Did IBM ever publish programming information for their PC SDLC or BiSync communications boards? I’m wondering about the possibility of programming one to drive the synchronous protocol needed for “booting” a Northstar Advantage over its serial port.
Or, for that matter, wondering what Northstar had in mind when they made that protocol synchronous - what would they have had driving it?
ok
bear.
Hey all!
I'm looking for a couple "file manager" type pieces of software. I can't
find them on WinWorld.
First one is from about 1984-1985, possibly called DRBOSS.COM, I just
remember it used IBM extended graphics for "window" borders (which were
colored red) and the filenames were either in gray or green. The main
feature was you could select a few files at a time, then do some operation
on those selected ones. And as a .COM it was well under 64K.
The other is from around 1996, and called MWIZ or Menu Wizard. Apparently
there were a few variations with possibly the same/similar name. All I
recall about this one is it came with both a .EXE and a .COM, and was
written by a person named Tony. I believe it was available on the '96 or
'97 BYTE magazine CD, and possibly also on CompuServe (I'm not current on
what the state of any CompuServe archives are these days).
Not urgent - just curious if they could be found.
And if anyone is in an MS-DOS mood throughout the holiday break: I still
find my ancient CDIR.EXE useful even in DOSBOX or on my physical IBM 5150.
It is available in my utility collection archived here:
https://github.com/voidstar78/VUC4DOS
For other early IBM PC notes (like floppy drive emulators and NIC setup), I
have some notes here: https://voidstar.blog/ibm-pc-5150-notes/
(including all about using the tape deck!)
-Steve / v*
I think I have got my VT100 basically working now except for the actual
video display. I think there is a problem with the transistor that drives
the flyback transformer. This is Q414 on page 58 of the Feb82 schematic on
BitSavers
(https://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/terminal/vt100/MP00633_VT100_Schematic_Feb82.
pdf). I have removed it from the circuit and tested it with the diode tester
of my multimeter. It does not test as two diodes, indeed across
Collector-Base the multimeter beeps for a short circuit, and so I am fairly
sure it is bad,
The part is the one with the heatsink as shown in this picture:
https://rjarratt.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/img_20231221_112305.jpg. I have
found some information on it here:
https://www.web-bcs.com/transistor/tc/b0/B411.php but the Feb82 schematic
shows it is a BU407D. My video board is not exactly the same as the one in
the schematic despite having the same DEC part number, but the circuit that
drives the flyback is the same on the secondary side of T403, and includes
the optional diode CR406 in the form of another B411 transistor that is not
connected at the emitter.
I am trying to identify a replacement and could do with some help
identifying one. I can't find a full datasheet for the B411, all I can find
is this https://www.web-bcs.com/transistor/tc/b0/B411.php, which seems to
match the part I need to replace, and I have also found one for a BU407 (not
BU407D) here https://www.mouser.co.uk/datasheet/2/308/1/BU407_D-2310257.pdf.
I have tried to find something that meets or exceeds the voltage, current
and switching time specs. I have found a couple of possible replacements and
would welcome opinions on their suitability:
https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2861437.pdf
and
https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/3033460.pdf (assuming that the switching
times are a typo and they are in microseconds rather than seconds)
Do these seem like suitable replacements?
Thanks
Rob
Happy DEC-20 Day!
My late friend Mark always noted that TOPS-20 (and the DECSYSTEM-20 on which it
runs) was a great improvement on its successors.
I wish you all a joyous Winter Solstice Festival, however you may choose to
celebrate it.
Rich
The PDP 11/34 and 11/04 front panels (both operator and programmer) use a
somewhat stiff plastic sheet of 1.0 mm thickness with DEC logo, model
designation, labels for the keys printed on it, cut-outs for the keypad and
knob and red transparent sections for LEDs and 6 digit 7-segment display.
I don't know what the industry calls this type of plastic sheet? Is it a
"decal"???
This plastic sheet is (was) fixed to an anodized aluminium plate (1.6 mm
thickness) using some type of glue which has deteriorated so that the
plastic sheet has separated from the aluminium plate.
The glue looks like it has been sprayed on and has a light yellowish-brown
appearance. The glue readily dissolves in ethyl-alcohol and acetone, but is
unaffected by water, petrol (gasoline) and dry cleaning fluid (white
spirits).
I would like to glue the plastic sheet back onto the aluminium plate, but
worry about damaging the plastic sheet and/or paint by the solvents in
typical glues.
Also some glues don't allow any adjustment once you combine the two halves
of whatever you glue together.
What type of plastic is this plastic sheet likely made of (polycarbonate?)
and what paint was used? I am asking to determine what solvent based glues
may attack either the plastic sheet or the painted surfaces.
The dark grey and transparent red paints are applied to the back side of
the plastic sheet, so they are vulnerable to solvent attack when glueing. I
tried ethyl-alcohol in one corner which is obscured by the cast metal
surround and some of the dark gray colour came off with the alcohol and
gentle rubbing.
Has anyone successfully glued back the plastic sheet to the aluminium
plate? If yes, what type of glue did you use and how exactly did you do the
operation?
Any suggestions, advice or tips?
Thanks and best regards
Tom Hunter
>
> The one I haven't found yet is:
f29bdg00.boo
The Google suggests:
http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Common_User_Access
which has working links to f29al000.boo and f29bdg00.boo on IBM servers
I've done a lot of work converting technical documentation archives from
DCF and Bookmaster to Word and XML, but always worked from source, never
.BOO.
On 12/11/23 1:00 PM, Liam Proven <lproven(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience with the IBM BookManager format and the
> tools to read it?
>
> I've not found any way to open them on a Mac. No joy on Linux yet
> either; there's an old unmaintained tool that uses a 32-bit Java app.
>
> I found 2 Windows tools.
>
> One, IBM Library Reader, won't install on Win11.
I have it running in a Windows NT VM, and it prints to PDF using BullZip
just fine. Do you want to point to the library you want to convert, and
I can run this over them?
Hi Stephen,
Sorry to use your Fig Forth thread - I too have a Corsham 6809 system, with
a SD card - I can not for the life of me figure out what files / how to put
stuff onto the SD card to boot - either Basic or Flex/09.
If you had success down the Fig route that would also be great - but do you
remember how to use the SD system?
Kindest regards,
Doug Jackson
em: doug(a)doughq.com
ph: 0414 986878
Follow my amateur radio adventures at vk1zdj.net
On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 at 05:16, Stephen Pereira via cctech <
cctech(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I know there's not much 6800 activity here, but I figure this would be
> worth a try.
>
> Has anyone here ever seen or ever had fig-FORTH for the 6800 working?
>
> I have a SWTPC replica system from Bob Applegate / Corsham Technologies,
> and I love it. It came with a complete 64K RAM, as well as the SWIBUG
> monitor, and the monitor code has been extended by Bob/Corsham to interface
> with an SD Card sub-system for floppy disk emulation. This provides the
> original terminal access to the machine with the simple system monitor, and
> also the FLEX OS for running programs. It is a blast to use.
>
> Recently, I took a look around and found the fig-FORTH listing as
> originally published back in 1979, and also a Source Forge site that holds
> an electronic copy:
>
> https://sourceforge.net/projects/asm...th_6800-stuff/ <
> https://sourceforge.net/projects/asm68c/files/fig-forth_6800-stuff/>
>
> I've managed to get the source code to assemble with a cross-assembler
> supplied by Bob/Corsham. It does not produce an exact copy of the original
> code, because the code uses the JMP instruction pretty much exclusively,
> and the assembler substitutes a relative BRA instruction sometimes. So my
> code ends up being several bytes shorter because of saving one byte each
> time a JMP is replaced by a BRA. That said, it appears to me that the code
> matches up with the original listing otherwise.
>
> So my problem is this: When I run the code on my system, fig-FORTH seems
> to sign on, and will accept input from the keyboard (double echos of each
> key typed) but it then does not proceed to interpret the command entered.
> The interesting thing I see by winding my way around in the code is that it
> has already properly performed a bunch of setup and produces the initial
> "Forth-68" sign on, and that has required it to already be using many of
> the Forth commands that were defined by machine language. This indicates to
> me that some of the command interpretation is working. The I/O from/to the
> terminal is by calls to the system monitor I/O routines, and that seems to
> be also working, despite the double echos of the typed characters. It just
> does not proceed to interpret what is typed in at all.
>
> Of course, I have no idea if this code ever worked properly, or if I am
> encountering early buggy code. So I'm looking to see if anyone else has
> ever seen the fig-FORTH working on a 6800 system? Any pointers to good
> working code?
>
> Thanks for listening!
>
> smp
> - - -
> Stephen Pereira
> Bedford, NH 03110
> KB1SXE
>
>
>
It's been 20 years now since VCF 6.
VCF 6 took place October 11-12th, 2003 at the Computer History Museum
The web page for that event is:
https://vcfed.org/events/archives-show-summaries/vcf-west-archives/vcf-west…
Due to the extraordinary efforts of Kay Savetz, Clay Cowgill, and Josh
Malone over the past two years, some of the talks from Vintage Computer
Festival 6 have been recovered!
The recordings were in very poor condition and took extreme measures to
recover. The audio is often not good. Sometimes it is very bad. But this is
the best that they could do from very bad recordings.
C. H. Ting, Jef Raskin, John Ellenby, and Gary Starkweather are dead now,
so these are voices from those who passed.
They have the audio of the five recoverable sessions from VCF 2003 up at
Internet Archive.
Len Shustek – Computer History Museum
https://archive.org/details/len-shustek-computer-history-museum
Bruce Damer – The Joys and Trials of Computer Collecting
https://archive.org/details/bruce-damer-computer-collecting
David Jaffe / C. H. Ting / Kevin Appert / Dwight Elvey – Forth
https://archive.org/details/vcf2003_forth
Jef Raskin – Apple and the Humane Environment
https://archive.org/details/vcf2003_jef-raskin
John Ellenby / Gary Starkweather / Dave Robson / Peter Deutsch / Charles
Simonyi – Xerox Alto panel
https://archive.org/details/xerox-alto-panel
========
Jeff Brace
VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President
Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner
VCF Mid-Atlantic Event Manager
Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity
https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/>
Does anyone have any experience with the IBM BookManager format and the
tools to read it?
I've not found any way to open them on a Mac. No joy on Linux yet
either; there's an old unmaintained tool that uses a 32-bit Java app.
I found 2 Windows tools.
One, IBM Library Reader, won't install on Win11.
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-library-reader-windows
The other a Java app, IBM Softcopy Reader.
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-softcopy-reader
It installs and runs on Win11 and I can print to PDF -- but only 1 page
at a time. Selecting multiple pages give me an empty PDF.
I found the original IBM CUA documentation and want to convert it to
some more modern, open format, but I am not having much luck...
--
Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
Email: lproven(a)cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lproven(a)gmail.com
Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven
IoM: +44 7624 227612 ~ UK: +44 7939-087884
ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
