Retro-Technology Revival – Restoring Vintage Development System

A presentation on the hardware and software restoration of a 50 year old intel ‘intellec 4/40’ microprocessor development system. First obtained for use in May 1975, so a half century anniversary earlier this year.
This machine was first used by Sid Jones during his postgraduate studies in Bangor University, in the years 1974-1977.
The hardware suffered a gravity related event at the end of the 20th century and languished in boxes until late 2023 when Sid decided to return it to its former glory.
(But unfortunately the paper tape software was lost to the mists of history...)
The talk will in two main parts.
The first will cover the early use of the system as a self-contained means to develop microprocessor code for the 4040 processor, the effort required to get it back to an operational state.
This involved the careful testing of the original components and the need to create a home made EPROM programmer to put firmware into the now self-erased 1702A EPROMs.
The second will detail the on-going process of recreating the original software, the sleuthing around the world to try and find the original code and the recovery of a very similar programme from a paper tape held in an Australian museum.
Being unable to get a physical or electronic copy of this paper tape a novel scheme of data extraction from photographic images was used.
The machine will be on display and running.