I made some nice acquisitions to add to the old silicon heap today.
I found an ATR-8000 ($7). The ATR-8000 was an adjunct CP/M box for the
Atari 400/800/XL computers. To use it, you plugged a special cart into
the Atari which was really just a terminal program. The Atari then acted
as a terminal to the ATR-8000 (the connection from the ATR-8000 to the
Atari was via serial cable). The ATR-8000 had external connectors for
floppy drives (since you couldn't actually use the Atari drives on the
ATR) and a printer connector. The ATR-8000 could actually be used as a
stand-alone CP/M computer if you wanted to. You could just connect a
terminal and some disk drives to it and voila, instant CP/M machine.
Which is interesting to note because...
The next find was ANOTHER ATR-8000 (!) but this time with a TeleVideo 925
terminal and two half-height dual floppy drives attached to it.
Basically, an ATR-8000 in a stand-alone configuration! Cool. But this
was even a better deal...$5 for the whole lot.
My next nice find was an Intellec MDS chassis. The ship date on the back
shows 10/77 so I imagine it is a later model than what I've seen in
pictures. The front panel has 8 interrupt switches, and a momentary BOOT
switch and a RESET switch. There's also a HALT and RUN light. There were
two cards inside...one is a Monitor Module and the other is a wire-wrap
mess that I can't figure out. I also got a bare wire-wrap card. The
chassis was slightly beat up, as some parts of the face ridges were broken
off, so I talked the guy down to $10.
I got a Momenta pen-based computer. It's shaped like a wedge. I got it
in the box but it was in so-so shape. I got two battery packs but neither
is charged, and unfortunately I didn't get the charger or wall apadtor
with it. On the box it said "For technical service call 1-800-MOMENTA"
so I called but it rang and rang. A sort of good sign I guess. I'll try
during the week and see what I get. I'd be interested to know anything
that anyone possibly knows about this thing. Circa 1991. $15.
I found a real nice book: _Microcomputer Dictionary: (Second Edition)_ by
Charles J. Sippl (Howard Samms, 1981, ISBN: 0-672-21696-5). It has some
more excellent pictures of stuff I've never even heard of or seen before.
I'll be scanning these pictures in and posting them to the web page.
Of course it also has all sorts of definitions for computer terms and
such. $1.
Next find was a this kinky little Japanse 286 box, a Sharp MZ-6500 Model
50. All the markings were in Japanese (or is that more properly Kanji?).
It had a "100V" plug as well as a strange plug that I assume is for
outlets in Japan. It has two 3.5" floppies, an ST-125 HD, and a strange
motherboard layout. It was in superb shape. Not really a classic, but
cool looking. The guy wanted to get rid of it so I got it for $3.
Other finds: a DEC VT-100 terminal for $.50 (yes, cents), and a TI-99/4a
for laughs.
It was a good day.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
I've placed the requested view on the page...
http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/weird/datanumerics.html
The motherboard is marked REV A
The serial # of the machine is 00029
I doubt there could have been many more of these made.
Enjoy!
A
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Troutman <mor(a)crl.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 6:06 PM
Subject: Re: Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ...
>Andrew Davie wrote:
>>
>> It arrived 10 minutes ago.
>> I'm so excited, I just put up a quick web page so you can all see it.
>> Its obviously not an IMSAI...? So... anyone know anything about it.
>> Comments appreciated (even "I want it!!")
>
>She's purdy. How about a tight close-up on the data switches and status
>lights--I've got a fetish ;)
Altair in sheep's clothing? Not a chance! Wait till you see inside!
The motherboard is organised in ROWS of chips, something like A to F
And... it's stationed at the top (ie: roof) of the machine.
Amazing amazing. Its an 8080A by the way.
A
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 5:57 PM
Subject: Re: Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ...
>On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, Andrew Davie wrote:
>
>> It arrived 10 minutes ago.
>> I'm so excited, I just put up a quick web page so you can all see it.
>> Its obviously not an IMSAI...? So... anyone know anything about it.
>> Comments appreciated (even "I want it!!")
>
>OK, I want it!! Very cool. It looks a lot like an Altair (from the pix,
>I saw a one-to-one correspondence to Altair toggles). According to Hans
>Pufal's list, it came out the same year as the Altair (1975):
> http://www.digiweb.com/~hansp/ccc/clist3.htm
>
>Any chance it is an Altair in sheep's clothing?
>
>-- Doug
>
>
Hi,
Does anyone know anything about the AT&T 6300? I've read a few
descriptions on the Web,
but was wondering if they are rare, difficult to find, etc? I have an
opportunity to get one
but don't know much about them.
Thanks...Win
wheagy(a)erols.com
Hi Andrew!
I have a lead for you - Acorn BBC books and software for sale in Vic, for
$5. phone (03) 9596-6454.
Also, if you are intersted, I know of three computers for sale which may
interest you. In Vic there is an Amstrad PCW 8512 - you probably know
them, but they are word processors with CP/M compatability, reasonably
common but they can be hard to come by. And in Adelaide there are two -
a faulty Apple Lisa 2/10 (bad HD, possibly repairable) for $150, and a HP
9835 desktop computer, with 9" drive, software and connectors for $50.
Any of these interest you? If you want the Lisa I'll have to get it
soon, but I do have the original OS somewhere which I can copy off for
you, and unprotect at least the system disk - however I can't do so (yet)
with the apps. No rush with the HP, though.
Adam.
OK... while we're on off topic, ;-) Is there any way that I could get my
hands on the individual componets for making a "nano PC", prefferably just a
small one?
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 10:35 PM
Subject: Re: Off-charter chatter: nano-PC's
>On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Tim Shoppa wrote:
>
>> I just received some brochures from my local embedded PC supplier, and
some
>> of the miniaturization that's being done is incredible. There's a
>> company in Germany called JUMPtec which sells a product called the
>> DIMM-PC; it puts a 33 MHz 80386, 4 Mbytes of RAM, a bootable flash
>> harddisk and an AMI BIOS, a real time clock, and interfaces for
>> external IDE drives, floppy drives, printer, 2 COM ports, and keyboard
>> all on a board that is only 68mm x 40mm (that's 1.57 x 2.68 inches.)
>
>Wow, a keyboard in that form factor is incredible :-) You're right, there
>are lots of choices in the embedded space. The smallest full-blown PC
>with built-in display and keyboard that I know of has gotta be the IBM
>PC-110. For a size comparison of a normal laptop, a PC-110, and IBM's
>(new?) credit-card computer, see:
> http://www.kako.com/museum/ibm.html
>
>To get even further off-topic, has anybody here written 6805 wristapps for
>their Timex/Microsoft DataLink watch? Try:
> http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/7650/
>
>-- Doug
>
>
I'm trying to make a "semi-nano PC" myself...
><3.5"? That's a "standard" off-the-shelf IDE disk, isn't it? 2.5" is
><a standard off-the-shelf laptop IDE drive. 1.8" drives are also
>I'd rather 2.5 or smaller but a really cheap 3.5 is ok.
2.5" drives arn't hard to find. A while back, Data Probe
(http://www.dataprobeintl.com ; sales(a)dataprobeintl.com) had even 500MB
notebook drives for around $50 (used), they were 2.5". They weren't listed
on their website, you'd have to ask them...
And, I'd recommend the Kittyhawks. That, or there's soupossed to be a
re-writable ROM-like 1" square coming out, right now, they've got 20 and 40
MB versions,with 80MB coming soon...
>The is at most a one up for myself(non commercial design).
Same here.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
>I'll differ on this point. one of the primary things that killed the
'6300
>was that it was NOT totally IBM compatable. The video subsystem (noted
>below) is a prime example.
Is it possible to somehow slap a CGA or any standard monitor into
one of those?
>>Hard drives were optional in them and not very reliable IMO.
>
>The drives they used overall were not notably better or worse than most
of
>the time. They did make some poor choices at times on who to buy their
>drives from.
>
I will say that my only experience w/a 6300 was one that got to me
because of a dead hard drive. I ended up gutting and trashing it. I
hold old microchips in the fan housing. This was also my only experience
with a dead hard drive.
Was the thing designed for UNIX or was it just a plain "enhanced" PC
clone?
P.S. In OOP, can an object kill another object to inherit it?
>---
>jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
>The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
>Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
>
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>It seems that a lot of you blokes down under have Sorcerers. Were they
>marketed a lot more "down there" than they were in the US? They are not
>very common over here.
They aren't common here, but in Adelaide (South Australia) we still have
a Sorcerer's User Group running. I suspect that it is entirely social,
but it is there. Because Dick Smith imported them so early, it was one
of (if not the) first complete microcomputer systems available here, and
even then Dick Smith had a fairly large chain of stores. This gave it a
major advantage over its rivals (aside from the fact that it is a pretty
good system in teh first place). I also know someone who took one with
him when he went to the Antartic for 12 months. :)
Dick Smith, as I believe Andrew mentioned, sold a number of computers
here. The Sorcerer was sold as a Sorcerer, but they also sold the TRS-80
clone he mentioned (the System 80), two Laser computers (the Dick Smith
VZ-200 and VZ-300), the Creativision (the Dick Smith Wizzard), a kit
computer (the Super 80), and an Apple II clone (the Dick Smith Cat). I
was told the System 80 was a rebadged Laser, but I don't remember if they
made TRS-80 clones, and can't find any evidence to prove that the System
80 wasn't DSE's own system. The Super 80 I believe was actually theirs,
but I don't have one to check, and the Cat I assume was a rebadged clone
- I have a lead on one, but I have to go collect it. :) The VZs and
Wizzard were simply rebadged.
After a while they just started importing PC clones like everone else. I
do remember they had the one luggable, which I imagine was CP/M based,
but I'd have to do some research to find out who's it was.
Adam.
