Any information on a FlexiFile 21?
Rich Beaudry
I don't know particularly why I chose this group, except I know a lot of you
are into old, weird hardware :-), and you have all helped me a lot in the
past....
I just received a Tri-Data Systems FlexiFile 21 unit. It powers up, and
appears to work, but I have no documentation or disks for it. Does anyone
know what this does, or how to operate it? Even if not, it was worth it for
the parts, but I'd rather see if I can get it going...
A description of the unit follows ... Skip it if you are uninterested :-)
It has a Shugart SA-400 5.25" floppy, a power supply in the unit itself, and
three circuit boards (there is room for a fourth, but I am hoping it was an
option, as it is missing). The front panel contains a power switch and a
reset switch, along with some LEDs and other switches.
The three circuit boards are as follows:
- A main circuit board that has the switches and LEDs which extend through
the case over the floppy drive. It also has an AMD C8080A (date coded
1976!), an AMD 8224, an AMD 8228, and various glue logic (74XX series --
again, all date coded 1975 and 1976!)
- A smaller circuit board in the front that looks like a memory card.
Contains a 2708 EPROM, and 3 banks of what I assume are SRAM chips ("SEMI
4200"). Each bank of SRAM is labeled -- "1000 - 1FFF", "2000 - 2FFF",
"3000 - 3FFF".
- A smaller circuit board in the back, with D-shaped connectors out the back
of the unit. One 25-pin connector, marked "Terminal", one 25-pin connector
marked "modem", and one 9-pin connector marked "TTY"
I can post a picture to my website if anyone wants to see the front panel.
Thanks!
Rich B.
bill_h
> I just received a Tri-Data Systems FlexiFile 21 unit. It powers up, and
> appears to work, but I have no documentation or disks for it. Does anyone
> know what this does, or how to operate it? Even if not, it was worth it for
> the parts, but I'd rather see if I can get it going...
> It has a Shugart SA-400 5.25" floppy, a power supply in the unit itself, and
> three circuit boards (there is room for a fourth, but I am hoping it was an
> option, as it is missing). The front panel contains a power switch and a
> reset switch, along with some LEDs and other switches.
>
> The three circuit boards are as follows:
>
> - A main circuit board that has the switches and LEDs which extend through
> the case over the floppy drive. It also has an AMD C8080A (date coded
> 1976!), an AMD 8224, an AMD 8228, and various glue logic (74XX series --
> again, all date coded 1975 and 1976!)
>
> - A smaller circuit board in the front that looks like a memory card.
> Contains a 2708 EPROM, and 3 banks of what I assume are SRAM chips ("SEMI
> 4200"). Each bank of SRAM is labeled -- "1000 - 1FFF", "2000 - 2FFF",
> "3000 - 3FFF".
>
> - A smaller circuit board in the back, with D-shaped connectors out the back
> of the unit. One 25-pin connector, marked "Terminal", one 25-pin connector
> marked "modem", and one 9-pin connector marked "TTY"
Sounds like one of those things where you'd benefit from digging
through some old magazines for ads/reviews. I'd go look for ya but
my allergies are acting up so I'm avoiding dust for a few days .....
Bill
Tucson, AZ
Lee Hart
> I just received a Tri-Data Systems FlexiFile 21 unit...
> has an 8080, 8224, 8228, and various glue logic (74XX series)...
> 2708 EPROM, and 3 banks of what I assume are SRAM chips "SEMI 4200"...
I have no info on it, but it reminded me of an idea. Long ago, a company
I worked for had a Fluke 9900 Microcomputer Analyzer (if I remember the
name correctly). It was a box a bit larger than a PC keyboard, with a
2-line 20-character display. It had a pod to suit each type of
microcomputer chip that it supported (there were a dozen or more). You
unplugged the micro (8080, Z80, etc.), plugged the pod into its socket,
and put the micro in a socket in the pod.
It could then do things like:
- search for ROM and RAM, and figure out the memory map
- read, display contents, and checksum any ROMs found
- test any RAM found, indicating any bad ones
- read and write RAM
- search for I/O, and figure out the I/O map (including partial
decoding)
- read, write, and test I/O ports (with test probes so it could see if
the physical inputs or output bits actually worked)
- "learn" a good board, save its configuration, and test an unknown
board against it
There was more, but you get the idea. It could "feel out" a board from
the micro socket, tell you about it, and test it. In effect, it was a
stripped-down ICE box (In Circuit Emulator).
All that was in their pod was a set of analog switches between the micro
and its socket, and a small RAM. With these analog switches closed, the
micro ran normally. With the switches open, the micro got reset and ran
whatever little program was in that RAM.
For example, assume an 8080 is to read address 1234 in the target board:
Load a little program in the pod's RAM, "LDA 1234". This is a 3-byte
instruction. Reset the 8080, and let it execute the 3 bytes
(instruction, low byte of address, high byte of address), then quickly
switch the analog switch so the actual read goes out to the target
board's memory. The result is now in the micro's accumulator.
Now switch the multiplexer back again, and store this result in the
pod's RAM. The Fluke 9000 can now read the pod RAM to see what the byte
was.
By similar means, any address or I/O location can be read or written,
any CPU registers can be examined or changed, and you can break from and
resume execution at any address in the target system (even ROM).
Fast forward to 2000. We have PCs on all our desks. The ICE boxes for
old micros are long gone to the landfills. But, could we build a simple
equivalent to this old Fluke pod, but that uses a PC's parallel or
serial port to control it? It could be a great way to test, debug, and
repair old boards, or even figure out surplus boards for re-use.
--
Lee A. Hart Ring the bells that still can ring
814 8th Ave. N. Forget your perfect offering
Sartell, MN 56377 USA There is a crack in everything
leeahart_at_earthlink.net That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
Joe R.
>Rich Beaudry wrote:
>> I just received a Tri-Data Systems FlexiFile 21 unit...
>> has an 8080, 8224, 8228, and various glue logic (74XX series)...
>> 2708 EPROM, and 3 banks of what I assume are SRAM chips "SEMI 4200"...
>
>I have no info on it, but it reminded me of an idea. Long ago, a company
>I worked for had a Fluke 9900 Microcomputer Analyzer (if I remember the
>name correctly). It was a box a bit larger than a PC keyboard, with a
>2-line 20-character display. It had a pod to suit each type of
>microcomputer chip that it supported (there were a dozen or more). You
>unplugged the micro (8080, Z80, etc.), plugged the pod into its socket,
>and put the micro in a socket in the pod.
You're thinking of the "Fluke 9010 Micro-Sytem Troubleshooter". I
have a couple of them and a bunch of pods. I love them! They're
great for things like *quickly* finding bad RAM and figuring out the
memory mapping. They can also "learn" the responses from a known good
machine and then save them in a file. You can then test other
identical machines and compare their responses in a matter of seconds.
Joe
Lee Hart
> You're thinking of the "Fluke 9010 Micro-Sytem Troubleshooter". I
> have a couple of them and a bunch of pods. I love them! They're
> great for things like *quickly* finding bad RAM and figuring out the
> memory mapping. They can also "learn" the responses from a known good
> machine and then save them in a file. You can then test other
> identical machines and compare their responses in a matter of seconds.
Yes, that sounds like the machine! Used microcassettes for data storage.
Which pods do you have (I may want to borrow or have you use it on some
boards for me :-)
Do others think that having, or cloning such a device would be useful?
Joe R.
>Joe R. wrote:
>> You're thinking of the "Fluke 9010 Micro-Sytem Troubleshooter". I
>> have a couple of them and a bunch of pods. I love them! They're
>> great for things like *quickly* finding bad RAM and figuring out the
>> memory mapping. They can also "learn" the responses from a known good
>> machine and then save them in a file. You can then test other
>> identical machines and compare their responses in a matter of seconds.
>
>Yes, that sounds like the machine! Used microcassettes for data storage.
>Which pods do you have (I may want to borrow or have you use it on some
>boards for me :-)
>
I have the Z-80, Z-80AA, 8080, 8085, 6800, 6809, 8051 and 8048
pods.
>Do others think that having, or cloning such a device would be useful?
Yes, definitely. Especially if you work on many of the same kind
of machines. FWIW the machines and pods show up on E-bay
regularly.
Joe
Douglas Klopfenstein
for the group that developed the micro-system troubleshooters. I came on
after the 9010 manuals were written, but wrote a few of the manuals for the
9100 (the replacement for the 9010) and all of the manuals for the 9132 (the
replacement "pod" for all of the 9010 pods).
AFAIR, there were three versions of the original microsystem troubleshooter:
the 9005, the 9010, and the 9020. The 9005 was essentially a cut down
version of the 9010, that is, it would perform fewer tests than the 9010. It
had fewer switches on the front panel, and if I remember correctly, it would
not perform the tests that would automatically find the address locations of
RAM, ROM, that is, the LEARN function, and was not capable of recording the
microcassettes (although it could read and use pre-recorded programs). The
9020 was essentially a 9010 with an IEEE-488 port which you could use to
connect to other test instruments. Programs written for the 9010 were not
compatible with the 9020 because the 9010 was a stand-alone unit, whereas
the 9020 was incorporated with a set of other test instruments.
As I recall, the 9005/9010/9020 could use the following pods:
9000A-Z80
9000A-Z80AA
9000A-Z8000
9000A-1802
9000A-6502
9000A-6800
9000A-6802
9000A-6809
9000A-68000
9000A-8048
9000A-8051
9000A-8080
9000A-8085
9000A-8086
9000A-8088
9000A-80186
9000A-80188
9000A-80286
9000A-9900
The next generation of microsystem troubleshooters was the 9100. It could
use all of the pods designed for the 9005/9010/9020 listed above. In
addition, you could add a 9132 "pod" to the 9100 to test newer processors.
However, the 9132 pod worked differently in that you would remove the ROMs
for the board to be tested, plug in a set of ROM modules to the empty ROM
sockets, then plug the ROMs from the board into sockets on the ROM module.
You would then clamp a connector from the 9132 onto the microprocessor
(which was still plugged into the board to be tested). The 9132 came in two
versions, the 9132A and the 9132FT (essentially the -FT was a faster version
of the -A). With the 9132 "pod", you could test the following processors
using the Fluke-designed modules:
9132A-320C2x
9132A-68000/68010
9132A-68020
9132A-68030
9132A-7810/78C10
9132A-80286
9132A-80286H
9132A-80386
9132A-80386SX
9132A-80386SL
9132A-80486
9132FT-68020
9132FT-68030
9132FT-68040
9132FT-68302
9132FT-80286
9132FT-80386
9132FT-80386SX
9132FT-80486
9132FT-80960MC
The thing about the 9132 "pod" is that you could custom build your own
programs to test whatever processor you wanted. This was not easy, but I
remember going through a class at Fluke (which I later wrote the manual
for), that described in detail the requirements for creating your own test
programs. If I remember correctly, you had to program a ROM, a PAL, and a
group of TL/1 programs for the processor you wanted to emulate.
I'm pretty sure there were a few more pods than this, but I no longer
remember what they were. I do know that Fluke produced several white papers
on how to modify many of the pods to work with other types of processors not
supported directly by Fluke.
Doug Klopfenstein
Bremerton, WA
Joe R. wrote in message <39d88a70...@news.intellistar.net>...
Joe R.
address in case I have any questions. :-)
If I remember correctly, the 9020 was basicly a 9010 but without the
controls (keyboard, etc) on it. It HAD to be operated by a separate
computer. The 9010 could be operated by a computer or manually by an
operator via the keyboard. IEEE-488 and RS-232 ports were optional on
both the 9010 and 9020 but of course you had to have a port on the
9020 in order to use it.
> I do know that Fluke produced several white papers
>on how to modify many of the pods to work with other types of processors not
>supported directly by Fluke.
Yes, several of those modifications were detailed in Fluke's
newletter, The TroubleShooter. They also gave suggestions about how
to modify the pods for other CPUs.
Joe