The Archive

January 13, 2020
Uncategorized
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A fellow 1802 aficionado contacted me recently and mentioned my CDP1802-based super-archive, which I refer to as The Archive.

There is a post about it ‘below’ if you are interested in more details about it and the ‘fiasco’ involved around it. (it’s a very sad and unfortunate No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Tale)

The old archive was about an 8 GB ‘ZIP’ file full of some REALLY GOOD (and important) 1802 information.

When I made the other post, it had gotten up to 60 GB.

It is now 80 GB.

I haven’t been doing any research for quite a while now. It’s a lot of (thankless) work. There is probably a lot of new stuff out on the InterWebs now. (more gets “published” every year) It was getting harder last time I did it because I can’t remember what I have and don’t have, and I try to not duplicate. (every once-in-a-while, I would find something and get all excited because it was so cool, only to discover that “I already knew about it” — just happened again today, in fact — my once-great (near-eidetic) memory sux now)

Anyway, someone published the archive on Archive.org. (there were some, in my opinion, fallacious and HIGHLY petty copyright claims from people who are obviously not “community-oriented”, to say the least, whose content was included in the archive and would be literally impossible to properly remove and/or get permission to use, most of it website snapshots and the like) Hard to believe it was 7 years ago.

I mentioned that the archive could be found via a web search, but it’s not so easy, as I just found out myself. So I have decided to give a link to it for people who are interested in it to more easily find it.

It is listed at Archive.org as “The Cosmac ELF (RCA 1802) Collection”. Unfortunately, the person who published it there didn’t include “CDP1802” in the description. (or spell ‘Cosmac’ correctly as all-caps, and I think ‘Elf’ should just be capitalized) Or give it a decent description.

“They” (one or a few people at the now-exported COSMAC Elf Yahoo Group) said that they were going to try to get it taken down, but I guess they either couldn’t or didn’t try.

It is only about 8 GB, 1/10 of its current size.
But there is A LOT of GOOD stuff in there.

https://archive.org/details/RCA_cdp_1802_information_collection

There is a lot of other good 1802-based stuff people have published on Archive.org, too. Maybe that is where one day The Archive will be published for posterity. (posthumously) Maybe I will get the bug for it again and The Archive will grow even larger then 80 GB. I hate the thought that some info might be available on the InterWebs and then disappear, never to be seen or heard of again. There has already been WAY too much of that.

SOS Radiation Hardened 1802

April 2, 2018
1802COSMAC
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I believe the document linked to here, “Effects of Total-Dose Ionizing Radiation on the 1802 Microprocessor“, is final, absolute proof that the standard, commercial version of the CDP1802 microprocessor was not Silicon-on-Sapphire radiation-hardened, but was a C2L bulk-silicon CMOS integrated circuit chip, and later an SOS Rad-Hard chip was developed.

1802 testing and development in this area started circa late 1977, and SOS Rad-Hard chips were made available some time later (probably in the 1980s), developed and manufactured by Sandia Labs (with probable help from RCA; and possibly other sources). These chips were used in military and Space technology projects. (several rad-hard 1802s were used in the Galileo spacecraft in the late 1980s, and they were used in some of the OSCAR satellites)

This was an area of contention among some 1802 aficionados and hobbyists, as we could not find any absolute statements about which claim was true, until now. As far as I am concerned, it is now case closed on this question, without a doubt.

Many people have been trying to find a verifiable rad-hard 1802 sample, and discover what its marking would or should be, but I think that is still escaping the community at this point. However, as more and more information is published on the Internet, this information may be found in the future.

Photo: Die shot of RCA 1802 microprocessor (RCA Z CDP1802ACD), circa 2015, by Pauli Rautakorpi.

PDP-1802

March 27, 2018
1802COSMACCRAV ComputingMagazinesRetrocomputingSimulators-Emulators
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Christopher L. Hamlin created a DEC PDP-8 minicomputer hardware simulator / emulator based on the 1802 in 1982, which emulates most, but not all, of the PDP-8 capabilities.

There are two articles in Dr. Dobb’s Journal (DDJ),Part I in May 1982, Volume 7, Issue 5, Number 68, page 15, and Part II in July 1982, Volume 7, Issue 7, Number 69, page 46, titled “PDP-1802 — Hardware Simulator in Assembly Language”.

The article summaries state, “This author chose to execute PDP-8 machine-language programs on a COSMAC 1802. This first of two articles describes the PDP-8 instruction set and front panel functions, and an octal console monitor for the 1802.” and “Last month saw a description of this simulator. The current installment presents all the code needed to allow a COSMAC 1802 to run PDP-8 code. Get it running — the author will be contributing some useful applications software as well.”

The gist of the project is: “The program presented in this article permits the execution on COSMAC 1802 systems of programs written in the machine language of the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-8 minicomputer.” “The PDP-1802 is based on the first PDP-8 (the “straight eight”), with certain modifications closer in operation to the behavior of the PDP-8/I and PDP-8/L, which were later models.”

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Rediscovering History’s Lost First Female Video Game Designer

November 8, 2017
1802COSMACCRAV ComputingRetrocomputing
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This is a really nice article by Benj Edwards about Joyce Weisbecker, daughter of 1802 CPU creator Joseph Weisbecker. She is arguably the first female video game designer and programmer. It’s a good read and will be of interest to anyone interested in the 1802. (even to this day I am somewhat jealous of her opportunity and experience at the time)

The article had disappeared, but may be viewed in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20171027131805/https://www.fastcodesign.com/90147592/rediscovering-historys-lost-first-female-video-game-designer

https://www.fastcodesign.com/90147592/rediscovering-historys-lost-first-female-video-game-designer

60 GB 1802 Digital Archive, Other Content, & Problematic Issues

October 19, 2017
1802COSMACCRAV ComputingRetrocomputing
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Read it… and weep. (or don’t bother reading this – whatever)

My 1802 Digital Archive is at about 60 GB now. (and growing… 99% +/- 1802-based – occasionally some general CRAV Computing information sneaks in — the information consists of images, HTML web page snapshots, PDF and other documents, relevant historical information, etc…..)

And you can’t have it, apparently. (due to ‘copyright’ issues, and complaints by a few ‘questionable’ people regarding the same, whose content actually typically tends to tend toward ‘crap’)

However, I have left instructions with ‘anonymous’ individuals (plural) that The Archive be publicly published upon my death. My Posthumous Manifesto.

So, no worries, it won’t be lost forever. (as so much, as much too much, has been, over time, never to be regained or recovered — which is partly why I am creating this archive and doing all of this, which takes way too many hours of blood, sweat and tears – luckily, I usually enjoy doing it — and, imo, it is very important work)

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Hello World!

October 8, 2017
1802CRAV ComputingRetrocomputing
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“1803” is my new 1802-based b’jou. (web journal — pronounced bee-zhoo; as in a Bijou (cinema theater), as well as the definition of: a jewel, or something small, delicate, and exquisitely wrought)

I will be posting my 1802-based and other CRAV Computing research findings and other information here where I can control its publication, content, dissemination, and lifespan. This coincides with the further expansion and info- and data-populating of my website content.

1803 is a companion to my (William Donnelly’s) 1802-related hobbyist website at MDCCCII.

I am a CRAV Computing (Classic / Retro / Antique / Vintage) hobbyist, enthusiast, and collector, located in Northern California (“West Coast”) USA, and am a self-styled lay-researcher, historical archivist and information preservationist as it pertains to CRAV Computing, particularly focusing on the RCA COSMAC CDP1802 microprocessor. (anything and everything 1802)

My current, personal virtual archive (known as The Archive) is in excess of approximately 60 GB, uncompressed. (containing images, HTML web page snapshots, PDF and other documents, relevant historical information, etc.)

This b’jou will deal primarily with the RCA CDP1802 COSMAC microprocessor, but will also occasionally contain some general CRAV Computing information, as well.

  MDCCCII.com   1803 b'jou is Under Re-Construction