, if it was paired with an 8050 drive unit, it didn't have
integral disk drives, and was the low profile model.
>4. B256-80 "Advanced 16-bit Proffessional Computer"<
He said "B128", and I'm taking him at his word.
>Well, I'm "in" to Commodore and don't yet have one so if yer willing to
sell/trade, lemme know!<
Again, maybe the original poster will take you up on this. Also, I know
one store in Oklahoma City that's had a low-profile B128 sitting around for
some time. (I don't live in OKC, so I can't swear it's still there.) The
store has a bad habit of never putting a price on anything, so I don't know
if the guy wants a mint for it or just a few bucks. If you want to try
contacting him, I'll try to dig up the name/address, but please don't put
me to the effort unless this sounds like something you seriously want to
pursue.
>Also, if you want a copy of my "User's guide" that shouldn't be much of a
problem, it's a whole 120 pages.<
I have one, thanks, but the original poster might be in the market.
Gil Parrish
107765.1161(a)compuserve.com
In message <150A878A7B7E(a)ifrsys.com> classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu writes:
> Guys:
>
> Thanks to everyone who submitted information on my *controller*
> cards. I got pretty much everything I need to know on the -05 cards,
> but the -TB1 is still a problem. WD implied over the phone that this
> was custom made. OK. It is currently mounted in a Radio Shack
> cabinet with a Tandon 15Mb drive. Any Ideas?
Have you tried Tandy/Radio Shack National Parts? At one time they sold service
manuals for all their computer stuff, and such manuals almost always contained
schematics/data on the 'bought-in' parts -- things like PSUs, drives, monitors,
etc.
IIRC if the stock number for the device was 26-abcd, then the service manual
was MS260-abcd. At least in the UK, they were available to the general public.
There may also have been a Technical Manual (which would have had a different
stock number), but I doubt it.
Talking of Tandy stuff, I bought a second-hand Model 4 last weekend. Does
anyone know where to get a Technical Manual for this machine? What I
really need is a list of Supervisor Calls, Docs on the I/O ports, and
a schematics of the CPU board. I believe I have a 'gate array' board - there's
a 40 pin chip with a Tandy custom number next to the Z80A.
I'd be quite happy to buy the entire technical manual if it's still available
anywhere, but I do already have the Model 3 manual, so I don't need any info
on the disk drives/controller, RS232 board, PSU, or monitor.
Anyway, with this machine I got a Cummana hard disk unit. Cummana were a UK
company who later went on to make disk drives for the Acorn BBC micro. This
unit contains a Shugart 612 disk (any ideas?) a Western Digital controller
(I can't remember the number, but it is a standard card), a PSU, and a little
address decoder/interface board.
Maybe you have an original Tandy version of that.
> Jeff
-tony
I'm trying to find diskettes and manuals for a release of iRMX that
runs on an Intel 310-3A box (8086 processor).
I have 2 of these running production electronics testing that have died.
We are getting them repaired by InBUS. But we've never used the
backups that were given to us when these machines transferred from another
plant.
We didn't get the original iRMX diskettes, and just a couple of manuals.
I suspect the backups may be for just the application software, and
not the entire hard disk (there are only 3 diskettes in the backup set).
As far as I can tell, we are using iRMX-86 release 6.
I've been trying to get someone at Radisys (who support the current
version of iRMX), but haven't been able to speak to anything
more than voice mail so far. I'm not very hopeful, though: this is pretty
old stuff.
Does anyone still have the diskettes and manuals for this release
that I could copy or purchase?
Thanks,
Clark Geisler
Test Engineer
At 02:03 PM 7/11/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Depends on your definition of "videogame" (coin-operated, home unit,
computer, commercial, etc.) One of these should fit what you're looking for:
When I was in high school, there was a precursor to the Lynx/Gameboy/etc.
crowd that was a football game. There were little red LED's(?) to represent
players, and you had up, down, and run buttons to control the quarter back.
It was very simplistic; you basically just ran the quarterback until you got
a touchdown (but I think you could do a fieldgoal?) Anyway, I think Radio
Shack sold one, but it may have been someone else.
Anyone else remember this? Know what it was called? Got one you'd part with?
Thanks in advance!
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
<> And while we are at it, put one of the music programs on the PDP where
<> you put an AM radio near it as the output device!
<
<I thought that was the Altair.
<It was Dompier's altair, at some meeting. The TX-0 also played music, but
<that was through a speaker. And I'm pretty sure the 11s had some sound
<capabilities besides ^G...
I'd been done with many machines in many ways. FYI: I have a PDP-11 board
that does multivoice sound (gigilo was the name for it). It works too.
I've hard it via d/a converters on an 11, via the line printer on a -10.
The altair thing was via radio, but also there were not less that a dozen
different sound and music boards for altairs/s100 systems. Some I might add
were very good. At least one used the pinte line (shows the internal state
of the 8080 processor interrupt enable flag).
Allison
catching up...
Most of what has already been said here is pretty
much correct. I'll add:
B-series were regular low-profile micros.
CBM-series had integrated monitors. I've never seen one of the
CBM series machines.
IMO they're pretty nice machine which had some attractive options
when they came out. They didn't last long and very little seems to
have been written for them.
You can find schematics for the B-128-80 in the archive (Web/FTP).
If any of you need a drive for one of these CBM 4040's work fine
(8050 is a better but less common drive). I have a number of
4040s and could definitely part with a couple if you want to pay
the shipping costs (heavy, heavy drives).
As soon as I clear through the research I have several items for
this series that will go in the archive - the manual, a word
processor and a spreadsheet, and some technical notes.
Any of you hard core commodore folks know who might have ended up
owning the rights to this stuff?
Bill
----------
From: Sam Ismail[SMTP:dastar@crl.com]
Reply To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
Sent: Donnerstag, 17. Juli 1997 18:00
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: power supply/battery pack for ST Book?!
>> Hi,
>>
>> does anyone know where to get a power supply and/or a battery pack
>> for a ST Book???
>
> Are you referring to an Atari? As in an Atari ST Laptop, or rather a STacy?
Yes - sorry I forgett to mention Atari in my posting - it is a Atari ST Book - a real notebook
not one of the big Atari STacy
Hey, me again!
I'm the guy with the funny Commodore stuff....
Just got back from the sale... the drives were gone. :-(
The printer was still there (buried) -- it was a 4023 printer. No-one
mentioned interest in the printer, so there it sits. It is IEEE-interfaced.
Altho I did pick up a TI-59 calculator with 1 recording strip, says it
contains diagnostics, IIRC. $5. (was marked $10, talked 'er down). I also
got an *old* HP frequency counter, with cord & probe, $5. (Yea, it's not
computer, but it'll help me fix computers, so I hope a quick mention is
o.k. It should make a pretty good friend to Tex, my pet 'scope. ;-)
I found a set of dual IBM 8" drives, marked $10. It had a funky interface
(well, for micros) of a 25-pin female D _and_ a 15 pin (I think) female
D... it was a 60xx series number, and the Compugraphic box with dual 8"ers
is still there, no price. It had paper and a processor with it, tho.
Anyway, sorry the drives were gone, thanks for the help on the B-128, and
I'll try to reach my decision on keep/trade on the box over the weekend
(I'll be canoeing... and *no*, this is one of the few places I won't take
my Tandy 200!)
Is a Mac IIsi classic yet? Not sure when they were made... it's got a 68030
with a 40Meg SCSI and (if I counted correctly) 9Meg RAM. If someone's got a
color monitor (whatever it takes) mouse & keyboard for trade for it, that'd
be cool... lemme know. (I'd be much more willing to trade the B-128 for
this particular deal...)
As always: Stay cool, keep your 'puters that way too, and clean those
floppy drives every so often! ;^>
Thanks,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | Why does Hershey's put nutritional
Programmer, NorthernWay | information on their candy bar wrappers
zmerch(a)northernway.net | when there's no nutritional value within?
In a message dated 97-07-17 21:02:45 EDT, you write:
true, most everything has been done now. pnp and usb were/are trumpeted as
new, but IBM ps/2's and macintoshes have had similar things in that the ps2
was essentialy plug and play after running the reference disk, and macs have
the adb which allows things to be chained into the keyboard cable. i'd like
to hear of other examples also. i can't think of any more right now.
<< Somehow, it seems like most of the major breakthroughs/advances in the
use of computers took place early on, i.e. word processing,
spreadsheets, and databases, and what has been taking place over the
past 15 - 20 years would fall more into a refinement catagory. We are
getting faster hardware, more ability (also known as bells and
whistles), but no major breakthroughs that open up a whole new field for
the use of computers. Am I missing something? I've heard that one of
the early spreadsheets (Visicalc?) was responsible for selling more
Apples than any of their marketing efforts. Regardless, that is the
type of advance that I am talking about. >>
david
