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Re: [N8VEM-S100:5736] New Member - Intro & Greetings



Hi Don,

Thanks for the info. In communication with Todd regarding the 8 slot backplane already. I'm still musing over CPU cards.

I agree. What we did back then in <64K was functionally quite something. No heavy GUI's to suck all available memory and cycles. The computer was free to get on with some actual data processing. Ultimately games proved more attractive than bucket loads of business practicality. At least I think that's what happened, maybe? :-)

I discover that I must correct two errors in my very first post. Firstly the kit I built was a Super-80 and not a System-80. Dick Smith in Australia confusingly sold two different products at the same time by both of these names. Along with a bunch of other computers as well. The Super-80 was a electronics magazine (Electronics Australia) kit. While the System-80 was a ready made Tandy TRS-80 Model I/II clone. I could afford the kit from "paper-run" money but not the clone.

The second mistake is that I have only just today discovered that the computer I was coding PL/I on was in fact a S-100 system. I didn't realize it at the time. It didn't look *big* enough to me back then to hold a standard S-100 card cage. It was Dad's business machine so I never tried to open it up. But according to this web site:-

http://maben.homeip.net/static/S100/index.html

The "ICL Personal Computer" was indeed an S-100 machine. And here's a photo of the very same type of machine that I was using way back then.

http://maben.homeip.net/static/S100/ICL/systems/personal%20computer/photos/icl.jpg

The things you learn...







On Thursday, December 4, 2014 5:43:03 AM UTC+11, don caprio wrote:
Welcome to the Party Steve.

We share some same old roots. Back in the 80's, early in my career
I was writing PL/I code on an MDS for the Intel 8086 SBC. We were developing a
custom OS built on RMX/86. The genesis of this project was an IMSAI 8080.
The IMSAI was full of SIO's. One serial link to a mainframe for DB queries
and the other serial links to dumb tubes running data entry and patient record
queries. What we were able to do on an 8080 and 64K of RAM still boggles my mind today.
Those were some fun days.

A great start for your S100 system would be the 8-slot backplance, Josh's 8080 CPU card
and the Front Panel. I have more FP Mini PCB's and, Todd still has the backplanes.
I don't think there are any of Josh's 8080 cpu cards in stock.

Good luck and have lots of fun.


On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 8:48 PM, Stephen Arnold <vk2...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello All,

First post to list. And first post to a Google Groups list. So it's all new.

Steve this way. Another Australian and Amateur Radio chap (VK2SJA). I think the group already has a few of both.

Background: While still a young teen my Father taught me to program in PL/I using "Access Manager" and "Display Manager" on CP/M machines. Later I seem to remember we were using multi-user MP/M. The machines in question were not S100 bus however. I missed out on owning one of these but was quite familiar with the concepts even back then. I did build a Dick Smith System 80 computer kit which had a single solitary S-100 bus connector. Does this count? Probably not. :lol:

The other day I got handed a giant heavy 19" rack mount server case. It's a generic PC case but colossal in size and made of real old school solid metal. Looking at this otherwise unwanted, unloved and discarded case. I got to thinking about how much it reminded me of the original S-100 bus machines. Then a crazy idea started forming about re-cycling the case into a retro S-100 bus machine. One thing led to another and I found myself at http://www.s100computers.com and then on to here.

So while I may well be suitably crazy. It would appear that perhaps I'm not the only one? :-)

Still reading, learning and measuring. If you're a person listed as a PCB supplier at http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/ you may well hear from me soon(ish).

Kind Regards to All, Steve.

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Don Caprio cap...@uxpro.com
http://www.uxpro.com
(925) 240-UNIX