As a student at UC Berkeley (1967-1971), I had a part-time job at the Computer Center, which ran a CDC 6400 under SCOPE. We punched cards, transferred them to magnetic tape, and used UPDATE to maintain logical decks. I personally used this technology while working on CAL SNOBOL and CAL TSS. Once we got CAL TSS far enough along to support development (on a second CDC 6400), we switched to Teletypes (a mixture of Model 33’s and Model 35’s). I still have source code for CAL SNOBOL because of archivists at U. of Arizona and U. of Texas, but most of the source code for CAL TSS was lost (listings survive).
Paul McJones
https://www.mcjones.org/CAL_SNOBOL/https://caltss.computerhistory.org/
Hello,
I bought a Wang 600 in unknown operating condition, but it looked to be
complete and undamaged. Unfortunately, the shipper used a "professional"
shipping service that wrapped this calculator in a single layer of bubble
wrap, put it in a single wall box, and filled the rest of the space with
packing peanuts. The result was predictable. The rear and sides of the
molded ABS case were completely shattered, the rear mounted fan was knocked
off, the housing bent, and a fan blade broken off. Fortunately (if that's
the right word) the chassis, cards, keyboard, and display all seem intact.
To try to assess the extent of the damage, I would like to complete the
removal of the plastic case but do not see how it is fastened to the
chassis. Can anyone help? Also, any troubleshooting info would be
appreciated! I already have the schematics, but I probably won't be needing
them until I do some inspections and basic checks.
Thanks,
Stan
So studying about 1960s operating systems recently, it occurred to me that
the ASR-33 wasn't really "a thing" until the late 1960s. Yes, they
technically existed since 1963, but even going through 1960s Datamation
issues - you don't see a lot of ads or mention of ASR-33 until 1965.
The IBM 1050 maybe existed in 1961 for the IBM 709, but even so - general
thought is that CTSS (operating system) was largely initially developed
using punch cards.
So - are there any archives or collections of these original punch cards?
Or are they essentially all gone/destroyed, since in general after some
code was "perfected" it was likely then archived to tape?
Anyway, apologies - it was just something that only recently occurred to
me, that basically all of the original operating systems originated on
punch cards: CTSS, Supervisor, AOSP, SCOPE, even MULTICs. So - do any of
those decks of cards still exist in archive? Would be neat to see a photo
of those - except it would be a shoebox of punch cards like any other, I
suppose.
Or is this wrong, and the top tier teams making these OS's, probably had
teletypes and all the magnetic tape they wanted?
-Steve
So back in the 1990's the dream server for me was an Everex system
called the Step/MP. Cube shaped, EISA bus, could take multiple 386/33
CPU blades and ran SCO. But all I had was memories as there was very
little info on the Net.
Today I was going through a closet I haven't been able to access for 20
years and in the Computerworld 1992 25'th anniversary issue I found it:
A 2 page monster ad about the Step/MP. $13k, could have six 486/33 CPUs,
EISA/ISA bus, 64mb of memory stock with support for 4mb SIMMs. So it did
exist....
Question is did any of them make it out there? SCO was the obvious OS,
but given that it was a SMP system I wonder if there was an NT 4.0 HAL
out there like there was for the NCR 3550/4300 series of multiprocessor
systems. Anyone have one? Seen one in the wild?
I am curious. Everex/STEP was always the best quality system for a
server, right alongside Compaq. Sad they went out of business.
Chris
All –
I’m working on a simulation project where I’m using two Codex 2121 LDSU (local data service unit) modems to simulate a leased line setup to a DECSYSTEM-2020. These modems use 2-pair cabling (TX+,TX-/RX+.RX-) and DCE DB25 connections. I believe each modem is working in loopback mode, but I can’t get it to work over the 2-pair interface between the modems (i.e., a loop back plug on one modem and terminal on the other). The only manual I’ve been able to locate is the sales brochure, not any kind of user manual.
Anyway, have the interface cross-connected (i.e., TX to RX) but there are no polarity markings so I just used each pair in the same color order.
Has anyone used this kind of modem before, have a manual, or know how to connect them? Thanks!
Rich
--
Rich Cini
http://cini.classiccmp.orghttps://github.com/RichCini
Test ( sorry guys for cluttering , but I'm puzzled since I'm using Hotmail so... should not have this kind of issues )
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Punchcards? You want punchcards? I got punchcards. Not exactly what I think you are looking for but a large sample. Please check out www.punchcardarchive.com
Check the Stats page for a quick summary. Beware the Album page. It takes a while to load. After all, it has to display 25532 cards.
Not a full program but doing a search on CCROS in the Title field will show a few cards that represent a few bits of a read only S/360 program.
Donald
I asked this before a few years ago but didn't come to a firm conclusion. The two parts are shown in this picture: https://rjarratt.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/img_20231221_1123…
They are from a VT100 Monitor board. There is no schematic for my version of the board, but a related schematic is on p58 of this schematic: https://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/terminal/vt100/MP00633_VT100_Schematic_Feb82.…. They are labelled Q414 and CR406, but the Feb 82 revision uses a different board and those two parts are in TO-220 packages rather than TO-3 as here..
I have removed both of them and tested them with a DMM. Neither of them measure as two diodes, they do not measure open circuit in any direction, so either they are both faulty or they are not transistors (unlikely). I have found a spec for a 2SB411 at https://alltransistors.com/transistor.php?transistor=10279. This seems to be a germanium transistor. When I last asked about this I had a conversation with Tony Duell, who was very sceptical that these could be germanium transistors, so naturally I am very doubtful that they are 2SB411 transistors. However, in the schematic Q414 is shown as NPN, the 2SB411 is PNP and this seems to match the way the part is connected on my board (Collector to HORIZ GND). I am working on a reverse engineered schematic.
Can anyone tell me what these components are so I can find a datasheet for them? Better still a suggested replacement would be really helpful, especially if they are 2SB411s because they seem to be hard to find.
Thanks
Rob
Nice, Jay! Thank you
> On Feb 22, 2026, at 18:44, Jay Jaeger <cube1(a)charter.net> wrote:
>
> On 2/21/2026 9:27 AM, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote:
>> Hiya.
>> Is DECnet for RT-11 still lost? If not, anyone got a link to it?
>> thx
>> jake
>
> I may have *SOME* of it. I have three RX50's and one RX02 that have some DECNet RT V2.1 files. They are NOT distribution disks, and the disks have hand-written labels, so they might not even contain what the handwritten label indicates - I have not checked them out under SimH.
>
> Anyway, I just put them in my "bitsavers contribution" area of my Google Drive, and they can be found on my Google Drive at:
>
> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fiOScGSpvLiVQ0yyOg2yC5EpqRKiKWQ5?us…
>
> JRJ
