Posts by jonesthechip

End-to-end encryption may be the bane of cops, but they can't close that Pandora's Box

Re: The bits I love

Can you provide the title of the SciFi work mentioned, please?

I just need to see how many dogs/breeds I need for suitable messaging.

Time to study the classics: Vintage tech is the future of enterprise IT

Re: EPROM blasting from the past...

The idea is to write a simple assembler model in 'c', being aware of the restrictions in the 4040 processor.

All tables and their handling code must fit into a 256 byte page.

No programme flow from one page to another.

Eight levels of stack.

4K total memory space, code AND label storage.

THEN translate it into actual real live native 4040 code.

The big brains at intel wrote this in 1973. So how hard can it be? Some of the design decisions can be inferred given the platform.

(Taking notes from "Real Programmers Don't use Pascal", all the structured programming in the world won't help, this needs real... Well, modesty forbids! But I don't want my eulogy to include the phrase "And he'd almost got that assembler programme to work...")

A more serious point is that I started with the intellec 4 mod 40 at the ripe of old age of 22, so I feel that I was part of a very small set of 4040 coders in the UK and 50 years on, that set feels a lot smaller...

I wonder if the lofty sages at Vulture Central could put in a shout-out for anybody who might have a copy said RAM based assembler tape?

"Help me, El Reg, you're my only hope..."

:)

EPROM blasting from the past...

Refurbishing an intel intellec 4 mod 40 microcomputer from 1975.

Just got some 1702A EPROMs (new, old stock) from my memory main man in Scandinavia, so time to build a programmer.

Only thing that I'm missing is a copy of the paper tape native 4040 assembler that loaded (very slowly) via the Teletype...

Even intel don't have any copies or even details of where to look!

(Why didn't I keep a copy? And why did I throw away a lot of legacy kit that was "just taking up room", as the wife said at the time?)

Any Vulture aficionados have any comments?

We bought a knockoff Lego launchpad kit from China for our Saturn V rocket so you don't have to

Making plan (or obtaining them)?

Just a thought - anybody up for approaching the original designer and waving some beer tokens in his direction for copies of the build instructions? I'd dearly like to build a LUT at some time, but in the short term I'd be prepared to pony up some funds for a look at the build instructions/parts list, with a view to costing the project. (BTW: At 67 I still find time for toys. Even if they are techy work gadgets. And of course LEGO(tm). Oh, and had two uncles in the WW2 RAF. Lancasters. Re-arranged parts of Europe.)

Knockoff design?

Please note that the gentleman whom I believe to be the designer of this model submitted this to LEGO a couple of years ago, and while his design was rejected for being too niche, he alleges that the copy reviewed here uses his design with no acknowledgement or payment. The result is that he has taken down the build instructions and parts list, stopping others from making their own copy of the LUT. And a friend of mine purchased a Millennium Falcon kit from the same supplier several years ago and found that some bits were missing and some duplicated. Not a happy experience.

Windows invokes Sgrîn Las Marwolaeth upon Newport

Re: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

I remember driving across Anglesey in my Uni days past the bus depot on the A5 where a poor unfortunate sign-writer had ignored the 'measure twice, cut once' rule. They had started confidently painting LlanfairPwyllGwyn across the engine access panel on the rear of a bus and then had a panic attack on realizing that the remaining characters would not fit. The next few letters bunched up, but the terminating 'goch' still ended up on the main bodywork. The bus was in service for many years after that... Morale: check that your font size and kerning fits the user window before committing to a display write..

ALGOL 60 at 60: The greatest computer language you've never used and grandaddy of the programming family tree

Re: Early Uni Computing

I'm sure I've got an Elliot Autocode Manual somewhere in the garage... (Wife: When are you getting rid of that junk? Me: You mean my 'resources'?) Didn't understand it at the time, but 45 years of 'real programmer' assembler might help now! And not forgetting 803B 'on-line Algol' sessions which ran for 5-10 minutes - if lucky...

Early Uni Computing

Back in the early 70's Bangor University Computing Department kept what was the previous workhorse 803 in a back room, after migrating to an ICL4130. The computing department manager would oversee a rigorous test on the 803 operating procedures before allowing any member of the great unwashed student body unsupervised access to said machine. I've still got my copy of Algol A104 compiler tape in a drawer somewhere. As an introduction into the wide world of programming this was an ideal education in small memory management and code optimisation, useful on my next processor, an intel 4040. How did the compile procedure go? Power supply to 'on', tape in reader, press the control button to 'read', hit the 'operate' bar, press the control button back to 'normal', hit the 'operate' bar... And listen to the soothing chatter of the loudspeaker connected to the overflow bit... Kids these days, they don't believe you!

50 years ago: NASA blasts off the first humans to experience a lunar close encounter

Less computing power than a smartphone? Really?

Might I recommend 'Digital Apollo' by David.A.Mindell as a great discussion on the overall system of the Apollo Guidance Computer, together with the sensors and rocket controls of both the LM and the CSM? And this created by the Titans of embedded programming, Margaret Hamilton and Charles Draper? I'm told my iPad has more computing power that a Cray (all hail Seymour, the first of his name), but I don't see anybody doing weather forecasting or atomic explosion simulations on iDevices...

My hoard of obsolete hardware might be useful… one day

Useful Legacy Kit

Well, there's an intel intellec 4 MOD 40 (1975 vintage) in the garage that only needs the 1702A boot/monitor EEPROMS re-reprogramming. I do wish I hadn't binned the ASR33 TeleType all those years ago. And I'm sure that the pair of Series III intellecs MDS dev systems (1981 vintage) will come in useful again some day. (If the wife doesn't find out that the important storage boxes marked 'DO NOT THROW AWAY' actually contain 8" floppy discs...)