You can view Mal’s lecture on our YouTube channel, VK2MB-TV.
During the lecture, Mal demonstrated using an XGecu T48 Universal Programmer to identify unknown logic ICs. You can find out more about it (and sibling models) at http://xgecu.com/EN/index.html.
Days leading to the lecture
In the few days leading to Mal’s lecture, the society’s email reflector was very active with many members contributing with their memories of using the Microbees. Here is the collection of exchanges:
Mal VK2TMF
I have a couple of Microbee computers lined up to power on after 35+ years.
Dave VK2DRG
Wow….a blast from the past…. A shame you don’t have the other Australian built PC based on Intel processor designed and built in Hornsby. The Dulmont Magnum Kookaburra. I think Microbee also started in Hornsby.
I only say that as my better half who lived in Hornsby, her first job out of uni (computer science) was working on the Dulmont Magnum. She tells me that she, along with a fellow former classmate (who had also applied and turned up same day as she did), were both thrown in at the deep end to code the k/b and screen drivers and with zero experience were tasked to design the keyboard layout.
Carmel VK2CAR
An amazing computer for the time… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulmont_Magnum
Glenn
The Microbee was designed and sold by Applied Technology at Waitara. Later they had offices and factories at Gosford and North Ryde. Happy to talk more about Microbees tomorrow night.
Simon VK2YU
Here here. Yes thank you very much Mal. Looking forward to it.
Bob VK2RL
Some great memories of the Microbee. I used to run 300 baud packet on 2m using a kit-constructed TNC connected to the Microbee. It was fun back in the 1980’s with what was then leading edge technology. It was sad to see them go but I think they held on to their CP/M operating system for too long instead of converting to DOS.
Jeff VK2ESE
A business partner, Digby Tarvin, had one of the rare Microbee Gamma 68k computers, which he had been contracted to port an operating system (OS-9) to. I think Microbee was somewhere in Gosford at that time. I will have to ask Digby whether he still has it. Unfortunately the Gamma was stillborn.
Geoff VK2TGO
I had a Tandy Color Computer which had a plug-in adapter with four slots for games cartridges. However, since the computer would switch to the first game cartridge at power-on, I replaced this with an OS9 OS ROM and I also had two HDDs and a printer interface. This OS9 was very Unix-like. The processor was a 6809 running at 2MHz and could boot up and run a word processor and a spreadsheet. Not many people were aware of the CC’s capabilities. I seem to remember guys from HP would write and update drivers for the accessories.
Jeff VK2ESE
Yes, Geoff, OS-9 was very Unix-like. I have had 6809, 68K, PowerPC, and even 386 versions of OS-9. It was also available for many other CPUs under the OS-9000 banner.
Never had a CC, so not sure if it had memory management, but my own-design 6809 system used OS-9 Level 2 and had an MC6829 MMU with 1 MB of DRAM, and originally twin 8-inch floppy drives. Later added a SASI controller and twin 10MB hard drives. 😂 Incidentally, the first OS I ran on my 6809 system, before purchasing an OS-9 licence, was Technical Systems Consultants ‘FLEX’ (purchased from Paris Radio in Ultimo). FLEX was later superseded by UniFLEX, which was a more proper Unix-like OS, but I had already gone the Microware OS-9 route by that time.
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