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Digital Group Z80 to 8080 Fun

Thanks Marty. I seem to be getting it to load somewhat regularly now.. but often I have to hit Reset first.

I keep meaning to ask you.. what is ICOSE?
 
Hi All;

Brad, "" but often I have to hit Reset first. ""
You, Should Always hit Reset First, before doing a Load and just after Power up..

"" I keep meaning to ask you.. what is ICOSE? ""
It is an Operating System that was written by a Friend of mine, Cassette Version and for now 8080 only..
It was NOT written by Digital Group.. But, it uses the Digital Group 8080 System, for it's base..
All of the Information about it is on the DVD that I forgot to Send to You..
I Think I sent Glitch a copy of the DVD, Maybe it can be copied to Digital Group site along with the other stuff He is so graciously uploaded for You and Everyone.. It's mainly listings and the Manual for ICOSE..
Once You Use it You won't want to go back to DG 8080 Software..
Interactive Conversational Operations Support Executive .. (1976)

THANK YOU Marty
 
Hi All;

Glitch, Thank You for doing this and for taking all of the Time to do this !!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, Brad, You can Now read about ICOSE, Now I have to get the various tapes loaded and copied for You to be able to use..

Also, not not all of the Pages are right side up, and some are faint, So, unless there is a better way to copy these pages this is it, as far a clarity is concerned.. And at Present this is All that I have about ICOSE, There Might be other Tapes, But, the Author has not found them, or shared any more with me..

I have downloaded, what I think might be a version of ICOSE, What I am going to do is Divide the ICOSE Tape down into smaller sections and upload them to Glitch, Since I cannot at Present tell what I have actually uploaded, it will be up to Brad, to Load it into His System and actually tell me what that Particular Wav file is, and if I have to Rename it or not..

All of the Information from the Cassette ICOSE Tape has been sent to Glitch, Just to let Him know..

Brad, Mainly what will be sent next, IS TO BE RUN on the Z-80 CPU CARD..
What I tried to do was transfer Parts of ICOSE to try and make it work on the Z-80, and find out what didn't work and correct it..
One other Program the Origional COPY-HI, I think is on one of the Tapes, but I don't know for sure..
What it did was have an Operating System in both Low Memory and another version at Hi Memory, and You could toggle between the two.. My copy was a little corrupted and so it didn't work perfectly..
But, the Idea was while using the Hi Memory version, You could Modify the Low memory version and not corrupt what was in High memory while making changes to what was in Low memory..
So, some of my tapes labeled Copy-HI may not be the origional version but only part of it, I don't know what is on the Tapes any more..
But, they all will need the Z-80 Board to be made to work.. But, You would need to Load them and tell everyone what that particular tape has on it..

Glitch, just so You know, there are six more Cassette tapes / files to load..
And then either tomorrow or next week, I will get out the Reel to Reel and do the Origional ICOSE tape.. Then that will be it..

THANK YOU Marty
 
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Thanks guys. ICOSE sounds really interesting Marty. I am just this moment starting to work through what you sent.. was the larger wav file just an uncut version of the first one? The first thing on it wouldn't load, but the second brought the HAM radio thing again.

Also noticing my 8080 board.. when I think it's crashed (ie. I turn the computer on and I have a screen completely full of garbage or the same symbols).. if I wait a few secs.. it eventually gets to prompt.
 
Hi All;

Brad, the first smaller wav file is just the first part of the whole tape "A"..
The Larger wav file is the whole tape "B", they may be the same, but they are different tapes..
For Now go ahead and load from the large wav file..
If at all possible have a way for You to hear the tones, and when it is finished Loading, and Your hear the steady tone, turn the tape Player off..
If You don't like what You have Loaded, then hit reset and load the next one and see what it is, stopping the tape and hitting reset between each try.. Eventually, You will repeat the various programs, as there are only so many..

Glitch, most likely has not had time to Load the full tape "A" which is a long file as well..
Also there are many files / tapes that are in the que that have not yet been uploaded to the public place..
I have three more yet to send to Him, before the night is over with..
And Hopefully, tomorrow the ICOSE Reel to Reel files, as well..

I have finished uploading for the night.. There was only five tapes, as the last tape had Stutter / flutter and so not readable..
Brad, there are a number of programs that are for the Z-80 in front and something else after that.. I will explain them as they come online..

Everything has been Downloaded to Glitch that He is going to get, So, when He has time or is able to transfer what I have given Him..
Everyone else will have a chance to see what there is.. THANK YOU Glitch !!
THANK YOU Marty
 
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Thanks Marty. I will continue to try the tape out and let you know what happens. I'm still trying to nail down what the problem is exactly on my 8080 board and why it seems to spontaneously crash. Starting to suspect the CPU itself might be bad. Probably will start by getting a replacement just for testing purposes.

Long term, I think I will probably hold out for a 32 char TV board, and the correct sockets for the 'new' DG motherboard I got, and build a separate 8080 system with my 8080 card and other required parts. Probably will be a long time given how rarely DG stuff comes up, but that's ok.
 
Hi All;

Brad, Once the rest of the Files appear, for at least a little while You could go back to using the Z-80 CPU Board, as there will be plenty of files to try and figure out..
And Possibly find Someone who Could Read Your 1702 Eprom and Make another one with the Change that would be necessary, so You could use it in either character mode..

And that will also narrow out that it is the 8080 CPU card that is 'Bad' and Not something else that makes it look like it is the 8080 CPU card..

THANK YOU Marty
 
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Hi All;

THANK YOU, Glitch, Your the Man !!!

Brad, You Now have no excuse for either CPU Card, as there are plenty of Programs for You to Load up..

I named the program ICOSE-SDDC wrong, as it should have been ICOSERR-SDDC, since it was from the Origional tape..

Also, this is ICOSE-80, the last that was made, it was for the Digital Group Single Density Disk Controller Card, but it was not finished and it is missing many of the Commands needed to work with the Controller..
This code will Not work, with the Digital Group Double Density Controller Card, as that card uses a different Disk controller chip..
But in the Documentation I have Included Digital Group's Program for that card, So, someone could add to what is there and possibly make it work.. But, You have to have the Digital Group Single Density Card for this to have any chance of working..

After, this Denis went to the SpaceByte 8085 (S-100) System and wrote His own Operating System for that, but it was Disk Based and not Cassette based as this one was.. And Yes, I have that code and Card, with a Variation of His Bootable Operating System, working on my SpaceByte 8085..

THANK YOU Marty
 
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