FA: Altera PLD programmer, Motorola HYPERmodules and IBM PC

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat Aug 16 18:58:01 2003

> On Fri, 15 Aug 2003, ben franchuk wrote:
> > Did anybody ever run just BASIC from Rom, no DOS at all.
> Yes.
> The PC was available without drives $1320 with 16K RAM
> and "cassette BASIC" was necessary for troubleshooting when the drives
> didn't work.

Indeed. A couple of years back I had a floppy controller problem with the
XT that runs my EPROM programmer, etc. I put the board on an extender,
and used OUT commands from cassette BASIC to write to the various ports
while I looked at signals with the LogicDart. Didn't take long to find
the failed inverter chip that was holding the 8272 permanently reset...

> > Lets face it the only thing
> > good at that time on it was the keyboard and mono-display and warranty.
> > Ben.
> What's SO good about that display? ($300 for board, $300 for monitor)

Well, it didn't flicker (unlike CGA), and the monitor is really pleasant
to read. In fact I am looking at a real IBM 5151 MDA monitor right now...

> At least they also sold the CGA, which could be used with a "normal"
> composite monitor.

And which did sort-of graphics (the MDA is strictly text-only). Of course
you can have both an MDA and a CGA card in the same machine (my PC/XT and
PC/AT machines that I _use_ are configured that way).

>
> Warranty ?????!!!!!!!???
> What for?
> I didn't void my warranty for 72 hours.

How long? I don't think I've ever kept a warranty for more than a day :-)

-tony
Received on Sat Aug 16 2003 - 18:58:01 BST