MircoAngelo from SCION

From: Eric Chomko <chomko_at_greenbelt.com>
Date: Sat Apr 14 08:41:48 2001

Comments below.

Richard Erlacher wrote:

> Back in the late '70's there were no "high-res" systems that were common enough
> to provide a basis for comparison, as the Apple][ was what most folks called
> "high-res". One of my guys bought several different graphics cards and the
> MicroAngelo was one of them. This one, from what I could tell was intended for
> monochrome use, however, though I remember seeing some ads for a 16-color
> version.
>
> The board has a local Z80A processor that apparently processes high-level
> commands (line-draw, fill, etc.) as it receives them from the host processor.
> The fellow, a programmer, who bought the thing concluded it didn't have enough
> firmware space and started to hack the board for more EPROM space, but never
> completed the job. When the dust settled, I found that I had one sheet of the
> schematic, which I remember seeing a month or so ago, and some other doc's, but
> certainly not a complete set. Also, the memory access multiplexing logic was
> obscured in the schematic by the folks who published it. We ended up using a
> graphics board of my own design since we could build ours for a fraction of what
> the MicroAngelo cost. This board, IIRC, produces a 512x480 raster, though I've
> never seen one at work.

The User's Manual I have for MicroAngelo (I can upload a photo if you like) is about
100 pages.
The last six or so are schematics which appear to be complete.

The first schematic shows the Z-80A CPU with four 2708/2716 EPROMs. Only the first
10
address lines are used, which IS limited.

Do you have the monitor?

Eric

>
>
> Dick
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eric Chomko" <chomko_at_greenbelt.com>
> To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 13, 2001 8:33 PM
> Subject: Re: MircoAngelo from SCION
>
> >
> >
> > Richard Erlacher wrote:
> >
> > > Yes, I've got one, though it has been hacked into non-functionality. I
> haven't
> > > got all the schematics, and the ones issued with the device were not
> complete to
> > > begin with.
> > >
> >
> > What exactly do you have? I too have one but it lacks a controller card,
> however the
> > manuals
> > are excellent. Not being an S-100 type I really have no use for it.
> >
> > I have the hi-res monitor, cable and docs.
> >
> > BTW, oneof my profs that taught the microcomputer class was VP at SCION at the
> time
> > of
> > MicroAngelo.
> >
> > Eric
> >
> >
> > >
> > > It was, indeed, a high-res graphics board, for the S-100, that had its own
> > > resident processor and responded to high-level commands for drawing and
> filling.
> > >
> > > Dick
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Eric Chomko" <chomko_at_greenbelt.com>
> > > To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> > > Sent: Friday, April 13, 2001 9:06 AM
> > > Subject: MircoAngelo from SCION
> > >
> > > > Anyone ever heard of it or have one? I pretty sure it was a hi-res
> > > > graphics system (back in 1980) for S-100 systems.
> > > >
> > > > Eric
> > > >
> > > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
Received on Sat Apr 14 2001 - 08:41:48 BST