- cctalk - classiccmp.org

Store with "vintage" computers and parts

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

This place may be of interest. Most of the stuff they have for sale probably isn't of much interest here, but there are a few gems. The link takes you to one, which is how I found it. https://www.bryanipad.shop/product/microlog-corporation-atr-6800-vintage-ra… Not affiliated in any way. Just thought it might be of interest. Will

2 years

24
43
0 0

Wireless phone

by Murray McCullough

On April 3, 1973 the first wireless phone call was made and Moore’s Law has now led to the smart-phone being ubiquitous to our lives: Computer technology and cell phone technology marching hand-in-hand. Happy computing and talking about it! Murray 🙂

2 years

8
8
0 0

Raleigh Ham Fest This Weekend

by Bill Degnan

There's a ham fest in Raleigh NC this weekend, anyone like/dislike it/going? https://www.rarsfest.org/ My son goes to NC State for CompSci, he might go if he can. Bill

2 years

1
0
0 0

Beaglebone Black Industrial

by Bill Gunshannon

Does anyone here know if the Beaglebone Black Industrial is he same as the regular Beaglebone Black? I have a couple of the MFM Emulator boards to build and will need a couple Beaglebones for them. bill

2 years

4
8
0 0

DEC M8340 board

by Tom Hunter

Does anyone have a surplus DEC M8340 board with PCB etch level E and revision F (as imprinted on the handle)? If yes, please reply to thunter6600(a)gmail.com. Thanks and best regards Tom Hunter

2 years

1
0
0 0

NCD-17c and NCD-19 X terminal cap lists?

by Chris Hanson

Does anyone have a list of replacement capacitors to use for NCD X terminals, specifically the 17c and 19? A couple searches online don't turn up anything. I just got my NCD 17c up and running—I showed a pic or two on discord://classiccmp/#terminals a couple days ago—and now while I hear the HV power up the low voltage power seems kaput and the system never comes on. And my NCD 19 won't power up either. I can certainly take them apart and make lists, and I will if need be, but I was hoping maybe someone had already done so so I could get an order in ASAP. The power supply for these things is in the display portion, which makes me a bit nervous just generally… :) -- Chris

2 years

2
3
0 0

Re: WICAT Systems

by Paul McJones

Some models (e.g., the 150) supported Multibus. In the early 1980s at Tandem Austin we used one with a SUN graphics board in a Multibus slot to prototype a 68000 workstation we were building (but that never became a product). Al Kossow has lots of information about Wicat in bitsavers. Here’s a brochure for the 150: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/wicat/brochures/System_150_Brochure.pdf

2 years

1
0
0 0

WICAT Systems

by Steve Lewis

Is anyone familiar with WICAT Systems? I came across their ad in BYTE Nov 1981 (page 84), with a claim of "first family of microcomputers with mainframe capability" It is a 68000 based system (like the Lisa?), one configuration offers 400x300 monochrome graphics. Ad also claims 1.5MB main memory and a multi-user operating system ("UNIX/V7 and a CP/M Emulation also available") called MCS. Address mentions Orem, Utah. Haven't come across a price sheet, but I imagine they were quite expensive ($6000+ would be my guess). From the images, looks to me the main problem is a lack of an expansion bus (and overall not a very appealing-looking system). Was just curious if anyone had witnessed one ever running. -Steve

2 years

3
2
0 0

Earliest version of 3b2/400 sim

by KenUnix

Hi, Does anyone know the oldest version of the SIM 3b2/400 is and where I can get it? Thanks, Ken -- WWL 📚

2 years

2
2
0 0

Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 233, Issue 1

by badbob

Message: 1 Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2023 11:26:58 -0400 From: KenUnix <ken.unix.guy(a)gmail.com> Subject: [cctalk] Earliest version of 3b2/400 sim To: CCTALK <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <CAJXSPs_duQJNrpdf=gy1iZyPta5-wpoDJ-CUdJyhqdqL281gKw(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Hi, Does anyone know the oldest version of the SIM 3b2/400 is and where I can get it? Thanks, Ken -- Found this toohttps://loomcom.com/3b2/emulator/ - 2017-12-27: HD135 and HD161 are now both recognized names forthe Maxtor XT-2190 disk drive. - 2017-12-27: Fix for CPU traps. The UNIX debugger sdb should nowwork correctly under System V Release 3. - 2017-12-17: Minor compiler warning fix. - 2017-12-16: Fixed a FIFO overflow bug in the CONTTY device. - 2017-12-15: Critical MMU bugfix. - 2017-12-13: Improved support for multiple hard disk drives, aswell as adding support for additional hard disk geometries. - 2017-12-09: Added support for the secondary on-board serialterminal (CONTTY). RMS

2 years

1
0
0 0

Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 233, Issue 1

by badbob

1. Earliest version of 3b2/400 sim (KenUnix) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2023 11:26:58 -0400 From: KenUnix <ken.unix.guy(a)gmail.com> Subject: [cctalk] Earliest version of 3b2/400 sim To: CCTALK <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <CAJXSPs_duQJNrpdf=gy1iZyPta5-wpoDJ-CUdJyhqdqL281gKw(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Hi, Does anyone know the oldest version of the SIM 3b2/400 is and where I can get it? Thanks, Ken This is what I have found after searching, which implies around or before Nov 2017, AT&T 3B2 400 emulated Posted on November 24, 2017 https://virtuallyfun.com/2017/11/24/att-3b2-400-emulated/ WWL 📚 End of cctalk Digest, Vol 233, Issue 1 **************************************

2 years

1
0
0 0

DEC RSX BACKUP.SYS (bup?) files

by Chuck Guzis

I've got a few RX50 floppies that are *part* of a couple of backup sets. I don't have the complete sets, so the backup utility (BUP?) won't process the set in bits and pieces. Is the BACKUP.SYS file format documented anywhere? This is the file that starts out "JOURNAL", a few nulls, then "MICRORSX" Any help would be appreciated! TIA, Chuck

2 years

1
0
0 0

TREK7 is back! - TREK7 FORTRAN Multi-User Game (PDP-10/VAX) Revived

by Hans-Ulrich Hölscher

The Star Trek simulation game TREK7 was written in FORTRAN by Donald M. Ecclestone in the early 70ties for the PDP-10. The game was ported to VAX computers running VMS in 1978 by the author with the help of Dan Gahlinger. For some years TREK7 fell into a deep slumber until in 1993 Dan Gahlinger decided to revive it, but some severe bugs remained, hindering any successful round of game. Last year I began to work on the problems still present in TREK7. After detecting and fixing more than 60 bugs (mostly caused by transcription errors) step by step, the game is playable again now. Dan Gahlinger backed out of the project and I am the maintainer of TREK7 now. For details see: https://gunkies.org/wiki/TREK7 Former TREK7 players please give me a shout! Ulli The VAXorcist

2 years

9
18
0 0

MIT Lisp Machine and ucode recovered

by Eric Moore

Originating in 1960, Lisp is second only to Fortran as the oldest programming language still in use today. Historically used for research, artificial intelligence, and mathematics, Lisp remains relevant in these fields, as well as in quantum computing research and other cutting-edge applications. In the mid-1970s, researchers sought high-performance, single-user, interactive machines due to the constraints of running their code on large multi-user mainframes. Such machines would allow for more efficient and flexible research and development. Richard Greenblatt at the MIT AI Lab spearheaded the development of the first dedicated Lisp machines, including the successful CONS machine and later CADR machines. MACSYMA, a symbolic mathematics program written in Lisp which consumed significant resources on the PDP-10 running ITS, was a key motivator for the Lisp Machine's creation. LispM hackers in residence, including Daniel Weinreb (DLW), David Moon (MOON), Richard Stallman (RMS), John L. Kulp (JLK), Mike McMahon (MMcM), and others, were responsible for the overall system development. Kulp designed the legendary Space Cadet keyboard, known for its unique key arrangements and symbols, and Moon and Weinreb wrote the first and second Lisp Machine editors (EINE, ZWEI) respectively. Brad Parker developed the first working CADR simulator (usim), which emulates the MIT CADR, and with the Lisp Machine microcode running on top, allows users to explore the historic system and its unique features. Until recently, only up until system 78 of the LISP operating system and microcode from MIT could be emulated. Alfred M. Szmidt (AMS) received copies of backup tapes containing systems 98 and 99, dating from 1983 and 1984, respectively, and was able to get them running after a decade of effort. The bootstrap process was an impressive hack, due to the Lisp Machine's use of network booting and a mixture of compiled and uncompiled code. Szmidt has now iterated the distribution to system 100 with all of his fixes included. This marks the first time in 35 years that anyone can use this environment, designed to support AI and computational research at the cutting edge. The windowing and graphical feel of the environment stand out, and the Lisp machine and CADR processor allow users to dive deep into the operating system's inner workings. The line between compiled and source code is thin, and users can open and read almost everything. The CADR machine served as the foundation for commercial products sold by LISP Machines, Inc., founded by Richard Greenblatt, and Symbolics, founded by MIT AI Lab ex-administrator Russell Noftsker. The emulator provides a glimpse into the height of 80s MIT hacker culture by booting to MIT System 100. Find more information and try the system out yourself via AMS's announcement post: https://tumbleweed.nu/r/bug-lispm/forumpost/7475d8a3db Or visit https://tumbleweed.nu/lm-3 -Eric

2 years

3
4
0 0

3.5' 1.44 & 720K compatible Read/Write FDDs

by D. Resor

Is there a list of floppy disk drives which could read and write both 3.5" 1.44mb and 720k diskettes? A product line of musical instruments (General Music/Ahlborn-Galanti) I service use 3.5" 720K DD floppy disk drives. I've never had any problems formatting or backing up data files prior on other instruments. Tuesday, I attempted to format a floppy disk using the instrument's internal FDD prior to backing up the data files. After the format an error appears "corrupted data". Which could mean so several different things from a bad floppy drive, etc. I currently have one box of Sony MFD-2DD 3.5" 720K Double Density Floppy diskettes which were bought new a few years ago, kept in their box, and stored in a dust free place. I've used them prior for the same purpose with no problems. I'd like to be able to verify at home that the diskettes haven't all suddenly gone bad. Thanks Don Resor

2 years

4
5
0 0

Call for Speakers - VCF Southwest (VCFSW) coming to Dallas in June!

by Eric Moore

Hello Vintage Computer Enthusiasts! VCF SouthWest (VCFSW) is returning to Dallas after a long hiatus! We will be gathering June 23rd to 25th, details at https://www.vcfsw.org/ We are seeking speakers, exhibitors, vendors, sponsors, and volunteers! We already have some great speakers and panels lined up, and are looking for people with stories to tell about computing in Texas especially. Details and a sign up form are on the website for signing up as an exhibitor or vendor, and speakers can contact the organizers at vcfsouthwest(a)gmail.com Vendor and exhibitor tables are $50 each, and we have a limited number of tables available inside. After the inside tables are sold, we will consider selling outdoor vendor spaces if there is demand. Sponsor packages are available, starting at $250. This includes prime vendor space if desired, and placement of the sponsors logo and promotional materials proportionate to the amount of the sponsorship. Please contact us with any questions, ideas, or concerns. Thank you for being awesome and supporting the vintage computer community!

2 years

1
0
0 0

ATA-3 50-pin IDE

by Steve Lewis

Is anyone familiar with the 50-pin IDE interface, which I think is called ATA-3? It is from around 1997-2002. Normally IDE is 40-pin, or in laptops might be a 44-pin. But in a COMPAQ Presario 1220, I've come across its hard drive that is using this 50-pin interface (two rows of 25-pin that are quite small/tightly spaced - moreso than even PCMCIA). I believe it is different (electrically) than the 1.8" 50-pin interface. I ordered a CF-to-50-pin adapter that is intended for those 1.8" drives, and it won't work on this ATA-2 port (system won't boot with it inserted). However, all my CF cards are larger than 2GB - so I'm not sure if that was the issue (don't think so, I think even with 8GB or larger it would still at least try to boot). The 2GB drive in this Presario (with the "weird' 50-pin IDE) contains Windows ME and Office 2000. That's cute, but I'm not so interested in that - I was hoping to image that drive for archive, then install something else (OS2). But I can't find any "ATA-3 to normal 40-pin IDE" adapter. I think the "6 extra pins" on this 50-pin (relative to normal 44-pin laptop drives of those days) -- 2 of those pins (5-6) aren't used (maybe a kind of key) and the 4 others (1-4) are vendor specific. So I may just be out of luck here in upgrading or replacing this drive with a more modern solution. But wanted to run it by the crew here before giving up. Thanks, -Steve / v*

2 years

7
8
0 0

Looking for IBM 2723

by Peter Ekstrom

Hey all, So, being the new owner of a AS/400 9401-150, I am looking for a 2723-9406 LAN card for it. Does anyone have one they wouldn't mind parting with by chance? -Peter

2 years

1
0
0 0

Re: LS120, LS240, Floptical Drives and DD, HD, ED, and ?TD? drives

by Ali

> Most likely, the 3-mode drive. 8x1024 sectors on each track, giving a > capacity of about 1.23MB. Many PCs of the era could also handle the > drives, which would change spindle speed from 300 to 360 RPM. 3 mode > drives were manufactured right up until the end, but usually were > configured as 2-mode (720/1.44) unless jumpering changes were made to > the drive. Chuck, Yes, R. Stricklin (Bear) verified it as such. So have you ever seen a Tri Density drive? Or was it just a paper announcement that never made it out of the lab? I'd figure if anyone may have seen one it would be you ;) -Ali

2 years

3
15
0 0

Need a 1.2mb 5.25 floppy

by Chris Zach

Oi. So after finally getting things going I started copying the Pro/380 OS files to a bunch of 1.2mb floppies. Great. However after a bit I started getting errors, and found that the disks were getting gouges in the tracks. Sure enough disassembly of my 1.2mb Teac showed that debris had become embedded in the disk head and cleaning is not possible. Terrific. Tossing the drive, this is not the first time I have had this problem with these disks so I am dumpstering all of the old floppies and just bought 40 new ones in sealed boxes. However I'm now in need of a 1.2mb floppy drive. Anyone have a good working spare that I can beg/borrow/buy in the MD area? Thanks! CZ (I really should have pitched these disks; they came from a basement with an oil heater for 20 years and are quite honestly garbage. Only thing worse were disks from Solarex which literally had silicon dust on them that chewed any drive. Oh well, live and learn)

2 years

11
21
0 0

Re: Sun/Tronic House

by Smith, Wayne

I did some research as to where Dean and Molly (Mary Alice) Hendrickson lived and the address I come up with is 20 Interlaken Road, Greenwich, CT 06830. There is no street view on Google but from the satellite photo it looks like it could be the same house as I seem some of what appear to be similar curved features on the roof. From: Tarek Hoteit via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org] Sent: Friday, March 24, 2023 10:23 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Cc: Tarek Hoteit Subject: [cctalk] Sun/Tronic House Hi. I came across an article about the "Sun/Tronic House" in the July/August 1981 issue of Computers and Programming magazine. The article references the Apple 2 as the computer that controls everything in the house that also relies on solar energy. The house, per the article, is (or was) in Greenwich, Connecticut. I also found a photo of the house at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.1000bit.it/storia/apple/suntronic_h… I am curious to know if the house and the Apple IIs are still there. Anyone has a clue? (A copy of the magazine is at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://archive.org/details/sim_computers-and-p… 1_4 page 38). -- Regards, Tarek Hoteit

2 years

2
1
0 0

LS120, LS240, Floptical Drives and DD, HD, ED, and ?TD? drives

by Ali

In the golden age of the floppy before its downfall caused by CD-R, CD-RW and flash USB a number of new technologies were introduced to allow for cheap removable storage (Yes MO drives existed but they were expensive). Many of the tech were a great step forward. For example the LS-240 drives from Panasonic/3M (Imation) allowed reading and writing to 120MB, 240MB, 1.44MB, and 720KB disks. They were also compatible with weird formats like IBM's XDF and even allowed the storage of 32MB on a standard 1.44MB floppy disk. To be backwards compatible they used a separate read/write head for regular floppies. However, none of the formats with backward compatibility read or wrote to 2.88MB ED disks. Anybody know why? Was it a licensing issue or the perception that ED compatibility wasn't really required or desired? Or was it technical? I am not sure if ED drives already made use of two read/write heads (one for 720/1.44 and one for 2.88) or just one? If it is the former one could see how it would be hard to have three separate read/write heads in one unit... On a separate note: was a TD (Triple Density) drive ever produced? Apparently the technology existed all the way back in 1989 and would have give 12.5MB on a standard physical sized (3.5") floppy: https://www-computerwoche-de.translate.goog/a/hitachi-maxell-bietet-nec-neue -12-5-mb-floppy-an,1155888?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wap p (original in German) -Ali

2 years

7
12
0 0

Unix System V r1 -> Unix System V r3

by KenUnix

Hi, Has anyone been successful in communicating using cu or some other method to transfer files between two SIMS running Unix V ? If so I would appreciate some help. Thanks, Ken -- WWL 📚

2 years

1
0
0 0

Looking for EPROMs

by rescue

Looking for MCM68764 and I could probably use some TMS2532 as well. I'm also always on the lookout for blank bipolar proms (chips stargin with 82S, and compatables). Anyone have any of these they don't need. New, used, needing erasing, doesn't matter. If you have any, let me know how many you have (of each if you have both type) and what you are looking to get for them. If you need more standard/bigger EPROMs, I can trade too.... have a number of 2764, 27256, have some 27128 I think too, and maybe some 27512 ? I'd have to go digging. Thanks, -- Curt

2 years

6
5
0 0

looking for cable for Sun Sbus Expansion

by rescue

I have 2 Sbus Expansion chassis, one Sun, and one Integrix (IIRC). I have the expansion chassis and the sbus controllers, but on both cases I do not have the cables. By looking at it, I believe they probably both use the same cable. Anyone out there have one or two cables to spare ? Thanks, -- Curt

2 years

1
0
0 0

QIC tape restorations (IBM 5100)

by Steve Lewis

I've come across three original QIC tapes for the IBM 5100. DC300 I think, original IBM labels. They are in fair condition (the tape material itself seems fine, they are all on their reels), but the "rubbers" used to actually actuate the reels is degraded. I came across an article once on how to restore those (I think it involved gluing the rubber band directly to the ends of the media?) The three tapes are labeled as follows: 5721-XM3 THE IBM 5100 PROBLEM SOLVER LIBRARY TAPE PART NO. 1608361 E.C. NO 829643 DATE 7/29/76 (this one is in a form fitted sealed ziploc-like bag, which I haven't opened; the early magazine ads for the 5100 reference this solver library -- I assume it is a mix of BASIC and APL) 5721-EAB THE IBM 5100 BASIC COMPUTER AIDED INSTRUCTION TAPE PART NO. 1608376 E.C. NO 829482 DATE 11/13/75 VERSION 1 MOD 0 FEAT 9021 PROGRAM NO. 5721-EAB CARTRIDGE 3 OF 3 (what does FEAT mean? and sadly, I don't have cartridge 1 or 2, but I assume this is probably some BASIC code that runs some kind of tutorial about the system) TAPE PART NO. 1608705 E.C. NO 829637 DATE 1/10/77 DIAGNOSTIC CARTRIDGE. DO NOT ALTER THE CONTENTS OF THIS TAPE. (I believe when accessing the built in DCP, it has options to load and run additional diagnostics that would be contained on this tape -- I think "IMF" stuff, so it would be in native PALM machine code) Anyone interested in a restoration or any contacts to folks who have worked on QIC tape before? I have a working IBM 5100 (with working internal tape and external 5106), but I absolutely haven't tried to insert or use these tapes, and I have 0 experience in trying to extract data from raw media. I don't mind shipping them off to an expert - such as anyone who maybe can copy the data content to a new tape? (which I know is probably some specialized equipment - I probably can't self fund that, but I am interested to know what the options here might be) -Steve / v*

2 years

2
1
0 0

VAX books available

by Todd Pisek

I have the following 2 books available for the taking: VAX architecture Reference Manuals-1987 Version 4.4 VAX/VMS Internals & Data Structures Email tpisek at pobox dot com

2 years

1
0
0 0

Re: LS120, LS240, Floptical Drives and DD, HD, ED, and ?TD? drives

by Ali

>It’s a 1.2 MB format (360 RPM) as used in the>Japanese market.Ahh so it is a triple mode drive not a triple density drive. Thanks!

2 years

1
0
0 0

Fortran question for Unix System-5 r3

by KenUnix

Fortran question for Unix System-5 r3. When executing fortran programs requiring "input" the screen will show a blank screen. After entering input anyway the program completes under Unix System V *r3*. When the same program is compiled under Unix System V *r1* it works as expected. The user sees the prompt. Sounds like on Unix System V *r3* the output buffer is not being flushed. I tried re-compiling F77. No help. Is it possible to check the runtime libraries to see if fflush is missing? Fortran program follows: PROGRAM EASTER INTEGER YEAR,METCYC,CENTRY,ERROR1,ERROR2,DAY INTEGER EPACT,LUNA C A PROGRAM TO CALCULATE THE DATE OF EASTER PRINT '(A)',' INPUT THE YEAR FOR WHICH EASTER' PRINT '(A)',' IS TO BE CALCULATED' PRINT '(A)',' ENTER THE WHOLE YEAR, E.G. 1978 ' READ '(A)',YEAR C CALCULATING THE YEAR IN THE 19 YEAR METONIC CYCLE-METCYC METCYC = MOD(YEAR,19)+1 IF(YEAR.LE.1582)THEN DAY = (5*YEAR)/4 EPACT = MOD(11*METCYC-4,30)+1 ELSE C CALCULATING THE CENTURY-CENTRY CENTRY = (YEAR/100)+1 C ACCOUNTING FOR ARITHMETIC INACCURACIES C IGNORES LEAP YEARS ETC. ERROR1 = (3*CENTRY/4)-12 ERROR2 = ((8*CENTRY+5)/25)-5 C LOCATING SUNDAY DAY = (5*YEAR/4)-ERROR1-10 C LOCATING THE EPACT(FULL MOON) EPACT = MOD(11*METCYC+20+ERROR2-ERROR1,30) IF(EPACT.LT.0)EPACT=30+EPACT IF((EPACT.EQ.25.AND.METCYC.GT.11).OR.EPACT.EQ.24)THEN EPACT=EPACT+1 ENDIF ENDIF C FINDING THE FULL MOON LUNA=44-EPACT IF(LUNA.LT.21)THEN LUNA=LUNA+30 ENDIF C LOCATING EASTER SUNDAY LUNA=LUNA+7-(MOD(DAY+LUNA,7)) C LOCATING THE CORRECT MONTH IF(LUNA.GT.31)THEN LUNA = LUNA - 31 PRINT '(A)',' FOR THE YEAR ',YEAR PRINT '(A)',' EASTER FALLS ON APRIL ',LUNA ELSE PRINT '(A)',' FOR THE YEAR ',YEAR PRINT '(A)',' EASTER FALLS ON MARCH ',LUNA ENDIF END Any help would be appreciated, Ken -- WWL 📚

2 years

1
0
0 0

Death of G. Moore

by Murray McCullough

Legendary discoverer of Moore's Law Gordon Moore passed away. Whether it truly is a 'law' is debatable but its effect on microprocessor development is hard to deny. Our industry/hobby or interest was built on a technology G. Moore helped to develop. Happy computing! Murray 🙂

2 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Personal Calculator “Entertainment”

by Michael Mulhern

Another recent acquisition is for all your handheld calculator enthusiasts. From 1975 here is “How To Entertain With Your Pocket Calculator” Click to: https://archive.org/details/htewypc Michael. -- *Blog: RetroRetrospective – Fun today with yesterday's gear…….. <http://www.jongleur.co.uk/blogs/>* *Podcast*: *Retro Computing Roundtable <http://rcrpodcast.com/>* (Co-Host)

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Systron-Donner Block Programming

by Michael Mulhern

If anybody is interested in Systron-Donner Corporation, this booklet on “Block Programming For Physical Systems” was in a recent acquisition. Available at: https://archive.org/details/bpfps Michael. -- *Blog: RetroRetrospective – Fun today with yesterday's gear…….. <http://www.jongleur.co.uk/blogs/>* *Podcast*: *Retro Computing Roundtable <http://rcrpodcast.com/>* (Co-Host)

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Sun/Tronic House

by Tarek Hoteit

Hi. I came across an article about the "Sun/Tronic House" in the July/August 1981 issue of Computers and Programming magazine. The article references the Apple 2 as the computer that controls everything in the house that also relies on solar energy. The house, per the article, is (or was) in Greenwich, Connecticut. I also found a photo of the house at https://www.1000bit.it/storia/apple/suntronic_house.asp I am curious to know if the house and the Apple IIs are still there. Anyone has a clue? (A copy of the magazine is at https://archive.org/details/sim_computers-and-programming_july-august-1981_… page 38). -- Regards, Tarek Hoteit

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

RIP Gordan Moore

by Frank Tuccio

With great sadness, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announces the passing of our founder, Gordon Moore. https://www.moore.org/article-detail?newsUrlName=in-memoriam-gordon-moore-19 29-2023 Frank Tuccio frank(a)tuccio.net

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Vermont Research Solid State Storage

by Jonathan Katz

Hi everyone! Does anyone have documentation for a Vermont Research K2 Solid State Storage device? Looks like it emulates a CDC Lark. But it may also be configurable for other devices? Thanks! -- -Jon +44 7792 149029

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Cards in the PDP-11/05 just sold on eBay

by steven＠malikoff.com

G'day all, Just followed the sale of the 11/05 on eBay (#175655196586) that ended a short time ago. It's a remarkably clean and complete machine and am not surprised at the hammer price. I was curious what the quad-height card with two ribbon cables coming out the sides was? It appears to have a couple leads as well, presumably going to the single-height board. Some sort of TTY interface? I presume non-DEC from the nylon handles. Steve

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

WTB: Working IBM 9401-150

by Peter Ekstrom

Hello everyone, First time posting here... I am wondering if anyone knows of someone looking to get rid of a working (preferably) IBM AS/400e 9401-150? For local pickup it would need to be around the Atlanta, GA area in the US. Thanks! -Peter

2 years, 1 month

4
6
0 0

Wanted PDP-11 Paper Tape Software Source Tape Images

by Martin Bishop

Can anyone point me to the source paper tapes for the classic Paper Tape Software programmes packages ? The IOX, ODT, FPMP and loader/dumper source paper tapes [e.g. DEC-11-XIOXA-A-PA1 & 2] are on bit savers, but those for the assemblers / linkers seem not to be. That the assembler / linker sources were distributed is attested by the 1970's software catalogs; from their evident rarity I infer purchases were uncommon. While any archive of -PA tapes is of interest, those I'm particularly seeking are: - DEC-11-UPLAA-A-PA1 to 12 PAL-11A (8k) (V007A) Source PTs [~= ASXA] - DEC-11-ASPA-PA1 to 11 PAL-11A (4k) (V002A) Source PTs [~= ASPA] - DEC-11-XIXLA-A-PA1 & 2 IOX LPT (V004A) Source PTs - DEC-11ULKSA-A-PA1 to 6 Link11S (V002A) Source PTs - also PAL11S sources, however they are not listed in the catalogs Equally, listings would be of value, e.g.: - DEC-11-ASPA-LA PAL-11A (V002A) (4k) Listing Electronic copies are all I require, although if someone has a cupboard full of untranscribed physical paper tapes I could oblige. Yours in anticipation of being able to, hopefully, add the EIS instructions to PAL-11A's repertoire. Martin

2 years, 1 month

3
3
0 0

Nuking an MFM drive with a magnet, format/servo gone?

by Chris Zach

Question: I just used a strong magnet to wipe an old Maxtor MFM drive (magnet on outside of case). Now the drive will not even seek properly on start up, just endlessly moves the heads.. Is the drive now toast? Do MFM drives have embedded servo information on the platter formatted by the factory? CZ

2 years, 1 month

13
19
0 0

LSI-11 Console-ODT

by jos.fries＠kpnmail.nl

For my LSI-11 simulator I developed an as accurate as possible implementation of the Console-ODT functionality as described in the "LSI11 PDP11/03 Processor Handbook" and the "Microcomputer and Memories Handbook". As might be expected from these handbooks, the description of the ODT functionality is not a complete specification and consequently during the development several questions arose on the reaction of ODT on the user input, such as: - What is the reaction on commands like "R0/<CR>RS/4@"? Will the last opened location be opened or the contents of the last opened location? - What is the reaction on a RUBOUT at the prompt? - What will be the value of the opened location when e.g. three digits are entered and these three digits are then rubbed out and the location is closed? Will the value of the last opened location be unchanged or will it be zero? - An address and a GO command can be separated by a semicolon. What is the reaction if characters other than the "G" are typed after the semicolon? - Etc., etc... Is there someone in (the vicinity of) the Netherlands with a functioning LSI-11 who would allow me to try out these commands or could anyone point me to someone who could facilitate that? I developed a complete test script for all LSI-11 ODT commands and "all" relevant situations and ideally I would like to carry out this test script to get a complete specification of the Console-ODT functionality. Regards, Jos

2 years, 1 month

5
4
0 0

Sun E3500 Peripheral Power Supply?

by Henry Bent

Hi all, I picked up the pieces of a few Sun E3500s a while back but it looks like I don't have enough for a complete system - I am missing the front Peripheral Power Supply, 300-1358 ( https://dogemicrosystems.ca/pub/Sun/System_Handbook/Sun_syshbk_V4.1/Devices… ). I know there's one on eBay right now but I have extras of most other parts for these machines - rear power supplies, cooling modules, FC-AL boards, SBUS boards, etc. and would ideally like to arrange some sort of mutually beneficial swap. Let me know if you're interested and we can work something out. Shipping is probably not going to be prohibitively expensive but if there is someone local I'm in the greater Cleveland, OH area. -Henry

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

PDP-11/05 early print set for download

by steven＠malikoff.com

G'day all, I have just uploaded the engineering drawings for the early PDP-11/05, the one with the solid (no slots) Mazak lower bezel and the M7261 with the unpopulated region. The latest date I can find in this print set is October 1973, Drawing release 11/05-49. You can view or download it from https://archive.org/details/pdp-11-05-engineering-drawings-oct-1973 It is 147Mb in size, sorry about that but I didn't want the quality to drop too much (the raw scans were ~350Mb). Regards, Steve.

2 years, 1 month

7
8
0 0

DEC Prom MRV11-C and MXV11-B2 ROMS

by Douglas Taylor

Is it possible to use the MXV11-B2 Roms in an 18 bit MRV11-C Prom board? Clearly they work in the 22 bit version, MRV11-D, but I don't have one of those. The intention is to put together a small PDP-11 in an H9281-AB backplane (18 bit) with an 11/23 or 11/73 CPU, Ram, disk controller, etc.

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Re: Knockoffs, was: Low cost logic analyzer

by Jonathan Chapman

> But, as some who worked > to bring a product to market only to see people on forums say "Skip > buying it from Jim for $$$$, you can build the same thing by yourself > for $ from AliExpress parts or buy this eBay knockoff for 2X$", I will > admit that is somewhat infuriating. If the hobby community is not > willing to pay a bit of premium to support those who bring out the > products that benefit the community, the designers will get disgusted > and leave. Agree 100%. We stopped running XT-IDEs for a while due to the proliferation of knockoffs and the total indifference of a good portion of the community -- some folks even get hostile when you suggest they maybe not buy knockoffs that can't even abide by the terms of the open-source project license! I'd designed a universal "bolts to any existing XT-IDE and doesn't eat a slot" CF adapter that never got run. After posting a development picture of the prototype, one of the knockoff folks ripped the design off before I had even received my quote from Keystone for the custom ISA brackets. No way was I going to spend on a run of 500x custom brackets when someone was already ripping off the idea. There are other things that we've chosen not to run for the same basic reason, and others that won't get open sourced. > Thus, I'd say if a Saleae is something to pursue, try to buy > one from them, to support their awesome GUI, and then drop by eBay and > grab 2 or 4 of the knockoffs to put in your toolbox or travel debugging > rucksack. I'll go further and say don't buy knockoffs, period. It's nice to support the designers in some capacity, but buying knockoffs fuels the ecosystem that creates knockoffs. With our stuff, it's never been that a single knockoff operation eats our lunch, it's that there's a zillion of them that run maybe 100 boards and disappear. Death by a thousand cuts. They charge $1-5 less while running the cheapest possible boards, stuffing with salvaged chips, etc. Meanwhile, we're having to pay for runs of boards with hard gold plating and buy genuine parts from Mouser. Thanks, Jonathan

2 years, 1 month

13
24
0 0

VMS V4.2 MUP (Mandatory Update) wanted!

by Hans-Ulrich Hölscher

The mandatory update for VMS V4.2 is still missing in my collection. Because of that, VMS V4.2 is not fully usable, neither can layered software be installed nor can it be upgraded to VMS V4.3. Who can help???

2 years, 1 month

4
6
0 0

mainframe vs mini

by Steve Lewis

Not to open a huge can of worms.... but... I always considered a mainframe to basically be a "fully decked out" minicomputer. A minicomputer has a core CPU and memory (or racks of memory), then is "decked out" with data storage (racks of wall-sized tape decks), printers, pick-your-typewriter input (or two, or three), and maybe cabinets for serial IO or modem of some sort. So, sometimes I say mainframe when I really mean minicomputer (generally because mainframe just sounds cooler than "mini-computer" -- that is, mainframe clearly conveys the notion of "some big ass computer" whereas minicomputer just needs more clarification). What do you guys think? Or is a mainframe one of those giants so large, you walk inside its CPU? Or, is it like this... computer (a whole building, generally at least two story to support ac ducting and raised floor maintenance -- are these exclusively mainframes?) minicomputer (a single floor or room of a building or possibly a full top of a desk - and, these are NOT mainframes?) microcomputer (half a deck top or smaller, memory and accessories mostly self contained - doesn't necessarily have to have a microprocessor, but typically does) nanocomputer (modern MCU ? like Raspbery Pi) Also - on "personal computer", it's generally implied "digital electronic computers" so we don't have to dwell too much on rocks and beads as computers. Glad we didn't call them "coordinated electron pumpers" :) -Steve

2 years, 1 month

25
67
0 0

domesticating the computer - call for last inputs

by Steve Lewis

Ok, I think we have a good narrated composition! It is still Unlisted since there are a few more things to finalize/decide. But unless we spot any major flaw in the rendering, this should be wrapped up over the next day or so. There are a few somewhat subtle easter eggs added. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPrHfUrhjQk <Domesticating the computer: how the appliance computer came to be - YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPrHfUrhjQk>> One question is: should this be set to "Yes it is for kids"? My understanding is Enabling that prevents Comments being enabled, but I'm not sure if there is any other benefit. But yes, this is NOT a documentary and is intended more for a middle/high school audience. Other decisions are things like final thumbnail and writing up the Description, credits, etc. And - recall - this wasn't intended as a "full history of computing", the focus was on the 1970s. But there is a brief segment towards the end that honors some pre-1970s work. Also, this may be the only "history of personal computer" related video that doesn't mention the word Gates or Wozniak [ that wasn't exactly intentional! ;) actually the original intent was to avoid any names at all, it wasn't a biography - but a few do end up mentioned ] Thanks for all the feedback and criticism - it won't be perfect for everyone, but I think it is far better than what we started with. My "technical review team" has included: Dennis Roberson (SCAMP/IBM 5100 lead engineer) Dan Bricklin (VisiCalc) Scott Adams (Adventure and many other games) Ken Williams (Sierra OnLine) -Steve

2 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

IBM RT PC Manuals free for shipping

by steve shumaker

Any interest here before I post them to EPay? Available for shipping cost from 95549: IBM RT PC AIX OS Communications Guide 59X7668 IBM RT PC AIX OS Messages Reference 59X9115 IBM RT PC INED 59X7643 These are the classic early slipcase style manuals. They are in pristine condition. All three are 1985 "First Editions" of the pub. I received them in an auction lot of of documents and have no need. Combined weight is ~13lbs. Steve

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

PSU of a 11/23SD??

by Holm Tiffe

Hi all, I have to repair an PSU of a 11/23 n a BA11 Box with an H9720 Backplane (with an KDJ-11A) that has run an CNC milling machine until 2 weeks before now. :-) This is a Fidia machine..never heard about it before. The problem is that a big 19000µF 40V capacitor in the PSU has failed and that I think because of that the 2nd of the two Nidec fans has finally failed. I'm in the process of cleaning the goo from the PSU-PCB, found a burnt 5A fuse and now I'm checking the Semiconductors... The problem is here that the Transistors (and diodes) have uncommon types printed on, an TO220 is named SJE2677, another one is labeled 12652-00 RCA..and so on. I've found a label with "0H780-B" on the PSU.. H780 PSU? Where can I get some schematics from that beast? It is a secondary switcher ist seems. Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583 info(a)tsht.de Fax +49 37292 709779 Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 741

2 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

List migration

by Dennis Boone

Friends, The process of migrating the cctalk and cctech mailing lists to a new host in Chicago is underway. This evening, I've moved the list mail handling to the new server, and this message will be the first live test. Assuming this works, you shouldn't have to change anything to post to the list. The green web pages, the old "pipermail" list archives, and web access to archives of new postings from this point still require a little work, which I hope to complete in the next day or two. I will eventually import the old pipermail archives into the new posting archive, but that may take a little longer. The new hosting is provided by the Chicago Classic Computing group. Many thanks to Jay West for hosting the lists for 20 years! /Dennis Boone

2 years, 1 month

16
19
0 0

SmallTalk books claimed

by Todd Pisek

They’re gone

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

SmallTalk 80 books available

by Todd Pisek

I have the following books free to a good home: SmallTalk-80: The Language & its Implementation SmallTalk-80: The Interactive Programming Environment SmallTalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice Email tpisek at pobox dot com

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Power supply for DEC VK100 GIGI?

by Robert Armstrong

A friend gave me a DEC VK100 (aka GiGi) recently. It's in really nice shape, but it is missing the power supply. Before I try to kludge something up with an ATX supply, I thought I'd ask if anybody knows where I might find an official replacement. Thanks, Bob

2 years, 1 month

4
5
0 0

Solaris books claimed

by Todd Pisek

They have a new home

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Solaris Internals & Performance books

by Todd Pisek

I no longer have a use for the following 2 books. Free for the taking. Solaris Internals: Solaris 10 and Opensolaris Solaris Performance and tools Email me at: tpisek at pobox dot com

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Visiting the computer history museum (chm)

by Tarek Hoteit

Hello. I am visiting the Computer History Museum in California next week. I always wanted to check it out and spend a day there, but something else happens. Any recommendations of what is a must see at the museum and anything else classic computing nearby in one day only (March 15)? Regards, Tarek Hoteit

2 years, 1 month

16
25
0 0

Persci 299 drives - park heads/lock?

by Bill Degnan

I am working on an unknown status Persci 299 drive and one of the two drives is locked closed. Is this a "park" of some kind or is the drive broken? If it's a parked drive (only the drive 0 side) how do you unpark the drive? I can't seem to find any info on this. If I find anything I will post my findings. Thanks in advance Bill

2 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

DEC DF03-AA Modem Documentation

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

The DEC DF02 (300 Baud) and DF03 (300/1200 Baud) modems appear to be singularly lacking in online documentation. In the case of the DF03 those would be: EK-ODF03-IP - DF03 Illustrated Parts Breakdown EK-ODF03-PS - DF03 Modem Pocket Service Guide EK-ODF03-UG - DF03 Modem Users Guide Similarly for the DF02. (Note that the actual designations may use a zero rather than a capital letter O in the 4th position; references are inconsistent.) Does anyone have access to these documents? The only, and only slightly, useful technical documentation I've found are within the KC780 documentation (EK-KC780-TM-007_Jul84.pdf), which illustrates the required settings of the two pairs of DIP switches (or jumpers) on each of the two DF02/03 internal modules but doesn't define any of those settings. The functionality of the front panel push-button switches is not described either. Leads, experience, etc. appreciated, thank you, paul

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Low cost logic analyzer

by Paul Koning

Gents, I've been doing logic debugging (on a fairly primitive software defined radio I designed back in 1999) with an old Philips logic analyzer. It's not bad, certainly fast enough (I need 100 Msamples/s, it can do twice that) and it's more than wide enough (I need 32 channels). But its capture memory is microscopic so I struggle to see more than one or two transactions, and I need to see more than that. Some poking around shows various USB-connected logic analyzers for quite low prices, and a number of them seem to have suitable specs. I also ran across sigrok.org which seems to be an open source logic analysis framework that can drive a bunch of those devices. Nice given that too many of them only come with Windows software. I suspect there are others that have not too expensive logic analyzers and might be able to offer up suggestions or product reviews. paul

2 years, 1 month

12
18
0 0

NextStep/Intel, 486's and Pentium overdrive, thoughts.

by Chris Zach

As part of fixing the Pro/380 I dug out and decided to get running my two Intel systems. These are Compaq Deskpro/XE systems. One is a 4100 which has an Intel 486/100 (25mhz, quad clock), the other I upgraded with a Pentium P524T overdrive chip at 83mhz (33mhz external clock). The P524T was an interesting duck: It's a 5 volt pentium, 32 bit external bus but they did double the amount of 64 bit on-chip cache so it can perk along quicker than one might think. Not many were sold, but I have one and there you go. It even has a little fan on the heat sink that is powered off the chip. Cute. The Deskpro/XE's were great systems, slimline, Compaq business audio, QVision video interface with 2mb of RAM, IDE drive, and oddly enough a 3 slot ISA bus. Most of the system ran at native 32 bit, so you just ran a slow network card in the ISA. They also had up to 32mb memory, and an optional memory cache card to speed things up. The systems had issues, both on-board batteries were dead, resulting in me having to find, download, run (not easy) and extract a setup floppy for this model as you can't do the system settings without it. Not quite an EISA config, but similar levels of stupidity in the ISA world. And one of them does not seem to see the ISA bus, but not a big deal as it will just be a DOS floppy maker. Anyway, finally got one of them running and decided to do some benchmarks. Booting NextStep 4.2, and tried out a few basic tests. Findings: For general booting and such the Pentium does not offer that much of an advantage. Time to go from login window to system quiet with 20mb memory (I load several apps by default) is: 486/100-121 seconds Pentium: 120 seconds Installing and removing the 256k cache card (an option I have one of) doesn't change the time much at all, maybe a second. Boosting memory to 32mb brought that number down to 84 seconds. Moral: Memory matters. Then I figured I would try a CPU intensive app: Good old NeXT Mandelbrot. While a true NeXT slab will kick the rear of any Intel chip (due to the on board DSP56001) I figured I would put the Pentium up against the 486/100 and running the 486 at 33mhz external bus (133mhz) in insane overclock mode.`So rendering the "Valley of Fear" (a complex subset) resulted in: Pentium, no external cache: 36 seconds. Pentium, external cache: 34 seconds. Not bad, cache really doesn't do a whole lot here. 486/100, no cache: 90 seconds. Wow, that is slow. 486/133, no cache: 65s. Faster, but very slow. So the addition of the Pentium makes a huge difference on floating point CPU intensive apps. I'm also guessing the extra large cache makes a difference as well for highly iterative loads. With this done I can continue looking for a 5.25 floppy to see about making more PRO disks.

2 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

Vintage den

by Murray McCullough

Hi, Has anyone seen the latest on ArsTECHNICA journal on Brian Green’s “deluxe home vintage computer den”? Does it bring back many fond memories of the 70s and 80s. 🙂 Happy computing. Murray 🙂

2 years, 1 month

3
3
0 0

Re: Tarek Hoteit ->Visiting the computer history museum

by Murray McCullough

I attended the Vintage Computer Faire at the Computer History Museum many a yr. ago. The museum wasn't opened yet then collecting many computer artifacts including the Cray-1. I also met Steve Wozniak who gladdened the heart of this Canadian nerd/geek/computer enthusiast. I'm looking forward to visiting the museum again in the not-too-distant future. There are computer museums here in Canada; one has Kenbak-1s.

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Mad Magazine latest issue about computers

by Tarek Hoteit

The latest issue of Mad Magazine (April 2023) is titled “MAD Takes Apart Technology”. The pages include reprints of past articles that relate to computers, such as “if computers are so brilliant” (Oct 1985), “13 things you never want to hear from a computer guy” (May 2005), various y2k, and some 50s/60s tech humor. I posted the cover photo here: https://ne.thote.it/@tarek/110018157647679272 Regards, Tarek Hoteit

2 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

[holm@freibergnet.de: Re: PSU of a 11/23SD??]

by Holm Tiffe

Oh yes, that's looking good :-) Thank you very much Mattis! BTW: Some years before I helped to repair and administering the east german copy of an 11/780.. the Robotron RVS K1840. The console Processor of this beast was an Robotron K1620, the slowest PDP-11 ever made but it was enough to load the microcode :-) The 1620 used two 5,25" Floppies instead of the 8" one in the 11/780. Best regards, Holm Mattis Lind wrote: > That is a BA11-M box with a H780 supply. The schematics can be found in the > KC780 document since the front end processor of the 11/780 is a PDP-11/03 > with a RX01 drive. > In the end of this document there is a schematic: > > http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/780/MP00534_KC780_Nov77.pdf > > Good luck! > > /Mattis > > Den mån 13 mars 2023 kl 10:57 skrev Holm Tiffe via cctalk < > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>: > > > > > Hi all, > > > > I have to repair an PSU of a 11/23 n a BA11 Box with an H9720 Backplane > > (with an KDJ-11A) that has run an CNC milling machine until 2 weeks > > before now. :-) This is a Fidia machine..never heard about it before. > > > > The problem is that a big 19000µF 40V capacitor in the PSU has failed > > and that I think because of that the 2nd of the two Nidec fans has > > finally failed. > > I'm in the process of cleaning the goo from the PSU-PCB, found a burnt > > 5A fuse and now I'm checking the Semiconductors... > > > > The problem is here that the Transistors (and diodes) have uncommon > > types printed on, an TO220 is named SJE2677, another one is labeled > > 12652-00 RCA..and so on. > > I've found a label with "0H780-B" on the PSU.. H780 PSU? > > Where can I get some schematics from that beast? It is a secondary > > switcher ist seems. > > > > Regards, > > Holm > > -- > > Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, > > Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583 > > info(a)tsht.de Fax +49 37292 709779 Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 > > 741 > > > > -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583 info(a)tsht.de Fax +49 37292 709779 Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 741 ----- Ende weitergeleitete Nachricht ----- -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583 info(a)tsht.de Fax +49 37292 709779 Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 741

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Age of Tape Formats?

by Zane Healy

I’m working on a project, and I need to know the age of various tape formats. For example when were 6250bpi 700’ 9-Track tapes or DC600A cartridges introduced? Is there any good resource online that documents this? Wikipedia is of some help, but the older you go, the spottier it is. Zane

2 years, 1 month

17
45
0 0

80 Micro Aug 1980 page scan

by Steve Lewis

Anyone here have a physical copy of 80 Microcomputing (TRS-80 themed) issue from August 1980? There is a better quality scan of a page I'm trying to get. Thanks, Steve

2 years, 1 month

6
9
0 0

domesticating the computer (take #12)

by Steve Lewis

We're going to stick to the original title of "Domesticating the Computer" - since that's more in tune with the intended theme. TAKE #11: (reference, revision listed below) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLHcUbVO_G0 And here's the narration situation. My daughter said she'd try it, and she did :) But here's the problem, she has those painful metal braces. Point in fact, she got them tightened yesterday and in general speaking for very long isn't her favorite thing right now. So she's requested to just stick to being in the Art department (recall, she did the background art and overall arrangement and selection of the systems). But, I still wanted to share this Take#12 to show she is real and is involved in the project :) And also that there were a few visual updates planned. TAKE #12: (daughter narration) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2flzdzM-ZKM Here is a summary of some of the visual updates... 01:11 added the ComputerWorld article referencing Pillsbury Farms and Datapoint, in case there were any doubters about that. [ the article is from '73 and by that time they had been using the system for a couple years - I think the original sales contract is in a museum down in San Antonio still ] (she botched the Odyssey audio - and this is a casual draft, so it's just blanked out) 02:16 added a visual reference to Apollo program (since yes there are some people who didn't catch what that means) 05:03 updates to the "factory" photos (found shot of Tandy's wave soldering machine) [ I still am aware and agree the use of the word "motherboard" here isn't quite right -- but, acceptable anachronism? ] 05:21 (just wanted to point out - some complained I didn't mention the Sphere, which recently a runnable board was revived and demonstrated; can't fit em all, and the Sphere is mentioned at the bottom here as one of the "early competitors") 07:32 looking for more "zip-loc bag" examples (Scott Adams has spoken and confirms he used "baby bottle liners" - it's a small technicality that I may just address visually on screen); I'm hoping Ken and Roberta might have photos of some of their old HiRez adventure in bags, but I suspect that all burned in their house years ago ('91 or so?) (I wanted a small segment to explain why Zork couldn't be made available on cassette tape-- I content that Zork itself motivated the purchase of many early disk drives :) but that'll be for another day ) 07:49 minor updates for VisiCalc presentation (it's so neat that in '79, it had effectively Freeze Panes, split window, and could do Plotting!) Dan confirms that yes, "software patent" (lack of it) was an issue at the time 09:46 adjusted to give "credit" of 86-DOS to Paul Allen and Tim Patterson. 13:50 the census report of 8% of "households of computer" is an important part of the theme (...some bloopers at the end...) I now have two (separate) folks who can maybe help with the narration. If that comes together, then I'll add a note to a review of that in the description or comments of TAKE #11 and TAKE #12. -Steve (voidstar)

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

delphi, before 1990

by Steve Lewis

Hey all, was Delphi accessible as a bulletin board before 1990? I'm only finding logos and info about Delphi post-1990. But for early 1980s, what as Delphi? Was it a telnet-sort-of-thing only accessed only from universities? I've searched through early BYTE and PC Mag and just not finding any advertisements about it. -Steve

2 years, 1 month

3
4
0 0

Why the Floppy Disk Just Won't Die

by Jim Brain

https://www.wired.com/story/why-the-floppy-disk-just-wont-die/ Take what you want from the article, but I thought the end paragraph, noting that Tom Persky of floppydisk.com is 73 and is only planning to handle things for 5 more years. After that, he thinks the company will not transfer to anyone. Interesting thoughts there. Jim -- Jim Brain brain(a)jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

2 years, 1 month

13
28
0 0

Re: mainframe vs mini

by Kevin Anderson

I always thought of the distinctions this way (from my basis of exposure from late 1970s through the 1980s) and from a higher educational setting primarily: Mainframe = repairs required multiple technicians, some possibly there full-time; regular operator(s) present, and a locked door located between you and the machine; entire specialized room with raised flooring, extra-high amperage specialized power sources and wiring, and significant air conditioning Minicomputer = Vendor still provides a technician (just one) for repairs, who drives in out in a station wagon; only a part-time operator only; an user can be located in the same room; 240-volt wiring, but not particularly outlandish Microcomputer = Computer can sit on a desk or in a "normal" room; broken computer taken by user to someplace to be repaired or self-repaired; typically one user, and only 120-volt household or office power needed. Supercomputer = a really fast and specialized version (primarily focusing on high-speed mathematical computations) of a mainframe. Kevin Anderson

2 years, 1 month

11
19
0 0

IBM PS/2 Model 80 (8580-071) restoration

by Grant Taylor

Hi, I acquired an IBM PS/2 Model 80 (8580-071) today and am looking for advice on what I should do to check it out before, during, and after applying power for the first time. I'll try to get some pictures if anyone is interested. The label near the power switch says that it's an 8580-071. I have no idea how that compares to the hardware that's in it. There are two full size (5¼) hard drives, the controller card. I don't know what type of drives they are yet, they look to be MFM / RLL like in that they have the common cable and a per drive cable. There is a video card that has a daughter-card in the same slot like a thick sandwich. There is another card that I don't recognize. The card doesn't have any external connectors and it looks like it takes multiple (approximately 4"x4") daughter-cards. I am wondering if this is a memory expansion of some sort. There are two of what I believe are the memory boards between the back hard drive and the power supply. The battery is still in the system, but I didn't see any corrosion and it's away from the motherboard. There is also the degrading black foam used for air ducting. Blech. Q: What things should I do as part of checking out this system. I'd like to eventually power it up and see what is on the drives (if they will spin). I need to physically clean it with a damp rag and get some pictures of the system. Please share any pro-tips / gotchas / etc. that you think I could benefit from knowing. Thank you and have a good day. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

2 years, 1 month

9
19
0 0

on the origin of home computers

by Steve Lewis

Greetings, We're making final touches on a short history-video we've been making about home computers (my daughter, in middle school, has been helping). If anyone has time/interest to do a review, the draft listing is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9mgSVJZoFc Unless anyone spots a gross technical error, we're hoping to render the final sometime this weekend or sometime this month. Thanks, Steve

2 years, 1 month

20
67
0 0

VAXstation II GPX on ePay

by Zane Healy

I wouldn’t normally post anything on eBay, but this looks like something someone should grab. I’ve no clue who the seller is, it’s in Massachusetts. https://www.ebay.com/itm/295558572706 DEC Digital Equipment Corp VaxStation II GPX system with boards & T K70 untested ebay.com It is currently at $300. It could also be converted to a PDP-11 with the right boards. My PDP-11/73 started life as a MicroVAX II, and the BA123 is a great chassis. Of course it’s big and heavy. Zane

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

bryanipad.shop site....

by rescue

Recently rejoined the list.... saw someone mention that site.... way too good to be true.... and with a bit of poking around .... looks like most if not all are scraped right from eBay. One item has the eBay price on the bryanipad.shop site crossed out and the lower price added..... I spent too much time on that site before vetting it.... Should have realized the pizza slice logo in the top left was a clear indicator to run away (faster) :-)

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Why the Floppy Disk Just Won't Die

by RETRO Innovations

https://www.wired.com/story/why-the-floppy-disk-just-wont-die/ Take what you want from the article, but I thought the end paragraph, noting that Tom Persky of floppydisk.com is 73 and is only planning to handle things for 5 more years. After that, he thinks the company will not transfer to anyone. Interesting thoughts there. Jim -- RETRO Innovations, Contemporary Gear for Classic Systems www.go4retro.com store.go4retro.com

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

domesticating the computer

by Steve Lewis

(I think I prefer the original title of the video my daughter and I have been working on - but still open to opinions about it) Here is TAKE #10 (still AI narrated and a draft, but I found some Census data that may be interesting and had some other revisions that I hope some folks like!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eaolOAcvmg In the Description of the above, I have a note on where to get the image link if anyone is interested in that. Thanks again for the support and encouragement. Over the next week I hope to try out a Live Narration and wrap this up. -Steve summary of changes 0:28 expanded note on CRT (more time to press pause if you want to read) 5:04 new assembly line image, from actual TRS-80 "factory" (still using term "motherboard") 5:55 Apple2 date set to April (going with "announcement dates") revised "BYTE" quote (to be a little better organized) 6:46 revised intro of Z80 6:55 added Kildall image 7:12 revised intro of 6502 7:41 revised VisiCalc presentation (in 1979 he had split window, plotting, and freeze panes!) 9:42 clarify credit of suggesting 86-DOS to Paul Allen (instead of Bill) 10:11 minor revisions in Tandy 1000 presentation 12:31 revised wording of Alto description 13:35 shortend PC-5000 description slightly 13:47 added census report 13:55 (forgot delay in showing critters) 14:04 added online services note 14:22 (more personal computers! extra points if you can name them)

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FD-55 360kB HLS spares for sale?

by Jim Brain

The USB FDC controller ICs finally arrived and I am working to clear the project desk to build a dev board. As part of testing, I'm wondering if anyone has any working FD55B drives for sale with the HLS? I am the market for 1-2 more, and I thought it'd be nice to get one for this project instead of trying to liberate one of my drives from a working machine. I see the links on eBay (a few untested HLS variants and a working non HLS one available), but would prefer a working HLS B. Jim -- Jim Brain brain(a)jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Re: on the origin of home computers

by Murray McCullough

A lot has been written about the origins of the microcomputer. I wrote a book on the topic. Many thanks for mentioning Canada. Whether one is playing games or doing something else micro-computing is usually associated with a microprocessor as CPU. Anything earlier is a minicomputer or something else. Yet this is not the point of the video. Let’s enjoy what has been created and give encouragement to the creators. Kudos to them. Murray 🙂

2 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

Re: IBM PS/2 Model 80 (8580-071) restoration

by Gregory Beat

It has been a long-time (almost 40 years now) since I worked part-time at an IBM dealer, BUT attended ALL the IBM hardware training (and later as an early corporate PC center manager), including the wonderful OS/2 presentations. I also selected that IBM model for my father’s business software, which required IBM hardware in late 1980s. Most of my documents went to on-line resources, like Tomáš Slavotinik (Ardent Tool). Start with reading Tomáš reference documents … to understand what you have. Ardent Tool of Capitalism maintained by Tomáš Slavotinik current as of 3 March 2023 IBM PS/2 model 80 [8580] : “Wrangler” https://www.ardent-tool.com/60_65_80/ 8580-071 Type 1 Planar https://www.ardent-tool.com/8580/Planar_T1.html — The Diagnostic Disk and Support information for that model can be found there. That Disk and a Fresh battery (as required) is a Good Start. greg chicago == Hi, I acquired an IBM PS/2 Model 80 (8580-071) today and am looking for advice on what I should do to check it out before, during, and after applying power for the first time. I'll try to get some pictures if anyone is interested. The label near the power switch says that it's an 8580-071. I have no idea how that compares to the hardware that's in it. There are two full size (5¼) hard drives, the controller card. I don't know what type of drives they are yet, they look to be MFM / RLL like in that they have the common cable and a per drive cable. There is a video card that has a daughter-card in the same slot like a thick sandwich. There is another card that I don't recognize. The card doesn't have any external connectors and it looks like it takes multiple (approximately 4"x4") daughter-cards. I am wondering if this is a memory expansion of some sort. There are two of what I believe are the memory boards between the back hard drive and the power supply. The battery is still in the system, but I didn't see any corrosion and it's away from the motherboard. There is also the degrading black foam used for air ducting. Blech. Q: What things should I do as part of checking out this system. I'd like to eventually power it up and see what is on the drives (if they will spin). I need to physically clean it with a damp rag and get some pictures of the system. Please share any pro-tips / gotchas / etc. that you think I could benefit from knowing. Thank you and have a good day. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Re: Age of Tape Formats?

by Chuck Guzis

On 3/8/23 06:19, Paul Koning wrote: > I wouldn't exclude those, certainly not if they are relevant to the evolution of the technology. Are X1 tapes (and Eliott tapes if they are the same format, which I don't know) in some way anticipating LINCtape and DECtape? Are they an independent invention of roughly the same concept? For that matter, would you exclude DECtape on the grounds that it's single vendor? I hope not. For that matter, I suspect the Uniservo I format is specific to Univac, yet you can't very well exclude that from a history of magnetic tape data recording. I view "captive formats" such as DECtape to be evolutionary dead ends. Consider, for example, the Datamatic 1000 tapes--I doubt that more than a handful of people here have ever heard of the system. A captive format. Or the early Uniservo metal tapes? Or the tapes used in the IBM 2321 Data Cell or 3850 MSS? Captive formats and evolutionary dead-ends. How about the stuff that never made it out of the lab? Such as the CDC SCROLL? I suspect that I may be one of few who even have heard of the beast--yet it was included in our forward-looking boilerplate in STAR proposals. How about the 9 track 1/2" 3200 fci tapes? Not mentioned yet. Quarter-inch cartridge tapes were quite varied. Although looking the same at first glance, there were significant differences. Consider the Alphamat...Zetamat 3M series of quarter inch tapes. (e.g. DC600HC). No optical sensing of BOT/EOT/media type holes--all done with preformatting. Those were popular with ADIC crowd--I have a couple of those drives in the eventual case that someone digs a tape up from the trash heap of history. How about the adapters that allowed use of VHS cassette equipment for backup? All dead-ends. Before disks were affordable, or even available, half-inch tape was used as primary storage. Consider the 7090 IBSYS shops--all tape operations. --Chuck

2 years, 1 month

7
9
0 0

NOS Tapes 3 X 3M DC 600A 60MB Cartridges (1991)...(speaking of tapes)

by John Robertson

Anyone interested in 3 tapes - has Olympics logo - still in original wrapping? Ether pick up at my shop or pay for postage and handling... 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"

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Using Flashfloppies on Professional 350 and 380--SOLVED

by Chris Zach

Ok, after banging my head against the wall for awhile this evening it looks like I have two flashfloppy drives working on my Pro/380. Well enough to boot from and install 3.2 options. The keys are these: 1) Use a flat 34 pin ribbon cable with three plugs in a straight line. I tried using one with the traditional flip, got frustrated at the extra complexity, and reterminated it as straight through all the way. 2) Set one drive to unit 0 (J2 installed) and the second to unit 1 (J3 installed) 3) This is the kicker: RX50's are Shugart drives. You have to go into the configuration and set the drives to Shugart. IBMPC doesn't work properly with the disk ready and disk swap signal, I stumbled on this when I found that flipping the disk image while it was seeking produced a brief access. Hah. 4) I set the ff.cfg also to read only to avoid stepping on the images by accident. So far it seems to be working, saw both drives in the file manager (I had built a minimum system with the floppies I had) and now I'm reformatting the RD53 drive and doing a full install. Should be as simple as turning the knob and hitting resume. Thanks to Bjoren for letting me know it kind of worked for him years ago which gave me the knowledge that it could work. One issue I can see is that since both "drives" use the same head, stupid software could assume that since drive 0 was seeked to track 30 then drive 1 should be at track 30 and thus no need to change tracks. So far I haven't seen this happen, but we shall see. Interesting. CZ

2 years, 1 month

7
8
0 0

Re: on the origin of home computers

by Tarek Hoteit

:) it makes sense, Sellam, to inform her rather than she telling us, but again she and others her age are the future. She will do it her way just like we, at her age, did it our way. Funny: i just remembered a quote from Goonies - “this is our time” It is their time Regards, Tarek Hoteit > On Mar 8, 2023, at 12:22 PM, Sellam Abraham via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > On Wed, Mar 8, 2023 at 11:55 AM Will Cooke via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > wrote: > >>> On 03/08/2023 11:59 AM CST Tarek Hoteit via cctalk < >> cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: >>> We probably need to get more advice from her on what we all, old-school >> timers, should do to help keep the legacy going on ! >>> Regards, >>> Tarek Hoteit >> That statement may be the most important one on this list in a long, long >> time. >> Will > > Huh? That makes less than zero sense. > > We're already doing what we're doing. She should be asking US what SHE > should do to preserve the legacy we've carried on to her and her generation. > > I mean, is anyone actually serious about asking Greta how to save the > planet? > > Don't abdicate your responsibilities as an experienced adult over to > inherently naive children. > > Sellam

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Spurious spam filters

by Paul Koning

The notion that mailing lists can filter spam by sender email address is fundamentally broken, at least when the addresses filtered are those of major ISPs. The mistake is that the fact a particular ISP customer sends spam doesn't mean that the millions of other customers do. Since the antispam "service" currently used by the cctalk list doesn't understand this, can it be leaned on to fix their mistake? If not, could it be scrapped? Unfortunately, this sort of wrongheaded behavior goes back decades; one wonders what's wrong with the people who run these so-called services. paul

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

CTS-300 / DIBOL for RT-11 V5.x - Any source or downloads please?

by Robin Downs

Hi all and thank you for reading I am trying to get my rebuilt PDP-11/23 running and able to compile and run DIBOL code... I have RT11 up and working again, but cannot find a complete set of CTS-300 files, with the DIBOL compiler FYI, I'm in the UK - and help greatly appreciated! Regards, Robin

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Wanted: Apple III 5MB Profile HD driver file

by steven stengel

The title says it all - the Apple III has an external hard drive called the Profile, but a driver has to be installed on the boot floppy - it won’t boot from the HD. There were also 10MB Profiles, with a different driver file I’m guessing. I have the driver file for the 10MB, but it doesn't seem to work with my 5MB drive. Please help if you can. Thanks- Steve.

2 years, 1 month

5
7
0 0

QIC tapes

by Steve Lewis

Is there anyone familiar with restoring or recovering QIC tapes? I have some original tapes from an IBM 5100. (DC300 media, I think?) A couple of them have the band loose -- I've seen these replaced in the past. One of them looks in decent condition, but want a second opinion before trying to read it in the IBM 5100. Can send preview images of the conditions. I do also have an external 5106 and, if the tapes are still readable, I should be able to make "fresh" backup copies (as far as the DC6150 media that I have which is from the 90's). From there, I'm not exactly sure how to digitally extract the content to have preserved. -SL

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Using Gotek's to emulate RX50's.

by Chris Zach

Seems like it should be simple, but it is not. I have a pair of Goteks with the Flaashfloppy code and each one has a USB with 400k RX50 images on it. Both are set to drive 2, and a standard 40 pin floppy crossover cable allows me to emulate a pair of drives. Now, I want to replace the RX50 drive on my Pro/380 with this setup to allow it to install POS. However it does not work, the Pro fails startup with an error on the floppy controller board, and so far it looks like POS can't see the disks. So what is the difference between an RX50 and a pair of 5.25 drives, and is it possible for Flashfloppy to emulate whatever oddness is in a true rx50? CZ

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Re: Booting from B: (Was: Getting QRST files onto

by Fred Cisin

Resending Part 2 BTW, for the parameters for DRIVER.SYS, you can abbreviate the /t:80 /s:9 to "/F:2" (and later, "/F:720") /0 was "360K" /1 was "1.2M" /2 was "720K" anybody remember the numbers for 8"? /d:2 meant you wanted the logical drive to use the third physical drive, /d:3 meant you wanted the logical drive to use the fourth physical drive, /d:1 meant you wanted the logical drive to use the second physical drive, /d:0 meant you wanted the logical drive to use the firs physical drive, which you could do if you used a "360K" format on the disk in the "720K" drive in A: during booting. Machines that had "CMOS Setup" that supported 3.5" disk drives would let you use a 3.5" drive as A: And 5.25" "Quad" drives (NON-HD 96tpi, such as Tandon TM100-4, Teac 55F, or Shugart/matsushits 465) was generally indistinguishable to the PC from a 3.5" "720K". TRIVIAL nits on the webpage (URL that you posted): TRS80 Model II was 8" drives. (model 1 and 3 were 5.25") Although I have heard of somebody kludging "1.2M" drives on one, I haven't seen it. The picture identifying locations shows the FDC on the motherboard. It was on the FDC board, and "power connectors" is pointing at the drive internal data connectors; the power connectors are not visible in the picture, because they are underneath. "Ive heard stories that the 37-pin external adapter can be used to read/write older 8 disk drives, but I never saw this in person. 8 disk drives were a bit before my time." modifications are needed to the FDC board to do so. Flagstaff Engineering did so, and sold a modified FDC plus 8" drive. The configuration switches on the motherboard of 5150 and 5160 can be set for up to four drives, and those should be discussed? Yes, as mentioned, with extra floppy drives, demented INSTALL programs, such as MS-DOS 6.00, will insist on trying to install to your third floppy. SUGGESTION: a cheap vise works adequately for crimping flat IDC cables; I've even done them with a block of wood and a hammer, and with vise-grips. NOTE: when I say "720K", "360K", "1.2M", I am using those as NAMES for those disks, formats, and drives, not as necessarily the capacity. I am well aware that those names don't acknowledge that the "720K" drive is capable of other formats, ranging from 640K to 800K, (or even more with short gaps, mixed sector sizes, and/or other tricks). But, I have yet to see, other than listing sample model numbers, names for the drive that are simple, and less ambiguous. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com

2 years, 1 month

3
3
0 0

Re: Booting from B: (Was: Getting QRST files onto

by Fred Cisin

I sent this before, but it didn't show up on the list; Part 1; >>> Which versions of DOS let you boot off B: ? Obviously, NO command that you run in DOS (which would be after it has booted), will change the boot sequence, which is before DOS is present. Nor will such a change last through a boot (although MICROS~1 could have included a tepid/partial boot, if they had wanted to.) DRIVER.SYS achieved prominence in DOS 3.20. PC-DOS 3.20 was the first time that IBM supported a 3.5" ("720K") drive. Several other companies, other than IBM, already used 3.5" drives for laptops, such as Data General, Gavilan, etc. with their own drivers in MS-DOS, particularly version 2.11, which was similar to 2.10, but used by OEMs that needed to customize MS- DOS. In many cases, the 3.5" disk formats that those companies created were different from what is supported in DOS 3.20 http://www.xenosoft.com/fmts.html IBM PC/JX was an IBM machine with 5.25" "720K" drives, but was never sold in USA. Because IBM's 5170, and most already existing 286 machines, did not include "720K" as any of the options in the "CMOS Setup" for identifying what kind of drive each physical drive was, DRIVER.SYS permitted creating a logical/virtual/shadow drive that would share a physical drive, as E:, F:, etc. LASTDRIVE was also needed if you already had more than two floppy drives and a HDD, to permit assigning drive letters past D: Another alternative was DRIVPARM ! It was a CONFIG.SYS command to alter the parameters of floppy drives, WITHOUT creating any new logical drives or drive letters! DOS 3.20 and onwards. Something that has always confused me: DRIVPARM is documented in MS-DOS 3.20, but is not mentioned in the PC-DOS 3.20 documantation. I used MS-DOS with DRIVPARM on a generic 286 machine, and it worked! I used PC-DOS with DRIVPARM on a generic 286 machine, and it worked! I used MS-DOS with DRIVPARM on a genuine 5170, and it failed, with a "BAD CONFIG.SYS COMMAND" message (possibly mistaken on the exact wording) I used PC-DOS with DRIVPARM on a genuine 5170, and it failed, with a "BAD CONFIG.SYS COMMAND" message (possibly mistaken on the exact wording) I used MS-DOS with DRIVPARM on a generic 286, with copy of the 5170 BIOS, and it failed, with a "BAD CONFIG.SYS COMMAND" message (possibly mistaken on the exact wording) I used PC-DOS with DRIVPARM on a generic 286, with copy of the 5170 BIOS, and it failed, with a "BAD CONFIG.SYS COMMAND" message (possibly mistaken on the exact wording) So, therefore, I concluded that DRIVPARM was incompatible with the IBM 5170 BIOS. But present in both MS-DOS 3.20 and PC-DOS 3.20, although it is UNDOCUMENTED in PC-DOS. Chuck has mentioned that if you insert 3 Ctrl-A characters, it will work on most; DRIVPARM ^A^A^A B: /F:2 -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Getting QRST files onto a floppy (sigh)

by Chris Zach

So I'm working on restoring a Compaq DeskPro/XE system to allow me to use the 5.25 floppy to copy files from my 3.5 floppies which will come from my Windows 10 system so that I can extract on the Deskpro/XE using teledisk the .td0 files that make up a RX50 floppy disk set so I can load POS 3.2 on my Pro/380 and see if the DECNA card works. What a pain in the rear. So far the XE boots but has no setup. Setup requires a special floppy (Diagnostic disk) which mine was bad after 30 years so I'm trying to create a new one. I have the official Compaq disk creation thing for a floppy but it's in QRST format and the QRST under DOSBOX on Windows10 can't properly access a floppy even if "mounted" with a -t floppy extension. Before I drag out my rusty and trusty Windows 95 Toshiba 660AV laptop, is there another way to get this onto a floppy? I have an endless supply of Rpi's, and doing a DD from a .img file works fine but this of course is a QRST file. Thoughts? CZ

2 years, 1 month

9
21
0 0

Re: PDP-8/A FPP8/A

by badbob

Message: 2 Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2023 18:27:52 +0000 From: silcreval <silvercreekvalley(a)yahoo.com> Subject: [cctalk] Re: PDP-8/A FPP8/A To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Message-ID: <4EF3AB13-972C-4EE0-8105-C11128DA4BFA(a)yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >Hi Bob >Thanks - thats very interesting. I guess there was quite a >bit of overlap with the 11 and the 8/A so 'marketing' >stepped in :-) Exactly what happened, you are correct. We did want to sell more 8 systems into labs... where small memory models made sense (256K words or less) and kept having this dream of a Fortran Machine that went fast for the times. I don't recall exactly but I think one of the 11 models with FPU that got blown out of the water was the 11/60 (a harvard arch implementation by O'Loughlin iirc) that was a decent and very very reliable 11 (used pairs of them for a critical system and they were exceptionally reliable when compared with disk drives!!) The 8A was (and still is) a good machine but some of us wanted to build a 10Mhz clock 8 but the cost would have put it in the wrong price range for the types of customers we were allowed to have. bb

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Re: Tadpole RISC laptop RAM modules

by Erik Baigar

> Izzat a "SPARCBook II"? If so, I have one with 2 drives, and > the /usr drive is failing. I can replace that but I have no > idea how to reinstall SunOS/Solaris/Whatever. I did that in the past using a network install. One will need ftfp (for kernel) and bootp (for parameters and paths) as well as old style nfs on a server with the installation media. Worked nicely and is pretty fast if CDs are copied to harddrive before- hand... Best wishes and good luck, Erik. ''~`` ( 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 | \_) ) / +----------------------+ (_/

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Re: WTB Any storage for a PDP 8/A

by silcreval

Oh really - what a nightmare :/ - they are rare boards it seems.

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Re: PDP-8/A FPP8/A

by silcreval

Hi Bob Thanks - thats very interesting. I guess there was quite a bit of overlap with the 11 and the 8/A so 'marketing' stepped in :-)

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

WTB: Accutech Gobi (Gobi7 or Gobi8)

by Cameron Kaiser

Well, the weekend of hardware sudden death continues. The reason for getting the UltraBook IIi out was to do some more work on kOpenRay, the free Sun Ray server software I very occasionally maintain. Among other devices I use(d) two Accutech Gobi laptops to talk to it since they have an oddball VPN setup that used to cause problems. Unfortunately, neither will configure their network interfaces anymore and just hang. The board is of course a cheap mass of unrepairable components. If anyone has an Accutech Gobi (either the 7 or 8 model, both will suffice, I don't need the 3.5G module but will use it if it's there) sitting around gathering dust, I'd love to buy it off you. I have the power supply and batteries already. Southern California. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- And now for something completely different. -- Monty Python ----------------

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Research machines RM 380

by jake utley

I’ve been restoring a RM380 I picked up not long ago and it’s been good news and bad news. All the cards are in wonderful condition and the case is presentable however the two BASF 6106 floppy drives are highly corroded and probably won’t work again but this isn’t what I’m wondering, the original supply is a little rough but looks tone perfectly restorable with the exception of the key lock been stuck (problem to solve later) and I can get all the parts needed to replace the three filters but it is a 70s linear supply and if my s-100 experience has told me anything they might not be the most reliable. What would you all recommend restoring it and keeping it original or fitting some modern SMPS in its place. It is a low serial number as well (691) but saying I want it to be reliable I’m torn.

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

PDP-8/A FPP8/A

by Bob Smith

Don White designed the FPP8/A. From my recollection, the unit that was sold with 8/A was the second iteration of an Omnibus FPP8. I waa off in LCG working on Jupiter so I never got to see the original but I recall that the redesign to use the cycle stealing version that went to market was because the original 8/A version was too "powerful" meaning that it out performed all of the PDP-11 FPP units and was more precise. I recall it was capable of 72 bit vice 36 bit max operations. The marketed design was a cost reduced and really an extraordinary simple design, elegant would be a better description. I seem to recall the original was built around either ALU or 4 bit Slice chips like AMD2901 or some variation of a TRW chip. bob

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Re: Getting QRST files onto a floppy (sigh)

by Wayne S

Your troubles with USB floppy drives reinforces my own experiences. They seem to work okay in windows using a Microsoft written utility but not too well in dos or user written programs. It’s hit or miss as to if the program will see the usb floppy. However, using a builtin floppy always seems to work. Sent from my iPhone > On Feb 26, 2023, at 12:17, Chris Zach via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Hi Henry! > >> You wanted a SETUP disk for a Deskpro/XE system, right? Like SP1363 >> as listed here https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=76542 >> <https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=76542> ? I was able to do >> this in Dosbox-X no problem: mount the local directory with >> sp1363.exe as C: or whatever, attach a disk image to A:, and then >> let sp1363.exe create the disk image on A: . You can then write the >> raw disk image to a 1.44" floppy. > > Interesting. I was using DOSBOX, not DOSBOX-X. I tried downloading it, set the A: drive to be the USB a: drive, and it doesn't work. This time it bombs out with QRST transfer incomplete. > > So I restarted, copied one of the diagnostic floppy images I did have to a filename of xe.img, mounted it in dosbox-x with the imgmount a (filename) command, then ran QRST and it seems to have worked. > > So if you try to use a USB floppy it can't see it, but if you use an image file it can. I wonder if Dosbox sees the external floppy as a SCSI device, but when you do an imgmount it knows to use the real, crappy DMA based routines to access the image file. > > Off to copy the image file to the pi, then to the USB floppy, then maybe to get the XE running. Fascinating, and thank yoU! > > CZ

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Better way to extract these TD0 images for P/OS.

by Chris Zach

Ok, so after pouting for awhile after destroying my only Teac 1.2mb 5.25 drive (old floppies are garbage) I sat for awhile and thought about this whole issue. The goal is simple: Install P/OS 3.2 on my Pro/380 but doing 21 floppies for the base OS, another 20 or so for the Toolkit, and God knows how many for the layered applications is, shall we say, for the birds. I feel like a spaceman trying to start a fire on the moon by banging rocks together. There needs to be a better way. So I looked around some more and finally found a program. Someone wrote it, called SAMDISK. From the "World of Sam" https://www.worldofsam.org/products/samdisk-utility Downloaded it to Windows10, fired it up (CMD mode only, thank God) and typed: samdisk 177-21.td0 disk0021.dsk And sure enough a 430,336 byte image popped up in my directory. Moved it to a USB, put it in my Gotek/Flashfloppy, fired up my pdp11/73 running RSX111M+, and did a mount DU1: /over It mounted. $ mount du1: /over $ dir du1:[*,*] Directory DU1:[ZZSYS] 26-FEB-2023 22:09 POSRES.TSK;1 42. C 23-JUN-1987 14:51 POS.SYS;1 441. C 23-JUN-1987 14:51 STARTUP.TSK;1 19. C 23-JUN-1987 14:52 SASCOM.TSK;1 4. C 23-JUN-1987 14:52 SAS.COM;1 1. 23-JUN-1987 14:52 SIR.TSK;1 74. C 23-JUN-1987 14:52 Total of 581./581. blocks in 6. files Directory DU1:[1,54] 26-FEB-2023 22:09 SIR.MSG;1 17. 23-JUN-1987 14:52 SIR.MNU;1 5. 23-JUN-1987 14:52 SIR.HLP;1 10. 23-JUN-1987 14:52 SCRIPT.COM;1 23. 23-JUN-1987 14:52 Total of 55./55. blocks in 4. files Grand total of 636./636. blocks in 10. files in 2. directories That is the first disk in the POS series. So we know that this tool can work to turn thse stupid TD0 files into images that we can use. Now to convert the rest of the files, and get a second Gotek. Because I am going to need to run two of them to emulate the two RX50's on a Pro/380. If I set one as drive 0, the second as drive 1, and use a straight 34 pin ribbon cable it might work..... Never dull. But this is a far less painful solution than screwing around with 100 floppy disks. CZ

2 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

WTB Any storage for a PDP 8/A

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Hi all, I'm cooking up a new interpreter for the PDP 8. It uses a C like language (C-) and is really a project to get my head round the PDP 8 architecture. Note its an interpreter not compiler :-) I have recently got my hands on a wonderful working PDP 8/a, but it would be nice to have some actual storage e.g. a disk drive or tape of some kind. I'm not a fan of using tape emulators etc, although thats all I have at the moment. Happy to pay the going rate and will travel to collect. I'm in the UK - so can do anywhere in the UK or Netherlands/Germany/France etc. I would also like to have a go with the FPP8/A which is a floating point option on the 8/A. If anyone has one for sale or would be prepared to do medium term loan that would be a great help. More details on the project once its in a workable form and I've set up a website or whatever Thanks Ian

2 years, 1 month

10
18
0 0

Tadpole RISC laptop RAM modules

by Cameron Kaiser

Well, this is the second Tadpole laptop RAM module I've had go bad on me (one in my PA-RISC PrecisionBook and now one in my SPARC UltraBook IIi). These are the maroon-red 256MB or 512MB screw-in modules marked "Huxley Only" using a custom friction fit connector, not regular SO-DIMMs. I can't find an obvious part number on them and searching for Tadpole RAM modules just finds the rinkydink 8MB parts for the earlier SPARCbooks. Anyone know someone who carries them, or better still, is willing to sell some they have? Looking for a 256MB module but a 512MB module would be even better. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- Put your Nose to the Grindstone! -- Plastic Surgeons-Toolmakers Union Ltd. -

2 years, 1 month

3
5
0 0

Re: Stuff to go or it's off to the dumpster

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > So these go *into* RK06 or 07 drives? Yes; per the "Field Guide to UNIBUS and QBUS Modules". Also: https://gunkies.org/wiki/RK611_disk_controller reveals that the RK611 contains "five hex cards" (listed there). Noel

2 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

email address

by Ian F

For some reason my username is my email address. Can I change this ? I have a username / name entered so not sure why this is showing. Thanks

2 years, 1 month

1
1
0 0

qbus 6250 pertec tape card

by Jacob Ritorto

Does anyone have a working one to spare? Needed for PDP-11 unix home project. Emulex preferred but others would perhaps be acceptable. TS11 and/or TMSCP would both be great. Need 50-pin connectors (formatted). Can throw a bit of money / trades around as necessary. thx jake Western Pennsylvania, USA

2 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

Stuff to go or it's off to the dumpster

by Chris Zach

Hi all! Need to get rid of some things here that I am never going to use, maybe someone else will: M7705 M7706 M7906 M7907 M7908 Quad boards, I think they came from an RK06/07. Maybe the boards from an RK611? Regardless, I don't need them, they are either priceless or worthless. Make me an offer or I'll just let them go. SGI Hi-IMpact board. Not sure why I have this but here it is. Either pick up in MD or send me a shipping label. CZ

2 years, 2 months

3
3
0 0

Using teledisk images on a Gotek

by Chris Zach

Question: I'm starting to work on the concept of installing POS 3.2 on my Pro380 and rather than burning a lot of floppies I'd rather just use my Gotek with FlashFloppy. First problem is this: The images are in lzh format, and when uncompressed are TD0 format. Which I think is teledisk, is there a way to convert those to the raw format used by Flashfloppy? Ultimate goal is to get Pro/Decnet running, hook the 380 up to the Ethernet here with my DECNA to the 11/73 running DEQNA, then try sysgenning a version of RSX11M+ for the Pro that does not suck. Not sure if anyone has tried this, or where they ran into roadblocks. Thanks! CZ

2 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

WTB Sharp PC-5000

by Steve Lewis

If anyone knows of a Sharp PC-5000 that might be available. I've been looking for one for a while. Might be more in the Japanese or European vintage market? Prefer working, I've been curious about the MS DOS 2.0 ROM that it has. -Steve voidstar

2 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

P&T Surplus in Kingston, NY

by Jonathan Chapman

All, I went to find a page about P&T Surplus to link to a friend who'd never been there, and this was today's top result: https://www.dailyfreeman.com/2023/02/19/pt-surplus-in-kingston-struggles-as… Apparently Mr. Smythe is having hard times with his business. For those in or near the Hudson Valley, this place is definitely worth checking out! They have a ton of industrial surplus, including a lot of IBM castoffs. Pretty good shop for potential vintage computer stuff. Last time I was there (early February 2023) there was a box of neon lamp IBM front panels off what I'd guess was tabulating equipment. I always find good stuff in their board scrap, though the edge connectors are sometimes sheared off. There seem to always be earlier IBM Thinkpads there, Pentium 3 and earlier are common finds. They also have lots of mechanical hardware, metals raw material, 80/20 extrusion for dirt cheap, etc. Thanks, Jonathan

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 200 for Sale

by Kevin Lee

Offers Welcome before I toss it in the bin.. thanks Kevin

2 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

IBM RT PC manuals have been claimed

by Todd Pisek

Manuals have been claimed. Regards, Todd Pisek

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

NeWS tapes in SF Bay area; rubber baby buggy bumpers

by Lars Brinkhoff

Hello, Some Sun 1/4" tapes with NeWS has turned up in the SF Bay area. However, the the tape drive available has bad rubber baby buggy bumpers. Is there anyone around there who can provide new bumpers, or has a working 1/4" tape drive and is willing to read the tapes? Best regards, Lars Brinkhoff

2 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

IBM RT PC Hardware Technical Ref

by Todd Pisek

I have the 3 volume set of the RT PC Tech Ref and it needs a new home. I’d prefer it winds up with someone that has a RT PC if possible. It’s in pristine condition. Please email off list to tpisek at pobox dot com. Regards, Todd Pisek P.S. It’s fairly heavy, USPS media rate would be about $14.

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

DEQNA vs DELQA bulkhead question

by Chris Zach

Working on my second pdp11/73 here and trying to get Ethernet working with a DEQNA instead of a Delqa. I'm using a DELQA card to AUI connector, the board passes diagnostics without the loopback, but when I try to bring it up I get: Event type 5.14, Send failed Occurred 17-FEB-2023 22:15:05 on node 1.20 (TALOS) Line QNA-0 Failure reason = Collision detect check failed Is the connector for the DELQA different from the DEQNA? My other system has a DELQA with a DEQNA connector and it seems to work fine. I could put another DELQA in, but I want to see if these DEQNAs work. Or do I need to enable SQE on the AUI adapter? Thanks! C

2 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

TK50/70 Repair

by Nigel Johnson Ham

Fellow cyber-antiquarians: I have been fussing around with a TK70 for some hours now. It goes ready when powered up without a cartridge, takes up the leader fine when a cartridge put in and the flat, but then dithers forwards and backwards, eventually flashing all its lights. The only way to remove the tape is manually. Somebody posted that the most common problem is optical sensors, stating that there are four. I have only found two, and cleaning them got me to the point of it coming ready, whereas it would not before. Is there anybody on here that knows of a service manual? I see that this was considered an FRU, so maybe depot repair people had a magic bible. Once I have this fixed there is a TK50 to start on. I hate to give up! I have a box full of cartridges to read! cheers, Nigel -- Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591

2 years, 2 months

3
11
0 0

Looking for info on Jerrold/General Instrument PDP11/DEC/etc. software/hardware

by Phil Pemberton

Hi all, I know there are a few PDP enthusiasts here so I figured this was worth an ask! I'm looking for any software, manuals, photos of hardware - anything really - that relates to the Jerrold Communications / General Instrument analog cable TV headend equipment. Many of their headend "addressable controllers" were built around DEC hardware -- the AH series units used a PDP-11, the Terminal Configurator ran on a PC, the ACC-4000 ran on a DEC Prioris server running SCO UNIX. Things I'm looking for especially -- - The software from the ACC-4000 Addressable Controller (Prioris based), AI-0/AI-O or AH-4/AH-4E (PDP-11/73 based) controllers, or Terminal Configurator (PC based). - Backup tapes from a running system (may be TK50, or DAT/DDS) - Terminal Configurator, Message Editor (ME-1000) or "OSD Edit" software - Any documentation - Photos, or other details of the I/O cards (either the PC one - which may have been called ANIC - or the SCX11, SCX11E, SCX11M or SRT11 cards used in the PDP systems). I'm trying to build an analog cable TV headend from scratch, as a bit of a preservation and "to see if I can" project. So far I've managed to modulate a couple of channels and get a cable box to tune to them, but my two boxes have different frequency maps, and I need some way of sending an "Input Frequency Map" or channel name table to them. I'm hoping that someone might have inherited a bunch of backup tapes, hardware or media from a cable TV company who was migrating to digital.... Thanks, -- Phil. philpem(a)philpem.me.uk https://www.philpem.me.uk/

2 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Matrox Q bus graphics card, any use

by Chris Zach

Going through my stuff I found a Matrox QRGB 6/64-4 card which seems to be a 512x512x16 color video array for Q bus systems. Did any software ever support this thing, and does anyone want to trade it for a bean of some sort? Thanks! Chris

2 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

Late '70s DEC manual covers [niche!]

by Paul Flo Williams

Folks, During lockdown I was having some fun redrawing old DEC manual covers with Inkscape, specifically terminal and printer manuals from the late 1970s. I've attached a montage of four that I printed out so I could stick it on the wall. I'm aware I may be the only person, even here, who finds them attractively simple and coloured in such a definably 1970s way. Some of these designs were used on several manuals, but I'd like to know if you know of any other designs that follow this pattern that I could add to the collection? The VT102 User Guide has different colours, so it looks out of place. A copy of the LA34 User Guide is winging its way to me as we speak. For an infinite number of bonus points, does anyone have any clue who might have designed these? Paul

2 years, 2 months

8
9
0 0

SDF had put a PDP-10 on the Internet

by Zane Healy

Specifically it looks like a SC-40. https://twitter.com/sdf_pubnix/status/1623127551542702080 <https://twitter.com/sdf_pubnix/status/1623127551542702080> Zane

2 years, 2 months

10
16
0 0

KDJ11-E M8981 11/93 EPROM firmware dump?

by Glen Slick

Anyone have a dump of the KDJ11-E M8981 11/93 EPROM firmware? That would be U106 377E7 V2.01 (I assume the full part number would have been 23-377E7) Don't see a copy at the obvious places to check: http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/firmware/ http://www.dunnington.info/public/DECROMs/

2 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

WTB: Acorn A3010 or A4000

by Ethan O'Toole

Looking for an Acorn A3010 or A4000 + KB/Mouse, happy to repair it. Also Sinclair +3 with some disks Also BBC Micro Also Amstrad CPC 6128 color. Could forgo monitor and build my own PSU. - Ethan

2 years, 2 months

2
3
0 0

Vintage intel parts

by ben

State of the ART 50 years ago. May this help with 1970's weird and forgotton tech. https://www.cpushack.com/2018/06/10/the-collectors-guide-to-vintage-intel-m… Ben.

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Looking for info on BAI Data Products model 1230 paper tape punch/reader

by Ian McLaughlin

Hello All, I have a PDP 11/05 that I’ve been restoring slowly over the last few years. I’m to the point now where I’d like to get a paper tape reader attached to it. The only reader I can find in my junk is a Bower Associates BAI Data Products model 1230 punch. I’ve put a picture of it here for the curious: https://imgur.com/a/xJ2hyTS Imgur imgur.com I can’t find any documentation online about this machine. I’m wondering if anyone else has any ideas, or might know anything about this. It’s going to need some TLC to bring it to life, and some documentation would certainly be nice. This particular unit was used by the Atmospheric Environment Service, Department of the Environment of Canada (according to a label on the back). It looks to be complete, except the punch bin is missing (not a big deal). Anyway, I thought I’d throw it out there in case anyone happens to know anything about this, before I tear in to it. Thanks!! Ian

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Chatgpt : I had a retro dream

by Cedric Amand

I had a dream ; that someone makes a small telnet to chatgpt gateway (using azure chatgpt API possibly ?) So that we could telnet our retro devices to the hype of the year, and get chtgpt answers in our TRS80, PDP and such.

2 years, 2 months

9
10
0 0

Trs80 model 200 for sale

by Kevin Lee

Radio Shack trs80 Model 200 With an option rom. Works ok. Decent shape. Offers welcome. Shipping from central EU. Cheers K.

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Punched Card Reader

by Eric Moore

Hello, I recently got my IBM 029 keypunch working, and am expanding the search for a punched card reader. Ideally RS-232, but unknown protocol or parallel is fine also. Repair required is also fine :). Thanks for any help! -Eric

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Making sense of VAXstation 100 ROMs

by Lars Brinkhoff

Hello, I could use some help making sense of the VAXstation ROM images. A set is provided here: https://www.9track.net/roms/ The two .bin files are each one halfword of a 16-bit wide ROM for the 68000 display processor. I checked it, and it's fine. My problem is with the Bit Blit Accelator. The board has four Am2901 bitslice processors to make up a 16-bit custom blitter. The information I have is that the microcode is 57 bits wide and there should be 1024 words. However, this is not a great match for the rest of the ROM images. Some of the BBA ROMs seem to be bit masks, presumably useful for rendering graphics. But none of them seem to match what I'd expect to see for a 57x1024 microcode. Here are the sizes, in bits, of the ROMs: Bit Blit Accelerator (BBA) 23-066K3.jed 2048 23-067K3.jed 2048 23-068K3.jed 2048 23-069K3.jed 2048 23-076F4.e32 16384 23-077F4.e65 16384 23-077J5.jed 2048 23-078J5.jed 2048 23-354A1.e33 256 23-355A1.e66 256 23-356A1.e77 256 23-357A1.e85 256 Display Processor Module (DPM) 23-020L1.jed 3553 23-021L1.jed 3553 23-022L1.jed 3553 23-023L1.jed 3553 23-024L1.jed 3553 23-025L1.jed 3553 23-288E4.bin 65536 68000 code in these two. 23-289E4.bin 65536

2 years, 2 months

2
2
0 0

3/16ths inch ink ribbon

by Eric Moore

Hello, I am looking for 3/16ths inch ink ribbon as used on the IBM 029 keypunch. I have one lightly damaged ribbon that is entirely dry. I was told by a typewriter restorationist that ribbon re-inking with nylon never works. Has anyone had much success cleaning and rewetting ink ribbons? The WD40 trick on the internet seems like it would gunk up the punch mechanism. Thanks for any information yall can provide, -Eric

2 years, 2 months

4
5
0 0

RQDX3's: Lessons learned.

by Chris Zach

Some thoughts on this day of working on MFM drives: 1) MFM drives are just going bad. They were always kind of meh in terms of reliability, but I think even since 2019 (the last time I checked these drives) things have gotten worse. Drives which were readable and good then are now either shot or throwing errors and they have had an easy 3+ years in my upstairs room. 2) There are at least two RQDX3 ROM sets. The earlier one does not support the RX33 floppy and doesn't give any info during formatting. The later version (Version 4) does support the RX33 and is a lot nicer. 3) Seagate drives seem to be pretty good, especially the 20mb ones. They have no problems, work well, and are pretty right-sized for an RT11 system. 4) RD53 drives are weird. Their main failure is the drive head positioner just gets stuck and needs to be worked loose. Unfortunately that requires removing the lid. Fortunately there is a good filter in the drive along with an air handler that runs air from inside the drive body through the filter, then into the spindle where it is blown over the heads. Result is a pretty clean drive on the inside and so far opening the lid doesn't seem to be a recipe for instant destruction. Go figure. I may try an RD53 in one of my Pro/380's. It's about time I loaded up the final version of P/OS, as I can use the Gotek floppy to load everything instead of screwing with the RX50's. Or can I do that and switch disks on the fly with a single Gotek... Hm. 5) For anything bigger, it's time to retire the MFM drives. Unlike RL02's these things just were not that reliable when new and at this point are kind of falling apart. I have not had any trouble with the ESDI disks, but it might just be a matter of time. Perhaps I should look into duplexing my 330mb CDC drive in the 11/84.... CZ

2 years, 2 months

7
8
0 0

After more than three years, U of Iowa's PDP-8 project active again

by William Sudbrink

After more than three years, U of Iowa's PDP-8 project active again -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

2 years, 2 months

8
9
0 0

Q-BUS Boards available

by David Coolbear

I have the following Q-BUS boards available. M7168 VCB02, QDSS Q 4-plane colour bitmap module M7169 VCB02, QDSS Q 4-plane video controller module M7608 MS630 RAM for KA630 M7608 MS630 RAM for KA630 M7606 KA630 Microvax II CPU M7620 KA650 Q MicroVAX III CPU M7165 Qbus SDI disk adapter I also have a Smoke Signal Broadcasting, dual 8" floppy set and a SS50 bus controller for the same. All are available for pick-up in Queen Creek, AZ, USA. If there's no interest, all will go to recycling.

2 years, 2 months

4
3
0 0

Formatting and using RQDX3's and 2190's.

by Chris Zach

Decided to spend some time working on my 11/73 with MFM drives. Currently it has one of my RQDX3 boards (I have 3, 1 in attic), a 40mb ST412 drive (the half height Seagate whatever) which works fine. No issues there. I'm trying to format an RD54 compatible drive and am running into major issues. First, my two RWDX3's have different ROM dates, the old one is 1986 and the new one is 1990. This is important because I can't boot RX33 disk images with my GoTek using the old card but I can using the new one. Question: I'm guessing the old ROMs only supported RX50 disks? Or is it a secret jumper setting. Anyway I do have both RX33 and RX50 versions of XXDP so not a big issue. On to formatting. The old controller (which I used for the 40mb Seagate) had pins 2-3 jumpered on W23. With that the RD54 was able to autoformat but then would crash xxdp as soon as the initial format was done. Odd. So I used the new controller with 1-2 and 3-4 jumpered. Same problem. Then I tried having 1-2 jumpered and did a manual format (not autoformat, select RD54, etc) I noticed that on the old board it would ask me for the date when doing this kind of format, on the new board it would just ask me for the serial number. Odd. Question: Is the ZRQCH0.BIN file calling different routines in the RQDX3 ROM? Anyway after this the drive would format but then do endless seek errors on the "read" portion of the disk check. Two drives did this, so it's probably not the drives. Odd. Putting the drives on the Dave Gesswin MFM reader showed all cylinders could be read. Question: Can Dave G's board be used to low level format an RD54? Can it test physical disk for errors (wasn't sure) Now the drives only format for a minute or two before throwing errors. Looks like something is very confused on XXDP. Not going to try any other disks until I figure this out. Thoughts? Different sites say different things about the RQDX3 jumpers, some say to jumper 2-3 to allow more than 7 heads, some say to jumper pins 1-2 and some say jumper pins 1-2 on "early ROM" and 1-2 3-4 on "later ROM". This is a serious pain, but just what settings should be done to allow low level formatting, and did my previous attempts to low level wedge these disks from the RQDX3 point of view? Can I do a low level wipe with Dave Gesswin's board/software? Thanks! Chris

2 years, 2 months

5
9
0 0

Re: ST512 [WAS:RE: Re: Nuking an MFM drive with a magnet, format/servo gone?]

by Tom Gardner

The ST512 was a thin-film head version of the ST506, per Seagate : "This increased capacity is accomplished by using the inner portion of the disc surface that was previously unused and by increasing the disc track density from 255 tracks per inch to 270 tracks per inch To reliably use the inner portion of the disc. The ST512 uses a new type of read/write head - a "thin film" head." It was dropped in 1981 due to the lack of a reliable supply of heads and replaced by the ST412. -----Original Message----- From: Tony Duell [mailto:ard.p850ug1@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, February 03, 2023 9:27 AM To: Alexandre Souza Cc: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: [cctalk] Re: Nuking an MFM drive with a magnet, format/servo gone? On Fri, Feb 3, 2023 at 5:21 PM Alexandre Souza <alexandre.tabajara(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > I thoug the right one was st512...can you enlighten me on this subject Tony? I've never heard it called that. It's often called 'ST506' but that drive had a few differences from the later ones. it didn't support buffered seeks AFAIK. The ST412 did and was the most common of a family of 3 similar drives (ST406, ST412, ST419) so it tends to be used as the de-facto name of the interface. -tony

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Formatting and using RQDX3's and 2190's.

by Chris Zach

Decided to spend some time working on my 11/73 with MFM drives. Currently it has one of my RQDX3 boards (I have 3, 1 in attic), a 40mb ST412 drive (the half height Seagate whatever) which works fine. No issues there. I'm trying to format an RD54 compatible drive and am running into major issues. First, my two RWDX3's have different ROM dates, the old one is 1986 and the new one is 1990. This is important because I can't boot RX33 disk images with my GoTek using the old card but I can using the new one. Question: I'm guessing the old ROMs only supported RX50 disks? Or is it a secret jumper setting. Anyway I do have both RX33 and RX50 versions of XXDP so not a big issue. On to formatting. The old controller (which I used for the 40mb Seagate) had pins 2-3 jumpered on W23. With that the RD54 was able to autoformat but then would crash xxdp as soon as the initial format was done. Odd. So I used the new controller with 1-2 and 3-4 jumpered. Same problem. Then I tried having 1-2 jumpered and did a manual format (not autoformat, select RD54, etc) I noticed that on the old board it would ask me for the date when doing this kind of format, on the new board it would just ask me for the serial number. Odd. Question: Is the ZRQCH0.BIN file calling different routines in the RQDX3 ROM? Anyway after this the drive would format but then do endless seek errors on the "read" portion of the disk check. Two drives did this, so it's probably not the drives. Odd. Putting the drives on the Dave Gesswin MFM reader showed all cylinders could be read. Question: Can Dave G's board be used to low level format an RD54? Can it test physical disk for errors (wasn't sure) Now the drives only format for a minute or two before throwing errors. Looks like something is very confused on XXDP. Not going to try any other disks until I figure this out. Thoughts? Different sites say different things about the RQDX3 jumpers, some say to jumper 2-3 to allow more than 7 heads, some say to jumper pins 1-2 and some say jumper pins 1-2 on "early ROM" and 1-2 3-4 on "later ROM". This is a serious pain, but just what settings should be done to allow low level formatting, and did my previous attempts to low level wedge these disks from the RQDX3 point of view? Can I do a low level wipe with Dave Gesswin's board/software? Thanks! Chris

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

ZFS, was [... GreaseWeazle ..]

by emanuel stiebler

On 2023-02-02 04:38, David Brownlee wrote: > That reminds me (looks at 43.5T of zfs pool that has not had a scrub > since 2021). > > It can be nice to have a filesystem which handles redundancy and also > the option to occasionally read all the data, check end to end > checksums (in the unlikely case a device returns a successful read > with bad data), and fixup everything. Does not eliminate the need for > remote copies, but gives a little extra confidence that the master > copy is still what it should be :) So, what else do you guys use, to make sure your data is safe for the years to come?

2 years, 2 months

12
13
0 0

CD-R, DVD-R media available

by David Barto

100’s of CD-R, Sony, TDK, and FujiFilm. 25-30 DVD-R Sony and TDK And CD cases sufficient to hold all the disks Heavy, available for the cost of shipping. I’m in San Diego, so local delivery is possible. David

2 years, 2 months

5
4
0 0

1975 Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter

by Tarek Hoteit

One website has an archive of the first Homebrew Computer Club newsletters. The newsletter is associated with the Homebrew club that kicked off the personal computer revolution https://arkive.net/gallery/homebrew-computer-club Regards, Tarek Hoteit

2 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

Computer Museum uses GreaseWeazle to help exonerate Maryland Man

by rar＠syssrc.com

Museum Staff Helps Exonerate David Veney January 19, 2023, Hunt Valley, MD — Staff members of the System Source Computer Museum recently completed a project that helped exonerate David Veney, wrongly convicted of rape in 1997. In 2005, after Mr. Veney sought a new trial, the state found irregularities in the prosecution, released Mr. Veney from prison, and declined to re-prosecute. Maryland is one of 35 states that provides compensation for wrongly incarcerated people. But quirks in the law kept the law from applying in Mr. Veney’s case. In 2021, the Maryland law was amended, making Mr. Veney eligible for partial compensation for the nearly nine years he spent in prison. Still, Mr. Veney had not been exonerated.. In June 2022, the Computer Museum at System Source in Hunt Valley, MD, was contacted by Patrick Gilbert, Senior Assistant States Attorney and Chief of the Prosecution Integrity Unit, who asked “Can you read data from a 5.25” Floppy Disk?” Bob Roswell, curator of the museum, quickly replied “Of course!” It wasn’t quite that simple. In theory, the diskette contained the court stenographic records from the 1992 rape trial of Grant Jones. The transcript was thought to contain evidence that would exonerate both Mr. Jones and Mr. Veney, but the printed transcripts from 1992 had been lost. Unfortunately, the diskette was neither IBM- nor Apple-compatible. It had been written on a DEC PDP-11 minicomputer using the RSX-11 Operating System. Although the museum has a PDP-11 in its collection, it had not yet been restored and could not be started. Brendan Becker, who runs the BLOOP museum inside the Computer Museum, jumped on the problem. Brendan set up a “Greaseweazle,” a device that reads the magnetic flux transitions on the floppy disk without regard to operating systems, disk formats, or errors. The process returned a file containing long binary strings of ones and zeros. Brendan was able to decode the file structure and found that disk (despite some unreadable parts) contained the raw keystrokes that the court stenographer had recorded in the 1992 rape case using a Stenograph machine from the era. An operator of a Stenograph machine uses chords to rapidly encode conversation by creating keystrokes to represent words, syllables, and phrases. While there is some standardization, each stenographer has his/her own “theory,” which results in individual styles for different stenographers. Luckily, Patrick Gilbert was able to obtain the services of the stenographer from the original trial (now retired). Together, they were able to substantially reconstruct the transcript from the 1992 trial, using the data provided by Brendan. The recovered transcript showed weird similarities to Mr. Veney’s case. On March 4, 1992, Alice Arroyo claimed to have been raped while walking home from volunteering at homeless shelter. In her account, the assailant grabbed her shirt, ripped it open, and scratched her chest with his nails in a long, vertical raking motion. Ms. Arroyo provided police with a detailed description of her assailant including the jacket he was wearing. The following day Grant Jones walked into the Salisbury Police Department (in Wicomico County, MD) to report that his wallet had gone missing from the homeless shelter. Mr. Jones matched the description of the assailant, was arrested, and was convicted of assault with intent to rape. On September 24, 1996, Salisbury Police responded to a complaint at the home of Alice Arroyo, who stated that she had been raped. Again, she provided a detailed description of the assailant and described suffering scratches on her chest in a long vertical raking motion. On October 3, 1996, David Veney, a former neighbor, was charged with rape. He was 20 years old at the time. Mr. Veney’s first trial in April 1997 ended in a mistrial. The hung jury consisted of four jurors voting to convict and eight declaring him innocent. In September 1997, Mr Veney was retried and found guilty of various charges, including burglary, assault, battery, and rape. He was sentenced to 25 years for rape and concurrent sentences for the other offenses. In 2005, Mr. Veney sought a new trial on the basis of ineffective representation. (That lawyer was later disbarred.) When the State reviewed the case, substantial doubts about Mr. Veney’s guilt arose, including the eerie similarity in Ms. Arroyo’s testimony in the two cases. Mr. Veney was released from prison, and the State declined to re-prosecute. The reconstructed transcript of Mr. Jones’ 1992 trial proved vital in establishing Mr. Veney’s innocence. On January 13, 2023, Judge Teresa Garland awarded Mr Veney approximately $730,000, along with medical, housing, and educational benefits. The staff of the Computer Museum at System Source is proud to have played a small part in Mr. Veney’s exoneration. Bob Roswell, Curator, later learned that the state had contacted numerous other technology firms, who were unable to render assistance, before asking the Museum for assistance. The Amendment to Maryland Law Regarding Compensation for Wrongful Convictions: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2021rs/Chapters_noln/CH_76_sb0014t.pdf Greaseweazle: https://decromancer.ca/greaseweazle/ Stenography Theories: https://www.artofchording.com/introduction/theories-and-dictionaries.html The System Source Computer Museum: Bob Roswell https://museum.syssrc.com/

2 years, 2 months

31
169
0 0

Re: HP 41-CX

by David Brownlee

I had some idea of trying to get money for an HP 41-CX a while back, but on balance I think it's best to just go to someone who might be interested in fixing it up and valuing it for what it is. So - FTGH, just the cost of shipping (photo link below still valid) David On Sun, 19 Apr 2020 at 17:55, David Brownlee <abs(a)absd.org> wrote: > > I've come into possession of an HP 41-CX calculator - unfortunately it > appears to have had batteries left in it which have left corrosion on > the internal contacts. > > (some pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/48bE7WJZP8R4PF9a9 ) > > My classic hardware tendencies tend to run more towards the "can run > *nix" end, and while I could just clean it up and throw it on eBay I > wondered if anyone here has a 41C shaped soft spot and would be > interested? (happy to trade/part trade for something they already have > for which they are less fond if that works :) > > David

2 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

PKBACK Floppies?

by Zane Healy

Some of the floppies I’m recovering data look to be either a multi-part ZIP file, or something. Was this a separate product from PKZIP? I’m not sure if I have a copy of PKZIP in the stuff I’ve recovered thus far. I’ve not pulled them into DOSBOX to try and restore them, so far I’ve just tried to use Stuffit-Expander. Part of the problem is every file has the same name, just on different floppies. Zane

2 years, 2 months

5
10
0 0

Aging of unused CD-R media

by Zane Healy

I find myself wondering, how well does CD-R and DVD-R media that hasn’t been used age? I have quite a bit of unused Verbatim DataLifePlus, as well as some other media that’s unused. For the most part, I don’t need it, but I can see a couple reasons I might want to burn some in the future, mainly to exchange data with older systems. Zane

2 years, 2 months

4
3
0 0

DLOAD BASIC command for Color Computer 1/2 heritage

by Jim Brain

Over at the CoCo Mailing List, there's a archeological discussion about the DLOAD BASIC command in older versions of the Color Computer BASIC. It uses the serial port (and no doubt was designed for computer sharing in classrooms or similar), but the questions are around how it was designed and what inspiration is drew from. I infer MS wrote the code, and the protocol includes: P.ACK - Acknowledge - C8 hex. P.ABRT - Abort - BC hex. P.BLKR - Block request - 97 hex. P.FILR - File request - 8A hex. P.NAK - Negative Acknowledge - DE hex. Does that look like any protocol anyone has seen before? Jim

2 years, 2 months

13
29
0 0

windows reports contents of previous floppy

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

why does this happen? how do I "reset" a floppy drive (in windows) so that it tells me what's on the current disk, not what was on the previous disk that's been removed.

2 years, 2 months

5
7
0 0

Framework vs. Symphony

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

I've used neither. I have FWII here. Going to attempt to read the floppies (it was sealed when I got my hands on it). Which do you prefer.

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Re: Miscellaneous UCSD Pascal stuff I've found

by David Barto

These items have all been claimed. David > On Jan 31, 2023, at 12:57 PM, grif615(a)mindspring.com wrote: > > Does the post office still have a book rate? > > On Jan 31, 2023 10:12, David Barto via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > This is all on paper and weighs a fair bit. > Located in San Diego area, so pickup would be best. > I’m willing to ship it for 50% of the shipping cost. > > All classic computer related: > > UCSD Pascal pSystem listing from UCSD Pascal II.0 along with notes about what BIOS failures look like. > Listing of a pascal_interpreter, written in Pascal (of course) > > Tech Notes and Books: > > Tech Notes: > Booting the CP/M Adaptable System on the IMS8000 > SofTech MicroSystems Errata sheet for the FORTRAN Manual > UCSD Pascal System Synchronous Input/Output Subsystem Implementation Guide (II.1, Preliminary) Date 10 April 79 > SofTech MicroSystems Marketing Department memo on Version IV compatiblity with Preceding Versions > SofTech MicroSystems Adaptable System Tech Note (TN #2) > > Books: > UCSD Pascal Version I.5 September 1978 > UCSD Pascal Version II.0 March 1979 > SofTech MicroSystems Micro News Vol I, No. 3 May 1980 > SofTech MicroSystems UCSD Pascal II.0 Users Manual Feb 1980 > SofTech MicroSystems UCSD Fortran User Reference Manual May 1980 > Practical Pascal Programs By Greg Davidson > > David > > >

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Miscellaneous UCSD Pascal stuff I've found

by David Barto

This is all on paper and weighs a fair bit. Located in San Diego area, so pickup would be best. I’m willing to ship it for 50% of the shipping cost. All classic computer related: UCSD Pascal pSystem listing from UCSD Pascal II.0 along with notes about what BIOS failures look like. Listing of a pascal_interpreter, written in Pascal (of course) Tech Notes and Books: Tech Notes: Booting the CP/M Adaptable System on the IMS8000 SofTech MicroSystems Errata sheet for the FORTRAN Manual UCSD Pascal System Synchronous Input/Output Subsystem Implementation Guide (II.1, Preliminary) Date 10 April 79 SofTech MicroSystems Marketing Department memo on Version IV compatiblity with Preceding Versions SofTech MicroSystems Adaptable System Tech Note (TN #2) Books: UCSD Pascal Version I.5 September 1978 UCSD Pascal Version II.0 March 1979 SofTech MicroSystems Micro News Vol I, No. 3 May 1980 SofTech MicroSystems UCSD Pascal II.0 Users Manual Feb 1980 SofTech MicroSystems UCSD Fortran User Reference Manual May 1980 Practical Pascal Programs By Greg Davidson David

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

the mouse vs. touch sensitive devices

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

Originally as I understand it the mouse as a product of Xerox was intended not so much for general use but to aid youngins and disabled people with their usage. And despite the never-mousers, predominantly linux fanatics, it's an indispensable tool for nearly everyone. There was a stint where I favored trackballs. But it's a toss up as to which is more natural and faster. Each may excel in cwrtain applications. Then there's the touch screen (and touch pad). I find touch pads superior, make that way superior to that horrific track point used on old Thinkpads. But again that'a me. Touch screens, my hatred for them grows almost daily. They have their place. And for portable devices they're largely the only game in town. But I often wish I at least had the option of a mouse or something close. Is this an example of where older tech beats the new tech? Or do aspects of the newer tech just await refinement?

2 years, 2 months

13
16
0 0

DEC PDP 11/60's in need of a new home.

by Jerry Wright

I have 2 of these that are in need of a new home. These are quite large 4 racks each. Although the 11/60 is only a double rack by itself. Offers. Located In Kent. WA. - Jerry253-569-6041

2 years, 2 months

4
3
0 0

QIC replacement tension band

by BogDan Vatra

Hi, Can someone recommend a place where I can buy replacement tension band for QIC(-150) tapes? I known about the boiling trick, sadly I don't have any original bands to boil 😁. Thanks. Regards, BogDan. P.s. I found on Amazon a few alternatives, but they are quite thick (1.5mm) while the original ones are much thiner.

2 years, 2 months

3
3
0 0

QIC tension band replacement

by BogDan Vatra

Hi, Can someone recommend a place where I can buy tension bands for QIC(-150) tapes? I known about the boiling trick, sadly I don't have any original bands to boil 😁. Thanks. Regards, BogDan. P.s. I found on Amazon a few alternatives, but they are quite thick (1.5mm) while the original ones are much thiner.

2 years, 2 months

2
2
0 0

Mac System 7.1 or 7.5 question

by Zane Healy

I’m looking at some 3.5” floppies from about 1995, so probably about the time I got my first Mac. Am I correct that System 7 used A:\RESOURCE.FRK\DESKTOP as the Resource Fork data? MacOS 12.5 doesn’t appear to use it. :-) A bunch of the floppies I’m looking at have this, including ones that appear to be PC Backups. Zane

2 years, 2 months

2
3
0 0

DEC 11/60's

by Jerry Wright

Message: 4 Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2023 21:54:50 +0000 (UTC) From: Jerry Wright <g-wright(a)att.net> Subject: [cctalk] DEC PDP 11/60's in need of a new home. To: "cctalk(a)classiccmp.org" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <1945749291.492113.1674942890123(a)mail.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 I have 2 of these that are in need of a new home. These are quite large 4 racks each. Although the 11/60 is only a double rack by itself. Offers. Located In Kent. WA. - Jerry253-569-6041 -These are most likely sold... I do have some Data Generals, and HP 1000's next up. Jerry 253-569-6041

2 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

cctalk archives not updating

by Tom Hunter

It appears that the cctalk archives stopped updating in July 2022. See the link below: https://classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/ Could the new list admin please re-enable the archive feature of the mailing list and if possible fill in the missing months since July 2022. Thanks and best regards Tom

2 years, 2 months

7
9
0 0

Multibus card haul

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

I obtained a bunch of MB (1?) cards from a fellow list member. Mostly Intel, 1 Matrox video card. Didn'y see a floppy controller anywhere, but I'll have to look closer. I have an Intel 286/20 chassis (the 20 doesn't mean mhz). Got to get me a keyboard and I'll be all set, right? O how I wish. There's an MDS keyboard on ebay, kind of pricey. Have to wonder where I'd stick the plug. No ribald suggestions please. So apparently my future has taken a turn for the very grim. As I'll be writing device drivers from this point until my death. Yep. It's all rawhide and buffalo chips from here on out. Maybe sum yu westerners can give me a hand. Fred, Chuck, Sellam. You're all westerners and cowboys apparently. Just rustle up some docs and software for me.

2 years, 2 months

2
2
0 0

DEC VR14 TO-3 heat-sink socket?

by Tom Hunter

I finally got around to replace the dead TO-3 power transistors in my VR-14. They are mounted on the power supply regulator heat sink using TO-3 sockets made by AUGAT. Unfortunately one of the sockets has been broken by somebody in the past by over-tightening the transistor mounting screws. This may have been the root cause of the power supply failure as one transistor was doing all the work with the second transistor's collector lead having poor or no connection. There are two NPN transistors in parallel to double the power which is not a very good design anyway. I am trying to find the original Augat sockets. Here are some links to photos showing a closeup of the socket and the threaded insert with the originally crimped collector tab which broke out of the bakelite socket: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MXclwHLDmoz_P2ub7tPc9oqSgrDbnTzR/view?usp=…, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XJ7DpGA5Zx0ZSqDVL_gdBSWYuKdFHLlR/view?usp=… I would be grateful for any help trying to source these AUGAT made TO-3 sockets. I had no luck finding stock of these with Google and Ebay. Thanks and best regards Tom

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Quoting/replying etiquette. (was: Re: I need to make some space.)

by Stan Sieler

Hi, PLEASE TRIM THE DARN POST BEFORE REPLYING! For example, Bill's interesting post about needing space was 75 lines long (#1)... The first reply included the ENTIRE MESSAGE. The second, from another very long time participant, was TWO !@#$%^& LINES OF NEW CONTENT, with *TWO COPIES OF THE ORIGINAL POST* (about 145 lines). I don't want to single out just that post ... I haven't counted, but I'd bet that the vast majority of posts include the entire OP, and replies! Some other post had three copies in today's digest. The basic guideline is to quote *just enough* for the reader to understand what you're referring to. (Whether you quote below or above is another subject entirely :) Please have consideration for *EVERY* reader of this list, our disk space, and our network bandwidth! thanks, Stan ---- 1. BTW, Bill, that line count includes the totally unnecessary (and never believable) text: "This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com"

2 years, 2 months

44
151
0 0

in need of 2.5" disks

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

You read it right. I think only Zenith and Fujifilm made them.

2 years, 2 months

9
14
0 0

Re: Excellent CHM Article on Apple Lisa Software (Apple Archive)

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

Companies don't care about history. It does not affect the next quarter's sales. I had serial number 1 of a Radio Shack shortwave receiver and offered it to them. I got a reply back, 'I'm sorry, we no longer support that model.' cheers, Nigel C: wow I didn't even know the Shirt Shack monitored much less replied to customer inquiries via shortwave. I suppose that's 1 way to get patrons to buy your rigs.

2 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

HP3000 recently deinstalled available in Colorado for nothing.

by Technoid Mutant

I snipped this from an instant post on facebook, 26Jan2022 at 12:35pm Eastern Standard Time.:: We just de-commissioned our HP3000 minicomputer in December 2022 and are willing to give it away free to anyone willing to pick it up. Photos to follow, but it is the whole system, with 2 green bar printers, manuals et al. Be sure you understand what this is. It is a 1970s era minicomputer that is large and heavy. Sitting on our loading dock inside our building it takes up maybe 10 feet of wall space. This is not a modern "mini computer" like an Intel NUC or Mac Mini... this thing is a BEAST. Priority given to whomever can pick it up first during business hours (8:00am to 5:00pm). Located in Denver, Colorado near I-25 and Colorado Blvd.

2 years, 2 months

6
7
0 0

68k textbooks

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

I have a few scanned somewhere. I always kimd of liked Douglas Halls Microprocessors and Interfacing: Programming and Hardware for 80x86. It's a large format textbook. There is a 68000 version which I don't have. Curious what textbooks other can recommend. As I said I scanned at least 2, maybe 3 some time ago. The Antonakos book seemed to stand out. https://www.amazon.com/68000-Microprocessor-Hardware-Principles-Application…

2 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

Contact for HP3000 minicomputer:

by Technoid Mutant

I neglected to put any contact in the message prior: The fellow is Michael Lafond, an employee of the Archdiocese of Denver? Here's a link to his Facebook page for messaging: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2103793056560583/user/1383697326

2 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Excellent CHM Article on Apple Lisa Software

by Lee Courtney

I thought this was an excellent article on work at CHM on curating, documenting, and making Apple Lisa software available - thank you Al. Would be interesting to see other software collection objects curated in this way. https://computerhistory.org/blog/apple-lisa-still-more-to-uncover/ Enjoy! -- Lee Courtney

2 years, 2 months

5
5
0 0

Philips P2000C restoration

by Tony Duell

Philip Belben gave me a Philips P2000C luggable CP/M computer some time back which had not been well-stored. It took a bit of work to get it going again. Here's what I did... The basic desgn is a single-board computer with a Z80A, 64K RAM, 4K ROM (bootstrap and a machine code monitor), floppy disk controller, SASI interface and 3 serial port. One for an external printer, one for communications [1] and one to provide a 19200 baud link to the other main circuit board. This is an intellegent terminal with another Z80A, 32K RAM, video circuitry, keyboard interface and of course a serial port [1] Standards are wonderful, everybody should have one of their own... This serial port is on a DB25 connectorr with the normal RS232 pinout, but normal RS232 cables probably won't work. The reason is that Philips decided to support synchronous operation too. So the serial chp (Z80A-SIO) clocks come from pins 15 and 17 on the connector via level shifters. The baud rate generator (one channel of a Z80A-CTC) is level shifted and comes out on pin 24 of the connector. You therefore need to strap 15-17-24 in the cable plug for normal asynchronous operation. Getting back to the machine, as well as the 2 main boards, there's a switch-mode power supply, a Misubishi 9" green screen CRT monitor (Why not Philips, they were certainly making such things at the time), a pair of Teac FD55 floppy drives (of which more later) anf the'power distribution PCB' to link them all toghether. Oh, and trivial things like the keyboard cable and mains input wiirng. I have the Philips service manual which contains schematcs for the 2 main boards but not the rest. I also have the Teac service manual for the floppy drives. Obvious faults on first inspection were that the mains on/off switch didn't latch properly, there was a lot of corrosion, and the carrying strap was missing. The last is important as to carry the machine you put the keyboard over the front panel, then slot the strap end fittings in place which also retain the keyboard. I took the machine apart and found that the terminal PCB at the back had suffered badly from poor storage. So had the disk drives, the spindle bearings felt very rough. The aluminium chassis had surface corrosion. Screws were very rusty (but standard M3 and M4 parts are not hard to get). The rest didn't look too bad. Time to sort some things out. I traced out the schematics for the power supply, monitor and the power distibution stuff. There were some RIFA 'smokebomb' capacitors on the PSU board which I replaced before they did their antisocial act. Since the mains switch was out of action I coupled a suicide lead to the power supply input pins with a chocolate block and carefully powered it up with a light bulb in series. The power supply worked first time. Tried the monitor board, running it on the bench supply. This powered up too, the high voltages came up but were low. As I didn't have the deflection yoke connected this didn't worry me. So I put the monitor chassis, PCB and CRT bak togther and connected it and the terminal PCB to the units power supply. Powered up, the screen was full of odd characters. It was clear the terminal processor wasn't doing the right things. Some checks showed the data lines on the RAMs were not looking right.Well, a couple were, but not the rest. Cut out the old RAMs, most of the DIL packages fell apart (!), fitted sockets and new 4116s. Corrected one open-circuit PCB trace too. Powered up again ,it seemed to work. Tried connecting the main board. It powered up and even gave the right startup screen asking for a system disk. Of course no drives or keyboard at this point, but it was a good sign. Took the keyboard apart, took off all the keycaps and removed the dregs of many cups of coffee. Put the keycaps back on. The keyboard cable, right-angled 6 pin DIN plugs at each end, was a mess. Insulation crumbling off, green corrosion of the wiring. Fortunately the plugs are not moulded, so I could open them up, remove the dead cable and rewire with a length of 6 core screened. It's not coiled stretchy stuff like the original, but it's electrically fine. Time to sort out the mains switch. I took it apart. An internal, tiny, spring was so badly corroded that it fell apart when I touched it. Other bits didn't look great either. My junk box disgorged an electrically-suitable switch that was actually a spare for a TV set. Only problems were that the pushrod to fit the button onto was 1/8" square (the original one for the P2000C was 3mm) and the mounting was very different. A file cured te first poblem. Fortunately the switch mouting was a little plate screwed to the PSU mounting, so I removed that and milled a block of aluminium to mount the replacement switch. Soldered the mains harness wires to the new swtich. While the chassis was apart I measured up and made some suitable end fittings for the carrying strap. Oriiginals were plastic, I made aluminium ones. Not too hard in that the tongue that goes into the P2000C catch is 30mm wide by 2mm thick and amazingly a local-ish DIY shed had 1m lengths of 2mm aluminium strip 30mm wide in stock. Cut lengths of that, drilled and milled the hole to engage with the catch, fitted a metal block to retain the keyboard and an eyebolt into that to put the strap on. Now to reasemble the chassis. Fitted the mains wirng, keyboard connector, distribution PCB, PSU and monitor. Plugged in the terminal PCB and connected the keyboard. Powered up then reset while holding <esc> down. This runs a simple self-test of the terminal board. It failed with a memory problem. I found another bad conneciton, this time a through-board VIA. Soldered a bit of wire through that and the terminal board then passed the self-test. I temporarily fitted it to the chassis so as not to have too many bits hanging on wires. Put the main PCB on top of the chassis, connected the power, reset, and serial connectors. Powered up, got the 'system disk' prompt. Pressed <esc> then and was in the machine code monitor. I could display/change memory, etc. It was essentially working. OK, now for the drives. These are Teac FD55A, single sided 40 cylnder. I took them apart one at a time. Not just to the units in the service manuak, I also took the head-load unit apart (tiny torsion springs), the top front chasss (even smaller E-clips), the stepper motor (the front bearing could not be removed without possibly damaging thngs, but the rear came off easily with a puller so I fitted a new ball race here) and the spindle motor (again, new ball races fitted). Got the drives back togther. They ran nicely on the exerciser. Much more smooth than they were when I took them out. Connected them to the Microtest alignment unit and did the head alignment. One oddity was that both spindle motors were slightly slow (about 295 rpm, not 300) but a tweak of the pot on the motor PCB cured that Also set up the disk read VCO on the mainboard as described in the service manual. It was a little off, I am sure it would have worked, but I re-set it anyway. Cabled up drive 0. Powered up and put a 40 cyclnder boot disk in. It booted. DIR worked too. As did running a program off the disk. Unplugged things and removed the terminal PCB. Put the 2 drives in place, fitted their mountings and the chassis top rail. Fitted the main PCB and terminal PCB to the rear chassis plate. cabled everything up. Tried the machine again. It booted. I could format a blank disk in the second drive and copy the CP/M master too it. The copy then booted fine. All that remained was to fit the rear plastic panel and top cover. Stored the boot disk copy and the keyboard cable in the cubbyhole on the front panel and put the keyboard on. Clipped on the carrying strap. It's not quite over... I am pretty sure my strap end fittings are strong enough. Not so sure about the strap itself which is one that came with a sports bag. I may try to get something stronger. I was given a few floppies with the machne. The only one it will read is the 40 cylinder boot disk. Philips, you see made 3 versions of the machine. One had a pair of 40 cylinder single-head drives (160K each). The second had a pair of 80 cylinder double head drivs (640K each). The last had a single 80 cylinder double head drive and apparently you could fit a 10MByte wnchester internally. I know nothing about that really.. Confusingly, the manuals call the 160K drive 'single density' and the 640K one 'double densiry' for all both use MFM encoding. But I digress. My guess is that at least some of the unreadable floppies are 80 cylinder. It would be worth linking up an external drive to see. Time to hunt in the junk box again. Then there's the SASI port. One manual mentioned a hard disk unit to connect there, a 'Xebec board and 1 or 2 10M drives'. My guess is that the former is an S1410, the latter a pair of Shugart ST412s or similar. But it seems crazy to me to try to track down said parts -- the Xebec board has serveral custom ASICs on it, hard drives can headcrash. Or even worst to use a Xebec controller with a drive emulator -- why convert bytes to a curious serial stream on the Xebec board and then back to bytes to store in flash memory on the drive emulator, or vice versa. It would seem logical to simply make a thing that connects to the SASI port, accepts the commands set of said S1410 controller and stores the data in flash memory directly. Any suggestions as to how to do that? Finally, the terminal board has an external video output It's a 5 pn DIN socket, separate syncs and analpgue video (not composite). There is a mention of a 12" monitor in one manual, of course with no model number. Odd, I wouldn't have thought 12" was much of an improvement over the built-in 9" unit. I would have expected something larger to show a group of people at once. But making something to connect to that output is another project. -tony

2 years, 2 months

4
8
0 0

Restoring floppy disk images to their rightful media

by Tony Duell

I've skimmed the thread about making images of floppy disks. I want to do the reverse. But I had better explain. There are 2 subsets of computers here. The larger subset -- all but one of the machines -- are classic computers. These machines tend to hve real floppy drives and RS232 ports and not much else.These machines I understand. I have service/technical manuals. I have schematics. I can generally figure out how to program them. The other set contains one machine. A modern-ish (for me) PC laptop. It has USB ports. It gets me on the internet (it is the only internet-connected machine at the moment). It does not have floppy drives [1]. I do have a USB-RS232 interface -- first thing I bought for it. I have no proper manuals for it. I do not know how to program it or interface it. [1] I think I have a USB floppy drive somewhere, but it'll be a '1.44Mbyte' [2] 3.5" thing. A type of drive conspiculously absent on my classic machines. [2] In quotes becuase it is, of course, nothing of the sort. Well, not unless you believe a megabyte is 1000*1024 bytes. Given that the floppy disk images are going to come on the latter machine, what is the easiest way to get them onto real floppy disks for my classics. I think it's reasonable to assume they'll be FM or MFM encoded at the standard rates and that I will have drives capable of handling the disk. FM of couse rules out using some PC disk controllers. I do of course have no objections to making stuff, but I'd rather not start trying to interface a WD2793 to a Raspberry Pi if there's a standard way to do things. -tony

2 years, 3 months

8
9
0 0

Philips P2000C add-ons.

by Tony Duell

A couple of questions if anyone has experience of this machine : 1) There is a 5 pin DIN socket for connecting an external video monitor. The signals seem to be TTL-level separate syncs at European TV rates (15625Hz horizontal, 50Hz vertical) and separate (not composite) 4-level analogue video. I believe Philips sold a 12" monitor to connect there. What was the model number? Is a service manual availabe? Has anybody linked other monitors to that socket? 2) There is a 50 pin card edge for a SASI interface. I think the Philips hard disk unit used the Xebec S1410 controller. I've downloaded the user manual for that from bitsavers which at least gives me the command set. Does anyone have experience of a SASI-flash memory interface? Any recomendations for things to look at? Or should I design my own, it doesn't appear too hard? FWIW to tie in to another thread, I like to keep my classic computers original inside the box but am happy to link up non-standard peripherals. So My P2000C will keep its 2 internal floppy drives and CRT monitor. But I would have no problem with hanging an LCD monitor off that video output socket. -tony

2 years, 3 months

5
9
0 0

Rejected messages

by Bill Gunshannon

Since the switchover I am getting more and more of my messages rejected as suspected SPAM. Anyone else seeing this? bill

2 years, 3 months

8
14
0 0

any COCO enthusiasts

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

I don't even remember signing up for the RetroAbout64K mailing list. I haven't seen any actual dicussion in my remembrance. But I do get once or twice a week an email about COCO Nation or some such. Sounds like a hot chocolate enthusiasts group seeking world domination. Anyway I've had COCOs going back. Or 1 that I scarfed from a friend for 20$ (back in 89 I think). I realize it has a 6809 and all, the successor to the venerable 6800. But what can you do with the things? Is there even a color output, despite the name. I can't remember. I only remember playing Dungeons of Daggorath or whatever. The guy I bought it from claimed he programmed a complex naval similation. Yeah whatever.

2 years, 3 months

3
6
0 0

Re: any COCO enthusiasts

by Marvin Johnston

As to what can you do with it? A local company was running a homemade NC drill using the (IIRC) Coco 2 with a pair of disk drives to drive the thing. I bought it for kicks, but never used it. To ask another similar question, I have a tektronix 2 axis controller that uses paper tape. Changing the questions slightly, WHY would I use such a thing? And ditto for an Intel software development system. I have more than enough nostalgia items to keep me busy for the next hundred years or so :). > Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2023 17:22:06 +0000 (UTC) From: > skogkatt007(a)yahoo.com Subject: [cctalk] any COCO enthusiasts > I don't even remember signing up for the RetroAbout64K mailing list. > I haven't seen any actual dicussion in my remembrance. But I do get > once or twice a week an email about COCO Nation or some such. Sounds > like a hot chocolate enthusiasts group seeking world domination. > Anyway I've had COCOs going back. Or 1 that I scarfed from a friend > for 20$ (back in 89 I think). I realize it has a 6809 and all, the > successor to the venerable 6800. But what can you do with the things? > Is there even a color output, despite the name. I can't remember. I > only remember playing Dungeons of Daggorath or whatever. The guy I > bought it from claimed he programmed a complex naval similation. Yeah > whatever.

2 years, 3 months

3
2
0 0

And another real pdp11 is online......

by Chris Zach

So... Here we go.... :-) For reference, TALOS is my pdp11/83 system from way back long ago. It's running real hardware, RX02, RL02, a 330mb ESDI disk, TK70, and 4mb of parity RAM. Runs with 2,000 blocks of cache, read-ahead of 5, and purrs along pretty nicely overall. The next step is to get 4mb of PMI memory as the 1mb board I have *is* faster than Q bus memory but there's not a lot I can do with DECnet and TCP/IP in only 1mb. But finally I can get to my system without an RS232 cable. And fix the time offset. But progress! (Now I need to back it up) Thank you Johnny for writing this code. Welcome to TALOS, an RSX-11M-PLUS system! >hello 1,1 Password: RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6 BL87 [1,54] System TALOS 23-JAN-2023 07:48 Logged on Terminal TT12: as SYS2 Good Morning ***************************************************************** * * * Welcome to RSX-11M-PLUS * * * * Version 4.6 Base level 87 * * This is file LB:[1,2]LOGIN.TXT * * * ***************************************************************** Last interactive login on Monday, January 23, 2023 21:37:35 (TT1:) >

2 years, 3 months

2
2
0 0

Sun 3/110 CPU board schematic?

by Kurt Nowak

Does anyone by chance have a schematic for the 3/110 main board? Its been running great until recently where my framebuffer died. It boots right up to where it polls the cgfour and then stalls. I was hoping to do some troubleshooting. Thanks, Kurt

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

And another real pdp11 is online......

by Chris Zach

So... Here we go.... :-) For reference, TALOS is my pdp11/83 system from way back long ago. It's running real hardware, RX02, RL02, a 330mb ESDI disk, TK70, and 4mb of parity RAM. Runs with 2,000 blocks of cache, read-ahead of 5, and purrs along pretty nicely overall. The next step is to get 4mb of PMI memory as the 1mb board I have *is* faster than Q bus memory but there's not a lot I can do with DECnet and TCP/IP in only 1mb. But finally I can get to my system without an RS232 cable. And fix the time offset. But progress! (Now I need to back it up) Thank you Johnny for writing this code. Welcome to TALOS, an RSX-11M-PLUS system! >hello 1,1 Password: RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6 BL87 [1,54] System TALOS 23-JAN-2023 07:48 Logged on Terminal TT12: as SYS2 Good Morning ***************************************************************** * * * Welcome to RSX-11M-PLUS * * * * Version 4.6 Base level 87 * * This is file LB:[1,2]LOGIN.TXT * * * ***************************************************************** Last interactive login on Monday, January 23, 2023 21:37:35 (TT1:) >

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

USB Attached 5.25" drives?

by Zane Healy

I’m now aware of the GreaseWeazle, but what I’ve not seen is if it allows standard access to the data on a floppy, or only provides a way to image the disk. With an USB attached 3.5” floppy the disk mounts on my Mac, and I can easily pull files off the disk. Does this work with the GreaseWeazle and a 5.25” floppy drive? Zane

2 years, 3 months

16
42
0 0

HPE StorageWorks DAT 40 USB Tape Drive questions

by Stan Sieler

Hi, Has anyone used an HPE StorageWorks DAT 40 USB Tape Drive on a Mac / PC / Linux as a "standard" tape drive (i.e., I want to be able to "dd" from one, not use some HP provided backup package). (I have no interest in writing to tapes, BTW) I just got such a drive today (#1), and hope to use it to read 10 to 20 year old DDS2 & DDS3 tapes in a "tapecopy" (semi-raw data to disk file) manner. (The DAT 40 is a DDS4 drive, which supports reading DDS2 and DDS3 ... newer drives don't support DDS2, and I've never seen a DDS3 on USB.) I found HP's cache of docs/drivers for the newer DAT 72 drive, and some indications that the -40 and -72 are essentially similar (other than the -72 being a DDS5 drive). I'd prefer reading the tapes on a Mac, but if Linux/Win is needed, I'm hoping I can use a virtual one :) thanks! ---- 1. I'd try it out today, but my main computer is packed up, waiting to move to a temporary house, because we have to move out of our house due to water-damage driven kitchen remodel : (

2 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

IBM PC/XT and NEC "gold" tam

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

I have an xt mobo and some portion is populated w/NEC 4116 or 4164 chips (but 4116s were specific to the 5150, no? It's not in front of me). There are a bunch on the board, not sure if it's all the ram. Was this typical (I'm sure that wasn't the case). Is this an example of an early 5160? Why did they goldnplate the covers?

2 years, 3 months

9
16
0 0

Searching documentation for

by jf.secker＠gmail.com

Hello List, I have made an implementation of Sytse van Slootens PDP2011 MINC system ( https://pdp2011.sytse.net/wordpress/pdp-11/minc/ ) on a Terasic DE10 Lite board. There exists documentation for the MINC system, but it is not complete. Schematics and/or user guides for the DEC MINC modules MNCAG and MNCTP are still missing and not to be found in the usual places. Maybe some of the contributors to this list own a MINC system wich contains these modules. If so, they might have the documentation I am looking for and are willing to share these. Thanks in advance! Jan Secker

2 years, 3 months

3
2
0 0

2 sets of IRIX, 2 Indys and I1

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

2 years, 3 months

6
7
0 0

OT: boxed board games (Avalon Hill, etc.)

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

Looking for a recommendation for an older (or even newer, some d games have been rereleased anyway) for a either historical boxed table game ~A.D. 400 - 1300. Or something sci-fi (nothing tv or movie related though).

2 years, 3 months

4
5
0 0

Re: USB Attached 5.25" drives?

by Bill Gunshannon

On 1/21/23 10:33, geneb via cctalk wrote: > On Sat, 21 Jan 2023, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote: > >> An interesting note. I have a device from DBIT that lets you >> hook up an 8" disk to the interface for 5.25 or 3.5 floppies. >> I wonder how I would go about reversing that process so I could >> hook one of these GOTEKs up in place of a physical 8" disk. >> > > I use the DBIT adapter with my AppleSauce and it works pretty well. But that's putting and 8" drive on a 34 pin interface. That works great. I want to go the other way around. 34 pin interface on an 50 pin 8" floppy controller. > You can also get one of these: > https://www.tindie.com/products/siliconinsider/8-floppy-disk-interface-50-p… I'll check this out. bill

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

scsi

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

How do you know if a termimation is suitable? Is connection all you have to worry about? I have an HP Ultra 320 drive, a 320/m compliant adapter (id jumpered to 2. Does a this need to be 0 for a single drive setup?), the cable with an ultra 320m terminator (" LVD + SE ACT NEG + HVD ISO " printed on it). Everything seems legit. I want to plug this into 2 different serverboards, an Intel SCB2, dual PIII, dual ultra 160/lvd channels, and an IBM xseries 350/Netfinity 6000 (8682 serverboard), quad PIII xeon slot 2 cpu's, similar scsi capability. Whaddaya think?

2 years, 3 months

4
4
0 0

Contact information for Scott Lurndal? (or V-Series MCP/VS documentation)

by Andrew Warkentin

Does anybody have any contact information for Scott Lurndal? I'm trying to get his V-Series emulator working (I downloaded it quite a while ago), but it doesn't include any documentation and his wiki is no longer available (and a lot of pages weren't archived). I can run it and get to the coldstart screen but I'm not quite sure what to do from there. Bitsavers doesn't have much documentation for Burroughs medium systems.

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

fs: 2x IBM PCjr mobos (NJ)

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

These were sold to me as new, but the a.s bags they're in don't look new. Got them from BGMicro. These wouldn't be easy to test. 50$ per plus shipping. Check or m.o. No exceptions.

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

fs: 2 x Atomic Pis

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

45$ per plus honest shipping. These are new, bought them from Zon 7/2019. Never did anything with them. I also have 2 power bricks, 1 new, 1 a little used (from an old Sony dvd burnwr). Free with purchase. Both supply 3 amps at least. I suppose I could test these. I'll leave that up to tje buyer.

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Disk pack production tools

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello list, Yesterday, I was wondering, if there are any multiplatter disk pack production tools known to exist? There are disk pack inspection and cleaning tools in the wild (also one on eBay for a ridiculously high price) and occasionally, I also saw unused and originally packed disk platters for sale, but these are, to my limited knowledge, worthless if the production and platter alignment tools are missing. I remember vaguely somebody writing on this list years ago that some last systems were tossed by some company in California. But disk packs were also produced on the European continent and in for instance in Bulgaria(ISOT) for computer disk drives in the federal republic of Germany and the Soviet Union. I was just wondering about this since it is getting more and more difficult to come across disk packs provided that spare unused platters arw available. The (9)877 for the CDC SMD 80MB drives 9762 and OEMs seemed to have been fairly wide-spread and these still show up from time to time for offer. But the 300MB packs for the CDC 9766 are rare now. Older drives are close to unobtainium. I never came across a five-platter pack for my CDC 854 drive and i have never seen packs for my MMD 844 or my CDC BC3xx disk drive for 200MB disk packs. The question will rise what I wanna do with these. I have a working 9762 drive and some day, I would like to try to restore the other ones I have. For the SMD drives, I have spare heads and alignment tools and a disk pack cleaner. I don't intend to run them for hours because I don't have a clean room environment that is appropriate to the specs of these drives. I just love these pieces of storage technology and it would be great to at least have one pack for the drives that are missing one. Any thoughts from the disk experts would be greatly appreciated :) Greetings, Pierre -----------------------------------------------------------------------------http://www.digitalheritage.de

2 years, 3 months

11
23
0 0

Re: [SPAM] LINC-8 sells for $2,150

by rar

The machine is in great condition. It was (carefully) turned on this evening! Blinking Lights! Bob Roswell

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Fw: Re: AI applied to vintage interests

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

Not sure if my reply made it to the list. Yahoo seems to indicate it didn't - When they prove idiots will be far less prone to hit me, I'll be for that. I'll still choose to drive myself though. If you give someone else the keys, you may wind up going somewhere you don't want to. That'a what happens when you trade your autonomy for alleged security. The ****heads can do what they want. That's _their_ choice.

2 years, 3 months

4
5
0 0

LINC-8 sells for $2,150

by Sellam Abraham

That LINC-8 sold for $2,150. A total bargain. https://hibid.com/lot/143159802/digital-equipment-corp-linc-eight-vintage Sellam

2 years, 3 months

11
16
0 0

Re: [SPAM] LINC-8 sells for $2,150

by Bob Roswell

Confirmed that the LINC in question is now at the Computer Museum @ System Source This one is in great condition (except for the large live spider) Pictures from unloading the truck https://photos.app.goo.gl/2GvqTQukSEEnyoQp8 Bob Roswell museum(a)syssrc.com<mailto:museum@syssrc.com> https://museum.syssrc.com

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

AI applied to vintage interests

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

They write songs, create works of art. They can do a lot of stuff. The question in my mind is can these AI appliances make guesses and are they any good at it. Anyway how hard would it be for an AI to rewrite a standard MS-DOS to suit a particular machine? Have they reached the level of sophistication whereby they can analyze code and rewrite sections?

2 years, 3 months

23
75
0 0

ebay: GE reel tape drives from the 60s

by P Gebhardt

Hi list , came across this listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/354525985222 I just love the engineering quality of these early electro-mechanical systems! Reminds me of the CDC 60x series reel tape drives. BTW, not affiliated with the seller. In my point of view, 5000 bucks is a lot of money for these, though... Greetings, Pierre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.digitalheritage.de

2 years, 3 months

3
2
0 0

Damage to CD-R from CD Sleeve

by Zane Healy

This is a strange one. I have a bunch of CD sleeves like this, that I used to use. https://www.amazon.com/Mediaxpo-Double-sided-Refill-Sleeve-Holder/dp/B002RO… I’m trying to recover data from a Verbatim DataLifePlus CD, and when I started looking at it, I noticed that it has a cross hatch/herringbone pattern on it. Has anyone run across anything like this? At first I was hoping to simply wash it, as it seemed like that might be possible. I tried to wash it multiple times, and while it seems a little better, it’s still not clean, and I think that it might actually be etched into the surface, due to a chemical reaction. Thankfully Toast 14’s “Use Data Recovery” option was able to recover the data, and image the CD-R. Another problem I’ve found is that you need to use a Mac running a version of MacOS prior to 10.15 if you have HFS formatted CD’s. I bought a nice external drive, since my DVD-RW drive in my 2010 Mac Pro died, planning to use it on my MacBook Pro, only to discover that MacOS 12 wouldn’t read most of my CD’s. You can’t even do a ‘dd if=/dev/disk5 of=test.iso’, as they appear to have broken basic UNIX functionality. Zane

2 years, 3 months

15
34
0 0

Positive Logic vs. Negative Logic Controller in DEC TU56

by Bill Degnan

I am working to understand a TU56 in my possession that came from an unknown environment. A connecting cable that came with it reads "PDP9" on one end so I wondered if this is actually associated with the TU56 or just sitting in the same box before the TU56 came to me. I have read here: https://gunkies.org/wiki/TU56_DECtape_Transport That one can have a TU56 with a M531 or a G742 to serve as a bus converter. THe M531 is for situations where one has a negative logic controller and the G742 is for when one has a positive logic controller. Jumping a few steps ahead, if the TU56 was attached to a PDP-9, would it use a G742 if one tried to attach a TU56 to it? I feel as if the G742 would be used if the TU56 was intended for a PDP8 and not a PDP11, right? I searched the web and will continue to research but I thought I'd ask experts here. No, I don't use ChatGPT. Bill

2 years, 3 months

2
3
0 0

WPS-8 vs. WPS-200

by Chuck Guzis

Other than the media size (8" vs. 5.25"), what are the substantial differences between WPS-8 and WPS-200? I'm mostly interested in the software functionality. Thanks, Chuck

2 years, 3 months

2
2
0 0

Re: I need to make some space...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

You're quite right. I'm in Maryland, near Washington, DC. As to prices, I'm looking for best offer. Preference to local pick up. Things, like the HP-150 docs, may become "free to a good home for shipping". By the way, I don't need any more emails telling me how valuable the DOS 1.0 is. I get it. Bill S. On Monday, January 16, 2023 at 04:07:21 PM EST, js(a)cimmeri.com <js(a)cimmeri.com> wrote: Location?? Prices?? or Free? On 1/16/2023 2:28 PM, William Sudbrink via cctalk wrote: > I'm not getting rid of my whole collection or anything, but things are > getting a little tight in terms of physical space and I have stuff that > simply doesn't keep my interest. I'd rather not do ebay so I'll offer them > here first. I will put up pictures if there is interest. None of this is > "barn stored". It has all been in my temperature controlled house since > last century. > > > > 1) HP series 100 (the 150 and 150 touchscreen II) documentation. This > could be described as the "grey wall" for the HP 150. All the basic books > plus Wordstar, Spellstar, Multiplan, etc.etc. At least 20 "boxed books". > Many (I think all but have not checked yet) have original diskettes. HP-150 > with built in printer to come when I get back to it. > > 2) IBM PC original "boxed books" > > a) "DOS" part number 6024001 on spine. I would call the condition > excellent. Two original 5.25 diskettes: DIAGNOSTICS Version 1.02 6081552. > DOS Version 1.00 6172212 (I'm tempted to keep this because of the CP/M -vs- > DOS controversy) > > b) "DOS" part number 6024001 on spine with round sticker "1.10 with > Graphics". I would call the condition very good. One original 5.25 > diskette: DOS Version 1.10 1502330 > > c) Four UCSD p-System books: Beginner's guide, Assembler reference, Internal > Architecture Guide, User's guide. The "User's guide" box contains five > original 5.25 diskettes: STARTUP, SYSTEM 2, SYSTEM 4, EXTRAS and UTILITIES. > > 3) IBM FORTRAN-77 Reference for the UCSD p-System "boxed book". > Contains one original 5.25 diskette: UCSD p-System FORTRAN Version IV.0 > 6936510 > > 4) IBM COBOL Compiler by Microsoft "boxed book". Contains two original > 5.25 diskettes: LIBRARY 6936566, COBOL 6172250 > > 5) Various other original IBM PC "boxed books". Document Retrieval > Assistant, 3101 Emulation, Dow Jones Reporter, SNA 3270, etc. etc. Maybe a > dozen. > > 6) The box and binder for "Guide to operations, Personal Computer XT". > Unfortunately, it does not contain this. Instead it contains "The CP/M and > IBM Public Domain Library" by Dynacomp. This all seems to be later CP/M, > running on the IBM PC or Kaypro. Just documentation and listings, no media. > > 7) IBM Graphics Development Toolkit "boxed book". Three original 5.25 > diskettes: VDI device drivers, Language Libraries, Supplemental Programs. > > 8) BASIC - Personal Computer - PCjr "boxed book". Contains original ROM > Cartridge "Cartridge BASIC" 1302285. (Maybe this should go with the PCjr I > will be offering when I dig it out) > > 9) ERGO MOBY BRICK 486DX-33 computer. Missing original power supply. I > cobbled together a supply last century some time and it worked then. Has > not been powered on in at least 25 years. > > 10) Osbone Executive. Limited Edition, personalized plaque to "ANNETTE > KING". It ran last century. Has not been powered on in at least 25 years. > > > > More to come. > > > > Bill S. > > >

2 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

I need to make some space...

by William Sudbrink

I'm not getting rid of my whole collection or anything, but things are getting a little tight in terms of physical space and I have stuff that simply doesn't keep my interest. I'd rather not do ebay so I'll offer them here first. I will put up pictures if there is interest. None of this is "barn stored". It has all been in my temperature controlled house since last century. 1) HP series 100 (the 150 and 150 touchscreen II) documentation. This could be described as the "grey wall" for the HP 150. All the basic books plus Wordstar, Spellstar, Multiplan, etc.etc. At least 20 "boxed books". Many (I think all but have not checked yet) have original diskettes. HP-150 with built in printer to come when I get back to it. 2) IBM PC original "boxed books" a) "DOS" part number 6024001 on spine. I would call the condition excellent. Two original 5.25 diskettes: DIAGNOSTICS Version 1.02 6081552. DOS Version 1.00 6172212 (I'm tempted to keep this because of the CP/M -vs- DOS controversy) b) "DOS" part number 6024001 on spine with round sticker "1.10 with Graphics". I would call the condition very good. One original 5.25 diskette: DOS Version 1.10 1502330 c) Four UCSD p-System books: Beginner's guide, Assembler reference, Internal Architecture Guide, User's guide. The "User's guide" box contains five original 5.25 diskettes: STARTUP, SYSTEM 2, SYSTEM 4, EXTRAS and UTILITIES. 3) IBM FORTRAN-77 Reference for the UCSD p-System "boxed book". Contains one original 5.25 diskette: UCSD p-System FORTRAN Version IV.0 6936510 4) IBM COBOL Compiler by Microsoft "boxed book". Contains two original 5.25 diskettes: LIBRARY 6936566, COBOL 6172250 5) Various other original IBM PC "boxed books". Document Retrieval Assistant, 3101 Emulation, Dow Jones Reporter, SNA 3270, etc. etc. Maybe a dozen. 6) The box and binder for "Guide to operations, Personal Computer XT". Unfortunately, it does not contain this. Instead it contains "The CP/M and IBM Public Domain Library" by Dynacomp. This all seems to be later CP/M, running on the IBM PC or Kaypro. Just documentation and listings, no media. 7) IBM Graphics Development Toolkit "boxed book". Three original 5.25 diskettes: VDI device drivers, Language Libraries, Supplemental Programs. 8) BASIC - Personal Computer - PCjr "boxed book". Contains original ROM Cartridge "Cartridge BASIC" 1302285. (Maybe this should go with the PCjr I will be offering when I dig it out) 9) ERGO MOBY BRICK 486DX-33 computer. Missing original power supply. I cobbled together a supply last century some time and it worked then. Has not been powered on in at least 25 years. 10) Osbone Executive. Limited Edition, personalized plaque to "ANNETTE KING". It ran last century. Has not been powered on in at least 25 years. More to come. Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-11/40 for sale in New Zealand

by Bruce Ray

A friend has a PDP-11/40 for sale in New Zealand and sent me the following information: "I have a PDP11/40 for sale. It includes three (3) x RK05’s in various states of repair, one (1) tape unit, one (1) A/D unit, spare parts of unknown status, lots of disk packs, tapes and what looks like all of the circuit diagrams for every card and peripheral in the machine, plus RSK-11 manuals, some cobol manuals etc. It was formerly used in the Wellington Hospital diagnostic lab, presumably hooked up to some Lab machines there. Note that it is 230v 50hz, so while the CPU may be easily changed to your local voltage (I don’t know but I suspect it’s a transformer tap) the disk spindles are likely to rotate at the incorrect speed if they are clocked off the 50hz mains frequency. The racks have been split to make it easy(er) to get out of the its original location in a basement, and there is tape on the panels just for shipping purposes. I removed the front panel for shipping to prevent any damage, so it’s just installed temporarily for the photos. They will be wrap separately in place in a box for shipping. You can check out photo’s here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcldk7rekg6sbq3/AADeCjVHhz2YNr1CVxZK5JKZa?dl=0 This system will take time and patience to restore. As far as I can tell everything is there, well maybe some of the disks have been ratted for parts to get another disk working, but of course it comes with no guarantees of any kind. There are 8 cards in the CPU slots, plus five other cards that I assumed to be tape controller, disk controller, A/D controller, plus memory x 2 or memory x 1 plus something else. Keep in mind that all of the manuals, disk packs, tapes etc are boxed up on a second pallet so there are two pallets for shipment." Contact Brendan McNeill, Christchurch, New Zealand. at brendan(a)mcneill.co.nz (I have no financial or other interest in this system, but would like to see it go to a good home...) Bruce -- Bruce Ray Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc. Denver, Colorado USA bkr(a)WildHareComputers.com ...preserving the Data General legacy: www.NovasAreForever.org

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Gotek as RX50 replacement for DECmate II

by hush＠dec.dog

hello cctalk! i have been working for the past few days on a DECmate II with what i believe to be an ailing RX50. i have a gotek with updated flashfloppy firmware, but for some strange reason i have been completely unable to get the DMII to boot a floppy image from it. i have been trying to convert the OS/278 and WPS images on the dbit and ibiblio archives into a working format for the gotek but none of them will work. at this point i have tried too many conversions to recall but they all result in the same blinking floppy icon when the unit boots. i have “host = dec” in my FF.CFG per the wiki. has anyone else been able to get this working? if so, could you please provide known-good images for a gotek, or the steps to generate them? thank you in advance! — .hush Got interesting stuff to sell? Let me know! Looking for DEC, IBM, CDC, SGI, Data General, and more!

2 years, 3 months

3
4
0 0

Re: Reading Old Floppies

by Tarn Alcock

For cleaning and maintaining floppies give shadowtronblog on YouTube a watch. He lovingly restores various vintage equipment. There are a few vids of him restoring some floppies, cleaning heads, greasing mechanical bits etc. I think his TRS80 playlist had a fair bit of that in IIRC.

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Reading Old Floppies

by Zane Healy

When reading old floppies, how often is it advisable to clean the drive? I managed the first 3.5” floppies no problem, I’m using a USB Floppy Drive hooked up to my Mac Laptop, I was able to image them using “Disk Utility”. The next two floppies have had errors. Though I think I was able to successfully copy all the files off the one. Also, what is floppy drive cleaning fluid made of, and how well does it age? I know I’ve got at least a couple cleaning floppies around here, but they’re *OLD*. Zane

2 years, 3 months

15
42
0 0

old HP scope with SMA connectors

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

Do I really need a torque spanner? Chinese spanners aren't expensive. But I'm not sure the unit even works (the mainframe seems to work fine, not so sure the ancillary test set). Hp 54120a + 54122a << iirc, maybe 54121a??? In any event if working this is either a 12ghz or 20ghz setup.

2 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

large HP monitors need home/s

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

2 x 16" Trinitrons, missing rear plastic covers 1 is a 98789a 64hkz, forget the other, 48khz 1 x 19" large rectangular color unit, doesn't work. I'll be tossing these before very long.

2 years, 3 months

2
2
0 0

2025

2024

2023

2022

cctalk