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

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Yes, I'm back on JPS Internet! So far, so good. Still looking for a replacement power supply OR maintenance print sets (read: schematics) for a VaxSERVER 3100 (NOT A VAXSTATION -- VAXServer -- there is a difference) so I can fix the power supply. Other than that, doing pretty good. 'The Traveling Technoid' will also be moving this month to its new home. There may be a few days where it is inaccessible. I'll post the new location here and on Infoseek. 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, 2 months

1
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Altair 8800, 8800A, 8800B??

by altair8800＠hotmail.com

Can someone educate me as to how the 8800, the 8800A and the 8800B differ? I would really like to know about all the differences in the three. Thanks very much, BOB ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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ALTOS computer

by sethm＠loomcom.com

A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text Size: 1206 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/19980304/f4112378/at…

28 years, 2 months

3
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Demography

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Here's my contribution. I must confess to not having read all the previous ones - traffic on the list has been somewhat high and my boss has been making noises about my spending so much time reading it :-( I suppose I'll have to get TCP/IP on my IBM 6150 ... My name is Philip Belben and I'm an electrical engineer by trade. I work for PowerGen, one of the electricity generating companies formed when the UK split up its electricity industry in 1990. I'm 30 years old (31 next week) and still single. I live alone in a 3-bedroom house full of computers and other electronic junk, located at Coalville, England. My introduction to computers was when my school got a Commodore PET in 1979. Suitable pestering of my parents meant that I received a secondhand, 8K PET for my 13th birthday in 1980. I then caught the computing bug - I forced the school to let me take exams in computer science even though they had no-one to teach it. After leaving school at 18 I did a year with IBM (Marketing - UGH!) before going to university. At university in 1987 I met Tony Duell, who had just founded the P850 User Group to preserve old computers. I caught the collecting bug at about that time, and I now have around 60 of the things. Old computers is just one hobby among many, though. I also write music; I play the organ at my local church (yes I am a Christian), and also sing and play Piano and Bassoon; I have recently taken up photography. I would add that my computers aren't the only thing that's old - my camera is a Yashicaflex 635 (late 1960s?) that I bought for 6 UK pounds (just under $10) at a charity auction. My car is a 1971 Marcos Mantis - a British kit car of which about 32 were made and 14 are believed to survive - which I bought two years ago because I wanted something sportier than my 1965 Ford Anglia (I shall always regret getting rid of the Anglia). I also have a 1948 Fordson (= UK brand name for Ford commercial vehicles until 1950s) truck, useful for carting computers around. When I get the truck back on the road, I intend to join the Classic Computer Rescue Squad. Since this is not strictly on topic, I'd better not say any more! Philip.

28 years, 2 months

4
3
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DEC GPX II Q-Bus boards

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I have a three board set of Q-bus cards plus the boot ROM for a uVAX II, <dated from 1987, which supposedly turns a VAX server into a workstation f <DECWindows. I think it was called the GPX II kit? Anyway, the boards wo <and I have the keyboard, dove bar mouse and cable, but no monitor. I <believe this board set could drive several types of workstation monitors <and was programmed for monitor type thru some of the wires in the kbd/mou I have no clue on the rom as the microvax-II already could run decwindows. DECwindows is a device and services under VMS. I would not mess with that rom unless you fully identfy it and its use. The monitors conformed to the boards not the other way round the cable carried keyboard data mouse and RGB video for the monitor. monitors were vr260, 290, 320. <too? Any specs on it? Will it work in a VAX 3600? Yes. <Also, what versions of VMS support the GPX board? Is it still current (V <I have a VMS 5.5 set of tapes that came with the uVAX, from the old days <when the VMS license stayed with the CPU and DEC didn't hit you up for <license transfers. Most all from v4.2 and later. V5.5 would work well. FYI there is a free license available for hobby use to US decus members. Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
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Altair 8800, 8800A, 8800B??

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Can someone educate me as to how the 8800, the 8800A <and the 8800B differ? <I would really like to know about all the differences <in the three. All three are 8080 and s100. The 8800 and 8800a are esentially the same save for the A has most of mods and improvements designed in. The number of mods are in the dozens but include a powersupply large enough to be useful. The 8800b is a radically redesigned front panel using proms and more sequential logic rather that the flaky oneshots used in the earlier version. There was a front pannel less version with a turnkey boot. Track down the docs as it's far more to it than this outline. Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Vector 3

by dastar＠wco.com

On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Russ Blakeman wrote: > as the newest addition - a Vector 3 made by Vector Graphics Inc of California > (I'm guessing by the 213 area code on the label). I also have older Tektronix Russ, the Vector 3 was manufactured in Santa Barbara, California. Vector Graphics is an interesting company, in that it was started by two housewives in the late 70s. One of the ladies was Lore Harp. I forget the name of the other. I have two Vector 1's. There was also, of course, a Vector 2. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!

28 years, 2 months

5
6
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Wanting to sell... (fwd)

by danjo＠xnet.com

FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 05:26:24 -0500 From: shewless(a)bestweb.net To: danjo(a)xnet.com Subject: Wanting to sell... I am wanting to sell a Color Computer 2. I have the basic unit, books to it, the cassette player, the 5 1/4 floppy drive, the dot matrix printer and all cables in great conditon. Please email me if you or anyone you know would like to purchase it. Thanks, Ron Roberts --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BC

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Helios II disk drive - Sol-20

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<IIRC the Z-80 stacks the PC after the it's been incremented. So it fills Correct, been looking at to much C code lately. <were only 7 bits of video RAM on that machine, so 00 displayed as 40 = <'@'). That was a standard diagnostic test I think. Yes! Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

DEC TU80 tape drive

by peacock＠simconv.com

I just acquired (5 minutes ago) a DEC TU80 open reel tape drive, but no docs. There is a 3rd party Q-bus card (Distributed Logic Corp) that came with it, cables seem to line up. Does anyone know anything about this tape drive, is it a 6250 bpi drive, can it work in a MicroVAX II or VAX 3600 Q-Bus, and is it supported under VMS 5,6, or 7? Is there some kind of SCSI adapter so I could connect it to an NT machine or an Alpha? A longtime customer just showed up at my door with it in his pickup, asked if I wanted it. It's clean and he says it was pulled from a running system, but no details. It's in a nice DEC rack, like the kind VAX 3600s came in. Is it treasure or trash? Jack Peacock

28 years, 2 months

5
5
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Altair 8800, 8800A, 8800B??

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

There's a chart at the bottom of the page at: http://www.geocities.com/~compcloset/MITSAltair8800.htm > -----Original Message----- > From: Bob Wood [SMTP:altair8800@hotmail.com] > Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 6:13 PM > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers > Subject: Altair 8800, 8800A, 8800B?? > > Can someone educate me as to how the 8800, the 8800A > and the 8800B differ? > I would really like to know about all the differences > in the three. > > Thanks very much, > > BOB > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

DEC GPX II Q-Bus boards

by peacock＠simconv.com

I have a three board set of Q-bus cards plus the boot ROM for a uVAX II, all dated from 1987, which supposedly turns a VAX server into a workstation for DECWindows. I think it was called the GPX II kit? Anyway, the boards work, and I have the keyboard, dove bar mouse and cable, but no monitor. I believe this board set could drive several types of workstation monitors, and was programmed for monitor type thru some of the wires in the kbd/mouse cable. Does anyone know if it can run some PC type monitor? VGA, MDA, CGA, multisynch VGA? I don't have any info on the connector pinouts, or the types of monitors it supports. Is it mono only or does it support color too? Any specs on it? Will it work in a VAX 3600? Also, what versions of VMS support the GPX board? Is it still current (V7)? I have a VMS 5.5 set of tapes that came with the uVAX, from the old days when the VMS license stayed with the CPU and DEC didn't hit you up for license transfers. Thanx for any info you might have, Jack Peacock

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Victor 9000

by A_Finney＠wfi-inc.com

Hi Sam, Is this the circa 1980 Dos-ish machine from Canada? I'd be interested....is it yours? I live just north of Orange County (Glendora) and I could go pick it up. Thanks, Aaron BTW, no pressure on that ATR8000, but did you trade it away? I'm only asking again because there was a rumour of one on ebay that I'll bid on if so.... At 09:34 AM 3/4/98 -0800, you wrote: > >Does anyone in Orange County, California want a Victor 9000? > > >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- >Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass > > Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > >

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Calc wars

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> That's a very good point. A TI-85 is a 6 MHz Z80, I wonder what the odds of finding a ti-85 are and cost? They are hackable >from what I gather. Allison

28 years, 2 months

5
4
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DEC TU80 tape drive

by peacock＠simconv.com

From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca> >> I just acquired (5 minutes ago) a DEC TU80 open reel tape drive, but no >> docs. There is a 3rd party Q-bus card (Distributed Logic Corp) that came >> with it, cables seem to line up. Does anyone know anything about this tape >> drive > >Sure - it's a rebadged CDC Keystone, Pertec formatted interface. Is that the same interface as a TS05? I have a TSV05 Q-bus controller, same dual 50 pin cables. >>, can it work in a MicroVAX II or VAX 3600 >> Q-Bus > >Sure. Is the card a DQ132? It's a DQ152, rev A, dual wide Q-bus card, with 2 50 pin ribbon connectors. It uses an 8097 controller CPU (part of the MCS-96 family if I recall correctly), 14.745Mhz xtal (an odd speed, something Pertec related?), a couple gate arrays (Q-Bus and Pertec interfaces?), an EPROM, and a 2063 type static RAM. Circuit board has a 1986 copyright date >*Do not* plug the Dilog card into a Q-bus if the board number begins with >DU. That would be a Bad Thing. Customer doesn't have any Unibus machines, I thought of that The board has one jumper block, I assume for the CSR address. It's a single in-line 10 pin header, with pins 2 and 3 jumpered together. Might someone have the settings for this? If not I'll try the VMS newsgroup.

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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SCSI cards

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Does anyone have an extra ISA or MCA SCSI card? I have a pair of 80MB macintosh hard drives that I want to use... ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ...

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

They are marked 2102A Indeed... 8212 Eproms or PROMS? They're marked C1702A Now is a good time to ask the list for advice on what to do BEFORE applying any power to this machine. I consider this one quite historical, and don't want to any damage. What are the things I should check? Cheers A -----Original Message----- From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, March 05, 1998 4:08 AM Subject: Re: Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ... >> Datanumerics DL8A web page... >> http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/weird/datanumerics.html > >Nice pictures. Are those white ceramic 2101's or 2102's in the back of >the board? Are the 24-pin chips by the ribbon cable connectors Intel >8212's, by any chance? And it's hard to tell from the pictures, but >are the big chips near the RAM banks EPROM's or PROM's? > >A few people have remarked at the similarity of the front panel to the >Altair, but that's hardly surprising: they're both just straightforward >displays of the status signals available on the 8080A... > >Tim. >

28 years, 2 months

3
2
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Helios II disk drive - Sol-20

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<garbage confined to the last two lines of the screen? (I'll have to go <dig up my close-up screen shots photos). If so, this could mean a dead <video ROM. That would also be least likely as the device used is a mask programmed component. Sounds more like the cpu is starting up and then crashing either due to soft bits in rom or more likely some dead ram(or the bus logic that) connects the cpu to the ram and rom. FYI: if the VDM1 (display board) is not accessed by the cpu or the cpu runs amuck it's contents will be trash. If the cpu is getting nothing or starts executing from a location where there is no memory the cpu stacks itself to death and fills the screen (VDM1 is memory mapped). The reason is an open bus (no memory addressed at all) = RST7 instruction 0ffh and it does a jump to 38h and starts executing from there and if nothing answeres at that address the same thing repeats itself, each cycle the return address is put on the stack and it fills memory with 00h, 38h. Allison

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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Old CPU

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-03-03 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :The PMOS one needs somewhat strange supplies (+5V and -7V from :memory). I can probably find more data if you need it. I certainly :have the SC/MP instruction set, etc. we'd like that, please... -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ...

by peacock＠simconv.com

From: Andrew Davie <adavie(a)mad.scientist.com> >They are marked 2102A >Indeed... 8212 >Eproms or PROMS? They're marked C1702A > >Now is a good time to ask the list for advice on what to do BEFORE applying >any power to this machine. I consider this one quite historical, and don't >want to any damage. What are the things I should check? > >Cheers >A > 2102s are 1Kbit x 1 static RAMS, the memory of choice in the 70's, power hungry but easy to design with. An Intel 8212 is an 8 bit latch (should be a 24 pin DIP), commonly used on 8080 boards to latch some control signals. 1702s are 256 x 8 (2Kbit) EPROMs, a real pain to program, that's probably where your boot code is. Jack Peacock

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Helios II disk drive - Sol-20

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Thanks for the the glimmer of hope. Count me in for an order. Any assistance Lee can offer would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to get this Sol up and running in as original condition as possible. Marty Mintzell email: marty(a)itgonline.com ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Re[2]: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/4/98 4:40 PM At 13:14 3/4/98 -0500, Marty wrote: > Thanks Sam. The video garbage is all over the screen, even overlaying > the > prompt....Anyway, if roms go wrong > is there a source for replacements (wishfull thinking)? Not at present, but Lee Felsenstein and I keep talking about burning some new ones if we find a fab that would do a short enough run. Lee says they'd be less than $50 each. __________________________________________ Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org http://www.chac.org/index.html Computer History Association of California ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Mar04.164018.1767.30185; Wed, 04 Mar 1998 16:40:19 -0500 Received: from host (server(a)lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id NAA25678; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 13:31:23 -0800 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id NAA13846 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 13:29:32 -0800 Received: from relay.batnet.com (relay1.batnet.com [204.188.144.18]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with SMTP id NAA31553 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 13:29:31 -0800 Received: from goldrush by relay.batnet.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id NAA24132; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 13:29:01 -0800 Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19980304132546.00f607d0(a)pop.batnet.com> Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 13:25:46 -0800 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Kip Crosby <engine(a)chac.org> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Re[2]: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 In-Reply-To: <1998Mar04.131410.1767.85773(a)smtp.itgonline.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: chac(a)pop.batnet.com X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Helios II disk drive - Sol-20

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Thanks for the response Jim. I'll check this out tonight and email results tomorrow morning. I don't recall a pattern but will look for that tonight. Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Re[2]: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/4/98 2:56 PM On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, Marty wrote: > Thanks Sam. The video garbage is all over the screen, even overlaying > the > prompt (I'll have to fire this up tonight to double-check as I > haven't had at this machine for a few days). Anyway, if roms go wrong > is there a source for replacements (wishfull thinking)? Hmmm... gets me to thinking. Is there any pattern to this "garbage"? (same characters repeated, etc.) The character display is read directly out of the 1k of video ram (term used VERY loosely) in the system (static ram, no refresh issues), and a bad RAM chip or dirty socket can often show up like this. This does assume that you are actually getting the SOLOS prompt (">"). If what you are seeing on the display is a repeating pattern of a graphic and a 9 (think that is close) which seems to flicker a bit, this would indicate a problem with the 'Personality Module' or surrounding circuitry. (ROM bad/missing, module bad/missing, etc...) Also, is the image otherwise stable? (not rolling and such) If so, then the bulk of the video sub-system is more or less ok. -jim --- jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174 ------ 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-1998Mar04.145654.1767.30161; Wed, 04 Mar 1998 14:56:54 -0500 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 LAA09316; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 11:29:58 -0800 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id LAA29216 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 11:29:51 -0800 Received: from agora.rdrop.com (0(a)agora.rdrop.com [199.2.210.241]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id LAA15296 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 11:29:50 -0800 Received: from agora.rdrop.com (1566(a)agora.rdrop.com [199.2.210.241]) by agora.rdrop.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id LAA24585 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 11:29:50 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <Pine.BSF.3.95.980304112011.23351B-100000(a)agora.rdrop.com> Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 11:29:50 -0800 (PST) Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: James Willing <jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Re[2]: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 In-Reply-To: <1998Mar04.131410.1767.85773(a)smtp.itgonline.com> 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-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

[cerm@router.de: Re: Telebit Zoom FAXModem]

by jmg＠iac.net

While my Telebit modem issue was resolved by several nice classiccomp mail list subscribers, here is the responce I recieved >from the original manufacturers (actually, the new owners of the original manufacturers). I have to say, here's how to build brand loyalty.... --jmg ------- Start of forwarded message ------- Date: Tue, 03 Mar 1998 18:15:23 +0100 From: Christoph Meyer <cerm(a)router.de> To: maynard(a)jmg.com Subject: Re: Telebit Zoom FAXModem Sorry, we don't support Telebit equipment any longer. cerm - -- TLK Kommunikationssysteme GmbH (http://www.router.de) Christoph Meyer (mailto:cerm@router.de) Geiststr. 68 48151 Muenster Germany Tel: +251/97 256 70 Fax: +251/97 256 79 ------- End of forwarded message ------- Damn!

28 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

Helios II disk drive - Sol-20

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Thanks Sam. The video garbage is all over the screen, even overlaying the > prompt (I'll have to fire this up tonight to double-check as I haven't had at this machine for a few days). Anyway, if roms go wrong is there a source for replacements (wishfull thinking)? Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/4/98 12:39 PM On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, Marty wrote: > I've got the Sol-20 up where I can see the monitor prompt '>' but > there is garbage on the screen which I have yet been able to get rid > of and attempts to load off a cpm diskette (that came with this > package) have failed thus far. This sounds suspiciously similar to what the screen looked like when Felsenstein & Marsh fired up the Sol-20 prototype at VCF 1.0. Is the garbage confined to the last two lines of the screen? (I'll have to go dig up my close-up screen shots photos). If so, this could mean a dead video ROM. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! ------ 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-1998Mar04.123957.1767.30125; Wed, 04 Mar 1998 12:39:58 -0500 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 JAA27618; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:28:02 -0800 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 JAA25104 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:27:38 -0800 Received: from shell.wco.com (root(a)shell.wco.com [199.4.94.16]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id JAA01692 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:27:37 -0800 Received: from shell (shell [199.4.94.16]) by shell.wco.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/WCO-18jul97) with SMTP id JAA19437 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:27:33 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <Pine.GSO.3.96.980304092550.6950G-100000@shell> Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:27:23 -0800 (PST) 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: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 In-Reply-To: <1998Mar04.084954.1767.85660(a)smtp.itgonline.com> 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, 2 months

5
4
0 0

Demography?

by eve＠powerup.com.au

-----Original Message----- From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> >It seems that a lot of you blokes down under have Sorcerers. Were they >marketed a lot more "down there" than they were in the US? They are not >very common over here. > >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > The Sorcerer was marketed in Australia by a nationwide group called "Dick Smith Electronics" which was a pioneer in the home computer market here in many ways. They also sold a TRS80 Model 1 clone called "Dick Smith System 80", the "Dick Smith VZ300" (and others in its family I think), and the "Dick Smith Wizard". The latter is a strange machine in which the two paddles, when placed in their slots in the console, make up the two halves of a QWERTY membrane keyboard, with games providing slide-on overlays for the paddles such that the game controls activate the membrane keys underneath. I am not sure if these (other than the Sorcerer) were just re-badged models from overseas, or commisioned by "tricky dick" (he advertised a lot, became very rich, then became a sort of Richard Branson adventurer and philanthropist, and he is actually now head of our civil aviation authority, and some now want him as the first President of Australia if we ever become a republic!) I have here a data sheet for the Sorcerer from 1979 or 1980 in which the 8K machine cost $A1295 and the 16K cost $1395. The only extras advertised then were a cassette recorder for $A35 and the monitor for $A150. >from Brisbane, Australia Phil Guerney

28 years, 2 months

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Helios II disk drive - Sol-20

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Here's a stretch. If anybody has a Helios II disk drive available for sale or trade I'd be eternally grateful. If Gary has any spare Persci drives I would be grateful to get one of those also. I have recently acquired a Sol-20 and have a NorthStar controller with a 5 1/4" floppy drive (which I haven't got up and running yet). I've got the Sol-20 up where I can see the monitor prompt '>' but there is garbage on the screen which I have yet been able to get rid of and attempts to load off a cpm diskette (that came with this package) have failed thus far. Thanks for any help or hints- Marty Mintzell email: marty(a)itgonline.com

28 years, 2 months

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Helios II disk drive - Sol-20

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< < I've got the Sol-20 up where I can see the monitor prompt '>' but < there is garbage on the screen which I have yet been able to get rid < of and attempts to load off a cpm diskette (that came with this < package) have failed thus far. Before you mess with CPM and disks get the SOL running! The screen of garbage is either a broken VDM-1 (video card) or the CPU is out to lunch do to a memory problem or other system fault. Pull the disk controller out and get to the minimum system and trouble shoot from there. Also the Native os for the northstar controller is NS*dos not cp/m it is possible that the version of cpm can be configured for the NS* controller but not the terminal IO used in the SOL so it would boot and do nothing. FYI: the most commonly replaced part is the CPU as it's is always socketed. The least often failed part is the CPU! If I were nearby I'd offer to help. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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AT&T 6300

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> wrote: > However they are compatable at the DOS level. Be careful how you use those words. I'd say that about the HP 110 and 150. A program written using MS-DOS services only (vs. direct hardware access or BIOS services) stands a good chance of running across both, as well as the IBM PC. -Frank McConnell

28 years, 2 months

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Dick Smith Wizzard

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

>80", the "Dick Smith VZ300" (and others in its family I think), and the >"Dick Smith Wizard". The latter is a strange machine in which the two >paddles, when placed in their slots in the console, make up the two halves >of a QWERTY membrane keyboard, with games providing slide-on overlays for >the paddles such that the game controls activate the membrane keys >underneath I have a page up for the Dick Smith Wizzard. It is, in fact, a Creativision - and can be seen at the following URL... http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/weird/creativision.html My machine has the optional keyboard (improves the feel from dreadful to absolutely dreadful but in 3d instead of 2d), and the docked casette module. Cheers A PS: Is it just me, or are others getting mail failure notifications when sending to the list?

28 years, 2 months

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Helios II disk drive - Sol-20

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Great information, thanks Scott, and thanks as well to Allison. I'll check the archives for the keyboard mail. Marty Mintzell ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/4/98 11:19 AM On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, Marty wrote: > I've got the Sol-20 up where I can see the monitor prompt '>' but > there is garbage on the screen which I have yet been able to get rid > of and attempts to load off a cpm diskette (that came with this > package) have failed thus far. Is the keyboard working properly? The Sol-20 keyboard is a capacitive unit in which pressing a key pushes the insulated side of a piece of one-size metallized Mylar film against plates on the printed circuit board, changing the capacitance. These pieces of film are attached to the key mechanism with foam. Over the course of time, this foam disintegrates, the metal backing mysteriously disappears from the film, and pieces become detached from the keys and rattle around inside the keyboard wreaking havoc. If you are having problems with the keyboard (or the garbage on your screen looks like it could be the result of stuck keys), you may want to check for this problem. The PC board is held to the keyboard assembly with screws and is easily removed. After removing the keyboard assembly, you can test the machine by using parts salvaged from another capacitive keyboard (or even a piece of foil held behind thin plastic) to complete the "key capacitors". There are instructions somewhere on the classiccmp archive for rebuilding a Sol-20 keyboard using a PC-clone (Keytronics?) capacitive keyboard as a donor. It's on my relatively long list of things to do. -- Scott Ware ware(a)xtal.pharm.nwu.edu ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Mar04.111904.1767.30103; Wed, 04 Mar 1998 11:19:04 -0500 Received: from host (server(a)lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id IAA25044; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 08:04:19 -0800 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 IAA17026 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 08:04:10 -0800 Received: from xtal.pharm.nwu.edu (xtal.pharm.nwu.edu [165.124.225.192]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id IAA22544 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 08:04:09 -0800 Received: from localhost (ware@localhost) by xtal.pharm.nwu.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id KAA00316 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 10:04:05 -0600 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980304092344.32735A-100000(a)xtal.pharm.nwu.edu> Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 10:04:05 -0600 (CST) Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Scott Ware <ware(a)xtal.pharm.nwu.edu> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 In-Reply-To: <1998Mar04.084954.1767.85660(a)smtp.itgonline.com> 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-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 2 months

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Helios II disk drive - Sol-20

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Thanks Allison. As the VDM-1 is built-in I obviously can't pull it but will check for a bad trace etc. Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/4/98 9:53 AM < < I've got the Sol-20 up where I can see the monitor prompt '>' but < there is garbage on the screen which I have yet been able to get rid < of and attempts to load off a cpm diskette (that came with this < package) have failed thus far. Before you mess with CPM and disks get the SOL running! The screen of garbage is either a broken VDM-1 (video card) or the CPU is out to lunch do to a memory problem or other system fault. Pull the disk controller out and get to the minimum system and trouble shoot from there. Also the Native os for the northstar controller is NS*dos not cp/m it is possible that the version of cpm can be configured for the NS* controller but not the terminal IO used in the SOL so it would boot and do nothing. FYI: the most commonly replaced part is the CPU as it's is always socketed. The least often failed part is the CPU! If I were nearby I'd offer to help. Allison ------ 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-1998Mar04.095317.1767.30083; Wed, 04 Mar 1998 09:53:18 -0500 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 GAA14619; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 06:44:30 -0800 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 GAA25332 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 06:44:19 -0800 Received: from europe.std.com (europe.std.com [199.172.62.20]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id GAA00327 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 06:44:07 -0800 Received: from world.std.com by europe.std.com (8.7.6/BZS-8-1.0) id JAA25056; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:44:14 -0500 (EST) Received: by world.std.com (TheWorld/Spike-2.0) id AA10912; Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:44:06 -0500 Message-Id: <199803041444.AA10912(a)world.std.com> Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 09:44:06 -0500 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: allisonp(a)world.std.com (Allison J Parent) To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Helios II disk drive - Sol-20 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 2 months

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Processor Technology Sol-20

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Could I get a copy of the tape or a transcription? Marty Mintzell ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Processor Technology Sol-20 Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/3/98 9:51 PM At 18:31 3/3/98 -0800, Marvin wrote: >Sam still has the audio masters for the original Vintage Computer Fair where >Lee Felsenstein and (drawing a blank), the former president of Processor >Technology Bob Marsh. >I don't recall the date they went out of >business (1981???) May 14, 1979. __________________________________________ Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org http://www.chac.org/index.html Computer History Association of California ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Mar03.215115.1767.30006; Tue, 03 Mar 1998 21:51:15 -0500 Received: from host (server(a)lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id SAA22466; Tue, 3 Mar 1998 18:44:46 -0800 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 SAA29288 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Tue, 3 Mar 1998 18:44:39 -0800 Received: from relay.batnet.com (relay1.batnet.com [204.188.144.18]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with SMTP id SAA02135 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Tue, 3 Mar 1998 18:44:37 -0800 Received: from goldrush by relay.batnet.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id SAA17015; Tue, 3 Mar 1998 18:44:18 -0800 Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19980303184423.00faeb00(a)pop.batnet.com> Date: Tue, 03 Mar 1998 18:44:23 -0800 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Kip Crosby <engine(a)chac.org> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Processor Technology Sol-20 In-Reply-To: <34FCBCF3.F7DD9B30(a)rain.org> References: <1998Mar03.162204.1767.85515(a)smtp.itgonline.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: chac(a)pop.batnet.com X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 2 months

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Victor 9000

by dastar＠wco.com

Does anyone in Orange County, California want a Victor 9000? Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!

28 years, 2 months

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Calc wars

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Is a TI-8x or 92 a calculator or computer? I mean, a TI-92 uses a 68000 processor, has some 128k ram, and a full (if not full-sized) keyboard. A friend of mine is making a multitasking shell for it. > >At 23:10 3/3/98 GMT, you wrote: >>(now someone's going to turn round and tell us that the pointy-haired >>bosses in hp hack on their hp48s during meetings, and wear their hair >>that way because they don't know where to find a decent hairdresser. > >Pointy-haired bosses do NOT carry HP48's. They carry TI Math Explorers >that they pinch off the carpet of their eighth-grader's bedroom, and don't >know how to use. The Math Explorer was sitting forlorn on the kid's carpet >because the kid saved up, bought a second-hand TI-85, and is sitting in the >backyard smoking a joint and hacking ZSHELL on the TI. > >__________________________________________ >Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org > http://www.chac.org/index.html >Computer History Association of California > > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ...

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

It arrived 10 minutes ago. I'm so excited, I just put up a quick web page so you can all see it. Its obviously not an IMSAI...? So... anyone know anything about it. Comments appreciated (even "I want it!!") Cheers A Datanumerics DL8A web page... http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/weird/datanumerics.html

28 years, 2 months

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Processor Technology Sol-20

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Does anybody know what the production numbers were for the Processor Technology Sol-20? Also, does anybody know when PT went out of business? Was it due to the Persci drives in the Helios II as I've been told? A co-worker of mine said the Persci drive heads were actuated by a voice coil and while they had an extremely fast access time (for the day) they were unrelible. I'd appreciate any information. Thanks- Marty Mintzell

28 years, 2 months

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Fw: A possible (future) classic.

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I could see a use for that... By making a NanoPC (?) small enough, I cou <a console for my uVAX 2000 that I could tape (or something?) to the top o <machine - Then I'd truly have a portable VAX! <Maybe if I do go make creative use of batteries... Ehehe... VAX LUGGABL <(That'd be fun for the trips to Indy! They could be driving away, and I <hack VAX in the backseat..) <------- Seems the hard way to go. Try this. Remove the RD5x and replace with two 3.5" mfm drives. Install one scsi drive (for more space). remove power supply replace with one that provides +12/-12/+5 from a 12vdc source. Use a laptop for terminal. An alternate to replacing the power supply is use 12vdc to 120ac(240w) power converter. An alternate replacement for the PC (somewhat retro too) is to find one of the various terminal boards sold in the early to mid 80s, add a keyboard and a 12v monitor, tada a terminal. Most of those boards were small (5x9" or smaller). If your are running an OS that can use the vs2k console... use lk201 and a small monochrome monitor that can hack the scan rates. most of the 3100 series is in the same power needs class and could easily be put on the road as well. Also the qbus vaxen could be hacked for mobile use (there was a version of the ba213/4 box that used DC power!). Vax on the roll. Your would not be the first, the YACHT America (Americas cup racing) back around 88 or so had a vax on board! Allison

28 years, 2 months

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List not working?

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Now, it's not working again. Sorry, this discussion seems to be pretty one-sided. ;-) Sorry, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: Hotze <photze(a)batelco.com.bh> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 5:09 PM Subject: Re: List not working? Ok, so the list is working. Sorry.... and remember, we're trained proffesionals. Don't try this at M$. -----Original Message----- From: Hotze <photze(a)batelco.com.bh> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 4:57 PM Subject: List not working? Hi. I recieve posts from ClassicCmp, but when I try to send it, I get a "mailbag full" error... Thanks, Tim D. Hotze (Please contact me at photze(a)batelco.com.bh if you have more info)

28 years, 2 months

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List not working?

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Ok, so the list is working. Sorry.... and remember, we're trained proffesionals. Don't try this at M$. -----Original Message----- From: Hotze <photze(a)batelco.com.bh> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 4:57 PM Subject: List not working? Hi. I recieve posts from ClassicCmp, but when I try to send it, I get a "mailbag full" error... Thanks, Tim D. Hotze (Please contact me at photze(a)batelco.com.bh if you have more info)

28 years, 2 months

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Fw: A possible/ builing with old iron

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

>Nice but what would CP/M (rememberthis is 8080/z80) do with 500mb? The >whole of multimple archives fits on a single CDrom! CP/M systems did not >suffer code bloat so smaller devices tend t fill very slowly. Something >under 100mb is more resonable for my project. Don't ask me!!! I didn't know waht CP/M was until a week ago. Funny story. I've looked all over the Internet for stuff on my II+, but found II, IIc, IIe, etc. stuff instead. Then, I look at my school library, and I find a 84/85 edition of a kind of "computer encyclopedia", and a book called "Apple II User's Guide", which only covers the ][ and the ][+. >????? What are they and approximate cost. For the 80 MB version, it's soupossed to cost around $80. Be warned, these are 1" chips that are soupossed to contain Windows 95/98 on them (with room for expansion, etc.) It's like a hard disk on a chip. I've only heard about them. The advantage is relatively low cost, but definately lower power consumption and less space. I'm trying to build a machine myself. Right now, I'm into hardware, software'll come later. I'm thinking an ELKS machine, or such. Where the heck can I get hardware that isn't aimed for 10,000 units? Like 1 or 2? Using IDE, probably a 386/486 chip, and I'd need graphics, etc. Can someone please help me? Thanks, Tim D. Hotze

28 years, 2 months

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List not working?

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Hi. I recieve posts from ClassicCmp, but when I try to send it, I get a "mailbag full" error... Thanks, Tim D. Hotze (Please contact me at photze(a)batelco.com.bh if you have more info)

28 years, 2 months

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Fw: A possible (future) classic.

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

I'm trying to make a "semi-nano PC" myself... ><3.5"? That's a "standard" off-the-shelf IDE disk, isn't it? 2.5" is ><a standard off-the-shelf laptop IDE drive. 1.8" drives are also >I'd rather 2.5 or smaller but a really cheap 3.5 is ok. 2.5" drives arn't hard to find. A while back, Data Probe (http://www.dataprobeintl.com ; sales(a)dataprobeintl.com) had even 500MB notebook drives for around $50 (used), they were 2.5". They weren't listed on their website, you'd have to ask them... And, I'd recommend the Kittyhawks. That, or there's soupossed to be a re-writable ROM-like 1" square coming out, right now, they've got 20 and 40 MB versions,with 80MB coming soon... >>The is at most a one up for myself(non commercial design). Same here. Ciao, Tim D. Hotze

28 years, 2 months

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Fw: A possible/ builing with old iron

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<(http://www.dataprobeintl.com ; sales(a)dataprobeintl.com) had even 500MB <notebook drives for around $50 (used), they were 2.5". They weren't lis Nice but what would CP/M (rememberthis is 8080/z80) do with 500mb? The whole of multimple archives fits on a single CDrom! CP/M systems did not suffer code bloat so smaller devices tend t fill very slowly. Something under 100mb is more resonable for my project. <And, I'd recommend the Kittyhawks. That, or there's soupossed to be a <re-writable ROM-like 1" square coming out, right now, they've got 20 and ????? What are they and approximate cost. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Demography?

by Guerney＠uq.net.au

-----Original Message----- From: Eve Guerney Oops, Eve is my daughter! I must learn to make sure the message gets posted >from the correct account on this machine I may as well take the chance and add some real demography info. I'm new to actually collecting old micros, but I have thought about if for a while! I have my original VIC-20, C64, Amiga500 and now also a beautiful mint condition TRS80 Model II and an Apple ][+ and a one owner Atari 800. I got a Coco1 and a CoCo2 this week, consoles only, but I can't get anything on the TV from them yet so they may be just rubbish. I'm a mid-40's scientist working in the minerals business in Brisbane, Australia. I DREAMED of owning a Sorcerer more than anything else in the world when a postgraduate student (graduate student to you North Americans) in 1978, then in 1979 a PET would have done me. Money shortage kept me from actually owning a micro until the VIC-20 dropped to $A299 here in 1982. I joined the local Commodore Users Group and stayed with them through the C64 and the Amiga days, even becoming President of the group for two years through the last days of Commodore while our membership finished its shrinkage from over 1000 (in the late 1980's) to less than 50 now. Now I am just learning the best ways of picking up and looking after these marvellous machines. Any other Australians who want to make themselves known to me are welcome. >from Phil Guerney Brisbane, Australia.

28 years, 2 months

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Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ...

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

I should be more careful what I say. It's not a clone of an 8800b. I have no idea about the 8800a. A -----Original Message----- From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 5:57 PM Subject: Re: Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ... >On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, Andrew Davie wrote: > >> It arrived 10 minutes ago. >> I'm so excited, I just put up a quick web page so you can all see it. >> Its obviously not an IMSAI...? So... anyone know anything about it. >> Comments appreciated (even "I want it!!") > >OK, I want it!! Very cool. It looks a lot like an Altair (from the pix, >I saw a one-to-one correspondence to Altair toggles). According to Hans >Pufal's list, it came out the same year as the Altair (1975): > http://www.digiweb.com/~hansp/ccc/clist3.htm > >Any chance it is an Altair in sheep's clothing? > >-- Doug > >

28 years, 2 months

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Off-charter chatter: nano-PC's

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

OK... while we're on off topic, ;-) Is there any way that I could get my hands on the individual componets for making a "nano PC", prefferably just a small one? -----Original Message----- From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 10:35 PM Subject: Re: Off-charter chatter: nano-PC's >>On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Tim Shoppa wrote: >> >>> I just received some brochures from my local embedded PC supplier, and >some >>> of the miniaturization that's being done is incredible. There's a >>> company in Germany called JUMPtec which sells a product called the >>> DIMM-PC; it puts a 33 MHz 80386, 4 Mbytes of RAM, a bootable flash >>> harddisk and an AMI BIOS, a real time clock, and interfaces for >>> external IDE drives, floppy drives, printer, 2 COM ports, and keyboard >>> all on a board that is only 68mm x 40mm (that's 1.57 x 2.68 inches.) >> >>Wow, a keyboard in that form factor is incredible :-) You're right, there >>are lots of choices in the embedded space. The smallest full-blown PC >>with built-in display and keyboard that I know of has gotta be the IBM >>PC-110. For a size comparison of a normal laptop, a PC-110, and IBM's >>(new?) credit-card computer, see: >> http://www.kako.com/museum/ibm.html >> >>To get even further off-topic, has anybody here written 6805 wristapps for >>their Timex/Microsoft DataLink watch? Try: >> http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/7650/ >> >>-- Doug >> >> >

28 years, 2 months

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Demography?

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

Re: Sorcerers down Under. There was a strong user group base down here in the late 70s and early 80s. I remember having a real hard time deciding between a Sorcerer and an Atari 800. I eventually chose the Atari, with no regrets. But, I seem to remember the Sorcerer as being fairly common. Not easy to find now, but a lot of us down under collectors seem to have one or two (or three, but I won't tease too much). Cheers A -----Original Message----- From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 7:17 PM Subject: Re: Demography? >On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Lawrence Wilkinson wrote: > >> I'm a fairly recent arrival to this list. I'm 34, a New Zealander, and >> I've lived in the UK for almost 4 years. ><...> >> >> I started doing various programming work on machines like TRS80 & >> clones, Sorcerer, including quite a few BIOSes for CP/M, including one > ^^^^^^^^ >It seems that a lot of you blokes down under have Sorcerers. Were they >marketed a lot more "down there" than they were in the US? They are not >very common over here. > >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- >Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass > > Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > >

28 years, 2 months

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Hello (fwd)

by dastar＠wco.com

Here's the response from Jim Sciuto, "Gold Recovery Expert". A hint of promise, I suppose. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 19:34:48 -0500 From: Qs <quiksand(a)tiac.net> To: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> Subject: Re: Hello I will visit your web page and keep you in mind, sometimes the historical value of things do outweigh its scrap value. Regards, Jim Sciuto -----Original Message----- From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> To: quiksand(a)tiac.net <quiksand(a)tiac.net> Cc: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Sunday, March 01, 1998 11:36 PM Subject: Hello >To: Jim Sciuto, "Gold Recovery Expert" > http://www.tiac.net/users/quiksand/goldtek.htm > >I invite you to take the time to discover the wonderful efforts a group >of dedicated individuals around the globe are engaged in to preserve >some of the historically significant vintage computer equipment that you >may be scrapping for its precious metals. In some cases, the machines >you are melting down have more historic value than any monetary value >you may be extracting from their circuits. > >I realize this is how you make your living, but I think you will find >the efforts of these computer preservations at least interesting, if not >compelling. > >Any assistance you can afford us in preserving the more rare artifacts >of our computer heritage that you come in contact with or possesion of >would be much appreciated. I invite you to visit the Vintage Computer >Festival web page: > >http://www.siconic.com/vcf > >Sincerely, > >Sam Ismail >Vintage Technology Cooperative >http://www.siconic.com/vcf >

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

tony duell: :>have a feeling that eventually all obsolete computer equipment in :>britain will gravitate to chez duell... :I wish.... There are still machines I am looking for - PDP's other :than the 8 or the 11, a straight-8, more P800 series stuff, etc, :etc,etc. Oh, and somewhere to put them :-) well, the schematics for the pdp6 are available, so at a pinch you could always rebuild one. :> :> on the other hand, it makes the electronics more difficult, as :>suddenly you have to design a pll that will reliably lock to :>about 10 different data rates, rather than just one, not to :>mention making sure the :Not that hard. You design it as a synthesiser, of course. Probably :not that much worse (and similar in design) to the multi-speed :motor controller. probably. in fact, it might even be easier, because you don't have to worry about controlling anything physical. on the other hand, since you'd need a speed regulator in the disk drive anyway (and iwrc they tend to be plls) you might as well give that a range of frequencies to chew on and keep the data transfer stuff simple. there are arguments either way - about the only thing we would say, though, is that software is cheaper than hardware in scrap terms, and whereas commodore was already huge, woz was on a leguminous budget. :> controller can handle it. to make it practical to decode in :>software, the apple probably got it right - and let's face it, :>certainly in later :Being a hardware hacker, I've never liked the Apple approach to :doing everything in software, alas... ah, but we're a software hacker, so we just love it. :> besides, there's a certain beauty in finding that you can do something with the bare minimum of hardware. :There were certainly non-compatible 386 machines - didn't Sequent :make some? (multi-processor unix boxen..) No, I don't have one - :yet! yes, we believe so. there were other non-compatible 386 offerings too, were there not - eg. sun 386s...? but then it's a lot easier to make a non-compatible 386, given its somewhat multiplicitous architecture. just ignore real mode in the design of the hardware and you're away... protected mode on the 286, though, should have had more made of it. it was a missed opportunity. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 2 months

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Demography?

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

My demographics: I'm 33 and from Sydney, Australia. I'm a Taswegian by birth, and my first intro to computers was a gift of a 4 function calculator from my mother when I was 10. That particular unit (a CASIO) had a problem dividing by 0 - it tried to!! The display patiently counted from 0 up to... well I never saw it stop before the batteries gave out. I guess thats what started my prime interest in computers - the quirky and unusual. Mixed with a dollop of nostalgia (it's not what it used to be), and you have me today - a collector of just about anything that calculates and isn't too big (we're renting). So, slide rules, mechanical calculators, handheld electronic calculators and recently some of the early home micros and game machines. That's my collecting field. Our house blows a fuse when I turn on the dishwasher and the washing machine; there's just no way I'm going to have a mainframe running here for anything over a couple of milliseconds. I'm a programmer by nature - having earned my stripes on the console machines of the mid to late 80s (Nintendo and Super Nintendo, Commodore 64, etc). Mainly 6502 stuff. I'm now programming what we call Interactive Multipath Movies - real time rendered 3D movies with which you can interact and see story changes as you interact. Its quite neat, actually - I just bought shares in our company. Anyway, my other passion is lost information. I find the search for missing information - the gathering together of widely dislocated pieces - somewhat enjoyable. Why, just today I tracked down the original owner of my Exidy Sorcerer. I've been known to track down the owner of a slide rule deposited in a junk store some 20 years ago. He was rather surprised to hear from a guy from Australia - and unfortunately thought I was a kook! Well, maybe I am :) I'm married to a lovely American lady, and we have two rugrats. The kids just love circular slide rules and my little girl (3yo) begs me to let her clean my calculators. Which, of course, I do. I invite you all to visit my web sites, devoted to various parts of my collecting interests... Museum of Soviet Calculators (currently a Yahoo! and Netscape Cool LInk) http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/slide/calculator/soviet.html Slide Rule Trading Post http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/slide/ Weird Computing Machines http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/weird/ I have various other sites, but not related to computing. I'm hoping, eventually, to move back to Tasmania - the place I grew up and the place my heart longs for. Of course, my computers and calculators will move with me. I'm sure the wife and kids will come too :) My collection consists of the following, and lots of widgets I forget... Wang calculator (interesting) Altair 8800b Kaypro II Exidy Sorcerers OSI Challenger Atari 800 Commodore C64 KIM-1 BBC Creativision Soviet Calculators (about a dozen) HP calculators (nearly, but not quite, the whole set) Slide rules and the prize.... a Thatcher Calculator. I welcome all emails, but warn that due to the large amount of email my sites generate I'm sometimes less than quick to respond! Cheers A adavie(a)mad.scientist.com

28 years, 2 months

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Maybe something fun!

by mor＠crl.com

I snarfed this ad off some classified ads web site. Maybe someone in Southern Cal has a truck handy.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPLETE network system, 1 mainframe, 7 stations, fast & reliable, great for small business, sacrifice, $350 or trade for ? (310) 822-4052 $350 -- mor(a)crl.com http://www.crl.com/~mor/

28 years, 2 months

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Good finds this day

by dastar＠wco.com

I made some nice acquisitions to add to the old silicon heap today. I found an ATR-8000 ($7). The ATR-8000 was an adjunct CP/M box for the Atari 400/800/XL computers. To use it, you plugged a special cart into the Atari which was really just a terminal program. The Atari then acted as a terminal to the ATR-8000 (the connection from the ATR-8000 to the Atari was via serial cable). The ATR-8000 had external connectors for floppy drives (since you couldn't actually use the Atari drives on the ATR) and a printer connector. The ATR-8000 could actually be used as a stand-alone CP/M computer if you wanted to. You could just connect a terminal and some disk drives to it and voila, instant CP/M machine. Which is interesting to note because... The next find was ANOTHER ATR-8000 (!) but this time with a TeleVideo 925 terminal and two half-height dual floppy drives attached to it. Basically, an ATR-8000 in a stand-alone configuration! Cool. But this was even a better deal...$5 for the whole lot. My next nice find was an Intellec MDS chassis. The ship date on the back shows 10/77 so I imagine it is a later model than what I've seen in pictures. The front panel has 8 interrupt switches, and a momentary BOOT switch and a RESET switch. There's also a HALT and RUN light. There were two cards inside...one is a Monitor Module and the other is a wire-wrap mess that I can't figure out. I also got a bare wire-wrap card. The chassis was slightly beat up, as some parts of the face ridges were broken off, so I talked the guy down to $10. I got a Momenta pen-based computer. It's shaped like a wedge. I got it in the box but it was in so-so shape. I got two battery packs but neither is charged, and unfortunately I didn't get the charger or wall apadtor with it. On the box it said "For technical service call 1-800-MOMENTA" so I called but it rang and rang. A sort of good sign I guess. I'll try during the week and see what I get. I'd be interested to know anything that anyone possibly knows about this thing. Circa 1991. $15. I found a real nice book: _Microcomputer Dictionary: (Second Edition)_ by Charles J. Sippl (Howard Samms, 1981, ISBN: 0-672-21696-5). It has some more excellent pictures of stuff I've never even heard of or seen before. I'll be scanning these pictures in and posting them to the web page. Of course it also has all sorts of definitions for computer terms and such. $1. Next find was a this kinky little Japanse 286 box, a Sharp MZ-6500 Model 50. All the markings were in Japanese (or is that more properly Kanji?). It had a "100V" plug as well as a strange plug that I assume is for outlets in Japan. It has two 3.5" floppies, an ST-125 HD, and a strange motherboard layout. It was in superb shape. Not really a classic, but cool looking. The guy wanted to get rid of it so I got it for $3. Other finds: a DEC VT-100 terminal for $.50 (yes, cents), and a TI-99/4a for laughs. It was a good day. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!

28 years, 2 months

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Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ...

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

I've placed the requested view on the page... http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/weird/datanumerics.html The motherboard is marked REV A The serial # of the machine is 00029 I doubt there could have been many more of these made. Enjoy! A -----Original Message----- From: Greg Troutman <mor(a)crl.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 6:06 PM Subject: Re: Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ... >Andrew Davie wrote: >> >> It arrived 10 minutes ago. >> I'm so excited, I just put up a quick web page so you can all see it. >> Its obviously not an IMSAI...? So... anyone know anything about it. >> Comments appreciated (even "I want it!!") > >She's purdy. How about a tight close-up on the data switches and status >lights--I've got a fetish ;)

28 years, 2 months

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Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ...

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

Altair in sheep's clothing? Not a chance! Wait till you see inside! The motherboard is organised in ROWS of chips, something like A to F And... it's stationed at the top (ie: roof) of the machine. Amazing amazing. Its an 8080A by the way. A -----Original Message----- From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, March 04, 1998 5:57 PM Subject: Re: Datanumerics DL8A is here! Have a peek @ ... >On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, Andrew Davie wrote: > >> It arrived 10 minutes ago. >> I'm so excited, I just put up a quick web page so you can all see it. >> Its obviously not an IMSAI...? So... anyone know anything about it. >> Comments appreciated (even "I want it!!") > >OK, I want it!! Very cool. It looks a lot like an Altair (from the pix, >I saw a one-to-one correspondence to Altair toggles). According to Hans >Pufal's list, it came out the same year as the Altair (1975): > http://www.digiweb.com/~hansp/ccc/clist3.htm > >Any chance it is an Altair in sheep's clothing? > >-- Doug > >

28 years, 2 months

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AT&T 6300

by wheagy＠erols.com

Hi, Does anyone know anything about the AT&T 6300? I've read a few descriptions on the Web, but was wondering if they are rare, difficult to find, etc? I have an opportunity to get one but don't know much about them. Thanks...Win wheagy(a)erols.com

28 years, 2 months

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BBC software

by adam＠merlin.net.au

Sorry - I was sure the message I was replying to was not from the list, and forgot to check. :(

28 years, 2 months

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BBC software

by adam＠merlin.net.au

Hi Andrew! I have a lead for you - Acorn BBC books and software for sale in Vic, for $5. phone (03) 9596-6454. Also, if you are intersted, I know of three computers for sale which may interest you. In Vic there is an Amstrad PCW 8512 - you probably know them, but they are word processors with CP/M compatability, reasonably common but they can be hard to come by. And in Adelaide there are two - a faulty Apple Lisa 2/10 (bad HD, possibly repairable) for $150, and a HP 9835 desktop computer, with 9" drive, software and connectors for $50. Any of these interest you? If you want the Lisa I'll have to get it soon, but I do have the original OS somewhere which I can copy off for you, and unprotect at least the system disk - however I can't do so (yet) with the apps. No rush with the HP, though. Adam.

28 years, 2 months

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Off-charter chatter: nano-PC's

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

OK... while we're on off topic, ;-) Is there any way that I could get my hands on the individual componets for making a "nano PC", prefferably just a small one? -----Original Message----- From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 10:35 PM Subject: Re: Off-charter chatter: nano-PC's >On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Tim Shoppa wrote: > >> I just received some brochures from my local embedded PC supplier, and some >> of the miniaturization that's being done is incredible. There's a >> company in Germany called JUMPtec which sells a product called the >> DIMM-PC; it puts a 33 MHz 80386, 4 Mbytes of RAM, a bootable flash >> harddisk and an AMI BIOS, a real time clock, and interfaces for >> external IDE drives, floppy drives, printer, 2 COM ports, and keyboard >> all on a board that is only 68mm x 40mm (that's 1.57 x 2.68 inches.) > >Wow, a keyboard in that form factor is incredible :-) You're right, there >are lots of choices in the embedded space. The smallest full-blown PC >with built-in display and keyboard that I know of has gotta be the IBM >PC-110. For a size comparison of a normal laptop, a PC-110, and IBM's >(new?) credit-card computer, see: > http://www.kako.com/museum/ibm.html > >To get even further off-topic, has anybody here written 6805 wristapps for >their Timex/Microsoft DataLink watch? Try: > http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/7650/ > >-- Doug > >

28 years, 2 months

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A possible (future) classic.

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

I'm trying to make a "semi-nano PC" myself... ><3.5"? That's a "standard" off-the-shelf IDE disk, isn't it? 2.5" is ><a standard off-the-shelf laptop IDE drive. 1.8" drives are also >I'd rather 2.5 or smaller but a really cheap 3.5 is ok. 2.5" drives arn't hard to find. A while back, Data Probe (http://www.dataprobeintl.com ; sales(a)dataprobeintl.com) had even 500MB notebook drives for around $50 (used), they were 2.5". They weren't listed on their website, you'd have to ask them... And, I'd recommend the Kittyhawks. That, or there's soupossed to be a re-writable ROM-like 1" square coming out, right now, they've got 20 and 40 MB versions,with 80MB coming soon... >The is at most a one up for myself(non commercial design). Same here. Ciao, Tim D. Hotze

28 years, 2 months

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AT&T 6300

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

>I'll differ on this point. one of the primary things that killed the '6300 >was that it was NOT totally IBM compatable. The video subsystem (noted >below) is a prime example. Is it possible to somehow slap a CGA or any standard monitor into one of those? >>Hard drives were optional in them and not very reliable IMO. > >The drives they used overall were not notably better or worse than most of >the time. They did make some poor choices at times on who to buy their >drives from. > I will say that my only experience w/a 6300 was one that got to me because of a dead hard drive. I ended up gutting and trashing it. I hold old microchips in the fan housing. This was also my only experience with a dead hard drive. Was the thing designed for UNIX or was it just a plain "enhanced" PC clone? P.S. In OOP, can an object kill another object to inherit it? >--- >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, 2 months

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Demography?

by adam＠merlin.net.au

>It seems that a lot of you blokes down under have Sorcerers. Were they >marketed a lot more "down there" than they were in the US? They are not >very common over here. They aren't common here, but in Adelaide (South Australia) we still have a Sorcerer's User Group running. I suspect that it is entirely social, but it is there. Because Dick Smith imported them so early, it was one of (if not the) first complete microcomputer systems available here, and even then Dick Smith had a fairly large chain of stores. This gave it a major advantage over its rivals (aside from the fact that it is a pretty good system in teh first place). I also know someone who took one with him when he went to the Antartic for 12 months. :) Dick Smith, as I believe Andrew mentioned, sold a number of computers here. The Sorcerer was sold as a Sorcerer, but they also sold the TRS-80 clone he mentioned (the System 80), two Laser computers (the Dick Smith VZ-200 and VZ-300), the Creativision (the Dick Smith Wizzard), a kit computer (the Super 80), and an Apple II clone (the Dick Smith Cat). I was told the System 80 was a rebadged Laser, but I don't remember if they made TRS-80 clones, and can't find any evidence to prove that the System 80 wasn't DSE's own system. The Super 80 I believe was actually theirs, but I don't have one to check, and the Cat I assume was a rebadged clone - I have a lead on one, but I have to go collect it. :) The VZs and Wizzard were simply rebadged. After a while they just started importing PC clones like everone else. I do remember they had the one luggable, which I imagine was CP/M based, but I'd have to do some research to find out who's it was. Adam.

28 years, 2 months

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Setting-up a Sun shoebox.

by rcini＠email.msn.com

On Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 00:53:07 -0500 (EST), J. Maynard Gelinas" <jmg(a)iac.net> wrote: >>Yeah, I think you would be better off netbooting the thing via >>bootp rather than building a bootable tape. I have a couple 3/80's >>here at home, and there are bunches of old 3/50's lying around at work >>(the government owns them, they'll be there till the sun explodes). >>The 3/50 didn't support CDROM's from the PROM as I remember, so you're >>going to have to either make a bootable tape or netboot it. Do you >>have another UNIX or Linux box and a LAN nearby? I have a small Windows LAN at home, but no Unix boxes setup. I guess that this weekend I'll be setting one up... Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years, 2 months

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Datamaster ROMs (was Demography?)

by rcini＠email.msn.com

On Tue, 03 Mar 1998 01:56:54 +0000, David Wollmann <dwollmann(a)ibmhelp.com> wrote: >>I bet if I look in storage I still have a couple of parted-out S/23s >>from which I could lift the ROM you need. Since I'm not much on the >>electronics side of things (I'm just a poor board-swapper) give me the >>numbers and a general idea of where it's located in the box and I'll see >>if I have one. May take me a couple of weeks. It is the "09" ROS. Here's the diagram that I got from Philip Belben: ** TOP VIEW OF PLANAR SEEN FROM THE REAR ** _______________________________________________ | ====== ====== <-- NOT FOUND ON | | | 10 | | 11 | <-- SOME EARLY | | =3=40= =3=60= <-- MACHINES | | | | ====== ====== | | | 19 | | 0D | | | =7=60= =1=60= | | *********************** | | =PATCH= ====== * PHYSICAL LOCATION * | | | 18 | | 0C | * OF ROS MODULES * | | =7=40== =1=40= * FOR EACH ERROR CODE * | | *********************** | | ====== ====== | | | 17 | | 0B | -KEY- | | =6=60= =0=60= ====== | | | XX | | | ====== ====== =Y=ZZ= | | | 16 | | 0A | XX=POD ERROR CODE | | =6=40= =0=40= Y=ROS PAGE VALUE | | ZZ=HIGH ORDER BYTE OF | | ====== ====== FIRST ADDRESS IN | | | 15 | | 09 | ROS MODULE. | | =5=60= =0=20= | | ---(CABLE)-------------- | | ====== ====== | ====== | | | | 14 | | 02 | | | 09 | CO-PLANAR | | | =5=40= =0=00= | =0=20= BOARD. | | | | (FOUND ON | | | ====== | ====== SOME EARLY | | | | 13 | | | 10 | MACHINES.) | | | =4=60= | =3=40= | | | | | | | ====== | ====== | | | | 12 | | | 11 | | | | =4=40= | =3=60= | | | ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------- Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-03-03 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :As Joe said, HP classed a lot of things as 'calculators' to get :round daft export rules... :IIRC, officially the HP71B is a computer (QWERTY keyboard, Basic), :but the HP48 is a calculator (alphabetical keyboard, RPL). They use :virtually the same processor (Saturn), although the HP48 has a few :more machine instructions. cx ( <- hello, from firstborn) it's possible that marketing could have something to do with that too. we'd rather, and we suspect most engineers would rather, use the hp48 - but since rpl fits in well with hp's use of rpn in its calculator range, it probably fit better into the calculator family, and would have been more targeted at the engineers who cut their teeth on its predecessors. :> (or do their design engineers just design things they can hack :>between meetings? ;> ) :You mean _during_ meetings, surely... well, we meant between design meetings, when one would assume they'd all be focused on designing the next piece of kit they could hack during meetings with the pointy-haired bosses... ;> (now someone's going to turn round and tell us that the pointy-haired bosses in hp hack on their hp48s during meetings, and wear their hair that way because they don't know where to find a decent hairdresser. we've heard about hp.) -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 2 months

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Setting-up a Sun shoebox.

by rcini＠email.msn.com

On Mon, 02 Mar 1998 20:45:17 -0500, John Ruschmeyer <jruschme(a)exit109.com> wrote: >>suppose the first question is... what OS is on the PC? If you were >>running some unix variant (Linux or *BSD), then you could just netboot the >>Sun and go from there. I think what I'll probably too is trash the HD on an "experimental" 486 that I have and install either NetBSD or SCO OpenServer. From there, I should be able to create a boot tape and an install tape, and then start the install from the 3/50 >>Just a thought, your might want to join the Suns-At-Home mailing list Thanks for the SAH list. I already belong. No specific ideas from anyone there yet. Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

doug: :Intel themselves produced non-pc-compatible 286 machines (and :others, of course). Do we have any hypercube hackers here? oh, yes, we'd forgotten them... does anyone know where we can *get* one, more to the point? :> but we meant things that were more like the sirius 1 in conception - desktop machines, but not stuck with the cruddy pc architecture. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 2 months

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A possible (future) classic.

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-03-02 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :I bought several and am toying with making a few "ultra miniature" :computer accessories ("matchbox" computers?) off-topic, but... the computer we would really love to use has a main box that's the size of 2 3.5" floppy drives one atop the other, and standing on that is a little 6" mono crt with a resolution of 384x256. the keyboard is about the size of the keyboard on the cambridge z88. the processor is a hitachi 6309 running in native mode, and the software is forth. and you have to hold the thing when you put a disk in. needless to say, there's no hard drive, but the floppy can fit 1800 screens on it, so that's no problem. of course, it was never made... but we'd love to see it. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 2 months

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lurker bio

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

zane healy on ge635... :IIRC they ran either GECOS (General Electric Comprehinsive Operating :System), or the better known Multics. I believe they are also an they ran gecos. the ge645 would support multics, but the 635 didn't have the paging hardware. the multics faqs make great reading, btw. http://www.best.com/thvv/ (from memory, might be wrong, might be ~thvv) -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 2 months

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lurker bio

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

tony duell: :Another thing worth grabbing are old data books. There are standard :chips that are used in old computers - things like the 8271 disk :controller, the AM2900 bit-slice chips, 4004's and 4040's, etc that :don't appear in recent data books. A data sheet will help you to :determine if a chip has failed, and how to make a replacement if it :has. I'm trying to obtain all that I can. before we were seriously interested in this stuff - or rather, since we were designing 68000-based computers at the age of 12, between interests - we had a whole stack of data sheets donated by a teacher's boyfriend who worked for the uk distributors of sage before they became stride. (what happened to them, btw?) it's a damned shame that when we were about 16 we threw the whole lot out to regain some space in our bedroom. if only we knew then... :< we'd give anything to have them back. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 2 months

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Vector vs. Bitmap

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

max eskin... :I have heard enough on this topic without understanding what it :meant! What is the difference between vector and bitmapped graphics, :and who was first to use each? Why are vector graphics :stereotypically used in mainframes and bitmapped used in cheap :weenie "home computers"? dunno about first - but in vector graphics, you have a crt under direct control of the computer, and you tell it to go to a point, switch the beam on, go to another point, maybe switch the beam off, etc. etc. very high resolution, but refresh speed is inversely proportional to the number of lines on the display. in bitmapped graphics, you use a conventional rasterised display (the horizontal lines) and a map of bits which correspond to each line of the display and say whether the beam is on or off at that point. unless you count williams tubes, vector graphics came first, because you could use any old oscilloscope and memory was precious. now memory is cheap enough to make bitmaps viable in even the smallest computers, and monitors are readily available. the price paid is blocky lines. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 2 months

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Processor Technology Sol-20

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Does anybody know what the production numbers were for the Processor < Technology Sol-20? Also, does anybody know when PT went out of < business? Was it due to the Persci drives in the Helios II as I've < been told? A co-worker of mine said the Persci drive heads were < actuated by a voice coil and while they had an extremely fast access < time (for the day) they were unrelible. I'd appreciate any < information. crock! PT like many of the time were susceptable to the volitile market and over extended and went under. Good machine and the Persci drives were very late in the program when they were nearly gone. I think the SOL-20 was about 10,000 before the folded. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Processor Technology Sol-20

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<One more question to go along with this subject. I obtained a Sol but <have no disk drive. What does it take to add the disk interface and wha <disk drive would work. Any disk based software or OS available? The micropolos and NorthStar controllers and matching drives were common. Most any s100 floppy or hard disk system could be used if: =The controller would work well with a 2mhz 8080 (some DD controllers would not). =the controller fit in the available slots (there were only a few) =The controller didn't use too much power =The drive had their own power supply Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Processor Technology Sol-20

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

The North Star setup was pretty common on the SOL. I have CP/M set up for the SOL with a North Star disk system. You'd need a North Star controller board, and any standard external 5 1/4" drive. Kai > -----Original Message----- > From: George Rachor [SMTP:george@racsys.rt.rain.com] > Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 1:37 PM > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers > Subject: Re: Processor Technology Sol-20 > > One more question to go along with this subject. I obtained a Sol but > have no disk drive. What does it take to add the disk interface and what > disk drive would work. Any disk based software or OS available? > > George Rachor > > ========================================================= > George L. Rachor george(a)racsys.rt.rain.com > Beaverton, Oregon http://racsys.rt.rain.com > > On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Marty wrote: > > > Does anybody know what the production numbers were for the Processor > > Technology Sol-20? Also, does anybody know when PT went out of > > business? Was it due to the Persci drives in the Helios II as I've > > been told? A co-worker of mine said the Persci drive heads were > > actuated by a voice coil and while they had an extremely fast access > > time (for the day) they were unrelible. I'd appreciate any > > information. > > > > Thanks- > > > > Marty Mintzell > > > >

28 years, 2 months

2
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A possible (future) classic.

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Some of the drives that I've seen actually have the connectors extending out, as if they're on a seperate piece of equipment alltogether. Now, anyone know about what type of power connector (small, like on a 1.44MB floppy, large, like on normal HDDs, or non-standard?) Also, is there any way to make a 44-pin connector into a 40-pin connector (for a standard dekstop?) Also, I've gotten into the whole mini-PC idea. So, I want to build one. The hard drive'll probably end up being a Kittyhawk, I'm currently thinking an x86 CPU (as little power and size as possible. I know that the AMD Elan 400 COULD work but I haven't seen them resold, and I'd need drivers for the built in stuff, etc.) So, if anyone has any info on this, I'd love for them to contact me personally. (If they could put "Building a Mini-PC" or something in the subject, so I could know that it wasn't a ClassicCmp post...) TIA, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk <Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 4:17 PM Subject: Re[2]: A possible (future) classic. >Joe on Kittyhawk drives: > >> Do these drives use a standard interface? They're neat drives, it's a >> shame that HP quit building them. > >Gary pointed us at a web site: > >> http://www.allelec.com > >according to which they are 44-pin IDE the same as most laptop IDE >drives. I'm not quite sure how that would fit in such a small drive, >but... > >Philip. >

28 years, 2 months

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A possible (future) classic.

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<SurplusDirect (www.surplusdirect.com) had some 40mb PCMCIA hard drives o <sale a while back. Brand new units, priced around $20-$40, can't recall <exact price. I don't have data on PCMCIA and removable is not a requirement. I will look at them if I can find data on the interconnect as it's not going into a PC. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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A possible (future) classic.

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<3.5"? That's a "standard" off-the-shelf IDE disk, isn't it? 2.5" is <a standard off-the-shelf laptop IDE drive. 1.8" drives are also I'd rather 2.5 or smaller but a really cheap 3.5 is ok. <Are you looking for drives that are still produced in quantity? If not, <the Kittyhawk 20MB drive would be a good one to get (at the website <mentioned previously). The is at most a one up for myself(non commercial design). Allison

28 years, 2 months

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A possible (future) classic.

by allisonp＠world.std.com

The Kittyhawk is pretty small, and I don't know of any machine other tha <the Dauphin DTR-1 what used it. I don't think it's the smallest though. <Does anybody remember the Syquest SQ1100? Removable hard disks about th <size of a box of matches. They produced them for OEM eval, but I don't <think they ever made it to the retail channel. I have about 100 of them As someone building a smaller z280/cpm system I'm in the hunt for a IDE hard disk with a form factor 3.5" or smaller. I may be able to use PCMCIA but a forsee them as too expensive. The storage can be small as 10mb and anything over 60-80mb is gross overkill(I'll take bigger but I really dont need it). My other requirements is known good and real cheap. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Old CPU

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

I have acquired an old "kit" computer, circa 1977. The CPU has a trademark like a double script N, slanted to the right, with one superimposed on the other. Most of the other 10 or so smaller chips have the same mark. Adjacent to this is the number 804 (the CPU ID?) Other numbers are ISP-8A, /500D and SC/MP. It is the size and shape of a Z80 or 8085 Anyone have any idea what this is? Thanks Hans

28 years, 2 months

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A possible (future) classic.

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

PCMCIA drives are 2"W x 3 1/4"L x 3/8"H. Note that the SyQuest media size doesn't really count because the rest of the drive was in the PCMCIA card (heads, motor, electronics). I have a DTR-1 also, BTW... Kai > -----Original Message----- > From: Doug Yowza [SMTP:yowza@yowza.com] > Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 9:51 AM > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers > Subject: Re: A possible (future) classic. > > On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Doug Yowza wrote: > > > The Kittyhawk is pretty small, and I don't know of any machine other > than > > the Dauphin DTR-1 what used it. I don't think it's the smallest though. > > Does anybody remember the Syquest SQ1100? Removable hard disks about > the > > size of a box of matches. They produced them for OEM eval, but I don't > > think they ever made it to the retail channel. I have about 100 of > them. > > I just got off my lazy butt and actually compared the two drives side by > side. They are both the same width, but the kittyhawk is considerable > shorter in length and taller. > > SQ1100 media: 1.8" x 2.0" x 3/16" > Kittyhawk: 1.8" x 1 5/8" x 3/8" > PCMCIA-II drives would need to be 3/16" tall or under, I'd guess. > > (measurements done with a crude tape measure.) > > -- Doug

28 years, 2 months

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Setting-up a Sun shoebox.

by rcini＠email.msn.com

I finally got the various pieces together that I need to hopefully setup a shoebox for my 3/50. I have a copy of NetBSD on CD-ROM, the shoebox, and 60mb tapes. My question is this: what is the best way to setup the shoebox with NetBSD? I thought about hooking the shoebox and a CD up to a PeeCee and trying to create a bootable tape (I don't know if this is even possible), or copying the 68k distribution to the hard disk. If you read the FAQ on the CD, it almost sounds like you need a bootable system to be able to install it. Any thoughts?? Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years, 2 months

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Sun 2/120 (clone) available in the UK

by kevan＠heydon.org

Hi, I have a Sun 2/120 (actually a Computervision manufactured clone) that I don't have room for. Condition is unknown, but it does have keyboard, mouse, monitor and a few spare multibus boards. It is big and heavy, so collection from Cambridge UK is preferred but I would consider delivering to a location not that far from me. -- Kevan Old Computer Collector: http://www.heydon.org/kevan/collection/

28 years, 2 months

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More 34

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> [S/34 3-Phase?] > Naah, can't be. It doesn't have a 3-phase plug. It's a slightly smaller > version of the round Hubbel plug (3 pins. 3-phase needs 4, right?) on my > PDP-11 power boxes. Mine has power in the room still, I can power it up, but You can do three phase on only three wires - most long distance power lines are done that way - but that would be unearthed, and therefore not recommended. If it is a 190/208V version rather than a 220/240V version it is probably expecting two of the three phases plus ground. > nobody knows a userid/password to IPL it... > Is there some way around that? Dunno. Passwords are only 4 letters IIRC so shouldn't be that difficult to crack if you've got a terminal emulator card in a PC. I'm afraid a quick glance through the pocket reference hasn't revealed anything useful :-( Philip.

28 years, 2 months

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More 34

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> I did actually check this. It says 208. This is not awfully > informative, AFAIK, because the voltage fluctuates +/- 5 or so anyway > >Open the side opposite the CE panel, and look down by the 4 twinax > connectors. > >There shoud be a label saying what yours is wired for - Mine wants 204V > AC. Voltages like 204V and 208V mean it probably wants 3-phase. These are the phase-to-phase voltages on three phase systems where the phase to earth voltage is 117V and 120V respectively. It may only require two of the three phases, in which case you might be able to convert... The suggestion of using PC power supplies or similar is a good one but you may need something a bit more powerful. You need to know how much current it draws on each supply rail. I seem to recall that someone on this list has a working S/34. Could this person measure the current under various conditions? NB 5V rail current could be 100A or more, so don't just stick a multimeter in series with it! Use a proper shunt and millivoltmeter. A while back, I mentioned that I have some system/34 pocket references available to send to anyone with a s/34 who needs them. No-one has yet replied that I've seen. Any takers? The OS pocket reference is very thick (nearly 100 pages IIRC). Philip. PS Comparing the System/34 and the 8086 is not strictly fair - the 8086 appeared in laboratory tests in 1979 IIRC, while the S/34 was already on sale in 1977 I think. Things did shrink _very_ fast at that period! Also the S/34 has disks, - including my favourite floppy drive! - around 256K of memory, and other I/O that would have required several PC style boxes full of support chips, drives etc. for the 8086 in the late '70s.

28 years, 2 months

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Old CPU

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I have acquired an old "kit" computer, circa 1977. The CPU has a = <trademark like a double script N, slanted to the right, with one = <superimposed on the other. Most of the other 10 or so smaller chips <have = the same mark. National Semiconductor. <Adjacent to this is the number 804 (the CPU ID?) Other numbers are = <ISP-8A, /500D and SC/MP. there is a clue in the markings. The part numebr is ISP-8A/500D, aka SC/MP. The (D) in the part number says ceramic package. The part is implmented in an older P-channel MOS 3 voltage technology. A faster and single voltage Nmos version was about a year later (ISP-8A/600). <It is the size and shape of a Z80 or 8085 That means it has 40 pins. <Anyone have any idea what this is? That is the National Semiconductor SC/MP cpu on likely a evaluation kit board. there were two versions one had a calculator like terminal and the oter used rs232/tty interface to a terminal. The rom (5204) was a very small 512byte monitor. It was a an interesting cpu though that version was SLOW at 2-10uS per instruction. I like to collect these(SBCs) as they are interesting though often not very useful as implemented. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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A possible (future) classic.

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Joe on Kittyhawk drives: > Do these drives use a standard interface? They're neat drives, it's a > shame that HP quit building them. Gary pointed us at a web site: > http://www.allelec.com according to which they are 44-pin IDE the same as most laptop IDE drives. I'm not quite sure how that would fit in such a small drive, but... Philip.

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted: Exidy Sorcerer technical Information

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

Would anybody with SOrcerer technical information, including user group newsletters and just about any Sorcerer documentation please contact me directly? I'm trying to restore a pretty neato homebrew setup here and sure could use some tech specs. Includes a 5M hard drive, twin Micropolis drives and about 100+ disks of software, custom BIOS mods for HD and FD access.... the works. Cheers A

28 years, 2 months

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Demography?

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

>>I have a canon SX320!! >You didn't mention it in your list. I did get the right machine, didn't >I? I have a shoe-box full of program listings for it, except they're in >NZ and the thermal paper has probably faded to nothing by now. Yes, I checked the number this morning. My Canon SX320 was inadvertently left out of the list, along with... Sinclair ZX-81 (I've just ordered three unbuilt kits of these - still available NEW on the web, would you believe!!) Sinclair ZX-80 Sinclair Spectrum Tandy TRS-80 MC-10 (a whacking great 3581 bytes of program memory :) Canon 1614P (a punched card reading programmable desktop) A couple of Sorcerers Atari 800 Compucolor II Datanumerics DL8A ... I've forgotten what else I've forgotten. >Do you actually use it? I really can't remember much about it other >than that you programmed it like a calculator, one function per line, >and that alphanumeric output like prompts needed one line for each >character, so program listings tended to get rather long. Did it have a >tape storage or cartridges or something for programs? I have not switched this machine on, actually. It is very dusty and sitting in my office at work. I will be happy to take a pic and place on a website should anyone be interested. It had a strange sort of tape storage - sort of like a little toaster oven at the top right of the machine. Unfortunately, due to multiple moves, I no longer have the tapes for this unit :( Cheers A

28 years, 2 months

1
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Demography?

by peacock＠simconv.com

My name is Jack Peacock. I'm 42, based in Las Vegas (Nevada, not that other place in New Mexico). I got started in computers way back in 1971, on a Univac 1106, with fixed head and moving head FASTRAND drums. Back then the programming medium of choice was punch cards (yes, I even learned how to program 026 keypunches using drum cards), and if you were lucky a turn at the ASR33 teletype. Does anyone still remember that "other" character set besides Baudot, ASCII and EBCDIC? (Hint, 6 bit Univac character set, started with an F) I got started in the hardware side while working for Lockheed, building environmental monitoring instruments (LIDARs, multi-spectral scanners, low level radiation sample counters)). We needed a cheap data logger with some intelligence that could run unattended for long periods of time, or in aircraft. We had tried HP9830s (ever try flying one in a 2 seater helicopter?), and looked at National IMP-16s and DG Novas, all too big or expensive. Then one day a guy brought in the now famous issue of Popular Electronics, with the Altair kit. We got one, put it together in the lab, and promptly blew up the CPU board. In the early kits there was a tiny defect, seems all the gold fingers on the CPU card were shorted together with a hairline plating error on the card edge, almost too small to see. Know what happens when you put -12 on the +5 line in an 8080? Pieces of it almost hit the ceiling. From that point on, whenever we first turned on an S-100 kit, the warning to everyone else was "Flame On" so they could duck. MITS replaced the board (when 8080 CPUs were still $400 each) and the Altair worked! We actually used it for one project, but it was quickly retired when the IMSAI came out. We bought #17 from IMSAI in December 1975. The IMSAI was very cheap compared to what the other engineering sections who still used minis (DEC and DG) were doing in their projects. We outfitted the IMSAI with a floppy, paper tape, and a VDM CRT display, and we used it to write 8080 code for several years. The board that went into the instruments was the single board 8080 eval kit Intel was selling at the time (SDK-80?). Years later I found out some of the data loggers went more than 10 years in the field without repairs. Intel built good stuff even then. Freshly overconfident from getting an IMSAI to run at work, I bought one myself in 1977 after trying out my skills on a National SC/MP eval kit first. It took a lot of work, and some assistance from the E.E.s at work, but I got the IMSAI running. Virtually all my knowledge of digital electronics came from wire wrapping proto boards for the S-100. In my opinion, it was one of the best platforms for learning real-world electronic design, especially when it's your own money that goes up in smoke when you don't double-check the voltages first. I program for a living these days, incredibly dull accounting applications and tech support. I still have the S-100s, including that original IMSAI (even have the CPU chip left from the SC/MP board). I don't have too much opportunity these days to do electronics, but I keep a hand in designing 8051-based controller boards. Chances are you've seen one of the 8051 boards if you ever come to Las Vegas, they are inside some of the big casino signs on the Strip. The collection is modest: my treasured IMSAI, complete with 22 slot board and front panel, lovingly hand assembled, running CP/M 3 off a 5MB hard drive, Ithaca Z80B, 256KB RAM (still used for production once in a while, it's not a museum piece yet) The rest: an IMSAI VDP, which I work on once in a while several generic 8086 and 286 based S-100 boxes running Concurrent DOS an original IBM AT, circa 1985, upgraded first to a 386 with a Jet adapter, then to a Cyrix 486DR2 (the world's slowest 486, 8Mhz) a MicroVax II (KA630) in a BA-23 pedestal, with an RD54 and 16MB, VMS 5.3 a Vax 3600 (KA650) in a BA-123 box (upgraded MV II), 24 MB, VMS 6.2 several generic 386 PC clones, recycled as controllers on router tables in a machine shop for the moment

28 years, 2 months

2
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Demography?

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

Yeah; I'm currently studying with two kids (3 and 1). Believe me... it will be much much easier now rather than when you have other commitments. Do it sooner rather than later :) -----Original Message----- From: Russ Blakeman <rhblake(a)bbtel.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 6:57 PM Subject: Re: Demography? >R. Stricklin (kjaeros) wrote: > >> I'm 20 years old and am the sysadmin for Geoworks' (yes, that Geoworks) >> Seattle design centre. I spent two years at uni but tired of the >> academic attitude and puerile students so I dropped out to admin full >> time. I may go back one day, but I can't forsee yet what day it'll be. > >With a chance of sounding like an old mother hen since I'm twice as old as you >and "been there" - DO go back and don't put it off too long. Anymore they want >janitors to have technical degrees in "custodial engineering". Once the >kiddies get into the picture it's a really SOB to get to where you have the >time and resources.

28 years, 2 months

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Vector 3 info needed

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

Sam Ismail wrote: > On Sun, 1 Mar 1998, Russ Blakeman wrote: > > > Anyone know of a museum/collection site with info on this, or have info > > on it themselves? I'd like to see what it is before I decide to gut it > > for the drives or keep ot for my oddities collection. > > Do NOT gut this baby. It is truly a classic. I hope Marvin > (marvin(a)raing.org) pipes up about this because he seems to be the resident > Vector guru around here, but I haven't seen a post from him in a little > while. > > Add this one to your collection. > > Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Hey me too on this one --------------------------------------------------------------^^^^ Anyway I finally powered it up after jumpering the broken power toggle and it works as far as the monitor powering and giving me video garbage. The hard drive is a Seagate 5 mb and the floppy is a Tandon 720k belt drive. It appears to have a printer port as well and only one open connection in the card cage. Although a little dirty and dusty she's in beautiful shape needing a good repair and replacement of the antiglare mesh. If Marvin doesn't raise his ugly head (so to speak) I'll have to grab him by the trackball and see what he has to say about it. Add to my collection? I think not as the dining room is no longer a dining room, it's a computer docking bay. Thanks a bunch for the info... -------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years, 2 months

3
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VAX and DECstation Ultrix?

by sethm＠loomcom.com

A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text Size: 1058 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/19980302/68c466c8/at…

28 years, 2 months

1
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486 upgrade boards

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Does anyone have any upgrade board for PCs? I said 486, but I mean any such thing. This is part of a desire to find a way to salvage some systems. Does anyone have any MCA upgrade boards? There are some PS/2 286 towers, which I would take if I could upgrade them to something 32-bit ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

4
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

[tony duell] :> "lart"? :Lusr Attidute Readjustment Tool... What you want to use on the idiot :who's just fed a banana through the card reader :-) hehehe :> the only irritating thing about you, tony, is that everything we say we want, you pop up and say you've got ;> we have a feeling that eventually all obsolete computer equipment in britain will gravitate to chez duell... :I always thoguht the Commodore method of keeping the disk turning :at the same speed and changing the data rate made more sense. :Certainly seeking would be faster as you wouldn't have to wait for :the disk speed to change and stabilise. on the other hand, it makes the electronics more difficult, as suddenly you have to design a pll that will reliably lock to about 10 different data rates, rather than just one, not to mention making sure the controller can handle it. to make it practical to decode in software, the apple probably got it right - and let's face it, certainly in later years commodore never really got the hang of the speed disks should run at... also, it's worth bearing in mind that the mac had a very fine grain of control over the speed of the disk drive originally, and could bump it up a notch (out of 400 or so) if it was running a little on the slow side. because the data decode was in software, that was feasible. :> it wasn't a cheap design, but it was what the ibm should have :>been if it *had* to use that particular architecture... :Having looked at a number of non-PC 8088/8086 machines, I am :convinced that _all_ of them are superior to the IBM PC... not hard, given the design principles of the pc. on the other hand, they're still hamstrung by the basic architecture of the thing. were there any non-pc-compatible 286 machines produced? the original apricot xen series springs to mind, but how good was that? [daybreak] :> hmm - so how much did you pay for it then...? :> :\pounds 10.00 including 19" mono monitor, floppy drive and tape :streamer, but missing the keyboard and mouse. You're right - I did :buy it. just call us psychic ;> [tiger] :Rumour was that the selling price for the CPU unit (The CPU was in :the keyboard case - it looks a little like a BBC micro with :multi-coloured function keys) would have been around \pounds 3000. :No wonder they never sold any... no wonder. a case of not only completely missing the market, but also the point... -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

3
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486 upgrade boards

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

That's one of the things with PC's... they're all software-standard, but hardware versatile. For 486's, there's the Pentium Overdrives that some boards were equipped with (but Intel cut off the overdrives early), then there's also about 50 differnet chips that actually plug into the ZIF Socket, the fastest being the Evergreen one, which is based on a AMD K5 133, and has equivelent performance to that of a Pentium 102MHz. For the Zeineth PCs that the government bought in the 80's, the CPU was on a daughterboard, so that you could upgrade that to a 386, but God help you try to find one of those. -----Original Message----- From: Max Eskin <maxeskin(a)hotmail.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 2:13 AM Subject: 486 upgrade boards >Does anyone have any upgrade board for PCs? I said 486, but I mean >any such thing. This is part of a desire to find a way to salvage some >systems. Does anyone have any MCA upgrade boards? There are some PS/2 >286 towers, which I would take if I could upgrade them to something >32-bit > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

1
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Help, Anyone know what this is?

by wpe＠interserv.com

Found in a box of stuff rescued (via a friend)..FWIW the box this thing was in, was IBM factory labeled... Board, measuring approx 6 in x 3 in. at the top left is a centronix female connector. About 3/4 in to the right, is what appears to be a RCA type phono jack. The part number on the board is 79F4761.. There appears to be two (memory?) sockets on it, one of which is empty, the other has a label on it, that reads as follows: 239X .STD V0.86 92-2-27 23A7 Inscribed directly on the chip is: -150DC 1506NOT (copyright symbol) 1988 AMD Can anybody clue me in on this thing? AdvTHANKSance, Will

28 years, 2 months

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Hello

by dastar＠wco.com

To: Jim Sciuto, "Gold Recovery Expert" http://www.tiac.net/users/quiksand/goldtek.htm I invite you to take the time to discover the wonderful efforts a group of dedicated individuals around the globe are engaged in to preserve some of the historically significant vintage computer equipment that you may be scrapping for its precious metals. In some cases, the machines you are melting down have more historic value than any monetary value you may be extracting from their circuits. I realize this is how you make your living, but I think you will find the efforts of these computer preservations at least interesting, if not compelling. Any assistance you can afford us in preserving the more rare artifacts of our computer heritage that you come in contact with or possesion of would be much appreciated. I invite you to visit the Vintage Computer Festival web page: http://www.siconic.com/vcf Sincerely, Sam Ismail Vintage Technology Cooperative http://www.siconic.com/vcf

28 years, 2 months

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lurker bio

by jpl15＠netcom.com

Greetings list-friends.... Though I mainly Lurk here, with your kind indulgence I would like to add another fiber to the 'WRU' thread now extant, because it is so fascinating seeing the "unity-in-diversity" theme alive and well. I am 46 and currently chief engineer at one of the big LA movie studios. It's an awful lot of fun with a little stress thrown in >from time to time, just to keep me awake. I have two inter-related Main Interests: music and electronics. I began piano at 6, organ at 12, and in HS and college played also various things with bows and strings. When I was 11, my father took me to his work one saturday, and I was allowed *inside* the glass-enclosed shrine where the newly installed GE 635 lived in all it's glory. I was utterly hooked. I had to have one, right then, in my room, mine all mine. It was the *smell* also, the warm electronics, the smell of the tape, and the sound... After college (BSEE) and the Draft, I worked at various music-related tech jobs thru the 70's and early 80's, then did some years as a systems analyst and data comm products manager for a Big Phone Company. Got my fill of computer-programming; I'm a hardware guy. Along the way I filed some patents, wrote a few papers and some short stories, and recorded hours of often-forgettable music. Then the movie business happened, and the rest is geography. Currently I have six PDP-11 systems in various states of being and about twenty or so micros and related items strewn all over the house... my living room now looks like a circa-Seventies college computing center. I also have a Pent-100 machine under W95, an AST 486/33 for fax and voice mail, and a Mac PPC and MAC SE in my home studio... which brings up my other (sort-of related) collection, vintage electronic instruments. I have many older keyboards and synth modules, including a pretty big Moog and a few ARPS, etc. I have a fantasy of running Music IV (or Csound) under Unix on the PDP 15 with period DACs providing signals to the Moog.... a living early 70's music research lab. Maybe the Minc-11.... naw, never mind. I've held a Ham radio ticket for many years, and just now I'm about two weeks away from getting a pilot's license, *if* the examiner and the weather are co-incident and *if* I pass the damn checkride... oops, off topic. sorry. I share Tim Shoppa's concern for preservation of recorded media, and I am very active in the restoration and preservation of the record of our society before it is gone forever. This is the main drive for my collection.... also I have, like Sam, many thousands of books, and among them several dozen computer-related ones, from the late forties on. It's very true: anyone can get hardware, but the docs, well, there's another thing entirely. I have a webpage, which I need badly to revise, but here is a view of some of the collection: www.lightsound.org. Now I really *must* get it brought up-to-date.. ;} Okay: enough bandwidth for one evening. E-mail is welcome and checked often. Cheers John

28 years, 2 months

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Demography?

by rcini＠email.msn.com

Well, here's my bio: I am a 31-year-old banker in Syosset (Long Island), New York. Many of my waking hours involve lending millions to near-bankrupt companies without a clue. It's not sexy, but it's a job <g>. As expected, I worked at Radio Shack from high school through college (I even got a 5-year service pin) Anyway, I digress. I really began collecting old computers about three years ago. It all started with the VIC-20 that I got when I was in junior high school (my all-time favorite; I learned 6502 machine language on that machine. Snif, snif. Sigh). From there, I added a Fat Mac that I owned in college. Then, a PET 4032 system (a gift from my former junior high school computer teacher), an IBM Datamaster (blown F8 ROM :-( Now a useless POS), two Tandy Model 1's (one 4k, one 16k, with expansion chassis; works fine), a complete Model 100 system (with DVI and monitor), and an original IBM PC with expansion chassis. That was it for a long time. Then, I found this group... Well, I've loaded up on an Apple ][+, an Apple /// with a ProFile HD, several more VIC-20's (spares if anyone needs parts), a C64, several other CBM parts, a Compaq SLT/286 and dock (not really a classic, but free, all 25+ lbs of it), an original Atari 2600 in the box, a complete Apple //gs system, a Mac SE/30, and a Northstar Horizon with many random boards (this is my next fix-up project). I also have some software that I've collected (not all originals, though): DOS 1.1 through 6.22, Windoze 1.01, 2.0, 3.0, etc., VisiCalc, Lotus, and others. Then came my "drive and get it" phase, aka, the too big and heavy to ship. I have a Sun 3/50 and shoebox (more on this later), a DEC uVax-I in a BA23 case with several RD52 drives, and a complete PDP-11/34 system. This was the best - a complete system, just as if the guy ordered it 20 years ago with all manuals and enough spares to last a lifetime. I still don't have a complete inventory of the spare parts, but the rack has 2 RK05 drives, the CPU, and an expansion chassis. I just picked-up several RK05 disk packs with the original RT-11 distribution on it. It came with several boxes of documentation, and several binders that clip into a metal holder (like would hold the OED dictionary). My major focus from here on (because my wife has *suggested* that I have enough computers) is fill-in stuff: * Commodore software/hardware (cartridge slot expander, speech synth, IEEE card, games) * Apple game software/hardware (i.e., paddles and joysticks) * Apple Lisa (not really fill-in, but I can always slip one by...) * IMSAI 8080 (this one is pre-authorized by the "computer police") * Copy-II-PC card * PDP stuff for transferring files (maybe a paper tape reader/punch). I'm also in the process of getting an RX02 drive for my system. * Embedded/SBC stuff (like a KIM-1 or SYM-1) * Intel iAPX432 processor set I also am looking for non-classic stuff along the lines of embedded-PC stuff (x86 PC card on an ISA backplane, for example; for experimentation). I also have a passing interest in robotics (I'm specing a Mars rover style autonomous robot), gardening, and golf. Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

[tony duell] :> Looser Attitude Readjustment Tool. LART. Usually a big stick, :>but can be anything handy that can inflict pain and suffering :>upon loosers who don't know a calculator from a computer and :>think Bill Gates is Good. :Well, my calculator has a homebrew I2C interface on it, which I've :used to control a robot arm,etc. I've written self-modifying RPL on :it, and I've programmed it in its native (Saturn) machine code. I'm :not sure I can tell a calculator from a computer... erm... doesn't that beg the question - does hewlett-packard actually know the difference between a calculator and a computer...? (or do their design engineers just design things they can hack between meetings? ;> ) -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

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Vector vs. Bitmap

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I have heard enough on this topic without understanding what it meant! What is the difference between vector and bitmapped graphics, and who was first to use each? Why are vector graphics stereotypically used in mainframes and bitmapped used in cheap weenie "home computers"? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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SB180 (was Demography?)

by rcini＠email.msn.com

Sam: > 1 SB180 with SCSI adaptor and 20meg HD(also used frequently). I think that that is Steve Ciarcia's 64180-based SBC, which ran various forms of CP/M. It was featured in the Sept and Oct 1985 issues of Byte (which I just happen to have; I can fax you the article if you want). I'd love to get one of those...I even saw a message once in comp.os.cpm that one of the co-authors was trying to work a deal with Steve to unearth an old stock of those and offer them for sale. Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================ Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 19:29:47 -0800 (PST) From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Demography? Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.980301192615.1620D-100000@shell> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sun, 1 Mar 1998, Allison J Parent wrote: > Far as I can tell one of the few active women in legacy(old machines are > us) computing. For me thse old system were the computer I couldn't afford > when I was playing with them new. Well, unless someone else pops up, you're probably the ONLY woman into this sort of thing. You're like the Grace Hopper of vintage computer enthusiasts :) > 1 SB180 with SCSI adaptor and 20meg HD(also used frequently) BTW, what's this? Someone is going to sell me one and all I know is that it runs CP/M. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!

28 years, 2 months

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Enrico: model I

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

whatever happened to going private with stuff like this?! this is more off topic than anything else. In a message dated 98-03-02 02:46:52 EST, somebody started flaming: << Enrico: I have many Model 1 computers... as a matter of fact, I sent one to you! So don't think you just made a great 'caught-me' remark. I do have many. I don't, however, have a damn 4k Model 1 without the keypad on the right. That is what you're looking for, isn't it? Oh, I suppose you changed your mind -- again!?! Gees, Enrico, you never stop do you? I am being completely honest with you, what is it that you think I am hiding anyway? Black and white: I have model 1 computers, many of them. I have 0 Model 1 computers that you are looking for!! Figure it out!! Not Black and white: Why you are a complete idiot!?! Leave me alone until I e-mail you and tell you I have a Model 1 computer, circa 1978, with 4k of memory, and no keypad, ok? Damn, Enrico, I was even doing you a favor and looking for one for you.... You really know how to spoil someone's day, CORD >>

28 years, 2 months

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More 34

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I did actually check this. It says 208. This is not awfully informative, AFAIK, because the voltage fluctuates +/- 5 or so anyway >Open the side opposite the CE panel, and look down by the 4 twinax connectors. >There shoud be a label saying what yours is wired for - Mine wants 204V AC. >------- > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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More 34

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Today was my first major interaction with the system/34, unfortunately on 1/2 hour long. Next monday, I can stay there 2-8 PM if I want to... I made the following discoveries: a)It's on casters b)It has a 65MB hard drive c)It's not all that dusty. By virtue of a, I moved it to reveal the CE panel, which had all of the floppies and a little error code booklet tucked inside. This booklet is fairly useless now that IBM doesn't support the 34, but it does list all of the parts and their names. There is a thing that I saw called the DC distribution panel. I was thinking that I might switch the power supply's outputs with the outputs for a normal PC AT PSU, of course not powering the drives. The booklet does imply that the PSU outputs -4, -5, 5,6,8.5,-12,12,-24, and 24 volts. Knowing this I ought to be able to get a couple of PC psus and run it. Next step: finding a room that has power to it - this one doesn't... ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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More 34

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Yes, it is. That's the reason for all this trouble, that I don't know how to get it to run without a 220 volt outlet (it's in a storage room) Now, my question is a bit dumb, I suppose, but why is it that when Intel made the 8086 (which I heard was about as powerful as the 34), IBM made this huge half-ton box only to leave it mostly empty anyway? >Just curious, isn't the S/34 a 220v box? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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Thanks and TRS-80 Score (was Re: Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week))

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> The first trap is that this monitor has a live (hot) chassis, or at lea <> the 115V models do. The video input is opto-isolated so that the TRS-80 <> itself can be grounded/floating. This means that you need to be more BIG TIME!!!! Take all the care in the world with this one. FYI the monitor is isolated from the trs80 via opto isolators so there is no DC or AC connection between the two. The optos are pressed real hard to run at video (luminance) rates so they can sometime be a cause of porr video. <> careful than usual when working inside this unit - mains on all the <> exposed metalwork is a good way to get killed! In fact, I'd say that yo <> shouldn't attempt to repair this unit unless (a) you have an isolation <> transformer and (b) you know why you should use one. Having worked on these at Tandy I can say first hand that is no lie! I've been wacked a few time over the years, it hurts...if your lucky! <I've done some simple work (replacing flybacks, logic boards, etc) on <VT100's previously - if I do decide to open this thing up, rather than Vt100s are line isolated and a bit safer save for the hi-volts on the CRT. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Epson QX-10 / AT&T 3B1

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

[tony duell] :> yes. shame about VALDOCS really. it seems to have killed forth's :> reputation for all time. it was reputedly an integrated package :>written in forth - unfortunately, it seems, the people who wrote :I thought it was written in Stoic, which although a threaded :stack-based language like Forth, was somewhat different in the :details. not that different. we have a source listing for stoic on our hard drive at the moment (you want it? we'll mail it) and the major differences >from forth were (a) it used a file system with 6 letter names, (b) it compiled everything, even immediate stuff, into a temporary buffer then executed the buffer, (c) you pushed textual words using 'xxxx rather than forth's method of having "WORD" pick up the next word in the input stream. :Not forgetting HP's RPL language which is Forth done even better. :You can push _anything_ onto the stack - integers, reals, strings, :even programs :-) I think the HP28 is now 10 years old, so we can :mention it here. ah, yes... we finally got hold of the dos development suite for this. it's a lovely language, but it departs somewhat from the simplicity and directness we like in forth. on the other hand, it's great for its chosen application, and if you're a lisp fan too... (yes, we are. symbolics 3600 on offer, anyone...? ;> ) what we'd like to see, though, is a forth effectively incorporating the concepts in smalltalk (ie everything on the stack is an object, possibly with a tag bit to differentiate between integers and anything else). have to start hacking one... -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

To everyone: Some judicious snipping of quoted email replies would make it MUCH easier to read, and really is common net-etiquette these days. As far as want-list; Me, I'm open to trades - I have a spare Exidy Sorcerer and assorted oddities. I'd like some of the early single boards - such as sym, etc. Andrew

28 years, 2 months

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lurker bio

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From: John Lawson <jpl15(a)netcom.com> <fantasy of running Music IV (or Csound) under Unix on the PDP 15 with <period DACs providing signals to the Moog.... a living early 70's <music research lab. Maybe the Minc-11.... naw, never mind. Forget unix or music from a -15 it was more suited to industrial control. I did do some serious hacking with music back some using the altair to drive a string of smal 8085 based boards(one per voice). <about two weeks away from getting a pilot's license, *if* the <examiner and the weather are co-incident and *if* I pass the damn <checkride... oops, off topic. sorry. Well if you don't pass the check ride the instructor should be shot for sending you unprepared. I have a license for 20 years and a Cessna150 to enjoy it in. Docs for systems, board and the like are a resource that is underestimated. There are so many s100 systems and boards that are mostly useless without docs as it's impossible to set them up or use them. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

> >> >> >> >> ah, if we're going to get on to the "what do i wish for?" list... > >Well, I don't recomend killing me to get your hands on my little >collection... And I rarely sell machines. > >> a perq. any perq. please, PLEASE!!!... > >Keep looking... There are still some out there. No, my 4 (!) are not for >sale... What is a perq and why is it good? >> >> any system based on the 32xxx (a ceres would be nice, but we doubt >> they're available...) > >More practically, there are still a number of Whitechapel MG1's about. >Repairing one is not hard - the main problem is the NiCd battery used for >starting it. A Technical manual does exist... > >> >> an original archimedes, with the original arthur os and the gui in basic > >Hmm... I still have my Arthur programmer's reference manuals, but I doubt >I could find a set of the ROMs, alas... > >> >> a dg nova > >Again, keep looking. They were popular in embedded control systems at one >time. Mine came off an electron microscope.... Speaking of novas, I finished Soul of a New Machine. Great book! >> a linn rekursiv (wouldn't you? ;> ) > >Ooooh... Now that's a machine I don't have, and would like! Is the machine as weird as the name? >> >> one of the two machines we know about that ever used a z8000 (olivetti >> m20 or onyx..?) > >What about a Zilog 8000 ? It was/is (there's at least one still >operational) a Z8000-based unix box. Mine has an SMD disk controller and >a QIC tape drive. It's built in slices about 2' square - the bottom slice >is empty, the next contains just the RS223 port distribution panel, the >next contains the drives, and the top slice contains the cardcage. >There's the CPU card, a memory card (some machines had ECC memory, I >think), and assorted device controllers. > > >> >> a perq > >Does the fact that you've listed 'perq' about 4 times mean that you want >one from each series? > >> >> an original cp/m system or three (hm systems; the minstrel always >> appealed) > >What do you mean by 'original'? If you mean a machine designed to run >CP/M, then there must still be some RML 380Z's (very solid UK CP/M >machines used in schools) about. Ditto for DEC rainbows, Amstrads >(although I don't like those myself), BBC Z80 second processors, Epson >QX10's (IMHO one of the nicest CP/M machines ever built), etc. Was CP/M made for any specific machine originally, kind of like DOS was made for a PC (leaving Seattle Computers aside for a moment) >MDS800, then good luck in finding one. > >> >> any really weird 70s mini (small honeywell machine, perhaps? tony duell >> speaks highly of the philips p850...? maybe an icl thingy...?) - must be I believe the system/34 was a Mini. I think that's what those UPS tractor-trailers are for :) >of it, although as it was the machine that got me into computer >collecting, I do have a somewhat biased love of it. Mind you, with 2K >(max) of memory, 16 CPU registers, a strange instruction set, and a CPU >based on a hard-wired state machine rather than microcode, it must be >worth saving. Isn't microcode hard-wired anyway? >Philips P800 series machines are not at all common, alas... > >> nice to put forth on, though >> >> oh, did we mention that if someone would provide us with a perq at >> reasonable cost and proximity to bradford, we would be quite delighted >> and mount a one-person campaign to get him or her canonised? > >Which reminds me... I must Canon-ise my PERQ again - that is, repair the >Canon laser printer port. The crystal oscillator lost its legs, and while >I was trying to repair it, the local cat stepped on the device and the >quartz crystal plate is now in about 100 pieces... I must try to obtain a >29.8MHz xtal. > >Just out of curiousity, why aren't you looking for the following >machines? > >DEC PDP8, PDP11, Vax, any other PDP's? What does PDP mean, exactly? Is it something like the PC standard? >AMT DAP (Distributed Array Processor) Which is? >Anything transputer-based Which is? >The Xerox D-machines (somewhat PERQ-like in many ways) - Brian Rosen was >involved in the design of both AFAIK. The only problem with these is that >low level hardware/software docs seem to be next-to-impossible to obtain. >The PERQ has the advantage that there are some _very_ clueful enthusiasts >(not me, alas) who will help you with just about any problem. > >Torch XXX, quadX, etc I can just imagine "Sabrina's jungle dungeon - hosted on a Torch XXX" >Tiger. Now there's a strange machine.. A Z80 + 64K RAM, a 6809 + 8K RAM, >RS232, parallel, cassette ports, 1200/75 baud modem, 7220 graphics chip + >96K RAM, etc, etc, etc. It was going to be sold as a home computer... So, how much RAM total? > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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Demography?

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

I have a canon SX320!! >I think the first 'computer' I programmed seriously was a Canon SX320 >calculator, which was a desktop machine with a full keyboard and 40? col >printer. I also did Fortran and Algol-W programming at highschool.

28 years, 2 months

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Zenith Luggable/DEC sw

by lwalker＠mail.interlog.com

On the weekend I picked up a mint Zenith (luggable). Nosing around the thrift I also found 4 10pack containers of DEC Formula One 5 1/4 RX50 floppies. 1 of which contained programs. As well there were 2 Decmate II Word Processor manuals (no disks) and a Decmate II Hardware Documentation manual with 2 disks. Sys. Overview and Sys.Test Diskette. The program disks were a 4part AT&T MSDOS v.3.3 rel 1.01 ; a clock patch and 2 Test Diag. marked PC 6300 and an HP labelled disk with Vectra msdos 3.1. $30 (Can.) A real score. The Zenith is similiar to the Kaypro and Compaq luggables with a cooler design. Along with the int. monitor it has a double pop-up A/B drives and 3 ports on the rear as well as an RCA looking jack. (for an external monitor ?). Best of all it booted with the AT&T disks. The Disks marked PC6300 did nothing and the Vectra gave me a no command.com present tho I was able to get a dir. listing which showed one. Anyone with info on this 'chine ? I imagine I was just lucky and the DEC disks came in to the shop separately, but a nagging idea of the Rainbows ability to boot msdos came to mind. I also finally found a DEC k-b for a long-dormant Rainbow which has a 5meg Seagate. When I get the 15-pin video cable I'll be able to check further. ciao larry lwalkerN0spaM(a)interlog.com

28 years, 2 months

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Telebit modems

by jmg＠iac.net

OK, so this is off topic for the list charter, but I have a friend with a Telebit V.34 28.8 modem (part number AP-8810SA-001) which doesn't have a power adapter. Does anyone know (just hoping - not really expecting) what this thing is looking for in terms of power, and if it takes a common transformer? Thanks! J. Maynard Gelinas

28 years, 2 months

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Pretty good week

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-02-26 22:08:24 EST, somebody wrote: << Geez, where do you guys keep all these computers??? >> well, with living single, and a 3bedroom house for me and my dawg, it's easy! =D david

28 years, 2 months

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Demography?

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

since everyone else is at it... the identity we received at birth is available to anyone who asks, but we adopted the collective name "communa" a few moths back, on realising that we're multiple. it's raised a few eyebrows since, but that's life. we're 23, and our first computer was a second-hand zx81 at the age of 9, followed with reasonable swiftness by a new zx81 and memotech rampack. the rampack died after a few years of non-use, and by then we had moved on and up, and weren't much interested in the zx81 any more (we maintain that attitude; it was a handy springboard, it was nice to have used one, but it was the first and only eminently *disposable* computer...) over the years we also acquired: * a commodore 16, complete with tally roll printer; * a memotech mtx512; * a sinclair ql with serial port - we are currently waiting for a friend at work to throw some more bits our way; * a trigem xt with 40Mb hard disk, hgc monitor and panasonic kxp1170 printer - faithful workhorse for 5 years; * an amstrad nc100 that we don't use anywhere near as much as we should; * an original zx spectrum 48; * a spectrum +2; * a 286 motherboard, then a 386sx motherboard, an old case someone left behind on doing a runner, a digital vga mono monitor and olivetti card, 4 1Mb simms, and a win95 keyboard, for use as a convenience system (and for internet surfing); * an ncr 286 computer that looks like a paving slab and came with ega colour monitor and lovely keyboard; * and there may well be a decstation 3100 going at work if we can arrange / wangle it. (plus a ridiculously heavy 300Mb scsi hard drive box that feels as if someone forgot to remove the lead casing...) a preponderance of home computers and odd pcs (with the exception of this 386, none are particularly standard inside), which we are not very happy about - hence our published wish list. for our living, we do things with webs and databases - sometimes in connection - with a little company based in sleepy gargrave (typical village - 3 shops, 3 pubs, about 200 houses, pathetic public transport) and have done for a year, during which time we have seen the depth of our overdraft *increase*. (hmm...) however, it does mean that now we have the money to pursue a dream, which is to acquire old and interesting hardware and write operating systems for them. and therein lies our interest in classic computers; less for the beasts themselves, more for the programming challenges and joys that they would present. hence we'll focus on specific architectures rather than specific machines. it's also something of a revolt against the trend in the modern computer market, especially with regard to software. before that, we studied computer science at bradford university, but lost interest once we realised that we already knew most of what we were being told, and didn't particularly want to know the rest. we nearly failed; we got a degree out of it, just. we'd prefer a job that tallied better with our interests; on the other hand, there's a novelist here trying to get out, and we suspect that this would represent our future career development. (but because of who we are, we don't want to write a book until we've written the word processor. :> ) and we'd also like to have more time to ourself and our interests. oh, and we're devoted to our three cats, firstborn, blackie and calliope - our babies. they come first in all considerations. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

ah, if we're going to get on to the "what do i wish for?" list... miracle qxl card. (but a friend at work has promised us a sack of ql pieces, so that shouldn't be a problem) a perq. any perq. please, PLEASE!!!... any system based on the 32xxx (a ceres would be nice, but we doubt they're available...) an original archimedes, with the original arthur os and the gui in basic a dg nova a perq a novix card for pc, or a metaforth board a linn rekursiv (wouldn't you? ;> ) one of the two machines we know about that ever used a z8000 (olivetti m20 or onyx..?) a perq an original cp/m system or three (hm systems; the minstrel always appealed) any really weird 70s mini (small honeywell machine, perhaps? tony duell speaks highly of the philips p850...? maybe an icl thingy...?) - must be nice to put forth on, though oh, did we mention that if someone would provide us with a perq at reasonable cost and proximity to bradford, we would be quite delighted and mount a one-person campaign to get him or her canonised? -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

7
7
0 0

not the Sys/34 again!!!

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I will finally get to the thing Monday to see if I can modify the PSU for 110 volts. It's probably a bit late to ask, but does anyone have recommendations for what to look for, as well as what tools I should take? Is the PSU takeapartable with a screwdriver? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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gold recovery

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Let the seller beware when it comes to these recovery shops. Unless you bother to find an independent assessment of your metals, you have no idea whether they're basing their price on the actual gold content or not. They're just finding a price at which you'll surrender the goods. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Hmmm, I like this, a wish list thread. Me too. A PDP-8E/F/M A PDP-8A DOCS for an IMSAI IMP48 Single board computers; Intel sdk85, moto 6800d1 or d3, AIM65, SYM65 Allison

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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Altair 8800 - Should I buy it?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Does the upgrade significantly hurt the value <of it? Or are the Cromemeco boards equally <valuable? No and sorta. As a pure 8800 it's lower value as it's not complete. The comemeco are later boards but of some value especially if the manuals are with them. The backplane upgrade was common(nearly required!). <I have a pretty good idea of what the Altair <8800 is worth in it's original configuration <but I am in the dark when it has been upgraded. <Does anyone know where I might find an original <Altair 8800 CPU card and 8 slot motherboard. I <have a MITS ram card. The original backplane was 4 slots and real sloppy timing wise due to poor electrical construction. Faster z80s boards did not work reliably in them. The 8800 did not have an 8slot (it was two 4s), MITS never offered one that I know of. Likely the 8 slot was yet another aftermarket item. Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Demography?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<My first calculator, a Sinclair Cambridge, did that as well. Perhaps <someone on the list could enlighten us as to whehter this was a common <weakness of early calculators, and possibly why those who wrote the code <them allowed it to happen ;-) many of them were hard logic and not "programmed micros". Logic errors are the responseable element and it was common for the same(literal) chip to appear in different branded calculators. later designs did however use the likes of the TMS1000, a 4bit data oriented, 8bit instruction word masked rom single chip micro. NEC, MOTO and a few others had parts in that market as they could be made cheap in volume with their masked roms. Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
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Altair 8800 - Should I buy it?

by altair8800＠hotmail.com

I found an Altair 8800 yesterday in a computer repair shop. It has been upgraded with a 16 slot motherboard and the MITS cards were replaced with a Cromemco CPU and Cromemco 64k ram card. Does the upgrade significantly hurt the value of it? Or are the Cromemeco boards equally valuable? The owner will sell it for $500 and will throw in some other non-MITS S-100 cards (Cromemco TUART, Cromemco Quadart, Godbout 32k ram card, etc. I have a pretty good idea of what the Altair 8800 is worth in it's original configuration but I am in the dark when it has been upgraded. Does anyone know where I might find an original Altair 8800 CPU card and 8 slot motherboard. I have a MITS ram card. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Bob ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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Walnut Creek CP/M CDROM Discontinued

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca> wrote: >And you also have to consider that at least 95% of the Walnut >Creek CD-ROM was simply assembled from materials lying around >the net and on various CP/M BBS's. I'm not sure how they >got permission for the remaining 5% (things such as the Ampro >Little Board BIOS sources, etc.) That's the big pitfall of publishing supposedly public domain CDs... even if you are absolutely careful and secure written permission >from everyone who claims to have made something on the disc, you can never be quite sure that someone wasn't telling the truth, especially if there's any sort of compensation involved. If you redistribute something that the creator doesn't want distributed, you could be in for trouble. And of course it takes a lot of effort to nicely assemble and categorize the thousands of files on a CD. That makes a good product, but not all CDs are as good as they could be. lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk wrote: >erm, isn't the walnut creek cd-rom predominantly stocked with the same >stuff that is on oak? which kind of implies that so long as you aren't >doing it for profit, it's just another kind of distribution. It can be tough to tell who really owns what, in terms of the "collection copyright." By means of analogy, a publisher who makes a book of poems retains the copyright of the way they assemble the poems, and they need to secure the right to redistribute each poem, but it doesn't mean they own the poems. It's possible that the people who organized the Oakland site never considered that they were sitting on a valuable property. In 1994 my company secured permission to press a CD of the popular 3D model ftp site called "Avalon" without any payment whatsoever. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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Demography?

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

I might as well jump on while everyone else does... I'm not too new, not too old to this list, starting in October/November. I'm 12 years old, and therefore, as far as I can tell, the youngest person in this list. (Although, I could, of course be wrong) I'm the sond of an American diplomat, and have lived in Bahrain for nearly 3 1/2 years. This July, I'm moving to Guyana, after going back to Witicha, Kansas and DC. As the age implies, I probably haven't been into computers too long. My main computer actually is my first, it WAS a Compaq Presario CDS 633, with a 486SX 33MHz processor, 4MB of RAM (immeidately upgraded to 12MB), and, after upgrading, now it's a 486DX/2 66, 28MB RAM, 2.1GB HDD, but still with the same video, sound and controller cards as before. It's role is getting slowly replaced with my new Cyrix 200 that I built in December. (The 31st, just before Midnight). Back in 1994, when I got my first computer, I was always interested in programming. I started with QBasic, and still use BASIC to do most work. Just today I've made my first (partially useable) C++ program. Let's see: I'm unemployed (except always bored as a 7th grade student), am not married (as you could guess, living in the Mid East's getting to me), have no children and do not live in New York. But, in my spare time I work with my friend Zack Boyd (we met on the Internet) on the web page, The Review Guide (at http://members.theglobe.com/ReviewGuide/index.html) We hope to be moving soon to a .com address, just after we get reviews up, etc. It's basically for fun, to try new products, and, for me, mostly to get credibility for college, etc. (yes, I'm already possed with it, and would like info that anyone has on this subject, right now, I'll do almost anything....) I started collecting with a PC XT, and still have it, it's still waiting for a controller and HDD. ;-) Lets see... I'm starting an online community, and am going to be asking in the next few days for people interested. I'm really unsatified with the learning going on in school, (you'll understand with the online community post) , and love learning, like classical music up through lots of different stuff that I don't know what category it goes under... use Windows, am getting familiar with Linux... and, that's it. Bye, Tim D. Hotze

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Wanted stuff

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Bill Yakowenko <yakowenk(a)cs.unc.edu> wrote: >I've been dorking around with this idea for a while now, and >this seems a good lead-in. The basic problem was that the >classiccmp web page seems to be permanently dead. Very cool idea and implementation, although something inside me likes finding machines through chaos and luck, as opposed to having an well-organized team. :-) - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Fw: help: Apple][<==> PDP-8

by kroma＠worldnet.att.net

I saw this on comp.sys.apple2. Can anyone help? I don't think he is on the list. -- Kirk -----Original Message----- From: James <jmcp(a)pacbell.net> Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Date: Sunday, March 01, 1998 2:10 PM Subject: help: Apple][<==> PDP-8 >Hi. >I would like to replace my near dead teletype (paper tape works, but the >CR does not work properly) with either my //c or //e. >I figure I could just use a serial port, but the PDP-8 (compatible) uses >a teletype connector, and I don't know how to create a proper cable. >Also, how would I get the PDP-8 programs from the paper tape reader on >the teletype to the Apple ][? >Has any one done something like this before? I have heard that people >have done this with a PC. The PDP-8 news group appears dead, and I have >not been able to find any web resources on this subject. > >You may ask "Why?" >Well, I'm not really sure, but I sure do love watching all those pretty >LED's flickering on the PDP-8 front panel! I also have loads of paper >tape, and I want to know what it all does. > >Thanks for your help, >James >jmcp(a)pacbell.net > >

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

System 36

by dolar＠khi.compol.com

Ref your email send on 19-oct-1997 I have a system 36 model 5363 with 3 twin axil terminals. If you are interested please reply. Ikhlas Ahmad

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

HP 64100A

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

MAINFRAME HEWLETT PACKARD Model:64100A THE 64100A IS THE FUNDAMENTAL UNIT OF THE 64000 DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM, CONSISTS OF CONSOLE WITH INTEGRAL 12" CRT, FULL ASCII KEYBOARD, RS-232 INTERFACE AND SPACE FOR 10 OPTION CARDS. UNIT HAS 64941A OPTION CARD CONTROLLING 2 X 5" FLOPPY DRIVES This is available for CAN$45 Is this rare/desirable? I'm thinking of passing it up anyway, but just curious. A

28 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Demography?

by pjoules＠coleg-powys.ac.uk

>That particular unit (a CASIO) had a problem dividing by 0 - it >tried to!! The display patiently counted from 0 up to... well I never saw >it stop before the batteries gave out. I guess thats what started my prime >interest in computers - the quirky and unusual. > My first calculator, a Sinclair Cambridge, did that as well. Perhaps someone on the list could enlighten us as to whehter this was a common weakness of early calculators, and possibly why those who wrote the code for them allowed it to happen ;-) My condensed bio: I am 40 years old and live near Shrewsbury (UK), on the border between England and Wales. I have had an interest in computers since 1985 when I worked for the local council as a Meat Inspector. The Environmental Health Department got their first computer and I wrote some applications for it and then decided that I wanted to be a programmer for the rest of my life. I have been to University 1 day per week for the last 5 years and gained a BSc in Computer Studies last September. I am currently working (bored and underpaid ;-() as a MIS programmer for a college of further education producing reports in Access. Apart from collecting computers I enjoy motorcycling and rock climbing. My collection consists of: 1 MicroVAX II with a TK50, 4 RA81s and an RA82 3 Sun 386i, I working and 2 with dead/dying NVRAMs 1 Tulip PC Compact 2 - NEC V30, 40Mb hard disk 1 Sinclair Spectrum 48k 1 Sinclair Spectrum +2 1 Amstrad CPC464 with colour monitor (and off topic) 1 486DX2 PC running linux 24/7 except when I have to reluctantly reboot into Win95 1 Toshiba T3100SX portable with dead LCD display Wish list: The one I would really like is an ICL Quattro - The first machine I programmed and administered. It was an 8086 based machine with 10Mb hard drive and 1Mb RAM running CCP/M86 and capable of supporting 4 terminals each of which could support 4 virtual terminals giving a theoretical total of 16 users. Not bad for an 8086 :-). The later 'go faster' version had a 286 processor. Regards Pete

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Demography?

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

>I'm kind of curious as to the demography of the Classic Computer >Mailing List. What are people's backgrounds, what are they doing now, >and so forth. Hi, I'm Hans Olminkhof, mid 40's, a mechanical engineer living in Sydney Australia. Married, 3 kids. I don't have much to do with computers for a living, building the occasional Lotus Notes database being about it. I was originally exposed to computers as an undergraduate and remember writing my first program on punchcards in Forgo, a students version of Fortran2. It ran on an IBM 1620 or something at the University of Western Australia where we could see in the next room a PDP6 in all it's blue glory. Never got any closer to that though. The next year we were limited to remote teletypes linked to the new computer, a Cyber72 which I never saw. I had no contact with computers again until about 1986 when I finally found something useful to do on them, Finite Element Analysis. (engineer stuff). We bought a 286 for home about 1991 and spent $500 a year later get the 80Mb hard drive in it fixed. Not long afterwards I figured out how easy it was to do all that myself. One day in about 1993, I said to someone in a shop what a museum piece the IBM AT I was looking at was. Somehow the conversation got around to me never having even seen the original IBM PC. Then came a trip to the back room to see racks and racks of them. I walked away with one for $20, got to fiddling with it and a few weeks later owned another dozen or so. They would have been on their way to the tip otherwise. I got very interested in the idea of keeping them alive and in the whole idea of how quickly this technology was progressing and disappearing. Anyway, now I've got a whole heap of old computers, maybe half of them working, lots of old software to go with them, manuals etc. I spend a few hours a weekend looking around for more. The list includes: IBM PC's, XT's, AT's, Portable PC's, Convertibles, Displaywriters Compaq Portable's, Portable Plus's, Portable II's Kaypro II's, and IV's Various Apple II's and early Mac's Atari 400's and an 800 Various Apricots A heap of Sirius's (Victor 9000 in USA) Decmate III's Osborne 1's and Executives DOT's An original PET A CBM3032 and the wreck of an 8032 A Compupro box A Cromenco C10 Various BBC's HP 85's, 71B's and a 110 An MAI 4105 Various Microbees An NEC APC and a number of APC III's NEC 8201, 8401, Tandy Model 100 Olivetti M21 Panasonic 840 Sharp PC 5000, 2 X 7000's, MZ811 Sinclair ZX81 and Spectrum's Epson HX20 Canon A200's probably some I forgot, and some uniquely Australian machines, a "Porchester Executive", a "PortaPak" and a Dick Smith "Mini Scamp" (a 1977 kit) I've also got some PDP11 stuff coming when I organise a truck!

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Enrico: model I

by archive＠navix.net

-- ___________________________________________________ | Cord G. Coslor : archive(a)navix.net |\ | Deanna S. Wynn : deannasue(a)navix.net | | |---------------------------------------------------| | | http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/4395 | | |---------------------------------------------------| | | PO Box 308 - Peru, NE - 68421 - (402) 872- 3272 | | |___________________________________________________| | \____________________________________________________\|

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Subscribe

by anders.sponton＠tellus.vallentuna.se

subscribe anders.sponton(a)tellus.vallentuna.se http://www.tellus.vallentuna.se/gymninfo/personal/anders/andersus.html

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Demography?

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

>> Far as I can tell one of the few active women in legacy(old machines are >> us) computing. For me thse old system were the computer I couldn't afford >> when I was playing with them new. > >Well, unless someone else pops up, you're probably the ONLY woman into >this sort of thing. You're like the Grace Hopper of vintage computer >enthusiasts :) What's a woman? Can you program it? Does it have a nice chassis? Is there somewhere to rest your beer while you're working on it? :) A

28 years, 2 months

3
2
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One more thing...

by dastar＠wco.com

I forgot to mention one last thing I picked up today. The CE-125 Printer and Microcassette Interface for a Sharp Pocket Computer PC-1250. This basically adds a 20 column printer and micro-cassette to the Sharp Pocket Computer. Basically makes the equivalent of a small Epson HX-20 (almost). The Sharp would slide into this unit and you could then carry the whole contraption around in a carrying case which came with the interface. Very cool. Now all I need to find is a Sharp PC-1250. In the box with all accessories and manuals, $15. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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386 SBC available (was Re: Demography?)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> Correction it's the BIG blue box. Mine is circa '76 or earlier and was <> used by the DEC VT100(and others) development team. < <Hmm, the one I'm thinking of may be a later vintage. But if BIG means <a cube about 3' on a side, then it may be the same. The MDS800 was about 13" tall, 28" deep and 19" wide box and the 8" disk box was another 8" or so tall. Nice multibus system. Most of the MDS systems were nominal rack width. My favorite was the series 225 with the integrated crt and seperate keyboard, did a lot of development time on those. I wouldn't mind finding one. <You've caught me with my hardware pants down. To my software eyes, they <look like VME cards, but I know Intel doesn't do much VME stuff. They'r <386-16 boards from circa 1987 (just slipped under the 10-year barrier). Two bus edge connectors 12"wx6.5"? If so it's Multibus. Myself I'd find a 80/10 or 80/20 or BLC80/204 for multibus more appealing as I can use them. Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Demography?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> 1 SB180 with SCSI adaptor and 20meg HD(also used frequently) < <BTW, what's this? Someone is going to sell me one and all I know is tha <it runs CP/M. SB180 Micromint (in CT), circa 1985 and featured in both BYTE September and october 1985 (byte back issues is still available). The SB180 is a 64180 (z180) with 32k Eprom, 256k of dram and floppy controller for 8/5.35/3.5" drives on a really small card. Very low power and runs CPM. There was a piggyback board that added a 300baud modem and NCR 5380 scsi chip, mine only has the SCSI. Most were clocked at a cpu speed of 6mhz but 9mhz was possible with a fast chip. Good little board. I have mine stuffed into a old PS2/25 case using the 3.5" floppies (780k) and a Xybec scsi controller that's twice the size of the sb180 card! Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Demography?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I might as well get the ball rolling with an introduction of sorts. Oh why not. I'm older at 45 so, that means I have hands on time with new PDP-8Is and KA/I/L-10s. I was in EEschool when the 8008 hit and I was already working (to pay for school) with it soon after it was available at work. I've done design with everything from DC to 1ghz RF analog and even a fair amount of digital from transistors to asics. Likely one of the few that's designed with tubes, transistors and ICs. Former companies I've worked for Automated processes(maglink SMPTE timecodes), Tandy(trs80), NEC(chips), Hazeltine(terminals), DEC(printing systems) and a few more inbetween. Far as I can tell one of the few active women in legacy(old machines are us) computing. For me thse old system were the computer I couldn't afford when I was playing with them new. My collections includes: 4 operational s100 machines Vector MX (vector box computime boards) Northstar* horizon (actively used has HD) Explorer-85 S-S100 (my design z80 supersystem) (active and archive system, big HD) 3 Vt180s (in use) 1 kaypro (in use) 1 Epson PX-8 with 120k wedge (my laptop) 1 amproLB+ with 45mb scsi drive (used often) 1 SB180 with SCSI adaptor and 20meg HD(also used frequently) 1 DECMATE-III runs OS/278 VAXEN: All operational ant netted via decnet/eithernet 1 MV-II ba23 1 MV-II ba123 3 VS2000 2 vms and one ultrix 1 Vaxstation3100-m76 VMS PDP-11 systems: all operatonal 1 ba11n 11/23b (rx50) 1 ba11n 11/73 (rx33, rd52, RX02, RL02, TK50) 2 BA11va 11/23 (shoebox system with tu58 tape) 1 PDT11/130 1 Pro350 with venix Misc SBCs: operational IMSAI IMP-48 (8035 based SBC) COSMAC ELF (base design) national SC/MP Demo board National TBX tinybasic chip on a board Technico superstarter sytem (TI9900) Misc 8085 boards used for random uses. NEC TK-80 8080 system DEC ADVICE microvax-II chip based sbc/ice Intersil 6960 demo kit (pdp-8 cmos chip (6100) to make a minimal system) Misc machines: INTEL MDS-800 multibus 8080 TI99/4a with PEB, disk, mem exp, voice, disk software and 20+ carts. Altair (retired) PCs: Leading Edge mod D (XT class) running dos DTC turboXT slated for minix (running dos) 386dx/33 running linux 486dx2/50 running dos (this system) My wish list includes: more SBCs (mostly because they are fun and small) PDP-8/e/f/m series (always wanted one since '69) any pdp-10 ( I can wish!) Intersil/harris 6100/6120 based systems Allison

28 years, 2 months

3
2
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386 SBC available (was Re: Demography?)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> <> Misc machines: <> INTEL MDS-800 multibus 8080 < <Is this a blue box? I had a chance to get one once.... Correction it's the BIG blue box. Mine is circa '76 or earlier and was used by the DEC VT100(and others) development team. <That reminds me. I have two piSBC 386/116's that I have no plans to do <anything with (I don't have a card cage for them). They are available a <trading fodder for just about anything smaller than a breadbox. What are they? Most of the SBCs I'm interested in are of the mid '70s through mid 80s designs. Allison

28 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Demography?

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-03-01 17:25:56 EST, you write: << It was thus said that the Great Seth J. Morabito once stated: > > I'm kind of curious as to the demography of the Classic Computer > Mailing List. What are people's backgrounds, what are they doing now, > and so forth. >> My name's david, and i'm based in north carolina. I do level 2 technical support for IBM's consumer line. I only started really collecting computers about 3 years ago and am up to ~75 or so. It all started way back in 1984 in high skool when i discovered the apple //e. I flunked computer science, but it eventually worked out pretty well. I never did get my own computer until 1987 when i bought a second hand apple ][+ with no disk drive for $200. ( i still have it) I've got quite a varied collection which includes apple // series, 68k compact macs, IBM, a microvax, xycom business cpm machine, osi, atari, TI, heathkit,kaypro, tandy, and some others i cannot think of right now including spare parts for the apples and xt era pc machines. most machines will be on a website soon once i can get my mind back into it. my primary interest is early pc era stuff from big blue, naturally, such as ps2 models, pcrt, and pcjr types. i also have an extensive collection of nibble and compute! magazines >from the 80s as well. It would be nice to find some old working minicomputer, but for right now, it's just 80s micros, since that's what I grew up with. david

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Where's a list of lists?

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

Ok, it sounded stupid...I'm basically asking where there's a list of these type message areas, such as the one we're reading right now. I know about the Heath area and the Classic Computer area by word of mouth, but is there a place to get an overall listing of all that a person could subcribe to? Newsgroups are easy as they show with the newsgroup reader in your browser. Appreciate the time in responding to this or any of my 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/ * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Recover gold from old computers

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

I wish this guy didn't exist http://www.tiac.net/users/quiksand/goldtek.htm A

28 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Northstar Horizon

by jrbrady＠mindspring.com

Hi Marty, I have one of the double-density models and can provide you with copies of docs and some software. I have a bunch of application software but it's in quad-density format for the Advantage and I haven't bothered to transfer any of it to the Horizon. The Horizon is a terrific, solid machine. The first serial port is for the console and the second port is available for a printer, etc. Both are easily reconfigured via the USER.ASM code (at least my Lifeboat CP/M version). Two parallel ports are also available on the motherboard. I'm not sure if the Horizon bus is fully IEEE-696 compliant. Tim or Allison? BTW, California Digital (www.cadigital.com) sells hard-sectored disks for around $10/box. They also have 8" SSDD floppies (ran out of double-sided, unfortunately). Regards, Jason Brady jrbrady(a)mindspring.com Seattle, WA

28 years, 2 months

6
8
0 0

PC to System 34/36/38 setup FS

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

I have a new, in the box, AST-5251/11 setup that allows a PC to communicate with an IBM 34/36/38 mainframe (?). It includes a thick manual, 5.25" and 8" floppies, twinaxial to adapter card cable w/tee, and the adapter card for an ISA slot. Still with the original overbox that shows all the features of this beauty. The box states that the card is an 8 bit, DMA selectable for PC/XT/AT, selectable interupt channel, on board high speed 8X305 processor, 5251-11/5291 or 5291-1 display terminal emulation, host addressable 5256 printer support on the PC's printer, concurrent host and PC sessions with hot key assist, bidirectional file transfers, and more. This is the enhanced version. I have no use for this and many of you are into connection to mainframes and minis, so make me an offer, whether it be cash or trade for PC compatible items. Email a reply direct to me, please. Russ Blakeman rhblake(a)bbtel.com

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

> Looser Attitude Readjustment Tool. LART. Usually a big stick, but can be >anything handy that can inflict pain and suffering upon loosers who don't >know a calculator from a computer and think Bill Gates is Good. I would say the optimal is a PC clone case with Windows 95 cds glued on. Anyway, what IS the difference between a computer and a calculator (yeowch!)? I know the one between a Cray and TI-10 (4-function calc.), but what about a 68k based TI-92 graphics, which a friend of mine is now making a multitasking OS for? It has a full keyboard (half the area). ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Wish List!

by allisonp＠world.std.com

from: sethm(a)loomcom.com <I'd really love to find a MicroPDP 11/23+, or possibly even just <a regular PDP 11/23, with disks and an OS to play with. I do <miss playing with octal! They are common enough keep looking. Typically they will have RD52->54 disks (30-159mb), rx50 floppy and plenty of serial io. Boards are common enough and generally free to cheap. if your real lucky you may find a copy of RT-11 on the disk or with the machine. Docs are always handy. <for nostalgia reasons having to do with school: I'd love to find a <DECStation 5000/200 with Ultrix 4.3a. Those were are main campus UNIX You might find a DECstation 3100 with ultix easier. Or a VS2000 or Microvax-II with ultrix. <Actually, I think that's about it for the "realistic" wishlist at the <moment. Of course, I'd adore having a PDP8, 8/E, 8/I, or 8/M to play <with, but space and power restrictions kind of prevent it at the moment. <Ah, perhaps later. Find a DECmate-II or III it's mostly PDP-8 and real small. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Vector 3 info needed

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

I just obtained a machine that has the same all-in-one look as a TRS-80 model 3 or 4 but the drives are located in an external box and has the name Vector 3 on the front and the label on back states that it's made by Vector Graphics, Inc. The external box has a 5.25" floppy and a 5.25" hard drive in it and it has a monitor and keyboard in the main unit. I haven't even powered it up yet so I don't even know if it works. Anyone know of a museum/collection site with info on this, or have info on it themselves? I'd like to see what it is before I decide to gut it for the drives or keep ot for my oddities collection. Any information of this machine is greatly appreciated. Russ Blakeman Harned, KY USA

28 years, 2 months

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Demography?

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I debated if I shouldn't just send this directly to you, seth, but I decided that knowing where old computer providers and users are is good for the whole list. I am a high school student in Boston, MA (If anyone is familiar with the Boston Latin School, that's it). I had a C-64, but fried it two years ago. I now have a Mac Portable, Apple //c, 386 Clone, P*****m clone, which is what I usually use. I am interested in classic computers because they are cheap and easy to understand. They usually have less bugs, and, most importantly, they were made in an era when money wasn't all that counted as far as computers went (everything else was long past that point). I am also working on System/34 in my school's supply room. I will start monday. C'est tout. >Club, formed to prevent people from trashing all the PDP11's that were >How about other folks? What kind of backgrounds and current experiences >do you all have? I'd love to hear about it. > >-Seth Morabito > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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Wish List!

by sethm＠loomcom.com

A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text Size: 1187 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/19980301/f98fa9ad/at…

28 years, 2 months

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Apple Basic

by red＠bears.org

Eh, heh. So how do I get a modulus in Apple basic? The answer is not 'MOD' or '%'. ok r.

28 years, 2 months

3
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Dragon 64 pinouts

by hansp＠columbia.digiweb.com

I acquired a Dragon 64 base unit today. Can anyone post the pinouts for the power and video connectors? -- Hans B. Pufal : <mailto:hansp@digiweb.com> Comprehensive Computer Catalogue : <http://www.digiweb.com/~hansp/ccc/> _-_-__-___--_-____-_--_-_-____--_---_-_---_--__--_--_--____---_--_--__--_

28 years, 2 months

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IT WORKS! IT RUNS! AND MORE THAN ONE TERMINAL!

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

It finally accepted the DH and started using it! I know have RSTS/E v8.0 running and 16 terminal ports that work! The only bad part is, I have ABSOLUTELY *NO* idea what made it start working... I'd given up for the night and started cleaning up my mess, when I got a dumb idea and hung the console teleprinter off the 3rd port of the DH. Pushed enter, and got crap. Screwed with baudrates and other etc. and got logged in. Went upstairs and stole a VT100 off their router (They won't notice... I'll put it back...) and tested it out. All the ports are at funny baudrates and such, but they all work! Now, I have to think of a way to get this online... -------

28 years, 2 months

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FREEBIES! A Pair of MicroVAX II'S need a home!

by kyrrin2＠wizards.net

Seen on Usenet. If you can adopt these fine machines, contact the original author directly. Thanks! -=-=- <snip> -=-=- From: "Erie Patsellis" <eriep(a)map.com> Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Subject: free to good home- 2 MVII (western mass) Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 08:37:25 -0500 Lines: 6 X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3 NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.71.19.191 Message-ID: <34f9645f.0(a)204.71.19.13> Path: Supernews70!Supernews73!supernews.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!204.71.19.13!204.71.19.13!204.71.19.191 Xref: Supernews70 comp.sys.dec:60992 due to change in living situation, I have 2 MVII's available, just email me to pick them up. erie -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, SysOp, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fido 1:343/272) kyrrin2 {at} wiz<ards> 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, 2 months

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Epson QX-10 / AT&T 3B1

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

[doug on qx10] :It sounds like a nice little CP/M box with bank-switched memory :that can also run VALDOCS (whatever that is). yes. shame about VALDOCS really. it seems to have killed forth's reputation for all time. it was reputedly an integrated package written in forth - unfortunately, it seems, the people who wrote it were less than competent. for some reason it has an awful reputation, as slow, buggy, etc. never used or seen it - even in magazine reviews (not for the want of trying either) - hence the vagueness. please, someone furnish further details...? did epson ever release the source? (hmm. other things written in forth were more successful - vp-planner springs to mind, since it was so successful lotus killed it...) -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

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Epson QX-10 / AT&T 3B1

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

I've spotted one, owner has original boxes, packaging. And the technical manuals - condition excellent. Is this a computer worth salvaging? I'd likely have to pay around US$65 He also has a AT&T 3B1 in great shape, but doesn't know what its worth. Any comments on these two appreciated. Cheers A

28 years, 2 months

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Radio Shack CoCo for sale

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

How much? > >Check out http://home1.gte.net/okay/for_sale.htm >This equipment has been in my closet since I got my first PC in '87 >I wan't to sell as a package. >Gary > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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cprohman@ix17.ix.netcom.com

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

NEC APC that reminds me. we always fancied an nec apc... but what we wanted even more than that was a samurai s16. anyone else remember these? also 8" disks, 8088 running at around 4MHz, 128k basic ram, design that looked very apc-ish and quite lisa-ish also (there were a number of machines with that styling. immediately we can think of the lisa, nec apc, ncr decision mate/v, samurai s16. any more...?) the last we heard of the s16, some firm was flogging it off for 400 quid a throw or thereabouts, in response to the amstrad el cheapo pc. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

[tony duell] :Didn't they? There's at least one PC-jr in the UK in operational :condition, although without the original PSU, so I can't comment :whether there was ever an IBM 240V transformer unit for them. Mind :you, the technical manual only lists a 115V model. some of them must have leaked across the atlantic, even in some official capacity, but they were certainly never sold here. they were axed in the us before they could be introduced here. given how long britain had to wait for the ibm pc (and the resultant popularity of the sirius) it isn't really all that surprising... we also seem to remember personal computer world reviewing a model that they described as "the pcjr done right", which was called something like the jx and was only available in japan, and used 3.5" disks years before anything else did. are we remembering correctly...? -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

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PDP-11 rescue in UK

by jfoust＠threedee.com

28 years, 2 months

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Pretty good week

by higginbo＠netpath.net

At 09:37 PM 2/26/98, you wrote: >Awww! And all I've been able to get this week is a HP-97, HP-9815 with >various interfaces and a HP 9871 printer and a Commodore Pet 2083 with >MODEM, dual disk drive, printer and tractor feed attachment with all the >docs and software. Geez, where do you guys keep all these computers??? My wife would kill me, and my daughter of 19 months would tear them up. This is one reason why I collect GRiD laptops. They are the last word in durability, and are small compared to desktop systems and others. (BTW, All I did this week was get Red Hat 5.0 setup and running on both my home and work machines, not that I'm trying to go off topic or anything...)

28 years, 2 months

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16 bit 6502?! No, you don't want it... trust me!

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

That's the dog I programmed. SNES. A -----Original Message----- From: kroma <kroma(a)worldnet.att.net> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Monday, March 02, 1998 1:02 AM Subject: Re: 16 bit 6502?! No, you don't want it... trust me! > > >>Having spent 2 years programming the 65816, believe me you DON'T want to >>play with a 16 bit 6502!!!! The memories, the memories.... There was a >>processor dog if ever I saw one. Interpretation of opcodes was dependant >on >>the mode the processor was set to, and so if you branched to a section of >>code when you were in the wrong mode, results were... screwy. >> ><snip> > >(Getting off topic a bit) >I believe Nintendo did pretty good with it in their second generation >system, the "Super Nintendo." > > -- Kirk > > >

28 years, 2 months

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16 bit 6502?! No, you don't want it... trust me!

by kroma＠worldnet.att.net

>Having spent 2 years programming the 65816, believe me you DON'T want to >play with a 16 bit 6502!!!! The memories, the memories.... There was a >processor dog if ever I saw one. Interpretation of opcodes was dependant on >the mode the processor was set to, and so if you branched to a section of >code when you were in the wrong mode, results were... screwy. > <snip> (Getting off topic a bit) I believe Nintendo did pretty good with it in their second generation system, the "Super Nintendo." -- Kirk

28 years, 2 months

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Epson QX-10 / AT&T 3B1

by cgregory＠lrbcg.com

VALDOCS is an early example of a "works" type program for CP/M although its most noteable module was the spreadsheet. My wife liked it much better than Lotus 123. I have both a QX-10 and a QX-16. They are both quality boxes. The QX-16 is especially fun because one can boot it in either CP/M or MSDOS. I would encourage anyone to rescue examples of these fine machines. If I didn't already have one, I would be tripping all over myself to obtain a fully documented QX-10 for $65.00. In fact, if you decide to pass, let me know who to contact; I wouldn't mind having a spare. Cliff Gregory cgregory(a)lrbcg.com -----Original Message----- From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> To: Cgregory <Cgregory> Date: Sunday, March 01, 1998 2:56 AM Subject: Re: Epson QX-10 / AT&T 3B1 >On Sun, 1 Mar 1998, Andrew Davie wrote: > >> I've spotted one, owner has original boxes, packaging. >> And the technical manuals - condition excellent. >> Is this a computer worth salvaging? I'd likely have to pay around US$65 > >A quick "power search" of Deja News will tell you that this machine has >sold recently in a range from $0 to $100 (my cursory look yielded 2 for >free, 2 at $50, and one at $100). > >It sounds like a nice little CP/M box with bank-switched memory that can >also run VALDOCS (whatever that is). > >-- Doug > >

28 years, 2 months

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Demography?

by adam＠merlin.net.au

My turn. :) I'm a collector in Adelaide, South Australia - not the only one here, but one of a very small number. I'm 28, and until very recently I was a student, doin a Masters in Philosophy. (In case anyone cares, my thesis concerns the ethical status of hypothetical artificial minds - basically I'm looking at the criteria for ethical value employed with people and in animal ethics, and working out whether that criteria can be met by an artificial intelligence). As far as occupations go, I have a few (being a typical long-term student) - I'm a welder, do some web page design, some internet consultancy, Perl coding, teach ethics and critical thinking to nurses, actually get paid to MOO, work occasionally as a human guinea pig in medical tests and I am a professional Teddy Bear artist. :) I've worked in a few other areas, but they'e the most recent/current ones. Anything to pay for more computers. I started collecting late last year, although I had wanted to for ages. My first computer that I used was my uncle's Microbee - an Australian Z80 kit computer - but I rapidly moved to the TRS-80 Model 1 and Vic-20. Last year I was offered a Lisa 2/5 to save it from being scrapped, so I figured it was about time I went and picked up all the old computers I wanted when I was younger. Mostly I only get Micros, but I do branch out - it seems that I'm getting my first supercomputer soon. :) My current collection consists of (from memory - I'll probably miss a few): Amstrad CPC6128 (x2) and Notepad NC100 Apple ][+, ][e enhanced, ][e platinum, ][c (x6), ][gs, ///+, Lisa 2/5, Mac 512k Atari VCS, 400, 800, 800xl (x2), Portfolio Commodore VIC-20 (x3), 64c (x2), SX-64, 128, PC-10 DEC Microvax II Dick Smith Electronics Wizard, Dick Smith System 80 (x2), VZ-300 Exidy Sorcerer Honeywell Microsystem 6 (I'm still hunting for any information about this one). IBM PC/XT Mattel Intelvision Memotech MTX-500 Microbee 64k Sharp MZ-721 Surwave Amigo Tandy TRS-80 Model 4P, CoCo 1, CoCo 2 Wang 286 And today an OSI Challenger 4P arrived. :) Keen. My bigest wishes at the moment are for a NeXT Cube, and Apple ][c+ and a Spectravideo 318/328. Adam.

28 years, 2 months

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Radio Shack CoCo for sale

by okay＠gte.net

Check out http://home1.gte.net/okay/for_sale.htm This equipment has been in my closet since I got my first PC in '87 I wan't to sell as a package. Gary

28 years, 2 months

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Able DH/DM card info

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

OK, I've figured this is an Able DH/DM card, and it's not at all set right. Anyone have jumper/DIP switch info on thsi? -------

28 years, 2 months

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NEC APC

by cprohman＠ix17.ix.netcom.com

A seach of the Web yields numerous hits on "NEC APC", many of which are >from cable companies. You should have no difficulty in finding cables for the computer. I can tell you that the APC indeed belongs in your museum! If there ever was a machine which stood out as before its time, that is the NEC APC. The monitor was high resolution color (I hope you got the color version) at about 640x480 if I recall. It had a dedicated graphics chip which could do line drawing, curves, etc. It had about a 102 key keyboard. It had a 1MB floppy (8", of course). It had a sound chip and integrated speaker capable of reasonable music. Does yours have a hard drive? The early hard drives were 10MB externals, by the way, so you no doubt have some kind of external connector for that as well. Many of these advanced features later (or much later) were added to the PC. IBM eventually came out with EGA, which nearly matched the APC. With the AT they nearly matched the APC's keyboard (though they still neglected putting an "ENTER" key on the keypad), and surpassed the APC's floppy capacity. It took many years though before the PC added sound cards with better capability than the APC, or graphic accelerators with dedicated graphics chips. Too bad that your APC didn't come with documentation. The APC shipped with the best documentation I have ever seen, including internal schematics, a decription of all internal logical features, and a even a full listing of the BIOS on a disk. The documentation allowed me to write for example an interrupt driven print routine to replace the timing based BIOS print routine. Using my print driver the APC was capable of fully driving a 300LPM printer, or capable of driving a 100cps printer while simultaneously doing a program edit. Try that on an early PC! I hope you got some software. The original disk included a program "BACH", which demonstrated its musical prowess. Later machines shipped with a simple program I gave to NEC called "PLAY" which allowed the machine to play music coded into a text file which listed the notes to be played and the duration of each note. Usage was "PLAY filename". Banjo music worked particularly well. There was also an impressive program that demonstated its color graphics potential. Carl

28 years, 2 months

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Lisa for sale (forward)

by dastar＠wco.com

Reply directly to the author (zzyzx97(a)earthlink.net). Buyer beware. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Path: news.ncal.verio.com!vncnews!HSNX.wco.com!nntp.csuchico.edu!newshub.csu.net!pln-w!extra.newsguy.com!lotsanews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-backup-west.sprintlink.net!news-in-west.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!206.250.118.17!nntp.earthlink.net!usenet From: zzyzx97(a)earthlink.net (zzyzx) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2.marketplace Subject: FS: APPLE LISA Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 07:11:36 GMT this one is missing the power supply so I don't know if it works. It also has some corrosion on one of the boards, but maybe it can be cleaned....it looks like it can. The plastic has yellowed from being in the sun, but there are no cracks. The keyboard is nice. The mouse is missing the roller ball and the cap that keeps it in place. Sold as-is, please send me your offers. ZZyzx "Me, indecisive? I'm not so sure about that." -- end of forwarded message -- -- Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!

28 years, 2 months

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Sorting arrays(could be considered off-topic)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

While I am making this program in Visual Basic 5, this problem is way over 10 years old, and the program will be old computer-related. How do I alphabetically sort an array? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

3
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I ran into a wall again...

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

Closer... I installed the DH11 along with that ACT thing in the 44. Now HARDWR LIST says I have 2 DHes, and a DM. But hanging a terminal off the ACT thing yields absolutely-fscking-NOTHING. I don't have the origional DH11 distribution panel. But I have the wires that are supposed to attach to it... Can I modify a DZ11 distrib panel to use in it's place? Do I need to modify CSRs or something? Oh, and I already tried all possible combinations of cabling 'tween the ACT board and it's panel. On a sidenote: Anyone know how to break into an IBM System/34? -------

28 years, 2 months

3
2
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Unix V7

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

I just killed 2 hours playing wump under V7 Unix on my 11/83. Just so everyone knows, it runs, but I ave to boot RT-11 and say boot/foreign dl0: to start it... Now, once SCO makes a source liense available, I'm set! It's single user for now... Z -------

28 years, 2 months

2
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Wanted stuff

by yakowenk＠cs.unc.edu

I've been dorking around with this idea for a while now, and this seems a good lead-in. The basic problem was that the classiccmp web page seems to be permanently dead. Take a look at these URLs... http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/classiccmp/ http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/classiccmp/dwp.html http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/classiccmp/keywords.html and, of course, http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/classiccmp/wanted.html Suggestions are welcome, of course. Cheers, Bill.

28 years, 2 months

1
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-02-28 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :apple //gs and a //c+ to complete my apple ][ collection, mmm, a //gs... yes please here also. the thought of a 16-bit 6502 to play with... :> (yep, even though we have a special affection for the much maligned 286.) as for a //c+ - were they the ones with the 3.5" disk instead of the 5.25"? we saw them in the states, one of the times we went over there (arizona - little hack shop in tucson that had all kinds of old hardware for frankly, silly prices; lots of pcjrs, which we'd also like one of, since they never made it over here) and thought they were cute, but we don't believe they ever crossed the atlantic. was the disk drive the only difference, or were there others & what were they if so? -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

4
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Aaargh! Item identified (BASF HD?)

by weese＠mind.net

previous subject : Can anyone identify this item ? (BASF HD?) > > On Mon, 23 Feb 1998, Lynn & Mike wrote: > > > BASF model 6106, part #54670 > > > > Looks like a HD, connected to a floppy with a > > ribbon cable, which then goes to the motherbd. > > Found in what appears to be a homebrew TRS80-type > > puter with LNW expansion board. > > So this morning I walked past the Beast & noticed that what I had thought was a solid panel had an inner part that was open, hinged at the top, the little black raised rectangle at the bottom had gotten pushed & the door had popped open, & I pulled a 5 1/4" disk out of it....... (duh) ---mikey

28 years, 2 months

1
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

Hi, Tony. You're up late too :-) Seems we have quite a lot in common :-) > I don't know if I have a spare one, but I can trivially copy the EPROM > from the one in my Acorn System - I know where that is. That would be great. What size EPROM shall I send you? Can you see if you can find the Flex disk one day, as well? > I am looking for some of the Acorn user manuals/schematics from that > period - I think I need the 6502 CPU schematic, and the 80 column VDU > schematics/manual. It wouldn't be hard to reverse engineer them, though. I'll photocopy any of those I've got for you. Mail me a list. > Oh, and I have some kind of user I/O card in one of my Atoms that looks > as though it belongs in a System. It's easy to fit such cards to my Atom, since it's missing the bottom half of the case :-) > I know I have the 6809 manual, the Acorn DOS manual (including the disk > controller schematics), the Econet manual (System + Atom econet info), etc. Was the Acorn DOS for the Atom or 6502-based System? I assume the 6809 ran some variant of Flex? > I have a PromPro8X which does most 27xx from the 2716 onwards, and also > the bipolar and PAL modules for it. The latter only does the MMI Pals, > though. Then I have a homebrew (Elektor) GAL programmer, an Intel UPP > (2708's and 2716's), an Intel MCS8i (1702's), a Softy 1 (2708's again), a > strange thing which does upto the 2732 (including the 2708 and the 3-rail > 2716) based on an SCMP - and the 8-way copier that goes with it, etc. Hmmm... I still have the Softy-1 schematics, and I'm sure that uses an SC/MP. > One day I'll buy a modern universal programmer, but not yet... I had a Softy-1 and I wish I still did, since not many programmers do the 3-rail devices these days. Now I have a little box that sits on the 1MHz bus (it was meant for a BBC B but I have it on my Archimedes 440 now) which does 2716 - 27128, and I use a little adaptor for 27256/27512. The Department has two S3's and an S4, which I'm occasionally allowed to borrow, since they do up to 27400x. I came across a pair of 1702's in a pile of junk a few weeks ago. they're getting rare, now. I also have all the bits to build the Elektor GAL programmer (Manfred Nosswitz's design). First I'm going to redo the PCB layout, as I intend to incorporate the daughter board (for the updated version) on the same PCB, and possibly use a different DAC (the original one is a rarity, and expensive). I have the disk for the s/ware as well, but I wish I could get the source -- it grieves me to have to run it on a PC instead of a real computer. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 2 months

1
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 28, 19:10, Tony Duell wrote: > > The first machine I owned was a Sorcerer; I still have one (not the same > > one, sadly) and I'd love to get the WP Pac and the DevPac (or copy of the > > code) to replace those I sold nearly two decades ago. > > Again, I'd really have to hunt for it, but I think I have the word > processor ROMs somewhere.... I'll send you some 2716's :-) > I know I have (and I know where it is) the technical manual for the > sorcerer and the S100 expansion box if you need any info. I may have sold the original machine, but I wasn't daft enough to let the tech manuals (as opposed to user guides) go with it. :-) In fact, I have both versions of the tech manual, plus the software manual, and the S100 manual. About two years ago, I used the Sorcerer for some serious development work -- debugging the code for an embedded Z80 -- and I updated the monitor ROMs. Gosh, was there ever a lot of redundant junk in there! It must have been cut-and-pasted out of something else, I reckon. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

Hi, Tony. Thanks for the response. I can't do much about it over the next two weeks, because I'm 12 days from dissertation hand in (with, naturally, four weeks work to do), but I'm certainly interested. > Well, I have one (or maybe 2) 6809 CPU boards from Acorn... > > Do you insist on an 'original' EPROM, or would a copy in a new 27xx be > OK? I have an EPROM programmer, you see, and I'm pretty sure Acorn > wouldn't mind after all these years, especially not for restoring a machine. > > Also, do you need schematics/ROM source for the 6809 board? I have those > as well, I think. > > It would take me _months_ to find it, but I may have a Flex boot disk for > the 6809 Acorn machine. I'd love a 6809 board. I have the User Manual (and some others from similar era) and the Eurocard schematics (as you may remember). I don't think I have the ROM source, so that would be nice. I do have a rather nice Eurocard rack (empty, cost me a fiver, and that was only because it had a nice PSU). I'd like to build a floppy add-on for the 6809 (I have the schematics for Acorn's one, and I think I even have the parts), so the Flex boot disk would be a goodie. I don't care if any of the firmware/software is original or an "off-site backup". Since I worked for Acorn, I can assure you they wouldn't care about copying such old stuff (unless it was ridiculously blatant for-profit misuse). I copy ROMs myself, all the time -- there's nothing worse than finding it's the ROM/PROM/PAL that's died in some old board, so I like to make copies of anything I get, for security. Yes, I know some manufacturers dislike that, but I've had two bad experiences trying to track down replacements. I have a 27xxx programmer of my own, but I wish I could persuade the Department to let me keep the MicroPross programmer (the one that knows how to program every TTL PROM, almost every 27xx, 27xx, 28xx EPROM, and umpteen PALs). It may be ten years old, but I've not seen anything else with a quarter of the performance. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 28, 22:47, lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk wrote: > hmm. did the acorn 32016 workstation ever emerge, or did the arch > effectively replace that concept? Yes, they first appeared a the Acorn Cambridge Workstation (ACW) which was basically a BBC B-plus board inside a wierd monitor-type case, with a Microvitec 14" colour monitor, a custom PSU, a 5.25" 80-track floppy, a 20MB winchester, a 32016 with 4MB of RAM, and a LOT of metalwork. They didn't make many; I had one for a while (I worked for Acorn) but passed it on to a dealer eventually (idiot!). I've since seen two or three others. There were some other similar-looking machines in the range. For example, the ABC -- Acorn Business Computer, a Z80 instead of the 32016; and one with a 80186 and DR-DOS. Both were axed very quickly. I've still got some of the bumf for those... There was also a Second Processor version in a small box, as an add-on to a BBC Micro. That came in two versions, one had 512K of memory (IIRC) and the other had 4MB (same as the ACW). They ran the same firmware/software as the ACW, including PANOS, a sort of cross between Unix and Flex, with hints of UCSD. The Second Processor version remained in production for several years, eventually being available as an add-in for the Master 128 which replaced the BBC Micro (this version was called the Master Sientific, but it was just the same item). I've still got the glossies for those, too... -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-02-27 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :> ah, if we're going to get on to the "what do i wish for?" list... :Well, I don't recomend killing me to get your hands on my little :collection... And I rarely sell machines. never dream of it (unless of course, you were to flip and unload your entire collection into the nearest municipal dump. *then*, you'd be targeted... but that isn't going to happen ;> ;> ) :> any system based on the 32xxx (a ceres would be nice, but we doubt :> they're available...) :More practically, there are still a number of Whitechapel MG1's :about. Repairing one is not hard - the main problem is the NiCd :battery used for starting it. A Technical manual does exist... hmm. did the acorn 32016 workstation ever emerge, or did the arch effectively replace that concept? :> a linn rekursiv (wouldn't you? ;> ) :Ooooh... Now that's a machine I don't have, and would like! very rare though. linn only ever used them in-house, and god knows if they are still in use. :What about a Zilog 8000 ? It was/is (there's at least one still :operational) a Z8000-based unix box. Mine has an SMD disk didn't know about it. it'd be nice to find one, though. the processor is more important to us than the box it come in. (except that we would really love an olivetti, just because they're so ugly they wrap around into cuteness ;> ) oh, add a sirius one to the list; we forgot it. :> a perq :Does the fact that you've listed 'perq' about 4 times mean that you :want one from each series? no, it means we want one about 4 times as much as we want anything else. :> an original cp/m system or three (hm systems; the minstrel always :> appealed) :What do you mean by 'original'? If you mean a machine designed to :run CP/M, then there must still be some RML 380Z's (very solid UK :CP/M machines used in schools) about. Ditto for DEC rainbows, :Amstrads (although I don't like those myself), BBC Z80 second :processors, Epson QX10's (IMHO one of the nicest CP/M machines ever :built), etc. designed as a cp/m box is about the closest, but what we really meant was the other definition of original - the one that's a couple of steps either side of weird. :Just out of curiousity, why aren't you looking for the following :machines? :DEC PDP8, PDP11, Vax, any other PDP's? we must have deleted the line we were going to put in that said "any pdp that isn't 8 or 11". not an 8, because we want to write a simulator for that first; not an 11, because - well, it just strikes us that everyone's got an 11... :AMT DAP (Distributed Array Processor) how could we program it effectively? we wouldn't refuse one if it came along, but it isn't something for which we'd actively go looking. :Anything transputer-based what was/is there? did the ATW ever happen? :The Xerox D-machines (somewhat PERQ-like in many ways) rarity, didn't think these ever escaped from xerox. obviously if we were offered a dolphin or (mmmmm) a dorado we'd jump at it, but why break your heart because you can't get something that it's impossible to get? :Torch XXX, quadX, etc on the "refuse but not actively chase" list. :Tiger. Now there's a strange machine.. A Z80 + 64K RAM, a 6809 + 8K :RAM, RS232, parallel, cassette ports, 1200/75 baud modem, 7220 :graphics chip + 96K RAM, etc, etc, etc. It was going to be sold as :a home computer... didn't know of its existence - more information please...? -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

[kip crosby] :>> a linn rekursiv (wouldn't you? ;> ) :Okay. Now, one person mentioning this is one thing, but Tony coming :back and knowing what it IS (even though it's Tony) is too much for :me. Given the name Linn and the funny spelling, I keep thinking :this is something like a turntable, but if so, why mention it here? :What is it? it's in the "great microprocessors" list, although it was a single-board computer rather than an mpu. exact details slip our memory at the moment, but the history is that the chairman of linn (yes, the company who make the turntables) wanted a computer system to replace the ageing systems already automating his production line. being something of a techie, he analysed the available systems, but none of them did what he wanted; so basically, they designed their own. what they came up with was the machine that the intel 432 should have been - the architecture of it was completely object-oriented, even down to the handle:offset-based addressing. a lot of oo mechanisms were done in hardware, there as no concept of linear address space, and the machine ran under the steam of its own language, lingo (used in at least one academic book on oo - we read it during our degree course - and afawk not related to the inferno project, although it's possible...). there was a byte article on it somewhere too (dick pountain). sorry for the vagueness. we'd recommend looking at the great cpus list for better detail. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

2
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16 bit 6502?! No, you don't want it... trust me!

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

>mmm, a //gs... yes please here also. the thought of a 16-bit 6502 to >play with... :> (yep, even though we have a special affection for the >much maligned 286.) Having spent 2 years programming the 65816, believe me you DON'T want to play with a 16 bit 6502!!!! The memories, the memories.... There was a processor dog if ever I saw one. Interpretation of opcodes was dependant on the mode the processor was set to, and so if you branched to a section of code when you were in the wrong mode, results were... screwy. All sorts of wierd and wonderful things when you switched modes; for example switching from 16 bit accumulator to 8 bit cleared the high byte, but switching the index registers the same.... didn't. It was a very painful time in my life :) A

28 years, 2 months

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Apple Basic

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-02-28 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :Eh, heh. :So how do I get a modulus in Apple basic? The answer is not 'MOD' :or '%'. try A - INT(A/B) * B. certainly on our collection of homies the MOD concept just didn't exist, so you had to cheat. why? well, some of those basics didn't use integer math, and there's not much call for a MOD function in floating point. on the other hand, you could get yourself a real language like forth... ;> ;> -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

::Torch XXX, quadX, etc :on the "refuse but not actively chase" list. hmm. please, insert a "don't" in the obvious place... -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

1
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

[tony duell] :But there's very few similarities between (say) the PDP8, :the PDP10 and the PDP11. having read up on these, we'd beg to differ here. it seems to us that all the pdps followed a very definite architectural pattern, with the exception of the pdp11 which struck us as a major departure (the dg nova has more in common with the early pdps than the pdp11, to our mind). ok, so they weren't anything like binary compatible (well, between families - there was the 5,8,12; the 1; the 4,7,9; the 6,10; and then the nova / eclipse. all were basically accumulator-plus-memory architectures, it seems, even the 6 and 10; all had simple, regular, but very powerful instruction sets with minimal formatting and all instructions in one word (if you view the 6 word size as 18 bits and call it a double word machine :> ) - we can discern a very distinct family resemblance on the way up. the pdp11 marked a major change, from a 1-address to a 2-address architecture. we aren't sure it was a good thing... anyway, the pdp8 is much more similar to the 10 than either is to the 11. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

1
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

I might as well add my list: apple //gs and a //c+ to complete my apple ][ collection, tandy 102 disk drive a replacement floppy drive for my mac IIcx apple lisa david

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Pretty good week

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-02-27 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :Here, take my 10 year old copy of Minix. BTW, is anybody up to :speed on the current state of Minix? I have an itch to run *ix on :a 128K 8086 box, and it doesn't look like ELKS is ready for prime :time. minix is onto version 2 now; it's going the way of all unices by the looks of things. (kernel cpu detection, 32-bit mode, ram preferences listed in the megabytes region..) if you want to run it on a 128k system, best stick with that 10 year old copy. or rewrite uzi to run. btw... does anybody have a copy of the 16-bit coherent that they'd like to pass on? any version, the older the better. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

[andrew] :To everyone: Some judicious snipping of quoted email replies would :make it MUCH easier to read, and really is common net-etiquette agreed, but there's the balance between snipping enough to compress it significantly, and leaving enough in so that those without threaded newsreaders (and on mailing lists) will be able to make sense of it. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Future Computing Trends

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I agree wholeheartedly with all you say with one exception. I have a Pentium 75 overclocked to 100, 16MB ram. It runs Word 95 just fine, and ran it fine when it had 8MB. Visual Basic and IE4 (I don't use it regulary, Opera at www.operasoftware.com is much better: 1MB download!) work fine too. I can only imagine how Linux would run. But to put this in a classical context, I agree that old computers are still useful, but I so wish that they had better displays :) >Here's an interesting article from Byte magazine: > >http://www.byte.com/art/9802/sec5/art1.htm > >It talks about how computers are becoming obsolete the day you buy them >due to all the crazy new technologies being released into the market. My >observation is that anyone who chases technology and is always upgrading >to the latest and greatest is always going to have an "obsolete" computer. >The situation is not as bad as the article makes it out to be, not that >the article is actually saying the speed of new technology introductions >is a problem. But if people could be satisfied with what they have on >their desk, this issue of obsolescense would not be an issue at all. > >In 1995 I bought a Pentium-90 system which I clocked up to 100Mhz. It >came with Windows 3.1 but I quickly upgraded to Win95. It originally had >16MB RAM (which I've since upgraded to 32M) and a 1GB HD. It has a 5.25" >and 3.5" floppy and a CD-ROM drive. I'll soon be adding another 540MB HD >I have lying around spare, and then a 1.7GB SCSI HD as soon as I find a >SCSI cable. It's slow by today's standard, but the damn thing works. I >use an old version of Microsoft Works (3.0) for my word processing and >spread sheeting; some people haven't even heard of Works! They only know >Word. But Works loads instantly, whereas Word takes it seems forever to >load which is why I don't use it. Plus its bloated and drags my system >down. > >Which brings me to my point. The computers we collect are still so damn >useful! And this is not a new argument, but even though these old >machines don't have SVGA and EDO RAM and Ultra-SCSI and other new-fangled >fanciness, they still work! They can still process words, and crunch >numbers and hold information. And best of all, they play games MUCH more >fun than the current cache of cathartic creations; DOOM was novel when I >first played it, but every other incantation after it (DOOM II, QUAKE, >DUKE NUKEM, ETC) is the same game with a different "scenario" and >graphics, and that damn bobbing up and down makes me sick anyway! > >Give me Choplifter, Rescue Raiders or Dino Eggs any day! > >If you read the article carefully it gives a glimpse of the types of >machines that may be collectible in ten years or so. The article proposes >the dawn of the age of the "disposable" computer. This is totally >ridiculous. I cannot even relate to that mode of thinking. But on the >positive side, it means disgustingly cheap (and probably FREE) computers >10, 5, even 1(!) year(s) from now. More cheap PCs for us to run Linux on! >(Imagine having your own DLA [Distributed Linux Array] consisting of 16 or >more 300Mhz Pentium II PC, alls for just a song! You could break >government encryption with something like that :) > >People these days with their 333Mhz Pentiums with 128MB RAM and 4GB >harddrives should shut the hell up and be happy. > >Long live "obsolete" computers. > >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass > > Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

6
9
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Oops!

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

This is an open note to all readers in this list... Sorry about the gruf comments regarding the message on the PS/2 boards I have for sale, it was intended to be a sarcastic remark and to the person that wrote it, not open on the list. As for the moderator of this area I wish to apologize for monopolizing on the messages of stuff for sale. I have a bunch to clear out and should really stay with the topic of the older stuff I might have. If anyone is interested in this older stuff I have please email an inquiry. I'm getting choked with things I've saved from the landfill so that collectors and hobbyists can enjoy them and I don't get them for free so please don't expect to get them free either. I'm making a few cents on this stuff and don't plan on getting rich on it and try to set a fair price on these things to help other collectors out. My "business" (however corporate or formal it may appear) is a one man part time thing to clear a few bucks to upgrade my equipment and eventually become full time. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years, 2 months

1
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by TOwad＠aol.com

While we're making want lists, I'm interested in the following: Apple II Apple IIc+ Mac 128k Mac Portable interesting Apple/Mac stuff anything Lisa related TRS-80 Model 100 stuff I have for trade: 2 white Commodore 64's w/power supply 1 beige Commodore 64 in original box w/manual & floppy drive 1 Commodore Vic 20 w/cartridges 1 CoCo 1 w/original kb 1 CoCo 1 w/modified kb 1 Apple IIe 1 AppleColor 12" RGB monitor (for IIgs) 1 Laser 128 Apple II compatible Tom Owad

28 years, 2 months

1
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PS/2 55SX motherboards

by hbrody＠ix.netcom.com

55SX boards are available for $7.00 each in the wholesale mags. bye! ---------- > From: Russ Blakeman <rhblake(a)bbtel.com> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: PS/2 55SX motherboards > Date: Saturday, February 28, 1998 12:06 PM > > Have a bunch of PS/2 model 55SX motherboards in the "Reply" boxes in > great condition for sale or trade. Will sell separately for $25 each or > will work a better price for multiples. I'll also trade for equal value > of cdroms, sound cards, parity SIMMs in 30 or 72 pin for other machines > I'm working on. Of course shipping is extra but these are light. > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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/ > > * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > >

28 years, 2 months

3
2
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What is this? XEROX 820

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I found a XEROX 820 in a trift store today. Can anyone tell me what it is? It has a base unit with a built in monitor. It has four ports on it. One connects to a daul 5 1/4" disks drives in an external box. Another connects to a separate keyboard. The other two are for a serial port and printer port. Joe

28 years, 2 months

3
2
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Pretty good week

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

:Re: where to find them. You guys should be down here in Florida. :I find so many that I have to pick and choose. I left behind 4 :AT&T 3B2s, a NeXt, an AT&T 6300, 2 HP Appollos and 2 HP 9000/300s :yesterday. All of that was at a GSA auction at KSC. I did get a :COMPLETE Commodeore Pet set and a Vax Station 3100 for Zane. ok, so are there any jobs going in florida for cocky ex-pat limeys with a neat line in web development and a passion for tiny programs...? :> we'll have to start digging around at the computer auctions in this country - anyone recommend any firms worth talking to? -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

28 years, 2 months

3
2
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Walnut Creek CP/M CDROM Discontinued

by bwit＠pobox.com

My copy does not list any credits except for Walnut Creek. Walnut Creek CDROM Suite 260 1547 Palos Verdes Mall Walnut Creek, CA. 94596 (510) 674-0783 info(a)cdrom.com Bob ---------- From: John Foust[SMTP:jfoust@threedee.com] Sent: Friday, February 27, 1998 9:40 AM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Re: Walnut Creek CP/M CDROM Discontinued Walnut is a CD publisher. Unless they assembled the disc themselves, then someone else assembled the data and may own the (collection copyright) rights to reproduction of new CDs. Of course, they may be looking for a new publisher, or may try to publish it themselves. Walnut probably dropped it for lack of sales. They like to see at least 1,000 copies sold a month. If you own a copy of the old CD, check the credits and I'm sure you can track down the creator. Or ask Walnut Creek. They might tell you. It's more cost-effective and less risky these days to do short-run CDs on CD-R. Still, all-told you can get 1,000 "real" CDs for $800-$1,500, depending on which options you want. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

> To everyone: Some judicious snipping of quoted email replies would make it > MUCH easier to read, and really is common net-etiquette these days. Indeed so. I was amazed at how full my mail spool got today. > Me, I'm open to trades - I have a spare Exidy Sorcerer and assorted > oddities. The first machine I owned was a Sorcerer; I still have one (not the same one, sadly) and I'd love to get the WP Pac and the DevPac (or copy of the code) to replace those I sold nearly two decades ago. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 27, 23:15, Tony Duell wrote: > > an original archimedes, with the original arthur os and the gui in basic > > Hmm... I still have my Arthur programmer's reference manuals, but I doubt > I could find a set of the ROMs, alas... Well, I'm pretty sure I have a spare set of Arthur ROMs; I *should* have two sets of Arthur ROMs plus one set of Arthur EPROMs, from Archimedes A310 Serial No. 27-AKB10-1000002. Which is still running, but now with RISC OS 2.00, and a few extras like a hard disk, extra RAM, and a network connection... If I do have spares, I might be persuaded to exchange them for some 6809 firmware for an Acorn System board. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Pascal System

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<The UCSD p system used a nonstandard disk format technique, the floppy <was formatted in "blocks" and you booted the systeem off the a drive. <It wasn't just a language, but an entire operating system/environment. <I still have a copy of it around here somewhere from a class I took in <the early 80's. This was largely true for the z80based and PDP-11 based versions as well. I still have the P-system for horizon single density. The language addressed "units" as devices. The standard ones: unit volume -------------- 1 console: 2 systerm: 3 graphic: 4 <volume name> system disk 5 <volume name> alternate disk 6 printer 8 REMOTE: system peripherals 9-12 <VOLUME NAME> ADDITIONAL DRIVES Now if the code for the system interface didn't go beyond 2 floppy devices your cooked as that was a p-system hard coded thing. Allison

28 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

Looking for 3" disks

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

> > Mattel Aquarius with Mini-expander and two game controllers in excellent > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > These mini expanders are like mondo-rare. I don't think I've ever > actually seen one. While I'm thinking about it, does anyone know where I can get any blank 3" disks (for a Mattel Aquarius QD drive)? ========================================= 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, 2 months

8
11
0 0

Wanted stuff (and a donation for schools) (Was: Pretty good week)

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

I won't be left out either. I don't really want anything uncommon, and, even though I would like to be able to get minis, I move frequently and don't know about space, etc. until I get there. Anyay, here's my wish list: Apple ][ Stuff Cards, systems, I'll take it. Comodore stuff Don't have any, but have heard only good stuff. What most would call "worthless PC junk" OK, I'm a PC user. They're pretty nice, if you get down to it. I'll take it. Classic (non classic) Mac stuff I'm a PC user, but one that can change. ;-) Anyway, start at (near) the bottom, work you way to the top. And: A SMALL (less than 100MB would be fine!) IDE HDD, as I really need to get that computer back!!! (From my school, pretty nice AMD DX 40, 16MB RAM, and no HDD.) Ciao, Tim D. Hotze

28 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

HP-48SX memory card for sale.

by KFergason＠aol.com

Is the HP48 10 years old yet? A guy at work has a HP-48SX 128K memory card he would like to get rid of. Is this worth anything? The maker seems to be Corvallis. And, in the serendipity department, I lucked in to a TI59 with the PC100C printer at work. Nobody knew what to do with it, and they couldn't get it to work. "Well, since you are gonna throw it away, let me just take it off your hands...". Which brings up the question, are the old TI's hard to find? Anyone collect them? I have my old 55, 55II, both of which died after a few years. This 59 still works, which makes me think it wasn't used much. I don't know, just rambling. Kelly KFergason(a)aol.com

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

PrintMaster Gold 3.0 FS

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

Have a copy of PrintMaster Gold Publishing Suite 3 for sale. Includes original manual and cdrom. Great condition, has tons of grpahics, clipart, examples and includes extra fonts and graphics on disk. This program does everything including TALK! Cards, banners, leterhead, business cards, faxes, etc. Requires 486 or higher processor and Windows 3.1x or 95. Originally over $50 will take $25 shipped in the lower 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/ * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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