Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek _at_ ...

From: Andrew Davie <adavie_at_mad.scientist.com>
Date: Fri Mar 6 03:55:29 1998

>Yes, you can diassemble the code, no problem. One thing to watch for is
>to make sure that you know how the address and data lines on the board
>are linked up. You see, all 8 data lines on an EPROM are equivalent. It
>may be conventional to assign a particular pin as D0, etc, but there's
>no reason that you have to. But obviously if you want to make sense of
>the code, you have to know how the bits in the word are connected to the
>8080.


Ummmmm.... I was stunned tonight to look under the motherboard of this
machine and find that it is totally wire-wrapped. Amazingly neat, but
wire-wrapped and socketed - every single chip. Finding paths in this thing
is going to be very very time consuming! This computer must have been
extremely expensive in its day - the amount of work involved is incredible -
not having made anything like it, I'm only guessing... but I'd guess many
tens of man-hours.

Coincidentally, I was on the hunt for another machine (Mattel Aquarius) and
the owner and I got into a discussion about S100 machines - he has a garage
of them, apparently (he used to design them) - and I told him about the
EPROMs (1702As) and how I was going to back mine up - and he said "I have
four of those things!!!" Yes, before you ask, I am going after those S100
machines :)

Cheers
A
Received on Fri Mar 06 1998 - 03:55:29 GMT