Hey all,
So, being the new owner of a AS/400 9401-150, I am looking for a 2723-9406
LAN card for it.
Does anyone have one they wouldn't mind parting with by chance?
-Peter
> Most likely, the 3-mode drive. 8x1024 sectors on each track, giving a
> capacity of about 1.23MB. Many PCs of the era could also handle the
> drives, which would change spindle speed from 300 to 360 RPM. 3 mode
> drives were manufactured right up until the end, but usually were
> configured as 2-mode (720/1.44) unless jumpering changes were made to
> the drive.
Chuck,
Yes, R. Stricklin (Bear) verified it as such. So have you ever seen a Tri
Density drive? Or was it just a paper announcement that never made it out of
the lab? I'd figure if anyone may have seen one it would be you ;)
-Ali
Oi.
So after finally getting things going I started copying the Pro/380 OS
files to a bunch of 1.2mb floppies. Great. However after a bit I started
getting errors, and found that the disks were getting gouges in the
tracks. Sure enough disassembly of my 1.2mb Teac showed that debris had
become embedded in the disk head and cleaning is not possible.
Terrific. Tossing the drive, this is not the first time I have had this
problem with these disks so I am dumpstering all of the old floppies and
just bought 40 new ones in sealed boxes.
However I'm now in need of a 1.2mb floppy drive. Anyone have a good
working spare that I can beg/borrow/buy in the MD area?
Thanks!
CZ
(I really should have pitched these disks; they came from a basement
with an oil heater for 20 years and are quite honestly garbage. Only
thing worse were disks from Solarex which literally had silicon dust on
them that chewed any drive. Oh well, live and learn)
I did some research as to where Dean and Molly (Mary Alice) Hendrickson lived and the address I come up with is 20 Interlaken Road, Greenwich, CT 06830. There is no street view on Google but from the satellite photo it looks like it could be the same house as I seem some of what appear to be similar curved features on the roof.
From: Tarek Hoteit via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2023 10:23 PM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Cc: Tarek Hoteit
Subject: [cctalk] Sun/Tronic House
Hi. I came across an article about the "Sun/Tronic House" in the July/August
1981 issue of Computers and Programming magazine.
The article references the Apple 2 as the computer that controls everything in the house that also relies on solar energy.
The house, per the article, is (or was) in Greenwich, Connecticut. I also found a photo of the house at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.1000bit.it/storia/apple/suntronic_h…
I am curious to know if the house and the Apple IIs are still there. Anyone has a clue?
(A copy of the magazine is at
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://archive.org/details/sim_computers-and-p…
1_4 page 38).
--
Regards,
Tarek Hoteit
In the golden age of the floppy before its downfall caused by CD-R, CD-RW
and flash USB a number of new technologies were introduced to allow for
cheap removable storage (Yes MO drives existed but they were expensive).
Many of the tech were a great step forward. For example the LS-240 drives
from Panasonic/3M (Imation) allowed reading and writing to 120MB, 240MB,
1.44MB, and 720KB disks. They were also compatible with weird formats like
IBM's XDF and even allowed the storage of 32MB on a standard 1.44MB floppy
disk. To be backwards compatible they used a separate read/write head for
regular floppies. However, none of the formats with backward compatibility
read or wrote to 2.88MB ED disks.
Anybody know why? Was it a licensing issue or the perception that ED
compatibility wasn't really required or desired? Or was it technical? I am
not sure if ED drives already made use of two read/write heads (one for
720/1.44 and one for 2.88) or just one? If it is the former one could see
how it would be hard to have three separate read/write heads in one unit...
On a separate note: was a TD (Triple Density) drive ever produced?
Apparently the technology existed all the way back in 1989 and would have
give 12.5MB on a standard physical sized (3.5") floppy:
https://www-computerwoche-de.translate.goog/a/hitachi-maxell-bietet-nec-neue
-12-5-mb-floppy-an,1155888?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wap
p (original in German)
-Ali
Hi,
Has anyone been successful in communicating using cu or some
other method to transfer files between two SIMS running Unix V ?
If so I would appreciate some help.
Thanks,
Ken
--
WWL 📚
Looking for MCM68764 and I could probably use some TMS2532 as well.
I'm also always on the lookout for blank bipolar proms (chips stargin
with 82S, and compatables).
Anyone have any of these they don't need. New, used, needing erasing,
doesn't matter.
If you have any, let me know how many you have (of each if you have
both type) and what you are looking to get for them.
If you need more standard/bigger EPROMs, I can trade too.... have a
number of 2764, 27256, have some 27128 I think too, and maybe some 27512
?
I'd have to go digging.
Thanks,
-- Curt
I have 2 Sbus Expansion chassis, one Sun, and one Integrix (IIRC). I
have the expansion chassis and the sbus controllers, but on both cases I
do not have the cables.
By looking at it, I believe they probably both use the same cable.
Anyone out there have one or two cables to spare ?
Thanks,
-- Curt
I've come across three original QIC tapes for the IBM 5100. DC300 I think,
original IBM labels.
They are in fair condition (the tape material itself seems fine, they are
all on their reels), but the "rubbers" used to actually actuate the reels
is degraded. I came across an article once on how to restore those (I
think it involved gluing the rubber band directly to the ends of the media?)
The three tapes are labeled as follows:
5721-XM3
THE IBM 5100 PROBLEM SOLVER LIBRARY
TAPE PART NO. 1608361
E.C. NO 829643 DATE 7/29/76
(this one is in a form fitted sealed ziploc-like bag, which I haven't
opened; the early magazine ads for the 5100 reference this solver library
-- I assume it is a mix of BASIC and APL)
5721-EAB
THE IBM 5100 BASIC COMPUTER AIDED INSTRUCTION
TAPE PART NO. 1608376
E.C. NO 829482 DATE 11/13/75
VERSION 1 MOD 0 FEAT 9021
PROGRAM NO. 5721-EAB CARTRIDGE 3 OF 3
(what does FEAT mean? and sadly, I don't have cartridge 1 or 2, but I
assume this is probably some BASIC code that runs some kind of tutorial
about the system)
TAPE PART NO. 1608705
E.C. NO 829637 DATE 1/10/77
DIAGNOSTIC CARTRIDGE. DO NOT ALTER THE
CONTENTS OF THIS TAPE.
(I believe when accessing the built in DCP, it has options to load and run
additional diagnostics that would be contained on this tape -- I think
"IMF" stuff, so it would be in native PALM machine code)
Anyone interested in a restoration or any contacts to folks who have worked
on QIC tape before? I have a working IBM 5100 (with working internal tape
and external 5106), but I absolutely haven't tried to insert or use these
tapes, and I have 0 experience in trying to extract data from raw media.
I don't mind shipping them off to an expert - such as anyone who maybe can
copy the data content to a new tape? (which I know is probably some
specialized equipment - I probably can't self fund that, but I am
interested to know what the options here might be)
-Steve / v*
I have the following 2 books available for the taking:
VAX architecture Reference Manuals-1987
Version 4.4 VAX/VMS Internals & Data Structures
Email tpisek at pobox dot com
Fortran question for Unix System-5 r3.
When executing fortran programs requiring "input" the screen will
show a blank screen. After entering input anyway the program
completes under Unix System V *r3*.
When the same program is compiled under Unix System V *r1* it
works as expected. The user sees the prompt.
Sounds like on Unix System V *r3* the output buffer is not being flushed.
I tried re-compiling F77. No help. Is it possible to check the runtime
libraries to see if fflush is missing?
Fortran program follows:
PROGRAM EASTER
INTEGER YEAR,METCYC,CENTRY,ERROR1,ERROR2,DAY
INTEGER EPACT,LUNA
C A PROGRAM TO CALCULATE THE DATE OF EASTER
PRINT '(A)',' INPUT THE YEAR FOR WHICH EASTER'
PRINT '(A)',' IS TO BE CALCULATED'
PRINT '(A)',' ENTER THE WHOLE YEAR, E.G. 1978 '
READ '(A)',YEAR
C CALCULATING THE YEAR IN THE 19 YEAR METONIC CYCLE-METCYC
METCYC = MOD(YEAR,19)+1
IF(YEAR.LE.1582)THEN
DAY = (5*YEAR)/4
EPACT = MOD(11*METCYC-4,30)+1
ELSE
C CALCULATING THE CENTURY-CENTRY
CENTRY = (YEAR/100)+1
C ACCOUNTING FOR ARITHMETIC INACCURACIES
C IGNORES LEAP YEARS ETC.
ERROR1 = (3*CENTRY/4)-12
ERROR2 = ((8*CENTRY+5)/25)-5
C LOCATING SUNDAY
DAY = (5*YEAR/4)-ERROR1-10
C LOCATING THE EPACT(FULL MOON)
EPACT = MOD(11*METCYC+20+ERROR2-ERROR1,30)
IF(EPACT.LT.0)EPACT=30+EPACT
IF((EPACT.EQ.25.AND.METCYC.GT.11).OR.EPACT.EQ.24)THEN
EPACT=EPACT+1
ENDIF
ENDIF
C FINDING THE FULL MOON
LUNA=44-EPACT
IF(LUNA.LT.21)THEN
LUNA=LUNA+30
ENDIF
C LOCATING EASTER SUNDAY
LUNA=LUNA+7-(MOD(DAY+LUNA,7))
C LOCATING THE CORRECT MONTH
IF(LUNA.GT.31)THEN
LUNA = LUNA - 31
PRINT '(A)',' FOR THE YEAR ',YEAR
PRINT '(A)',' EASTER FALLS ON APRIL ',LUNA
ELSE
PRINT '(A)',' FOR THE YEAR ',YEAR
PRINT '(A)',' EASTER FALLS ON MARCH ',LUNA
ENDIF
END
Any help would be appreciated,
Ken
--
WWL 📚
Legendary discoverer of Moore's Law Gordon Moore passed away. Whether it
truly is a 'law' is debatable but its effect on microprocessor development
is hard to deny. Our industry/hobby or interest was built on a technology
G. Moore helped to develop.
Happy computing!
Murray 🙂
Another recent acquisition is for all your handheld calculator enthusiasts.
From 1975 here is “How To Entertain With Your Pocket Calculator”
Click to:
https://archive.org/details/htewypc
Michael.
--
*Blog: RetroRetrospective – Fun today with yesterday's gear……..
<http://www.jongleur.co.uk/blogs/>*
*Podcast*: *Retro Computing Roundtable <http://rcrpodcast.com/>* (Co-Host)
If anybody is interested in Systron-Donner Corporation, this booklet on “Block
Programming For Physical Systems” was in a recent acquisition.
Available at: https://archive.org/details/bpfps
Michael.
--
*Blog: RetroRetrospective – Fun today with yesterday's gear……..
<http://www.jongleur.co.uk/blogs/>*
*Podcast*: *Retro Computing Roundtable <http://rcrpodcast.com/>* (Co-Host)
Hi. I came across an article about the "Sun/Tronic House" in the July/August 1981 issue of Computers and Programming magazine.
The article references the Apple 2 as the computer that controls everything in the house that also relies on solar energy.
The house, per the article, is (or was) in Greenwich, Connecticut. I also found a photo of the house at https://www.1000bit.it/storia/apple/suntronic_house.asp
I am curious to know if the house and the Apple IIs are still there. Anyone has a clue?
(A copy of the magazine is at https://archive.org/details/sim_computers-and-programming_july-august-1981_… page 38).
--
Regards,
Tarek Hoteit
Hi everyone!
Does anyone have documentation for a Vermont Research K2 Solid State
Storage device? Looks like it emulates a CDC Lark. But it may also be
configurable for other devices?
Thanks!
--
-Jon
+44 7792 149029
G'day all,
Just followed the sale of the 11/05 on eBay (#175655196586) that ended a short time ago.
It's a remarkably clean and complete machine and am not surprised at the hammer price.
I was curious what the quad-height card with two ribbon cables coming out the sides was?
It appears to have a couple leads as well, presumably going to the single-height board.
Some sort of TTY interface? I presume non-DEC from the nylon handles.
Steve
Hello everyone,
First time posting here...
I am wondering if anyone knows of someone looking to get rid of a working
(preferably) IBM AS/400e 9401-150? For local pickup it would need to be
around the Atlanta, GA area in the US.
Thanks!
-Peter
Can anyone point me to the source paper tapes for the classic Paper Tape Software programmes packages ?
The IOX, ODT, FPMP and loader/dumper source paper tapes [e.g. DEC-11-XIOXA-A-PA1 & 2] are on bit savers, but those for the assemblers / linkers seem not to be.
That the assembler / linker sources were distributed is attested by the 1970's software catalogs; from their evident rarity I infer purchases were uncommon.
While any archive of -PA tapes is of interest, those I'm particularly seeking are:
- DEC-11-UPLAA-A-PA1 to 12 PAL-11A (8k) (V007A) Source PTs [~= ASXA]
- DEC-11-ASPA-PA1 to 11 PAL-11A (4k) (V002A) Source PTs [~= ASPA]
- DEC-11-XIXLA-A-PA1 & 2 IOX LPT (V004A) Source PTs
- DEC-11ULKSA-A-PA1 to 6 Link11S (V002A) Source PTs
- also PAL11S sources, however they are not listed in the catalogs
Equally, listings would be of value, e.g.:
- DEC-11-ASPA-LA PAL-11A (V002A) (4k) Listing
Electronic copies are all I require, although if someone has a cupboard full of untranscribed physical paper tapes I could oblige.
Yours in anticipation of being able to, hopefully, add the EIS instructions to PAL-11A's repertoire.
Martin
Question: I just used a strong magnet to wipe an old Maxtor MFM drive
(magnet on outside of case). Now the drive will not even seek properly
on start up, just endlessly moves the heads..
Is the drive now toast? Do MFM drives have embedded servo information on
the platter formatted by the factory?
CZ
For my LSI-11 simulator I developed an as accurate as possible
implementation of the Console-ODT functionality as described in the "LSI11
PDP11/03 Processor Handbook" and the "Microcomputer and Memories Handbook".
As might be expected from these handbooks, the description of the ODT
functionality is not a complete specification and consequently during the
development several questions arose on the reaction of ODT on the user
input, such as:
- What is the reaction on commands like "R0/<CR>RS/4@"? Will the last opened
location be opened or the contents of the last opened location?
- What is the reaction on a RUBOUT at the prompt?
- What will be the value of the opened location when e.g. three digits are
entered and these three digits are then rubbed out and the location is
closed? Will the value of the last opened location be unchanged or will it
be zero?
- An address and a GO command can be separated by a semicolon. What is the
reaction if characters other than the "G" are typed after the semicolon?
- Etc., etc...
Is there someone in (the vicinity of) the Netherlands with a functioning
LSI-11 who would allow me to try out these commands or could anyone point me
to someone who could facilitate that?
I developed a complete test script for all LSI-11 ODT commands and "all"
relevant situations and ideally I would like to carry out this test script
to get a complete specification of the Console-ODT functionality.
Regards,
Jos
Hi all,
I picked up the pieces of a few Sun E3500s a while back but it looks like I
don't have enough for a complete system - I am missing the front Peripheral
Power Supply, 300-1358 (
https://dogemicrosystems.ca/pub/Sun/System_Handbook/Sun_syshbk_V4.1/Devices…
). I know there's one on eBay right now but I have extras of most other
parts for these machines - rear power supplies, cooling modules, FC-AL
boards, SBUS boards, etc. and would ideally like to arrange some sort of
mutually beneficial swap. Let me know if you're interested and we can work
something out. Shipping is probably not going to be prohibitively
expensive but if there is someone local I'm in the greater Cleveland, OH
area.
-Henry
G'day all,
I have just uploaded the engineering drawings for the early PDP-11/05, the one with the solid (no slots) Mazak lower bezel
and the M7261 with the unpopulated region.
The latest date I can find in this print set is October 1973, Drawing release 11/05-49.
You can view or download it from https://archive.org/details/pdp-11-05-engineering-drawings-oct-1973
It is 147Mb in size, sorry about that but I didn't want the quality to drop too much (the raw scans were ~350Mb).
Regards,
Steve.
Is it possible to use the MXV11-B2 Roms in an 18 bit MRV11-C Prom
board? Clearly they work in the 22 bit version, MRV11-D, but I don't
have one of those.
The intention is to put together a small PDP-11 in an H9281-AB backplane
(18 bit) with an 11/23 or 11/73 CPU, Ram, disk controller, etc.
> But, as some who worked
> to bring a product to market only to see people on forums say "Skip
> buying it from Jim for $$$$, you can build the same thing by yourself
> for $ from AliExpress parts or buy this eBay knockoff for 2X$", I will
> admit that is somewhat infuriating. If the hobby community is not
> willing to pay a bit of premium to support those who bring out the
> products that benefit the community, the designers will get disgusted
> and leave.
Agree 100%. We stopped running XT-IDEs for a while due to the proliferation of knockoffs and the total indifference of a good portion of the community -- some folks even get hostile when you suggest they maybe not buy knockoffs that can't even abide by the terms of the open-source project license!
I'd designed a universal "bolts to any existing XT-IDE and doesn't eat a slot" CF adapter that never got run. After posting a development picture of the prototype, one of the knockoff folks ripped the design off before I had even received my quote from Keystone for the custom ISA brackets. No way was I going to spend on a run of 500x custom brackets when someone was already ripping off the idea. There are other things that we've chosen not to run for the same basic reason, and others that won't get open sourced.
> Thus, I'd say if a Saleae is something to pursue, try to buy
> one from them, to support their awesome GUI, and then drop by eBay and
> grab 2 or 4 of the knockoffs to put in your toolbox or travel debugging
> rucksack.
I'll go further and say don't buy knockoffs, period.
It's nice to support the designers in some capacity, but buying knockoffs fuels the ecosystem that creates knockoffs. With our stuff, it's never been that a single knockoff operation eats our lunch, it's that there's a zillion of them that run maybe 100 boards and disappear. Death by a thousand cuts. They charge $1-5 less while running the cheapest possible boards, stuffing with salvaged chips, etc. Meanwhile, we're having to pay for runs of boards with hard gold plating and buy genuine parts from Mouser.
Thanks,
Jonathan
The mandatory update for VMS V4.2 is still missing in my collection.
Because of that, VMS V4.2 is not fully usable,
neither can layered software be installed nor can
it be upgraded to VMS V4.3.
Who can help???
Not to open a huge can of worms.... but...
I always considered a mainframe to basically be a "fully decked out"
minicomputer.
A minicomputer has a core CPU and memory (or racks of memory), then is
"decked out" with data storage (racks of wall-sized tape decks), printers,
pick-your-typewriter input (or two, or three), and maybe cabinets for
serial IO or modem of some sort.
So, sometimes I say mainframe when I really mean minicomputer (generally
because mainframe just sounds cooler than "mini-computer" -- that is,
mainframe clearly conveys the notion of "some big ass computer" whereas
minicomputer just needs more clarification).
What do you guys think? Or is a mainframe one of those giants so large,
you walk inside its CPU?
Or, is it like this...
computer (a whole building, generally at least two story to support ac
ducting and raised floor maintenance -- are these exclusively mainframes?)
minicomputer (a single floor or room of a building or possibly a full
top of a desk - and, these are NOT mainframes?)
microcomputer (half a deck top or smaller, memory and accessories mostly
self contained - doesn't necessarily have to have a microprocessor, but
typically does)
nanocomputer (modern MCU ? like Raspbery Pi)
Also - on "personal computer", it's generally implied "digital electronic
computers" so we don't have to dwell too much on rocks and beads as
computers. Glad we didn't call them "coordinated electron pumpers" :)
-Steve
Ok, I think we have a good narrated composition! It is still
Unlisted since there are a few more things to finalize/decide. But unless
we spot any major flaw in the rendering, this should be wrapped up over the
next day or so. There are a few somewhat subtle easter eggs added.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPrHfUrhjQk
<Domesticating the computer: how the appliance computer came to be - YouTube
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPrHfUrhjQk>>
One question is: should this be set to "Yes it is for kids"? My
understanding is Enabling that prevents Comments being enabled, but I'm not
sure if there is any other benefit. But yes, this is NOT a documentary
and is intended more for a middle/high school audience.
Other decisions are things like final thumbnail and writing up the
Description, credits, etc.
And - recall - this wasn't intended as a "full history of computing", the
focus was on the 1970s. But there is a brief segment towards the end that
honors some pre-1970s work.
Also, this may be the only "history of personal computer" related video
that doesn't mention the word Gates or Wozniak [ that wasn't exactly
intentional! ;) actually the original intent was to avoid any names at all,
it wasn't a biography - but a few do end up mentioned ]
Thanks for all the feedback and criticism - it won't be perfect for
everyone, but I think it is far better than what we started with. My
"technical review team" has included:
Dennis Roberson (SCAMP/IBM 5100 lead engineer)
Dan Bricklin (VisiCalc)
Scott Adams (Adventure and many other games)
Ken Williams (Sierra OnLine)
-Steve
Any interest here before I post them to EPay?
Available for shipping cost from 95549:
IBM RT PC AIX OS Communications Guide 59X7668
IBM RT PC AIX OS Messages Reference 59X9115
IBM RT PC INED 59X7643
These are the classic early slipcase style manuals. They are in
pristine condition. All three are 1985 "First Editions" of the pub.
I received them in an auction lot of of documents and have no need.
Combined weight is ~13lbs.
Steve
Hi all,
I have to repair an PSU of a 11/23 n a BA11 Box with an H9720 Backplane
(with an KDJ-11A) that has run an CNC milling machine until 2 weeks
before now. :-) This is a Fidia machine..never heard about it before.
The problem is that a big 19000µF 40V capacitor in the PSU has failed
and that I think because of that the 2nd of the two Nidec fans has
finally failed.
I'm in the process of cleaning the goo from the PSU-PCB, found a burnt
5A fuse and now I'm checking the Semiconductors...
The problem is here that the Transistors (and diodes) have uncommon
types printed on, an TO220 is named SJE2677, another one is labeled
12652-00 RCA..and so on.
I've found a label with "0H780-B" on the PSU.. H780 PSU?
Where can I get some schematics from that beast? It is a secondary
switcher ist seems.
Regards,
Holm
--
Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583
info(a)tsht.de Fax +49 37292 709779 Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 741
Friends,
The process of migrating the cctalk and cctech mailing lists to a new
host in Chicago is underway. This evening, I've moved the list mail
handling to the new server, and this message will be the first live
test. Assuming this works, you shouldn't have to change anything to
post to the list.
The green web pages, the old "pipermail" list archives, and web access
to archives of new postings from this point still require a little work,
which I hope to complete in the next day or two. I will eventually
import the old pipermail archives into the new posting archive, but that
may take a little longer.
The new hosting is provided by the Chicago Classic Computing group.
Many thanks to Jay West for hosting the lists for 20 years!
/Dennis Boone
I have the following books free to a good home:
SmallTalk-80: The Language & its Implementation
SmallTalk-80: The Interactive Programming Environment
SmallTalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice
Email tpisek at pobox dot com
A friend gave me a DEC VK100 (aka GiGi) recently. It's in really nice
shape, but it is missing the power supply. Before I try to kludge something
up with an ATX supply, I thought I'd ask if anybody knows where I might find
an official replacement.
Thanks,
Bob
I no longer have a use for the following 2 books. Free for the taking.
Solaris Internals: Solaris 10 and Opensolaris
Solaris Performance and tools
Email me at: tpisek at pobox dot com
Hello. I am visiting the Computer History Museum in California next week. I always wanted to check it out and spend a day there, but something else happens. Any recommendations of what is a must see at the museum and anything else classic computing nearby in one day only (March 15)?
Regards,
Tarek Hoteit
I am working on an unknown status Persci 299 drive and one of the two
drives is locked closed. Is this a "park" of some kind or is the drive
broken? If it's a parked drive (only the drive 0 side) how do you unpark
the drive? I can't seem to find any info on this. If I find anything I
will post my findings.
Thanks in advance
Bill
The DEC DF02 (300 Baud) and DF03 (300/1200 Baud) modems appear to be
singularly lacking in online documentation. In the case of the DF03 those
would be:
EK-ODF03-IP - DF03 Illustrated Parts Breakdown
EK-ODF03-PS - DF03 Modem Pocket Service Guide
EK-ODF03-UG - DF03 Modem Users Guide
Similarly for the DF02. (Note that the actual designations may use a zero
rather than a capital letter O in the 4th position; references are
inconsistent.)
Does anyone have access to these documents? The only, and only slightly,
useful technical documentation I've found are within the KC780 documentation
(EK-KC780-TM-007_Jul84.pdf), which illustrates the required settings of the
two pairs of DIP switches (or jumpers) on each of the two DF02/03 internal
modules but doesn't define any of those settings. The functionality of the
front panel push-button switches is not described either.
Leads, experience, etc. appreciated, thank you,
paul
Gents,
I've been doing logic debugging (on a fairly primitive software defined radio I designed back in 1999) with an old Philips logic analyzer. It's not bad, certainly fast enough (I need 100 Msamples/s, it can do twice that) and it's more than wide enough (I need 32 channels). But its capture memory is microscopic so I struggle to see more than one or two transactions, and I need to see more than that.
Some poking around shows various USB-connected logic analyzers for quite low prices, and a number of them seem to have suitable specs. I also ran across sigrok.org which seems to be an open source logic analysis framework that can drive a bunch of those devices. Nice given that too many of them only come with Windows software.
I suspect there are others that have not too expensive logic analyzers and might be able to offer up suggestions or product reviews.
paul
As part of fixing the Pro/380 I dug out and decided to get running my
two Intel systems. These are Compaq Deskpro/XE systems. One is a 4100
which has an Intel 486/100 (25mhz, quad clock), the other I upgraded
with a Pentium P524T overdrive chip at 83mhz (33mhz external clock).
The P524T was an interesting duck: It's a 5 volt pentium, 32 bit
external bus but they did double the amount of 64 bit on-chip cache so
it can perk along quicker than one might think. Not many were sold, but
I have one and there you go. It even has a little fan on the heat sink
that is powered off the chip. Cute.
The Deskpro/XE's were great systems, slimline, Compaq business audio,
QVision video interface with 2mb of RAM, IDE drive, and oddly enough a 3
slot ISA bus. Most of the system ran at native 32 bit, so you just ran
a slow network card in the ISA. They also had up to 32mb memory, and an
optional memory cache card to speed things up.
The systems had issues, both on-board batteries were dead, resulting in
me having to find, download, run (not easy) and extract a setup floppy
for this model as you can't do the system settings without it. Not quite
an EISA config, but similar levels of stupidity in the ISA world. And
one of them does not seem to see the ISA bus, but not a big deal as it
will just be a DOS floppy maker.
Anyway, finally got one of them running and decided to do some
benchmarks. Booting NextStep 4.2, and tried out a few basic tests.
Findings:
For general booting and such the Pentium does not offer that much of an
advantage. Time to go from login window to system quiet with 20mb memory
(I load several apps by default) is:
486/100-121 seconds
Pentium: 120 seconds
Installing and removing the 256k cache card (an option I have one of)
doesn't change the time much at all, maybe a second.
Boosting memory to 32mb brought that number down to 84 seconds. Moral:
Memory matters.
Then I figured I would try a CPU intensive app: Good old NeXT
Mandelbrot. While a true NeXT slab will kick the rear of any Intel chip
(due to the on board DSP56001) I figured I would put the Pentium up
against the 486/100 and running the 486 at 33mhz external bus (133mhz)
in insane overclock mode.`So rendering the "Valley of Fear" (a complex
subset) resulted in:
Pentium, no external cache: 36 seconds.
Pentium, external cache: 34 seconds.
Not bad, cache really doesn't do a whole lot here.
486/100, no cache: 90 seconds. Wow, that is slow.
486/133, no cache: 65s. Faster, but very slow.
So the addition of the Pentium makes a huge difference on floating point
CPU intensive apps. I'm also guessing the extra large cache makes a
difference as well for highly iterative loads.
With this done I can continue looking for a 5.25 floppy to see about
making more PRO disks.
Hi,
Has anyone seen the latest on ArsTECHNICA journal on Brian Green’s
“deluxe home vintage computer den”? Does it bring back many fond memories
of the 70s and 80s. 🙂
Happy computing.
Murray 🙂
I attended the Vintage Computer Faire at the Computer History Museum many a
yr. ago. The museum wasn't opened yet then collecting many computer
artifacts including the Cray-1. I also met Steve Wozniak who gladdened the
heart of this Canadian nerd/geek/computer enthusiast. I'm looking forward
to visiting the museum again in the not-too-distant future. There are
computer museums here in Canada; one has Kenbak-1s.
The latest issue of Mad Magazine (April 2023) is titled “MAD Takes Apart Technology”. The pages include reprints of past articles that relate to computers, such as “if computers are so brilliant” (Oct 1985), “13 things you never want to hear from a computer guy” (May 2005), various y2k, and some 50s/60s tech humor. I posted the cover photo here: https://ne.thote.it/@tarek/110018157647679272
Regards,
Tarek Hoteit
Oh yes, that's looking good :-)
Thank you very much Mattis!
BTW: Some years before I helped to repair and administering the east
german copy of an 11/780.. the Robotron RVS K1840.
The console Processor of this beast was an Robotron K1620, the slowest
PDP-11 ever made but it was enough to load the microcode :-)
The 1620 used two 5,25" Floppies instead of the 8" one in the 11/780.
Best regards,
Holm
Mattis Lind wrote:
> That is a BA11-M box with a H780 supply. The schematics can be found in the
> KC780 document since the front end processor of the 11/780 is a PDP-11/03
> with a RX01 drive.
> In the end of this document there is a schematic:
>
> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/780/MP00534_KC780_Nov77.pdf
>
> Good luck!
>
> /Mattis
>
> Den mån 13 mars 2023 kl 10:57 skrev Holm Tiffe via cctalk <
> cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>:
>
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I have to repair an PSU of a 11/23 n a BA11 Box with an H9720 Backplane
> > (with an KDJ-11A) that has run an CNC milling machine until 2 weeks
> > before now. :-) This is a Fidia machine..never heard about it before.
> >
> > The problem is that a big 19000µF 40V capacitor in the PSU has failed
> > and that I think because of that the 2nd of the two Nidec fans has
> > finally failed.
> > I'm in the process of cleaning the goo from the PSU-PCB, found a burnt
> > 5A fuse and now I'm checking the Semiconductors...
> >
> > The problem is here that the Transistors (and diodes) have uncommon
> > types printed on, an TO220 is named SJE2677, another one is labeled
> > 12652-00 RCA..and so on.
> > I've found a label with "0H780-B" on the PSU.. H780 PSU?
> > Where can I get some schematics from that beast? It is a secondary
> > switcher ist seems.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Holm
> > --
> > Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
> > Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583
> > info(a)tsht.de Fax +49 37292 709779 Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790
> > 741
> >
> >
--
Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583
info(a)tsht.de Fax +49 37292 709779 Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 741
----- Ende weitergeleitete Nachricht -----
--
Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe,
Goethestrasse 15, 09569 Oederan, USt-Id: DE253710583
info(a)tsht.de Fax +49 37292 709779 Tel +49 37292 709778 Mobil: 0172 8790 741
I’m working on a project, and I need to know the age of various tape formats. For example when were 6250bpi 700’ 9-Track tapes or DC600A cartridges introduced? Is there any good resource online that documents this? Wikipedia is of some help, but the older you go, the spottier it is.
Zane
Anyone here have a physical copy of 80 Microcomputing (TRS-80 themed) issue
from August 1980? There is a better quality scan of a page I'm trying to
get.
Thanks,
Steve
We're going to stick to the original title of "Domesticating the Computer"
- since that's more in tune with the intended theme.
TAKE #11: (reference, revision listed below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLHcUbVO_G0
And here's the narration situation. My daughter said she'd try it, and she
did :) But here's the problem, she has those painful metal braces. Point
in fact, she got them tightened yesterday and in general speaking for very
long isn't her favorite thing right now. So she's requested to just stick
to being in the Art department (recall, she did the background art and
overall arrangement and selection of the systems).
But, I still wanted to share this Take#12 to show she is real and is
involved in the project :) And also that there were a few visual updates
planned.
TAKE #12: (daughter narration)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2flzdzM-ZKM
Here is a summary of some of the visual updates...
01:11 added the ComputerWorld article referencing Pillsbury Farms and
Datapoint, in case there were any doubters about that. [ the article is
from '73 and by that time they had been using the system for a couple years
- I think the original sales contract is in a museum down in San Antonio
still ]
(she botched the Odyssey audio - and this is a casual draft, so it's just
blanked out)
02:16 added a visual reference to Apollo program (since yes there are some
people who didn't catch what that means)
05:03 updates to the "factory" photos (found shot of Tandy's wave
soldering machine) [ I still am aware and agree the use of the word
"motherboard" here isn't quite right -- but, acceptable anachronism? ]
05:21 (just wanted to point out - some complained I didn't mention the
Sphere, which recently a runnable board was revived and demonstrated; can't
fit em all, and the Sphere is mentioned at the bottom here as one of the
"early competitors")
07:32 looking for more "zip-loc bag" examples (Scott Adams has spoken and
confirms he used "baby bottle liners" - it's a small technicality that I
may just address visually on screen); I'm hoping Ken and Roberta might
have photos of some of their old HiRez adventure in bags, but I suspect
that all burned in their house years ago ('91 or so?)
(I wanted a small segment to explain why Zork couldn't be made available
on cassette tape-- I content that Zork itself motivated the purchase of
many early disk drives :) but that'll be for another day )
07:49 minor updates for VisiCalc presentation (it's so neat that in '79,
it had effectively Freeze Panes, split window, and could do Plotting!) Dan
confirms that yes, "software patent" (lack of it) was an issue at the time
09:46 adjusted to give "credit" of 86-DOS to Paul Allen and Tim Patterson.
13:50 the census report of 8% of "households of computer" is an important
part of the theme
(...some bloopers at the end...)
I now have two (separate) folks who can maybe help with the narration. If
that comes together, then I'll add a note to a review of that in the
description or comments of TAKE #11 and TAKE #12.
-Steve
(voidstar)
