- cctalk - classiccmp.org

by Ali

Hello, Does anyone have a REASONABLY priced source for 6" x 14" anti-static bags with zip lock tops? I've looked on eBay and Amazon with no luck. I have also looked online and have only found heat sealable bags. I am not sure if it is the sizing which the issue or what as other size bags seems to be easy to find. TIA! -Ali

2 years, 8 months

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100% Tape Seal (soft kind) failure

by Shoppa, Tim

I've been reporting on 9-track tape seal failures over at least the past 2 decades here. I first noticed the problem in the very early 2000's, and thought it was just random onesy-twosy failures, possibly contributed to by ozone in LA region, but over the past 20 years the failures have progressed. Sometime in the past couple weeks the last of my "soft" 9-track tape seals failed, because there is nothing but broken tape seals left hanging in the Wright-Line rack that had all my "new" aka 3M Blackwatch 703 tapes. Very very few of the older (I think of them as IBM or 70's/80's style) "hard plastic" tape seals failed. Tim N3QE

2 years, 8 months

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Any working Datapoint 2200 systems?

by Steve Lewis

I've been looking for a video or image that shows what font the original Datapoint 2200 used. It's not shown in the manual. There is one vintage image with the office lady and the DP2200 on the desk- but the font isn't very clear in that. In any modern video about the DP2200, none of them seem to power it on -- which is certainly understandable. From what I've read, the power supply of that system is prone to failure. Also, the system is hard-coded to load from Tape 1 -- which means both the tape drive, and tape media, still needs to be in good working order (which would be pretty rare after this time). In "the" DP2200 book, it only briefly mentions that the original tape software was developed "on an HP system" (without any elaboration that I could tell on which HP system that was). Nothing in the manual suggests the original DP2200 could "program itself" (i.e. no built in machine code monitor -- those TTL chips had one strict boot up sequence: load from tape 1). If there was a read error or no tape available, I'm curious if any message showed on the CRT. So, I was just wondering if there was any known pre-1973 Datapoint 2200's that are still working? (and/or if any HD video of them powered on and legible font can be seen) Or any other more current system that we know for sure used the same font? Thanks! -Steve

2 years, 8 months

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Modern Replacement for H7140 in PDP 11/24

by Rob Jarratt

Given all the troubles I have had with the H7140 in my PDP 11/24 I am considering whether to replace it with modern equivalents, installed inside the H7140 enclosure. I am a bit puzzled by the specs listed in the PDP 11/24 Maintenance Card, it suggests the PSU outputs +12V and -12V from the memory inverter/memory regulator, but the specs for the cards don't mention 12V so I don't know if I need 12V from the PSU. My memory board is an M8722-BC (MS11-MB). I can't find a manual or printset for this memory, so I am not sure what voltages it will need, although I suspect it only needs +5V, +15V and -15V. Is that right? I know I will also have to replace the fans, because the ones in the machine are AC and need 35V. Thanks Rob

2 years, 8 months

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Inline Serial Device?

by W2HX

Hello all, I am looking for a device that sits transparently in an RS-232 serial line and upon seeing a particular code go over the serial line ((or sequence of codes) will actual a relay (or a transistor). Something with two DB25s or DE9s and is configurable to what code will trigger the output? Some kind of box? Does anyone know of such a thing? I guess it could be cobbled up with a microcontroller, but hoping to just get something "off the shelf." Thank you 73 Eugene W2HX Subscribe to my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@w2hx

2 years, 8 months

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NEC APC I / III available USA Massachusetts

by Rich Bramante

I am downsizing. These have been in storage for quite some time. I am about 25 miles N of Boston, MA and S of Nashua NH. These are both extremely heavy so no interest in shipping. Unfortunately I do not have any software for either system. The I is fairly clean and the kb is effectively new-old-stock with the box. Possibly unused. Powers on, green mono, single drive. The III powers on but I can't get a cursor on video (there is a flash at power cycle). It has seen more use than the I (yellowing, case screws missing). Photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6vbMnVZsZEkrpFGc8 e-mail if interested rich.bramante+cctech(a)gmail.com. Thank you.

2 years, 8 months

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Seeking a Sun monitor with 13W3 interface

by hi＠senzilla.io

Hi everyone, I'm seeking to buy a Sun Microsystems monitor with a 13W3 interface. Ideally somewhere around central Europe for pickup in person. But I'm happy to consider shipping options as well. Background: I'm looking to complete a Sun Ultra 1 build that I've been collecting parts for 🙂 Best regards, D.O.

2 years, 8 months

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HP Computer Museum update

by davidkcollins2＠gmail.com

Those who have an interest in vintage HP computing will most likely know of the HP Computer Museum (www.hpmuseum.net). The HP Computer Museum is the result of over 30 years of work by Jon Johnston who collected HP equipment and documentation and systematically catalogued, photographed and commented on almost all of the over 7,000 items in the collection. After Jon's death in 2016, I kept the museum website going and worked on restoring many of the more notable items in the collection to working order, but the museum has largely been static for the last six years. Jon's wish was that the collection would eventually find its way either to HP or to one of the major computer museums, and I'm pleased to advise that the Hewlett Packard Company Archives (HPCA) has agreed to take over the entire collection and website. With only a few exceptions, the museum's entire collection of HP hardware, software and manuals has now been shipped from Melbourne, Australia, to HPCA's archival company - Heritage Werks Inc, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The equipment will be catalogued and preserved as a record of HP's early years in computing, with the ability for HP offices to borrow equipment for display purposes. The HP Computer Museum website (www.hpmuseum.net <http://www.hpmuseum.net> ), which has long been a popular reference resource for enthusiasts and industry on HP's computing history, will continue and be maintained by the HPCA, through Heritage Werks, with the intent of ensuring ongoing access to the wealth of information collected by Jon and many other HP enthusiasts over the last 30 years. Over the coming weeks and months, the website will be relocated to new hosting platforms and the curatorship will transfer to Heritage Werks. This will bring to a close my role in maintaining Jon's legacy in HP computing. It's been a privilege to be responsible for the collection and the website and to see the value they bring to the vintage computing community. David Collins

2 years, 8 months

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Exabyte recovery

by Warner Losh

I have a few old exabyte tapes of possible historic value. Who can I pay to get them recovered that has the best chance of success? Warner

2 years, 8 months

8
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GLACIER-01 in the DataRover 840

by Cameron Kaiser

Cracked open my General Magic DataRover 840 to find out what specific MIPS R3000 variant is in it. However, the only chips that are large enough to be CPUs are *two* with Bowser logos marked (C)GMI JAPAN GLACIER-01 F840276. The other chips of notable size are easily identified as RAM, a sound/modem codec and the inverter for the LCD backlight. I've seen systems with two CPUs that handle two halves of an LCD (the Tandy PC-1 and Laser 50 come to mind), but none with a CPU this large. Any General Magic alums on the list who can explain more about these? -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- "Endian Little Hate We" -- credits from Connectix Virtual PC 6 for Mac -----

2 years, 8 months

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CoreNET PC-51 info (IBM 5110)

by Steve Lewis

Is anyone familiar with PC-51 and/or CoreNET? These are IBM 5110/5120 related tools developed by an individual in the early 1980s. My understanding is PC-51 was an emulator that ran BASIC programs from the IBM 5110. One keyword new in the IBM 5110 was the "FORMS" keyboard, and you could define input fields (including type-formatting constraints, like sequence of letters and numbers) -- and once defined, you could relatively-easily store all the contents of the fields to a file (on tape or disk). I'm not entirely sure what format PC-51 supported (e.g. could read in ASCII text files containing the BASIC programs?). But I always imagined those customer data entry forms in old Radio Shack or Sears stores -- large department stores -- being developed in something like this. And CoreNET, I think was some kind of "null modem cable" that let the IBM 5110 communicate with an IBM PC 5150. The IBM 5110 has 3x DB25 connectors at the backside (and 1x DB15 cable like what became the "standard" joystick port on some systems in mid-late 1980s). The external tape and disk system would use these connectors -- with software driven from the ROS. I've always imagined it would be possible to "bit bang" across these external IO pins with some PALM-assembly -- the machine should be fast enough to encode 7-bit ASCII at 300 baud across those pins, maybe 1200. I'm not sure if CoreNET used or required any async card or the parallel communication card (that did IEEE-488), i.e. not sure if it was more than just a cable. But what's more interesting - apparently Sony is now the owner of both these assets, PC51 and CoreNET. Maybe Hal Prewitt sold it to them? Why would Sony be interested in it? Anyone happen to know anyone who works at Sony, or ideas on where to start on even "asking them" about it? Might be a lost cause these days. Anyone happen to have a copy of the old manuals of either of these? -Steve

2 years, 8 months

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Alacron i860 boards

by Tony Jones

I recently bought an Alacron FT200-AT dual i860 card. Basically the earlier ISA version of this: http://www.alacron.org/clientuploads/FT-200-PCI.PDF It included two manuals but no software. Alacron seems still in business but they didn't reply to email. I've called twice and noone answers their phone, it just goes to an anonymous voicemail. Does anyone have any software? I couldn't find anything via Google or on bitsavers. Thanks Tony

2 years, 8 months

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Replacement tachometer sensor for DEC RA80/1/2 drives ...

by Robert Armstrong

I have three DEC RA8x drives that have failed (all of them fault with "spin error") because of bad photo-interrupter tachometer sensors. After talking to a few friends, it sounds like this is a pretty common fault. Photo sensors like this are fairly common, even today, but the specific parts DEC used are weird and unobtainable. I designed a little PC board that uses an ITR9606 photo interrupter, a 2N3904 and a resistor as a replacement. Works great - gives a beautiful 5V P-P clean waveform and with the PCB it's a mechanical drop in replacement. Just screws right onto the original mounting holes and plugs into the original connector. I put the PCB design up on OSH Park https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/z8DSkQsP If anybody needs one you're welcome to order some PCBs and build your own. The ITR9606 is as common as dirt, and you can buy bags of ten on Amazon for a few bucks. I've also put a few pictures on the Facebook DEC Computer Users group. I'd post the pictures here, but I don't think cctalk accepts attachments. It's not really worth making a web page for it. Bob

2 years, 8 months

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IBM 4863 monitor sync problem (PCjr display)

by Cameron Kaiser

Got the Peanuts out today for a shakedown. They work well, or at least they did until about 5 minutes into playing Kings Quest when the h-sync on the monitor suddenly went out. Colours show and match what should be on screen but the horizontal display is scrambled. It does it on both Peanuts, so I think something in the display blew. Anyone recognize this issue? Seems like it should be a straightforward fix; I can't imagine this monitor is particularly complex internally. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- Put down your guns, it's Weasel Stomping Day! ------------------------------

2 years, 8 months

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Shipping help in Brunswick, GA

by John H. Reinhardt

So, I screwed up and in my excitement to find a DEC BA123 chassis (and MVII parts) I bid on an Ebay auction where there is no shipping and it's "Local Pickup Only". The problem is that I'm near Fort Worth TX and the MVII/BA123 is in Brunswick, GA and I don't really have the time to make the 2000+ mile round trip drive to pick it up. Does anyone here know of a reliable shipping service in Brunswick, GA? Or suggestions for outfits to check out? Google hasn't shown me much other that UPS and FedEx stores. Failing that, is there anyone near enough willing to pick it up in Brunswick that might want it for themselves? Ebay listing https://www.ebay.com/itm/334615827742? -- John H. Reinhardt

2 years, 8 months

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Re: Seeking DEC BN25B-nn Optical Fiber Cable

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

> From: pbirkel(a)gmail.com > Sent: Sunday, November 6, 2022 2:50 AM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Subject: Seeking DEC BN25B-nn Optical Fiber Cable > > This is a twin/duplex cable of varying length with 100/140 um "multimode" cores and > SMA-906 connectors. SMA-906 connectors have the stepped center-pin, compared to > the SMA-905 which is a simpler straight pin. It's used, for example, by the LAN Bridge 100. > > For additional information see pages 169 through 335 (of 452) in > http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/comm/EK-CMIV7-RM-005_Communications_Options _Minireference_Manual_Vol7_Aug88.pdf I'm reliably informed that the cable actually has a light beige jacket (not orange), so not so easy to spot in your tangled pile of cables :-{. paul

2 years, 8 months

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Beehive Topper help needed

by Harten

Hi folks! Is there anyone out there, who can help me with my Beehive Topper CP/M machine? The machine starts up with his self-test going o.k. Then it requests for the boot disk or pressing RETURN to start the Monitor V2.0 program. The Monitor program seems to work o.k. Booting a disk (written from the images out of the Maslin archive) puts some cryptic characters of the screen and hangs the machine. The images are for a Topper II, mine is a model Topper. Is this the problem? I have found very very little about the Topper machines, no manuals, no software, no schematics. R. Harten --

2 years, 8 months

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Beehive Topper help needed

by Harten

Liam, i'm sorry, but Chuck is right. Your link directs to a photo showing a terminal. The Topper was put into market as a intelligent terminal for stand alone use as a CP/M machine and for remote issues as a IBM compatible terminal. In fact the Topper has a 8085 CPU for the terminal part and a Z80 for the CP/M part. On booting the system disk you should be asked which functionalilty you want. There is a marketing brochure i have found in the www, where the Topper is mentioned beside some other Beehive terminals. Rolf

2 years, 8 months

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Seeking DEC BN25B-nn Optical Fiber Cable

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

This is a twin/duplex cable of varying length with 100/140 um "multimode" cores and SMA-906 connectors. SMA-906 connectors have the stepped center-pin, compared to the SMA-905 which is a simpler straight pin. It's used, for example, by the LAN Bridge 100. For additional information see pages 169 through 335 (of 452) in http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/comm/EK-CMIV7-RM-005_Communications_Options _Minireference_Manual_Vol7_Aug88.pdf Probably it has an orange sheath so it would be somewhat distinctive in your tangled pile of cables :-}. Thank you for looking, paul

2 years, 8 months

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Re: Whitechapel Computer Works

by Tony Jones

I attended Queen Mary College from 86-89. They had just received several dozen MG1s. I believe the WCW founders came from QMC. By the final year a good 1/4 we're non-functional as the keyboards has failed and by then WCW has gone bankrupt a second time (for good). I remember one the programmers trying to encourage the more enterprising 3rd year students to take on building a IBM keyboard adapter as their final year project :-) I'd love one for nostalgias sake but I live in the US now though shipping to my mum's may be possible though no clue if they can handle 120v. Lots of good memories. Eliot Miranda worked at QMC and had ported his BrouHaHa smalltalk to the MG1. I remember using Occam (emulator), Lisp, ML, Modula2 and C plus of course Smalltalk 80 all on the MG1. Tony

2 years, 8 months

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Whitechapel Computer Works

by Jonathan Katz

Hi everyone! I'm curious; other than Wikipedia what do we know about Whitechapel workstations? Do any of us have some working in our collections, with software, disk dumps, etc? Cheers!

2 years, 8 months

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Disk imaging n00b

by Grant Taylor

Hi, n00b alert Does anyone have a 101 level boot strap guide for someone wanting to get into creating better-than-dd disk images? I'm finding myself back in a position where I want to image / preserve multiple 5¼ & 3½ inch disks. I think all of them are PC compatible disks. Probably standard FAT-12 and a handful of super capacity disk formats from the likes of IBM / Microsoft where they tried to squeeze 1.6 (?) MB on a 3½ inch disk. I have an internal 5¼ inch floppy drive that is in unknown condition (I've never used / tested it since I got it). I also have (at least one) 5¼ disk that I acquired as a scratch monkey disk to test on before working on disks that I care more about. I was thinking about acquiring a Kryoflux in the next few months and starting to collect better quality images of disks. I recently saw someone on Twitter suggest that Kryoflux wasn't the best route to go and suggested a SuperCard Pro instead. I had been using the dd command under Linux against a USB connected 3½ inch floppy drive for most things. But I've come to learn that's not as good as some people would like to see preserved. So, does anyone have a 101 level boot strap guide for someone wanting to get into creating better-than-dd disk images? -- Grant. . . . unix || die

2 years, 8 months

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Re: Whitechapel Computer Works

by Tom Stepleton

On Fri, 4 Nov 2022 17:53:10 PM Tony Duell <ard.p850ug1(a)gmail.com> wrote: > More seriously I have a working (last time I turned it on) MG1 with > monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Also have the technical notes manual and > an installation disk kit. Another chap I know (I think he's here but > I'll let him speak up) scanned the manual and coppied the disks last > year, so there is a backup.This is a 32016-based machine of course. It > Yes hello, this is me. In fact, if you would like to see the Whitechapel MG-1 in my possession in operation, come up tomorrow (Sunday) to the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, where the system is on public display alongside an AT with a busy bunch of Transputers in it. It's all part of the Retro Computing Festival that's underway this weekend: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/69485/Retro-Computer-Festival-2022-S… If you can't make it to Cambridge, then when the machine is running (which it isn't at the moment --- wait for between 10 AM and 5 PM GMT Sunday), you can visit the machine over HTTP at http://mg-1.uk . (Note no https.) Working MG-1s and related machines (like the colour CG-1) are rare owing to leaky batteries (what else). I'm very grateful to Tony for his generous sharing of MG-1 materials --- it helps make it possible to show off the MG-1 in this way! I've got everything on Google Drive, with links available on the website just mentioned. Since it's liable to be down when you're reading this, here's an archive.org link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210625124716/http://mg-1.uk/ Note also this page with links to 42nix 2.6 OS media, also owing to Tony: https://web.archive.org/web/20210625124758/http://mg-1.uk/42nix/42nix.html You will probably have to edit archive.org's links out to Google Drive in order for them to work, but I think it should be pretty easy to do this. I have been meaning to make disk images of my best-effort reconstruction of a clean 42nix 2.5 installation (a predecessor to the version linked above), which I derived from a disk image taken from one of Jim Austin's MG-1s. There is not a vast difference for the user at the console between 2.5 and 2.6, although they did fix a bug in the TCP/IP implementation that allows a forking HTTP server running on 2.5 to cause a kernel panic. I suspect revisions to TCP/IP were required to get NFS working, which, I remember concluding, had been a new feature for 2.6. I've never been able to get my hands on GENIX. All sorts of spare boards, including things like never-populated bare > RAM boards for the Hitech,. > It took me a lot longer than I like to admit to realise that HITECH was derived from wHITECHapel... Speaking of discoveries, I found out today that the Centre for Computing History is in possession of a couple Hitech MIPS machines (sans cases). Apparently they might have some media on QIC tapes as well. Tony, I'll try to get you in touch with the person I was speaking with about this. Meanwhile TNMOC at Bletchley are in possession of three MG-1s. --Tom

2 years, 8 months

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LC:M+L (Living Computer Museum)

by Michael Brutman

My apologies if this topic is a sore point for some of you. Their abrupt closing wasn't that long ago. Does anybody have any insight on what is going on there? The web site has not been updated in about 2.5 years. The world seems to be moving on; it would be nice to know if we're ever going to see the museum re-open, and in what capacity. I realize the people are gone and scattered and it's never going to be the same experience if it re-opens. But there are plenty of us who still believe in the need for such a place, and starting from scratch would be difficult. -Mike (Off-list replies are welcomed if that makes the discussion easier ...)

2 years, 9 months

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Re: list problem with digestmode

by Robert Feldman

>Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2022 20:44:34 -0700 >From: Stan Sieler <sieler(a)allegrosupport.com> >Subject: [cctalk] list problem with digestmode > >Hi, > >Is anyone else getting 4 to 10 digest emails a day, each with 4 to 8 >messages? >(cctalk) (Instead of one a day) <snip> >Stan Sieler Same here. I have not changed my email service, so that is not the cause. The change began when the new list server went online. Bob

2 years, 9 months

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list problem with digestmode

by Stan Sieler

Hi, Is anyone else getting 4 to 10 digest emails a day, each with 4 to 8 messages? (cctalk) (Instead of one a day) I have received four digest emails since noon: 2:57PM (8 msgs), 3:47 PM (7 msgs), 5:44 PM (7 msgs), and 8:24 PM (6 msgs). (Yes, all embedded messages are different.) I tried emailing the list owner, but the only response I got was from a moderator (Lawrence W, who specifically said he wasn't the owner), who wasn't able to help me. (He did suggest checking my mode...see below.) I tried going to the website to "login" and check my status...it said my email address wasn't known (which, of course, was patently false...since I'm receiving emails :) So, I tried: subscribe with sieler(a)allegro.com, ensure I have 'digest' mode on. And.....still get multiple messages per day ... *not* what a digest is! This started happening on the order of 3 to 6 months ago. I used to get a single digest a day, with 20 to 50 messages in it. The multiple messages (even though they're smaller) are really annoying. As a possible clue...somewhere around March we (my business partner and I) sold our domain, allegro.com, in the process of retiring. The new owner is providing two years of email forwarding of sieler(a)allegro.com to sieler(a)allegrosupport.com (the latter is a gmail corporate managed account, as allegro.com had been prior to March). (Oh, I tried "logging" in via both domains with no luck.) If the forwarding is a factor, I could try to get allegro/allegrosupport unsubscribed and use a third account :) thanks! Stan Sieler sieler(a)allegro.com sieler(a)allegrosupport.com sieler(a)gmail.com

2 years, 9 months

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Re: 50 Years of the HP 3000

by mark＠markesystems.com

From: Gavin Scott <gavin(a)learn.bio> Subject: [cctalk] 50 Years of the HP 3000 > Well, here we are. If you boot up a classic HP 3000 system and simply > hit return when it asks you for the date and time, it will default to: As it turns out, I have a complete, working HP 3000 917/LX system, with printers, a line printer with stand, 14-port terminal concentrator, four HP 700-series terminals (one new in box, one likely dead), SCSI disk storage module with a couple of 2GB drives, DAT drive, and all of the necessary cables. It all seems to work perfectly (with the exception of the one worn-out terminal), and I booted it up a couple of months ago with no problems. The passwords have been removed from the MANAGER.SYS account, so the system is now wide open. There's also some software: ASK/ManMan, FORTRAN, and of course TurboIMAGE and Query; also a copy of Reflection (Windows emulator for HP terminals). There's also in excess of 100 pounds of documentation, and some boxes of paper, including green-bar (remember that?). The thing is, despite aspirations from my youth, I really don't need a complete timesharing computer system in my house, so I'm looking to sell the whole thing as a package. It seems possible that someone on this list might be interested, and I'm also open to suggestions about other places I could list it. I took it to the west coast Vintage Computer Faire this year, and there were several nibbles, but obviously I still have it. It's currently located in the San Francisco Bay area, but I commute semi-regularly between there and Portland OR, and could be fairly easily persuaded to deliver it anywhere in either of those areas, or in between. (The system will fit in a mini-van - barely - or comfortably in a full-sized pick-up truck with room to spare.) I'd like to see $2000, but will cheerfully entertain offers (cheerfully if they're reasonable, or met with hysterical laughter if not). Feel free to contact me off-list if you'd like more details and/or pictures. Thanks! ~~ Mark Moulding

2 years, 9 months

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14 DZ11's for sale/whatever

by Chris Zach

I have a box here of 14 DZ11 Unibus 8 line serial port interfaces. And I have no clue why I have them. Anyone need some? Otherwise I'll Ebay/recycle them. CZ

2 years, 9 months

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50 Years of the HP 3000

by Gavin Scott

Well, here we are. If you boot up a classic HP 3000 system and simply hit return when it asks you for the date and time, it will default to: HP32002E.01.00 WHICH OPTION <WARMSTART/COOLSTART>? COO ANY CHANGES? N DATE (M/D/Y)? WED, NOV 1, 1972, 12:00 AM LOG FILE NUMBER 64 ON *WELCOME* :HELLO OPERATOR.SYS;HIPRI 0:00/13/SP#6/SPOOLED OUT 0:00/#S1/14/LOGON FOR: OPERATOR.SYS,OPERATOR ON LDEV #20 HP3000 / MPE V E.01.00 (BASE E.01.00). WED, NOV 1, 1972, 12:00 AM which is exactly 50 years ago today. November 1972 was the month that the very first HP 3000 systems were shipped to customers. Shortly after this, those initial deliveries were all hastily recalled when it quickly became clear that they were not yet capable of living up to their specifications. The 3000 however would go on to recover from this event and eventually became one of HP's most successful and profitable product lines, and one of the most beloved computer systems of all time, regularly beating out IBM, DEC, DG, and others in customer satisfaction surveys. For some stories about the earliest days of the platform, I refer you to the words of Bob Green http://www.robelle.com/smugbook/classic.html and Bill Foster http://www.teamfoster.com/hewlett-packard who were there. The original "Classic" CISC HP 3000 systems live on today through Dave Bryan's most excellent SIMH simulation http://simh.trailing-edge.com/hp/ and I have a turn-key setup which will let you have your own 1980-vintage HP 3000 system up and running in a couple minutes which is downloadable from my Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/file/d/16vaNUrmfs2aQpjdQijG4PZmJaNu3hfcz (Save the zip file using the download link in the upper right then extract it anywhere convenient and see the README file for further instructions) This only includes a SIMH binary for Windows, but you can also build a SIMH executable from Dave Bryan's source above for your platform of choice and use the rest of my infrastructure. MPE Forever. G.

2 years, 9 months

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LC:M+L (Living Computer Museum)

by Kevin Anderson

The LCM has some of stuff (a Zenith Z150 PC computer, including monitor and an early paged memory expansion that I installed, a couple of Apple IIc computers and monitors, a printer, but probably more important, a bunch of original MS-DOS software diskettes and manuals from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s (including several versions of MS-DOS, FORTRAN, MS Word for DOS, an early version of Lotus-123, and other earlier software) that I used to complete my doctoral degree and first start my college teaching position. But I understood at the time that Paul's LCM was actually "buying" my computer stuff, as they reached out to me in interest to acquire the entire lot of materials (after I had emailed an availability list to this very same cctalk group) and accepted the prices I requested without question as I recall, plus I was reimbursed for all shipping costs. And so I interpreted the transaction at the time that I no longer had rights (other than visitation rights should I ever visited Seattle) to these items. I may be unclear in my understanding from the time, but at the same time none of what the LCM received from me was so rare or unique as to my wanting to ever request it back again. I was thankful at the time that I had a place for this computer stuff to go. I would be sad, however, if any of it might be now in a dumpster or landfill, or has been sold to someone else, and so I guess I also don't want to hear that news either way. Kevin Anderson Dubuque, Iowa

2 years, 9 months

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Re: LC:M+L (Living Computer Museum)

by Kevin Anderson

The LCM has some of stuff (a Zenith Z150 PC computer, including monitor and an early paged memory expansion that I installed, a couple of Apple IIc computers and monitors, a printer, but probably more important, a bunch of original MS-DOS software diskettes and manuals from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s (including several versions of MS-DOS, FORTRAN, MS Word for DOS, an early version of Lotus-123, and other earlier software) that I used to complete my doctoral degree and first start my college teaching position. But I understood at the time that Paul's LCM was actually "buying" my computer stuff, as they reached out to me in interest to acquire the entire lot of materials (after I had emailed an availability list to this very same cctalk group) and accepted the prices I requested without question as I recall, plus I was reimbursed for all shipping costs. And so I interpreted the transaction at the time that I no longer had rights (other than visitation rights should I ever visited Seattle) to these items. I may be unclear in my understanding from the time, but at the same time none of what the LCM received from me was so rare or unique as to my wanting to ever request it back again. I was thankful at the time that I had a place for this computer stuff to go. I would be sad, however, if any of it might be now in a dumpster or landfill, or has been sold to someone else, and so I guess I also don't want to hear that news either way. Kevin Anderson Dubuque, Iowa

2 years, 9 months

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Does anyone have a copy of DAEMON Tools Ultra 4.x install file(s)?

by Grant Taylor

Hi, Does anyone have a copy of DAEMON Tools Ultra 4.x install file(s)? I just purchased a lifetime license based on the documentation on their site. The problem is that they don't have 4.x available for download. I just need the install files and I'll use my personal license. N.B. I need this to work on an ancient Windows XP system that I'm messing with as part of retro computing. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

2 years, 9 months

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Bubble Memory

by Anders Nelson

On eBay, 10pcs for $75: https://www.ebay.com/itm/394216367144 =] -- Anders Nelson

2 years, 9 months

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[FS] Power Macs in Victoria, Australia - Apple Workgroup Server 9150 also 8100, 7100, 6200

by Toby Thain

Hi list A relative is selling these Macs in Victoria, Australia: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/204136123378 Hoping they can find a good home. --Toby PS. Sorry if posted twice, I am in the middle of changing my email address to toby -at- telegraphics dot net

2 years, 9 months

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[FS] Power Macs in Victoria, Australia - Apple Workgroup Server 9150 also 8100, 7100, 6200

by Toby Thain

Hi list A relative is selling these Macs in Victoria, Australia: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/204136123378 Hoping they can find a good home. --Toby

2 years, 9 months

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RDI BriteLite IPX keeps going to white screen

by Cameron Kaiser

I've been trying to do a little work on the RDI BriteLite IPX I have here, but when it runs more than a few minutes the LCD just blanks out white. The machine seems to still respond to commands, so it seems like it's something with the display hardware. Even powered off and back on it won't go back to normal until I let it sit for awhile. I suspect heat is part of the issue and it certainly feels warm; there are two loud cooling fans inside, but with the case off and checking airflow the fans do seem to be working. Having the case off doesn't make the display any happier though. One fan is in the power supply and another fan is in the (LCD?) inverter board. Finger-checking large chips while in operation doesn't burn the skin. Anyone familiar with this issue? I suppose I could look for a SPARCstation IPX to take the motherboard out of and replace this one with it, but it seems more like the problem is in the display, which is a custom part. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- Fish will never understand fear of deep water. -- Tanner Greer -------------

2 years, 9 months

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WTB: Kinetics/Shiva FastPath 4 or 5

by Jonathan Chapman

All, I've been looking for a Kinetics or Shiva FastPath 4 or 5 for a while, without luck. Don't know why I didn't think to ask on the various lists! If anyone has one they'd like to part with, let me know off-list. Thanks, Jonathan

2 years, 9 months

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Great Vintage Computer Heist of 2012

by Tom Hunter

Sellam Abraham referred to a "Great Vintage Computer Heist of 2012". What was that about? Who stole what and where and why?

2 years, 9 months

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ISO someone to refurbish two IBM 010 card punches

by LJW cctech

Hello all, Is there anyone out there that would be prepared to tackle restoring a couple of IBM 010 card punches functionally and cosmetically? This is a paying job! These are the small tabletop units. One is manual: https://flic.kr/p/2nVAJeg The other is motorised: https://flic.kr/p/2nVB8Pa They are apparently complete but will need cleaning, repainting and adjusting, and whatever you can do with the key-tops. The manual one was used by the current owner in 1962 so has some sentimental value! They are in the USA but we can get them to you wherever you are. If you know of anyone who might be interested then feel free to forward this email. -- Lawrence Wilkinson lawrence(a)ljw.me.uk The IBM 360/30 page http://www.ljw.me.uk/ibm360

2 years, 9 months

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Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 97, Issue 67

by Mark Kahrs

Let me add that Howard Sturgis' dissertation "Post-mortem for a Time-sharing System" is great reading. It's unusual that failures are documented but this case study is worthy. On Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 1:00 PM <cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > Send cctalk mailing list submissions to > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send a message with subject or > body 'help' to > cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > cctalk-owner(a)classiccmp.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of cctalk digest..."Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: CAL TSS information and source listings (paul(a)mcjones.org) > 2. ISO someone to refurbish two IBM 010 card punches (LJW cctech) > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: paul(a)mcjones.org > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Cc: > Bcc: > Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2022 16:13:06 -0000 > Subject: [cctalk] Re: CAL TSS information and source listings > Lars Brinkhoff wrote: > > Paul McJones posted this recently: > > https://mcjones.org/CalTSS/ > > > > There aren't a lot of machine readable media, but many listings: > > https://mcjones.org/CalTSS/source/ > > I hesitated to post here -- was the CDC 6400 a classic computer? :-) -- > but Lars broke the ice. The system ran on a 6400 with Extended Core Storage > and Central Exchange Jump (most of the operating system ran on the CPU, > counter to normal CDC 6000 practice). The project took place at UC Berkeley > between 1968 and 1971 (although hardware acquisition began in 1966). What > the university really wanted was simple interactive service (editing, > BASIC, remote job submission, etc.) in conjunction with batch jobs running > on SCOPE on the main, larger 6400, but what they got was a state-of-the-art > research system offering capability-based protection, multiple protection > domains per process, and more. Unfortunately, it couldn't support enough > concurrent users to be economical. > > The technical ideas are well-described here: > > Butler W. Lampson and Howard E. Sturgis. Reflections on an operating > system design. Communications of the ACM, 19(5):251-265, January 1976. > https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/360051.360074 (open access) > > The project history is described here: > > Paul McJones and Dave Redell. History of the CAL Timesharing System. > Submitted to: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. > https://www.mcjones.org/CalTSS/paper/cal_tss_history.pdf > > Through heroic effort, Terry Heidelberg has managed to create an emulation > environment and boot the system and run some programs, but it's not ready > for prime time! > > > Paul > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: LJW cctech <ljw-cctech(a)ljw.me.uk> > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Cc: > Bcc: > Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2022 18:05:58 +0200 > Subject: [cctalk] ISO someone to refurbish two IBM 010 card punches > Hello all, > > Is there anyone out there that would be prepared to tackle restoring > a couple of IBM 010 card punches functionally and cosmetically? > > This is a paying job! > > These are the small tabletop units. > One is manual: https://flic.kr/p/2nVAJeg > The other is motorised: https://flic.kr/p/2nVB8Pa > > They are apparently complete but will need cleaning, repainting and > adjusting, and whatever you can do with the key-tops. > > The manual one was used by the current owner in 1962 so has some > sentimental value! > > They are in the USA but we can get them to you wherever you are. > > If you know of anyone who might be interested then feel free to > forward this email. > > -- > Lawrence Wilkinson lawrence(a)ljw.me.uk > The IBM 360/30 page http://www.ljw.me.uk/ibm360 >

2 years, 9 months

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CAL TSS information and source listings

by Lars Brinkhoff

Paul McJones posted this recently: https://mcjones.org/CalTSS/ There aren't a lot of machine readable media, but many listings: https://mcjones.org/CalTSS/source/

2 years, 9 months

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PALM assembler now available (5100/5110/5120)

by Steve Lewis

Wanted to pass along that PALM has been added as a target to the Macro Assembler AS. This means writing some assembly stuff for the old IBM 5100/5110/5120 systems. Assembler available here: http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/as/ So no one has to re-type it, the "bounce" sample is located here: https://github.com/voidstar78/5110VEMU/blob/main/bin/sample1_palm.asm Norbert has the online IBM5110 emulator, but it doesn't have a way to "script inputs". Not sure if he's in the mood to crack that open again, but it would be a nice feature to add (a kind of "File Open" and just script the content of the file like typing on its emulated keyboard).. Alternative way to test some compiled assembly is to script it into the 5110VEMU located here: https://github.com/voidstar78/5110VEMU/tree/main/bin (Wintel builds, uses pdcurses which might not be too hard to port to other systems) Or if have a physical system willing to power up, you can use a serial port as a proxy to the keyboard: https://github.com/voidstar78/KBD5110/tree/main/CODE Screen is port mapped at 0x0200, so drawing stuff is easy. I'll work on an example to poll keyboard inputs - then we're in business for some interactive software content :D (well, will need some RNG solution next) Cheers!

2 years, 9 months

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Data General Nova and Eclipse Hobbyist License, update 2

by Bruce Ray

Data General public archive Update 2 has been uploaded to the web site, and includes the following additions: Software added: - MRDOS and TRDO - AOS IDEA - AOS INFOS II - RTOS Datagen - RTOS - AOS CEO - AOS RPG II - diagnostic software, paper tape Documentation/manuals added for: - computer reference manuals - RTOS Datagen - RTOS - DOS - SOS - DOS [Diskette] - DG/RDOS - MP/OS - MP/AOS - AOS IDEA - AOS INFOS II - AOS CEO - AOS RPG II -- Bruce Ray Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc. Denver, Colorado USA bkr(a)WildHareComputers.com ...preserving the Data General legacy: www.NovasAreForever.org

2 years, 9 months

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LCM news?

by Ian McLaughlin

Did anyone else just get the semi-automated-looking email from the Living Computer Museum reminding that the online collection is still online and how to access it? It was a bit of a shock to me - I was aware that the online collection was still accessible, but it just seems ‘strange’ to get an email from them out of the blue. Oh how I wished it was some good news. Here’s hoping that one day Vulcan realize what they have. Ian

2 years, 9 months

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Large private collections

by Bill Degnan

Who presently has the largest predominantly "vintage computing" collections in 2022? I sometimes wonder what the cutoff definition is for "very large collection" ... 1000 individual computers? Or do you judge by square feet filled? I have seen entire houses full, 5000sq ft warehouses, entire homes.stuffed to the brim. But there is a price to pay. Free stuff has a storage cost until it ain't so free anymore. It's hard to maintain a large collection and prevent its deterioration. Reminds me of the consolidation of planetary debris into the solar system. By 2022 there has been a lot of consolidation. Some of us started accumulating systems in the 1990s or even before, and are still at it. From.the looks.of what was being sold at vcfmw we're a ways off from running out of stuff. Bill

2 years, 9 months

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datapoint 2200 programming

by Steve Lewis

Does anyone know how the 1970/1971 original Datapoint 2200 was programmed? It had tapes containing terminal programs to access different types of systems. And the instruction set was said to be similar what became the 8008. But how were these terminal programs created and how were the tapes written? Were they under emulators on larger systems, like a PDP-10? Were there any tapes that had something like a machine code editor and tape-write routines? I assume no kind of ROM was built into the system (unless it had a built in machine code editor, and routines to write that content to a tape?) Was a version of BASIC ever built for the 8008 that ran on a Datapoint 2200 or similar system? -Steve

2 years, 9 months

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FW: [EXTERNAL]Fwd: HP 2000 hardware in Salt Lake

by Daryl Faulkner

Hi Everyone, I'm Daryl and I'm with the Hewlett-Packard Company Archives. David Collins forwarded your email to me in the event that the archives might be interested in acquiring this impressive collection that is listed below. I'm going to forward this to our archives team to have them give their input on which of these instruments we would be most interested in and then get back to you. Provided, that this inventory is still available. I look forward to staying in touch. Daryl Daryl Faulkner Account Director Heritage Werks, Inc. Specialists in Archival Services 503.501.9216 (cell) daryl.faulkner(a)heritagewerks.com<mailto:daryl.faulkner@heritagewerks.com> HeritageWerks.com<http://www.heritagewerks.com/> Legally privileged/confidential information may be contained in this message. It is intended solely for the addressee(s); access to anyone else is unauthorized. If this message has been sent to you in error, do not review, disseminate, distribute or copy it. Please reply to the sender that you have received the message in error, and then delete it. Thank you. From: David Collins <davidkcollins2(a)gmail.com> Sent: Monday, September 19, 2022 10:09 PM To: Daryl Faulkner <daryl.faulkner(a)heritagewerks.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL]Fwd: [cctalk] HP 2000 hardware in Salt Lake CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. FYI in case you are after more HP kit! ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Tim Riker via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org<mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> Date: Tue, 20 Sept 2022 at 11:22 Subject: [cctalk] HP 2000 hardware in Salt Lake To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org<mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> Cc: Tim Riker <Tim(a)rikers.org<mailto:Tim@rikers.org>> All, I'm not getting around to working on this hardware. Another potential move coming up. What's the interest level out there for HP 1000/2000 hardware? Computers: * HP-2116A 8kB - the original HP computer. There is only one other that I am aware of in existence. David Collins got theirs up and running. Mine still blows fuses on startup. * http://hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=95<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhpmuseum.n…> * HP-2100A - untested * HP-2108 - working last I checked 64kB (I might keep this one) * HP-2112 - working last I checked 64kB Others: * HP-7901A disc drive - untested (2.5mB) * HP-7900A disc drive - untested, with external power supply (5mB) * HP-7900A disc drive - untested, with external power supply * HP-2748B paper tape reader - spins up, does not seem to pass data * CCC tape punch - untested * HP-2761A Optical Mark Reader - punch card reader. loading wheel turned to goo long ago. probably restorable * card slot expansion chassis. I forget the part number. * dual 3 1/2" drive in hpio chassis might someday work with these systems * non-hp 19" rack holding most equipment * lot's of peripheral cards including interfaces for disc drives, punch, tape, card, etc. Photos on Google Photos. My Gallery App is down at the moment. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ry648oCejfmjnuNf9<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fphotos.ap…> I'd guess it's about 1500 pounds of hardware. So, pickup in Salt Lake only.

2 years, 9 months

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seeking: vme chassis, in seattle

by æstrid smith

hi folks, i'm looking for a vme chassis. i have a we 321sb vme cpu card (derivative of a 3b2) and it wants to run! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:3b2-vme.jpg not super picky about the details but if it matches aesthetically that would be neat. should be functional, i'd rather not start another electronics project right now. also interested in peripheral cards. ideally, somewhere in seattle that's reasonably accessible by transit, or if you're willing to ship that would work too. thanks! -- æstrid smith (she/her) =<[ c y b e r ]>= antique telephone collectors association member #4870

2 years, 9 months

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Re: Large private collections

by Ali

>I think one of the primary factors is >how much time the collector has to dedicate to> their collection.And how much money....-Ali

2 years, 9 months

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Sun Fire V100 CPU not coming up on poweron

by Alexander Schreiber

Hi, I've got Sun Fire V100 that I'm pretty sure at some point in time actually worked, since I loaded the board with the maximum amount of memory supported (2G). Now, however, when powering on, the LOM comes up but upon issuing the poweron command the main CPU apparently doesn't, all I get is either 1. print_message: Wrong message ID 2. or continuous scrolling of what look like blocks of register dumps I can reliably get effect 1, but the effect 2 is not easy to reproduce. The memory itself seems ok - transplanted it into a known good V100 board and that booted up to readiness (no OS installed yet), included full memory init. Just on general principle (i.e. try the obvious things first) I also retried with known good PSU, same result. There are no obvious signs of trouble (e.g. bulked up or leaky electrolytic capacitors, scorch marks). Any ideas what that message wants to tell me? Full bootup transcript below, note the fan failure is due to this being run as a naked board removed from the case, so the case fans are 'missing'. -------------------------- cute here for new monitor -------------------- LOMlite starting up. CPU type: H8/3437S, mode 3 Ram-test: 2048 bytes OK Initialising i2c bus: OK Searching for EEPROMs: 50(cfg) I2c eeprom @50: OK i2c bus speed code 01... OK Probing for lm80s: none Probing for lm75s: 48 Initialising lm75 @48: OK System functions: PSUs fans breakers rails gpio temps host CLI ebus clock Power restored LOMlite console lom> LOM event: +0h0m0s LOM booted lom> LOM event: +0h0m0s host power on � LOM event: +0h0m7s Fan 1 FATAL FAULT: failed 0% LOM event: +0h0m7s Fault LED 3Hz print_message: Wrong message ID lom> lom>poweroff lom> LOM event: +0h0m50s host power off lom>poweron lom> LOM event: +0h0m55s host power on � LOM event: +0h0m56s Fan 1 recovered LOM event: +0h1m2s Fan 1 FATAL FAULT: failed 0% print_message: Wrong message ID lom> lom>poweroff -------------------------- cute here for new monitor -------------------- Kind regards, Alex. -- "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison

2 years, 9 months

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8" floppy diskette storage cases

by D. Resor

Does anyone have, or know of a reasonably priced supplier of good clean used, or new 8" floppy diskette boxes? The kind made of plastic like these? https://www.ebay.com/itm/134258177087 I have one 8" box with Xerox software in which the plastic literally crumbling. The price this seller wants for the case itself is reasonable but I find the price of shipping outrageous. Total shipping price for three boxes is shown to be $21.35. I may be crazy, but this seems nuts for something so light. Thank You Don Resor

2 years, 9 months

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Floppy disks for sale [WAS:RE: cctalk Digest, Vol 97, Issue 35]

by Tom Gardner

Tom Persky at https://www.floppydisk.com/ sells all types of FDs, albeit well above the AOL price :-) Interesting article about this last man standing in the business: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/we-spoke-with-the-last-person-standing-in-the-f loppy-disk-business/#:~:text=Tom%20Persky%20is%20the%20self,and%20recycling% 20of%20floppy%20disks. BTW, there are still four companies making iron oxide tape, but just currently for audio/video/instrument usage. If the demand for FDs continues past Tom's inventory then I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them make some FDs too. Tom -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-request@classiccmp.org] Sent: Friday, October 14, 2022 10:00 AM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: cctalk Digest, Vol 97, Issue 35 Send cctalk mailing list submissions to cctalk(a)classiccmp.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org You can reach the person managing the list at cctalk-owner(a)classiccmp.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of cctalk digest..."

2 years, 9 months

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Re: Xerox 820II U07 Power Supply magic smoke....

by D. Resor

Best I can tell the diodes are Passivated Silicon, Bead diodes, of which there are three flavors. https://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/1073401/NJSEMI/A15A.html On EEVBlog it was suggested that these were Sintered Glass Bead diodes. I do believe they are still in okay working condition. My thought process is that they are probably quite noisy. Installing a modern type of diode would also I believe dramatically reduce generation of heat. It is nice that a Power Supply board is laid out in a way that you can access all of the components. Nothing like some of the small 5v switching supplies in which most of the components are shoved close together. I downloaded the 1977 GE Semiconductor manual, but it’s not easy to find it without a part number. Back when I was in my early 20’s a neighbor whom was an Engineer at Xerox in the power supply division at 701 South Aviation Blvd. El Segundo, gave me a bundle of those soft bound Motorola reference manuals, some RCA TTL manuals, Zener Diode reference etc. The books sat on my shelf for many years until I ran out of room. I moved them to my shed which at the time was safe from the weather. After years of storage many of them were damaged from dampness etc. In the last 10 years I realized I should have taken better care of them. I realize they are almost worth their weight in gold. I was able to find a few of those books used and purchased them at (luckily) reasonable prices. I regret that and a home brew vacuum tube combo preamplifier/amplifier stereo unit. I was forced to part with. My father referred to it as “junk taking up space”. It contained 4 6V6GTs, 2 12AU7As, and a 5U4 Rectifier. The front end was early GE (germanium I suppose) transistors. They were of the metal oval shaped black painted metal can type with the pinched evacuation nipples. Don Resor From: Joshua Rice <Rice43(a)btinternet.com> Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2022 9:44 AM To: D. Resor <organlists1(a)sonic.net> Subject: Re: [cctalk] Re: Xerox 820II U07 Power Supply magic smoke.... On Oct 13, 2022, at 2:32 PM, D. Resor <organlists1(a)sonic.net <mailto:organlists1@sonic.net> > wrote: A couple reasons I'd like to have a circuit diagram is to know what the RIFA capacitors purpose are. The other is, a couple of the electrolytic capacitor are double covered with what appears to be rubbery heat shrink tubing, therefore I cannot read what their value are. Generally, though not always, these are simply “coupling” capacitors, that are used to limit RF interference from appearing on the mains supply. Most, though not all, PSUs will work fine without them. Some others won’t function right as they’re used for generating clock signals from the mains supply. I believe that some PDP-11 supplies use them for this purpose. One of these two electrolytic capacitor appears to have a dried substance around the top. The over-pressure venting cuts in the top of these two capacitors are not split. At this point I cannot tell if it is dried electrolyte, cement to hold the sleeve on, or possibly paper. Sometimes it’s just glue , but better safe than sorry, Cut off the sleeving (it’s used for electrically isolating the cap from other components), get the rating off of it, and replace with like. Probably worth heatshrinking them again as well. Seems someone was in hurry on the day this PS was tested. I cannot make out date, is it 1983? <https://www.dropbox.com/s/zlt2ocpqulil13j/pssticker.jpg?dl=0> https://www.dropbox.com/s/zlt2ocpqulil13j/pssticker.jpg?dl=0 Looks like ‘85 What type are the diodes, their rating etc.? I seem to remember this type with a black band were rated at 3 amps, but that's all I remember. The TO-3 transistor/regulator has no P/N silkscreened on it. Having a circuit diagram helps to cover many bases. Apparently it's an Astec AA12070. It’s unlikely that these would have failed. If they have, i would (as another person suggested,) just replace the unit with a modern Meanwell supply. At that point, it’s probably not worth the time and effort to replace all the parts. Placed the PS board back in the garage to continue airing out! 😉 Don’t fear the RIFA, but keep the windows open, just in case. Josh.

2 years, 9 months

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Xerox 820II U07 Power Supply magic smoke....

by D. Resor

Where might I find a schematic diagram for the Xerox U07 8" FDD,HDD expansion cabinet for the 820II, and/or the 105P80450 power supply? The Xerox Professional Computer Technical Reference Manual I downloaded from bitsavers.org doesn't seem to have those particular schematic diagrams. For your enjoyment the part which smoked. https://www.dropbox.com/s/al9kx3yw9ypwp89/Xerox105p80450.jpg?dl=0 I certainly am glad I have the lid off while testing. Unfortunately these capacitors which appear to be film type were hidden from view. The fuse didn't blow, but that .22uf 250v capacitor certainly stunk up the house. It smelled like burnt popcorn, plastic and the bottom of a coffee pot which has boiled dry, yech! I know that if I had pulled the power supply board first I might have seen the physical cracks in these boxed capacitors. Wasn't it Marc V. that said in one of his videos, you don't need to shotgun them all! Oi, lol It's when things like this happen that I most always worry about not going over vintage equipment fine tooth comb. Don Resor

2 years, 9 months

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Intel's i860, Cray-On-A-Chip

by emanuel stiebler

Hi all, anybody has some GCC or any other tool chain for the above? Or some pointers, which was the last version of the GCC tool chain which supported the i860, and would be still compile-able on this days tools/OS's? Anything? Thanks in advance!

2 years, 9 months

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Re: datapoint 2200 programming

by Dave Mitton

> Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2022 15:54:33 -0500 > From: Steve Lewis <lewissa78(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [cctalk] datapoint 2200 programming > > Does anyone know how the 1970/1971 original Datapoint 2200 was programmed? > It had tapes containing terminal programs to access different types of > systems. And the instruction set was said to be similar what became the > 8008. But how were these terminal programs created and how were the tapes > written? Were they under emulators on larger systems, like a PDP-10? > Were there any tapes that had something like a machine code editor and > tape-write routines? I assume no kind of ROM was built into the system > (unless it had a built in machine code editor, and routines to write that > content to a tape?) Was a version of BASIC ever built for the 8008 that > ran on a Datapoint 2200 or similar system? > > -Steve While in college, 1973 to 77, I had a part-time job where one of the things we did was use a Datapoint 1100 dual cassette model to act as a data entry terminal for a database system running on a Cascade 80 minicomputer. I did the Datapoint programming, which was to query the db over an async line for a form template, allow the operator to fill in the form, then upon entry, send the data back. The db would provide the next form to display. A rudimentary state machine at several levels. The Datapoint came with a Cassette Tape operating system, called CTOS I believe. You booted it up, and the second drive was your working drive. The Programmer’s manual referenced shows you the commands. There was an simple tape file system, Editor, Assembler, Debugger, and a library of subroutines for common access to the system’s I/O. I remember very little about the details of working on it, but I had no problems getting the data entry system working. You just sat down and started programming it. The instruction set was the model for the 8008, but it preceded the popularity and availability of that chip. My boss did some real inspired work on the Cascade Data side. He managed to insert the database access code into high memory of the system, and hook into the native OS. So we could use the system normally, but the database serviced the terminal in the background. I did other Cascade programming in assembly, I wrote my own instruction card for the system. In my senior year, the facility switched over to using IBM System 3 equipment, and I got to work with RPG, 8-inch diskettes, and 96-column cards. Dave. Sent from Mail for Windows

2 years, 9 months

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Figured out the Sun 386i supply, how to update the FAQ?

by Chris Zach

Hi all! Been working on my 386i's, all the power supplies are smoked, so I bought a totally burned out one, gutted it, and connected a PC/AT power supply up to the card edge. Sure enough it works, and I now know that it needs +5, +12, -5, -12 (for the ISA bus) and a 5 volt "supply ready" signal as well. Also found the serial console interface works, and realized I should update the 386i FAQ with this information. So what would be the best way to do that in this day and age? CZ

2 years, 9 months

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Finding tar block size.

by Chris Zach

Trying to tar a directory and transfer it to my AT&T 7300 (SVR2 unix). Tar -tf works fine on the Mac OSX, but when I copy it over the Unix (not gnu) tar gives me a: Tar: blocksize = 20 directory checksum error When I try to tar -tf the file. Which usually means the block size is off. Any way I can check to see what the block size is on a modern system (like a Mac)? tar -tvf doesn't seem to tell me. Thanks! C

2 years, 9 months

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Re: Seattle Computer Products!

by Ethan O'Toole

> Yes. I have a description of my recreation of the Gazelle on my web site, as well as notes on restoring the one for > VCFe. > Rich Very interesting! Reading through it all now. I notice you use Tarbell disk controller... difficult to use the SCP DiskMaster? I don't find many references to systems running it. It supports SD/DD 5.25/8... I had planned to go 5.25" - Ethan

2 years, 9 months

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Re: 8" floppy diskette storage cases

by John Foust

At 09:16 AM 10/11/2022, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote: >Yes, eBay charges the seller the same commission on shipping as it does for >the item price, and the taxes charged to the buyer as well. A year or so ago, I tried to figure out how to even see a detailed breakdown of eBay's costs and commissions on several servers I'd sold for a client. I gave up. I'm convinced it is purposefully opaque. You get what you get. - John

2 years, 9 months

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PDP 8a front panel hardware

by Bill Degnan

Is there a 3D print gcode for the hardware that connects a PDP8a front panel to the chassis? Is there anyone who has a spare clips/clamps hardware to attach a PDP 8a console to the chassis? I picked up the donated PDP 8a mentioned earlier on this list, I got it up and running. I need to track down the hardware to attach the front panel to the chassis. I do have spares of the hardware that attaches the ON/OFF panel to the chassis. AS with all "free" donations it's the final mile that costs the big $$ Thanks Bill

2 years, 9 months

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Seattle Computer Products!

by Ethan O'Toole

At this point I have achieved the SCP CPU card, a CPU support card and a Disk Master card. So hopefully all I need is some kind of 16 bit RAM board and a 4 slot S100 backplane and I can boot 86-DOS. I have started to read through the documentation on the hardware. Has anyone else been down this road and built a system to run this? - Ethan -- : Ethan O'Toole

2 years, 9 months

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Apple G5 Rebuild

by Kevin Parker

Hoping there's an Apple enthusiast out there somewhere please. A friend gave me a PM G5 which I'd love to add to the Apple corner of my collection. Must admit I love the G5 case. Problem is the internals are in a million pieces but everything seems to be there. Its not a basket case, more like a bucket case because I took the side off and basically poured it all out. My options are. > Toss it > Use the case for an ATX conversion > Use it for a letter box > Have a crack at fixing it. I like having a crack at fixing things first. I'm a preservationist first. Problem is my GoogleFoo can't find any diagrams, illustrations etc on how the internals are put together and I'm hoping some Apple person out there might have something or be able to point me somewhere. (I did find some photos at https://www.overclock.net/threads/power-mac-g5-build.1452312/ for a twin CPU model but I need more detail for a single chip 2.0 GHz PowerPC 970MP (G5) model.) Thank you. Kevin Parker

2 years, 9 months

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PALM assembler (IBM 5110)

by Steve Lewis

There is a note from Christian Corti last updated 2017: "..assembler listing generated with AS V1.41 from Alfred Arnold. ...which I have added a code generator for the PALM processor." I believe I've found a V1.42 of this on github. But the 5110 support is not listed in the github or pre-packaged builds. If Corti is available to help resurrect the notes on doing this, or if is more familiar with AS and can help get things going? Thanks! Steve

2 years, 9 months

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Bendix G-15 Restoration

by stephenbuck＠mac.com

Hi All, I wanted to let the group know about a Bendix G-15 Restoration project I just launched: https://headspinlabs.wordpress.com/bendix-g-15-restoration/ It's a pretty intimidating restoration (do no harm and all), so I'm reaching out to related sources, such as this group, for any suggestions or interest. Thanks, Steve

2 years, 9 months

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Copy of the 8080 instruction encoding reference from /dunfield

by Manna5＠Safe-mail.net

In the past, I have found a well written Intel 8080 instruction set reference on the ClassicCmp website (at http://classiccmp.org/dunfield/r/8080.txt). But now that URL returns "not found" message. Fortunately, I have already saved that document on my PC local disk, and now you can get its copy from http://manna5.c1.biz/8080.txt . Also, I want to ask if mirroring content from ClassicCmp is OK for the ClassicCmp community, or maybe it isn't OK and I should remove that copy from my site? _____________________________________________ Jan "Manna5" Mleczko, http://manna5.c1.biz/

2 years, 9 months

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AMP Punched Card Reader

by Cory Heisterkamp

Hey Guys, I was curious if anyone recognizes this punched card reader. Marked: AMP Incorporated - SYSCOM Division. It’s extremely well-built; pulling the lever at right moves the chrome lip forward and ejects the card. Case is rather stylized which suggests it was free-standing. Pics here: http://www.ht4100.com/temp/ Thanks, Cory Heisterkamp

2 years, 9 months

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Fwd: Bendix G-15 Documentation

by Van Snyder

-------- Forwarded Message -------- From: rob.kolstad(a)gmail.com To: van.snyder(a)sbcglobal.net Subject: Bendix G-15 Documentation Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2022 19:09:34 -0600 Bendix G-15 DocumentationDear Fellow G-15 Enthusiast, I'm Rob Kolstad, and I am sending you this little informational blurb because I think you are interested in Bendix G-15 projects (sometimes because I have seen someone messaged you about such things in the last two decades). Feel free to send me an 'unsub' note to never hear again about such things. This note announces the beta test of the first set of the documentation collection: https://rbk.delosent.com/g15doc.html The collection includes 161 source documents (some duplicates) comprising some 10,566 pages (including blanks). I have broken some of the source documents into their constituent sub-documents (e.g., the Technical Application Memos) for easy access, yielding 1,414 documents in total. The collection is by no means complete (coming soon: good large-format schematics and perhaps a search bar), but it's a good start. I'll try to scan the rest before the year is out. The fine folks at the System Source Computer Museum in Baltimore have gained, at least for now, several Bendix G-15's (and peripherals) along with more than two dozen boxes of Bendix documentation mingled with documentation of a large highway engineering firm's projects. The collection also has hundreds of paper tapes in fabulous condition. I scanned a fraction of these documents back in June and combined them with my personal collection (thanks to Bob Sander-Cederlof in Texas) and the documents from bitsavers.org and the Computer History Museum (among others). This documentation section forms one of the main parts of the soon-to- be-released (2022) bendixg15.com website for all things G-15, including software, hardware/restorations, emulators, news, photos, and notes. Please feel free to check out the documents. I'll let you know in a few months when the general web-site is available. Comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcome. RK ==================================================================== /\ Rob Kolstad Delos /\ / \ rob.kolstad(a)gmail.com 15235 Roller Coaster Road / \/\/ \ Colorado Springs, CO 80921 / \ \ \ Phone: +1 719 481 6542 ====================================================================

2 years, 9 months

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Lecture: Who am I? CPUID on the PDP-8, 2022-10-09, 14:00

by Anke Stüber

Hi all, you're invited to the Update computer club[0] public lecture series "Updateringar"[1]! Please note that this talk is given as a part of the Vintage Computing Festival Berlin 2022[2] this coming weekend, the time and place for watching the lecture stream are different than usual. When: 2022-10-09, 14:00 CEST Where: Stream: https://streaming.media.ccc.de/vcfb2022/Signallabor Q&A: https://bbb.cryptoparty.se/b/upd-0mo-m2u-aq8 Who am I? CPUID on the PDP-8 Portable software must adapt to peculiarities of the target platforms. Even variations within a "compatible" family of computers may require specific code. But how does a program identify which machine is executing it? In this presentation we will dissect, line by line, a subroutine written by the late Charles Lasner (CJL) as part of the Kermit implementation for the PDP-8 family of computers. The subroutine, "MACHINE", is capable of identifying all DEC PDP-8 models. Some familiarity with programming will benefit the listener, but the presentation includes the basics of PDP-8 assembly and the level should be approachable to most. Pontus Pihlgren (Update) The lecture is free and open to everyone. Don't want to miss upcoming events? Subscribe to our low-traffic announcement list here[3]! Hope to see you there, Anke/zeltophil [0] https://www.dfupdate.se/en/ [1] https://wiki.dfupdate.se/projekt:updateringar [2] https://vcfb.de/2022/index.html.en [3] https://lists.dfupdate.se/postorius/lists/announce.lists.dfupdate.se

2 years, 9 months

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Need 8mm or DLT-II tape?

by Van Snyder

I have many 8mm tapes. A few are new. First comers get new ones. I have a few 8mm cleaning cassettes I have about a dozen DLT-II tapes. I have some Ultrium LTO fibre-channel SCSI drives that were removed from a tape-mounting robot several years ago. I never used them in my computers because I don't have a fibre-channel SCSI card. The mounting bracket for one was modified to have an internal power supply -- which might be inadequate. I have two Fujifilm 200/400 GB Ultrium 2 LTO tapes. I have a 5.25" floppy drive. Any of these are yours for the price of shipping; local pickup is OK too. Van Snyder van.snyder(a)sbcglobal.net La Crescenta, CA

2 years, 9 months

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z9 (s390x) mainframe up for grabs in Melbourne, FL

by Adam Thornton

From the "Mainframe Enthusiasts" Discord; I don't have any other contact for him but I can send you a link to the Discord if you can't get there yourself. This is one of the first (maybe the first) of the 64-bit zSeries (descendant of S/360, S/370, S/390) machines. You would have to pay IBM a lot of money to legally run a modern z/OS or MVS or VM or z/VM or VSE or z/VSE on it (and current versions won't work, but, like, z/VM 4.4 would). You could run MUSIC/SP for free, and of course VM/370 and MVS 3.8 are in the public domain (although I do not know offhand if the z9 can run those late-70s OSes). It will also run S/390 and z/Linux of the right vintage, which are free but maybe difficult to acquire these days. From Member @Booper : Z9 mainframe, ds8000 storage array , tape drive and misc components are scheduled to go to scrap at the end of the month. If someone wants to chime in and throw some money my way, i can sign the whole storage unit over to you. Located in melbourne fl.

2 years, 10 months

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Microangelo MA520...

by William Sudbrink

Anyone familiar with this board (S-100 graphics adapter) knows that the schematics and documentation for it and the matching palette board are unavailable. I recently made a remarkable discovery on the web: https://store.gepower.com/mpps/parts/en/USD/search?sortParam=relevance <https://store.gepower.com/mpps/parts/en/USD/search?sortParam=relevance&solr sortby=&inValidProductsList=&isSearchTypeAdv=false&recentSearch=&defaultStor e=parts&shipToAddrCodeHdnSearchPg=&soldToCompanyIdHdnSearchPg=&soldToCompany CurrencyHdnSearchPg=&text=60628&CSRFToken=3b6088cc-11d1-42c2-8a92-acab81491e 0a> &solrsortby=&inValidProductsList=&isSearchTypeAdv=false&recentSearch=&defaul tStore=parts&shipToAddrCodeHdnSearchPg=&soldToCompanyIdHdnSearchPg=&soldToCo mpanyCurrencyHdnSearchPg=&text=60628&CSRFToken=3b6088cc-11d1-42c2-8a92-acab8 1491e0a If you follow that link, you will see that GE Power seems to have them in stock in their parts store. My guess is that, at one time, they used them as part of a power plant control room. What I'm hoping is that they have one with the original documentation. Unfortunately, despite several enquiries, I have been unable to make any contact with anyone in GE Power that might offer me one for sale or otherwise help. So, I'm throwing it out to the general community of collectors. You need to be a certified GE Power customer, contractor or a GE Power employee to access the web store any further than that link. Anybody know someone who could sign and check? Thanks, Bill Sudbrink -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

2 years, 10 months

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bubble memory stable?

by Steve Lewis

How "stable" is bubble memory, over decades? There is a Sharp PC-5000 that may be available, I believe from 1983-1985 era, which is said to have bubble memory. But the owner can't find a power cable, to verify if anything still works. I have older systems with ICs that are still working OK, but I was wondering thoughts on any risk associated with bubble memory? (likelihood of not working at all, or being damaged in long distance shipping) Actually another thought, can any "normal" ICs be used to replace/substitute the bubble memory? Regards, Steve

2 years, 10 months

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Fwd: Philips P2000C carrying strap

by Tony Duell

Does anyone have a Philips P2000C CP/M luggable with the carrying strap? I will be restoring such a machine in the near-ish future and mine is lacking the strap. Clear photos of the end fittings that slot into the machine, the dimensions of them, etc would be a great help in making something up. -tony

2 years, 10 months

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7485 chip history??? (Solid State Music SB-1)

by William Sudbrink

Hi, I recently acquired a Solid State Music SB-1 from which all the chips had been removed. I've reinstalled all of the chips (I located an SSM2000) and I've been trying to figure out why this board crashes my computers. The conclusion that I've come to is rather astounding. The board specifies two 74ls85 4 bit binary comparator chips to perform address decoding. The designers of this board seem to have had incorrect pinouts for it. Every source that I can find specifies: B3 1 16 VCC A<B (in) 2 15 A3 A=B (in) 3 14 B2 A>B (in) 4 13 A2 A>B (out) 5 12 A1 A=B (out) 6 11 B1 A<B (out) 7 10 A0 GND 8 9 B0 The 7485s that I was able to get have this pinout. BUT! The SB-1 is designed as: B2 1 16 VCC A2 2 15 A3 A=B (out) 3 14 B3 A>B (in) 4 13 A>B (out) A<B (in) 5 12 A<B (out) A=B (in) 6 11 B0 A1 7 10 A0 GND 8 9 B1 I Ohm'd out the board to verify this and it matches the schematic here: https://wiki.theretrowagon.com/wiki/Solid_State_Music_SB1 What the heck??? Did the pinout of the 7485 just arbitrarily change at some point? Was this some competition between manufacturers? Is there any way to get the "right" 7485? Thanks, Bill -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

2 years, 10 months

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Animatics motion controllers

by Tony Jones

A bit off topic but I'm curious if anyone has any technical information on Animatics motion controllers. Animatics was based in (Santa Clara) in the 1990s. They were bought by Moog sometime around 2000 and all the old info was thrown out. A support engineer working for Moog (who had worked for Animatics before the buyout) provided a bunch of DOS utilities and info on the RS232 programming that he found on a backup, but this is all the info that exists. Schematics for the hardware (CPU is a Phillips SCC68070 with a MC68881 math coprocessor), firmware code and any other technical info would be great. Wayback machine link: http://web.archive.org/web/19990218104405/http://www.animatics.com/5000list… eBay link to an actual controller: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124030784795

2 years, 10 months

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Timeline of Computer History

by Tom Hunter

I have just stumbled across this nice "Timeline of Computer History" from the CHM: https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/ I have not seen this before and thought it may be of interest to this list. Tom

2 years, 10 months

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Response from the list manager

by Peter Van Peborgh

Is it just me? I have recently sent an email to this guy about two different topics. There was no response in either case. What is going on? Or am I missing something? Many thanks, peter vp

2 years, 10 months

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Minicomputer front panel.

by Peter Van Peborgh

I know this is sacrilege but I am looking for the front panel of a *Data General Nova *and/or *a DEC PDP 8/11/12/15*. Why? I collect artefacts from the days of the minicomputer and earlier and I want them for my collection/display. They should be not too damaged and of course do not need to be functional. I would be willing to pay postage/freight. Any offers? Any offers? Peter PS Please don't shout at me!

2 years, 10 months

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Project Monterey booting in 2022

by Liam Proven

https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/2022/09/24/ibm-aix-for-ia64-itanium-aka-… -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven(a)cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven(a)gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven UK: (+44) 7939-087884 ~ Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053

2 years, 10 months

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8" disk question!

by geneb

All the discussion around 8" disks reminded me about a question I've not been able to find an answer to. I've got a Qumetrak 842 drive that I use for imaging 8" disks with either ImageDisk or AppleSauce. When I first tried it out with AS, the listed RPM was > 7K. It turns out that the disk I was working with was a NOS Dysan that had both the single and double-sided index windows punched in the jacket. The 842 has both of those index sensors, so both were being triggered one after the other. The solution was to cover one of the index windows on the disk. The question I have is how did a contemporary system deal with the combination of a disk with both index windows and a drive with both index sensors? tnx! g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

2 years, 10 months

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11/45 and 11/34 Taken!

by Kevin McQuiggin

Hi All: I’m pleased to report that my 11/45 and 11/34 which were in need of a new home have been taken by another collector here in BC. They will be off to a very good home! Thanks for reading my post. Kevin

2 years, 10 months

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pdp-11/45 and pdp-11/34 Available - Free! (Vancouver, BC)

by Kevin McQuiggin (SFU)

Hi All: I’ve been a collector of old DEC systems for about 30 years. I haven’t been active on the list for the last decade or so due to work, but am “surfacing” now as my wife and I are moving and I need to find a good home for two of my systems and their peripherals. I can follow up with photos et cetera if necessary, but the subject line really says it all: a functional 11/45 in a 6’ standard DEC rack, and an 11/34 in a shorter DEC rack. Both systems are functional. The 11/45 has an RK05. The 11/34 has a TS03. I also have a TU80 9-track tape drive (short rack), and dual RL02 drives in another short rack that go with the systems. These would come with a couple dozen tapes, and about 10 RL02 packs. I have a few RK05 packs as well. I would like these systems to go to someone who understands them and will use them. As members on this list will know, they exemplify computing in the 1970s through the 1980s, and it would be nice to keep them running for educational and historical purposes. The systems and peripherals are free, but they must be picked up. I cannot ship, nor do I have time to separate components. If I cannot find a home for these systems then they will, unfortunately, be headed to the metal recycler. I have tried museum donation but bureaucracy gets in the way and decisions take far too long. Hence I am offering the systems here on the list. The deadline for pickup is October 15th. This is a hard deadline as we must vacate our house. I would take the machines with me if I could! Kevin Sent from my iPad

2 years, 10 months

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Looking for Fred N van Kempen ... (pdp11, GUTS)

by Graham Toal

20 years ago I loaned Fred van Kempen a pdp11 disk pack (RK11?) to try recovering for me. We think it may have the Dutch "GUTS" operating system (Groningen University Timesharing System - https://gtoal.com/history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/scans/guts/*.pdf ) and sources on it. My Dad carefully hand-carried it to the Netherlands from Scotland by boat and bicycle!, avoiding any magnetic scanning on the way. I never heard back from Fred and every now and then (some years apart) I try to contact him but all the mail addresses I've tried go unreplied or bounce. Does anyone here know him and have a reliable way to contact him? He might be in the USA now and the only indication I have that he's still alive is a github update in Jan of this year (and happily a lack of hits when looking for an obituary!). I'm assuming he never extracted the disk contents because if he had I'm sure he would have contacted me. If the disk has not degraded too much over the last 20 years since I last saw it, I'ld still like to recover it and so I'ld like to get it back from Fred and give it to whoever else might be able to read it. Thanks, Graham

2 years, 10 months

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Data Systems Designs floppy interface cross-compatibility?

by Ethan Dicks

Greetings, all, While getting ready for VCF Midwest etc, I have been spending a lot of hobby time in the past year digging out various DEC minicomputer items and testing/repairing them. To that end, I've been staring at a DSD480 on top of a PDP-8 rack. It's one of the ones with the DSD 26-pin interface. My question is that since there are several different devices with that connector, are any of them compatible with each other? Specifically, here are the DSD interfaces with a 26-pin connector: 802130 DSD210 PDP-11 Interface (26 pin) (2130) 802131 DSD440 DSD210 PDP-8 Interface (26 pin) (2131) 802132 DSD210 LSI-11 Interface (26 pin) (2132) 804430 DSD440 PDP-11 PDP-11 Interface (26 pin) (4430) 804432 DSD440 LSI-11 LSI-11 Interface (26 pin) (4432) 808830 DSD880 (SA850/SA1004) PDP11 Interface Card (26 pin) (8830) 808832 DSD880 (SA850/SA1004) LSI-11 Interface Card (26 pin) (8832) 808836 DSD880/20/30 (SA850/Q240) LSI-11 Interface Card (26 pin) (8836) It looks like the 2131 board is Omnibus and works with either the DSD440 or DSD210, but on the PDP-11, can the 883x interfaces work with older drives or do they only work with the DSD880 floppy/hard drive box? I remember where/when I got this DSD480, so it seems likely to me that I have a PDP-11/34 with an 4430 board in it. I could probably use an 2131 board just so I have an Omnibus interface. I also have an 808836 board but do _not_ have a DSD880. I've found the prints on bitsavers that cover the DSD440/480 interface so I know what signals are there, but I haven't found the equivalent docs for the DSS880, just user guides. Anyone here know enough about DSD products to shed some light? Thanks, -ethan

2 years, 10 months

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HP 2000 hardware in Salt Lake

by Tim Riker

All, I'm not getting around to working on this hardware. Another potential move coming up. What's the interest level out there for HP 1000/2000 hardware? Computers: * HP-2116A 8kB - the original HP computer. There is only one other that I am aware of in existence. David Collins got theirs up and running. Mine still blows fuses on startup. * http://hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=95 * HP-2100A - untested * HP-2108 - working last I checked 64kB (I might keep this one) * HP-2112 - working last I checked 64kB Others: * HP-7901A disc drive - untested (2.5mB) * HP-7900A disc drive - untested, with external power supply (5mB) * HP-7900A disc drive - untested, with external power supply * HP-2748B paper tape reader - spins up, does not seem to pass data * CCC tape punch - untested * HP-2761A Optical Mark Reader - punch card reader. loading wheel turned to goo long ago. probably restorable * card slot expansion chassis. I forget the part number. * dual 3 1/2" drive in hpio chassis might someday work with these systems * non-hp 19" rack holding most equipment * lot's of peripheral cards including interfaces for disc drives, punch, tape, card, etc. Photos on Google Photos. My Gallery App is down at the moment. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ry648oCejfmjnuNf9 I'd guess it's about 1500 pounds of hardware. So, pickup in Salt Lake only.

2 years, 10 months

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IBM 5100 emulation

by Steve Lewis

Greetings, we've extracted the Executive ROS of the IBM 5100. The PALM opcodes between the 5100 and 5110 should be identical. So we have used Christian Corti emulator code to run that Executive ROS (under Wintel environment). However, the CRC checks and transition to the Language ROS apparently works a little differently on the IBM 5100 (compared to the 5110). Not the CRC check method itself, but perhaps the addressing used to look for the Common ROS. In the 5110, the Common ROS is more obviously a separate device/card. For the 5100, I'm not exactly sure where the Common ROS is (part of the Executive ROS card, or part of the BASIC ROS card?). I've seen some APL-only 5100's, so I think that system could operate with the BASIC card (but maybe that device slot still would have the Common ROS segments?). Hoping someone is available to maybe give suggestions or tips in how to get this emulator code going with the IBM 5100 ROS's (see EMUV5110 in github; trying to use that to run the IBM 5100 ROS's that are at archive.org). NOTE: The Executive ROS for the IBM 5100 is a 64K binary (I think the last 20K of that is blank, all 0's). In contrast, the Executive ROS for the IBM 5110 is 32K.

2 years, 10 months

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KIM-1 Boards of the Past

by Jonathan Chapman

I finally herded together the extant pictures of the KIM-1s I've had in the past and did a writeup: http://www.glitchwrks.com/2022/09/18/kim1-boards-past TL;DR is that during college I found a KIM-1 in an employer's warehouse. Later, I found a box with five more! These were all Virginia Tech surplus, and one of them is likely the first KIM-1 used for classroom instruction there. I'd intended to sell some of them, since who needs six, right? Unfortunately, I was forced to sell all of them, including the one I'd intended to keep for myself, due to economic/financial situations after graduation. I've never seen anyone post about these particular machines, and I haven't seen them exhibited at VCF East, VCF Midwest, or HOPE. None of the sellers contacted me about them after the sale concluded. Is anyone here the owner of one of these particular KIM-1s? Do you know the owner? Did you use KIM-1s while at Virginia Tech? Please let me know! Thanks, Jonathan

2 years, 10 months

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9-pin mini-DIN serial?

by Cameron Kaiser

Trying to identify two cables I ended up with, one to DE-9 and one to Mac 8-pin mini-DIN. The other end on both is a male 9-pin mini-DIN. These clearly look like serial cables, but to what? A cursory Google didn't come up with anything obvious. They don't fit the Mac GeoPort or Sun SPARC serial ports because the pins are slightly out of place. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- Don't let 'em drive you crazy when it's within walking distance. -----------

2 years, 10 months

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Re: 9-pin mini-DIN serial? (Cameron Kaiser)

by Fred Jan Kraan

On 9/16/22 6:37 PM, Cameron Kaiser <spectre(a)floodgap.com> wrote: > These clearly look like serial cables, but to what? The Epson PX-16 used a 9-pin mini-DIN for the serial port: https://electrickery.nl/comp/px16/px16org.html. Fred Jan

2 years, 10 months

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Test Message

by Kevin McQuiggin

Pardon the test message, I have just re-subscribed to the list but have seen no traffic on it for a couple of days. Kevin McQuiggin

2 years, 10 months

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TVI-921C

by Jonathan Katz

All, I have a TVI-921C at the museum. I power it on and it beeps continuously. One long, solid tone that does not stop until I power it off. How do I start diagnosing this? -- -Jon +44 7792 149029

2 years, 10 months

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Please unsubscribe: barry@csguy.org

by Barry Hills

2 years, 10 months

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Replacement tachometer photosensors for RA8x drives?

by Robert Armstrong

I've discovered that three of my four RA8x drives (one 82 and two 81s) now refuse to spin up. All the failing drives give "SPIN ERROR" as the reason and I've discovered, by an combination of educated guessing and parts swapping with the working drive, that all three have bad optical sensors for the tachometer disk. Surfing around I see that this is a known problem. Apparently the compound that was originally used to pot these sensors turns opaque over time and, being as they're optical sensors, that really reduces their effectiveness. I've seen some reports of people trying to repair the sensors by either sanding off a layer of the epoxy potting compound, or even trying to dissolve it somehow, but that seems to be a little bit hit or miss. Doesn't seem like these should be hard to replace though. They're just an infrared LED and a phototransistor in a cute plastic case, and that technology is still pretty common today. Has anybody found a replacement for them? Does anybody have any suggestions? Thanks, Bob

2 years, 10 months

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Bubbl-Tec bubble memory (QBus)

by Chris Hanson

I just acquired the several Bubbl-Tec bubble memory boards for QBus, and was wondering if anyone had manuals or more information than the couple of web pages I've found with high-level descriptions: MBC-11A bubble memory controller MBB-11A bubble memory board for use with MBC-11A QBI-11C bubble memory board QSB-11A bubble memory board with RX01/02 emulation It looks like I can just drop the QSB-11A into a system and it should work as if it's an RX01 attached to a controller, but the other boards appear to need cabling and possibly jumpers to configure them for use, and maybe custom drivers/code too. -- Chris

2 years, 10 months

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Odd free docs

by Chris Zach

Found some documentation relating to Sturthers-Dunn Director 4001 PLC and a SixNet technical config guide, all from the 1980's. Anyone want it for shipping or pickup in MD? C

2 years, 10 months

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Identity of this PII PC Main board?

by D. Resor

The seller has this listed as a Gigabyte GA-6BXU Rev 1.5 mainboard. https://www.ebay.com/itm/195259246091 According to Gigabyte's website the GA-6BXU has only one CPU slot. This one as you can see has two. The only dual Pentium II slot main board I could find manufactured by Gigabyte is the GA-6BXDS shown here: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-6BXDS#ov Notice the number of electrolytic capacitors beside one of the CPU slots is different from that shown in the main board for sale. The seller has not responded to my inquiries which may be a tip off in itself. Thanks Don Resor

2 years, 10 months

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Identity of this PII PC Main board?

by D. Resor

The seller has this listed as a Gigabyte GA-6BXU Rev 1.5 mainboard. https://www.ebay.com/itm/195259246091 According to Gigabyte's website the GA-6BXU has only one CPU slot. This one as you can see has two. The only dual Pentium II slot main board I could find manufactured by Gigabyte is the GA-6BXDS shown here: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-6BXDS#ov Notice the number of electrolytic capacitors beside one of the CPU slots is different from that shown in the main board for sale. The seller has not responded to my inquiries which may be a tip off in itself. Thanks Don Resor

2 years, 10 months

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Symbolics (Lisp) manuals, flyers available

by Stan Sieler

Hi, I have 15 manuals, flyers, and miscellaneous papers from/about the Symbolics, Inc computer(s), database, and more. Pictures at http://www.sieler.com/symbolics If anyone's interested, please email me (sieler(a)gmail.com) List: Concordia__Object-Oriented_Document_Management___Symbolic_Inc__copy Introducing_Statice___The_first_Object-Oriented_Database_System__copy Lisp_Machine_Summary Lisp_Machine_Summary__a_bit_rough Program_Development___Help_Facilities Program_Development___Tools_and_Techniques Reference_Guide_to_Symbolics-Lisp Symbolics_Concordia Symbolics_Marketing Symbolics___3600_Symbol_Processing_Systems Symbolics__a_brochure Symbolics__flyer The_Symbolics_3670__Discover_the_power_of_symbolic_processing The_Symbolics_Genera_Programming_Environment__from_a_magazine VERAC_Announced_GeoFlavors___on_Your_Symbolics_Lisp_Machine__flyer thanks, Stan

2 years, 10 months

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IMSAI 8800b with floppy for sale near Chicago

by steven stengel

Anyone near Chicago want to pick-up a nice Altair 8800B with Altair floppy drive for $1500? It isn't mine, and the working status is unknown. They don't want to ship it. Pictures available here: http://oldcomputers.net/temp/ Let me know and I'll connect you. Thanks- Steve.

2 years, 10 months

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