S-100 and Other Computing History from Dr. Alan Wilcox

For those who might be interested, I met with Dr. Wilcox last year at his home and took possession of a number of items relating to his books regarding the 68000 CPU and his S-100 board. I’ve unfortunately run behind on getting these items onto the ‘Net as he was gracious enough to agree that I could post scans of all of his hand-written notes, etc., so long he received proper credit. I haven’t had time to start that part of the process, but I thought I’d make a quick post of his remaining 68k S-100 board, which was wire-wrapped. I’ve just now started getting enough of a system together to be able to bring some of my boards live, but look forward to booting this board as well as the N8VEM 68k board.

(Sorry, these are a little shaky. I haven’t quite gotten the use of the new phone yet. Will post better pics with wife’s camera.)

 

Front

Back

Also, does anyone recognize this enclosure/S-100 computer? It has a plain white top and bottom, black front and punched back for several DB25 connectors. It contains a CCS Z80 CPU board and (2) CCS 16K Static Ram boards.

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New Amateur Radio Equipment

My “replacement” HTX-202 2m HT finally arrived, as well as my Standard C528a 2m/70cm. I was a bit disappointed so far in the C528a’s ability to pick up various repeater traffic in the area, but the ‘202 is working well. I haven’t transmitted with it yet as I’d like to check the tuning, etc., but it’s in great condition. My old one is rough and needed an antenna, so I was very happy when I found a better one for a good price. I was able to pick up the Richmond repeater tonight; one side of the conversation was very strong while the other side was clear but not very loud.

The Standard C528a was cheap as someone had taken it as part of a series of trades on another item. They didn’t need or want it as they have several Icom HTs. After opening it up, I found someone had re-capped portions of it but did a poor job of it. I’ll probably order a cap kit from eBay at some point as I think that will improve its performance. Also need a CTCSS module as it appears that the Standard won’t be able to do more than receive repeater traffic. That, or I’ll just sell it and buy an HTX-404 to supplement the ‘202.