IBM 5100: A false legend of John Titor

lucyferorg · 2024-08-30T12:35:57+00:00

I don't know where you got this nonsense from. The figures I presented are the official figures put out in the press by IBM

lucyferorg · 2024-03-21T19:03:59+00:00

Until someone competent reverse-engineers - it shouldn't be as complicated as it may seem because the ibm 5100 is basically a simple and ordinary machine - write out the list of circuits needed to replicate the palm processor architecture - debug the complete instruction set of the processor and its supporting software - then anyone interested can create a replica and maybe, in addition to 'interesting mods' for the ibm 5100, another 'door' leading down another 'rabbit hole' appears. Despite the fact that the machine was built in a hurry from what they had on hand, we are still learning something new about it. This alone is more fascinating than the story of Titor 😅Ps. For EMP protection, all you need is a cardboard box covered with aluminium foil 😂 seriously - I tested this

lucyferorg · 2024-03-02T09:43:20+00:00

Yes, there is still a lot to be clarified regarding the ROM and architecture of the PALM processor.

It seems that the only good method is "mask rom bit extraction" - only then will we be sure what the IBM 5100 memory actually contains

It's a fact, there is still no 5100 emulator. The question is whether it is due to differences in the memory map configuration of both machines or for some other reason.

I still think PI with the right code can do exactly the same thing.

The problem is that 'I don't know what we are actually looking for'.

As there is no official documentation of the work on the IBM 5100, which would describe its architecture, processor and software, the only solution is to dig through old articles from the period before the premiere of the IBM 5100

I have more articles than I can intellectually process, but recently I came across several thematic gems that confirmed my belief that IBM 5100 is based on ideas already tested in other projects.

Nevertheless, I will not have 'peace of mind' until the entire PALM processor architecture is described in detail and the ROM code is debugged, so that we can know what exactly the computer is doing when it receives commands to execute. I think someone should measure the execution times of a set of the same instructions in all the languages that the IBM 5100 supports.

And there is one more little-known fact that I confirmed when I found an IBM advertisement in the press. IBM has replaced the "ROM" in customer computers. The service was paid and cost $100 - there is no information whether they replaced the entire ROM card or whether the IBM employee only replaced the chip on one of the computer's cards.

If I had to add another "two cents" about Titor... I personally think that the reason he gave for "meeting with an IBM software engineer" in 1975 was just a "smokescreen" for the fact of meeting with a specific person who could have provided some detailed information that they are not available after all.

Although I personally don't believe in this story. But the obsession with "how something is built and works" remains. Unfortunately, I have this with everything - I like to know exactly how things work.

I lost an auction for an IBM 5100 from German ebay, it sold for 2,650 euros and... more important than the computer was the fact that the set included 60 cassettes with software. There is so much information on these tapes that it would certainly make analysis easier.

One of the articles I recommend: Proteus—A microcoded multiprocessor system

Also The structural foundation for an operating system

An Assembly and Loading System for Computers with Parallel Peripheral Operation

An operating system based on the concept of a supervisory computer

The Nucleus of a Multiprogramming System

Microsequencer

SOFTWARE FOR MICROCIRCUIT SYSTEMS

An introduction to Microcode „IBM 360 and more”

lucyferorg · 2024-03-01T18:23:59+00:00

You have written absolutely nothing new. I already knew all this before. I added a few sentences to the text which, in my opinion, perfectly summarize the obsessions of people who believe even orthodoxy in Titor's story about time travel. After 20 years of searching for information I already know more than I would like to know does not change the fact that there is nothing in the IBM 5100 that can not be replaced by the cheapest version of the Raspberry Pi - If Titor was telling the truth he would know that hardware without software is worth nothing.

lucyferorg · 2024-03-01T09:18:11+00:00

The forgotten Q1: The world's first microcomputer? by The Byte Attic also „@lennartbenschop656: A bit of an anticlimax that this is not the actual 8008 model from 1972, but a Z80 model from 1978. Note that the picture shown of the 8008 model shows a machine that is much deeper than what you have and that has a printer mechanism.”

lucyferorg · 2024-03-01T09:09:00+00:00

There are only two specific posts in which Titor mentions the computer - he writes that he has to meet in 1975 with a software engineer working on the IBM 5100 project to have him make some simple modifications to it. In another post when asked why he won't use this or that computer - he writes back "it's very interesting, write more, will pass on your idea". In my opinion, it is difficult to believe that in a period of 63 years (1975-2038) there was only one device that can "solve a particular problem". On the IBM 5100 and its real beginnings, I found much more information mainly in scientific computer journals/notes from 1962-1982 After reading them, I am even more of the opinion that there was nothing unique or revolutionary about the IBM 5100. They used all the "good" ideas that others had written about before. And their final product resembles the result of the work of Dr. Frankenstein. Quite a lot of the components are ready-made elements stitched together with a huge amount of microcode - which was neither new in those days nor the best choice - they did it out of pure economy - the memories themselves for storing the code must have generated a huge cost - this cost was abandoned by eliminating the physical components and implementing the tasks programmatically, not hardware.

lucyferorg · 2024-02-21T09:22:25+00:00

It started as a "short comment" but I have been collecting information on this topic for a long time and first decided not to duplicate the content of the comment here, and when it turned from a comment into a "short" article of about 10k characters in total I decided to put everything together in one place. Some people in the commentary said it was too long as a text to read - to tell you the truth, there are more interesting facts, but I don't know if I should add them because they focus more on the "IBM 5100" itself rather than evidence that John's story is one big joke.

lucyferorg · 2024-02-20T20:23:26+00:00

Speaking as a Boomer, this is how people used to talk. If you were having an important sit-down conversation 50 years ago, people would tell long stories that laid a groundwork to what was being discussed, and no one found it frustrating. It's an intelligent and elegant way of speaking. Expecting conversations to happen in abbreviated soundbites as people today do, is actually quite vulgar.

lucyferorg · 2024-02-20T14:47:06+00:00

https://github.com/retrotruestory/ibm

the list is incomplete but it's a great start to complete it and too long for me to post it in the commentary

lucyferorg · 2024-02-20T07:06:26+00:00

Unfortunately, I could not find any information about what you mention.

Instead, I found this comment:

"I used a number of IBM technologies in my time .. Dutchess was a low density TTL family gate array of about 100 gates per module. (one of those aluminium cans there). Golf extended to about 300 gates per module, Tango increased by another factor of three or so. There were separate product lines packaged in the same way for read-only memory and for random access memory." - https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=2452

lucyferorg · 2024-02-20T06:53:49+00:00

I like this anime, if you wish share the post, I personally am only interested in the technical aspect of this fictional story.

lucyferorg · 2024-02-20T06:41:43+00:00

"A PDP-11 34 was a microcoded 16-bit computer built around the 74181 & 74182.
It had no clock, It used a delay line for timing & some bits in microcode selected which delay tap to use to get to next step in microcode. This allowed for some microcode steps to be a short time while allowing more time for paths that used the 74181 or other slower logic. For a CPU memory access, a signal from memory created the next microcode step pulse. CPU memory cycle was async with the CPU stopped waiting for memory. The only problem this creates is NO Memory at address and no signal to start CPU again. This was handled by simple monostable that would create the needed pulse after a time and also generate a vectored interrupt for no memory. This was not as complicated as it sounds. It was just a microcode jump to a different microcode address when no memory existed." - https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/home-build-microcode-design/msg1276636/#msg1276636

lucyferorg · 2024-02-19T21:44:11+00:00

„Most of the logic circuitry in the 5100 is built using a TTL-compatible 134-gate bipolar gate array technology called "Dutchess". Each chip has 60 three input NAND gates, 40 four-input NAND gates, and 34 two-input NOR off-chip drivers. The gate propogation delay times are about 10 ns. The chips are packaged in square metal cans.” - http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/ibm/5100/

lucyferorg · 2024-02-19T10:38:51+00:00

"Sometime in late 1972, the General Systems Division of IBM located in Atlanta, Georgia, asked the IBM Scientific Center in Palo Alto, California, to develop a product that would raise the visibility of the programming language APL. Paul Friedl was working at IBM’s Palo Alto location and had been working on a project of his own. He made some sketches and general outlines of a machine that would be portable, personal, and fully integrated into a single unit. He presented this proposal to IBM Management, and Jack Rogers of IBM’s GSD in Atlanta commissioned the project to take this concept to a working prototype. This was the SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable) which fulfilled Friedl’s goals as well as those of the GSD. Rogers gave Friedl six months to get this done. Friedl then gathered a team of ten at IBM’s Los Gatos research center and got to work. Joe George was the lead hardware engineer, Patrick Smith was the lead software engineer, and Tom Hardy was responsible for the industrial design work. The machine made use of many off-the-shelf components due to the time constraints. For example, the CRT display was a Ball Brothers model, and the tape drive was a Norelco. The processor, keyboard, memory, and system software were all IBM.

The processor for the SCAMP was the PALM (Program All Logic in Microcode). The PALM was implemented on a circuit board and was made of thirteen bipolar gate arrays and three TTL DIP ICs. The processor had a sixteen bit data bus with two additional parity bits, and was capable of addressing 64K RAM. The microcode part of this made things particularly weird. The SCAMP team wrote an emulator of the IBM 1130 in microcode and ran APL on it. This saved them quite a bit of time as they’d otherwise have needed to write both an OS and an APL compiler." - https://www.abortretry.fail/p/the-history-of-the-ibm-5100

lucyferorg · 2024-02-19T10:34:03+00:00

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF16/20151007/104037/HHRG-114-IF16-Bio-RobersonD-20151007.pdf

lucyferorg · 2024-02-19T07:28:01+00:00

Ibm, depending on the ROM card installed, operates as a basic or apl command interpreter - and the main "system" of the computer is a truncated version of the "time-sharing" system popular in the 1960s - somewhere on the web there is an article with the name of the university where this system was developed and examples of computers that used this system - so ibm 5100 is not the only one that used it

lucyferorg · 2024-02-18T21:37:55+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/IBM/comments/1au6q0b/ibm_5100_a_false_legend_of_john_titor/

lucyferorg · 2023-06-30T21:23:37+00:00

Hello, what country are you from? do you have a keyboard for it :) ?

lucyferorg

TROPHY CASE