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by shadoooo

Hello, I'm searching information about all existing variants of DEC Unibus in Dual/Quad/Hex flavors. I read the "UnibusSpec1979.pdf" on bitsavers, which reports a "Standard Unibus" pinout in the last pages. However in several backplanes "Small Peripheral Controller", "Modified Unibus Device" and "Extended Unibus" are supported. Maybe also other unlisted Unibus variants do exist (e.g VAX 11/730)? I also found the gunkies.org WIKI very helpful, however it is still quite difficult to compare the pinout differences (dummy proof). Where could I find a specific DEC documentation about the more recent variants, similar to the 1979 specs, but referred to SPC, MUD, EUB, ect? Big doubts: - why DEC, having defined the dual Standard pinout, had then to implement the quad SPC backplanes? - why DEC, having defined quad backplanes, had then to implement the hex (standard + SPC) or (MUD + SPC) or EUB? I mean: given that in AB all Unibus signals are present (from specifications), what is the need for CDEF? Provided that several signals are duplicated in hex pinout, the backplane will connect homologue signals together, or AB bus will always be separated from CDEF bus? My aim is to design a reprogrammable digital logic board which could be employed in any system, using 18bits address or also 22bits (i.e. for 11/24). Thanks Andrea

2 months, 1 week

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Re: Wanted : Philips PSU-B3 (or -B4?) power supply for the P3800

by Fred Jan Kraan

Tony Duell wrote: > I am working on a Philips P3800 computer, about 40 years old. It's a > multiprocessor Turbodos machine, a mix of Z80's and 80186's There is some P3500/3800 documentation online, including power supplies (Netzteile) at: https://electrickery.nl/comp/divcomp/doc/index.html Not exactly what you asked for, but related. Fred Jan

2 months, 1 week

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Wanted : Philips PSU-B3 (or -B4?) power supply for the P3800

by Tony Duell

I am working on a Philips P3800 computer, about 40 years old. It's a multiprocessor Turbodos machine, a mix of Z80's and 80186's The main problem is that I only have half the power supply. I have the PSU-M3 battery-backed memory supply, but not the logic supply. This I believe to be a PSU-B3 module, although from the circuit diagrams I have, I think a PSU-B4 would work. Outputs are +5V, +12V, -12V, +24V and maybe -5V. There's also remote on/off control, so it's not trivial to use a different power supply The base board is a 233*160mm double eurocard wth a 96 pin 0.1" pitch DIN41612 connector for the outputs and a 32 pin 0.2" pitch DIN41612 connector for the mains input. There is probably another board stacked on top of it (connected only to the baseboard, not to the backplane) and there may be a metal plate on top of the lot. Please let me know if you have any idea where to find one. -tony

2 months, 1 week

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KZCCA scsi/ethernet card - VMS driver needed

by Jim Bender

Help needed! Nemonix NXETHER41/NXSCSI41 Intraserver KZCCA DEC/Compaq KZCCA All the same board, sold under multiple brands, the most prominent listed here. Differences are mostly labeling and branding. Looking for what is turning out to be an unicorn... I have a Microvax 3100-90 with the Nemonix NXETHER41 version of the card in it. This is the "ethernet only" version of this option card. It was also available with a SCSI adapter on it. As was the case with many hardware options back in this era, this card, no matter which flavor you have needs a driver installed in VMS in order for it to function. The driver was distributed as a vmsinstal package called "VAX_SCSI" and despite the name it included the drivers for the ethernet side of the board as well as the SCSI. It appears to have had multiple versions, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6. 1.6 is the latest I have been able to find evidence for. What I have not been able to find evidence of is the files themselves. Despite the Nemonix website still being up, it appears to be a ghost town and none of the phone numbers or email addresses work. The web archive shows some Intraserver pages from the early 2000s with links to download the files but the files themselves were not archived. And unfortunately, DEC/Compaq did not see fit to include this on the CONDIST CDs. So my plea to the community here is... does anyone have the drivers for this card or any leads to where it could be found? Thanks! Jim

2 months, 1 week

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Consignment at VCF East 2025 - April 4-6 - Wall, NJ

by Jeffrey Brace

Just a few days left to get your consignment entered into NexoPOS for VCF East 2025! https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/vcf-east-consignmen… Get your tickets here: https://events.humanitix.com/vintage-computer-festival-east-2025 Info: https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

2 months, 1 week

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InversePhase @ VCF East - April 5 - Wall, NJ

by Jeffrey Brace

Want to know what a chiptune is? How about what a chiptune is not? You can learn a little bit about the technology, its history, how it makes sounds, how it is implemented, and the culture surrounding it at this panel. All ages and experience levels are welcome! And ... After his talk, make your own chiptunes! What’s the deal with all these 8-bit whipper-snappers and their beeps, boops, and farty bass?Want to know what a chiptune is? How about what a chiptune is not? You can learn a little bit about the technology, its history, how it makes sounds, how it is implemented, and the culture surrounding it at this panel. All ages and experience levels are welcome! @inversephase is a real human person (not a robot, as you might have heard) who writes game soundtracks and chiptune tributes for a living, runs Bloop Museum, eats pizza, and even occasionally writes Bios. INFO: https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/ TICKETS: https://vcfed.org/2025/03/16/non-member-ticket-pricing-vcf-east/ VCF East is April 4-6 2201 Marconi Road Wall, NJ 07719

2 months, 1 week

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IBM 1410 FPGA Implementation Update

by Jay Jaeger

I have made some progress on my IBM 1410 FPGA implementation: - Communication between the FPGA and PC Support Program is now over UDP instead of USB/Serial - Tapes can now read/write reliably in non-overlapped mode - Diagnostics can be loaded and run from tape - Some tape issues still remain See https://www.computercollection.net/index.php/ibm-1410-fpga-implementation/ (especially the last three entries in the list.) JRJ

2 months, 1 week

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Amiga Roundtables at VCF East April 5 & 6 - Wall, NJ

by Jeffrey Brace

VCF East 2025 is April 4-6. Amiga Roundtables at VCF East Moderated by Dave McMurtrie and Dan Wood. *Saturday roundtable* includes: RJ Mical Dale Luck Ron Nicholson Glenn Keller Andy Finkel Jeff Porter Randell Jesup Peter Cherna *Sunday Roundtable* includes: RJ Mical Dave Haynie David John Pleasance Robert Miranda Hedley Davis Jeff Bruette Don Gilbreath Tickets here: https://vcfed.org/2025/03/16/non-member-ticket-pricing-vcf-east/ Info here: https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

2 months, 1 week

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Pacific Data Systems - PDS 1020

by Martin.Hepperle＠dlr.de

Many moons ago, I was working at a wind tunnel for aeronautic research. In the first week, when I started on my job, my future colleagues threw a lot of outdated computer stuff into a large dumpster. Only many years later, after I became more aware of old computing technology, I realized what that trash was. Duh! I recently dug through our library and loaned some reports describing the equipment and the software at the time. Besides several HP 2116, ASR-33, Tektronix 40xx, x-y plotters and more, I also read about their first (pre HP) computer, which was used to control data acquisition and postprocessing. It was installed in 1966 and replaced by a HP 2116C in 1972. This was a Pacific Data Systems PDS 1020. It was built into a table and featured an IBM typewriter for printed output and a reader and a punch for papertapes. One report also contained the "listing" of the program, which is a 4-character hexadecimal dump (with unusual hex digits). To give you a "feeling" for the code, here is an example subroutine: 0256 L0LS 5001 0258 525S- L0LS M029 CS7D 2260 L0LA M029 CS7D 0260 L011 3002 L0C3- A26M- CS81 3S5A- 7262- 227C 0268 0000 4500 2000 0500- 3000- 4000- 5500- On bitsavers I found scans of some manuals with the instruction set and encoding. However, these lack complete programs. Therefore, I have scanned and re-typed the original programs from my report in their original form. Now I am thinking about writing a simple simulator to read and execute these programs. The PDS 1020 seems to have been a relatively low cost and hence successful computer, but searching the internet I can find only two machines which seem to be in museums. Maybe a few more have survived in personal collections. #1: https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102686768 #2: https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/397741 Are there more? Are some of them in working order? Is there already a simulator available? Martin

2 months, 2 weeks

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Re: FD-55B head loose

by Gregory Beat

TEAC FD-55F floppy drives https://retrocmp.de/fdd/teac/fd55f.htm The TEAC FD-55F never appeared in the world of IBM compatible computers. Why is that? Because it was simply superfluous in the DOS world. The TEAC FD-55F is a double-sided 5.25 inch drive that can write 96 tracks per inch (TPI) with 9 sectors per track. In other words, the capacity of a floppy disk is 720 KByte. There were Radio Shack and other computers (NCR, etc.) that used this format (DSQD). This corresponds to the capacity of the standard 3.5-inch double-density (DD) drive. The 3.5-inch floppy disk format was supported since DOS version 3.2. Introduction of 3.5” drives and disks by IBM (mid-1980s) was one reason why the 5.25 inch drives with 720 KByte storage did not find their way into the IBM world. == Further in the above web link: Changing a Teac FD-55GFR drive to a FD-55F drive ... or, How do I get my drive to spin at 300 RPM instead of 360 RPM ? gb

2 months, 2 weeks

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