Restoring a Rare Commodore C900 Unix Workstation Prototype
By
rbanffy
Even the toaster can't save this one.
Summary
A talk documenting the author's successful effort to restore a rare Commodore C900 Unix workstation prototype from 1984. The C900 was a budget Unix workstation with a Zilog Z8000 processor that was canceled when Commodore bought the Amiga, leaving only a few dozen prototypes. The author obtained one of these prototypes but faced multiple challenges including a non-working power supply, missing monitor and keyboard, and a hard drive giving a mysterious 0xFF error. The talk details how they brought the machine back to life.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledIn 1984 Commodore introduced the C900, a budget Unix workstation with an obscure Zilog Z8000 processor.
Unfortunately, when they bought the Amiga, the Commodore 900 project was canceled and today only a few dozen prototypes exist.
Without a working power supply, monitor, keyboard and with the hard drive giving a mysterious 0xFF error, I was left puzzling on how to make the machine run.
This talk documents my successful effort to bring the machine back to life.
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