>> I have a Rainbow 200, but I'm missing the keyboard and mouse, and it
>>doesn't
>> seem to take a serial console.
hmm, don't know about the 200, I've got a 100B machine and the keyboards
plug into the back of the display units from what I remember. I think
you could use a VT100 keyboard, don't know about mouse support
(presumably standard serial as on a PC...)
>> I have the CP/M disks for it as well, it has no harddisk.
hard disk controllers and colour display boards were like gold dust for
these machines... blank disks are probably pretty rare these days if the
200 uses those same strange two-in-one disk drives that the 100 had -
you had to have disks without the centre reinforcing rings or they'd
screw up the drive spindles over a period of time....
cheers
Jules
>-------
>
Okay, someone out there may have an instruction sheet they could scan
for this:
I have around half a dozen ISA parallel/serial expansion cards that
I need the jumper data on. These are only
marked on two lrger chips as Winbond W86C551's and the only other
marking is screen printed at the bottom
near the slot. It reads "DIO-222-OHM REV. A" which I assume is it's
model number, probably stands for Dual
I/O model 222. It has a COM A fixed to the filler card at the
backbone and a COM B on a ribbon on an
expansion plate. There is a LPTA and LPTB just the same. It has a
set of jumpers on the lower side below the
lower of the two Winbond chips and it's amrked as JP1 and has three
rows tall and 13 rows wide. The left has 1,
14 and 27 screened on the pc board and the right side has 13, 26
and 35 screened on.
I've used a few that were previously set as LPT2, LPT3, COM3, COM4
but as I come across machines that
need a different setup I'll need a set of instructions. If anyone
has a copy that they could scan and attach as a
graphic, or could fax to me (502-756-6991) or could photocopy and
mail to me I'm sure I could work out
something to repay them.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Russ Blakeman
RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144
Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991
Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com
Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/
ICQ UIN #1714857
AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN"
* Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers*
--------------------------------------------------------------------
<I know basically how microcode works. It's the one-cycle instructions li
<"gate data bus to address bus" or "gate data bus to ALU".
<One MOV can be 2-5 microinstructions.
First most microinstructions are bit coded... meaning that it can do
several things concurrently if the hardware can based on what bits are
set. That also means you cant output data to the data bus while trying
input data. Watch out as some of the vax MOVs are fairly complex
instructions.
<The large question I have is: How does the MOV translate to microcode?
<Does the VAX figure a microcode offset based on the opcode? Is there a t
<of entry points somewhere? How is this done?
The macroinstruction is a pointer to a table entry that containes the
address of a microsubroutine that will execute it. That means in hardware
there will be a rom or ram between the instruction register and the
external microcode address entry point (usually a operand to a microcode
jump.).
<Another thing, the VAX 780 was microcoded from the console RX01. Does an
<have a copy of that RX01? Can anyone get a disk image? What else was on
<(RT-11? P/OS?)
I believe it was RT-11 with special application code for starting and
monitoring the 780. The 730 and 750 had minimal microcode and used a
tu58 to load the remainder or overlay existing ucode to patch it.
Allison
<>> I have a Rainbow 200, but I'm missing the keyboard and mouse, and it
<>>doesn't
<>> seem to take a serial console.
NEever heard of a 200 there was a 100, 100+ and 100B.
<you could use a VT100 keyboard, don't know about mouse support
<(presumably standard serial as on a PC...)
No mouse. Keyboard was LK200 same as vt220 and later terminals and the
monitor was VR201 (mono) or one of the others. It did not use a serial
console as it was like a PC and had color graphics.
<hard disk controllers and colour display boards were like gold dust for
<these machines... blank disks are probably pretty rare these days if the
<200 uses those same strange two-in-one disk drives that the 100 had -
<you had to have disks without the centre reinforcing rings or they'd
<screw up the drive spindles over a period of time....
Media is common 360k pc. The format is oddball (rx50) but the rainbow
could format a floppy. Hard disk controllers can be found (in the USA).
Allison
<- AMD Enhanced Am486
<- AMD Am5x86
<- AMD K5
<- AMD K6
<- Centaur IDT-C6
<- Cyrix 486DRx2
<- Cyrix 5x86
<- Cyrix 6x86 & 6x86MX
<- IBM 6x86 & 6x86MX
<- NexGen NX586
<- SGS-Thomson ST486
<- SGS-Thomson 6x86
<- Texas Instruments TI486DX2 & DX4
Ok so you listed all the code compatable cpus, they are for all intents
the same thing only varying in performance. Still intel instruction set.
<Windows CE 2.0 supports the following chipsets:
Never heard of this one.
<- Digital
Ok can you be specific... at one time the PDP-11, VAX and Alpha were
all in production concurrently. I'd suspect Alpha. MS never had a
clue about VAX.
Allison
At 11:21 PM 5/18/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Geowork's GEOS was an early (better-than-Microsoft-but-crushed-anyway)
>Windowing system that ran on both x86 and 6502 (and maybe more).
>
Also ran on the Commie C64 and 128. I have the manual for it. If anyone
wants it you can have it for $2 and the cost of shipping.
Joe
>I like to bash Microsoft as much as the next guy, but their CPU support on
>Windows CE is pretty good: x86, MIPS, Hitachi, PPC, and ARM, at least.
x86??? That would make a REALLY COOL sub-$500 PC. PPC??? So MS didn't
COMPLETELY cut it off.... I guess that if Intel (or anyone else) wanted,
they could make a 386/486 (AMD's ElanSC400 comes to mind) processor
based-WindowsCE system, requireing less effort to port to CE.
Tim D. Hotze
> I thought I had read something recently about some company releasing a
> re-hashed version of GEOS for PCs, but my proxy is hosed and a search would
> take forever. I think it was on C|NET in a review of alternative OSs.
Brother has a brand new GEOS laptop they're selling for about $500 or so.
Perhaps that's what you're thinking of.
Roger Ivie
ivie(a)cc.usu.edu
<> Wasn't it the DRAM used on the infamous MITS 4KB DRAM S-100 memory card
<> The one that never worked because they used a one-shot for the RAS-CAS
<
<Hmm.. I doubt it. The 4060 doesn't have separate RAS and CAS inputs and a
<multiplexed address. There were 16 pin 4K DRAMs that did, though.
It was used for the 88-s4k and the earlier 88-MCD both were cranky
designs as the S4K didn't like z80s and the MCD was just flakey
due to sloppy timing and board level noise.
<> timing. That was one collector item that should be put in a landfill.
Those two memories were best left in the dumpster. The rams used were
easy to work with as they only needed a CE to latch the address and cause
a read, write or refresh. They were at the time fairly fast as well
which is where some designers got burnt from the noise that was generated
by the fast switching.
<As I keep on telling people "I'll not show you how to use {one shots |
<monostables}. By the time you know how to use them correctly, you can
<figure out how to use them without my help" :-)
Oneshots are ok but, critical timing and cascaded timing is nuttyness
when combined with board level noise. The Altair boys used oneshots to
solve timing problems when combinational logic was more correct. The
problem was even the s4k was plagued by board level noise and strange
decodings.
Allison
An interesting bit from our archive knowledgebase...
Windows/286 Running on DEC Rainbow with 286 Board [aropenv]
ID: Q51199 CREATED: 21-NOV-1989
2.11
WINDOWS
Summary:
The Rainbow Adaptation Kit for Microsoft Windows/286, marketed by
Suitable Solutions, Inc., of Santa Clara, California, permits Rainbow
users to install Windows/286 Version 2.11 directly from the
Windows/286 retail kit. For more information about the Rainbow
Adaptation Kit, contact Suitable Solutions at (408) 727-9090.
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Ivie [mailto:IVIE@cc.usu.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 1998 10:48 AM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Windows 1.x platforms...
> Windows 1.x-2.x were Intel and 100% compatible only (including AMD 286
since
> it was manufactured under license by Intel), and ran without problems on
the
> NEC V20 (8088 clone). Bear in mind that there wasn't really any secondary
> CPU market at that time.
Back in the Windows 1 timeframe, IBM had not yet taken over the universe.
Some non-clones (such as the DEC Rainbow) ran Windows; basically DEC
wrote or contracted for the device drivers necessary to make it work.
I don't recall whether Windows 2.x ran on the 'bow; I didn't have access
to one during that timeframe.
Hotze wrote:
>
> OK... I know that Windows 1.x/2.x was horibbly unsuccessful... but I
> remember reading about some platforms that Windows was ported to that
seemed
> pretty strange... (IE non-x86).
> Anyone???
This is probably a dim memory of the Rainbow port. The Rainbow had both an
8088 and a Z80 (when running MS-DOS, the Z80 was used only for floppy and
(IIRC) keyboard I/O).
Roger Ivie
ivie(a)cc.usu.edu
