11 Jun
2007
11 Jun
'07
9:56 a.m.
The machine had a ROM bootloader that allowed booting
from a 4051-like
cartrige magtape drive, or disk. Installing the OS took a LONG time
from cartridge tape.
The Tektronix 4081 was used to generate the vector
graphics for film of
the full-screen graphics used in the original "Battlestar Galactica" TV
show.
The 4052 I got from Jim Willing has a large collection of tapes which he
claimed contained BG graphics. I'll have to go through them to see if any
of them say anything about th 4081 on them.
11 Jun
11 Jun
4:31 p.m.
Al wrote:
Some simple graphics (the 4052 had write-thru) were indeed used on the
set, but I thought that these were generated by 4051's with the
write-thru modification, and 6800 machine code. I didn't know, though,
that the 4052 (which was MUCH faster than the 4051 due to a bit-slice
CPU that ran the Motrola 6800 instruction set) was used in Battlestar
Galactica. Could very well be, though. Jim knew his stuff -- the tapes
may well have been code for BG that ran on the 4052. The 4081 was a
completely different architecture than the 4051/4052/4054 -- no code
compatibility whatsoever. I also recall that 405x cartridge tapes
couldn't be read on the 4081, and vice-versa due to different tape
recording formats.
Rick
The 4052 I got from Jim Willing has a large collection of
tapes which he claimed contained BG graphics. I'll have to go
through them to see if any of them say anything about the 4081 on
them.
12 Jun
12 Jun
12:21 p.m.
I've been looking for technical/service docs for
the 4027 and
411x/412x series for a while now.
A recent attempt with Google found this page:
http://www.surplussales.com/Manuals/man_tek.html
That claims to have 402x, 405x and 4081 manuals. The prices are
pretty alarming though.
...but when the fixed disk crashed, it was pretty ugly.
The
machine had a ROM bootloader that allowed booting from a 4051-like
cartrige magtape drive, or disk. Installing the OS took a LONG time
from cartridge tape.
Most vivid GOS memory: The FORTRAN library used the classic
six-letters-or-less "license plate" naming conventions. The name for
the routine to create and open a new file was just one or two letters
different from the routine to format and initialize a volume. You
can see what's coming. "Gee this is taking a long time to
run...maybe it's hung?...better try rebooting...uh oh...". I think
it qualifies as my worst source code typo.
Cheers,
jp
1:04 p.m.
J. Peterson wrote:
Most vivid GOS memory: The FORTRAN library used the
classic
six-letters-or-less "license plate" naming conventions. The name for
the routine to create and open a new file was just one or two letters
different from the routine to format and initialize a volume. You
can see what's coming. "Gee this is taking a long time to
run...maybe it's hung?...better try rebooting...uh oh...". I think
it qualifies as my worst source code typo.
As long as your source file was on that volume, at least
your butt was well and truyly covered :-)
Antonio
1:39 p.m.
In article <200706121922.l5CJMYEm041970 at keith.ezwind.net>,
"J. Peterson" <pdp11 at saccade.com> writes:
Try this place: <http://www.manualsplus.com> -- they are located in
Salt Lake City and have the operator and service manuals for the 4027
at a cheaper price, although the service manual is still $165.
They also have manuals for the 4051. I haven't used them, but I've
been meaning to drop by their location since they're local.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
I've been looking for technical/service docs
for the 4027 and
411x/412x series for a while now.
A recent attempt with Google found this page:
http://www.surplussales.com/Manuals/man_tek.html
That claims to have 402x, 405x and 4081 manuals. The prices are
pretty alarming though.
6403
days inactive
6404
days old
4 comments
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