New Find! Rolm 1602... Does anyone have any info/pointers/etc...?

From: Corda Albert J DLVA <CordaAJ_at_nswc.navy.mil>
Date: Mon Jun 5 16:18:16 2000

Hi!

I just picked up a Rolm 1602 system at a local hamfest. It
looks like an interesting toy (and a way to expand my horizons
beyond the Sun/SGI/Dec arena. It even has a front panel
interface :-)

The unit seems to be in pretty decent shape (apparently it did not
go through "Military" (i.e. sledgehammer) decommissioning,
as the party I bought it from indicated that he obtained it from a
NASA surplus auction). Unfortunately, there were no docs
whatsoever with this critter. I seem to vaguely remember that
some of the Rolm systems were just repackaged and beefed-up
Data General Novas, but I could be wrong. Can anyone provide
me with info/pointers/tech docs on this critter? I've done a
web search and a dejanews search, but haven't had any luck.
I even checked through some of the classiccmp archives, since
I remembered seeing something on a Rolm system here a few
months back, but I was unable to locate anything.

Some of the things I'd like to know (or find pointers to):

Hardware interface pinouts/docs:
    i.e. where do I connect an ASCII
    terminal... (There is no obvious serial connector,
    i.e. DB25, etc. All the connectors are some
    sort of mil-std twist-lock jobs)

    Does this critter have a disk interface of
    some sort, etc.

Power requirements and pinouts:
    The previous owner had an AC line cord
    attached to a connector on the back,
    but I don't necessarily trust that he knew what
    he was doing. Is this really capable of running
    at 117V_at_60Hz, or did it need something oddball
    like 400Hz?

Instruction set documentation:
    So I can play with the front panel :-)

Software:
    i.e. Did this thing have a simple executive program of some
    sort? I downloaded Bob Supnik's Nova emulator in the hope that
    it might provide me with some hints as to Nova architecture,
    but there wasn't much documentation there. Will a Rolm 1602 run
    DG Nova code? If so, is there an archive of DG Nova
    software somewhere?


The back of this critter uses a bunch of what looks like mil-std
twist-lock connectors. Does anyone know an (affordable)
source for these? I'm going to try pulling it apart tonight
(It appears to be held together by about 17,000 screws :-).

Any info would be greatly appreciated....

                                                -Thanks in advance...
                                                -al-
                                                -acorda_at_geocities.com
        
 
Received on Mon Jun 05 2000 - 16:18:16 BST