26 Jun
2007
26 Jun
'07
3:39 p.m.
Subject: Re: Most used toys, was Re: The late, great TRS-80
From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:47:18 -0400
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
On 6/26/07, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
I'm curious too.
My most
used classic machine at the moment is a PDP-8/m; I've carved out a
permanent place for it on my desk. It contains an RX8E which is
connected to a arallel port adapter based on Chuck Dickman's design,
which is in turn connected to a small x86 SBC running Linux to give
the 8/m a disk subsystem.
Interesting way to do it. How "based on" is it? I know of Chuck's
parallel port adapter, but I'm curious how you've tweaked it.
Is the SBC tucked into the /m or is it external? Does the SBC host
your disk images locally, or over a network?
Given that an RX8E is a PIO device, it makes me think that it wouldn't
be that hard to come up with an OS/8 handler to treat the 12-bit-input
and output ports on a DKC8AA as a disk interface to an external,
modern machine. It doesn't help -8/e/f/m owners much, but the DKC8AA
was a standard peripheral on the -8/a, and normally, unless one is
using the output port as a printer port, unused.
I'm sure that will work, many of the OS/8 devices are simple enough
and the drivers are small. It would be a great way to get a "disk" on
my 8f.
Allison
Much to think about there...
-ethan