[sdiy] Board View Software - could we make a database of this for vintage synths?

[Gordonjcp]

On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 07:45:50AM -0700, thx1138 at earthlink.net wrote:
> Hi Peter,
> 
> As the Oberheim, Sequential Circuits and Oberheim were Z-80 based, we programmed the code in assembly. At PPG, we used Motorola 6809 and used the Flex OS for the 6809 and some assembly code too.
> 

The 6809 was used in the 8-bit Ensoniq gear too.  It's almost ridiculously suitable for running Forth.  On my Github pages I've got a version of Dave Dunfield's Forth ported to the Mirage...

> Basic would not have worked back in those times as memory limits , performance etc.
> 
> My eprom programmer is my E-Mu Audity CPU board, we only built one Audity Synth system, which is also Z-80 based. The OS on the Z-80 system is using the RIO OS for the ZDS-125 Zilog dev. system we hacked. The Emulator 1 and Emulater 2 were also using this OS.

Given the ease with which huge piles of discrete logic can be crammed into a CPLD or FPGA, how realistic would it be to build a "new" Audity?

Assume reasonable skill at laying out PCBs, VHDL etc ;-)

> Mind you that this computer has Dual 8” floppy drives. I have not powered it up in over 15 years. Not sure if it will boot or not. It was working when I put it into the closet.
> 
> It will also run C/PM OS and we used them at E-mu for our accounting and word processing computers. I believe I built about 6 systems for Marketing and Engineering.
> 
> Does any of this old info help?

You really, really ought to speak to someone on the Classic Computers mailing list.  Someone will be able to help you bring it all to life, and it would be worth doing so - you've got some *proper* history there.

-- 
Gordonjcp MM0YEQ