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Newbear 77-68

Moonferret

Moonferret

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2003
Messages
489
Location
Northwest (UK)
Hi Folks!

Anybody got any original (Or PDF copies) of the documentation / build notes for the Newbear 77-68 computer? Also interested in any program listings or just information in general about this machine as there seems to be very little on the net.

Cheers,
Dave
 
Thanks for the reply. I think I'm going to have to be really lucky to find any of the original documentation. So far, I've got the machine powering up and I can toggle data in via the front panel but I'm a complete newbie when it comes to the 6800 so I'm going to have to do a little more reading.

The system currently consists of the following boards...
CPU Board - MC6800 + 256 Bytes RAM
MON1 Board - 1K RAM, 2x MC6850 ACIAs, 32 Byte Boot PROM
4k RAM Board
Homebuilt 12k RAM Card

Will try and grab some photos later on

Cheers,
Dave
 
One of my friends suggested asking TNMOC and Cambridge if they have any documentation. . I have searched in the Cambridge on-line search and can't find anything. I know there is a big library at TNMOC but its not searchable on-line. Its probably worth dropping them an E-Mail. Other possible sources are Swindon Museum

http://www.museumofcomputing.org.uk/gallery

Might also be worth seeing if you can get a letter in the CCS journal...

http://www.bcs.org/category/13188

I actually think I may still have a Hex Keypad I made for mine to avoid using the switches and lamps.. Used an old calculator display and keyboard. What fun, what joy...
 
Photos

Photos

Thanks for the info. Will certainly drop an email over to TNMOC and the Museum of Computing in Swindon (According to the Wikipedia page, a NewBear was donated to them). Here are some photos of my machine...

DSC08083.jpg DSC08084.jpg DSC08085.jpg DSC08086.jpg DSC08087.jpg DSC08088.jpg DSC08089.jpg

The system was purchased via Ebay and was originally listed for £2000 !! I put in a very cheeky low offer which the seller amazingly accepted. Just goes to show, it's always worth putting an offer in on these outrageously priced listings :)

Cheers,
Dave
 
I wondered who had bought that...

Bit late to the party (been away with work this week and I was somewhat busy yesterday with a certain party...) Anyhow, I found a few articles in the ACCumulator at http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/ACC/Vol5-Issue5.pdf. I searched through various issues. Nothing on the CPU board I fear but there is on the 4K RAM board, MON1 and the VDU. May at least get you kickstarted.

I assume the g4ugm has something to do with Dave - although this thread seems to be dominated by people called Dave at the moment.

Also not sure if this would be any use http://www.abebooks.co.uk/9785511867670/Newbear-77-68-5511867675/plp. Possibly someone wrote a book about it?

Dave
 
Thanks for the link. I'm already enjoying reading through the newsletters. The CPU board is actually described in Vol5, Issue 1...

http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/ACC/Vol5-Issue1.pdf

There was a keyboard included in the Ebay auction but although its of a similar construction, it doesn't appear to be part of the 77-68 system as there is no VDU board or ports on the main unit. The two ports on the front are for serial interfaces.

The link to the book seems interesting although I can't help feel that it is just some sort of automatically generated document from the Wikipedia page.
 
For some reason I missed Vol. 5 number 1 (possibly got distracted by other interesting articles I was reading...)

I found a reference somewhere saying that the book was a collection of publicly available documents on the internet. Whether they are still there or not is another matter...

I came to the same conclusion that the keyboard was nothing to do with it.

At least you have found the CPU board so that should kickstart you into getting it up and running...

The 6800 really is a really nice and simple processor (my first 'computer' was a Motorola 6800 D2 evaluation kit - so the 6800 was my first micro).

Dave
 
Interesting to find a conversation about this...

One of my brothers worked for Newbear in the 77/68 team (under Tim Moore) when they were based in Newbury ( Berks, UK ) and my other brother still has two of them.
He orignally had an old ASR33 teletype as its console terminal.

He still keeps one in working condition and regularly plays some games on it... though he uses a terminal emulator on a PC as the console nowadays.
He has also recorded all of his program tapes via sound recorder on the pc and plays them back from that to load the programs - much faster than
an old cassette recorder.

I know he has some literature, so I'll ask him about it.
 
Great to hear that there are at least another two of these machines out there and still being used. Would love to know more about the setup on that system and it would be great if he still has any of the documentation.

Cheers,
Dave
 
Moonferret said:
Great to hear that there are at least another two of these machines out there and still being used. Would love to know more about the setup on that system and it would be great if he still has any of the documentation.

Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...

I'll see what I can find in his docs when I visit him later this week.

I believe he uses a very old Windows XP PC ( not connected to the internet ).
He uses Hyperterminal on it via the serial port as the 77/68 console.
He has the sound leads connected to it, instead of to a cassette recorder and so saves programs to .wav files ( I think )
which he then plays back to load them.

I'll find out more & give a better description later.

regards
chris
 
I have now borrowed my brothers crate of old docs.... Seems I have a scanning task ahead of me !

Docs include...

77-68 : The construction of a -Simple Microcomputer- using a 6800 Microprocessor
77-78 : Newsletters No.1 (Sept.1977)... to No.7 (Dec.1999)
77-68 : Design note 22 : 7768 MON 1 BOARD
77-78 : Design note 35 : 6800 PROM Programmer
77-78 : Design note 36 : 77-68 VDU Board
77-78 : Design note 38 : ROM Monitor Board for 77-68
77-78 : Design note 49 : 77-68 PIO-A Board
77-78 : Design note 53 : 77-68 32K - DYNARAM
79-09 : Design note 81 : 79-09 6809 C.P.U. Board
77-78 : Design note 82 : 77-68 Disc Controller Board
Newbear PETITEVID Mark 2 : A technical Description
MINIMON : A soft monitor for the 7768 MON 1 board

The first doc. should be fairly easy to scan... so I'll do that now. If anyone has any pressing need for any of the others, please post or PM.

Chris
 
Chris,

You are an absolute star! Thank you for taking the time to scan this stuff in. Also, thanks to your brother for keeping hold of it :)

Cheers,
Dave
 
Yep.

Full marks for saving the documentation for yet another piece of historic British computing...

Perhaps we could get this stuff onto Bitsavers.org for posterity and the much wider community?

Dave
 
No Problem... I can't do any more scanning for a few days, but when I do, I'll put it into the same web location.

Chris
 
daver2 said:
Yep.

Full marks for saving the documentation for yet another piece of historic British computing...

Perhaps we could get this stuff onto Bitsavers.org for posterity and the much wider community?

Dave
Click to expand...

will do

has the firmware been dumped?
 
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