2012-02-04T15:29:34Z Peter Dassow Copyright 2012, Peter Dassow SPHPBLOG Do you remember ?

(btw if you're using Firefox and Adblock, this image may be blocked too)

Regardless of this, I found some useful links for my DEC PWS Miata.
Maintenance guides and docs
http://www.o3one.org/hwdocs/alpha/miata_pws_.html
A collection of hints and small guides
http://www.turquoisewitch.com/~bradh/miata/Service/

Especially the error codes (LED codes and beeps codes) were interesting.

Also, I found an outdated hint about installing CentOS and OpenBSD on a Miata (PWS).
http://www.cromwell-intl.com/unix/linux-alpha.html
CentOS development for Alpha CPUs were stopped in 2006 (latest CentOS Release is 4.3)
OpenBSD is still also available for Alpha CPUs - Release is 5.0 (November 2011!)

So best choice for my PWS433a (beside a Windows 2000 RC2 for Alpha Build 2128) is OpenBSD at the moment, OpenVMS would be still interesting but license is time limited and not very easy to get.

Related link leads to current OpenBSD distribution for Alpha.]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry111110-220000 2011-11-10T00:00:00Z 2011-11-10T00:00:00Z http://alker33.wordpress.com

He shows an Apple Lisa 1 running with a very early operating system version - named "Lisa Office System"(LOS) 1.0 - and surprisingly also with a kind of 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive named "Twiggy media".
I've seen more than one Apple Lisa in real, but never with such floppy drives.
So take a look at his blog entry now:
http://alker33.wordpress.com/2010/12/29 ... er-of-gui/

Here is a picture of it:


Very nice!

Btw... it seems he is addicted to Lisa's. See his whole collection here:
http://alker33.wordpress.com/2011/04/05 ... ollection/]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry111015-150000 2011-10-15T00:00:00Z 2011-10-15T00:00:00Z
This computer was ahead of the times, he offered a powerful CPU, a GUI (like the Macintosh), and was affordable !
Unfortunately marketing and also product development was chaotic.

I remembered it again and buyed one again. Here is my new (old) Atari Mega STE:

It comes with a TT-alike case but only with a 16MHz 68000 CPU, 4MB RAM, a build in harddisk, an additional floppy drive, a Lacom/Syquest 44MB removable (hard)disk and an obligatory monochrome monitor (SM124).

At the moment, it runs without problems (boots from harddisk), but I did not get a Lacom driver/utility disk also.
Also amazing, that keyboard is really usable, compared to earlier ST models, this was really a progress.

I started to look for Atari ST software and I was a bit surprised - you can't find so many sites with software ... may be some with games, but applications and utilities ? Nope. I even convinced you can find CP/M software more easily than ST software :-(

Update: Meanwhile I changed the TOS version from 2.05 to 2.06, when powering up, now I got an Atari Logo and a boot progress bar :-) Thx to "Gaga" (he sold me these 2 TOS EPROM Chips, discussion about it can be found at http://forum.atari-home.de) again ...]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry110917-140000 2011-09-17T00:00:00Z 2011-09-17T00:00:00Z
Found a web site which still offers ZX81 kits.
Like in the "Good old days", you can create your own, brand new ZX81.

Just visit http://www.zx81kit.com/zx81_kits.htm
The costs ? A bit expensive... £199.99

Also revisited again and still available... MS-DOS 1.x/2.x sources almost finished on a czech web page. It's name is MICRODOS and LT-DOS.
Here is the "google" translated page link:
http://translate.google.de/translate?js ... mp;act=url

Compared to FreeDOS it's much smaller. So it's very interesting as a base for an embedded PC, but also interesting to port it to a vintage PC back ;-)
]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry110821-220000 2011-08-21T00:00:00Z 2011-08-21T00:00:00Z
http://virtuallyfun.blogspot.com/
becomes
http://virtuallyfun.superglobalmegacorp.com/

This site is still a rich source even for re-compiled programs e.g. to run software on DEC Alpha machines (like my PWS433a) with Windows NT for Alpha (you know, there was also an almost finished Windows 2000 for Alpha which runs great!).

I discovered also this blog described the usage of "Stacker" for OS/2.
I didn't know this "Stacker" was also available for OS/2, I thought it was only included or created for MS-DOS 6.20 ;-)
]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry110718-220000 2011-07-18T00:00:00Z 2011-07-18T00:00:00Z http://www.nekochan.net/weblog/archives ... -8080.html
And the sequel: http://www.nekochan.net/weblog/archives ... entor.html
This blog has many other retrocomputer entries, too.

The former Z80PACK site "unix4fun" will not be recovered.
But there is another backup now:
http://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/index.html

I also found an ebook / PDF about 8080/Z80 assembler programming.
http://porwin-ebook.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... embly.html

And btw... if you're a german, you have to visit a vintage computer enthusiast meeting named "Z-Fest".
Infos can be found here: http://www.z-fest.de/ ... it's celebrated at the end of June...
]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry110604-210000 2011-06-04T00:00:00Z 2011-06-04T00:00:00Z
I didn't found so much infos about it yet, but it seems to be the oldest computer with a 8 bit CPU in one desktop case.

Some additional pictures can be found here:
http://online.sfsu.edu/~hl/c.Intellec8.html
or here
http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/I ... o-1972.htm
or even here
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/3366/Intellec-8/

A larger list of these earlier machines can be found here:
http://www.dvq.com/oldcomp/micros.htm

There is a Youtube video about a working Intellec 8 system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq93EPmCNwM
(this was in fact the Intellec-8 mod 80)

In german, but still interesting:
http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-st ... intellec8/

I know there was an OS named ISIS for the Intellec-8 mod 80 (which had an Intel 8080 inside).
If someone have more information about an OS for the 8008 version, please tell me or comment it - thanks.

The R2E Micral was mentioned in a blog entry already:
http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry= ... 219-210000
]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry110409-153000 2011-04-09T00:00:00Z 2011-04-09T00:00:00Z But now, there is some hope... I was waiting for a 64bit version of Delphi for years.
Now there is one:

You can view a sneak preview movie about it at embarcadero.com:
http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/64-bit

Hopefully this 64bit version of Delphi will be available within the next months.
And I still have hope, it will be only an update for current customers of Delphi XE.
]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry110408-183825 2011-04-08T00:00:00Z 2011-04-08T00:00:00Z
Just take a look at
http://www.thesvd.com/svd/index.php

It doesn't look very expressive, but it is !

Inside, a PIC 16C74 processor will do the job.
It will be connected with the help of a RS232 interface.
Windows and Linux is supported from PC side.
And it can be build by yourself as a "kit".
]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry110328-223537 2011-03-28T00:00:00Z 2011-03-28T00:00:00Z
http://www.toniwestbrook.com/archives/148

This is not very cheap, but seems to be an easy way to get files through an Ethernet network or even via WiFi connection from and to a CP/M computer.
Also, a modem can be emulated (think about using RBBS hosted on an old CP/M computer).
Unfortunately, this doesn't mean you have something like a drive extension (getting files from and to a PC), and so you're still limited to communication programs at the CP/M side.

May be Kermit can be used (at PC side, PC-Kermit 95 through network, at CP/M side, the old Kermit 4.11). I don't know. Have to ask Toni (I will update this entry if I get an answer).
]]> http://www.z80.eu/blog/index.php?entry=entry110316-124850 2011-03-16T00:00:00Z 2011-03-16T00:00:00Z