Prototype Amiga AA3000 plays MP3s on AT&T DSP-equipped 68030 system.
David Hayne in the comments.
https://hackaday.com/2025/05/25/unreleased-amiga-hardware-plays-mp3s/
#Amiga #Commodore #CommodoreAmiga #A3000 #MP3 #CPU #DSP #prototype #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #vintatagetech #blog #video
The DECSYSTEM 2020 was the smallest PDP-10 digital made.
It was also their last as the Jupiter KX10 was never realized.
The Foonly, Systems Concepts and later XKL would continue advancing the PDP-10.
I know I’m not even close to finishing my restoration of a #MacClassic, but is it too early to be thinking about #DOScember ?
I may have “accidentally” purchased an #IBM5150 for some holiday cheer.
Meanwhile, the A502/16 is ready for its first "smoke" test: after checking for a complete GND / +5V short, I plugged it into a current-limited bench power-supply, and it seems to sink 160mA (0.8W). Seems sane.
I don't have an Amiga 500 here in Tokyo, but I'll take the board with me on my next trip to Italy and hopefully it will work just fine (aside for the missing realtime clock, if you care about it).
I used hot air at 400°C to desolder the most corroded chip, and noticed while cleaning the goo off the pads that one of them was completely gone.
The damaged pin happens to be the D line (the only data bit of this 512Kx1 DRAM). So I reconnected it to a trace on the bottom by threading hair thin transformer wire through the original vias 😓
The other card has no obvious vendor name other than a typoed "MAED IN TAIWAN" notice on the silkscreen.
This is the first 512K expansion card I see using SMD 256Kx1 RAM chips. The bottom side is also badly corroded and might require reconstructing a few traces with transformer wire (which I have already bought just in case).
My other friend from Tokyo gave me a couple more of these corroded A501 clones for soldering practice.
He told me that they're not worth rescuing, but I'm still being careful to avoid further damage and possibly reapair them.
The first one is this A502/16, very similar to the Commodore design. The corroded RTC socket in the front easily came off with the hot air gun, but unclogging the holes required high temperature and damaged some of the corroded pads.
I had never seen a real A501 before. several cheap 512KB expansions circulated in the late 80's and early 90's.
Back in January, an Italian friend gave me this obscure clone made in Italy by Tecnodata, with a leaky Varta still attached 🤢
This card isn't even listed in Amiga Hardware Database, and I couldn't find any information on it.
After some scrubbing I got it to work briefly. Then the #Amiga 500 crashed and now it won't detect the RAM at boot 😩
At last night's Tokyo Hackerspace open night, a friend came with this original #Commodore A501, a 512KB DRAM expansion for the "trapdoor" slot of the #Amiga 500:
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/a501
Like many A501, this card has been badly corroded by the alcaline solution leaked by the Ni-Cd clock battery.
I kinda just tend to assume that everyone has a copy of VirtualBox, #pcem, and a multi-TB stash of ISOs from winworldpc.com on their NAS... but I'm occasionally reminded that this is not the case. If this is not you, but you need access to real #WindowsNT or #Windows95 or #Windows31 for an experiment or two, consider this a reminder that https://copy.sh/v86/ exists. #RetroComputing #VintageComputing
Why the Original Macintosh Had a Screen Resolution of 512×324
https://512pixels.net/2025/05/original-macintosh-resolution/
#HackerNews #OriginalMacintosh #ScreenResolution #TechHistory #VintageComputing #Apple
My newly dual-headed Atari 520ST system.
I've had this 520STm 4MB color setup for some years now, but recently expanded it, as I had long been wanting to.
I've just added an SM124 (very sharp) monochrome 72Hz 640x400 display (switching between it and the SC1224 RGB display with a MonitorMaster switchbox that I acquired new about 10 years ago for this eventual purpose). I also have just added an ACSI2STM SD card-based HD emulator.
The stand is an A520 STation, which is a fairly rare item (I've never seen another in use).
#Atari #AtariST #Atari520ST #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #retrocomputers #CRT #setups #desk #computers #vintage #vintagetech #photo #computerrooms #retrogaming #retrogames #games #gaming #ACSI2STM #HxC2001 #ByteCellar
Removed the internal batteries from the ds1216 and replaced them with an external cr2032.
#cdi #retrogaming #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing
a peek inside the LAB-8/e
This is a very satisfying video showing the repair and revitalization process done on this vintage 40+ year old 9-inch CRT display.
"The CRT with a SECRET; Restoring a tiny 1980s monitor…"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xYQU5SldcA
#vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #retrocomputers #CRT #monitor #displays #vintagetech #video #YouTube #repair #renew
Dallas chip removed, now removing potting compound
And now it is a real joypad. Now to fix the Dallas timekeeper/smartwatch inside it.
I recall a floppy disk brand from the early '80s called "Verbrum." It was an offshoot of Verbatim, I am nearly certain. I cannot find any evidence that this existed in web searches.
Does anyone else remember this brand / sub brand?
#floppydisk #disks #magneticmedia #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #retrocomputers #media #storage #nostalgia #vintage #disks
Rich and I just posted Episode 37 of RnR Does stuff!
Ryan talks about his local meetup, Rich talks about his SX-64 and what did we both buy? Check it out here!
https://www.rnrdoesstuff.com/podcast/ep-037-a-shootout-at-ok-chantilly/
