XOR computer web site / belated haul report / Horizon 8/16

[Jim Battle]

--- XOR website ---

A couple weeks ago I solicited input on the "Data Science XOR computer."  I did 
so here and on one of the usenet groups.  I'm not sure which list produced the 
lead, but a gentleman named Jerry Wright stepped up and very kindly sent me 
scans of the manuals he had and made copies of boot floppies for me.

I've cleaned up the machine (including removing extensive amounts of 20 year old 
cellophane tape residue), set the jumpers on the floppies to something rational 
(originally they were nonsense, including using a 16 pin shunt package in place 
of the 150 ohm termination resistor pack!), and disassembled the ROM looking for 
clues, but so far it doesn't boot from disk.  There are things I can do to make 
more progress, but for now I'm setting it on the shelf so I can get back to 
things that were in progress when I let the XOR computer take over my life. 
I'll get back to it eventually.

Meanwhile, I've put up a simple web site with some information about the 
machine, some pictures, and other resources: the disassembled monitor along with 
an intel HEX dump, teledisk disk images, and the manuals.  The manuals aren't 
exactly what Jerry gave to me; I changed some page orientations, rearranged 
pages that were out of order, used G4 compression to cut the file sizes by more 
than half, and converted the 8bpp covers on one manual to 1 bpp.

	http://www.thebattles.net/xor/xor.html

It might worth ten minutes of idle browsing to some of you, or perhaps someone 
has one on their shelf and could use the information.  Likewise, if you have 
something to share, please send it to me and I'll add it to the web site.

--- HAUL REPORT ---

BTW, this was one of the machines I picked up from Stan Johnson, in Aurora, IL, 
last month.  Stan had posted the availability of some machines on this list. 
The XOR wasn't in his email, but he unearthed it from his storage and made it 
part of the deal.

Now, should I turn my attention next to the Horizon 8/16 multiprocessor system 
he also gave me?  Or one of the Kaypro 10s?  Perhaps the Osborne Executive?  The 
Vector?  The IMSAI turnkey?  Or one of the H89's?  Bwwaa, haaa, haaa.  :-)

Stan was a very nice guy indeed, and not just because he bestowed 8-bit riches 
upon me.  I hope he found a good home for the Vax in his basement.

--- Horizon 8/16 computer ---

More seriously, next I'll probably dig into the Horizon 8/16.  This system is a 
nearly stock Horizon box (aluminum, not wood, sides) with a beefier power 
supply.  It has one 5.25" floppy disk and one hard disk, both integral.  The 
base Horizon functionality seems to be intact.  I'm working on making a boot 
floppy to bootstrap the hard disk (the system requires booting through the 
floppy; it doesn't boot the hard disk directly).  Code there fires up the N 
slave Z80s, each with its own local 64 KB of DRAM.  My system has two slave 
Z80s.  These slaves each have a small paddle board that feeds RS-232 to a port 
in the back.  The idea was to have one Z80 per user.  Although the hard disk 
hasn't been booted yet, it undoubtedly has a copy of turbodos on it.

Dave Dunfield and Barry Watzman have already been some help in getting started 
on it.  I'll report back on it if I make any substantial progress.