23 Nov
2015
23 Nov
'15
6:28 p.m.
The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy to behold.? If
you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a minimalistic education-oriented language
and operating system designed after Wirth had taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the
80's.
The new version runs on a custom RISC processor, implemented in an FPGA, instead of the
NS3032 in the orginal Ceres workstations.?? Originally, it required a Digilent
"Spartan 3 Starter Kit" with a custom-built daughterboard providing a few
additional connectors.? This board is no longer made, however, and no other FPGA
development board appears to provide the 32-bit wide fast SRAM the Oberon CPU required.
Recently, a new board, the OberonStation,? has come onto the market that was designed
specifically for Oberon, and will boot up Oberon 2013 out of the box.?? It also looks like
an excellent platform for other retro-style FPGA CPU designs that want to stay away from
complex SDRAM controllers and the caches they like to feed.
My OberonStation arrived a couple of days ago, and it's really amazing to see what can
be done with a hardware and software stack that is small enough to actually read and
understand.
https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/
http://www.projectoberon.com/
OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform
--Bill
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23 Nov
23 Nov
8:26 p.m.
Where did you order the Oberon Station. I didn't see a link off the project page.
On Nov 23, 2015, at 8:28 PM, William Maddox
<wmaddox at pacbell.net> wrote:
The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy to behold. If
you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a minimalistic education-oriented language
and operating system designed after Wirth had taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the
80's.
The new version runs on a custom RISC processor, implemented in an FPGA, instead of the
NS3032 in the orginal Ceres workstations. Originally, it required a Digilent
"Spartan 3 Starter Kit" with a custom-built daughterboard providing a few
additional connectors. This board is no longer made, however, and no other FPGA
development board appears to provide the 32-bit wide fast SRAM the Oberon CPU required.
Recently, a new board, the OberonStation, has come onto the market that was designed
specifically for Oberon, and will boot up Oberon 2013 out of the box. It also looks like
an excellent platform for other retro-style FPGA CPU designs that want to stay away from
complex SDRAM controllers and the caches they like to feed.
My OberonStation arrived a couple of days ago, and it's really amazing to see what
can be done with a hardware and software stack that is small enough to actually read and
understand.
https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/
http://www.projectoberon.com/
OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform
--Bill
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11:45 p.m.
Thanks for letting us know about this William - I'm sure there is still
plenty of interest in Oberon, Modula-2, Modula-3 and other derivatives.
On 24 November 2015 at 04:26, Kurt K <kurtk7 at visi.com> wrote:
Where did you order the Oberon Station. I didn't
see a link off the
project page.
On Nov 23, 2015, at 8:28 PM, William Maddox
<wmaddox at pacbell.net> wrote:
The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy to
behold.
If you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a minimalistic
education-oriented language and operating system designed after Wirth had
taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the 80's.
The new version runs on a custom RISC processor, implemented in an FPGA,
instead
of the NS3032 in the orginal Ceres workstations. Originally, it
required a Digilent "Spartan 3 Starter Kit" with a custom-built
daughterboard providing a few additional connectors. This board is no
longer made, however, and no other FPGA development board appears to
provide the 32-bit wide fast SRAM the Oberon CPU required.
Recently, a new board, the OberonStation, has
come onto the market that
was designed specifically for Oberon, and will boot up
Oberon 2013 out of
the box. It also looks like an excellent platform for other retro-style
FPGA CPU designs that want to stay away from complex SDRAM controllers and
the caches they like to feed.
My OberonStation arrived a couple of days ago, and it's really amazing
to see
what can be done with a hardware and software stack that is small
enough to actually read and understand.
https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/
http://www.projectoberon.com/
OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform
--Bill
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11:46 p.m.
In answer to Kurts question - the link with boards to purchase is here:
http://oberonstation.x10.mx/
On 24 November 2015 at 07:45, Mark Wickens <mark at wickensonline.co.uk> wrote:
Thanks for letting us know about this William -
I'm sure there is still
plenty of interest in Oberon, Modula-2, Modula-3 and other derivatives.
On 24 November 2015 at 04:26, Kurt K <kurtk7 at visi.com> wrote:
Where did you order the Oberon Station. I
didn't see a link off the
project page.
On Nov 23, 2015, at 8:28 PM, William Maddox
<wmaddox at pacbell.net>
wrote:
The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy to
behold.
If you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a minimalistic
education-oriented language and operating system designed after Wirth had
taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the 80's.
The new version runs on a custom RISC processor, implemented in an
FPGA, instead
of the NS3032 in the orginal Ceres workstations.
Originally, it required a Digilent "Spartan 3 Starter Kit" with a
custom-built daughterboard providing a few additional connectors. This
board is no longer made, however, and no other FPGA development board
appears to provide the 32-bit wide fast SRAM the Oberon CPU required.
Recently, a new board, the OberonStation, has
come onto the market
that was designed specifically for Oberon, and will boot up
Oberon 2013 out
of the box. It also looks like an excellent platform for other
retro-style FPGA CPU designs that want to stay away from complex SDRAM
controllers and the caches they like to feed.
My OberonStation arrived a couple of days ago, and it's really amazing
to see
what can be done with a hardware and software stack that is small
enough to actually read and understand.
https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/
http://www.projectoberon.com/
OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform
--Bill
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25 Nov
25 Nov
11:18 a.m.
They show sold out for the kits. Didn't see a link to ask if they'll ever get
more in stock.
On Nov 24, 2015, at 1:46 AM, Mark Wickens <mark at
wickensonline.co.uk> wrote:
In answer to Kurts question - the link with boards to purchase is here:
http://oberonstation.x10.mx/
On 24 November 2015 at 07:45, Mark Wickens
<mark at wickensonline.co.uk> wrote:
Thanks for letting us know about this William - I'm sure there is still
plenty of interest in Oberon, Modula-2, Modula-3 and other derivatives.
> On 24 November 2015 at 04:26, Kurt K <kurtk7 at visi.com> wrote:
>
> Where did you order the Oberon Station. I didn't see a link off the
> project page.
>
>>> On Nov 23, 2015, at 8:28 PM, William Maddox <wmaddox at pacbell.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy to
> behold. If you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a minimalistic
> education-oriented language and operating system designed after Wirth had
> taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the 80's.
>>
>> The new version runs on a custom RISC processor, implemented in an
> FPGA, instead of the NS3032 in the orginal Ceres workstations.
> Originally, it required a Digilent "Spartan 3 Starter Kit" with a
> custom-built daughterboard providing a few additional connectors. This
> board is no longer made, however, and no other FPGA development board
> appears to provide the 32-bit wide fast SRAM the Oberon CPU required.
>> Recently, a new board, the OberonStation, has come onto the market
> that was designed specifically for Oberon, and will boot up Oberon 2013 out
> of the box. It also looks like an excellent platform for other
> retro-style FPGA CPU designs that want to stay away from complex SDRAM
> controllers and the caches they like to feed.
>>
>> My OberonStation arrived a couple of days ago, and it's really amazing
> to see what can be done with a hardware and software stack that is small
> enough to actually read and understand.
>> https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/
>>
>> http://www.projectoberon.com/
>>
>> OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform
>> --Bill
>>
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>> | | | | | |
>> | OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform/*{{{*/* html .tiddler
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> padding:0;}h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {font-weight:bold; |
>> | |
>> | View on oberonstation.x10.mx | Preview by Yahoo |
>> | |
>> | |
2 Dec
2 Dec
6:04 a.m.
On 24 November 2015 at 08:45, Mark Wickens <mark at wickensonline.co.uk> wrote:
Thanks for letting us know about this William -
I'm sure there is still
plenty of interest in Oberon, Modula-2, Modula-3 and other derivatives.
Was there ever an ARM version? I am wondering how hard it would be to
port to Raspberry Pi...
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)
8:54 a.m.
On 02.12.2015 15:04, Liam Proven wrote:
On 24 November 2015 at 08:45, Mark Wickens <mark at
wickensonline.co.uk> wrote:
Check out http://www.astrobe.com/default.htm
Jos
Thanks for letting us know about this William -
I'm sure there is still
plenty of interest in Oberon, Modula-2, Modula-3 and other derivatives.
Was there ever an ARM version? I am wondering how hard it would be to
port to Raspberry Pi...
9:17 a.m.
On 2 December 2015 at 17:54, Jos Dreesen <jos.dreesen at bluewin.ch> wrote:
On 02.12.2015 15:04, Liam Proven wrote:
Thanks for the info!
So, Oberon *Language* yes, but Oberon *operating system* no?
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)
On 24 November 2015 at 08:45, Mark Wickens <mark at wickensonline.co.uk>
wrote:
Check out http://www.astrobe.com/default.htm
Thanks for letting us know about this William - I'm sure there is still
plenty of interest in Oberon, Modula-2, Modula-3 and other derivatives.
Was there ever an ARM version? I am wondering how hard it would be to
port to Raspberry Pi...
24 Nov
24 Nov
5:30 p.m.
On 11/23/2015 7:28 PM, William Maddox wrote:
The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy
to behold. If you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a
minimalistic education-oriented language and operating system
designed after Wirth had taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the
80's.
I say WORTH LESS, with out even looking at it, as I am NOT a Pascal
FAN
5:34 p.m.
On Nov 24, 2015, at 8:30 PM, ben <bfranchuk at
jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
On 11/23/2015 7:28 PM, William Maddox wrote:
Judging a language without even looking at it seems rather odd.
Pascal is largely obsolete now, but I still appreciate it -- of the 40 or so languages I
know, there are only two where I could go from no knowledge at all to having a working
program of significant size in one week: Pascal and Python.
paul
The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy
to behold. If you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a
minimalistic education-oriented language and operating system
designed after Wirth had taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the
80's.
I say WORTH LESS, with out even looking at it, as I am NOT a Pascal
FAN 
6:16 p.m.
On 11/24/2015 07:34 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
Judging a language without even looking at it seems
rather odd.
Pascal is largely obsolete now, but I still appreciate it -- of the 40 or so languages I
know, there are only two where I could go from no knowledge at all to having a working
program of significant size in one week: Pascal and Python.
I mostly LOVED Pascal,
and years ago it was my language of
choice for most things.
I wrote some significant programs in it, first Borland's
Turbo Pascal, later DEC Pascal on the Vax.
I recently revived my biggest Pascal program, which I had
run in Windows 2K and XP, but had not maintained in over a
decade. the Linux Free Pascal Compiler came out, which was
aimed specifically at compiling Turbo and DEC pascal
variants. This program converted Gerber photoplot files to
a raster format for my laser photoplotter. I was able to
get the original program working with minimal effort
directly under Linux. It runs a lot faster, too.
My only complaints with Pascal were the I/O was a bit clunky
and slow, and the stupid / vs. div for real vs. integer
divides. Otherwise, I really thought it was great.
Jon
6:57 p.m.
On 11/24/2015 06:16 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
My only complaints with Pascal were the I/O was a bit
clunky and slow,
and the stupid / vs. div for real vs. integer divides. Otherwise, I
really thought it was great.
IIRC, initially Pascal had no substantial I/O facilities--left as an
exercise for the user. My CDC 6000 ETH version from 1976 shows the
following, assuming that I'm reading the tables correctly:
GET PUT RESET
REWRITE GETSEG
PUTSEG LINELIMIT
READ READLN
WRITE WRITELN
MESSAGE PAGE
DISPOSE RELEASE
TIME DATE CLOCK
And two predefined words: "INPUT" and "OUTPUT"
I recall Pascal mostly for the general attitude of "Structured
programming means no GOTO statements", which, of course, is silly.
--Chuck
25 Nov
25 Nov
7:01 a.m.
On Tue, 24 Nov 2015, Paul Koning wrote:
Pascal is largely obsolete now, but I still appreciate
it -- of the 40
or so languages I know, there are only two where I could go from no
knowledge at all to having a working program of significant size in one
week: Pascal and Python.
Um, no. Check out Delphi, Lazarus and FPC. No where near "obsolete".
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!
8:40 a.m.
On 11/25/2015 09:01 AM, geneb wrote:
On Tue, 24 Nov 2015, Paul Koning wrote:
I was really pleased with FPC! Are people actually creating
new projects with it? I was grateful to discover FPC so I
could update my photoplotter program and move away from the
Turbo Pascal / Windows XP executable I have been using.
But, I haven't used it for any new projects. (Yet.)
Jon
Pascal is largely obsolete now, but I still
appreciate it
-- of the 40 or so languages I know, there are only two
where I could go from no knowledge at all to having a
working program of significant size in one week: Pascal
and Python.
Um, no. Check out Delphi, Lazarus and FPC. No where near
"obsolete".
9:33 a.m.
On Wed, 25 Nov 2015, Jon Elson wrote:
On 11/25/2015 09:01 AM, geneb wrote:
You might want to join the fpc users mailing list. It's got decent
traffic on it. The range of cpu targets you can compile to is pretty
good. You can even compile for Android. :)
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!
On Tue, 24 Nov 2015, Paul Koning wrote:
I was really pleased with FPC! Are people actually creating new projects
with it? I was grateful to discover FPC so I could update my photoplotter
program and move away from the Turbo Pascal / Windows XP executable I have
been using. But, I haven't used it for any new projects. (Yet.)
Pascal is largely obsolete now, but I still
appreciate it -- of the 40 or
so languages I know, there are only two where I could go from no knowledge
at all to having a working program of significant size in one week: Pascal
and Python.
Um, no. Check out Delphi, Lazarus and FPC. No where near "obsolete".
10:36 p.m.
On Nov 24, 2015, at 17:58, Earl Evans <earl at
retrobits.com> wrote:
On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 5:30 PM, ben <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
OH, SNAP! :)
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
I say WORTH LESS, with out even looking at it, as I am NOT a Pascal
FAN
?I'm guessing you're more of a FORTRAN devotee, based on the ALL CAPS?
25 Nov
25 Nov
7 a.m.
On Tue, 24 Nov 2015, ben wrote:
On 11/23/2015 7:28 PM, William Maddox wrote:
It's ok Ben, nobody's perfect. :)
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!
The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy
to behold. If you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a
minimalistic education-oriented language and operating system
designed after Wirth had taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the
80's.
I say WORTH LESS, with out even looking at it, as I am NOT a Pascal
FAN
1 Dec
1 Dec
4:26 p.m.
On 11/23/2015 7:28 PM, William Maddox wrote:
The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy to behold. If
you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a minimalistic education-oriented language
and operating system designed after Wirth had taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the
80's.
The new version runs on a custom RISC processor, implemented in an FPGA, instead of the
NS3032 in the orginal Ceres workstations. Originally, it required a Digilent
"Spartan 3 Starter Kit" with a custom-built daughterboard providing a few
additional connectors. This board is no longer made, however, and no other FPGA
development board appears to provide the 32-bit wide fast SRAM the Oberon CPU required.
Recently, a new board, the OberonStation, has come onto the market that was designed
specifically for Oberon, and will boot up Oberon 2013 out of the box. It also looks like
an excellent platform for other retro-style FPGA CPU designs that want to stay away from
complex SDRAM controllers and the caches they like to feed.
My OberonStation arrived a couple of days ago, and it's really amazing to see what
can be done with a hardware and software stack that is small enough to actually read and
understand.
https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/
Do you have 5 volt I/O with the OberonStaion FPGA?
I was thinking of using it as general FPGA card.
Ben.
2 Dec
2 Dec
12:31 a.m.
Do you have 5 volt I/O with the OberonStaion FPGA?
I was thinking of using it as general FPGA card.
The serial port is 3.3v according to the website. I haven't attempted to use the
serial port or the GPIO pins, but I believe they are all 3.3 volts for the Spartan 3
series. Check the data sheet for the FPGA to be sure. There are no level converters on
the board, so whatever the FPGA provides is what you get.
BTW, as of this writing, the website is showing the fully-assembled boards as available.
--Bill
4:58 a.m.
Spartan 3E inputs can be made 5V tolerant with a series resistor...
http://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/19146.html
Dave
G4UGM
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of William
Maddox
Sent: 02 December 2015 08:32
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: RE: Oberon and the OberonStation (retro-style FPGA computing)
Do you have 5 volt I/O with the OberonStaion
FPGA?
I was thinking of using it as general FPGA card.
The serial port is 3.3v according to the website. I haven't attempted to use
the serial port or the GPIO pins, but I believe they are all 3.3 volts for the
Spartan 3 series. Check the data sheet for the FPGA to be sure. There are
no level converters on the board, so whatever the FPGA provides is what
you get.
BTW, as of this writing, the website is showing the fully-assembled boards as
available.
--Bill
1:20 a.m.
Do you have 5 volt I/O with the OberonStaion FPGA?
I was thinking of using it as general FPGA card.
No, the FPGA pins are neither 5V, nor 5V-tolerant.
The last Xilinx FPGA that had 5V-tolerant I/O was the Spartan II.
Xilinx does still make CPLDs that are 5V-tolerant, the XC95nnXL
series.
3308
days inactive
3316
days old
21 comments
14 participants
participants (14)
-
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
cclist＠sydex.com -
dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com -
earl＠retrobits.com -
elson＠pico-systems.com -
geneb＠deltasoft.com -
jos.dreesen＠bluewin.ch -
kurtk7＠visi.com -
lproven＠gmail.com -
mark＠wickensonline.co.uk -
nf6x＠nf6x.net -
paulkoning＠comcast.net -
spacewar＠gmail.com -
wmaddox＠pacbell.net