test-drb May 2011

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

162 participants
224 discussions

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

new Z180 based SBC beta testing Michael Kerpan madcrow.maxwell at gmail.com On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 9:34 PM, Randy Dawson <rdawson16 at hotmail.com <http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk> > wrote: > I didn't know you could still get the TMS9918 > > Heart of the TI 99/4 > > A cool add on board for those of us that started with the TI9900 'University Board' trainer, a video card that plugged on top from Eyring Research I suspect that TMS9918s have to be sourced from dead MSX-1s or 99/4s. BTW, does anybody know if the Yamaha 9938/58 enhanced clones were pin-compatible? The extra colors and hardware acceleration might be nice to have if they'd fit... Mike -----REPLY----- Hi! The TMS9918A and AY-3-8910 are both optional components on the N8. They are both available through multiple vendors and consistently on eBay. They are relatively common and low cost if you look around a bit. The initial build and test team mostly used the bare Z8S180 CPU with its dual serial ports for debugging the boot ROM and CP/M. However, adding the video and audio are very handy debugging tools so I would not discount their usefulness. The V9935/V9958 are not pin compatible but are software backward compatible. They use the Shrink DIP-64 so they are about the same physical size but more complex to trace route. I won't consider upgrading the N8 to use the V9938 or V9958 until after our N8VEM S-100 VDP board comes out based on the V9938/V9958 and verifies the design. The separate N8 design is too far along for such a radical change and the TMS9918A is sufficient for usable NTSC composite video comparable to Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari 800, Jupiter ACE, Timex/Sinclair 1000, etc. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

13 years, 1 month

new Z180 based SBC beta testing

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi! The new N8 (pronounced "innate") Z180 based SBC will be going into beta test at the end of June (estimated). This is what used to be called the N8VEM home computer which was mentioned a couple of times in the "FreeCP/M" thread on comp.os.cpm The N8 is an "all in one" design with Z8S180, 1 MB SRAM, 1 MB EPROM or 512KB Flash, dual serial ports, parallel printer port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, RTC and NVSRAM (DS1302), composite NTSC video (TMS9918A), audio (AY-3-8910), dual joystick ports, IDE port, FDC port, SD socket, optional CSIO port, optional RS-485 networking port, and ECB bus expansion. It can be powered from a 9VDC wall supply or from a scrap PC power supply and fits on a 10"x6" PCB. The N8 is wrapping up its initial round of build and test and I will be ordering the second batch of prototype boards in one week. If you would be interested in participating as a beta tester please let me know. If there is enough interest I can expand the prototype board order to accommodate additional builders. I anticipate the final board to come out sometime this fall. Note this is a PCB only and you will have to source your own components to keep the costs low. Schematics, PCB layout, and part list including supplier information are available on the N8VEM wiki in the "N8" folder. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

13 years, 1 month

What to do with Transputer Equipment?

by jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de

Hi. In a recent dumpster diving session I rescued three "IMS B012" boards. These are "VMEbus Master Motherboards" with 16 slots for TRAMs (TRAnsputer Modules). The three B012 are equiped with a total of 29 TRAMs. Each TRAM consists of one T800 Transputer chip and 1 MB of DRAM. In addition there is a single B420 Vector Processing TRAM. So, what to do with this stuff? There is a lot of documentation out there on the net. This covers topics like theory of operation, programming languages, libraries, ... but no "how to get started with real hardware" guide. I have a VME chassis to put them in. Currently this chassis houses a MVME68k machine running NetBSD. But as I understand the documentation on the B012 it uses the VME form factor, but has no real VMEbus interface. So my hope to use the MVME68k (or one of my Sun3 / Sun4 VME machines) as a host is lost. It would have been cool to add the transputers as a co-processor to my Sun 4/110 or 4/610... If I can't get any use out of the Transputers I would like to trade them for some more ordinary QBus stuff for my PDP-11. I need a M8061 RLV12 RL01/RL02 disk controller, QBus memory (at least 1 MB) and perhaps a M7559 TQK70 TK70 controller. Alternatively a MVME160x PPC VME CPU board would be nice. -- \end{Jochen} \ref{http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/}

13 years, 1 month

Data I/O manual sought in PDF format.

by geoffr＠zipcon.net

Looking for the Calibration/Service manual for the Unipak 2B unit, it has schematics in it and the calibration procedures. Since some of the adapters are unobtanium, with the service/cal manual it should be possible to reverse engineer some of the adapters :)

13 years, 1 month

minuteman II computer D17C / was Re: minuteman guidance computer D17B

by jtp＠chinalake.com

> And then there is the D37D of the minuteman III. TI and the minuteman related bits: http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/company/history/timeline/defense/1960/docs/62-sp ecial_ics.htm D37D onboard was used in the initial minuteman III missile guidance set (MGS), the NS-20 configuration. It was about 1/4 the size of the D17, still contained a disk and was/is visually less interesting. It has been replaced with the 16-bit missile guidance computer (MGC) in the current NS-50 MGS. The MGS contained the computer, gyro system, amp and guidance set. In the NS-50 configuration the amp is part of the MGC. The MGS is contained in a slice that sits below the reentry system (warhead and associated support systems). Although START [treaty] dramatically reduced the number and capabilities, there are 400+ MMIII ICBMs that remain operational.

13 years, 1 month

new Z180 based SBC beta testing

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Alexandre Souza - Listas pu1bzz.listas at gmail.com ________________________________ > The N8 is an "all in one" design with Z8S180, 1 MB SRAM, 1 MB EPROM or > 512KB > Flash, dual serial ports, parallel printer port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse > ports, RTC and NVSRAM (DS1302), composite NTSC video (TMS9918A), audio > (AY-3-8910), dual joystick ports, IDE port, FDC port, SD socket, optional > CSIO port, optional RS-485 networking port, and ECB bus expansion. It can > be powered from a 9VDC wall supply or from a scrap PC power supply and > fits > on a 10"x6" PCB. Are you building a "MSX on a card" ? :oD -----REPLY----- Hi, I am not sure what you mean by your comment but I'll assume it is a serious question I'll take a try at answering it. The intent of the N8 is to be a unique all in one home brew computer with the major functionality built in such as CPU, memory, video, audio, basic IO, and disk storage. Unlike the N8VEM SBC V2 most builders will probably not want to expand it using the ECB backplane although that is retained as an option. The N8 is a little like a combination of a high performance Z180 system like a SB-180, YASBEC, or P112 and an MSX computer. You can plug the N8 into an ECB backplane although it is much larger than the usual Eurocard 160x100mm format board. It has the Z8S180 CPU and a lot of integrated peripherals like the SB-180, YASBEC, and P112 although all DIP/PLCC plated through hole PCB construction for easy hobbyist assembly. Only a couple optional SMT parts are used. In theory the CPU is capable of 33 MHz operation although since the CPU clock is also used for serial baud rate calculations 29.4912 MHz or 24.576 MHz are probably realistic. The N8 has some MSX hardware compatibility and can run many MSX games particularly at BIOS level compatibility. However hardware compatibility is not 100% so it is not an MSX clone computer. There are several major differences such as the use of PS/2 keyboard and some IO peripherals are at differing locations. There are a lot of builder photos and videos present on the N8VEM wiki in the N8 folder so feel free to review them. Also the schematics, PCB layout, and parts list are also posted although not the most current version. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

13 years, 1 month

FS: S100 transformers

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I have five transformers marked "Morrow" that appear to be intended for building linear power supplies for S100 machines. If anyone wants one, they're $20 each shipped. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

13 years, 1 month

What to do with Transputer Equipment?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Well, yes. A lot of early attempts at *anything* kind of sucked. We > are now 20 odd years past the MPP "boom" of the mid 80s - I certainly > hope technology would have marched on during those years. If your problem isn't embarrassingly parallel, you're doing the wrong problem. Really. Tim.

13 years, 1 month

Radio Shack Science Fair manuals

by kf5eqz＠cox.net

Brian, You had posted back in 2006 that you have the manual for the Radio Shack 300 in one Science Fair. Could you email me copy of the manual? It would be greatly appreciated. I haven't been able to find one online anywhere. Thanks so much. Grant

13 years, 1 month

Dec M9401 module available

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

Found during sorting out some stuff, a Dec M9401. Text says 'mirror image cable connect module for LSI-11' It has 2 50 pin berg connectors Eur 10 + postage (send from NL) Msg me off list if you have questions Ed -- Dit is een HTML vrije email / This is an HTML free email.

13 years, 1 month

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test-drb May 2011