- cctalk - classiccmp.org

by Bill Degnan

Just a reminder that out vintage computing workshop is tomorrow, all day and into the evening. Kennett Square, PA 9AM - 8PM For more details: https://www.kennettclassic.com/hack-a-thon-workshop-february-17th/ Bill

2 years, 1 month

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Repair Workshop/Hack-a-thon in Kennett Square, PA Sat., Feb. 17, 2024

by Jeffrey Brace

The Vintage Computer Federation and Kennett Classic will be doing a joint repair workshop/hack-a-thon Sat. Feb. 17, 2024. Hours: 9AM to 8PM. Signup here if you are interested: https://www.kennettclassic.com/hack-a-thon-workshop-february-17th/ <https://www.kennettclassic.com/hack-a-thon-workshop-february-17th/> Take care! Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner VCF Mid-Atlantic Event Manager Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

2 years, 1 month

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Re: NRAO Data tapes

by Mark Kahrs

The LSSM is getting into the Modcomp world, so we are very interested in the disposition of this media. The OS tapes would be particularly valuable.

2 years, 1 month

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VCF SoCal Saturday

by Bill Gunshannon

On 2/9/2024 5:08 AM, Steve Lewis via cctalk wrote: > There's a good chance I'll make it to the upcoming VCF SoCal coming up on > Sat. the 17th. > > Some things I'm looking for: > - recently an associate of mine gifted me their original 1978 TRS-80 (Model > 1). But not much in accessories. I have a suitable tape deck, but other > accessories might be nice. His father used this particular unit while he > worked in the Tandy Towers in downtown FW (that's all I know about it so > far). > Checkout the MISE and MIRE from Bartlett Labs and the FreHD from Ian Mavric. bill

2 years, 1 month

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VCF SoCal Saturday

by Steve Lewis

There's a good chance I'll make it to the upcoming VCF SoCal coming up on Sat. the 17th. Some things I'm looking for: - recently an associate of mine gifted me their original 1978 TRS-80 (Model 1). But not much in accessories. I have a suitable tape deck, but other accessories might be nice. His father used this particular unit while he worked in the Tandy Towers in downtown FW (that's all I know about it so far). - any IBM 5100/5110 parts (including 8" disks); an associate here in Texas has gotten their IBM 5114 disk drive unit working, so we'd be interested in maybe copying disk files over to QIC tapes, and then somehow off-system to archive. And I'm still looking for a copy of "PC51" (a 5110 BASIC emulator that ran under MS-DOS 2.0), it was by CORE NET. Probably at most only a few hundred customers bought it (at its $3000 price tag) around 1983. - any parts for a Sharp PC-5000. Mine works, but I've been looking for a Sharp CE-510F floppy disk drive (that has a "special" 37-pin connector that makes it only work with some of the Sharp models - and I've verified it is not the same as the 37-pin connector used on the IBM PC 5150 controller card). - anyone who can replace the screen on an Atari Lynx. I have the parts, just don't have the talent :) - a ThinkPad 385CD. I have one and it's in really decent condition, but thinking I'd like to have a spare. Nice thing about the 385CD is it has both 3.5" floppy and CD-ROM. [ I'm specifically looking for 486DX or Pentium, so mid-1990s, not late 1990s - I have plenty of Pentium 3's and onward; going for a "period correct" OS/2 Warp setup, even though I do have ArcaOS on some 2001-era systems ] - I guess while I'm at it, I've also been seeking for a working Datapoint 2200 (or equivalent variant, any 1974 or earlier) or Wang 2200. Even just seeing either of those in working condition would be neat (working in terms of still booting to BASIC). I was surprised I didn't see one at VCF in Dallas last year (but they did have a HP9830 and Tek4051, those were neat to see and still working).. The Wang systems have some decent emulators, but I don't recall emulators for the early Datapoints.- so I've been curious about their font and if it was as good at the brochures show. I've read that the thing that really got Datapoint some money (initially) was they pulled off crisp 80-column early on (and from the IBM SCAMP journals, I read that even IBM struggled to do 80 cols - part of why the IBM 5100 was only 64-column). I just happen to be near LA that weekend, so hopefully it works out that I can get to this VCF event. Is it the first time being held in that area? Cheers, hope weather all works out for this event! -Steve

2 years, 1 month

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Oscar's PiDP 10 parts arrived in Panama today

by jim stephens

Just saw on Twitter that the parts (main ones being front panel castings) arrived, he's going to start kitting and sending to a fulfifllment center in Florida. I'm sure the audience here knows this, but this puts as marker in the record here, since it's been ongoing for 3 years (according to Oscar). Now to figure out how to get one. thanks jim

2 years, 1 month

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Re: Vmebus

by Wouter de Waal

> >Anyone have a VMEbus system they use at least occasionally? If so, what >make/model/config? I still use a couple of PPC VME boards (DY4 / Curtiss Wright 182/183/184, both Conduction-Cooled and Air-Cooled) to test the tail end of hardware that we are still shipping (by now EOL and basically NOS). But it's work, I don't find them interesting. If someone here has the warm fuzzies for PPC VME, we can talk :-) W

2 years, 1 month

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vt220 firmware source?

by Fritz Mueller

Hi folks, I’m working on a vt220 debug/repair and have gotten to the point where I need to trace firmware execution at boot. I’ve managed to dump the proms (close to but slightly different from the versions in Lars’ GitHub) and the 8051 internal rom, and can load and disassemble these with the s51 simulator. I also have an HP 1660 logic analyzer successfully configured and clipped up to capture instruction traces. I’m about to dive in to commenting the disassembly listings, but figured I’d ping here to see if anybody might have done this already in case I wouldn’t have to start from scratch? thanks much, —FritzM.

2 years, 1 month

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Re: VCF SoCal

by Marvin Johnston

Note to those people too lazy to update their subject line... it is REALLY getting tiresome looking for information about the SoCal VCF and finding not one post giving any information about it let alone the multitude of posts seemingly with the subject line "VCF SoCal"!!! Sheesh!!! Kind of makes search totally (almost) useless. I'm still not sure of the date(s) or location except that it is in February somewhere in southern Orange County, CA USA.

2 years, 1 month

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Northstar - odd abuse of 5.25" hard sector floppy disks

by r.stricklin

I recently acquired a stash of 5.25” Northstar-related floppy disks. About half are soft sector for the Northstar Dimension, the other half are 10 sector for the Advantage 8/16. There are, however, about a dozen 10 sector floppies all modified in the same curious way: they have had a write protect sticker stuck over the index hole. Some with the sticker on top, some on bottom; can’t think of any reason that would matter as blocked is blocked. But I’ll mention it. They seem to have something to do with the Dimension, maybe, as a couple of them are marked with NetWare 1.1.1 related labels (all handwritten). There is a set of what appears to be WordPerfect install floppies (though they don’t say WordPerfect specifically) . A couple also mention the odd term “smutched”. One is actually labeled “smutch.exe”. Tim Mann’s Catweasel tool (cw2dmk) was unable to find any valid sectors on them, using the option to ignore the index pulse. I am aware that some drives won’t enable data if the pulse is missing entirely but I used a drive that doesn’t care (Teac FD-55BR - I have used it to read unpunched “flippy” disks) and still got nothing. Does the Dimension really not need the index pulse, despite otherwise using an apparently standard WD-style format? Is something else going on? Does any of this ring any bells with the collected wisdom of the list? What am I likely dealing with here, if I want to recover the contents of these disks? Thanks. ok bear.

2 years, 2 months

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Re: Qume 842 8" Disk Drive Question

by Wouter de Waal

> >The drive works perfectly for double sided disks (using the >appropriate index hole). Yea, 8" drives are a bit funny like that. You know this, because context. Some future google-ologist might not. So. 8" drives have a different index position for SS and DS. In your case I suspect either the emitter LED or the receiver phototransistor ro maybe the wiring or what ever conditioning on the PCB is b0rken for the SS sensor. Assuming of course your drive has two sensors -- I have not yet owned an 8" drive like that, the ones I have had were dedicated SS or DS. W

2 years, 2 months

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WTB: x68000 keyboard and mouse

by Ethan O'Toole

USA here, anyone have a Sharp x68000 keyboard and mouse to sell? The one that I've repaired and am trying to complete is the desktop version, black, mini-din connector. -- : Ethan O'Toole

2 years, 2 months

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Re: VCF SoCal

by Wouter de Waal

>I have found that computers are much like motorcycles: many of the >most interesting were never available in the US. Computers are much like motorcycles: many of the most interesting ones were TERRIBLE! W

2 years, 2 months

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Re: VCF SoCal

by Bill Gunshannon

On 1/31/2024 8:30 PM, mark audacity romberg via cctalk wrote: > I suppose I should’ve specified “of the versions of BASIC I’ve ever heard anyone talk about still using this century.” :P Basic09 is probably still in use on OS9000. VAX BASIC is still in use on VMS ALPHA and Itanium and is about to be released for the recent port of VMS to x86-64. I personally know of a number of rather large production systems in VMS BASIC. RSTS/E is harder to say. There are still a large number of PDP-11 sites running using both real hardware and commercial emulator systems but which OSes they are using I can't say. Could be all RT-11 and RSX-11. But then, BASIC-PLUS and BASIC-PLUS2 both run on RSX-11 as well. I just don't have much experience with RSX-11 as I never really liked it. And none of this takes into account hobbyists like me who use all of them. bill

2 years, 2 months

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Vmebus

by Bill Degnan

Anyone have a VMEbus system they use at least occasionally? If so, what make/model/config? Bill

2 years, 2 months

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NEC APC external floppy drivers needed

by Just Kant

I don't even have an APC anymore. But since this thing is eyeing me menacingly I figured I'd put the request out. Butler Flats Associates dual external 5 1/4" accoutrement, has it's own controller card (based on wd1771/1772 iirc). Contact me off list if you have these. Much appreciated. Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/) secure email.

2 years, 2 months

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ADM3a screen rot.

by William Sudbrink

A quick note on ADM3a screen rot... my vintage collection resides in a cool (60-72 degrees F) dry basement. My "pride and joy" ADM3a (I have several) was just starting to show a few bubbles at the corners last September. I was pulling out some parts units on Friday and noticed that one had a much better screen than I remembered. Thinking that I might swap screens, I took a close look at "PnJ" and discovered to my horror that most of the lower half of the screen had "melted". "PnJ" was on a shelf, below eye level, nowhere near a vent or other source of heat. I was so annoyed that I immediately started cleaning/repair without taking any pictures (sorry). Fortunately, there does not appear to be any corrosion from the "goo". I completely desoldered and removed the keyboard assembly to get all of the crud out of (and out from under) it. The mainboard is a fully socketed example and the crud is down in several of the sockets. I'm still working on that. Anyway, the take away is don't assume (like I did) that the ruined ADM3as you see are the result of temperature extremes. It can happen anywhere. Keep a close eye on yours if you have one. Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

2 years, 2 months

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11/15, 11/20 systems and parts, more

by Paul Anderson

I am working on a deal which includes several PDP11/15 or 20s. I will be looking at them next week and hope to get more details. I will look for exact model numbers and configuration.At least 2 of them have non DEC silkscreens on the front panel. Also a selection of 11/05 and 11/10 including 5 1/4 box, BA11-D, and BA11-K units. If you are interested in a box or parts please email me off list. Thanks, Paul

2 years, 2 months

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The MAC at 40

by Murray McCullough

The Apple Mac, 40 years old, came from Xerox PARC’s GUI and Apple’s LISA. Not sure that it really changed computing though! Financially it didn't help Apple until after 1997 and Gate's investment. Happy computing! Murray 🙂

2 years, 2 months

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Looking for 1970s OAK keyboard switches...

by John Robertson

I've been hunting for a while now for OAK PCB mount keyboard switches that I can't find a part number for. I've attached a product listing for the switch that shows it pretty well. DPST-NO preferred. Only $0.40 in the early '70s! Any quantity considered... Thanks! John :-#)# -- John's Jukes Ltd. 7 - 3979 Marine Way, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5J 5E3 Call (604)872-5757 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games) flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out"

2 years, 2 months

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IBM 38 on Facebook Marketplace

by Anders Nelson

I know nothing of what they're referring to, but just in case someone is interested: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1033559851065048 -- Anders Nelson www.andersknelson.com

2 years, 2 months

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WTB: Keyboard for IBM 3290-1 terminal.

by Andrew Back

Hello, I'm looking for a keyboard to use with an IBM 3290-1 terminal (DB25 connector). IBM part number 6016730 or similar. Regards, Andrew

2 years, 2 months

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Re: Can anyone (pref in USA) recover data from an old RK05 disk pack?

by Graham Toal

On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 3:05 PM Wayne S <wayne.sudol(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Can’t the pack be read and copied on the system it’s currently on? > It's not been near a computer since 1979. It's currently in Fred van Kempen's storage. Graham

2 years, 2 months

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Can anyone (pref in USA) recover data from an old RK05 disk pack?

by Graham Toal

In 1979, the Dutch team of Harry Whitfield's students writing the Groningen University Time Sharing O/S called GUTS sent an RK05 to Edinburgh for us to try out on a PDP11/60 we had access to in Steven Salter's Wavepower project lab. Ian Young spun it up and learned how to use it. After some years of being out on loan, we hope to have the disk pack returned to us this year, so I'm now looking for someone reliable who can recover very old disk packs, preferably in the USA where we can ship the pack to them, without having to go through customs and risk damage in an inspection (I remember those scary 1970's diagrams showing the comparative size of a smoke particle next to the gap between the heads and the disk surface!). To minimize the risk of damage during shipping, I'm hoping that the person who currently has it can ship it directly to whomever we can find who can read it for us, rather than to me and then to that person. I'll be happy with a raw disk read, but the GUTS file format should be backwards compatible with RT11 files so if the disk is readable I don't think we'll have trouble getting the data off, especially if the person with a pdp11 runs RT11 on it. If we can get a disk image however I think we could get it running again under emulation. Please contact me at gtoal(a)gtoal.com if you know of anyone in the US who might be able to read this disk pack, or contact them and ask them to contact me if they're interested. Thanks, Graham <gtoal(a)gtoal.com> PS We have the 3 GUTS manuals in pdf format, but that's the only GUTS documentation that we know of which survived: https://gtoal.com/history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/scans/guts/red.pdf https://gtoal.com/history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/scans/guts/orange.pdf https://gtoal.com/history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/scans/guts/yellow.pdf

2 years, 2 months

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FASTBACK Help how to recover files stored in this backup format,?

by ED SHARPE

FASTBACK bak up ptogrsm...Help how to recover files stored in this backup format,? Back when the museum was next to computer exchange Inc. Pre '94. We put out a journal once a year Over 100 pages tightly leaded would like to access files and reprint. Would need Pagemaker 3 orveoukd data files be upward compatible with indesign by adob? Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC MUSEUM PROJECT Glendale AZ Sent from AOL on Android

2 years, 2 months

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Re: Forth on the HP 3000: Alternate History

by Paul Koning

> On Jan 19, 2024, at 10:34 PM, Rodney Brown <rdbrown0au(a)gmail.com> wrote: > ... > > I'm not a polymath who keeps lots of Assembly mnemonics in my head, so I hoped the "IEEE Standard for Microprocessor Assembly Language" IEEE Std 694-1985 1985 doi:10.1109/IEEESTD.1985.81632 would have taken off. I think only the Motorola 88000 used it and C probably was far more prevalent. I think the HPPA 1.1 then started the trend of SIMD instructions, so the portability would have reduced. I had never heard of that IEEE standard, and it doesn't seem to have gone anywhere. Which makes sense; assemblers represent the architectural choices of the hardware, so standardizing them is a strange notion. You could standardize a style of construction (making it sort of a "meta-standard") but that isn't very interesting. The general style of opcode and operands had been the predominant style by then, and for a long time before. Other styles, like CDC 6000 Compass (CPU side) or stranger examples seen on Electrologica, haven't been used in ages. About the only style issue that would be nice to have consistent is ordering: does destination come first, as with ARM and IBM 360, or source first as with PDP-11 and VAX? Then again, I suppose that's just about as hard a problem as byte order. paul

2 years, 2 months

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Forth on the HP 3000: Alternate History

by Rodney Brown

Forth was ported to an HP-2100 in 1972, by Elizabeth Rather, so had early history on HP hardware, though from what I can it it was never a product available from HP. I don't know if Forth Inc ever supported Forth on HP machines. Anthony Pepin provided a Forth to the HP3000 Contributed Library in September 1982, though I think his looks like a virtual machine, I don't remember trying it in the day. Thanks to Gavin Scott's "system" and J. David Bryan's SIMH HP-3000 emulator, I can look at it now. As Anthony Pepin observed, Forth implementations at the time assumed a von Neumann architecture. The HP 3000 with a Harvard architecture implying read-only code with a different address space, needs more thought. Why Forth? I've never been a Forth programmer, but as I understand it, compilers/interpreters weren't standard with HP 3000 Systems, nor were there scripting languages like awk, sed & perhaps the Bourne shell on Unix. A Forth interpreter supporting the HP 3000's supported types & the mathematical functions in SL.PUB.SYS (the system shared library), even without compilation, would have been bettered by the Unix dc (RPN calculator) only for it's multi-precision maths. HP 3000 types (using kludged C <stdint.h> style int16_t => INTEGER, uint16_t => LOGICAL, int32_t => DOUBLE f32_hp3k_t = REAL, f48_hp3k_t => LONG REAL COMPLEX & Packed Decimal? A Forth supporting code compiled to Data space would have been a useful tool for learning & testing & perhaps as a scripting language. With Date & Actuarial procedures added, I suspect our Actuarial students would have found it useful. Don't know if it would have been seen as useful at educational institutions like RMIT here in Melbourne, Australia that had 3000s. Assemblers in Forth seem to be a common thing, it would be possible to assemble the Data space code with minor peephole optimization, and the necessary translation from modifying the Next Data instruction variable to branches in the code. That and the Dictionary entry could then be written out as an input file for PATCH.PUB.SYS, allowing the interpreter to be extended without understanding the USL format. I've finally read some of Koopman, Philip (1989) "Stack Computers: The New Wave" looked a little at his Harris RTX-2000 MS-DOS Emulator source, and at James Bowman "J1: a small Forth CPU Core for FPGAs". Like the HP 3000, the Harris RTX-20[01]0 & the J1 are 16-bit machines with a 16-bit instruction width (soley for the Harris & J1). Other than the HP 3000, the architecture use the sign bit to use the instruction value as a call-target address or decode an ALU operation with some Forth special sauce. I've wondered for a while whether the HP 3000 XEQ instruction which executes a stack adressable 16-bit word (0..15 deep on the Stack-Up stack (S register)) has been used for anything other than exiting to clean up the stack on a Ctl-Y trap. A virtual Forth machine where negative int16_t values give a negated call address, with the least-significant bit selecting Code or Data. Almost all 16-bit HP 3000 instructions are positive. Below is an SPL sketch of the virtual machine interpreter Nonsense @ characters are *Fix Me*s equate Deepest = 15, Dict'Sz = 1024, Padded'Dict'Sz = Dict'Sz + 16; integer X = X; logical PB'Address; << Poor Name>> logical bu'S'15; pointer restore'S'15; logical S'15 = S - 15; logical D'Dict'Used := 0; logical Code'Offset; label Next'Word, Execute'TOS, ... integer array D'Dict(Padded'Dict'Sz); << Code must immediately follow, need to access padding perhaps >> Next'Word: TOS := D'Dict(Code'Offset); if < then begin << Call (int16_t < 0) >> Return'Stack'X := Return'Stack'X + 1; Return'Stack(Return'Stack'X) := -((Code'Offset + 1) & LSL(1))); assemble(NEG, DUP); if TOS then begin << Odd => PB (Code) address >> PB'Address := TOS & LSR(1); Assemble (@); << Indirect Jump through PB'Address Variable >> else begin << Even Data Address >> TOS := TOS & LSR(1); assemble(DUP); if TOS >= D'Dict'Used then begin Error(@); end else begin Code'Offset := TOS; << Weak bounds check >> goto Next'Word; end; end else begin << (int16_t >= 0), HP-3000 16-bit instruction >> Execute'TOS: bu'S'15 := S'15; << Needs testing, backup the value >> @restore'S'15 := @S'15; << Save Data address of stack element >> S'15 := TOS; << Save the instruction as deep as possible >> assemble(XEQ 14); << Needs testing probably wrong depth number >> << Execute the instruction just deposited >> restore'S'15 := bu'S'15; Code'Offset := Code'Offset + 1; goto Next'Word; end; << Not sure how to handle end of the Forth code in Data Could call to a PB (Code) address or do an indirect branch through a procedure local to the handle code. So in data, a sentinal of sorts>> << Have Execute'TOS as a label for flexibily >> << Basically, Search the DB (Data) Forth dictionary, if found interpret the data code, otherwise search the PB (Code) Forth dictionary, if found jump to and execute the the code directly. >> <<Restoring & Saving the Status register around each XEQ instruction use, would be better as a teaching tool & allow using Condition Code effects when the Forth word is compiled to Code space. >> -- The output from BUILDINT.PUB.SYS over a copy of SPLINTR.PUB.SYS gives the type signatures of the System Intrinsics and compiler library routines. This could be curated & processed to generate shims for calling from the Forth interpreter, though the Option Variable Procedures would take some thought. There seem to be ~600 declarations, some of which are duplicate entry points for the Fortran compiler library for REAL & LONG REAL functions. (ie RAND & RAND' etc), so you'd need 3 or more code segments to get around ~256 STT (Segment Transfer Table) limit to call everything. Virtual Stack machines executing directly on the HP 3000 stack was what our COCAM language did. Comments? Were HP doing anything like this in the labs? Philip Koopman's Stack page at CMU http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/stack.html

2 years, 2 months

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The Sinclair QL's legacy at 40

by Liam Proven

My 1st contribution to the Register's "retro tech week" may amuse... https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/ql_legacy_at_40/ -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven(a)cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven(a)gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven IoM: (+44) 7624 277612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884 Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053

2 years, 2 months

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Re: WWVB

by Robert Feldman

>Message: 17 >Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:52:15 -0500 >From: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon(a)hotmail.com> >Subject: [cctalk] Re: WWVB >To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org >Message-ID: <SA1PR17MB5737C194F181927517114C55ED6C2(a)SA1PR17MB5737.nam prd17.prod.outlook.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > >On 1/15/2024 10:47 AM, Chris Elmquist via cctalk wrote: >> On Sunday (01/14/2024 at 09:55PM -0600), Chris Elmquist via cctalk wrote: >>> There are a number of WWVB simulator projects out there that will transmit a weak but usable signal to your clock after getting sync’d from ntp or GPS NMEA time messages. They were developed to help people develop receivers :-) One in particular uses an AVR and it should be pretty simple to make it do the “old protocol”. You’d then hide this behind your clock and it will sync to it instead of the actual WWVB signal. Solves the protocol problem and the weak signal problem from real WWVB with one little circuit. >>> >>> If Google does not provide, I can dig up some links tomorrow. >> >> Hmm. Strange. I did follow-up shortly after the above post with this >> link, >> >> https://www.instructables.com/WWVB-Simulator/ >> >> but I don't see that that made it to the list. >> >> Chris >> > >It did. I got it. > >bill Your original email with the link did not make it into the digest, which is what I receive. Chirs, Did you also send it directly to Bill. Perhaps that is what he got. Bob

2 years, 2 months

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WWVB

by Bill Gunshannon

This is kind computer related but maybe more ham radio related but I figure if anywhere, here is the place to find an answer. I have a SkyScan ATOMIC CLOCK. It is supposed to get its time from WWVB. The antenna icon that is supposed to mean it is receiving WWVB is on. Your probably wondering why I keep saying "supposed to". The clock is always wrong. Slow by about 2 minutes. Is there a known problem with WWVB? bill

2 years, 2 months

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Shugart 850/851 repair needed

by Tim Mann

Hi folks -- long time no post. I'm wondering if there's anyone who would be interested in trying to fix my Shugart 850/851 8-inch floppy drive. It was new old stock when I bought it, and hasn't been used much, but last time I tried it, it would no longer read any data from the back of a floppy, only from the front. I use it with a Catweasel and my cw2dmk software, so I was able to try a few experiments from the software side. What I see is just plain noise coming out on the data line when reading the back. It's possible of course that some unobtainium chip has gone bad, so I don't expect much. But it would be nice if someone with more electronics skill than me, and more knowledge about these drives in particular, would be willing to take a look at it. The drive is of course big and tough to ship, so it probably only makes sense for someone within driving distance (I can drive it over or you can come by), which means being in the SF Bay area. I live in Palo Alto right near downtown. FWIW, the drive and a power supply are mounted in a case that I made by ripping the guts out of a surplus desktop PC case. The power supply seems fine and the drive can read the front of disks fine. Thanks for any help, Tim

2 years, 2 months

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WTB: ASTEC BM200-3601 (PSU for HP workstation)

by Jan-Benedict Glaw

Hi! Due to a broken water line, I ended up with a blown BM200-3601 power supply in a HP workstation. These seem to be notoriously failing due to bad caps, but mine was fine until flooded. Found few offers in the USA (~ 1400 US-$), but adding taxes and shipping to Germany, that would probably end at around 2000 €. That's well beyond what I'd be willing to spend on it. :( Thanks, Jan-Benedict --

2 years, 2 months

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VCF East 2024 Hotel Blocks

by Jeffrey Brace

For those needing a decent price on hotels, check out the hotel blocks page: https://vcfed.org/vcf-east-hotel-blocks/ Thanks! Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner VCF Mid-Atlantic Event Manager Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

2 years, 2 months

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FYI: Hobbes OS/2 Archive logs off permanently in April

by Robert Feldman

From The Register: Bad news for OS/2 fans: the Hobbes OS/2 software archive is to be shuttered once and for all in April. The Hobbes OS/2 Archive<https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/>, run as a service by the Department of Information & Communication Technologies at the US New Mexico State University, has announced its impending demise. As of April 15, the site will no longer exist. According to a warning on the site: "After many years of service, hobbes.nmsu.edu will be decommissioned and will no longer be available. You the user are responsible for downloading any of the files found in this archive if you want them. These files will no longer be available for access or download as of the decommission date." https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/10/hobbes_os2_archive_shut_down/ [https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/12/20/shutterstock_switchoff.jpg]<https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/10/hobbes_os2_archive_shut_down/> The Hobbes OS/2 Archive logs off permanently in April<https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/10/hobbes_os2_archive_shut_down/> Fans of the tech dinosaur have a few months to fill their drives with software www.theregister.com

2 years, 2 months

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Re: FYI: Hobbes OS/2 Archive logs off permanently in April

by Ali

Does archive.org have an up to date mirror? -Ali

2 years, 2 months

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Re: Computhink Eagle 32 - software, docs, info?

by Wouter de Waal

Hi all Oops that went off before I was finished with it. >I suspect that I can figure out from the pattern of I/O accesses >which devices are at which address in the memory map, at least if I >bring up an emulation in MAME. That should at least allow writing >new code for it, and _maybe_ even figuring out which CRT controller >the video hardware uses and where in the memory map it is. (I >suspect the 6845 and/or 6847 just from the time period, but who >knows? Gotta see what it actually do when trying to show the âIPL >IN PROGRESSâ string contained in the ROM, or one of the couple >error strings) As far as I can tell this is where a character gets displayed. ; character in +1(A6) 00FFCE0C : 48E7 C000 MOVEM.L D0,D1,-(A7) 00FFCE10 : 302B 06AC MOVE.W +1708(A3),D0 ; get something 00FFCE14 : 6122 BSR $00FFCE38 ; do something 00FFCE16 : 0040 8000 ORI.W #$8000,D0 00FFCE1A : 11C0 8001 MOVE.B D0,$00FF8001 ; Low byte 00FFCE1E : E048 LSR.W #8,D0 00FFCE20 : 11C0 8003 MOVE.B D0,$00FF8003 ; High byte 00FFCE24 : 11EE 0001 8005 MOVE.B +1(A6),$00FF8005 ; Character 00FFCE2A : 0838 0006 801B BTST #6,$00FF801B ; Wait for a flag 00FFCE30 : 66F8 BNE $00FFCE2A 00FFCE32 : 4CDF 0003 MOVEM.L (A7)+,D0,D1 00FFCE36 : 4E75 RTS ; Here with something (from $06AC(A3)) in D0 ; current guess, it's the cursor position, which then gets translated ; to an X and a Y byte in D0.w 00FFCE38 : 0C2B 0050 06B7 CMPI.B #$50,+1719(A3) 00FFCE3E : 6628 BNE $00FFCE68 ; Return 00FFCE40 : 48C0 EXT.L D0 00FFCE42 : 81FC 0050 DIVS #$0050,D0 00FFCE46 : 4840 SWAP D0 00FFCE48 : 3200 MOVE.W D0,D1 00FFCE4A : 4840 SWAP D0 00FFCE4C : ED48 LSL.W #6,D0 00FFCE4E : 0C01 0040 CMPI.B #$40,D1 00FFCE52 : 6C08 BGE $00FFCE5C 00FFCE54 : 11FC 0000 8013 MOVE.B #$00,$00FF8013 00FFCE5A : 600A BRA $00FFCE66 00FFCE5C : 0441 0040 SUBI.W #$0040,D1 00FFCE60 : 11FC 0001 8013 MOVE.B #$01,$00FF8013 00FFCE66 : 8041 OR.W D1,D0 00FFCE68 : 4E75 RTS Or maybe it's talking to a chip (not 6845 which is memory mapped or 7220 which has two registers only) and someone recognises it? W

2 years, 2 months

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Re: Computhink Eagle 32 - software, docs, info?

by Wouter de Waal

Hi all Chris gave me a copy of the boot ROM and I played around with it a bit. >I threw the 4KB of boot ROM in Ghidra and confirmed a couple things: > >- At boot, ROM is mapped to 0, and then remapped either by a write >to the location or by a cycle counter: The initial stack pointer at >0x0 is 0x0001fffe and the initial program counter at 0x4 is >0x00ffc026, indicating the ROM is normally located at 0x00ffc000. >- The ROM freely interchanges addresses in the >0x00ffc000..0x00ffffff range and addresses in the >0xffffc000..0xffffffff range, which is annoying to deal with in Ghidra. The code takes advantage of the 68000 sign-extend on absolute short addressing mode, like move.b #$00, $8011. IDA correctly disassembles this to "move.b #0,($FF8011).w". I assume Ghidra if sign-extending it all the way to FFFF8011? >- I/O devices appear to be in the 0x00ff8000..0x00ffbfff range, all >of the devices accessed via the bootstrap seem to be barely above 0x00ff8000. >- Only NMI, bus error, interrupt 2, and interrupt 5 are set up by >the bootstrap. Yup. >- The bootstrap is very bare-bones but still has a bunch of >indirection in it; itâs obviously written in assembly, but it does >seem to have parameterization so it may support both console and serial I/O. I suspect either some low-level high-level language, or massive use of macros (which is in effect a low-level high-level language :-) Code like: ; Called with A6 pointing to a length and a string address 00FFCA4C : 48E7 8080 MOVEM.L D0,A0,-(A7) 00FFCA50 : 3016 MOVE.W (A6),D0 ; length 00FFCA52 : 48C0 EXT.L D0 00FFCA54 : 206E 0002 MOVEA.L +2(A6),A0 ; pointer to string 00FFCA58 : 508E ADDQ.L #8,A6 ; clear stack 00FFCA5A : 5380 SUBQ.L #1,D0 00FFCA5C : 6B0E BMI $00FFCA6C ; done 00FFCA5E : 518E SUBQ.L #8,A6 ; make space on stack again 00FFCA60 : 1D58 0001 MOVE.B (A0)+,+1(A6) ; one character on stack 00FFCA64 : 4EB8 C566 JSR $00FFC566 00FFCA68 : 51C8 FFF4 DBF D0,$00FFCA5E ; loop 00FFCA6C : 4CDF 0101 MOVEM.L (A7)+,D0,A0 00FFCA70 : 4E75 RTS >I suspect that I can figure out from the pattern of I/O accesses >which devices are at which address in the memory map, at least if I >bring up an emulation in MAME. That should at least allow writing >new code for it, and _maybe_ even figuring out which CRT controller >the video hardware uses and where in the memory map it is. (I >suspect the 6845 and/or 6847 just from the time period, but who >knows? Gotta see what it actually do when trying to show the âIPL >IN PROGRESSâ string contained in the ROM, or one of the couple >error strings) > Chris

2 years, 2 months

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Looking for a DG manual

by Peter Ekstrom

Hello, Does anyone have a PDF of the AOS/VS Systems internals reference manual by chance? Thanks, Peter

2 years, 2 months

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More ALGOL-68

by Mark Kahrs

I remember circa 1977 CMU had a PDP-11 compiler for '68 with an extensive runtime component. I presume the sources are lost. Peter Hibbard was the guy responsible if I recall.

2 years, 2 months

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Re: More ALGOL-68

by Paul McJones

> On Jan 6, 2024,Mark Kahrs <mark.kahrs(a)gmail.com <mailto:mark.kahrs@gmail.com>> wrote: > > I remember circa 1977 CMU had a PDP-11 compiler for '68 with an extensive > runtime component. > I presume the sources are lost. > > Peter Hibbard was the guy responsible if I recall. Yes, Peter was the author, and he also sponsored a corresponding ALGOL68 subset. My “history of Algol” web site has information here: https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/ALGOL/algol68impl/#ALGOL_68S In particular, there is a snapshot with binaries and some assembler files here: https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Applications/Algol_68/ <https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Applications/Algol_68/> and a later rewrite by C. H. Lindsey in the Amsterdam Compiler Kit here: https://github.com/davidgiven/ack/tree/default/lang/a68s https://www.clerew.man.ac.uk/#ALGOL%2068 See my web site cited above for additional information, papers, and documentation. Paul

2 years, 2 months

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86-DOS disks...

by geneb

For those interested, I've imaged a couple of super rare (actually rare, not "ebay" rare) original 86-DOS disks. https://archive.org/details/86-dos-version-0.1-c-serial-11-original-disk https://archive.org/details/86-dos-version-0.34-c-serial-221-original-disk Both will boot under simh. g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

2 years, 2 months

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Anyone have a D1 deck?

by Jim Brain

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/23/12/30/0151241/documentarians-se… -- Jim Brain brain(a)jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

2 years, 2 months

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RIP: Software design pioneer and Pascal creator Niklaus Wirth

by Liam Proven

Evangelist of lean software and devisor of 9 programming languages and an OS was 89 https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/04/niklaus_wirth_obituary/ The great man has left us. I wrote an obituary. -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven(a)cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven(a)gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven IoM: (+44) 7624 277612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884 Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053

2 years, 3 months

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IBM 5110 IMFs

by Christian Corti

Does anyone here has an actual IMF file (Internal Machine Fix) for the IBM 5110? Not the file called "IMF" on the Customer Support Functions disk/tape, but a real fix. File type should be 23. I am trying to figure out how the patch mechanism works. The IMF is supposed to be loaded with the LOADER utility. Christian

2 years, 3 months

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Re: Computhink Eagle 32 - software, docs, info?

by Wouter de Waal

Hi Chris and all >- No video board, whether text or graphics > >Since thereâs no video board in the system, and a couple of cables >internally that arenât attached to anything, I expect it was >removed by a previous caretaker. This is sad because without one >itâs unlikely to come up, not that anyone has found any software >for it. On the other hand, there are zero PALs, so both full reverse >engineering and maintenance should be straightforward. I've scanned the press releases and adverts that come up on Google and I'm going to wager it was meant to be used with one or two terminals. Nowhere do they mention a display, and the adverts show a box sitting next to a terminal. Send me a copy of the ROM binary please? W

2 years, 3 months

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VAX 4000-200 in BA215 chassis. Can I install a KFQSA card and connect the cabinet disks to it?

by thomasdzubin＠gmail.com

I have a couple of VAX 4000-200 boxen running OpenVMS. I want to try out NetBSD on them but NetBSD does not support the SHAC DSSI controller on the KA660 CPU card. However NetBSD *DOES* support the KFQSA DSSI controller which I have a few of in my VAX 3800s. Can I install the KFQSA card in my 4000-200, disconnect the internal disks from the SHAC and connect the disks to the KFQSA thereby allowing NetBSD to run? Has anyone done anything like that? Happy 2024 everyone! Thomas Dzubin Calgary, Vancouver, or Saskatoon CANADA

2 years, 3 months

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Anyone have any IO Corp 8219HP docs or info

by Peter Ekstrom

Happy New Year everyone! I was wondering if anyone happens to have any documentation or information about the 8219HP adapter by IO Corporation? It is a protocol converter from Twinax to RS232 emulating an IBM 5219 printer. I am mostly looking for information about the option/rate switches on the back. I acquired one of these for cheap recently but haven't been able to find any information about it. Thanks!

2 years, 3 months

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Axil 220/245 PSU

by Alan Perry

Does anyone here have a running Axil 220 or 245 (Sun SPARCstation LX clone)? My 220 has a dead PSU and I am trying to get it working with a modern PC PSU. But I don’t know the pinout for the power connector. While the power connector is the same as used by Sun, the pinout and, aside from +5V and GND, the wire color scheme are different. I have identified 3 of the 6 wire colors and 7 of the 10 pins. The wire color scheme seemed to be a match for early sun4c but I just found something that suggests a couple wire colors are used differently. I have found that black is ground, red is +5V, and yellow is +12V. White, orange, and blue are TBD. A marking on the PSU board suggests white is -12V. Blue and orange seem to only used by a daughter board centered on a LM339 chip. But, as a software guy, I can’t tell what it does. Anyone here have any insight here that might help me? alan

2 years, 3 months

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VCF EAST 2024 (Wall, NJ) : Registration Links and info

by Jeffrey Brace

https://vcfed.org/2023/12/31/vcf-east-2024-is-coming-april-12-13-14-infoage/

2 years, 3 months

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Re: Computhink Eagle 32 - software, docs, info?

by Chris Hanson

I picked up this system from its previous caretaker yesterday, to hold onto for a friend. I’ve also inventoried the major functional ICs and archived the “IPL-M” ROMs. Here’s what’s in the Eagle-32: - Main Logic Board - 8MHz 68000 CPU - 2x D8255 programmable peripheral interface - left 8255 is clearly for parallel and user port - right 8255 I strongly suspect is for hard disk, possibly ANSI or SASI - D8253C programmable interval timer - 2x 2651N programmable communications interface for serial ports - 2x 2716 for IPL-M 0/1 ROMs - Disk Controller Board - FD1701B-02 floppy disk controller - No video board, whether text or graphics Since there’s no video board in the system, and a couple of cables internally that aren’t attached to anything, I expect it was removed by a previous caretaker. This is sad because without one it’s unlikely to come up, not that anyone has found any software for it. On the other hand, there are zero PALs, so both full reverse engineering and maintenance should be straightforward. I threw the 4KB of boot ROM in Ghidra and confirmed a couple things: - At boot, ROM is mapped to 0, and then remapped either by a write to the location or by a cycle counter: The initial stack pointer at 0x0 is 0x0001fffe and the initial program counter at 0x4 is 0x00ffc026, indicating the ROM is normally located at 0x00ffc000. - The ROM freely interchanges addresses in the 0x00ffc000..0x00ffffff range and addresses in the 0xffffc000..0xffffffff range, which is annoying to deal with in Ghidra. - I/O devices appear to be in the 0x00ff8000..0x00ffbfff range, all of the devices accessed via the bootstrap seem to be barely above 0x00ff8000. - Only NMI, bus error, interrupt 2, and interrupt 5 are set up by the bootstrap. - The bootstrap is very bare-bones but still has a bunch of indirection in it; it’s obviously written in assembly, but it does seem to have parameterization so it may support both console and serial I/O. I suspect that I can figure out from the pattern of I/O accesses which devices are at which address in the memory map, at least if I bring up an emulation in MAME. That should at least allow writing new code for it, and _maybe_ even figuring out which CRT controller the video hardware uses and where in the memory map it is. (I suspect the 6845 and/or 6847 just from the time period, but who knows? Gotta see what it actually do when trying to show the “IPL IN PROGRESS” string contained in the ROM, or one of the couple error strings…) — Chris

2 years, 3 months

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qbert license?

by Steve Lewis

Perhaps slightly off topic, but perhaps someone here has a contact or idea on how to get started on this: Someone has done a Q-Bert port in 2023 to a new system. The title is different, but the "look and feel" (and audio) is pretty "authentic" to the original (not sure if using exactly the same original tiles and such, I believe it was all original work - but still, it's very much an arcade-style clone). We see now that Sony "owns" it these days (I seem to remember decades ago there a Q-bert cartoon? But perhaps remembering it wrong). The question is, how would one start on obtaining a license? I assume it wouldn't be cost effective (for a free casual port), but still just curious. I've tried to contact Sony in the past (on a different software title), but it's just a huge enterprise it's a bit challenging to approach. Just wondering on the off chance if maybe someone around here has gone down this road already? -Steve

2 years, 3 months

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RSTS/E questions.

by Bill Gunshannon

I am back to playing with RSTS/E 10.1 again and have a couple questions if there is still anyone around with experience. First: Is there a way to change the allowed length for passwords? Second: Is there a way to make login take the assigned name rather than the x,x format for logins? I seem to remember using a system once that did but I have no idea if it was legit or a local hack. Although I have no problem using local hacks. :-) Need to get a system going and maybe even join HECNET. I really wish there was TCP/IP for RSTS. bill

2 years, 3 months

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Sorbus Micro Handbook 1990 Update

by Jay Jaeger

I have been scanning in a lot of manuals that I have that relate to computers that are not in my collectiion, but which may be unique, or nearly so. Today I scanned in the Sorbus Micro Handbook 1990 Update, which has information provided to Sorbus FEs who might service various microcomputers. There is info in there on all sorts of stuff, including motherboard jumper/switch info up through a PS/2 model 80, for example, and lots of other manufacturer's computers and expansion cards, stuff like IOMEGA, AST, Zenith Tandon, etc. etc. It can be found in my Google drive under my directory of things I have provided for bitsavers to snag: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2v4WRwISEQRWWFFdVpCZWFTZEU&resourcekey=0… in subdirectory pdf/sorbus JRJ

2 years, 3 months

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programming the IBM PC synchronous serial boards (Northstar Advantage project)

by r.stricklin

Did IBM ever publish programming information for their PC SDLC or BiSync communications boards? I’m wondering about the possibility of programming one to drive the synchronous protocol needed for “booting” a Northstar Advantage over its serial port. Or, for that matter, wondering what Northstar had in mind when they made that protocol synchronous - what would they have had driving it? ok bear.

2 years, 3 months

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some old PC-DOS file managers

by Steve Lewis

Hey all! I'm looking for a couple "file manager" type pieces of software. I can't find them on WinWorld. First one is from about 1984-1985, possibly called DRBOSS.COM, I just remember it used IBM extended graphics for "window" borders (which were colored red) and the filenames were either in gray or green. The main feature was you could select a few files at a time, then do some operation on those selected ones. And as a .COM it was well under 64K. The other is from around 1996, and called MWIZ or Menu Wizard. Apparently there were a few variations with possibly the same/similar name. All I recall about this one is it came with both a .EXE and a .COM, and was written by a person named Tony. I believe it was available on the '96 or '97 BYTE magazine CD, and possibly also on CompuServe (I'm not current on what the state of any CompuServe archives are these days). Not urgent - just curious if they could be found. And if anyone is in an MS-DOS mood throughout the holiday break: I still find my ancient CDIR.EXE useful even in DOSBOX or on my physical IBM 5150. It is available in my utility collection archived here: https://github.com/voidstar78/VUC4DOS For other early IBM PC notes (like floppy drive emulators and NIC setup), I have some notes here: https://voidstar.blog/ibm-pc-5150-notes/ (including all about using the tape deck!) -Steve / v*

2 years, 3 months

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VT100: Replacement for B411 Transistor

by Rob Jarratt

I think I have got my VT100 basically working now except for the actual video display. I think there is a problem with the transistor that drives the flyback transformer. This is Q414 on page 58 of the Feb82 schematic on BitSavers (https://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/terminal/vt100/MP00633_VT100_Schematic_Feb82. pdf). I have removed it from the circuit and tested it with the diode tester of my multimeter. It does not test as two diodes, indeed across Collector-Base the multimeter beeps for a short circuit, and so I am fairly sure it is bad, The part is the one with the heatsink as shown in this picture: https://rjarratt.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/img_20231221_112305.jpg. I have found some information on it here: https://www.web-bcs.com/transistor/tc/b0/B411.php but the Feb82 schematic shows it is a BU407D. My video board is not exactly the same as the one in the schematic despite having the same DEC part number, but the circuit that drives the flyback is the same on the secondary side of T403, and includes the optional diode CR406 in the form of another B411 transistor that is not connected at the emitter. I am trying to identify a replacement and could do with some help identifying one. I can't find a full datasheet for the B411, all I can find is this https://www.web-bcs.com/transistor/tc/b0/B411.php, which seems to match the part I need to replace, and I have also found one for a BU407 (not BU407D) here https://www.mouser.co.uk/datasheet/2/308/1/BU407_D-2310257.pdf. I have tried to find something that meets or exceeds the voltage, current and switching time specs. I have found a couple of possible replacements and would welcome opinions on their suitability: https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2861437.pdf and https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/3033460.pdf (assuming that the switching times are a typo and they are in microseconds rather than seconds) Do these seem like suitable replacements? Thanks Rob

2 years, 3 months

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HAPPY DEC-20 DAY!

by Rich Alderson

Happy DEC-20 Day! My late friend Mark always noted that TOPS-20 (and the DECSYSTEM-20 on which it runs) was a great improvement on its successors. I wish you all a joyous Winter Solstice Festival, however you may choose to celebrate it. Rich

2 years, 3 months

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PDP 11/34 or 11/04 front panel question

by Tom Hunter

The PDP 11/34 and 11/04 front panels (both operator and programmer) use a somewhat stiff plastic sheet of 1.0 mm thickness with DEC logo, model designation, labels for the keys printed on it, cut-outs for the keypad and knob and red transparent sections for LEDs and 6 digit 7-segment display. I don't know what the industry calls this type of plastic sheet? Is it a "decal"??? This plastic sheet is (was) fixed to an anodized aluminium plate (1.6 mm thickness) using some type of glue which has deteriorated so that the plastic sheet has separated from the aluminium plate. The glue looks like it has been sprayed on and has a light yellowish-brown appearance. The glue readily dissolves in ethyl-alcohol and acetone, but is unaffected by water, petrol (gasoline) and dry cleaning fluid (white spirits). I would like to glue the plastic sheet back onto the aluminium plate, but worry about damaging the plastic sheet and/or paint by the solvents in typical glues. Also some glues don't allow any adjustment once you combine the two halves of whatever you glue together. What type of plastic is this plastic sheet likely made of (polycarbonate?) and what paint was used? I am asking to determine what solvent based glues may attack either the plastic sheet or the painted surfaces. The dark grey and transparent red paints are applied to the back side of the plastic sheet, so they are vulnerable to solvent attack when glueing. I tried ethyl-alcohol in one corner which is obscured by the cast metal surround and some of the dark gray colour came off with the alcohol and gentle rubbing. Has anyone successfully glued back the plastic sheet to the aluminium plate? If yes, what type of glue did you use and how exactly did you do the operation? Any suggestions, advice or tips? Thanks and best regards Tom Hunter

2 years, 3 months

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(no subject)

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

> > The one I haven't found yet is: f29bdg00.boo The Google suggests: http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Common_User_Access which has working links to f29al000.boo and f29bdg00.boo on IBM servers I've done a lot of work converting technical documentation archives from DCF and Bookmaster to Word and XML, but always worked from source, never .BOO.

2 years, 3 months

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Re: IBM .BOO format

by David Schmidt

On 12/11/23 1:00 PM, Liam Proven <lproven(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Does anyone have any experience with the IBM BookManager format and the > tools to read it? > > I've not found any way to open them on a Mac. No joy on Linux yet > either; there's an old unmaintained tool that uses a 32-bit Java app. > > I found 2 Windows tools. > > One, IBM Library Reader, won't install on Win11. I have it running in a Windows NT VM, and it prints to PDF using BullZip just fine. Do you want to point to the library you want to convert, and I can run this over them?

2 years, 3 months

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Re: 6800 fig-FORTH?

by Doug Jackson

Hi Stephen, Sorry to use your Fig Forth thread - I too have a Corsham 6809 system, with a SD card - I can not for the life of me figure out what files / how to put stuff onto the SD card to boot - either Basic or Flex/09. If you had success down the Fig route that would also be great - but do you remember how to use the SD system? Kindest regards, Doug Jackson em: doug(a)doughq.com ph: 0414 986878 Follow my amateur radio adventures at vk1zdj.net On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 at 05:16, Stephen Pereira via cctech < cctech(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > Hi folks, > > I know there's not much 6800 activity here, but I figure this would be > worth a try. > > Has anyone here ever seen or ever had fig-FORTH for the 6800 working? > > I have a SWTPC replica system from Bob Applegate / Corsham Technologies, > and I love it. It came with a complete 64K RAM, as well as the SWIBUG > monitor, and the monitor code has been extended by Bob/Corsham to interface > with an SD Card sub-system for floppy disk emulation. This provides the > original terminal access to the machine with the simple system monitor, and > also the FLEX OS for running programs. It is a blast to use. > > Recently, I took a look around and found the fig-FORTH listing as > originally published back in 1979, and also a Source Forge site that holds > an electronic copy: > > https://sourceforge.net/projects/asm...th_6800-stuff/ < > https://sourceforge.net/projects/asm68c/files/fig-forth_6800-stuff/> > > I've managed to get the source code to assemble with a cross-assembler > supplied by Bob/Corsham. It does not produce an exact copy of the original > code, because the code uses the JMP instruction pretty much exclusively, > and the assembler substitutes a relative BRA instruction sometimes. So my > code ends up being several bytes shorter because of saving one byte each > time a JMP is replaced by a BRA. That said, it appears to me that the code > matches up with the original listing otherwise. > > So my problem is this: When I run the code on my system, fig-FORTH seems > to sign on, and will accept input from the keyboard (double echos of each > key typed) but it then does not proceed to interpret the command entered. > The interesting thing I see by winding my way around in the code is that it > has already properly performed a bunch of setup and produces the initial > "Forth-68" sign on, and that has required it to already be using many of > the Forth commands that were defined by machine language. This indicates to > me that some of the command interpretation is working. The I/O from/to the > terminal is by calls to the system monitor I/O routines, and that seems to > be also working, despite the double echos of the typed characters. It just > does not proceed to interpret what is typed in at all. > > Of course, I have no idea if this code ever worked properly, or if I am > encountering early buggy code. So I'm looking to see if anyone else has > ever seen the fig-FORTH working on a 6800 system? Any pointers to good > working code? > > Thanks for listening! > > smp > - - - > Stephen Pereira > Bedford, NH 03110 > KB1SXE > > >

2 years, 3 months

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Vintage Computer Festival 6 talks recovered!

by Jeffrey Brace

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

2 years, 3 months

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IBM .BOO format

by Liam Proven

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

2 years, 3 months

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

by Jeffrey Brace

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

2 years, 3 months

1
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Datapoint 2200 simulator - looking for more software.

by Mattis Lind

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

2 years, 3 months

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VCF East 2024 Pre-Event Survey Results

by Jeffrey Brace

https://bit.ly/vcfe2024pre_results

2 years, 3 months

1
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3D printing the Difference Engine

by Chuck Guzis

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

2 years, 3 months

2
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Ampex and the DG Compatible Market

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 4 months

5
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VCFed warehouse closure reminder

by Thomas G

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

2 years, 4 months

1
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SMS Scientific Micro Systems corp history?

by Shoppa, Tim

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

2 years, 4 months

3
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Trouble with a Samsung monitor

by Van Snyder

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

2 years, 4 months

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Signetics 3000KT8080SK bit slice 8080 emulator

by Mike Stein

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

2 years, 4 months

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Burroughs TD700

by Mike Stein

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

2 years, 4 months

4
6
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Current SOA scsi disk emulators for DEC

by Douglas Taylor

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

2 years, 4 months

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Re: Current SOA scsi disk emulators for DEC

by Craig Ruff

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

2 years, 4 months

1
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Re: Unknown Viewsonic monitor flashes Red-Blue-Green-White

by Gregory Beat

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

2 years, 4 months

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Unknown Viewsonic monitor flashes Red-Blue-Green-White

by Van Snyder

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

2 years, 4 months

5
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VT100 Monitor Board

by Rob Jarratt

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

2 years, 4 months

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Intel 4004

by Murray McCullough

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

2 years, 4 months

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Re: Intel 4004

by Rick Bensene

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

2 years, 4 months

3
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It's been a while - retirement project

by Dave Dunfield

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

2 years, 4 months

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It's been a while - retirement project

by Dave Dunfield

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

2 years, 4 months

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Pre-event survey: VCF East 2024

by Jeffrey Brace

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

2 years, 4 months

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It's been a while - retirement project

by Dave Dunfield

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

2 years, 4 months

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Re: Intel 4004(sp?)

by Dave Dunfield

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

2 years, 4 months

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iPaqs free to good home (UK)

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 4 months

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Re: VT100 Monitor Board

by Dave Dunfield

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

2 years, 4 months

2
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Available in Germany: PDP 11/23 Plus with two RL02 drives in a H9642 cabinet

by P Gebhardt

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

2 years, 4 months

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It's been a while - retirement project

by silcreval

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

2 years, 4 months

2
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Hayes numeric codes

by RETRO Innovations

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

2 years, 4 months

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Nice 32 dollar goodie to display your 4004 in!

by ED SHARPE

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

2 years, 4 months

1
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Re: Intel 4004(sp?)

by Smith, Wayne

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

2 years, 4 months

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Re: Intel 4004

by ED SHARPE

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

2 years, 4 months

1
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Two items for RSTS/E

by Paul Koning

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

2 years, 4 months

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List of DEC boards

by Rod Smallwood

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

2 years, 4 months

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Address wrapping in PDP-11 MMU

by Paul Koning

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

2 years, 4 months

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

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 4 months

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

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 4 months

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Need a SCSI 1/2' tape drive

by steve shumaker

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

2 years, 4 months

4
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Tektronix 4404

by adambillyard＠googlemail.com

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

2 years, 4 months

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

by Jeffrey Brace

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

2 years, 4 months

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Installing DEC C on RSTS/E

by Paul Koning

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

2 years, 4 months

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Announcement of VCFed warehouse closure & improvements

by Thomas G

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

2 years, 4 months

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

by Jeffrey Brace

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

2 years, 5 months

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Greaseweazle part 2

by Tony Duell

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

2 years, 5 months

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Ultrix 11 installation and ZULU SCSI Disc Emulator

by hupfadekroua

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by erik＠baigar.de

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Mark Perullo

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by hupfadekroua

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

2 years, 5 months

3
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PDP 11/40 power supply question

by Marc Howard

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: PDP 11/40 power supply question

by Kirk Davis

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

2 years, 5 months

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PDP11 and Ultrix 11

by hupfadekroua

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by ED SHARPE

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

2 years, 5 months

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Tandy Model 6000 w/XENIX

by Bill Gunshannon

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Jeffrey Brace

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

2 years, 5 months

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PDP11 Dilog SQ706a SCSI Controller

by hupfadekroua

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

2 years, 5 months

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M7846 RX11 Unibus floppy controller board documentation?

by Tom Hunter

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

2 years, 5 months

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IBM 5100 discussion

by Christian Corti

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: IBM 727 tape drive

by Len Shustek

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

2 years, 5 months

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Obsolete Parts.... Unicorn Electronics

by D. Resor

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Rob Jarratt

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

2 years, 5 months

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List of DEC boards - Offers invited.

by Rod Smallwood

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Rob Jarratt

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Geert Rolf

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

2 years, 6 months

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What happened to the PDP-8 on ebay?

by Bill Degnan

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

2 years, 6 months

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GEAC

by Bill Gunshannon

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

2 years, 6 months

4
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Microcom S-64 8085 system

by Wouter de Waal

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

2 years, 6 months

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Soviet tube/transistor/IC spec source

by Shoppa, Tim

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

2 years, 6 months

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The World Wide Web

by Murray McCullough

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

2 years, 6 months

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Possible DC012 Control Chip Fault on a VT100

by Rob Jarratt

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

2 years, 6 months

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Re: Microcom S-64 8085 system

by Wouter de Waal

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

2 years, 6 months

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Documentary on the SKALA computer of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

by Sellam Abraham

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

2 years, 6 months

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Shelves / Rails for DEC Racks Questions

by Jay Jaeger

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

2 years, 6 months

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

by Jeffrey Brace

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

2 years, 6 months

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Re: Free Fujitsu M2444 6250 BPI tape drive

by Len Shustek

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

2 years, 6 months

4
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Theory of operation of DEC H7441 regulator?

by Tom Hunter

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

2 years, 6 months

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Free Fujitsu M2444 6250 BPI tape drive

by Len Shustek

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

2 years, 6 months

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DEC VT36 Color Graphics Display Control System

by Hans-Ulrich Hölscher

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

2 years, 6 months

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Re: Vintage Computer Systems for sale

by Stephen Pereira

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

2 years, 6 months

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Vintage Computer Systems for sale

by Stephen Pereira

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

2 years, 6 months

2
1
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Vintage Computer Systems for sale

by Stephen Pereira

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

2 years, 6 months

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IBM VM "CMS" tape format

by Chuck Guzis

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

2 years, 6 months

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Any leads on Fairlight sampler that needs repair?

by Ethan O'Toole

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

2 years, 6 months

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Re: IBM VM "CMS" tape format

by Adam Thornton

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

2 years, 6 months

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WTD: transputer multi-cpu isa card

by Tony Jones

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

2 years, 6 months

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IBM 727 tape drive

by Christian Corti

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

2 years, 6 months

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

by Rob Jarratt

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

2 years, 6 months

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Concorde cabin display technology?

by Shoppa, Tim

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

2 years, 6 months

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

by Sellam Abraham

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

2 years, 6 months

3
2
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WTB: IBM 9221 ESCON card

by Kevin Bowling

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

2 years, 6 months

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

by silcreval

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

2 years, 6 months

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1
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Re: Looking for an original Sun PS2 ->Sun keyboard adapter 370-2068

by silcreval

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

2 years, 6 months

1
0
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Comparing PDP-8 processor flipchip

by Bill Degnan

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

2 years, 6 months

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

by Ian F

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

2 years, 6 months

3
2
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For Fred, especially: "Everything I know about floppy disks"

by Liam Proven

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

2 years, 6 months

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Anyone in Sheffield uk?

by Ethan O'Toole

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

2 years, 6 months

2
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PDP-8/L $15,000

by Bill Degnan

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

2 years, 6 months

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Re: 8" DSDD to USB MSD?

by Wayne S

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

2 years, 6 months

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

by Fred Cisin

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

2 years, 6 months

2
2
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Teletype Exhibit at VCFMW

by Eric Moore

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

2 years, 6 months

1
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VCF MW 2023 recap (Fri/Sat only)

by Steve Lewis

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

2 years, 6 months

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VCFMW

by Paul Anderson

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

2 years, 6 months

4
10
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NS32k software on Ebay

by Mattis Lind

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

2 years, 6 months

16
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8" DSDD to USB MSD?

by Anders Nelson

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

2 years, 6 months

5
7
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NewtonOS

by David Arnold

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

2 years, 6 months

8
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SCO on Virtualbox

by KenUnix

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

2 years, 6 months

10
13
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Setup for VCFMW

by Mike Katz

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

2 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Apollo motherboard 013034, 246402-01 available

by Paul Anderson

Dated 1988, refurb?

2 years, 6 months

1
0
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Re: Walter Shawlee of Sphere, RIP

by John Ball

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

TI 960

by Christian Corti

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

2 years, 7 months

10
18
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Walter Shawlee of Sphere, RIP

by Lyle Bickley

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
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VCFMW

by Paul Anderson

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Key to Disk Terminal Video

by Eric Moore

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Language Creators Charity Fundraiser (Seattle Sept 19th)

by Gavin Scott

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Silly question about S-100 and video monitors

by W2HX

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

2 years, 7 months

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

by Rick Bensene

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

2 years, 7 months

15
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Re: VCFMW Anybody got an Emulex QD21?

by Mark Matlock

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
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SDF Interim Computer Festival

by Tarek Hoteit

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

2 years, 7 months

3
3
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Little Databases

by Adam Thornton

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

2 years, 7 months

8
10
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Plotter or Chart Recorder pens - in UK

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
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IBM 1620 Model 2 software wanted

by Dave Babcock

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

2 years, 7 months

3
4
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Signetics N8220B ??

by Holm Tiffe

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

2 years, 7 months

5
5
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vcfmw

by Paul Anderson

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Gould Systems 32/77 Acquired (superminicomputer)

by Eric Moore

https://youtu.be/utAd_uZryDE

2 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Apple 1

by Murray McCullough

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

2 years, 7 months

13
19
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Emacs on v7

by Adam Thornton

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

2 years, 7 months

3
3
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Re: Apple 1

by Bill Gunshannon

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

2 years, 7 months

16
28
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fredmacs?

by Adam Thornton

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

2 years, 7 months

4
4
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Disk-pack-based drives at LCM

by P Gebhardt

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

2 years, 7 months

7
8
0 0

NGPL TCS - 1969 Industrial Control

by Eric Moore

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

2 years, 7 months

5
6
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SunPC

by silcreval

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

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

by John H. Reinhardt

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

2 years, 7 months

14
21
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Dec Vax in Simh - VMS Operating system

by devin davison

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

2 years, 7 months

3
2
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Divestiture and sqlite3

by Adam Thornton

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

2 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

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

by Jonathan Stone

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

2 years, 7 months

25
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Disposition of stuff

by Adam Thornton

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

2 years, 7 months

4
3
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Re: Disposition of stuff

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Nixies..

by Holm Tiffe

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

2 years, 7 months

4
6
0 0

Good Inventory Program

by Evan Linwood

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

2 years, 7 months

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

by Mark Matlock

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

2 years, 7 months

13
27
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2026

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cctalk