In a message dated 5/10/00 11:25:42 Central Daylight Time,
pat(a)transarc.ibm.com writes:
> > >
> > >Heath made a computer (the H-8) which is similar to the IMSAI but
> actually
> > >does use a program to control the computer along with the usual
hardware.
> > >The H-8 is a lot newer than the IMSAI, however.
> > >
> > >-- Derek
> >
> > Any idea where I can get info on how to run an h8? I saved one from the
> > garbage a while back, and it seems to function..at least it reacts to
> > it's front panel, but I have no doc for it whatsoever.
> I used to wander up to the local Heathkit store every weekend to play with
> the H8, H11a (LSI-11 based machine running a variant of RT-11), and the
> H89 - essentially a Z80 processor board and a 5.25" disk drive built into
> an H19 terminal - I'd actually really love to have one of those, if anyone
> has one they don't want ... :-)
>
> Anyway, I was such a frequent visitor to that store that the manager gave
> me a couple of advertising posters for the machines - one was a poster
> that said "H8 POWER", above an illustration of the bootstrap address, as
> it would appear on the H8 display in red 7-segment LEDs; I'm almost
> positive that the display read "040000 Pc" .... The poster is still
> hanging on my old bedroom wall at my mother's house, unfortunately I can't
> get to it to look just at the moment ....
>
> --Pat.
I have two complete operating H8 machines and complete documentation. One id
stock Heathkit with the gold pin MB. The other is a Trionix equipped unit
with dual fans, modified power supply and an operating 8086 CPU board. Runs
CP/M-86 from hard sector disks at a screaming 2 MHz. If someone needs a copy
of the operating instructions for the H8, I'll see if I can get it for them
for the cost of copies and postage. Can't be in a hurry though as I travel
almost 100% of the time and copies will be done at the local Office Max when
I have a spare hour or so.
The H8 used a 50 pin buss designed by Heathkit. The boot loader could be
initiated from the front panel and used a cassette tape or any of several
disk drives depending on the controllers installed. AAMF, programs could be
keyed into the front panel in Octal and executed from the panel without the
use of an external device. Kind of fun watching the display as the program
executed.
I also have two working H/Z-89's left after today. Planning on keeping them,
however. I just finished selling/giving away 8 complete H/Z-89's. (Sorry Pat)
I do still have a small supply of spare parts and boards for the H8 and H89
if someone is in a bind. Also have complete documentation on the
H/Z-88/89/90 series of computers.
Mike Stover, KB9VU
Florissant, MO
CCA# 404
CRA# 77
USAF MARS AFA3BO
Hello, all:
I'm continuing work on My6502 SBC, working towards producing a
working PCB. I wanted to put registration marks on the artwork, but EDWin
CAD does not appear to have built-in registration mark graphics.
I did a search for electronics clipart, but the 11 sites had nothing
useful.
Does anyone have any useful registration bitmaps they can send me?
Rich
==========================
Richard A. Cini, Jr.
Congress Financial Corporation
1133 Avenue of the Americas
30th Floor
New York, NY 10036
(212) 545-4402
(212) 840-6259 (facsimile)
>OK - I finally got my simulator going with Tiny
>Basic (what a nightmare). If put together a package
>with the source, sample programs, and docs:
>
>www.ndx.net/cosmac
>
Good job Kirk! I've been a little busy these last few days, but I've
started playing around it and will feedback shortly.
;)
- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
It seems to me that now that there are eager 'markets' for old systems, any (most) purshases made are value protected by the fact that *someone* would probably buy 'it' off you for whatever you paid, if not more, whether the currency is soft or hard. I for one have felt alot more at ease buying, with limited resources, an old system that I wanted to play with, knowing that I can 'pass it on' after grokking it, and recoup any (sometimes lots of) money and effort sunk into a machine.
That equates to most machines being 'free' (ok, or investments too) while you play with them. The kink here is the cost of my 'permanent' possessions.'
Personally, I [too] wish there was a trading network strategy for this lists members (I have tonnes of stuff for trade.) But that seems to work only in the 'real world.' Joe in Orelando and I activelly 'swap' alot of gear....
Anyway, cheers...
- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
-----Original Message-----
>
>Just like the original Amiga circa 1985, which loaded Kickstart off of
disk
>into write once protected RAM. Why?? Because the ROM code had not yet
been
>finalized when the computer was put on the market.
>
>Another fine example of how marketing guys try to BS electrons . . .
>
>Gary Hildebrand
>
And the A3000 when first released, which resurrected the Kickstart disk a
second time.
Actually, I thought that soft-kickable Amigas were great; the A1000 and
A3000 could both use a wider variety of OS versions with less fuss than
those where the Kickstart was entirely in ROM. And once you put the
softkick on a bootable HD, it didn't slow down the boot sequence that much.
Great if you occasionally needed to boot 1.3 to run an older game.
Even the Amigas with Kickstart in ROM could be soft-kicked if necessary. I
ran an A2000 with a 1.3 ROM that soft-kicked to a 2.0 ROM image, so I could
run OS 2.0 when it was first released.
Those were happy days!
Mark.
How come the CC archives at classiccmp.org are so sparse? What happened
to the main archives? Is there somewhere I can go to find the complete
thing? It would suck majorly if there is no longer a CC archive.
Hello Bill,
If the HP-86 has not already been spoken for, I would like to
speak up. It would be a fun addition to my collection. I have
always liked the older HP systems.
I'll be in the general area on Saturday 5/13 (driving back from
San Jose, CA to Portland, OR), and could arrange to pick this up
on the way.
Let me know if this is still up for grabs :-)
Thanks,
- Earl
--- Bill Yakowenko <yakowenk(a)cs.unc.edu> wrote:
> Hey all, I have a line on an HP-86 up for grabs in California,
> about 90
> miles north of Sacramento:
>
> ] HP-86 with manuals, monitor, two disc drives, memory
> modules, matrix
> ] manipulation hardware (never used), etc. I have not taken a
> complete
> ] inventory of what is there. Would be happy to GIVE it to
> anyone that
> ] has an interest.
>
> Let me know if you're interested, and I'll pass the word on.
>
> Cheers,
> Bill.
>
>
>
=====
Earl Evans
retro(a)retrobits.com
Enjoy Retrocomputing Today!
Join us at http://www.retrobits.com
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--->The 11/74 was a little more than a prototype since a number of KB11-CM's
>were built and implemented internally in DEC. The parts were assigned
>real part numbers and were produced in limited quantities.
That was SOP for DEC. Anytimg something needed to be produced outside
of the lab and it was projected as production it would get the full
treatment.
>These 11/74's were pressed into 11/70 service when DEC couldn't meet the
>demand for Telco (i.e. AT&T) 11/70's due to the FCC specs in the mid
>'80's. They were allowed to sell refurb machines -- so the 11/74's from
That and it threatend to take some of the 11/780s thunder. One forgets
the 11/70 was the supermini of the day and not too shabby for some
time after.
>internal sites in Massachusetts and New Hampshire were s shipped to the
>field to replace Field Service and Software (and in our case the Mid
>Atlantic Region Sales) administrive machines in DEC so the 11/70's
>running RSTS/E (usually) could be refurbed and shipped to AT&T sites.
Not all though. The system known as Video was an 11/70 that was an 11/74
at another point in time.
>My biggest fear was backplane failure -- since there were a couple of
>11/74 board sets in the country -- but no one knew if there were any
>backplanes out there and the 11/70 backplanes got real creaky after 10
>years or so of field maintenance.
That and the multiport memory boxes.
Allison
>Bill said
>> ...a distant decendant of the DEC CI780 and HSC50
>> disk interface SDI cable.
That and the C64 serial bus, Epson PX-8 serial bus, Appletalk interconnect.
Even I did a simple two wire bus for interconnect back in the early 80s.
Firewire and USB are nothing new save for they are fast and cheap.
>CI780 =? Cluster Interconnect ??
Yep
>HSC50 =? Heirarchic Storage Controller ??
Yep yep.
>SDI =? No Freakin' Clue. ??? Help!
Strategic defense inititive... Storage domain interface... I forget.
They did have onthing in common serial buses that ran at very high speeds
as a simpler interconnect that could span significant distances. Even
eithenet
has been used that way.
To revisit a earlier point S100 ws not a simple bus, crude yes, not simple.
The cpu in the raw was on the bus so you had to do a lot of cycle decoding
and grabing the right lines. If it had been done right the odd pins would
have been all grounds and the bus would have ended up looking like multibus
or STD.
A simple bus would be SS50, much better in some ways and easier to interface
to.
Allison
