Archive for the ‘68k’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/03/03
A few years back I tweeted [Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers @wiert@mastodon.social on Twitter: “@b0rk @jilles_com Acids vs bases.”
It was a kind of tongue-in-cheek reaction (with a way better picture below) to a very valuable post by b0rk (Julia Evans) on both Twitter and Mastodon [Wayback/Archive] Julia Evans on Twitter: “bases” / [Wayback/Archive] Julia Evans: “bases title: bases # we usually…” – Mastodon for two reasons:
- There are various interpretations of bases
- Octal is very important to educate as errors introduced by its support are hard to spot even if you do know about octal.
Back to Julia’s post:
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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, 68k, 8086, Assembly Language, bash, bash, C, C++, Chemistry, Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, EPS/PostScript, Event, Haskell, History, Java, Java Platform, JavaScript/ECMAScript, Jon Skeet, LifeHacker, Mathematics, PDP-11, Perl, PHP, Power User, Python, science, Scripting, Software Development, x86 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/13
While researching early Intel 8087 documentation distributed via LISTSERV, the below blast from the past also turned up: back in 2002 computer dictionaries were also available as … books!
[Wayback/Archive] Microsoft® Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition (Cpg-Other): 9780735614956: Computer Science Books @ Amazon.com
- Publisher : Microsoft Press; 5th ed. edition (June 1, 2002)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 637 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0735614954
- ISBN-13 : 978-0735614956
- Item Weight : 2.85 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.33 x 1.76 x 9.25 inches
It is available from various sources including [Wayback/Archive] Microsoft Computer Dictionary – Microsoft Press – Google Books and [Wayback/Archive] microsoft_computer_dictionary__fifth_edition1.pdf.
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Posted in 6502, 68k, 8086, 8087, 8087, 8088, Development, History, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/19
With the permission of Adobe Systems Inc., the Computer History Museum is pleased to make available, for non-commercial use, the source code to the 1990 version 1.0.1 of Photoshop. All the code is here with the exception of the MacApp applications library that was licensed from Apple. There are 179 files in the zipped folder, comprising about 128,000 lines of mostly uncommented but well-structured code. By line count, about 75% of the code is in Pascal, about 15% is in 68000 assembler language, and the rest is data of various sorts.
https://computerhistory.org/blog/adobe-photoshop-source-code/
Posted in 68k, Adobe, Apple, Apple Pascal, Classic Macintosh, Development, History, Macintosh SE/30, Object Pascal, Pascal, Power User, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/09/25
I hope someone has also archived all these in the Internet Archive as this is a great collection of historic material: [WaybackSave/Archive] GitHub – gingerbeardman/apple-human-interface-guidelines: Apple Human Interface Guidelines, et al.
If you have more of them: add them via a pull-request.
Related: [Wayback/Archive] Making It Macintosh: The Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines Companion : Apple : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
A client that went belly up in the early 1990s had all these and similar books. In retrospect, I though have found a way to obtain them but back then I didn’t value the uniqueness of them enough and didn’t have the storage space for it (I lived in a 30m² apartment).
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Posted in //e, 68k, Apple, Apple Lisa, Classic Macintosh, Development, Hardware, History, Mac, NeXT, Power User, Software Development, User Experience (ux) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/09/21
A while ago, This does not compute had a few nice videos on a Mac SE/30 and it’s repair, including the recap process of replacing the electrolytic capacitors (or condensators in some other languages), and cleaning the board (some wash it with hot water and soap, others with isopropyl-alcohol, often called rubbing alcohol).
Note the simasimac can have many causes: bad capacitors in main board are the most common, but it can also be bad memory.
White lithium grease can make the floppy work again (see also [WayBack] Lithium soap – Wikipedia and [WayBack] Grease (lubricant) – Wikipedia).
He also added some links to which I added some quotes and WayBack links:
- [WayBack] Bringing a Zebra Stripe SE/30 Back to Life from simasimac
Bringing a Zebra Stripe SE/30 Back to Life, Paul Brierley, The ‘Book Beat, 2009.02.19. The Japanese call it Simasimac, the horizontal striped pattern that indicates your Mac is terminal.
- [WayBack] Macintosh Schematics with many schematics including:
Macintosh SE/30 – IIcx (without NuBus)
- [WayBack] Page 1-> 68030, 68881/882, PDS
- [WayBack] Page 2-> ROM Simm, RAM Adr. Mux.
- [WayBack] Page 3-> GLUE Chip, RAM Simm
- [WayBack] Page 4-> VIA1, VIA2, RTC, ADB
- [WayBack] Page 5-> Video Interface
- [WayBack] Page 6-> SCSI, SWIM
- [WayBack] Page 6a-> SCSI, SWIM Page 2
- [WayBack] Page 7-> RS422, ASC, SONY Snd
- [WayBack] Page 8-> Power Conn.,
- [WayBack] Mac SE/30 | Low End Mac
- [WayBack] Mac ROM-inator II | Big Mess o’ Wires
The Mac ROM-inator II replaces the stock Macintosh ROM SIMM with a custom flash memory module. Add a bootable ROM disk, make your system 32-bit clean, gain HD20 hard disk support, and more. The Mac ROM-inator II supports the Macintosh SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, and IIsi.
The Mac ROM-inator II is fully assembled and ready to use. Just plug it in and go.
Mac ROM-inator II Atom, $42
2 MB SIMM pre-programmed with ROM Disk with System 7.1, HDSC Setup, ResEdit, and SCSI Probe. Compatible with Mac SE/30, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, IIsi. More InfoThe Mac ROM-inator II is great for breathing new life into your old SE/30 or II-series Macintosh. The ROM disk provides fast and convenient boot-ups and a collection of disk utility programs, and customized startup sounds and icons add a touch of fun. The ROM SIMM comes pre-programmed with a BMOW-made custom ROM containing the following changes:
- ROM disk provides a diskless booting option
- HD20 hard disk support built-in
- 32-bit clean – allows use of System 7.6+ and more than 8MB RAM
- Memory test is disabled for faster booting on 16MB+ systems
- Customized startup chime – major 9th arpeggio
- Happy Mac icon is replaced by a color smiling “pirate” Mac
- New startup menu screen displays installed RAM, addressing mode, and ROM disk details
The ROM-inator II is based on Doug Brown’s earlier [WayBack] Mac ROM SIMM design, used with permission.
- [WayBack] Retr0Bright (or RetroBright) treated plastics re-yellowing even with minimal light exposure?
- [WayBack] Forums – 68kMLA Forums
- [WayBack] Macintosh SE/30
The SE/30 is probably the most popular candidate for recapping. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the more difficult to revive as the leaked electrolyte easily damages traces and vias on these boards. Be sure to wash these boards very well and inspect closely for broken or rotten traces.
Capacitor List:
10 – 47µf – 16V – SMT
1 – 220µf – 16V – Axial
1 – 470µf – 16V – Axial
1 – 1µf – 50V – SMT
Click on the photo for a larger view
Notes
Desolder can be tricky, especially for surface mount. This helps:
- Add some fresh 60/40 solder to the joints with a solder gun (as modern solder is lead free, whereas past solder contained lead)
- Carefully heat up the component and surrounding area with a heat-gun
Choosing capacitors:
Soldering: always add some fresh solder on the pads before soldering surface mount (SMD) capacitors.
–jeroen
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Posted in 68k, Apple, Classic Macintosh, Development, Hardware Development, History, Macintosh SE/30, Power User, Soldering | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2020/06/19
On my places to visit:
The Centre for Computing History is a computer museum based in Cambridge, UK. With a collection of vintage computers and game consoles, many of the exhibits are hands on and interactive.
[WayBack] Computing History – The UK Computer Museum – Cambridge.
When I bumped into it, this was their collection size, ranging from the 1960s until recent history:
Archive Statistics :
- Computers = 993
- Peripherals = 1446
- Mobile Devices = 31
- Game Consoles = 213
- Video Games = 10259
- Software Packages = 2605
- Books = 2045
- Manuals = 4106
- Magazines = 9057
Looking at their archived brands (having [WayBack] MITS – Altair and [WayBack] Raspberry Pi in the collection) is such a joy.
Archiving the older parts is a tough job, as they stem from way before the web era, so information has been lost, parts are hard to source, a lot of hardware got thrown away or is hard to find at all, people have died. More on that at [WayBack] About – Computing History.
Without a physical visit, you can find what they have at [WayBack] Search Our Archive – Computing History.
The video below on their archive is impressive.
–jeroen
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Posted in 6502, 68k, Apple I, BBC Micro B, BBS, C64, Commodore, CP/M, dial-up modems, FidoNet, History, IBM SAA CUA, PowerPC, Tesseract, VIC-20, Z80 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2020/04/10
Posted in 68k, History | Leave a Comment »
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The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
