If NO IMAGES will be shown, use www.z80.eu/blog instead of blog.z80.eu

Please note also - THIS BLOG ENDS HERE WITH THE LAST ENTRY FROM NOVEMBER 9th 2021.

I have prepared a new blog with wordpress at https://vintagecomputing.info !!!

Thank you.

I was very surprised when I saw the Highscreen Handy Organizer the first time.
It has a full work "AT" compatible keyboard, 80x25 character LCD screen, a parallel and a serial interface, and 2 IC card (PCMCIA SRAM memory card) slots.
It has also a 7,15 MHz NEC V30 CPU, which is very fast for a calculator alike device, running with DOS 5.0 (ROM based). Another highlight is MS WORKS 2.0 for DOS, which can be found in ROM also.
In the U.S., it was called Zeos Pocket PC.


Unfortunately I didn't manage it so far using INTERSVR on that device.

I installed Windows 98 in a VMWare Player, and it runs almost perfect... until I integrate INTERLNK.EXE in CONFIG.SYS of that Windows 98 installation.
But even if I start Windows 98 in Command Line mode (no GUI, press F8 at the beginning), I was not able to use INTERLNK.EXE with the serial port.
At the moment, I have my doubt about the used serial null modem cable, because it does not offer hardware handshake.
And I am not sure VMWare Player does not make a mistake when emulating the serial interface.
Have to test it with my Kaypro IV, this worked already with Windows XP for example.


My idea at the moment: Using this device with a CP/M emulator which supports the V20/V30 CPU.
As a result, this would be the smallest CP/M portable ever made if it works ;-)

I've created an EPSON PX-8 ROM with a modified Turbo PASCAL 3.0 main compiler file.
I was trying to work with the "original" version but due to the very small RAM Disk size, even .BAK files which are created automatically are too much.
So I patched it in a way that no Backup file is anymore generated.
See at my >Epson PX8 page< for an updated file.

Btw. there is an interesting blog entry which describes also how to obtain a NEW Epson PX-8 machine. And that's true - Star Technology aka Notebook Supplies is still offering that at:
>http://www.notebooksupplies.com/epson/px8.html<

See here for the above mentioned blog entry (from 2009):
>http://www.nekochan.net/weblog/archives ... -gene.html<



And I am still looking for a source of that really rare 28-pin Molex carrier (p/n 50-39-5288), found some offer, but when I'm trying to order them, these parts are not available then :-(

Yes, no new technical entry.

But one brainteaser for you: What's that ?

Please comment or send me an email.
...

Instead of "googling" again and again, I am posting a few very interesting pages here, which are living (no static pages since years):

http://www.vintagecomputer.net/

This site has tons of small articles about interesting vintage hardware stuff.
Most recommended!

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/forum.php

Still with a living community.

http://www.forum.z80.de/

German board, sometimes seems to be dying (no more new entries), but then all of a sudden some interesting entries can be found you didn't find anywhere else.

http://classic-computers.org.nz/blog/index.htm

Very interesting entries - most of them also hardware related ;-))

http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/11/25/nin ... s-and-80s/

Not a site, but a nice blog entry about computer ads from the seventies.

... btw if you're interested on more ad's -> http://oldcomputers.net/oldads/old-computer-ads.html

http://www.retrocomputers.eu/

Interesting site with a broad spectrum ;-)

http://www.theoldcomputer.com/blog/retroblog.html

Last but not least, nice, but unfortunately no new entries since a year.

Can be seen here:
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=22

You only need a power supply with 3.6V-5.5V.
It has a serial interface (TTL levels) with auto-baud feature from 300 to 256K baud rates.
You can use microSD cards up to 2GB (formatted with FAT16).
It's very small and should fit in any vintage computer case.

The price is really fair - $29 is not really expensive.
I've even found a distributor in Europe ( http://www.tigal.com/1556 ).
If you're curious about the commands you have to send, take a look into this PDF:
https://old.4dsystems.com.au/downloads/Semiconductors/GOLDELOX-SGC/Docs/GOLDELOX-SGC-COMMANDS-SIS-rev6.pdf

You have to add a MAX232 or a similar chip for converting voltage level to RS232.

P.S.: Meanwhile I have created an own page for it, see here.

P.P.S.: 4D Systems does not sell nor produce it anymore. Milford Instruments sells it now (search for udrive on their web page).

Have added a download possibility of the CP/M Walnut Creek CD here.

Many (not all) files can be found also here.
The original Simtel website doesn't offer these files anymore, see here.

A few rare files can be found also here.

It's a pitty that there are not many other possibilities.

Because of popular demand - here are some other links, and with a full BEEHIVE branch:

gopher.floodgap.com
www.scovetta.com
z80cpu.eu/mirrors/
ftp.catcorner.org
maben.homeip.net (BEEHIVE missing)
ferretronix.com/march/ (BZIP2 compressed archive)

Added later: There's another ISO image at n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com available.