out-of-mainstream minis

[Ian S. King]

My email wasn't 'go look at this site', it was 'I visited these nice
people' with the link as a courtesy.  What 'norm'?
On Aug 21, 2015 4:51 PM, "Rod Smallwood" <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com>
wrote:

> 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
>>>>>>>     =
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>