28-02-2024, 04:50 PM
(04-02-2024, 08:53 AM)ChickenMan Wrote: Yes they are really a great machine and in many ways similar to the Microbee, unfortunately I dont have one but have played a lot via MAME emulator that finally supports disk systems and in particular, the Dreamdisk.
system. We also have a growing Exidy Sorcerer section in the Vintage Repository here but mostly Australia related.
Hey ChickenMan, I had the pleasure of borrowing a FOAF's Sorcerer in the early 80s for a Car Club Sprint timing system.
I just happened to trip over parts of the design/coding of the solution during a cleanout.
The Sorcerer was a great device for such a project with it's S100 bus connection, well documented BIOS etc.
The external hardware consisted of a Zilog PIO, CTC and a handful of other ICs and 1MHz Xtal clock. The coding was all in assembler (well machine code).
So basically a hand held trigger (bicycle hand grip with the debounced push button) triggered an interrupt to a Real Time Clock function (with a resolution of 100mS) and the elapsed time printed on the VDU as well as a printer. From memory the trigger and RTC pulse triggered NMIs via the PIO to the Sorcerer which maintained the timing RTC. This was a similar solution to an expensive Heuer system we used hire for such events.
Looking at the coding and circuitry, I'm still amazed how it worked so well.... and that I actually created it ;-)
The innocence and bravado of youth!