Retired software program developer and classic computing fanatic Michael Gardi has constructed a duplicate microcomputer with a distinction: no one can actually bear in mind what the unique, a Microsystems Worldwide CPS-1, regarded like.
“Between 1972 and 1973, Ottawa based mostly Microsystems Worldwide Ltd. (MIL) created CPS-1, the primary Canadian microprocessor-based laptop,” Gardi explains. “They used their very own MIL MP-1 chip set consisting of the MF7114 CPU built-in with MF1601 or 1701A ROM chips and MF7115 RAM chips. The CPS-1 supported a 12-bit handle bus and a 4-bit information bus. It’s unclear what number of CPS-1 computer systems had been produced and sadly, no CPS-1 computer systems have survived the intervening 50 plus years. In truth there usually are not even any images of a CPS-1 accessible.”
An image-perfect CPS-1 duplicate… regardless of absolutely the pack of images on which to base its design. (📷: Michael Gardi)
Whereas there might not be any recognized surviving items, and no images, the machine is not totally forgotten. Gardi received in contact with Zbigniew Stachniak, curator of the York College Laptop Museum and creator of a paper, which dove into the inside workings of the MF7114 processor that powered it. Stachniak’s analysis was used to create a software-based emulator, full with digital toggle-switch front-panel — however Gardi needed one thing extra tactile.
“As the subsequent part of Zbigniew’s analysis he had been interested by implementing a {hardware} based mostly entrance panel and requested if I may be thinking about tackling this. Hell ya,” Gardi recollects. “Within the absence of an precise artifact or photograph what does one do. Zbigniew began the dialog with a few gadgets he had discovered among the many documentation [including] half of a bigger schematic for the CPS-1 that reveals the place and capabilities of the switches and lights on the entrance panel [and] a low element stylized picture of the CPS-1 because it may need been.”
These, already used to create the software program emulator’s digital entrance panel, had been used to tell Gardi’s bodily recreation — which makes use of fashionable switches with 3D-printed covers mimicking a period-appropriate design, put in in a professionally-produced panel and a 3D-printed duplicate of a Hammod 1401G housing. Contained in the case is a Raspberry Pi 4 single-board laptop with a general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) enlargement add-on to wire it to the entrance panel’s switches and LEDs — which, in flip, management the York College Laptop Museum emulator working on the Raspberry Pi itself.
The entrance panel connects to a Raspberry Pi 4 single-board laptop working a CPS-1 emulator. (📷: Michael Gardi)
“It was numerous enjoyable creating the CPS-1 copy,” Gardi concludes. “I loved working with Ziggy making an attempt to infer what the CPS-1 may need regarded like. No matter how shut we received with the ‘look,’ with the backing of the wonderful York College Laptop Museum (YUCoM) software program based mostly CPS-1 emulator, that is actually going to be a superb ‘work a like’ gadget.”
The venture is documented in full on Hackaday.io.
