NORD-10 Serial 619

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Revision as of 09:56, 7 May 2019 by Gandalf (talk | contribs) (→‎I/O crate: Update about the HAWK Disc controller)
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NORD-10/S serial 619 is a survivor, it's seen some tough times

This is how it looks today.

The power supply was replaced years ago and only parts of the original supply hangs in the wires. The card crates might not have the cards in the right positions or even being complete. I will do some study of other systems that still exist and try to rebuild it into a running state. I will also try to find out more about it's history.

Status

In need of serious repair. Not in a running state.

Configuration

The two card crates are half filled with cards. It has not been documented yet which cards or where they are. It is very possible that cards are in the wrong position.

  • Power supply is just a mess, replaced with a PC power supply.
  • Front panel in good shape.
  • CPU-crate with unknown content.
  • I/O crate with unknown content.

CPU crate

This list reflects the configuration when I got the machine as well as the current one. There might be errors in the original configuration.

There is markings on the backside of the crate that shows what type of card should be in respective slot. This should be checked before trying to power up the CPU.

The CPU crate above and the I/O crate below.
Backside of the CPU crate, colored cables going up is to the front panel, downwards is the I/O bus extension to the lower crate, white is power and the green ones... beats me.
Position Initial card Name Current card Name Notes
1 1062 STATUS
2 1001 ARITHMETIC 1001/II
3 1001 ARITHMETIC 1001/II
4 1002 REGISTER
5 1002 REGISTER
6 1002 REGISTER
7 1002 REGISTER
8 1007 DECODING 1007/V
9 1006 OR LOGIC 1006/IV
10 1023 1K PROM 1023/II
11 1075 MICROADDRESSING 1075/II
12 1120 TIME CONTROL
13 1073 CONTROL DRIVER
14 1040 PAGING 1040/V
15 1058 INTERRUPT CONTROL 1058/III
16 1008 INTERRUPT REGISTERS 1008/II
17 1121 PANEL CONTROL 1121 C ??? Check backside of crate
18 Empty Optional? .... check manuals and backside of crate
19 1127 TRANSCEIVER CONTROL 1127 D Check backside of crate
20 1119 TRANSCEIVER ADDRESS 1119 D Check backside of crate
21 1115 LAMP REGISTER 1115 E ??? Check backside of crate
22 1125 TRANSCEIVER DATA 1125 E Check backside of crate
23 Empty Optional ... Multiport control? Check backside of crate
24 Empty Optional ... Multiport data? Check backside of crate
25 Empty I/O and memory area
26 Empty I/O and memory area
27 Empty I/O and memory area
28 Empty I/O and memory area
29 Empty I/O and memory area
30 Empty I/O and memory area
31 1132 32K RAM 1132 D, I/O and memory area
32 1132 32K RAM 1132 D, I/O and memory area

I/O crate

This list reflects the configuration when I got the machine as well as the current one. There might be errors in the original configuration.

It should be checked that there are only I/O cards in this crate. The back plane also needs to be investigated. It consists of two parts but it isn't totally clear where the split is made, probably in a 16+8 block. It also looks like the IRQ chain is jumping over certain positions (yellow wire wrap at the back plane), allowing thicker cards to be installed.

Backside of the I/O crate, colored cables connecting the I/O rack with the surrounding devices and the CPU. The backplane is split in two parts with the bus bridged with white cables in connectors.
Position Initial card Name Current card Name Notes
1 1096 DMA ADDRESS 1096 C
2 1093 BRANCH TRANSCEIVER 1093 F
3 Empty
4 Empty
5 1093 BRANCH TRANSCEIVER 1093 F
6 Empty
7 1101 BRANCH CONTROL 1101 F
8 Empty
9 1122 BUS CONTROL 1122 VI
10 1210 CLOCK AND PARITY 1210 G
11 Empty
12 Empty
13 1122 4 AS. CURRENT LOOP 1122 D
14 1111 FLOPPY DISC CONTROL 1111 D
15 1118 FLOPPY DISC DATA 1118 D
16 Empty
17 Empty
18 1095 TERMINAL BUFFER 1095 F
19 Empty
20 Empty
21 Empty
22 Empty
23 1070 DATA AND ADDR BUS SEL 1070 B
24 1070 DATA AND ADDR BUS SEL 1070 B

Position 25 to 32 is taken up by the NORD-10 HAWK Disk Controller. According to the manual, the disk controller should have a cable connected between position 2 (1022 Bus control) to position 27 (1014 DMA Registers). The connection to the disk is made via three cables attached to position 30-32. [1] A pretty safe guess is that the 1122 Bus control card can be used instead of the 1022. The manual is published March 1976 and the NORD-10/S wasn't really on the market yet.

Position Initial card Name Current card Name Notes
25 Empty
26 Empty
27 1014 DMA REGISTERS 1014/IV
28 1037 DISC CONTROL 1037/VII
29 1013 DEVICE REGISTERS 1013/IV
30 1107 DISC SEQUENCE 1107 B
31 1039 DISC TIMING 1039/II
32 1036 DISC TRANSCEIVER 1036 D
Die cast serial number plate.

History

  • Original owner not known.
  • Part of the computer park of the FUN (Forskarföreningen Umeå Naturvetare) society around 1985-1995.
  • Previous owner tried to get it running by replacing the power supply 10-15 years ago. It never started.
  • It's been in my care since around 2003 when the previous owner put it in my workshop and tried to get it running. It's been with me through two moves since then. Last move was in 2017 and hopefully it was the last one in a long time.

Future plans

  • To begin with just check if the system is complete enough to get into a running state. The old power supply is obviously beyond repair, but a modern PC power supply should be able to power the system.
  • Test if it will do anything close to running and why not.

Extras

There are some documentation that I haven't received yet.

Location

The system is in the care of Göran Axelsson and is located in a storage close to Umeå, Sweden.

Gallery

References

  1. [ ND-11.010.01 NORD-10_HAWK Disk Controller]