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

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I am not expecting a whole crowd to respond, but even one individual would be helpful. I also realize that very few individuals even know about the RT-11 Symbolic Debugger, SD:, which is a pseudo device driver what is usually activated by a BPT instruction within a user's program - as opposed to having to LINK in the ODT code. If any reading this uses either V01.00 or especially Y01.16 of the Symbolic Debugger from V05.06 of RT-11, and in particular the SDHX.SYS variant, I would appreciate some feedback on some bug fixes and enhancements that have been made. Some include: (a) Saving Program Counter Addresses (b) Support to activate other selected jobs such as KED (ONLY jobs that do NOT enter SD:) while the user's job is stopped at a breakpoint (c) Single Step Mode to include checking on the Number of Stack Additions and Subtractions - in progress (d) Reduced Low Memory (e) Interactive SET commands for the "Symbol;V" commands (f) SET commands for Saving Program Counter Addresses (g) Help text for the enhancements (h) Any other enhancements that you can think of that can be implemented from a technical point of view - feedback will be very MUCH appreciated All of the changes required more than three times the original 8192 bytes of extended memory required by Y01.16 of the SDHX.SYS variant. Jerome Fine

10 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Honeywell Series 60 (Level 66)/6000 aka DATANET 355/6600 machine language (Charles Anthony)

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2016 13:40:52 -0800 > From: Charles Anthony <charles.unix.pro at gmail.com> > Subject: Honeywell Series 60 (Level 66)/6000 aka DATANET 355/6600 > machine language > > I am trying to fire up a DN6600 emulator and am encountering some > discrepancies between the DD01 documentation and existing software. > > Anyone remember how to program this beast? > > -- Charles > I wish that I kept all of the Honeywell docs that I had. I gave most of what I had to the Boston Computer Museum, so it might be a the CHM. I maintained GECOS and the front end software on a Level 66, with DN355, and 716 front ends. The software modifications to the DN355 were done under contract by Honeywell in Bedford, MA. The 355 and 716s were replaced by a pair Level 6 front ends. I still have the platter from one of the fixed head disks from the 716. If I remember correctly, the 16-bit Level 6 front ends ran modified microcode to make it 18-bits by using the parity bits. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 3 months

3
2
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PDP-12 restauration in center Germany

by j_hoppe＠t-online.de

Hi, in case somebody needs companions for cross-tests or likes to exchange thoughts: A few month ago we bought a PDP-12 and are restoring she since then. There is no online-diary about progress (the maching is eating up all time), but see here: http://c-c-g.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=311:pdp12-geka… The 12 is complete with no visible damages and has some undocumented add-ons (they always have). Especially a MOS memory extension was plugged off very soon. Luckily we could organize an 95% complete 2nd module set. After console exchange (we had indeed a 2nd one!) and much trouble with cpu logic, we can now execute opcodes with DO and FILL/EXAM the core memory. Contact me if you like to visit us, we're sitting near G?ttingen (between Kassel and Hannover). Joerg

10 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

USO (Unidentified System Unit)

by henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com

Hi list, I was checking one of my rack and saw a rack-mount system unit without any labeling. It consists of a 2-row wire-wrap backplane and a power supply. Looking at the rear side I can read which modules are installed in the backplane. In the upper row are the following modules: M1131 M1131 M306 M112 M111 M205 M205 M3020 8 x upper part of the dual-width M5950 In the lower row are the following modules: M611 M611 M3020 M3020 M113 M205 M205 M205 8 x lower part of the M5950 There are a few slots empty, but those are neither wrapped. I could not find the M5950 nor M3020 in any module list. I did not pull the modules, so I don't know what those modules are. 8 X M5950 suggests something to do with "data path" ... Anybody recognizes this system unit? Thanks, - Henk

10 years, 3 months

1
0
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Front Panel Update - Video on YouTube

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys I think I now have the very short clip of front panel production at the silk screeners on YouTube Try https://youtu.be/8qi4cveAc3A (go to YouTube first) Rod

10 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

C=64 stuff FTGH in Ottawa

by mouse＠Rodents-Montreal.ORG

I thought I'd got rid of all my 8-bitters, but apparently not - I just found a C=64 (the 8-bitter, not the recently-mentioned Linux machine in a C=64 case) in storage. The box proves to hold a C=64 proper, a 1541 floppy drive, a C=64-branded power brick (117V 60Hz), and a cable apparently intended for CPU-to-floppy connection (at least, the connectors on the ends fit the 1541 and one of the connectors on the machine). It also held another floppy drive, but I suspect that may actually be completely unrelated to the C=64; it's the same form-factor of floppy, but the connector on the end of the cable is a Berg-style two-rows-of-pins connector, not any of the connectors in obvious evidence on the C=64 itself. This is all FTGH. Currently in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; it might be possible to convince me to ship, but local pickup would really be much preferred - I have very little experience packing such stuff for shipping, selecting carriers, and the like. /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Honeywell Series 60 (Level 66)/6000 aka DATANET 355/6600 machine language

by charles.unix.pro＠gmail.com

I am trying to fire up a DN6600 emulator and am encountering some discrepancies between the DD01 documentation and existing software. Anyone remember how to program this beast? -- Charles

10 years, 4 months

2
1
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HP 9826/36 keyboard

by pdaguytom＠gmail.com

Just acquired an HP 9826/36, that needs a couple of keyboard switches and keycaps, specifically the EXECUTE switch and the ")" switch. Does anyone have these or a spare keyboard they'd care to sell? I can live with the ) key missing as the switch is sheared at the + only and otherwise operates fine. The EXECUTE switch took a hard hit and sticks at the bottom of its travel. Thanks, Tom .

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

For Sale: MITS Modem board set

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I have for sale one MITS S-100 modem board set (88 SIOB + MODEM BD). It's in excellent condition physically, unknown functional condition but probably works fine (it's been stored in an anti-static bag). Photos here: http://vintagetech.com/sales/S-100/MITS%20Modem/ Asking $250 or best offer. Thanks! -- Sellam Abraham VintageTech ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintagetech.com Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The truth is always simple. * * * NOTICE * * * Due to the insecure nature of the medium over which this message has been transmitted, no statement made in this writing may be considered reliable for any purpose either express or implied. The contents of this message are appropriate for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. The right of the people to be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated.

10 years, 4 months

1
0
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s100

by nierveze＠radio-astronomie.com

hello everyone , first am 1 on the correct channel?? I have several S100 boards , found 25 years ago, kept in my cellar and forgotten....fortunately they are still in good conditions , all circuits are standard ttl (only a few proms) ,and all circuits are on sockets so all is easy to repair. I cleaned and repaired the power supply (only one capacitor exploded ) , I have the correct voltages +- 19v ,+9V on the backplane , now the power supply works . I have very few documentations only a few booklets with configuration data on some of the boards , no schematic. The maker was a french company named ADD-X ,located near Toulouse south west of France . Machines ran cpm/mpm . I have boards of several configurations : *cpu boards with Z80,64k of dynamic rams and 2708 . There are configuration switches around the eprom socket to use 2708 or 2716 . I wonder how it is possible to address more than 64K (rams+eprom)with a Z80 . I need documentation about it . On Ebay I found a Z64 board that is identical , I cannot contact the seller , I tried to get informations ... he does not accept emails. Does anyone know that Z64 ? *boards with 4 rs232+1 ppi *boards with 2 rs232+1ppi+1 fdc configurable for 8 inches or 5 inches floppys. *hdc controllers with one hard disk I also have disquettes,and backplanes . I need informations on the S100/cpm systems , how are boards addressed , it is something like qbus/unibus : fixed address for each category of board,is the console at a fixed address???etc . Since that epoch I have all the classic books from R.Zaks about microprocessors and cpm , there are very few informations on the S100 bus. I built a system with a cpu and a board with RS232 and fdc,I connected the terminal to the port labeled 'con0'(console 0??) ,nothing happened on the terminal. It may be lots of thing from a dead cpu or eprom to rs232 driver . I did not test more for today. I want to build a small system with a monitor in rom to examine/modify ram , registers just to learn Z80 . What monitor can be used ? I have what is necessary to compile and burn eproms . Thanks for your help . I have lots of questions.I can send photos to identify boards . Best regards Alain Nierveze

10 years, 4 months

3
3
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Floppy recovery

by jws＠jwsss.com

I wonder how it could take them three months to figure something out. Maybe Chuck can comment. But over a year after they spent the 3 months. Hmmm. It will be interesting to hear what was recovered, though from what has been written and passed down about Roddenberry, I'm not expecting much. On a tangent, from a lecture 35 years ago by Harlan Ellison, I hope all of his papers are preserved and transcribed. He had about 15 4 drawer cabinets of work notes at that time, probably double or triple that now. I think at the time he worked manually as well. https://www.yahoo.com/tech/floppy-disks-star-trek-creator-182855583.html Thanks Jim

10 years, 4 months

26
48
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A long note about the panel pictures.

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys! The big picture shows a fame with three masters on it. Oh yes you might say they put the panel in and print in three passes. Er no. having three different colour inks sloshing around in a frame at the same time might cause a few problems. From bottom up we have Terracotta, then amber and finally white. First they line up the blank panel with the Terracotta master and screen all the blanks with that colour. They go into a special rack to dry. Now they have to get rid if every trace of Terracotta ink without messing the master up. They like to leave 12 - 24 hours between passes. (Overnight if they can) . They repeat the process for Amber . Finally we come to the White layer. Try putting a 1mm white line between two different colours , always keeping the two colours on the correct sides of the line with no gaps. OK thats what they did with the first batch. Generally they were very well received and looked good. I asked for feed back and one list member said the real ones appear to be matt black on the front. I got an old panel shipped over because I thought it was just age and dirt. Well it wasn't matt black nor was it dirty. They had put a translucent layer on the front that helped to deffuse the light from the lamps and had this strange optical effect of making the front look matt black. Going back to my DEC days I think the the general view was they were matt black on both front and back to stop unwanted reflections due to the point light sources from filament lamps. So I asked if we could get some suitable ink. and try it out. Well the answer came back that whilst it was fine for deffusing the light over the holes on the back , they were not happy with the results on the front. A thin layer of real matt black on the front was much nearer the sample they said. So I added a thin matt black layer on the front for the current batch. You can't tell the difference. I think I know what may have happend. If you put a layer of matt black on the front you need an extra screen with holes that line up with those on the back. A translucent layer just goes right across. I believe it was intended to be black on both back and front but somebody did a bit of cost engineering. Well two can play that game and I have come up with an answer. From my normal supplier I have been able to source our standard 3mm perspex but with one side having a silk finish. It minics the effect of the old plastic with the diffusing ink perfectly! The front looks matt black. It also makes the ink adhere better Saves putting a front matt black layer on future batches and you cant tell. Rod

10 years, 4 months

1
0
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Front panels Video clip

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys I have a short video of part run boards awaiting their turn for the next layer. (probably a bit boring). One of the girls is in the picture (not boring) If you want I can attach it to an email. Its a .mov file. Email me off list for a copy. Rod

10 years, 4 months

2
2
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Correction - Front Panel Update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Ooops! For boards read panels Rod

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Open VMS System Mgt Guide Scripts Avail.

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I've uploaded the contents of the disk that accompanis the book "OpenVMS System Management Guide" by Lawrence Baldwin here: http://www.vintagecomputer.net/digital/OpenVMS/ Maybe your copy is missing the disk. The disk contains scripts for version 5-->6 transition. Does anyone know of any MULTINET script libraries? -- Bill

10 years, 4 months

2
1
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Free HP 3000 Equipment for removal (Denver Craigslist)

by ball.of.john＠gmail.com

Marc, this is a good reason for anyone to convert their old rec room into a machine room. Just make sure to paint the walls brown and fit wall-to-wall orange carpeting. ;) I was seriously tempted on this myself but even picking up ONE 7925 from Idaho was an astounding task. A whole setup in Denver? That's nuts. -John >Cool, glad someone's snagging it. I wish, but I don't know where I'd put >it. > >On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 2:34 PM, CuriousMarc <curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> wrote: > >> I'm on it... >> Marc >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Glen >> Slick >> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2016 8:38 PM >> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts >> Subject: Free HP 3000 Equipment for removal (Denver Craigslist) >> >> Someone go get this. >> >> posted: 2016-01-04 12:20pm >> >> http://denver.craigslist.org/sys/5387506164.html >> >> I have the following HP 3000 computer equipment in my basement yours FREE >> for removal >> >>--TRIMMED--

10 years, 4 months

5
6
0 0

Conservation issue - shrink-wrapped manual

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I have a question for people who are involved in museums, and similar roles - how intense should I be about keeping things just as they were? I have a DEC manual (actually a Products Guide) still in its original shrink-wrap, and I'm interested in hearing opinions/rationales on whether or not I should keep it like that, as opposed to (carefully) opening it to be gain access to the content. Is there any value at all, historically, to keeping the original packaging intact, or should I just go ahead and open it? Thanks! Noel

10 years, 4 months

6
5
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PDP-8 core memory for sale (_not_ from me)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So there's this item: http://www.ebay.com/itm/262217954449 I'm not an -8 person, so maybe there's some reason nobody's biting, but if not, I thought I'd point it out. Noel

10 years, 4 months

5
4
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Front panel update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys Just got back from the silk screeners. Panels everywhere!! Final layers (Amber and white ) going on. Customising insets for type A and B ready Front is now matt black as per requests. They are sourcing some ready made packaging and plastic cloth. Its that soft stuff you get round hifi's and TV's etc. I have some pictures I took on the wifes iPad. If I can get them off on to my PC I can send then out. I'm working on a Web server as focal point for everything panel. In addition to DEC Straight 8, 8/e (A or B), 8/f and 8/m, I also have artwork for IBM 360 and Burroughs 3500 PDP 11/40 (PDP10) thru 11/70 are under way. Regards Rod

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Conservation issue - shrink-wrapped manual

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ian S. King > Implicit in the "involved in museums" domain: artifacts come in, they > don't go back out except on loan. :-) What, you've never heard of 'de-acquisitioning'? (Boy, that one sure wins the George Orwell Memorial NewSpeak award...) Noel

10 years, 4 months

4
3
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Conservation issue - shrink-wrapped manual

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Evan Koblentz > 1. How rare/valuable is the item? Moderately rare, not very valuable. > 2. What else might be inside the package? Nothing - it's clear shrink-wrap around a loose-leaf manual. > 3. Will opening it cause any damage? No. > 4. Can you store it in a suitable way after opening? If I open it, I plan to store it in an original DEC three-ring binder.. :-) > From: Fred Cisin > OTOH, if you want to SELL it When it comes to me and PDP-11 stuff, 'cold dead hands'! :-) Noel

10 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

10 forgotten wonders of 1980s homes

by trash80＠internode.on.net

May be of interest to some list members - appeared, of all places, in the property section of a local newspaper - the Commodore 64 gets a good mention but I suspect list members might remember (or reminisce) over the other 9 too or as well. http://www.domain.com.au/news/10-forgotten-wonders-of-1980s-homes-20151217-g lpoof/ ++++++++++ Kevin Parker ++++++++++

10 years, 4 months

28
68
0 0

VCF East -- Brian Kernighan video

by cctalk＠snarc.net

You know you wanna watch. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUWt_StXKsY

10 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

Wanted: Specific Mallory cap...

by sales＠elecplus.com

http://5970.iso-group.com/Public/Search_Results.aspx?ss=10X2000 There are in stock here, according to their site. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Bill Sudbrink Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2016 11:52 AM To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' Subject: Wanted: Specific Mallory cap... Hi all, I am in the process of restoring/recreating a linear PS as part of a project and I would like to use the original parts if possible. I'm looking for six Mallory axial electrolytic capacitors. The physical dimensions are 11mm in diameter by 44mm in length. They have a clear plastic wrap, so the aluminum silver color shows through. The printing on them goes around the circumference (not end to end) and reads: +-M-+ 2000 MF 10 V 20-48923 Electrically, they are (were) 2000uf, 10 volt. My bet is that these are mil-spec versions of Mallory's TT10X2000 capacitor. They physically match some Mallory TT15X1000 caps that I have in my parts box. I've been "beating the bushes" for a while now with no luck on the "20-48923" part number. I've also contacted all of the web site owners that claim to have TT10X2000s. They have all come back with "well, we don't actually seem to have that part after all". If anyone has either of the above, I'll pay a good price for them. They don't have to be in operational condition electronically, I'll "restuff" them if necessary. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

Wanted: Specific Mallory cap...

by wulfman＠wulfman.com

supply a picture if you can On 1/6/2016 10:52 AM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > Hi all, > > I am in the process of restoring/recreating a linear > PS as part of a project and I would like to use the > original parts if possible. I'm looking for six > Mallory axial electrolytic capacitors. The physical > dimensions are 11mm in diameter by 44mm in length. > They have a clear plastic wrap, so the aluminum > silver color shows through. The printing on them > goes around the circumference (not end to end) and > reads: > > +-M-+ > 2000 MF 10 V > 20-48923 > > Electrically, they are (were) 2000uf, 10 volt. My > bet is that these are mil-spec versions of Mallory's > TT10X2000 capacitor. They physically match some > Mallory TT15X1000 caps that I have in my parts box. > I've been "beating the bushes" for a while now with > no luck on the "20-48923" part number. I've also > contacted all of the web site owners that claim to > have TT10X2000s. They have all come back with "well, > we don't actually seem to have that part after all". > > If anyone has either of the above, I'll pay a good > price for them. They don't have to be in operational > condition electronically, I'll "restuff" them if > necessary. > > Thanks, > Bill Sudbrink > > > -- The contents of this e-mail and any attachments are intended solely for the use of the named addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized use, copying, disclosure, or distribution of the contents of this e-mail is strictly prohibited by the sender and may be unlawful. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete this e-mail.

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Free HP 3000 Equipment for removal (Denver Craigslist)

by glen.slick＠gmail.com

Someone go get this. posted: 2016-01-04 12:20pm http://denver.craigslist.org/sys/5387506164.html I have the following HP 3000 computer equipment in my basement yours FREE for removal QTY Description ----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 HP 3000 series 30 Computers 4 HP 7925 disk drives 1 HP 2608A line printer 1 HP 7970E tape drive 2 HP 3000 Console Terminals 3 HP 2645A terminals 2 HP 2631A terminal printers The picture shown is of 3 disk drives and the Tape drive when new (1980). This equipment has been mostly idle for 20+ years. The first 4 line items of equipment above are relatively large and would require at least 2 men to remove each item from my basement.

10 years, 4 months

6
5
0 0

Wanted: Specific Mallory cap...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

Hi all, I am in the process of restoring/recreating a linear PS as part of a project and I would like to use the original parts if possible. I'm looking for six Mallory axial electrolytic capacitors. The physical dimensions are 11mm in diameter by 44mm in length. They have a clear plastic wrap, so the aluminum silver color shows through. The printing on them goes around the circumference (not end to end) and reads: +-M-+ 2000 MF 10 V 20-48923 Electrically, they are (were) 2000uf, 10 volt. My bet is that these are mil-spec versions of Mallory's TT10X2000 capacitor. They physically match some Mallory TT15X1000 caps that I have in my parts box. I've been "beating the bushes" for a while now with no luck on the "20-48923" part number. I've also contacted all of the web site owners that claim to have TT10X2000s. They have all come back with "well, we don't actually seem to have that part after all". If anyone has either of the above, I'll pay a good price for them. They don't have to be in operational condition electronically, I'll "restuff" them if necessary. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Floppy recovery

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

Anyone know anything about the custom computer and the custom OS? Nor implying anything but Chuck do u have any insights? ;) -------- Original message -------- From: jwsmobile <jws at jwsss.com> Date: 1/5/2016 12:27 PM (GMT-08:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Floppy recovery I wonder how it could take them three months to figure something out.? Maybe Chuck can comment. But over a year after they spent the 3 months.? Hmmm.? It will be interesting to hear what was recovered, though from what has been written and passed down about Roddenberry, I'm not expecting much. On a tangent, from a lecture 35 years ago by Harlan Ellison, I hope all of his papers are preserved and transcribed.? He had about 15 4 drawer cabinets of work notes at that time, probably double or triple that now.? I think at the time he worked manually as well. https://www.yahoo.com/tech/floppy-disks-star-trek-creator-182855583.html Thanks Jim

10 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

Gene Roddenberry's floppy disks from the 1980s read

by dzubint＠vcn.bc.ca

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/files-on-nearly-200-f…

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

IBM 3420 x2 + 3803 for sale

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I have two IBM 3420 tape drives and a 3803 controller for sale. Asking price is $3,000 for the entire set but is negotiable. Inquire directly if interested. http://vintagetech.com/sales/Big%20Iron/IBM%203420.JPG http://vintagetech.com/sales/Big%20Iron/IBM%203803.JPG Happy new year! -- Sellam Abraham VintageTech ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintagetech.com Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The truth is always simple. * * * NOTICE * * * Due to the insecure nature of the medium over which this message has been transmitted, no statement made in this writing may be considered reliable for any purpose either express or implied. The contents of this message are appropriate for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. The right of the people to be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated.

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Unibus/Q-bus board layout (in CAD format(s))

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

I was wondering: Are there public CAD files (no, not the medieval detective) for the Unibus/Q-bus fingers / board layout?

10 years, 4 months

4
3
0 0

The Old and New

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

There seems to be in this world a hungering for what?s new: witness the gazillion smart phones sold; untold number of iPads(tablets) and their ilk; and plug-n-play computers. What seems to be forgotten is what came before; what interests us ? vintage/classic computers. Whether in the grand scheme of things it really matters whether we call it classic computing, this website?s name protected by copyright(internet ?laws?), retro-computing; vintage computing; golden-age computing or just plain old-computing era, nevertheless helps us to immeasurably enjoy our hobby. And yet there is a hunger, maybe less so for old computers as historical oddities don?t seem to attract a large following, for what came before. The new year hopefully expands our community: wishing all classic computer enthusiasts a wonderful New Year?s and all your wishes come true in 2016. Happy computing, Murray :)

10 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

Front Panel Update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys! I have just sent off an email to the silk screeners and will talk to them later. Like most of the UK they have been shut down from 18th December until to-day. When they shutdown they had put the black layer on the back of all of the panels and they were in the drier Moving to the front of the panel. In the first batch I shipped. The front had the normal shiny perspex finish. Somebody noticed the real old panels had a sort of matt black finish on the front. Actually it was a translucent sort of gray layer to diffuse the lamps and had the side effect of making the front surface look as if it was matt black. It isn't but it sure looks like it. Its some kind of transmissive optical effect. OK so they go and get an ink to do the above. While they had the panels in the drier they did a test piece. Black on the back and translucent clear diffuser on the front. For some reason they were not happy with the result. At that point Christmas intervenes. To-day, what I have requested is not to mess around with the special ink if they dont like the results. They should just put a real but thin layer of matt black on the front. The result should be the same. More news as it comes in Rod

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Experiences with a composite video mod for a Sinclair ZX81

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Going through and testing the collection over this Xmas period also prods me into doing mods I've procrastinated about. A very simple mod but here is a write up for anyone who is interested... http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2016-01-03-composite-video-for-zx8… Terry (Tez)

10 years, 4 months

7
10
0 0

Panda Display USB support in klh10 working

by dave＠661.org

I've managed to edit klh10 to talk to my new USB Panda Display, but I'm quite sure it's not displaying things correctly. What can I run to get it to display a recognizable pattern? I'm thinking of whatever is causing the parallel display at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_LcQ5apODg to do what it's doing. To make a quick and dirty USB Panda Display, wire up an atmega328 according to the schematics at To start playing with this, first clone https://github.com/DavidGriffith/panda-display. You don't need Kicad at this point. Just open up panda-sch.pdf and wire up an atmega328 (maybe at atmega8 will do) with a 20MHz crystal. Other crystals can be used if you alter the Makefile accordingly. Use a max7219 matrix LED module. It's a board with an 8x8 matrix of LEDs and a max7219. You'll also need a AVR ISP breakout board and a USB-B breakout board. A Unix environment is assumed here. Set your AVR programmer (edit makefile to match yours) such that it _DOES_NOT_ supply power to the circuit. Connect the programmer to the board and to your computer. Then connect a USB cable from your computer to the circuit. Go into the firmware directory, type "make hex" to build the firmware. Then "make program" to program the AVR. The circuit should reset itself and then display an X. Now type "make ptest" to build a test program with which you can send bytes to the Panda Display and see them immediately. Use it like this "./ptest 0x23, 0xff, 0x9a" and so on. Once you're happy with that, move on to klh10. Get my patched version at https://github.com/DavidGriffith/klh10 and build it like usual. I used the base-kl target and the klt20.ini config file from Mark Crispin's Panda distribution. Start the emulator and before you type "GO", type "lights on". You should be told that the Panda Display was initialized. Type "GO" and get things going. The LED matrix will then start blinking. I don't know how it's supposed to look at this point. The RUN light appears to be at the bottom left of the matrix given that it blinks at 1 Hz. Here's a udev rule that will work for the Panda Display: SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="05df", ATTRS{idVendor}=="16c0", MODE="0770", ATTRS{product}=="Panda Display", GROUP="plugdev" Please play around with this and let me know what you think. Again, please tell me how I can get a predictable pattern going so I can get the LEDs lit correctly. -- 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, 4 months

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HP 16700A/16702A logic analyzer help request - /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file wanted

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I previously mentioned that the ethernet interface on my HP 16702A is not working. After a lot of messing around, I discovered that the 10baseT interface actually works fine if I log in as root (after jailbreaking it), and manually configure the interface. The problem seems to be with the /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file, which was trying to configure the lan1 interface, which doesn't exist. It should configure lan0. I edited the file to use lan0, and now when I boot the analyzer, it still reports errors, and still won't let me do the GUI lan configuration, but the interface actually works. Could someone with a 16700A or 16702A please make available a copy of their /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file for comparison? Thanks! Eric

10 years, 4 months

3
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PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

As a final diagnostic on the PDP-12 we tried to run FOCAL-69, but it started executing instructions in non existent memory. FOCAL initializes lots of peripherals and then tries different instructions to determine what processor it is running on. It executed what it thought was a TC01 DECtape IOT, but DEC had recycled the 6762 instruction for the KF12 Automatic Priority Interrupt controller. This caused the KF12 to execute a hardware PUSH instruction to save the processor state and then jump into memory field 2. Since we only have 8k of core it executed 7777 instructions and hung. Replacing the 6762 instruction at 4376 with a 7000 NOP let FOCAL initialize and run OK. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 4 months

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Remember the old "Choose your own adventure books" By D & D! ! !

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

Has any of you took one of them old choose your own adventurer books and coded it into a text RPG in basic? if so how well did it work as soon as I get all my Commodore 64 setup on CHRISTmas day that is the first thing that I am going to start working on. The one I am doing is *" THE DRAGON OF DOOM "* I have been brushing up on my coding skills with old books like BASIC COMPUTER GAMES AND SUCH... So wirh me luck and if any of you have done this brfotr please let me know how it ernt? The only Major things I have forgotten are... 1. Clear the screen for the next page! 2, doing the page jumps like in the book it will say if your want top enter turn to page 356 ot if you want to keep walking turn to page 17 that is the code I have forgoten But I am sure you all will be able to help me make this game the best it can be. I wish I fould add hiypointd and damage points find gold but I guess when I get to that Ill ask only after I dearch th net for awncers. thanks yall GOD BLESS AND MERRY CHRISTmas! '

10 years, 4 months

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New Commodore 64 is Finally Here--For Real! PC MAG Snip

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

Would you buy the new Commodore 64 ? ? ? >From PC-World " The new Commodore 64 <http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_C64.aspx> is, like the old 64, an entire system inside a (rather thick) keyboard. The old Commodore 64 <http://www.pcworld.com/article/195094/ccs64_turns_your_pc_into_a_commodore_…> originally cost $595 and featured an MOS Technology 6510 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6510> microprocessor, an impressive 64KB of RAM, and VIC-II <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_VIC-II> graphics that supported a screen resolution of 320 by 200 pixels. The new system, which also starts at $595, is a little more modern: it's got a Dual Core 525 Atom processor, an Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset, 2GB of RAM (upgradeable to 4GB), a 160GB hard drive, and built-in Wi-Fi. On the left side of the keyboard there's a slot or tray-load DVD (upgradeable to Blu-ray), and on the right side there's a multi-format card reader, along with a USB 2.0 port. The rear features four additional USB 2.0 ports; mouse and keyboard PS/2 ports; DVI, VGA, and HDMI ports; Ethernet; and support for 6-channel HD audio. It runs Linux, but you can install Windows if you like. Pretty cool for a computer that looks like it's from the 80's. Of course, if you just want the look--and you want to throw your own stuff inside--you can also order the "Barebones" package on the new Commodore 64 Website. The Barebones package costs $250 and gets you the case, chassis, keyboard, and multi-format card reader with USB 2.0 port. On the other hand, if you'd like to go all out, there's also an $895 "Ultimate" package that includes a Blu-ray drive and a 1TB hard drive. The new Commodore 64 begins shipping at the end of this month, but you can order yours now <http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_C64Select.aspx>--go get your BASIC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_BASIC> on! " I myself am going to buy one just for a collector sake. The new Commodore phone seemes to be selling like hotcakes from the research I have done on it. There is also a switch in the back to boot the original C-64 I think It will be a fun computer to 0wn. What are your thoughts I will be wait a year or so because 545.00 is a bit much for me to spend on it but anyway Like I said what are your thoughts on it Ill post a youtube link below with the newC-64 review... Video Link here -------> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7Lo9Q0RiX0

10 years, 4 months

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Happy New Year

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

A very Happy New Year to all the denizens of Classiccmp, and especially to Jay: thank you for another year of stewardship! -- Pete

10 years, 4 months

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Targeting Computers in X wing fighters.

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Went to Starwars last night. Oh boy did they get it right this time!! Look and feel of the original 1977 version. Really good new actors. In a way it was like a retelling of history but in a completly new way. The bombing runs up the trench used the same sighting system as thirty odd years ago. Added to that several scenes were filmed at the former US Airbase at Greenham Common. Its a mile from where I live and I passed within 50yards of where the filming took place on my way to the cinema. The bunkers are in a natural hollow in the ground and surrounded by triple fences with watch towers. In the film you can see the typical camoflarge netting in the back ground. - Nothing to do with the film. They were trying to hide the set from passing aircraft. They managed to keep it a secret until one day a guy was passing in his microlight and spotted the MF (or at least most of it) parked by the old cruise missile bunkers.. He was not a fan but his son was. He calls his son up on his mobile and says: You know that spaceship you got for Christmas years ago. Well there's a big one at Greenham Common. The answer is not repeatable here but he ended by saying I'm on my way to your landing strip - pick me up. It was true and it made the local paper before Lucasfilm could do anything about it. This Abrams guy really understood what people wanted. Considering how unwell Carrie Fisher is she gave a really good performance. She gets my special "The show must go on" award. Disney must be so pleased and if I know them they will keep the faith. Rod

10 years, 4 months

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Yet another batch of VCF videos

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Today we posted the videos from East 5.0. Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_e5fSxflvrxnBFCeLI_uLqQHJBmghA2g. In the past week or two, we also posted the videos from East 6.0 and 9(.1). Videos from 7.0 and 10.0 will be ready soon. East 8.0 is in the hopper, and we're trying to see if we have the footage from 3.0 and 4.0. After that, we hope to process the VCF West videos (and East 1.0/2.0, which were run by Sellam out west).

10 years, 4 months

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Castlevaina for the Commodore 64

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

I have a mint copy with all the passwords if you need a copy of the passwords let me know I am going to have to type them in because they are printed on DARK brown paper with black text you cant scan it I tried so let me know if any of ya need them... Also it surprisingly has pretty good graphics for the first version of Castlevaina or I think it is...

10 years, 4 months

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[SPOILERS] Re: Targeting Computers in X wing fighters.

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

On Thu, 12/31/15, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > One quick [non-spoiler?] question:? Is it a remake?? Or is it > another in the "series"?? (if so, earlier? later?) It's in the series, specifically Episode 7, taking place sometime after Revenge of the Jedi. BLS

10 years, 4 months

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Happy New Year

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

There seems to be in this world a hungering for what?s new: witness the gazillion smart phones sold; untold number of iPads(tablets) and their ilk; and plug-n-play computers. What seems to be forgotten is what came before; what interests us ? vintage/classic computers. Whether in the grand scheme of things it really matters whether we call it classic computing, this website?s name protected by copyright(internet ?laws?), retro-computing; vintage computing; golden-age computing or just plain old-computing era, nevertheless helps us to immeasurably enjoy our hobby. And yet there is a hunger, maybe less so for old computers as historical oddities don?t seem to attract a large following, for what came before. The new year hopefully expands our community: wishing all classic computer enthusiasts a wonderful New Year?s and all your wishes come true in 2016. Happy computing. Murray :)

10 years, 4 months

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Happy New Year

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

To my most favorite 'off-topic list', all of you guys have a Happy and good new year. >From the Netherlands as we say "Gelukkig Nieuwjaar". -Rik

10 years, 4 months

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The KGB, the Computer, and Me

by seefriek＠gmail.com

From: Mouse <mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG> >> [...] industrial espionage [...] >> One wonders how much goes undetected. >> Most of those getting caught are in upper management. Us lowly >> grunts don't seem to get involved as often or maybe there are those >> among us that are just that much better at covering our tracks. > >Or, when a low-level peon is caught, it doesn't make the news, so the >world at large doesn't notice. > This is a big part of my world these days. My wildly subjective, overly general observations: 1) When a big fish is caught, it's usually an "I took a bunch of doco I shouldn't have to my next job" situation. I've discussed more nefarious high-level mole scenarios with the FBI numerous times. It happens, but it's not apparently that common. 2) When a little fish is caught, it's usually some variation on "I'll teach them". And as Mouse notes, effort is usually made not to publicize the event unless there's a regulatory driver that requires it. That said, there's a *huge* amount of little fish "espionage" that flies under the radar. Things like client lists, marketing plans and confidential designs quietly walk out the door all the time and are rarely noticed. With these sorts of things, it's fiendishly difficult to assess the impact on the victims business. 3) No one is particularly good at covering their tracks (including people who in theory know how to do it). Unfortunately, the tools to proactively spot data exfiltration are rarely implemented and even more rarely implemented well. BTW...that's more an function of how difficult the problem is rather than an indictment of the practitioners. KJ

10 years, 4 months

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paging Jack Rubin or Jason Timmons, Mike Lee, Chicago Folks

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Jack/Jason/Mike Lee, etc. If you get a chance please contact me privately about a Chicago rescue. Thanks 1mb -- Bill

10 years, 4 months

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Ferroresonant transformers and 3278

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

I recently blew up a 3278... it worked ok for a few hours then started blowing fuses. I haven't done any troubleshooting yet but checking the manuals on Bitsavers tells me my US 3278s have ferroresonant transformers specified as 120V 60Hz only. This can be expected to cause problems with 120V 50Hz here in NZ from my knowledge of how ferroresonant transformers work; I'll get excessive magnetic currents - overheating - all kinds of nasties. I can wind the voltage down a bit and run them at 90-100V but that doesn't help much. 1. Does anyone in a 50Hz country have any dead/spare 3278s and/or transformers for them? The IBM part number for the 50Hz 220V are 8715343 or 4119686. 2. I have other equipment where this will be an issue and not so easily solved. Does anyone have any experience in or recommendations for frequency conversion equipment? My System/3s for instance all use 60Hz ferroresonants operating off 208V 3-phase - now voltage can probably be retapped or easily converted but I still need to make a lot of 60Hz to run them... 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, 4 months

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Old versions of 2.11BSD

by dugo＠xs4all.nl

Over at TUHS an attempt to put the history of 2.11BSD under version control (git) stranded somewhat. After some digging the patchlevels that can be found in the archives are now 195, 277, 303 and 431. The base 2.11BSD is sorely missing. The numbered updates by Steven M. Schultz are not pure context diffs. eg. an attempt to reverse them breaks where ld.c is removed in update #160 and can't be pieced back together accurately using 2.10xBSD and assorted patches. Maybe someone here who missed the thread on the TUHS mailing list has a really old copy of 2.11BSD lying around? /Jacob

10 years, 4 months

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The KGB, the Computer, and Me

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Anybody who has not seen this film (The KGB, the Computer, and Me) its worth a look. 1980's DEC systems everywhere, LSI terminals, HP kit, Tape drives in action and apart from the Mac no Windows anywhere. I think LBL must have bought one of everything. The story (true) is not bad either. I now expect to get a long list of weveseenits. Rod

10 years, 4 months

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Software for DEC MINC systems

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

Sorry - I did it again and forgot to remove the junk in the subject line! >Jerome H. Fine wrote: > >Jay Jaeger wrote: > >>> On 12/29/2015 2:47 PM, Jay Jaeger wrote: >> >>> I have had several folks express the desire for them. Over the day or >>> few days (we have a gathering coming up tomorrow, and not sure I will >>> get to it today, so it could be as late as next week), I will load them >>> up on my Google drive in a directory structure analogous to what >>> bitsavers uses, and send out the link. >>> >>> JRJ >> >> https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2v4WRwISEQRWWFFdVpCZWFTZEU&usp=sha… >> >> >> The structure is similar to bitsavers, so look in: >> >> bits/DEC/pdp11/floppyimages >> >> There are two folders, rx01 and rx02 with .img files. >> >> The image files INCLUDE TRACK 0, so depending on how you plan to use >> them, you may need to trim off the first track first. > > Any possibility you could provide the full link? I don't see much > in the way of information at that site to get me to those floppy images. > There might be other DEC and non-DEC PDP-11 images that are > of interest. > > This site also has many DEC and non-DEC files for the PDP-11 > http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/ > > I usually find that anything to do with google that is not totally > obvious > to usually be a pain. > > Just on doing a search, the usual > 1,000,000 items stop being anything > at all relevant after item 100. > > google is often good to check spelling though (LOL) - I can't spell, > so I always use the Spell checker. > > Jerome Fine

10 years, 4 months

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[SPAM key] - Re: Software for DEC MINC systems

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Jay Jaeger wrote: >>On 12/29/2015 2:47 PM, Jay Jaeger wrote: > > >>I have had several folks express the desire for them. Over the day or >>few days (we have a gathering coming up tomorrow, and not sure I will >>get to it today, so it could be as late as next week), I will load them >>up on my Google drive in a directory structure analogous to what >>bitsavers uses, and send out the link. >> >>JRJ >> >https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2v4WRwISEQRWWFFdVpCZWFTZEU&usp=sha… > >The structure is similar to bitsavers, so look in: > >bits/DEC/pdp11/floppyimages > >There are two folders, rx01 and rx02 with .img files. > >The image files INCLUDE TRACK 0, so depending on how you plan to use >them, you may need to trim off the first track first. > Any possibility you could provide the full link? I don't see much in the way of information at that site to get me to those floppy images. There might be other DEC and non-DEC PDP-11 images that are of interest. This site also has many DEC and non-DEC files for the PDP-11 http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/ I usually find that anything to do with google that is not totally obvious to usually be a pain. Just on doing a search, the usual > 1,000,000 items stop being anything at all relevant after item 100. google is often good to check spelling though (LOL) - I can't spell, so I always use the Spell checker. Jerome Fine

10 years, 4 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 18, Issue 30

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

On Dec 30, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2015 14:47:17 -0600 > From: Jay Jaeger <cube1 at charter.net> > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Software for DEC MINC systems > Message-ID: <5682F155.3050205 at charter.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 > >>> >>> On 12/27/2015 10:15 PM, Mark Matlock wrote: >>>> >>>> The software I am looking for are the MINC software packages FEP (Fortran Enhancement Package) V2.1 and FRP (Fortran Real_time Package) V1.0. Also SSP V1.3 (Scientific Subroutines Package) and LSP V1.2 (Laboratory Subroutines Package) would be great to find as well. These all run under RT-11 and I understand that there was also a version (V1.1) of FEP and V1.0 of FRP that ran under RSX11M which would be fantastic to find as I am more interested in RSX11M. This is based on documents in the MINC folder in the bitsavers online archives. >>>> >>>> Mark >>>> >>> >>> I have some MINC hardware (also a MINC/23 I think) and software, but it >>> does not look like I have what you are looking for. >>> >>> What I do have images of (except for the one marked "(Bad)" that seem >>> likely MINC related: >>> >>> RX01: >>> >>> CONTENTS COMMENT >>> LAB Applications-11 Library V3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YB, NSUM=41906 >>> LAB Applications-11 Lib Source 1 of 3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YA1, NSUM=56190 >>> LAB Applications-11 Lib Source 2 of 3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YA2, NSUM=28900 >>> LAB Applications-11 Lib Source 3 of 3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YA3, NSUM=65055 >>> >>> CONTENTS COMMENT >>> PLOT, Ver June '80 DECUS 11-381 RT-11 Media(KA) (Bad) >>> MINC BASIC/FORTRAN IV VIR TERM DECUS 11-417 RT-11, NSUM=22281 >>> PLOTTING PKG For RT-11 FORTRAN DECUS 11-431 RT-11, NSUM=12228 >>> LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 1 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=15424 >>> LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 2 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=1369 >>> LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 3 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=2841 >>> LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 4 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=21353 >>> FEP2: FINITE ELEMENT PROG 3DIM 1 of 2 KB DECUS 11-461 RT-11, NSUM=14187 >>> FEP2: FINITE ELEMENT PROG 3DIM 2 of 2 KB DECUS 11-461 RT-11, NSUM=26552 >>> >>> >>> RX02: >>> >>> CONTENTS COMMENT >>> MINC MA DEMO/23 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-J837B-BC, NSUM=04649 >>> MINC MA DEMO/03 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-H107D-BC, NSUM=58263 >>> MINC MA SYS/23 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-J836B-BC, NSUM=17510 >>> MINC MA SYS/03 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-H106D-BC, NSUM=61253 >> >> > > I have had several folks express the desire for them. Over the day or > few days (we have a gathering coming up tomorrow, and not sure I will > get to it today, so it could be as late as next week), I will load them > up on my Google drive in a directory structure analogous to what > bitsavers uses, and send out the link. > > JRJ Jay, Thank you so much for putting the RX01 and RX02 images on your Google drive. This afternoon I was able to download them all and in RT11/Simh copy all the files to a large DU: type drive to both verify that the disk images downloaded correctly and to put everything in one convenient volume to load on a microSD card for the SCSI2SD transfer to a real PDP-11. I didn't notice any file names duplicating as I combined the contents of the floppies and if that the case there were 168 files on the RX01s and 64 files on the RX02s with a combined size of 3976 blocks. Browsing through the files I saw lots of great example code for a wide range of scientific routines!! Thanks again for taking the time to put the files out there. Thanks again!! Mark

10 years, 4 months

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Available: various PSION organizers, parts, and documentation from the mid-80s

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I have boxes full of like-new PSION II organizers that I recently received from a US distributed. These aren't rare or valuable, but they are new in the box and seemingly never used. There are different models, with both 2 and 4 line displays, and different amounts of memory. I also have memory modules, cables, and development documentation. There's also a PSION module duplicactor. If any of this interests anyone, let me know. Also: 50 pounds of old PC parallel, serial, video cables, etc. You can see pictures here: http://www.oldcomputers.net/temp/

10 years, 4 months

4
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120V, 50HZ

by useddec＠gmail.com

If anyone is interested, I know where there are 3 or 4 unused PDP-8As that are 120/50. I ask about the configuration and am waiting for him to get back to me, but they seem to be 12 slot core boxes. Amazing the new 50 or so year stuff still out there. Paul

10 years, 4 months

1
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10 forgotten wonders of 1980s homes

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Interesting just brought the old magnavox ghetto blaster I had in the computer room at computer exchange inc... put 4 cells and a jumper to start it in half voltage for a while.... it lives! went to all 8 batteries... it peels plaster off the walls! but wait i go to the oldies station and .. . Crowded House- Don't Dream Its Over Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield 2 of the songs I would crank LOUD! Hey had slick raised tiles... things sounded real loud in there! But.... damn these are .... oldies now I remember when that oldies station would just mainly play 60's stuff.... Here is someone else's write up on this... for tech details.. <http://www.vintagevolts.com/the-magnavox-d8443-boombox/> this thing had set in relatives storage shed for probably 15 years or maybe 22 ..... it had need 23 years since I saw it last....and storage sheds are damn hot here in az.. it looks good... it plays good! it plays LOUD good to have it back! In a message dated 12/29/2015 12:23:38 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, js at cimmeri.com writes: On 12/29/2015 2:08 PM, Jules Richardson wrote: > I've wondered occasionally what > happened to ghetto blasters - despite > finding other audio equipment of the > time every once in a while, I don't > think I've seen one anywhere in over > 25 years. Were they exceptionally > fragile or something, and so they all > got tossed long ago instead of finding > their way into attics and garages like > everything else? > > cheers > Jules I still have mine, circa 1979. Amazingly still works -- with no caps replacement yet -- except for tape deck -- rubber bands have dried up. - J.

10 years, 4 months

1
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Software for DEC MINC systems

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

On Dec 29, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2015 17:51:45 -0600 > From: Jay Jaeger <cube1 at charter.net> > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Software for DEC MINC systems > Message-ID: <5681CB11.4090101 at charter.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 > > On 12/27/2015 10:15 PM, Mark Matlock wrote: >> >> The software I am looking for are the MINC software packages FEP (Fortran Enhancement Package) V2.1 and FRP (Fortran Real_time Package) V1.0. Also SSP V1.3 (Scientific Subroutines Package) and LSP V1.2 (Laboratory Subroutines Package) would be great to find as well. These all run under RT-11 and I understand that there was also a version (V1.1) of FEP and V1.0 of FRP that ran under RSX11M which would be fantastic to find as I am more interested in RSX11M. This is based on documents in the MINC folder in the bitsavers online archives. >> >> Mark >> > > I have some MINC hardware (also a MINC/23 I think) and software, but it > does not look like I have what you are looking for. > > What I do have images of (except for the one marked "(Bad)" that seem > likely MINC related: > > RX01: > > CONTENTS COMMENT > LAB Applications-11 Library V3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YB, NSUM=41906 > LAB Applications-11 Lib Source 1 of 3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YA1, NSUM=56190 > LAB Applications-11 Lib Source 2 of 3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YA2, NSUM=28900 > LAB Applications-11 Lib Source 3 of 3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YA3, NSUM=65055 > > CONTENTS COMMENT > PLOT, Ver June '80 DECUS 11-381 RT-11 Media(KA) (Bad) > MINC BASIC/FORTRAN IV VIR TERM DECUS 11-417 RT-11, NSUM=22281 > PLOTTING PKG For RT-11 FORTRAN DECUS 11-431 RT-11, NSUM=12228 > LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 1 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=15424 > LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 2 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=1369 > LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 3 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=2841 > LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 4 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=21353 > FEP2: FINITE ELEMENT PROG 3DIM 1 of 2 KB DECUS 11-461 RT-11, NSUM=14187 > FEP2: FINITE ELEMENT PROG 3DIM 2 of 2 KB DECUS 11-461 RT-11, NSUM=26552 > > > RX02: > > CONTENTS COMMENT > MINC MA DEMO/23 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-J837B-BC, NSUM=04649 > MINC MA DEMO/03 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-H107D-BC, NSUM=58263 > MINC MA SYS/23 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-J836B-BC, NSUM=17510 > MINC MA SYS/03 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-H106D-BC, NSUM=61253 Jay, Wow! It would be great to get copies of those DEC and DECUS floppies! Almost all DECUS software include the sources and a good example of source code is worth many pages of references manuals. Please contact me directly and we can discuss how to transfer them. Several of those titles sound very interesting! The MINC systems are great hardware platforms, but I was very afraid that much of the software had been lost. This is very encouraging! Thanks! Mark On Dec 29, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > From: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa) > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Cc: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu > Subject: Re: Software for DEC MINC systems > Message-ID: <20151228152030.26E4518C0B2 at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> > >> From: Mark Matlock > >> either 11/23 or 11/73 CPUs (limited to 256KB by the MINC Q18 bus) > > Have you thought about upgrading the backplane/bus to 22 bits (shouldn't be > too hard) - or do you want to keep it original? > > Noel Noel, I actually have two MINC boxes, one labelled as a MINC-23 and one labelled as MINC-11. As far as I can tell from the engineering drawings there is no difference in the back plane. I am hoping to wire the MINC-23 to Q22 in the future to be able to run RSX11M+ on it with the 11/73 and a decent amount of memory. As far as I can tell there MINC cards would not have a problem with the Q22 bus and the modification to the BDV11 is pretty easy. The MINC-11 I plan to keep as a RT-11 system but with the 11/23 CPU and 256 KB RAM. Mark On Dec 29, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2015 11:27:17 -0800 > From: "Ian S. King" <isking at uw.edu> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Software for DEC MINC systems > > I started such a project a while back, and grad school intervened. :-) > But with all this interest, I'll see if I can't disinter my MINC and try it > again. I'm pretty sure I have these packages and a lot more, and I really > need to get them imaged of RX02s before the oxide starts falling off. :-) > > I have a MINC-11, but I put an 11/23 processor in it - 18-bit addressing, > though, and I DO want to keep it stock so I'm not going to modify the > backplane for 22-bit addressing, as much as I'd like that extra working > store space! Ian, As we discussed offline, I'll be very interested to see the titles of the RX02s that you have "in the basement". It would be great to get as many of these DEC and DECUS MINC related software packages together in one collection so it doesn't get lost forever. Thanks and Best regards, Mark On Dec 28, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 18 > Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2015 20:35:54 -0800 > From: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Software for DEC MINC systems > > I have an RX02 floppy labeled: > BA-L796C-BC > RT-11/FEP V2.2 INSTL BIN RX2 > (C) 1983 > > I don't know if that would help. I'll have to look and see if I have > already created an image of this disk. If not it might take some time > before I get setup again to create RX02 disk images. > > -Glen Glen, I would very much be interested in a copy of that RX02! That is one subversion higher (V2.2 vs V2.1) than the documentation I found so its probably one of the last releases. Please email me privately if you find the image. Thanks a bunch!! Mark

10 years, 4 months

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Trivial to adapt C64 1902 monitor output to s-video?

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 12:10 PM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > [...] I am (mainly) a Commodore enthusiast). > This discussion bumped my memory a little and I was wanting to do it. Has anyone tried this or does anyone have knowledge of why it should or shouldn't work? -thx jake

10 years, 4 months

4
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M9301-YB Bootstrap/Terminator ROM dumps / listings?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist bqt at update.uu.se > The per-device code are in separate PROMs that are used in both the > 9301 and 9312. Those are the ones with the device code as constants in > the beginning of memory space for the PROM, by the way. As I mentioned, the M9301-YA, at least, does not have this code. (See the listing.) Also, again on the M9301-YA, the various bootstraps, diagnostics, and console, are scattered through both banks (ditto), so one can't just replace a PROM or two to chance the supported devices; one would have to replace the entire set of 4 PROMs. > I hope you also are aware that both the M9301 and the M9312 have > different boot roms for some machines. I know that the 11/70 use > different roms with other tests than other PDP-11s, and I seem to > remember that one or two others do as well. (The 11/60 keeps popping up > in my brain...) I have yet to investigate the M9312's in depth, but I did know there are quite a few different versions of the M9301 (which amount to different ROMs: I know there are two different etch revisions of the card itself, but I think they are programming-wise identical). I don't know of any good list of the variants, but here are the versions I know of (device codes abbreviated to save typing): M9301-YA /04 and /34 OEM version; has basic diagnostics, console emulator, boots from various devices (RK, RP, TC, TM, DL, PC, TA, RX), supports auto-boot on power on, and also power-fail restart M9301-YB /04 and /34 end user version; has basic diagnostics, console emulator, boots from various devices (RK, RP, TC, TM, TA, RX, DL, PC, RJS, RJP, TJU), also power-fail restart M9301-YC /70 version; contains basic CPU, cache and memory diagnostics, boots from various devices (TM, TC, RK, RP, RK06, RJS, RJP, TJU, RX) M9301-YD All models; contains code to allow a terminal attached to the machine to be a terminal on some other line; also has boot code for RX and DDCMP M9301-YE All models; has basic diagnostics, console emulator; boots from low speed paper tape or DECnet; supports auto-boot on power on, and also power-fail restart M9301-YF All models (auto-start not available on /45, /50); has basic diagnostics, console emulator, boots from various devices (RK, RK06, RP, TC, TM, TA, RX, DL, PC, RJS, RJP, TJU) supports auto-boot on power on, and also power-fail restart M9301-YH /60 and /70 version; contains basic CPU, cache and memory diagnostics, boots from various devices (TM, TC, RK, RP, RK06, RJS, RJP, TJU, RX, PC) M9301-YH All models; has basic diagnostics, console emulator; boots from DECnet, and various devices (RX, TU, DL, DMC), also power-fail restart The -YA is the only one I have examined in detail. Noel

10 years, 4 months

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Old VCF East/West videos are going online

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Woohoo! Thanks to everyone involved in the efforts!

10 years, 4 months

2
1
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Reinstalling SunOS 4.1.4 without CD drive

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

A very generous list member just gave me a SPARCStation 20 with SunOS 4.1.4 on it. I thought the first thing I would do would be to image its hard drive in my Linux PC, in case I ever wanted to start fresh. I assume that if I make a bitwise copy of it, I can later write those same bits out. But now I'm wondering what would happen if the disk developed marked bad sectors; would that make an exact image impossible to write onto it? I have a disc image of that release, but unfortunately no SCSI CD-ROM. It occurs to me that I could perhaps make a SunOS filesystem on Linux and untar things from either the install CD or the image of the original HD into it, but I don't know if that would produce something actually bootable. I'm hoping there would be some way within Linux to capture the actual format of the filesystem to use as a skeleton. Does anyone know if this is possible (viz. creating a valid, bootable filesystem and untarring files into it)? Or should I just invest in a CD-ROM drive? -- Eric Christopherson

10 years, 4 months

8
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The KGB, the Computer, and Me

by dugo＠xs4all.nl

On December 29 08:35 Brent Hilpert wrote: > In 1985 I was setting up our new email system at CERN, and the email > system had a security flaw that allowed the users' mail access > passwords to be seen. > This in of itself wasn't too big deal as there was little a hacker > could do with it (only get access to mail pickup, and you'd need a > system that talked X.400, which weren't prevalent). > What made it a big security problem, of course, was that users tended > to use their login password for their mail password, so once the > hackers uncovered the mail password they ipso-facto often got a login > password. > The hacking was noticed and I was told they were networking in from > Germany. > > Given the commonalities: time proximity (85-86), hacker source > (Germany) and hacking targets (HEP/nuclear/research community), I > wonder now if it was the same group of hackers. Check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR9HVZ8qHHo Fast forward to 5:26 for a '87 sitelist mentioning CERN.

10 years, 4 months

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New Commodore 64 is Finally Here--For Real! PC MAG Snip

by barythrin＠gmail.com

They sold some units of the c64x. I think there are still some on our local austin craigslist but like most folks said hardware isn't really interesting enough to me to justify the cost. ? I cant remember where or who also produced a small (eepc? Or mini asus laptop running linux but badges with the commodore logo.? The latest relicense grab I'm aware of is only available in Europe but is a phone calling itself the commodore pet?http://commodoresmart.com/ i imagine they're probably trying to work out the legal purchase from commodore usa to use the logo if they care for a US release.?

10 years, 4 months

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disassembling Western Digital microcode (PDP-11, WD16, Pascal Microengine)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

The first cut at a microcode disassembler for the CP16xx/WD21xx chipsets, written in Python 3, is now on github: https://github.com/brouhaha/cp16dis The disassembler uses hexadecimal, in C notation, rather than octal as used by DEC. Branch targets are labeled as L with the three-digit hex address. The disassembler doesn't know about branch targets only reached from the control chip translation PLA. The disassembler probably needs a lot of work to be truly usable. It does not even attempt to produce code that could be assembled by DEC's "MICRO" microassembler that is in the KUV11 writable control store support software, or any other assembler or microassembler. (I don't have the KUV11 support software, but would *really* like to obtain a copy!) The register names decoded are specific to the LSI-11 microcode. I don't yet know what the Pascal Microengine registers are used for, so I don't have suitable names for them. Here's an excerpt from the LSI-11 microcode at address 0x018 where you can see one of the techniques for a computed jump, with entry occuring at 0x20: L018: jmp L101 ;018: 000101 jmp L161 ;019: 000161 jmp L192 ;01a: 000192 jmp L0f5 ;01b: 0000f5 jmp L0a5 ;01c: 0000a5 jmp L19e ;01d: 00019e jmp L192 ;01e: 000192 jmp L192 ;01f: 000192 mi RIRL,RIRH ;020: 00ec89 jmp L018 ;021: 000018 This is used by an implicit jump caused by the translation array in the control chip to location 0x20. The mi instruction causes the instruction register (RIRH) to be OR'd into both bytes of the next microinstruction, which is a jump to L018. Presumably before jumping to the mi, all of the bits of the instruction register have been masked off, except for the least significant three. It's also possible that it's been shifted before masking. Also possible, not all of the bits might be masked off, and there might be more of the jump table elsewhere, depending on those bits. Note that if the most significant five bits are not masked off, this could even change the jump instruction at 0x21 to a different kind of instruction. Eric

10 years, 4 months

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Software for DEC MINC systems

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

I have a MINC-23 that I am in the process of restoring. On the hardware side, I modified the BDV11 ROMs with some help from Malcolm Macleod on the boot eprom images so that I could boot a DU device directly from a 11/23 (not plus). It boots an Emulex UC07 and a SCSI2SD so I can load various images on to the microSD card. I found a microSD to normal SD adapter which I plan to mount through one of the MINC blank front panels (with a blinking drive activity LED of course), so that changing disks is convenient. Currently, the SCSI2SD is formatted as four RD54 drives which are a convenient size to load individual images with the dd command on Linux or Mac OSX. Currently, I can boot both RT-11 or RSX11M with either 11/23 or 11/73 CPUs (limited to 256KB by the MINC Q18 bus). The software I am looking for are the MINC software packages FEP (Fortran Enhancement Package) V2.1 and FRP (Fortran Real_time Package) V1.0. Also SSP V1.3 (Scientific Subroutines Package) and LSP V1.2 (Laboratory Subroutines Package) would be great to find as well. These all run under RT-11 and I understand that there was also a version (V1.1) of FEP and V1.0 of FRP that ran under RSX11M which would be fantastic to find as I am more interested in RSX11M. This is based on documents in the MINC folder in the bitsavers online archives. Please contact me if you have any of these packages or would just like to compare notes on the MINC hardware. I am still gathering diagnostics and documentation to check out the analog to digital, programable clock, digital to analog, and digital I/O cards. Someone mentioned earlier the "Minicomputer in the Laboratory" book by James Cooper and I have found it to be very helpful as well. Thanks and Happy New Year! Mark

10 years, 4 months

5
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Mysterious "Alcatel 7100" machine

by me＠xenu.pl

Hello, So I was browsing allegro (something like polish ebay) and I've found this: http://allegro.pl/alcatel-7100-rarytas-unikat-zabytek-i5889329416.html What kind of computer/device is this? Judging from the listing description, seller seems to know nothing about the machine. The only remotely relevant thing I've found while googling "alcatel 7100" was [1], but I think it's a red herring. This device definitely does *not* look like an ordinary 386/486 PC clone. [1] - http://www.museo8bits.es/wiki/index.php/Lista_de_ordenadores_compatibles_co… Cheers, Tomasz

10 years, 4 months

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Pulling Capacitors From Above

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have resolved that to get my H7874 PSU working better I am going to have to bite the bullet and replace some electrolytic capacitors which cannot be desoldered from below, at least not without some significant surgery on the board (there are components soldered to the underside of the board and attached to a large heatsink, all those components would have to be desoldered so that the heatsink can be removed to get access to the underside of the board). I have had the suggestion to pull the old ones out from above, and then solder in the new ones from above. These are relatively small radial types (330uF, 25V). I am sure the pins will just pull out of the bodies of the capacitors, leaving me to desolder the pins from above, which should be OK. But, I am worried about doing damage to the board by just pulling them "cold". Are they really just going to pull out of the capacitor body, or does anyone have any tips for doing this in the least damaging way possible? Thanks Rob

10 years, 4 months

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Canvas Print of part of a PDP-1

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

looks good Todd! wall art is good to have! Ed# In a message dated 12/28/2015 10:54:47 A.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, tsg at bonedaddy.net writes: For what it's worth, I bought myself a Christmas present of: http://www.ebay.com/itm/151918395795 Which is a print of a PDP-1 system (well, part of one anyway) on canvas. It's not inexpensive but the ePay auction has a %-off "sale" going on and the web site has coupons available to reduce the list price. If you don't want to deal with ePay then you can check out their web site at http://www.greatbigcanvas.com. No connection and I can certainly understand that people might want to spend the not inconsiderable amount on real hardware but I was pleased with the result when it arrived today. Todd

10 years, 4 months

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Old VCF East/West videos are going online

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

is this Evan? if In a message dated 12/28/2015 11:33:10 A.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, cctalk at snarc.net writes: > or who ever was supposed to get it done! > Ed# I don't know what "plaque dedication" you're talking about. Email me privately / off-list.

10 years, 4 months

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IBM channel-attached DASD emulation

by h.j.stegeman＠hccnet.nl

Hi Mike, A few corrections: 1) Some disk OEM's produced 3340 compatable diskdrives in the 70's. The OEM manufacturer connected their equipment direct to the internal S/3 channel. I have only seen 1 CPU at a scrapper which had this. 2) The BUS/TAG connector/cables are the same as used by IBM for 360/370 channel, but are used between the IOP and the 3340 disk string. They do not carry 360 channel signals but special IOP --> disk signals. 3) CPU --- int chan ---> IOP ---> IDE/SCSI drive. (IOP has modified HW & FW) See: http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/370/fe/3125/SY3 3-1063-1_3125_Processing_Unit_Input_Output_Processor_Nov73.pdf Regards Henk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 10:29 PM, Henk Stegeman <h.j.stegeman at hccnet.nl> wrote: > Hi Mike, > > Here are the options to attach 3340 DASD emulation to an IBM System/3 > > 1) direct connect to the internal channel of the S/3. Some disk OEM's did > this. > Requires a FPGA with at one side MST-1 interface logic and at the other side > IDE or SCSI interface. > The availabe IBM documentation is complete enough to finish this project. > You need good IBM HW & VHDL knowledge. Oh interesting - I had no idea! Do you have names and product numbers for those OEMs? Any more info? Ever seen one? If they were sold commercially by OEMs then the project already IS finished so to speak; it's just a question of *finding* one! Or finding the documentation and using that as a basis for re-creating the OEM solution. It doesn't require any hard-to-perform or reverse changes to the S/3? No backplane rework or wire wrap? It was just a case of plugging OEM cards into appropriate slots? > 2) direct connect to the BUS/TAG interface connector. > This needs a 8+P bit stream. You have to do some reverse engineering to > figure out what the exact format is. > I have no idea if the HW must be implemented in a FPGA (for timing reasons) > or if an AVR processor will do the job. > Advantage is that you don't have to modify anything inside the S/3. And the other advantage is that it could be part of a more generalizable device that could be used to replace other Bus/Tag peripherals on other IBM systems... if some of us were to start a home-brew project that might be the best approach to take. > 3) IBM has implemented an IOP (I/O Processor) between the S/3 CPU and the > 3340 drives. > This IOP is a modified version of the ones used in the IBM 370/115 & 125. It > is a powerfull multi thread capable beast. > With small HW modification you can connect an IDE or SCSI drives to it. > The difficult part is modifying the firmware of the IOP. This requires a > special assembler (to be written) and very good assembler skill's. If IBM have already implemented it then ready to use IOPs exist or at one time existed out there in the wild... your reference to modifying IOP firmware... do you mean to connect to the S/3 - or to attach IDE or SCSI? Or both? Does this IOP have an IBM model number? Was it a separate box or a set of cards and backplane that could be installed in the 370? I hope to be getting a 370/125 next year... Fascinating info Henk; I had no idea any of this stuff existed. I thought the only options for S/3 5415 were real hardware 3340s or nothing. Mike

10 years, 4 months

1
0
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DEC Unibus backplanes/options

by useddec＠gmail.com

I have the following backplanes, most have all the boards with them. DB11-A bus repeater DH11-A 16 chan com DP11-PA DR11-B general purpose interface DV11- RK611- I have one put aside for another list member RM11-A massbus TM03 tape formatter Several DD11-D backplanes- 9 slot spc Please contact me off list if you have any questions or interest. There may be a few more later. Shipping from 61853 Thanks, Paul

10 years, 4 months

2
2
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Old VCF East/West videos are going online

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

or who ever was supposed to get it done! Ed# In a message dated 12/28/2015 10:32:51 A.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, cctalk at snarc.net writes: > Did they ever get the plaque dedication video finished Evan? > Ed# They?

10 years, 4 months

2
1
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Canvas Print of part of a PDP-1

by tsg＠bonedaddy.net

For what it's worth, I bought myself a Christmas present of: http://www.ebay.com/itm/151918395795 Which is a print of a PDP-1 system (well, part of one anyway) on canvas. It's not inexpensive but the ePay auction has a %-off "sale" going on and the web site has coupons available to reduce the list price. If you don't want to deal with ePay then you can check out their web site at http://www.greatbigcanvas.com. No connection and I can certainly understand that people might want to spend the not inconsiderable amount on real hardware but I was pleased with the result when it arrived today. Todd

10 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Old VCF East/West videos are going online

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Did they ever get the plaque dedication video finished Evan? Ed# In a message dated 12/27/2015 10:45:51 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, cctalk at snarc.net writes: Good news! A bunch of old VCF East/West videos are going onto YouTube, thanks to ANTIC / Atari Podcast's Kevin Savetz stepping forward to do the grunt work. The first batch are talks from VCF East 6.0 (2009). YouTube playlist is at https://t.co/yYRr7rP7R4. We also asked Jason Scott to bring the videos into Archive.org as they go online.

10 years, 4 months

2
1
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Software for DEC MINC systems

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mark Matlock > either 11/23 or 11/73 CPUs (limited to 256KB by the MINC Q18 bus) Have you thought about upgrading the backplane/bus to 22 bits (shouldn't be too hard) - or do you want to keep it original? Noel

10 years, 4 months

1
0
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Apple IIe Platinum key mechanism replacement

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Making my junk look less like junk. Nothing groundbreaking for the engineers in this group but may be of interest to those voyeurs/nostalgerists that like looking at close-ups of the keycaps...or not... http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2015-12-27-appleiIIe-plantinum-key… Terry (Tez)

10 years, 4 months

2
1
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Looking for 3COM 3C905-TX Drivers

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

You need OSR2, and even then it's hard to get Win95 OSR2 to work reliably with TCP/IP. You'll first need to add the TCP/IP client for Microsoft Networks protocol, as it's not even installed by default (darn Microsoft!). By default it has only NetBUI and Netware, which must have paid them money... I could browse the web, but not get file sharing working. In the end I switched to Win98 SE and it was a lot smoother on the networking side. Marc >From: "Robert Jarratt" <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> >The drivers from the HP Enterprise site worked, although for >Windows 95 I have been unable to get TCP/IP working. DHCP is not working and >ping moans about a wrong protocol. It looks like I am missing VUDP.386 and I >could not find it on the Windows 95 CD. I am pretty sure I have another CD >with OSR2 somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment. Will have another >look at some point, but I think the driver itself is just fine now. >Regards >Rob

10 years, 4 months

1
0
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Old VCF East/West videos are going online

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Good news! A bunch of old VCF East/West videos are going onto YouTube, thanks to ANTIC / Atari Podcast's Kevin Savetz stepping forward to do the grunt work. The first batch are talks from VCF East 6.0 (2009). YouTube playlist is at https://t.co/yYRr7rP7R4. We also asked Jason Scott to bring the videos into Archive.org as they go online.

10 years, 4 months

1
0
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Looking for 3COM 3C905-TX Drivers

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

>From: "Robert Jarratt" <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> >Does anyone happen to have drivers for this card? I am not sure what OSs >this card was supported on, so any drivers at all would be appreciated. I have a few versions of the drivers. They are part of Windows 98SE and Windows XP distribution though, I had the card recognized on its own on by both of these (and I suspect NT too though I didn't try). Needs more help on Windows 95. If you can't get it to work from the links send me an email. Which reminds me I should ask for some drivers too... Marc

10 years, 4 months

4
5
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IBM channel-attached DASD emulation

by h.j.stegeman＠hccnet.nl

Hi Mike, Here are the options to attach 3340 DASD emulation to an IBM System/3 1) direct connect to the internal channel of the S/3. Some disk OEM's did this. Requires a FPGA with at one side MST-1 interface logic and at the other side IDE or SCSI interface. The availabe IBM documentation is complete enough to finish this project. You need good IBM HW & VHDL knowledge. 2) direct connect to the BUS/TAG interface connector. This needs a 8+P bit stream. You have to do some reverse engineering to figure out what the exact format is. I have no idea if the HW must be implemented in a FPGA (for timing reasons) or if an AVR processor will do the job. Advantage is that you don't have to modify anything inside the S/3. 3) IBM has implemented an IOP (I/O Processor) between the S/3 CPU and the 3340 drives. This IOP is a modified version of the ones used in the IBM 370/115 & 125. It is a powerfull multi thread capable beast. With small HW modification you can connect an IDE or SCSI drives to it. The difficult part is modifying the firmware of the IOP. This requires a special assembler (to be written) and very good assembler skill's. All options requires quite alot of time to implement. My 2 cents Henk

10 years, 4 months

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IBM channel-attached DASD emulation

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

I've recently been poking about with various bits of emulation with hardware interfaces... Dave's MFM emulator; various SCSI-to-USB or SCSI-to-SDcard devices; my Setasi RP12 Massbus disk emulator; the Sigma Seven Lisa widget/ProFile emulator etc. What about IBM channel-attached DASD? There are various CPUs lying around in private collections and museums - System/360s; System/370s; System/3 Model 15s; all used channel-attached DASD: and working reliable disks are much rarer than the damn CPUs! Questions: 1. There are or were various 3rd party companies producing rather obscure emulated DASD replacement subsystems - Virtualblue and Bustech are two names that come to mind. Has anyone looked into the possibility of using them to emulate older devices that would be usable on the above vintage CPUs? 2. To those with hardware design experience: how big a task do you reckon it would be to do this as a home-brew with modern hardware - exactly as Dave did with his MFM emulator? Is it feasible? Do the entire thing in software - Pi or Arduino or FPGA - with appropriate driver electronics to drive a channel interface? I've BCC'd some experts with experience - Rich Alderson; William Donzelli; Henk Stegeman - in the hope that they'll be able to contribute. What do people reckon would be the best target for emulation? 3340 springs to mind initially... would that work on machines as old as System/360s? It's about the *only* option for 5415 DASD... (To digress briefly - a modern reimplementation of something like the Setasi Massbus disk emulator would also be very useful; Rich - weren't LCM working on something like that?) 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, 4 months

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Seasons greetings

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

To all readers/followers of this website - for those who love classic/vintage computers - I want to wish all the best of the holiday season no matter what your beliefs. In this day of political correctness it is simply to acknowledge Mother Nature's transition >from fall to winter and we should take time from our busy schedules to reflect on this 'special' time of the year. Happy computing! Murray :)

10 years, 4 months

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VAX 4000-500 PSU Overload?

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

My VAX4000-500 will no longer power up, with the PSU starting up and then immediately shutting down. I suspect a possible short somewhere. I have measured the resistance of the load presented to the PSU by connecting probes to the backplane sockets used to power the machine. The odd one is the 5V load. With all the boards in and drives inserted I measure a resistance of about 4R. As I pulled out boards, drives and fans, it gradually crept up to 6R. So with nothing connected to the backplane I get a 6R load across the 5V supply. To my inexperienced mind, that seems a bit low. Should I expect such a value, or should I be dismantling the box to investigate possible shorts or failed components on the backplane? Additionally, the 12V side seems to be charging a capacitor as the resistance slowly climbs to about 130K. Is that reasonable? Again, nothing but the backplane. The 3.3 and -12V show very high resistance at all times. Thanks Rob

10 years, 4 months

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Looking for WinXP drivers for Trident Video Cyber9520

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

In the series "looking for drivers". I have taken to using DolchPac 65's as my retro workhorses so I can multi-boot DOS, Win98 , WinNT, WinXP and Linux while sticking weird old PCI and ISA interface cards in it. One of the OS always ends up having some software for the card. It has a custom video card that identifies itself as a "Trident Video Accelerator 3D Cyber9520". I found the driver for Win98 which works very well, the machine came pre-installed running NT, and Linux installs a driver that is a bit glitchy but usable (I can't believe I could run modern Linux on this!). The video is auto-recognized and the right driver installs under XP, but the default version is ultra-buggy, video gets corrupted. Does anyone have an updated driver for this chip? Internet didn't come up with anything apart from the ones necessitating scary hardware scanners that crashed my old machine anyhow. Marc

10 years, 4 months

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Merry Christmas

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Just wanted to say a very sincere Thank You to all the talented folks that hang out here and call this place home, and also to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas. Best, Jay West jwest at classiccmp.org

10 years, 4 months

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Piggybacking 74LS logic chips to confirm a suspected fault

by jonas＠otter.se

>> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- >> Van: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] Namens Terry Stewart >> Verzonden: dinsdag 22 december 2015 21:50 >> Aan: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts >> Onderwerp: Piggybacking 74LS logic chips to confirm a suspected fault >> >> Hi, >> >> I've written up my recent third Apple II repair, this time an Apple IIe. >> http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2015-12-22-appleiIIe-no-video.htm >> >> One interesting aspect of this repair is that piggy-backing a logic chip helped >> confirm a faulty one. I'd only ever used this technique with RAM. >> I'm sure it only works if the chip has a particular type of fault, but it worked this >> time for me. >> >> Terry (Tez) > > I use a HP 10529A logic comparator on regular basis for fault finding in ttl circuits. > It compares a reference chip with the CUT (Chip under test;) it's a very nice diagnostic tool. > It's a bit like piggy backing just a little more sophisticated :0 > > -Rik In my experience, the type of socket you used is quite unreliable and will tend to develop bad contacts. There is a reason they are cheap... I would use a turned pin type socket instead, e g an Augat socket. They will not let you down. More expensive, but considering the work involved in replacing a socket and the risk of messing up the PCB, the cost is negligible. Jonas

10 years, 4 months

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More Manuals

by radiotest＠juno.com

BAMA is probably the best known site for old test equipment and amateur radio manuals, followed by Ebaman. Dale H. Cook, GR / HP Collector, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radios/index.html

10 years, 4 months

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IBM channel-attached DASD emulation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Sotomayor > It's typical of most of the vintage gear. Folks save the CPUs and ditch > the peripherals. It's not entirely sloth and stupidity, though. Disk drives in particular (usually the biggest issue in this area) are complex precision machinery that operate at very high speeds, etc, and working on them is a formidable job, and requires specialized parts which are, in general, no longer available. > I think the biggest problem is that there isn't a spec per-se on > Massbus. A lot of reverse engineering will be required to make it work > properly in all cases. If it were done, though, that would be wonderful, especially for people with PDP-11/70's; the UNIBUS on those machines is reputedly the slowest of any PDP-11, so having mass storage on the MASSBUS is really necessary for good performance. (Apologies for my -11 centrism in an IBM-focused thread... :-) But finding the connectors (and probably the cables too) is going to be a cast-iron nightmare. Maybe we could settle on an alternative (the way I think we should switch to pairs of dual cards with Berg/DuPont headers, with standard flat cables between them, to replace the now-unobtainable BC11-A's - DEC showed this works, with the M9014/M9042..) Noel

10 years, 4 months

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The best spreadsheet / database program for Commodore 64?

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

Is there anything like Appleworks 1.0 for the commodore 64? if so could you be kind enough to give me the name of the program? I have searched but have found nothing of any value. I just would like a checkbool ledger and a savings spreadsheet.

10 years, 4 months

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Looking for 3COM 3C905-TX Drivers

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Not too long ago I picked up a DEC Venturis FX 5120. It contains a 3COM 3C905-TX network card. There are some sites around the web that purport to have drivers for this card, but I am very wary of downloading anything from these sites. Does anyone happen to have drivers for this card? I am not sure what OSs this card was supported on, so any drivers at all would be appreciated. Thanks Rob

10 years, 4 months

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More Manuals

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

Hi all, I just signed up today and haven't been admitted to the group, so I couldn't reply to the appropriate message. But, in browsing through recent messages I saw the one with a link to loads of manuals. My first thought was that if that was interesting, this one would be too. Manuals for tons of old test equipment. http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/ Will

10 years, 4 months

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PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

Lots more work on the PDP-12 at the RICM. We got an RS-232 console board and baud rate generator from Vincent and now have both serial ports working. Warren modified Kyle's SerialDisk and we booted OS/8 from an emulated RK05 on the second serial port. We fixed one of the bus interface boards in the DW8E Omnibus expansion chassis, and connected the RX8E/RX02. We were able to boot OS/8 from an RX01 diskette. We replaced an M160 flip-chip and now the EAE instructions work. We replaced an M103 flip-chip and the KW12 clock works. This system is new enough that ECO EM12-0055 for the KW12 was installed when it was built. This means that the KW12 Maindecs earlier than D8CD will not work. We cleaned up the PC04 paper tape reader/punch and connected it to the PC8E. The punch works OK, but the reader does not always step correctly and does not read the tape correctly. Fixing this will be the next project. Once we get the PC04 working the next project will be the RK8E/RK05. Out of frustration we set aside fixing the TC12 LINCtape controller. We see spikes on data track #3 that corrupt the data. We swapped the TU56 for a known good TU55, swapped the data/control cable, and swapped every flip-chip that is related to data track #3. Nothing has eliminated the spikes. The only part that we have not swapped is the backplane wiring between the data cable and the G882 flip-chips. Warren has a plan to temporarily replace that. We found that the maintenance prints that came with the system do not include ECO EM12-0055. Does anyone have a set of KW12 prints that include ECO EM12-0055? -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 4 months

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Massive document depository

by j＠ckrubin.us

This was shared on the TekScopes mailing list - http://bee.mif.pg.gda.pl/ciasteczkowypotwor/ "Massive" is an understatement. Jack

10 years, 4 months

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Piggybacking 74LS logic chips to confirm a suspected fault

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Hi, I've written up my recent third Apple II repair, this time an Apple IIe. http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2015-12-22-appleiIIe-no-video.htm One interesting aspect of this repair is that piggy-backing a logic chip helped confirm a faulty one. I'd only ever used this technique with RAM. I'm sure it only works if the chip has a particular type of fault, but it worked this time for me. Terry (Tez)

10 years, 4 months

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EAI TR-10 Patch Plugs

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

Folks, I own an EAI TR-10 analog computer which sadly came without any patch cables and accessories. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, BUT the TR-10 comes with special resistive plugs which go at the ends of the patch leads. These have a 4mm plug and socket with a 10k or 100k resistor in between. I can't figure out a way to easily fabricate replacements. I can easily obtain 4mm plugs and sockets, and solder a resistor between them, but when I try and mount them on a short rigid tube all my efforts fail. The plug and socket need to be twisted in opposite directions and any soldered joint just fails. Any usggestions? Does any one have some of these and if so how are they constructed? Dave Wade G4UGM

10 years, 4 months

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S/36 for sale. Also AS/400 - Greenville, SC

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

Not sure if folks on here follow the Vintage Forums. http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?50494-Complete-IBM-Sy stem-36-with-AS-400-Advanced-36-tower-and-IBM-4234-Dot-Band-Printer Dave G4UGM

10 years, 4 months

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Merry Christmas

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Yes and a Marry Christmas to you and yours Jay! Ed# In a message dated 12/24/2015 7:15:45 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jwest at classiccmp.org writes: Just wanted to say a very sincere Thank You to all the talented folks that hang out here and call this place home, and also to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas. Best, Jay West jwest at classiccmp.org

10 years, 4 months

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HP 16702A logic analyzer failed Ethernet (was Re: dumping Western Digital Microms)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I wrote about my HP 16702A not working on Ethernet any more. On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 8:08 AM, Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> wrote: > Assuming you are using 10BT for the network connection, do > you have the terminator cap installed on the 10B2 BNC jack? I think > some things don't work right with the 16700A/16702A network without > that terminator cap installed. I tried it. Didn't work. I also tried connecting the 10base2 to a 10 Mbps hub, and another port to my "real" network, and that still didn't work. As HP-UX boots, it says: <timestamp> auto_parms >> Network was disabled by boot scripts on previous oot. Re-activating the network. 8/16/6 <macaddr> 0 UP lan0 DOWN 4 ETHER Yes 52 <timestamp> auto_parms >> /sbin/auto_parms, checking network for DHCP server (see /etc/auto_parms.log) Then in the progress list, it shows: Configure LAN interfaces .................... [FAIL] * Check LAN Status .............................. [N/A ] [...] Configure HP Ethernet interfaces ......... [ OK ] Configure HP 100BT interfaces ............ [N/A ] Configure LAN interfaces ..................... [ OK ] Then once the logic analyzer application is up, it shows an error log window, which says There was a DHCP error . Network was disabled. But if I go to network settings, it says: Network hardware not usable - Is the network connected? And all of the radio buttons (e.g., to select "standard" configuration instead of DHCP) are greyed out and I can't configure it. I think the Ethernet ports on this beast are dead. :-( I'm not sure whether it's the CPU board or the I/O board that is dead, but Keysight, or whoever they are this week, wants more money for either of those boards than eBay pricing for a used 16700A or 16702A.

10 years, 4 months

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PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 20:56:51 -0600 > From: Jay Jaeger <cube1 at charter.net> > Subject: Re: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM > Message-ID: <567A0D73.2010304 at charter.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > I have an image of MAINDEC-12-D8CD-PB, and a listing as well > (MDEC-12-D8CD-L in my inventory). Let me know if you need them as well > as the drawings (see below). It is in an archive folder with a bunch of > other interesting PDP-12/PDP-8 stuff. > I wrote a program to export a BIN formatted file from a LINCtape image so we were able to make a BIN image of MAINDEC-12-D8CD. This runs OK, where the D8CC does not. Can you give me a pointer to the SerialDisk info? Sounds interesting. > Kyle's SerialDisk is here: https://github.com/drovak/os8diskserver > Hopefully you can actually fix the original M160 and M103 cards. > We have been able to fix all types of broken flip-chips. Sourcing the components is sometimes a challenge. The Germanium transistors for the TU20 on the PDP-9 were hard to find. > > > > We found that the maintenance prints that came with the system do not > > include ECO EM12-0055. > > Does anyone have a set of KW12 prints that include ECO EM12-0055? > The prints that came with this PDP-12 are here: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/pdp12/maintenance/DEC-12-HR2B-D_… Now that I looked in the ECO block I can see that they actually do incorporate ECOs 55 and 57. The machine wiring does not match the CLC page, so maybe there are more recent ECOs in the machine and not in the prints. We visited the RCS/RI crew last weekend and used their PDP-12 to format some LINCtapes. At least we have some freshly formatted, known good, LINCtapes for the TC12 debugging. Jay, we are interested in anything PDP-12 related that we don't have. The PDP-12 is described here: http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-12 Details on the PDP-12 restoration process are here: http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-12/dec-pdp-12-restor… -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 4 months

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UA11 boards

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, I know it?s been a while (a long while) since I last posted about ordering new UA11 boards. I just placed an order for 25 boards. To get the best price I did a ?4 week turn? which means that I should be receiving the boards by the end of January. I?m only doing bare boards this time, so what you?ll get is a board and a set of printed documentation (which is also available at: http://www.shiresoft.com/downloads/docs/ua11/UA11%20Manual.pdf). I just looked at the documentation and the address and phone numbers are old (so don?t try and use them!). I?ll try and get the documentation updated with current information before I ship any boards. The cost will be less than what?s posted on the website, I won?t have exact numbers until I receive the boards however I expect to charge ~$100/ea + shipping. I?ll let everyone know when the boards arrive, but feel free to email me (off list please!) if you?d like to reserve one (or more!). Do not send any payment until I have boards in hand! Have a Merry Christmas (or whatever your preferred holiday this time of year is)! TTFN - Guy

10 years, 4 months

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XY11 Manual, Anyone?

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I have in mind to connect a machine to an IBM 1627 (CALCOMP 565) plotter and then the XY11 which just arrive would fit nicely, I think. But I cannot seem to find any manual for the XY11. Anyone know of a manual? The board is rather simple so it should be possible to work out the details on how to interface it by hand but it would be nice to have the proper manual. Then for software I found a diagnostic, XXYAD0 that supposedly should draw a square and a rectangle. Anyone know of other drawing software that uses the XY11 /Mattis

10 years, 4 months

4
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dumping Western Digital Microms (PDP-11, WD16, Pascal Microengine)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

The DEC LSI-11, Western Digital WD16 (as used in the Alpha Micro AM100), and Western Digital Pascal Microengine use variations of the same chipset, called CP1600 for the LSI-11 and WD16, and WD9000 for the Pacal Microengine. The chipset consists of a control chip, a data path chip, and two to four microcode ROMs, of 512 words of 22 bits each, known as "Microms". I built an apparatus on a breadboard to dump the contents of Microms, using a PIC and a quad gate driver to produce the four-phase 12V clock, three 74HCT163 four-bit counters and two 74HCT245 buffers to drive the address onto the microinstruction bus, and a 74HCT4050 and 74HCT04 to level shift the MOS phase 2 clock back to 5V and invert it, to enable the 74HCT245 buffers. Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22368471 at N04/albums/72157662054690240 The apparatus cycles through the entire 2 kibiword address space continuously. An HP 16701A logic analyzer with 16557D state/timing card is attached to capture the addresses and data. Because the microinstruction bus is active low, the addresses are driven in reverse sequence, and the microinstructions captured on the logic analyzer are inverted. So far I have dumped the following LSI-11 Microms: 3010D, DEC P/N 23-001B5 (also designated CP1631-10) - addr 0x000-0x1ff 3007D, DEC P/N 23-002B5 (also designated CP1631-07) - addr 0x200-0x3ff So far I have dumped the following Pascal Microengine Microms: WD2171-10 - addr 0x000-0x1ff WD2171-12 - addr 0x200-0x3ff WD2171-13 - addr 0x400-0x5ff WD2171-14 - addr 0x000-0x1ff WD2171-15 - addr 0x200-0x3ff WD2171-17 - addr 0x400-0x5ff WD2171-18 - addr 0x400-0x5ff There exists at least one other Pascal Microengine Microm which I don't have, the WD2171-16. I expect that it probably occupies addr 0x400-0x5ff. I have not yet dumped the WD16 Microms as I do not have an AM100 CPU board at hand. My next challenge is exporting the data from the 16701A to anything else. The 16701A used to work fine on my Ethernet, but for mysterious reasons it now claims that the network can't be accessed, despite that plugging a laptop into the same Ethernet cable works fine. I'll need to write a small Python script to post-process the output, for use with my disassembler (also in Python). Note that dumping the Microm contents is only part of the problem; the control chip also contains PLAs that can force microcode jumps under various conditions despite there being no corresponding jump instruction in the Microms. This is used for macroinstruction decode, and possibly for other purposes.

10 years, 4 months

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dumping Western Digital Microms (PDP-11, WD16, Pascal Microengine)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Eric Smith > The control chip and data chip are not Microms, and MUST be plugged > into the correct socket. Yeah, as you saw, I eventually figured that out. In part, along with the bad diagram, I was thrown by a combo of the fact that i) the DEC part numbers for the control chip started with 23- (which seems to be a ROM part indicator), unlike the data chip, which as a 21-1; and second, the control chip is 23-002C4/23-003C4, which was so close to uROM numbers like 23-002B5 and 23-003B3, it sounded like they were all uROM parts. > There are a number of variants. Thanks for all the additional data. I'll add it all to the LSI-11 page on the he Computer History Wiki (seems as good a place as any to accumulate it). Noel

10 years, 4 months

2
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Has Anyone Written PDP-8 .XOR. Code Using the MQ Register (Without the EAE)?

by bobvines00＠gmail.com

Has anyone written PDP-8 code for .XOR. that uses the MQ Register (when the EAE isn't available)? If so, can you share the source code and/or the algorithm? Thanks, Bob

10 years, 4 months

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XY11 Manual, Anyone?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

resending with corrections! it appears the pen kit for our plotter got LIFTED (aka stolen, ripped off... etc... bummer..) before we had it glassed in living the glassed in display a areas if anyone has a calcomp box with the solenoid and pens that is extra to their needs please let us know In a message dated 12/22/2015 9:31:22 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, COURYHOUSE at aol.com writes: I had the large ibm calcomp plotter if big wide one we have the same ... it is in the hp display case at smecc museum there was a fortran graphics text book we had adn I had gotten with a HP 3000 and it had a interface board ( parallel interface?? too many years) I made it plot squares etc .. as I remember the hp intrinsics may have had some support for this.. once I did that i put it aside and went back to playing with the HP multi-pen HP plotters we sold back them at Computer Exchange Inc. In a message dated 12/22/2015 3:22:01 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, steven at malikoff.com writes: ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: XY11 Manual, Anyone? From: "Mattis Lind" <mattislind at gmail.com> Date: Wed, December 23, 2015 2:53 am To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > I have in mind to connect a machine to an IBM 1627 (CALCOMP 565) plotter > and then the XY11 which just arrive would fit nicely, I think. > > But I cannot seem to find any manual for the XY11. Anyone know of a manual? > > The board is rather simple so it should be possible to work out the details > on how to interface it by hand but it would be nice to have the proper > manual. > > Then for software I found a diagnostic, XXYAD0 that supposedly should draw > a square and a rectangle. > > Anyone know of other drawing software that uses the XY11 > > /Mattis The book 'The Minicomputer in the Laboratory' by James W Cooper covers using an X-Y plotter with an 11/05, and has assembly listings and a whole bunch of related stuff about scientific plotting. Also a lot of info on using the LPS-11 too. There are plenty of copies out there and quite cheap too. It's an excellent book and could be of use to you. Steve.

10 years, 4 months

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ST-251 MLC-1

by lehmann＠ans-netz.de

Hi, I knew ST-251-0, ST-251-1 drives for ST506. Some time ago I've got a ST-251 labled "MLC-1". Does someone knows what the MLC stands for? What is different to the other ST-251 variants? It looks like a regular ST506 drive. Oliver

10 years, 4 months

1
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Anyone collect Fortune 32/16 systems?

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

There is one quite inexpensive on Ebay right now. Looks to be a match for the system unit at the CHM as well. Maybe they need a spare. I don't know if they want parts machines or not, but for the price it is almost tempting to pick it up. http://www.ebay.com/itm/321399704868 Hope Christmas brings everyone a lot of new toys. (as in old ones). Thanks jim

10 years, 4 months

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Odd disk image format... .552?

by wrm＠dW.co.za

> >Recently found some long-lost images of 5 1/4" floppies that were sent >to me... 10-15 years ago. Here's one of them: > >http://www.corestore.org/RP06.552 Looks like a straight image for a 1.44 what we call "stiffy". The 522 is the version of RP06. Google leads me to http://www.corestore.org/rp12.htm so you already know what it's for :-) W

10 years, 4 months

3
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XY11 Manual, Anyone?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

yes I can... it got LIFTED! Ripped Off! Stolen! Bummer eh? In a message dated 12/23/2015 9:43:59 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cisin at xenosoft.com writes: On Wed, 23 Dec 2015, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > it appears the pen kit for our plotter got listed before we had > it glassed in living the glassed in display a areas Could you rephrase that?

10 years, 4 months

1
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XY11 Manual, Anyone?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

it appears the pen kit for our plotter got listed before we had it glassed in living the glassed in display a areas if anyone has a calcomp box with the solenoid and pens that is extra to their needs please let us know many thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for smecc _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 12/23/2015 6:28:28 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, dave.g4ugm at gmail.com writes: Surely there is a copy of CalComp Host Computer Basic Software (HCBS) around somewhere that talks to the XY11. After all the Calcomp is pretty thick. All it can do is move 1 step at once, well it can do diagonals as well, but pretty thick... Dave G4UGM > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Stefan > Skoglund (lokal anv?ndare) > Sent: 23 December 2015 11:07 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: XY11 Manual, Anyone? > > > > > Then for software I found a diagnostic, XXYAD0 that supposedly > > > should draw a square and a rectangle. > > > > > > Anyone know of other drawing software that uses the XY11 > > > > > > /Mattis > > > > The book 'The Minicomputer in the Laboratory' by James W Cooper covers > > using an X-Y plotter with an 11/05, and has assembly listings and a > > whole bunch of related stuff about scientific plotting. Also a lot of > > info on using the LPS- > > 11 too. > > There are plenty of copies out there and quite cheap too. It's an > > excellent book and could be of use to you. > > > > Steve. > > > > Boken finns i Ume? universitets boksamling (?ven p? > fysikinstitutionen.) > Det verkar inte finnas n?got exemplar i Uppsala d?remot. :-) Kastad ?

10 years, 4 months

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An IBM I/O Selectric interface using TTL and a 2708 EPROM

by steven＠malikoff.com

Back in the late 70s early 80s one of Dad's work colleagues came up with this circuit for interfacing an IBM I/O Selectric to a microcomputer. We had one, which we planned to use with our Fairchild/Mostek F8 development board, but it never got done - my brother and I wanted a computer with a screen, not a printer! So we spent our pocket money (and Dad's too) on an S-100 kit system, but that's another story. Recently I found the only remains of our I/O writer, the platen. Sadly I think it must have been junked, the platen being kept to roll out photographic prints in Dad's darkroom. I just finished scanning, cleaning up the degradation and turning the circuit into a PDF. These days an Arduino or RasPi would be a simpler and more flexible way to go, but I hope you find it interesting looking at how it was done with TTL and discrete components. The circuit was designed by (I believe) Neil Taylor, possibly with the help of Derek Williamson, both brilliant IBM Australia CE's. I know my dad always spoke very highly of them. It's an 8-page PDF at http://web.aanet.com.au/~malikoff/misc/IBM_IO_Selectric_interface.pdf Regards, Steve Malikoff.

10 years, 4 months

2
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XY11 Manual, Anyone?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I had the large ibm calcomp plotter if big wide one we have the same ... it is in the hp display case at smecc museum there was a fortran graphics text book we had adn I had gotten with a HP 3000 and it had a interface board ( parallel interface?? too many years) I made it plot squares etc .. as I remember the hp intrinsics may have had some support for this.. once I did that i put it aside and went back to playing with the HP multi-pen HP plotters we sold back them at Computer Exchange Inc. In a message dated 12/22/2015 3:22:01 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, steven at malikoff.com writes: ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: XY11 Manual, Anyone? From: "Mattis Lind" <mattislind at gmail.com> Date: Wed, December 23, 2015 2:53 am To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > I have in mind to connect a machine to an IBM 1627 (CALCOMP 565) plotter > and then the XY11 which just arrive would fit nicely, I think. > > But I cannot seem to find any manual for the XY11. Anyone know of a manual? > > The board is rather simple so it should be possible to work out the details > on how to interface it by hand but it would be nice to have the proper > manual. > > Then for software I found a diagnostic, XXYAD0 that supposedly should draw > a square and a rectangle. > > Anyone know of other drawing software that uses the XY11 > > /Mattis The book 'The Minicomputer in the Laboratory' by James W Cooper covers using an X-Y plotter with an 11/05, and has assembly listings and a whole bunch of related stuff about scientific plotting. Also a lot of info on using the LPS-11 too. There are plenty of copies out there and quite cheap too. It's an excellent book and could be of use to you. Steve.

10 years, 4 months

1
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Fw: Odd disk image format... .552?

by nico＠farumdata.dk

On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 10:17 PM, Nico de Jong <nico at farumdata.dk> wrote: > ---- Original Message ----- > From: "Mike Ross" <tmfdmike at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" >> <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >> Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2015 9:41 AM >> Subject: Odd disk image format... .552? >> >> >>> Recently found some long-lost images of 5 1/4" floppies that were sent >>> to me... 10-15 years ago. Here's one of them: >>> >>> http://www.corestore.org/RP06.552 >>> >> Seems to be a MSDOS 5.0 boot disk, with just one important program, >> RP06.EXE, on it, and then some support programs. >> As far as I can see, it is a physical backup. Could the 552 just be a serial >> number `? > >That's kinda what I expected actually... so you reckon they're just in >normal raw image format for e.g. Rawrite? > Suppose so. They took a complete disc, sector by sector, and wrote it as a file. /Nico

10 years, 4 months

3
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Now this person is optimistic

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Check out: http://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-PDP8-I-MINICOMPUTER-PDP8-PDP-8-PDP-8/2014877000… I know it has a bunch of DECTape drives, but... Noel

10 years, 4 months

4
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Apple II keyboard WTB

by mail.nickallen＠gmail.com

Hey everyone, just got my Apple1 powered up!!! The PIA is hot to the touch, I heard they run hot, how hot is too hot?? Looking for an Apple II keyboard to convert for use on my Apple1. Anyone have one for sale or trade? Thanks! -Nick

10 years, 4 months

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Odd disk image format... .552?

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

Recently found some long-lost images of 5 1/4" floppies that were sent to me... 10-15 years ago. Here's one of them: http://www.corestore.org/RP06.552 I've never seen that .552 file extension before. Any clue? It's possible that refers to a version number rather than some obscure disk image format... (They are allegedly Setasi Shelby RP12 boot disks btw :-) ) 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, 4 months

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Anyone fancy a laugh?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Adrian Graham > Overblown salesmanship aside, technically I suppose they're right. Well, I don't think so. According to Wikipedia (I know, I know), the Lisa was released on January 19, 1983, but the Xerox Star (AKA Dandelion): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star was introduced in 1981, almost two years before. The Star was supposed to be a commercial product version of the Alto, and although it had many issues, it did have an advanced version of the graphic-based user interface that is now universal - icons, etc, etc. And it had a mouse. Noel

10 years, 4 months

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Anyone fancy a laugh?

by binarydinosaurs＠gmail.com

Having typed that subject line I'm changing my attitude slightly: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ONE-OF-FEW-REMAINING-1ST-AVAILABLE-MICE-IN-THE-WO… Overblown salesmanship aside, technically I suppose they're right. Even given Doug Engelbart's introduction in 1964 the mouse wasn't a massive commercial success by 1983 was it. Still a lot of cash though, and when I bought my Lisa in 2005 it came with that rodent so I'll put it alongside my little collection of VSXXX workstation mice as WOW*R at RE*L@@K* items :) -- adrian/witchy Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection? www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

10 years, 4 months

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dumping Western Digital Microms (PDP-11, WD16, Pascal Microengine)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Eric Smith > So far I have dumped the following LSI-11 Microms: > > 3010D, DEC P/N 23-001B5 (also designated CP1631-10) - addr 0x000-0x1ff > 3007D, DEC P/N 23-002B5 (also designated CP1631-07) - addr 0x200-0x3ff Excellent work! I was going to point out that there is another uROM (KEV11) for the LSI-11, for the EIS/FIS, and also that there is some variation in the numbers of the uROM chips, but along the way, I ran into a puzzle. DEC documentation differs on the location of the two uROM's in the LSI-11/2 (KD11-HA, M7270): the 'Microcomputer Products Handbook' gives the order (from the handle end) as KEV11, uROM 1, uROM 0, Control, Data Path; the print set for the KD11-HA gives KEV11, Control, uROM 1, uROM 0, Data Path! >From which I conclude that either: i) one of the documents, perhaps the Handbook, is wrong, or ii) the 'Control' chip must also be a uROM, and that there is some variation in how the 3 chips can be plugged in? Here is more data from a couple of boards I have access to (from the handle end): - 2007C 23-002C4, 3010A 23-001B5, 3007D 23-002B5 - 2007C 23-002C4, 3010D 23-001B5, 3007D 23-007B5 - 2007C 23-003C4, 3010D 23-008B5, 3007D 23-007B5 Anyone know what's up here? Getting back to the KEV11, the one I have seen is a 3015 23-003B5. > the control chip also contains PLAs that can force microcode jumps under > various conditions despite there being no corresponding jump instruction in > the Microms. Hmm. Any idea/way to read them out? Noel

10 years, 4 months

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scan of IEEE-696 standard

by spereira1952＠comcast.net

Here is another scan from a different location: http://www.imsai.net/download/IEEE_696_1983.pdf I hope this may help. smp ----- Original Message -----

10 years, 4 months

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dumping Western Digital Microms (PDP-11, WD16, Pascal Microengine)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> DEC documentation differs on the location of the two uROM's in the > LSI-11/2 (KD11-HA, M7270): the 'Microcomputer Products Handbook' gives > the order (from the handle end) as KEV11, uROM 1, uROM 0, Control, Data > Path ... > From which I conclude that either: i) one of the documents, perhaps the > Handbook, is wrong, or ii) the 'Control' chip must also be a uROM, and > that there is some variation in how the 3 chips can be plugged in? > Anyone know what's up here? To answer my own post, I looked at the prints (should have done this before I posted, sigh), and there is no way it can be ii). The Control chip has a bunch of discrete signals on pins where the uROM's have micro-instruction bus pins. So there's no way you can swap them around. So the 'Microcomputer Products Handbook' diagram (pg. C-18) has to be wrong. Noel

10 years, 4 months

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DEC corporate cab side panel.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I have one side panel for a DEC corporate cabinet. It should fit VAX-11/780 or similar cabinets. It is in good shape. Anyone need one? It is in Stockholm, Sweden. Also has some other parts for the cabinet, like wheels and other steel parts. /Mattis

10 years, 4 months

1
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KiCad Footprint ??

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

Speaking of KiCad .... Yesterday, I tried for the first time KiCad, and my first board design with it. The very first part I was looking for .... I was not able to locate it. Is it because I am a newbe or because this part does not exist yet, beeing "too old" ?? I was looking for : Card edge connector ( fingers print ) , any contact count, BUT pitch = 3.96 mm Any help ?? Thanks !! --- L'absence de virus dans ce courrier ?lectronique a ?t? v?rifi?e par le logiciel antivirus Avast. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 4 months

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NCR 376 card punch

by ed＠groenenberg.net

So I saw this NCR376 card punch on the German Ebay and placed a bid, getting it for Eur 1.50 (approx $1.75). Last Saturday I picked it up near Frankfurt and brought it back home and came with a small user manual (in German), 2 sheets of diagrams (need to find a magnifier to read it properly) and about 500 unused cards. There are a few small issues, the rubber rollers of the feeder are melted, but apparently can be replaced using some heat shrink tube, the rubber layer seems to be very thin. Another issue are the transport rollers which moves the card from right to left where the hopper is. Those are also melted but again seem to be repairable. Last issue is that when I press some keys on the keyboard, the card does not advance, only some clicking noises from the backplane is heard. The backplane consists of s series of relays on a few cards, and a number of capacitors on a few other cards. (Yes, this card punch is driven by a series of relays). This unit is OEM-ed from JUKI (Juki-1300), a Japanese company who made it. Although the machine is small (about 100 x 100 x 45 cm) is weights 100Kg. Anybody know a source for other manuals of this machine? Googling for it did not return much for it. Ed -- Ik email, dus ik besta. BTC : 1J5fajt8ptyZ2V1YURj3YJZhe5j3fJVSHN LTC : LP2WuEmYPbpWUBqMFGJfdm7pdHEW7fKvDz

10 years, 4 months

1
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Wood (was Re: IBM Mainframe terminal stuff)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 8:27 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > Was it the Processor Technology Sol that had oak strips on the sides? Walnut.

10 years, 4 months

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scan of IEEE-696 standard

by kspt.tor＠gmail.com

On 20 December 2015 at 07:25, Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> wrote: >> Is this it? (1983) >> http://www.pestingers.net/PDFs/Other_computers/IEEE%20696%20S-100%20Bus%20S… > > That's the one that's been screwed up by OCR. What about this one? Except for the front page and possibly the very beginning, it seems to be the same document, but different. If it's any better I'm not sure about, some pictures didn't do too well in the scan, apparently. http://www.imsai.net/download/IEEE_696_1983.pdf

10 years, 4 months

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What did computers without screens do?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mike > The one question I do have for the older gentlemen on here is what in > the world did the computers without a screen to look at do? There are a number of different generations, and the way they were used generally depended on what the computer in question had for I/O capabilities. In the very earliest machines, the computations tended to be mathematical modeling; things that needed a lot of computing, but had very modest I/O requirements. The classic example was the hydrogen bomb calculations performed on ENIAC (which was originally built to do ballistics computations), but other similar ones included structural modeling, etc. That class of application continued (and does so, to this day), but over time, more and more things got done using computers, as their capabilities (online storage, I/O, etc) grew. In general, the new applications were added to the existing ones, but did not supplant the earlier ones. Starting with a computer in England called LEO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer) they were also applied to business applications (inventory, payroll, billing, etc), which typically did more modest computations, but more I/O, which required better I/O capability (cards, tapes, printers, etc). With the advent of timesharing in the early 1960's, it became common to add individual character-output terminals (initially printing, moving mostly to video terminals circa the mid-70's), and with the ability of users to interact with applications running on a computer, applications broadened even further; online text preparation was one common one. The final phase came with the introduction of bit-mapped video terminals, which allowed the interactive users to use graphics, and images; the very earliest such systems were on time-sharing mainframes, but with the growth of personal computers, that technology migrated there (note that the very earlist PC's had only character-output terminals, mimicing their main-frame big brothers of the time). Noel

10 years, 4 months

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scan of IEEE-696 standard

by radiotest＠juno.com

At 03:04 PM 12/20/2015, Eric Smith wrote: >The problem has been solved. Is the solution available online? Dale H. Cook, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA Osborne 1 / Kaypro 4-84 / Kaypro 1 / Amstrad PPC-640 http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radios/index.html

10 years, 4 months

1
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scan of IEEE-696 standard

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a scan of the IEEE-696 (S-100) standard that has NOT been run through OCR to screw up the typography (and even some of the illustrations)? I'm *not* looking for the draft, only the final standard.

10 years, 4 months

2
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Gotek floppy emulator w/ HxC firmware

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

Is anyone using this combination? I'm having problems getting it to work reliably on a soft-sector controller in my Heath H89 and their forum is essentially dead. --

10 years, 4 months

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WD9000 Pascal Microengine floppy adapter (was Re: WD9000 Pascal microengine schematics available)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

The WD9000 Pascal Microengine main box does not include floppy drives. It can support up to four floppy drives, which can be either 8-inch (500 kbps transfer rate), or 5.25-inch (250 kbps transfer rate), as selected by a DIP switch setting on the WD900 board. Unfortunately the DIP switch directly controls the clock rate into the 1793 FDC chip, so it is not possible to mix 250 kbps and 500 kbps drives. However, it should be possible to mix 8-inch drives with high-density 5.25 inch or 3.5 inch drives that use the 500 Kbps transfer rate. The floppy connector on the back of the WD9000 box (and the WD900 board) uses a DC37S connector, and the pinout seems to be unique to the Pascal Microengine. My Microengines did not come with the floppy drives or cabling. I've designed a simple adapter PCB, and just got the first boards back from PCBWay today. I haven't yet finished assembling one because I screwed up ordering on some of the components and connectors. Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22368471 at N04/albums/72157660580290148 The WD900 board uses an FD1791 double-density floppy controller. It appears that the main board may have been originally intended for the FD1771 single-density controller, as the board revs I've seen don't have a suitable double-density data separator built in. On one of my units, the FD1791 is on a daughterboard with a typical analog data separator design using the WD1691 floppy support logic and a 74LS629 VCO. My other board has the FD1791 on the main board, but has some significant rework to install an SMC FDC9216B digital data separator chip in place of one of the TTL chips originally used by the main board design. I've seen other WD900 boards with the FDC9216B modification, so I think this was rework done at manufacturing time, rather than a field change. One aspect of the floppy controller design seems a bit unusual. The WD controllers have a HLD output used to tell the floppy drive to load the head, and an HLT input (Head Load Timing) to indicate that the head is loaded. After the controller asserts HLD, it waits for HLT to go true before proceeding with read, write, or format operations. A typical 8-inch drive takes 35 ms to load the head, and maybe a few more for head settling. A common way to wire the controller is to use an external one-shot triggered by HLD, with its output wired to HLT, and adjusted for a time delay a little longer than the drive requires for loading the head. 8-inch drives typically can either be jumpered to use a dedicated head load control line on the interface to control the head load solenoid, or to automatically load and unload the head as the drive select signal is asserted and deasserted. Normal 8-inch drives have the head load solenoid to do what was previously described, and run the spindle motor either all the time, or whenever a disk is inserted and the door closed. 5.25-inch drives, and some later 8-inch drives such as the Tandon TM848, do away with the head load solenoid and instead are intended to operate with the spindle motor active only when the drive is selected, or when a motor control signal is active. As such, they don't require any head load time, but instead require a motor startup time that is even longer; the slowest drives require about a second for spinup. With a WD controller, this is also sometimes accomodated by using the one-shot between HLD and HLT. Some WD-based controller designs, such as those in the TRS-80 Model I, III, and 4, are only intended for 5.25-inch drives (or the 8-inch drives that use motor control and no head load solenoid), and tie the READY signal from the drive to the HLT input of the FDC. The WD900 board tries to acommodate these variations by bringing the HLT signal to its DC37S connector, for the system integrator to wire up as desired. The only complete Pascal Microengine system I've seen up close in recent history had a hand-wired drive cable to 8-inch drives, with the HLT signal simply tied to a +5V pin on the same connector. The net effect of that is that the FD1791 asserts HLD, delays 15ms if the h bit of the command is 1, and does not delay any further. Unless the drive can actually load its head that quickly, this doesn't seem ideal, but I suppose it works because the FDC won't be able to read a valid sector address field until the head is loaded. For a write operation, I'd worry that the head might not have fully settled by the time the actual write begins, possibly leading to unreliable writes. To support proper head load or motor spinup timing, I put an optional PIC microcontroller and DIP switch on the adapter, to act as a digital delay between HLD and HLT, with sixteen switch-selectable delays. The drive select lines are wired to PIC inputs, so if desired, firmware could actually use different delays for different drive selects, if you mix drives with different head load timing requirements. I haven't yet written any PIC code for it. The board should basically work as described above with HLT jumpered to +5V, without the PIC and related components installed. The adapter has both a 50-pin connector for 8-inch drives, and a 34-pin connector for 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch drives. It is intended for one connector or the other to be used, but not both. Even if you use a combination of drives that all use the 500 kbps transfer rate, having them cabled separately to the two connectors could result in termination problems. Naturally, only hours after ordering the PCBs I thought of improvements that I'd like to make to the design, but I don't anticipate that there will be a second run of boards. I don't presently have any bootable disk for the Pascal Microengine, so I'm not yet able to test the adapter. However, if anyone else needs such a thing, I have a small number of bare boards that can be made available inexpensively. (I don't have time to assemble boards other than for myself.) If there's any interest, I'll publish the Eagle design files, gerber and excellon files, a PDF of the schematic, and source and object code for the PIC firmware. The firmware will be GPLv3 licensed, and the other design files with be under a Creative Commons license, probably CC BY-SA 4.0.

10 years, 4 months

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Wanted: NEC PC-8001A Mini-Disk Module PC-8031A

by todd.george＠gmail.com

Hi there everyone. I'm hunting for an NEC PC-8031A mini-disk module for the NEC PC-8001A computer. I have the computer itself and PC-8012A expansion chassis already. Additionally looking for anything else relating to this computer that you might have kicking around and be willing to part with. Including but not limited to the "Wedge", expansion unit cabling, expansion cards, etc. Note: I have seen the one floating periodically on eBay and am keeping a close eye on eBay in general for this unit so am looking for leads outside of that. If anyone has stuff for this computer, please contact me off-list. I'm near Philadelphia and willing to drive to avoid you having to pack/ship. Not against shipping stuff either. Thanks!! -Todd

10 years, 4 months

1
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IBM Mainframe terminal stuff

by seefriek＠gmail.com

From: Mike Ross <tmfdmike at gmail.com> > I have a 3172 controller; physically rough and needs restoration but *should* work if > I can fake the remote connection and modem - bisync etc. B From: Paul Berger <phb.hfx at gmail.com> > you need a modem eliminator mostly to provide the clocks for the sync data line, > other than that is is similar to a null modem. Not sure if this would work here, but the Cisco IOS "IBM Feature Set" has support for all sorts of weird bisync use cases. I've used it to fake termination of an ALC (Airline Line Control) bisync connection where a modem connection was expected. You can then convert, tunnel or bridge to any number of other strange things. There even exists an IBM channel attach card for the Cisco 7k routers that turns it into the equivalent of a 3172 and/or 3745. KJ

10 years, 4 months

2
2
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Design tools Was: Mystery IC: Allen Bradley 314B102

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Brent Hilpert > I need to move to something newer but I haven't evaluated current > schematic-drawing programs Dave Bridgham got me started with KiCAD, and that seems like a pretty good system to me. It has separate sub-systems for schematic capture; circuitry checking; netlist generation; PCB layout; etc, etc. I've only worked with the first three, but it seemed pretty good for them. > I'm a little concerned they won't provide the degree of control or > finesse I like Well, you'll have to try it and see, but it's pretty customizable: they provide libraries of common components, but it has a nice component editor for drawing up new ones (or customizing the ones it comes with). Component location and line routing (in the schematic capture) are manual, but it's grid-based, so things line up. Noel

10 years, 4 months

5
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Help locating a 1975/76 Datanetics Rev B or Rev D keyboard

by applecorey＠optonline.net

I?m looking for an original Datanetics keyboard circa 1975/76 like the one Mike Willegal makes a reproduction for, not the more common Apple ][ datanetics keyboard. I have built one of his reproductions, but I?m looking for an original. http://www.willegal.net/appleii/apple1-datanetics.htm <http://www.willegal.net/appleii/apple1-datanetics.htm> Anyone have one they are willing to part with? Thanks, Corey986

10 years, 4 months

1
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IBM Mainframe terminal stuff

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

I?ve been tinkering around with my IBM Mainframe terminals and I?m pretty close to having everything the way that I want it. I currently have an IBM 3174-61R Establishment controller connecting to my ?mainframes? via TCP/IP. This allows me to not only connect to my Multiprise 3000 S/390 but also some PCs running Hercules to allow me to run older versions of the mainframe OS?s. I currently have 3 IBM 3179 terminals hooked up. I?ve upgraded the 3174 to be able to boot from a hard disk (it was a supported option). I actually purchased the upgrade from a reputable vendor but after many attempts we could not actually get it to do anything useful. I learned about DavidG?s MFM emulator and that?s now installed in the 3174 which happily boots from it. I still have to figure out a permanent mount for it since the standard 3174 HDD mounts don?t work for the MFM emulator board. One of the last things that I wanted to figure out was how to support multiple sessions. I had configured the 3174 to support multiple sessions on each terminal but following the documentation, I could never figure out how to actually switch between the sessions. Well today I managed to do that. Success! I finally figured out the key sequence for switching sessions. It doesn?t match the IBM documentation. It?s not clear to me if that?s because I haven?t configured something properly on the 3174 or if there?s some other reason behind it. Since I also have the AEA feature that allows me to connect ASCII terminals to the 3174, my next project will be to hook up a couple of the terminals that?re deemed ?compatible? (VT100, ADM5 are on the list) and see how that works. But that also involves navigating the 3174 configuration process which is opaque to say the least (there are configuration screens but you need a manual because the fields only have numbers (e.g. 721) to identify them and no other indication as to how they need to be filled in). Oh, the other bizarre thing about the 3174 that?s been configured with TCP/IP is that I can also connect to ?unix? servers with the 3174?s (and the ASCII terminals too). It?ll be interesting to see how that works on a CUT mode terminal. ;-) TTFN - Guy

10 years, 4 months

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IBM PS/2 Model 70 HARD DRIVE NEEDED

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

ok we have this In the PS/2 days there where suitcase size machines with plasma displays but they only had a single diskette drive that folded out of the front, we also have the dual disc laptop 1st thing IBM made with lcd then we also have a one that is like a suitcase compaq portable that made compaq famous ok thinks for it all being non scsi! Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 12/18/2015 1:15:22 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, ggs at shiresoft.com writes: > On Dec 18, 2015, at 12:03 PM, Paul Berger <phb.hfx at gmail.com> wrote: > >> > The screen on the convertable is not plasma, it is a LCD screen and there where two versions one reflective and the other backlit. In the PS/2 days there where suitcase size machines with plasma displays but they only had a single diskette drive that folded out of the front, one model is the 8573-P70. There where 386 and 486 versions of these machines with microchannel card slots and a SCSI disk. > Again, no. They did not ship with a SCSI disk. They used the same disks as were in the model 50 & 70 (which were *not* SCSI). A number of us at IBM (who worked on the SCSI cards spock & tribble) did fit the card (usually spock because it had 512KB of cache) and an IBM 320MB SCSI drive in the P70. It was *not* a standard (ie orderable) configuration but at the time created a wicked machine! TTFN - Guy

10 years, 4 months

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WTB: Fluke 9005/9010 pods or whole fluke 9005/9010 with pods

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

Looking for some Fluke Micro System Troubleshooter stuff: Looking for the following key caps: AUTO, BUS, RAM SHORT, and C Bonus key caps (not needed, but better ones would be nice): RAM LONG, I/O, 1, 2 Also looking for PODS for: 6502 Z80 6809 8080 If you have any of these available, please let me know what you have and a price. Thanks, -- Curt

10 years, 4 months

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Decisions you regret (classiccmp related)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Doug Ingraham > I regret that when I obtained my Straight 8 system in the early 80's I > chose not to take the ASR-35. > ... > A glass terminal is not the same experience as a teletype. Thank goodness for that! I had the 'joy' of using exclusively Teletypes for the first two years I worked with computers, and I didn't (and still don't) miss them one bit! Which is not to say I look down on those who collect/restore them, I understand they are an important part of the history, and I salute those who are into them. I'm just saying that, as a user, I was glad to move on! Noel

10 years, 4 months

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Mystery IC: Allen Bradley 314B102

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

Folks, I'm still probing the alleged "parallel ASCII" interface that was supposedly fitted to my 'Western I/O' converted IBM 2970 Selectric. Here's where we're at: http://corestore.org/2970pins.jpg I've traced the pins from the DB25 connector back to the board; the ribbon cable in the above pic is straight-through to the DB25. It doesn't resemble any interface with which I'm familiar, and I can't see how it can possibly be parallel. Only the following pins (these are the DB25 pin numbers remember) connect to any pins or devices on the interface board: 9, 10, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24. All other pins are either unconnected, or ground. Of the above 10 pins, 11, 13, 22 & 23 are high at power-up (printer NOT connected to any interface). The only pin with known function is 19, which is 'paper out'; if I toggle the paper out switch I can see it going high and low. There is no frigging way that can be a conventional 8-bit parallel interface, obviously, with only 10 pins in use, and 4 or 5 of them (depending on paper out) high on power-up - obviously signaling something. Whatever it is, most of the pins are driven by an IC - an Allen Bradley 314B102. Google has nothing, except a few for sale. No datasheet anywhere I can find. Can anyone give me a clue as to the purpose and pinouts of an Allen Bradley 314B102??!! Here's the component side of the driver board, the interface and 314B102 bottom right: http://corestore.org/2970driver.jpg Help? Please? Anyone out there with old reference material? Anyone make a stab at what the hell this interface might be??? Maybe, maybe, it's some kind of custom 'internal' interface and was intended to be used with a (missing) external converter box/cable that made a standard parallel interface of it?? 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, 4 months

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What did computers without screens do?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chuck Guzis > It's also occurred to me that without screens, we might be better off > today ... The average web-surfing experience blasts the user with tons > of filigree and useless data, but very little useful information. ... > Web sites that have multi-megabyte splash screens that serve no purpose > other than tell you that you've arrived. Agree completely. The amount of useless 'eye candy' on the average Web page is, well, appalling. But then again, the low S/N on developing technologies, as worthless content expands faster than high quality - well, that's nothing new, look at TV. > (oh boy, am I going to get flack on this one) Not so much! Most seem to agree, actually! :-) > Data is cheap and Parkinson's law applies. "90% of _everything_ is crap!" Noel

10 years, 4 months

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IBM PS/2 Model 70 HARD DRIVE NEEDED

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

OK Yea they were odd inside we have tower here.. think it is a 70 and a 17" or 19 inch MONSTER ibm monitor ( alas B/W). Years and Years ago someone dumped a bunch at a thrift shop.. lots of them! neat here I wish I had kept more of them... I kept the tower and let the desk tops go you see seldom any of these around here. We also kept a LAPTOP IBM with dual floppies and a odd plasma screen all in one IBM computer... and we have an IBM that is like the Compaq Portable and of course a first PC ( where do I get Charlie Chapman look-a-like to have next to it!?) Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 12/18/2015 12:08:25 A.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, ggs at shiresoft.com writes: No they weren't SCSI. Those were only through either a "spock" or "tribble" MCA card. Those were the code names. I have *no* idea what the "real" IBM designation was. ;-) The desktop PS/2 machines (50, 50Z, 70, etc) were all designed with robotic assembly in mind (that's why there are no screws or cables in those machines). To accomplish that the HDD was a non-standard connector. TTFN - Guy On 12/17/15 10:30 PM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > did all mod 70s have SCSI drives? > > Ed# > > > In a message dated 12/17/2015 10:54:50 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, > mokuba at gmail.com writes: > > I never saw this post, but did end up with a 30MB. I will take another if > available though. > > On Sat, Mar 21, 2015 at 1:27 PM, Daniel Snyder <ddsnyder at zoominternet.net> > wrote: > >> Still looking? >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Sparkes" <mokuba at gmail.com> >> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" < >> cctalk at classiccmp.org>; <unallocated-space at googlegroups.com>; " >> Blabber at hacdc.org" <blabber at hacdc.org>; "HacDC Members Discussion List" < >> members at hacdc.org> >> Sent: Monday, February 16, 2015 9:31 PM >> Subject: IBM PS/2 Model 70 HARD DRIVE NEEDED >> >> >> >> Got a hard down situation and need to re-install/recreate the BBS system > I >>> had running. >>> >>> HDD makes swishy noises when shaken, haven't tried stirring yet. >>> >>> I /guess/ a bootable MCA SCSI card would work too... ;) >>> >>> I had the 160MB drive, but anything above 30 would work - i guess i'll >>> just >>> have to use a SCSI Drive for the file storage area once i get an MCA > SCSI >>> card .... >>> >>> -- >>> Gary G. Sparkes Jr. >>> KB3HAG >>> >> > > -- > Gary G. Sparkes Jr. > KB3HAG >

10 years, 4 months

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Classic CMP list fall over again?

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

Did the email server fall over again? -- --- 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, 4 months

2
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Decisions you regret (classiccmp related)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Noel wrote.... ----------------- Every time I think about it I kick myself... Sigh! Although I suspect a lot of people here have stories like that... ----------------- Yeah Noel, we all do. I had a couple different really great machines offered to me long before I got into collecting. A DG nova 3 and an IBM System/3 come to mind, I'm sure there were others. I declined and they were scrapped. But here's one with a good ending.... Many years ago (I was around 19 years old) I acquired two Microdata Reality M1600 core machines (including full schematics and source code, completely unheard of for those machines). These two particular systems were very unique (basically one of a kind) even within the microdata world. After a time my parents ordered them out of the house and a "friend" agreed to store them. A few weeks after moving them to his house, he informed me that he gave them away and wouldn't tell me to who/where. Decades later I got into collecting, found the classiccmp list, met Jim Stephens here, and we've talked on the phone and met due to our shared history/interest in Pick-based machines. During one conversation it was discovered that - not directly, but through several chains of trades/sales/pickups - Jim Stephens had those exact two systems that I used to own. Given the unique nature of the two machines, there's no doubt they are the exact same ones. But we've also discussed the details of who we each knew, and pretty much ironed out who all's hands they passed through between him and I over the years. So... while I am sad I "let those machines go"... it's great to know that they eventually wound up in a great home of a fellow collector that I know - instead of the shredder! Best, J

10 years, 4 months

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Mystery IC: Allen Bradley 314B102

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

@ Brent Hilpert May I ask what software you use for creating your schematics ?? I like the way gates are drawn. Thanks ! --- L'absence de virus dans ce courrier ?lectronique a ?t? v?rifi?e par le logiciel antivirus Avast. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 4 months

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Re-inking printer ribbons

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Has anyone had any luck re-inking printer ribbons? I spent a few minutes looking at this Vic 1525 printer that I got the other day - turned out that the carriage was just gummed up and there was a blown fuse in the PSU section (probably related to the former problem). Of course the ribbon is completely dried out. I'd originally intended for the printer to be a static "Hey, that looks neat" item, but looking at it briefly, it's a good example of how to make a printer as cheaply as possible, so I'm wondering if there's a way of breathing life back into the ribbon so that it can print again in all it's noisy, glacially-slow glory :-) I don't care if it's not as black as an original ribbon would have been - it just might be nice if it was able to print something legible. cheers Jules

10 years, 4 months

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Decisions you regret

by mark＠markesystems.com

From: "js at cimmeri.com" <js at cimmeri.com> Subject: Re: Decisions you regret > mark at markesystems.com wrote: >> >> Yep. Among the things that I have >> given away (to Goodwill, or possibly >> Salvation Army) - all in running >> condition: > .... > > I'm going to go shoot myself now. > ~~ > > I'm curious, why were these given to > a Goodwill / Salvation Army of all > places? These places don't have the > first clue of what to do with items like > these.. and they tend to be overwhelmed > with stuff anyway. Not everything goes > out for sale. My reasons at the time: - All equipment was pretty much at its minimum value-wise - It could still be priced relatively highly for tax deduction reasons - I was very space constrained, and not using it at the time - I'd just gotten married (see "Spousal unit", in a later post) None of them good enough in hindsight for the value that equipment would have now, either to me or others. Damn - too bad I pawned that old Colt Paterson - I bet it would be worth something by now... ~~ Mark Moulding

10 years, 4 months

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TOP POSTING (was: RE: Best 200 buck I have ever spent!!! Deal of a lifetime!!!

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Please make an effort not to top-post :| J

10 years, 4 months

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IBM PS/2 Model 70 HARD DRIVE NEEDED

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

did all mod 70s have SCSI drives? Ed# In a message dated 12/17/2015 10:54:50 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, mokuba at gmail.com writes: I never saw this post, but did end up with a 30MB. I will take another if available though. On Sat, Mar 21, 2015 at 1:27 PM, Daniel Snyder <ddsnyder at zoominternet.net> wrote: > Still looking? > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Sparkes" <mokuba at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" < > cctalk at classiccmp.org>; <unallocated-space at googlegroups.com>; " > Blabber at hacdc.org" <blabber at hacdc.org>; "HacDC Members Discussion List" < > members at hacdc.org> > Sent: Monday, February 16, 2015 9:31 PM > Subject: IBM PS/2 Model 70 HARD DRIVE NEEDED > > > > Got a hard down situation and need to re-install/recreate the BBS system I >> had running. >> >> HDD makes swishy noises when shaken, haven't tried stirring yet. >> >> I /guess/ a bootable MCA SCSI card would work too... ;) >> >> I had the 160MB drive, but anything above 30 would work - i guess i'll >> just >> have to use a SCSI Drive for the file storage area once i get an MCA SCSI >> card .... >> >> -- >> Gary G. Sparkes Jr. >> KB3HAG >> > > -- Gary G. Sparkes Jr. KB3HAG

10 years, 4 months

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IBM PS/2 Model 70 HARD DRIVE NEEDED

by mokuba＠gmail.com

Got a hard down situation and need to re-install/recreate the BBS system I had running. HDD makes swishy noises when shaken, haven't tried stirring yet. I /guess/ a bootable MCA SCSI card would work too... ;) I had the 160MB drive, but anything above 30 would work - i guess i'll just have to use a SCSI Drive for the file storage area once i get an MCA SCSI card .... -- Gary G. Sparkes Jr. KB3HAG

10 years, 4 months

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WTB: PDP-11/03 front bezel

by pontus＠Update.UU.SE

Hi It's a longshot. But recently I aquired two BA11-N. One is just the cage and power supply. Looks just like this: http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/_/rsrc/1300059803599/Home/equipment/dec-pdp… The other came with mounting box but no front panel. I would like to make it complete with the white front bezel seen here: http://hampage.hu/pdp11/kepek/11-03.jpg Does anyone have one for sale? The greyish plastic arround the front panel would be a bonus since mine got a small crack in it. Regards, Pontus.

10 years, 4 months

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Another apple II+ repair

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

For anyone interested, here's another repair writeup. I didn't keep as good a notes as I should have on this one and the memory (my memory!) is of little help. If I'm going write these things up I really should do it straight afterwards! Anyway, the board lives now. It's something I could never have diagnosed just from chip swapping. http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2015-12-05-repairing-an-appleII+-b… I did learn that it's possible for the machine to boot to BASIC even with faulty RAM in the first row, something that I didn't think was possible. Depends on the nature of the fault I guess. Terry (Tez)

10 years, 4 months

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The Structure of SYSTEM/360 (Blaauw & Brooks, et al.)

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

This was the five-part seminal description of the S/360, published in the IBM Systems Journal, Volume 3, Number 2. I've very much like to read all five parts. Does anyone have a copy that might be shared? Thank you, paul

10 years, 4 months

2
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Decisions you regret Was: Mystery IC: Allen Bradley

by mark＠markesystems.com

From: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa) Subject: Re: Decisions you regret Was: Mystery IC: Allen Bradley > > From: Brent Hilpert > > > I threw out a print-only selectric a few years ago ... Regret it now, > > just because it would have been fun to figure it out. C'est la vie. > > I can top that. <...> > Every time I think about it I kick myself... Sigh! > > Although I suspect a lot of people here have stories like that... Yep. Among the things that I have given away (to Goodwill, or possibly Salvation Army) - all in running condition: - A complete HP-1000 system: A600 processor with internal hard drive, serial card + 8-port serial mux, all floppies, all documentation, a 2631G printer, 7912 13 MB disk drive, and two 2624B terminals - My CP/M "network", with Cromemco Z2-H with two 5 MB hard drives and two 8" floppies, 8-port serial card, connected to three H-19 terminals (the BIOS allowed you to become the console by typing ^C anywhere), HP2648 graphics terminal with tape cartridges, HP 2762 terminal (a re-badged GE Terminet-300), and an H-89 with three external floppies - Ancient SCM TypeTronic system, with the main typewriter console, two 30 CPS optical paper-tape readers, two really nice (re-branded CDC) 30 CPS punches, 2816 main control unit, and 7816 arithmetic unit (with internal fixed-head disk - 9 words plus a buffer, 30 digits/sec transfer rate!) - Abandoned to rust away in a garage: a Teletype KSR-33 with punch and reader, of course, and a built-in modem with acoustic coupler, in perfect condition - Turned down - a complete HP-3000 system, with two Eagle 76936 512 MB drives, 32 serial ports, 2617A 600 LPM printer, and a few 2640 and 2622 terminals Did I mention that *everything* was in perfect working condition? I'm going to go shoot myself now. ~~ Mark Moulding

10 years, 4 months

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Decisions you regret Was: Mystery IC: Allen Bradley 314B102

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Brent Hilpert > I threw out a print-only selectric a few years ago ... Regret it now, > just because it would have been fun to figure it out. C'est la vie. I can top that. MIT offered me (as a gift) the PDP-11/45 that I used to run; it included a pair of CalComp 50MB drives, a pair of RK05s, an ABLE ENABLE, 3 H960's, lots of other goodies. I blew it off, I was too busy dealing with other things at the time (I was on the IESG at that point) to deal with arranging to get it shipped down to me. They gave it to someone else, and near as I can work out, eventually it got scrapped. Every time I think about it I kick myself... Sigh! Although I suspect a lot of people here have stories like that... Noel

10 years, 4 months

7
9
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Diablo 3000 schematics wanted

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

I suspect the answer is no, but before I spend a few afternoons tracing out the diagrams, does anyone have a schematic or (real) service manual for the Diablo/Xerox 3000 computer, in particular the MRPRO CPU board. This is a 1980s all-in-one business desktop computer with 2 internal 8" drives. Based on an 8085 CPU. I have one that was mangled in the house-move (the movers decided to cut the keyboard cable for me). I have now repaired that (and the signals do make sense) but I have other faults (these were probably there before the move, I had not run it for many years). Power lines are fine, CPU chip is getting a clock, but the ready pin is held low. So not a lot happening.... The CPU board is not complicated, really (about 50 ICs, all of them standard) so it is going to be possible for me to trace the schematic if that's what is needed... -tony

10 years, 4 months

3
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Precision Instruments PI1200 7 track tape drive, interest anyone?

by mattislind＠gmail.com

We have this Precision Instruments PI1200 7 track tape drive. It can do 200 bpi, 556 bpi and 800 bpi. It should be an incremental type tape drive. Once upon a time (read seventies) it was used for experiments storing PCM audio on tape. But has since then not been used. The manual is somewhere nearby, but I didn't find it immediately. http://i.imgur.com/kYVLN9O.jpg http://i.imgur.com/LsWcLL0.jpg http://i.imgur.com/1LJLKAZ.jpg I guess that someone that need to recover old 7 track tapes might think it can be useful. It is located in Sweden. /Mattis

10 years, 4 months

1
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DEC CPUs, Memory for sale

by useddec＠gmail.com

I have the following for sale from zip 61853. The "L" boards are up to 2 for $10 shipping within USA, 3 for $10 shipping for the "M" boards. For larger quantity, overseas shipments, or other question, please contact me off list. Quantities are limited, and I may have some third party memory i'll look for this weekend. L4000-AA ,KA670 I think, $100 L4001-Bx MS670 32MB $125 L4001-Cx MS670 64MB $200 L4004-Cx MS690 64MB $125 L4004-Dx MS670 128MB $225 M7606 KA630 $75 M7620 KA650 $100 M8637 MSV11 starting at $75 I still have a few RX8-E boards left... Thanks, Paul

10 years, 4 months

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Anyone want a copy of DIGITAL ServerWORKS Manager ?

by glen.slick＠gmail.com

Before I chuck these in the recycle bin, does anyone want a copies of DIGITAL ServerWORKS Manager? I have two boxes, QB-4QYAA-SA 3.2 sealed in shrink wrap, and QB-4QYAA-SA 3.3 open box that is slightly crushed. The boxes (at least the still sealed one) look like this eBay item (not mine) listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321413114710 The DIGITAL ServerWORKS? Manager Installation and User Guide in the QB-4QYAA-SA 3.3 open box is the ER-4QXAA-UA. G01 version of the ER-4QXAA-UA. H01 manual here: http://manx.classiccmp.org/collections/mds-199909/cd2/network/4qxaauah.pdf It doesn't look like there is a market for these worth the bother of listing them on eBay. Free for the cost of covering postage from Seattle, WA if anyone wants them. -Glen

10 years, 4 months

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IBM CMS dumpfile idiocy

by cclist＠sydex.com

Just finished reading a 9 track tape made with IBM CMS in its dumpfile format. Why on earth--or might I say, what idiot--designed this format? First the file data in a series of records, *then* the file name and other metadata. Anyone know of a DOS/Windows/Unix utility to unravel one of these things? I don't feel too much like coding for a single tape. --Chuck

10 years, 4 months

7
23
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M7859 KY11-LB PROM contents?

by mattislind＠gmail.com

Has anyone dumped the contents of the bipolar PROMs of the M7859, KY11-LB, programmer's console form the 11/34 and 11/04? Dump for both the program PROMS (512x4 4 pieces) and the decoding PROM (32x8 one piece) are sought after. It has a 8008 chip onboard but my logic analyzer trace is not matching very well with the listing in the manual. Maybe the revisions have changed from the manual. And I cannot find the PROM contents in the engineering drawing. /Mattis

10 years, 4 months

1
0
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IBM Selectric-based Terminals

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

> - intention was to rip all this out and convert it to a full I/O serial terminal, using an Arduino-based setup > that Lawrence Wilkinson has already built and tested: > https://www.flickr.com/photos/ljw/sets/72157632841492802/with/9201494189/ Looks very nice! Is there documentation for it somewhere? I also have a Selectric (unfortunately it's located distant from me at the moment so I can't provide particulars) that I worked on interfacing to a micro in the mid-70's. I was using a MC6800 in my recollection, but I don't believe that I ever achieved operational status. Presumably I was working from an article in one of the hobbyist magazines of the era. I would have guessed Byte, but that doesn't seem to be the case based on recent search. Any hints from folks on what magazine/article that might have been? The Selectric wasn't one of the curvy(ier) office models; I recall it being a rather boxy affair with plenty of right-angles on the housing and a medium shade of blue -- presumably "IBM Blue". Rather utilitarian in design. Even *more* utilitarian than this one: http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/selectric/100112-Selectric-in-situ.jpg It included a full keyboard. I'm not sure anymore whether it operated in local-mode or was set up as two separate devices and therefore needed to be connected up to a remote controller to get local copy. It might have been a rehoused Selectric mechanism in a third-party enclosure and the IBM-like color a red herring. My recollection is that it was longer front-to-back; presumably the rearward extension housed the additional electronics. I have absolutely no idea how I acquired it. No luck finding a matching photo online as yet. I believe that the Selectric came configured for remote operation, but presumably using an EBCDIC-based data stream. I vaguely recall a DB-50 connector, but it's been an awfully long time ... Does this description sound familiar to anyone? ----- paul

10 years, 4 months

9
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Interest level for new PDP-11 indicator panels

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> I'm trying to get a sense of how much demand there would be for the > indicator panel option (for parts ordering; I have a chance to buy some > discontinued stuff, and I want to know how much to stock up on). If you > would be interested in one or more indicator panels, could you let me > know? (Please don't reply to the list, just to me personally.) I should have mentioned that we'll likely do a UNIBUS version of the card (ENABLE+, and it should be easy to guess why that name :-) as soon as we're done with the QBUS one; the same indicator panels would be supported by both (so they count to the parts pool). So if you have a UNIBUS machine, and would be interested in adding an ENABLE+ _with indicator panels_, I would be interested to hear about those too. Thanks! Noel

10 years, 4 months

2
1
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Advice and Suggestions for a Debug Feature

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

Sorry for that BAD stuff in the Subject line - my e-mail provider stuffs that in much of the time and I forget to remove it when I reply. If anyone needs a clean copy, I can send it again! Jerome Fine

10 years, 4 months

1
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[SPAM key] - Re: Advice and Suggestions for a Debug Feature

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Tapley, Mark wrote: >>On Dec 16, 2015, at 9:22 AM, Jerome H. Fine <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> wrote: > >>Note that for many CPUs, adding values (a push) results in the >>stack pointer becoming numerically smaller (unsigned of course). >>Internally, the code would handle the actual arithmetic. >> >(Warning: assembly language noob talking, please disregard if I see to be making no sense.) > >1) Does the debugger enhancement trigger a stop on overall size of stack pointer or on cumulative changes? Or could it be selectable (maybe via a negative argument?) > >Here?s what I?m thinking: suppose a routine is expected to remove things from the stack sequentially, then branch at some point to a subroutine. I want the debugger to halt execution when it branches. So I want the stop to occur when the stack pointer first increases, even if it has already decreased several times and its new value (on branching) is lower than where it was when the debug command was issued. > >2) Some machines (6809, which is the only one I?m familiar with) have a rapid-response branching mechanism for real-time control applications (on the 6809 it?s a Fast Interrupt input). Fewer registers are pushed onto the stack so the service routine can execute sooner. Is there a way to handle this situation? Say I expect two levels of subroutine calls, each stacking a full set of registers, but instead I get for the second subroutine a Fast Interrupt and don?t stack enough registers to trigger the debug counter to halt execution. > > Hope this is useful. > > - Mark > Yes, it is useful since it helps to be aware of what other systems do. So thank you. For those of you who might not have known, this is the Y01.16 Symbolic Debugger from RT-11 and in particular the SDHX.SYS variant. From the point of view of interrupts, when stopped at a breakpoint, the complete system is FROZEN - including RT-11 itself which is the operating system that is being used on the PDP-11. As for the user's stack, that is not even a factor since the Symbolic Debugger has its own stack and executes in Kernel mode. In fact, one of the other enhancements was to ass code to monitor the size of the stack for the Symbolic Debugger - which also allowed that stack to decrease. That was especially helpful since the stack must be in Low Memory in order to handle interrupts and subroutine calls. And as for the user's program stack, there is no effect at all. What the Symbolic Debugger does is save all of the user's registers, including the stack pointer of course. The enhanced code would then compare the original value of the Stack Pointer (actually as noted after the current instruction had been executed) with any subsequent value to determine if the conditions had been met to stop the execution of additional instructions, assuming that the value of the Stack Pointer was included (via value2 and / or value3) in the command to execute more instructions. Jerome Fine

10 years, 4 months

1
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Advice and Suggestions for a Debug Feature

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I have been investigating the possibility of adding an enhanced feature to a debug program. There does not seem to be anything specific about the concept, so it should be applicable to every current CPU in addition to most old CPUs. The current syntax for many debuggers uses the letter "S" along with an optional value to specify a Single Step (or ONE instruction to be executed when the value is omitted) or a number of Single Steps (a number of instructions) equal to the optional value. Of the two different debuggers for the CPU, operating system and code which I use most of the time, both debuggers display the same information for each of the Single Steps, specifically the actual instruction that will executed and the values of the registers immediately before the instruction is executed. So if a total of 5 instructions are executed, the display is updated 5 times. For the debugger that I wish to enhance, the actual syntax is: value1,value2,value3;S and at present, value2 and value3 are ignored. My question concerns using value2 and value3 to specify the limits by which the stack pointer may change, specifically by adding data (also called a push) and subtracting data (also called a pop) to the stack in whatever manner the program uses to alter the value of the stack pointer register, respectively. Note that for many CPUs, adding values (a push) results in the stack pointer becoming numerically smaller (unsigned of course). Internally, the code would handle the actual arithmetic. For example, if the user specifies: 45,4,2;S then: (a) Up to 45 instructions are executed (b) If the stack has 4 or more pushes, instructions stop (c) If the stack has 2 or more pops, instructions stop Additional information: (a) Scroll / NoScroll is enabled, so the user can pause / resume at any time (b) Any single character by the user stops instructions (c) All pushes and pops are noted AFTER the current instruction is executed - which allows subroutine calls to be automatically handled as per the examples Defaults: (a) If no values are supplied (ONLY ";S"), then "1;S" is assumed and ONE instruction is executed (b) The debugger supports <ESC> in place of ";S" which supports Single Stepping with a single key (c) If any value is omitted, that limitation does not apply More Examples: ,,1;S instructions are executed until the code returns from the subroutine - IF the current instruction calls a subroutine ,,1;S instructions are executed until the code returns to the previous subroutine - IF the current instruction does NOT call a subroutine ,,1;S instructions are executed until the code restores the stack pointer - IF the current instruction does a push or creates space on the stack ,1,2;S instructions are executed until the code calls a second subroutine OR the code returns to the previous subroutine - IF the current code calls a subroutine 55,1,1;S 55 instructions are executed OR until the code calls a second subroutine OR the code returns to the current subroutine - IF the current instruction calls a subroutine 55,1,1;S 55 instructions are executed OR until the code calls a subroutine OR the code returns the the previous subroutine - IF the current instruction does NOT call a subroutine Many more examples could be considered, but that seems to be about the concept that I have. Please advise and comment. Please make any suggestions that would be any improvement and, most important, point out any problems that I have not considered. Jerome Fine

10 years, 4 months

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Interest level for new PDP-11 indicator panels

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I've mention that Dave Bridgham and I are working on a new QBUS board (the 'QSIC', for lack of a more imaginative name) that will emulate a variety of older DEC disk controllers/drives using a micro-controller/FPGA and SD cards. (We currently have one prototype [for Dave] mostly constructed, and another [for me] half-way done.) Since Dave and I are both blinkenlitz addicts, we're doing an indicator panel option, emulating exactly the look of the old DEC indictor panels (4x36 lights, with 'inlays' to customize a panel to particular controller, mounted in a 5-1/4 panel for a 19" rack). (These panels are specific to the QSIC, and don't work with the original controllers.) A QSIC will be able to drive up to 4 (or so) indicator panels - I plan to have 3 on my machine: RK11, RP11, and a fixed-head disk. So I'm trying to get a sense of how much demand there would be for the indicator panel option (for parts ordering; I have a chance to buy some discontinued stuff, and I want to know how much to stock up on). If you would be interested in one or more indicator panels, could you let me know? (Please don't reply to the list, just to me personally.) Thanks. Noel

10 years, 4 months

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Accessible Computing (Was "Re: Display-less computing")

by captainkirk359＠gmail.com

On 13 December 2015 at 13:46, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > At CDC Sunnyvale ops back in the 1970s, we had a blind programmer working. > His job output came as punched cards and he had no problem reading them by > feel. I remember him and his beautiful guide dog. > Hmm, that kinda makes sense. It would be kinda/sorta like braille. (I guess that would also work for punched tape as well.) I couldn't tell you how good it would be though, I might be vision impaired, but not enough that I've learnt braille. I wonder if any minis or mainframes (or micros) could actually produce output as braille... > In the same sort of spirit, I recall that one of the secretaries used a > monitor-cum-camera affair to enlarge her work documents so that she could > read them. > CCTV readers. They're still a thing. The tests and exams centre at my university has a bunch of them (one each per exam room, and a bunch of old analogue ones still sitting about). I find the older analogue ones are better than the newer digital ones. If only because the text zoom is more "fluid" (my preferred size of "embiggened" (what, it's a perfectly cromulent word) text is right between two of the settings on the machines we have which is mildly annoying); they also have less artefacts when using non-standard video modes (reverse video, or high contrast modes). > It's sad that early corporate efforts to accommodate all people, no matter > the impairment, aren't better documented. > I'd buy a book on that in a heartbeat; necause that is very much of interest to myself. I know DEC had their DECtalk speech synthesizers (isn't the eminent Dr. Hawking's voice an old DECtalk?) and they could be connected to serial lines. Regards, Christian -- Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove STCKON08DS0 Contact information available upon request.

10 years, 4 months

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Rectangular holes punched from cards [was RE: Display-less computing]

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

From: Fred Cisin Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 9:12 AM > My father claimed that the use of round holes on divergent cards was due > to an attempt by IBM to patent the shape of the hole in the cards. http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/punchcard/ Prior to 1928, the holes in IBM's cards were round, too. The use of round holes by Univac was an avoidance of paying royalties to IBM, which held a patent on 80-column rectangularly punched cards. 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, 4 months

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Mystery IC: Allen Bradley 314B102

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

HI, I would take the bet that this IC is simply a R network, 1 KOhm, 1 resistor "across" ie from pin 1 to opposite pin, from pin 2 to opposite pin, etc .... What about simple and quick Ohmmeter check ?? --- L'absence de virus dans ce courrier ?lectronique a ?t? v?rifi?e par le logiciel antivirus Avast. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 4 months

2
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Making a serial board for Briel Altair Micro

by dave＠661.org

After fiddling around with my Briel Altair Micro, I've come to desire more than just the console serial port. To that end, I read up on the 16550A UART, line drivers, line receivers, and schematics for other implementations of serial ports. I came up with this: http://661.org/tmp/altairmicro-serial.pdf How close am I to this design making sense and working? -- 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, 4 months

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PDP 11/05 S vs 11/05 NC

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Just to change the subject.. There were "S" and an "NC" version of 11/05 high profile system. Why? I am curious if any DEC historians here know the reason for two versions of the same DEC PDP 11/05 *high profile* computer (not talking about the low profile). There are separate manuals for each type. The S seems to be more OEM-ish because it comes in an BA11-K chassis. I am guessing you'd see an 11/05 S as part of a larger system (PDP 10), whereas the NC model would be for a stand alone system. ??? This S's BA11-K chassis was used by other hardware by simply changing the backplane. The "NC" model chassis seems to be specifically for the 11/05 I don't think it appears anywhere else. If anyone is interested to see the different models I have a thread on my site for each type: 11/05 S http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=622 11/05 NC http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=249 ... and then there are the 11/10's.... -- Bill

10 years, 4 months

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What did computers without screens do?

by kspt.tor＠gmail.com

On 15 December 2015 at 01:31, Mike <tulsamike3434 at gmail.com> wrote: > > On 12/14/2015 08:21 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: >> Personally, I think the world is GUI-addicted. >> >> --Chuck >> > Chuck If I may ask... > > > What would you do with a home no screen computer? I mean what could be > done with one that would benefit your work / hobby. I mean NO DISREPECT > by asking this question. I'll jump in here - take the current microcontroller hobby segment. You have PIC, or AVR, or Propeller based setups which is used for all kind of things like programmed robots, model cars, drones and RC planes, home control, model trains, temperature- and humidity controlled garden greenhouses, chicken shed day/night door control, and numerous other uses. These things are computers, a Propeller, for example, is an 8-core 32-bit small computer all in one chip. Usually these things have no screen and no keyboard connected. So you program them by various other means, e.g. through a serial interface. For the programming part of it (or the preparation of what you load via the serial interface, or jtag or e.g. a flash or eeprom chip) you'll need something else, today that's usually a PC, but that's conceptually the same thing as in times past where you used a terminal or some device with a keyboard to prepare punched cards or paper tape.

10 years, 4 months

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PDP 11/05 S vs 11/05 NC

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Degnan > *why* did they make these two versions of the high-profile 11/05? > What was one used for vs. the other? *Why did DEC do this*? Check the dates on the machines. I'm pretty sure the -NC is the earlier version, with the bespoke H750 power supply (mounted alongside the boards, not at the end of the box as with the BA11-K, the basis for the -S). My guess as to why they upgraded from the -NC to the -S is that the latter used the H765 (plus 'bricks') power supply system, in common with the BA11-K and also the later PDP-11's (40's, 45's, etc). That probably provided a raft of advantages, including i) greater flexibility in the current and voltages being supplied, and ii) commonality with DEC's other machines (i.e. lower unit cost -> great per machine profit margin). The BA11-K based -S also (by being a couple of inches longer, and mounting the power supply off the back) had a couple of inches more width for boards, enough to hold an extra quad system unit. And the H765 may have been technically superior to the H750, too. Noel

10 years, 4 months

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Identifying Data General (or DG-related) console/terminal/whatsit?

by grif615＠mindspring.com

"Data General Alumni" ?lots of knowledge there. -------- Original message -------- From: Bruce Ray <Bruce at Wild-Hare.com> Date: 12/13/2015 7:09 PM (GMT-08:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Identifying Data General (or DG-related) console/terminal/whatsit? Not identifiable as DG product - 3rd-party custom (graphics?) console for client?? (I can't read logo on bottom of console.) NOAA/NWS AFOS system had similar-looking system with interesting trackball/keyboard combination.? Then there was GE Medical... Bruce Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc. bkr at WildHareComputers.com On 12/13/2015 5:22 PM, Josh Dersch wrote: > Hi all -- > > A friend of mine is investigating picking up some DG hardware, and this > item: > > http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/dg/dg%20console.jpg > > Is included along with the rest of it.? I *know* I've seen something > like this somewhere but I can't find anything now that I need it :). Can > anyone identify this? > > Thanks, > - Josh

10 years, 4 months

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CBM 1541 drive faults

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I have four 1541's now, two of which seem to init OK, and two of which sit there with the drive spindle constantly spinning and the access LEDs lit, the latter behavior which I believe indicates a multitude of possible microcontroller-related faults... I've done the obvious, reseating socketed ICs, checking the +12V and +5 rails, and checking the on-board CPU reset line. Does anyone have any tips for what's best to try next? I read somewhere that ROM faults aren't unheard of, ditto with 6522 VIA failures. Also the 74ls14 at UA1 (particularly if someone's unplugged the drive from the host with power on), but I think that affects CPU reset, which appears to be working in my units. (is the firmware interchangeable between different board revisions? i.e. can I swap in firmware from one of the drives that appear to init OK to rule that out as a fault, or do I have to worry about matching PCB revisions?) Also, has there been a worse external drive in the history of floppy storage? Slow, complicated, expensive and unreliable seems to have most bases covered ;-) cheers Jules

10 years, 4 months

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What did computers without screens do?

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

On Mon, 12/14/15, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:05 PM, Mike <tulsamike3434 at gmail.com> wrote: >> On Dec 14, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: >>> >>> The subject brought up the thought of how many display-less >>> computers we encounter every day without giving it a >>> thought.? I think that probably 100 would be a safe bet. >> >> .... if you think about it almost everything we touch has some kind of a >> computer cycle! ! ! GREAT POINT!!! > > Even lighting... I've pulled (and reused!) 8-pin PIC microcontrollers > out of discarded emergency lighting.? ... Along those lines, as I was preparing for a class I taught this quarter called Computing in the Small, I came across some interesting stats. Microchip crossed the 12 billion PICs shipped a few years ago and were running at nearly a billion a year then. ARM holdings quotes over 50 billion ARMs shipped. They estimate that about 60% of the Earth's population has daily contact with a device containing an ARM. That's not too far behind the 64% who have running water. And not all that long ago the 8051 was the most fabbed ISA in the world. The bottom line is that computers involving humans interacting through keyboards, mice, and screens are really just a niche in the computing world. Embedded systems are the predominant class of computing systems. Or to twist a line from Shakespeare, There's more in the universe of computing than is dreamt of in the PC philosophy. BLS

10 years, 4 months

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Webster WQSMD/04 Qbus SMD Controller

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I picked up some Qbus cards yesterday. They seem to be board set for a MicroVAX II. However, one of the cards was, to me at least, a bit unusual. It was made by a company called Webster, and it appears to be a controller for SMD disks. I was not familiar with SMD disks and had to look them up. I suspect this might be a little out of the ordinary, and, possibly, an odd combination for a small Qbus system to access such a physically large type of disk. Were MicroVAX IIs used much with such disks? Is this a bit of an unusual find? Regards Rob

10 years, 4 months

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New Heathkit videos...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

Part 2: Backplane Circuit Board: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdeHfcasBbM Part 3: RAM Board: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwbO4bBnpEg g.

10 years, 4 months

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Emergency Moderation Mode

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Sorry, that last post ('Re: bye for now') was not intended to get through. The list was put into emergency moderation mode the past couple days so I have had to approve each post and apparently slipped on that one. Hopefully, people noticed the quick return to on-topicness the past day or two. Several last thoughts on the topic... Being the list owner, last I checked - I'm allowed to state my preference on things. I have a strong preference against top posting. I have never banned anyone for it. I see no problem with me stating that preference once in a (great) while, especially when new members first join the list. I also find it rather odd that people post ad-nauseum about how much they hate the off-topicness (or the specific off-topic post in question), when in fact the quickest/easiest way for a list member to end an off-topic thread (other than contacting me) is to simply not respond to the post. Venting your angst is a sure way to continue the flame-fest. In any case, I'll continue to moderate 100% of the inbound posts, until such time as I see things staying level-headed for a while. J

10 years, 4 months

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IDE knowledge anyone?

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Danke sehr, Oliver! Is your implementation available online? Marc >>Marc Verdiell wrote: >> Do you mind providing links to any good implementations of IDE on >> ATMega you know of? >> Marc >Of course mine ;) >And http://www.opend.co.za/hardware/avride/avride.htm but I never verified

10 years, 4 months

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Bye for now... was: <insert a huge lot of bloat and offtopic here>

by simski＠dds.nl

Hi all. Another great day started with me deciding that thorwing away 70% of a list every day is not worthwhile any more. This list is acting like Whatsapp and Facebook more and more. It seems that a lot of people are unable to keep on topic. Its a shame. It would be so handy if people could refrain from "biting the troll". I am truly not interested in top, bottom posting, and other non classic computer blabla. Bye -- Met vriendelijke Groet, Simon Claessen drukknop.nl

10 years, 4 months

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Commodore 64?

by tulsamike3434＠gmail.com

If I would have known!!! WOW I would have just read more posts before I posted my first post look at this mess... There is no reason for people to be rude or disrespectful to new people like myself. I have never joined a place like this I know now that it has been said 1000000000000 times to scroll down and put my text there all I wanted to do was talk about my new Commodore 64's. Can we do that? I make a post about creepy pastas and all I got was made fun of? Do yall not want new people to join? I think I can learn a lot from here that's all I want to do! There are many Computer geniuses on here that I can learn a lot from that's what I'm interested in and I like Creepypasta's and I collect Honda ATC 3wheelers. But can we get back on track with the Commodore 64? Sent from my iPhone

10 years, 4 months

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Identifying Data General (or DG-related) console/terminal/whatsit?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- A friend of mine is investigating picking up some DG hardware, and this item: http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/dg/dg%20console.jpg Is included along with the rest of it. I *know* I've seen something like this somewhere but I can't find anything now that I need it :). Can anyone identify this? Thanks, - Josh

10 years, 4 months

3
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Accessible Computing (Was "Re: Display-less computing")

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

we have a portable braille terminal in the museum's accessibility collection . we also have a vast ( and always looking for more) of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing teletype machines and couplers. Ed@ _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)

10 years, 4 months

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Display-less computing

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Does an example of the IBM/ TV/SET terminal exist out there? Manual? Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)

10 years, 4 months

3
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IBM 2260 acoustic delay line

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

On Sat, Dec 12, 2015, Jon Elson wrote (in the big top posting thread): > On 12/12/2015 07:22 AM, Mike wrote: > >The one question I do have for the older gentlemen on here is what in the > >world did the computers without a screen to look at do? Now I know about > >the tape, cassette tape's and even the paper with the hole punches in them > >but what kind of applications were they use for? Mathematics or? ? ? [snip] > Later they got some > IBM 2260's, which were Zenith 9" TV sets and a keyboard connected to an > interface box in the machine room. Very primitive, but very interactive, > great for quick program editing and submission. I'm reading about those terminals and find it just fascinating how they used acoustic delay line memory to remember the pixels. But I have lots of questions: 1. Did the cables connecting the 2260s to the display controller actually contain the delay lines themselves, over the whole length; or were the delay lines just inside the controller and then some electronic signal was sent out to the terminals? 2. I would think that the wave travelling along the delay line would weaken over time. How was it refreshed? 3. What kind of speed could be acheived, and did this depend on the number of connected terminals? -- Eric Christopherson

10 years, 4 months

8
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Non-standard parallel port on Selectric I/O?

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

I have what was once an IBM 2970 Reservation Terminal. Some time in the late 1970s. an outfit called 'Western I/O' got hold of a bunch of these, including mine, ripped out all the IBM electronic guts (but left their electromechanical bits - solenoids and contacts) and installed their own boards, and sold them to the home-brew computer folks of that day - presumably hung off contemporary Altair and Imsai machines etc. They made two versions. One was a fancy full-blown terminal with a 6800 microprocessor, adjustable baud rates, standard RS232 port etc. I'd really like to get hold of one of these if anyone has one gathering dust btw... The other one was a very dumb print-only versions. According to contemporary ads, it has: "? Printer-only model availability w/parallel ASCII interface." "The Printer Terminal IBM Selectrics are known for their well-defined, high-quality printed characters and easy-to- change elements. An ideal choice for text processing, highly-legible source listings and personal or business correspondence. And it's easy to connect to home or business computer. Just plug in 115 Vac, hook up the ASCII printer port and let 'ergo." That is ALL the documentation I have on this thing! The 'parallel ASCII interface' is implemented as a DB25 female on the rear of the Selectric. It *looks* exactly like a parallel port on a PC. So I hoped it would use standard parallel port pinouts and a straight-through ribbon cable would do it. No such luck. I don't have a parallel port analyzer, but I have lots of serial port analyzers, including ones with an LED per line, all 25 lines. So that is an improvised window into what's happening. For starters. when I operate the 'paper out' switch, I can see a line going high/low corresponding to switch position - but it's pin 19 on the DB25 connector, which should be ground on a standard parallel port! 'Paper out' should be on pin 12. So it's clearly not standard... Now I can start tracing pins on the interface back to lines on the PCBs, and try to figure what they do. At least I can relatively quickly eliminate those that aren't used, or are ground plane. But, question: back in the day, was there *another* 'standard' for parallel port pinouts? Used on S100 bus PIO etc. cards, the kind of thing this product was intended to be used with? I've found Googling on such data to be remarkably unproductive... any help out there? Mike

10 years, 4 months

1
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Display-less computing

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

> Sometime later, maybe around 1971 they got some IBM 2741 terminals which > were Selectric typewriters connected to an interface. Later they got some > IBM 2260's, which were Zenith 9" TV sets and a keyboard connected to an > interface box in the machine room. Very primitive, but very interactive, > great for quick program editing and submission. Were 2260s really Zenith products inside? I certainly could believe it, judging from the tube lineup. Someday I would like to see one up close and personal. The 1800 actually did have a video option, and yes, you had to provide your own cheap black and white TV. -- Will

10 years, 4 months

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