| Author | Message | ||
     mikehibbett Frequent Contributor Username: mikehibbett Post Number: 783 Registered: 04-2005 Rating: N/A |
The Acorn System 1 was my first computer, bought in 1979. I blew the processor up once ( NMOS 6502, terribly static sensitive ) but still have it in the loft. It was a great introduction to microcontroller software development. I was fortunate to exchange emails with the original designer recently, Sophie Wilson, who was very modest about her achievement. Ah, they were the good old days of computers. Or maybe it was just that I was a carefree youth! Mike | ||
| joe Frequent Contributor Username: joe Post Number: 419 Registered: 05-2005 Rating: N/A |
Ohhh yes, I gave mine to the Computer Museum at Bletchly park as some of the IC's are getting almost impossible to find and to be honest, there's not a great deal I can use it for now. But what a great piece of kit it was. They gave you a full circuit diagram, listing of the Monitor program (complete with bugs in the listing); and yes, they were the good old days. Programmed via a simple key pad. No high level languages or assemblers, you entered your programs in Hex which is just a slight step up from entering as 1's and 0's. All output was to a calculator style LED display. If you wanted fancy I/O devices like a set of LED's or sounds, you built them yourself. I always wanted a MK14. I remember seeing the adverts for it and was sooo desperate to have one. But on pocket money and it costing around £100, it wasnt to be. I've considered building a modern equivilant as a teaching aid as I think it would be great for kids and adults alike, to see how it used to be done. Would also give them a introduction to computers at a hardware level. How does an address decoder work, and why do you need bi-directional octal buffers. I started the project a couple of years ago but ran out of steam. I decided to base it on the DIY Calculator CPU Core which is fully documented and has a couple of books devoted to it. The core only exists as an software emulation running on a PC, but I programmed a PIC to emulate the core so you could build your own computers. For those that are interested in how far I got with the project you can see it here. www.kcsl.uk.com - follow the DIY Calc link. If anybody's interested in me completing it (and it's always nice to know that other people are intersted and it's not just me), then I will. Joe Do one thing each day that scares you – work here ! | ||
| zeitghost Frequent Contributor Username: zeitghost Post Number: 1121 Registered: 01-2006 Rating: N/A |
I found a Mk14 in our instrument store. I use it to frighten students. | ||
| kevinbrunt Regular Contributor Username: kevinbrunt Post Number: 46 Registered: 02-2007 Rating: N/A |
If you have an MK14, you can frighten the students by telling them how much they go for on eBay.... | ||
| oz1lqb Valued Member Username: oz1lqb Post Number: 15 Registered: 12-2005 Rating: N/A |
Hi There.. so you like the MK14.. well how about making a "clone" with a pic16f876 .. have a look here http://www.techlib.com/Karen/micro.htm#TalkingVoltmeter 73 de oz1lqb / Claus | ||
| hamar Valued Member Username: hamar Post Number: 14 Registered: 05-2006 Rating: N/A |
MK14's valuable! drat, I gave mine away, how much would the UK101 in the garage go for? | ||
| keith Regular Contributor Username: keith Post Number: 40 Registered: 11-2007 Rating: N/A |
I was a Nascomaniac, I had one of the early issues, I got my money in when they first started advertising them but I was far enough back in the queue that all the stock was gone when they got to me, I had to wait about 2 months for production to catch up but was it worth waiting for ! My N1 is now very poorly, some of you may remember Chris Blackmore or Dr Dark as he would be known, his N1 was called Marvin (after HHGTTG)because it had serious psychological issues, my N1 is now in a similar condition but I won't be outdone, I have to have a working Nascom to keep me sane, so I have a N2 complete with a lot of extra kit and if anyone is selling any Nascom related items I'm interested, always on the look out for more ! The Nascoms were also supplied with full circuit diagrams and monitor listing plus a manual all about the hardware which must be over a hundred pages. It had a full qwerty kbd so you could program it without going insane using an assembler .. high level languages bah! you can keep your BASIC ! gimme assembler and Z80 in particular. Having said that I did program the thing by entering my programming efforts in hex until I'd saved up for ZEN, the excellent assembler written for the Nascoms. Well guys, have I sparked anyone into getting their old Nascoms out and dusting them off? I'm sure there must be some followers reading this ! | ||
| boris Frequent Contributor Username: boris Post Number: 406 Registered: 05-2005  Rating: N/A |
http://speleotrove.com/acorn/index.html Thank you for not breeding. |
