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#datageneralnova#rolm1602#octalprogramming

DGNova Rolm 1602 Programing

Ray Fantini

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  • Presented by Ray Fantini

Advanced. Deep dive for people who know the field.

4.5K views10 years ago1 recommendation

HardwareHistory and cultureRetro computingHistory of computing

Ray Fantini demonstrates entering octal machine code using physical switches on a Rolm 1602, a militarized Data General Nova clone.

Entering Octal Code into Rolm 1602, a military version of the Data General Nova computer.

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1 person recommends this

What people say. Recommended as an example of how early computers were programmed directly via physical switches before assemblers were common.

u/wk_endin r/osdev • Recommends

On “How to write an assembler from scratch for processor?”

"With no external computers and softwares" is an unrealistic ask and has been since, oh, the dawn of computing pretty much. Take the 6502 - the first assemblers for it ran on minicomputers and were written in FORTRAN. The earliest computers - up-to and including minicomputers or homebrew micros like the Altair - had physical switches and buttons that let you write binary data into RAM and control the CPU. If you really had no other machines to use to bootstrap them, you'd write your assembler on paper, hand-assemble it, and then manually enter it using those switches. Here's a video of that sort of thing being done on a Data General Nova. But that's not a useful skill to learn these day…
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