out-of-mainstream minis

[Rod Smallwood]

Yes indeed "danger wears a coat of many colours"

Rod


On 21/08/2015 15:45, Toby Thain wrote:
> On 2015-08-21 10:30 AM, Rod Smallwood wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> Yes I know, but its not the norm to link from an English language email
>> to a site in another language with no warning.
>> I suppose they think everybody speaks Danish.
>>
>> You could be heading into some real dark places without knowing. Rule
>> 16b never logon to a site you cant read.
>
> No "darker" than any English language site.
>
>
> --Toby
>
>
>>
>> Rod
>>
>>
>> On 21/08/2015 13:35, Dave G4UGM wrote:
>>> 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
>>>>>>     =
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>