Eight-Bit Jokes 3
Time goes fast. After the first two publications ( once and twice ) it was possible to restore several tracks in memory, seemingly forever lost. Well, you know, it happens. Therefore, the third part appeared, the more three are better than two and not only in the record book. So let's continue.
Once, somehow finding out my address, a representative man showed up at my apartment. As it turned out, he was a bridge builder engineer and he arrived in Moscow directly from BAM. It was 1983. Immediately from the door he started to persuade me - he really needs a computer, well, just desperately. By evening, he prevailed upon me. All the expenses he took on himself. There was a question about the case for the company. The next day, he came to me with a case from an amplifier KINAP-50 (this is sound equipment for film shifts). Convenient such - the main thing with a handle for carrying. I soldered him something similar to the Micro-80, but significantly with fewer cases. Just became available except for the K580 microprocessor itself and other chips from this series (clock generator, system controller, etc.). Three months later, he came for his computer. My customer seemed to me an old enough person (he was young, a sinner) - but the joy on his face was almost childish. We corresponded for several years, he learned how to program in BASIC and developed a bunch of programs for his bridge-building calculations. I have since stored an honorary diploma - it turns out I have greatly helped in the construction of BAM ...
')
In the early 1980s, in Moscow, as they say, an “informal get-together” was formed on the basis of the International Research Institute of International Relations and Management - the International Institute for Management Problems. A wonderful man (the kingdom of heaven) Valery Chuklov worked there. In the laboratory where he worked, several people gathered from all over Moscow, who were aware of the onset of a new computer era. And also, everyone was attracted by the presence of Valera's INTELLEC MDS-225 Intel development system for microprocessors in the laboratory. In Moscow, there were still 2-3 pieces, but on closed boxes and therefore they were not available. The presence of only one floppy disk drive in the MDS-225 created a lot of inconvenience in the work. Another drive was purchased, the design provided for its installation. They removed the case, installed it, turned it on - and nothing. Does not see the second drive system. They took until the evening, not having achieved the result, they decided to get ready the next day, so to speak, fully armed.
In the morning I was a little late and, entering the laboratory, I saw a glorious picture - like from the films of the sixties about physicists and other scientists. Pensive faces and mountain instrumentation. Someone brought a rather large oscilloscope, and someone, not sparing himself, brought a miracle of Soviet technology - a 16-channel logic analyzer with a telling name - “806” (They would call it “42”). He weighed 10-12 kilograms. Found a picture with three such devices in one of the old Soviet films. And then I elegantly pull out of the pocket of the small nippers and in the eyes of the astonished public I bite off one of the wires. Everything worked right away. Over the years I don’t remember that I had a snack there. So not only the blue electrical tape, but also the wire cutters are our everything.
The head of the department of the Ministy Research Institute of Institutions, in which V. Chuklov worked, often traveled abroad and brought in software, chips, and BYTE magazines. And once he brought a whole computer - SINCLAIR ZX81.
For some time, managed to get him into our laboratory. At first we were very skeptical of this so-called computer. Stitched in the Basic ROM and RAM with a volume of only 1 KB. Moreover, the screen buffer was also stored in this kilobyte. Our ideas about PCs of course implied a system bus, a modular design, a control panel (well, as in the Micro-80). Having pampered with him, we still spun the casing and opened something before us, on just five microcircuits. And then there was insight. A computer on a single board with the minimum number of chips is what you need! Thus, the idea of ​​the Radio-86RK computer, realized later, was born.
In the same ancient times, after the first publications in the magazine "Radio", we were visited by various people. It turns out that the magazine was read not only by amateurs, but also by what are called strong professionals. So, once, we got someone named Ilya (unfortunately I don’t remember his last name) from the glorious city of Kursk, or rather, an employee of the Kursk Accounts. He asked for help in altering our program "Monitor". He was going to use a 16-character single-line indicator as a display device.
Ilya invited us to Kursk for the final debugging of the program. And so, at lunchtime, he took us to the dining room. I must say that almost all the staff were in white coats. We look, in the dining room comes a group of comrades in blue-stained lab coats. Their hands are also blue, and some have blue faces. Ask Ilya - what blue people? He is silent, but after dinner he took us to the laboratory, where the first domestic inkjet printer was developed. The appearance of the staff was in perfect harmony with the lab-covered blue-stained walls. Ilya explained that not everything is all right for them. The printer was sometimes desperately spitting ink in all directions. To wash this ink was a very difficult task. I remembered it all after watching the movie "Avatar".
In 1982, I met a wonderful man - Georgy Ivanov (for friends, just Hera). Hera was (well, in principle, remains) a real radio amateur - he had a radio station and of course a call sign. In 1979, he participated in the expedition "Komsomolskaya Pravda" to the North Pole as a radio operator. In those days, radio amateurs conducted the first communication sessions via satellites. Hera decided to develop a program for calculating communication sessions, greatly simplifying the life of radio amateurs. The first time he studied these at my home.
He worked on my Micro-80. The shape and weight of this first PC of mine differed little from the cube and the weights, respectively.
By the way, many years later I discovered that I was not alone in design research. Similarly, the NeXT computer developed by Next, created by Steve Jobs during his temporary weaning from Apple, looked the same.
My computer seemed to me to be a stationary device, until Hera dragged a parachute bag (probably he had foreseen the situation and “saved” since the journey to the North Pole). The bag was all tarpaulin and the PC and the TV “Youth-401” were perfectly placed there. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the pictures of that very bag - only its miserable likeness. For some time the PC worked in a previously unknown mode of house separation. Thus, my Micro-80 turned out to be quite a portable computer.
Suzdal is a wonderful old Russian city. There is a tourist center, which is well known to everyone in the film "Wizards". In addition to the magicians, the center was visited by researchers who loved to hold conferences there. Once we were there as well in the representative team of our institute (MIEM) headed by rector Armensky EV We brought the Micro-80 computer with us. I do not remember what the conference was devoted to, let it be - "The Conference on New Computer Technologies and the Protection of Computer Programs." At the same time, ecologists from Moscow State University, entirely of women, held their conference in the same center. As usual in the evening discos in the bar, everyone met.
The computer was in our room and was shown to environmentalists. The demonstration was accompanied by a small lecture on PC architecture and programming in the BASIC language. Unfortunately, of all the material presented, the lovely ecologists (to write “ecologics” as the hand does not rise) remember only one word, and in their own interpretation BASIC. And they decided that the lecturer (your humble servant) will have this proud name.
The rector lived in a separate cottage. Every evening, two staff members were assigned to companions for playing preference with the rector. It was my turn to make a company to the rector. We play, I announced a miser, and it became clear that I was hitched with a steam locomotive, bribes for five. Knock on the door. The company of environmentalists tumbles into the cottage and loudly declares that they need BASIC to continue their studies at the bar of the center. The rector says - we don’t have any BASIC and no murok here, only scientists. Point a finger at me. I had to explain to Evgeny Viktorinovich what BASIC is and how it relates to BASIC. The rector was in a good mood and let me go on all four sides. Not played miser and hangs on my conscience.
Remote construction of BAM
Once, somehow finding out my address, a representative man showed up at my apartment. As it turned out, he was a bridge builder engineer and he arrived in Moscow directly from BAM. It was 1983. Immediately from the door he started to persuade me - he really needs a computer, well, just desperately. By evening, he prevailed upon me. All the expenses he took on himself. There was a question about the case for the company. The next day, he came to me with a case from an amplifier KINAP-50 (this is sound equipment for film shifts). Convenient such - the main thing with a handle for carrying. I soldered him something similar to the Micro-80, but significantly with fewer cases. Just became available except for the K580 microprocessor itself and other chips from this series (clock generator, system controller, etc.). Three months later, he came for his computer. My customer seemed to me an old enough person (he was young, a sinner) - but the joy on his face was almost childish. We corresponded for several years, he learned how to program in BASIC and developed a bunch of programs for his bridge-building calculations. I have since stored an honorary diploma - it turns out I have greatly helped in the construction of BAM ...
')
Not only blue electrical tape
In the early 1980s, in Moscow, as they say, an “informal get-together” was formed on the basis of the International Research Institute of International Relations and Management - the International Institute for Management Problems. A wonderful man (the kingdom of heaven) Valery Chuklov worked there. In the laboratory where he worked, several people gathered from all over Moscow, who were aware of the onset of a new computer era. And also, everyone was attracted by the presence of Valera's INTELLEC MDS-225 Intel development system for microprocessors in the laboratory. In Moscow, there were still 2-3 pieces, but on closed boxes and therefore they were not available. The presence of only one floppy disk drive in the MDS-225 created a lot of inconvenience in the work. Another drive was purchased, the design provided for its installation. They removed the case, installed it, turned it on - and nothing. Does not see the second drive system. They took until the evening, not having achieved the result, they decided to get ready the next day, so to speak, fully armed.
In the morning I was a little late and, entering the laboratory, I saw a glorious picture - like from the films of the sixties about physicists and other scientists. Pensive faces and mountain instrumentation. Someone brought a rather large oscilloscope, and someone, not sparing himself, brought a miracle of Soviet technology - a 16-channel logic analyzer with a telling name - “806” (They would call it “42”). He weighed 10-12 kilograms. Found a picture with three such devices in one of the old Soviet films. And then I elegantly pull out of the pocket of the small nippers and in the eyes of the astonished public I bite off one of the wires. Everything worked right away. Over the years I don’t remember that I had a snack there. So not only the blue electrical tape, but also the wire cutters are our everything.
Autopsy results
The head of the department of the Ministy Research Institute of Institutions, in which V. Chuklov worked, often traveled abroad and brought in software, chips, and BYTE magazines. And once he brought a whole computer - SINCLAIR ZX81.
For some time, managed to get him into our laboratory. At first we were very skeptical of this so-called computer. Stitched in the Basic ROM and RAM with a volume of only 1 KB. Moreover, the screen buffer was also stored in this kilobyte. Our ideas about PCs of course implied a system bus, a modular design, a control panel (well, as in the Micro-80). Having pampered with him, we still spun the casing and opened something before us, on just five microcircuits. And then there was insight. A computer on a single board with the minimum number of chips is what you need! Thus, the idea of ​​the Radio-86RK computer, realized later, was born.
Avatars in the USSR
In the same ancient times, after the first publications in the magazine "Radio", we were visited by various people. It turns out that the magazine was read not only by amateurs, but also by what are called strong professionals. So, once, we got someone named Ilya (unfortunately I don’t remember his last name) from the glorious city of Kursk, or rather, an employee of the Kursk Accounts. He asked for help in altering our program "Monitor". He was going to use a 16-character single-line indicator as a display device.
Ilya invited us to Kursk for the final debugging of the program. And so, at lunchtime, he took us to the dining room. I must say that almost all the staff were in white coats. We look, in the dining room comes a group of comrades in blue-stained lab coats. Their hands are also blue, and some have blue faces. Ask Ilya - what blue people? He is silent, but after dinner he took us to the laboratory, where the first domestic inkjet printer was developed. The appearance of the staff was in perfect harmony with the lab-covered blue-stained walls. Ilya explained that not everything is all right for them. The printer was sometimes desperately spitting ink in all directions. To wash this ink was a very difficult task. I remembered it all after watching the movie "Avatar".
First laptop computer
In 1982, I met a wonderful man - Georgy Ivanov (for friends, just Hera). Hera was (well, in principle, remains) a real radio amateur - he had a radio station and of course a call sign. In 1979, he participated in the expedition "Komsomolskaya Pravda" to the North Pole as a radio operator. In those days, radio amateurs conducted the first communication sessions via satellites. Hera decided to develop a program for calculating communication sessions, greatly simplifying the life of radio amateurs. The first time he studied these at my home.
He worked on my Micro-80. The shape and weight of this first PC of mine differed little from the cube and the weights, respectively.
By the way, many years later I discovered that I was not alone in design research. Similarly, the NeXT computer developed by Next, created by Steve Jobs during his temporary weaning from Apple, looked the same.
My computer seemed to me to be a stationary device, until Hera dragged a parachute bag (probably he had foreseen the situation and “saved” since the journey to the North Pole). The bag was all tarpaulin and the PC and the TV “Youth-401” were perfectly placed there. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the pictures of that very bag - only its miserable likeness. For some time the PC worked in a previously unknown mode of house separation. Thus, my Micro-80 turned out to be quite a portable computer.
"BASIK" and preference
Suzdal is a wonderful old Russian city. There is a tourist center, which is well known to everyone in the film "Wizards". In addition to the magicians, the center was visited by researchers who loved to hold conferences there. Once we were there as well in the representative team of our institute (MIEM) headed by rector Armensky EV We brought the Micro-80 computer with us. I do not remember what the conference was devoted to, let it be - "The Conference on New Computer Technologies and the Protection of Computer Programs." At the same time, ecologists from Moscow State University, entirely of women, held their conference in the same center. As usual in the evening discos in the bar, everyone met.
The computer was in our room and was shown to environmentalists. The demonstration was accompanied by a small lecture on PC architecture and programming in the BASIC language. Unfortunately, of all the material presented, the lovely ecologists (to write “ecologics” as the hand does not rise) remember only one word, and in their own interpretation BASIC. And they decided that the lecturer (your humble servant) will have this proud name.
The rector lived in a separate cottage. Every evening, two staff members were assigned to companions for playing preference with the rector. It was my turn to make a company to the rector. We play, I announced a miser, and it became clear that I was hitched with a steam locomotive, bribes for five. Knock on the door. The company of environmentalists tumbles into the cottage and loudly declares that they need BASIC to continue their studies at the bar of the center. The rector says - we don’t have any BASIC and no murok here, only scientists. Point a finger at me. I had to explain to Evgeny Viktorinovich what BASIC is and how it relates to BASIC. The rector was in a good mood and let me go on all four sides. Not played miser and hangs on my conscience.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/400503/
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