Today another giant in the ‘microcomputer’ industry has passed: Thomas
Eugene Kurtz a computer scientist, co-creator/inventor with John Kemeny of
the BASIC language that I grew up with. Somewhat dates me!
Happy computing,
Murray 🙂
To my knowledge Intel announced the C8086 processor in Nov. 1978. This
processor set the stage for the current technological age. It continues to
adapt and its future seems bright!
Happy computing,
Murray 🙂
Dear list denizens,
I've got a mental itch that needs to be scratched. Before me sits a
yellow 3-hole reel of IBM 556 bpi 1/2" tape. Fortunately, the leader is
intact and carries the number H241032488. Does this perchance give any
clue as to when the tape was manufactured? I know that IBM still
carried 556-tested tape in their catalog as late as 1966.
Any clues?
Thanks,
--Chuck
Bill
A few years ago I took your advice on interfacing a Fanuc tape reader without reels, it has happily read tapes to its host since then.
The interface card was the common A20B-007-0750/07B, with 24V, 5V & Gnd on CNT3, and IO signals on CNT1.
Notably the 24V currents can be high, eg 1A2 when in auto.
I now have a Fanuc A860-0056-T020 tape reader with reels on the bench and know that several years ago you used the same model.
Two specific questions:
- does the CNT1 connector harbour any surprises ? I presume at worst it is a superset of the A20B-007-0750/07B CNT1 interface
- how did you feed 24V into the beastie
o via CNT1 p23 and p24 ? ie on two ribbon cable cores
o I note that TP2 provides 5V/Gnd terminals, but 24V has no terminals ?
The Fanuc 6T "manual", helpfully available on your web site, indicates (Fig 3.6a) that the tape readers (with/out reels) are fed 24V and 5V over the ribbon cable. And, that the with reels motors run at 100V.
I would be very grateful for an indication of how you implemented the power hook up and intimation of the currents / power levels to be expected.
Hopefully, knowledge will keep the magic smoke inside the system.
Best Regards
Martin
A while back I started studying more about the Sharp PC-5000 (and had it up
and running at VCFSW in 2023). I'm now coming back to that project, and
one thing I was never able to find was a compatible 5.25 disk drive.
I've collected some information about this system at here:
https://voidstar.blog/sharp-pc-5000/
And I am hoping to put together a video about out. But one challenging
aspect is that its LCD screen is difficult to record (lots of
reflections). And despite having lots of schematic documentation now, I'm
still not savvy enough to try to export its screen content to an external
device that might have a backlight.
From my notes, as I recall.... The 37-pin connector at the back of the
PC-5000 is not the same as the 37-pin connector at the back of the IO card
with the original IBM PC 5150. I believe the Sharp product model number
I am looking for CE-510F (which might be the same as MZ-80B in certain
markets).
This isn't an urgent thing - the Bubble Memory modules of this PC-5000 are
still all working fine and make the system functional. But I do have a set
of disk with the system that might be interesting to try out. So just
broadcasting here, on the off-chance someone might be familiar with these
and know of a stash of accessories (most likely within a Japanese-speaking
community, where I think Sharp products were generally more popular).
Thanks!
Steve v*
Hi all,
I have a HP 1640B that I'm trying to get to work. However I can't find any information about it, and while the machine itself it straightforward enough (and I remember enough from when I was using it in my first dayjob) I can not find anything about how to use the GPIB interface that it has.
The reason I'm interested is, we've finally managed to add GPIB support to the PDP2011-MINC fpga implementation, and I'd like to test against a different target than the relatively modern Philips/Fluke counter I'm now using. And the 1640B is the only other GPIB instrument I have...
The HP doesn't seem to know the ID? command (that causes an error message on the screen). It does respond to a newline (the standard is-this-listener-present test that the MINC code implements), so at least something is working.
Does anyone here have any docs on the HP 1640B? It'd be very helpful at least to know which GPIB commands are implemented.
thanks in advance!
Sytse
Hello All,
I got a CDC 152 Logic Card Tester.
This one does have some kind of a patch panel to configure the cordwood module test procedure.
I did not find any reference to this unit as well as documentation while querying the internet.
Any hints to docs?
Best
Andreas
If I remember right I was told back in the early 70s by our IBM CE that physical damage could be done to our model 30 or 40 if we ran a program that did an Assembler instruction, B * For those non-Assembler people that is an instruction to branch to the location of the instruction. I think it might have caused a heat problem in the core or CCROS or TROS.
Possible? Or is my 76 year old brain hallucinating?
A lot happened in the computer industry in early Nov. in the past: Intel's
x86 PC architecture was born; lo & behold Windows ME was released upon the
world; for the corporate in us the IBM Portable Computer was introduced.
The PC world hasn't been the same since.
Happy computing,
Murray 🙂
