- cctalk - classiccmp.org

by Lars Brinkhoff

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

2 years, 4 months

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3/16ths inch ink ribbon

by Eric Moore

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

2 years, 4 months

4
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RQDX3's: Lessons learned.

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 5 months

7
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After more than three years, U of Iowa's PDP-8 project active again

by William Sudbrink

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

2 years, 5 months

8
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Q-BUS Boards available

by David Coolbear

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

2 years, 5 months

4
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Formatting and using RQDX3's and 2190's.

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 5 months

5
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Re: ST512 [WAS:RE: Re: Nuking an MFM drive with a magnet, format/servo gone?]

by Tom Gardner

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

2 years, 5 months

1
0
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Formatting and using RQDX3's and 2190's.

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 5 months

1
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ZFS, was [... GreaseWeazle ..]

by emanuel stiebler

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

2 years, 5 months

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CD-R, DVD-R media available

by David Barto

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

2 years, 5 months

5
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1975 Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter

by Tarek Hoteit

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

2 years, 5 months

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Computer Museum uses GreaseWeazle to help exonerate Maryland Man

by rar＠syssrc.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: HP 41-CX

by David Brownlee

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

2 years, 5 months

2
1
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PKBACK Floppies?

by Zane Healy

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

2 years, 5 months

5
10
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Aging of unused CD-R media

by Zane Healy

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

2 years, 5 months

4
3
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DLOAD BASIC command for Color Computer 1/2 heritage

by Jim Brain

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

2 years, 5 months

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windows reports contents of previous floppy

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

5
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Framework vs. Symphony

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: Miscellaneous UCSD Pascal stuff I've found

by David Barto

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

2 years, 5 months

1
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Miscellaneous UCSD Pascal stuff I've found

by David Barto

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

2 years, 5 months

1
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the mouse vs. touch sensitive devices

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Jerry Wright

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

2 years, 5 months

4
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QIC replacement tension band

by BogDan Vatra

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

2 years, 5 months

3
3
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QIC tension band replacement

by BogDan Vatra

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

2 years, 5 months

2
2
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Mac System 7.1 or 7.5 question

by Zane Healy

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

2 years, 5 months

2
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DEC 11/60's

by Jerry Wright

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

2 years, 5 months

2
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cctalk archives not updating

by Tom Hunter

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

2 years, 5 months

7
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Multibus card haul

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

2
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DEC VR14 TO-3 heat-sink socket?

by Tom Hunter

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

2 years, 5 months

1
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Quoting/replying etiquette. (was: Re: I need to make some space.)

by Stan Sieler

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

2 years, 5 months

44
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in need of 2.5" disks

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

9
14
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Re: Excellent CHM Article on Apple Lisa Software (Apple Archive)

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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HP3000 recently deinstalled available in Colorado for nothing.

by Technoid Mutant

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

2 years, 5 months

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68k textbooks

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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Contact for HP3000 minicomputer:

by Technoid Mutant

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

2 years, 5 months

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Excellent CHM Article on Apple Lisa Software

by Lee Courtney

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

2 years, 5 months

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Philips P2000C restoration

by Tony Duell

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

2 years, 5 months

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Restoring floppy disk images to their rightful media

by Tony Duell

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

2 years, 5 months

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Philips P2000C add-ons.

by Tony Duell

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

2 years, 5 months

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Rejected messages

by Bill Gunshannon

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

2 years, 5 months

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any COCO enthusiasts

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: any COCO enthusiasts

by Marvin Johnston

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 5 months

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Sun 3/110 CPU board schematic?

by Kurt Nowak

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 5 months

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USB Attached 5.25" drives?

by Zane Healy

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

2 years, 5 months

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HPE StorageWorks DAT 40 USB Tape Drive questions

by Stan Sieler

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

2 years, 5 months

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IBM PC/XT and NEC "gold" tam

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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Searching documentation for

by jf.secker＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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2 sets of IRIX, 2 Indys and I1

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

2 years, 5 months

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

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: USB Attached 5.25" drives?

by Bill Gunshannon

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

2 years, 5 months

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scsi

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Andrew Warkentin

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

2 years, 5 months

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fs: 2x IBM PCjr mobos (NJ)

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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fs: 2 x Atomic Pis

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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Disk pack production tools

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by rar

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

2 years, 5 months

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Fw: Re: AI applied to vintage interests

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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LINC-8 sells for $2,150

by Sellam Abraham

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Bob Roswell

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

2 years, 5 months

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AI applied to vintage interests

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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ebay: GE reel tape drives from the 60s

by P Gebhardt

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

2 years, 5 months

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Damage to CD-R from CD Sleeve

by Zane Healy

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

2 years, 5 months

15
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Positive Logic vs. Negative Logic Controller in DEC TU56

by Bill Degnan

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

2 years, 5 months

2
3
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WPS-8 vs. WPS-200

by Chuck Guzis

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

2 years, 5 months

2
2
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Re: I need to make some space...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

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

2 years, 5 months

2
1
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I need to make some space...

by William Sudbrink

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

2 years, 5 months

1
0
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PDP-11/40 for sale in New Zealand

by Bruce Ray

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

2 years, 5 months

1
0
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Gotek as RX50 replacement for DECmate II

by hush＠dec.dog

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

2 years, 5 months

3
4
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Re: Reading Old Floppies

by Tarn Alcock

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

2 years, 5 months

1
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Reading Old Floppies

by Zane Healy

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

2 years, 5 months

15
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old HP scope with SMA connectors

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

1
0
0 0

large HP monitors need home/s

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

2
2
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DEC LINC Eight auction

by steve shumaker

Popped up in a search: A DEC LINC Eight up for auction in Friedens, PA. https://hibid.com/lot/143159802/digital-equipment-corp-linc-eight-vintage Currently has a single bid for $1.00.... They are even offering shipping! Visually looks to be in excellent shape https://cdn.hibid.com/img.axd?id=7750162854&wid=&rwl=false&p=&ext=&w=0&h=0&… Steve

2 years, 5 months

11
14
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Restoring unknown format backup tapes

by John Herron

This may be a larger conversation than I intend but how would you all generally start if you ha backup tapes that you wanted to try and read/restore? Supposedly they're Amiga qic tapes. I'm a little worried about the structural integrity of the tapes. Not knowing what software was used, would this be a literal job for something like tar via a Linux system? Then see if I can interpret the dump and sort out files afterwards? I might see if a local group wants to help play with this effort since I think I only have 1 drive in unknown condition.

2 years, 5 months

6
7
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Diablo series 30 or Dec RK03

by jake utley

Hello everyone I’m a young collector (18) of 60s and 70s minicomputers and micros. I have been restoring a PDP-8L and would love to find ether a Diablo series 30 or Dec RK03 removable cartridge drive to go with this system. I am in the uk South Yorkshire to be precise and would love any leads anyone could provide on where I could find one would very much appreciated. If nobody know where one of these drives can be located any means of mass storage for a pdp 8L and data general nova system will be appreciated since I want to move my collection forward and have the systems set up with full period setups. Thanks very much in advance. Jake

2 years, 5 months

6
10
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Re: PT-68K

by Wouter de Waal

Hi all I get the digest so I lag. >From: skogkatt007(a)yahoo.com > >It's a IBM PC form factor 68000 based project that was featured in >Radio Electronics. Anyone remember it or even know what I'm talking >about? It would be a fun prokect. Come on over to "List: <fufu(a)flexusergroup.com>" there are people still running those. Peter Stark passed away September last year. There's also Ingo Cyliax' 68030 box, also PC form-factor and ISA. W

2 years, 5 months

4
3
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DEC/HP computers from deceased collector (nr Andover UK)

by Chris Bryant

Through a mutual friend I've been shown a collection of computers: MicroVAX 3400 - the module complement is KA640-AA/MS650-AA, MS650-AA, CXY08-M, TQK70 (with a TK70 drive), M9060-YA. In a floor-standing enclosure with "BA213 CPU Mod" on the label, and Model 640QS-B3 Alphastation 200 4/233 - there are three of these Compaq AlphaServer DS10 Vaxstation 3100 also HP Visualise C3000 - a pair The widow believes they were working when last used. They are available free to a good home/modest donation. Photos etc available. Chris

2 years, 5 months

5
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WTB: IBM 700/c

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

preferably working. Or known screen issues but otherwise working. the mono version intrigues me (model 700). But I need a color unit to test out all these screens I have sitting here. Now if anyone should need a NOS screen for a 700c, email me directly. No flim flam on everyone's screen.

2 years, 5 months

2
1
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Downsizing "feeler"

by George Currie

Greetings all, it's "that time", the time I've finally accepted that I no longer have the time/energy/space to devote to this collection/restoration hobby that I've been able to enjoy for several decades now.During this time, I've managed to amass a pretty sizeable amount of hardware, software, manuals, etc. We're talking half a garage, part of a large shed and a storage rental's worth of stuff. I need to go through and hit some highlights, but there are things from rack mount PDP-10's, an SGI (Challenge XL rack, Indy's), tons of old Macs (original, 512, original, Portable, etc), Lisa, Apple II, Commodore, TRS80, Grid, HERO robots, DG Aviion, HP PA-RISC, MIPS system, early luggables (e.g. Zenith), boxes of ISA cards, etc, etc, etc. A good 20ft uhaul trucks worth of stuff.There is no way I can piece meal stuff, so I'd be looking for someone, or an org like a museum, who is willing to take the whole enchilada.This is an early feeler before I start doing actual inventory to see if a) is anyone interested in/capable of dealing with a large collectionb) is anyone aware of someone, or a museum, that may be interestedI know I'm a bit light on the details, and we all know where the devil lives. But this is the first step.The collection is located in Central Texas.TIA for any interest, leads, pointers, sympathy, ridicule, etc.George

2 years, 5 months

7
9
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loading vt220 fonts

by David Griffith

I'm trying to figure out how to created and load a "soft character set" into a vt220 terminal. These documents: https://vt100.net/shuford/terminal/dec_vt220_codes.txt, and https://vt100.net/docs/vt510-rm/DECDLD.html, seem to talk about how to do it, but I don't follow this well. I'm guessing the fonts are made up of escape sequences. Then I guess they are loaded by simply printing them to the terminal. If that's the case, where are the examples of such sequences? Playing around with vttest, there's an option to "Test Soft Character Sets" in the "VT220 Tests" menu. But I get the error message "You did not specify a font-file with the -f option". Where can I find examples of that file? Putting these together, I'm guessing what vttest wants is a file containing sequences described in those two documents. So, where do I go from here? -- David Griffith dave(a)661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

2 years, 5 months

8
11
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How to print old files.

by ben

How do you print old files in ASCII 63 to modern devices, so you keep the ← and ↑ 's and not printing _ and ^ ? Ben.

2 years, 6 months

7
10
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DEC and compatible boards for sale

by Mike Katz

An acquaintance of mine as the following boards for sale. Please email him directly at bojo7777(a)yahoo.com if you are interested. Please mention the board number and box when emailing him. Please forgive any cross posting. DEC Boards Box QTY. DEC # BUS Number Description d 1 3010-5004 d 2 3010-6001 d 3 3010-6002 d 1 3010-6003 d 2 3010-6006 d 3 3010-6007 d 1 3010-6008 c 1 9400-6201 c 1 9400-6202 c 1 9400-6203 c 1 9400-6214 d 1 9901-5040 d 1 9901-6047 e 1 B212 Dual RS FF, Dus Driver Out, Delayed & Not Delayed RS Inputs b 1 G190Control & Data card Loops G109 / 5009709H f 1 U G7273 Bus Grant and Non-Processor Grant Jumper i 1 LPWR GS-2 e 2 M101 (one has front half of tab broken) Bus Data Interface (2 inpout gates, 15 circuits, 1 common and 1 independent input e 4 M111 16 Independent Inverters e 5 M113 10-2 Input NAND Gates e 1 M302 2 One Shot Delays i 1 M3110 i 1 M3111 b 1 M3112 j 1 U M5903 MASSBUS Terminal Transceiver g 3 U M5922 RM03 Transceiver Port A b 1 VMV21 U M7067 Video Display Sys:Sync Generator & Character Generator (64-Char x 25 lines) i 1 KDF11-UA U M7133 11/24 CPU Board, line clock & 2 SLUs i 1 KDF11-UA U M7133 11/24 CPU Board, line clock & 2 SLUs g 1 RK11-D U M7255 RK05 Disk Control Module b 1 M7684 control sequencer RM02/RM03 Control Sequencer i 1 M7686 control interface RM02/RM03 Control Interface i 1 RL11 U M7762 RL01/02 Disk Drive Controller i 1 DEUNA U M7792 DEUNA Port Module.Unibus to Ethernet Controller e 1 U M783 Bus Transmitters 12 Drivers e 1 U M783 Same part# as above but longer version board Bus Transmitters 12 Drivers e 1 U M785 Bus Transceiver, 8 Drivers/8 Receivers e 3 U M785 Same part# as above, but longer version board Bus Transceiver, 8 Drivers/8 Receivers g 1 DL11-W U M7856 SLU & Realtime Clock Option c 1 DUP11-DA U M7867 SDLC or DDCMP Synchronous Interface h 2 DRV11-B Q M7950 16-bit DMA Parallel Gneral Purpose Interface a 1 MSV11-CD Q M7955 LSI MOS memory (missing tabs on front) 16K x 16 MOS RAM with on board refresh h 1 RLV11 Q M8014 RLV11 Bus control RL01 Bus Controller Board 2 f 1 MSV11-DD Q M8044 DC 32K x 16 MOS RAM f 1 MSV11-DD Q M8044 DM 32K x 16 MOS RAM h 1 RLV12 Q M8061 RL01/RL02 Disk Control, 22 bit address a 1 M8093 RM02/RM03 c 1 M8278 RM02/RM03 a 1 TM02-FE U M8901 Data Synchronizer 75 IPS Drives (Tu16) a 1 TM02-FE U M8901 YB Data Synchronizer 75 IPS Drives j 1 M8912 TU16 Slave Test Function Generator b 1 M8916 Logic and Write RM02/RM03 Logic And Write g 1 M8932 RM02/RM03 a 1 M8934 RM02/RM03 f 1 M9001 YC Bus Conneector, 2 H854's Bussed Together, All signals come out, 8 lines jumpered to ground, terminated. j 1 Q M9047 Grant Continuity f 1 U M9312 Bootstrap Terminator w/5 ROM Sockets e 2 NAND gates If this is an M937 it is an internal PDP-8/E Internal Bus Connector Mirror of M936 i 1 G231EPDP II memory driver G231E XY Selection, Current Source, Address Latch & 8K Decode b 1 S TK TU16 Read Amp board 5012235C RM02/RM03 Tk Tu Read Amp Board C e 1 TP-0109 8 bit counter regulator RM02/RM03 Bit Counter Regulator g 1 W940 * Has 10 rows of 5 per row inserts for ic chips, but no chips on board.* Wire Wrap Board with pins on component side f 1 W941 Wire Wrap Board with holes for 25 16 pin Ics j 1 W943 Wire Wrap Board with sockets for 25 16 pin Ics h 1 Q W9514 W912 Wire Wrap Module with 25 pre-mounted DIP sockets Stu Phillips Quantity Description Bus Additional Description 1 306A 1 DAC-II Rev-B Andromeda systems Q Digital to Analog Converter (4 Channels, 12 bits) 1 MSI-11 Andromeda systems Q Multiple Serial Interface (4 Serial, 1 can be used for parallel printer) 4 303-0225 2 303-0171-001P5 has 4 rows of 8 chips 1 No PN: looks identical to 303-0171P5 but no chips on it. ADAC Quantity Descripton 2 MO: 1900 D4-10060 rev-7 U Unibus from qbus translator 1 MO: 1012 EX C3 10112 rev-1 LSI-11 12 bit ADC, 16 single ended or 8 double ended channels 2 1616 / 32 HCO LSI-11 16 channel High Current latched outputs 4 1632TTL D4-10035 Rev-2 LSI-11 32 I/O lines, 8 latched outputs.DRV11 compatible 3 1616CCI C4-10064 Rev-2 LSI-11 16 contact closure inputs, debounced and latched 1 1604 POC C3-10198 Rev-1 Misc. Boards Quantity Description 1 MDA / ICRO Development Associates MXV21 LSI-11 Dual Density RX02 Compatible controller 1 Babbl-Pac MBB-11A LSI-11 46K Bubble Memory Board (needs MBC-11 Controller) 1 Southern Systems Inc. PDP Line Printer controller assy No: 9060 rev-B 1 Kennedy Co. Ramp Generator 5733 Part of a Kennedy Magnetic Tape Drive I think 1 Texas Instruments Remote Device control Bd# 973900 1 ? AYMV MIC-1-1 is only thing written on board 1 Computer Technology DMA-L11 LSI-11 16 bit DMA PIO Interface 1 Nortek AAM-11L LSI-11 Auto-answer/Auto-Dial low speed modem/serial interface 1 AKCX 76972300FPPGRX32 and 7692202 rev-A are only things written on board 1 PPDRX18RB / 54302906B 2 Applicon Extender short PL-31370-001

2 years, 6 months

1
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PDP-11 System Identification Register

by Martin Bishop

Can't find very much information about the PDP-11 System Identification Register : RO at 77777764 The occasional processor handbook says not implemented or the 11/xy reports num. Interogative : information sources, e.g. a tabulation of known values Martin

2 years, 6 months

2
1
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Thinking of selling my 11/23+

by Charles

Is there any interest in my working 11/23+ system? I rarely run it any more, but don't know what it's worth. Corporate cabinet, VT220 console, 4 MB RAM, two RL02 drives (RT-11XM, TSX-Plus 6.50), interface for 3.5" floppy drive, 16 serial ports. Located in south central Missouri so pickup would be greatly preferred :) thanks Charles

2 years, 6 months

2
1
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Altos 386 series 1000 installation disks & tape

by BogDan Vatra

Hello there, Earlier this December I got an Altos 386 series 1000 with lots of documentation and some installation floppy disks and one tape. I must say that it's an amazing machine! I'd like to reinstall the os but I have two problems: 1. It can not access the floppy drive. I tried it with another one, but still no joy. Does anyone have any schematics of the motherboard? I ordered a new floppy controller but in case the controller is not the faulty piece I'll need some schematics to track the problem. 2. I could clone some of the floppy disks on another computer but not all of them. I also found that the tape is overwritten with something else. Does anyone have these installation media? I'm missing sdx v3.6s0, aom menu shell v 3.0s2, Altos system v rts upd V5.3es2 and the tape Altos system v rts v5.3eT2 (utilities). Anyone know how to contact the Altos folks? Maybe they still have and are kind to share the installation media and the schematics. I have cloned Altos system v rts v5.3es2 (root), Altos multiview 1.6.2s0 two disks and the HDD. Btw, none of the Linux filesystem modules could not mount the hdd, therefore I created one based on fuse. If anyone needs such a thing you can find the srcs here : https://github.com/bog-dan-ro/altos . Happy new year! Yours, BogDan. P.S. I contacted Al from bitsavers, and my floppy disks clones will land to his collection (http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/bits/Altos/386-series/) P.S.' Al's tape image clone has a strange tar like format, does anyone know what's the exact format? I'd like to create a tool to extract them...

2 years, 6 months

3
3
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Old QIC02 tape drive problems

by Nigel Johnson Ham

Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591 Happy New Year everybody. Pleased with my success at getting a QIC02 drive running through an MTI MSV05B on my RT11 system today, my jaw dropped when I did a DIR MS0: and saw the pulley turning and the tape not moving, as liquid rubber starting accumulating on the drive belt! It turns out that the rubber wheel inside the TK25 cartridge had melted. OK, the cartridge goes in the bin, but has anybody found a way to clean the residue off the drive without damaging the drive belt? As always, any advice (other than to dump the whole thing :-) ) gratefully accepted. Nigel

2 years, 6 months

1
0
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Re: How to print old files.

by Alan Frisbie

ben <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca> wrote: > What I would like to get is a serial printer (rs232), with a definable > character set. Does any one know of a cheap one? Probably not cheap unless you get lucky, but an excellent choice would be the Toshiba P1351 (not to be confused with their later 1351 laser printer) or the narrower P1340. They are 24-pin dot-matrix printers that feature downloadable fonts and both serial and parallel interfaces. I got my P1351 in 1984 and it has served me well. I created (OK, stole from Xerox) a double-high double-wide font that I used for printing box labels when I moved. You could also do really nice graphics with it, at a resolution of 180 x 180. CCSI (Cerritos Computer Systems Inc.) wrote a driver for the P1351 for their CCSI-Plot (Plot-10 compatible) plotting package. I can provide a copy of the software (in Fortran for PDP-11) and scans of the manuals for both the software and printer, should you get one. You can still buy ribbons for it, so it would be a really good choice. Alan Frisbie

2 years, 6 months

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Space-Time Productions Z80 board

by David Ray

Amardeep S Chana, I have the Joel Owens’ Z80 Master Controller Board that you asked about back in October of 2017. I have a folder of collected documents. If you are still interested I could share those some place. /David Ray

2 years, 6 months

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OT but FREE: really beat up Asus eeePC 900A (Linux)

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

Broken monitor hinges. All sort of madness. No screws. No structural integrity whatsoever. But the sucker works. Assuming you glue it all to the point it'll sit up strait on it's lonesomes, plan on an external mouse and keyboard (kb works though afaik). You pay shipping from 08758. Check or m.o. only.

2 years, 6 months

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Fixing a MSV11-QC, tables wrong?

by Chris Zach

So I have an MSV11-QC (the 4gb Q Bus memory board) that has a failed bit. On an 11/73 it throws the following error: Expected data = 125252 (1010 1010 1010 1010 Bad data = 121252 (1010 0010 1010 1010) Address = 10015140 Which puts the error in the top 2mb (1mw), bit 4000. No biggie, consulting the matrix at: https://gunkies.org/wiki/MSV11-Q_QBUS_memory Shows this to be bank 4, bit 4000 or E85. Cut out E85, popped the board in (to double check before replacing) and I see this: Expected data = 125252 Bad data = 121252 Address = 02015140 Ooops. That would be decimal 531,040 which puts it in bank 1? Which should be E88, where did I go wrong here? Or is the table for the MSV11-Q only valid for the 64k ones and not the 256k ones? If so the bits may be right, but the banks are different. Anyone want to cross-check this or my maths? Thanks! CZ PS: Sorry if duplicates are getting sent to the list. I'm retiring cz(a)alembic.crystel.com and replacing it with cz(a)beaker.crystel.com. If the list manager could update my email I would appreciate!

2 years, 6 months

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Re: How to print old files.

by Martin Bishop

Ben I think you have the essence of a solution, using the Unix filter paradigm at user or driver level. Your desire to retain the original file format(s) is very sensible, it is always best to record "raw" data - for the greatest fidelity. The ISO 7-layer model provides a paradigm for data transport/storage formats and derived (presentation) formats. Good luck with the weather Martin -----Original Message----- From: ben [mailto:bfranchuk@jetnet.ab.ca] Sent: 01 January 2023 14:27 To: Martin Bishop <mjd.bishop(a)emeritus-solutions.com>; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: [cctalk] Re: How to print old files. On 2023-01-01 6:53 a.m., Martin Bishop wrote: > Folks - wishing all a Good New Year > > Ben > The first ingredient must be a printer with a a suitable font table, in these times of soft fonts that should be a given or tractable. > The second element is to convert to and use an MCS / multibyte character representation - which can differentiate _ ^ and the desired arrow marks. > To do this you could: > - load the file into an editor, save it in MCS format, perform the > necessary substitutions (two global replaces) > - write a program / script to achieve the same effect, read char and convert/translate to MCS octets. > Note. It is just possible you will find a font with the arrows in the upper 128 glyphs of 8 bit "ascii", in which case you can skip the MCS conversion. > HtH > > Martin A filter of some kind is needed. With the rise of emulators for old machines,I can see text being written with terminal emulation of the orginal i/o devices, but that leaves printing or tranfering text files a problem. JOE could have a REAL - big iron 67, SAM runs windows 2000, TOM has a micro VAX. Every thing gets dumped to the cloud. One must keep data as files, none of this crappy mess that this modern 'buy a app' to print,or read. How does one share binary and paper tape/cards as files? Ben. PS: Back to inventing big iron 67. tag line: Cloud computing delayed to to bad weather, server is under 3 feet of snow.

2 years, 6 months

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Fixing a MSV11-QC, tables wrong?

by Chris Zach

So I have an MSV11-QC (the 4gb Q Bus memory board) that has a failed bit. On an 11/73 it throws the following error: Expected data = 125252 (1010 1010 1010 1010 Bad data = 121252 (1010 0010 1010 1010) Address = 10015140 Which puts the error in the top 2mb (1mw), bit 4000. No biggie, consulting the matrix at: https://gunkies.org/wiki/MSV11-Q_QBUS_memory Shows this to be bank 4, bit 4000 or E85. Cut out E85, popped the board in (to double check before replacing) and I see this: Expected data = 125252 Bad data = 121252 Address = 02015140 Ooops. That would be decimal 531,040 which puts it in bank 1? Which should be E88, where did I go wrong here? Or is the table for the MSV11-Q only valid for the 64k ones and not the 256k ones? If so the bits may be right, but the banks are different. Anyone want to cross-check this or my maths? Thanks! CZ

2 years, 6 months

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Debugging possible RAM faults on OCC1

by Steve Platz

I recently got an Osborne 1a, which needed a lot of cleaning and had probably been stored in a barn for some time. After getting the drive parts to move freely again and removing a blown cap on the power supply, the machine will start up and the screen is green, although it's just showing some random characters. I understand from someone's advice that some RAM may have gone bad. At this point I'm not sure if I should continue to try to get this going, or just resign it to someone with better resources for diagnosing the issues. If anyone has some advice for moving forward with this, I'd be interested to listen. Some context: this is my first such restoration endeavor. Thanks - Steve On Sat, Dec 31, 2022 at 12:00:07PM -0600, cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org wrote: > Send cctalk mailing list submissions to > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send a message with subject or > body 'help' to > cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > cctalk-owner(a)classiccmp.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of cctalk digest..." > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Saturn-Calc (Mark Matlock) > 2. Restoring unknown format backup tapes (John Herron) > 3. Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 147, Issue 1 (Malcolm Macleod) > 4. Re: Restoring unknown format backup tapes (Chuck Guzis) > 5. Re: Restoring unknown format backup tapes (Bill Degnan) > 6. Re: Restoring unknown format backup tapes (John-Paul Stewart) > 7. Re: Saturn-Calc (Kenneth Gober) > 8. Re: Restoring unknown format backup tapes (Chuck Guzis) > 9. Re: SGI vs. Mac (Christian Liendo) > 10. Re: Saturn-Calc (Chris Zach) > 11. How to print old files. (ben) > 12. Re: How to print old files. (Hugh Pyle) > 13. Re: How to print old files. (Scott LaBombard) > 14. Re: Manual for MDB MLSI-LP11 (Douglas Taylor) > 15. Re: Saturn-Calc (Douglas Taylor) > 16. Re: Saturn-Calc (Bill Gunshannon) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 13:40:38 -0600 > From: Mark Matlock <mark(a)matlockfamily.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Saturn-Calc > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <20082909-144D-498A-A264-51CB187B9325(a)matlockfamily.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > > > On Dec 30, 2022, at 12:00 PM, cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > > > My 11/73 restoration has got to the point that I am loading stuff from RT11 backups, and I have a lot of Saturn-calc and wp data that I would like to see again. My licensed copy and the manual are long gone! > > > > I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks appear to be all zeroes where I expect the directory to be. > > > > Does anybody know of a source? > > > > cheers, > > > > Nigel > > Nigel, > I’ve been trying to find a working distribution for PDP-11 Saturn-Calc and Graph for some years now. I had a licensed copy many years ago for RSX11M but it no longer works. I do have a working copy of Saturn-Calc and Graph (but not WP) for VMS on my MV3100-80 but not the VMS distribution. > > I have managed to contact the lead programmer that developed Saturn’s software through a former president of the company. The programmer believes he has a copy of the source code for PDP-11 and VAX on a CDROM that is in a storage unit. He has retired overseas and come back home where the storage unit is a couple times a year and I’m hoping he can find the CDROM on his next trip back. I can keep you posted on our progress in trying to recover this software. It helps that the programmer is interested in making the Saturn products available as it may need to be recompiled or at least relinked to be compatible with the newest versions of PDP-11 operating systems with Y2K etc. > > We thought we had it recovered a couple years ago when nine RX50 floppies were found in Australia that were from a distributor that could be used to generate new customer distributions, but there was no documentation and some info was missing. Also, manuals for the Saturn products have not been scanned so we are looking for them as well. > > If you had some specific Saturn Calc spreadsheets that you wanted data extracted from, I might be able to help you with my working VMS version of Calc. Saturn Calc was a great product that we used a great deal back in the day. The Saturn Graph product supported VT340s with the mouse and could generate plots a wide variety of HP and other plotters, printers, etc. > > Best Regards, > Mark > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 14:17:40 -0600 > From: John Herron <barythrin(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Restoring unknown format backup tapes > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: > <CAEOGs+jg=e6d4NQVz3+sn61Zw3naJXAWoP0SWyGfBg=N2N+kpw(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > This may be a larger conversation than I intend but how would you all > generally start if you ha backup tapes that you wanted to try and > read/restore? > > Supposedly they're Amiga qic tapes. I'm a little worried about the > structural integrity of the tapes. Not knowing what software was used, > would this be a literal job for something like tar via a Linux system? Then > see if I can interpret the dump and sort out files afterwards? > > I might see if a local group wants to help play with this effort since I > think I only have 1 drive in unknown condition. > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 08:49:35 +1100 > From: "Malcolm Macleod" <malcolm(a)avitech.com.au> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 147, Issue 1 > To: <g4ajq1(a)gmail.com> > Cc: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <0edb01d91c98$9d4d8410$d7e88c30$(a)avitech.com.au> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > > >Message: 4 > >Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 07:23:28 -0500 > >From: Nigel Johnson Ham <g4ajq1(a)gmail.com> > >Subject: [cctalk] Saturn-Calc > >To: cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > >Message-ID: <4c5f94c9-7406-f409-cbee-0fb6299618ac(a)gmail.com> > >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > > >Hi all, > > > >My 11/73 restoration has got to the point that I am loading stuff from > >RT11 backups, and I have a lot of Saturn-calc and wp data that I would like > to see again. My licensed copy and the manual are long gone! > > > >I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks appear > to be all zeroes where I expect the directory to be. > > > >Does anybody know of a source? > > > >cheers, > > > >Nigel > > Hi Nigel, > > I have what appears to be a complete set of RX50 disks for CAL, WPS and GRF. > > Images are here -> http://avitech.com.au/?page_id=2570 > > I haven't tried them. > > Regards, > Malcolm > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 17:01:35 -0800 > From: Chuck Guzis <cclist(a)sydex.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Restoring unknown format backup tapes > To: John Herron via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <67281402-437f-ebdf-777b-2f8006e751e3(a)sydex.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > On 12/30/22 12:17, John Herron via cctalk wrote: > > This may be a larger conversation than I intend but how would you all > > generally start if you ha backup tapes that you wanted to try and > > read/restore? > > > > Supposedly they're Amiga qic tapes. I'm a little worried about the > > structural integrity of the tapes. Not knowing what software was used, > > would this be a literal job for something like tar via a Linux system? Then > > see if I can interpret the dump and sort out files afterwards? > > > > I might see if a local group wants to help play with this effort since I > > think I only have 1 drive in unknown condition. > The tape substrate itself, being mylar, is very durable, but it's toast > if stretched. Most likely, the internal tension band has either gone > slack or has broken and should be replaced, or else tape tangles can > result. Most importantly, details are necessary (what kind of carts, > what drive manufacturer and model, etc.) There are lots of potential > variations. To be frank, I hate the damned stuff. > > --Chuck > > > -- > --Chuck > > Sent from my digital computer > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 20:37:01 -0500 > From: Bill Degnan <billdegnan(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Restoring unknown format backup tapes > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: > <CABGJBuds2rt87icXc0qNmT1iosW0Bz1Jcn6OCXjFnEr_3kQ52A(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > THere were certain tape manufacturers and plastic/metal clip marks and wear > patters that were typical of certain types of drives reading certain types > of tapes. Maybe high resolution photos of a few used tapes will reveal > clues. A tape ejected 30 times will have certain patterns of wear in > certain places. I have lots of different types of tapes, I am happy to > compare your used tape photos with anything I might have that would be > similar. > Not a guaranteed solution, but it might help narrow down candidate systems. > Bill > > On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 8:01 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk < > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > On 12/30/22 12:17, John Herron via cctalk wrote: > > > This may be a larger conversation than I intend but how would you all > > > generally start if you ha backup tapes that you wanted to try and > > > read/restore? > > > > > > Supposedly they're Amiga qic tapes. I'm a little worried about the > > > structural integrity of the tapes. Not knowing what software was used, > > > would this be a literal job for something like tar via a Linux system? > > Then > > > see if I can interpret the dump and sort out files afterwards? > > > > > > I might see if a local group wants to help play with this effort since I > > > think I only have 1 drive in unknown condition. > > The tape substrate itself, being mylar, is very durable, but it's toast > > if stretched. Most likely, the internal tension band has either gone > > slack or has broken and should be replaced, or else tape tangles can > > result. Most importantly, details are necessary (what kind of carts, > > what drive manufacturer and model, etc.) There are lots of potential > > variations. To be frank, I hate the damned stuff. > > > > --Chuck > > > > > > -- > > --Chuck > > > > Sent from my digital computer > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 6 > Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 20:02:37 -0500 > From: John-Paul Stewart <jpstewart(a)personalprojects.net> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Restoring unknown format backup tapes > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Message-ID: > <dc496dec-d5f3-a71a-ce7c-a808488e062e(a)personalprojects.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > On 12/30/22 15:17, John Herron via cctalk wrote: > > This may be a larger conversation than I intend but how would you all > > generally start if you ha backup tapes that you wanted to try and > > read/restore? > > > > Supposedly they're Amiga qic tapes. I'm a little worried about the > > structural integrity of the tapes. Not knowing what software was used, > > would this be a literal job for something like tar via a Linux system? Then > > see if I can interpret the dump and sort out files afterwards? > > It is unlikely that the tapes are in tar format, so tar on Linux won't > help. The chance that they are in tar format is much higher if they're > from Amix (Amiga Unix) instead of AmigaOS. > > There is a better possibility that the tapes were created by BRU since > AmigaOS 2.x (and maybe later) included a version of that. BRU is now > Argest Backup, if you need to go down that road. > > It is also possible that the tapes were created with any of the many > third-party backup applications that existed for AmigaOS. > > In any case, using dd (not tar) on Linux to copy the tapes to disk to > "interpret" and "sort out files afterwards" is at least a starting point. > > Other list members are better qualified to comment on the physical > aspects of doing that without destroying the fragile old tapes. > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 7 > Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 21:03:37 -0500 > From: Kenneth Gober <kgober(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Saturn-Calc > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: > <CANHrbpei_uoTLKAF8a9Et_gBrXXJjsTZnsKoZDzhguHTvPFMFA(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 7:23 AM Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk < > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks > > appear to be all zeroes where I expect the directory to be. > > > > Is it possible the images are 'physical' disk images rather than 'logical' > disk images and have > sector interleaving applied? That can cause things to appear in odd places. > > -ken > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 8 > Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 18:04:06 -0800 > From: Chuck Guzis <cclist(a)sydex.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Restoring unknown format backup tapes > To: Bill Degnan via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <46b41622-ce30-28f7-5357-ea2623bda12b(a)sydex.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > On 12/30/22 17:37, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > > THere were certain tape manufacturers and plastic/metal clip marks and wear > > patters that were typical of certain types of drives reading certain types > > of tapes. Maybe high resolution photos of a few used tapes will reveal > > clues. A tape ejected 30 times will have certain patterns of wear in > > certain places. I have lots of different types of tapes, I am happy to > > compare your used tape photos with anything I might have that would be > > similar. > > Not a guaranteed solution, but it might help narrow down candidate systems. > > Bill > > > Heck, I'd just unspool a bit of the stuff, drop some Kyread on it and > have a gander with the old microscope. That can at least tell me how > many tracks are involved. > > But being a quarter-inch cartridge leaves a lot of ground open. For > instance, what if these tapes are Iotaamat-formatted? A regular QIC > drive will have nothing to do with them. There were other manufacturers > (Cipher 525) comes to mind that do not use standard formatting > techniques. On some of the later 8mm Travan carts, the tape is > will-o'-the-wisp thin. > > FWIW, > Chuck > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 9 > Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 22:48:23 -0500 > From: Christian Liendo <cliendo(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: SGI vs. Mac > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Cc: skogkatt007(a)yahoo.com > Message-ID: > <CAA9iAfuBwoa7+MkU=zU64ktOoQKA5Cx6KAFVM0vMqrL7W7+aCQ(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > I went to Onyx2/Origin 2000 training in Mountain View in the building that > is now the Computer History Museum and I met a lot of Gov folks but I also > met a lot of oil people who used SGIs to crunch data. At the time no one > could touch them but that too changed > > As for workstations the one I remember being a real competitor was > Intergraph. They had dual pentium pro boxes with proprietary cards that ran > NT and Softimage. Microsoft bought Softimage to compete with SGI and SGI > bought Alias Wavefront > > On Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 4:15 PM Ethan O'Toole via cctalk < > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > > Really without the US government as a customer I wonder how many of these > > companies could have made it on industry alone. > > > > - Ethan > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 10 > Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 23:44:03 -0500 > From: Chris Zach <cz(a)alembic.crystel.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Saturn-Calc > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <f8b7c3ed-3b2c-1cbd-352e-5a683d697610(a)alembic.crystel.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > I think I have TSX/RX02 versions of Saturn stuff out there already. > Where is it.... > > Ah here: https://www.crystel.com/pdp/ > > Wow, I have a dsm11 disk image there too? Weird. And the XT Tool kit > guide (prior to when it was called the Pro/350). > > Let me know if those contain anything interesting. > > Chris > > On 12/30/2022 9:03 PM, Kenneth Gober via cctalk wrote: > > On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 7:23 AM Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk < > > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > >> I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks > >> appear to be all zeroes where I expect the directory to be. > >> > > Is it possible the images are 'physical' disk images rather than 'logical' > > disk images and have > > sector interleaving applied? That can cause things to appear in odd > > places. > > > > -ken > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 11 > Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 02:00:22 -0700 > From: ben <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca> > Subject: [cctalk] How to print old files. > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <77511893-b967-7349-2bb0-a6d0f7af2905(a)jetnet.ab.ca> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > How do you print old files in ASCII 63 to modern devices, so you keep > the ← and ↑ 's > > and not printing _ and ^ ? > > Ben. > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 12 > Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 09:33:35 -0500 > From: Hugh Pyle <hpyle(a)cabezal.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: How to print old files. > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: > <CALvn94+WB5mOiNSer6Gsm2t-2=wUnFoTg9Hi7tXZv6m2VZEAmw(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > There's a 'Teleprinter' font, which is close, but doesn't include the > backward arrow: > https://web.archive.org/web/20000819043545/ourworld.compuserve.com/homepage… > > > > On Sat, Dec 31, 2022 at 4:00 AM ben via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > > How do you print old files in ASCII 63 to modern devices, so you keep > > the ← and ↑ 's > > > > and not printing _ and ^ ? > > > > Ben. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 13 > Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 14:56:24 +0000 (UTC) > From: Scott LaBombard <labomb_s(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: How to print old files. > To: ben via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <1139967668.3339176.1672498584861(a)mail.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > I remember having to do something like that some years ago. If the ASCII file isn't too long and you can manage with manual edits, you can load the document into an editor that supports 'alt' codes. On Windows, I just tried Microsoft Word. > Hold the alt key down and enter the 2-digit code (on the numeric keypad) for the symbol you wish... ↑ is 24, and ← is 27. Just did a quick test and both printed fine on my HP printer, although as I recall the resulting symbols didn't look quite like the arrows in the original document. > On Saturday, December 31, 2022 at 04:00:33 AM EST, ben via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > How do you print old files in ASCII 63 to modern devices, so you keep > the ← and ↑ 's > > and not printing _ and ^ ? > > Ben. > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 14 > Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 11:23:57 -0500 > From: Douglas Taylor <dj.taylor4(a)comcast.net> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Manual for MDB MLSI-LP11 > To: Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <1903bca7-bf1c-a1b6-fbd7-b33498ba7412(a)comcast.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > On 12/29/2022 9:33 AM, Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk wrote: > > My re-build of a BA23 11/73 system continues. I have one of these MDB > > printer controllers but cannot make it do anything more that home page > > on the laser using RT-11 > > > > Does anybody have a manual or know where I can download one. > > > > An extensive search using google just brings up a data sheet. > > > > Happy New Year to all, > > > > Nigel > > > > > I remember having a 11/03 system at work back in 1984 that had an > attached printer with what looked like an ordinary parallel printer > connector. However, the signal protocols for the printer interface were > different than the standard parallel interface everyone was using on > their PC's. I think they were close but you needed a printer that > understood the DEC protocols. Shouldn't be surprising to anyone from > that era. > > Doug > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 15 > Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 11:28:25 -0500 > From: Douglas Taylor <dj.taylor4(a)comcast.net> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Saturn-Calc > To: Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <35185fa8-dc89-5a1d-a7f8-a17e7a6f3c6f(a)comcast.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > On 12/30/2022 7:23 AM, Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > My 11/73 restoration has got to the point that I am loading stuff from > > RT11 backups, and I have a lot of Saturn-calc and wp data that I would > > like to see again. My licensed copy and the manual are long gone! > > > > I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks > > appear to be all zeroes where I expect the directory to be. > > > > Does anybody know of a source? > > > > cheers, > > > > Nigel > > > > > I have some DEC format 8 inch floppies from the mid 1980's that may have > Saturn WP on it. It rings a bell, I think I had a copy at one time. > Long, long time ago. I can't read the floppies (got no drive), anyone > in the Wash DC area that can read them would help. > > Doug > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 16 > Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 11:39:04 -0500 > From: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon(a)hotmail.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Saturn-Calc > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <DM6PR06MB5580AAB10CA87FC8FAA4DF21EDF19(a)DM6PR06MB5580.nam > prd06.prod.outlook.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > On 12/31/22 11:28, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote: > > On 12/30/2022 7:23 AM, Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk wrote: > >> Hi all, > >> > >> My 11/73 restoration has got to the point that I am loading stuff from > >> RT11 backups, and I have a lot of Saturn-calc and wp data that I would > >> like to see again. My licensed copy and the manual are long gone! > >> > >> I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks > >> appear to be all zeroes where I expect the directory to be. > >> > >> Does anybody know of a source? > >> > >> cheers, > >> > >> Nigel > >> > >> > > I have some DEC format 8 inch floppies from the mid 1980's that may have > > Saturn WP on it. It rings a bell, I think I had a copy at one time. > > Long, long time ago. I can't read the floppies (got no drive), anyone > > in the Wash DC area that can read them would help. > > Tim Shoppa? > > bill > > > > End of cctalk Digest, Vol 148, Issue 1 > **************************************

2 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Saturn-Calc

by Nigel Johnson Ham

Hi all, My 11/73 restoration has got to the point that I am loading stuff from RT11 backups, and I have a lot of Saturn-calc and wp data that I would like to see again. My licensed copy and the manual are long gone! I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks appear to be all zeroes where I expect the directory to be. Does anybody know of a source? cheers, Nigel -- Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591

2 years, 6 months

6
6
0 0

Manual for MDB MLSI-LP11

by Nigel Johnson Ham

My re-build of a BA23 11/73 system continues. I have one of these MDB printer controllers but cannot make it do anything more that home page on the laser using RT-11 Does anybody have a manual or know where I can download one. An extensive search using google just brings up a data sheet. Happy New Year to all, Nigel -- Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591

2 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

SGI vs. Mac

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

An Indy for instance, is it much faster then a similarly clocked PowerMac? What about an Indigo 2 IMPACT 10000. Does that blow most PMs away? Anyone using an I2 or Indy with regularity? I have a purple box somewhere. I foumd the teal boxes much more visually appealing.

2 years, 6 months

9
13
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Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 147, Issue 1

by Malcolm Macleod

>Message: 4 >Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 07:23:28 -0500 >From: Nigel Johnson Ham <g4ajq1(a)gmail.com> >Subject: [cctalk] Saturn-Calc >To: cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >Message-ID: <4c5f94c9-7406-f409-cbee-0fb6299618ac(a)gmail.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > >Hi all, > >My 11/73 restoration has got to the point that I am loading stuff from >RT11 backups, and I have a lot of Saturn-calc and wp data that I would like to see again. My licensed copy and the manual are long gone! > >I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks appear to be all zeroes where I expect the directory to be. > >Does anybody know of a source? > >cheers, > >Nigel Hi Nigel, I have what appears to be a complete set of RX50 disks for CAL, WPS and GRF. Images are here -> http://avitech.com.au/?page_id=2570 I haven't tried them. Regards, Malcolm

2 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Re: Saturn-Calc

by Mark Matlock

> On Dec 30, 2022, at 12:00 PM, cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org wrote: > > Hi all, > > My 11/73 restoration has got to the point that I am loading stuff from RT11 backups, and I have a lot of Saturn-calc and wp data that I would like to see again. My licensed copy and the manual are long gone! > > I downloaded some RX02 images posted by Mark Matlock, but the disks appear to be all zeroes where I expect the directory to be. > > Does anybody know of a source? > > cheers, > > Nigel Nigel, I’ve been trying to find a working distribution for PDP-11 Saturn-Calc and Graph for some years now. I had a licensed copy many years ago for RSX11M but it no longer works. I do have a working copy of Saturn-Calc and Graph (but not WP) for VMS on my MV3100-80 but not the VMS distribution. I have managed to contact the lead programmer that developed Saturn’s software through a former president of the company. The programmer believes he has a copy of the source code for PDP-11 and VAX on a CDROM that is in a storage unit. He has retired overseas and come back home where the storage unit is a couple times a year and I’m hoping he can find the CDROM on his next trip back. I can keep you posted on our progress in trying to recover this software. It helps that the programmer is interested in making the Saturn products available as it may need to be recompiled or at least relinked to be compatible with the newest versions of PDP-11 operating systems with Y2K etc. We thought we had it recovered a couple years ago when nine RX50 floppies were found in Australia that were from a distributor that could be used to generate new customer distributions, but there was no documentation and some info was missing. Also, manuals for the Saturn products have not been scanned so we are looking for them as well. If you had some specific Saturn Calc spreadsheets that you wanted data extracted from, I might be able to help you with my working VMS version of Calc. Saturn Calc was a great product that we used a great deal back in the day. The Saturn Graph product supported VT340s with the mouse and could generate plots a wide variety of HP and other plotters, printers, etc. Best Regards, Mark

2 years, 6 months

1
0
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wtb: Panasonic 15" TTL (5151 compattible) open frame monitor

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

Send an email please.

2 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

fs: Panasonic/Matsushita 9" open frame monitor

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

40$ + usps. New in battered box. Apparently this is monochrome and composite (ntsc). It will require a wired connector, or simply soldering wires to a 1 sided card edge connection. Also requires an external 12vdc 1amp supply. A few components are required, potentiometer, 3 diodes, and a resistor if you want graphics. Best done by someone with prior wirimg/soldering experience, but not much. As is, final sale. Check or m.o. Ships from 08758.

2 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

wtb: mainly Intel branded 80x86 based Multibus boards

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

And if Jonas (Stynx) from Germany is on here, please send me an e-mail. I'll reply to private e-mails only (from anyone).

2 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

PT-68K

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

It's a IBM PC form factor 68000 based project that was featured in Radio Electronics. Anyone remember it or even know what I'm talking about? It would be a fun prokect.

2 years, 6 months

10
35
0 0

imd2raw.c correction - linearizing ImageDisk images

by David Schmidt

There have been a few versions of the utility imd2raw.c floating around that will take Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk-created images (i.e. an .IMD file) and make a linear binary image devoid of any metadata. This is similar to the function of Dave's IMDU.COM program's /b switch. I've corrected a problem with the assumption that all imd2raw.c descendants to date have made: sectors that have a skew (i.e. not 1-1 interleaved) weren't linearized correctly. The skewed sectors need to be written out in "sorted" order, which is not necessarily captured/physical order. This is easily verified by comparing output from "IMDU /b" to earlier imd2raw outputs on any .IMD that has a sector skew that isn't 1, 2, 3 [...]. It's up on github here: https://github.com/RetroFloppy/imd2raw

2 years, 6 months

3
5
0 0

best C compiler(s) for varied vintage programming

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

It cannot rely on bios/ms-dos services for compiling preferably. Iow I'd like to perform what I want to do on the target machine itself, LOL which is hysterical as I've never even seen it boot even once. I could complie on a standard pc I suppose and pop a disk in the Northstar Dimension. It would be nice if it's optimized for it's 80186. Or at least supports it's instructions. My goal is to get MINIX running on it, as the original Netware-86 OS has proven to be more rare then really anything else. From there I'd like to figure out how to support the pc compatible (or so we're told) logic boards that are plugged into the motherboard like standard isa cards, and even have 34 contacts on their card edge. It would be nice if someone had the ideal compiler package they don't need and could sell.

2 years, 6 months

11
28
0 0

Searching for Cisco Catalyst 3920 Token Ring switch firmware

by John P. Willis

Hello all, As the subject implies, I'm on a search for Cisco Catalyst 3920 Token Ring switch firmware. AFAIK, these units are actually from a company Cisco acquired. They definitely don't run IOS or CatOS, and have an odd full-screen interactive menu interface. It worked when I received it, but after a power outage, the firmware got corrupted, leaving all interfaces effectively dead. It seems that there is no official way to get a copy of the image from a working unit, either, as I've had people attempt it. The general naming pattern is supposedly cat3900-main-gz.x-y-z.bin, where [I believe] x, y, and z would represent some sort of version information. If anyone has this file, or any leads as to where I might find it, I'd be forever grateful. Apparently, even Cisco employees cannot find it nowadays. Thanks much, jpw

2 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Re: Searching for a few good TI Silent 700 parts

by Charles

In fact it is a 745 :) If the printhead has all its pixels working, I'd like to buy it. No keyboard at all, or just nonfunctional? Those particular keyswitches seem to be unobtainium nowadays... thanks Charles On 12/24/22 12:00, cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2022 10:56:19 -0800 > From: Sellam Abraham<sellam.ismail(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Searching for a few good TI Silent 700 parts > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: > <CAHJBWnT0UF8_89CO8FN8g3Bdo63OskjkZPoF9WEODNXEwdpFgw(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Hi Charles. > > Which specific model? > > I have a 745 sans keyboard that can be parted out further. > > Sellam > > On Fri, Dec 23, 2022, 10:54 AM Charles via cctalk<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > wrote: > >> I have a Silent 700 terminal that only needs a printhead (several >> missing pixels on mine) and three keyswitches (I have the keytops so it >> doesn't matter which ones). >> >> My other 700 is fully functional and it'd be nice to finish fixing the >> other one too! Can anyone help? >> >> thanks >> >> Charles >> >>

2 years, 6 months

3
2
0 0

Replacing NiCd with NiMH in a pro way.

by Cedric Amand

Hey everyone, No - I won't ask if this is on topic or not :) I'm currently reparing an ALPS plotter ( a Tandy "ce 150" equivalent ) and it's not the first time I face the same problem ; how to replace NiCD batteries. In the past what I did is actually order new NiCd ( you can still find them here in Europe, well actually out of europe but in eastern countries close to europe ) However they are at best NOS nowadays, that does "work" enough for moderate use (I've done that on vintage laptops) This time I'd like to go a bit beyond that and replace the NiCd with modern NiMH (the plotter coils and motors will benefit the extra power) However the trickle chagre of NiCd applied to NiMH will either kill my batteries or kill me in a house fire. I see small $1 NiMH 5S charging boards on Aliexpress, I thought I might use that, try to shove it it the CE150 (or other devcies with the same problem) TL-DR : Before I re invent the wheel here ; Has anyone developed a proper way to replace NiCd with N iMH in vintage (mostly portable) equipment ? And I mean not simply swapping the batteries, I don't want that, I want a proper charge process.

2 years, 6 months

10
18
0 0

Toronto CompuFest ads

by Ryan de Laplante

I remember seeing full page CompuFest ads in the Toronto Star back around 1996-1997. CompuFest was one of the highlights of the year for me and I tried to go every year with friends. Has anyone ever seen one of those old ads online anywhere? Or maybe you have a newspaper or magazine with the ad that I might be able to buy from you? obsol33t

2 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Searching for a few good TI Silent 700 parts

by Charles

I have a Silent 700 terminal that only needs a printhead (several missing pixels on mine) and three keyswitches (I have the keytops so it doesn't matter which ones). My other 700 is fully functional and it'd be nice to finish fixing the other one too! Can anyone help? thanks Charles

2 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

pc magazine Nov 1983

by Steve Lewis

Does anyone have a November 1983 issue of PC Magazine? I did find one on eBay, but it apparently got lost in transit during recent storms. That issue has been digitally archived https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1983-11/ But I was hoping to come across a physical copy. Thanks!

2 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

looking for a laptop

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

Anyone partimg with some dang-old thing? It has to work. I'm leaning towards a mono screen. I'm leaning against Zeniths, got 2 Minisports. But anything is possible. IBM produced a Kanji subbish laptop some years ago. I want to say it had a 286. Anyone know?

2 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Re: DLV11 M7940 SLU header wire colours?

by steven＠malikoff.com

Thank you Martin and Fritz for figuring out the DLV11 wiring colours, that's exactly what I needed and I appreciate it very much! Also there is a lot that I hadn't looked at before in those links, much appreciated. Certainly hadn't considered the wire gauge size too critically but I'll use what I've got for starters. Chasing up the BC0n cable details led me to Malcolm/Avitech's BC01 cable page, which also helps. I hope to power it up before Christmas, fingers crossed the M7270 and M8044 boards work. I have yet to check the jumpers on these. I can relate to the locomotive paint story in a way. I have an old WWII jeep, and rivet counters obsess over the _exact_ shade of WWII Olive Drab paint. This is exacerbated by most WWII film being black and white, and period colour film may not be regarded as perfect (although George Stevens' WWII footage on Kodachrome might come close) so finding good unfaded/undamaged paint examples isn't always easy. Now I had someone tell me they really thought my jeep was a great match to "real" OD, to which I replied that I had actually painted it in Khaki, which is closer to a brown than a green. Being a completely flat paint, when it's wet it temporarily changes appearance to gloss dark green. So I just say to people not to worry too much and the OD paint they use is bound to match exactly to at least one of the ~650,000 jeeps produced. Thanks cctalk list, wishing you all ice-cold Chrissie beers and barbie (Oz BBQ) for the season, Steve

2 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

painting computer cases

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

I must have asked numerous times on numerous forums how this is done. Did you ever take a close look at the paint on a 5150 or 5170 (or hell even any IBM monitors that are age appropriate, but those aren't metal). Did you notive the wormy, orange pealy finish. I don't think anyone has seriously attempted to explain how to accomplish that. It's not simply a sligjtly gritty texture as in the case of modern atx cases, that can be done with a spray can, sort of. Do they simply cause the spray gun to spit on the final coat, perhaps while the previous coat is still tacky?

2 years, 6 months

5
17
0 0

Using Gesswein board with RQDX3

by Nigel Johnson Ham

Merry Christmas, everybody, I am trying to do the above. ZRQC comes up and says four drives of unknown type. Has anybody done this? I figure there must be a configuration that needs to be done, but found nothing in the documentation to do it. cheers, Nigel Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591

2 years, 6 months

4
3
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Re: what is on topic?

by Marvin Johnston

After all is said and done, my observations since the time this listserver was up in Washington is that anything OT has a very short "shelf life." That would suggest most people here have a working brain and thus, like the definition of pornography, they know OT when they see it. A long way of saying OT or not is being well served by the choice of most people here on what they post... with the exception of the waaay too long discussion, Re: what is on topic?, currently taking place.

2 years, 6 months

4
3
0 0

DLV11 M7940 SLU header wire colours?

by steven＠malikoff.com

Sorry this post isn't about whether something is regarded as classic or not. I am almost done putting together a little 4-card Qbus machine using a H9281-BA card frame. Eschewing a piece of plywood, the frame, power supply, fans, Heeltoe POR board are all mounted on a clear acrylic A4-sized office 'In Tray' I picked up at a recycling centre. Hence I've named it PERSPEX-11 :) So.. For a DLV11 EIA serial connection, I am about to wire up a fly lead cable to go from an M7940 SLU (no dash version) 40-pin header to a DB25P. After finding the pinout on page 178 in the 1980 Interfaces Handbook, on header J1 I know only need the usual basic RS232 setup: J - Received Data F - Transmitted Data B - Signal Ground M to E loopback I have a blank 40-pin header shell and a pile of DuPont leads of all colours ready to slot into their respective locations in the header. I could use any colours but I'd really like to use the original colours for the above wires. So, the only wire colour reference in the handbook is for a J1 and J2 header DRV11 pinout on page 275. Pin B is Black, and Transmit is Red but Pin J Receive is marked as Orange/Ground, for that device. Also M and E don't have their colours specified for the loopback wire. I've also looked at the Gunkies 'DEC asynchronous serial line pinout' page which has the pinout but it doesn't mention the original wire colours sadly. Could someone point me to what colours the M7940 cable should be? Thanks for any help, Steve.

2 years, 6 months

3
2
0 0

"Classic" RAM chips, #FREE, #RARE, #VINTAGE

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

I think my original message didn't go through (forgot to select plain text instead of html.) If it did I apologize for spamming the list. I'm clearing out some clutter so I can get to some more clutter to clear it out. Much of my clutter is classic computer related (at least by my definition.) But it needs to go. I have an assortment of old dynamic RAM chips: 1M x 1 approx 35 256K x 4 approx 40 to 50 256K x 1 approx 80 to 100 They are various speeds, mostly between 100ns and 150 ns If anyone wants them, let me know. You pay shipping. Otherwise they go to the landfill. You can contact me off-list. Will I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men. Nikola Tesla

2 years, 6 months

2
4
0 0

unpleasant odor from VT100

by hush hush

i have a VT100 that is working fine (powers on, navigates setup, saves/restores settings, etc) but has an unpleasant burning/ozone odor coming from the rear of it. i suspect something is running hot but i am not sure what, i do not currently have an IR camera in my hands- working on that. the original power supply has failed and is currently in storage, so the terminal is being powered by an ATX power supply and adapter board for the time being. this eliminates the usual R27 as being the culprit. as best i can tell, the smell is strongest just above the power distribution board, around the neck of the CRT. appreciate any suggestions you might have!

2 years, 6 months

5
6
0 0

Win2K+3 on a Dell Poweredge 2600

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

This beast was given to me by a neighbor. Dual socket 604. Windows 2003 in some RAID configuration. I understand (or used to understand) RAID levels somewhat. But iinm he tells me the OS is "split" over 6 scsi drives. Not getting this, but I don't need all the redundancy/striping. I want it all on 1 drive. What to use to image what comstitutes 1 volume I guess. Norton Ghost? I have an extra scsi drive, I can always restore the image to the 1 drive (yes?), before or without alterimg the currently embedded stack. This thing is heavy. I secured a copy of the Corel Linux Starter Kit and want to load it into the Poweredge. For chips and pringles. I have other pre uefi boxes around but this is lying dormant. And 6 drives for my purposes is stupid. And heavy.

2 years, 6 months

7
8
0 0

what is on topic?

by skogkatt007＠yahoo.com

Specifically as pertaining to old/vintage/classic/retro compuing discussion, what exactly is on topic? On top of my head as a for imstance I have some questions pertaining to Windows 2003 and socket 603/604. Something tells me that doesn't qualify, so it behooves me to ask.

2 years, 6 months

34
104
0 0

BSD 2.11 on the DEC PRO

by Cameron Kaiser

My PRO 380 runs Venix/PRO. Which is cool, but someone sent me this: https://www.frijid.net/blog/index.php/2015/06/07/182/ Allegedly this gets BSD 2.9 on, at least, the PRO 350. I'm particularly interested because it supports networking. Anyone tried this on their PRO? Or better still, an actual 380? -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- Male Macintosh geeks are so predictable. All we think about is X. ----------

2 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Digests?

by Bill Gunshannon

Why have I started receiving virtually unreadable digests all of a sudden? I have made no changes to my preferences. bill

2 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Re: pc magazine Nov 1983

by Smith, Wayne

Great article on SCAMP - thanks for posting the link! -W Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2022 17:50:46 -0600 From: Steve Lewis <lewissa78(a)gmail.com> Subject: [cctalk] pc magazine Nov 1983 To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <CACG-qZzseNpof-zyRfomOgisB=3zf+BN6BhSrATbWA_SvoVN7g(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Does anyone have a November 1983 issue of PC Magazine? I did find one on eBay, but it apparently got lost in transit during recent storms. That issue has been digitally archived https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1983-11/__;!… But I was hoping to come across a physical copy. Thanks!

2 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

looking for DQ696 and RQDX3

by Nigel Johnson Ham

Hi folk, I am still looking for a DQ696 to allow me to get ESDI drives going on both my microVAX and 11/73 since the Webster RQD11 controller failed I only have the one. I'd also like to get old of an RQDX3 since I built a Gesswein emulator and have nothing to test it with :-) Any help appreciated, Nigel -- Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591

2 years, 6 months

4
3
0 0

Microinterfaces Corp Run/CPM/Z80 Software?

by Christopher Satterfield

Was wondering if anyone had one of these and/or maybe had the software floppy kicking around? It's an ISA card with a Z80 + RAM to shove into an ISA slot for CP/M compatibility. Of course, information's sparse online and forget software. Here's a picture of said card, https://i.imgur.com/eJh2on5.jpg . -Chris

2 years, 6 months

3
2
0 0

Beehive Terminal Manual

by Bill Degnan

Useful? https://www.vintagecomputer.net/cromemco/3102/1979%20Beehive%20MicroB%20DM1… Bill

2 years, 6 months

4
6
0 0

Four-Phase Systems

by John Ball

I've been working on a machine since early October that has seen a very rough life. My inventory found it to be an IV/70 that was upgraded with an IV/90 expansion chassis, an NP80 peripheral controller and a Wangco tape system that I only received the the formatter for. I've been trying to document most of the work so far on the vcfed forum and have a massive payload of board and cable photos & board slot arrangements. There was also boards for additional communication, disk and printing options I did not receive and by backwards chance whie I do not have a terminal display I DO have a keyboard, so that suddenly makes a keyboard-less terminal considerably more desireable to me. I've sent a copy of the images off to Al and to Gil Carrick over at the MITA but if anyone here wants a copy I can send them a compressed file. It's 720mb in total. He has also supplied me with some extra information and offered to loan a few items to assist in testing but he has software and card stacks I currently cannot image and are currently not imaged anywhere else that I have found. At this point I've nailed down power supply and capacitor issues and am still working with cabling and very, very little documentation, so I'm starting to run into problems finding solutions for a number of problems regarding damaged components and the IV/90 interconnect. I don't have the original IV/70 boardset for debugging. Sellam, it was alluded that one point you also had a system. Is that still the case? Does anyone have any additional information that can be grouped together while I'm working to get this machine running again? -John

2 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Free Tandem NonStop Himalaya K-Series Cyclone systems

by Larkin Nickle

This eBay seller reached out to me and said they had 4 of these things + a disk controller that they’re trying to get rid of ASAP, ignore the list price and message them. I am not affiliated, had just previously messaged them inquiring if they had NonStop media for it and they do. I don’t have the means to go get these things so figured I’d post here so hopefully they don’t end up scrapped. [https://www.ebay.com/itm/255471320134](https://www.ebay.com/itm/25547132013…

2 years, 6 months

3
3
0 0

Re: Old Silicon Valley poster

by Sellam Abraham

Commodore 64's generally sell for between $75-$200 these days on eBay. Finding good, working ones (working SID, VIC-II, etc.) with clean cases that don't have broken edges or inner tabs is getting harder. The C128D is a much different story. Those were not produced in nearly the numbers of the C64. I only came across one in all my days of collecting (that used to be in my collection). Sellam On Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 2:02 PM John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> wrote: > At 03:30 PM 12/12/2022, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote: > >$700 for a C64? Egads, you've been watching too much bad cable TV. > > Hmm, not really. My memory was a little off... it was a C-128D > system from my warehouse that sold a year ago for almost $700. > > - John > >

2 years, 6 months

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Re: Old Silicon Valley poster

by John Foust

At 03:30 PM 12/12/2022, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote: >$700 for a C64? Egads, you've been watching too much bad cable TV. Hmm, not really. My memory was a little off... it was a C-128D system from my warehouse that sold a year ago for almost $700. - John

2 years, 6 months

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Re: Old Silicon Valley poster

by John Foust

At 09:53 AM 12/12/2022, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote: >No wonder the prices on vintage computer stuff has been going through the >roof on eBay over the past couple years. If you spent $1,000 on a Commodore 64 system in 1985, that's about $2,800 in today's dollars, courtesy of inflation. A working C-64 system might go for $700 on eBay today? But people were giving them away not long ago. It's the bathtub curve. I have a bunch of old Amiga posters up there now. I thought they'd fetch nice prices but they've seen little interest so far. I have other R@RE items I'll list. Who knows how they'll do. I have a NewTek Digiview digitizer that is the populated circuit board. The chips have not been sanded to remove their numbers, nor is it potted in epoxy like all the retail production units. I saw a recent sale of a Digiview-labelled parallel port gender-changer that went for $30. Go figure. I have at least one. At 10:06 AM 12/12/2022, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote: >Holy crap, someone actually paid $810 for it? They paid almost another $200 on top for the eBay global shipping program and custom duties, too, as I had said I'll only ship to the USA. - John

2 years, 6 months

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Soviet PDP clones

by Joshua Rice

Hi all, After some discussion on reddit about russian PDP-11 clones, i made the (perhaps erronous) claim that the PDP series in general was cloned by the Soviets. I’m aware that there was a lot of QBUS/LSI PDP-11 clones, and depite poor documentation, there is significant evidence of PDP-8 clones. Also, depite not strictly a “PDP”, the VAX series was also cloned. However, i’m curious whether anyone has any evidence of either the 18-bit or 36-bit PDP machines being cloned? I imagine that given the rather lacklustre success of the 18-bit series, that there would have been less demand for an 18-bit PDP machine in the Soviet Union, but i find it quite hard to believe that no attempt to clone the PDP-6 and PDP-10 machines would have been attempted. Does anyone here have any information on such clones? Cheers, Josh Rice

2 years, 6 months

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Re: Old Silicon Valley poster

by John Foust

At 01:20 AM 12/12/2022, John Herron via cctalk wrote: >I haven't found the episode yet but this is their website with what I >assume is the poster. >https://gspawn.com/products/apple-computer-poster-map-of-silicon-valley-in-…. >They are asking $799.00. That is a similar style, but not my poster. Mine was landscape, larger, not branded by Apple. I can't read the copyright in the lower left. My listing is still up: https://www.ebay.com/itm/334649989332 - John

2 years, 6 months

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Re: Old Silicon Valley poster

by Sellam Abraham

I watched the correct episode but posted the wrong link. Here is the link to the SF episode ==> https://play.history.com/shows/pawn-stars-do-america/season-1/episode-3 Sellam On Sun, Dec 11, 2022 at 5:00 PM ED SHARPE <couryhouse(a)aol.com> wrote: > I said > Sf. You have link for Seattle. Try the sf one! > > > Sent from the all new AOL app for Android > <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aol.mobile.aolapp> > > On Sun, Dec 11, 2022 at 5:45 PM, Sellam Abraham via cctalk > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > Thanks for the tip. > > I found the episode ==> > https://play.history.com/shows/pawn-stars-do-america/season-1/episode-4 > > I watched through the entire insidious thing. Unfortunately, the Silicon > Valley poster never comes up. > > However, there is a Apple ][+ that they buy for $700 (lol) at timemark > 1:55, and at 17:21 some jabronis bring in some mini stand-up arcade games > and then they eventually end up in their warehouse full of pinball > machines. > > What an obnoxious show. It's just Antiques Roadshow but with bad dialogue > and annoying personalities. > > Regardless, if you can remember which episode the poster was in, I'd > still like to watch that. > > Sellam > > On Sun, Dec 11, 2022 at 12:19 PM ED SHARPE <couryhouse(a)aol.com> wrote: > > > Sellam, Yes the episode was there special held in San Francisco in the > > pawn stars do America series that aired a week or so before the list > > member was selling these? Ed# > > > > Sent from the all new AOL app for Android > > <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aol.mobile.aolapp> > > > > On Sun, Dec 11, 2022 at 12:40 PM, Sellam Abraham > > <sellam.ismail(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Ed, > > > > Do you remember the episode? > > > > Sellam > > > > On Sun, Dec 11, 2022 at 10:37 AM ED SHARPE via cctalk < > > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > Having a good hi Def scan would indeed be nice. > > Having this thing show up on pawn stars probably helped kick the price > > up.Ed# > > > > Sent from the all new AOL app for Android > > > > On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 6:18 PM, Don R via cctalk<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > > > > wrote: I’m surprised no one has scanned one for upload to archive.org. > > Would that reduce its auction value? ;) > > > > Don Resor > > > > Sent from someone's iPhone > > > > > On Dec 10, 2022, at 5:01 PM, Warner Losh via cctalk < > > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > > > On Sat, Dec 10, 2022, 5:59 PM Bill Gunshannon via cctalk < > > > cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > > >>> On 12/10/22 18:27, John Foust via cctalk wrote: > > >>> > > >>> Well, she went for $810 to a map dealer in London, and he had to pay > > >>> about another $200 for the eBay global shipping program and duties. > > >>> > > >>> I asked one of the other losing bidders about what I had here and why > > it > > >>> was popular... he said "Dealers are collecting them and > > >>> trying to sell them at various price points. So far sales > > >>> have been pretty minimal at anything over $1000. The > > >>> exception is that some libraries are starting to collect > > >>> them with an eye on the future." > > >>> > > >>> I'll see if I can stitch a good scan before I ship it out. > > >>> > > >> > > >> I wonder what my Unix Wizard poster is worth? (not that I would ever > > >> part with it!!) > > >> > > > > > > Last I priced mine, they were going for 100-200 USD. But there aren't > > many > > > for sale ... > > > > > > Warner > > > > > >> > > > > > > > > > > >

2 years, 6 months

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Unable to substitute a RaSCSI device for the hard drive in an HP Series 300 workstation

by Stan

I have an HP R/382 workstation with a defective SCSI hard drive. I'd prefer to replace it with a RaSCSI instead of another ancient and failure-prone rotating hard drive. Unfortunately, I my R/382 can't find the RaSCSI virtual drive to initialize it. Has anyone successfully used an RaSCSI in an HP workstation? If so, how did you do it? Thanks for your insights! Stan

2 years, 6 months

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Re: digest problem, starting with #115

by Stan Sieler

Hi Dennis, The change to "Plain Text Digests" worked, thanks! Stan

2 years, 7 months

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reset "pulse" stretcher need

by Jim Brain

This might be a bit off topic, so forgive me if so. The issue is a 24VAC motor with one connection to 24VAC and the other gated via two switches. The first switch is a momentary one and the second is in parallel and connected to the motor. A long enough momentary depression on the first switch actuates the electric motor enough to close the second switch, which then stays closed for 1 revolution. The problem is that a quick enough press and release of the first switch does not allow the motor to move far enough to close the second switch. Given the configuration, my general plan was a small one shot timer circuit that energized when the switch was initially depressed and then closed a relay in parallel with the first 2 switches, with a time period that was 1/10 to 1/2 the time of the motor revolution. a quick close and release of the first switch would start the timer, which would then close the parallel switch and then open it a short time later, and then the motor switch, which would still be closed, could signal the end of the cycle. But, I thought I'd ask around and see if a simpler option was available. Jim -- Jim Brain brain(a)jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

2 years, 7 months

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digest problem, starting with #115

by Stan Sieler

Hi, Has anyone else noticed that the list server is screwing up digest emails, starting with Volume #115? Prior to #115, each message would start with: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2022 18:49:31 +0000 (WET) From: ... Subject: [cctalk] Re: Ident... To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <01SKKMC7X5CG8WYOLI(a)beyondthepale.ie> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN As of 115, that demarcation has disappeared. Here's an example from #119, message #6: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Devin D <lyokoboy0(a)gmail.com> To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Cc: Bcc: Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2022 12:48:23 -0500 Subject: [cctalk] Guidance on repairing Dec PDP 11 System Greetings, Note that that's *NOT* a "forwarded" message (in the normal CCTALK digest sense), but the start of a new message. Since most people are *EXTREMELY BAD* at trimming the messages they are replying to, the lack of proper message demarcation makes reading the digest quite difficult. Sadly, the listserver doesn't post the version number of the its code with each digest (well, as far as I could see), so I can't definitively tie this to a version change. Can this be reverted/fixed, please? thanks, Stan

2 years, 7 months

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Stuff available in Somerset, England - Update and MORE STUFF

by Philip Belben

Dear all, I am still trying to declutter enough to empty the storage container, and have room to move around in my basement. I have decided not to renew the lease on the storage container on 10 January, so stuff needs to go by then. The following stuff will go in the skip if no one comes and collects it by early January: D-Scan video printer DECwriter 2 printing terminal A device for cleaning DEC RK05 platters, poor condition, mechanicals corroded, no cleaning pads or fluid - probably display only. The following stuff will probably also go in the skip: Teletype 43 (the dot-matrix Teletype - this is rare but boring; probably rare because boring) A wide range of other small dot-matrix printers - let me know if you are interested in anything of that nature, and I'll try and make a list. The following are available free to anyone prepared to collect: IBM System/23 Datamaster - complete with (yet another!) dot matrix printer. I have some software for this as well. ACT Sirius 1. A fairly complete system including some software (Wordstar and some accounting packages). I may need help disentangling Sirius stuff from Apricot stuff, since the same ACT logo often appears on both. The following are available, but I'd like to be offered a non-negative amount of money: Apple II systems. Four system units (I think they are two //e, one ][ plus and one ][ Europlus, but I can check. Some disk drives. I should be able to find a monitor or two. Quite a lot of manyals, plug-in cards, probably some software disks - but I may need help sorting out Apple II disks from others. Some of the plug-in cards are prototyping cards, and I think one has been set up to talk to some analogue gaming paddles. Research Machines 380Z. (One of the people who collected other stuff from me has expressed an interest in this, and his prior interest will be taken into account in considering offers.) I have a system box (I haven't yet looked inside) with diskette drives on the front; I also have a GIPB (IEEE-488) card and a rather nice I/O prototyping card - it is pre-populated with three PIO chips and one other large chip, all in wire-wrappable sockets, and lots of space for a homebrew interface. A Victor V86P laptop. I know nothing about this machine, but it has the Sirius logo on it (I think the Sirius 1 was sold under the Victor brand in some places, so this figures) As before, please reply to declutter(a)axeside.co.uk, whether or not you reply here. If I get interest in some of the machines, I'm happy to look more closely at them and try to answer queries. In general, I'd prefer people to come and collect stuff, but for the smaller items (e.g. the Victor laptop) I'd be happy to discuss shipping. Collecting stuff yourself is a more reliable way of getting the parts you need (e.g. cables), and of finding other stuff that I don't mind getting rid of. As regards the systems for which I want money, I do not guarantee to accept the highest offer; as I said, I have already had interest in the 380Z and this will be taken into account. Finally, I am trying to contact Anthony Sibley. We started making arrangements for him to collect some stuff, and then I stopped getting replies to my e-mails. Either he is not receiving them or I am not receiving his replies. Please get in touch, or your TU16 will go elsewhere, maybe even in the skip. Philip.

2 years, 7 months

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Need power supplies?

by Van Snyder

I have two Power General FLU4-150 power supplies, apparently set up to be used in some kind of a server. They have an extra board that includes some Schottky diodes, presumably so they can be used in parallel without a failing one damaging a working one. I don't know the precise model numbers, but they provide +/- 5v and +/- 12v. One (or maybe both) would fit in a Postal Service medium flat-rate box. Yours for the price of a PDF shipping label. I also have five power supplies that appear to have come from Dell servers. I don't know their specs. They have a weird connector that actually has a Molex number (that I have forgotten). Let me know if you might want any of the Dell power supplies and I'll work out which box would be needed for shipping. If you can't use them for their originally-intended purposes, maybe you can convert them to lab-bench supplies. Van Snyder

2 years, 7 months

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REPLICA Cromemco Cyclops Camera

by William Sudbrink

Sorry to spam the list, but I find myself in need of some holiday cash (or positive PayPal balance, anyway) so I am offering a REPLICA Cromemco Cyclops Camera for sale. This is ONLY THE CAMERA. You will need to have your own Cyclops interface board set or build an XYZ scope interface as in the manual: https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/ftp/cromemco/Cromemco%2088%20ACC%2 0Manual.pdf This will be the camera I demonstrated at 2018 VCF East. All three circuit boards are clearly labeled REPLICA in the copper layer. Details of the construction and other photographs are on my web page: http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/cyclops/index.html#Cromemco I would much rather sell it here to someone who clearly understands what they are getting, rather than dealing with ebay. I will also include a pair of REPLICA side panels (made from measurements of an original) that I had made last year. I would be happy to zoom with the buyer and demonstrate the camera in operation. Email me directly if interested. Thanks, Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

2 years, 7 months

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A UK Vintage Computer exchange buddy?

by Ethan O'Toole

Hello, I have looked at vintage UK computers on Facebook Marketplace and the like. The people usually will not post, especially to me in the USA. They are normally looking for local collection. Anyone in the UK want to be a vintage computer swap friend? Looking to get some systems from there and could help get systems from here in return. I am in the USA. Private message if interested! - Ethan -- : Ethan O'Toole

2 years, 7 months

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CORRECTION: Peripherals available in Dorset, England : Free to a Good Home

by Martin Bishop

ftagh(a)janefield.net (NOT .org) Martin -----Original Message----- From: Martin Bishop via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org] Sent: 03 December 2022 18:07 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts (cctalk(a)classiccmp.org) <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Cc: Martin Bishop <mjd.bishop(a)emeritus-solutions.com> Subject: [cctalk] Peripherals available in Dorset, England : Free to a Good Home Folks The following job lots are available as described but untested, stored in the attic / house since last use : UMMV Lot A : Matsui B&W 13" 1420T SIL UHF & Scart 230V (may be useful as a retro monitor esp as exhibit) [operable when last in service ~?] Lot B : Samsung CLP-350 A4 Color Laser Enet 230V - contains consumables, level unknown - very streaky when last used + CLP-R350A Imaging Unit + CLP-W350A Waste Bin + CLP-C350A Cyan toner + CLP-Y350A Yellow toner + CLP-M350A Magenta toner [consumables BNIB] [operable but streaky when last in service ~2015] Lot C : Samsung CLP680 A4 Color Laser Enet 230V - contains consumables, level unknown - motion fault when last used "A1-4112" + CLT-K506L Black toner [consumable BNIB] [defective "A1-4112" when last in service ~2022] While these are on the margins of classic, I'm happy to give the community first refusal on a free to a good home basis. Collection needs to be no later than next Thursday 8 December. If firm collection arrangements have not been made by CoP Sunday they will be offered on Gumtree ... If they are still here after Thursday, they may go wheee. Apologies for the short notice. Replies to ftagh(a)janefield.net will be regarded as offers. Collection offers will be considered in the round, but the early bird is likely to have an advantage, accepted offers will be honoured until the agreed collection time passes, thereafter the acceptance will lapse and they will be back in play. Martin

2 years, 7 months

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Peripherals available in Dorset, England : Free to a Good Home

by Martin Bishop

Folks The following job lots are available as described but untested, stored in the attic / house since last use : UMMV Lot A : Matsui B&W 13" 1420T SIL UHF & Scart 230V (may be useful as a retro monitor esp as exhibit) [operable when last in service ~?] Lot B : Samsung CLP-350 A4 Color Laser Enet 230V - contains consumables, level unknown - very streaky when last used + CLP-R350A Imaging Unit + CLP-W350A Waste Bin + CLP-C350A Cyan toner + CLP-Y350A Yellow toner + CLP-M350A Magenta toner [consumables BNIB] [operable but streaky when last in service ~2015] Lot C : Samsung CLP680 A4 Color Laser Enet 230V - contains consumables, level unknown - motion fault when last used "A1-4112" + CLT-K506L Black toner [consumable BNIB] [defective "A1-4112" when last in service ~2022] While these are on the margins of classic, I'm happy to give the community first refusal on a free to a good home basis. Collection needs to be no later than next Thursday 8 December. If firm collection arrangements have not been made by CoP Sunday they will be offered on Gumtree ... If they are still here after Thursday, they may go wheee. Apologies for the short notice. Replies to ftagh(a)janefield.org will be regarded as offers. Collection offers will be considered in the round, but the early bird is likely to have an advantage, accepted offers will be honoured until the agreed collection time passes, thereafter the acceptance will lapse and they will be back in play. Martin

2 years, 7 months

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RIP Fred Brooks (1931-2022)

by Tomasz Rola

As the subject (and wikipedia) say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Brooks -- Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:tomasz_rola@bigfoot.com **

2 years, 7 months

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Re: Fwd: Philips P2000C carrying strap

by Smith, Wayne

Found an ad from 1984 - poor resolution but gives you an idea of what the strap looked like. -W https://photos.app.goo.gl/NG7kCK4qHyDgNKxb6 Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2022 16:25:59 +0100 From: Tony Duell <ard.p850ug1(a)gmail.com> Subject: [cctalk] Fwd: Philips P2000C carrying strap To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <CAHkUCCzHdS2ayzu=pguLaj_KEHqGv-TZxE8Bv2ap8hUKL=CYDw(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Does anyone have a Philips P2000C CP/M luggable with the carrying strap? I will be restoring such a machine in the near-ish future and mine is lacking the strap. Clear photos of the end fittings that slot into the machine, the dimensions of them, etc would be a great help in making something up. -tony

2 years, 7 months

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Guidance on repairing Dec PDP 11 System

by Devin D

Greetings, Been a while since i have posted here. I have several PDP11 systems and peripherals. I picked the original lot of a system 34 and related tech in Miami FL a couple years back, and have since found several more pdp 11/34 machines, and a pdp 11/05, 11/85, and others. It has been a goal to get the original PDP 11/34 system up and running, however my job schedule kept getting in the way of my repair efforts, making it easy to loose track of where i was at with the repair progress. Thankfully i no longer work in a datacenter in a 10 hour overnight shift, so it should be much easier to devote my time to this repair. I am looking for advice to get the 11/34 system up and running. I have started to put together a site to document my progress, to stay on track with the repair effort. The system has 2 rl02 drives, and an attached 9 track tape drive. I had worked to repair a power supply issue at first, there was a problem with the main transformer, as well as one of the smaller voltage "bricks". Thankfully i have many systems and i was just able to swap in the needed working parts. So this is about as far as I got, I had a minimal config of the 11/34 machine running, with not much more than the cpu, and a serial card to talk to attached terminal. Power supply works, and i was able to toggle in programs from the front panel to output characters to the attached terminal. I believe the next logical step was to try and attach the rl02 controllers, and see if the disk packs still have working installs of RSX installed. I am not sure how to proceed with this though. I have mainly been following the advice of Paul Anderson, who has been a godsend in regard to advice and guidance with getting these old systems fixed up. I hope that if i keep a log of the repair effort on my site, it will allow me to pick up where i leave off with the repair much more easily. So that is the present condition of the machine. Good power supply, can toggle in simple programs to print to the attached terminal. Any advice on how to proceed is much appreciated. I Need to get an itemized list of what hardware and cards i have on hand, and post that here so its understood what i have. Thanks, Devin D.

2 years, 7 months

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Box of SCSI stuff

by Van Snyder

I have a box of SCSI stuff that I'm no longer using. PCI adapters (Adaptec, Symbios) Cables -- 68-pin, 50-pin Centos, 50-pin Mac-Centos, 50-pin ribbon cable, .... Terminators Yours in exchange for a PDF of a USPS flat-rate box shipping label. Everthing might fit in a medium flat-rate box, but just to be sure send a PDF for a large flat-rate box. Van Snyder

2 years, 7 months

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Identifying a Failed Diode in a Rainbow H7842 Power Supply

by Rob Jarratt

The H7842 PSU in my Rainbow failed yesterday. At first the machine just powered down and there was a slight burning smell, I wasn't next to the machine when this happened, so I didn't see or hear anything to tell me where the problem might be. Not being sure if there was a short in the machine or a problem in the PSU, I disconnected the fans, FDD and HDD and, probably foolishly, I applied power again to see if the machine would work. At this point there was a bang and a flash in the PSU. On opening up the H7842 power supply I found that one of the transistors had completely disintegrated. It looks to be the main switching transistor, here is a picture of it: https://rjarratt.files.wordpress.com/2022/11/img_20221120_165850.jpg. I have identified a source for this transistor, but if anyone can suggest a modern replacement that would be useful too. However, that is not my main problem. Given that before the transistor blew up there had clearly been another failure somewhere else, I tried to find the original failure. There were no obviously damaged parts, so I just probed around near the transistor for any parts that were open circuit or short circuit. I found a diode connected to the base of the transistor that appeared to be short circuit. So, I decided to lift one end to check it. As I de-soldered one of the leads, the diode broke in two. So clearly the diode was either damaged by the failure of the transistor, or it was the cause of the failure. This is the diode: https://rjarratt.files.wordpress.com/2022/11/img_20221120_165913.jpg. I can't quite make out the markings on the diode to know what to replace it with. I think it says "D610". Would that be the right designation? If so, can anyone suggest a suitable replacement please? The diode seems to connect an inductor to the base of the switching transistor and the collector of the transistor is connected to a transformer. Should I be looking for other failed parts? Not sure if the diode failed first and then caused the transistor to fail? Or if something else has failed which caused these parts to fail? I do know that there are no shorts in the Rainbow itself, because I have a spare PSU that still works fine in the same machine. I blogged this here (it repeats most of that I have said above): https://robs-old-computers.com/2022/11/20/dec-rainbow-h7842-power-supply-fai lure/ Thanks Rob

2 years, 7 months

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To cctalk owner: There's a problem subscribing

by Toby Thain

Clicking Subscribe goes to a Not Found page. I found this out because I'm trying to subscribe with a new email address. --Toby

2 years, 7 months

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Help! Mentec and GRC DEC compatible manuals not in usual places...

by Robin Downs

Hi and thanks for reading... I am on the way to getting a small Q-Bus PDP11 up and running (I used to work on and repair then in the 1980s) and have some boards and a chassis now, but I cannot find any documentation for a couple of less common boards I have got - any help would be greatly appreciated - but I have looked in the usual places... The main issues are: Mentec M70 CPU - There are jumpers for serial port config and speed.. I have got a glossy leaflet for it but no jumper info.. GRC MLV11 - two serial lines and 128KB memory, but configured with switches - lots of switches... Also is anyone has any old Q-Bus parts in the UK (particularly any Baydel parts) that are looking for a good home, I would love to hear from you! Thanks for reading - any help or info much appreciated! Regards, Robin Downs Email: rdowns(a)radix.co.uk<mailto:rdowns@radix.co.uk>

2 years, 7 months

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Holmes Engineering CP/M

by Mike Loewen

I'm still looking for a copy of CP/M for the Holmes Engineering VID-80 board for the TRS-80 Model III. A manual would be helpful, as well. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

2 years, 7 months

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digital group's Richard Bemis

by Whitney Scharer

Hi Brad, I just came across your post from last year about my father, Richard C. Bemis. He passed away in June. I wish I knew more about the digital group and would love to see the video or article you are working on. I can also fill you in on what my dad did after dg. Thanks, Whitney ___ Whitney Scharer *The Age of Light* Order today from Bookshop.org <https://bookshop.org/shop/whitneyscharer> or Amazon <https://www.amazon.com/Age-Light-Novel-Whitney-Scharer/dp/031652414X/ref=sr…> whitneyscharer.com <http://www.whitneyscharer.com/> | @wscharer <http://www.twitter.com/wscharer> | instagram.com/wscharer

2 years, 7 months

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Nova and Eclipse Emulator beta release

by Bruce Ray

Wild Hare Computer Systems is pleased to announce the public beta release of its Data General Nova and Eclipse emulator. This emulator allows the full range of DG 16-bit Nova and Eclipse computer software to run on Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms, and will become a major part of Wild Hare's increased efforts to preserve Data General's significant contributions to computer history. The emulator combines portions of Wild Hare's commercial products with the SimH project structure to create a single emulator for the 16-bit Nova and Eclipse computers. The program supports a wide range of features, including: Processors: unmapped Nova, SuperNova, Nova 1200, Nova 800, Nova 2, Nova 3, Nova 4 mapped Nova 840 mapped Nova 3/D mapped Nova 4/X Eclipse S/130 Eclipse S/140 Eclipse S/150 Eclipse S/120 Eclipse Desktop Generation Model 20 and Model 30 Peripherals: TTI/TTO primary console (TeleType) input/output RTC real-time clock TTI1/TTO1 secondary console (TeleType) input/output PTR paper tape reader PTP paper tape punch PLT plotter LPT line printer MTA mag tape unit DSK fixed-head disks DKP moving head disks DEP Desktop Generation disks DZP popular "Zebra" moving head disks QTY 4060 "Quad" asynchronous multiplexers ALM 4255 Asynchronous Line Multiplexers Software: Operating Systems DOS Novas (first DOS written for Nova) URDOS RDOS for Novas and Eclipses (in unmapped mode) MRDOS RDOS for Mapped Nova 840 NRDOS RDOS for Mapped Nova 3/D and Nova 4/X ZRDOS RDOS for Mapped Eclipses MP/OS Nova 4 DG/RDOS Eclipses AOS Eclipses MP/AOS Eclipses Languages ASM (Assembler) MAC (Macro Assembler) ALGOL DG/L FORTRAN 4 FORTRAN 5 FORTRAN 77 Extended BASIC Business BASIC MP Pascal SP Pascal COBOL Interactive COBOL (ICOBOL) PL/1 RPG II IDEA INFOS II CEO Prior Data General knowledge is beneficial to using the emulator and corresponding DG software. For convenience, Wild Hare has created container files of pre-configured operating system environments and their corresponding languages to minimize the time needed to enjoy the full DG "experience". This "beta-level" software release is intended to gather user feedback to help guide future product development. Bug reports, comments, suggestions, ridicule and giggles can be sent to beta(a)WildHareComputers.com. Further information is contained in the emulator beta release web page: www.NovasAreForever.org/dgbeta Bruce Ray Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc. Denver, Colorado USA bkr(a)WildHareComputers.com ...preserving the Data General legacy: www.NovasAreForever.org

2 years, 7 months

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Is this a RIFA (uV3100-10 PSU)?

by Antonio Carlini

I'm working on cleaning up a bit of battery leakage in a MicroVAX 3100 Model 10 and while it's apart I decided to look inside the PSU (an H7822-00). It's nice and clean inside with no bulging caps. What it does have is an X2 capacitor, as shown here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dpdqJ3tuGfsRDR3Y6. It doesn't appear to be damaged and I can't see the word "RIFA" on it anywhere but I can't see two of the sides because of other components that get in the way. So does anyone know for sure whether it is a RIFA brand or not, or do I have to desolder it to be sure? Thanks Antonio -- Antonio Carlini antonio(a)acarlini.com

2 years, 7 months

4
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Looking for NORTRONICS Read/Write head for IBM 5100/5110/5106 tape unit

by Steve Lewis

I have a 5100 and 5106 both with a working tape unit. But the tape unit in my 5110 is not working, and I believe it is the read/write head. The REWIND command works, but the MARK command does not (ERR 3). I took the Tape Card from the 5110 and swapped it into the 5106, and the 5106 continued to work (and 5110 then had same result, ERR 3). This tells me the issue isn't any electronics in the Tape Card electronics (such as bad IC's). Swapping the electronics card is easy. But I haven't yet tried taking the read/write head from the 5106 and putting it into 5110's tape unit (they both use all the same components) -- it's not that difficult, but I don't really want to put a working 5106 at more risk of becoming non-working. Hence, that's why I'm asking around first if anyone might happen to have one of these NORTRONICS or a suitable substitute to try. For example, it may be the same kind of read/write head used in some reel-to-reel systems of that era (early/mid 1970s). The various numbers on the read/write head are as follows: NORTRONICS PN 1608752 C584980 269 24256 I have measurements and photos of what I'm looking for at the bottom of this link: https://voidstar.blog/ibm-5100-internal-tape-and-5106/ The head is about a 15mm x 20mm, with a 26mm ground extension on one side for mounting. A few months ago I contacted Nortronics. They had some stock that was close, but not this exact pin out (4-pins on one side, 6-pins on the other; not sure which is read vs write). I think all the ones they had were 4-pin/4-pin. I've also tried different brand tapes, DC6150 vs DC600A (which all of them do work in the 5100, but not the 5110). -Steve

2 years, 7 months

1
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Apple AWACS register documentation

by Cameron Kaiser

Any Apple alumni (Al?) with documentation on AWACS registers? I'm trying to figure out why the BeOS AWACS sound driver works on some Power Mac 6500s and TAMs but not others (but works fine on 6400s and everything previously). Yes, I'm aware that Be considered the 6500 "Unsupported but Compatible" and it boots fine on my 6500/275 but is totally mute. An instrumented driver in debug mode yielded little insight. The driver thinks it's initialized everything correctly and reports no errors. I wonder if there's something about the SRS sound enhancement that's different on later 6500s/TAMs. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- God made the integers; all else is the work of Man. -- Kronecker -----------

2 years, 7 months

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ESD Bags

by Ali

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

2 years, 7 months

6
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100% Tape Seal (soft kind) failure

by Shoppa, Tim

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

2 years, 7 months

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Any working Datapoint 2200 systems?

by Steve Lewis

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

2 years, 7 months

6
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Modern Replacement for H7140 in PDP 11/24

by Rob Jarratt

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

2 years, 7 months

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Inline Serial Device?

by W2HX

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

2 years, 7 months

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NEC APC I / III available USA Massachusetts

by Rich Bramante

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

2 years, 7 months

1
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Seeking a Sun monitor with 13W3 interface

by hi＠senzilla.io

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

2 years, 7 months

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HP Computer Museum update

by davidkcollins2＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 7 months

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Exabyte recovery

by Warner Losh

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

2 years, 7 months

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GLACIER-01 in the DataRover 840

by Cameron Kaiser

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

2 years, 7 months

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CoreNET PC-51 info (IBM 5110)

by Steve Lewis

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

2 years, 7 months

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Alacron i860 boards

by Tony Jones

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

2 years, 7 months

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

by Robert Armstrong

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

2 years, 8 months

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IBM 4863 monitor sync problem (PCjr display)

by Cameron Kaiser

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

2 years, 8 months

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Shipping help in Brunswick, GA

by John H. Reinhardt

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

2 years, 8 months

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Re: Seeking DEC BN25B-nn Optical Fiber Cable

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 8 months

1
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Beehive Topper help needed

by Harten

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

2 years, 8 months

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Beehive Topper help needed

by Harten

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

2 years, 8 months

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Seeking DEC BN25B-nn Optical Fiber Cable

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

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

2 years, 8 months

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Re: Whitechapel Computer Works

by Tony Jones

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

2 years, 8 months

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Whitechapel Computer Works

by Jonathan Katz

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

2 years, 8 months

4
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Disk imaging n00b

by Grant Taylor

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

2 years, 8 months

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Re: Whitechapel Computer Works

by Tom Stepleton

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

2 years, 8 months

1
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LC:M+L (Living Computer Museum)

by Michael Brutman

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

2 years, 8 months

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Re: list problem with digestmode

by Robert Feldman

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

2 years, 8 months

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list problem with digestmode

by Stan Sieler

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

2 years, 8 months

2
1
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Re: 50 Years of the HP 3000

by mark＠markesystems.com

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

2 years, 8 months

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14 DZ11's for sale/whatever

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 8 months

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50 Years of the HP 3000

by Gavin Scott

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

2 years, 8 months

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LC:M+L (Living Computer Museum)

by Kevin Anderson

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

2 years, 8 months

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

by Kevin Anderson

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

2 years, 8 months

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

by Grant Taylor

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

2 years, 8 months

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Bubble Memory

by Anders Nelson

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

2 years, 8 months

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

by Toby Thain

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

2 years, 8 months

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

by Toby Thain

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

2 years, 8 months

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RDI BriteLite IPX keeps going to white screen

by Cameron Kaiser

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

2 years, 8 months

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WTB: Kinetics/Shiva FastPath 4 or 5

by Jonathan Chapman

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

2 years, 8 months

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Great Vintage Computer Heist of 2012

by Tom Hunter

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

2 years, 8 months

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ISO someone to refurbish two IBM 010 card punches

by LJW cctech

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

2 years, 8 months

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Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 97, Issue 67

by Mark Kahrs

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

2 years, 8 months

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CAL TSS information and source listings

by Lars Brinkhoff

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

2 years, 8 months

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