[time-nuts] Questionable question about the Lucent RFTGs

Bob Camp kb8tq at n1k.org
Fri Dec 5 07:08:19 EST 2014


Hi
> On Dec 5, 2014, at 3:11 AM, Hal Murray <hmurray at megapathdsl.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> bill at iaxs.net said:
>> Aren't these units vintage 2000?

Rumor has it that HP started the project for Lucent *before* the Z3801 came out. Lucent didn’t buy them for a long time. HP decided to chase other customers. 

> 
> The ROM/PAL stickers on mine say 9905 and 9914.
> 
> 
> bill at iaxs.net said:
>> The Motorola 68000 CPU was available in 1982

…. and the versions on these boards were quite popular through the 1990’s
> 
> When did HP ship their first GPSDO?
> 
> Ahh.  I have a Z3801A that says:
> 
> "COPYRIGHT 1991-1995 MOTOROLA INC.”

So development likely started in the late 1980’s. 

> "SFTW P/N # 98-P39972M     "
> "SOFTWARE VER # 8          "
> "SOFTWARE REV # 4          "
> "SOFTWARE DATE  13 JUL 1995"
> 
> A 68000 seems like a good choice to me.  It's probably overkill, but that's a 
> whole lot better than running out of CPU and/or the bugs associated with 
> trying to squeeze software that doesn't quite fit.
> 
> If I had working code, I probably wouldn't rock to boat to save a few 
> pennies.  How many of them did they ship?

Also consider the need to debug this stuff with the same board as you ship. There is a *lot* of logging and status even in the “customer side” protocols. I’d bet there is even more in in some HP only commands.

Bob

> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> These are my opinions.  I hate spam.
> 
> 
> 
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