While you might get register-level specifications for some video chip on
an ISA or PCI card, it would be
difficult to get a production quantity of identical (obsolete) cards,
so each user would have to roll their
own. Hardly a practical approach.
Being a hardware fan, I hate to admit, it seems that the Imsai series
two is easily replaced by a CP/M emulator
program running on a PC, with the MAJOR exception being that a PC has no
front pannel.
But a software front pannel GUI could easily be developed for a modern
machine. That might make a great
learning tool for people who have not gotten to use a 'real' vintage
machine.
Tony Duell wrote:
>>Last I spoke with the people at Imsai, the machine had some major issues
>>in my eyes...
>>
>>First, its no longer a S-100 box. (deal breaker right there)... None
>>of your existing
>>S-100 stuff can be used with the machine, and with no expansion bus,
>>Imsai has turned
>> one of the first open architecture boxes into something more like a Mac
>>(super-Eeeek!).
>>
>>Secondly, it was going to use a ISA VGA board for video display (Eeeek,
>>not ISA)!
>>
>
>
>I am trying to figure out how this machine is in _any_ way superior to
>any of the following :
>
>1) A CP/M machine with built-in video output (Epson QX10, etc). Not that
>much CP/M software used anything other than a text terminal.
>
>2) A random collection of S100 cards from my junk box.
>
>3) A Z80 single-board development system connected to my PC's serial port.
>
>All of the above would seem to do what the Imsai 2 would do -- and be
>easier to maintain, easier to expand, and plain more fun to use.
>
>>This last bit was really problematic becuse the Z800 cannot execute the
>>VGA bios code
>>in the ISA board's rom.
>>
>
>Can't yuo get a VGA card where the registers are documented well enough
>to at least put the think into a simple text/graphics mode without using
>the BIOS ROM code? In other words, ignore the ROM and hit the hardware
>directly from the Z80? I know I'd have tried soemthing like that if I'd
>_had_ to use a VGA card with a CP/M machine...
>
>>These issues were enough for me to realize that the Series-2 machines
>>were not for me.
>>
>>But the idea of having a PC motherboard in there along with the Z800
>>~could~ make for
>>a very interesting teaching platform. But once you have the PC
>>motherboard in there, why
>>run the actual Z800 CPU at all? Emulation would probably be much faster.
>>
>
>If the Z80/Z800 bus was availabel to the user, then the reason for
>running the real hardware is obvious. But apparently it isn't.... This
>seems rediculous...
>
>-tony
>
>
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Received on Wed Jun 19 2002 - 18:50:41 BST