FLEX Anyone?

[John Crane]

Any FLEX users out there?

-J

[Stephen H. Fischer]

Nope, just rigid ones.

But there are lots of FLEX stuff on the web.

FLEX User Group - Documentation

http://www.flexusergroup.com/flexusergroup/fug4.htm

SHF

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?
-J

[John Crane]

Thanks for the info, Steve.

I have a SWTPC 6800 and an S/09 as well. I'm tinkering with some drives now
and considering FLEX. I was just curious if it's still used or if everybody
has moved on, or passed away by now...

You still see activity among the 8080 types, not much for the 680x crowd.
But then, it's been that way since 1980 or so, right?


-John

Post by Stephen H. Fischer
Nope, just rigid ones.
But there are lots of FLEX stuff on the web.
FLEX User Group - Documentation
http://www.flexusergroup.com/flexusergroup/fug4.htm
SHF

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?
-J

[lynchaj]

Post by John Crane
Thanks for the info, Steve.
I have a SWTPC 6800 and an S/09 as well.  I'm tinkering with some drives now
and considering FLEX.  I was just curious if it's still used or if everybody
has moved on, or passed away by now...
You still see activity among the 8080 types, not much for the 680x crowd.
But then, it's been that way since 1980 or so, right?
-John

Post by Stephen H. Fischer
Nope, just rigid ones.
But there are lots of FLEX stuff on the web.
FLEX User Group - Documentation
http://www.flexusergroup.com/flexusergroup/fug4.htm
SHF

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?
-J

Hi! Over at the N8VEM home brew computer project we are working on a
6809 computer running CUBIX and hopefully FLEX soon. It is a fairly
recent home brew computer and there are plenty of PCBs available if
anyone would like to build their own.

So far there three N8VEM 6809 boards:
- 6809 host processor (CPU, RAM, ROM, ECB interface) depends on ECB
bus controller for power and IO
- 6809 IO mezzanine (ACIA serial, dual PIA parallel, PTC timer/
counter, power, expansion interface) makes for stand alone when added
to processor board
- 6809 ECB backplane (allows use of N8VEM ECB boards like DiskIO
floppy/IDE, video board, color graphics and sound board, prototyping
board, etc).

Those three boards exist now and are running ASSIST09 and/or CUBIX.
The plan is to eventually run FLEX too. The current project is to
redesign the 6809 host processor board to accommodate 6502 processor
and also 6802 since the bus for each are quite similar. The 6502
socket is already added and the 6802 prototyping is underway.

I guess my point is that 6809 activity continues and there is some
going on at the N8VEM project if you or anyone else would like to join
in. Feel free to stop by the N8VEM wiki and/or mailing list and say
"hi"! More 6809 builders are welcome!

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch

[djr]

Hi

I have just got a SWTP 6800 system working

Picked up a couple for Dragon 32 and might try and run FLEX on one of them

Post by John Crane
Thanks for the info, Steve.
I have a SWTPC 6800 and an S/09 as well. I'm tinkering with some drives now
and considering FLEX. I was just curious if it's still used or if everybody
has moved on, or passed away by now...
You still see activity among the 8080 types, not much for the 680x crowd.
But then, it's been that way since 1980 or so, right?
-John

Post by Stephen H. Fischer
Nope, just rigid ones.
But there are lots of FLEX stuff on the web.
FLEX User Group - Documentation
http://www.flexusergroup.com/flexusergroup/fug4.htm
SHF

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?
-J

Hi! Over at the N8VEM home brew computer project we are working on a
6809 computer running CUBIX and hopefully FLEX soon. It is a fairly
recent home brew computer and there are plenty of PCBs available if
anyone would like to build their own.

So far there three N8VEM 6809 boards:
- 6809 host processor (CPU, RAM, ROM, ECB interface) depends on ECB
bus controller for power and IO
- 6809 IO mezzanine (ACIA serial, dual PIA parallel, PTC timer/
counter, power, expansion interface) makes for stand alone when added
to processor board
- 6809 ECB backplane (allows use of N8VEM ECB boards like DiskIO
floppy/IDE, video board, color graphics and sound board, prototyping
board, etc).

Those three boards exist now and are running ASSIST09 and/or CUBIX.
The plan is to eventually run FLEX too. The current project is to
redesign the 6809 host processor board to accommodate 6502 processor
and also 6802 since the bus for each are quite similar. The 6502
socket is already added and the 6802 prototyping is underway.

I guess my point is that 6809 activity continues and there is some
going on at the N8VEM project if you or anyone else would like to join
in. Feel free to stop by the N8VEM wiki and/or mailing list and say
"hi"! More 6809 builders are welcome!

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch

[j***@gmail.com]

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?
-J

This is a VERY old thread, but I would love to start this topic up again. Anyone still out there??

=AJ

[cfo]

Post by j***@gmail.com

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?
-J

This is a VERY old thread, but I would love to start this topic up
again. Anyone still out there??
=AJ

I Ran flex back in the early 80' , and recently (2016) discovered , that
you can build a real Flex (09) machine with a $15 FPGA board.
A PCB and an external Ram , total cost less than 50$.

Neal C. On Retrobrew have done a VHDL implementation of Grant S'
multicomp , that targets a MC6809 , running Flex and/or OS/9

Have a look here , or give Neal a "ping"

https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/forum/index.php?t=thread&frm_id=1&

https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?
id=boards:sbc:multicomp:cycloneii-c:start

Neal is the driving force for the "Multicomp 6809" Flex & OS/9
https://www.retrobrewcomputers.org/forum/index.php?
t=msg&th=346&goto=5744&#msg_5744


Ps: Watch out for wrapped url's

/Bingo

[Dave McGuire]

Post by j***@gmail.com

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?

This is a VERY old thread, but I would love to start this topic up again. Anyone still out there??

Strong interest here, but not enough hours in a day. I used UniFLEX
in high school and would really like to get that running on something
too. Bob Applegate (of Franklin Computer fame) in NJ makes and sells
nice bare-board SS-50 bus hardware under the name Corsham Tech; I have
some of his stuff...perhaps that would be a good place to start.

-Dave

[i***@gmail.com]

I'd like to build grant Searle's 6809 SBC and run Flex.
http://searle.hostei.com/grant/Multicomp/

Carlos

[Jim]

I have Grant's multicomp and have the same thing on my to do list Carlos.

I have the card holder and the VGA socket ready to wire up (my original build has the serial port, composite video, and the PS/2 keyboard--I've been using it as an OSI C1P with some modification to the software Grant has for the FPGA
UK101).

From what I've seen, FLEX seems like a fairly straight forward and stable OS. My impression is that OS/9 adds a lot of capability but also a lot of complexity. NitrOS is still being actively developed but the documentation seems sparse and there are a lot of things that users seem to put up with.

I enjoy most of my "work in progress" things, but getting wrapped up in things others are working on can be frustrating. :-)

So far on the emulator I'm using, FLEX just works.

Thanks,
Jim W4JBM

[i***@gmail.com]

If I recall, OS9 came out after Flex. Is that right? Any advantages that Flex might have over OS9, even if it was released before OS9?

Thanks
Carlos

[k***@gmail.com]

Post by i***@gmail.com
If I recall, OS9 came out after Flex. Is that right? Any advantages that Flex might have over OS9, even if it was released before OS9?
Thanks
Carlos

Hi Carlos. Both have their special characteristics. OS9 is somewhat more Unix like in its design. FLEX came first, it is very straightforward and robust. I believe, if you want to work more to the bare metal, FLEX is the better choice. I am not sure about the memory layout of OS9. (It exist as OS9 level 1 and OS9 level 2). FLEX resides from about $c000 to about $cfff for the DOS part and from $d000 to $dfff for the FMS part. Higher up you find IO, mostly in the $exxx page and finally $fxxx for the special hardware and ROM.

Personally, I have a huge lot of hours spend with UniFLEX :-)

best regards,

Kees

[k***@gmail.com]

Post by Dave McGuire

Post by j***@gmail.com

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?

This is a VERY old thread, but I would love to start this topic up again. Anyone still out there??

Strong interest here, but not enough hours in a day. I used UniFLEX
in high school and would really like to get that running on something
too. Bob Applegate (of Franklin Computer fame) in NJ makes and sells
nice bare-board SS-50 bus hardware under the name Corsham Tech; I have
some of his stuff...perhaps that would be a good place to start.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

Hello Dave,

It may be coincidence but a couple of friends and myself are reviving their 6809 UniFLEX systems. :-). In the 80's I designed hardware that would run UniFLEX on Eurocards and is used by some others. A few of those systems still exist today. I have one :-). A friend, now is retired to Thailand, is also busy getting his system back on. The hardware was _very_ reliable, the only weak point were the hard-disks in those years. With 24x7 operation the system failed _only_ after about a year because the hard disk (or Xebec controller) gave problems.

I am busy to re-design my boards, with better memory mapping and system protection. 1MB memory (dynamic ram) took a whole eurocard, now it is one or two components. I am designing an IDE interface card as well. (Further plans: IO processor, Network interface).

I plan to place everything, when working, on my Github repository. That includes board designs, schematics and software.

TSC was really good in elegant and efficient programming. We ported a _lot_ of Unix utilities to Uniflex 6809.

best regards,

Kees Schoenmakers

[Dave McGuire]

Post by k***@gmail.com

Post by Dave McGuire
Strong interest here, but not enough hours in a day. I used UniFLEX
in high school and would really like to get that running on something
too. Bob Applegate (of Franklin Computer fame) in NJ makes and sells
nice bare-board SS-50 bus hardware under the name Corsham Tech; I have
some of his stuff...perhaps that would be a good place to start.

Hello Dave,
It may be coincidence but a couple of friends and myself are reviving their 6809 UniFLEX systems. :-). In the 80's I designed hardware that would run UniFLEX on Eurocards and is used by some others. A few of those systems still exist today. I have one :-). A friend, now is retired to Thailand, is also busy getting his system back on. The hardware was _very_ reliable, the only weak point were the hard-disks in those years. With 24x7 operation the system failed _only_ after about a year because the hard disk (or Xebec controller) gave problems.

Wow!!

Post by k***@gmail.com
I am busy to re-design my boards, with better memory mapping and system protection. 1MB memory (dynamic ram) took a whole eurocard, now it is one or two components. I am designing an IDE interface card as well. (Further plans: IO processor, Network interface).
I plan to place everything, when working, on my Github repository. That includes board designs, schematics and software.
TSC was really good in elegant and efficient programming. We ported a _lot_ of Unix utilities to Uniflex 6809.

Hello Kees, I am very excited to hear about your project! I will
definitely build one (or two!) when your design is available.

I would love to have such as system here just for me, but I'd also
like to have one running at the Large Scale Systems Museum/Museum of
Applied Computing Technology, which I run here in Pittsburgh.

Good luck with your project, and please let me/us/the newsgroup/etc
know when you post your files on Github. Thank you for working on this!

-Dave

[k***@gmail.com]

Post by Dave McGuire

Post by k***@gmail.com

Post by Dave McGuire
Strong interest here, but not enough hours in a day. I used UniFLEX
in high school and would really like to get that running on something
too. Bob Applegate (of Franklin Computer fame) in NJ makes and sells
nice bare-board SS-50 bus hardware under the name Corsham Tech; I have
some of his stuff...perhaps that would be a good place to start.

Hello Dave,
It may be coincidence but a couple of friends and myself are reviving their 6809 UniFLEX systems. :-). In the 80's I designed hardware that would run UniFLEX on Eurocards and is used by some others. A few of those systems still exist today. I have one :-). A friend, now is retired to Thailand, is also busy getting his system back on. The hardware was _very_ reliable, the only weak point were the hard-disks in those years. With 24x7 operation the system failed _only_ after about a year because the hard disk (or Xebec controller) gave problems.

Wow!!

Post by k***@gmail.com
I am busy to re-design my boards, with better memory mapping and system protection. 1MB memory (dynamic ram) took a whole eurocard, now it is one or two components. I am designing an IDE interface card as well. (Further plans: IO processor, Network interface).
I plan to place everything, when working, on my Github repository. That includes board designs, schematics and software.
TSC was really good in elegant and efficient programming. We ported a _lot_ of Unix utilities to Uniflex 6809.

Hello Kees, I am very excited to hear about your project! I will
definitely build one (or two!) when your design is available.
I would love to have such as system here just for me, but I'd also
like to have one running at the Large Scale Systems Museum/Museum of
Applied Computing Technology, which I run here in Pittsburgh.
Good luck with your project, and please let me/us/the newsgroup/etc
know when you post your files on Github. Thank you for working on this!
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

Hi Dave,

I reported you already in PM, but yes the CPU and the MON-itor boards are starting to work. I did a quick check and found that the HD63C09 CPU and the MC68B50 ACIA's work very well @ 4MHz.....
I have a simple (MikBug alike) monitor program in use so that I can test all
the hardware functions in a simple fashion. Until now they work as designed.

Next is populating the IDE interface board and see if we can access the Harddrive. I let you know.

best regards

Kees

[Dave McGuire]

Post by k***@gmail.com

Post by Dave McGuire

Post by k***@gmail.com
It may be coincidence but a couple of friends and myself are reviving their 6809 UniFLEX systems. :-). In the 80's I designed hardware that would run UniFLEX on Eurocards and is used by some others. A few of those systems still exist today. I have one :-). A friend, now is retired to Thailand, is also busy getting his system back on. The hardware was _very_ reliable, the only weak point were the hard-disks in those years. With 24x7 operation the system failed _only_ after about a year because the hard disk (or Xebec controller) gave problems.

Wow!!

Post by k***@gmail.com
I am busy to re-design my boards, with better memory mapping and system protection. 1MB memory (dynamic ram) took a whole eurocard, now it is one or two components. I am designing an IDE interface card as well. (Further plans: IO processor, Network interface).
I plan to place everything, when working, on my Github repository. That includes board designs, schematics and software.
TSC was really good in elegant and efficient programming. We ported a _lot_ of Unix utilities to Uniflex 6809.

Hello Kees, I am very excited to hear about your project! I will
definitely build one (or two!) when your design is available.
I would love to have such as system here just for me, but I'd also
like to have one running at the Large Scale Systems Museum/Museum of
Applied Computing Technology, which I run here in Pittsburgh.
Good luck with your project, and please let me/us/the newsgroup/etc
know when you post your files on Github. Thank you for working on this!

I have a simple (MikBug alike) monitor program in use so that I can test all
the hardware functions in a simple fashion. Until now they work as designed.
Next is populating the IDE interface board and see if we can access the Harddrive. I let you know.

Reviving an old thread, I'm wondering how this is going, I expect
other people here are curious as well.

-Dave

[Andy Valencia]

Post by j***@gmail.com

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?

This is a VERY old thread, but I would love to start this topic up again.
Anyone still out there??

Hi! Yes, still here. No, haven't run even a virtual 6809 in a terribly
long time.... :-(

Andy

[m***@gmail.com]

Post by Andy Valencia

Post by j***@gmail.com

Post by John Crane
Any FLEX users out there?

This is a VERY old thread, but I would love to start this topic up again.
Anyone still out there??

Hi! Yes, still here. No, haven't run even a virtual 6809 in a terribly
long time.... :-(
Andy

Thanks for replying, Andy...well, to me, the good news is, that you did work with FLEX at least once upon a time, and probably, hopefully remember a bit about it. For me, this is my first attempt ever.

[i***@gmail.com]

I've always wanted to try Flex. I have the yellow thick manual some place.
Carlos

[Jim]

Actually there has been a fair amount of activity in the past few months on the flex mailing list.

I struggled through getting flexemu working on a machine and communicating through the serial port to a real dumb terminal. A couple of people on the list got involved and one figured out a problem with the flexemu code that has been fixed.

So while I don't yet have a 6809 machine (I started on the 6502 back in 1980), I do now have an old PC with a dumb terminal that looks for all intents and purposes like a very fast 6809-based FLEX machine.

Thanks,
Jim W4JBM

[Geo]

Post by Jim
Actually there has been a fair amount of activity in the past few months on the flex mailing list.

Def worth subscribing to the list:-
http://www.flexusergroup.com/flexusergroup/fufusub.htm

[i***@gmail.com]

Carlos Camacho <***@gmail.com>
5:35 PM (6 minutes ago)
to comp.sys.m6809

I'm keen to learn more about UniFlex. Anything more than WikiPedia available?

With Flex, was it 100% character based or did some develop a graphical interface like multiview on OS9 II?

I have a reference to two files on my local drive:
FloppyMaint (???)
TSC (name???)

What could those two be?

I have a CoCo to run Flex on... has anyone ever burned Flex to an Eprom to have the OS running immediately...like Radio Shack DOS? Can that be done?

Last question... is there a complete list of companies/tools for development?

I have the following on a local drive and wanted to check if I am missing any to check out..

Assembly
CRASMB
TSC Assembler
Windrush

BASIC
TSC BASIC
SWTPC

C
Dyna C
Introl C
McCosh C
Small C

Cobol
Cobol-Compiler

Forth
X-Forth
CC Forth

Fortran
Fortran 77
TSC Fortran

Pascal
Dynasoft Pascal
Lucidata Pascal
Omegasoft Pascal
TSC Pascal

Thanks
Carlos

[k***@gmail.com]

Hello Carlos,

I'll try to answer to my best knowledge

Post by i***@gmail.com
5:35 PM (6 minutes ago)
to comp.sys.m6809
I'm keen to learn more about UniFlex. Anything more than WikiPedia available?

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/tsc/uniflex_68xxx/The_UniFLEX_Operating_System_1980.pdf

Post by i***@gmail.com
With Flex, was it 100% character based or did some develop a graphical interface like multiview on OS9 II?

All known hardware was indeed character based. Some had even a dedicated IO
processor to handle the character IO for the OS.
But nothing prevents _us_ with the modern hardware components to implement
some form of graphical interface.

Post by i***@gmail.com
FloppyMaint (???)
TSC (name???)

Does not ring a bell....

Post by i***@gmail.com
What could those two be?
I have a CoCo to run Flex on... has anyone ever burned Flex to an Eprom to have the OS running immediately...like Radio Shack DOS? Can that be done?

As far as I know the FLEX code has also tables and such in it. That would prevent putting it in ROM, (to be honest, the booting time from disk is minimal)

Post by i***@gmail.com
Last question... is there a complete list of companies/tools for development?
I have the following on a local drive and wanted to check if I am missing any to check out..
Assembly
CRASMB
TSC Assembler
Windrush
BASIC
TSC BASIC
SWTPC
C
Dyna C
Introl C
McCosh C
Small C
Cobol
Cobol-Compiler
Forth
X-Forth
CC Forth
Fortran
Fortran 77
TSC Fortran
Pascal
Dynasoft Pascal
Lucidata Pascal
Omegasoft Pascal
TSC Pascal
Thanks
Carlos

Comes to mind: dynamite, debug, .
I had most under UniFLEX as well, even running OS9 level1 as a task :-)
Same for Motorola MDOS (exorcisor DOS).
Some guy ported C-kermit and others ported a lot of Unix utilities to UniFLEX.
I myself ported the FLEX debug to UniFLEX and it helped me a lot in those days.

Probably a lot more pops up after closing this message :-)

best regards

Kees

[k***@gmail.com]

Post by k***@gmail.com
Hello Carlos,
I'll try to answer to my best knowledge

Post by i***@gmail.com
5:35 PM (6 minutes ago)
to comp.sys.m6809
I'm keen to learn more about UniFlex. Anything more than WikiPedia available?

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/tsc/uniflex_68xxx/The_UniFLEX_Operating_System_1980.pdf

Post by i***@gmail.com
With Flex, was it 100% character based or did some develop a graphical interface like multiview on OS9 II?

All known hardware was indeed character based. Some had even a dedicated IO
processor to handle the character IO for the OS.
But nothing prevents _us_ with the modern hardware components to implement
some form of graphical interface.

Post by i***@gmail.com
FloppyMaint (???)
TSC (name???)

Does not ring a bell....

Post by i***@gmail.com
What could those two be?
I have a CoCo to run Flex on... has anyone ever burned Flex to an Eprom to have the OS running immediately...like Radio Shack DOS? Can that be done?

As far as I know the FLEX code has also tables and such in it. That would prevent putting it in ROM, (to be honest, the booting time from disk is minimal)

Post by i***@gmail.com
Last question... is there a complete list of companies/tools for development?
I have the following on a local drive and wanted to check if I am missing any to check out..
Assembly
CRASMB
TSC Assembler
Windrush
BASIC
TSC BASIC
SWTPC
C
Dyna C
Introl C
McCosh C
Small C
Cobol
Cobol-Compiler
Forth
X-Forth
CC Forth
Fortran
Fortran 77
TSC Fortran
Pascal
Dynasoft Pascal
Lucidata Pascal
Omegasoft Pascal
TSC Pascal
Thanks
Carlos

Comes to mind: dynamite, debug, .
I had most under UniFLEX as well, even running OS9 level1 as a task :-)
Same for Motorola MDOS (exorcisor DOS).
Some guy ported C-kermit and others ported a lot of Unix utilities to UniFLEX.
I myself ported the FLEX debug to UniFLEX and it helped me a lot in those days.
Probably a lot more pops up after closing this message :-)
best regards
Kees

O yeah, I tried Flexemu https://aladur.neocities.org/flexemu/ and
I am very satisfied with it and the author is very helpful to answer questions
and adding features.

Kees

[i***@gmail.com]

Oops left some crucial bits out...

I have a folder called 'Flex Windowing'
In it, I have these subfolders...
FloppyMaint (???)
TSC (name???)

TSC is a software company. So perhaps these two are utilities of some sort for windowing? I can zip it and email them.

Thanks for info.

Perhaps I should join the Flex mailing list.

Carlos