Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ... - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

6 Mar 1998

...
 Yes, you can diassemble the code, no problem. One thing
to watch for is
to make sure that you know how the address and data lines on the board
are linked up. You see, all 8 data lines on an EPROM are equivalent. It
may be conventional to assign a particular pin as D0, etc, but there's
no reason that you have to. But obviously if you want to make sense of
the code, you have to know how the bits in the word are connected to the
8080. 

Ummmmm.... I was stunned tonight to look under the motherboard of this
machine and find that it is totally wire-wrapped.  Amazingly neat, but
wire-wrapped and socketed - every single chip.  Finding paths in this thing
is going to be very very time consuming!  This computer must have been
extremely expensive in its day - the amount of work involved is incredible -
not having made anything like it, I'm only guessing... but I'd guess many
tens of man-hours.

Coincidentally, I was on the hunt for another machine (Mattel Aquarius) and
the owner and I got into a discussion about S100 machines - he has a garage
of them, apparently (he used to design them) - and I told him about the
EPROMs (1702As) and how I was going to back mine up - and he said "I have
four of those things!!!"  Yes, before you ask, I am going after those S100
machines :)

Cheers
A