3 Aug
2000
3 Aug
'00
8:51 a.m.
The IPL button is likely analogous to the RESET button on many machines.
IPL stands for 'initial program load'. At least they gave you some clues.
Like most CP/M machines, it appears your's has little ROM onboard and
depends on IPL code in rom to get useful software into memory.
This means you will have to obtain a copy of CP/M that will IPL on this
machine or modify a generic version of CP/M to run on it. I have some
good CP/M documentation on how to do this but you will have to provide the
memory locations and other machine-specific info in order to make it work.
If I can help, please e-mail me!
In <Pine.LNX.4.10.10007282338590.5914-100000(a)siconic.com>om>, on 08/03/00
at 01:51 PM, Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com> said:
I came across a deliciously mysterious computer today
in a local thrift
store.
I took the following photos of it in various states of
undress:
http://www.siconic.com/crap/BMC-1.jpg
http://www.siconic.com/crap/BMC-2.jpg
http://www.siconic.com/crap/BMC-3.jpg
http://www.siconic.com/crap/BMC-4.jpg
http://www.siconic.com/crap/BMC-5.jpg
http://www.siconic.com/crap/BMC-6.jpg
It's a machine made by OKI of Japan (the same
company apparently that
made the Okidata printer line). It's called the Small Computer Model 10
(as indicated by the photo of the nameplate). At first I thought it was
just some dumb terminal until I started looking closer at it and
discovered it was indeed a computer.
Upon examining the innards I found that it has a Z80
processor and seems
to be circa 1982. I couldn't tell how much RAM it had because the chips
are all funky Japanese types. My guess would be 32K-64K.
As one can see from the photos, it incorporates a dot
matrix printer in
the main unit. If you've got one to compare to, the machine is almost
exactly the same dimensions as a Sol-20 (and just as heavy). It has an
expansion bus inside, and two cards are plugged in: a floppy drive
controller (marked 5-FDD) and some sort of CRT interface (marked C-CRT,
probably color CRT).
The right-hand side has three DIN connectors, labelled
L-PEN (lightpen),
TV (probably an RF connector), A-CMT (?). Finally, there is a DB-25
RS-232C connector.
The left-hand side features the power switch and two
momentary buttons,
one marked IPL and the other NMI.
I was hoping when I plugged the machine in I would get
output to the
printer but no go. I tried blindly typing some BASIC commands like
LPRINT but that had no effect. When it first turns on, there is a 3
second beep that comes out of the speaker. If I hit the IPL button it
seems to reset the machine: there's a moment of about 3 seconds after
pushing the button where nothing happens but then the speaker beeps for
about 3 seconds again.
I tried pressing various keys (like HARD COPY) but
could not get any
action out of the printer. I imagine it wants to be connected to a CRT.
I didn't know at the time to look for a CRT so I'll probably go back
tomorrow to check around. I'm also going to check for any floppy drives
that might go with it.
I'd like to try to hook it up to a TV but I
don't know what pins I should
use. I have a working scope but it's huge, old and is at my warehouse.
What would be a good way to try to determine which pins carry the signal?
Any help or info would be appreciated.
Sellam International Man
of Intrigue and
Danger
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Looking for a six in a pile of nines...
VCF 4.0 is September 30-October
1
San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California
See http://www.vintage.org for details!
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Jeffrey S. Worley
President
Complete Computer Services, Inc.
30 Greenwood Rd.
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828-277-5959
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