Old Vintage Computing Research

I mentioned earlier that while I prefer specializing in non-x86 laptops, that doesn't mean I don't collect interesting or unusual x86 laptops, like the Brother GeoBook NB-60 (I finally tracked down a mostly working NB-80C, the top of the line model, which will be the subject of a future restoration). However, this one is a unit I've had since about 1998 when they were getting rid of it at the University I worked for, and in many ways a landmark PC laptop since it was the first battery-capable system with a full 80x25 or CGA 640x200 LCD — though with a notorious deficiency: more on that shortly — and also came with a terminal and text editor in ROM. This is the 1984 Data General/One. I suspect it was primarily used to dial into the campus network using the built-in modem and ROM terminal emulator, at least until better alternatives became available, and then ended up forgotten somewhere until they were cleaning things out and asked me if I wanted it. (Yes, I was retro even before retro.) It came with its bag, power supply and modem cable, and of course I said yes. It wasn't pristine, though: the floppy disk eject buttons wouldn't stay on anymore, it couldn't remember its hardware configuration, and the main drive had issues with nearly full disks. And then there was that infamous LCD.

Ah, what the heck. I finally got a round tuit. That makes it time for ... another Refurb Weekend.

Last weekend was sad, so let's do something fun. I've mentioned I collect non-x86 laptops and portables (and not just PowerBooks: see my previous entries on the "MIPS ThinkPad" IBM WorkPad z50, the PA-RISC SAIC Galaxy 1100 and these Sun Ray laptops, among others) because they're always — and sometimes wildly — different than your average Best Buy special.

Every rule's got an exception, though:

I will try to pick up x86-based systems with "personality" (as I see fit). The PCjr, for example, had personality: love it or loathe it, it was definitely different. And the Brother GeoBook series of laptops were certainly different too, late 1990s appliance-style laptops sold at low-end prices intended for basic home tasks. Besides their chunky form factor, flash memory instead of a hard disk and an entire operating system in ROM, that operating system they ran was also different: PC/GEOS, the bigger spiritual sequel to the GEOS operating system for the Apple II and Commodore 64/128. Out of the box and built-in, you got a capable word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, file manager, and basic personal information management, plus pervasive fax support for the included fax/modem. If you wanted, you could even install a basic web browser and E-mail client included on floppy disk.

And by golly, I do mean basic. But it was notable that a browser option existed at all, so we should make it live again. Let's take a tour around the unit's built-in applications and explore its guts, then get its PPP connection working again over null modem, hack the browser to understand what an HTTPS URL is and forward it to a Crypto Ancienne proxy, and get the GeoBook back on the Web and accessing current sites. Slowly — but it works! No Betteridge's law around here! (Teaser: see it load Hacker News and Lobste.rs at the end.)

But first, how on earth did GEOS get into the ROM of a chonktastic plastic laptop?

My 1976 briefcase Commodore/MOS KIM-1, a 1 MHz single-board computer with a 6502 CPU and 1K of RAM, has learned to talk — with a familiar-sounding voice.

The KIM-1's serial lines are connected to the last and smallest member of Digital Equipment Corporation's true DECtalk hardware speech synthesizers, the 1994 DECtalk Express. The DECtalk's classic default voice heard in this video is Perfect Paul, which (with adjustments) was the voice of Dr Stephen Hawking as produced with the 1988 Speech Plus CallText 5010.

The 15 keys we can read off the KIM's hexadecimal keypad are polled by a "talker" program that sends the DECtalk Express words and phrases to speak. However, although the KIM-1 has 20mA current loop output you can turn into RS-232 serial, its built-in ROM routines can't reliably communicate at the 9600 baud rate the DECtalk Express demands.

So, in today's entry, we have a veritable smorgasboard of geriatric geekery: using our KIM-1 serial uploader to push a program for execution, let's write a bitbanged 9600 baud serial transmitter routine in 6502 assembly and let the KIM-1 have its say — and crack the DECtalk Express open and look at the insides while we're at it. (Teaser: you'll find its CPU very familiar.)