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Vintage Computers Any vintage computer systems, calculators, video games etc., but with an emphasis on 1980s and earlier equipment.

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Old 1st Dec 2006, 3:28 pm   #1
BassoonBloke
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Thumbs up Anyone fancy have a go at this......

Found this on the web, and i confess, i'm impressed.
Mind you the wirewrap stuff looks like a bit of a nightmare !!!
What do you make of it?

Alan.

http://www.homebrewcpu.com/
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Old 1st Dec 2006, 5:02 pm   #2
ppppenguin
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Default Re: Anyone fancy have a go at this......

Masochist!

I've handwired a couple of fairly complex logic designs but not on this scale. Doing it in a FPGA makes it a lot easier because there's no wiring.
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Old 1st Dec 2006, 5:22 pm   #3
paulsherwin
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Default Re: Anyone fancy have a go at this......

Wirewrapping like that was a standard prototype and short run production technique for digital stuff in the 70s and 80s. I remember the prototype of ITN's in-house graphics device VT80 was built that way around 1980 (hence the name, I think.) The boards looked pretty fearsome and I'm glad I didn't have to locate faults

Paul
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Old 1st Dec 2006, 7:04 pm   #4
mikelect
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Default Re: Anyone fancy have a go at this......

I used to know a guy who worked for Texas Instruments UK who wire wrapped quite complicated processor prototypes while watching TV in the evenings

Mike
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Old 1st Dec 2006, 7:51 pm   #5
Kat Manton
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Default Re: Anyone fancy have a go at this......

Hi,

In my first job I wire-wrapped some quite large custom process control systems. With an electric cut/strip/wrap gun it's fast, too. I had an endless supply of little plastic thingies with pin numbers on; with the IC reference scrawled on in biro then shoved over the IC socket pins it was pretty easy to find my way around.

By "large" I mean a 19" card frame full of double eurocards, all wire-wrapped, with the backplane wire-wrapped as well.

With a schematic and the ICs and pins identified on the wiring side these things weren't too tricky to modify and repair, either.

Cheers, Kat
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Old 1st Dec 2006, 9:14 pm   #6
igranic
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Default Re: Anyone fancy have a go at this......

Mike,

Do you remember the name of the guy who worked for Texas Instruments?

I designed systems for TI that were protyped in wirewrap, so I almost certainly knew him. PM me if you prefer.
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Old 1st Dec 2006, 10:34 pm   #7
jim_beacon
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Default Re: Anyone fancy have a go at this......

The backplane of my 11/45 (http://www.g1jbg.co.uk/comp1.htm) is wire wrapped - there is a picture about halfway down the page.

Jim.
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Old 2nd Dec 2006, 12:10 am   #8
PJL
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Default Re: Anyone fancy have a go at this......

For a while I did a bit of PDP11 programming for a manufacturing plant. As Kat says, wire-wrapping with the right tools is very quick. Somewhere I still have a box of wire-wrap IC holders with the long square pins.
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