From: Ethan Dicks (ethan.dicks_at_gmail.com)
Date: 2006-09-29 00:17:06
On 9/28/06, Gabriele Bozzi <mabuse68@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, I did not know the fact of the 6530s. Obviously I never had a
> Kim-1 to play :-(
I don't either. I have a SYM-1 which is very KIM-like, but with 6532s
(no ROM) rather than 6530s. I've always kinda wanted a KIM, but not
enough to go trolling on eBay for one.
> Another curiosity: at startup the machine reports 3571.8743 bytes free
> !!! Four decimal places of a byte: that's what I call precision!!
That's really strange.
> After a while a power-cycle restore the usual 31000-something bytes
> free. Suspecting some capacitor has reached it's retirement age.
Old caps are one issue to deal with, so are crufty sockets.
> By the way: the chicklet keyboard is not that bad, maybe is because
> nowadays we are used to surrogates like those laptop's keyboards that
> now the toy-kb of the 2001 seems acceptable.
I got my start on a chicklet-keyboard PET. It helped that I was a kid
and didn't have sausage-fingers, but at the time, I _liked_ the square
layout - made8-way directional games easy to play.
> I found a ROM containing TIM and other stuff, I guess I will give the
> 2001 a try or some weeks on my desk.
Nice. One of my greatest shocks when I got a 32K 2001-N (essentially
the American version of the 3032) was finding out that TIM was in ROM
on rev 2 ROMs. I quickly tired of entering in programs in hex and
dropped $15 on a blank 2532 to get a better monitor from the local
user group. Still have that 2001-N and it still has that ROM fitted
in it. Maybe I should back it up ;-)
Enjoy learning TIM, but if you intend to do much with that machine,
you might consider an add-on monitor with more functionality (like
line-at-a-time assembly and disassembly).
-ethan
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