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

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

A system I have always wanted (spent much of my career working on) has finally been acquired. A Prime (Pr1me) model 2250 aka "rabbit". The cpu chassis is in the foreground. I do have the bezels (they were removed for shipping). In the background you can see the rebadged cipher F880 in the same type of rack that will sit next to it. https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/25084207344 I'm told it has two 158mb priams, an ics1, and either 1mb or 2mb ram. Will post more pics when I get around to opening it up. Best, J

10 years, 1 month

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Free file downloads

by sales＠elecplus.com

I just found this download site. It includes drivers, games, etc., and many programs and drivers for Win NT and up, Linux, and Mac. No spyware or crapware, just good files. Maybe not old compared to a lot of posts here, but there are drivers for many very old cards for very old Win systems. http://www.oldergeeks.com/downloads/index.php Cindy --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 1 month

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tops20 assembly tutorials

by dave＠661.org

Would someone please point me towards a tutorial of some sort on running the assembler on TOPS20 as presented in Mark Crispin's Panda distribution? -- 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?

10 years, 1 month

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Panels Update - Relese Notes 8/e (A and B)

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

*_Relese Notes 8/e (A and B) Drilling _*1. The keylock hole has been pre drilled to make sure the art work lines up 1.1 This hole has not been beveled inside as the method of doing it has only just been devised and missed the panel run. However the fix is not difficult. A fine grit conical grinding wheel does the job with no damage to the panel. 2. The switch spindle hole has not been predrilled due to the following issue: 2.1 DEC did an ECO to replace the selector switch. Instead of six positions starting at 12 o'clock and steps of 36deg anticlockwise going to 6 o'clock. (A type panel) They used a switch that started at 15deg anti clockwise from top centre (12 o'clock) and that goes in 30deg steps finishing 15deg short of bottom centre (6 o'clock ). Now the hole position no longer lies on the vertical line between top centre and bottom centre. Its offset to the right due to the crossing position having moved due to the change of angle. They then did something strange. They redrew the top and bottom lines between the 15deg position and what would have been the circle crossing point of the original descending vertical line. That made it worse. In the end they just drilled the hole very oversize and hid the line under the skirt of the knob. I only have a key and lamp board for an A type panel so I can't tell if when they changed to the new switch they moved it to the right to take care of the change of angle. So for B type I chose to draw the lines at the correct angles. A switch spindle located at the intersection of the lines would then move through the correct angles You can now drill the hole to suit your spindle position Rod Smallwood

10 years, 1 month

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Panels Update - Shipment Alert

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys A shipment of PDP-8/e (A and B) panels went out to-day. Tracking numbers will be sent to customers on Monday Next up 8/f and 8/m. New orders for PDP-8/e (A and B) , 8/f and 8/m will be accepted when we have free stock. Rod Smallwood

10 years, 1 month

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OT: lenses (Was: Front Panels - PDP8 and PDP 11

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Hasselblad did not use tessar. tesar was a good lens but certainly not the hi end ed# In a message dated 3/10/2016 8:01:07 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, mgariboldi at gmail.com writes: 2016-03-10 16:59 GMT+01:00 Zane Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com>: > > > On Mar 9, 2016, at 11:37 PM, Paul Anderson <useddec at gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Popular or Modern Photography 20 or 30 years ago had an article on the 10 > > best lens ever made. I think Zeiss made 3 of them, and they were the only > > company with more than one. > > One of my all time favorite lenses is the Hasselblad 80mm f/2.8 Planar C > lens made by Zeiss. Even their low-end Tessar lenses are awesome. > Anything made for Hasselblad could hardly be called 'low-end'. (A bit like a 'low-end' SGI, there was basically never such a thing... certainly not in terms of original cost.) The only truly low-end Carl Zeiss optics are probably the *Pentacon* series, made by the post-WW II Carl Zeiss Jena branch of the GDR. Take a look at the Sony a7 series of bodies, people are using RTS lenses on > them. You can put almost anything on them, and they?re a full frame > sensor. I know that the wider lenses might have some fringing issues at > the edges. Which (affordable) lens *doesn't* have imperfect edges, especially completely analog lenses without any in-camera digital correction. (This can also be done afterwards, if one knows the possible distortion values.) The Sony a7-series aren't exactly cheap. More affordable and rather good, too, are ?4/3 cameras, especially in conjunction with a focal reducer, if the crop is too much of an obstruction. I gain an extra stop of light, on top of reducing the crop, with my M42/Praktica thread mount lenses. My thorium-coated Asahi Pentax Super-Takumar 1.4/50's maximum diaphragm is effectively widened to an impressive ?/1. On top of that I have in-body image stabilization, good high ISO handling and other features, all at the fraction of the cost. On top of that, I can exchange my lenses with my dedicated ?4/3 Super 16 digital film camera. > I?ve started looking seriously at the a7 series, as it would allow me to > use a lot of lenses I have, that I can currently only use on 35mm film > bodies. > Nothing prevents you from using a full frame lens on a smaller (e.g. APS-C) sensor body. The crop isn't always a negative, sometimes it can change a mediocre tele-photo prime into an excellent one. > Since I started shooting more than just Nikon, it?s a lot harder to find > Nikon lenses I really like. The only AF lens I really like is the Nikkor > 50mm f/1.4G, at f/5.6 it can compete with my 50mm Summicron. > At ?/5.6 only? Well, that's rough... - MG

10 years, 1 month

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SimH & Panels: new BlinkenBone release

by j_hoppe＠t-online.de

Hi, the BlinkenBone project made much progress last months. ("BlinkenBone" is this "connect physical and simulated panels to SimH" thing). New features: - a PDP-8/I front panel Java simulation. http://retrocmp.com/projects/blinkenbone/simulated-panels/248-blinkenbone-s… http://retrocmp.com/projects/blinkenbone/simulated-panels/251-blinkenbone-p… The PDP-8/I SimH extension needs validation against a physical machine. - Oscar Vermeulen's PiDP8 can be connected as panel. http://retrocmp.com/projects/blinkenbone/blinkenbone-physical-panels/249-pi… - most Java panels can now be 2400 pixels width (monitors keep growing) - Repackaging: Precompiled distributions at https://github.com/j-hoppe/BlinkenBone/releases There are distributions for Win32, Ubuntu 32/64, and RaspberryPi Raspbian. A single distribution contains now all simulations (PDP-11/40, 11/70, PDP-10 KI10 and PDP-8/I). - Ported from SimH 3.8 to v4.x. I'm back! - Sources on GitHub at https://github.com/j-hoppe/BlinkenBone.git Since the BlinkenBone projects expands beyond expectation, the web doc is completely reordered (== trashed?) Not all content is stable yet and links will float, rely on http://retrocmp.com/projects/blinkenbone at the moment. There's also the shortcut www.blinkenbone.com . As always, error feedback is welcome! have fun, Joerg

10 years, 1 month

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OT: lenses (Was: Front Panels - PDP8 and PDP 11

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I saved one hassie from my photo era before the computer business and after USAF I was a commercial photog. I used ELM's for fashon work and had a couple of cms and a SWC wideangle fixed lens one.... I kept one c w/ 80m mm and a 150 mm and a few backs .... things used to be worth a lot but not so anymore... I may take my c over to the university to add to our SMECC museums tools of the journalist display we have there... Better used there than sitting in my desk drawer at the office...I have a kodak/nikon AP early digital camera I need to take over there too. Pretty funny the reason I got a computer in '79 which led to me getting into the computer biz was to keep a database of photos and transparencies I had for stock photo use. The lure of getting back into electronics and the new era of affordable small computers lured me in ! Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 3/11/2016 12:07:46 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, healyzh at aracnet.com writes: > On Mar 10, 2016, at 10:05 PM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > > I wonder if the tele tessar was a true tessar design or just a use > of 'the name' ? I have seen snipits in google referring to it being a true > telephoto... with a true tessar formula lens IS NOT. I think it?s based on the Tessar, but is something different from what?s in the Hasselblad manual. The cross-section is definitely different. There are apparently at least two Tele-Tessar designs, with different numbers of elements. > ok the norm for the hassleblad was a80 mm f 2.8 planar... > > in the rolliflex the tessar was the entry level lens... the planar the > upgrade. > > my first 'real' camera was a 1933 rolliflex with a f3.5 tessar. not > bad at all but a little soft wide open. > I still have this camera. and the low shutter speeds are a little > slow but OTW rest is fine.. > In HD I bought an argus c3 from my geometry teacher for $8 and > used it a lot more shots per roll and would operate eye level and > had a pretty good split image rangefinder.. the lens was decent too. > > when I went in USAF sold the C# to my brother but kept the > rolliflex ( wish I had saved both! as the argus shot some of my first > press work) adn when in USAF got a SLR. I?ve not been able to justify the cost of a Planar Rolleiflex, though I?d really love one with a nice f/2.8 Planar lens. Both of mine have the 75mm f/3.5 Tessar. The older of my two is from 1936, the newer from about 1958. For me the Rollei is more of a small lightweight travel camera, or shooting for fun, than a serious camera. Sort of a ?getting back to my roots? sort of thing, as I started with a Yashica 44LM TLR. What I really need to do is spend the money and get my Hasselblad?s 80mm f/2.8 Planar C CLA?d, as the shutter on it isn?t accurate (or fast) at any speed. :-( It?s my "serious work" Medium Format camera. Zane

10 years, 1 month

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Options for resurrecting VAX 4000/400 and Vaxstation 3200

by roland.schregle＠gmail.com

Dear all, I have two VAXen that I'd like to resurrect simply for the sake of playing around with The Real Thing[tm] running VMS. Note that I'm completely new to VMS and DEC hardware -- hence the interest! Box #1 is a VAX4000 model 400 with no working CPU (KA-675) and 2x 32Mb RAM, an RF72 (wiped), plus a KZQSA QBUS controller. PSU is good, fans squeal on startup but run silently once spun up. Have VMS installation media in CD. I have two KA-675s for this beast: Board #1 (originally installed) has a failed B-cache (console reports SUBTEST_35_12, DE_B_Cache_diag_mode.LIS) and crashes with an asynchronous write memory failure when booting VMS from CD. Board #2 (DOA from eBay but fully refunded) has a dead DSSI bus 0 controller and crashes on SHOW DEV; I assume that's a write-off. Any chance of identifying the flaky B-cache SRAM on board #1 and replacing it? Alternatively, anyone out there have a KA-675 for sale? Box #2 is a VAXstation 3200 with TK50, and an RD54. PSU and fans ok (and very quiet), ditto CPU. The RD54 is unformatted; I understand this can only be formatted in the field with a VS2000 or with some obscure field diagnostics. There's no SCSI controller, so I can't install from CD. I haven't been able to track down VMS installation media on TK50, and I doubt they'd still be readable anyway. On top of that I have no idea what condition the drive is in, as I have no blank tapes to test with. I've found tape images online but see no way to dump these to TK50 (assuming the drive is ok), unless I get a TZ30. What are my options and chances of success for getting either of these boxes up and running with VMS? A KA-675 and TZ30 can be obtained from resellers, but I hesitate to invest several hundred in something this old purely for the occasional mucking about. I have also considered selling the units (or parts thereof) if nothing gives. Any ideas much appreciated, --GT -- "END OF LINE" [MCP, 1982] "... nowhere in the standards is it specified that 'programs that use a lot of memory may randomly crash at any time for no apparent reason'" [Stackoverflow forum, 2012]

10 years, 1 month

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Front Panels - PDP8 and PDP 11

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

""The cameras (they were huge) and the darkend rooms they worked in no longer exist."" These cameras you speak of were wonderful.... I rode a Robetson for part of a summer making halftones and line shots for a print shop in AZ here. In my off time I was allowed to shoot all the old docs and old Eastman Kodak camera catalogs I wanted to and print them up as posters! The lens was a Goerz Red Dot Artar and the sharpest flat field lens I had ever used!! Back to computer panels.... Rod thanks for doing the work to create these! ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 3/2/2016 3:32:48 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com writes: Hi Guys Having got 8/e (A & B) plus 8/f and 8/m into production its time I made a few comments. The aim has always been to reproduce the original panels using the process DEC used all those years ago. Needless to say we had to go through the learning curve with only photographs, scans and one 8/m original panel to go on. In the interests of origiality I have kept what we used call 'features' as found in the documentation and the sample we had. I'm trying to reproduce the original, not produce an improved or fixed version. The only process deviations I have allowed myself are as follows: 1. The original versions would have been drawn twice full size by hand on matt paper in indian ink. One sheet per colo(u)r would have been requred. They would then have used a process camera to reduce to one to one positive masters on clear acetate film. The cameras (they were huge) and the darkend rooms they worked in no longer exist. I used to do just that in the early '70's but whats weird is where I worked is less than 50 yards >from the silk screen studio doing the work now. Now I use Inkscape and its layers to do the same thing. The screeners have an Epson printer the size of a piano to print my layers in black onto clear film. After that the process is the same as it was. They take a fine meshed cloth streched onto a frame. Its coated (by hand) with a photo sensitive emulsion, when dry it gets exposed through the master using a UV light source. The the parts proteced by black on the master are water soluable and get washed out and hence let the ink through. So one screen per layer is required 2. DEC would have printed the images first and routed or milled the holes using some kind jig later. As long as the hole stayed inside the white line that was deemed to be OK. We drill (laser cut) first and screen afterwards. Regards Rod

10 years, 1 month

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OT: lenses (Was: Front Panels - PDP8 and PDP 11

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Paul - My darkroom became a storage room! still have the monster 5x7 durst enlarger w/ vacuum easel that I had since the 70s. what a beast! then I have small 2x3 omega to pull strips of negatives though to print. yea the digital stuff was a game changer indeed... I do not know about the contax rts lenses fitting new bodys.. they were nice lenses, It would be good to use them! Ed# In a message dated 3/10/2016 12:41:11 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, useddec at gmail.com writes: I also don't know if I will ever use my darkroom again, and have Omega D2, other enlargers, print washers and dyers, etc that I don't need. On Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 1:37 AM, Paul Anderson <useddec at gmail.com> wrote: > Popular or Modern Photography 20 or 30 years ago had an article on the 10 > best lens ever made. I think Zeiss made 3 of them, and they were the only > company with more than one. > > I know there are a lot of great optics out there, but I still love Zeiss. > I have several Zeiss cameras, binoculars, microscopes, etc. > > With everything going digital, and various health problems, I haven't > touched my Contax RTSs in years. I was planning on buying a digital body to > use my optics, but they never released one. > > If anyone knows of a good digital body that will adapt to RTS optics, > please let me know. > > Paul > > On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 7:25 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > >> posters! The lens was a Goerz Red Dot Artar and the sharpest flat >>>> field lens >>>> >>> On Wed, 9 Mar 2016, Rod Smallwood wrote: >> >>> Thanks,, >>> Our cam was fitted with a high grade Ziess lens that cost a fortune >>> even then, >>> >> >> Zeiss made a lot of lenses, some of which were great. >> Goerz made a few of the greatest lenses ever made. >> >> For personal use, I'm looking for Leitz Summicron in all focal lengths, >> and Nikkor 105mm that was made in mid 1960s. >> And, if I can ever get a 4x5 digital back, I want a Goerz Dagor. >> All out of my price range. >> >> >> >

10 years, 1 month

2
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Xerox: MFM emulator: disk images available

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

I've been hacking Xerox recently and using Dave's excellent MFM emulator. I'm making two working bootable images available. One is Lisp - the 'Lyric' distribution. It boots and works and appears complete and useful but I haven't explored Lisp enough to grok it. The other is a clean install of Viewpoint 3.1 with document editor and a few assorted utilities and games - and terminal emulators. Both come with readme files and configuration info. They can be picked up at: http://corestore.org/vpemu.zip and http://corestore.org/lispemu.zip With a following wind I may get other Xerox disk images up in the not too distant future - Star; 8010 and 8090 servers for starters. Maybe a Medley Lisp system. I'd be interested in hosting any other useful images for disk emulation - not just Dave's and not just Xerox - SCSI2SD etc. too - that anyone feels like contributing. Enjoy! Mike http://www.corestore.org 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

10 years, 1 month

1
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Speaking of card cages...

by cramcram＠gmail.com

Has anyone ever reproduced the card guides used in the 8/A chassis? I assume these are identical to those used in PDP-11s as well. My are beyond brittle. Thanks, Marc

10 years, 1 month

4
8
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QSIC update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Henk Gooijen >> He's now starting in on interrupt cycles; once those work, he >> effectively has emulation of a minimal small RK > sounds very good - nice progress! Interrupts are now working, and as of yesterday (when I finally managed to get all the bugs out of my diagnostic - we can't use the DEC ones since it doesn't yet emulate a full RK drive) it will sit and read and write blocks as long as we let it, interrupting after each transfer. I'm about to upgrade the diagnostic to test more features, such as multi-block transfers, etc. Dave is about to start work on SD card support. > When you get to it, that will be a fast swap drive ;-) Indeed! It seems to transfer a complete sector in about 600 usec, when running a 'disk' in RAM - it's only even that 'slow' because for some reason, which Dave is investigating, the CPU (an 11/73) seems to take about 1usec to do a DMA grant after the previous cycle, even when it and the QBUS are idle (the CPU is in a WAIT instruction while the transfer is happening, with my diagnostic). Each individual word seems to take about 900 nsec; not great, but not bad. Dave's going to look at that in some detail, too. And of course there are zero seek and rotational delays, so it will be pretty zoomy (although of course the SD 'disk' will also have that characteristic, but we don't yet know if the SD will support the full QBUS bandwidth, the way the RAM certainly will). But even if it is that fast, it's still probably worth having the RAM disk, because it will avoid putting write cycles on the SD card memory. (I myself plan to put /tmp, and pipes, on a RAM disk, for just that reason. In V6 Unix, at least, a system call to move pipes off the root disk is one line of code... :-) Noel

10 years, 1 month

1
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Sequoia Computer Systems?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Anyone have any pictures, datasheets, or other ephemera related to Sequoia Systems line of fault tolerant systems? This is unrelated to the "IBM Sequoia". The Sequoia computers I'm referring to were around roughly '86+ish maybe and were fairly large minicomputers. Their claim to fame was being "massively fault tolerant". I am not sure, but Ian Sandler may have worked there on that design before heading to General Automation perhaps, not sure I have my history right. What I do recall for sure, is I worked on a lot of programming on the Sequoia systems (the ones I used ran Pick or one of the MVRDBMS's) at Eagle Snacks (back when that was part of the Anheuser-Busch family). On a whim I decided to google and while I can find a few white papers on the Sequoia Fault Tolerance design, I see no marketing brochures, datasheets, pictures, etc. I do recall a story from back when I worked there. the head of eagle snacks was called into the office of the VP of AB for a dressing down, because all the other departments submitted downtime reports to him on their systems and Eagle Snacks (running on the Sequoia) did not submit any reports for over a year. When asked why he wasn't submitting downtime reports the eagle snacks guy replied "because we haven't had any". The VP said - yes, but I see here maintenance logs that you had cpu boards failed and replaced, memory boards failed and replaced, "etc etc". and the ES guy said "Right. No downtime". Anyone remember these systems? Best, J

10 years, 2 months

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PDP 8/A restoration (update to squaring up card cage)

by jws＠jwsss.com

One of the photos of the PDP 8/A 400 came from this Herb Johnson page, which is a diary of what I'm going to be doing after I true up the card cage. Excellent looking diary of what to check with the unit I have. Hopefully with less drama and more things checking out. http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/8a_repairs.html thanks Jim

10 years, 2 months

1
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Early Microprocessors in Industrial Microcomputers

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Not a lot is said about early use of microprocessors in industrial microcomputers. Everything you read about is so home computing oriented, but I believe actual sales would have been greater in the industrial space 1974-77. I compiled a quick thread on my site about the earliest use of microprocessors in industrial microcomputers on my web site with links to a related article from EDN Microprocessor Design Series Volume II and scans of Process Computer Systems product brochures. PCS was a pioneer in industrial micro-computing. If anyone has info to share / correct please let me know and I will add to the thread. http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=631 -- @ 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>

10 years, 2 months

11
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OT: lenses (Was: Front Panels - PDP8 and PDP 11

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I need a 90 mm summacron for my m2 (drop me a line off list if anyone has one) Yes I know the 105 f 2.5 nikkor you speak of great sharp portrait length lens for the nikon F! we have a small 105 mm red dot Goertz we used for copy work on 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 in compur shutter the one on the Robertson process camera I used in the 70s was 18 inch focal length as I remember. Ed# In a message dated 3/9/2016 6:53:06 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, healyzh at aracnet.com writes: > On Mar 9, 2016, at 5:25 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > >>> posters! The lens was a Goerz Red Dot Artar and the sharpest flat field lens > On Wed, 9 Mar 2016, Rod Smallwood wrote: >> Thanks,, >> Our cam was fitted with a high grade Ziess lens that cost a fortune even then, > > Zeiss made a lot of lenses, some of which were great. > Goerz made a few of the greatest lenses ever made. > > For personal use, I'm looking for Leitz Summicron in all focal lengths, and Nikkor 105mm that was made in mid 1960s. > And, if I can ever get a 4x5 digital back, I want a Goerz Dagor. > All out of my price range. Personally I need a nice ASPH 28mm or 35mm Summicron. I have the original Nikkon 35mm f/2, one of the very first made, it?s been Ai?d, and it?s an AMAZING lens. The Goerz Dagor?s are actually pretty cheap at the moment, I?ve been thinking about them for my 8x10. I?m using a mixture of modern lenses on my 4x5. Somehow I don?t ever expect a digital 4x5 back to be affordable. I know one Photographer that has one, and it?s really only useable for reproduction work, in the studio. Keep in mind that digital backs that can cover 4x5 or larger are scanning backs. Have you considered adapting a scanner as one? I?ve seen in the past where folks have done that. Personally except for one project, I shoot B&W film when I?m shooting 4x5 or 8x10, I then process and print it myself. For the 8x10 (and hopefully eventually 11x14), I only shoot B&W, and only contact print. Zane

10 years, 2 months

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OpenBSD drops support for VAX

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

A sad day indeed... :( https://twitter.com/MiodVallat/status/707636166112182272 -- Ian Finder (206) 395-MIPS ian.finder at gmail.com

10 years, 2 months

1
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Available: Q1 Corporation Q1 Lite

by mattislind＠gmail.com

Hello! We are considering (haven't decided 100% yet) to not keep the Q1 Lite system we have. Here are some pictures: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-rp4vyPPYu1d2pRTVM5TmM0UEU&usp=sha… It is a 8080 system with PL/1 built into to ROMs. Vintage 1975-76.It has a plasma screen and comes with an orange desk with built in quad floppy drive and also a daisy wheel printer. There are also two big hard drives and a hard drive controller. Is there interest? Trade for something interesting. /Mattis

10 years, 2 months

2
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Tweaked card cage

by jws＠jwsss.com

I've got a PDP8/A chassis which has a card cage that has been tweaked off in the front just a hair. Enough that you can't get the cards in by an interference amount of clearance. Anyone have any idea on how they handled this? I'm thinking of using some blocking and then a 36 or 48" pipe clamp to apply diagonal persuasion to get it back in true. The rear of the box is not impacted. In the body shop trade this is called "diamond" and usually gets your car totaled if your frame has that damage term applied to the chassis. I don't see any other damage other than this, no chip damage or cracking to the back plane, which is of course brittle. The rear dimension of the chassis is good, and I can't see what caused this. Could have been a drop, or could have been under too many layers of crap and was tweaked. Other clever ways to apply very gentle but forceful pressure to true up the cabinet is appreciated. Also how much to go past square to account for the "spring" back of the steel once the force is removed would be nice too. Thanks Jim

10 years, 2 months

3
2
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MEM11A questions

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, Over the weekend I was looking through some old CAD files and came across my original design for the MEM11A. It was an SPC board that contained only 128KW of FRAM. I?m wondering if there?s any interest in that board. I do have to iterate on the design a bit but I should be able to get something ready sooner than with my current board design (plus I know it will fit in an SPC form factor because I?ve already done it). What I?d like to know from folks is if there?s interest in that design? Would there still be interest in what I?m now calling UMF11 (Unibus Multi-Function)? I won?t have pricing (on either) until I build (and debug) a couple of prototypes because I need to know what the assembly costs would be (no I won?t be offering kits). To also answer the other question, no I haven?t run into any issues with the UMF11, I just came across this long forgotten design and wanted to know if there?s any interest in it as I can probably get it into ?production? sooner than the UMF11. Thanks. TTFN - Guy

10 years, 2 months

5
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Release of the HP 3000 Series III simulator

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I will have to try this... a great undertaking Dave! Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 3/8/2016 6:29:11 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jwest at classiccmp.org writes: Awesome Dave! Can't wait to test drive it. A very sincere Thank You for all the time & effort you've spent on that. Best, J

10 years, 2 months

1
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Release of the HP 3000 Series III simulator

by jdbryan＠acm.org

I am pleased to announce the release of a simulator for the HP 3000 Series III computer system. It is available from the Computer History Simulation Project (SIMH) site: https://github.com/simh/simh The simulator runs the MPE-V/R operating system, supports a selection of simulated disc and tape drives, and accommodates up to sixteen concurrent users. A software kit containing a disc image with MPE preinstalled is available as described in the release notes that accompany the simulator. I would like to thank Frank McConnell and Al Kossow for their invaluable help in answering questions and supplying documentation for the HP 3000. -- Dave

10 years, 2 months

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11/23+ box with Microvax Memory

by jws＠jwsss.com

I see on the usual site, an 11/23 box with a couple of random boards, one of which is an M7608 board. This is a Microvax memory board. I wonder if one can build up a Microvax in that backplane, or if that is not recommended. It would obviously be an 18 bit backplane. The backplane is H9276A. The auction also has a M9047 Bus grant card in it, so is essentially just the box. But I'd never seen Microvax parts plugged into those backplanes, and it made me think. thanks Jim

10 years, 2 months

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HP 21MX paper tapes

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I have been going to our HP 21MX paper tapes that come with a M-series system that we received many years ago: http://www.datormuseum.se/documentation-software/hp-paper-tapes I tried to check if they already were available online somewhere but didn't find them when doing quick checks on random tape part numbers in the spread sheet. Maybe they are and then I don't need to bother reading them. Otherwise I will try to read them if there are interest and when I get time. /Mattis

10 years, 2 months

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Cables

by jws＠jwsss.com

Anyone have a source for IDC cables / supplies? I'm in need of some 40, 50 and various other cables and connectors. I need some specifically for dec systems so those would be even better. The most urgent need is cables for the PDP 8/A front panel cabling. They are all 40 pin. I've got a unit with the programmers panel, so need cables for it and for the basic power panel. thanks Jim

10 years, 2 months

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OT: domain for sale

by evan＠snarc.net

Is anyone interested in buying technologyrewind.com? It would be a good name for a collector's site.

10 years, 2 months

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Passing of Ray Tomlinson

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

We communicate today, as yesterday, via email. Ray Tomlinson,a 1960's ARPAnet pioneer has passed on. He 'invented' the @ symbol. My how old things are truly great. Murray :)

10 years, 2 months

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Usenet News Servers

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

My ISP appears to have stopped updating the newsgroups it hosts. What news servers do people round here recommend? Thanks Rob

10 years, 2 months

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I want a front panel for my lsi 11 w/switches and lights

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ed Sharpe > I want a front panel for my lsi 11 w/switches and lights! That's going to be a little tricky. The LSI11 obvously doesn't have a hardware interface on/in the CPU which would allow a lot of the functions traditionally found in a front panel (e.g. examining registers, single step, etc). Some of them can be done (e.g. a halt/run switch, which LSI-11's already support), and others could be 'sorta' done - e.g. if the CPU is running, DMA could be used to read/write memory locations. Probably the best way to have an emulated front panel is to build a board that i) emulates the system serial console on the QBUS (i.e. responds to 177560-6), and ii) has a micro or something which uses ODT to emulate the full range of normal console commands, and drives a set of LEDs and switches. E.g. hitting the 'continue' switch when the processor was halted would issue a 'P' command to ODT; when the 'halt' switch is raised, it would read the PC printed when the CPU halted, and display that in LEDs, etc, etc. Sounds like an amusing project for someone. Any takers? :-) Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Imaging RX02 disks for simh (was: Re: MU-BASIC V2 and RT-11 V03B distribution disks.)

by thebri＠gmail.com

How the heck do you copy an RX02 disk for use in simh? I've been trying to transfer RX02 images between simh and a real PDP11 (that has only two RX02's, console, and ethernet). So far, I've only attempted sending an RX02 image from the PDP to simh, but simh fails to read it: "?DIR-F-Invalid directory". Even after adding 13*512 bytes to the start for the missing track, I still get invalid directory. My process is to COPY/DEVICE/FILES DY1:/START:0/END:330 DY0:BLOCK1.DAT, then FTP that off the PDP, delete the file, and do the remaining two thirds of the disk. Once all are transferred, "cat *DAT > floppy.dsk". I can transfer RX50 images using the same recipe, though I haven't tried sending an RX50 image created on simh back to the PDP. For what it's worth, I'm having the same problem with Alan Baldwin's TCP/IP disk images from http://shop-pdp.net/rthtml/tcpip.htm. simh can't read the individual DSK images, but could read the *.PKG with the disks inside, and >from that, I could (RT-11) MOUNT each disk to a logical device. b On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 11:50 AM, Mattis Lind <mattislind at gmail.com> wrote: > I found some 8 inch floppies with distribution kits for MU-BASIC V2 and > RT-11 V03B. I imaged those and put them here > http://www.datormuseum.se/documentation-software/rx01-and-rx02-floppy-disks > if anyone is interested in playing with MU-BASIC. There are both RAW disk > images and to be used in SimH and like and also DMK/IMD files. > > The system that floppies came with is this little ( > http://www.datormuseum.se/computers/digital-equipment-corporation/pdp1103-l > ) > system once used at Scania in S?dert?lje. >

10 years, 2 months

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I want a front panel for my lsi 11 w/switches and lights

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I want a front panel for my lsi 11 w/switches and lights! Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)

10 years, 2 months

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DEC TU81 - "Logic Off" permanently illuminated-

by u.tagge＠gmx.de

Hi All, maybe someone can help me to bring my TU81 back to life again. I have checked the following, before turning on: - All capacitors on the Mail Power Supply and the one below the vacuum pump are fine > OK - Voltages check > OK - Fuses > The Fuse for the diagnostics power connector was burned: changed Problem is, that the "Logic Off" is constantly illuminated, after turning on. I had a look into the Tx81 Pathfinder documentation, and checked the following. - Check if Blower is running > OK - Disconnecting all DC connectors > Same result Pathfinder tells me changing the power supply. I hear only an relay clicking when turning on the Power Supply, also, when nothing is connected, in this time the "Logic Off" light blinks one time. I think, that the power supply checks itself that the voltages are OK, and that this fails. Any hints or tips? Many Greetings Ulrich

10 years, 2 months

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Another passing ... Ray Tomlinson

by cctalk＠snarc.net

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/email-inventor-ray-tomlinson-dies-at-74/

10 years, 2 months

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VCF SE 4.0 Announcement

by earl＠baugh.org

Many of you may have heard about this already, but to make sure everyone knows, We are proud to announce the fourth annual Vintage Computer Festival Southeast (VCFSE) in Roswell GA. The Festival, on April 2nd and 3rd, features over 35,000 square feet of exhibits, museums, presentations, and interactive entertainment. Exhibitors are available for live demonstrations and offer attendees the unique opportunity to experience a true piece of technology history. New this year, a live auction offers bidders a chance to start or expand their personal collections. (Registration is still open, visit the link at the bottom if you'd wish to exhibit -- vendors are also welcome) The Festival offers very popular hands-on electronics projects for children and adults. Gaming fans will enjoy a wide array of vintage video game consoles in a retro gaming section, where visitors can play classic games. Gamers of all ages are encouraged to test their vintage gamer skills on a huge classic video game wall. This year, the Festival celebrates the 40th anniversary of Apple computer. Attendees will experience the complete history of Apple at the Computer Museum of America?s Apple Pop-Up Museum, a large, one-of-a-kind display of extremely rare computers. The museum features a dynamic presentation of the small start-up, founded in a garage by two young friends in 1976, that became the world's leading computer company. Guest speakers include renowned industrial designers and engineers who have played integral roles in computer history. Attendees will hear a first-hand account from industrial designer Jerry Manock, who created designs for the Apple II and III in the 70s and 80s. Vintage computer enthusiasts will enjoy a presentation from acclaimed computer engineer Bil Herd, creator of several noteworthy designs, including the Commodore 128. Computer Museum of America?s companion exhibit, ?LINK: Personal Computing >from Switches to Pockets,? features the links from the past to the present with displays of iconic computer brands including original computers like the IBM PC, as well as some very rare and unique machines such as the Kenbak-1. VCFSE is hosted and produced by the Atlanta Historical Computing Society and the Computer Museum of America. VCFSE is the premier vintage computer festival in the southeast and part of the VCF family of vintage computer festivals, which include VCF East in New Jersey, VCF Midwest in Chicago and VCF West in California. The VCF mission is to educate, promote and demonstrate the evolutionary significance of vintage computers, software and gaming to today?s new generation of innovators by offering attendees a chance to experience the technologies, people and remarkable stories that embody the history of the computer revolution. VCFSE 4.0 will be held at Kings Market Shopping Center, 1425 Market Blvd, Suite 200, Roswell, GA 30076, in what was previously a Comp-USA Super Store. The Festival is open from 10 AM to 7 PM on Saturday and from 10 AM to 5 PM on Sunday. Adult admission is $10 per day or $15 for a two-day pass. Children ages 17 and younger are admitted free when accompanied by a parent or guardian. For more details, please visit http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-southeast-4-0/ or http://vcfse.org

10 years, 2 months

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jrIDE sidecars: Interested in another chance?

by mbbrutman＠brutman.com

Short story: We are thinking of producing another set of 25 and want to know how much interest there is out there. If you are interested in purchasing one please email me. --- What is it? An IDE interface, clock/calendar, and a memory expansion sidecar for the PCjr. The BIOS extension allows booting from recent IDE/PATA hard drives that support LBA addressing mode. (Compact Flash with an adapter or Disk On Modules also work.) The memory expansion brings the machine from 128KB to 736KB. The last time we did this the price was around $75 for the kit of parts; you have to supply your own sidecar shell. See http://www.brutman.com/jrIDE/jrIDE.html for more details. Mike

10 years, 2 months

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QSIC update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> So here's a quick update on where Dave Bridgham and I are with the > QSIC ... We have the first of two wire-wrap prototype QBUS motherboards > more or less (see below) done .. the hardware is 'mostly' working; most > of the work from here on out will be FPGA, etc, programming. There > _are_ a few additional QBUS lines used for bus master (DMA) and > interrupts which we haven't used yet, and one of the first things done > now is to get those two kind of bus cycles working > ... > With that in hand, we can do the first controller (RK11), using memory > in the FPGA to simulate a small disk. Well, Dave has made a big step down that road; he has DMA working (both the bus arbitration cycle for DMA, as well as master-mode transfers to and from QBUS slave memory). He's now starting in on interrupt cycles; once those work, he effectively has emulation of a minimal small RK (he already has all the registers, since he needs them to control the DMA to and from the RAM disk). At that point I should be able to test it by making it the swap drive on a Unix V6 load. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Big-Board II & Micro Cornucopia User Group Disks

by james.h.simpson＠gmail.com

Thanks very much to all who posted a reply. The BBII disk files was something I didn't have, and the CD image had some very interesting stuff. I did go and download the bitsaver files also. Thanks again!

10 years, 2 months

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Documentation on DEC's Omnibus Module M865 (Console Teletype Control)

by admin＠meiner.ch

Hi guys... I am currently looking for documentation (configuration, SCH, ...) on DEC's M865 Teletype-interface. Not the M8650 or M8655, mind you. Could someone point me to the right direction? Thanks a lot, Martin

10 years, 2 months

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Running RT11v4 on 11/03

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All ? Now that I have a running 11/03 (through the Heathkit HT-11 I bought) I thought I?d try to get something running other than XXDP using the TU58 emulator. Malcolm Macleod has a quick walkthrough of how to make this work with an 11/23 and the TU58 emulator from Will Kranz (http://www.avitech.com.au/pdp-11-03/make-tu58-rtv4-image.html). Even though the tutorial is for the 11/23, I think that the 11/03 can run RT-11 from an RX01, and the H11 came with an optional custom version of RT-11, so I feel that it should theoretically work. I followed the tutorial and it reads the image but barfs at some point and the CPU halts. Not sure why. Has anyone tried this? Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

10 years, 2 months

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VCF Midwest Dates Set: Sept 10-11 2016

by silent700＠gmail.com

Planning for the 11th annual Vintage Computer Festival Midwest shall begin in earnest in early April. But since the dates have been locked in for some time, there's no harm in getting them out early. Returning to last year's great new location, this time with an extra room and even more Visio-driven planning, VCFMW will once-again be *the place to be* for retro-tech enthusiasts in the Midwest! In an effort to accommodate as many schedules as possible, our dates have shifted back a bit vs. last year. So please make a note on your calendar, VCFMW 11 will be the weekend of September 10th and 11th, 2016. As always, the fun will begin on Friday night with early load-in, group dinner(s) and general frivolity. Many details are yet to be worked out, but we envision a slight schedule change (later Saturday and earlier Sunday start and further optimization of the room and table layouts. The old vcfmw.org URL still works, as well as the new page from our friends at the Vintage Computer Federation: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-midwest More info will be added in a few weeks, as well as a new registration page for tables, talks and vending. Please hold your tabling requests until the announcement next month (I have to draw the chart first!) Every minute of last year's show set a new standard as we went into our double digits. We look forward to seeing you all (and more) again this year. -j

10 years, 2 months

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VCF West XI exhibit registration is open

by cctalk＠snarc.net

VCF West is making a glorious comeback on Aug. 6-7 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Exhibit registration is open! http://www.vcfed.org/registration/exhibitor_register-online.php?event_id=3

10 years, 2 months

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Best name for PDP-11/05-10

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mattis Lind > I have a physical tech manual (which is not the same as the one at > bitsavers) > ... > I should probably scan that tech manual if someone hasn't done it > already. The ones I have found online are: DEC-11-H05AA-A-D Jan, '73 PDP-11/05 computer manual DEC-11-H05AA-B-D Sept, '74 PDP-11/05, 11/10 computer manual DEC-11-H05AA-B-D Supplement 1 July, '74 PDP-11/05, 11/10 10-1/2 inch mounting box and power system DEC-11-H05AA-B-D Supplement 2 July, '74 Description of data paths module M7260 revision M DEC-11-H05SS-B-D Jan, '75 PDP-11/05-S, 11/10-S system manual EK-11005-TM-003 April, '75 PDP-11/05, 11/10 computer manual (The 2nd-4th are in a single file.) > Compared to the one at bitsavers it for example include an appendix > related to some minor modifications that had been done to the CPU board > set. The ones that are available seem to be pretty comprehensive coverage of the 05-10, the 05N-10N, and the 05S-10S. If yours has some significant material that is not in the others, then please scan it. Otherwise, it may not be worth the trouble (especially if you do not have an auto-feed scanner... :-). > the system came with an extra 5.25 inch memory box. Identical to the > CPU but different backplane for three more MM11-L modules Right, that's the ME11-L, which is an MF11-L backplane in a 5-1/4 box; it normally came with one MM11-L board set (16KB) installed, and one could add two more sets. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Pdp-10 emulation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Tedd Martin Vazquez > After reading I believe using TOPS-20 I will have more to explore Actually, as an operating system, ITS is far more interesting (virtual devices, etc) - but it is indeed a pretty steep learning curve to start using it. So I agree that TOPS-20 is the place to start. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Looking for a 2W 1 ohm fusible resistor

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Morning folks (other timezones are available) One of the casualties in my expiring VT100 PSU last weekend was a 2W resistor named R22, or at least it seems more dead than its twin at R47 which gives a steady reading on my DMM. Seems that they're surprisingly difficult to find these days with none of the main parts stockists having any. Anyone got one or two lurking in a bits box somewhere? Cheers! -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

10 years, 2 months

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Vince Briel?

by dave＠661.org

Has anyone heard from Vince Briel lately? I've bene trying to get in touch with him for some Micro-Altair artwork. The forum at brielcomputers.com is stangnant. -- 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?

10 years, 2 months

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New Scans: IIT RUSH Time-Sharing

by silent700＠gmail.com

That would be the Illinois Institute of Technology and their "Remote User Shared Hardware" time-sharing scheme on the IBM 360, circa July 1967. Check out the prices - even per-minute pricing on core! http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/index.php?dir=%2Fcomputing/IIT Enjoy -j

10 years, 2 months

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Paging Toby Thain [was RE: PDP-10 programming [was RE: Dumb Terminal games (was Re: Looking for a small fast VAX development machine)]]

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

Hi, Toby, I answered your private note, but Outlook/Exchange informed me this morning that it would not send the message for 48 hours and so was giving up. I just don't want you to think I'm ignoring you. My answer was that it's not for me to say, but the author is a friend. Rich Rich Alderson Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Ave S Seattle, WA 98134 http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

10 years, 2 months

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Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

DEC Gear available. Unlike most dec gear, I must admit that I can't identify exactly what this is. Several racks, I was guessing AFT or Instrumentation Testing. Looks like one or more cpu or expansion cabinets in some of the racks, and some DEC AD/DA interface stuff. I was left with the impression that there may be one or more racks that are not shown in the pictures provided. I was told that racks are in "several different buildings on the estate" (residential). The first rack looks to be in very bad shape (perhaps a power supply), but the other racks don't look so bad. I am not sure that I can get more pictures from the owner, but will try. I think that in order to get pictures of the fronts (what we all probably want to see), the owner would have to move stuff (and them) and would rather not. The equipment is located in NSW, Australia. It sound like they just want it to go to a good home. If someone is local to NSW Australia and wants to spearhead going onsite to take a closer look for others and/or pick up the gear themselves, let me know offlist and I'll give you the contact info. To those on the list that aren't down under - any ideas what this is? Pics are temporarily at http://www.ezwind.net/nsw-au Best, J

10 years, 2 months

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Building up the 8E system, questions - advice - partsRequest

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jay West > All the original slides I've ever seen for BA11-K boxes are the > "cantilever" slides, what allow you to tilt the unit up 90 degrees once > it is extended. Right; there are actually two different types I've seen of those rotating slides, and in both, the rotating mechanism is part of the 'inner' slide (i.e. the part that bolts to the BA11 box). The older one (seen on BA11-D's, too) uses a T-shaped pull to release the rotate lock; the newer has an L-shaped release pull. All three (the non-rotating, and both rotating 'inners') use _basically_ the same 'outer' slide (i.e. the part that bolts to the rack); the outer-most slide (the 'outer' actually contains two parts, an outer and a middle) is about 3-1/2" wide. (There's an even wider 'outer' slide, but I forget what it goes to.) I said 'basically' since the three different versions do include various interlocks to prevent pulling the unit out of the slides, and some of the 'outers', although they are the same size, are not actually compatible with all the different 'inners', because their interlocks differ (although you could probably mod one to fit another without too much work). > So were the slides typically sold with the RK05 also "cantilever/tilt"? Not that I've ever seen. > Is that helpful for servicing an RK05 (never worked on one yet)? Not that I can think of - there are a few components on the bottom (e.g. the absolute filter), but most stuff is on the top. And the drive is so heavy, with all the weight at one end, that I wouldn't want to rotate one anyway! Although the BA11-K weighs a ton, too, and its weight is similarly concentrated at one end. Which may be why they changed the rotating fixture; the early one might not have been good at holding that much weight. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Building up the 8E system, questions - advice - partsRequest

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jay West > I need to rack the RK05 and the TU56. On the RK05 - does anyone have a > spare set of slides or can I definitely just use RL02 slides (which I > have lots of)? All the RK05's I've ever seen used the wide slides that DEC used on their older -11's. So if you have a spare set of e.g. BA11-K slides, you can use them to 'hang' the RK05. The company that made those slides for DEC is still in business, and still sells similar slides; I toyed with the idea of buying a set, and seeing if they were compatible (maybe only on the bolt-hole level, not on the slide insertion level, from the pictures), but the cost (~$200, IIRC) dissuaded me so far. All the RL02's I've seen use the later, narrower slides. Maybe there's some way to attach an RL02-type inner to RK05, but without trying it, I couldn't say. > I have the wide grey inner slides on the RK05 but no outers and I > noticed just one of the inner slides has a gold L-catch release on it > so I'm wondering if there's anything special about RK05 slides. That gold L-catch doesn't ring a bell for me. Maybe your RK05 has different slides on it from most of them? Picture(s)? AFAIK the wide grey inner slides on most RK05's are stock; I just checked, and a BA11-K outer slide fit it just fine. (I can check some other types, e.g. -11/10N, if there is any use to that.) Noel

10 years, 2 months

2
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How to route Phase II

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

Thanks to help from Timothe Litt, I have Phase II support, including just enough "intercept" support to be useable, working in my Python router (svn://akdesign.dyndns.org/pydecnet/trunk/pydecnet). Tested it with a KS-10 TOPS-20 setup. I had it do NFT from a DECnet/E system two hops away. Worked correctly including the handling of the text (ASCII) data. It doesn't do all that is required for intercept nodes -- tracking NSP connections so it can disconnect them if the path goes away. Also, Phase II NSP does not do packet timeout and retransmit, so if a packet is lost on the path to the destination, the connection is wedged. I may end up doing a bit more than standard intercept operation and do timeout/retransmit on behalf of the end system. That's cheating, of course, but why not? Anyway, this may help those who have Phase II systems. Comments and feedback and bug reports appreciated. paul

10 years, 2 months

1
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Cables

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jim S > Anyone have a source for IDC cables / supplies? I'm in need of some 40, > 50 and various other cables and connectors. If you're talking about the standard .1" double-row connectors on flat cables, the _parts_ for them (connectors and cables) are quite easy to find (most suppliers such a Mouser, Jameco, etc have them, and you can also find them on eBait); buy some, and make up your own cables. They're dirt cheap that way. (Just use a vice to press the connectors onto the cable; you don't need to buy the special crimping tool.) Noel

10 years, 2 months

2
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Mobile Web Site Technology to Revive Old Browers

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I noticed today that web sites that are screen width responsive and device independent are also "responsive" to really old browsers like Netscape 2.0 running on a Windows 3.11 box. The whole push to make web sites mobile friendly has had the unintended consequence of making Windows 3.11 web browsing a little more practical than before. The only issue I found is with javascript, one has best results if turned off entirely. Sites load pretty quick as a lot of the overhead if not transmitted by the server, perceiving the download is to a mobile or limited device. If you get the chance and run an older browser on an older OS my site is a pretty good example of a modern site design that works in Windows 3.11 / Netscape or Alpha / Mosaic etc. 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>

10 years, 2 months

2
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Pdp-10 emulation

by tmv713＠cryptolab.net

Hi people? I've installed SIMH on my computer and I want to get around with the emulator for the pdp-10; it was a beautiful machine and the ancestor of the GNU project, so is quite charming. I have no idea on how to begin using it. Is the first time in my life that I get in touch with something related to old computing. I want to know where I can get software, TECO and adventure to mess around (because of the importance of both); and, very importantly, how to get this software running in the emulator. I've been searching about the software and it's quite easy to get. Hope my question doesn't bother people, thanks :) Tedd Vazquez. -- -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GC/CS/CM/CC/E/ED/FA/H/IT/LS/L/MC/M/MU/PA/P/S/SS/TW/AT d--(-)@ s: a? C++++>$ UBLC(++++)>$ P+>+$ L++++>$ E+++>$ W+++>$ N+ !o K+++++ w---() !O !M !V PS++(+++) PE+++ Y+(++) PGP+(++) t+(++) !5 X+(++) R tv+ b++++>$ DI++(+++) D+ G++ e* h* !r z? ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

10 years, 2 months

4
8
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1950s TV computers

by cclist＠sydex.com

I've been having fun looking at TV programs that I watched when the family had a 17" monochrome RCA set. At any rate, here's one such about a guy who gets shocked by a computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-pfWhehSB4 Note that, about 3:20 in, the guy doing the troubleshooting on the system pulls a faulty tube and gives it to his companion for replacement. "12AY7" is what he says, but hands the other guy an octal tube--the 12AY7 is a 9-pin sub-miniature. (TV had goofs even then). Other than the IBM Model B electric typewriters, there doesn't seem to be much to see. From 1955. Here's another one from 1956: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33OFJEWUgQE This involves a mechanical translating machine that's been adapted to diagnose and prescribe treatment for diseases. There, you can see the same IBM typewriters, as well a couple of keypunches (IBM 024/6?) and bunches of tape drives that I don't recognize. "Memory coils", anyone? The strange thing is that years later, I met up with a fellow who had worked with Gerald Salton on the nascent SMART system that, I believe, eventually morphed into MEDLARS. Stuff from a time when men wore hats and women wore dresses. --Chuck

10 years, 2 months

3
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Random VGA question: 160x200 "high color" mode?

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

>Message: 12 >Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2016 19:30:27 -0800 >From: Josh Dersch <derschjo at gmail.com> >Subject: Random VGA question: 160x200 "high color" mode? > >Awhile back a "pre-alpha" version of the PC classic "DOOM" was unearthed >(dated Feb 28, 1993), and it claims to support a "high color" VGA mode. >From the README.TXT: > > "Use High-color DAC (160 x200, but great color!) > (Only newer VGA cards have this-if it looks OK, ya got it) > (This may--okay, will--REALLY screw up the playscreen's > graphics. Just look at the neat colors and don't worry.)" > >I've tried it on a number of machines (from the 386 era to a modern PC) >and they all just end up showing garbage when this mode is enabled. I >cannot for the life of me find a reference to this mode existing >anywhere, but I assume it must have worked on *some* SVGA chipset of the >era since ID programmed in support for it. I'm guessing it was cut >because nothing else supported it (and because 160x200 must have looked >awful, even with lots of colors...) > >Does this odd video mode ring any bells with anyone out there? Any idea >what hardware to look for that might support it? At this point I'm more >curious about the actual hardware than getting this pre-alpha to run >with it... > >- Josh Try sending a message to Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org). He has done a lot of work with old PC graphics modes and might know about this mode. Bob

10 years, 2 months

3
2
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Unix System V rel 1 on pdp-11?

by ed＠groenenberg.net

Hi. When looking for Unix distro's for rhe PDP-11, I did find information of how to make a System II using a Unix version 7 as it's base. I also came across some hits about the existence of System 5 Release 1 for the PDP-11 (basically intended to be only for the 45 & 70). On www.archive.org I did find both the System II and System 5 user manuals, and the S5 manuals does mention the 11/70. So, did it indeed exists and if so, is there someone who can help me maybe with an image to run under SIMH? Regards, Ed -- Ik email, dus ik besta.

10 years, 2 months

4
3
0 0

Front Panels - PDP8 and PDP 11

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys Having got 8/e (A & B) plus 8/f and 8/m into production its time I made a few comments. The aim has always been to reproduce the original panels using the process DEC used all those years ago. Needless to say we had to go through the learning curve with only photographs, scans and one 8/m original panel to go on. In the interests of origiality I have kept what we used call 'features' as found in the documentation and the sample we had. I'm trying to reproduce the original, not produce an improved or fixed version. The only process deviations I have allowed myself are as follows: 1. The original versions would have been drawn twice full size by hand on matt paper in indian ink. One sheet per colo(u)r would have been requred. They would then have used a process camera to reduce to one to one positive masters on clear acetate film. The cameras (they were huge) and the darkend rooms they worked in no longer exist. I used to do just that in the early '70's but whats weird is where I worked is less than 50 yards from the silk screen studio doing the work now. Now I use Inkscape and its layers to do the same thing. The screeners have an Epson printer the size of a piano to print my layers in black onto clear film. After that the process is the same as it was. They take a fine meshed cloth streched onto a frame. Its coated (by hand) with a photo sensitive emulsion, when dry it gets exposed through the master using a UV light source. The the parts proteced by black on the master are water soluable and get washed out and hence let the ink through. So one screen per layer is required 2. DEC would have printed the images first and routed or milled the holes using some kind jig later. As long as the hole stayed inside the white line that was deemed to be OK. We drill (laser cut) first and screen afterwards. Regards Rod

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Building up the 8E system, questions - advice - partsRequest

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I restored my 8E cpu to running condition years ago, but never got around to the rest of the rack. Mainly to reclaim floor space, I'm getting the peripherals I always meant to go with that system into the dual rack and wanted to ask a few questions... Dual bay H967, items to go in are PDP-8E, PC04, TU56, RK05, and possibly an RX01/02. Pictures at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/25079374039 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/25152416940 But the rack has two nice looking doors, example: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/22605790200 (the TU10 and TM11 is being traded off, so the left rack in that picture is an empty one now but I still have both "doors"). I'd like to keep the two doors, but will not be able to fit all the devices above in. May just hook up an "external" RX02 (I have one in a DEC roll-around cart), or perhaps one would fit behind one of those mustard colored doors, I dunno. Hate covering a nice peripheral up behind a door. Might put everything in the left rack, get rid of the bottom door, and just use standard filler panels. Current plan is cpu in right bay, pc04 underneath. Left bay would be TU56 & RK05 (and RX02 if I lose the door). What would you all do for something that is as period-correct as possible? I looked closely at the sloped panels at the top of each cabinet. It looks like the yellow trim/logo is actually a plate that slides into the bezel. The one on the right is just yellow, but has a white border screened on it. The one on the left has no plate, so it's just "white". What is the chance that anyone has one of those yellow plates, perhaps one that actually says "DEC" on it? I'd be highly interested. Failing that, at least one that matches the other (yellow with a white border). Anyone have one laying around? I'd have never thought I could run out of official DEC slides, but it appears that I have (at least for older DEC items). I need to rack the RK05 and the TU56. On the RK05 - does anyone have a spare set of slides or can I definitely just use RL02 slides (which I have lots of)? I have the wide grey inner slides on the RK05 but no outers and I noticed just one of the inner slides has a gold L-catch release on it so I'm wondering if there's anything special about RK05 slides. Thanks in advance! J

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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PDP-8/e - Front panel switch reproductions and front panel PCB?

by anders.k.nelson＠gmail.com

Hi all, I found switch levers and a mounting frame design ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:360853) that I would like to have casted with molded-in color, close to the originals as reasonable. Has anyone already done this that I can simply buy from? If any injection molds have been built I'd love to put those to work. Would it be better to just paint a 3D print of these? Also has anyone created the front panel PCB design? I use EAGLE and would love to at least have a CAD outline from which to start as I build my emulated PDP-8/e. Pretty much like the SBC6120 but emulated on a 32-bit micro as opposed to the HD6120. I await your thoughts! -- Anders Nelson +1 (517) 775-6129 www.erogear.com

10 years, 2 months

6
6
0 0

PDP-10 programming [was RE: Dumb Terminal games (was Re: Looking for a small fast VAX development machine)]

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

From: David Griffith Sent: Friday, February 26, 2016 4:05 PM > One of my ongoing wish projects is to learn to program a pdp-10 so I can > port Frotz to it. The canonical textbook is Ralph Gorin's _Introduction to DECSYSTEM-20 Assembly Language Programming_ (Digital Press, 1981). Lots of examples, well thought out presentation. It's a shame that Ralph's book has become so rare. (Seriously, who does the seller asking $1,441.25 for a copy think he's talking to???) Probably remaindered in the 1990s at any library that had a copy. If you were near Seattle, I'd say make an appointment and I'd give you an afternoon's worth of overview. Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

10 years, 2 months

13
14
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Techno-savvy...

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

What is a techno-savvy student? Can classic computers possibly give an answer? I used early microcomputers in my electronics classroom I taught in the 70?s. Computers back then were rather primitive, not much better than calculators, but did mimic human learning ? well maybe not advanced enough to deal with calculus! But they did help with the tedious tasks of generating random #s to start a particular process - a game for instance. Maybe not intellectually challenging nonetheless doing a required job leading today to sophisticated games that do more than entertain. Back then students were put in groups to build a work station employing a Commodore 64 or Apple II or Heathkit H8. Fund-raising bought these computers at the school board was reluctant to spend money and or political capital that only benefited the few though we did install a workstation in the library ? what wonder that created as it was small in comparison to the PDP-8. So what is a techno-savvy student now: Conversant in using a technological gadget to enhance his/her life? Or being able to build a computing workstation in high school? Or for simply possessing a basic understanding of how electronic/computing technology makes life more bearable, less boring? I don?t have the answers though being 64 I?ve lived through the evolution of computing technology and seeing how it?s affected my life good or otherwise! Looking forward to using my old computers, Coleco ADAM and Haethkit H8, if I can keep them going by procuring parts, as my dear friend who has them works tirelessly and I contribute when I get up to the big city in keeping them functioning. Such are the joys of classic computing. :)

10 years, 2 months

4
4
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PDP8 front panel - Shipping.

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys I have now seen the production batch of 8/e A and B. panels. They will ship next week after inspection and packing. 8/f and 8/m will be next up. If you have placed an order for any of the above please confirm your shipping address. When I switched to the textured front I ordered a few more blank panels. Depending on the yeild after final inspection there may be a few extras available. Regards Rod

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Free Sinclair QL emulator

by lproven＠gmail.com

While experimenting with Sinclair emulators on Ubuntu last night, I made 2 discoveries which might interest folk here. First, the author of perhaps the premium Sinclair QL emulator for Windows, QPC, has made it unrestricted freeware. The news is from mid-2014 but I'd missed it. Both QPC1 and QPC2 are now available free of charge. I found this news via Dilwyn Jones' site, here: http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/emu/ This is the direct download & info site for QPC: http://www.kilgus.net/qpc/index.html They come bundled with SMSQ/e, the final-generation QL OS, derived >from QDOS, complete with bootable hard disk images. The second discovery was that QPC2 for Windows installs and runs flawlessly under WINE on 64-bit Ubuntu. :-) -- 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)

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Needs help w/ diagnosing and hopefully repairing of a DEC Tape Drive

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I have two TSZ07 here. As they were sold as "for parts" obviously they both needed some repair. One of the two had severe mechanical problems. One motor had a loose unglued magnet inside, so there was a motor fault error, and the motor couldn't rotate freely, making a rattle noise inside when operated by hand. Of course it was better not to act on that before repair, to avoid to damage the magnet. To repair it I needed to unscrew the reel (in my case the front reel with the loading mechanism to hold the interchangeable reel with the tape), unscrew the motor from the frame, then remove the tacho (very delicate!) and then finally open the motor. The loose magnet appeared to be originally glued to the metal housing with cyanoacrilic glue, so I positioned it by hand aligning it with the remaining glue traces on the housing, held it in place with a clamp tool then finally added new abundant glue all around, letting it to flow under the magnet. Then waited for 24 hours and reassembled. The tacho wheel needed to be cleaned, as the very thin steel growth with some oxide in the small holes, not being optically open enough to work. You can see how this wheel is delicate... maximum care not to bend or crack it! It worked! PS= check very carefully your PSU, as both drives had severe problems on it, they are very prone to fail! One simply ceased to operate after some time, and needed some component replacement to work again. The second one did worst! It did fail beginning suddenly to put out pulsed voltage (8-10V peak) on the 5V. I turned it off within a couple of seconds, but unluckly it fried some ICs on the digital board... It had to change two Z80-serie ICs on the board, to let it finally work... And of course to repair the PSU and test it for some hours with load before testing it again with the real hardware. Andrea

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 07:21:13 -0500 (EST) > From: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa) > Subject: Re: PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date > differences?? OEM? > > That's an -11/15, then. The -11/20 has a KA11 processor. So the front panel > just says "pdp-11"? > > Noel > It was an OEM system and has a Applied Color Systems, Inc. front panel. The system is missing all of the boards and backplanes. Someday we will find enough parts to put it back together. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Precision Instruments PI1200 7 track tape drive, interest anyone?

by gerry＠absoluteimaging.ca

Hello Mattis, We do have interest in the 7 track drive. Is it still available? Gerry Schlosser Absolute Imaging Inc. Suite 400, 1011-1st Street S.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2R 1J2 Gerry at absoluteimaging.ca 1-403-209-6846

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Needs help w/ diagnosing and hopefully repairing of a DEC Tape Drive

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

In my continuing quest for a 9-track drive I got my hands on DEC TSZ07-CA w/ a narrow SCSI interface that was supposedly "tested working". On arrival to me I found it wrapped in a thin layer of bubble wrap w/ some broken piece of Styrofoam thrown in for "packing". As one can imagine the drive did not farewell. The outer desktop housing is cracked in multiple places but still serviceable. The drive itself came with parts rattling on the inside. I opened it up, cleaned things up a bit, and put things back together so that now the drive powers up, starts self test, and then errors out w/ a "50 - Motor Fault" error. I have checked the wires and reseated everything that I can see. I've also cleaned all the sensors, blown out the dirt, etc. etc. The problem persists so I am going to assume a component was damaged in the shipping. I ran the tests indicated in the tech manual and I get the following results: generally the supply motor starts to turn but stops even before making a full revolution. Incidentally if I manually turn the reel it turns fine and the tape securing arms open and close appropriately. When running the dx tests sometimes I can get the uptake motor to spin up at full speed and once even had the supply motor spin up at full speed. Per the tech manual if restarting the system does not make the problem go away the next step would be to replace the motor.... Google fu has not turned up much - so before I declare this a very heavy paper weight anyone have any ideas? Thanks! -Ali

10 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

MM11-U G235 bias/strobe jumpers

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, the MM11-U manual (EK-MF11U-MM-003) describes (pg. 3-12) a set of jumpers (W5-W7) on the G235 card (X and Y selection line current generators - those for the inhibit lines are on the G114) which adjust the bias current for the selection line generators. It goes on to say: "Jumpers W5-W7 are factory cut to adjust the bias current to its optimal value and they should not be changed." There's apparently a similar adjustment for the timing of the sense strobe (although I can't find the description of that circuitry). So I have two observations, based on this. The first is that the original procedure for setting those jumpers is likely lost, it's probably only in some internal DEC documentation. The manual says (Section 5.4.2, "Sense Strobe Delay and Drive Current Adjustments"): "Correction of any failure in either the sense strobe delay or drive current circuits on the G235 module that would require reconfiguration of the jumpers within these circuits should _not_ be attempted in the field. Replace the faulty module with a spare G235 module and return the faulty G235 module to the factor for repair." These cards are old, component values may have drifted, and so perhaps these might need to be adjusted - but we'll need to work out a procedures for doing so, if so. We _do_ seem to have a test to know _if_ the bias current is properly adjusted - see Section 5.3.4, "Drive Current Checks", and also for the strobe delay (Section 5.3.3, "Sense Strobe Delay Checks"). So I guess in theory, if a G235 card fails one of these tests, we could change the smallest value jumper, and see if that made things worse or better, and then loop. So perhaps all is not lost. The second is that I was worried that these boards were 'tuned' to be part of a set. E.g. one of the components, in the circuit that the W5-W7 jumpers are part of, is a thermistor on the core stack board. I couldn't tell if the jumpers were just for dealing with component variations on the G235 board, or if they also include variation elsewhere - i.e. that MM11-U's came as tuned board sets which should not be 'mix and matched'. However, that second chunk of text I quoted alleviated that concern: apparently one _can_ replace one G235 with another, without swapping out all the boards in the set. Which means that the 'mixing and matching' that has happened to these boards since they were removed from their machines (I myself am guilty of this - I pulled a couple of MM11-U sets, and didn't carefully keep the boards in their original sets) has probably not caused any problems. Noel

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

cctalk Digest, Vol 20, Issue 29

by fred＠MISER.MISERNET.NET

On Mon, 29 Feb 2016 cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > From: Murray McCullough <c.murray.mccullough at gmail.com> > Subject: Techno-savvy... > Message-ID: > <CAMvyYF-YXr8XFD4q9d1uZrOBBfUgnS=e=NTM8zSGTermw-tT2A at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > What is a techno-savvy student? Can classic computers possibly give an > answer? I used early microcomputers in my electronics classroom I > taught in the 70?s. Computers back then were rather primitive, not > much better than calculators, but did mimic human learning ? well [story cut] I liked this story, reminded me of my education in the late 80's early 90's - I was the "computer go to guy" so instead of the shiny new PS/2's the district had recently purchased they "stuck" me witth the 5150 in the back that no one wanted to use. The things I was able to make that thing do with just two floppies.... :) > > So what is a techno-savvy student now: Conversant in using a > technological gadget to enhance his/her life? Or being able to build a > computing workstation in high school? Or for simply possessing a basic [chop] Whenever this comes up in the context of today's youth (where they tell me they'll take my job one day) I just have to laugh. The vast majority (not all, as that would be unfair, and I have met some younger than me folks that know their stuff) of youth today know how to USE the device, but not necessarily how to fix it if it breaks physically or logically (I'll leave out that fixing of these tablets/phones/pads physically is usually a board swap ....). As Kirk said in Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, "You have to learn WHY things work on a starship." Fred

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

'motherboard' etymology

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Does anyone know the origins of the term 'motherboard'? I've always associated it with computers and assumed that it started appearing somewhere around 1980, with the fading out of passive backplane systems and arrival of machines which put more functionality onto a 'core' PCB into which other cards were plugged. I don't recall ever seeing it used when referencing earlier big iron, but maybe I've just missed it. I had the case lid off a Fluke digital multimeter which hails from 1972 earlier, and was surprised to see it written as part of a warning there ("ensure that all cards are securely plugged into the motherboard before applying power", or similar - unfortunately I didn't grab a photo at the time). cheers Jules

10 years, 2 months

11
14
0 0

R: CP/M version 2.1 found

by supervinx＠libero.it

Where do you live? I guess I'm too far to help, but I'd like to have that image and look into it... -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: David Griffith <dave at 661.org> Data:29/02/2016 09:24 (GMT+01:00) A: cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: CP/M version 2.1 found I found an 8-inch floppy disk labeled with "CP/M V2.0 9/4/79" which is crossed out and replaced below with "CP/M V2.1 7/13/80".? I don't see mention of version 2.1 at http://www.cpm.z80.de.? Do I have something unique?? Who can I trust to image this and put the contents on the net? -- 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?

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

3B2 Diagnostics

by lists＠loomcom.com

Hi all, There's an image of a 3B2 Diagnostics disk floating around, but I'd like to try to confirm what model of 3B2 it was built for. I'm trying to run the "filledt" program from this diagnostics disk on my 3B2/400 emulator, and seeing some REALLY weird behavior. There are several ways to transfer control in the WE32100 CPU. You can CALL a procedure, which saves minimal state; you can GATE to a procedure, which is what interrupts to, and save more state; or you can CALLPS, which is a full process switch and saves the most state. My simulator can't run the "filledt" program because it is trying to CALL a ROM routine that expects to have been GATE-ed to. The procedure looks back in the stack for the last saved PSW, which isn't there. Sorry for the technical wall of text, but long story short: I don't know whether there is a bug in my simulator leading to this behavior (likely), or whether the 3B2 Diagnostics disk was built for the model 500 or 1000, which have totally different ROMs with different procedures at different vectors. Does anyone have a 3B2 diagnostics disk that is 100% verified to have come with a 3B2/300 or 3B2/400? -Seth -- Seth Morabito web at loomcom.com

10 years, 2 months

3
3
0 0

MM11-U/UP core memory backplanes

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan > I will see what else I have available. As far as I have been able to determine, the only backplane that supports the MM11-UP is the MF11-U backplane. Does anyone know of anything else that does? Noel

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Fw: new important message

by julian＠twinax.org

Hello! New message, please read <http://hydrodevices.kiev.ua/means.php?4w0> julian at twinax.org

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

CP/M version 2.1 found

by dave＠661.org

I found an 8-inch floppy disk labeled with "CP/M V2.0 9/4/79" which is crossed out and replaced below with "CP/M V2.1 7/13/80". I don't see mention of version 2.1 at http://www.cpm.z80.de. Do I have something unique? Who can I trust to image this and put the contents on the net? -- 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?

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

MM11-U/UP core memory backplanes

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan > My thought is that with my PDP 11/05 with S chassis / BA11-K. Urr, if you're talking about the backplane the CPU is in (which can hold one MM11-U), I think you're out of luck: there's no slot for the M7259 parity controller to plug into (at least, one the one in the -11/05S-10S manual). Noel

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Dumb Terminal games (was Re: Looking for a small fast VAX development machine)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 12:38 AM, Richard Loken <rlloken at telus.net> wrote: > On Mon, 22 Feb 2016, Mouse wrote: > >>> Computer games require all you can give them [...] >> >> Only if your idea of "games" is "slick-looking realtime 3D-rendering >> games". There are lots of games that work perfectly well on 3100-class >> (and even slower) machines, such as roguelikes (rogue, larn, hack, >> etc), text adventures (ADVENT, DUNGEON, etc), phantasia, Seahaven, >> Klondike...the list is long. > > But those are Computer Games! Not computer games. It is a long time > since I have played rogue. I've been meaning to ask this question since I started cleaning up terminals this year... what are some favorites? Some of the obvious classics are: Adventure Zork (and anything else on a Zmachine) Scott Adams Adventures Wumpus Anything in Dave Ahl's "101 BASIC Computing Games" Empire Star Trek rogue/hack Larn/Ularn But what are some other favorites? I've been running a monthly "retrogaming night" at our Makerspace and so far have brought out a C-64, a PPC Mac, and an 8032 PET. I'm looking to add a PDP-8 (via Oscar Vermuelen's PiDP-8, for portability) and (at first) a simh RT-11 box and/or VAX running VMS, though I have plenty of real DEC gear - it's a matter of transport and storage space). I have a VT220 and an IBM 3101 (very VT52-like with a working terminfo entry) already on site and can add additional terminals if this becomes popular (I may drag in a VT52 just for the excuse to clean one up). I have the Commodore end pretty well covered. I'm looking for suggestions for 80x24 text games that can be played on an ANSI (VT100) terminal and especially non-ANSI (VT52 or that IBM 3101) on Unix/Linux, VMS, and RT-11. So in general, anything that uses curses or direct ANSI sequences or just spews text to a glass tty. -ethan

10 years, 2 months

16
23
0 0

MM11-U/UP core memory backplanes

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan > Very useful, thanks. Eh, de nada - glad to help contibute to the knowledge base. > I will try this. With MM11-U gear, or MM11-L? I ask because, like I said, I still don't have 100% clarity on the MM11-L situation. I am pretty sure there are old MF11-L backplanes that can't be upgraded to parity this way (i.e. removing the jumper), and may not be upgradable to parity at all (i.e. it might take etch cuts that are 'impossible', if they are on the bottom side of the PCB). There's that jumper that should be there on non-parity units, but does not seem to be there on some older backplanes (so you can't remove it to make the backplane parity-capable); arguing that it's probably hard-wired in the etch on those older backplanes? And there seem to be a couple of pins that need to be bussed acros, for the MM11-L units to 'talk' to the parity controller. And if the parity jumper isn't there, logically those bussing etches might not be there either. So I have a little work ahead of me with an ohm-meter... Speaking of the jumper, and bussed signals: the parity board input pin that that jumper is connected to (when the parity board is not there) must be bussed to all three group locations in the MF11-L backplane, as a wired-OR of their proto-SSYN outputs. If it were daisy-chained among the three groups, you've have to put the board sets in in a specific order, no? (Otherwise a gap would lose the signal from the group(s) on the far side of the gap.) And there's nothing like that in the manual. Something else to check out on the prints and/or with a meter.. Anyway, please report back on your experiences, so if there's any useful info you pick up, we can learn from it. Noel

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Looking for a small fast VAX development machine

by stark＠mit.edu

I work on Postgres and we have always claimed to support VAX machines but have the caveat "Code support exists for M32R and VAX, but these architectures are not known to have been tested recently." in our documentation. Recently I started a project to get a member in our build farm building Postgres for VAX to fill this gap. So far I've been using simh but I would be really interested in getting a decently fast VAX that doesn't take too much space (or power) to run builds on. I am currently in Europe (Dublin) but will be visiting NYC, Florida, and Montreal in the upcoming months so this is a good chance for me to pick one up without paying exorbitant shipping if there's any around. -- greg

10 years, 2 months

28
63
0 0

Another MEM11 Status update

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

I've been simulating parts of the MEM11 FPGA since the last time I sent out an update. Most of my time has been writing various testcases and getting them to work on Xilinx's iSIM simulator. I'm making pretty good progress and have tested a fair number of the modules in the MEM11 FPGA design. I have found some bugs in my code but most of the problems have actually been in my test cases. So far I've tested (and they "work"): * Various "register" modules that I've written * Reset sequencer * Status jumpers and status LEDs * LED panel interface for the RF11 LEDs * FRAM interface * absolute and periodic timers * Hardware multiplier * DMA FIFO These all form the high level blocks that the J1 micro will interface to. My test code is actually using the registers and register addresses (MMIOs) that the J1 would use. The next blocks to test are the UART interface and all of the various aspects of the UNIBUS interface (which I've partitioned into about 6 distinct modules each of which will be tested separately). I'm still undecided with the UART as to how far to go in creating a behavioral model for the UART part itself (vs just making something that has the appropriate number of registers and can "wiggle" the interrupt line). I did create a behavioral model for the FRAMs but that was relatively easy (just some big arrays). Once I have the UNIBUS tested out, I'll figure out how to get the J1 to execute some test code and I'll re-run all of the tests on the full FPGA design with tests on the J1. I'm pretty excited as I'm not finding a lot of issues with the design. However, the UNIBUS modules may have more issues due to the relative complexity of what's going on there. Plus the test cases will be much more involved (ie I have to write tests to not only initialize the various aspects of the UNIBUS module but also generate correct UNIBUS transactions with correct timing). However, I'm getting better at writing the testcases and what I usually run into now are typo's. TTFN - Guy

10 years, 2 months

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Omnibook 425/430 drivers?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- Got myself a small toy, an Omnibook 430 (486sx-25, non-backlit VGA display, runs off 4x AA batteries. fun.) It came only with the "System" Card (as opposed to the "System/Applications" Card), which has just enough to boot DOS and provide a few utilities, but nothing more. I'm working on getting Windows 3.1 running and I'd like to find an appropriate driver for the mouse, socket services, etc. I've pulled the drivers and utilities off of the System/Application card >from my Omnibook 300, and it's sort of working, but there are issues (the mouse stops working after the system goes to sleep, for example). I haven't been able to find a source for these (and HP's site has nothing, of course...) Anyone have any leads? Thanks, Josh

10 years, 2 months

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VAX-11/730 success!

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

Thanks to those who helped and advised; I discovered a problematic pin on the TU58 10-pin DIP connector. With this fixed, TU58EM worked correctly and the console code loaded. The CPU passes diags as far as the RL02 test; not surprising as there's no RL controller or drive - or the special diag pack! - installed. On a point of order... is there any reason an Emulex UCxx Unibus SCSI controller wouldn't work in this machine? Anyone with any experience there? If it emulates an MSCP disk closely it should Just Work? I'm thinking a SCSI2SD solution to give me a reliable one-box system... Mike http://www.corestore.org 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

10 years, 2 months

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Xenosoft in New Haven CT?

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

A friend asked me if I had heard of a company called Xenosoft.... Now why does that sound familiar, in regards to this bunch here? Her daughter was contacted by a headhunter about a clerk position in New Haven CT.... -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818 --- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech -http://certification.comptia.org/ --- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst -http://www.ThinkHDI.com/ Registered Linux user number 464583 "Computers have lots of memory but no imagination." "The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back." - from some guy on the internet.

10 years, 2 months

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MM11-U/UP core memory backplanes

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I have some MM11-U UNIBUS core memory cards, and in trying to locate a backplane to plug them into, I remembered a story I'd read on Guy's Web-site about some issues he'd had with parity and non-parity operation: http://www.shiresoft.com/pdp-11/11-10/index.html and mention of the backplanes as being specific to parity and non-parity operation. So, I figured I'd better make sure what kind of MM11-U's I had, and get the correct backplane (MF11-U or MF11-UP). So I looked at the prints sets, and... the part number for the parity and non-parity backplanes is the same. WTF? Extensive further digging finally turned up this, in the "MF11-U/UP core memory system maintainence manual" (DEC-11-HMFMA-B-D, 3rd Printing, November 1974): 5.2.3 "Installation Procedure" "A backplane jumper is required from B1U1 to B2U1 for non-parity memory. This jumper should not be present for parity memory." Which makes sense. Apparently, for parity operation, SSYN is routed through the M7259 Parity Controller, and it only issues the SSYN once it has checked that the parity is OK. So, on non-parity installations, the 'proto-SSYN' from the rest of the memory is just hard-wired straight to the output to the UNIBUS (hence the jumper). Also, since the MM11-L system uses the same parity controller board (M7259), it seems a reasonable conclusion that there should be a similar jumper on the MF11-L backplane, and I have found such a jumper on some MF11-L backplanes, but I have yet to find anything in any DEC documentation about it. Speaking of MM11-L/ME11-L/MF11-L backplanes, there appear to be at least four different etch revisions (and I suspect the earliest one cannot be tweaked to run parity, since it _doesn't_ have that jumper on it). But that's for another day! Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Best name for PDP-11/05-10

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mattis Lind > The NC is in the BA11-D 10 1/2 inch box. It uses the H750 PSU. Odd. I have an -11/10 in a 10-1/2 box with an H750; the metal plate on the back of the box just says "PDP 11-10" (well, the '-' is actually a dot, at the level of the '-'). No 'NC'. I wonder if that's a configuration designator, not a model? {At this point, IRL, I did a whole lot of reading and looking.} I looked in some old PDP-11/05-10 price lists... (More "11/21"s... :-), and did find some -11/05 models with pretty large alphabetic model designators, e.g. "11/05-LB", but no "11/10-NC". However, the "Options and Modules List" online from June, 1974 _does_ list the "11/10-NC" - it describes it as "KD11-B, BA-11DC 10.5 INCH BOX, MM11-L, KY11-JE, CONFIG 4, 115V". There's also an "11/05-NC", the same except for a "KY11-JD" (that must be for the different number printed on the faceplate). No idea what the "CONFIG 4" means... However, the real victory came when looking in my just-acquired copy of DEC-11-H05AA-B-D.pdf. I see it also includes a "DEC-11-H05AA-B-D Supplement 1", which is the "PDP-11/05, 11/10 10 1/2 inch mounting box and power system" - and that _does_ describe the NC/ND (120V/240V). And those have a slightly different backplane (below) from the ones described in DEC-11-H05AA-A-D; so that's a fourth model of -11/05-10 backplane - and it does differentiate the -11/05N-10N (as I will call them) from the others. > I have three machines with three different backplanes. One 11/05-NC, > one 11/10 in 5.25 inch box and one 11/05-S in BA11-K. What kind of backplane does the second one have; one of the 2xMM11-L CPU backplanes (one with, and one without, an SPC slot), or the 1xMM11-L? > NC can have two MM11-L. No SPC slots. Got it. I was very confused, because the 11/05-10 manual (DEC-11-H05AA-A-D) says that the 2xMM11-L backplane has one SPC slot (the last one, IIRC). However, as noted, the -11/05N-10N apparently has a different backplane, to accomodate the M9970 dual console serial line connector card. (That backplane isn't documented in the DEC-11-H05AA-A-D -11/05-10 manual I'd been looking at - that manual doesn't show a space on the 2xMM11-L backplane for that card). However, the later "PDP-11/05, 11/10 10 1/2 inch mounting box and power system" manual _does_ describe it; and in adding a slot for the M9970, they lost the SPC slot in the 2xMM11-L backplane. So I guess that's the one you're talking about here? > From: Bill Degnan > The more useful box is the S model because the more standard enclosure > can be used for testing other UNIBUS cards more easily or than parity > RAM. ?? How is is better? The BA11-D box will hold hex cards? Or are the SPC slots in the 11/05-10S backplane MUD slots? Or is it just that the BA11-K will hold DD11-C/D backplanes, with MUD slots? (I don't know if there are any MUD backplanes that go into the BA11-D - at least without a hand-mod to the power connector.) Noel

10 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Michael Thompson > The white paper tag for the system configuration says that it was > configured on 3/3/73 with a KC11 processor That's an -11/15, then. The -11/20 has a KA11 processor. So the front panel just says "pdp-11"? Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Keys - Non-Ace was RE: ACE Key codes (xx2247 etc.)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I'll put the list of ACE keys (and codes, as we get them) on a website on the classiccmp server for posterity. Actually, this whole thing came up in my brain due to tracking down keys for a Pr1me machine (non-ace). But I did find there is apparently a service http://key.me where you take a picture of your key with their app, and they mail you a copy (or if there is a kiosk of theirs in your area, you can do it real time there). They must have some "internal representation" of a key such that a key (any key, any size, including car keys that are those "grooves") can be stored "digitally" and downloaded. I wonder if similar art exists such that we could store "whatever is necessary" to reproduce keys other than ACE ones (rack cabinets, etc.). It would have to be something that can be presented to a locksmith to make... Just a thought... J

10 years, 2 months

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QI Series M, episode 16, Misconceptions...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

To start with, I guess I should warn those who are not familiar with this program that the humor is not for everyone. It goes from very interesting and intellectual (the title "QI" stands for Quite Interesting) to the scatological and rather crass. Anyway, that said, in the episode referenced in the title, the host, Stephen Fry, explains Moore's Law. As he does so, he shows a number of vintage computer items borrowed from Bletchley Park. The episode is the latest one (aired last week I think) and is available on YouTube. Bill S.

10 years, 2 months

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Searching a sparepart 82c42pc

by marco＠familie-rauhut.eu

Hello list I am trying to restore an Wandel and Golterman Spectrum Analyzer. In the Analyzer is a 486DX2 Computer. This Computer did not save some bios settings. So i think that the CMOS ram has a failure. Did some one have a 82c42pc in dil40 package as spare part? If yes, please contact me off list. Marco

10 years, 2 months

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SIM4-01 and MP7 programmer cards

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

I know this is kind of obscure but I thought I'd see if anyone was interested in the program I wrote. It is for the SIM4-01 and MP7 boards. Normally these two boards would plug into a mother board called the MCB4 but I've seen a few cases on the web that they'd been wired from socket to socket. Normally they'd be used with the A0540, A0541 and A0543 EPROMs to program 1702As on the MP7 cards. The data for the proms would be sent to the SIM4 board over a serial current loop at 110 baud. It was in what Intel called a BPNF format. Each bit of the byte would be sent as either a P or N for the 8 bit data width. This extends the programming time for a 1702A from a little over 2 minutes to over 7 minutes. I still use my SIM4 setup to occasionally program one or two 1702A for friends. Recently, I was given a large number to program. I did these slowly a 7 minutes each. I soon realized I could write some 4004 code to copy the EPROMs. I'd only need to down load the first one at 7 minutes and the reset at 2 minutes each. There were some issues, the SIM4-01 only has 256 nibbles of memory, unlike the SIM4-02 that has more. There was code for the larger board in one of the manuals on bitsavers but the code was written for the larger memory. I needed to make a two pass system and it expected there to be a copy from socket. This required a complete rewrite. The code in the manual did both the 1702 and the 1702A. I really only needed the 1702A part. Non-A parts are as rare as hen's teeth. I also wanted to add some code to do a RAM test since I would use 100% of the character RAM. I wanted to do a March C test but because of size had to settle for a simple data/data complement stuck at test. I wanted every thing to fit into a single 1702A. My first pass code was over 300+ bytes. I needed to reduce down to 256 bytes. I worked on the code for about a week and finally got it down to 252 bytes. I use a simple simulator that I wrote because I don't understand the simulators on the web enough to connect things to I/O actions. I needed to simulate a master EPROM and a copy to EPROM as well as the test switch for sequencing when to put each EPROM in the sockets. There were of course status lights so a person knew what stage they were at. Anyway, I created a program I call onecopy. If anyone is interested in it, I can send them a binary or intel hex file. Dwight

10 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > > Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 19:47:37 -0500 > From: william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date > differences?? OEM? > > are you sure its not H720 rather than 4720? H720 would be the type of > power supply from an original 11. M11 15 would seem like the OEM 11/20 > after they abandoned the 11/10 model. My hunch would be the date code is > late 1970 early 1971. > -- > @ BillDeg: > I looked at the picture of the metal serial number tag again. It is definitely 4720. The white paper tag for the system configuration says that it was configured on 3/3/73 with a KC11 processor, two DL11A serial ports, an MM11E memory, and a H720E power supply. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 2 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 20, Issue 24

by mark＠markesystems.com

From: "GerardCJAT" <gerardcjat at free.fr> Subject: Who, on this list, Owns / Collects / Plays with an HP1000 A or L series ?? > Just curious. > It seems ( at first ) that most collections stops at 21MX ( M/E/F ) era. > Am I correct in my view ? Except for the time I spent as a system manager on a couple of 2000/Access systems, in college, the A-series was my introduction to the 1000 line. I spent several years programming that - all A600s, except at the end when the A400 came out, and all in Fortran-77 under RTE-A. Industrial control systems, mostly, although I did right for in-house use a terminal control package (similar in concept, but by no means execution, to termcap), a full-screen hex file editor, a little mail system, etc.. It really seemed like you could do almost anything you wanted as far as system calls, etc. >from the high level language - shared memory (SHEMA), inter-process communication (using Class-IO), etc. I never ventured in to assembly on it. I hated the full-screen editor (it would write a full screenful of data to the 26xx terminal, which you would then locally then cause it to read it back off the screen), which is why I wrote my own WordStar-like editor. I also ended up with a really nice fully decked-out A600 system, with a couple of terminals, the built-in disk plus a 7912, plenty of memory, and an 8-port mux. Of ourse, like an idiot, I gave all that away to the Salvation Army (the wife couldn't understand its intrinsic value like I did). ~~ Mark Moulding

10 years, 2 months

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AIX Dev CD

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

By any strange chance, does anyone have a really old 2-CD set called "Software Development Solutions for AIX Version 4", Fifth Edition? I guess they were fairly common at one point. If anyone has one they can spare, I'll pay... Thanks! -Ben

10 years, 2 months

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OK, one more question about sending email TO an old VAX

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Assuming I want to send an email message to an older VAX server (Process Software MultiNet V4.1 Rev A, MicroVAX 3100, VAX/VMS V5.5-2 ) that requires one to format their OUTBOUND emails like this: To: SMTP%"bill at myemail.net" How does one send mail INBOUND to this kind of VAX mail from a modern email like gmail? Is it possible to format the header somehow to get the message through? You can't simply send a message to system at microvax3100.vintagecomputer.net how would I format the email address? I could write a PHP program to format the header "wrong" for normal purposes but "right" for the VAX inbound I suppose. Any tips that don't involve creating a gateway nor changing the target VAX itself? Thanks 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>

10 years, 2 months

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Best name for PDP-11/05-10

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > FWIW, I have always heard 11/05 and 11/40 respectively. Good to know that others have the same vibe that I do. > From: Bill Degnan > putting all of that original 11/10 stuff aside :-) :-) > There is a version of the processor handbook with all 4, and there is a > version with just 11/40. I have never seen a processor handbook for > just the 11/35, 11/05, or 11/10 by itself. Good point. BTW, there's often some confusion; some people think the 11/05-10 was the second PDP-11. It wasn't, it's the fourth, and those processor handbooks confirm that. The first 11/45 one is dated 1971, the 11/40 one is 1972, and the one with the four is 1973. > I always treated the 11/05 and 11/10 as separate machines, just as much > as the 11/05 S and 11/05 NC. Can you please remind me again what the differences with the 11/05NC are? I remembered we discussed it, but I'm too lazy to dig through the list archives for it. As far as I know, the original 11/05 and original 11/10 differ only in i) the number on the front, and ii) what options were standard/offered in each; the hardware is entirely identical. > Not sure if there is an 11/10 model S or NC. There is definitely an 11/10S (again, identical internally, AFAIK, to the 05S - the DEC manual for the 05S-10S says exactly that). > From: Paul Anderson > The 11/05 and 11/10 .. use about 6 different backplanes, most of then > listed in the Unibus Troubleshooting Guide. I know of 3, will have to look there to see what else it says. > A lot of people have gotten into trouble thinking all the backplanes > were the same. Yes! I know of two for the 11/05-10: one holds one MM11-L, with four SPC slots; one holds two MM11-L's, with only a single SPC slot. The 11/05S-10S have a different backplane which holds a single MM11-U, and has 3 SPC slots. Needless to say, trying to plug an SPC board into a memory slot, etc will lead to tears (and probably smoke, too... :-) Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Helpful Features in a Debugger

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

While the debugger in question will be for the PDP-11 set of instructions executing under RT-11 (what else would I be asking about), the features needed are the same for most other environments. I am looking for helpful suggestions as to what has been found useful. Obviously, single stepping through a program is really helpful as is the display of each instruction that is executed in a manner similar to what is seen in the assembler listing. Also essential is the ability to display the values of all registers and anywhere in memory while stopped at any given instruction. A number of other ideas are as follows: (a) During a multi-step sequence, stop the sequence when the stack has more then a specified number of words of increase or decrease - each specified separately (b) Set the address range within which the stack must remain or a multi-step sequence is stopped which is similar to (a), but expressed differently (c) Set the address range within which the program counter must remain or a multi-step sequence s stopped Also possible to be checked are specified values that registers have, or don't have, which stop a multi-step sequence. Checks on memory locations can also be included. And a record of which instructions were executed by saving the program counter addresses in a circular buffer allows the user to check for unexpected execution of certain parts of the code. An evaluation of all of the above would be appreciated, especially the last two paragraphs in respect of how useful each might be since the overhead is quite CPU intensive when included any implementation. On the other hand, any time the user single steps through the code, the CPU overhead from the debugger is extremely CPU intensive in the first place. All suggestions and comments are much appreciated!!!!!!!!! Jerome Fine

10 years, 2 months

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QNX - was Re: Minix 3 vs portability

by johnwallace4＠yahoo.co.uk

[snippage for brevity, sorry] Some readers may remember (but most won't) that in 1999, QNX released a freely distributable demo containing their QNX kernel, their Photon MicroGui, an IP stack including Internet connectivity capability, and a graphical web browser which even does JavaScript. So what. Well the so what is that it all fitted on a 1.44MB floppy to run on a PC of that era. Words and pictures: e.g. http://toastytech.com/guis/qnxdemo.html A movie (again from toastytech): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_VlI6IBEJ0 Never used it myself, other than the demo, but it always sounded interesting. Maybe like VAXELN, a well kept secret. have a lot of fun John Wallace ps QNX doesn't have HELP ADVANCED WOMBAT or a newsletter called The Wombat Examiner.

10 years, 2 months

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Best name for PDP-11/05-10

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, what's the best short name for the pair of machines, the PDP-11/05 and PDP-11/10 (which differ only in the nameplate)? I have generally been calling them the '11/05's, since that's what's on many of the extant drawings, manuals, etc - and DEC seems to prefer the '05' in manual ID's, even when the title references both - e.g. DEC-11-H05SS-B-D is the "PDP-11/05-S, PDP-11/10-S system manual", with the /05 mentioned first. However, for the 11/35 and 11/40, which we seem to normally call the 11/40 (again, following DEC's lead - EK-11040-TM-002 is the "PDP-11/40, -11/35 system manual", with the /40 mentioned first), the /40 is the end user machine. With the /05 being the OEM machine, and the /10 end user one, we (and DEC) seem to have picked the OEM variant in one as the 'canonical' model, and in the other, the end-user variant. Maybe this isn't an issue/problem, but I noticed it, and thought I'd see what (if anything :-) others thought. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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VAX 11/730 quickie

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

Just started working on mine - been a back-burnered project for a long time. Unfortunately all the cables were cut when it was dismantled; I was lucky to grab just the CPU. Got it powered up ok - no drama there. I faked cables to the port on the WCS which drives the console and hooked up my trust VT220 at 2400 baud. Nada. No self-test prompt; no ROM> prompt. Maybe I've messed up the faked console cable; I'll check - already tried obvious things like making sure Rx & Tx were crossed (it's a three wire cable according to the schematics - Rx Tx Gnd; no flow control). But I'd like to know more about the assorted LEDs on the CPU boards; maybe there's a clue there if it's not getting far enough into the self-test to display console output. There's a fair few LEDs on the M8391. But the doc I've looked through on Bitsavers doesn't seem to document their meanings and interpretations. Can anyone help on that point? Hopefully this link works: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208521465663997&l=867897c786 Thanks Mike http://www.corestore.org 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

10 years, 2 months

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Offer: HP 1611A logic state analyser with option A80 for 8080 microprocessors

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello list, I've had this HP logic state analyzer for many years now, but never found actual use for it and thus never used it. So I decided that a new home would be more suitable for it. The analyzer comes with the option to debug and analyze 8080 microporcessors. Probes are provided, but no manual. However, there is a small command overview on the front of the keyboard. The system completes the selftest and I did let it run for two hours yesterday. No more tests done, but if anybody wants me to do a specific test, then I can do it, provided you explain to me what to do. Pictures are under http://www.digitalheritage.de/other/hp_1611a/ Make me an offer via private reply. Pick-up in Bonn (Germany) or international shipping possible. However, keep in mind that the system weights 13kg (29 lbs), so shipping is not going to be cheap. Cheers, Pierre ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers moved to: http://www.digitalheritage.de

10 years, 2 months

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Serial analyzers (was Re: VAX 11/730 quickie)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 10:28 AM, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote: > When I was debugging the connection between my VAX and tu58em on my Mac, I ended up buying an old serial protocol analyzer. Notably, I specifically avoided one with the same type of tape drive; I got one with a nice, reliable 3.5" floppy drive! ;) HP 4952? I have two with tapes from the old days (they contain a formatter, and we did wipe some scratch tapes for storage of our analyzer programs, including a PU Type 2 BIND simulator that filled the program memory, but it worked well enough for us to debug SNA BIND sequences in the absence of a real PU Type 4). -ethan

10 years, 2 months

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Wes Clark died yesterday

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Evan Koblentz Now I'm triply bummed that he was sick, and didn't manage to make it to the last VCF East. He was one of the giants - somewhat unsung, but a giant. RIP. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Who, on this list, Owns / Collects / Plays with an HP1000 A or L series ??

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

We will be up for getting one to round out the HP display here When I was in the biz they were out there but we did not sell any parts for them, I remember some developer friends complaining that the A version of RTE version of the os did not have SESSION Let us know if you have one folks even a dead one as it is a physical display only situation *(However if a complete setup running was to be had....that might be fin too!) Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)

10 years, 2 months

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Who, on this list, Owns / Collects / Plays with an HP1000 A or L series ??

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

Just curious. It seems ( at first ) that most collections stops at 21MX ( M/E/F ) era. Am I correct in my view ?

10 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

The PDP-11 at the RICM says "dec pdp 11" on the system configuration paper label on the back, and "M11 15" and "4720" on the metal tag. Unfortunately it has an OEM front panel. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 2 months

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NeWS video(s) with James Gosling?

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

Would anyone out there happen to know the whereabouts of one or more specific videos that were hosted on the Microsoft research web site maybe 10-15 years ago, starring James Gosling, where he talked about NeWS (Network extensible Window System)? I may even be able to dig up the URL for the video(s) when I get home, but it's been dead for a long time now. -- Eric Christopherson

10 years, 2 months

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Wes Clark died yesterday

by cctalk＠snarc.net

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/wesley-a-clark-legendary-computer-engin…

10 years, 2 months

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The AT&T 3B2 is still proprietary

by lists＠loomcom.com

Here's an interesting tid-bit. I just got off the phone with the AT&T corporate archives, where I had hoped to find schematics and internals documentation for the AT&T 3B2. They do have it, but unfortunately they will not give access to any of it because they still consider the 3B2 to be proprietary information. I'm disappointed, obviously, but not all that surprised. 25 years is not a long time for a company like AT&T, and I understand the 5ESS system still runs a 3B20 emualtor. They may even still have support contracts for 3B2 installations, I'm not sure. Anyway, all that aside, will soon have access to a couple of 3B2/310s, so I hope to continue reverse engineering the hardware directly. -Seth -- Seth Morabito web at loomcom.com

10 years, 2 months

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Australian CP/M era computers?

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 02/20/2016 08:26 AM, John Foust wrote: > > Can anyone help idenitfy these? > > https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/46nse6/a_family_member_f… In spite of the floppy drives, I don't think these are general-purpose boxes. The thing that strikes me, given the displays is that they might be graphics workstations of some sort. There's just too much there for a simple floppy-based computer. The problem is that Hitachi is a huge outfit with tendrils in all sorts of industrial areas. --Chuck

10 years, 2 months

3
2
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VMS 5.5 and multinet 4.1 SMTP Question

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I have been working to get my MicroVAX 3100 communicating with TCPIP, and I got pretty far but I ran into a little snag. I don't have it on right now, but anyone wanted to connect for fun it's available from microvax3100.vintagecomputer.net, just give me a few minutes to fire it up. I can telnet in/out and I can send SMTP messages, but I cannot yet receive them (reply to). The issue is with the format of the email address. I was wondering if I must send emails from my VMS 5.5 and multinet 4.1 as such: MAIL> MAIL To: SMTP%"bill at myemail.com" etc.. Is there a way instead to send like this: MAIL> MAIL To: bill at myemail.com" Question #2 I'd like to be able to send messages to my MicroVAX (reply to messages). At present if I try to send a message to SYSTEM at microvax3100@ vintagecomputer.net I get a rejection from the POSTMASTER like this: Bad address -- <SYSTEM> Error -- %MAIL-E-USERSPEC, invalid user specification ':' ------------- I have been reading up and I have narrowed the issue down to the differences between DEC mail format and "modern UNIX". I don't believe anything is being blocked. I am sure if I sent an email from a VAX to my VAX it would work just fine. I am also guessing there is a translation gateway that I need to set as part of the boot up process, and that this is a DECnet issue, not a Multinet issue. I was playing around with *@MULTINET:MR_CONFIGURE *but I am unsure if that's the correct process, or how to store this so it's permanently set. http://crpppc19.epfl.ch/vms/multinet/html/admin_guide/Ch08.htm#E15E104 Anyone have any tips? I don't want to upgrade the system unless I have to. If I find the answer on my own I will post it here. -- @ 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>

10 years, 2 months

2
4
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Copying from a floppy to an SD card?

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

Is there a way to copy a disk from a commodore floppy drive to a SD card if so please enplane how it is done also I have MANY hard to find games if someonr would like to email the Fleet System 2+ I would be happy to trade them a game for it! Thank you all for all the great help you have given me!

10 years, 2 months

7
14
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How to use both a VT-52 and an ASR-33 on a PDP-8A

by cramcram＠gmail.com

Hi, Just looking for suggestions on how best to setup my PDP-8A so that it can use either a VT-52 (current loop version) or an ASR-33. One idea I have is a multi-pole switch to change the baud rate from 110 to 9600 and to also switch the xmit and rcv current loops. Does anyone out there have any other suggestions? Thanks, Marc

10 years, 2 months

4
3
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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by kspt.tor＠gmail.com

On 22 February 2016 at 20:08, <COURYHOUSE at aol.com> wrote: > > > Then there is this information..... > > PDP-11/15 > > > (http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/15#column-one) > (http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/15#searchInput) > > > This is the OEM version of the _PDP-11/20_ > (http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/20) . As gunkies came up a few times during this thread, please beware that those of us who update gunkies in some cases simply try to collect information that's floating around so that it doesn't disappear - gunkies is different from Wikipedia, and is meant to be. Please read http://gunkies.org/wiki/Main_Page, particularly 'Sentences starting with "I seem to recall" are perfectly welcome here' That doesn't mean that there's no trustworthy information there, but there'll be an element of "research", and sometimes hearsay, which Wikipedia doesn't allow. In other words, the output from discussions on this list will sometimes be input for gunkies, in that case it shouldn't be used the other way around.. except for defacto factual stuff like images and linked documents. (In other news, gunkies was recently moved to a "less glacial server", as the admin phrased it.. well, that's the understatement of the century, it's now easy and quick to edit. I mention this because now and then people on cctalk have asked for a place to collect lists of technical information of various types, which are not welcome on Wikipedia. This type of info *is* welcome on gunkies, and now that it's snappy to use it is a real alternative. Feel free, folks.. the only issue is that due to past spam problems it's necessary to email the admin to get an account and write access.)

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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Logic Analyser Polling ....

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

Which is your favourite ? Why you like it and would recommend it ? and .... How often you use it ?

10 years, 2 months

7
7
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dec mid-sized cabinet (TU10/TM11)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I had cause over the weekend to take apart my 8E dual-bay system (the TU10/TM11 is being traded off). I remembered there was some discussion a few weeks ago about the mid-sized dec cabinets with the sloped top front, so figured I'd post a pic. Mine may be somewhat unusual in that the operator controls for the TU10 are on this sloped front at the top rather than the bottom left quadrant of the drive. The rack next to it with the 8E and TU56 has just a blank sloped front in that "PDP 8E Yellow". Picture at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/24884152340/in/dateposted/ J

10 years, 2 months

5
10
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DEC and DG equipment for sale/trade/whatever in Houston TX

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

Hi all, Really hate to do this but been out of work for a while and need to clear out a storage space to save some money. And I figure as much as I'd like these machine working to play with, I'll never actually get to work with them so offering them up for sale, trade for smaller more in line with my other systems items, or if it gets down to it, just get it to a good home though would be nice to get a little something out of it. Have a PDP-11/34 in a rack with an RK05J drive though I suspect the drive isn't any good now. The top of the drive is gone as I rescued this from a scrapper who had started on the drive first. Several disk packs are included but no idea what is on the disks as I didn't get to any point with it where I could tell. I did test out the power supply and then bring up the system itself and seem to run fine. The boards inside from what I recall are RK05 controller (M7254, M7255, M7256, M7257), memory (H-228B, H-222A (x2)), memory parity (M7850), SLU & Realtime clock (M7856 (x2)), an M7814, console interface (M7859), boot roms (M9301YF), and cpu (M8265, M8266). Also have a DG Nova-3 but it is basic case without any boards inside at all. Hope someone is interested and can pick them up as my only other option will be to send it all back to the scrapper. Let me know if you need any more info and I'll do what I can to get it. Not an expert on either system and they are in the back of the storage space so it could take me some time to pull them out to get any info off them. Will have some other stuff to offer up as well as I clear out the space. Best, David Williams www.trailingedge.com

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

seeking Briel micro-altair logo

by dave＠661.org

Does anyone here have the vector artwork for the Briel Micro-Altair? As shipped, these computers have a sticker on the front for the logo. I recently discovered that the local hackerspace has a laser cutter that can also blacken[1] metal plate. I would like to apply a better-looking logo that way. [1] The process, I gather, appears to involve applying a sheet containing resin or something akin to powder coat which is then melted by the laser and sticks to the metal substrate. -- 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?

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan >> Yes, detailed histories might (and many do) indicate that the name >> "PDP-11/10" was originally allocated to what later became the 11/15 > what detailed histories are these that you refer to that say there was > never a single KA11 11/10 sold, not one installed? I didn't say that they said "there was never a single KA11 11/10 sold, not one installed". So I just spent an hour looking through all the standard DEC histories (e.g. Bell, Mudge, McNamara, "Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design", etc, etc, etc, etc, etc) and I was unable to find _anything_ about either the 'first' -11/10; or even the -11/15, for that matter! So I don't know where I saw the mention of the 'first' -11/10 being what later became the 11/15. I _did_ find a mention of the 'first' -11/10 in the 1970 "PDP-11 Handbook" (pg. 1), with the specs as in the 1969 price list. Unlike the -11/15, which did have differences in the CPU itself, it seems that the 'first' -11/10 differed from the -11/20 only in the memory that came with it - i.e. the CPU was the identical KA11 as in the -11/20. So, do you know of any engineering document or photograph of one of those 'first' -11/10's? My bet is that there probably are none - because the machine likely never existed. (Although DEC may have sold a few, what was shipped was probably an -11/20 - with a front panel reading 'PDP-11', which may be why the earliest -11/20's said that - with the configuration listed for the 'first' -11/10.) To repeat: To the extent that one allocates the name "-11/10" to anything, it should, by virtue of the existence of _many actual physical instances_, _marked as such_, be to the KD11-B machine. Noel PS: Amusing factoid: I have a PDP-11/20 price list from April 1, 1972 which lists a "PDP-11/21"! (Versions are -CA, -CB, -CE, -CF.) It's repeated multiple places throughout the list, which leads me to believe it's not a typo.) No idea what that was all about.

10 years, 2 months

3
2
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The AT&T 3B2 is still proprietary

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

how does the mac 8 bell computer I have tie in with ess? thx Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 2/22/2016 1:04:54 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, lists at loomcom.com writes: Here's an interesting tid-bit. I just got off the phone with the AT&T corporate archives, where I had hoped to find schematics and internals documentation for the AT&T 3B2. They do have it, but unfortunately they will not give access to any of it because they still consider the 3B2 to be proprietary information. I'm disappointed, obviously, but not all that surprised. 25 years is not a long time for a company like AT&T, and I understand the 5ESS system still runs a 3B20 emualtor. They may even still have support contracts for 3B2 installations, I'm not sure. Anyway, all that aside, will soon have access to a couple of 3B2/310s, so I hope to continue reverse engineering the hardware directly. -Seth -- Seth Morabito web at loomcom.com

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Then there is this information..... PDP-11/15 (http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/15#column-one) (http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/15#searchInput) This is the OEM version of the _PDP-11/20_ (http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/20) .

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/22/2016 11:50:15 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cisin at xenosoft.com writes: On Mon, 22 Feb 2016, Paul Birkel wrote: > I wonder how long it took them to "figure it out"? I seems that the > family-plan dates to April 1969. When everybody realized and accepted that there would be more than one sub-model, and decided that it might be handy to be able to tell them apart. There may have been some holdouts in some departments, such as silk-screening the panels. By analogy, the phrase "single density" didn't originally exist. After "DOUBLE-density" was developed, THEN "single density" needed a name. Although just sticking with "FM" and "MFM" would have been a lot better! (Although I guess that it was inevitable that marketing would invent "HD", instead of "double data transfer rate MFM".) There were even a few companies that freely intermingled HEADS V density! Intertec/Superbrain decided to call their 5.25" 40 track DSDD, "QUAD density", because it was twice the capacity of the 40 track SSDD! Then, when they added an 80 track DSDD, they caalled that "SUPER density", abbreviated "SD"! So, if you encounter an alien disk labelled "SD", it might be 720K/800K, not 100K. Similarly, if you were to search ancient archives, the phrase "World War TWO" was first used BEFORE there was any mention of "World War ONE". It wan't until a second happened, or was expected, before anybody had any reason to declare the "Great war"/"World War" to be "nuber ONE". So, the use of any sort of "first" name doesn't occur until "second" is expected. Or WW1 was also referred to as the "war to end all wars" some good name sequence comparisons here Ed#

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM? was one version for customer and one for OEM? THANKS IN ADVANCE Ed#

10 years, 2 months

7
15
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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/22/2016 6:33:13 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, billdegnan at gmail.com writes: > > > > The PDP-11/10 was the second processor made in the _PDP-11_ > (http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11) series. > The PDP-11/05 CPU was identical to the PDP-11/10 (KA11-B). The only > difference between the PDP-11/05 and the PDP-11/10 was that the PDP-11/05 > was > made for OEM, while the PDP-11/10 was for end-users. > sort of like the 8 m and 8 f were same but one oem one end user > Ed# at _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) > > > > The second 11/10 obviously. Not the 1st. The first 11/10 was a KA11 I hope I am making my point - I am suggesting that everyone stop quoting and repeating the DEC wiki's on the web. They all need to be updated to reflect this subtle difference. -- @ 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> Bill.... read carefully - - I was talking about the second one that paired with the 11/05 and using it as a comparison in nomenclature like they did with the pdp-8 m or f to show you could have same things but different name depending if for customer or oem. or that is what I was trying to do anyway. ---Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Looking for a small fast VAX development machine

by seefriek＠gmail.com

From: "Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro at linux-mips.org> > I've only ever heard of and saw a single kind of monochrome graphics > hardware for x86 PCs and that was the Hercules Graphics Card (HGC) and its > clones, and these were already gone by early to mid 1990s. The Wyse 700 and Bell Tech Blit were both ISA bus mono video cards. There were others (maybe Radius...Metheus as well?). P.S. - Sorry if I included the whole digest in my previous reply. Long day. KJ

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan > I hope I am making my point - I am suggesting that everyone stop > quoting and repeating the DEC wiki's on the web. They all need to be > updated to reflect this subtle difference. The thing is that there never was a physical PDP-11/10 of the first type, it was just marketing plans; whereas there were/are still many physical -11/10's of the second type. Yes, detailed histories might (and many do) indicate that the name "PDP-11/10" was originally allocated to what later became the 11/15, but to the extent that one allocates the name "-11/10" to anything, it should, by virtue of the point above, be to the KD11-B machine. Noel

10 years, 2 months

2
1
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Minix 3 vs portability - was Re: Looking for a small fast VAX development machine

by seefriek＠gmail.com

On 2016-02-22 11:58 AM, Mouse wrote: > Unix was done on the PDP-11 (something else > before that, I think, but I forget what, and I think it was with the > move to the -11 that it became portable enough to be ported instead of > rewritten). PDP-7, though it was more of a "reimplementation" than a port. The PDP-11 code became (by v6 or so) portable enough that it was subsequently made to run on the (sorta IBM 360-ish) Interdata 7/32 & 8/32, as well as VM/370, in the late 70s. KJ

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

HYPERchannel users?

by auringer＠tds.net

Hi All, Does anyone still play around with HYPERchannel equipment? I have a MultiBus I to HYPERchannel adapter that could use a new home. It is in a Network Systems Corporation box with cables and manual. The model is PIx50. It is in Madison WI (53714). For more information about HYPERchannel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HYPERchannel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Systems_Corporation -Jon

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/22/2016 5:21:06 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, pontus at Update.UU.SE writes: On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 07:16:24AM -0500, william degnan wrote: > > Here is the doc in question. Note is says 11/10 and 11/20 > > http://vintagecomputer.net/digital/PDP11-20/PDP11_Price-List_19691215.pdf Hmm, notice that it says "Turnkey Console" which I believe means it lacks the lights and switches console? /P yes...... there therye was another pdp 11/10 that was a versioon of the 11/05 so in reality there were 2 differt 11/10's one that was a deballed 20 and one that was a 05 variant... as explainedd The PDP-11/10 was the second processor made in the _PDP-11_ (http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11) series. The PDP-11/05 CPU was identical to the PDP-11/10 (KA11-B). The only difference between the PDP-11/05 and the PDP-11/10 was that the PDP-11/05 was made for OEM, while the PDP-11/10 was for end-users. sort of like the 8 m and 8 f were same but one oem one end user Ed# at _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

PCS Cadmus/QU68000 systems

by ramdyne＠gmx.net

Hi, Is anyone interested in PCS Cadmus/QU68000 systems? We at Hack42 have no idea what to do with them. We need to downsize and these take up a significant amount of our space. See http://dev.ramdyne.nl/IMG_2750.JPG for photograph of the stack. If you know other people who are interested in beasts like these, please pass this information on. -- Andreas

10 years, 2 months

2
3
0 0

PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan > I have an original 1969 PDP 11 brochure. In it there are two PDP 11 > model configurations to choose from; the 10 and the 20. For me at least > this throws into question the whole "... the 10 first came out with the > 5 in 1972..." story everyone repeats over and over This is a known 'artifact' in PDP-11 history. DEC originally used the /10 designation for a cost-reduced 11/20. They never produced any, AFAIK - I'm pretty sure (without checking) that machine was re-labelled the /15, and those _do_ exist (I used one BITD). According to DEC documentation, the /15 has a KC11 processor, not the KA11 of the /20 (although I've never been able to find out much about the KC11 - I suspect it was a slightly modified KA11); the main functional difference listed is that it only supports one level of interrupt, not four; power-fail re-start is also optional, not standard. I have this bit set that both the /15 and /20 could be had with the 'simple' front console, that that wasn't the differentiator between them. The later /5-/10 pairing does indeed exist - I have one of each. They are absolutely identical except for the printing on the faceplate. Noel

10 years, 2 months

2
1
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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/22/2016 5:16:27 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, billdegnan at gmail.com writes: On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 7:14 AM, Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at update.uu.se> wrote: > On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 07:07:35AM -0500, william degnan wrote: > > > > I have an original 1969 PDP 11 brochure. In it there are two PDP 11 > model > > configurations to choose from; the 10 and the 20. For me at least this > > throws into question the whole "...the 10 first came out with the 5 > > in1972..." story everyone repeats over and over, unless one must have a > > "10" printed on the console in order to accept a computer model's > > existence. DEC must not have sold many original 10 models, and/or > everyone > > who has a 10 does not realize that's what they have. But, facts are > facts > > and the brochure and price guide I have is what it is. Hoping some here > > will check for themselves and consider it misleading at least to simply > > call the original PDP-11 a "pdp 11/20 without the nameplate". In short, > > the original bare-bones pdp11 was the pdp-11 10, the fully-equipped > version > > was the pdp-11 20. > > I will definitely correct myself in the future. It would be interresting > to see if anyone has a "numberless" machine with the "M11-10" > designation printed on the back, to see if any was actually delivered > (and I wouldn't be surprised if there was). > > /P > Here is the doc in question. Note is says 11/10 and 11/20 hahahha!!!! turnkey console on 10 programmers console on 20 in brochure! Ed##### http://vintagecomputer.net/digital/PDP11-20/PDP11_Price-List_19691215.pdf -- @ 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>

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Fleet System 2+ with the Yello Stickers on the disks!

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

I have the regular Fleet System 2 bur I need a copy of Fleet System 2+ instead of blur the stickers are yellow there a 3 disks. I am hedding to the dr and I will post the manual I got in the unopened box. so pics coming up later today does anyone have a copy of the 3 Fleet System Sisks they could email .e I have many things to trade I will post that stuff later today . God Bless Yall!

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/22/2016 5:14:40 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, pontus at Update.UU.SE writes: On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 07:07:35AM -0500, william degnan wrote: > > I have an original 1969 PDP 11 brochure. In it there are two PDP 11 model > configurations to choose from; the 10 and the 20. For me at least this > throws into question the whole "...the 10 first came out with the 5 > in1972..." story everyone repeats over and over, unless one must have a > "10" printed on the console in order to accept a computer model's > existence. DEC must not have sold many original 10 models, and/or everyone > who has a 10 does not realize that's what they have. But, facts are facts > and the brochure and price guide I have is what it is. Hoping some here > will check for themselves and consider it misleading at least to simply > call the original PDP-11 a "pdp 11/20 without the nameplate". In short, > the original bare-bones pdp11 was the pdp-11 10, the fully-equipped version > was the pdp-11 20. I will definitely correct myself in the future. It would be interresting to see if anyone has a "numberless" machine with the "M11-10" designation printed on the back, to see if any was actually delivered (and I wouldn't be surprised if there was /P Well I owned one in 1980 that just said only PDP 11.... but so long ago do not remember the label when I got a chance to swap some stuff for the 11/20 for the museum I jumped at it.

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/22/2016 5:07:40 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, billdegnan at gmail.com writes: On Feb 22, 2016 4:39 AM, "Paul Birkel" <pbirkel at gmail.com> wrote: > > Agreed; I neglected to mention that mine also is marked in that manner! > Seems like DEC had ramped up to about 15-20 machines/day by mid-September. > > Guess that the front panel graphics guys "didn't yet get the memo". Or > maybe someone was hedging their bets against an ignominious sales failure in > the initial front panel production? > > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Christian > Corti > Sent: Monday, February 22, 2016 4:32 AM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: RE: PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date > differences?? OEM? > > On Mon, 22 Feb 2016, Paul Birkel wrote: > > My PDP-11 is labeled as "S-386" and dated 9/23/70, which I guess makes > > it fairly early in the production run (but I do wonder what the > > initial manufacturing rate was given the relative riskiness of this > > new architecture). Anyone have S# and dates for "plain 11" vs. > > 11/20-marked for comparison? > > Our PDP-11 is labeled as "S-308", the date is 9/16/70. And I think they > called it PDP11-20 from the beginning, as the model number above the serial > number says "M11-20" > > Christian > I have an original 1969 PDP 11 brochure. In it there are two PDP 11 model configurations to choose from; the 10 and the 20. For me at least this throws into question the whole "...the 10 first came out with the 5 in1972..." story everyone repeats over and over, unless one must have a "10" printed on the console in order to accept a computer model's existence. DEC must not have sold many original 10 models, and/or everyone who has a 10 does not realize that's what they have. But, facts are facts and the brochure and price guide I have is what it is. Hoping some here will check for themselves and consider it misleading at least to simply call the original PDP-11 a "pdp 11/20 without the nameplate". In short, the original bare-bones pdp11 was the pdp-11 10, the fully-equipped version was the pdp-11 20. Why DEC temporarily dropped it's pdp-11 10 model from the product line and >from newer price sheets I can't say. Certainly the "10" was gone when DEC rebranded their front nameplates to read "pdp 11/20". I believe the 1969 brochure is on bitsavers, or I think my website has a copy you can download. Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net I had heard a rumor the 10 was an oem version!? does that make any sense Bill? Ed#

10 years, 2 months

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Vaxstation 3100 - I have console access

by bryan＠bceassociates.com

Hi everyone. I'm hoping that one of the VAX experts out there can help me figure out how to get my 3100 booting. I managed to cobble together the necessary cabling and was able to run a "TEST 50" from the serial console. Unfortunately my Google-fu isn't sufficient to help me figure out what the results mean. Here is what I'm getting below. Any ideas where my problem lies? >>> test 50 KA42-A V1.3 ID 08-00-2B-16-58-20 MONO 0000.0001 ? CLK 0000.0005 NVR 0000.0001 ? DZ 0000.4001 00000001 00000001 00000001 00004001 00000000 00000000 MEM 0010.0001 01000000 MM 0000.0001 FP 0000.0001 IT 0000.0001 SYS 0000.0001 8PLN 0000.0001 V1.3 NI 0100.0001 >>> Thanks, Bryan

10 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

or maybe initially they figured to use letters after the 11.... example pdp-11/a pdp-11/E then once out decided to use numbers as a dub designator Ed#

10 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

what was the break point as far as manufacture dates between the 2? Ed# In a message dated 2/22/2016 1:25:31 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, pbirkel at gmail.com writes: Which has always struck me as a bit odd, since the PDP-11 family was designed to be just that, a family. So you'd think that "marketing" would have kept that in mind when designing the first front panel label ... -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Pontus Pihlgren Sent: Monday, February 22, 2016 3:12 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM? The PDP-11/20 was the first PDP-11. I believe the number was added when the other models came out, to discern them. /P On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 03:03:17AM -0500, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? > OEM? was one version for customer and one for OEM? > THANKS IN ADVANCE > > Ed# > >

10 years, 2 months

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PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? OEM?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Ok then it definitely defines the date then of a unit. eons ago when I first had started compute exchange in Phx we had one that just said pdp -11 as I remember it came from Sandia Labs. Currently we have a 11/20 Ed# smecc.org In a message dated 2/22/2016 1:12:16 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, pontus at Update.UU.SE writes: The PDP-11/20 was the first PDP-11. I believe the number was added when the other models came out, to discern them. /P On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 03:03:17AM -0500, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > PDP-11/20 vd one that just says pdp 11 what are the date differences?? > OEM? was one version for customer and one for OEM? > THANKS IN ADVANCE > > Ed# > >

10 years, 2 months

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Looking to buy a Tektronix 405x computer.

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

I've been looking for one of these for ages- I have a lead on a TeK storage tube terminal and will make a trip for it as soon as I can, but I'd love to find one of the computers. I'll pay for one in any condition and shipping from anywhere I can find one. Does anyone have a lead? Please let me know... Thanks, - Ian -- Ian Finder (206) 395-MIPS ian.finder at gmail.com

10 years, 2 months

3
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Schematic for PA68-F (High speed paper taper reader/punch for PDP-8)

by cramcram＠gmail.com

Hi, I'm looking for the schematic for a PA68-F. It's a two high collection of single width M series modules that implements the paper tape high speed reader/punch control for positive bus machines. I found a Typeset 8 document that describes the maintenance for the beast but not the schematics which are apparently in Dec document A-ML-PA68-F. Does anyone out there know where I can download this document? Thanks, Marc

10 years, 2 months

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Any PDP-7 Expertise?

by wkt＠tuhs.org

Hi all. Some of you may know me as the guy who set up the Unix Heritage Society at www.tuhs.org. We've been able to restore some of the old Unix systems to working order, including a PDP-11/20 version from 1972. I've just been given a scan of the assembly listing for PDP-7 Unix which includes the kernel and some user-mode programs. The scans are at http://www.tuhs.org/Archive/PDP-11/Distributions/research/McIlroy_v0/ as the files 0*.pdf. I have this crazy idea that this system could be resurrected to working order on SimH and/or on a real PDP-7. But I'd a) need to learn the PDP-7 architecture, b) write an assembler, c) OCR the scan (manually) and d) spend a lot of time debugging something that has no user manual and may not even work! I thought I'd ask here if there is any PDP-7 expertise that I could lean on if I decided to actually proceed. Many thanks in advance for pointers, suggestions, help. Warren P.S I've already found http://www.soemtron.org/pdp7.html the PDP-7 Reference Manual f75ppdp7prelimumdec64.pdf and http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/pdp7/`

10 years, 2 months

5
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VCF East ** AND WEST ** ticketing is online

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Tickets for VCF East and VCF West are available online. West: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/vcf-west-ti… East: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/tickets/ IMPORTANT: - Exhibitors don't need tickets for Saturday/Sunday (exhibit registration will open soon) - East only: Friday teachers don't need tickets for that day - Bring your kids! Free admission for 17 and younger

10 years, 2 months

1
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H11 Success with XXDP

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All ? I had some time today to work on the second serial port for the H11 I received two weeks ago. I built the second cable for use with the TU58 emulator so I could load tapes into the machine. I loaded up the bootstrap using PDP11GUI, mounted the XXDPD2D tape and hit ?001000G? and it worked! Yea! Next up, locating other bootable TU58 tapes and seeing if those work. Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

10 years, 2 months

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Internal HP docs on 9845 sys?

by fulivi＠tiscali.it

Hi everyone, I've been working for the last few months on implementing the MAME emulator of HP 9845B system. In case you're interested, have a look at MAME development page at https://github.com/mamedev/mame. My emulator mostly works, the main missing thing now is the graphic mode and the ability to load optional ROMs. Anyway, I'm posting here because I'd like to ask you a few questions on HP docs. The last thing I worked on for this emulator is the "TACO" tape driver. I reverse engineered it entirely from sw & the (scarce) docs available enough that it works. So here a few questions for you: * Back in the days, what was the HP approach to document internally-developped chips for its own sw developers? I mean, was there a kind of programmers' guide for TACO chip? Is there any hope someone scanned it and made it available somewhere? I know that for hybrid processors HP made an internal manual titled something like "how they do dat" manual... * Just out of curiosity, what a big company like HP does with its "historical" documents? Do they have an archive where they keep documents & sw from, say, the 70s? Or do they throw everything away when there is some kind of company "shake-up" such as big layoff phases, closing of a site, merging and splitting of divisions? Thank you. -- F.Ulivi

10 years, 2 months

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Another MEM11 update

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Just to let everyone know, I'm making pretty good progress. I just hit "code complete" on the FPGA. That means I've written all of the Verilog code for the FPGA that is the heart of the MEM11. This includes *all* of the Unibus functionality. It all synthesizes for the FPGA and the remaining warnings are all "understood" and best of all it *fits* in my chosen FPGA. Interrupts were fun because I had to figure out how to propagate the bus grants from one (internal) device to the next since their ordering isn't fixed (you can re-arrange the order of the interrupting devices...ie change their slot order). In addition, the interrupting devices aren't fixed to specific request priority...so it ended up being a bit more complicated than I had originally envisioned but once I sat down and thought about it and started writing the code, it wasn't all that hard (just a lot of code). DMA was just a pain but one good side effect is that I created a 1KW(*) FIFO for DMA transactions and the DMA state machine will run as long as there is data in the FIFO. This means that the J1 only has to deal with DMA at the start, end or when the FIFO needs refilling rather than on every word. The DMA also has a programmable "delay" so that it won't swamp the Unibus and starve the PDP-11 CPU. For the RF11 (the only DMA device on the MEM11) this will typically be set to the original transaction speed of the RF11 disks (for 60Hz machines that would be a word every 16us or 19.2us for 50Hz machines). There are configuration settings in the RF11 emulation that specify the rotational speed of the RF11 disks as well as the DMA transfer delay. I'm now off to start writing a bunch of test cases for the various blocks so that I can start to simulate the design. Once I'm happy with the simulation results, I'll start to create the schematic for the MEM11. Because I'm so tight on pins (I'm using 129 out of the 158 I/O pins), I'm having to use some of the "multi-function" pins. The main implication is that I might need to use a small CPLD so that I can switch between the different functions. The main set of multi-function pins that I have to use are the ones used by the FPGA to load it's bit-stream on power on reset. This is an understood problem and isn't something that I have to worry about now. The only impact will be in re-assigning pins so that low speed I/Os (LEDs, and sense jumpers) are only shared with those pins. I'll post another status update once I've made some significant progress on the simulation and testing. TTFN - Guy (*) The reason that I chose a 1KW FIFO rather than something smaller is that the "block RAM" in the FPGA comes in 18Kbit "chunks". So the easiest course was to use one of them configured as 1K x 16 (I'm ignoring the 2 "parity" bits in the "block RAM") as the memory for the FIFO. Since I'm using less than half of the "block RAMs" (all of the other used "block RAMs" are used for the RAM for the J1) I can make the FIFO substantially larger if I need to.

10 years, 2 months

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Then & Now

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

The microcomputer market back when classic computers were the in-thing saw $1000 machines ; software costing $10s or $100s. Today hardware-wise $500 buys a powerful machine while many apps/programs are free or cost in the low $10s. Todays machine are 1000x maybe a million times faster. Interesting history for machines we love! Happy computing. Murray :)

10 years, 2 months

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Panda Display USB prototype boards are in

by dave＠661.org

I just received three prototype Panda Display USB boards from Oshpark. Now to finish the emulator side of the project and I'll have more to offer up for sale. One or two of these prototypes might be available now if you can make a good case for it (ie, you feel comfortable hacking klh10 to get it working with the board). https://www.flickr.com/photos/32548582 at N02/24861506310/in/dateposted-public/ -- 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?

10 years, 2 months

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WTT iPhone 5 for a apple II

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

I am sure a few of you have extra Apple 2's laying around and I have a couple apple iPhone 5 in mint cond please let me know what ya have or a commodore pet. -- *Mike's ?Honda ATC 3wheeler? Shop? for LIFE!!!* * Have a blessed day!*

10 years, 2 months

1
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Apple Lisa I/O board diodes

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Hi folks, 'Decaying battery' panic led me to unearthing my Lisa 2/5 to check the state of the batteries on the I/O board since it hadn't been out of its box or powered up since 2005. Fortunately the damage is very minimal and is only restricted to track discolouration and external rotting of one particular diode which I can't find mention of on my schematics. Anyone with a 2/5 care to check their I/O board for me please? The diode is D8, just above the battery location. It's in the board in such a way as to make its markings pretty unreadable in the pictures I took before cleaning, but it's the only white diode in the machine and I'm guessing it might be a 5.6V 1N4734A based on what I can see. Fortunately it still works for now, 0.7V voltage drop. Pic of the board before cleaning is at http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/LisaIOBoard.jpg Cheers! -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

10 years, 2 months

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got it. RE: Looking for PDP handbook

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Rich and Jay this middle book in this url is the one we have here at museum the thin one Jay is sending you we have never owned. Is it uncommon or?? Yes by all means photo/scan the thing! https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/25092973706/in/photostream/ the 11/40 series books seem to be the ones we run into the most and I should round them all up from the various buildings and keep 2 sets and blow the others out for people to set next to their processors. Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 2/19/2016 4:50:26 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jwest at classiccmp.org writes: Richard wrote... -------------- All -- I've been searching for an online version of the LSI-11 Processor Handbook from 1975 (which I think covers the 11/03) but I can't seem to locate it anywhere. Does anyone have a link to it or, alternatively, a real copy that maybe I can scan? --------------- I probably have several hundred of those dec handbooks, organized by year. I just pulled the one you want... https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/25043539971/in/dateposted/ Richard - it's yours for "the cost of a beer if we ever meet". All I ask is that if one isn't online anywhere, you make reasonable efforts at some point to get it scanned and available to the public. Email me your shipping address off-list. J

10 years, 2 months

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got it. RE: Looking for PDP handbook

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Richard wrote... -------------- All -- I've been searching for an online version of the LSI-11 Processor Handbook from 1975 (which I think covers the 11/03) but I can't seem to locate it anywhere. Does anyone have a link to it or, alternatively, a real copy that maybe I can scan? --------------- I probably have several hundred of those dec handbooks, organized by year. I just pulled the one you want... https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/25043539971/in/dateposted/ Richard - it's yours for "the cost of a beer if we ever meet". All I ask is that if one isn't online anywhere, you make reasonable efforts at some point to get it scanned and available to the public. Email me your shipping address off-list. J

10 years, 2 months

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Looking for a file (HP-UX 11.x)

by mountainlogic-systems＠comcast.net

I have some PA-RISC workstations in storage and an itanium server (that is a bit more accessible) that should both have 11i on them - it amy be a while before I can get to either of them - what would you need? > ------------------------------ > > Message: 28 > Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2016 18:23:31 -0500 > From: Bryan Everly <bryan at bceassociates.com> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Looking for a file > Message-ID: <6592215753613049498 at unknownmsgid> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Does anyone out there have access to an HP-UX 11.x system? I am > looking for a ROM image file for the FX-e video card to help me write > an OpenBSD frame buffer driver for this platform. > > Thanks, > Bryan >

10 years, 2 months

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Looking for PDP handbook

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Problem with scanning those handbooks - it is a destructive process mashing them in a flat bed. Maybe using one of the hold the book and photo the pages works well? or.... find one that is blown apart already... Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 2/19/2016 9:37:50 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, rich.cini at verizon.net writes: All -- I've been searching for an online version of the LSI-11 Processor Handbook from 1975 (which I think covers the 11/03) but I can't seem to locate it anywhere. Does anyone have a link to it or, alternatively, a real copy that maybe I can scan? Thanks! Rich Sent from my iPhone=

10 years, 2 months

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Non-binding-breaking Book scanners (Was: Looking for PDP handbook

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

well... the trick is to have book partially open not cracked and to have 2 cameras for fast production copy and uniform size on the size as cameras are fixed clear material flattens pages sure if just a page or so a camera even hand held works... but if you are humping pages all day long..... you need this thing! Ed Sharpe archivist for smecc _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 2/19/2016 4:37:12 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, tdk.knight at gmail.com writes: Why does someone just take a photo with their camera On Feb 19, 2016 5:09 PM, "Fred Cisin" <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > On Fri, 19 Feb 2016, geneb wrote: > >> *sighs theatrically and shuffles off Fred's lawn* >> > > well, if you had brought beer, . . . > > > >

10 years, 2 months

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Non-binding-breaking Book scanners (Was: Looking for PDP handbook

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

...And when you look at the site you will see guy in dust mask. when scanning fungus ridden or moldy material a must although I prefer a class A respirator. We have an offsite storage we call the tombs and it smells like one... but it is for martial that is biohazzard challenged that we want to scan someday. too awesome to toss but too ucccky to have in the archive, museum area or library. If another copy shows up and/or someone scans a copy then the ucccky held copy is discarded. If not at least a copy is saved here and sometimes we suit up and scan some of it. Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC In a message dated 2/19/2016 12:21:24 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cisin at xenosoft.com writes: >> http://www.diybookscanner.org/ :) > Ooh, that's pretty cool. Yes, but, . . . I've participated in building a few similar devices. Instead of the two sides MEETING in a V, there should be an open area right at the spine to accomodate the greater thickness of the spine itself. Having the two side panels able to slide up and down, with pegs, a few inches would accomodate that and permit a varying amount of spine clearance. Lighting. Ideally, lighting for copy work should be at a 45 degree (1/4PI) angle. That way specular reflection (glare) from glass cover (still needed occasionally!) or even just glossy paper, is not going towards the camera. If the trough faces north/south, then that can be done with light(s) north and south of the unit. Using two lights makes it much easier to get acceptably even illumination. Some people prefer various forms of diffuse light, or coaxial lighting ("ring" light). Having the camera at a fixed position relative to the work holder is great IFF you are doing consistent size. Different sizes could be dealt with through variable focal length ("zoom") lenses, but that is not always the ideal solution. I like to use FLAT-FIELD lenses, which are generally fixed focal length (sometimes called "primary lenses"). Enlarger lenses are an extremely cheap source for those. Being able to move the camera/work distance closer/farther requires a movable mount to change distance, but keep the camera centered relative to the work. North/south motion can be easily handled by moving the book along the trough, preferably with a fence, or simple bench-dog stops. The other motion generally requires the camera mount to be a pole at a 45 degree (1/4PI radians) angle relative to the work. Since the work is at a 45 degree angle from vertical, that means that the pole can be VERTICAL, with the camera mount aimed at a 45 degree angle. The post should be offset slightly from the north/south center, with the movable camera mounts holding the cameras at 45 degree angle (preferably with the focal node close to that central plane). Positioning of the book would require placing it so that it is centered north/south (calibration marks, as well as fence or bench-dogs, are very helpful!) and moving the camera up and down and focussing for distance. NOTE: use of other than 90 degree (1/2 PI radians) for the book holder would require further changes! -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

10 years, 2 months

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Looking for PDP handbook

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All -- I've been searching for an online version of the LSI-11 Processor Handbook from 1975 (which I think covers the 11/03) but I can't seem to locate it anywhere. Does anyone have a link to it or, alternatively, a real copy that maybe I can scan? Thanks! Rich Sent from my iPhone

10 years, 2 months

2
1
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BDV11 'mis-feature'

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I recently discovered that the LTC feature on the BDV11 bootstrap board has a minor issue: the latch that stores the 'LTC enabled' bit is _not_ cleared by INIT (unlike every other PDP-11 device I've ever heard of), but only by a direct store into the LTC CSR, _or_ power cycling (BDCOK, to be exact). This means that once you turn the LTC on using the BDV11, neither an INIT instruction, nor a 'Start' command to ODT, will disable it! Needless to say, it tends to scramble the booting process when an LTC interrupt shows up before the software is ready for one... I _was_ going to ECO the board, to connect BINIT to the clear input of the latch, but... I now think I know why DEC did this. There is no bus receiver on BINIT! (And there is, alas, no empty DIP space I could put one in.) I'm seriously tempted to connect the 'reset' circuitry on the BDV11 to BINIT, instead of BDCOK. That would mean that hitting the reset switch on the BDV11 wouldn't emulate a power cycle any more, but maybe I could live with that - I never use that switch anyway. And it would be _so_ nice to have 'Start' disable the LTC... Noel

10 years, 2 months

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RE: 928 gig classic computer manuals looking for seeders I am going on vacation Ill see y'all Tuesday

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Might be shooting the messenger in this case though? He didn't create the torrent just sharing that he found one and is trying to download it but having trouble due to lack of full copies being shared so he doesn't have it all yet. Unless you meant violation in tos of this mailing list? Just trying to protect him from potential misunderstanding ;-) <div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> </div><div>Date:02/18/2016 1:24 PM (GMT-06:00) </div><div>To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> </div><div>Subject: RE: 928 gig classic computer manuals looking for seeders I am going on vacation Ill see y'all Tuesday </div><div> </div>The OP has blatantly violated what he expressly agreed to. Perhaps someone who is "bitter" has a good reason to be?

10 years, 2 months

2
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Kim 1

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Jose, What model is it and what are you asking about? Selling or seeking help to use it? It would also help folks if you mention where youre located. Members near you may speak up. - John? <div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Jose Manuel <uribecosta123 at gmail.com> </div><div>Date:02/16/2016 10:05 PM (GMT-06:00) </div><div>To: cctalk at classiccmp.org </div><div>Subject: Kim 1 </div><div> </div>I have a Kim 1 board. Please contact. Thanks.

10 years, 2 months

1
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IBM 3101-12 ASCII terminal - need fuse holder

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hello, all, I was just gifted with an IBM 3101-12 ASCII terminal that happens to be missing the fuse and fuse holder. Unlike a lot of 1960s and 1970s gear, it's not round. It's square. Is this a standard IBM thing from the 70s/80s? Anyone know where I could get one? It seems to snap in and probably fell out at some point under its previous owner. Also, I found only a little info on it from Googling. Later IBM ASCII terminals emulated ANSI command or Wyse-50 or something. I couldn't find anything on the 3101. Is it a glass TTY or does it respond to any cursor positioning, etc. commands? Thanks for any tips and info. Worst case, I can bodge in a fuse on the inside, but if I can find a replacement holder, I'd like that more. Thanks, -ethan

10 years, 2 months

6
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928 gig classic computer manuals looking for seeders I am going on vacation Ill see y'all Tuesday

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Josh Dersch > * slow clap * I myself am waiting expectantly for the Encyclopaedia Dramatica page... Noel

10 years, 2 months

1
0
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928 gig classic computer manuals looking for seeders I am going on vacation Ill see y'all Tuesday

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

By the way I found a 900gig of old computer manuals 1955 - 1992 PDF files just trying to find some seeders grrrrrrr I will let yall know when they are done downloading! -- *Mikes ATC Shop A how To Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5OzVS_CmCOLjjztbRiPuKQ?view_as=public 405-481-4715 *

10 years, 2 months

9
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Anyone have DIBOL-11, CTS-300, or CTS-500?

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Does anyone have the DIBOL-11 software, which was packaged for RT-11 as CTS-300, and for RSTS as CTS-500? My immediate interest is for RT-11, though I have a DECdatasystem-570 that I believe was originally sold with CTS-500, so it would be really nice to get that as well. It would also be nice to get scans of related documentation, if anyone has it, including: AA-5519A-TC Introduction to CTS-300 and DIBOL AA-5697E-TC CTS-300 Release Notes and Installation Guide AA-5495A-TC CTS-300 Concepts and Facilities AA-1760F-TC DIBOL-11 Language Reference Manual AA-5972D-TC DECFORM User's Guide AA-5025B-TC CDS-500 DIBOL User's Guide

10 years, 2 months

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DEC VT30-H info

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello Henk, thanks for the link. It talk about two boards (one hex and one quad). In effect mine are hex and quad. But the hex board has three IDC connectors, while the quad only two. My suspect is that the third connector could go to some other module. Do you have the VT30-H system too? Could we compare the boards? About documentation: I can't find the Option Bulletin cited on the text. Thanks Andrea

10 years, 2 months

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PCS Cadmus/QU68000 systems

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

> Hi, > > Is anyone interested in PCS Cadmus/QU68000 systems? We at Hack42 have no > idea what to do with them. We need to downsize and these take up a > significant amount of our space. > > See http://dev.ramdyne.nl/IMG_2750.JPG for photograph of the stack. > > If you know other people who are interested in beasts like these, please > pass this information on. > -- > Andreas Looks like interesting machinery from a German manufacturer! There is a short blurb about them on de:wp (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus_Workstations) saying the PCS QU68000 were based on (who'd have guessed...) a 68000 processor on a QBus (!) while the later models sold under the CADMUS trademark held 68020/030 and, from 1985 on, MIPS RISC processors. They ran MUNIX, a V7 UNIX derivate, with some quite sophisticated cluster integration (network boot, "Newcastle connection" common superroot namespace, networked block devices) enabled by a board called the Intelligent Communications Controller. The outfit even still seems to stick around here (https://www.pcs.com/en/company/history/the-history-of-pcs/), albeit manufacturing access/time registration/industrial data terminals nowadays. As usual, if somebody from Germany conducts an operation on those and doesn't know where to put all of them, I'm willing to help out with collecting and re-homing. (I may also have an opportunity to collect a couple of them in the Netherlands if there are any left by/can be held onto until end of May 2016. I'd wish for one of each significantly different type but this is not a reservation but a "last resort" deal if they'd go to trash otherwise. Basically, if anyone else comes along offering a good home for them, I'm happy to stand back.) TIA, Arno

10 years, 2 months

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Possible HP 250 available in Germany

by sieler＠allegro.com

Hi, There may be an HP 250 available in Germany. If interested, please email me directly, sieler at allegro.com thanks, Stan

10 years, 2 months

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Kim 1

by uribecosta123＠gmail.com

I have a Kim 1 board. Please contact. Thanks.

10 years, 2 months

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Old MOS Mask-Programmed ROM forgetfulness?

by rickb＠bensene.com

Hi, all, I have a question about old Mask-Programmed ROMs The part in question is the National Semiconductor MM5231. This part is a 2K-bit PMOS Mask-Programmed ROM, generally organized as 256x8, but also can be organized (via a MODE pin)as 512x4 bits. In this particular application, the parts are used as 256x8. I'm wondering if anyone knows if these particular ROMs (from the '72 timeframe) have a tendency for bit rot over the years? I know some of the early MOS ROMs had issues with metallization creep that would cause data loss/corruption. I have an old calculator that uses these ROMs as the micro and macrocode stores. The machine is catatonic, though the power supplies, master clock oscillator and divider circuitry, and the other obvious stuff are OK. I suspect it is probably stuck in some kind of microcode loop, just cycling around doing nothing. I have not yet put logic analyzer on the microcode latches yet, but that's probably my next experiment. Sadly, if one or more of these ROMs (there are 18 of them!) has failed, it likely means that the machine can't be restored to operation, as this is quite a rare machine, and there just aren't many of them left around. I have three different EPROM programmers, but sadly, none of them have the capability to read these parts. I was I had a Data I/O programmer, but alas, haven't come across one with all the Unipak modules I'd need at a price I can afford. Thanks, -Rick --- Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com

10 years, 2 months

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DEC VT30-H info

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I just acquired two DEC modules, M8295 and M7114. These appear to be a video system for unibus, named VT30-H. I don't find any info about these boards... There's some documentation around? Is the system complete or some other card is required? Thanks Andrea

10 years, 2 months

2
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PCS Cadmus/QU68000 systems

by ed＠groenenberg.net

On Wed, February 17, 2016 06:59, Arno Kletzander wrote: >> Hi, >> >> Is anyone interested in PCS Cadmus/QU68000 systems? We at Hack42 have no >> idea what to do with them. We need to downsize and these take up a >> significant amount of our space. >> >> See http://dev.ramdyne.nl/IMG_2750.JPG for photograph of the stack. >> >> If you know other people who are interested in beasts like these, please >> pass this information on. >> -- >> Andreas > > Looks like interesting machinery from a German manufacturer! > > There is a short blurb about them on de:wp > (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus_Workstations) saying the PCS QU68000 > were based on (who'd have guessed...) a 68000 processor on a QBus (!) > while the later models sold under the CADMUS trademark held 68020/030 and, > from 1985 on, MIPS RISC processors. They ran MUNIX, a V7 UNIX derivate, > with some quite sophisticated cluster integration (network boot, > "Newcastle connection" common superroot namespace, networked block > devices) enabled by a board called the Intelligent Communications > Controller. > The outfit even still seems to stick around here > (https://www.pcs.com/en/company/history/the-history-of-pcs/), albeit > manufacturing access/time registration/industrial data terminals nowadays. > > As usual, if somebody from Germany conducts an operation on those and > doesn't know where to put all of them, I'm willing to help out with > collecting and re-homing. (I may also have an opportunity to collect a > couple of them in the Netherlands if there are any left by/can be held > onto until end of May 2016. I'd wish for one of each significantly > different type but this is not a reservation but a "last resort" deal if > they'd go to trash otherwise. Basically, if anyone else comes along > offering a good home for them, I'm happy to stand back.) > > TIA, > > Arno > Yes, those were nice machines. I worked with these systems in '84 - '87 and did visit their premises in Munich a few times. It was a small office/factory building in the mids of a housing area. Ed -- Ik email, dus ik besta. BTC : 1J5fajt8ptyZ2V1YURj3YJZhe5j3fJVSHN LTC : LP2WuEmYPbpWUBqMFGJfdm7pdHEW7fKvDz

10 years, 2 months

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PDP-11 COBOL-11 or COBOL-81? (was Re: Anyone have DIBOL-11, CTS-300, or CTS-500?)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

DIBOL-11 seems quite rare these days. Is COBOL-11 or COBOL-81 any easier to find?

10 years, 2 months

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For sale PDP 11/45 + TU56 + more

by jasper.wijnands＠gmail.com

Hello, For sale rare PDP 11/45 mini computer Included: - TU56 Tape transport - Cardbuses - Original DEC Schematics Accepting offers. Please mail to jasper.wijnands at gmail.com. Located in The Netherlands. Kind regards, Jasper Wijnands pictures: [image: undefined] [image: undefined] [image: undefined] [image: undefined] [image: undefined] [image: undefined]

10 years, 2 months

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Couple of Xerox 6085 questions

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

1. Anyone who has played with Xerox systems will have encountered the dreaded 0937 code at boot time; it means "I have been configured for network operations. I abjure the world and will wait until hell freezes over before continuing the boot - unless I get the time from a network time server!" This is inconvenient and frustrating at times. Netware IPX/SPX is basically Xerox XNS implemented pretty much unchanged; does anyone happen to know if a Netware server can provide network time server functions - and in a way that a Xerox workstation would grok? 2. I haven't powered up my 6085s in a long time - at least 5 years; maybe 10 for some of them. The results have been most disappointing. They won't even *start* POST - and/or they give a rolling screen with no sync - and/or a blank screen - and/or they pass POST but won't boot with an 0151 error. I've tracked these down in most cases to flaky IOB boards. These boards hold the system PROMs. Anyone else seen similar issues? Could it be bit rot in the PROMs? Is that a known thing with 6085s? Thanks Mike

10 years, 2 months

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Looking for printers: Epson Stylus Pro 9000, Epson 9500, Lexmark 7000 Z11

by sieler＠allegro.com

Hi, I'm looking for some old inkjet printers for a legal partner: Epson Stylus Pro 9000 Epson 9500 Lexmark 7000 Z11 They're from about 1998 or 1999. They probably have fixed nozzles across the page, no moving head. Assuming they're of the correct vintage / acceptable, a bounty will be paid. thanks! Stan Sieler sieler at allegro.com Cupertino, CA

10 years, 2 months

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Apple Lisa 2/10 for sale

by ramdyne＠gmx.net

Hi, We at Hack42 have an Apple Lisa 2/10 for sale at http://www.ebay.nl/itm/121893065311. When we powered it up for the last time 18 months ago, it appeared to be working (no nasty smells etc) but we didn't test it very much. What has happened since is anybody's guess. Note: shipping to the US is *really* expensive, but within Europe is only slightly less painful (with packaging it'll reach 25kg easily). Pickup is an option. -- Andreas

10 years, 2 months

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VAX/VMS media

by auringer＠tds.net

Hello all, I have a bunch of VAX/VMS media that need a new home. I must move them very soon and I have little time for shipping. Pickup from 53714 (Madison, Wi) preferred. 16MT9: VMS V5.3 BIN 1/2 & 2/2 in shipping box with docs VMS V5.3.1 BIN 8" floppy media: VAX/VMS 3.4 5 disks VAX/VMS 3.6 VAX/VMS 3.7 VAX/VMS 4.0 3 disks VAX/VMS V4.1 UPD BIN 4 disks VAX/VMS V4.2 BIN RX01 MANDATORY UPDATE VAX FORTRAN 3.4 VAX PASCAL 2.3 Microfiche: VAX/VMS 3.6 SRC LST VAX/VMS 4.2 SRC LST -Jon

10 years, 2 months

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IBM (Sony) PowerDisplay 20

by stefan.skoglund＠agj.net

Howdy. I connected one of theese (i have two) to an PC last night. Blemishes: the text is blurry wrong color tones (a little bit red) so how much can i do with the display picture setting buttons ? I'm thinking about connecting one of them to a Sun 10 (but i do have a bunch of RS 6000 PPC machines.)

10 years, 2 months

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1
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Tool to convert between Motorola FFP and IEEE754 float formats?

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

Hi, Does anyone know of a tool which can convert between Motorola's FFP (Fast Floating Point) float format and IEEE754? I'm trying to reverse-engineer some ancient 68k code which uses the FFP library, but a load of the floating point constants have been hard-coded as hex constants, which is making things hard to interpret... I've tried to convert the 68k assembler in FFPIEEE.SA to C, but I must have missed something because it just isn't working... Thanks, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

10 years, 2 months

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Stuck bits on 11/73 Clearpoint 4MB memory - how to repair?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jacob Ritorto > I struggled for hours with inadequate eyesight, tools and materials, > but I think I got this mod done! That was quick! I had an 11/23 on my workbench that had had that backplane mod, so I took it apart to take a picture, to help you, but I guess that's OBE... :-) > the machine's stuck in self-test at error 47, Memory CSR error. It's not clear that that's really a hardware problem. DEC makes assumptions about how many memory CSRs there will be, etc, and some third-party board 'fail' when they don't meet those expectations. I have a Clearpoint QED1 (I think that's the one, didn't check) that does that. > What I assume is the parity light on the third party "Clearpoint QRAM-2 > SPB-1 88B" lights during self test. I've found no documentation for this > sucker as yet.. I have a PDF of the "User Information Manual" for the Clearpoint Q-RAM 88B. (Oh, I see, later message says you found it.) No prints, alas. Anyone have any we can scan and put online? > I'll have to find my rl02 controller and build the system up some more > so I can run xxdp and find out what exactly died. I would tend to use diagnostics as 'help', not my main tool in diagnosing faults. This is particular true as really bad issues can prevent the diagnostics from loading/running, so if you get skilled at fault analysis without depending on them, you're better situated to deal with the failures that prevent using them. > Can anyone offer hints as to how to identify which component is broken > and how to go about repairing this? As other have said, lacking the prints, pulling chips (if they are socketed) ought to enable you to work out which chips goes where. (I'v worked out the chip layout for a number of un-documented memory cards this way.) I don't know about your 88B, but the one I have photos of, and my other Clearpoint cards, the chips are in sockets. With luck yours will be too... If not, ask if someone has one with sockets (alas, I don't have an 88B), who can do the mapping for you. Important: once you have worked it out, pass it along! I'm trying to upload all the data I've collected about cards for which no documentation is available to the Computer History wiki. > It's the only memory board in this machine, so I guess the problem > might actually be a bus or processor board, right? Could be. I have an KDJ11-B which has stuck bits, and that's the CPU board, so yours could be to. > I have no other q-bus memory to test with, so can't do swapping / > process of elimination to be sure. It's definitely worth having another small QBUS memory card to use in fault isolation when debugging. M8044's are readily available on eBay for about $20. They are only Q18, so not usable in the same machine as Q22 memory, but they are useful for debugging. I would definitely invest in one. (If you luck out and get a bad one, send it to me, and I'll swap it for a known good, tested, one. I've fixed a whole bunch of them, got to the point where the last one I did for someone I didn't even have to pull out my 'scope! I could tell from the symptoms exactly which chip to replace! :-) > From: Jay Jaeger > Well clearly it is only affecting certain address bits - or the > diagnostic would not run at all Well, like I said, I do have a KDJ11-B which will run the on-board startup diagnostic, but which has a bit stuck hard on the QBUS interface! So those machines seem to be pretty resilient. Although as you point out, if he can load and run the diagnostic, it's probably not the CPU. > note that it is starting at 010000000, so that points to the memory Yup. If some locations work, and others don't, it's almost certainly the memory. And since he's only dealing with a single memory card, it's probably not the bus drivers/receivers on that card, either. One can use ODT on the KDJ11-B to poke around, and find the envelope of the problem. (See comments above about not relying on diagnostics! They are better for saying something's busted, than for accurately telling what _is_ broken.) With that, and a chip->memory map, it should be fairly easy to replace the offending chips. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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QSIC update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > Have you guys thought about a panel that would connect to the KM11 > connector slots of real rk11/tc11 controllers? Umm, Guy sells KM11 clones? (I just bought a pair, they look really nice.) Or did you mean something else? Speaking of things Guy has, Dave is talking about adding a switch that would turn a QSIC+indicator panel into a QAV-11... :-) Noel

10 years, 2 months

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QSIC update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So here's a quick update on where Dave Bridgham and I are with the QSIC, since I think we have reached a significant milestone. We have the first of two wire-wrap prototype QBUS motherboards more or less (see below) done, and working to do slave cycles on the QBUS. (I.e. we implemented a simple register, and can write it, and read the contents back.) A test program to write all 2^16 possible values, and read them back and check them, ran several thousand complete passes with no errors. To get there, we (Dave, really - he bore the brunt of the work on this problem, and finally conquered it) had to tackle and fix some major noise issues: the way the prototype is done (a wirewrap QBUS mother-board with bus transceivers, level converters, etc, connected to an FPGA prototyping card with flat cables), we think we had cross-talk problems in the cables (since the connector pinout on the FPGA card, which we can't change, didn't alternate ground and signal lines). Anyway, it's working now; that means the hardware is 'mostly' working; most of the work from here on out will be FPGA, etc, programming. There _are_ a few additional QBUS lines used for bus master (DMA) and interrupts which we haven't used yet, and one of the first things done now is to get those two kind of bus cycles working; a) we have to get them done anyway, and b) that will verify that the QBUS interface hardware is full working. With that in hand, we can do the first controller (RK11), using memory in the FPGA to simulate a small disk. We'll then try and get to the larger RAM on the FPGA, to do full-size RAM disks. Next up after that is probably to hook up some SD cards (we already have produced the small PCB daughter-cards, which will mount on sockets on the wire-wrap mother-board, to hold the SD cards - we still need to add those sockets and wire them up, hence the comment that the wire-wrap mother-boards are "almost done"), at which point we'll have a fully-functional prototype. Dave has also produced prototype PCB's for the indicator panel, and one has been stuffed, and Dave's about to try and hook that up, and get it running; that will require yet a bit more work on the mother-board (install 3 sockets to hold the driver chips for the signal lines in the interface to the indicator panel). Blinkenlitz are a priority because, i) just because ;-), and ii) being able to display data from inside the FPGA will be a big debugging help. Anyway, we think getting slave cycles working was a major milestone (for a couple of software guys :-), And we think (_hope_ :-) that progress will now be pretty rapid, so hopefully more soon. Noel

10 years, 2 months

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Real tape drive densities [was RE: Oregon Pascal tape found]

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

From: Christian Corti Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 2:28 AM > On Tue, 9 Feb 2016, Pete Lancashire wrote: >> There are a few odd balls in 9-track as well, but the 556 was a typo. > Really? > I actually *do* have a 9 track tape drive (HP 7970) that has 200/556/800 > bpi densities: > http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pics/hp1000/hp7970_2.jpg > And it is a *9* track tape, I know for sure. Actually, what you have is a *dual-density* tape drive, an HP7970E. It will write 9-track tapes at 800bpi, or 7-track tapes at 200, 556, or 800. See the manual for the 7970 drive family at http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/hp/tape/7970/07970-90885_7… Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

10 years, 2 months

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Front Panels Update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi I had an email in from the screeners this morning. She is getting there. I suppose I should not expect automation speeds from a skilled hand process. Twenty boards not all the same with five passes per board, flush out time and drying time with the need for spot on registration aint gonna be that quick. More news as I get it Rod

10 years, 2 months

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Babes at Bell Labs

by jgessling＠yahoo.com

In honor of Valentine's day and all the great ladies that I've worked with over the years, ?I for one had a small part in a romance by setting up a VMS account for the geologist in our department after listening to his complaints about how useless computers were for years. ?Come to find out he wanted to email with one of my best programmers. ?Love ensued with marriage in a little while. ?Please enjoy. Big computers, big hair: the women of Bell Labs in the 1960s ? in pictures | ? | | ? | | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | | Big computers, big hair: the women of Bell Labs in the 1...In 1967, Lawrence ?Larry? Luckham was an operations manager at Bell Labs in Oakland, California. He brought a camera into work to capture a day in the life? | | | | View on www.theguardian.com | Preview by Yahoo | | | | ? | Jim

10 years, 2 months

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IBM System z9 available near Ann Arbor, MI

by scaron＠umich.edu

Hi all, I was stopping by a local recycler to pick up a few Cisco switches I bought to add to my lab, and while I was there, I happened to spot a complete IBM System z9 machine out of the U-M Health System. http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Type-2096-S07-System-z9-Enterprise-Server-TESTE… The fellow that I was speaking with indicated that they might accept a little bit less than the tagged price. Perhaps this is a bit on the new side for the list but I figured these don't come around too often and this might be a good place to find it a home... I know there are lots of IBM enthusiasts here. Best, Sean

10 years, 2 months

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pdp11/04 : the pics....

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

On ftp.dreesen.ch/PDP11 you can find some pics on how the rescued PDP11/04 fits right in next to its cousin, a PDP8/a This 8a, BTW, has more memory (128K x 12) and more oomph ( a FPP8A ) than the PDP11/04.... Jos

10 years, 2 months

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Stuck bits on 11/73 Clearpoint 4MB memory - how to repair?

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

Hi, Seems I have bits 4 and 3 sticking on my Clearpoint QRAM-2-SAB-1 88b 4MB memory in my pdp11/73. Can anyone offer hints as to how to identify which component is broken and how to go about repairing this? It's the only memory board in this machine, so I guess the problem might actually be a bus or processor board, right? I have no other q-bus memory to test with, so can't do swapping / process of elimination to be sure. Here's the manual: http://www.arclightindustries.com/docs/Clearpoint-88B.pdf (which I probably should add to manx or archive.org or something). Here's a snippet of the VMJA diags run illustrating bits 4 and 3 sticking. During the next VMJA run, all addresses were showing up as errored instead of just the ones ending in xxx000xx, so I guess it's getting worse! @173000g Starting system BOOTING UP XXDP-XM EXTENDED MONITOR XXDP-XM EXTENDED MONITOR - XXDP V2.5 REVISION: F0 BOOTED FROM DL0 124KW OF MEMORY NON-UNIBUS SYSTEM RESTART ADDRESS: 152000 TYPE "H" FOR HELP ! .R VMJA?? VMJAB0.BIC CVMJAB0 ECC/PARITY MEMORY DIAGNOSTIC 11/83 CACHE AVAILABLE SWR = 000000 NEW = 000040 CSR MAP CSR 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F MEMTYPE P CSR NUMBER 0 CONTROLS TOO MANY BANKS 2044K OF Q-BUS PARITY MEMORY 2044K WORDS OF MEMORY TOTAL MEMORY CONFIGURATION MAP 16K WORD BANKS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 012345670123456701234567012345670123456701234567012345670123 ERRORS MEMTYPE PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP CSR 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 PROTECT PP 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 456701234567012345670123456701234567012345670123456701234567 ERRORS MEMTYPE PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP CSR 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 PROTECT 1 7 01234567 ERRORS MEMTYPE PPPPPPPP CSR 00000000 PROTECT MEMORY DATA ERROR PC BANK VADD PADD GOOD BAD XOR CSR MTYP INT PAT 027606 10 060000 01000000 000010 000030 000020 0 P 27 027606 10 060002 01000002 000010 000030 000020 0 P 27 027606 10 060004 01000004 000010 000030 000020 0 P 27 027606 10 060006 01000006 000010 000030 000020 0 P 27 027606 10 060010 01000010 000010 000030 000020 0 P 27 027606 11 060000 01100000 000011 000031 000020 0 P 27 027606 11 060002 01100002 000011 000031 000020 0 P 27 027606 11 060004 01100004 000011 000031 000020 0 P 27 027606 11 060006 01100006 000011 000031 000020 0 P 27 027606 11 060010 01100010 000011 000031 000020 0 P 27 027606 12 060000 01200000 000012 000032 000020 0 P 27 027606 12 060002 01200002 000012 000032 000020 0 P 27 027606 12 060004 01200004 000012 000032 000020 0 P 27 027606 12 060006 01200006 000012 000032 000020 0 P 27 027606 12 060010 01200010 000012 000032 000020 0 P 27 027606 13 060000 01300000 000013 000033 000020 0 P 27 027606 13 060002 01300002 000013 000033 000020 0 P 27 027606 13 060004 01300004 000013 000033 000020 0 P 27 027606 13 060006 01300006 000013 000033 000020 0 P 27 027606 13 060010 01300010 000013 000033 000020 0 P 27 027606 14 060000 01400000 000014 000034 000020 0 P 27 027606 14 060002 01400002 000014 000034 000020 0 P 27 027606 14 060004 01400004 000014 000034 000020 0 P 27 027606 14 060006 01400006 000014 000034 000020 0 P 27 027606 14 060010 01400010 000014 000034 000020 0 P 27 027606 15 060000 01500000 000015 000035 000020 0 P 27 027606 15 060002 01500002 000015 000035 000020 0 P 27 027606 15 060004 01500004 000015 000035 000020 0 P 27 027606 15 060006 01500006 000015 000035 000020 0 P 27 027606 15 060010 01500010 000015 000035 000020 0 P 27 027606 16 060000 01600000 000016 000036 000020 0 P 27 027606 16 060002 01600002 000016 000036 000020 0 P 27 027606 16 060004 01600004 000016 000036 000020 0 P 27 027606 16 060006 01600006 000016 000036 000020 0 P 27 027606 16 060010 01600010 000016 000036 000020 0 P 27 027606 17 060000 01700000 000017 000037 000020 0 P 27 027606 17 060002 01700002 000017 000037 000020 0 P 27 027606 17 060004 01700004 000017 000037 000020 0 P 27 027606 17 060006 01700006 000017 000037 000020 0 P 27 027606 17 060010 01700010 000017 000037 000020 0 P 27 027606 20 060000 02000000 000020 000030 000010 0 P 27 027606 20 060002 02000002 000020 000030 000010 0 P 27 027606 20 060004 02000004 000020 000030 000010 0 P 27 027606 20 060006 02000006 000020 000030 000010 0 P 27 027606 20 060010 02000010 000020 000030 000010 0 P 27 027606 21 060000 02100000 000021 000031 000010 0 P 27 027606 21 060002 02100002 000021 000031 000010 0 P 27 027606 21 060004 02100004 000021 000031 000010 0 P 27 027606 21 060006 02100006 000021 000031 000010 0 P 27 027606 21 060010 02100010 000021 000031 000010 0 P 27 027606 22 060000 02200000 000022 000032 000010 0 P 27 027606 22 060002 02200002 000022 000032 000010 0 P 27 027606 22 060004 02200004 000022 000032 000010 0 P 27 027606 22 060006 02200006 000022 000032 000010 0 P 27 027606 22 060010 02200010 000022 000032 000010 0 P 27 027606 23 060000 02300000 000023 000033 000010 0 P 27 027606 23 060002 02300002 000023 000033 000010 0 P 27 027606 23 060004 02300004 000023 000033 000010 0 P 27 027606 23 060006 02300006 000023 000033 000010 0 P 27 027606 23 060010 02300010 000023 000033 000010 0 P 27 027606 24 060000 02400000 000024 000034 000010 0 P 27 027606 24 060002 02400002 000024 000034 000010 0 P 27 027606 24 060004 02400004 000024 000034 000010 0 P 27 027606 24 060006 02400006 000024 000034 000010 0 P 27 027606 24 060010 02400010 000024 000034 000010 0 P 27 027606 25 060000 02500000 000025 000035 000010 0 P 27 027606 25 060002 02500002 000025 000035 000010 0 P 27 027606 25 060004 02500004 000025 000035 000010 0 P 27 027606 25 060006 02500006 000025 000035 000010 0 P 27 027606 25 060010 02500010 000025 000035 000010 0 P 27 027606 26 060000 02600000 000026 000036 000010 0 P 27 027606 26 060002 02600002 000026 000036 000010 0 P 27 027606 26 060004 02600004 000026 000036 000010 0 P 27 027606 26 060006 02600006 000026 000036 000010 0 P 27 027606 26 060010 02600010 000026 000036 000010 0 P 27 027606 27 060000 02700000 000027 000037 000010 0 P 27 027606 27 060002 02700002 000027 000037 000010 0 P 27 027606 27 060004 02700004 000027 000037 000010 0 P 27 027606 27 060006 02700006 000027 000037 000010 0 P 27 027606 27 060010 02700010 000027 000037 000010 0 P 27 027606 30 060000 03000000 177747 177767 000020 0 P 27 027606 30 060002 03000002 177747 177767 000020 0 P 27 027606 30 060004 03000004 177747 177767 000020 0 P 27 027606 30 060006 03000006 177747 177767 000020 0 P 27 027606 30 060010 03000010 177747 177767 000020 0 P 27 027606 31 060000 03100000 177746 177766 000020 0 P 27 027606 31 060002 03100002 177746 177766 000020 0 P 27 027606 31 060004 03100004 177746 177766 000020 0 P 27 027606 31 060006 03100006 177746 177766 000020 0 P 27 027606 31 060010 03100010 177746 177766 000020 0 P 27 027606 32 06000

10 years, 2 months

4
3
0 0

IBM 3290 terminal

by kevin.bowling＠kev009.com

I'm looking for an IBM 3290 to complement my z800 mainframe and third party 3174-22L establishment controller. I can't imagine these were particularly rare, but am sure many of them have been destroyed in the waning years since it takes special equipment/know how/desire to even use. Any leads on on for a reasonable price? Regards, Kevin

10 years, 2 months

6
11
0 0

VAXen and minimal memory (was Re: The PDP11/04 has landed..)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 9:48 PM, Jon Elson <elson at pico-systems.com> wrote: > On 02/08/2016 03:23 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote: >> >> I don't know if you could use the 256K boards (populated with 4116s) in >> the 11/730 due to the tri-voltage 4116s, but even if they worked, you >> wouldn't want to - 5 of them just isn't that much RAM. > > We ran our first 11/780 with 2 memory boards. I THINK we had a total of 256 > KB, and one Friday afternoon one of them died and we had to run over the > weekend with only one board, so that would have been 128 KB. Yes, it was a > bit tight on memory, but we got a LOT done on that machine. As I mentioned our first 11/750 was delivered with 512KB (we upgraded it pretty quickly to 8 boards for 2MB, where it ran for years). The 11/750 first shipped with IIRC VMS 2.0. My first encounters with VMS was around mid-1984 and VMS 3.4. We had 8MB of memory in our second 11/750 but it was supporting 50+ users. That 11/750 went off-lease, we sent it back. That's why I had to upgrade the other one, so we'd still have an 8MB VAX in-house. It ran VMS 4.7 at the end of its days 23 years ago (we had quite a bit of software that wasn't available for/wasn't licensed for/wasn't under paid-maintenance for 5.x). I haven't powered it up since we left that building (I do occasionally power up the 8300 that we got for product development). So I'm fairly confident that 512MB is enough for VMS 2.0 but I _think_ by 3.0, you had to have a megabyte or two. 1.25MB would be the most you could stuff in a 11/730 if you could use the boards populated with 16Kbit DRAMs. I don't think VMS 2.x runs on an 11/730 (but I could be wrong there). We ran Ultrix 1.1 and VMS 5.0 on one of ours (with 5MB). VMS 5.0 barely fit - we mostly used that to link our product binaries under 5.x for distribution to our customers. I do know someone in Ohio who ran VMS 5.0 on a VAX-11/725, but they did it by cutting a slot in the skin and running a BC11 cable out to a BA11 box next to the 11/725 and stuffing a UDA50 in the BA11. With an external disk, there's no practical difference between an 11/725 and an 11/730... same CPU, same backplane, same memory... just a packaging difference. -ethan

10 years, 2 months

17
25
0 0

Emulex QD32 Format Program

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

Does anyone still have a copy of the "Emulex LSI/PDP MSCP Formatter Program (SXMX8B) ? My QD32 emerged from storage in a foul mood and is giving me errors I don't understand when I use the manual entry methods for inputting geometry and issuing a format. From what I can tell, it's complaining that its onboard RAM is bad. Comments / suggestions welcome. thx jake

10 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Dumb terminals and many sessions (was Re: VAXen and minimal memory)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Thu, Feb 11, 2016 at 12:11 PM, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote: >> DEC VT100s >> were around $1,800 in the early-1980s, > > VT100s (and terminals in general) often were used as bargaining chips > to sweeten deals, so the price was quite "flexible". I have no doubts that was true when selling systems, but I remember seeing the paperwork from when we were growing, so 10 new employees meant 10 new terminals (and sometimes one more CS21)... Eventually, we stopped growing, then started shrinking, so it was feasible to log into two systems at once by having two terminals on your desk. We also had structured wiring from Nevada Western (DB25 modular adapters on each terminal, 6-pin silver satin cables to the wall, and several 3U "switchboard" panels with blocks of jacks and 25-pair telco cables back to the VAXen) so it was also easy to employ 2-line switch blocks at our desks. Eventually, we had "modern" terminals like the CiTOH 101e that supported a second session over the "serial printer" line (we never used the second line for hardcopy). Now, I use computers with bitmap screens to maintain multiple simultaneous character-based sessions. Same workflow, less wire and fewer large hunks of plastic and metal on my desk. -ethan

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

11/73 into 11/03 chassis?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jacob Ritorto > Would you happen to have notes or references about how to do it? It's not too hard; basically, one has to wire pins BC1, BD1, BE1 and BF1 (BDAL 18-BDAL21, respectively) on all _QBUS_ slots together into a bus. So wire BC1 on slot 1 to BC1 on slot 2, slot 3, etc, etc. A couple of notes: First, I said '_QBUS_' because if you have a Q/CD backplane, clearly one doesn't run the extra BDAL lines to the CD slots, only the QBUS slots (which run down the left-hand side, when facing the backplane). Second, for optimal analog behaviour, the 'out' slot on the backplane should be the last slot you wire to, so that there are no branches in the transmission line for BDAL18-BDAL21 (which can produce reflections - aka noise - on the transmission lines). How to do this efficiently (in terms of the wiring) can be a bit tricky, depending on the backplane configuration. E.g. if one has the standard 'serpentine' backplane, i.e. one with the slots in the following kind of order (facing the backplane from the board side): 1-2 4-3 5-6 8-7 9-10 etc., one might naively think one has to run the extra bus lines back and forth to match. However, only the _grant_ lines have to follow this pattern (and they are already there); the added lines don't have to follow the same pattern, as long as there are no branches. So, for the example 5-slot backplane above, one could/would wire: 1-4-5-8-9--2-3-6-7-10 i.e. a single vertical run on the left hand side, a single diagonal from 9 back to 2 (shown with "--"), and then another vertical run on the right hand side. Much simpler than wiring back and forth in slot order; there are no branches; and the last slot is the 'out' slot. For backplane with an _even_ number of layers, e.g.: 1-2 4-3 5-6 8-7 it's a little more complicated: a single vertical run on each side cannot be connected in such a way as to have the 'out' slot (8) be the last slot. One has to do something a little more complex: 1-4-5--2-3-6-7--8 with a vertical run on the left side, stopping short of the last slot; then a vertical run on the right side, then a lateral back across on the last layer. Obviously one _could_ run the wires back and forth, in slot order, but that will take a lot more wire, which at the very least is more work (especially on backplanes which don't have full wire-wrap pins, just the little stubby pins that have to have the wires soldered to); whether it also increases the delay down those transmission lines enough to be noticeable is something I don't know the answer to. All the obvious caveats apply: make sure not to get confused by the mirror pin and slot numbers on the front and back sides (you'll be wiring on the back, whereas the diagrams above are on the front), etc. Noel

10 years, 2 months

3
4
0 0

Odd 11/23 (?) ROM carrier

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Anyone know what this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251526917058 is? It has five chips, not six, so it's not the KEF11-BB CIS option. I've tried Web searches on "57-27889-01", but not turned up anything useful. Noel

10 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

[long shot] Looking for a Sequent Symmetry...

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

Preferably one of the deskside SMP models. Proving a point about under what circumstances X86 machines can be considered cool... :^) Located in Seattle. -- Ian Finder (206) 395-MIPS ian.finder at gmail.com

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Good memory board for Heath H-11?

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Richard Cini wrote: >Jerome -- good point about the IOPAGE. Maybe I'll get an 8kw and 16kw board -- that gives me 28kw with the included 4kw. I have no specific software so I don't need to tinker with reducing IOPAGE. > >Rich > >>>On Feb 9, 2016, at 10:47 PM, Jerome H. Fine <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> wrote: >> >>>Thanks guys. This is really helpful. I was getting confused between the M8044 and M7944 boards. Max memory for the LSI-11 is 32kw, right? >>> >>> >>Correct, the maximum memory on a board is 32kw. >> >>For an LSI-11 (aka PDP-11/03) without any MMU hardware, >>the actual maximum memory that can be accessed must also allow >>for the IOPAGE registers. Usually, the IOPAGE address range >>is 4 kw which leaves 28kw for everything else, including RT-11 >>(assuming that is what you are running). There is one option >>available with some hardware to reduce the address range >>set aside for the IOPAGE to just 2kw which then leaves >>30kw for everything else. Unless you are running a specific >>program which requires the extra 2kw, it is probably not >>worth the extra effort. >> I hope that my version of arithmetic is for 8kw + 16kw = 24kw, so somewhere I don't understand where the other 4kw comes from. Then, since you are missing only 4kw out of the maximum of 28kw (which is the normal maximum), you will not likely have a problem unless you have really memory rich programs. RT-11 runs fairly well in just 16kw (or 32 KB), so it should not be a problem. For my own work in which I need to run MACRO.SAV as fast as possible, I run the program in 64 KB of extended memory under a Mapped Monitor - which a PDP-11/03 (or an LSI-11) can't do since there is no MMU chip. Of course, my actual CPU is a Pentium III which I use to run Ersatz-11 so that RT-11 is running 15 times as fast as a PDP-11/93. And the disk I/O is also a bit faster. I can copy a 32 MB RT-11 partition to a second 32 MB RT-11 partition in under 2 seconds. Even with two ESDI hard drives on a PDP-11/93, that takes over 4 minutes. Jerome Fine

10 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Good memory board for Heath H-11?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I have not opened up ours yet but I always assumed they were all DEC boards. Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 2/9/2016 7:36:05 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, glen.slick at gmail.com writes: On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 6:08 PM, Richard Cini <rich.cini at verizon.net> wrote: > All ? > > I picked-up a Heath H-11 machine the other day and it has a single 4kw memory board. From my prior experiences with DEC (an 11/34a many years ago; now at the RI Computer Museum), I know my way around the field guide?but I? m having trouble trying to identify the correct module number suitable for the LSI-11 CPU. Even though it?s a Heath machine, I assume it?s module compatible with DEC. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! > > Rich Maybe an M8044 MSV11-D (no parity) or M8045 MSV11-E (parity) would be most appropriate. They came in 4KW, 8KW, 16KW, and 32KW flavors. http://manx.classiccmp.org/collections/antonio/dec/msv1dop1.pdf Fairly common on eBay.

10 years, 2 months

5
6
0 0

AIX for IBM PS/2

by ball.of.john＠gmail.com

>Good luck in finding media for AIX PS/2. As far as I know, it was never released on >CDROM and the last version I had was ~53 3.5? floppies (long gone now unfortunately) >and *only* worked on specific PS/2 hardware (no BIOS ? all drivers went straight >to the ?metal?). > >TTFN - Guy Nope, AIX 1.3 is readily available. It's over on http://ps-2.kev009.com if you know where to look along with a rather massive amount of documentation and (VERY HANDY) installation instructions. I can confirm that it will work on a stock IBM 8580 and you can get several different flavours of window system if you wanna roll that way. I put a video on Youtube a few years ago of a running machine when it was still rather badly configured. I briefly had it working on the model 55SX as well but because I was not labling the disks as I wrote them I went out-of-sequence somewhere and frustratingly couldn't find Disk 15. -John

10 years, 2 months

24
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0 0

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