<From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
<Intel MCS8i 8080 development system. Well, it was late in the day, my
<money was running out, so I could only buy one of them.
MCS8i, if it was 1972 it could only be 8008 powered as the 8080 was a few
years later. Actually the MCS handle was copyrighted with the 4004. The
8008 was late 1971 and the 8080 a bit over a year later.
<I picked the Intellec. And I am not sorry. Sure it's not going to make me
<rich, but it is _beautiful_ inside. It came with all the manuals
<(schematics and monitor source code), and contains the 8080 CPU board
<(copyright 1972, which must make it a pretty early 8080 design), a couple
<of 4K RAM boards, an EPROM board (1702's, of course) containing the
<monitor, an I/O card, and the programmer for the 1702. The backplane bus
<uses 100 pin 0.125" edge connectors, but the card has a differnt form
<factor (and pinout) to S100 cards
if it was the 100 pin cards (one connector it's the MCS) where the MDS was
multibus with the two backplane connectors. I believe your off on the date
by about two years as the 4004 was 70/71 and the 8008 was first of the
8bitters in late '71 and labeled the MCS-8 and the 8080 was the MCS-80 and
the 8085 followed using the MCS-85. My references are the SIM08/mcs-8 user
manual March 1973. I also I did design work with the 8008 chip in early
'73. The 8080 was not available yet but the intel rep was saying "soon".
It would be nearly 74 before soon arrived.
On the up side yes they were constructed like minis, that was the standard
of the time. Big rugged boxes that had to earn their keep. The MDS I have
is partially gutted as someone pulled the power supplies out but the rest is
intact and last I powered it it ran. FYI the CPU was not even branded in
mine it has some odd penciled ES19-1 on the cpu(8080). I even have the
correct Power One supplies to complete it( same vintage). In time they
could be worth more as they are scarce(low volume production).
<As regards historical interest, well, it has an IOBYTE at address 3,
<divided into 4 2-bit fields that define the console, punch, reader and
<list device - long before CP/M. And there's plenty more things like that.
The first incantation of CPM was on an MDS-800 box and the sources for a
typical bios in the cpm 1.4 and 2 manuals reflect that. IOBYTE is
supported, The docs say it's implemented using the intel standard.
Allison
I've got place to put it and no way to get it there. Maybe someone else
does?
In ba.market.computers, Graham Freeman <graham(a)step.mother.com> wrote:
> FREE - You pick up - VAX 11/750 monster computer. Three units -
>two the size of a full-size home refrigerator and another the size of an
>economy clothes washer. Call or e-mail if you're interested. Units are
>located in Davis, California.
>Graham Freeman graham(a)madre.com
>(530)753-0650 - voice (530)759-4184 - pager
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
some guy i bought a mac video card from said he had something called an
apollo workstation. he said it was a 68020/68030 with a 19 inch monitor, can
run *nix, and would only want ~$50 for it. anyone heard of this machine or
know anything about it? he said some local colleges used the machines for
various duties but are obsolete now.
david
At 04:48 AM 11/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>On Fri, 31 Oct 1997, Bruce James wrote:
>
>> and my latest find a Amiga 1000 with 1080 moniter and 512k memory
>> anyone have more information on expansion of this computer??
>
>I used an Amiga 1000 as my primary computer for six years. Beautiful
>machine. The darling of my collection. :)
Hi thanks Doug for the reply
I am mostly looking for ways of adding more memory and a hard drive..
picked up a second 3 1/2 external drive and rs1200 modem.
I need a good terminal program and Word Processer..
Also can you give me a hint on what software will work like most stuff for
the a-500 or a-2000??
> I can pull out
>my old manuals and magazines and see what I can dig up. Hopefully I
>haven't made any errors above. :)
>
>Doug Spence
>ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
Again thanks Bruce James
kb8kac tech plus
ejames(a)newwave.net
Sure they would.... if the computer was better built then them, then it
would break their head. If it was built worse than them, their head would
only sustain minor damage!!!
----------
From: Kip Crosby <engine(a)chac.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Classic Computer Rescue Squad
Date: Saturday, November 08, 1997 3:18 AM
At 23:18 11/7/97 +0000, you wrote:
>I am conviced that a lot of people (probably not on this list) wouldn't
>know a well-designed or well-built computer if it was dropped on them...
Naturally not, they'd be too busy limping around howling.
____________________________________________________________
Kip Crosby, honcho, mechanic and sole proprietor, Kip's Garage
http://www.kipsgarage.com: rumors, tech tips and philosophy for the
trenches
Coming Spring '98: The Windows 98 Bible by Kip Crosby and Fred Davis!
Now.... just for fun, try to get a modern PC, drop it on your toe (A
sacrifice for science) and then watch it break into DOZENS of piece. Chip
out of socket, RAM out of socket, motherboard out of case, power supply out
of case, HDD crashed, disk drive not in a working condition, CD-ROM drive's
laser swears that there's no disk in. They don't make 'em like they used
to!!!
----------
From: Jeff Beoletto <jbeolett(a)ssi.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Classic Computer Rescue Squad
Date: Saturday, November 08, 1997 6:28 PM
On Sat, 8 Nov 1997, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
> On Sat, 8 Nov 1997, Hotze wrote:
>
> > At 23:18 11/7/97 +0000, you wrote:
> > >I am conviced that a lot of people (probably not on this list)
wouldn't
> > >know a well-designed or well-built computer if it was dropped on
them...
> >
> > Naturally not, they'd be too busy limping around howling.
> >
>
> I DID THAT! I DID THAT! I successfully managed to crush Jeff Beoletto's
> (One of my friends) toes with
> a PDP-11/44. We were trying to move it sideways. BTW, his foot healed
up
> quite well. And he wasn't limping around, he was curled up in a little
> ball on the floor, cussing a blue streak :) A week ago we were moving
the
> RA81, and I almost did it again...
>
>
>
Seeing how it was me that Dan managed to drop it I can agree to
the limping, and ironically enough it's the same foot that I had broken 3
times in the month before he crushed it. And just yesterday hauling a pc
down to our storagge office on the 5th floor I tripped and fell down the
steps and have just re-broken that very same ankle. Computers are
hazerdous to your health. =+)
In a message dated 97-11-01 22:50:14 EST, Zane Healy put forth:
> I had a good day scrounging the junk stores, first chance I've had in about
> two months to do any serious looking. Among the things I came up with
> today were an Atari 400 and a Atari 800. No Power Supply for either
> though, but then I'm used to that problem. The question is, what on earth
> does it use for a PS? Can I just break out the old Atari 2600 and use
it's
> PS?
on my ps for my atari 400 it says the output is 9v ac but im not sure if the
plug is center positive or not. anyone have tapes for the 400? i have the
"program recorder" but nothing to use in it.
david
<> IE: altair was importnat because it was relatively cheap.
<
<And it spawned a bus architecture that begat the micro-computer
<revolution.
There is something to that but on closer inspection the SWTP, SouthWest
Technical Products SS50 bus was far cheaper and much easier to interface
to. The 100 pin connector was expensive and the redundant signals were/are
a pain. It would take several years to sort out things like bus noise and
compatability. No S100 was a bandwagon and the technology was not at issue
as there were better busses and even at the current time of the altair.
When IMSAI also did it nearly the same people sayw that as important enough
that there were two systems with a similar bus that wasn't too bad to
connect to. Now that is historically significant. When two companies
compete using similar hardware or software that is when it takes
significance as it just became an industry.
As to spawning a revolution, no. That started when the machines became
small enough and cheap enough to be attainable. I still remember in 1970
hanging out in highschool with the guys debating processor wordlength and
actually developing on paper a possible sequencer for one. I could have
had a CIM2000 in '72 (bout the size and performance of an 8e) for $2000!
That was the price of a new ford pickup then! It was there I was in it.
What it did was give us early computer hackers and engineers something
useful without some of the teething cycles of homebrewery. It was also
the industry cranking out components that had potential at attainable
prices. I built my first logic design using a RAM (1101, 256x1) in late
'71 and it was at $23 each. In a year the 2102 (1kx1) would be $16.
Imagine a 1kx8 memory for $128!!! By 1974 that would be 4kx8 for under
$100. This along with TTL prices dropping to pennies for a 7400 gate
made assembling a pdp-8 or somesuch within reach, then the 8008 chip at
$180 (over a weeks take home pay in 1972) made it come a bit closer. A
year before the DEC 1974 Popular Electronics Altair article were the Radio
Electronics articles for the Mark-8 a 8008 machine. So it wasn't a single
event is as much the cumulations of many small events. We would get out
of the basement/garage and started on the next level. Better said we
stopped trying to build a machine and started doing things with it. It
was an accelerator.
There were many of accelerators. There would be many more, the z80 would
be the next one. I also think the 16bit battles that started soon after
would push the envelope some more, as did the 32bit systems. In the middle
of the 8/16 battle graphics started to be seen and that pushed the CPUs
harder and demanded more memory and left a huge vacuum for software.
Allison
<Ehehe... We should build a computer from discrete components, just to
<operate one. And connect it to the Internet. Of course, we'd never
<finish in out lifetimes, and it would fill a room, but it would be awful
<cool!
It's been done and it didn't take lifetime or fill rooms. The machines
were called LINC and they were built in 1964 time frame. Granted the
internet part would take a bit longer.
Over the years many home made machine not microprocessor based have been
built. It is an undertaking but it's not anywhere near impossible.
In reality using moden methods and current discrete parts a better and
smaller machine could be built.
Allison
NS if this is true or not, but it's funny!
The system programmer group writing TOPS-10 use to love fancy
TECO programs and had a weekly contest for them. One guru
working on FORTRAN compilers would read them carefully but never
enter one. They thought he was just concentrating on compilers.
Then one week he submitted a macro that did FORTRAN compilation,
complete with optimization. The TECO program took days to run,
but it worked. Apparently he had written a PDP-10 instruction
set eumlator in TECO and fed the compiler into it!
Hi,
I seem to have a problem. I just got a VAXstation II, and it came with a
whole box of TK50-K tapes. I've a bad feeling that these are blank tapes
though, double bad since I'm suspecting that the system needs to be
reloaded. I'll give a detailed writeup of the problems I'm having later on
(I forgot to make notes when I had it powered up).
The only identificaton on any of the tapes is a small white label with
numbers on it. Some of the numbers on each tape are printed, others hand
written. I've a bad feeling that these are simply backup tapes, in which
case I don't know if they'll do me any good or not. The other possibility
is that they are for something called "RS/1". If anyone can tell me what
these are I'd appreciate it.
Printed Hand Written
------- ------------------
525810 5-0-0 41
525865 6-0-0 (a crossed out 96 with 117 under it)
525869 19-0-1 21
525871 10-1-0 23
525952 9-0-0 81
525959 1-0-0 70
525993 9-0-1 75
526044 23-2-0 57
Since I assume these aren't the VMS distribution tapes, does anyone know
how I can get them? I'm aware of the Hobbiest License for OpenVMS, but I
think it's to new of a version to run on my VAXstation II/RC. There is
also the problem with the Hobbiest version of it comes on CD-ROM. All the
OS manuals that I've got are for MicroVMS/VMS 4.4
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
At 06:33 PM 11/6/97 -0500, you wrote:
>I wonder how many non - PC compatibles have used Intel 8088 or 8086 chips. I
>have heard of a machine called an "ACT Apricot", which is said to have had
>voice recognition and a GUI. Could someone tell me about it and others? My
>reasoning is that there are lots of neat things that could be done on an
>8088, but not with a DOS system.
One of the first computer jobs I had was running* a CompuPro 8/16 under
MP/M-16(?). It was an S-100 box with 5 or so terminals. I forget what it
originally had as a processor but we upgraded shortly after I arrived to a
80286/8085 dual processor CPU board.
*Note: this system was so rock solid and self-sustaining that I'm grossly
exagerating here. I wrote some programs, did some data entry, and turned it
on/shut it down. Piece of cake.
P.S., I stumbled across a site that might offer insight into this question.
It's at <http://www.mygale.org/08/samurai/> and offers a listing of
computers by microprocessor (as well as other ways). Only problem is it's
in french. 8^)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Hi Daniel:
Attached is the QD21 manual in a gzipped tar archive format. If you need
ASCII I'll resend it.
Kevin
At 10:52 AM 97/11/08 -0600, you wrote:
>On Sat, 8 Nov 1997, Kevin McQuiggin wrote:
>
>> Yep, you need one. You can use a standard PC cable and ignore the twisted
>> connector, or simply cut and resolder the twisted portion. This works
for me.
>
>I already have a straight-through.
>
>>
>> Here's the plan. Get the drive specs from the IBM web site (this will be
>> tough, their sites are, in my experience, very hard to navigate), and grab
>> a copy of the QD21 manual that explains each of the required parameters.
>> There are copies available online, I can email it to you if necessary.
>>
>
>Email would be good, I've tried looking for the manual but had no luck
>finding it.
>
>> Boot your machine to the chevron prompt, then start up the QD21 firmware.
>> Hopefully you'll have the "newer" menu driven version, if not then you'll
>> have to set up some tables in memory as described in the manual.
>>
>
>I do have the menus. I can get that far.
>
>> The QD21 has a "read disk parameters from device" setting, I'd try that
>> first to see if it works for your drive. I've have mixed success with
>> non-DEC drives on this one. If it works then you're away to the races, just
>> format from the QD21 menus and then INIT DUxx from VMS or whatever's on
>> your VAX.
>
>VAX? The QD21 is in a PDP-11/23+.
>
>>
>> If not then you'll have to enter a bunch of parameters from the drive
>> specs, plus some that you can calculate from the specs as stated in the
>> manual.
>>
>
>OK
>
>> The drive select jumper on the drive must generally be set to "drive select
>> 2". If you're getting no response this may be the problem. The cable must
>> not be of the twisted variety. Make sure your cable polarity is right, etc.
>> etc.
>>
>> I have had success with IBM ESDI drives and the QD21, just keep fiddling
>> and you'll get it going!
>
>That's the usual plan...
>
>> I hope this helps,
>
>If you really have the manual, it will!
>
>
>
>
At 00:02 08-11-97 PST, Tim Shoppa intoned (in response to Dan Seagraves):
>I'm going to make a guess that you're talking about DEC RX33 (5.25"
>half-height drives) or DEC RX50 drives (two 5.25" drives in a full-height
>5.25" form factor) hooked to a RQDX3 controller. If you can specify
>that you're talking about one or the other, you'll get more specific
>answers :-)
<snip>
>A RQDX3 is incapable of formatting RX50 floppies, but it is capable
<snip>
Excuse me, but this does not make sense to me. I have an RX50 and RQDX3 in
my MicroVAX II, and it is perfectly happy formatting RX50 floppies. How do
you think I got that wonderful tape copying program onto the hard drive? ;-)
For my part, Tim, I'd be very disappointed if you unsubscribed from the
list. I value your insights very much.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin2(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"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..."
<> Ok, first of all I'm pretty amazed at the 3rd grade level of
<> mentality being demonstrated by the whiners complaining about my
<> "foul" language.
Sam, it's not a big thing but there are a few women and I for one really
don't like it. I'm no prude and there are time I can turn the air blue
but I try to avoid it unless there is pain associated with it.
< There's more to a machine that makes it historically important
<than how many were sold or produced. Was the STRETCH important (a
<half dozen or so)? How about the PDP-10 (under a thousand)? Mass
<marketing is not the gauge of importance, especially in a social
<context. Remember - the individuals who designed the machines that
<_were_ mass marketed were brought up knowing about computers, and
<those machines most certainly weren't mass-market devices.
I for one see the imporant machine as those that influenced the direction
of computing. This could be by putting computers where they werent before
or by introducing/solidifying a concept.
IE: altair was importnat because it was relatively cheap.
IE: the PC was impostant be cause IBMs entry in to the market that was
dominated by TRS-80, APPLE and friends somehow ligitemized destop
sized computer to the masses.
< Whether Novas are "wanted" is immaterial to the argument. Folks are
<now virtually unaware of a piece of history, and an important one at
<that. It's also a piece of history that's fast disappearing, which is
<a rotten shame.
That is the point!
< Do multi-thousand dollar speculative prices on Altairs make them
<more "historic" or "valuable" than a PDP-5 (predecessor of the -8)?
<There's more to be calculated into a "value" than the current market
<price, which all too frequently is out of line with reality.
People miss the Mark-8 (8008 based) that preceeded it by nearly a year.
< Nope. Nobody did. That's one of the reasons I have respect for
<the man. He knows machines worth saving, and is willing to take the
<time and (not incosiderable) effort to do so.
Right! To make a point there are few machines with much value other
than history. Those that collect are like archiologists, few will
discover the missing link but the rest will flesh out history
surrounding it. It's that history, the society, hackers, scientists
that are important.
<> If the majority of kids in America had a picture of a Nova tacked to
<> their wall, the newspapers might have run a story on one.
<
< Do you know who I'm speaking of? Hint: he designed one of the early
<mass-market computers that you prize so highly.
What's missed is many Novas were used in places like malls to make T-shirts
with pictures on them (at least in the northeast). They were there on the
bottom shelf doing it. This was at a time when altair, Imsai and apples
were the thing.
The altair... I have one. My opinion of the design is simple, it can
serve well as an example of how not to do it.
Allison
I'm not sure about the actual jumper settings, but if you have web access,
I would check out http://www.computercraft.com for more info. They have
everything from benchmarks to how to upgrade a 486.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Daniel A. Seagraves <dseagrav(a)bsdserver.tek-star.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Hard drive jumper settings required.
Date: Monday, November 03, 1997 4:44 PM
I'm going to attach this to the QD21, so I need to reset the jumpers.
IBM 115MB ESDI drive, type 0669, sequence # 104040108
There are 6 DIP switched behind the drive terminator. I'm told I have to
use a straight-through cable, so I went and got one.
The drive does nothing. With a crossover cable (Where the pins are
crossed, a normal PC cable) it went click-clunk, click-clunk, and did
nothing. The drive is known good. (I pulled it from a PS/2 which we
upgraded to a SCSI drive)
If anyone works at Advanced Technology Services, the drive came from Cat
origionally and has the ATS sticker "ATS-444862"
Another barcode on top of the drive by the air inlet says "B1AF3092241"
< I was at an auction last Saturday, and immediatly started to drool over
<this beautiful piece of equipment. It was an Intergraph 250 (No, I have
<never seen one before) and it look to be in excellent shape. It was about
<top 7 feet wide, by about 3 feet deep, and 5 feet high, with a beautiful
<blue and white finish. On one side, behind a large black panel, was four
Sounds like a Intergraph/DEC 8650 or in that realm that was from the mid
'80s. Intergraph would take DEC machines and add their stuff to it to
make hopped up machines for their business applications. The drives were
SMD and the controller was of Intergraph design. Nice machine and there are
a bunch around in use.
Allison
Is there a way to disable the M8190 console SLU so as to use another
serial in it's place? The bulkhead adapter for the SLU has been
cannabalized to fix another machine, and I want to get this one running.
I have the DLV-11J that was in my 11/23, I plan to use it.
Any ideas?
<> <Ever read, say, _Soul of a New Machine_?
<>
<> Good read, still have my copy!
<>
<Me too. But I've also got a hard-cover now!
I was given mine when it was first releassed and is hard cover.
<<This prompted me to dig up a Nov 81 copy of a mag called Datamation
<whose feature article was a history of the Route 128 companies and a
<companion piece "Rte128's new Wave Startups" which included Apollo,
<Stratus, SOLV-vation, and the 'revamped"Charles River Data Systems..
<The push was on to 32bit and Data General was offering it"s
<"brand-new" medium-priced supermini,the MV 6000 whose price was on
Therein lies a peice of the story. From 79 to recent I and friends worked
for companies involved in the 128 race. It's amazing how few are left and
how different some are.
< Another "cute" blurb, "CP/M-86 is the 16 bit version of the de facto
<industry standard microcomputer operating system, CPM. Once a user
<slips the 8-inch floppy containing CPM-86 into a (IBM) Displaywriter,
<an entirely new world of data processing will open up on the typist's
<desk." Sounds almost pornographic. ; ^ ))
Call that a snapshot in time before the PC explosion.
What I miss is hearing about Honeywell, RCA, Univac, Borroughs and Sperry
to name a few here in the USA where it started. There are machines that
were unique than and by standards now made by these companies. A example is
the RCA machines from what little I know were patterned after the TX series
of mit. I'd love to hear more.
Allison
On Sat, 08 Nov 1997 02:38:31 -0300, Mr. Richards made the following
statements:
> I have to tell you all about the sad fate of a beautiful machine.
> [...] It was an Intergraph 250 [...]
> I want to add to my misery by finding out exactly what it was, what
> it's speed was, what it was comparable to.
The brains of the machine were a MicroVAX II (KA630-AA). Disks
were primarily Fujitsu 8" Winchester drives controlled by an Inter-
graph proprietary controller called an "InterBus File Processor".
A SCSI tape drive was standard on the 250, also of Fujitsu manufacture
if I recall correctly.
A nice enough little box, but hobbled for the hobbyist community
by the proprietary controller for which no schematics of firmware
listings will _ever_ be available from Intergraph.
______________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:carl.friend@stoneweb.com | |
| http://www.ultranet.com/~engelbrt/carl/museum | ICBM: N42:22 W71:47 |
|________________________________________________|_____________________|
I picked up an Osborne-1 last night, but no software. Is anyone willing to
cut me a copy of some 5 1/4" CP/M operating system and utility disks?
I'd gladly replace the disks supplied...
Thanks in advance,
-- Tony Eros
Internet Consultant - Financial/Pharma Services Practice
Digital Equipment Corporation
I wondering if anyone had any info on the Laser 128ex. I lugged an EGA
monitor to a friend of mine this week with the intentions of trading it for
a couple of hard drives, as I really need to clear some space (two bedroom
apartment, and I'm sleeping on a loveseat in the living room). Anyway, when
I got down there, I noticed the Laser on a shelf. I have never heard of this
machione before, so of course I had to have it right then and there :)
It resembles an Apple//c in layout; CPU, keyboard and 5 1/4" floppy in one
unit. As a bonus, the power supply I got with it also fits, my Apple//c. I
also noticed that on the bottom, there is a switch for LCD screen. The
similarities between this and the Apple makes me wonder if this wasn't some
sort of copy.
Does anyone have any ideas about this machine, specificaly I would like to
know how to break into the BASIC. On the Apple, I press CRTL and reset, but
this doesn't work on the Laser.
I would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance...
----------------------------------------------------------------
______________________________________________Live from the GLRS
The Man From D.A.D
----------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Hotze wrote:
> Also, 88 (8088), 87 (487, 8087, etc.) and many other numbers. With macs,
> there's a whole slew of numbers that I don't want to get into.
Riccardo quoted Tony Duel as having written:
> >Which reminds me. Which word lengths have been used by (binary) computers?
> >Off the top of my head :
> >
> >4 (Intel 4004, etc)
> >8 (Far too many to list)
> >12 (PDP8, PDP12, etc)
> ..omissis...
> >What others?
>
> 9 (Texas 99/4, 990/10, TMS 9900)
> 86 (Intel Docet again)
I think some of you have misinterpreted Tony's question. He was asking
about word lengths. I do not believe that the Texas 99 series had a
word length of 9 bits (16 wasn't it?)
The Intel 8088 was 8 bits, the 8086 16; the 80x87, as I recall, are 80
bits internally (another one for your list, Tony, if coprocessors
count!)
I believe that there are some CPU chips now with 64-bit internal buses.
Any advance on 64?
At the other end, do the processors in the AMT DAP count as 1-bit
machines? Or are they bit-slices of a 32 bit machine? Or a 1024 bit
machine?
Philip.
I have to tell you all about the sad fate of a beautiful machine.
I was at an auction last Saturday, and immediatly started to drool over
this beautiful piece of equipment. It was an Intergraph 250 (No, I have
never seen one before) and it look to be in excellent shape. It was about 6
top 7 feet wide, by about 3 feet deep, and 5 feet high, with a beautiful
blue and white finish. On one side, behind a large black panel, was four
large, rack mounted drives; 2 were 557mb, and the other 2 were 337mb. I
believe the drives were old SCSI drives. On the other side, was a large reel
tape backup system, and below that, the guts of the machine behind another
black panel. Everything look to be there, and in working order.
Now for the sad part. It went for $2.50 (Converted to US, that is like
-$0.45 :) The person who bought it... some low, greasy guy with the name of
his autobody shop on his greasy ball cap (no, I didn't bid on it, I have no
place to put it) my friend asked him what he was going to do with it, and
you could tell by looking at the guy that he couldn't wait to try out a new
cutting saw on the thing, according to my friend (I was busy banging my head
agianst the wall :<
It is dead by now, and now I want to add to my misery by finding out
exactly what it was, what it's speed was, what it was comparable to. Anybody
out there know?
----------------------------------------------------------------
______________________________________________Live from the GLRS
The Man From D.A.D
----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm interested in the 386's.
----------
From: Zeus334(a)aol.com
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: STuff
Date: Saturday, November 08, 1997 4:36 AM
>have a bunch of wyse 60 terminals, a couple of 386's, an old printer
>and various boards etc. Anyone interested.
>"Janet Paganelli" <info(a)msnyc.org>
What's a wyse 60?
What kind of boards do you have?
Is it a dot matrix printer?
In a certain supply room, there are in storage some computers of interest to
me. There used to be some XTs and PCs, but they were given to a school. The
stuff that's still there:
A ton of printers, generally IBM dot-matrix
A ton of manuals and books, including manuals to Quattro-Pro, the manuals to
some of the IBM printers, etc. Also, books on C and pascal
A few cartons of floppies, with the original disks to DOS 3.3, and a bunch of
programs I have never heard of.
About 15 IBM network cards. I can't tell what they are, but they are brown
full- length eight bit things with round connectors on the back.
An IBM System/74, with three terminals.
I believe that the administration will part with all of these without much
difficulty. I could personally use the first 4 items. The System/74 is about
the size of a closet, and I doubt I would find much use for it (If only I had
room...)
I know nothing about it, and I would appreciate if you people would tell me
what the heck a System/74 is. It has a big floppy drive (14" or 8") built in
to the front panel, mounted on its side.....
>> I have at home a memory bank from a CDC Cyber two-hundred-and-something
>> (?) which is 18 bits wide. I had always assumed that this was 16 bits
>> plus two parity but it doesn't fit into 60 bits either way. (Memory
>> bank is huge quantities of 40ns and 45ns 64k x 1 static RAMs surface
>> mounted on both sides of numerous daughter boards. Each daughter board
>> is 64k x 18 and they stack four deep all over the "mother board" of the
>> bank.) I always meant to use this in something, but somehow I never got
>> around to it...
>
> That is perhaps from one of the Cyber 203/205/215 supercomputers. These
> were HUGE vector machines, from the same period (and a rival of) the later
> Cray-1s. They were 60 bit machines, so I am confused about the x18
> organization. Perhaps error checking was involved.
This one was thrown out by the Technical University of {better not say
where} in 1993. Not very old - date code on some of the memory chips is
1992.
My friend, a student there, whom I visited in August of that year, had
eight of these memory banks, eight megabytes each (64k x 2 bytes x four
boards deep x sixteen stacks per bank). I swapped him a Keithley 417k
electrometer (a very sensitive multimeter) for mine.
He also threw in a card from the CPU, which I think I've mentioned here
before. The technology is 100k series ECL so should have been faster
than Cray 1. (The Cray 1 in the {museum of same town} was 10k series.)
<Absolutely true. I do hope that the "classiccmp" mailing list doesn't
<go in the direction that Sam suggests, i.e. limiting discussion to
<computers considered "collectible" in the popular press.
Yes there are many machines that are quite interesting but aren't sexy by
the LA times standard. I will not argue that altair, Imsai, Apple, tandy
and IBM to name a few weren't povital. I may add that most of those names
do not attract my attention as I know some of the backroads and alleys
where I did application engineering and design work.
Maybe that's why I have an intel Intellect MDS 8080 development system
that is circa 1976 manufacture and of vastly superior construction than
the altair.
<That reminds me, Allison, I've got a couple of Motorola 6800 Exorcisor
<boards that I promised to try to sneak in through US Customs for you...
When they arrive I will be thankful.
Allison
On Thu, 6 Nov 1997 14:03:12 -0800 (PST), we heard Mr. Ismail utter:
> The Nova will never be featured in the newspapers because it is not a
> socially significant computer.
Two words, one of which is not printable, but the lead-in is
"Bull".
The Nova was one of the early minicomputers which came to be used
by schools in the early '70s. The other one, and slightly earlier in
origin, was the PDP-8. The pdp11 post-dates these by some time.
The Nova was a seminal machine even if it was a "widened/en-
hanced" PDP-8. One of the founders of Apple, who lots of those
here hold in very high esteem, was captivated enough by the Nova
to keep a picture of one tacked to his bedroom wall. (Kids,
sheesh! :-) )
> In the great scheme of things, it is but one of many.
So are lots of things, including many of the machines manu-
factured in the last two decades. Like the TRS-80, the Apple II,
the Commodore <whatever>, the ubiquitous PeeCee, and, yes, even
the revered IMSAI.
> Drop the rant already.
Yes. Please do.
There's more to life than microprocessors and tiny boxes.
Of course, I may have been trolled here, but if that's the case
I'll learn to deal with it.
______________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:carl.friend@stoneweb.com | |
| http://www.ultranet.com/~engelbrt/carl/museum/ | ICBM: N42:21 W71:46 |
|________________________________________________|_____________________|
>have a bunch of wyse 60 terminals, a couple of 386's, an old printer
>and various boards etc. Anyone interested.
>"Janet Paganelli" <info(a)msnyc.org>
What's a wyse 60?
What kind of boards do you have?
Is it a dot matrix printer?
At 23:18 11/7/97 +0000, you wrote:
>I am conviced that a lot of people (probably not on this list) wouldn't
>know a well-designed or well-built computer if it was dropped on them...
Naturally not, they'd be too busy limping around howling.
____________________________________________________________
Kip Crosby, honcho, mechanic and sole proprietor, Kip's Garage
http://www.kipsgarage.com: rumors, tech tips and philosophy for the trenches
Coming Spring '98: The Windows 98 Bible by Kip Crosby and Fred Davis!
At 23:13 11/7/97 +0000, you wrote:
>A true story.... I was at a radio rally (hamfest) about 7 years ago, and
>there was an Altair on sale, and alongside it....there was an
>Intel MCS8i 8080 development system. Well, it was late in the day, my
>money was running out, so I could only buy one of them.
>
>I picked the Intellec. And I am not sorry. Sure it's not going to make me
>rich, but it is _beautiful_ inside.
Damn, Tony, I always knew you had taste!
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Ive got a non working imagewriter model I available for cost of shipping from
NC if anyone wants it. i've the original box to ship it in, although the
packing material is missing. printer is complete except for plastic top
cover, and it gets power, but wont print. i think it's probably some logic
component inside which has failed. i have a wide carriage model to keep
anyway. interested?
david
At 21:00 11/6/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Maybe that's why I have an intel Intellec MDS 8080 development system
>that is circa 1976 manufacture and of vastly superior construction than
>the Altair.
Damn right, pop a case on an Intellec and you'll just sigh. They're like
little minis inside. You know what else is just as nice the same way? The
Tektronix boxes built around the LSI-11....
It's like having a '56 or '57 Mercedes. The whole world knows how sexy and
pricey a 300SL is, be it the Gullwing or the roadster; but it takes a
_real_ connoisseur to appreciate, even to recognize! the same year's 300SC.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
WHat kind of floppies does an RD-53 (? Is that it?) expect?
I've dropped in 360s and 1.2Ms, but all it does when I tell it format is
pull the head in and out, in and out, like bad sector error. It this like
RX02s where they need some wierd format before they work?
BTW, I tried imaging the harddisk already, but my XT doesn't like the
drive for some reason. These are just standard MFM drives, right?
On Thu, 6 Nov 1997 19:10:21 -0500 (EST), Mr. Donzelli was heard to
say:
> [...] military electronics has always been way ahead of what the
> industry [...] like spread spectrum communications (incidently,
> invented by the most unlikely of people) [...]
Thank you! My faith has been restored.
How many can name the individual in question? Hint: The name
appeared in a fairly recent "Invention & Technology" issue.
______________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:carl.friend@stoneweb.com | |
| http://www.ultranet.com/~engelbrt/carl/museum/ | ICBM: N42:21 W71:46 |
|________________________________________________|_____________________|
I 'd like to commend and thank Matt Pritchard for shipping the Hard Drive
Bibles. I know he went to a lot of trouble to purchase, pack and ship
several heavy volumes...and asked no profit for himself.
If he ever needs a favor, I hope everyone will bend over backwards to help
him!
Thanks, Mr. Pritchard,
manney(a)nwohio.com
Sam, that was very uncalled for. Any problems that you have could have
been solved in a gentlemanly manner, ceretainly witout resulting to this
level of language!
----------
From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch(a)northernway.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Classic Computer Rescue Squad
Date: Friday, November 07, 1997 6:48 PM
;-) Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, Sam Ismail
said:
>Now, when the f**k did I say that?
[snip]
>Otherwise, pull your head from out of your a**, Tim.
[snip]
Geez, Sam! Take a [Choose One] (Valium / Prozac), wouldya??? Tho Tim may
have talked out of turn (I'm not judging either way), does it really
warrant talk of this nature? And if it does, could you keep the _extreme_
profanity to private e-mail?
I'm no saint myself, but others may become highly offended with this type
of abusive crap...
Just MHO,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | Why does Hershey's put nutritional
Programmer, NorthernWay | information on their candy bar wrappers
zmerch(a)northernway.net | when there's no nutritional value within?
On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, Tim Shoppa wrote:
> Of course, because DG Novae haven't been featured in the _LA Times_
> or the _Chicago Tribune_, nobody wants them. The instant they are
> featured, all sorts of lusers will start crawling out and insisting
> they *need* a Nova, price is no object, just like happened with my
> Altair's, IMSAI's, and Apple I's.
Oh, and Tim will be very sad on that day indeed, and in his generous
nature will open up the warehouse to all those who've spotted his
old post on this mailing list, and will not raise the price from
"take them away" to $10,000 each. :-)
- John
I had an Heathkit H-11a computer drop into my lap (somewhat literally)
last night, and it got me to thinking...
It's probably time to try to get one of these things running in its
original configuration (vs. the Dec cards in the Heath chassis config.),
so it looks like I need to track down some copies of the original Heath
(mutated Dec) software for the thing... (i.e. HT-11, etc...)
I've got most of the paper tapes for the H-11 so I think I'm ok there,
and I've got a H-27 disk sub-system for the thing, so now I seek the
software on disk.
Anyone out there have spares or a functional unit that can replicate???
And... Does anyone remember the specific differences between the H-11 and
H11a? (if any aside from the obvious addition of a third switch on the
front panel?)
(still seeking that elusive H-10 tho...)
Thanks!
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
At 15:02 11/7/97 +0300, you wrote:
>Yeah, I'm mostly interested in collecting micros, but I forget how big
>minis are....
They vary. There are rack-mount minis, like an HP 2115 or some of the
smaller DG's, that you can pick up singlehanded, although you won't love
yourself for it. On the other end, our SDS 930 -- 14 racks, 5.5 tons
probably counting spares and docs -- is just the size that some people,
including me, call it a small mainframe, and some call it a mini. A PDP-1,
to take another example, is absolutely a mini, but if you add a Fastrand
(drum) and a goodly squad of tape drives, you have a fairly imposing computer.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
<I'd like a Nova, but I've so far not been courageous enough to think
<seriously about moving one from Vancouver to Montreal. :)
I'm embarressed to say that I live about 8 miles from DG and have had
little contact with any of their machines. You don't see them here around
fleas much either.
Allison
I think I have one, but without the disks. Is this OK?
-----Original Message-----
From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
To: Manney <Manney>
Date: Wednesday, November 05, 1997 7:22 AM
Subject: PC/AT reference
> Not yet a classic, but does anyone have a {spare} copy of the
"Technical
>Reference Personal Computer AT"? This is the tech ref guide for the
original
>IBM PC/AT, published by IBM (I'm guessing in a gray fabric binder).
>
> TIA!
>
>Rich Cini/WUGNET
><rcini(a)msn.com>
> Charter ClubWin! Member
> MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
>
>
>
>
>
>
<Yes, I suppose, but it also shows that the computers were not the real
<cutting edge,
The programming however was! The MMC had the disk completely wiped and
even the timing tracks were gone.
<like crypto and countermeasures gear. If it were the
<absolute best, cutting edge technology, it would have been shredded
<(literally - I have seen the end results).
That's the point. The crypto and contermeasures stuff it was not the
parts but the general designs that had to be hid. After all we didn't
want it known how to encode or decode a cypher or jam a particular radar
as everyone could do it. Often it was not so much the hardware but the
underlying concepts. With computers the real advances were being made in
the commercial and university spaces as that's the users that pushed for
it or were experimenting with different approaches. If anything the
military was the winner as they got to use it after the fact incorperating
it into their systems.
Generally the loss is that we didn't get to see how Purple or Enigma
worked. But I do have a great article from the late 50s about how
The radar display system was linked to the Sage system.
Allison
Yeah, I'm mostly interested in collecting micros, but I forget how big
minis are. But if anyone has anything, that would be great. And how much
does a Nova weigh? A DG? The whole package?
TIA,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Classic Computer Rescue Squad
Date: Friday, November 07, 1997 1:26 PM
On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, Tim Shoppa wrote:
> Not a problem. I can get you a Nova 4 CPU+chassis, a DG terminal, a
> 6045 14" disk drive, controller, and pack, and a 9-track tape drive,
> all hooked together and running DG RDOS.
How much space would a system like this take, and what kind of power is
required to feed it? :)
> Of course, because DG Novae haven't been featured in the _LA Times_
> or the _Chicago Tribune_, nobody wants them. The instant they are
> featured, all sorts of lusers will start crawling out and insisting
> they *need* a Nova, price is no object, just like happened with my
> Altair's, IMSAI's, and Apple I's.
I'd like a Nova, but I've so far not been courageous enough to think
seriously about moving one from Vancouver to Montreal. :)
I know nothing about minis. My entire collection consists of
(generally very common) micros, and I'd almost be afraid to let a mini in
the house in case something goes wrong. (My conscience does not handle
damaging classic computer equipment well.)
> Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
<The Minuteman missle computers were not the cutting edge and not very
<secret. After all, they did end up on the surplus market without requiring
<demil
In 1971 is was nothing new but it's design was in the early 60s where is
was state of the art. The fact that it declassified and sold as junk
ten years later shows how fast things moved in that ten year span. As we
moved forward in ten year spans we see different amount of technolical
hops. Comparing the MMC to the PDP-8I shows that. The -8 was easily 1/4
the size and power and easily 10x faster.
As to the use of computes for nav, that's likely the oldest use. The use
I refer to was the targeting and tracking computer which relied on the
navigation.
Allison
<>Maybe that's why I have an intel Intellec MDS 8080 development system
What's significant is it was one of several used by the terminals and
printers engineering at DEC to develope the VT100!
<little minis inside. You know what else is just as nice the same way? Th
<Tektronix boxes built around the LSI-11....
I've seen a few of them but the LSI-11 itself wasn't built poorly either.
I have a few Q-bus PDP-11s.
That was the point of the multibus design used in the MDS. They defined
and created a distinct bus that was robust. The MDS box was the start
of that that line (multibus cards) as well.
<It's like having a '56 or '57 Mercedes. The whole world knows how sexy an
<pricey a 300SL is, be it the Gullwing or the roadster; but it takes a
It may be but when it's a particular one with a known history then there
is more to it.
Allison
<Are you saying that, 10 years ago, the military had machines that could car
<out calculations with the speed of a Pentium II -300? (I hesitate to mentio
<the Alpha 5-433, because I think the alpha project was originally funded b
<the military)
No! the military had the best available technology of the time and only for
applications that needed it. However P-II or alpha level perfomance was
hard to come by ten years ago as that was your BIG cray and CDC type
machines. Actually much of military technology was super rugged and not
always the most modern. The computer(s) for F16 fly by wire are not very
exotic save for they are absolutely fault tolerent, after all an error
there can kill the pilot and destroy the aircraft at the maximum or cause a
mission abort at the minimum.
I say this as in the 71-72 time frame I had a friend that was a computer
hacker and was able to get the then surplus Minuteman missle computers.
Compared to the PDP-8I we both knew it was terrible! All transistor, no
core (it used a 65kw disk for all storage). It was a major programming
challenge to make it do anything even though it was in pristine condition.
My understanding is a similar computer was used in the Intruder
fighter/bomber which was then the current military inventory.
Allison
Alpha was not funded by military or even military business which formed only
a small part of total DIGITAL bisiness. Alpha was DEC trying to figure what
they could do to out VAX their VAX. The basic design had to address three
problems, bigger numbers, super huge memories and indexes than might fit in
32bits and a need for more speed than even the most scaled and piplined vax
could deliver.
If anyone lives in the northern N.J. area and can help this person
out, please contact him and copy me.
> >I have a number of 5.25 disks that were created on a Franklin. They
> >contain the memoirs of my late Uncle. The computer is no longer
> >available. How can I access the information on these disks?
>>I live in Wyckoff, NJ (Bergen County -about 15 miles from NY). I have
>>not a clue what type of software was used. Can they be converted to
>>Word, Wordperfect, or Prowrite?
The subject of his message was ACE 2200. I have a working ACE 2200,
and ACE Writer software, but I prefer not to have him risk his disks
in the mail ("the truth and the first Altair are still out there").
This is one of the reasons I collect computers. Again if you can help
him copy me too.
The address is David Merdler <saxon12(a)bellatlantic.net>
=========================================
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
Attend the First Annual Vintage Computer Festival
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
=========================================
In a message dated 97-11-05 11:54:09 EST, you write:
<< Speaking of reference manuals, does anyone have any information / insights
into a Visual Technologies Commuter? Manf in 1984, it uses two Intel chips
(8086 and 8088) with a plethora of RAM chips not to mention at least four
program subroutines. The manufacturer seems to have disowned this
particular
unit since two people in their tech department have not heard of it.
Thanks in advance
Sam >>
I wonder how many non - PC compatibles have used Intel 8088 or 8086 chips. I
have heard of a machine called an "ACT Apricot", which is said to have had
voice recognition and a GUI. Could someone tell me about it and others? My
reasoning is that there are lots of neat things that could be done on an
8088, but not with a DOS system.
I have the Commodore 64C manuals, and some disks. I also have the Commodore 64
Programmers' guide. I could probably get some manuals and disks for an Apple
II, as well. I am not in the habit of shipping, though.
__________________________________________________________
Original Message:
Hi,
I am a collector and classic enthusiast. I'm looking for copies of the
original operating manuals for the following computers:
Amiga 1000
Apple ][ plus
Apple //e
Apple //e Platinum
Commodore 64
Apple DuoDisk
Apple Disk II
I also need original boot and os disks for these computers. If you have
such materials, and they are in good-excellent condition, please email me
at:
mark(a)cyberlightstudios.com, and we can work out a price. I'd be very
anxious to obtain these documents, particularly the Apple specific manuals.
Thanks again,
Mark
At 12:40 11/6/97 -0800, you wrote:
>....all sorts of lusers will start crawling out and insisting
>they *need* a Nova, price is no object, just like happened with my
>Altair's, IMSAI's, and Apple I's.
Apple I's, like, _plural_??
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Does anyone have any systems that they could sell me? Anything... all I've
got is an XT that dosn't work.
----------
From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Classic Computer Rescue Squad
Date: Thursday, November 06, 1997 8:45 PM
> > After signing up for the Classic Computer Rescue Squad, I started
> > thinking, if a big old machine actually needed a rescue, what
> > would we do? I mean, maybe we should collect info on how big
> > these old things are, in terms of floor-space, tonnage, time to
> > dismantle, and so on.
My recommendation is to get a truck with a lift-gate, especially if
you don't have real loading docks at each end of the journey. A
substantial amount of time and effort is saved if you can simply
move entire racks onto the truck rather than having to unwire all
the boxes and remove them from each rack. A liftgate that can handle
the two- or three-bay racks is even better.
I've made many rescues without liftgates, and usually I regret
it! Moving 5000+ lbs of stuff with only a heavy-duty applicance
dolly and a ramp wears you out quite quickly!
Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)
> From: Bill Yakowenko <yakowenk(a)cs.unc.edu>
>...
> After signing up for the Classic Computer Rescue Squad, I started
> thinking, if a big old machine actually needed a rescue, what
> would we do? I mean, maybe we should collect info on how big
> these old things are, in terms of floor-space, tonnage, time to
> dismantle, and so on. Then, when a rescue call comes in, we
> could maybe decide if we can feasibly deal with it, and if anyone
> actually wants the thing. If only three guys show up to dismantle
> 200 tons of vacuum tubes, it isn't gonna happen on-schedule. And
> it's one thing to keep a mini in a corner, but not all of us can
> arrange space for, say, a 360. So there are legitimate (if sad)
> reasons that we might have to pass up a find.
There are a small number of serious collectors and at least one museum
who will make space for a big machine, depending on what it is. Any
vacuum tube machine and most discrete transistor machines are a
no-brainer, someone will want them. They are extremely rare and will in
essentially all cases have been dismantled already. More recent machines
may or may not be worth saving. In all cases with a big installation
make sure there will be a home for it before carrying through with a
rescue.
Except for a few enormous installations like SAGE or Harvest, all gone
now, a large mainframe will consist of (or can be taken apart into) no
more than 10 large units each of which should fit in a medium size
freight elevator. (Cray's are an exception, the CPU won't come apart.)
There will also be a larger number of smaller peripherals such as disk
drives, tape drives, console, printer, maybe card machines.
One or two people can disassemble and pack a modern (e.g. IBM 370
series) air cooled mainframe in one (long) day. Other cases could take
longer but generally not more than a week. More people is not
necessarily a good thing. Some machines will benefit from specialized
help from the manufacturer or a rigger or specialty moving crew.
Always save all the documentation and software you can get.
Paul
At 17:44 11/5/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Bill Yakowenko wrote:
>> Hey all. I think its about time I de-lurk and introduce myself.
>>....
>> We had a couple SwTPC 6800 systems in my high school way back when,
>> and I'd love to see one again (or own one!).
>
>Hi Bill, welcome to the list! BTW, what is SSB stuff? I think of SSB as
>Single-Side Band....
Smoke Signal Broadcasting, SS50-bus micros -- SS50 was like oversize Molex.
I also wanted to say that, Bill, that was very elegant of you; I can't
remember having seen a properly executed <delurk> in years. The Net today
has no time for the little graces.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Hello to all
Had a pretty slow week last week only a few finds will later in week. Today
I got a box load of SYM-1's somewere betweeen 15 and 20 of them. I still
have not unpacked all the goodies I got today. After I count them and look
them over I will offer them for trade or sale. I also got something called
a IVS TRUMPCARD 500 by Interactive Video System and have no idea what it is,
any help out there ? A copy of Disk Manager MAC in the box with manuals for
.07. Apple Writer II model M6000 for $5.35. Also a Shimndru RPR-G1 GC
Processor whatever that is, anyone ?? A HP model 2D-2 & 2D-3 Series X-Y
recorder service & operating manual. Over at the goodwill a Apple Scanner
flatbed model A9M0337 for $45. A Zenith Supersports 286 laptop for $5 and a
AMIGA 520 for .25. Well that's all for now have tons of things to test out
and will list later. Oh yes found a Next Cube today but the guy pulled it,
he had two of them with KB, Mono monitors and mice complete units were $20.
I will be going back next week to see if he will let them go. John Keep
Computing !!!
----------
From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Sorry, I need to get this to PG Manney, there was
Date: Sunday, November 02, 1997 7:56 AM
>> I'm new at collecting classics. What is a VIC-20?
>
>The VIC-20 was Commodore's first computer...2K of RAM (I think), did
sounds
>and color TV screen stuff.
>The VIC-20 was my only
>computer from '82-'86 unfortunatly I gave it away in '90, and I finally
got
>one to replace it today!
Congradulations on getting your VIC-20, and I would like to know about it's
specs.
>I believe TV's in Bahrain are PAL instead of NTSC, or maybe I'm thinking
of
the United Arab Emirates.
Yes, here in Bahrain they are PAL, but I'm an American, born and bred, and
I'm only living here for a few years, so it's a multisystem, so it can do
NTSC, PAL or any other major standard. They're PAL pretty much everywhere
>from the UK to China, then in Japan, it goes back to NTSC.
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
I came across your email address when I was trying to find some
information on pong. I was actually looking for what a current price
maybe if you wanted to sell an Atari Pong home game. If you know where
I may be able to find this informatin or you know it yourself, I would
be very appreciative if you could share it with me.
Thanks
Kristi
Hi,
I am a collector and classic enthusiast. I'm looking for copies of the
original operating manuals for the following computers:
Amiga 1000
Apple ][ plus
Apple //e
Apple //e Platinum
Commodore 64
Apple DuoDisk
Apple Disk II
I also need original boot and os disks for these computers. If you have
such materials, and they are in good-excellent condition, please email me
at:
mark(a)cyberlightstudios.com, and we can work out a price. I'd be very
anxious to obtain these documents, particularly the Apple specific manuals.
Thanks again,
Mark
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first---Invent the
Universe
---Dr. Carl E. Sagan
At 03:25 PM 11/5/97 -0500, SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com wrote:
>some guy i bought a mac video card from said he had something called an
>apollo workstation. he said it was a 68020/68030 with a 19 inch monitor, can
>run *nix, and would only want ~$50 for it. anyone heard of this machine or
Apollo made workstations similar to (in the eyes of an HP3000 guy) Sun
workstations. They were bought by HP. They run X-windows, an adequate
terminal emulator, and Mosaic. (I used one briefly during a stint at HP.)
They might have Unix underneath, but I couldn't figure out how to do
anything except connect to the 3000 and run Mosaic.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
In a message dated 97-11-05 00:04:30 EST, you write:
<< Oh yeah???
Military electronics has ALWAYS been about ten years ahead of what we see.
That stuff is generally demilitarized (shredded) when it is taken out of
service. The really high end stuff - crypto and countermeasures - always
is destroyed beyond recognition. True, the computers in the F-16s and such
may be a few years behind, but then they do not need such power. Things
that need to do signal analysis on incoming radar pulses on the fly, or
decrypting very high speed bursts of data do.
>>
Are you saying that, 10 years ago, the military had machines that could carry
out calculations with the speed of a Pentium II -300? (I hesitate to mention
the Alpha 5-433, because I think the alpha project was originally funded by
the military)
<Seeing how it's advertised as a 16 Meg module, it probably isn't
<a particularly pretty example of core. In my opinion, the older
<core styles - where the individual beads and wires are actually
I'd be surprized, as that is huge for a core system. It's far to big for
one plane. My guess is it's a 16k. Way back however EMC did corestore
systems of disk sizes for rapid store/recall to replace things like swapping
drums and rotating media systems.
It would be fun to get something like that and have it working!
Allison
> > I have been told that the CDC Cyber 70/170-series used a 60-bit wordlength.
>
> Well, I am currently in a room full of 64 bitters (Alphas). Cray machines
> as well...
>
> Many (all?) CDC machines are 60 bit machines.
I have at home a memory bank from a CDC Cyber two-hundred-and-something
(?) which is 18 bits wide. I had always assumed that this was 16 bits
plus two parity but it doesn't fit into 60 bits either way. (Memory
bank is huge quantities of 40ns and 45ns 64k x 1 static RAMs surface
mounted on both sides of numerous daughter boards. Each daughter board
is 64k x 18 and they stack four deep all over the "mother board" of the
bank.) I always meant to use this in something, but somehow I never got
around to it...
Philip.
Strange word sizes were used in very early machines and special purpose
machines, especially early military computers. If you look hard enough
you can probably find any size, especially in the range 8-40. Here are
some examples off the top of my head, but I probably have some of them
wrong:
> 4 (Intel 4004, etc)
> 8 (Far too many to list)
> 12 (PDP8, PDP12, etc)
> 16 (Again far too many to list)
> 18 (PDP1, etc)
19 Bendix G15, depending how you count
> 20 (PERQ 1, PERQ 2)
22 Packard Bell 250, depending how you count (otherwise 23-24)
> 24 (PERQ 4) <- Also Datacraft/Harris
> 32 (Yep, a lot of those)
> 36 (PDP10, etc) <- including IBM 701 series, Univac 1100 series
40 IAS, SWAC <- Here's the justification for the joke!
48 Burroughs 5500 etc.
60 CDC 6600, Cyber series
64, 128 IBM Stretch
You get even more if you include decimal machines. (Is it fair to list
the 4004 above?)
> -tony
Paul
Hello. My computer was broken, and I have the day off, so I spent it mostly
calling company after company after company about classic computers. I've
found the following: A Sharp "M-80" (Or some letter -80) with a built in
display. Probably has an 8088 processor. Nothing except tape drive.
Requested price: about $80 USD (In the local currency, so it's a little
off)
And also a Olvetti Pr-something, like Prosignia, or Pro something PC-1.
Monitior looks like it's a 13 inch or so mono. Keyboard and CPU built in,
with two 3.5" FDDs. I'm not sure if they're DS DD or DS HD. Does anyone
have info on these? How much do you think that they'd go for?
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
At 08:06 11/5/97 -0500, you wrote:
> Not yet a classic, but does anyone have a {spare} copy of the "Technical
>Reference Personal Computer AT"? This is the tech ref guide for the original
>IBM PC/AT, published by IBM (I'm guessing in a gray fabric binder).
Actually, mine was maroon, although the slipcase was gray; and as for "Not
yet a classic," the pub. date was of course 1984. You'd be welcome to mine
if I still had it, but I don't....think.... I do.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
While moving the 11/34 to a more lighted area, I broke the power switch
off the back. Now it doesn't power on. I need a WHOLE NEW POWER SUPPLY!
Damn! I hate myself sometimes!
That was a Stupid, Stupid, Stupid Mistake!
<usually "a month late". Intel might have just bought it to stamp it out,
<but my guess is they're aiming to do something with the RISC market, they
<could be attempting to lower the Alpha's power down to H/PC levels and the
What the hell.
I used to work for DEC and DEC didn't sell ALPHA they sold the fab unit
that does alpha. It's cheaper to have some other silicon foundry make the
part to your spec. WD, intersil, AMD and Harris have over then years made
parts for DEC that were designed by or for DEC. DEC plans to keep cranking
the Alpha for bet your business systems than PCs have fallen short for.
In the mean time I'm running a few old VAXen to remind me how much better
an OS VMS (OK, OpenVMS) is.
Allison
Hi folks. I picked up a Tandy Model 100 laptop computer from a local
thrift store a few days ago, for about $9. So far so good, but it doesn't
have any ROM's in it (both sockets on the bottom of the machine are empty)
When I switch it on, then off , the "Low Battery" light flickers, but
that's all (the LCD stays blank)
So, are these ROMS (which I think I need) something I can still order from
Tandy (without paying an arm and a leg)?
Thanks in advance (Oh, and I saw, but didn't buy, an Amiga Joyboard . . .)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles P. Hobbs __ __ ____ ___ ___ ____
transit(a)primenet.com /__)/__) / / / / /_ /\ / /_ /
/ / \ / / / / /__ / \/ /___ /
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://cdl.uta.edu/cpm/changes.html
--
Greetings from
Fritz Chwolka / collecting old computers just for fun
supporting the Unofficial CP/M Web Page
look at http://cdl.uta.edu/cpm/
and my little collection at
http://www.ac.cybercity.de/user/00136/
*-------------------------------------------------------*
! Internet: Chwolka(a)nt-gmbh.de !
! fritz.chwolka(a)ac.cybercity.de !
! !
! some times Chwolka(a)t-online.de !
*=======================================================*
! !
! If you have an old CP/M System don't throw it away. !
! Try to find someone who give the system a new home. !
! !
*-------------------------------------------------------*
> I just passed on the optical mouse and some keyboards for the Sun's.
Passing on the optical mice or keyboards (type 3 or 4) is no great shakes.
However...
Passing on Sun optical mouse pads for type 3 or 4 mice is a crime
punishable by death. They are unique _two_ color pads (the horizontal
stripes are a different color from the verticle ones) that Sun does not
make anymore (contrary to Sun Direct's sales people, the pads they sell
are for the normal type 5 mice).
In short, the things are getting quite rare.
> I will
> be going back next Saturday to pick up some other things I will see if they
> still have them. You will need a shoebox (has the HD) to really do anything
> other then run the build in diagnostic. I get back to you
You can boot the thing off a network - no local disk required.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
I remember when I wouldn't take a 286. I needed POWER. Like a SERVER.
How 'bout a 486??? THAT WOULD LAST UNTIL THE 21st CENTURTY TOO!!! IT COULD
RUN WINDOWS 3.1 with NO RAM ERRORS!!! And then when upgrading to Windows
95, I remember the guy there specifaclly falling down laughing, resulting
in purchasing 16MB of RAM (Then at $10 a MB), to add to the 12 I had, along
with a 486 DX/2 processor. I doubt that the 432 would actually take it.
But I think that Intel aimed it at the wrong market. The Digital Alpha
(Recently aquired by Intel, with it's RISC... yes, RISC technology) has had
some success, with 600 MHz of power in a single chip and x86 "translation
software" written by Digital. Also, there is a version of Windows NT 4.0
made ONLY for Alpha's, so the translation software is not used there.
Microsoft writes programs like Internet Explorer for Alphas, but they're
usually "a month late". Intel might have just bought it to stamp it out,
but my guess is they're aiming to do something with the RISC market, they
could be attempting to lower the Alpha's power down to H/PC levels and then
WINDOWS CE. Maybe they'll take the 300 MHz version, that was avaible in
1995. If Apple can get 150 Mhz into a handheld, why can't Intel? But back
to classics. Would the 432 be capible today if it were given a second
chance?
One last thing. I remember something about a huge warehouse filled with
classics. Has anyone heard since?
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
<Wrong. For a while (in the early 90's) I subscribed to a magazine called
<Defense Electronics. The military had things like 50ns RAM available then
<They are way ahead in many areas; they can afford to (or used to be able to
<anyway) throw money at things, and they often got first dibs.
fast parts...
keep this in mind: Good, fast, cheap, pick any two.
In 1982 NEC and Intel sold 1kx4 (2149), 4kx1(2147) and 16kx1(2167) these
were static mos parts that were anywhere from 35ns to a slow 70ns. They
were widely available and about 7-9x the cost of the 4116 16kx1 dram. The
problem was that '83 brought 64kx1 parts that were as cheap as the 4116,
faster than the 4116 but were about 270ns-Tcy/200ns-Tcas. When your
building a system the 4164 (8 of them) used roughly 240ma. the same memory
using the super fast 2167 (32of them) would eat a whopping 2.16 Amps! Speed
costs! It would also produce more heat.
In late '83 I built a system using a 8088/8mhz with 256k of 2167s besides
being amazingly fast. However 128 of those 2167s tended to heat up the
place and their cost was $768 compared to $128 for the fairly new 4164 and
the $96 for the very new 41256. Also using the newest 256k part would fit
4mb of ram where 256k of static parts fit and still use less than half the
power.
By 1990 32kx8 static rams were in the sub 30ns region. Drams were fairly
fast for page mode but their requirement to have the address stuffed in in
two pieces will add time to the ability to access in exchange for power
savings, pins and packing density. Dram was never as fast but usually
their density was the win. For the current generation of 200mhz and faster
systems cache is barely able to keep up. look at the cost of 16mb of dram
compared to 512k of fast cache ram.
Allison
Anybody have any information pertaining to a Visual Technologies unit # Visual
1083? I think its also called a "Commuter".
Thanks in advance.
Sam Uncler
At 05:55 PM 11/3/97 +0300, you wrote:
>more. But I need a basic list of systems that are 1. Easy To Find 2.
>Important enough to draw attention.
1. Depends greatly on where you are. (TI & Tandy common as dirt in Texas,
less common in, say, Bahrain.)
2. Depends greatly on the audience. (Common bloke: Apple I, Osborne 01,
Altair, a couple others. Me: Atari Portfolio, Model 100, NEC Starlet,
Outbound Laptop, etc.)
I would seriously recommend checking around on the web for the various
virtual museums out there. If you don't know where to start, try
<http://www.chac.org/> and check out the list of links.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
On Sat, 1 Nov 1997 12:43:58 -0500 (EST), kstumpf(a)unusual.on.ca
remarked:
> How many computer collectors does it take to change a light bulb?
> Forty.
^^^^^
Shouldn't that really be a power of two, or maybe some bizarre
permutation of 12, 16, 18, or 36?
And, of course, the punch line:
> One to change the light bulb and thirty-nine to chat about how good
> the old one was.
______________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:carl.friend@stoneweb.com | |
| http://www.ultranet.com/~engelbrt/carl/museum/ | ICBM: N42:21 W71:46 |
|________________________________________________|_____________________|
I wouldn't be so sure about the military part... their MIS seems to either
have gone to school and got a degree in dentistry or learned on the
Eniac.... corporate will always be faster than military. There is no
"secret operations" that deal with these areas of computers. But maybe a
company like Microsoft or maybe IBM had someone design something
faster..... we'll be at 15ns soon enough anyway. We've gone from 70ns in
late 94 to only 45ns today, and SRAM has become so darn fast.... by the
way, does anyone know about overclocking an 8088 (the 8mhz variety), by
NEC, not Intel?
Hope that this input helps,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: jpero(a)cgo.wave.ca
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Help Identifying RAM Chips
Date: Monday, November 03, 1997 3:26 AM
> I disagree with both of you. 300ns is more like the 70's to me. Even
the
> 1982 IBM PC XT had 200ns RAM. A year later adding a third to that figure
> makes no since. But 300ns might be right; as I would KILL for 30ns RAM
in
> a Pentium 233!!!! Even the fastest EDO RAM (Slightly outdated, but still
> recent) is at 50ns; so 30ns makes ZERO sense.
>
Correct, the number 1 is 64k and I bet that is for video use i think
because: I have old machines like this designs usually uses big 24
dip static memory or dynamic 64k in 4 bits form maybe. 300 Could be
static memory more likely than dynamic type which might be 8k x
8bit in a 24 or 26 pin fat package and mostly likely found in video
section. Oh yeah, I'm very sure that was normal configuration for
that CGA video type for that time in 1983's, that should have 2 of
them to make 16k.
Other last 3 chips, they're all 256k x 1bit at 150ns. Note! Change
all 9 chips in a bank to keep reliablity which you might have
experienced having problems suppose if you had just did one chip...
150ns could be 8mhz because 4.77mhz takes exactly 210ns per
instruction in 8088 so IBM used 200ns chips.
Oh, Tim, I would be surprised if military accidently released 15ns in
early 1980's Oh no! :) NOT! The fastest current drams of any kind
was 45ns and mostly used in video cards for no reason where 60ns
would do well...static chips did not hit 30ns mark for nearly 7 years
later, I think.
Troll the hardware guy.
> ----------
> From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: Help Identifying RAM Chips
> Date: Monday, November 03, 1997 5:35 AM
>
> > Your chip #1 is a 64k chip speed of 30ns, chips 2&3 are 256k at 150ns
> speed.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Big nip to save bandwidth...
Yes right, Tim.
At 10.36 04/11/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Which reminds me. Which word lengths have been used by (binary) computers?
>Off the top of my head :
>
>4 (Intel 4004, etc)
>8 (Far too many to list)
>12 (PDP8, PDP12, etc)
..omissis...
>What others?
9 (Texas 99/4, 990/10, TMS 9900)
86 (Intel Docet again)
Riccardo
At 06:13 PM 11/3/97 +0300, you wrote:
>I wouldn't be so sure about the military part... their MIS seems to either
>have gone to school and got a degree in dentistry or learned on the
>Eniac.... corporate will always be faster than military. There is no
>"secret operations" that deal with these areas of computers. But maybe a
Wrong. For a while (in the early 90's) I subscribed to a magazine called
Defense Electronics. The military had things like 50ns RAM available then.
They are way ahead in many areas; they can afford to (or used to be able to,
anyway) throw money at things, and they often got first dibs.
I mean, if you had developed a spiffy new toilet seat, and were going to
sell it for $50 each, but the military guys showed up and said "we'll buy
10,000 of them for $10,000 each, but you can't tell anyone about them", what
would you do?
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
e.tedeschi wrote:
>Yes, the darker colour +2 is really a +2a which Amstrad decided to make
>incompatible with the other Spectrum extensions.
Is his why some (but not all) of my old spectrum 48k software will not load
on this one?
Regards
Pete
#include <std_disclaimer>
> > > Absolutely. The wire in question is between pins CA1 and CB1 on the _same_
> > > slot - the slot the control cart of the UDA50 is in. It's a little loop of
> > > wire, and is quite difficult to find the first time.
> >
> > Okay... I'll give it a shot! But if I foul up, I'm stuck - I don't have
> > a wirewrap tool.
>
> You can always solder a jumper back in place.
Oh, come on, Tony, _please!_
Individual socket pins from various types of connector (including D I
think) fit quite well over these backplane pins. Crimp or solder a
short length of wire to two of these and hey presto! A removable NPG
jumper. NB take care that these don't stick out so far as to foul on
the case...
Philip.
I got the 34, and I just located a UDA50 for it, known working.
Cost me $30.
I plugged it in, and connected the RA81. It's cabled like this:
+----+ +-----+
|1134| | RA81|
+----+ +----|+
1 /-----3/
| |
|----****
| |
+2+
Cable 1 is the cable from the UDA50.
Cable 2 is a normal SDI cable
Cable 3 is attached to the RA81
**** is a 4-port SDI bulkhead plug. I have the UDA going in port 1, the
patch going from port 1 to port 3, and the RA on port 3.
I boot RT11SJ from a RX02 (Because I don't have a DU bootstrap)
and tell it "boot du0:"
The machine sits there. If I look, 2 led's come on the 2nd (terminator
side) uda board, the first 2 closest to the PS. They strobe normally when
the machine starts. They stay that way. If I halt the CPU, the BUS ERR
light comes on. Did I foul up the cabling, or is the UDA or drive toast,
or what?
<The Intel 8088 was 8 bits, the 8086 16; the 80x87, as I recall, are 80
<bits internally (another one for your list, Tony, if coprocessors
Generally there are several parameters instruction word size, largest data
word size, internal bus size and external bus size. Some are archtectually
decided.
The 8088 was 16 bit. What you have is instruction size (8bit!), register
size(16bit) and databus size(8 or 16). the 8088 and 8086 are the identical
processor save for the data bus is 8bits on the 8088 as small systems
economy vs speed measure. The processor assembles the bytes as needed
internally. Advanatage of an 8bit bus is cost and the expense of some
speed. Motorola did that with the 6800x, it was internally 32bit, but
available as 8/16 bit bus and sold as a 16 bit processor.
<I believe that there are some CPU chips now with 64-bit internal buses.
<Any advance on 64?
Alpha early was external 64bit and later external 128bit but the register
structure is 64bit.
<At the other end, do the processors in the AMT DAP count as 1-bit
<machines? Or are they bit-slices of a 32 bit machine? Or a 1024 bit
<machine?
Unknown here.
Allison
< 9 (Texas 99/4, 990/10, TMS 9900)
the ti machines were all 16bit.
< 86 (Intel Docet again)
???? Intel has done 2(bitslice), 4, 8, 16, and 32.
1bit Moto 14500 (actually 1bit data and 4 bit control word)
4bit ti1000, NEC uCOM4, NEC 75xx series, 4004, 4040 all had 4 bit data
paths but the instruction words were 8bit!
22bit Perkin Elmur
60bit CDC
64bit DEC Alpha
Allison
In the past I have seen a _little_ discussion here about how some
companies, such as Tandy (with their CoCo), and other companies should
re-release their old 8-bit computers targeted towards the current kids
community... similar to what v-tech does with their kids computers.
I also heard a comment recently that said there is no way Apple computers
would ever license someone else to produce their computers... I beleive
the discussion was regarding the black case Apples.
Anyway, I recently saw in Christmas Catalog that Tiger Computing is
selling a computer, that takes cartridges only, for about $200. You hook
it to your tv, and most of the available software is original Apple titles
by MECC, a popular Apple educational software developer. It even says in
the description that this little lap-top size unit is licensed from Apple,
and based on Apple //e technology!
Even more, you can buy a cheap 14.4 modem cartridge that allows internet
access. Does anyone have one of these Tigers? Just curious.
Also, still looking for a Laser 50 (Sam Ismail? Bill? etc., etc., and am
curious for more information on my Laser 310 I just picked up. Maybe a
trade straight across?
Well, my $.02 worth,
CORD
//*=====================================================================++
|| Cord G. Coslor P.O. Box 308 - 1300 3rd St. Apt "M1" -- Peru, NE ||
|| (402) 872- 3272 coslor(a)bobcat.peru.edu 68421-0308 ||
|| Classic computer software and hardware collector ||
|| Autograph collector ||
++=====================================================================*//
Also, 88 (8088), 87 (487, 8087, etc.) and many other numbers. With macs,
there's a whole slew of numbers that I don't want to get into.
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Riccardo Romagnoli <chemif(a)mbox.queen.it>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Computer collecting humor.
Date: Tuesday, November 04, 1997 4:49 PM
At 10.36 04/11/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Which reminds me. Which word lengths have been used by (binary) computers?
>Off the top of my head :
>
>4 (Intel 4004, etc)
>8 (Far too many to list)
>12 (PDP8, PDP12, etc)
..omissis...
>What others?
9 (Texas 99/4, 990/10, TMS 9900)
86 (Intel Docet again)
Riccardo
I disagree with both of you. 300ns is more like the 70's to me. Even the
1982 IBM PC XT had 200ns RAM. A year later adding a third to that figure
makes no since. But 300ns might be right; as I would KILL for 30ns RAM in
a Pentium 233!!!! Even the fastest EDO RAM (Slightly outdated, but still
recent) is at 50ns; so 30ns makes ZERO sense.
----------
From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Help Identifying RAM Chips
Date: Monday, November 03, 1997 5:35 AM
> Your chip #1 is a 64k chip speed of 30ns, chips 2&3 are 256k at 150ns
speed.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I disagree with the 30ns figure; why the heck would a Compaq
Portable from 1983 have 30ns RAM in it? 300ns seems
far more likely, and is perfectly consistent with the numbering
>from manufacturers of that era.
> The last set of tell the the size and speed (64-3 and 256-15). John
> >I have two original Compaq Portables, both of which are giving POST
> >errors when they boot which indicate bad RAM. I have gone through a few
> >...
> >Chip #1:
> >Hitachi
> >1818-3006
> >Japan 8332U
> >HM4864P-3
Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)
the following are for trade or sale by a guy here in St. Paul MN. PLEASE
e-mail him directly at sloan003(a)maroon.tc.umn.edu
Apples - IIc with case, monitor, power supply
Platinum IIe with Duo drive, platinum monitor
IIplus with amber monitor, 2 drives
IIe with monitor, one drive
KB's - 2 MAC Plus type, 2 MAC II type, 1 MAC 128 type
Mice - 2 old type early MAC's
MAC Plus computer
Apple Imagewriter II printer
2 Conner 40meg HD
10 MAC SE manuals new in package
Tons of new manuals for MAC's Apple II's and other Apple
products(ask for list)
Appletalk card new
Mac II network card
>Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 19:34:29 -0600
>To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
>From: "John R. Keys Jr." <jrkeys(a)concentric.net>
>Subject: Re: Beginners Need Help
>
>Pickup a copy of A Collector's Guide to Personal Computers and Pocket
Calculators by Dr. Thomas F. Haddock. It's a great book. John
>At 05:55 PM 11/3/97 +0300, you wrote:
>>Hello. I'm not so much a classic specialist as a computer specialist, as I
>>love both old and new computers. I'm not a proffesional, but do know
>>BASIC, DOS and all other kinds of stuff which the fast-moving stream of
>>technology has left behind, unfortunately. But anyway, I didn't know jack
>>about computers in the early 80's, other than what the average Joe knew:
>>Keyboard, commands, annoying. But since '92, I've been learning more and
>>more. But I need a basic list of systems that are 1. Easy To Find 2.
>>Important enough to draw attention.
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Tim D. Hotze
>>
>>
>
Sorry it took so long. I tried mailing you, but there was an error.
----------
From: PG Manney <manney(a)nwohio.com>
To: photze(a)batelco.com.bh
Subject: Re: The link you sent
Date: Thursday, October 30, 1997 6:01 PM
>It's really comforting to know that some people have consionace.
>Thanks. I'm trying to raise my children with consciences, too. We're
>Christians, and we feel that treating people *right* is very important
Those people will be the future leaders of our world.
>I hope
>that you're not in a hurry: A friend's giving me a new board, and they say
>that it could take some time to get it, but as soon as I get it, they new
>board will get shipped to you. Don't worry, I won't give it to anyone
>else.
I always need motherboards and drives (got any old IDE drives around?),
because I buy and sell computers. We're out here in the wilds of Ohio
(USA),
where many people have older systems...I even sold a Commodore the other
day!
I have an old IDE drive, it's a Segate 41 MB. It says ST-251, then on a
seperate sticker it says -1 right next to the first one. Serial number is
25534738. It's the large kind, like they had back in the early 80's.
If you repair computers, I have a additional 486/SX 33 that I could throw
in.
>remember the XT being the first IBM, but I might be wrong.
The IBM PC (model 5150, IIRC was the first PC...you can tell that one from
the TX sinc the PC had a small funny keyboard (very small, oddly placed
"Enter" key), 5 slots (the XT had 8) and a Cassette plug next to the
keyboard one. Also, the case said "IBM Personal Computer" instead of "IBM
Personal Computer XT". The motherboard was redesigned in the XT (the PC,
for
example, had 2 banks of DIP switches on the motherboard, instead of one).
The XT counted out memory when it booted up, the PC just gave you a
flashing
cursor to stare at.
Actually, the IBM 5100 was the first desktop computer. It had 8" drives, a
dedicated printer and all that...it bombed, and IBM didn't try again until
the PC.
>Lessee...I have several Commodores, a couple of VIC-20's (one in original
>box with original packaging, used once.), a couple of Apples... two or
three
>PC's and an XT (I think). It would be better to send *anything* but the
>IBM's, because everything else is plastic-cased, and therefore lighter.
>Still, you're the customer!
I'm new at collecting classics. What is a VIC-20? And what model of
Comodore, and Apple? I have a TV screen, I even have one in the guest
bedroom that's used once in a blue moon. Didn't the older Apples up to the
IIGS have attached monitors? (I remember a few Macs that had one later
than that...)
>The Post Office tells me that 44 lbs will cost $89 US to send to you. If
you
>have a TV screen, you can save on the cost of shipping a monitor for an
>Apple/Commodore/anything else. (The IBM will work a TV screen with the
right
>card, but colors are funny).
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
You are right it was a typo on my part.
At 06:35 PM 11/2/97 -0800, you wrote:
>> Your chip #1 is a 64k chip speed of 30ns, chips 2&3 are 256k at 150ns speed.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>I disagree with the 30ns figure; why the heck would a Compaq
>Portable from 1983 have 30ns RAM in it? 300ns seems
>far more likely, and is perfectly consistent with the numbering
>from manufacturers of that era.
>
>> The last set of tell the the size and speed (64-3 and 256-15). John
>> >I have two original Compaq Portables, both of which are giving POST
>> >errors when they boot which indicate bad RAM. I have gone through a few
>> >...
>> >Chip #1:
>> >Hitachi
>> >1818-3006
>> >Japan 8332U
>> >HM4864P-3
>
>Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)
>
>
Would anyone be interested in C-64 stuff and a bunch of tapes?
I have a 1541 drive, and okidata printer, a bunch of famous programs (space
rogue, LOGO, bank street writer, GEOS, F-14 Tomcat,etc.), a few joysticks, a
Koala pad with software. 300 bps modem. No actual C-64.I don't want to ship
this stuff, but I'll give it for free to anyone who picks it up in Boston,
MA, USA.
Also, I have some reel to reel tapes, some labelled ADES, NOVA controller,
and other things. Most are dated 1980's, 1990's. I'll give them away too.
At 05:44 AM 10/26/97 +0300, you wrote:
>I have a similiar problem: Due to the large size of the XT style
>motherboards, my desk devoted to classic computers isn't big enough. I can
>fit the computer on, the monitor on the computer, and the keyboard on the
>floor. When you try to type, it's not fun. (Type a command. Stop. Before
Look into the monitor arms that let attach to your desk and support your
monitor above the desk/computer. Many of them have a simple wire rack that
pulls out in front to hold a keyboard. (Basically, it's just a square U of
metal that slides in and out.)
There are other advantages to this as well. If you're working on several
computers that use the same type of monitor, you don't need to move the
monitor to swap CPU's. Also, it lets you use the monitor-over-CPU set up
for machines that aren't flat boxes (like a C64, atari 800 or SOL-20.) You
can also swing it out of the way if you want to work on the computer.
>PS- How do you post an origional message? Do you just send one to9
>classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu , or somewhere else?
Yep.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Okay, thanks, but I need to know jumper settings. There is a set of four
jumpers accessable in the back when the graphics board is installed.
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: jpero(a)cgo.wave.ca
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Need Jumper Settings...
Date: Monday, November 03, 1997 2:27 PM
"CHIPS" is Chip & Technologies.
Well, Sounds like you gotten a great chipset type: it can emulate EGA
driving any monitor TTL, CGA while in EGA. Very good.
I think C&T first chipset was this kind that allowed low cost
computers to happen. Then C&T did in 286 and 386 chipsets including
cached types as well. Not too bad chipset for 286 but tends to be
bit slower in 386 especially at higher mhz.
Now C&T is focusing only on video chipsets for portable applications
only mainly driving flat panels.
Troll
<company like Microsoft or maybe IBM had someone design something
<faster..... we'll be at 15ns soon enough anyway. We've gone from 70ns in
<late 94 to only 45ns today, and SRAM has become so darn fast.... by the
I've been in the technology for 20 years and 15 NS up until the 90s was
bipolar or ECL territory and those technologies were not dense enough to
yeild large memories or cheap. There were static mos/cmos parts that
were fast but in the mid 80s 70ns was still very quick and 45ns was at
the corner of the technology.
<way, does anyone know about overclocking an 8088 (the 8mhz variety), by
<NEC, not Intel?
By how much? 10% is generally doable and depending on the mask and age of
the part it may have been faster than marked. The problem is everything
around the 8088 has to run faster and the eproms/rams are likely unable to
keep up as 10mhz was state of the art for the time and even then wait states
had to be inserted to keep things in sync. I'd recommend not
trying as the amount to could get is not significant enough and you may
cause other problems in the process. If sped is a must find an AT or 386.
Even a 386sx/16 is at least 3-5x faster!
Allison
At 17:59 11/1/97 -0800, you wrote:
>I am not an expert but there were RF modulators (the thing you use to
>connect a computer to a TV) for the Apple, from my historical research
>Apple could not get FCC certification for an RF adapter for the ][s so
>they did not sell any but routed customers to their supplier. I think
>the product name was SupRMod or SupRMod ][ or something like that....
If you want to be Captain-Nitpickily accurate, it was called Sup'r Mod, and
the supplier's name was Marty Spergel -- the guy who first made himself
famous at the Homebrew Computer Club by GIVING away an Intel 8080 chip.
("*gee!*")
It wasn't that "Apple could not get FCC certification for an RF adapter,"
but that they knew darn well they didn't want to, because it would have
slowed things up, cost a lot, and maybe forced design changes. Independent
certification for a third-party RF modulator was much easier and cheaper.
So the ]['s went out with advice to the customer that they did NOT meet FCC
spec, and that if interference was encountered, it was the customer's
responsibility to interpolate a proper device. I suspect Apple actually
subsidized the certification of the Sup'r Mod, and everything after that
was gravy -- Apple got off the FCC hook, the ][ stayed cheap to build, and
Marty sold a g'zillion Sup'r Mods and got modulatedly rich.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Hello. I'm not so much a classic specialist as a computer specialist, as I
love both old and new computers. I'm not a proffesional, but do know
BASIC, DOS and all other kinds of stuff which the fast-moving stream of
technology has left behind, unfortunately. But anyway, I didn't know jack
about computers in the early 80's, other than what the average Joe knew:
Keyboard, commands, annoying. But since '92, I've been learning more and
more. But I need a basic list of systems that are 1. Easy To Find 2.
Important enough to draw attention.
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
I'm going to attach this to the QD21, so I need to reset the jumpers.
IBM 115MB ESDI drive, type 0669, sequence # 104040108
There are 6 DIP switched behind the drive terminator. I'm told I have to
use a straight-through cable, so I went and got one.
The drive does nothing. With a crossover cable (Where the pins are
crossed, a normal PC cable) it went click-clunk, click-clunk, and did
nothing. The drive is known good. (I pulled it from a PS/2 which we
upgraded to a SCSI drive)
If anyone works at Advanced Technology Services, the drive came from Cat
origionally and has the ATS sticker "ATS-444862"
Another barcode on top of the drive by the air inlet says "B1AF3092241"
No it's not normal at all I must have pickedup 20 atari computers and have
had no dead ones. They are generally pretty reliable hardware, the floppy
drives however are another matter, they need to be speed calibrated often.
----------
> From: Asterisk <ampage(a)geocities.com>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: 8-bit Atari's
> Date: Monday, November 03, 1997 12:48 AM
>
> I have a weird problem with Atari 8-bit stuff...
> I have a 1020 printer, an 850 interface, and a 400 computer, and two 9v
> AC power supplies. Nothing works with any of them... The 1020 and its
> powersupply were new in the box (shrinkwrapped and all)
>
> Is this a common problem?
Hello. As you may/may not know, I'm working to get a XT working; but I
don't have to many of the origional componets. I have the origional XT's
monitor and case, but my graphics card is by Multitech, mostly with Chips
by a company called Chips (They made the graphics stuff in the IBM Thinkpad
365ED's.), and it's model number (I guess) is PB85101. It does have a
composite video adapter on the end, as well as a monitor connection. There
are two large processors identical in size and shape to the 8088 (but it
probably isn't), but made by Chips. There is also a bus adapter, chips are
also made by Toshiba and TI on this thing. It has EGA stamped all over it,
so I'm wondering what I should do.
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
At 11:25 AM 10/31/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Are there any collectors in the UK that specialize in CPM machines. Last
>night I acquired a Philips PC2000 portable (along with the Corvis
Well, I'm not in the UK, nor do I specialize in CP/M machines, but I do
specialize in portables. If this is still available, would you be
interested in shipping it across the pond? What do you want for it? Thanks!
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Hi,
I got a Sinclair Spectrum +2 at the weekend from a car boot sale complete
with a light gun and in its original box with about 50 game cassettes for
20UKP.
When I used to have one of these many years ago I seem to recall that the
case was grey but this one has a black case.
Does anyone know if they were made in different colours and, if so, what the
significance of the colours was?
Regards
Pete
#include <std_disclaimer>
Hi Zane,
as for the Commodore 128 I got a copy of Big blue reader
that works real well...
>>Texas Instruments tI994a with Biege plastic Cover and tape Deck
>>Color Computer 2 with cassette deck
>>Atari 800 and Tape deck
>
>Hmmm, I'm starting to notice a pattern here with the tape decks :^)
yep my first computer back in 1981 was a ti994a that i never expanded past
the cassette drive.
as for the others hate to get rid of the tapes after all the herd work
keeping them up..
besides brings back memorys and makes you appricate the big machines we use
now...
Bruce James
kb8kac tech plus
ejames(a)newwave.net
>That might take some time, it got accidentaly buried in the storage shed
>out back today. Although I'm going to be moving most of the contents into
>a storage unit sometime in the next week or so because it's getting to
>damp around here for an outdoor storage shed (one advantage to summertime)
Here, it's summer all year round. Good and bad!
>I happened to think of something else concerning the VIC-20 though. If
you
>aren't getting a Commodore 1541 disk drive with it, you'll want one.
Okay, thanks. I don't know if I'm getting one; it appears that PG Manney's
E-mail is a work adress, or he was away for the weekend or something.
>Ah, one of the good TV's. Unfortunatly they don't seem to sell such
things
>in the US. I was actually looking for one several years ago.
You might want to check in the Afeas (how ever it's spelled) catalog, as
they're made for military families, so they ususally have things like that
if you still want one.
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
Well, I just powered up one of my finds this weekend. It's a Franklin Ace
1200, the amazing thing is I got it from Goodwill, and it came with a box
of floppies, the CBASIC reference manual, and a monitor all for $14.95.
Not only is it the best deal I've seen at Goodwill, but it's also the first
complete system I've seen there.
It actually has CPM 2.2 and some other software so I've finally got a fully
functional CPM system besides the Commodore 128. Now what I'm wondering
about is the character set. It looks really wierd, and has me wondering if
there isn't some sort of problem with the video board. The best example is
a capital B which looks like this
*******
* *
* *
*******
* *
* *
*******
This is just one of the wierd looking characters this systems displays.
On the other hand when it's acting like an Apple ][ with a 40 column
display it seems to have a normal character set.
Overall it seems to be a pretty nice system. When I picked it up I thought
it was just a simple Apple ][ clone. It's ability to run CPM and having
the original CPM disks was a really great plus.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
Sorry but I forgot to say that I have a Kim-1 and the manuals for it, so if
you need something let me know. John
At 01:14 PM 11/2/97 -0800, you wrote:
>> >Does anyone know if the KIM-1 was made before *and* after MOS Technologies
>> >was aquired by Commodore? If so, were there any differences between the
>> >boards (identification wise)?
>>
>> I once got a good look at a KIM-1. (I have pictures of it somewhere...)
>> This particular one was marked 'MOS Technologies C= Commodore KIM-1'. (It
>> very clearly had the commodore logo and name on it.) From this, I assume
>> it was made after the aquisition.
>
>All my KIM-1's are from before the aquisition and don't have "C="
>or "Commodore" on them anywhere.
>
>A good picture of the pre-Commodore KIM-1 is in BYTE's review. I think it's
>August 1976, but I don't know for sure because my BYTE collection
>is several miles away at the moment...
>
>Tim.
>
>
Your chip #1 is a 64k chip speed of 30ns, chips 2&3 are 256k at 150ns speed.
The last set of tell the the size and speed (64-3 and 256-15). John
At 06:48 AM 11/2/97 -0600, you wrote:
>I have two original Compaq Portables, both of which are giving POST
>errors when they boot which indicate bad RAM. I have gone through a few
>rounds of swapping RAM chips between the machines to identify the bad
>chips, but have come up against a potential roadblock.
>
>My problem is that there are a number of different chips used in the
>machines. As I don't have any data books on these chips, I am not sure
>if the different numbers are simply different manufacturer's numbers for
>the same chips, if some of the numbers are simply date codes, or if they
>are really different, incompatible chips.
>
>If someone is familiar with these numbers, or can look them up for me, I
>would really appreciate it:
>
>Chip #1:
>Hitachi
>1818-3006
>Japan 8332U
>HM4864P-3
>
>Chip #2:
>NEC
>8539PF513
>D41256C-15
>
>Chip #3:
>Fairchild (I think; has an "F" with a bar above and below it)
>MB81256-15
>8548 M79 BC
>
>Chip #4:
>NEC
>8538PF532
>D41256C-15
>
>If you could let me know the size of each chip, as well as the width of
>the memory, it would help me determine what size of RAM I should be
>setting the motherboard DIP switches for. Also, would I be correct in
>assuming the "-15" appearing on most of the chips specifies 15ns?
>
>If anyone is familiar with adding RAM to the motherboard on the Compaq,
>I would appreciate your input on the following:
>
>The machine has 4 banks of RAM, consisting of 8 chips each, plus 1 chip
>for each bank marked "BIT 0". The first two banks of chips (0 & 1) are
>soldered, the other two (2 & 3) are socketed.
>
>1) Is the "BIT 0" chip a parity chip?
>2) Can RAM be installed in Bank 2 without having to populate Bank 3?
>
>Any help in regards to the above is much appreciated!! Thanks in
>advance.
>
>
>
Commodore put their name on the board after they bought the company in
October 1976. Before that date the boards have "MOS" on them after they have
"Commodore". Hope this helps. John
At 10:42 AM 11/2/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Tim Shoppa wrote:
>
>> > Actually it's far from thier first. There was several models of the
>> PET,
>> > and another earlier one whose name escapes me (KIT?).
>>
>> I believe you're thinking of the KIM-1. It was originally
>> made and sold by MOS Technologies, which was apparently bought by
>> Commodore at some point.
>
>Does anyone know if the KIM-1 was made before *and* after MOS Technologies
>was aquired by Commodore? If so, were there any differences between the
>boards (identification wise)?
>
>
>
I have two original Compaq Portables, both of which are giving POST
errors when they boot which indicate bad RAM. I have gone through a few
rounds of swapping RAM chips between the machines to identify the bad
chips, but have come up against a potential roadblock.
My problem is that there are a number of different chips used in the
machines. As I don't have any data books on these chips, I am not sure
if the different numbers are simply different manufacturer's numbers for
the same chips, if some of the numbers are simply date codes, or if they
are really different, incompatible chips.
If someone is familiar with these numbers, or can look them up for me, I
would really appreciate it:
Chip #1:
Hitachi
1818-3006
Japan 8332U
HM4864P-3
Chip #2:
NEC
8539PF513
D41256C-15
Chip #3:
Fairchild (I think; has an "F" with a bar above and below it)
MB81256-15
8548 M79 BC
Chip #4:
NEC
8538PF532
D41256C-15
If you could let me know the size of each chip, as well as the width of
the memory, it would help me determine what size of RAM I should be
setting the motherboard DIP switches for. Also, would I be correct in
assuming the "-15" appearing on most of the chips specifies 15ns?
If anyone is familiar with adding RAM to the motherboard on the Compaq,
I would appreciate your input on the following:
The machine has 4 banks of RAM, consisting of 8 chips each, plus 1 chip
for each bank marked "BIT 0". The first two banks of chips (0 & 1) are
soldered, the other two (2 & 3) are socketed.
1) Is the "BIT 0" chip a parity chip?
2) Can RAM be installed in Bank 2 without having to populate Bank 3?
Any help in regards to the above is much appreciated!! Thanks in
advance.
Hi All:
For those close to Ottawa, Ontario, I've found a fantastic source of DEC
boards and associated equipment:
Computer Recyclers Inc.
10 Rideau Heights Drive,
Nepean, Ontario
K2E 7A6
Canada
(613) 723-3135
Fax: (613) 723-4607
I've been to Ottawa 3 times in the past year (work related), and each time
they've had HUNDREDS of boards, systems, cables, etc., tons of stuff from
DEC and other DEC sites.
They are recyclers, i.e. they feed dumpsters and metal recyclers, so prices
are great. Dual height boards are flat rate $5 CDN, quad height flat rate
$10 CDN. If you need boards, power supplies, backplanes, rails, racks,
cables, drives, terminals, printers, etc then this is a good place to check.
My finds from last week included 2 TK70 drives and a TQK70 controller for $25.
Unfortunately the selection is largely hit and miss as they move systems
through pretty quickly. There's currently no inventory, you have to show up
and look through their oil drums of boards etc. I did, on my last trip,
provide them with the "dec field guide" board inventory document, and
suggest to the owner that they catalog and sell their boards on the net,
but we'll have to see if they do so.
For PC types, they also have some PC class stuff, mainboards, etc but I
didn't really look at these.
For info of the group,
Kevin
---
Kevin McQuiggin VE7ZD
mcquiggi(a)sfu.ca
My Apologies for not having the proper un-subscribe details on hand. I will be away for 3 weeks and others will be checking my email at work so I need to unsubscribe to reduce the amount of filtering they have to do.
Thanks,
Mark. (mark(a)technosis.com.au)
<> > have one model 100 that has no display when I turn it on, but after
<> waiting
<> > a few minutes, the display begins to show.
<>
<> I haven't tried that. How long does that take?
<>
<> > I am assuming you have tried
<> > both types of reset: 1) the reset button on the back, and 2) holding
<>
<> > shift/pause while turning the machine on.
<>
<> I tried the reset button, I didn't know anything about shift/pause.
<> What
<> does that do?
<>
<> > Does the display show anything
<> > when the contrast knob is turned?
<>
<> The contrast knob doesn't do anything . . .
Any machine that runs on nicads, they are suspect until checked for
leakage and charged. Often they develope internal shorts that render
them impossible to charge in the machine. Replacement is the best course
in most cases.
Allison
>Sorry it took so long. I tried mailing you, but there was an error.
...and I thought computers never went wrong! <g>
> >It's really comforting to know that some people have consionace.
>
>>Thanks. I'm trying to raise my children with consciences, too. We're
>>Christians, and we feel that treating people *right* is very important
>Those people will be the future leaders of our world.
>>I hope
>>that you're not in a hurry: A friend's giving me a new board, and they say
>>that it could take some time to get it, but as soon as I get it, they new
>>board will get shipped to you. Don't worry, I won't give it to anyone
>>else.
>
>I always need motherboards and drives (got any old IDE drives around?),
>because I buy and sell computers. We're out here in the wilds of Ohio
>(USA),
>where many people have older systems...I even sold a Commodore the other
>day!
>I have an old IDE drive, it's a Segate 41 MB. It says ST-251, then on a
>seperate sticker it says -1 right next to the first one. Serial number is
>25534738. It's the large kind, like they had back in the early 80's.
It's a 40 MB hard drive (6 Heads, 820 Cylinders, 17 cylinders)
> If you repair computers, I have a additional 486/SX 33 that I could throw
>in.
Glad to take it!
>>remember the XT being the first IBM, but I might be wrong.
>
>The IBM PC (model 5150, IIRC was the first PC...you can tell that one from
>the TX sinc the PC had a small funny keyboard (very small, oddly placed
>"Enter" key), 5 slots (the XT had 8) and a Cassette plug next to the
>keyboard one. Also, the case said "IBM Personal Computer" instead of "IBM
>Personal Computer XT". The motherboard was redesigned in the XT (the PC,
>for
>example, had 2 banks of DIP switches on the motherboard, instead of one).
>The XT counted out memory when it booted up, the PC just gave you a
>flashing
>cursor to stare at.
>
>Actually, the IBM 5100 was the first desktop computer. It had 8" drives, a
>dedicated printer and all that...it bombed, and IBM didn't try again until
>the PC.
>
>>Lessee...I have several Commodores, a couple of VIC-20's (one in original
>>box with original packaging, used once.), a couple of Apples... two or
>three
>>PC's and an XT (I think). It would be better to send *anything* but the
>>IBM's, because everything else is plastic-cased, and therefore lighter.
>>Still, you're the customer!
> I'm new at collecting classics. What is a VIC-20?
The VIC-20 was Commodore's first computer...2K of RAM (I think), did sounds
and color TV screen stuff.
>And what model of
>Comodore,
Commodore 64
and Apple?
Apple II C (I think).
I have a TV screen, I even have one in the guest
>bedroom that's used once in a blue moon. Didn't the older Apples up to the
>IIGS have attached monitors?
I don't think so. I'm no Apple expert, though.
thedm(a)sunflower.com
says he knows Apples and can answer questions.
Chuck Cokendale
ccdale(a)dcache.net
knows Commodores.
(I remember a few Macs that had one later
>than that...)
>>The Post Office tells me that 44 lbs will cost $89 US to send to you. If
>you
>>have a TV screen, you can save on the cost of shipping a monitor for an
>>Apple/Commodore/anything else. (The IBM will work a TV screen with the
>right
>>card, but colors are funny).
Thanks. I need a good BASIC machine. (This new C++ 5.0 suff's really
complicated....)
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Scott Walde <scott(a)saskatoon.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: VIC-20 (Was: Re: Sorry, I need to get this to PG Manney, there
was)
Date: Sunday, November 02, 1997 5:31 PM
On Sat, 1 Nov 1997, Zane H. Healy wrote:
> >> I'm new at collecting classics. What is a VIC-20?
> >
> >The VIC-20 was Commodore's first computer...2K of RAM (I think), did
sounds
> >and color TV screen stuff.
The VIC-20 had 5.5k of RAM (3583 Bytes Free for BASIC) and could be
expanded with three banks of 8k for a whopping 27.5k of BASIC RAM.
> Actually it's far from thier first. There was several models of the PET,
> and another earlier one whose name escapes me (KIT?).
KIM-1
ttfn
srw
At 06:41 AM 10/23/97 -0400, you wrote:
>disks. Possibly the drives just need cleaning, though. I just wish I had
>a cleaning kit for 5.25" drives (ugh!). I think it's already been
>mentioned where those are available.
I picked up a kit with both a 5.25 & 3.5 cleaning disk at CompUSA for like $2.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
The Power supply is 9v just like the 1050 drives, 850 drives and 810
drives. all the exact same powersupply. If you need the amps let me know,
it's not much
----------
> From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: 8-bit Atari's
> Date: Saturday, November 01, 1997 9:44 PM
>
> I had a good day scrounging the junk stores, first chance I've had in
about
> two months to do any serious looking. Among the things I came up with
> today were an Atari 400 and a Atari 800. No Power Supply for either
> though, but then I'm used to that problem. The question is, what on
earth
> does it use for a PS? Can I just break out the old Atari 2600 and use
it's
> PS?
>
> On a positive note I finally found a Power Supply for an Apple ][c, yahoo
> one less power supply needed! Also was finally able to replace the
Vic-20
> I gave away about 7 years ago, got a bunch of cartridges for various
> systems, a very nice TI-99/4A, and a Laser 1200. All in all a good day.
>
> Zane
>
>
> | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
> | healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
> | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
> +----------------------------------+----------------------------+
> | For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
> | and the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
> | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
>
Hello, I've found a sure home to the C64 (if it's in working conidtion), he
wants to know how much you want for it (it's my friend who'll take it, I'm
definately taking the VIC-20).
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
I had a good day scrounging the junk stores, first chance I've had in about
two months to do any serious looking. Among the things I came up with
today were an Atari 400 and a Atari 800. No Power Supply for either
though, but then I'm used to that problem. The question is, what on earth
does it use for a PS? Can I just break out the old Atari 2600 and use it's
PS?
On a positive note I finally found a Power Supply for an Apple ][c, yahoo
one less power supply needed! Also was finally able to replace the Vic-20
I gave away about 7 years ago, got a bunch of cartridges for various
systems, a very nice TI-99/4A, and a Laser 1200. All in all a good day.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
Well, that's okay if you needed to be wordy. It looks like the same story
again: Intel stopped the Pentium at 200 Mhz, then AMD made a 233 Mhz chip,
which benchmaked the same as the Pentium II at the same megahertz. Then
this time, Intel went back and made THEIR 233Mhz chip, but it didn't even
benchmark as high as the AMD 200 MHz. AMD's soupossed to be making a
266Mhz Socket 7 CPU, so that would combat most Pentium IIs, but not the
300Mhz. Still, 300Mhz benchmarks are only slightly higher than 266 as of
the slow speed of componets. Well on the Compaq memory board, I would check
with memory suppliers, not Compaq themselves. I'm using a Compaq, and when
I go up to tech support, they say that they will have a "processing fee".
Compaq ususally uses non-standard memory on their motherboards, for some
strange reason. The Presario CDS 633 has a nice motherboard, as everything
EVERYTHING is built in. 4 MB RAM, Video card, 2 IDE slots, 1 SCSI slot,
parallel port, 2 serial ports, game port, everything except the componets
and the sound card. But the memory is non-conventional for 30-pin SIMMS.
Compaq claims that they're better, even though they STILL run at 70ns. The
only added feature is that there are 16 MB chips avaible for them, not just
the 4MB as with most 30-pin RAM.
Hope that this helps,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: jpero(a)cgo.wave.ca
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Fido lives!
Date: Sunday, November 02, 1997 12:05 AM
Allison wrote:
Note, Sorry for so wordy.. No idea where to be tense fearing leaving
too much info out. augh!
> From: "Hotze" <photze(a)batelco.com.bh>
>
> <Good to hear that. If I do get a computer, it will have an AMD
processor.
> <If memory serves, Intel cut off the 386 at 20 mhz.
Ah, dropping into lecture mode...
In that time when you knew about it, 33mhz was "THE top of the line"
and digs up lot of $ from your moth-eaten pockets so you did not hear
much about it but also some people knows about 33mhz but $$$ and Amd
was busily cloning the 386 and was successful. Intel responded with
massive cutting then short time later killed the 386 and made people
buy up all those 486dx and 486sx. That leaves Amd's
market to keep selling those 386 because they're still powerful
enough and and they're dirt cheap at that point. 386 is a must in
that past when running that dreadful and still is, windoze stuff. I
had the uncached 386dx 25 (yuk) in '91, then had cached Am386dx 40 1
year later. Finally had my hands on that famed Am486-40 in '94 at
aching $350 because of Intel's cost. Longest span since that
until early '96 got the P word 100 also is breaking my
record of owning that longest second to my 386sx laptop (still have
it 4 years). Sorry to say, and now look what Intel is trying to dig
Pentiums into dirt again while all kinds of 386 even gasp (!) 286
owners upgrading to P5 not PPro or P5II because they're priced RIGHT.
Even highest end with 64mb ram option, 4gb, 200(h)mmx, and
everything else barely breaks 2k CDN range and that includes monitor
and Asus mobo, few s/w. Average upgrade cost is between 300 to 500.
At a bare minimum intel went to 33mhz, I know as I have both the DX and
> SX versions.
Yes, it is true that Intel officically says so to protect that now
famed low end part of 486 from being passed on in those oh old
days...sensiable Intel indeed. But little known CPU set (yup it's a
set!) is RapidCad and it's from Intel officially rated 33mhz but
works well at 40mhz. What so, I have this set as well and what I
know is pays to put the heatsink on that RapidCad 1 chip and leave
the smaller one called RapidCad 2 bare.
Large snip!
Troll (this is my nickname of Jason D.)
PS when I had problems I had to call to have RapidCad set replaced,
their tech support gave me a BIG runround before they get me to
correct dept to process properly. Not very easy and not fun
especially when one is deaf like I am. The automated system speaks
fast, relay operators that I work with could'nt keep up and
get stuffed into "musical holds for live personnels" YUK! As a
techie guy, I seen this often when calling for components ordering or
assistance. But Web is very good "USUALLY"! And I still Kick Compaq
for not releasing their much needed info I need even I offered to
sign nda form! Any suggestions byond this? Info I need for those
compaq SLT 386s/20 memory board module pinout and couple of
resistors (smoked and no twin unit to refer to) in that SLT model no
2687 PS brick.
>From: "PG Manney" <manney(a)nwohio.com>
>Subject: Re: Sorry, I need to get this to PG Manney, there was
[snip!]
>>> I'm new at collecting classics. What is a VIC-20?
The VIC-20 was Commodore's first computer...2K of RAM (I think), did
sounds
and color TV screen stuff.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the VIC-20 is pretty far down the line
in computers from Commodore it debuted as the last model of the PET/CBM
line came into being, the SuperPET. VIC-20 has 5k of RAM which about
3.5k is available for BASIC programs (the rest is for operating
registers, video memory, etc.)
[snip!]
> and Apple?
>Apple II C (I think).
>> I have a TV screen, I even have one in the guest
>>bedroom that's used once in a blue moon. Didn't the older Apples up to the
>>IIGS have attached monitors?
>I don't think so. I'm no Apple expert, though.
I am not an expert but there were RF modualtors (the thing you use to
connect a computer to a TV) for the Apple, from my historical research
Apple could not get FCC certification for an RF adapter for the ][s so
they did not sell any but routed customers to their supplier. I think
the product name was SupRMod or SupRMod ][ or something like that... In
general if it has a composite video output, you proabably can find an RF
modualtor for it. :D
>thedm(a)sunflower.com
Larry Anderson
--
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Visit our web page at: http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/
Call our BBS (Silicon Realms BBS 300-2400 baud) at: (209) 754-1363
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Does anyone have any info on the IBM System/74? I can't really get much
access to it because it's gathering dust in a supply room. Also, I have a
bunch of data tapes for reel to reel recorders. They are labelled:
ADES v.4.0 1600bpi
Bad Tape
Nova Eclipse ADES 3.0 1600 bpi (labelled bad)
1/4 micro linewidth control patterns, Bell Labs; RDOS dumps of 1/4 micro
patterns
Tape 0008 Pattern file 2 (A)
Tape 0009 Pattern file 3 3/14/91
Tape 0010 Pattern file 4(C-I)
Tape 0012 Pattern file 6(L-R)
ADES TAPE Advanced Diagnostic Executive System 800 bpi Rev.3.0 7/16/86
5130 Cuchiving Disk (a large list of nonsense follows) 4/1/86 800 bpi
DAYDUMP A (I)
DAYDUMP A (II) FORTH.FL
C-NOVA CONTROLLER Rev. F
Any idea what this stuff is, and for what machine(s)?
I just put up an ircd, and chances are it's going to be unused, so make
a #classiccmp channel or something on it.
bsdserver.tek-star.net 6667
I'll probably be on as ds80
Just something to keep it from going idle.
At 17:30 11/1/97 +0300, you wrote:
>Good to hear that. If I do get a computer, it will have an AMD processor.
>If memory serves, Intel cut off the 386 at 20 mhz.
Nah. Intel 16, 20, 25, 33, and AMD 40.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
From: "Hotze" <photze(a)batelco.com.bh>
<Good to hear that. If I do get a computer, it will have an AMD processor.
<If memory serves, Intel cut off the 386 at 20 mhz.
At a bare minimum intel went to 33mhz, I know as I have both the DX and
SX versions.
<Do you know where I can get any of this software? Also, I need to know
<how to rig it up so that I can get nultiple connections over one phone lin
<(my computer has one dedicated line already), also, if I can use one modem
<(say a 33,600) to divide up to several 4800 connections.
What your referring to is making one physical circuit look like multiple
virtual circuits, aka networking. For PCs and minicomputers that is
possible between each other but, not as a computer to phone line
interface(caveats exist). For phone modems sharing it between phone lines
is not an option.
For BBSing you need one modem and one phone line for every user you wish to
have on line at the same time. The modems do not have to be the same speed
and even slow ones can eb useful.
Allison
How many computer collectors does it take to change a light bulb?
Forty.
One to change the light bulb and thirty-nine to chat about how good the old
one was.
Yours in good faith.
Kevin Stumpf
Remember, mainframes used to be really big.
+1.519.744.2900 (EST/EDT GMT-5)
Okay, I'll get you the motherboard ASAP, and computers DON'T make mistakes;
programmers do.
>Glad to take it!
I'll ship the 486/33 processor to you, but if it is alright, can I have a
slightly higher discount on shiping on which ever computer I end up taking?
I don't know how much the 486/66 processor w/board w/16 MB RAM is worth,
you could tell me, and then whatever you think the 486/33 is worth. But
remember, the 33 is a SX, so it has no math processor. The 66 is a DX2.
>The VIC-20 was Commodore's first computer...2K of RAM (I think), did
sounds
>and color TV screen stuff.
>Commodore 64
>Apple II C (I think).
Well, I'm not sure which I'll take, but I don't really need the Apple II C,
maybe the Commodore 64, or the VIC 20.
I have a TV screen, I even have one in the guest
>bedroom that's used once in a blue moon. Didn't the older Apples up to
the
>IIGS have attached monitors?
>>The Post Office tells me that 44 lbs will cost $89 US to send to you. If
>you
>>have a TV screen, you can save on the cost of shipping a monitor for an
>>Apple/Commodore/anything else. (The IBM will work a TV screen with the
>right
>>card, but colors are funny).
How much does the Commodore 64 or the VIC-20 weigh? (That might make a
difference in what I chose.), but it'll probably be the VIC 20. I have a
friend who might buy the C64 from you. In your next e-mail, tell me how
much you would sell the C64 for, so I can tell him.
Thanks again,
Tim D. Hotze
Good to hear that. If I do get a computer, it will have an AMD processor.
If memory serves, Intel cut off the 386 at 20 mhz.
Do you know where I can get any of this software? Also, I need to know
how to rig it up so that I can get nultiple connections over one phone line
(my computer has one dedicated line already), also, if I can use one modem
(say a 33,600) to divide up to several 4800 connections.
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Bruce Lane <kyrrin2(a)wizards.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Fido lives!
Date: Saturday, November 01, 1997 11:30 AM
At least, it lives as far as I can tell. ;-) If Tom Jennings did indeed
'pull the plug,' I've seen no indication of it whatsoever at my end. If
anything, traffic on the echos I carry is higher than normal.
To answer an earlier question about hardware; my DOS-based BBS has been
running very happily, since 1990, on a 386DX-40 (AMD processor, of course!)
and 8 MB RAM. I use RemoteAccess 2.01 for the base BBS package, Portal of
Power 0.62 for the front-end mailer, and FastEcho for the mail processor.
Scott Samet's XLAXNODE handles my weekly nodelist compilation.
The system has been extremely trouble-free, and has been pretty much
self-maintaining since 1994. The only things I need to do with it are to
pick up my mail every week and check for new users every so often.
As long as I continue to see a NODEDIFF each week, and as long as I
continue to pay dues to my local group for echo traffic, I will assume that
FidoNet still lives.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin2(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"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..."
Hi To Everyone on the list
I have been following this list for a couple of months now
and here is a Short list of my finds so far.
Commodore 128 1902 moniter 2 1571 drives and Okidate Plug N Print 10.
Texas Instruments tI994a with Biege plastic Cover and tape Deck
Color Computer 2 with cassette deck
Atari 800 and Tape deck
and my latest find a Amiga 1000 with 1080 moniter and 512k memory
anyone have more information on expansion of this computer??
Bruce James
ejames(a)newwave.net
At least, it lives as far as I can tell. ;-) If Tom Jennings did indeed
'pull the plug,' I've seen no indication of it whatsoever at my end. If
anything, traffic on the echos I carry is higher than normal.
To answer an earlier question about hardware; my DOS-based BBS has been
running very happily, since 1990, on a 386DX-40 (AMD processor, of course!)
and 8 MB RAM. I use RemoteAccess 2.01 for the base BBS package, Portal of
Power 0.62 for the front-end mailer, and FastEcho for the mail processor.
Scott Samet's XLAXNODE handles my weekly nodelist compilation.
The system has been extremely trouble-free, and has been pretty much
self-maintaining since 1994. The only things I need to do with it are to
pick up my mail every week and check for new users every so often.
As long as I continue to see a NODEDIFF each week, and as long as I
continue to pay dues to my local group for echo traffic, I will assume that
FidoNet still lives.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin2(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"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..."
Hi,
Last night I acquired a Corvus Concept CPU box and hard disk unit. Does
anybody have any information about these? More specifically I am
missing the monitor and keyboard and have no documentation on the
specifications of these. They are both 9pin D connectors and that is
all I know.
--
Kevan
Old Computer Collector: http://staff.motiv.co.uk/~kevan/
kevan(a)heydon.org wrote:
> Last night I acquired a Corvus Concept CPU box and hard disk unit. Does
> anybody have any information about these? More specifically I am
> missing the monitor and keyboard and have no documentation on the
> specifications of these. They are both 9pin D connectors and that is
> all I know.
Well, I am sitting here looking at a little book with title
HARDWARE
DESCRIPTION
THE CORVUS CONCEPT
You might think that with a title like that it would have connector
pinouts, but, um, not quite. Well, it does have the pinout for the
bus slots, which are like Apple ][ slots less DMA support.
So what can I find about video?
The display area is supposed to be 560 x 720 dots. The monitor used
by Corvus was a Ball HD series monitor (so says the manual) in a
Corvus-peculiar case (so says me).
It looks like all the timing is derived from a 16.364 MHz clock that
is generated on the memory board. That gets divided by the
"horizontal counter" (74163s at U202 then U203 and U204) to produce a
34.669 KHz clock that is the horizontal scanning frequency. There is
also a "vertical counter" (at U301) to produce a 50 Hz or 60 Hz
vertical sync clock.
"The video shift registers comprise 74S299 U106, U206 and 74ls299
U306..U806 for video data. The data is shifted at 16 MHz in two
pairs of registers. The output of one register is fed directly
into a 74S157 multiplexer U104 which is switched between two inputs
at a 16 MHz rate. The other register feeds a 74S112 flipflop
U103 which delays the data by 30 ms and then feeds it to the multiplexer.
This makes a data rate of 32 MHz."
I'm not much of a hardware guy, but I hope that gives you some clues
for board-tracing and monitor selection.
Note that the system can run the monitor in either landscape or
portrait mode (hence the peculiar case, with slots for the base on two
sides). I think you are supposed to tell it how you've got the
monitor positioned with the VERT/HORIZ switch on the back. That
doesn't change the video timing, it changes how the software draws
into the memory.
Now what about the keyboard?
I gather there is a 6551 UART at U310 that receives keycodes, one for
each key-down or key-up. Key-down codes have the most-significant-bit
set; key-up codes have it clear but are otherwise identical to key-down
codes.
...
Some other notes.
Jeff Kaneko wrote that the operating system was "Unix-like". I don't
know, I haven't seen it run much less try to hack on it, but from
reading the manuals I'd say it was more p-System like, except that it
runs 68000 code instead of p-Machine code.
The hard disk(s) could be hooked up over the Omninet (in which case the
disk box was connected to an Omninet-attached disk server box) or via a
hard-disk interface that sat in one of the Concept's expansion slots.
There were also expansion cards to control 8" and 5.25" diskette
drives.
I'm not sure exactly how the VCR-backup stuff works. From reading
another manual (the Disk Drive Installation Guide) it looks like there
is an option for the disk to have a "Mirror" built-in. There are
four DIP switches on the back that need to be set different ways for
different circumstances:
no Mirror built in => all closed
Mirror built in, NTSC VCR => all open
Mirror built in, PAL/SECAM VCR => 1 closed, 2-4 open
...
Well, I hope that helps a bit. Yes, I have one of these. No, I haven't
done anything with it as yet, save haul the CPU, monitor, and keyboard
up to VCF for folks to gawk at.
-Frank McConnell
----------
From: Brett <danjo(a)xnet.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: BBS Box
Date: Saturday, November 01, 1997 4:35 AM
On Fri, 31 Oct 1997, Hotze wrote:
Huh? I hope you mean text based versus graphics here 8-)
Anything will be fine, but I want as much graphics cabilities as possible.
> I'm really ready to learn, but at
> this time of writing, I only have the 486/66, and an 080880/8Mhz, which
> dosn't work. I really just want to make something for my friends and I
to
> meet on... here, Internet is still expensive, and most people refust to
> upgrade to anything past Netscape 2.0. I need really to know about
> multiple phone/modems. The phone isn't a problem, the modem is. How
much
> do the 4800's run for? I've already got two modems, one a 2400
sendf/9600
> recieve, and another a 33.6 both ways. I really need to know what to do,
> the whole smackum, as I'm very "computer literate", in DOS and Windows,
but
> rather inexperianced with this kind of stuff.
> Ciao,
>
> Tim D. Hotze
>Tim - go right for Linux! Don't even think of FIDO - well think about it
>8-)
I only have a 28.8 connection, and I don't know where I can get an
inexpensive Linux OS. Maybe you can help me. OR CAN ANYONE ELSE HERE HELP
ME?
>If you get UUCP support, you can acutally become a local provider. If your
>buddies want web pages and a shell account to play with Linux is your best
>bet. You can - with UUCP - even allow Internet EMail - and even even
>access other systems if you set up your system correctly. You can send and
>recieve email and files - oh say 4-8 times a day - more frequently if you
>want and all of them will transfer in one shot so it is *like* FIDOnet.
Can you help me with that? Explain more. That's very interesting.
>I run Linux 2.0.28/9 on two machines - one is my dedicated comms server
>with diald to make the connection and it has a HTTP server with EMail.
>We only connect with one modem and everybody uses the same connection at
>the same time.
Yeah, but here, a dedicated connection costs about $10,000 a month. I
don't even want to think of that. Possibly I could just connect then
disconnect really quickly.
>Get whatever modems you want to use - a multiple port serial card will
>let you run as many modems as you can afford 8-) 16-32 way too many
>phones lines to afford! DO NOT use internals - even with M$ stuff!
Okay, no internals. But don't worry about the phone lines. 1: it's only
5, and 2. I can get them free.
>FIDO net was set up to allow home computers to run like UUCP machines
>(when they were the *rage*) so why not use the real thing?
Why not? But I want to do this on my home computer :-)
Just my $0.48 worth 8-)
BC
Well, I really want to just have about 5 connections. I don't want to be
using the machine for my own purposes, but rather to "join in" on the BBS
itself. I think that a 4800 connection would be good... about twice as
fast as a 28800 internet connection. I'm really ready to learn, but at
this time of writing, I only have the 486/66, and an 080880/8Mhz, which
dosn't work. I really just want to make something for my friends and I to
meet on... here, Internet is still expensive, and most people refust to
upgrade to anything past Netscape 2.0. I need really to know about
multiple phone/modems. The phone isn't a problem, the modem is. How much
do the 4800's run for? I've already got two modems, one a 2400 sendf/9600
recieve, and another a 33.6 both ways. I really need to know what to do,
the whole smackum, as I'm very "computer literate", in DOS and Windows, but
rather inexperianced with this kind of stuff.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch(a)northernway.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: BBS Box
Date: Friday, October 31, 1997 6:46 PM
Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, Hotze said:
> Oh, yeah, I have one more question. If I want to make a BBS (regardless
>or software), what type of hardware should I have to handle multiple
>connections? I believe that my computer is BBS-server-sufficent for DOS
(2
>GB HDD, 28 MB RAM, 486/66 processor), as that's twice as fast as a server
>would be in 1990, with DOS at it's peak, before Windows started ruining
the
>whole thing :-) .
How many multiple connections? What kind of speed per connection? Do you
also want to use the machine for yourself at the same time? These do make a
difference, for you could run 2 connections at 2400 baud on a 2Mhz CoCo 3
w/512K RAM. All you need is a way to interface the ports (or build your
own.) Under OS-9, you may even have enough CPU over to play Rogue (tho not
quickly). With a 6309 processor and NitrOS-9, you could most easily do this
setup and still use the machine for yourself.
(And yes, someone *has* designed an overclocking circuit to run a 6x09 at
4Mhz, except during memory accesses which does gain you a fair amount of
speed... ;-)
In the IBM world, I'd say for 4 dial up lines at 9600/14.4 you'd need a
minimum of a 386DX 25 w/8 Megs RAM, running Dos/Linux (Windows not spoken
here... too much overhead) and decent BBS software and you'd have no
problem whatsoever. (Again, with Linux, you may still be able to use the
machine for background tasks for yourself without harming that speed... but
not big jobs, of course.)
Anyway, YMMV, HTH, HSIYE (Here's Spit In Your Eye... ;-) and all that jazz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | Why does Hershey's put nutritional
Programmer, NorthernWay | information on their candy bar wrappers
zmerch(a)northernway.net | when there's no nutritional value within?
here we go again...
With the DLV11-J cable, RCV- and GND have to be crossed. Is there any
such crossing required with the DL11-W? I can see output from the PDP,
but I can't talk back to it.
Hi, folks,
Those in the New York area, heads up! Found this on Usenet...
<NOTE TO BOB SCHOR: I've forwarded your post to a mailing list of folk
who specialize in keeping the old systems alive. If anyone's interested,
they'll respond to you directly>.
-=-=- <snip> -=-=-
Path:
Supernews70!Supernews60!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!howland.erols.net!portc02.blue.aol.com!pitt.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!news
From: Bob Schor <bschor(a)vms.cis.pitt.edu>
Newsgroups: vmsnet.pdp-11
Subject: 11/44 Available in NYC
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 07:11:27 -0400
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Lines: 21
Message-ID: <3440B05F.E136987D(a)vms.cis.pitt.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ehdup-b1-1.rmt.net.pitt.edu
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.01 [en] (Win95; I)
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Xref: Supernews70 vmsnet.pdp-11:8571
I have just turned off a PDP-11/44 which has been pretty much
continuously running since the early 1980's (I'm not sure when we got it
>from DEC). It is available to anyone who wants it, but you better act
fast, as others are itching to get the room it is in (and will
probably consign it to the dumpster). There are also two RK06 drives,
but we haven't been using them for perhaps a decade (using a Winchester
disk on a Dilog MSCP controller).
There are also two DZ boards on this system, plus documentation (again,
act quickly!).
Give me a call or send e-mail ASAP. This machine is located at
Rockefeller University in New York City. You would need to Come and Get
It ...
Bob Schor
University of Pittsburgh
(412) 647-2116
bschor(a)vms.cis.pitt.edu
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL E-MAIL SUBJECT TO $500.00 PROOFREADING FEE PER ITEM SENT.
SENDING ME SUCH UNSOLICITED ITEMS CONSTITUTES UNDERSTANDING AND ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS.
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave (Fido 1:343/272)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid -- kyrrin2-At-Wizards-Dot-Net
"...Spam is bad. Spam wastes resources. Spam is theft of service. Don't spam, period..."
>I have an old IDE drive, it's a Segate 41 MB. It says ST-251, then on a
>seperate sticker it says -1 right next to the first one. Serial number is
>25534738. It's the large kind, like they had back in the early 80's.
An ST-251-1 isn't an IDE. It's a 40MB half-height 5.25 MFM drive. It'll
run at 1 to 1 (also known as "no") interleave if you can find a fast enough
controller; try an Everex EV-332 with fairly late ROMs.
>>I have an old IDE drive, it's a Segate 41 MB. It says ST-251, then on a
>>seperate sticker it says -1 right next to the first one. Serial number is
>>25534738. It's the large kind, like they had back in the early 80's.
>
>
>An ST-251-1 isn't an IDE. It's a 40MB half-height 5.25 MFM drive. It'll
>run at 1 to 1 (also known as "no") interleave if you can find a fast enough
>controller; try an Everex EV-332 with fairly late ROMs.
Um -- very tiny point. The interface is ST-506/412. The _encoding_ is MFM.
Plenty of 5 1/4" form factor drives (such as the ST-238) used RLL encoding,
but the same physical interface...i.e. ST-506/412.
You can tell an IDE because it has one 40-pin cable...the ST-506/412
interface required 2 cables...a 20-pin and a 34 pin. ESDI's (rare) took 2
cables (20 & 34) also.
manney(a)nwohio.com
Just picked up a Computer Automation "Naked Mini" computer (PC board
actually), and now need to find some docs on it.
I can make a few assumptions based on examining the board, but there a
number of option jumpers, connectors, and card edge (finger) connectors on
it, and I'd just as rather not blow the poor thing up by experimenting on
it.
So, does anyone have either a spare copy of the docs, or can be convinced
to run a set thru your favourite mode of duplication?
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
> while searching around town for a mac II video card, i came across this
> little machine for $10 at a computer parts store! not long ago, some idiot
That's a great price for a portfolio. (Even without all the the expansion
stuff.)
The portfolio was one of the first handheld computers, and is (afaik) either
the first or second handheld PC Compatible. (The other contender is the
Poquet PC -- I've never seen a definitive answer as to which was first.)
If you want to get rid of it, I'd gladly double your money! 8^)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
At 09:51 10/31/97 -0000, you wrote:
>The link that you have followed points to a document that does not exist.
>Please contact the author(s) of the referer document to ask them to
>remove/correct the pointer.
>
>Is the page gone or is the URL wrong?
Neither, I just got to it myself. It's at Manchester. Try
http://www.mcc.ac.uk/~dlms/atari.html
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
At 04:11 10/31/97 +0000, you wrote:
>> while searching around town for a mac II video card, i came across this
>> little machine for $10 at a computer parts store! not long ago, some idiot
>> was trying to sell something similar for $100....
A: You were real lucky to get one for $10.
B: re "idiot," I bought a Pofo with a cool leather case, two RAM cards and
full docs from a Stanford student for $75, two years ago, and recognized it
then as a bargain. Today in the Valley a working Portfolio, with case and
set of goodies, is $150 to $200. (For most of its life the bare machine
sold for $295 new.)
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Okay, let's all try to search for this Tim Jennings and try to encourage
him to either re-connect or make a new version of Fido. There are enough
of us with enough experiance to encourage him. Imagine! Having a living
legend with us!!! I believe that BBSs in a HTML or Java-ized form still
have a chance yet. They're 1. fast 2. cheap 3. You can use them for a
multitude of services-like you could have 1 server, give it a cheap (sort
of) 56K or ISDN connection, and then all users would have internet access.
At least we could try to get patent rights if he'd let us. (Which he
probably would, as he's not doing to much with it now!), and establish
ourselves as a hisoric society (What else could you call us?), and make a
few BBSs just to be a part of history.
Oh, yeah, I have one more question. If I want to make a BBS (regardless
or software), what type of hardware should I have to handle multiple
connections? I believe that my computer is BBS-server-sufficent for DOS (2
GB HDD, 28 MB RAM, 486/66 processor), as that's twice as fast as a server
would be in 1990, with DOS at it's peak, before Windows started ruining the
whole thing :-) .
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker(a)mail.interlog.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Fido is far from dead!
Date: Friday, October 31, 1997 7:11 AM
> At 07:38 AM 10/29/97 -0800, you wrote:
> >>Check around on the web for Fido software. Back in the days before the
> >>Internet, FidoNet was a world-wide network of independant BBS's.
> >
> > Fido is far from dead. In fact, some sysops have claimed an increase in
>
> Whups! I did not mean to imply at all that Fido was dead. Only that I
was
> communicating with people around the world long before most of us heard
> about the Internet. I think Fido is great and I'm glad to hear it is
still
> going strong.
> Btw, is Tom(?) Jennings (is that his name? the author of Fido) still
around
> in the Fido world? I met him once -- a true genius, and definitely
deserves
> greater acclaim than he has received.
>
Maybe someone more knowledgeable could fill us in, but based on
scuttlebut I read in some FIDO confs. he recently pulled the plug on
FIDO, since he holds the patent, and many N.A. nodes have folded
their tents and the remaining ones are operating illegally, causing a
drop-off in traffic. Outside N.A. AFAIK , it's going strong. Perhaps
Bruce Lane could set me straight on this if you will.
ciao larry
lwalkerN0spaM(a)interlog.com
Hi,
Are there any collectors in the UK that specialize in CPM machines. Last
night I acquired a Philips PC2000 portable (along with the Corvis
Concept) and while it is a nice machine (and has lots of documentation
including service manuals) I don't have a great affinity to CPM machines
because I have never used them out side of collecting them. (and I am
trying to limit my collection to home micros, workstations and strange
one off machines.) If you would be interested in this machine, and maybe
some others I have then email me.
--
Kevan
Old Computer Collector: http://staff.motiv.co.uk/~kevan/
Lawrence Walker said:
>Check out the Portfolio home page at
> http://www.mcc.ac.uk/~dlms/Port/portfolio.htmlwww.mcc.ac.uk says:
>The link that you have followed points to a document that does not exist.
Please >contact the author(s) of the referer document to ask them to
remove/correct the >pointer.
Is the page gone or is the URL wrong?
Regards
Pete
#include <std_disclaimer>
Ok, I've had my sulk, can I resubscribe?
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)calico.litterbox.com
--
"...It tells me that goose stepping morons like yourself should try reading
books instead of burning them."
-Dr. Henry Jones Sr.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
At 10:30 AM 10/28/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Can anybody recommend a good universal monitor that can be used with a
>large number of home micros?
For many of the 8-bit micros that use a Composite(?) input (Commie, Atari, I
think Coco's, etc.) the Commodore 1702 (And I think 1802?) monitors were
fantastic. They also had the advantage of having standard video/audio RCA
inputs on the front, so they can double as a Telly. All you need to do is
hook it up to a VCR or maybe even just a cable box.
I did this for years, and even once when my dad was in the hospital, brought
it in wiht a VCR so he could watch movies. Nice and compact.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
while searching around town for a mac II video card, i came across this
little machine for $10 at a computer parts store! not long ago, some idiot
was trying to sell something similar for $100. seems to be psuedo ibm
compatible and i got the printer interface in its original box and a quick
ref guide for the preloaded apps. mine also came with a 64k mem card with a
battery backup. other than a cracked lcd hinge, seems to be pretty neat. if
anyone has a source for more info, i'd love to hear about it. another good
thing is the the space it takes up is negligable! =D
david
I got to thinking about VCF 2.0 and decided I might like to do a talk about
the history of portable computing. But, knowing my track record in regards
to such things, I figure I better start researching now in order to be ready
for VCF 3.0 or 4.0!
So, I'd like to hear from anyone who has a story to tell about the history
of portable computers and such, or has any data on what the first portable,
first laptop, first handheld, etc. was etc. Also, any interesting portables
you have in your collection or know about, please tell me. Basically, if it
has to do with portable computing (or even relates to it in some obscure
way) I'd like to hear about it.
Please e-mail me directly at <sinasohn(a)ricochet.net>. I'll take anything I
can get, compile it, and see if I can come up with something. Thanks!
P.S., I do collect portable computers (which somehow doesn't explain the
Mini's in the basement) so if you have any you want to get rid of... 8^)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
At 07:38 AM 10/29/97 -0800, you wrote:
>>Check around on the web for Fido software. Back in the days before the
>>Internet, FidoNet was a world-wide network of independant BBS's.
>
> Fido is far from dead. In fact, some sysops have claimed an increase in
Whups! I did not mean to imply at all that Fido was dead. Only that I was
communicating with people around the world long before most of us heard
about the Internet. I think Fido is great and I'm glad to hear it is still
going strong.
> I have a wide assortment of BBS software oriented towards DOS-based
>systems. My pacakge of choice is RemoteAccess 2.01. If there's someone on
Is RemoteAccess a Fido compatible BBS or a terminal pgm? Do you know where
to get the Fido software?
Btw, is Tom(?) Jennings (is that his name? the author of Fido) still around
in the Fido world? I met him once -- a true genius, and definitely deserves
greater acclaim than he has received.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
No at both places I'm waiting on their management to make a deal. Will post
when I get the call.
At 07:14 PM 10/30/97 +0300, you wrote:
>Has anything happened since the 25th? I just want to know... because I
>just started collecting and really want to grab a few systems. (Can people
>who already have one of the systems that I'm interested in let me have
>first dibbs?)
> Thanks,
>
> Tim D. Hotze
>
>----------
>From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker(a)mail.interlog.com>
>To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
><classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
>Subject: Re: Update on finds for those that asked and a big rescue coming
>Date: Saturday, October 25, 1997 11:18 AM
>
>> Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 -0500
>> Reply-to: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
>> From: "John R. Keys Jr." <jrkeys(a)concentric.net>
>> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
><classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
>> Subject: Update on finds for those that asked and a big rescue
>coming
>
>> Thanks to those who e-mailed me to keep the list going, I too like to see
>> what others are finding and the price items are going for. This also to
>> helps hear about computers and other items that I may have never seen or
>> hear of. But first about the rescue - I have located about one half of a
>> 20,000 sq ft warehouse FULL of computers, monitors, printers, manuals,
>sales
>> promo items, old software, system disk. I'm talking C64 to SUN to maybe
>> HP3000 types and a couple of stripped down mainframes (not IBM's). I
>spent
>> the last two Saturdays trying to work out a deal and hope to know this
>week
>> or next if can start unloading these items for them. I will send out an
>> e-mail to all as soon as I get the word.
> I, for one, love your listings. Keep on, keep on, keep on.
>
>ciao larry
>
>lwalkerN0spaM(a)interlog.com
>
>
I have a Commodore 64 and a Vic 20, both operational, and both with lotsa
software and goodies. The Vic 20 has an operational tape drive and about 10
cartriges. The 64 has a disk drive, and tons of disks worth of games and
programs. They are currently seeking a home at a reasonable price. Know
anyone interested?
I also have a Pong game, fully operational, somewhere in the recesses of my
attic. I know those are going as collector's items now. Where would I go
to find a market?
Thanks,
m
On Wed, 29 Oct 1997 09:39:31 -0800 (PST), Tim Shoppa wrote:
>
>>Ok, how about a 9511A or 9512 math co-processor chip (Intel 8231A or 8232)?
>>The Intel web site has info on the 8231A only....
>
>Part of the difficulty with many of these parts is that they were
>so expensive in the first place, that most designers found some
>way of avoiding them. The 9512 that I own, for example, cost over
>US$200 when it was purchased as an option with the Compupro
>System Support 1.
Ouch...$200 in the early 80's was a fair amount of money. I can see why
designers would try to avoid utilizing it if at all possible.
According to the Intel web site, Rochester Electronics has been licensed to
produce many of Intel's older NMOS chips. The news release used the 8231A
as an example. I haven't browsed the Rochester site lately, but as of several
weeks ago, the chip didn't appear in their inventory. If offered for sale,
wonder how much they'll charge?
Jason jrbrady(a)mindspring.com Seattle, WA
In regards to the Haggle Apple I, If you check out the guy's web page, it
sounds like he's open to offers. If I could even imagine myself with $10K
without falling over laughing at the absurdity, I'd make him an offer.
Unfortunately he says explicitly that an offer of $300 (the most I could
hope to raise) would definitely be turned down. 8^)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
I want a Sun, a NeXT cube. I would be interested in the componets, but I
don't have any working clasics. Only a broken down XT. I'm trying to get
it working.
Thanks again,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Update on finds for those that asked and a big rescue coming
Date: Thursday, October 30, 1997 7:48 PM
> Has anything happened since the 25th? I just want to know... because I
> just started collecting and really want to grab a few systems. (Can
people
> who already have one of the systems that I'm interested in let me have
> first dibbs?)
I forget exactly which systems you're interested in, but I thought
I'd use this opportunity to repost my list of Data General hardware
that I want to find a good home for. Some of the quantities given
below have changed slightly as boxes have found their way to worthy
owners, but this is but a small perturbation in the total mass
of stuff (around 5000 pounds or so.)
Qty Model No Manufacturer Description
----- ----------- ------------- ---------------------
11 6045/6050 DG 10 MB disk drive
2 MK8024-BC-02 Mostek 128K * 21 Bit SC memory board
2 MK8024-AC-03 Mostek 128K * 21 Bit SC memory board
1 T5 12140 R08 DG 256K Memory Board (BBU)
6 T005 12132 R07 DG 32K Memory board (BBU)
5 4063 DG Quad TTY Multiplexer Board
3 DR225S Dataram 512K * 21 Bit SC Memory Board
5 T005 12383 R02 DG 64K * 21 Bit SC Memory Board
1 ? ? ADC PLT LPT board
14 Various DG Basic I/O controller board
3 PA5A1F CDC CDC FSD drive
1 77708010 CDC Lark 9457 disk drive
2 17/27 Spectra Logic Disk & Mag Tape controller
1 17+ Spectra Logic Disk ^ Mag Tape controller
9 T005 03982 R39 DG Disk controller
3 4234 DG Disk controller
3 Spectra 10 Spectra Logic Disk Drive controller
1 ? ? EDS 302 Sync Exp
2 SO#21496 DG Expansion Chassis
1 SO#9578 DG Expansion Chassis
1 T005 10043 R06 DG I/O Bus Repeater model 8315
1 005022462 DG IAC/16
1 T005 21298 R06 DG IAC 2-8 Board
1 4235A DG Intelligent Ethernet Controller
3 D503A CDC Lark Drive Controller
1 77708101 CDC Lark Disk Drive P/S Module
1 5091 Datum Mag tape controller
5 TC120 Western Periphs Mag tape controller
13 T005 6732 R11 DG MCA 4206 Board
1 P5 Keronix Memory Board
2 CE8885 DG MV/7800C Chassis
3 T005 24496 R00 DG MV/7800C CPU board w 4 MB
2 T5 20141 R24/29 DG MV/7800C P/S board
5 T005 13885 R00 DG MMPUI MOD 2 board
2 CE8885 DG MV/7800 C computer chassis
3 T005 24496 R00 DG MV/7800 C Cpu board w/4MB
2 T5 20141 R24 DG MV7800 C P/S Board
7 C8393-H DG Nova 4 Chassis, VNR Unit, Fan
module
6 T005 12786 DG Nova 4 CPU board
1 T005 12067 R15 DG Nova 4 CPU board
1 T005 12788 R21 DG Nova 4 CPU board
6 T5 19489 DG Nova 4 P/S board
1 T5 18878 R00 DG Nova 4 P/S board
1 ? ? Nova Cassette I/O
3 ? DG Nova PIO DMA
2 ? DG Nova P/S module
3 T005 3575 R06 DG Programmable Interval Timer
5 8611 DG S130 Computer Chassis
5 T005 3165 DG S130 CPU 1 Board
5 T005 8523 DG S130 CPU 2 Board
6 T005 7181 DG S130 P/S module
6 4243/T005 17346 DG ULM5 Async Mux Controller
Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)
Has anything happened since the 25th? I just want to know... because I
just started collecting and really want to grab a few systems. (Can people
who already have one of the systems that I'm interested in let me have
first dibbs?)
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker(a)mail.interlog.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Update on finds for those that asked and a big rescue coming
Date: Saturday, October 25, 1997 11:18 AM
> Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 -0500
> Reply-to: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
> From: "John R. Keys Jr." <jrkeys(a)concentric.net>
> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Update on finds for those that asked and a big rescue
coming
> Thanks to those who e-mailed me to keep the list going, I too like to see
> what others are finding and the price items are going for. This also to
> helps hear about computers and other items that I may have never seen or
> hear of. But first about the rescue - I have located about one half of a
> 20,000 sq ft warehouse FULL of computers, monitors, printers, manuals,
sales
> promo items, old software, system disk. I'm talking C64 to SUN to maybe
> HP3000 types and a couple of stripped down mainframes (not IBM's). I
spent
> the last two Saturdays trying to work out a deal and hope to know this
week
> or next if can start unloading these items for them. I will send out an
> e-mail to all as soon as I get the word.
I, for one, love your listings. Keep on, keep on, keep on.
ciao larry
lwalkerN0spaM(a)interlog.com
Hello.
I was looking for a keyboard for a computer that I'm putting together,
when I found an interestnig contraption. I don't know if any of you have
seen the new IBM Aptiva S series, but this looks similiar. The keyboard
has two 3.5" diskette drives on the top, they're not moveable. They could
be DS/DD, or DS/HD, I don't know. The computer looks like it only has 2
parts: The CPU/Keyboard, and the monitor. The keyboard's function keys are
small, rectangular, about the size of calculator buttons, and colored
yellow with blue writing. I don't know the brand name, I'm trying to
aquire it. Is this a classic? What are it's specs?
Thanks again,
Tim D. Hotze
I've got an ST-412...came out of an Epson, I think.
manney(a)nwohio.com
-----Original Message-----
From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
To: Manney <Manney>
Date: Wednesday, October 29, 1997 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: Wanted: RD-51
>> Yes, as odd as is seems I'm looking for a functional RD-51 or equiv. 10mb
>> MFM hard drive. (ST-412, etc.)
>>
>> I'm trying to reload an operating system onto one of my Micro PDP-11
>> systems, and it insists that it will only install to an RD-51 drive.
>
>You tell us which operating system this is, but most revisions of
>RT-11, RSX-11M+, and RSTS/E aren't that picky about MSCP devices.
>
>> So... if anyone has one lying about that needs a purpose, please drop me
a
>> note.
>
>Just about any MFM hard drive can be pressed into service as a RD51
>(as it is *almost* the lowest common denominator in MFM drives, after
>you forget about the original ST506). If you've got a larger physical
disk,
>you just tell the RQDX formatter that you're using to format it as
>a smaller logical disk.
>
>Which RQDX formatter are you using, BTW?
>
>Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)
>
At 01:32 AM 10/27/97 -0800, you wrote:
>I attended the Vintage Computer Festival this weekend. I had one hell
>of a good time. I enjoyed talking with just about everyone. I didn't
I concur wholeheartedly. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I
would have liked, and certainly wasn't as prepared as I could have been, and
didn't help out anywhere near as much as I should have, but I did have a
blast.
I picked up a few things (a couple of 8-bit atari Carts, a TRS-80 Model 102
with some sort of really weird modification, a Mac II for Rachel's
classroom), didn't sell anything, but did manage to find homes for what I
didn't want to bring home. (Tip: If you tell Marvin you're going to throw
something in the dumpster, he'll take it even if it means making his wife
hold it on her lap on the way home. 8^) (P.S., Hope you guys made it home
okay!)
I also talked to a couple of people who aren't on the list but want to be,
so I'm going to send them the signup address (I shoulda written it down
before going.)
>I want to thank Sam and everyone who helped out for making the VCF a
>reality. I will attend and participate (hopefully more) next year
>without hesitation. It was Nerdvana.
Likewise! Next year I think I'll fill two tables both days instead of one
table one day. It was neat to be able to display some of my collection in
public. (Next year I'll get it together and get some of my stuff into the
main exhibits.)
Sam, you did one hell of a bang-up job. Thanks!
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Hello everyone. I've been interested in clasics for quite some time, but I
just had an idea that will make collecting easier for all of us. It's what
I call a "Componet Showcase", where, instead of showing a system, you
simply show... say, an 8-bit ISA card, or a old 16 K ram chip. What I mean
is a system that's made of a custom board, if possible compatible with as
many systems as possible. (I know that Apple figuresd out how to get x86
chips working with their systems.), and also a system, that, in it's own
right, may become a classic of it's own. (In about 15 years: They're great
systems, but they only made a few dozen, for a computer collecting club) I
don't have enough knowledge for something like this, but if any of you
could help me, I'm sure that together we can get something done. Here's
another possibility for this system: Catalog. So what we'd do is equip it
with a modem (a 2400 baud or so should do), made for the sole purpose of
checking group e-mails. There would be a catalog that would have a list of
systems, monitors, componets, etc. With "links" to these componets. It's
just a dream, but with the help of everyone, it can be much more.
Bye for now,
Tim D. Hotze
At 11:38 10/29/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Just found this under the "Antique Computer" Listing at Haggle.com....
>someone's got an Apple 1 for sale... opening bid requested: $17,000.00.
Matt can say "laugh of the day," but a couple of years ago I did
authentication and provenance on one that sold for $12,000, the last one I
SAW sell went for $22,000, and there's one for sale in Southern California
(with Apple packaging, full paperwork and a signed letter from Jobs,) for
$30,000 -- it hasn't gone yet, but it will, probably to Japan. Yes, $17K
is (mildly) a deal.
AFAIK there are only about eighty of the little dears left, and think of
the number of people who want one. To tell the truth, in the last year or
so there's begun to be concern about counterfeiting.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
At 15:56 10/30/97 -0800, you wrote:
>I also have a Pong game, fully operational, somewhere in the recesses of my
>attic. I know those are going as collector's items now. Where would I go
>to find a market?
You don't by any chance mean a Pong ARCADE game, do you?
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Okay, I don't know where to get any software; remember, I'm out in the
middle of nowhere. If someone could send me something, that would be
great.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Uncle Roger <sinasohn(a)crl.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Fido is far from dead!
Date: Thursday, October 30, 1997 1:56 AM
At 07:38 AM 10/29/97 -0800, you wrote:
>>Check around on the web for Fido software. Back in the days before the
>>Internet, FidoNet was a world-wide network of independant BBS's.
>
> Fido is far from dead. In fact, some sysops have claimed an increase in
Whups! I did not mean to imply at all that Fido was dead. Only that I was
communicating with people around the world long before most of us heard
about the Internet. I think Fido is great and I'm glad to hear it is still
going strong.
> I have a wide assortment of BBS software oriented towards DOS-based
>systems. My pacakge of choice is RemoteAccess 2.01. If there's someone on
Is RemoteAccess a Fido compatible BBS or a terminal pgm? Do you know where
to get the Fido software?
Btw, is Tom(?) Jennings (is that his name? the author of Fido) still
around
in the Fido world? I met him once -- a true genius, and definitely
deserves
greater acclaim than he has received.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)ricochet.net that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Do you still have the Avatex 2400 modem and how much do you want for it
I have one of them but I lost the manual and need dipswitch settings
Nathan nathan.pryor(a)juno.com
Yes, as odd as is seems I'm looking for a functional RD-51 or equiv. 10mb
MFM hard drive. (ST-412, etc.)
I'm trying to reload an operating system onto one of my Micro PDP-11
systems, and it insists that it will only install to an RD-51 drive.
So... if anyone has one lying about that needs a purpose, please drop me a
note.
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
I can laugh, because as much as I have wanted one, (since they first
came out yes) I can safely feel comfortable that I never will. Maybe I
get lucky and find an Exidy Sorcerer for less that $5,000.
-Matt Pritchard
Graphics Engine and Optimization Specialist
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kip Crosby [SMTP:engine@chac.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 1997 11:26 AM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: Re: Uh, is this a deal? -- yup
>
> At 11:38 10/29/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >Just found this under the "Antique Computer" Listing at
> Haggle.com....
> >someone's got an Apple 1 for sale... opening bid requested:
> $17,000.00.
>
> Matt can say "laugh of the day," but a couple of years ago I did
> authentication and provenance on one that sold for $12,000, the last
> one I
> SAW sell went for $22,000, and there's one for sale in Southern
> California
> (with Apple packaging, full paperwork and a signed letter from Jobs,)
> for
> $30,000 -- it hasn't gone yet, but it will, probably to Japan. Yes,
> $17K
> is (mildly) a deal.
>
> AFAIK there are only about eighty of the little dears left, and think
> of
> the number of people who want one. To tell the truth, in the last
> year or
> so there's begun to be concern about counterfeiting.
>
> __________________________________________
> Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
> http://www.chac.org/index.html
> Computer History Association of California
>
On Wed, 29 Oct 1997 09:26:01 -0800, the esteemed Mr. Crosby of
CHAC spake thusly unto us:
> Yes, $17K is (mildly) a deal [for an Apple 1].
>
> AFAIK there are only about eighty of the little dears left [...]
The entire production run of the LINC-8 totalled 142, of which only
a tiny fraction survive to this day. Fewer still are operational.
What do you suppose they're worth? No, I'm not trying to sell one.
Not on my life.
______________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:carl.friend@stoneweb.com | |
| http://www.ultranet.com/~engelbrt/carl/museum/ | ICBM: N42:21 W71:46 |
|________________________________________________|_____________________|
At 13:21 9/26/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Ok, how about a 9511A or 9512 math co-processor chip (Intel 8231A or 8232)?
>The Intel web site has info on the 8231A only....
I called a guy who was a logic designer at Intel during the period and who
has samples of most of the pertinent Intel chips from, say, the 8048 to
current. He has no 8232 and claims never to have seen one or a data sheet
for it. It was so lackadaisically marketed by Intel that he suspects it
was a cross-license from AMD and that someone at Intel objected to the
architecture.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Oh really? I've got a friend who is a former Apple employee who gave me
one for a LOT less than that: but that was some years back, probably when
they were just "old", but still, I've seen them go for about $50 on local
classifieds.
Sorry this is getting so confusing,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Kip Crosby <engine(a)chac.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Uh, is this a deal? -- yup
Date: Wednesday, October 29, 1997 8:26 PM
At 11:38 10/29/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Just found this under the "Antique Computer" Listing at Haggle.com....
>someone's got an Apple 1 for sale... opening bid requested: $17,000.00.
Matt can say "laugh of the day," but a couple of years ago I did
authentication and provenance on one that sold for $12,000, the last one I
SAW sell went for $22,000, and there's one for sale in Southern California
(with Apple packaging, full paperwork and a signed letter from Jobs,) for
$30,000 -- it hasn't gone yet, but it will, probably to Japan. Yes, $17K
is (mildly) a deal.
AFAIK there are only about eighty of the little dears left, and think of
the number of people who want one. To tell the truth, in the last year or
so there's begun to be concern about counterfeiting.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Thanks for the Laugh of the day...
-Matt Pritchard
Graphics Engine and Optimization Specialist
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roger Merchberger [SMTP:zmerch@northernway.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 1997 10:39 AM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: Uh, is this a deal????
>
> http://www.haggle.com/cgi/getitem.cgi?item_id=201433978
>
> Just found this under the "Antique Computer" Listing at Haggle.com....
> someone's got an Apple 1 for sale... opening bid requested:
> $17,000.00.
>
> Wonder why no-one's bid on it so far.....
>
> Have fun,
> Roger "Merch" Merchberger
> --
> Roger Merchberger | Why does Hershey's put nutritional
> Programmer, NorthernWay | information on their candy bar wrappers
> zmerch(a)northernway.net | when there's no nutritional value within?
http://www.haggle.com/cgi/getitem.cgi?item_id=201433978
Just found this under the "Antique Computer" Listing at Haggle.com....
someone's got an Apple 1 for sale... opening bid requested: $17,000.00.
Wonder why no-one's bid on it so far.....
Have fun,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | Why does Hershey's put nutritional
Programmer, NorthernWay | information on their candy bar wrappers
zmerch(a)northernway.net | when there's no nutritional value within?
Thanks, I'll take it. (photze(a)batelco.com.bh), and I have one more thing:
I need to know about server-type software, as well as client. (I live in
Bahrain, where there are only 6 digit numbers, and I don't know of any
BBSs. That's why I want to start one.)
Since writing, I've found a company called Mustang withe some good windows
software, 32 bit OS, etc., but I want DOS. (Whoever said DOS is dead is
probably dead themselves.)
Thanks again,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Bruce Lane <kyrrin2(a)wizards.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Fido is far from dead!
Date: Wednesday, October 29, 1997 6:38 PM
Uncle Roger put forth with this bit of shtuff...
>Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 22:01:20 -0600 (CST)
>From: Uncle Roger <sinasohn(a)crl.com>
>To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
>Subject: Re: Friday and Saturday Finds
>Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19971028195913.5d47fac0(a)mail.crl.com>
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 06:01 PM 10/27/97 +0300, you wrote:
>PS- Info on Bulliten Board Services (BBS). Remember, before the WWW
caught
>on, that's what we'd log onto and post messages, etc. I want to know
about
>some old BBS software for DOS and earlier versions of Windows, and server
>software. (Get what I'm trying to say here?)
>Check around on the web for Fido software. Back in the days before the
>Internet, FidoNet was a world-wide network of independant BBS's.
Fido is far from dead. In fact, some sysops have claimed an increase in
their user base since the Internet got rolling. I've been running a Fido
BBS since 1989, and I've got no intention of stopping anytime soon.
I have a wide assortment of BBS software oriented towards DOS-based
systems. My pacakge of choice is RemoteAccess 2.01. If there's someone on
the list who needs the software, just say so and I can file-attach the
pieces to them in an E-mail message.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin2(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"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..."
Uncle Roger put forth with this bit of shtuff...
>Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 22:01:20 -0600 (CST)
>From: Uncle Roger <sinasohn(a)crl.com>
>To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
>Subject: Re: Friday and Saturday Finds
>Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19971028195913.5d47fac0(a)mail.crl.com>
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 06:01 PM 10/27/97 +0300, you wrote:
>PS- Info on Bulliten Board Services (BBS). Remember, before the WWW caught
>on, that's what we'd log onto and post messages, etc. I want to know about
>some old BBS software for DOS and earlier versions of Windows, and server
>software. (Get what I'm trying to say here?)
>Check around on the web for Fido software. Back in the days before the
>Internet, FidoNet was a world-wide network of independant BBS's.
Fido is far from dead. In fact, some sysops have claimed an increase in
their user base since the Internet got rolling. I've been running a Fido
BBS since 1989, and I've got no intention of stopping anytime soon.
I have a wide assortment of BBS software oriented towards DOS-based
systems. My pacakge of choice is RemoteAccess 2.01. If there's someone on
the list who needs the software, just say so and I can file-attach the
pieces to them in an E-mail message.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin2(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"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..."
I doubt it, but can someone help this poor fool out?
Send all replies to sve(a)ecom.be (the requestor).
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 20:13:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Sam Ismail <siconic(a)jasmine.psyber.com>
To: Steven Verhoest <sve(a)ecom.be>
Cc: dastar(a)wco.com
Subject: Re: apple lisa
On Tue, 28 Oct 1997, Steven Verhoest wrote:
> I'm looking for an apple lisa as a wedding present for my boss. He
> marries on friday.
>
> Expenses are no problem.
Hi Steven. Good luck. Lisa's do not just show up in flea markets and
thrift stores. You usually have to do a lot of searching for a long time
and end up getting really lucky. However, I will forward your message
along to a network of collectors I know. The chances of success are slim
(most people like to hang onto their Lisa's) but you never know. The
thought of many dollar signs may entice someone.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)wco.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
At 06:01 PM 10/27/97 +0300, you wrote:
>PS- Info on Bulliten Board Services (BBS). Remember, before the WWW caught
>on, that's what we'd log onto and post messages, etc. I want to know about
>some old BBS software for DOS and earlier versions of Windows, and server
>software. (Get what I'm trying to say here?)
Check around on the web for Fido software. Back in the days before the
Internet, FidoNet was a world-wide network of independant BBS's.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Apparently, someone running a VAX 6000 wants it broken into. If you find
the file challenge.txt and mail it so security, you win something. I
checked and it IS legit. You can mail system(a)mail.all-net.net for more
info.
The challenge is open to everyone. I'll give it a shot...
The machine's name is carl.all-net.net
I was contacted by someone tonight that has a complete C64 system with
computer, 2-1541 drives, modem, software, 1902 monitor in box working
system. If anyone wants to make him a offer let me know and I will give you
his phone number. He may have some manuals also.
At 03:37 PM 10/23/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Is anyone interested in a Head Start Explorer (seems to be an XT with
>built-in CGA). Has a dead floppy, no hard drive. Boots up fine on ROM.
Is it a portable type or an all-in-one (ala PS/1)? If the former, I'm
interested.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Whoops. Meant to send that to Alan, instead of the list (this MS
Outlook is SOO complicated ;-)
But, if anyone else wants one, they still have a small pile of them I
can go get for $5 (about $11 by the time its shipped).
-Matt Pritchard
Graphics Engine and Optimization Specialist
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matt Pritchard [SMTP:MPritchard@EnsembleStudios.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 1997 12:25 PM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: RE: Hard Drive Bible, 8th edition
>
> I just sent out a bunch of these books; and still have a couple left;
> Final costs including box ($0.92) and shipping ($4 to $5) averaged $11
> per book total shipped. Let me know if you are still interested.
>
> -Matt Pritchard
> Graphics Engine and Optimization Specialist
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Alan Richards [SMTP:alanr@morgan.ucs.mun.ca]
> > Sent: Thursday, October 16, 1997 11:47 PM
> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> > Subject: Re: Hard Drive Bible, 8th edition
> >
> > At 04:53 PM 15/10/97 -0500, you wrote:
> > >I picked up a copy of this book, as it seems quite handy. It has
> > lots
> > >of info on older, long since discontinued drives.
> > >
> > >The local MicroCenter here in Dallas has a giant pile of them for
> > >something like $5 each; it says list $49.99 so this may be a
> > bargain.
> > >If there is any interest, I could pick up a few to send elsewhere.
> > >
> >
> > Hell yes I would be interested, If you could pick one up for me,
> > I'll pay
> > shipping + cost. Reply if you can can still get them... Thanks in
> > advance.
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > ______________________________________________Live from the GLRS
> > The Man From D.A.D
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------
I just sent out a bunch of these books; and still have a couple left;
Final costs including box ($0.92) and shipping ($4 to $5) averaged $11
per book total shipped. Let me know if you are still interested.
-Matt Pritchard
Graphics Engine and Optimization Specialist
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Richards [SMTP:alanr@morgan.ucs.mun.ca]
> Sent: Thursday, October 16, 1997 11:47 PM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: Re: Hard Drive Bible, 8th edition
>
> At 04:53 PM 15/10/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >I picked up a copy of this book, as it seems quite handy. It has
> lots
> >of info on older, long since discontinued drives.
> >
> >The local MicroCenter here in Dallas has a giant pile of them for
> >something like $5 each; it says list $49.99 so this may be a
> bargain.
> >If there is any interest, I could pick up a few to send elsewhere.
> >
>
> Hell yes I would be interested, If you could pick one up for me,
> I'll pay
> shipping + cost. Reply if you can can still get them... Thanks in
> advance.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> ______________________________________________Live from the GLRS
> The Man From D.A.D
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
Uhm, I have a couple of original Multisyncs, and I don't believe they
can do anything over 640x480..
-Matt Pritchard
Graphics Engine and Optimization Specialist
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Ruschmeyer [SMTP:jruschme@hiway1.exit109.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 1997 5:05 AM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: "Universal" monitor
>
> > Can anybody recommend a good universal monitor that can be used with
> a
> > large number of home micros?
>
> My first inclination woulb be to say the old Nec Multisync's, the ones
> with the 9-pin cable. They're switchable between digital and analog
> RGB,
> can handle the range of sync polarities, and can take resolutions up
> to
> 800x600 or so. Their biggest drawback is the coarse dot pitch of the
> old CRT.
>
> One of those with appropriate cables, though, should cover anything
> that
> used an RGB monitor, short of a Sun or other workstation.
>
> <<<John>>>
> (who grabbed a Multisync II when he had the chance)
I don't know what would be the best, but if you visit http://www.zdnet.com
and search for TV Tuner cards, I'm sure that someone at Ziff-Davis has done
a survey. Everything that I've used that they recommended I've been
extremely happy with. They also have a market place where you can buy
things from vendors.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: kevan(a)heydon.org
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Space problems in the UK and US
Date: Tuesday, October 28, 1997 1:30 PM
Uncle Roger wrote:
>
> There are other advantages to this as well. If you're working on several
> computers that use the same type of monitor, you don't need to move the
> monitor to swap CPU's. Also, it lets you use the monitor-over-CPU set up
> for machines that aren't flat boxes (like a C64, atari 800 or SOL-20.)
You
> can also swing it out of the way if you want to work on the computer.
>
Can anybody recommend a good universal monitor that can be used with a
large number of home micros?
Also does anybody use TV tuner cards you can get for PC's? It seems
like these could be very useful as they mean you need just one monitor
on your desk. Any recommendations for the best cards?
--
Kevan
Old Computer Collector: http://staff.motiv.co.uk/~kevan/
Just came across this web page <http://www.ti.com/surplus/docs/list.htm> listing surplus TI equipment for sale. The computer section lists just a Convex 3800 of 1991 - not quite a classic. What tickles me is the categories, let's set up our own wafer fab.....
Hans B Pufal
The following was included as an attachement. Please use UUDECODE
to retrieve it. The original file name was 'BEYOND.RTF'.
Bruce Cook, a local computer wiz, solved my Osborne A to B problem. There
is a blue terminator near the right rear of the pc board which must be on
the last drive on the ribbon cable. In the case of the Osborne One this is
drive A.
I tried to talk Bruce into joining our merry crew, but being a Canadian
Snowbird he is too busy driving to Florida.
Cheers
Charlie Fox
Greetings:
In the past, I've inquired quite a bit here about the old Digital
Technologies Laser 50 computer that had the single LCD display, and BASIC
in memory. I am still looking for that, so if anyone has one, *please* let
me know.
Ok, here's the main question: I recently picked up at a thrift store for
$5, a Laser Color Computer 310. It is similar to a CoCo, in that it is
just the keyboard, a little smaller than a CoCo, no built in display like
most of V-tech's simplier computers, and has ports for tape, monitor,
peripheral, and tv. It must run BASIC as it has basic keywords above the
normal letters.
Oh, it has a 1983 copyright on it and is from Video Technologies Ltd.
If anyone has some info on this would you please send me some feed-back?
Thanks,
CORD
//*=====================================================================++
|| Cord G. Coslor P.O. Box 308 - 1300 3rd St. Apt "M1" -- Peru, NE ||
|| (402) 872- 3272 coslor(a)bobcat.peru.edu 68421-0308 ||
|| Classic computer software and hardware collector ||
|| Autograph collector ||
++=====================================================================*//
I just wanted to pass along a note about the recent Vintage Computer
Festival that Sam Ishmaiel and friends put on this previous weekend.
(Oct. 25th & 26th, 1997) IT WAS GREAT!
Besides being a wonderful chance to get a personal look at computers
you may have only read about or seen in magazines or never knew even
existed, there ware many interesting people with their own stories
behind the machines on display. All one had to do was hang around a
particualr section and it wasn't long before you were in a conversation
about that computer or product line. I became aquainted with many
facinating individuals from those who have been there since the early
days to those who are new to classic computing. A few words of levity
between computer camps (you know, Apple, Atari, Commodore, MITS, IMSAI,
etc.) but alot of respect for everyone.
Some of the people who attended (including myself) had the opportunity
to get table space to sell 'extras' in their collection not just only to
make a couple bucks and get some more precious storage space (to buy
goodies from other tables), but also be safe in the knowledge that your
stuff was going to a good place, other collectors. Unfortunately not
everybody did as well, some people selling more contemporary hardware
were greeted by many looking for classics to start-out or to add to
their collection. At least one person commented about the lack of any
stuff for S-100 bus systems and I was surprised at the demand for PETs
(6 to 8 people inquired me about them) no 2001/8k models here, but one
dealer was able to have a few people walk out smiling with a few 4000
series units.
As with the rest of the event, the workshops were informative and
on-topic as well, with such topics as Early BBS systems, Software
Preservation, to the final talk about Processor Technology and the SOL
computer (By the SOL creators Lee Felzenstein and Bob Marsh themselves)
which included a display and powering up of the first SOL! The festival
was all I hoped for and more. :)
Sam, you did great, and please don't hesitate to let us know next year
what we can do to help you (advertising, display units, doumentation,
software, anything!)
One of Sam's comments was that by displaying so much of his collection
he had the opportunity to re-organize his storage space when he put it
back away, sounds like a good way to get more displayers.
Lastly, if you took pictures during the event, let Sam know as he
talked about making up a web-page display of VCF 1.0 and didn't have the
opportunity to take very many himself.
Sorry if I am getting to wordy here, but I hope VCF becomes as great
as it promises to be and also an example for others who wish to get a
vintage computer festival going in their own region.
Larry Anderson
--
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Visit our web page at: http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/
Call our BBS (Silicon Realms BBS 300-2400 baud) at: (209) 754-1363
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Hello everyone. I know that I keep on talking about the XTs, and they're
not even that interesting, it's just that until you guies give me
info/leads on another system, I have nothing better to talk about. I've
found a great picture of an IBM XT. (Not mine.). It looks really good.
White background, it looks like it were taken in 1982. Un-readable
monocrome-green writing is on the monitor. Probably from an ad, or
something. (Did I mention that this picture can be shared, as it's in the
.bmp format?) Because I didn't want to bother all of you with the
downloading time of a 6K bitmap, I'll take "requests" if you want the
picture. Just give me your e-mail adress and let me know.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
Howdy folks:
I am writing this to let you know... if you would like to be mailed a very
complete listing of TRS-80 hardware and software, just e-mail me with your
name and mailing address to coslor(a)bobcat.peru.edu. This listing costists
of 65 pages and will be sent via 1st Class mail ASAP. If you would like it
even quicker, please send $3 to the address below to cover MOST of the
shipping charges... you would then be 'prioritized'.
I collect all types of TRS-80 hardware and software, and specialize in
games in both original diska nd tape format, as well as converted for use
with modern PC emulators. I have a HUGE collection and would like to share
this with others. I like to think I have 'nearly' every commercially sold
game (and hundreds of others) written for the TRS-80 line of computers. I
also have most applications and DOSs ... all for the Model 1,3,4 as well
as a limited supply of CoCo hardware and software. I also collect for many
other classic systems, including but not limited to: MSX, Colour Genie,
Apple ][, Apple ][e, Apple ][c, Apple ][+, Commodore 64, C-16, Vic 20,
Plus 4, Atari series, Coleco, Sincalire Spectrum, P2000, and Vectrex
systems.
All I ask for most of the software is to be compensated for my expenses
(postage, media, etc.) and have very low prices on most of my hardware as
I have accumulated a large inventory over the years and need to clear my
shelves.
I am also looking for the following items in particular:
1) YOUR classic hardware and/or software. I am always buying and trading
for those item.
2) 80-Micro, TRS-80 Microcomputing News, Computer News 80, and 80-US
Journal magazines, etc.
3) Original manuals, instruction, and game boxes concerning the TRS-80
4) Atari 800 - Atari Artist cartridge. A800LX - RX8053.
Just please remember, I am always buying, selling, and trading for these
hard to find items... even for things not on the above list. If you're
looking for something or have some things to offer... PLEASE let me know.
I simply love the TRS-80 and other classic machines and would appreciate
any help you may be able to provide in expanding my collection. I most
gladly will help you out in adding to your own classic computer or game
machine collection.
Finally, I have ALL my original disk, tape, and cartridge software... for
all systems, converted to run on their respective PC emulators!
Send me your want lists, request for a catalog, or what you have to offer:
via e-mail, United States Postal Service, or give me a call... I look
forward to hearing from you.
Best Wishes,
CORD COSLOR
//*=====================================================================++
|| Cord G. Coslor P.O. Box 308 - 1300 3rd St. Apt "M1" -- Peru, NE ||
|| (402) 872- 3272 coslor(a)bobcat.peru.edu 68421-0308 ||
|| Classic computer software and hardware collector ||
|| Autograph collector ||
++=====================================================================*//
Can you do me a favor, and when you get the info on the NeXT cubes (I'd
kill for one of those.), and a Sun , which I don't know to much about, but
I really want to learn.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
PS- Info on Bulliten Board Services (BBS). Remember, before the WWW caught
on, that's what we'd log onto and post messages, etc. I want to know about
some old BBS software for DOS and earlier versions of Windows, and server
software. (Get what I'm trying to say here?)
----------
From: John R. Keys Jr. <jrkeys(a)concentric.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Friday and Saturday Finds
Date: Sunday, October 26, 1997 5:31 PM
As soon as the call comes in I will be driving down to get the items and
will sell or trade all the excess items. Keep computing !!
At 05:53 AM 10/26/97 +0300, you wrote:
>Do you want to sell these things? Because if so, I'm really interested.
>Where I live (In Bahrain, in the Mid-East), everyone has gotten rid of
>anything 5+ years old. (But not to many people have anything much newer
:)
>!) I might have a lead on an Apple I, and other of the older models of
>Apples, but that's with a friend in the US, but if I do get some, I'll let
>everyone know. I REALLY want a NeXT cube, and a Sun, if you find enough.
> Thanks,
>
> Tim D. Hotze
> photze(a)batelco.com.bh
>
>----------
>From: John R. Keys Jr. <jrkeys(a)concentric.net>
>To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
><classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
>Subject: Friday and Saturday Finds
>Date: Sunday, October 26, 1997 4:12 AM
>
>Well the Hamfest is over and I got a few items but missed alot more, too
>big
>for one person to be get to the tables fast enough. Got some leads on
Next
>cubes and Sun items for little or no cost, will be talking with them more
>next week. If they have enough I will post the information. About a two
>hour
>drive from me. On to the list
>On Friday I found a Zenith luggable ZFA121-52 not tested yet $5 this baby
>is
>big with the flip up floppy drives on the top, Apple mouse IIe platinum
>free, digital tape unit TLZ04-DA $5, 2 Mac Plus M0110A keybroads, a couple
>of laser printers and several USR password modems for $10. Today at the
>Hamfest I got digital GIGI model VK100-AA with manuals for free, HP model
>433SX station $10 no power supply uses the external power brick like the
>old
>plotters will have get one from storage and test this unit, Commodore
>CBM4040 dual drive .80, a Sharp Wizard 64KB for $20 needs new batteries
>can't test it yet, a old 256k/64k RAMCHECK tester for $10 this unit is by
>Innoventions of Houston need to write and see if the have doc's on this
old
>unit, and last a few cables and other odds & ends for $1 each. The day was
>not as good as hoped as there were several really good bargins that got
>away
>by seconds. Well hope everyone else also had a good week and Keep
>Computing.
>John
>
>
Hello everyone. I have recenlty meet several people who have just gotten
rid of their XTs. (I would have gotten them, but I wasn't in time.) But,
however, they have a rather large list of software for the "IBM
compatibles" with the 8088 and 80286 (possibly) processors. I'm currently
waiting for the complete list, but if you want some software for yours,
this may be your chance.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
Suggestions (since it's _expensive_ to ship even XT's)
- Talk to a computer store
- Talk to a private school
- Watch county sales (I picked up 30 or so for 50 cents US each)
- Advertise (my paper lets you do so free)
- Talk to your local club
- And, of course, hamfests
- Goodwill etc (but they only seem to get C64's and TI99's in my area)
I don't pay more than $10 for an XT system. Finding software cheap is my
biggest headache, especially old diagnostic stuff). After I bought (40) DOS
3.31 for $1 each, I'm in the pink there.
>Hello everyone. I'm new here, but am very interested in collecting
>computers. I want two things:
>1. Information etc. on the Androbot. (Remember, the little robot that
>premiered about the same time as the XT?)
>2. Any extra classics that you have that you could sell to me. In my
>area, it took me 4 months just to track down 1 XT in relatively bad
>condition.
Well, everyone, I don't have much to trade! But I will buy. Keep the
lugable safe for me!
Thanks again,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: John R. Keys Jr. <jrkeys(a)concentric.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Friday and Saturday Finds
Date: Sunday, October 26, 1997 5:31 PM
As soon as the call comes in I will be driving down to get the items and
will sell or trade all the excess items. Keep computing !!
At 05:53 AM 10/26/97 +0300, you wrote:
>Do you want to sell these things? Because if so, I'm really interested.
>Where I live (In Bahrain, in the Mid-East), everyone has gotten rid of
>anything 5+ years old. (But not to many people have anything much newer
:)
>!) I might have a lead on an Apple I, and other of the older models of
>Apples, but that's with a friend in the US, but if I do get some, I'll let
>everyone know. I REALLY want a NeXT cube, and a Sun, if you find enough.
> Thanks,
>
> Tim D. Hotze
> photze(a)batelco.com.bh
>
>----------
>From: John R. Keys Jr. <jrkeys(a)concentric.net>
>To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
><classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
>Subject: Friday and Saturday Finds
>Date: Sunday, October 26, 1997 4:12 AM
>
>Well the Hamfest is over and I got a few items but missed alot more, too
>big
>for one person to be get to the tables fast enough. Got some leads on
Next
>cubes and Sun items for little or no cost, will be talking with them more
>next week. If they have enough I will post the information. About a two
>hour
>drive from me. On to the list
>On Friday I found a Zenith luggable ZFA121-52 not tested yet $5 this baby
>is
>big with the flip up floppy drives on the top, Apple mouse IIe platinum
>free, digital tape unit TLZ04-DA $5, 2 Mac Plus M0110A keybroads, a couple
>of laser printers and several USR password modems for $10. Today at the
>Hamfest I got digital GIGI model VK100-AA with manuals for free, HP model
>433SX station $10 no power supply uses the external power brick like the
>old
>plotters will have get one from storage and test this unit, Commodore
>CBM4040 dual drive .80, a Sharp Wizard 64KB for $20 needs new batteries
>can't test it yet, a old 256k/64k RAMCHECK tester for $10 this unit is by
>Innoventions of Houston need to write and see if the have doc's on this
old
>unit, and last a few cables and other odds & ends for $1 each. The day was
>not as good as hoped as there were several really good bargins that got
>away
>by seconds. Well hope everyone else also had a good week and Keep
>Computing.
>John
>
>