Once again common sense lost out am I am now the "proud" possessor of a
rather run-down Friden-Singer Flexowriter model 2300.
Anyone know of online resources for these beasts ?
Google / Bitsavers did not yield results.
Jos Dreesen
LA210-A2 and LA75 companion printer. Unknown operating
condition, yellow and exposed to some dampness. LN03
laser, HEAVY Emulex tape drive, ext. SCSI box - ping
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>
>Subject: Re: Northstar Horizon
> From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave06a at dunfield.com>
> Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2006 09:44:57 -0500
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>
>> FYI the e800h start address works for SD or DD as the SD rom appears twice
>> in the address space at both e800h and e900h.
>
>Not always - I have several different revs of SD controller cards, and I know that
>on at least one of them the E900 rom does NOT mirror at E800 - however I also
>have several cards that do mirror (which is nice because you don't have to change
>the CPU jumpers to swap SD/DD controllers).
I have three revs of the SD controller and all hit on both addresses.
Maybe a forth rev?
Allison
The real problem is that it uses HARD-SECTOR 5.25" diskettes, which are just
about impossible to find.
Yes, you can use a PC compatible 5.25" 360k drive, if it's jumpered
properly.
>
>Subject: Re: Northstar Horizon
> From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave06a at dunfield.com>
> Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 13:29:16 -0500
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>> On 25 Nov 2006 at 3:27, jim stephens wrote:
>>
>> > And my memory of 256 bytes may be off, I vaguly recall maybe on 32 bytes
>> > are visible and used by the processor at boot. People had to use pretty small proms
>> > in the early days of the hobby.
>>
>> I recall that the disk controller had a small bipolar prom and that
>> it was indeed 32 bytes. It was miles better than toggling the boot
>> code by hand... A 256-byte boot prom back then would have been an
>> almost obscene luxury... ;)
>
>Well - then I guess NorthStar was obscene... :-)
>
>The single-density controller does indeed have 256 byte of ROM (in three chips!)
>The double-density one has 512 bytes of ROM.
the boot rom was two 256x 4 parts (bipolar) and the third was the address
decode for the board (also 256x4 bipolar).
>
>The controller occupies 1K of memory space from E800-EBFF
> E800-EFFF ROM on DD, unused or mirror ROM on SD
> E900-E9FF ROM on both SD and DD
> EA00-EAFF Hardware control (address is write value)
> EB00-EBFF Write data (address is data)
>
>I might have EA00 & EB00 reversed, it's been a while since I was in the
>nuts and bolts of the N* controller.
Without checking the manuals thats about right.
Allison
>
>Subject: Re: Northstar Horizon
> From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
> Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 08:32:35 -0800
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>On 25 Nov 2006 at 3:27, jim stephens wrote:
>
>> And my memory of 256 bytes may be off, I vaguly recall maybe on 32 bytes
>> are visible and used by the processor at boot. People had to use pretty small proms
>> in the early days of the hobby.
>
>I recall that the disk controller had a small bipolar prom and that
>it was indeed 32 bytes. It was miles better than toggling the boot
>code by hand... A 256-byte boot prom back then would have been an
>almost obscene luxury... ;)
No, it was 256bytes for SD and 512bytes for DD.
FYI the e800h start address works for SD or DD as the SD rom appears twice
in the address space at both e800h and e900h.
Allison
On 11/26/06, John Robertson <jrr at flippers.com> wrote:
> I have similar trouble in my day job which is restoring early arcade
> games from the 1960's and 70s....
What a fun job. I'll bet you see some nice items pass by.
> Oddly enough the old logic boards seem to keep working, have a few
> games from the very early 70's (Computer Space and Pong that are
> quite serviceable. so much for the old time theory that cosmic rays
> led to TTL failures as these boards would all be dead if that was the
> case.
I think the cosmic ray theory went away when there was an issue with
some 4K Intel DRAMs that turned out to be alpha particles from
something radioactive in the clay for the ceramic package, _not_
particles from outer space. The story lived on, though.
I've looked at the schematics for Computer Space - looks like it could
still be built, if you could stand the rather simplistic gameplay.
I've thought about a modern implementation, but it's a "ship in a
bottle" project - I'd probably build it, then put it aside fairly
quickly
-ethan
Not in the least...
Mark Twain was making a joke about educated people mis-spelling words
accidentally.
He wasn't speaking about people making up words and purposely using them
to annoy others in an attempt to be "cool".
Al
> From: Chris M <chrism3667 at yahoo.com>
>
> --- Al Hartman <alhartman at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>> > Right!
>> >
>> > Besides, Mark Twain was once heard to remark:
>> >
>> > "It takes an uncreative man to spell a word only one
>> > way!"
>>
>
> My point all along ;)
