Yes, no new technical entry.

But one brainteaser for you: What's that ?

Please comment or send me an email.
...

Instead of "googling" again and again, I am posting a few very interesting pages here, which are living (no static pages since years):

http://www.vintagecomputer.net/

This site has tons of small articles about interesting vintage hardware stuff.
Most recommended!

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/forum.php

Still with a living community.

http://www.forum.z80.de/

German board, sometimes seems to be dying (no more new entries), but then all of a sudden some interesting entries can be found you didn't find anywhere else.

http://classic-computers.org.nz/blog/index.htm

Very interesting entries - most of them also hardware related ;-))

http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/11/25/nin ... s-and-80s/

Not a site, but a nice blog entry about computer ads from the seventies.

... btw if you're interested on more ad's -> http://oldcomputers.net/oldads/old-computer-ads.html

http://www.retrocomputers.eu/

Interesting site with a broad spectrum ;-)

http://www.theoldcomputer.com/blog/retroblog.html

Last but not least, nice, but unfortunately no new entries since a year.

Can be seen here:
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=22

You only need a power supply with 3.6V-5.5V.
It has a serial interface (TTL levels) with auto-baud feature from 300 to 256K baud rates.
You can use microSD cards up to 2GB (formatted with FAT16).
It's very small and should fit in any vintage computer case.

The price is really fair - $29 is not really expensive.
I've even found a distributor in Europe ( http://www.tigal.com/1556 ).
If you're curious about the commands you have to send, take a look into this PDF:
https://old.4dsystems.com.au/downloads/Semiconductors/GOLDELOX-SGC/Docs/GOLDELOX-SGC-COMMANDS-SIS-rev6.pdf

You have to add a MAX232 or a similar chip for converting voltage level to RS232.

P.S.: Meanwhile I have created an own page for it, see here.

P.P.S.: 4D Systems does not sell nor produce it anymore. Milford Instruments sells it now (search for udrive on their web page).

Have added a download possibility of the CP/M Walnut Creek CD here.

Many (not all) files can be found also here.
The original Simtel website doesn't offer these files anymore, see here.

A few rare files can be found also here.

It's a pitty that there are not many other possibilities.

Because of popular demand - here are some other links, and with a full BEEHIVE branch:

gopher.floodgap.com
www.scovetta.com
z80cpu.eu/mirrors/
ftp.catcorner.org
maben.homeip.net (BEEHIVE missing)
ferretronix.com/march/ (BZIP2 compressed archive)

Added later: There's another ISO image at n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com available.

Vince Briel developed already a lot of other interesting things like a working Apple I replica and a KIM replica (of course 6502 based, not 8080 or Z80).
Now he had a brilliant new idea ... building an Altair replica (with an emulated 8080 cpu based on an ATMEL AVR) ... I was a bit sceptical because an ATMEL CPU isn't a number cruncher monster, but it seems to work - hopefully at least with the speed of the original machine.
Also, I am curious about running CP/M on that machine, did not see any comment so far about it.


Here are the specifications:

Emulated 8080 run at speed or faster than original
32K RAM with BASIC loaded at power up (still in the works may have to load from SD card)
VGA or composite TV video output to a monitor
PS/2 keyboard
SD card slot to load/store software through terminal section
Battery option (not tested, may not work well with so many LED’s)
Diode circuit protection for battery/DC input.

Very nice design also, because you do not need an external terminal, just a VGA monitor and a PS/2 keyboard. Hopefully this project will get finished with a full success.
If anybody has seen screenshots from the working system (screen with CP/M or BASIC...), let me know where...

Wow. I love old computer advertisments. This one is my favorite:

And the page with the Startrek BASIC game will be more interesting than ever ;-)

Please take a look also at the commercial video with William Shatner at Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUEI7mm8M7Q
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVX5cyMOGAk