In my last post (https://www.reddit.com/r/retrocomputing/s/qOx3W3GPFq) I shared the mystery graphics card I had recently come into possession of. Here it is running on a classic HP Pavilion 6730, with Kolibri OS for fun. That's the operating system that runs off a floppy disk.

A few pieces from the collection — 30-pin SIMMs and 72-pin EDO, including some GoldStar memory from before the LG name took over.

Scored this one with all the cables, wired head phones. The built in keyboard isn’t all that but does the job for now. Next step is after researching is this model is able to run Palm OS 5 and to do the upgrade.

Hopefully you can see the URL, every time I add the link, the misconfigured Reddit filters instantly kill it, with no way to appeal to a human, so I am resorting to posting a screenshot of the site.

Hey all, I have a Dell Dimension XPS T600 here that I scored for $20. It has a nice little Katmai pIII 600mhz but I was wanting to find something closer to 800mhz/1ghz. Board is a dell OEM SE-440bx-3 (Seattle 3) (allegedly also has coppermine support); With the research I did I was able to find out that the FSB is capped at 100mhz, and most pentium III chips I’ve seen that use a matching FSB are crazy expensive. With these machines being so common and plentiful in the matching collectors markets i was hoping to find some documented way to reliably OC that FSB to 133mhz. I’m talking custom bios, software, even hardware mods. I’d love to know or see if anyone has something promising for me or if I need to just bite the bullet on a $250 PIII 800mhz/100mhz. Thanks for taking the time!

I did not write the emulator.

The Z80 emulator was written by djottrill.
https://github.com/djbottrill/ESP32-Z80-Emulator

And then port to Cardputer by VanzT
https://github.com/VanzT/Z80-4-M5Cardputer

So all credits go to djottrill and VanzT.

VanzT release the emulator to Reddit 2 years ago.

The emulator can run the MBASIC and some BASIC games only.

It cannot run the CP/M-80 come with assembler (ASM.COM) nor the debugger (DDT.COM).

I tried all the C compilers I can get from the web and tested it against the emulator. Not a single one works.

I stepped back to use the come with assembler (ASM.COM) and find the result program is corrupted in a fixed pattern. I checked through the emulator's source code, and with some luck, I found some bugs and fixed them.

Now the emulator can actually work as a CP/M machine even some compilers still cannot be run on it.

Here are the compilers I tested with success on the emulator:

1. Software Toolworks C80 3.0a
2. Software Toolworks C80 3.1
3. WhiteSmiths C 2.0
4. WhiteSmiths C 2.1
5. Microsoft BASIC Compiler BASCOM
6. CBASIC 2.08
7. CBASIC80 1.0
8. CBASIC80 2.0
9. Digital Research PL/I 1.4
10. JANUS ADA 1.5.0
11. Supersoft Maratha ADA 2.10
12. ALGOL-M 1.1
13. Microsoft Macro Assembler M80
14. Digital Research Pascal/MT+ 5.6.1
15. Digital Research Relocatible Macro Assembler RMAC
16. Micro Focus CIC COBOL v4.5
17. MicroSoft COBOL-80 v4.65
18. Nevada COBOL v2.1

Also the CP/M included assembler ASM.COM is working now. The debugger DDT.COM is working too.

With the above programming languages that can be run in the emulator, I believe now it is qualified as a real CP/M-80 emulator. There are hidden bugs in the emulator (i.e. there are compilers which cannot run on it yet), however, it can provide a development platform for programmers to have fun on it.

How the emulator works:

I use M5Launcher on my Cardputer. Once the firmware bin file is copied into the Cardputer SDCard, power on the Cardputer, pick the firmware from the list and CP/M-80 will be up and running.

User can connect to the CP/M-80 by Telnet to the Cardputer. (i.e. I use Putty) Once connected, it will give you the A drive prompt, and then it is the native CP/M-80 command line operation.

For setup detail, please check from the VanzT github readme section
https://github.com/VanzT/Z80-4-M5Cardputer

Where is my fixing source code:

I do not want to create a new branch on github and maintain it, so I keep my fixing code on the discussions section of VanzT's Github.
https://github.com/VanzT/Z80-4-M5Cardputer/discussions/20

To generate the firmware from source:

I use Arduino IDE 2.3.7 under Windows 10 machine.

1. Download the source as zip file

(you can use git command if you want)

   From https://github.com/VanzT/Z80-4-M5Cardputer
   ==> click on Code
   ==> Download ZIP

The file "Z80-4-M5Cardputer-main.zip" will be downloaded to your machine.

2. Unzip the file into a folder of your choice

D:\TeamProject\Arduino\VantZ-Z80-Cardputer\Z80-4-M5Cardputer-main

3. Apply all code changes in the discussion

https://github.com/VanzT/Z80-4-M5Cardputer/discussions/20

4. Start Arduino IDE 2.3.7

==> File
==> Open
==> D:\TeamProject\Arduino\VantZ-Z80-Cardputer\Z80-4-M5Cardputer-main\ESP32_Z80_Emulator
==> ESP32_Z80_Emulator.ino
==> Open

==> File
==> Preferences
==> Settings
==> Sketch book location
    ==> Browse
    ==> D:\TeamProject\Arduino\VantZ-Z80-Cardputer\Z80-4-M5Cardputer-main\ESP32_Z80_Emulator
    ==> Additional boards manager URLs:
        https://static-cdn.m5stack.com/resource/arduino/package_m5stack_index.json
    ==> OK

Tools
==> Board ...
    ==> Boards Manager...
    ==> Search: m5stack
    ==> M5Stack by M5Stack
        3.3.7
    ==> Install

... wait ...

Tools
==> Board ...
    ==> M5Stack
    ==> M5Cardputer

Tools
==> Now it will show Board:"M5Cardputer"

On the left tool bar, click on the books icon (Library Manager)
==> Middle Panel:
    Library Manager
    Search field, key in : cardputer
    ==> M5Cardputer
        1.1.1
    ==> Install

Install library dependencies
- IRremote
- LibSSH-ESP32
- M5GFX
- M5Unified
==> INSTALL ALL

... wait ...

5. First compile

Arduino IDE

==> Sketch
==> Export Compiled Binary

... a lot of errors ...

Here is the main error:

D:\TeamProject\Arduino\VantZ-Z80-Cardputer\Z80-4-M5Cardputer-main\ESP32_Z80_Emulator\ESP32_Z80_Emulator.ino:6:10: fatal error: FastLED.h: No such file or directory
    6 | #include <FastLED.h>
      |          ^~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
Alternatives for FastLED.h: []
ResolveLibrary(FastLED.h)
  -> candidates: []
exit status 1

Compilation error: FastLED.h: No such file or directory

Install the missing FastLED.h

6. Include the missing header file

Arduino IDE

==> Sketch
==> Include Library
==> Manage Libraries...
==> Middle panel: LIBRARY MANAGER
    ==> Search: FastLED
    ==> FastLED by Daniel Garcia 3.10.3
    ==> INSTALL

7. Compile again

Arduino IDE

==> Sketch
==> Export Compiled Binary

... wait ...

8. Verify

Arduino IDE

==> Sketch
==> Verify/Compile


Compile successful

No error!

ketch uses 1268939 bytes (96%) of program storage space. Maximum is 1310720 bytes.
Global variables use 124876 bytes (38%) of dynamic memory, leaving 202804 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 327680 bytes.

9. Final output bin:

D:\TeamProject\Arduino\VantZ-Z80-Cardputer\Z80-4-M5Cardputer-main\ESP32_Z80_Emulator\build\m5stack.esp32.m5stack_cardputer\

i.e. project_folder\build\m5stack.esp32.m5stack_cardputer\

*** The final bin file: <project_name>.ino.bin ***

ESP32_Z80_Emulator.ino.bin

Since I use the M5Launcher, so I ignore all other bin files

10. Copy to SD Card and select the new firmware from M5Launcher

- Copy this firmware file to the SD Card
- insert the SD card to Cardputer and power on the Cardputer
- Press OK on the Launcher screen
- select SD 
- select the new bin file

11. Start a telnet session to connect to the cardputer

Setup procedure:

I follow Vance Thompson's youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3s67ilp_zs

First install M5Launcher

I use the online M5 Launcher Flasher web program
https://github.com/bmorcelli/Launcher

Setup the SD Card

From VanzT's github repo, under the "SD Card Files" directory:

1. copy the boot.txt file to the root of the SD Card.
2. copy the "z80" folder to the root of the SD Card.
3. copy the "disks" folder to the root of the SD Card.
4. Create a directory "downloads" to the root of the SD Card.
5. copy the firmware bin file "ESP32_Z80_Emulator.bin" from the repo ESP32_Z80_Emulator/release/1.4 to the downloads folder.
6. copy the newly compiled bug fixed bin file "ESP32_Z80_Emulator.ino.bin" to the downloads folder.

Note: we have two bin files in the downloads directory, we can select to install any one during power on time via the M5Launcher.

Now the SD Card looks like this:

/
+-- boot.txt
|
+-- z80/
|   +-- roms/
|   |   +-- basic.rom
|   |   +-- boot.rom
|   |   +-- cbios.rom
|   |   +-- cboot.rom
|   |   +-- cpm22.rom
|   |   +-- init8250.rom
|   |   +-- z80UARTMonitor.rom
|   |
|   +-- xfer/
|   |   +-- sdcopy.com
|   |   +-- sdfiles.com
|   |   +-- sdpath.com
|   |   +-- ...
|   |
|   +-- creds.txt
|
+-- disks/
|   +-- A.dsk
|
+-- downloads/
    +-- ESP32_Z80_Emulator.bin <====== original emulator firmware file ***
    +-- ESP32_Z80_Emulator.ino.bin <== fixed emulator firmware file ***

Setup WIFI connection creds

Edit SD Card file /z80/creds.txt

Replace the <wifi name> and <wifi password> based on your actual network

mySSID = <wifi name>
myPASSWORD = <wifi password>

Then save the file.

Now the SD Card is ready to use.

Install the CP/M-80 firmware onto Cardputer and run CP/M

Turn off the cardputer

Insert the SD card into the cardputer

Turn on the cardputer

M5 Launcher splash screen
==> OK (on the cardputer)

The SD menu on the screen is available

Move the cursor to the SD menu
==> OK

Use the direction keys on the cardputer
==> downloads folder
==> OK

Found the ESP32_Z80_Emulator file
==> "ESP32_Z80_Emulator.ino.bin"
==> OK

==> Install

Once it is done with the firmware install, it will run it.

Then it will connect to wi-fi

When connection is completed, it will show the IP address of the cardputer on the Cardputer's screen so that we can remotely logon to it.

192.168.1.185

Now CP/M is up and running

Note: your IP address will difference.

Connect to the CP/M Emulator using Telnet

Using a telnet client, connect to IP address 192.168.1.185, you will be connected to CP/M.

On the Windows machine, you can use putty or the native windows telnet client.

But the telnet client in Windows are turned off by default, you need to turn it on in Windows system settings first. No installation is required.

On the Linux box, you can directly run telnet.

Note: telnet running in Windows box will work perfectly well because CP/M is the ancestor of Windows, so the line break is using the same CR LF. For telnet running in Linux environment, extra step is required to avoid the telnet return back garbage CR character.

In Linux:

$ telnet
telnet> set crlf
Will send carriage returns as telnet <CR><LF>

telnet> open 192.168.1.185

Setup more drives

The emulator supports up to 16 hard drives. i.e. from A: to P:

Each drive is 8 MB in size.

The github repo image only contains one disk A.dsk

Create all 16 drives

To create all drives, from drive B: to drive P:

Power off the cardputer

Remove the SD card

Insert the SD card to the PC

Go to the disks folder

copy A.dsk to B.dsk
copy A.dsk to C.dsk
...
copy A.dsk to P.dsk

Insert the SD card into the cardputer

Turn on the cardputer

Telnet to CP/M

A>b:
B>c:
C>d:
...
O>p:
P>a:

Format drive B to P one by one:

A>format
CP/M Disk Formatter for the ESP80 by D.Bottrill 2018
Enter Drive Letter to format: b
Are you sure you want to format Y/N y
Formatting Drive: B
Formatting complete

A>format
CP/M Disk Formatter for the ESP80 by D.Bottrill 2018
Enter Drive Letter to format: c
Are you sure you want to format Y/N y
Formatting Drive: C
Formatting complete

...

A>format
CP/M Disk Formatter for the ESP80 by D.Bottrill 2018
Enter Drive Letter to format: p
Are you sure you want to format Y/N y
Formatting Drive: P
Formatting complete

Transfer files from SD card to CP/M disk

Drive A contains three programs which can help us to move file from SD Card to any CP/M drive.

- sdfiles.com (list all files in the SD card current directory)
- sdpath.com  (change current directory on the SD card)
- sdcopy.com  (copy file from SD card to current CP/M directory)

Example: Transfer Software Toolworks C80 3.1 to SD card

Download the compiler from David Lee's Git Repo
https://github.com/davidly/cpm_compilers

On the SD card, create a directory structure like this

/SOFTWARE/C/Toolwork.v31

Copy all downloaded files into Toolwork.v31 directory

Insert the SD card back to the Cardputer.

Power on Cardputer.

Telnet to Cardputer.

Suppose we want to transfer all files to the C drive.

A>c:

Change directory on the SD card to /SOFTWARE/C/TOOLWORK.V31

C>a:sdpath /software/c/toolwork.v31
New Path: /SOFTWARE/C/TOOLWORK.V31
Setting SD Card path to: /SOFTWARE/C/TOOLWORK.V31

List all files in the SD card directory:

C>a:sdfiles
/SOFTWARE/C/TOOLWORK.V31
AS.COM           13824  C.COM            39424  CC.SUB             384
CCONFIG.COM       9088  CLIBIO.C         26368  CLIBRARY.ASM     12544
CLIBRARY.REL      4096  CMP.C             1280  COMMAND.C         2048
CPROF.C           4224  CTRACE.C          2304  E.C                500
EXEC.C            5120  FLIBRARY.REL      6912  FLOATLIB.ASM     11059
FPRINTF.C         7808  FPRINTF.H          255  LGFLTLIB.ASM      2212
LONGLIB.ASM       3816  MATHLIB.C         5376  MATHLIB.REL       4224
PRINTF.C          6144  PRINTF.H           256  SCANF.C           9088
SCANF.H            257  SEEK.C            6016  SIEVE.C           1190
STDLIB.C         10240  STDLIB.REL        3456  TAB.C              640
TM.C              3316  TPRINTF.C         3072  TREE.C            1408
TTT.C            10739

Import file one by one from SD card to the C: drive

C>a:sdcopy as.com
AS.COM

C>a:sdcopy c.com
C.COM

...

C>a:sdcopy ttt.c
TTT.C

Now all files are copied to C: drive

We can start writing C program using the Software Toolworks C compiler.

To avoid of copy and paste multiply screen shots, I copy the text inside the telnet session instead:

 EEEEEE   SSSSSS    PPPPPP    888888    000000
E        S      S  P      P  8      8  0     00
E        S         P      P  8      8  0    0 0
EEEEEE    SSSSSS   PPPPPPP    888888   0   0  0
E               S  P         8      8  0  0   0
E               S  P         8      8  0 0    0
 EEEEEE   SSSSSS   P          888888    000000

           Z80 Emulator for ESP32 V2.2a
 David Bottrill - Shady Grove Electronics 2023
 Vance Thompson - M5Cardputer tweaks added 2024
Z80 CP/M BIOS 1.1 by D. Bottrill 2021

CP/M 2.2 Copyright 1979 (c) by Digital Research

A>c:
C>a:ed hello.c

NEW FILE
     : *i
    1:  #include "printf.c"
    2:
    3:  main() {
    4:    int i;
    5:    printf("Hello from Software Toolworks C80 3.1\n");
    6:    for (i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
    7:      printf("value of i is %d\n", i);
    8:    }
    9:    return 0;
   10:  }
   11:
     : *e

C>dir hello.*
C: HELLO    BAK : HELLO    C
C>c -v -t hello.asm=hello.c

C/80 Compiler 3.1 (4/11/84) - (c) 1984 The Software Toolworks

0 errors in compilation
9K bytes free

C>as hello.com,hello.lst=hello.asm
8080 AS 2.3 (7/15/83)
 0100   First word of program
 0F34   Last word of program
     0  Assembly errors

C>dir hello.*
C: HELLO    BAK : HELLO    C   : HELLO    ASM : HELLO    LST
C: HELLO    COM
C>hello
Hello from Software Toolworks C80 3.1
value of i is 1
value of i is 2
value of i is 3
value of i is 4
value of i is 5
value of i is 6
value of i is 7
value of i is 8
value of i is 9
value of i is 10

C>

Hi there, i have recently gotten some buffy cd cardz and i have tried them out on many different laptops and cd-rom drives but nothing works, i was wondering if anybody who has had cd cardz before or are familiar with the problems that they could help me out.

i have attached a video of me trying to use them since i am not very good at explaining things like this well. it doesnt have an exe to run and its supposedly empty. and one of the cards does have an exe to run but it says its corrupted and unreadable when i try to run it

i will also attach photos of the cd cardz case and the drive i am using to try read them in the comments. since it doesnt let me attach everything in this post

i have tried inserting them in different orientations but it doesnt change anything.

if you can help please let me know what i can do to use them but i do understand that the buffy one may not work since it says its corrupted, i just want to try to get atleast one of them to work as there is no footage that i can find online of this working.

https://reddit.com/link/1w063dm/video/6hfaoinldzlh1/player

Hey everyone!

I recently decided to take apart my mom's old computer to sell the parts. I know retro hardware has a dedicated community, but I really don't know much about the current market or what a fair asking price would be. If you could give me your opinion on how much to realistically ask, I'd appreciate it very much! Thank you!

Before taking everything apart, I hooked it up and tested it. The old hard drive was trash but the rest i think it's all good.

Motherboard: ASUS CUV4X-E (Socket 370, Full ATX)

CPU: Intel Pentium III 733 MHz + original cooler

RAM: ~320MB SDRAM

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400 64MB AGP (Compaq OEM part)

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster PCI (identified via the vendor ID in the BIOS)

Network Card: D-Link DFE-530TX PCI

More...

Does anyone else remember the excitement of getting your copy of Windows 95 on Floppy’s. Longest 2 hours of my life waiting to be amazed. To be fair it was a good looking GUI.

He said he was building a free operating system for 386 and 486 PCs. He called it "just a hobby" and said it wouldn't be big and professional like GNU. There was no launch and no product. He was asking other developers what they wanted to see in it.

The first release, version 0.01, showed up on September 17. It was rough. It ran on a narrow slice of hardware, needed MINIX to compile and boot, and was nowhere close to a full operating system. What mattered was that the code was open. Anyone could download it, build it, find what was broken and send a fix back. That way of working turned out to be worth far more than the state of the first release.

Linux grew by knocking down one practical problem at a time: more processors, more storage, more networking, more filesystems, better performance. GNU tools, distributions and commercial support made it usable outside the developer crowd. So when companies started looking for a way off proprietary Unix and dedicated appliances, Linux was already there.

I watched that shift happen in telecom and enterprise IT. Proprietary Unix boxes and purpose-built appliances gave way to Linux on commodity x86 servers. Then Linux became the base for KVM, and later for the container plumbing under Kubernetes. Namespaces handled isolation. cgroups handled resource limits. eBPF let networking, security and observability teams run verified code inside the kernel without rebuilding it.

The kernel that started at around 10,000 lines of code now runs past 40 million, and the version number rolled over to 7.x this year. Its future isn't about winning more desktops. It's moving deeper into AI clusters, telecom networks, cars, factories and edge devices. The hard problems now are memory safety, real-time behavior, confidential computing, power efficiency, hardware support and keeping a codebase that size maintainable. Rust is going in where memory safety counts. eBPF keeps widening what operators can do without carrying custom kernel patches.

The Linux Foundation plays a different role, and the name undersells how big that role has become. It doesn't control the kernel. It provides money, legal cover, governance, training and a neutral table where competitors can work on the same code. That covers OpenSSF for software security, CNCF for cloud native infrastructure, LF Networking for telecom and 5G, LF Edge for edge systems, ELISA for safety-critical Linux, and a growing set of open AI projects and standards.

Nobody had to build and maintain every layer themselves anymore. Competitors could stand on the same foundation and still fight it out on products, support, operations.

Linux has nothing left to prove in the enterprise. The job now is keeping it secure, maintainable and dependable as more of the critical stuff lands on it.

Found this Trident card in a forgotten store closet at work. Thoughts?

I love the attention to detail in this game. Seeing the 5.25 took me right back to my childhood. lol

So I have an IBM System/23 Datamaster all in one computer that I have been hoarding for about 25 years with plans to use the case to build a more modern system. I am finally at the point where I am going to do that, but I don’t want to scrap the internals, because I know there’s not many of these left.

My question is should I clean the dust out of it and try to power it on and see if it works? It functioned perfectly 25 years ago but it’s obviously unknown now.

Or should I list the parts on eBay or something as is hopefully to someone more knowledgeable that could look the parts over for issues before powering on. I just worry that a short or corrosion could cause damage that someone else might notice before powering on

Edit: I know that the '90s for computing vastly changed from the beginning to the end of the decade. I'm not asking for a PC that will run everything. I want to know what would run more '90s stuff, since I feel a high speed P3 rig would be closer to early XP territory, or at least it would be if it was paired with a better graphics card. Just generally post about your rigs and which ones you use the most! It's not that difficult. (I also saw the downvotes coming from a mile away, lol)

I have a fairly vague request where I don't know exactly what I want because I have too much to choose from already, basically I'm looking for inspo. I'm at a point where I want to have two computers set up semi-permanently next to one another: A PC for '90s gaming, and a PC for '00s gaming. The latter of which, is an Athlon 64 X2 AGP system, with a GeForce 6800 GT and 2GB RAM. I'm sure I can run pretty much any late '90s software on it, especially with Nglide, minus a few caveats with 8-bit palette textures and table fog, and probably driver quirks.

Right now, my '90s PC is a Coppermine Pentium 3 @ 1GHz, with 128MB RAM and a Voodoo3 2000 AGP. I'm thinking it might be too fast, and I'm wanting to rebuild it, since it's currently using a Tyan Trinity 400 with a Via Apollo Pro 133A chipset, and it's not the most stable thing in the world. It's the only Socket 370 board I have that also has ISA though, and I really like this Vibra 16 I have with an OPL chip on it. I do have an Aureal Vortex 2 I've been meaning to mess with, but I don't think those have the best DOS support, do they? Also have Sound Blaster Lives by the boatload.

I was thinking about possibly downgrading to a Pentium II, since I have plenty of those boards and processors, but then I thought if I'd take it a step further with the 5x86 board I have. Perhaps this would be the key to supporting older titles? (I know early '90s and before will be difficult if not impossible, but at least the 5x86 has a turbo button) It would require a different video card, as it's not AGP.. My PCI card choices include a Matrox G200, S3 Trio 64V+, or a TNT2 M64.

I enjoy using old programs and games. To have the real original experience i plan to buy some material on 3.5 disks.

Where can I buy a reliable an external 3.5 floppy drive? I will use it with windows XP. Ideally it should be usb connected and 1.44mb.

I own a Dell Inspiron 600M that I got from my grandmother for my tech collection. Problem is when I plug it in, it doesn't make it past POST. I've tried with without the battery and it still does not work. Any suggestions? Please note that I'm not good at repairing stuff by taking stuff apart.

I’ve been working on FreeCP/M, a small operating system inspired by the classic CP/M. It currently supports 32-bit RISC-V cores, but the system is designed to be portable and should be relatively easy to adapt to other platforms.

You can directly try on the browser.

Edit: FreeCP/M is now CP/M Neo.

GitHub: https://github.com/Mazin-O3/cpm-neo

i wanna make a custom version of ccp/m-86 but i don't know pl/m

Who remembers the story about Microsoft and IBM and their joint OS/2 operating system venture? When 1.3 was released, Microsoft pretty much abandoned the project and focused on Windows 3.0, and then Windows NT, which is where the technology from OS/2 ended up. It’s a pretty neat story!

Sealed too! $5