Hi all --
This is a long shot, but I was curious if anyone might have information on
the Motorola MDP-1000 minicomputer. I picked one up recently and I'm
working on restoring it. Of particular interest is the power supply, which
is external to the processor and which I am missing. I think I have the
voltages worked out (+/-5V and +/-15V), but there are a number of other
signals on the power supply connector that I'm unsure of at the moment.
I've put a few pictures up here:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aqb36sqnCIfMpIVYmzKjFnsT3nHh8w?e=b2iqqv
I'll note that this isn't technically an MDP-1000 -- it's labeled as an
MDP-6650 on the rear. I suspect that this is a ruggedized version of the
1000 intended for harsher environments. The front panel of mine appears to
be identical to the drawings of the MDP-1000 in the manuals I have.
It also came with a binder of documentation (but alas no schematics) that
I'll be scanning soon and getting off to Al. It's an odd little system --
5 12-bit registers, a 12-bit ALU, and a 12-bit Instruction Register, but
the memory is 8 bits wide. Instructions are packed into two bytes
normally, but there's a special 64-byte region of memory that can be used
to store "shared bytes," which allow encoding certain instructions into a
single byte, taking the other byte from the shared region. I've never seen
anything quite like this. I wonder why they didn't just use 12-bit wide
memory...
Also the process for using the front panel to examine and deposit memory is
insane. Here's the instructions for reading a memory location; it's 10
steps. Depositing is 17.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aqb36sqnCIfMpIVWThgwlxgCMQo59A
If anyone has anything on this, let me know. Not expecting much, but it's
worth a shot.
- Josh