GenRad Future Data

on 30/3/03 7:34 AM, Wolfgang Kainz-Huber at webmaster(a)khssoftware.de wrote: Wolfgang, I believe this is the FutureData microprocessor development system sold around 1980-83 by GenRad, before Kontron bought the product line from them. It competed with similar high-end engineering tools from Tektronix and HP (their 64000 system). This was a very cool, high-powered development tool in its day, for the popular 8-bit processors like 6802, 8085, Z80. You would edit and assemble your code on the FData. By plugging a 40-pin probe into the target hardware's cpu socket, you'd execute the code in the actual target hardware under control of the FData and its debugging software ("in-circuit emulation"). When you were satisfied with your code you could burn it to eprom and plug it and the processor chip back into the target hardware. These systems were populated with somewhat specific hardware and software to match the target microprocessor system you were designing. For example, the box would use a 6800 cpu card, 6800 in-circuit emulator pod, and native 6800-coded OS for Motorola work; an 8085 cpu, pod, and an 8085-coded OS for Intel development. The proprietary operating system was called RDOS and worked more or less the same for each platform but, as I indicated, the OS and the applications were coded natively for each processor they supported. They also sold a structured Basic compiler called SBasic for the 8085/Z80. Arlen Michaels