31 Aug
2019
31 Aug
'19
11:51 p.m.
How about some pictures of what was inside. A picture that is atleast good enough to see
what is there.
Dwight
________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Brent Hilpert via
cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2019 1:25 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: So what the heck did I just pick up?
On 2019-Aug-30, at 7:24 PM, John Ames via cctalk wrote:
Ran into this at the electronics-surplus store just
down the way from
my workplace and grabbed it on the cheap. I don't actually know what
it *is,* but the labels on the switches make it look a *hell* of a lot
like a 16-bit general-purpose computer of some kind. Despite the
claims of being "microprocessor-controlled," I looked at every board
inside the thing and couldn't spot anything that looked like a 16-bit
or even 8-bit CPU. Genuinely curious what this is, but I can't find
much on it online - the name pops up in a few archived documents, but
Bitsavers doesn't have anything for the company. Though the design is
attributed to Stanley Kubota and Edward Corby - looks like Mr. Kubota
still has an online presence at https://www.exsellsales.com/about-us/
so I'll have to drop them a line...
Anybody heard of or encountered one of these before?
http://www.commodorejohn.com/whatsit-front.jpg
http://www.commodorejohn.com/whatsit-back.jpg
"couldn't spot anything that ... looked like a CPU"
By what criteria? Were you just looking for 'large' chips?
Might you have overlooked an 8008 or 4004? - they were in 'small' 18 & 16 pin
DIPs.
Given the mid-70's appearance (confirmed by Chuck's 1976 ref) those would have
been possibilities for the task.
If there's no single-chip microproc in there, there might be a minimal CPU built out
of multiple chips.
"Microprocessor" in that era was sometimes used in a wider sense than just
single-chip-processor.
ROMs or EPROMs for firmware could be another hint as to architecture.
