4 Dec
2014
4 Dec
'14
1:16 p.m.
Hi.
I went dumpster diving some time back. I saw an old "white box" 286
PeeCee with a MFM disk and a strange ISA card. I riped them out of the
box and took them home. I intended to reuse the MFM disk in my MicroVAX
2000. Then I noticed that the ISA card carries a IMST414 Transputer
chip. It looked to me like this PeeCee was the "head" of a bigger
Transputer system. (That I rescued out of that dumpster some years
back.) So I went back to that dumpster and pulled the other ISA cards
(disk, video, IO). I suspect that this ST-125 MFM disk contains some DOS
software to drive the ISA card with the Transputer. Plug all this stuff
into some generic old PeeCee and there you go...
The Transputer card is 8 Bit ISA full size. It has the T414, a bunch of
74TTL glue logic, 16 SIMM sockets, four populated, a button and a small,
round 5-pin connector on the slot bracket. It is labeled "Monoputer 2
v1.1 (C)Microway,Inc. 1988".
I am willing to ship this inside .eu for a reasonable "shipping and
handling fee". (Or in exchange to some SGI O2 RAM.) I don't wane make
money on this. I want this to go into good hands, ideally someone that
rescues and preserves any software from that MFM disk.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
4 Dec
4 Dec
9:55 p.m.
vThe Transputer card is 8 Bit ISA full size. It has the
T414, a bunch of
74TTL glue logic, 16 SIMM sockets, four populated, a button and a small,
No C011 or C012 link adapter chip ? That's the IC to interface between a transputer
link and a normal 8 bit bus. [Amusingly the registers look fairly like a DEC DL11...]
round 5-pin connector on the slot bracket. It is
labeled "Monoputer 2
v1.1 (C)Microway,Inc. 1988".
The original Microway Monoputer was a fairly close clone of the Inmos
B004. This sounds similar, with more recent RAM (the original one was full
of DIP-packaged DRAMs). I find that 5 pin connector puzzling, though. Are there
no other headers or connectors on the board. A transputer link is normally a
4 pin header (2 grounds, TxD, RxD) then there's the 3 wire Reset/Error/Analyse
control link. IIRC the original Monoputer had a large array of header pins on the
bracket, the 4 transputer links for the T4, the control link for that and the
single transputer link and control link from the PC interface. You normally
fitted a couple of jumper connectors to connect the T4 to the PC, but
you didn't have to (you could connect another transputer to the PC
interface and then hang the T4 off one if its links, for example).
-tony
5 Dec
5 Dec
12:57 p.m.
Am 05.12.14 06:55, schrieb tony duell:
No C011 or C012 link adapter chip ?
[inspecting
card]
Yes, there is an IMSC012P.
Are there no other headers or connectors on the board.
There is a 24 pin IDC header. The bush button and the 5-pin connector on
the bracket are connected to that 24 pin header by a cable. Only 4 out
of the 24 pins are used.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
11:26 p.m.
No C011 or C012 link adapter chip ?
[inspecting card]
Yes, there is an IMSC012P. > > Are there no other headers or connectors on
the board.
> There is a 24 pin IDC header. The bush button and the 5-pin connector on
> the bracket are connected to that 24 pin header by a cable. Only 4 out
> of the 24 pins are used.
Do you mean that only 4 pins in the socket (on the end of the cable) are
wired, or that there are only 4 traces on the PCB going to the header. If
the latter then I have no idea why, if the former then I would guess all
the transputer links, etc, are on that header and that one of them is
brought out to the 5 pin socket on the bracket.
-tony
6 Dec
6 Dec
1:01 a.m.
Am 06.12.14 08:26, schrieb tony duell:
Do you mean that only 4 pins in the socket (on the end
of the cable) are
wired, or that there are only 4 traces on the PCB going to the header.
It looks
like all (or most) pins on the header are contacted with
traces. There is a 24 pin ribbon cable plunged in, but only 4 wires are
used. The other 20 wires are open, not connected and covered with
isolating tape.
if the former then I would guess all
the transputer links, etc, are on that header and that one of them is
brought out to the 5 pin socket on the bracket.
Thats what I suspect. As said I
rescued a Transputer system from that
place some years back. It was basically a generic, modular box (For
double eurocard like PCBs? Can't remember.) with some sort of "carrier
boards" that had INMOS TRAM modules on them. There was no disk or the
like. So I suspected there must be some sort of "head" to boot and
control that box full of Transputers. It only took some years to show
up. :-)
p.s.: The TRAM modules and carrier boards went to a Transputer
enthusiast and are in good hands.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
5 Dec
5 Dec
1:13 p.m.
On 12/04/2014 09:55 PM, tony duell wrote:
I believe I've seen a board by Parasytec with similar sounding
connectors on it. Unfortunately I can't dig up the board at the
moment... I think it was an SBus card, and there is a press release
floating around the 'Net indicating they supported MS-DOS, Apple, and
Sun hosts.
round 5-pin connector on the slot bracket. It is
labeled "Monoputer 2
v1.1 (C)Microway,Inc. 1988".
... I find that 5 pin connector puzzling,
though. Are there
no other headers or connectors on the board. A transputer link is normally a
4 pin header (2 grounds, TxD, RxD) then there's the 3 wire Reset/Error/Analyse
control link.
6 Dec
6 Dec
3:11 a.m.
New subject: Parsytec, was Re: Some Transputer Bits available.
Jochen, looks like this is the next version of your board, without the
funky 5-pin connectors:
http://www.pcputer.com/PCPUTER-History/Transputer-Photos/microway-monoputer
On 12/05/2014 01:13 PM, Steven M Jones wrote:
I believe I've seen [an SBus card] by Parasytec with similar sounding
connectors on it.
There are a few search hits on Parasytec, but it appears the correct
name for the company was _Parsytec_. Headquartered in Aachen, they built
several different lines of Transputer-based systems between 1985 and
1994, ranging from 10 to (at least in theory) 16,384 processors.
And they did frequently use Sun workstations as host or systems. Here's
the page for the board I was thinking of, the "Parsytec BBK-S4 Adapter
for SBUS Systems"
http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer/bbks4.htm
More reading:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsytec
Geekdot.com: http://www.geekdot.com/parsytec.html
Ram's Transputer pages: http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer
--S.
5:45 a.m.
New subject: Parsytec, was Re: Some Transputer Bits available.
Am 06.12.14 12:11, schrieb Steven M Jones:
Jochen, looks like this is the next version of your
board, without the
funky 5-pin connectors:
http://www.pcputer.com/PCPUTER-History/Transputer-Photos/microway-monoputer
My
board looks nearly identical. The pictured board has some sort of
breakout board plugged into the 24 pin IDC header. Where on my board
there is a ribbon cable pluged in going to the connector and button on
the bracket.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
7:24 a.m.
Maybe if they were selling anthelmintic products? Ha ha ha ;)
Best,
Sean
On Sat, Dec 6, 2014 at 8:52 AM, emanuel stiebler <emu at e-bbes.com> wrote:
On 2014-12-05 22:13, Steven M Jones wrote:
I believe I've seen a board by Parasytec with similar sounding
You really think, anybody would call his company "parasytec"?
;-)
9 Dec
9 Dec
5:55 p.m.
I used to take my Harley to a place called "CyclePath" for service, until I
learned just how fitting the name was.
On Sat, Dec 6, 2014 at 5:52 AM, emanuel stiebler <emu at e-bbes.com> wrote:
On 2014-12-05 22:13, Steven M Jones wrote:
I believe I've seen a board by Parasytec with similar sounding
You really think, anybody would call his company "parasytec"?
;-)
--
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS
Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School
University of Washington
An optimist sees a glass half full. A pessimist sees it half empty. An
engineer sees it twice as large as it needs to be.
3664
days inactive
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11 comments
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
classiccmp＠crash.com -
emu＠e-bbes.com -
isking＠uw.edu -
jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de -
scaron＠umich.edu