< I believe the first microcomputer to run Unix was the DEC PDP11/03 and
< 11/23 at At&T's Bell Labs (see the papers on mini-unix).
I believe that is wrong. Unix was running on PDP-11s long before the
LSI-11 or the 11/23 by many years. I think the 34, and 44s were teh
popular hosts.
Allison
< > I doubt it. The homebrew/hobbyist movement had a very compelling driv
< > force: just about the only way to get your own computer was to built i
< > yourself. That's no longer true. But there is a pretty strong homebr
< > aircraft movement, and it also still makes sense for robotics.
< ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
<
< Speaking as degreed Enginerd, a home-brewer from childhood, and a
< private pilot.... when one's homemade *computer* crashes, one is at
You called? Good description of me. ;)
< least spared the attention of the NTSB and the EyeWitness News Team...
You bet.
Allison
On Sat, 3 Oct 1998, Jim Strickland wrote:
> Ahh. I see. :) So if you took that same chip and built, say, an ethernet
> board for an s100 bus or something equally wierd, that would qualify?
In the process of doing so, of course, you'd end up building an S-100
to {ISA|PCI} converter :-). These "modern" interface chips tend to
assume that they're going straight into a PC-clone.
And I think an S-100 Ethernet interface is substantially less weird
than an S-100 ARCnet board, and I've had several of those!
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology Voice: 301-767-5917
7328 Bradley Blvd Fax: 301-767-5927
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817
Is there a device that would allow _any_ disk, independently of
format, including Apple ][ disks, to be read? I know Teledisk can do
this for all conventional formats, but not Apple disks. It would be
nice to connect one of these and read the disk image into a file.
The main reason why I ask is for rescuing messed up floppies...
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Doing something like a straight-8 is not trivial due to the shear number
of parts and interconnects needed. A ttl version is manageable.
The big thing is to experiment. I've considered doing a PDP-8E design
and each time I take out a fresh sheet of paper it ends up being a
16bit or even 24bit machine. a 24bit machine with the same format as
an 8 as some appeal.
<the past 20 years. It is true that some of today's tools of the trade
< for example, a good PAL/GAL programmer - are
< more expensive than many of tools of 1975. But in real dollars,
< today's $800 device programmer is much cheaper than, say, an 8080A
< CPU, which had a street price of US$250 or so in 1975.
There are Xilinx FPGAs (use an eprom for the pattern and it soft loads)
saving the expensive programmer. Or the Lattice ISP parts also using
minimally expensive interface cord (I think). Even if the parts cost
some the lack of programmer lowers the cost. The expense is the
software tools and the knowledge to write the VHDL/Xable code as
needed to define the parts function.
Check the TCJ web page for info about alta engienering for a cheap GAL
programmer.
There are parts like 8748/9 and 68705 that make programming pretty easy
and the programmer can be homebrew. Their advantage is that assemblers
can be had for free and the parts are cheap(or even salvaged).
There are lots of options.
Allison
HI Gary and all,
At 10:27 AM 10/3/98 -0700, you wrote:
>To start things, I'd like to offer that I'm in the process of recreating
>a copy of Edmund Berkeley's "Simon" computer designed and built by him
>in the 50's as a demonstration "show and tell" of how a "real" computer
>works. It's a collection of 100+ relays, two paper tape readers and
>some blinkey lights. Version 1 was a "two bit" computer with the
>ability to scale to 4 bits, while version 2 scaling to multiple precision
>using a real CARRY! It's a small machine - "almost" a "laptop". Right
>now I'm collecting parts - specifically looking for the two paper tape
>readers (solenoid operated - not motor driven - so if anyone out there
>has one or two of these...)
>
>For a reference to Simon, see the thirteen part series in Radio Electronics
>magazine (US publication) from October 1950 through October 1951.
>"Constructing Electronic Brains" by Edmund C. Berkeley and Robert A. Jensen.
>There was also a cover article in Scientific American around that time -
>sorry I don't have the issue handy with an overview of the project.
>
This sounds interesting. I will try to find the Radio Electronics articles
you mentioned. Can you describe the paper tape, was it 5 bits? Maybe
something else
could be used to simulate it, maybe a mechanical drum or a diode matrix =
rom if the number of bits isn't too large.
My first "computer" project was the game of "life" using TTL logic, for
example a 7490 decade counter to count the cell's neighbors as other
counters moved through the 8 neighbor's x, y addresses.
-Dave
Could someone please cc: me on the list files #539 to #546. I had another
run-in with installing Windows NT5 Beta, so I lost most of my C: drive,
including my e-mail files.
Thanks in advance!
Rich Cini/WUGNET
- ClubWin!/CW7
- MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
- Collector of "classic" computers
<========= reply separator ==========>
At 08:00 PM 10/3/98 -0500, Doug wrote:
>On Sat, 3 Oct 1998, Sam Ismail wrote:
>
>> We start a little movement, people fall in behind it, it grows, and BAM!,
>> homebrew is chic again!
>
>I doubt it. The homebrew/hobbyist movement had a very compelling driving
>force: just about the only way to get your own computer was to built it
>yourself. That's no longer true. But there is a pretty strong homebrew
>aircraft movement, and it also still makes sense for robotics.
Do remember however, to a large extent a 'robot' is just a computer on
wheels with some very unusual peripherals... B^}
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174