Greetings!
About a month ago, I picked up a "Portable Microprocessor Training
Lab" made by Integrated Computer Systems. This thing is cool! It
consists of three boards and a power supply built into a suitcase.
The main system board is mounted in the bottom of the case on top of
the power supply. It has an 8080a, an 8255, four ROMs and 4K of RAM
with room for four more. It has a hex keypad plus function buttons and
eight LED character displays. There is a bank of about 12 terminal
pins for +5, ground, audio in and out, clock and a few that aren't
named. I take it the audio ones are for cassette?
It has two ribbon cable connectors on the edge. One is for the 50 pin
cable that connects to the I/O board.
The other one is especially cool (to me, at least.) It's meant to hook
up to an S-100 chassis for expansion!
The second board is for I/O. It has two 8255s, an 8253 and room for
eight more RAM chips (but no sockets.) It has connections for
cassette, RS-232 and teletype.
Connected directly on top of the the I/O board is the "Experimental
Parts Assembly." It has I/O terminals for analog signal, plus minus
12v and plus 5, optical in/out and motor control/supply/drive. It has
a holder for three AA batteries, a motor, a speaker and a thermistor.
Finally, it came with the cassette "Self-study Microcomputer Interface
Training Course: Program Cassette Library."
The big thing I'm missing is documentation. It came with nothing and I
can't find much, even with The Google. A system description, a
schematic and something explaining what's in the ROM would be nice.
I've also got to find a book on 8080 assembly language.
Like I'd said, all I have tried to work on so far have been a C64, an
Apple IIe and a TI-99/4a with only a basic understanding of BASIC :-)
Lately though, I've been feeling like I need more of an intellectual
challenge.
If anyone can help with more inflammation about this system,
documentation and/or any suggestions you may have, I'd welcome it.
Thanks in advance!
Joe Giliberti
Okay, I took a bit more time going through my storage.
(a) The SparQs are indeed disks; I didn't look closely enough.
(b) Some more stuff:
- Three disks, which IIRC came out of a MicroVAX-II. Two are
Micropolis 1325Ds and the third is a plain 1325. Also present are
two sets of cables, each set suitable to connect one drive to a
controller card.
- One HP 9153A (an HP-IB device; it appears to be a 3.5" floppy drive).
- One HP 7958A (an HP-IB device; it appears to be disk).
- One HP card, likely the interface card from something like a 7958A.
It has an HP-IB connector, an ID switch, two connectors for cables to
the drive, and a connector apparently for power. In the etch on the
component side is the number 07957-60001; on a sticker, below a
barcode, is the text *57CNO14515* (or perhaps *57CN014515*, the font
is ambiguous).
As before, this stuff is in Ottawa, and is yours for the coming and
picking it up. Functionality is unknown, and details may be incorrect
because they were hand-copied.
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I have a partial box of new/unopened Travan TR1 tapes (800/400mb) that I
have no use for. There are 7 tapes in the box. I'd rather not ship, so my
plan is to take it to VCFMW and put on the free table.
But iff anyone desperately needs them, make me an offer.
J
The MPS (MicroProcessor Series) was an attempt by DEC to introduce an Intel 8008-based system as a cost-effective replacement for minicomputers used in process control. The system has its own 14-bit blinkenlights front panel for accessing the 8008.
Docs here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bezyixp76x2q3i4/AAAdGzzycbTIys1Ftde2BpR5a?dl=0
I'll leave the docs up for a week or so.
Jack
Hello Rob,
I don't think the leader can be repaired, as the used polymer doesn't
react well with glues, simply out will not be robust enough.
But if you have some patience and a sharp knife, topi can cut out new
leaders from black plastic layers, I used old X ray films of the bones.
I did it for all of my drives (only had broken at start), and it worked.
For me it was tricky to find the right shape of the original leader, but
you have the damaged one...
Andrea
Was there ever DECnet support available for Solaris 8? I rather doubt it, but if it exists then I'd be interested in finding it for my Ultra 60.
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
I have found a tear in the "arrow head" of the leader of a TK70 drive. I do
have a spare somewhere should I need it, but I was wondering if anyone has
any clever ways to repair it?
Thanks
Rob
