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

by orgwood＠iaxs.net

I was an Intel salesman and have this board...I have lots of docs, serial monitor, chess PROMs but no keyboard monitors. Do you have the BIN files for them to fit in 2716s? I can scan, copy eproms, anything to help you if you can help me. Thanks, Dave http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2015-January/002410.html http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.bitsavers.org/bits/ http://www.intel-vintage.info/apps/blog/ Original Woodworks 4631 Lake Ave., White Bear Lake, MN 55110 By appointment only! (651) 429-2222 www.originalwoodworks.com orgwood at iaxs.net --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

10 years, 12 months

3
2
0 0

Place of manufacture for DEC equipment?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

be aware there was a DEC terminal plant here in phx az late 70s early 80s Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 5/19/2015 9:53:59 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, ddsnyder at zoominternet.net writes: The serial number can be broken into 3 areas... The first two digits indicate the country of Manufacture AY = Ayr, Scotland BK = Germany GA = Galway, Ireland IQ = Somewhere else NI = Salem, New Hampshire, USA PC = Irvine, Scotland KA = Kanata, Ontario, Canada CX = Colorado Springs, CO, USA WF = Westfield, MA, USA AB = Albuquerque, NM, USA The 3rd Digit indicates the year 7 = 1997 8 = 1998 9 = 1999 etc. The 4th & 5th digits indicate the week of manufacture from January. 01 = 1st week in January 12 = 12th week after January 1st (End of March) 20 = Mid April For a rough calculate take 4 weeks to the month The remaining digits indicate the run number. 00005 = The 5th one made at this plant 00100 = The 100th one made at this plant >From the fog in my head... Dan Snyder, Butler, PA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jack Rubin" <j at ckrubin.us> To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Friday, May 01, 2015 5:25 PM Subject: Place of manufacture for DEC equipment? Is there a way to identify which DEC plant manufactured a specific piece of equipment? I'm certainly aware of the Maynard, Massachusetts label on my equipment and I'm pretty sure I've seen DEC Kanata, Canada on flipchip handles. Maybe even PR serial numbers on computers built in Puerto Rico. Can anyone supply any more extensive and/or detailed information? Thanks, Jack

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-11/74 MP

by john＠forecast.name

CASTOR:: was the M+ group?s 11/74 housed in it?s own machine room in ZK. Since the machine hardware could be relatively easily reconfigured, POLLUX:: was reserved for when the system was running as 2 independent nodes (3+1 or 2+2 CPUs). The DECnet group had a dual processor system with node name ELROND::. I used CASTOR:: standalone a couple of times while debugging the MP changes to the DECnet kernel code until ELROND:: became stable. Eventually, ELROND:: became the timesharing system for the DECnet-RSX group. The lack of cache-coherency and the limited work-arounds (cache-bypass or cache flushing) meant that all the DECnet kernel code, both drivers and protocol stack, ran with cache-bypass enabled on its data PDRs. So the networking code on an MP system had lower peak performance than on a normal 11/70 although you would never notice the difference in regular operation. John.

10 years, 12 months

2
1
0 0

Place of manufacture for DEC equipment?

by j＠ckrubin.us

Is there a way to identify which DEC plant manufactured a specific piece of equipment? I'm certainly aware of the Maynard, Massachusetts label on my equipment and I'm pretty sure I've seen DEC Kanata, Canada on flipchip handles. Maybe even PR serial numbers on computers built in Puerto Rico. Can anyone supply any more extensive and/or detailed information? Thanks, Jack

10 years, 12 months

20
42
0 0

Olivetti Programma 101 article (In Italian)

by jws＠jwsss.com

http://blog.startupitalia.eu/p101-make-in-italy-de-sandre-olivetti-intervis… There is a museum in Ivrea with the Programma 101 on display. I think some of the photos from modern times were from there. This article is related to a maker fair in Trieste. Please visit the page for pictures and to give them page clicks, since I am archiving the info here for the list. Thanks Jim Google translated from article: The engineer of the legendary P101: "Here are the secrets of the first Pc of history" The Mini Maker Faire Trieste meeting with the engineer De Sandre, one of the creators of the program 101 Olivetti: the first personal computer will be among the stars of the show to Make In italy Expo (from May 18). Last October, in the Maker Faire Rome , was presented the exhibition "50 years of Italian innovations: from P101 to the first espresso machine space". An exhibition, organized by the Foundation Make in Italy , which now arrives in Milan Expo 2015. From today, in fact, can be seen, in an expanded version of the original, in two locations in which it was divided: Telecom Italian pavilion within the exhibition center in Rho and the National Museum of Science and Technology of the Lombard capital. The prototype of the P101 ( Program 101 ), recognized as the first desktop computers in history, made ??his international debut at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1965. The team, led by Pier Giorgio Perotto, devised an instrument that had some features that still they form the basis of any personal computer: CPU with discrete components, RAM (magnetostrictive delay line), mass storage (magnetic card) and serial printer to impact. Within the team of Perotto was a young engineer, Giovanni De Sandre. Matthew Tro?a met him at the second edition of the Mini Maker Faire Trieste to talk with him about the success of the P101 (and many other things). The interview How did your story with Olivetti? I entered into Olivetti April 1, 1960, after the previous talks that had established my eligibility in that company. I even received the head of the laboratory at the time, the engineer Mario Tchu , who was the son of a Chinese ambassador to Vatican. Tchu had specialized in the United States, and this greatly pleased to Adriano Olivetti , who cast him in his team. That time I had just graduated, fresh from Politecnico di Milano, and you think, now my degree is equivalent to a degree in electrical engineering, but at the time did not exist in this formulation, so I got a degree in electrical engineering with a "certificate studies of electronics. " So she was received by engineer Tchu, who then assumed? The engineer Tchu was a very friendly, helpful and friendly. He explained all the activities of the laboratories, mostrandomeli one by one and explaining with great patience and care that what took place in those places. In the end I remember that I said, "then engineer, she is interested in what more? One thing in production or in the project? "And I said a little 'afraid' to me honestly like to work on projects ...". Tchu then he asked again, "but she would like to work on the evolution and improvement of our existing products or instead of entirely new products?" And then I said that without wishing to presumptuous, I would have loved work on projects entirely new. The engineer Tchu picked up the phone, called the engineer Perotto and said "dear engineer, I have here a person that suits her." That phrase always decided for my professional future. I went well in the working group of engineer Perotto, who was my direct responsibility even though he was only a few years older than me. Perotto was a nice person, of great culture and technical ability. He had a spontaneous orientation toward the concrete. I was very lucky because I was thrust into an almost idyllic. In the Olivetti corporate hierarchy was not seen as an imposition, not weighed. The leaders were, but they respected because it was natural respect. People were so influential that respect for them was spontaneous. I found an atmosphere of great freedom, but also of great involvement. If I had a problem it was enough to ask for help and I was listening. My problems and my gaps I filled asking. I learned a lot while I worked. What he is initially occupied? The first thing I worked were checks magnetic, which still bear the bottom two spaces wider than three a little 'closer. The location of these areas determines the reading code. The machine that read these codes had designed Perotto and I was in charge of setting up, checking its operation, and connecting it to an existing machine Olivetti. Within six months I had accomplished something. And then the P101 ... Work began on the P101 with a deep study of the feasibility of the product, initially purely theoretical. We wanted to create a car that was not limited only to make four simple steps that already did with the mechanical machines. Then produce mechanical machines cost 39,000 lire, but then were sold to 390 thousand pounds. For Olivetti invest in this product would not bring the expected revenue. We had to do something to level a little 'higher. So we started working on the prototype of the P101. We did not know that the machine had to create, in the sense that there was still nothing like it on the market. However for me the bonds were crystal clear: it had to be easy to use, accessible to a non-professional user. Accessibility was to be the characteristic trait. In the second place it had to be reduced in size. Finally it would cost as little as possible. Led by engineer Perotto, then, we started working on this electronic project. So the first thing to do was to decide the type of memory to be installed in the machine. Of course we had the opportunity to go to the store and choose from dozens of memories at our disposal. In those years there were very few memories. In particular there was the core memory , but was not good for the small size of our future machine. The engineer Perotto I knew immediately, I'm a bit 'after. (Laughs) After a study of the type of memory to choose from we focused on a type of memory of the past generation, which had been abandoned by now (working memory was a magnetostrictive delay line ). The technology of the time gave us memories that were not going to respect the constraints that we had set, so we used the components of the past, to make the "car of the future". The revolutionary products as was the P101, they appreciate when they are ready. Behind their implementation but there is always a big job. How much have you been working on this project? We got to work with his head down, day and night, often without realizing that had arrived the weekend. In some periods there was no agreement on Sunday as a day of rest. There were no arrears with whom to spend the afternoon. All this does not remember it as a burden, but as the most exciting period of my life. We had to finish first. I think that needs to come first in some things, that does not mean overdoing it, but engage and expend maximum to achieve their goals. Running behind is far worse than through the air. He never felt the weight of fatigue in what he did? There was no concept of fatigue for us. It was completely overcome by the interest that was for what we were doing. We felt a bit 'pioneers in a world where we often designed parts of electronic circuits, but never a car full. We proceeded by trial and error, but they hand it proceeded increased experience. Chapter Innovation What about her? Innovation has to have some unmet need. To return to my story, I believe that the fact of working at P101, was not immediately something innovative. For me initially was mainly a strong need. If I think back to when the University did the calculations with the ruler with which often was wrong, the idea that you could create a machine that would help me with extreme speed and precision to make those calculations, for me was the solution to my real need . Need to be put together with some technical expertise required to carry out in practice his idea. Innovation means want to go into the unexplored wilderness, hoping to find an oasis, a solution but we were not ready, but we have done us. Italy is a country still able to accept the technology? When there is something really innovative, I do not know if Italy is the best country in which to tell this innovation. From this point of view, perhaps the United States is a country more ready mentally, more pragmatic and more accustomed to understand the news. But this happens only in the initial phase. Olivetti also initially was little more than an island than the rest of the country. A lot of people did not even know that there was this company. But I believe that the issue on which we must reason is as follows. Today the world has certainly changed and we are used to accept anything new very easily. The challenge is to understand what, in this chaos of new, really creates innovation, understood as making something useful for our lives. What really affects our lives? That is, if what we invent or we make an impact in a way that is not obvious, trivial, obvious, then maybe other countries are more receptive, but Italy certainly not least, because of quality products makes many as he wants. The important thing, as I said, you know what, among the many new features, it's really helpful to improve their lives. He would redo everything you did? Yes absolutely. Though I speak with hindsight. One can not always project her life and does not know what may happen in the future. Certainly more than the experience in Olivetti itself, I would like to relive the spirit of those years, that basically was a spirit extremely positive, optimistic, enthusiastic. From my experience I have learned that critical is the commitment and self-criticism, that a little 'lacking nowadays. Innovation also means being confident, determined and feed their inner spring. It helps a lot to be introduced in the technology world, especially now that has become pervasive. Everything comes from a right balance between a strong driving force and a large capacity that criticism must regulate itself within us. What did you learn from your experience? That we must never stand still. But think of Steve Jobs! What has to do what he did? It's not that he invented something. What made the difference, however, was its continuity, his desire to fight, his steely character, which allowed him to transform a company that was going to fail in company we know today. What did Jobs? In fact did what many others did, but of course with an attention to detail and some aspects that have allowed him to make a difference. Today, companies ride the wave for a couple of years and when they feel it is necessary to reinvent itself give up and sit down. Steve Jobs? More than sitting! That one had the pins under the seat which put him constantly on the move. He never lies and never gave up, and certainly helped him a lot of his character. Today we have to stay on the move, never sit down, because innovation is moving. 16/05/2015 Matthew Tro?a & Alessandro Frau

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

Weird stuff has a TI 810 (also if anyone has token ring wiring)

by dave＠mitton.com

RE: Token Ring As said below, you can probably not worry too much about the wiring impedance (etc.) for a small ring. But you will still need a MAU or something like it. The token ring adapters have a physical layer protocol for ring insertion and token monitoring. The power-up state for a station wire is a physical loopback and it will try to successfully loop itself before inserting. A copy of the newsgroup comp.dcom.lans.token-ring FAQ still lives at http://www.networkuptime.com/faqs/token-ring/index.shtml Connector pinouts and other info is in there. Stuff on Wikipedia too. I had to dust off a few neurons to remember this stuff. Dave. I'm not reading this list consistently anymore... any direct questions should be CCed to me. On 5/18/2015 01:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >Date: Sun, 17 May 2015 12:58:20 -0400 >From: Sean Caron <scaron at umich.edu> >To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Cc: Sean Caron <scaron at umich.edu> >Subject: Re: Weird stuff has a TI 810 (also if anyone has token ring > wiring) >Message-ID: > <CAA43vkUJ7US+72OiYhEtrvOgM76u0tUv55wqAP65R21otLkbEg at mail.gmail.com> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > >I can tell you from firsthand experience that if you're just doing short >little runs within a vintage computer room in your home or something like >that, you can directly pin the 9-pin D-sub over to 8P8C and make short runs >with common unshielded Cat V cable and it should work fine. I did this all >the time when I was in high school to connect old MCA PS/2 machines with >the IBM token ring adapters (9 pin D-sub) to various old 8P8C MAUs that I >had acquired. I can't speak to dealing with those funky IBM connectors; >never worked with those. > >Best, > >Sean > > >On Sun, May 17, 2015 at 12:50 PM, Dave G4UGM <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of > > jwsmobile > > > Sent: 17 May 2015 16:30 > > > To: General at classiccmp.org; Discussion at classiccmp.org:On-Topic and Off- > > > Topic Posts > > > Subject: Weird stuff has a TI 810 (also if anyone has token ring wiring) > > > > > > There is a white cased TI 810 at Weird Stuff in the AS IS room. Probably > > > cheap. Of course unknown condition. > > > > > > Got some very nice Token ring equipment from an IBM facility of some > > sort. > > > will be using for Hercules setups. > > > > > > I'll need some balun's for the RJ45 (ibm version) to the DB9 if anyone > > has an > > > idea of the hookup. I'd like to figure out if I can wire this w/o using > > the token > > > ring cables, since I have what appears to be a bridge unit. I'll have to > > research > > > that though. > > > > > > Thanks > > > Jim > > > > Jim, > > Is there a part number on the "bridge" unit? Typically the IBM units just > > switch the stations it and out of the ring. > > Dave > > > > --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

DOS Frotz testing request

by dave＠661.org

I've finished up things for a new release of Frotz, an extremely portable Z-machine emulator (plays Infocom games). The Unix port is tested and ready to go, but I don't have real DOS hardware in working order. Could I get some people to try it out and let me know how it fares? It's compiled with Turbo C++ 3.0 for 16-bit DOS. The zipfile is at http://661.org/if/frotz244.zip. Source is at https://github.com/DavidGriffith/frotz. Games are available at http://ifarchive.org/ or https://661.org/if/ (some of my games). -- 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, 12 months

3
6
0 0

EPROM dumps for HP Draftmaster II 7596A

by martin＠shackspace.de

Hello! The EPROMs are labeled 07595-18045 and 07595-18046. We suspect some bits have toggled. Can anyone do a dump for me? It's for the 7596A of our local hackerspace. Greets, Martin -- Martin Peters martin.peters at news.uni-stuttgart.de

10 years, 12 months

2
7
0 0

Question about HP3000 weight

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Johannes Thelen - and others... HP-3000 Series II? series II?? We would pay handsomely for one. We found our backup archive set of HP-3000 software - heh heh all kinds of software including FORUM/3000 which was a multi user 100 seperate boards bulletin board, electronic mail, electronic poll and voting system, multi user chat rooms... ( this was all pre Internet so it was way cool back then! just gotta read the tapes.... amazed... this grouping of tapes was an off site storage I had forgotten about and re found in the back closet at the house... had not seen it in over 23 years.. I am really hot on getting e series II or II back to have one at the SMECC museum here in Arizona as it was one of my favorite machines but also we have the giant plug in front panel for it that shows all registers that the customer engineer would bring out in a suit case to really get down and dirty.... We have the series II and III interface board as well as the HP-3000 CX series interface board which is a separate item.. see http://www.smecc.org/hp/hewlet16_series_3_with_maint_panel.gif to see it hooked to HP 3000 WACC-B from U Wisconsin Used by Marlys Nelson - HP-3000 Programmer Extraordinaire! this photo was shot after we even had retired the system was using a series 48 with 303 meg drives I kept in next to my desk and would test boards in it.... When the panel was active on the III with users on it it was fun to throw it into single step BEWRAHHAHHAHH!!!AA!!! Ed Sharpe Archvisit for SMECC In a message dated 5/18/2015 2:30:24 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, aek at bitsavers.org writes: On 5/18/15 1:13 PM, Johannes Thelen wrote: > the big one of this donate is HP3000 Series III! :D > Finding software for the Series II and III has been extremely difficult so please try to find any that was associated with the machine.

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

Checkerboard pattern on a Mac Plus

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Posting this for those that might be interested... No it wasn't capacitors. This time it was something else. http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2015-05-14-mac-plus-checkerboard.h… Terry (Tez)

10 years, 12 months

3
2
0 0

Question about HP3000 weight

by johannesthelen＠hotmail.com

Hello friends! I just got another donate to my collection... It contains several items, but the big one of this donate is HP3000 Series III! :D Do anyone know what it weights? This one have CPU with Option 200 rack (my best guess, like some expanded IO?). And is there wheels below racks? Ps. IBM 1800 project is going further bit by bit, all gate doors and flat cabling is assembled back where they were. More coming about this later! - Johannes ThelenFinland Before microcomputers blog (Finnish) http://ennenmikrotietokoneita.blogspot.fi/

10 years, 12 months

3
3
0 0

3.5 floppy imaging

by shumaker＠att.net

I'm looking for a tool to do a bunch of 3.5 floppy imaging using a linux or a windows box.... Media is all early PC stuff. Any thoughts, comments, tools of choice? Is IMD the format of choice for these as well or is there something else for the newer formats? Steve

10 years, 12 months

11
14
0 0

ID help, Ampex tape drive and other things.

by pontus＠Update.UU.SE

Hi I'm about to go on a small road trip to pick up some computer gear. I'm curious about what I'm actually getting :) http://www.update.uu.se/~pontus/slask/L%C3%B6fberg-haul/ I know what the Siemens and IBM things are, but: What system would the the Ampex Series 800B have been used with? The Alfaskop terminals, are they 3270 compatible? Regarding the huge stack of tapes, what should I look for in order to identify what might be on them, is the "9270" label any clue? I will leave the Esselte Scribona FD 20 behind, but I'm curious what it is? I think it may have served use on an airport, printing boarding passes or similar. Regards, Pontus.

10 years, 12 months

6
8
0 0

Weird stuff has a TI 810 (also if anyone has token ring wiring)

by jws＠jwsss.com

There is a white cased TI 810 at Weird Stuff in the AS IS room. Probably cheap. Of course unknown condition. Got some very nice Token ring equipment from an IBM facility of some sort. will be using for Hercules setups. I'll need some balun's for the RJ45 (ibm version) to the DB9 if anyone has an idea of the hookup. I'd like to figure out if I can wire this w/o using the token ring cables, since I have what appears to be a bridge unit. I'll have to research that though. Thanks Jim

10 years, 12 months

4
5
0 0

PDP-11/74 MP

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: John Wilson > Even if E11's mP feature is officially unsupported, it was a *crazy* > amount of work What made it so much work? (Just curious about the technical aspects...) Noel

10 years, 12 months

3
2
0 0

HP board id?

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Thanks another million. - Marc >> Is the "HP 1000 M/E/F-Series Computers I/O Interfacing Guide" >> (02109-90006 September 1980) available online somewhere? >I thought I had sent it to Al some years ago, but it's not listed. In any >case, I've posted it here: > http://home.earthlink.net/~jdbryan/dropbox/02109-90006_Sep-1980.7z > See chapter 5, pages 5-5 and 5-6. > -- Dave

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

FYI - Plato Terminal has been sold

by curt＠atarimuseum.com

Thank you for all of the inquires... The CDC 721 Plato Terminal has been sold. Curt

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

R: Re: 3.5 floppy imaging

by supervinx＠libero.it

The only reason I guess is that they're bootable disks. Otherwise a simple filecopy is more than enough :) -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Data:17/05/2015 16:40 (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: Re: 3.5 floppy imaging > If they are just plain old dos format (DD or HD) dd under linux will do IF they are just plain old DOS format (DD or HD), then COPY will do. IF they are just plain old DOS format (DD or HD), then there is no reason to "image"! IF they are just plain old DOS format (DD or HD), then the files are all that matters. IF they are NOT just plain old DOS format (DD or HD), THEN there might be reason to image, such as if they are some unknown and not understood format, and the files can not be extracted, or there is reason to believe that there is some form of information in the structure and format of the disk that should be preserved, such as system tracks on CP/M disks, etc. Or, if they are copy-protected, and stuff other than the files needs to be preserved to be able to use the files.? 'Course then, your "imaging" methods are not likely to work, anyway. But, IF they are just plain old DOS format (DD or HD), then there is NO information other than the file content on the disks. If you format a 3.5" disk in a DOS/Windoze machine, and copy some file onto it, . . . Could you please explain to me WHY you would want an "image" of that disk?

10 years, 12 months

4
4
0 0

PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

Dan (the donor) brought more manuals, diags on paper tape, and his very nice color oscilloscope. Dan's 'scope displays RMS, PTP, Average, and other voltage values on the side of the trace window, so it makes power measurements very easy. After reading the manual and getting instructions from Warren, we found that some of the misbehaving front panel was due to operator (me) error. The Mode switch to change between LINC and 8 operation only has an effect after you press the I/O Preset switch, so that is working correctly. When you press I/O Preset the INST FIELD is set to 1 and the DATA FIELD is set to 3. I though that this was wrong for an 8k machine. If you look at the front panel you will see three bits and an additional 2 bits for the INST FIELD and DATA FIELD. So part of this is for the 8 and all of it is for the LINC, and it is working correctly. We recabled the VR14 and TU56. The Local Forward and Reverse switches on the TU56 do not get the correct behavior from the motors. The Line fuse on the VR14 blew when we turned it on. We will replace the fuse and try a slow power up with a Variac. We received lots of comments on reforming the capacitors in the power supply and strong recommendations from experts to just replace them. Since new caps are a different physical size, and would cost about $250 we decided to continue with reforming the originals. We measured the voltage ripple on the backplanes near the power connectors. - +5.0V = 5.01V, 200 mV PTP ripple - +10.0V = 5.9V, 200 mV PTP ripple - -15.0V = -14.2V, 800 mV PTP ripple - -30.0V = -31.2V, 800 mV PTP ripple The 800mV of ripple on the -30 is a sign that the caps in the power supply were not working well, and is probably too noisy for the core to work. We tried to measure the capacitance of the power supply capacitors using an ancient, but very nice, GenRad capacitor meter, but unfortunately the caps were too big to measure. We thought that more power on time for the caps might improve their behavior, so we started debugging the processor. We found that bits 4 and 11 in the Program Counter were always on. We looked at the flip-flops on the M221 modules in the processor that make up the PC register and they the contents matched what was loaded from the console switches. We need to determine why the indicator lights on the front panel do not exactly reflect the internal state of the registers in the processor so we can continue debugging. After running the system for about four hours the ripple on the -30V was down to 180mV, so the capacitors are getting better. More run time will hopefully reduce the ripple to an acceptable level. If not, we will have to replace them. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 12 months

2
1
0 0

Weird stuff has a TI 810 (also if anyone has token ring wiring)

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

one here but not cheap. I was happy I got a diablo KSR I can not even tell you how bad I used to lust after one of those in 1979...... http://www.omnidatasys.net/catalog/printers/texas-Instruments-ti-820-ksr In a message dated 5/17/2015 12:19:45 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jwest at classiccmp.org writes: I am looking for a TI 820 or 825 KSR, if anyone has one in good shape with all keys that they are willing to part with - sale or trade... J

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

old DEC and HP boards are claimed.

by sales＠elecplus.com

All gone, that was fast J Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-792-3400 phone sales at elecplus.com AOL IM elcpls

10 years, 12 months

3
2
0 0

Wanted: ASM-48 for Intellec MDS-2

by mainpatents＠gmail.com

The 8041 has the same pinout as the Intel 8741 programmable. A Pro-Log M980 PROM Programmer with a PM 9054 personality module can read out the programs inside. I did a lot of Intel 8741 Development back in the day and even reverse engineered the PIO in an Intel MDS-225. I have a MDS-225 now I'm getting going from pieces. Richard Main +1 510-229-9711 Newark, CA USA

10 years, 12 months

3
3
0 0

54 TK50 tapes on eBay

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

This just popped up today: http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-OF-54-USED-VINTAGE-DEC-DIGITAL-COMPACTAPE-TK50-D ATA-TAPE-CARTRIDGES-SOFTWARE-/221774909736? It is a bit expensive in my view and shipping to the UK is too much, but I thought there *might* be some old versions of DEC software on some of those tapes. I thought of asking about the DEC software myself, but as I know I wouldn't bid it wouldn't be right for me to ask. Anyone in the USA interested enough to find out what historical DEC software there might be and recover the tapes (if possible)? Regards Rob

10 years, 12 months

4
18
0 0

Update - PDP 11/44 Now on Ebay no reserve

by billdeg＠buzz1.com

I decided to put the 11/44 on Ebay for $1, no reserve. (currently at $40.39). New photos (what is on ebay plus what I took today after opening the cabinet to see what is in there) http://vintagecomputer.net/digital/PDP11-44_2nd/ Ebay listing http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-PDP-11-44-/271869650084 Item is pickup only BUT If you can't pick it up but want to make arrangements to have a shipping company come to pick it up, pack and ship, I am happy to help but it's on you to make all of the arrangements. I am available during the work day. Location - Landenberg, PA which is about 40 minutes South/west of Philadelphia, about 60 minutes North/east Baltimore, 10 miles or so from I95 at the MD/Delaware border. vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm Bill

10 years, 12 months

4
7
0 0

Old DEC and HP boards

by sales＠elecplus.com

The scrappers are here, clearing out the warehouse. I saved a box of old DEC and HP boards. First $100 plus about $35 UPS ground shipping takes them home (in CONUS). I have no idea if any of them still work, but I pulled them from large working cabinets I was required to destroy about 18 years ago. Part numbers are: M8061 97871 401-33692 Quad Cache qty 3 85-3438-02 Cache memory M8059FH M8048 qty 3 M8059FB M8186 qty 3 Peritek Corporation DMA-Q 97871 MUX qty 5 5020477-01-DC1 Diceon 6A M8016YB HP boards: C-2440-40 2443-9572 5181-5649 Rev A 98257-66524 98257A 33445-60002 A-2745-39 D2237-60001 (no CPU chips) A1470-66521 16MB memory qty 2 Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-792-3400 phone sales at elecplus.com AOL IM elcpls

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-11/74 MP

by Paul_Koning＠Dell.com

A correspondent just pointed me to a nice collection of photos of a (the?) 11/74 MP system: http://oboguev.livejournal.com/2696291.html I assume this is the one at DEC used by the RSX-11M+ group for their multiprocessor support work. As far as I know these didn?t become a product. I remember the name of the machine as ?Cerberus?, not sure what that label ?daemon? refers to. Maybe a DECnet node name? paul

10 years, 12 months

5
6
0 0

DECpc 433 Workstation manual wanted

by pontus＠update.uu.se

Hi I received a DECpc 433 Workstation today with SCSI expansion box. It's a small system which reminds me of the VAX VLC, but not quite. I've not been able to find any manuals online, does anyone have anything? Regards, Pontus.

10 years, 12 months

3
5
0 0

Oregon Software Pascal (was RE: RT11 / RSTS-E games

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

John wrote.... ---- I'm still looking for Oregon Software Pascal as well... ---- I said I would look, I did, and it was fruitful. I have in my hands an original distribution fedex shipping box from Oregon software to my high school (Saint Louis University High) containing: Oregon Software Pascal-2 Software Development System version 2.1F for RT-11 release package checklist (RN-121, august 1988): Installation & Release notes Oregon Language Letter, Summer 1988, announcing two new compilers (Oregon Modula-2 and Oregon C++) 8 SS/SD RX01 format disks containing P-2 RT-11 v2.1F (original, Oregon software labels, including my high schools site/license number) Oregon Software Field Report form (4 carbon copy) Misc Notes of my own from a skim of the above: The compiler version here runs under RT-11 v5 or later The compiler can run under XM or SJ monitors Programs compiled with the compiler can run under FB, BL, SJ, or XM Minimum requirements: EIS. P-2 uses FPP hardware or simulated floating point software (FIS). Also need 3500 blocks to install, and during compilation about 500 blocks are used for temporary storage. Computers with only flexible disk systems do not have enough storage. I have no idea if these diskettes are still readable. I know my high school was fastidious about making a copy and then locking the masters away so these disks likely only saw one read. I do know that they used this software extensively, and there may well be other copies of these floppies around here. I'd love to post images of these diskettes, but I don't know the status of Oregon Software and the IP situation. So in the interest of completeness, anyone have other RT-11 versions of other Oregon Software's compilers? I also found original S&H distribution copies of TSX+ v5, v6, and v6.2 (again, stamped with my high schools license number). Best, J

10 years, 12 months

6
9
0 0

HP board id?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Dave - - actually there should be a scan out it out there already... it is of the same vintage as the hp minicomputer handbook with the old hp-2115 on the front.... Here I found a link to the early version! just enter any word in the human checker thing and you can download the pdf! there are other hp 2000 things there too at that main url http://www.hpmuseum.net/capcha/freecap_wrap.php?r=1124 posting the cc also to rest of list for those that would like this also... Yea our old one if we opened it to flat bed scan it it would be a sheaf of lose pages I fear... but this pdf should be good for info. We love HP 2000 stuff here it was part of my work in the old days fixing and selling therm and selling time on them. We still have our first 2000 system we bought but we NEED THE 2883 disk drive and the hp version of the GE terminet 300 to put with it. Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 5/16/2015 11:27:44 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jdbryan at acm.org writes: Hi Ed, On Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 21:35, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > Many Thanks for the HP 1000 interface board manual... You're welcome. > We have the old one here at the museum with the 2115, 2116 etc > but it has gotten brittle on the back binding and if we do not > have to open it....... Maybe open it one more time to scan it? -- Dave

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

NYT writer wants to write about creative collectors

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I received this email - contact Alex below if interested: =================================================================== I'm a reporter for the New York Times and I'm working on a story about vintage tech/computer equipment, particularly when used as items to be displayed, or as home-decor. Do you know have any collectors of vintage tech who have used it in any creative way as objects around the house? If you have any thoughts on the topic, I'm all ears. Thanks! -- Alex Williams Reporter The New York Times 212 556 1158 ===================================================================

10 years, 12 months

4
3
0 0

Old Control Data Drives

by bpettitx＠comcast.net

Chuck Guzis wrote: One more category springs to mind--5xx would be printers (e.g. 501 and 512). Maybe I;m trying to forget about what it was like having a machine gun on one side (501 drum printer) and a screaming banshee (512 train printer) on the other side. 8xx also includes drum storage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To add a little more: 1XX was test equipment; 3XX was paper tape equipment; 7XX was interconnect gear. Later the numbers were changed to an elaborate code that used 2 Alphanumerics a dash, 3 more alpha numerics. This was later modified to include another dash and alphanumeric. For example, a disk drive might be: BJ-3A4-C. There is a model decoder somewhere on bitsavers. And there was a whole family of unique specially designed peripherals called SPAM boxes = Special Purpose Alogrithm Machines. These were usually all electronic. Most were used in the oil industry; for example strip recorders/readers for seismic data. One I worked on a lot when in Houston, would add up all the one bits in a large field of data. For some applications, the petrol companies loved it. Inital telecommunication products started here then evolved into their own families. Chuck, I'll swap you for the time I was at CERN working on 627 (one inch) tape drives and some idiot rewound 24 of them at the same time. It was a gag they pulled on new operators. It could take an hour before you could hear people talk again. Billy Pettit

10 years, 12 months

3
2
0 0

Looking for VAXStation 3520 parts

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Sean Caron <scaron at umich.edu> wrote: > I remember long ago there used to be a really neat site about the > VAXstation 3520/3540 machines but it's long gone ... Any chance you have the URL noted? If so, the WayBackMachine might still have it. Noel

10 years, 12 months

3
3
0 0

HP board id?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Many Thanks for the HP 1000 interface board manual... We have the old one here at the museum with the 2115, 2116 etc but it has gotten brittle on the back binding and if we do not have to open it....... At one time when we would building voice boards to the 2000/1000 series back then we had scored a batch of blank IO proto boards with the buss tag traces on them.. be interesting to see if I saved any... Thanks ! Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 5/16/2015 3:42:18 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, pbirkel at gmail.com writes: That is a *really* nice document, in so many ways. Thanks for sharing, and for the answers to earlier questions :->. On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 11:31 AM, J. David Bryan <jdbryan at acm.org> wrote: > On Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 1:46, Paul Birkel wrote: > > > What do they recommend on the receiver-end? > > LSTTL with a 4.7K pulldown to -2V on the input. > > > > Is the "HP 1000 M/E/F-Series Computers I/O Interfacing Guide" > > (02109-90006 September 1980) available online somewhere? > > I thought I had sent it to Al some years ago, but it's not listed. In any > case, I've posted it here: > > http://home.earthlink.net/~jdbryan/dropbox/02109-90006_Sep-1980.7z > > See chapter 5, pages 5-5 and 5-6. > > -- Dave > >

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

FW: Altair 8800 Electrical Engineer Estate "lot"

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All ? I thought I would pass the attached on to the group. Please let me know if the attachment (Word doc) doesn?t come through and I?ll send it separately to those interested. I received the attached email, unsolicited. Looks like two complete Altair systems for sale for $7,000, with offers considered. No location is given in the listing but the area code points to Washington State (Olympia??). Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32 From: Richard Cini <rcini at msn.com> Date: Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 10:54 AM To: Richard A Cini <rich.cini at verizon.net> Subject: FW: Altair 8800 Electrical Engineer Estate "lot" From: ecyclenw at msn.com To: ecyclenw at msn.com Subject: Altair 8800 Electrical Engineer Estate "lot" Date: Fri, 15 May 2015 01:32:57 +0000 Hi, You are receiving this e-mail due to interest expressed as a collector, on theantiquecomputer.com. Please find attached a word document with the information and details of this Altair 8800 Estate Lot. More photos available. Also, please pass this information to anyone who may be interested. Thank You Dan Dan Tharp EcycleNW dan at ecyclenw.com ecyclenw at msn.com Sent from Windows Mail

10 years, 12 months

2
1
0 0

Intellec MDS available in Twin Cities MN

by mainpatents＠gmail.com

Am I too late? Still available for sale? Richard I really need some cash and some space, so it's time for my Intel Intellec MDS gear to find a new home. I inherited this kit some years ago, and know almost nothing about it - in fact, I'm even confused as to the correct model number; 'experts disagree', it's either an MDS-225 or MDS-800. It's a large white cube, about 20" on a side, with a CRT, one 8" floppy and a number of plug-in boards. There is also a blue Intel dual 8" drive, one seriously heavy-duty keyboard, a few cables and a bevy of 8" floppy discs. I also have an ICE pod for it, somewhere.. It has never been powered-up once since I've had it, though it was apparently 'working fine' when retired sometime in the early-mid 1990s. Cosmetics are very good, it's no ugly duckling by any stretch. Photos will appear as I'm able to move it to a location with sufficient light. *Richard Brewster Main, Esq.* *Of Counsel*Main Cafe invention & patent development Newark, CA 94560 +1 408 409 6246 http://www.maincafe.us/ CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: E-mail may contain *attorney-client confidential information* that is legally privileged. Do not read this e-mail if you are not the intended recipient. This e-mail transmission, and any documents, files or previous e-mail messages attached to it may contain confidential information that is legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, or a person responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of any of the information contained in or attached to this transmission is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you have received this transmission in error, delete it, please immediately notify us by reply e-mail to mainpatents at gmail.com or contacting us by telephone at 408-409-6246

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

ROM dumps of Intel MDS-2 IOC

by mainpatents＠gmail.com

F.Ulivi, I have an MDS-225 on a breadboard for easy access. I bought it in pieces and now getting it going. I believe I may be able to dump all the EPROMS in my Pro-Log M980 and het hexfiles over USB-232 to my WINDOWS laptop to email to you. I just got the Intel 2708 personality module for the Pro-Log and not sure its working. On the built in CRT, Intel used the Ball Brothers TV120 with an early VGA interface. It is TTL with /VERT, HORIZ, and VIDEO. You can wire up a modern DB25 VGA monitor to the IOC and hook each of R G B through 270 ohm resistors to IOC VIDEO. maybe need to invert the vertical sync. Richard I'm looking for the images of ROMs installed on the IOC (I/O controller) board of Intel MDS-2 development systems. In particular I'm looking for the content of the character generator ROM (A19-2708) and of firmware ROMs (A50 to A53-4x2716). So far I had no success in googling them. My goal would be to contribute a good emulation of MDS systems to MESS, especially for what regards the look of the video terminal. Well, this is the plan, when "real-life" is not inteferring too much... *Richard Brewster Main, Esq.* *Of Counsel*Main Cafe invention & patent development Newark, CA 94560 +1 408 409 6246 http://www.maincafe.us/ CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: E-mail may contain *attorney-client confidential information* that is legally privileged. Do not read this e-mail if you are not the intended recipient. This e-mail transmission, and any documents, files or previous e-mail messages attached to it may contain confidential information that is legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, or a person responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of any of the information contained in or attached to this transmission is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you have received this transmission in error, delete it, please immediately notify us by reply e-mail to mainpatents at gmail.com or contacting us by telephone at 408-409-6246

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

8257 use in Intel MDS IOC

by mainpatents＠gmail.com

Hi Eric, I reverse engineered the Intel IOC in my MDS-225 back in 1980 and designed/programmed the Zendex equivalent. Your project sounds interesting. I just got a MDS-225 in pieces that I'm getting fired up with DD dual 8" floppies and ISIS-II. Got any parts or need any parts? Richard Main Newark, CA USA +1 510-229-9711

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

Olivetti M24 LAN Interface

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I picked up an Olivetti M24 the other day. When I opened it up I found a "Fox Research LAN Interface" dated 1984. I have not been able to find any information on this card. It has a make DE-9 connector with only 3 pins (technically does that make it a DE-3?). Can anyone give me any details of this interface? The machine does not have the expansion board, and it is missing one of the floppy disk drives. It also does not have a hard disk controller. If anyone has any of these bits going spare I would love to hear from you. Thanks Rob

10 years, 12 months

3
4
0 0

Wanted: ASM-48 for Intellec MDS-2

by mainpatents＠gmail.com

Hi *Dave Mabry,* *I have an Intel MDS-225 that I'm getting up and running. I have quite a bit of experience with these from back in 1980's when I developed a lot of Intel SBC boards and wrote ASM-80 assembler on the MDS. I have a complete double density dual drive Intel disk for it and will be up and running ISIS-II on this soon.* *What parts, software are you looking for? What do you have to sell?* *Richard Main 510-229-9711*

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

UNIBUS backplane finger contact repair

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

>> it looks like the backplane blocks .. are cast around them > From: Brent Hilpert > all have secured the pin in the housing via some deformation of the metal > pin, post-insertion; as opposed to moulding the housing around the pin. > From: Ethan Dicks > these are cast blocks of plastic with embedded pins. > From: Jon Elson > On some of the connectors, the pins are pressed in from the card side. There appears to be some question as to whether thyy are cast in place, or inserted. Actually, I started to wonder about my assertion shortly after I posted it, and took another look at the backplane. The thing is that the hollows that the finger contact pins are in are fairly complicated (since they allow the contact pins to move back and forth, but hold them from going too far), and I'm really wondering if it would be possible to cast that shape, and then remove the mold, and also have the pin in there. So I'm wondering if in fact they weren't inserted post-casting. > From: Brent Hilpert > The problem in your situation of course, is getting the remainder of > the pin out from between the edge connector housing and the backplane > PCB without having to unsolder the entire connector. Well, I'm kind of assuming they are inserted from the edge-connector side, and not the wira-wrap pin side (what with the contact pins being bent, etc on the edge-connector side), If they _were_ inserted from the wire-wrap pin side, I'm totally @&@^$#%@&^, there's no way to get that PCB off now. So in theory, at least, I'd have to de-solder them from the PCB and then try and push the remaining part back through (after identifying and defeating whatever the capture mechanism is - which I might not be able to reach with the PCB in the way). And then I'd have to find replacement pins and put them in. Both of those sound non-trivial. (All assuming, of course, that they are inserted post-casting, and not cast into place... still not sure about that.) This has assumed a little extra urgency as on closer examination, some of the pins in the UNIBUS in-out area are clearly very weak - I imagine there's only a tiny bit of metal holding the contact pin in place, and it could break off any time. And I won't be so lucky as to have them all be ground pins.. So if one breaks off, the backplane is toast (unless it's the the last thing on the UNIBUS, it could be kludged - i.e. attach the termination/ pull-up directly to the wire-wrap pin). Which I guess is not the end of the world - DD11's aren't _that_ rare... Noel

10 years, 12 months

2
1
0 0

PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Mon, 11 May 2015 10:17:41 -0700 > From: "Kirk B Davis" <kirkbdavis at hush.com> > Subject: Re: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM > > Pictures?? :-) > http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-12 -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 12 months

6
6
0 0

old control data drives

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

Do we know where theses drives are ( located ) ?? --- L'absence de virus dans ce courrier ?lectronique a ?t? v?rifi?e par le logiciel antivirus Avast. http://www.avast.com

10 years, 12 months

6
7
0 0

Paging Wayne Smith

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Forgive the interruption... I am trying to get a hold of Wayne Smith. I sent him an e-mail a couple days ago but he has not responded. Is he lurking here? If so, please contact me. Thank you! -- Sellam ibn Abraham VintageTech ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintagetech.com Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The truth is always simple. * * * NOTICE * * * Due to the insecure nature of the medium over which this message has been transmitted, no statement made in this writing may be considered reliable for any purpose either express or implied. The contents of this message are appropriate for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. The right of the people to be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated.

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

altair lot available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I got a private email (I suspect many of you did too) regarding a sizeable altair setup (and other accoutrements) being offered up out of an estate sale. >From a quick scan, I don't see that this made it to the list. Just in case, I'm reposting brief info here and a link for more info. Email: Hi, You are receiving this e-mail due to interest expressed as a collector, on theantiquecomputer.com. Please find attached a word document with the information and details of this Altair 8800 Estate Lot. More photos available. Also, please pass this information to anyone who may be interested. Thank You Dan Dan Tharp EcycleNW dan at ecyclenw.com ecyclenw at msn.com Also - the attached file (which I cant send to the list, I don't allow attachments) has been placed at http://www.ezwind.net/altair It is a word document, but it has embedded pictures and such. Best, J

10 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

HP board id?

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Dave, Thanks a million! I did not know that. As for the receivers, it can go into straight TTL apparently, I read that somewhere in an HP manual. Marc >From: "J. David Bryan" <jdbryan at acm.org> >> ...where to get the older CTuL logic IC bus drivers (the 9956 in >> particular) besides from old boards? >With the inclusion of a pulldown resistor to -2V, the TI SN75121 is a recommended replacement, per page 5-6 of the >"HP 1000 M/E/F-Series Computers I/O Interfacing Guide" (02109-90006 September 1980). It's an active part: > http://www.ti.com/product/sn75121 > -- Dave

11 years

2
1
0 0

HP board id?

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Boy, if you don't know, then who is... But this brings up another good point, where to get the older CTuL logic IC bus drivers (the 9956 in particular) besides from old boards? I'll probably need a few to make my own I/O boards, else I'll have make my own level converters out of SMD components... Marc >From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> >Subject: HP board id? >It seems over the years I acquired more than a just a few of these (two >types of) boards for the HP1000. I'm pretty certain they all came from a >batch of about twenty HP 1000 series systems I got that were decommissioned >from military use. They do not seem to be HP in origin, and I don't have >any >clue what they are for. Mostly they seem to be stuffed with large numbers >of >op amps and some line drivers. Perhaps just flight line testing or ATP? > If no one thinks these are of any use. they will be scavenged for bus > driver chips. But I'd hate to do that if they might be historical or > "interesting". >A few pictures of each board are at www.ezwind.net/hp-unk >Educated guesses?

11 years

3
4
0 0

MARCH Straight-8 restoration

by evan＠snarc.net

David Gesswein made some web pages about his work on MARCH's PDP-8: http://www.pdp8online.com/shows/vcfe15/vcfe15.shtml http://www.pdp8online.com/shows/vcfe15/restoration.shtml

11 years

1
0
0 0

A DIY card reader, FYA

by mhs.stein＠gmail.com

This grew out of off-list correspondence about the card punch I'd mentioned on here recently; I thought it might amuse some folks or just possibly even be interesting: ----- Original Message ----- > On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 10:11 PM, Mike Stein > <mhs.stein at gmail.com> wrote: > > I've got a crazy idea; are you handy > mechanically and electronically? > > I've got a couple of mag card readers; I think > it would be a most awesome kludge to turn one > into a punched card reader ;-) > > On the other hand, one of my PPT readers also > reads EPCs (Edge Punched cards)... > > m ---------- > From: Kyle Owen > To: Mike Stein > Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2015 11:23 AM > Subject: Re: Fw: Wright card punch > > Hey Mike, > > I'm certainly more handy when it comes to > electronics than mechanics, though I've dabbled > in a bit of everything it feels like. > > What kind of mag card readers do you have? And I > assume PPT is punched paper tape? I guess I > haven't seen too many EPCs in my time. What were > they used for? > > Kyle ----------------- Hi Kyle, I wasn't entirely serious about the mag card readers, but it's not a totally ridiculous idea either. They're sort of like a linear floppy disk: Imagine a credit card reader like the one at your local ATM that sucks in the card and spits it out, but the card is the size and shape of an 80 column punched card but made from more or less the same material as a floppy disk. The tracks are straight and lengthwise instead of concentric and they're read the same way as your credit card, with a stepper mechanism to select a specific track across the width (height?) of the card either under computer control or manually (note the < and > buttons on the front). Remove the track-select stepper mechanism, add a light source and an array of 12 photo sensors (or a mechanical contact of some sort) and you've got a one-at-a-time card reader; it's even already got a couple of photo sensors ;-) As usual with the old stuff (and most of the 'real' punched card readers) the feed rollers look a little rough, although it looks like you could probably make new ones out of wood or plastic and just put a rubber band around them. Pity I'm getting rid of the punch or I might actually try it myself for a lark. EPCs are really just punched cards of various sizes but instead of using the whole area of the card the data is punched along the bottom edge just like paper tape; they're usually read by normal PPT readers that have a special guide for the card. Pictures of the mag card reader here: http://s1056.photobucket.com/user/dm561/library/?view=recent&page=1

11 years

3
3
0 0

PDP 11/44 avail, Landenberg, PA

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Bill Degnan > Accepting best offer for a PDP 11/44 located in Landenberg, PA. Before Bill's mailbox explodes, he has listed this on eBay, and it will sell there. (Note, he has it listed local pickup only.) Noel

11 years

1
0
0 0

Looking for VAXStation 3520 parts

by derschjo＠gmail.com

I have a VAXStation 3520 I'd like to upgrade a bit (because why not) -- if anyone has any spares they'd be willing to sell/trade for, let me know. I'm looking for additional memory (I have only 8mb) or an extra dual processor board (so I can have a quad-processor VAX, which sounds fun). Thanks as always, Josh

11 years

4
3
0 0

UNIBUS backplane finger contact repair

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

I have a very strong suspicion that the answer to this is going to be 'no', but I figured I'd do due diligence and ask... I have a backplane (one of the rodent barn group) which has a couple of finger contacts in the backplane missing. (Two came out while I was cleaning it - and I wasn't being hard on them, they must have been eaten away by the same kind of chemical action that lifted traces off the boards.) Is there any way to replace broken/missing finger contacts? I would _guess_ 'no', since it looks like the backplane blocks (the things cast out of dark green plastic, which looks like Bakelite - anyone know exactly what it is, BTW?) are cast around them (since there's a wire-wrap pin on one side, and a finger contact on the other). If the answer _is_ 'no', no biggie - all except one are on one SPC slot, and it's a 9-slot backplane, so we'd lose one SPC slot - not the end of the world. The other pin is in the UNIBUS in/out area (1/9AB), _but_ the antique hardware gods are smiling on us, it's a ground pin (of which the UNIBUS connector pinout has multiple, so we can probably withstand the loss of one). Thanks in advance for any help! Noel

11 years

4
3
0 0

Bell Labs TOPES

by silent700＠gmail.com

A new AT&T video out today showing their (at the time, the Bell System's) internal CAD and messaging system, TOPES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKbFM770dus Not a lot of info out there about it but it appears to have run on DEC-10 machines. There are a none of those to be seen in the video but there are a few AT&T/Teletype Dataspeed and Tektronix terminals. Interesting early collaboration system that probably never left Bell - did anyone here work with it? -j

11 years

4
6
0 0

PDP 11/44 avail, Landenberg, PA

by billdeg＠buzz1.com

Accepting best offer for a PDP 11/44 located in Landenberg, PA. Pickup or your arrangements to have shipped ONLY. I am not going to ship this thing. I have not powered it on - first I would need to remove the deteriorated foam behind the front grill and get a 220 adapter (i.e. clothes dryer plug). http://vintagecomputer.net/digital/PDP11-44_2nd/ The cabinet has a little rust on the outside but the computer backplane itself is in pretty nice shape and the module set appears complete. The inside bottom of the cabinet is dirty but by and large it's pretty nice. The cabinet has two tape drive bays in the front and a tape drive inside that I assume to be inoperable, the capstan roller appears to be deteriorated. Happy to answer questions here but I prefer private contact/bids/questions to - http://vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm thanks Bill

11 years

1
0
0 0

DEC equipment looking for a new home

by dan.merrill＠earthlink.net

Here's the list of equipment. I also have the keyboards, mice, cables, media, manuals, etc. Hardware Model Number Serial Number Comments AXP 3000 Model 500S D5-PE500-AB AB2420476G very heavy (~55 lbs?) (internal boards were static bagged separately from system when moved from original location at work) MicroVAX 3100 DV-31ATB-B-A01 KA037D0073 - no other details - DEC Concentrator (FDDI) DEFCN-BC AS24103079 1 - 4 Port card and cables DEC FDDI Controller (PCI) DEFPA-UA TA52900037 never used, w/ driver disk DEC FDDI Controller (PCI) DEFPA-UA TA55000002 never used, w/ driver disk VT320 Amber monitor TA927Y4967 (?) 59333248 - in VERY GOOD condition - VRT19 Color monitor VRT19-HA Rev B01 IS336820281 very heavy (~78 lbs?) . I cannot ship anything, if you can't pick it up at my house, you'll have to pay shipping. Let me know.

11 years

4
3
0 0

Dead RF31 DSSI Disk..

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi all, I've got a VAX4000/300 lately to save it from the dumpster. I've cleaned the machine an powered up. It taked several tries to get the PSU working stable, it shut off itself the first ~10 tries but works stable now. (Yes I know all about forming electrolytic caps but have my own point of view regarding supplying under voltage to switching psu's) The machine is doing the Post until the final displayed letter "3" in the LED Display. The machine is equipped with 64MB RAM, an KA670, and on the QBUS with the KZQSA DSSI and the TK70 Controllers and additional am CMD CQD200. Disks are 2x RF31 one RF71 and a TK70. I currently have no console device connected to the machine, must crimp a MMJ cable first.. The Problem ist, that one of the RF31 Disks doesnt go to ready and the Fault LED lights up. What can I do to further investigate the Drive fault? Are DSSI disks starting up themselves after applying Power and ACLO or has the controller to supply a spindle start command? re those disks known to have sticking heads sometimes? I would do some test on the drive w/o the machine since I don't have any test equipment in the room where the machine now is.. Any hints? If anyone has a spare RF31 or RF71 (or similar) to sell or additional MS670 memory for an hobbyist price, please mail me. I'm in germany, europe. 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

11 years

8
27
0 0

HP-1000 and PDP computer parts available

by hpfparts＠yahoo.com

I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my recent post about my computer board collection. The amount of interest is much greater than I had expected, so it has been taking me a little bit of time to sift through emails and contact everyone. If you have not heard from me by now, I've made an error and overlooked you. Please accept my apologies and send me another query. Let me reiterate--I have no asking price for these assets--I have no idea what they're worth and I'm happy that they're going into the hands of people who will appreciate them. If you are interested in specific cards, please make an offer. There is more interest than there are cards, so the only fair way I can distribute them is on the basis of the offers. Regards and 73, Pete AC7ZL

11 years

1
0
0 0

Altair 8800 FPS games

by tom_a_sparks＠yahoo.com.au

Are there any FPS games for Altair 8800? Bonus points: ASCII WOLF3D or DOOM -- tom sparks x86? We ain't got no x86. We don't need no stinking x86!

11 years

1
0
0 0

PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by couryhouse＠aol.com

What a beauty! Congrats folks!Ed# Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Michael Thompson <michael.99.thompson at gmail.com> Date: 05/12/2015 4:30 PM (GMT-07:00) To: cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM > > Date: Mon, 11 May 2015 10:17:41 -0700 > From: "Kirk B Davis" <kirkbdavis at hush.com> > Subject: Re: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM > > Pictures?? :-) > http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-12 -- Michael Thompson

11 years

1
0
0 0

HP board id?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

It seems over the years I acquired more than a just a few of these (two types of) boards for the HP1000. I'm pretty certain they all came from a batch of about twenty HP 1000 series systems I got that were decommissioned >from military use. They do not seem to be HP in origin, and I don't have any clue what they are for. Mostly they seem to be stuffed with large numbers of op amps and some line drivers. Perhaps just flight line testing or ATP? If no one thinks these are of any use. they will be scavenged for bus driver chips. But I'd hate to do that if they might be historical or "interesting". A few pictures of each board are at www.ezwind.net/hp-unk I tossed in the "-" because hpunk just looked wrong ;) Educated guesses? J

11 years

1
0
0 0

PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Mon, 11 May 2015 17:57:44 +0200 > From: Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at Update.UU.SE> > Subject: Re: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM > On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 09:36:17AM -0600, Doug Ingraham wrote: > > I have read that there was a device that allowed an 8/I to be interfaced > to > > Omnibus memory and some machines were sold this way but I have never seen > > one. > > > > I've sen one :) which is why I wondered. I've also heard of a > straight-8 with omnibus memory. > > /P > Its called a BM812. Prints on Bitsavers at: /pdf/dec/pdp8/omnibus/BM812-I_EngrDrws_Jun75.pdf -- Michael Thompson

11 years

1
0
0 0

IBM 029 Card Punch and ASCII Machines

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I recall back in the late 70s using an IBM 029 Card Punch to punch cards for the DECSYSTEM-20. As I understand it, the 029 was an EBCDIC machine, but of course the DECSYSTEM-20 was ASCII. Does that mean there was an ASCII version of the 029, or that there was something in the card reader software on TOPS-20 that converted EBCDIC to ASCII? Regards Rob

11 years

10
18
0 0

Wills (was VCF Ban...)

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

>Message: 6 >Date: Mon, 11 May 2015 17:41:16 +0000 >From: tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> >Subject: RE: VCF Ban, Vector Graphic cards, Wright card punch, MDS >Keyboard <snip> >My biggest worry is that my will will not be found and/or my next of kin will not >get contacted. He isn't a relative of mine, just a very close friend. He is the >beneficiary of my will and the exector, but if this is not realised he might not >get what he should. I am wondering if there is some way of ensuring he gets told >if anything should happen to me (not that I am planning anything like that, but...) > >-tony Probably the best thing you can do is let the next of kin know that you have a will and either give them a copy or tell them what your wishes are. Then put a copy of the will where it can easily be found (such as in your desk drawer). My wife and I are redoing our will and are letting our sons and my brothers know what we are planning. They all will know where to look for the official copy of the will. Bob

11 years

6
9
0 0

Wanted: AT&T 3B2 (buy or borrow) near Seattle

by lists＠loomcom.com

Folks, I started working on an AT&T 3B2 emulator using the SIMH platform late last year. As these things often do, it got side-tracked by life. We moved to Washington state in January, and I've been consumed with other matters since then. I'd like to finally get back to the 3B2 emulator. Having physical access to a real 3B2 would make this process much, much easier, especially one I could put custom homebrew ROMs into. If you have any 3B2s you'd be willing to let me borrow or buy, please drop me a line. I'm located about an hour from Seattle, WA in Kitsap County. Or, if you're interested in a trade, I have some PDP-11 Qbus gear I'd be willing to part with, too. -Seth

11 years

2
1
0 0

CompuServe SC-40 Progress

by b4＠gewt.net

Hello, I've managed to image some of the SC-40 drives (currently just for personal backup use due to any legal issues/possible customer data). I've found in the documentation references to a file named COUGH.DRP which seems to be the CompuServe equivalent of the TOPS-10 Monitor Calls Guide. Does anyone have a copy of the CompuServe COUGH DROPS file scurried away somewhere? It would be very useful in discerning the patches to TOPS-10 and some SC-40 extensions. -- Cory Smelosky http://gewt.net Personal stuff http://gimme-sympathy.org Projects

11 years

1
0
0 0

Dead RF31 DSSI Disk.. A508 SOLVED!

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Holm Tiffe wrote: > Yes guys, it's true. > I've successfully "repaired" the drive with an careful hit from a > rubber-hammer! I am pretty blown away! Hard to believe that a disk can be fixed with that kind of treatment! But I shouldn't be. Remember that scene in one of the early Stars Wars movies where they go to make the jump to hyperspace (or something like that), and nothing happens, and Hans gets up and whacks the bulkhead in a very particular spot, and then it works? I first saw that movie with a couple of people from the MIT computer lab, and we were all convulsed with laughter at that scene. One of our mainframes had a sticky power relay, and when you hit the 'power off' on the front console, nothing would happen. So you'd walk around to the back of the machine, open a door, and give a particular box a good whack in a particular way with your fist, and it would power off. Some things just never change! Noel

11 years

5
4
0 0

Available in NY 10512 - CDC 721 Plato Terminal boxed.

by curt＠atarimuseum.com

Hi have a boxed CDC 721 Plato terminal, making room so need to sell/trade it. Its VERY heavy and would prefer someone pick it up. Please contact me off list - curtv2015 at gmail.com Thanks, Curt

11 years

1
0
0 0

Running a Z8-02 MPD on a breadboard

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Some time back I acquired a Zilog Z8-02 MPD. This is the bond-out version of the Z8 microcontroller. The normal Z8 contained 2K of internal masked ROM and was packaged in a 40-pin DIP. The Z8-02 had no masked ROM (or possibly the masked ROM was disabled), and the address and data buses for the internal ROM, along with a few clock and control signals, were brought out to the extra 24 pins of a 64-contact ceramic leadless quad-in-line package (QUIP). Typically for emulation it would be used with a 2716 EPROM, or 2KB of RAM with address and data multiplexers for a fancy emulator. The ceramic leadless QUIP package was used for bondouts from Intel and Zilog, and later, for the Intel iAPX 432 components. Later it was replaced with the square JEDEC ceramic leadless package. Note that the ceramic leadless QUIP is unrelated to the more common leaded QUIP packages used by NEC, Rockwell, and Motorola. Unlike many modern leadless packages (DFN, QFN, BGA), the ceramic leadless QUIP is intended for use only in a socket, which was made by 3M. Today the sockets are even harder to find than the chips that require them. I designed a simple QUIP adapter for use with solderless breadboards, and wired up a Z8-02 MPD along with a 28C16 EEPROM for the program memory, a 62256 static RAM, address latch, and decoder. I programmed a copy of the Z8671 Basic/Debug interpreter into the EEPROM. To my amazement, it worked the first time. Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22368471 at N04/sets/72157652653732622 The last "photo" is a screen shot of Kermit talking to it. I've entered an inefficient program to search for primes, and the screen shot shows it being LISTed, RUN, and then stopped after a few primes have been found. Not shown, I printed the value of some of the interpreter's globals, to verify that the static RAM was recognized properly. (The interpreter can actually provide minimal functionality with no external memory!) While Zilog only claimed it to be a subset of Dartmouth BASIC, the interpreter does not include the FOR statement, so IMNSHO it barely even qualifies to be considered a "tiny BASIC". The competing National Semiconductor INS8073 had 2.5K of ROM, and Intel 8052AH-BASIC had 8K, so they supported more features of BASIC.

11 years

3
2
0 0

HP-1000 and PDP computer parts available

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Perfect timing! My new old HP 1000 is coming in a few days and it's missing some of the cards you have. I'll take your HP 1000 cards if we can agree on price. I will contact you off-line. Marc >From: HP Friedrichs <hpfparts at yahoo.com> >Subject: HP-1000 and PDP computer parts available >I have a sizable collection of HP-1000 circuit cards, as well as a couple >of PDP cards. >They take up a lot of space in my workshop, so I'd like to find a home for >them. >Please see my web site here for a complete list of parts: >The H.P. Friedrichs (AC7ZL) Homepage >Thanks and 73,PeteAC7ZL > View on www.hpfriedrichs.com

11 years

1
0
0 0

FREE: Amiga 1084S Monitor

by slandon110＠gmail.com

FREE Commodore Amiga 1084S Monitor. You just pay shipping. Needs some soldering on the video connector and the power switch. Otherwise it works fine Located in Farwell Michigan. You can pick it up or pay shipping Steve

11 years

1
0
0 0

HV tracking across flexible PCB strips

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I really couldn't think how best to word the subject. I pulled the CRT out of the HP 1331 X-Y display that I got the other day, then took all the old tape off, cleaned it up, and reassembled with new tape. It's no longer arcing around the CRT face, which is good. However, there's a flexible plastic strip running between the CRT face and the chassis which carries three lines (it's a storage tube rather than a conventional CRT) and I'm still getting periodic arcing across these lines which of course upsets the display's operation. As far as I can tell, there's no 'sandwich' (and hence glue) involved - it's just a single plastic strip with conductive traces drawn onto it. Does anyone have experience of these kinds of strips in an HV environment, and what (if anything) can be done for them when they start to fail? Possibilities seem to be: 1) Try some more cleaning, 2) Reworking with conductive paint (I wondered if one or more of the traces have gone high resistance in certain spots and this is encouraging the HV to arc between them 'upstream' of such areas), 3) Plastic itself has broken down in some way, requiring replacement; has anyone managed to make a replacement strip from scratch? Although I've not tried the actual X/Y/Z inputs yet, basic write/store/erase functionality and beam movement via the front X/Y controls seems to be working so long as the arcing isn't occurring, and it'd be a fun little gadget to get working. cheers Jules

11 years

6
14
0 0

HV tracking across flexible PCB strips

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jules Richardson > ... "splice tape" is rated for close to 22kV. > Of course that's *through the tape* though, so although it would > insulate the conductors from the outside world, it's not clear how > effective it would be at insulating the two conductors that are only a > couple of mm apart; the tape doesn't really play a part in that > scenario, only the glue. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but why not apply a layer of tape immediately on top of the conductors - since a thickness of .X of a mm (through) will insulate 22KV, Y mm (across - where Y is the distance between the conductors) definitely ought to do it. Although there is the glue that holds it down - I wasn't sure if that was the glue you were referring to, or if you meant some other glue - that might not be as insulating (or maybe it is, just don't know). But, anyway, if the glue might be an issue, you'd have to apply the tape non-glue side down (and stick something like regular electrical tape to it, glue-glue, to nullify its glue on the now-up-facing side - unless you want to use that to join the two layers of the original together). As to how to get it to adhere: if you can figure out what the insulating glue was that they used originally, or some modern facsimile thereof, you could use that. Noel

11 years

2
1
0 0

FS: IBM 42U Network Rack & 8 2 U Rackmount cases- Pick up in Farwell Michigan

by slandon110＠gmail.com

Bought this for TimmyNet but its too big for what we need Its an IBM 42U Rack, Needs cage nuts Comes with 8 2 U Rackmount cases for a whole $100 Come get it out of my basement Located in Farwell Michigan

11 years

1
0
0 0

360/50 microcode listing

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

On 05/08/2015 03:50 PM, Rich Alderson wrote: > We only know of 3 complete KA10s in existence Where, if I may ask, just out of curiousity? Noel

11 years

2
2
0 0

VCF Ban, Vector Graphic cards, Wright card punch, MDS Keyboard

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> Value is always in the eye of the beholder, and price is always > and only set between buyer and seller. > > If you're hoarding stuff that has no value - then you're just a hoarder. Those 2 statements partially contradict each other IMHO. Something may not have much financial value, it does not mean that my heir does not want to inherit it. > If you're concerned that valuable stuff might be tossed after your > death, and sad that no one will inherit the valuable stuff, then > today you should be able to document and mark its value. Provided my next-of-kin gets to hear about it in time there is no problem, in that he will know what is worth saving. So my problem is to ensure that he is notified in the event of my death, and I am wondering how to do this. -tony

11 years

1
0
0 0

VCF Ban, Vector Graphic cards, Wright card punch, MDS Keyboard

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> > Perhaps a method we can all avoid Leicas in the Dumpster is to put a > price tag on everything before you go. Even the simplest Dumpster-tossing > cleanup person / relative understands a dollar sign. I think that means we all need to own Leicas to start with. How many would make me greedy? My biggest worry is that my will will not be found and/or my next of kin will not get contacted. He isn't a relative of mine, just a very close friend. He is the beneficiary of my will and the exector, but if this is not realised he might not get what he should. I am wondering if there is some way of ensuring he gets told if anything should happen to me (not that I am planning anything like that, but...) -tony

11 years

2
1
0 0

R: Re: IBM 5120 Operator Training Manual - GA34-0132-1

by supervinx＠libero.it

Great! -------- Messaggio originale -------- Da: Christian Corti <cc at informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> Data:15/04/2015 10:44 (GMT+01:00) A: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Oggetto: Re: IBM 5120 Operator Training Manual - GA34-0132-1 On Wed, 15 Apr 2015, supervinx wrote: > Do you know if somehone has scanned this manual? > A search gave no result... You're lucky! I've found this manual. I'll scan it. Christian

11 years

25
50
0 0

Data General Nova 3/12 and 6026 Tape Drive on craigslist

by dick＠tonkaland.com

I HAVE A 6026 TAPE FOR THE NOVA 312 SYSTEM IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.. We are located in the Minneapolis area. 952-715-1366 > At 04:06 AM 8/8/2014, Tommie Mademark wrote: >>Data General Nova 3/12 and 6026 Tape Drive in Tucson, AZ on Craigslist >> https://tucson.craigslist.org/sys/4591315871.html > > Looks like it's still available? > > http://tucson.craigslist.org/sys/5017009683.html > > - John > >

11 years

1
0
0 0

Data General Nova 3/12 and 6026 Tape Drive on craigslist

by tommie＠fox.se

Data General Nova 3/12 and 6026 Tape Drive in Tucson, AZ on Craigslist https://tucson.craigslist.org/sys/4591315871.html /Tommie My Data General stuff: http://www.datageneral.org/

11 years

2
1
0 0

MMJ Cabling between VAX4000/300 and VT420

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi guys, I have to make a console cable for the VAX4000/300 and an VT420 Terminal. How are the pins to be connected? One to One or with an rollover (1-6,2-5,4-3)? 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

11 years

2
1
0 0

oddball (XT PC-era?) keyboard - "dejag" etc controls

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Rescued a keyboard from the dump earlier which is about the same style/size as an IBM model F, only a darker grey color (and not a buckling spring mech). Layout-wise, there are no F-keys at all, but keys on the numeric keypad are labeled things such as 'pan', 'curs', 'local', 'dejag', 'vern', and then there are eight status LEDs above the keyboard area (on-line, local, interp, busy, pan, cursor, dejag, 2nd). Does this critter sound familiar to anyone? I didn't see anything at the dump that it obviously belonged with, but I may return tomorrow and double-check, and knowing what I was looking for might be helpful. Of course it's possible that whatever it hooked up to is long-gone, or even had already been hauled off from the drop-off area for processing. cheers Jules

11 years

11
20
0 0

HP-1000 and PDP computer parts available

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: HP Friedrichs > I have .. a couple of PDP cards. > Please see my web site here for a complete list of parts: Here's the URL: http://www.hpfriedrichs.com/hpfparts/hpfparts.htm About the DEC cards: the M8043 is a DLV11-J (a four-port serial card), and the M8059 is an MSV11-L (up to 256KB memory card - but I'm trying to get that one). Noel

11 years

1
0
0 0

MMJ Cabling between VAX4000/300 and VT420

by cctalk＠beyondthepale.ie

> > I have to make a console cable for the VAX4000/300 and an VT420 Terminal. > How are the pins to be connected? One to One or with an rollover > (1-6,2-5,4-3)? > As far as I understand it, pretty much all MMJ sockets are wired the same and the crossover between transmit and receive normally happens in the cable so you need the rollover. Even if this is not true in 100% of cases, it does appear to be true at least in the case of connecting terminals to hosts. Regards, Peter Coghlan.

11 years

2
1
0 0

HP-1000 and PDP computer parts available

by hpfparts＠yahoo.com

I have a sizable collection of HP-1000 circuit cards, as well as a couple of PDP cards. They take up a lot of space in my workshop, so I'd like to find a home for them. Please see my web site here for a complete list of parts: The H.P. Friedrichs (AC7ZL) Homepage Thanks and 73,PeteAC7ZL | ? | | ? | | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | | The H.P. Friedrichs (AC7ZL) HomepageThe Homepage of H. P. Friedrichs | | | | View on www.hpfriedrichs.com | Preview by Yahoo | | | | ? |

11 years

1
0
0 0

RT11 / RSTS-E games

by keith＠saracom.com

Re: RT11 / RSTS-E games I obviously have done something wrong when moving files about etc. Hence depending on which way you get there, they may not link. For now all the games I have are available here: http://www.saracom.com/pdp11/pdp11.htm thanks Max ------------------------------ Message: 35 Date: Thu, 7 May 2015 19:42:52 -0400 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: RT11 / RSTS-E games Message-ID: <CAALmim=yauqgpg7hc_4vN=1d41WtEA=MPS0P8=4wjNav-4c3TA at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 5:34 PM, Peter Coghlan <cctalk at beyondthepale.ie> wrote: > Lyle Bickley wrote: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: This one? Appears to be a bad link :( Try http://pdp11.saracom.com/games/spcinv.zip [1] instead. Nice catch. Thanks! -ethan Links: ------ [1] http://pdp11.saracom.com/games/spcinv.zip

11 years

4
3
0 0

Xerox 820 II Baltimore MD area

by davebrougham＠comcast.net

I have a Xerox 820-II with CP/M 2.2, monitor, dual disk drive, keyboard, daisy wheel printer, manuals, and cables. Wondering if anyone is interested in saving it from the dump, OBO. Bad news, I powered it up recently and the screen flickered and jumped for about 5 minutes before the wisp of smoke. The visible damage is a film capacitor on what looks like a power supply board in the monitor. Five years ago it powered up and was working as far as I could tell. Baltimore, Maryland area (USA). Not a list subscriber, will check list daily for a while, then weekly... Dave

11 years

2
2
0 0

Vermont Research 5017

by t.gardner＠computer.org

Anyone have any literature on the Vermont Research 5017? It was a cartridge drive shipped from 1975 until 1985 probably rebadged and sold under some system manufacturer's label. Most likely the first HDD to use embedded servo in a production drive. Tom

11 years

2
2
0 0

Winners for the Type 'n Run "code golf" contest on RetroBattlestations

by fozztexx＠fozztexx.com

I just posted the winners for the Type ?n Run contest for April on RetroBattlestations. Lots of very interesting programs that people submitted. Entries came in for a variety of computers like the IBM PC, the BBC Micro, the TRS-80 CoCo, and even one for the Texas Instruments CC-40! Check out all the entries, and maybe submit a program of your own! The Type ?n Run contest is an ongoing challenge with winners selected every month. http://redd.it/35ht9w -- Follow me on twitter: @FozzTexx Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com

11 years

1
0
0 0

IBM 029 Card Punch and ASCII Machines

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

naw.... the card reader read punches and the reader driver made it readable on your machine! ! there were some for hp-2000 also and ho 3000 we would love to find one for the smecc museum here in az if anyone has an HP setup! Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC In a message dated 5/10/2015 1:56:51 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com writes: I recall back in the late 70s using an IBM 029 Card Punch to punch cards for the DECSYSTEM-20. As I understand it, the 029 was an EBCDIC machine, but of course the DECSYSTEM-20 was ASCII. Does that mean there was an ASCII version of the 029, or that there was something in the card reader software on TOPS-20 that converted EBCDIC to ASCII? Regards Rob

11 years

1
0
0 0

MacPlus video on YouTube

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Just another video showing one of my units for anyone who might be interested. I was lucky to get this one in such a clean undamaged condition. It did require some work to get it into shape for this video though. Bad solder joints on the analogue board...it's almost a standard feature of these machines, just like leaky caps in the later models! Anyway... https://youtu.be/v_m2sfcDDvg Terry (Tez)

11 years

1
0
0 0

Old Control Data Tape Drives

by bpettitx＠comcast.net

Chuck Guzis wrote: Really great (7 track) drives; substantially over-engineered as compared to, say, a 65x drive. The 604 wasn't quite as fast as the look=alike 607, but nothing to sneeze at. If you've got 160A, 3000-series or 6000-series machine (and associated controller), it'd be a really great drive to have. --Chuck ____________________________________________________________ These were great tape drives. The 604 was 75ips versus 150ips for the 607. Both drives were 200/556/800 bpi 7 track units. The weight was a killer. But they were extremely reliable, easy to work on and easy to interface. Al has manuals on them (I know because I loaned them to him) and I have a lot spare parts if someone wanted to try to get them working. These would be a good choice for recovering old 7 track tapes. They used vacuum tensioning columns and vacuum capstans. So very little contact with the magnetic slurry side of the tape. Billy Pettit

11 years

2
1
0 0

Old Control Data Drives

by bpettitx＠comcast.net

Chuck Guzis wrote: Really great (7 track) drives; substantially over-engineered as compared to, say, a 65x drive. The 604 wasn't quite as fast as the look=alike 607, but nothing to sneeze at. If you've got 160A, 3000-series or 6000-series machine (and associated controller), it'd be a really great drive to have. --Chuck ____________________________________________________________ These were great tape drives. The 604 was 75ips versus 150ips for the 607. Both drives were 200/556/800 bpi 7 track units. The weight was a killer. But they were extremely reliable, easy to work on and easy to interface. Al has manuals on them (I know because I loaned them to him) and I have a lot spare parts if someone wanted to try to get them working. These would be a good choice for recovering old 7 track tapes. They used vacuum tensioning columns and vacuum capstans. So very little contact with the magnetic slurry side of the tape. Billy Pettit

11 years

2
1
0 0

360/50 microcode listing

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Donzelli > We, the big iron collectors, do not share this information on any sort > of registry. We are a secretive bunch. Why is that, can I ask? I mean, it's not like a thief's going to come in and steal the thing (which is indeed the reason why collectors in other areas are often secretive) - it would take a truck and a crane, for most models! > From: Liam Proven > Have you read Lawrence Wilkison's account of rescuing an S360/20 in NZ > when he was a student? Cool story; thanks for the link - but the page says it was a 360/30. (The smallest 'real' 360 - the 360/20 was a lobotomized 'sorta' 360/.) Noel

11 years

12
15
0 0

360/50 microcode listing

by aek＠bitsavers.org

CHM was able to obtain volumes 18-20 of the IBM 2050 drawings, which are the microcode charts and ROS dump. I got them scanned and uploaded yesterday to http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/fe/2050 This was one of the things that I had been trying to locate for a while now.

11 years

18
34
0 0

PDP-12 at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

The RICM rescued a very nice PDP-12 today. Pictures and details to follow. -- Michael Thompson

11 years

2
1
0 0

PDP11GUI v1.46

by j_hoppe＠t-online.de

PDP11GUI is at v1.46 now. Among others I fixed an annoying bug, which prevented proper terminal output when running certain diagnostic paper tapes: Filling <NUL> chars were sometimes interpreted as backspace! Load from http://retrocmp.com/tools/pdp11gui As ever, any feedback is welcome, Joerg

11 years

11
16
0 0

Plessey PM-D11/SPC-1 backplane documentation needed

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: tony duell >> I have a Plessey PM-D11/SPC-1 backplane here > How many slots? I assume it's hex height. What (if anything) are the > power input connectors? 9; yes; it has the standard 9-pin connector as used on the 11/05-10, and the early /40s and /45s. (FWLIW, the documentation for the PM-F11 says that _it_ comes with either the same 9-pin connector power harness, or the harness with the newer 15-/6-pin connector pair, and gives part numbers for each.) The harness of this one is subtly different, though - instead of all fast-on tabs at the backplane end, there is a DuPont header on the backplane (looks like 10 pin), and a bunch of the pins on the large 9-pin connector are connected to that (not just ACLO and DCLO, but e.g. there are a pair which are connected to +5V, and another pair to ground (the latter two also go to fast-on tabs). > Is there any reason to assume it's not a clone of a standard DEC > backplane ... the 'SPC' part of the name suggests a Unibus peripheral > backplane Oh, I'm sure it's _some_ form of SPC backplane - it has the NPG jumpers from CA1 to CB1 on all 9 slots, for instance. And it has a bunch of wires running >from 1A/B down to the CDEF part, and then back from CDEF to 9A/B. And the NPG is routed from 1A down to CA1/CA2, and then back up to 9A. But I'm trying to figure out exactly what sort of SPC backplane it is. E.g. it looks like slots 2-8 _might_ be MUD (the signals from 1A/B are bussed across all those slots on A/B, over to 9A/B). But without documentation, or a lot of ohm-meter work... Noel

11 years

2
1
0 0

Plessey PM-D11/SPC-1 backplane documentation needed

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Hi, all, I have a Plessey PM-D11/SPC-1 backplane here, and I'm interested in finding some documentation for it. I looked online, but couldn't find anything? This site: http://www.compsy.de/gebr-vax/repman_verl.htm seems to list one, and does apparently 'rent' documentation, but I'm not sure they're ready to rent something to someone on another continent. (If someone in Europe can assist in dealing with them, I'd be extremely grateful.) I do have a manual for the vaguely similar PM-F11/SPC backplane (which I would be happy to scan promptly if anyone has a need for it; otherwise, it will get scanned when I obtain a round tuit), and that, plus an ohmmeter, would probably allow me to eventually figure out the PM-D11, but I figured I'd look and see if I could save all that work, and put it into something else... :-) Noel

11 years

2
1
0 0

Z-machines for PDP-11 (was Re: RT11 / RSTS-E games)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Fri, May 8, 2015 at 5:43 AM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at update.uu.se> wrote: >> The Z-machine for RT-11 that Infocom released only handled v3 images. > > I only knew of the V1 version, for the original Zork I. I never knew that > Infocom released anything past Zork I for RT-11. I can't seem to find the definitive catalog, but I know there were folio packaging of several of the titles available for sale. I saw Starcross hanging on the wall at the Digital Store in Columbus, OH (back when there _was_ a brick-and-mortar store), and I am reasonable certain there were others, definitely more than just the V1 Zork. >> You can run a v3 game comfortably in 48K bytes... >> As for the PDP-11, one _could_ write a split-I&D interpreter for >> larger games... > > Um? Where have you been? ZEMU have been around for about 15 years now. It > runs all V1 to V8 games, and runs under both RT-11 and RSX. I think I forgot ZEMU has support past V5. My apologies. > On MIM:: (once more) > .zem/li/sy > -- System games -- > Game Release Serial Inform Z-Machine > ADVENT 5 961209 6.05 5 > ZDUNGEON 13 040826 6.14 5 :-) > ZTREK 1 000229 6.21 5 Ooh... that's right... there's an implentation of Star Trek on the Z-machine. I'll have to go grab that to see which version it's based on. Personally, I'm used to the one that was in Dave Ahl's "101 Computer Games", the one that has the short range scan that represents each item with up to three chars and empty locations with all spaces (as opposed to a simple grid with 1 char per filled spot and, ISTR, a '.' for empty locations). When I get the opportunity (later this weekend I think) I will check my backups for the RSTS/E mod I was mentioning. If the RT-11 ZEMU doesn't compile on RSTS/E as is, it should be a 1-line mod. -ethan

11 years

4
6
0 0

RT11 / RSTS-E games

by john＠yoyodyne-propulsion.net

Anyone got any RT11/RSTS-E games? I'm back on with my project to recreate the PDP-11 that I goofed around with when I was a kid. (Its accessible via the bbs... bbs.cortex-media.info 4223) I have 2.52 version of Dungeon, and a version of Star Trek. Anyone got anything else? I'm still looking for Oregon Software Pascal as well... Thanks! Mark

11 years

12
28
0 0

360/50 microcode listing

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jon Elson > Well, first, rotary converters draw a LOT of imaginary power (in other > words, they have an awful power factor) and so the line current can > become MUCH higher than you would expect. > ... > We tried to rig up a phase converter scheme to run the motor-generator > set on a 370/145 in a guy's house, and it did NOT go well. he only had > a 60 A 240 V service, and the imaginary current was over 60 A! Had to Google 'imaginary power'... Not a lot of experience with high-power AC stuff! :-) ('Imaginary power' is probably not the best term to use, because there are actual currents involved; I like the 'reactive power' name better.) The article I read said that in reactive load which is high in inductance (which is, I assume, the source of the high reactive load in rotary convertors - or am I confused - a common happening, I concede :-), judicious application of capacitance can reduce the reactive load. Why isn't this used with rotary convertors to reduce their reactive load? Any idea what the active and reactive powers/currents were in that attempted installation? Noel

11 years

2
1
0 0

MIL Code conversion help

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

I got some JM38510/052528CB ic's and want like to know what type it is. Tried the usual places but can't find the number, someone who can help? -Rik

11 years

1
0
0 0

Looking for BASIC-80 for Intellec MDS-2

by fulivi＠tiscali.it

Hi, is there someone who can send me the executable/floppy image of BASIC-80 for ISIS-II operating system, please? I've a few old BASIC programs that I'd like to try on the MESS-based MDS-2 emulator. Thanks a lot! -- F.Ulivi

11 years

4
5
0 0

Need Corvus 'A2CPM.1' diskette

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

Hi, I'm trying to setup Apple CP/M on a Corvus Constellation II network drive. This requires a support diskette labeled 'A2CPM.1' that I'm unable to find anywhere. It is most likely in Apple Pascal format and contains a file named 'A2.DRVR.CPM.221' (along with several others). I'm reasonably sure that the Pascal volume name will be 'A2CPM.1:', or perhaps just 'A2CPM:'. (It is also possible that there are additional A2CPM.2 or .3 diskettes) NOTE: There are (2) Corvus diskette images floating around the web under various names that are NOT the correct ones (they're for an older version of the Constellation software): 1. Apple Pascal format, volume name 'CSCPM:' 2. Apple CP/M format with BIOS source and a few utilities Again, neither of these is the correct one. I can handle any type of Apple image file format. Would greatly appreciate it if someone has these elusive items. Steve --

11 years

3
5
0 0

PDP-8 ceremony video from VCF East last month

by evan＠snarc.net

Quick-and-dirty edit .... enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM38IVT8zHc

11 years

2
2
0 0

old control data drives

by PLauridsen＠wm.com

I have three old control data 604 drives is there interest in them, I hate to just throw them away Let me know Peder Lauridsen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Recycling is a good thing. Please recycle any printed emails.

11 years

5
5
0 0

HP 1331A X-Y display service

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Anyone happen to have a service manual for an HP 1331A X-Y display? I've got a complete wreck of one here rescued from a scrap pile which is arcing somewhere between the tube and the shielding - I expect that nothing can be done for it, but if I can work out how to pull the tube (short of a complete disassembly, but HP of that era were usually smarter than that) then I can clean it up and better assess things. cheers Jules

11 years

1
0
0 0

FREE: Working Victor 9000 in Denver, CO

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Don from Denver writes, contact him for more info:================================================== Anyone know of a way for me to donate a working Victor 9000 before I take it to an electronics recycler? Don, huberdon at aol.com ??? ==================================================

11 years

1
0
0 0

Sun SparcStation 4 - Need Help to Hook up cables, & Docs

by computerdoc＠sc.rr.com

Hi Guys, I obtained a Sun SparcStation 4 at the CoCoFEST for which I need some information on the proper hook up of the cables. The SCSI cables I can guess, but the PS/2 cables I'm not so sure of. There is one PS/2 connector on the back of the Monitor labeled A/B and on the SparcStstion itself is a DB25 pin connector labeled Serial A/B. Do these connect together? One PS/2 connector exists on the Sparcstation so how does both the PS/2 connector on the Keyboard and the mouse connect to the SparcStation? Also I understand that it is password protected so I need the "Super-secret" procedure to remove the password. I was told this is possible. Documentation in any form is quite necessary as well. Any leads as to where to obtain these as well? I haven't looked at sun.com yet, but I most certainly will. Your help is most appreciated. Thank you in advance for any help you can give. Take care my friends. Kip Koon <mailto:computerdoc at sc.rr.com> computerdoc at sc.rr.com <http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon

11 years

7
8
0 0

360/50 microcode listing

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Comments on where the 360s went... When I was in the used computer business in the early 80s when gold and silver did the big climb there arose a large group of people aside from the usual scrappers, that were going about the nation specifically targeting old 360s and earlier for scrap. Even the scrappers that did not break the entire computers down and process them would sell countess containers of early computers to the Taiwanese metal brokers that would come over here to purchase material. yes..... shiploads of containers... The younger people here and those that were not in the biz back then do not realize how many truck load after truck load were scrapped. Knowing some of the scrappers was a good deal for me as a Computer dealer though as a small PDP-8 or the likes did not have enough tonnage to interest them and sometimes they would just let me have them gratis. Hate to say how may HP 2116, 2114, and 2115 hit the process especially in the late 80s to early 90s where there was not much market for them. Even today, you can go down to one of the local Evil Ironworks and see a wonderful old device on the scrap pile... there are still things coming out of warehouses but.... in no ways like the early 80s... Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC ( CEO of Computer Exchange Inc. <<long since retired>> In a message dated 5/7/2015 10:33:33 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, tmfdmike at gmail.com writes: 1. IBM would very often lease rather than sell, and take back machines when customers upgraded; it was obviously in their interests to control or eliminate where possible the market in used machines. 2. Gold. A lot of gold in old IBM kit. I knew a scrap dealer in Chelmsford UK that did nothing but break old IBM mainframes (only ever big boring grey boxes when I was there in mid to late 1990s though!) Mike On 7 May 2015 13:16, "Jon Elson" <elson at pico-systems.com> wrote: > On 03/13/2015 01:32 PM, Al Kossow wrote: > >> CHM was able to obtain volumes 18-20 of the IBM 2050 drawings, which are >> the microcode charts and ROS dump. I got them scanned and uploaded >> yesterday >> to http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/fe/2050 >> >> This was one of the things that I had been trying to locate for a while >> now. >> >> >> Just a curious thing I've noticed. Given the historic significance, and > the large number of machines produced, I'm kind of amazed at the incredibly > small number of 360's that apparently exist. > > Yes, I know, any would-be collector could drag home a PDP-8 and put it in > his garage, even a whole rack mount system with an RK02 (or 3), dectape and > paper tape reader, and still get his car in the garage. And, the system > could be run off normal mains power. > > You can't do that with a real 360 (some 360/20's were pretty small), even > a 360/30 was a pretty big box. And, you can't run a 360 off normal > residential power, either. Many of the peripherals used 3-phase motors, > and hacking the converter/inverter to run off single phase would not be a > task for any but the most experienced EE. > > But, it sure is a shame that there appear to be a tiny number of machines > in existence. One list shows 15 or 16 machines, excluding the model 20. > Probably there are a couple more hidden somewhere, like the B1900 that came > to light so recently. > > As fas as I can tell, NONE of these systems is complete enough to ever > run, with the possible exception of the 360/30 at the CHM, which does seem > to have a complement of peripherals, and maybe control units, too. > > Given the number of DEC 10's that are actually up and running, this seems > a bit of a surprise. there might be some emotional attachments that are > behind this disparity. > Anybody have some comments? > > Jon >

11 years

1
0
0 0

Sun dead battery / unresponsive openboot

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

The PROM battery appears to have died in my Sun U1 (Ethernet address and host ID all ff's etc.). I can hack a new battery into it at some point - but can anyone confirm whether the openboot environment should be responsive even while the battery is hosed? Via a serial console, I can send a break and get an OK prompt back, but then it appears to go unresponsive and won't accept commands (no key presses aren't echoed back to the screen). Using the same terminal emulator / cabling is fine with my other Sun (a U2), so I'm reasonably confident that the environment is OK, and that the problem is local to the U1 machine. cheers Jules

11 years

5
6
0 0

VAX/VMS 5.1A documentation set to give away

by richardlo＠admin.athabascau.ca

Hi computer fans, I have been asked to dispose of the VMS version 5 documentation set in my office. This consists of 40 grey binders and all their contents. They are located in Alberta Canada. This is a large and heavy load with or without the binders. But who knows, maybe somebody out there wants such an artifact? I also have some spare boards and other parts for a VAX 4000 Model 500 if anybody has an interest in such things. They are smaller and lighter than the doc set. -- Richard Loken VE6BSV, Unix System Administrator : "Anybody can be a father Athabasca University : but you have to earn Athabasca, Alberta Canada : the title of 'daddy'" ** richardlo at admin.athabascau.ca ** : - Lynn Johnston

11 years

5
7
0 0

Free stuff in London (Mostly DEC)

by williams.dan＠gmail.com

Hi, Due to a change in circumstances, I need to downsize my collection. Most of this stuff has been given to me free by other members of this group. It is first come first served, but if you gave it to me and want it back, obviously you have first shot. It is located in Piccadilly in London, and for the bigger stuff will need to be picked up before 11am any day inc. weekends. I also need to move it within 3 weeks. I have a busted hip at the moment so I can't help lift anything and they are located on the 2nd Floor. Now thats dealt with here's what I have : aMicrovax 3400 2x Vax 4000-200 (One has a broken PSU) Hp zx6000 (No drives) SGI GDM17e11 CRT 2x DECserver 300 5x DECsystem 3100 (Think they are all dead, have never managed to get them to go past diagnostics) 5x Gould os 3500 Oscilloscopes - All working but not been calibrated for years. Sgi Indy Massive box of DEC Cables, mostly DSSI Intel MDS - Non working, powers up but nothing happens 2x Alphaserver ES45 - These are HEAVY Let me know if you want it.. Dan

11 years

6
7
0 0

A DIY card reader, FYA

by mhs.stein＠gmail.com

Added pics of an EPC-capable PPT perf and reader; obviously you'd normally only use one or the other: http://s1056.photobucket.com/user/dm561/library/?view=recent&page=1

11 years

1
0
0 0

HP2100 core memory boards.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

In this (swedish) forum thread there is bidding going on for two core memory boards for what I think is a HP2100A/S. The current bid is 200 SEK. But it has to be fetched in Karlskoga. http://elektronikforumet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=77378 /Mattis

11 years

1
0
0 0

Fwd: [rescue] 2 x Sun Netra T1's for free, London, UK

by venture37＠gmail.com

While we're on the subject of London & giveaways :) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jasper Wallace <jasper at pointless.net> Date: 5 May 2015 at 18:10 Subject: [rescue] 2 x Sun Netra T1's for free, London, UK To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org> Hi, I'm hopeing to find a new home for 2 Sun Netra T1's, they are in London Hackspace on Hackney road near cambridge heath station, specs: 1st: Netra t1 (UltraSPARC-IIi 440MHz) 512 MB 2nd: Netra T1 200 (UltraSPARC-IIe 500MHz) 1Gb ram There are 4 x 17Gb drives and 2 x 36Gb drives with them, the 36Gb drives might be dodgey, but they where happy when i dd'd /dev/zero over them... Please contact me off list if you want to arrange pickup. -- [http://pointless.net/] [0x2ECA0975] _______________________________________________ rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

11 years

1
0
0 0

RS/6000 (AIX) password reset - Linux?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

So, I got a couple of RS/6000 systems (7043-140's) from another listmember a while back, which I've finally got around to looking at. Both appear to be working (one had a bad cache RAM connection, now fixed), although I only have one drive between the two, which has AIX 4.3.2 installed. I don't have install media, and I don't know the root password; question is, can anyone tell me if Linux can mount AIX's filesystem, so that I can reset it? I'm seeing a whole bunch of conflicting reports about that, in particular that Linux' idea of JFS is based on that in OS/2, which is a different animal to that which existed in AIX. (reason for asking rather than just trying is that I don't actually have a PC-based SCSI board here with me; I'd have to put the AIX drive in one of my Sun or SGI systems, snarf raw data into a file via dd and FTP it across to mount it via a loopback device under Linux - then do the reverse to get the modified image back onto the disk) If it comes to it, I can try scanning the raw disk blocks for root's entry in the passwd file, removing the password (which I assume will just be a single-character indicator to use a shadow file anyway) and making up the slack in the comment field - which will hopefully work. But it would be far easier to just access the file directly. cheers Jules

11 years

4
4
0 0

London collector clearing out

by lproven＠gmail.com

http://www.reddit.com/r/computercollecting/comments/34u6m1/free_machines_of… -- 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)

11 years

4
9
0 0

Vintage Computer Fest South East

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

For those of you that went. Did anyone post pictures?

11 years

4
6
0 0

DEC manufacturing locations

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ian McLaughlin > It would be neat to find open/close dates, pictures, etc for each > location. I recently acquired a mildly interesting book, "Images of America: Digital Equipment Corporation", by Alan R. Earls, which gives the opening year for a lot of DEC facilities (and pictures of quite a few). I'm not sure where his data is from, but that might be a start. Noel

11 years

1
0
0 0

Cassette tape data recovery

by evan.linwood＠eastek.com.au

I'm wondering if anyone on the list has much experience recovering data from old cassette tapes? The tape to be read is a single cold-start tape that was found sitting the B1900 system picked up by Noel Chiappa just recently. Given the tape's importance, I'd rather not fry it or blow limited opportunities by attempting it myself! - Evan

11 years

4
6
0 0

Creating a floppy drive exerciser

by alexandre.tabajara＠gmail.com

Well, things came to a point I have NO 360K drive I can attest it is working properly and aligned. I have some AAD alignement diskettes, but I need something to exercise the drive. Google seems not to know what a "floppy drive exerciser" is. Do people have some tips of schematics, programs, or will I have to roll my own? :) Thanks! --- Enviado do meu Apple IIGS (pq eu sou chique) Meu site: http://www.tabalabs.com.br Meu blog: http://tabajara-labs.blogspot.com

11 years

3
2
0 0

Hex to Octal (3 digit) converer

by philip＠neoncluster.com

Hi, I?m looking for a program (or preferably an online conversion site, as I use Macintosh) that can convert a long stream of Hex, to 3 digit Octal. I have found one site that works ok (http://www.kjetil-hartveit.com/blog/10/hex-binary-decimal-octal-and-ascii-c… <http://www.kjetil-hartveit.com/blog/10/hex-binary-decimal-octal-and-ascii-c…>), but the octal it outputs is not always 3 digits long. Unfortunately I then need to manually add the missing ?0?s, which can be a huge pain for long listings, and open to human error. For example the above site does?. Entering this: 0E 09 11 1B 01 CD 05 00 Outputs this: 16 11 21 33 1 315 5 0 But I want this: 016 011 021 033 001 315 005 000 Does anyone know of a good site (or some good software)? Much thanks Phil

11 years

7
12
0 0

TD Systems TDL-11 QBUS (SCSI?) card

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Seth Morabito > Well now I have egg on my face... Don't worry, you're not the only one... :-) > No, actually it DOES work. Wow. Live and learn. Or maybe actually DMA indeed _doesn't_ work with the CPU stopped, and what happened was that the DMA request was waiting in the card, and as soon as the processor started, it did the DMA? But how did the first instruction fetch produce a valid instruction? Unless the first DMA cycle (to 01000) happened before the processor fetched the first instruction? I'll have to try throwing a 'scope on a QBUS and manually (via ODT) starting a DMA transfer, with the CPU halted... see what (if anything) happens. Noel

11 years

3
2
0 0

OS-9 Disks

by david＠thecoolbears.org

I have a few 5.25 floppies, about 4, that I would really like to have imaged. I *think* that they are OS-9 (Microware not Apple) format. I don't have a way to do it my self. Is there anyone out there who could help out?

11 years

2
1
0 0

Computers_With_BASIC_in_ROM

by james＠attfield.co.uk

> However, with the Atari 400 and 800 and the Exidy sorceror, the BASIC ROM > module was, IIRC, included with the > machine in the standard configuration (i.e. if you bought an off-the-shelf > boxed version of one of those, you > got a BASIC module). Is that really any different from having the ROMs fitted > to the main PCB? > My Sorcerer came with the BASIC cartridge supplied as standard as did the one a colleague got. I also recall that this was the standard offering. James

11 years

1
0
0 0

IBM Mainframe

by FRED＠MISER.MISERNET.NET

>I just received my first IBM mainframe. It's an IBM Multiprise 3000 >model 7060-H30. It's a a P/390 class machine. It has 6 18GB drives and >3 9 GB drives. I'll be posting some pictures on my website soon. *drool* I was watching that also on ebay. Almost went for it. Almost. :) I am glad it went to a good home. Fred

11 years

1
0
0 0

Heath ET-3400 / ETA-3400 Anyone?

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

(Still in SBC mode..) I'm feeling a need for one of the Heathkit ETA-3400 memory & I/O expansion units for my ET-3400.. or at least a set of documentation such as could be used to build one of my own. Anybody have an ETA-3400 they'd be willing to part with..? A set of docs in PDF? As it sits, all I've got here is a copy of the ET-3400 'Modification Manual' which details the changes which must be made to the ET so it will connect to the ETA module. Thanks for any assistance..

11 years

5
8
0 0

DEC Manufacturing Locations

by j＠ckrubin.us

Sorry for the munged URL and thanks to Vince for providing the full address. If you missed it first time, here it is again: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?47402-Place-of-manuf… I take the list in digest form to minimize the potential for ADD distractions; it also means that there is a lot of latency in my response time. Jack

11 years

1
0
0 0

DEC manufacturing locations

by j＠ckrubin.us

Thanks to everyone who responded to my original query. This link is to the location list in DEC's 1993 internal directory - obviously more than just manufacturing - https://www.dropbox.com/s/szitkbpfwk...ctory.pdf?dl=0 . They had a _lot_ of locations! Jack

11 years

7
6
0 0

GE TermiNet Models 310-340: scanned manuals

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello everybody, related to the recent posts on the GE TermiNet 300, I uploaded my scanned TermiNet documents to the bitsavers ftp-server maintained by Al. Hoewever, while going through the docs, I realized that these are for the later line printer models 310, 320, 330, 340, and not for model 300, apologies for potentially created hopes and confusions. But in any way, adding these to the documents list cannot harm :) Kind regards, Pierre ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers moved to: http://www.digitalheritage.de

11 years

2
1
0 0

TD Systems TDL-11 QBUS (SCSI?) card

by lists＠loomcom.com

Hi folks, I was recently given a load of QBUS stuff, and among the cards is a TD Systems TDL-11. I can't find a scrap of information about it anywhere. I have reason to believe it's a SCSI controller that emulates RL01 drives, based on its similarity to the TDL-12, which is documented online here: https://sites.google.com/site/glensvintagecomputerinfo/td-systems/tdl-12 Since I can't find a manual for it, I have absolutely no idea how to set its jumpers or activate its diagnostic monitor (if there even is one). Just to see if it would work, I tried following the instructions to get into the TDL-12's monitor, but they don't work on the TDL-11. Has anyone seen this card in the wild, or can anyone point me at a manual for it? A poor photo of my card is here, for reference (200K): http://www.loomcom.com/junk/tdl11.jpg Best Wishes, -Seth

11 years

4
12
0 0

TD Systems TDL-11 QBUS (SCSI?) card

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Seth Morabito > 1. Halt the CPU and enter ODT I'm too lazy to check to confirm this, but I strongly suspect DMA requests don't get serviced while the machine is halted. If so, you could use the following code fragment to avoid that: 0400 12737 MOV #400, @#174400 400 174400 777 BR . Start at 0400, let it run for a couple of seconds, then halt the machine and look at 01000 and up. Noel

11 years

2
1
0 0

8257 use in Intel MDS IOC

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I'm reverse-engineering the firmware of the IOC board of an Intel MDS Series II (with the iMDX 511 IOC firmware enhancement kit, so it's the same as early MDS Series III firmware, but possibly not 100% identical to firmware of the later MDS Series III using the IOC-III). The IOC uses an 8257 DMA controller, which was the predecessor of the 8237 as used in PCs. While it is mostly pin-compatible, the 8257 register map is a subset of nor compatible with the 8237. Not a problem since the 8257 datasheet is readily available. Except... The 8257 mode register (output) and status register (input) are register number 0x8 of 16. The data sheet says that A3 should be 1 and A2..A0 should be zero to access those registers, as expected, and does not document what (if anything) registers 0x9 through 0xf do. It's possible that they simply mirror register 0x8. In the MDS, the 8257 is I/O ports 0xf0 through 0xff, so mode and status should be at 0xf8, and indeed sometimes the firmware references those. However, the firmware also inputs from 0xfd, and writes to registers 0xfb, 0xfc, and 0xff. The values read and written don't seem to me to completely make sense if I make the assumption that they are mirrors of 0xf8, and I can't imagine why the firmware author would have used 0xf8 in some places and other port addresses in other places if in fact they are functionally the same. Intel published the source code of the ROMs for the MDS main processor (8080 or 8085), but I've never seen source code for the IOC firmware. Update as I was writing this up: I just spotted a comment in the MESS driver by fulivi stating that port 0xfd reads as 0xff and is used to detect whether the chip is an 8237 or 8257. If so, perhaps the 8257 either ignores input requests >from 0xf9 through 0xff, leaving the bus tri-state, or possibly it actually drives 0xff, and perhaps it ignores writes to 0xf9 through 0xff. I'll have to go back through the disassembly and study what that would do; it didn't seem like just the writes to 0xf8 made sense, but the other writes may have confused me. Has anyone actually seen a Series II or Series III with an 8237 on the IOC board? Perhaps the IOC-III uses the 8237? Eric

11 years

2
2
0 0

Looking for SYSGEN and FORMAT for Versafloppy 1 controller

by philip＠neoncluster.com

Hi, I have a single CP/M 1.4 boot floppy that came with my IMSAI 8080 system. It?s been a bit of an effort, but the system is now fully functional from a hardware point of view. I?m now looking for SYSGEN and FORMAT programs (or any programs at all) for the Versafloppy 1 controller card. I?m hoping these will allow me to get a backup of the floppy before it dies. It?s already marginal, and boots only once in every 3 attempts, so whatever I do, I?m going to have to be very careful. For more info, you can see my post of VCF about it here: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?47424-Is-FORMAT-COM-… Cheers & thanks. Phil

11 years

1
0
0 0

QBUS Memory card config info

by lists＠loomcom.com

In my recent Qbus haul, I found two non-DEC memory cards: 1. NSC NS23D 2. Dataram 40903 Rev G Both are fully populatd with 2MB (1MW) of 256Kb x 1 chips, and both are configured for address 0. I'd love to use both together in one of my systems, but I can't find a scrap of documentation anywhere, so I have no idea how to configure the base address of either card. Disappointing! Does anyone have docs for either of these beasts? Best Wishes, -Seth

11 years

1
0
0 0

PDP-8 documents on eBay

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So here's something interesting (but not in my line): PDP8/E Interface Manual - 1970 http://www.ebay.com/itm/271858083977 The same seller has some other PDP-8 documentation (set of prints of some sort, etc, etc). Noel

11 years

1
0
0 0

Texas Instruments CC-40 won't boot

by fozztexx＠fozztexx.com

Picked up a TI CC-40 and it?s much smaller than I expected. I thought it was going to be the same size as a TRS-80 Model 100. I mostly got it because I wanted to try out the BASIC on it so I could update the list of computers with BASIC in ROM that I started on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:FozzTexx/List_of_Computers_With_BASIC_in_… As soon as I got it I popped in some batteries and turned it on, and I was able to enter a one line BASIC program and run it. Then I pushed the OFF key and since then it won?t boot up at all, it just gives me half a screen of black squares. Thinking maybe I had put partially dead batteries in it, I replaced them with fresh ones and same thing. I also pulled the batteries and tried powering it up from the DC input jack, still no go. When it?s stuck like this the OFF key doesn?t do anything and neither does the little reset button next to the spacebar. I?ve looked around for a service manual and haven?t turned up anything. Did my RAM chips go bad? Did the ROM go bad? Here?s a pic of the CC-40 and an M100 next to it for scale: http://imgur.com/a/Irsev -- Follow me on twitter: @FozzTexx Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com

11 years

11
28
0 0

Computers_With_BASIC_in_ROM

by bob099＠centurytel.net

The TI-74 BasiCalc, successor to the CC-40 -- But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel I Timothy 5:8

11 years

1
0
0 0

Burroughs B1900 for sale in North Carolina

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I'm not sure what we've got, here. The machine seems to have only one memory board in it, so, just for grins, I decided to look at the online docs on the 1900, and see if it needed memory boards in pairs. The doc described the model 1905 and the model 1955 - both of which have a "diagnostic/maintainence control panel", with lights and switches, which this machine doesn't have. Although that may not mean that much - people started getting rid of them because they cost too much, so maybe this is a later model, without them. They also have a cutout in the top panel for a large keyboard (see pictures online of these model) which again this machine doesn't have (the cutout, that is)... It does seem to have one less CPU card than one of the models (forget which one) in the online manuals (CPU cards only go from A-H on this unit, not A-J), and no, there isn't a missing CPU card, i) the slots are numbered, and ii) there's no empty slot. I looked all over it for a model/serial number placard, which would give the model, but NSFL, couldn't find one. :-( It does have a large red placard panel on the front which says 1900, so I'm pretty sure it's _some_ flavour of Burroughs 1900, but... Anyone have any idea what this thing might be, exactly? Noel

11 years

1
0
0 0

Multibus extender

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Hi Does anyone have or no where to get a cheapish multibus extender card? I've seen a few new extenders for sale but they are quite pricey. Cheers

11 years

1
0
0 0

those moments when out urban exploring and i wana scream

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

out exploring the rements of a paper mill 20 yrs in the making... mess i stumbled upone this sad iritating site one crushed smashed up pdp8i in the yard of burnt trashed industrial junk wasteland https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/sets/72157651577592077/

11 years

2
7
0 0

Where's a good place to list stuff?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Todd Goodman > There aren't many deals to be found on eBay anymore (IMNSHO anyway) for > vintage computer gear. Test equipment is a different story. Well, it still does happen occasionally. Someone (no idea who) recently got a really nice BA11-S for only $80 (admittedly, in part because I was confused about the closing time, and missed that auction :-). Although I guess "occasionally" is pretty much the same as "not many", so I guess you're right. If people are willing to buy lots (i.e. N things in a group), you can also get good deals. E.g. I know of recent lot that included 4 11/73 CPU cards; it turned out that although only one worked straight off, the J11 chips on the other three were all good - and the whole lot (including a bunch of other boards, all working) was only like $250. Noel

11 years

2
1
0 0

Visual Basic Question

by dj.taylor4＠verizon.net

I have a software driver for an old scientific instrument that is described in a brief manual this way: "The acquisition driver is a tool that allows developers to write their own Windows based programs that can acquire data from any Michelson series spectrometer. The programs can be developed with any programming environment that supports calling standard Windows 16bit DLLs. Examples of such environments are Visual Basic and Visual C++ from Microsoft ( up to version 1.5 ), Delphi and C++ >from Borland, Labview from National instruments. This document assumes that the reader is familiar with all the concepts surrounding DLLs and Windows programming. It is a reference guide that explains the parameters of the functions that make up the Bomem acquisition driver and how they are used to acquire data." I recently purchased Visual Basic 4.0 Standard Edition, but the first pages of the reference indicate that it is a 32 bit only version. Which version of Visual Basic will allow me to call this driver?

11 years

4
8
0 0

Multibus extenders?

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Hi I?m trying to find a multibus extender card. I?ve seen a few for sale new, but they are a bit too pricey for me. Anyone know a good source or have an old extender for sale? Thanks.

11 years

1
0
0 0

Burroughs B1900 for sale in North Carolina

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> On 4/14/15 2:07 AM, Nigel Williams wrote: >> I hope someone is able to rescue this system For those who were interested in this thing's fate, I just picked it up, and it's sitting safely in my garage, waiting for the new owner to arrange shipping. It's in really good shape inside (unlike my rodent 11/34's :-), and the cards look like they are all there. (If anyone's particularly interested in this machine, email me - _not the list_! - and I'll send you a copy of my detailed report to the new owner on its condition.) > From: Al Kossow > There are a couple of obvious things missing, like the cold-start > cassette Actually, there _is_ one of those there, still in the casette drive. Not sure how good a shape it's in after this long (or the casette drive, for that matter), but... > and any disk drives. Oddly enough, the seller did have two Burroughs packs (4 platter, I think). Not sure if they are from this machine, or what's on them - or how one would ever find a drive to read them on! > dumps of the tapes would be a good thing Alas, the tapes appear to be un-connected to the machine. Noel

11 years

4
3
0 0

IBM 5120-troubles removing card cage

by supervinx＠libero.it

Hi! I feel a bit stupid, since I tore apart a lot of machines so I should be able to remove the card cage... but... I removed back covers and the two screws which hold the cage in place. I pulled gently the card, and I encountered a fair amount of resistance. Looking into the chassis (there's a hole under the cathodic tube) I noticed that the yellow flat cable (coming from the power section) blocked the cage on the left. Freed the cage I couldn't extract it completely, since the cage fan cable and a semitransparent flat cable (both disappearing internally, can't say where by now) are very short. I was barely able to remove the cage metal top cover. The semitransparent flat cable starts from the I/O Cable Driver card in the "A" position... Am I missing something? The manual has images of the card cage fully extracted still connected to the cables, but I wasn't able to do this. Thanks! -- Vincenzo (aka Supervinx) --==ooOoo==-- My computer collection: http://www.supervinx.com/OnlineMuseum --==ooOoo==-- You can reach me at: www.supervinx.com www.facebook.com/supervinx http://www.youtube.com/user/supervinx http://www.myspace.com/supervinx

11 years

1
0
0 0

Burroughs B1900 for sale in North Carolina

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Nigel Williams > Do any of the tape labels suggest original distribution media? if so > would you be willing to share some of the descriptions please. None of the tapes have descriptive labels; all have only large labels with 4-digit numbers. In other words, they look like somsone's data tapes. One has a label from the Durham Insurance Company; a letter (which I found in the base of one of the cardboard boxes which held the tapes) is from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, and says that they received a "gift of a large number of used magnetic tapes" from that company, which they are handing out for free. Like I said, the tapes are useless. Noel

11 years

1
0
0 0

FREE FOR SHIPPING or LOCAL PICK UP: P133 DOS Gaming Machine

by slandon110＠gmail.com

Just clearing out stuff this spring. P133 Machine 16MB RAM 2GB HD 5.25 inch FDD- 360KB 3.5in FDD 1.44mb Has Windows 95 installed on it and a Voodoo 2 Card in it. Used to be my DOS Gaming machine, but ive since replaced it with another machine. Was given to me, So its Free for the cost of shipping to anyone who wants it, Or wants to come pick it up in Farwell Michigan Steve

11 years

1
0
0 0

M9301-YB Bootstrap/Terminator ROM dumps / listings?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jorg Hoppe >> Much of the M9312 ... was quite different [from the M9301] > ... here is the commented source code of all M9312 bootloaders. > ... > Very likely the actual PDP-11 code is identical to M9301 Err.... :-) Noel

11 years

1
0
0 0

M9301-YB Bootstrap/Terminator ROM dumps / listings?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jorg Hoppe >> Here's what I have so far: >> http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/M9301-YA.mac > Thanks for that effort! Eh, de nada. Interesting and educational. > The M9312 code should be similar, at least it may expose some ideas Some parts of it (e.g. the CPU diagnostic) are mostly identical (and the comments there, particularly on the single-op register instructions, are useful to total understanding of that code in the M9301); but alas, I had already done that part of the M9301 (at least, at a surface level)! Much of the M9312 (including the functionality of most of what I had yet to read in the M9301) was quite different. I did manage to get the 'print number' code out of it, but that was pretty much it. So I've done a lot of the remaining M9301-YA code (new version uploaded to location above); not the per-device code, I'll probably blow that off, but other than that, only a few tiny sections remain to be understood. Can someone with a M9301-YA please verify for me that location 165450 contains 0770? I think that perhaps that is wrong, because the code makes no sense if that's correct - maybe a bit has been dropped, or something? And if anyone has a good M9301-YB, I would appreciate a dump. (I do have one, but don't - yet - have a running UNIBUS -11 to plug it into.) > From: Don North > I've had two DL11-W in my 11/34A BA11-K box for years and have never > had an LTC issue. I suppose if you had a a larger number (say four or > more) you might possibly see an LTC issue Hey, all I know is what's in the manual (which Josh posted). :-) I'd forgotten there was a jumper you could pull - I tend not to like to do things like that as it makes the cards non-pull-and-plug interchangeable. Hence my suggestion to 'just use an M7800'. Noel

11 years

6
8
0 0

Old terminal avaialble in Houston

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

I have an old terminal available in Houston. It is a red terminal with Bendix and Logicport 2 printed on the front next to the side of the screen and an acoustic coupler on the top. It comes in a big red carrying case. Need to move this out if anyone is interested contact me off list otherwise I guess I'll have to take it to the recycle center. Would rather see it go to someone who could use or enjoy it. David Williams www.trailingedge.com

11 years

2
1
0 0

Obsolete computer discs, etc.

by bob＠warriston.freeserve.co.uk

Second time of sending. A response, please. While turning out my attic I unearthed obsolete *discs for a 1980s Amstrad computer *which has long been disposed of. One disc is, as far as I know, in mint condition but a further twelve contain programmes. Another six discs contain long forgotten person data which I can't access. I am intrigued to know what they contain. Also in my searches I have found a *Microsoft Works manual* complete with system discs, and an *Amstrad user's manual*. Also about a*dozen 5" discs* containing stock records of warehouse long demolished. Again, I am curious to see what I recorded 30 years ago. I am reluctant to consign these items to the dustbin if a) the discs can be deciphered, and b) they are are of use to someone else. Your organisation has been suggested as a possible home for at least some of these items. Are they of interest? If not, do you know any organisation that might be? R.J. Rickard. Edinburgh.

11 years

4
3
0 0

ACT and CMI Unibus boards

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Pictures of the two boards here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/56w5p671dxnlb1q/10039%20DUAL%20IO.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/rxf4e56cgo40bt5/10046_INTERLINK_U.jpg?dl=0 Andrea

11 years

1
0
0 0

HP TSB console lockout (was RE: HP (3rd party) id help?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Rick wrote... ---- The computer center (as it was called then) was very much off limits to just about anyone but the operator, ... ---- Maybe it is/was common knowledge, but I had forgotten about this tidbit until finding a 1 sentence note almost hidden in a manual... To keep people from entering commands at the console who were not authorized, TSB monitors bit 0 of the S register on the main cpu. If that bit is set, no console commands will run and it just echos back the characters that you type. On the older machines where the front panel key switch actually could lock the panel, for security if people had access to the machine room you could set Sreg bit 0 and turn the key to lock and take it with you. Console disabled. I was curious if this would work with the newer cpu's where the key switch was just a door latch and the "lock/operate" switch was behind the front panel. Alas, sr0 bit 0 works as expected to lock the console, but setting the lock/operate switch behind the front panel does not disable the switch register. So on those model cpus... I guess it's "security through obscurity" :) J

11 years

1
0
0 0

HP (3rd party) id help?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I don't think I ever asked this here, I apologize if this is a repost from long ago. I don't remember the answer in any case! In high school we had an HP 2000/Access system, and in one of the racks was a non-HP modem or leased line unit that supported multiple lines (maybe 16-ish ISTR). I remember there was a row of silver rocker switches (one for each channel). I think there was a rotary thumbdial on the right with numbers on it to select the line, and maybe an LED above each rocker switch to show which lines were in use. Maybe (not sure) there were some status LEDS on the right that showed status for whatever line was selected with the thumbwheel. I have a picture of the system racks at https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/17325691225/ In the dual bay HP on the right, it is the left rack, 2nd from the top. It's just under the 2748B paper tape reader and just above the 7900A disc drive. I was curious if anyone recognized definitively what brand/model that device was? Most unfortunately, that picture includes me holding a trophy for a programming contest and it shows I once was thin, once had hair, and always had acne LOL Kinda wish I had cropped it before uploading :\ I apologize for the fuzziness, it's a picture of a picture and the best I could get. The time period is roughly 1978-1982, and I think the system was a few years old already at the beginning of that period (was probably used and put together >from parts at other schools). Anyone know for sure on the comm device? J

11 years

3
5
0 0

Apple iBook G4 running Linux for sale

by shawn-gordon＠cox.net

I have Debian/Gnome installed on it, 1.2gb RAM and 56gb HD. I never configured the drivers for the wifi but a network cable works, shouldn't be hard to get the wifi working, I had it working with a different distro but swapped it out. Anyway, have a soft case for it and selling for just $80 plus shipping.

11 years

2
1
0 0

General Electric Terminet HP 2762A

by jws＠jwsss.com

I recently acquired a GE Terminet 300 in the guise of an HP 2762A terminal, KSR. I am attaching what I have so far in my blog. I've found little on the technical side for this terminal. If anyone has a manual I'd appreciate a copy. It is referenced in one listing of HP manuals, 02762-90001 the service manual. I'm not sure what to make of the one hit I get on that P/N that isn't bitsavers mirrors. I figured I'd ask here first. I'll also ask on the hp equipment group, I am on there too. hpmuseum.net is welcome to my photos, or contact me offline, and I'll make some better quality shots for your web site. I plan to get this going to use for the Multics Simulator at some point. The TN300 was a common console, and was an early symptom of the featureless, non-blink'n lites type shop that came to be. I know the Honeywell 6180 that ran Multics had an 8 panel service panel with wonderful sets of lights, but it was hidden in a cabinet, and typically not accessed by the operator. thanks Jim http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2015/04/2762a-terminal-printer-ge-terminet-…

11 years

7
10
0 0

ACT and CMI Unibus boards

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, thanks for the Info. I will post images of all the boards in next days. The ACT boards are indeed from Able Computer. From brochure pictures I identified these models: - DUAL I/O compatible dual DR11-C - BUSLINK for machine-machine bus link applications. Unfortunately there are no info about any of these board. Anybody has some documentations around on the shelf? Thanks Andrea

11 years

1
0
0 0

Ridge 32/330 up and running!

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hey all -- Last summer I picked up a Ridge 32/330 that became available locally. This is a fairly obscure early RISC machine intended to be a competitor to the VAX, it uses a 32-bit CPU at 12.5Mhz built from discrete components (spanning three large PCBs). Mine's outfitted with 8mb of ECC memory, Pertec, SMD and SCSI QIC controllers, and Ethernet. You can see some pictures of this beast at: https://plus.google.com/117997069161125071032/posts/JtsR3BokUxp?pid=6063976… I got it running late last year after rebuilding the QIC tape drive and dealing with some intermittent failures due to a couple of low-quality DIP sockets. I now have a set of dedicated 20A circuits installed in my basement so I can run it for longer periods of time without worrying about burning my house down, so I'll be running it for the next couple of weeks just for fun to keep the basement warm and run up my electrical bill :). It's currently running RX/V 1.1 (Ridge's UNIX variant) and it's on the Internet (indirectly, since exposing a 25-year old UNIX directly to the 'net seems like a bad idea). I thought maybe some people here might be interested in checking it out since it's pretty obscure, if you want an account to play around, drop me a line and I can hook you up. I don't know of any other Ridge machines out there (running or not) -- if you have one let me know, there's very little information out there on these things. I'll add that I'm looking for an external SMD cabinet and cabling so that I can image the original SMD disk that was in the Ridge when I got it; it looks like it contains a valid partition table, but it will not boot. I didn't want to wipe it so the Ridge is currently running off of a spare drive -- I'd like to hook it up externally to dump an image from the running RX/V system. If anyone has one to loan (preferably within driving distance of Seattle) let me know. Once that's done, it's time to figure out how to get the Eagle that came with it running again... And a huge thanks to Al Kossow for archiving the OS media that's on Bitsavers, without which this machine would be a very large boat anchor taking up many cubic feet in my basement. (If anyone has any media or docs for this that aren't on Bitsavers, let me know -- I'm in particular looking for an ROS distribution on QIC media...) - Josh

11 years

5
11
0 0

Qualstar 1260 9 Track Tape Service Manual with Schematics

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Question for all in general and Al Kossow in particular... There is a scanned version of the Qualstar 1260 Service Manual on bitsavers, but it cuts off right where it gets interesting, just before the schematics in Appendix C... Does anybody have the full version somewhere with the schematics at the end? (BTW, the 1052 manual version has the schematics). The Qualstar tape drive in question hooked up to my Mac SE/30 (of all things!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqIrMXxPGUA But it misbehaves now (squeaks while motor reverses and fails reads test, hopefully mechanical?). And my second unit caught another virus and now refuses to load tape or get the motors going. Both used to work fine. Time to open them up I guess. - Marc

11 years

4
3
0 0

PDP11/70 on ebay

by dj.taylor4＠verizon.net

There is a PDP11/70 for sale on ebay, item number 331537471267 Sure is nice looking and expensive... It seems to have a lot of boards and such, but no disk drive, what gives? Disclaimer: I am not the seller, nor do I have connection. Just a gawker.

11 years

9
8
0 0

IBM 14 inch HDA at goodwill link.

by innfoclassics＠gmail.com

Spotted on the goodwill site, a IBM 14 inch hard drive. Pretty unusual. Someone here might be interested. http://www.shopgoodwill.com/auctions/IBM-165600-Module-10SR-Mod-1-14-HDA-19… Paxton -- Paxton Hoag Astoria, OR USA

11 years

4
3
0 0

PDP11/70 on ebay

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Wow. Someone really, _really_, ***REALLY*** wanted that machine. Noel

11 years

1
0
0 0

PDP-8/I replica kit

by oscar.vermeulen＠hotmail.com

Hi, I just completed the design of my PiDP-8, a kit replica of the venerable PDP-8/I, after exhibiting the prototypes at the VCFeX. Now, I'm gearing up to produce a batch of kits, and I'd like to collect expressions of interest in the coming two weeks.In other words, see how much interest there is, so I can determine parts volume and exact cost. -> Kit will cost no more than $135, hopefully a bit less (depends on volume!)-> Shipping will be $30 worldwide, as registered parcel with tracking -> Expected shipping date is mid-July, payment required only when kits are done-> Expression of interest means you're not committing to buy now, just indicate you're very likely to buy in early July. For details, here is a short Youtube demonstration:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hyUActgT2E If you are (seriously) planning to buy the kit, please add your name to the mailing list via the box on this page and I'll update you on progress:http://obsolescence.wix.com/obsolescence#!pidp-8-get-one/ctny If you already got an email from me today (or you registered your interest just today), then you're already on the list - in which case please ignore this message. Regards, Oscar.

11 years

6
12
0 0

Resolved: Re: 11/34 sanity check

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Josh Dersch > it never occurred to me to just try flipping it around since usually > that's a pretty good way to let the magic smoke out of things. Exactly. Except for cases where I _know_ the connector was designed to be able to withstand being plugged in backwards (e.g. IDE), I would _never_ try reversing a cable 'on spec'. The chances are just too big one will kill something. (Amusing factoid: QBUS cards have the same thing, they are designed so that you can plug them in backwards, and not kill things. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that one one occasion, I actually did this! Luckily the engineer who did the QBUS saved my behind.) > From: Johnny Billquist > On 2015-04-27 00:50, Mike Ross wrote: >> One does not casually reverse the installation of cables just to see >> if maybe it will work! > Actually.... I often have done so, just because of this. And how many times have you melted something down, doing that? :-) Noel

11 years

6
6
0 0

IBM 370 Mainframe Operator Control Panel on eBay

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Here: www.ebay.com/itm/181726343378 Alas, it's 'Local pick-up only', in Portland, Oregon, but there may be someone here out there who's up for it. Noel

11 years

1
0
0 0

VK170 M7142 Serial Video Board

by jws＠jwsss.com

I have a friend preparing to bring one of these up in a small system (2 wide) backplane with an M7676 standalone pdp 11 card. Anyone have any experience with configuring these? Looks like the monitor is going to be a 9" Ball brothers monitor, not sure what else. Documentation is plentiful, but options are also complex, so someone who has one working, or any experience would be welcome to comment. thanks Jim

11 years

1
0
0 0

M9301-YB Bootstrap/Terminator ROM dumps / listings?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jorg Hoppe > I also have a spare DL11-W to offer Josh, if you want a second serial line, it's best to use a regular DL11 (M7800), not a DL11-W. (M7800s are available on eBay, for pretty modest amounts.) The reason is that each DL11-W presents a load on the line clock signal (from the power supply), even if the line clock on the second board is disabled; several Dl11-W's, and the line clock signal may get overloaded. > From: Josh Dersch > I need to scare up a second SLU so I can get an emulated TU-58 hooked > up to try booting XXDP I'm not sure any M9301 variant supports the TU-58? Some are set up to boot over the console serial line, though. (I haven't yet checked the code, so I don't know whether you need to feed it the absolute loader first, or if it will just take .LDA files directly.) And I just realized you're working with a -YB, and I've been dis-assembling the -YA! Fat lot of use that would have been! Oh well, I assume the code is fairly similar, I'll do the -YB next. (Anyone have a dump, to start me off?) > comparing the diagnostic/console PROM listings to what I have Where were those from? Thanks in advance... > From: Henk Gooijen > I could be wrong, but ISTR that in the first few words of a ROM are the > two capitals of the boot device that the PROM supports. Not in the M9301-YA, in either bank. Noel

11 years

4
4
0 0

ACT and CMI Unibus boards

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, just received some Unibus boards, some are from ACT, one from CMI. I would identify these boards. The first is a big hex board, marked ACT 10046: on front side has two 50pin connectors, plus two female edge connectors on the left side (some sort of narrow bus extender?). There are some resistive terminators onboard near one of the 50pin connectors. Very strange board... The second is a quad board marked ACT 10039: it has four 40pin connectors, two on front and two on a side. The last is for sure a RAM board, as it includes an array of 16x9 HM4716 ICs, with a total of 128KW. It's from CMI ON 207-010-300 and it has a lot of wire-wrap jumpers for configuration. Anybody has some knowledge over these boards? Thanks Andrea

11 years

3
2
0 0

PDP11/70 on ebay

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mark J. Blair > I may be able to do that if A) it's still there in a couple weeks It won't. There are already two bids on it. Noel

11 years

2
1
0 0

PDP11/70 on ebay

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Douglas Taylor > Sure is nice looking and expensive... I can't figure out if that price ($5K) is reasonable or not. I have previously dealt with that seller on another item, a dead/banged-up 11/05 that another list member wound up buying; the seller's asking price on that was a little high (based on the average of sales since then for that class of machine), but not an integral factor high, as often seen on eBay (or an order of magnitude high, also to be seen on eBay). My guess, given how rare they are now, the fact that it's complete (including all cables - often cut/removed), etc, etc is that this is once again in the ballpark, if on the high end. Am I confused? Noel

11 years

7
7
0 0

VCF East articles + pictures

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Evan Koblentz > Hackaday sponsored our Friday "VCF East University" classes and they > wrote many articles about us before, during, and after the show: Apparently Christopher Parish's RL02<->USB adapter went viral, e.g.: http://www.techspot.com/news/60442-world-largest-usb-thumb-drive-has-10mb-s… Noel

11 years

3
4
0 0

M9301-YB Bootstrap/Terminator ROM dumps / listings?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> from what I've seen so far, the code tends to loop on error, not halt. So I lied: it turns out that some of the later tests (in the extended tests - JSR, memory) do in fact halt on error. I realize it's not needed immediately now (Josh having solved his problem), but I've got the low part (diagnostics and TA11 boot) done, working on the top part now. Here's what I have so far: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/M9301-YA.mac I haven't densely commented the CPU tests as they seemed, at first glance, pretty non-complicated. The memory diagnostics are pretty inscrutable, I don't really understand them yet (may not bother). The top part (console and othr boots) - hoo boy, talk about 'sphagetti code'!! I think there's a picture of this in the dictionary when you look that term up. Very, very ugly code. That part may take a while... Noel

11 years

2
1
0 0

M9301-YB Bootstrap/Terminator ROM dumps / listings?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Charles Dickman > You can find a dump and partial disassembly So I decided, just for grins (this may be duplicative of what's on a fiche somewhere) to complete the disassembly, and there was something that was puzzling me. There a bunch of entry points (for auto-booting from different devices) which all are of the form: BR foo where foo is the same location. The code doesn't save anything before the branch, it just does it right off. So how does it know, when it gets there, which entry point was used? Well, it turns out that the answer, I am pretty sure, is that with the M9312, location 773024 is even more magic than it first appears. (Slight digression, for those who didn't get the reference: the way the M9312 forces the 11/04 or /34 CPU into the ROM, on power-fail or manual restart, is that when the CPU tries to fetch the PC/PS pair from location 024 - the power-fail/restart vector - the card jams the high UNIBUS address lines to 773000 for two bus cycles, directing the fetch of the new PC/PS to locations 773024-6. Next, when the CPU fetches the contents of location 773024, the basic contents of that location, in the ROM - 173000 - are or'd with switch S1-3 (bit 8, 4xx) through S1-10 (bit 1, 2). So that's how the code jumps to different entry points, based on the contents of S1.) However, from reading the code (yet to verify this on prints, but it _has_ to work this way, the code doesn't make any sense otherwise), it appears that _any_ reference to location 773024, at _any time_, produces the contents of ROM location 773024 or'd with the contents of switch S1!! In other words, location 773024 is effectively a hacky register that allows S1 to be read. (And the M9312 Maint Manual does _not_ make this clear. It talks about how the contents are modified during the power-on PC/PS fetch cycle, but _not_ about the later references part.) Very clever, though! Noel PS: Josh, from what I've seen so far, the code tends to loop on error, not halt. So if your machine's halting...

11 years

5
5
0 0

HP 700/92 green screen terminal for sale

by shawn-gordon＠cox.net

$75 plus shipping. Perfect working condition. thanks, shawn

11 years

1
0
0 0

Obsolete computer discs, etc.

by bob＠warriston.freeserve.co.uk

While turning out my attic I unearthed obsolete *discs for a 1980s Amstrad computer *which has long been disposed of. One disc is, as far as I know, in mint condition but a further twelve contain programmes. Another six discs contain long forgotten person data which I can't access. I am intrigued to know what they contain. Also in my searches I have found a *Microsoft Works manual* complete with system discs, and an *Amstrad user's manual*. Also about a*dozen 5" discs* containing stock records of warehouse long demolished. Again, I am curious to see what I recorded 30 years ago. I am reluctant to consign these items to the dustbin if a) the discs can be deciphered, and b) they are are of use to someone else. Your organisation has been suggested as a possible home for at least some of these items. Are they of interest? If not, do you know any organisation that might be? R.J. Rickard. Edinburgh.

11 years

7
6
0 0

OT: CSS help needed

by evan＠snarc.net

Anybody awake who's good at CSS and can help me on the phone right now? It's 1:10AM ET. If so, then please send me a private email: evan at snarc.net

11 years

1
0
0 0

Saving my Mac SE/30. My first foray into SMD work

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

For those that might be interested http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2015-04-28-recap-se30.htm I guess a lot more classic computer enthusiasts will be doing SMD work for repair in the future as "vintage computing" starts to encompasses machines >from the 1990s. Terry (Tez)

11 years

7
12
0 0

M9301-YB Bootstrap/Terminator ROM dumps / listings?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

The 11/34 seems to be pretty healthy, I've punched in some code to do some basic testing and the CPU seems to be capable of running simple programs and the RAM seems capable of holding data. So that's good. I've also verified that the console SLU is at the right address and vector (it wasn't initially, due to a pair of bad DIP switch blocks), and I can read/write characters from/to it. Huzzah. The bootstrap ROM doesn't seem to be executing properly, however. After power-on or a BOOT/CTRL It'll run for a fraction of a second and then halt, leaving me at address 0 with 161721 displayed. ROM Data appears at the expected addresses (773000-773777, 765000-765777) but I don't know if it's at all correct. I need to scare up a second SLU so I can get an emulated TU-58 hooked up to try booting XXDP, but in the meantime I thought I'd see if I could verify the ROM contents manually (it's only 512 bytes long). I can't find a listing, however -- the operator / maintenance manual doesn't contain it and I haven't found it anywhere else. I've found a reference to a microfiche, "EP-M9301-RL-A" that supposedly contains these listings, but it doesn't appear to be archived anywhere. Anyone have this, or have dumps of the M9301-YB PROMs? Thanks, Josh

11 years

4
6
0 0

IMSAI chassis color/texture...

by steven＠malikoff.com

I have not seen an IMSAI except for photos, so I'm guessing here - I suspect the finish it has is a spatter or blobby texture? If that is the case why not ask on a Board where people know all about such things. A bit of googling found this one which has amongst others a 'Specialty Coatings' and a 'Commercial and Industrial Painting' forum: http://www.painttalk.com I'm sure they could figure it out if a close-up photo was posted. Steve. ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: RE: IMSAI chassis color/texture... From: "Bill Sudbrink" <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> Date: Sat, April 25, 2015 12:50 am To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic Posts'" <cctech at classiccmp.org> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Al Kossow wrote >> On 4/24/15 1:22 AM, Philip Lord wrote: >> > https://365pantone.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/pantone-7690/ >> > >> >> It's not the color so much as correctly duplicating the texture. > > Exactly. I'm talking with a couple of local (to me) paint shops. > They all have high tech color scanning and can scan my good chassis > for the color. The debate over whether the texture was accomplished > by some kind of powder coating or air brushing is the big thing. The > original documentation talks about "IBM Blue" which is also a pantone > color. Neither look "right" to me... on my computer screen anyway. > I have not seen an actual paint chip. > > Bill S. > > > >

11 years

2
1
0 0

HMI 68000 emulators

by wulfman＠wulfman.com

I am converting a 68008 HMI emulator back to a 68000 emulator. there are 2 headers that must be changed from 68008 to 68000 j1 and j2 i need a person that owns this emulator to pop off the plastic covers and record the jumpers soldered on the headers i can provide pictures to bitsavers of the 68008 conversion as well as pictures of the 68302 hmi emulators and a diagram of the 68008 headers. -- The contents of this e-mail and any attachments are intended solely for the use of the named addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized use, copying, disclosure, or distribution of the contents of this e-mail is strictly prohibited by the sender and may be unlawful. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete this e-mail.

11 years

1
0
0 0

IBM 5120 again.

by supervinx＠libero.it

I've a request for a friend of mine. He's experiencing vertical bars on the display, characters repetitions and video shifting. For example, AABBCCDDEEFF or LOAD0 LOAD0 xxxx xxxx The 5120 completes its post. We suspect the video card shift reg or similar. He told me he cleaned all contacts and cheched all the cards. We need the SY34-0193 or SY31-0552 manuals. Can someone help? Thanks! -- Vincenzo (aka Supervinx) --==ooOoo==-- My computer collection: http://www.supervinx.com/OnlineMuseum --==ooOoo==-- You can reach me at: www.supervinx.com www.facebook.com/supervinx http://www.youtube.com/user/supervinx http://www.myspace.com/supervinx

11 years

2
3
0 0

11/34 sanity check

by derschjo＠gmail.com

While I was waiting for the Ridge's disk to dump over a 9600bps serial port, I finally got a chance to work on my 11/34. Picked it up last summer and it was in good shape but the power supply was completely dead. I've rebuilt the supply and last night I worked out the last few kinks. So at this point all voltages are spot-on, the AC LO and DC LO signals are high (these are active low, right?) but I can't get the machine to respond at all -- the "DC ON" and "RUN" lights are lit up brightly, and the "SR DISP," "BUS ERR," and "MAINT" lights are glowing dimly. The status register display is dark. The system does not respond to any keypresses on the panel. I'm getting better with UNIBUS stuff but I wanted to run this past you guys before I whip out the debugging tools and start tracing things. I've taken it down to a pretty minimal configuration, sans any memory or other stuff. Here's what I have in the main backplane (all others are disconnected for the time being) from right to left: Slot 1: M7266 (CPU) Slot 2: M7265 (CPU) Slot 3: (AB) M9301 (bootstrap terminator) / (CDEF) M7859 (front panel board) Slot 4: empty Slot 5: empty Slot 6: empty Slot 7: empty Slot 8: empty Slot 9: (AB) M9302 (terminator) The "empty" slots have Grant Continuity boards installed and the NPG jumpers on CB1-CB2 are all present on the backplane. I've confirmed that all the right voltages are making it to the backplane (and I've cleaned up those damned Molex connectors as well, just to be sure). Is there anything I'm missing? Anything I should try? Does this failure mode sound familiar at all? Thanks as always, Josh

11 years

11
27
0 0

Equipment available in Wichita, Ks

by microfilm＠microfilm.kscoxmail.com

I'm with Microfilm Services, Inc in Wichita, Ks. We've been in business nearly 50 years, and have to do some serious house cleaning. We are a microfilm service bureau and laser printing shop. These industries have long relied on what is now old equipment. Our cameras were fed by PDP11/34's with data coming in on 9T tape. Our laser printers were fed by 9T tape and Bus & Tag online interface. At this time, we have the following equipment for sale. You good folks get the first crack at it. Anything unsold as of Friday, May 1, 2015 will go on ebay. Anything unsold after that will go to the recyclers. Make offer on any/all, buyer arranges freight for large items, pay shipping on smaller items, from Wichita, Ks. Laser Magnetic tape drives, 6250bpi, one available. StorageTek 2920 tape drives, 6250bpi, two available. 3480 cartridge drive. All of these are Pertec interface (2x50 pin). Exabyte 8000 external DAT tape drive, SCSI interface. Tandberg 1.2GB QIC tape drives, internal, SCSI interface, several available. ** HARD DISKS *** Micropolis 1355 (ESDI, 151MB, 5.25", full height) - Several on hand Imprimis 94155-67 Wren-II (ST506/412, 56MB, 5.25" full height) - At least 4 on hand, possibly more Other assorted ESDI hard disks. Bus & Tag cables - multiple pairs available Bus & Tag terminators - lots. Barr Systems Bus & Tag ISA interface for PC, with D-sub to Bus & Tag cable. I have several of these cards, and two different host computers. One ran Windows NT Server 4.0, the other ran MSDOS. No idea if either host computer still functions. EPROM's - 27c128, 16k x 8, 12.75v programming voltage. I have 9 of these sitting next to me, and should have at least another 20-30. DEC DCJ11-AE 11/70-on-a-chip - I have several of these chips available, all believed to be functional. They came from Xerox 4090 printer controllers, which use a customized backplane. I have an entire 4090 controller available, working, as well as assorted cards. DEC h771-a power supply. I think these are for an RX01 drive? Two available. Never seen them in my time here, so assume the worst re: function. DEC h7834 (LA-34) power supply. One available. Astec power supply - 4 rails, 5v @ 3A, 12v @ 3A, 12v @ 20A, 5v @ 150A (not a typo). 220v input. These fed the modified Massbus card cages in the 4050 and 4090 print controllers. Four available. Link Technologies MC5 terminals, rebadged by Xerox, 220v. These appear to be locked into ADM3A emulation for use on Xerox printer controllers. Sun Microsystems power controllers, with line cables, have 3. (E-M Solutions Model 10, 250VAC) Sun Microsystems rack, one available. System Industries rack, one available. Bell & Howell CM-3700 COM recorder Comstor COM recorders, 2 available Canon Canofile 16mm microfilm cameras, with heads. Minolta DAR automatic 16mm microfilm camera Complete Xerox 4090 laser printer with online (bus & tag) interface, 9T tape drive. Complete, operational Xerox 4635 with Sun x86 controller. Misc solid state relays, mechanical relays, contactors, motors (12vdc, 20vdc, 24vdc), power supplies. I'm open to offers on any/all, we just need it gone. Photos available. Equipment is available for inspection by appointment. We can accept paypal (including credit cards via paypal), company check, money order, cash (in person only). Local sales and pickups are subject to sales tax. Thank you for any interest! --Shaun Microfilm Services, Inc. 316.269.2203

11 years

5
5
0 0

Still looking for VAXstation 3100 / Model 76 RAM

by polemon＠gmail.com

Hello, this is my first time posting to this ML. I'm trying to restore my old VAXstation 3100 / Model 76, to a more stable working order. One of the biggest problems, seems to be finding RAM modules for it. I've been looking for them in various places for many years now, but nothing has really come up. I seriously considered making them myself, as I have pretty decent skills in lay-outing PCBs, and electronics. I also need those rubber grommets, that hard drive used to be attached with to the chassis. The rubber seems to break down after twenty five years or so, and they start to become goo, kinda like warm licorice. Pretty much any periphery for the 3100/M76, like periphery, etc. I'm interested in that. Anything except the monitor, probably. I do have the GFX card in the machine, but the monitors fetch huge prices, and a big heavy thing like that, would cost a fortune to ship to Germany. Oh right, I'm in Germany. I'd pay for shipping and all that, of course. Cheers, --polemon

11 years

3
2
0 0

Sad News: The passing of Roe Peterson

by useddec＠gmail.com

A mutual friend told me about this a week or so ago, but I was waiting to get the obit before forwarding it on to the list. He will be missed. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/leaderpost/obituary.aspx?pid=174716697 Thanks, Paul

11 years

1
0
0 0

IMSAI chassis color/texture...

by philip＠neoncluster.com

Hi Bill, Screens, and the like (projectors etc), use a different color theory from pigments such as paint. One is additive color theory, the other is subtractive. You will be hard pressed to find a match between the two. I?ll forward you and Al a photo showing the 7690 pantone chip places on my IMSAI case as a side by side comparison. Color-wise, it?s almost a perfect match. Phil > On Apr 25, 2015, at 2:50 AM, Bill Sudbrink <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> wrote: > > Al Kossow wrote >> On 4/24/15 1:22 AM, Philip Lord wrote: >>> https://365pantone.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/pantone-7690/ >>> >> >> It's not the color so much as correctly duplicating the texture. > > Exactly. I'm talking with a couple of local (to me) paint shops. > They all have high tech color scanning and can scan my good chassis > for the color. The debate over whether the texture was accomplished > by some kind of powder coating or air brushing is the big thing. The > original documentation talks about "IBM Blue" which is also a pantone > color. Neither look "right" to me... on my computer screen anyway. > I have not seen an actual paint chip. > > Bill S. > > >

11 years

1
0
0 0

looking for info of the DEC Remote Services Console

by henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com

I saw a few listings on eBay of the DIGITAL Remote Services Console. I have one in excellent condition, and it would be nice to put it in use. But so far, I have not been able to find *any* documentation. Info on the four 25-pin sub-D connectors would be a great start. They are labeled A1, A2, B1, and B2. For pictures in the auctions, I'm guessing that A1 connects to a VT-style terminal and A2 connects to the system console port. That implies that the B connectors are intended to connect to modems. But I do not want to connect anything until I've seen documentation! Does anybody have info on this nice box? thanks, - Henk

11 years

5
11
0 0

11/34 sanity check

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Josh Dersch > the power supply was completely dead. I've rebuilt the supply Just out of curiousity, what was the failure mode? (Also, trying to figure out of the failure could have killed things...) BTW, is it in a BA11-K box, or a BA11-L? > the AC LO and DC LO signals are high (these are active low, right?) Yes. All UNIBUS signals are active low _except_ for grants, if memory serves... > The status register display is dark. Hmmm. > The system does not respond to any keypresses on the panel. Sounds like you've got the variant with the real ("Programmer's") front panel - that's a plus. Although it's too bad that variant doesn't have a "HALT/CONTINUE" switch - it would have been good to power it on with the HALT on, which would have prevented it from trying to do any bus cycles. No response to HALT/CRTL, though? Although I'm not sure if it would respond to that if it was in a double-bus fault loop (NXM on trying to respond to a NXM). > I've taken it down to a pretty minimal configuration, sans any memory > or other stuff. Always wise... :-) > Slot 3: (AB) M9301 (bootstrap terminator) / (CDEF) M7859 (front panel board) Most 11/34's run those cards in slot 4, not 3 (probably to leave room for the FPP/Cache in slot 3), but slots 3 and 3 are (AFAIK) identical, so it should be OK to run them there. > the NPG jumpers on CB1-CB2 are all present on the backplane. Err, I hope that's a typo for "CA1-CB1" - tying CB1 to CB2 (+15V) would not be good (although if you did do it, it should be harmless in this configuration). I don't really have much to add to Don's message, about the next things to try. There doesn't seem to be a way to configure the M9301 to have the machine halt on power up, which would to my mind be the ideal. It might be worth throwing a 'scope probe on MSYN, to see if it's trying to do bus cycles. Noel

11 years

5
6
0 0

Logic Analyzers and In-Circuit Emulators

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I spent the last week trying to document some of my analyzers and ICEs. There are tons of photos, firmware dumps and some new manuals on bitsavers under appliedMicrosystems, biomation, hmi, futuredata, hp/te hp/64000 and hp/64700. The HMI-200-68000 manual that arrived today had the 68K DOS software in the binder, zipped and up now under bits/HuntsvilleMicrosystems Has anyone ever noticed a pattern to the numbering on the underside of MMI PALs? It would be nice not to have to lift the labels off them. The ones I indentified were B7304 14L4 B7320 16L8 B7321 16R4 B7830 20S10 B7840 20L8 Most are protected. Every once and a while I found one that wasn't. I'd be interested in other AMC ICE firmware dumps to add to the archive. I've made some progress identifying the buses and what the various chunks of firmware are for. Next thing to do is trace the pinouts and see if the house-marked 6809 memory mapper is a MC6829. From looking at the manual, the HMI-200 is kind of interesting in that it can run without a target. The Applied Microsystems units require a 'null target' board.

11 years

5
5
0 0

Looking for a MOS Kim-1 for sale or trade

by mail.nickallen＠gmail.com

Looking for an EARLY MOS KIM-1 computer, let me know if you are interested in trading for it, or selling it, thanks! -Nick

11 years

1
0
0 0

DEC scanned documents for Bitsavers (message for Al Kossow)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: shadoooo > I'm scanning at 600dpi grayscale, lossless compression. I've been scanning a few things too, and I found that 600dpi grayscale produced absolutely enormous files (many, many MB's per page, for prints), no matter what I tried to do, compression-wise. 600dpi black and white, followed by saving as TIFF's with CCITT Group 4 compression, produced immensely smaller files (small 100's of KB's for the same pages), and they are quite readable (even the fine letter seems to be readable - b/6 is quite distinguishable, etc). Al, I hope that's acceptable for BitSavers - I have a number of things that are missing, and I was planning on scanning them in, and sending them along. Noel

11 years

7
12
0 0

Two new IBM DOS scans

by silent700＠gmail.com

Not that DOS...DOS! I have scanned two docs, "DOS System Control and Service" and "DOS Messages." They can be found here: http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/index.php?dir=%2Fcomputing%2FIBM%2FMainframe… and would seem to belong here, if aek would like to add them: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/360/dos I will probably find more in this set as I work through the stacks. Enjoy! -j

11 years

1
0
0 0

Hand-wired core for ROM?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Brent Hilpert > Core rope ROM has one magnetic core per the word-width of the memory. > That is, a memory of (say) 1024 16-bit words would have 16 cores. Not always (although your basic point, that in core ROM, a single core is often/usually used for more than one bit, is a very key point to note); the Apollo rope ROM had one core per 192 bits, or 12 words of 16 bits each, "thousands of ... cores" per memory rope. See: http://web.mit.edu/digitalapollo/Digital%20Apollo%20Annotated.doc and there's a picture of one here: http://klabs.org/mapld04/presentations/session_g/g1007_hall_s.ppt (see slide #15). Those notes do contain an interesting aside: "rearrange the program's fixed-memory allocations to avoid cases where such sets of 12 words contained too many ones to fit in their cores", which implies that the cores were fairly small, physically (since a one involved running the wire _through_ the core, not around it). I don't know why they didn't make the cores larger, and have fewer of them; my suspicion is that in manufacturing terms, it was easier to have more of them, with less wires through each one. (I can't think of an _electrical_ reason to do so; unlike with RAM cores, where smaller cores are faster to switch, and take less power to do so.) Noel

11 years

4
4
0 0

IBM 5160 oddball fault

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I picked up a (known-faulty) 5160 a few weeks back, just because it had a keyboard with an intact decal, and the one on my otherwise-perfect system is missing. The machine came with a CGA card, which I've tested as working in my other 5160. Symptoms of the fault are one long beep and two short beeps at power-on, with 1024 characters of garbage displayed on-screen (typically either a solid block or a space, but with a handful of other random chars) - i.e. 12 rows of 80 and then a row of 64. Following this on screen, at location 13,64, the memory count occurs, and then it'll drop to ROM BASIC (no hard disk, and for the purposes of testing I've not bothered with a boot floppy), with the BASIC startup text starting at row 14 and all offset by 64 characters from the left margin. However, the function key reference on the bottom line of the display is OK, starting at position 25,1. I can issue BASIC commands, and each new line is offset by 64 characters, until I hit the bottom of the screen, at which point text appears at position 1 (but still offset from the top of the screen by 13 lines). Issuing a 'cls' doesn't remove the garbage from the display, and typing then resumes from location 13,64. Throughout all of this the cursor seems to appear where I'd expect it on the screen, however - I'm assuming it's done via hardware entirely within the CGA card. I've tried pulling all other cards, leaving just the CGA board, and the problem persists. One long and two short beeps seems to be 'video failure', but as mentioned I've verified that the card works in my other 5160. Does anyone have any ideas what might be going on? It doesn't quite seem like a memory fault - possibly some sort of address decoding error? It's almost like the video board is pulling display data from the wrong part of memory, but I'm not sure that makes sense given that the board has its own local RAM rather than relying on RAM on the system board. cheers Jules

11 years

4
10
0 0

DEC scanned documents for Bitsavers (message for Al Kossow)

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello Al Kossow, I'm scanning a bunch of documents. Many of them aren't not listed on Manx, and shouldn't be already loaded on bitsavers. I'm scanning at 600dpi grayscale, lossless compression. I could upload the documents somewhere in original RAW format, or already deskewed, converted to TIFF BW bitmap. I would contribute to Bitsavers, please contact me offlist for details of upload. Unfortunately I don't have a server, and the raw documents are heavy. Thanks Andrea

11 years

3
2
0 0

Pile Of Computer Stuff Up For Grabs (Mid Atlantic)

by fsmith＠ladylinux.com

Hiya, I have posted this in the past but I hate selling things but really that is selfish on my part and some of my interests have shifted. I need to move some items from the "Dust" and into the light from my collection. Its all stored in my climate controlled clean basement. I have mostly Dec gear although there are sprinkles of other stuff such as Kaypro's , Osbournes etc ... No blinken lights machines but some PDP's such as the 11/23 etc along with some Vaxstations and Alphas. The prices will be cheap and geared towards putting this into hands that can use them over people wanting a quick flip. I will not ship although anyone who wants to work with someone to pick up a pile and ship it is more than welcome. I am in the mid atlantic area and can be contacted via my gmail address ladylinux4u at gmail dot com. Thanks!! Fran --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

11 years

1
0
0 0

In search of DEC H7140 (PDP-11/40 power supply) parts

by JoshD＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

I'm working over at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle and we're attempting to revive a PDP-11/44 for use in a project. At some point, someone stripped the power distribution panel from the 44's H7140 power supply (this is a small PCB that connects to the power supply terminals and provides molex power connectors for standard UNIBUS backplanes (or other backplanes). Anyone happen to have one of these distribution panels (or failing that, a complete supply) going spare? Thanks! Josh Sr. Vintage Software Engineer Living Computer Museum www.livingcomputermuseum.org<http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org> (206) 342-2537<tel:%28206%29%20342-2537>

11 years

1
0
0 0

IMSAI chassis color/texture...

by philip＠neoncluster.com

Once I get home, I could probably cross reference with a pantone color for you. > On Apr 23, 2015, at 2:38 PM, Bill Sudbrink <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> wrote: > > I remember a conversation about this subject from many > years ago that never came to any conclusion. Has anyone > discovered any "paint codes" or other definitive descriptions > for the finish on the upper case of an IMSAI? I'm thinking > of having my worst case (multiple scrapes and scratches, > several permanent stains) refinished. > > Bill S. > >

11 years

3
3
0 0

Hi and what are these?

by cctalk＠v6y.net

Hey everyone, I am new to the list, have a collection of 60's and 70's hardware I am slowly selling, but these have me stumped (I am not an expert in vintage computing): http://imgur.com/0SHTT9A http://imgur.com/lJXbLjf http://imgur.com/uPasyFE http://imgur.com/W3eHes1 http://imgur.com/A5GuF4Z http://imgur.com/Wp2jKOb http://imgur.com/KEiE9It http://imgur.com/okDQVJQ Anyone know what either of them are called or what system(s) they go to? Sometime in the next month or so, I will be auctioning off a complete (working) Data General Nova 2, along with a few other very rare (from my searches on this list) big items. Thanks! -Justin Keogh http://www.ebay.com/usr/jkeogh0

11 years

8
8
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