Long vector Imlac's, was Re: Tales of VCF 5.0?

From: Bob Shannon <bshannon_at_tiac.net>
Date: Thu Oct 31 13:57:00 2002

Ok, the corosion of the PCB etches does not scare me, I've got a full
set of spare boards. A few of them have bad chips, but in most cases
these have already been isolated to the failed component.

I've never seen the schematics for a long-vector Imlac, and I wonder how
much work would be envolved in adding this capability to a 'stock' PDS-1.

Does anyone (Tom U.) know what method the long vector hardware uses to
generate long vectors? I'd guess this is done with binary rate
multipliers in much the same way as the DEC VT-11.

Just how much circuitry is on this long-vector board? How different is
the vector processor circuitry on a PDS-1D versus a PDS-1?

And ae we sure that Mazewar needs long vectors?


Sellam Ismail wrote:

>On Wed, 30 Oct 2002, Bob Shannon wrote:
>
>>I'd be really interested in learning more about this!
>>
>
>Here is a page about the Imlac I have (it was given to me by Doug Salot,
>who developed this page):
>
>http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/imlac/
>
>It doesn't say anything about the long-vector option, although I could've
>swore he did (maybe it's there and I just didn't see it in my quick
>refresh perusal). You can see the board in the upper-right corner of this
>picture (or maybe it's the middle right?):
>
>http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/imlac/imlac6.jpg
>
>>Also, I've got lots of parts to get your PDS-1 in running order.
>>
>
>Cool!
>
>Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Thu Oct 31 2002 - 13:57:00 GMT

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