Adventures with the Nixdorf 8870 Mini-Computer
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8870 / Micro 7

8/5/2015

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Firstly my apologies for leaving this site alone for so long. I've been so busy at work and with other projects that my on-going 8870 adventures have been a long way down the list.

I'm desperate to get more of the information I have accumulated over time onto this site but it's a slow job.

Now, a HUGE thank you to Vaxman and his lovely wife.

I had an Email out of the blue from Vaxman (followers of my blog will know that Vaxman and I have corresponded many times and he has been able to supply me with 8870 related documentation in the past), saying he had found an 8870 / Micro 7. I was very excited for him. The Micro 7 is a lovely machine and it's nice and compact. We exchanged several Emails on how he could attempt to get the machine working, but unfortunately it became clear there was something very wrong. He also didn't really have the time to invest fiddling around with this as he has many other projects on the go, and this was just a distraction to him.
I also secretly think his wife wanted this piece of junk out the way :)
Picture
Anyway, the Micro 7 is now sitting on my workbench and after a few nail biting hours, I eventually got it working... mostly.

I will write more about it soon and include pictures. I've also got some very useful documentation to go with this machine.

So, once again, a huge thank you to Vaxman and to his wife for packing it up so well and arranging it to be shipped to me in the UK. Oh, and to his cat for supervising and making sure the job was done properly.
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One thing… leads to another…

8/3/2011

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As part of the 8870 documentation process, I thought it would be sensible to make copies of all EPROMS and ROMS contained within the hardware (system boards and terminals). Early 8870 hardware often had EPROMS and these can “fade” over time so it’s sensible to have images from known working devices stored safe and sound.

The first place I decided to start was with the EPROMS / ROMS stored in the DAP4 CPU board. However, and there’s always a however with Nixdorf hardware, the EPROMS are actually 2516’s and these use a different pin-out to standard 2716 devices and they also need 25v for the programming cycle; this means my old and trusty EPROM programmer won’t program them, and more of an issue, won’t read them either. I could make an adapter board to allow them to at least be read, but my friend VAXMAN mentioned that he had some 2708 EPROMS he would like to read and these devices are complete pigs to use; they need +5, -5, +12 and +25v and there’s no way my programmer will ever handle these. So I decided it’s time to design and build a new one. Whilst I’m at it, I’m taking the opportunity to build-in some additional features that I’ve always found missing. I want it to be able to handle just about any EPROM available, RAM chips, and be able to be used as a ROMULATOR (ROM Emulator).

Once it’s done, I’ll post the design, PCB foils etc. here for those that are interested. I may even build you one if you ask nicely!!

I’m still hunting around for a NIROS operating system but so far, I’ve not had much luck. I have been in contact with somebody who has a rather large Nixdorf 8870 collection but most of his equipment isn’t currently running and I’ve offered my services to help him get things going. Perhaps we can salvage an op-sys off one of his systems.
Picture
DAP4 being eatern by a leaking lithium battery.
This reminds me… those of you who are holding onto old equipment, Nixdorf, DEC, IBM, whatever, please.. PLEASE make sure that you check terminals for batteries (rechargeable or lithium) and any battery backup systems contained within your main chassis. These batteries leak and do terrible damage if left unchecked. Go on… go check now, you may be just in time to stop one of your system boards being eaten.


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I can’t translate German… and neither can Google...

16/2/2011

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Actually, that’s not fair. Google can translate German, it’s just not very good at translating technical German.

I have two 8870 manuals that are key to understanding exactly how the 8870 works under the hood as it were. The NIROS manual (version 3.3 for now), and the Field Engineering Manual. The problem is they are in German, and my German is rather limited.

My partner Heike, is German by birth, so I printed out the NIROS 3.3 manual, sat her and the manual down and said, “you translate it, and I’ll key the English into my laptop… should only take a couple of hours”. It took around thirty minutes to get a half decent translation of a single paragraph. The problem is Heike doesn’t know technical German and her translations were too literal. This is exactly what Google’s language tools did. I decided I was going to need help.

I went to the Internet huning around for an independent or freelancer who would take pity on my, and translate my 160ish pages for the price of a bag of peanuts, but I didn’t have much success.

What I did stumble across was a website Freelancer.co.uk and the concept is rather simple. You create a project that defines what you want doing, your specify a budget range and let people ask additional questions or bid to do the work.

So, I created a project, uploaded a low-ish quality scan of the manual for bidders to see, set the project bidding stage to run for 10 days, and sat back really expecting for nobody to reply. Within 10 minutes I’d had several offers ranging from the peanuts I wanted to pay, up to £250 (which was my maximum). I also had one chap ask if I was serious as he charges £30 per page; odd really, I didn't force him to bid. The next day I had a look and had around 15 bids for the job. The site on-line help advises you not to just decide on price, which makes sense but what DO you use to help you decide.

I remembered than when Heike and I tried to translate a very simple passage we got into a terrible mess. So, I sent the four lines of German to my friend VAXMAN and asked for his translation. I then picked four bidders based purely on gut feeling, and if the English they used in messages they had sent me, appeared half decent, and asked if they would translate the four lines for me.

After 48 hours, only one person replied, and she replied almost instantly and her translation was pretty accurate; well,good enough for me anyway.

So, Ioana in Romania is currently in the middle of translating my NIROS 3.3 manual. We’ve agreed a price, and the work will be divided into five equal parts. I get to see the quality of her work, and she gets paid after each part. Stage payments are all handled by the Freelancer website so it really is quite simple. If she does a good job, I’ve got another couple of thousand pages of manuals for her to translate as well. Lucky girl.
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    I'm a software developer, an engineer and I love vintage computers, but the 8870 has a very special place in my heart.

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