7 May
2001
7 May
'01
6:56 a.m.
G'day DCC/DG lovers -
I have updated the SimuLogics site with some DCC, Rolm and DG/One info.
(Its a start, anyway.)
www.SimuLogics.com/nostalgia/dcc/dcc.htm
www.SimuLogics.com/nostalgia/rolm/rolm.htm
www.SimuLogics.com/nostalgia/dg/dg_one.htm
DCC started out producing PDP-8 clones, then DG Nova 1200 and DEC PDP-11
clones. Its first real big marketing coup was "winning" the bid for New
York's OTB (off track betting) system in 1970.
And yes, DG bought DCC in 'bout 1977 and merged the DCC products into the DG
product line. Yup, you could order DCC stuff from DG using DG part numbers.
The biggest benefit to DCC for us DG users besides price was the superior
power supply compared to the Nova 1200 line. Keronix memories were the best
core memories.
DCC eventually came out with their Mod 4 and Mod 5 computers which were Nova
instruction set supersets, and I'll try to get that stuff on the web soon.
Rolm systems were used in some very "cool" ruggedized applications, some we
can even talk about now. They extended the standard Nova instruction set
like most other 3rd party knockoffs did, but typically standard DG software
was used for program development by us poor software types.
DCC and DG manuals we have archived are listed in the sites "archive"
section and are available for the asking... Frederic: we might have some of
the prints also.
Bruce
bkr(a)SimuLogics.com
-or-
bkr(a)WildHareComputers.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fredric White" <fwhite(a)pobox.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Cc: "Eric Chomko" <chomko(a)greenbelt.com>
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2001 11:13 AM
Subject: Re: D-116 Digital Computer Controls - minicomputer
Eric Chomko writes:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.comp…
.de/archiv/1976/32/7632c004.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dd-116%2Bd-216%2Bd-316%26
num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing. I dug out
a manual and a book on
the system, and remember
DCC built Nova 1200 clones (as well as PDP8 clones, the D-112). They
were near-exact copies, but 20% cheaper, and came in both regular and
jumbo versions, just like the Novas. DCC made a few improvements,
replacing the switching power supply with a quiet linear supply, and
using wide bat handle switches on the front panel instead of the
finger-cutting toggle switches on Novas.
But it was basically a ripoff, so DG naturally sued DCC over theft of
trade secrets, and mostly won. I think DG eventually bought DCC, does
anyone know for sure? I also just found mention of follow-on D-216,
D-316, and D-416 machines. Has anyone seen one of them?
http://www.corecomm.net/~jurdoc/trade.htm
I'm currently sprucing up my D-116 for VCF East. I actually like its
mechanical design, since with the cover off the entire surface of the
topmost pcb is available for probing, without using an extender card:
http://world.std.com/~fwhite/misc/D116.jpg
I may be a little biased since I was an expert witness for DCC in the
trial, which is how I came to have this D-116.
What manuals do you have? I'm missing the D-116 user's manual which
gives the assembler, debugger, etc, syntax. I'm also missing
schematics for the core memory, and am trying to repair one flakey 8K
board.
Fredric White
