WTB Intel 7110 Bubble Memory Subsystem or Chipset

[Pete Lancashire]

Doing a paper napkin design, should be pretty easy to build a bubble
emulator in the same size

On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 12:08 PM, Mark J. Blair via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> I'm about to acquire a couple of 1980s-vintage military surplus
> AN/UGC-137A terminals (i.e., glass TTYs with some local message preparation
> and storage capabilities) which have a bubble memory subsystem. They use
> plug-in cartridges containing 256 kbytes of storage in the form of two
> Intel 7110 1 Mbit bubble memory chips and their 7242 formatter/sense
> amplifiers.
>
> One of the cartridges contains the one and only copy of the terminals'
> firmware, which I believe they need to load up at each reboot. Naturally,
> extracting the contents of that irreplaceable cartridge for archival, and
> potential future emulation, is going to be a very high priority for me. I
> have a few different approaches in mind for accomplishing that. One
> approach would be to remove the two memory devices from the critical
> cartridge in order to dump their contents in an independent bubble memory
> subsystem.
>
> With that in mind, I'd like to get my hands on a working Intel 7110 bubble
> memory subsystem, or the parts to build one myself (i.e., a complete
> 7110/7220/7230/7242/7250/7254 chipset that I could make a board around).
>
> Might anybody here have what I need available for sale or trade? I might
> be able to use some arbitrary old computer or other device that has a
> subsystem based around the Intel 7110, or a development kit such as the
> Intel BPK-72, or a chipset to make my own board.
>
> If I can't acquire or make the hardware to dump the memory chips outside
> of their native system, then I think my next option would be to passively
> snoop the host bus interface of the Intel 7220 controller I expect to find
> inside the terminals as they perform their initial firmware load, so that I
> can reconstruct the cartridge contents from the trace data.
>
> The terminals were made by the Librascope division of Singer, and
> brochures can be found here:
>
> http://www.librascopememories.com/Librascope_Memories/
> Product_Literature_files/Communications%20Terminal.pdf
>
> http://www.librascopememories.com/Librascope_Memories/
> Product_Literature_files/SST.pdf
>
> http://www.librascopememories.com/Librascope_Memories/
> Product_Literature_files/Bubble%20Memory%20Cartridge.pdf
>
> I already have the critical cartridge in hand, and I posted some pictures
> of it on Twitter:
>
> https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/964578291767173120
>
>
>
>
> --
> Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
> http://www.nf6x.net/
>
>
>