Microchip buys Hi-Tech Software

[Jon Kirwan]

Most of them would freak if they ever looked at the 8008 and what
little it actually did, for the price. Or the early 'S100' 4K * 8
memory cards that were $1000.

I think I paid $295 each, for two. Neither worked, as designed,
though. In fact, it was their failure to operate that forced me into
learning a lot more electronics than I'd wanted to before. I couldn't
afford that kind of disasterous result, being mostly penniless at the
time. Just after figuring out a workable solution, MITS mails me a
nice letter telling me about the 8 (I think, memory serving) patch
wires they recommended to make the design work. A week too late to be
of help.

I bet 99% of them never heard of the Exorcisor bus.

I knew of it, but never had that kind of money floating around.

Jon

 

[Jon Kirwan]

We had two Metrodata computers based on the Exorcisor bus in the early
'80s. They each had six low res NTSC graphics cards for a CATV
headend. One had a pair of 8" floppy drives from SMS, while the other
had 48K of DRAM to store the text files. United Video paid over $60,000
for the pair, the drives and a HP computer terminal. The sad thing was
that a Commodore 64 computer for $395 had better video nd you could use
a single drive to load the data into multiple computers. I was told
that that was what they did, a few years after I quit. Metrodata was
out of business, and the one guy supporting them insisted on being flown
to your location, so a simple problem could cost a couple grand and take
weeks to fix. They would just spend $85 for a new C64, and kept a few
new ones on hand.

I've got two C64's in the closet -- still in perfect working order, I
believe. Along with a ZX81 I built up and some other gadgets around
that time. My Altair 8800 was long since given away, though. (I
really liked the IMSAI 8080 switches, though, and bought bags of them
which I also still have around [red and white].)

Jon

 

[Raveninghorde]

We had two Metrodata computers based on the Exorcisor bus in the early
'80s. They each had six low res NTSC graphics cards for a CATV
headend. One had a pair of 8" floppy drives from SMS, while the other
had 48K of DRAM to store the text files. United Video paid over $60,000
for the pair, the drives and a HP computer terminal. The sad thing was
that a Commodore 64 computer for $395 had better video nd you could use
a single drive to load the data into multiple computers. I was told
that that was what they did, a few years after I quit. Metrodata was
out of business, and the one guy supporting them insisted on being flown
to your location, so a simple problem could cost a couple grand and take
weeks to fix. They would just spend $85 for a new C64, and kept a few
new ones on hand.

The first computer I bought for my business in 1979 was an Apple II
with a Microsoft Z80 plugin, 9" monitor, and floppy drive. It cost
around £1000. We run cpm and used edlin and the assembler for software
development. Even in 1979 we saw the benefit of a hardware independent
OS.

In 1982 we got our first couple of IBM compatables from Columbia Data
Products along with Z80 plug ins so we could still run the same cpm
programs.

 

[Ross Vumbaca]

Hi,

about a dozen 1541 drives, three 1701 monitors, and a couple C128D
computers, including one with a built in 1581 drive.

Eh? You're saying there were C128D's with built in 1581 drive, or was
this a special hacked model??

Regards,

Ross..

 

[David L. Jones]

Hi,


Eh? You're saying there were C128D's with built in 1581 drive, or was this
a special hacked model??

All C128D's had built in 1581 drives. D="Disk"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_128

Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

All C128D's had built in 1581 drives. D="Disk"

Err, make that 1571.

Dave.

 

[didi]

....
..... I bet 99% of them never heard of the
Exorcisor bus.

You may be surprised to hear that I have MDOS09 running as a PPC
emulated
task in a DPS window today - and I still have some use for some of the
software
I had written in the mid-80s for my first design, a 6809 based thing
which had its own bus and own disk and monitor ROM and ran MDOS09
(and MDOS with a CPU card with the 6800, but I do not have that
emulated). I also still sometimes run under it Herve Tirefords Basicm,
a very nice flavour of Basic.

Dimiter

 

[didi]

....
   The cheap bastard who ran that CATV system was too cheap to spend $8
each for new 8" floppies.  He put it off for a couple months, till both
the main disk drive lost the heads when they welded to the worn media,
but the backup disk in the secondary drive had crashed.  I spent almost
a week piecing the system configuration back together from almost 100
bad disks.

Whoa, that beats my 8" floppy disk adventures. Back in the day - on
that
first 6809/00 based thing I had built - I had two such drives,
Bulgarian
clones of some Shugart original, I believe. They failed frequently
enough to teach me that I needed one disk and *two* backups minimum
(after I had the situation you describe, work disk failure and bad
backup). I had learned where around the head to press with fingers
etc. during retries, it was the nightmare you probably know all too
well.

   I am not surprised that a 6800 family computer is still working.

I retired the real thing not so long ago, 2-3 years ago IIRC (when
I found the month to write the emulator). Not bad for a 6809
oldie I had built in 1988 as an update to my first thing which
predated that by perhaps 3-4 years.

   Some of the last embedded systems I worked on used the MC68340, and I
hated the early production with the PGA package.  The SMD version was a
ot easier to troubleshoot, and modify for special products.  BTW, one of
those boards is part of the KU band communication systems aboard the
ISS.

I started with the SMD one, designed it into my first "nukeman" in
1993/4.
But mine did not make it to the ISS, just a few sold units.
Was a nice CPU in its day, still in production, BTW. I have replaced
it with PPC processors some years back (around 2000), though.

Dimiter

 

[Ross Vumbaca]

Hi,

Err, make that 1571.

I know, I have one . But not a 1581.... (3.5")

Regards,

Ross..

 

[Jamie]

Hi,



I know, I have one . But not a 1581.... (3.5")

Regards,

Ross..

I got a 1581 some where around here.

it's been a while since I've seen that unit operate

http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5"

 

[Ross Vumbaca]

Hi,

I think there's an old Amiga 500 down in the basement too... and my brother's
Amiga 3000 is sitting in the utility room, next to an HP 28C calculator, that
both haven't moved since the early-'90s when he moved out of the house!

Note that the A3000 has a Ni-Cd battery sitting on the motherboard (left
side), and it will almost definitely leak and damage the motherboard if
it's not removed. If it has already leaked, you can remove the battery
and try to clean up the mess that it has left, the machine will usually
be repairable (depending on the level of corrosion).

These batterys tend to start leaking once the machine is not used for a
long time.

Regards,

Ross..