11 Jul
1997
11 Jul
'97
7:19 p.m.
Whilst in a self-induced trance, Stacy C. Morang happened to blather:
Uh... Update, folks! (and I gotta name this thing now... how about
"Heather"... 8-) Get it?!?
It boots! Did I mention that it came with one floppy disk stuck in the
bottom drive? This floppy was a boot floppy! And it still works! Joy! ;-)
You're right, but they seem to format to only 320K (8 sectors/track, not 9)
with the DOS I do have, which is listed in the stats of the machine I
listed below... The broken drive *does* work! It's only the door that's
broken, so I sacrificed my Atari 810 (which was dead anyway) and the garage
door from it is exact! Yiippee!
On Tue, 24 Jun 1997, Roger Merchberger wrote:
H-120-1.
I'm assuming this is the model number.
It is. Something
tickled in my brain about those floppies, so as I lumbered around
in the dark in my newly-begun clean-ish basement (Eeeeek!) I found my old
non-working Atari 810 disk drive... and the mechs looked almost exact!
Would these happen to be the same mechanically, would anyone know?
Probably not, the Z (or H) used standard SA-455? 360K ibm pc style drives Top, I think. (I have one, but I only got it for the
Winchester drive
card).
Whaddya did with the rest? A few spare parts might be nice (or a color
tube, if yours had it... ;-)
That is the monitor rom, and certain keys should do
something more
interesting, like
C - color bars (if you have color video, otherwise b&w bars)
B - boot prompt, pressing the right combo of numbers and fkeys selects
the boot drive.
D - dump memory
I don't doubt your memory, but I think this is a (prolly earlier) version
of the monitor rom... specs to follow. I fat-fingered *all* the keys on it,
and here's what works:
B -- boots. Accepts parameters of: 0, 1, 2, 3, and that tells it what
floppy to boot from. Plain B assumes floppy 0, which is top. Thanks! All
else beeps with invalid parameter, except "S", which appears to do nothing.
Would this be boot from the serial port, perchance?
V -- Version of the monitor rom, which is Version 1.02.
Nothing else worked...
It will boot off of CP/M, MP/M, UCSD P-System,
Concurrent CP/M, MS-DOS
and others. If you find a generic version 1 or maybe 2 ms-dos it might
boot, pc specific PC dos won't.
This thing came with a Version 1 Dos... here's the specs of the boot:
Z-DOS / MS-DOS BIOS Release 1.00 Version 1.02
Z-DOS / MS-DOS Release 1.00 Version 1.25
(C)Copyright 1982, Zenith Data Systems
Z-DOS / MS-DOS Command Release 1.00 Version 1.19
The machine has an 8088 and an 8085 processor, and uses
the appropriate
one for the os in question.
I've pulled 'er apart to fix the floppy, and to clean the keyboard & all.
Sure enough, it has a NEC 8085A plastic, and an Intel 8088
like-eprom-whatever-you-call-it case. It presently has 128K RAM in it!
Questions:
1. Whilst it's all apart, does anyone want me to snap pictures? I can...
2. How high can this rascal go in memory? I located 3 banks (9 each --
parity) of 64kx1 300ns DRAM, two of which are populated. Mathmatically,
that works to: 128K RAM. The third bank is empty. Can I pop in 9 more chips
without setting any jumpers/dipswitches? How about bigger DRAMS? (prolly
not... but it's worth an ask!) Still, 192K is still pretty good for a
machine from '82!
(also, on the question of jumpers... anyone have a tech-like manual for
this thing I could get a copy of... or at least a copy of the important
pages?)
3. The video board which is based on the Motorola 68A45P video chip,
presently has 64K onboard for *just* the green section of the board. This
rascal can handle 192K Video Memory!!! Funky! ;^> (that is, if I'm reading
the boards right.... but CHKDSK doesn't return the added video memory, so
that'd seem correct.) Does the board support any form of graphics? I tried
the standard basic commands (ZBasic was on the floppy) but it seemed only
to work in text.
For this thing having 2 Intel-based processors, I'm surprised with the
amount of Motorola logic in this rascal! Prolly a 3rd of it is Moto,
including the 74 series chips! All of the important support chips, like the
video processor, the PIA's & UARTS, and all that jazz seem to be Moto.
Well folks, I havta say: This is one *sweet* machine! :-)
I'm not sure what the licensing requirements are,
however, I do have
several OS's for the machine - I'm sure something can be worked out.
Did Heath/Zenith bundle an OS with the disk systems? If so, wouldn't I own
a license to own a copy of the included OS, as I own the machine? I'm not
sure how stuff like that works, especially on the old stuff.
You're welcome, pity I'm so far behind in the
mail...
-stacy
No prob... I'm behind as well, as you can plainly see!
So long, and keep your stick on the ice.
Ohhh, brrrr! I hope yer' talkin' Hockey!!! ;^>
Thanks again, and have a good weekend!
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not*
zmerch(a)northernway.net | be your first career choice.
11 Jul
11 Jul
9:56 p.m.
New subject: Fridays Haul
I met with a friend of mine who had a garage and yard full of computer
stuff and was invited to take what I wanted. I wanted it all :), but I
don't have the room. I ended up with three HP 9123 disk drive units,
one HP 9122 unit, a Tandy 1000, Zenith Data Systems XT of some sort
(Mod. ZW-151-52), an ACC Bridge/Router, an old style Compaq Deskpro 386,
and some other miscellaneous stuff. The Zenith only has the CPU card
and I think there should be a couple of proprietary cards in that unit
but I don't recall for sure. BUT, it looks like that CPU card is the
same one in the Zenith portable I have that is missing the ROMs. Now
when I have time, I can blow new EPROMS and try out the portable! I
should add all of the above at no charge. Oh, I also got a floptical
drive that is supposed to be good. As I was talking, one of the things
I was looking for was a DMA Systems and he
Tomorrow is the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio club Bazaar and besides the
Spectragraphics CAD setup, there is a Kaypro II, a Commodore 128, a LOT
of PS/2 stuff, and a number of the old AT style computer cases with
?????. I talked with a local non-profit who will take any PC computer
stuff that doesn't sell so at least some of it is saved from the BIG
dumpster that will be sitting there.
14 Jul
14 Jul
7:54 a.m.
Roger Merchberger wrote:
No color tube (you can activate color on the video card with 18 64K (or
32K) memory chips (4164, I believe)) - I might be able to help with
some things, however
I am keeping the machine as a backup / parts for my Low-profile unit (I
need
one to make 8" formatted disks).
I think the version I have is 1.05, but I'm just guessing.
Nope. That was separate, as you had choices. I doubt anyone is too keen
on suing over a copy of Z-Dos 1.25, (or the P-system for that matter),
but it would be wise to try to see if anyone cares.
--
Stacy C. Morang, Communications Specialist
Education Network of Maine
scm(a)access.enm.maine.edu, smorang(a)enm.maine.edu
So long, and keep your stick on the ice.
Whilst in a self-induced trance, Stacy C. Morang happened to blather:
If you give the format program a '/9' parameter you get nine sectors, at
least
in dos 2.
On Tue, 24 Jun 1997, Roger Merchberger wrote:
You're right, but they seem to format to only 320K (8 sectors/track, not 9)
with the DOS I do have, which is listed in the stats of the machine I
listed below... Top, I think.
(I have one, but I only got it for the Winchester drive
card).
Whaddya did with the rest? A few spare parts might be nice (or a color
tube, if yours had it... ;-) I don't
doubt your memory, but I think this is a (prolly earlier) version
of the monitor
rom... specs to follow. I fat-fingered *all* the keys on it,
and here's what works:
B -- boots. Accepts parameters of: 0, 1, 2, 3, and that tells it what
floppy to boot from. Plain B assumes floppy 0, which is top. Thanks! All
else beeps with invalid parameter, except "S", which appears to do nothing.
Would this be boot from the serial port, perchance?
V -- Version of the monitor rom, which is Version 1.02.
Nothing else worked... Questions:
2. How high can this rascal go in memory? I located 3 banks (9 each --
parity) of 64kx1 300ns DRAM, two of which are populated. Mathmatically,
that works to: 128K RAM. The third bank is empty. Can I pop in 9 more chips
without setting any jumpers/dipswitches? How about bigger DRAMS? (prolly
not... but it's worth an ask!) Still, 192K is still pretty good for a
machine from '82!
Yes, you can add 64K DRAMS - the heath versions came with 128K, the
Zenith (for business use, presumably) came with 192.
If you change a couple of the PALs, and depending on how on how old it
is, maybe something else, you probably can put 256K DRAMS in it. There
are several documents that talk about such modifications, look in
SIMTEL-20 archives, among others.
(also, on the question of jumpers... anyone have a
tech-like manual for
this thing I could get a copy of... or at least a copy of the important
pages?)
I have most, if not all of the technical stuff, I'll have to dig it out
as it is
packed away, so don't let me forget.
3. The video board which is based on the Motorola 68A45P video chip,
presently has 64K onboard for *just* the green section of the board.
The chips may be 32K parts (64k parts with one half dead).
This
rascal can handle 192K Video Memory!!! Funky! ;^>
(that is, if I'm reading
the boards right.... but CHKDSK doesn't return the added video memory, so
that'd seem correct.) Does the board support any form of graphics? I tried
the standard basic commands (ZBasic was on the floppy) but it seemed only
to work in text.
Yes, it does handle graphics, (you can get 640x400 out of it with out
too much difficulty). I don't remember how ZBasic, which is not the same
as GW-BASIC or BASICA, makes graphics.
Well folks, I havta say: This is one *sweet* machine!
:-)
It is much more sophisticated and capable than the IBM-PC, but was
marketed rather poorly. I still have a review on it somewhere.
I'm not
sure what the licensing requirements are, however, I do have
several OS's for the machine - I'm sure something can be worked out.
Did Heath/Zenith bundle an OS with the disk systems? If so, wouldn't I own
a license to own a copy of the included OS, as I own the machine? I'm not
sure how stuff like that works, especially on the old stuff.
9848
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marvin＠rain.org -
smorang＠enm.maine.edu -
zmerch＠northernway.net