19 Jun
2000
19 Jun
'00
5:29 p.m.
Well the week back from vacation has been pretty good I hit 3 auction
and came away with a few good deals.
1. HP 6300 series 650/A
2. HP 9000/300
3. HP 9144
4. HP 6000/670H - 4 of them mounted in a nice rack.
5. TI99 color monitor the size of a TV and looks just like an old 19"
model.
6. AMD AM 2900 Evaluation & Learning kit. A nice single board computer
with the box but no manuals. There was a sheet titled "Am2900 Kit
Programming Work Sheet". Anyone have more info on this unit ?
7. 2 - Toshiba T5200/100's that both work great.
8. Zenith SuperSport 286 with carrying case, will not boot up.
9. Grid GridCase3 not working
10. An old Informer in a nice case. Not tested yet.
11. Compaq portable III in carrying case, not tested yet.
12. digital LA50-RA printer.
13. digital VT240 model VS240-B
14. Tandy 4000 PC
There were several van loads of items that are not yet 10 years old but
I added them to my collection from the first two auctions. At a
City/school auction today I won the bid on over 80 computers, ext floppy
drives (Apple all types), ext. hard drives for Mac's, many keyboards,
monitors, and many other computer items all for $1. Sorry to say I had
to leave a large amount of this stuff, there were all types of early
Mac's and PC's. My poor van was overloaded with computers this evening
and I got home at 9:30pm in the dark so I was not able to unload too
much tonight and will have take off work for half a day to unload my Van
and go back for more of the items. I hope to have a more complete list
by the weekend and will post the older items.
John Keys
20 Jun
20 Jun
5:58 a.m.
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2:33 p.m.
AM2901APC/7829DP; AM2909PC/7811DP; AM2907PC/7828DM Those are the
bigger chips on the board.
John Keys
----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2000 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: New Finds
:-).
> 6. AMD AM 2900 Evaluation & Learning kit. A
nice single board
computer
with the box
but no manuals. There was a sheet titled "Am2900 Kit
Programming Work Sheet". Anyone have more info on this unit ?
The AM2900 series are bit-slice chips for making your own processors The main ones are either 4 bit ALU/registers (2901 and
2903) that you
can
cascade up to the word size you want and microcode
sequencer chips
(2909,
2911, 2910).
There were various evaluation boards. Typically they gave you an ALU
of
perhaps 8 or 16 bits, a sequencer, and a RAM based
control store that
you
loarded your own microcode into.
You'll need a copy of the AMD bipolar processor databook (or 2900
databook) to do much with this board. And a copy of 'Mick & Brick' (a
book entitled 'Bit Slice Microprocessor Design') would be useful as
well.
Post the numbers on the larger chips (or anything that's not plain
74xx
TTL) on your board and we'll see if we can work
out what you have.
-tony
21 Jun
21 Jun
7:13 a.m.
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2:34 p.m.
Boy - Thanks for all the information and I have printed it out and
stored it on the zip.
John Keys
----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: New Finds
The
>
> AM2901APC/7829DP; AM2909PC/7811DP; AM2907PC/7828DM Those are
the
bigger chips
on the board.
OK, the 2901 is a 4 bit ALU slice (4 bit ALU + 16 4 bit registers). 2909 is a 4 bit control store address sequencer. The
2907 is a bus
transceiver/latch chip (and is thus uninteresting!).
I have found a single-page reference to the Am2900 Evaluation And
Learning Kit in the back of the 2900 databook. According to that :
'The system consists of a microprogrammed control unit which controls
all
inputs to an AM2901 microprocessor slice. 32 bit
microinstructions are
entered into a RAM in the control unit using the switch register. Each
microinstruction contains bits to control the AM2901A's A and B
addtresses, instruction, carry in and data input. Additional bits in
the
microinstruction contol an AM2909 sequencer which
generates the
addresses
for the microprogram memory. Once entered,
microinstructions may be
executed using a single-step clock or using a pulse generator. The LED
display provides access to nearly every signal path in the system.
16 'Sequence control' instructions are available, including execute,
branch conditional, jump-to-subroutine, return, and loop. Because this
set of sequence instructions is implemented in a PROM, the user can
devise his own set of operations by programming a new PROM.
The kit is supplied with 40 IC's, all resistors, capacitors, LEDs and
switches, the PC board and a manual containing assembly instructions,
theory, and a set of exercises. The user need only solder the
components
in place and attach a 5V power supply (2.0A
rating)'
'special'
From the picture of the unassembled kit, there
appears to be 1 40 pin
chip (the 2901), one 28 pin chip (the 2909), a couple of
other chips (the branch instruction PROM and?), 36 other
chips (all look to
be
14 or 16 pin), some toggle switches, some pushbutton
switches and a
box
of discretes.
A couple of things may not be too clear from the above description
(particularly if you don't know the 2900 series). The 'RAM' mentioned
above is also called the 'control store' or the 'microprogram memory'.
It's where you store microcode instructions to control the 2901
(you'll
_need_ the data sheet for this!) and the 2909. The
PROM sits between
the
microprogram memory and the 2909 and basically decodes
some of the
microinstruction bits into the 2909 control lines. Which gives you a
(useful) subset of all the operations the 2909 can perform.
I hope that's of some help.
John Keys
-tony
3:25 a.m.
On Tue, 20 Jun 2000, Tony Duell wrote:
I have a copy of the AMD 2900 databook, which I might try to scan in
somewhere (I can photocopy sections out for John if he needs them right
away); someone also recently provided me with a scanned version of the
Am2901 datasheet, which I can share.
You're on your own for a copy of Mick and Brick - it's copyrighted, so I
can't scan it in - and I'm not giving up my copy.... ;-) Powell's
(http://www.powells.com) has two used copies available for $23.00/each.
--Pat.
6. AMD AM
2900 Evaluation & Learning kit. A nice single board computer
with the box but no manuals. There was a sheet titled "Am2900 Kit
Programming Work Sheet". Anyone have more info on this unit ?
[...]
You'll need a copy of the AMD bipolar processor databook (or 2900
databook) to do much with this board. And a copy of 'Mick & Brick' (a
book entitled 'Bit Slice Microprocessor Design') would be useful as well.
7:35 a.m.
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8:59 a.m.
On Wed, 21 Jun 2000, Tony Duell wrote:
Well, the 2900 databook is copyrighted as well... Most
companies don't seem
to mind people copying their data sheets (after all, it sells their
chips!), but it doesn't mean you can scan an post a copy of the databook
without checking first.
You are, of course, correct. Therefore, I have just called AMD to ask for
permission to redistribute this databook. The person I spoke to said that
she didn't think it would be a problem, but is going to try to get someone
at AMD to send me an e-mail or letter confirming this.
--Pat.
2:09 p.m.
Thanks for the information and I will follow up on the book.
John Keys
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Barron <pat(a)transarc.ibm.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: New Finds
On Tue, 20 Jun 2000, Tony Duell wrote:
> > 6. AMD AM 2900 Evaluation & Learning kit. A nice single board
computer
> > with the box but no manuals. There was a
sheet titled "Am2900 Kit
> > Programming Work Sheet". Anyone have more info on this unit ?
>
> [...]
>
> You'll need a copy of the AMD bipolar processor databook (or 2900
> databook) to do much with this board. And a copy of 'Mick & Brick'
(a
> book entitled 'Bit Slice Microprocessor
Design') would be useful as
well.
I have a copy of the AMD 2900 databook, which I might try to scan in
somewhere (I can photocopy sections out for John if he needs them
right
away); someone also recently provided me with a
scanned version of the
Am2901 datasheet, which I can share.
You're on your own for a copy of Mick and Brick - it's copyrighted, so
I
can't scan it in - and I'm not giving up my
copy.... ;-) Powell's
(http://www.powells.com) has two used copies available for
$23.00/each.
--Pat.
9267
days inactive
9268
days old
8 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
jrkeys＠concentric.net -
pat＠transarc.ibm.com