From coff at tuhs.org Fri Feb 20 13:30:50 2026 From: coff at tuhs.org (segaloco via COFF) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 03:30:50 +0000 Subject: [COFF] Bell Labs MAC-8 Processor User's Manual Scanned Message-ID: Passing along word that I've just scanned and uploaded the Bell Laboratories MAC-8 Processor User's Manual: https://archive.org/details/mac-8-processor-users-manual This CPU is an 8-bit microprocessor designed at Bell Laboratories for telecom applications. The canonical development environment was PWB/UNIX running a MAC-8 oriented SGS along with hardware debugging provided by the MAC Tutor single-board computer and PLAID debugger. Applications include the PROETEL microcomputer used within AT&T for e-telemetry applications. - Matt G. From coff at tuhs.org Fri Feb 20 20:05:55 2026 From: coff at tuhs.org (segaloco via COFF) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 10:05:55 +0000 Subject: [COFF] Silicon Manuals Scanned (was: Bell Labs MAC-8 Processor User's Manual Scanned) Message-ID: On Thursday, February 19th, 2026 at 19:31, segaloco via COFF wrote: > Passing along word that I've just scanned and uploaded the Bell > Laboratories MAC-8 Processor User's Manual: > > https://archive.org/details/mac-8-processor-users-manual > > This CPU is an 8-bit microprocessor designed at Bell Laboratories for > telecom applications. The canonical development environment was > PWB/UNIX running a MAC-8 oriented SGS along with hardware debugging > provided by the MAC Tutor single-board computer and PLAID debugger. > Applications include the PROETEL microcomputer used within AT&T for > e-telemetry applications. > > - Matt G. > > So having some motivation to keep scanning things, I threw in the August, 1965 TI Semiconductor and Components Catalog. Adjacent to UNIX and WECo stuff, I've been watching for other formative documents and milestone literature that isn't currently scanned and pick up stuff like this sometimes: https://archive.org/details/ti-semiconductor-and-components-catalog-august-1965 This catalog among other things marks the announcement of the Series 74 TTL family, one of the most well known logic families. The initial members are given, establishing some timelines then on when various 74-series members were added. No datasheets unfortunately, but future scan is a 54/74 seminar book from the year after which contains the November, 1965 datasheets for the 54 and 74 families. Both are listed as revisions of the August 1965 sheets, so there were datasheets out by the time this catalog was published. Either way, I have not identified datasheet references predating August 1965, although literature suggests the SN5400 was around by 1964. Anywho, I am finally starting to chip away at my scan pile, I've got a few other TI things of this era filling in timelines on introduction of various TTL ICs as well as some RCA literature in the same vein concerning the CMOS CD4000 series. I hope to shed a bit of light on the very early histories of these ubiquitous logic families and give better insight as to when individual members and variations in implementation technology were introduced. If anyone is aware of any such efforts similar to what TUHS is doing for UNIX history but the history of components, especially ICs, I'd love to organize these efforts a little better to build a concise and effective components history database. - Matt G. From coff at tuhs.org Sat Feb 21 05:06:18 2026 From: coff at tuhs.org (Clem Cole via COFF) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:06:18 -0500 Subject: [COFF] Bell Labs MAC-8 Processor User's Manual Scanned In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: below On Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 10:31 PM segaloco via COFF wrote: > Passing along word that I've just scanned and uploaded the Bell > Laboratories MAC-8 Processor User's Manual: > > https://archive.org/details/mac-8-processor-users-manual Matt, this is awesome news. Thank you. Do you know if any of the tools survived, so we can put them in the TUHS archives? From coff at tuhs.org Sat Feb 21 05:15:04 2026 From: coff at tuhs.org (segaloco via COFF) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 19:15:04 +0000 Subject: [COFF] Bell Labs MAC-8 Processor User's Manual Scanned In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Friday, February 20th, 2026 at 11:07, Clem Cole via COFF wrote: > below > > On Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 10:31 PM segaloco via COFF wrote: > > > Passing along word that I've just scanned and uploaded the Bell > > Laboratories MAC-8 Processor User's Manual: > > > > https://archive.org/details/mac-8-processor-users-manual > > Matt, this is awesome news. Thank you. Do you know if any of the tools > survived, so we can put them in the TUHS archives? > The tools themselves have not unfortunately, but their descriptions are in the BTL UNIX manuals I'm restoring on my GitLab. I plan on doing another round of those this weekend to complement this document scan. In the long run I intend to reimplement several MAC-8 tools from this, other documents, and experiments with the MAC Tutor, until such time as any tooling might be found. For instance, one of the USG Library papers[1] concerns "SIM", a language that to me looks like a Bell-flavored Verilog, but from 1976. The paper concludes with a partial SIM implementation of the MAC-8, which should prove useful for both MAC-8 SGS resurrection as well as trying to recreate SIM itself. The language looks lex/yacc-ish in that it uses a similar %-based delimiter scheme and separate blocks for definitions vs. rules vs. user routines. - Matt G. [1] - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/TechReports/USG_Library/1097_SIM_A_Language_for_Simulating_Computers.pdf