I jumped to soon, I checked into the two board set and Dwight is indeed correct about the channel board only being test signals. When I got my first "surplus" system, it came with dual connectors and had both cards plugged into cables that ran to the back and the internal drive. Why they kept both cables now is a mystery...
-----Original Message-----
From: "Dwight K. Elvey" <dwight.elvey(a)amd.com>
Sent: Nov 1, 2004 11:51 AM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Intel MDS Further Information
Hi
I forgot to mention. Only one of the two disk cards has the
top edge connectors used. The other is just for test access.
Dwight
that is not correct. The top connector is used to supply a cable to the internal disk drive for DD.
-----Original Message-----
From: "Dwight K. Elvey" <dwight.elvey(a)amd.com>
Sent: Nov 1, 2004 11:51 AM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Intel MDS Further Information
Hi
I forgot to mention. Only one of the two disk cards has the
top edge connectors used. The other is just for test access.
Dwight
---snip---
>>>---------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>>Next Board Up
>>>
>>>Floppy Disk Controller Channel
>>>PWA 10000457-05
>>>(may have copied down one extra 'zero' in above part number)
>>>
>>>This board does not have a cable plugged into the 'top' edge connector.
>>>Edge connector shows 'weathering' from not having connector on it.
>>>
Hi
I forgot to mention. Only one of the two disk cards has the
top edge connectors used. The other is just for test access.
Dwight
Hi
I knew one of the fellows that wrote the 3000 code for
the double density controller. A fellow named Lou Bolardo.
It always astounded me that it took 2 boards to do a disk
controller. I guess when one is selling the systems at
$10K+ it didn't make too much difference as to how much
space one used.
Dwight
>From: "Steve Thatcher" <melamy(a)earthlink.net>
>
>the very first MDS800 I worked on in 1977 was SD based and used ISIS (not
>ISIS-II). In fact, I even had the paper tape reader and punch to go with
>it. Company is long gone of course, but my memory lingers on.
>
>When I spoke about the 8271, I was talking about the IOC board in the
>series II and was not talking about the MDS800 because it had no internal
>boards other than the bus board all the carded plugged into. The 8271 was
>not introduced until 1977 when the Series II was released. The MDS800 was
>released in 1975.
>
>Their decision was based on available technology...
>
>At 12:40 PM 10/30/2004, you wrote:
>>At 11:48 AM 10/30/04 -0400, you wrote:
>> >I thought that the SD controller board set was also bit slice (the series
>>II internal was of course 8271 based).
>>
>> That's possible but I've never seen a SD board set and I have 8 or nine
>>complete machines and about that many more for parts plus hundreds of
>>Multibus cards. I guess that anyone that paid for a board set went with the
>>DD set. I don't think that the SD set is even shown in the few catalogs
>>that I have. I wonder why Intel would use bit slice on the SD board set
>>instead of an 8271?
>>
>> Joe
>
>
Hi
The controller boards for DD were not that hard to talk
too. The fact that they used the 3000 series had little
effect on the main bus interface. It was just some simple
I/O port operations to do disk I/O. It was actually simpler
than the typical WesternDigital chips.
Dwight
>From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com>
>
> That's interesting. I've never even heard of a white MDS-800 before. Was
>it painted white originally or was it painted over an orginal blue one?
>
> I think you need a lot more than rewriting the BIOS to handle DD disks.
>Intels DD controller has a 3000 series bit-slice CPU and some other odd
>circuitry to handle DD.
>
> Joe
>
>
>At 11:39 AM 10/29/04 +0200, you wrote:
>>I have a white MDS 800 System. It was sold in Germany by Siemens and they
>>relabelled it to SME 800 ("Siemens Microcomputer Entwicklungssystem").
>>It has an external 8"-double drive and a dumb terminal. Inside it is all
>>Intel. The only thing they changed internal: The glued "Siemens"-labels
>>over the original Intel-logos on the PCBs.
>>
>>You can see it:
>> http://computermuseum-stuttgart.de/dev/sme800
>>
>>We are running ISIS-II inclusive KERMIT on it. One time Christian Corti
>>succeeded to boot a CP/M 2.?. But in the meantime this disk was damaged.
>>I found a very old CP/M source, dated "11/21/75" in the net, written in
>>PL/M and was able to translate it with the original PL/M-compiler
>>written in FORTRAN (dated: JAN 1975) on our SUN 4/260.
>>What is needed: To adapt the original BIOS for single density disks to
>>the double density drives on our system and to make bootable floppies.
>>
>>Cheers
>> Klemens
>>
>>
>>On Wed, 27 Oct 2004, Steve Thatcher wrote:
>>
>>> I lived in Munich, Germany for a year and a half back in 1983 while I was
>>> working for Applied Microsystems. I developed a couple of the EM series
>>> emulators and ran into a number of remarked Intel systems that said
>Siemens
>>> on the outside.
>>>
>>>
>>>> I've never heard of a Siemans system. The white MDSs that I've seen all
>>>> have the standard Intel markings and labels. (I've got one sitting about 3
>>>> feet from me as I type.)
>>>>
>>>> Joe
>>>
>>
>>--
>>
>>klemens krause
>>Stuttgarter KompetenzZentrum fyr Minimal- & Retrocomputing.
>>http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
>>
>>
>
I have finally got around to putting the
"Intersil Intercept Jr tutorial system IM6100" up on eBay it is item
5135664035
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5135664035
Hope this reaches all who are interested and doesn't annoy too many of those
who are not :-)
Andy
probably more likely that Siemens cross licensed the chips (made those) and wanted development support for them in Europe. Intel manufactured Siemens brand MDS systems during that time at part of the license agreement
-----Original Message-----
From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com>
Sent: Oct 31, 2004 9:53 PM
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: new find: an Intel MDS 800
At 08:07 AM 10/30/04 -0400, you wrote:
>Siemens and Intel worked together on Multibus-II products in the mid 80s'
I don't know if Intel worked together with any of them but at one time
there were over 200 companies producing Multibus cards. In this area, I
find a LOT of Harris cards.
Joe
>
>At 06:30 PM 10/27/2004 -0400, Dave Mabry wrote:
>>I seem to remember that Intel had some sort of marketing agreement with
>>Siemens. There were several Intel products that had Siemens logos on
>>them sold in Europe. Unfortunately, I don't remember the specifics.
>>
>>Steve Thatcher wrote:
>>
>>> I lived in Munich, Germany for a year and a half back in 1983 while I
>>> was working for Applied Microsystems. I developed a couple of the EM
>>> series emulators and ran into a number of remarked Intel systems that
>>> said Siemens on the outside.
>>>
>>>
>>>> I've never heard of a Siemans system. The white MDSs that I've seen
>>>> all
>>>> have the standard Intel markings and labels. (I've got one sitting
>>>> about 3
>>>> feet from me as I type.)
>>>>
>>>> Joe
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>Michael Thompson
>E-Mail: M_Thompson(a)IDS.net
>
>
it works just fine and I just cut and pasted it from browsing just before I sent the message. I also just cut and pasted the link just a moment ago that I gave out and it works fine. Try going just to www.Intel.com - if you can't get there it could be a Florida issue (I am in Virginia). Every once in awhile, the lines appear to go down that connect the US together. If the browser said it was trying to open the site then the DNS server supplied an IP address to your browser and there is a line issue to the west coast. If it said it was trying to find the site, then you were not able to get to the DNS server to translate the name to an IP address and your connection to the DNS server is in question.
Of course it could be a browser issue if you aren't using that OS and browser that lots of people seem to blast all the time... (I don't recall your preference)
best regards, Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com>
Sent: Oct 31, 2004 9:57 PM
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: new find: an Intel MDS 800
At 03:36 PM 10/31/04 -0500, you wrote:
>Intel has a complete chronology of all their devices and systems at:
>
>http://www.intel.com/intel/intelis/museum/archives/timeline/
It's a dead link when I try it. How long since you've looked at it? I
remember seeing a chronological list from Intel a couple of years ago but
it only including ICs.
Joe
>
>
>
>> How sure are you of these dates? I've been trying to find out exactly
>>when the various models were released but never found found anything that
>>was authoritative.
>>
>> Joe
>
>
