23 Nov
2005
23 Nov
'05
8:21 p.m.
On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Jackpot Chuck;
The three cards ahead of the RAM cards are FlashWriters - terminal
interface cards, basically. The Vector time slices through standalone
copies of the OS in separate memory cards, running multiple instances of
the single-user CP/M.
The single wire from the FlashWriter is BD_ENABLE.
The cards are:
FlashWriter
FlashWriter
FlashWriter
56k RAM board
56k RAM board
56k RAM board
Odd little wire divider (No clue whatefer)
ZCB (CPU board)
RAM board
Floppy & Hard disk controller
BitStreamer (out of picture)
The FlashWriter talks to a MindlessTerminal (vaguely proprietary
connection, but easy enough to mimic as I'm working on now). My ZCB has
RS-232 hanging off it, and a memory board next to it - which suggests to
me that it can run a serial console and another instance of an OS, but I
haven't tested this yet.
The BitStreamer is a serial & parallel port I/O host.
The thing is a pretty nifty set up, to be honest, I didn't know it was
nearly so cool ;)
>What I
can't explain are the small cables between the RAM cards in the
>middle of the card cage and whatever the cards are at the rear.
Battery backup for the ram?
I don't think so. Each little black cable goes to a different card at each
end.
If you look closely at the top view of the card cage, starting from the
front, you see what I would guess to be a hard/floppy controller, a RAM
card (note the positioning of the components that you can see and compare
them with the three cards in the middle), perhaps a CPU card, a couple of
empty slots, three more RAM cards and then three unidentified cards with
SSI chips (some sort of comms?). The front RAM card doesn't appear to have
the same small black cable attached. Perhaps bank switching of some sort?