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Which Tandy had the 68000?

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Matthew Hudson

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Oct 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/2/98
to

I'm looking for the Tandy system that had the 68000 processor in it.
Model 6000? At anyrate I'd like to get my hands on a full system
including HD with Xenix installed.

-Matt

Tom Lake

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Oct 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/2/98
to
>I'm looking for the Tandy system that had the 68000 processor in it.
>Model 6000? At anyrate I'd like to get my hands on a full system
>including HD with Xenix installed.


I know the TRS-80 Model 16 did

Tom L

Dennis Bathory-Kitsz

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Oct 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/2/98
to
Matthew Hudson wrote:
>
> I'm looking for the Tandy system that had the 68000 processor in it.
> Model 6000? At anyrate I'd like to get my hands on a full system
> including HD with Xenix installed.

I've got several of the 68000 cards (only -- no system!). Yours for the
asking.

Dennis

--
Dennis Báthory-Kitsz
Malted/Media: http://www.maltedmedia.com/
The Middle-Aged Hiker: http://www.maltedmedia.com/books/mah/
Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar: http://www.maltedmedia.com/kalvos/

Amardeep S. Chana

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Oct 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/2/98
to
Model 16, 16B, and 6000 came with both a Z80A and a 68000 CPU. It was also
possible to upgrade a Model II or 12 (Z80A CPU) with a Radio Shack upgrade
kit.

Amardeep

Matthew Hudson <mhu...@home.com> wrote in article
<3614BFD4...@home.com>...


>
> I'm looking for the Tandy system that had the 68000 processor in it.
> Model 6000? At anyrate I'd like to get my hands on a full system
> including HD with Xenix installed.
>

> -Matt
>
>
>

Jerry Ballard

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Oct 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/2/98
to
Yes, these are the correct Model numbers. The Model 16 was a 6 Mhz
68000 and the Models 16B and 6000 had a 8 Mhz 68000. Wow, that was back
in 1983. Time sure goes by.
Jerry Ballard (Sr. Design Engineer at Tandy 1982 - 1993)

Lawrence Walker

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Oct 4, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/4/98
to
On Fri, 02 Oct 1998 12:50:31 -0400, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz
<bat...@maltedmedia.com> wrote:

>Matthew Hudson wrote:
>>
>> I'm looking for the Tandy system that had the 68000 processor in it.
>> Model 6000? At anyrate I'd like to get my hands on a full system
>> including HD with Xenix installed.
>

>I've got several of the 68000 cards (only -- no system!). Yours for the
>asking.
>
>Dennis

Hi, I've got a working model II that I've wanted to get Xenix running
on. I would love to get one of these cards. Please let me know . I'd
pay shipping and handling costs of course.

ciao larry

Jim K

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Oct 4, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/4/98
to
The TRS-80 Model 16 had the Motorola MC68000. It was basically an
upgraded Model II. The single drive version with 128K of ram went for
$4999.
I got one them stupid * in my name
Jim Kajpust - Personal Freedoms - Michigan
http://www.concentric.net/~jkajpust

Steve McCoy

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Oct 4, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/4/98
to
Larry,

I was under the impression to run Xenix you also had to have a harddisk
unit.

Steve
http://www.simology.com/smccoy/trs.html

Frank Durda IV

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Oct 4, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/4/98
to
Steve McCoy (smc...@simology.com) wrote:
: I was under the impression to run Xenix you also had to have a harddisk
: unit.

For V7 XENIX (1.3.x), there was a floppy-based version. I don't recommend
it, as XENIX runs real slow when you are swapping from a floppy drive.


Frank Durda IV - only these addresses work:|"The Knights who say "LETNi"
<uhclem.oct98%nemesis.lonestar.org> | demand... A SEGMENT REGISTER!!!"
|"A what?"
This Anti-spam address expires Oct. 31st |"LETNi! LETNi! LETNi!" - 1983
(c) 1998, ask before reprinting.


bma...@iglou.com

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Oct 4, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/4/98
to

On 1998-10-02 Bob.W...@mci.com(BobWithers) said:
>In article <3614BFD4...@home.com>, mhu...@home.com says...


>> I'm looking for the Tandy system that had the 68000 processor in
>>it. Model 6000? At anyrate I'd like to get my hands on a full
>>system including HD with Xenix installed.

>Matt,
>I think the 68000 was an option on the Model 16. Never had one and
>I could be wrong.
The 68000 was an option on the Model II, and maybe the 12. The Model 16,
16B and 6000 came with a 68000 (the Model 16 got its name because it had a
16-bit CPU.)

Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

James M. Knox

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Oct 5, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/5/98
to
In article <3617817B...@simology.com>, Steve McCoy <smc...@simology.com> wrote:
>Larry,

>
>I was under the impression to run Xenix you also had to have a harddisk
>unit.

That was the original plan, but someone at Tandy managed to get it running on
floppies. They weren't going to release it, but some copies got out anyway.
Then they said they would "rethink" their decision... not sure it if ever
became an official release or not.

jmk

Phillip Ushijima

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Oct 5, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/5/98
to
The Model 16, 16-B and 6000HD had Zilog Z80s and 68000s. My company has a
couple working 6000HDs (one running xenix on a 20 meg HD) and even more
non-working 16 and 16-Bs used for parts. We are looking to get rid of all
of them. We are in Chicago. Email me for more info if anyone is
interested.

Phillip Ushijima
IEG, Inc.

Matthew Hudson wrote in message <3614BFD4...@home.com>...


>
>I'm looking for the Tandy system that had the 68000 processor in it.
>Model 6000? At anyrate I'd like to get my hands on a full system
>including HD with Xenix installed.
>

>-Matt
>
>

Leonard Erickson

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Oct 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/9/98
to
bat...@maltedmedia.com (Dennis Bathory-Kitsz) writes:

> Matthew Hudson wrote:
>>
>> I'm looking for the Tandy system that had the 68000 processor in it.
>> Model 6000? At anyrate I'd like to get my hands on a full system
>> including HD with Xenix installed.
>

> I've got several of the 68000 cards (only -- no system!). Yours for the
> asking.

Will they work to upgrade a Model II? And where could I get
instructions for doing so?

--
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
sha...@krypton.rain.com <--preferred
leo...@qiclab.scn.rain.com <--last resort

James M. Knox

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Oct 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/9/98
to
In article <981009.050950...@krypton.rain.com>, sha...@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) wrote:

>> I've got several of the 68000 cards (only -- no system!). Yours for the
>> asking.
>
>Will they work to upgrade a Model II? And where could I get
>instructions for doing so?

Upgrading a Model-II is probably not the best way to go, particularly with
several folks on this NG having Mod-16's and Mod-6000's available.

The power supply in all but the last production run of Model-II's was not
strong enough to handle the 68000 and memory (easy test - when you do
something that triggers the internal floppy drive, does your screen shrink?).
The "upgrade" back when Tandy did it included a new power supply.

And of course by now the bearings on most Mod-II floppy drives are getting
pretty well worn.

Still, the upgrade itself is easy enough - just stick in the 68000 processor
card and at least one 68K memory card, add the sky cable, and you are in
business.

jmk

HP Authorized Customer

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Oct 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/9/98
to
You can upgrade ALMOST any of the Radio Shack and Tandy
Model II type machines to a 68000 but there are some caveats.

Some Model 12 machines did not have the card cage installed,
and the 68000 boards take at LEAST 2 slots.

And the power supply in the original Model II was marginal if you
started 'loading up' the machine.

But actually, the base Model II had 4 cards in an 8-slot cage. Add
the HD interface, and you still have 3 slots for the 68000. Well,
if you add a network, and graphics, then you have one. Can you
put the 68000 in? You can, but it's kludgey. The memory cards
for the 68000 only used the card cage for power. I've seen one
system (the cover wouldn't close) where the guy 'swug out' the
memory card and had a single connector that pushed on to
provide power.

If you're buying a machine, look for the Model 12 with the 'chimney'
card cage. Make SURE you get that chimney, or you'll be SOL.

You should be aware that the chimny setup bites the big one
from a mechanical engineering point of view. Piece of crap.
Hot spots and poor mechanical integrity, but unless you open
up your Model II and lay it on an open board, it's the only
option for lots of cards.

Unless you do what the engineers did. There was a 'motherboard'
backplace for this device called a MUX. 16 slots! Used a
modified Model II CPU card. Engineers mounted that on a
piece of plywood, and just left everything open. If you can get
the individual boards, that's an option.

In fact, the 80 conductor connectors are standard. And all the
signals are 'parallel' with the exception of the IE lines, so you
might be able to fabricate something easily and cheap.

Mike Yetsko
N1DVJ


Leonard Erickson wrote in message
<981009.050950...@krypton.rain.com>...


>bat...@maltedmedia.com (Dennis Bathory-Kitsz) writes:
>
>> Matthew Hudson wrote:
>>>
>>> I'm looking for the Tandy system that had the 68000 processor in it.
>>> Model 6000? At anyrate I'd like to get my hands on a full system
>>> including HD with Xenix installed.
>>

>> I've got several of the 68000 cards (only -- no system!). Yours for the
>> asking.
>
>Will they work to upgrade a Model II? And where could I get
>instructions for doing so?
>

Jeff Lemke

unread,
Oct 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/9/98
to
HP Authorized Customer wrote:
>
> Unless you do what the engineers did. There was a 'motherboard'
> backplace for this device called a MUX. 16 slots! Used a
> modified Model II CPU card. Engineers mounted that on a
> piece of plywood, and just left everything open. If you can get
> the individual boards, that's an option.
>
> Mike Yetsko
> N1DVJ
>


What would anyone use all those slots for in one of these machines?
There weren't that many different kinds of boards available for the
2/12/16/16B/6000 series, unless you're an engineer and you created your
own custom interface boards for other special purposes. Were there some
3rd-party interface board manufacturers for these computers that I never
heard of? To my knowledge, it was all strictly Radio Shack, except for
some Snappware 2-MB RAM boards, of which I've never seen any.

Jeff Lemke

Jerry Ballard

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Oct 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/9/98
to
Hello Mike,
This is Jerry Ballard, a long lost friend from the days at Tandy. Send
me your email address so we can catch up on news. My email is
jbal...@idt.nospam.net (remove the .nospam). I was just thinking about
you the other day and wondered where you were.
Hope you get this message.
Jerry
HP Authorized Customer wrote:

> Mike Yetsko

Leonard Erickson

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Oct 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/9/98
to
Jeff Lemke <le...@terra.cira.colostate.edu> writes:

> HP Authorized Customer wrote:
>>
>> Unless you do what the engineers did. There was a 'motherboard'
>> backplace for this device called a MUX. 16 slots! Used a
>> modified Model II CPU card. Engineers mounted that on a
>> piece of plywood, and just left everything open. If you can get
>> the individual boards, that's an option.

> What would anyone use all those slots for in one of these machines?

> There weren't that many different kinds of boards available for the
> 2/12/16/16B/6000 series, unless you're an engineer and you created your
> own custom interface boards for other special purposes. Were there some
> 3rd-party interface board manufacturers for these computers that I never
> heard of? To my knowledge, it was all strictly Radio Shack, except for
> some Snappware 2-MB RAM boards, of which I've never seen any.

Let's see. 68000 board, Hi-res graphics board (BTW, it's possible to
have more than one! Just set a different base I/O port address), serial
port cards, RAM cards.

Lawrence Walker

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Oct 10, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/10/98
to
On Sun, 04 Oct 1998 09:08:59 -0500, Steve McCoy <smc...@simology.com>
wrote:

>Larry,
>
>I was under the impression to run Xenix you also had to have a harddisk
>unit.
>

>Steve
>http://www.simology.com/smccoy/trs.html
>
>Lawrence Walker wrote:
>

>> >I've got several of the 68000 cards (only -- no system!). Yours for the
>> >asking.
>> >

>> >Dennis
>>
>> Hi, I've got a working model II that I've wanted to get Xenix running
>> on. I would love to get one of these cards. Please let me know . I'd
>> pay shipping and handling costs of course.
>>
>> ciao larry

Sorry I didn'tr check out the ng sooner but things came up.
Yes ! I have 3 of the huge beasts as well as several copies of Xenix.
Oh, let it be me. :^))

ciao larry

Lawrence Walker

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Oct 10, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/10/98
to
On Mon, 05 Oct 1998 13:24:19 GMT, tri...@realtime.net (James M. Knox)
wrote:

>In article <3617817B...@simology.com>, Steve McCoy <smc...@simology.com> wrote:
>>Larry,
>>
>>I was under the impression to run Xenix you also had to have a harddisk
>>unit.
>

>That was the original plan, but someone at Tandy managed to get it running on
>floppies. They weren't going to release it, but some copies got out anyway.
>Then they said they would "rethink" their decision... not sure it if ever
>became an official release or not.
>
> jmk

The disks I have came with my model 2 . I guess there must have been
a 68 card in there originally. The first disk is labelled TRS-XENIX
(tm) Multi-User Operating System . At the top of the Radio Shack
TRS-80 label it has MODEL 16 DRIVE 0 Single-sided Installation Boot
Disk Cat. no. 700-2052 Disk 1 and "of 4" has been added in ink.
The rest of the labels are hand-written. Disk 2 has Xenix 03.01.00
Install 1 2 of 4 and the rest are labelled accordingly. The
copyright date is 1983 Microsoft Corp and another RM/COBOL, (C) 1982
RYAN MCFARLAND. LIC. TO TANDY
There's a second set with a typed label with similiar info on the
first disk and the last disk is written Xenix upgrades. There's also 3
copies of Teleterm 6.1 in the Xenix box. I tried booting with the
boot disk and it started up but then complained about the absence of
hard drives . Which I hadn't hooked up. I was told that I needed the
moto 68 to use Xenix, so I've been waiting for a card to show up.
Bingo !!

ciao larry


Frank Zsitvay

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Oct 11, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/11/98
to
Jeff Lemke wrote:
>
> HP Authorized Customer wrote:
> >
> > Unless you do what the engineers did. There was a 'motherboard'
> > backplace for this device called a MUX. 16 slots! Used a
> > modified Model II CPU card. Engineers mounted that on a
> > piece of plywood, and just left everything open. If you can get
> > the individual boards, that's an option.
> >
> > Mike Yetsko
> > N1DVJ

> >
>
> What would anyone use all those slots for in one of these machines?
> There weren't that many different kinds of boards available for the
> 2/12/16/16B/6000 series, unless you're an engineer and you created your
> own custom interface boards for other special purposes. Were there some
> 3rd-party interface board manufacturers for these computers that I never
> heard of? To my knowledge, it was all strictly Radio Shack, except for
> some Snappware 2-MB RAM boards, of which I've never seen any.
>
> Jeff Lemke

Well, for one thing the memory cards used in these machines provided
64k each, and incorporated bank switching hardware addressed at port
FFH. You could use up to 8 such boards in one machine to give 512k of
memory, which could be used as a ram disk. Pickles and Trout CP/M could
do this, as well as use 68k memory space for this purpose.

Of course, you had to disable interrupts whenever you switched out the
main bank because the real time clock software ran in high memory. You
had to do the same thing when accessing video ram as well.

You can also run two disk controllers in a Model 2 as long as one of
them was Rev. C or later. The Rev. C controllers could also use 5.25
inch floppy drives

-Frank

HP Authorized Customer

unread,
Oct 12, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/12/98
to
Well.......

If you had a 'standard' type layout, there were the 4 Model II cards.
Then a network card, hard disk controller, and graphics. That's
7 cards so far. Then a 68000 card and 4 memory cards, that's
now 11. That's 5 slots left from a possible 16.

The 4-port serial cards that used the 8250 from the MUX unit
was popular. 2 of those cards would be 8 more serial lines,
and Tandy actually shipped the drivers on the updates. If you
have any old Xenix diskettes, actually sniff them. All kinds of
stuff was on those diskettes besides what was SUPPOSED
to be there. Like a driver for the Model 1000 mouse/clock
board, that with a small adapter worked on the HD Interface
cable (IF You had the 5-1/4" Hard Drives). And a driver for
the Tandy 2000 keyboard. And a driver for the Model II graphics
card.

Even a driver for a MMU that wasn't 'official', or a program that
let you take a single 256K memory board and stuff it with bigger
chips, and change the offset/limit registers to let you run much
bigger memory.....

As well as lots of utilities and games that management just
couldn't justify officially taking the effort to send out.

Mike Yetsko
N1DVJ


Jeff Lemke wrote in message <361E59...@terra.cira.colostate.edu>...

HP Authorized Customer

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Oct 12, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/12/98
to
Actually, when you ran and of the UNIX stuff, the Z80 side only
used 32K of RAM. And Tandy had some 'later' memory cards
for the Z80 that used 64K chips.......

Frank Zsitvay wrote in message

Leonard Erickson

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Oct 14, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/14/98
to
"HP Authorized Customer" <j...@user.com> writes:

> You can upgrade ALMOST any of the Radio Shack and Tandy
> Model II type machines to a 68000 but there are some caveats.
>
> Some Model 12 machines did not have the card cage installed,
> and the 68000 boards take at LEAST 2 slots.
>
> And the power supply in the original Model II was marginal if you
> started 'loading up' the machine.
>
> But actually, the base Model II had 4 cards in an 8-slot cage. Add
> the HD interface, and you still have 3 slots for the 68000. Well,
> if you add a network, and graphics, then you have one. Can you
> put the 68000 in? You can, but it's kludgey. The memory cards
> for the 68000 only used the card cage for power. I've seen one
> system (the cover wouldn't close) where the guy 'swug out' the
> memory card and had a single connector that pushed on to
> provide power.
>
> If you're buying a machine, look for the Model 12 with the 'chimney'
> card cage. Make SURE you get that chimney, or you'll be SOL.
>
> You should be aware that the chimny setup bites the big one
> from a mechanical engineering point of view. Piece of crap.
> Hot spots and poor mechanical integrity, but unless you open
> up your Model II and lay it on an open board, it's the only
> option for lots of cards.
>

> Unless you do what the engineers did. There was a 'motherboard'
> backplace for this device called a MUX. 16 slots! Used a
> modified Model II CPU card. Engineers mounted that on a
> piece of plywood, and just left everything open. If you can get
> the individual boards, that's an option.
>

> In fact, the 80 conductor connectors are standard. And all the
> signals are 'parallel' with the exception of the IE lines, so you
> might be able to fabricate something easily and cheap.

If I go that far, I'll just start building an "updated" Model II.
20 MHz CMOS Z80, modern drives, etc. Use ASICs to replace all the weird
stuff on the motherboard and cards.

Jeff Lemke

unread,
Oct 14, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/14/98
to
Frank Zsitvay wrote:
>
> Jeff Lemke wrote:
> >
> > HP Authorized Customer wrote:
> > >
> > > Unless you do what the engineers did. There was a 'motherboard'
> > > backplace for this device called a MUX. 16 slots! Used a
> > > modified Model II CPU card. Engineers mounted that on a
> > > piece of plywood, and just left everything open. If you can get
> > > the individual boards, that's an option.
> > >
> > > Mike Yetsko
> > > N1DVJ
> > >
> >
> > What would anyone use all those slots for in one of these machines?
> > There weren't that many different kinds of boards available for the
> > 2/12/16/16B/6000 series, unless you're an engineer and you created your
> > own custom interface boards for other special purposes. Were there some
> > 3rd-party interface board manufacturers for these computers that I never
> > heard of? To my knowledge, it was all strictly Radio Shack, except for
> > some Snappware 2-MB RAM boards, of which I've never seen any.
> >
> > Jeff Lemke
>
> Well, for one thing the memory cards used in these machines provided
> 64k each, and incorporated bank switching hardware addressed at port
> FFH. You could use up to 8 such boards in one machine to give 512k of
> memory, which could be used as a ram disk. Pickles and Trout CP/M could
> do this, as well as use 68k memory space for this purpose.
>
> Of course, you had to disable interrupts whenever you switched out the
> main bank because the real time clock software ran in high memory. You
> had to do the same thing when accessing video ram as well.
>
> You can also run two disk controllers in a Model 2 as long as one of
> them was Rev. C or later. The Rev. C controllers could also use 5.25
> inch floppy drives
>
> -Frank


Memory boards for Model 16 and later (including an upgraded Model 2)
were generally 256K each - these were for the 16-bit 68000 motherboard -
not for the 8-bit Z-80 board. The RAM board for the 6000 was 1MB. To
my knowledge, it wasn't possible to access more than one 1-MB RAM board
without an MMU.

Jeff

James M. Knox

unread,
Oct 15, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/15/98
to

>Memory boards for Model 16 and later (including an upgraded Model 2)
>were generally 256K each - these were for the 16-bit 68000 motherboard -
>not for the 8-bit Z-80 board. The RAM board for the 6000 was 1MB. To
>my knowledge, it wasn't possible to access more than one 1-MB RAM board
>without an MMU.

*If* memory serves (no pun intended), you could actually get to 7 megabytes --
an 8 mb space, but the I/O area was preallocated to 1 mb. It required some
fancy handling of the limit registers (you couldn't get to it all at once from
any one program). I experimented with some hooks in the CP/M-68K bios and
could run programs bigger than 1 mb, or multiple programs in memory all
"thinking" they were at the same address (which allowed me to do preemptive
memory compaction and other neat things).

Unfortunately, there were some other hardware items missing that were really
needed for a nice timesharing multitasking environment, and Bob Snapp was the
only one with LARGE memory boards, so we never really did much with the idea.

As you say, it really needed an MMU (and direct I/O, and better RTC, and...).

jmk

Jeff Lemke

unread,
Oct 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/20/98
to
Jerry Ballard wrote:
>
> Yes, these are the correct Model numbers. The Model 16 was a 6 Mhz
> 68000 and the Models 16B and 6000 had a 8 Mhz 68000. Wow, that was back
> in 1983. Time sure goes by.
> Jerry Ballard (Sr. Design Engineer at Tandy 1982 - 1993)

Didn't the Model 16B initially come with a 6 MHz 68000 motherboard,
which needed to be upgraded to the 1984 68000 motherboard (which ran at
8 MHz) in order to run the last 3.x versions of Xenix?

Jeff Lemke

Jerry Ballard

unread,
Oct 24, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/24/98
to
Jeff,
I will need to get my design notes and check. You may be right.
I will look it up this weekend and repost the answer.
Jerry

gary

unread,
Oct 24, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/24/98
to
All the 6Mhz board set needed was to have the PAL (HAL?) changed to support
the burst DMA mode properly. It was sold as part of the XENIX 3 series
upgrade. Although only supported on the smaller 6MHz bd. set, it seemed to
work on the larger bd. set also. (If I recall correctly, It's been a long
long time since I worked with this stuff....)

Hello Jerry, Frank & Mike

Gary

Jerry Ballard wrote in message <3631A4...@idt.nospam.net>...

HP Authorized Customer

unread,
Oct 26, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/26/98
to

gary wrote in message <70t34a$h9b$1...@excalibur.flash.net>...

>Hello Jerry, Frank & Mike
>
> Gary
>


Gary K????

Mike Yetsko


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