Digging into Technology's Past - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

JamesK · 2011-06-18, 10:17 PM

“Digital archaeologists” excavate the microprocessor that ushered in the home computing revolution

Macman · 2011-06-19, 12:30 AM

Seeing the thread's title made me want to mention a laptop that a co-worker grabbed before it got thrown out/recycled.

Forget the exact details but it was near mint and even had the original bill of sale from 1994. It has windows 3.1 on it and it still works. The total on the invoice was something like 16 grand!

I wonder if it's museum worthy

classicsat · 2011-06-19, 09:56 AM

Jeri Ellesworth made a Commodore 64 on essentially one chip (RAM and ROM extra) nearly a decade ago, and some company did the same for an Atari 2600, and the NES. Those chips are the core of many of the TV game sticks, and the Atari Flashback 2. Mostly the NES chip is used in such sticks.

The C-64 stick which Jeri had a had in, has connections inside to connect a second joystick, a PC keyboard, and Commodore's serial peripheral bus. The Atari Flashback 2 has connection points to connect a cartridge slot, so original cartridge games can be played.

I don't know if those developers reverse engineered the original chips themselves, or used other knowlege to recreate them.

FWIW, I have an actual Vic-20, C-64, Atari 2600, and NES.

JamesK · 2011-06-19, 10:30 AM

I used a PET in a digital logics class at Ryerson and also modified a couple of VIC-20s for coworkers, to expand the memory to 8 KB! Beyond that, I have no experience with the 6502 (my first computer was an Intel 8080 based IMSAI 8080). However, many of the old CPUs are available in "logic libraries" which chip designers can use to build a CPU etc. into custom chips. They'd take a CPU core, add some memory and I/O to build a controller for a device, all in one package.

digme · 2011-06-19, 02:37 PM

Nice catch , this is just too cool, I got my first chance with computers using the 6809e ( Tandy Colour Computer ), and yeah ,I keep looking at them.............

2011-06-18, 10:17 PM	#1
JamesK Veteran Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mississauga Posts: 5,049	Digging into Technology's Past “Digital archaeologists” excavate the microprocessor that ushered in the home computing revolution __________________ The following program contains immature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.

2011-06-19, 10:30 AM	#4
JamesK Veteran Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mississauga Posts: 5,049	I used a PET in a digital logics class at Ryerson and also modified a couple of VIC-20s for coworkers, to expand the memory to 8 KB! Beyond that, I have no experience with the 6502 (my first computer was an Intel 8080 based IMSAI 8080). However, many of the old CPUs are available in "logic libraries" which chip designers can use to build a CPU etc. into custom chips. They'd take a CPU core, add some memory and I/O to build a controller for a device, all in one package. __________________ The following program contains immature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.

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2011-06-19, 12:30 AM	#2
Macman Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Winnipeg, MB Posts: 469	Seeing the thread's title made me want to mention a laptop that a co-worker grabbed before it got thrown out/recycled. Forget the exact details but it was near mint and even had the original bill of sale from 1994. It has windows 3.1 on it and it still works. The total on the invoice was something like 16 grand! I wonder if it's museum worthy

2011-06-19, 09:56 AM	#3
classicsat Veteran Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Kincardine ON. Posts: 3,953	Jeri Ellesworth made a Commodore 64 on essentially one chip (RAM and ROM extra) nearly a decade ago, and some company did the same for an Atari 2600, and the NES. Those chips are the core of many of the TV game sticks, and the Atari Flashback 2. Mostly the NES chip is used in such sticks. The C-64 stick which Jeri had a had in, has connections inside to connect a second joystick, a PC keyboard, and Commodore's serial peripheral bus. The Atari Flashback 2 has connection points to connect a cartridge slot, so original cartridge games can be played. I don't know if those developers reverse engineered the original chips themselves, or used other knowlege to recreate them. FWIW, I have an actual Vic-20, C-64, Atari 2600, and NES.

2011-06-19, 02:37 PM	#5
digme Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: here Posts: 81	Nice catch , this is just too cool, I got my first chance with computers using the 6809e ( Tandy Colour Computer ), and yeah ,I keep looking at them.............