26 Aug
2002
26 Aug
'02
8:03 p.m.
I vividly remember my Pulsar Electronics Little-Big-Board.
It was an STD bus board, sporting a 4Mhz Z-80, 64K ram, 8" floppy disk
interface (1.2Mb!!!), RTC, and dual serial ports.
The board came with a full BIOS listing, as well as the device specific CP/M
stuff. I remember that you could re-link the CP/M innards to allow HDD
support (I was never *that* rich).
Spent *many* hours on that box, running Wordstar, and a cool pascal compiler
called Turbo Pascal. I used a terminal that I brought from the US (ZRT-80).
I still have it, in a 19" box, with dual M4854 (5.25" 77 Track) drives.
(Boy, it was hard to find the HD media then). The box had the bigest
storage on the block, and I was the envy of all my friends when it came out.
A mate had an kaypro system that supported dual 170K? disks. (grin) From
memory, the board cost about $500 Aus, each drive cost about $450 Aus, and
the Apple II power supply for the case cost about $35US from Jameco. All in
1985 currency.
Anyway, back onto topic. I still have all of the listings, and the full
schematics for the box as well.
Doug Jackson
MSS Operations Manager
Citadel Securix
(02) 6290 9011 (Ph)
(02) 6262 6152 (Fax)
(0414) 986 878 (mobile)
-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Archer [mailto:archer@topnow.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 10:08 AM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: BACK-OT: which CP/M machine is best (to copy)? :)
Geoff Reed wrote:
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all of the CP/M machines I have here at the moment are
serial terminal
based, I think that these are the rule, rather
than the exception.
Coolness. Maybe I'm asking all the wrong questions.
The *right* question is: what terminal-based
system would be good to use as a starting point/reference
design? (i.e. "rip off and modify" :)
That is: what's your favorite terminal-based
CP/M system and why? :)
Big points for:
* Well-documented
* Available BIOS ASM sourcecode
* Available schematics
* Particularly popular, collectable appeal (might as
well
emulate something people like.)
* Unusually clever, minimalist, or just "good" designs.
It would be so cool to get a fast Z180 adapted to fit
as a superfast CP/M replica. :)
26 Aug
26 Aug
8:56 p.m.
Doug Jackson wrote:
I vividly remember my Pulsar Electronics Little-Big-Board.
It was an STD bus board, sporting a 4Mhz Z-80, 64K ram, 8"
floppy disk interface (1.2Mb!!!), RTC, and dual serial
ports.
Sounds ideal given the BIOS listing and such.
Ideally there are no undocumented PALs or pure unobtanium
parts in the base hardware. (If the floppy controller IC(s)
are unobtainable, that's OK though. I kind of expect that.)
I wrote you separately. Maybe I have something to trade
for your time if it's possible to get copies.
The board came with a full BIOS listing, as well as the
device specific CP/M stuff. I remember that you could
re-link the CP/M innards to allow HDD support (I was never
*that* rich).
Now of course HDDs are obscenely cheap. I picked up a
60 GB 7200 RPM drive for US $75 recently.
Spent *many* hours on that box, running Wordstar, and
a
cool pascal compiler called Turbo Pascal. I used a
terminal that I brought from the US (ZRT-80).
I used TP extensively (and not just
in the bathroom ;)
On a CP/M card on a C64 no less. I really enjoyed that
compiler.
I still have it, in a 19" box, with dual M4854 (5.25" 77
Track) drives. (Boy, it was hard to find the HD media
then).
That must have been an early QD (?) drive. Wonder how the
data holds up on those over time.
The box had the bigest storage on the block, and I
was the envy of all my friends when it came out. A mate
had an kaypro system that supported dual 170K? disks.
(grin) From memory, the board cost about $500 Aus, each
drive cost about $450 Aus, and the Apple II power supply
for the case cost about $35US from Jameco. All in 1985
currency.
You'd be amused to hear that Jameco STILL sells that power
supply in their current catalog! Too bad they don't have the
LBB...
Anyway, back onto topic. I still have all of the
listings, and the full schematics for the box as well.
Doug Jackson
MSS Operations Manager
Citadel Securix
(02) 6290 9011 (Ph)
(02) 6262 6152 (Fax)
(0414) 986 878 (mobile)
-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Archer [mailto:archer@topnow.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 10:08 AM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: BACK-OT: which CP/M machine is best (to copy)?
:)
Geoff Reed wrote:
>
> all of the CP/M machines I have here at the moment are
serial terminal
> based, I think that these are the rule, rather than
the exception.
Coolness. Maybe I'm asking all the wrong questions.
The *right* question is: what terminal-based
system would be good to use as a starting
point/reference
design? (i.e. "rip off and modify" :)
That is: what's your favorite terminal-based
CP/M system and why? :)
Big points for:
* Well-documented
* Available BIOS ASM sourcecode
* Available schematics
* Particularly popular, collectable appeal (might as
well
emulate something people like.)
* Unusually clever, minimalist, or just "good"
designs.
It would be so cool to get a fast Z180 adapted to fit
as a superfast CP/M replica. :)
CAUTION - The information in this message may be of a
privileged or confidential nature intended only for the
use of the addressee or someone authorised to receive the
addressee's e-mail. If you are not the intended recipient,
you are hereby notified that any dissemination,
distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly
prohibited. If you have received this email in error
please notify postmaster(a)citadel.com.au. Any views
expressed in this message are those of the individual
sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of
Citadel Securix.
Feel free to visit the Citadel Securix website! Click
below.
http://www.citadel.com.au
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