New forum for Intel MDS, Intellec, development tools, ISIS, ICE, etc

[Ragnarock]

Would the admin consider creating a new forum for Intel development systems - hardware and software.

Including MDS 800, MDS II, MDS III, PDS, ICE-80/85/86, PROM programmers, Intellec 8008, 4/40.
There's an army of multibus and compatible product vendors over decades.

And software including the ISIS operating system, ASM80, PL/M, Fortran and all the languages and
utilities.

These systems have a huge backing of available documentation that are being collected and preserved also.

There appears to be several people collecting and preserving these machines which were the foundation
of the personal computer market. CP/M was even written on an MDS800 and will boot on it unmodified.

 

[JonB]

A belated +1 to this request, as I just got my hands on an Intellec MDS-231 and could use some help restoring it.

 

[Al Kossow]

there is a mailing list with an archive here
http://lists.brouhaha.com/mailman/listinfo/intel-devsys

 

[JonB]

Yes, Al; and I am a member. But there are only a few other members, so the pool of expertise is small.

 

[Ragnarock]

I am the 'Roger' on the brouhaha list.
I wish the info getting posted there was on this group or some other permanent place to help future strugglers.

Currently restoring an MDS888/800 and an MDS225 booting both ISIS-II and CP/M.

 

[tingo]

Well, nothing is preventing you (and other members) from posting relevant info from that mailing list (or the archives) in new threads here as you use that info to fix your machines. Getting more threads on the subject (Intel development systems) will also help in convincing the admins / moderators about the "need" for a new subforum.

 

[mbbrutman]

We have quite a few sub-forums for all of the different genres already, so I'm concerned about fragmenting things more.

Would a more general "development systems" sub-forum be more helpful? We want sub-forums to be targeted, but so hyper-targeted such that they don't get any traffic.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I think that's a good idea--there were quite a few "other" development systems in the MDS-800 era; NSC Starplex, Zilog MCZ, GI GIMINI and whatever the AMC thingie was called, not to mention non-specific platforms, such as Future Data.

 

[Al Kossow]

I think that's a good idea--there were quite a few "other" development systems in the MDS-800 era; NSC Starplex, Zilog MCZ, GI GIMINI and whatever the AMC thingie was called, not to mention non-specific platforms, such as Future Data.

It may be a good place for in-circuit emulators as well.
Tek made combo systems like the 8650/8640 and there was the whole HP 64x00 series.

'modern' things like JTAG, Moto BDM, etc. etc. (BDM isn't very 'modern' any more)

These don't really fit into any existing category, and finding software to support these old
boxes is extremely difficult.

 

[Al Kossow]

GI GIMINI

wow, someone actually remembered those..

I spent the summer of '78 on Long Island developing code at GI on one

 

[smp]

I think that's a good idea--there were quite a few "other" development systems in the MDS-800 era; NSC Starplex, Zilog MCZ, GI GIMINI and whatever the AMC thingie was called, not to mention non-specific platforms, such as Future Data.

Don't forget the Motorola EXORciser system!

smp

 

[Chuck(G)]

Oh, I'm not--but there were a ton of these things. For example, there was a development system for the NSC IMP-16 (IMP-16L and IMP-16P). Who even remembers the chip set or its single-chip follow-on, the PACE? It would be an interesting exercise to list all of them; some ground rules might be that such a system had to have, at the minimum, a disk drive option, be it floppy or hard. In other words, I'm not counting SBC "evaluation boards".

 

[Roland Huisman]

Would a more general "development systems" sub-forum be more helpful? We want sub-forums to be targeted, but so hyper-targeted such that they don't get any traffic.

Yes please +1 :D

 

[daver2]

I think that is a good idea also. +1 to the count - although the post is a bit late to the party ...

Dave

 

[tipc]

Shouldn't generic multibus be included

 

[Ragnarock]

I understand the fragmentation issue but we are in a sea of information and it's becoming harder and harder to find things.
How about bus-specific groups: S100, SS50, Multibus, STDBus, PC104, Exorbus.
Then OS-specific: CP/M, RT11, ISIS, OASIS, etc.
Then one for development systems: Intel, Motorola, Zilog, NS...

 

[Martynv]

Would definitely like to see something for Multibus and Intel Development Systems as I have a number of these. Even though the Intel Dev-Sys Group have a decent amount of software and manuals there are still many gaps to fill. It's surprising how much has vanished without trace............or has it ?