This project was founded in order to preserve and document the
Poly computers. If you are interested in participating then contact Andrew Trotman. If you have any
old parts, documentation, or books then please let us know.
EMULATOR
Most Recent Release Poly and Proteus Emulator 1.2 (for Windows)
Now contains ROM version 3.4 and fixes for the 6840 and interrupts (but, unfortunately, still oncasionally hangs)
Poly and Proteus Emulator 1.0 (for Windows)
This emulator is a completely refactored emulator that does the Poly and the Proteus.
It emulates the dual processor of the Proteus (6809 and Z80), and the networking between the Proteus and the Poly.
You can boot POLYSYS, FLEX and CP/M disks. There are some "features" it does not emulate fully, but these
are unlikely to be seen (such as display top-half of screen double-height). Let me know if you want
the source code.
Poly Emulator 0.11 (for Windows)
This is a proof-of-concept emulator that demonstrates that yes, with an enormous amount of
effort it is, indeed, possible to write and emulator for the Poly. It took quite some time
to de-code the ROM, to decode the hardware. It works on Windows. It fully supports
Text and Graphics (pages 1,2,3,4, and 5, including mixed modes), Sound, Clock, and Cassette Interface.
It does not yet support networking.
Poly Disk Archive Poly Software Archive
The Poly were connected to a drive unit that housed dual 8" floppy disks. Single sided they held 295,680 bytes and
double sided they held 591,360 bytes. We connected a dual-floppy NEC APC to the PC via the serial port and wrote CP/M
software in 8088 machine code to dump the disks and send them to the PC. The Poly disks were formatted 77 tracks, 15 sectors per
side, 256 bytes per sector. Sector skewing was used and the sector order was:01,06,0B,04,09,0E,02,07,0C,05,0A,0F,03,08,0D,17,1C,10,
15,1A,13,18,1D,11,16,1B,14,19,1E,12.
Pre-Poly (WP POLYWOG 6802)
Before the 6809 Poly, Neil Scott (and a Mark Wilson) taught a course at the Wellington Polytechnic that was attended by John Murphy who still
has the "WP POLYWOG 6802" we built as part of that course.
Prototype Poly Resources
Photos View from Left, View from Right
These photos were given to us by a member of the development team. We eventually located and recovered this machine then donated it to Te Papa.
Poly 1 Resources
Poly in the Media
Grant Dickson brought this 1985 news article about hacking to my attention. Its hosted
on YouTube.
Michael Smythe Promising Polycorp Pipped PRODESIGN 86, Dec 2006 /Jan 2007, p.86.
Michael has given permission for us to publish this verison of his article on this website (thanks Michael). There is some discussion
on the aritcle on the KIWI NUGGETS web site
Utilities Poly Password Cracker
POLYSYS allows the user to password protect a file. When a user logs on it askes for the
user's initials and password. Each of these is encrypted into a single byte (one for initials one for password)
these are then stored in the directory entry of the file (in "reserved" locations). The encryption
algorithm is explicit in prot.cmd. Given the encrypted bytes this program generates an "initials" and a "password"
that can be used to access the files.
Manuals Poly-1 Computer Technical Manual
The technical manual (with circuit diagrams) this manual describes the memory maps, the peripherals, the components
and so on
Poly System Specification Issue 2.1
This document describes the origins of Polycorp, the purpose of the Poly, and how it migh tbe used in the classroom
Turning on and Turning Off (1:82) Drive drawings
It is not clear what these document fragments are from, but they might be parts of the Poly System Operating Manual prior to February 1982)
Dos Utilities
This looks like a preliminary note on the DOS utilities, and it contains similar text to the PolySys Utilities Manual (it might be an early excerpt)
Appendixes
The appendixes of a manual describing new features of version 2.0 and how to use them.
Progeni Internal Documents Specifications for Polywog Operating Systems (25 February 1981)
The Poly's design name was Polywog. This is an internal design document that describes the graphics,
networking and keyboard interfaces. It is preliminary (i.e. before the Poly was released) and is, in some
cases, inacurate to the machine as it was released.
Poly Macros Used in Development Source Code of Macros
Various Macros used internally by developers - it looks like some of the BASIC interpreter and ROM entry points were
not generally exposed and these macros were used to by developers to expose them.
Poly File Handeling, Graphics, and Memory
A near-tutorial on how to use sequential and random access files; the Poly memory manger, and the Graphics.
Quite a few source code print outs are included.
Disk Formatting
Hand-written note on how to format a disk (unclear who wrote it)
Disks Poly Network Boot Disk
A Poly network boot disk. It has the Poly and the Drive unit verisons of FLEX. For some reason
the login program does not exist on this disk, it is a dump of an original from PolyCorp.
Parts of Pascal Disk
This is a user's work disk with parts of the Poly Pascal compiler on it. At present I can't
read the entire Poly Pascal distribution disk so expect this to be replaced in due course.
Dissassembley Poly-1 BIOS
This is the Poly BIOS. It was stored "encrypted" in the ROMS. This is the decrypted version.
Poly-1 BIOS Dissassembly
Commented dissassembly of the Poly-1 BIOS. The commenting is not complete (and not always
accurate). In order to build the emulator it was necessary to dissassemble the BIOS in order
to work out what it did and where in the address space the peripherals were located. This
should serve to answer some questions about the hardware. Many websites detailing the
Poly hardware are wrong.
Poly Disk Boot Sector
This is the boot-sector from a poly disk. It's a straight binary dump
Poly Disk Boot Sector Dissassembly
So what, exactly, was the architecture of the Poly Disk Unit? It was a 6809
with a WD controler located at E014-E01B. The poly ran an adapted verison of FLEX on
the disk unit. The Poly boot sector was almost identical to the SWTPc boot sector
given in the FLEX manuals.
Poly FLEX Dissassembley (for the Poly-1)
This is the part of FLEX that ran on the Poly-1 unit itself. The communications with the server
is via the FLEX FCB mechanism, the Poly replaces the FCB next-file chain with the serial number
of the Poly, transmits it down the network and waits for a reply.
The commenting is incomplete and not always correct.
Poly FLEX Dissassembley (for the Network Drive Unit)
This part of FLEX ran on the PROTEUS (and presumably the POLYDRIVE) disk unit. It recieves
FCB commands from the network, services then and transmits the results back down the network.
The commenting is incomplete and not always correct.
Poly FLEX PROT command
This was disassembled in order to understand how the username, password, and file protection
code worked. It appears to use "reserved" FCB fields and "reserved" system calls to do it.
This is probably why there were reserved.
PolyTrain
Advertising brochure for PROFORMA, POLYTAS, POLYPAINT, POLYWRITE, POLYMENU
A Real Eye-Opener for Educators...
I've never seen the original of this, but it looks like a multi-page bochure that included a small version (or fold-out?) of the banner.
Spec Sheets
A series of one-page advertising spec sheets stating the capabilities of the Poly 2. Of
particular note is the sheet outlining the CP/M operating system running on a single
Poly 2 with a Proteus and a printer!
Poly C Learning Systems Resources
Progeni also released a Poly C. This was for the Chinese market. It was based on a 68030 and had a graphics processor
that did Chinese characters. Not many were made as it was released towards the end of Progeni. Poly Learning Systems
This is a scan of the front cover of a brochure advertising the Poly C. Unfortunately the borchure no
longer exists, only this scan remains.
Poly C Screen
Another picture of the heart, this time with Chinese writing
Poly C Forge
Poly C running the Forge 4th generation language
Polycorp and Progeni People
This is a list of the Polycorp and Progeni people we have contacted who support this project.
As we contact more the list will, no doubt, grow. Thanks everyone! Perce Harpham (Managing Director of Progeni) Neil Scott (Designer of the Poly) Alec Utting (Progeni Systems Development Manager) Mike Lee (Progeni Service Technician)
People who contributed to this project
Keith Whitehead (Massey University)
Keith supplied the original 2 Poly's used for this project (thanks).
John Wark (Logan Park High School)
"Mr Wark" had a network of Poly at Logan Park High School. He donated all that remained (some manuals and
disks, there was no remaining hardware) to this project (thanks).
Ian Welch (Victoria University of Wellington)
Ian sourced a Poly from the New Zealand File Archive (Poly only, no drive or other materials)
Paul Andrew MacDiarmid
Paul was a microwave technician turned fibreglass laminator with a passion for old things including cars, radios, and computers.
His estate donated a Poly 1, several Poly 2, and many disks (thanks). Paul did not have a disk drive.
Marcus Boielle
Marcus recognised the significance of Paul's collection of Poly to our project. We worked with Marcus to secure the equipment
from Paul's estate (see above). Thanks.
Samantha Cortez (MOTAT)
MOTAT have at least one Poly and probably nothing else (no drive). It is in unknown working
order and has been described as "not in exhibition condition".
John Pratt
The "Computers that Count" exhibit at MOTAT was put together by John who has an interest
in antique computers.
Malcolm Mills (1977-2006, University of Otago)
The late Malcolm Mills (rip) took an interest in the Poly project, fixed the broken legs on the
ROMs and built and addapter for the EPROM programmer so that we could read them (thanks Malcolm).
Bob Doran (University of Auckland)
Bob provided the scan of the Poly 1 and Poly C brochure covers and the photos of Perce Harpham. He
has no hardware or software.
Alec Utting (Ex. Progeni)
Alec proided a number of internal documents from Progeni.
Darrin Scott (Neil Scott's Son)
Darrin provided the technial manuals, some circuit mods, photos, and some 5.25" floppies. He also donated the Scott family Poly-1 as well as one of the "wooden box" prototypes.
Michael Smythe (Author)
Michael supplied various photos and his article from PRODESIGN magazine
Mike Lee (Ex. Progeni Service Technician) died 27 January 2019
Mike provided photos of the Poly C as well as Proteus documenation and disk dumps. He later supplied ROMs, Proteus, Disks, and more!
Roland Ebbing (Poly owner)
Roland provided the photos of the yello Poly-1 (before selling it on TradeMe in Novermber 2012)
Grant Dickson (Poly programmer)
Grant (and others) executed an April Fool's joke involved in the Poly, and made it available through YouTube. Grant was
also involved in software development at C.A.L.P..
Marlyn Kempenich, on behalf of the Estate of Alfred E. Kempenich, Jr
Marlyn dontated the PolyComputers Inc Warrant and Stock Certificates that are in the name of Alfred E. Kempenich, Jr.
Terry Stewart
Terry supplied a number of disks including a set of 9 CALP disk (with manuals) of software developed by The Salvation Army (Otago) Employment Programmes.
John Murphy
John attended Neil Scott's Wellington Polytechic course. He supplied photos of, and documents about, the WP POLYWOG 6802.
Keywords
If you're looking for this page, in all likelihood you used one of the following keywords:
Poly, Poly-1, Poly-2, Proteus, Progeni, PolyCorp, New Zealand, Computer
