What good are they if they can't run
Windows?
My Computing History -- The roots of my obsession
with small machines.
The Computer Journal
P.O. Box 3900
Citrus Heights, CA 95611-3900
USA
(800) 424-8825 or (916) 722-4970
The Z-Letter
has ceased publication, but the former editor/publisher is still a valuable
resource in the CP/M and Z-System community. Last known address is:
David A. J. McGlone
149 West Hilliard Lane
Eugene, OR 97404-3057
(503) 688-3563
d.mcglone@GEnie.GEis.com
Attaching an IDE hard disk to an 8-bit machine
GIDE: the Generic (Z80) IDE interface
is available in the USA through:
The Computer Journal
P.O. Box 3900
Citrus Heights, CA 95611-3900
USA
(800) 424-8825 or (916) 722-4970
Oakland University
OAK Software Repository - CP/M Archive
OAK CP/M Archive, pub/cpm/apple/
Nathan Mates' Apple ][ Home Page
The Internex Online Apple II Library Home Page
Ian Schmidt
Rich Wifall
Brian Tao
James Sanford
Derek Taubert
Mike Horwath
cco
Ian Schmidt 2
Rolf Braun
I approach this from the standpoint of: ``Well, what do you want to do with your computer?''
In my case, I realized that the majority of my tasks were writing reports for school and telecommunicating. My small machines are more than adequate for those tasks. They've done virtually everything I ever asked of them. On the rare occasions when they couldn't, alternatives were available.
It comes down to an appeal for efficiency. If power is the rate of doing work, then a 4 MHz Z80 running well-written software is just as powerful as a 100 Mhz Pentium running a Windows application. I.e., it doesn't improve MY typing speed at all...
I also come from a background that dictates ``use what you have first.'' That generally also implies that you use something until it's physically unservicable. Only when it's completely worn out and unrepairable do you replace it.
Countless perfectly operational small computers (``Classic Systems'') are consigned to dumps and landfills when they could continue providing valuable service to someone whose needs it more than fulfills.
I hope more people make an effort to find good homes for the machines and peripherals that no longer meet their needs. I would guess that the majority of them are still perfectly operational--just don't meet one person's needs anymore. Chances are, it'll be just the thing someone else needs.
Just because something's old, doesn't mean it's worthless.
My Computing History
-- The roots of my
obsession with small machines.
In 1983, after much prodding and nagging, my parents finally bought for my brothers and me a Franklin ACE 1000. My dad still uses it today. In 1984 or so, we acquired a second Franklin ACE 1000 which included a PCPI AppliCard. This, I used for many years and subsequently found and purchased additional AppliCards to run in my growing collection of Apple computers.
All the while, I'd been following the development of the CardZ180 from Seven League Systems. After some correspondence with one of the hardware designers and about a two-year wait, I finally got one. Wow!
Other machines I've since collected include:
Epson QX-10
with Comrex ComFiler CR-1510 hard disk
Commodore Amiga 500
Apple ][+
Davidge DSB 4/6
(DSB 4000, rev. B) single-board computer
TEI 8-slot S-100 backplane w/California Computer Systems cards
Commodore CDTV
NorthStar Horizon, modified by TEI for Cray Research's use as a boot/diagnostic
server to a Cray X-MP supercomputer.
Miscellaneous peripherals such as 8" floppy disk drives,
Sorrento Valley Associates (SVA) ZVX4 8"
disk controller for the Apple ][,
XEBEC SASI hard disk controllers,
Western Digital 1002-HDO
pre-IDE hard disk controllers, and oddball hard disks
(Corvus Flat-Cable). More odd, is that I actually use them
on a regular basis.
The QX-10 is fully operational and has been outfitted with a modern IDE hard disk. In the process of modifying the QX-10 BIOS to operate the IDE hard disk, I discovered how to hack the BIOS to use hard disks with any number of heads (up to 8). That let me access the full range of the IMI-5018H 6-head disk I'd been using in the CR1510.
I'm currently working on regenerating the source code for the Davidge's CBIOS. I have very little documentation for that machine, so I'm having to gradually build it up myself. It's actually quite a lot of fun, honest!
Lately, I've begun experimenting with Tilmann Reh's GIDE Generic (Z80) IDE interface on the Davidge. At first, I wasn't able to spend much time working on it, but I now have a fully-operational BIOS extension with real-time clock support, warm-boot capability and an IDEGEN utility, along with with logical-drive re-mapping support. So far, it's pretty bare bones, but I hope to add enhancements as time and memory space permit.
For more information on GIDE in the USA, contact:
The Computer Journal
P.O. Box 3900
Citrus Heights, CA 95611-3900
USA
(800) 424-8825 or (916) 722-4970
Here's a picture of the Davidge DSB 4/6.
Copyright © 1995 John D. Baker,
jdbaker@NoSpAm!blkbox.com
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