September 2023 - vcf-midatlantic

EEPROM burners in the early 1980s?
by Herbert Johnson 05 Sep '23

05 Sep '23

> ow common and costly were EEPROM burners in the early 1980s? > > I’m watching Adrain’s Digital Basement where he covers the Apple II > clones. Was it pretty cheap to buy large enough blank EEPROMs and then > copy them yourself or were the burners expensive back then? I suggest you look back further, to the mid-1970's. There were computers and EPROMs back then too, equipment used in the 80's also. Situations with EPROMs changed as personal (or impersonal) computing changed. Read the hobby computing and electronic magazines of the era for details, prices. The story follows the history of microprocessors and US electronics manufacturing. Check the electronics and early personal-computing magazines of the period. There were construction articles on building your own EPROM burners, all the way back to the mid-1970's for the first personal computers. The kit companies and electronic parts companies, had ads for their products in the same magazines. YOu can find prices for EPROMs and burners in the same magazines. Byte and Popular Electronics would be first-choices. Look up prices for new/used autos, to get an idea of economics. Or, there's simple multipliers for inflation, found by Web search. A number of small companies, offered their own EPROM burners, that ran as serial devices usually connected to the computers (or terminals) of the era. There were also Apple II cards, and S-100 cards, and SS-50 cards - as EPROM burners. Prices were comparable to other cards for a given bus or computer-type. The engineering companies, manufacturers, bought the commercial EPROM burners at more expense, to get support for all the kinds of EPROMs and PALS produced. Early EPROMS varied greatly in programming requirements. For commercial production of microcontrollers (controls for industrial equipment, consumer items) these professional burners could burn several ROMS at a time. Cheaper and hobby EPROM burners, used slower programming schemes, didn't cover all kinds of EPROMs. Newer EPROMS became simpler to burn. Why would hobby computer owners, burn EPROMs in the early 80's? To put software into early computers, especially before floppy-disk systems became affordable and available (cassette based software was popular but it was slower). I'm not big on apple II history, but copying Apple BASIC ROMS saved a lot of money. I don't know when Apple II computers were "cloned", but maybe later in the 1980's? BASIC in ROM on many computers, was a fast way to boot up BASIC. Later on, personal computers came with BASIC in ROM already. Meanwhile, a lot of hobbyists wrote software to run in ROM. ROM monitors were popular to create, modify. And kit-builders, and roll-your-own-computers builders, needed ROMS to boot. People adding floppy controllers and floppy OS's, needed boot ROMs and PROM boards. Later in the 1980's, floppy disk systems (while expensive) were fast enough that people just loaded software from disk files. Later 1980's computers ran with plug-in carts. Companies made EPROM-based carts, to copy games. But as IBM PC's became "cloned" later in the 80's decade, people needed to copy PC ROMS. Lots of people resold clone PC's. ISA boards to burn EPROMs were popular, as were PROM burners connected to the "PC parallel port" and running under MS-DOS. In the 90's it was very popular to copy PC ROMs to put into clone PC motherboards, and probably Apple II ROM-copying was still active (now for the IIe enhancement). So, the story of EPROM burning by individuals and small companies, mirrors the history of personal computers and the copying/cloning of the more popular computer brands (IBM, Apple). It's also a story of the rise (and fall in the USA) of microprocessor-based products and companies who designed and manufactured them. Once computers became commodity items in the 90's, sold with all the EPROMs needed, EPROM burning by computer hobbyists and dealers was less of a thing, mostly associated with IBM PC compatible EPROM burners. HObbyists still made kits and put software in ROM, for controllers as well as S-100 and SS-50 and other microcomputers. Again, the electronic hobby magazines of the era had ads for those. Regards Herb Johnson -- Herb Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com or .net preserve and restore 1970's personal computing email: hjohnson @ retrotechnology dot com or try later at herbjohnson @ comcast dot net -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA https://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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OT: Any interest in old Motorola HTs
by Kelly Leavitt 05 Sep '23

05 Sep '23

These are about 30 years old. A lot. I would guess at least 20. Located in Sandyston, NJ. Must pick up. Let me know, Kelly

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AES Data Superplus CPU card
by Dmitry _ 04 Sep '23

04 Sep '23

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Re: OT: Older TiVo available for free
by Jonathan Sturges 03 Sep '23

03 Sep '23

From: Bob Shuster <bob(a)theshusters.com> To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: Older TiVo available for free > Before I recycle it, is anyone interested in a TiVo HD XL (Series 3) DVR? The hard drive died after many > years of faithful service, so it has no drive, but it does have a lifetime subscription. Bob, I'd be happy to take the TiVo if it's still available. thanks, Jonathan

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OT: Powder Coating
by Martin A. Flynn 03 Sep '23

03 Sep '23

I am making 19" rack panels that are color matched to equipment we already own. Since this is basically a one-shot project, and I ended up purchasing more of the RAL 7022 color that what was needed (minimum order required) If anyone in the VCF world has need to parts coated with this color, email me Martin

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Help identifying a memory/program card case
by Bob Shuster 02 Sep '23

02 Sep '23

The consensus is PCMCIA jewel case. I still have no idea what came in those although I have a vague recollection of at least one sampler/snyth that used them back in the day. In any case, thanks for the help! I added these to my for sale pages for free if anyone can use them. - Bob

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