out-of-mainstream minis

[Dave G4UGM]

Google Translate does a reasonable job...

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdatamuseum.dk%2Fddhf-samlinger&edit-text=&act=url

Dave

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rod
> Smallwood
> Sent: 21 August 2015 11:41
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: Re: out-of-mainstream minis
> 
> I'm sure its very intersting.
> The website is designed for domestic consumption only as its all in Danish.
> 
> Rod
> 
> 
> On 21/08/2015 11:27, Ian S. King wrote:
> > I had the privilege of visiting what Nico calls a 'museum-to-be'
> > yesterday evening, and it is far more than most of what I've seen!
> > They have a very substantial collection of all sorts of systems,
> > peripherals and documentation, including a GIER from ca. 1962 that I saw
> (and heard) run.
> > As a debugging/operations aid, they had attached the overflow bit to a
> > speaker so it could generate 1-bit sound - one demo they gave me was a
> > program to calculate e that played a sound for each iteration so you
> > could hear the steady progress.  But of course if there is a sound
> > output, no one can avoid playing with it.  There were numerous pieces
> > of computationally generated music composed for the machine (on paper
> > tape), but also a program for playing a recorded, real-life sound in 1-bit
> audio!
> >
> > The collection includes numerous other computers including pretty much
> > the entire RC line, as well as pre-computer tabulators, keypunches,
> > paper handling machine and the like.  The artifacts are well-ordered
> > and in large part well labeled for even the uninitiated visitor.
> >
> > Everything is laid out quite thoughtfully, with wide aisles, in a
> > large, well-lit basement.  There are interpretive displays here and
> > there, as well as a small but appealing lecture/display area.
> >
> > The datamuseum.dk collection represents 25 years of accumulation, I
> > was told.  But more importantly, I think their work demonstrates a
> > very well-considered approach for presenting the history of the
> > collection's machines to visitors.
> >
> > My hosts were also warm and wonderful people who clearly love what
> > they do and enjoy sharing it.  They made me feel among friends, if not
> > family.  :-)
> >
> >
> > Thanks, Finn and everyone else (sorry, I'm bad with names), for
> > sharing your time and your passion with me!  -- Ian
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 12:43 AM, Nico de Jong <nico at farumdata.dk> wrote:
> >
> >> I share your favourite(s). In the danish IT-museum-to-be (
> >> www.datamuseum.dk) we have two P857-based systems running. We
> have
> >> lots of spare parts and nearly all documentation, so if you need
> >> something, you are welcome to ask.
> >> I'm presently building a "table top" version of a system with the
> >> P857 CPU, 35cm H x 60 deep x 19" wide, with a dual 8" floppy drive,
> >> and a 80486 PC for program loading etc.
> >> The system is built into a P859 box. The P859 CPU is special, as it
> >> has a
> >> V24 connection that goes to a LED display with push buttons. Very
> >> nice indeed.
> >> For that system, I have developped a Windows based Assembler, and a
> >> Windows based simulator. The simulator takes assembled programs (in
> >> my system called *.OBJ) and the original source. You can then step
> >> through the instructions, and follow them through the text file on the PC.
> >> I am presently trying to execute various utility programs, sent to me
> >> by a Belgion ex-Philips employee, who did a lot of work on the P800
> series.
> >> I myself worked with the P800 series, disguised as the PTS6800 series
> >> for
> >> 4-5 years full time.
> >> The PTS 6800 series was used extensively in banks, mainly in
> >> Scandinavia, Greece, Barclay SouthAfrica, Philippines. In Sweden also
> >> in the airline industry. In Denmark it was used mainly by local
> >> authorities, PTT, Railway (ticket printing), and some other
> >> small-time projects. In one of the project it was connected to an ATM (fun
> project).
> >> I know of one collector in the Netherlands (Camiel), and some guys
> >> who have no hardware but a lot of knowledge /Nico
> >>    ----- Original Message -----
> >>    From: tony duell
> >>    To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> >>    Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2015 7:31 AM
> >>    Subject: RE: out-of-mainstream minis
> >>
> >>
> >>    Not all minis came from the States :-)
> >>
> >>    One of my favourite non-mainstream families is the Philips P800 series.
> >> It's
> >>    a 16 bit machine with 16 registers (0 is the program counter and 15
> >>    is the stack pointer, rest are mostly general purpose) and separate
> >>    I/O instructions (not memory-mapped I/O). There were several models
> >>    with various implementations of the architecture, including
> >>
> >>    P850 (TTL, hardwired not microcoded)
> >>
> >>    P855, P852, P856, P857, P860 (TTL, microcoded)
> >>
> >>    P851 (Custom bitslice ICs, microcoded)
> >>
> >>    P854 (AM2900 bitslice, microcoded)
> >>
> >>    P853 I think (Single chip)
> >>
> >>    No, I don't have all of those...
> >>
> >>    -tony
> >>    =
> >>
> >
> >