looking for a program able to open a 1989 schematic file - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 09:10:30 am
content: Code:00000000 53 63 68 65 6D 61 74 69 63 20 46 49 4C 45 0D 0A 1A 00 00 00 00 00 06 2A Schematic FILE.........*00000018 00 00 28 05 70 03 05 00 00 4F 01 02 00 0A 00 01 12 20 4E 6F 76 65 6D 62 ..(.p....O....... Novemb00000030 65 72 20 20 31 2C 20 31 39 38 39 0C 53 52 41 4D 20 53 65 63 74 69 6F 6E er 1, 1989.SRAM Section00000048 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........................so, I found a folder with a valuable file, the folder name is "schematic", but the files have no extension and I have no idea what program created them.opening a file with an hex-editor, that's the header

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 10:16:09 am
content: No extension is a bit strange but I guess when you put the files in a separate folder it's fine. The date suggests the MSDOS 3.3 era if that helps. I hope you don't mind me asking but since you call it a 'valuable file' you must know more than you are telling us?

author: AndyBeez
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 10:44:30 am
content: Back then AutoCAD and Eagle were big things. It could be anything really. Draw, Lotus Symphony, WPS plus, a spreadsheet containing a hex dump? Is it a PC file, or from an early Mac or even an Atari?

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 11:36:37 am
content: Quote from: PA0PBZ on June 16, 2023, 10:16:09 amumm, they are supposed to be the schematic files of the Intel EV80960CA evaluation board.So, useful to know where and how things are mappedI wrote to Intel one month ago, but they don't reply to me.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 11:43:15 am
content: Quote from: AndyBeez on June 16, 2023, 10:44:30 amumm, there are also some random binary files, a C compiler, a linker, and several .o files, they look like DOS .exe and Unix .coff files.Who prepared the archive, didn't prepare a readme.txt file, damn ... the GNU/Linux utility "file" is confused and cannot recognize any known pattern.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 11:53:47 am
content: This seems to say it is Orcad.http://intel-vintage-developer.eu5.org/DESIGN/LITCENTR/LITWEB/22F86.HTMIt seems to allow its download.QuoteSeems to have lots of stuff on that website.http://intel-vintage-developer.eu5.org/DESIGN/LITCENTR/LITWEB/I960.HTM

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 12:05:34 pm
content: Quote from: MK14 on June 16, 2023, 11:53:47 amThat's funny, they are exactly the same files I found in the archive I have on an abandoned tape in the lab.Nobody knows anythingOh, now we know where it comes from! Thank you!

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 12:10:57 pm
content: Quote from: DiTBho on June 16, 2023, 12:05:34 pmYou should be able to download (assuming it is abandoned/copyright expired software, and especially where the original supplier is happy for you to do so) an old version of Orcad (DOS?), from various places on the internet. Then access the schematic.Unless you still hate x86 so much, you don't have that capability (I hope I'm joking here).

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 12:40:34 pm
content: Quote from: MK14 on June 16, 2023, 12:10:57 pmthe closest thing to an x86 thing is my mac-mini intel core2/dual (2009), but it can't run dos because the bootloader I created doesn't even support DOS partitions, and anyway that would be sacrilegious ...Instead, I think I can exploit abandoned x86 machines in the underground warehouse, two levels underground look rather like Resident Evil, with no zombi around but the quality of the air is something that is mechanically pumped and filtered against dust particles but not ionized, like in every big bunker, and it smells a lot like a crypt, so, not pleasant at all, but I'm sure DOS v3 .. v5 is already on their hard drives, so I think I can just upload and install OrCAD (via Norton PC-Link) on one of those machines, and run it.and to be clear, as soon as I print the schematics, I'm going to wash my hands with bleach, and I won't touch another DOS machine(Yup, for this purpose, I am willing to be a bit "Macchiavellian", bu-hahahah)

author: 50ShadesOfDirt
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 04:46:25 pm
content: If you'll make copies of the file in question, you can then take one of those copies and add various extensions to it, and see if it can then be opened.From wikipedia:"... (.sch) file extension is used to indicate a circuit schematic file by various electronic design automation programs, all using different file formats ..."So, just add the .sch and see if you get lucky!To avoid having to have every cad program known to mankind, you just use one of the handful of cad "file viewer" programs, each of which is capable of viewing many relevent file types.Don't forget to run "strings" on a copy, and see if any add'l clues are available ...Hope this helps ...

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 09:50:05 pm
content: https://www.pcengines.ch/orcadff.htm

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 10:21:50 pm
content: The downside is that you'll also need the symbol libraries to load the file correctly. Back then Orcad didn't store the symbols inside the schematic files (a mistake they corrected in later versions though).

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 10:30:35 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on June 16, 2023, 10:21:50 pmCode:schematics/ev960ca/960-BPAL: dataschematics/ev960ca/960-BUFF: dataschematics/ev960ca/960-CPU: dataschematics/ev960ca/960-DCAP: dataschematics/ev960ca/960-DRAM: dataschematics/ev960ca/960-EPR: dataschematics/ev960ca/960-EXP: dataschematics/ev960ca/960-IO: dataschematics/ev960ca/960-RES: dataschematics/ev960ca/960-SRAM: dataschematics/ev960ca/960CA.LIB: datais this one?Code:schematics/ev960ca/960CA.LIB: datait's the only one with a file extension, its header isCode:00000000 4C 49 42 52 41 52 59 20 4F 42 4A 45 43 54 0D 0A 1A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 LIBRARY OBJECT..........00000018 00 06 00 B0 01 00 00 00 00 FF FF 08 04 00 00 01 00 0D 10 00 00 00 00 09 ........................00000030 00 13 11 00 00 22 00 11 00 E4 0B 00 00 34 00 1A 00 E4 0B 00 00 00 00 23 .....".......4.........#00000048 00 86 0B 00 00 00 00 2A 00 6C 0E 00 00 17 00 33 00 28 0D 00 00 2F 00 3C .......*.l.....3.(.../.<00000060 00 28 0D 00 00 0D 00 45 00 EF 06 00 00 00 00 4F 00 4A 11 00 00 05 00 55 .(.....E.......O.J.....U

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 10:32:03 pm
content: Quote from: PA0PBZ on June 16, 2023, 09:50:05 pmthanks! it can be added to the utility "file"

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 10:40:39 pm
content: How do you know that the schematic is valuable?

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2023, 01:45:10 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on June 16, 2023, 10:40:39 pmwell, hidden two floors underground, I found in a closet down in the warehouse, a super valuable 80960CA evaluation board with headers for the logic and performance analyzer, all in mint condition and with an original ICE960 with cables, probes, headers, and misc, instead all the paper part of the package was left on a shelf outside the closet..... and probably a rat ate the diagrams and most of the manuals; of what survived is all a heap of bites here and there, while the rest is a heap of unreadable confetti, therefore. ..the files on the DDS4 tape are preciousas I can't find a copy of the schematics

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2023, 02:31:33 pm
content: Interesting project! Do you think this 80960CA has the super-seekrit (and undocumented) capability extensions developed for the BiiN project?

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2023, 08:12:20 pm
content: Quote from: helius on June 18, 2023, 02:31:33 pmThat should have been an 80960XA!

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2023, 11:13:26 am
content: Quote from: helius on June 18, 2023, 02:31:33 pmemulators: yes, by extensionsCA, CX chip: noother versions ... maybe

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 09:34:21 am
content: OK, it workedI emerged DOSBox on a POWER9 GNU/Linux workstation, and it didn't give any problem running "draft.exe" from the old OrCad for the dos package.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 09:03:53 pm
content: DOSBox does a pretty good job at emulating DOS. If all else had failed, an option would otherwise have been to use QEMU, create a tiny virtual machine with an installation of MS-DOS (can be found very easily), and run it from there. Don't know how well QEMU works on POWER9 though, if at all.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2023, 12:52:42 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on June 26, 2023, 09:03:53 pmmy boss and I spent ~50K euro on Power9 and Ampere ARM/64 servers; programs like Qemu have high priority, so, if it has some troubles, we are the first persons who have a serious interest to fix it.I didn't emerge DosBOS from the portage but rather from my Overlay, that because DosBOS is more a sub-project, an attempt to embed commercial DOS compilers that are not linked to conIO into a CLI-only sandbox, so you can launch them on bash, as they don't need any SDL or X11 interaction, they are just files in, files out.Nice! And very useful to support the type of customers who still use DSP for older radar systems. All things that only DOS compilers have."Draft.exe" (OrCAD Schematic for DOS) massively uses not only the conIO (text console IO) but also a graphic driver for VGA cards, so ... it was also a good occasion to test my patches, specifically if the "dos sys call probing" was able to correctly catch, by analyzing the file function calls in the .exe files, the kind of requested application interface.I found a small bug. So, that was twice helpful!