For a minor fee (perhaps around $2), I'd be willing to
take scans of manuals and documents and hand retype them
into searchable PDF files for distribution, retaining
original images and formatting, just acting as a human
OCR of sorts ;)
Hi list,
I pulled the following from a skip (or dumpster as you North Americans
would have it!):
http://img163.echo.cx/my.php?image=hp854qg.jpg (5 x HP85 computers)
http://img263.echo.cx/my.php?image=hp86b4wy.jpg (3 x HP86B computers)
http://img263.echo.cx/my.php?image=hpdrives8zh.jpg (5 x HP9121 dual
drives, 1 x HP9122 dual drive)
Is there anything specific to these machines I should check (aside
>from the obligatory stuff-from-a-dumpster drying-out period) before
trying to power them on? I haven't got a monitor that will do the NTSC
composite from the HP86Bs at the moment so I can't really try those,
but I can try the HP85s and the drives if it's OK to.
Thanks,
Ed.
In the July 2005 issue of Technology Review there's an article about the
over 16,000 formats of data that the NARA has store and make available
forever. They have two companies working on away to store all this data in
their correct data format but be able to review it at anytime in the future.
I am currently seeking the following software for a client:
Texas Instruments Personal Consultant Plus (tm) expert shell (circa 1987).
M1 Expert Shell (circa late 1980s).
Both of these expert systems are PC-based.
If you have either of these, please contact me privately. This is a
bounty so there's a cash reward!
Thanks!
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
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>Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:44:14 -0400
>From: "Allison" <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net>
>To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>MIME-Version: 1.0
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>Subject: Re: MITS 8800B CPU Board
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>>
>>Subject: Re: MITS 8800B CPU Board
>> From: "Dwight K. Elvey" <dwight.elvey at amd.com>
>> Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:12:04 -0700 (PDT)
>> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>>
>>>From: "river" <river at zip.com.au>
>>>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>Thanks for your replies. I found the relevant information.
>>>
>>>I have an extensive inventory and can source the parts and get this poor,
>>battered board back to its old self again. However, looking through the doco I
>>noticed that the 8800B requires a display/control and interface boards. A
>>question for those of you that own a MITS8800 - does it need those boards for
a
>>turnkey system? Can I plug the CPU board into the backplane and run it without
>>the d/c and i/f cards, assuming I set up the ROM and RAM cards for the system?
>>If not, (since I do not have the d/c and i/f cards) I'll have to try and build
>>them from the cct diagrams I have obtained. This is do-able (but a lot of
work)
>>if I can get my hands on some blank S100 w/wrap boards, but I noticed there's
a
>>1702 EPROM chip and I'd need to get the memory map for this chip to burn my
own.
>>>
>>>Failing that, and it's all too hard and bothersome for me, is there anyone
that
>>would need a repaired 8800 CPU card for trade or anything similar?
>>>
>>>rgds
>>>river
>>>
>>
>>Hi
>> It should work on a turnkey. Almost everything goes
>>through the S100 bus. Only the direct connect of the
>>data bus goes directly between the panel and the CPU board.
>>I don't think that is needed. You will have to have code
>>residing at address 0000. This is not common. Most
>>expected a working front panel that could load a boot
>>address.
>> Some ROM boards have a way to be at 0000 after reset
>>and then switch to someplace else once things are booted.
>> Don't give up on it. When there is a will, there will
>>be a way.
>>Dwight
>
>
>Yes, you will have to have rom at 0000h though and Mwrite
>was derived and delivered from the front pannel if memory
>serves. So that means ram will have to be set up to not
>require Mwrite. Either that or you will have to through
>something small together to create Mwrite.
>
>As to mapping rom out once operational, thats a later problem.
>It's fairly easy to do.
>
>Allison
Hi
I've done this on my NC4000 based computer. It is nice
to have it all in clean RAM. One can do things like hot
patching code( not recommended for the faint of heart ).
Dwight
>From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave04a at dunfield.com>
>
>Hi Guys,
>
>Having a large quantity of 8" disks that I need to archive/send to
>someone, and neither of us having teledisk working on an compatible
>8" drive, and not having nearly enough 8" media to spare to send
>physical copies...
>
>I have created another serial link disk imaging program.
>
Hi Dave
I've not had the need for this so far but expect
to sometime in the future. Most of the CP/M machines
that I have either are common and have disk with them
or are so uncommon that I've needed to hand build
the disk from scratch.
I have used the serial port to transfer information
but once I have the basic core working, I just transfer
files. If it is a binary file, I've used Intel Hex
format and DDT to save to a binary.
It would be interesting to compile a web page with all
the different tricks used to handle the various image
and file transfer problems of these older systems. Things
like how to connect a 8 inch disk or a little source
code that shows how to do console to disk transfers using
the CP/M bios. One could include things like my H8/H89
image transfer program and my Olivetti M20 disk image
building code. I have code from another fellow to move
Polymorphic disk images from a Poly 881x to a PC with
xmodem( windows supports ).
There are so many ways to skin a cat. Each has a slightly
different advantage under some conditions.
Just a thought
Dwight
Apologies to everyone else........
Jules,
I've sent you a couple of messages of list, but received no replies - are
you getting them, or does your ISP bounce my emails?
Jim.
Please see our website the " Vintage Communication Pages" at WWW.G1JBG.CO.UK
Hi Guys,
Having a large quantity of 8" disks that I need to archive/send to
someone, and neither of us having teledisk working on an compatible
8" drive, and not having nearly enough 8" media to spare to send
physical copies...
I have created another serial link disk imaging program.
This one reads and writes CP/M images to and from physical diskettes
of a connected CP/M system.
Due to the fact that CP/M does not provide a general means of reading
and writing the system tracks, system tracks can only be backed up on
diskettes which have them recorded in a format compatible with the
BIOS driver. The user accessable portion of the disk can always be
backed up and restored.
This is a command line program that runs on a PC, and communicates
with the target system via a small resident "client". The program
can transfer the client to the CP/M system by "typing it in" through
DDT.
Still in the testing stages, I have it to the point where I can
quite reliably backup and restore diskette images. So far I've tested
it using a NorthStar Horizon (actually my simulator running on another
PC), and the Orion-V (an STD bus system with 8" disks).
If anyone wants to play with it, please drop me a line, and I can send
a preliminary version - once I am happy that everything is working
correctly, I will get it posted to my site.
Regards,
Dave
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
>
>Subject: MITS8800 CPU Board
> From: "river" <river at zip.com.au>
> Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 16:23:21 +1000
> To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>Hi,
>
>Great, thanks for the info.
>
>I'm sourcing a few S100 protoboards, so I'll be able to wirewrap a board with all the relevant RAM, ROM and I/O. I'll probably use later generation chips such as 62256 for RAM and 6264 for ROM. I can then put in the 8251 and 8255 for serial and parallel ports, respectively. Is that heresy in regards to these old boards?
>
>It's not an issue to me starting ROM at 0000h. I've written a few 8080
>
>I've only got a 6-slot motherboard and a Northstar ZCB processor board,
S100 ROM board and some Dynabyte RAM boards and I was going to use the
motherboard and original S100 boards with this system.
This means the 8800CPU board will be in a small 2-slot system - the CPU board and the RAM/ROM/IO board I'm going to make.
The NS* ZCB has a power on jump (POJ) and reset logic so you dont need
rom at Zero plus it also generates Mwrite. Besides being Z80 it's a
better CPU to use.
>Just one more thing.... I suppose it's possible to use the 8800CPU bd
>without the power regulation components if I ensure the correct
voltages go through the correct pins on the bus. I can then use an
old spare PC power supply, instead of creating a new supply. Naturally,
this would entail that no other S100 board can be used due to their
on-board regulators. This isn't an issue if I build my own S100 boards,
without regulation, for this system.
You can add regulation a trivial thing. However using a PC supply is
fine (you'll need -5 -12 +5 +12). Regular S100 cards can be used if
you bypass the regulators.
>
>Again, thanks for your help. This is my first foray into S100 stuff,
and makes a nice change from Multibus.
Nice change?!? You will be messing with hardware much more. S100
you'll find there are a few quirks like noisy backplanes and cards
that are S100 but not always compatable with the CPU in use.
Allison