- cctalk - classiccmp.org

Vintage Computer Festival 6 talks recovered!

by Jeffrey Brace

It's been 20 years now since VCF 6. VCF 6 took place October 11-12th, 2003 at the Computer History Museum The web page for that event is: https://vcfed.org/events/archives-show-summaries/vcf-west-archives/vcf-west… Due to the extraordinary efforts of Kay Savetz, Clay Cowgill, and Josh Malone over the past two years, some of the talks from Vintage Computer Festival 6 have been recovered! The recordings were in very poor condition and took extreme measures to recover. The audio is often not good. Sometimes it is very bad. But this is the best that they could do from very bad recordings. C. H. Ting, Jef Raskin, John Ellenby, and Gary Starkweather are dead now, so these are voices from those who passed. They have the audio of the five recoverable sessions from VCF 2003 up at Internet Archive. Len Shustek – Computer History Museum https://archive.org/details/len-shustek-computer-history-museum Bruce Damer – The Joys and Trials of Computer Collecting https://archive.org/details/bruce-damer-computer-collecting David Jaffe / C. H. Ting / Kevin Appert / Dwight Elvey – Forth https://archive.org/details/vcf2003_forth Jef Raskin – Apple and the Humane Environment https://archive.org/details/vcf2003_jef-raskin John Ellenby / Gary Starkweather / Dave Robson / Peter Deutsch / Charles Simonyi – Xerox Alto panel https://archive.org/details/xerox-alto-panel ======== Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner VCF Mid-Atlantic Event Manager Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/>

1 year, 6 months

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IBM .BOO format

by Liam Proven

Does anyone have any experience with the IBM BookManager format and the tools to read it? I've not found any way to open them on a Mac. No joy on Linux yet either; there's an old unmaintained tool that uses a 32-bit Java app. I found 2 Windows tools. One, IBM Library Reader, won't install on Win11. https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-library-reader-windows The other a Java app, IBM Softcopy Reader. https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-softcopy-reader It installs and runs on Win11 and I can print to PDF -- but only 1 page at a time. Selecting multiple pages give me an empty PDF. I found the original IBM CUA documentation and want to convert it to some more modern, open format, but I am not having much luck... -- Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven(a)cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lproven(a)gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven IoM: +44 7624 227612 ~ UK: +44 7939-087884 ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053

1 year, 6 months

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New Dates for VCF East 2024: April 12, 13, 14

by Jeffrey Brace

We have decided to move VCF East to April 12, 13 & 14. There was a significant number of people that were traveling to see the solar eclipse, which takes place on April 8 in the United States. If we didn't move the date, then attendance would have been impacted significantly. Those dates are available at InfoAge and are now reserved. More details will be coming soon: * Consignment moving to a new more spacious location * Possible on-site food cooking * Discount hotel blocks * More great speakers * Plus more! The themes this year: 1) The Rise of the GUI 2) Computer Art Thanks! Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner VCF Mid-Atlantic Event Manager Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/>

1 year, 7 months

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Datapoint 2200 simulator - looking for more software.

by Mattis Lind

Hello! I have an ongoing project to restore a Datapoint 2200 version II and in the process of doing so I created a small simulator for it to understand it better. The simulator is now in the condition that it runs the cassettes that I try on it quite well. The simulator compiles on Macos and Linux. https://github.com/MattisLind/DP2200 A short movie clip when it is running: https://youtu.be/XfsMBhP13ww?si=CHpFKe8eecWjdxDC Having a simulator for a 2200 if there is no software around is no point. There are some tapes on bitsavers.org and a couple of other collectors do have cassettes that can be read. But is there anyone else out there that is sitting on tapes for a Datapoint 2200 (or 5500, 6000, 6600)? Tapes can be read on a normal mono audio cassette tape recorder and fed into a PC which samples the signal, preferably at 44100 kHz with 16 bit resolution. It is important to not overdrive the input of the computer so that the signal becomes a square wave. /Mattis

1 year, 7 months

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VCF East 2024 Pre-Event Survey Results

by Jeffrey Brace

https://bit.ly/vcfe2024pre_results

1 year, 7 months

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3D printing the Difference Engine

by Chuck Guzis

For your edification: https://hackaday.io/project/193805-3d-print-babbages-difference-engine-no2 --Chuck

1 year, 7 months

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Ampex and the DG Compatible Market

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

Although I knew that Ampex was a supplier of Multibus non-volatile RAM boards (MC-8080 and MCM-8086) - Memory Products Division - I didn't realize that they had competed for a while in the DG-compatible market alongside companies like Digidyne, Fairchild, Bytronix, and SCI Systems (according to court documents and the trade press). Can anyone shed light on what they offered and when? And perhaps why? Thank you, paul

1 year, 7 months

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VCFed warehouse closure reminder

by Thomas G

Hello all, This is a reminder that the Vintage Computer Federation's warehouse will be sealed for renovation, reorganization, and inventorying starting on *January 1st, 2024*. As such, no items will be permitted into or out of the warehouse unless absolutely necessary. As many VCF members have used the warehouse for storage of their personal belongings, it is imperative that they either come to retrieve their belongings or notify me off-list ( thomas.gilinsky(a)vcfed.org) what of theirs is currently stowed in the warehouse so that I may tag it and relocate it outside of the warehouse. Please provide *verifiable proof* that the item in question is your personal property, AND that it was not given to VCF as a donation. *All items within the warehouse that have not been verified and tagged by January 1st will be treated as the property of VCF.* If your item has been verified and tagged before January 1st, but you are not able to collect it, then you will still be able to pick it up after the cut-off date, but *ONLY* if it has been verified and tagged. And, of course, we will periodically nag you to come collect as well. Thanks, -Thomas Gilinsky Vintage Computer Federation Warehouse Manager

1 year, 7 months

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SMS Scientific Micro Systems corp history?

by Shoppa, Tim

SMS was based in Mountain View starting in the 70's. They sold DEC-compatible Q-bus storage systems in the early 80's and transitioned into IBM PC disk storage ASICs and boards under the OMTI brand in the late 80s. What happened to them after that? Some CC'er in Silicon Valley must know :-) Tim N3QE Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

1 year, 7 months

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Trouble with a Samsung monitor

by Van Snyder

I have a formerly-gorgeous 27-inch Samsung monitor: Model LF27T350FHNXZA Serial 0AS1HCNR904588L S/W M-T3527FGGA-1006.1 that now has a minor defect. The "wallpaper" has a dim stripe about 1/6th of the screen width, top-to-bottom, about 1/6th from the right edge, where the blue band appears when I run its self test. Windows display almost normally, with a little bit of dimness in that band for some colors. White is fine, black is gray, .... Changing the wallpaper doesn't change it. Fiddling with its internal settings doesn't change it. Photo at http://vandykle.mynetgear.com/Samsung-27.jpg. Is this the sort of thing that can be repaired at reasonable cost, or should I just live with it until the monitor fails altogether?

1 year, 7 months

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Signetics 3000KT8080SK bit slice 8080 emulator

by Mike Stein

Any interest in one of these boards? Complete except for U3, an empty 16 pin DIP socket. With some kind of transition board attached from Zapsystems, a local builder IIRC. https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_signeticsdMicroprocessor_9921635/page…

1 year, 7 months

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Burroughs TD700

by Mike Stein

Do any of you three or four TD700 owners out there need any parts? I'm about to scrap a couple (in the Toronto area). m

1 year, 7 months

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Current SOA scsi disk emulators for DEC

by Douglas Taylor

That is my question. I have used a couple of versions of the SCSI2SD boards in the past with Viking, Emulex QC07, DEC RQXZ1 controllers in the past, and also direct connections to MicroVax SCSI buss's. There are other manufacturers of these SD to SCSI emulators now. What is the current SOA? What works, what doesn't work with DEC hardware? Doug

1 year, 7 months

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Re: Current SOA scsi disk emulators for DEC

by Craig Ruff

I'm currently using a version 5 something (5.4 I think) of the SCSI2SD in my 11/83 to run 2.11BSD, it has worked well.

1 year, 7 months

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Re: Unknown Viewsonic monitor flashes Red-Blue-Green-White

by Gregory Beat

Viewsonic 22 inch VX2262wm widescreen LCD VGA up to 1680 x 1050 resolution, VIDEO Response as fast as 2ms. Viewsonic LCD VX2262wm (brochure) https://www.viewsonic.com/eu/products/sheet/VX2262wm === It was apparently indeed in a self-test mode. When I fed it, it actually worked well. When I looked at it using my video configuration in KDE on Debian 12, it claims to be a Viewsonic VX2262wm. Van Snyder

1 year, 7 months

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Unknown Viewsonic monitor flashes Red-Blue-Green-White

by Van Snyder

I was given a 22-inch Viewsonic monitor. The label had been scratched off. It has four switchesd below the screen, labeled 1, 2, an up arrow, and a down arrow. When I plug it in, it flashes Red, Blue, Green, White at about one- second intervals. Pushing the buttons doesn't affect it. I haven't attached a VGA or DMI to it. Is it irreparably broken? Van Snyder

1 year, 7 months

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VT100 Monitor Board

by Rob Jarratt

Hello, As some may recall I have been working on getting a VT100 going again. I have made good progress and I think the main board is probably OK now (see here if you are interested: https://robs-old-computers.com/2023/11/19/vt100-keyboard-constant-clicking-f ault/). Possibly I still need to replace the NVRAM, but I am leaving that until I fix the problem I want to describe next. The problem is that there is no image on the screen. This is because the monitor board is not doing anything, there is no glow from the neck of the tube etc. I have found that this is because the fuse on the 12V input to the monitor board is open circuit. Of course the worry is, why? There could be a fault on the board. I have tested the transistors in circuit with a multimeter and they appear to be OK. I used a bench PSU to give the board 12V and it drew no current (with all connectors disconnected). I tried again with the round connector attached to the end of the tube and it drew about 100mA and there was a faint glow from the neck of the tube. I am hesitant just to replace the fuse and try it. I am hoping for some suggestions on how to test this safely (in particular without involving the flyback transformer) to find if there is a fault. For information, the monitor is an Elston and I pre-emptively replaced all the electrolytics on the monitor board apart from the non-polar one. Some details of what I did are here https://robs-old-computers.com/2023/10/01/vt100-ram-fault/. Although I have since realised that I didn't replace two of them because they looked like diodes. I don't think the board I have is the one in the available printsets. Thanks Rob

1 year, 7 months

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Intel 4004

by Murray McCullough

On Nov. 15, 1971 Intel commercially released the 4004 microprocessor which some consider to be the first. Nonetheless, even if not in agreement, it made possible the instrument which drives the classic-computing industry or at the very least our hobby! Happy computing. Murray 🙂

1 year, 7 months

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Re: Intel 4004

by Rick Bensene

Steve Lewis wrote: > then like the 4004, we're struggling to find evidence of actual products that > made use of them. Wasn't the 4004 used in some cash registers, street lights, or > some weighing machines? (I don't have any specific references, just recollections > from past reading) The major (and primary reason for the 4004 and the MCS-4 family existing in the first place) was Nippon Calculating Machine Co and their Busicom 141-PF electronic printing desktop calculator. NCM went to the US looking for a chipmaker (the capability for the level of integration required to make such a chipset did not exist in production form anywhere else in the world at the time), and two companies were engaged to develop a chipset for NCM, one being Intel, and the other being Computer Design Corporation. As history clearly points out, Intel won the competition, developing a chipset based on the 4004 CPU, and some peripheral chips (RAM, ROM, I/O) that ended up being the operating element of the NCM/Busicom 141-PF Calculator. The 141-PF is a very famous calculator for this reason, but is otherwise (by appearance and function) a very ordinary calculator for the time. The fact that it had "Intel Inside" (though the term didn't exist at the time), using the world's first commercially available microprocessor chipset made with MOS Large Scale Integration technology, makes the 141-PF (and the OEM copies; the NCR 18-36 and the Unicom 141). Two versions of the machine were made, one that was a four-function machine, and another that added an extra ROM that added a square root function. Other devices were subsequently developed that used the 4004 as their computing core, such as digital scales, electronic cash registers, and various other electronic devices. This was only possible because initially, Nippon Calculating Machine Co. had exclusive rights to the use of the chipset. Due to some financial difficulties, NCM renegotiated the contract with Intel, removing the exclusivity clause in return for Intel forgiving some money owed on the development of the chips. This allowed Intel to sell the chipset to the open market. Once this occurred, Intel aggressively marketed the chipset as the MCS-4 microprocessor system, providing extensive documentation, development tools, both hardware and software, and lots of support for anyone wishing to develop an electronic system based on the 4004. The Busicom 141-PF calculator and its OEM versions were the first commercially-available electronic devices that had a general-purpose microprocessor with firmware implementing the machine’s logic, and thus represent the historical benchmark. These were actual products that were sold under the Busicom brand as well as NCR and Unicom. It isn’t known how many of these machines were actually made, but enough were made that they can still (rarely, though) be found today. Nippon Calculating Machine Co. in Japan manufactured and distributed them under their Busicom brand name, as well as providing the machines with subtly changed color schemes for cabinet/keyboard to OEM customers, which would market, sell, and service them under their own brand names. Rick -- The Old Calculator Museum https://oldcalculatormuseum.com P.S. If anyone out there has one of these calculators lying around gathering dust, working or not, and would like to have it see new life as part of a museum exhibit, please get in touch with me.

1 year, 7 months

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It's been a while - retirement project

by Dave Dunfield

>>[anyone know if there's a usable web interface to CCTALK? I browse it >>through the ARCHIVE on CCTALK.COM >KenUnix - 27 Nov 7:13 p.m. >When I try and connect to it I see in the tab chinese verbiage >CCtalk ???????????-?????????????? and it tries to send me to public.hujia.104.cdn20.com Sorry, my mistake - I meant the CCTALK archives at: classiccmp.org Dave -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Search "Dave's Old Computers" see "my personal" at bottom!

1 year, 7 months

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It's been a while - retirement project

by Dave Dunfield

>26 Nov 8:14 p.m. >I was trying to format an HP LIF disk from IMD (77 tracks, 30 sectors, >5 interleave, 512 MFM encoding, 256 bytes per sector). Which I can configure >IMD for using the interactive user interface. EXCEPT it won't >accept entering sector numbering starting from 0 to 29. It always wants to >start at 1. >So it looks like it's just a trivial bug in the interactive user interface. Hi Marc, I'll look into it - it will take me a while as I have to dig out and set up a real DOS IMD system... [anyone know it there's a usable web interface to CCTALK? I browse it through the ARCHIVE on CCTALK.COM - it's a web interface which presents "reply" button - but it doesn't work - so I have to cut/paste/edit the existing post and send it back by email - and HOPE that it finds its way to the proper thread!] Dave -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Search "Dave's Old Computers" see "my personal" at bottom!

1 year, 7 months

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Pre-event survey: VCF East 2024

by Jeffrey Brace

Please fill out this pre-event survey for VCF East 2024: https://bit.ly/vcfe2024pre Thanks! Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner VCF Mid-Atlantic Event Manager Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity

1 year, 7 months

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It's been a while - retirement project

by Dave Dunfield

Hi, this is "Dave Dunfield" - best known here for being the site owner of "Daves Old Computers" and the author of "ImageDisk" No longer have the email I used to use to access cctalk... (hence the change) Just in case anyone is interested: I've been working on a "retirement" project: I am publishing some 40+ years worth of source code to "stuff I've written". This includes my DDS products, lots of "internal tools and utilities" and other misc. "stuff". Of special interest to cctalk members, this include my Altair, Horizon, H8, D6809, MOD8, ImageDisk and some other related material. Most of it is C (mainly for my own compiler - one of the items), some in assembly, and a few "custom languages". Available from my personal site: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com or go to: "Daves Old Computers" -> "Personal" Please note that I no longer monitor these forums on a regular basis. Anyone wishing to reach me, please see the "contact" link on my site. Dave -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Search "Dave's Old Computers" see "my personal" at bottom!

1 year, 7 months

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Re: Intel 4004(sp?)

by Dave Dunfield

Sorry if not linked correctly - looking through the list via the archives.. "reply" option doesn't seem to work (at least for me - older Chrome) >but my understanding was that the 4004 and 8008 were effectively developed >at the same time? And were announced or available about within one month >of each other? I believe they were, although I never had much experience with the 4004... I did play a bit with the 8008 - and wrote a simulator/emulator for the 8008 system I had, a Canadian: MIL (Microsystems International Limited) MOD8 (Modular-8) it was also available as: GNC8 (Great Northern Computers) 8008 You can get MOD8 simulator from "Daves Old Computers" and actually experience using an 8008 based system including the built in "MONITOR-8" ROM software as well as "Scelbi 8008 BASIC" (one of the earliest) - source to both provided. If you care to, I included ASM88 (my 8008 cross assembler) so you can try writing and running 8008 code! -Be aware that MOD8.COM itself is pretty old and is 16-bit DOS software. This means it WON'T run under modern Windows, but it does work well in DosBox (I recommend the one I have on my site) Dave Dunfield - https://dunfield.themindfactory.com -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Search "Dave's Old Computers" see "my personal" at bottom!

1 year, 7 months

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iPaqs free to good home (UK)

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

Folks, While looking for something else I found few iPaqs. There are two later models, mud coloured with plastic screen covers both work fine. Sadly the silver one with the battery has a broken clip, so you need to secure it some how works if you do this. The one with the missing door does nothing. There are two power bricks, one USB lead, one docking station. No stylus. Can't remember when I last looked at these. Free collection from Manchester. Dave

1 year, 7 months

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Re: VT100 Monitor Board

by Dave Dunfield

> Rob Jarratt 25 Nov 2023 8:47 a.m. > Of course the worry is, why? There could be a fault on the board. > I am hesitant just to replace the fuse and try it... An older CRT terminal is probably a bit too much current draw for this, but you can prob use it in a setup to test parts... A very handy gadget you can make very easily, which I use all the time when testing small devices in "unknown operational state" is a simple current limiter. (following discussion based on North America power, numbers may be different if you are in a different part of the world). The "smallest" typical line circuit is 15A which is more than enough to cause damage to small devices experiencing excessive power draw through a fault (often indicated by a blown fuse). The "limiter" relies on the fact that an incandescent light bulb will draw/pass a fair bit of current when it is cold, and much less when it's warm. (this is because they are designed to "turn on" fast) In my case, I have three light sockets wired in parallel, all in series with the hot side of a receptacle. This lets me change from a single 25w bulb (very little current possible) up to 3 100w bulbs (a good part of amp before it seriously limits). For example, 100w bulbs draw .833ish (100/120) when operating fully lit - x3 = 2.5A max current - this would only happen if the device under test was "shorted", presenting 0 series resistance and would therefore effectively have 0 volts across it. In practice, you could prob. draw 1/2 amp (160ish ma per bulb) without warming them "too much" to seriously drop a lot of voltage. Much more than that and the bulbs will light up rather than hearing "popping" sounds from the device under test :-) -- Btw, I've given most of my CRT terminals away - For VT100's I use my "PC100" program - It provides very good VT100 emulation using an old DOS (or DosBox) PC - it remains "text" mode, so it turns "smooth scroll" into "slow scroll" and large fonts into "double spaced" fonts - but in all other respects nothing I've used it on has been able to tell it's not an actual VT100! (I'm sure there are better/graphical VT100 emulations "out there") Dave -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Search "Dave's Old Computers" see "my personal" at bottom!

1 year, 7 months

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Available in Germany: PDP 11/23 Plus with two RL02 drives in a H9642 cabinet

by P Gebhardt

Hello list, there is a PDP 11/23 Plus with two RL02 drives available near Stuttgart, Germany. The configuration corresponds to the one shown here: http://www.cosam.org/computers/dec/pdp11-23/cabinet.html Contact me off-list if you are interested. Cheers, Pierre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.digitalheritage.de

1 year, 7 months

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It's been a while - retirement project

by silcreval

Dave, Many thanks for making this source available, I'm going to spend some time looking through it all.

1 year, 7 months

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Hayes numeric codes

by RETRO Innovations

I received a bug report today concerning tcpser (the Linux/Unix/Windows/MacOS modem emulator) and numeric response codes. https://github.com/go4retro/tcpser/issues/31 I knew long ago that not all codes and commands were common/consistent among modem manufacturers, but I guess I didn't realize even response codes differed quite a bit. After receiving the bug report, I did a bit of research, and found, for instance, CONNECT 19200 differs: Hayes - 14: http://www.bitsavers.org/.../Hayes_44-012_Technical... <http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/hayes/Hayes_44-012_Technical_Reference_For_Hay…> Conexant - 16: https://web.archive.org/.../documenta.../dial_up/100498D.pdf <https://web.archive.org/web/20151028101531/http://www.zoomtel.com/documenta…> USRobotics - 85: https://support.usr.com/.../5610a/5610a-files/5610a-user.pdf <https://support.usr.com/support/5610a/5610a-files/5610a-user.pdf?fbclid=IwA…> Phoenix Contact (industrial modem) - 16: https://files.realpars.com/.../um_en_psi_data_basic_modem... <https://files.realpars.com/phoenixcontact/manuals/um_en_psi_data_basic_mode…> Supra - 16: https://www.manualslib.com/.../Diamond-Supraexpress-56e.html <https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1424004/Diamond-Supraexpress-56e.html?fbc…> Multi_Tech -19: https://www.multitech.com/.../public.../manuals/s000316a.pdf <https://www.multitech.com/documents/publications/manuals/s000316a.pdf?fbcli…> I have two questions for the group, if folks can assist: * Since I purport to be Hayes compatible, I should use the Hayes code when available, but the reference above does not go above 38400 bps. Did Hayes make a modem that went faster (DTE speed?) and if so, can I get a scan of the manual to ensure the codes I am using are the best ones? * Any other modem manufacturers anyone is aware of, with manuals I can check. Jim -- RETRO Innovations, Contemporary Gear for Classic Systems www.go4retro.com store.go4retro.com

1 year, 7 months

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Nice 32 dollar goodie to display your 4004 in!

by ED SHARPE

https://www.ebay.com/itm/276167634394?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-235… Sent from AOL on Android

1 year, 7 months

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Re: Intel 4004(sp?)

by Smith, Wayne

Not a COMPUTER but I have a Pro-log M900 EPROM burner that has a second source INS4004 on the board. This isn't my M900 (my INS4004 is white/gold), but here is a view of the board/chip: http://www.wolfgangrobel.de/programmer/img_m900/m900_06.jpg -W Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2023 09:36:19 -0500 From: Paul Koning <paulkoning(a)comcast.net> Subject: [cctalk] Re: Intel 4004(sp?) To: ED SHARPE <couryhouse(a)aol.com>, "cctalk(a)classiccmp.org" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <7ECB8A1C-DB41-45E7-9416-F71AD3289C94(a)comcast.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > On Nov 22, 2023, at 3:51 AM, ED SHARPE via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Was there ever a COMPUTER using a 4004 that you cud really do something or did tat finally arrive with the 8008 as in the skelby shelby sp? 8008 i now there was an Intel INTELIC 4 (?sp) could n that use 4004 or one of the later 4000 numbered proc. We have an intelec 8 and 8 inch floppy drives here at smecc musem .... always wanted a 4!Ed Don't know about commercial products. But a classmate of mine got Honors in Independent Study for a project where he built a useable general purpose computer out of a 4004, plus a boatload of other stuff. It filled a wire-wrap panel board about 8 x 10 inches. He wrote some software for it as well, and took it to a summer internship at one of the National Labs (in the Midwest -- Argonne?) where as I understand it they liked it enough to ask him for a copy of the system. He graduated in 1975, so the work was done in the year or so leading up to that. One complication was the terminal I/O (Teletype 33); originally he had a bit-banging interface for that, which isn't easy on a 4004. At some point he finagled a UART chip out of one of the DEC field service engineers, I think that was one of the first single chip UARTs, used in the earlier DEC PDP-11 terminal adapters. paul

1 year, 7 months

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Re: Intel 4004

by ED SHARPE

what about that intel 3000 bit slice thing is it almost a microprocessor yes no and why? Ed# In a message dated 11/21/2023 3:34:03 PM US Mountain Standard Time, c.murray.mccullough(a)gmail.com writes: There are 5 other possibilities for the honour:e or noe and why? No. 2: Texas Instruments applied for a “computing systems CPU” in 1971 and awarded a patent in 1973. The question though is: did TI have a functioning processor based on the TMS1000. Not sure if they did! No. 3: “In 1969 Four-Phase Systems built the 24-bit AL1, which used multiple chips segmented into 8-bit hunks, not unlike a bit-slice processor. In a patent dispute a quarter century later proof was presented that one could implement a complete 8-bit microprocessor using just one of these chips. The battle was settled out of court, which did not settle the issue of the first micro.” No. 4: Is this the first microprocessor? Here is a source: https://historydraft.com/story/microprocessor/pico-electronics-and-general-… No. 5: "In 1969 Four-Phase Systems built the 24-bit AL1, which used multiple chips segmented into 8-bit hunks, not unlike a bit-slice processor. In a patent dispute a quarter century later proof was presented that one could implement a complete 8-bit microprocessor using just one of these chips. The battle was settled out of court, which did not settle the issue of the first micro." It seems the answer depends on what is a microprocessor...I suppose when it comes down to capitalism patents count more than anything else! Happy computing, Murray 🙂 On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 5:00 PM ED SHARPE via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: I had heard something about a f14 chip pehS being first but not avail. To general public???Ed# Sent from AOL on Android On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 2:41 PM, Joshua Rice via cctalk<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: On 21/11/2023 09:03, ED SHARPE via cctalk wrote: > So what are the other contenders and what do they bring to table The 4004 was definitely the first commercially available single-chip CPU on the market, but if you include multi-chip LSI designs, the lines get blurry.

1 year, 7 months

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Two items for RSTS/E

by Paul Koning

I just pushed two additions to https://github.com/pkoning2/decstuff : In "patches" a new patch for the DEUNA driver. This fixes a problem seen when doing user (as opposed to DECnet) I/O, as well as two errors that show up when using units beyond the first. Directory "ntp" is new. This is a simple NTP protocol client for RSTS, which will synchronize the system clock with an NTP server on the LAN. It includes handling of timezone rules, so the right thing will happen at daylight savings time (summer time) boundaries. The clock is maintained to the full RSTS resolution -- typically 1/50th or 1/60th second, but can be as low as 10 ms if the KW-11/P clock is used. paul

1 year, 7 months

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2
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List of DEC boards

by Rod Smallwood

Here's my list of spare boards Omnibus MM8-E M8320 M8650 M849 M8310 M8300 M8330 Unibus RX11 G7273 M9970 M9047 M9714 QBUS M7941 M8029 RXV21 M7504 DEQNA-M M7850 M7546 M8186 KDF-11 M9400-YC M7555 RQDX3 Rod Smallwood

1 year, 7 months

6
9
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Address wrapping in PDP-11 MMU

by Paul Koning

I'm working on some code where it would be handy to map the top of the I/O page along with the bottom of physical memory. An obvious hack is to point the APR to the I/O page address needed, then set the length so that the address modulo 2^22 also covers the low memory range. It seems from the architecture manual that this would work, and SIMH seems to do this (since it adds VA and PAR then masks with a 22 bit mask). Would this work on real hardware? paul

1 year, 7 months

2
3
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Free to good home HP 7510a Photo Plotter - UK

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

Folks, Trying to reduce the weight in my loft and I would like to donate my HP Photoplotter to a good home. . Photos of the plotter and some sample plots are on my OneDrive here:- https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ag4BJfE5B3ongspXY7zySSZsDj-WMg It has both serial and IEEE interfaces and uses HPGL like the GP and Roland pen plotters. The plots on there are the samples built into the plotter taken on a Fuji XE-1 digital camera and are cropped because the Fuji does not have a full frame sensor. The tube is actually a white tube and the colours are generated by rotating colour filters. Its powered by a 68000 and you can see the various boards in the pictures. Dave

1 year, 7 months

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Re: Free to good home HP 7510a Photo Plotter - UK

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Guy Dunphy <guykd(a)optusnet.com.au> > Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2023 9:54 PM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: [cctalk] Free to good home HP 7510a Photo Plotter - UK > > Hi Dave, > > I'm very interested, and happy to pay for packing and airfreight to Australia. Also had one other query. I will now keep things private... > Also something for the unit. Do you happen to have originals of the manuals, or > just the digital ones you've posted? I don't think I have any paper manuals. > > Do you have a 'pack and ship' company nearby, who could do a safe packing > using foam-in-place, or soft foam block padding, then send by airfreight to > Sydney Australia? > I should have said the plotter came to me from France packed in expanded foam. I think I may still have the packing.. I will check and report back... > I'm fully aware of the costs, having recently had a HP 7586B pedestal plotter > sent from San Francisco in a big wooden crate (vial PCL sea freight) and a 20' > shipping container full of thousands of service manuals arriving by sea form the > USA in a few days. OK I have shipped an IBM 3174 screen controller to Europe, and a E-Prom programmer to the USA so I may also be reasonably experienced... > > If you'll pass the photo plotter on to me, please reply via private email. Ok let me talk privately... > > Kind regards, > Guy > Dave > At 10:24 AM 16/11/2023 -0000, you wrote: > >Folks, > > > > > > > >Trying to reduce the weight in my loft and I would like to donate my HP > >Photoplotter to a good home. > > > >. Photos of the plotter and some sample plots are on my OneDrive here:- > > > > > > > >https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ag4BJfE5B3ongspXY7zySSZsDj-WMg > > > > > > > >It has both serial and IEEE interfaces and uses HPGL like the GP and > >Roland pen plotters. > > > >The plots on there are the samples built into the plotter taken on a > >Fuji > >XE-1 digital camera and are cropped because the Fuji does not have a > >full frame sensor. > > > >The tube is actually a white tube and the colours are generated by > >rotating colour filters. > > > >Its powered by a 68000 and you can see the various boards in the pictures. > > > > > > > >Dave > > > > > > > > > > > >

1 year, 7 months

1
0
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Need a SCSI 1/2' tape drive

by steve shumaker

Greetings all.. I'm looking for a Qualstar 1260S 1/2" tape system to review/recover data from a stack of early Landsat tapes that I came into a while back. I'd prefer the Qualstar SCSI system for familiarity but basically I'm looking for a SCSI unit that can read 6250 GCR tapes. I'd prefer west coast area to avoid shipping but given their (lack of) availability I'm open to talking with anyone who might be willing deal with it. Steve

1 year, 7 months

4
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Tektronix 4404

by adambillyard＠googlemail.com

Hi everyone, I've been restoring a couple of Tektronix 4404 here in the UK. (68010, 2M RAM / 8MB virtual, 1024x1024 display, C & Smalltalk-80, runs on Uniflex) Having got past the physical restoration and using David Gesswein MFM board in place of the Micropolis HD, I've been diving into writing software. Its been a fun - if sometimes frustrating - project. There are no docs beyond some vanilla CRT + (incorrect) graphics calls. In particular nothing on the network stack.. (Figured out executable file format) and wrote a Uniflex to ELF file format converter so I can load stuff into Ghidra to analyze. Code here: https://github.com/Elektraglide/tek4404 I've managed to write a DHCP client and telnetd and port uemacs and have a (kinda) working window system written from scratch in C. Pic here: https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1280/format:webp/1*a8PNwQ9g_3S27AxlWS… All the networking seems to revolve around calls to ldiddle() and wdiddle() (no kidding!) These read and write kernel values in the absence of ioctl() Anyone here recall Network Research Consultant's network stack? There appears to be no way of making a broadcast socket. And of course I would love to hear from anyone who also has a Tektronix 4404

1 year, 7 months

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Livestream VCF Chat Sat. Nov. 11 at 6:30PM EST

by Jeffrey Brace

Join us live for VCF chat hosted by Jeff Brace with guests: Liza Loop, Cynthia Solomon, Brian Silverman and Margaret Morabito. https://youtube.com/live/WfsWVtey5Vk?feature=share <https://youtube.com/live/WfsWVtey5Vk?feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2zurhOrpYLyxa…> Streaming live on VCF's YouTube channel. We will talk about educational technology with vintage computers.

1 year, 7 months

1
0
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Installing DEC C on RSTS/E

by Paul Koning

Hi... I'm seriously rusty on official RSTS installation procedures. I'm trying to install DEC C using the C_V1_2.tap file from the bitsavers bits/DEC/pdp11/rsts directory. It's actually a TPC file, in spite of what the extension suggests. Once I supply the correct format, SIMH recognizes it and RSTS can see the tape contents. Then I try @[0,1]install c81. Point to the tape, answer the destination, and then it asks me for the "library" tape and complains when I give it the C tape again (labels don't match). So what is it looking for? Does anyone have the C installation procedure handy? paul

1 year, 8 months

4
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Announcement of VCFed warehouse closure & improvements

by Thomas G

Hello, After 18 years of acquiring artifacts, our warehouse is in need of reorganization, as well as major renovation work - climate control, roof repairs, etc. A total restructuring, inventorying, and refurbishment of the warehouse is planned to commence soon - some steps such as the installation of climate control have already been taken - however, planning this process is made difficult by the fact that a number of our members have their own personal belongings stored within, many without proper tagging or documentation as such. On January 1st, 2024, the VCF warehouse at Infoage will be closed for renovation and organization. During this time, no items will be permitted in or out of the warehouse bar those permitted *directly* by the VCF Warehouse manager - Thomas Gilinsky - during monthly repair workshops. As such, if you have any personal belongings stored within the warehouse, and would like to retrieve it, or have it tagged and set aside for you to collect later, please contact either me at thomas.gilinsky(a)vcfed.org, or Doug at douglas.crawford(a)vcfed.org. Please provide *verifiable* *proof* that the item you are describing is your possession. *ITEMS WHICH ARE NOT CLAIMED BY JANUARY 1ST, 2024 WILL BE ASSUMED TO BE THE POSSESSIONS OF VCF.* Donations to VCF will still be accepted during this time - we have other areas to store them while the warehouse is reorganized. Thanks, Thomas Gilinsky Vintage Computer Federation Warehouse Manager

1 year, 8 months

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"Linux like Unix" livestream Sat. Nov. 4, 2023 at 6:30PM EDT

by Jeffrey Brace

Jim Hall will be doing a livestream on VCF's YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/live/FpBnRk8oWLc We don’t give much thought these days to what “Unix” means. In 2023, most Unix systems are actually running some version of Linux, which includes modern tools and commands that were unthinkable when Unix hit the scene in the early 1970s. But some 50 years later, “Unix” still lives on. Jim will look back on Unix history and experience first-hand what it was like to use the original Unix. Unix 3rd Edition debuted in 1973, and he chose that version as my target. That’s transporting back in time by 50 years. He will talk about: * Terminal setup * FORTRAN66 program * nroff document * linenum program * For another example of using Linux like original Unix, read hist article on Sysadmin Signal: https://sysadminsignal.com/2023/06/19/run-linux-like-original-unix/ For more FreeDOS content, visit his website https://www.freedos.org/ Join hist project on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/freedosproject/ Follow his project on Mastodon https://fosstodon.org/@freedosproject Thanks! Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner VCF Mid-Atlantic Event Manager Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

1 year, 8 months

1
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Greaseweazle part 2

by Tony Duell

Well, I've got the Greaseweazle software to run, but I don't know why, which is hardly encouraging. Installing various Windows updates, downloading .dlls, and puting the latter in various directories changed the error messages but it never actually worked. But downloading the latest Greaseweazle software did, it ran first time. So no idea what I was doing wrong (maybe 32 bit .vs. 64 bit Windows applications?) I can now get the list of commands when I run gw.exe. And can get help on them using the -h option. I've not tried connecting a drive yet, but the software can find and talk to the board (the green 'activity' LED turns on). For example 'gw rpm' which is used to check the drive speed by timing the index pulses times out and gives a 'no index' error which seems entrely reasonable. However I am not sure if I'll be able to use it. There is one very important thing missing : DOCUMENTATION. The 'wikii' on github is ridiculously incomplete. There is no user manual or man pages. The software source in python (a language I've never used) has very few comments and is not clear at all. It's not clear to me exactly what all the options are for, and when to use them. -tony

1 year, 8 months

8
17
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Ultrix 11 installation and ZULU SCSI Disc Emulator

by hupfadekroua

Hi all, I tried several ways to get a working SCSI image to be successfully boote on a ZULU 2024 SCSI Emulator. 1. I do have an Image of an RZ25-E drive containing RSX11M Plus, which is booting properly. This is a raw dd based disc image of a SCSI drive. 2. I got a disc mage by Jacob, which is booting using simh, but not using the ZULU on a physical 11/73 3. I created a fresh installation of Ultrix 11 using simh 3.9.x creating a RD54 image which won't boot on the ZULU an the physical 11/73 4.. I created a fresh installation of Ultrix 11 using simh 3.9.x directly into a physical SCSI drive partition, created an image via dd which doesn't want to boot on the ZULU. Simh is booting properly from a dd image of this partition. 5. Simh is telling me in general using a (virtual) RQDX3 controller. Maybe the images created won't boot because of being created by the virtual RQDX 3 controller? How to create a raw disc w/o any controller specific format - simply a plain Ultrix 11 image as a target for a SCSI drive to be booted either from the physical, or from a virtual (ZULU). Best Andreas

1 year, 8 months

2
2
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Tadpole/RDI UltraBooks - UNIX notebooks - species needs rescue...

by erik＠baigar.de

Hi there, in the last weeks my last two working UltraBooks died. Today I investigated the problem and obviously in these RDI made notebooks, the NVRAMs not only contain the boot information, the host ID and the MAC address but also the hardware configuration. Hence: Once the NVRAM is completeley dead, absent or replaced, the unit will not start up any more - it gets stuck in the power on test BEFORE the screen shows any information. Do anyone out there have got UltraBooks or UltraBooks IIi up and running? Would highly be interested in a dump of the NVRAM/Timekeeper!!! The failed first generation UltraBook are (DS1643 NVRAM): (*) U20-14-9-512P with three (!!) hard drives, no battery port (*) U20-14-3-128B two hard drives, battery port And my beloved UltraBook IIi (TimeKeeper DS1553-070) (*) U40-14-1X-1024C one harddrive, battery port and creator graphics. Reply here or PM erik(a)baigar.de, Thanks ''~`` ( o o ) +--------------------------.oooO--(_)--Oooo.-------------------------+ | Dr. Erik Baigar Inertial Navigation & | | Salzstrasse 1 .oooO Vintage Computer | | D87616 Marktoberdorf ( ) Oooo. Hobbyist / Physicist | | erik(a)baigar.de +------\ (----( )---------------------------+ | www.baigar.de | \_) ) / +----------------------+ (_/ So advice to all owners: Backup your NVRAM contents and I'd be more than happy to get in touch with you! Not affected seem to be the PrecisionBooks (e.g. H16-12-8-512L2, two hard- drives and battery port) as they do not contain an NVRAM/TimeKeeper.

1 year, 8 months

10
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Re: Looking for NORTRONICS Read/Write head for IBM 5100/5110/5106 tape unit

by Mark Perullo

Hey Steve I know this is a year later but I have the Nortronic Read Write heads you were looking for. They are currently on eBay. The listing is below. Just do a search and they will come up. Nortronics Magnetic Head Assembly. NOS Part 9164-0068. Radio Cart Machines. Hope this helps. Mark Sent from my iPhone

1 year, 8 months

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gunkies.org - ultrix-11 installation example ...

by hupfadekroua

Hello all, is there any source known how and where to get the floppy images used in the Ultrix-11 installation example? Best regards

1 year, 8 months

3
5
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PDP 11/40 power supply question

by Marc Howard

Hi, I have a PDP-11/40 that I've wanted to restore for many years now. I got it in the standard 21" cabinet but the power supplies were in a cardboard box. I'm not certain how the power supply bundle mounts in the cab. Also I'm missing the power supply cables. Do they use currently available Molex connectors? Could someone on the list perhaps take a picture or two to show me how the supplies are supposed to mount in the rack? Also, a shot of the power cable routing would help. Thanks, Marc Howard

1 year, 8 months

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Re: PDP 11/40 power supply question

by Kirk Davis

I have a 11/35 buried in my garage. Contact me off list if you’re unable to find what you need and I’ll get you some pictures. Kirk Sent from my iPad > On Oct 21, 2023, at 12:55 AM, Marc Howard via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Hi, > > I have a PDP-11/40 that I've wanted to restore for many years now. I got > it in the standard 21" cabinet but the power supplies were in a cardboard > box. I'm not certain how the power supply bundle mounts in the cab. Also > I'm missing the power supply cables. Do they use currently available Molex > connectors? > > Could someone on the list perhaps take a picture or two to show me how the > supplies are supposed to mount in the rack? Also, a shot of the power > cable routing would help. > > Thanks, > > Marc Howard

1 year, 8 months

1
0
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PDP11 and Ultrix 11

by hupfadekroua

Hello all, does someone have a SCSI disc image of Ultrix 11 for a QBus based (11/73) PDP11. A.

1 year, 8 months

8
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Fw: Re: 11/15, 11/20 systems and parts, more

by ED SHARPE

Sent from AOL on Android ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "ED SHARPE" <couryhouse(a)aol.com> To: "linimon(a)portsmon.org" <linimon(a)portsmon.org>, "Ed Sharpe" <couryhouse(a)aol.com> Cc: "Mark Linimon" <linimon(a)portsmon.org> Sent: Thu, Oct 19, 2023 at 8:29 PM Subject: Re: [cctalk] Re: 11/15, 11/20 systems and parts, more I have one pdp 11/20 aith procesdor abd ore untested in the garage have not taken for display at our museum. If you had something we likedre it could be yours Want hp 3000 series 2 or 3 Hp 2883 or 2884 disc or 2888 disc (plus some other stuff) A nice large early stash of historic semiconductors Early wireless( as in radio no routers!) Anything related to mccarty wireless telephone of San Francisco Related things to Francis or Ignatius mccarty ERly DeForest radio equipment. Exotic hp computers There us a few areas Nike missile Related hardware etc Thanks ed sharpe archivist f or smecc museum Sent from AOL on Android On Thu, Oct 19, 2023 at 5:02 PM, Mark Linimon via cctalk<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: I sincerely doubt I could afford a PDP-11/20 but I still have nostalgia for the first machine I used at university. So I have to ask. mcl

1 year, 8 months

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0
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Tandy Model 6000 w/XENIX

by Bill Gunshannon

Is there anywhere I could go where people who are playing with this system hang out? I used to have a couple of very early Model 16's and ran Xenix on them. I also worked with a couple of 6000's in a real production environment. Lately I got interested again and found an emulator that does a real good job and a bunch of rather interesting software for it. Some that wasn't around when I was doing this for a job. In one case, the package has a note that while it installs they couldn't get into it because the first thing it did was ask for username and password. Well, I figured out how to get into it and maybe there are others interested. It's nice to be able to see how real work was done back in the day. I have always wished some of the production software for the PDP-11 had survived, but at least this is a start. bill

1 year, 8 months

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Livestream 10/21/23 - Liza Loop, Byron Stout, Wil Lindsay & Jim Hall - VCF's YouTube channel

by Jeffrey Brace

This Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at 6:30PM EDT, we will livestream to VCF's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@vcfederation) a talk with Liza Loop, Byron Stout, Wil Lindsay and Jim Hall. We will be talking about Educating today's children with vintage computers. We will take questions from the chat part of YouTube. Future livestreams: 11/4 - Jim Hall - Linux like Unix 11/11 - Liza Loop, Cynthia Solomon, Brian Silverman & Margaret Morabito - Educating students with vintage computers over the decades. I hope to see you there!

1 year, 8 months

1
0
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PDP11 Dilog SQ706a SCSI Controller

by hupfadekroua

Hello all, are there some experiences to install as well as to configure a Dilog SQ706a QBus SCSI controller in a PDP11/73 successfully? The controller in question is working properly, that's executing the self as well as the host DMA connection tests successfully. The format procedure of a physical and of an emulated SCSI drive will be executed with success also. But how to configure the Dilog SQ706a as well as the 11/73 properly, so that the SCSI drive can be accessed as DU0. I'm using an SCSI RSX image on a ZULU SCSI emulator inherited from an 11/73 running successfully using a native DEC SCSI controller. I don't find any successful procedure on the web beside the manuals on bitsavers, which only can be seen as examples. A.

1 year, 8 months

3
2
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M7846 RX11 Unibus floppy controller board documentation?

by Tom Hunter

I was unable to locate schematics and/or a maintenance manual for the Unibus M7846 RX11 floppy controller board. If anyone has these could you please scan them and make them available. Thank you. Tom

1 year, 8 months

2
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IBM 5100 discussion

by Christian Corti

I have been pointed to the following discussion https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/ibm-5110-initial-info.1224000/pag… There, voidstar78 was apparently trying to contact me. Since my mail addresses are all functional (noone else had any problem with them, be it my personal or our museum's address), I wonder what he did, and I don't have a gmail address. I'm not on this forum, and I don't want to register to "yet another forum", so I can't even look at the pictures. But it seems to have been an interesting discussion. Pity it wasn't on this list. Christian

1 year, 8 months

3
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Re: IBM 727 tape drive

by Len Shustek

At Mon, 18 Sep 2023 10:55:13 +0200 (CEST) Christian Corti <cc(a)informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote: >as it will be soon of importance to us, I am seeking for the systems >engineering manual and drawings, well, everything about the IBM 727 tape >drive (not the 729!). I especially need the module locations charts and >the module schematics. Just a few weeks ago I donated to the Computer History Museum a set of 14 original IBM black binders of "Type 7xx" manuals from the 1950s, including the 727. That one is likely to be the same as what's on bitsavers, but since it's no longer in hand I can't check. They probably haven't made it through the CHM cataloging process yet.

1 year, 8 months

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Obsolete Parts.... Unicorn Electronics

by D. Resor

I recently had a need for BC308 transistors. Of course those have been unobtanium for quite some time. My search beyond a distributor then went to eBay where I found Unicorn Electronics. More to the point I see from their website Apple 1, Apple ][ and Apple 1a Kits along with Apple 1 and Apple II parts are available. I thought some here might find this useful. https://unicornelectronics.com/ Don Resor

1 year, 8 months

2
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Re: VT100: Failing 2114 Chip Replaced With One With The Same Fault

by Rob Jarratt

> -----Original Message----- > From: wrcooke(a)wrcooke.net <wrcooke(a)wrcooke.net> > Sent: 08 October 2023 04:15 > To: rob(a)jarratt.me.uk; Rob Jarratt via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: [cctalk] VT100: Failing 2114 Chip Replaced With One With The > Same Fault > > > > > On 10/07/2023 5:35 PM CDT Rob Jarratt via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > > > > > I find this really hard to explain. It can't be the chip selection > > logic because then the addresses 0x2400-0x2407 would also fail and I > > checked the CS signal with the logic analyser just to be sure. I also > > checked the address lines directly on the RAM chip for any stuck bits > > and they seemed fine too. > > > > > > > > What are the chances of two 2114 chips failing at exactly the same address? > > Is there some failure mode I might not be considering? > > > > Rob > > Perhaps it isn't the 2114 or its associated circuit at all. Maybe some other > device is being incorrectly selected by that address and driving (half) the bus > low? Just a thought. Many thanks for the suggestion. This hadn't crossed my mind, so I checked. All the things that I could identify on the schematic that connect to the bus (UART, interrupt vector, flag buffer and modem signals) seem not to be enabled. I have looked at what is sinking the data bus, there is a buffer which seems to be OK and the 8251 PIC. The PIC is harder to check but I can see it is not selected and the input pins don’t appear to be shorted. Not really sure what else to consider. > > Will > > If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't > assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless > immensity of the sea. > > Antoine de Saint-Exupery

1 year, 9 months

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List of DEC boards - Offers invited.

by Rod Smallwood

Hi I have had so many inquiries for the boards on my list its difficult to respond to them all. Please make an offer for what you want. Allow an additional minimum of $50 for UK to US shipping I'll keep the offer list open for a few days. Rod Smallwood

1 year, 9 months

1
0
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VT100: Failing 2114 Chip Replaced With One With The Same Fault

by Rob Jarratt

I posted recently that I had identified a faulty RAM chip in my VT100 and having replaced it the terminal seemed to get further into the self test. After further analysis with the logic analyser I have realised that it is still failing the RAM test, despite an apparent change in behaviour. I think the change in behaviour could be simply due to the slightly suspect keyboard cable. But here is the puzzle. When I first identified the faulty RAM chip if found that address 0x2408 would read back as 0x0A instead of 0xAA. I reckon this equates to E50 in the schematic, as it is the upper nibble of the second bank of RAM. I replaced the chip with one I bought recently. It turns out the self-test is still failing at the SAME address. I find this really hard to explain. It can't be the chip selection logic because then the addresses 0x2400-0x2407 would also fail and I checked the CS signal with the logic analyser just to be sure. I also checked the address lines directly on the RAM chip for any stuck bits and they seemed fine too. What are the chances of two 2114 chips failing at exactly the same address? Is there some failure mode I might not be considering? Thanks Rob

1 year, 9 months

1
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Re: How were 32-bit minis built in the 70s/80?

by Geert Rolf

Quote: > I could be remembering incorrectly but I think the Gould PN6080 mini we had exclusively for third year > comp sci at Macquarie Uni in the mid/late 80s was 32-bit made up of AMD2900 family logic (2901 ALU's). Find attached two pages of the CPU drawings of a Concept 32/67 and PowerNode 6000. Here the AMD 2901s show up. You remembered correctly! Geert Rolf owner of a PowerNode 6040 -- see https://geerol.home.xs4all.nl/DownLoad/UTX-paper.pdf

1 year, 9 months

2
1
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What happened to the PDP-8 on ebay?

by Bill Degnan

There was a PDP-8 (rack straight 8 with asr33) that was on ebay that disappeared..anyone know if it was sold? I can't find it, maybe the seller pulled the auction to sell privately. Bill

1 year, 9 months

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GEAC

by Bill Gunshannon

Here's a question for all our Computer Museum curators. Have any of the old GEAC Library systems ever been salvaged and put into a museum? They were curious boxes and I think would make a nice addition to a collection. bill

1 year, 9 months

4
4
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Microcom S-64 8085 system

by Wouter de Waal

Hi all I re-discovered some eurocards I found in a box at a swapmeet long ago. It looks like a complete 8085 system. Lots of RAM, 2K EPROM, I/O, FDC. The strange thing is that the EPROM is mapped at F800, the code in there looks like 8085 code, and looks like it wants to live at F800. And there's RAM at 0000. The DIN41612 A/C 64 pin bus has provision for 16 bits data. Pics here http://retro.co.za/8085/Microcom/ Anyone maybe have more information on this? I'm curious. W

1 year, 9 months

3
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Soviet tube/transistor/IC spec source

by Shoppa, Tim

For those working with ex-Soviet equipment from the 60’s and 70’s here’s a remarkable resource: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-C13-6925b02fb6dcaa88935be001eb55… I am astonished that I found it in this in the US National Bureau of Standards (today NIST) archives 😊 Tim N3QE

1 year, 9 months

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The World Wide Web

by Murray McCullough

30 years ago the World Wide Web came into public existence. It has enabled cctalk to flourish. Murray 🙂

1 year, 9 months

30
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Possible DC012 Control Chip Fault on a VT100

by Rob Jarratt

I have my faulty VT100 now passing the RAM test, but it is still not producing any output to the screen. Looking at the DC012 chip it seems to be permanently asserting the interrupt line and not generating any DMA HOLD REQUEST signals. It seems that all the clock inputs are running (DOT CLK, CHAR CLK, VERT RESET). Unless there are other clock inputs not shown on the schematic, I think this suggests that the DC012 is faulty. Does anyone know of any other reason why the DC012 might behave this way? Anyone have a spare DC012 chip? I have posted a bit more detail here: https://robs-old-computers.com/2023/10/01/vt100-ram-fault/ Thanks Rob

1 year, 9 months

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Re: Microcom S-64 8085 system

by Wouter de Waal

Hi Tony and all >It might have run CP/M (which will run on an 8080, and therefore on an >8085). That needs RAM at location 0000 [1]. I know of CP/M, I even used CP/M (on my Apple) but I did not know it needs RAM at 0000. That's kind of strange, since everything that ran CP/M (OK, everything -80) has vectors at 0. I guess there was a reason behind it. I see the CPU board has a jumper "F000/F800" so I guess it does something to map that address to 0 after reset. W

1 year, 9 months

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Documentary on the SKALA computer of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

by Sellam Abraham

This is a pretty interesting documentary describing the computer (SKALA) that ran the Chernobyl nuclear complex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbaptQh2AM4 Sellam

1 year, 9 months

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Shelves / Rails for DEC Racks Questions

by Jay Jaeger

I have some open slots in some of my racks. I do have some old DEC rails, but I have a fair amount of equipment, from both DEC and other manufacturers, for which those rails are not suitable. Does anyone have any specific recommendations for shelving? (where equipment could just be slid on top of, if the equipment isn't too wide - some pieces are very close to 19 inches all by themselves, and were designed for front cantilever style mounting.) Would also be interested in specific recommendations for the following: DEC VR14 (I have one on a PDP-12 with proper rails, but have another to mount and don't have proper rails for it) HP 88780 (Perhaps a shelf is the best bet for these?) JRJ

1 year, 9 months

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VCF Swap Meet - Wall, NJ - Oct. 28, 2023

by Jeffrey Brace

Same place as last year in the big parking lot across from Brookdale and down the street from InfoAge Science and History Museums. We have Southern Monmouth County Firehouse museum selling food and drinks in the middle. This is a fundraiser for both museums (VCF and Firehouse museum) which are both part of InfoAge. All the info is here: https://vcfed.org/vcf-swap-meet/ Thanks! Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner VCF Mid-Atlantic Event Manager Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

1 year, 9 months

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Re: Free Fujitsu M2444 6250 BPI tape drive

by Len Shustek

The drive is saved from the landfill! It was picked up by a classic computing fan at noon this morning. (And yes, it is Pertec-compatible.)

1 year, 9 months

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Theory of operation of DEC H7441 regulator?

by Tom Hunter

The DEC H7441 regulator is a relatively complex circuit using 2 x 555 timers, 2 x LM301 op-amps, 2 x transformers and 2 inductors I am struggling to understand how it is meant to work and was hoping to find a maintenance manual for it. Could anyone with such a manual please help? Alternatively is there another explanation of the operation of this or similar types of circuits? The circuit implements a switch mode supply. One of the two 555 timers operates as an oscillator, the second I think operates as a monoflop with the pulse length controlled via one of the LM301s. Overall the circuit seems very complex and while I understand parts of it, other parts are mysterious. In particular the top left section around Q1/Q2/Q3 and T1/T2 and E3 is most confusing. I did not find anything remotely similar in "The Art of Electronics" from Horowitz & Winfield. The H7441 schematics are available from here: https://deramp.com/downloads/mfe_archive/011-Digital%20Equipment%20Corporat… Thanks for any help or suggested reading material. Tom

1 year, 9 months

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Free Fujitsu M2444 6250 BPI tape drive

by Len Shustek

I bought this giant GCR tape drive on eBay five years ago, http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/fujitsu/_brochures/M244X_Brochure_1984.pdf hoping to be able to use it to extract analog signals from 6250 BPI tapes to feed into my decoding program. https://github.com/LenShustek/readtape I failed to figure out how to get the right signals out, and eventually abandoned the project. I now need the space it takes, so I'm offering it for free before consigning it to the landfill. It's big (20" x 24" x 30" on the wheeled stand I built) and heavy (160 lbs) so I won't ship it. Pickup only, on the San Francisco peninsula.

1 year, 9 months

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DEC VT36 Color Graphics Display Control System

by Hans-Ulrich Hölscher

Hi, who knows details about the DEC VT36 Color Graphics Display Control System ( https://classic.technology/vt36-color-graphics-display-control-system/)? I'm looking for manuals for the VT36 as well as for the associated VAX-11/PROVUE or RSX-11/PROVUE software. Anyone with personal experience with the VT36 and/or PROVUE? Ulli

1 year, 9 months

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Re: Vintage Computer Systems for sale

by Stephen Pereira

Sorry Sellam, none of the websites I mentioned for information are mine. smp - - - Stephen Pereira Bedford, NH 03110 KB1SXE

1 year, 9 months

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Vintage Computer Systems for sale

by Stephen Pereira

Good afternoon to all, I am starting the process of selling off some of my vintage computer systems, so as to not burden anyone I leave behind. The systems I list here are available for viewing in Bedford, NH, just west of Manchester, NH. Anyone interested can send me an e-mail message and we can set up an appointment for you to visit. Cash and Carry, of course, and reasonable offers will be considered. Altair 8800c — $2500 I constructed this system early in 2019. I built the front panel and front panel interface boards, and soldered up the backplane. The rest of the boards were purchased assembled and tested. You can see the Altair 8800c story here: https://deramp.com/altair.html The system is fully tested and working, currently using virtual Altair disk drives via the Deramp application. Plenty of documentation. Single 8 inch disk drive in a dual drive cabinet — $500 This physical disk drive has been paired with the Altair 8800c in the past. Works fine. I included will be an 8 inch disk drive that used to be in this cabinet until the power supply failed. I believe this drive can be repaired. Included will be another 8 inch drive that is the wrong form factor to fit into the cabinet. Purchased on eBay, untested. Altair 680 — $2000 I acquired this system on eBay back at the end of 2018. It was not working, but a bit of troubleshooting discovered bad ram which was replaced. The least significant LED of the address display does not light, but I’ve tested that the proper signals are there. I simply did not want to risk changing out the LED. This system comes with the 4-slot riser, but the connectors are not yet soldered in. No add-in boards. Plenty of documentation. Complete SWTPC 6800 clone system from Corsham Technologies — $400 I acquired this system from Bob at Corsham in the middle of 2018. It is the complete setup, with the full 64K ram and the virtual disk drives. Documentation available at Corsham Technologies: http://www.corshamtech.com <http://www.corshamtech.com/> Northstar Horizon — $800 I purchased this system on eBay as a running system. From time to time I had problems with the top 8K ram on the Horizon 64K ram board. The 64k ram board has been replaced with a Compupro Ram 17 (or clone), works great, no problems. I will include the glitchy Horizon 64K ram board. FYI, a Deramp Virtual Sector Generator works great with this system, eliminating the need for hard sector diskettes. https://deramp.com/vsg.html Thanks for listening! smp - - - Stephen Pereira Bedford, NH 03110 KB1SXE

1 year, 9 months

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Vintage Computer Systems for sale

by Stephen Pereira

Good afternoon to all, I am starting the process of selling off some of my vintage computer systems, so as to not burden anyone I leave behind. The systems I list here are available for viewing in Bedford, NH, just west of Manchester, NH. Anyone interested can send me an e-mail message and we can set up an appointment for you to visit. Cash and Carry, of course, and reasonable offers will be considered. Altair 8800c — $2500 I constructed this system early in 2019. I built the front panel and front panel interface boards, and soldered up the backplane. The rest of the boards were purchased assembled and tested. You can see the Altair 8800c story here: https://deramp.com/altair.html The system is fully tested and working, currently using virtual Altair disk drives via the Deramp application. Plenty of documentation. Single 8 inch disk drive in a dual drive cabinet — $500 This physical disk drive has been paired with the Altair 8800c in the past. Works fine. I included will be an 8 inch disk drive that used to be in this cabinet until the power supply failed. I believe this drive can be repaired. Included will be another 8 inch drive that is the wrong form factor to fit into the cabinet. Purchased on eBay, untested. Altair 680 — $2000 I acquired this system on eBay back at the end of 2018. It was not working, but a bit of troubleshooting discovered bad ram which was replaced. The least significant LED of the address display does not light, but I’ve tested that the proper signals are there. I simply did not want to risk changing out the LED. This system comes with the 4-slot riser, but the connectors are not yet soldered in. No add-in boards. Plenty of documentation. Complete SWTPC 6800 clone system from Corsham Technologies — $400 I acquired this system from Bob at Corsham in the middle of 2018. It is the complete setup, with the full 64K ram and the virtual disk drives. Documentation available at Corsham Technologies: http://www.corshamtech.com <http://www.corshamtech.com/> Northstar Horizon — $800 I purchased this system on eBay as a running system. From time to time I had problems with the top 8K ram on the Horizon 64K ram board. The 64k ram board has been replaced with a Compupro Ram 17 (or clone), works great, no problems. I will include the glitchy Horizon 64K ram board. FYI, a Deramp Virtual Sector Generator works great with this system, eliminating the need for hard sector diskettes. https://deramp.com/vsg.html Thanks for listening! smp - - - Stephen Pereira Bedford, NH 03110 KB1SXE

1 year, 9 months

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IBM VM "CMS" tape format

by Chuck Guzis

Group, Ive got a tape here from what I believe to be a VM system. The structure is unknown to me, although I can possibly take a stab at it. Lots of data between tapemarks that seems to consist of a number of records that start out something like this (translated from EBCIDC): > 00000000 02 43 4d 53 46 30 30 30 31 31 32 30 35 31 31 32 |.CMSF00011205112| > 00000010 34 37 30 37 36 30 31 32 32 32 31 31 30 31 31 31 |4707601222110111| Another example: > 00000000 02 43 4d 53 46 44 41 54 41 20 5f 4e 55 4c 4c 5f |.CMSFDATA _NULL_| > 00000010 3b 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |; | > 00000020 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 | | The data itself appears to be a bunch of 80 character card images. I found a mention on the old yahoo groups H390-VM discussions, but no clarity was ever shed on the subject. Does anyone know about this tape format? --Chuck

1 year, 9 months

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Any leads on Fairlight sampler that needs repair?

by Ethan O'Toole

Anyone have any leads in USA on a Fairlight CMI or similar that needs repair? S-100 based sampler from the 80s. Would be fun to restore one. - Ethan

1 year, 9 months

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Re: IBM VM "CMS" tape format

by Adam Thornton

Seems like rather than going through MUSIC/SP it'd be easier to just fire up VM/CE 1.2 (which is VM/370 r6) and use CMS TAPE (which is present) directly from the CMS UI. You can probably attach the file you've got as a tape device; not entirely sure Hercules will like the format, but it wouldn't hurt to try. Adam

1 year, 9 months

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WTD: transputer multi-cpu isa card

by Tony Jones

I'd like to get an ISA based transputer card. Something with multiple cpus (so not the B004). A B008 or one of the clones that accepts multiple TRAM modules would be ideal (https://www.geekdot.com/inmos-b008) It doesn't have to be TRAM. I saw this multi-cpu board on ebay.ie but a) it's more than I was hoping to spend b) I can't find any info on it. Whatever I get I want there to be reasonable docs and archived software: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/234283597489 Suggestions on what to look for welcomed. I'm in no rush and good things come to those who wait. I'm in the USA but have family in the UK and go there often so I'm looking on ebay.co.uk Thanks!

1 year, 9 months

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IBM 727 tape drive

by Christian Corti

Hello all, as it will be soon of importance to us, I am seeking for the systems engineering manual and drawings, well, everything about the IBM 727 tape drive (not the 729!). I especially need the module locations charts and the module schematics. I see that there is the CE manual on bitsavers. Eventually, the other manuals are available somewhere, too? Christian

1 year, 9 months

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Tracking Down a RAM Issue in a VT100 (how does the 2114 chip work?)

by Rob Jarratt

I have a non-functioning VT100. I think it is failing in the POST during the RAM check. I don't know for sure because I can't get it to light up the LEDs on the keyboard, however I used my logic analyser (a HP1630G) to see what values were written to the UART to send to the keyboard and I see it sends the values FF then 1, 2, 3, 4 and finally 5. The last value corresponds to the RAM test so I am fairly confident the RAM test is what is failing. I have disassembled the VT100 ROM and if I have understood it correctly it zeroes out the RAM (high address to low) and then for each address (low address to high) it tries first to read back the zero and then writes 0xAA to the location and tries to read that back. I am also confident the 8080 is working OK because I was able to capture an address trace on the ROM that showed it executing the program as per the disassembled ROM. My problem is getting the logic analyser reliably to tell me how each RAM chip is being addressed and what data is being read or written. I am seeing strange values for the addresses (sometimes) and I am not sure I have setup the logic analyser correctly. I have read the datasheet for the 2114 chip and I am not entirely clear that I have understood it correctly. Here is how I have set it up: Trigger on the -ve edge of Chip Select (pin 8) Capture A9-A0 as the address Capture WE as an indication of Read or Write The timing diagrams show the write cycle where the WE signal and CE signal seem to transition at the same time and the data may be only valid a bit later then the CS -ve edge. But this may just be me not knowing how to read the datasheet. Using the +ve edge of CS seems no better. Is there something I am missing about how to analyse how the RAM chips are being used? Thanks Rob

1 year, 9 months

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Concorde cabin display technology?

by Shoppa, Tim

Not quite computer tech but I figure this is the best place to ask: Does anyone recognize the display tech that was used on the Concorde's in-cabin display? Examples: https://samchui.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/CON15.jpg https://samchui.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/CON16.jpg The display had fully-formed digits and letters, and showed either Mach and Feet, or Temp and MPH. Some pictures show the display in green and others show it in orange - which of course were popular monochrome CRT colors, yet the display looks too "flat" to be a couple CRT's. Those colors were also popular for Electroluminiscent displays which matches the evident "flatness" but I'm not sure I've seen any EL's with fully formed digits like this with no visible segmentation? I want to guess it was individual digits back-projected - which was a popular control-theater display tech at the end of the 20th century - but I can't rule out, say, really well-done edge-lit character plates. In any event there doesn't seem to be any visible jitter up and down between digits that I might expect with either of those technologies. The "FEET" display in the above-referenced JPG's shows some artifacts at the left and right edges which might be a clue? Some pics of the BA Concorde interior had a simple 15-segment and 7-segment green LED display. Don't need help with that one 🙂. Tim N3QE

1 year, 9 months

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OT: Anyone near Glasnevin (Dublin), Ireland (to pick-up an item)?

by Sellam Abraham

I'm looking for someone near Glasnevin near Dublin, Ireland who would be willing to pick up an item for me and ship it to me State-side. Seller will not ship. Thank you in advance. Sellam

1 year, 9 months

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WTB: IBM 9221 ESCON card

by Kevin Bowling

Hi, I am looking for a CH3s QH50, P/N 63F3825 for a 9221 ES/9000. A CH1s would also do. Anyone have an ES/9000 that is a brick because no processor console that can help me out? Regards, Kevin

1 year, 9 months

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Re: Looking for an original Sun PS2 ->Sun keyboard adapter 370-2068

by silcreval

I've not heard of the Wombat adapter - was that Sun related?

1 year, 9 months

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Re: Looking for an original Sun PS2 ->Sun keyboard adapter 370-2068

by silcreval

Thanks - I did spot that - just hoping to get a slightly better price if I can :-)

1 year, 9 months

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Comparing PDP-8 processor flipchip

by Bill Degnan

The recent Ebay auction for the original PDP-8 got my attention because one of the photos (the processor logic flipchip array) is a nice snapshot for comparison purposes with the system I am working on. https://vintagecomputer.net/digital/pdp-8/PDP-8_flip-chips_left.png (mine) https://vintagecomputer.net/temp/EBAYPDP-8ProcessorFlipchips.jpg Given my PDP-8 is close to working, I would assume that the Ebay PDP-8 would have a fighting chance, at least as far as the flip chip configuration goes. This is also a nice confirmation that I more or less have the flipchips in the right places. There are only a few slight differences. Bill

1 year, 9 months

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Looking for an original Sun PS2 ->Sun keyboard adapter 370-2068

by Ian F

Hi all, Looking for an original Sun 370-2068, which is a PS2 to Sun keyboard adapter. If anyone has one please DM me, happy to pay a reasonable price & international shipping if needed. Thanks!

1 year, 9 months

3
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For Fred, especially: "Everything I know about floppy disks"

by Liam Proven

« Everything I know about floppy disks 2023-08-28 Floppy disk drives are curious things. We know them as the slots that ingest those small almost-square plastic "floppy disks" and we only really see them now in Computer Museums. But there's a lot going on in that humble square of plastic and I wanted to write down what I've learned so far. » https://thejpster.org.uk/blog/blog-2023-08-28/ -- Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven(a)cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lproven(a)gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven IoM: +44 7624 227612 ~ UK: +44 7939-087884 ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053

1 year, 9 months

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Anyone in Sheffield uk?

by Ethan O'Toole

Anyone in Sheffield UK? There is an Acorn Archemedies computer I am interested in buying but the guy is collection only. I am in the USA, but interested in buying and repairing the system. - Ethan

1 year, 9 months

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PDP-8/L $15,000

by Bill Degnan

It can be yours for only $15,000 plus shipping https://www.ebay.com/itm/126067408991 sheesh. Bill

1 year, 9 months

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Re: 8" DSDD to USB MSD?

by Wayne S

Sent from my iPhone > On Sep 8, 2023, at 13:16, Wayne S <wayne.sudol(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > >> but presents itself to an OS as a Mass Storage Device (block device). Anders, for what practical purpose would you do that? It’s not like there’s so many 8 inch floppies around to make it feasible. You would have to have a LOT of intelligence in the Usb interface due to the different physical formats let alone the software formats. It would be difficult.

1 year, 9 months

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Re: For Fred, especially: "Everything I know about floppy disks"

by Fred Cisin

>> If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and >> don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the >> endless immensity of the sea. On Sun, 10 Sep 2023, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote: > We must teach Fred to long for the endless immensity of the written word > (in book form, focusing specifically on floppy disk drives). 45 years ago, I started writing about repairing Honda cars. Wasn't getting far until an acquaintance who fancied himself to be a writer got me to agree to do a book with him. He sold the idea to John Muir Publications (publisher of the Volkswagen Idiot book, different John Muir). I wrote it, my co-author edited, the publisher put their own editor on it, who butchered it. But, the publisher also brought in Peter Aschwanden, who is a GREAT automotive illustrator (see the VW idiot book). In 1979, I switched to TRS80, and did it with Electric Pencil, and then Scripsit. I had a DTC300 Hytype-I daisy wheel printer. I printed it 8.5" wide down the middle of 14 7/8 paper, giving lots of room for comments, etc. For the illustrator, I printed it on the left side of the wide paper, leaving a large area for doodles. The publisher's editor butchered it badly enough that my co-author switched to a pseudonym. With the publisher's accounting, never got enough in royalties to fuuly pay all of my expenses. https://www.amazon.com/How-Keep-Your-Honda-Alive/dp/0912528257 In the 1990s, I started writing about floppy disks, how FM/MFM worked, IBM/WD track and sector structure, directory structures, DOS Utilities, disk repair, etc. But, got bogged down with too much to do, such as closing my office, etc., . . . 20 years ago, I started writing an undergraduate textbook on Information Science. How searches and search engines work, and how to search better, how companies cheat the search engines (SEO), relevance ranking, trade-offs between recall and precision (cf. Buckland), the DIK[W[E]] (Data/Information/Knowledge/[Wisdom/[Enlightenment]]) pyramid, etc. I wanted to make a community college class out of it. But, certain administrators (who I failed to ever defenestrate) refused to consider understanding of information to be appropriate for community college (anything beyond their total lack of comprehension was "inappropriate") (Do YOU consider it "computer literate" to create a memo about a room change for a meeting in WordPerfect, print it with a color printer (for the logo and a ruling line), SCAN that printed memo, and send it out as an ATTACHMENT to an email with subject line of "FYI" and text body of "See the attachment"?) I haven't made progress on it lately. So, yes, I have always longed for the endless immensity of the written word, . . . -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com

1 year, 9 months

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Teletype Exhibit at VCFMW

by Eric Moore

https://youtu.be/W6mJB9ovES4 I had two model 14s set up, details in the video description :)

1 year, 9 months

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VCF MW 2023 recap (Fri/Sat only)

by Steve Lewis

I got the chance to attend another great VCF! This time in Chicago over this past weekend. Most images should be able to click and enlarge (if not, wiggle the page a bit and try again). https://voidstar.blog/vcf-mw-midwest-2023/

1 year, 9 months

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VCFMW

by Paul Anderson

I've started pulling parts for people who have requested them and keep finding things I had forgotten. A few things of possible interest include: PDP-8A parts including backplanes, most CPU boards, 128K, MM board MM8-AA/AB 8-E boxes and boards DECMATE Rainbow, and PRO systems and parts A few 11/05, 11/10 boxes a new 54-21149 KN15 cpu VS40X 4 plane color options SI-QS 1000 board labeled QED 993 CPU Tape drive heads LA36, LA120, and other printers and parts various VTs and monitors and parts MFM and floppy drives Qbus boxes and hundreds of boards 1000s of DEC boards and parts possible a few 3000 and 5000 boxes and parts If anyone wants to stop by and look for things, please contact me off list to set up a time. Most of the people who have stopped by would say I have quite a lot of DEC items. If you have any questions contact me off list.

1 year, 9 months

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NS32k software on Ebay

by Mattis Lind

There have been a number of Ebay listings for various ns32k software, QIC tapes and 1/2 inch tapes. I thought I would buy them if there were no other bids to try to recover the contents. https://www.ebay.com/itm/225759541222 https://www.ebay.com/itm/225759543101 https://www.ebay.com/itm/225750706891 But there was a buyer and I didn't want to fight over something where I don't have the actual hardware. Maybe someone here is the buyer? I am just curious if this will end up on bitsavers in the future? /Mattis

1 year, 10 months

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8" DSDD to USB MSD?

by Anders Nelson

Hi all, I just bought a very clean, DSDD 8" disk drive off eBay and it has a 50p connector which I guess is the common Shugart type? I also found a 50p-> 34p adaptor PCB design someone documented online. I haven't delved much into floppy formats (high level or low level) but I'm somewhat familiar with filesystems from FAT12. My ultimate goal is to create an open-source USB adaptor that reads/writes the contents of an 8" disk but presents itself to an OS as a Mass Storage Device (block device). Is such a thing possible? I once created a terrible custom format for storing data on a flash chip which required no low-level format, but I expect a magnetic disk needs headers/trailers to know when a track starts/stops so it can skip around. I checked out the KyroFlux website and it seems there are dozens of formats that were used for 8" disks - is there a favorite format among the community that allows full use of a 1.2MB 8" disk? Any pointers are appreciated! Anders www.andersknelson.com

1 year, 10 months

5
7
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NewtonOS

by David Arnold

Some of you might recall that Apple released a series of machines based on the Newton OS in the early 1990s. There were eight models in total from Apple, and a few more from third parties who licensed both the hardware and software to make eg. ruggedized handhelds, or "smart" (landline) phones. The operating system was bespoke. It had a Lisp influence during development, but by the time it was released, it used a language called NewtonScript that had an Algol-ish syntax with Lisp/Self-like semantics. Although the OS core was written in C++, large parts of the system were written in NewtonScript as well, as were the built-in applications. Newtons ended up as a dead-end branch of computer evolution. The product line was cancelled by Jobs following his return to Apple, and despite a few little respectful nods, iOS has basically no commonality with NewtonOS. Ironically, the handwriting recognition engine (the focal point for most Newton criticism) outlived the devices and was ported to and shipped with Mac OS X. A Newton emulator, called Einstein, exists. It's able to run the OS, the built-in apps, and to install and run third-party applications with good fidelity to the original experience. It requires a ROM image to function. Apple made various ROM images available, and it's possible to extract the image from a physical Newton device, but the consensus is that it isn't legal to distribute these ROM images. This makes setting up the emulator more complex than is ideal. The NewtonTalk mailing list is a group of Newton fans that remain engaged with the platform to this day, and we're currently discussing the possibility of legally obtaining the Newton ROM images from Apple. We've been heartened by Apple's recent releases of MacPaint and the Lisa OS to the CHM, and are wondering if Apple might be persuaded to release at least the NewtonOS ROM, or (ideally) system's source code. If there's anyone who was either involved in those previous negotiations, or could introduce us to someone who was, and is willing to offer advice and/or assistance with our quest ... really, any helpful pointers would be useful, and much appreciated. Cheers, d https://github.com/pguyot/Einstein http://newtontalk.net/

1 year, 10 months

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SCO on Virtualbox

by KenUnix

Hi. Has anyone got SCO Unix to successfully install and run on Virtualbox? My efforts have failed. My host is Ubuntu 22.04 with Virtualbox 7.0.10. Thanks, Ken -- WWL 📚

1 year, 10 months

10
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Setup for VCFMW

by Mike Katz

What time is setup Tomorrow (Friday, 8-Sep-23) for VCFMW?

1 year, 10 months

2
1
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Apollo motherboard 013034, 246402-01 available

by Paul Anderson

Dated 1988, refurb?

1 year, 10 months

1
0
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Re: Walter Shawlee of Sphere, RIP

by John Ball

I had heard he was in poor health due to a bad diagnosis but it's tragic to hear he's gone now. It was because his annual Free Stuff Days I was able to build up most of my lab equipment. Those were the days when you could still pull up and fill your car with all sorts of goodies. I bought my first real EPROM programmer (a 29B) from him. -John

1 year, 10 months

1
0
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TI 960

by Christian Corti

I guess not many have survived but I want to ask if someone/some place has software (papertapes, ...) for the Texas Instruments 960 minicomputers. We have a 960B but at the moment, it is pretty much useless. I could toggle in a small program, but would appreciate something like FORTRAN or an assembler. Christian

1 year, 10 months

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18
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Walter Shawlee of Sphere, RIP

by Lyle Bickley

I purchased several items from Walter at Sphere over the years. I suspect many others of you Tek and HP fans on this list have, too. He was always helpful and kind. Walter has been ill for some time and passed away yesterday. It's good that his wife, Susan, will continue to run the business (I got an email from Susan before Walter passed so stating). Here is a link to Walter's obituary: https://bit.ly/3qZ2lBX Regards, Lyle -- 73 NM6Y Bickley Consulting West https://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

1 year, 10 months

1
0
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VCFMW

by Paul Anderson

I plan on arriving around noon, and leaving around 6ish. I have most Q-bus and MicroVAX CPU and memory boards along with options and non-DEC boards. In UNI-BUS, I have MOS and core sets plus most options. I can't take everything with me, and whatever doesn't sell at VCFMW can be shipped (small items) after I return. If you are looking for any DEC product, feel free to contact me. Thanks, Paul

1 year, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Key to Disk Terminal Video

by Eric Moore

https://youtu.be/jkOsvQpNmio I hope yall enjoy!

1 year, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Language Creators Charity Fundraiser (Seattle Sept 19th)

by Gavin Scott

This sounds kinda fun (via the Adafruit weekly Python on microcontrollers newsletter): https://pydata.org/language-creator-fundraiser/ Panelists: Adele Goldberg - Smalltalk Guido Van Rossum - Python Anders Hejlsberg - Turbo Pascal, C#, TypeScript James Gosling - Java "PyData Seattle presents its inaugural charity event. The event will feature the creators of C#, Java, Perl, Python, TypeScript, and Smalltalk in a conversation about programming language design. The charity event brings together this unique group of computer science pioneers, unlike any event held before. These great minds come together for what will surely be a fantastic night of discussion as the panel delves into the past and future of programming language creation. The event will attract innovators and engineers from Seattle, the nation’s fastest-growing technology hub. The event is a benefit for Last Mile Education Fund and NUMFOCUS." General admission $229, Students $75. 12:00 - 4:00 PM September 19th, 2023 Cinemark Lincoln Square, Cinemas and IMAX 700 Bellevue Way NE, Suite 310 Bellevue WA 98004

1 year, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Silly question about S-100 and video monitors

by W2HX

Hi all, I recently acquired an S-100 computer, and it came with a video card and a keyboard (3rd party products, not originally equipped with these). I am trying to figure out the benefits of having a video card and keyboard vs just using a serial port and terminal. Certainly if the video card supported graphics, that would be a reason to go that route over a terminal. As for the keyboard, ok-maybe you need specific keys for a specific application. But I don't understand the video monitor. I could understand maybe if there was an RF modulator so that you could use a standard TV. That would save the builder some money. But this computer just provides composite. Other than graphics (and maybe some special function keys for an application on a keyboard), why would an S-100 builder in those days opt to buy a video card instead of a terminal? Thanks for the bandwidth. 73 Eugene W2HX Subscribe to my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@w2hx/videos

1 year, 10 months

28
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Re: Friden (was Silly question about S-100 and video monitors)

by Rick Bensene

Just to add, interestingly, Singer also purchased General Precision from Librascope. Librascope/General Precision were the folks that had earlier acquired Royal-McBee. Royal-McBee developed the wonderful (some consider the first "personal" computer) LGP-30 vacuum-tube, magnetic drum computer that was designed by Manhattan Project theoretical physicist Stanley Frankel. Frankel had quite a legacy in the world of computing, having contributed to the design of the delay-line-based Packard Bell PB-250(with Max Palevsky), and development of a custom high-speed computer for Continental Oil Company called CONAC (used for data reduction of sounding operations search for oil deposits). Frankel also developed an early electronic calculator design that was purchased by Smith Corona/Marchant (SCM) and produced as the CRT-display SCM Cogito 240 calculator, augmented with Square Root as to Cogito 240SR. Frankel also collaborated with SCM on the development of the logic for the first set of LSI integrated circuits that were used in the later Nixie-tube display Cogito calculators. He also developed a very interesting calculator, based somewhat on the principles of the LGP-30 computer for Diehl in West Germany. The machine was fully transistorized and used only 142 transistors in its logic. It was based on magnetostrictive delay lines (two of them), and was a fully microcoded architecture, I believe the first electronic calculator to be completely microcoded. Since read-only memory (for the microcode) was either physically very large, or complex and expensive to build at the time (diode ROM, wire rope ROM), the microcode was loaded into the calculator at power-up time from a two channel punched metal tape. One channel provided the clocking, and the other channel provided the bits. It took just under a minute from when the calculator was powered on until the microcode was loaded into a delay line, and from there, all operations of the machine were controlled by the microcode in the delay line. The machine was able to be implemented with so few transistors because the microcode word was quite wide, and was designed so that it was sequentially interpreted as the bits streamed out of the delay line, so not all that many flip flops were needed. Working registers were stored in the other delay line, along with program steps (yes, the machine was programmable). The design was very elegant. The machine debuted as the Diehl Combitron, and the cool thing about its design was that it was really easy to augment by just changing the microcode tape (which was quite easily done...bugfixes could be easly installed even by end-users, though such was discouraged). Soon after the Combitron was introduced, an augmented version was introduced called the Combitron-S that added a small amount of I/O circuitry and additional microcode to implement operations to allow the addition of an external punched paper tape reader/punch. An interesting aspect of electronic calculator history is that there are a number of people whose names pop up at various points in time during the evolution of the technology. Frankel was one of those, along with a cast of a few others, all of whom had major impacts in the realm of electronic calculator (and the eventual evolution of the electronic calculator into what became the microcontroller/microprocessor that spurred the development of the personal computer).

1 year, 10 months

15
27
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Re: VCFMW Anybody got an Emulex QD21?

by Mark Matlock

Jon, I have an Emulex QD21 that I could part with. I was hoping to attend VCF MW but it looks very doubtful at this point. I also have a spare DEQNA or DELQA. I have not tested these boards to verify that they work although I could test the ethernet boards on a PDP-11. Hans-Ulrich Hölscher mentioned work he did testing MicroVAX II transfers with Lee Gleason’s MicroVAX I project to transfer disk images on bare metal (no-OS) MicroVAX systems. I think that would be your best bet to recover your ESDI disk. If you don’t have any luck at the VCCF MW getting what you need, send me an email and we can work something out. Best, Mark

1 year, 10 months

1
0
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SDF Interim Computer Festival

by Tarek Hoteit

FYI, SDF retro computing and home brew exhibition is scheduled for September 30 to October 1 in Seattle WA . Link to the exhibit is at https://sdf.org/icf/ and https://icm.museum/ - - - - Tarek Hoteit tarek(a)infocom.ai +1 360-838-3675 https://infocom.ai

1 year, 10 months

3
3
0 0

Little Databases

by Adam Thornton

Have you considered sqlite3? It's a SQL engine, but the backend is just a file. So it doesn't support concurrent access by multiple users, but if that's not a concern, it gives you the ability to do real SQL queries without the bother of setting up an RDBMS. Adam

1 year, 10 months

8
10
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Plotter or Chart Recorder pens - in UK

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

I have found some plotter pens. Ons pack says Calcomp 104x, 1023. The other I can't trace. They look like they clip into ring. Pics here. https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ag4BJfE5B3onnqhG_uReQsCndYafvg?e=WpT5nw I have a few more of the Calcomp, packets of the un-branded sort. Free for the cost of postage Dave

1 year, 10 months

1
0
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IBM 1620 Model 2 software wanted

by Dave Babcock

To all, Some 20 years ago, I led the Computer History Museum's restoration of an IBM 1620 Model 1 computer. Our team was successful in both bringing the machine back to life and collecting a massive amount of manuals, books, and software for the machine. Most notable the John Maniotes collection. I can safely say that CHM has the largest collection of IBM 1620 material in the world. We are still looking for IBM 1620 Model 1 manuals to add to collection. Please let me know if you have anything that we might be missing. In the past 2 years, several people have been writing simulators for the IBM 1620 Model 2 that go well beyond SIMH's instruction-level simulator. These simulators are based on the logic diagrams of the machine and implement unusual corner cases as well as documented functionality. One of the simulators has a text-based front panel while another one has a full true-to-life graphical front panel. It's not my place to formally announce either program, that's for the creators to do once they complete their implementations. I've been consulting with the engineers and am reaching out to the broader community for help. What they need, and CHM would be very interested in adding to its IBM 1620 collection, is original software specifically for the IBM 1620 Model 2. Of particular interest are the IBM 1620 Monitor II and IBM 1620-2 diagnostics, but any Model 2 software would be helpful to their efforts. Please let me know if you have and IBM 1620 Model 2 software or manuals. Thanks, Dave Babcock

1 year, 10 months

3
4
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Signetics N8220B ??

by Holm Tiffe

Hi guys, I have 8 "new" Chips from Signetics, they are labeled: S7536 N8220B and on the backside between the pins "8220". Does anyone know what they do? My search with google and in the 1976 Signetics Date Manual (from Bitsavers) wasn't helpful... Thanx in advance, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583 info(a)tsht.de Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 741

1 year, 10 months

5
5
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vcfmw

by Paul Anderson

If anyone wants any DEC gear brought up to wcfmw, please contact me off list. If anyone is driving out from the NJ area, I have a few pieces of audio equipment I need to get transported to IL. I also collect US and foreign coins and currency, and am interested in buying or trading for DEC items. Thanks, Paul

1 year, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Gould Systems 32/77 Acquired (superminicomputer)

by Eric Moore

https://youtu.be/utAd_uZryDE

1 year, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Apple 1

by Murray McCullough

Classic computers have a value in our capitalist society. Take the Apple-1: Its value can be in the $100,000s. One is for sale now: ~ $200,000. Next seems to be the Kenbak-1 valued somewhere around $50,000. Now, I’m not suggesting money is the epitome for evaluating our hobby but it goes a long way to explaining its longevity. Happy computing. Murray 🙂 Add. I'm unable to get the output from your site but hope to contribute in some small way.

1 year, 10 months

13
19
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Emacs on v7

by Adam Thornton

I finally got an Emacs running on v7--it's on misspiggy at LCML now as "ue". It's Microemacs 3.6; what I did was to clone https://github.com/troglobit/MicroEMACS and check out the first commit. Some experimentation later, it had the usual problem with v7 and DEC linkers that not all the function names (er, more generally exported symbols, but in this case, function names) were unique in the first 7 characters (which is 6 if you're working with DEC OSes). So a bit of sed later and I had something that built, linked, and appears to run with TERM=vt100 set. Arrow keys, naturally, don't work, but C-b, C-f, C-p, C-n do. I think I'm going to just make a GH repo of it, but I'm happy to send the tarball, or tar.uue, upon request. I find UUCP kinda fragile on my simh installation, and I don't know how to get to Miss Piggy's (although the uucp commands are there), so, well, uuencoding, a pasteboard buffer, iTerm2's "Paste Slowly", and cat will work as a file transfer mechanism. Now I'm going to run over to TUHS and announce the same. Adam

1 year, 10 months

3
3
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Re: Apple 1

by Bill Gunshannon

On 8/3/2023 3:45 AM, Joshua Rice via cctalk wrote: > > I’d still prefer the IMSAI 8080 or SWTPC 6800 though. > While I have a couple Apple ]['s I really don't do much with them. Haven't even turned one on since I retired from the University in 2015 and they came home . Wouldn't take an Apple 1 as a gift but I, too, would love to have an IMSAI and a SWTPC 6800. bill

1 year, 10 months

16
28
0 0

fredmacs?

by Adam Thornton

I have heard rumors of one "fredmacs" which is a more-or-less emacs that will run on PDP-11 v7 Unix. Since I've gotten "s" onto v7 and behaving mostly happily, now I'd like an editor I actually _like_ rather than _tolerate_. Does anyone know where to find the fredmacs sources? Adam

1 year, 10 months

4
4
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Disk-pack-based drives at LCM

by P Gebhardt

Hi all, I just came across pictures on the LCM website about their SDS Sigma installation there. On the pictures, one can see 10-platter disk packs in the corner and stored on the disk drives. Did the LCM ever had these in operation, either for data retrieval or even demo purposes? I know of the Jim Austin Computer museum where they fixed a CDC 9766 drive but it suffered a head crash after a few hours according to their description which led to giving up the operation of these drives. Greetings, Pierre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.digitalheritage.de

1 year, 10 months

7
8
0 0

NGPL TCS - 1969 Industrial Control

by Eric Moore

https://youtu.be/-CaUafVqnbw Super stoked to be able to share my latest video, I hope yall like it. -Eric

1 year, 10 months

5
6
0 0

SunPC

by silcreval

Hi there I recently had a mad hankering to add a SunPC card to my Sparcstation. A lot of you will be familiar with the SBUS cards with a 486 or '586' processor. Does anyone have one spare they would like to part with? Please PM me if you do. Anything really not at all fussed. This sort of re-creates a setup I had as a post graduate when I had a new 486DX2 alongside a Sparcstation 2, or at least had access to them. Both were pretty amazing machines at the time. I do remember benchmarking these two machines running similar C software I'd compiled up (a simple electromagnetic simulator), and it was noticeable that the sparcstation was at least twice as fast.

1 year, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Logic Analyzers - HP/Agilent 16700B or 1670G?

by John H. Reinhardt

Hello all. I looking around for a Logic Analyzer for doing (mostly) DEC QBus/UniBus stuff. Being the way I am I want something with enough lines to handle the most of the signals so I'm guessing something with roughly 80-ish channels. I think that lets out all/most of the USB based LA. I've looked around and it seems the the HP/Agilent 16700 series (16700B/16702B) are probably what I want. I've also seen the 1670G which also seems quite doable. I've seen a lot of posts at the EEVblog and it seems I missed possibly the golden age of 16700 LA by a few years price-wise. What I'm wondering is if there is something specific I should be looking for, or opinions on which LA is more suitable. Or even if there is a different make of LA to look for. Thanks in advance for your help John H. Reinhardt

1 year, 10 months

14
21
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Dec Vax in Simh - VMS Operating system

by devin davison

Hello All, I am working to get my two microvax systems working, I have a couple of microvax 3800 systems. While I am waiting to get the real hardware going, I would like to set up simh with vms to use for testing. I don't really need the latest version of vms, any old version with tcp/ip would work. I do have about 16 dumb terminals i want to run as a lab and connect to the vax. Can anyone provide guidance on this matter for setting up and install of VMS in sinh? I realize that there was the openvms hobbyist program, but i may want to grab an older version of the os if it will run smoother on the older hardware. Open to suggestions, I hope to post back with some pictures once the real vax 3800 hardware is running. Thanks, Devin D.

1 year, 10 months

3
2
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Divestiture and sqlite3

by Adam Thornton

To clarify a couple of things in response to queries: my time for divestment is "not yet"--but rest assured, when it arrives, I will certainly see who wants things from my assortment (don't get too excited; there's nothing super-rare or valuable in it, and I've always been more concerned with restoring functionality than maintaining period-correctness; I am one of those collectors who restores stuff to play with it, not to then put it in shrinkwrap and preserve it for some uncertain future). And should that time arrive suddenly, well, argh, I've been putting off making a will too long, but I know who I'm going to put in charge of "everything computery," and I trust her to make good decisions about the things she doesn't want. My understanding of sqlite (and it could be wrong) is that concurrent writes aren't supported, and reads should block if a write is in progress until the write completes. In practice it seems like most things are one-sqlite-file-per-process and if that process is threaded, one would hope the programmer understands what they're doing well enough to make it work. There are fairly few cases I've seen where a single sqlite file is shared between unrelated processes, which would take filesystem locking working correctly to ensure correctness. Which is generally OK for local filesystems, but NFS is still a bucket of worms when it comes to locking behavior, and the number of people running systems that genuinely understand NFS has been declining for decades. (I do not count myself among those people.)

1 year, 10 months

2
1
0 0

Connecting MFM emulator as both 1st and 2nd drive in Microvax 2000?

by Jonathan Stone

I have a Gesswein MFM emulator from decromancer.ca; who offer an adaptor that yields a 2nd MFM data connector. I'll use mine in a Microvax 2000. Does anyone know how to hook it up as two MFM drives in a Microvax 2000? The vendor sold a 1in high adaptor box, BA40A, with DD50 connectors to a second cabinet (same as CPU box) for a second drive. DEC configured both primary and secondary drives identically (drive 3, IIRC). The Microvax 2000 Technical Manual gives the pinout from the mother board to the MFM/floppy daughterboard, but I can't find the pinout from that daughterboard to the cables anywhere. I've been looking for a BA40A, for some years now, to trace the pin layout for a 2nd drive. Does anyone know it? Has anyone successfully configured a single MFM emulator as two MFM drives in a Microvax 2000? Or to an RQDX3?

1 year, 10 months

25
51
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Disposition of stuff

by Adam Thornton

Been thinking about it a little recently, and, no, I definitely don't plan to send my stuff to a scrapper. I have some younger friends with an interest in retrocomputing. They want my stuff when I'm done with it, sure. And if they want _just a little_ of my stuff I'll probably strike a deal like, "you can have the SGI Indy if that box of IDE drives goes with it, and you aren't allowed to throw it away until you're somewhere I'm not going to see it by the side of the road." Adam

1 year, 10 months

4
3
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Re: Disposition of stuff

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

Mike, Well sadly I have no PDP-8 parts. I do have a few bits of Q-BUS PDP-11. Probably enough to build a complete 11. I am also in the UK …. Dave From: Mike Katz <bitwiz(a)12bitsbest.com> Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2023 3:53 PM Cc: 'KenUnix' <ken.unix.guy(a)gmail.com>; dave.g4ugm(a)gmail.com Subject: Re: [cctalk] Re: Disposition of stuff I will gladly give a nice warm loving home to any PDP-8 equipment and parts that you have. On Aug 19, 2023 6:16 AM, Dave Wade G4UGM via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: Gentles, The problem is I have stuff no one wants. Large plotter, dec writer in need of repair, Large Alpha server.... Suggestions? Dave > -----Original Message----- > From: KenUnix via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> > > Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2023 10:14 AM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> > > Cc: KenUnix <ken.unix.guy(a)gmail.com <mailto:ken.unix.guy@gmail.com> > > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Disposition of stuff > > Adam, > > I agree. Give it a new home. Save computing history because when it's gone it's > gone. > > Ken > > On Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 10:02 PM Adam Thornton via cctalk < > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > > Been thinking about it a little recently, and, no, I definitely don't > > plan to send my stuff to a scrapper. I have some younger friends with > > an interest in retrocomputing. They want my stuff when I'm done with > > it, sure. And if they want _just a little_ of my stuff I'll probably > > strike a deal like, "you can have the SGI Indy if that box of IDE > > drives goes with it, and you aren't allowed to throw it away until > > you're somewhere I'm not going to see it by the side of the road." > > > > Adam > > > > > -- > End of line > JOB TERMINATED

1 year, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Nixies..

by Holm Tiffe

...only for a look.. https://www.daliborfarny.com/project/h-nixie-tube/ I'm not related with that czech factory, this is no advertising. Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583 info(a)tsht.de Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 741

1 year, 10 months

4
6
0 0

Good Inventory Program

by Evan Linwood

This is almost an impossible question to answer (!) but it might be worth mentioning Pimcore. This is an open source master data management tool, meaning that it supports both schema (data model) design and generation/design of UI elements via a reasonably decent management interface. It might even be overkill for this particular use case., but from memory the web UIs that it generates don’t depend on front end libraries / Angular / React etc & so may work with older browsers. Perhaps another option is LibreOffice Base?

1 year, 10 months

4
3
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Re: Old Professional/350 software, any of this out there

by Mark Matlock

Chris, I would be interested in getting a copy of the SSPS/X software for POS. I have a manual for SPSS/11 and would love to try to get the software running under RSX11M+ if possible. Thanks, Mark > On Jul 26, 2023, at 12:00 PM, cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org wrote: > > From: Chris Zach <cz(a)alembic.crystel.com <mailto:cz@alembic.crystel.com>> > Subject: [cctalk] Old Professional/350 software, any of this out there > Date: July 26, 2023 at 9:30:10 AM CDT > To: CCTalk mailing list <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> > Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> > > > Starting to go through my boxes of POS stuff. I know of course that 3.2 is out there (minus the Pro/Communications option which has a bad disk in the distro) however are these disks out there now? > > Pro/Venix 1.0 on floppies > POS V2.0a on floppies > > POS version 1.5 (with test diskette, maintenance application, a thing called Pro/Pre labelled "Diskette system", system overview and instruction disks) > > POS V1.7 (I have that here somewhere) > > Pro/Basic Version 1.0 and 1.2 > > SPSS/X For Professional (this is a really interesting one, anyone heard of this?) > > If so let me know and I won't copy them. If not I'll go over to the mighty Deskpro/XE and start sucking the data off for archives.... > > Thanks! > Chris > (Hoping to find old drivers or scaffolding or something that will give me a hint into how DEC ported POS)

1 year, 10 months

13
27
0 0

50 pins in three rows

by Cameron Kaiser

In a shipment today I got several AMP-labeled dongles that look like SCSI terminators ... except the 50 pins are arranged in three rows (17-16-17), not the Centronics-style 50-pin connector nor the usual 2-pin configuration. Anyone seen those before, and is it actually SCSI, or is it something else? -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. -- Oscar Wilde

1 year, 10 months

12
19
0 0

Polymorphic Systems Poly88

by Marvin Johnston

FWIW and as some of you might know, Polymorphic was manufactured here in Santa Barbara (also Lobo Drives/Systems, and Street Electronics.) After Poly had gone out of business, a friend of mine ended up getting all (or most) of the remaining Poly documentation and most of the remaining hardware from the person who owned the Polymorphic remains. After he had sold off some of that "stash", he gave the remaining stuff to me. I spent a week or so taking the remaining original masters documentation and putting it in a filing cabinet. That stuff included approximately 200 S-100 boards in various states of being built and maybe up to ten thousand (WAG) 1/4" and 8" disks of stuff that was being worked on at Poly when they shut down. On my to-do list is to scan the remaining documentation (about a four drawer filing cabinet) as well putting together the remaining Poly88s (four- six) and other boards. I had planned on bringing some of that "stuff" to VCFMW, but found out last night the exhibit area was filled. So at this point, I don't know if I will be attending or not. I am more concerned with getting the documentation scanned and archived and will most likely end up buying a high speed double sided scanner. So this is just a heads up that a lot (most?) of the original Polymorphic documentation does still exist. Years ago, some highly uninformed individual said this could not be original since there were no graphics in the Circa early 1970 docs. He was wrong about this not being original documentation!!! I also tried to keep any marked diskettes with the docs. Those disks were primarily system disks. And those disks NEED to be backed up before they degrade to the point they would be difficult to read. FWIW, I would have liked to get this stuff scanned, etc but at that time, I didn't have enough money to pay attention let alone buy a scanner to scan this stuff :). Marvin

1 year, 10 months

5
4
0 0

Re: VCF this weekend, any one up for a trade?

by Steve Lewis

( I'm not sure how to change topic subjects! ) Regarding the Poly-88, I'm not seeing much about it on YouTube. If you've got a working one, it would be good to "get one on record." If you're willing to part with it or loan it - let me know (can also run it by ActionRetro, although he's concentrating on some Russian imports at the moment). But back to the original topic, hope VCF West went well ! Looks like I've been talked into going to the September 9th VCF near Chicago. -Steve On Mon, Aug 7, 2023 at 10:07 AM dwight <dkelvey(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi Steve > I see. You were asking if anyone had a working Poly-88. > Yes, I believe mine is likely still working. I also have a 8813 that was > working when I put it away. > At the VCF, I was talking to another fellow about the video board used on > the Poly-88. It was said by the other person that the board was basically > copied by others and some even had the same error, causing distortion of > the first line by incorrect timing of the H retrace time, on many monitors. > Dwight > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Steve Lewis <lewissa78(a)gmail.com> > *Sent:* Sunday, August 6, 2023 4:52 PM > *To:* General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts < > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > *Cc:* dwight <dkelvey(a)hotmail.com> > *Subject:* Re: [cctalk] Re: VCF this weekend, any one up for a trade? > > Oh it wasn't my Poly88 - but the person who had it, they just didn't have > a CRT or screen to test it out with. So it may be working fine. Original > owner, said he put it together himself (and 16K). > > > > On Sun, Aug 6, 2023 at 3:11 PM dwight via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > My Poly-88 should be working but I've not played with it for a few years. > The last time I had it up and doing something was at the last MakerFaire . > What Is your issue? > Dwight > > ________________________________ > From: Steve Lewis via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Sent: Thursday, August 3, 2023 10:19 PM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts < > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Cc: Steve Lewis <lewissa78(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: VCF this weekend, any one up for a trade? > > I can't make it to VCF this weekend - though I'm hoping to make it to the > one in September. > > I actually am looking for something: any working IEC device for a C64 (1541 > drive, printer, plotter?). More for an experiment than collection, but do > prefer clean and presentable. > > > Earlier this year, I reached someone with a working Poly-88. But then in > March they reported health issues and hospital stays, so I haven't heard > since. Would be interested if anyone else is aware of a still-working one. > > We're still working on recovery of an IBM 5100 "launch title" tape > (analytic functions) - practicing with other tapes first. Its 2-channel > deal so far isn't quite that straightforward. But if the Tektronics folks > can do it with their QIC tapes, I'm somewhat hopeful we can too (although > late 70s/early 80s Tektronic is apparently a more proper IEEE-488). > > Only thing I could offer right now is a fairly not-working 5110 (display > don't work, PSU don't work, cards don't work - but the case is pristine). > > -Steve > > > > > > On Thu, Aug 3, 2023 at 8:49 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk < > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > > >> I did not get any of whatever mailings there were. > > >> > > >> I don't exhibit, but I do have an excessive amount of stuff to sort > and > > >> pack for sale and giveaway. > > >> -- > > >> Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com > > > > > > On Thu, 3 Aug 2023, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote: > > > We'll just have to organize a VCF Fred at some point. That way, they > > come > > > to you. > > > > > > I mean, after all, that's why I started the VCF ;) > > > > Yes, but you handed it over to a swell bunch of people before I finished > > parting with my stuff! > > > > -- > > Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com > > > >

1 year, 11 months

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VCF this weekend, any one up for a trade?

by Sellam Abraham

I'm sure there are at least a couple of you who will be attending the VCF this weekend in Mountain View at the Computer History Museum. Is there anything that anyone might want/need? Please send me a private message if you're looking for something and if I have what you want I can bring it with me. I'll only be there Saturday. Sellam

1 year, 11 months

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ROM data for Lear Siegler ADM31?

by John Robertson

I sold my Lear Siegler ADM31 recently and the new owner (Ian) has found that one of the ROMs failed before he could archive it - or it was defective to start with. So my question to the list is - does anyone have the ROM codes (there are three of them) archived? I don't think Ian is a member of this list, otherwise I'm sure I would have spotted a post with a subject line like mine... Thanks! John :-#)# -- John's Jukes Ltd. 7 - 3979 Marine Way, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5J 5E3 Call (604)872-5757 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games) flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out"

1 year, 11 months

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Re: Apple 1

by Sellam Abraham

On Sat, Aug 5, 2023, 9:48 AM Joshua Rice via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > The Apple 1 is collectible purely because it was the first product Apple > made. Not really, though that's part of it. The value of the Apple 1 has more to do with the Cult of Steve than anything else. Steve Jobs became the most celebrated CEO of his time. He was practically a rockstar. Personally, I think the admiration for Jobs turned into cringey idol worship, but the fact is millions of people around the world were impacted by the products Apple produced under his leadership, and he received the adoration. As I said previously, the Apple 1 is now an icon, a status symbol for the wealthy. The "Veblen Good" concept absolutely applies here. They have transcended our motley little community of vintage computer enthusiasts. They will continue to be held in high end collections for generations to come. Sellam

1 year, 11 months

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Re: Apple 1

by Chuck Guzis

On 8/3/23 00:45, Joshua Rice via cctalk wrote: > Value is a very much reliant on both desirability and historical significance. I guarantee most people who own an Apple 1 never use it, and it sits in a cabinet/shelf somewhere. Transversely, I’m sure there’s very few Amiga 1200’s purely on display, with the vast majority in collectors hands either tucked in a cupboard or actively used. > > The Apple 1 is collectible purely because it was the first product Apple made. There’s dozens of similar machines from the same time period, vcreated by startups looking to be the next big thing, that just didn’t make it. Look at SWTPC, look at IMSAI, the COSMAC ELF. Apple made it to the big time, and they didn’t, so many more people with too much money would consider the Apple 1 to be a wise investment. > > I’d still prefer the IMSAI 8080 or SWTPC 6800 though. Collection values are so subjective that to me, that they make little sense. For example, is a Mac that belonged to Steve Jobs more valuable than the same model Mac that belonged to Harvey Schmidlap? Same machine--I doubt that any scientific test could affirm that Jobs was still alive in the former. But the difference to collectors may be a couple orders of magnitude. But then, I see little difference in value between an original painting and an expert copy. Yes, I know, I have no soul! --Chuck

1 year, 11 months

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IBM 1410 FPGA Status - 1401 Mode

by Jay Jaeger

My IBM 1410 FPGA project now features a working 1401 mode as well, with the flip of a switch, exactly like the original IBM 1410. There are still a few real problems (e.g., Console I/O Input under program control doesn't seem to be working), a few minor issues involving console problems when doing control operations, and lots of changes I want to make to the PC console support program, which really should be done before tackling I/O devices. There are posts relating to the debugging of the 1401 side of things towards the end of the list that appears on page: https://www.computercollection.net/index.php/ibm-1410-fpga-implementation/ JRJ

1 year, 11 months

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Houston Instruments HiPlot Plotters - Pens?

by Gordon Henderson

I have a HiPlot plotter - it's DMP-29, but I'm fairly sure it takes the same pens as the DMP-2 which I also have but in a million pieces - but right now without pens. I have been promised some but it may be many weeks... I'm wondering if anyone has any old (or NOS?) pens for them? What I'm after is the dimensions with a view to 3D printing new pens - or at least pen holders so I can fit modern pens into. (There is no height restriction on the pen bodys) Can anyone help? (I'm in the UK if anyone has any physical pens available - please let me know) Thanks, Gordon

1 year, 11 months

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Looking for the MAD-1 drive unit

by brad＠techtimetraveller.com

I have 3 of the 4 pieces of Modular Advanced Design's MAD-1 and every now and again I like to reach out and see if anyone might have the last missing piece I need. The MAD-1 is sort of like the evil twin of the Mindset.. although nowhere near the graphics prowess. Unfortunately like the Mindset the disk drives are a separate unit and unlike the Mindset the MAD-1 can't operate without them because the enclosure also contains the PSU for the whole computer. The floppy drives are nothing special.. just SA-455 360k. Anyway, Sellam's msg about trades prompted me to reach out again. If you aren't familiar here is a link to a pic of one CHM has. https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X1620.99A Many thanks!! Brad Brad - The Tech Time Traveller brad(a)techtimetraveller.com

1 year, 11 months

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Printers, etc available for sale

by Marvin Johnston

Does anyone still use the older dot matrix printers? The husband of a friend of mine passed away and I am helping her dispose of his classic computer stuff. If there is interest in them, I can put together a list of what she has (and I can see) in the six storage lockers :). The printers I saw today used the wide perforated paper. My memory is non existent after about 1 hour :). My current plan is to attend VCFMW in September, and I can probably bring stuff with me. The ones I remember are the Diablo 630 (?), Juki, and a number of others of similar vintage. Yes, he had half a dozen or so Kaypro and Osbourne computers in the first 18" or so of the storage unit plus one IBM compatible that I could see along with maybe six B&W monitors. There are also a number of bankers boxes filled with 5 1/4" and 3.5" floppy disks and period books. Marvin

1 year, 11 months

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Re: Intel Developers' Insight CD-ROM collection archived anywhere?

by Kevin Bowling

Can someone upload the ISOs of what we do have to archive.org? I found http://intel-vintage-developer.eu5.org/ but I'd like to grab it without the free web host ads. On Wed, Feb 17, 2021 at 4:47 PM Maciej W. Rozycki via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > On Thu, 1 Oct 2020, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote: > > > > Sadly neither seems to be among the files I have copied. I could yet > > > check Intel Dec 1995 Data on Demand discs I happen to have, and do have > > > here, but they are cumbersome to handle as they use a proprietary format > > > requiring a DOS app to access, and yet more hassle to get anything > > > exported (assuming I can recall how I did that many years ago), so it'll > > > take a little. > > > > If you have some Intel "Data on Demand" CD-ROMs it would be nice if > > .ISO images of those could be captured and uploaded somewhere. Then > > leave it up to anyone interested to deal with extracting documents > > from them. > > Hmm, I'm not sure of the copyright status, even that those were available > free of charge. It would be good to have the stuff preserved though, so > I'll see if I can get some ack from Intel. I have good experience overall > with such enquiries. Ditto about the Insight CDs. > > > I found this document while looking online. It's not clear to me if > > that is a list of documents that are contained on the December 1995 > > "Data on Demand" CD-ROMs or if some of those are only available > > elsewhere. > > > > http://alt.ife.tugraz.at/datashts/intel/litguide.pdf > > This looks to me like a list of orderable hardcopy documents. I still > have a long line of those on a bookshelf. But indeed most if not all were > available on said CDs, and some were only there. > > Anyway, sorry to take so long, but such is life. I finally got to my set > of Insight CDs and guess what? First that I looked at was October 1996, > my oldest, and it does have what you look for: > > $ ls -la fbldr16*.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4619852 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 1359076 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16a.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 1253664 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16b.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 1076370 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16c.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 930808 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16d.zip > $ > > Do you still need it? I have lost the FTP site I used to host things on > and I can't afford the time to set up a new one right away. But I can > e-mail you this stuff offlist if your mailbox can swallow it. The choice > is either one big file, first in the listing above, or the other four, > which are the same contents, split, that I would send in a separate e-mail > each. I could split it further too, I know how it worked in the old days. > > By the look of it all the documentation included with FLASHBuilder is in > the form of MS Windows help files rather than PDF. > > Either way please let me know. > > Maciej

1 year, 11 months

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Re: SCAMP at 61 (IBM Scientific Computer And Modular Processor) was Re: SCAMP at 50 (IBM 5100)

by Tom Stepleton

I have to assume that the SCAMP used in the IBM 5100 Portable Computer and relatives must have been a great deal smaller than the earlier machine. As such, a logical and unambiguous way to refer to it is "SCAMP Shrimpy." I hope this is helpful, --Tom

1 year, 11 months

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SCAMP at 50 (IBM 5100)

by Steve Lewis

For anyone interested, I'm placing my SCAMP notes here! Had an incredibly great opportunity to learn more about it. https://voidstar.blog/scamp-a-review-50-years-later/

1 year, 11 months

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Old Professional/350 software, any of this out there

by Chris Zach

Starting to go through my boxes of POS stuff. I know of course that 3.2 is out there (minus the Pro/Communications option which has a bad disk in the distro) however are these disks out there now? Pro/Venix 1.0 on floppies POS V2.0a on floppies POS version 1.5 (with test diskette, maintenance application, a thing called Pro/Pre labelled "Diskette system", system overview and instruction disks) POS V1.7 (I have that here somewhere) Pro/Basic Version 1.0 and 1.2 SPSS/X For Professional (this is a really interesting one, anyone heard of this?) If so let me know and I won't copy them. If not I'll go over to the mighty Deskpro/XE and start sucking the data off for archives.... Thanks! Chris (Hoping to find old drivers or scaffolding or something that will give me a hint into how DEC ported POS)

1 year, 11 months

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May need help buying computer in Houston - I’m in CA

by Steven Stengel

I want to buy an old computer from a guy I don’t know in Houston (I’ll pay shipping to CA), but it’s a lot of money, and I don’t want to lose it - what are my options? Thanks- Steve.

1 year, 11 months

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1-click exploits was Re: BEWARE: Phishing

by Todd Pisek

Be aware that clicking on a malicious url can result on malware or spyware being installed on your machine without any further action on your part. All browsers have vulnerabilities. The most famous of these was the older version of Pegasus by NSO back in the 2014-2016 timeframe. These so called 1-click exploits are well known to bad actors. It’s a continuous cat and mouse game between exploit writers and infosec. For the interested, look at this report regarding Apple and the “Trident” series of exploits from 2016. https://info.lookout.com/rs/051-ESQ-475/images/pegasus-exploits-technical-d… —-Todd P.S. Exploits have evolved considerably since Trident and now include 0-click exploits. See Google’s Project Zero for instance.

1 year, 11 months

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Well, SPSS for RSX is sorta up.

by Chris Zach

Copied all the files onto my Gotek, it's SO EASY to just turn a dial to select a disk! Anyway, loaded all the files, but when I try to run them it says it's missing PROF77 Common. My guess is that's the same block as F77OTS, but how does one load a common block with a different name? I forgot.... Directory DU0:[SPSS] 28-JUL-2023 18:06 ANVTSK.TSK;1 173. C 28-JUL-2023 18:01 NPTTSK.TSK;1 189. C 28-JUL-2023 18:02 SRVTSK.TSK;1 167. C 28-JUL-2023 18:02 SPSTSK.TSK;2 576. C 28-JUL-2023 17:59 TTSTSK.TSK;2 116. C 28-JUL-2023 18:00 SPSS.INS;2 3. C 28-JUL-2023 18:00 RPTTSK.TSK;1 190. C 28-JUL-2023 18:02 SPSS.TSK;1 136. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 SCATSK.TSK;1 117. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 SPSS.MNU;1 7. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 SPSS.HLP;1 124. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 PARTSK.TSK;1 130. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 SPSS.MSG;1 18. C 28-JUL-2023 18:04 SPRTSK.TSK;1 98. C 28-JUL-2023 18:04 SPSS.ERR;1 69. C 28-JUL-2023 18:04 TEST1.LST;1 21. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 GSS77.SAV;1 123. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST2.LST;1 27. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST3.LST;1 21. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST1.CMD;1 1. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST2.CMD;1 2. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST3.CMD;1 6. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 Total of 2314./2325. blocks in 22. files $ run spss INS -- Common block not loaded PROF77

1 year, 11 months

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Cool program found for Pro/350

by Chris Zach

Over the weekend I picked up a Pro/350 from the System Source swap. The good news is I traded something of similar size for it, and more importantly I didn't bring anything else home :-) Anyway, it's a pretty basic system with 10mb ST412 drive, 128k memory on board, 256kb memory expansion, disk controller, floppy controller and RX50 (with the usual loose pad, glued back in), and a video card WITHOUT the extended bitmap option. Brought it home, pulled everything, checked the power supply (good), got the drive spinning, and since drives like this tend to be precious I sucked the data off it using a Gesswin emulator (best money I have spent). Sucked the data off with no errors, thus everything is preserved for eternity. I'll take a look at the drive and see about using a bit of watch oil on the shaft to lubricate the bearings and put this disk back into a "usable" category. Even better: Fired up and compiled xhomer on my Raspberry Pi CM3+, loaded the image, and sure enough: There is a POS 2.0 install on the disk, with a really neat app called "Prostar/300" Seems to be an office tool for real estate office, specifically farm management, investment, and amortization. Even better it looks like all the data was stored on Floppies (now long gone) so no PII issues. And there is a word processor built into the app along with the normal PROSE editor. I'll tool around with it for a bit, then put the disk image up on crystel.com. An interesting application, can be easily transferred to a real disk using a gesswin emulator or put it on xhomer. :-) Pretty nice application from 1986 vintage, I can see this being used in offices around the midwest. Chris

1 year, 11 months

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F/S: Lego robot kits for IBM PC

by Evan Koblentz

Around the middle of the 1980s, Lego made a robotics system for 8-bit computers, including the Apple II, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, and IBM PC. The system includes a hardware interface (set #9750, "Interface A"), a card or cable (differs for each computer; the PC-ISA card is set #9771), and various electronic Lego bits (sensors, lights, motors, etc., the main set of which is #9700.) I recently acquired several of the PC-ISA version. I am selling these as a bundle: 1x-9750, 1x-9771, 2x-9700. The price is $400 + s/h from New Jersey. Full details about the sets are on my website, www.brickhacks.com. The site isn't finished and some links will not work, but the meat of it is all there. I'll also be posting how-to videos on YouTube (@TechnicallyEvan) but I can't promise when that will happen -- I'm very busy in real life. All of the manuals are on the Internet Archive, under the "vintage Lego robotics" collection. Interested buyers should send me a private message to evan(a)snarc.net.

1 year, 11 months

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IBM 8" disk drives - anyone need?

by Steve Lewis

I have a pair of IBM 8" disk drives - they are from an 1980 IBM 5120 I simply won't have the time to give them the attention they deserve for many years. They seem mechanically ok (they spin) but I don't know much more about them, or how "universal" they might be as 8" floppy disk drives. I think I do have to cut them from the transformer they are connected to (couple thick red wires), but otherwise they have all the original power harness stuff as well. Thinking just cost of shipping plus rounded to nearest $10 or $100. They are about 20lbs (together, and I would like to keep them together - there is a pin/clip that is used to latch them together, but I do think they can be separated fairly easily). Message me if any interest. If you do need/want them for another 5120 project, I can probably include some adapter cards. -Steve

1 year, 11 months

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ICL / Digico

by Christian Corti

So, I was trying to contact "Pete" at vintage-icl-computers.com several times during the last years. Obiously, the site and/or the person is dead, no reaction whatever. I'm hoping that someone on this list might be able to help me: I still have a Digico Micro 16V computer that, one day, I'd like to restore. On the ICL site above I can see that they have (had?) the service manual/schematics for the system, and I would really love to get a scan (or at least high resolution photos) of these. Does anyone here maybe have them or can provide me with some pointers? Oh BTW, software (e.g. papertape images) would be great, too :-) Christian

1 year, 11 months

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IMSAI SIO 8080 Comm Program?

by Bill Degnan

I am looking for a basic or commercial IMSAI SIO 8080 Comm Program that uses SIO serial connector 2 for modem communications. Something I can start from a ROM monitor running from the console running through serial connector 1. My system is using the original 8080, I want to avoid the cp/m z80 route. Bill

1 year, 11 months

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xerox viewboard

by r.stricklin

Looking for information on how to set the jumpers/dip switches on the Xerox ViewBoard (AWPI Bounty) and ViewBoard II. Apparently there’s one or more hardware installation manuals for these boards, which were also sold as part of the “Network Services for PC” product, so the hardware installation manual for that would presumably also contain this information. Bitsavers has the Network Services for PC software installation manual, which mentions the separate hardware manual(s), but I haven’t yet been able to locate any copies of anything that describes the jumpers/switches. ok bear.

1 year, 11 months

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Can't access

by Murray McCullough

Dear sir; I can't access your site. Not sure why! It mat be due to the email address I employ. Many thanks, Murray 🙂

1 year, 11 months

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Re: Death of Mitnick

by John Foust

At 02:05 AM 7/20/2023, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote: >On Wed, Jul 19, 2023, 8:35 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >wrote: >> Too bad, but on the other hand, John Draper turned 80 this year. >> Probably a better role model. >> >> --Chuck > >Oh, god, no. Chuck's only saying that because he wasn't invited to "work out." - John

1 year, 11 months

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Death of Mitnick

by Murray McCullough

Maybe this note is off topic but I don't think so: The death of Kevin Mitnick. His book "Ghost in the Wire" is a classic. Too bad he was a criminal! Murray 🙂

1 year, 11 months

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VT100: Datasheet for Intel 8228

by Rob Jarratt

Hello, I have a non-functioning VT100. I think I may have isolated the problem to an Intel 8228 chip (or 88228, the schematic says 8228, the part is marked 88228C). Certainly, the part gets a bit hot and it doesn't seem to be outputting anything on the I/O W pin (pin 27) despite activity on STSTB (pin 1), DBIN (pin 4) and WR (Pin 3). There is no activity on the HLDA input though, but I am not sure if that is required because I think the firmware is just trying to send its status to the keyboard LEDs. I can find a brief datasheet for the 8228 but it doesn't tell me the logic for producing the I/O W signal, so I am not sure if it is behaving as it should. Does anyone have more comprehensive information on how the 8228 is supposed to work? I have dumped the ROMs and been able to capture the ROM reads and they match the disassembled code, so I think the 8080 CPU itself is working. Thanks Rob

1 year, 11 months

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VCF and System Source Computer Museum swap meet this weekend

by Mark G Thomas

Hi, I am curious if anyone here might be planning on attending. https://museum.syssrc.com/artifact/events/3000/ The Vintage Computer Federation and the System Source Computer Museum are hosting a vintage computer repair workshop on Saturday July 22nd and Sunday July 23rd 2023 ... Mark -- Mark G. Thomas <Mark(a)Misty.com>, KC3DRE

1 year, 11 months

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OLD ftp.compaq.com Mirror?

by Ali

Hello All, I am wondering if anyone has a private or knows of a mirror for ftp.compaq.com that is older than 2014? All the ones I have found online, including the file at archive.org, are from 2014. By then a number of files and directories had been purged e.g. "/pub/supportinformation/techpubs" and "softlib1". I am looking for some old documentation and firmware for Compaq switches and Tape Libraries but if anyone has a full set of files I am happy to add them to a mirror. TIA! -Ali

1 year, 11 months

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Restoring Ultrix-32m 1.2 Floppies

by Henry Bent

Hi all, I just noticed that images of a full RX50 floppy set for Ultrix-32m 1.2 was posted on Bitsavers ( http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/bits/DEC/vax/ultrix/1.2/ULTRIX-32M_V1.2_… ). I am having difficulty parsing these images into a usable raw format for SIMH. As a reference, TUHS has a set of 1.0 floppies ( https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/DEC/Ultrix-32M/ ) that are usable for installation purposes. (You can ignore the 1.2 floppies in that archive, they aren't actually a full set). The first disk of that installer, 32m-1.0-bin/01, has a bootloader that starts at byte zero as we would expect. This should be approximately equivalent to disk 1 in the Bitsavers set. Oddly though, in the "raw" dump the bootloader doesn't start until 0x1400, and a number of the other disks I looked at appear to have odd holes/zeroes in them. IMD format dumps of the 1.2 disks are provided but when I converted the IMD format to a raw image I got the same issue. I'm almost thoroughly unfamiliar with IMD - is there some obvious extraction/conversion option that I am missing here? Were these disks actually imaged correctly? I would appreciate any suggestions. -Henry

1 year, 11 months

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How to archive floppies

by Warner Losh

OK. I have about 500 DEC Ranibow floppy images that I've ripped over the years. I also have a number of .td0 images as well as other oddballs. Other than Lotus 123 needing to have funky sectors on one of its bigger tracks for copy protection, I think having the raw images suffice. I have some disks that I have multiple copies of (MS-DOS, CP/M, Winchester Utilities, DEC Rainbow diagnostics etc).I have a few copies of some software packages. I have a few disks that are clearly personal. And some of the variations of MS-DOS have different patches applied by various install programs (or debug scripts published in different trade rags of the time). And at least one has a special driver installed that overwrites the DEC Winchester for things like Univation). So, what I'd like to do is to is somehow organize all this. I wrote some software to extract files from the filesystem.So I'd like to have a separate copy of the expanded files. Lots of moving parts for 40-year-old floppies. I'm struggling with how to organize all this, how to keep track of this, and how to allow others to contribute their disk images and allow things to be studied and run. I'd like to keep the raw images (to mine them for drivers like the univation one I discovered). I'd like to keep the busted apart files to access them more easily, etc. Is there some book, website, paper, etc that I can use to to help me organize all this so I can share it with others? Is this even the right place to ask? There's got to be several people that have solved this issue before.... Warner

1 year, 11 months

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10 types of people

by Paul Koning

Seen on the GCC bugzilla: "actually, there are 10 types of people: those who understand ternary, those who dont, and those who thought this was going to be a binary joke" :-) paul

1 year, 11 months

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Don Lancaster has passed away at 83

by Sellam Abraham

Don Lancaster passed away on June 7. https://gilaherald.com/obituary-for-don-lancaster/ I hope his website is well preserved: https://tinaja.com/ Sellam

1 year, 11 months

10
10
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Shot In the Dark: Compaq System Manager Facility

by Ali

Really long shot, and I have asked here before without much luck, but anyone have a copy of the Compaq System Manager Facility 1.10 or 1.11 (or any version for that matter). This would have been released in 1994/95 time frame and is necessary for the use of the Compaq Server Manager/R EISA board. This is a very early EISA RILO board for the System Pro and Proliant line of servers. Please note this is not the same as the System Management Agents nor the Insight Manager. TIA! -Ali

1 year, 11 months

2
2
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WTB XVR-4000

by silcreval

Hi everyone, I recently dug out my V880 and all seems to be working brilliantly. I've always liked these machines and it would be nice to upgrade this to the V880z spec, ie by adding the mighty XVR-4000 graphics module. I know the XVR-4000 is a bit of a mixed bag, but would be fun to play around with this and also who can not be impressed with the shear size of the module. Must be one of the biggest Sun graphics 'cards'? Does anyone have one of these boards they would be willing to part with. Happy to pay a reasonable amount as I know these are not easy to find. PM me if you have anything. Ian.

1 year, 11 months

2
1
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IBM 1410 FPGA Status

by Jay Jaeger

Over the past couple of months I have been working on my FPGA implementation of the IBM 1410 1960's era pre System/360 system again. I am pleased to share that the CPU now passes a significant diagnostic, CU01, which tests almost all of the instructions, and also tests I/O with overlap and the priority feature (interrupts). Also, it runs at generally the same speed as the original machine (comparing the IBM estimates for 1000 passes), using the same logic as the original machine (though no doubt optimized by the process of taking in VHDL logic statements and turning combinatorial logic into lookup tables (LUTs), and some additions of "D" flip flops to avoid race conditions in latches and logic loops.) (The speed is the same because its "oscillator" - crystal controlled in the original - is now a clock divider/counter off of the FPGA chip clock.) For more details, see https://www.computercollection.net/index.php/ibm-1410-fpga-implementation/ Mostly the ALD (Automated Logic Diagram) data capture seems to have been very accurate. I really only had to do four things this year to get it to this point: - Make the necessary logic gate deletions / changes for configuration option S40/$40 - 40K of core - Add the ability to transfer a core image from the PC support program to the FPGA. - Fix some issues in the Assembly Channel because while almost all of the ALDs are for a 1410 with the Accelerator feature, several pages of the very important Assembly channel were for the base 1410 model. - Deal with a race condition during overlapped I/O These are generally discussed in individual blog posts off the above link. I really was quite happily surprised that when capturing the data on over two hundred ALDs with over 10,000 logic gates, over 4,200 individual unique signals, more than 12,000 signal names on individual ALDs, and more than 32,000 interconnections that there were not a lot more problems than these. (I may run into some as yet undiscovered errors involving the channels as I add I/O devices, though). I suppose that there were not more problems because for most of the individual sheets and in many cases groups of sheets I wrote VHDL test benches using the Intermediate Logic Diagrams (ILDs) as a guide, and of course took considerable care during the data entry process from the ALDs, checking connection counts on each logic block, for example. The last post ("Off to the Races") on the aforementioned web page also discusses the next expected steps: some more work on the PC/Console support program, more diagnostic tests, other support program enhancements, and figuring out how to go about I/O, especially since I don't have ALDs for the 1414 I/O Synchronizers. But I no longer have any doubts about the viability of this process, so long as the FPGA logic clock is somewhere around 10x the logic clock of the simulated machine. (I expect to try and "push it" by speeding up the 1410 logic clock to see at what ratio of the FPGA clock to the CPU clock things break down, as well). JRJ

1 year, 11 months

4
6
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Talking PDP11

by Douglas Taylor

I have a PDP-11/53 and have just started playing with an AAV11-C D/A board. It is a 4 channel D/A convertor with 12 bit resolution. Can it be used to play an audio bit stream? Here is simple code used to see if the thing was actually working: .title AAV11 D/A test ; .asect dbr0 = 170440 .=1000 start: mov #7777,r0 4096 value to R0 mov #dbr0,r1 first D/A buffer out loop: mov r0,(r1) transfer value in r0 to D/A out dec r0 subtract 1 from D/A value bne loop br start loop back to start I was surprised to see that it took ~34 ms to run through all the numbers from 0-7777, that is about 34 Hz. The manual says the 'settling time' is 6 microseconds. Is this fast enough for audio? How would you convert a modern audio file into 12 bit integers? Doug

1 year, 12 months

14
30
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A from-scratch PDP 11 OS - ruos

by Alan Kirby

A friend suggested that some in this group may have an interest in this. ruos stands for Retro Useless Operating System ruos is an OS for the long-obsolete PDP11/70 from Digital Equipment Corporation. ruos runs on the simh simulator for that machine. It was written completely from scratch in C and assembler. On a modern machine, the kernel and user code builds in a few seconds. Overview: It can run something less than 64 processes simultaneously with one user on the console and others on other serial ports. Equal priority CPU-bound tasks share the CPU. The user program API includes a number of stdio-like C functions ruos was built using the gcc toolchain for the PDP11 (Thanks for those toolchain bug fixes Paul Koning!) Each user process is given exactly 64kB for code, data, heap, and stack and is (mostly) isolated from other processes Users access the OS using a very simple unix-like shell for command execution with pipes allowed It does not have its own file system but uses a proxy for file IO. The proxy code (Python 3) is included. Communication between the OS and the proxy is via UDP/IPv4/Ethernet. Familiar user binaries include: cat, ps, echo, grep. Device status is provided by ds If a user tries to run a program that is not native to ruos, an attempt is made to run it on the proxy. Using this mechanism, users can edit files or build new programs (assuming the gcc toolchain is installed on the proxy and the proxy is on the same machine as simh). It is accessible here: https://ajco...@bitbucket.org/ajcorbeil/ruos.git <https://ajcorbeil@bitbucket.org/ajcorbeil/ruos.git> Regards, Alan Kirby

1 year, 12 months

1
0
0 0

BEWARE: Phishing

by Chuck Guzis

Just got the following message in the account that I use to receive cctalk email: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello cclist, The passwогd to your mailbox (cclist(a)sydex.com) expires in 24 hrs time. Following this prompt, your webmail will log you out and generate a new passwогd. Alternatively, you can retain and continue using your cuггent passwогd, by using the user secured button below; Keep Cuггent Passwогd (link goes to cloudflare-ipfs.com) This email is generated by sydex.com's mail server for cclist(a)sydex.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FYI Chuck

1 year, 12 months

13
21
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Problems with getting your newslatter

by Murray McCullough

Hello sir, I used to get your newsletter but no longer...I understand there are problems... I would be most interested in getting your newsletter again. Many thanks, Murray 🙂

1 year, 12 months

1
0
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OT: Ham Radio

by Bill Gunshannon

I know this is off topic, but I think there are a number of hams here. Looking to get back into it but have some questions. Now that the a**holes have completely trashed all the USENET ham radio groups where do hams go for the kinds of discussions that used to be there? bill

1 year, 12 months

9
8
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FOSBIC Compiler

by Veit, Holger

Hi all, maybe someone here is interested in the FOSBIC (FORTRAN Simulated BASIC Interpretive Compiler) system. Background: This was developed, oder rather ported from UWBIC (University of Washington, Prog. W.H. Sharpe) in the mid 70s, by Prof Weber et al. at the German University of Gießen, for the purpose of teaching BASIC on their CDC3300 batch system. It is written in FORTRAN IV, and knows most of Dartmouth BASIC, including MAT statements and basic sequential/ISAM file handling. I have ported that, with the help to GNU gfortran, to modern Windows (mingw/cygwin) and Linux, so anyone may play with it. It is still a batch system, i.e. on has to provide the BASIC program as a file (formerly it had to be a card deck), and feed it into the program through stdin, as in "./fosbic < hello.bas | ./asa" The code with many examples is available at https://github.com/hveit01/FOSBIC, and has also found its way to bitsavers.org/pdf/uni-giessen. -- Regards Holger

1 year, 12 months

3
3
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1974 No Name Terminal

by brad＠techtimetraveller.com

Hi there - not sure how much overlap there is with vcfed's forum, but thought I would reach out here in case. I have a terminal from 1974 (based on date codes I've found on the motherboard). I'm unable to determine manufacturer and that would be handy for diagnostic purposes. The terminal casing is made out of foam, and although there are some serial numbers stamped around, nothing really lines up. The fans inside have zero dust or dirt, so I'm thinking this may not have seen much use, or may be a prototype or pilot for something. It does have RS232 capability. Interestingly the screen is set down below the keyboard so that only half of it is visible. My main issue right now is the PSU - I am trying to determine if I'm safe to attempt powering up the board (the PSU so far seems to be ok, although some voltages on a couple of pins are mysterious). Anyway, on the extremely off chance anyone has ever seen one of these or something like it.. any tips would be appreciated. If I can find a manual I'll feel a lot safer about turning it on. Some pics here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-2uEFbi3OKBYr06y6yHnygDiLMtw2Qkj?usp =sharing Brad brad(a)techtimetraveller.com

1 year, 12 months

8
12
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VCF Southwest 2023 some highlights

by Steve Lewis

VCF SW was this past weekend near Dallas, Texas. Here are some highlights from my perspective. https://voidstar.blog/vcf-southwest-2023/ Most photos you can click to enlarge (Edge has bugs with WordPress, you may need to scroll up/down a little bit to get the click thing working) Cheers, Steve

2 years

8
10
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Is the list broken again?

by Bill Gunshannon

I doubt this will go thru either but other attempts to send to the list are now getting rejected as SPAM. Doesn't the list check addresses to see if the poster is a member? bill

2 years

6
5
0 0

Re: DEC VT180 "Robin" Maintenance Prints?

by Robert Armstrong

>Rob Jarratt <robert.jarratt(a)ntlworld.com> wrote: >Have you checked here: http://9track.net/roms/ ... Hey, thank you! I didn't know about this particular collection, and he does have the ROM dumps for the VT180 Z80 board. I'd still like to find a schematic, though! Thanks again, Bob

2 years

1
0
0 0

DEC VT180 "Robin" Maintenance Prints?

by Robert Armstrong

Does anybody have the maintenance prints for the DEC VT180? The VT180, aka "Robin" was DEC's CP/M machine in a VT100 chassis. The terminal part is just a standard VT100 and maintenance prints for that are easy to find, but I need a schematic for the actual Z80 CP/M Robin option card. Can't seem to find that anywhere. Bitsavers and Manx have the technical manual which has some information (although it wastes way too many pages explaining how a VT100 works!) but no actual schematics. On the same topic, has anybody dumped the ROMs for this machine? Again, not the VT100 ROMs, but the CP/M boot/POST ROMs that are on the VT180 Z80 card. Thanks, Bob

2 years

1
0
0 0

KIM-1 debug board RAM test: *zero* flashes

by Cameron Kaiser

I assembled Dwight Elvey's KIM-1 debug board (thank you, Gary!) and have now certified two of my KIMs with it, so I'm very confident the harness operates properly. Unfortunately, the one I *want* to repair, my original KIM-1, won't start up at all after replacing the 2102 RAM I was pretty sure was bad. I checked my soldering and found a couple spots without continuity that should according to the schematic, but fixing those didn't fix it. I also buzzed out the socket and found no obvious shorts, and a second 2102 equivalent from a second manufacturer has the same symptoms. I connected the debug harness and test 0, the initial "dead board" test, does show CPU accesses on the red LED and slowly flashes the green LED, so the CPU at least is alive and can access the test EPROM. However, test 1, the RAM test, should show long flashes of the green LED if RAM is bad. I was prepared to see all long flashes which might implicate the buffers or address decoder, but instead it won't blink the LED at all in that or any of the other tests. The red LED remains lit and appropriately extinguishes when the RS button is down. Again, the board works correctly and fully certifies the other two KIMs. What would cause it to hang (?) in the RAM test on the defective one? -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- Roger Waters to moving crew: "Hey! Careful with those racks, Eugene!" ------

2 years

1
1
0 0

Irix 5.3 ntpdate

by Jonathan Katz

Hi everyone! I'm having a horrible time trying to find ntpdate pre-compiled for Irix 5.3 anywhere. Does anyone have a package/tardist? -- -Jon +44 7792 149029

2 years

2
1
0 0

IBM 5120/5110-3 casual notes / 8" disks question

by Steve Lewis

I finally got an IBM 5120 earlier this month, to complement the 5100 and 5110 that I already have. It had a few issues, but I did manage to get it to "boot" to BASIC. I put together a few notes about it here. Nothing too exciting, but two things I've learned: (1) the 5120 does actually still have the video REVERSE feature. (2) the 5120 has both an external (red power switch) and internal power switch (internal one is at rear below disk drives). Notes here: https://voidstar.blog/ibm-5120-aka-ibm-5110-3/ IBM 5120 (aka IBM 5110-3) — voidstar <https://voidstar.blog/ibm-5120-aka-ibm-5110-3/> My only question is: how "universal" are 8" disk? This 5120 only came with a single IBM 8" Diagnostics disk. It looks to be in fine condition, but I've no idea about the data. So far I haven't been able to read it - it's probably more hardware/drive issues, I'm still investigating. But I'm wondering if I had other 8" disks (3M SS/SD), should I be able to format/MARK them? I've used old tape decks and 5.25" drives - but 8" drives is all new territory for me. Also, I'll be talking about the 5100/5110 at VCF next Sunday on the 25th of this month, June.

2 years

3
5
0 0

Found the DSM orange manual

by Chris Zach

While looking for my RSX11 DECNET manual (because the online version doesn't have any examples of commands which is why you look in the manual in the first place) I found a copy of the DSM binder AA-K676B-TK and ilk. Is this online or does anyone else have it? CZ

2 years

6
10
0 0

Any RSX-11 fans able to identify file types?

by Chuck Guzis

I've got a few backup sets (potentially incomplete) done on MicroRSX that were created with BRU on RX50 media. I've cranked out some code to itemize the contents, but the file types are a mystery. I suppose that one has to live in that world to know (e.g. MSL) The sets appear to be (parts) of an incremental backup scheme; I think I've got at least one copy of the complete set. Would anyone be willing to have a look at the (ASCII) file catalog and suggest the application that may have created the files? Email me offlist if interested. --Chuck

2 years

17
46
0 0

Oh Q-Bus, you can be a fickle mistress at times....

by Chris Zach

So I had a fellow list member show up and trade me an AUI cable for reading some of his old RX01/02 disks to see if there was anything on them. Not a big deal, TALOS (my 11/83) has pretty much everything: 11/83 CPU board with FPJ11 MSV11-QD card with 4mb memory (lots o' disk cache) RXV21 plus RX02 drive RLV12 plus two RL02 drives (and an RL01 in a pinch) TQK70 and TK70 tape drive DELQA Ethernet DZQ11 4 port serial board And the MTI ESDI disk controller with a 330mb half height ESDI disk Overall it's a pretty fast and solid system. I have RT11 on DU4:, RSXM+ on DU0:, and plenty of power to do anything. However when we fired it up we got nothing on the terminal. Great. So I went to TITAN, which is another BA23 equipped 11/73 with: 11/73-B board wo FPJ11 2mb memory (Datamation) TQK70+TK50 (my other TK70 doesn't write properly for some God unknown reason) DEQNA Ethernet (it works) DHV11 8 port serial board That odd little 3016 real time clock board I never seem to get around to loading drivers for RQDX3 jumpered for RD54 running RSX11M+ (not bad with cache) 20mb HH drive with XXDP+ utils 40mb HH drive with RT11 5.4 all drivers (last version that supports the TU58) That worked, we were able to move over the RXV21 and read the disks, but I was wondering what was wrong with my main system. So after he left I pulled it apart. Problem seems to be the MTI card was not booting up properly, and since it holds the Q bus in a frozen state until the disk spins to ready it was blocking the system. Pulled it, cleaned the pins with 1500 grit sandpaper, put it back in, it now works. Great. So every once in awhile I guess I have to check the pins on these old 11's. They run well and are starting to be used more, but they still have weird problems from time to time. CZ

2 years

1
0
0 0

IMSAI BASIC PROM set?

by Bill Degnan

Anyone have the 2716 ePROM listing for IMSAI Basic. Version 1.4 or whatever. I once had it, can't find my copy. If not 2716, I'll take any listing that I can convert somehow. Thanks Bill

2 years

5
12
0 0

PCs Limited XT

by Bill Degnan

I am getting an error message when I boot up a recently donated PCs Limited XT clone. The error is ARC Turbo Board X Turbo System Error # 04 Does anyone have one of these boards, I believe the error means the board has been removed, and the system can't find it/bad board. If so, please advise the $$. I don't think the board is specific to PCs Limted, I found a general manual called "Turbo-XT Main Board" that seems to be the OEM of the PCs Limited-branded motherboard. I assume there is a separate daughterboard the the "Turbo" part. Yes? Thanks Bill

2 years

8
18
0 0

Did Bill Gates Really Say That?

by Ali

So I had always heard the quote "640KB is enough memory" being attributed to Bill Gates. However, recently I was watching Dave Plummer on YT and he said that it is not true: https://youtu.be/bikbJPI-7Kg?t=372 And apparently the man himself has denied it as well but it just will not go away... https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/PCWorld/story?id=5214635 So I guess like the napkin/disk story and the DR/IBM story this is another one of those vintage myths and folk lore with no real basis in reality.... -Ali

2 years

19
24
0 0

Rainbow H7842 PSU Fault

by Rob Jarratt

As some of you may be aware I am trying to find a fault in a Rainbow H7842 PSU. I am using Tony Duell's schematic from here http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/rainbow/duell_schematics/psu.pdf. I have been testing the Control Module by using a bench PSU to supply 15VDC to the input of the 7812 regulator (p2, PSU Sheet 1). My diagnosis shows that the control module is shutting down the PWM (p6, Control Module Sheet 2) because it is detecting an overcurrent in the -12V side (E3d on Control Module sheet 1, although I have determined that it is actually E3c). This seems to be because I measure a steady 0.6V on pin 6 of the transformer (p4, PSU Sheet 3). I just can't imagine where it might be coming from as the chopper won't be running. I had previously removed the transformer and there are no shorts between the pin 5-pin 6 winding and any of the other pins on the transformer. I checked all the DC outputs of the PSU when powering the 7812 from the bench, both on a working PSU and the non-working one. They are all at zero except the -12V output on the non-working PSU, which is +0.6V. But the voltage can't come out of nowhere. I am stumped and would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks Rob

2 years

11
55
0 0

HP2100A available

by William Donzelli

This is on Discord. I have an HP 2100A with a paper tape punch (a HP labelled Facit), tape punch (HP), and an 7900A disc. The thing is in decent shape - full of cards. The keyswitch is out of the thing, but I am pretty sure I still have it. Right now, I have me hands on the 2100A and Facit paper tape punch (with bracket) - can I get $1000 for this combo? When I get my hands on the reader and 7900A ( I think they are just buried!), we can deal with them later, as I do not like to sell what my hands are not on. Located around Kingston NY. Oh, I have a 5 foot rack for this thing, still back at the old house. -- Will

2 years

1
1
0 0

Re: Found the DSM orange manual

by Fred Cisin

>> DSM-IV is "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual" for mental disorders, >> and is On Wed, 28 Jun 2023, Ali wrote: > Fred, > You are showing your age ;). The DSM-V has been out for a while now and the > first revision (DSM V-TR TR=Text Revision, gotta love the Psych guys...) is > coming out (is out?) soon My age is getting quite difficult to hide. The "new" (now 10? years old) edition (DSM-V) is not without controversy, such as grief/depression; there are actually some who still prefer to use the DSM-IV. When we put the DSM-V on the shelf in Reference, we had some patrons asking us to bring back the DSM-IV. But yes, my joke should probably have been worded DSM-V

2 years

1
0
0 0

Need AUI cable

by Chris Zach

Anyone in MD got an AUI cable (few feet long) I can steal so I don't have to remove the bolts from the Pro/380's Ethernet socket or the pins on my 10bt ethernet MAU? Friendly note: If you try to boot a Pro/380 running POS 3.2 with Decnet installed and don't have the loopback plug the system will crash hard with a numeric error on the display. Noted. CZ

2 years

12
28
0 0

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