Re: [CM] What was your first home computer?

From	Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.misc, alt.folklore.computers
Subject	Re: [CM] What was your first home computer?
Date	2017-04-20 07:09 +0200
Organization	Me, Myself and I
Message-ID	<pdslsd-tg5.ln1@sambook.reistad.name> (permalink)
References	<5ujesd-n64.ln1@raspberry.therandymon.com> <od61ia$gh$1@dont-email.me> <87d1c87mcz.fsf@elektro.pacujo.net> <od87b5$vtr$1@gioia.aioe.org>

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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In article <od87b5$vtr$1@gioia.aioe.org>,
Walter Banks  <walter@bytecraft.com> wrote:
>
>On 2017-04-19 5:55 AM, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
>> Robert Swindells <rjs@fdy2.co.uk>:
>>
>>> On Tue, 18 Apr 2017 22:46:46 +0300, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
>>>
>>>> Ok, all this hardware. What did you do with it?
>>
>> (Nobody has yet offered any responses. Were the home computers just
>> paperweights?)
>>
>
>My home built PDP-8 was mostly a challenge to get working. Once I got
>focal to run and the standard PDP-8 standard software I pretty much
>didn't do anything with it.

For me it was about software, primarily. It still is.

I did a number of basic and 6502 assembly consultancy jobs, some
of them very well paid.

I did an asdic driver for a quite big array of sonars, and I
still see the chip as current in the inventories of the vendors.
It is 507 bytes of very hand-coded 6502 assembly. 511 including the
two start vectors, but they fixed that in hardware later.

The immediate, "naive" version had ~730 bytes, properly
assembled with linkable constants. Then we (mostly I) started
shaving the code. Getting to ~530 was sort of easy, but from
there I struggled. Using instructions as constants, and then
changing the programl to use different instructions so I got
the constants I needed was a quite iterative process.

The real, hard limit was 512 (really 508) bytes of ROM and
2048 bytes of RAM, since that was a finite limit in the version
of 6502 they used.

All timings were based on the instruction times.

-- mrr

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[CM] What was your first home computer? RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2017-04-17 11:01 +0000
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> - 2017-04-17 15:05 -0400
    Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> - 2017-04-18 11:45 +0100
      Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Nyssa <Nyssa@flawlesslogic.com> - 2017-04-18 11:14 -0400
        Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2017-04-18 15:27 +0000
          Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2017-04-18 15:47 +0000
          Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Nyssa <Nyssa@flawlesslogic.com> - 2017-04-18 11:52 -0400
            Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-18 14:46 -0400
              Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Nyssa <Nyssa@flawlesslogic.com> - 2017-04-18 16:52 -0400
        Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-18 14:40 -0400
          Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? "Kerr Mudd-John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2017-04-18 21:14 +0100
      Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-18 14:32 -0400
        Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2017-04-18 20:10 +0100
          Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2017-04-18 22:46 +0300
            Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2017-04-18 21:04 +0000
            Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Robert Swindells <rjs@fdy2.co.uk> - 2017-04-18 21:47 +0000
              Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Andy Leighton <andyl@azaal.plus.com> - 2017-04-18 17:57 -0500
              Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-18 23:40 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Jason Howe <jason@tatooine.smbfc.net> - 2017-04-19 04:34 +0000
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? JimP. <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2017-04-19 11:59 -0500
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2017-04-19 18:17 +0000
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Jason Howe <jason@tatooine.smbfc.net> - 2017-04-19 18:45 +0000
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-19 19:59 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2017-04-19 03:28 -0300
              Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2017-04-19 12:55 +0300
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2017-04-19 05:40 -0500
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Nyssa <Nyssa@flawlesslogic.com> - 2017-04-19 10:02 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-19 12:49 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2017-04-19 15:44 +0000
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2017-04-19 22:05 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Richard Thiebaud <thiebauddick2@aol.com> - 2017-04-19 12:05 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? JimP. <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2017-04-19 12:11 -0500
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-19 12:44 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-05-14 11:22 +0100
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2017-04-19 13:38 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2017-04-20 07:09 +0200
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> - 2017-04-19 13:58 -0400
            Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2017-04-19 02:37 -0300
            Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> - 2017-04-20 11:47 +0100
              Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Osmium <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2017-04-20 08:56 -0500
              Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2017-04-20 17:07 +0300
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2017-04-21 22:18 -0500
            Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> - 2017-04-21 14:10 +0300
              Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2017-04-21 15:00 +0300
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2017-04-21 12:53 +0000
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> - 2017-04-21 15:01 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2017-04-21 23:35 +0300
      Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> - 2017-04-18 15:44 -0400
    Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Brian Reay <no.sp@m.com> - 2017-04-18 22:23 +0100
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Jon Elson <jmelson@wustl.edu> - 2017-04-17 14:38 -0500
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Alan Frisbie <Usenet03_REMOVE@Flying-Disk.com> - 2017-04-17 18:17 -0700
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2017-04-17 20:06 -0700
    Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2017-04-18 22:50 -0700
      Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-19 12:38 -0400
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? isw <isw@witzend.com> - 2017-04-17 20:41 -0700
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) - 2017-04-17 23:00 -0500
    Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2017-04-17 22:13 -0700
      Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-18 14:27 -0400
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2017-04-18 12:02 -0400
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2017-04-18 21:58 -0500
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2017-04-19 10:09 -0400
    Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-19 12:52 -0400
      Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2017-04-19 16:41 -0400
        Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> - 2017-04-19 20:31 -0700
          Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2017-04-20 10:28 -0400
            Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> - 2017-04-21 10:47 +0100
              Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2017-04-21 09:50 +0000
              Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2017-04-21 08:46 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> - 2017-04-21 18:00 +0100
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-04-21 20:19 -0400
                Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> - 2017-04-22 11:18 +0100
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? "Jack Myers" <jmyers@n6wuz.net> - 2017-04-19 10:35 -0700
    Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Andreas Kohlbach <ank@spamfence.net> - 2017-04-19 17:06 -0400
    Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2017-04-19 16:29 -0400
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen@t-online.de> - 2017-04-20 10:49 +0200
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net> - 2017-04-20 10:13 +0000
  Re: [CM] What was your first home computer? Kara M'bola <maxupixu@in.val.it> - 2017-04-22 09:42 +0000

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