Last edit June 6 2016 (c) Herb Johnson
Bill also produced his own Web pages about all these subjects. His site provides photos, Intel documentation, source listings, ROM dumps and more.
In June 2009, Bill Beech contacted me to trade some Multibus manuals. Bill is a computer engineer from the 1980's who worked on Intel systems including the Intel 310 and 320 series of Multibus systems on which ran Xenix. He's got a 310 system now but also is building up an 80/10 (intel 8080) system. And, he worked on some software tools for the 80/10 and the old Intel assembler/linker output format. We discussed these on occasion from 2009 to 2011; I've made Web pages of the discussions as noted below. Bill has a Web site to support a vacuum tube database of characteristics at http://www.nj7p.info - Herb Johnson
Our discussion of the Intel 310 system he has, and my related Intel 320 system, is at this linked Web page."The Intel 310 is the single chassis with a 286/12 processor, a couple of 012CX 512 KB memory boards, a 552 ethernet card, a 215G hard disk controller. The 215G has an SBX 217 and 218 on it. The system has a floppy, tape drive and 85 MB HD. All our 310's and 320's ran Xenix. We used OpenNet networking."
Our discussion of the Intel 80/10 8080 CPU and building a CP/M and an ISIS-II system around it, is at this linked web page. "I bought a "working" iSBC 80/10 off eBay. I have it working with an iSBC 032/048/064 memory card. I have an iSBC 208 floppy controller to add to it. That fills the three-slot multibus cage that I have. Going to try and get ISIS-II and CPM to work with it. Unfortunately, using a PC switching PS to run it."
By Nov 2011, Bill had CP/M working on his 80/10, and he began to work on adding an IDE hard drive. The IDE work is discussed on this Web page.
Our discussion of Intel related disassembly and working with the Intel record format, is at this linked Web page. "I want to bring up the emulation of an intel 310 on the SIMH group. So far, all their machines are single processor. My intel 310 has an 80286, 80287, 2 ea. 80188, 80130, 8742 and an 8089 all working in concert to make it operate." Other tools discussed include the Intel Relocatable Object Module Formats for the 8085, disassemblers, and breaking down ISIS and PL/M.
In Oct 2011, Bill Beech acquired an Intel 320 system case from me; a several-slot Multibus backplane, power supply, and simple run/reset/power front panel. There's room for small hard drives or 5.25" floppy drives. He also bought one of my 386/25 CPU boards which needs work. Bill also has a 386/38 with slightly different ROMS and RAM setup. Bill has a stack of Multibus cards, that he's now working through to see their condition and what can be done with them. See his work and our discussions of it on this WEb page about Bill's testing of Multibus boards and chassis.
During the winter of 2011-12, Bill Beech discussed his selection of an HP 1650, and his use of it for a repair of an Intel Multibus 86/30 and 86/10 cards. Here's my Web page about those subjects. Sections cover the selection of a LA and what he expected from a logic analyzer over an oscilloscope; the diagnostic process; and discussion of the "trace" produced by the LA. A companion Web page shows an annotated LA trace.
In 2015-16, Bill has worked with Richard Main on Intel ISIS-II development systems. Bill's ISIS tools and software may be spread on a number of his Web pages. I see some ISIS tools in his "Computers" section of his site under "Tools" and "8008/8080/8085 Tools". Richard Main was a former Multibus developer; he's returned to work on Intel Mulibus development systems, bringing them into the 21st century.
Beyond my collaberations with Bill Beech, Bill has produced his own Web pages about all these subjects. As he updates his site from time to time, I'll use the linked Web page to point to his most current Web pages and links.
His site provides photos, Intel documentation, source listings, ROM dumps and more. Please follow his recommendations for use. Bill has done a lot of work on accumulating vacuum tube technical documentation, and military radio documentation. His home page has links to that work.
Bill's own biography is or was on his site. Here's some things he told me. - Herb
Well, I started out as a physics major in 1968, but quickly switched to computer science after my first programming course. It was something I just had a knack for and have continued since then. I managed to get to my senior year short two credits, and my draft board was selecting marines for Viet Nam. Chose not to play, and enlisted in the Army and became a Chinese Mandarin and later a Korean linguist. Spent almost 9 year out of 14 over seas in Hawaii and Korea. Decided I did not want ot be a leader of men and women, so I got out and went back to school to get a computer engineering degree. Worked as a computer and network engineer for the the Army ever since.
In 1980 I searched for a compiler to write operating systems in. [DRI's] PL/I was a bust, but I found C which was the correct answer. Been programming in C for the 31 years since then. I retired [in March 2010]. - Bill Beech
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