Hi Mike,
You wrote below: "I don't know if any of you have interest in this sort of thing."
Wow ... Are you kidding!! :-)
I'm sure I speak for at least a few others on this list who love to hack (in the old, more correct usage of the term) hardware and/or software in order to non-maliciously learn stuff, restore something important, and/or at least bring something back to life. Reverse Engineering and creation of solutions at its best and most fun :-)
I retired back in March (finally, at age 70) from the major USA-based independent diesel engine maker and plan to work thru a bunch of DEC PDP-11 gear, my DG Nova 1200, IBM 9370 w/9375-60 Processor, several ASR-33 TTYs, plus a flock of other radio & TV restoration and ham radio projects which have been in 'idle storage' for 10-to-50 years. This email subject matter will definitely apply -depending, of course, upon how my wife and I stretch our SS checks, a modest pension and random restoration and consulting work.
I need to catch-up on what that 'Zyng thing' is you mention and other recent hardware/software items like this which have appeared in the last decade or so.
Hi Chris, The Zynq is a processor chip like a BCM used on a RaspberryPI but instead of simple GPIO, it has a big FGPA 'fabric' between its internal ARM processor and GPIO pins. The ZTurn is a particular board that contains a Zynq chip and brings out 90+ pins to connectors on the back. So it is well suited to interface to a processor's IO and memory busses. You can write Verilog or VHDL to program the FPGA to look like the device registers, then the ARM can do the IO simulation and update the device registers. Mike
I personally encourage keeping activity like this going, folks!
Thanks much and best regards, Â Â Â -Chris F.
On 12/26/2024 9:02 PM, Mike Rieker via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
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Hey All,
If anyone is interested, I finished a Zynq thing that plugs into the back of my PDP-8/L to provide disk, tape, tty functionality. The thing actually boots and runs OS/8!
Anyway I made an Hackaday page https://hackaday.io/project/202048-pdp-8x2fl-enhancements
There is also a simple RasPI based board that plugs in the front panel slot to do automated testing.
About all I had to do to get the PDP running was replace a few (half dozen or so) 7400 series chips, some corroded diodes on the core stack and a power resistor. Hasn't missed a beat since.
I don't know if any of you have interest in this sort of thing. I don't have a PDP-8/I but it might not be too difficult to adapt it to one of those or other PDP-8s and maybe 11s.
Mike
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-- ================================================================ Christian R Fandt Jamestown, NY 14701
Electrical/Electronic Collector & Historian: Radios, Early Computers, Test Equipment Radio restorations: Pre-1970s Automotive & Home radios Retired engineer/consultant on electrical/electronic contact physics
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