- test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org - classiccmp.org

by austinpass＠gmail.com

I'm toying with putting the "ultimate" classic Mac together, although I'm having a little difficulty pinning down the definition of what the ultimate representation of the type is, so was looking for a little input from Classic CMP'ers. I'm aware that there's a clear divide between Motorola and PowerPC CPU'd variants, so I'm going to plump for a PowerPC based version so that I can get access to newer hardware and use it as a kind of bridge system between my current computers and the more historic versions. In terms of hardware I have a lovely mirror-door G4 PowerMac I'm intending to use. I have the original media that shipped with this, so I can get 9.2.1 on it relatively easily. Are there any add-in cards (PCI) I should be considering? It has a built in Airport Card (possibly Airport Extreme?) although my home Wi-Fi is 802.11n or better with WPA2 so I'll just use Ethernet to connect it to my LAN. Was a gigabit ethernet card ever released with Mac OS 9 drivers? I have a couple of 600GB PATA disks that I can use with it, but has there ever been a SATA implementation that worked with classic Mac OS? Also, I have an Asant? ether bridge tucked away somewhere that I hope to be able to use to connect some of my older Mac OS boxen without Ethernet. In terms of the software - any top-line utilities or System Extensions I should look to get my hands on? What's the state of the art in classic Mac OS browsing nowadays, Mr Kaiser - is Clasilla still maintained? -Austin.

9 years, 9 months

16
41
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Building the Ultimate Classic Mac.

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Liam, thank you so much for this information! I did not know about all the HACKINTOSH action out there! Good to hear that one system will use SATA drive > I will just have to find some old installable OS for it. The family of the deceased engineer that passed these on to us at the SMECC Museum project tossed most any paperwork or media , so we have what is installed on the system and of course for the diskless one we are empty handed. We we were out scrounging now I wish I had picked up more vintage MAC paperwork and discs now. We saved stuff related to the early MAC and of course ANYTHING we could find for the APPLE II. We do also have something that looks like an APPLE LISA but not the twiggi (sp?) drive model I have heard reference to. it turned on last time I tried but just a bunch of diddle crap all over the screen. (bogus contents of memory mapped video or!?? <this machine is a mystery to me I saw it when it came out but that is abut the only experience I have had with LISA remember I was a HP guy in the business days... I do remember going over to a store in Metrocenter in AZ and seeing one for the first time with a MOUSE on it! I was amazed... Again... thanks for the hints and help now and in the future. Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 7/18/2016 12:03:32 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, lproven at gmail.com writes: On 18 July 2016 at 20:18, <COURYHOUSE at aol.com> wrote: Ed, *please* will you get a proper email client? They work fine with AOL mail. I know, I am also liamproven at aol.com & have been for 20y! > > will not load curvet os because? > "This is caused by the lack of the 64 bit EFI bios. The hardware of the > Mac Pro 1.1 is already complete 64bit capable but they do ship the efi bios > only in 32bit version." > > Ed says..... OK whatever an EFI Bios is.... There are ways around it. http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2015/3/2/how-to-resurrect-a-2006-m ac-pro-11-so-it-can-run-osx-yosemit.html Ask the Hackintosh community: http://hq-a.weebly.com/ > --------------------- > ok we also have a - > > "The Power Macintosh G5 shipped from 2003 until 2006. All models pack > 64-bit PowerPC 970 (G5) processors in an easy-to-upgrade aluminum tower case > design with a single external optical drive bay" > > This one is missing disc drives... this has the neatest form fitting > insides of any of the macs I have seen. Takes any old SATA drive, as far as I recall. No special firmware needed. Will run up to OS X 10.5, nothing later. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

9 years, 9 months

4
7
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Straight 8 up on Ebay just now

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

EEEKK!!! and it is not the one with the Plexiglas surrounds... kaaa ching..$$$ It does have a nice a/d unit Ed# In a message dated 7/19/2016 12:07:02 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jwsmail at jwsss.com writes: On 7/18/2016 10:23 PM, Sam O'nella wrote: > There may be some archives here or vcf with enough prices. Iirc i thought i remember one selling for something pretty high (8000/12000?) X years ago although i think like this it's a calculated price of doubling the last sale they saw. Although apple 1s seem to accomplish whatever that law is called :-) I think Straight 8's are nearly to the point that other systems which have published tracking inventories. There are very few, this one looks complete, or near complete. That said I'd figure though some of the higher prices such as the current PDP8/I and GT40 are setting for want of bids, they aren't that far from what you have to pay to get said systems on demand. This one may go for around the opportunistic price, and be lower, but $10 to $12k isn't going to be surprising.

9 years, 9 months

1
0
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Straight 8 up on Ebay just now

by barythrin＠gmail.com

There may be some archives here or vcf with enough prices. ?Iirc i thought i remember one selling for something pretty high (8000/12000?) X years ago although i think like this it's a calculated price of doubling the last sale they saw. Although apple 1s seem to accomplish whatever that law is called :-)

9 years, 9 months

2
1
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DEC boards at recycler

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I found various DEC (Qbus?) boards at my local tame recycler earlier. They're scheduled for preprocessing this evening (e.g. ceramic ICs pulled and diverted into different pile due to higher gold content), but I may be able to get them a stay of execution (as of now I've got about 2 hours in which to let him know before I'm awol for a family event). Anything below strike anyone as being worth saving (vs. common as dirt serial interfaces etc.)? I'm not sure at the moment if I can rescue the lot... M7957 M8189 M8192 M8061 x 2 M8044 x 2 M8190 M8043 x 2 M7961 M8067 x 2 M7856 In addition to those, a board branded Dilog CQ1610, another marked PXX-2 with four SC44077P ics in the center, and a memory board marked 980110014 containing 128 mmc3764 RAM ics. Also several Emulex boards which didn't contain anything that was obviously a part number (from memory a couple that were "full width" and three that were "half width") - I'm guessing they're probably tape controllers, but they might be hard disk. Working status unknown, but cosmetically they looked good. It sounds like the previous owner had complete machines which he split and scrapped at some point in the past, and this box of boards had sat around in his garage since. cheers Jules

9 years, 9 months

10
14
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Straight 8 up on Ebay just now

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

On Jul 18, 2016 2:30 PM, "Ian S. King" <isking at uw.edu> wrote: > > Absent physical trauma, core seems pretty durable. The electronics around > it may fail but the core planes themselves seem robust. At least that's > been my experience. -- Ian There are known cases of IBM System/3 core that had failed beyond practical repair due to products of decayed air-sealing foam contacting and dissolving core plane wires. Mike

9 years, 9 months

1
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Straight 8 up on Ebay just now

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Our core in any of our classic 8 has never worked it didn't 30 years ago either. ...... ?just the thought of how many failed components.... yikes! ..... ?something to procrastinate ?about.. ?but I hate to hack out ?buckets of components. ............... Ed# ?www.smecc.org Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: "Ian S. King" <isking at uw.edu> Date: 7/18/16 17:29 (GMT-07:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Straight 8 up on Ebay just now Absent physical trauma, core seems pretty durable.? The electronics around it may fail but the core planes themselves seem robust.? At least that's been my experience.? -- Ian On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 2:17 PM, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 5:02 PM,? <ethan at 757.org> wrote: > >> 25,000, Alexandria, Va. > >> Josh Dersch can have one for his home and for work. > > > > Is that a dream price for such a system or realistic? > > Curious myself.? They don't come up every day.? The description says: > "Last turned on the lights worked but the memory appeared not to > work."? I think from posts on similar systems, it could easily be > dirty marginal switch contacts or PSU issues, etc, vs damaged core. > > > I notice the corrosion on the front key. > > I'll happily sell him a clean key for a mere 1%... > > -ethan > -- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu> Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical Narrative Through a Design Lens Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org> Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org> University of Washington There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."

9 years, 9 months

1
0
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Wanted: VT5x roll-around stand

by henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com

>> I believe these stands to be authentic DEC VT5X stands.? Is there any way >> of telling for sure?? There are no markings on the stands. > >I can't be certain, but the height and the appearance suggest to me >that they are. > >> Here is a picture of the stand: >> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzqkBl9PETyQek51bFlXTU53a1E The 5-leg stand seems correct to me, the vertical standing pipe (painted black) seems also OK to me. However, the tray is a different story. But I have to admit, that my reference is only the VT55-FB on a roll-around stand. If the stand for the VT55-FB is identical to the one for the VT52, then the tray is not the original one. It is not a tray, but just a plate and significantly smaller, but not flat. I can take pictures on Saturday of my VT55-FB with original stand. Let me know, because I'd have to remove the VT (6 bolts, IIRC). - Henk

9 years, 9 months

6
8
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Found some stuff at the scrapyard

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

In a message dated 7/17/2016 9:45:20 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk writes: > The HPIL thinkjet version was also used with the hp portable and hp > portable plus laptops. > we have some of them in the SMECC here... but back when I was CEO > Computer Exchange inc we sold lost of these.. it was a small laptop > with applications in ROM but also had a HPIL 3 1/2 disc and an HPIL Yes. 80C86 (not 8088) based, there is a 16 bit data bus in there. The Portable (HP110) has built-in RAM that can't be expanded. One of the boards contains the processor and a lot of DIP-packaged 8K*8 SRAMs. The Portable Plus used surface-mount 8K*8 SRAMs and could take more on a plug-in 'RAM Drawer'. > Hey! > Remember to the hp 45 calc.. had HPIL interface also... I think you mean the HP41 (LCD alphanumeric calculator) or maybe the HP75 (handheld machine running BASIC, very similar to the HP85 in architecture). The HP45 was a simple-ish non-programmable scientific calculator with an LED display. And an undocumented stopwatch Yes that is the 41 ! I know better! sorry! sold oddles of 41s to surveyors etc... in the day... > There was also a gaggle of cards to the PC and the HP 150 TOUCHSCREEN > that would talk to HPIL and also on IBM side HPIL plus I seem to > remember HPIB cards too. The HP150 had HPIB as standard. There was an optional card that added HPIL and a Centronics port. That Centronics port was a mess. HP decided to use female DB25s for the serial ports. So to avoid confusion they used a male DB25 for the Centronics port. Only problem was the PCB was laid out for a female DB25 using IBM PC pinouts. With the result that the male version ended up effectively mirror-reversed, strobe on pin 13, etc. There were, indeed, HP ISA HPIB and HPIL cards. From memory the latter (at least) will not run in any reasonbly fast machine (8MHz CPU clock tops?) There was also an HPIL card for the Integral (portable unix machine) but I have never seen it. Was there a DIO HPIL card? [...] > I may be wrong but I remember a HPIL a HPIB a Parallel and maybe a > Serial interface version of the HP Thinkjet I have come across 6 versions : HPIB, HPIL, RS232, Centronics, Portable (battery powered Centronics) and IIRC an enhanced version of the RS232 one. > Now there was another interface not to be confused with the HPIL it was > called HP HIL HP HUMAN INTERFACE LOOP I remember? it was what the mouse > used on the hp 150 etc... Yes. They are often confused... But very different to the user and electrically. > I may still still have my orig HP Thinkjet service training course I think you can get the service manual for the Thinkjet (probably only covers the original 4 versions) from the Australian Museum. -tony = thanks for all this info! great brain refresh! Ed# _www.smecc.oprg_ (http://www.smecc.oprg)

9 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Building the Ultimate Classic Mac.

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

apples support seems hosed... Load of URL http://support.apple.com/index.html failed with error code -310. but from this page.... https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202888 there is a good guide. ------------------------------ this is my 1.1 Mac Pro --- MacPro1,1 --- MA356LL/A it works... it is a good representative artifact too . will not load curvet os because? "This is caused by the lack of the 64 bit EFI bios. The hardware of the Mac Pro 1.1 is already complete 64bit capable but they do ship the efi bios only in 32bit version." Ed says..... OK whatever an EFI Bios is.... (( remember this is my first real exposure to USING a MAC - yes we have a 9 inch screen one in the museum but have never even used that)) ------- Ha wish it was a Mac Pro (Early 2008) -- MacPro3,1 --- MA970LL/A then I could current OS upgrade it. --------------------- ok we also have a - "The Power Macintosh G5 shipped from 2003 until 2006. All models pack 64-bit PowerPC 970 (G5) processors in an easy-to-upgrade aluminum tower case design with a single external optical drive bay" This one is missing disc drives... this has the neatest form fitting insides of any of the macs I have seen. ---------------------------- then we have Blue iMAC still in box ------------------------------------ Then we have the old 9 inch one in museum collection. ( I do not see many of these around as I used to) --------------------------------- thanks for any help and tips Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 7/17/2016 7:23:10 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, spectre at floodgap.com writes: > that is interesting to know the old os can be run under the newer. > I am confused on some of the G5 stuff. > there is a real early one that has non intel processor > then there is a 1.1 ( i have one too) but you can not upgrade to the > latest os (bummer) > > then there is the G% 3 or 3.3 dated one that will run currect os too. > > is there a way to force the 1.1 one to run currest os somehow!? I'm not sure what you're referring to. If the 1.1 is clock speed, the slowest G5 is 1.6GHz. No Power Mac can run anything past 10.5.8; there is no PowerPC code left in the kernel to run. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Don't be humble ... you're not that great. -- Golda Meir -------------------

9 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

KT11-B ?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > nice system > www.ebay.com/itm/201624309371 Anyone want to guess how much it will go for? Noel

9 years, 9 months

3
2
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NuTek Mac comes

by lproven＠gmail.com

Low End Mac looks into the history of the effort to produce a Motif-based, clean-room Mac compatible computer in the early nineties. http://lowendmac.com/2016/nutek-mac-clones/ -- Sent from my phone - please pardon brevity & typos.

9 years, 9 months

28
89
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DOS code in CP/M? Revisited...

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Did MS-DOS use code copied from CP/M? Forensic software engineer Bob Zeidman said "no" in 2012 but now he has new research to disclose at VCF West. That's all I can say for now. :)

9 years, 9 months

15
42
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KT11-B ?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

nice system www.ebay.com/itm/201624309371 I've never heard of a KT11-B hopefully whoever gets it will scan the unique parts of the documentation

9 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Building the Ultimate Classic Mac.

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

that is interesting to know the old os can be run under the newer. I am confused on some of the G5 stuff. there is a real early one that has non intel processor then there is a 1.1 ( i have one too) but you can not upgrade to the latest os (bummer) then there is the G% 3 or 3.3 dated one that will run currect os too. is there a way to force the 1.1 one to run currest os somehow!? Ed# In a message dated 7/17/2016 12:47:17 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cmhanson at eschatologist.net writes: On Jul 15, 2016, at 1:49 PM, Austin Pass <austinpass at gmail.com> wrote: > I have several G5's, but am at a loss as to what to do with them. If they supported classic Mac OS I'd have one up and running in a heartbeat. You can't boot MacOS 9 on them, but you can run Classic under 10.4 on a G5 and it screams. -- Chris

9 years, 9 months

6
8
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Found some stuff at the scrapyard

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

What a flash back... (SMECC is always looking for anything related to these products) The HPIL thinkjet version was also used with the hp portable and hp portable plus laptops. we have some of them in the SMECC here... but back when I was CEO Computer Exchange inc we sold lost of these.. it was a small laptop with applications in ROM but also had a HPIL 3 1/2 disc and an HPIL Hey! Remember to the hp 45 calc.. had HPIL interface also... There was also a gaggle of cards to the PC and the HP 150 TOUCHSCREEN that would talk to HPIL and also on IBM side HPIL plus I seem to remember HPIB cards too. THANK YOU FOR THE INK WARNINGS! I did not know about the corrosive qualities of the ink and did not realize the glycerol content... I may be wrong but I remember a HPIL a HPIB a Parallel and maybe a Serial interface version of the HP Thinkjet Now there was another interface not to be confused with the HPIL it was called HP HIL HP HUMAN INTERFACE LOOP I remember? it was what the mouse used on the hp 150 etc... I may still still have my orig HP Thinkjet service training course ... we were also a service center for a bunch of the HP PC products and some manuals from classes I attended or my staff attended I saved and they are in the glassed in HP lock up area where the 2000 access and the hp micro and mini stuff lives. I have a bunch of odd VECTRA internals manuals too... Just wish I had saved more of this stuff... We also have an HP INTEGRAL (sp?) Unix all in one computer printer combo... cool concept it has THINKJET printer built in the top of it too. we never sold this product but SMECC was given a prototype many years later... REMEMBER TOO.... THINKJET printers always printed best on "special hp thinkjet paper" Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 7/17/2016 12:15:58 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, mhs.stein at gmail.com writes: >> for some incomprehensible reason, you can still order brand new cartridges from... Staples! Another thanks for the tip; I've got an HP2225B (HP-IL, with RS-232 converter) which presumably uses the same cartridge. Will have to check it out. m ----- Original Message ----- From: "Curious Marc" <curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts" <cctech at classiccmp.org> Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2016 3:19 AM Subject: Re: Found some stuff at the scrapyard You got yourself the first consumer inkjet printer ever, from 1984: https://youtu.be/UiHNymmxKWs Original "A" version with HP-IB interface, useless for regular PCs of course. Complete with the "SomethingJet" marketing name that has been with us since then. The key innovation of that printer was the disposable cartridge with the micro-machined nozzles, which they had a horrendous time manufacturing at first. And for some incomprehensible reason, you can still order brand new cartridges from... Staples! Just put a new one in and you should be good to go. Marc Sent from my iPad > On Jul 17, 2016, at 12:34 PM, devin davison <lyokoboy0 at gmail.com> wrote: > > Actually found a pretty nice hp machine with a bunch of peripherals. > Thankfully it came with the keyboard. Also a external hard drive and > floppy, as well as a tiny printer. > > HP 362 "controller" > Hp thinkjet 2225A printer > Hp 9153B - HD and floppy > > Also a IBM wheelwriter 3 with the parallel interface, as well as what im > assuming is a s100 backplane. > > Pretty interesting. I have a couple of other Hp devices, a logic analizer, > pattern generator, and volt meter, it will be interesting to see if i can > get them talking with the computer. Computer works. boots into basic. > Pretty complete setup for something at the scrapyard. > > https://www.slashflash.info/~devin/images/scrapyard_lot/ > > --Devin

9 years, 9 months

2
1
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Building the Ultimate Classic Mac.

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

opps sorry many typos... see clarification interlaced.. In a message dated 7/17/2016 8:04:07 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cmhanson at eschatologist.net writes: That would be a PowerMac G5. No Power Macintosh has an Intel processor yes that is first g5 has a more elegant interior design! I need a disk for this have no disc have no software but have nice system. then there is a 1.1 ( i have one too) but you can not upgrade to the > latest os (bummer) By "1.1" do you mean the Mac Pro? The Mac Pro has always had an Intel processor, and the model code for the first Mac Pro was MacPro1,1. 1.1" do you mean the Mac Pro yea this runs nice and has 2 drive and 7 gig mem > then there is the G% 3 or 3.3 dated one that will run current os too. This is confusing. Can you restate it or at least correct your typos before posting? There's no G3 that can run the latest macOS, since a G3 is a kind of PowerPC CPU. G5 version 3 vrs the earlier 1.1 i > is there a way to force the 1.1 one to run currest os somehow!? Not any supported way, which is the only way I'd be allowed to discuss.

9 years, 9 months

1
0
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Epson QX games (with graphics) (was Epson QX-10, battery removal)

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

BTW, while we discussing the QX-10 I'd love to hear from anyone that has any games which show off its nice green-screen graphics. Terry (Tez)

9 years, 9 months

2
1
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cctalk Digest, Vol 25, Issue 18

by seefriek＠gmail.com

From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> > I don't think I've ever seen a wirewrapped S100 backplane, they were > pretty much all PCB. For what it's worth, I've seen many WW S-100 backplanes, especially >from the days when it was common to assemble your own systems from parts/kits, and before S-100 was a "standard". KJ

9 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Epson QX-10, battery removal

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Hi Jules I found removing my QX-10's battery stopped the machines working. I tried replacing it with a lithium battery after disabling the recharging circuit but that didn't work either. The old battery doesn't show any signs of leaking so I just left it in there. I check all my machines with batteries once a year for any battery leakage so I'm comfortable with leaving it there. Terry ( Tez) On 18/07/2016 6:38 am, "Jules Richardson" <jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote: > > > There's a battery in my QX-10; anyone know if it's safe to remove it before it leaks (i.e. it's not responsible for storing any parameters which might be vital to system operation)? > > I think most of my machines which have batteries just use them for things such as TOD clock and so it's no big deal to remove them (and they'll run happily without), but I do also have various "unknowns" - of which the QX-10 is one. > > (I don't suppose anyone is working on a big list of machines with batteries in, which ones need consideration before removal, and which ones refuse to function without a battery present, are they?) > > cheers > > Jules

9 years, 9 months

3
5
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VMS stability back in the day (was Re: NuTek Mac comes)

by jonas＠otter.se

> On Thu, 14 Jul 2016, Sean Conner wrote: >> What I've read about VMS makes me think the networking was >> incredible. > > To be fair, I think you have to think about what was around when VMS was developed, and what DEC was competing with. VMS is an enterprise-grade operating system, designed for serious production work. At the time VMS was conceived, Unix was a university product, used for teaching and research, not for heavy production work. In fact those early versions of Unix were completely useless for that kind of application - too limited, unstable, and no useful security features. No accounting at all, no useful batch functionality, nothing but the most basic kind of security and protection functionality etc. VMS was designed to compete with IBM mainframes and System/32-34-36 and the likes. In the early 80s I used both VMS version 4 and 5 and Unix version 7. The Unix system was used for program development, the VMS system for program development and running accounting software. The Unix system was fine for program development in a lab but far too unstable and insecure for running accounting systems in a corporate production environment.

9 years, 9 months

6
6
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Found some stuff at the scrapyard

by james＠attfield.co.uk

> Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2016 23:34:22 -0400 > From: devin davison <lyokoboy0 at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Found some stuff at the scrapyard > Message-ID: > <CAOpB=UN9zNQ0Aj-z- > 7+jLTP76KheCFdu31YWpowXvMsdqSVkAg at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Actually found a pretty nice hp machine with a bunch of peripherals. > Thankfully it came with the keyboard. Also a external hard drive and floppy, > as well as a tiny printer. > > HP 362 "controller" > Hp thinkjet 2225A printer > Hp 9153B - HD and floppy > > Also a IBM wheelwriter 3 with the parallel interface, as well as what im > assuming is a s100 backplane. I don't know what it is, but S100 it isn't. A key feature of the S100 bus is 100 pins, not 122. James

9 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Epson QX-10, battery removal

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

There's a battery in my QX-10; anyone know if it's safe to remove it before it leaks (i.e. it's not responsible for storing any parameters which might be vital to system operation)? I think most of my machines which have batteries just use them for things such as TOD clock and so it's no big deal to remove them (and they'll run happily without), but I do also have various "unknowns" - of which the QX-10 is one. (I don't suppose anyone is working on a big list of machines with batteries in, which ones need consideration before removal, and which ones refuse to function without a battery present, are they?) cheers Jules

9 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

eBay MVII BA123 $99 - Buy It Now - Richboro, Pennsylvania

by glen.slick＠gmail.com

Don't see too many complete looking BA123 boxes show up on eBay and this one seems relatively cheap if you happen to be able to pick it up locally in Richboro, Pennsylvania. Plus a few boxes of VMS documentation too. http://www.ebay.com/itm/232013130536 (No personal connection to, or information about, this seller) I would grab this one myself if it was within easy driving distance. Someone should grab it.

9 years, 9 months

3
2
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Siemens PC-MX2 Set

by xeon4d＠gmail.com

Hello. I've recently acquired what came to be a Siemens PC-MX2 Set that is comprised of: * 4 Siemens Dossiers named: - Informix - BetriebeSystem SINIX Buch 1 - BetriebeSystem SINIX Buch 2 Menus - Siemens PC-MX2 Betriebsanleitung 12 Tapes: - 10 of them are of brand 3M, Model DC300XL/P and seem to be backups. - 2 of them are of brand Cadmus, Model 9000 and are named: "Munix Betriebsystem V.3/R.3-28 IS Format Anlagennummer FO/90-9754" and the other "Optionale Pakete PCS F0/89-74343 IS0055P 20-Jul-89 all files CPIO format 0. Med v.4.0 1. Munix_TCP/IP_(BSD) 7-Sep-88 2. Fortran77-32 V.4.0c" 1 Siemens branded Terminal with Serial Keyboard 1 Siemens Computer branded PC-9870 1 Siemens Dot Matrix Printer model is either PT88S-22 or -32 Is there any interest in this? I'm entertaining offers. Location is Portugal. Cumprimentos - Best Regards Marcos Alves.

9 years, 9 months

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VMS stability back in the day (was Re: NuTek Mac comes)

by grif615＠mindspring.com

Whats this "BackInTheDay" stuff ? ;-) ?granted we upgraded to openvms at y2k, but the system ?is still in production. ? Ive been involved in this app since 93, and it was mature then. ?Just will not die :-( -------- Original message -------- From: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu Date: 07/16/2016 05:55 (GMT-08:00) To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Cc: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu Subject: Re: VMS stability back in the day (was Re: NuTek Mac comes) ??? > From: Jonas ??? > At the time VMS was conceived, Unix was a university product, used for ??? > teaching and research, not for heavy production work. Err, not quite. In the mid-70's, the PWB system at Bell: ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWB/UNIX was being used by a community of about 1K programmers doing development of software for various Bell commercial projects. Yes, not accounting systems, but not "teaching and research", either. And it was definitely production: see the uptime statistics, etc, in the BSTJ article that describes it. Noel

9 years, 9 months

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VMS stability back in the day (was Re: NuTek Mac comes)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jonas > At the time VMS was conceived, Unix was a university product, used for > teaching and research, not for heavy production work. Err, not quite. In the mid-70's, the PWB system at Bell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWB/UNIX was being used by a community of about 1K programmers doing development of software for various Bell commercial projects. Yes, not accounting systems, but not "teaching and research", either. And it was definitely production: see the uptime statistics, etc, in the BSTJ article that describes it. Noel

9 years, 9 months

2
1
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11/44 Console cable

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Kirk Davis > Does anyone know off hand if a 11/83 cab kit will work as a 11/44 > console? Both are 20 bin ribbon cable connectors Say what? The 20-pin connector on the M8190 (KDJ11-B) is configuration management, etc - the console connector is the 10-pin one (which uses the standard DEC later serial pinout, documented here: http://gunkies.org/wiki/DEC_asynchronous_serial_line_pinout if anyone needs it). The 11/44 console (and TU58) seem (from a quick glance at the prints) to use some odd pinout that is sui generis. Time to break out the soldering iron... Noel

9 years, 9 months

1
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Building the Ultimate Classic Mac.

by couryhouse＠aol.com

I am following this closely ?as we were recently given?A g4 ... not the mirror frontA g4 .... mirror frontA g5 1st model drive missing nice internalsA g5 w Intel but not 3. So Cann not update to free latest ?os..is there a workaround ..internal design us not as cool as first g5 We have just what is on disc drive in them.. need to collect up a few things. Then we already had blue iMac already in boxPlus early little screen mac wife used This mac stuff is all new to me so learning curve... Ed# ?www.smecc.org Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> Date: 7/15/16 23:39 (GMT-07:00) To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Building the Ultimate Classic Mac. > I'm toying with putting the "ultimate" classic Mac together, although I'm > having a little difficulty pinning down the definition of what the ultimate > representation of the type is, so was looking for a little input from > Classic CMP'ers. My "heavy duty" OS 9 rig is an dual 1.25GHz MDD that I upgraded to a dual Sonnet 1.8GHz, with 1.5GB RAM and OS 9.2.2. Everything flies on it. I haven't had any obvious compatibility problems. Al makes a good point though: have a spare power supply. My MDD blew through two. You didn't ask, but my preferred heavy duty 68K is the Q800. You can overclock them easily with chipclips and they are the beefiest 68K Mac that will still run A/UX. A/UX at 40MHz is a delight. > In terms of hardware I have a lovely mirror-door G4 PowerMac I'm intending > to use.? I have the original media that shipped with this, so I can get > 9.2.1 on it relatively easily.? Are there any add-in cards (PCI) I should > be considering?? It has a built in Airport Card (possibly Airport Extreme?) > although my home Wi-Fi is 802.11n or better with WPA2 so I'll just use > Ethernet to connect it to my LAN.? Was a gigabit ethernet card ever > released with Mac OS 9 drivers?? I have a couple of 600GB PATA disks that I > can use with it, but has there ever been a SATA implementation that worked > with classic Mac OS? I've never seen a GigE card for OS 9. There is of course 100Mbit support. I would love to be proven wrong. The Sonnet SATA cards work well with OS 9 and are completely bootable. I used such a card in a 7300. > In terms of the software - any top-line utilities or System Extensions I > should look to get my hands on?? What's the state of the art in classic Mac > OS browsing nowadays, Mr Kaiser - is Clasilla still maintained? Sort of, as I have time. I'd like to do more with it but TenFourFox consumes much of my free hacking cycles currently. That should let up relatively soon since I've made the executive decision to fork TenFourFox at Firefox 45ESR (due to the looming spectre of Rust becoming a build-requirement, and known and expected issues with Electrolysis multi-process with the 10.4 SDK). Still, the biggest need for Classilla currently is moar crypto and that's rather hard to get right. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- ? Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Know what I hate most?? Rhetorical questions. -- Henry N. Camp -------------

9 years, 9 months

1
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Anyone near San Marcos, CA with a Commodore drive cable?

by brain＠jbrain.com

Evidently, there is a kind soul with a project this weekend lacking a cable (it's my fault), and I had hoped one might be available near he could borrow. Jim -- Jim Brain brain at jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

9 years, 9 months

1
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Wanted: VT5x roll-around stand

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

I have a nice VT52, but it sits on the floor right now... I would dearly love to track down one of the old roll-around pedestals for it (as pictured here: http://cdn4.static.ovimg.com/m/04jldl). Didn't happen to see one in the warehouse by any chance, did you Todd? :-) cheers, --FritzM.

9 years, 9 months

12
25
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DEC RRD40 CD-Rom Drive caddy

by brendan＠mcneill.co.nz

Greetings The DEC RRD40 CD-ROM drive requires a DEC caddy to insert and remove CD?s from the drive. Does anyone have a spare caddy they could sell/post to me? Details of caddy in this document link below, however if you don?t know what it is you are probably unlikely to have one. http://www.carelife.com/manuals/RDD40_Optical_Drive_Owner_Manual.PDF <http://www.carelife.com/manuals/RDD40_Optical_Drive_Owner_Manual.PDF> Many thanks Brendan --------------//---------------- brendan at mcneill.co.nz +64 21 881 883

9 years, 9 months

5
4
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ISO HP 2392 terminal and VT100 keytops

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Well, I accidentally ordered two VT100 tubes, so this weekend I tried to restore the one I have, only to discover the keyboard is missing 3 keytops ("</,", PF2, and PF4). If someone has one in their spares pile (missing other keytops..) in the US, I could use them. Also, I'd like to try to find an HP 2392 terminal with or w/o keyboard if someone has a spare.

9 years, 9 months

1
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Seeking RL02 cable transition connector

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Asking for a friend... ;-) An old buddy of mine picked up a PDP-11/73 at auction and we just went over it tonight - cleaned out some spilled toner from some careless stacking in a warehouse, and looked over the RL02 on top and it all seems complete and good to go, except... the connector on the I/O bulkhead was broken off (the ears and screws remain) and the BC06R 40-pin cable is sticking out. The drive-to-drive cable is there and looks intact, but there's nothing at the CPU end to clamp it to. These get brought up from time to time as people refurb 1980s PDP-11s and such - The easiest place to get these from is dead RL02 drives, since there are two off them on the back of each drive. Does anyone have a loose one to sell? Also as mentioned from time to time, the part number seems to be obscure and buried, but it's a component in a C-AD-7012415-0-0 "transition bracket assembly", which appears to be this 40-pin ZIF connector attacked to a rack-mountable metal bracket. All he needs is the plastic bit, but if it comes attached to a bracket, then that's OK too. Yes, I know we can get him operational with a long 40-pin cable. I'd just like to replace the one missing bit. Thanks! -ethan

9 years, 9 months

1
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How to execute arbitrary code on a Nintendo

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/07/how-to-beat-super-mario-bros-3-in-les… -- Eric Christopherson

9 years, 9 months

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DEC items to either pick up, ship or drop off at VCF midwest

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Greg Stark > It doesn't seem reasonable to me for you to request buyers provide you > with a list of what they would be interested in It might seem more reasonable if you'd seen his basement... :-) Noel

9 years, 9 months

3
2
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Looking for the numpad "/" key for an apple extended keyboard II

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

If you have one, please ping me. mine met a work accident today. -- Ian Finder (206) 395-MIPS ian.finder at gmail.com

9 years, 9 months

2
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DEC boards at recycler

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Devin Davison > I have a spare unibus chasis and am have been looking for a cpu card > for a while. Umm, those CPUs are all QBUS CPUs, not UNIBUS. Was your "unibus" a typo for 'QBUS'? If not, all those CPU boards are, alas, of no use to you. > The memory boards M8067, real time clock M7856, and serial card M8043 > are of interest. Likewise most of these boards are QBUS, the M7856 being the only UNIBUS one. Noel

9 years, 9 months

2
1
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Reproduction micros

by barythrin＠gmail.com

I haven't built or marketed anything myself but i believe if i understood ?correctly from several folks who have that vga was a cheaper choice due to licensing costs for dvi or hdmi at the time.? Not sure if vga is past that point or open but when keeping home brew kits cheap for us hobbyists every dollar counts. It would be interesting maybe as a Wikipedia page (thought there was one) to show which projects were out there and preferably which are still active. ?A shrinking but understandable issue when buying ?im batches with personal money in hopes that theyll sell eventually.

9 years, 9 months

3
2
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DOS code in CP/M? Revisited...

by barythrin＠gmail.com

<snip hopefully> I thought it had said CP/M code in DOS? Revisited..." Sometimes I really think I'm dyslexic. > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz > Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 10:45 PM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: DOS code in CP/M? Revisited... > > Did MS-DOS use code copied from CP/M? > Get ready for mind blown moment. ... ;-) you were right both times! {Insert dramatic ground hog clip}

9 years, 9 months

1
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Reproduction micros

by barythrin＠gmail.com

-------- Original message -------- <attempted phone technology snip> The thing about the Amiga was its wow factor -- I remember walking into Compucentre (Canadian chain) in the mid-80s.. and there's all the computers from 8 bit heaven and their 16 color graphics (if you were lucky).. and then there's this one computer on a pedestal featuring a totally real jungle cat prowling onscreen. It just blew the doors off everything else there, and I would go wanting for one for 20 years afterward (now I have 5 :)). Not sure a replica can revive *that*. </snip> Thats an awesome story and experience that unfortunately i agree is hard to relay to people these days. To see how great lots of classics were during their heyday in comparison to what was out is what made so many historic memories. I think its unfortunately harder for younger generation sometimes to put away their cinematic quality vr and experience vintage gaming for what it was. Graphics drawn by programming, music while gaming, going for blocks and blips to fully animated sprites and tracked music playing all while fitting on a floppy disk. Or even the wealth and size of the virtual text world at a terminal or personal computer. Preaching to the choir here but when i did finally get around to showing selections of systems at our past vcf it was a blast and i enjoyed showing some of the comparison of commodore to some pc ascii games but also being fair and switching out to some of my favorite dos games too as well as pointing out the crispness of the pc display for text making it a probable better system out of the box for staring at text all day. I miss closer vcfs :-(

9 years, 9 months

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IBM 360/30 in verilog (was: How do they make Verilog code for unknown ICs?)

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

-----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Guy Sotomayor Jr Sent: Monday, June 20, 2016 4:04 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: How do they make Verilog code for unknown ICs? What you can do (and I?ve seen it done) is define verilog modules that provide the functions of the IC and use that in their designs. I?ve seen at least two interesting classic computer recreations using this approach (re-implemenation of the CADR lisp machine in verilog and an IBM 360/30 in verilog). ROMs are easy (just instantiate a lookup table). PLCs are just combinatorial equations which are relatively easy with the verilog ?assign? statement. TTFN - Guy ====****==== Do you have a pointer to that "IBM 360/30 in Verilog", Guy? ----- paul

9 years, 9 months

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40
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DEC boards at recycler

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jules Richardson > I just told the guy to hold off on execution and I'm going back in next > week with a view to just buying everything Good call. Most of those cards are worth something to someone. (E.g. I'd be interested in the CPU's, the RLV12s, the DLV11-Js, and the M8067s - which are MSV11-Ps. But I'll let others grab them all first, they'd only be extra spares, for me.) They usually sell for $30-$100+ (for the rarer ones, like the M8190 - that's the KDJ11-B, used in both the 11/83 and 11/84). If either the M8190 or the M8192 has the optional FPU chip, the FPJ11, that is worth big dineros. The only exception is the M8044 - those are pretty low-value (I use them only as test boards for working on broken systems), since they are Q18 _only_, and can't be mixed with Q22 boards. So maybe $10 each, for those. Noel

9 years, 9 months

2
1
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VCF West has 30 exhibits

by cctalk＠snarc.net

There are 30 exhibits for Vintage Computer Festival West XI next month: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/vcf-west-ex… Exhibit registration is full. Contact me privately if you'd like to join the waiting list.

9 years, 9 months

4
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DEC items to either pick up, ship or drop off at VCF midwest

by useddec＠gmail.com

I have a big load of DEC items coming in within the next month or two, probably a 24 foot truck packed, and an even larger one one possible this fall. I already have a 25 foot storage unit costing me a small fortune, and will probably need another. I need to sell off as many boxes, boards and terminals, and printers. This includes numerous most Q bus boxes, all vaxes, and a few 8-E boxes without covers and maybe slides. I am trying to keep the weeks before and after VCF free of medical appointments. I should be able to drop off items there, ship most, including overseas. You are always welcome to stop by as long as its pre scheduled, and too many people at once could complicate things.I think the members who have stopped here in the past have had a good time picking and chatting. Please send me any requests off list. Thanks, Paul

9 years, 9 months

5
6
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WANTED: PDP-8 KE8E Extended arithmetic element

by anders＠abc80.net

Hi, I've been looking for a KK8E for some time now. It's the set of two boards: M8340/M8341. If you have one to sell me please contact me off list. I'm also interested in hints that can lead me to one. I'll give them a good home. /Anders

9 years, 9 months

2
1
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DEC Permission to Copy Out-Of-Print

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I need to obtain a link to the DEC Permission to Copy Out-Of-Print manuals. Might it still be at an HP site? Specifically, while just the actual permission itself will be helpful, more important is to be able to show that it still comes from an official source. I saw the Permission Notice in the past a few times, but I never bothered to keep a copy. Did anyone at least keep a copy? I would imagine that bitsavers might have a copy, so that would at least be helpful. Jerome Fine

9 years, 9 months

1
0
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bode.ee.ualberta.ca

by wrm＠dW.co.za

Hi all Does anyone have a mirror of bode.ee.ualberta.ca or know where I can find one? Sheesh the internet's supposed to be a repository but stuff is disappearing off of it like there's a black hole somewhere. W

9 years, 9 months

1
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Youtube show and tell of that Bondi Blue iMac I posted a while back

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Well Done a nice tour! Terry! Ed# In a message dated 7/12/2016 10:02:09 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, terry at webweavers.co.nz writes: In case anyone is interested: https://youtu.be/JrBqqL6VS6M Terry (Tez)

9 years, 9 months

1
0
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Youtube show and tell of that Bondi Blue iMac I posted a while back

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

In case anyone is interested: https://youtu.be/JrBqqL6VS6M Terry (Tez)

9 years, 9 months

1
0
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cctalk Digest, Vol 25, Issue 10

by fred＠MISER.MISERNET.NET

On Sat, 9 Jul 2016 cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: [talk about word processors, specifically WordPerfect] I would LOVE to find a (hobbyist) copy of WordPerfect for OpenVMS some day. Back in the day I could fly through those key combos on WP 5.1 ... Fred

9 years, 9 months

3
2
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DEC PDT-150 software

by fjkraan＠xs4all.nl

On 2016-07-10 07:00 PM, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Greetings > > I have a restored and (I think) functional PDT-150 with dual 8? floppy drives but no software. I do have some blank 8? diskettes but no real means of transferring an operating system or (say) a word processing program onto them. > > Any assistance would be appreciated. Happy to pay for OS/Application diskettes and freight etc The PDT-150 was also sold with a VT-105 as the MiniMINC and can run some versions of RT-11 (at least V3b). On my site there are images of disks, but it requires a PC capable of writing single density format to an 8" disk. IMD is not the most common format in DEC circles, but it is in PC land. http://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/comp/miniminc/floppyImages/ > > Many thanks > Brendan Greetings & success, Fred Jan Kraan

9 years, 9 months

3
3
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IBM 360/30 in verilog

by iamcamiel＠gmail.com

Hi Al, I have a 7201-2 set that I scanned. They're ~64 MB TIF files per sheet, about ~150GB in total. I can upload those where ever you want. Op 11 jul. 2016 6:58 p.m. schreef "Al Kossow" <aek at bitsavers.org>: On 7/11/16 9:14 AM, Jon Elson wrote: > The microcode was in the ALD drawings, and might even be in bitsavers archive, if they have the right manual. > 360 CPU ALDs are extremely difficult to find. If the 65 set could be scanned, I'd be happy to upload them to bitsavers.

9 years, 9 months

3
2
0 0

DEC PDT-150 software

by brendan＠mcneill.co.nz

Greetings I have a restored and (I think) functional PDT-150 with dual 8? floppy drives but no software. I do have some blank 8? diskettes but no real means of transferring an operating system or (say) a word processing program onto them. Any assistance would be appreciated. Happy to pay for OS/Application diskettes and freight etc Many thanks Brendan --------------//---------------- brendan at mcneill.co.nz +64 21 881 883

9 years, 9 months

2
1
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Successor models that never were

by lproven＠gmail.com

Unfinished or never launched follow-ons to classic 1980s home micros... http://uk.pcmag.com/desktop-reviews/82794/gallery/7-classic-home-pc-follow-… -- Sent from my phone - please pardon brevity & typos.

9 years, 9 months

1
0
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Connectors: Both contact surfaces must also be the same material?

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

Stated Tothwolf tothwolf at concentric.net: "Both contact surfaces must also be the same material or tin oxide will form on the surface of the gold plating and cause a major headache. This was a serious problem with 486 and earlier Pentium PCs with 30 and 72 pin SIMMs and it led to a number of lawsuits." Almost every DEC System Unit ("backplane") that I've ever seen uses tinned-contacts, yet the Modules all use gold-plated fingers. How does that situation jibe with the SIMM issue/experience? ----- paul

9 years, 9 months

5
7
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TI Silent 700 print mechanism mechanical issues, and Model 763/765 bubble memory notes

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I've now got a TI Silent 700 Model 763, and it is partially working. The previous owner said that the line advance wasn't working reliably, but that otherwise it was working. As I received it, the thermal print head is only darkening the top scan line of characters, and only partially. The intensity pot is already at maximum. The line advance is working, but carriage return is unreliable, which results in the carriage banging against the right side of the mechanism and getting stuck there. The horizontal carriage positioning is done by stepper motor with an encoder for feedback, so I'm surprised that it isn't smart enough to recognize that it can't home the carriage, and avoid ramming it into the right end of the mechanism. I was worried that the thermal print head might be damaged. I opened it up and found that it uses the solenoid line advance mechansim, probably the same as is documented for the early production of Model 743/745. (Later 743/745 use a stepper motor for line advance.) With power off, the carriage can be manually returned to the left side. There were two loose parts inside, a spring and a small knob. These apparently belong to the solenoid line advance mechanism, belonging on the shaft at the opposite end of the solenoid from the link to the pivot. There are screws on the left and right end of the mechanism, which when loosened, allow the printhead to be moved up and down relative to the mechanism. The Model 743/745 maintenance manual suggests adjusting that if characters aren't fully visible. I tried that, and could see a little bit more of the characters, but couldn't adjust it to get the characters entirely visible. I accidentally discovered that with a small amount of additional pressure against the carriage assembly, toward the paper path, the characters are printed fully formed, and (quite suprisingly to me) the carriage return works properly as well. If I can't get this working reliably, I may start searching for a 743 or 745 with the solenoid line advance mechanism, to try a mechanism transplant. (The mechanism with stepper motor line advance is not interchangeable, and requires a different circuit board. I'm not sure whether that mechanism was used in any model 763/765 units.) The Operating Instructions manual for the Model 763 and 765 gives information on 13 different commands which are accepted in command mode. They mention the TEST command, which performs a self-test, and the TEST INIT subcommand which resets everything to factory defaults. There's a TEST MASK subcommand not documented in the manual which allows examining or altering the bubble memory minor loop masks. When installing or replacing a bubble memory module, it may be necessary to enter this information for the new module, from the mask data printed on the label of the bubble device. Unlike the later Intel bubble memory, the TI parts (at least of the 92Kbit devices) don't have a specified dedicated "boot loop" to store the mask, nor do they have a defined synchronization pattern to provide a detectable home position, so the TMS5502/TMS9916 bubble controller chip has to ensure that the device is rotated to the home position on power down or power fail. The terminal firmware may be using a specific normal minor loop, probably the first or last loop, to store the mask and a sync pattern, but the TMS5502/TMS9916 don't provide any automation for that. The TMS5502/TMS9916 also require that the mask bits be provided in a bit-serial fashion at the precise times needed during data transfers; TI app notes show the mask stored in PROM with a counter for addressing, but the 763/765 terminal doesn't do that. I'm not sure whether they have dedicated logic for the mask, or whether it's being done by firmware. The TEST MASK subcommand is probably documented in the Maintenance Manual, which I don't have; the only reason I know about it is that a technician left a printout showing the TEST MASK output for this terminal between two pages of the Operating Instructions manual. The terminal uses a TMS9980 microprocessor, which is an 8-bit-bus version of the TMS9900, which can only address 16KB of memory. The terminal has five TMS4732 4KB ROMS, as well as some RAM, so there must be some bank-switching going on. The bubble memory modules for the terminal came in two types: 1) A large "discrete" bubble module with one 92Kbit bubble device and a whole lot of non-bubble-specific chips (presumably because the SN753xx bubble memory support chips were not yet available for production). Two large modules are fitted, to provide the terminal's basic rated storage capacity of 20K characters (actually up to 22,860 characters if 18, 36, or 72 character record lengths are used). This leaves no room for additional bubble modules. The modules show up to the TEST MASK command as modules 2 and 6. 2) A small bubble module with two 92Kbit bubble devices and the SN753xx bubble memory support chips. A single module provides the 20K (22860 character) basic rated storage. Up to four of these modules can be fitted, for up to 80K (91,440) characters. My terminal had two large bubble modules installed. A friend gave me three more large modules, which have been treated roughly, so they have bent pins and possibly damaged components. I have one small module that came from eBay some years ago. I haven't tried any of them yet.

9 years, 9 months

2
3
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Connectors: Both contact surfaces must also be the same material?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

right on! In a message dated 7/10/2016 6:46:28 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, elson at pico-systems.com writes: On 07/10/2016 01:58 PM, Al Kossow wrote: > > On 7/10/16 1:14 AM, Paul Birkel wrote: > >> Almost every DEC System Unit ("backplane") that I've ever seen uses >> tinned-contacts, yet the Modules all use gold-plated fingers. >> > I'm not near one right now, but there should be gold plating on the finger in the DEC > connector block at the point of contact with the pcb edge connector. It's easier to > see on the VAX era blocks. > > Absolutely. The WW pins were tinned, but there was selective gold plating on the card edge contact fingers. It would take a strong light and magnifier to see it down inside the connector, but you can rest assured the contact was gold-gold. Jon

9 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

'Bounces'

by vintagecomputer＠bettercomputing.net

Just re-subscribed to cc-talk. I'm wondering if anyone has an answer on this - every now and again I get these warning emails about 'excessive bounces'. I have to click a link and then they go away for a while. But sometimes I get busy and forget.. and then the list unsubscribes me. No idea what 'excessive bounces' means or what I can do to prevent it from unsubscribing. Any thoughts? Brad

9 years, 9 months

3
2
0 0

TV Typewriter reproduction

by vintagecomputer＠bettercomputing.net

Hey guys, Getting closer to the 'construction' phase of my TVT replica. I already built a mockup the case and reconfigured and painted the MDS keyboard I found to match the prototypes. I also got some 'natural' colored PCB stock and etched some boards. Pretty happy with the results. Hard to tell if I got the right color or not.. I notice in photos my boards look closer to the color of the original than they appear to me 'in person'. Anyway, I remember Nick Allen was kind enough to post that photo of his TVT unit - I meant to ask at the time, are there any more pictures of it, especially from underneath? Or is there anyone else out there with photos of original TVTs (not to be confused with the later CT1024)? I'm finding the few pictures I can find of assembled TVTs very valuable in answering assembly and part questions. The blog of my progress on my TVT is here for those interested: http://bradhodge.ca/blog/?cat=11 Thanks again! Brad

9 years, 9 months

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'Bounces'

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I just resubmit each time and check the archive in case I missed something. works ok this way. never missed anything life changing. Ed# In a message dated 7/10/2016 12:42:20 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com writes: > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Brad H > Sent: 10 July 2016 19:34 > To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: 'Bounces' > > Just re-subscribed to cc-talk. I'm wondering if anyone has an answer on this - > every now and again I get these warning emails about 'excessive bounces'. I > have to click a link and then they go away for a while. But sometimes I get > busy and forget.. and then the list unsubscribes me. No idea what 'excessive > bounces' means or what I can do to prevent it from unsubscribing. Any > thoughts? > > This has affected me recently, and another friend of mine also dropped off the list for the same reason. Regards Rob

9 years, 9 months

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Lunar Module Code Walk Through

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

I guess this is on-topic. http://hackaday.com/2016/07/05/don-eyles-walks-us-through-the-lunar-module-s ource-code/

9 years, 9 months

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'Bounces'

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

yes it had just tossed my email address too so I re subed maybe it does the dump all at once of us dumpees? Ed# In a message dated 7/10/2016 11:34:25 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, vintagecomputer at bettercomputing.net writes: Just re-subscribed to cc-talk. I'm wondering if anyone has an answer on this - every now and again I get these warning emails about 'excessive bounces'. I have to click a link and then they go away for a while. But sometimes I get busy and forget.. and then the list unsubscribes me. No idea what 'excessive bounces' means or what I can do to prevent it from unsubscribing. Any thoughts? Brad

9 years, 9 months

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Connectors: Both contact surfaces must also be the same material?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

actually some DEC backplane had gold dos inside on finders of backplane and in one instance we had a 8i that has all gold plated everything on the backplance and heavy gold too. back in the days - - Ed Sharpe retired CEO Computer Exchange Inc Phx In a message dated 7/10/2016 12:30:30 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, tothwolf at concentric.net writes: On Sun, 10 Jul 2016, Jon Elson wrote: > On 07/10/2016 12:07 PM, Paul Koning wrote: >> On Jul 10, 2016, at 9:07 AM, Tothwolf <tothwolf at concentric.net> wrote: >>> On Sun, 10 Jul 2016, Paul Birkel wrote: >>>> Stated Tothwolf tothwolf at concentric.net: >>>> >>>>> "Both contact surfaces must also be the same material or tin oxide >>>>> will form on the surface of the gold plating and cause a major >>>>> headache. This was a serious problem with 486 and earlier Pentium >>>>> PCs with 30 and 72 pin SIMMs and it led to a number of lawsuits." >>>> Almost every DEC System Unit ("backplane") that I've ever seen uses >>>> tinned-contacts, yet the Modules all use gold-plated fingers. >>> I'm not familiar with them used in DEC systems in that way, but the >>> problems with mixing tin and gold plated connectors is well >>> documented. Even the connector manufacturers warn against mixing >>> different platings. >> While "don't mix contact surfaces" is sufficient, it isn't necessary. >> What matters is the "anodic index" of the metal, or rather, the >> difference between those two values for the two metals in contact. If >> that difference is large, you have a problem; if it's small enough, you >> do not. "Small enough" depends on the environment; aboard an >> oceangoing ship the number has to be smaller than in an office setting. >> I remember looking into this topic for an investigation of what types >> of contact platings are acceptable for lithium coin cell battery >> holders in IT equipment. > > This applies to bolted contact for structural things. Gold connectors > usually have light contact pressure to preserve the soft gold plating. > Tin contacts usually have higher contact force to scrape the oxide off > the tin surface. When they are mixed, the tin can wipe onto the gold > and then allow oxides to form due to the lower contact force. Tin > contacts are supposed to provide enough pressure to form gas-tight > contact areas. Another thing to keep in mind here is that electrical current is being passed through the junction. Mixed metals greatly increases the potential for electromigration. > And, of course, when exposed to salty air, then everything goes downhill > REAL fast, corrosion galore. In a salt environment, I'd use > semi-hermetically sealed connectors, and still expect lots of problems. > The Navy probably knows a LOT about these things. Even in a reasonably good atmospheric environment weird issues can crop up. I once evaluated an air handler controller which had worked perfectly in product testing, but once field deployed, had a very high failure rate. It was made up of two pc boards with a pair of .100" pin and socket board to board interconnects. The two boards were physically held together with 4 nylon snap-in standoffs. The lower board contained terminal blocks, modular connectors, and the power supply circuitry and the upper board contained the microcontroller, network circuitry, etc. The cause of the failures turned out to be fretting corrosion of the board to board connectors caused by vibration. Another contributing factor was that many installers were not installing all 4 mounting screws when mounting the controller inside the unit (these were field retrofitted controllers) but were instead only installing 2 screws in opposite corners. The fix was to replace all of the existing board to board interconnects, both the header and socket with parts that had 30 microinches of hard gold over nickel (the original parts had 15 microinches of gold) and to use a contact lubricant during assembly. Repaired boards were also to be installed using all 4 mounting screws. The vendor later redesigned the controller so it was all on a single board (while still admitting no fault, of course).

9 years, 9 months

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Looking for old connectors

by lehmann＠ans-netz.de

Hi, for rebuilding a circuit, I'm in need of 3 old connectors used on the original board. ###################### One is easy - J3 is a 2x10 pin 2.54mm connector which is still common today. But it is higher than the usual connectors. It has a hight of 1.5cm. If you search for the printed A-MP number (1-87456-6), you'll find the housing, but not the soldered clips used inside this housing.... http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… ###################### The next one is a power plug used on a CDC FINCH harddisk. The manual states, that the Connectors AMP 1-87270-1 or 3-87025-3 can be used. I guess this where connectors used with cables - but I need a connector which can be placed on a circuit board like this one: http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… ###################### The next one is also a power plug - but I have no idea about its AMP number or something: http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_boards/FINCH-Adapter-Boa… Its counterpart is shown here and labled with AMP, but no number: http://pics.pofo.de/gallery3/index.php/S8000/S8000_case/Disk-Tape-Component… Any info on any of this connectors would be great... Regards, Oliver

9 years, 9 months

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server maintenance

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

The classiccmp VM will go down tonight around 10pm-ish CST. There is nothing wrong with the VM, but the NAS it's disks are on is having some issues. We've live-migrated all VDI's off that NAS except classiccmp's. Due to the size of those drives, they will migrate a lot faster if that VM is shut down so that's the route we're taking. I would expect it to be back up in the wee hours of the morning - at least that's what the guy doing the work tells me. Just fyi.. J

9 years, 9 months

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VCF West has 30 exhibits

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

what kind of wooden modem? In a message dated 7/9/2016 9:04:37 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cisin at xenosoft.com writes: >> So, I guess that I can bring a few items for the consignment sales, >> (which is also "information coming soon"), but NOT a station wagon full >> of boxes of books, classic vintage computers (QX10, SMC70, early 5150, >> 8201a, etc.), hundreds of hard-sector diskettes, 3", 3.25" disks and >> alignment disks, another wooden modem, ARC serial analyzer, etc. >> (priced to meet expenses and lunch both days) >> Oh well. I would have needed to get help packing the car, etc. anyway. On Sat, 9 Jul 2016, Evan Koblentz wrote: > Sure you can bring a car full of stuff, as long as it's sold at consignment. > I do not know how much table space we will have for that. It is possible that > we'll ask you to bring in some at a time. At VCF6, I only brought a few things: http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/vcf6/vendor5.jpg but now I have more than ten times that, that needs to go or get DUMPSTERED. plus all that is left of http://www.xenosoft.com/FPUIB and at least 100 more boxes worth. But, my health is not good enough to even pack it all. My assistant at the last VCF died two years ago. I had been hoping to totally fill Prius station wagon, and sell enough first day to do an entire additional load the second day. But, I don't think that it is realiatic to imagine that I can manage to do that. Besides the need to channel it in small quantities through "consignment", I know that I can't manage even that level of physical exertion. So, I'll probably just fill a couple of boxes with IBM Technical References, Windows Resource kits, etc. and end up with most of the rest eventually going to paper recycling. (most of the FPUIB stuff has been in that list for 2 years, so there's obviously not a big pent-up demand) -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

9 years, 9 months

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offering part of uVax/VaxStation 3100

by jonelson126＠gmail.com

On 07/09/2016 09:28 PM, Jon Elson wrote: > I have the bottom part of a DV-31ETA-A-A01 VaxStation > 3100. It has the bottom of the case, the main CPU board > and the power supply. I think additional memory and the > graphics/SCSI adaptor were mezzanine boards, and are NOT > present in this. It was quite dirty when I found it, and > I have not tried to fire it up. Anybody have an interest > in this? > > Jon

9 years, 9 months

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VCF West has 30 exhibits

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

Evan, I for one am very excited. I was wondering are there any vendors or consignment items at this time? Ali -------- Original message -------- From: Evan Koblentz <cctalk at snarc.net> Date: 7/9/2016 7:30 PM (GMT-08:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: VCF West has 30 exhibits There are 30 exhibits for Vintage Computer Festival West XI next month: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/vcf-west-ex… Exhibit registration is full. Contact me privately if you'd like to join the waiting list.

9 years, 9 months

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word processor history -- interesting article (Evan Koblentz)

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

My first word processor was from Wang called ?Word Processor? and then IBM?s ?Displaywriter?. I tried ?Wordstar? originally called ?Wordmaster? but way too complicated. When desktop publishing came along WYSIWYG printing was made possible - the writer?s true handmaiden! In the microcomputer world, classic computing, it was ?Smartwriter? on the Coleco ADAM. Those were the days! Happy computing. Murray

9 years, 9 months

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HP 8510 network analyser

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

So a friend tells me there's a maybe-abandoned HP 8510 Network Analyzer in the hallway of the engineering building of the univ. he works at. I presume it's a unit like this, as he says it's over a metre tall: http://www.ece.lsu.edu/emdl/facilities/network%20analyser.html I figure its a little too far large and too far away from my needs to take it on, but out of curiousity does anyone know offhand what processor they used in these? (I haven't looked in depth online). Cursory guess is its mid-90s technology.

9 years, 9 months

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Second release of the HP 3000 Series III simulator

by jdbryan＠acm.org

The second release of the HP 3000 Series III simulator is now available >from the Computer History Simulation Project (SIMH) site: https://github.com/simh/simh This release adds a simulation of the HP 2607, 2613, 2617, and 2618 line printers and supports the use of custom VFU tape images, as well as the built-in HP-standard VFU tape. The full set of configurable options is detailed in a new section of the HP 3000 Simulator User's Guide that is provided in Microsoft Word format in the "doc" subdirectory of the code base snapshot downloaded from the github site. A PDF version of the updated manual is also available at: http://alum.mit.edu/www/jdbryan/hp3000_doc.pdf In addition, the preconfigured MPE-V/R disc image available from Bitsavers: http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/HP/HP_3000/ ...has been updated to add the following features: - The MPE cold load command files attach the line printer to the "lp.txt" output file and specify the "-n" option to clear the file before use. - Preinstalled User-Defined Commands (UDCs) provide access to the COBOL 74 compiler with the MPE-V/E :COBOLII, :COBOLIIPREP, and :COBOLIIGO commands, and to the COBOL 85 compiler with :COBOLIIX, :COBOLIIXPREP, and :COBOLIIXGO. However, note that the simulator currently does not provide the HP 32234A COBOL II firmware instructions, so programs generated by the COBOLII compiler will abort at run time with "ILLEGAL INSTRUCTION" errors, limiting the current utility of the compilers to syntax checking. Thanks once again go to Frank McConnell for providing the HP line printer subsystems manuals that facilitated development of the new simulation, and to Robert Mills for providing the COBOLII UDCs. -- Dave

9 years, 10 months

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Morrow and Kaypro newsletters

by dave＠661.org

I found some BAMDUA / BAKUP newsletters (Bay Area Micro Decision Users Association and Bay Area Kaypro Users and Programmers). Does anyone know anything about these user groups? -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

9 years, 10 months

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Latest addition: A bondi-blue iMac

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

My classic/vintage computer activity has taken a back seat lately but I did find a machine I had on the "classic" list for some time. It's now part of the collection. http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/collection/imac.htm Some would say this is not vintage, classic or collectible (and so shouldn't be discussed here). However, these are all subjected terms which can be (and are!) argued about at length. To me it's a noteworthy model which had some impact on personal computing (notably by helping put Apple back in the game). Vintage? At only 18 years old perhaps not but a classic and collectible? As time goes by I would say yes. Terry (Tez)

9 years, 10 months

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Fwd: Re: Front Panels - New development - Bezels

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: Front Panels - New development - Bezels Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2016 08:01:35 +0100 From: Rod Smallwood <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> To: Paul Birkel <pbirkel at gmail.com> On 07/07/2016 07:18, Paul Birkel wrote: > "MakeAnEight", oh my :->. Next it will be "SweetSixteen" I imagine. > > Great news on the casting-in-resin prototype. How much are these ending up costing? > > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rod Smallwood > Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2016 2:04 AM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Front Panels - New development - Bezels > > Hi Guys > > We are able to-announce the successful test production of a PDP-8 Bezel in cast resin. > > The result is tough, beige colored, slightly flexible copy of the original. > > Bonding the panel to the bezel or adding internal stiffening brings rigidity. > > Painting matches the color. > > This will be part of our MakeAnEight parts for reproduction or repair range. > > > Rod (Panelman) Smallwood > > > Hi Paul Well I was going to call it ElevenHeaven but I like your idea better. They got a good result first time. That seemed too easy. Then I remembered that when I went through the molding and casting process they said is that it? It just dawned on me. Screen printing is all about handling gloopy liquids. They have all of the knowledge of mixing and all of the measuring pots and stirring sticks you will ever need. Cost? Well that's interesting. Usually in a small run/custom situation its the labor cost that's the major element. Here it seems to be the cost of the materials to get the right result. I should know soon. Regards Rod

9 years, 10 months

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BASIC challenge on RetroBattlestations

by fozztexx＠fozztexx.com

July is BASIC Month and there's another challenge happening on RetroBattlestations. The type-in program for this challenge borrows a little bit of code from the very first BASIC challenge that I did. I've created a little "turtle graphics" type program that uses a stack based command interpreter. Right now the commands are very simple, pen up & down, move forward and turn. There's also looping to make it easy to create that spirograph effect that everyone loves to do! This time around there's more than just the random winners for typing in the program as-is. I'll also be choosing two people who can add the most interesting features or port it to the most exotic hardware. So far there are not too many platforms that have been ported to, and the only features that anyone has added has just been random colorization. You can check it out here: https://redd.it/4qs0f3 -- Follow me on twitter: @FozzTexx Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com

9 years, 10 months

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Megaprocessor

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

This gigantic, $53,000 hobbyist-built computer is making the rounds on Facebook: http://gizmodo.com/guy-spends-four-years-50k-building-giant-computer-to-178… A relay one from a few years ago: http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~harry/Relay/ -- Eric Christopherson

9 years, 10 months

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Front Panels - PDP-8/e , PDP-8/f and PDP-8/m are ex-stock

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys +++++++++++++++++++++++ Panels stocked and ready to ship +++++++++++++++++++ I am pleased to be able to announce the following PDP-8 front panels are now ex-stock. Stock levels are 10 or less of: PDP-8/e (Type A) PDP-8/e (Type B) PDP-8/f PDP-8/m Please order now as each type takes ten days to make and the manufacturing slot for each comes round once in six weeks. Rod (Panelman) Smallwood

9 years, 10 months

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multiflow trace in Austin

by thebri＠gmail.com

It's not as old as some would like, but it's definitely unique enough. http://www.ebay.com/itm/UBER-RARE-MULTIFLOW-TRACE-14-300-COMPILER-VINTAGE-C… b

9 years, 10 months

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word processor history -- interesting article (Evan Koblentz)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mouse > "The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its > continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the > computer hardware industry." - credited to Henry Petroski There's a reason I run considerably older software (which I prefer because it's less bloated) on somewhat older hardware (which is cheap, used) - i.e. hardware that's considerably newer than the software running on it - and your quotation nails it. The response time I get with Epsilon V8.0 (circa 1996) on an Athlon XP is scintillating - my finger has barely started to come up on the key before the screen reflects the command (e.g. to switch buffers). The response time is blindingly fast. Now, admittedly, Epsilon was fast to start with (i.e. on contemporanous hardware), so perhaps it's not the best example. But the same is true for other things, albeit to a lesser degree; e.g. switching windows to different applications. Older software on newer hardware provides a sparkling user experience, in terms of responsiveness. Noel

9 years, 10 months

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"FIRST"??!? (Was: word processor history -- interesting article

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Many people used program editors to write articles and books in the early days! Myself included... Ed# In a message dated 7/6/2016 1:43:21 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu writes: > From: Fred Cisin > the first person to use a word processor was probably typing business > letters and/or legal documents, which is what they were developed for. Depends what you mean by "word processor". If you mean 'software intended to format text', you need to look back to things like TJ2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TJ-2 and 'runoff', both circa 1963. Much earlier than any of the 'word processors' this person wrote about. Noel

9 years, 10 months

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Front Panels - PDP-8/i Help!

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys, I have a nice big batch of PDP-8/i panels in production. I really need a real original panel to check against. Can anybody lend me one? Rod (Panelman) Smallwood

9 years, 10 months

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Front Panels - New development - Bezels

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys We are able to-announce the successful test production of a PDP-8 Bezel in cast resin. The result is tough, beige colored, slightly flexible copy of the original. Bonding the panel to the bezel or adding internal stiffening brings rigidity. Painting matches the color. This will be part of our MakeAnEight parts for reproduction or repair range. Rod (Panelman) Smallwood

9 years, 10 months

1
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UNIBUS M9312 ROMS

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Posted an inventory of my M9312 ROMs http://www.vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=638 b -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

9 years, 10 months

10
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Repairing a Supermicro P6DLF motherboard

by tothwolf＠concentric.net

I'm currently in the process of repairing a Supermicro P6DLF motherboard which suffered shipping damage and I'm trying to find anyone else who might have one. I can't find any photos of one of these boards online (except for the one I recently purchased) and the board I have shows possible signs of prior rework that I'm trying figure out. The electrolytic capacitors on this particular board at locations CE1 and CE6 have Sanyo OS-CON 220uF 10V polymer parts (purple sleeve and appear to be 10SA220M) fitted and the solder work was done by hand. The joints were completely defluxed/cleaned, but the leads were hand sheared down into the solder joint. All of the other electrolytic capacitors on this board are Sanyo CG series 1000uF 16V (green) that were wave soldered. I suspect two of the Sanyo CG series parts were replaced at some point by a prior owner with the SA series polymer parts. According to the SA series datasheet, the largest 10mm diameter part is 220uF 10V, which may be why those were installed. I haven't used one of these boards since the late '90s when I built a workstation with one, and I can't remember with 100% certainty that Supermicro didn't use a few polymer parts on these boards. If anyone else has one of these boards and can physically check it to see what parts are installed, it would be really helpful. Many of the original Sanyo CG series parts were trashed on my board when it was shipped in one of those thin USPS Priority boxes, so I'm going to end up replacing all of them. If the two OS-CON parts turn out to be not original, I'll fit the correct value parts in those two locations while I'm at it.

9 years, 10 months

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word processor history -- interesting article

by cctalk＠snarc.net

All about some of the earliest people to write books using word processors. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/06/how-to-write-a-histor…

9 years, 10 months

5
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"FIRST"??!? (Was: word processor history -- interesting article

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Fred Cisin > the first person to use a word processor was probably typing business > letters and/or legal documents, which is what they were developed for. Depends what you mean by "word processor". If you mean 'software intended to format text', you need to look back to things like TJ2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TJ-2 and 'runoff', both circa 1963. Much earlier than any of the 'word processors' this person wrote about. Noel

9 years, 10 months

1
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VCF West exhibitor deadline -- Friday

by cctalk＠snarc.net

VCF West is Aug. 6-7 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. There are 25 exhibitors so far. Want to add to that total? Please click here -- http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/vcf-west-ex… -- the deadline is this Friday at midnight.

9 years, 10 months

1
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Source for server lift/hoist?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

just have to know what to ask google for https://www.grainger.com/category/ecatalog/N-1z0dxrh In a message dated 7/4/2016 3:58:05 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu writes: So there was some discussion a while back about using lifts to put heavy gear in racks. I'm going to be doing some of that soon, and I was wondering how I'd go about acquiring something like that at a non-exorbitant price? (eBait was not useful, and Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything either.) Any ideas? Noel

9 years, 10 months

6
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M7237 KJ11-A Stack Limit Register scans

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

There was some recent discussion of the need for M7237 (KJ11-A Stack Limit Register) boards, and I said I had one, and could scan it (for the PCB traces - they aren't in the FMPS) if someone wanted to duplicate it; I had a request for same, so scans are now online, here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/PDP-11_Stuff.html It will be a little bit of work to produce PCB artwork, since some of the traces dive under chips (and I'm not about to lift the chips :-), but from the prints (in the 11/40 print set, page 112) it should be easy to work them out. Noel

9 years, 10 months

1
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The infinitely profitable program

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

Genius. But I would have thought CP/M would at least require a .com file to have a header. http://peetm.com/blog/?p=55

9 years, 10 months

7
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Source for server lift/hoist?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So there was some discussion a while back about using lifts to put heavy gear in racks. I'm going to be doing some of that soon, and I was wondering how I'd go about acquiring something like that at a non-exorbitant price? (eBait was not useful, and Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything either.) Any ideas? Noel

9 years, 10 months

12
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AIX from Motorola

by plamenspam＠afterpeople.com

Hello, Anyone have Motorola based AIX installation cds at least 4.1.4r4 or newer? Regards, Plamen

9 years, 10 months

2
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Source for server lift/hoist?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything Oops, typo: "user" -> "used". (The prices I was seeing for these things was high, so I was wondering if used ones might be a bargain.) I also should have mentioned that I'm looking to put heavy assemblies (disk drives) up high in a 6' rack - say at the 5' level, counting the raised floor section the racks are one -q so the engine hoists aren't an option. (By an odd coincidence, I happen to have one of those Harbour Freight units in my garage, and it's a great engine hoist; not high enough for this, though.) And I was hoping for something in the $200 or so range, and even the cheaper manual units are more than that, new. Noel

9 years, 10 months

2
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Source for server lift/hoist?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

harbor freight has some excellent platform lift things... worth checking.... we like things like this as large TV studio cameras weigh 100 to 200 <<and one here is 300 (tk42)>> when we get a caucus in and want to clean it up and make it presentable for display we like to work on it at bench height... (once in a while it is good to raise a tape drive up in the air too...) << I can't believe I used to grab a 7970E out of a rack... walk it across the computer room and put in another rack by my self......no more.... I just look at it in the rack and get tired now!!>>> ED# In a message dated 7/4/2016 4:12:07 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, elson at pico-systems.com writes: On 07/04/2016 05:57 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote: > So there was some discussion a while back about using lifts to put heavy gear > in racks. I'm going to be doing some of that soon, and I was wondering how I'd > go about acquiring something like that at a non-exorbitant price? (eBait was > not useful, and Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything either.) > I've used an "engine hoist" around the shop to move heavy stuff. It has an extendable beam and a bottle jack to raise it. It folds up into a pretty small package when not in use. These can often be had pretty cheaply. Jon

9 years, 10 months

3
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Source for server lift/hoist?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

there ya go! In a message dated 7/4/2016 4:00:56 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, rich.cini at verizon.net writes: I just googled "scissor lift table" and came up with something that I might search for if I had a similar need. Look at the images and see if those would work for you. Rich Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 4, 2016, at 6:57 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote: > > So there was some discussion a while back about using lifts to put heavy gear > in racks. I'm going to be doing some of that soon, and I was wondering how I'd > go about acquiring something like that at a non-exorbitant price? (eBait was > not useful, and Googling "user server lift" didn't produce anything either.) > Any ideas? > > Noel

9 years, 10 months

1
0
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Disc Imaging / Kryoflux - Acorn ADFS 800KB

by austinpass＠gmail.com

I'm trying to preserve my Acorn ADFS 3.5" discs. To this end, I've purchased a KryoFlux "Pro" board and a new-old-stock ALPS floppy drive. I've hooked it all up to a Windows 8.1 VM and everything *seems* to be working. However, the .adl images I create are all 0KB in size. I've created a profile to match the discs I'm reading (256byte sector size, tracks 0-79, MFM encoding, interleaved sides). Recording the flux transitions captures data, but when I run the resultant data back through DTC I get the same. Any ideas? -Austin. Sent from my iPad

9 years, 10 months

9
17
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Edinburgh folks heading for TNMoC, BP in Aug

by gtoal＠gtoal.com

Hi folks - if any of the folks I used to know are still on this list (Tony Duell? Pete Turnbull? Jim Doran? Jules Richardson?), I just wanted to let you know I'll be visiting TNMoC for the first time on 11th Aug. I mentioned this on the Edinburgh Computer History Project list and a few of the old Edinburgh hands will be coming along to make a day trip of it. If anyone is going to be in the neighbourhood and wants to say hello while we're there, let me know (or subscribe to our Yahoo group for updates) We had an Edinburgh connection with BP through Donald Michie, and I believe a bunch of our old computer center hardware (2976?) ended up in a shed at TNMoC. Best regards, Graham (PS I was never gone, I just don't post much.)

9 years, 10 months

3
2
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Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by microtechdart＠gmail.com

Bill, I hope that you can snap a few pictures with your phone to show us. This is quite the mystery device. On Sat, Jul 2, 2016 at 8:56 PM, Bill Sudbrink <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> wrote: > No, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that the paper > tape on this thing is for output, probably printed or > marked in some way because the paper seemed too flimsy > to hold a readable punch pattern. But now I'm pretty > determined to go back tomorrow and see if I can get > some more info. I didn't look at the bottom of it, maybe > there's a label. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck > > Guzis > > Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2016 11:30 PM > > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > > Subject: Re: Maybe interesting toy in junk shop... > > > > On 07/02/2016 07:32 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > > > I was poking around a junk shop that I visit from time to time and I > > > saw a toy. It didn't really strike me as that interesting when I saw > > > it but I've been wondering about it since I left the place this > > > morning. The thing was mostly red plastic with a cardboard bottom. > > > It had a two-prong AC cord and a four prong "old fashioned" telephone > > > jack. It had two big buttons and a spool of paper tape mounted on > > > the front. The tape was about 1/4 inch wide. I call it a toy > > > because it had that sort of feel about it. It was not clearly > > > labeled as such. It was also styled in a way that suggested late > > > 1960s to me. The whole thing was the size of a small shoe box. I > > > can't find anything like it in google searches. I wonder if it might > > > have some early modem like device in it. Does this description "ring > > > a bell" with anyone? > > > > > > Sounds like a late-model Kilburg Dialaphone. 1960-ish. Early models > > directly operated the dial of the desk telephone--later ones just > > pulsed > > the line appropriately--something that AT&T objected to and that > > Kilburg > > unsuccessfully fought. This was years before the Carterfone episode. > > Memory was a paper tape with printed names on it. > > > > That particular unit sounds like a very rare piece of kit. > > > > Am I getting close? > > > > --Chuck > > > > ----- > > No virus found in this message. > > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > > Version: 2016.0.7640 / Virus Database: 4604/12477 - Release Date: > > 06/23/16 > > Internal Virus Database is out of date. > > -- Thanks, -AJ http://MicrotechM1.blogspot.com

9 years, 10 months

1
0
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Early PDP-11/45 backplane SPC power

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

So, after finding that a DL11-E wasn't working in the backplane SPC slots (26-28) on my 11/45, I took a closer look. The problem isn't exactly what I had expected -- -15V seems to be distributed there, but +15 is not. Looking closely at the print sets, the listed configurations only mention DL11-A, the 20ma current loop model, which wouldn't require +15 to work. I wonder if some +15 distribution wires were added in an ECO, or maybe EIA console from the backplane SPC slots was never supported for these early 11/45s (mine is serial 152). There's one other oddity -- the power distribution table in EK-11045-MM-007, page 510, implies that +15 should be distributed to the SPC slots on CA1. I'm wondering if this is a typo, since I'd expect that pin to be NPG? The DL11-E looks to be expecting +15 on UA1 in any case.

9 years, 10 months

2
6
0 0

kryoflux

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Does anyone have experience with reading in then writing out flux transitions with a Kryoflux on an 8? floppy drive as well? If that is known to work reliably I?m buying one :) Kryoflux?s next project should be the same thing but for ? mag tape. I think Al did something like that years ago, but an off the shelf product for ? tape would be spiffy. J

9 years, 10 months

4
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Actually we want this Packard Bell http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl; _3.jpg

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Not just any Packard Bell... just this one. it has a place due to form and design, certainly not performance. http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl;_3.jpg Please let me know if you find one. Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC In a message dated 7/2/2016 7:53:14 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cisin at xenosoft.com writes: On Sat, 2 Jul 2016, David Griffith wrote: > It seems that museums have traditionaly sought the best artifacts. I > feel they should also exhibit crap from time to time to remind visitors > of history's wrong turns. It took a little while before Edsels became collectible. Yugo

9 years, 10 months

4
4
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Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I remember ours has 4 pin connector too but not as robust as a ma bell one.. ours comes in a orig box even. I was mixed as to if I wanted to display it with ttys or with sci-tech kids toys and devices display we have in a huge walk in display case. ... it is sitting up in the front office ... I am sure there are photos somewhere on one of the servers...but too tired to chase it tonite. In a message dated 7/2/2016 11:08:44 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cclist at sydex.com writes: On 07/02/2016 09:54 PM, couryhouse wrote: > > > No it gets printed to... there are TTYS in real world and print on > strip then western union would oade each strip onto sheet of > paper....what did they want for it? > Yes, I know--I once owned a model 14 TTY, complete with a pile of mucilage-backed tape for the teleprinter. But it was a beast, not a red plastic thing. --Chuck

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by couryhouse＠aol.com

No it gets printed to... ?there are TTYS in real world and print ?on strip then western ?union would oade each strip ?onto sheet of paper....what did they want for it? Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> Date: 7/2/2016 9:15 PM (GMT-07:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Maybe interesting toy in junk shop... On 07/02/2016 08:56 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > No, I don't think so.? I'm pretty sure that the paper tape on this > thing is for output, probably printed or marked in some way because > the paper seemed too flimsy to hold a readable punch pattern.? But > now I'm pretty determined to go back tomorrow and see if I can get > some more info.? I didn't look at the bottom of it, maybe there's a > label. Perhaps it's a device to print dialed numbers? --Chuck

9 years, 10 months

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RE: Actually we want this Packard Bell http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl; _3.jpg

by couryhouse＠aol.com

I would like that 6 proc black cube......ed sharpe Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Tothwolf <tothwolf at concentric.net> Date: 7/2/2016 8:00 PM (GMT-07:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: RE: Actually we want this Packard Bell http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl; _3.jpg On Sat, 2 Jul 2016, Jay West wrote: > Ed wrote... > --------- > Not just any Packard Bell...? just this one. > http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl;_3.jpg > it? has a place? due to form and design, certainly not? performance. > --------- > IMOO.... no place at all. If it had some kind of cult following, or lots of > people remembered it, maybe. > But I doubt most people (let alone collectors) would look at that and say > "oh, I've seen that before!". > > Now... maybe as an example of how hard mfg's tried to differential via > terrible case designs... ;) I think the same could probably be said for something like that 6-processor Pentium Pro that was sold in the late 90s which had a black cube style case and a stand which allowed it to sit on its corner. Very unusual design with both the case and boards, but few people will have seen, let alone used one. As far as utility goes, they are just about worthless now, except to someone who wants to collect one for nostalgia reasons. I myself wouldn't mind finding a Packard Bell Legend I (Intel 80286) only because I once owned two of them (that were sold without my approval as a pair to someone for $100, including the VGA monitors). The same also goes for a Compaq Deskpro 386/20e (specifically the 'e' model) for similar reasons. Both machines are not something all that useful from a utility standpoint (I have dozens of late generation 486 and Pentium boards I could put in a case which would be far more useful) but would be fun to have just to tinker around with again.

9 years, 10 months

1
0
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Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by couryhouse＠aol.com

I gave a kids teletter sort of tape sender receiver. There are two to b a kit.. what did they want for it we could use for an off site display. ?Ed Sharpe ARCHIVIST For smecc Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Date: 7/2/2016 8:08 PM (GMT-07:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Maybe interesting toy in junk shop... On Sat, 2 Jul 2016, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > I was poking around a junk shop that I visit from time > to time and I saw a toy.? It didn't really strike me as > that interesting when I saw it but I've been wondering > about it since I left the place this morning.? The > thing was mostly red plastic with a cardboard bottom.? It > had a two-prong AC cord and a four prong "old fashioned" > telephone jack.? It had two big buttons and a spool of > paper tape mounted on the front.? The tape was about 1/4 > inch wide.? I call it a toy because it had that sort of > feel about it.? It was not clearly labeled as such.? It > was also styled in a way that suggested late 1960s to me. > The whole thing was the size of a small shoe box.? I > can't find anything like it in google searches.? I wonder > if it might have some early modem like device in it.? Does > this description "ring a bell" with anyone? an auto-dialer for an alarm system? Was it punched tape (used as ROM)? or blank tape with some sort of marker?

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 07/02/2016 08:56 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > No, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that the paper tape on this > thing is for output, probably printed or marked in some way because > the paper seemed too flimsy to hold a readable punch pattern. But > now I'm pretty determined to go back tomorrow and see if I can get > some more info. I didn't look at the bottom of it, maybe there's a > label. Perhaps it's a device to print dialed numbers? --Chuck

9 years, 10 months

1
0
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Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by cisin＠xenosoft.com

On Sat, 2 Jul 2016, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > No, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that the paper > tape on this thing is for output, probably printed or > marked in some way because the paper seemed too flimsy > to hold a readable punch pattern. But now I'm pretty > determined to go back tomorrow and see if I can get > some more info. I didn't look at the bottom of it, maybe > there's a label. Let's hope so. If the 4-prong telephone jack is not being used for an actual telephone, . . . howzbout a telegraph recorder? 1/4" wide doesn't allow for much sideways, other than ON/OFF, unless there is a print head of some sort inside, then it could even be a TTY

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 07/02/2016 07:32 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > I was poking around a junk shop that I visit from time to time and I > saw a toy. It didn't really strike me as that interesting when I saw > it but I've been wondering about it since I left the place this > morning. The thing was mostly red plastic with a cardboard bottom. > It had a two-prong AC cord and a four prong "old fashioned" telephone > jack. It had two big buttons and a spool of paper tape mounted on > the front. The tape was about 1/4 inch wide. I call it a toy > because it had that sort of feel about it. It was not clearly > labeled as such. It was also styled in a way that suggested late > 1960s to me. The whole thing was the size of a small shoe box. I > can't find anything like it in google searches. I wonder if it might > have some early modem like device in it. Does this description "ring > a bell" with anyone? Sounds like a late-model Kilburg Dialaphone. 1960-ish. Early models directly operated the dial of the desk telephone--later ones just pulsed the line appropriately--something that AT&T objected to and that Kilburg unsuccessfully fought. This was years before the Carterfone episode. Memory was a paper tape with printed names on it. That particular unit sounds like a very rare piece of kit. Am I getting close? --Chuck

9 years, 10 months

2
1
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Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by cisin＠xenosoft.com

On Sat, 2 Jul 2016, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > I was poking around a junk shop that I visit from time > to time and I saw a toy. It didn't really strike me as > that interesting when I saw it but I've been wondering > about it since I left the place this morning. The > thing was mostly red plastic with a cardboard bottom. It > had a two-prong AC cord and a four prong "old fashioned" > telephone jack. It had two big buttons and a spool of > paper tape mounted on the front. The tape was about 1/4 > inch wide. I call it a toy because it had that sort of > feel about it. It was not clearly labeled as such. It > was also styled in a way that suggested late 1960s to me. > The whole thing was the size of a small shoe box. I > can't find anything like it in google searches. I wonder > if it might have some early modem like device in it. Does > this description "ring a bell" with anyone? an auto-dialer for an alarm system? Was it punched tape (used as ROM)? or blank tape with some sort of marker?

9 years, 10 months

2
1
0 0

Maybe interesting toy in junk shop...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I was poking around a junk shop that I visit from time to time and I saw a toy. It didn't really strike me as that interesting when I saw it but I've been wondering about it since I left the place this morning. The thing was mostly red plastic with a cardboard bottom. It had a two-prong AC cord and a four prong "old fashioned" telephone jack. It had two big buttons and a spool of paper tape mounted on the front. The tape was about 1/4 inch wide. I call it a toy because it had that sort of feel about it. It was not clearly labeled as such. It was also styled in a way that suggested late 1960s to me. The whole thing was the size of a small shoe box. I can't find anything like it in google searches. I wonder if it might have some early modem like device in it. Does this description "ring a bell" with anyone? Bill S.

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

filters

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I should point out. one of yahoo's primary criteria for deep-sixing listserv traffic. is if the reply-to is set to the list instead of the (arguably more standard/compliant but less useful) reply-to-sender. No, don't want to start that flame war again. Just saying. that's a yahoo criteria. J

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Excessive Bounces

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I keep getting emails from the list server disabling my account for excessive bounces. Is it possible to get a log showing where the problem is coming from so I can complain to my ISP? Thanks Rob

9 years, 10 months

8
11
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Excessive Bounces

by stark＠mit.edu

Well with yahoo domain having a hard fail specified it looks like it's too stay. The typical troublemaker with yahoo mail is lists modifying message bodies or subject lines. Those practices will gauge have to end (and frankly it can't be soon enough imho). That said the usual consequence is that messages *from* yahoo through the list get binned for Gmail users or anyone else who enforces DKIM. I've noticed Gmail has started marking messages in Spam with the reason why they're there and when they first started a *lot* if them were due to signature fails. There are very few these days which make me believe the lists I'm on have changed practices. Certainly yahoo hasn't rolled back their dns records. So unpredictability makes since sense as the bounces you see will be very dependent on the domains *sending* the messages and their dns records. If you have a thread with a couple yahoo uses talking back and forth you could well see a series of bounces from users on servers that respect Yahoo's dns records requesting a hard fail. -- Greg

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

FOCAL-65 for the 6502?

by nw＠retrocomputingtasmania.com

Long ago there was a thread about FOCAL-65 for the 6502, and I asked the people involved but it seemed it never came to light. http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/cctalk/2001-September/1691.html As it happens I appear to have both the user-manual and a quite thick photocopied (not great quality) listing of FOCAL-65, that I am happy to scan and upload somewhere. However, if this already exists somewhere and can point to it, I can put this scanning task aside. thanks.

9 years, 10 months

3
5
0 0

Running CRTs without implosion protection glass

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

I know a few list members who have been doing this, after fixing CRT cataracts. Was that glass additionally leaded to cut down on X-rays at all? Is there a risk to that? These are mostly black and white CRTs. -- Ian Finder (206) 395-MIPS ian.finder at gmail.com

9 years, 10 months

9
13
0 0

Actually we want this Packard Bell http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl; _3.jpg

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Actually we want this Packard Bell http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl;_3.jpg for the computer display at SMECC! Also want any promo material, artwork, manuals etc etc etc.... drop me a line offlist with a title of SMECC Packard Bell please to _couryhouse at aol.com_ (mailto:couryhouse at aol.com) thisis what we are looking for http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl;_3.jpg In a message dated 7/1/2016 10:49:36 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, js at cimmeri.com writes: Computers don't (yet) have voting rights. :-) But you're defining "spirit" and listing criteria by which a machine is appropriate or not. A PS/2 with an 80386 running Windows 3.1 is acceptable, whereas a Packard Bell with an 80386 running Windows 3.1 is not. Yeah, you and I would cringe at a PB being discussed, but maybe there's someone out there who really is fond of their PB. So as Terry ("Tezza") acknowledges, terms like "landmark," "classic," "collectible" are subjective (but I don't think "vintage" is subjective -- that term is usually set by age alone). This is why it's just easier to use a single criteria -- age -- and leave it at that. Why is age acceptable everywhere else in collecting, but not here? Otherwise, someone (the list owner?) has to pontificate over a list of acceptable computers. Good luck with that. - J.

9 years, 10 months

4
3
0 0

what's vintage? was Re: Latest addition: A bondi-blue iMac

by couryhouse＠aol.com

For some things like video ?editing ?a tube monitor has better color gamet..sp?... than chap or enemy middle expensive lcds.... Most important to me is this color although for data and juSt to ?stretch ?time line across I use 40 Inch lcd flats.... ? Good flats ?are good but price is very expensive. ... Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: TeoZ <teoz at neo.rr.com> Date: 7/1/2016 3:00 PM (GMT-07:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: what's vintage? was Re: Latest addition: A bondi-blue iMac People junked most of the older small low res slow refresh non working (bad caps) non widescreen LCD monitors by now. I kept one I got free and fixed ages ago for bench testing (has just a VGA connection) since it is easy to move around. Newer gaming video cards don't even have VGA out anymore so the older VGA connector monitors are of no use. Could also be instead of offering them for sale or free people just straight up recycle them because of low demand for working ones. On a recycling forum I read people were trying to sell working older units for $10 each with no luck. The last 2 LCD monitors I purchased new were $100 (Both DELLs a 23" IPS 1080P and a 24" 1080P) so pricing is not a problem like it used to be in the 90's were a 17" quality monitor was $800. -----Original Message----- From: Chuck Guzis Sent: Friday, July 01, 2016 3:14 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: what's vintage? was Re: Latest addition: A bondi-blue iMac On 07/01/2016 11:48 AM, Toby Thain wrote: > Or, for free, a dumpster LCD. I find working ones discarded > regularly, and 90% of the non-working ones are just bad inverter caps > ($2 worth). Been there, done that--and even depopulated the inverter section on one PCB (badly designed--capacitors hot-glued to heatsinks, that sort of thing) and replaced it with a cheap "universal" CFL inverter.? Still works fine. Strangely, I don't see nearly as many junked LCD displays today as I did 5 years ago for some reason. --Chuck --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Latest addition: A bondi-blue iMac

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Actually we want this Packard Bell http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl;_3.jpg for the computer display at SMECC! Also want any promo material, artwork, manuals etc etc etc.... drop me a line offlist with a title of SMECC Packard Bell please to _couryhouse at aol.com_ (mailto:couryhouse at aol.com) thisis what we are looking for http://www.smecc.org/itemsklkljl;_3.jpg In a message dated 7/1/2016 10:49:36 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, js at cimmeri.com writes: Computers don't (yet) have voting rights. :-) But you're defining "spirit" and listing criteria by which a machine is appropriate or not. A PS/2 with an 80386 running Windows 3.1 is acceptable, whereas a Packard Bell with an 80386 running Windows 3.1 is not. Yeah, you and I would cringe at a PB being discussed, but maybe there's someone out there who really is fond of their PB. So as Terry ("Tezza") acknowledges, terms like "landmark," "classic," "collectible" are subjective (but I don't think "vintage" is subjective -- that term is usually set by age alone). This is why it's just easier to use a single criteria -- age -- and leave it at that. Why is age acceptable everywhere else in collecting, but not here? Otherwise, someone (the list owner?) has to pontificate over a list of acceptable computers. Good luck with that. - J.

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Who is using an Dolch (DLI) Logic Analyzer?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi all, I've got an Dolch C100D Analyzer with an bunch of Probes lately, And I'm lookinffor someone that has an Dolch LA with an Disassembler Option - ROM installed and is able to read out it's contents. I Do habe an C100D analyzer, got it w/o any documentation but the LAM3250 docs available at the uni Stuttgart fits alsmost exactly. It seems, that most of the Dolch LAs are internal powered from a Z80 so it is'nt unlikely that the Options will fit in different models. I'll get two Dolch 64300 tomorrow, one for repair..disassemblers included, but the 64300 has ROM cassettes for plugin. Kind Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Latest addition: A bondi-blue iMac

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

yes smecc saved one... I do not see a lot of them around anymore.... In a message dated 6/30/2016 6:40:37 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, terry at webweavers.co.nz writes: My classic/vintage computer activity has taken a back seat lately but I did find a machine I had on the "classic" list for some time. It's now part of the collection. http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/collection/imac.htm Some would say this is not vintage, classic or collectible (and so shouldn't be discussed here). However, these are all subjected terms which can be (and are!) argued about at length. To me it's a noteworthy model which had some impact on personal computing (notably by helping put Apple back in the game). Vintage? At only 18 years old perhaps not but a classic and collectible? As time goes by I would say yes. Terry (Tez)

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Wanted: TI bubble memory application manual

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Specifically, "TIB0203 Magnetic Bubble Memory: System Application Manual", 1979 Libraries in Australia and China apparently have this, but unfortunately that doesn't help me much. I'd be interested in other documents relating to TI bubble memory. I already have "TIB0203 Magnetic-Bubble Memory and Associated Circuits", November 1978, and both the April 1977 and March 1980 editions of "TMS 9916 Bubble Memory Controller".

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Building replacement panels for machines

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ian Finder > Does anyone here have scans to get started with I've provided Rod with a mechanical drawing, and a scan, of an 11/35 front panel (identical to the 11/40, except for the number). Here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/PDP-11_Stuff.html if you have any use for it. Noel

9 years, 10 months

1
0
0 0

Building replacement panels for machines

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

Just wanted to drop a line here- despite a shipping misfire, Rod Smallwood's replacement 8/e panel finally arrived yesterday and they look KICK ASS! Thanks, Rod! I'd love to start building artwork for the 11/40 panel- mine looks pretty sorry at the moment. Does anyone here have scans to get started with and best practices to use? Thanks, - Ian Sent from Outlook<https://aka.ms/kr63o9> on iOS

9 years, 10 months

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My Southern/Central California trip

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Hey, I'll be driving around southern and central California in a few weeks. Will be between LA and Yosemite Park. Does anyone have a garage or other pile of computers that you want thinned-out? I can come-by and take some of it off your hands. Thanks- Steve.

9 years, 10 months

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re-initialize PDP 11 BASIC?

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I seem to remember there is an entry point that one can use to reinitialize BASIC already loaded into core memory, with the intention of re-answering the questions about MEMORY SIZE, Use SIN?, etc. Is this correct? I looked in the docs I have b ut I could not find it. If no one has this info I will have to disassemble, IN a HEX editor I see the questions are all at the end. -- Bill

9 years, 10 months

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old friend is slimming down the warehouse

by connork＠connorsdomain.com

+1 You tell em Will! -Connor K On Jun 21, 2016 4:05 PM, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote: > > > I have sent Todd his contact info. He is willing to let one person come in and take pics and post to the group. He does NOT want to move one or 2 items of the most value; he wants to move out pallets of stuff. He is not closing shop; he just wants to move out some really old equip that has been there for years. > > Be sure to tell your friend that the mainframe collectors can > certainly make cubic feet of equipment leave the warehouse quickly! > > -- > Will

9 years, 10 months

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Tandy TRS0-Model 2000 Computer Monitor required

by barythrin＠gmail.com

The 2000 isn't fully compatible either i thought since its one of the few PCs using the 80186 processor. When i acquired mine (also without a monitor and i think without keyboard or software ) i sort of accepted id likely not get it running. But perhaps the ?software is out ?there and less of a concern than i thought. I didn't know it was compatible with the cm-1 but i never checked what video card mine had. Still an interesting system historically.

9 years, 10 months

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Tough to Diagnose issue with PDP 11/40 CPU

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Degnan > The problem was a missing KJ11 Ah. Well, if you want to add one (I assume you've just re-jumpered the machine for the moment), I do have one we can copy (for the PC etch) - I'm assuming here that originals are now unobtainium. Also, if you have the KE11-E, but not the KE11-F (the former is a prereq for the latter), and would like one, I have one I have no use for (Unix doesn't use that version of the PDP-11 floating point), and would be willing to trade it for something I do have a use for. > My error. Lesson: Always check everything. Yes, always a good rule when dealing with recovered machines. I always take them apart and go through them completely, verifying all cables, etc from the original documentation. Noel

9 years, 10 months

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Tough to Diagnose issue with PDP 11/40 CPU

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Degnan > The IOT step is bombing (?) and loops through the addresses: This may be a pointless question, but just to clear the ground first: the CPU is otherwise functioning reasonably well? E.g. it's not dropping the 020 bit when reading words from memory? (That would convert the '220' new PC in the vector to '200', and produce exactly the behaviour you are seeing.) If it is otherwise more or less working, so this is specific to IOT trap handling, I agree with Fritz - a KM11 would be a big help. Noel

9 years, 10 months

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Tough to Diagnose issue with PDP 11/40 CPU

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I thought I'd throw this one out to those who know more than I about the PDP 11/40 I am working with DaveR on vcfed.org/forum who asked me to run the following program as a test from the front panel: 20 - 220 ; IOT trap vector (New PC) 22 - 340 ; IOT trap vector (New PSW) 200 - 012706 ; MOV #600,SP 202 - 600 204 - 240 ; NOP 206 - 0 ; HALT 210 - 4 ; IOT 212 - 240 ; NOP 214 - 0 ; HALT 216 - 0 ; HALT 220 - 0 ; HALT 222 - 0 ; HALT START the program running from address 200. ---------------------- Problem is - The IOT step is bombing (?) and loops through the addresses: 204 206 210 200 204 206 210 200 endlessly. Anyone care to speculate which CPU card is the culprit? -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

9 years, 10 months

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Tough to Diagnose issue with PDP 11/40 CPU

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

On Jun 30, 2016 1:19 AM, "Fritz Mueller" <fritzm at fritzm.org> wrote: > > Hey Bill, > > Do you have a KM11 maintenance card? Guy Sotomayor here sells kits and/or assembled boards at http://www.shiresoft.com/products/km11/KM11%20Replica.html. I built one up myself based on a layout by Tom Uban at http://www.ubanproductions.com/museum.html > > The easiest way to get to the bottom of this since you have a nice, short, repro case would be to step through the microcode with a KM11 and see where it goes awry. From that point, its fairly easy to come of up a list of boards to swap and/or chips to check. > > If you want to go to the chip checking stage, you'll need some board extenders and a logic probe, they are pretty cheap. Or you can grab a surplus logic analyzer and some DIP clips off eBay if you want to get posh! > > I just went through this process with my 11/45, it was pretty educational. > > --FritzM. Fritz, It turns out that I was missing the KJ11 my cpu cards were wired to expect. On the 11/40 this module is the little M7237 card for space E of slot 3. The machine in question did not come with this card, I assumed it was not needed until I checked the cpu jumpers and discovered my error. Should have done this 1st! It was impossible to run the CQKC diagnostic for 11/40 or 11/45 - http://www.vintagecomputer.net/temp/disassembly.txt Instructions using IOT in particular. Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net

9 years, 10 months

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Tandy TRS0-Model 2000 Computer Monitor required

by brendan＠mcneill.co.nz

Looking for a Tandy TRS-80 Model 2000 compute monitor. Wikipedia description here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_2000 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_2000> The monochrome is model VM-1 Monitor, the colour is CM-1 Monitor. Many thanks Brendan --------------//---------------- brendan at mcneill.co.nz +64 21 881 883

9 years, 10 months

6
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Y Combinator is restoring one of Alan Kay's Xerox Alto machines

by curiousmarc3＠gmail.com

And here is Ken's new post in the series http://www.righto.com/2016/06/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day.html Marc > On Jun 21, 2016, at 10:59 PM, CuriousMarc <curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> wrote: > > The restoration is physically happening at my place. As noted below we have > a small and quite knowledgeable group of people contributing, including > actual hardware when we are missing a part (thanks Al !). A few of us are > chronicling this on our favorite media from our favorite angle. > I like to make short videos trying to convey the inside story of the > restoration, on my YouTube channel: > https://www.youtube.com/curiousmarc > It's interspersed with all the other restorations, but two videos so far: > https://youtu.be/YupOC_6bfMI > https://youtu.be/xPyqQXFC2yw > Ed Thelen likes to collect every bit of raw information floating around, > including some of the team emails and throw them into equally raw site, as > he does for the IBM 1401 restoration effort at CHM: > http://ed-thelen.org/RestoreAlto/index.html > Carl Claunch methodically recounts everything he does every day (and he does > a lot), so when he works on the Alto, you'll know every detail: > http://rescue1130.blogspot.com/ > Ken Shirriff makes deeply researched, superlative detailed posts on his > blog. These are reference pieces, I admire them a lot: > http://www.righto.com/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-restoring.html > And it gets discussed on the Y-combinator (the owners of the machine) and > hopefully here too. > Seeing the interest, I will make an effort to post new links when they > become available, unless of course Master Al beats me to it. > > Marc > > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Al Kossow > Sent: Monday, June 20, 2016 8:54 AM > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Y Combinator is restoring one of Alan Kay's Xerox Alto machines > > http://www.righto.com/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-restoring.html > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11929396 > http://ed-thelen.org/RestoreAlto/index.html > >> On 6/20/16 8:51 AM, Al Kossow wrote: >> I post just went up on Saturday. It's nice that both CHM and LCM folks >> are helping with this. >> >> >>> On 6/20/16 8:41 AM, Liam Proven wrote: >>> http://www.righto.com/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-restoring.html >>> >>> Found via: >>> >>> http://www.osnews.com/story/29261/Xerox_Alto_restoring_the_legendary_ >>> 1970s_GUI_computer >>> >>> There are 2 videos up so far, with disassemblies that may interest >>> CCmpers. >>> >>> Some people from the list are involved, including Al Kossow, but I >>> haven't seen the link posted. >>> >> >

9 years, 10 months

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IBM 6360 8 inch floppy drive

by walton.david＠sky.com

Hi I collect vintage IBM laptops, have just joined the community, and wonder if anyone can help with the following: 1. Can write a Teledisk image of concurrent CP/M for Displaywriter to two 8 inch floppy disks which I can supply? 2. Can solder a cable fie me which will interface an ibm 6360 8 inch floppy to a PC. I am unable to do this myself. 3. I have an external 5.25 floppy adapter/a inside an ibm ps/2 p70 and wonder if the external 37 pin connector is pin compatible with the 37 pin connector of the ibm 6360 8 inch floppy drive? I thought about connecting two out of the 3 cables from this drive to an IBM displaywriter (supplying the correct voltages etc) and the 37 pin connector to my external 5.25 adapter/a card? Thanks for your help. David

9 years, 10 months

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On Offer: MAI Basic Four Mini in Chicago

by silent700＠gmail.com

It's that time of year when a young man starts to take stock of reality (for better or for worse) and decides that his load must be lightened. This time the machine with on the block is an MAI Basic Four deskside minicomputer. I'm not sure of the exact model but it can be seen in the first three pictures in this gallery: https://picasaweb.google.com/102190732096693814506/HaulOf10315?noredirect=1 Note: nothing else in that gallery is on offer at this time - maybe later. However other random hardware may be thrown at you during the transfer. I have not powered it up. I was told it was working when taken out of service many years ago, but we all know how that goes. I have some documentation for it that I will be scanning (some of which is not already on Bitsavers) but I will send it along to whoever takes the machine afterwards. I do not have any disk or tape media for it. I'm not looking to get a lot for it - trades would be fine, preferably for something that I can lift myself, however I am also looking for a working DEC RX02 drive or a later IBM terminal controller (3174 or similar) with Ethernet that I can use to run IBM real terminals on Hercules. Preference goes to: 1) someone local who can haul it away. I am not presently equipped to deal with shipping anything this large. 2) someone will will get it sooner rather than later 3) someone who will make it sing again. If you're coming to VCFMW in September, the storage unit holding the MAI is just a few miles away from the hotel and we can do the loud-out then. If you're here sooner, even better. -j

9 years, 10 months

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Mim.Update.UU.SE

by bqt＠softjar.se

Some people might have noticed that Mim.Update.UU.SE have not been reachable the last week. This is because the University have decided to put all systems behind firewalls, which hurt the Update computer club pretty bad. For people who would still like to get access to Mim, I have now setup telnet to listen to a second port in addition to port 23. Mim is now accessible by telnet on port 10023 as well, which is not blocked by an firewall. In addition, I also added ftp on port 10021 in addition to port 21, so people who would like to get to files on Mim by ftp can do so again. This also prompted me to make a couple of improvements to BQTCP/IP for RSX. The changes are that the telnet daemon can now be set to listen to an alternative port, and can also listen to several ports. I also added the capability to the ftp client to specify which port to connect to. The TCP/IP package can be found at ftp://mim.update.uu.se:10021/ However, if you have the previous version of TCP/IP for RSX, you cannot access this address, as the previous version ftp client did not accept a port argument. So it's a bit of a chicken and egg thing. But using some intermediate system, you can get the disk image to the machine, and install the new version, after which things will be possible to use more or less as before. One more thing: NEMA, my very tiny EMACS clone for RSX, have gotten a lot of work done lately, and if anyone is interested in this tool, I really recommend that you fetch the latest version. A port to VMS is also included with the files now, courtesy of Erik Olufsen. NEMA is available at ftp://nema at mim.update.uu.se:10021/ Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

9 years, 10 months

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Dual Head Rainbow Video

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Just in case anyone is interested, I have just posted a video on YouTube of my Rainbow 100+ (not the one I am selling) running in a dual head configuration. The quality of the video isn't great, but it might interest a few people. You can find it here: https://youtu.be/y4p9plwjRio Regards Rob

9 years, 10 months

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DL11 configuration for pdp11gui

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Fritz Mueller > So far I haven't seen any place in PDP11GUI to set anything other than > port and baud rate You might have to use native OS tools to do that. On Unix, that will be 'stty'; on Windows, you'd have to use native Windows tools to do that; if you go to the Device Manager, select your serial port, and click on 'Properties', it has a tab ('Port Settings') for that (or, should I say, it used to - not sure about the most recent versions, they're making it all smart-phone like for brain-dead lusers). > From: Don North > Mostly PDP11GUI does not care, either 7b or 8b. I'm kind of surprised to hear that; I assumed that PDP11GUI can download binaries, and for that, 8-bit is kind of necessary? Side-story: when I started bringing up my -11's, the first one I did was an -11/23. So I needed a way for my Windoze box to talk to the -11's console line, for ODT. I was too lazy to figure out how to use some existing software, so I decided to write some. I wanted to be able to use it (later) to talk to one -11 from another, and I didn't know how to do complex terminal hacking under Windoze anyway, so I decided to write it under Unix. V6, to be exact (I consider all later versions to be unholy perversions - well, V7 isn't too bad, I guess), running on Ersatz11 on the Windoze box. Later, I wanted to be able to load .LDA files, which are 8-bit binary. One problem. Native Unix V6 doesn't have the ability to output 8-bit binary over a serial line (or input it, for that matter). When I first started using V6 at MIT, the DSSR people had already totally re-written the TTY driver, and added that capability, so I never ran into this problem before. Also, the native V6 stty() call isn't very flexible, and there are no spare mode bits. So they'd added a new system call, ttymod() (sort of like ioctl(), but done before it), to control all their wonderful extensions. I decided not to replicate that, but rolled my own upwardly compatible extension to stty(), which adds all that extended semantics. From there, it wasn't too much work to get sending the absolute loader down the serial line in its original binary form (which means all the old console bootstraps work, too), and using that to load .LDA files. Noel

9 years, 10 months

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Some questions about the MC6839

by spc＠conman.org

(My original message to cctech has yet to appear. I thought I might try the cctalk list). While Motorola never shipped the MC6839 [1] the binary is available [2] and I've been playing around with it [3]. While it's not producing the exact same results as I get on a more modern machine, it appears to be "close enough" for me to be happy with it. But I am having one issue that I can't figure out. The documentation for the FMOV operation says: FMOV Move (or convert) arg1 -> arg2. This function is useful for changing precisions (e.g. single to double) with full exception processing for possible overflow and underflow. Okay. And to call it [4]: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |Function|Opcode| Register entry conditions | Stack entry conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | FMOV | $1A | U = precision parameter word| push arg | | | Y -> argument | push precision param word | | | D -> fpcb | push ptr to fpcb | | | X -> result | call FPO9 | | | | pull result ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For moves, U contains a parameter word describing the size of the source and destination arguments. The bits are as follows, where the size is as defined in the fpcb control byte Bits 0-2 : Destination size Bits 3-7 : unused Bits 8-10 : Source size Bits 11-15: unused And the size bits are defined as: 111 = reserved 110 = reserved 101 = reserved 100 = extended - round result to double 011 = extended - round result to single 010 = extended - no forced rounding 001 = double 000 = single It appears that to convert from single to double, I would set U to $0001, but the results are *so* far out of whack it's not even funny. I've tried setting U to point to the value $0001 and that doesn't work. I've tried shifting the bits (because in the FPCB they're the upper three bits) and that doesn't work. I've tried reversing the registers and that doesn't work. Does anyone have the actual source code [4]? Or know what I might be doing wrong? -spc [1] A ROM with position independent 6809 object code that conforms (to what I can find) with IEEE 754 Draft 8. [2] Available in the file fpo9.lzh here https://ftplike.com/browser/os9archive.rtsi.com/OS9/OS9_6X09/PROG/ [3] Using a 6809 emulator library I wrote: https://github.com/spc476/mc6809 Not much documentation I'm afraid. [4] Register entry: ROM base address + $003D Stack entry: ROM base address + $003F [5] I'm lead to believe that Motorola release the code into the public domain.

9 years, 10 months

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Power cable identification

by derschjo＠gmail.com

So I know for certain that this topic has come up before, but I cannot for the life of me find the thread(s) it appeared in, so I'm asking again (apologies in advance). What is the name of the rounded, 3-pin power connector often seen on early test equipment (I've seen it on older HP and Fluke stuff)? I have an S-100 chassis that inexplicably uses one, despite dating from 1982 or so. I need to track one of these cables down but I have no idea what it is exactly I'm looking for... Thanks as always, Josh

9 years, 10 months

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Some questions about the MC6839

by spc＠conman.org

So Motorola apparently never produced the MC6839, a ROM containing position independent 6809 code for implementing (as far as I can see) IEEE 754 Draft 8. Motorola *did* however, release the resulting binary into (from what I understand) the Public Domain [1] but I've yet to find the actual source code, which would solve my current problem. I'm playing around with the code in an MC6809 emulator [2] and trying to use it (getting my retro-software fix in as it were). It works---not as accurate as today's stuff, but close enough and it supports single and double precision. The current issue I have is with the FMOV opcode (register entry) described as: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |Function|Opcode| Register entry conditions | Stack entry conditions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | FMOV | $1A | U = precision parameter word| push arg | | | Y -> argument | push precision param word | | | D -> fpcb | push ptr to fpcb | | | X -> result | call FPO9 | | | | pull result ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For moves, U contains a parameter word describing the size of the source and destination arguments. The bits are as follows, where the size is as defined in the fpcb control byte Bits 0-2 : Destination size Bits 3-7 : unused Bits 8-10 : Source size Bits 11-15: unused It's not clear if U should contain the actual parameter value, or a pointer to the parameter value. It just doesn't seem to work no matter how I code it. Anyone have any clue? -spc (I'm at a loss here ... ) [1] Available in the file fpo9.lzh here https://ftplike.com/browser/os9archive.rtsi.com/OS9/OS9_6X09/PROG/ [2] I wrote one: https://github.com/spc476/mc6809 Not much documentation I'm afraid.

9 years, 10 months

1
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PDP11GUI under Wine on Linux -- extra backslash?

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

So, I am trying to run PDP11GUI under Wine on Linux, and I am having problems loading a machine description file. It seems when PDP11GUI tries to kick off M4, it is expanding an extra backslash into the command. So you get this sort of error message (note extra backslash before m4.bat): Can't recognize 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Joerg Hoppe\PDP11GUI\\m4.bat" "C:\users\Public\Application Data\PDP11GUI\machines\pdp11.ini" "C:\users\fritzm\Temp\tmp_pdp11gui_m4_out.ini' as an internal or external command, or batch script. I've verified that I can run m4.bat sucessfully manually if I set the appropriate env vars first. But this doesn't help because it seems like PDP11GUI deletes the file and then (fails to) regenerate it on each run :-( Anybody else run in to this or have a suggestion for a workaround? thanks much! --FritzM.

9 years, 10 months

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More things that we are considering offloading.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

DECprinter I, GE TermiNET30, C Itoh CIT-101e, PDP-11 manuals, PDP-8 diagnostic duplicates, TI SilentWriters etc etc. http://www.datormuseum.se/available /Mattis

9 years, 10 months

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More things that we are considering offloading.

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

if it was close I would jump on that terminet 30! Ed# In a message dated 6/27/2016 1:38:34 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, mattislind at gmail.com writes: 2016-06-27 21:41 GMT+02:00 Ian S. King <isking at uw.edu>: > So far away.... <sigh> (Pacific Northwest, United States) > That is right. Forgot to mention that everything is outside Str?ngn?s in Sweden. /Mattis > > On Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 12:20 PM, Mattis Lind <mattislind at gmail.com> > wrote: > > > DECprinter I, GE TermiNET30, C Itoh CIT-101e, PDP-11 manuals, PDP-8 > > diagnostic duplicates, TI SilentWriters etc etc. > > > > http://www.datormuseum.se/available > > > > /Mattis > > > > > > -- > Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate > The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu> > Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical > Narrative Through a Design Lens > > Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org> > Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org> > > University of Washington > > There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China." >

9 years, 10 months

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wanted: TI Silent 700 Model 763 & 765 Maintenance Manual

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Does anyone have that? The manual for Model 743 & 745 is on Bitsavers, but I'm specifically looking for model 763 & 765.

9 years, 10 months

5
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CiTOH terminals (was Re: old friend is slimming down the warehouse)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 11:06 PM, Pete Lancashire <pete at petelancashire.com> wrote: > Rather have a C Itoh CT-101e .. I can probably help with that. I'm in Ohio and I get out to Chicago and NJ a couple of times a year. I have a cabinet of CiTOH terminals I bought from my employer "some years ago". ;-) We used an assortment of DEC VT10x, VT220, CiTOH 101 and CiTOH 101e terminals. ISTR the CiTOHs were as much as $800 cheaper than DEC terminals at the time. They were robust and at one point, I pulled out of the manuals the magic escape sequence to "switch sessions" and use the local printer port as a second comms line (we just had to bang out a custom DB25 adapter since the entire company was standardized on Nevada Western 6p6c modular serial and we didn't have a box of the right adapters for the printer port). It was awesome having two live lines in front of our usual switchbox setup for connecting to multiple hosts. > ... knew one of the developers Neat! > F/W was done in the US I can no longer remember the key combination but the > terminal would let you know who did it That would be fun to look up. > Anyone wants to gain a cubic foot or two let me know You got it! -ethan

9 years, 10 months

3
2
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pdp 11?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Adrian Stoness > friend found this now opening channels to rescue it > its an 11 of some sort not sure witch one ??? Both URL's are the same picture - an envelope on the floor? Noel

9 years, 10 months

4
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pdp 11?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Adrian Stoness >> its an 11 of some sort not sure witch one Ah, OK. That's either an -11/04 or -11/34 in the top left corner, with either an RX01 or RX02 above it. (Not enought detail in the image to say.) The rest of it seems to all be some sort of custom medical or other specialized hardware. (The /04 and /34 are very similar - the only difference is which processor card(s) is/are plugged in - you can convert most -11/04's [it depends on the specific backplane in use] to -11/34's by pulling the M7263 KD11-D -11/04 processor card, and plugging in instead the M8265 & M8266 KD11-EA -11/34A processor cards, which still seem to be relatively prevalent.) Noel

9 years, 10 months

1
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"Key" to open an HP 264X terminal

by curiousmarc3＠gmail.com

Questions for our HP specialists. I can't open the case of the HP 264x terminals I just got. I see from the manual there is a small slot on the side in which you have to insert a "key". Is the key just a small blade tool or does it have to be more special shape than that? Marc

9 years, 10 months

5
4
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pdp 11?

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

friend found this now opening channels to rescue it its an 11 of some sort not sure witch one https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13528577_10154158749830056_645… anyone know what a dliiw s/w is? https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0- 8/13528577_10154158749830056_6453066395005995961_o.jpg see if i can rescue it maybe all of it

9 years, 10 months

2
1
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Quadra 660AV what's with the "PowerPC" label?

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

I noticed someone selling a 660AV in my area on Craigslist. I went and got it because for $50 he had a nice little Apple display with the machine that matches my Quadra 700 and an Apple Adjustable Keyboard in good condition to go with it. Turns out he gave me a whole slew of spare mice and an extra Apple Design keyboard (a good, if ugly and PeeCee lookin', spare). The 660AV was dead when I brought it home. It would bong normally but wouldn't produce any video. The RGB video connector on the monitor was smashed out of shape, too. So, I used a sheet metal tool to re-smash the connector back into the right shape, and some needle nosed pliers to straighten the pins. Then I replaced the PRAM battery on the mobo and that fixed it. I guess they don't quite last 23 years. The weird thing about this machine is that it says "PowerPC" right on the front, but it's *NOT* a PPC. It's most definitely a 25Mhz 040'. I wonder why that's there? Maybe the guy took the badge from another system, but I don't think so. This was the original owner. I also wonder why this one is called a "Quadra" when I know I used to have a 660AV that was a "Centris". Wikipedia seems to imply it was just a marketing name change only. However, the article also mentions that most of the Quadras don't have a floppy with motorized eject. Well, this one does. Perhaps it was replaced. I just wonder what's up with these little nuances. The best part of this deal is that the Apple Adjustable keyboard feels mechanical, and I've been pretty impressed with it so far (once you carefully remove the plastic wristrests). It was a bit yellowed, but a bit of retr0brite treatment restored it to bright white. It looks pretty much new, now. I gotta do the Quadra 700 and 660AV next. They aren't badly yellowed, but somewhat. Since neither is scratched up, they should restore nicely. My plan is to run A/UX on the Quadra 700 and MacOS 8.1 on the 660AV. Right now I have everything in pieces. I'm waiting on another SCSI2SD to come to be able to set them both up. Plus, I just got the one SCSI2SD and I'm in the process of benchmarking it on several different OSs. I wish the US vendor would sell the newer (v6) board, as it's supposed to support 10MB/s synchronous (if your SD card can do it, and most can these days). All they have on Ebay right now are the older 5.x based cards (which is like the one I have now). -Swift

9 years, 10 months

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Pictures from the GA warehouse, take 2...

by killingsworth.todd＠gmail.com

Ok gang - here's the 100+ pics from the warehouse: https://www.flickr.com/gp/144446985 at N04/b76872 I included pics with model numbers where I could find them >From what I could see: ** NO PDP or SGI anything (not even a coffee mug) ** Commodore 64 with peripherals, pretty much new in box Sun E3000 DEC VAX and Alpha desktop boxes DEC VAXServer 3800 Three IBM mainframe peripherals of some sort IBM robotic tape archiver Terminals: DEC, IBM, Qume, AT&T, others CRT displays Printers: Okidata, etc Keyboards: lots of special IBM versions, listed below 8 pcs of the rare short Keyboard I described to you earlier. Model F Keybds: I am not sure how many model F keyboards I have, but I do have them. ~ 4 pcs of Original IBM PC and PC XT Keyboards (1981-1984) IBM 5251 Keybds: I have approx 8 pcs of 5251 Keyboards. Keyboards we have: IBM 3151 104 ~20 IBM 3161 104 ~50 IBM 3162 104 ~25 IBM 3163 104 ~25 IBM 3164 104 ~50? IBM 3178 ~100 IBM 3179 ~100 IBM 3180 122 ~150? IBM 3191 ~100? IBM 3192 122 & 104 ~100? IBM 3193 Unkown Qty yet ? IBM 3194 Unkown Qty yet ? IBM 3196 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 IBM 3197 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 IBM 5155 Unkown Qty yet ? IBM PC XT/AT Unkown Qty yet ? IBM 3471 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3472 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3476 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3477 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3481 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3482 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3483 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3486 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3487 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3488 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3489 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 Here are detailed part numbers: (we probably have other models not listed!!) 1368193 1386304 1386887 1390123 3191/3192 1390238 3191/3192 1390572 3196/3197 1390572 3196/3197 1390702 3191 1390702 3192 1390876 3196/3197 1390876 3196/3197 1391401 Clicky Vintage 1392595 1394099 1394100 3471, 3472, 3481, 3482 3483 122-Key 1394167 3476, 3477, 3486, 3487 122-Key 1394193 1394204 3472 104-Key 1394204 1394802 1394806 1395162 1395660 3476, 3477, 3486, 3487 122-Key 1395665 3476, 3477, 3486, 3487 104-Key 1395666 6110668 3180? 6115543 3180? Qty 1 IBM 5642852 for the IBM 5291-1 (the -1 is the rare one) Manufactured 1991-1993

9 years, 10 months

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DL11 configuration for pdp11gui

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Hi folks, I've started to look into hooking up pdp11gui to my 11/45 w/ M9301. Does anybody here know how the console DL11 should be configured for this wrt. data bits, parity, stop-bits? I haven't seen this mentioned in the documentation or tutorials. thanks, --FritzM.

9 years, 10 months

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VT52 oscillator

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

It seems the clock oscillator chip (E1, 13.824 Mhz) on my VT52 is flaking out. It has become very vibration sensitive. I tried reflowing its solder connections, but it has not seemed to help much... Anybody have a spare, or suggestions/advice for a replacement? There's certainly room enough in there to build and mount a small oscillator board if the old/original parts are too hard to find or are all similarly flaky with age at this point. Looking around on the web, the symptoms of the resulting failure mode seem pretty common (no scan, but a slight tap on the right side of the chassis will sometime restore, though I suppose that could be many other things as well!) cheers, --FritzM.

9 years, 10 months

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No subject

by julian＠twinax.org

9 years, 10 months

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by julian＠twinax.org

9 years, 10 months

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by julian＠twinax.org

9 years, 10 months

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by julian＠twinax.org

9 years, 10 months

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CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

ate: Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:43:16 -0400 > > From: Earl Baugh <earl at baugh.org> > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: CDC 6600 - Why so awesome? > > This thread reminded me that I recently got shipped what the person told me > was a CDC 6000 Central Memory core. > (it matches what's on this page : > http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/computer/en/6400hwac.html ). He told me > that > the console looked like this : > http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/craytalk/sld031.htm > > Earl > The Computer Museum in Boston gave pieces of the CDC 6600 core to donors. I still have it. -- Michael Thompson

9 years, 10 months

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DEC Rainbow 100B For Sale, Manchester, UK

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have a DEC Rainbow 100B in the upright pedestal for sale. It comes with 128K of memory, a hard disk controller with hard disk cable, an RX50 drive and the graphics option. It is just the base unit and the pedestal, there is no keyboard, monitor or hard disk included. I collected this machine recently and had to replace the shorted EMI filter on the input of the PSU with something more modern, so it is a working machine. When I have been given a machine for free that I can't keep, then I give it away. In this case, this one cost me money to buy and repair, so this time I am selling it. I would much prefer collection as it is quite large. If I must ship it then so be it, but it may take me a while to find a suitable box to ship it in, and I may have to add that to the cost. Pictures here: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=FC758A5A91B91301!5858 <https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=FC758A5A91B91301!5858&authkey=!AC9g74 Lag3CoW5k&ithint=folder%2cjpg> &authkey=!AC9g74Lag3CoW5k&ithint=folder%2cjpg Looking for offers. Regards Rob

9 years, 10 months

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making music with pdp 11/40

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

anyone make music with the pdp 11/40 or UNIBUS system similar to the PDP 8e music? I was able to get a basic tone pattern into the AM radio today. Not sure how to "write" music, but it's a start. Bill -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

9 years, 10 months

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S/360 Model 30 (?) FS in NC

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Oooh, if I didn't have an _extremely_ strict rule about 'only PDP-11's' (to prevent my house filling to the gills, and my wife divorcing me :-), I'd be all over that. Someone definitely needs to grab this up! Noel

9 years, 10 months

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Y Combinator is restoring one of Alan Kay's Xerox Alto machines

by lproven＠gmail.com

http://www.righto.com/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-restoring.html Found via: http://www.osnews.com/story/29261/Xerox_Alto_restoring_the_legendary_1970s_… There are 2 videos up so far, with disassemblies that may interest CCmpers. Some people from the list are involved, including Al Kossow, but I haven't seen the link posted. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

9 years, 10 months

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S/360 Model 30 (?) FS in NC

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I still have the aluminum bar that says 360 30 that was on the top of the system here in phx. I bought early on in my computer business life segment. Aside from being part of a memento for me and sort of interesting sitting in a glass case... it may need to find its way back atop a 360/30 someday. Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 6/25/2016 10:57:07 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, aek at bitsavers.org writes: Maybe a 2841 disk controller, but the 360/30 panel has been pulled. Hard to say what is really there. LCM may be interested in parts for their 360/30, and Will Donzelli has been looking for a 2841 On 6/25/16 10:06 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote: > http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?53014-IBM-360-with-additional-era… > > --Chuck > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > "The first thing we do, let's kill all the spammers." >

9 years, 10 months

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S/360 Model 30 (?) FS in NC

by cclist＠sydex.com

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?53014-IBM-360-with-additional-era… --Chuck ------------------------------------------------------------- "The first thing we do, let's kill all the spammers."

9 years, 10 months

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ACARD ARS-2000SUP versus SCSI2SD - round 1

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

Tested using "Raw block speed" test in LIDO 7 under MacOS: [SCSI2SD v5] READ: 891 KB/s WRITE: 728 KB/s [ACARD ARS-2000SUP] READ: 1621 KB/s WRITE: 1277 KB/s More info: The ACARD device contains a Samsung 850 Pro 128G SSD. The SCSI2SD contains a Samsung Pro+ 64GB micro SD and is running firmware v4.6, IIRC. Both are were attached to a Quadra 700 Macintosh running System 8.1 with 68 megs of RAM (4 onboard + 64MB in 16MB SIMMS, the max on the Quadra 700). I had them hooked up at the same time so I could use one to partition the other. The hard disk "driver" was the one provided by LIDO, but I also tried LaCie SilverLining 5's driver as well, but the performace was slightly worse. I tested in LIDO using it's raw speed test feature. It's probably only a rough measure of sequential speed. I just tested three times and averaged the results, but it was within just a few KB/s each time. Once I'm done I'll hook both of these up to a FreeBSD box, dd off full backups, then start over again and try with ZFS under FreeBSD via a PCI SCSI controller. Then again under IRIX if I still have the energy. I'll give some results from 'fio' or 'iozone' under FreeBSD. Those will be a lot more detailed and break down sequential versus random results and show the results of various other permutations. I'd also like to test the SCSI2SD v6, but I can't get my hands on one, yet. The only place that talks about the v6 is the codesrc wiki and the American ebay retailer seems to only have the v5.0. I'll wait, I guess. -Swift

9 years, 10 months

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Current source for RX50 media?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, A friend of mine who is mostly into Sun equipment recently purchased a MicroPDP-11 from a State auction. He knows little about DEC gear, but I can help him there. His machine had the RD5X drives pulled by the State, but still has an RX50. Where can I point him to get a handful of RX50 floppies? I can help him with contents to put on them, but he needs media. He's likely to start with RT-11. He could probably use 10-20 floppies to start. Thanks, -ethan

9 years, 10 months

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VR241 Stray Wire

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I took apart my VR241 recently to see if I could find the reason why the screen doesn't go completely black. I took lots of pictures while doing so, to make sure I could put it back together again correctly. However, now that I am putting it back together, there is one wire which looks like it wasn't connected. It is on the deflection board (on the right when looking from the back of the CRT). I am not sure now if I missed taking a photo of this when it was connected, or if it really should be not connected. There is a pin marked Size Link near to it, which might be where it has to go, and sounds like an optional thing if that is the case. You can see the wire in question at the bottom of the picture below, it is the green wire with a single-pin connector on it, and the size link connector is the two-pronged connector just below it in the photo: https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlQc3lJwQx7bgbAJQx-HsvGY8Gcqsg Anyone know where this wire should go? Regards Rob

9 years, 10 months

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options for replacing failed small ROMs in PDP-11

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Hi All, In bringing up and debugging my PDP 11/45, I found that one of my GRA (M8101) spares has a failed ALU subsidiary ROM. It's a pretty standard little 32x8 ROM in a 16-pin DIP, and the truth table is in the 11/45 print set. I wonder what the replacement options are for parts like these? In particular, given the 30ns micro-cycle on the KB11-A, and the fact that the propagation time for the ALU downstream of this is roughly 20ns on its own, I'd be worried that an off-the-shelf bipolar PROM might be too slow here. I'm still a little slow on reading the microcode flows, so its not clear to me exactly how many micro-cycles there are on the critical path for the E-class instructions where this ROM is used. Maybe its not an issue. Anybody every try replacing one of these with a bipolar PROM? Any other suggestions for how to repair parts like these? cheers, --FritzM.

9 years, 10 months

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Wanted: Ann Arbor Ambassador terminal

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Richard Loken > I have an Ann Arbor Ambassador here with the original owner's manual. If anyone else has _another_ AAA, I'd like one too! (I'm assuming Ian's going to be getting this one! :-) They were wonderful terminals, in their day - the largest screen of any terminal easily available at the time. People in Tech Sq preferred them to VT*, etc for that reason. Noel

9 years, 10 months

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options for replacing failed small ROMs in PDP-11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Glen Slick > the part is listed as DM8598-AD, where a DM8598 is a 256-bit (32x8) > tri-state bipolar mask ROM. > Some substitute T.S. PROMs include the Signetics 82S123 On my M8101, it's an 82S123, which is a tri-state programmable PROM (the 82S23 is the open-collector version of that chip). Those should be relatively easy to obtain. BTW, quick question: if a fusible link PROM 'fails' because one of the fusible links regrows, is it possible to 're-program' that particular chip, back to the 'original contents'? Some programmers might barf (because they want the chip to be 'empty' to start with'), but maybe one of those home-brew pgrogrammers could 'refresh' the chip (thereby avoiding using up a new chip, when it's not really needed)? > From: Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. > Is there a file containing the image ? I'd really like to accumulate a database of the contents of all the PROM components for all the PDP-11 CPU's. I've got a few of them (for the -11/05), but there are zillions more. Anytime anyone creates one, can you please send me a copy, and I'll try and get them organized and uploaded (and if I _really_ get ambitious, I might try and start filling in the gaps). Noel

9 years, 10 months

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CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Swift Griggs >> Much of the architectural concept was shared with IBM 7030 STRETCH >> (another system worth researching). > Hmm, I've never heard of it. I'll check it out. The first supercomputer, IMO. It's an interesting machine, with a variety of innovations that later became standard: e.g. it has separate instruction and arithmetic units, with the former being in charge of all fetches, both instruction and data, as well as executing things like branch instructions; it also has a primitive form of pipelining ("Interlocks in the look-ahead unit ensure that nothing is altered permanently until all the preceeding instructions have been executed successfully.") Eric has a nice page about it: https://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/ibm/stretch/ There's a good book about it: Werner Buchholz (editor), "Planning a Computer System: Project Stretch", McGraw-Hill, New York, 1962 Speaking of books, there's also a CDC 6600 book: Jim E. Thornton, "Design of A Computer: The Control Data 6600", Scott, Foresman, Glenview, 1970 Really gotta do that Bibliography! Noel

9 years, 10 months

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Grey Wall (VMS) available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Someone emailed me last night that has a full set (about 30+) of manuals in grey binders for VMS 5.0. Still waiting for them to respond with their location. This is not something I'd want... J

9 years, 10 months

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Wanted: Ann Arbor Ambassador terminal

by ian.primus.ccmp＠gmail.com

It's been a long time since I've asked about this, so I figured it was worth another shot. I've been looking for an Ann Arbor Ambassador terminal for close to fifteen years, with no success. It's kind of an obscure model, but they did exist. I heard of one being available several years back, but, unfortunately, someone else got it before I could. So, does anyone have one of these? Has anyone seen one in recent memory? -Ian

9 years, 10 months

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contemplating selling my VT52

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I've been saving the VT52 I've owned for years (used it with a modem back in the late 80s to dial into school) with the thought of paring it up with a PDP-8/E, PDP-8/F, or PDP-8/M .... but I don't know that the PDP-8 train will ever stop here. I've come close a couple of times, but have either missed the train on a good deal, or not been in a position to stomach the pricing some of them fetch. So, I'm contemplating selling the VT-52. It has age typical wear, but last time it was powered on, it was working. There was a touchy connection that would act up once in a while requiring a tap on the side to bring it back around (something in the video connection no doubt). I never dug into it to resolve it 100%, as it didn't happen often, and a 'love tap' on the right side always brought it around. I'd like to hang onto it, but it is big. I'm entertaining offers which might sway my decision to keep/sell it. I'm located close to the intersection of Sharon, Easton, and Stoughton, MA. I don't think shipping is an option, unless your willing to pay, and take the risk on something like this being transported. If I can get a big enough box, I can pack it well.... but I'd prefer not to do it due to the risks involved. Keep VT52 in the subject line of any e-mail you send so I can find it easier. Sometimes I may only check mail here once a week, so if you are inquiring and don't hear from me for a while, no fear, I'll get around to you. -- Curt

9 years, 10 months

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Teletype on ebay

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

There is a Teletype printer on ebay, the seller is in Virginia. Ebay item 231990393069 The auction title is: 1966 - Vintage Antique TELETYPE INKTRONIC Receive Only Set TelePrinter Parallel

9 years, 10 months

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KM11 uPB question

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Hey folks, While working on my 11/45, I built up a KM11 replica based on Tom Uban's ExpressPCB layout. I noticed the following behavior when trying to use it in uPB mode on my KB11-A CPU: * If I set up uPB, set KM11 S1 on and S2 off, and resume execution, the breakpoint fails to stop the processor * BUT, if I depress and *hold* CONT, while it is held down the CPU will be held in T2 on the target microword * If I then reach over and flip on S2 before releasing CONT I can hold the machine there in T2 Documentation on the KM11 seems to imply that the machine should just stop at the target state holding in T2 without having to do the holding-down-CONT-while-flipping-on-S2 thing. I was wondering if this was an oddity of my KM11, my CPU, or is that just the way uPB mode works on these things? thanks, --FritzM.

9 years, 10 months

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PDP-11/45 restoration running console emulator

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Just wanted to share some joy here: after a months-long spare time restoration and debug process, the PDP-11/45 I've been working on booted to the M9301 console emulator last night (pic at http://fritzm.github.io/images/pdp11/m9301-running.jpg). Made me super happy to see that register dump an the "$" prompt :-) Next up will be using PDP11GUI to run more thorough diagnostics, then I'll be moving on to storage (RK05)... cheers, --FritzM.

9 years, 10 months

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Force SPARC/CPU-5V-64-110-2 available.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I have two Force VME boards with microSPARC CPU which I have no use for. SPARC/CPU-5V-64-110-2. 110 MHz. 64 Mbyte. https://imgur.com/a/4GWqB Trade for something interesting. /Mattis

9 years, 10 months

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Model M Key Cap Replacement WAS: Keyboards and the Model M (was Re: NEC ProSpeed 386)

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

While on the subject anyone know where one can buy replacement key caps?? -Ali

9 years, 10 months

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old friend is slimming down the warehouse

by connork＠connorsdomain.com

On Jun 24, 2016 1:11 PM, Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Mike wrote... > ----- > ??? HP 262x terminals don't ship well.? The "ET" terminals must be packed > carefully. > ---- > That is very true. I could use one of those large black plastic pieces that > hold the monitor open. Mine broke'ted. > If you have the broken pieces and or a complete one I could possibly model it and 3D print it depending on size... We have the technology ;) -Connor K

9 years, 10 months

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CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by earl＠baugh.org

This thread reminded me that I recently got shipped what the person told me was a CDC 6000 Central Memory core. (it matches what's on this page : http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/computer/en/6400hwac.html ). He told me that the console looked like this : http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/craytalk/sld031.htm I got it along with a box other parts (mostly Sun things) and a single "plane" of core memory from another module. (It connects the 6000 to the Sun 1's that I picked up in the past... some interesting history...good "over a beer" stories :-) ) I'm coming to VCF MW this year so if there is interest, I can bring it along... Earl

9 years, 10 months

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acoustic coupler/modem available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Spotted this at a local surplus place today. it's an acoustic coupler/modem, white plastic case, manufacturer is "MI2" (with the 2 as a superscript, so I guess "MI Squared"). Never heard of them. No clue if it works, appears to be in fair condition, they have a price tag of $25 on it. J

9 years, 10 months

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old friend is slimming down the warehouse

by stark＠mit.edu

You guys must have much larger apartments (or houses I'm guessing) than me.... I would really like a vt220 largely because it seems like it wouldn't occupy much space. I'm guessing they withstand shipping better too. -- Greg

9 years, 10 months

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Other then being original is there any reason to get a RX02 ?

by pete＠petelancashire.com

Someday I want to have a PDP11 even if it is a QBUS version I can get a clean RX02 for about $150. When my life involved PDP11's starting with 34A and ending with 44's I never used one. -pete

9 years, 10 months

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Tektronix terminals and terminals in general (Re: CDC 6600 - Why so aweso...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Heh! Especially if an upper case only terminal I can just imagine the cry arising from the little whiners! QUIT SHOUTING QUIT SHOUTING! (as they stamp their feet and rent their clothing....) In a message dated 6/24/2016 7:50:46 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, emu at e-bbes.com writes: On 2016-06-24 08:23, Swift Griggs wrote: > However, I think most folks these days would faint if they were forced to > work on a terminal. Just don't tell them, that they do ;-) If you really think about it, the terminals just got faster and got more colors. (and you call them smartphone, thin clinet, tablet, win PC, ...) Otherwise: a.) most data is somewhere in the cloud (before it was called mainframe) b.) a lot of applications are running in the cloud (before, mainframe) c.) you connect now via wireless internet (before: modem) d.) ... So, just Emperor's new clothes ;-)

9 years, 10 months

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CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

To my sorrow, I'd never heard of the CDC 6600 and I barely knew who Control Data was (whippersnapper, I know). I see a lot of traffic about them on the list and I went out to discover "why so cool?" Wikipedia and other spots talk about the features, but I'm trying to understand from folks who put hands to the metal, why they liked them so much. I'm a total igmo concerning this bit of kit. Is this about right? - It has dual "calligraphic" displays. Geeze! Very freakin' cool - It was RISC nearly before folks could even articulate the concept - It had some wicked cool "demos", to cop a C64 term. (ADC, PAC, EYE) - It wasn't DEC and it wasn't IBM and it was faster than both when it hit the street? - It has a cool OS? Dunno. Not much info on "SCOPE" - Made in the USA baby! Back when we actually made things. - It used odd sized (by todays standards) register, instruction, and bus sizes. 60 bit machine with 15/30 bit instructions. But, didn't it cause a bunch of alignment issues for you ? I dug into the CPU instructions for about 20 minutes and it was actually pretty straightforward. The so-called "COMPASS" ASM code was oh-so-cool. I can't believe they had so many of the features now considered "modern" or "clever" (at least by me) in the 1960s! This code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMPASS/Sample_Code ... Is super-readable, in fact, probably a bit more than several much-newer dialects on different platforms. There was one instruction "PROTECT" I found pretty interesting, too. Was that similar to noodling with the control registers CR0, CR2, CR3, and CR4 on x86 to mark memory protection from segmentation violations? I remember that being the protection mechanism on my 386 SX/16 (and I remember it being a PITA), however the COMPASS "way" looks much easier/cooler and must have some hardware assistance to do that so easily. -Swift

9 years, 10 months

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LINC-8 and PDP-8 manuals

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I have been going through our library of documentation and found some items that are duplicates. There are a LINC-8 programming manual, PDP-8 DecTape programming manual, PDP-8/L maintenance manual, PDP-8/e maintenance manual volume I and volume III. http://i.imgur.com/YEAdnZV.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/pvsypvY.jpg?1 Trade for something interesting! Other things that is also for trade: http://www.datormuseum.se/available /Mattis

9 years, 10 months

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Forth for RSTS

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

> On Jan 3, 2016, at 4:56 PM, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote: > > ... > This Forth implementation is a port of Fig-FORTH by John S. James, with some RSTS-specific magic added. I just realized the file header says that it is in the public domain, so I suppose I should post the source... Done. Thanks to Al Kossow, it now lives on Bitsavers, in bits/DEC/pdp11/forth/forth.mac This is the RSTS run-time system, from V9.6 and later. I haven't tried building it on older versions; the comments say it works back to V7.2. I don't remember why that version is mentioned. Run time systems existed before then, though a few details did change over time. The original version was for RSX and RT-11. I did the RSTS port, and Kevin Herbert added some more stuff to it later on. The biggest change is to make the vocabulary machinery match the ANSI Forth 83 standard, which allows for lots of separate vocabularies and arranging their search order. This was needed to allow SDA to define a set of 32 bit replacements for the standard (16 bit) arithmetic operators of native Forth, without getting itself all confused. Build instructions are in the comments near the top of the file. There's very little to it. Enjoy. paul

9 years, 10 months

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PDP-11/40 modified to be a PDP-11/23

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

now, there is a 11/23 I could love! ---Ed# In a message dated 6/22/2016 9:44:20 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, glen.slick at gmail.com writes: BACKPLANE", > so the operation is not so mysterious. I had never seen a hex-wide Q-bus > backplane before this. > > There are some pictures of the system and the Q-Bus to 11/40 front panel > interface here: http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-1140 >

9 years, 10 months

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How do they make Verilog code for unknown ICs?

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

In my recent studies of electronics (I'm a noob for all practical purposes) I keep seeing folks refer to Verilog almost as a verb. I read about it in Wikipedia and it sounds pretty interesting. It's basically described as a coding scheme for electronics, similar to programming but with extras like signal strength and propagation included. Hey, cool! Why are folks referring to "Verilogging" and "doing a verilog" on older chips. Is there some way you can stuff an IC into a socket or alligator clip a bunch of tiny leads onto it and then "map" it somehow into Verilog? Is that what folks who write emulators do? Ie.. they exhaustively dump Verilog code for all the chips then figure out how to implement that in some computer programming language like C ? What do folks do for ROM chips and PLCs? I'd think they must dump the code and disassemble it. No? I'm just curious and this is a tough question to answer with Google since I'm pretty clueless and don't know the right words to search for. I notice people talk about correcting their Verilog code, so it must be somewhat of a manual process. I'm just wondering how someone even gets started with a process like that. -Swift

9 years, 10 months

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where to find DEC ECO's for KB11-A?

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Are DEC ECO's available online anywhere? I have not seem them in the usual places e.g. bitsavers... I am particularly interested in ECO's related to the KB11-A (11/45). thanks, --FritzM.

9 years, 10 months

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PDP-11/40 modified to be a PDP-11/23

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 9:05 PM, Michael Thompson < michael.99.thompson at gmail.com> wrote: > The RICM just picked up a PDP-11/40 chassis that was modified to accept a > PDP-11/23 board set. It also contains a custom board to interface the > PDP-11/23 to the original PDP-11/40 front panel. It is quite an > accomplishment to get the Q-Bus board set working in the Unibus chassis. > I looked at the backplane pictures that I took after the rescue. I assumed that the hex-wide 8-slot backplane in the front of the card cage was the original 11/40 processor backplane. On the back it says "LSI 11 BACKPLANE", so the operation is not so mysterious. I had never seen a hex-wide Q-bus backplane before this. There are some pictures of the system and the Q-Bus to 11/40 front panel interface here: http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-1140 -- Michael Thompson

9 years, 10 months

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CYBER-171

by bryan＠bceassociates.com

Wondering if anyone out there has such a machine running. It was literally the first computer system I used (at Indiana State University back in the 70's). I had some real fun doing FORTRAN and Pascal programming on that thing. Thanks, Bryan

9 years, 10 months

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Programming for the Alto's Mesa

by paul＠mcjones.org

> I just looked in some boxes I haven't opened in decades. I have "Mesa > Language Manual, Version 5.0, April 1979". If the people with the Alto > need this, let me know. It?s been scanned: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/mesa/5.0_1979/documentation/CSL_79-3_Mes… > ... Mesa was a hard-compiled language, but it had concurrency, > monitors, co-routines ("ports", similar to Go channels), strong type > safety, and a sane way to pass arrays around. ... The designers of the concurrency mechanisms (Butler Lampson and Dave Redell) wrote an excellent paper, which can be downloaded from Lampson?s web site: http://research-srv.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/blampson/23-ProcessesInMe… > Anyone here know or remember Mesa? I'd like to hear more about it. Thanks to the foresight of Al Kossow and others, the Computer History Museum has a repository of Alto source code online, including the Mesa system and some applications such as the Laurel electronic mail client and the Grapevine distributed mail transport and name service. (The repository also includes a lot of BCPL and a small amount of Smalltalk.) The repository is here: http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org Probably better to start here: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/xerox-alto-source-code/ http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/xerox_alto_file_system_archive.html Paul McJones

9 years, 10 months

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FSOT: 9-slot VME backplane

by dave＠661.org

I have a 9-slot VME backplane for sale or trade. It weighs about 3 pounds when packed. Pictures at https://www.flickr.com/photos/32548582 at N02/albums/72157670027920776 -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

9 years, 10 months

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HP Series-80 computers - PRM-85 board case? ... maybe!

by Martin.Hepperle＠dlr.de

Hi, I own PRM-85 boards for my HP-85 and 86 machines. While they are very useful extension modules for these computers, they lack a proper case. I hate to destroy a working interface or memory module just for the case. I read in this list that there are more people interested in such a case. So I designed a replica case for 3D printing, but did not yet try it out. I do not own a 3D printer and the commercial services calculate between $20 to $100 for one shell (upper/lower). This is a bit expensive for some trials, as I expect that the 3D design would need some iterative refinement to obtain a "perfect" case. So: if someone owning a 3D printer and a PRM-85 board is interested in helping me to refine the design by making a test print I could supply the STL files for upper and lower shells. As a "thank-you" I would expect feedback to improve the design. Regards, Martin Martin {.} Hepperle {at} mh-aerotools {dot} de

9 years, 10 months

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CDC 6600 emulation - was Re: How do they make Verilog code for unknown ICs?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Dwight Kelvey > The RIS[C]/CISC is really not even relevant in todays processors since > the main limiting factor is memory access bandwidth and effective use > of caches. Memory bandwidth has often been the limiting factor over the complete timeline of CPU's/systems. (It would be interesting to draw up a timeline, showing the periods when it was, and was not.) Yes, caches can help a lot, but inevitably they will miss (depending on the application, more or less often). The RISC/CISC thing actually is kind of relevant to this, because RISC focuses on getting the CPU cycles to be as fast as possible, and that kind of implies simpler instructions --> more instructions to get a particular task done. That was part of the motivation for microcoding, back when it was invented; at that point in time, logic was fast, memories were slow, so more complex instructions made better use of memory bandwidth - especially since this was pre-caches. (It also made binary code 'denser', which was important back then, with much smaller memories.) However, more complex instruction sets made the CPU more complicated; microcoding helped deal with that. The 801's breakthrough, at a very high level, was to see the whole system, and try and optimize across the compiler as well as the instruction set, etc, etc. They also realized that people had been going CISCy for so long that people had to some degree forgotten why, and that that assumption needed to be re-examined - especially in light of the then-current logic/memory speed balance, which had shifted towards memory at that particular point in time. Noel

9 years, 10 months

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Leaking DEC VR201 monochrome monitor?

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I picked up a DEC VR201 display today, it was leaking a highly corrosive brown liquid. So corrosive it burned my skin painfully / immediately and I had to wash hands thoroughly. Anyone come across a display that leaked a corrosive liquid like that? The display was stored in its original box, so I don't think the brown liquid was from something stored on top of it, but I don't know for sure. Bill -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

9 years, 10 months

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