7 Oct
2005
7 Oct
'05
12:16 a.m.
Does anybody else on the list have an MPX-16 system? I recently
acquired one from a list member and am wondering how many of these
systems still exist. I have a large (relatively) collection of
diskettes with mine.
The MPX-16, for those not familiar with it, was published as a project
in Steve Ciarcia's 'Circuit Cellar' column in Byte magazine. It was a
three part 'construction' article and the machine was sold by MicroMint
for a time. What I've heard is that about 500 machines in total were
produced.
It's an early 'IBM Compatible' in that they designed it to be similar to
the PC, but only to a certain degree. It uses a serial console rather
than keyboard/display adapter, and it runs CP/M-86 and supposedly MS-DOS
though I don't have DOS diskettes for mine. It has ISA slots and a
similar architecture to the IBM-PC, coming out of that early era before
there were PC clones from the likes of Compaq.
I'm curious of how many other MPX-16 systems have survived to today.
There isn't a lot about it online. I can share what information I have,
as I have manuals and docs with my system. I'm interested in hearing
from other people with this machine.
Scott
7 Oct
7 Oct
2:20 a.m.
I ordered the MPX-16 serial card board from Circuit Cellar because it was cheaper than the
IBM part at the time (it seems incredible that any computer intended for the home market
would have serial I/O as an option, doesn't it?).
I couldn't get it to work in a standard PC, so I figured that there was probably
something very different about the MPX's bus timing or signals and I lost interest in
the project.
Cheers,
Chuck
1:10 p.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
I ordered the MPX-16 serial card board from Circuit
Cellar because it was cheaper than the IBM part at the time (it seems incredible that any
computer intended for the home market would have serial I/O as an option, doesn't
it?).
I couldn't get it to work in a standard PC, so I figured that there was probably
something very different about the MPX's bus timing or signals and I lost interest in
the project.
Cheers,
Chuck
I consider this to be the Circuit Cellar segment that marked the end of
BYTE as a non PC hardware/software magizine.
It is too bad BYTE never had more stuff on the 6800 end of the
market. Ben alias woodelf
9 Oct
9 Oct
12:39 p.m.
On Thu, 6 Oct 2005, Scott Stevens wrote:
Does anybody else on the list have an MPX-16 system?
I recently
acquired one from a list member and am wondering how many of these
systems still exist. I have a large (relatively) collection of
diskettes with mine.
I think I have two, one of which I got from Fred.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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3:02 p.m.
> Does anybody else on the list have an MPX-16
system? I recently
> acquired one from a list member and am wondering how many of these
> systems still exist. I have a large (relatively) collection of
> diskettes with mine.
On Sun, 9 Oct 2005, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
I think I have two, one of which I got from Fred.
I had had two, well really one and a half. I couldn't remember whether
Sellam got 'em, or Carl Nolton.
I had a couple of looseleaf binders, one loose MB, and one assembled in a
case (although, like MOST of my machines, there was prob'ly no lid (aka
"shipping cover") on the case, and the power supply was a long clumsy
thing hanging out of a drive bay; CAREFUL, there're unshielded live wires
on that PS!).
It also had their accessory keyboard interface board (ISA
with 5 pin DIN), which, along with a video board permitted some PC
compatability.
IIRC, the MPX-16 had 9 ISA slots. They were NOT the same spacing as XT.
Instead, 5 of them lined up with the PC spacing. Finding an aftermarket
PC case in the days of XTs wasn't easy. And the power supply connectors
didn't match IBM.
I had a LOT of junk in that office!
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
1:25 p.m.
I acquired an empty board some weeks ago from eBay ...
... hope to find some time to collect the necessary parts and build it in near future.
Ciao Bernd
On Thu, 6 Oct 2005 23:16:54 -0500, Scott Stevens wrote:
Does anybody else on the list have an MPX-16 system? I
recently
acquired one from a list member and am wondering how many of these
systems still exist. I have a large (relatively) collection of
diskettes with mine.
The MPX-16, for those not familiar with it, was published as a project
in Steve Ciarcia's 'Circuit Cellar' column in Byte magazine. It was a
three part 'construction' article and the machine was sold by MicroMint
for a time. What I've heard is that about 500 machines in total were
produced.
It's an early 'IBM Compatible' in that they designed it to be similar to
the PC, but only to a certain degree. It uses a serial console rather
than keyboard/display adapter, and it runs CP/M-86 and supposedly MS-DOS
though I don't have DOS diskettes for mine. It has ISA slots and a
similar architecture to the IBM-PC, coming out of that early era before
there were PC clones from the likes of Compaq.
I'm curious of how many other MPX-16 systems have survived to today.
There isn't a lot about it online. I can share what information I have,
as I have manuals and docs with my system. I'm interested in hearing
from other people with this machine.
Scott
1:38 p.m.
On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 19:25:51 +0200
"Bernd Kopriva" <bernd at kopriva.de> wrote:
I acquired an empty board some weeks ago from eBay
...
... hope to find some time to collect the necessary parts and build it
in near future.
Ciao Bernd
Hopefully there will be an archive of system software up and available
for you to download by the time you get that board populated.
I'm working towards that, anyhow.
On Thu, 6 Oct 2005 23:16:54 -0500, Scott Stevens
wrote:
Does anybody else on the list have an MPX-16
system? I recently
acquired one from a list member and am wondering how many of these
systems still exist. I have a large (relatively) collection of
diskettes with mine.
The MPX-16, for those not familiar with it, was published as a
project in Steve Ciarcia's 'Circuit Cellar' column in Byte magazine.
It was a three part 'construction' article and the machine was sold
by MicroMint for a time. What I've heard is that about 500 machines
in total were produced.
It's an early 'IBM Compatible' in that they designed it to be similar
to the PC, but only to a certain degree. It uses a serial console
rather than keyboard/display adapter, and it runs CP/M-86 and
supposedly MS-DOS though I don't have DOS diskettes for mine. It has
ISA slots and a similar architecture to the IBM-PC, coming out of
that early era before there were PC clones from the likes of Compaq.
I'm curious of how many other MPX-16 systems have survived to today.
There isn't a lot about it online. I can share what information I
have, as I have manuals and docs with my system. I'm interested in
hearing from other people with this machine.
Scott
2:05 p.m.
Scott Stevens wrote:
Hopefully there will be an archive of system software
up and available
for you to download by the time you get that board populated.
I'm working towards that, anyhow.
I was just looking at some smaller PCB's pricing, and I hope you got a
good deal
on the PCB since on the same page they listed the prices for proto-type
multi-layer PCB's.
They an't cheap -- 8 layer board QTY 2 $500 each -- they don't do 7
layer boards.
Ben alias woodelf
2:30 p.m.
On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 12:05:01 -0600
woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
Scott Stevens wrote:
Price is probably down to $50 when you buy 1000, but this isn't a board
that we could find 1000 customers for at $50 apiece.
It could be a realistic candidate for a two layer board that does the
worst/most repetetive of the busses and power with the holes sized for
wire-wrap sockets. But that's a huge engineering project just to
recreate something, and there'd still be huge amounts of wire wrapping
to perform.
I once in my naive youth bought a 'bare kit' unpopulated PC-XT clone
motherboard (this was from a Canadian company, btw.) It was only a two
layer design, and I never did get it populated. It probably wouldn't
have been stable, with the deficient power and grounding inherent in a
high chip count two layer layout.
(okay, somebodys turn to say it can all be done in an ASIC)
Hopefully there will be an archive of system
software up and
available for you to download by the time you get that board
populated.
I'm working towards that, anyhow.
I was just looking at some smaller PCB's pricing, and I hope you got
a good deal
on the PCB since on the same page they listed the prices for
proto-type multi-layer PCB's.
They an't cheap -- 8 layer board QTY 2 $500 each -- they don't do 7
layer boards.
2:58 p.m.
Scott Stevens wrote:
Price is probably down to $50 when you buy 1000, but
this isn't a board
that we could find 1000 customers for at $50 apiece.
It could be a realistic candidate for a two layer board that does the
worst/most repetetive of the busses and power with the holes sized for
wire-wrap sockets. But that's a huge engineering project just to
recreate something, and there'd still be huge amounts of wire wrapping
to perform.
But what is on the MPX-16 that needs such hi-density? 286? All 640k of ram?
I once in my naive youth bought a 'bare kit'
unpopulated PC-XT clone
motherboard (this was from a Canadian company, btw.) It was only a two
layer design, and I never did get it populated. It probably wouldn't
have been stable, with the deficient power and grounding inherent in a
high chip count two layer layout.
(okay, somebodys turn to say it can all be done in an ASIC)
sure why not ... Umm a 4.77 GHZ XT -- runs and DUCKS ....
Wait on second thought you might get one at that speed since you
don't need
more than 16 bits. Now a PDP-8 would be hard to do at high speed since
they have Read - Write memory cycle.
.
Still doing PCB's I think is a better way than wire wrap for more than a
few IC's.
6866
days inactive
6868
days old
9 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
bernd＠kopriva.de -
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
cclist＠sydex.com -
chenmel＠earthlink.net -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
vcf＠siconic.com