Subject: New finds: enough Torch stuff to sink a battleship

From: Jules Richardson<[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jun 25 12:24:00 2003

Hi all,

Picked up a huge pile of old Torch hardware, software and manuals from someone
today. The guy worked for the company who took things over when Torch went
under way back when, and grabbed whatever he could when that company eventually
disappeared too. Anyway, I've got a nice pile of spares, schematics and the
like, and probably the most complete set of Torch documentation anywhere... 

I'll stick the documentation and software in a seperate mail and just list the
hardware here. Everything needs a damn good cleaning and checking over before I
attempt to see what still works! Pictures can follow in a few days, but I'm
reorganising all my data at the moment and don't want to confuse myself by
adding anything halfway through :-)

Oh, I don't know the damn naming convention for D-type connectors, so
everything's a 'D' type to me. Apologies in advance...

Triple X 'prototype'
--------------------
Supposedly this was a prototype of a Triple X machine used in-house by Torch,
presumably for development purposes. I'm not 100% convinced yet but I haven't
yet been inside it! It's built into two seperate grey metal cases (hard &
floppy disk / CPU) - certainly not production-quality either, but the official
badging suggests it perhaps wasn't a homebrew project either, so who knows.
  - Top metal case houses hard disk and floppy in metal case; rear just has
power and 50-pin SCSI connector.
  - Bottom slice is the CPU box; there's a standard-looking Triple X keyboard
attached (cable runs through a hole in the case). The front has power LED only
and stuck-on label reading: "XXX iss.2 in disguise" :-)  The rear has the
following with 'proper' lettering:
    50 pin SCSI running to disk unit 
    Low-volts out (via bodged connector) for disk unit
    "Video" (small hole in case only)
    "Torchnet" (small hole in case only)
    "Disc interface" (blanked off)
    RS423 (25-w D female)
    Parallel (25-w D female)
    RGB (round DIN, 8 pin)
    Cassette (round DIN, 7 pin)
    Reset button (I assume)
    Mains AC input
    Power switch

"Torch Hard Disc"
-----------------
This thing weighs one hell of a lot! 2-tone brown metal case, with inbuilt
floppy, hard drive, and monitor. Data sticker gives the model as a C520 and the
serial as 84472645
Power supply is in a seperate unit (see below) but still feeds mains into the
machine via seperate plug by the looks of it, presumably for the display
circuitry.
 
Back-left corner:
  Keyboard socket (15-w D female)
  Reset (??)
  Contrast ?
Back-right corner:
  Mains in (probably!) - from power supply unit
  19-w huge round connector to mate with power supply
Rear:
  UHF socket
  RGB (6-way DIN)
  Cassette (7-way DIN)
  Analogue (15-way D female)
  RS423 (25-way D female)
  Printer (25-way D male)

The keyboard has a regular spacebar plus a small key to the right labelled
'exact space' - curious. 

"Torch HD Power Pack" 
---------------------
For use with above machine. Guess they ran out of space in the main case :)
Has the following:
  Mains AC input 
  Mains AC out (I assume??) via short trailing lead
  19-way round connector to mate with above machine on a short trailing lead
  Power switch (likely!)
  Reset button (?? If so, what's the pushbutton on the main system unit for?)

Torch-725
---------
This may be a Quad X machine; if so then there aren't many of them left I
expect! It is according to the previous owner, but it doesn't say so on any of
the badging. Case is grey steel, about the size/shape of an IBM XT case. Data
sticker gives the model as a "725/U" and the serial as "84022913"
At the front we have:
  2 x slimline 5.25" floppy drives
  Hard disk led visible through window cut in the case
  Power led
Whilst at the rear:
  Reset button
  Keyboard socket, 15-w D female
  Phone-jack type connector (Mouse? Or alternate keyboard socket - I have
keyboards with both type of connector? Or modem?)
  "RS423 #1" - 25-w D female
  Parallel - 25-w D male
  Blanked ports: "RS423 #2", "RS423 #3", "Extension bus", SCSI, X25
  Analogue port, 15-w D female
  Torchnet port, 5-w DIN
  RGB 6-w DIN
  Mains in
  Mains out
  Switch (power I assume!!)
  Large grille for cooling fan

Monitors
--------

One of these should work with the 725 above, another with the Triple X
'prototype' I guess.

  Single Torch Triple X 13" monitor, model CM13. 8-pin DIN input.
  Two Torch Triple X 10" monitors, model CM10. 8pin DIN input
  Unknown 14" RGB monitor, 15-w D type female input. Likely nothing to do with
the Torch systems but I guess it'll probably work given a suitable cable.

Keyboards 
---------

One of these for torch-725 presumably, which doesn't have an 'obvious' keyboard
like the C520, and doesn't have one attached like the 'prototype'.

  Four Triple X keyboards; with 6-pin phone-type flat plugs on trailing leads
and 6-pin phone-type flat sockets on back of the keyboard (for mice?)
  Two Cherry-made XT-style keyboards with 15-pin D-type male connectors on
trailing leads.

Mice
----

I believe the previous owner said the C520 was too old to use a mouse, but the
other two systems should support them I think.

Anyway, I have six Triple X mice using 6-pin phone-type flat plugs. The cover
for one came off and fell down a convenient drain though - whoops... (there are
only ever drain covers around when you have something useful to drop down them)

Misc
----

  Torch Z80 disc pack - grey metal case for two half-height 5.25" drives; it's
been stripped of drives but I think the psu is intact. I believe this needs an
interface card (which may well be amongst the cards listed below)
  Triple X PSU (or so I was told; not having a 'genuine' Triple X I don't
know!)
  Box of genuine spare Quad X PAL chips and eproms
  Box of spare Triple X PAL chips and eproms
  Box of spare BBC/Torch eproms (presumably for 68k boards etc.)

Floppy drives
-------------

The owner was having a clear-out so I took a few off his hands - a couple I
noticed were Torch-labelled.

  Four full-height IBM XT style units
  Five half-height units hand-labelled as 1.2MB
  Seven half-height units hand-labelled as 360KB
  Eighteen (!) unknown capacity drives.

Five of the unknowns are still bagged and unused.

Hard drives
-----------

Unknown models / capacities as of yet... not had time to delve into them. 
  Four 5.25" MFM drives, one labelled as Quad X and may still have an OS
intact.
  Three 3.5" MFM drives.

Tape drives
-----------

Possibly for Quad X? Anyway, there are a couple of 5.25" HH units; not given
them more than a brief glance yet so not sure of manufacturer / capacity /
interface.

Spare boards
------------

Couple of boxes of spare boards came with everything... all connectors are
dual-row IDC type sockets unless I say otherwise :)

  Two Torch Computers 68000 boards. 68k and Z80B CPUs on board, 4 pin
single-row connector (power I expect) and 40 pin data connector. I believe
these plug into the BBC machines so that they can run Torch's version of CP/M?
One is a later model than the other and badged as an Atlas board.
  Three Torch Z80 Communicator boards. Z80A CPU on board, 40 pin data
connector. Another BBC plugin? The owner had hundreds of them apparently and
most of them went to landfill a while ago.
  Unknown Torch Z80 card. 40-pin connector at one end, 26-pin connector at the
other. Z80A CPU and SIO chips on board, plus 6522A and an 8255 chip. ROM is
Torch labelled as CCCP V1.02
  Three Torch internal (internal to what, though?) modems - 40-pin connectors,
plus 4-pin single-row for power. Several 40-pin chips: Z80 PIO, MC6803,
EF68A21P. ROM is Torch, labelled as "ADM5 2.1". Also a TM2016 chip on board
(memory I believe) and a 28-pin IC branded as "world-chip".
  Two oddball "modems". I don't even know if that's what they are :-)  2x 4-pin
single-row connectors, 14 pin single-row connector, then a long trailing lead
terminated in a 5 way rounded jack plug. I've not seen those jack plugs on
anything before, but it's possible old UK phone exchange equipment might have
used them - anyone? There's very little in the way of logic on the boards -
it's all analogue. Boards are 6" x 7". Trailing lead goes into a large white
plastic 'box' in one corner of the board. On top of this, apparently as an
afterthought, is a glued-on smaller black box out of which come two leads that
connect back to pins on the 14 pin connector. Hardware hacking at its best...

Right, the following appear to all be protocol convertor / interface boards for
various storage devices. All are on boards around 6" x 8" in size, and all have
a single 4 pin power connector (I may have manuals for all of these; I haven't
got that far yet!):

  Seven issue 3 Torch manta boards, for converting between SCSI and floppy
interfaces.
  Single issue 5 Torch manta board
  Four OMT boards (model 5200) with a 50 pin connector, 2x  34-pin connectors
and 2x 20 pin connectors. SCSI (or SASI?) to MFM disk?
  Single OMT board with a 50 pin connector, 34-pin connector, and 4x 20 pin
connectors. maybe SCSI (or SASI?) to MFM disk again?
  Four Xebec boards with a 50 pin connector, 3x 20 pin connectors and single
34-way edge connector.
  Single Xebec board with a 50 pin connector, 2x 20 pin connectors and single
34-way edge connector.
  Two Archive boards with a 50-pin connector at one end and a 50-way edge
connector at the other.5 LEDs by the power connector. Tape interface of some
sort, presumably?
  Single Emulex board, 2x 50-pin connectors at opposite ends of the board. Hmm.
Tape again?
  Single Adaptec board, 2x 50-pin connectors at opposite ends of the board. 
  Single Western Digital board (labelled WD1002-05), 2x 34-pin connectors, 3x
20-pin connectors, and a singe 40-pin connector. Only thing I can think of with
40 pins is IDE and it's too early for that I'm sure (last chip date is 1983)

I *think* that's all of it, for now. The guy I got these from had several rooms
piled up with stuff; he said he used to have a few 'proper' Triple X systems
and is surprised he threw them out, so they may still be lurking somewhere.
Same goes with other genuine Torch spares, drives, software, cables etc.  
There was a Quad X-on-a-card which I had my eye on but the guy still uses some
of the other cards in the rack for various things, so I couldn't get hold of
that. 

List of manuals and software to follow...

cheers

Jules

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---

From: Jules Richardson<[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jun 25 12:26:00 2003

Hi again, 

Here's the documentation and software haul that goes with the Torch hardware I
picked up earlier. The docs are probably about as complete as possible - and
enormous! Copying them is probably a little unrealistic; there's probably a
good 30,000 pages there - but If anyone collecting Torch hardware needs
anything looking up just shout! 

cheers

Jules

Software
5.25" disks.
Single boxed copy of the Triple X System V.2 issue 2 disk set - another 30 or
so disks.
CP/N hard disk utilities (single floppy, hand-written label)
Torch hard disk utilities (single floppy, again just hand-written label)
Two Torch key disks (with different serial numbers). 
Floppy with a Torch label on saying "spell binder" - no idea!
Floppy labelled as: "Torch CP/N  Unix/68k  CP/N Support  tune.com, unix.com,
icheck.com etc."
Floppy hand-labelled as "MOSF4.11 selecta M/3.5 disks".

Core documentation
--------------------
Unisoft Uniplus System III manual set - 3 volumes
Unisoft Uniplus System V manual set - 8 volumes
Triple X Administrators manual
Triple X Handbook
Triple X Users manual (section 1)
Triple X Users manual (sections 2-6)
Triple X Programming manual
Triple X Inside System V manual
Triple X Caretaker manual
Triple X Telecomms Manager manual
Triple X Software catalogue
Triple X Gold Card newsletters 1-5
Torch Computers User Guide
Torch Computers ZEP 100 User Guide
Torch Computers Unix Guide
Torch Computers Unicomm User Guide
Torch Computers Programmers Guide
Quad X Handbook
Quad X Janitor
Quad X Inside System V
Quad X Opentop Programming
Torch-725 Hardware Reference Manual (photocopied, in a Torch binder with added
schematics, notes etc.)
Torch X Window System Handbook
Torch X Toolkit manual
ASM68 Language Manual for UniPlus+
Introduction to Issue 2.0 of System V.2 (stapled together, no binder)
System V.2 - Issue 2.0 List of Files

Torch-related Oddities
-------------------------------
Manual for the Torch Manta board
Binder labelled as "All the stuff Torch didn't tell you!" - seems to be a C
programming guide.
Binder labelled as "Unix user guide" - notes on the basics, VI, shells etc.

Binder for the VME320QX board (a Quad X on a VME bus card) with the following
sections: Quad X spec / Quad X board manual / Openchip spec / Openchip
programming manual / Quad X circuit diagram / Quad X parts list revisions /
manufacturing notes / board layout

3rd party documentation set: two ring binders with sections labelled as "XXX
manuals" and sections as follows: System V.0 issue 1.3  / Unix 5.2 product
description / Unix V.2 list of files / XXX install / despatch notes (original
shipping invoices!) / additional section 1 pages / hints / printing / B-net /
NFS / multiuser / tape streamer / DOS disc utilities / 80MB disk drive /
Versaterm 100 / Fortran F77

---

From: Jules Richardson<[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jun 25 13:34:01 2003

Hi,

Another one for the sake of the archives more than anything - a few more
non-Torch docs that turned up amongst my haul of Torch stuff, some of which are
likely quite (very?) rare...

Acorn Stuff
---------------
Acorn Econet system user guide
Acorn Atom user manual
Acorn Basic manual (4K integer Basic; manual is dated 28/7/1980)
Acorn Technical Manual - dated 1979, for a 6502-based SBC. Display is quoted in
the manual as being 9 digits with the leftmost one unused, which may identify
the machine. Possibly a System 1-4 ??
Acorn 6809 users manual - dated 1980, this looks to be for a SBC a little more
'modern' than the one above. There are fragments of schematics in the manual,
plus an overview of the board layout, construction guide, monitor ROM listing
etc. but no complete schematic.
A binder which looks to have been Acorn internal. Has the following A4
sections:  
  Acorn DOS manual 
  Acorn 6502 ADE 
  Econet v1 technical manual
  Econet v1 user manual
  Econet v2 user manual
  Econet harddrive mods (schematics and notes)
  Econet specification document (marked as provisional)
  Atom Disc Pack construction notes, schematics etc. (anyone got a dump of the
ROM to go with this?)
  Atom "Disatom Super ROM" specifications doc - whatever one of those is!
  Atom Toolkit and Monitor ROM manual, by a P. T. Blenkinsop (written beneath
it says "with apologies to M Bates and Steve Wozniak" :)
Acorn System 5 Handbook 
Acorn documentation - more official-looking stuff:
  BBC OS v1 spec, 
  BBC disc interface details, 
  Document called "A redefinable telesoftware format" - was that what went on
to become prestel in the UK?
  Internal document announcing a BASIC interpreter being ready for the systems
3/4/5/6/8. I wonder what the systems 6 and 8 were? Far as I know only 1-5
existed in the wild, followed by the Atom and the BBC - with the Proton
evolving into what became the BBC. Maybe 6 was the Atom - but the document goes
on to specifically mention the BBC as a seperate case, so that wasn't a System
8... and where did 7 go? Curious! :)
  BBC micro speech system user guide.
  Internal doc detailing Acorn DOS entry points for the system 3, 4 and Atom.
  "Operating Instructions for the Progressive Establishment Testing System for
the BBC Microcomputer". Blimey. Documentation for a hardware unit that hooked
up to the BBC machines in order to perform hardware tests on them for engineers
by the looks of it. Wonder if any of the hardware still exists? :-)
  "Operating Instructions for the Final Inspection and Test System for the BBC
Microcomputer". Blimey again. Did these ever even see the light of day? Seems
to have been another hardware unit for use by field engineers but I've never
heard of it before.
   BBC 1MHz bus spec document.

AIM 65 Stuff
------------
AIM 65 Schematic
Forth user's manual
PL/65 user's manaul
Monitor program listing
Basic language reference manual
Instant pascal user's manaul

---

From: Peter Turnbull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jun 25 18:22:00 2003

On Jun 25, 18:19, Jules Richardson wrote:

> today.

A nice haul :-)

> The keyboard has a regular spacebar plus a small key to the right
labelled

Probably to generate a "non-break space" -- character 160 (0xA0) in ISO
8859  -- used for tables and things where you don't want the text
formatter to change the spacing between words.

> interface card (which may well be amongst the cards listed below)

Unusual.  Production ones were brown.  They have a 34-way ribbon cable
which plugs in to the Beeb disk interface, and carries the standard
SA400-style interface signals.  No other interface required.

> these plug into the BBC machines so that they can run Torch's version
of CP/M?

Not CP/M, that was the board below.  These would run a Unix derivative,
I think.

> most of them went to landfill a while ago.

Sounds like the normal Torch Z80 board, to run CPN.

> Torch labelled as CCCP V1.02

That's definitely to run CPN.  CCCP is the Console Command <something>
Processor part of CPN; usually paired with MCP on the Beeb.  The 8255
and the 6522 probably make up the Tube interface.

CPN, by the way, isn't CP/M.  It looks and feels similar, and *some*
CP/M software is compatible, but not all -- the memory map is
different.

> (memory I believe) and a 28-pin IC branded as "world-chip".

TM2016 is a 2K x 8 (bytewide) static RAM, pin-compatible to a 2716
EPROM (except for the /WR line, of course).  Your "World Chip"" will be
an AMD7910 (or possibly AMD7911) FSK modem chip.  It was very clever
for it's day; it does a range of baud rates and Bell and CCITT tones.
 Over here, it was used in Miracle Technology modems and many others in
the mid '80s. It goes up to 1200 baud half duplex or 300/300 full
duplex.

>   Single Xebec board with a 50 pin connector, 2x 20 pin connectors
and single

SASI interfaces to ST412-compatible drives.  The 50-pin connector is
the SASI (predecessor to SCSI) interface; the 34-pin is the drive
control bus, and the 20-pin connectors are the data lines.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York

---

From: Peter Turnbull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jun 25 18:24:59 2003

> Torch hard disk utilities (single floppy, again just hand-written
label)

Hmm... Could I get a copy of those?  I think I have the correct MCP ROM
somewhere here.

> Floppy with a Torch label on saying "spell binder" - no idea!

Spellbinder was a CP/M word processor similar to Wordstar.  The only
other time I've seen it in the flesh was on an Exidy Sorcerer.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York

---

From: Peter Turnbull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jun 25 18:26:47 2003

> the machine. Possibly a System 1-4 ??

No, it wasn't a System device.  That's the original Acorn SBC, I think.
 I've got the matching User's Manual.

> etc. but no complete schematic.

Mine has a fold-out circuit diagram inside the back cover.

>   Atom Disc Pack construction notes, schematics etc. (anyone got a
dump of the

Yes :-)

> to become prestel in the UK?

The same basic CET (Council for Educational Technology) format was used
for BBC Telesoftware (on Ceefax), Prestel (Micronet800, Viewfax258 etc)
and a few bulletin boards (including Acorn's own Support Information
Database -- SID).  It went through a few revisions, but the basics
didn't change.  I wrote some software for that.

> by the looks of it. Wonder if any of the hardware still exists? :-)

Probably.  I'll pay money for one -- I still have most of the other
Acorn test equipment.  A PET was used to diagnose faulty systems; it
could deal with pretty dead machines and/or some obscure faults --
though an experienced engineer could usually do it just about as fast
without it.

> to have been another hardware unit for use by field engineers but
I've never

Yes, I've got one -- and every Beeb I've ever repaired has passed the
FIT.   You need the software for it; I think the basic A version is
printed in the manual but there's a B version as well (is that also in
the manual?  I've got one, but not to hand).  Every Approved Service
Centre was required to have one.

There's a companion set of "Test Procedures For The ..."  6502 2P, Z80
2P, Prestel adaptor, Teletext adaptor, ...  and other test equipment
such as the Watchdog for an Electron and a PIT (sort of combined
FIT/PET) for later machines, and an Econet test box.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York

---

From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Wed Jun 25 19:05:01 2003

> Picked up a huge pile of old Torch hardware, software and manuals from someone

Well done!

> Triple X 'prototype'

OK, in the production XXX, the hard and floppy drives were connected to 
an OMTI board, and thence to the SCSI bus. Your unit is consistent with this

>     "Video" (small hole in case only)

The production machines have a 8 pin DIN for video.

>     "Disc interface" (blanked off)

Be careful. This sounds like the case from something else. Production 
XXXs have 2 DB25 sockets, and both are RS232 ports (one actually carries 
2 sets of RS232 signals, for a total of 3 serial ports). There is no 
parallel port on the production machines....

>     Cassette (round DIN, 7 pin)

No cassette on prpduction machines!

>     Power switch

Production machines don't have a conventional power switch. The PSU is 
controlled by a relay. There's a touch-sensitive contact on the front of 
the box that turns the PSU on when touched. The service processor then 
keeps the PSU running, and starts up the 68K side. Touching the contact 
again sends an interrupt to the service processor which tells the 68K to 
sync the filesystem and shut down. The 68K tells the service processor 
it's done this, and the latter then turns off the PSU.

All this requires that the NiCd battery in the PSU is good. If not, then 
the thing can't start up. The official procedure at this point is to 
replace the PSU -- there's no official way to charge a flat NiCd (!!!!).

> "Torch Hard Disc"

This sounds a bit BBC-micro like!. There is a Torch SCSI hard disk unit 
for the beeb -- it's supposed to be rather rare. The one I've seen is a 
plinth to fit under the nonitor contianing the SCSI interface (connectes 
to the Beeb 1MHz bus) + hard disk and also a floppy drive (connects to the 
normal Beeb disk controller). Maybe you have much the same unit built 
into a case with the Beeb mainboard and monitor.

> This may be a Quad X machine; if so then there aren't many of them left I

The QuadX I have is in the same case (basically) as a production XXX. But 
the mainboard is a singla 6U VME card, and there's a little 3 slot (I 
think) VME cardcage in the bottom slice. Much the same PSU as a XXX.

>   Large grille for cooling fan

This does not sound like a XXXX....

>   Single Torch Triple X 13" monitor, model CM13. 8-pin DIN input.

THis is actually a Sony Trinitron chassis...It works at TV rates and will 
take analogue or digital RGB in. Works with the Beeb, XXX, XXXX, etc...

>   Two Torch Triple X 10" monitors, model CM10. 8pin DIN input

I've never seen one of these, but it should work, at least, with the XXX

> and 6-pin phone-type flat sockets on back of the keyboard (for mice?)

Yes. Mouse connector. It's basically a special serial port. AFAIK the XXX 
and XXXX take the same keyboard.

> interface card (which may well be amongst the cards listed below)

AFAIK the drives just link to the normal Beeb fisk controller

>   Triple X PSU (or so I was told; not having a 'genuine' Triple X I don't

Can you describe it? I've got a couple of XXXs (including a nicely 
expanded one with a Quinring on top), and quite a pile of spares...

> Tape drives

In theory the XXX can support a tape drive on the SCSI bus, but I've 
never managed to get it to work...

> most of them went to landfill a while ago.

This is the board that goes with the Z80 disk pack. It fits inside the 
Beebm and connects to the Tube (I think). It runs CP/M (or something close 
to it). 

> Torch labelled as CCCP V1.02

Sounds like an expanded version of the above, with a serial port.

> (memory I believe) and a 28-pin IC branded as "world-chip".

The 'world chip' is an AM7910, that well-know 300  and 1200/75 baud modem 
IC. This sounds a bit like the Torch modem for the Beeb and XXX, but I 
don't recall a Z80 PIO on that board. 

> used them - anyone? There's very little in the way of logic on the boards -

Sounds like a 'Plug 95A' which was the standard UK telephone plug before 
the flat 400 and 600 series. Commonly used on Prestel sets, etc.

>   Seven issue 3 Torch manta boards, for converting between SCSI and floppy

These are used in XXX and XXXX machines if you have a real SCSI hard 
drive (as opposed to an ST506 one on an OMTI board).

> and 2x 20 pin connectors. SCSI (or SASI?) to MFM disk?

SCSI to ST506 and floppy. Used at least in the XXX.

> connectors. maybe SCSI (or SASI?) to MFM disk again?

Probably.

>   Single Xebec board with a 50 pin connector, 2x 20 pin connectors and single

Sounf like SCSI to ST506 interfaces

> connector at the other.5 LEDs by the power connector. Tape interface of some

Take controllers, Probably SCSI to either QIC 02 or QIC36....

>   Single Adaptec board, 2x 50-pin connectors at opposite ends of the board. 

More tape controllers...

> There was a Quad X-on-a-card which I had my eye on but the guy still uses some

That sounds like the production QaudX....

-tony

---

From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Wed Jun 25 19:06:56 2003

> Two Torch key disks (with different serial numbers). 

You may not have realised it yet, but the Torch OS is keyed to the serial 
number of the (uncopyable) Key disk. If you have to re-install the OS, or 
if the NiCd goes flat, or... you need the right key disk...

> Triple X Gold Card newsletters 1-5

THose are the second-most-lusing docs I've read, I think. The most lusing 
is the XXX service manual (which contains not a single schematic or 
useful piece of techincal information. Much of the so-called information 
in said manual turns out to be wrong!)

-tony

---

From: Don Maslin <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jun 25 19:48:00 2003

> other time I've seen it in the flesh was on an Exidy Sorcerer.

It was standard issue with the Eagle CP/M machines, Pete.

						- don

---

From: "Jim Kearney" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jun 25 21:28:00 2003

>From: "Jules Richardson" <[email-masked]>

> AIM 65 Stuff

Any chance that you can scan the Forth, PL/65 and Pascal language manuals?
The ROMs are available on the web, but the doc to my knowledge is not.  If
you don't have the time or facilities for that, I'd be happy to do it.

Richard Cini has the rest of the documents here:
http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/my_docs.htm

Jim

---

From: "Antonio Carlini" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Jun 26 13:53:00 2003

> if the NiCd goes flat, or... you need the right key disk...

I'll probably never come by a Torch, so I ask for academic
interest only, but what makes this disk uncopyable (as 
opposed to just hard to copy given an appropriate piece of
hardware like say the Catweasel)?

What is the disk keyed to? Can it be replaced?

Antonio

-- 

---------------
Antonio Carlini             [email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Thu Jun 26 16:20:00 2003

> hardware like say the Catweasel)?

The useual -- misformatted/unformatted tracks. OK, a catweasel almost 
certainly _can_ copy it.

In fact a XXX given the right software can _create_ key disks with any 
desired serial number. The Utility to do this did escape from Torch IIRC. 

> What is the disk keyed to? Can it be replaced?

There's a serial number somewhere in the OS image. It must match the serial
number in the battery backed RAM of the XXX that's to run that OS. The 
battery backed RAM is loaded from the keydisk.

And yes, there are ways round it.

-tony

---

From: Jules Richardson<[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Jul 24 17:07:00 2003

Hi all,

I managed to pick over some more Acorn hardware that was awaiting disposal at a
school yesterday and today. I only had about an hour to look over everything,
and there were well over 100 machines piled into a room and cupboard, so as you
can imagine it was a little frantic to sort out the good stuff. (case screws
flying everywhere as I was pulling useful ROMs from stacks of dead machines :-)

Came away with the following:

  Two Master Compacts, plus a third system unit for spares use.
  Two ICL-built BBC B's.  (serial #'s 36xx and 38xx I think)
  Two standard Master 128's
  BBC B with a Watford DDB3 module plugged into socket for IC78 
  BBC B with a 3.5" floppy drive + bootable print server disk
  BBC B with Aries B20 / B12 boards installed
  Master 128 with a Cox 630B genlock card
  Two Master Turbo machines
  Music 5000 synthesizer unit
  Acorn A3010
  Acorn A310
  A310 "Computer Concepts Scanner Interface" board
  A310 Nexus interface board
  A310 video digitiser board (Watford)
  Around 30 spare Econet modules for Master / A3xx machines
  Econet kit (clock box etc) still boxed
  Aries B20 / B12 board
  Aries B32 / B12 board    
  6502 coprocessor board
  Four 486 DX4/100 processor boards on a small backplane (RiscPC?)
  Cub monitor (my only previous example caught fire!)
  Acorn RGB monitor w/SCART connection
  Numerous floppy drives, video leads, Econet connection boxes, spare
keyboards, spare PSUs, ROMs etc.
  Various manuals - not dug into these yet.
  Numonics 2206 graphics tablet still in its box

Questions:

  Three of the BBC B machines have an IC/module plugged into one of the ROM
sockets with a label saying "RAM". The modules are twice the height of a normal
IC and have a red and black wire coming out of them. The red wire is soldered
to the system board; the black wire has an IC leg clip at the end of it. Any
ideas what these are?

  What does that Watford DDB3 module do?

  Details on the A310 cards would be nice - specs of the video digitiser, what
scanner plugs into the scanner card (it has an 8 pin min-DIN, a 20 pin
connector, and what appears to be power output), and what the hell a Nexus card
is / does...

  Information on the genlock card in the Master would be useful. 

  ROMs / software / whatever for the Music 5000 unit could come in handy! I
only have the unit itself.

  *Any* info on the Numonics tablet would be great. It appears to be complete
(minus manuals - grr!) and supposedly works, but I don't even know what it
plugs into and I don't have any driver software for it. (I'm not even sure how
old it is :)

Pretty much everything seems to be healthy; one of the ICL B's needs the chips
reseating I think and the other one has a track / joint fault in the PSU but
otherwise is OK. The Master with the genlock is dead so I'm hoping the genlock
card has survived! Fills in a few gaps in the collection anyway.

Quick pics of the room as found are at: www.moosenet.demon.co.uk/temp/bbc

cheers

Jules

=====
Backward conditioning: putting saliva in a dog's mouth in an attempt to make a bell ring.

---

From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Thu Jul 24 18:27:00 2003

>   Master 128 with a Cox 630B genlock card
Is that 'Michael Cox Electronics'? I've come across said company for 
video-related stuff (PAL encoders/decoders) before.

>   Acorn RGB monitor w/SCART connection

Almost certainly a badged Philips unit. It's analogue RGB only (unless 
you get the service manual for the Philips version and solder in the 
components for the PAL decoder, and then align the darn thin). The pinout 
is standard SCART, with the sync going in on the composite video input 
pin (as you'd expect if you've worked with SCART before).

> to the system board; the black wire has an IC leg clip at the end of it. Any

Sideways RAM. These are RAM modules (normally 16K -- you may find the 
module contains a pair of piggybacked 6264 chips) that pretend to be 
sideways ROMs to the system most of the time. The 'official' reason for 
wanting one was to be able to develop sideways ROM code easily. The real 
reasonfor having one was that you could copy ROM images to disk from 
other people's machines, then load them into the RAM module and pretend 
to have that ROM. This is commonly called theft, of course!

>   What does that Watford DDB3 module do?

Well, it plugs into the 8271 (disk cotnroller chip) socket. So it's 
probably a 1770 board. Such boards were designed when the 8271 became 
almost impossible to obtain, and also allowed the use of double-density 
(MFM) recording. You need thr correct DFS ROM for them, and some of the 
lesser ones fail on copy protection schemes that try to access the 8271 
driectly. Better DFSes (including Acorn's IIRC) attempt to translate 
accesses to the 8271 (at least if you use the appropriate OSBYTE call, 
which you should do to make the program second-processor compliant) into 
the equivalent operation on the 1770.

-tony

---

From: Peter Turnbull <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Jul 24 19:38:00 2003

On Jul 24, 23:03, Jules Richardson wrote:

>   Details on the A310 cards would be nice - specs of the video
digitiser,

Can't remember the specs offhand.  IIRC it's possible to get colour out
of it (all the early Acorn demos were made with one) but I think the
native mode of operation is monochrome.  I have one, and I have the
software on an 800K ADFS E disk, though I haven't used it in at least a
decade.  I also have some of the colour demos done with it.  The only
thing I don't have, and which I'd dearly like to find, is the spoof of
the BBC rotating globe that was done using images from the digitiser --
Aunty complained and all the copies I had access to got withdrawn.  It
uses SWIs contained in the EPROM on the card to drive the hardware; the
version I have is 2.51, which I remember getting from Mike Harrison
(who designed it) specially -- it's not the normal release version.

> what
> connector, and what appears to be power output),

Sounds like the Beebug scanner, or possibly the Computer Concepts one
(which may have used the same scanner head).  Mine used a Mitsubishi
scan head which was the width of A4 and rolled over a flat sheet, but
there was also a sheet feeder available which used the 8-pin miniDIN.
 The 20-way subminiature D-connector is the connection to the scan
head.  It could also be used with those little scanner hand units (the
ones that look like a fat barcode scanner).  IIRC, the power jack is an
input, for scanners that take more power than the backplane is supposed
to provide.

> and what the hell a Nexus card
> is / does...

If it's what I think it is, it was something that either SJ Research or
Lingenuity built to hook a few Archimedes machines onto a SCSI bus to
share a hard drive.  I could be thinking of something else, though.

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York