Philips mini computers

Nigel Johnson nw.johnson at ieee.org
Sat Oct 26 12:59:25 CDT 2019


Are we talking about ISA-bus computers here?  If so the colour graphics 
card was a Persyst Bob card, and the bi-sync adapter, if equipped, was 
also made by Persyst.  I know because I signed them to the contract to 
buy those two items. I know about their high standards of Quality 
Control because they rejected about 1/3 of my initial shipments!

In 1985, every computer that included a CRT made by Philips was made at 
their factory in Ste. Laurent, QC, or so their engineers told me.

cheers,

Nigel (then known as Bill) Johnson


On 26/10/2019 13:53, nico de jong via cctalk wrote:
>
> On 2019-10-26 19:44, Tony Duell via cctalk wrote:
>> On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 6:36 PM nico de jong via cctalk
>> <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Back in the 70's and 80's Philips had a quite popular series of mini
>>> computers called P800, which also branched out to the PTS series and
>>> possibly other.
>>>
>>> Could I be lucky to find other list members interested in these
>>> products? I know of a few, but there surely must be others. I'm trying
>>> to collect what is left of the documentation.
>> My first minicomputer (which I still have and can see from where I am 
>> sitting)
>> was a Philips P850. I now also own a P851 and a P854 (both with 
>> floppy drives)
>> and lots of spares.
>>
>> As for documentation I have the CPU (only) technical manual for the 
>> P850,
>> the 2 volumes of schematics for the P851 and the preliminary manual 
>> (alas
>> without the microcode source) for the P854. Some other schematics for
>> things like the P854's PSU, the 4 channel serial port, floppy disk 
>> system, etc.
>>
>> User manuals for at least the P850 and P851. And some software-related
>> manuals, manuals on related machines, etc but I would have to check 
>> exactly
>> what I have there.
>>
>> -tony'
>
> Hi Tony
>
> The manuals you mention, don't ring a bell.
>
> We have now more-or-less rejuvenated a PTS6813 aka P857, although 
> without the discs.
>
> Furthermore, we have the parts to build a P852 from spare parts.
>
> In order to test things, I've developped a simulator and assembler for 
> the P857, although without floating point and I/O processor, as I have 
> no documentation for that, so maybe I can harvest something from the 
> documents you have. Are the mailable, or do you need to scan them first?
>
> Thanks
>
> Nico
>
  

-- 
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

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