Orion Instruments UniLab 8620

[Al Kossow]

I was just clearing my manual backlog for Orion which got me wondering if I'm the only person in the world that has one of these.
They are universal microprocessor emulator/trace boxes that attached to a PC. The box itself is fairly dumb and everything ran on
the PC side. All of the processor support was written in FORTH. They had dozens of support packages, and almost all of them
have dissapeared, along with the PC interface card you needed. There are a few on eBay, completely useless without the card
and software.

Index of /test_equipment/orionInstruments

 

[NeXT]

I see a few hits on Google but it's looking like you are the only one here on the forums, Al.

 

[Golden Potato]

I was just clearing my manual backlog for Orion which got me wondering if I'm the only person in the world that has one of these.
They are universal microprocessor emulator/trace boxes that attached to a PC. The box itself is fairly dumb and everything ran on
the PC side. All of the processor support was written in FORTH. They had dozens of support packages, and almost all of them
have dissapeared, along with the PC interface card you needed. There are a few on eBay, completely useless without the card
and software.

Index of /test_equipment/orionInstruments

I recently acquired one in a lot from an auction. I see the reference manual and some brochures on bitsavers, but nothing in terms of software.

I don’t have the PC interface card. Do you know if the interface card is pretty simple? Or instead it contains a bunch of custom ICs?

 

[Al Kossow]

The interface is very simple, I need to get pics up on bitsavers and trace it out. I managed to get one out of the dozen or so I bought.
It's sad that almost all of the software has been lost.

 

[Golden Potato]

The interface is very simple, I need to get pics up on bitsavers and trace it out. I managed to get one out of the dozen or so I bought.
It's sad that almost all of the software has been lost.

I read somewhere that the 8620 uses a parallel interface (as apposed to another version of an Orion product that uses a serial interface), and if there is a dedicated interface card as you say, are you sure it’s not just a generic ISA parallel card?

As for software, I haven’t found any yet. Do you have any at all?

I was really looking forward to trying this out when I brought it home along with a Macrochip Research Incorporated HD647180X in-circuit emulator of which I also can’t seem to find much information on the web (off topic).