New finds: enough Torch stuff to sink a battleship - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

25 Jun 2003

On Jun 25, 18:19, Jules Richardson wrote:

...
  Picked up a huge pile of old Torch hardware, software
and manuals
from someone
 today. 
A nice haul :-)

...
  The keyboard has a regular spacebar plus a small key
to the right labelled
...
  'exact space' - curious. 
Probably to generate a "non-break space" -- character 160 (0xA0) in ISO
8859  -- used for tables and things where you don't want the text
formatter to change the spacing between words.

...
    Torch Z80 disc pack - grey metal case for two
half-height 5.25" drives; it's
...
  been stripped of drives but I think the psu is intact.
I believe this needs an
...
  interface card (which may well be amongst the cards
listed below) 
Unusual.  Production ones were brown.  They have a 34-way ribbon cable
which plugs in to the Beeb disk interface, and carries the standard
SA400-style interface signals.  No other interface required.

...
    Two Torch Computers 68000 boards. 68k and Z80B CPUs
on board, 4 pin
 single-row connector (power I expect) and 40 pin data connector. I believe
...
  these plug into the BBC machines so that they can run
Torch's version of CP/M?

Not CP/M, that was the board below.  These would run a Unix derivative,
I think.

...
    Three Torch Z80 Communicator boards. Z80A CPU on
board, 40 pin data
 connector. Another BBC plugin? The owner had hundreds of them apparently and
...
  most of them went to landfill a while ago. 
Sounds like the normal Torch Z80 board, to run CPN.

...
    Unknown Torch Z80 card. 40-pin connector at one end,
26-pin connector at the
...
  other. Z80A CPU and SIO chips on board, plus 6522A and
an 8255 chip. ROM is
...
  Torch labelled as CCCP V1.02 
That's definitely to run CPN.  CCCP is the Console Command <something>
Processor part of CPN; usually paired with MCP on the Beeb.  The 8255
and the 6522 probably make up the Tube interface.

CPN, by the way, isn't CP/M.  It looks and feels similar, and *some*
CP/M software is compatible, but not all -- the memory map is
different.

...
    Three Torch internal (internal to what, though?)
modems - 40-pin connectors,
...
  plus 4-pin single-row for power. Several 40-pin chips:
Z80 PIO, MC6803,
...
  EF68A21P. ROM is Torch, labelled as "ADM5
2.1". Also a TM2016 chip on board
...
  (memory I believe) and a 28-pin IC branded as
"world-chip". 
TM2016 is a 2K x 8 (bytewide) static RAM, pin-compatible to a 2716
EPROM (except for the /WR line, of course).  Your "World Chip"" will be
an AMD7910 (or possibly AMD7911) FSK modem chip.  It was very clever
for it's day; it does a range of baud rates and Bell and CCITT tones.
 Over here, it was used in Miracle Technology modems and many others in
the mid '80s. It goes up to 1200 baud half duplex or 300/300 full
duplex.

...
    Four Xebec boards with a 50 pin connector, 3x 20 pin
connectors and single
...
  34-way edge connector.
   Single Xebec board with a 50 pin connector, 2x 20 pin connectors and single
...
  34-way edge connector. 
SASI interfaces to ST412-compatible drives.  The 50-pin connector is
the SASI (predecessor to SCSI) interface; the 34-pin is the drive
control bus, and the 20-pin connectors are the data lines.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York