Atari 800 Engineering Serial 26

[ClausB]

https://archive.org/details/LNBUG2

 

Interesting Colleen prototype memory maps on pages 16 and 20. CTIA, ANTIC, POKEY, PIA addresses line up with those in this thread's first post.

Edited February 15 by ClausB

[ClausB]

[_The Doctor__]

Maybe this helps with the developers side card that Curt had, the left side expansion board of the 800 not in home user machines. Using the map you now know where to attach and how to access some of the ports. Some clue about the switches too.

This makes sense especially with the optional second terminal uart for use with the s-100 attached, nice clausb

[ClausB]

I'm not sure whether or not this Colleen Development System was itself an S-100 machine. Anyone know?

[_The Doctor__]

The machine connected to an s100 through the terminal uart,

The s100 was used to perform operations for the unit, They could be operated stand alone or together, not unlike devices today

In as much as an s100 back plane was used for development cards, it's not unexpected in development

check the notes for stand alone modes

there were two uarts for connections with one for PDP and one for s100, mapped in at different locations

Edited February 15 by _The Doctor__

[ClausB]

Well, MAP-1 above refers to an 8K Byte Saver board, which was S-100:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromemco_Bytesaver

 

[_The Doctor__]

Yes, and there was an m-card (aka m-drive/h) as well as a rom simulator in the s-100

The rom simulator ribbon cable headers plugged into the rom socket

There should be three sections of the notes, one for each

The mode was either 16k or 8k split so 16k or 8 k and 8k byte saver so that tracks on the s-100 side

By split I mean you could program and save 8k and read  8k , as it programmed and read eproms, in almost the same way as ram. So program and read only, or read and write.

It's not perfectly clear but more should turn up, kind of nice how things are going in terms of software and hardware being re discovered and unearthed.

 

Edited February 16 by _The Doctor__

[_The Doctor__]

Maybe this will make more sense...

s100 with 2 custom atari cards, one a 6500 series cpu card the other an interface card, 16kbase ram, 32k optional in either two 16k cards , or one 32k card, prom card, byte saver card is optional, but is more convenient, optional rom simulator card, floppy/hard drive card, serial card configured for terminals (remember s100 uses dumb terminals for input and display)

this is interfaced to a display and an 800 as well

this is not unlike the system used for 2600 software developers

 

My system had an M-Drive/H card for Ram drive or ramdisk etc but that slot is now empty and I can not find the card, I could however use an eprom card in it's place

 

Edited February 16 by _The Doctor__

[ClausB]

From Goldberg & Vendel, 'Business Is Fun':

Edited February 16 by ClausB

[_The Doctor__]

That's pretty consistent. Looks about the same as what I have said except mine serves my Atari 800 as a development platform. The system is a mix of compupro, godbout, and other cards. As to name brand, The cromenco, compupro etc they're all s100 machines, consider that they're not unlike clones were over the years. Each step adding on the one before until the hardware engineers and developers platform becomes a software development platform. You find parts of it's suite are not unlike mac65, so which came first? Much appeared to be happening at the same time. Parallel projects on multiple platforms is also common.

 

further edit, just grabbed a manual from archive.org

 

minimum system listed as follows on the s100

 

1 Atari GVA- 2503 CPU card
1 Dynabyte l6K RAM card
1 Cromemco l6K ROM card
1 Atari GVA-2504 Trace Memory Interface Card
 

 

You are still going to want a terminal and other odds and ends

Edited February 16 by _The Doctor__

[ClausB]

6 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

mine serves my Atari 800 as a development platform. The system is a mix of compupro, godbout, and other cards.

Got pics? What CPU? What drives? What OS?

[_The Doctor__]

If it's still alive I could maybe do a quick video of it acting as a keyboard for my 800 and then use the 800 to load some software etc. It's all kind of standard fare for today. 8 inch floppies, hard drive, a bunch of ribbon cable and what not out the back Two for the prom/rom simulator with headers and the serial cables to the dumb terminal etc.

I might have to open it up to make sure nothing is nested inside or eaten wires, but it was working a 7 or more years ago.

It weighs to much for me to move these days. each part of the the machine is about the size of decent luggage and weighs quite a few pounds.

I'm still deciding what to do with it, it also was used to work on apple and ti,

The desk was two desks long with apple ii, ti (and expansion), atari 2600, and the three main s100 boxes, followed by two 800's and an XL, the s100 is no longer connected to a network as it no longer exists and certainly not at this location.

 

Edited February 16 by _The Doctor__