Hi all,
My apologies if this is not the kind of "classic" computer people are
interested in but I have a Fontex Technology Group Prolite 206/16-047.
It is in good physical condition with the original case, mouse and
manual. It powers on but I don't have suitable disks so I can't get it
to boot. I can send photos of it if that's of use.
I'm trying to find it a new home rather than scrapping it. Is anyone
interested? It's currently in London and I would suggest collection
because it is not light but if there is someone who wants it shipped
and is willing to pay then I will give it a go!
Cheers,
- Martin
Back in the day I did a lot of playing around with the Radio
Shack versions of Tiny Pascal. (Back in the days when you
loaded them from tape cause we didn't have disks yet!)
I still like to mess with Tiny Pascal on other machines, too.
Now the bad news (at least for me). While I have my Model I
version tape I cannot find the tape for the Model III. Does
anyone have a copy of the tape or an image of the tape usable
on an emulator (pretty sure I can put that back onto a tape.)
I would really like to get back to trying some things with it.
bill
Alright, so the 3100 arrived yesterday afternoon and looks to be in good
condition visually. The voltages from the PSU look ok as well. So I plugged
things back in and powered it on.
I don't have a console for it yet, but it seems to go through some
self-test, the tape drive does
some stuff as well as the hard drive. It came with the slightly larger RZ25
rather than the RZ23.
I am getting some 6-conductor cable soon and will make a console cable
for it. I'm very curious
to see what it does on the console.
I have a SCSI CDROM coming in a few days. I also have an old SUN external
enclosure that I'll put to use for it as an external CDROM.
Interestingly, it doesn't have a model number on the sticker, but based on
what I have seen, and
the pattern of the connectors in the back, I am pretty sure it is a model
10.
- Peter
On Mon, Dec 1, 2025 at 10:30 AM emanuel stiebler <emu(a)e-bbes.com> wrote:
> On 2025-11-30 14:53, Peter Ekstrom via cctalk wrote:
> > Very interesting thread. I was kinda thinking too that someone running
> VMS
> > on a machine for hobby use would be too small of a potato to go after.
> > Incidentally, what would y'all value a MicroVAX 3100 at? I am looking at
> > one on eBay for $550 but am considering making a lower offer.
>
> Which 3100?
> There are some very low performance 3100 at the lower end, and the
> best(?) 3100/105 or 3100/95 still fetch some serious money.
>
> My recommendation is usually the pizza box 4000/vlc ...
> Specially, if you don't know what you need it for :)
>
>
One of the greatest joys of classic computing was running what you wanted
on your own computer. What has happened in the intervening years? Have
‘software walls’ created a computing environment that benefits software
gate-keepers(owners of computing technology) by monopolizing creativity,
freedom to program and establishing a defacto ‘true ownership’. Will the
future be this or will it be more like the earliest years of
microcomputing?
Murray 🙂
Hi Folks,
I've done the online searches, and know that bitsavers.org (Hi Al !) has
a reasonable amount of information, however I am looking for ap notes
and more information than is currently archived.
At the moment one chip I am researching is the MM76E (not the 40-pin EL
version) ROM as I can't find the pinout anywhere - so far. I can figure
it out, but it is always better to have the manual if possible...
Any documents found will be off to bitsavers of course, but I'm hoping
that someone here has an ancient (70s!) Rockwell manual on these 42-pin
spider chips!
Did anyone ever make an emulator for the MM78 CPU family?
Thanks,
John :-#)#
Also posted to s.e.design as one never knows with usenet what turns up...
--
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"
Resurrecting a very old (2011) thread about PPS-4/1 - I'm looking for
data sheet on the mm76E - the pinout in particular - as I am trying to
sketch out the schematic of a home pinball game that used the MM78 CPU
and the MM76E for memory.
Bitsavers and everyone else has the sheet for the MM76EL which is the
40-pin version of the original spider chip and those pages talk about
how the EL does not require as fussy a voltage for Vss.
Anyway, if anyone has this data I'd appreciate it!
Thanks,
John :-#)#
On 2011-10-31 1:29 a.m., Eric Smith wrote:
> Benjamin Sølberg wrote:
> > So if you multiplex 8 leds you need 8 times the peak current to keep
> the
> > same luminance ?
>
> 8:1 multiplex requires 8 times the peak current to get the same
> average power. Years ago I saw some claims that with multiplexing you
> can use lower average power for the same perceptual brightness, due to
> retinal persistence. However, I've seen other people claim that this
> is not true. It would be entertaining to set up a double-blind test
> and find out.
>
> Too late now, but those keyboards were actually standard Keytronics
> ones, and not at all hard to repair.
>
> -tony
>
I'm fairly certain that the MG-1 I have is one of the Stern Hall machines
mentioned earlier.
But in re "standard Key Tronic"... The one here is certainly a
foam-and-foil capacitive device like a Key Tronic keyboard is, and surely
the mechanism is basically identical (as are its repair methods). It still
works --- for now. But the pads aren't little round tablets like the usual
KT fare but instead squares with one of the corners notched out (think: the
shape of Utah, but squarer). I do not look forward to those pads degrading
further and expect it may be necessary to get some kind of custom die punch
fabricated in order to produce replacements.
I can't easily retrieve the name of the keyboard manufacturer at the
moment, but I wonder if anyone knows more about this odd shape of
capacitive pad.
--T
>
Hi there!
Long shot here, I know, but does anyone on here have an IBM SP node, especially an earlier (non Power 3) Thin Node with MCA? But really any SP owners here at all?
Thanks!!
-Ben
Hi everyone,
According to historians, and I consider myself one, let us consider what
classic/vintage computers were: The 1970s saw the three amigos: Apple II,
TRS-80 and Commodore PET and the OS was DOS and its ilk + CP/M. The 1980’s
saw the Dells, HPs and many others with MS-DOS & IBM PC-DOS from QDOS. We
saw this and behold ’bring on the clones’(I just had to say this!) The era
of old computers saw one generation building on the shoulders of giants who
designed these wayback computers(with apologies to Wayback Machine).
Today’s PCs and ARM machines are just the latest iteration of this
theory(by the way not mine).
Happy computing
Murray 🙂
