10 Sep
2008
10 Sep
'08
5 p.m.
Subject: Intersil Intercept Models...
From: "Bob Armstrong" <bob at jfcl.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:39:24 -0700
To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk
at classiccmp.org>
Intersil made several PDP-8 "work a likes" based on their 6100 chip, and
I'm trying to figure out a few of the exact details. OK, I know this is
really obscure, but I'm hoping somebody out there has used one or at least
seen one :-)
The Intercept Jr was the SYM or KIM like single board computer with a
chiclet keypad and seven segment displays and powered by D cells. That
one's easy to identify. However, after they bought out Intersil, Harris
made a thing called the "Micro12" which was a little like the Intercept Jr
but is clearly not the same. There are no D cells on the Micro12 for one
thing, and more logic on board for another. I only have pictures of the
Micro12, but no details. Does anybody know any more about this gizmo?
There was a 6100 sampler that was a minimal board with TTY interface.
I have one of those.
The Intercept-JR did have batteries, it was one of the features all cmos
and low power. Fun to play with and useful. The Micro12 was the same beast
from memory.
If I could find details on the -JR I'd build one.
And the "Intercept I/II Microcomputer
Development Manual" (which I do
have) has pictures and specifications for the Intercept I and II. The I is
in a 3-1/2" chassis that holds four cards horizontally, and the II is a
5-1/4" chassis that holds at least a dozen cards inserted vertically. As
far as I can determine from the manual, the I and II are the same (they use
all the same cards) except for the chassis, and neither one has any kind of
front panel. The front panel is emulated with an ODT like debugger in the
console firmware (a little like the LSI-11).
The Intercept1 was 6100 based and the InterceptII was 6120 basically the same
thing from the programmers view with minor differnce. The I used 6100/6102
(PDP-8 with EMA) and the 6120 was the version that integreated the MEDIC part
on one chip and also added PDP-8A stack instrucitons (they are really IOTs).
The OS was OS278 flavor or compatable at some level with Fortran, FOCAL, ODT
and PAL. they also had the PDP-8 tray of tapes kit for non disk or user
rolled software. The disk system was PDP-8 RX01/RX8E software compatable.
FYI: ODT is a PDP-8 creation that found it way to PDP-11 with some variation.
The DECmate (early plain and DM1) and the base Intercept systems have much
in common.
BUT, I've also seen pictures of something that
looks like an Intercept I
(exact same chassis), but with a lights and switches front panel. Intersil
and Harris both published application notes, #006, that described the "6100
Operator Console" and the application note even contains a nice photograph
of just such a machine. What model was this? Is it a unique model, was
there a front panel option for an Intercept I? The Intercept manual says
nothing about any kind of front panel.
There were flavors of the backplane for turnkey systems without the front
pannel (I think power and reset). The other flavor had the operators console
(front panel) that was supported with the needed rom and pannel ram. You
could also get the operators console for the bare backplane version.
Also, Intersil had their own disk (floppy disk, that
is) operating system
for the Intercept I/II called IFDOS. I have a manual for IFDOS, but it
doesn't describe the floppy disk hardware for the Intercept. Was it a clone
of the RX01/RX8E? Have any copies of IFDOS media survived?
Yep RX8E based system media and software compatable though differnt internally.
The Sampler is very minimal but fun to expand, the Intercept-JR is on my wish
list and the Intercept-1 or II were scarce but wouldn't mind having one to go
with my PDP-8f, DMIII systems.
Allison
Thanks!
Bob Armstrong