Re: Philips mini computers

[Fred Jan Kraan via cctalk]

Hi,

Some manuals are available at:

http://electrickery.xs4all.nl/comp/divcomp/doc/index.html

There is a simulator (and more manuals) at:

http://www.theoengel.nl/P800/p800sim.html

Greetings,

Fred Jan

Re: Philips mini computers

[nico de jong via cctalk]

On 2019-10-27 15:56, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote:

On Sat, 26 Oct 2019, jos wrote:

On software side not much : a single cassette with Fortran & manuals.


That is also the problem with our P856, I have a single-density FDC 
with floppy drives but no floppy based operating system.


Christian


If my experience on the P800 series is anything to go by, I can offer 
some kind of explanation.


The P800 series came two flavours : development system and turnkey 
system. A development system was harddisc based, for example the 
diskdrives X1215 and X1216, both having a fixed platter and an 
exchangeable cartride. The drives had 2 x  (2.5 or 5 MB).


'The development system could use an operating system like MAS, DOM (a 
very stupid name, as DOM in Dutch means STUPID), DOS or DRTM,


Then you could generate turnkey systems, where the "operating system" 
could be floppy or cassette (ECMA34) based,


Turnkey systems typically controlled process equipment and the like, 
where operator intervention was very limited, normally limited to 
pushing a few buttons on an operator panel, or to load new programs.


/>Nico

Re: Philips mini computers

[Christian Corti via cctalk]

On Sat, 26 Oct 2019, jos wrote:

On software side not much : a single cassette with Fortran & manuals.


That is also the problem with our P856, I have a single-density FDC with 
floppy drives but no floppy based operating system.


Christian

Re: Coleco & Atari

[Zane Healy via cctalk]

> On Oct 27, 2019, at 6:34 AM, Murray McCullough via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> I came across an old copy of Popular Science on yesterday, forthwith I know
> not how, that had a story of two vintage/old/retro/classic-computers. How
> old? 1983. Coleco ADAM, my favourite, and Atari 600XL, not so much. I still
> have my ADAM. No not why. But isn’t this why we all belong to classiccomp. And
> $600. How quaint! BTW(sorry), it had an update on CP/M called CP/M Plus.
> Gosh, I miss those old days.
> 
> Happy computing all.
> 
> Murray  

I like my Coleco ADAM, but then I like my ColecoVision.  What I don’t like 
about the ADAM is the need to power the printer, to power the computer.  End 
result, the ColecoVision is setup, not the ADAM.

From what I saw last weekend at Portland Retro Game Expo, the 8-bit Atari folks 
have a new motherboard that they can plug their old chips into.

Zane

Re: Philips mini computers

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Oct 27, 2019, at 9:15 AM, nico de jong via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> The Honeywell does not look like a P800, and to the best of my knowledge 
> Philips (with one L) did their own development in the mini sector.
> 
> However, I do know that for example one of their text processing systems, one 
> in the P5000 range (the P5001?), was a rebadged Canadiann system, Alas, the 
> name escapes me.
> 
> The other names mentioned in this mail,  are totally unknown to me.

The PR8000 documents I have can be found on Bitsavers.

paul

Re: Philips mini computers

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Oct 27, 2019, at 9:25 AM, Dennis Boone via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> The Philips P92xx series was the rebadged x16 stuff.

Yes, that's what I understood as well.  But others are not.  The PR8000 is a 
quite distinct design; I hope that at some point more documentation will 
materialize.  I have some notes in which I reconstructed part of the 
instruction set, but it contains only what I can remember from the subset that 
appears in an old listing, and for example there is very little about the 
somewhat unusual I/O system.

paul

Coleco & Atari

[Murray McCullough via cctalk]

I came across an old copy of Popular Science on yesterday, forthwith I know
not how, that had a story of two vintage/old/retro/classic-computers. How
old? 1983. Coleco ADAM, my favourite, and Atari 600XL, not so much. I still
have my ADAM. No not why. But isn’t this why we all belong to classiccomp. And
$600. How quaint! BTW(sorry), it had an update on CP/M called CP/M Plus.
Gosh, I miss those old days.

Happy computing all.

Murray  







Virus-free.
www.avg.com

<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

Re: Philips mini computers

[Dennis Boone via cctalk]

The Philips P92xx series was the rebadged x16 stuff.

De

Re: Philips mini computers

[nico de jong via cctalk]

The Honeywell does not look like a P800, and to the best of my knowledge 
Philips (with one L) did their own development in the mini sector.


However, I do know that for example one of their text processing 
systems, one in the P5000 range (the P5001?), was a rebadged Canadiann 
system, Alas, the name escapes me.


The other names mentioned in this mail,  are totally unknown to me.

Philips at that time had many interesting products, but they could never 
lay arm with the big ones like Sony. Just think of the video recorder 
they made. Excellen quality. I heard that the reason VHS won the battle, 
was because porn distributors swang a big stick saying that it was 
quicker to copy tapes on a VHS system. Don't know how true it is.



/Nico


On 2019-10-27 02:45, Adrian Stoness via cctalk wrote:

phillips when they ventured into the mini world start out by rebadging the
honeywell 316 witch i think is what your talking about
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x533q90/r/924/RfzStB.jpg

On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 7:38 PM Paul Koning via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:




On Oct 26, 2019, at 5:00 AM, nico de jong via cctech <

cct...@classiccmp.org> wrote:

Hi all,

Back in the 70's and 80's Philips had a quite popular series of mini

computers called P800, which also branched out to the PTS series and
possibly other.

I don't remember those; I do remember a Philips mini called the PR8000.
That was apparently designed for industrial control, at least judging by
the marketing brochure I have for it.  It's the machine on which I learned
assembly language programming.  24 bit machine, French mnemonics.  Very
interesting interrupt system.  I've never seen any documents about it other
than that one short 10-page marketing sheet.

Then there was a 16 bit Philips minicomputer, P9200?  Saw it at the
Evoluon in Eindhoven where it controlled an interactive sculpture called
the Senster.  That has been preserved apparently; it would be neat to do a
simulation of it.

 paul

Re: Philips mini computers

[nico de jong via cctalk]

Yes, I know of Vaxbarn. I have copied many of Camiels manuals, and he 
has copied a lot of mine. I visited him and his lovely wife a few years 
ago. Very agreeable people (and nice kids...)


I know about the P1000, but I've never seen one "on the flesh". When I 
started to work for Philips Data Systems in 1980, it was already retired.


/Nico

On 2019-10-26 21:41, Adrian Stoness via cctalk wrote:

also helps if u google stuff quik google found this site with lots on
the 856m 857
http://www.vaxbarn.com/p800/home.html

im more interested in the p1000 series my self actually has one of the 3
sales models built in the 60's for that system but thats a big iron

On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 2:30 PM Adrian Stoness  wrote:


mean like this
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x795q90/r/922/b5tczU.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x533q90/r/922/XYBanl.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1000x186q90/r/922/RCQmCW.jpg

Re: Philips mini computers

[nico de jong via cctalk]

Yes, exactly.

Do you have the manuals in a mailable version?


Cheers

Nico

On 2019-10-26 21:30, Adrian Stoness via cctalk wrote:

mean like this
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x795q90/r/922/b5tczU.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x533q90/r/922/XYBanl.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1000x186q90/r/922/RCQmCW.jpg

Re: Philips mini computers

[nico de jong via cctalk]

On 2019-10-26 20:13, jos via cctalk wrote:

On 26.10.19 11:00, nico de jong via cctech wrote:

Hi all,

Back in the 70's and 80's Philips had a quite popular series of mini 
computers called P800, which also branched out to the PTS series and 
possibly other.


Could I be lucky to find other list members interested in these 
products? I know of a few, but there surely must be others. I'm 
trying to collect what is left of the documentation.


73, Nico



Wel I am of course, but then you knew that !


Currently I have -:

- a P857

- a P856 missing the box, PS & backplane ( simple enough to reproduce )

- a measuring system based on the P854 CPU ( the same I brought you )

- a P851, missing the backplane, frontpanel,  a serial card and the PSU.

- 2 single-chip P800 CPU's


I have documentation on the P852, P956, P833 digital cassette

On software side not much : a single cassette with Fortran & manuals.


Yes, we should get Al interested in these ! But AFAIK they never made 
in to the US.



Regards, Jos


Hi Jos

It's nice to know exactly what you have. I'll put it in a spread sheet, 
which I'll distribute eventually. It would be nice if we could assemble 
some working systems from spare parts laying around. Seems to be a 
winter project, just to collect the data :-)


I'll be in touch

/Nico

Re: Philips mini computers

[nico de jong via cctalk]

On 2019-10-26 20:01, Tony Duell via cctalk wrote:

On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 6:53 PM nico de jong via cctalk
 wrote:


In order to test things, I've developped a simulator and assembler for
the P857, although without floating point and I/O processor, as I have
no documentation for that, so maybe I can harvest something from the
documents you have. Are the mailable, or do you need to scan them first?

I would have to get them scanned.

The technical manuals are looseleaf in ring binders so could go through a 
sheetfeed
scanner if I can find somebody with one. The user manuals are paperback books 
and
would be very hard to scan without damage (needless to say I am not prepared to
ruin them!)

-tony



Hi Tony

Of course you shouldnt ruin your books:-) so let's hope someone else has 
them in a mailable format


Thanks

Nico

Re: Philips mini computers

[nico de jong via cctalk]

No, we are not. The P800 series used a card format, the name of which 
escapes me at the momen, but I believe it started with an M. The only 
experience with Philips computers, other then the P800 series, is the 
P2000. It was marketed by Philips Austria, and was a pre-PC system. I 
believe there was a CP/M based P3000, but I'm not quite sure.


Cheers

Nico

There is a backplane, and each card can have two or three extra 
connectors at the back, similar to the one in the middle, going to the 
backplane.


On 2019-10-26 19:59, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
Are we talking about ISA-bus computers here?  If so the colour 
graphics card was a Persyst Bob card, and the bi-sync adapter, if 
equipped, was also made by Persyst.  I know because I signed them to 
the contract to buy those two items. I know about their high standards 
of Quality Control because they rejected about 1/3 of my initial 
shipments!


In 1985, every computer that included a CRT made by Philips was made 
at their factory in Ste. Laurent, QC, or so their engineers told me.


cheers,

Nigel (then known as Bill) Johnson


On 26/10/2019 13:53, nico de jong via cctalk wrote:


On 2019-10-26 19:44, Tony Duell via cctalk wrote:

On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 6:36 PM nico de jong via cctalk
 wrote:

Hi all,

Back in the 70's and 80's Philips had a quite popular series of mini
computers called P800, which also branched out to the PTS series and
possibly other.

Could I be lucky to find other list members interested in these
products? I know of a few, but there surely must be others. I'm trying
t