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VT240 firmware is MicroPower/Pascal; looking for its compiler (MicroPower/Pascal or Oregon Pascal-2 for PDP-11)

by Sol Astrius Phoenix

Hello all, I've been digging into the DEC VT240 firmware in the MAME set, and it appears to be a MicroPower/Pascal system: - The kernel is called with an IOT followed by the primitive's address, with R0 pointing to an argument block, just as described in the MicroPower/Pascal 2.4 Run-Time Services Manual. - The binary, counting and queue semaphores match the layouts in the manual. A queue semaphore contains a waiting-process pointer, first element, last element and count. - The 14 tasks (VT220 parser, ReGIS, Tek 4010/4014, sixel, video, keyboard, Set-Up, modem dialler, print screen and others) are compiled code. Their $SAVn register-save helpers are the same size as those in the MicroPower link maps. - It's a cut-down kernel: about 15 primitives, a reduced structure header, and no ring buffers or names. I'd like to recover readable Pascal for the whole terminal and, ideally, recompile it to the same bytes. To do that, I need the compiler. I'm looking for: 1. A MicroPower/Pascal distribution kit, any version, preferably an early one (1.x, from around 1983, when the VT240 firmware was written). RX50, RX02, RL02 or TK50 images would be great, as would RT-11 or RSX kits. 2. Oregon Software Pascal-2 for the PDP-11. Don Baccus says MicroPower/Pascal was built on Pascal-2. In February 2016 Ed Groenenberg posted here that he'd found an 800 bpi tape of Oregon Pascal V2.0 for RSX. Todd Goodman asked for it, and Pete Lancashire offered to have it read on a 9-track drive. Was it ever imaged? If so, is the image available somewhere? 3. Anything internal to DEC about the VT240 firmware: listings, source, build files or microfiche. The Pascal-2 front end and optimiser survive as source in Don Baccus's mc68000_pascal_2 and oregon_software_compilers repositories, along with a version that builds with Free Pascal. However, they only include the 68k code generator. The PDP-11 backend doesn't seem to be public, so a PDP-11 binary of either compiler would make the difference. Separately, MAME has never had dumps of the VT240's 23-994A9 interrupt encoder PROM, the 23-351A1/352A1/370A1 timing PROMs, the 23-369A1 mapping PROM or the 23-087J5 PAL. If someone with a VT240 board and a programmer could read them, that would settle the last unknowns and help me a great deal. Happy to share the disassembly and notes. Sol

28 minutes

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Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile Market: Advancing Modern Defense Capabilities

by riyaj.reed＠gmail.com

The Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile Market is witnessing steady growth as countries increasingly invest in advanced air combat capabilities and modern defense technologies. BVR missiles enable military aircraft and defense platforms to engage aerial threats beyond the pilot's visual range, making them an important component of modern air warfare. Rising geopolitical tensions, increasing defense budgets, and military modernization programs are driving demand for advanced BVR missile systems. Furthermore, technological advancements in radar guidance, target detection, propulsion, and missile tracking are improving operational capabilities and supporting market expansion. Market Growth and Future Outlook According to Market Research Future, the global Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile Market was valued at approximately USD 4.70 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 8.21 billion by 2035, registering a CAGR of 5.19% during the forecast period 2025–2035. North America holds a significant share of the market due to substantial defense investments and advanced military infrastructure. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness rapid growth, supported by increasing defense modernization initiatives and regional security requirements. Competitive Landscape and Emerging Opportunities Key companies operating in the market include Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin, MBDA, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Thales Group, Saab AB, Kongsberg Gruppen, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. These companies are focusing on research and development, technological innovation, and strategic partnerships to strengthen their market positions. Looking ahead, increasing investments in next-generation defense systems, advanced guidance technologies, and military aircraft modernization are expected to create new growth opportunities. Overall, rising defense requirements and continuous technological advancements will play an important role in shaping the future of the BVR missile market. Read the full report here: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/beyond-visual-range-bvr-missil…

3 days, 23 hours

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Quality of half-inch reel tapes ?

by P Gebhardt

Hello fellow list members, with regard to my dedicated interest to magnetic reel tape drives, I have been wondering what the best options one has nowadays when it comes to the operation of such drives with working reel tape. Most of us are aware of the sticky shed syndrome that, sooner or later, seem to affect every reel tape when they absorb moisture over time. To my understanding, early tape from the 60s used a different binder which is why these tapes seem to be much less prone to this syndrome than tapes from the mid 70s to the 90s. In the end, the way the tapes have been stored plays a crucial role. Then again, all those tapes from the Apollo era were stored adequately in terms of environmental conditions and they also degraded over time. If one is in the process of doing restauration of a tape drive and to perform, let's say, a demonstration of its operation, then we need working tape. But what to do here if there are less and less usable ones? I am talking about scratch tapes, and not tapes that one wants to bake to recover its content and later "let go". How about the last tapes produced from Nashua from the late 90s? Are they worth to put hands on to have reel tape media for the years to come? Back to the tapes of the early generation from the 60s: They seem to be less prone to the sticky shed syndrome than all later generations. Anybody of you has any experience regarding tape media that are worth to look out for? Chuck shared with us once that the early IBM tapes where often in good shape when he had the task to recover data from them. Those wonderful drives made by Control Data, Honeywell, DEC and Pertec (to name a few) are great examples of electro-mechanical systems and it would be great to have some working media in future for these... Cheers, Pierre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.digitalheritage.de

4 days, 22 hours

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Going through manuals, Fabritek stuff and a pdp12 manual that might not exist

by Chris Zach

Hi all! Going through some of my manuals and need to clean up space. I have a number of pdp12 manuals, mulule list, general system, things that are on bitsavers. However is there a copy of this online? PDP12 Field services department Adjustment procedure dec-12-hgza-d If not I'll scan it and stick it on crystel.com Meantime the Fabritek manual for the core memory power supply is here: https://www.crystel.com/pdp/fabritek_p3_power_supply_manual.pdf Anyone want to swap these manuals for anything? Take care! Chris

5 days, 20 hours

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3200 FCI RCA magnetic tape

by zeljko.soric＠gmail.com

I have a magnetic tape with some source code Fortran programs on it dating back to 1979 and am looking for someone to transfer the tape content onto a USB stick. I think the tape was last used on an UNIVAC 1180 computer.

1 week, 4 days

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Radio Shack 9-volt NiCd charger

by Van Snyder

Does anybody want a Radio Shack 9-volt Ni-Cd battery charger, catalog number 23-131, or is it now E-waste?

1 week, 4 days

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Identification of Core Memory Unit

by Carlton Geckler

Requesting assistance in identifying a ferrite core memory unit. My father was an RCA, then Univac, field engineer on-site at Connecticut General Life Insurance in Bloomfield, CT, in the late ’60s and ’70s, and brought this home. Large cores on a coarse grid, hand-laced harnesses, U.S. Components MI-75 connectors, stenciled position numbers 876 and 825, frame stamped “Ser. 175.” Mounted under plexiglass. Suspect RCA 301 or 3301 or early Univac. Does anyone recognize it or know what CG ran in that era? Photos attached. Thanks, Carlton

1 week, 5 days

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Checking my NOS VT100 Flyback

by Rob Jarratt

I got a NOS replacement flyback for my VT100 recently. It tests good in a ringing test so I am confident it is a good one. I will be trying it out soon under some carefully controlled conditions (particularly a light-bulb based current limiter) because I am not sure if the monitor board is good and I don't want to ruin the flyback, because my chances of getting another one are remote. Mine seems to be for an older revision because the monitor board has Germanium transistors. I decided to try to measure it to determine the specs and also to compare it to the failed one. I got some puzzling results that don't appear to be explained by shorted turns. I posted this question on the VCF forums, but I don't know if everyone on this list is on that forum, so I thought I would widen the net, as I want to be really sure before I attempt to use this new flyback. The details of my measurements are in this VCF post https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/vt100-terminal-just-died-i-think-…. Can anyone help me to interpret the results? Thanks Rob

2 weeks

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VCF Ontario update!

by Jeffrey Brace

VCF Ontario has been postponed until the summer of 2028. As a new event, we’re giving ourselves more time to plan and put together a great show for the vintage computing community. The exact dates will be announced once confirmed. In the meantime, get your retro computing fix at VCF Montréal 2.0 on November 7–8, 2026, at Champlain College Saint-Lambert! Come celebrate vintage computers and connect with fellow enthusiasts. Find out more at cvcfed.org Purchase your tickets here: https://events.humanitix.com/vcf-montreal-2026-2-0?c=cvcfed_web Thank you for your enthusiasm and support—keep those CRTs glowing! #VCFOntario #VCFMontreal #RetroComputing #VintageComputers

2 weeks, 1 day

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Solaris 9 Supplemental Software disks?

by dave＠mitton.com

I have a Sun Ultra Sparc 5 workstation still in working order. With two hard drives, floppy, CD. "Back in the day" I would leave it idling in the basement running a Samba server But after some power failures and my poor responses to fsck, I managed to end up with a corrupted name_to_major file on the primary boot disk I've recently tried to get the software in working order, to recover any useful files, and sell the system. I replaced the TOY chip. And used a Solaris 9 CD to boot the system. I tried various ways to rebuild that file, but failed. Eventually, I asked the Solaris CD to rebuild the system slice. (I only really care about the data slices) It decided on the system slice on the second disk in the system,(which also had an older version of Solaris on it) and I can now boot that. So now that I have a running basic Solaris 9 system, I'm looking for any of the Supplemental software disks with any useful tools on them. It seems that the old time Sun websites are drying up and this is too old for the ones I found to carry. Does anyone know any current online sources I could get these disk images? Thanks, Dave.

2 weeks, 3 days

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