Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

It was many many hundreds of pounds. £499 comes to mind but that might be wishful thinking! There was various bits of publicity on the thing and Acorn had a shop in Covent Garden and about once a month I'd go down and ask them. I think they must have said yes one day! On 27 April 2016 at 23:18,

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 04/26/2016 01:33 PM, Guy Dawson wrote: I bought a 32016 Cambridge Coprocessor back in the day. It's in my loft. Oh, so it was you! ;-) I'll try and file that away in my brain so I remember it in future... do you happen to remember how much it cost? (And were they advertized for sale

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

I bought a 32016 Cambridge Coprocessor back in the day. It's in my loft. On 25 April 2016 at 23:49, Jules Richardson wrote: > On 04/25/2016 10:02 AM, Liam Proven wrote: > >> I meant to develop this point slightly, and did in a blog post, here: >> >>

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 04/25/2016 10:02 AM, Liam Proven wrote: I meant to develop this point slightly, and did in a blog post, here: http://liam-on-linux.livejournal.com/48593.html But in the meantime, it kept the 6502-based, resolutely-8-bit BBC Micro line alive with updates and new models, including ROM-based

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 25 April 2016 at 17:24, Adrian Graham wrote: > On 25 April 2016 at 16:02, Liam Proven wrote: > >> The Communicator is a *far* more interesting beast, with no 6502 or >> copro -- it's a native 16-bit machine in the BBC family. Remarkable. >> > > I

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 25 April 2016 at 16:02, Liam Proven wrote: > The Communicator is a *far* more interesting beast, with no 6502 or > copro -- it's a native 16-bit machine in the BBC family. Remarkable. > I haven't seen a Communicator since 2006 when I exhibited some machines at the

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 25 April 2016 at 15:47, Liam Proven wrote: > Acorn looked at the 16-bit machines in the mid-80s, mostly powered by > Motorola 68000s of course, and decided they weren't good enough and > that the tiny UK company could do better. So it did. I meant to develop this point

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 22 April 2016 at 19:51, Swift Griggs wrote: > On Fri, 22 Apr 2016, Liam Proven wrote: >> GEM ran on MS-DOS, DR's own DOS+ (a forerunner of the later DR-DOS) > > It still runs under FreeDOS, too. I've puttered around with it several > times in that environment. Yes

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 04/20/2016 10:32 AM, Pete Turnbull wrote: On 20/04/2016 16:00, Toby Thain wrote: On 2016-04-20 10:27 AM, Pete Turnbull wrote: It did indeed - I have one. Also a couple of 6502 CoPros, a 65C102, a 32016 and a pair of Z80s, which were nice in their day. Nice collection. I'd forgotten about

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 04/21/2016 09:51 AM, Jon Elson wrote: On 04/21/2016 07:04 AM, Jules Richardson wrote: On 04/20/2016 10:00 AM, Toby Thain wrote: Nice collection. I'd forgotten about the 32016! What software ran on these respective processors? OS-wise the 32016 ran something called Panos, with Pandora as

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 04/22/2016 11:59 AM, Liam Proven wrote: The only BBC copro that could run GEM, AFAIAA, was the BBC Master 512 with the Intel 80186. And the '286 copro for the ABC3xx machines, I expect; the '186 which ended up in the M512 was essentially a cost-reduced version of that board (slower CPU

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 22/04/2016 17:59, Liam Proven wrote: On 20 April 2016 at 17:32, Pete Turnbull wrote: The Z80 CoPro ran CP/M - real licensed CP/M 2.2, not the bastardised often-not-compatible "CPN" lookalike offered by Torch, and came with GEM and various office software. GEM's

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On Fri, 22 Apr 2016, Liam Proven wrote: > GEM ran on MS-DOS, DR's own DOS+ (a forerunner of the later DR-DOS) It still runs under FreeDOS, too. I've puttered around with it several times in that environment. > ... and on the Atari ST's TOS, derived in part from CP/M-68K. Ah ha! I always

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 20 April 2016 at 17:32, Pete Turnbull wrote: > The Z80 CoPro ran CP/M - real licensed CP/M 2.2, not the bastardised > often-not-compatible "CPN" lookalike offered by Torch, and came with GEM and > various office software. Hang on. I think you're conflating 2

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

I had a similar board set for CAD, wish I still had it. It was two boards, a 68000 and a graphics board, to run VERSACAD. In the CAD wars against AUTOCAD, we were winning for a bit, I was a rep selling this 3D solution. It was Sun3 boot, and ran the Sun version of VERSACAD.

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

Steve Ciarcia (BYTE) had a Z8000-based PC coprocessor ("Trump Card"?) which main purpose was (I think) to run BASIC programs faster. Another of those things that I wanted in the early 80s, along with a PC to use it with. On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 10:18 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: >

RE: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

I worked for the FutureNet division of Data I/O in the late 1980s. One disastrous product was a UNIX based coprocessor system that plugged into an IBM PC/AT. The idea was to run circuit board layout software and simulation on a PC. This would be less expensive than the Daisy, Mentor, or Valid

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

> > Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 20:08:56 -0400 > From: Toby Thain > Subject: Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - > was Re: SGI ONYX > > On 2016-04-20 8:02 PM, Michael Thompson wrote: > > > > I have a quad-860 VME board for Sun systems in my

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 2016-04-21 7:29 PM, Dave Wade wrote: -Original Message- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Guy Sotomayor Sent: 21 April 2016 22:39 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: High performance coprocessor

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On Thu, 21 Apr 2016, Guy Sotomayor wrote: > 3270 terminals are what are termed CUT terminals (can?t remember what the > acronym means) but were connected to a controller via coax. Ah okay. Someone told me that the voltage on those was enough to feel/shock you. Was that true, or just a myth ? >

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 2016-04-21 6:53 PM, Swift Griggs wrote: On Thu, 21 Apr 2016, Paul Berger wrote: No the 3270 PC and 3270 AT where a special configuration for 3270 terminal emulation it conatined a special keyboard with more keys that the normal keyboard and connected to a special adapter card in the system.

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

> On Apr 21, 2016, at 2:53 PM, Swift Griggs wrote: > > On Thu, 21 Apr 2016, Paul Berger wrote: >> No the 3270 PC and 3270 AT where a special configuration for 3270 terminal >> emulation it conatined a special keyboard with more keys that the normal >> keyboard and

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

> On Apr 21, 2016, at 2:44 PM, Paul Berger wrote: > > > > There was definitely a XT/370 and likely an AT/370 as well the processor on > the the 370 card in these machines was rumoured to be a modified Motorola 68K > with special microcode to execute 370 instructions.

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On Thu, 21 Apr 2016, Paul Berger wrote: > No the 3270 PC and 3270 AT where a special configuration for 3270 terminal > emulation it conatined a special keyboard with more keys that the normal > keyboard and connected to a special adapter card in the system. I never understood the dynamics of 3720

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 2016-04-21 6:35 PM, Josh Dersch wrote: On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 2:34 PM, Ali wrote: Actually, the first one was called XT/370 because it plugged into an XT! Then came AT/370. Those were obviously ISA boards. Then came some variants that were microchannel. The final

RE: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

> > I think you're thinking of the 3270 PC and 3270 AT, which was pretty > much what you described here... > > - Josh Josh, So I am. Thanks for the clarification. BTW: for those wanting more info on the AT/370 here is a good link to some IBM brochures -

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

> On Apr 21, 2016, at 2:35 PM, Josh Dersch wrote: > > On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 2:34 PM, Ali wrote: > >>> Actually, the first one was called XT/370 because it plugged into an >>> XT! >>> Then came AT/370. Those were obviously ISA boards. Then came some

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 2:34 PM, Ali wrote: > > Actually, the first one was called XT/370 because it plugged into an > > XT! > > Then came AT/370. Those were obviously ISA boards. Then came some > > variants that were microchannel. The final iterations were PCI based. > >

RE: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

> Actually, the first one was called XT/370 because it plugged into an > XT! > Then came AT/370. Those were obviously ISA boards. Then came some > variants that were microchannel. The final iterations were PCI based. > Guy, I am not sure about the other systems but my understanding of the

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

> On Apr 21, 2016, at 2:13 PM, Swift Griggs wrote: > > > On Thu, 21 Apr 2016, Guy Sotomayor wrote: >> Let?s not also forget the various 370 and 390 co-processor boards that >> could be put into PC?s at various times to allow one to turn the PC into a >> small mainframe

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 2:22 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote: > > From: Josh Dersch > > > It's actually a SCSI device the size of a refrigerator. > > Given all the largish machines you have, you must have either i) a > warehouse, > or ii) a very large basement and a

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

> From: Josh Dersch > It's actually a SCSI device the size of a refrigerator. Given all the largish machines you have, you must have either i) a warehouse, or ii) a very large basement and a tolerant SO! :-) Noel

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On Thu, 21 Apr 2016, Guy Sotomayor wrote: > Let?s not also forget the various 370 and 390 co-processor boards that > could be put into PC?s at various times to allow one to turn the PC into a > small mainframe capable of running mainframe software (including the OS). I can't forget because I

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

There was also an 80286 coprocessor board for various VAXen. Let’s not also forget the various 370 and 390 co-processor boards that could be put into PC’s at various times to allow one to turn the PC into a small mainframe capable of running mainframe software (including the OS). TTFN - Guy >

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

Would the Palantir 68K ISA OCR boards be considered as high-performance? There was also, IIRC, a NSC 32016 board made by someone. --Chuck

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 8:27 PM, Toby Thain wrote: > On 2016-04-20 11:10 PM, Josh Dersch wrote: > >> ... >> Ok, this one's from the 70s, and it's a large, external unit rather than >> a single board, but I have a Floating Point Systems AP-120B, essentially >> an array

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

I used to have this thing called a MasPar MP-2. It hung from a Decstation 5000 IIRC. Had the whole system, but the PSU in the MasPar box went bad. Sold it to someone in Florida IIRC. -- Ethan O'Toole

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 04/21/2016 07:04 AM, Jules Richardson wrote: On 04/20/2016 10:00 AM, Toby Thain wrote: Nice collection. I'd forgotten about the 32016! What software ran on these respective processors? OS-wise the 32016 ran something called Panos, with Pandora as the firmware - mostly written in

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 21 April 2016 at 13:04, Jules Richardson wrote: > OS-wise the 32016 ran something called Panos, with Pandora as the firmware > - mostly written in Modula-2. Acorn (working with Logica) attempted a > Xenix port, and some documentation references Xenix as being

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 04/20/2016 10:00 AM, Toby Thain wrote: Nice collection. I'd forgotten about the 32016! What software ran on these respective processors? OS-wise the 32016 ran something called Panos, with Pandora as the firmware - mostly written in Modula-2. Acorn (working with Logica) attempted a Xenix

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 04/20/2016 08:57 AM, Toby Thain wrote: Also going to mention the BBC Tube coprocessor here. Which had an ARM version, iirc. Yes, from Acorn: ARM, 32016, 6502, 65C102, Z80, 80186 and 80286. Torch did a couple of different Z80 boards too, and a couple of different Z80/68000 combo boards.

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 2016-04-20 8:02 PM, Michael Thompson wrote: Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 11:12:36 +0200 From: Jonathan Katz Subject: Re: Seeking immediate rescue of full-rack SGI ONYX near Northbrook, IL On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 11:04 AM, Liam Proven wrote:

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 21 April 2016 at 05:10, Josh Dersch wrote: > Ok, this one's from the 70s, and it's a large, external unit rather than a > single board, but I have a Floating Point Systems AP-120B, essentially an > array processor for fast floating point operations. There's a bit of >

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 2016-04-20 11:10 PM, Josh Dersch wrote: ... Ok, this one's from the 70s, and it's a large, external unit rather than a single board, but I have a Floating Point Systems AP-120B, essentially an array processor for fast floating point operations. There's a bit of information here:

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 4/20/16 6:57 AM, Toby Thain wrote: On 2016-04-20 5:12 AM, Jonathan Katz wrote: On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 11:04 AM, Liam Proven wrote: Intel's effort at RISC. Didn't go so well for them, but did inspire the name of Windows NT and was the original host platform for the

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

There was a Harris RTX-2000 based accelerator card around the 80386 time period. Dwight From: cctalk on behalf of Ali Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 10:04 AM To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and

RE: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

> >> I'm changing the subject because the subject of RISC coprocessor > >> boards has already been interesting to me; I owned the NuBus Levco > >> Translink II (for Mac II family) with four TRAM slots for > transputers. > >> I never had much run in with these kinds of boards as they were geared

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 2016-04-20 11:32 AM, Pete Turnbull wrote: On 20/04/2016 16:00, Toby Thain wrote: On 2016-04-20 10:27 AM, Pete Turnbull wrote: It did indeed - I have one. Also a couple of 6502 CoPros, a 65C102, a 32016 and a pair of Z80s, which were nice in their day. Nice collection. I'd forgotten about

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 20/04/2016 16:00, Toby Thain wrote: On 2016-04-20 10:27 AM, Pete Turnbull wrote: It did indeed - I have one. Also a couple of 6502 CoPros, a 65C102, a 32016 and a pair of Z80s, which were nice in their day. Nice collection. I'd forgotten about the 32016! What software ran on these

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 04/20/2016 10:00 AM, Toby Thain wrote: On 2016-04-20 10:27 AM, Pete Turnbull wrote: On 20/04/2016 14:57, Toby Thain wrote: I'm changing the subject because the subject of RISC coprocessor boards has already been interesting to me; I owned the NuBus Levco Translink II (for Mac II family)

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 2016-04-20 10:27 AM, Pete Turnbull wrote: On 20/04/2016 14:57, Toby Thain wrote: I'm changing the subject because the subject of RISC coprocessor boards has already been interesting to me; I owned the NuBus Levco Translink II (for Mac II family) with four TRAM slots for transputers. Also

Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 20/04/2016 14:57, Toby Thain wrote: I'm changing the subject because the subject of RISC coprocessor boards has already been interesting to me; I owned the NuBus Levco Translink II (for Mac II family) with four TRAM slots for transputers. Also going to mention the BBC Tube coprocessor here.

High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

On 2016-04-20 5:12 AM, Jonathan Katz wrote: On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 11:04 AM, Liam Proven wrote: Intel's effort at RISC. Didn't go so well for them, but did inspire the name of Windows NT and was the original host platform for the then-new OS. The i860 was a neat little