- bmonkey325 596 days agoThat is some extremely eagle eyed observations about the chip in the image. Thanks for pointing it out and sharing.
- You can check out the source code of the OS and the 7/7 office applications, written in Pascal (and a bit of 68k assembler, of course) at the CHM: https://computerhistory.org/press-releases/chm-makes-apple-l.../
- And here is a tool to browse and navigate it: https://github.com/rochus-keller/LisaPascal
- There was a clone by Timex, the T/S 1500, which was a ZX81 (with 16 kB RAM!) in a Spectrum-like case with rubber/chicklet keys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair
You can build your own ZX81 replica, there are several projects available and all components are still available since the replicas replace the Sinclair ULA with a bunch of regular 74-series TTL ICs. We used the ZX81plus38 for a soldering course with our students, this works very well:
https://github.com/mahjongg2/ZX81plus38
There's also a Sinclair Spectrum clone, the Harlequin, which is also quite simple to build.
- Works like a charm – also with a Spectrum clone, but you have to invert the order of the cables at one of the connectors IIRC. I had a number of the PCBs manufactured (but I used different keycaps) and use them with inexpensive keychron switches.
- Note that the version history on unixdude's site is not up to date, the most recent version is 3.1, which was published by Andreas yesterday.
The current source code can be found in the "branch_softfloat" branch on sourceforge's svn: https://sourceforge.net/projects/previous/
- I now have serious trepidation about my post and may delete it. Friend of a friend sent a link through Twitter to unix dude. But that has links to blobs from god knows where and no mention of any repo from anywhere. Ugggggh.
I equally now don’t trust the source forge source either , unless you know Andreas somehow and can vouch for them. The official website linked to from sourceforge is derelict with a last update from 2016 and version 1.4.
http://previous.alternative-system.com/
In 2023 a let’s encrypt script fixes this in 10 minutes and no automation linking. And thr gap of the last update from 2016 is huge. Feels like the project doesn’t have control. I just want people to learn and have a good time and not be in harms way while doing it.
I know jgrahamc would say I’m overthinking this. But I’m hopping they will weigh in and give wisdom as they do.
- I know Andreas and he is reliable and trustworthy. He also publishes binary builds of Previous for macOS x86 and Arm (usually on dropbox). Most of the discussions take place on the nextcomputers.org forums (https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/), so the handful of people interested in the emulator get their information on updates directly from there and updating the information on the web is often neglected – it's a fun open source project, after all, so I can understand that people prefer to spend their spare time hacking instead of updating web pages. But it's certainly not an ideal situation.
unixdude knows that his webpage is outdated and is working on an update (see the "What Needs to be done for a NeXT Emulator" thread in the Emulation / Virtualization subforum).
- ...these are "only" design prototypes from Hartmut Esslinger's 2012 book, no actual unknown prototypes.
- These were definitely ID prototypes. I am sure Steve Jobs saw these at some point. Whether they moved onto a tape out stage where a production mockup was made - probably not. Aesthetically, whatever it was Steve vetoed it befere it got to the production stage.
here is the og iphone prototype : https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/19/18263844/apple-iphone-pro...
And even skankphone a working prototype for iPhone baseband looked nothing like the shipping product though it looked like it got some ID love....
- Unfortunately no updates since that was posted in 2021...
- This article has a number of OCR errors, some omitting half a sentence.
There's a scan of the BYTE article available at https://www.tech-insider.org/mac/research/acrobat/8402-a.pdf
- Whow, this includes a 68000 Verilog CPU core which seems to use the original 68k micro/nanocode. Impressive!
- Further confirmation and a bit of personal history was posted on the Oberon mailing list by Andreas Pirkbauer:
- More
Another interesting thing – the CPU used in the Spectrum prototype shown in the linked article is a Z80A made by SGS-Ates (a predecessor of SGS-Thompson). I've never seen a Z80 made by them and had to look up the logo, but they started second-sourcing the Z80 in 1979 according to (sorry, page in German) https://www.homecomputermuseum.de/sammlung/detailansicht/com.../
Here's a link to the logo: https://www.elnec.com/en/support/ic-logos/manufacturer-descr...