Microdata disk/tape images

[Armin Diehl]

On 02/08/2015 01:00 AM, jwsmobile wrote:
>
> On 2/7/2015 3:51 AM, Armin Diehl wrote:
>> On 02/05/2015 10:19 PM, Ian McLaughlin wrote:
>>> Long shot, but does anyone know of any available disk/tape/paper 
>>> tape/ROM images for any of the Microdata machines (800/1600) or the 
>>> relatives (Intertechnique Multi-8/Multi-4, MAI Basic Four BB-II)?
>>>
>>> There’s a bit of documentation available - Bitsavers has a bit, and 
>>> I have some MAI documentation that I’m in the process of scanning.  
>>> I’m toying with the idea of emulating this machine, but I’m having 
>>> difficulty locating any software for it.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> Ian
>> Not exactly that, however, i may have something for BB-IV but i think 
>> these ones used cpu's developed by basic four. I have one 14" 
>> harddisk from a model 210 as well as a disk pack for a basic four 
>> 510, both should be bootable. I have the machines/drives as well but 
>> not yet tried to fire them up. The 210 came with a tape 1/4" drive 
>> but i dont have any tapes.
>>
>> I also thought about writing an emulator but i have not yet found the 
>> manuals for the cpus used (1300 CPU Technical Manual / M1300 Series 
>> CPU Organisation and Description Reference Manual). I have scanned 
>> the available documentation and it is saved at Al's bitsaves site 
>> (pdf/mai/).
>>
>> The 210: http://www.ardiehl.de/basicfour/mai210/pics/small/index.html
>> The 510: http://www.ardiehl.de/basicfour/mai510/pics/small/
> These are very nice photos.  Both of your systems appear to be on the 
> Microdata form factor, and if you were to look at the edge card 
> connector, it is probably a 130 pin (65 x 2) connector.74181 ALU 
> chips.  I see a lot of what appears to be the scale logic that a 1600 
> type CPU or an advanced design could use on that the boards your 
> photographed.
>
> Also the of the 4 switches are they all dual position, or are some 
> momentary?  i believe that Basic 4 in this series of system kept the 4 
> sense switches of the 1600 in their hardware with similar functions 
> across all variations.
>
I have added some more pictures showing the cpu boards of both systems. 
The switches are documented there as well.

http://www.ardiehl.de/basicfour/cpu/small/index.html


> The QIC drives were emerging in the late 70's and early 80's as a 
> storage media, but in the era of the original blue systems with 
> Microdata CPUs they were not around.
>
> Very nice systems.
>
> I don't know how much Century Trident info I have to offer, but I may 
> have documents if Bitsavers does not.  I just got a stash of 
> documentation which comes from the direction of Pick Systems 
> documentation.  They used the 80, 100 and I think 200mb Tridents for 
> their Evolution systems.
The document for the basic four 2460 contains the T80 service manual. 
There are already other documents available on bitsavers. 
(http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/centuryData/) Do you 
have additional ones ?

>
> Thanks
> Jim
>
> The Microdata 1600 cpu will have two
>> Harddisk: 
>> http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/mai/BFISD8052_Model_2460_Fixed_Media_Disk_Drive_ServiceManual_1981.pdf 
>>
>> Disk Drive: 
>> http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/mai/BFISD8006_Model_2500_Fixed_Disk_Drive_ServiceManual_1979.pdf
>>
>>