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Where are the 5110, 5120 and 5130 posts?

The problem of getting the software onto the machines (especially the 5100) is a tough one. If you're willing to type it in yourself, I wrote some presentation software for the 5100 about five years ago. More recently, @voidstar78 was doing a lot of investigation and managed to make a gizmo that emulates a keyboard --- you can type software into the machine that way. I think most of the interest is coincidental, though --- every so often someone gets their hands on one of these cool machines and likes to talk about it.
 
stepleton said:
I think most of the interest is coincidental, though --- every so often someone gets their hands on one of these cool machines and likes to talk about it.
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I think thats probably true. I got my 5120 years ago from another member for a very fair price...

But now what do I do with it?!
 
Speaking from the context of a Datamaster, there was a communications adapter for async communications but I've never seen the card or the software. Beyond that the only way to move data on and off a system is the floppy drive.

COMMUNICATIONS CONTROL GENERAL:
The Communications Adapter Feature includes communications interface hardware and licensed programs that enable the System/23 to communicate using either asynchronous or binary synchronous protocol. The physical interface for asynchronous communication is EIA RS-232-C/CCITT V.24-V.28 and transfer data is via ASCII code. The physical interface for binary synchronous communication is EIA RS-232-C/CCITT V.24-V.28 with clocking supplied by the modem. Transfer of data is in EBCDIC and EBCDIC transparency modes at speeds up to 4800 bps. One of the IBM modems, 3863 (2400 bps), 3864(4800 bps), 3872 (2400 bps), or 3874 (4800 bps), can be attached to the Communications Adapter Feature.
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COMMUNICATIONS: Two licensed programs, Asynchronous Communications and Binary Synchronous Communications, allow the System/23 to communicate with selected IBM systems and devices. Both consist of communications access method support, a set of communications customer support functions, and a facility for user-written communications programs using System/23 Basic. In conjunction with the communications access method, the Asynchronous Communication Terminals customer support function provides the user with an interactive interface to perform asynchronous communications. Features of the Asynchronous Communications Program include:
• A data transfer function, making System/23 TTY compatible. This function uses start-stop discipline and permits the user to transfer data using the ASCII translate table and the Asynchronous Communication Terminal function of the licensed program.
• A code translation table is provided to convert Datamaster internal EBCDIC code to/from ASCII code. Other tables may be built by the user.
• Provides the operator with an ease-of-use interactive function that leads the user through a step-by-step procedure using prompts and responses for defining and establishing communications and for performing other TIY functions.
• The input/output devices supported are the keyboard display and printer.
• Provides a facility for the execution of BASIC language user-written programs to perform data transfers. Communications with the following IBM systems is supported:
1) System/370, Models 135-168,3031, 3032, 3033, 3081,4331, and 4341 via VM/370 (full-duplex, switched facilities)
2) Series/l (EDX, RPS) (half-duplex, switched facilities)
3) Datamaster (full and half duplex, switched and non switched)The communications customer support functions can perform the following data transfer functions using the Binary Synchronous Communications Protocol in conjunction with the communications access method:
• Transmit batch data
• Receive batch data
• Inquire into a host system and receive batch data
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Given how the expansion bus is ISA in a pre-ISA kinda way, I'm curious if the later IBM 5150 communications options were loosely based on the existing design from the Datamaster. The earlier models I cannot see IBM not selling some sort of a similar package but it must of been very rare.
 
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Actually I sat down for the last hour and compared the 5150 ISA bus to the Datamaster expansion bus.

-Unless IBM flipped the A/B pin naming, the slot isn't mirror reversed like I've read online. A13 on the Datamaster matches A13 on a 5150 and so on. You might want to double check this with a continuity tester.

-There are a few inconsistencies between the two, but if you were to take the 5150 Asynchronous Communications Adapter, remove the metal bracket and stuff it into a Datamaster, there's only two conflicts:
--B08 on the 5150 is marked RESERVED. On the Datamaster it's ADVANCE STORAGE READ. This is jumpered on the card for Slot 8 reasons on an XT.
--B24 on the 5150 is IRQ4. On the Datamaster it's DISKETTE INTERRUPT (which is probably IBM used IRQ4 for the primary diskette controller on the Datamaster). The card by default uses IRQ4 as a primary interface. If you use the card as a secondary interface, you jumper this for IRQ3.

-The rest of the pins are identical, including grounds and power.
 
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I can assure you 100% the ISA slot in a 5150 and the I/O slot in a 5322 are orientation identical. The slot itself however is shifted a half inch forward compared to a normal ISA slot.
 
NeXT said:
That's why I said this needs to be double checked.
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Many things need to be double-checked in this system. Myths need to go down and replaced with facts.

In other words they did even kept the Datamaster bus intact when designing the IBM PC, so that's great! I have just discovered that in the S/36 the async boards are the ones from the PC-XT, maybe they may be useful for a System/23 too. The async functionality was enabled by software in floppy, therefore it is possible that the board in question was romless - like the ones from the IBM-PC.
 
VERAULT said:
I think thats probably true. I got my 5120 years ago from another member for a very fair price...

But now what do I do with it?!
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You have been entrusted with a very special system. Taking care of it may be enough. The duty is yours to handle it down to the next generation when the time comes.

We all have our roles in the big scheme of things. Ours is to preserve the history of our profession before it is reduced to scrap. In the last 50 years computers have radically changed how do we live and we should consider not only the technical side but the human one too.
 
RetroAND said:
You have been entrusted with a very special system. Taking care of it may be enough. The duty is yours to handle it down to the next generation when the time comes.

We all have our roles in the big scheme of things. Ours is to preserve the history of our profession before it is reduced to scrap. In the last 50 years computers have radically changed how do we live and we should consider not only the technical side but the human one too.
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Fair enough but it takes up the space of a mini-fridge and weighs as much as a small person.
 
I used to have a link to some disk images for the 5110/5120. I spent last night looking through old posts and scouring the internet. I cant find them. Does anyone have a link to archived disk images for this machine?
 
The 5100 does run software much slower, despite being the same processor. One reason may be the character set of the 5100 is rather "poorly chosen" whereas the 5110 is more EBCDIC-like out of the box, so the 5110 probably has less need for extra translation between those internal emulators over into the native screen display codes. There are probably other reasons, such as various trig functions and such not being as efficiently implemented in whatever version the 5100 used.

Any software of a 5110 is generally a pretty easy port over to the 5100 (just a re-compile to the different keyboard scan codes and display output codes). So I'd focus on 5110 builds first, then back port to the 5100.

I'm not sure about any "new" software yet - but ByteBehind did demo a play of FOOTBALL on a 5110:
Being in BASIC, it is effectively "a line printer" gaming experience, except scrolling on a CRT instead. Direct use of PALM opens a lot more options (not just in gaming).


But as Stepleton mentions, getting software out of the emulators and onto the physical systems is still a challenge. MAME developers will continue to flush out disk and tape support. But even then, how to transfer onto the DC300 tapes? So we still need a way to xmit a byte into the system via those external pins in the back - I hope to resume looking into that this summer. Meanwhile, we can "fast type" it into the system with the serial keyboard adapter (I confirmed you can connect both the regular main keyboard, and tether in tthe serial-input on the back pins of the A1 board, both at the same time).

With the emulator available, I'm curious if someone might look into "exotic methods" of generating PALM, or adapting some text-mode 6502 program over. In a way, the 128 bytes reserved in the IBM 5100 are sort of like the pagefile. And like the Apple2, the IBM 5110 doesn't have a RTC (games on the Apple2 had to depend on "artificial timing" just by counting opcodes instead of measuring delta times from a clock).
 
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