New finds: enough Torch stuff to sink a battleship

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed Jun 25 12:24:00 2003

Hi all,

Picked up a huge pile of old Torch hardware, software and manuals from someone
today. The guy worked for the company who took things over when Torch went
under way back when, and grabbed whatever he could when that company eventually
disappeared too. Anyway, I've got a nice pile of spares, schematics and the
like, and probably the most complete set of Torch documentation anywhere...

I'll stick the documentation and software in a seperate mail and just list the
hardware here. Everything needs a damn good cleaning and checking over before I
attempt to see what still works! Pictures can follow in a few days, but I'm
reorganising all my data at the moment and don't want to confuse myself by
adding anything halfway through :-)

Oh, I don't know the damn naming convention for D-type connectors, so
everything's a 'D' type to me. Apologies in advance...


Triple X 'prototype'
--------------------
Supposedly this was a prototype of a Triple X machine used in-house by Torch,
presumably for development purposes. I'm not 100% convinced yet but I haven't
yet been inside it! It's built into two seperate grey metal cases (hard &
floppy disk / CPU) - certainly not production-quality either, but the official
badging suggests it perhaps wasn't a homebrew project either, so who knows.
  - Top metal case houses hard disk and floppy in metal case; rear just has
power and 50-pin SCSI connector.
  - Bottom slice is the CPU box; there's a standard-looking Triple X keyboard
attached (cable runs through a hole in the case). The front has power LED only
and stuck-on label reading: "XXX iss.2 in disguise" :-) The rear has the
following with 'proper' lettering:
    50 pin SCSI running to disk unit
    Low-volts out (via bodged connector) for disk unit
    "Video" (small hole in case only)
    "Torchnet" (small hole in case only)
    "Disc interface" (blanked off)
    RS423 (25-w D female)
    Parallel (25-w D female)
    RGB (round DIN, 8 pin)
    Cassette (round DIN, 7 pin)
    Reset button (I assume)
    Mains AC input
    Power switch



"Torch Hard Disc"
-----------------
This thing weighs one hell of a lot! 2-tone brown metal case, with inbuilt
floppy, hard drive, and monitor. Data sticker gives the model as a C520 and the
serial as 84472645
Power supply is in a seperate unit (see below) but still feeds mains into the
machine via seperate plug by the looks of it, presumably for the display
circuitry.
 
Back-left corner:
  Keyboard socket (15-w D female)
  Reset (??)
  Contrast ?
Back-right corner:
  Mains in (probably!) - from power supply unit
  19-w huge round connector to mate with power supply
Rear:
  UHF socket
  RGB (6-way DIN)
  Cassette (7-way DIN)
  Analogue (15-way D female)
  RS423 (25-way D female)
  Printer (25-way D male)

The keyboard has a regular spacebar plus a small key to the right labelled
'exact space' - curious.


"Torch HD Power Pack"
---------------------
For use with above machine. Guess they ran out of space in the main case :)
Has the following:
  Mains AC input
  Mains AC out (I assume??) via short trailing lead
  19-way round connector to mate with above machine on a short trailing lead
  Power switch (likely!)
  Reset button (?? If so, what's the pushbutton on the main system unit for?)


Torch-725
---------
This may be a Quad X machine; if so then there aren't many of them left I
expect! It is according to the previous owner, but it doesn't say so on any of
the badging. Case is grey steel, about the size/shape of an IBM XT case. Data
sticker gives the model as a "725/U" and the serial as "84022913"
At the front we have:
  2 x slimline 5.25" floppy drives
  Hard disk led visible through window cut in the case
  Power led
Whilst at the rear:
  Reset button
  Keyboard socket, 15-w D female
  Phone-jack type connector (Mouse? Or alternate keyboard socket - I have
keyboards with both type of connector? Or modem?)
  "RS423 #1" - 25-w D female
  Parallel - 25-w D male
  Blanked ports: "RS423 #2", "RS423 #3", "Extension bus", SCSI, X25
  Analogue port, 15-w D female
  Torchnet port, 5-w DIN
  RGB 6-w DIN
  Mains in
  Mains out
  Switch (power I assume!!)
  Large grille for cooling fan


Monitors
--------

One of these should work with the 725 above, another with the Triple X
'prototype' I guess.

  Single Torch Triple X 13" monitor, model CM13. 8-pin DIN input.
  Two Torch Triple X 10" monitors, model CM10. 8pin DIN input
  Unknown 14" RGB monitor, 15-w D type female input. Likely nothing to do with
the Torch systems but I guess it'll probably work given a suitable cable.


Keyboards
---------

One of these for torch-725 presumably, which doesn't have an 'obvious' keyboard
like the C520, and doesn't have one attached like the 'prototype'.

  Four Triple X keyboards; with 6-pin phone-type flat plugs on trailing leads
and 6-pin phone-type flat sockets on back of the keyboard (for mice?)
  Two Cherry-made XT-style keyboards with 15-pin D-type male connectors on
trailing leads.


Mice

----
I believe the previous owner said the C520 was too old to use a mouse, but the
other two systems should support them I think.
Anyway, I have six Triple X mice using 6-pin phone-type flat plugs. The cover
for one came off and fell down a convenient drain though - whoops... (there are
only ever drain covers around when you have something useful to drop down them)
Misc
----
  Torch Z80 disc pack - grey metal case for two half-height 5.25" drives; it's
been stripped of drives but I think the psu is intact. I believe this needs an
interface card (which may well be amongst the cards listed below)
  Triple X PSU (or so I was told; not having a 'genuine' Triple X I don't
know!)
  Box of genuine spare Quad X PAL chips and eproms
  Box of spare Triple X PAL chips and eproms
  Box of spare BBC/Torch eproms (presumably for 68k boards etc.)
Floppy drives
-------------
The owner was having a clear-out so I took a few off his hands - a couple I
noticed were Torch-labelled.
  Four full-height IBM XT style units
  Five half-height units hand-labelled as 1.2MB
  Seven half-height units hand-labelled as 360KB
  Eighteen (!) unknown capacity drives.
Five of the unknowns are still bagged and unused.
Hard drives
-----------
Unknown models / capacities as of yet... not had time to delve into them. 
  Four 5.25" MFM drives, one labelled as Quad X and may still have an OS
intact.
  Three 3.5" MFM drives.
Tape drives
-----------
Possibly for Quad X? Anyway, there are a couple of 5.25" HH units; not given
them more than a brief glance yet so not sure of manufacturer / capacity /
interface.
Spare boards
------------
Couple of boxes of spare boards came with everything... all connectors are
dual-row IDC type sockets unless I say otherwise :)
  Two Torch Computers 68000 boards. 68k and Z80B CPUs on board, 4 pin
single-row connector (power I expect) and 40 pin data connector. I believe
these plug into the BBC machines so that they can run Torch's version of CP/M?
One is a later model than the other and badged as an Atlas board.
  Three Torch Z80 Communicator boards. Z80A CPU on board, 40 pin data
connector. Another BBC plugin? The owner had hundreds of them apparently and
most of them went to landfill a while ago.
  Unknown Torch Z80 card. 40-pin connector at one end, 26-pin connector at the
other. Z80A CPU and SIO chips on board, plus 6522A and an 8255 chip. ROM is
Torch labelled as CCCP V1.02
  Three Torch internal (internal to what, though?) modems - 40-pin connectors,
plus 4-pin single-row for power. Several 40-pin chips: Z80 PIO, MC6803,
EF68A21P. ROM is Torch, labelled as "ADM5 2.1". Also a TM2016 chip on board
(memory I believe) and a 28-pin IC branded as "world-chip".
  Two oddball "modems". I don't even know if that's what they are :-)  2x 4-pin
single-row connectors, 14 pin single-row connector, then a long trailing lead
terminated in a 5 way rounded jack plug. I've not seen those jack plugs on
anything before, but it's possible old UK phone exchange equipment might have
used them - anyone? There's very little in the way of logic on the boards -
it's all analogue. Boards are 6" x 7". Trailing lead goes into a large white
plastic 'box' in one corner of the board. On top of this, apparently as an
afterthought, is a glued-on smaller black box out of which come two leads that
connect back to pins on the 14 pin connector. Hardware hacking at its best...
Right, the following appear to all be protocol convertor / interface boards for
various storage devices. All are on boards around 6" x 8" in size, and all have
a single 4 pin power connector (I may have manuals for all of these; I haven't
got that far yet!):
  Seven issue 3 Torch manta boards, for converting between SCSI and floppy
interfaces.
  Single issue 5 Torch manta board
  Four OMT boards (model 5200) with a 50 pin connector, 2x  34-pin connectors
and 2x 20 pin connectors. SCSI (or SASI?) to MFM disk?
  Single OMT board with a 50 pin connector, 34-pin connector, and 4x 20 pin
connectors. maybe SCSI (or SASI?) to MFM disk again?
  Four Xebec boards with a 50 pin connector, 3x 20 pin connectors and single
34-way edge connector.
  Single Xebec board with a 50 pin connector, 2x 20 pin connectors and single
34-way edge connector.
  Two Archive boards with a 50-pin connector at one end and a 50-way edge
connector at the other.5 LEDs by the power connector. Tape interface of some
sort, presumably?
  Single Emulex board, 2x 50-pin connectors at opposite ends of the board. Hmm.
Tape again?
  Single Adaptec board, 2x 50-pin connectors at opposite ends of the board. 
  Single Western Digital board (labelled WD1002-05), 2x 34-pin connectors, 3x
20-pin connectors, and a singe 40-pin connector. Only thing I can think of with
40 pins is IDE and it's too early for that I'm sure (last chip date is 1983)
 
I *think* that's all of it, for now. The guy I got these from had several rooms
piled up with stuff; he said he used to have a few 'proper' Triple X systems
and is surprised he threw them out, so they may still be lurking somewhere.
Same goes with other genuine Torch spares, drives, software, cables etc.  
There was a Quad X-on-a-card which I had my eye on but the guy still uses some
of the other cards in the rack for various things, so I couldn't get hold of
that. 
List of manuals and software to follow...
cheers
Jules
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Received on Wed Jun 25 2003 - 12:24:00 BST