[UCSDPascal] ? - what is the smallest machine running the P-system - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

3 Mar 2006

At 03:08 AM 3/3/2006, Willi Kusche wrote:
...
     I did all my development on a Commodore 32K PET
equipped with an S-100 buss
adaptor.  The S-100 buss had a 32K RAM card and a Versafloppy disk controller
card connected to two 8 inch single sided single density drives.  All the
source is on 8 inch disks.  I still have the disks but the question now is, did
the disks keep?  The system is still set up in the den but it's been years since
I've turned it on.  Now, I'm afraid of what will happen if I try to power it up.

Yes, the old capacitors in the power supply may have trouble.
But the disks are probably OK.  They used big, long-lasting bits
back then.  I am sure some of the folks on the Classic Computer
Collector mailing list http://classiccmp.org/ can give advice about
how to read those floppies.  If the PET was just handing it
sectors, it's just a matter of reading the raw sectors and
then reassembling it into a disk image that could be handled
by some other utility.

- John