29 Apr
2019
29 Apr
'19
9:30 a.m.
Back in 1984 I had cloned a Logical Microcomputer Co. Genix
system based on the Nat. Semi. 16032 chip set. I had a dd
dump of the distribution on floppies, but that was unreadable.
I just found a binder with about an inch of fanfold
printouts of all the device drivers, low-level system
routines, boot loaders, etc in c source format.
These were printed on my Honeywell "big iron" drum printer
with a funny character set, so many of the ASCII 96
characters are printed using overprints. Like, { shows as a
< overprinted with (.
So, it might be tricky to scan and OCR it without training
the OCR. Not sure anybody would be interested in it, anyway.
Jon
29 Apr
29 Apr
10:07 a.m.
On 04/29/2019 09:30, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
I just found a binder with about an inch of fanfold printouts of all the
device drivers, low-level system routines, boot loaders, etc in c source
format.
So, it might be tricky to scan and OCR it without training the OCR. Not
sure anybody would be interested in it, anyway.
Well, I have an abiding interest in the Nat Semi 32k series. I'm not
connected to it, but the website http://cpu-ns32k.net seems to indicate
there are others.
So I'd say the code is worth trying to preserve, as I don't know how
much source code of any kind related to Genix and the systems it ran on
might still be out there...
--S.
PS - If anybody's got ns32k hardware, I'm interested... ;)
10:45 a.m.
On 04/29/2019 12:07 PM, Steven M Jones via cctalk wrote:
PS - If anybody's got ns32k hardware, I'm interested... ;)
I have a complete, wire-wrapped clone of the Logical
Microcomputer Co. 16032 system, except for memory and the
MFM disk. So, that's the CPU on Multibus-I, a Taisho disk
controller, and a board with 5 2561 (I think) UARTs for
serial comms.
I ran it for about 18 months, I think, until I had the
incredible fortune to be able to buy a microVAX-II. The
16032 with Multibus memory and MMU turned on was just
glacially slow.
It took several minutes for emacs to load, I'm not
exaggerating. Maybe I didn't have enough memory on it, and
of course an MFM disk is kind of slow, too.
Jon
11:03 a.m.
On 4/29/19 10:07 AM, Steven M Jones via cctalk wrote:
PS - If anybody's got ns32k hardware, I'm
interested... ;)
Dig into some old laser printers. I had a Panasonic that used the
32016 with graphics enhancements.
But then, I suspect that you're more interested in computers than
printers...
--Chuck
5:10 p.m.
While this isn't specific to 16032, it is somewhat related. A year and
a half ago, someone found the Gerber files for Scolaro's PC532 Baby AT
motherboard. I back-annotated them into Eagle (I don't use KiCad) where
they could be edited. The ground fill from the Gerbers was replaced
with ground pours from Eagle. And there are very minor clean-ups to the
board art work. I used my own judgement in what was in-spirit with the
original design. The schematic drawing is entirely new. While it does
not match the style of the original, it is electrically correct and
fully forward/back annotates to the PCB artwork.
I just moved it from my private repo to my public facing one here:
https://www.retrotronics.org/svn/ns32k/pc532/
Hopefully someone else can also make use of it.
-Alan
PS. I recently discovered pcbcart.com does reasonably priced 6-layer
boards if anyone wants to do reproductions of it.
On 2019-04-29 13:07, Steven M Jones via cctalk wrote:
Well, I have an abiding interest in the Nat Semi 32k
series. I'm not
connected to it, but the website http://cpu-ns32k.net seems to
indicate there are others.
12:23 p.m.
On 4/29/19 9:30 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
Back in 1984 I had cloned a Logical Microcomputer Co.
Genix system based on the Nat. Semi. 16032 chip set.? I had a dd
dump of the distribution on floppies, but that was unreadable.
I just found a binder with about an inch of fanfold printouts of all the device drivers,
low-level system routines, boot
loaders, etc in c source format.
These were printed on my Honeywell "big iron" drum printer with a funny
character set, so many of the ASCII 96
characters are printed using overprints.? Like, { shows as a < overprinted with (.
So, it might be tricky to scan and OCR it without training the OCR. Not sure anybody
would be interested in it, anyway.
Jon
I have an image of the Genix source tape.
Will try to dig it up.
8:18 p.m.
On 04/29/2019 02:23 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:
On 4/29/19 9:30 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
Oh, OK, then maybe there's no need to scan this stuff.
Jon
Back in 1984 I had cloned a Logical Microcomputer
Co. Genix system based on the Nat. Semi. 16032 chip set. I had a dd
dump of the distribution on floppies, but that was unreadable.
I just found a binder with about an inch of fanfold printouts of all the device drivers,
low-level system routines, boot
loaders, etc in c source format.
These were printed on my Honeywell "big iron" drum printer with a funny
character set, so many of the ASCII 96
characters are printed using overprints. Like, { shows as a < overprinted with (.
So, it might be tricky to scan and OCR it without training the OCR. Not sure anybody
would be interested in it, anyway.
Jon
I have an image of the Genix source tape.
Will try to dig it up.
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