Altair 8800 Operator's Manual v2.0
Posted: October 20th, 2020, 2:09 pm
So.
I've been helping a class of high school students who are studying the Altair, and, though I like old tech well enough, I've never been a fan of scans of copies of faxes of 45-year-old, coffee-stained printouts with ink peeling off of them. (Yes, I know, that's a slight exaggeration. But still...) Also, I like links and cross-references.
So, to that end, I converted the document to HTML, and have been slowly adding new tidbits to it. The new stuff is a bit "stream of consciousness" / "off the top of my head" notes, but still useful to the newbie, I hope. Honestly, when it comes to the Altair, I'm a newbie myself. But I've dealt with several mainframe assembler languages, and at least one machine where I had to toggle stuff into a front panel. So, not a big leap.
For your viewing pleasure, I present:
https://ubuntourist.codeberg.page/Altair-8800/
with additons:
Oh, and I added a wee bit to the section on the Exclusive Or in Part 1: Introduction, Section B: Electronic Logic.
I've been helping a class of high school students who are studying the Altair, and, though I like old tech well enough, I've never been a fan of scans of copies of faxes of 45-year-old, coffee-stained printouts with ink peeling off of them. (Yes, I know, that's a slight exaggeration. But still...) Also, I like links and cross-references.
So, to that end, I converted the document to HTML, and have been slowly adding new tidbits to it. The new stuff is a bit "stream of consciousness" / "off the top of my head" notes, but still useful to the newbie, I hope. Honestly, when it comes to the Altair, I'm a newbie myself. But I've dealt with several mainframe assembler languages, and at least one machine where I had to toggle stuff into a front panel. So, not a big leap.
For your viewing pleasure, I present:
https://ubuntourist.codeberg.page/Altair-8800/
with additons:
- PART 0: PREFACE: COLOPHON, CREDITS, ETC.
- APPENDIX B: SETTING UP LINUX FOR ALTAIR 8800
- ADDENDUM: FAST FORWARD - 2020
- RESOURCES
- INDEX (instructions and mnemonics, currently)
Oh, and I added a wee bit to the section on the Exclusive Or in Part 1: Introduction, Section B: Electronic Logic.