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

by go＠ao.com

I'm "just about" finished with an emulator for a Control Data 3300 computer (you might ask "why" - I'll explain later.) But I'm looking for diagnostics tapes (instruction, floating point, mass storage, memory, etc.) Also, other operating systems would be interesting (I was dumb back in the 70's and didn't make copies of all my old stuff...) such as Master with MATS or MSOS or Realtime Scope. (I have no problem reading 7 track tapes.) I'm building this primarily to resurrect an obscure language, also developed at OSU, called "Oscar". It was a numerical person's dream interactive system for it's time (way before common graphics terminals, alas) including all sorts of large precision arith and rational number management (ratios of integral fractions) which made matrix manipulations a lot easier. Oscar ran under OS-3 and hence the need for the emulator. Besides, it's fun. (And I have source for damn near all of the OS-3 system, languages and tools (I was "with it" enough to make copies of those at least.) The original 3300 at OSU was "decommissioned" back in the early 80s, so this part is even "on topic!" It's a bit depressing (and humiliating) to see that my entirely-C-based emulator (i.e. NO assembler "optimization" on my part) runs at nearly the speed of the original machine on a lowly 66 mhz 486. (1.6us/cycle where instructions USUALLY took 2 cycles, for fetch and memory reference.) It'll probably scream on a reasonable Pentium-class system. (By inference will we be writing emulators in 15 to 20 years that emulate 400 mhz Pentiums and Power PCs at the full speed of day? Boggles the mind...) I'm emulating most CDC periphs (as far as I can without real "iron") so the emulator should handle virtual 604/607 tape drives, disk controllers, 501/512 printers, card readers, punches, etc. I realize this may be a bit "off topic" with respect to the other "mainstream" collectable computers (dec/hp/etc.) but, hey! it's what I learned on way back when. And the computer was far too large to ever think of "owning" one. For reference, the 3300 was a 3rd generation computer (no IC's - all Germanium transistors) with memory that came in chunks of 8k words (24 bits) all the way up to 256k words (LOTS of boxes.) Each 8k took half a 7 foot tall by 6 foot wide rack (IIRC). I think very late in life they had 32k modules... 24 bit ones-complement math with a "reasonable" two-state architecture (program/system mode) that actually worked (OSU's may have been the only one that really challenged it, though, running timesharing software on it.) Any and all software for the beast would be welcome. For reference, anything for the 3150, 3200, 3300 or 3500 would be welcome, as well as any CDC docs on these machines. I've got quite a few, but some of the more obscure controllers (3317 terminal control, for example) eluded me. Information on 3600 or 3800 (a sort of "48 bit word" 3300 and 3500) would also be welcome, as these two lines shared a lot of peripherals and controllers. And of course, assuming anyone else is as silly as me and wants to play with this mess, I'm happy to make the source/executables available (it's Linux based.) It's not "ready for prime time" yet, but soon... Thanks for sharing the bandwidth, Gary

27 years, 12 months

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Definition of an Analog(ue) Computer

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<What's that got to do with it? Diodes are analogue parts - the output <(current) is a continuous function of the input (voltage), not a <discrete one (to me the difference between an analogue and a digital Yes, but they don't (generally) amplify. <component). In fact, Allison, you were saying only a few days ago that <you don't need any amplification to make an analogue _computer_ (with <which I agree - although some of your examples I wouldn't call <computers). I still hold that amplification is a factor in the equation that an analog function may contain but it is not required. ----||----+---------+------> | | | | V --- input === diode --- | | --------------------+------> This is an analogue function, take a shot at the equation it solves. <For non-electronic digital computers, where do Facit mechanical <calculators lie? I have one (which is driven by an electric motor but Computers, mechanical, fixed program. <For pneumatic computers, I think some pipe organs of the turn of the <century came close - you could program some buttons to set various <combinations of ranks for fast selection during performance. However, <the more complicated schemes of this nature (popular around 1920) used <electrical as well as pneumatic logic elements. pipe organs were an example of repetitive but generally simple logic. I might point ot that when they went electronic they used lots of flipflops to generate octave and also diodes and tube to do keying (gating). They were likely one of the earliest users of large numbers of bistable and monostable elements in one system other than computers and electronic measuring instruments. You've not seen a modern production line that uses air logic. I've worked on one that was used to produce pharaceuticals that were in flamable bases (ethanol). There was some fairly complex logic in that system. Working with it is like designing with relays. Allison

27 years, 12 months

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Definition of an Analog(ue) Computer

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> <Are you thinking of 'Digital circuits are built from analogue parts' ? > > Not a valid concept. both OR and AND gates can be done using totally > non amplifying devices (diodes). What's that got to do with it? Diodes are analogue parts - the output (current) is a continuous function of the input (voltage), not a discrete one (to me the difference between an analogue and a digital component). In fact, Allison, you were saying only a few days ago that you don't need any amplification to make an analogue _computer_ (with which I agree - although some of your examples I wouldn't call computers). > It was Vonda that postulated that digital was analogue with a precision > of two states, true and false. The realm of analogue is one of infinite > precision but possibly of limited accuracy. The digital realm is one of > limited precision and absolute accuracy. That is an excellent concept. Thank you - I'll remember that. For non-electronic digital computers, where do Facit mechanical calculators lie? I have one (which is driven by an electric motor but could conceivably use any motor) which has algorithms for optimised decimal multiplication and non-restoring decimal division. It is not programmable, but it is pretty complex - and all done mechanically. For pneumatic computers, I think some pipe organs of the turn of the century came close - you could program some buttons to set various combinations of ranks for fast selection during performance. However, the more complicated schemes of this nature (popular around 1920) used electrical as well as pneumatic logic elements. Philip.

28 years

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RSX-11 Disk Images anyone?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 5, 11:37, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote: > [Adding RX50 to the Supnik emulator...] > > Yeah, it'd be a Lot Of Work(tm). It certainly would. Even the RT-11 driver (which is about the simplest I've seen) is fairly complex. > Those talk MSCP, and there's little/no documentation on how it works. > (I think...) It's basically a message-passing protocol, unlike most of the earlier DEC disk stuff where you can poke the hardware registers to "make things happen". To oversimplify, with MSCP you make a message containing instructions, put it in a memory buffer somewhere, tell the controller it's there, and it does the rest with DMA, returning a response message. The relevant documentation is "MSCP Basic Disk Functions Manual", AA-L619A-TK, and "Storage System Diagnostics And Utility Protocol", AA-L620A-TK, which in turn are parts of the UDA50 Programmer's Documentation Kit (QP-905-GZ). My copy is version 1.2, April 1982. It's not good bedtime reading; the plot's a bit too convoluted and the characterisation is weak :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science [remove indy. from email address to reply] University of York

28 years

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Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-05-05 22:56:32 EDT, you write: << Speaking of sealed originals, I found some original still shrink-wrapped Osborne software today, with the original Byte Shop price stickers on them no less. They were basically some accounting packages by a company called Computronic that made software for the gamut of the machines of the era (TRS-80, Apple, Atari, Commodore, Xeroex, Osborne, Kaypro...that was the list of machines on the package). I also got a shrink-wrapped copy of WordStar circa 1981, a shrink-wrapped copy of Microsoft Multi-Tool Budget and a shrinkwrapped copy of Desktop Plan II by Visicorp. Vintage shrink-wrapped software is still out there, you just gotta look for it. Sam >> i agree, my list is small, but i do have os2 1.1 which came in two seperate boxes wrapped together and includes sidekick 2.0 which i paid $3 for. i also got a never opened 1.3 which i did open just to look at but i never used, and several boxes of the ibm pc 3270 emulation program entry level version 1.22 david

28 years

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Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by IVIE＠cc.usu.edu

Philip Belben: >Sam Ismail: > >> The party agrees that unauthorized copying or disclosure will cause great >> damage to MICROSOFT." > >Hey! Let's all start copying Basic 80! Or other Microsoft stuff! >Perhaps we can cause great damage to Microsoft! > >Wait a bit... somehow I don't think we'll do any damage unless we >persuade people to buy our copies in preference to the originals. Oh? You know somewhere you can buy the originals? Roger Ivie ivie(a)cc.usu.edu

28 years

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RSX-11 Disk Images anyone?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Whether the distributed monitors and drivers are enough to run it <depends strongly on your application! Under an emulator - where If your developing with RT-11 for a specific task then sysgening is needed. If you need to run BASIC, DECUS-C, MicroPower Pascal, write assembly code files or edit text then the stock monitor are just fine. Sysgening to simply move to a different varient of PDP-11 cpu or disk however is not required. The typical example of sysgening RT-11 I've done was to use a console that wasn't DL (standard PDP-11 serial line unit) compatable. RT-11 was designed as both a development enviornment and a realtime executive for embedded applications. It's pretty flexible and small so it's good for lots of other stuff. It weakness (there is one) is that it does not use a scatter-gather map for storage so storage space can be poorly used due to device fragmentation. <I interpret "no source code" quite differently, mainly because I have <the source kits! Same here, V4, V5.0, V5.1, V5.4 I may even have 3.xx. Heck I've been running RT11 since '79 on one thing or another Q-bus. Allison

28 years

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Northstars up the wazoo

by mor＠crl.com

Wow, anyone desparate for a Horizon should check out recent posts to comp.sys.northstar. No fewer than six systems from three different individuals have been offered there in the past couple of days. And some AFAIR are free for pick up or the cost of shipping. -- mor(a)crl.com http://www.crl.com/~mor/

28 years

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Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

> >> >> Well, this kind of comes from a rant of mine... ya see, on my computer, I >> origionally had an AMD InterWave chip on my sound card, but found that it >> was STB made. It was made in Dec. 1996. I called about it in Dec. 1997, >> and NO ONE at their technical support knew ANYTHING about it. And that's a >> year after it was made!!! > >Don't get me started on Tech Support, or the lack of it. > >When I call Tech Support I will have made some attempts to check the >obvious, gather evidence, and solve the problem. In particular : > >I'll have checked the 'bleeding obvious' - that it's plugged in, that I > >I'll have read all available documentation, including, but not limited to >the user manual, tech/service manual (if available), schematics, data >sheets on the chips, command reference, processor instruction set, >language standards, etc as appropriate. > >I'll be sitting in front of my machine with a 'scope, logic analyser, >software debugger, etc at the ready > >Alas this seems to mean that I know more about the product than the >company that sold it to me. Tech support seems to consist of either >telling me to check I've inserted the disk correctly or reading the user >manual to me very, very slowly (I am not kidding...). I am fed up with You've got to be gentle w/tech support. For one thing, they're nothing more than figureheads for the company, also, they are treated fairly poorly, according to PC World. Most have no desire to spend 8 hours reading assembly listings. There's just no encouragement, like with teachers. In the end, they just get tired. >> Anyway, lets call, e-mail, fax, walk up and talk to, etc. people at >> various companies and talk about tech support, etc. for old OLD products. >> (Like calling up IBM... "Hello, I've got this 8" disk here, it was new in >> package, and it was not free of mechanical errors. I want my money back!") > >IBM are better than most, at least for providing parts/manuals. They may >claim that a machine never existed (IBM UK told be there was 'no such >thing as a PC-jr'), but they can often find all sorts of things given a >part number or forms number. > >> Or saying that we found a bug in the 4K MS tape basic, etc. ;-) > >Sending in bug reports (and even better, fixes) for ancient products is >great fun :-). Have you ever gotten a response? > >Agreed. C'mon d00dZ, 1've got \/\/1nd0ze 98 beta on ftp.aol.com/max/42342/!!! Let's get some c00l \/\/aReZ, Man! >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

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Definition of an Analog(ue) Computer

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

I have just returned after a long weekend to find my mail had got set to Postpone again. This has probably all been said but I thought I'd put my bit in anyway. Tony: < A question occurred to me today : Can you have an embedded analogue < computer, and if so, how many op-amps are needed to have one? Allison > Yes, and that's very common. None, a low pass filter(RC) performs a > function and can be considered analogue. A filter made of passive components or otherwise I wouldn't consider a computer, although I agree it is definitely analogue (Americans may omit the ue where appropriate). I would say that an analogue computer: (a) combines two or more signals (b) does so in a more complex way than by simple addition or subtraction. (But this could be A+dB/dt, for example) An analogue computer need not be electrical at all - quite complex analogue functions can be implemented in cams, for example. A good example of a simple embedded analogue computer is the ignition distributor on a petrol engine. This: Takes two inputs - camshaft angle and manifold vacuum; Differentiates camshaft angle to get engine speed (centrifugal weights on springs); Applies some non linear function to engine speed (cams attached to the centrifugal weights); Adds together camshaft angle, function(engine speed) and constant * vacuum level; Compares the result with a reference angle to generate pulses of a given width for the ignition. I claim that is a simple (but actually quite sophisticated) analogue computer. < I was looking at the service manual for my Micropolis 1203 hard disk, and < I read the circuit description of the servo electronics. It's a fairly < complicated array of op-amps, which combine integral and differential < forms of the position error, positioner current, etc. I would claim that < is an embedded analogue computer. > Valid claim, also a good example of a fairly complex function. Agreed 100% (As Tony would say). An excellent example of an embedded analogue computer. Another example is the convergence circuit in a colo(u)r television. This takes the two timebases as inputs, multiplies them and their squares/ first derivatives etc. by user settable constants, and feeds this back onto the deflection systems of the tube. < On the other hand, I think it would be stretching the definition to call < a simple op-amp wired as a voltage follower an analogue computer. > Correct. However often the buffer is between some function or follows one > so it's part of the analog system. Agreed it could be part of an analogue computer. But I think Tony's point was that it does not by itself make one. Otherwise practically any analogue circuit becomes a computer (One of Vonada's axioms, I think: All circuits are amplifiers) > Other analog systems common to computers: > > cassette IO (low pass filter on output) and complex filter/differentiator > edge/peak detectors for input. Some of the acients used PLLs for clock > recovery (KANSAS City is one). > > Analog to digital conversion (quantification). > Digtial to analog conversion (filtering) > > Disk/tape systems have several layers of analog function for data and > control. Definitely analogue systems. But some are merely filters, not computers. (I think a PLL almost qualifies as a computer, though...) But in general, I agree with you both - analogue computers are often small, simple and embedded, and they're a heck of a lot more common than most people think. Philip.

28 years

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KMW Systems Corp. VP-10 Vector Processor

by dastar＠wco.com

Anybody ever heard of the following? KMW Systems Corp. VP-10 Vector Processor Its a smallish box (about the size of a small PC desktop box sliced horizontally in half). Anyone? Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 05/03/98]

28 years

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Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Well, this kind of comes from a rant of mine... ya see, on my computer, I origionally had an AMD InterWave chip on my sound card, but found that it was STB made. It was made in Dec. 1996. I called about it in Dec. 1997, and NO ONE at their technical support knew ANYTHING about it. And that's a year after it was made!!! Anyway, lets call, e-mail, fax, walk up and talk to, etc. people at various companies and talk about tech support, etc. for old OLD products. (Like calling up IBM... "Hello, I've got this 8" disk here, it was new in package, and it was not free of mechanical errors. I want my money back!") Or saying that we found a bug in the 4K MS tape basic, etc. ;-) And DON'T COPY ANY SOFTWARE. I don't even care if it was made by a criminal, it gives you no right to do the same. BTW, I remember seeing copies of DOS 3.3 shwrinkwrapped by this company for Microsoft. Was this done widely? Where can I find out more? (Kai Kaltenbach? Know anyone who knows anything about this? I REALLY am longing for a copy of Windows 2.x, as I've got this software for it... from our school, even though they can't find hte actual 2.x disks.) Thanks, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, May 05, 1998 8:05 PM Subject: Re: Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement >> >> The party agrees that unauthorized copying or disclosure will cause great >> >> damage to MICROSOFT." >> > >> >Hey! Let's all start copying Basic 80! Or other Microsoft stuff! >> >Perhaps we can cause great damage to Microsoft! >> > >> >Wait a bit... somehow I don't think we'll do any damage unless we >> >persuade people to buy our copies in preference to the originals. >> >> Oh? You know somewhere you can buy the originals? > >I've found some original sealed Microsoft CP/M software by frequenting >comp.os.cpm. None of the registration cards that I've sent in during >the past couple years have come back returned from any of Microsoft's >old Redmond/Seattle addresses, so I assume they found their way to >the right place (though I've never heard anything back from any bug >reports on CP/M products.) > >Q7 of the comp.os.cpm FAQ provides this address as a non-US source >of several Microsoft CP/M products: > > For our European readers, much is available in Germany. dBASE, > WordStar 3.0, Multiplan 1.06, SuperCalc PCW, and Microsoft Basic > (Interpreter and Compiler), M80, L80, CREF80 , and LIB80 can be > ordered in either PCW format or C128 (also native 1571) format from: > > Wiedmann Unternehmensberatung & EDV-Handel > Hauptstrasse 45 > 73553 Alfdorf > F.R.Germany > Tel: +49-7172-3000-0 (Inside Germany use 0-7172...) > Fax: +49-7172-3000-30 > > They are marketed as "for the C128", however the disks are in KAYPRO > IV format, and since the C128 uses the same screen codes as ADM-31 > or KAYPRO, it's probably interesting for people with other CP/M > machines as well. Everything is said to come with a German language > manual and each one is offered for DM 149.50 , including sales tax > of 15%, which you could probably somehow get a refund on if living > outside the EC. > >Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)

28 years

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Get a life! Buy a PDP!

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I know, I know, when I get a chance. For now; I found an Anderson-Jacobson 1200 BPS modem (AJ1256). Is there any thing special about it, or is it safe to throw this back? This was on the way to a thrift store. There I saw: TI-60 w/thermal printer for $10,working --fair? RCA Victor, couldn't tell if it worked, $75, no I won't buy it IBM PPS II ( I think) form printer - does anyone have any experience w/ this? I didn't buy any of the three, but I might get the TI-60. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

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RSX-11 Disk Images anyone?

by sethm＠loomcom.com

A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text Size: 932 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/19980505/fe42077d/at…

28 years

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HP 700/44 terminal

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

I have one remaining Hewlett Packard 700/44 terminal with keyboard left to get rid of. Like new shape and in working order, fairly modern. Emulates other terminal systems like 52, 100, 200 series and HP series, maybe others. I need $10 plus shipping on this if someone wants it. I'm sure someone has a need for one. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years

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Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Sam Ismail: > The party agrees that unauthorized copying or disclosure will cause great > damage to MICROSOFT." Hey! Let's all start copying Basic 80! Or other Microsoft stuff! Perhaps we can cause great damage to Microsoft! Wait a bit... somehow I don't think we'll do any damage unless we persuade people to buy our copies in preference to the originals. And it goes rather against the grain to persuade people to buy Microsoft stuff at all. Oh well. ;-) ;-) ;-) Philip.

28 years

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Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by dastar＠wco.com

Here's an interesting artifact. I got the reference manual for Microsoft BASIC-80 (version 5) over the weekend and it still had inside the original non-disclosure registration card that I guess one was compelled to sign and send in before they could use MS BASIC. This book was distributed with some morrow system as the card is addressed to Morrow Designs Software License Department. It reads: "The party below agrees that it is receiving a copy of MICROSOFT DISK BASIC or FORTRAN for use on a single computer only, as designated on this registration form. The pary agrees that all copies of MICROSOFT DISK BASIC and FORTRAN are owned by MICROSOFT, that all copies will be strictly safeguarded against disclosure to or use by persons not authorized by MICROSOFT to use MICROSOFT DISK BASIC or FORTRAN, and that the location of all copies will be reported to MICROSOFT at MICROSOFT's request. The party may make up to two additional copies only, for back-up purposes. The party agrees that unauthorized copying or disclosure will cause great damage to MICROSOFT." Sheesh! Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/25/98]

28 years

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Sord Computers

by Ivan.Calhoun＠ins.gte.com

Sorry about this message but I have friend who still uses a Sord IS 11C. Unfortunately it is now failing. I saw the message thread you had concerning some units that were available last year. Could either of you let me know the availability of a similar device or a person who can repair these units? Thanks, Ivan Calhoun

28 years

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Convergent Voice Module

by red＠bears.org

I promised Sam I'd look this up a long time ago. I had some trouble with the phone lines, though, which made it impossible to use the modem. But here it is. I seem to have a preliminary version of the 'Voice Module' manual, although I did not get the module itself with the machine. The manual goes into a lot of detail: theory of operation, external interfaces, architecture... schematics... I'll quote from the overview: INTRODUCTION TO THE MODULE __________________________ GENERAL The Voice Processor Module, shown in Figure 1-1, provides a fully integrated voice and data interface between a workstation and the switched telephone netowrk or commonly used private automatic branche exchange (PABX) system (supporting Tip and Ring connection). When used with a digital PABX system, all signals and transmission between the Voice Processor Module and the PABX occur via analog techniques. The Voice Processor Module is an X-Bus module containing two printed-circuit boards. The first board contains a Bell 212A-compatible modem. The second board contains the following: * modular jacks for two telephone line interfaces (FCC, part 68, registered) * additional modular jack (FCC, part 68, registered) that allows connection to any standard voice unit (telephone set) * analog crosspoint switch allowing any device to connect to either line under software control * Dual-Tone Multifrequency (DTMF) touch-tone auto-dialer * DTMF touch-tone decoder that permits numeric data entry via remote voice unit touch pad * call progress tone detector * voice amplifier * Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM) CODEC (Coder/Decoder) for support of digitized voice communications at speeds far less than the normal 64Kbps * 8051 microprocessor to control all module activities (...excepts from following specifications...) Modem board is originate/answer, full-duplex. Supports 212A and Bell 103/113. DTMF generator generates all 16 DTMF digits, may be programmed to transmit various key sequences, and can generate single tones. CODEC and ADPCM technique allows recording/playback of digitized voice information at 6-kHz (24Kbps) or 8-kHz (32Kbps) rates. Software support is provided by CT-MAIL, CT-Net, and "Operator" software, which is specifically tailored for the Voice Module as follows: * Telephone directory management, which has the ability to add, delete, modify, and look up entries in a disk-based telephone directory, and automatically establish calls using the information in the directory. Menus provide assistance in accessing special functions used by PABXs. * Voice digitization, which allows the operator to use the CODEC to record and play back calls or messages. This capability enhances CT-MAIL, where it is used for voice annotation of written documents, as well as the inclusion of voice attatchments to textual mail. * Telephone answering, which allows an unattended system to automatically answer the telephone and perform a variety of user-selectable operations ranging from simple messatge playback/recording to input of numeric data from a telephone touch-tone pad. There you have it. All typos are my responsibility. ok r.

28 years

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HDD died in a spectacular way

by manney＠lrbcg.com

I recently bought a Maxtor IDE along with other HDDs at a hamfest. When I got it home, I noticed that it "clunked". No response when I hooked it up, so, I took it apart... The head had gouged its way through the entire thickness of the platter; the remaining part of the platter was lying loose around the hub! It must have made a horrible screeching sound for days (months?), but I guess no-one noticed. The head is ground away, of course, but the arm's still intact. Anyone ever seen a worse failure? manney(a)lrbcg.com

28 years

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FW: DECStation 3100 needs rescue in CO.

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Found this on Usenet. A fellow in Colorado's looking for a home for a DS3100. Any takers, please contact him directly. -=-=- <snip> -=-=- From: jimvela(a)aol.com (JimVela) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Subject: DS3100: Free to good home Lines: 22 Message-ID: <1998050417034500.NAA19003(a)ladder03.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder03.news.aol.com X-Admin: news(a)aol.com Date: 04 May 1998 17:03:45 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Path: blushng.jps.net!news.eli.net!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!204.59.152.222!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!portc01.blue.aol.com!audrey03.news.aol.com!not-for-mail Greetings... I have a DS3100 system which I picked up cheap, and was planning to play with NetBSD or OpenBSD on it. As it turns out, I've picked up a couple of other projects and will probably never get 'around to it'. I'll give the system away to anyone who can pick it up- I'm near Boulder, CO. The system is a DecStation 3100 with a VR299 monitor and Dec Keyboard. I don't have a mouse, or hard drives. I believe that there is 16Mb of Ram installed. As far as I know, it works fine. (I never got further than realizing that the mouse was generating an error on boot, and never made a loopback connector to go further.) Anyone that's interested, reply via email... Regards, Jim Velasquez -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, SysOp, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fido 1:343/272) kyrrin {at} j<p>s d[o]t n=e=t "...No matter how hard we may wish otherwise, our science can only describe an object, event, or living creature, in our own human terms. It cannot possibly define any of them!..."

28 years

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Fujitsu Eagle

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Before I go calling around to drive repair places, does anyone happen to have the service manual for a Fujitsu 'Eagle' (M2351 series) that they feel they could part with? I'd be happy to pick up postage for such. Thanks in advance. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years

2
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N*'s available in Seattle

by rcini＠email.msn.com

Found in comp.sys.northstar: >Hi, >I have three functional Northstar Horizons (at least they were working >when they went into the basement) that I'd like to find a good home >for. > >For history buffs. the systems used to belong to Dr. Tim Lineham in >Olympia Wa. and served as one of the very early Z-Node bbs systems. >Gar Nelson >Seattle, Wa. Reply directly to the original author (elli12(a)gte.net) . Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years

1
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OK, got farther... (RSTS 8.0-07 + RA92)

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

Now the RA is hardware visible. As opposed to the RA81, where you CAN'T plug it straight into the controller, the RA92 likes that. Go figure. Anyway, I boot up and say HARDWR LIST. It sees 2 devices off the UDA50, the RA81 and the RA92. It identifies the RA92 as a RA92 also. Now, I try to DSKINT the 92. I get to where it asks me for pack clustersize. The default here is 32. When I type 32, it says ?Illegal clustersize specified and prompts me again. Nothing works. Apparently 32 is too big a number, but it's the required number, so I've shot myself in the foot. Is this a known bug? Have I screwed up here? Is there something I can change in RAM to let me go ahead? I can't find any mention of this anywhere.... -------

28 years

2
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(Fwd) Re: Wang PC XC3-2

by lwalker＠mail.interlog.com

From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker(a)interlog.com To: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> Subject: Re: Wang PC XC3-2 Reply-to: lwalker(a)interlog.com Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 15:02:08 On 2 May 98 at 22:48, Sam Ismail wrote: > > Ok, what do you all know about the Wang PC XC3-2 circa 1984? I got one > today. Unfortunately it was just the system itself with no documentation, > but I did get some software. This one has a 5.25" disk drive and a > half-height hard drive. I haven't dug into it yet so don't know many more > details but from the labels on the interface cards on the back it has an > IBM Monochrome emulator board among all the basic stuff (winchester disk > controller, serial, parallel, etc.) > > Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com I posted on a trash find about 2 weeks ago on virtually the same machine, with no response. Ditto on some newsgroups. That in itself is fascinating.The one I have is a PC-S3-2. The only info I was able to find on Wang's venture into the world of MS-DOS was on the Wang users bbs and this was pretty slim. They call it a "classic" Wang, (Apple anyone ?) I was able to get a start-up file from them but it seems to be an orphan like the Atari PC. There's quite a few Wang CP/M enthusiasts sites but like the TRS m.2 little info on this beast. even tho, like the TRS m.2, many were sold to the business community. Most likely quietly fed to dumpsters around the world since most small businesses don't have garage sales. You were fortunate ( mind you didn't find it in the garbage) to have some means of IO. Mine had the 2 winchesters removed and nothing else. I find the MB interesting with its mix of Zilog, Motorola and Intel chips. Old Wang was known for it's interesting innovations and IIRC many of it's people went on to illustrious careers with other companies , like the original DEC, Xerox, and Atari crews did. I don\t have the URL for the WUG handy but it should be readily available thru a search. They're a Brit group IIRC and I wasn't about to pay $35 for the privelage of joining their discussions. Could you give me some info on the FDD's , KB , etc. ciao larry lwalker(a)interlog.com

28 years

3
3
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FD55E drives...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Bingo! They are a single head version of the FD55F which was their <'quad' density drive - 96tpi and 250k data rate. < <What other info would you like? Thanks Don, that conformed what I thought. They are used in Visual 1050 CPM3 systems as 400kb drives. I'm looking at fitting them with a 3.5" drive to be compatable with my other CPM systems at 720/780/1.44. Allison

28 years

2
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I guess RSTS doesn't like RA92s...

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

I dragged the RA92 up here, plugged it in as DU1, and started RSTS, but RSTS says DU1 doesn't exist. This is RSTS/E v8.0-07. Is there some trick to do to make the RA92 work, or am I up a creek? I'll play with it to make sure it's not my cabling, but I have it the same way as the RA81, so I doubt it... -------

28 years

1
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Wang PC XC3-2

by dastar＠wco.com

Ok, what do you all know about the Wang PC XC3-2 circa 1984? I got one today. Unfortunately it was just the system itself with no documentation, but I did get some software. This one has a 5.25" disk drive and a half-height hard drive. I haven't dug into it yet so don't know many more details but from the labels on the interface cards on the back it has an IBM Monochrome emulator board among all the basic stuff (winchester disk controller, serial, parallel, etc.) Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/25/98]

28 years

3
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FD55E drives...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

Anyone have or know where I can find specs for TEAC FD55E drives? I know they are single sided half height but I suspect they are 96tpi 80track drives. Allison

28 years

4
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HDD ...

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

With all this talk of hard drives slicing themselves and adjacent walls to pieces, how is it that the motor can spin up to such a high speed when it's not supposed to, and why doesn't the head dragging on the disk surface cause it to stop? Can any of these stories happen to a modern drive? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

3
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Backing up to videotape

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I have seen, on this list and otherwise, comments about cards that allow a VCR to be plugged in and data to be written to them. I was wondering if a) this is a good idea b) why these things cost so much - shouldn't a simple D/A converter and serial port do? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

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HDD ...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 23:30, Tony Duell wrote: > On (almost) all hard disks, the head doesn't drag on the disk - it floats > on a film of air. Even if the head crashes, the intertia of a stack of > 14" aluminium platters is considerable, and the most likely result is > that the head/mounting is ripped off the arm and flung into the HDA > housing/across the room. That's what happened to my Seagate, as far as I could see. > > > Can any of these stories happen to a modern drive? > > Unlikely. The platters are a lot smaller for one thing, so they can > probably rotate faster without breaking up. And there's likely to be more > complex speed control of the spindle motor, so it may not be able to > overspeed significantly. > > I'm not worried about my PC drive suddenly spreading bits of platter > through the front of the case. No, but the load bang I described was from a 3.5" winnie. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

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HDD died in a spectacular way

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 23:38, Tony Duell wrote: > Tim wrote: > > Same goes for the RL01/RL02 (which will spin about 3000 RPM instead > > of nominal if you convince them to spin up without a pack). > > Yes, but with no pack there's no platter to break up :-) > > I'm not going to try it, but what does an RL0x do if you get it to > overspeed with a pack in place, I wonder? Probably not a lot. Not much, it just goes rather faster than normal. I've seen it happen when a servo circuit failed (actually, a field servoid had removed a vital component from a drive that he thought wouldn't be used again). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

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HDD died in a spectacular way

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 23:23, Tony Duell wrote: > Pete Turnbull wrote: > > I have a couple of 14" Fujitsus (a massive 135MB apiece) similar to that. > > Well, that Shugart I mentioned is either 12Mbytes or 24Mbytes depending > on how many disks/heads were fitted at the factory. > > > They're the predecessors to the Eagles, which have heavy cast metal HDA > > enclosures. Much more fun to watch (and listen to). > > I remember the Eagle... I've got the service manual somewhere (given to > me along with some other manuals) and I once had to repair a later drive > (2361???) that was somewhat similar to the Eagle (maybe it was called a > Double Eagle or something - I forget). The HDAs in those drives certainly > look impressive. Super Eagle. Impressive? Yes, those fins really are there to cool it. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

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FD55E drives...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 19:16, Allison J Parent wrote: > Anyone have or know where I can find specs for TEAC FD55E drives? > > I know they are single sided half height but I suspect they are 96tpi > 80track drives. Easy way to find out is to try it :-) There's a small amount of data on TEAC's web site, http://www.teac.com/dsp/fd/fd_55.html but that's really for the -R series which are newer. I've got jumper and setting info for the GFR (similar to RX33) and a little info on the FD55-FB and FD55-BVU (40 trk DS) and FD55-GFV-17 (HD 80 trk). TEAC also have a faxback service, and there's a catalogue of the faxback documents at http://www.teac.com/dsp/catalog.html You could try http://www.psyber.com/~tcj as well. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

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HDD ...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<With all this talk of hard drives slicing themselves and adjacent <walls to pieces, how is it that the motor can spin up to such a <high speed when it's not supposed to, and why doesn't the head <dragging on the disk surface cause it to stop? Head draging...? only if it's crashed even then the motors on those old drives were huge. <Can any of these stories happen to a modern drive? Less likely as smaller platters, less mass and more exotic speed control servos. The big difference is that you would need som really amazing RPM to make a 3.5" plater fracture and fail where a 14" platter has a far higher speed at the perimeter at a lower RPM. Without running the numbers a 14" platter goes transsonic at the perimeter at something like 14,000 RPM however before you get to that speed the forces working on the metal are high enough that it will exceed the tensile strength. Also small imbalances show up with increasing rotational speed and the platter start to develop vibratory waves which if allow to go to destructive extremes make for good stories. I know as I have an operating Morrow (thinkertoys) DISCUS with a 10mb memorex(m101) 8" drive. Allison

28 years

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HDD died in a spectacular way

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 18:19, Tony Duell wrote: > > Well, seen after the fact when I was called in to 'repair' it... > > > > Probably over 15 years ago, NorthStar offered a 14 inch hard drive in an > > external cabinet for use with the 'Horizon' microcomputers. It was > > amusing to watch with the top of the enclosure off as the entire unit > > was enclosed in a slightly smoked brown Plexiglass 'bubble'. > > That description matches a number of 14" hard disks available at that > time. I still have a Shugart SA4000 (on a PERQ 1) which has a similar > design of HDA. But that one uses a synchronous mains motor to turn the > disks (and produces the write clock from a special head on one of the > disks, thus synchronising the whole thing to the disk rotation). I have a couple of 14" Fujitsus (a massive 135MB apiece) similar to that. They're the predecessors to the Eagles, which have heavy cast metal HDA enclosures. Much more fun to watch (and listen to). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

2
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HDD died in a spectacular way

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Truly incredible. The official explanation sounds like something >from a book on Chernobyl. What the heck did the thing use for a motor? Diesel or Gasoline? > >At 04:53 PM 5/2/98 -0400, you wrote: >> >>Anyone ever seen a worse failure? > >Well, seen after the fact when I was called in to 'repair' it... And >actually, quite a good thing that no one was there to witness it! (you >will see why in a moment) > >Probably over 15 years ago, NorthStar offered a 14 inch hard drive in an >external cabinet for use with the 'Horizon' microcomputers. It was amusing >to watch with the top of the enclosure off as the entire unit was enclosed >in a slightly smoked brown Plexiglass 'bubble'. > >The down side was that the sector wheel/transducer/tachometer assembly was >external to the sealed housing and frequently caused "sector not found" >errors as dust collected on it. This required regular (monthly or so) >cleaning which required removal of the HDA from the external enclosure in >order to access the bottom of the assembly. (quickly rectified by our >staff after a couple of calls by using a 'nibbler' tool to add a 2"x3" >opening on the bottom of the external enclosure that we could access the >assembly through) > >It was also noted in one of the service bulletins that since this assembly >also served as the tachometer for the spindle drive, that you could tell if >the wheel was becoming dirty by a "surging" sound coming from the unit even >if you did not experience sector errors. Little did we know... > >We had one customer who tended to keep his system up 24x7 since he had an >external sales staff that used the system to file orders and he liked to >work from home. (dial-in lines) He also liked to run the HD with the upper >part of the external enclosure removed so that he could show off to >customers and clients just how advanced their operation was. (ignoring our >warnings that this would allow the unit to attract dust and dirt more rapidly) > >Well... One Monday morning I get to the shop and we have a number of >messages on the answering machine (in increasing levels of agitation). He >starts off by explaining that Friday evening he started getting frequend >'sector' errors reported from the system. Over the course of the day >Saturday the errors increased and the system response degraded. Sunday >morning the system would not answer a call at all. Sunday evening he got a >call from the Alarm Monitoring company that something had tripped the >offive alarms. When he went in to check the building, he noted that there >"appeared to be a problem with the hard drive" and wanted us out there >first thing to make sure he did not lose any data. > >So... a couple of us went out expecting to have to clean out the wheel >assembly (yet again) and perhaps correct a couple of glitched sectors... >WRONG! > >When we entered the computer room, it was quite obvious that there was a >bit more than a "problem with the hard drive"! > >The room looked like someone had stood in the center of the room with an >M-16, and used it to try to cut the room in half. Clear around the room at >about table top level were pieces of plastic and metal stuck into the wall >boards. The plexiglas 'bubble' from the HDA was gone (obviously shattered) >and the platters had large chunks missing from them. No need to even look >for the head/arm assemblies. > >After an extended discussion with the customer, of which most of the time >was spent explaining that we would NOT be able to recover any data from the >drive, we set about collecting the wreckage and installing a new drive and >software. > >Once back at the shop, a call to NorthStar brought a visit a few days later >from one of their technical support staff as well as an engineer from the >manufacturer of the HDA (Micropolis if I recall correctly). > >The "official" explaination went something like this: > >Due to the design of the (rather basic) tachometer circuit in this unit, a >missing sector pulse was intrepreted by the tach as a loss of spindle >speed. (start-up mode mentality, if you are starting the drive and don't >see a pulse, speed up (or start-up) the motor until the required pulse rate >is achieved) This was the cause of the "surging" sound noted in previous >service bulletins. > >In "theory" (now apparently proven) if the sector/tach wheel became >sufficiently dirty the tachometer circuit could attempt to keep increasing >spindle speed up to such a point where a failure of the unit might be >induced either by overload failure of the spindle motor or by excess >vibration caused by excess rotational speed. > >Apparently, no one ever considered a 'fail-safe' for the tachometer circuit... > >While they never did detail just exactly what failed first, whatever it was >apparently caused a head crash severe enough to fracture one or more of the >platters, and from that point it was all downhill... > >Without the cover of the external enclosure to contain it, (a metal >enclosure by the way) when things started to come apart there was nothing >to stop it! And the results were indeed quite spectacular. > >Made everyone a good deal more serious about keeping those sensor wheels >clean... (and the covers on!) > >BTW: NorthStar did replace the drive for us... > >-jim > >--- >jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com >The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw >Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174 > > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

1
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'Classic' typewriter?

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Yes, you read correctly. One of the local thrift stores turned up a Xerox 'MemoryWriter 630' for all of $8.00. Since I was in the market for something to fill out forms with, and curious about the MW series in any case, I picked it up (with a grunt -- these are not light!). It's built very robustly inside, and appears to be based heavily on the 8085 chip. The design and layout resemble (no surprise) the Diablo 630 series daisywheel terminals. A good vacuuming and a little oiling later and it works just great. Original manufacture date is around 1984 (based on the date codes I found on the components). No CRT on this one, though I understand that was one option. If anyone happens to have a user's guide, accessories, options, or diskettes for this beast, please let me know. Thanks in advance. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years

2
1
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TI99: Anyone reading this with a TI-99/4A?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<To my knowledge no flavor of unix runs on anything less than a 32-bit <processor. There's a unix-workalike for the C-64/128, but that's not Your knowledge is limited. Unix was started and lived for years on PDP-11s (a 16 bit machine) in the form of V5, V6, V7 and 2.9BSD and 2.11BSD. I may add it was on other machines like the Interdatas. <quite the same thing. Anyway, it's called Lunix. I haven't tried it yet, There is also ELKS embedded kernal linux aimed at XT class(16bit) and other small machines. <but it's possible that Lunix could become fairly popular amongst the <8-bitters. The point I was trying to make about running Minix (since you Linux is is one form of popular free unix and was launched on PC hardware that happens to be 32bit(386 and later). Fitting unix on most 8bitter means a minikernal and swapping as most 8bitters have only a 64k address space unless some banking logic was added or the CPU is only of the later z80 varients with MMU(z180 1mb, z280 16mb). <generally run that on a PC anyway) is that it just simply makes more <sense to run Linux or FreeBSD or some other supported operating system. Minix is supported exactly the same way LINUX is. <It's possible to run those operating systems with 8MB comfortably <(provided you're not running XFree86)...all the text-based stuff runs <just fine. Besides 8MB RAM doesn't exactly break the bank nowadays. :) Well, my 386 is running it in 8mb with xfree86 and while not blindingly fast it does run well. Not everyone has bundles of cash for their computer. I find the idea of not less than 32bits, 200mhz cpus and large memory being a must to be patently retrorevisionist to the history of what was done before those things were available. Allison

28 years

2
1
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A British piece

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> Today I picked up a G.R. Electronics Ltd "Pocket Terminal" and I am <> looking for some user information on it. I have two of them, it's a mini terminal. I have no data even though I know mine work. Allison

28 years

1
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'Classic' typewriter?

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I once saw one of these w/CRT and two floppy drives at a thrift store. It looked quite old ;) I tried it out, coudn't really tell how to use it, and didn't bother to take it. The thing on the screen looked a bit vi-like. Another thing that's more complicated than it should be... > Yes, you read correctly. One of the local thrift stores turned up a Xerox >'MemoryWriter 630' for all of $8.00. Since I was in the market for >something to fill out forms with, and curious about the MW series in any >case, I picked it up (with a grunt -- these are not light!). > > It's built very robustly inside, and appears to be based heavily on the >8085 chip. The design and layout resemble (no surprise) the Diablo 630 >series daisywheel terminals. A good vacuuming and a little oiling later and >it works just great. Original manufacture date is around 1984 (based on the >date codes I found on the components). > > No CRT on this one, though I understand that was one option. If anyone >happens to have a user's guide, accessories, options, or diskettes for this >beast, please let me know. > > Thanks in advance. > > >-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) >(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) >"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own >human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..." > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

1
0
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Seagate info

by scottk5＠ibm.net

-----Original Message----- From: Joe [SMTP:rigdonj@intellistar.net] Sent: Saturday, May 02, 1998 2:44 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Seagate info I just picked up a couple of old Seagate SCSI drives and I'm looking for jumper information. (YES, these DO have jumpers.) I can't find a Seagate site. Does anyone know of a site that has this kind of information? [Kirk Scott] Try: http://www.blue-planet.com/tech/no-frames.html I've gotten a lot of information help on older drives from them. Kirk scottk5(a)ibm.net

28 years

5
5
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Another IBM S/

by william＠ans.net

At first I thought it was some sort of typo, but now I have another reference... What the heck is an IBM System/7? William Donzelli william(a)ans.net

28 years

3
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HDD died in a spectacular way

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 2, 16:53, PG Manney wrote: > The head had gouged its way through the entire thickness of the platter; > > Anyone ever seen a worse failure? Not seen, but heard... Some time ago, I had a little Seagate 50MB drive on running on the shelf above a workstation. I knew it had a stiction problem, so I tended to leave it running most of the time. So there I was, minding my own business, as they say, and suddenly there was a very loud BANG. I couldn't see anything amiss, but I shut things down anyway. Then I realised any damage that was going to be done by whatever went bang had presumably already happened. I wasn't going to find much out by staring at a blank screen, so I powered everything up again. All came to life, but the Seagate just reported disk errors. Tried reformatting; no joy. So I took it apart. Every platter had huge circular gouges, and two of the heads were in bits, mostly embedded in the walls of the disk chamber. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

2
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Seagate info

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 2, 22:20, Joe wrote: > Yes, I tried that URL. It said that that webpage was not available!?!?!?!? > I don't know about Impris but Seagate just bought Conner (who had already > bought Maynard, who had already bought Irwin.) There goes a lot of their > competion! > >Uh, did you try www.seagate.com? They have information on even their > >oldest SCSI drives, Conner drives, and Imprimis too. They also have an ftp site (ftp.seagate.com, I think) which has all the jumper info in text files. They also have zip files giving the info for griups of drives, eg all the scsi drives, all mfm, etc. I use them so often that I always have a reasonably up-to-date version on my server. BTW, I find seagate's site and similar sites much more useful than TheRef. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
0
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Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by allisonp＠world.std.com

For direct to ugly... Commodore PET netronics explorer-85 intel mds800 minutman missle computer (lots of ways ugly!) I can think of others but those were pretty ugly on an esthetic basis and a few were ugly from a human factors standpoint (pet chicklet keys). Programming the serial disk computer of the MMC was really nasty. Allison

28 years

2
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Apologies... Was Re: Anyone know where to find a Setup disk for Epson Equity II+?

by lfb107＠psu.edu

I am truly sorry for sending that huge file to the mailing list. I had intended it for Daniel only. Sorry for any inconveniences it may have caused. Les

28 years

4
4
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Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I believe KISS tends to apply in these cases. In general, I find that I like blockier ones more. I won't get myself started on modern case design, but I will say that I do not find any of the "home computers" by Compaq, Toshiba, Acer, and Sony to be very nice-looking. Of classic computers, the TI 99/4a probably is in that vicinity... >On Sat, 2 May 1998, R. Stricklin (kjaeros) wrote: > >> On Fri, 1 May 1998, William Donzelli wrote: >> >> > Speaking of which, what are the ugliest machines? >> >> Apollo DOMAIN computers and every last intel based PC manufactured since >> 1993 and _especially_ since 1995. Except the new IBM GL machines which are >> actually kind of nice. > >I'm actually keen on the contemporary Compaq designs and the cool Acer >designs with the neon colors and artistically drilled venting holes in the >dense pattern. > >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. > > Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > [Last web page update: 04/25/98] > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

1
0
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Auction crap

by aaron＠wfi-inc.com

In case anyone cares, I put another Sun 3/50 and a Sparcstation 1+ on www.haggle.com. The 3/50 is a 12meg flat-top, and the 1+ has 36megs and a 205meg HD. I started them at something like $5 so they'll probably go for just enough to cover packaging tape. The impetus? The space is now being hogged by the System 36 I just dragged in here.... By the way, does anyone want that Sperry IT I got awhile back? It is sitting in the garage looking forlorn. It has that nifty Genoa video card, a memory board, an ethernet card, an unknown size HD, keyboard, optical mouse and pad, complete manual set (system installation guide, Basic user's guide, and MS-DOS user's guide), and original disk set. I haven't had the chance to even power it on yet, so I don't know the operational status (worked when removed). It's heavy (duh), so if someone just wanted the cards/HD/etc, I could disassemble and ship what you wanted and leave the carcass at the local thrift. Oh yeah, I am in the L.A. vicinity, so if someone wanted to pick it up.... Aaron

28 years

1
0
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Introduction

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<A question occurred to me today : Can you have an embedded analogue <computer, and if so, how many op-amps are needed to have one? Yes, and that's very common. None, a low pass filter(RC) performs a function and can be considered analogue. <I was looking at the service manual for my Micropolis 1203 hard disk, and <I read the circuit description of the servo electronics. It's a fairly <complicated array of op-amps, which combine integral and differential <forms of the position error, positioner current, etc. I would claim that <is an embedded analogue computer. Valid claim, also a good example of a fairly complex function. <On the other hand, I think it would be stretching the definition to call <a simple op-amp wired as a voltage follower an analogue computer. Correct. However often the buffer is between some function or follows one so it's part of the analog system. Other analog systems common to computers: cassette IO (low pass filter on output) and complex filter/differentiator edge/peak detectors for input. Some of the acients used PLLs for clock recovery (KANSAS City is one). Analog to digital conversion (quantification). Digtial to analog conversion (filtering) Disk/tape systems have several layers of analog function for data and control. Allison

28 years

2
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Compaq laptop dock FS/Trade

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

Ok Compaq laptop owners (you know who you are). I have a near new unit to sell or trade as follows: Compaq 2815 Desktop Expansion Base. Looks a lot like the Prolinea line of desktops with a special lid to slide your laptop machine into a "bay". It has no drives (blanking plates) but has an internal contrller for floppy or hard disk and the empty bays. Has a token ring card now in one of the two ISA slots. Includes ports for VGA, LPT, COM, KB and mouse. Has an A/B switch on the rear that I really have no idea of it's use. This is like brand new but has no manuals. Looking for $100 cash or will consider trades of items such as memory, cdroms, sound cards (especially MCA PS/2 types), etc or a complete Snappy 3/3 Deluxe setup. I will also consider equal value electronics test equipment in trade especially function generators, signal generators, frequency counters, Fluke DMMs, etc. Email me direct please. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years

2
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Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by cfandt＠servtech.com

Okay, first, where do we stop with the 'was:' things as an interesting thread evolves!? There may be a limit to number of nested parentheses in a subject line! ;-) At 16:52 30-04-98 -0500, Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote: >On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, Christian Fandt wrote: > >> Thankfully, the metal/plastic boxes our old computers were made with have >> virtually no value as 'interior decorations' (yet). However, there could be >> exceptions for maybe a couple of models. I recall some list members here >> had commented upon some as being rather attractive in appearance. I haven't >> come across those yet. > >Hmm, a list of computers that look good enough to display as art? Here's >mine (most are laptops): > >IMSAI 8080 >GRiD Compass >Ampere WS1 >MINDSET PC (good enough for MOMA, anyway) >NeXT Cube >eMate 300 > >-- Doug Anybody know of a URL or printed reference to a photo of an Ampere, MINDSET or eMate machine? Heard of them and I would like to see what they're like. I have somewhere in my archives old Popular Electronics and Byte mags which I'm sure show the others on Doug's list. Those NeXT machines were indeed pleasing to look at. I wish I could find one nearby here to see up close or/and purchase. --Chris -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/

28 years

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Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

>I'm actually keen on the contemporary Compaq designs and the cool Acer >designs with the neon colors and artistically drilled venting holes in the >dense pattern. Yep, those are cool. Also, I also kind of like the Toshiba's, the ones with those cool monitor/TV/speakers, and the box is awsome, too. And that new Toshiba model... the one in PC Week... the one that has that "30 second motherboard change", is finally a smart design, if not artistically pleasing. >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- >Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. > > Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > [Last web page update: 04/25/98] -Tim D. Hotze

28 years

1
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Soviet Computer on the web

by dastar＠wco.com

I was going to post this when it was still relevant within the context of the thread but anyway.... Here's a web page with some pictures and information about a pretty fascinating Soviet mainframe: http://www.mailcom.com/besm6 Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/25/98]

28 years

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Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

What about the Monorail PC's (http://www.monorail.com)? Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: R. Stricklin (kjaeros) <red(a)bears.org> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Saturday, May 02, 1998 7:58 AM Subject: Re: Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)) >On Fri, 1 May 1998, William Donzelli wrote: > >> Speaking of which, what are the ugliest machines? > >Apollo DOMAIN computers and every last intel based PC manufactured since >1993 and _especially_ since 1995. Except the new IBM GL machines which are >actually kind of nice. > >ok >r. >

28 years

1
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Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Well, the speakers are probably 6". We are playing instrumental music, nothing too heavy. Both drives were Micropolis, IDE-based, like most newer Macs. Nothing much bangs on the table, except the speaker vibrations. Could it be the Yamaha keyboard or amplifier (just regular black box) >> > >> > >> > >> > The speakers MIGHT be the problem. There is a pair of them, each >> > twice the size of an IMSAI, right beneath the macintosh >> >> I see... Now, while a lot of older drives locked the pack to the spindle >> using a fairly powerful magnet (and 3.5" floppy drives still do), I'd >> still not want to run a hard disk near speakers of that size. Can you >> rearange the layout of the room a little? >> >> -tony >> >Guys! I know of several deaf and impaired hearing people who likes >music at full blast thru regular quality 60W with subwoofer and their >hard drives cared nothing a whit about vibration level. I think >something is funny: (Thobbing of music...boom boom bop...) > >1. Did someone disconnect/connect scsi stuff often? >2. Did something bang the table where Mac sits often? >3. Specific brands is no better than some and why didn't Max give us >what kind of both toasted hds was? >4. Termination issues sometimes cooks the hd especially selection of >termination power used. >5. Sharp resonanent sounds sometimes can make the pc chassis >resosate thus killing hd life early. That does means to some >machines with plastic chassis and some that will resnsonate, shaking >the hd long and often. Push and pull on that hard drive bay to see >how much it can shift or "pluck" it to see if it does vibrate. > >Magnetic field have nearly no effect on hd's inside that steel boxes >unless Apple used plastic shell with thin tin sheets which that >requires you to remove either speakers or the pc to different >location at least 6" to 3 feet away. >Magnetic field strength falls away at logithmic rate with increaseing >distrance from the source. > >Jaosn D. > >> > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

2
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kaypro<->IBM?

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

ive been in communication with a lady that has an old kaypro with a lot of text files on disk she wants to transfer to an IBM for further editing and safekeeping. i presume i need to cable their serial ports up and transfer that way, but exactly how? i need some sort of program to send the files on the kaypro i guess, but have nothing to do it with. if i can do this file transfer, i'll get two working kaypros, a TI word processor from 1985 and some NLQ dot matrix printer shipped to me free. david

28 years

3
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Introduction

by rax＠warbaby.com

Hi All - Just joined the list - looks like a great resource for information. I've been collecting vintage micros for a couple of years now and only recently discovered there were other fools with the same bad habit. Currently I've got about 50 assorted Commodores, half-dozen Apple ]['s, two Kaypros, an Osborne Executive, a TRS-80, a couple of TI-99's, a bunch of Atari, Coleco and other game machines, and the rest of the garage is filled with boxes of tape drives, modems, printers and other peripheral stuff. I'm always interested in trading, so if there's something you need, let me know. I'll go back to lurking now. R. BTW - I've been compiling a chronological list of every computer ever made for a book that I'm working on - big stuff as well as micros. It's a pretty big file, but I'll post it (as a MS Word attachment?) if anyone is interested. -- Robert Arnold Managing Editor The MonkeyPool WebSite Content Development http://www.monkeypool.com Creator and Eminence Grise Warbaby: The WebSite. The Domain. The Empire. muahahahahaaaaa http://www.warbaby.com Dreadlocks on white boys give me the willies.

28 years

6
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For you TI 99/4 collectors out there

by bill_r＠inetnebr.com

For you TI 99/4 collectors out there: >"Bill Frandsen" <bfrandse(a)rrnet.com> >I have the following package for auction on the eBay auction web site. It >ends in less than 24 hours. The current bid is $1.00, but it does have a >reserve price that has not been met. A picture is included at the following >link where you can also place your bid. > >http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=11843202 > >Set of 3 Different TI 99/4A Computers >One each of the major shell + keyboard revisions > >Includes 3 shell types: 1 Cream colored and 2 Black + Silver colored. >1 black + silver unit has a "Solid State Software" emblem under the cart >slot. >The other black + silver unit has different keyboard lettering and help >bezel. >Also includes 3 slightly different styles of working power supplies. >Will include 4 NON-WORKING RF Video Modulators (may be fixable?). >Also includes keyboard help reference strips and some blank strips. >All units have been cleaned and tested and work fine, however, >you will need a working RF Video Modulator or video cable to use them. > > >Thanks for your interest! > -Bill Richman bill_r(a)inetnebr.com http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r (Home of the COSMAC Elf Simulator!)

28 years

1
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Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Well, I guess I got my answer, so, if I may inquire, why is it that older hard drives did not need a clean room? Were they sufficiently rought that you could just pull them apart? >> distance? Is there a way to block their effects, using metal, for > >Well, mu-metal would be a reasonable screen, but it's not cheap and can't >be bent to shape after annealing. A larger room might well be cheaper! > >> example? Can I fix the broken drives? > >If it's magnetic damage to the servo information, then it's almost >impossible to repair. You'd need a clean room and the rig used to write >the information at the factory. I don't think many hobbyists have that >sort of setup. > >The other suggestion was mechanical damage from vibration. This might be >more likely, actually. Repairing that (which would be similar to a minor >headcrash) is going to be impossible as well. > >In general even _I_ class modern hard drives as being impossible to >repair. I'll do electronic repairs on the older winchesters (but modern >drives are all custom chips, so that's impossible now), and I'll repair >demountables with no problems at all. But I don't have a clean room to >dismantle the HDA (yet!) > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

2
1
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Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

This room is about the size of a porta-potty. What would be a safe distance? Is there a way to block their effects, using metal, for example? Can I fix the broken drives? >> The speakers MIGHT be the problem. There is a pair of them, each >> twice the size of an IMSAI, right beneath the macintosh > >I see... Now, while a lot of older drives locked the pack to the spindle >using a fairly powerful magnet (and 3.5" floppy drives still do), I'd >still not want to run a hard disk near speakers of that size. Can you >rearange the layout of the room a little? > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

2
1
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Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Well, Lisas are essentially the same case... > > ><Actually, the VT100 does have a rather nice look to it. If you insist ><that only computers go on the above list, I'll list it as a VT103. > >If it has to be a computer bow about a VT180 (CP/M) or PDT-11/130? > >Allison > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

1
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This sucks.

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

Well, the KS-10 deal went over like a lead baloon... It seems the HARDWARE to the system has already been packed off to Caterpillar Spares. But the SYSTEM (disk) is still there. THAT is what they were melting down. Not the whole rack, just the RP06 packs that had their data. When I was told the SYSTEM was intact and may be rescueable, we assumed the HARDWARE. When I asked about config, he assumed I meant "What's the monitor built for?" And they don't wanna give me those disks anyway. Basically, I went in and made a fool of myself... Oh well. Live and learn... -------

28 years

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Introduction

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Tony Duell wrote: >> Heck, I'd like to see a good computer taxonomy (you know, kingdom=digital, >> phylum=silicon, class=portable, order=laptop, family=grid, >> genus=1500-series, species=1535-EXP). > > On the grounds that all laptops are portables, I think I'd rather see > something like > > kingdom = {analogue, digital, quantum} > Phylum = {silicon, GaAs, Germanium (?), hollow-state, mechanical} > Class = {Mainframe, Mini, Workstation, Micro} > Order = {Rackmount, deskside, desktop, luggable, laptop, notebook, palmtop} > > (I know of at least one luggable mini, and I think a Sparcbook could > reasonably be called a laptop workstation) Ummm. Given the number of hybrids around (as we have seen from more recent posts), your system might be better. But AFAIK in the taxonomy used by biologists etc. the list of available classes is different for each phylum, the list of available orders different for each class, etc. But I have a computer that is hybrid analogue/digital (an EAI-1000, I think it's called, which is an analogue computer with a microprocessor doing an embedded control type job to run the system)... Philip. PS Luggable Mini = P850?

28 years

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Anyone know where to find a Setup disk for Epson Equity II+?

by lfb107＠psu.edu

At 07:15 AM 5/1/98 -0700, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote: >One of ours lost it's CMOS. >------- Here's a zip of one. At one time it was available off of the Epson web page but I'm not sure if it still is. Anyway, it works for both II+ and III model Epsons. Enjoy! Les

28 years

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Anyone know where to find a Setup disk for Epson Equity II+?

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

One of ours lost it's CMOS. -------

28 years

2
1
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XT Power Supply help... (More Info)

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

OK... by some act of God, when I try to plug in the HDD alone, it spins up, along with the PSU. Now, when I take EVERYTHING out, that includes drives, cards, etc. and just give the motherboard power, it doesn't spin up at all. Yes, the black pins are in the middle, I know I've got a good connection... could this be the "No power" line thingy? Should a real-XT case work with a clone-XT motherboard? Thanks, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Friday, May 01, 1998 3:13 AM Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... >> I've gone as far as epoxying a screw upside down onto the odd "security" screws >> way back when they started coming out and used a pliers/visegrips to turn the > >Or filing a nail to make a tool to fit some of the more obscure screws. > >If it has a head that stands proud of the surface, and if you don't care >about mangling the screw, then use a hacksaw to cut a slot in it. I got a >pile of AT bits at a radio rally, and that's what had been done to the >screws in the PSU. > >> > not to put a nail in the fuseholder, or put unsafe components in the >> > chopper circuit, or whatever. >> >> Uh, penny under the blown screw in fuse, cigarette pack foil around the blown AGC >> fuse. Let's do this right now. > >It's a well-known fact that to the UK public all fuses are 13A (the >standard/maximum one used in our mains plugs). I've seen said fuses in >all sorts of places that they don't belong. > >I've also seen the fuse wrapped in foil - where on earth does that >dangerous trick come from. I can't believe these lusers work it out for >themselves. > >-tony >

28 years

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Computer Taxonomy

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<However, some of the very simple controllers in, e.g., lawn sprinkler <timers, etc. could possibly be classified as just programmable logic <elements -not really "computers". I can imagine a simple Epson or whateve <clock chip and a small programmable array logic (PAL) chip of some low co <type being setup with very simple I/O to act as the "programmable" contro <in those types of equipment. Or, rather, an application specific <integrated circuit or ASIC could be specially designed and fabricated to <replace all of this if production quantities are in the many thousands. <Still, no microprocessor chip though. This is not true, many VCRs have version of the NEC ucom75 chips, cmos single chip microprocessor(512b-2kb rom, 128nybbles of ram(max) lots of IO for various purposes). The TI1000 series were used in games and Microwave ovens. Most of the things like lawn spriklers controllers are chips like 8048/9, PIC, or other cheap in volume mask rom single chips micros. The list can go on but true ASICs are expensive to develope and limited in scope. There are an abundance of small very low cost single chip micros that can do tasks like those described. FYI what does seperate most of these from the general taxonomic classes is that the "program" is inaccessable on most of these so altering it is unlikely to impossible. Allison

28 years

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Computer Taxonomy

by peacock＠simconv.com

> It would be tough (but valuable) to provide a truly comprehensive list. kingdom = {analogue, digital, quantum} Phylum = {silicon, GaAs, Germanium (?), hollow-state, mechanical} Class = {Mainframe, Mini, Workstation, Micro} Order = {Rackmount, deskside, desktop, luggable, laptop, notebook, palmtop} You are leaving out whole categories of computers. Where do VCR and microwave oven controllers fit in? How do you fit in user programmable and non-user programmable? What about digital storage scopes, logic analyzers? What about lawn sprinkler timers, aren't they "programmable"? Jack Peacock

28 years

3
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Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Funny you should mention the Macquarium. Yesterday on my way home I stopped at a used computer store and found a Mac Plus Macquarium with the original documentation dated 1992 (a mere $60.00 for a butchered Mac... I wouldn't buy one because I don't think it's cute and don't want to encourage this practice). The top of the case had been quite roughly gouged out, a glass tank fitted inside the case. I'd seen this on the web before but thought it was a joke..... Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1) Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 4/30/98 6:45 PM On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, Doug Yowza wrote: > > Thankfully, the metal/plastic boxes our old computers were made with have > > virtually no value as 'interior decorations' (yet). However, there could be > > exceptions for maybe a couple of models. I recall some list members here > > had commented upon some as being rather attractive in appearance. I haven't > > come across those yet. > > Hmm, a list of computers that look good enough to display as art? Here's > mine (most are laptops): > > IMSAI 8080 > GRiD Compass > Ampere WS1 > MINDSET PC (good enough for MOMA, anyway) > NeXT Cube > eMate 300 Of course you guys have heard of converting a Mac into a fish tnak? Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/25/98] ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists3.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Apr30.184519.1767.39626; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 18:45:19 -0400 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id PAA27000; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:26 -0700 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id PAA81022 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:21 -0700 Received: from shell.wco.com (shell.wco.com [199.4.94.16]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id PAA26284 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:05 -0700 Received: from shell (dastar@shell [199.4.94.16]) by shell.wco.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/WCO-18jul97) with SMTP id PAA00153 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:15 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <Pine.GSO.3.96.980430153749.24738C-100000@shell> Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:10 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1) In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980430164313.14283A-100000(a)behemoth.host4u.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> X-Sender: dastar@shell X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years

1
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XT Power Supply help... (More Info)

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

Hmm, must be too early... I suddenly remembered a situation like this I had with a motherboard a few years back... check the ISA slots; make sure nobody's stuck a card in there and mangled a few of the pins. This board I was given had the same trouble, and a couple of the pins were shorting out and the system was shutting it down. Nice three-second fix once I'd found the problem!! :) good luck, Jules >

28 years

1
0
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Introduction

by fauradon＠pclink.com

Off Topic posts are the worst, second comes discussions about computers less than ten years old (which eventually fall in the off topic category) Try to locate the List FAQ to find out more (it doesn't list the flame war starters but if you can stick to the guidelines you'll be OK). Then again I'm not in charge of this list either. As a general rule this is a list for the discussion of more than ten year old computer equipment. Use plain text to send messages. Be nice and have fun. >Thanks for the tip. Let me know if there are any other no-no's or flame bait. > Francois ------------------------------------------------------------- Visit the Sanctuary at: http://www.pclink.com/fauradon

28 years

1
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Tony Cole's Cray-1

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Doug: > Is the reason those old radio/phonograph boxes are not being thrown > away is that noone notice the cover and thinks it's just a pretty > dresser w/o drawers :)? Also hideaway sewing machines. :-) I doubt it... The real crime is those who buy sewing machines with pedestals and treadles, throw away the sewing machine and turn the pedestal into an olde worlde iron framed coffee table. I am told by a friend in the trade that this is v. common. > Of course, the System/36 (I think, maybe not) was built into a desk. There was a system/36 that was the size of a desk pedestal but I never saw that particular variant. The system/32 (and possibly the s/38?) had a desk built into _it_... > And then there were the teletypes (are the ones that are mostly used > as examples of teletypes ASR-33?), printers, etc. Yes. Philip.

28 years

12
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Tony Cole's Cray-1

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<VU = Valve, Rectifying (don't ask me to explain that one). Unidirectional...diode for dummies. Allison

28 years

1
0
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Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Actually, the VT100 does have a rather nice look to it. If you insist <that only computers go on the above list, I'll list it as a VT103. If it has to be a computer bow about a VT180 (CP/M) or PDT-11/130? Allison

28 years

1
0
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Tony Cole's Cray-1

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 30, 9:40, Christian Fandt wrote: > By the way, a second, more minor problem was my wife. When I was describing > the size of the 9370 system before I brought it home, here eyes got real > big and she stated: "Just where are you going to put that!??!" This sounds familiar :-) > And when I > got two six foot tall 19"rack cabinets from an old machine controller at > work that I tore down, I temporarily set them in the new garage sometime > before we moved in. She spied them, stared at them for a few seconds and > asked "What are _those_ monstrosities?" I had to do some quick explaining Even more familair :-) > Wish I could afford a heated, insulated garage. Just leave one or two running, like I do. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
0
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Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

The speakers MIGHT be the problem. There is a pair of them, each twice the size of an IMSAI, right beneath the macintosh > >> >> I posted this a few weeks back, but noone answered, so I'll ask it >> again. > >Oh, what the heck, I'll make a few guesses... > >> There is a certain Macintosh 5400/180 at my school whose hard drive >> crashed about a month and a half ago. When it tried to start, it >> wouldn't really seek, just made a ticking noise and the LED would > >Is the disk spinning at this point? (feel the drive itself). Is it just >that the positioner is not geting the heads where they should be? > >> flash. So, we took it out, ordered another one. A few days later, >> it died the same death. So now we have another one. My ethics don't >> allow me to just put in a hard drive knowing it will be destroyed. >> What should I do? One hint is that the Macintosh is in a soundproof >> booth, and is powered from the booth, which is plugged in. But, the >> mac is plugged in via a "surge protector". >> Ideas? Could it be bad power? Any way to check? > >It _could_ be a PSU problem, but IMHO it's unlikely, unless other parts >of the mac are failing as well. If the disk is spinning and the rest of >the mac is OK, I'd not suspect power problems at this time. > >Are there any strong magnetic fields (say _large_ speakers) very close to >it? I'm wondering if the servo information on the disks is being >corrupted so the positioner can't lock onto a track. > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

3
2
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Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by peacock＠simconv.com

>Some sick minded person might gut a NeXT cube and use it as >a little stool for flowers at an exhibit of abstract art ;) > In the early S-100 days (1975) the engineering lab I worked in got an early Altair (we needed small cheap computers to embed in environmental monitoring instruments). A few months later we got one of the first IMSAIs. After about 3 minutes of comparing the two, we voted to use IMSAIs and the Altair was relegated to being the doorstop for the lab doors. I assume it wound up in a surplus action some number of years after I left. BTW, the embedded controller we actually used in the instruments was a single board Intel 8080, their evaluation kit board, the precursor to Multibus. We used the IMSAIs to develop and test the code in the lab. Jack Peacock

28 years

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Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Well, I recall from The Secret Guide To Computers that early Timex Sinclairs were used as doorstops at Timex (or whatever). Some sick minded person might gut a NeXT cube and use it as a little stool for flowers at an exhibit of abstract art ;) > >At 08:56 30-04-98 -0600, "Jeff Kaneko" <Jeff.Kaneko(a)ifrsys.com> wrote: >> >>> At 17:30 29-04-98 +0000, Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk wrote: >>> >Doug: >>> > >>> >> Is the reason those old radio/phonograph boxes are not being thrown >>> >> away is that noone notice the cover and thinks it's just a pretty > --- snippers --- > >>> There were folks who took a late-20's/early 30's radio which was built into >>> a beautiful wooden cabinet and turned it into a piece of furniture by >>> gutting it. Then there were the late 40's and early 50's TV cabinets which >>> met the same fate. At least I've rescued several of each of these kinds of >>> receivers for my collection. >> >>Then there was this girl I was dating while I lived in Baltimore in >>the early 80's. Her dad had a vintage (early 20th cent.)'magneto' >>(u-crank-it) telephone he mounted on the wall in their basement as a >>conversation piece. He felt it was 'too heavy' so before mounting >>it he gutted the thing. So many historic relics have been destroyed >>in the name of 'interior decoration'. > >Some people have no clue. But in retrospect to that statement, those people >are probably not technically oriented like we are so there is no awareness >of anything's actual worth as a technological collectable. > >Thankfully, the metal/plastic boxes our old computers were made with have >virtually no value as 'interior decorations' (yet). However, there could be >exceptions for maybe a couple of models. I recall some list members here >had commented upon some as being rather attractive in appearance. I haven't >come across those yet. > > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

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Production figures?

by altair8800＠hotmail.com

Does anyone know the production figures for either the Altair 8800, the Imsai 8080 or the Processor Tech SOL 20? If actual numbers are not available I would really appreciate getting an educated guess. Thanks much, Bob ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

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FS: Mac 128

by gmast＠polymail.cpunix.calpoly.edu

I used to subscribe to this list but my mailbox couldn't take it. I guess if you'reading this, it got through. I'm selling a Mac 128 on eBay. The bid is up to about $60 and the auction ends today. If anyone is interested in it just go to the link below and bid through the auction. You will have to pay shipping so keep that in mind. 11941337: Original Macintosh! 128K / KB / FD / More! Current bid: $51.00 Auction ends on: 04/30/98 18:31:45 PDT http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=11941337 I also have another 128 that seems to work but has a dead screen. And a pile of the external floppy drives (3 I think). Includes keyboard and mouse. Accepting offers.

28 years

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XT Power Supply help...

by Marty＠itgonline.com

I've never seen an 80W power supply. All original IBM 5150 PC's I worked on had a 63W power supply and the IBM XT's all had a 130W power supply. You mentioned your supply has a 220V selection? If so and you are stateside, make certain it is in the 110V position. If you have a 220V power supply that doesn't have a 110V selection and you're stateside... you're out of luck. I concur with all those previous respondents that this supply of yours is most likely good but loaded down either by excessive loading (more cards/memory/drives than the P/S can service) or a short circuit in one of the add-on boards or drives. Just unload until you find the cause. Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 4/29/98 11:34 PM That's odd. My power supply's 130W. It's also the 220v variety, as that's what's available here. It was made in Dublin, Ireland. It really looks like it was how it was made, as it looks REALLY built-in to the case. Anyway, I can't see any reason that it would be dememanding too much power, all I have connected is a XT clone motherboard, (however, it WAS sitting in an XT case) and a XT floppy drive connected. So, any ideas? I think that it was just this PS's time to go.... and it was two weeks one day older than I am! Thanks for the help. I might need a new PSU, as I'm not good at this type of thing. After testing it with a dummy load, just a HDD, and a FDD (one at a time), and rechecking all my power connections, I think that it REALLY is dead. Thanks, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: SUPRDAVE <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, April 30, 1998 5:06 AM Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... >In a message dated 98-04-29 16:12:26 EDT, you write: > ><< > >> Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I >found > > >>that > > >> my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, > > >>moves > > >> a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. > > > > Could you simply be overloading it? >> >as long as its an xt power supply and not one from a 5150 pc, there should be >no problems. the 5150 was only 63watts, which was good for maybe floppy >drives. the xt has an ~80 watt power supply so there shouldnt be any danger of >overloading unless it was dodgy to begin with. ive a loaded up xt and the >power supply handles it just fine. > >david ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists4.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Apr29.233404.1767.39454; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 23:34:05 -0400 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id UAA06172; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 20:27:07 -0700 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id UAA63124 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 20:27:01 -0700 Received: from sv10.batelco.com.bh (sv10.batelco.com.bh [193.188.97.227]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id UAA30480 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 20:26:58 -0700 Received: from hotze ([193.188.103.36]) by sv10.batelco.com.bh (post.office MTA v1.9.3b ID# 0-13092) with SMTP id AAA21936 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 06:26:53 +0300 Message-Id: <001601bd73e7$d6fd3540$2467bcc1@hotze> Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 06:25:48 +0300 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: "Hotze" <photze(a)batelco.com.bh> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-To: <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years

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No subject

by bill_r＠inetnebr.com

For your consideration. As always, if you get screwed on this stuff, I will deny any knowledge of your existence. ;-) >For Sale- Collectors Items. > >Osborne 1 and Vixen Computers by owner. > >The ORIGINAL portables. > >Manuals and Software included. > >Make offer. > >Respond to Joe at joab(a)ix.nectom.com > -Bill Richman bill_r(a)inetnebr.com http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r (Home of the COSMAC Elf Simulator!)

28 years

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XT Power Supply help...

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

That's odd. My power supply's 130W. It's also the 220v variety, as that's what's available here. It was made in Dublin, Ireland. It really looks like it was how it was made, as it looks REALLY built-in to the case. Anyway, I can't see any reason that it would be dememanding too much power, all I have connected is a XT clone motherboard, (however, it WAS sitting in an XT case) and a XT floppy drive connected. So, any ideas? I think that it was just this PS's time to go.... and it was two weeks one day older than I am! Thanks for the help. I might need a new PSU, as I'm not good at this type of thing. After testing it with a dummy load, just a HDD, and a FDD (one at a time), and rechecking all my power connections, I think that it REALLY is dead. Thanks, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: SUPRDAVE <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, April 30, 1998 5:06 AM Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... >In a message dated 98-04-29 16:12:26 EDT, you write: > ><< > >> Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I >found > > >>that > > >> my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, > > >>moves > > >> a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. > > > > Could you simply be overloading it? >> >as long as its an xt power supply and not one from a 5150 pc, there should be >no problems. the 5150 was only 63watts, which was good for maybe floppy >drives. the xt has an ~80 watt power supply so there shouldnt be any danger of >overloading unless it was dodgy to begin with. ive a loaded up xt and the >power supply handles it just fine. > >david

28 years

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The PC's Soviet?

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Yep, Apple Records. Actually, it was founded by Paul Macarthney (however you spell it) and John Lenon, the Beatles. Their idea was to have people coming in, and doing what they wanted, getting profits for their records, and not having to go beg the brass at some corporation. They lost more and more money, into the 80's, when they were "eaten up" by Capitol records. The Beatles CD's available now from capitol still feature the Apple logo (not Apple Computer), and the CD's also have it. Ciao, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: SUPRDAVE <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, April 30, 1998 4:10 PM Subject: Re: The PC's Soviet? >In a message dated 98-04-30 00:39:32 EDT, you write: > ><< Heck, wasn't the name "Apple" licensed from the British record company of > the same name (Apple the computer company could use the name as long as > they didn't get into the music business. . .which made things get > interesting when people started doing MIDI stuff with Macs . . .) > >> > >yea, wasnt it the beatles who had something called apple records or something >like that? i remember reading somewhere sometime long ago about the legalities >of it. obviously, apple records got precedence because they were there first. >did apple computer ever have to pay money for the resolution? > >david

28 years

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The PC's Soviet?

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-04-30 00:39:32 EDT, you write: << Heck, wasn't the name "Apple" licensed from the British record company of the same name (Apple the computer company could use the name as long as they didn't get into the music business. . .which made things get interesting when people started doing MIDI stuff with Macs . . .) >> yea, wasnt it the beatles who had something called apple records or something like that? i remember reading somewhere sometime long ago about the legalities of it. obviously, apple records got precedence because they were there first. did apple computer ever have to pay money for the resolution? david

28 years

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XT Power Supply help...

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> > Could you simply be overloading it? >> >> as long as its an xt power supply and not one from a 5150 pc, there should >>be >> no problems. the 5150 was only 63watts, which was good for maybe floppy >> drives. the xt has an ~80 watt power supply > ... hmm, I've overloaded a standard XT (80W) supply before trying to run a couple of the original 10MB hard drives (amongst other things!). Guess it depends on what cards and stuff you're running (some of those old full-length boards drew a hell of a lot of power...) I've got an old pre-XT machine somewhere with the 63W supply, I seem to remember it wouldn't even power one 10MB drive with motherboard and a single floppy drive in place... I can't remember why on earth I even tried it though, I don't think the pre-XT machines (what was their proper title btw?) would even run a hard drive... cheers Jules

28 years

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First speaker announced for VCF2

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> > Finally, Sam, could you put me on the VCF mailing list, please. I tried > > to subscribe from the web page but we've just migrated to Lusedoze Not > > Tolerable and Internut Exploder, with the result that I couldn't get it > > to work... > > Hmmmm...I thought I tested it under MSIE and it should be working. I'll > check again. If anyone else is experiencing problems with the forms > features then please let me know. Thanks for the tip. And yes, I will > add you to the notification list. To be addded to the mailing list I'll > need your physical address, unless you just want e-mail updates. Sorry, Sam, what I meant was our systems here are badly set up. And I refuse to spend hours trying to get WNT to do things properly when it's probably not capable of it. When I try to use your forms page, Internut Exploder asks for a directory in which to store outgoing e-mails and then won't accept any that I give it. (For the record, I am _not_ a computing/IT/whatever person at work - it's merely my hobby. Eventually I will get TCP/IP on one of my UNIX boxen at home and get a personal connection...) Physical address will follow by private e-mail. Philip.

28 years

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NEC portable FS

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

I hate to flood all of you with more stuff but this machine is going unused here and collecting dust. It may be of interest to a collector or of use to someone as a Windows portable. NEC APC IV 286-10 processor, HDD, blue EGA LCD screen, CGA/EGA external monitor port, internal modem, 2.6 mb RAM on 640k system memory and AST card, serial and parallel ports, new 1.44m floppy, external "backpack" 5.25" floppy, manual, keyboard, 1 additional open 16 bit ISA slot, power cord, etc. has Windows 3.11 and DOS 6.2 loaded on HDD. . $135 US plus shipping. Excellent condition. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years

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Grid Laptop FS

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 07:14 PM 4/28/98, you wrote: >GRID 8088 XT Laptop. Rugged Construction. 720k FDD, No HDD, 512k Mem, >SER/PAR, Plasma Screen, AC Adapter Module substitutes battery. Works >Perfectly. Good for diagnostics, automotive, marine, etc. Excellent >condition. Buyer prepays with money order or check and pays shipping. It sounds like a GridCase3. Probably worth $45 easy. That AC module is definitely worth something. If I hadn't just bought a TRS-80 m600 and a Televideo Portable PC, I'd probably go for it, but (luckily?) I already have one. Sure would like that AC Module, though! --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

28 years

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Kaypro 2 update

by ds_spenc＠alcor.concordia.ca

I finally had enough time today to go to Canadian Tire and pick up a set of allen wrenches, so I finally pulled the disk drives out of my ailing Kaypro 2. I moved the resistor pack to what was formerly drive A, and swapped the jumper blocks, put everything back together... and it worked! The Kaypro 2 booted up WordStar with absolutely no problems. Now drive B (formerly drive A) can't be accessed. It gets a "Bdos Err On B: Bad Sector" on known good disks. So it's definitely the drive that's bad. Mechanically the drive seems sound, so I guess I have to assume that there's something wrong with the electronics. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with a working Tandon drive to see if there's any obvious differences, though. Doug Spence ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca

28 years

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The PC's Soviet?

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

>On Wed, 22 Apr 1998, Doug Spence wrote: >> There were all kinds of small Apple cloners around, with various Apple >> variety and fruit names ("Granny Smith", "McIntosh", "Pear", etc.). The Any lawsuits there with that second item? >> Apple ][+ was the lack of the Apple logo, and usually the presence of >> lower case display (though not necessarily the shift-key mod, which my >> machine lacks). Some had additional stuff, though, like function keys and >> slightly differently shaped cases. Or maybe a different colour of >> plastic. >> >> Maybe I should start collecting Apple clones, seeing as I see them more >> frequently than actual Apples (clones were more affordable). I have seen a Franklin once, and the rest were real Apples. >I think the clones are more interesting than the real Apples at this >point. They are more varied and in most areas are less common. More >importantly they do have a historical significance. So how many of them were there (ballpark)? >> So the Soviets pirated the Apple ][, who didn't? >> >> A shame about the price, though. Why pirate the Apple if your clone is >> going to be even MORE expensive than the real thing? > So that you can sell it back to the US and make a profit! > >> BTW, my clone fell ill a while ago, and I've replaced it with a genuine >> Apple //e (the clone is back in its original box). Thanks to >> depreciation, the //e was *much* less expensive than the clone was. And >> it even had an additional 256K RAM card in it (now populated up to 512K). >> :) >> >> Too bad the //e won't work with any of my Z80 cards. :/ > There has been a Z-80 card made for the Apple //c, which plugged into the processor socket. Has anyone seen it? I only saw it in a catalog. > >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. > > Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > [Last web page update: 04/13/98] > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

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XT Power Supply help...

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-04-29 09:23:09 EDT, you write: << Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I found that my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, moves a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. Thanks, >> heres a quick and dirty way to test one: if you have a hard drive, plug that into one of the power connectors, then hit the switch. that will let you know if its working or not. this test will work, as i use an xt supply just to run a scsi drive for my mac when i bring it out for testing once in a while. if not working, i have several extra xt supplies i need to get rid of. message me privately if interested. david

28 years

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Kickstart and Workbench 1.2 for Amiga 1000

by jfoust＠threedee.com

"James L. Rice" <jrice(a)texoma.net> wrote: >I've acquired a Amiga 1000 with monitor, mouse, scsi sidecar that try's >to boot up, but after booting kickstart, it asks for the Workbench 1.2 >disk. My disk seems to be defective because the drive cycles and the >picture of the workbench disk comes back up. Does anyone out there have >a copy? The symptoms you describe could also mean that your disk drive is out of alignment. Early Amiga OSes were floppy-bound and did a lot of gronking, which wore out a lot of drives. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years

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Tony Cole's Cray-1

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

William Donzelli: > I do not think the Cray-1s used 10K ECL - I believe they were custom parts > and were faster (10K gates have a delay around 2 nS). Only four types of > chips were used in the whole beast - I think two were OR/NOR gates, one > was a flip-flop, and the other RAM. It is some years since I looked at the Cray 1 in the Deutches Museum in Muenchen (Munich), but I distinctly recall seeing lots of 10xxx chips in it. I remember I had just been given a board from the CPU of a Cyber two-hunderd-and-something (?) that had been thrown out by Muenchen Technical University a few months earlier, and this board has lots of 100xxx chips on it. Philip.

28 years

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Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I posted this a few weeks back, but noone answered, so I'll ask it again. There is a certain Macintosh 5400/180 at my school whose hard drive crashed about a month and a half ago. When it tried to start, it wouldn't really seek, just made a ticking noise and the LED would flash. So, we took it out, ordered another one. A few days later, it died the same death. So now we have another one. My ethics don't allow me to just put in a hard drive knowing it will be destroyed. What should I do? One hint is that the Macintosh is in a soundproof booth, and is powered from the booth, which is plugged in. But, the mac is plugged in via a "surge protector". Ideas? Could it be bad power? Any way to check? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

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XT Power Supply help...

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-04-29 16:12:26 EDT, you write: << > >> Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I found > >>that > >> my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, > >>moves > >> a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. > > Could you simply be overloading it? >> as long as its an xt power supply and not one from a 5150 pc, there should be no problems. the 5150 was only 63watts, which was good for maybe floppy drives. the xt has an ~80 watt power supply so there shouldnt be any danger of overloading unless it was dodgy to begin with. ive a loaded up xt and the power supply handles it just fine. david

28 years

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Amstrad PPC640 mains adapter

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

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28 years

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XT Power Supply help...

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I found >>that >> my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, >>moves >> a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. Could you simply be overloading it? Seem to remember original IBM XT supplies do this when there's too much load on the system - does the supply seem to work without anything connected to it? The fan should at least spin then... It's equally likely that one of the cards you've got, or the motherboard itself is faulty in some way and is causing the supply to shut down. If you've got a voltmeter try checking the output voltages. Final possibility: did XT supplies have a "power good" reference line that the motherboard tied to +12V to signal that everything was Ok? Can't remember if this was only AT systems that provided this. If they did it may be that your new board doesn't provide it but the power supply expects it to (wait for someone else's words of wisdom I guess, been a while since I've fiddled with these things - if that is the cause though you should be able to simply tie the line to +12V and then everything should work... :) cheers Jules > >

28 years

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Just another e-mail address...

by worldsfate＠mail.geocities.com

OK.. because I'm moving to Georgetown, Guyana, I'm using this e-mail address to keep in contact while I'm moving. So, until June, the other one will still be active, but in the mean time, try to send messages to photze(a)batelco.com.bh and worldsfate(a)geocities.com . I'm not subscribed to this list with this e-mail address, but I'll get ClassicCmp with the other one. Ciao, Tim D. Hotze --------------------------------------------------- *Tim D. Hotze Co-Founder, The Review Guide * *http://members.theglobe.com/ReviewGuide/index.htm* *Panel Member, The Ultimate Web Host List * ---------------------------------------------------

28 years

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First speaker announced for VCF2

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

This is really for Sam, but I think it's worth posting to the list. > The first speaker has been confirmed for VCF2 this September. Does this mean you have firm dates yet? I'd like to book flights, time off work, etc. as soon as I can... > David Rutland was an engineer on a lesser known but very significant > computer dedicated in 1950 called the SWAC (National Bureau of Standards > Western Automatic Computer). Sounds fun! It occurs to me that I gave a small talk on the Tek 4050 series last autumn (fall). I'd like to come to the VCF, and I could probably bring my 4052 and some demo programs, and give an adapted version of the talk (either in a scheduled slot or probably more suitably on a demo stand with the machine). Finally, Sam, could you put me on the VCF mailing list, please. I tried to subscribe from the web page but we've just migrated to Lusedoze Not Tolerable and Internut Exploder, with the result that I couldn't get it to work... Philip. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Philip Belben <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Bloedem Volke unverstaendlich treiben wir des Lebens Spiel. Grade das, was unabwendlich fruchtet unserm Spott als Ziel. Magst es Kinder-Rache nennen an des Daseins tiefem Ernst; Wirst das Leben besser kennen, wenn du uns verstehen lernst. Poem by Christian Morgenstern - Message by Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk

28 years

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Tony Cole's Cray-1

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> I do not think the Cray-1s used 10K ECL - I believe they were custom pa <> and were faster (10K gates have a delay around 2 nS). Only four types o <> chips were used in the whole beast - I think two were OR/NOR gates, one <> was a flip-flop, and the other RAM. Thay may have been custom but the "generation" of ECL is 10k and that refer to parts but also a performance level. Allison

28 years

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HP 1611A probes

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

I can't remember who mentioned they had a 1611A without probes, but I checked it out in the lab today. The pod with the ZIF socket and Z80 clip does have a little "stuff" in it, but the "ordinary" microprobes are simply buffered by a little box containing a pair of 8T37 buffers and a few decoupling capacitors. This box is connected by a plain ribbon cable to a connector on the 1611A. If you need to know the connections/layout, I'm sure it would be easy to reverse-engineer. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

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Year 2000 Bounty

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 11:08 AM 4/24/98 -0400, you wrote: >Kip, is that magazine online anywhere? I haven't heard of it myself. > >Sounds like you are refering us to a rather interesting read! Try <http://www.chac.org/>. It's the official publication of the Computer History Assn of California. I'm pretty sure it is on-line (though I haven't actually checked myself.) >Anybody who's got a better handle on the present population of minis and >mainframes still in service want to give an opinion on this? Well, I'm currently working with Long's Drugs (pharmacy chain in the western US). They have 352 (353 this weekend) stores and each one has an HP 3000 in it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

28 years

1
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University of Washington surplus sale?

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

If this is the same University of Washington that hosts classiccmp... it's likely that Bill Whitson would have gotten them before any of us even had a crack at 'em. Possibly before the surplus people even got 'em, so there would be no record... vaguely, I mean VAGUELY I remember something about him getting Teraks... but I could have been dreaming. Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, April 29, 1998 6:17 PM Subject: Re: University of Washington surplus sale? >I wrote: >>I found a somewhat stale lead (last November) on three or four >>Terak computers that were sold at the monthly University of Washington >>surplus sale. Is there anyone on the list familiar with this sale? > >And then several people posted "tell me more". All I know is >I found a mention via a search engine of three Teraks that were >about to be tossed to their surplus center, and when I called >the surplus center (University Surplus Property Warehouse, 206-685-1573) >they said they auction 60-70 pallets of computers each month, so >they had no recollection of these Teraks. Someone in the UW area >must've got them! I hope they're not dumpstered. I also hold a >slim hope that they weren't sold, and are still for sale. > >See my web site for an image of a Terak. Find them and send >them to me. :-) > >- John >Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm> >

28 years

1
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University of Washington surplus sale?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

I wrote: >I found a somewhat stale lead (last November) on three or four >Terak computers that were sold at the monthly University of Washington >surplus sale. Is there anyone on the list familiar with this sale? And then several people posted "tell me more". All I know is I found a mention via a search engine of three Teraks that were about to be tossed to their surplus center, and when I called the surplus center (University Surplus Property Warehouse, 206-685-1573) they said they auction 60-70 pallets of computers each month, so they had no recollection of these Teraks. Someone in the UW area must've got them! I hope they're not dumpstered. I also hold a slim hope that they weren't sold, and are still for sale. See my web site for an image of a Terak. Find them and send them to me. :-) - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years

1
0
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What's up with xkleten?

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> writes: > PING xkleten.paulallen.com (204.202.80.66): 56 data bytes > 64 bytes from 204.202.80.66: icmp_seq=0 ttl=37 time=114.4 ms Hmm, last night (before I wrote that) I was having difficulty resolving the host name. This morning it seems to be OK. > I don't have an account there (Mr. Allen ignored my request (I guess he is > pretty smart after all)), but telnet seems to work fine. I didn't bother to ask when I saw the announcement -- no time to dink with it then and no good idea what I would do with it except log in and look around. Well, I guess I've found a solution to that latter part, now if I could just do something about the former. -Frank McConnell

28 years

1
0
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Anyone have a laptop they could sell me?

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

OK.. Manney has one, but hasn't gotten back to me on it yet. So anyway, here's the deal: I'm moving this summer, and so I need to stay online. (Yes, NEED, as I'm a panel member for http://www.webhostlist.com , so I NEED to stay connected.) So anyway, what I need is a laptop, or a hand held, that has TCP/IP stacks and a graphical interface for it (so that could be a 386 or later, or a newton, Mac, or anything else...) Oh, and this is intended to be a REALLY low cost thingy... Tim D. Hotze

28 years

2
1
0 0

XT Power Supply help...

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I found that my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, moves a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. Thanks, Tim D. Hotze

28 years

1
0
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What's up with xkleten?

by fmc＠reanimators.org

"Daniel A. Seagraves" <DSEAGRAV(a)toad.xkl.com> wrote: > I can't seem to get ahold of it anymore, was it decomissioned or something? Hmm. Did you find out anything more about this? I found a copy of _Introduction to DECSYSTEM-20 Assembly Language Programming_ (by Ralph E. Gorin, 1981, published by Digital Press, ISBN 0-932376-12-6) and was thinking that this was good timing because I might actually be able to do the homework on, well, something like a -10. In my dreams^H^H^H^H^H^Hcopious free time, of course. Other books found: _Man and the Computer_, John G. Kemeny, 1972, Scribners, SBN 684-13043-2 _PCC's Reference Book of Personal and Home Computing_, Dwight McCabe (ed.), 1977, PCC, ISBN 0-918790-02-6 _Varian Data 620/i System Reference Manual_, Rev C, March 1969 _The BYTE Book of Pascal_, Blaise W. Liffick (ed.), 1979, BYTE Books, ISBN 0-07-037823-1 _An Introduction to Algorithmic Methods Using the MAD Language_, Alan B. Marcovitz and Earl J. Schweppe, 1966, Macmillan, LCCN 66-27676 _The APL Handbook of Techniques_, compiled by DP Scientific Marketing, 1978, IBM S320-5996-0 IBM Proprinter Technical Reference, April 1985, p/n 6328947 _Computer Graphics Techniques and Applications_, R. D. Parslow, R. W. Prowse, R. Elliot Green (eds.), 1969, Plenum, LCCN 68-58992 _Intel Microcomputer Systems Data Book_, 1977 -Frank McConnell

28 years

3
2
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The PC's Soviet?

by MPritchard＠EnsembleStudios.com

I seem to recall reading somewhere (BYTE ~1985 ?) that Soviet made CPUs (6502 clones?) were so poorly maid that they individually came with a list of which instuctions worked and which didn't. Also seem to recall an article on the soviet Apple ][ clone of the time (CPU on a large daughterboard, pirated ROM, cost approx US $20,000) -Matt Pritchard Graphics Engine and Optimization Specialist MS Age of Empires & Age of Empires ][ > -----Original Message----- > From: Hotze [SMTP:photze@batelco.com.bh] > Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 1998 12:15 PM > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers > Subject: The PC's Soviet? > > OK... I was talking to a Ukranian programmer, who told me that in 1968 > the > PC was invented, not far from where he worked in Ukrane. Now, that's > 4 > years before the microprocessor, but is it possible? > And this guy might be dilusional, he's VERY communist, but then > again, > at base, so am I, but with a democratic twist. Anyway, what's the > story > behind this? > Thanks, > > Tim D. Hotze

28 years

6
7
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The PC's Soviet?

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

At 04:41 AM 4/22/98 -0400, you wrote: > >On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Joe wrote: > >> >Also seem to recall >> >an article on the soviet Apple ][ clone of the time (CPU on a large >> >daughterboard, pirated ROM, cost approx US $20,000) >> >> I remember that article. The entire motherboard was pirated! Not just >> the ROM. The tops of the ICs had been ground off to hide the fact that they >> were US made parts. > >How do we know that the $20,000 wasn't the cost of shipping the pirate >motherboards to the Soviet Union from Canada, via Cuba? ;) > >Was it not the same in the States, with regards to Apple clones, as it was >in Canada in the early 80s? Sure it was. The Franklins were probably the best known Apple rip-offs ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H er ah, clones. At least until Apple sued them and Franklin had to actually design their own machines. >So the Soviets pirated the Apple ][, who didn't? But you missed the point. No other >COUNTRY< tried to pass off a pirated machine as their own. In fact, most cloners (pirates?) bragged about their similarity to the original machine, the Soviets claimed that their machine was an original design. To top it all off, they didn't even have the good sense to change the copywrite notice! >Maybe I should start collecting Apple clones, seeing as I see them more >frequently than actual Apples (clones were more affordable). That would probably be a pretty big collection just by itself! Joe

28 years

2
1
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Tony Cole's Cray-1

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> <and is populated rather sparsely by chips with date codes from '80 and <'81. The chips seem to be from Fairchild primarily (the 32 F10470's loo <like they might be RAM). From Mr. Cole's "limited edition" markings, I <gather that there were 400 of these boards in his Cray-1. The Cray-1 was ECL-10k fast for it's time but low density and rams for that technology were 1 or 4k ECL bipolar. ECL had several characteristics, FAST, high power consumption and low density. The copper plate worked with a cooling system to conduct the heat away as that machine was impossible to air cool and remain that small. Why small? Conductors propagate singnals at 1nS a foot and a cable of several feet actually represented a significant delay to the overall sheme of things inside. A note: The other commonly known and slightly more recent ECL machine was the DEC VAX9000, built using ECL-100k built on custom air cooled hybrids. It also consumed power in great quantities and had special cooling considerations. <Any idea how much RAM is on the board? Can I interface the board to my <Sinclair ZX-81 to create the world's most perverse hybrid? Your could but the interface would be more than the two combined and it would eat an amazing amount of power. Allison

28 years

5
8
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Freebies all gone - Thanks!

by kyrrin＠jps.net

The DHV 11 manual and the programming card have both been claimed. Given that the hardware is on hold, that completes this run of freebies. Thanks to all for your interest. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years

1
0
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Kickstart and Workbench 1.2 for Amiga 1000

by jrice＠texoma.net

I've acquired a Amiga 1000 with monitor, mouse, scsi sidecar that try's to boot up, but after booting kickstart, it asks for the Workbench 1.2 disk. My disk seems to be defective because the drive cycles and the picture of the workbench disk comes back up. Does anyone out there have a copy? James

28 years

1
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Tony Cole's Cray-1

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Is the reason those old radio/phonograph boxes are not being thrown away is that noone notice the cover and thinks it's just a pretty dresser w/o drawers :)? Also hideaway sewing machines. I do see many of them in thrift stores, though. It was a good idea, to keep technology invisible. Now, it's the other way around. Cover EVERYthing with black and beige boxes. Of course, the System/36 (I think, maybe not) was built into a desk. And then there were the teletypes (are the ones that are mostly used as examples of teletypes ASR-33?), printers, etc. >> S/360s are very rare (thousands made, maybe a dozen left). > >So the moral of the story is that manufacturers should build furniture >into their computer systems, so when the computer is obsolete, the system >will live on as furniture. :-) > >-- Doug > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

1
0
0 0

Grid Laptop FS

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I found this on E-bay. The minimum bid is $45. If you think this is too much (I do!!), you can contact the owner and see if he'll take less if it doesn't sell. The URL is "http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=12277630". Description GRID 8088 XT Laptop. Rugged Construction. 720k FDD, No HDD, 512k Mem, SER/PAR, Plasma Screen, AC Adapter Module substitutes battery. Works Perfectly. Good for diagnostics, automotive, marine, etc. Excellent condition. Buyer prepays with money order or check and pays shipping. Joe

28 years

2
1
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Logic State Analyser

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 26, 19:19, Olminkhof wrote: > Subject: Logic State Analyser > I have been rearranging my storage area and uncovered a HP 1611A Logic > State Analyser fitted with a Z80 option that I picked up a few years ago. > > I have no idea what one would do with this. Should I cherish it? Play with > it? > Does one need the specific manual or are these generic and perhaps > explained in standard texts? > > There are a number of plugin points for various types of probes, none of > which I have off course. It powers up fine though. AFAIR the ordinary probes are just micro-hooks on single wires, which plug into a little distribution box on the end of a ribbon cable. It's quite a nice analyser, so "play with it" gets my vote. It was also quite popular, so I expect you could find manuals if you look/ask around. I'm sure we have some 1611s or 1610s in the labs. If you want me to take a look at them next week, shout. There's also a description of both models, and several examples of use, in John Lenk's book "How To Troubleshoot And Repair Microcomputers" -- which IMHO isn't a very good book, but there seem to be lots of old copies of it about, and in libraries. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

3
2
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MCA card

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Interesting. I was in the library today, and I happened to glance on the back of a VT-220 they had. I thought it was video, because of the icon, but then I said to my friend, "Cool! It can do ethernet!" >of collisions and other strange things. Looked like one of the computers >on it had gone crazy and was jabbering, but turning off one machine at a >time didn't help things. > >OK, time to grab a 'scope. What on earth was that? It looks like >composite video. It _is_ composite video. OK, time to trace the cable. >You guessed it. Some luser had plugged a spare t-piece on the thinwire >segment onto the back of a VT220. > >I can't remember what LART I used ;-) > > >> Jack Peacock >> > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

1
0
0 0

MCA card

by peacock＠simconv.com

[Stopping thinnet with a 3270 card...] I once heard of a manager of some sort plugging thinnet into the back of a VT220 (?It was VTsomething...?) video-out port. Seems he thought it was one of those network computer deals... VT220s had a video out BNC connector. You could drive a monitor with it, but wasn't very useful plugged into a coax Ethernet cable. Jack Peacock

28 years

3
2
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University of Washington surplus sale?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

I found a somewhat stale lead (last November) on three or four Terak computers that were sold at the monthly University of Washington surplus sale. Is there anyone on the list familiar with this sale? - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years

3
2
0 0

Test Equip

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

For anyone that's interested or just tired of the ads for them, all the previously advertised test equipment has been spoken for. Thanks for putting up with the messages. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years

1
0
0 0

Tony Cole's Cray-1

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

Allison wrote: >The Cray-1 was ECL-10k fast for it's time but low density and rams for >that technology were 1 or 4k ECL bipolar. ECL had several >characteristics, FAST, high power consumption and low density. Excuse my ignorance, what does ECL stand for? Hans

28 years

2
1
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MCA card/networked machines

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I once heard of a manager of some sort plugging thinnet into the back <of a VT220 (?It was VTsomething...?) video-out port. Seems he thought <it was one of those network computer deals... <[Networked computers will be OK. It means all the terminals get run fro < some large computer off somewhere else. Does this sound familiar? Yes, happend at DEC sometimes. DEC had VAXmate (AT class) machine that was netbootable and could do file sharing via eithernet. There were also X-terminals (DECmindows) that used the net for both the hookup and loading operating software. Allison

28 years

1
0
0 0

Tony Cole's Cray-1

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<>The Cray-1 was ECL-10k fast for it's time but low density and rams for <>that technology were 1 or 4k ECL bipolar. ECL had several <>characteristics, FAST, high power consumption and low density. < <Excuse my ignorance, what does ECL stand for? ECL or emitter coupled logic is a form is bipolar logic that operates at low levels and is non saturating. Non saturating is where the active devices are neither fully off or fully on. Logic levels are referenced to a bias level so translation to MOS/CMOS/TTL is required. The reason for doing non-saturated logic is speed, transistors have a problem like tubes of charge storage making them harder to turn on or off and reducing speed. Generally speaking from the late '60s through the '80s ECL managed to be a factor of 5-20 times faster than the prevailing logic system(RTL, DTL, TTL) until sub-micron CMOS started to get under 10ns. The last ECL parts I looked at(years ago) were sub 1nS and could be clocked faster than 1000mhz. An example of the speed difference is 1974 the fastest TTL divide by 10 (7490) was maybe 35mhz, ECL divide by 10 was 500mhz. Allison

28 years

1
0
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MCA card

by fmc＠reanimators.org

"Max Eskin" <maxeskin(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Today, I received the MCA network card Russ Blakeman sent me. > Unfortunately, it is called a "3270". I am afraid that it's not a > real net card, but a 3270 emulator.It has a BNC connector on the > back. The driver is called "3270 Driver Revision B". > Can I use this thing with ethernet? Yes, for certain sorts of useful. You plug the BNC T onto the back of the card, and it stops all communication on that thin-net segment. At least that's my experience with such devices. (They told me it was an Ethernet card. I didn't believe them but they insisted, so I shrugged and plugged the cable in. It took about five minutes for the folks hollering from the other lab room to find me.) If you want an MCA Ethernet card, look for one with both a BNC connector and a 15-pin D (AUI) connector. Maybe an RJ45 too but I don't recall seeing many MCA cards that had all three connectors. -Frank McConnell

28 years

4
3
0 0

Junk sale (new offer)

by william＠ans.net

If nobody wants the Kaypro PeeCee, I suppose I could pull all of the cards out for interested parties and ship them. If, however, someone wants the machine whole, obviously it will be kept whole. William Donzelli william(a)ans.net

28 years

7
7
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MCA card

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Today, I received the MCA network card Russ Blakeman sent me. Unfortunately, it is called a "3270". I am afraid that it's not a real net card, but a 3270 emulator.It has a BNC connector on the back. The driver is called "3270 Driver Revision B". Can I use this thing with ethernet? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

2
2
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MCA card

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Unfortunately, it is called a "3270". I am afraid that it's not a <real net card, but a 3270 emulator.It has a BNC connector on the <back. The driver is called "3270 Driver Revision B". <Can I use this thing with ethernet? Nope! Allison

28 years

1
0
0 0

Info on Teletek SBC-1

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From: Jack Peacock <peacock(a)simconv.com> <SDS (S.D. Sales) made an S-100 similar to the Teletek, except it could <be configured as either a bus master main Z80 CPU card or a slave card. The SDS was only one board, TelTEK actually had three different ones for slave or master use. The master board also had an FDC on it. <In master mode it had a memory manager, I think the full 24 bits. In <slave mode the on-board 64KB of RAM could be memory mapped on a 64K Yep. Nice board too! Got to try out the proto and it was fast! <boundary anywhere in the full 24-bit S-100 address space. It had a <serial port (maybe 2, SIO or DART?) and a SASI port, the early <predecessor of SCSI. I had SIO (two serial ports) and a parallel printer port. Don't remember SASI on that but it did have 765 FDC that could be used for 8/5.25/3.5" floppies. <It didn't have much in the way of software support for the slave mode, <so I haven't done anything with it. My ambition is to make it a Z80 <co-processor card in a Concurrent DOS system 80286 system. There wasn't much other that configuring it with MP/M as a slave. Allison

28 years

1
0
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Info on Teletek SBC-1

by peacock＠simconv.com

I had never seen that Toshiba chip before. The 2716 was just a guess based on the part number. I'd guess that it's 200ns RAM. Is it a 2kw chip? The Toshiba part was a regular 2016/6116 2KBx8 static RAM. Same pinout as the 2716 except for the additional WR* line. IIRC there were LP (low power CMOS) versions too, various speed grades. SDS (S.D. Sales) made an S-100 similar to the Teletek, except it could be configured as either a bus master main Z80 CPU card or a slave card. In master mode it had a memory manager, I think the full 24 bits. In slave mode the on-board 64KB of RAM could be memory mapped on a 64K boundary anywhere in the full 24-bit S-100 address space. It had a serial port (maybe 2, SIO or DART?) and a SASI port, the early predecessor of SCSI. It didn't have much in the way of software support for the slave mode, so I haven't done anything with it. My ambition is to make it a Z80 co-processor card in a Concurrent DOS system 80286 system. Jack Peacock

28 years

1
0
0 0

Logic State Analyser

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 27, 18:33, Tony Duell wrote: > Pete Turnbull wrote: > > AFAIR the ordinary probes are just micro-hooks on single wires, which > > plug into a little distribution box on the end of a ribbon cable. > > Are you _sure_? Every logic analyser that I have ever worked with has > quite a bit of circuitry in the 'pod'. That's possible, but the probes themselves definitely are just wires with clips (albeit a beautifully made version). I'll take a look this week. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
0
0 0

q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 27, 13:04, emanuel stiebler wrote: > You don't have a kind of this art about a pdp11/53 (KDJ11-D/S, M7554, > 50-1670-02) ? Sorry, I've used one (once, briefly) but I don't have any docs apart from what's in the Field Guide that Tim keeps on sunsite. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
0
0 0

Info on Teletek SBC-1

by rcini＠email.msn.com

On Sun, 26 Apr 1998 11:18:49 -0400, allisonp(a)world.std.com (Allison J Parent) wrote: >There are a couple of blank sockets, and a TMM2016P-2 memory chip (a 2716??)... >>First off 2016 is a byte wide ram. I had never seen that Toshiba chip before. The 2716 was just a guess based on the part number. I'd guess that it's 200ns RAM. Is it a 2kw chip? >>I sounds like someone stripped the card. Actually, of 63 chips, only the 16 RAM chips, a 24-pin socket next to the uP, and two 16-pin chips near the PIO and CTC chips are empty. >>The SBC-1 was a complete Z80cpu(4 or 6mhz)/64kram/eprom/IO card it was designed to >>be used as a slave to the Systemaster cpu card. The 2016 was used to create a FIFO so >>that block IO could be used to communicate with it. The only thing it lacked to be a complete >>S100 cp/m system on a board was disk IO. The system master card had all that >>and FDC as well. Do you have any schematics or other info on this board? Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years

1
0
0 0

Junk sale (new offer)

by lgroebe＠insidermarketing.com

>> I don't remember ever seeing a desktop PC coming from them. Anybody know >> how rare this box is? Sounds like a keeper. > >That is exactly why I really do not want to junk the thing. Now any of you >could have the thing for a song, but it just is quite large to ship (the >shipping bill would probably be five times what the thing is worth!). >Unless someone _really_ ($$$) wants it, I really do not want to ship it. > >Just about eveything else is unclaimed. Am I the only person on the list >with an IBM 5103 printer (yes, it is the mate for the 5100)? > >William Donzelli >Carmel, NY >william(a)ans.net > I think yes, you are the only person with a 5103 printer. I have a 5100 but no printer. Didn't know until your message that they even made one! So I guess I don't need the ribbons...yet... However-- I am interested in this -- (1) Computer Wharehouse Store catalog, Spring-Summer 1977. SWTPC! Imsai! Kim-1! $1200 floppy drives! A slice from the "good old days" of the micro. The pages are a bit yellow, but in good shape. The cover is also nice, but the previous owner scribbled his name on the top. -- if it's still available. --Larry

28 years

3
2
0 0

Test Equip FS update

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

Well thanks for letting me put the things I had up here on the list. I've sold or traded both the Kontron logic analyzer pair and the Tek 7612D digitizer. I still have a single channel 10mhz RCA solid state scope in great (looks new, works new) shape with manual. It's a model WO-535A and is >from approx 1975 time period. I need $100 for this to fund a few odd projects such as buying a Snappy 3 video capture. Please contact me by direct email. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years

1
0
0 0

REND386 Virtual Worlds Book FS

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

I have a book that hasn't even been used here that may be of interest to those of you into vitual programming on a PC. The title is "Playing God - Creating Virtual Worlds With REND386" by the Bernie Rohl and published by the Waite Group. Includes a still-sealed 3.5" disk fullof source code for C++ and other neat looking things. Made to run on a 386SX to a Pentium machine with VGA, 4mb RAM and a hard disk. It says it's an intermediate level book. The cover price on this glossy softcover with disk is $29.95. Anyone interested in it? You can have it for $15 which includes mailing within the continental 48 states. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years

1
0
0 0

First Comercial Software for TRS-80 in A Decade

by spc＠armigeron.com

Now this is interesting---Perseus Development Corporation developed a new version of their SurveySolutions for the TRS-80 Model I. 4K required, but as always, more is better. The date of the release is suspicious (April 1, 1998) but still, it is interesting and the source code is available. The web page is at http://www.perseus.com/trs-80/ -spc (Neat, even if it is somewhat of a joke ... )

28 years

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q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory

by emu＠ecubics.com

Hi Pete, ---------- > From: Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory > Date: Monday, April 27, 1998 12:20 PM > > Typed it in, copied (more or less) from the microPDP11 Maintenance Manual. > The blame for the crude ASCII art is all mine, though. BLAME !?!?! Its great. You don't have a kind of this art about a pdp11/53 (KDJ11-D/S, M7554, 50-1670-02) ? thanks, emanuel

28 years

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Help in San Diego

by william＠ans.net

Well, it looks like were have been outbid. Oh well, at least the machine is going somewhere good (and I think I know where). William Donzelli william(a)ans.net

28 years

1
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q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 27, 9:25, emanuel stiebler wrote: > P.S. Where you got it ? Or you typed it in ? Typed it in, copied (more or less) from the microPDP11 Maintenance Manual. The blame for the crude ASCII art is all mine, though. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

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q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

Hi, Emanuael. > no. i have a Revison D. Part Number 5-17547-01-D1-P2. 2 MByte DRAM. Lookes > like a Revsion C, i'm only missing (not really) the battery backup options > W1, W3. That's useful to know -- thanks! -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

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Freebie update

by kyrrin＠jps.net

OK... here's the current scoop. Sam Ismail has claimed the DEC networking book and the Microsystems handbook. I still have available the DHV11 technical manual, the Everex manual, and the DEC programming card. The remainder of the hardware is on hold pending a possible taker. Thanks to all those who responded. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years

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Help in San Diego

by william＠ans.net

It seems to be all in the very preliminary stages, but time is running out... Does anyone on the list have space for a large (two-rack) Multiflow Trace machine? One has popped up, and it seems that RCS/RI has a big interest in it, but we might run out of time before we can set up a mover. A cormer of a garage might be nice for just a short time, just in case the machine's current owner needs the thing out of the San Diego place on short notice. If RCS/RI just can not pull this off, does anyone want the thing? William Donzelli william(a)ans.net

28 years

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q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory

by emu＠ecubics.com

Hi Pete, second one, ---------- > From: Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory > Date: Monday, April 27, 1998 7:41 AM > > There are 2 layouts, Revision A and Revision C. no. i have a Revison D. Part Number 5-17547-01-D1-P2. 2 MByte DRAM. Lookes like a Revsion C, i'm only missing (not really) the battery backup options W1, W3. cheers, emanuel. P.S. Great painting !!!

28 years

1
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Info/docs on tube tester?

by jimw＠agora.rdrop.com

Ok, since I intend to use this thing to work on computer related gear older than 10 years old (my 083 card sorter for example), I'm proclaiming this inquiry off-limits for random flamage! B^} Does anyone out there have info (like the tube/switch charts) for an EICO Model 635 portable tube tester? I've picked up one that is in very good shape, but is otherwise useless without the charts for switch settings. -jim --- jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174

28 years

8
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Friday, friday friday friday, friday...

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

I'll be having fun friday... I get to go argue with a professional junk guy over a KS-10. The company that owns it wanted it melted down, to protect some confidential data they had on it. SO, I'm gonna say "None of your data is on the CPU, just the disk packs, so he can have the packs. There." The drives are 2 RP06es. (Yes, I know I need 3-phase. Mark says he knows where to get an RM80 or two. Is there any way around having to have 3-phase for the RPs? I was told they fail every other 10 minutes, is it even worth it?) It did run TOPS-20, but I'm chasing after ITS tapes for it. Even if I don't end up getting it, I may get the CPU cards and backpanels, and then I know someone who has the rest of a KS. Failing that, if the junk guy gets everything, I know someone else who has a whole KS, but no operating system. So, one way or another, we're gonna get a running ITS installation out of this... Am I supposed to be this nervous? I've never had to actually argue with a junk guy over a machine, in front of a buncha suits... (Division heads or something. The actual company is QUITE large... *hint* *hint*...) -------

28 years

2
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q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory

by emu＠ecubics.com

Hi Pete ... ---------- > From: Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory > Date: Monday, April 27, 1998 7:41 AM > > On Apr 26, 11:36, emanuel stiebler wrote: > > > does anybody have a description of the jumpers & dil-switches ? > > Sure. The DIL switches are small rectangular objects about 0.4" x 0.7" > and the jumpers... (Sorry, I can rarely resist that :-)) THIS WAS A GOOD ONE. ROFL... thanks, emanuel P.S. Where you got it ? Or you typed it in ?

28 years

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MINDSET

by lgroebe＠insidermarketing.com

>Does anybody have a MINDSET computer? I vaguely recall these as the first >multimedia PC from the early 80's. I just found a stereo module for one, >and now I'm in search of the rest of one :-) > You can't have mine. MINDSET was about as you recall. It built in 1984 as a super-multimedia 80186-based PC-compatible (well, mostly-compatible, anyway.) For 1984, the graphics were superb and it had (IIRC) a video-in connection so you can use the computer as a character generator/paintbox. I think it was packed with a low-end cousin to the Time Arts Lumena paint program and was THE machine for graphic artists. Remember, this was a year and a half before the Amiga - which, whene IT came out, pretty much took over Mindset's market. The Mindset has a unique and quite beautiful white bi-level case design. So pretty in fact that the Museum of Modern Art put one in their design collection - the first computer placed in their collections. Much of the hardware was proprietary - weird memory modules and it also accepted plug in progrram cartridges. Mindset didn't last too long as a company. They DID build a second model, an AT-based machine in charcoal gray. I've seen it once and never read anything about it I found my original Mindset last year, complete with a couple of expansion RAM modules, the boot disks and the paint cartridge. Like I said, it's gorgeous and you can't have it. Nyah. But - I might make you a deal on the stereo module! --Larry

28 years

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q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 26, 11:36, emanuel stiebler wrote: > does anybody have a description of the jumpers & dil-switches ? Sure. The DIL switches are small rectangular objects about 0.4" x 0.7" and the jumpers... (Sorry, I can rarely resist that :-)) I think this is what you want: There are 2 layouts, Revision A and Revision C. ___ ___ | \__________________||______________________||___________________/ | | 5017547A1 o | | R o-o W5| | | P o-o o-o | | N o-o W6 | | M o-o | | oA | | o | | __oB | | | |1 | | SW1 | | o W1 | | | | o | | M7551-AA |___|6 o W2 | | MSV11-QA oK | | REV.A o | | oL | | ___ | | | |1 | | SW2 | | | | | | | | |___|6 | | | | o | | C | D | | o-o | | +5V o-o-o | | o-o J H | |_ _|| _|| _|| | _| | | | | | | | o +5VB | |______________| |______________| |______________| |______________| ___ ___ | \__________________||______________________||___________________/ | | 5017547-01-C1 | | J11,9,7,5 | | J10,8,6,4 | | | | J3 J2 J1 | | ___ | | | |1 | | M7551-xA SW2 | | | | MSV11-Qx | | | | REV.C |___|6 | | | | where x = A = 1MB ___ | | x = B = 2MB | |1 | | x = C = 4MB SW1 | | | | | | | | |___|6 | | | | | | o o | | +-o o-+ | | W3 | o o | W1 | | +-o o-+ | | J17,16,15 J14,13,12 | | | |_ _|| _|| _|| _| | | | | | | | | |______________| |______________| |______________| |______________| Address switches: Start Address End Address Board No SW1 SW2 SW2 Version in system 4 5 6 4 5 MSV11-QA 1 0 0 0 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 3 0 1 1 1 0 4 1 0 1 0 0 MSV11-QB 1 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 MSV11-QC 1 0 0 0 0 0 0=ON, 1=OFF SW2-1, -2, -3 and SW1-1, -2, -3 are all ON. SW1-6 is not used. CSR Address: Rev.A jumpers R,P,N,M all IN Rev.C jumper J4-J5, J6-J7, J8-J9, J10-J11 AND then: Board No in system CSR addr 1 17772100 2 17772102 3 17772104 4 17772106 The other Rev.A jumpers are: W1 IN block mode enabled W6 IN Manufacturing test (do not remove) B IN CSR selection enabled C IN Manufacturing test (do not remove) H IN enable parity error detection L IN 22-bit addressing selected +5V/+5VB do not use, this module does NOT support battery-backup option The other Rev.C jumpers are: J1-J2 IN Manufacturing test (do not remove) J13-J14 IN on -QA Select 64K RAMs OUT on -QB,-QC J15-J16 IN on -QA Select 64K RAMs OUT on -QB,-QC J12-J13 IN on -QB,-QC Select 256K RAMs OUT on -QA J16-J17 IN on -QB,-QC Select 256K RAMs OUT on -QA W1,W3 IN Battery backup option setting -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
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Questions/Wanted

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Questions: Does anyone haveSolddering For an idiot projects... something to do with electronics and soldering Or for that matter PCB Projects, for an idiot (as above) such as me. Wanted: PC-DOS 1.x or MS DOS 1.x/2.x for and XT, with a failing HDD. Anyone? Thanks, Tim D. Hotze

28 years

1
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PCX3 System 1800 up for grabs

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

Anyone interested in this? I know the guy and he's a very decent person so you don't have to worry about "getting the wrong thing" I think it's free anyway. Contact Jeff by driect email at either jarrod95(a)juno.com or jarrod95(a)jadeinc.com -------------------------------------------- Jeff Young <jarrod95(a)juno.com> Columbus, Ohio USA - Sunday, April 26, 1998 at 19:21:49 Any one interested in an Old IBM PCX3 with monitor, and another computer and all we can find on it is System 1800, also have a Mono monitor, ADC. Contact me or they are going to the recyle bin. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years

1
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CDC thingy (was Re: About the Wang '669 patent)

by peacock＠simconv.com

>How about the CAI system that CDC had (I can't remember the name off hand >at the moment - I think my brain is broken - I couldn't even remember the >brand name of some wine I wanted to buy yesterday... Will chewing on a >floppy disk or two improve things :-). From my limited exposure it's likely >that the CDC thingy :-) had a browser style interface. > I saw a CDC demo of that once circa 1974, as I recall it was called "Plato", used a nice orange plasma display, limited animation, astronomical price. CDC had grandiose plans it would be used in schools, like every high school in the country could afford a $2 million CDC 6600 to support it. Kinda sad actually, once Cray left CDC they didn't have a clue as to what to do afterwards, the big iron Cyber 6000s went nowhere, the company wound up running payroll services (the remnants of CDC are now known as Ceridian, a batch payroll services company). Jack Peacock

28 years

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Freebies up for grabs!

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Time to clean out at least part of my garage, especially in light of the new arrivals. All offerings are freebies, though it would be nice if I could get -something- in trade. ;-) Please bear in mind two things. 1). I cannot ship anything other than the books. The disk and tape drives are too darn big and heavy, and would require specialized packaging in any case. 2). Dave Jenner has first pick since he E-mailed me this morning before I posted the list. I'll post an update if he wants any of the stuff. With that in mind, I have the following to offer: 1). HP 7974 9-track vertical tape drive, with all mounting hardware. 1600 BPI, Pertec interface, supplied with the hardware to convert it (if desired) to a GPIB interface. Excellent condition, powers up and loads fine, have not actually tested it with a working system. 2). (Definitely a freebie!) 83-84 vintage System Industries SMD disk drive. Spins up, makes lots of noise, don't know if it works. Comes with mounting rails. 3). Cipher 880 tape drive, dual-density (1600/3200). Condition: Who knows? Freebie. 4). Books! I've got spare copies of: DEC's 'Microsystems Handbook' for 1985 DEC's 'Introduction to Minicomputer Networks' vintage 1974 Everex 'Step 386' owner's manual DEC PDP11 'Programming Card' quick-reference, vintage July 1975 DEC DHV11 Technical Manual. Any takers? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years

2
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Printer seen, DEC LP25

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Anyone (finger points at Allison) have any stories about them? It looked <fairly serious. Bill gave the particulars on it, band printer like the want stuff RCSRI has 300LPM and could slew paper fast enough to empty a box fast. The hood gas shocks would dry out and somtimes people would get a finger bit or their head konked good. Bill likely remembers Pat Pattenden or Paul Howard as those guys were the old timers with those. Allison

28 years

2
1
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Junk sale (new offer)

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote: > I don't remember ever seeing a desktop PC coming from them. Anybody know > how rare this box is? Sounds like a keeper. Yup, they made desktop PC-compatibles for a while. I remember a dealer in College Park, MD selling them (Software'n'Things if anyone else out there remembers them; to the best of my knowledge they aren't operating under that name anymore if at all). One of the big selling points was that they were upgradable by virtue of the passive backplane. Buy an XT-compatible now, later on you can upgrade to an AT-compatible just by swapping the CPU card for the '286 flavor. BTW Doug, is that your face I saw gazing up at me from this morning's San Jose Mercury News? If not, there's some guy calling himself Doug Salot who has some stuff in his collection that's an awful lot like things you've mentioned on this list. -Frank McConnell

28 years

2
1
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Printer seen, DEC LP25

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> wrote: > Yes they were dot matrix. I always equated line printers with dot matrix > printers. Is there a difference? When someone says Line Printer I think of something with the type on a chain (or a drum) and the ribbon in front of the paper, and then a bunch of hammers behind the paper. When the right character is in front of the right position, the printer fires the hammer for that position and pushes the paper up against the ribbon and chain/drum. But the real definition is in how much data you have to send to the printer to get it printing. If you have to give it a full line to get it going then it's a line printer. If you only have to give it a character to make it print then it isn't. -Frank McConnell

28 years

2
1
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Logic State Analyser

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

>Unless the Z80 option includes a pod that attaches to a Z80, then you Is this "pod" something that clamps over an installed CPU? There is a test socket for something like this. May attach to an edge connector at the back marked "Microprocessor Probe".

28 years

2
1
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Freebie Update

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Dave Jenner has bowed out on all items in the list I posted. Sam has claimed the DEC books. The programming card and Everex book are still available, as are all the hardware items. Caveat emptor! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years

1
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Freebie update

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Sam Ismail has claimed the books I'd offered. The other items are still available. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years

1
0
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q-bus M7551 q22 mos memory

by emu＠ecubics.com

Hi all, does anybody have a description of the jumpers & dil-switches ? thanks, emanuel

28 years

1
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Printer seen, DEC LP25

by william＠ans.net

Anyone (finger points at Allison) have any stories about them? It looked fairly serious. William Donzelli william(a)ans.net

28 years

5
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WANTED: MC68[34]0 programmers reference manual

by emu＠ecubics.com

Hi, ---------- > From: J. Maynard Gelinas <maynard(a)jmg.com> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: WANTED: MC68[34]0 programmers reference manual > Date: Sunday, April 26, 1998 10:02 AM > > Hey folks, > > While I've got a 68000/08/10/ book, I'm in need of some > documentation for the 68881 which comes built in to the 68030. this was new to me ;-)) serious: 68881 is a co-pro for 68020 68882 is a co-pro for 68030 most parts of a 68881 are built in 68040 68030 has the MMU built in (not all types !!) > I checked at Quantum books (next to MIT - _THE_ place to check > around here) among several other technical book stores. > Unfortunately, I can't seem to find it for sale > anywhere... seems like the 68k like has really died the hard > death. Soooo, if anyone has an extra copy they're interested > in selling please contact me. check the motorola semiconductor webpage. You should find all information you need there. cheers, emanuel

28 years

1
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week ended pretty good

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Had a pretty good week getting more items for the museum, from ebay I go Newton messagepad model H1000 with all the manuals, stickers, video, and other items that came with it when new; a Magic Mike II Robot from 1984 model-8; from ebay a Mac Portable with carrying case not working at this time, put in new batteries and still nothing;two items I got at police auction Saturday Mac PowerBook Duo230 and Duo Dock, and A US Robotics pilot 5000 missing a few item but powers on these are not 10 years old yet but I got them anyway as they will be someday;HP 4940A Transmission Impairment unit, SUN 3/50 loaded; HP98785A monitor not tested ($5); early Mac mouse M0100; Mac Plus manuals;HP 150 model 45611A; Apple RGB model A9M0308 used with IIe or IIgs a odd shaped model; Time-Life The Personal Computer book with lots of nice pictures of classic units; also their Computer Basics book; HP 100/Personal Card file manual; HP 150 Terminal Users guide; HP Personal Computer Owners guide; IBM PC an Introduction by Larry Joel Goldstein and Martin Goldstein 1984; Making the Most of Your ZX81 by Tim Hartnell 1981; The ZX81 Companion by Robert Maunder 1981; 49 Explossive Games fo the ZX81 by Tim Hartnell 1981; Microcomputer Experimentation with the Intel SDK-85 by Lance Leventhal and Colin Walsh 1980;Socrates KB not tested yet; AT&T 6300 mono monitor; a complete set of manuals for the 6300; Commodore Buyers guide; Atari Logo reference manual; MAI systen cartridges; Daynafile guide and diskettes; Timex Sinclair 1016 memory module; Sinclair ZX81 basic programming manual; Commodore 1541C users guide; Sorates voice cartridge users manual 1988; Upgrading and repairing PC's by QUE 1988; HP87; and many other items that do not meet the 10 year rule but the prices were right get them now and hold until they do. Well that's my short list so Keep Computing John

28 years

1
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microprocessors - was Re[2]: Replies to various threads

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> I missed a few... D11, T11, 68030, HP Saturn, 7811 (if we're counting <> embedded chips that we've never programmed :-)), 8x305, Z8, probably <I didn't quite mean that :-) I was just interested to note that some <micros that were once well-known aren't well-represented in your list, o <Allison's, or mine. Only one occurrence of the 9900, no F8, only one <Cosmac, ... Perhaps three people is just too small a sample to show al <of the ones that faded from popularity (and maybe nobody else here is <interested :-)) Not a lot of DSPs either, though of course they're more <"modern". Well the F8 while known was not hobbiest fodder being aimed at embedded systems. Same can eb said for z8. The 9900 as I refer to it was not the TI99/4a(have those too) but a Technico SBC, due to a lack of TI support it was not that popular. However the TI99/4a is still quite popular. Others I've worked with 78pg11(uCOM78) were aimed at embedded applications. I might add that my time as a product engineer at NEC in the early '80s had me designing in that part as well as supporting it along with ucom4 and ucom75 4bit micros. The RCA1802 was sort of a square egg. It had popularity for a short while. People lost interest after that, partly as RCA discontinued it by the mid 80s. Also because it was slow and had a relatively poor(primitive) instruction set and a total lack of high level languages other than tinybasic. The advent of more complete systems like apple and trs80 and decreasing prices helped focus the market on two key players 6502 and z80 and it would remain that way until the 68000 and 8088(x86) would displace them. Allison

28 years

2
1
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WANTED: MC68[34]0 programmers reference manual

by maynard＠jmg.com

Hey folks, While I've got a 68000/08/10/ book, I'm in need of some documentation for the 68881 which comes built in to the 68030. I checked at Quantum books (next to MIT - _THE_ place to check around here) among several other technical book stores. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find it for sale anywhere... seems like the 68k like has really died the hard death. Soooo, if anyone has an extra copy they're interested in selling please contact me. Thanks! --jmg

28 years

1
0
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paper tape

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

John Foust said: >I just got 21 rolls of original yellow Teletype 1" tape from >someone on the RTTY mailing list for the cost of shipping, and I >promised to share the wealth, so ... Well, do you know if it's oiled or unoiled? I'm not sure but I think I may need the oiled. I need to ask someone. My wife says that this tape I have has the distinct smell of machine oil. It should make the punch block last longer. I was just going to order a 1/4 case from Western Numerical Control (http://www.westnc.com/paptape.html). That's 7 rolls for $33.00, in all kinds of colors. And they are close by in Grass Valley,CA. I also want to ask them about the toxicity of paper tape. (My two sheppards think everything is a toy for them to fight over.) ========================================= Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com Senior Software Engineer Press Start Inc. Sunnyvale,CA Curator Museum of Personal Computing Machinery http://www.best.com/~dcoward/museum =========================================

28 years

7
9
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Info on Teletek SBC-1

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Does anyone have info on a Teletek SBC-1 Z80-based single-board <computer? Copyright is 1981. It's loaded except for RAM (from what I can <see). It has a Z80 CPU, PIO, SIO, and CTC. There are a couple of blank <sockets, and a TMM2016P-2 memory chip (a 2716??). It appears to be built <a S-100 card. First off 2016 is a byte wide ram. I sounds like someone stripped the card. The SBC-1 was a complete Z80cpu(4 or 6mhz)/64kram/eprom/IO card it was designed to be used as a slave to the Systemaster cpu card. The 2016 was used to create a FIFO so that block IO coul be used to communicate with it. the only thing it lacked to be a complete S100 cp/m system on a board was disk IO. The system master card had all that and FDC as well. Allison

28 years

1
0
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Printer seen, DEC LP25

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Were they DOT MATRIX? I'll bet they're not big old noisy line printers u <they're sound covered and about 4 feet tall. LA120 was dot matrix and it's fame was the longest running DEC produced printer. Reason for that, it could do 8part carbons! IT was considered teh best vax hard copy console. Allison

28 years

1
0
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microprocessors - was Re[2]: Replies to various threads

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 25, 18:02, Tony Duell wrote: > I missed a few... D11, T11, 68030, HP Saturn, 7811 (if we're counting > embedded chips that we've never programmed :-)), 8x305, Z8, probably other > 650x and 680x chips embedded in things. Can I count the CPU array chips > in a DAP, please <grin>. > > > However, what's surprising about these lists is not what's there, but > > what's missing. > > What do you think I should have included? I may just have forgotten I > used it... I didn't quite mean that :-) I was just interested to note that some micros that were once well-known aren't well-represented in your list, or Allison's, or mine. Only one occurrence of the 9900, no F8, only one Cosmac, ... Perhaps three people is just too small a sample to show all of the ones that faded from popularity (and maybe nobody else here is interested :-)) Not a lot of DSPs either, though of course they're more "modern". -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
0
0 0

Logic State Analyser

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

I have been rearranging my storage area and uncovered a HP 1611A Logic State Analyser fitted with a Z80 option that I picked up a few years ago. I have no idea what one would do with this. Should I cherish it? Play with it? Does one need the specific manual or are these generic and perhaps explained in standard texts? There are a number of plugin points for various types of probes, none of which I have off course. It powers up fine though.

28 years

2
1
0 0

What a haul!

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Indeed, what a haul (at least if you're into DEC stuff). Thanks to the kindly folk at St. Martin's College about 40 miles south of me, I am now the proud owner of: * A PDP-11/44 and its rack... * A Fujitsu 'Eagle' drive (and it's weight!) * A Cipher 880 front-loader tape drive... * Numerous distribution tapes for several versions of RSTS/E, including one for ver. 9.7(!)... * Various bits of documentation. Unfortunately, not a lot on RSTS itself (much of it got trashed along with the -- get this -- distribution kit for RSTS 10! Dang, I was pissed when I heard about that...) And, thanks to my friends at RE-PC, I have also acquired a pair of M4 Data model 9914 9-track SCSI tape drives. These are neat boxes! Quad density (800/1600/3200/6250), autoloading, neat front panel with alphanumeric display, etc. It's been a busy weekend. Now, if you'll pardon me, I need to go collapse and snore my brains out. ;-) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years

1
0
0 0

Junk sale

by william＠ans.net

...mostly because I do not want to throw the stuff out/scrap it... (1) Miniscribe 8425SA drive, removed from a Mac Plus. I assume it works still, but do not quote me on that. It seemed to power up fine just a few minutes ago. The Mac was in very poor condition, so that got scrapped. (1) Kaypro 81-045-02 PeeCee. This appears to be their version of the XT (oh, joy), but unlike most clones, is a little better built. It uses no motherboard, just a passive backplane with a CPU card. This one has a 20 meg Seagate drive and a Samsung (yuck!) CGA tube. It works, and has only DOS 5.0 on it. The nice thing about this is that most of the chips are socketed! (5) Ink ribbons for the IBM 5103 printer. Still sealed, these come with a goofy plastic glove for the CE. OK, so there are probably not even five 5103s left in the world... (1) Computer Wharehouse Store catalog, Spring-Summer 1977. SWTPC! Imsai! Kim-1! $1200 floppy drives! A slice from the "good old days" of the micro. The pages are a bit yellow, but in good shape. The cover is also nice, but the previous owner scribbled his name on the top. Really, if _anyone_ wants any of this stuff, speak up and make a SILLY offer. I will ship anything but the Kaypro (I could deliver it to RCS/RI in Providence, RI, however). Trades are good for the stuff as well. Not first come first serve - I will decide "winners" in a day or two, just to give those with restricted or slow email a chance. William Donzelli Carmel, NY 10512 william(a)ans.net

28 years

1
0
0 0

Year 2000 Bounty

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Christian Fandt <cfandt(a)servtech.com> writes: > Kip, is that magazine online anywhere? I haven't heard of it myself. http://www.chac.org/chengine.html ftp://ftp.batnet.com/people/chac/ftp/pub/engine12.txt -Frank McConnell

28 years

1
0
0 0

Info on Teletek SBC-1

by rcini＠email.msn.com

Hello, all: Does anyone have info on a Teletek SBC-1 Z80-based single-board computer? Copyright is 1981. It's loaded except for RAM (from what I can see). It has a Z80 CPU, PIO, SIO, and CTC. There are a couple of blank sockets, and a TMM2016P-2 memory chip (a 2716??). It appears to be built on a S-100 card. Thanks! Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years

1
0
0 0

No subject

by joakimkjellander＠hotmail.com

Dear sir`s. I want to move a harddisk from a PCXT to a PCAT and add it to the existing harddisk in my PCAT. Do you know how that can be done? With kind regards. Joaki Kjellander. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

1
0
0 0

First speaker announced for VCF2

by dastar＠wco.com

The first speaker has been confirmed for VCF2 this September. David Rutland was an engineer on a lesser known but very significant computer dedicated in 1950 called the SWAC (National Bureau of Standards Western Automatic Computer). You can check out his bio on the Vintage Computer Festival web page: http://www.siconic.com/vcf Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/25/98]

28 years

1
0
0 0

Replies to various threads

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 25, 1:39, Tony Duell wrote: > Allison wrote: > > I have: 1802, SC/MP, 6800, 6809, NEC D78PG11, 8748/9, 8751, 8080/8085, > > z80, z180, z280, z8002, z8001, 808x, 8018x, 80286, 80386, 80486 and the > > micro version of minis 6100(pdp-8), 6120(PDP-8+EMA) TI9900, PDP11(T-11, > > F11, J-11). > Let's see how I do : > > Ones I have : (possibly embedded, but I've designed machines round a > number of these...) > > SC/MP, 8008, 8080, 1802, 8085, Z80, 64180, 8086, 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486, > 68000, 68010, 68020, 68040, T212 (or maybe T225), T425, T801, T805, > PIC16C84, PIC17C42, F11, J11, 6502, 6809, 6800, 6803, 4040, 8048 (and > 8035), 8051 (and 8031, 8032), ARM2, ARM3, R2000, 6120, Z8001, 32016, 2901 > etc (does that count), 3001 etc (ditto), and doubtless more that I've > forgotten... I can't beat that... 8008, 8085, 8088, 8086, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486, V20, Z80, Z8, Z8001 (but in foam, not a system), 6502, 65C12, 6800, 6809 (in foam), 68HC11, 8032, 8035, 8048, 68000, 68010, 68020, assorted PICs, ARM2, ARM3, R4600, Sparc, 2901, D11, F11, T11, J11, 6100, and probably a few embedded "things" and others I've forgotten, but I wouldn't claim to have programmed all of them. However, what's surprising about these lists is not what's there, but what's missing. What's a 3001, BTW? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

2
1
0 0

About the Wang '669 patent

by dwollmann＠ibmhelp.com

At 09:50 PM 4/24/98 -0500, you wrote: >On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Zane H. Healy wrote: > [snippies] > >What makes you think the Evil Empire is behind this? Did Microsoft buy >Wang recently? If not, they'll get hit with the same suit. > [s] >-- Doug Have a look at http://www.mozilla.org/.

28 years

1
0
0 0

Replies to various threads

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> Allison wrote: <> > I have: 1802, SC/MP, 6800, 6809, NEC D78PG11, 8748/9, 8751, 8080/8085 <> > z80, z180, z280, z8002, z8001, 808x, 8018x, 80286, 80386, 80486 and t <> > micro version of minis 6100(pdp-8), 6120(PDP-8+EMA) TI9900, PDP11(T-1 <> > F11, J-11). By and large including the 8008 and VAX I've programmed and designed with all. The key thing is I have working examples of all but the 8008. Drat, I forgot the NEC unique 4 bitters the uCOM4 and ucom75 series designed them into and programmed them as well. <What's a 3001, BTW? 3001 is an intel bit slice (2 bits per). Allison

28 years

1
0
0 0

4004 (was Re[2]: Replies to various threads)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I have an Intel Component Data Catalogue from about 1978 that still lists <as being available then. A 4 bit microprocessor wouldn't have been very <useful in a computer so might we find them as controllers in washing <machines, microwaves and the like? They were used for calculator like and control systems. The word width does not determine it's usefulness as a computer though it greately affects speed. Allison

28 years

1
0
0 0

C64 3 1/2" drive

by cgregory＠lrbcg.com

The highly sought after Commodore 1581 (3 1/2") drive is worth anywhere from $50. - $80. depending upon condition (power supply included). Post a message as to it's availability in comp.sys.cbm, and you'll have all kinds of offers. Cliff Gregory cgregory(a)lrbcg.com -----Original Message----- From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> To: Cgregory <Cgregory> Date: Friday, April 24, 1998 10:15 PM Subject: C64 3 1/2" drive > >Just turned up a Commodore 3 1/2" drive -- didn't know they existed! Anyone >interested? > >Also, some strange thing with 4 hand held units with 4 buttons each, which >plugs into the joystick port. No software. > >manney(a)lrbcg.com > >

28 years

1
0
0 0

4004 (was Re[2]: Replies to various threads)

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

> >Showoff :-) No 8008? I always wanted a 4004 (anyone listening out there, I have an Intel Component Data Catalogue from about 1978 that still lists it as being available then. A 4 bit microprocessor wouldn't have been very useful in a computer so might we find them as controllers in washing machines, microwaves and the like?

28 years

1
0
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About the Wang '669 patent

by H.Davies＠latrobe.edu.au

At 09:50 PM 24-04-98 -0500, Doug Yowza wrote: >It sounds like the Wang patent basically covers rendering formatted >information on a terminal that was acquired via a remote connection. So, >what was the closest thing to a Web browser before 1993? GRiD fan that I >am, I vote for the 1982 GRiD/OS and remote GRiDCentral. GRiD/OS had a >form and menu based OS interface and actions were based on the file type >and extension. GRiDCentral (and the LAN-based GRiDServer) basically >distributed this menu-based filesystem over a remote connection. How about the CAI system that CDC had (I can't remember the name off hand at the moment - I think my brain is broken - I couldn't even remember the brand name of some wine I wanted to buy yesterday... Will chewing on a floppy disk or two improve things :-). From my limited exposure it's likely that the CDC thingy :-) had a browser style interface. Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479 1999 La Trobe University | "My Alfa keeps me poor in a monetary Melbourne Australia 3083 | sense, but rich in so many other ways"

28 years

1
0
0 0

About the Wang '669 patent

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 24, 21:50, Doug Yowza wrote: > Subject: About the Wang '669 patent > On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Zane H. Healy wrote: > > > If you haven't seen the news yet, I found out thanks to http://slashdot.org > > , Microsoft is pulling one of their dirtiest stunts ever in their attempt > > to destroy Netscape. If anyone doesn't think Microsoft is evil this should > > convince them, unless they are niave enough to think Microsoft isn't behind > > this! > > What makes you think the Evil Empire is behind this? Did Microsoft buy > Wang recently? If not, they'll get hit with the same suit. They "formed a partnership" which, amongst other things, involved the exchange of some $90,000,000. > It sounds like the Wang patent basically covers rendering formatted > information on a terminal that was acquired via a remote connection. So, > what was the closest thing to a Web browser before 1993? GRiD fan that I > am, I vote for the 1982 GRiD/OS and remote GRiDCentral. GRiD/OS had a > form and menu based OS interface and actions were based on the file type > and extension. GRiDCentral (and the LAN-based GRiDServer) basically > distributed this menu-based filesystem over a remote connection. The Wang patent relates to videotex terminals, exactly the stuff that British Telecom developed in the 1970s and pushed hard (as PRESTEL) in the early 80s. Prestel was organised a little like an ISP, with various "IP"s (information providers) renting space in which they creating "frames" of text and (chunky) graphics which were accessible by modem. IPs could sublet space, too, so individuals could rent just a single frame if they wanted. In 1982 PRESTEL launched a service called Micronet800, which used thousands of pages on PRESTEL servers to store microcomputer related news, software, etc, and started selling software to enable home micros to dial up and display/load/save these pages. Actually, stuff for micros had been around on PRESTEL before that, but spring 1982 was when it took off. I got my software and modem that summer. Most of the modems were simple devices built in to an acoustic coupler, fondly known as agnostic complicators. PRESTEL itself didn't make use of file extensions, but obviously some of the micro systesm that accessed it did. CP/M has always based certain actions on file types and extensions, for example. It did use menus of links, and the links between frames, could be quite arbitrary (and tangled!) just like the web. There was even a command to go back one or more frames, and there were "response" frames and a mail system and ... -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
0
0 0

Year 2000 Bounty

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

As far as commonality of old machines goes, most airports have old machines. Public libraries do as well. The boston public library just replaced some Vaxen with Alpha machines. I couldn't get them to tell me what they did with the old stuff. In general, I would say that the amount of old machines is greater than a given reasonable estimate (ie there's always one more). Also, I'm wondering how many simple cash registers will have to be taken out of service. > >Hmmm... And Sam, you have an interesting thought. But I wonder actually how >many old systems you refer to are actually are still in use? > >Anybody who's got a better handle on the present population of minis and >mainframes still in service want to give an opinion on this? > >One drawback for me (maybe others here too): my wife will kill me if I drag >home a second or third big-iron machine ;-) We just moved into a new house >and I can say for sure that we are only _half-moved_ at the moment. The >other stuff yet to move is my collections, library, workshop, tools, >equipment, parts, stuff, etc, etc, etc.. I am tired and sore already. >Thank heaven the old and new house are only about a mile apart! > >At 14:05 23-04-98 -0700, Kip wrote: >>At 09:27 4/23/98 -0700, Sam wrote: >>>I'm sure this is not even an original thought, but the Year 2000 presents >>>a special opportunity for collectors like us. >> >>See ANALYTICAL ENGINE Volume 1, Number 2, October 1993 ;-) If we think >>we've got a space crisis NOW.... >>__________________________________________ >>Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org >> http://www.chac.org/index.html >>Computer History Association of California >> >Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian >Jamestown, NY USA >Member of Antique Wireless Association > URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/ > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

4
3
0 0

Replies to various threads

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< :> I have: 1802, SC/MP, 6800, 6809, NEC D78PG11, 8748/9, 8751, < :>8080/8085, z80, z180, z280, z8002, z8001, 808x, 8018x, 80286, < :>80386, 80486 and the micro version of minis 6100(pdp-8), < :>6120(PDP-8+EMA) TI9900, PDP11(T-11, F11, J-11). < < :Showoff :-) No 8008? I always wanted a 4004 (anyone listening out < :there, that's a hint) and an SC/MP. Anybody remember Fairchild F8's The 8008 doesn't count as it's not operational. I only have the cpu card out of my first design. ;-) Same for the 2901/2911 based hardware and the 29116 board. I also have an ADVICE, thats a VAX (78032 chip) on a board for in circuit emulation. I keep forgetting it. Strange board! F8/3870 yes, never desgned with it but I had to know it to compete. Allison

28 years

1
0
0 0

Fwd: Re: Commodore 900

by healyzh＠ix.netcom.com

Pardon my forwarding this from the "Team Amiga" mailing list, but I figure some people here might find this very interesting. Zane >Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 00:54:25 -0400 (EDT) >To: <teamamiga(a)thule.no> >From: Dave Haynie <dhaynie(a)jersey.net> >Subject: Re: Commodore 900 >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Sender: owner-teamamiga(a)thule.no >Precedence: bulk >Reply-To: teamamiga(a)thule.no > >On Thu, 23 Apr 1998 23:55:49 +0500, amorel <amorel(a)xs4all.nl> jammed all >night, and by sunrise was overheard remarking: > >>> When Commodore Holland went bust, there stuff got sold to different >> traders. At a fair in Nov. 1995, in Holland(HCC beurs) I bought an >> interesting machine, called the Commodore 900. > >Cool! I would love to have one of those. > >The C900 was the Commodore "next generation" machine, before we bought >Amiga. It had unfortunately been through a few different design teams >before it really worked. I never worked on it -- I was on the C128 at >the time. George Robbins and Bob Welland really got it going; the same >guys who created the A500 architecture. The C900 was about ready to ship >when we bought the Amiga. Commodore was hurtin' then -- we had been >through four rounds of layoffs, the only time it got worse was in later >'93/early '94 when they bought the farm. C= put everything behind the >Amiga -- emotionally, in retrospect, the right thing to do. But I can't >help but wonder if the C900 might not have gone gangbusters, especially >in Europe. At the time, the only megapixel UNIX workstations came from >Sun and Apollo... > >> The machine is a Unix workstation. > >It actually ran Coherent, a UNIX clone from Mark-Williams. > >> Inside there is a shitload of electronics. At least there's no room for >> a lot more, like extension cards. > >Actually, it did take expansion cards, but kind of a novel design -- >they stacked, one on top of the other. If you've ever seen PC/104 cards, >you'll get the idea. The 8563 chip, the 80 column chip in the C128, was >originally designed as a "dumb terminal" display chip for the C900. >Apparently, the idea was to have this chip, and a 6502 or some-such, and >an RS-232 chip (like the 6551), togther in a character-based monitor, >for cheap multiuser systems built up around the C900. There was also a >blitter based graphics card (the built-in monochrome display has no >blitter), with a Welland-done blitter (a bit more sophisticated in some >places than the Amiga, for example, like AAA, it would work in real >pixel coordinates, rather than offset/modulo). > >> The motherboard has Zilog 16 bit CPU (16 bit version of the Z80?) > >The Z8000. It wasn't a 16-bit version of the Z-80, but something new. It >wasn't quite as cool as the 68000, since the model was definitely >16-bit. But much better than the 8086/8088 of the time. > >> and one which might be scsi and more. > >The DMA chip on the A2090/A2090A controllers for the Amiga, was >originally designed for this system. > >> The great thing is, it even works! :-) > >Cool! > >> Anyway, has anyone any info about this? > >You know pretty much what I know. I don't know if there's anything else, >I can ask around, see if George has any details. Gimme a direct mail if >you'd like to continue offline. > >> Until now I have not had any sign of anyone on internet who knows >> about this. > >Rarer than the A3000+, I suspect. A definite collector's item. > >Dave Haynie | V.P. Technology, PIOS Computer | http://www.pios.de >Be Dev #2024 | DMX2000 Powered! | Amiga 2000, 3000, 4000, PIOS One > Buy my house! Take the tour at http://www.jersey.net/~dhaynie > | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ | | For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |

28 years

1
0
0 0

Year 2000 Bounty

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

What really came to my mind was an ancient McDonalds thing I saw once. They were 50's style rounded video monitors, awful text. They looked like something from "Brazil". I was wondering how those would tolerate it. Also, those UPS hand-held things > >> In general, I would say that the amount of old machines is greater >> than a given reasonable estimate (ie there's always one more). >> Also, I'm wondering how many simple cash registers will have to be >> taken out of service. > >The _simple_ cash registers will keep plugging along doing what they >do best. As far as I can tell, they're not particularly sensitive >to what century they're in. The complex fancy new-fangled registers >are a whole nother story -- anybody know what types of systems are >most used at the other end of the cables attached to the laser >bar-code readers? Not an industry I've dealt with much except as a >consumer. (I know damned well there are a few NCR registers still >in service from the 19th century -- they should make the transition >to the 21st without a hickup.) >-- >Ward Griffiths >They say that politics makes strange bedfellows. >Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else. > Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_ > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years

1
0
0 0

C64 3 1/2" drive

by manney＠lrbcg.com

Just turned up a Commodore 3 1/2" drive -- didn't know they existed! Anyone interested? Also, some strange thing with 4 hand held units with 4 buttons each, which plugs into the joystick port. No software. manney(a)lrbcg.com

28 years

1
0
0 0

[getting old punched cards read]

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 24, 19:55, Bob Withers wrote: The original poster stated that he was passing a NULL POINTER to strcpy. You replied that it should be OK to copy from a NUL STRING. I understand the difference and was trying to casually point out that you were not addressing the question asked. Sorry if I ruffled some feathers. You didn't. I just normally write in that tone of voice (if you see what I mean :-)) -- and I hadn't quite thought it through. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
0
0 0

Osborne 1 for $1000?

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

Somebody's been reading that LA Times article again... Kai -----Original Message----- From: Sam Ismail [mailto:dastar@wco.com] Sent: Thursday, April 23, 1998 12:54 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Osborne 1 for $1000? Anyone want to buy an Osborne 1 for $1000? Didn't think so. However, if you're interested in trying to talk this guy down to reality, I have the contact info. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/23/98]

28 years

4
5
0 0

[getting old punched cards read]

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 24, 20:32, Captain Napalm wrote: > It was thus said that the Great Pete Turnbull once stated: > > Yes, but that's not what I wrote. A null string is an empty string (no > > characters). A NUL string would be a string with a single ASCII NUL > > character in it > And what I was talking about was NULL pointers, which strcpy() doesn't > like. > > -spc (and it's a NULL POINTER that strtok() will return, not a NULL > string.) Oops. Too much gin in the tonic water tonight. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
0
0 0

[getting old punched cards read]

by bwit＠pobox.com

The original poster stated that he was passing a NULL POINTER to strcpy. You replied that it should be OK to copy from a NUL STRING. I understand the difference and was trying to casually point out that you were not addressing the question asked. Sorry if I ruffled some feathers. Bob ---------- From: Pete Turnbull[SMTP:pete@dunnington.u-net.com] Sent: Friday, April 24, 1998 7:39 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Re: [getting old punched cards read] On Apr 24, 17:10, Bob Withers wrote: > There's a big difference between a NUL string and a NULL pointer. Yes, but that's not what I wrote. A null string is an empty string (no characters). A NUL string would be a string with a single ASCII NUL character in it -- and rather hard to manipulate in C, since NULs mark the ends. Nevertheless, they do exist, though that wasn't what I was talking about. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

1
0
0 0

Osborne 1 for $1000?

by dastar＠wco.com

Anyone want to buy an Osborne 1 for $1000? Didn't think so. However, if you're interested in trying to talk this guy down to reality, I have the contact info. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/23/98]

28 years

6
8
0 0

Replies to various threads

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 23, 14:33, Allison J Parent wrote: > Subject: Re: Re[2]: Replies to various threads > > <> The PDP-11 architecture has only 7 GP registers (since you can't really > <> the PC for just anything) but that's good for the times, and they reall > <> are interchangable, so I'd be willing to argue that it wins on that. > < > <I'm glad somebody agrees with me on that! IMHO the concept of a GP > <register is a RISC sort of thing. And, Allison, if you think RISC > <should be register-rich, I claim the PDP11 was for its date, and > <certainly was compared to micros of the 1970s. > > Compared to maybe 6800 or 6502, the 8080 had 4 16bit registers (bc, de, > hl, sp). The z80 added a second set and IX/IY. But that was only one > aspect. But you can't easily use both sets of registers at the same time (yes, I know we sometimes do, but it's a fiddle) and the Z80 is very much a single-accumulator type of beast. And as for IX and IY ;-) The original design of the 6502, incidentally, was that all of zero-page be treated as registers. They just happen to be external to the chip, which wasn't completely unknown elsewhere in those days. So in that sense it is possibly the most register-rich design of the era -- but the registers are hardly general-purpose, and the 6502 is also a single-accumulator design. > On the instructions RISC systems of the time and even later didn't have > the addressing modes and often had a distinct register load and store > instruction. The best example of that difference was an ADD (R1),@(r2)+. > Now compare that to the DG Nova and it is of a stark difference. If you count all the ways you can index with registers, MIPS processors have quite a few addressing modes. Not all are used very often, though. > Of all the micros in my collection, none are RISC save for the PDP-8 and > 6502 which in my mind come close. The 6502 has a certain elegance of instruction set. Quite a different philosophy to the Z80, in many ways, but I like them both. We used to say that you had to learn how to use the 6502, and when you did, the code was neat, but on a Z80, you just had to decide what you wanted an instruction to do, and then pick the one that did that. Exaggeration, of course. > I have: 1802, SC/MP, 6800, 6809, NEC D78PG11, 8748/9, 8751, 8080/8085, > z80, z180, z280, z8002, z8001, 808x, 8018x, 80286, 80386, 80486 and the > micro version of minis 6100(pdp-8), 6120(PDP-8+EMA) TI9900, PDP11(T-11, > F11, J-11). Showoff :-) No 8008? I always wanted a 4004 (anyone listening out there, that's a hint) and an SC/MP. Anybody remember Fairchild F8's? > Now something with a MIPS chip, ARM, sparc or some such would be a great > addition of a real RISC processor. Well, I've got all of those, and my favourite is the ARM. I've had to write MIPS assembler, and it's not great fun. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

3
2
0 0

ansi c (almost on topic) was: [getting old punched cards read]

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 24, 12:38, Paul E Coad wrote: > On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Captain Napalm wrote: > > It was thus said that the Great Pete Turnbull once stated: > > > > > > On Apr 24, 1:35, Captain Napalm wrote: > > > > strcpy() (at least on my compiler) will crash if any of the > > > > parameters are NULL pointers, > > > > > > That's a compiler (or library, actually) bug. You should be able to > > > copy a null string. > > > > Well, I've tried it across four platforms and five compilers > > (Linux/GCC, Solaris/native and GCC, AIX/native and HPUX/native) and > > three of the five core dumped. > > > The ANSI standard is not completely silent on the matter, but does not > define the behavior. > > "Each of the following statements applies unless explicitly stated > otherwise in the detailed descriptions that follow. If an argument > to a function has an invalid value (such as a value outside of the > domain of the function, or a pointer outside the address space of > the program or a null pointer), the behavior is undefined." Well, whether I think that's sensible or not ('cos I think you ought to be able to copy a null string), if ANSI says it's undefined, then it's not a bug. I take it back. And thanks for checking, which I was too lazy to do :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

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[getting old punched cards read]

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 24, 17:10, Bob Withers wrote: > There's a big difference between a NUL string and a NULL pointer. Yes, but that's not what I wrote. A null string is an empty string (no characters). A NUL string would be a string with a single ASCII NUL character in it -- and rather hard to manipulate in C, since NULs mark the ends. Nevertheless, they do exist, though that wasn't what I was talking about. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

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Here's an interesting spam

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 24, 11:53, Don Maslin wrote: > On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Pete Turnbull wrote: > > On Apr 24, 15:38, Hotze wrote: > > > Reply to the spammers, > > > > Not often a good idea, since the consensus seems to be that responses > > merely confirm that the address they used is (still) valid. > > True! However, in some cases e-mail with a copy of the spam or UCE to > the postmaster of the ISP has been productive. In the case of known spam > centers though, it is likely a BIG mistake. Yes, I should perhaps have mentioned mailing to postmaster@... or abuse@... as several responsible ISPs do follow these things up. I've had two very positive responses from sysadmins, one of whom tracked a spammer who was spoofing via his system, and one from a large ISP. In both cases, the culprit lost their account. It's worth looking at all the "Received: from ..." headers in such cases. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years

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test-drb