Everything you need to know about fosdem 2025 raiders of the lost.
[ad_1]In 1984 Commodore introduced the C900, a budget Unix workstation with an obscure Zilog Z8000 processor. Unfortunately, when hey bought the Amiga, the Commodore 900 project was canceled and today only a few dozen prototypes exist.
A few years ago I happened to get one of these prototypes. 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. It is a continent-spanning tale of digital archaeology, which included, among others, disassembling the Z8000 BIOS, reverse-engineering the keyboard interface and figuring out the hard disk low level format. After I figured out how to make the machine run, I have helped two other Commodore 900 owners with the same problems to make their machines fully working.
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Frequently Asked Questions
A 1984 budget Unix workstation with a Zilog Z8000 processor, canceled when Commodore bought the Amiga. Only a few dozen prototypes exist.
It had no working power supply, monitor, or keyboard, and the hard drive gave a mysterious 0xFF error.
Through digital archaeology: disassembling the Z8000 BIOS, reverse-engineering the keyboard interface, and figuring out the hard disk's low-level format.
Yes. After getting his machine running, he helped two other Commodore 900 owners fix the same problems.
