- cctalk - classiccmp.org

delphi, before 1990

by Steve Lewis

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

2 years, 5 months

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Why the Floppy Disk Just Won't Die

by Jim Brain

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: mainframe vs mini

by Kevin Anderson

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Grant Taylor

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

2 years, 5 months

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on the origin of home computers

by Steve Lewis

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

2 years, 5 months

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VAXstation II GPX on ePay

by Zane Healy

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

2 years, 5 months

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bryanipad.shop site....

by rescue

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

2 years, 5 months

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Why the Floppy Disk Just Won't Die

by RETRO Innovations

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

2 years, 5 months

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domesticating the computer

by Steve Lewis

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

2 years, 5 months

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FD-55 360kB HLS spares for sale?

by Jim Brain

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: on the origin of home computers

by Murray McCullough

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Gregory Beat

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: Age of Tape Formats?

by Chuck Guzis

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by John Robertson

Anyone interested in 3 tapes - has Olympics logo - still in original wrapping? Ether pick up at my shop or pay for postage and handling... John :-#)# -- John's Jukes Ltd. 7 - 3979 Marine Way, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5J 5E3 Call (604)872-5757 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games) flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out"

2 years, 5 months

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Using Flashfloppies on Professional 350 and 380--SOLVED

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: on the origin of home computers

by Tarek Hoteit

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

2 years, 5 months

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Spurious spam filters

by Paul Koning

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Robin Downs

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

2 years, 5 months

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Wanted: Apple III 5MB Profile HD driver file

by steven stengel

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

2 years, 5 months

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QIC tapes

by Steve Lewis

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

2 years, 5 months

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Using Gotek's to emulate RX50's.

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Fred Cisin

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Fred Cisin

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

2 years, 5 months

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Getting QRST files onto a floppy (sigh)

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: PDP-8/A FPP8/A

by badbob

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: Tadpole RISC laptop RAM modules

by Erik Baigar

> Izzat a "SPARCBook II"? If so, I have one with 2 drives, and > the /usr drive is failing. I can replace that but I have no > idea how to reinstall SunOS/Solaris/Whatever. I did that in the past using a network install. One will need ftfp (for kernel) and bootp (for parameters and paths) as well as old style nfs on a server with the installation media. Worked nicely and is pretty fast if CDs are copied to harddrive before- hand... Best wishes and good luck, Erik. ''~`` ( o o ) +--------------------------.oooO--(_)--Oooo.-------------------------+ | Dr. Erik Baigar Inertial Navigation & | | Salzstrasse 1 .oooO Vintage Computer | | D87616 Marktoberdorf ( ) Oooo. Hobbyist / Physicist | | erik(a)baigar.de +------\ (----( )---------------------------+ | www.baigar.de | \_) ) / +----------------------+ (_/

2 years, 5 months

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Re: WTB Any storage for a PDP 8/A

by silcreval

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: PDP-8/A FPP8/A

by silcreval

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

2 years, 5 months

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WTB: Accutech Gobi (Gobi7 or Gobi8)

by Cameron Kaiser

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

2 years, 5 months

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Research machines RM 380

by jake utley

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

2 years, 5 months

2
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PDP-8/A FPP8/A

by Bob Smith

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

2 years, 5 months

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Re: Getting QRST files onto a floppy (sigh)

by Wayne S

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 5 months

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WTB Any storage for a PDP 8/A

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

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

2 years, 5 months

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Tadpole RISC laptop RAM modules

by Cameron Kaiser

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

2 years, 5 months

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

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

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

2 years, 5 months

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email address

by Ian F

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

2 years, 5 months

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qbus 6250 pertec tape card

by Jacob Ritorto

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

2 years, 5 months

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Stuff to go or it's off to the dumpster

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 6 months

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Using teledisk images on a Gotek

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 6 months

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WTB Sharp PC-5000

by Steve Lewis

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

2 years, 6 months

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P&T Surplus in Kingston, NY

by Jonathan Chapman

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

2 years, 6 months

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Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 200 for Sale

by Kevin Lee

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

2 years, 6 months

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IBM RT PC manuals have been claimed

by Todd Pisek

Manuals have been claimed. Regards, Todd Pisek

2 years, 6 months

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NeWS tapes in SF Bay area; rubber baby buggy bumpers

by Lars Brinkhoff

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

2 years, 6 months

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IBM RT PC Hardware Technical Ref

by Todd Pisek

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

2 years, 6 months

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DEQNA vs DELQA bulkhead question

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 6 months

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TK50/70 Repair

by Nigel Johnson Ham

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

2 years, 6 months

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

by Phil Pemberton

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

2 years, 6 months

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Matrox Q bus graphics card, any use

by Chris Zach

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

2 years, 6 months

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