[vcf-midatlantic] Zilog System 8000

[Dave McGuire]

On 11/16/2015 04:13 PM, Oliver Lehmann via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> Bit more about what the background of my question is:
> 
> - I own a Zilog System 8000/21 but neither do I have a
>   harddrive for it nor do I have a working tapedrive
>   or any tape medias.
> - A friend of mine also got a Zilog System 8000/21 lately
>   but his harddrive is broken (heads do not find track 0),
>   and his tape drive capstan went to "gum".
>   He got a noriginal Zilog ZEUS (Zilogs UNIX) tape media
>   but with the broken drives no way of backing it up or
>   retrieve at least its contents.
> - Today I found out, that another enthusiast from a local
>   university also has a System 8000/32 (newer than /21
>   with SMD harddisks) in the uni museum.
>   He has a dying harddrive, a working tape drive but no
>   media.
> 
> You see... lots of "missing", "dying" and so on....

  Hello Oliver, I think you and I discussed Zilog System 8000 stuff many
years ago.

  I had a Model 31 for a long time, back in the late 1980s.  It was a
great system.  Its only real drawback was the lack of networking
capability.  I still miss that system, but I sold it before I became old
and sentimental.

  I currently have a Model 21, but its hard drive has failed (it's the
SMD version) and the tape drive roller has predictably turned to goo.  I
will address the roller problem at some point, when I start to dig into
the system.  Otherwise the system comes up and executes its ROM-based code.

  It is very important that ZEUS install tapes be preserved.  They are,
as you have observed, nearly impossible to find.  This was the "largest"
application for the Z8000 processor architecture, and it's exactly the
application it was designed for...it was used in lots of other places
but couldn't really "shine" in those areas.  For example, I have an EDAX
system on my electron microscope that uses a Z8000 running ROM-based
code as a coprocessor for number crunching.  The Z8000 has significant
strengths for multitasking and timesharing applications, and ZEUS on the
System 8000 family is, to my knowledge, the only place it was taken
advantage of.

                -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA