S100, m68k, z80, 6502 … (for people who are interested in vintage SBC) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: legacy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2016, 07:45:49 pm
content: so, I was digging in the google cache for a VME board made by Eltec in 90s ...when suddentlythispage emerged, and, although it is not what I was searching, it looks very impressivebrowsing,thispage gives a brief statement of the main points of (something?)have fun

author: Sal Ammoniac
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2016, 10:02:38 pm
content: That brings back a lot of memories. I had a Godbout CompuPro S-100 system in the early 1980s. Although I miss those days for nostalgic reasons, I'd still rather have a modern PC for day-to-day use than one of those vintage systems.

author: bitslice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2016, 10:10:12 pm
content: S-100 never really took off in the UK for some reason, but I like its onboard regulation and addressing flexibility via dip switches. Although I find its generic logic and use of GALs a bit confusing to follow.

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2016, 02:37:22 am
content: http://searle.hostei.com/grant/Multicomp/index.html

author: legacy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2016, 06:01:09 am
content: Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on October 07, 2016, 10:02:38 pmdude, completely different mattera vintage system like a motorola 68000 board is all a piece of primitive hardware where the firmware is written in pure assembly, and that is fun for those who were there when PCs were that way.we certainly have simulators, I wrote my own m68K in C (2006?), they are more confortable to be bring along if you travel, no doubt they are funny, but having to deal with real hardware gives more fun if you can deal with your solder and those electronic things, and arduino is just too boringbeing said that, frankly I don't have the time to build my own S100, I have already built my 68060 board when I was a student, it's too big to be carried along, sometimes when I am at home I like to play with it, it also comes with an EPROM emulator (recycled from an activity I did for for a customer), it uploads things faster than a fsk, so it's very funny, but I am not directly interested in those things, I am already fineI have opened this topic because I accidentaly found this project, and I think it might be interesting for those who are looking for their first (or second) chance to build their own vintage SBC; I mean, the S100 project comes with some project files (PCB? gerber? schematic? pieces of assembly code?) and ideas

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2016, 06:54:03 am
content: That is real hardware, It's not a simulation

author: bitslice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2016, 02:35:58 pm
content: Quote from: ebclr on October 08, 2016, 06:54:03 amIt's boring - solder ten resistors, plug in some wires and then go have breakfast?S-100 was real hardware where functionality wasn't a spare 2mm2bit of silicon, but a whole PCA.

author: eugenenine
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2016, 03:05:15 pm
content: Quote from: bitslice on October 07, 2016, 10:10:12 pmThat wasn't just an S100 feature, pretty much all systems were like that. You had boards full of IC's trying to pull 10A @5v through tiny backplane wires and multiple backplane connectors so yo would end up with some voltage drop. The workaround was to put >5v on the backplane and regulate it local to each board.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2016, 05:25:08 pm
content: Quote from: ebclr on October 08, 2016, 02:37:22 amyou bastard, you just made me buy fpga board :/Quote from: bitslice on October 08, 2016, 02:35:58 pmgo plow a field, with a stick. real hardware, you know

author: ChristofferB
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2016, 05:32:41 pm
content: Quote from: legacy on October 08, 2016, 06:01:09 amThe last generation of S100 boards had both 80286 and I think 80486 processor boards - and ISA interface boards. That's getting pretty close to a modern computer!

author: legacy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2016, 05:54:39 pm
content: Quote from: ChristofferB on October 10, 2016, 05:32:41 pmmm, I don't consider close to modern computers because it has the ISA busI have an ISA bus on an embedded 8051 board (2001?), and it's even not a PC(that tricks adds a common lan), anyhow, I was only considering 68K boards

author: Jr460
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2016, 07:16:42 pm
content: One of the first machines i touched.http://oldcomputermuseum.com/mmd-1.html

author: legacy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2016, 11:17:51 am
content: tini8085sbc(EalgeCAD files inside)

author: Seekonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2016, 12:11:54 pm
content: I have more than 100 NEW Z8 chips if anyone is interested.

author: C
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2016, 01:02:26 pm
content: Worked with some CPU boards back then that were triple buss. The on board bus, system bus & local expansion bus.Quote from: ChristofferB on October 10, 2016, 05:32:41 pmYour example is making a OLD PCTwo or more of above CPUs on system bus happened back then. A lot more power then a 80286 or 80486.Then you add the bus extenders, local bus to system bus, system bus to system bus cards.Current PC might use 3 way memory. A lot of memory back then took a lot of space so was connected with a memory bus. One system in 70's had a memory bus to 8 way memory memory bus adapter with cache to boost system speed. All done just for the memory time savings if next access(s) were in the block of 8. System was all ready using memory wider then CPU. Crazy cost for just a little gain.