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

FS PDP11/34

by stephane.tsacas＠gmail.com

http://newyork.craigslist.org/lgi/sys/5206082834.html -- Stephane

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Cleaning out library, part 2

by menadeau＠comcast.net

Awhile ago, I offered some books for free to list members. Now I've got another list of books and other items I want to get rid of. Again, they are free to list members. All I ask it to pay shipping fees--most of this can be sent by media mail. First-come, first-serve. Happy to answer any questions about these items. BOOKS Analog Devices Analog-Digital Conversion Handbook (1972) Artificial Reality (Krueger, Addison-Wesley, 1983 Basic Microprocessors and the 6800 (Bishop/Motorola, Hayden Press, 1979) Complexification: Explaining a paradoxical world through the science of surprise (Casti, Harper Collins, 1994) Computer Selections: Reading in Data Processing and Computer Science (Benice, McGraw-Hill, 1971) Cyberstates 2001: A State-by-State Overview of the High Technology Industry (NASDAQ and American Electronics Association) Essential PC-DOS Second Edition (Shaw & Shaw, Sybex, 1985) Externally Defined Body Parts (Body Part 15) Issues and Recommendations: A White Paper Prepared for the PRMD Operators Committee of the Electronic Mail Association (Banan, EMA, 1993) Future Codes: Essays in Advanced Computer Technology and the Law (Karnow, Artech House,1994) Guidelines for Evaluating Computerized Instructional Materials (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1981 High-Tech Espionage: How the KGB Smuggles NATO?s Strategic Secrets to Moscow (Tuck, St. Martins, 1986) Hyper-G Now Hyperwave the Next Generation Web SOlution (Maurer, Addison-Wesley, 1996) In Our Own Image: Building an Artificial Person (Caudill, Oxford Press, 1992) Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of COmputing (Gelernter, Harper Collins,1997) This is an uncorrected proof copy Mastering Windows 98 (Cowart, Sybex, 1998) Microman: Computers and the Evolution of Consciousness ( Pask, MacMillan, 1982) Mind Tools: THe Five Levels of Mathematical Reality (Rucker, Houghton Mifflin, 1987) NetResults: Integrating the Internet into Your Business, Fall Workshop Proceedings, MIT Enterprise Forum, 1997 Philips New Media Systems New Developments in Optical Media paper, 1990s Philips New Media Systems Philips in the Age of Optical Disc Media paper, 1990s Picture Perfect: Color Output for Computer Graphics (Tektronix, 1991) Science Technology and the First Amendment Special Report (US Congress Office of Technology Assessment, 1988) Solid State Circuit Guidebook (Ward, Tab Books, 1974) Tandy Corporation: Start on a Shoestring (West, 1968) Teach Yourself the Internet and WOrld Wide Web Visually (maranGraphics, IDG Books, 1997) The Fifth Generation: Artificial Intelligence and Japan?s Computer Challenge to the World, Fiegenbaum & McCorduck, Addison-Wesley, 1983) The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in Our Midst (Talbott, O?Reilly, 1995) THe Playful World: How Technology is Transforming Our Imagination (Pesce, Ballantine Books, 2000) The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (Turkle, Simon & Schuster, 1984) Using Supercalc 5 2nd Edition (Lateer, Que, 1989) Using Wordperfect 3rd Edition (Beacham & Beacham, Que, 1987) MANUALS Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.2 Reference Transistor Manual, Light-Weight Edition (GE, 1969) Voltage Regulator Handbook (National Semiconductor, 1975) Westinghouse Series 100 Programmable Solid State Control Users Guide 1975 MISC. 80 Micro 1980-1981-1982 Permuted Index Argonne National Laboratory Zero Gradient Synchotron folder. Contents are Argonne HR material, not about the Synchotron. Cybertown online community presentation in folder with floppy of images, 1990s. Instant Software 3-ring binder, plastic, empty Jade Computer newsprint catalog winter 1988 POSTERS Arche Technologies computer line, large format Borland Turbo Lightning, unused Borland Word Wizard, unused SOFTWARE Battery Disk 2.07. Untested 5.25? floppy, for PC Qmodem, 1990s, 5.25? floppy and manual still in shrink wrap, for PC

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-8 diagnostics SR settings?

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I got lucky with a little trial & error. Setting the MSB of the SR (i.e. 7000) causes AJRLIA to report an error but then keep testing. Not sure if this works for all the AJ**** diagnostics but hopefully DEC had some kind of pseudo-standard for this...

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

PDP-8 diagnostics SR settings?

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Does anyone know what the switch register settings are for the PDP-8 disk diagnostics (found on diagpack2.rk05 and others)? In particular, the AJRL** series (RL01/02 drive exercisers). Normally the SR is set to 0000 but when there's an error the program stops until a CR is typed. I want the diagnostic to just print out that error and keep running. Trial and error might take a long time. Without the source code there's no other good way except possibly to single-step through the program and look for the OSR command (which may also take a very long time). thanks for any help. -Charles

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

The Maintenance Manual-II describes the procedures for checking and adjusting the TC12 timing. It needs a lot more notes about using the Auto Restart speed settings. This facility allows you to put the processor in Single Step and have the Continue button automatically pressed ad a controllable rate. If the rate is set too high you will see the LTD ACIP Delay activate twice and measure a delay that is more than twice real value. Most of the delays are controlled by M307 One Shot flip-chips. These boards have Fairchild 9601 ICs in them. We didn't have any spares, so we bought some on eBay just in case... The TC12 has extensive maintenance capabilities and will let the processor simulate just about any condition in the TC12. With a short toggle-in program we were able to check all of the basic timing signals LTT TP0 L, LTT TP2 L, LTT TP3 L, and LTT TP4 L signals. We adjusted LTD XTLK H from 9.15 us to 9.5 us according to the written notes in the maintenance manual, where the spec was 9 us. We adjusted LTD TTOK, LTD TAPE FAIL Delay, LTD ACIP Delay, and the Mark Clock. Unfortunately none of these adjustments made any difference, and the LINCtapes still misbehave. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Schematics KDJ11-A / M8192?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Holm Tiffe > does someone know if the schematics of the KDJ11-A (11/73 CPU) are > available in the public? Not reading the list much, are we? :-) Noel

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Electronic devices and borders

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mike Ross > Strong crypto on everything! Better yet (much better): upload all your bits to the cloud (strongly encrypted if need be), and have almost none on the machine when you cross the border - you can download it when you get to the other side. (And, if you're paranoid, or have reason to be, don't forget to i) delete it before coming back across, and ii) wipe your free space.) Anything _on_ the machine they are entitled to look at - and if you have A bunch of encrypted stuff, and won't give them the keys, it makes them i) suspicious, and ii) pissed off at you for flouting their 'authority'. 'Sure, officer - look at anything you want, nothing's locked' - they'll soon lose interest and wave you on their way, there's obviously nothing there to find. Noel

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

no, not retrobrite

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Decided to start with the terminals first. I cleaned up and tested the DG Dasher D200, and it come out fairly good and all tests indicate it's working fine. No pictures of that. The Dasher TP1 is much more of a hard-luck case, and I just finished cleaning the top of the top chassis. I did not clean the bottom chassis or stand or insides yet, so you can see a good comparison of the cleaned top half and the untouched bottom half. 7 pictures (unfortunately newest to oldest) are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02 No, there's no retrobrite involved. Just a normal spray on household cleaner, followed by Magic Eraser and a lot of elbow grease. Yep, Magic Eraser is a wonderful thing. J

10 years, 8 months

5
6
0 0

Cameras- way off topic...

by useddec＠gmail.com

I have a friend with a Contax RTSII and accessories for sale if there are any other Zeiss people out there. More info on request. The following list is from another person trying to settle an estate. Over 175 cameras! The prices are from collectiblend.com. I've never heard of it but and he knows he won't be able to get those prices, with the possible exception of the Leica gear. As I recall, there are a few Leica collectors here. BTW, I have some old Leica microscopes and specialty items I might get rid of circa 1910 and newer. I'm a Zeiss person myself. Some cameras are NIB, some have a lot of options. I plan on picking up a few pieces for myself. There is a lot of darkroom equipment, but no list yet. If you have any interest feel free to contact me off list. Thanks, Paul # BRAND MODEL MISC. $ $ 1 AGFA AGFA ANSCO $10 $20 2 AGFA ANSCO Clipper PD16 Box $30 $40 3 AGFA ANSCO Plenax Case $10 $20 4 AGFA ANSCO Viking $50 $60 5 AGFA Billy Record I ("Viking") $20 $30 6 AGFA ISO Flash Rapid C Box, manual $10 $20 7 AGFA Isolette (Pre-War) Case $90 $100 8 AGFA Ventura 69 $20 $30 9 AGFA ANSCO PB 20 Viking Case $20 $30 10 AGFA ANSCO PD16 Readyset Case, manual [MINT] $50 $60 11 ALFRED GAUTHEIR Prontor II $40 $50 12 ALFRED GAUTHEIR Vario $10 $20 13 ALFRED GAUTHIER AGC Pronto $10 $20 14 ANSCI Speedex B2 Junior $10 $20 15 ANSCO Deluxe No. 1 $40 $50 16 ANSCO Folding ANSCO No. 1 $10 $20 17 ANSCO Readyset Royal No. 1 A Brown Case, Manual $40 $50 18 ANSCO Readyset Special No. 1 A $20 $30 19 ANSCO Regent $50 $60 20 ANSCO Speedex 6.3 $10 $20 21 ANSCO Standard Speedex $10 $20 22 ANSCO Viking Readiset Box, manual $25 $35 23 ANTHONY Novelette (ca. 1886) Missing lense $300 $350 24 ARGUS "A" - Candid Camera Box, manual $40 $50 25 ARGUS "A" (Black) $20 $30 26 ARGUS "A" (Black) Flash, arm & cable $25 $35 27 ARGUS Argoflex 75 Case, box, manuals $20 $30 28 ARGUS Argus (Argoflex) 40 Case $25 $35 29 ARGUS Argus C 2 Case $30 $40 30 ARGUS Argus C Black Case $60 $70 31 ARGUS Argus C Black $60 $70 32 ARGUS Argus C44 $100 $120 33 BALDA Baldina 1935 $50 $60 34 BALDA Baldina 1935 $50 $60 35 BALDA Juwella $90 $100 36 BOLSEY B 2 Case $100 $120 37 BRAUN Gloriette $10 $20 38 BURKE & JAMES Rexo 3 Junior $50 $60 39 CIRO Ciro-flex "C" Case $100 $120 40 EHO Altiflex Case $100 $120 41 FALCON Model X6 $5 $10 42 FOTH C.F. Derby I $280 $300 43 FOTOCHROME Fotochrome $90 $100 44 FRANKA WERKA Rolfix (1951) Case $30 $40 45 GOLAR Feca $40 $50 46 GRAFLEX Century 35 A $50 $60 47 GRAFLEX Speed Graphic Wood box, plates, manual $750 $800 48 GRAFLEX Stereo Graphic $200 $220 49 HAKING Mincronta 35X $20 $30 50 HERBERT GEORGE HERCO Imperial 620 Snap Shot $10 $20 51 HERBERT GEORGE Imperial 620 Reflex Boy Scouts of America, flash $45 $50 52 HERBERT GEORGE Imperial Debonair $10 $20 53 HIT Minature $30 $40 54 HOUGHTON Ensign (Regular Ensign) $70 $80 55 ICA Icarette (6 x 6) Model "A" $70 $80 56 ICA Lloyd (535/575) $70 $80 57 ILOCA Realist 35 $20 $30 58 JHAGEE Exa Type 1.2 $100 $120 59 KEYSTONE K 25 Capri $10 $20 60 KODAK 35 Half case $60 $70 61 KODAK Autographic Junior No. 1 $30 $40 62 KODAK Autographic Junior No. 1 A $30 $40 63 KODAK Autographic Junior No. 1 A $30 $40 64 KODAK Autographic No. 3 Case $50 $60 65 KODAK Autographic No. 3 A Model C $50 $60 66 KODAK Automatic 35 Half case $50 $60 67 KODAK Baby Brownie $30 $40 68 KODAK Baby Brownie $30 $40 69 KODAK Baby Brownie $30 $40 70 KODAK Bantam f 4.5 $40 $50 71 KODAK Brownie Hawkeye $10 $20 72 KODAK Brownie Movie Camera Model 2 Box, manual $60 $70 73 KODAK Brownie Reflex Synchro $20 $30 74 KODAK Brownie Reflex Synchro Box, manual $50 $60 75 KODAK Brownie Starmatic Case $10 $20 76 KODAK Brownie Target Six-20 (US) $20 $30 77 KODAK Bullet $90 $100 78 KODAK Bullet Box $90 $100 79 KODAK Cartridge Hawk-Eye No. 2 Model C $10 $20 80 KODAK Duaflex II $50 $60 81 KODAK Flash Bantam Case $30 $40 82 KODAK Folding 127-A $10 $20 83 KODAK Folding Autographic Brownie No. 2 $10 $20 84 KODAK Folding Autographic Brownie No. 2 $10 $20 85 KODAK Folding Autographic Brownie No. 2 $10 $20 86 KODAK Folding Autographic Brownie No. 2 C $10 $20 87 KODAK Folding Brownie No. 2A (Black) Box, manual $90 $100 88 KODAK Folding Brownie No. 2A (Brown) Box $70 $80 89 KODAK Folding Brownie No. 3 A Red bellows $50 $60 90 KODAK Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye No. 2 Model C $50 $60 91 KODAK Folding Cartridge Premo No. 2 $40 $50 92 KODAK Folding Hawk-Eye No. 2 Model B Case $50 $60 93 KODAK Folding Pocket No. 2 Model C Rare Model $90 $100 94 KODAK Folding Pocket No. 3 A $50 $60 95 KODAK Folding Pocket No. 3 Model E2 $100 $120 96 KODAK Folding Pocket No. 3A Model B4 $70 $80 97 KODAK Jiffy Kodak Six-16 $40 $50 98 KODAK Jiffy Kodak Six-20 Manual $30 $40 99 KODAK Junior No. 1 Case, manual $30 $40 101 KODAK Junior No. 2 C $10 $20 102 KODAK Junior Six-16 Series III Case, manual [MINT] $50 $60 103 KODAK Pocket Junior No. 1 $30 $40 104 KODAK Pocket No. 1 $40 $50 105 KODAK Pocket No. 1 A $50 $60 106 KODAK Pocket No. 1 A $50 $60 107 KODAK Pocket No. 1 Series II $20 $30 108 KODAK Premo $60 $70 109 KODAK Premoette Junior No. 1 $50 $60 110 KODAK Retina I (117) Case $340 $360 111 KODAK Retina Ia Case $70 $80 112 KODAK Retina IIIc (021 III) $220 $240 113 KODAK Signet 35 $100 $120 114 KODAK Stereo 35 (black) Case, box, manual $480 $500 115 KODAK Tourist (Anastar) $180 $200 116 KODAK Tourist (Anastar) Mint condition $180 $200 117 KODAK Tourist (Anastar) Mint condition $180 $200 118 KODAK Tourist (Anaston) Case $60 $70 119 KODAK Vest Pocket Autographic $50 $60 120 KODAK Vest Pocket Autographic Special $50 $60 121 KODAK Vest Pocket Model B $120 $140 122 KODAK Vest Pocket Model B Box [MINT] $180 $200 123 KODAK Vigilant Junior Six-20 $30 $40 124 KODAK Vigilant Junior Six-20 $30 $40 125 KODAK Vigilant Junior Six-20 $30 $40 126 KODAK Vigilant Six-20 Box $40 $50 127 KODAK Vigilant Six-20 Box $40 $50 128 KODAK Vigilant Six-20 Box $40 $50 129 KODAK Vigilant Six-20 $40 $50 130 KODAK Vollenda No. 48 $70 $80 131 LAVEC LT-002 Box, case, manual $10 $20 132 MINETTA Minature $20 $30 133 MINOLTA Freedom 50 N $10 $20 134 MINOLTA Hi-Matic F Case $30 $40 135 MINOLTA Minolta 16 Chrome $50 $60 136 MINOLTA Minolta 35 Model E $320 $340 137 OLYMPUS Olympus XA-2 Box, manual [MINT] $90 $100 138 PHO-TAK Foldex 20 Case $60 $70 139 POLAROID 101 (Automatic) Flash, Manual $30 $40 140 POLAROID Colorpack II Box, manual $10 $20 141 POLAROID Polaroid 80 (Highlander) $10 $20 142 RICOH Ricohflex Model IV Case $160 $180 143 SENECA Competitor View (1904 - 1925) Tripod, extra plates $600 $650 144 SENECA R. F. Seneca No. 3A $60 $70 145 SENECA R. F. Seneca No. 3A Case $60 $70 146 SENECA Scout Folding No. 2 A $90 $100 147 SENECA Scout Folding No. 3 A $90 $100 148 SPARTUS Spartus Rocket $20 $30 149 SUYDAM Roll film adaptor $50 $60 150 TRAID CORP. Fotron III Mint condition $200 $220 151 UNIVERSAL CAMERA Univex A Box $50 $60 152 UNIVERSAL CAMERA Univex Iris $40 $50 153 UNIVEX Model AF-3 $30 $4 154 UTILITY MFG. Falcon Minature $50 $60 155 VOIGTLANDER Bessa Case $160 $180 156 VOIGTLANDER Bessa Case $160 $180 157 VOIGTLANDER Bessa Compur 4.5 $20 $25 158 VOIGTLANDER Vito $90 $100 159 VOIGTLANDER Vito Automatic I Case $60 $70 160 WELTA Perfekta Half case $160 $180 161 WELTA Watson $70 $80 162 WELTA Weltax I $50 $60 163 WELTA Welti $100 $120 164 WELTA Welti $60 $70 165 WHITEHOUSE Beacon II $20 $30 166 WHITEHOUSE Beacon II $20 $30 167 YASHICA EZ-Matic $50 $60 168 YASHICA MAT 124 G Case, manual, bag $320 $340 169 YASHICA Yashica A Case $100 $120 170 YASHICA Yashica D $140 $160 171 ZEISS IKON Ikonta 35 $220 $240 172 ZEISS IKON Ikonta 35 (522/24) $220 $240 173 ZEISS IKON Ikonta 520 / 18 $120 $140 174 ZEISS IKON Ikonta D 520/15 $90 $100 175 ZEISS IKON Nettar 510 Case $70 $80 176 ZENOBIA D.O.C. Rapid $30 $40 TOTALS: $12,785 $14,914 LEITZ Leica IIf (red dial) [1951-52] Case $1,000 $1,100 LEITZ Leica IIIf (upgraded) [1952-53] Case $900 $1,000 LEITZ Leica IIIf [1951-52] Half-case $900 $1,000 LEITZ Leica M3 Chrome Double Stroke [1955] $2,400 $2,500 LEITZ Lens: Elmar 90mm f4 (SM, chrome) Mfg. 1955 $180 $200 LEITZ Lens: Elmar 50mm f3.5 (SM, chrome) Mfg. 1954 $520 $540

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Schematics KDJ11-A / M8192?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi, does someone know if the schematics of the KDJ11-A (11/73 CPU) are available in the public? I have one with an thermal fault, the J11 is fine.. Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

seeking Burroughs B6700 manuals and software

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

one thing we have fine from the 5000 stuff are all these beautiful cord wood logic things all gold and pretty but most of these got scrapped for gold along the way.. I do not know what other units used in but some folks mentioned 5000 I have schematics for some of these too. ed# www,smecc.org In a message dated 9/4/2015 11:23:16 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, nw at retroComputingTasmania.com writes: We would be glad to hear from anyone who might have new material related to the Burroughs B6700. We're on the hunt for any manuals or software related to the Burroughs large systems so we can build an emulator for the B6700. This search includes the B5000, B6000, B7000 families, since there is considerable overlap across these families and collateral from one system family can assist understanding another. Example models include B5500, B5700, B6500, B7500, B6700, B7700, B6800, and B7800. We were amazingly lucky with the B5500 to have so much of the critical documentation (thanks Bitsavers!) and a complete suite of system software, but even though the B6700 was more recent and produced in larger numbers we're not having the same level of good fortune finding artifacts. What we have so far is documented here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JnMsyE8ssJi_-MUsK0rT9LPtNpeJCpTv1QrF w-917Y8/edit?usp=sharing If you're interested in this system then you likely remember that it had a particularly impressive front-panel display, seen here: http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burroughs-b6700-mainfram e#TOC-B6700-Display-Panel This was known as the MDL display: Maintenance Diagnostics Logic display. Because the MDL had the 4 x top-of-stack registers down to the bit-level particular bit-patterns allowed words to be displayed. The early MCPs put IDLE into the display during IO waits, and subsequent releases: B for Burroughs, but sites quickly started putting their own company initials or the time. The Danish museum is so far the only place I've found that kept the MDL: http://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Genstand:11000045_Konsolpanel_Burroughs_B6700 Thanks to Finn Verner Nielsen for being so helpful and undertaking an expedition into their warehouse to locate and photograph the item for us. On that DDHF web-page you will see on the left of the picture the B7800 MDL they have too. My goal is to also construct a replica of the B6700 MDL. Steps undertaken so far: Posts to newsgroups Posts on LinkedIn, wikipedia, Yahoo groups Emails to a few dozen people who were involved with the system Trawling the Internet

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

seeking Burroughs B6700 manuals and software

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I will have to see. When we acquired the Aldrige collection at SMECC we pulled off all the really really early material and put the remainder in storage which should have some of this... we also have the unisys crossover stuff and when why bought up the Varian minicomputer too. I remember we boxed and boxed... and deep stored it. guess it did not seem "really old" at the time....but it has been about 10 years since we have pulled it out and run our hand through it. Background on Aldrige started on the electrodata Pasadena ... ended up running the phx field service effort here and was a great packrat. The effort to get to this material is a lot of work ed sharpe _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 9/4/2015 11:23:16 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, nw at retroComputingTasmania.com writes: We would be glad to hear from anyone who might have new material related to the Burroughs B6700. We're on the hunt for any manuals or software related to the Burroughs large systems so we can build an emulator for the B6700. This search includes the B5000, B6000, B7000 families, since there is considerable overlap across these families and collateral from one system family can assist understanding another. Example models include B5500, B5700, B6500, B7500, B6700, B7700, B6800, and B7800. We were amazingly lucky with the B5500 to have so much of the critical documentation (thanks Bitsavers!) and a complete suite of system software, but even though the B6700 was more recent and produced in larger numbers we're not having the same level of good fortune finding artifacts. What we have so far is documented here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JnMsyE8ssJi_-MUsK0rT9LPtNpeJCpTv1QrF w-917Y8/edit?usp=sharing If you're interested in this system then you likely remember that it had a particularly impressive front-panel display, seen here: http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/burroughs-b6700-mainfram e#TOC-B6700-Display-Panel This was known as the MDL display: Maintenance Diagnostics Logic display. Because the MDL had the 4 x top-of-stack registers down to the bit-level particular bit-patterns allowed words to be displayed. The early MCPs put IDLE into the display during IO waits, and subsequent releases: B for Burroughs, but sites quickly started putting their own company initials or the time. The Danish museum is so far the only place I've found that kept the MDL: http://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Genstand:11000045_Konsolpanel_Burroughs_B6700 Thanks to Finn Verner Nielsen for being so helpful and undertaking an expedition into their warehouse to locate and photograph the item for us. On that DDHF web-page you will see on the left of the picture the B7800 MDL they have too. My goal is to also construct a replica of the B6700 MDL. Steps undertaken so far: Posts to newsgroups Posts on LinkedIn, wikipedia, Yahoo groups Emails to a few dozen people who were involved with the system Trawling the Internet

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Ongoing debug of RL8A controller

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I reconnected the data bus pins, and disconnected all the MA0..11 pins (in case it's DMAing into memory when it should not be). Nope, same issue. Won't boot Serial Disk, corrupts the upper six bits of the loader. Only bus left is the memory data MD0..11, but that can't be shorted because on the card it has only inputs. Also the IOT address is decoded from it and those select properly. Still thinking it's DMA, will try watching the break request and other DMA lines for activity. Nothing unexpected there. But at last I found something... I think. Despite it not making sense, I disconnected the top 8 bits of MD0..7 (thus not only disconnecting the bus receivers on the card, but also completely deselecting it). Now the system booted and runs normally with the card plugged in! So, I figured either one of the 8640 receivers at E3, E20 (page 5 of the 10-page schematic) is leaky, quite possibly E20 which handles bits 4-7 the "troublemakers" from before, or the 8136 at E11 which appears to be just a multi-input AND/OR gate combo to select IOT x60x/x61x and was working with scope loop. I gradually reconnected lines until it started failing to boot and wiping out the loader again... I am so tired of toggling that loader in! At least it's only 26 (octal) words. Turns out MD4 was being pulled down weakly (to a volt or two) by something when it should have been pulled up. Wiggling and flexing the card caused it to work, intermittently. But I could not find it even with close visual inspection. I suspected a tiny tin whisker somewhere... So I crossed my fingers and tapped the pin with a cliplead from the 25 amp +5 volt supply. Figured I had nothing to lose at this point! ... and apparently did clear the short :) Now that line looked normal just like the other 11 memory data bus lines. OS/8 restarted with no problem, too. Started the diagnostic AJRLAC (the "Diskless Controller Test"). Immediately indicated a hard failure on bit 10! Oh $@#%. Now what did I do... But it just took a minute to pull the extender card and sure enough I had just made a bad solder joint reconnecting that pin and it had come apart with the flexing ;) Fixed that... running four passes without an error so far. Dare I touch the middle of the board again? Yep... flexing in both directions, no failures! I think I got it! Make that eight complete passes with the extender removed and the board in the cage. Running AJRLIA on a scratch pack now. Initally I got a very occasional seek/tracking error (Command Reg B 1017 or 1117) once per pass on each drive, but it's lessening with "exercise"... It's 90F in the computer room too, which may be above spec for an RL02 anyhow. Just finished Pass 0002 on Drive 1 without errors :) -Charles

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Selling brazilian vintage computer gear

by alexandre.tabajara＠gmail.com

Dear sirs... Ok, life does nasty things to us, and seems it is my time. Due to personal and health problems, I'll have to sell some of my collection. As bad as it is, I can't really afford keeping much of my stuff. I'll save just the nice gifts I got from friends and my beloved //e "Woz edition". So, there are some computers that may be of interest to you - Milmar Laser IIc apple clone - Clone of the Apple //c, but it isn't a //e - it is a ][c in a case of a //c. Has power supply, original manual and external slot expansion. $800 o.b.o. - Prologica Sistema 600 - Clone of the Intertec SuperBrain - Prologica CP500 - Clone of the TRS-80 model III - Prologica CP400 (boxed) - Clone of TRS-Color model 1, in the box of a Timex Sinclair 2068(!) - Prologica CP300 - Clone of TRS-80 model III, but way portable - Prologica CP200 - Clone of Sinclair ZX-81 - Microdigital TK95 (boxed) - Clone of Sinclair ZX-Spectrum, but in a Commodore Plus/4 box (!) I'll have more interesting things, as soon as I have more time to dig the pile Shipping from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Thanks, Alexandre

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Keys resurfaces

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Saw this in AFC Another water damaged collection heading to the landfill -- Subject: Houston (and everywhere else), we have ... an opportunity From: hlctminfo at gmail.com Injection-Date: Thu, 03 Sep 2015 15:37:06 +0000 My name is John Keys, and I incorporated the Houston Computer Museum in May= 2003 as 501(c)(3) non-profit. I've been good at collecting things. I've have various PDPs, an HP3000, SE= L 810A, SDS 910, and a Cray YMP/EL8. I have an IBM 083 card sorter and sev= eral keypunchs (models 024, 026, 029 and 129). I have over 1,200 books and= manuals. And those are just a small sample. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's all in storage, in my home, or in a 3,300 square-= foot warehouse. I don't have exhibit space. You might have heard that it = rains in Houston; the warehouse has flood damage that needs to be mitigate= d. I haven't been good at getting the 21st century to work for me, and this is= where you come in. I need a functional web page, one that makes it easier= for people to donate online. I need a contact email link that works. If you can help me get this done, I'd be grateful. What's at stake? I'm 70 years old, and if I can't make a go of this, all t= hat equipment will get recycled or hauled off for scrap or dumped in a land= fill. And all of that documentation will go with it. If you can help me with web hosting and web page design, let me know. Advi= ce is nice -- I've had lots of it -- but what I really need is people who c= an step up and do what I haven't done. I need help in cleaning all these ar= tifacts that were damaged by the flood. Contact me by email discuss how you= can help. If there are enough people out there who care about this stuff, we can do t= his. You don't have to live in Houston. You don't have to live on the Gul= f Coast. It's even OK if you don't live in Texas. To donate online, go to http://www.hlctm.org/services.htm and click on "Don= ate." To contact me, send email to hcmjkeys at yahoo dot com. Once we have something presentable, come visit. And thanks very much for r= eading this. John Keys

10 years, 8 months

8
10
0 0

Ongoing debug of RL8A controller

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I still can't get my RL8A (M8433 RL01/02 disk controller card) working again in my 8/A system. It won't boot from the RL02 any more. In my backplane I found it to be mechanically sensitive (AJRLAC diskless controller test would show errors always involving bits 4-7 being unexpectedly 0's), and when the card was flexed gently the errors would increase dramatically during the test. No visible bad/missing solder joints or broken traces. Recently I sent the card to a list member who tried it in his system. He could boot OS/8, but when attempting to open a file with EDIT the system would crash. This behavior was repeatable and did not occur with his controller. I now have SerialDisk running via Omni-USB, emulating two RK05 drives from my laptop, booting OS/8. This works perfectly - until I put the RL8A in the backplane! Then the system won't boot and also corrupts the first part of the boot loader that resides at 0020-0045. However, only the first 7 instructions at 0020-0027 are mangled, and all seven words have their most significant six bits set to 0 (for example, 7240 becomes 0040). The selects to the various 8234's (open-collector drivers to the data bus) are working properly in a scope loop. Figured I was on the right track with a bad 8234. I physically disconnected the middle 4 bits of the DATA0..11 bus (at the extender card rather than hack up the board)... system still won't boot, still corrupting locations as described. Next, I disconnected the entire data bus, all 12 bits, same problem! So whatever is the trouble it's NOT an 8234 pulling on some of DATA0..11 as I thought! I am starting to think there is a defect with the DMA (aka Data Break) facility on either this card OR even the CPU itself... everything else in the system is programmed I/O, not DMA. Obviously something is pulling down the memory-data bus when it shouldn't be, and writing zeroes over the upper six bits of some words, but on this controller card there are only inputs from the memory data bus MD0..11. It has its own memory address registers for DMA which drive the MA0..11 lines. I checked the various signals coming out of the card and (at least statically) none of them are in the "wrong" state... Any thoughts on testing the DMA facility? thanks Charles

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

OmniUSB - further boards to make

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

the SMECC museum is a canadate if our onmnibus 8 still runs. have not powered it up in 20 years. In a message dated 9/4/2015 1:37:34 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, spacewar at gmail.com writes:

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

raised floor possibly available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

A building next door to one of my offices was a datacenter/colo facility. It has sat vacant for quite a few years, and the new owner contacted me yesterday about some unrelated items. I asked about the raised floor and she said "all available, dirt cheap, come over and look". Sometime next week I will go take a look, but I know folks here have occasionally expressed interest in getting a section of raised floor for their "machine room". If there's interest, let me know. Best, J

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

IBM 1620

by kevalm＠aol.com

Looking for an IBM 1620 to purchase. Any leads greatly appreciate. Kevin Tikker Sent from my iPhone

10 years, 8 months

25
77
0 0

OmniUSB - further boards to make

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, as you might remember I made about 20 OmniUSB Omnibus to USB adapters. Since a few month they're all sold. The last days I got some inquiries for more. So I think of making a new batch. As my board supplier has doubled (It was so cheap before..!) the price for gold plated contact PCBs, the board will be more expensive in the end. And I massively underestimated the labour... And I'll overhaul the design. The original board description: http://pdp8.hachti.de/projects/omni_usb/ The facts about a new board: - Exactly same functionality - Smaller - Still gold plated contacts - Still KL8E compatible - Power supply parts will be moved away from the PCB's edge - USB connector will be moved away from the PCB's edge The board will cost (fully assembled and tested) EUR 105 (without VAT for overseas buyers) and About EUR with VAT for anyone in the EU. A still to design cusom handle (I think of laser cut acrylic with wood) to make the board the original size will be available in the EUR 25 range. If YOU are interested, please let me know. I'll make my decision with regards to the feedback I'll get from this posting. I need at least 10 seriously interested people to make it happen again. Kind regards Philipp

10 years, 8 months

4
4
0 0

Reading ROMs

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

I was going to ask a similar question here, and I am sure it has been asked before. I do have a HP 82901 and a HP 9121 but I am not equipped to read ROMs, so I can't really help yet. Plus I will soon need the ability to burn ROMs for my HP 85 and HP 1000. Not only the standard 24 pin ROMs but the small 14 or 16 pin bootloader ROMs that Jay showed me at VCF. What would be a good ROM programmer that could read and write these of older HP equipment ROMs? Marc ----------------------- From: Vlad Stamate <vlad.stamate at gmail.com> Subject: Reading ROMs While I was trying to read the ROM in my 9121 for Eric Smith I found out that my Wellon VP-280 could not do it (it could not recognize it and only read FF FF FF FF). I could use it however to dump the ROM of an IBM PS2 that I cannot boot anymore (so it is not entirely useless). So I am asking what you all use to dump various ROMs from vintage PCs/peripherals/etc? Is there a good brand out there of E(E)PROM programmer? Do you roll your own solution with an Arduino/RaspeberryPi? Thanks, Vlad. -----------------------

10 years, 8 months

5
4
0 0

Sign magnitude, one's complement, two's complement

by jlw＠jlw.com

This isn't quite the way I remember the CMU instructions working. Nor is it exactly how I've implemented them in my emulator. >Another oddball thing was then then-new Cyber 72/73 CMU. An interesting >beast, but not present on the 74. Presumably because an instack loop could move data faster. I always wondered, though, if you could put a CMU in the serial CPU on a 74-2x. Probably too messy. >It was possible initially to write code with the 46xxx CMU instruction >in first 2 parcels of an instruction word. All Cyber 73 CMU >instructions were 60 bits, No, the IM instruction is 30 bits. It's supposed to be forced upper. I don't recall whether the 72/73 were that picky and it would work in the first 3 parcels, or work only in the first one (thus being 60-bit equivalent) and pass in the others (with the rest of the instructions becoming arbitrary). >you could pack a call to a subroutine to do >the equivalent thing in the lower 30 bits for the 74. Worked pretty >cool Looks like it would. Aren't there some variant OSes that would put the monitor call parameters in the lower 30 bits of an XJ instruction? You could probably also pack a parameter in the B register, and another in the address, since those would mode out anyway (or be ignored in user mode)--you'll get to CPUMTR no matter what. ECS instructions would execute the lower 30 bits if the transfer failed; this all in user mode with no monitor intervention. You could probably do the same thing with a conventional XJ instruction. 6000s lacking ECS hardware and CEJ/MEJ treated all 01x instructions as 010 (RJ). Probably can't get away with that on a 70. >until the 170. There, different models supported different subsets >of CMU instructions (or not at all) It was all-or-nothing, no subsets. >--and attempting to execute one not >implemented was greeted with an error stop. The 170 people really >screwed that one up. 464xx and up were illegal on machines that did not (171) or could not (175) have the CMU option, or in other parcels on any 170. 46000-46377 were pass instructions. I don't know why they did this either, since there were no 170s with unmatched CPUs (like the 6700 or 74-2x). Also, some dual-CP machines (including the 72/73) could have 1 or 2 CMUs. Needed some special code in CPUMTR to avoid using the CMU for storage moves if there were fewer CMUs than CPUs, lest it be busy in the other CPU and we had to wait for it in monitor mode. It's possible that on 180s, 46100-46377 were illegal instructions, though the design goal for 170 mode was a 173. Perhaps the 175/740/750/760 did that too. Note also on 180s with CMUs (emulated), the instruction was limited to data in the first 262K; in particular CPUMTR couldn't use it for storage moves unless it played games with RA/FL in program mode (and it would still have to drag the instruction around into each segment). Too much of a kludge, I expect. -- Jeff Woolsey jlw at jlw.com

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

For sale: Random S-100 stuff (Seattle, WA)

by derschjo＠gmail.com

I'm doing a bit of cleaning out of random things I don't use much anymore; hopefully these can find a good home. Make an offer on these, I'd prefer local pickup (for the VDP-80 I require it, it's just too large/heavy/fragile to trust with shipping) near Seattle. Thanks, Josh Here's what I have, S-100 wise: Boards (in as-is condition, unless otherwise noted): - Tarbell 1011D FDC - Solid State Music VB1B video interface - SSM CB1A 8080 CPU (+2k RAM). Working, used to use it in my IMSAI . - Processor Technology 16KRA, 16K static RAM. - CompuPro (Godbout) RAM16 - 64K dynamic RAM (despite the name) - IMSAI MIO (rev. 2) - Serial/Parallel I/O board - IMSAI VIO (rev 2.1) - Video board - PSS RAM65 - 64K ram? (never could find a manual). - Piiceon 8K Program Saver (2708 EPROMs). Only two EPROM sockets (of 8) installed. - Ithaca Audio 8K static RAM board. Bad shape. Missing a row of chips, looks to be an unfinished kit. Corrosion. Computers: No-name (TEI generic chassis, about half as deep as an IMSAI, no blinkenlights) with the following boards: Thinker Toys SUPERRAM 16 - 16K static RAM. A bit of corrosion on a few chips, but should be easy to clean up Thinker Toys 32K static RAM. Also has some corrosion. The Memory Merchant MM16K14 - 16 K Ram. Corrosion as with the others. IMSAI SIO Rev-3. Dual serial board. Corrosion. Northstar ZPB-A2 Z-80 CPU board. Corrosion . It looks as if this system sat on end in a shallow pool (say, 2") of water for a couple of days and wasn't properly dried up afterwards; all boards installed have corrosion on their left sides, affecting a couple of rows of chips. The backplane also seems to be a bit corroded but is not as bad. Despite this, the chassis is very clean. Power supply seems to be fine. Definitely a project, but probably fixable with some new sockets and ICs. Complete IMSAI VDP-80 system (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=343) with manuals and software. Unknown working condition, but it's not in bad shape given the years -- some screen rot. I got it as a project and it's just been sitting there, waiting. Debating whether to hold onto it or not -- make me an offer I can't refuse :).

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Reading ROMs

by vlad.stamate＠gmail.com

While I was trying to read the ROM in my 9121 for Eric Smith I found out that my Wellon VP-280 could not do it (it could not recognize it and only read FF FF FF FF). I could use it however to dump the ROM of an IBM PS2 that I cannot boot anymore (so it is not entirely useless). So I am asking what you all use to dump various ROMs from vintage PCs/peripherals/etc? Is there a good brand out there of E(E)PROM programmer? Do you roll your own solution with an Arduino/RaspeberryPi? Thanks, Vlad.

10 years, 8 months

4
4
0 0

'New' PDP-11 prints

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

A lengthy, and pleasant visit with Paul A, post-VCFMW (BTW, belated congrats on that, Jason - I don't know where my brain was last night - fried from the long drive yesterday, probably), has produced a number of missing PDP-11 FMPS's! Most importantly, we now have the 11/73 prints, which I will be scanning Real Soon Now. (So now I can have a crack at fixing all the broken ones I have! :-) That does leave us needing the 11/83/84 CPU prints, so if anyone has a set... I also found prints for the MF11-U, MF11-W, and MM11-Y; none of which appear to be on-line (although the MF11-U ones might be in the 11/05S print set, which ISTR is online). So I'll have a lot of scanning to do when I get home. The reason for this message is to ask if anyone has a special need for any in particular; if so, I will move those to the head of the list for scanning. I don't think the ME11-L prints are online either, but those I have in my 11/05 print set - I'll have to see if that print set is online somewhere, no point re-scanning them, if so. There are a number of things like that (e.g. the H786 power supply for the BA11-N; not available separately, but in the 11/23 FMPS, if you know to look there): we ought to produce some sort of registry, to collect such information in one place. Noel

10 years, 8 months

4
4
0 0

Dec 8235 IC?

by steve＠tronola.com

Hi Simon, As others have implied, the DEC8235 is a Signetics 8235N. It's available >from obsolete part distributors. A quick search turns up this source: http://www.4starelectronics.com/part_detail/8235N.html While the RFQ instead of a price is bad news in some places, I've had good results with that in the obsolete parts arena. > is there a list of equivalents for DEC ic's? --- Thought I had a longer list somewhere but this short list is what I find at the moment: DEC# Generic ---------------------- 97401 7401 8881 7439* Quad 2-inp NAND OC 8266 8266 Signetics 2-inp 4-bit wide mux 8270 8270 Signetics may = TI 74178 according to posts in cctech. 8271 8271 Signetics 4-bit SR in 16p pkg = TI 74179 8251 N8251N Signetics BCD/decimal decoder in 16p pkg 5380 SP380 Signetics 5314A SP314A Signetics 8640 DS8640 National 380 (?) SP384A Signetics Quad 2-in OR gate *Note that some DEC8881s have been reported as having 7439 markings on the bottom. Steve Lafferty

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

Serial Disk Server to PDP-8/A

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I just installed Kyle Owen's Serial Disk Server on my 8/A (at high speed via an Omni-USB card I got from Philipp Hachtmann). There was a bit of a learning curve for me since I've never used any *nix programs before, or heard of Cygwin... But Kyle was very helpful, exchanging several emails this afternoon and it only took me a couple of hours to get everything figured out, up and running. It even comes with the indispensable diagpack2.rk05 OS/8 image already embedded in the .zip file, and it's now running on the real hardware. Haven't tried uploading anything yet but I'm sure that will work too! NOW maybe I can get my RL02 controller card (and the rest of the hardware, the power supply has started glitching again) debugged. Many thanks to Kyle for creating this very useful software :) -Charles

10 years, 8 months

6
6
0 0

Reading ROMs

by radiotest＠juno.com

At 07:56 AM 9/3/2015, Vlad Stamate wrote: >So I am asking what you all use to dump various ROMs from vintage PCs/peripherals/etc? For 1980s ROMs I still use the Serial EPROM Programmer published in BYTE by Steve Ciacia in the mid-80s. Dale H. Cook, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA Osborne 1 / Kaypro 4-84 / Kaypro 1 / Amstrad PPC-640 http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radios/index.html

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

MEM11 Status Update

by cube1＠charter.net

RK05 would be suitable Guy Sotomayor <ggs at shiresoft.com> wrote: > > >On 9/2/15 8:42 AM, js at cimmeri.com wrote: >> >> >> On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 11:39 AM, Jay Jaeger<cube1 at charter.net> wrote: >> >>> On 9/1/2015 10:01 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote: >>>>> run Unix V1 >>>> I am very interested in the MEM11 for this exact reason. I have a >>>> PDP-11/20 that I'd love to do this with. >>>> >>> You could also try Mini-Unix on your 11/20, which might support a >>> wider range of devices. >> >> Very interesting. Does Guy's MEM11 provide what's needed for Mini >> Unix without having to write special drivers? >> >Not sure what Mini-Unix requires w.r.t. devices. > >TTFN - Guy >

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Multitech MicroProfessor

by wrm＠dW.co.za

> >Possibly a long shot since I think the MPF was only a UK/Europe thing but At least one made it to South Africa. But no, I have neither the expansion board nor the manual I'm afraid. W

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Wanted: ROM images from HP 9895, 82901/82902, and other HP-IB disk drives

by spacewar＠gmail.com

If anyone has dumped the ROMs from the HP 9895 (8-inch) or 82901/82902 (5 1/4-inch) HP-IB disk drives, which use the Amigo command set, I'd appreciate copies of the images, ideally along with the HP part numbers of the EPROMs (probably 09895-xxxxx and 82901-xxxxx). For that matter, I'd be interested in ROM images from any of HP's other HP-IB disk drives, floppy, hard disk, or combined. Also ROM images from the 9114A and 9114B HP-IL disk drives. I already have one ROM image each from the 9114A and 9114B, but there were multiple firmware versions. Thanks! Eric

10 years, 8 months

5
8
0 0

VCFMW

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

I wanted to extend my thanks to the organizers of this event, and to Jay in particular who showed me the way around bringing up a cantankerous HP 1000 E system in real time, and somehow never got tired of my newbee questions. And the Chinon FR-506 5.25" drive that I picked up there for a very reasonable price, unlike the one I had bothered you about in a previous thread, actually works! All in all a very worthwhile way to spend award mileage on a trip from California to Chicago... Marc > From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> > Subject: VCFMW > > VCFMW is over, and I wanted to give a huge CONGRATS to Jason for the > resulting show that he put on [...] > > J

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

KV-S3065CW scanners

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201392632552 this is a good deal if the paper path isn't scratched up in them. the CW model has a 11" width feed and can scan a sheet 6 feet long. these are the ones I've been using for 5+ years just don't need any more right now

10 years, 8 months

2
2
0 0

'New' PDP-11 prints

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: steve shumaker > "FMPS" is.....? "_ _ print set"? "Field Maintainance Print Set". Noel

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

TK70 sticky unload button?

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

Has anyone else come across this? My TK70 wouldn't eject, and having not had one before, I didn't know just how tactile the unload button should be. After further examination and prodding, I determined that the button was pretty much stuck and refused to come out. Taking the front off and exposing the board indicated that the button seems to originally have been rubber, which is now a nice black tarry goo. I think I can replace the button with a standard tactile push button, this time without any rubbery material. Hopefully that's my only issue. http://i.imgur.com/9Fqb0SB.jpg http://i.imgur.com/AxstKpq.jpg http://i.imgur.com/PCFCfwH.jpg Kyle

10 years, 8 months

2
2
0 0

Programming & L. Carroll

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

This is off topic, so-to-say, but computer languages can be esoteric: It's the 150 anniversay of L. Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." May I dare say most people, including myself here(I studied languages like BASIC, COBOL & PL/C, know very little about the programming languages that make old & new computers do what we wish looking backwards? Logic, like "Alice's...", can elude us at any time... Happy computing. Murray :)

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

MEM11 Status Update

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

I'm making good progress on the MEM11 firmware. I spent the last few days re-doing the firmware build environment. Previously, it would build all the files each time. Now there is a proper Makefile (even though it takes about a minute to build everything). I realized that I needed something better than what I had because there are multiple targets (emulator, FPGA eval board and the MEM11 board itself). Right now I'm focused on getting as much debugged on the emulator since it has a reasonable debuging environment. I've also integrated various test programs into the build environment and use various low level code as part of the main firmware for hardware access. This "kills two birds with one stone" since it tests not only the various hardware functions it also allows me to debug some of the firmware separately from the full code base. At this point, the emulator fully supports all of the J1 instructions (and they all work too!). In terms of I/O (that will be part of the MEM11 board) it supports LEDs and various configuration inputs, FRAM, UART and timers. The biggest risk that I'm taking is that the UART is emulated as being directly exposed. On the MEM11 hardware, the UART will be connected through a SPI interface which requires that all accesses to the UART are asynchronous transactions. The biggest piece of work remaining on the emulator will be emulating the Unibus interface. The work here will mainly to create a means to script various Unibus transactions. However, before doing that, I'll be testing out the boot loader code and the configuration firmware since none of that is dependent upon the existence of functional Unibus hardware. TTFN - Guy

10 years, 8 months

8
18
0 0

Multitech MicroProfessor

by binarydinosaurs＠gmail.com

Folks, Possibly a long shot since I think the MPF was only a UK/Europe thing but I'll quite happily be proved wrong. I've had a chap asking for a scan of one of my manuals that would necessitate partial destruction. Anyone got the IOM-MPF manual? It's a 6k RAM expansion board for the MicroProfessor MPF-1P seen on my site here: http://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/museum/multitech/iom-mpf.php (Ironically today I'm working in a building that has a proper book scanner, but all the staff that operated it were 'let go' earlier this year) Cheers -- adrian/witchy Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection? www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Data General Projects

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

It's time to start on the Data General stuff I've had forever but not yet restored :) This time much of it has finally made its way into the workshop so perhaps there will be some progress. Pictures of the initial set of racks to work on are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02 , but there's more DG racks with devices that can be used at both houses. Trying to decide where to start really, and what pieces to use and what to trade off (I'm not really familiar with DG stuff, yet). At the least, I know I don't want/need the large FPS (Floating Point Systems model 100R) box. Anyone have interest in that part? If folks have docs that might help but are private, I'd appreciate a little access or pointers. My initial questions revolve around what boards from the Nova 4, S/130, and S/200 can be interchanged if desired, I'm still trying to decide which cpu to keep and which peripherals. Time to read what docs I have and scrounge up ones that I don't! I know I got keys with these systems, but don't see them anywhere. The 6021/6023 tape drive uses vacuum columns, that will be fun. The TP1 is an awfully cool retro printing terminal. The 5821NT terminal has (by a large margin) the worst screen rot I've ever seen. The 6125 tape drive is in an odd "desktop" stand like I haven't seen before. Let the fun commence. J

10 years, 8 months

3
3
0 0

VCFMW

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jay West > Ian's 11/23 11/34. I know, I know, those blasted PDP-11's; under-foot everywhere! :-) Noel

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

VCFMW

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

VCFMW is over, and I wanted to give a huge CONGRATS to Jason for the resulting show that he put on. Most of you will recall it was originally at Purdue, then was moved to Heron Point (IL). That venue was no longer available, so Jason scouted out a new venue (Holiday Inn) in Elk Grove Village, IL. Simply put, the show could not have gone better. The facilities were top-notch, a fairly good restaurant attached, and it worked out very well. I - as well as a few others - were extremely grateful for the big double doors that enter the venue directly from the parking lot (with no 'bumps') for bringing in "big iron", and there was pretty AMPle electrical service for my HP2000 as well as Ian's 11/23 (and a handful of pdp-8's as well). Not to mention all the other exhibits. power wasn't a problem. I've always enjoyed the show at Heron Point, but this year the "bar was raised". Kudos to Jason! There was of course a substantial commodore and some apple presence, and I really enjoyed seeing how many of those folks are taking those machines "into the modern age". My own personal favorite exhibit was DJ's ASR 33 Teletype (a fully working mint condition restoration - GREAT JOB DJ), and the altair 680 and accessories that were driving it. While that was my favorite exhibit, every exhibit had something to offer. I like the altoids can 1802 :) I've been to VCF west, as well as VCF east, and they are both great events. I personally make a point of getting to VCFMW every year, and look forward to the event next year. I highly encourage folks that have not been to a VCFMW yet to give it a shot. Bring something to exhibit, or just take in the show; enjoy the comradery and meet new folks as well. Jason - fantastic job, it was a great event! Best, J

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

MicroVAX 3800 DSSI Issues

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

I can boot to VAX/VMS 5.4-2, but on startup, I see this message: %DCL-E-OPENIN, error opening DUB0:[RS1R4]RS1LOG.COM; as input -RMS-E-DNR, device not ready, not mounted, or unavailable %DCL-E-OPENIN, error opening DUB0:[ORACLES]ORAUSER.COM; as input -RMS-E-DNR, device not ready, not mounted, or unavailable %DCL-E-OPENIN, error opening DUB0:[ECMS4]LOGIN.COM; as input -RMS-E-DNR, device not ready, not mounted, or unavailable Okay, so DUB0: isn't mounted, I guess. ROHIT1$ show dev Device Device Error Volume Free Trans Mnt Name Status Count Label Blocks Count Cnt R7CY2A$DIA0: Mounted 0 VMS54_2DISK 173289 134 1 ROHIT1$DUB0: Online 0 ROHIT1$DUB1: Online 0 ROHIT1$DUC10: Online 0 Device Device Error Volume Free Trans Mnt Name Status Count Label Blocks Count Cnt ROHIT1$MUA0: Online 0 Device Device Error Name Status Count FTA0: Offline 0 OPA0: Online 0 TWA0: Offline 0 Device Device Error Name Status Count IKA0: Offline 0 IMA0: Offline 0 INA0: Offline 0 PTA0: Online 1 PUA0: Online 1 PUB0: Online 2 PUC0: Online 2 PYA0: Offline 0 SJA0: Online 0 SJA1: Online 0 WSA0: Offline 0 XQA0: Online 0 Looks like they're online but not mounted. If I'm reading the help pages correctly, I should just be able to mount it at this point: ROHIT1$ mount dub0: disk0 %MOUNT-F-INCVOLLABEL, incorrect volume label -MOUNT-I-VOLIDENT, label = 'USER01 ', owner = ' ', format = 'DEC FILE11B ' I tried giving it the correct label, but it still didn't seem to mount. Now I wanted to see if the MSCP server is running: ROHIT1$ show device/served MSCP-Served Devices on ROHIT1 1-SEP-2015 10:55:19.39 Queue Requests Device: Status Total Size Current Max Hosts %SHOW-E-MSCPNOTLD, MSCP-Server code not loaded No, it doesn't look like it...so getting back to the >>> prompt, I do a bit more investigation: >>>show dev UQSSP Disk Controller 0 (772150) -DUA0 (RF71) UQSSP Disk Controller 1 (760334) -DUB0 (RA81) -DUB1 (RA81) UQSSP Disk Controller 2 (760340) -DUC10 (RA81) UQSSP Tape Controller 0 (774500) -MUA0 (TK70) Ethernet Adapter 0 (774440) -XQA0 (08-00-2B-17-3F-37) I should be able to get to the PARAMS> prompt now: >>>set host /dup/uqssp/disk 1 params Starting DUP server... UQSSP Disk Controller 1 (760334) Stopping DUP server... >>> Or not? Why can't I seem to get to the prompt? I can with disk 0: >>>set host /dup/uqssp/disk 0 params Starting DUP server... UQSSP Disk Controller 0 (772150) Copyright 1988 Digital Equipment Corporation PARAMS> show allclass Parameter Current Default Type Radix --------- ---------------- ---------------- -------- ----- ALLCLASS 0 0 Byte Dec B PARAMS> Can't seem to get to PARAMS> with disk 2 or tape 0 either. Only disk 0 seems to work. Can anyone provide any suggestions? I'd like to see what else is on the system. Pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/WYGra Thanks, Kyle

10 years, 8 months

5
8
0 0

Advice about repairing an IBM 5151

by vlad.stamate＠gmail.com

Hi all, I am trying to identify why my IBM 5151 display has no picture when connected to a normal MDA card in a IBM PC 5150. So armed with an oscilloscope, digital multi-meter and the SAMS Computerfacts for it I started to investigate. First, the card does send out signal and that signal does reach the board inside the monitor. I checked the power part of the circuit, all diodes and the transistor check fine. I probed some of the vertical and horizontal transistors and there is a signal there too. Then on the video board both TR19 and TR20 have on their collector and emitter (respectively) a signal (95Khz). What else can possibly be wrong? The SAMS manual talks about "injecting a video signal" at different pins however I have no idea exactly how to do that. So there is current going out of the power part and there is signal on the video board attached to the neck of the CRT. Regards, Vlad.

10 years, 8 months

4
18
0 0

TK50/TK70 Info

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

I hope to start backing up my MicroVAX 3800 soon via the TK70. Sounds like 8mm is more unreliable than the TK70, and I don't have but one magneto-optical disk. Are there any precautions I need to take before sticking a tape in the drive? Pinch rollers that might be gooey? I assume the TK70 drive is backwards compatible with TK50 tapes? Lastly, I've got some tapes that I couldn't find much info on. Here are the labels: ER206200-00 REV G 1.03 P4000 DOWNLINE VMS SOFTWARE 09-29-89 (C) 1988 EMULEX ER2062014-00 REV A P4000 LAT-TCP/IP VER 2.00 05/14/90 TK50 (VMS LOAD) (C) 1990 EMULEX ER2062014-00 REV 01 P4000 LAT-TCP/IP VER 2.00B2 05/1/90 TK50 (VMS LOAD) (C) 1990 EMULEX ER2062014-00 REV 00 P4000 LAT-TCP/IP SOFTWARE 3-22-90 TK50 (VMS LOAD) (C) 1990 EMULEX Are any of those worth keeping? Any tips on getting those tapes online using my VAX? I know there are utilities for the PDP-8 and PDP-11 world, but being thrown into VAX and VMS so quickly, it may take me a bit to catch up. Any recommendations on reading material? I also have a tape for VAX Occam 2 from INMOS. I know what that is, as I have a 64-node Transputer array. It'd be nice to get that going at some point for fun. Thanks, Kyle

10 years, 8 months

18
48
0 0

De-yellowing results

by evan＠snarc.net

Brought my Apple //e Platinum to a MARCH workshop last weekend. We used a bottle of a "B-Blond" which I think is a woman's hair product from England. We painted it onto the computer case, wrapped the case in Saran Wrap, and left it outside in the sunlight for a few hours. The results were dramatic. Here's a reminder of the "before" showing the top cover. You can see the original platinum color at the bottom where it tucks into the main case. I don't have a "before" shot of the main case, but it was as badly yellowed as the top cover:http://snarc.net/yellowing.jpg. Here are some "after" shots. 1. Back at home. Notice color difference vs. the disk drives and system saver --http://snarc.net/desk.jpg. 2. Up-close. See the streaking and slight blotches? I believe that's from where the sunlight was blocked by trees (as the sun moved vs. the horizon that afternoon) and also from where the Saran Wrap bunched up in a few places --http://snarc.net/streaks.jpg. 3. De-yellowed case on the right. Case on the left is from another Platinum in the MARCH collection. I did a quick-and-dirty de-yellowing of the left half of that one, just to show another before/after shot. Prior to experimenting on it, this is the one that Ian Primus and others used for pranking me by swapping it with mine, overnight while I slept! :) -- http://snarc.net/both.jpg. So my computer isn't perfect and never will be, but overall it was a successful experiment.

10 years, 8 months

12
26
0 0

Sales of unearthed Atari games total more than $100,000

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

I was surprised to see the average cart price to be over $120! http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/29/sales-unearthed-atari-games-total-more… Lyle -- Lyle Bickley Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

10 years, 8 months

17
30
0 0

APL\360

by Paul_Koning＠Dell.com

Probably old news to some, but I just ran into this 3 year old article. Gotta dust off your Hercules: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/the-apl-programming-language-source-co… And also http://wotho.ethz.ch/mvt4apl-2.00/ paul

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Future Computers FX31

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Anyone know anything about this system? Someone on a vintage computer group on Facebook has one (missing its keyboard[1]), and having seen some photos, although it seems to be mostly a generic PC-compatible with 8-bit ISA, it's notable for having a "video in" connector on the back, as well as LAN in/out ports (proprietary? presumably some kind of ring network though) Surprisingly, Google's coughing up nothing of any use. I'm guessing someone tried making a PC-compatible with a few built-in extras as a selling point (not that uncommon back then), and of course it didn't work out. [1] Although the keyboard socket is something oddball, I see four wires leading back to the motherboard and an 8042 near to where the keyboard connects, so there's a possibility that it can be wired to a standard AT (or possibly XT) keyboard - although of course maybe the scan codes or even the protocol are completely different, and the owner has themselves a nice boat anchor... cheers Jules

10 years, 8 months

5
7
0 0

PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

The team at the LCM sent is a listing of their Kaleidoscope program. We toggled it in and it runs great! You fiddle with the bottom two analog input knobs to find settings that will make patterns. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/_KZG_kE-K-0 Two more days of debugging on the PDP-12 LINCtape controller didn't accomplish much. We now a lot more about what is not broken, but haven't found the intermittent problem with reading tapes. We reran the Tape Quickie and TAPE CONTROL TEST, PART 1 and 2 to make sure that the controller was still OK. We tried reformatting LINCtapes on the right drive in the TU56. It sometimes worked OK, sometimes not. It doesn't seem to matter what tape we use, the intermittent behavior is the same. A LINCtape that formatted OK worked fine on the Tape Data diagnostic for quite a while and then halted, so the TC12 and the TU56 are mostly working. We noticed that if we were searching for a tape block on the right drive with the left drive OFF, it usually worked OK. With the left drive in LOCAL or REMOTE the right drive had trouble finding blocks. The only change between OFF and LOCAL & REMOTE is that the power to the motors is enabled. The motor power supply voltages looked OK in OFF and LOCAL & REMOTE. We swapped lots of TU56 boards between the left and right drives and a spare TU56, but didn't find a problem yet. Since we replaced the tape head on the right drive we speculated that we introduced a tape head skew problem that was causing problems when reading tapes created on other drives. The left drive was untouched, so we thought that one might work better. The left motor for the left drive in the TU56 was sticking so much that it would not turn under its own power. We suspected bad bearings, so that should be an easy mechanical fix. When we removed the motors we found that the motor shafts turned freely. We found that there is a pair of bushings and spring on the motor shaft that take up the play and make the tape alignment more accurate. The lubricant on bushings and shaft had dried out and was sticky, making it difficult to rotate the shaft. Unfortunately after cleaning and reassembly we found that the left drive would barely read a tape. Maybe this is related to the previous problem? Warren saw evidence on the logic analyzer traces of the TC12 that might indicate a timing problem in the TC12 LINCtape controller. Next Friday we will check the TC12 and TU56 timing adjustments. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Saved DEC kit

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Folks, Before the great company meltdown of Jan this year and as I discovered the great mailing list breakdown of not long after I saved some DEC kit for list members to collect, namely: Alpha 800 (rackmount) uVAX 2000 VAX 4000VLC These are still in my hallway in Cambs UK so if either the people who called for them or failing that anyone else would like to collect that'd be great. I have proper scales for shipping weight but they need to be calibrated and I'm struggling to find anything that weighs exactly 25kg :) (I know the Alpha800 is '24-28kg', scales are pretty correct there, as they are with my DS25, but they get a DS10 horribly wrong so...) -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

10 years, 8 months

13
24
0 0

TSX Plus...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

After stating that I expected TSX Plus to be available generally to the collector community this week, I have had a number of folks request access to TSX plus via private FTP. Please be a bit patient and wait for me to post it to a new website I'm in the process of creating. I now have full agreement from S&H to generally release TSX Plus, COBOL, etc., to the collector community via a simple download. BTW: I have converted all of the original documentation, which was in HP print file format to PDFs for easier and more general use. Over time I will likely be able to release some of the utilities, etc. that S&H used internally with TSX plus. Some time ago S&H gave me all of their RL02 packs and a SMD drive with everything they had related to the PDP-11 version of TSX. (They have a current version of TSX for X86 systems which is NOT free and is NOT part of this release). Over time, there may be a project to scan the source listings and recreate TSX Plus source code. (The source listings are available on bitsavers.org (pdf/dec/pdp11/tsxPlus/listings/). Unfortunately, we are missing the MACRO definitions in the source listings. Some of us are working on that issue. (Note: All of the original PDP-11 source code was accidentally lost by S&H). I will also make available any software that other folks submit to me related to TSX on my website. Regards. Lyle -- Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

10 years, 8 months

7
15
0 0

Xerox 6085 / daybreak microcode boot issues

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

So I picked up a 6085- When I try and boot it, it gets stuck on 0199, which indicates microcode is getting loaded. It never gets to 0200 or 0201, indicating a success or failure loading microcode. It just hangs. If I boot diagnostics instead, it tells me (in report codes) to replace the MPB first, followed by the IOP/io board. Well, I can't really replace the MPB because I don't have another, and I paid quite a bit for the machine. Anyone seen this issue before? Where should I start on diagnosing the CPU? Better yet, if someone has a 6085 MPB they are willing to sell, I would be eternally grateful. Cheers, - Ian Sent from my iPhone

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Xerox 6085 microcode boot issues

by iafinder＠microsoft.com

So I picked up a 6085- When I try and boot it, it gets stuck on 0199, which indicates microcode is getting loaded. It never gets to 0200 or 0201, indicating a success or failure loading microcode. It just hangs. If I boot diagnostics instead, it tells me (in report codes) to replace the MPB first, followed by the IOP/io board. Well, I can't really replace the MPB because I don't have another, and I paid quite a bit for the machine. Anyone seen this issue before? Where should I start on diagnosing the CPU? Better yet, if someone has a 6085 MPB they are willing to sell, I would be eternally grateful. Cheers, - Ian

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

TK50/TK70 Info

by couryhouse＠aol.com

????I JUST USE IT WITH ?MY PROCESS THERMOMETER ..... WHICH ?I WOULD STILL USE ANYWAY TO CHECK SOME DIGITAL CONTRAPTION I HAD REPLACED THE ORIGINAL ?THERMOSTAT ?WITH ANYWAY... Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Date: 08/29/2015 4:11 PM (GMT-07:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: TK50/TK70 Info On Sat, 29 Aug 2015, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > IF IT? DOES NOT? HAVE A TEMP? THERMOSTAT DO NOT? GET So that we can remove it and put in a trustworthy one? The commercial part is the housing, trays, lid (with adjustable vent). Prefer transparent. You can make your own, or buy something cheap to build a good one out of. The HarborFreight one is barely usable for this unless/until you add a thermostat, a fan, a timer, an extension cord, . . . Were you looking for one that already has the desired enhancements? I used one sorta like it 35 years ago (before HarborFreight was selling one)

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

TK50/TK70 Info

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

do not get this EVIL no fan no thermostat... found BOOOO! NOT A GOOD ONE ( for tapes) manual for it http://manuals.harborfreight.com/manuals/66000-66999/66906.pdf I have one wife found at garage sale ... it is not good for tape work... I rather suggest $64 http://www.amazon.com/Nesco-American-FD-61-Snackmaster-Dehydrator/dp/B000CE… I thinkI got mine at Walmart - but remember use the thermostat to on off the thing but for actual temp use a process thermometer . ALSO LOOK AT OTHER OFFERING IN SIZE AN WATTAGE at bottom of this Amazon page http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=nesco+american+harvest+trays&tag=g ooghydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=61714117524&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=s&hvrand=10 83555451302563676&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_2uhe80t19_b hope this helps.... Ed Sharpe Archivist and Chief Baker for SMECC! N ote: When the unit is plugged in, it?s warming element will constantly be on. When you are finished, unplug the unit to turn it off. 6. After the food is arranged on a tray, do not place on the base yet. STACK UP AND SET ASIDE. In a message dated 8/29/2015 1:27:02 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cube1 at charter.net writes: On 8/29/2015 1:04 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: > On Sat, 29 Aug 2015, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: >> I thought the center thing was a duct also Ed# > > Baking diskettes in it would reduce the central ducting. > > The HarborFreight food dehydrator (#66906 $30, currently sale at $25) > will work with the central ducting partially blocked. > > It has a heating element. On the ones with an incandescent bulb, using > a CFL will reduce power consumption, but it doesn't do much drying/baking. > > Ooooh. Thanks for the pointer to HarborFreight. I think I will pop over to the store with a tape and see if they have one out to see if it is suitable today or tomorrow. JRJ

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

TK50/TK70 Info

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

this is similar to harvest one I have as my tiny baker. BUT I do not see a temp control.. more details!? even the temp control on harvester not to be trusted,,,, I have a long Kodak process thermometer I stick in for the occasional temp check.... IF IT DOES NOT HAVE A TEMP THERMOSTAT DO NOT GET Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) a baker since before it was proper! In a message dated 8/29/2015 1:27:02 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cube1 at charter.net writes: On 8/29/2015 1:04 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: > On Sat, 29 Aug 2015, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: >> I thought the center thing was a duct also Ed# > > Baking diskettes in it would reduce the central ducting. > > The HarborFreight food dehydrator (#66906 $30, currently sale at $25) > will work with the central ducting partially blocked. > > It has a heating element. On the ones with an incandescent bulb, using > a CFL will reduce power consumption, but it doesn't do much drying/baking. > > Ooooh. Thanks for the pointer to HarborFreight. I think I will pop over to the store with a tape and see if they have one out to see if it is suitable today or tomorrow. JRJ

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

TK50/TK70 Info

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I thought the center thing was a duct also Ed# In a message dated 8/29/2015 8:45:57 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, nf6x at nf6x.net writes: > On Aug 29, 2015, at 08:00, Matt Patoray <mspproductions at gmail.com> wrote: > > But the food dehydrator comes with multiple shelves, and you can cut the center support out of one of them. That is how I have modified mine to accept 1" C format Videotape reels. Oh, maybe I misunderstood, then. I thought the center support was some sort of fixed air duct, and that anything too large to fit between the center and edge would need a center hole large enough to fit over the center support. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

10 years, 8 months

4
5
0 0

Applikon Workstation?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

In the nineties I've workes as electronican and system administrator at the institue of geophyics at our local University of Mining and Technology here in Freiberg Germany. Some day I've got a call from Motorola in Munich, they wanted to get rid of some old computers and asked if we had some use for them, I've sayed yes. As far as I know we got 3 Computers, one was an 68000 Unix system from philips, some kind of Microcomputer development system for 8080 or 8085, I've got the system running but since there wasn't much software on the disk we had not much use for this thing. The disk was alsready dying and lived not that long. The next thing was a desktop VME System from Motorola, IMHO equipped with an 68010, some MMUs, an color Monitor ad Harddisk and Floppy.. it run some kind of VDOS (or so) .. or VME-DOS or soemthing.., I remember that we had some documentiation for it and I've reinstalled that VDOS.. but not much use for that thing also. The 3rd Computer was the most interestng one. That thing was labeled "Applikon Workstation" (as far as I remember, may be Applicon..). That was some kind of a microvax made by Schlumberger. It had an CPU that sat in a QBUS Backplane and a QBUS to UNIBUS Bridge. The CPU was only a double sized board (!), an Emulex UC07 conected the disk to the machine and so far as I remember there was some kind of graphics board on the unibus side. I've repaired the CPU Board by changing the RSA232 Drivers for the console and the beast came to live. I've fiddeled around with the TK50 Tapes containing VMS4.6 (if my memory not fails) but could'nt get warm with VMS... Installed NetBSD and failed. NetBSD was'nt booting from the SCSI Drives with the Emulex, someone sent me an UDA50 and I was able to install and boot NetBSD, but had to key in the loader at the chevron every time I had to boot.. I've sent the Emulex to Ragge for diagnostics and never got it back. The Machine ran for years as ftp server at the institute until I've pulled the plug. Have never seen a picture from that graphics board. I've leaved the University in 1989, the machine sat on the garret of the building to this time, I'm pretty sure it's long gone... Now I'm fiddeling with VAXen again and that old thing came to mind, looked with google but could'nt find a machine like this, not even a Microvax with a only doubles sized CPU Board like an KDF-11. The question now is...is someone knowing of a beast like this? Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

10 years, 8 months

10
17
0 0

Xerox 820-II's available

by shaunhalstead＠gmail.com

Note: I've moved my ccmp stuff to my personal email account. I was formerly with Microfilm Services, Inc, which is now shuttered. I still have a pair of Xerox 820-II computers available, in Wichita, Ks. Two computers, with keyboards, and a single dual 8" floppy unit. I also have a few books and manuals for them, in original Xerox binders. Price: Make offer. PLEASE. After Labor Day weekend, they will probably be destroyed by the building owner. Shipping is in 4 large boxes from Wichita, Ks, and will not exactly be cheap. You can figure $100 minimum for shipping. Alternatively, I'm heading north along I-35 from Wichita, Ks to north Iowa Thursday 9/3 and Friday 9/4, if you wish to arrange a meeting along that route. (It must be at a location directly long I-35, such as a truck stop or other major, easily accessible location.) --Shaun

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

IBM 1620 / IBM 1401.

by geremin＠iprimus.com.au

Here in Australia, the Australian Computer Museum Society has an IBM 1401 - just the big CPU unit. We know of an IBM 1620 CPU unit in Computer Sciences at the University of NSW. I worked on a 1620 in the 1960s - and thought that it was 'magic'. Sadly, we don't have enough sponsors to put either on public display. Regards, John GEREMIN, ASTC, Honorary Curator, www.acms.org.au

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

wanted - MXV11-B (M7195-XX)

by Mark＠Misty.com

Hi, Does anyone happen to have a spare MXV11-B (M7195-XX) they would be willing to sell or trade? I'd like to build a small BSD2.11 system from this M8192 from the cheap board guy on e-bay and need something with a bootstrap ROM. Mark -- Mark G. Thomas (Mark at Misty.com), KC3DRE

10 years, 8 months

3
4
0 0

A tale of woe, including carelessness, stupidity and laziness....

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2015 15:33:19 -0400 > From: Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> > Subject: Re: A tale of woe, including carelessness, stupidity > and laziness.... > > > Quite possibly two different phases, and if so, the would be 90 degrees > > out of phase with each other. > > 90? Three phase power is 120 degrees apart, center-tapped "two phase" > home power is 180 degrees, but I don't know of any power company service > that produces 90 degree shifts. > > In any case, RP06s use three phase power. The issue wasn't the power in > this particular story, but rather the ground wire (the green "protective > ground" that isn't supposed to carry current at all under normal operation). > > paul > Not exactly true. RP06 drives are typically connected to 3-phase power, but only use two of the three phases. I have and RP06 running at home on 110/220VAC 2-phase. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 8 months

4
3
0 0

Announcing TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS

by bqt＠softjar.se

I'm happy to announce a new release of TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS. Since I'm broadening the scope of the announcement slightly, a more complete list of features is included, and not just what changed since last. For anyone who is currently running TCP/IP for RSX, I strongly encourage you to update to this latest version. Several improvements have gone in in the last couple of weeks. Most important change is that there now is telnet support, both client and server side. The TCP/IP for RSX that I've written is sometimes referred to as BQTCP/IP, just to make clear that it is a different product than Process Software's TCPWARE, or JSA's TCP/IP. BQTCP/IP is a rather feature rich TCP/IP implementation, which also comes with libraries for various high level languages. The API is not compatible, even at the source level, with Unix, but on the other hand, if people write some code, they will see that it is a very easy API to work with. The reasons for the incompatibilities are several, including both resource concerns and differences between how RSX works and Unix like operating systems. BQTCP/IP has tried to comply with all relevant RFCs, but I'm sure there are corners where it does not do things right. It also does not demand much resources. It do require RSX-11M-PLUS with split I/D space, and it has only been tested properly on RSX-11M-PLUS V4.6. It should work on any version 4 release of RSX-11M-PLUS, but there might be a couple of tweaks or fixes needed. BQTCP/IP is distributed in binary form, so very little compilation is required to get it up and running. However, pretty much all utilities do come with sources. The actual TCP/IP stack sources are not included. I do not have a good setup for distributing them in a sane way, and it has had a low priority on my list of things to do. But I do not mind distributing the sources as a general principle. All that said, BQTCP/IP current supports the following protocols: o Ethernet and loopback interfaces. o ARP. BQTCP/IP can use Ethernet in co-existance with DECnet, or standalone using the provided Unibus ethernet device driver. o IP. The largest IP packets supported are approximately 8KB. o ICMP. o UDP. The largest UDP packets supported are approximately 8KB. o TCP. The window is approximately 8KB in size, and TCP do manage out of order packets in an efficient way. BQTCP/IP supports the following applications: o DHCP. DHCP can be used to configure interface addresses, network masks, default gateways, DNS servers and NTP servers dynamically. o NTP. NTP can be used to set the local time. o TELNET. The TELNET server hooks in to the standard TT: terminal driver, and the number of terminals to create is configurable. The TELNET client can be used to connect to other systems. o FTP. The FTP server can serve all kind of files to other RSX systems, and can serve text and binary files to any system. The FTP client can retrieve RSX format files from RSX servers, and text, binary and block format files from any system. o TFTP. The TFTP server and client can be used for simpler file transfer operations. o RWHOD. RWHOD is a program that reports current users and uptime from RSX, for other systems to collect. o IRC. IRC is a program to communicate with other users around the world. o IRCBOT. IRCBOT is a small example robot program connecting to IRC and performing a service for IRC users. o PCL. PCL is a protocol for printing, used by HP (and other) printers over a network. The PCL implementation in BQTCP/IP appears as a print symbiont, which you can create a printer queue for. o WWW. WWW (or World Wide Web) is a service that can present hypertext information to clients. The WWW server in BQTCP/IP also supports CGI, which makes it possible to create dynamic content. o DNS. BQTCP/IP have DNS implemented as an ACP, that anyone can query to get translations between IP addresses and domain names. It also supports different users using different name servers, or private translations. o SINK. A standard TCP service. o ECHO. A standard TCP service. o DAYTIME. A standard TCP service. o QUOTD. A standard TCP service. o IDENTD. A standard TCP service. BQTCP/IP also have automatic IP spoof detection and prevention. Additional tools are IFCONFIG, PING, TRACEROUTE, NETSTAT as well as two new pages for RMD. High level language libraries exists for BASIC+2, PDP-11 C and FORTRAN-77. I'm sure I have forgotten a thing or three, but that's a fairly comprehensive list. The documentation is a weak point, but there is hopefully enough documentation to get people running, and I am happy to answer any questions, or give support if needed. BQTCP/IP is already running on the internet, and have been for a while. People who are curious to check it out can ether look at http://madame.update.uu.se/, or telnet to telnet://madame.update.uu.se and login as user GUEST with password GUEST, or use ftp against ftp://madame.update.uu.se. Anonymous ftp account exist. As usual, the distribution is available from: ftp://madame.update.uu.se/bqtcp.dsk ftp://madame.update.uu.se/bqtcp.tap ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/pdp11/rsx/tcpip/tcpip.dsk The .tap file is an RSX virtual tape. It is only possible to download and use if you are using FTP from anther RSX system and fetch the file. The .dsk files are virtual RL02 images that are useful both from within RSX as well as through emulators. The documentation is also available through ftp on Madame, or also at http://madame.update.uu.se/tcpipdoc Johnny

10 years, 8 months

2
2
0 0

Items to get rid of - North Haven CT 06473 area

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

I got a few items I need to get rid of: 2 HP LaserJet 5MP - One I know works. The other I had for parts, I think it works. I believe I have a PS module in it. There is also a RAM chip siting with it too, don't have the specs at the moment. Includes 3 toner carts, all in various states of used. HP JetDirect external printer server - LPT, RJ-45, BNC Black IBM Model M type keyboard with trackpoint. PS/2 mechanical keyboard with AT connector. Shipping is unfortunately something I can't do at this time. Monetary donation would be nice, but I just need these to go. Some good lager or ale wouldn't be turned down either... :) -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.org/ --- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/ Registered Linux user number 464583 "Computers have lots of memory but no imagination." "The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back." - from some guy on the internet.

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

3 8 inch drives, new and used floppies

by useddec＠gmail.com

? 20150827_125000.jpg <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2MOaRm-6XKNclExVHVVU0dKTlRGUmV4b1o2X1pLaT…> ?? 20150827_125000.jpg <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2MOaRm-6XKNclExVHVVU0dKTlRGUmV4b1o2X1pLaT…> ?If interested, please contact me off list.

10 years, 8 months

1
1
0 0

A tale of woe, including carelessness, stupidity and laziness....

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > What happened is that the "grounds" were offset enough, and with enough > of a current supply, that the ground strap that's supposed to connect > the row of RP06 drives melted. > This sort of thing is a major electric code violation: you can certainly have > multiple services, but all the grounds are required to be connected by > substantial wire; you're not allowed to stick ground rods in at > multiple places and leave it at that. I'm pretty blown away that the various grounds could be offset by that much, to produce that kind of current when they were tied together. Wow. Noel

10 years, 8 months

5
4
0 0

Pre-VCFMW Sales and Free Stuff

by silent700＠gmail.com

It's a bit late but I may as well post my list of stuff I'd like to see go away this weekend. Small items can be delivered to you at VCF Midwest. Large items you'll have to pick up from my home or storage, both of which are <10 miles from the show, either during the week before or on Sunday evening after. (Or Monday mid-day if you're still in town.) The list at present: FREE (for pickup or +shipping) DEC TS05 9-track tape drive. Pertec interface, rail kit should be around here somewhere. Very clean, assumed working. DEC RL02 Drive. Once a home to mice, now a real "fixer-upper." Hey, they're tough drives. IBM MagStar MP 3570 tape library. Missing its tape cartridge but drive should be OK. SCSI interface. Heavy. FOR SALE Digital DECWriter III printing terminal. Repainted top, badge bent and poorly glued on. Was working when last tried. Cost is helping me get it out of the basement and another DECwriter down there to replace it. Digital DECWriter II printing terminal. Not sure about this one. Looks clean but untested. Will trade for something significantly smaller. I'll keep a running list here: http://chiclassiccomp.org/forsale.html If it's no longer on that list, it's gone.

10 years, 8 months

4
4
0 0

ASR-33 differences

by cramcram＠gmail.com

Hi, I've finally gotten a hold of a restored ASR-33. One question I have concerns the paper tape reader. My recollection of using this TTY in the 70's was that the reader switch lever had 4 positions; on this tty there are 3. I know that for I have to add a reader control relay to interface to my PDP-8. So the question is: does having the 3 vs. 4 position reader lever affect using this with a PDP-8? Thanks, Marc

10 years, 8 months

3
3
0 0

Larry Niven's Altair

by dave＠661.org

An Altair 8800 that once belonged to Larry Niven is up for auction. Larry Niven has long been a member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (www.lasfs.org). This group has existed since 1934 and was the starting point for many science fiction and fantasy authors. Larry Niven is one of them. This computer was purchased by him, but mainly used by his wife. In time, she got a newer computer and this one was made the club computer. It served in that capacity for many years until it too was replaced and was taken in by another club member who didn't want to see it parted out or thrown away. Fast-forward to 2008. I was contacted by that other club member to liquidate his collection. We went to Larry Niven's house whereupon he autographed this computer on the lid and the rear. I don't know if the drive unit was used by the Nivens with this computer, but it matches and is from the same collection. I also don't know where the client went. I haven't heard from him in years. You can see pictures in high resolution at https://www.flickr.com/photos/32548582 at N02/sets/72157653950476154/with/19938469936/ The auction is here (will be live July 25 at 3pm pacific) http://www.ebay.com/itm/231632418798 -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

10 years, 8 months

21
50
0 0

Many Manuals - Also Boxes of Fan Fold Paper

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

Since the topic of hard copy manuals is at least on a few minds, I thought I would mention that I have at least 20 feet of mostly DEC PDP-11 related manuals which will have to be tossed if a home can't be found. While I estimate that at least 90% of the DEC manuals are on bitsavers, some individuals may still wish to have hard copy manuals. Most of the manuals are either RT-11 software for many versions or manuals for specific hardware modules with regard to usage. There are no print sets. If you want a hard copy set of RT-11 Docs for V05.07 or TSX-Plus for V6.5, then you could reserve them for when I no longer will need them! Since I just turned 77, the wait might not be that long. I also have over 6 boxes of Fan Fold Paper (with sprocket holes), mostly 8 1/2" x 11", but maybe some 9 1/2" x 11" with tear off. The paper is available immediately. I will probably hold the manuals for at least 6 to 12 months. But I can't see anyone else bothering and it would all be tossed immediately. There is also PDP-11 Qbus hardware, but that is another matter. I am in Toronto, Ontario. Pickup ONLY since this stuff is much too heavy to ship! Jerome Fine

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

VMS 5.4 AUTHORIZE issues

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

Just picked up a very complete MicroVAX 3800. I have very little experience with VMS as this is my first VAX. Mostly a PDP-8 guy, I suppose. I'm running through the change password procedure, which I had seen mentioned previously on this list: SET VAXCLUSTER 0 SET /STARTUP OPA0: SET WRITESYSPARAMS 0 CONTINUE SET NOON SPAWN /NOWAIT SYS$SYSTEM:STARTUP.COM SET DEFAULT SYS$SYSTEM RUN AUTHORIZE At this point, I get this: %DCL-W-ACTIMAGE, error activating image SECURESHRP -CLI-E-IMGNAME, image file R7CY2A$DIA0:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.][SYSLIB]SECURESHRP.EXE;2 -SYSTEM-F-PROTINSTALL, protected images must be installed $ What would I need to do to correct it to login? The eventual goal is to get this online, which should be feasible. I have an AUI-to-10Base-T adapter (several, actually). I think that'll be a little while away for now, though. Here are some pictures: http://imgur.com/a/WYGra Thanks, Kyle

10 years, 8 months

4
5
0 0

Symbolics system board and host Mac

by jws＠jwsss.com

I was going to play dumb and hope this didn't go nuts in price but it did. Anyone here bidding? I'd be interested in one of these just to play with, but will probably try to use the emulator if I ever get the chance to get into it more. VINTAGE-COMPUTER-SYMBOLICS-LISP-MACHINE-MACIVORY-III-APPLE-MACINTOSH-QUADRA-950 http://www.ebay.com/itm/221855233003

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

A tale of woe, including carelessness, stupidity and laziness....

by cruff＠ruffspot.net

> On 8/22/2015 4:11 PM, Eric Smith wrote: > In my mostly misspent youth, I once had the opportunity to visit a > facility where a now obscure supercomputer was developed. The product > manager was showing me around. .... Denelcor perhaps?

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Origin of "second system effect" before 1975?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

I know of two publications in 1975 that used the term "second system effect" or "second-systemitis". 1: Brooks' _Mythical Man-Month_. 2: Bell's and Streeker's "What We Learned From the PDP-11". Does anyone know of earlier usage of this term or earlier names for this effect, possibly outside of computers? Tim.

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

FS: PDP-11/55

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

I have nothing to do with this...I just noticed it on alt.sys.pdp11 and figured that I'd pass it along. TTFN - Guy Hi all, I have a PDP-11/55 for sale (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada). Bids open until 2015 09 15, buyer to arrange shipping, I will have it wrapped and ready to go. Please visit: www.krten.com/~rk/museum/index.html For pictures, detailed inventory and contact info. Sealed bids via eamil please. Winner will be notified 2015 09 16, machine will be ready to ship same day. Must be shipped / picked up no later than 2015 10 09. Sold AS-IS / where is, untested, unpowered since received. Comes with H960 rack and 2 side panels. Cheers, -RK -- Robert Krten Visit me at http://www.ironkrten.com

10 years, 8 months

4
5
0 0

John @ CPUShack?

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

Wonder if anyone here has ever dealt with John Culver, who works from the address john at cpushack.com? He operates a site at the same URL. Among other things, he's a buyer, seller & collector of vintage CPUs, and associated chips. I've done several deals with him, with goods & money moving both directions at various times, and have nothing but good memories. In my experience, the guy is a real mensch, so I wanted to give him a plug here - May I suggest that anyone who might be looking for a specific vintage chip give him a holler and see what he can turn up? IMO, you could do a whole heck of a lot worse! -Bill

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

RT-11 on a PDP-11/10

by bqt＠softjar.se

Hi all. Update have an 11/10, that was recently powered on again for the first time in I don't know when. After some fiddling with the RX01 disks, we put an RL11 and an RL02 on it. Lots of space, I know. :-) Also, we have RT-11 running on it. And for fun, we wanted to run the original Tetris. But here is the catch - Tetris is using some instructions that the 11/10 don't have. (I would guess EIS stuff.) Do anyone know if there is some software emulation of these instructions that can be added to RT-11 in order to be able to run such programs? RT-11 V5.5 by the way, if anyone wants to know. And no, I am not sitting by the machine, or trying to play with it personally. It's other people at Update. But an 11/10 is cute. And we did boot the RL02 on Magica (11/70) to check that there is nothing wrong with the binary, and it runs fine on that large machine. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

ColourPET

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

I just noticed the September 2015 issue of Nuts & Volts has, right on its cover, a project to outfit a Commodore PET with color (digital RGBI) output. It requires a PET with the Universal Dynamic PET motherboard, the one that could be switched between 40 and 80 columns via jumpers; the actual output is only in 40 because of memory limitations. The specific project in the magazine allows four 16 foreground and 16 background colors per pixel, but it says the author has also made it output 8-bit analog RGB foregrounds with one fixed background color. -- Eric Christopherson

10 years, 8 months

3
3
0 0

So, what's the deal with DigiBarn?

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

Hey all- I've always wondered about this. Their website hasn't seen a proper update in years, and it looks like they have a lot of choice hardware donated to them that they may not be maintaining... Is it open to the public? Are people actively volunteering there to make sure this stuff is shown some love and not falling into disrepair? Keeping leaky batteries, capacitors, rust at bay, and doing repairs? Imaging disks? They have some very worthwhile examples of machines but I haven't seen much >from them as an organization in years! I'm sure lots of people would be willing to help if they are under-resourced. Thanks, - Ian -- Ian Finder ian.finder at gmail.com

10 years, 8 months

5
4
0 0

Altair BASIC copyright [was RE: Larry Niven's Altair]

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Looks like the big "C" to me! I have no idea about the Davidoff guy... But would you REALLY even want to spend the amount of money to argue this with the lawyers of Gates and Allen? Ed# , and 00380 00400 --------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- 00420 COPYRIGHT 1975 BY BILL GATES AND PAUL ALLEN 00440 --------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- In a message dated 8/25/2015 11:35:05 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org writes: From: Paul Koning Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2015 7:48 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Larry Niven's Altair > On Aug 20, 2015, at 10:30 AM, Jay Jaeger <cube1 at charter.net> wrote: >> On 8/20/2015 3:32 AM, Randy Dawson wrote: >>> I assume all the 8K, 4K BASICs are in public domain by now. The >>> demo for the kids will be the 15 minutes of paper tape, followed by >>> READY. >> Bad assumption. Things that were actually registered even if there >> was no notice, or published with a copyright notice would still be >> protected under U.S. copyright. > Depending on when. If it was published without notice, the key > question is whether publication occurred before Jan 1, 1978, or after. > After, notice does not matter; before, lack of notice means no > copyright. Sorry to take so long to chime in on all the rampant speculation, but I've had real work to attend to. The following is excerpted from the main source file of BASIC for the Altair, by Gates, Allen, and Davidoff. I have no further comment. 00100 MCSSIM(START) 00120 00140 TITLE BASIC MCS 8080 GATES/ALLEN/DAVIDOFF 00160 IFNDEF LENGTH,<PRINTX !!! MUST HAVE COM !! 00180 END> 00200 IF1,< 00220 IFE LENGTH,<PRINTX /SMALL/ > 00240 IFE LENGTH-1,<PRINTX /MEDIUM/ > 00260 IFE LENGTH-2,<PRINTX /BIG/ > 00280 IFE STRING,<PRINTX /NO $$/ > 00300 IFN STRING,<PRINTX /$$ $$/ > 00320 > 00340 SUBTTL VERSION 1.1 -- MORE FEATURES TO COME 00360 COMMENT * 00380 00400 --------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- 00420 COPYRIGHT 1975 BY BILL GATES AND PAUL ALLEN 00440 --------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- 00460 00480 00500 WRITTEN ORIGINALLY ON THE PDP-10 AT HARVARD FROM 00520 FEBRUARY 9 TO APRIL 27 00540 00560 PAUL ALLEN WROTE THE NON-RUNTIME STUFF. 00580 BILL GATES WROTE THE RUNTIME STUFF. 00600 MONTE DAVIDOFF WROTE THE MATH PACKAGE. 00620 00640 THINGS TO DO: 00641 SYNTAX PROBLEMS (OR) 00642 NICE ERRORS 00643 ALLOW ^W AND ^C IN LIST COMMAND 00646 TAPE I/O 00648 BUFFER I/O 00650 USR ?? 00652 ELSE 00660 USER DEFINED FUNCTIONS(MULTI-ARG,MULTI-LINE,STRINGS) 00680 MAKE STACK BOUNDARY STUFF EXACT 00700 (FOUT 24 FIN 14) 00720 PUNCH,DELETE,,, 00740 INLINE CONSTANT CONVERSION--MAKE IT WORK 00750 SIMPLE STRINGS 00760 * Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Osborne O1 Keyboard issues

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

Howdy gents, Working away on the recently acquired Osborne 1. Seems there's something wrong with the KB - and if I didn't know better, I'd say it's a case of shorted contacts. The KB connector is 24 pins, double row header like a short floppy or IDE header. On the KB side, there are two "shorted" groups of pins. Group one is 2X shortred pins, group two is 5X shorted pins. Thing is, this KB is not really built to be serviced, best as I can tell. The switch matrix is made of two layered flexible circuits, and the key assys are 'riveted' in place, by melting over the plastic pins. So I see no way to disassemble it and give it a clean.. and then, even so. With such limited access, I don't see many avenues other than flushing with solvent(s) and hoping for the best. What's to be done? Is this one.. done already?

10 years, 8 months

4
6
0 0

Altair BASIC copyright [was RE: Larry Niven's Altair]

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

From: Paul Koning Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2015 7:48 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Larry Niven's Altair > On Aug 20, 2015, at 10:30 AM, Jay Jaeger <cube1 at charter.net> wrote: >> On 8/20/2015 3:32 AM, Randy Dawson wrote: >>> I assume all the 8K, 4K BASICs are in public domain by now. The >>> demo for the kids will be the 15 minutes of paper tape, followed by >>> READY. >> Bad assumption. Things that were actually registered even if there >> was no notice, or published with a copyright notice would still be >> protected under U.S. copyright. > Depending on when. If it was published without notice, the key > question is whether publication occurred before Jan 1, 1978, or after. > After, notice does not matter; before, lack of notice means no > copyright. Sorry to take so long to chime in on all the rampant speculation, but I've had real work to attend to. The following is excerpted from the main source file of BASIC for the Altair, by Gates, Allen, and Davidoff. I have no further comment. 00100 MCSSIM(START) 00120 00140 TITLE BASIC MCS 8080 GATES/ALLEN/DAVIDOFF 00160 IFNDEF LENGTH,<PRINTX !!! MUST HAVE COM !! 00180 END> 00200 IF1,< 00220 IFE LENGTH,<PRINTX /SMALL/ > 00240 IFE LENGTH-1,<PRINTX /MEDIUM/ > 00260 IFE LENGTH-2,<PRINTX /BIG/ > 00280 IFE STRING,<PRINTX /NO $$/ > 00300 IFN STRING,<PRINTX /$$ $$/ > 00320 > 00340 SUBTTL VERSION 1.1 -- MORE FEATURES TO COME 00360 COMMENT * 00380 00400 --------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- 00420 COPYRIGHT 1975 BY BILL GATES AND PAUL ALLEN 00440 --------- ---- -- ---- ----- --- ---- ----- 00460 00480 00500 WRITTEN ORIGINALLY ON THE PDP-10 AT HARVARD FROM 00520 FEBRUARY 9 TO APRIL 27 00540 00560 PAUL ALLEN WROTE THE NON-RUNTIME STUFF. 00580 BILL GATES WROTE THE RUNTIME STUFF. 00600 MONTE DAVIDOFF WROTE THE MATH PACKAGE. 00620 00640 THINGS TO DO: 00641 SYNTAX PROBLEMS (OR) 00642 NICE ERRORS 00643 ALLOW ^W AND ^C IN LIST COMMAND 00646 TAPE I/O 00648 BUFFER I/O 00650 USR ?? 00652 ELSE 00660 USER DEFINED FUNCTIONS(MULTI-ARG,MULTI-LINE,STRINGS) 00680 MAKE STACK BOUNDARY STUFF EXACT 00700 (FOUT 24 FIN 14) 00720 PUNCH,DELETE,,, 00740 INLINE CONSTANT CONVERSION--MAKE IT WORK 00750 SIMPLE STRINGS 00760 * Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Naval COBOL Audit tests

by cclist＠sydex.com

Well, so much for catalog listings. One can only wonder about other government documents--this was an important one historically. I am not surprised. NTIS's response: Dear Sir, I have checked our databases and we no longer have this item available. Thank you, Mary Brisbois Customer Contact Representative National Technical Information Service US Dept of Commerce P: 800-553-6847 or direct 703-605-6071 F: 703-605-6900 www.ntis.gov

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Side issue Bevatron PDP-8 Classic & teletype control? and great print/scan cheap

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Any Northern Calif folk (current or Ex) that might have been around the BEVATRON - Ok this thing had pdp-8 computers ( the classic first model rack mounted) and teletypes hooked to it I am finding very little info on it... Just scanning stuff on Crocker's Cracker (the 60 incher) here tonight and putting together blueprints. if you want a from the store solution try the hp 7612 scans and prints in excess of 11x17 on sale less then 200 bucks! I highly recommend the Microsoft labs stitcher program. I have had some scans with some pretty crappy alignment and I made one giant beauty of a blueprint. The 7612 also prints beautiful 11x17 color prints to go in displays here for the museum.

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

FYI gmane cctalk group

by aek＠bitsavers.org

just noticed this http://article.gmane.org/gmane.announce/23246/match=gmane+comp+hardware+vin… From: Mailing List Manager <admin <at> gmane.org> Subject: New group gmane.comp.hardware.vintage Newsgroups: gmane.announce Date: 2015-05-19 10:57:19 GMT (13 weeks, 6 days, 3 hours and 39 minutes ago) The newsgroup gmane.comp.hardware.vintage has been created. The subject of the first message posted was Subject: Re: EPROM dumps for HP Draftmaster II 7596A This newsgroup corresponds to the cctalk mailing list. Description: Classic Computing Talk (non-public). <URL: http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.vintage> <URL: nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.vintage>

10 years, 8 months

8
9
0 0

Front Panel Progress - 8/e (type A & B) e/f and 8/m Update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys! I now have the (hopefully) final artwork for all four PDP-8 front panel variations. I have made up a display file. The file shows the combined black positive master for white lines, white text and logos for all four designs. There can be up to five layers and hence screens for each panel. The file is in .svg format because I use Inkscape to do most of the work. Let me know who would like a copy Regards Rod

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

[GreenKeys] Somewhat OT: RIP Robert "Bob" Hall, Jr. (Jan 5th 1957 - July ...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

sad to lose a good person at a young age.... Ed# In a message dated 8/24/2015 9:47:50 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, vbiersch at gmail.com writes: I've got his stuff here at Keep America At Work. I knew he was bad, but I had NOT heard this and I'm very sorry to hear this. http://keepamericaatwork.com/category/bob-hall/ I never had the opportunity to meet him, but we exchanged emails frequently and I wish I had been able to meet him. Virgil Keep America At Work On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 9:33 PM, drlegendre . <drlegendre at gmail.com> wrote: > Friends, > > I know some of us knew Bob Hall, an amazing character, who spent the last > decade of his life crusading for the restoration of US manufacturing and > railing against the perils of the Giant in the East - among other things. > > Sadly, I learned only today that Bob passed away on July 28th, 2015, due > to intractable pancreatic cancer. Our friend was a tender 61 years in age. > > You can find a page, with an obit here: http://tinyurl.com/paspfax > > Rest in Peace, Bob.. your 'dispatches from the front' will be missed. We > need more voices like we had known in Bob hall. > > (It seems all of his content has been removed from FB and YT. Might still > remain in archive.org) > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > GreenKeys mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net > > 2002-to-present greenkeys archive: > http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/ > 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: > http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html > Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool: > http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Somewhat OT: RIP Robert "Bob" Hall, Jr. (Jan 5th 1957 - July 28th 2015)

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

Friends, I know some of us knew Bob Hall, an amazing character, who spent the last decade of his life crusading for the restoration of US manufacturing and railing against the perils of the Giant in the East - among other things. Sadly, I learned only today that Bob passed away on July 28th, 2015, due to intractable pancreatic cancer. Our friend was a tender 61 years in age. You can find a page, with an obit here: http://tinyurl.com/paspfax Rest in Peace, Bob.. your 'dispatches from the front' will be missed. We need more voices like we had known in Bob hall. (It seems all of his content has been removed from FB and YT. Might still remain in archive.org)

10 years, 8 months

2
2
0 0

9-Track 1/2" Tape Drive Recommendations?

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

Hello All, Recently I came across a complete Pertec interface (card, manual, software, and, cables) thanks to list-member Shaun. Of course what is the point of having an interface if you have nothing to interface it to! So I've been looking at, and learning a bit, about 1/2" tape drives. I've also looked into acquiring one. But before going down this path I wanted to see what pitfalls, warning signs, etc. I should be on the lookout for. I am looking for a unit mostly to experience the tech and to play around with. I do not plan on recovering data from any particular system or format. However, it would be nice if I could setup a system that actually worked for backups of say an IBM AT for demonstration purposes. Having read some old InfoWorld and PC Mag articles I can see there were a number of tape drive manufacturers well into the early 90s. Based on the reviews the Cipher and Qualstar units seem to be well suited for my purposes. Any other brand/models I should keep an eye out for. I know IBM also had some 1/2" 9 track tape drives (9437 and 9438) but neither was a Pertec interface from what I have gleaned. The 9347 used a proprietary interface and the 9348 used HVD SCSI which is atypical. There was apparently a 9348-012 model which used narrow SCSI so should interface with a standard Adaptec card. However, I have not been able to determine if it used standard SCSI commands and could be accessed say with a tape backup program under Windows 9x/NT or DOS. Of course the biggest problem is finding one locally in the LA area. Unfortunately my only resource is eBay and prices there are definitely not hobbyist friendly (not to mention shipping). If anyone has a line on a working drive in the LA area (to save on S&H and avoid the dangers of shipping) or a reasonably priced one elsewhere I'd appreciate it. TIA for any help.

10 years, 8 months

10
25
0 0

(OT?) Copyright and IP

by thrashbarg＠kaput.homeunix.org

Hi List, This relates to the ongoing discussion about vintage computer software copyright. A year or so ago I did some Beta videotape backups for the Australian Computer Society. They're of keynote speeches at the 10th Australian Computer Conference in 1983. One that I'd like to mention is by Tania Amochev from (then) Control Data Corporation, titled Information Services of the Future. In it, things we now call data mining and Google AdSense are discussed, and the potential of data services in general (this is in 1983). One thing that struck me was the contrast between traditional copyright of material items, and how such ideas don't apply very well to non-material information. I was left with the impression that the idea of "Intellectual Property" is in some ways an attempt to force information to be treated like materials, which is an easy way to put a value information, but also allows it to be hoarded. This goes directly against how information behaves, which is to flow freely. This free-flow of information allows more information to be derived or generated, enhancing productivity and overall knowledge. To quote: "Information is diffusive - it leaks. The more it leaks, the more of it there is. Information is aggressive, even imperialistic. It simply breaks out of its unnatural bonds, the bonds of secrecy in which 'thing minded' people try to lock it. So secrecy, property rights, confidentiality, all enshrined in Western thought and law, are not particularly effective restraints on information." This is not a cry to abolish copyright and intellectual property laws, but to highlight some of the inadequacies of the thought process behind these laws when dealing with high speed, global information. Does anyone have any thoughts? If there was a massive shift in the fundamental philosophy of how information should be valued, where would you like that shift to go? For example, is there a way to pay programmers and similar professions by the quality of their work, rather than just the number of lines of code they write. How do you measure the quality of information? I'll see if I can get permission to have the six keynote addresses put online, because they're all fascinating. Cheers, Alexis. P.S., if this is way off topic, my apologies.

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

In Realtime: Saving 25,000 Manuals — August 15, 2015

by lproven＠gmail.com

http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4683 Apologies if this is old news... -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

10 years, 8 months

6
7
0 0

So, what's the deal with DigiBarn?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I wrote them with an Osborne question as we got a osborne 1 but it was later and slicker and they replied other than that I do not know. Seems we are getting hit with computers with handles on them this month. A RS 4P showed up today! Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC In a message dated 8/24/2015 3:30:06 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, ian.finder at gmail.com writes: Hey all- I've always wondered about this. Their website hasn't seen a proper update in years, and it looks like they have a lot of choice hardware donated to them that they may not be maintaining... Is it open to the public? Are people actively volunteering there to make sure this stuff is shown some love and not falling into disrepair? Keeping leaky batteries, capacitors, rust at bay, and doing repairs? Imaging disks? They have some very worthwhile examples of machines but I haven't seen much >from them as an organization in years! I'm sure lots of people would be willing to help if they are under-resourced. Thanks, - Ian -- Ian Finder ian.finder at gmail.com

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

De-yellowing

by evan＠snarc.net

Going to be de-yellowing a //e Platinum this weekend. Check out this picture of the top cover. You can see the non-yellowed part on bottom. Big difference! I'll post "after" pictures. http://snarc.net/yellowing.jpg

10 years, 8 months

18
35
0 0

HP 5480A, or, obscure HP instruments

by peterbrown10＠hotmail.com

--Forwarded Message Attachment-- From: cube1 at charter.net To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 09:23:06 -0500 Subject: Re: HP 5480A, or, obscure HP instruments / was Re: More on manuals plus rescue On 8/22/2015 8:14 AM, Tothwolf wrote: > > It only helps a little though and when eBay eliminated wildcard matching > awhile back, they also reduced the maximum query length. What I /really/ > don't like about eBay's current search system, is how it substitutes > keywords internally. If I search for "Compaq", I don't want results for > "HP", and likewise if I search for "HP", I don't want results for > "Compaq"... > [Straying towards test equipment part] Was there any resolution to the original request for HP5480A service information? I have fiches for this instrument as follows 1. 5480A - Signal Analyzer Operating manual Part 1 - 05480-90014(fiche) - 2 fiches, 60 pages per fiche 2. 5480A/B - Signal Analyzer system vol 1System service manual - 05480-90015(fiche) 7 fiches, 60 pages per fiche 3. 5480A/B - Signal Analyzer system operating and service manual - 05480-90025(fiche) 5 fiches, 60 pages per fiche 4. 5480A/B - Signal Analyzer with 5485A, 5486AB, 5487A, 5488A service Volume 2, 3 and 4 - 05480-90016(fiche) 8 fiches, 60 pages per fiche .. but no way of printing them out [On topic part] Is there a cost effective / group accessible method for making manuals that were originally supplied on fiche available to the group? Regards Peter

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

De-yellowing

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

and I will add... the Retrobrite... we are not sure what the long term effect is.... It would be a real bummer if 50 years from now the object decomposes.... OH NOOOO!!!! Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 8/24/2015 12:37:14 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, wdonzelli at gmail.com writes: > I'm not into the de-yellowing thing myself. There's no evidence that > de-yellowing improves the durability of objects. A museum curator preparing > an exhibit might well use a water-based acrylic that can easily be washed > off. That is what the Air and Space Museum has done for a while - a very thin wax coat covers the original, untouched finish, and a new paint job is applied onto the wax. Apparently it is easy to strip off, thus a reversible portion of a restoration, but I think the paint is not durable at all (which is why you should not touch things in museums unless given permission). I am not a fan of the Retrobrite process, although I have never tried it out. In my mind it just seems wrong. -- Will

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Looking for some shipping help with a M33 teletype

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

I posted this about a week or so ago. I bought a teletype in Elkorn, Wisconsin and need a volunteer to help with the shipping; Take it off the pedestal; Put the shipping bolt in the printer; Watch craters and freighters, that they have plenty of foam to cushion the unit. I will pay you for this service... Thanks, Randy Dawson

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

VMS7.3 dismount of a device with pagefile before shutdown?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi, I've managed to relaocate the pagefile.sys of my VMS7.3 to the secondary disk disk1$dia1 because of space considerations of the first disk (380MB total, free blocks 228672 now). I've seen complaints of the system that the disk wasn't properly dismounted after each reboot and would be rebuild. A hint from my friend Vaxman was, to mount the disk with the option /NOREBUILD in SYPAGSWPFILES.COM so it looks like this now: $ MOUNT/SYSTEM/NOASSIST/NOREBUILD DISK1$DIA1: DATA1 $ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:SYSGEN INSTALL DISK1$DIA1:[SYSEXE]PAGEFILE1.SYS/PAGEFILE EXIT $ EXIT Is there an other way to properly dismount the drive at the shutdown? My home directory lives on the 2nd disk too..and I think /NOREBUILD supresses the warning message, but not the problem at all.. Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Sign magnitude, one's complement, two's complement

by spc＠conman.org

For my own morbid curiosity, and because it came up on another mailing list I'm on [1], what machines commercially avaialble were sign magnitude and one's complement? Every machine I've encountered was two's complement (okay, IEEE 754 [2] is a sign magnitude format but I'm talking about integer implementations here, not floating point). I've only found reference to one sign magnitude computer (the IBM 7090, release in 1959) and a few one's complement machines (mostly the PDP series from DEC). Where there others? And honestly, are there any machines that use anything other than two's complement today? -spc [1] http://lua-users.org/lists/lua-l/2015-08/msg00386.html [2] AKA floating point.

10 years, 8 months

7
13
0 0

Indianapolis: More classic computing equipment than I can shake a stick at.

by maxxtw＠gmail.com

Anyone who's passing through, or lives near Indianapolis, feel free to give me a shout to set up a time to peruse what I have. I have amassed enough machines to take on their own gravitational pull. Most are in various states of disrepair, in need of attention, but quite a few still work or don't need much work to be functional. A number of machines I intend on keeping for their "neat" factor (like an Olivetti M20) but might be persuaded to part with. Apple (bunch of IIc's, IIe's, IIgs's) Macintosh (40 or so compact Macs - 512, Plus, SE, 'splodey-battery-SE/30's -, a big 'ol stack of 68k and PPC desktops, PowerBooks, a stack of DuoDock II's) Kaypro (maybe 6?) Osborne Compaq Portables (luggable and plasma) Epson QX-10 (2 machines, 1 monitor, pretty certain I have the Valdocs disk somewhere) IBM (5150's, 5160's, and a 5170 with box, and a few monitors) Wang (PC S1-2 with keyboard/monitor(s)) Franklin 8000 with keyboard A few 386/486 machines ADM 3A terminal (doesn't power on, but it's cute) Amiga 2000HD (boots, but I don't have a keyboard or mouse, and the floppy drives continuously seek) Amiga 500 (untested, no power supply) C64's (definitely for parts!) and some drives Tandy 1000 EX (untested) NeXT 21" Color Monitor (too huge and heavy for me to keep, I'll be happy with a VGA converter when I find one) And probably a few other things I'm forgetting about. Price-wise, basically make me an offer. Scrap metal prices are fine with me for a lot of machines so long as they're not actually getting scrapped (hence the post here!). If you're looking for something specific, let me know and I'll see what I have. Thanks! Kind regards, -Maxx

10 years, 8 months

6
6
0 0

FS: PDP-11/55

by rob＠krten.com

Hi all, I have a PDP-11/55 for sale (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada). Bids open until 2015 09 15, buyer to arrange shipping, I will have it wrapped and ready to go. Please visit: www.krten.com/~rk/museum/index.html For pictures, detailed inventory and contact info. Sealed bids via eamil please. Winner will be notified 2015 09 16, machine will be ready to ship same day. Must be shipped / picked up no later than 2015 10 09. Sold AS-IS / where is, untested, unpowered since received. Comes with H960 rack and 2 side panels. Cheers, -RK -- Robert Krten Visit me at http://www.ironkrten.com

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

RS-232 Tx / Rx monitoring LEDs?

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

As part of my C-64 RS-232 to M15 60mA CL project, I've put together a simple MAX232 based interface to connect the TTL levels on the C-64 to the standard RS-232 +/- levels. Is there any reason that I can or cannot install LEDs - on either side of the MAX232 converter - to give some indication of line status? Specifically, a pair of LEDs, one each for Tx and Rx lines, to blink / etc. as line status changes and data moves. I don't see any obvious issue - but I can conceive of a situation where it might screw up the line in some way I haven't considered. Comments?

10 years, 8 months

13
32
0 0

Silent 785 docs?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I've got a TI Silent 785 I'm trying to get configured/running. I see docs on bitsavers for the earlier models, but not anything in the 780 series and outwardly they do appear to be somewhat different than the 700 series. My google searches don't return joy either. I'm particularly looking for serial port configuration. Anyone have operators and/or service manual for the Silent 785? J

10 years, 8 months

3
4
0 0

VT100 preventative maintenance?

by earl＠retrobits.com

Hi all, I have two VT100 terminals. Both of them work just fine. Should I leave well enough alone, or is there preventative maintenance that should be done? For instance, should capacitors be proactively replaced. In general, I'm thinking about things that, if they fail catastrophically, would cause collateral damage. Thanks! - Earl

10 years, 8 months

5
8
0 0

5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

> Do we know the make/model of this drive? It's a Chinon FR-506 (NOT an FZ-506) >On 5.25" HD drives, pin 2 is generally a drive *input*. That is, the >host telegraphs what's needed, not the drive. Indeed, you have to be careful to put the right media and issue the proper density specific format command yourself, unless you work at the default of the drive, which in this case is HD. But I did, and I double checked the computer was outputting the right density signal on pin 2 on format and on write. Unfortunately the drive didn't respond correctly for writes in any settings I tried (auto or fixed density). On reading, from what I saw, the computer (at least mine) just tries both densities a couple times until it can read something. If there is some good data it declares success and keeps the pin 2 at the level that works for the rest of the session. There the news was better, the drive responded correctly to the pin 2 when it was set in auto, but incorrectly when it was in fixed HD (reading only in DD instead). So I left it in auto. At this point I'll declare this drive non functional, though still OK as a dual density, read-only drive... And look for a better HD one. My other 5.25" 360k DD 48tpi/300RPM drives read and write OK, so I have a working solution at low density. I want to recreate LIF drives for HP's, writing DD is what I need most anyhow. Thanks for the help, you pointed me in the right direction each time.

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

9-Track 1/2" Tape Drive Recommendations?

by afahimi＠alumni.usc.edu

Hello All, Recently I came across a complete Pertec interface (card, manual, software, and, cables) thanks to list-member Shaun. Of course what is the point of having an interface if you have nothing to interface it to! So I've been looking at, and learning a bit, about 1/2" tape drives. I've also looked into acquiring one. But before going down this path I wanted to see what pitfalls, warning signs, etc. I should be on the lookout for. I am looking for a unit mostly to experience the tech and to play around with. I do not plan on recovering data from any particular system or format. However, it would be nice if I could setup a system that actually worked for backups of say an IBM AT for demonstration purposes. Having read some old InfoWorld and PC Mag articles I can see there were a number of tape drive manufacturers well into the early 90s. Based on the reviews the Cipher and Qualstar units seem to be well suited for my purposes. Any other brand/models I should keep an eye out for. I know IBM also had some 1/2" 9 track tape drives (9437 and 9438) but neither was a Pertec interface from what I have gleaned. The 9347 used a proprietary interface and the 9348 used HVD SCSI which is atypical. There was apparently a 9348-012 model which used narrow SCSI so should interface with a standard Adaptec card. However, I have not been able to determine if it used standard SCSI commands and could be accessed say with a tape backup program under Windows 9x/NT or DOS. Of course the biggest problem is finding one locally in the LA area. Unfortunately my only resource is eBay and prices there are definitely not hobbyist friendly (not to mention shipping). If anyone has a line on a working drive in the LA area (to save on S&H and avoid the dangers of shipping) or a reasonably priced one elsewhere I'd appreciate it. TIA for any help.

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

More on manuals plus rescue

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

I certainly feel bitsavers is a good model, and although I'm physically not too far away from the stuff, I'm not sure I have much to offer other than disk space on a server for staging. http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4695 (previous link: http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4683 )

10 years, 8 months

34
99
0 0

Data I/O 29B

by bpettitx＠comcast.net

I have a small batch of Data I/O EPROM burners. Trying to test them out and ran into a nightmare. They require a pin family and size parameter. But in none of the documentation is there any mention of what these values are. There are some generic pinouts, which are almost useless because Data I/O changed the definition of several pins. Then the manual says to get your part's timing chart and compare them to 409 pages of timing charts to find the family type! Nothing is mentioned anywhere on how to calculate size parameter. There should be a chart or document somewhere that gives the parameters by model numbers like 2516, 2764, etc. Anyone know of a document like this? Anyone have experience with the model 29A&B, Model 19, Model 100 gang programmer, etc. At this point, without better data, these 11 -12 deveces are heading for the scrap pile. This is the poorest documentation I've ever seen on a piece of test equipment. Billy Pettit

10 years, 8 months

7
8
0 0

5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Chuck, I looked at the pin 2 signal and resulting drive behavior. It doesn't properly auto-switch between densities as it should. It does switch it for reading, but not for writing. Below is the full story. There is one jumper that controls DD/HD switching mode. In the auto position, I can read both HD and DD formats (I use the right diskettes for either format). You can see the computer on pin 2 (density select) trying both positions, settling on the right one (high for HD, low for DD), and reading the disc correctly. That's great. But when writing, although pin 2 goes to the right level, the floppy seems to ignore it. It will always write at DD, and refuse to write in HD (no signal at the head). Interestingly, in the fixed density position (should be HD only), it WILL write at 1.2M HD! The write signal does appears at the head. Unfortunately in this setting it will NOT switch the reading, get stuck reading only DD and fail on HD. So I can either have the reading HD or the writing HD, but not the two at the same time. That's why a regular format fails. The density switching logic seems to have a problem. Rather than track down which IC or transistor failed on the board it might be much simpler to get another 5.25 floppy. In the meantime my understanding of these simple critters has improved a lot. Marc >At high density, have you taken a good look at pin 2 of the floppy >interface? Have you checked to see if pin 2 is configured (via jumpers) >as "density select"? >--Chuck

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

Looking for Vintage Gold Lead LEDs for SCELBI project

by mail.nickallen＠gmail.com

Hey everyone, I am looking for some vintage Gold-Lead clear LEDs that light up red for a Scelbi project I am working on for VCFMW. Will need 29 of them if you have them, willing to trade or buy them, thnx!! -Nick

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Data I/O 29B

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: wulfman > I have a modified dos program that talks to the data i/o > its the one that they sold with the unit but only ran on a 286 > ... > the modified one i have works in windows 7 in a dos box I seem to recall that I downloaded some software to run my 29B (although I have yet to work with it extensively), and that it did run in a DOS box under Windows 98? Is that the '286' one you're referring to? If so, maybe that won't run in a DOS box under the later versions of Windows? Or maybe I have a different program from the one you're talking about? (Or maybe I somehow downloaded an already-fixed version?) > if your interested i can send it to you Other than running under Windows 7, does it have any other improvements? If so, I might be interested. Whatever the case, if you would like someone to host it for open download, let me know. Noel

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

Wanted: Pertec Tape Controller

by tomjmoss＠googlemail.com

Hi all, I'm looking for a pertec controller suitable for a Qualstar 1052. ISA/SCSI/S-100 interfaces are fine. If anyone has one to sell, please let me know. Regards, -Tom

10 years, 8 months

8
13
0 0

Cheap board guy

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> I lucked out. One of the dead ones had a broken trace on the bottom, and > cracked corner of the socket for one of the big square chips. So does that one work now? > The second one started working after I simply re-seated the two square > chips around their sockets. Yeah, that happens a lot. I got an 11/23 from him, it didn't work at first, I re-seated the CPU and MM chips, and now it seems to be fine. Excellent news, though! > Well, now both my 11/23 and 11/73 CPUs work with the MSV11-DB cards. Right, those are Q18. > a Clearpoint(?) Q22 memory card Camminton makes 2MB dual cards (CMV-504, although you can upgrade partially populated ones, which have a different number - 254, 500, 250); alas, the last one on eBay just sold, although there may be some out there from dealers like Continental). National Semi makes 1MB dual cards (NS23C - well, the manual says they are only 256KB, but they can be upgraded to 1MB with 256Kx1 chips, and a couple of simple etch cuts). Noel

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Vintage Software Copyright

by pete＠pski.net

This discussion on the legality of sharing manuals, PDFs, etc. leads me to think about the vintage computing hobby as a whole. While we all encourage the hobby to grow, the downside is that as it does, the software copyright holders may start to take notice. As a developer of modern systems who expects to be paid for my work (except what I share with the community of course) I am in a conundrum because the hobby cannot succeed without the large collection of easily accessible vintage software available yet there is no way to ?buy? most of it today. But, we would also not expect or would we pay 1980s retail prices. I know some generous copyright owners have allowed unrestricted use of their old software, like Roy Soltoff from Misosys, but many others have not or have disappeared. I?m fairly new to the hobby so maybe this has already been hashed out years ago. Just wondering what the community thinks.

10 years, 8 months

17
39
0 0

Cheap board guy

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mark G. Thomas > 4x M8192 - KDJ11 (AA or AB?) -- two work, two fail POST And alas, we don't seem to have any prints for that card (although we do have what amounts to a tech manual, so maybe we can create a set, with a certain amount of tracing with an ohmmeter), so at the moment, at least, fixing them isn't so easy. > I was hoping I could boot XXDP or RT11 from an RX33/RQDX3. The > RX33/RQDX3 works in my 11/53 Well, that's a very good sign... > Since none of this has a bootstrap, I run the bootstrap from ROM > provided by a Dilog SCSI card here, but typing "DU" or "DU0" at the > prompt spins the floppy ever-so-briefly, then kicks out an error about > no boot media found. Suggestions? Maybe I should try other bootstrap? Definitely; the code on the Dilog card might not support that controller properly (even though it seems to recognize "DU"). > I'm a little confused about what should work and what should not work, > with just the 18 bit qbus. If you have less than 256KB of memory (so Q22 processors won't wrap around, when trying to size memory, and think there's memory there above 256K - although Q18 memory probably will stop responding at 248KB, anyway), pretty much everything _should_ work, I would think. The high address lines being put out by the processor, DMA devices, etc should just have no effect. Although the details get tricky... E.g. if you don't have BDAL18-21 for a Q22 memory card, what will its bus interface do when faced with those lines, which aren't driven in any way - _especially_ not pulled up by terminators? Some DEC memory cards (e.g. MSV11-L, M8059) have jumpers to run in either Q18 or Q22 mode, to work around this. > Do I need to wire wrap the additional address lines to be able to do > anything with these KDJ11 CPUs? No, if you have less than 256KB of memory, the high bits should just be ignored (I think - I haven't actually tried this, to be absolutely sure). > Does anyone have good instructions for this modification -- I'll > probably want to do it. Do I just add the additional address lines, or > are there other considerations? I have modified an H9273 backplane (Q18) to H9276 (Q22), and it works fine; all I did was bus all the BDAL18-21 pins together: pretty easy, as it's a Q/CD backplane, not a Q/Q - just run a wire down, and solder it to each pin as it goes (those backplanes don't have the pins stick out far enough for wire wrap). Q/Q will be only slightly more complicated (since you have to bus down one side, then run the signals up and across to the top of the other side, and then bus them in turn - do it this way, to avoid creating a branch in the bus which will encourage reflections); I have done this mod on a Q18/Q18 backplane (a Sigma Q18/Q18), but have yet to actually try it. The only complication might come with termination/pull-ups. Not all backplanes have these built in (e.g. the DEC H9273/H9276 don't). But you might not need them - IIRC both the 11/23 and 11/73 have on-board termination which will pull the lines up. But if you _do_ need them... best bet, unless you want to start soldering resistors to the backplane, is a terminator board with Q22 pullups. That's a whole separate discussion which I will leave for the moment... :-) Noel

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

New post take longer to appear then replies?

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

Just wondering if new posts are moderated vs. replies? I posted a new message to the list a few hours ago and it still has not shown up. However, a reply to a preexisting message I sent out a few minutes ago has already appeared. Thanks.

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Where to get a Vax or microvax

by lyokoboy0＠gmail.com

I have had an interest in the DEC VAX line of computers for some time now and am trying to find a good place to get a system to start out with. The main pourpose being to have a machine to use VMS on. I have been running VMS on emulated hardware via SIMH, however i would like to move to running on real hardware. What would be the best machine for a beginner to VAX Hardware to start out with? My main place for looking for hardware has been ebay, although most of what im seeing is untested and expensive. Is there a better place to find older machines like this?

10 years, 8 months

36
82
0 0

maybe OT: Powerbook 5300 OS upgrade

by starbase89＠gmail.com

Greetings! I know that many of my posts to this list tend to be on the fringes of what is normally discussed here. I apologize in advance if this is too new for the group. I am trying to get my Powerbook 5300 up and running as a usable word processor (with portable printer) for school and for email. It is currently running System 7.5.2. The machine is capable of supporting MacOS 9.1, but my goal is 8.6. I see them talking on lowendmac that upgrading the OS makes the machine more solid, but it doesn't explain how to do it. The machine only has a floppy drive and no networking. Were there any system 8.6 install floppies? I can't think of another way to get it on there. TIA Joe

10 years, 8 months

5
7
0 0

Cheap board guy

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

I have the following from the gold scrapper guy so far... Great tip. Wonder if anyone else partook of the tipoff. Thanks Jim http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2015/08/dec-boards-kdj11-2-kdf11-and-motoro…

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

R: DECdatasystem 534 (11/34) and VT52 for sale at VCF Midwest 10

by supervinx＠libero.it

Location? -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: Julian Wolfe <julian at twinax.org> Data:20/08/2015 15:44 (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: DECdatasystem 534 (11/34) and VT52 for sale at VCF Midwest 10 I will be selling my DECdatasystem 534 and VT52 at the show. Cabinet rack, 72x24x26".11/34a, 32kW of core and A/D+D/A cards. System runs fine and drops to a console prompt, and passes all the diags I've been able to throw at it. I've restored all the foam filters and the cabinet was pressure washed a couple of years ago so no funny smells or mold. I have no peripherals for it. The VT52 does not power on. I'm entertaining pre-show offers, so let me know privately if you are interested in either of these items. Julian

10 years, 8 months

4
3
0 0

8-inch alignment floppy wanted

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a spare 8-inch alignment floppy they'd be willing to sell? I'd prefer a double-sided one, but even a single-sided would be better than nothing.

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Thanks Chuck. Looks like you are on to something, I'll search in this direction. Unlikely it has anything to do with the disks themselves, which were blank. The 500 kHz write signal present on the connector just doesn't make it to the head, whereas the 300 kHz does. On the other handm something along what Chuck suggests could create this exact problem. I'll let you know how it goes. I am aware of the narrow track problem of 360k written by HD drives, so I have other native 360k DD drives for that purpose. For now I just want my HD drive to behave as one ;-) >At high density, have you taken a good look at pin 2 of the floppy >interface? Have you checked to see if pin 2 is configured (via jumpers) >as "density select"? Various drives have different jumperings for >pins 2 and 34 (and sometimes 4). For example, I deal with some Japanese >CNC gear that uses pin 2 for disk change and pin 34 for read (and pin 4 >for "in use". >--Chuck >> So I tried to force formatting in DOS at 360k, and sure enough it >> worked! I can then read the diskette back, write on it, etc... And of >> course it failed formatting at 1.2 Mb. But the drive (Chinon FR-506) >> is a 1.2M one, and reads fine at 1.2M! Any clue? Is there a drive >> setting that would prevent it to write at high density but let it do >> at low density?

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

MIPS systems available...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

Weirdstuff recently received the following: (2) Magnum 4000SC-50 mips systems (2) RS 2030 mips systems Look clean (from the outside)... Contact Jim if you're interested in them. Usual disclaimer: I have no relationship with Weirdstuff other than as a client. I receive no remuneration for posting this. I do a weekly "tour" of their facilities to find vintage gear. Cheers, Lyle -- 73 AF6WS Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Following Chuck's advice, I scoped out the pin 22 and 24 (write data and write gate) on the floppy, and they looked fine. Then being curious, I managed to figure out what the write wire for Head 0 was. And I discovered I got nice matching writing pulses at 300 kHz (formatting at 360k density), but none at 500 kHz (1.2 Mb density). Results posted here: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?43874-5-1-4-quot-Flop py-Drive-Not-Reading/page9 So I tried to force formatting in DOS at 360k, and sure enough it worked! I can then read the diskette back, write on it, etc... And of course it failed formatting at 1.2 Mb. But the drive (Chinon FR-506) is a 1.2M one, and reads fine at 1.2M! Any clue? Is there a drive setting that would prevent it to write at high density but let it do at low density? Marc > Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 21:30:31 -0700 > From: cclist at sydex.com > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: 5.25 floppies that read but don't write > > On 08/18/2015 09:05 PM, Marc Verdiell wrote: > > > > > > I have connected a 1.2M 5.25" floppy to my computer. After a bit of > > jumper learning and setting, it's recognized and reads my old DD and > > HD floppies fine. But for the life of me I cannot write to it. Not > > under DOS, Win98, or WindowsXP. Which all read fine. > > Make sure that "WRITE GATE" goes low (use a logic probe) on pin 24 of > the drive while you do your write. If so, your floppy write circuitry > has a problem. I.e., it's not the cable. > > --Chuck >

10 years, 8 months

4
4
0 0

Power supply connector pin crimping, and 8-inch FDD power connectors (another chapter in the Quay 900 saga)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Last week I wanted to test some half-height eight-inch double-sided drives (NEC, Mistubishi, and Qume) on the Quay 900. I cabled a Mitsubishi drive in place of the original CDC/MPI 9406 77618022 drives, and the machine apparently wouldn't reset properly, since I wasn't getting the prompt from my ROM monitor either on power-up or by manually resetting it. I poked around a bit and discovered that the +5V DC supply was at about 0.7V. I disconnected the Mitsubishi, and it still didn't work, and the +5V was still at 0.7V. Uh oh, what did I break? After a lot of pulling of hair, gnashing of teeth, and sacrificing a chicken at midnight, I discovered that +5V pin in the connector that plugs onto the switching power supply was not crimped properly. It was partially crimped, but the wire was just loose. The cable connector is an AMP (now TE) 87025-7 "Ampmodu" 0.156-inch pitch shell which accepts 102103-3 rectangular crimp receptacles. The shell has 20 positions, of which they inserted a keying plug in position 1, and only use contacts in some of the even positions from 2 though 20, because the header on the power supply PCB only has every other pin loaded. TE no longer makes the 87025-7, but they still make the 87025-8, which is apparently the same thing without the part number being stamped on the housing. I don't need another housing though, just a pin, because without the right extraction tool I hadn't been able to get the old pin out without mangling it a fair bit. Mouser and Digikey sell the pins in small quantity for $0.50 each, which seems absurdly high for a crimp pin with only tin plating. (There's another part number for a gold contact, but distributors don't stock it.) Just for the hell of it, I looked up the TE manual (hand) crimping tool designed for this pin, p/n 90274-2. It sells for over $6500. There is a used one on eBay for $75, but I've had bad experience buying used crimping tools. The only crimping tool I have on hand is designed for terminals with a round shell that just have to be crimped flat, vs. for terminals with V-shaped edges that have to be folded back in, as is typical of Molex pins and the like. I decided to order an inexpensive ratcheting crimping tool from an Amazon seller. It's an Iwiss SN-28B, also sold under the Estone and other brands. The Iwiss was $19. I couldn't tell from the photos whether it would be suitable. It turns out that it worked perfectly for the TE pins. It has two pairs of dies stacked with one pair having a larger profile, so it does crimp both the conductor and the insulator at the same time, which I wasn't expecting for a sub-$20 tool. That got the machine working again, and I verified that the CDC/MPI drives are still working, or at least working as well as they were before. I'm still seeing a lot of unreliability when using double-density on the highest-numbered tracks (closest to spindle). Could be the wrong amount of precomp, or the low-quality data separator design. Since one of the two MPI drives gets more errors than the other, there may be some issue with drive alignment or drive electronics adjustment as well. I unplugged the MPI drives and plugged in the Mitsubishi. Once again the machine wouldn't reset properly. It turns out that even though this bizarre variant of the 9406 uses the Shugart pinout for the data connector instead of the MPI pinout, and uses the same DC power connector as the Shugart, instead of the header used in normal MPI 9406 drives, the DC power connector pinout for the MPI does NOT match the Shugart DC pinout, as also used by the various half-height drives I want to try. I'm becoming less and less impressed with these MPI drives as I learn more about them. With the Mitsubishi cabled up to the Quay, but using a separate DC power supply with the correct pinout, I was able to verify that the Mitsubishi drive actually works fine. When used with the Quay FDC, it does need some retries for double-density on the inner tracks, like the MPIs, but it doesn't need as many retries as either of the MPI drives.

10 years, 8 months

3
3
0 0

Looking for RL8A controller card

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I have a PDP-8/A with a flaky RL8A (M8433) controller card. I can't track the fault down. I've spent enough hours on it by now that I'd just as soon buy another one. Anyone have one to sell? Or possibly could repair mine (for compensation)? thanks Charles

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

OpenVMS TCP/IP Services 5.3 availability

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

We are currently running TCP/IP Services 5.1 under OpenVMS 7.3 on the museum's VAX-11/780-5. The telnet listener has a known issue which is fixed in v5.3, but we have not been able to locate this (we've asked in the right places). Was this on a ConDist platter? Or was it made available in some other way? We have a perpetual license for VMS, and renew our other licenses annually, so PAKs are not an issue. Would someone be willing to loan us the install media? Or otherwise make this available? Thanks, Rich Rich Alderson Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Ave S Seattle, WA 98134 Cell: (206) 465-2916 Desk: (206) 342-2239 http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

More on manuals plus rescue

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

On 2015-Aug-19, at 3:58 PM, William Donzelli wrote: > . . . > In fact, due to your time constraints, I would not bother with the HP, > Tek, or Heathkit manuals at all > . . . Gosh, please don't do that! What a terrible piece of advice. A large portion of the HP manuals are unavailable, and HP doesn't have them either. I have been looking for the operating and service manual for the HP 12050A (HPIB fiber optics extension) in vain. Couldn't find the one for the HP 7225B (gantry XY Pen Plotter) online, but found a hard copy version on ebay. Couldn't find any doc on the personality interface on it. On the computing side, many of the interface cards for my HP 1000 are undocumented or missing critical documents. Often a user manual is available, but not the service one. Sometimes you find the A, but not the B and they are significantly different. Etc, etc... And I am not talking obscure instruments at all.

10 years, 8 months

4
4
0 0

More on manuals plus rescue

by kevin_anderson_dbq＠yahoo.com

Wow, I have just looked at the manuals collection at the Internet Archive site. I honestly can say I don't like it, but I will say it is because this is not how my mind works in organizing stuff. I am immediately turned off by the tiling of 'cards" on the screen and the categorizing of collections. I know it more closely matches tablet apps and how they seemed to be designed, but I can also say, although I am the user of a tablet, I am not always happy with that approach. Even switching to the list view within IA didn't help much. I think it is great that Bitsavers material can be saved in more than one location, whether that be identical mirrors on multiple servers or with material copied into another environment. The point being the access to material and minimizing any risk of it all disappearing at once. But I agree that correct attribution of where material comes from is also very important. And multiple interfaces to how to search and find information can be fine to, as we all think differently. I just happen to prefer collapsible trees, textual lists, and drill-down methods more than I do other newer visual methods. My previous experience with Internet Archives has been mainly looking for old videos from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s through primarily the Prelinger archive, plus some texts and books that I found through Google and other search engines, and in using the Wayback machine. Seeing this new interface to the Internet Archives made it clear that I haven't checked IA since they apparently redid this interface, and all I can't say is I don't like it, and clearly if I can't find the item I need from IA through a Google search, then I won't be trying to find it directly from Internet Archives. The interface used at the Internet Archive is not Jason's fault. And certainly not so if the interface changed after Jason had already started his project. But I also feel that this collection at Internet Archive didn't necessarily help in useful ways to archive the older computer stuff, at least not that I can see from this initial review. Or if the collection is still good, the web interface is hindering a proper appreciation of that material and access to it. It also doesn't help that modern implementations of web content is all database driven (which the Internet Archive is one such site), which on the surface ought to be great, but in reality isn't when one no longer has as much control over the levels and depths of web pages in the same way as direct folders on a file server. The more flat and eclectic nature of today's web pages, with the expectation that one will "leap" all over the place within a largely flat structure, possibly employing filters to limit choices, is much less useful in this case for archiving and organizing the material in question than say hierarchical tree structures. At least in my opinion.... Kevin Anderson Dubuque, Iowa

10 years, 8 months

4
5
0 0

5.25" floppy disk storage.

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Something non-technical from me for a change. Most of you in the UK will have come across 'Really Useful Boxes' and probably use them for storing cables, screws, etc (I wish they made anti-static ones ;-)). Anyway what I hadn't realised until today is that the 3 litre size is just the right size for storing 5.25" floppy disks (in their cardboard covers), it will take about 80 of them with enough free space to extract them easily. Finding modern boxes for 5.25" disks is not that easy (I have not found the size for 8" disks though :-() Even better, at the moment, Rymans (at least round here) have them on sale at 4 for \pounds 10.00 (normally \pounds 3.99 each). -tony

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

MAINDEX-11 CZKMA Diagnostic?

by ben＠bensinclair.com

I'm again trying to debug my PDP-11/23, and I believe I'm having trouble with my M8067-LB/MSV-11 memory. According to the manual, there is a diagnostic program called CZKMA (for my 18-bit system), but I can't seem to find it. I have all of the xxdp images from AK6DN, but this one doesn't appear to be on any of those. Some searching shows references to it and even a (poorly) scanned source listing, but does anyone know if I can get it on a TU58 image or another format? Thanks! -- Ben Sinclair ben at bensinclair.com

10 years, 8 months

4
5
0 0

DECdatasystem 534 (11/34) and VT52 for sale at VCF Midwest 10

by julian＠twinax.org

I will be selling my DECdatasystem 534 and VT52 at the show. Cabinet rack, 72x24x26".11/34a, 32kW of core and A/D+D/A cards. System runs fine and drops to a console prompt, and passes all the diags I've been able to throw at it. I've restored all the foam filters and the cabinet was pressure washed a couple of years ago so no funny smells or mold. I have no peripherals for it. The VT52 does not power on. I'm entertaining pre-show offers, so let me know privately if you are interested in either of these items. Julian

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Clearpoint DCME/Q4E configuration

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist >> Yes, and if you plug one of their PMI memory boards into a Q/Q >> backplane, it will emit magic smoke, too! :-) > I don't remember if I've ever tried that Don't! :-) As the MSV11-J manual puts it, "NOTE: Insertion of the MSV11-J in a Q-Q backplane may damage other components or the memory itself. The PMI bussing on the MSV11-J's CD connectors is not compatible with the +12V bussing on the Q-Q backplane." > but I can believe that some jumpers would need to be moved around for a > Q-Q slot. ... No jumpers moved. There are no jumpers to configure an MSV11-J for Q/Q slots. (It's only got 4 jumpers total, two of which are factory config; the others are battery backup power.) > By CRC, I guess you mean ECC. Yup, sorry, not completely awake when I typed that, I guess! :-) > And with 37 bits, I think it should have ECC. ECC depends on the CSR > address set correctly. But I could be wrong as well. I think it needs more than 5 bits, for 32. The MSV11-J uses 6 bits, for 16. >> However, when I plugged the other one in - nada. No response at all; >> the boot PROM bitched about 'no memory at 0'. So I'm not sure _what_ >> that configuration is for. > Would sound like it was configured for a non-zero start address maybe? I did wonder that, but why would anyone configure a 4MB card for a non-zero start address? Anyway, I have yet to investigate this jumper configuration more extensively - later. > But if you tried with the switches/jumpers the same as on the board > working then it sounds like it would just be broken. No, that board (mostly, except for the "Memory CSR" error) worked with the jumpers in the _PMI_ configuration. Although I suppose some of the circuitry for use in the non-PMI config could be broken, but I think not. (More below.) >> The boot PROM was complaining about "Memory CSR Error" .. _but_ the >> memory was shown (by the boot PROM 'map' command) as PMI, and my own >> memory-test program showed it was all working OK. > And then the cards also have a CSR register or two, which is used for > various things. And they are expected to be at specific addresses. > ... > If you have a memory starting at address 0, there should be a CSR at a > specific address as well So I did some experiments, with very interesting results. I took the card that got the "Memory CSR Error", plugged it in, and ran a 'find all device registers' program in the system with it in. It showed a single memory CSR, at 172100. I then plugged in the card that _does_ pass the startup test, and it also had a single register, at that same location. So I guess it must be something about the way that register operates, that is different between the two cards. Which is possible; as I mentioned, there are a few programmable chips which are different revs. (And one large custom chip, which _seems_ to be a different rev.) Oddly enough, if I operate that 'broken' card in QBUS mode (after the CPU), not PMI mode (before), it _does_ pass the built-in self-test!!! Which argues that its failure to operate in QBUS mode, with the non-PMI jumper settings, is not because the hardware to operate in QBUS mode is broken. So I have no idea what the other set of jumper settings is for! Blast, I sure wish we had documentation for these things! Noel

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Looking for a VAX 9000

by Sue.Skonetski＠VMSSoftware.com

Dear Group, My name is Sue Skonetski I am a vintage Digital, Compaq and HP person and now with VMS Software. It is not a typo I am really looking for a VAX 9000. Thanks, Sue Sue Skonetski VP of Customer Advocacy Sue.Skonetski at vmssoftware.com Office: +1 (978) 451-0116 Mobile: +1 (603) 494-9886 Mit freundlichen Gr??en ? Avec mes meilleures salutations

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

5.25 floppies that read but don't write

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

I have connected a 1.2M 5.25" floppy to my computer. After a bit of jumper learning and setting, it's recognized and reads my old DD and HD floppies fine. But for the life of me I cannot write to it. Not under DOS, Win98, or WindowsXP. Which all read fine. But can't add a file. It goes through to the motions and makes the noise, heads moves as if everything went fine, but if I take the disk out and put it back in, the file is not there. I can't format either. Fails after a while on the above OS'es with different error messages without the head moving past track 0, suggesting it can't even read back the first track it's trying to format. Formatting from ImageDisk or OmniDisk looks like it works (head goes through the motions over the whole disk). But nothing seems to be written on the disk: neither utility can read the formatting back. Both HD and DD. On the same cable there is a 3.5" A: drive which reads and writes fine. Can't be the controller since it works on the 3.5" drive? The cable maybe? I tried several. Anyone has had this happened ever? Time to bring out the o'scope?

10 years, 8 months

6
6
0 0

VT100 keyboard (source?)

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

Would anyone have a surplus-to-needs, or know of a source for, a VT100 keyboard? This would actually be for the DECmateI/VT278 I mentioned on the list a couple weeks ago, Rob and I are looking into doing something with it. Alternatively, does anyone know if there is any degree of signalling compatibility between the VT100 and VT220/320 keyboards? Those RX floppies in the pedestal on ebay mentioned a week or two ago were just what was needed to complete it, as they actually looked like they were part of a 278, but the listing was removed from ebay.

10 years, 8 months

4
5
0 0

Manuals Plus preservation efforts update

by tothwolf＠concentric.net

In Realtime: We are barely halfway done http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4711 They are still looking for volunteers tomorrow (Tuesday, August 18). Anyone in or near Baltimore might want to go help.

10 years, 8 months

1
1
0 0

VCF Midwest: Last Chance for Rooms

by silent700＠gmail.com

Hello all - I thought they did this weeks ago but the VCFMW hotel has informed me that they still have the special rooms pricing block open. It will close "for real this time" at the end of the day this Friday the 21st. A rather humbling number of rooms have been reserved so far - well beyond our expectations - but there is room for a few more. Follow the link at http://vcfmw.org for details. See you next weekend! -j

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

DECmate I floppies (was Re: VT100 keyboard (source?))

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 5:48 PM, Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> wrote: > Thanks, that was a question I had been intending to ask, but to confirm: > If one obtained (as appropriate) bare RX01/2 floppy drive(s), it would > just be a matter of power supply for the floppies, and passive cabling > to interface the drives to the CPU/display? Yes. There's a board that goes under the wooden "top" that has a DB25 on one side, a Berg 40 on the other, and some wires and ferrite beads in between. It should be the identical board that's in the RX01 enclosure for the MINC-11 and/or WT78. The pinouts should be the same even if those use a different part number for the board. > I actually have the DB25-to-DC37 cable that goes between the disk unit and the DC37 connector on the CPU/display unit. Right. Well documented and easy enough to make, but good you have one. What I need to make (since I've never seen one) is the DC37-dual-DB25 cable to hang all the drives off of the DECmate I. 100% passive and just a few dozen solder joints. > If we move this along we may be asking for system software in the future, > I haven't looked at what may be readily available (i.e. bitsavers) as yet. I think mine came with WPS-8, but it should run OS-278. You just need to find a way to write RX02 floppies. I need to come up with a semi-portable PDP-11 rig with RX02s and 256K of RAM so I can cut floppies with vtserver (and probably some RL01 and RL02s while I'm at it) -ethan

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Probs w. M3119 CXY08 MUX on VAX VMS 7.3

by dave＠mitton.com

From: Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> >> ... > Ok. RSTS does indeed check for duplicate vectors. It also checks for > devices interrupting at too high a priority. > It?s pretty neat code. Back in 1977 or so when that came out, it may > have been one of the first autoconfig systems, at least in DEC. It > could probe almost all devices supported by RSTS (and some not > supported); the exceptions being card readers and the DT07 bus switch. > But it would do hairy things like the KMC-11 and DMC-11, for example. Wait? What was tricky about KMCs and DMCs? They used the same algorithms, I had it down cold at the time. Speaking of which, I have one copy of the KMC-11A Programmer's Guide if anyone needs it or would like to scan it? Dave (KMC-11 Tools Developer, RSX and VMS) PS: I used ALGOLW on MTS in one of my ECE classes because we could represent processor registers and operations using bit arrays/vectors and boolean operations. Thus building working models of systems in code.

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Analog to Digital Converter

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

I have a number of laboratory instruments that are from the 1990 time frame. They produce digital data that is the digitized signal from a detector, the data can be from 512 to 65K samples long. The ADC used in these instruments is a 16bit 100ksample/sec design. The ADC is in a 3 by 4 inch metal box with a row of pins on each long edge. I think some of them are failing because I get the full 16 bit resolution from one machine, but not the others. This was determined by taking the digital samples and sorting the values and computing the increments between the adjacent values. In some cases the output looked like 14 bit resolution and in one case 6 bit resolution. Does anyone have any experience with technology? Who was the manufacturer? (There is no id on the outside) What is inside the box? Is it a hybrid circuit? Doug

10 years, 8 months

6
12
0 0

Probs w. M3119 CXY08 MUX on VAX VMS 7.3

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi guys, I'm fiddeling around for hours now to get an M3119-YA CXY08 Multiplexer to work in my VAX4000/300 on VMS7.3. The Card is properly detected it seems.. Device Device Error Name Status Count FTA0: Offline 0 OPA0: Online 0 TNA0: Offline 0 TNA2: Online 0 TXA0: Online 4 TXA1: Online 0 TXA2: Online 0 TXA3: Online 7 TXA4: Online 0 TXA5: Online 0 TXA6: Online 0 TXA7: Online 0 VTA0: Offline 0 . SYSGEN> SH/CONF System CSR and Vectors on 17-AUG-2015 19:17:01.69 Name: PAA Units: 1 Nexus:0 (CI ) Name: PAB Units: 1 Nexus:1 (CI ) Name: EZA Units: 4 Nexus:2 (NI ) Name: PUA Units: 1 Nexus:3 (UBA) CSR: 772150 Vector1: 154 Vector2: 000 Name: PTA Units: 1 Nexus:3 (UBA) CSR: 774500 Vector1: 260 Vector2: 000 Name: PTB Units: 1 Nexus:3 (UBA) CSR: 760404 Vector1: 300 Vector2: 000 Name: TXA Units: 8 Nexus:3 (UBA) CSR: 760440 Vector1: 310 Vector2: 314 SYSGEN> ..and it is the first card left of the CPU in the QBUS Backplane followed >from an working CQD200/TM. AThe DIP Switches are set like the standard in some CXY08 Manual, the MUX is set to DHU11 programming model. I've first tried to connect a serial line pronter with no luck so I've tried to connect a 2nd VT420 and have no luck again. I know of the meaning of the several modem control signals and how they should be wired, have connected such a "null modem RS232 device" that shorts 4 to 5 and 6+8 to 20. I've tried to copy data from a file to the lines and I have shorted 2+3 of the Muxer Pins from the line and done a SET HOST/DTE/ESC=E TXA0:,allt that ends with an timeout writing to the lines and the lines acting identically, regardles which one I try to use. $ copy SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM txa3: %COPY-E-WRITEERR, error writing TXA3:[]SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM;5 -RMS-F-WER, file write error -SYSTEM-F-TIMEOUT, device timeout %COPY-W-NOTCMPLT, SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM;5 not completely copied $ sh term txa3 Terminal: _TXA3: Device_Type: Unknown Owner: No Owner Input: 9600 LFfill: 0 Width: 80 Parity: None Output: 9600 CRfill: 0 Page: 24 Terminal Characteristics: Interactive Echo Type_ahead No Escape No Hostsync TTsync Lowercase No Tab Wrap Scope No Remote No Eightbit Broadcast No Readsync No Form Fulldup Modem No Local_echo Autobaud No Hangup No Brdcstmbx No DMA No Altypeahd Set_speed No Commsync Line Editing Overstrike editing No Fallback No Dialup No Secure server No Disconnect No Pasthru No Syspassword No SIXEL Graphics No Soft Characters No Printer Port Numeric Keypad No ANSI_CRT No Regis No Block_mode No Advanced_video No Edit_mode No DEC_CRT No DEC_CRT2 No DEC_CRT3 No DEC_CRT4 No DEC_CRT5 No Ansi_Color VMS Style Input $ Depending on set term/modem or set term/printer the modem control lines are changing the level, that's ok. But I can't get a single character printed to the terminal which I have verified with an USB to serial cable already, the terminal is ok and I have an LED-Analyzer for RS232 between the RS232 Plugs.. Since I'm a total VMS Noob I now have some Questions: .. have I missed something? .. is the CXY08 bad? .. what could I try next? ...is there some diagnosting software for the CXY08 existing for VMS and if yes, where can I get it? Thanks in advance, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

10 years, 8 months

10
31
0 0

More on manuals plus rescue

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> IA saturates the channel. Jason and IA are deliberately working to redirect all search > traffic to IA from the original mirrors by constantly creating useless 'new' content that > Google thinks is real. > > I have watched over time as the volume of Google top search hits have migrated to IA hosted > content from the mirrors. I have occasionally stumbled into the bitsavers stuff on IA and was just confused and perplexed about what the IA guys are trying to do. Bitsavers has a perfectly obvious and navigable layout; IA makes no sense at all. (Of course I'm a little biased!!!) Tim N3QE

10 years, 8 months

6
7
0 0

Speaking of Creating 5 1/4" floppies

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Try Imagedisk for DOS (with actually somewhat of an interface). Great software, superb manual. http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/index.htm Also Omnidisk for DOS (command line) http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniDisk/OmniDisk.htm#Downloads And Omniflop for WinXP with a GUI http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm#Downloads All of them can read and write a particular sector. With Imagedisk you can image the original disk to a file image, and view the image data in a nice hex editor by sector, make your changes, and write back the modified version to a disk. All with a simple and efficient DOS GUI. Marc ----------------------------- jwsmobile <jws at jwsss.com> wrote: I wonder if someone can help with a bit of a problem I have. I have a compaq portable 3 system which has a working Pick (Non dos) system on it. It has the 5 1/4" floppy drives on it. I am looking for a bootable floppy or 2 with something like dos 6.x on it and some utility that can read and write disk sectors. Preferably the latter is a nice gui program, but beggers can't be choosers. I need to boot it up from the floppy drive and modify the pick system dictionary to remove the main password. So the change to the system will be surgical, just one sector. If anyone can help, can you send me a note and let me know how I can compensate you for your help. If I really move crap around I may be able to find a system with the 5 1/4" floppies on it, but I'm not sure I could get a program onto the system then out to the 5 1/4" drive and am also looking for suggestions about what disk utility / editor might be useful if anyone has suggestions on that. I'll go ahead and dredge up something soon if I can't get help from somewhere. thanks Jim Stephens -----------------------------

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

DEC Fiche EP-M8436-MA-A

by rob＠bitscience.ca

Hi Everyone, I?m looking for a scan or a printout of the contents of DEC fiche EP-M8436-MA-A. It?s referenced at the top of page 163 of http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/pdp11/xxdp/fiche_200dpi/0254_ind…, and allegedly contains the details for M8436, M8437,M8439, and M8440 boards -- all of which were parts for the Decmate series of machines. If anyone has access to this (even if you have no way to read it), or has a pointer to where I might find it, I?d very much appreciate if you?d drop me a line. Thanks very much, Rob Ferguson

10 years, 8 months

3
2
0 0

More Manuals Plus Rescue

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/4711 Choice quote: "I am writing this from the car, sitting in the passenger seat with my shoes off. I have been standing for 12 hours. I've been giving introductions and tours and explanations and theories and everything else that comes when you put a bunch of strangers together with a single-minded purpose. They have been too good. Way better than anybody deserves in the way of volunteers. They have been helpful, kind, inquisitive, dedicated. They have come from miles around. Sometime around 11 a.m., it became very obvious that the 252 banker boxes we have bought or a laughable underestimation. We were going to need more. We are going to need much more, and we were going to need it now. I made a call to the Uline Company, and asked for the impossible: I wanted 8 pallets of boxes, delivered within the day. And within four hours, they arrived. To deliver 1052 banker boxes within 4 hours, combined with the cost of the boxes themselves, was $4000."

10 years, 8 months

4
3
0 0

test equipment / Re: Z80 / Z84C Swap (Doh!)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Eric Smith > If a person has any reasonable business justification But a lot of the people here don't; they're purely hobbyists. So spending $1K on a piece of test equipment just isn't realistic for them. Having said that, I do see some DSO's on eBay for not much money (e.g. the little hand-held ones), and those might be a good alternative to a logic analyzer - I never used one, so I tend not to think of them. Noel

10 years, 8 months

9
15
0 0

QBUS boards on eBay checp

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Some guy on eBay is selling a ton of QBUS boards, cheap: http://www.ebay.com/sch/computer_surpluscheap/m.html Includes deals such as 11/23 CPU's _with_ KTF11 and KEF11 for $30, 11/73 CPU's for $50, etc, etc. Anyone recognize those Motorola memory cards? Do we have documentatio for them? Noel

10 years, 8 months

13
47
0 0

More on manuals plus rescue

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > If you can, avoid black/white scans. The reason is that scanners are > often noisy in that mode ... Copiers used in scan mode are particularly > likely to do this. Such documents are also surprisingly hard to read, > look messy when printed, and utterly fail OCR. I was talking about scanning prints (which is how this originally came up, someone said 300 dpi doesn't catch the very fine printing one can find on them - which is true, I've had issues in this regard too). I'm using a professional-grade A3-size scanner (found on eBay for the princely sum of $100 - it's an older model, with a SCSI interface) - for scanning fold-out prints, the typical A4/8-1/2x11 scanner won't eat them whole. And of course OCR is a non-concept for prints. For manuals (text), on the other hand, 300 dpi is of course fine. Noel

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

More on manuals plus rescue

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Sean Caron > I have found that even fairly fine detail reproduces okay with a 300 > DPI scan ... there's no need in scanning with extraneous bit depth and > then you start to get people complaining about file sizes I have found that one can generally have one's cake, and eat it too: if I scan at 600dpi in black and white, and then use "CCITT Group 4" compression, the resulting images (of prints) are ~200KB per page. Is that small enough? :-) Noel

10 years, 8 months

4
3
0 0

RLV11 Debugging

by bensinc＠gmail.com

Now that I (hopefully) have my PDP 11/23 running (it passes CPU and memory tests, anyway), I've been messing with my RLV11 so I can use my RL02. For a first step, I'm trying to run the VRLBC0 diskless diagnostic to check the controller. I checked that the address and vector switches are set to the defaults according to he manual, and also verified them with a multimeter. The manual says the default vector address is 330, though the diagnostics default to 160. I tried it both ways with the same result, though I should be on 330. I'm not actually sure what "BR LEVEL" refers to, so I left that at the default. This is a PDP 11/23 with an H-9273 backplane. I have the M8186, M8067, M8043, then the two RLV11 boards, M8013 and M8014, then an M8012. Here's a sample run. It appears to start, but never does anything else. If I give it a bad address it does complain, so I think I have the switches correct. Does anyone know what I might try next? Thanks! .R VRLBC0 VRLBC0.BIC DRSSM-G2 CVRLB-C-0 RLV12 DISKLESS UNIT IS RLV12, RLV11, OR RL11 RSTRT ADR 145702 DR>START CHANGE HW (L) ? Y # UNITS (D) ? 1 UNIT 0 RLV12 (L) Y ? N RLV11 (L) Y ? Y CSR ADDRESS (O) 174400 ? VECTOR (O) 160 ? 330 BR LEVEL (O) 4 ? CHANGE SW (L) ? Y ERROR LIMIT FOR AUTO-DROP (D) 0 ? ALL REMAINING QUERIES ARE FOR OPTIONAL (MANUFACTURING) G5388 TEST-LOOP-MODULE SET-UP. USE <^Z> TO BYPASS. G5388 TLM INSTALLED (L) N ? N MMU AVAILABLE MEMORY SIZE 124 KW 18 BIT ADDRESSING -- Ben Sinclair ben at bensinclair.com

10 years, 8 months

7
9
0 0

Clearpoint DCME/Q4E configuration

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > DEC's memory boards never had any jumpers for PMI as such. Yes, and if you plug one of their PMI memory boards into a Q/Q backplane, it will emit magic smoke, too! :-) I think that's why this thing has the jumpers - to allow it to be used in a Q/Q backplane. It would, of course, only be normal (slower) QBUS memory, but at least one could use it there. However, I am unable to verify that hypothesis. (See below.) I looked at the jumpers along the edge in the C/D finger region, and a lot of them _do_ connect to pins used in the PMI bus. (Confusingly, a number connect to _other_ pins - I can see I have some detective work in front of me here!) However, that made it likely that the one that had jumpers on all those pins was configured for PMI use, so I rolled the dice, and tried plugging that board into a Q22/CD backplane, along with a KDJ11-B, and after a short bout of 'tired memory' (see my previous post), it did come up as a 4MB PMI memory! (Parity, though, not CRC - which might make sense, I guess - it has 148 memory chips on it, which is a multiple of 37, so 32 + byte parity, plus a spare chip, I would guess?) However, when I plugged the other one in - nada. No response at all; the boot PROM bitched about 'no memory at 0'. So I'm not sure _what_ that configuration is for. So then I took a flier (although the cards use the identical PCB, they do have a few minor differences in chip rev in a couple of the programmable chips), and put the jumper config from the working PMI card onto the other card, and it did 'sort of' come up as a PMI card. The boot PROM was complaining about "Memory CSR Error" (I'll have to investigate that further), _but_ the memory was shown (by the boot PROM 'map' command) as PMI, and my own memory-test program showed it was all working OK. Well, at least we have a jumper config that allows us to use these cards as PMI memory! Noel

10 years, 8 months

2
1
0 0

Tired memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I've seen an odd phenomenon on some older QBUS memory boards I've got in. I can't understand it, and I'm wondering if anyone else has i) seen it, or ii) understand the cause. What happens is that the _first_ time I plug them in, some don't work - some (maybe all, sometimes) locations are mangling the data (I forget whether it's dropped or picked bits). Oh, and we're talking 4164's/41256's (or equivalents) here, for the actual devices. However, if I let them sit for a bit (powered off), and then try again, they work fine! I first experienced this phenomenon on some M8044's, which have on-board electrolytic filter caps, so I was guessing it was caused by some sort of noise caused by the caps not working, and after a little while powered on, the caps reformed, and things started to work. However, I just experienced the same phenomenon on a Clearpoint DCME/Q4E board - which doesn't have any electrolytic caps on it. So that can't be it. Anyone have any clue what's going on? (Oh, and of course, for others - if you buy and old memory board, and it doesn't work... don't immediately put it in the 'bad' pile, wait a bit, and try again. You might be seeing this.) Noel

10 years, 8 months

1
0
0 0

Help needed please re possible loss of a Burroughs B7800 CPU

by nw＠retroComputingTasmania.com

Hi Evan and others who might have been wondering, I managed to find out what happened to the Burroughs B7800 that was "under the stairs" at Monash university. The good news is that the interesting parts, namely the indicator panels, have been saved by the Monash Museum of Computing History. They also retrieved the VAX 11/780 that was there too, and it is now in storage.

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Freight recommendation for a teletype?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Hi John, A testament to the extraordinary community that is classiccmp. I will certainly take you up on it, and get you a check, and/or some of the other great junk lying around here. I'm pretty well equipped with a good electronics lab. Do you need a scope? I have a few Tektronix digital scopes and I cant possibly use them all. 100 MHz .... I'm not sure about the lockdown, I imagine when its undone the bolt is stored in a available hole inside, and possibly is still there. I will see what comes back from craters and freighters and UShip, the thing has to be taken off the pedestal and wrapped/banded onto a pallet. Let me know what you need, and hey, Thanks, Randy > Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 21:49:59 -0500 > To: rdawson16 at hotmail.com > From: jfoust at threedee.com > Subject: RE: Freight recommendation for a teletype? > > At 09:29 PM 8/17/2015, you wrote: > >123 N Washington St. Elkhorn WI 53121. > >I asked for a quote from Craters and Freighters, and the UShip site. > > I'm not sure if I can help, but I thought I'd chime in. > > I'm 45 minutes from there, 30 minutes if I'm at my fianc?e's place. > (Jefferson, WI and Janesville, WI, respectively.) > > I do have a friend with a loading dock and pallets and wrap. > > You do need to lock down the upper machinery with the shipping bolt > or it'll destroy itself, depending on the shipping method. > > I have a 33 and a 28, too. > > - John >

10 years, 9 months

3
2
0 0

Z80 / Z84C Swap (Doh!)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: drlegendre > Sigh.. and here I sit, yet again, with neither a logic analyzer I've bought Tek 1240's (which are really nice units, although of course without the capabilities of today's - but still a lot more powerful than the earliest LA's) on eBay for as little as $25 (albeit without leads), and I gather there are modern units which plug into a PC with a UCB port for not much more money. Yes, a lot of the older machines were built without benefit of them (pretty much all their builders had was 'scopes), but there are so many things where one cannot easily create a 'scope loop, and for investigating those, a logic analayzer is the perfect tool. It's just a critical tool to have if one is going to _repair_ old computers - only slightly less critical than a VOM. No ifs, ands or buts. Noel

10 years, 9 months

4
5
0 0

Z80 / Z84C Swap (Doh!)

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

As the proud owner of an NtM Osborne 1 computer, courtesy of our own Jules Richardson (and another list member), I made no delay in opening the case to install a missing CPU. Jules was kind enough to let me know about the missing part prior to handing the old girl over to me. I'm sure you've already figured out what happened - unaware that the Z84C series was CMOS, that's what went into the Osborne's CPU socket. The machine came to life with a garbage display and howling on-board beeper. Tried resetting it a few times, all I got was more and different noise & garbage. That's when I shut down and did some reading - initially, I thought it might be a clock speed issue - sometimes 'faster' chips won't run at slower clock rates. What I did learn is that Z-80 were made in CMOS versions, and the Z84C is one. So what did I most likely do, here? Hose the CPU for sure? Collateral damage on the board? Both / Neither? As ever, it's what you don't get, that gets you.

10 years, 9 months

12
28
0 0

SCSI Tape to TAP utility

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Thanks Al, I downloaded the assembler just in case. And to Chuck's point, it always felt like the MSDN distribution was a poorly documented, disorganized mess. I was not impressed. The old Turbo C and new Watcom C are available freely for DOS 16 bit and people say very good things of both. Marc > From: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> > >> On 08/14/2015 12:00 PM, Al Kossow wrote: >> >> last 16 bit compiler is visual C++ 1.52c >> >> also ran across MASM 8 >> >> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=12654 >> >> if you need it > Schizophrenic MS labeling. The C++ suite is 1.52c, but the compiler > identifies itself as 8.00c. Crazy. > > --Chuck

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Anyone have a Lockheed SUE?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

think dcc made a fake dg nova also!? In a message dated 8/14/2015 8:24:14 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, aek at bitsavers.org writes: oops, it's actually a Digital Computer Controls DCC-112

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Freight recommendation for a teletype?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

only think that worries me is some guy in the suv takes a liking to it and "opps" he says " someone took it when I was in the restaurant!" Ed# In a message dated 8/17/2015 4:25:49 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, rdawson16 at hotmail.com writes: Thanks Cory, I listed it with UShip, and will wait to see what happens. This was a great idea, I never heard of such a 'crowd-sourced' shipping service before. Randy > Subject: Re: Freight recommendation for a teletype? > From: coryheisterkamp at gmail.com > Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 17:33:38 -0500 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > > Randy, > > One option might be UShip. These are best transported laying down once the paper and tape spindles are removed and preferably, that shipping screws anchor down the chassis (though I have moved them without). With UShip, you set an asking price with parameters, such as blanket wrap, or covered shipping. Everyone from professionals to those with room to spare in their SUV can then ask questions, accept the terms, or counter-offer. They don't get paid until you've received the item and are satisfied. With items like this, I almost prefer a private individual rather than a professional (bulk) mover. -C > > > On Aug 17, 2015, at 5:26 PM, Randy Dawson wrote: > > > Hi Classiccmp, > > > > I just purchased a ASR 33 teletype and now stuck with the problem of getting it here, its in Wisconsin and I am in LA. > > > > Its pickup, the owner will not pack and ship. > > > > Do you know of a freight company that will put it on a pallet, band it with care and take care of the shipping? > > > > Randy > =

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Speaking of Creating 5 1/4" floppies

by jws＠jwsss.com

I wonder if someone can help with a bit of a problem I have. I have a compaq portable 3 system which has a working Pick (Non dos) system on it. It has the 5 1/4" floppy drives on it. I am looking for a bootable floppy or 2 with something like dos 6.x on it and some utility that can read and write disk sectors. Preferably the latter is a nice gui program, but beggers can't be choosers. I need to boot it up from the floppy drive and modify the pick system dictionary to remove the main password. So the change to the system will be surgical, just one sector. If anyone can help, can you send me a note and let me know how I can compensate you for your help. If I really move crap around I may be able to find a system with the 5 1/4" floppies on it, but I'm not sure I could get a program onto the system then out to the 5 1/4" drive and am also looking for suggestions about what disk utility / editor might be useful if anyone has suggestions on that. I'll go ahead and dredge up something soon if I can't get help from somewhere. thanks Jim Stephens

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

cctalk Digest, Vol 14, Issue 17

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 01:29:27 -0400 > From: Evan Koblentz <evan at snarc.net> > Subject: MARCH's Straight 8 restoration notes > > The RICM PDP-12 thread made me realize that I (nor I think David > Gesswein) ever posted our PDP-8 notes here. (We did post a link to the > Youtube video of the ceremony at VCF East.) > > Anyway, here are David's notes: > http://www.pdp8.net/shows/vcfe15/slides/PDP-8_Restoration.html and also > his exhibit notes here: http://www.pdp8.net/shows/vcfe15/vcfe15.shtml. > Evan, It is nice to see documented proof that we are not the only people crazy enough to attempt a restoration of a machine in that condition. The TU20 tape drive that came with the PDP-9 also had a unauthorized mouse upgrade, and several transistors fell off the flip-chips when we touched them. They were Germanium transistors so getting replacements was a challenge. Michael Thompson

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Freight recommendation for a teletype?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Hi Classiccmp, I just purchased a ASR 33 teletype and now stuck with the problem of getting it here, its in Wisconsin and I am in LA. Its pickup, the owner will not pack and ship. Do you know of a freight company that will put it on a pallet, band it with care and take care of the shipping? Randy

10 years, 9 months

4
4
0 0

MP3000's

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

Anyone here pick up the two MP3000's on PublicSurplus for $99/ea?

10 years, 9 months

3
2
0 0

No XT-IDE users?

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

Wow, I know it's not a DEC PDP but I was hoping at least a few people used the darn thing. Would it be better if I post in VCF? Thanks for any input. -Ali

10 years, 9 months

8
10
0 0

No XT-IDE users?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ali Fahimi > Wow, I know it's not a DEC PDP Hah! Don't feel too bad. I've lost count of the number of PDP-11 questions which I've brought here, only to hear a resounding silence (most recent case on point, my query about Clearpoint DCME/Q4E's). Noel

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

MARCH's Straight 8 restoration notes

by evan＠snarc.net

The RICM PDP-12 thread made me realize that I (nor I think David Gesswein) ever posted our PDP-8 notes here. (We did post a link to the Youtube video of the ceremony at VCF East.) Anyway, here are David's notes: http://www.pdp8.net/shows/vcfe15/slides/PDP-8_Restoration.html and also his exhibit notes here: http://www.pdp8.net/shows/vcfe15/vcfe15.shtml.

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

QIC-24 data analysis

by aek＠bitsavers.org

This looks like fun.. http://mightyframe.blogspot.com/2015/08/qic-24-tape-data-block-format-decod…

10 years, 9 months

4
7
0 0

No XT-IDE users?

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Be fun to have identified controller for first ibm pc to demo it Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> Date: 08/16/2015 4:31 PM (GMT-07:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: No XT-IDE users? I don't have a need for it, yet anyway Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net On Aug 16, 2015 7:26 PM, "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > On 08/16/2015 03:26 PM, Ali wrote: > >> Wow, I know it's not a DEC PDP but I was hoping at least a few people >> used the darn thing. Would it be better if I post in VCF? Thanks for >> any input. -Ali >> > > Probably.? I have both the original and the one (can't remember the name) > with the CPLD on it.? Both worked well for me--and I modified the original > to juggle the addressing bits to make the "Chuck mod". > > I've always used my own version of the BIOS; I've always felt that the > more elaborate BIOSes, while interesting and reflecting a lot of work, were > unnecessarily complicated. > > I"ll help if I can, but I haven't played much with the thing in a couple > of years+. > > --Chuck > > > >

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

LPSXX-AD NIB

by useddec＠gmail.com

I found several of these while digging. Any interest? Please contact me off list. Paul

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

WANTED: HP 3000

by mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us

I worked on HP 3000 systems in the late '80s, and would like to find one for my collection. A series 42 would be nice, but a series 37 or micro XE would do. Any leads? I'm already aware of the one on Epay in Florida that's been sitting at $1,725 for the past year. I'm in central PA. Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

10 years, 9 months

4
5
0 0

WANTED: HP 3000

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Mike - this would be a good complete system for you Mike and good it has tapes. that may have the little cartridge drive in it too but beware the cartridge drives they seem to all have gummy capstans... I ruined a fos tape put it in... got error... pulled it out and looked like it was slimed with the 'black oil' like in x files! there is a work around for this though using some glue and rings on the capstan roller after you scrape the goo off. having the large tape drive is better anyway. like this unit has. Our aim here at SMECC is to get data off our old tapes fro the company days and also our bulletin board system we wrote that had 100 separate boards, email, voting and poll system multi user chat we let other 3000 system managers in the 80s use... it was really something in the pre-internet days. Mike - there should also be a full file of all the hp-3000 stuff that Marlys Nelson developed I always thought it would be fun to finally get a series 68 or 70 but... yikes the power bill would hit you and the cooling....Yikes! for the same reason we want a series II or III or CX for the museums display but to keep it under power 24/7 with a string of drives costs $$$ and especially when you consider the air conditioning ! I have a 37 cpu and a 50 meg drive but of course need recon fig it which means cold load tape as the other drives in the string are missing I can not it past the point of disavowing the other drives that do not exist. Fun time here with the manuals etc... I have not had my hands on A WORKING 3000 for over 22 years I think. A lot comes back but there are some head scratching still going on! OK have the cart tape drive with goo capstan and have reel to reel tape drive that when at initial power-up it just spins the reels. What do we need? spare cpu more little disk drives 50 meg will not hold the store set from 1986 Known good reel to reel hpib tape drives 1600 bpi ok as that is what our store set is in and any of the other reel to reel tape distributions contributions and found stuff was. I will keep an eyen out for east coast stuff for you and appreciate if you keep an eye out on west coast stuff for us! pretty fun with drop box we can share programs without having to ship tapes to each other! Ed Sharpe archaist for SMECC _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 8/15/2015 6:36:21 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, steerex at ccvn.com writes: Mike, I have a complete micro/37 that I'd be willing to part with. It was last booted about 2 years ago when another list member was trying to his a system running. Is is mounted in one of the short / narrow HP racks with 3x670H HPIB drives. I think the total disk size is about 1 Gb. That seems like a ton for a system that small. I also have a HPIB 7980 front loading tape drive, that I would include in the deal. AND... I have the original 9-track system tapes (FOS), some spare NOS tapes (let me know how many you'd like), the original MPE documents on CD, and I could probably dig up some MPE paper documentation as well. I am in western NC but could be coaxed into meeting you somewhere closer (possibly southern Virginia). I'll take an offer but, be warned, I'm not giving it away. Thanks, Steve Robertson steerex at ccvn.com On 8/14/2015 10:01 PM, Mike Loewen wrote: > > I worked on HP 3000 systems in the late '80s, and would like to find > one for my collection. A series 42 would be nice, but a series 37 or > micro XE would do. Any leads? I'm already aware of the one on Epay in > Florida that's been sitting at $1,725 for the past year. > > I'm in central PA. > > > Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us > Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/ > -- Steve Robertson steerex at ccvn.com

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Clearpoint DCME/Q4E configuration

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Hi, does anyone know anything about the configuration of these boards? (The document on BitSavers only covers the Q4B; the jumper configuration on the Q4E is totally different.) They are 4MB quad QBUS memory cards; PMI capable, I'm pretty sure. I have two of them, one of which came out of an 11/84 (I never saw it in the machine, though), and is so probably configured to run PMI. The thing is that I stupidly mixed it in with the other one, and now I don't know which one is which - and they are jumpered differently. It doesn't have to be full (or any) documentation; if someone had one they _knew_ was jumpered for, say, PMI operation, I could copy their jumper setup (or see if one of mine already had the same). If not, I'm going to start in on drawing a picture of all the jumpers, and see what QBUS/PMI pins they are all connected to - looking at the card, there's a big row of jumpers next to the pins the PMI is on, and the jumpers are all 'on' on one card, and all 'off' on the other, so I suspect the one card is jumpered for PMI operation, and the other, not. So, even if there no documentation extant at all, we should be able to more of less figure out what many of the jumpers do, and start making use of these cards. But any help/info would be gratefully received! Noel

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

docs or software for Quay 900 (uses Quay 90F/MPS board)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Does anyone happen to have documentation, schematics, or software for the Quay 900? It's a system based on the Quay 90F/MPS single-board Z80 computer and two MPI double-sided 8-inch floppy drives. The drives are MPI part no. 77618022, apparently a 9406 variant but not listed in the drive manual on Bitsavers. I suspect the pinout is close to the SA800/850 pinout (industry standard), but I was surprised to find that none of the variants in the 9406 manual have a pinout similar to that.

10 years, 9 months

3
16
0 0

Still more Parts available: DEC, TI-990, and HP1000

by pfriedr＠gainbroadband.com

I've just added to yesterday's list of vintage computer items that need to find a good home. Details, part numbers, and descriptions can be found here: http://www.hpfriedrichs.com/hpfparts/hpfparts.htm Thank you to several classiccmp members who corrected my earlier post. Some of the parts I have listed are associated with PDP 11/23s, not 11/34s. 73 Pete AC7ZL

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Free for Shipping

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

I have the following items that I want to get rid of. All are quantity one, except the Poqets. They are free for shipping cost from Chicago (ZIP 60659). I prefer to ship in the US, but will consider shipping internationally. Contact me directly at r_a_feldman at hotmail.com if you are interested in any of the items. Bob Irwin Accutrak A250EP-05 external parallel port tape drive HP Travan T1000e external parallel port tape drive Microsolutions Backpack 800TD Model 143010 external parallel port tape drive Archive 11250Q internal tape drive Mitsumi CD-ROM Drive 16-bit PC interface cardDauphin keyboard Compaq keyboard 2680KB (from a large 386 semi-portable) Zenith Number pad ZA-3034-NP Compaq LTE Lite 25 laptop w/power brick. Backlight bad, SRAM battery bad. Never had a hard drive. Toshiba external 3.5? floppy ZA1115 Dual internal PCMCIA card reader w/EISA PC adapter card (for Win95 and earlier) 2 broken Poqet PQ-161 portables. One has a US-made motherboard and might be a ?prototype?. Has NASA sticker on it. Both have broken screens, dinged cases and a few missing keys. One shows some reaction when turned on.

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Analog to Digital Converter

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

I have a number of laboratory instruments that are from the 1990 time frame. They produce digital data that is the digitized signal from a detector, the data can be from 512 to 65K samples long. The ADC used in these instruments is a 16bit 100ksample/sec design. The ADC is in a 3 by 4 inch metal box with a row of pins on each long edge. I think some of them are failing because I get the full 16 bit resolution from one machine, but not the others. This was determined by taking the digital samples and sorting the values and computing the increments between the adjacent values. In some cases the output looked like 14 bit resolution and in one case 6 bit resolution. Does anyone have any experience with this ADC technology? Who was the manufacturer? (There is no id on the outside) What is inside the box? Is it a hybrid circuit? Doug

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

More DEC boards

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello Paul, I sent you an email, not sure if you received it, maybe antispam? Thanks Andrea

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

In Realtime: Saving 25,000 Manuals

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Liam Proven > Apologies if this is old news... Is this Manuals Plus? They said at the start of the year that they were going to close, and I bought a whole bunch of stuff, but then things seemed to go quiet. Noel

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Booting an IBM MP 3000 S/390 System

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

I spent some time today and made a video of my MP 3000 system booting up to z/OS. The video is here: http://youtu.be/WnJmeQR0GQU. Even though the video is about 9-1/2 minutes long, it takes longer than that to boot. I edited out some of the more boring bits. ;-) TTFN - Guy

10 years, 9 months

11
15
0 0

DEC VAX parts and 11/34 System for sale

by pfriedr＠gainbroadband.com

I still have a bunch of vintage computer parts I'd like to find homes for. If you are interested either in components for a DEC VAX or in a PDP 11/34 embedded system complete with card cage, please visit my website for details and contact information. http://www.hpfriedrichs.com/hpfparts/hpfparts.htm I will be posting more items when these have been sold. Regards, Pete AC7ZL

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

SCSI Tape to TAP utility

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Well, Chuck, thanks a bunch, this is very useful and quite difficult code to write from scratch. How does one compile for DOS by the way (I have to admit I am too young to have ever tried), and get a copy of MSC 8.00C. Is the DOS compiler buried in some part of Visual Studio? I have some old versions dating back from Windows 95 time, when it was called Visual Studio 97... Marc >From: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> >Subject: SCSI Tape to TAP utility >A couple of weeks ago, I offered to share the source and executable for >a SCSI tape-to-SIMH .TAP file utility for MSDOS. >To run it, you'll need an ASPI driver for your SCSI adapter. >It was compiled using MSC 8.00C. >Find it here: >https://www.dropbox.com/s/x6qiudlpyitgxom/STP2T02.ZIP?dl=0 >Enjoy, >Chuck

10 years, 9 months

3
6
0 0

WANTED: HP 3000

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

and I am looking for west coast hp -3000's! Mike! Due to freight az or cal... for a 3000/37 or micro gear but would pay the big freight if it was a old series II or II or cx or precx or series 1 I spent most of my time on series 2 and 3 machines and although I do not have one currently I DO have the additional plug in front panel that shows ALL registers The CEs would use it in dire times.... actually one interface card is for CX and one card for hooking into a series II or Series III.. I am going to bring up the 37 to use Did not know you had 3000 background also we will have to talk more! Ed# www.smecc.org In a message dated 8/14/2015 7:02:05 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us writes: I worked on HP 3000 systems in the late '80s, and would like to find one for my collection. A series 42 would be nice, but a series 37 or micro XE would do. Any leads? I'm already aware of the one on Epay in Florida that's been sitting at $1,725 for the past year. I'm in central PA. Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

8-E(s) in Illinois

by useddec＠gmail.com

While pulling parts for another list member my workers found another 8-E. I thought I had 2 in the area, but who knows. Anyway, if you are going to Chicago (VCF) I'm almost 3 hours south of there, but I have several list members who plan on stopping by before or after and might be willing to deliver or get it closer for the right price. I had already planned on selling one, so now I actually have 2. Both are 8-E boxes, H724(I think) power supply, a single omnibus backplane, a switch panel, silkscreen, one has white bezel. They do not have :keys, cover (or lid), slides. I can configure the boards to anything within reason, but I suggest you go with the mos board or kit available on the list. Core is getting expensive. Please contact me off list with questions. Thanks, Paul

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Anyone have a Lockheed SUE?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I turned up some CPU info on it, which I uploaded to bitsavers/lockheed/sue Dumps of the programmable parts on the CPU would be nice if anyone has one.

10 years, 9 months

4
6
0 0

Slightly OT: XT-IDE

by afahimi＠fahimienterprises.com

Hello All, I've been trying to help a friend of mine get his XT-IDE (DP ver 2 board) up and running to boot a HDD in an IBM 8525. It is a bit difficult since he is across the country but we have made progress. However, we still cannot get the system to boot. The card is recognized by the system, the boot menu comes up. At first we could not get it to find a HDD. However, after a bunch of trial error we were able to get the drive to be recognized. We booted w/ a DOS 6.22 disk, ran fdisk /mbr, and everything seems to have completed but after reboot the HDD will not format. Checking with fdisk shown no partition info at all. The XT-IDE is the only card in the system, booting from floppies is fine with no issues. We also have gotten a 1h error at times. Finally, to rule out the HDD as an issue we tried to boot using the serial connection. The card is seen by the server but when we attempt to boot again we get a 1h error. Config info as follows: ide_xt.bin: v2.0.0B3 (2013-03-02) Full Operating Mode: No IDE Controllers: 1 Power Management: Disabled Device Type: XTIDE r1 Base Address: 300h Control Block: 308h Master & Slave Settings: Block Mode Transfers: Yes CHS Translation: Auto Internal Write Cache: Disabled User Specified CHS/LBA: No Boot Settings: Display Mode: Default Number of Floppy Dr.: Auto Scan for Serial Drives: No Default Boot Drive: 80h The BIOS chip is an amtel http://www.atmel.com/images/doc0270.pdf EEPROM type: 2864 SDP: Enable Page Size: 1 byte EEPROM Address: D000h Generate Checksum byte: Yes At this point I am stumped. Any help is appreciated. Thanks. -Ali

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

GRiD Compass power supply information

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

Hi folks, I picked up an 1101 GRiDcompass with no power supply. I'd like to attempt a retrofit. Does anyone know what voltages are in play? I'm specifically worried about the EL panel and want to know if the high voltages for it are produced in the PSU itself, or the panel. Any information, or leads on a spare power supply are appreciated. Failing that, I'll start reverse engineering the PSU in my other 1101- they're just a pain to work on. - Ian -- Ian Finder (206) 395-MIPS ian.finder at gmail.com

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

E-mail Archives Was: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > You can find a discussion about it in the archives (well, actually, you > can't). > Which reminds me.. > The archive have never come back to http://www.classiccmp.org/lists.html Ah, which archives are we speaking of? The CCTalk archives? If so, I've been hosting an 'un-official' copy of the archives from March '97 to January '05 here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/cctalk/ and they should be in Google by now. I do have copies here of the archives from February '05 to Oct '14 (partial), which were wiped out in the big list failure last fall (I forget where I got them from), but they are not on-line. I think there was some talk of them coming back at the main site, but if that's not going to happen, I'd be happy to add them to the collection here. The actual conversion from mail archives to web pages (for the '97 to '05 archives) was performed by john_a_s2004 at hotmail.com (thanks, John!), and I don't have the code to do the transmogrification. I had enquired about doing the rest of the archives, but I didn't hear back. If there is significant interest in having them online too, I _could_ write new code to spit out the relevant HTML message and index files. Should I do so? Noel

10 years, 9 months

4
4
0 0

More DEC boards

by useddec＠gmail.com

Well, here's another update on my never ending/ always changing list of quad and hex boards. These are all M7xxx, and the M8xxx should be done in a week or so. There are a few boards here I will be using myself, But I am planning on selling off about 80% of my DEC equipment. All is located in zip 61853 and most is shipable. There are a lot of boards to go through yet, and this list does not show any PDP8 parts or industrial control, but feel free to inquire. There are still some DEC things I am willing to trade for, but I also collect US, Great Britain, and Canadian and other coins, boy scout items, and from our English members or anyone else who knows what it is, Doulton, mostly Lambeth. Old microscopes, and almost anything Zeiss. Cash always works. Please contact me off list. https://doc-0s-6g-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/o60568klv0gtnika…

10 years, 9 months

6
12
0 0

IMSAI VDP-80 documentation?

by santo.nucifora＠gmail.com

Today I am taking delivery of an IMSAI VDP-80 and am very happy to have found one. This helps fill in my IMSAI collection. While it comes with some disks (and I can deal with restoring the Persci drives), it comes with no documentation. I do want to restore it to working condition. I also have a PCS-80/30 that, I believe, shares some of the cards but not all and have the documentation for that one. Would anyone have any IMSAI VDP-80 documentation they can share? There doesn't appear to be any online; at least in the usual places. Thanks, Santo

10 years, 9 months

3
2
0 0

Wang PC260 memory fault

by thrashbarg＠kaput.homeunix.org

Hi List, So a good friend of mine recently resurrected his childhood 286 Wang PC260 after I suggested he replace the keyboard controller. In the 14 or so years it's been unused, it has developed a memory fault in one of the conventional memory banks. The memory is soldered to the board so we're looking for anything that might assist in tracking down the dud memory IC. He can get it to boot if the memory size is set to 256kB, so I'm guessing the second 256kB bank is bad. Is there software that exists that can identify individual dead or faulty memory IC's, or at least the corresponding bit(s) which may not be working? According to Dr. Google, this machine was built by Tandy for Wang. Perhaps there's a Tandy diagnostic disk that'll work with it, or better yet a Wang diagnostic disk. (I'm wondering if this question has been asked/answered before too) Cheers, Alexis.

10 years, 9 months

3
2
0 0

Help needed to read 5.2GB DVD-RAM Type 1 cartridges - UK

by PeksaDO＠cardiff.ac.uk

Can anyone help with this - A colleague (doing voluntary work) is trying to retrieve data archived on cartridges as per subject. Does anyone have a drive he can borrow or buy; can someone read them for him etc? If anyone can help, e-mail me directly and I'll put you in touch. Have seen a couple of drives on ebay.com but none on ebay.co.uk. As per my e-mail address, Cardiff area. Note - I read cctalk in digest mode. TIA. Doug.

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

And speaking of ALGOL

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

I assure you Chuck, I do know the original B5500 ALGOL having written my first program on one. For those of you who might be interested, I sent a listing of the B6700 ALGOL compiler source code to the CHM. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Burroughs extensions to ALGOL to optimise|ize the use of the native string instructions.

10 years, 9 months

7
9
0 0

R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by supervinx＠libero.it

Older DOS utils like IMD or TELEDISK knew better about 8" disks and precompression, directly accessing the controller. If the Supercard software has been written with no 8" disks support it will be hard to manage writes correctly. My two cents -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: supervinx <supervinx at libero.it> Data:13/08/2015 08:28 (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro He told me there's no Linux support. I should try Keirf's utils or access the hardware with a serial connection. May be I could try the Supercard in a VM. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: supervinx <supervinx at libero.it> Data:13/08/2015? 08:25? (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro Hi! A bit OT. I tried the fdadap card successfully reading and writing SD and DD disks, together with a standard ISA controller. Had to try a bit, since not every disk controller manages SD writes.? So the FDADAP should be ok, and the problems lie on the Supercard side. I contacted the Supercard guy, in order to know if there's a Linux support. I've no windows machines, only some specialized DOS one. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> Data:13/08/2015? 04:46? (GMT+01:00) A: cctalk at classiccmp.org Oggetto: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro At 07:27 PM 8/11/2015, Josh Dersch wrote: >Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out.? Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842.? I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. I'd tried the SuperCard Pro / FDADAP combo last March with no success. I hope to return to the task.? Maybe it was a problem with my drive(s). - John

10 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by supervinx＠libero.it

He told me there's no Linux support. I should try Keirf's utils or access the hardware with a serial connection. May be I could try the Supercard in a VM. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: supervinx <supervinx at libero.it> Data:13/08/2015 08:25 (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro Hi! A bit OT. I tried the fdadap card successfully reading and writing SD and DD disks, together with a standard ISA controller. Had to try a bit, since not every disk controller manages SD writes.? So the FDADAP should be ok, and the problems lie on the Supercard side. I contacted the Supercard guy, in order to know if there's a Linux support. I've no windows machines, only some specialized DOS one. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> Data:13/08/2015? 04:46? (GMT+01:00) A: cctalk at classiccmp.org Oggetto: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro At 07:27 PM 8/11/2015, Josh Dersch wrote: >Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out.? Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842.? I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. I'd tried the SuperCard Pro / FDADAP combo last March with no success. I hope to return to the task.? Maybe it was a problem with my drive(s). - John

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

R: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by supervinx＠libero.it

Hi! A bit OT. I tried the fdadap card successfully reading and writing SD and DD disks, together with a standard ISA controller. Had to try a bit, since not every disk controller manages SD writes.? So the FDADAP should be ok, and the problems lie on the Supercard side. I contacted the Supercard guy, in order to know if there's a Linux support. I've no windows machines, only some specialized DOS one. -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> Data:13/08/2015 04:46 (GMT+01:00) A: cctalk at classiccmp.org Oggetto: Re: Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro At 07:27 PM 8/11/2015, Josh Dersch wrote: >Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out.? Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842.? I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. I'd tried the SuperCard Pro / FDADAP combo last March with no success. I hope to return to the task.? Maybe it was a problem with my drive(s). - John

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Naked minis

by useddec＠gmail.com

I was having problems sending these to some members, so i'm trying to post them. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2MOaRm-6XKNfkxxZ0ZMZldZUGh0SjVMWHA…

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I forgot to mention one item. Since I had VERY few Double Sided media with the index hole offset that extra 1/2" from the Single Sided index hole - and I have many RX02 compatible floppy media which are Single Sided with the index hole in the wrong place for being a Double Sided media - I added a DPDT switch to the sense circuit of the DSD 880/30 drive. In the normal position, the Single Sided floppy media are detected as Single Sided floppy media. In the opposite position, a Single Sided floppy media is detected as Double Sided and the DSD 880/30 is then able to read / write both sides of the floppy media. Since the DSD 880/30 is also able to perform a LLF (Low Level Format), I am able to use all of the RX02 media as Double Sided WITHOUT the inconvenience of having to punch the extra index hole. >Jerome H. Fine wrote: > >Josh Dersch wrote: > >> Here at the museum I'm evaluating the use of a SuperCard Pro >> (http://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=SCP) to archive and >> duplicate 8" floppies from various machines. It's not technically >> supported (the manual states that it *should* work but has not been >> tested, etc.) The disks I'm reading are nothing exotic (They're >> standard double-density, double-sided disks with an IBM format -- I >> could use a PC and ImageDisk to do the job, but the SuperCard is very >> convenient, in theory...) >> >> Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but >> less successful in writing them back out. Thus far I've tried a pair >> of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842. I'm using a DBit FDADAP >> (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 >> signals. (And the 851s are jumpered properly for the TG43 signal, as >> far as I can tell). I've also tried a variety of media (Verbatim, >> Maxell) with the same results (though the position of the bad data >> varies from attempt to attempt). >> >> The issue is that upon reading back a disk that has been written via >> the SuperCard, data is fine up until about cylinder 60, at which >> point bad sectors start appearing more and more frequently (though >> most of the data is still OK). I tried disabling TG43 just to see if >> it made a difference, and it does - with TG43 disabled sectors >> written past cylinder 43 read back as garbage. >> >> I'm running short of ideas. Anyone else have any experience with >> this combo? Any suggestions on troubleshooting tips? > > I doubt that this suggestion will help, but it might be > useful for what are called RX03 compatible media. > > The RX02 drive from DEC was emulated in hardware > by DSD (Data Systems Design). DSD Produced a > drive which was named the DSD 880/30 which consisted > of 3 * RL02 internal drives and a single floppy drive which > could read IBM Single Density and DEC Double Density > floppy media. The DEC names for those two floppy media > were RX01 and RX02. The actual DEC RX02 drive was > able to read in both Single Density and Double density modes. > In the case of the DEC RX01 and DEC RX02 drives, they > were both Single Sided. Further DEC did at one point intend > to support a Double Sided drive which I understand was to > be called the DEC RX03, but it was never released that I > ever heard about. The software support was specifically > included in V04.00 of RT-11 in the file DY.MAC, but was > probably never tested since the code was incorrect. By > V05.00 of RT-11, DY.MAC no longer contained the extra > code to support Double Sided media. > > DSD extended the support and the DSD 880/30 contained > an RX03 compatible drive which could read Double Density > Double Sided media. What I don't know is IF the physical > characteristics of the Double Density media which DEC and > DSD supported are identical to the Double Density physical > characteristics of the floppy media to which you refer as having > "an IBM format" since I have never encountered any floppy > media from IBM other than Single Sided / Single Density. > > To make matters simple IF the floppy media which you have > are compatible with DEC RX02 Double Density format, then > with the DSD RX03 floppy drive, I extended the DY.MAC > file for RT-11 and it now supports reading a Double Sided / > Double Density floppy mounted in a DSD RX03 drive. If > you can manage to locate a DSD 880/30 and controller to > run on a DEC PDP-11/73 with RT-11, then I can make the > DYX.SYS device driver available. To first make sure that > everything will work with the DSD 880/30, you can test your > floppy to see if a DEC RX02 can at least read the first side of > your floppy. > > Please let me know if you know the answer to if your Double > Sided / Double Density floppy media are DEC RX02 compatible > on at least the first side. If that is true, then the DSD 880/30 > drive will probably be able to read both sides very easily. > > If you have any questions, please ask. > > Jerome Fine

10 years, 9 months

5
10
0 0

Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 07:27 PM 8/11/2015, Josh Dersch wrote: >Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out. Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842. I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. I'd tried the SuperCard Pro / FDADAP combo last March with no success. I hope to return to the task. Maybe it was a problem with my drive(s). - John

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by JoshD＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

Here at the museum I'm evaluating the use of a SuperCard Pro (http://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=SCP) to archive and duplicate 8" floppies from various machines. It's not technically supported (the manual states that it *should* work but has not been tested, etc.) The disks I'm reading are nothing exotic (They're standard double-density, double-sided disks with an IBM format -- I could use a PC and ImageDisk to do the job, but the SuperCard is very convenient, in theory...) Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but less successful in writing them back out. Thus far I've tried a pair of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842. I'm using a DBit FDADAP (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 signals. (And the 851s are jumpered properly for the TG43 signal, as far as I can tell). I've also tried a variety of media (Verbatim, Maxell) with the same results (though the position of the bad data varies from attempt to attempt). The issue is that upon reading back a disk that has been written via the SuperCard, data is fine up until about cylinder 60, at which point bad sectors start appearing more and more frequently (though most of the data is still OK). I tried disabling TG43 just to see if it made a difference, and it does - with TG43 disabled sectors written past cylinder 43 read back as garbage. I'm running short of ideas. Anyone else have any experience with this combo? Any suggestions on troubleshooting tips? Thanks, Josh Sr. Vintage Software Engineer Living Computer Museum www.livingcomputermuseum.org<http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org>

10 years, 9 months

8
12
0 0

Writing 8" floppies with SuperCard Pro

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I forgot to mention one item. Since I had VERY few Double Sided media with the index hole offset that extra 1/2" from the Single Sided index hole - and I have many RX02 compatible floppy media which are Single Sided with the index hole in the wrong place for being a Double Sided media - I added a DPDT switch to the sense circuit of the DSD 880/30 drive. In the normal position, the Single Sided floppy media are detected as Single Sided floppy media. In the opposite position, a Single Sided floppy media is detected as Double Sided and the DSD 880/30 is then able to read / write both sides of the floppy media. Since the DSD 880/30 is also able to perform a LLF (Low Level Format), I am able to use all of the RX02 media as Double Sided WITHOUT the inconvenience of having to punch the extra index hole. >Jerome H. Fine wrote: > >Josh Dersch wrote: > >> Here at the museum I'm evaluating the use of a SuperCard Pro >> (http://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=SCP) to archive and >> duplicate 8" floppies from various machines. It's not technically >> supported (the manual states that it *should* work but has not been >> tested, etc.) The disks I'm reading are nothing exotic (They're >> standard double-density, double-sided disks with an IBM format -- I >> could use a PC and ImageDisk to do the job, but the SuperCard is very >> convenient, in theory...) >> >> Thus far I've been successful in creating images of floppies, but >> less successful in writing them back out. Thus far I've tried a pair >> of Shugart 851s and a Qume QumeTrack 842. I'm using a DBit FDADAP >> (http://www.dbit.com/fdadap.html) to deal with cabling and the TG43 >> signals. (And the 851s are jumpered properly for the TG43 signal, as >> far as I can tell). I've also tried a variety of media (Verbatim, >> Maxell) with the same results (though the position of the bad data >> varies from attempt to attempt). >> >> The issue is that upon reading back a disk that has been written via >> the SuperCard, data is fine up until about cylinder 60, at which >> point bad sectors start appearing more and more frequently (though >> most of the data is still OK). I tried disabling TG43 just to see if >> it made a difference, and it does - with TG43 disabled sectors >> written past cylinder 43 read back as garbage. >> >> I'm running short of ideas. Anyone else have any experience with >> this combo? Any suggestions on troubleshooting tips? > > I doubt that this suggestion will help, but it might be > useful for what are called RX03 compatible media. > > The RX02 drive from DEC was emulated in hardware > by DSD (Data Systems Design). DSD Produced a > drive which was named the DSD 880/30 which consisted > of 3 * RL02 internal drives and a single floppy drive which > could read IBM Single Density and DEC Double Density > floppy media. The DEC names for those two floppy media > were RX01 and RX02. The actual DEC RX02 drive was > able to read in both Single Density and Double density modes. > In the case of the DEC RX01 and DEC RX02 drives, they > were both Single Sided. Further DEC did at one point intend > to support a Double Sided drive which I understand was to > be called the DEC RX03, but it was never released that I > ever heard about. The software support was specifically > included in V04.00 of RT-11 in the file DY.MAC, but was > probably never tested since the code was incorrect. By > V05.00 of RT-11, DY.MAC no longer contained the extra > code to support Double Sided media. > > DSD extended the support and the DSD 880/30 contained > an RX03 compatible drive which could read Double Density > Double Sided media. What I don't know is IF the physical > characteristics of the Double Density media which DEC and > DSD supported are identical to the Double Density physical > characteristics of the floppy media to which you refer as having > "an IBM format" since I have never encountered any floppy > media from IBM other than Single Sided / Single Density. > > To make matters simple IF the floppy media which you have > are compatible with DEC RX02 Double Density format, then > with the DSD RX03 floppy drive, I extended the DY.MAC > file for RT-11 and it now supports reading a Double Sided / > Double Density floppy mounted in a DSD RX03 drive. If > you can manage to locate a DSD 880/30 and controller to > run on a DEC PDP-11/73 with RT-11, then I can make the > DYX.SYS device driver available. To first make sure that > everything will work with the DSD 880/30, you can test your > floppy to see if a DEC RX02 can at least read the first side of > your floppy. > > Please let me know if you know the answer to if your Double > Sided / Double Density floppy media are DEC RX02 compatible > on at least the first side. If that is true, then the DSD 880/30 > drive will probably be able to read both sides very easily. > > If you have any questions, please ask. > > Jerome Fine

10 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb