Halt & Catch Fire

[John W Kercheval]

I was at UC Berkeley as an undergrad from 1983-87.

I worked at the ASUC Store as a PC and calc sales clerk on the day they started selling PCs to the students.

Four days after I started, the famous Mac Superbowl commercial was on and we were selling the original Macs- and the Lisa of Course. Plus the HP line (I bought a 150 and Portable Plus) and the IBMs and the Apricot Line from the UK. Those were the brands. I also had a Lisa that my father gave me right before I left for college.

Can others out there identify with the new TV Series

"Halt & Catch Fire"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543312/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I love this show. we were on the vanguard back then. Love the nostalgia.

[CR Haeger]

Thanks for the show tip!

I was an undergrad at Mich. State engineering at that time and saved up for an HP15C - which saved my butt several times after that...

My older brother was involved with the Amiga (then Commodore Amiga) developed in the Bay area.

[Les Bell]

(11-30-2014 08:28 PM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  Can others out there identify with the new TV Series

"Halt & Catch Fire"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543312/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I love this show. we were on the vanguard back then. Love the nostalgia.

I was a computer journalist from 1975 onwards, right through the 80's, until it stopped being fun. I've lost track of all the computers I had over the years, starting with a Motorola 6800 evaluation kit, through various S-100 systems, a Lisa (yes, I had one too - plus all the development tools), a Kaypro II, IBM PC, Mac Plus (still have that one), Toshiba 5100, Compaq Portable 386, and lots of Thinkpads, plus lots of loaners and review machines - Apple II, various TRS-80's, VIC-20 and Commodore 64, etc.

The early days were a lot of fun, with lots of variety in processor architectures, buses, hardware designs, etc. The eventual emergence of Microsoft as a controlling influence on hardware vendors really took a lot of the fun out of it, and things have only started to become interesting again with the disruptive effects of smartphones, tablets and cloud computing.

"Halt & Catch Fire" hasn't made it to Australia yet, but I'll watch out for it!

[John W Kercheval]

YES! In those days everything was a new adventure. It seemed like every week a new thing was coming out that materially improved your computing and your life.

For me, I recall the day I got my 14.4k modem & could log into Prodigy at something higher than 2800 baud. It was like Christmas squared.

[Bill Zimmerly]

I remember "Halt & Catch Fire" as one of the new IBM mainframe op-codes from the 70's!

HCF - Halt and Catch Fire
CRN - Convert to Roman Numerals
EPI - Execute Programmer Immediate
.
.
.

[Claudio L.]

You mean these?

Bogus Opcode List

[Dave Frederickson]

(12-02-2014 11:15 AM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  For me, I recall the day I got my 14.4k modem & could log into Prodigy at something higher than 2800 baud.

You could have got a 4800 or 9600 baud modem.

Dave

[John W Kercheval]

Prodigy went straight from 2400 to 14.4. that serive, at least in Berkeley never had an intermediate step.

Also, those mom & pop BBs around the world were ultra low res graphics but I was on those things all the time. THEY really were hard to use without 14.4.

BTW for those interested in finding out whatever happened to all those old BBses that you logged onto directly. Check this out:

http://bbsmates.com/

[Mark Hardman]

(12-03-2014 10:49 AM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  Prodigy went straight from 2400 to 14.4. that serive, at least in Berkeley never had an intermediate step.

Also, those mom & pop BBs around the world were ultra low res graphics but I was on those things all the time. THEY really were hard to use without 14.4.

BTW for those interested in finding out whatever happened to all those old BBses that you logged onto directly. Check this out:

http://bbsmates.com/

Those were good times.

Here's my old BBS: "After 5:00!" 24 hours PCB

Thanks for the link!

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

(12-03-2014 02:39 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  

(12-02-2014 11:15 AM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  For me, I recall the day I got my 14.4k modem & could log into Prodigy at something higher than 2800 baud.

You could have got a 4800 or 9600 baud modem.

Dave

..or 2400 or 1200 or 600 or 300 my first modem was a 300 baud manual dial modem, I also used to use an acoustic coupler when at customer sites that did not have a convenient phone jack.

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

(12-02-2014 10:12 PM)Claudio L. Wrote:  You mean these?

Bogus Opcode List

Ah, that's where the labels above the [0] and [.] keys came from :-)

http://www.hpmuseum.org/item/product2.htm

[Adriweb]

I've watched that show as soon as it came out and found it pretty cool
I'm glad it's coming back in 2015.

[Joe Horn]

(12-03-2014 05:54 PM)Paul Berger (Canada) Wrote:  ...my first modem was a 300 baud manual dial modem, I also used to use an acoustic coupler when at customer sites that did not have a convenient phone jack.

Ah yes! I made the EduCALC HP48 Goodies Disks from files downloaded with a 300 baud acoustic modem. Every ambient noise in the room (even my popcorn popper!) interrupted the transmission! ("Gee, grandpa, did they have indoor plumbing back then?")

[Sylvain Cote]

(12-03-2014 05:54 PM)Paul Berger (Canada) Wrote:  ..or 2400 or 1200 or 600 or 300 my first modem was a 300 baud manual dial modem, I also used to use an acoustic coupler when at customer sites that did not have a convenient phone jack.

About 300 Baud Modems and Acoustic couplers .....

[Steve Simpkin]

(12-06-2014 02:52 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  

(12-03-2014 05:54 PM)Paul Berger (Canada) Wrote:  ...my first modem was a 300 baud manual dial modem, I also used to use an acoustic coupler when at customer sites that did not have a convenient phone jack.

Ah yes! I made the EduCALC HP48 Goodies Disks from files downloaded with a 300 baud acoustic modem. Every ambient noise in the room (even my popcorn popper!) interrupted the transmission! ("Gee, grandpa, did they have indoor plumbing back then?")

And I purchased every disk from Educalc (mail order) as soon as it was available in the latest Educalc catalog (also delivered by mail). Come to think of it, the USPS was kind of like a very, very slow Internet connection for me Fun times.
Thank you, Joe!

[walter b]

(12-02-2014 03:48 PM)Bill Zimmerly Wrote:  EPI - Execute Programmer Immediate

I'd vote for Execute Programmer Immediately here. Grammar is important in programming languages.

d:-/

[Bill Zimmerly]

(12-06-2014 05:30 PM)walter b Wrote:  

(12-02-2014 03:48 PM)Bill Zimmerly Wrote:  EPI - Execute Programmer Immediate

I'd vote for Execute Programmer Immediately here. Grammar is important in programming languages.

d

Not in the original list!

[Bill Zimmerly]

(12-02-2014 10:12 PM)Claudio L. Wrote:  You mean these?

Bogus Opcode List

Yes, thanks Claudio!

[John W Kercheval]

We sold those IL-based modems which were called "Acoustic Couplers."

They were expensive, I think about $300 in 1984.

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

(12-06-2014 05:30 PM)walter b Wrote:  

(12-02-2014 03:48 PM)Bill Zimmerly Wrote:  EPI - Execute Programmer Immediate

I'd vote for Execute Programmer Immediately here. Grammar is important in programming languages.

d

The 6502 microprocessor had an immediate addressing mode:

Immediate Addressing
--------------------

The value given is a number to be used immediately by the
instruction. For example, LDA #$99 loads the value $99 into the
accumulator.

LDA # was read "load immediate", if I am not wrong. "Load immediately" would not make sense here. Perhaps that's same case in EPI.

About grammar, sometimes an adverb has the same form of the corresponding adjective (this happens also in Portuguese). Not the case of immediate, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_adverb

Gerson.