test-drb November 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

255 participants
692 discussions

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

The FPGA/Xilinx swearing around here reminds me... Many years ago (OK, decades, actually a good chunk of a century now) the tools for doing embedded software development from the manufacturers were: 1. Distributed as source code 2. Widely portable 3. Well-documented in terms of file formats Examples are the Intel 8008 PL/M compiler they released in Fortran and the original PALASM (Monolithic Memories?) in Fortran. (IIRC the PALASM source appeared in printed form in one of the manuals). Even for commercial tools, the three "good things" enumerated above were often true. The reason for this openness was because user's didn't all have identical development platforms, often they had access to a timesharing system or a departmental minicomputer that they used for cross-compilation etc. Since then of course the tools have become MSDOS/Windows-only, distributed only as binaries, and sometimes the file formats/ programming process are trade secrets (often reverse-engineered by those using them!) I can see why this happened: supposedly everybody had a PC-clone running Microsoft software, so you could just give away or sell binaries instead of source code. Of course, freeware embedded tools (e.g. GNU and others) today reflect a backlash against the Windows-ization of embedded development tools. A similar thing has happened to SPICE (most users are not using the open-source Berkeley code but instead proprietary versions which lock them in to a specific vendor and that vendor's component models). And there's the backlash to this in the open-source community (SPICE3 with ngspice/gEDA and some GUI's layered on top of it.) But in my experience, outside the hobbyist community the freeware embedded tools don't have much traction. I'd be glad to be proven wrong! Actually I do know of a couple of small commercial projects that used gcc for StrongARM and have heard of a couple that use gcc for MSP430. I myself use gputils (GNU PIC utilities) and gpsim occasionally and am occasionally forced to plunge into hell with commercial embedded development tools (which mostly suck) under Windows. OK, that's my pontification for this morning. Tim.

18 years, 8 months

Acorn Econet Fileserver

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Are there any Econet enthusiasts here? I've just bought most of an Acorn Econet fileserver (it's missing the 2 floppy drioves and their cables, the mainboard and PSU look intact). The mainboard contains : 65C102 CPU 64K EPROM (2 off 27256). I've not tried to look at their contents yet 64K DRAM WD2793 disk controller (not what I'd expect from Acorn) 6522 VIA Real time clcok chip and backup battery TTL glue An Econet module (looks like the one used in a Master or Arc, the type with the hardware collision detection). Oddly theres a 26LS30 on the mainboard, does this thing source the Exonet clock too? The PSU looks to be a normal switch-mode unit giving +5V and +12V On the back are the 5 pin DIN econet socket, a 26 pin header identified as 'Printer' (presumably wired as a BBC micro printer port) and a 34 pin header. I am told this is to add a hard disk, and it looks similar to a Beeb's 1MHz bus. I assume it takes the normal SASI host adapter and ST506 bridgboard (I have spares of those somewhere...) On the front are 2 LEDs (power and mode) and what looks like a reflectiove optoswitch (why?) Can anyone tell me anything more about it, how to use it, what the intenral links do, etc? -tony

18 years, 8 months

and 4004 Re: 8008?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "steve" <gkicomputers at yahoo.com> > > >> >> What's odd is that th 4004's are going for very >> little, even though they're >> an "older' MPU. >> >not sure where your looking, but on ebay they don't, >the C4004's go for hundreds, the C8008's for $20-$50 >(about the same as the D4004) > Hi I often time wonder what a working sim4-01 setup would go for. Not that I'd sell mine but I've been thinking of a donation to the CHM. If I knew the value I might get a tax write off. I've never seen one come up on ebay and only know of a couple others. I'd be interested to know if others on the list might have one? Dwight

18 years, 8 months

Fastest NSC800? ?JUNK MAIL? 4

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > >Did National ever make a version of the NSC800 that ran faster than 4 MHz? >If so, where can I get one? > >Cheers, >Chuck > Hi I'm not sure if it was faster but they did put is in a small module with Forth on ROM and some I/O. I think they called the series RA2000 or something like that. I have a couple of these modules someplace. Dwight

18 years, 8 months

Need recommendations on a terminal server setup

by James＠jdfogg.com

> Does anyone here have suggestions on what I should use for a > terminal server? If I could just mount a DECserver box in my > PDP-11 chassis that would be great, but isn't the Ethernet > port DECnet-only? Livingston Portmasters can be had cheap on epay.

18 years, 8 months

OT: Computer Collector homepage might be down for a bit

by news＠computercollector.com

Switching my site to a different hoster, so there will probably be some downtime and/or oddities tonight and tomorrow. - Evan Koblentz ----------------------------------------- Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: http://www.snarc.net Computer Collector Newsletter: http://news.computercollector.com Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists & Museum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/

18 years, 8 months

wanted stuph (mostly Big Blue)

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

IBM 3196 terminal, preferably color, similarly #'ed models might be...similar, not sure. Might consider one of *those* IBM DisplayWriter IBM 5520 IBM 5120 IBM System 23/Datamaster IBM RT stuph Mindset computer, Canon AS-100, Atari PC2, Victor 9000, Zenith Z-100/120, Atari ST series units and parts, maybe an Atari 130XE. Kind of have a hankering for an Amiga 2000 or later *box*. Located in NJ, or PA, or LI, depends on the day of the week. Could possibly trade some groovy stuph. Pickups possible. __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com

18 years, 8 months

Motorola Intergrated Circuit Data Book, 1968, eBay Item number: 8723261842

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

I have a copy of this one -- definitely worth owning. http://cgi.ebay.com/Motorola-Intergrated-Circuit-Data-Book-1968_W0QQitemZ87… eBay: Motorola Intergrated Circuit Data Book, 1968 (item 8723261842 end time Nov-20-05 17:53:19 PST) --Bill

18 years, 8 months

Sun-1 Revival

by ghrx＠solivant.com

I have a 100u that I plan eventually to revive, too. I also have a few spare boards that I want to hang on to, but I think there's one or two 2/120 CPUs among them that I could part with. Contact me off line if you're interested. Geoff. ghrx.at.solivant.com >So if anyone out there has a spare, or a board that >needs repair, etc. Let me know! Any 68010 multibus >Sun card would do. >

18 years, 8 months

I8008 Micro-computer

by phillipmilks＠netzero.com

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18 years, 8 months

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test-drb November 2005