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
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
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
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
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. -
> 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
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
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
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
