Blue Oric 1

In this forum you can write about anything that does not fit in other forums.
This includes generic Oric talkings and things that are totaly unrelated but want to share with people here :)
User avatar
Hialmar
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:25 am
Location: Toulouse, France
Contact:

Blue Oric 1

Post by Hialmar »

Just saw this at the silicium.org old computer stocks:

Image

Image

Anyone saw one of those in action in Bank of Scotland offices ?

Edit: some other photos from silicium (and my own Atmos with a CEO provided Cumana controller):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47644584@ ... 908084193/
You can see the Microtan 65.
Hialmar
CEO and Silicium member.
Antiriad2097
Flying Officer
Posts: 158
Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 9:42 pm
Location: Aberdeen, UK
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Antiriad2097 »

Sorry, but I didn't become a customer of theirs until a few years ago, so I missed these. I might have changed bank sooner if I'd known.
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1645
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by ibisum »

Would be great to see it boot and play something new! :)
Godzil
Squad Leader
Posts: 774
Joined: Sat May 21, 2011 7:21 pm
Location: Between UK and France
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Godzil »

Despite from Tandata that could be a spinoff of Tangerine, this terminal have nothing in common with Orics. Even the keyboard that some seems to tell that it is similar to the Oric1, I really don't see the point. The key disposition is absolutly not the same, nor the color or the shape.

Edit: BTW as it seems that Silicium.org have one, could you make high quality pictures of the internal? I seriously doubt that they use a "custom" cpu and that this device share anything with the Oric line of product..
User avatar
Hialmar
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:25 am
Location: Toulouse, France
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Hialmar »

I'll do it the next time I go there.

I should have done it yesterday but we were busy testing PET computers for an expo :)
Hialmar
CEO and Silicium member.
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1645
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by ibisum »

I'd say it, at the least, shares some design cues in the case department, with the Oric-1. It looks like a 'fat Oric', anyway, even if the keyparts are different - the intent of the designer is so similar when comparing Oric-1/Td-1000, that I'd be surprised if it at least wasn't the same mechanical designer behind the case.

Would be fun to see it boot if all it took was a ROM swap! ;)
User avatar
Steve M
Squad Leader
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:33 am
Location: Cumbria, UK
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Steve M »

Halifax merged with Bank of Scotland in 2001 which is well after Oric's time. But this is apparently Home and Office Banking, I think. My partner Ally remembers these from the eighties and says they were cutting edge for their time. You could do 'online banking' in the days before the internet was properly up and running.
I thought they had these in the bank, similar to the minitel terminals, but apparently not. She says you bought them for personal use and they weren't cheap.
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/ ... el-System/

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/ ... 20Banking/
User avatar
Steve M
Squad Leader
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:33 am
Location: Cumbria, UK
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Steve M »

Godzil wrote:Despite from Tandata that could be a spinoff of Tangerine, this terminal have nothing in common with Orics. Even the keyboard that some seems to tell that it is similar to the Oric1, I really don't see the point. The key disposition is absolutly not the same, nor the color or the shape.
It's from the same family but not an Oric. http://oric.free.fr/STORY/chapter1.html It's interest is that the same people designed it.
It does share some features such as the Prestel compatibility with modem connection. Similar ideas which were part of the Oric.
I don't recall whether this was z80 or 6502 based. (?)

Interesting reading the above article again with the Tangerine Tiger going to HH electronics. I have an HH amp
http://www.vintageandrare.com/uploads/p ... iginal.jpg
User avatar
Hialmar
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:25 am
Location: Toulouse, France
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Hialmar »

Here are the photos I did of the Tandata 1000 motherboard:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47644584@ ... 908084193/

iPhoto is still uploading high resolution pictures so wait a little to see all the details.

I cannot find the 6502 on it so it seems not very related to the Oric-1 after all.

Edit: if you want specific pictures of some chips please ask. I have the Tandata at home right now. I don't have anything to power it sadly.
Hialmar
CEO and Silicium member.
Godzil
Squad Leader
Posts: 774
Joined: Sat May 21, 2011 7:21 pm
Location: Between UK and France
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Godzil »

Is anyone interested in knowing more about what is inside a Tangerine spin-off Tandata TD1616? (and find how it works) I may be able to get hands on a TD1616, and it could be fun to reverse engineering it.

BTW I see photos of some working Tandata TDxxxx devices and the font used looks really like the Oric 6x8 font.

I've also take a look at Hialmar photos of the RBOS TD1000 the 40DIL chip on the left is made by Rockwell, and despite the marking I'm pretty sure it a "re-marked" 6502 made by Rockwell.
The toshiba chip is some SRAM (2KB to be precise)
The MR9736-002 chip, I suspect it's some sort of ULA, that will like the Oric manage the screen display, maybe more it was made by GEC MARCONI / PLESSEY SEMICONDUCTORS. There is also a small chip just upper this one that have a similar marking, I suspect it was also made by Plessey.
User avatar
IlostmyHearttoa6502
Private
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 8:49 pm
Location: Cumbria, UK

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by IlostmyHearttoa6502 »

Hi Folks,

I found this page by accident! Just to let you know that I have a related Td1100 from TANDATA and that definitely uses a 6504 as its CPU so there is a good chance the others in the range are similarly 6502 related.

Regards
User avatar
Hialmar
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:25 am
Location: Toulouse, France
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Hialmar »

Thanks for the information and welcome on the forum :)
Hialmar
CEO and Silicium member.
Godzil
Squad Leader
Posts: 774
Joined: Sat May 21, 2011 7:21 pm
Location: Between UK and France
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Godzil »

The TD1616 use a Rockwell QIP version of the 6502 with a PROM along, on a daughter board soldered in place of a 40 DIP chip.

I suspect that the ROBS version have a rockwell custom chip that embbed both the 6502 with a masked ROM.
Godzil
Squad Leader
Posts: 774
Joined: Sat May 21, 2011 7:21 pm
Location: Between UK and France
Contact:

Re: Blue Oric 1

Post by Godzil »

I’m surprised I never posted that here:
Td1616 mainboard
Td1616 mainboard
That's the mother board of the Tandata TD1616 that I got years ago now.

I suspect this model to be older than the TD1000 Silicium.org have.

The TD1000 clearly have support for the Rockwell 6501 (a microcontroller version of 6502) with a 65c02 instruction set. It does predate the 65C02, I'm not sure how both the R6501 and 65C02 manage to get in sync with the ISA

Also the one I have do have more output than the TD1000:

Printer (Centronics?)
UHF
Video (composite I think)
RGB
KB/RS232
TAPE (?? why?)

It is also a teletext based device. I'm did dump the ROM (as it is on a separate socket) but didn't went far on it at that time.
Just found it back as I wanted to look at something on it.

The PCB is single sided (quite a feat with a full A/D bus)
Not sure what generate the sound on that, haven't looked.

The video is made with that chip:
https://datasheetspdf.com/pdf-file/5470 ... s/MR9735/1

A dedicated teletext/videotext with composite and RGB output.

There is capability for infrared but nothing is mounted, I think there are some model with an IR keyboard.

My TD1616 also have the same keyboard as the TD1000

Not sure if there is any more interesting thing to say about it. If you have any question, feel free!
Post Reply