Greeting from Cambridge (The old one in UK!)
Posted: 25 Oct 2021 14:27
Hello fellow retro fans,
My name is Paul and I have a problem. Oh this isn't retroholics anonymous? OK, but I still have a retro problem.
The older I get the more I miss the old days of computing. I started with a borrowed ZX81 (in 1981), then the poor persons 8 bit micro the ZX Spectrum (couldn't afford a Beeb!). Then one for real retro heads I got a Memotech MTX512. Upgraded that to CPM and learn't to love disc/disk rather than tape. I went to Manchester (for uni) in 1986 to study Microelectronics and we had (yes compulsory) to own our own Atari 520STFM to do the course work. It was supposed to run a Unix-lite OS developed at the uni run from ROM, but we hacked it and ran it from floppy, so we could still use our STs for their real purpose of playing games (or MIDI if you had any musical bones!).
I remember doing all sorts of things with that system - a friend and I bought a SCSI adaptor (from the US as it was cheaper), and we spent days reverse engineering it to build a "clone" one to reduce the cost. I ended up with a veroboard interface and a Conner (IIRC) 212MB SCSI disk (5.25" full height!), which dimmed the lights when it started up! We also upped our RAM to 2.5MB using home built veroboard monsters!
All of this now long since lost in upgrading to PCs, house moves, hobby changes etc.
But I am now bitten with the ST bug again! Watching on Youtube some of the recent demos and seeing "DREAD" running on an ST has rekindled something. So I now have a 520STFM, I have sourced 16 256K DRAMs and will upgrade it to 1M (it's a 1989 model so 16 empty spaces to fill and a couple of resistors). And last week I got a Mega ST2. Both now have mono monitors (SM124 and SM144), and I still have my original Philips FST (Flatter Squarer Tube) 14" TV from uni days. I will never throw that TV away - first thing I bought with my Uni grant cheque!!!
So being an electronics engineer by trade I have collected a lot of obsolete ICs over the years, and looking through my stash I found a bunch of 68340 CPUs from a project I did around 1992/3. I have set myself the challenge of getting that going in one of these PCs. The 68340 is about 1.6x performance of same speed 68000, and I have several 16MHz 68340s so my aim would be to hit about 3x CPU performance, and also to add "FAST" RAM to the CPU. I know it is all pointless and I should just run an emulator etc. But I want to play like I'm 20 again, but with a budget and skills to do what I couldn't then!
Oh and if anyone has a Falcon they don't want anymore - talk to me! Yeah I know hahahahahaha!
I'm looking forward to learning and hopefully contributing my little bit.
My name is Paul and I have a problem. Oh this isn't retroholics anonymous? OK, but I still have a retro problem.
The older I get the more I miss the old days of computing. I started with a borrowed ZX81 (in 1981), then the poor persons 8 bit micro the ZX Spectrum (couldn't afford a Beeb!). Then one for real retro heads I got a Memotech MTX512. Upgraded that to CPM and learn't to love disc/disk rather than tape. I went to Manchester (for uni) in 1986 to study Microelectronics and we had (yes compulsory) to own our own Atari 520STFM to do the course work. It was supposed to run a Unix-lite OS developed at the uni run from ROM, but we hacked it and ran it from floppy, so we could still use our STs for their real purpose of playing games (or MIDI if you had any musical bones!).
I remember doing all sorts of things with that system - a friend and I bought a SCSI adaptor (from the US as it was cheaper), and we spent days reverse engineering it to build a "clone" one to reduce the cost. I ended up with a veroboard interface and a Conner (IIRC) 212MB SCSI disk (5.25" full height!), which dimmed the lights when it started up! We also upped our RAM to 2.5MB using home built veroboard monsters!
All of this now long since lost in upgrading to PCs, house moves, hobby changes etc.
But I am now bitten with the ST bug again! Watching on Youtube some of the recent demos and seeing "DREAD" running on an ST has rekindled something. So I now have a 520STFM, I have sourced 16 256K DRAMs and will upgrade it to 1M (it's a 1989 model so 16 empty spaces to fill and a couple of resistors). And last week I got a Mega ST2. Both now have mono monitors (SM124 and SM144), and I still have my original Philips FST (Flatter Squarer Tube) 14" TV from uni days. I will never throw that TV away - first thing I bought with my Uni grant cheque!!!
So being an electronics engineer by trade I have collected a lot of obsolete ICs over the years, and looking through my stash I found a bunch of 68340 CPUs from a project I did around 1992/3. I have set myself the challenge of getting that going in one of these PCs. The 68340 is about 1.6x performance of same speed 68000, and I have several 16MHz 68340s so my aim would be to hit about 3x CPU performance, and also to add "FAST" RAM to the CPU. I know it is all pointless and I should just run an emulator etc. But I want to play like I'm 20 again, but with a budget and skills to do what I couldn't then!
Oh and if anyone has a Falcon they don't want anymore - talk to me! Yeah I know hahahahahaha!
I'm looking forward to learning and hopefully contributing my little bit.