I joined the forum quite a while ago and have been lurking around. It's time to do the introduction.
When I started as a young Engineer with a small telco on the East Coast of Canada the OSI CP3 was state of the art.
We had the 19" rack mounted version with two sliding drawers. One for dual 8" floppy disks and one for the CPU, 48k memory, serial IO and the disk controller.
We used the system to build many special assemblies for telephony applications. The most famous is the Meet-me Conference Bridge.
The very first dial-in meet-me conference bridge was build using a CP3 OSI computer.
When they disposed of the unit in the late 1980's i picked it up for $10 along with many of the manuals and disk.
The whole unit has been collecting dust in my basement for the last 25 years. Just this week I fired it up and have the famous H/D/M?
prompt proudly displayed on a terminal. The disks are have a few issues so I'm not running any software as yet.
When I find time I will create a list of all that manuals and disks that I have and post a note with a list.
john
Hello
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- Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2011 1:49 am
- Location: New Zealand
Re: Hello
Welcome John.
That really is bargain basement stuff.
Your so fortunate it has cold started that far after all this time. Hows the memory I wonder?
Look forward to seeing your list of disks and manuals. And what are all the boards?
I still have working 8" drives but on a video system. If your disks have any fungal infection your are definitely best to clean them before trying to boot.
There are also 8" images on Dave's site you could tweak for serial and try on clean media.
Mike
That really is bargain basement stuff.
Your so fortunate it has cold started that far after all this time. Hows the memory I wonder?
Look forward to seeing your list of disks and manuals. And what are all the boards?
I still have working 8" drives but on a video system. If your disks have any fungal infection your are definitely best to clean them before trying to boot.
There are also 8" images on Dave's site you could tweak for serial and try on clean media.
Mike
600RevB:16K,2MHz,64x32,470,CEGMON
SuperKit:502,540B,542B,CEGMON, 8" and 5" FDDs
Cards:PE IO,6522 D-A-D, AY3-8910,ProgramGraphics,Color,UK101
WIP:HexDOS,FDD Emulator
SuperKit:502,540B,542B,CEGMON, 8" and 5" FDDs
Cards:PE IO,6522 D-A-D, AY3-8910,ProgramGraphics,Color,UK101
WIP:HexDOS,FDD Emulator
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- Posts: 233
- Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:53 am
Re: Hello
Hi John
Super cool unit, I'm in the process of building up a 510 Franken system myself ,looking forward to your progress
Grant
Super cool unit, I'm in the process of building up a 510 Franken system myself ,looking forward to your progress
Grant
Replica 600 Rev D:8K,CEGMON
Replica 610 Rev B: 24k,MPI B-51 with Custom Data separator D-13
510 on the bench/replica 582 backplane/replica 470a /replica 555/original 570B/2 x Shugart 851
Ongoing : 630 ,620 ,510,542c,custom 590,SA1200,592,594,596,598
Replica 610 Rev B: 24k,MPI B-51 with Custom Data separator D-13
510 on the bench/replica 582 backplane/replica 470a /replica 555/original 570B/2 x Shugart 851
Ongoing : 630 ,620 ,510,542c,custom 590,SA1200,592,594,596,598
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- Posts: 325
- Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:54 pm
- Location: Markham, Ontario, Canada
- Contact:
Re: Hello
Welcome! Nice OSI stuff.
Steve
Steve
C4P working, C1P working. 600D Replica working, C4P+D&N floppy not working. 505 board, 610 board, Mittendorf board, TOSIE hacker board need testing, PicoDOS disk untested.
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- Posts: 216
- Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:03 pm
- Location: Canada
- Contact:
Re: Hello
Good to have you aboard John!
Nice system. I used to look at the ads for those CP3 systems back in the 70's and drool. What incredible potential that system had.
Then the 8086 came along and computers have taken a downhill turn since.
I have a new laptop with more raw computing power than NORAD had in the 70's and I can barely get day to day work done on it. Windows 8.1, bah, humbug!
Nice system. I used to look at the ads for those CP3 systems back in the 70's and drool. What incredible potential that system had.
Then the 8086 came along and computers have taken a downhill turn since.
I have a new laptop with more raw computing power than NORAD had in the 70's and I can barely get day to day work done on it. Windows 8.1, bah, humbug!
Box stock Superboard II Rev. B
KLyball replica 600D, replica 610 & KLyball Data Separator
OMS SBME and SBME+ memory cards
OMS Digi-Mule expansion bus
KLyball memory card
KLyball replica 600D, replica 610 & KLyball Data Separator
OMS SBME and SBME+ memory cards
OMS Digi-Mule expansion bus
KLyball memory card
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Re: Hello
Welcome, John!
That's a really neat machine! It's great to have a C3 owner on board. I never got to see one in real life, but remember the ads for them very well. I'm also glad to see another serial system user on the site. Those are under-represented, so we'd be glad to follow you as you re-aquaint yourself with the machine.
It sounds like you have some unique items and documentation--can't wait to see what you come up with.
Dave
That's a really neat machine! It's great to have a C3 owner on board. I never got to see one in real life, but remember the ads for them very well. I'm also glad to see another serial system user on the site. Those are under-represented, so we'd be glad to follow you as you re-aquaint yourself with the machine.
It sounds like you have some unique items and documentation--can't wait to see what you come up with.
Dave