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DG Nova

ANGELECTRONICS said:
I have a vintage ibm system 32 that debuted on january 7, 1975 its very vintage View attachment 27674
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ANGLETRONICS, you appear to be in the same city as me. I see that your posts here are all about your System/32, but they're all tacked onto inappropriate threads. Is your System/32 for real? If so, you should post pictures of your own machine rather than somebody else's, in a new thread, categorized into an appropriate sub-forum. We can help you if you don't know which sub-forum is appropriate, and I could even come take a look at your machine if you would like, since we're both in Riverside. I have no specific System/32 experience, but I may be able to apply my experience with other vintage computers in some helpful way.


NeXT said:
Except that is The Corestore's System/32 and you read like a robot.
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If he's a robot trying to build a post count to support spamming us, then a pox upon him and his favorite sports team. But if he's a well-meaning real human who just doesn't know about forum etiquette, then let's help him out. If he's really in Riverside, CA, then I'd be happy to go take a look at his machine and report on what I see.
 
NF6X said:
ANGLETRONICS, you appear to be in the same city as me. I see that your posts here are all about your System/32, but they're all tacked onto inappropriate threads. Is your System/32 for real? If so, you should post pictures of your own machine rather than somebody else's, in a new thread, categorized into an appropriate sub-forum. We can help you if you don't know which sub-forum is appropriate, and I could even come take a look at your machine if you would like, since we're both in Riverside. I have no specific System/32 experience, but I may be able to apply my experience with other vintage computers in some helpful way.
If he's a robot trying to build a post count to support spamming us, then a pox upon him and his favorite sports team. But if he's a well-meaning real human who just doesn't know about forum etiquette, then let's help him out. If he's really in Riverside, CA, then I'd be happy to go take a look at his machine and report on what I see.
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Mike sent out a message someone in LA was trying to get rid of one. May be worth contacting to see what's there.
 
Hmm, I don't see a link to PM him on his member profile page. Maybe that's disabled for new, low-post-count users?
 
I've posted a visitor message on his user profile. I'll also go respond in a CCtalk discussion that appears to be about the same machine.
 
What’s with all this unrelated stuff in my thread???? Anyway I have more to report on the Rolm/Data General front. After much time spent reverse engineering the control head and the I/O systems on the CPU I have learned a couple things. First, despite what I thought originally the control panel interface that’s brought out to J1 does not connect to the control panel. I learned this by tracing out all the connections to the plug on the remote head and then tracing the connections on J1 to the remote interface card and nothing lined up, not just an issue with nothing lining up pin to pin but there were only about half the connections necessary for the head to work on J1. Second, once again I am wrong. The manual states that all the I/O cables are pin to pin, I thought this was wrong. The manual is correct and I am at fault. I discovered that J5 that connects to the I/O interface card had all of its fifty five pins line up directly with the fifty five pins on the control head. The control head uses a sixteen bit bidirectional bus for just about everything except reset and the run light. So I started building a cable to go between the head and J5. Spent three days work in building this and now I have the system up and running, at least with the local control head and can do things like examine the accumulators, read or write to memory locations and lots of other functions that I don’t fully understand yet. Fortunately with the help of Bruce Ray and him providing the operators manual for the 1602 I can move forward with trying to learn some of the basics of Nova operation. That along with building a good looking finished I/O cable once the new connectors get here (MS27473T 16F35P) at $39 each. I intend to investigate the mystery of just what the control interface card dose? Have a speculation that this may have a serial port and a way to get data in and out of the system, all that’s a long way from where I am today, but there is a lot to be said for just having the ability to load and read via the front panel.
 
Qbus said:
I intend to investigate the mystery of just what the control interface card dose? Have a speculation that this may have a serial port and a way to get data in and out of the system, all that’s a long way from where I am today, but there is a lot to be said for just having the ability to load and read via the front panel.
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I am glad you do not need that $500 cable. The control interface card may have been the interface to whatever the real application for the system was. As an AC powered system, perhaps the computer may have been on a Navy ship. I don't imagine that there will be any program/data in the memory. It would have been demilitarized before going to surplus.
-Dave
 
Latest picture, have the new fifty five pin plug but waiting for the extended shells for the back of the connectors before final assembly. I have lots more documentation and knowledge then at the start of the project and am looking forward to integration of a serial port and the paper tape hardware that I have. Got paper tape for diagnostics, memory exerciser and the like but the “Holy Grail” right now is the paper tape copy of DG Basic.

IMG_2780.jpg
 
Qbus said:
Latest picture, have the new fifty five pin plug but waiting for the extended shells for the back of the connectors before final assembly.
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Now this is a Minicomputer! Complete with Octal LED display.

I agree, get the strain relief back shells on before any wires are broken.
-Dave
 
I also echo dave_m's sentiments: a real minicomputer. Great to read about the progress being made with this beautiful machine.

If this machine was used in a Navy application, perhaps the control interface you have written about above may support the NTDS (Navy Tactical Data System) interface standard.
 
The manual list several applications along with what the card lineup would be for each:

C-3. LIST OF SYSTEMS
The following is a list of systems that are contained in this appendix:

AN/MLQ-34 (TACJAM)
AN/MSQ-103A (TEAMPACK)
AN/TMQ-31 (FAMAS)
AN/TSC-99
AN/TSQ-84A
AN/TSQ-114A(TRAILBLAZER)
EH-1X (QUICKFIX)
EH-60A(QUICKFIX)

Couples of these are things like mobile tactical switching networks or systems used to locate and identify radar and communications systems. The first 1601 and 1600 series were used to identify and counteract (jam) radar systems that were deemed a threat to aircraft.
The Rolm and later Loral appear to be more centered on use in Army and Air Force applications with the huge ugly computers like the AN/UYK-7 and 20 being more along the Navy lines. Was talking with someone the other day that may be a source for an AN/UYK-44 so maybe that may be the next project?
 
Rolm 1600 series machines saw quite a bit of non-military use as well. They were (are?) fairly popular in the paper industry. Paper mills are absolutely horrible places for delicate electronics, but the Rolms could survive, due to their sealed cases.

--
Will
 
I have placed a video of the system on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0n7YJDdKM8

I am still learning assembler for that system so not able to do anything beyond stomp around in the memory locations and accumulators yet. Have a paper tape reader and several Rolm paper tapes but they are all diagnostics stuff like memory exercisers and the big next project will be some form of terminal for communications. The control panel interface has what looks like a serial port so will start with that next.
 
Progress: now have the local control panel working and all that’s good. This is the first binky light and switch system I have owned and worked with and am amazed how easy it is to start to understand loading and examining devices in binary and how you start to get a real feeling for structure and function. Also have the internal communications port (TT) up and running on J-1 The trick to this system is there is no help from the system side, any operations for that port have to be direct addressed via software and never having worked with something so primitive it’s been a real learning experience.
 
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