BIT 483 / was Re: Non-fake Apple 1 on ebay

[CSquared]

Brent Hilpert wrote:
>>  A fellow on the VCForum found a BIT 483. Now that is
>> at least as rare as the A1. I have a Nicolet 1080 that I only know
>> of 5 total. There may be more but they are not likely in
>> another collectors hands without them contacting me or Sellam.
> 
> I was going to ask about the BIT 483, but I see you and Chuck are already on
> top of it:
> 
>    http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?p=120353
> 
> I love hearing about these little-known machines. Wish there was picture of the
> internals. Anybody know what sort of market these things found?, or more about
> the company origins/destiny?
> 
That link is quite interesting, especially the pictures.  From the way 
the front panel is laid out, I would assume values are stated in octal 
rather than hex.  The bits on the panel seem to have a 2-3-3 pattern so 
hex FF would be thought of as octal 377.  This appears to be true of the 
2 address bytes as well.  I think this means that for example address 
hex FFFF would be represented as 377,377.  That would take some real 
mental gymnastics to deal with if one was entering a short program or 
debugging manually.  Maybe you can stay under 000,377 for short programs 
and avoid that problem.  Not having read any of the docs I don't know if 
that is possible.

My old Microdata 820 has a 4-4-4-4 front panel pattern which is rather 
easier to deal with I think.  Of course you realize this discussion has 
me wanting to drag it out of the garage and get it going again. :)
Later,
Charlie C.