New TV show - Halt and Catch Fire

[Osgeld]

agreed I think that's why I lost interest, everything the show tries to make "gee willikers" is about 5 years late to the game, OR they are making it out way harder than it was for a company to accomplish, add in the over the top soap opera drama ...

 

needs a greybeard to smack some reality in their story heh

 

if one craves good propaganda, drama and 100% reality please watch

 

 

target was to release the Rainbow 100, a high res (1280x1024 mono i think like xerox?) workstation PC IN 1982, unlike this show which is still treating computer development like it was 1972.

[re-atari]

What next, they are going to scream with applause for graphics dedicated chips sets (i.e. video cards)

IIRC, ANTIC was the first and also the only video processor that had its own 'programming language' until Texas Insrumenents released the TIGA family, starting with the 34010 around 1990. These were predominantly targeted at the professional market, mainly for hires CAD/CAM. I remember reading an article about how to program the TIGA, it was amazing to see how it resembled programming ANTIC.

 

I still have a Eizo 34020 TIGA board in my collection, it's a full length piece of beauty to watch.

 

re-atari

[Stormtrooper of Death]

Concerning lugable computers. I have several Toshiba T computers. T3100e/40, T3200SX, T5100 and T5200. All of them work perfect and have the nice red plasma screen. The T3100e/40 has a very interesting videochip. Its a mix between CGA and EGA. I bought several of these machines, because i really love the red plasma screen. (red text on black background). awesome to play old Infocom or Sierra adventures on. I also have some other old laptops, luggables. First laptop with a touchscreen. The Compaq Concerto. Nice machine. Also another laptop that has the first touchpad ever. etc.etc.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Stormtrooper of Death

[+Stephen]

IIRC, ANTIC was the first and also the only video processor that had its own 'programming language' until Texas Insrumenents released the TIGA family, starting with the 34010 around 1990. These were predominantly targeted at the professional market, mainly for hires CAD/CAM. I remember reading an article about how to program the TIGA, it was amazing to see how it resembled programming ANTIC.

 

I still have a Eizo 34020 TIGA board in my collection, it's a full length piece of beauty to watch.

 

re-atari

Have any pics?

[bbking67]

agreed I think that's why I lost interest, everything the show tries to make "gee willikers" is about 5 years late to the game, OR they are making it out way harder than it was for a company to accomplish, add in the over the top soap opera drama ...

 

needs a greybeard to smack some reality in their story heh

 

if one craves good propaganda, drama and 100% reality please watch

 

 

target was to release the Rainbow 100, a high res (1280x1024 mono i think like xerox?) workstation PC IN 1982, unlike this show which is still treating computer development like it was 1972.

Basically its Mad Men set in Texas during the early PC era... I think they are doing a good job with the show... not exactly technically accurate, but they have to make a show of it.

[tschak909]

As an aside. DEC's own entry into the PC business was exactly like a minicomputer company trying to think small. They built three systems:

 

* A system based on a VLSI chipped PDP-8, to run their WPS word processor. (The 325)

* A system based on an even more shrunk down LSI-11 PDP-11, to do...professional stuff (The 350 professional)

* A system built on an 8086, the Rainbow 100.

 

All three of these systems used DEC's _AWFUL_ RX50 dual disk drive (single sided, quad density, single shared head, so much so that the disk in the A drive had to be flipped upside down), these drives could not read normal disks without help, and suffered from severe reliability problems overall...

 

...not to mention, that DEC basically built what it THOUGHT people wanted (small minicomputers, doing late 1970s like minicomputer things), and they built three things that...nobody wanted. They weren't cheap, they weren't all that expandable, and they weren't even all that compatible even with things in its own lineup! (the 325 and 350, even though they were built from minicomputer parts, you had to do considerable effort to port your software over)...

 

And the Rainbow...yes, it could run CP/M 80, yes it could run CP/M 86, and yes, it could run MS-DOS, but IBM compatible IT WAS NOT, not in disk, not in video modes, not in...just about any of it, and it was only marginally cheaper than the IBM hardware. The clone market basically destroyed it. It did have an excellent graphics card, but nothing else was compatible with it.

 

-Thom

[re-atari]

Have any pics?

I will have to look for it, it's in storage somewhere on my loft, in a box with all the videocards I have ever used (ET3000, ET4000, Paradise VGA, Ega Wonder, Trident, Video7, Cirrus, S3, etc.). The careful observer will probably notice I don't like to trash perfectly working stuff.

 

I remember TIGA boards had to be used in conjunction with a standard VGA board, otherwise you didn't get a DOS commandline on screen. TIGA boards were hot in the early 90's. Lots of manufacturers brought out boards, they were seen as the way to go. Well, until cheap Vesa Local Bus Windows accelerators like the s3 911 came out, that is.

 

re-atari

[re-atari]

IIRC, ANTIC was the first and also the only video processor that had its own 'programming language' until Texas Insrumenents released the TIGA family, starting with the 34010 around 1990. These were predominantly targeted at the professional market, mainly for hires CAD/CAM. I remember reading an article about how to program the TIGA, it was amazing to see how it resembled programming ANTIC.

 

I still have a Eizo 34020 TIGA board in my collection, it's a full length piece of beauty to watch.

 

re-atari

 

Have any pics?

I have already found the board, it's a MD-B11, it was stored away along with some other full length boards. I noticed an Adaptec 1740 and 2740, a WD ESDI controller, a few Intel EISA ethernet boards, several Microchannel boards, etc.

 

Sadly my memory has played a trick on me on the part of the Eizo board, as it turns out to be based not around a 34020 but a 34010. It has 2Mb Vram and a few Mb's of Dram onboard. I couldn't find the accompanying MD-B10 VGA board. I have already taken a few pix, will try uploading them tonight.

 

re-atari

[kenjennings]

I'm losing interest in the show, too. I like that DEC video above a lot more than the show..

 

The first episode seemed interesting, but as happens with every multi-episode series on the tube it seems they're making it up as they go along, throwing more and more plot devices around to make the actors' actions seem logical, but it ends up looking more and more nonsensical from week to week.

 

Maybe it's just me.

[+Stephen]

 

I have already found the board, it's a MD-B11, it was stored away along with some other full length boards. I noticed an Adaptec 1740 and 2740, a WD ESDI controller, a few Intel EISA ethernet boards, several Microchannel boards, etc.

 

Sadly my memory has played a trick on me on the part of the Eizo board, as it turns out to be based not around a 34020 but a 34010. It has 2Mb Vram and a few Mb's of Dram onboard. I couldn't find the accompanying MD-B10 VGA board. I have already taken a few pix, will try uploading them tonight.

 

re-atari

Cool - thanks. While I started with Atari early (1982), we did not have a PC until early 94. It was an AMD 486 DX4-100 with a Boca Voyager VESA Local Bus vid card. If memory serves correctly, it could do 800*600 256 colours. I later had a 3DFX Voodoo 1 card with integrated 2D card. It was HUGE. My Voodoo 2 card was 3D only. Crazy how much has changed.

[ricortes]

As an aside. DEC's own entry into the PC business was exactly like a minicomputer company trying to think small. They built three systems:

 

* A system based on a VLSI chipped PDP-8, to run their WPS word processor. (The 325)

* A system based on an even more shrunk down LSI-11 PDP-11, to do...professional stuff (The 350 professional)

* A system built on an 8086, the Rainbow 100.

 

All three of these systems used DEC's _AWFUL_ RX50 dual disk drive (single sided, quad density, single shared head, so much so that the disk in the A drive had to be flipped upside down), these drives could not read normal disks without help, and suffered from severe reliability problems overall...

 

...not to mention, that DEC basically built what it THOUGHT people wanted (small minicomputers, doing late 1970s like minicomputer things), and they built three things that...nobody wanted. They weren't cheap, they weren't all that expandable, and they weren't even all that compatible even with things in its own lineup! (the 325 and 350, even though they were built from minicomputer parts, you had to do considerable effort to port your software over)...

 

And the Rainbow...yes, it could run CP/M 80, yes it could run CP/M 86, and yes, it could run MS-DOS, but IBM compatible IT WAS NOT, not in disk, not in video modes, not in...just about any of it, and it was only marginally cheaper than the IBM hardware. The clone market basically destroyed it. It did have an excellent graphics card, but nothing else was compatible with it.

 

-Thom

 

 

hehe the PDT-11! I have one of those puppies. Been close to 25 years since I last turned it on.

 

We should remember that much of what we love about 6502 can traces its roots to the DEC way of doing things. The PDP assembly language would be understandable by most 6502 programmers.

Edited August 4, 2014 by ricortes

[tschak909]

Indeed. the 6502 is patterned very heavily after the PDP-8, the 6800's, after the PDP-11

 

-Thom

[re-atari]

Cool - thanks. While I started with Atari early (1982), we did not have a PC until early 94. It was an AMD 486 DX4-100 with a Boca Voyager VESA Local Bus vid card. If memory serves correctly, it could do 800*600 256 colours. I later had a 3DFX Voodoo 1 card with integrated 2D card. It was HUGE. My Voodoo 2 card was 3D only. Crazy how much has changed.

As promised, here is a pic of my MD-B12.

 

 

BTW: you can read a lot of info on legacy videocards on:

 

http://www.vgamuseum.info/

 

I recognized I have a lot of boards listed there in storage on my loft, the oldest being from 1987 or thereabouts. Nostalgia pur sang, practicality zero.

 

re-atari

 

[re-atari]

I recognized I have a lot of boards listed there in storage on my loft, the oldest being from 1987 or thereabouts.

Correction, make that 'the oldest being from 1982'. The one in question is an IBM MDA (text only) 8-bit ISA card installed in my ancient IBM 5150 I have on my loft. This PC is a very early one, it can only take 64Kb max. on its mainboard (4 rows 4116 type DRAM) and had 5 ISA slots, you had to backfill memory (all the way up to 640Kb if your budget allowed it) with memory cards like Quadram built. Later IBM PC´s took 4164 DRAMs and had 8 ISA slots.

 

re-atari

Edited August 6, 2014 by re-atari

[ryanmercer]

I actually like the show, it has me very nostalgic lately. I hadn't fired up my 486 with Windows 3.11 workgroup in a while and go it out, then bought an 800xl which I'm waiting on, looking at some Commodores too, dug out my ancient Basic books, shuddered over Cabbage Patch Kids and Troll Dolls haha.

[Stormtrooper of Death]

This week i bought a 2nd hand Tandy 200 laptop. IT works with 4 AA batteries and has a LCD screen of 40 x 16 chars. Made in 1984. Its cpu is a 80C85 (low power version that is 8085 compatible. Also lots of its mnenomics is z80 alike)

 

When I got it by mail, it worked for 15 minutes. Then it didnt work anymore. So , I ordered a new NiCad 3.6 volt battery. Will install that this weekend and try to get this old machine working again. Its 30 years old. So, rather antique.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Stormtrooper of Death

[FifthPlayer]

IIRC, ANTIC was the first and also the only video processor that had its own 'programming language' until Texas Insrumenents released the TIGA family, starting with the 34010 around 1990.

 

The Amiga's Copper chip is basically ANTIC on steroids. But it was created by the same designers, so I'd would count it as part of a "family" with ANTIC as the first generation.

[atarian63]

not really enjoying it, no Atari ,basically the side of the industry that we ignored. How about some C.E.S. scenes!?

[Kyle22]

I just binge watched all of them over the last two days, I like the show, but I found a few small things that I would like to comment on.

 

1. Why all the wires and the the scope and the blinkey LEDs, and the writing on paper of the PC BIOS? I have a Sunrise Z1000b Universal Programmer from that era that will read and burn all chips from the period. Cardiff could have easily obtained one (for about $10,000), the price isn't the point, EPROM readers/burners were common then. They could have even used a Thompson ProBurner.

 

2. There is a scene of them de-soldering a SOCKET from the board, then removing the ROM chip. Just stupid.

 

3. Joe is a complete asshole, and I did NOT appreciate the homosexual gay scenes of him. (As an aside, I absolutely love Dr. Who and Torchwood, but the gayness of Capt. Jack Harkness really puts me off). Absolutely NOT appropriate.

 

4. Cameron is a hottie, the fantasy of any computer geek. I liked her fast modem / online gaming idea. That's very close to the truth that the Govt / Phone Co. resists the use of "non-approved" devices.

 

5. They were happy when they thought they were located at COMDEX beside Tandy and Commie, with no mention of Atari.

 

6. Yeah, SAM was first before MAC, and Atari had the hardware SC-01 in the 14xx also before Mac.

 

7. Joe apparently got away with setting up the hijack of Gordon's Porsche, and the burning of the delivery van containing the first shipment of Giants.

 

 

 

Overall, I liked it... I hope they make another season of it. (Minus Joe).

[FifthPlayer]

3. Joe is a complete asshole, and I did NOT appreciate the homosexual gay scenes of him. (As an aside, I absolutely love Dr. Who and Torchwood, but the gayness of Capt. Jack Harkness really puts me off). Absolutely NOT appropriate.

 

Agree with you that Joe is an asshole. There were also some very explicit heterosexual sex scenes between him and Cameron. Can you explain why those scenes were appropriate and the gay ones weren't?

Edited June 1, 2015 by FifthPlayer

[JamesD]

I thought the only reason they had the sex scenes was because their writing stank and it was a stunt to make up for it in the ratings.

[Kyle22]

 

Agree with you that Joe is an asshole. There were also some very explicit heterosexual sex scenes between him and Cameron. Can you explain why those scenes were appropriate and the gay ones weren't?

Sure, plain and simple. It's an absolute Law of Nature that opposites attract and sames repel. Down to the Sub-atomic level.

 

[Lynxpro]

There was more Atari in the Season 2 premiere last night than in all of Season 1. There were several 800XLs and even a 2600 Jr. The time period was off a bit, especially for the 2600 Jr., but still better than pretending Atari didn't exist. They even name-dropped the company in one scene.

[TrekMD]

That's cool. I haven't watched the episode yet but I do have it recorded.

[Shawn Jefferson]

I just binge watched all of them over the last two days, I like the show, but I found a few small things that I would like to comment on.

 

1. Why all the wires and the the scope and the blinkey LEDs, and the writing on paper of the PC BIOS? I have a Sunrise Z1000b Universal Programmer from that era that will read and burn all chips from the period. Cardiff could have easily obtained one (for about $10,000), the price isn't the point, EPROM readers/burners were common then. They could have even used a Thompson ProBurner.

 

2. There is a scene of them de-soldering a SOCKET from the board, then removing the ROM chip. Just stupid.

It's TV, and most people watching probably didn't pick up on any of that. Generally it was better than a lot of what passes for "computer stuff" in movies and TV.

 

3. Joe is a complete asshole, and I did NOT appreciate the homosexual gay scenes of him. (As an aside, I absolutely love Dr. Who and Torchwood, but the gayness of Capt. Jack Harkness really puts me off). Absolutely NOT appropriate.

Yes, he is an asshole, but I actually sort of like him. The show wouldn't be nearly as good without him... the insanely driven individual with a vision and no scruples about who he has to (quite literally) f*ck on the way to seeing that vision become reality. Partially that was what that scene you didn't like was about. Also, I don't know why you think it was not appropriate... I guess the writers thought it was. I guess what you really meant is that it made you feel uncomfortable.

 

7. Joe apparently got away with setting up the hijack of Gordon's Porsche, and the burning of the delivery van containing the first shipment of Giants.

You never know... they might bring these things back in at some point. I'm not sure how they are going to do that, and whether anyone will care or not, all the other characters know that Joe is an asshole and probably wish they didn't need him.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Shawn Jefferson