FLEX anybody?
James Youngman
Anybody used the m6809 operating system FLEX?
(For that matterm anybody know where I can get a databook for a WD1771 diskette
controller chip?)
--
James Youngman VG Gas Analysis Systems |The trouble with the rat-race
Before sending advertising material, read |is, even if you win, you're
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/227.html|still a rat.
Avi Freedman
James Youngman (JYou...@vggas.com) wrote:
: Anybody used the m6809 operating system FLEX?
Ahhh.
Yes, a long time ago.
Beautiful, small, grok-able OS.
I always have arguments with people who use the gnu flex arguing that
"flex" is the OS and f-lex is the language because "flex" was taken
first by the OS...
Avi
Steven Crook
In article <595t8h$c...@halon.vggas.com>, James Youngman
<JYou...@vggas.com> writes
> Anybody used the m6809 operating system FLEX?
>
>(For that matterm anybody know where I can get a databook for a WD1771 diskette
>controller chip?)
>
I used a 6809 development system made and sold by Control Universal in
the UK a few years ago. I was running FLEX as the disc operating
system. I have just found the master disc (3.5" floppy) and it is
labelled Compusense Ltd, London 1983. I mainly used it to run an
assembler and McCosh C but had to move to a PC platform when the Control
Universal memory map for my 6809 card ran out of ROM space and the
development system ran out of RAM. By this time I had debugged my
hardware and simple software routines (kbd + LCdisplay) so I built my
own uP board (63B09) so I could do my own thing memory map wise. Infact
I set up an option to support a ROM RAM emulator. But enough of that!
I digress.
The disc controller was a WD2793 so no help there except that the WD1771
was used by Acorn in their Advanced Disc Filing System (ADFS) for the
BBC microcomputer (6502 based) so there are probably Beeb related
newsgroups that could be more helpful.
--
Steven Crook
Ben Williams
James Youngman wrote:
>
> Anybody used the m6809 operating system FLEX?
>
James, check this out:
http://www.blackbelt.com/blackbelt/flexem.html
A complete 6809 flex system, with software, for Win95 PC's and Amigas. :-)
--
Ben Williams (ARS AA7AS)
email: bwil...@blackbelt.com
Black Belt Systems, Inc. State of the Art Image Manipulation Software
Web Pages: http://www.blackbelt.com/blackbelt/bx_top.html
FTP: ftp.blackbelt.com/corporate/blackbelt/
Information: in...@blackbelt.com
Support: sup...@blackbelt.com
Sales: sa...@blackbelt.com
Marketing: mar...@blackbelt.com
Wilko Bulte
JYou...@vggas.com (James Youngman) writes:
> Anybody used the m6809 operating system FLEX?
Yep. On a homegrown copy of the SWTPc boxes.
Wilko
Alain FAUCONNET
JYou...@vggas.com (James Youngman) writes:
> Anybody used the m6809 operating system FLEX?
Yes, a lot, on the french GOUPIL 3 microcomputer (Europe Bus-based
computer), around 1982. That was a fairly advanced machine for the
time (SASI hard disk, DMA 8" and 5"1/4 disk controller, 1024x768
graphics board, up to 768Kb of RAM).
The machine also came in bi-processor variants, either 6809+Z80 or
6809+8088 (later) which could boot FLEX or CP/M or CP/M86 (including
the very advanced Concurrent-CP/M86) or MS-DOS.
But its full power was really unleashed using UniFLEX. I learned what
a real O/S was on UniFLEX. What a wonderful compact, efficient and
complete tiny Unix it was ! Real time-sharing, real 100% interrupt
driven drivers, real disk buffer cache with read-ahead/write-behind,
real file protection. The only problem was that anyone could hang the
whole system with a single-liner assembly language program:
CLI (or was it SEI or STI ? mask all interrupts)
I remember setting up a computer classroom with 16 terminals hooked to
a top-of-line configuration: 2 Mhz 6809, 768Kb, 4x 5Mb Syquest drives.
16 simultaneous C or Fortran compilations was rather comfortable !
I still own a configuration with 10Mb (?) BASF82 5"1/4 full height
hard drive, 2x 8" drives and 512Kb memory.
But I digress... nostalgia :-)
Have a nice day,
_Alain_
--
Alain FAUCONNET Ingenieur systeme - System Manager AP-HP/SIM
Public Health 91 bld de l'Hopital 75013 PARIS FRANCE
Medical Computing Research Labs Mail: a...@biomath.jussieu.fr
Tel: (+33) (0)1-40-77-96-19 Fax: (+33) (0)1-45-86-80-68
I've RTFMed. It says: "Refer to your system administrator"
But... I *am* the system administrator :-]
Allen Underdown
I have a few copies and books for various FLEX stuff. Some are set
to support the DC2/3/4 floppy controllers from SWTPC, some are for
the Gimix floppy controllers. I believe that most of the machines I
have are S-Bug boxes. I also have documentation (and disks I
think) for KBasic and Stylograph. I have become the defacto holder of
all the old Southwest suff from our little clique. I can make Xerox
copies if you don't mind waiting until? I'm still trying to get the
basement organized. Please note, I can't make copies of disks, I don't
have a working machine right now, and I don't want to violate any
copywrite laws.
--
| Allen Underdown -
aju...@ccmail.monsanto.com |
| ITSS WAN Group - Monsanto World Headquarters - St. Louis,
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J. Chris Hausler
>controller chip?)
frame so to be able to burn 2708 EPROMS (Thanks to several people on
this newsgroup who provided materials and information!!). Before that I
was more or less regularly using the 6809 system. There was a rumor here
several months ago that the sources for 6800/6809 FLEX were either available
or becoming available shortly. Anyone heard anymore. One of the reasons
I selected FLEX was that the manufacturer, TSC, had provided the sources
for some of their earlier work and I learned a lot from them. My first
pre-FLEX 6800 made use of their "Simple Line Editor" which I highly
modified along with BYTE Magazines "paperbytes" 6800 assembler also
modified. Anyway, I don't know how one would get a "legal" copy today.
I can't believe there is any money to be made in the FLEX market today and
I believe TSC is long gone but I don't know if anyone still holds the
copywrite to FLEX. If someone does it would be nice if they would put
it in the public domain. Baring that, Star Kits I believe still sells
a FLEX-alike for the 09 and although I have not used it other stuff I
have gotten from Pete has all been good stuff. This doesn't help the
6800 user however. I have two GIMIX 58 disk controllers which use the
WD1771 and a couple spare chips. I don't know whether those aer still
available. I've never had ANY trouble with them and as a result I
don't know where whatever documentation I might have is located. I will
look. Please email me if you wnat copies of anything I find.
Chris
K.R. Lewis
J. Chris Hausler wrote:
>
> James Youngman <JYou...@vggas.com> writes:
>
> > Anybody used the m6809 operating system FLEX?
> >
> >(For that matterm anybody know where I can get a databook for a WD1771 diskette
> >controller chip?)
>
> I am. Both on the 6809 and the 6800. I just re awoke my SS-50 6800
> frame so to be able to burn 2708 EPROMS (Thanks to several people on
> this newsgroup who provided materials and information!!). Before that I
> was more or less regularly using the 6809 system. There was a rumor here
> several months ago that the sources for 6800/6809 FLEX were either available
> or becoming available shortly. Anyone heard anymore. One of the reasons
Yes! A few months ago I placed the entire UniFLEX Source Code
Archive
on our Web Server but the ISP we were using sold their
operation
to a competitor. We were forced to move our main business Web
page
onto another ISP's machine.
Shortly, we will again place the "Lost UniFLEX Archives' back
into
WebSpace for everyone to enjoy.
Randy Lewis, RTMX Inc.
modified. Anyway, I don't know how one would get a "legal" copy today.
Soon! Stay tuned to this newsgroup...I'll let everyone know.
> I can't believe there is any money to be made in the FLEX market today and
> I believe TSC is long gone but I don't know if anyone still holds the
> copywrite to FLEX. If someone does it would be nice if they would put
> it in the public domain.
The Copyright ownership was transfered to an "investor" [sic] who
leverage TSC
from the only remaining active partner. After about 11 months...that
"investor"
decided that "....there wasn't enough cash flow or profit to justify
continuing.."
and so he announced "...the company is for sale..."
Needless to say, no one bought into the new company and some of us
remaining
employees (who should have gone out and found real jobs!) negotiate a
"License
Agreement" with that "investor."
The short version of the story is:
We sold UniFLEX O/S versions for about two years
while we ported a BSD derivative to several platforms. Eventually, all
of our
UniFLEX customers went away, or licensed the new system design. UniFLEX
languished
and then went dormant just over three years ago. Our 'Agreement' expired
last year.
The "investor" has since lost (by not renewing) the Copyright...and we
have all the
sources and configuration information. My ex-partner was the 'key'
engineer behind
UniFLEX, but he quit over three years ago and has since found a job in
the Boston
area (actually his second job there.)
Now...to be VERY clear... We are ONLY putting up the 6809 UniFLEX
archives. When
all of the above was occuring...there was NO 6809 activity or income in
any way.
The status of 68K UniFLEX is unclear for now, but the 6809 version was
'technically'
abandoned by the original holder(s) and, to my knowledge - so was the
FLEX stuff.
Regrettably - we cannot find ANY of the FLEX sources....only the FLEX
for UniFLEX
package. Perhaps it will suffice....
Again, stay tuned....we WILL post this location of the new Web Page when
it's
up and running.
Randy Lewis, RTMX, inc.
Danbikerun
I am using FLEX on a 6809 system on the SS50 bus, AND
with 1771's as my floppy controllers on Smoke Signal Broadcasting
controller boards. I may have 1771 documentation somewhere in
my system notebooks. These days it may be difficult or
impossible to get docs on this old part. Have you contacted
Western Digital?
If you want to work something out with me get in touch.
Are you seeking hardware or software specs?
Dan.
Bruce Tomlin
Allen Underdown (aju...@ccmail.monsanto.com) wrote in comp.sys.m6809:
>I have a few copies and books for various FLEX stuff. Some are set
>to support the DC2/3/4 floppy controllers from SWTPC, some are for
>the Gimix floppy controllers. I believe that most of the machines I
>have are S-Bug boxes. I also have documentation (and disks I
Y'know, I saw the SWTPC building once, by accident, while I was driving by
on my way to somewhere nearby. I know they're not there anymore, but I
wouldn't know which building it used to be in unless someone told me the
street address. I only knew that was their building because I saw the sign.
And a while back I found a box of junk electronic parts at a flea market,
including an SS-30 FDC board. I know it was for a 6809 machine, because it
had an FIRQ jumper. For some reason, someone had piggybacked IDENTICAL
chips on top of the ones already on the board. Anyhow, it kind of made me
sad to think that yet another part of microcomputer history is now long
gone.
David J. Halko
Bruce Tomlin wrote:
>
> And a while back I found a box of junk electronic parts at a
> flea market, including an SS-30 FDC board. I know it was for
> a 6809 machine, because it had an FIRQ jumper. For some reason,
> someone had piggybacked IDENTICAL chips on top of the ones
> already on the board. Anyhow, it kind of made me sad to think
> that yet another part of microcomputer history is now long
> gone.
I bet those were memory chips and someone did a memory upgrade...
Those were the days...
Dave Halko
J. Chris Hausler
J. Chris Hausler <jcha...@delphi.com> writes:
>James Youngman <JYou...@vggas.com> writes:
>
>> Anybody used the m6809 operating system FLEX?
>>
>>(For that matterm anybody know where I can get a databook for a WD1771 diskette
>>controller chip?)
>WD1771 and a couple spare chips. I don't know whether those aer still
>available. I've never had ANY trouble with them and as a result I
>don't know where whatever documentation I might have is located. I will
>look. Please email me if you wnat copies of anything I find.
documents in my stash on the 1771. These are "FD1771-01 Floppy
Disk Formatter/Controller" dated June 1980, 20 pages and "1771-01
Application Notes" dated October 1980, 8 pages. Email me if you are
interested in copies.
Chris
Bruce Tomlin
David J. Halko (d...@nsscmail.southplainfieldnj.ncr.com) wrote in comp.sys.m6809:
>I bet those were memory chips and someone did a memory upgrade...
You don't find 14-pin memory chips labeled "74LS00". Like I said, they
were IDENTICAL chips soldered on top of the ones on the board. Pin for
pin. As though someone figured if one of the chips was bad, sticking
another one on top would bypass the bad one. Yeah, like the filament
blew out or something, right?
David J. Halko
ha ha ha.... oh no, I must have missed that 74LS00 part of your
previous message!
Bummer...
Dave
Ben Williams
I remember people doing this for open collector gates that had failed open;
no harm done. Perhaps the bottom IC had also failed open circuit, and the
piggyback was a quick way to get around pulling the IC from the board, something
that wasn't all that attractive to many computer hobby types in the early days.