No Name Computers CPU-Z80-IEEE Info

[glitch]

I'm looking for information on a S-100 single board computer, the NNC (No Name Computers) CPU-Z80-IEEE. It appears to have a Z80, i8255, two i8251As and an i8253, as well as sockets for two ROMs (or ROM/RAM, don't know -- 24 pin JEDEC sockets). Any information at all would be appreciated!

[NobodyIsHere]

Hi! I have a NNC S-100 computer. Basically it is a rebadged Vector Graphic machine. There are photos on VCF someplace of my system.

All the boards are pure Vector graphic and the chassis looks like a repainted VG unit.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch

[glitch]

Only took 9.5 years to get to this project, not bad, eh?

The NNC CPU-Z80-IEEE is definitely not Vector Graphic design. "It's all VG" is what gets repeated anytime I ask about the board. I finally had some time to reverse engineer part of it. That, combined with some information I found digging through some of Don Maslin's archived stuff has gotten me to the point where I can bring up GWMON-80 on the CPU-Z80-IEEE. I haven't finished the writeup on it yet, but I'll post full information when it's available. It's a pretty good board, lots of flexibility. The onboard ROM is not affected by the upper IEEE-696 address lines, so you can effectively use the extended address port as an 8-bit lamp register for debugging, if you have something like a Jade Bus Probe.

The most annoying thing was the factory IC sockets. I had to replace so many of them, I finally gave up and stripped all of the sockets off the board, and just resocketed the whole thing (omitting sockets for 7400 series ICs). The Hakko 472D earned its keep

[hjohnson]

https://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s_nnc.html

Jon, I may have contributed to the impression that No Name Computer was a "Vector Graphic clone" maker, via my Web page on NNC.

It happens that I was contacted about NNC just today, which caused me to review my content there. I came across your previous posts about NNC, across other references to NNC chassis (plural). I reconsidered my content and have updated my Web page accordingly. I will update my Web page further as new information is available and permitted for my publication. Evidence across a few Web sites is, that a chassis (box) product with NNC's name, resembles chassis sold by and named/badged with CCS, SCP and VG - all S-100 companies.

Simply put: cabinets were an industrial product in the 1980's and S-100 computer companies often obtained their chassis as an OEMed product from other manufacturers. This seems to have produced confusion about the origin of some S-100 chassis or cabinet or some S-100 company's product line.

I always welcome contacts about their experiences and actual items they own in the S-100 world. Always glad to change and update my content. I don't guarantee I can follow a discussion thread for ten days, or ten years!

Regards, Herb Johnson

[DDS]

https://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s_nnc.html

Simply put: cabinets were an industrial product in the 1980's and S-100 computer companies often obtained their chassis as an OEMed product from other manufacturers. This seems to have produced confusion about the origin of some S-100 chassis or cabinet or some S-100 company's product line.

Regards, Herb Johnson

And TEI was certainly right there in the thick of it. My first S-100 computer was given to me. It is a TEI MCS-122 into which the original owner had stuffed the guts of his Poly-88 plus other odds and ends he had accumulated.

http://s3data.computerhistory.org/br....102646160.pdf

[glitch]

Thanks Herb! I didn't realize there was a non-corrupted version of the document in the ZIP archive! I assumed it was the same as the contents of the directory. Man, that'd have saved me a lot of time!

And TEI was certainly right there in the thick of it. My first S-100 computer was given to me. It is a TEI MCS-122 into which the original owner had stuffed the guts of his Poly-88 plus other odds and ends he had accumulated.

http://s3data.computerhistory.org/br....102646160.pdf

TEI made some excellent stuff -- I have one of their little 12-slot boxes, excellent CVT supply, and apparently you can even mount an IMSAI style front panel! I haven't updated the listing yet, but I've been contacted by one of their engineers and the founder of the company. I'd wondered on my writeup of their 8080 CPU board as to whether it was related to the IMSAI CPU board. Well, the engineer who contacted me confirmed that it is indeed a copy

[Chuckster_in_Jax]

https://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s_nnc.html
Evidence across a few Web sites is, that a chassis (box) product with NNC's name, resembles chassis sold by and named/badged with CCS, SCP and VG - all S-100 companies.

Simply put: cabinets were an industrial product in the 1980's and S-100 computer companies often obtained their chassis as an OEMed product from other manufacturers. This seems to have produced confusion about the origin of some S-100 chassis or cabinet or some S-100 company's product line.

I always welcome contacts about their experiences and actual items they own in the S-100 world. Always glad to change and update my content. I don't guarantee I can follow a discussion thread for ten days, or ten years!

Regards, Herb Johnson

I purchased what appears to be a NNC box about 4 years ago. The chassis looks identical to pics of NNC computers. However all of the cards in it are CCS.