This repository will contain all data about the Northwest Instruments System Inc. μAnalyst 2000 state and timing analyzer. Partially a collection of data from the internet, some thoughts of my own, partialy reverse engineering of some elements. The company was later renamed to MicroCase and produced the same device (as of 8.06.2023 there is a MicroCase device on ebay)
Advertisement from PC Tech Journal vol01 n06
- μAnalyst 2000_Model 2100 Interactive State Analyzer Operators Manual
- μAnalyst 2100 Interactive State Analyzer Users Manual
- μAnalyst 2200 Interactive Timing Analyzer Users Manual
- μAnalyst Time Stamp_Option 003
- μAnalyst Z80DISA Disassembler
Please take note, that the Z80DISA is not a special mainframe card, from the hardware side it is a microprocessor probe which is in fact just a convinient way to connect the state analyzer probes to a Z80 microprocessor + a configuration file for the basis software. All manuals are from the bitsavers.org website.
The hardware consists of a mainframe case in which the main part is a backplane with 8 slots for measurement cards. In the mainframe case there are also 3 power supplies (2x15V connected in series to get +15V and -15V and +5V). The +5V power supply seems to have "remote" voltage sensing for better regulation. Also, there is a second "+5V" rail in the mainframe board: it is additionally filtered via an LC filter located on the mainframe board. In the case there is also a mains distribution board and below it there is a EMC filter. The mainframe is connected to a PC via an 8-bit ISA card.
- ISA interface card
- 21-006-00 PC interface
- 21-013-00 C-2101 State Analyzer Controller
- 21-026-00 32 Channel Memory Board
- 21-020-00 ITA Trigger Board/
- ITA Memory Board
- Mainframe Mainboard
- Other components (power supplies, front panel LED board, etc.
There existed also a 003 Option Time Stamp Board and a 16 Channel Memory Board, none of which I own. On the timestamp there is a Manual in the Manuals section.
Please read the information in the Power Supplies articles (other) maybe I can spare you the smoke of burnt capacitors...
The manual states an IBM PC (TM) is required which implies an 8088 CPU. And you need a mainboard with a ISA slot :) Mainstream mainboards went up to Intel Pentium III (Socket 350) and AMD Athlon/Duron (Socket A), but there were also industrial mainboards manufactured for Pentium 4. I have made a connection from a Pentium 166 MMX without problems (which lets me think that the hardware and software is well designed, so it should also work on a P4). As for RAM the manual says 256KB or 512KB (dependant on the amount of floppy drives :) )
Also, the timing analyzer requires a CGA graphics mode (640x200, 2 colors - here black and white), which not all modern VGA cards emulate well. I tried a SiS 6326 (integrated on a Socket 7 mainboard) and a Matrox Mystique which gave a bit shaky display in the graphics mode. A S3 Virge gave a nice clear picture. Only the waveforms (from the timing analyzer) are displayed in the graphics mode, everything else is text only, so in that mode every card is ok. (but the card does not positively pass the CGA test link to software, I am not sure if there exists a 100% compatible PCI card, only ISA)
Unfortunatelly the μAnalyst 2000 which I aquired came with a 5,25" disk, which showed files only during the first read, after an unsuccessfull copy do the hard disk the floppy stopped showing any content. I tried to do a backup via greaseweazle, but it seems that some of the sectors are not readable... Luckily some people made a backup:
Software v1.1 (from bitsavers.org)
And since currently we are not limited by the 5,25" floppy sizes, here a version all in one, ready to start from a hard disk or floppy (one could even put the files to a bootdisk, all together 500kB):
Single folder μAnalyst software
On the help disk (or my single folder) there is also a program called P2DOS.EXE which seem to be a file converter from UCSD p-System (apparently there was such a thing link). There is one executable UANALYZE.EXE, for all possible functions.
Software runs under DOS, DOS 2.0 is required (doesn't say of MS-DOS or other). I have run the program on MS-DOS 7.1 (Command Prompt only boot option for Windows 98), from Windows 98 itself and FreeDOS - in every case it runs fine. Running from the command line window in Windows 95/98 is fine, however due to the text/graphic mode switching it is quite annoying (Windows can display the graphics mode in a window, but each switch text->graphics mode switches back to fullscreen.
The software has also printing capabilities, one can print to LPT1-LPT3 and COM1-2 but also to a file (raw printer data is saved). The printer data contains an ESC/P code, which can be easily converted these days to something modern like PDF (using e.g. PrinterToPDF)
This is how the startup screen looks like (screenshot from Dosbox, so no cards are being detected). Please note, that there is a μ character being shown. If on your system there is a different character, then you have the wrong codepage (should be 437).