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Computer Systems Associates 68000 Trainer from HP

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mc68010

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I was given this awhile ago but, I haven't been able to find out anything about it. I was hoping this forum might help.

It is by someone called Computer System Associates, Inc. I found an out of date webpage with the same company name that talks about custom Amiga and 68000 stuff so, they may be the ones. This guy is made out of wood and plexiglass and is looks like it was far from cheap. Unfortunately the phone number just rings and nobody has answered any emails.

The main board is just a Motorola 68000 Educational board that is well documented and they were nice enough to include original Motorola roms that you can swap in for the custom ones. That's boring though. I want to play with the blinking lights up top. I can't figure it out though. The cute "HUH?" message is what I pretty much always get. The whole top goes dark when the Motorola roms are in there.

I suspect this may have been something custom made for HP since it came in a a very custom HP labeled case.

Anyone know anything about these ?
 

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Crypticalcode0 said:
It came without a manual?

well that is a bummer, it is for all practical purposes the 68K version of a KIM-1.
Click to expand...

No documentation at all and nothing has turned up online. The 'brains' of the unit is one of these http://www.easy68k.com/paulrsm/mecb/mecb.htm

It looks like they just added a lot to it. If I put in the Motorola ROM I can access it through a serial port and it has a pretty extensive commands and tools. Unfortunately, it disables the display unit. Then there are a 3rd set of ROM that I haven't figured out that just seems to echo back anything you send from a serial terminal.

Here's picture of the display board and the ROM sets. The ones marked TUTOR are the stock Motorola ones. The ones installed marked PETEBUG are the ones that work with the trainer/display system. The other are the ones that just seem to echo back out the serial port. The are labeled "Silicon Software v1.0 Property and (c) 1983 of Hunter & Ready, Inc."
 

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Last edited:
A very nice unit!
Did you try dumping the ROMS to see if you could find any hints on how to use the commands on the trainer?
 
tingo said:
A very nice unit!
Did you try dumping the ROMS to see if you could find any hints on how to use the commands on the trainer?
Click to expand...

I haven't yet because I am not sure I have the skills to decode it. The tutor ones I probably could because the board is well documented but, then of course I don't need to. All that custom stuff and serial display board I have nothing for. I may try the silicon software ones though and see what's there. Since it uses the serial port for something maybe there are some ascii strings I can decode in there at least to get some hints.
 
Hello I am looking for someone that has one of these with the Silicon Software Eprom
I would like to get copies of the 3 set of Eproms

Thanks Tony
 
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mc68010 said:
I haven't yet because I am not sure I have the skills to decode it.
Click to expand...
It's probably not as hard as you think, especially if you already have some documentation on some of the hardware.

I've done reverse-engineering and disassembly on quite a number of microcomputer systems and software; you can find most of this work and the tools in my retroabandon repos. (The tk80-re one is probably the easiest to understand, and also has fully complete disassemblies.) If you're interested in help getting set up with something similar, feel free to drop me a PM and I can give you further information.
 
As far as I know, the only known software for this is unit in the "Petebug" thread, along with some attempt to reverse engineer it...


The other thread has better pictures too. I didn't even know this thread existed. And FWIW, this apparently has at least two hardware versions, one of which is that crazy awesome display board stacked over a standard Motorola ECB board, and another which puts the display side-by-side with a respin of the ECB.
 
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