Teleray Micricon 82306-3 on ebay

[Arno Kletzander]

Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> wrote:
> What is an HP 82306C GPIO Interface? Is that the same as thing as an 82306A?
> 
> http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=1111
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/281557879632

Probably close but not identical. The datasheet (catalog page actually, http://www.premerec.com/pdf/hp11835a.pdf, English version on second page) for the 11835A Data Buffer I have explicitely calls for the C suffix card - but maybe just because it was the current variety at that time. I got the device from a surplus outfit figuring it might come in handy one day, say for demonstrating or debugging bit-serial circuitry, as it can spew out bits at an arbitrary rate between zero and about 4 MHz. It has two banks of 1024 Mbits data memory each that are alternately loaded from the computer and read for driving the serial output, plus some additional memory for configuring an internal state machine and driving auxiliary signals, originally intended for a frequency hopping synthesizer. Intended application for the device was mobile phone and related equipment development; my example came out of a Nokia R&D facility of in Oulu, Finland according to its inventory tag.

Sean Caron <scaron at umich.edu> wrote:
> Interesting... appears to be some kind of temperature controller... I found
> a NASA technical report that mentions it and discusses some of the specs;
> apparently it's based on the Signetics 2650A at 1.25 MHz and according to
> the spec sheet, it's designed to use standard 4-20 mA interface to
> instruments, etc.
> 
> Maybe worth it if someone's looking to hunt down some 2650A CPUs and maybe
> some support chips for a vintage SBC project.
>
> http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19870004136.pdf

Thanks for the hints. File however doesn't load for me (from Germany).
Might not even take ripping the device apart and rebuilding it into an SBC - I find the case, display and keyboard quite nice and would be looking to preserve as much as possible of that. The provided keyboard and display (that look as if they're seven-segment, but might even be alpha-numeric "star" type) could be be quite sufficient for many an application - mostly depending on how much RAM and ROM and which sorts of I/O there are in, can be crammed into or hung off that box - to realize a hex monitor or whatever floats your boat.

So Long,
Arno