out-of-mainstream minis

-----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rod Smallwood Sent: 21 August 2015 11:41 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: out-of-mainstream minis I'm sure its very intersting. The website is designed for domestic consumption only as its all in Danish. Rod On 21/08/2015 11:27, Ian S. King wrote: > I had the privilege of visiting what Nico calls a 'museum-to-be' > yesterday evening, and it is far more than most of what I've seen! > They have a very substantial collection of all sorts of systems, > peripherals and documentation, including a GIER from ca. 1962 that I > saw (and heard) run. > As a debugging/operations aid, they had attached the overflow bit > to a > speaker so it could generate 1-bit sound - one demo they gave me > was a > program to calculate e that played a sound for each iteration so you > could hear the steady progress. But of course if there is a sound > output, no one can avoid playing with it. There were numerous pieces > of computationally generated music composed for the machine (on paper > tape), but also a program for playing a recorded, real-life sound in > 1-bit audio! > The collection includes numerous other computers including pretty > much > the entire RC line, as well as pre-computer tabulators, keypunches, > paper handling machine and the like. The artifacts are well-ordered > and in large part well labeled for even the uninitiated visitor. > > Everything is laid out quite thoughtfully, with wide aisles, in a > large, well-lit basement. There are interpretive displays here and > there, as well as a small but appealing lecture/display area. > > The datamuseum.dk collection represents 25 years of accumulation, I > was told. But more importantly, I think their work demonstrates a > very well-considered approach for presenting the history of the > collection's machines to visitors. > > My hosts were also warm and wonderful people who clearly love what > they do and enjoy sharing it. They made me feel among friends, if > not > family. :-) > > > Thanks, Finn and everyone else (sorry, I'm bad with names), for > sharing your time and your passion with me! -- Ian > > On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 12:43 AM, Nico de Jong <nico at farumdata.dk> > wrote: > >> I share your favourite(s). In the danish IT-museum-to-be ( >> www.datamuseum.dk) we have two P857-based systems running. We have >> lots of spare parts and nearly all documentation, so if you need >> something, you are welcome to ask. >> I'm presently building a "table top" version of a system with the >> P857 CPU, 35cm H x 60 deep x 19" wide, with a dual 8" floppy drive, >> and a 80486 PC for program loading etc. >> The system is built into a P859 box. The P859 CPU is special, as it >> has a >> V24 connection that goes to a LED display with push buttons. Very >> nice indeed. >> For that system, I have developped a Windows based Assembler, and a >> Windows based simulator. The simulator takes assembled programs (in >> my system called *.OBJ) and the original source. You can then step >> through the instructions, and follow them through the text file on >> the PC. >> I am presently trying to execute various utility programs, sent >> to me >> by a Belgion ex-Philips employee, who did a lot of work on the P800 series. >> I myself worked with the P800 series, disguised as the PTS6800 >> series >> for >> 4-5 years full time. >> The PTS 6800 series was used extensively in banks, mainly in >> Scandinavia, Greece, Barclay SouthAfrica, Philippines. In Sweden >> also >> in the airline industry. In Denmark it was used mainly by local >> authorities, PTT, Railway (ticket printing), and some other >> small-time projects. In one of the project it was connected to an >> ATM (fun project). >> I know of one collector in the Netherlands (Camiel), and some guys >> who have no hardware but a lot of knowledge /Nico >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: tony duell >> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts >> Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2015 7:31 AM >> Subject: RE: out-of-mainstream minis >> >> >> Not all minis came from the States :-) >> >> One of my favourite non-mainstream families is the Philips P800 >> series. >> It's >> a 16 bit machine with 16 registers (0 is the program counter >> and 15 >> is the stack pointer, rest are mostly general purpose) and >> separate >> I/O instructions (not memory-mapped I/O). There were several >> models >> with various implementations of the architecture, including >> >> P850 (TTL, hardwired not microcoded) >> >> P855, P852, P856, P857, P860 (TTL, microcoded) >> >> P851 (Custom bitslice ICs, microcoded) >> >> P854 (AM2900 bitslice, microcoded) >> >> P853 I think (Single chip) >> >> No, I don't have all of those... >> >> -tony >> = >> >