Timeline for What BBC Microcomputer features were requested specifically by BBC engineers?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
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| Jan 13, 2020 at 19:47 | comment | added | AndyF | Talking of 8" drives , given that the additional disc interface for the first few years used the Intel 8271 controller. Ones I have seen are usually copyrighted 78 . The minor point I am trying to make I suppose is that that particular controller would of likely been highly suitable for 8" drives based on its age. | |
| Jan 29, 2018 at 11:26 | comment | added | user_1818839 | @scruss Did you find the wombat? | |
| Jan 29, 2018 at 11:23 | history | edited | user_1818839 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 29, 2018 at 2:22 | comment | added | scruss | Thank you! I had a Z88, and used Richard's BBC BASIC on it extensively. He recently issued a patch for the Z88 that allows BASIC to use graphics … | |
| Jan 28, 2018 at 11:48 | history | edited | user_1818839 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 28, 2018 at 10:07 | comment | added | TonyM | This is great stuff Brian, what a piece of history - didn't know about the RRB, imagine few have :-) Please can you edit it into your answer, don't leave it lurking in comments. | |
| Jan 27, 2018 at 21:22 | comment | added | user_1818839 | Most had 8" floppy drives (dual was luxury!) and it booted to BBCDOS (6.1 filenames, robust chained sector file system) in under a second. And yes, he wrote his own BBC Basic interpreter for it. That went on to sell as a CP/M version, the ... wait for it ... Sinclair (!) Z88 portable, Tatung Einstein, and eventually ported to x86 for MS/DOS (still available). | |
| Jan 27, 2018 at 21:13 | comment | added | user_1818839 | It was a SBC with 32K DRAM (the original 3 rail type). Later, a second board had 32K more, either for monochrome high res bitmapped graphics, or 64K CP/M. But the main board used Z80, I think 8251 SIO, 8255 parallel I/O, and the ubiquitous 6845 for video. Two 64-way connectors along one side gave you everything. I may still have the schematic somewhere.. | |
| Jan 27, 2018 at 21:07 | comment | added | user_1818839 | Sadly, I left mine in an attic about 15 years ago during a house move. Mine actually turned out to be a bootleg - apparently he loaned the PCB masters to Research Dept and they made some in house, one was left over. It wasn't actually used at the BBC per se, it was more of a homer "home office" in BBC jargon) project, but it inspired the ZEUS modular system which ran a lot of the BBC transmitters - and the broadcast clock and other graphics at the time. ZEUS modules configured for S/W development were known as ZELDA - Z80 Loader/Developer/Assembler - before the game... | |
| Jan 27, 2018 at 21:02 | history | edited | user_1818839 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 27, 2018 at 21:01 | comment | added | scruss | Unrelated to this question, but I'd very much like to hear about the "Richard Russell Board" in use at the BBC. | |
| Jan 27, 2018 at 20:54 | history | answered | user_1818839 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |