#cp/m

[ui-alcoholic]

The Dutch Holborn System 6100/6140 is a very rare machine (and very funky design), only 100 of them were made. The system specifications: • Zilog Z80 CPU @ 3.5 MHz • 72 KB RAM (expandable to 192 KB) • 8-inch floppy drives

The Dutch Computer Museum has a working one, they made the video below

[techav]

On Documenting History

I've mentioned a couple times before that the first computer I really got to use was the Sanyo MBC-1000, a Z80-based CP/M machine. In the greater picture it was a largely forgettable machine with little to differentiate it from its competitors. Which is pretty much what has happened. There are a few units sitting in museums and the odd Reddit post of someone acquiring one, but not much real information.

So last year I started taking a closer look at the machine I grew up with to try to learn what I could about how it works. And in the interest of preservation and education, I've pushed my notes to a GitHub repository.

There is much more work to be done, but so far I've made an entry-level attempt at reverse-engineering & annotating a disassembly of the boot ROM, documented all of the components on the main logic board, documented the expansion card specifications including modeling the slot and mounting brackets in freecad as well as the board outline in kicad. I've also made an effort to reverse engineer a schematic for the serial expansion card — which as far as I am currently aware is the only official expansion card that was ever produced.

I plan to continue adding notes to this repository as I learn more about this machine. It may not have made any significant historical impact, but it was a solid machine that was more than capable of doing some serious work. I believe it can still teach us something and deserves to be remembered.

I do have a secondary motive for taking such a detailed look at this machine though — at some point in the last 20 years we misplaced the box containing its boot disks and other software. I have found an old Teledisk image of an MBC-1000 boot disk which does appear to have all of the important CP/M components (like the disk format utility, sysgen, and assembler), but there is no guarantee it will work. Beyond that, its floppy drives were never terribly reliable and out-of-production magnetic media does not have much life left anyway. I want to come up with some way to attach a modern storage device to the machine to breathe new life into it (a Gotek would probably be easiest since it uses standard Shugart floppy drives, but I would love to come up with a way to give it an SD card interface or something like that). All this information will be useful for developing anything new for this machine.

[regretsretrotech]

There's a block on my bench... oh wait no, it's a Kaypro. Same difference, just one we tricked a rock into thinking.

Kaypro's are a legendary luggable, that's right than thing was meant to be used on the go. Used is generous term, we'll get back to that. Tough and reliable, these machines found themselves in places that a microcomputer had not been seen before.

In this case for my collection the Kaypro is more than just representing itself, but also representing CP/M machines as a whole, a role that I think it works well in.

CP/M was a once standard OS, much like Windows is now, any company could build a Z80 based computer and license a version of CP/M for it! Once that was done, porting applications was trivial. The OS is extremely simple, the version here for the Kaypro is version 2.2G which is drive aware but has no concept of things like folders (Thats where you store your disks, right?) CP/M precedes MS-DOS (Or more accurately MS DOS is based off CP/M) The basic DOS command for switching disks and displaying a disk directory are identical. Launching a program is just as easy as typing it's name into the command prompt.

For a microcomputer, this system was more aimed at productivity, wordprocessing, spreadsheets and databases were all common applications for CP/M machines although games and BASIC could be found as well as other languages of the day.

Now I mentioned it's a luggable, which is to say, the system closed up could be moved around. It does not have any internal batteries and must be plugged in to run, on top of that this machine is not light, coming in around 40 lbs (19kg)!

[jryoung2]

I am that guy

Somewhere over food one evening I read a post that I cannot find.

Basically: Ancient computers running DOS/Windows 95 perform critical science with proprietary data sets and its some old guys job to maintain these relics because no one has figured out how to deal with old machines that just work.

I am that guy.

Someday, after the heat death of the universe, all my stupid skills and arcane knowledge about old computers, and steam power will come into need. How cool would it be to say "ya, I yeet win95 daily". My job is to make sure the old tape backup works. What's the phone number to that modem? I need to do a data transfer. Floppy disks? Got one of them cool 2.88mb IBM double density drives?

It was a time of interesting things. Now, I can do all that on my pocket computer. But that's just somehow not as fun.

Anyhow, I can't find the writeup, but if any science institution needs an old tech guy, I am available.

[krjpalmer]

[climate-changing]

Just 40 years ago top of the art. Now something of the past. Time goes so fast. 4 more years will go by like seconds. Don't worry be happy!

The Zorba was a portable computer running the CP/M operating system manufactured in 1983 and 1984. It was originally manufactured by Telcon Industries, Inc., of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a company specialized in telecommunication equipment manufacturing.

The Zorba was one of the last CP/M computers on the market. By the time it was introduced, the Kaypro and Osborne machines already dominated that market. The introduction of the Compaq Portable, compatible with the IBM PC and running MS-DOS, sealed the fate of the CP/M machines.

[classictechnology]

Bondwell 14

Title : Bondwell Portable Computers: Ook in prijs te dragen Publisher : Computer Import BV Language : Dutch Year : +/- 1985 Subject : Bondwell 14 See the wikipedia page on Bondwell for more information here

[spermproducingparasiteblog]

Porting CP/M to the Agon Light, on an Agon Light

[restonse]

I bought one of these in 1983. Worked great and still works. Best display and keyboard for writing that i have ever used.

[spacemonolith]

What do you think about this Mobius variant? 🤣

[syrupoison]

[morebeanthanman]

Behold my first of many unfunny memes!

I’m sure I missed a spell for dnd, but permanent body changes are surprisingly not available at lower levels, I think.

[restonse]

I have one of these. I used it three years in grad schools to type papers and program in Turbo Pascal. It still sits in my closet.

Kaypro II // luggable computer (US, 1982)

via

[skylarthethompson]

[danmeiljie]

JunJun In A Canon CP: The Evidence

Sword Chaos, his first drama appearance in 2016, gave us this lovely, blurry tease: (more blurry evidence under the cut)

The girl's face says it all.

#he was in a canonical m/m CP in his first drama#then starred in a BL#THEN starred in a spin off series where his character falls for what he thinks is a man#just sayin

[harryuppy]

CP\M - 80 & MS DOS