Intel MDS Series II IOC question

[Dave Mabry]

Dave Mabry wrote:

> Tony Duell wrote:
>
>> I am certainly interested, even though I don't have one of these 
>> machines.
>>
>> -tony
>>
>> snip...
>
>
> Stay tuned...I have some more disassembling to do.
>
> Dave
>
>
>
As "promised" I have been disassembling 8080 code from the IOC board on 
an Intel MDS.  This is not really difficult to do, but it is VERY time 
consuming.

Turns out that I have been working on two different versions of the 
firmware...VERY DIFFERENT.

The earliest version of IOC firmware that I know of is called V1.3, or 
at least that's the signon version number for the diagnostic code within it.

Intel released a major enhancement for that firmware in about 1982 or 
1983.  They sold a package called the iMDX-511 that included the newer 
firmware and new code for the 8741 cpu in the keyboard.  All MDS Series 
II's sold after that date had this code right out of the factory.  The 
enhancements included cursor addressibility, some character attributes 
(like underline, bold, reverse video),  soft keys that included some of 
the common ISIS-II commands, and other things like that.  Interesting 
how this was a major enhancement at the time and is, of course, taken 
for granted by computer users today.

So, I'm still working on disassembling, understanding, and commenting 
the V1.5 code for the IOC.  If anyone is interested (Tony, you said you 
were! :)) I have put it online for anyone to snatch.  It is the ".LST" 
file output from Intel's ASM80 Macro Assembler.  That is the file that 
you would send to a printer, so it has lots of info.

If anyone is interested enough to help me a bit, I would like to 
understand where the RAM diagnostic is in 1.5.  I have identified it in 
1.3, but V1.5 looks to be completely rewritten.

The two versions are here:

http://www.mich.com/~dmabry/intel/ioc

When I have enough information on V1.5 I'll break out the ICE-80 again 
and dim the lights in my neighborhood!  :)

Dave Mabry