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

by retrojoe＠stateoftheark.ca

Hi All. I've recently come into a really nice VT-320 terminal, but am having a hell of a time getting it to communicate with the outside world (mainly my PiDP-8 and PiDP-11). I've gone to the lowest common denominator, using a USB serial cable and terminal software to verify everything is working before digging into making simh output to a serial terminal. The VT320 only has the DEC-423 MMJ, no RS-232. I found a number of guides that show how to wire up the DEC-423 connector to a DB-9 RS-232, but so far I have struck out. It will receive text from the remote computer, but I do not see anything on the remote when I type on the VT-320. I have loop backed the TX to RX on the VT-320 terminal, and it does work. TX=RX Baud rate? in the VT320 settings, and the data bits, parity, & stop bits match. DEC-423 (lock tab bottom right, pin one on the left, 6 on the right) 1??? DTR 2??? TXD 3??? TXD- 4??? RXD- 5??? RXD 6??? DSR For a cross over cable: 423 #2 goes to DB9 #2 (TX to RX) 423 #3 & #4 to DB9 #5 (TXD- and RXD- to GND) 423 #5 goes to DB9 #3 (RX to TX) 423 #1 to DB9 #6 (DTR to DSR) 423 #6 to DB9 #4 (DSR to DTR) Does this look like it should work? It does leave DB9 RTS and CTS unconnected. Thanks!

5 years, 4 months

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Floppy pressure pad replacement?

by mattislind＠gmail.com

Does anyone have some good hints on what and how to replace them? I have a CDC 8 inch floppy drive with a missing pressure pad. Tried to put some half a millimeter felt cloth with some double adhesive tape to replace it. But it didn't work very well. If I gently pushed the upper pressure pad arm it started to read at least. But it looks like it is possible to over-do it. I added more padding and then it probably got too thick since it now failed again. I guess that if there is a bit too much pressure the signal might be too high in the input amplifier leading to distortion? What is the best pressure pad material and what are you usually replacing it with? /Mattis

5 years, 4 months

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Microvax 3100 VMS 7.3 password reset

by dick.curtis＠ymail.com

> I picked up a microvax 3100 this past weekend from a office that was > shutting down. >> I was able to start the system up, it boots up to a login prompt for VMS > VAX 7.3. >> I do not have any login info for this machine, is there a procedure i can > follow to reset a password to an account? I beg to differ with HP's recommendation (in their doc set) for Devin'ssituation.? HP's description is meant for customer sites to have a copyof usernames/passwords to which they can revert for nasty situationssuch as a corrupted SYSUAF.DAT.? *If* this system has the 'alternate'file, it should have the same problem as the original, of unknownpasswords.? What Devin needs is instructions to break into the system. I happen to know how to do that (used to work in OpenVMS Engineering).Is that something that should be discussed here? Thanks,Dick

5 years, 4 months

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Soldering DB connectors

by rsmilward＠frontier.com

Something that's always worked for me: when soldering a male DB connector (DB9, DB25, whatever -- or really any male/pin style connector), plug it into a mating female connector first. That will hold the pins securely in place and prevent them from sagging in the plastic of the body if your soldering iron is too hot or you hold it on too long. -- **Richard

5 years, 4 months

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Way off topic: posting to the list using default Samsung Android Mail Client

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

I am wondering if anyone else has tried using an Android Phone (a Note 10 in my case) with the default Samsung email client to post to this list? Whenever I post, even though the message is correctly formatted on my device, all the CR/LF are removed from my messages. See below for an example: ------- > Can it still be registered?>Is the Author find able? Do he still have 8" floppies? > *** Will it NOT be lost in the mail with COVID 19 ***A deep googlefu might find the author... just saying...;) ------- However, when I sent it, it looked like this: > Can it still be registered? >Is the Author find able? Do he still have 8" floppies? > *** Will it NOT be lost in the mail with COVID 19 *** A deep googlefu might find the author... just saying...;) Sending from trusty old Outlook 2007 on Win 7 works fine with the list and emailing people back directly from the phone seems to work fine as well. It is only when I am replying to the list that the issue occurs. Any ideas/suggestions? TIA! -Ali

5 years, 4 months

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Microvax 3100 VMS 7.3 password reset.

by lyokoboy0＠gmail.com

I picked up a microvax 3100 this past weekend from a office that was shutting down. I was able to start the system up, it boots up to a login prompt for VMS VAX 7.3. I do not have any login info for this machine, is there a procedure i can follow to reset a password to an account? Image of system : https://i.postimg.cc/43bG0nSx/20201111-090018.jpg

5 years, 4 months

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Looking for PDP-11/23+ parts for museum restoration

by stephenbuck＠mac.com

Hi All, I'm working on restoring a DEC PDP-11/23+ for the University of Colorado computer museum and I'm struggling to find a few parts, working or not, needed to complete the system. Please let me know if you have any of these items and would be willing to donate or sell them. You can see a blog I'm keeping of the restoration at?https://headspinlabs.wordpress.com/dec-pdp-11 When finished, it will be on display at?https://mediaarchaeologylab.com/visit Thanks, Steve

5 years, 4 months

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Looking for a boot disk or software...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

...for a Northern Telcom (Telecom?) Spectron Datascope 4000: https://i.imgur.com/qb4VTpO.jpg Fingers crossed that someone here knows where it can be had. Thanks! g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

5 years, 4 months

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Wanted: PDP-8/f or m (with or without cards)

by mosst＠SDF.ORG

Hi All, I'm looking for a PDP-8/f or m. At a minimum I'd like the chassis with PSU, front panel, and backplane as I already have enough spare OMNIBUS boards to build up a basic system, although I'd still be interested in the boards if you have any. Depending on the configuration and condition there's a few things I'd consider trading, namely my PDP-11/34a, AlphaStation DS10, Intel MDS 231, and KIM-1. If the price it right I'd be happy to buy it too. I'm in the UK but would be prepared to ship some of the systems internationally; I can build crates and such. Regards, -Tom mosst at sdf.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org

5 years, 4 months

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Syquest druve owner in 541 area code? (Usa)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 08:17 PM 11/8/2020, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > Thus came into my site, if you can help contact me privatelthanks >... > I have an old Syquest 5.25" removable cartridge (44MB) and am >trying to find a service that will get the graphics data off the cartridge >for me. If you have any suggestions I'd LOVE to hear them. It seems >impossible to find anyone with a functioning drive to read this thing. I was thinking about firing up the old (late 80s?) drive I have in storage and trying to image the carts I have. What should I watch for? Any typical failure mode? - John

5 years, 4 months

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Syquest druve owner in 541 area code? (Usa)

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Thus came into my site, if you can help contact me privatelthanks Bill VintageComputer.net Inquiry Contact Information Name: Robert Email: robwynia at ------ Phone: 541967---- ------------------------- Comments: I have an old Syquest 5.25" removable cartridge (44MB) and am trying to find a service that will get the graphics data off the cartridge for me. If you have any suggestions I'd LOVE to hear them. It seems impossible to find anyone with a functioning drive to read this thing. Thanks for your time,

5 years, 4 months

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R: Floppy disk: one drive per face

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chuck Guzis > Perhaps my mistake with 22Disk was not putting a line in that said "Me > fecit Carolus Guzis Anno MCMLXXXVII" or some such. Love the Michaelangelo reference. I'm curious as to how many others on the list got it. (It's carved into the strap on the Pieta. Apparently when it was first put on display, there was some question as to who'd made, or something like that.) Noel

5 years, 4 months

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Vintage Computer Federation Swap Meet 11/7/2020

by sieler＠allegro.com

Hi, Please remember ... TRIM YOUR DARN POSTS! No one needs to see a hundred+ lines of quoted post just to see a one line reply, no matter what kind of sandwich it was! (And, the guy getting the sandwich had the better deal, IMHO :) thanks, Stan (the other grumpy guy?) Sieler

5 years, 4 months

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Vintage Computer Federation Swap Meet 11/7/2020

by jeffrey＠vcfed.org

The Vintage Computer Federation is having its first Swap Meet event. This swap meet is for vintage computers, radios, TVs, ham radios and related items. FREE FOR BUYERS! VENDORS $20 FOR 1ST SPACE, $10 FOR EACH ADDITIONAL SPACE DATE: November 7, 2020 (RAIN DATE: November 8, 2020) TIME: 9AM to 6PM ADDRESS: Huge Parking lot on Monmouth Boulevard, Wall, NJ between Watson Road and Taft Street Across from InfoAge Museum and Brookdale College GPS location: 40.1848793,-74.0630848 Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/40%C2%B011'05.6%22N+74%C2%B003'47.1%22W/@40.1832946,-74.0661625,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d40.1848793!4d-74.0630848 Satellite Map: http://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Swap_Meet_Map.png Flyer ? http://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Swap_Meet_Flyer-1.png Flyer ? http://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/VCF_Swap_Meet_2020_Flyer.pdf WEBSITE: http://vcfed.org/wp/vcf-swap-meet If you are interested in renting a space, please fill out this https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftdpkFQo0CBCatGfqt1OICP-_g22n8nAj… -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey at vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

5 years, 5 months

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FTGH: 3 VAX DATATRIEVE binders

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

Hi, Offered these in a post last year. 1) VAX DATATRIEVE Reference manual AA-K079E-TE (this is online but version KE079G?) 2) VAX DATATRIEVE Handbook AA-W675B-TE (Does not seem to be online? Willing to scan) 3) VAX DATATRIEVE Guide to Writing Reports AA-P862C-TE For Datatrieve version 4.1 Versions online seem to be for version 3.0? Willing to scan Very clean condition: https://imgur.com/a/w9a3YEY Can post for shipping cost from Toronto ON, Canada. --Toby

5 years, 5 months

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Strange magtape anecdote

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://mnembler.com/computers_mini_stories.html "George Dragner always wore a belt with a metal dragon buckle. He was a colorful character known for pissing off management. His most famous act was tossing a chair through the window at a customer site. The customer refused to believe that the lack of humidity in the room was screwing up his magnetic tape media. As the tape heads depend on the moisture from the air to prevent the magnetic oxide from being torn off the media from the friction during a rewind. George broke the window to prove his point. He was right ! " There is a minimum RH specified for tape, but "tape heads depend on the moisture from the air" ??

5 years, 5 months

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removing melting rubber from metal?

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 12:14 PM 27/10/2020 -0500, you wrote: >Hi All, > >I have an EP-1 eprom programmer from BP Microsystems. > >The rubber feet melted. It was in my closet. I have no clue how it got >that hot, or if they >are just some composition for them to melt. > >My question is how do I clean this up? Acetone, paint thinner? I scraped >off the feet, so there is >just a few 'streams' of melted rubber down the sides, and a bit that >somehow got inside (also on the side, not on the electronics). > >Just looking for some ideas before I start applying chemicals... > >Thanks, >Kelly It's not heat. Just some rubber types degrade chemically over time. Cross links between the long chain hydrocarbons break, and the solid turns to a semi-liquid. Very sticky liquid. I presume the body of your eprom programmer is painted metal or plastic. So 'acetone and hot air' - NO! The gunky stuff is not terribly soluble. Mineral turps on a tissue pad, rubbing, kind of works. Mechanically scrape off what you can first. Use wooden or plastic spatula to avoid scratching paint. The rub with the pad. Solvents like turps, acetone, IPA etc - always try a little on your surface first to check the material isn't damaged by the solvent. Guy

5 years, 5 months

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removing melting rubber from metal?

by kfergason＠gmail.com

Hi All, I have an EP-1 eprom programmer from BP Microsystems. The rubber feet melted. It was in my closet. I have no clue how it got that hot, or if they are just some composition for them to melt. My question is how do I clean this up? Acetone, paint thinner? I scraped off the feet, so there is just a few 'streams' of melted rubber down the sides, and a bit that somehow got inside (also on the side, not on the electronics). Just looking for some ideas before I start applying chemicals... Thanks, Kelly

5 years, 5 months

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removing melting rubber from metal?

by dennis.grevenstein＠gmail.com

> The rubber feet melted. [?] > I have no clue how it got that hot, or if they are just some composition for them to melt. My question is how do I clean this up? It is probably not heat that melted the rubber. It?s likely degradation. Some rubber parts get dry and break, some parts sort of ?melt? and turn into this sticky, nasty glue. You already got some hints on how to clean this, but if you are nervous, you could start off with just isopropanol (that?s the main ingredient in disinfectant). The advantage here would be that you can?t harm plastic or electronics with that. You could use the common medical grade disinfectant, just don?t drink it ;-) Dennis

5 years, 5 months

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ibm clone break out box

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

so i got a test point box of some sort for the EVM M4030 system curious on what ibm documents i should be looking on how these things would of been used? since russian ones would be useles with out knowing how to read russian. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-police-stabbings-1.5785…

5 years, 5 months

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MOP boot files

by abs＠absd.org

I've been helping dreamlayers with his cleanup of the NetBSD/Linux mopd, ( https://github.com/dreamlayers/netbsd-mopd ) and we were looking at how it handled different a.out MOP files, specifically where the files may be little endian For non MID zero files its easy enough, but little endian MID 0 files are potentially more complicated. https://github.com/abs0/netbsd-mopd/commit/6ab8555817f3dff23c506464d302d1a4… It can netboot Ultrix and the vast panoply of NetBSD MOP boot files in the various a.out and ELF incarnations http://mop.absd.org/netbsd/ (those that are not broken that is :/ ) I was wondering if anyone had links to hand for any other good sources of MOP files? Thanks David

5 years, 5 months

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DG Nova panel font?

by rsmilward＠frontier.com

Speaking of DEC fonts, does anyone know what was used on the Data General Nova machines? Thanks! **Richard IBM 1620 > IBM 1130 > S/360 Model 40 > DG Nova > ...

5 years, 5 months

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Font for DEC indicator panels

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Toby Thain > To get closer I'd need better images of the panels. Hi, I borrowed a DEC inlay from someone (a KA10 CPU bay) and scanned a chunk of it (as much as I could fit into my A4 scanner :-) at 200 dpi: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/jpg/KACPUPanel.jpg I have a TC08 inlay, but it's currently being used in my QSIC display (until we can get the RKV11-F/RPV11-D inlay done :-), and I didn't want to yank it out. As far as I can tell, it's the same font on the two of them. > the closest I know of off the top of my head is Akzidenz Grotesk. The Akzidenz Grotesk Medium is indeed very, very close (other than the zero). Do you happen to know if that font available for use in non-commercial settings? Thanks! Noel

5 years, 5 months

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?--Working-ish!

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > The last board is a new style 11/24 and it doesn't do anything but it > does have three switch packs. So I just need to find the manual for it Appendix D in the 003 rev of the /24 TM has the details of the -YA.. > In the meantime the UNIBUS problem also appears to be fixed: The > problem was that sure enough: One of the memory slot SPC's (4) did not > have the DMA jumper. Checking grant line continuity is part of system setup for me; the fact than on many backplanes, the DMA grant jumpering is wirewrap on the back of the backplane is a PITA, but back when it wasn't that big a deal. (Heck, configuration jumpering on boards was all soldered wires BITD!) The need for grant continuity is actually a characteristic of the _CPU_, not the bus. I was astonished the first time I played with an /04 (or naybe it was a /34, I forget), because on them, I'm pretty sure (I can't find it in the documentation, but I'm pretty sure I remember it) that on power-on, the CPU checks for grant continuity, and won't work without it. (They all require the M9302 teminator or equivalent, which has active circuitry to turn around an unclaimed grant onto the BSACK line.) When the CPU powers up, it sends grants down the grant lines and expects to see them back on SACK (from the M9302), and it won't operate if this doesn't happen. That floored me when I ran across it, because on the older UNIBUS CPUs I'd worked with BITD (/40's, etc) it was the done thing to be able to leave a gap in the grant _downtream_ of the last card that could do interrupts; no possible operational problem. I'm not sure why DEC added that 'feature'; probably somebody thought it would make systems more robust, but I bet all it did was generate a bunch of Field Circus calls. (Kind of like the LSI-11 'feature' where ODT won't start unless there's working memory at 0 - another wonderful little Easter Egg.) Ironically, although the QBUS uses _exactly_ the same kind of bus grant lines, no QBUS processor seems to check their continuity in this way; I habitually run my QBUS machines without all the slots filled, and F11 and J11 processors all run fine with open grant lines (after the last card that uses interrupts). I guess DEC found out the hard way that that check wasn't useful! But this, as I said, is a characteristic of the CPU, not the bus. > Anyone even know why Q-Bus doesn't need termination QBUS documentation has long ediscussions of maximum cable lengths between backplane sections, but little about cases where termination on both ends is not needed. One exception is in the " pdp11 bus hanbook", pg. 128: If nore than 20 AC loads are included [on a single bacplane], the other end of the bus must be terminated with 120 ohms. The clear implication is that with <20 AC loads, termination at the second end is not needed. No explanation is given as to why, but I had the same thoughts as Patrick Finnegan - that it's down to the very short bus lengths. (With a short bus, the reflection from the un-terminated end will be very close in time - the line length for the lines on a single backplane is spec'd at a max od about 14"; so about 1 nsec. That's on the order of magnitude of the bus signal rise times.) If you think about it, every time you plug in a card, you've added a short branch to the bus on every bus line (since they aren't normally terminated at the transmitter/reveiver chips). But very short branches, so their reflections are even closer in time. Noel

5 years, 5 months

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?--Memory sad!

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

Those sound like ram chip 4116, quite common once, and still available. I have a couple dozen tested ones handy if you want them. (From Atari 800 16k ram modules). 250ns to 350ns, depending. best, Jeff On Tue, 2020-10-27 at 12:00 -0500, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Re: Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?--Memory sad!

5 years, 5 months

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R65F11

by decguy＠songdog.eskimo.com

Anyone remember the R65F11? It's a Forth microcontroller: 6502 processor with a Forth kernel in ROM, from the mid '80s. I was going through some old stuff in storage (looking for something else) and found an R65F11 with the development ROM and some documentation for building a development board. Looks like a fun little project... I have plenty of projects. If anyone is interested, it's free for actual cost of shipping (could probably go in a U.S. Priority Mail envelope or small box, not sure about overseas options). The backstory: in 1984 I was working for a startup company, and we were looking at various microprocessors for use in a new product. Being a fairly skilled journeyman Forth programmer, I was advocating for the R65F11. I managed to talk the Rockwell sales rep into giving us the development ROM (usually not easily available). We ended up going with a 68000 for the project, and I ended up with the R65F11.

5 years, 5 months

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > Next up is the 11/24, this is one of the 5.25 inch rack mounts with a > CPU, KT24, and no memory. > First question: Will ODT respond at all with no memory on the Unibus? My _guess_ is probably, since on other KDF11 CPU's, ODT works with no memory, but I haven't confirmed that. My PDP-11/24 chassis (a 5-1/4" BA11-L, like yours) I took apart to get the backplane out, so I could work out how the busses work (see below), and I'd need to put it back together before I could try my -12/24.to confirm it. If you could take some pictures of the insides of your BA11-L, that would be both a help to the re-assemblhy, and ancentive to do so. > Can a 128kw memory board from an 11/34 work in an 11/24? Yes and no. See: https://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/24 for more. Note "The top 256 Kbytes of the CPU's address space were devoted to the UNIBUS". So an MS11-L or similar UNIBUS memory can probably be read/written by the CPU, but it won't appear at 0 in the CPU's address space. > Or do I need one of the 11/44 boards to make it go? Whether a KDF11-U will work with no memory at physical 0 is unknown: it would need at least a special bootstrap (since most assume working memory at 0) and a special OS load (ditto). Also, I seem to recall that on the -11/45, with mapping enabled, interrupt vectors are in Kernel D space, so once running, that machine could operate with no working memory at physical 0, but I don't know if KDF11 CPU's use mapped Kernel space for vectors. If you're interested, I can run an test on a KDF11-A and see. Noel

5 years, 5 months

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IBM 360/30 panel, animated, restored

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

This popped up on the radar tonight (on mine anyway). IBM System 360 30 Console animated mainframe CPU Console 360/30 https://www.ebay.com/itm/324348449949 A bit pricey, but pretty. Luckily I landed one of the boards to run Larry W's emulation of the 2030 , which will be satisfying for me.? (And thanks for releasing that work). Thanks Jim

5 years, 5 months

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DEC mouse

by decguy＠songdog.eskimo.com

Looking to complete a period-correct DEC workstation? Missing the right mouse? Have I got a deal for you! Digital 3-button mouse part number 30-44445-01 rev. C02. PS/2 connector, ball mechanism (not one of those fancy new things with the red light on the bottom). Free for actual cost of shipping. This wasn't what I was looking for in storage either.

5 years, 5 months

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DEC RTM book

by dstalk＠execulink.com

I've searched for this but couldn't find it... Does anyone know if the DEC book "RTM: Register Transfer Modules" published in 1973 is available online? It's an 8.5 x 11 book with red cover and has 50 pages. I think it came with their RTM kit. Don

5 years, 5 months

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non-shunting jumpers?

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

Hi all, Oddball question here: has anyone ever seen a way to cap off or protect standard 0.1" pin header jumpers? Maybe there exist jumper plugs that *don't *conduct across the two pins? I'm looking at a piece of hardware that has some jumper pins on top of the PC board and I'd like to protect against anything accidentally making contact. I have seen surface mount 0.05 pitch pin headers come from their manufacturer with protective caps, but I haven't been able to find anything to apply to 0.1" pin headers that I could by aftermarket. Any ideas would be appreciated! thanks brian

5 years, 5 months

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Now I'm starting to look through boxes to see if I have another 11/24 CPU. I seem to recall picking a second one up somewhere, I also want to see if I still have the driver board for the second Plessy core memory. Might be around, might have been pitched. So far I did find a box of DZ11's. Not sure why I have a dozen of them, they might have been from the USPS haul in days of yore. Anyone need a couple of DZ11's? The real weird one is a quad board H216. I thought it was a Unibus core memory board, but it's 8k*19 bits, which means it came from one place: An MA10 memory box. The only one I may have been exposed to was AI (the original KA10). So question: Did AI use MA10 memory boxes? Did any of that stuff survive? Anyplace else it might have come from? Weird stuff. Got a lot of it.... CZ

5 years, 5 months

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> (Whether that's all done on the companion driver boards, and the H21x > card would just bring the wiring of the two banks out to the edge > connector in parallel, letting the driver board do what it wants, I > don't know - you'd have to look at the MM11-L engineering drawings/TM.) > The other possibility is that the PDP-10 memory used these boards in > pairs. It's not either! First, I looked at the MM11-L TM, and it talks about how the H214 has "mats" (2D arrays of cores), 1 mat per bit; the H214 has 16 mats. So definitely no effectively 36+ bit wide variant. So, pairs? Well, I looked to see what PDP-10 memory TM's were extant, and there's one for the MF10 (A-MN-MF10-0-MAN-1); and glancing in it, it _does_ use the H216 - with "19 mats" to produce "19-bit word memory banks"! (Exactly how, I didn't have time to stop and read. It's got to be pairs, but at the bank level, not board.) So our guess as to which generation of PDP-10 memories it was used in might have been wrong... Noel

5 years, 5 months

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FYI sunhelp.org down

by macro＠linux-mips.org

Hi, I posted to <rescue at sunhelp.org> and saw my message got stuck in the mail queue. Upon a further inspection I saw that the domain has expired along with `mrbill.net' where the nameservers used to reside and both have been taken by someone else, taking the name service down for `sunhelp.org'. I can still reach Bill Bradford's personal page when I connect to the server by its IPv4 address at: <http://184.94.207.190/>. I do hope nothing bad has really happened to Bill in these difficult times. Anybody knows? Maciej

5 years, 5 months

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > My guess is the H215 has two more core fields on it I uploaded a (crappy - sigh) image of an H215 I have to here: https://gunkies.org/wiki/File:H215-core-memory-board.jpg and it's clearly not symmetrical, but does have a slightly bugger blank space than yours. It has a label that says "18x8K" (so 16 bits plus byte parity - for DATOB bus write operations to one byte at a time), which sounds orrect. > Odd they could fit up to 20 bits, maybe an early ECC (16b+4 ECC?) No, this way pre-dates ECC memory (the cost of the extra bits - more cores to string in - was probably more than it was worth), and probably before ECC disks too (I think the first DEC ECC disk was the RP04). > I'll bet that it could work in the 11/05 if one of those boards ever > blow out. That's my guess too; _but_ there might be some jumpering/etc issues to adjust the word width. I.e. the PDP-11 parity H215 is 18 bits wide, which is right for 16-bit words, whereas PDP-10 parity memory would be 36+1 parity bit = 37 bits wide. So there might be 2 banks on one of those cards, and the PDP-11 memory treats them as separate banks, whereas on a -10 they'd be ganged together in parallel. (Whether that's all done on the companion driver boards, and the H21x card would just bring the wiring of the two banks out to the edge connector in parallel, letting the driver board do what it wants, I don't know - you'd have to look at the MM11-L engineering drawings/TM.) The other possibility is that the PDP-10 memory used these boards in pairs. We do have the MA10 Maint Manual, but in a quick look it looks like it doesn't use these boards. So maybe a later -10 memory system? Noel

5 years, 5 months

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non-shunting jumpers?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 01:30 PM 10/22/2020, you wrote: >I have seen surface mount 0.05 pitch >pin headers come from their manufacturer with protective caps, but I >haven't been able to find anything to apply to 0.1" pin headers that I >could by aftermarket. I'd use two jumpers. Hang one off one pin, hang the other off the other. If you wanted to get fancy, superglue them in the middle. - John

5 years, 5 months

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by rshepprd＠gmail.com

There?s a piece of core on eBay https://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-Digital-H214-Digital-Equipment-Core-Memory-Lit… which claims to be H214. The interesting thing is the label says 8K x 16 but the silkscreen says 8K x 19. Sent from Mail for Windows 10

5 years, 5 months

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Richard Sheppard > There's a piece of core on eBay .. which claims to be H214. The interesting > thing is the label says 8K x 16 but the silkscreen says 8K x 19. DEC did that a lot; used one silkscreen (and etch) for two different modules, with differing componet sets to produce two different boards (e.g the MSV11-D and -E: http://gunkies.org/wiki/MSV11-D_MOS_memory M8044 and M8045 respectively; the boards all say 'M8045' in the etch, you have to look at the handles). The H214 is the 16-bit wide version of this board, used in the MM11-L UNIBUS memory: https://gunkies.org/wiki/MM11-L_core_memory The parity MM11-LP uses the H215 (an 18-bit wide version), and a G109 instead of the G110 (again, same etch, some components left off for the G110. There's also an H213, used in the MM11-K: https://gunkies.org/wiki/MM11-K_core_memory which is an 8KB version; the H213 looks identical to the H214 at first glance, but if you look closely the core mats are only half as dense. Noel

5 years, 5 months

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ClassicCmp FTP Access?

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

Hello,Is anyone else having trouble accessing their FTP/Web space on ClassicCmp? I can still access HTML and files i have uploaded but not FTP in for new files. Thanks.-Ali

5 years, 5 months

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Control Data 449 Special Miniature Computer from 1967?

by steven＠malikoff.com

I was idly browsing early editions of Computer World journal on Google newspapers and found an announcement and picture of the '449', an experimental aerospace computer built by Control Data in 1967 and touted as "the world's smallest computer" at 4" x 4" x 9", of which the logic part is a 4" cube and the rest is the battery. It's on page 3 of Computer World Sep 20 1967: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=v_xunPV0uK0C&dat=19670920&printsec=f… It seems to me it may have been an analogous machine to the Apollo AGS perhaps and would like to know a bit more about it, but I've only been able to find a brief mention of the '449-2 Special Miniature Computer' and that's it. Archive.org hasn't turned up anything. I'm just curious about the tech used, no doubt it used DIPs or flatpack micrologic and a tiny core plane? Steve.

5 years, 5 months

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Vintage Transputer Collection in Tucson

by pschow＠gmail.com

US $16K, located in Tucson, AZ, USA. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Extraordinary-Transputer-collection-Museum-quality… >From listing: ---------------------------------- Unmatched collection of vintage Transputer based systems includes 2 (TWO) Parsytec X-plorer 16-node "desktop supercomputer" systems Tested working, both units can be linked together (cable included) for a 32 node system, tested with Helios 2 x PC (ISA) interface card (IBM meganode) includes on-board transputer 1 x BBK-PCI interface card with dual Parsytec style connectors + super rare cable Parsytec P-CUBE system with 8 nodes So rare that no (other :-) ) images of this unit can even be found on the internet 2 (TWO) Parsys Supernode SN1000 units (original cost ~$500000) Includes a total of 128 transputer nodes, and a scsi disk based operating system Tested working with an included Sun workstation with VME Transputer interface board With original invoices, user manuals, installation DAT tape ++++ 14 (Fourteen) Parsytec dual cpu (power PPC + Transputer) Eurocard boards 6 (Six) CSA Quad transputer boards (PART.1) + 7-slot EISA board and ATX power adaptor (these boards only need the power pins on the ISA connectors to function) Set of "red box" Inmos toolkits/compilers Misc Transputer conference proceedings Spare 4 slot Eurocard backplane and power supply with Transputer link connectors installed Copies of all the major Transputer operating systems (Helios, Idris, TDS, Parix, Taos, Virtuoso, Strand, Paros etc) This is a very large lot so shipping will be expensive, pay no attention to the ebay estimate contact us for a realistic quote Will consider delivering "at cost" (van hire + fuel + 2 overnight motel stops) to the Southwest states (CA, AZ, NM, UT, CO) if pre-paid by cashiers cheque.

5 years, 5 months

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Saving old paper labels on keyboards

by sales＠elecplus.com

Perhaps something like silly putty would work? Although as a precautionary tale, the silly putty from the 60s also removed part of the original ink. I do not know what the current formula would do. As kids, we used to have fun getting reverse images of the colorful comics in the Sunday paper :-) -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

5 years, 5 months

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > Unibus can get annoyed at a lot of things .. Q-Bus is much simpler Not sure I'd concur with that latter. In analog terms the UNIBUS and QBUS are almost identical (which is why the same driver chips such as 8641's are used with both), and at the digital level they essentially identical (asynchronous interlocked request/response for read and write; interrupts using daisy-chained grant lines, with transmitted vectors; DMA, using the basic read/write protocol to transfer data). The (not very) big differences are that the QBUS multiplexes address and data onto a single set of lines, and the more complex multi-level interrupt using a shared single grant line; in both, more complex than the UNIBUS. Perhaps you meant 'easier to use', and that may be so, since most QBUS systems are much smaller (physically). > If I could disable them I could do a normal DL11 and see what I see Looking at the docs, I don't see any way to disable the on-board serial lines. You could probably cut etches to disable them, but I would advise against that, because there are easier/better ways to go. It should be quite easy to investigatwe where the problem is: look at the 'read receive 1 CSR' line, on pin 15 of E106 (with the 'halt' switch on). If that's not hopping around, the CPU isn't running. So then we'd need to look at the basic clock, and see if that's running; if so, then the CPU chip may be failed; we'd need to look at the PAX lines to confirm that. If that CSR line is active, there's a fault somewhere in the console serial line hardware; first step would be to feed characters into the machine, and see if they're coming out the UART. If you don't want to mess with all that, there are CPU boards on eBait for not too much money. (I'd be interested in buying the non-working CPU board, if you go that way.) Noel

5 years, 5 months

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Well Heeled "Rescue"

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

Since I'm a bit short of change I thought I'd pass this along. https://www.ebay.com/itm/APPLE-1-Original-1976-Computer-System-1st-Steve-Wo… Will "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The names of global variables should start with// " --?https://isocpp.org

5 years, 5 months

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RL02 Disk and maybe pdp11 something at auction.

by Wayne.Sudol＠hotmail.com

I spotted this for an auction from the FORMER OYSTER CREEK NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION. Looks like a pair of RL02 with a pdp something in the middle. I can't make out what model it is from the photo. Anyone know? I'm not bidding as it's too far away from me in Los Angeles but someone else might like it. Small stuff usually sells real cheap on this site as the sellers are usually just trying to get rid of it. Also, there's no current bid. I just would not want it to go to a scrapper. https://www.bidspotter.com/en-us/auction-catalogues/bscunited/catalogue-id-… Wayne

5 years, 5 months

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > still nothing coming out of the serial port. Figured I would document > the settings and see if anyone with an 11/24 can cross-check my settings. Time to stop trying random things and drop the (metaphorical) Big Hammer. Look at the bus, and see if it's trying to talk to the console (i.e. ODT is running). Alas, I looked at the -11/24 Tech Manual - latest rev here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/dload/EK-11024-TM-003.pdf and it sez (pg. 4-25): "Internal addresses; i.e. serial line unit registers .. There is no external bus cycle performed for an internal address." So you can't look on the UNIBUS. At least we have a set of prints for it: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1124/MP01018_1124schem_Aug80.pdf CPU prints start on pg. 145; the TM will tell you what signals to look for. Noel

5 years, 5 months

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RL02 Disk and maybe pdp11 something at auction.

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Sotomayor ggs at shiresoft.com > It looks like it's 11/84 from the badge on the front. In a 10-1/2" box. Seen them in the docs (forget the model number), never seen a real one. Noel

5 years, 5 months

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[HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] FS: S-100 stuff, electronic stuff, model railroad stuff, books and magazines!

by mechanic_2＠charter.net

Hello all, The S-100 stuff is sold and paid for. GOD Bless and Thanks, rich! On 10/18/2020 9:46 PM, Richard R. Pope wrote: > Hello all, > It looks like the S-100 stuff is available again. Sorry for the > confusion! > GOD Bless and Thanks, > rich! > > On 10/18/2020 12:36 AM, Richard Pope via cctalk wrote: >> Hello all, >> The S-100 stuff is sold pending payment. I appreciate the >> interest and help! >> GOD Bless and Thanks, >> rich! >> >> On 10/17/2020 10:44 PM, Bruce wrote: >>> I believe there is an S-100 meuseum - think they specialize in Altare >>> - but they woul probably be a good home for the stuff >>> >>> Cheers! >>> >>> Bruce >>> >>> Quoting Jeff George <driftwoodturning at gmail.com>: >>> >>>> Hi there, I?m sorry to hear about your expected diagnosis, that?s a >>>> tough >>>> one. My neighbor Had cancer of the liver last year, he tried the ?Rick >>>> Simpson oil? treatment along with standard chemo and is cancer free >>>> today. >>>> Maybe look into it? >>>> >>>> On a selfish note, Im a high school physics teacher in Tn and would >>>> love to >>>> find good price on some equipment so that my students could get >>>> their feet >>>> wet with some actual good equipment. Scopes, frequency generators, >>>> vtvm?s, >>>> dmm?s, etc.. I am a ham radio operator and tinkerer, some skills at >>>> repairing equipment but not a whole lot. >>>> >>>> Please let me know if you have anything appropriate for my students >>>> at a >>>> high school budget. Happy to give you my info so that you can >>>> verify my >>>> employment. >>>> >>>> Jeff >>>> >>>> On Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 10:14 PM Richard R. Pope >>>> <mechanic_2 at charter.net> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hello all. >>>>> I have 22 S-100 boards for sale. There are two backplanes. >>>>> One is a >>>>> 9 slot bare board and the other is a 19 slot fully populated >>>>> board. Both >>>>> boards have active termination. There are 8080, Z80, FDC, HDC, >>>>> Serial, >>>>> 68030, a Display board, a Front Panel board. There are also 3 Mean >>>>> Well >>>>> power supplies supplying the +9VDC and the +_16VDC. There are also >>>>> voltmeters and amp meters . I want $500 plus shipping for all of >>>>> it. I >>>>> can provide a full inventory and pictures for anyone who is truly >>>>> interested. >>>>> I probably have cancer and if I do I am dying. I want all of >>>>> this >>>>> to go to a good home and not to the landfill. If anyone is >>>>> interested I >>>>> have some test equipment, electronic components, and model railroad >>>>> equipment Please only serious inquires for I tire very easily. >>>>> GOD Bless and Thanks, >>>>> rich! >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>> Paying Attention, Not a Tutor! >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. > View/Reply Online (#110958): > https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/message/110958 > Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/77650950/89555 > Group Owner: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment+owner at groups.io > Unsubscribe: > https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/leave/3011123/1140944146/… > [mechanic_2 at charter.net] > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > >

5 years, 5 months

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11/84 print set

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> anyone willing to chip in some money to help me pay for this? I sent a chunk too. This is a totally great acquisition: I have a KDJ11-B board that has a bad bus driver chip; I was going to apply an ohmmeter to find the guilty party, but just looking at the prints will be so much easier. I see it also includes MSV11-R prints, which is wonderful, since we don't have prints for those either. Too bad it doesn't include the MSV11-J prints (also missing), since the -R's are rare and the -J's are relatively common. Noel

5 years, 5 months

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11/84 print set

by Flash688＠flying-disk.com

Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: > anyone willing to chip in some money to help me pay for this? > https://www.ebay.com/itm/303733340900 I don't have a PDP-11/84 and likely never will but I just sent you $150. Bitsavers has saved my bacon multiple times and it's only right that I support you. In about a month I hope to be able to deliver the 7-track tape drive to you. Details later. Alan Frisbie

5 years, 5 months

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11/84 print set

by aek＠bitsavers.org

anyone willing to chip in some money to help me pay for this? https://www.ebay.com/itm/303733340900

5 years, 5 months

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[HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] S-100 stuff, electronic stuff, model railroad stuff, books and magazines!

by mechanic_2＠charter.net

Hello all, The S-100 stuff is sold pending payment. I appreciate the interest and help! GOD Bless and Thanks, rich! On 10/17/2020 10:44 PM, Bruce wrote: > I believe there is an S-100 meuseum - think they specialize in Altare > - but they woul probably be a good home for the stuff > > Cheers! > > Bruce > > Quoting Jeff George <driftwoodturning at gmail.com>: > >> Hi there, I?m sorry to hear about your expected diagnosis, that?s a >> tough >> one. My neighbor Had cancer of the liver last year, he tried the ?Rick >> Simpson oil? treatment along with standard chemo and is cancer free >> today. >> Maybe look into it? >> >> On a selfish note, Im a high school physics teacher in Tn and would >> love to >> find good price on some equipment so that my students could get their >> feet >> wet with some actual good equipment. Scopes, frequency generators, >> vtvm?s, >> dmm?s, etc.. I am a ham radio operator and tinkerer, some skills at >> repairing equipment but not a whole lot. >> >> Please let me know if you have anything appropriate for my students at a >> high school budget. Happy to give you my info so that you can verify my >> employment. >> >> Jeff >> >> On Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 10:14 PM Richard R. Pope >> <mechanic_2 at charter.net> >> wrote: >> >>> Hello all. >>> I have 22 S-100 boards for sale. There are two backplanes. One >>> is a >>> 9 slot bare board and the other is a 19 slot fully populated board. >>> Both >>> boards have active termination. There are 8080, Z80, FDC, HDC, Serial, >>> 68030, a Display board, a Front Panel board. There are also 3 Mean Well >>> power supplies supplying the +9VDC and the +_16VDC. There are also >>> voltmeters and amp meters . I want $500 plus shipping for all of it. I >>> can provide a full inventory and pictures for anyone who is truly >>> interested. >>> I probably have cancer and if I do I am dying. I want all of this >>> to go to a good home and not to the landfill. If anyone is interested I >>> have some test equipment, electronic components, and model railroad >>> equipment Please only serious inquires for I tire very easily. >>> GOD Bless and Thanks, >>> rich! >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >> Paying Attention, Not a Tutor! >> >> >> > > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. > View/Reply Online (#110932): > https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/message/110932 > Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/77630695/89555 > Group Owner: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment+owner at groups.io > Unsubscribe: > https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/leave/3011123/1140944146/… > [mechanic_2 at charter.net] > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > >

5 years, 5 months

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VAX 6000 in Linwood NC on Facebook

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

No affiliation, its been there a while so may be scrapped https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2854584287984635/ you will need a facebook id to contact. Dave

5 years, 5 months

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DEC ADV11-D Analog to Digital converter with DMA

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

Paul, Jerry, Thanks for the suggestion to take a look at DataTranslation! Looking in the bitsavers folder for DataTranslation, I found a 239 page July 1986 Data Translation manual for the DT3362 series of A/Ds. There are 23 sub-models of that board but the DT3362-16SE/8DI specifications matches the ADV11-D (A1008). The best part is that chapter 8 of this manual has 5 programming examples, two of which use the DMA capability.With a bit of research (and some luck) I think this will give me the info I need. Thanks again, Mark Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2020 02:06:25 -0500 From: Paul Anderson <useddec at gmail.com> I think they were made by Data Translation. On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 8:00 PM Jerry Weiss via cctech < cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > I just picked a AAV11-D D/A Board for which documentation is also > scarce. The general design may be similar. I should be able to reverse > engineer the analog/digital output section for pin-outs. Lacking > manuals/source code, if someone has an existing driver or software in > binary, I would be willing to disassemble that for its secrets. Perhaps > these boards mimic the methods used by ADAC or Data Translation used for > their Qbus products. Their documentation may also give some insight on > how to setup these CSR's. > > Regards, > Jerry >

5 years, 5 months

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Toaster Flyer - proprietary drives?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I've been talking to the guy in NYC who has the storage portion of what appears to have been part of a Toaster Flyer setup (I forget who, but someone on the list forwarded details a few months ago) - two 5.25" full-height SCSI drives, a 3.5" SCSI drive, passive ISA backplane, and some form of TBC card (made by DPS). I'm not sure who made the 3.5" drive, but the two FH ones appear to be 9GB Seagate Elites (I'm assuming they were the two video stores, and the 3.5" was for audio). The big question is whether in a Flyer environment the drives run custom microcode or will have been LLFed to something other than a "standard" 512 byte block size - I believe that the Flyer was really pushing the boundaries of what was possible when it was current, and the majority of drives on the market just didn't have the necessary throughput (I see a "Newtek approved" sticker on one of the Seagates). I know that the storage was considered "proprietary", but I don't know if that just means that the filesystem was Flyer-specific (i.e. not AFFS), or if there was more to it than that. cheers Jules

5 years, 5 months

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S-100 stuff, electronic stuff, model railroad stuff, books and magazines!

by mechanic_2＠charter.net

Hello all. I have 22 S-100 boards for sale. There are two backplanes. One is a 9 slot bare board and the other is a 19 slot fully populated board. Both boards have active termination. There are 8080, Z80, FDC, HDC, Serial, 68030, a Display board, a Front Panel board. There are also 3 Mean Well power supplies supplying the +9VDC and the +_16VDC. There are also voltmeters and amp meters . I want $500 plus shipping for all of it. I can provide a full inventory and pictures for anyone who is truly interested. I probably have cancer and if I do I am dying. I want all of this to go to a good home and not to the landfill. If anyone is interested I have some test equipment, electronic components, and model railroad equipment Please only serious inquires for I tire very easily. GOD Bless and Thanks, rich!

5 years, 5 months

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Configuring an MS11-L for an 11/24

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So I'm working on this old MS11-L board I have had sitting around forever. M7891 DK. Goal is to use it in my 11/24 with KT24 MMU. I've switched the jumpers so it will run on a +12 supply instead of a +15, and so it will run in an extended Unibus slot as opposed to a normal unibus. However I'm stumped regarding the +5v and +5 BBU supply lines. The problem is the manual says to set the jumper that is above C12 (bottom of board, two capacitors next to each other, pretty easy to spot) so that W3 is in and W7 is out if you just have +5v. On this board, W3 is out, W7 is in, but there are two other jumpers right above them (nothing is labelled on the board). So.... Is it the bottom jumper that is +5 or the bottom and the one above that need to be moved? This might be why this board never worked right, if the memory refresh is expecting power on the BBU line and I don't have that then it's not going to work very much :-) But which jumper is the right one to use? Thanks! Chris

5 years, 5 months

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DEC Edu magazine

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Issues 6,7 and 8 are up on eBay now at $20 ea Too much for me and he won't take a lower offer

5 years, 5 months

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Identifying a Mystery ISA Card

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Sean - You might get lucky, IF Jameco still has documentation & software for the board. I would guess circa 1982-1985 (after IBM XT introduction with 256 kB standard). ? Japan in 1970s and Taiwan in 1980s ... had major production issues with PCB fabrication and assembly (required higher QC in source materials). ?After-sale? (under warranty) Component-level service bench techs ? were frequently heard ?swearing? at the incompetence across the Pacific. ? Thru-hole ?vias? for double-sided boards frequently failed. Solder alloy and Flux formulations (Asia didn?t want to buy Weller or Ersin/Multicore) were especially troublesome. In many instances, the old solder has to be removed (difficult de-soldering due to impurities in Asian solder). These problems continued through 1980s, until the ?bad shops? closed or changed their production operations. ? Using a Quality 63/37 or 60/40 ?RA? solder (like Kester ?44?), resolves most issue, other than copper solder trace failures. greg === From: Sean Ellis <seanellis9 at gmail.com> To: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com>, "ClassicCMP? <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Identifying a Mystery ISA Card Well, thanks for all the help guys - Finally narrowed it down to a JE1078 on Stason: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/io-cards/I-L/JAMECO-ELECTRONIC-COMPONENTS-Mult… I can believe this thing was made in Taiwan - I had to repair probably 1/4 of all the joints on the card because they all had gone dry or had holes in the joints. Have you ever seen solder bubble like boiling water? That's how bad the original solder on this card was. It also absolutely stank the whole way through...

5 years, 5 months

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Manuals for Imprimis/Seagate 5" Elite SMD/IPI drives

by aek＠bitsavers.org

one of the white whales. anyone have OEM documentation for their 5" Elite SMD or IPI drives? The only thing I've ever been able to find was an installation manual for the SMD verison

5 years, 5 months

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ISO OSF/1 books

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I have a small collection of the Prentice-Hall OSF/1 book series, does anyone have copies they don't need?

5 years, 5 months

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DEC ADV11-D Analog to Digital converter with DMA

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

I recently acquired an ADV11-D Qbus A/D board and having been working on a RSX11M+ driver for it. It is similar enough to the ADV11-C that the driver I wrote for the -C works ok, but the -D is DMA capable. It seems to have two extra CSR registers in addition to the CSR, and read buffer. Does anyone have documentation for this board? It is mentioned in the Oct. 88 Microsystems Option Guide and both RSX and VMS supported it. It was also mentioned in the Dec 92 Real Time Products Technical manual. It has a 40 pin IDC connector that appears to have some amount of differences from the ADV11-C and no where have I seen any info on the DMA capability. Does anyone have a ADV11-D user manual or XXDP source code for testing it? Thanks, Mark

5 years, 5 months

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Identifying a Mystery ISA Card

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Sean, Fred, and Glen ? Sorry, late to this ISA card thread. I worked in Tech Support for an Apple/IBM/HP/Novell retail computer dealer, during summers in early 1980s, when in Graduate school. So I saw the ?wide selection? of add-in cards for IBM PC/XT and compatibles. == This is a ?Taiwanese generic 6-Pak? Add-In (8-bit ISA) expansion card. RAM 384 kB; Serial port, Parallel port, Game port, AND Real Time Clock ! Glen is CORRECT, the National Semiconductor MM58167 is the RTC IC. Texas Instruments bought out National in 2011, data-sheet still available. The ?solder-in? B1 battery has been cutout (open space below/left of MM58167). Replacement battery (likely ~ 3 to 3.6 Volt) can be acquired from Digi-Key. Take measurements and closeup photo of ?B1? Area, to CONFIRM Model and Size. ? My Quick Guess ? Tadiran TL series 1/2 AA with Axial pins, 3.6V High Capacity Cylindrical battery http://www.tadiranbat.com/assets/tll-5902.pdf Tadiran TL-5902/P .... $6.65 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/tadiran-batteries/TL-5902-P/5125… greg, w9gb chicago === Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2020 17:34:58 -0700 From: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Identifying a Mystery ISA Card On Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:24 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: >> On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Sean Ellis via cctalk wrote: >> I got this (currently exploded) mystery RAM, RTC, and I/O board out of >> a dead Sanyo luggable the other night, and once I replace the burned >> up tantalums I'd like to put it in my 5150 so I can get a full 640k of >> RAM. >> Question is, does anyone know what this board is? It's a completely >> anonymous board with not even an FCC ID to go off of. I'm assuming the >> RAM is at least strapped right; all the banks are full which should be >> 384k, and the Sanyo was a 256k machine = 640k. >> Here's a couple pictures; one's an actual picture of the card and the >> other is a simplified TULARC/TH99-esque vector of what's on the board. >> https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png > > It resembles, although doesn't match, the AST Six-Pack. > But the AST Six-pack had a clock circuit. Isn't the 24-pin DIP part number MM58167 ,shown in the images referenced above, an RTC chip?

5 years, 5 months

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Firing up the pdt11

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

I'm back to working on the PDT11/150 again, the bottom floppy is weird: It doesn't read rx01 disks, period. Top one is fine. So I tried swapping all of the connectors on the control board so the top one was PD1: and the bottom was PD0: Sure enough the top drive works fine as PD1: and bottom is still dead so it's a drive issue. Pull the drive, put in a spare, button it up, and sure enough it still doesn't work. Any ideas? Also I recall my MiniMinc/150 (which is in parts in my shed) had EIS and FIS, but this one only reports FIS. Did DEC make pdp11/03 expansion chips that only had FIS? C

5 years, 5 months

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PDP 8/L & 8/I G228 warning

by djg＠pdp8online.com

Noticed in another thread an 8L is upcoming on the persons restoration list. Making separate post so more visible. The G228's have a 20 uF 50V electrolytic capacitor on them. I have had two short. When they short its a race between the trace on the board burning up or the backplane 30 AWG wirewrap wire burning up. One was on an 8/I I was restoring where the backplane wire providing the power burnt up at power on. Wasn't shorted before power on. The other was I saw one G228 had a burnt track while I was washing the cards in an 8/L. I had not applied power at that point so that was old damage. Usage history is unknown. As a minimum I would recommend applying current limited 30V to the capacitor on each card out of the machine before initial power on. Low enough limit may allow the capacitor to reform without shorting. The same part # capacitor is still available for protective replacement. The capacitors don't read shorted before power is applied. Unknown if they will short if the machine is powered on periodically. I've head lots of reports of all the failures in 8/L's. I replaced the one G228 and some bulbs but otherwise the machine was fine. It did need a lot of cleaning and I did do my normal power supply reform and checkout.

5 years, 5 months

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AOL CD and other old PC software...

by peter＠vanpeborgh.eu

I have a collection of British magazine CDs and DVDs from the mid-1995ish to 2013ish. They contain tools, programs, etc. I tried 5 and they mounted under Win10 so they should work on old win releases: XP,7,8? Would anyone be interested in acquiring these? Talk to me and we can work out how. peter || | | | | | | | | Peter Van Peborgh 62 St Mary's Rise Writhlington Radstock Somerset BA3 3PD UK 01761 439 234 "Our times are in God's wise and loving hands" || | | | | | | | |

5 years, 5 months

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ethan Dicks > ODT works from my 11/34 with bad RAM, ?? The -11/34 doesn't have 'real' ODT (like the one in the LSI-11's, KDF11's, KDJ11's), which is in microcode). The M9301 and M9312 bootstrap ROM boars contain a console emulator, but it's in macrocode. Noel

5 years, 5 months

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AOL CD and other old PC software...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

Like most of us, as a result of COVID, I've been mostly stuck at home. Consequently, I've been going through and organizing a lot of boxes of old stuff that just accumulated and I did not consider to be part of my vintage computing collection. However, I have noticed (and chuckled over) the fact that others are collecting computers and software that I "just used". Anyway, I'm finding stuff that I think others may appreciate more than I and I'm wondering about its value. First, I have what I believe is a pretty early AOL CD and I understand that it may be collectable. It includes the original silver, blue and red cardboard sleeve that reads (in part): America Online CD-ROM! IT'S NEW! IT'S FREE! Now with World Wide Web Browser! Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Most of what I find with Google seems to be related to a boom about five years ago. I have also found boxes full of other software, along with their original packaging. Original DOOM, original Lemmings, Wing Commander, Wing Commander II, Falcon, several old Microsoft Flight Sims, etc., etc. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

5 years, 5 months

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Ok, with the PDT and the RX02's out of the way I'm running down to the wire on fixing stuff before I tackle the 8/L's. Next up is the 11/24, this is one of the 5.25 inch rack mounts with a CPU, KT24, and no memory. First question: Will ODT respond at all with no memory on the Unibus? Second question: Can a 128kw memory board from an 11/34 work in an 11/24? Or do I need one of the 11/44 boards to make it go?

5 years, 5 months

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Identifying a Mystery ISA Card

by seanellis9＠gmail.com

Hey all, I got this (currently exploded) mystery RAM, RTC, and I/O board out of a dead Sanyo luggable the other night, and once I replace the burned up tantalums I'd like to put it in my 5150 so I can get a full 640k of RAM. Question is, does anyone know what this board is? It's a completely anonymous board with not even an FCC ID to go off of. I'm assuming the RAM is at least strapped right; all the banks are full which should be 384k, and the Sanyo was a 256k machine = 640k. Here's a couple pictures; one's an actual picture of the card and the other is a simplified TULARC/TH99-esque vector of what's on the board. https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png

5 years, 5 months

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FIRE SALE!

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?77118-Fire-sale-PDP-11-stuff

5 years, 5 months

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Informix for SCO XENIX

by seanellis9＠gmail.com

Just wanted to let you all know that I've found a copy of Informix 3.11 for SCO XENIX on the Lisa 2... anyone interested?

5 years, 5 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 73, Issue 13

by athornton＠gmail.com

I agree that whether a student learns has much more to do with the student than what in particular they're studying. I quit my undergraduate physics degree when I had a moment of clarity that even if I managed to squeak through my Partial Differential Equations class with a C (I did) I'd still be on a trajectory where _solving PDEs was what I would be doing with my life_. My undergrad degree is in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations. My MA is in History (but, hey, the History of Computing). I dropped out of the Ph.D. program I was in for a variety of reasons, to be honest crushing depression probably chief among them, but also because I was a fairly decent practitioner, and I had more fun playing with computers than I did writing stories about people who'd played with computers a couple generations before I had. It being the late 90s, my job prospects were decidedly better on the Not A Professional Historian side of the fence. That was 22-ish years ago. I'd been making beer money all through college and grad school with IT jobs, and I've stayed in IT-related fields ever since. Consulting, systems administration and engineering, these days software development-but-also-devops. My lack of appropriate degrees probably only didn't hurt because I started a not-unsuccessful consulting business with my mentor after I quit grad school, and by the time I was ready to move on from that, I had enough years of broadly varied experience under my belt that it didn't really matter. But that's tangential. The actual point was: the fuzzy stuff is only contemptible if you've got Physicists' Disease. History is hard, and it has a lot more in common with debugging that is obvious at first glance. In both cases you are presented with "Here's what happened," and it's your job to figure out "why?" In both cases, the ability to break the end-state down into a set of much smaller components which contribute to it is key--and although that ability probably _does_ have a lot to do with innate personality or preference, it's also very, very much a learned (and trained!) skill. The thing with debugging is that you usually are afforded the opportunity the repeat the experiment while changing parameters. With history, you're not so lucky, and thus you never _really_ know the root causes (you also usually don't know "what really happened", but by cross-referencing your sources you may be able to emerge with some sort of decent-consensus guess), but you can make more or less plausible and persuasive hypotheses about them. The idea that you are interrogating a recalcitrant witness is common to both history (and I would guess many of the humanities and social sciences) and creating and maintaining working software. I'll grant that it's _harder_ to surf blithely through an engineering degree than it is through a liberal arts degree, mostly because there are less-subjective metrics (particularly in lab courses) as to whether you actually learned something about what you're supposed to be doing. If I were being snarky, perish the thought, I'd say that the engineers who didn't really want to understand what they were doing were pre-meds. Nevertheless, a degree--and particularly an advanced one--is indeed much more about the discipline to put your head down and swallow what's put in front of you than about smarts. I was told a couple of decades ago I'd regret not having stuck it out for my Ph.D. I'm still waiting for that regret to kick in; in the meantime, many others have come and gone. Adam

5 years, 5 months

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FYI sunhelp.org down

by john＠ziaspace.com

> I posted to <rescue at sunhelp.org> and saw my message got stuck in the mail > queue. Upon a further inspection I saw that the domain has expired along > with `mrbill.net' where the nameservers used to reside and both have been > taken by someone else, taking the name service down for `sunhelp.org'. I > can still reach Bill Bradford's personal page when I connect to the server > by its IPv4 address at: <http://184.94.207.190/>. I noticed this, too. Since sunhelp.org uses mrbill.net DNS servers, and because the server at 184.94.207.190 is still up, we can still see the content if we make our own DNS, so I configured my server at 192.80.49.4 (athena.zia.io) to answer for mrbill.net, for sunhelp.org, for fiftieshouse.com, and for lispmachine.net, so if you want to see any of these, temporarily set your DNS server to 192.80.49.4. I did this in part to mirror sunhelp.org, but I suspect there are already mirrors out there. Sorry to hear about Bill :( John Klos

5 years, 5 months

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Searching for (DOS?) Backup Software

by poc＠pocnet.net

Hello, anyone heard of Genoa GenWare Backup Software and probably has a copy floating around? Someone was asking me to restore tapes, and the original diskettes aren't readable anymore. https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Books/Business/IDX/1987-04-O… :wq! PoC PGP-Key: DDD3 4ABF 6413 38DE - https://www.pocnet.net/poc-key.asc

5 years, 5 months

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Looking For Computer Automation LSI-3/05 Documentation

by tangentdelta＠protonmail.com

Hello. I have two card cages out of a pair of Linotron 202 phototypesetting machines, and have been hunting for documentation for the Naked Mini systems used in them for over a year now. The Computer Automation CPU boards in the systems have been a complete mystery to me until recently. To make a long story short, I happened to stumble across the patent for the machine (https://patents.google.com/patent/US4254468A/en), which has the same bus configuration as my card cages, and also provides some good evidence that "Naked Milli" 3/05 CPU boards were used. I've found documentation for the LSI 3/05's instruction set and an informative brochure, but nothing technical. Bitsavers has been a great help in my efforts to uncover more information about this processor, but there's still a lot of technical information that has eluded me (such as the autoload ROM, and how its data is arranged). The LSI-series computer handbook mentions a dedicated manual for the LSI 3/05, but I haven't found anything else about it online. If anyone has any information about the LSI 3/05, or where I might look for the manual, it'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

5 years, 5 months

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Maynard MaynStream

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

I have a Maynard MaynStream tape backup unit from the 1980's. It uses audio-format cassettes with 1/4" tape, but it's a different tape composition, and the cassette has a notch in it to tell the device it's not just plain audio tape. The capacity was 80 MB per cassette. I also have four ISA controller cards, four cables, and several cassettes. We used it for backup with IBM PC/AT boxes many years ago. Does anybody want it? It seems a shame to throw it in the e-waste bin. Van Snyder van.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 5 months

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<Hardware plug> HP1000 A990, A900, & A600 systems, parts, pieces, cable, panels, connectors... etc for sale

by jesse＠cypress-tech.com

I'm getting in a lot of the HP1000 systems and parts in next week. If anyone needs any 1k A990, A900, & A600 systems, CPU, memory & interface cards, cables, panels, connectors or anything else associated with those lines, let me know as I probably have them. Just note that I'm a re-seller and not a hobbyist and am selling these items as part of an end-user consignment deal.. two types of complete HP1000 A990 and A600 are below. Let me know if you need anything, want pictures, or have any questions. A990 Server 14-slot Micro 1000 Server (Configured with) 1 x 12990x A990 CPU 1 x 12221B 8MB Memory 1 x C2490A 2GB SE SCSI Internal disk drive 1 x xxxxx? DDS DAT Internal Tape Drive 1 x 12016A SCSI Controller board 1 x 12009A HP-IB Interface board 1 x 12005A Serial Interface board 1 x 12006A Parallel interface board 1 x 12040A Asynchronous Multiplexer Interface (MUX) board 1 x 02430x Voltage Jumper Board 1 x 12230A Front-plane memory connector (CPU to memory connector) $3,500.00 A600 Server 14-slot Micro 1000 Server (Configured with) 1 x 12105x A600 CPU 1 x 12101B Memory Controller 1 x 12103D 1MB Memory 1 x 12103C 512kb Memory 1 x 12022x disk controller board 1 x xxxxx? floppy drive 1 x C2490A 2GB SE SCSI Internal disk drive 1 x 12016A SCSI Controller board 1 x 12009A HP-IB Interface board 1 x 12005A Serial Interface board 1 x 12040A Asynchronous Multiplexer Interface (MUX) board 2 x 12038x Jumper board 1 x 02430x Voltage Jumper Board $2,500.00 Feel free to email direct at jesse(at)cypress-tech.com Thanks Jesse Cypress Technology Inc

5 years, 5 months

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college study

by sales＠elecplus.com

My grandfather wrote a book, "This is the Way to Study" SQ3R was the system Study, Question, Read, Write, Review Look over the chapter, read the captions of the pics, look at the bold text then make notes of questions for things that pop up Then Read the chapter through Write down more questions read again to find your answers then do the problems at the end of the chapter look over everything again, and see if u understand it all have someone else quiz u, if needed then review it all, and u should have a good grasp on it My college friend says Wow, that is a LOT of work! Is there an expectation now that being educated is NOT a lot of work? -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

5 years, 5 months

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Tutor needed for college student

by sales＠elecplus.com

If anyone has spare time, and is familiar with discrete mathematics, I have a friend who is a young college kid and desperately needs a tutor. His prof just says to read the book, and take online quizzes. He is failing. If you can help, please email me. He is in Delaware. -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

5 years, 5 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 73, Issue 11

by mark＠markesystems.com

>>> I suspect much of the electronics is fine. It would be good for someone >>> wanting backup cards. >> You must be joking. Those cards are done. Any chip that is still >> operational will likely fail upon or shortly after power is applied. > Most components can stand soldering temperatures. It is clear > that it was only hot enough to melt plastics. That isn't even hot > enough to damage boards. I have physically seen the equipment in question, in the warehouse. A few of the cards in the cage may still be salvageable - maybe, with some very powerful juju. But much of the hardware is damaged *far* beyond any hope of recovery. As Jim says, the ~~ Mark Moulding

5 years, 5 months

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Mystery QBUS memory card

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Hi, I'm trying to ID this: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/jpg/QBUSMystMem.jpg mystery QBUS memory card. I think it's a 64KB card, so not very important, but it's bugging me. The company logo (lower left corner) looks familiar, but I'm not good with off-brand logos; I'm hoping someone will recognize it. (It we can locate a manual for it, so much the better; I'm not up to playing with it to work out what the switches do!) Noel

5 years, 5 months

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Old mainframes in Finland

by sales＠elecplus.com

I received permission to share this link. These are in a personal collection in Finland. Don't drool too hard :-) https://imgur.com/gallery/7TKl5YH -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

5 years, 5 months

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Remote job submission from PDP-11

by petermallan＠gmail.com

Hi folks, I am looking for the following software products for a PDP-11, ideally to be run on RSX-11M. RJE/HASP 2780/3780 Protocol Emulator My aim is to be able to submit a remote job from a simulated PDP-11 on simh to a simulated IBM/370 on Hercules. The products that I mentioned seem the obvious way to do this, but anything that works would be helpful. Cheers Peter Allan

5 years, 5 months

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8 inch floppy head pad adjustment

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

I've not worked on 8" floppy drives, but have on tons of 5.25" single- sided drives. Older single-sided ones (usually 35-track from the 70's) had load solenoids for the pressure pads, as with a double-sided unit. The pad is to provide good contact between the media surface and the head beneath. I think older media must have ablated more than latter- day media does, as it is rare to find a single-sided 5.25" drive with a load solenoid. The pad is always in contact whenever the drive door is closed. Double-sided drives of course retained the head-load solenoid for some years, but eventually those were done away with. So, I think that unless you are using a drive 24/7, a pad in contact with the disk should not be a serious concern. That the pad IS properly in contact is important of course, and pads should be inspected to see that there is enough 'meat' left on them to provide the pressure needed. Aft of the pad, at the base of the head-sled pressure arm is a notch into which the end of the spring rides. Close examination of the sled will probably show some higher and lower notches into which you can move the end of the spring, to provide more or less pressure as needed, to tune a particular drive. In the old days, someone running a drive on a BBS or other heavy application might wear a pad out. We'd just steal one from a cassette tape and stick it on the arm. The cassette tape pad was square and the originals were round, but it never seemed to make any difference. These days there are no cassettes floating around to cannibalize, so I buy felt pads for furniture from Amazon, trim them with a razor and stick them on a drive I'm refurbishing. Atari, Commodore, Tandy... Many of the 80's 8-bits used this very scheme on their single-sided drives and this solution is good for all of them. I had someone insist to me recently that the felt pads I was buying were acrylic and the originals were Rabbit Hair and that it was crucial that the replacements be made of rabbit hair. In practice, and that is 40 years of practice, any old pad will do just fine. If it looks like the right thing it will serve the purpose. Just pick off the old nub of a pad and stick on your newly cut one and go. Common faults I've been noticing are that disk drives made in the 70's, 80's, and 90's are failing in common ways. I attribute these failures mostly to lack of lubrication. After 30 years they get a bit gummy and the actuators have to work harder to move the head sled, which puts a greater load on the darlington drivers which power the actuators, which causes the drivers to fail. Replacing the drivers will often restore the drive to working order, but they will fail again in short order if the original probelm is not resolved. I simply clean the rails and stepper bands, touch a little wd40 to the rails to free the head sled, cycle the head back and forth a buncha times manually to exercise it and distribute the lubricant, then follow that will a little white lithium grease for a longer-lived lube. Not only will the drive run better and a lot quieter when lubricated, the loads on the actuators and their associated electronics are greatly reduced, making for a like-new drive. The second thing that is happening quite often is electrolytic capacitors are failing, leaking or not. I had a pair of drives the other day which made quite a racket when spinning free even without media installed. Replacing the electrolytics on the spindle motor's board got rid of the noise and made it possible to properly tune the RPM's, which had been just all over the map. best, Jeff

5 years, 5 months

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Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E?

by mosst＠SDF.ORG

> Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2020 02:29:46 -0400 > From: Bob Vines <bobvines00 at gmail.com> > To: cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E? > I don't have a TU56 & TD8E _yet_, but really hope to get one fairly soon -- > if successful, they will most assuredly require troubleshooting & repairs. > Where did you find the source for TDFRMT? Also, where did you find the > MAINDEC document that matches your version of the TD8E MAINDEC? I ask > because I've had _great_ difficulty finding MAINDEC docs that actually > match whatever MAINDEC images I've tried to use. Bob, The source for TDFRMT, as well as the rest of OS/8 can be found here: https://tangentsoft.com/pidp8i/file?name=src/os8/ock/CUSPS/TDFRMT.PA https://tangentsoft.com/pidp8i/dir?ci=tip&name=src/os8 Several versions of the TD8E MAINDEC can be found here: http://so-much-stuff.com/pdp8/software/maindec.php Only one of them has a PDF, and I haven't checked to see if they fully match up with the binaries, but the starting addresses of the tests I'd been checking at least seem to match up with the DHTDAB.DG binary found here: www.pdp8.net/pdp8cgi/os8_html?act=dir;fn=images/os8/diagpack2.rk05 Regards, -Tom mosst at sdf.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org

5 years, 5 months

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Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E?

by bobvines00＠gmail.com

> > Message: 8 > Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2020 05:59:40 +0000 (UTC) > From: Thomas Moss <mosst at SDF.ORG> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E? > ... > I've recently bought a TU56 for my PDP-8/e, and am looking for some > advice on getting it to work. > ... > ... I found a copy of the source for TDFRMT so I could see what > exactly was causing the "SETUP?" error. > ... Tom, I don't have a TU56 & TD8E _yet_, but really hope to get one fairly soon -- if successful, they will most assuredly require troubleshooting & repairs. Where did you find the source for TDFRMT? Also, where did you find the MAINDEC document that matches your version of the TD8E MAINDEC? I ask because I've had _great_ difficulty finding MAINDEC docs that actually match whatever MAINDEC images I've tried to use. Thanks, Bob

5 years, 5 months

2
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Remote job submission from PDP-11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ethan Dicks > a DEC sync serial board since that part is nowhere to be found right > now. I dunno, I see them fairly often on eBait (well, often compared to some other things, e.g. TU56 parts... :-) QBUS or UNIBUS? And there are lots of different ones, which I confess I don't fully understand the difference between (e.g. DP11, DQ11, DU11, DUP11, DV11) - some of it's single-line/multi-line, and DMA/programmed I/O, but from what few details I looked at - while doing: http://gunkies.org/wiki/DP11-A_synchronous_serial_line_interface http://gunkies.org/wiki/DUP11_synchronous_serial_line_interface there are also differences in exactly which protocools are supported, etc, etc, etc, etc. Noel

5 years, 5 months

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Remote job submission from PDP-11

by dave＠mitton.com

>Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2020 11:29:43 -0700 >From: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> >Subject: Re: Remote job submission from PDP-11 > >On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 11:04 AM Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote: > > > > > On Oct 7, 2020, at 12:06 PM, Glen Slick via cctalk > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > > > ... > > > I was curious about this DEC M8704 DMS11-DA that sold cheap a few days > > > ago. It has eight SMC COM5025 "Multi-Protocol Universal Synchronous > > > Receiver/Transmitter USYNR/T" chips: > > > > > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/373243388363 > > > > > > Apparently it can't do anything on its own. It needs to be connected > > > to a UNIBUS through a companion KMC11 processor board, which might not > > > be too common if someone wanted to put together a working > > > configuration. > > > > That model number isn't familiar. > > > > A KMC-11 is simply a microprocessor that sits on the Unibus and > does Unibus cycles to another device on behalf of the host. The > idea is to offload operations so the host can ask for block > transfers and the KMC does the individual character I/O operations needed. > > > > That said, it clearly is not correct that "it can't do anything > on its own". The KMC-11 reaches into the device via its Unibus > CSRs. If you can find a description of its operation, or reverse > engineer it, you can clearly write a device driver for it that > doesn't rely on a KMC-11. > > > > paul > >Well it does appear that M8704 DMS11-DA "can't do anything on its own" >directly through the UNIBUS. From a quick visual inspection it only >has power and grant continuity traces on the card edge connectors. The >connection to the controlling KMC-11 is through the 40-pin Berg >connector. So without a KMC-11 an alternate interface through the >40-pin Berg connector would be needed. My first job at DEC was to release the KMC-11 Programmer's Tools support for RSX-11. (I didn't write them from scratch, two other engineers did that, but I did do final debug and QA) We provided two firmware kit products; the CommIOP-DUP and DZ, which controlled the DUP-11 and DZ-11 respectively. The KMC-11 could do NPR bus transfers to/from the devices, and the CommIOP-DUP firmware could do Bisync or X.25 type framing so that you got an RSX-11 driver with a packet interface, vs byte at a time. The CommIO-DZ firmware provided various customizable state driven things as you might want for a line driven terminal concentrator. I'm pretty sure the packages came with the "source" code, so you could customize it if you could understand it. The DMC-11 did DDMCP support and was basically a KMC with ROM in the control store. And it did use that external connector to the proprietary network interface card, DMC-11DA. In later years, I wrote and released a KMC Tools package for VMS-11. That came with a VMS DMA LP-11 line printer driver I authored. I don't remember if the CommIOP tools were supported. Some VMS engineers didn't like these products. (another story) (That didn't stop the Lab products guys in Marlboro from using them for their applications) There was a later version called the KMC-11B which doubled the memory and probably ran faster too. It was the same board as the DMP-11 product which was an improved version of the DMC-11. These were quad Unibus boards. In the Q bus world, there was a 6502 based I/O processor card developed (outside of Networks) (as one-chip micros became available) as well. I have a KMC-11 Programmer's Manual here... I think you'll need a print set to figure out that connector. Dave.

5 years, 5 months

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Books I no longer need

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

So far, two people have asked for "Varian Data 620/i Systems Computer Manual." So that I don't have to decide who gets it, I've put it on EBay for a7- day auction with a starting bid of $0.99. https://www.ebay.com/itm/224184671124 id="-x-evo-selection-start-marker"> Van Snydervan.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 5 months

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IBM 1130 simulator

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

In about 1974, for my senior undergraduate project, I wrote microcode to convince a Varian V70 that it was actually an IBM 1130. Being substantially more modern hardware, it was much faster than a real 1130. If anybody wants microcode and flow diagrams, and listings for the I/O simulation (which ran in 620/f mode), I'm happy to send them. Van Snyder van.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 5 months

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Books I no longer need

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

So far, two people have asked for "Programming HP 21MX Computers." So that I don't have to decide who gets it, I've put it on EBay for a 7-day auction with a starting bid of $0.99. https://www.ebay.com/itm/224184669206 It has a cheap "perfect" binding, and it's 3-hold punched, so it could be disassembled and scanned, but I don't want to be the one who does this. Van Snyder van.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 5 months

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Finnish museum needs financial help

by sales＠elecplus.com

https://pt.gofundme.com/f/exhibition-of-agora-computing They really need donations so they can get going again. Can anyone help? -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

5 years, 5 months

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Microsoft C 6.0 manuals

by tomas＠basun.net

Hi again, Am also looking for the manuals for Microsoft C 6.0, preferably in a digital format. /Tomas

5 years, 5 months

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Handheld systems archive CD-ROM

by tomas＠basun.net

Hi all, Am wondering if anybody knows how to find a copy of the "Handheld Systems Archives CD-ROM" that was sold through the domain cdpubs.com 20-30 ywars ago. /Tomas

5 years, 5 months

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Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E?

by mosst＠SDF.ORG

Hi All, I've recently bought a TU56 for my PDP-8/e, and am looking for some advice on getting it to work. Over the course of a few weeks I fixed odds and ends with the drive (motor run capacitors, damaged wires, transistors, etc.), and for a few days the right drive worked very reliably. I could read existing tapes, write to them, and format fresh tapes. (A write-up to this point is here: www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?76935) (A good source for new motor run capacitors: https://www.ebay.com/itm/142631210678) However, this changed when I wrote a file to an existing tape, only to find that the directory structure had somehow been corrupted in the process. Out of curiosity I mounted a scratch tape that I knew I could format before and tried to format it again, the result was a BLOCK NUMBER ERROR PHASE 4. When running the TD8E MAINDEC it's apparent why - when set to display the block number in the accumulator for the tape I tried to format, every third bit appears to stick or glitch out. The tape I think I corrupted however appears to count up and down the blocks correctly. (Video here: https://streamable.com/bh8f7p) I tried swapping the G888s around to see if it made any difference, but nothing changed. I then turned my attention to the cabling and the TD8E. Somewhere along the line things got worse, and now running TDFRMT just results in a "SETUP?" error when trying to format a tape. I've tried running the TD8E MAINDEC (DHTDAB), and managed to get it to pass the following tests: -Operator Intervention -Data Register -Command Register -Initialize -SDLC, SDLD, SDRC, and SDRC and AC Clear -Single Line Skip Instruction and Logic Test -Quad Line Skip Instruction and Logic Test However, once it reaches the Timing Error Skip Instruction and Logic Test, it fails with the following: >TIMING ERROR SKIP INSTRUCTION AND LOGIC >TIMING ERROR STATUS BIT NOT SET IN COMMAND REGISTER > >TIMING ERROR DOES NOT CLEAR WRITE FLIP/FLOP I also found some tests that check the Data and Command Registers by accepting input from the switches and displaying the result in the MQ. These work fine, although though doing so I discovered that I had stuck bits on the MQ on one of my Major Registers boards. I swapped with a spare for now and will look at that later. Lastly I found a copy of the source for TDFRMT so I could see what exactly was causing the "SETUP?" error. I noticed there's several things that can cause that error (the JMPs to ERCHK), so I replaced the first JMP ERCHK with a halt and sure enough it did halt there. /SEE IF THE DRIVE IS OK 003224 6774 RSTSM, SDLC /LOAD CR TO CLEAR TIMEING ERROR 003225 6775 SDLD /LOAD DATA BUFFER TO CLEAR S Q FLAGS 003226 1162 TAD DT0400 /SET WRITE 003227 1027 TAD DTA /GET UNIT 003230 3257 DCA SAV /STORE IT AWAY 003231 1257 TAD SAV 003232 6771 SDSS 003233 5232 JMP .-1 003234 6774 SDLC 003235 1257 TAD SAV 003236 6774 SDLC /LOAD THE TRANSPORT 003237 6776 SDRC /READ THE COMMAND REGISTER AND CHECK IT 003240 7006 RTL 003241 7004 RAL 003242 7500 SMA /CHECK WRITE TO BE SET 003243 5260 JMP ERCHK /WRITE IS NOT SET <<<---Halts here if changed to HLT. 003244 7004 RAL /CHECK WLO 003245 7510 SPA 003246 5260 JMP ERCHK /WLO 003247 7004 RAL /CHECK SELECT AND TIMING ERROR 003250 7710 SPA CLA 003251 5260 JMP ERCHK /SELECT OR TIMING ERROR 003252 4777' JMS NUDTA /CHECK OTHER DRIVE IF ANY 003253 5213 JMP RSTSM-11 /CHECK OTHER DRIVE 003254 5655 JMP I .+1 003255 1400 STMK 003256 0000 CNTERL, 0 003257 0000 SAV, 0 Does anyone have any hints on what I should check from here? Regards, -Tom mosst at sdf.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org

5 years, 5 months

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8 inch floppy head pad adjustment

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Working on cleaning up my RX02 drives: I've taken the 8 inch floppy units out of the case/chassis and have been cleaning dust and such off the whole assemblies. One thing I noticed: There is a pad opposite the head that comes down when a solenoid is energized to provide pressure against the read head. Makes sense, it also has a pad that presses against the floppy disc itself, probably to keep it from jittering. However I noticed on both heads that the bracket is adjusted all the way down. This means that even when the solenoid is not energized the head pad is pressing against the disk and pushing the disk against the head. Is this normal? I would think this would result in the floppy always being pressed against the head and quickly wearing out the disk. The whole point is to let the disk float against the head, only letting the pad push things into contact when doing a read. Do I have this right, and is adjusting that that assembly proper when the pad puck is not touching the disk when up, but is touching it when down? C

5 years, 5 months

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Books I no longer need

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

I have some books I no longer need. Is this a good place to offer them? WordPerfect Wiorkbook for IBM Personal Computers Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 User's Guide and Reference Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Getting Started WordPerfect Version 6.0 DOS Reference (along with a CD) WordPerfect Add-Ons Catalog WordPerfect Software Product Catalog WordPerfect Version 6.0 DOS Getting Started for the New User WordPerfect Shell Version 4.0 DOS User's Guide WordPerfect Version 6.0 DOS Learning WordPerfect WordPerfect for UNIX 7 Installation and Administration Guide WordPerfect for UNIX 7 User Guide WordPerfect for UNIX 7 Clipart Guide Van Snyder van.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 6 months

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Apple Lisa Software List

by seanellis9＠gmail.com

Hey all, the past couple of weeks I've been working on compiling a list of all known Lisa software, and trying to determine if it was for the 1 or 2, if it ran on Office System, XENIX, UniPlus, etc. and the dumped status of each title. If anyone's got any tips or pointers, let me know and I'll get the list updated. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1STG0Le_8dMHRLf026x6YfXzRQm2hD0igeZV…

5 years, 6 months

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Vintage 1976 Digital Computer Controls, Inc. D-116 Computer Maintenance Manual

by microtechdart＠gmail.com

Just wondering if anyone here might have been the winning bidder on this one... https://entrex480.blogspot.com/2020/10/vintage-1976-digital-computer-contro… https://www.ebay.com/itm/284026555447 -- Best always, AJ Palmgren http://Entrex480.com

5 years, 6 months

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VT525 power switch

by dittman＠dittman.net

I have a VT525 that I couldn't turn off. I took it apart and there's an adapter that connects the metal rod off the button on the front to the power switch inside. The adapter has crumbled and it feels like it was wax but it may have just been some plastic that has severely deteriorated. Before I try to work up some kind of replacement, has anyone already designed a 3D-printed replacement? I don't have a 3D printer but do have a friend that could print one for me. Otherwise, I'll see if I can come up with something. -- Eric Dittman

5 years, 6 months

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9 track tapes and block sizes

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I have a question about 9 track tapes and block sizes. What I know is that tape is subdivided in files by means of marks, and each file is subdivided in blocks of equal size. Programs like tar use a specific block size to create files on tape. However files can have different block sizes like bootloader file, installation dumps and root file system copy on 2.11BSD. Now suppose you find and unknown tape you want to preserve: using dd you could easily 1:1 copy tape files to hard disk files using a SCSI drive and Linux. But: how you know which block size is on the tape? Thanks Andrea

5 years, 6 months

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IBM PC-DOS 2.10 explorations

by will.senn＠gmail.com

All, I've been delving into ancient IBM PC-DOS... 1.0, 2.0 and have landed on 2.10 as the experience I'm going to hang out with for a while. It's stable in QEMU and 86Box and I am able to run MASM 1.0, 2.0 and Pascal 1.0 and 2.0. 86Box is more true to old-school boxes, but qemu runs on my Mac, so I like using Qemu. But, Pascal seems to prefer 86Box, it prints weird characters in qemu w/writeln(), which is annoying, but I'm doing more assembly and BASIC at this point, so Qemu's emulation is sufficient. What I've got working: IBM PC-DOS 2.10 - seems to be working fine in both (installed to fixed disk) IBM Macro Assembler 1.0 and 2.0 - seems to be working fine in both (installed to fixed disk) IBM Pascal 1.0 and 2.0 - hokey in both, tricky about the floppy being present, regardless of debug fix, and doesn't like QEMU. QEdit 2.1 - works great in both (installed to fixed disk) I found some good books on BASIC, Pascal, and Assembly: Albrecht, 1990. Teach Yourself GWBASIC. (covers later BASICA sufficiently) Pardee, 1984. The Waite Group Pascal Primer for the IBM PC. (Great book) Metcalf and Sugiyama, 1985. Compute!'s Beginner's Guide to Machine Language on the IBM PC & PCjr. (Excellent book) Lafore, 1984. The Waite Group Assembly Language Primer for the IBM PC & XT. (Wordy, but good) Pretty much everything I've programmed works fine. Graphics stuff is better in 86Box where I can control the monitor that's attached, but no complaints. Some questions I have related to the exploration: 1. I'm curious if there are other folks out there doing similar stuff? 2. Most of the Assembly examples use DOS interrupt 21 for output. Is this typical of assembly programs of the time, or did folks use other methods? 3. I was able to find a lot of 5150/5160 and other manuals, but I couldn't find an IBM Macro Assembler 2.0 manual (there are plenty of IBM Macro Assembler/2 manuals, but those are for OS/2, not DOS). Does anyone know where I can find one online? 4. In y'all's view, what are the significant differences between IBM PC-DOS 2.10 and it's brother MS-DOS 2.x? 5. I'm thinking of moving on to 3.3 at some point, in your view, what are the advantages? 6. I'm happy to post here, but if y'all know of a more appropriate venue, please suggest it? Thanks, Will -- GPG Fingerprint: 68F4 B3BD 1730 555A 4462 7D45 3EAA 5B6D A982 BAAF

5 years, 6 months

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Anyone want to part with a DEC MXV11-B (M7195) and/or M8012 (BDV11)?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Hanson > There's an MXV11-B (M7195) on its way to me. :) Wow, you've got a really good fairy god-mother! I've been trying to buy one on eBait for some time now (in part to have one to take a photo of for the CHWiki), and no luck - they always get bid up into the sky. And here someone has one for you! Life is unfair! Noel

5 years, 6 months

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Thompson's Space Travel running

by lars＠nocrew.org

Hello, Ken Thompson's space exploration simulation Space Travel will now run on the SIMH PDP-7 simulator: http://sebras.se/space-travel-2.mp4

5 years, 6 months

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Identifying mystery TI ICs (Motorola MDP-1000 investigation continues...)

by couryhouse＠aol.com

The making of this computer? perhaps explain why I never had someone wander in and talk about designing or building a MOTOROLA MINICOMPUTER ....Ed# On Monday, October 5, 2020 Bill Degnan via cctalk <billdegnan at gmail.com; cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 1:10 PM Al Kossow via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > On 10/4/20 11:13 PM, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: > > > Just made a minor breakthrough; a random usenet post suggested that the > > MDP-1000 was just a rebadged General Automation SPC-12, and so it is.? I > > suspect the internals of the unit I have (which is badged as an > "MDP-6650" > > on the rear) are a bit different than either the MDP-1000 or the SPC-12 > > (and I'm no closer to finding answers to my IC identification questions), > > but it at least gives me another avenue to explore... > > > > (Bitsavers has a few items: > > http://bitsavers.org/pdf/generalAutomation/spc12/) > > https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=spc-12 Is this a case of not being able to find the correct TI or Motorola IC guide or is there something unique / OEM about this one?? I do have some late 60's early 70's IC guides of these manufacturers that I can check, original bound paper copies.? Please advise. Bill

5 years, 6 months

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Identifying mystery TI ICs (Motorola MDP-1000 investigation continues...)

by derschjo＠gmail.com

More mysteries while poking at the MDP-1000. Spent some time this evening working out the rest of the signals on the power harness (I suspect inputs for an LTC circuit and a "power good" signal, as well as something connected to a relay on the backplane, probably related to power control). There are a lot of unidentifiable ICs on the main CPU logic board and on the backplane, mixed in with bog-standard 7400-series TTL. Curious if anyone has any ideas, as my searches and perusal of datasheets/databooks on Bitsavers have turned up nothing. These are all TI-manufactured ICs, 1969 manufacturing dates, with "SN48xx" and "SN63xx" part numbers (a few omit the "SN" prefix.) I'm wondering if these are just standard 7400 ICs with special codes; for example there are several SN4816's near the edge connector for the I/O bus, where a 7416 might (?) make sense, and from some basic probing and following traces I think the pinouts make sense. (Everything's conformal coated so it's a real bear to beep things out...) Any ideas? Thanks again, Josh

5 years, 6 months

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ancient 5" SMD message

by aek＠bitsavers.org

5.25" SMD drives From: David C. Jenner <djenner_at_earthlink.net> Date: Tue Jun 24 19:28:00 2003 I have complete docs (User's Manual and Reference Manual, both very long) for both of the Seagate drives (the manuals cover both). And a stock of the 1.2GB drives, including power supply and cables. And QD33 Qbus adapters. I'll be glad to entertain offers for these offline, especially trades for PDP-11 equipment. Dave --- wonder if - he is still on the list - still has the manuals

5 years, 6 months

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Sun SPARCstation LX boot from CDROM?

by chentsay＠yahoo.com

Dear Tom, Does your Sun workstation is functional and read QIC -150 cartridge? I have some old 3M 6150 cartridges that was created by Sun Sparc workstation in 2000. One those cartridges, I have some my personal files I like to get them. If you can you read those cartridges, I can pay some money for you? Chen Tsay

5 years, 6 months

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Modcomp computers and documentation

by lyokoboy0＠gmail.com

Greetings everyone, it's Been a while since i posted here. I had picked up some modcomp minicomputers over the past couple years. A modcomp classic, with a nice front panel with binary swiches, similar to a pdp 11. There is a modcomp 32 as well, the machine boots from internal floppy drives. I was eager to pick up these machines, and save them from being thrown out. I picked up all of the documentation as well. Everything. A truckload of os information. I started to scan it all, but about 3/4 of the way through, my scanner broke. The 32 machine was not stored in climate controlled conditions before i picked it up, and is a bit more worn. It is designed to boot off floppys to load the microcode into the cpu... but the floppys... id be supprised if anything survived. Stored in bad conditions. The classic has internal microcode roms and will not have the same troublesome problem. I have been unable to devote the time and space to these machines as i had planned. I have been far too busy working at ibm, i am planning to shut down my side interests and focus on my dec pdp 11 stuff and ibm mainframe. I am looking to see if anyone would be interested in buying these. I spent a great deal getting them moved and keeping them in cool climate controlled storage, i am looking to see if i can get any offers and break even. Keep in mind, they are the size of a computer rack and heavy. I will post back with pictures soon.

5 years, 6 months

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Anyone want to part with a DEC MXV11-B (M7195) and/or M8012 (BDV11)?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Hanson > My little LSI-11 system doesn't have a usable Line-Time Clock because > it lacks the register, which it expects to be in either an MXV11-B > (M7195) or a BDV11 (M8012). My power supply theoretically supplies the > LTC .. so my preference would be an M7195 ... > Does anyone have one they'd be interested in parting with? The MXV11-B is rare and expensive - I think because it's a Q22 card. The BDV11 is, on the other hand, fairly common, not not too expensive. If you can't find a reasonably-priced one (i.e. <US$50) one on eBait, Paul Anderson used to have some. If he's out, I can probably be convinced to part with one. The BDV11 has on Q18 _terminator_ functionality; there's an ECO to make that Q22,though. FWIW, both the KDF11-B and KDJ11-A have built in LTC's, if a CPU upgrade is feasible for you. Noel

5 years, 6 months

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Manuals, catalogs, brochures posted on Archive.org

by pdp11＠saccade.com

Last year I found a box of material, much of it related to S-100 computers and the Sol I owned in the 1970s. I've scanned it in and posted it to the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/@j_peterson Folks researching obscure old devices (Biotech Electronics CGS-808, anyone?) may find something useful. I still have a few documents waiting to scan, but this is 98% of it. Cheers, jp

5 years, 6 months

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IBM 3279 analogue board / schematics?

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I am helping a friend with his IBM 3279 terminal. I got the PSU working after reverse engineering it. Concluded that the SMPS control chip was a standard TDA 2640 in IBM disguise. But of course the thing didn't work with the PSU fixed. A fuse which was in series with the vertical deflection coil on the analogue board went toast together with a 200 ohm resistor in the vertical deflection circuit. https://i.imgur.com/O4YEsdL.jpg At first I thought this had to do with some kind of fault in the vertical deflection coil itself. It measured only 1.2 ohms. But checking the IBM MAP manual revealed that both deflection yokes are supposed to be less than 2 ohms. So there has to be something else. I powered up the analogue board with the 5V and 8.5V that is normally supplied by the PSU (left the 103V unconnected since it used for the HV mostly) just to see what happened. The power consumption was reasonable, 0.3 amps on the 5V and 0.16A on the 8.5V. I then probed around among all those annoying IBM marked chips and square aluminium boxes. I found one chip that had 250 kHz on a pin. The chip appeared to be a divider since there were also 125 kHz, 62 Khz 31 kHz and 15 kHz. It seems to be originating from a square aluminium box. And then I found a signal which was around 20 Hz on another chip. As far as I understand the 15 kHz would fit well with the 64us sweep in the manual. But what is the purpose of the 20Hz signal? Vertical deflection? http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/3279/SY33-0069-3_3279_Color_Disp… According to the above manual the frame sync is 10 ms for model 2 and 13.8 ms for model 3 (this is a model 3). And moreover if 20Hz is the frequency used for generating the vertical it could explain why the fuse blew since the current in the deflection yoke should normally increase linearly with time. Three times longer deflection period would yield a three time higher current, thus very likely to exceed the 1.5A rating of the fuse. So I am looking for either another analogue board for an IBM 3279 or a schematic for the thing or maybe both would be great. IBM stuff is annoyingly hard to repair... Has anyone seen schematics for the IBM 3279? Does anyone have a spare analogue board? /Mattis

5 years, 6 months

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Anyone want to part with a DEC MXV11-B (M7195) and/or M8012 (BDV11)?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > Might have an older MXV11 as well, could the 18 bit one do this Ooh, good catch; yes, the MXV11-A also has an LTC. I too have an 'extra' one. The OP should probably check to see if his P/S generates the bus clock signal; most of the options we've discussed for him would need it. Noel

5 years, 6 months

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Anyone want to part with a DEC MXV11-B (M7195) and/or M8012 (BDV11)?

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

My little LSI-11 system doesn't have a usable Line-Time Clock because it lacks the register, which it expects to be in either an MXV11-B (M7195) or a BDV11 (M8012). My power supply theoretically supplies the LTC but I haven't confirmed that, so my preference would be an M7195 if possible. Does anyone have one they'd be interested in parting with? I'm fine with shipping internationally and with paying a reasonable price, and I promise to take good care of it and pass it on to another good home if I should ever part with it. (Friends don't let friends recycle rare electronics.) Alternately, is there a "modern" Q-bus board that provides things like LTC (both the clock and the register), SLU, memory, etc.? -- Chris

5 years, 6 months

2
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Concurrent Controls Multiuser DOS

by new_castle_j＠yahoo.com

I'm researching Multiuser DOS out of my own interest. A version made by Concurrent Controls specifically. However, I have been unable to find documentation on it to satisfy my curiosity on how it works and how it is configured. They must have somehow broken the 640K barrier or virtualized each user session, I'd like to understand it better. What were it's limitations, I'm guessing that each user didn't get direct access to hardware. Anyone out there have a document or experience with it? Thanks, Jonathan

5 years, 6 months

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Compaq Portable II PSU - value of C13?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Hi all, Does anyone happen to know the value of C13 in a Compaq Portable II power supply? It's a small-ish tantalum that lives next to the heatsink between U6 and U7 - although mine doesn't live any more, having just roasted itself in spectacular fashion. Quite possibly there's some other fault at play, but on the other hand it may have just been its time; tantalums in vintage stuff seem a little prone to failure. cheers Jules

5 years, 6 months

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Pro 350 Print Set

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Manx lists MP-01394-00 as the Field Maintenance Print Set for the DEC Professional 350. I can't find this online and I was wondering if anyone has a scan of it by any chance? Thanks Rob

5 years, 6 months

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General Turtle TT2500

by lars＠nocrew.org

Hello, I'm making a software emulator for the General Turtle TT2500. Does anyone have any information about it? It's hard to come by. Here's what I have learned: It's a custom TTL design by Marvin Minsky et al, with 64K 16-bit memory and 4K 16-bit control store. It has two displays attached, one for vector graphics, and one for text. There is a UART for talking to a host (presumably running Logo), and a keyboard.

5 years, 6 months

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HP 3000, APL\3000, the HP 2641A APL Display Station, and stuff.

by boris＠summitclinic.com

Thanks for putting this out. Not a system I'm familiar with but did play around briefly with APL in 1969 on an IBM 360. Very nice emulator and managed to get it up and running once found an emulated HP graphics terminal. Pleasantly surprised that emulator CPU useage was very small (unlike BasiliskII which runs one CPU core at 100% when I run my old Mac programs) and played adventure came that came with it. Last time I played an adventure game of that nature was in 1981 and remember thinking how neat it was back then. >As some people here are aware, I have spent probably too much time this summer >hacking on J. David Bryan's excellent Classic HP 3000 simulator and trying to >build up the ultimate classic 1980s HP 3000 system (virtually speaking). > >I started with the MPE V/R KIT that's widely available and expanded >that into a >5x120MB HP 7925 disc system and configured things like the system directory >size and all the system tables to make a fully functional multi-user server. > >I then set about collecting as much old MPE software as I could find, which >included Keven Miller's collection of the old Contributed Software >Library tapes >which were conveniently available in SIMH format. This is a huge trove of cool >stuff including most of the classic mini/mainframe games (Dungeon, Warp, >Advent, etc., etc.) and even a little game called DRAGONS that was written in >1980 by a guy named Bruce Nesmith when he was in college and he used it >to get a job at TSR and went on to write parts of many classic D&D products >and eventually landed at Bethesda where among other things he was the >lead designer for another little game called The Elder Scrolls V: >Skyrim. I was >able to track Bruce down and give him a copy of the system with his 40 year >old game running on it. The CSL tapes also include other amazing goodies >that people developed and gave away over the years, including a FORTH and >LISP, as well as most of the system and utility programs that people used to >run their 3000 shops. It's quite fun to explore. > >I was curious how far we could push the 3000 simulator, so I hacked all >the memory bank registers to be six bits instead of four bits, and we >now have a simulated HP 3000 Series III that supports 8MB of memory, 4x >more than any physical system ever did. I started trying to do the same thing >for giant disc drives, but MPE turned out to have too much knowledge of >what the supported disc models look like to make it practical. Bummer. > >Since I met my first HP 3000 in 1980 (40 years ago this month), people would >talk about what was probably the most rare and exotic HP software subsystem >ever produced, APL\3000. APL on the 3000 was a project started at HP Labs >in Palo Alto in the early 1970s. They were likely motivated by the success IBM >was having with mainframe APL timesharing services. This would be the first >full APL implementation on a "small" (non-mainframe) computer. It would be the >first APL with a compiler (and a byte-code virtual machine to execute the >compiled code), it would include an additional new language APLGOL (APL >with ALGOL like structured control statements), and it managed to support >APL workspaces of unlimited size through a clever set of system CPU >microcode extensions that provided a flat 32-bit addressing capability (on >a 16-bit machine where every other language was limited to a 64KB data >segment). > >Because APL required these extra special CPU instructions that you got as >a set of ROM chips when you bought the $15,000 APL\3000, and because >APL ultimately failed as a product (another story in itself) and thus HP never >implemented these instructions on their later HP 3000 models, I never saw >it run on a real HP 3000, but over the years we talked about wouldn't it be >cool to find a way to get APL running again. > >With assistance and moral support from Stan Sieler and Frank McConnell >and others, I was ultimately able to reverse-engineer the behavior of the >undocumented ten magic APL CPU instructions needed to get it to run and >implement them as part of the MPE unimplemented instruction trap and now >APL\3000 runs again for the first time in ~35 years. Somewhat ironically, this >implementation method could have been used back in 1980 as I didn't >actually end up changing the hardware simulation code at all, and it should >also run (if a bit slowly) on any physical classic architecture 3000. > >So that was cool and all, but what is APL without all the weird overstruck >characters and whatnot? APL\3000 supports the use of plain ASCII terminals >through blecherous trigraphs like "QD for the APL quad character, but this >is hardly satisfying. So the quest was on to find a solution. Back >in 1976 when >APL\3000 was released, there was a companion HP terminal in the 264x line, >the HP 2641A APL Display Station, which was basically an HP 2645A with >special firmware and APL character set ROMs that supported all the APL >special characters as well as overstrikes (the terminal would take >X<backspace>Y >and lookup to see if it had a character to represent Y overstriking X and if >so it would show that on the display, and if that got transmitted to >the host it >would convert it back into the original three character overstriking >sequence). > >I briefly looked into the idea of hacking QCTerm or Putty or something, but >then I found out from Curious Chris that an HP 2645A emulator already existed >in the MAME emulator system! Since the '41 is basically just a '45 >with modified >firmware, and Bitsavers had both the character set ROMs as well as the >firmware ROMs from a '41, this sounded like it might be easy! There was a snag >however in that the firmware ROM images that were allegedly from a '41 turned >out to actually be from an ordinary '45. But we did have the >character sets and >one of the ROMs from the second CTL PCA. I put out a call on the Vintage HP >list to see if anyone might possibly have a lead on an actual HP 2641A, and >Kyle Owen responded that not only did he have one he could also dump the >ROMs for us. So a few days and a few hacks to F. Ulivi's MAME hp2645 driver >later we now have a functioning MAME HP 2641A terminal emulation, so you >can experience APL\3000 in all its original glory. I bundled up a somewhat >stripped down MAME along with my turnkey 3000 setup so both emulated HP >terminals are just a couple clicks away. > >So that's how I spent my summer vacation (who am I kidding, it's >pretty much all >vacation these days). It has been a lot of fun revisiting all this old >3000 stuff as >well as the numerous people I talked to along the way including some of those >who were around at APL\3000's birth (before my time). It was rather a lot of >work so I'd like to feel it might be useful to someone in the future >who is digging >into this part of history. Because of all the usual reasons, I don't >plan on hosting >it permanently until and unless we maybe someday get the licensing worked out >(the 50th anniversary of the HP 3000 will be in a couple years so maybe people >will get interested again then) but I will offer it up here to my >fellow computer >history nuts if you want to help ensure that it doesn't vanish if I >get run over by a >bus or something :) > >This is a simulated HP 3000 Series III (circa 1980) running MPE V/R >(circa 1986) >with 8MB of memory, all the language subsystems (APL, BASIC, BASICOMP, RPG, >FORTRAN (66), SPL, PASCAL, COBOL (68), COBOL II (74)), 20 years of users group >contributed software, many classic historical computer games, etc. Software >archaeologists can get lost in here for years. Oh, and thanks to Dave >Elward, the >HP 2000 Timesharing BASIC contributed library is even included (kinda sorta >converted to MPE BASIC) for good measure. This is a streamlined >turnkey edition >that's ready to run out of the box with no assembly required (all >batteries are included). >Currently, I only provide executables for Windows (sorry) but am in >the process of >getting the 3000 simulator changes (for large memory support) and the new MAME >hp2641 driver back upstream. Instructions and further details can be >found in the >README.txt hint book for this adventure. 94MB Google Drive link: > >https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bmXvHkBLbUeLAid73EJ4H1yQ2uwXQuRu > >Gavin > >P.S. I'm giving a talk on the history of APL\3000 and its resurrection >to the ACM APLBUG >group in a couple weeks. If anyone is interested I can provide more >details when I have >them.

5 years, 6 months

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PSA to SparcBook 2 Users

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

There is a 1000uf 10v cap on the main logic board just above the Bt display controller. It is leaking... a lot. (4/4 samples so far) Go replace it, flush the area and scrub the with 99.9% IPA.

5 years, 6 months

4
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[TUHS] Fwd: Choice of Unix for 11/03 and 11/23+ Systems

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Liam Proven > for my continuing education: what's a "Mini-Unix binary"? Two possible meanings; a system image for a Mini-Unix system (buildable under V6 with the standard V6 tool-chain of C-compiler/assembler/linker), and user command binaries (buildable with the C-compiler/assembler, but needing a special Mini-Unix linker - written in C, and compilable/runnable under V6). I've done both in my recent Mini-Unix work. (For those are are not familiar with Mini-Unix and LSX, they are both V6 Unix variants lobotomized to run on PDP-11's without memory management: -11/05's, etc. I'm currently working on getting Mini-Unix to run on an -11/03; not a major change, but not a model supported 'out of the box'. LSX is more heavily cut down, so it will run on even smaller systems - I seem to recollect 20KB or so - but that's not that useful nowadays, with semi-conductor memory being fairly common.) Noel

5 years, 6 months

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Zuse Z4 - Oldest Surviving Computer in the World - Lost in the archives

by osi.superboard＠gmail.com

A few days ago, it was published on BLOC at CACM that a lost user manual for the Z4 and notes on flutter calculations was found in the ETH Z?rich archives. See: https://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/247521-discovery-user-manual-of-the-ol… Zuse Z4, a relay computer of 1945,? however, due to lack of documentation, its functionality was largely unknown. Now a manual for the machine has appeared at ETH Zurich, that was buried in the archives. And this in the digital age ... Thomas

5 years, 6 months

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[TUHS] Fwd: Choice of Unix for 11/03 and 11/23+ Systems

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Liam Proven > Would the x86-32 "reimplementation" of v6 UNIX be able to mount and/or > read-write such filesystems? No, it looks like it uses a different fie-system layout. Besides; there's not much point: the big adantage of using V6 is that one can use the V6 tool-chain to prepare Mini-Unix binaries; XV6 wouldn't allow that. If all one wants to do is get files in or out, there's already a program (compilable with gcc, that uses Standard I/O) to read files out of a V6 filesystem. If there was any good need, it could be extended to write (although that would be non-trivial). Noel

5 years, 6 months

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Datasheet / Info for Motorola SC5330 IC?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

I'm in the middle of working out the pinout for the power supply connector on the MDP-1000. I'm aided somewhat by a set of test points on the backplane, unfortunately the "+" and "-" symbols (in the solder mask labels next to the test points) are nearly indiscernible, so I'm trying to verify that I'm not mixing up + and - 15V. On the core memory boards are eight Motorola SC5330 IC's (datecodes from early 1969), which have pins connected to both the + and - 15V lines -- if I can find a datasheet I could pretty easily confirm which is which. Trouble is I can't find anything on this chip. I've scanned through the databooks on Bitsavers, no luck. Anyone have any ideas? Here's a picture in case that helps at all: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aqb36sqnCIfMpIVXm5draSrWHGMzJg - Josh

5 years, 6 months

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[TUHS] Fwd: Choice of Unix for 11/03 and 11/23+ Systems

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Warner Losh > If we can't use MINIUNIX to rebuild MINIUNIX kernel, should we try to > bodge together rebuilding via apout? Good basic idea (using a different system to build on), but there's a better/easier approach (in the same basic vein): bring up V6, and mount the RK pack with Mini-Unix on it (it's a V6 file system, so is mountable); V6 is rock solid running under simulators. The V6 tools can I'm pretty sure be used directly to build new Mini-Unix kernels; user program can I think use the V6 C compiler, but I'm pretty sure not the standard V6 linker (the Mini-Unix linker loads tham at the non-standard address used by Mini-Unix). Noel

5 years, 6 months

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Thoughts on restricted distribution documents (Dec Professional 350)

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Question for the group: I have a document set here from DEC that is the "XT Hardware Handbook". It's basically the entire pre-release documentation set for the "XT-100" terminal/computer which became the Professional 325/350. Is there a copy of this on the internet, and what are the thoughts on scanning this? Is there already a better copy of this information out there, this seems to cover the whole internal bus, how the cards work, and so forth... Chris

5 years, 6 months

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[TUHS] Fwd: Choice of Unix for 11/03 and 11/23+ Systems

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 01:51 PM 9/30/2020, Noel Chiappa wrote: >I guess all this PDP-11 hardware detail isn't really on-topic for this list; I >should move it to Classic Computers, or something. I've got Riordan's udis[01..10].DSK disk images that I presume are similar to http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/Terak/mini-unix/ IMD images. Which filesystem would I find in these images, and which tool can burst the image into its files? - John

5 years, 6 months

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ISO: Motorola MDP-1000 info/software

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- This is a long shot, but I was curious if anyone might have information on the Motorola MDP-1000 minicomputer. I picked one up recently and I'm working on restoring it. Of particular interest is the power supply, which is external to the processor and which I am missing. I think I have the voltages worked out (+/-5V and +/-15V), but there are a number of other signals on the power supply connector that I'm unsure of at the moment. I've put a few pictures up here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aqb36sqnCIfMpIVYmzKjFnsT3nHh8w?e=b2iqqv I'll note that this isn't technically an MDP-1000 -- it's labeled as an MDP-6650 on the rear. I suspect that this is a ruggedized version of the 1000 intended for harsher environments. The front panel of mine appears to be identical to the drawings of the MDP-1000 in the manuals I have. It also came with a binder of documentation (but alas no schematics) that I'll be scanning soon and getting off to Al. It's an odd little system -- 5 12-bit registers, a 12-bit ALU, and a 12-bit Instruction Register, but the memory is 8 bits wide. Instructions are packed into two bytes normally, but there's a special 64-byte region of memory that can be used to store "shared bytes," which allow encoding certain instructions into a single byte, taking the other byte from the shared region. I've never seen anything quite like this. I wonder why they didn't just use 12-bit wide memory... Also the process for using the front panel to examine and deposit memory is insane. Here's the instructions for reading a memory location; it's 10 steps. Depositing is 17. https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aqb36sqnCIfMpIVWThgwlxgCMQo59A If anyone has anything on this, let me know. Not expecting much, but it's worth a shot. - Josh

5 years, 6 months

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paging Jerome Fine

by jwest＠ezwind.net

Anyone know if Jerome Fine is still around and/or a good email address?

5 years, 6 months

2
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Shipping via USPS Los Angeles is STALLED

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I have a vintage computer sitting in the LA USPS since 9/17, with no further updates. I have read in the local papers there that the entire post office has ground to a halt. What's going on there? I have never heard of anything like this. I assume my package will survive but think of the zoo there if they've been stacking packages for TWO WEEKS. I'd strongly suggest not attempting to ship anything out of LA for the time being. WOW. I know people complain about the post office, I am not complaining, just stating the facts. Normally the USPS is reliable. They must really have overall problems in southern CA due to the fire and related management issues. BIll

5 years, 6 months

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Digitizing video frame for printing

by ljw-cctech＠ljw.me.uk

Sorry I accidentally deleted this message from Dag Spicer, so here it is for cctalk. Reply to him or the list, not me! Lawrence -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Digitizing video frame for printing Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 06:00:21 +0000 From: Dag Spicer via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> Reply-To: Dag Spicer <dspicer at computerhistory.org>, General Discussion: On-Topic Posts <cctech at classiccmp.org> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Hi there, Trying to help a former operator of a digital portrait scanning booth ?back in the day?? He writes: ++++ IN 1976, I worked at "get your portrait by computer" store. The heart of the system was a 16 bit, Data General, Nova II computer. A black and white, analog, standard definition CCTV camera was tethered to a "digitizer" box that was connected to the computer. The photographer hit the ?Capture? button on the "Digitizer" box to instantaneously freeze the image and "digitize" it. The image was then sent to a Centronics, 102AL, 7 pin, dot matrix printer to print. A perceived grey scale of 26 shades was created by numbers and letters. What I am trying to find out is what the "Digitizer" box was and how it worked. Ram? Tape loop? I DO know that it said 'Digital Image Systems' on the outside but have not been able to learn more. ++++ Can anyone help with more information about DIS or generically about these systems? They were popular in shopping malls for a few years in the mid-70s? Thanks for any tips! Dag ?? Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043 dspicer at computerhistory.org<mailto:dspicer at computerhistory.org>

5 years, 6 months

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5.25" analog alignment floppy disk

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

I have two poorly aligned 5.25" floppy drives. They read/write disks formatted by themselves but are marginal on disks formatted by other drives. Rather than using a crude "good enough" alignment I would like to do this properly. Is there still a supplier for 5.25" analog alignment floppy disks? Thanks Tom Hunter

5 years, 6 months

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SCP/Microsoft 20HAL uploader

by rich.cini＠gmail.com

All ? I?ve done a quite a bit of work with my Seattle Gazelle, and I just did some work on 86DOS.SYS (not released in source form, as far as I know) and its comparison to PC DOS 1.0 (at the code level, a very high correlation as you can imagine). Partially related to that is a program called ?20HAL? which was a code uploader Microsoft used in the late stages to get code from Microsoft in Bellevue to IBM in Boca Raton, FL. I did a little write-up on it here (http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/hal.htm) There are some holes in the analysis ? I think it?s pretty close, though -- but I?d really like to get some more details on it. Unfortunately, it?s 40-year-old code at this point, and how many people remember how they used a file transfer utility that long ago? Anyway, enjoy the read. If anyone sees any corrections that need to be made, let me know. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

5 years, 6 months

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Disabling SCSI parity checking to dump disk on ACB4000 MFM-SCSI adapter?

by engel＠multicores.org

Hi, still working on backing up the Tektronix 440x disks. My current problem is that the ACB4000 SCSI-to-MFM adapter doesn?t support SCSI parity. I finally managed to find a PCI SCSI controller (Adaptec 2940) and a Pentium 4 PC with PCI slots and installed OpenBSD 6.7. I disabled parity checking in the Adaptec BIOS config and it detects a disk at ID 0 with no name. So far, so good. However, OpenBSD always seems to enable SCSI parity and complains about disk parity errors. I tried to disable all lines in the aic7xxx and ahc_pci driver source files that seem to enable parity, but nothing seems to make a difference. The drive/ACB4000 is not detected by OpenBSD, I get a "device not configured" error when accessing the disk device files (/dev/sdxc and /dev/rsdxc). Do you know if is there another OS which would make it easier to change crucial SCSI parameters in the driver (config) or maybe a specialized tool that could help me to image the disk? -- Michael

5 years, 6 months

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Alpha Micro goes gopher

by spectre＠floodgap.com

(also posted to VCF) If you'd like a longer story version, I posted this in long form with some pictures: https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2020/09/hacking-gopher-client-into-alpha-micro.… I've hacked up a Gopher client into the Alpha Micro. It requires AMOS 2.3A and either AlphaTCP 1.3C or 1.5A, and is written in both assembly (using a hacked version of the AlphaTCP finger client) and AlphaBASIC. gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/archive/alpha-micro/gopher And why would I do this, other than the fact I like Gopherspace? Because I've also uploaded the Alpha Micro Users' Society Network Library to the Floodgap gopher server, with oodles of free binaries and source code lovingly preserved in their original PPNs. gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/archive/alpha-micro/amus (No Gopher client? Visit https://gopher.floodgap.com/overbite/ to download one, or view it on the proxy: https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/1/arc… ) And, if you want to know more about Alpha Microsystems, the Alpha Micro Phun Machine has been updated as well: http://ampm.floodgap.com/ -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Seen on hand dryer: "Push button for a message from your congressman." -----

5 years, 6 months

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dec tk50z-ga issues

by plamenspam＠afterpeople.com

Hi all, Since I don't have a machine with qbus and I need to backup some vms and ultrix tk50 tapes, I purchased a tk50z-ga from ebay. Upon power up, the red led flashing rapidly(which means drive fault) then goes to solid red. I've never used TK50 drives in the past so if you have any hint how to troubleshoot this it would be appreciated. Or should I start looking for a replacement? Regards, Plamen

5 years, 6 months

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Tektronix PDP-11 Signal Processing System BASIC 1980

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Just recovered these RX01 diskettes today ca. 1980 http://bitsavers.org/bits/Tektronix/SPS_BASIC manuals http://bitsavers.org/test_equipment/tektronix/wdi

5 years, 6 months

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TRS-80 Trash Talk Live #7

by pete＠pski.net

We?re having another TRS-80 Trash Talk online gathering tomorrow. Everyone is welcome to join us! https://www.trs80trashtalk.com/2020/08/trs-80-trash-talk-live-7-is-coming-o… <https://www.trs80trashtalk.com/2020/08/trs-80-trash-talk-live-7-is-coming-o…> Thanks, Pete

5 years, 6 months

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Disabling SCSI parity checking to dump disk on ACB4000, MFM-SCSI adapter?

by syseng＠gfsys.co.uk

On 09/24/20 18:00, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Disabling SCSI parity checking to dump disk on ACB4000 > MFM-SCSI adapter? I have a sun 3 system with acb4000 and suspect the protocol was not fully sorted in that time frame. They can be fussy about what they will talk to, ime. Would lend a hand if you are in the uk, but otherwise, if you have an early Sparc system, I would try that, as it would probably still support the older controllers. Sparcstation 1 or 2 + Sunos probably has the required entries in the format utility, format.dat file. An early pci or isa Adaptec card might be worth trying as well, under Suse 11.4 or similar, as that has a good disk utility... Chris

5 years, 6 months

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DLT III tapes (TK85-K) and sticky-shed

by a.carlini＠ntlworld.com

I've seen plenty of complaints (here and elsewhere) about TK50 cartridges being very difficult to read these days. I'm trying to read TK85-K (DLT III) cartridges and I'm experiencing problems. I've had tapes ripped (although I've found that data elsewhere). So now I'm being particularly careful. If the drive asks for a cleaning tape, I run through a cleaning cycle until it is happy and then I try to load the tape again. However, by the time I've mounted the tape, the drive "Cleaning Required" light is on again. This happens repeatedly, I run a cleaning pass or two and then I get a green light. I might even get as far as loading the tape without and issue, but by the time the tape is mounted, the "Cleaning Required" light is on. So is this likely to be sticky shed? Is the DLT III formulation known to have the same issues? Does baking help? (Not that I'm set up to do that, but I'm in no rush ...) I suppose that it is possible that my cleaning tape is worn out and now past its sell by date. Has anyone cleaned a TZ87 or TZ88 head successfully? It doesn't seem to be terribly accessible, and I'm not sure what I can dismantle without wrecking the alignment. Anyone got any useful suggestions? Antonio -- Antonio Carlini antonio at acarlini.com

5 years, 6 months

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Exploring early GUIs

by mjkerpan＠kerpan.com

Something in another recent thread about LISP machines got me wondering: how many early graphical systems are well emulated (or emulated at all)? I know that there are more or less functional emulations of Alto, Star, and Lisa out there, but what about the various LISP machines or the early workstations (Sun 68K, Apollo, etc) Also, assuming that there are emulators for some of these systems out there, has any software to run on them and been archived? Mike

5 years, 6 months

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Osborne 1 keyboard repair?

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

I am trying to figure out if it is possible to repair a Osborne 1 keyboard. The keyboard is made by "Oak Switch Systems" and the type is FTM or "Full Travel Membrane". The problem I am seeing is that 3 keys ("h", "j" and "y") are permanently pressed. I did some experiments with the "h" key. I measured about 20 ohm across the matrix pins for the "h" key. I pulled off the "h" key keycap and the white plastic plunger with the both large and small spring - no change in resistance. I cleaned the now exposed membrane using Isopropyl alcohol - no change in resistance. I applied moderate heat using an electric hair dryer to both sides of the area around the "h" key - no change in resistance. I then used a lab power supply set to current limit hoping to zap whatever is causing the partial short (20 ohm). I slowly increased the voltage and current limit in short bursts until I hit 100 mA before I gave up the experiment not wanting to destroy the two flex PCBs feeding into the membrane. They did get warm but not hot. I have run out of ideas of what else to try. I still measure 20 ohm across the two keyboard matrix pins associated with the "h" key. Has anyone got experience repairing or restoring this type of membrane keyboard mechanism used in the Osborne 1 and probably in other keyboards too? Here are some good and detailed photos of keyboard mechanism: https://www.flickr.com/photos/123564336 at N03/sets/72157644113347562/ Thanks Tom Hunter

5 years, 6 months

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Exploring early GUIs

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Lars Brinkhoff > it was AI rather than MC. As I'm sure you know, AI had the Rubin 10-11 > interface Really? (I expect you're correct, mind.) I just remember one day MC wasn't running as normal, and I was told it was because CHEOPS was in some tournament, and MC had been taken offline so that it could focus on the game. So I assumed CHEOPS was connected to MC (and had indeed wondered why/how, when I wrote that message, with the Rubin interface being on AI). > communicating over Chaosnet. At least, that's how I interpret the code > in MacHack. Again, probably right. It was pretty early, but I guess the CHAOSNET was already running then. My guess is that AI didn't do much but act as a communication node between CHEOPS and MC, for that. > There is some debate over whether the CONS had a display of its own, and > if so whether it could draw to a bitmap. Do you remember? Not explicily, but I would tend to guess 'no'; I would tend to guess that they were still in the mindset where it was a specialized co-processor, like CHEOPS. I certainly don't recall a 'CONS display' in the room where the first CADR display was; but that doesn't mean much. (Actually, I'm not positive there was a CADR display in there the night I recall Moon trying to get it running; for sure a Knight TV console, and he may have been using it to run something on it to poke at the CADR.) > they have a hard time pinpointing a birthdate for the CADR. Do you have > a recollection when, even what year, the first boot attempt was? Sorry, no; it only stuck in my memory because I was later taken at having beeen there for the early CADR work; I think that night I only barely knew what a CADR was. (I was kind of amused that Moon's audience that night was someone from LCS... :-) I mean, it was pretty early, but I have no idea of even what year it was. Noel

5 years, 6 months

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Interface Technology RS-432 manual

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I don't remember if this was discussed here recently here or on the VCF site, I found one message here about it. Found the manual going through some test equipment manual boxes http://bitsavers.org/test_equipment/interfaceTechnology/Interface_Technolog…

5 years, 6 months

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Looking for Logicraft Omni-Ware

by camiel＠vaxbarn.com

I?m looking for a piece of software called Omni-Ware for VMS or UNIX , by a Nashua company called Logicraft. I?ve just received the pieces to build a Logicraft PC (286 motherboard with custom BIOS and a special network card that emulates the keyboard, mouse, CGA video card and hard disk). I also received the documentation for the VAX/VMS version of the software, but I?m now looking for the accompanying software for VMS or UNIX. The idea is to install this software on a workstation, and connect it to the Omni-Ware PC. The PC then boots off a disk image stored on the workstation, with input and output in an X-Windows window. Logicraft apparently supplied disk images with DOS, Xenix, OS/2 or MS Windows installed. I?m really hoping someone has a copy of this software still lying around somewhere. Cheers, Camiel

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Exploring early GUIs

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Lars Brinkhoff > There are emulators for the CADR Lisp machine ... There's no emulators > for the CONS, but I claim it would be interesting to attempt one. I'm not sure CONS ever ran as a stand-alone system; I suspect (but don't recall for sure; RG, TK or Moon or someone could confirm one way or the other) that it ran as a loosely-coupled co-processor to MC, the way the Chess Machine did. The CONS and the Chess Machine were both in the same room; 906-907 or so: https://gunkies.org/wiki/File:9th_floor_techsquare.png When the first CADR was built, its console was in the room next door (in the higher-numbered room direction); I remember watching over Moon's shouulder the night they first tried to boot it. Noel

5 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Tektronix 440x photos

by engel＠multicores.org

I managed to take some pictures of our Tektronix Smalltalk machines today: https://multicores.org/pictures/Tektronix_440x/ Both 4404s are identical, including the firmware versions in the EPROMs. The 4406 is a bit harder to disassemble, this will take some more time. All of the photos inside this directory are released into the public domain (and I should get a tripod and better lighting...). Trying to get our ancient EPROM programmer to work now... -- Michael

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Vintage BBS setup for demo

by rich.cini＠gmail.com

Is there anyone on-list with experience setting-up a Searchlight (or similar) BBS? I have mine up and running with multiple dial-up nodes (for a hopeful future VCF demonstration) but I?m having problems with setting up the file areas properly. If someone could drop me a note off-list, I?d appreciate it. Thanks! Rich http://www.classiccmp.org/cini Long Island S100 User?s Group Get Outlook<https://aka.ms/qtex0l> for iOS

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Exploring early GUIs

by couryhouse＠aol.com

I re mn ember? GEm5 as a guide ran under dos .? . Ed# On Friday, September 18, 2020 Paul Koning via cctalk <paulkoning at comcast.net; cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > On Sep 17, 2020, at 10:18 PM, Michael Kerpan via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Something in another recent thread about LISP machines got me wondering: > how many early graphical systems are well emulated (or emulated at all)? I > know that there are more or less functional emulations of Alto, Star, and > Lisa out there, but what about the various LISP machines or the early > workstations (Sun 68K, Apollo, etc) Also, assuming that there are emulators > for some of these systems out there, has any software to run on them and > been archived? > > Mike One system that could be considered a GUI, or at least the beginnings of one, is the PLATO system.? Emulations of that are alive and well, in particular the system described at cyber1.org. ??? paul

5 years, 6 months

4
3
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What I've been doing lately

by dave.dunfield＠gmail.com

>Very interesting. By the way I've been reading your comments about your >incident in 2019. I am impressed. All the best for you and your near people. >Kind Regards >Sergio Thanks! It's been an "interesting" year! Btw, for anyone who was interested enough to download my DVM demo... I've made a lot of updates, additions, improvements, and fixed a few bugs. Might be worth grabbing it again. Dave ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personal site: http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com Check out "DVM" - run custom apps. anywhere!

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

9 track tapes and block sizes

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

dear all, thanks for the useful informations! So now a question comes to mind... what is the best utility for Linux to be used to read and archive tapes? Thanks Andrea

5 years, 6 months

4
6
0 0

Computer History

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I've recently reread *Fire In The Valley, Ed. 1,2 &3.* They are the seminal, authoritative & comprehensive sources for the history of the microcomputer. We in the classic computer community need to know the history of our hobby to keep it vital and relevant to today's society. More than ever we need to know how microcomputers came about that may be helpful in understanding the role microcomputers play in our lives now. Happy computing all. Murray ? <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> Virus-free. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

5 years, 6 months

7
7
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Notes on HP3000 WCS Microcode, Series 37 on ebay in Germany

by rdbrown0au＠gmail.com

HP 3000 Series 37 on ebay in Germany (7954A, 9144AR, 30457A, 700/92 (German keyboard)) https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HP-3000-Series-37-Computer-System-RETRO-SELTEN-… Thanks to David Collins at the HP Computer Museum, I now have 11 different versions of the HP 3000 Series 64 [,68,70] microcode SYSWCS64.PUB.SYS and 3 different versions respectively of each of SYSWCS37 and WCSLE1 and WCSLE2. I've put notes up at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:RDBrown/HP3000-WCS-Microcode It's possible that one of the SYSWCS64 files may match the assembly listing on bitsavers, but that listing could allow guessing the architecture, assuming horizontal microcode and matching against the HP 3000 stack machine instruction set it implements. Only the Series 37 rates a mention in the HP Journal, though the common data between the SYSWCS37, WCSLE1 and WCSLE2 suggests they may share a common microcode. Guessing the architecture would be more of a puzzle, unless more documentation is found. J. David Bryan's SIMH work gives a running MPE V for anyone to try. I don't know what other minis of the era also have microcode available as files - I read that the Vax 780 had 1k of microcode patch/extension area for fixes or customer use.

5 years, 6 months

7
8
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Tektronix 4953 Graphics Tablet

by cctalk＠v6y.net

Hello everyone! I present to you a rare bird; the Tek 4953 graphics tablet, with (I think!?) everything. https://www.ebay.com/itm/203108439922 I am look forward to posting a series of _nice_ Tek terminals and complete DG rack systems. Please contact me directly if you have any questions. -Justin Keogh (520) 265-0034

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Care and feeding of some Lisp machines (TI Explorer and Xerox Star)

by lars＠nocrew.org

Josh Dersch wrote: > Not a ton to see, lisp-wise, it's just a port of Franz Lisp to > Uniflex. I can try to benchmark fibonacci later this week if you want. Thanks! I wasn't expecting a benchmark, just a little defun. For the record, I have a Maclisp over here that will do (fib 40) in less than 9 seconds.

5 years, 6 months

1
0
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APL\3000 microcode. Was: Re: Notes on HP3000 WCS Microcode, Series 37 on ebay in Germany

by sieler＠allegro.com

Warner asks: "Why was microcode support required to make APL work? What did it enable that couldn't be done in other ways?" [On an HP 3000 Series III, for example] Back in the mid-1970s, on the HP 3000 Series III, the team implementing APL\3000 apparently decided they would need to implement some form of virtual memory (beyond the multiple 64KB spaces the HP 3000 Classic architecture provided). They chose to add 11 new instructions: LDV, STV, MWFV, MWTV, MBFV, MBTV, LDVB, STVB, MVW, and EGOTO (unnamed by HP), LDWX (unnamed by HP) The first 9 are "virtual memory" related instructions. The last two are not. These instructions were added shortly after the original Series III instruction set had previously been expanded by the addition of the new extended COBOL instructions. (So, the Series III had two sets of firmware expansions.) Subsequent HP 3000 models had the COBOL instructions from day 1. I presume that the APL instructions weren't ready when the Series 30/33 design was locked down. I *think* they might have been available later as an add-on. I know that a few years later, the instructions were ported to the Series 40/44 microcode by Leon Leong, but they were never released for it (APL\3000 was in limbo, about to be cancelled at the time.) But, to answer your question, yes...there are other ways. Gavin Scott managed to patch the unimplemented instruction handler in MPE V/R (the release the SIMH HP3000 simulator is running), and got APL\3000 running. In the meantime, I'm slowing trying to add the instructions to the SIMH code. The nice thing about Gavin's approach is that if I get an instruction implemented, his code *for that instruction* simply never gets called ... so we can coexist peacefully. In theory, implementing the APL instructions in SIMH will lead to better performance (because calling one won't cause a missing instruction interrupt, followed by hundreds or thousands of simulated HP 3000 instructions to emulate the instruction). I believe Gavin is preparing a talk about APL\3000 for an APL Users Group. Another alternative would have been for the APL\3000 people to implement references to their virtual memory via "cover functions". However, I suspect that the grasp of SPL programming, the lack of "macros" with parameters in SPL, and concerns about the performance penalty of a procedure call per memory access all would have conspired to argue against this approach. (Having been reading thousands of lines of SPL written in the 1970s, I conclude that perhaps a handful of people at HP understood how to write readable, maintainable SPL code ... and that's probably the same percentage as SPL programmers outside HP :) Stan

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

B.E.I uSounder S-100 board...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I just picked up one of these on a lark. It has an SN76477 sound effects chip on it. Not much other info besides the copyright, 1978. Anyone have schematics or a user manual? Thanks, Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Fwd: [GreenKeys] Teletype Model 28 Free, La Crosse, WI area

by jfoust＠threedee.com

> >Subject: [GreenKeys] Model 28 Free >From: GARY WEBB via GreenKeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net> > >Model 28 with modem installed. Tape reader/reperf. Variable speed. Manuals. Last used 20+ years ago. If no one wants it, soon will be in the local land fill. Located in Onalaska, WI Phone 608-769-5633 NI9V

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

ISO Advantech Labtool-148C prgrammer wall wart specs

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I just bought one of these thinking it ran off 110, but it uses a 3 pin wall wart. Does anyone have one of these and could tell me the voltages it supplies.

5 years, 6 months

3
8
0 0

Care and feeding of some Lisp machines (TI Explorer and Xerox Star)

by engel＠multicores.org

Hi, for a planned exhibition, I am thinking of restoring two of the machines to working state again that are in storage here for decades: - A TI Explorer ("Sperry" labeled) and - A Xerox Star (no idea if ours actually ran Interlisp or one of the other OSes for the Star/Dandelion) There is "sen?s dandelion restoration blog" at http://dandelion.sen.cx/ (which seems to be very helpful to test the power supply) and, of course, lots of documents and software on bitsavers. I have quite a bit of experience with TI1500 machines, so the Explorer feels rather familiar, but I have never worked with Xerox machines before. Before I start to disassemble and test the machines, I would be interested to hear about specific problems you might have experienced bringing up one of these two machines, preferably those on the unexpected side. Some things I could not find so far are the mouse and the console cable for the Explorer. It seems that the mouse is related to MouseSystems optical mice used on older Sun/SGI systems (but the interface might be different?). The fiber optics cable for the display (TI part number 2233200 according to the field service manual) might be another problem - if you know any details about this, I would be very interested... Another thing that is also missing is the mouse pad for the three button optical Xerox mouse. Is it possible that an optical mouse pad for Sun/SGI machines is compatible? Best wishes, ??? Michael

5 years, 6 months

8
19
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SPARCstation ELC Installation and repair guide

by rp＠servium.ch

Does anyone have the Sun SPARCstation ELC Installation and repair guide? I have a few naked ELC boards and I'd like to know what that edge connector does (presumably power and video) and if feasible build something from it (1U rackmount Sun4c server? Slim client built into the back of an LCD? SPARC Laptop? Endless possibilities....)

5 years, 6 months

2
2
0 0

Sun SPARCstation LX boot from CDROM?

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

About 20 years ago I rescued a fully working Sun SPARCstation LX with CDROM and QIC-150 tape drive - all 3 in lunchbox format - plus monitor when we moved office and management decided they no longer wanted/needed it. Shortly after I have installed an early version of NetBSD (1.3.3) from the CDROM drive. I played with it for a few days and then stored the entire system in a museum grade glass display cabinet. This is indoors with minimal dust and benign temperatures between 18 degrees C to about 28 degrees C (typical room temperatures here in Perth in Western Australia unless you run the air conditioner). Now retired I took the stack of "lunch-boxes" and the CRT monitor out of the display cabinet and powered it up. After 20 years no smoke came out but the system didn't boot but reported trouble with the NVRAM setting. I still could start NetBSD using a "boot disk" command. I googled the problem and bought and installed a replacement TIMEKEEPER chip (M48T08-100). After defaulting the settings and setting the MAC address and machine ID it was happy and booted from disk without intervention. In NetBSD I then set the date and time and all was good. Then I decided to upgrade to the latest version of the SPARC version of NetBSD 9.0. I downloaded and burned the ISO image to CD. Dropped it into a CD caddy and inserted it into the CDROM drive (SUN Model 411 - really a Sony CDU-8012 3.1e). I did a "probe-scsi-all" and it found both the hard drive and the CDROM (target 6 unit 0). Now comes the problem - if it try to run from it via "boot cdrom" it doesn't even access the CDROM drive - the LED doesn't turn on unlike when you do the "probe-scsi-all". The "cdrom" alias is really: "/iommu/sbus/espdma at 4,8400000/esp at 4 ,8800000/sd at 6,0:d". The "disk" alias is really: "/iommu/sbus/espdma at 4,8400000/esp at 4,8800000/sd at 3,0" The "@3" versus the "@6" are the SCSI IDs of the disk drive versus the CDROM. I don't know what the trailing bits mean. I tried cdrom aliases from "sd at 6,0:0" to "sd at 6,0:f" and all report: Can't read disk label Can't open disk label package Can't open boot device The LED doesn't blink even once unless I remove and re-insert the caddy with the CDROM media or if I do a "probe-scsi" or "probe-scsi-all". I tried original Sun Solaris 2.4 installation media with the exact same result/symptoms. I also tried to access the CDROM from NetBSD using "cat /dev/cd0a" but the drive's LED didn't blink and I got an obscure error message. The Boot ROM revision is reported as 2.9. The system was bought about 1985 or 1986 and has seen very little use. I searched google without success. Maybe I used the wrong search terms or the equipment is just getting too old and FAQs have disappeared. What would cause the CDROM boot problem? There is a chance that the actual Sony drive died. I partially disassembled it hoping to find dust stuck on the LASER optics but it was nice and clean. The positioning and ejection mechanisms work just fine. The whole system was working before I put it into my relatively dust proof glass display cabinet. Thanks and best regards Tom Hunter

5 years, 6 months

11
15
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Sgi gear

by antoniob＠bell.net

Do you have any challenge L deskisde or onyx available?

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Old tape files needing review

by cclist＠sydex.com

Folks, I've got a fair amount of what would be classified as public domain tape data from old customer jobs wandering around. I don't have the time to peruse it in detail and was wondering if someone would like to take a stab at a sample and perhaps volunteer for the rest. Much of this is from university archivists whose job it was to archive all of the unlabeled or private tapes that they found. I doubt that said folks know what to make of the data. At any rate, here's a sample from a Unix (probably V7) tar-ed up: https://app.box.com/s/htvxd534gvbccoajugfp01ndmfeevxt4 The original appears to be cpio-ed. I'll leave it up for a week. --Chuck

5 years, 6 months

4
5
0 0

RSTS/E patches

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

I previously created a Github repository for various DEC things, including updated DECnet/E utilities. I thought that the RSTS patches I had posted in the past were there also, but that wasn't the case. I've added a "patches" subdirectory, which contains the patches I have collected. I just added a new one, which fixes a bug encountered when running SIMH set to be an 11/94. In that case (and possibly some other similar variations) RSTS tries to figure out the line frequency and gets it wrong because SIMH executes much faster. https://github.com/pkoning2/decstuff is the repository. paul

5 years, 6 months

3
3
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Looking for a TI technical report on Explorer virtual memory

by engel＠multicores.org

Hi, first, a big "thank you" to all of you who support me with my attempt to get our Explorers and Xerox Stars to run again. I?ll head down to the basement in the afternoon to see if I can build a system that is able to image the Explorer not-quite-SCSI disks (according to the documentation, these have in fact 256 byte sectors). Btw., this Raspberry Pi SCSI device emulator supposedly also supports emulating SASI drives: https://hackaday.com/2017/05/01/the-raspberry-pi-becomes-a-scsi-device/ The original Japanese web page linked in the article is no longer online, but there are several versions of the code (and a translated webpage in English) mirrored on github. This might be useful to build a working SCSI device emulation for the Explorer. So I have another favor related to TI Explorers to ask... One of the reasons (apart from the planned exhibition) I am interested in Lisp and Smalltalk machines is that I?m collecting information on systems using persistent memory, which could also help my students who work on persistent memory research topics to obtain a better insight into the topic and its history. There was a research prototype of a persistent virtual memory system for the TI Explorer by Satish M. Tatte (TI Artificial Intelligence Labs) metioned in these papers: Satish M. Thatte. 1986. Persistent memory: a storage architecture for object-oriented database systems. In Proceedings on the 1986 international workshop on Object-oriented database systems (OODS '86). IEEE Computer Society Press, Washington, DC, USA, 148?159. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/318826.318848) and Thatte S.M. (1991) Persistent Memory: A Storage System for Object-Oriented Databases. In: Dittrich K.R., Dayal U., Buchmann A.P. (eds) On Object-Oriented Database Systems. Topics in Information Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84374-7_16 The second paper cites a more detailed TI Tech Report which I have been unable to find: Thatte, S.M.: "Persistent Memory for Symbolic Computers", Technical Report TR-08-85-21, Central Research Laboratories, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX, July 1985. Does one of you maybe have a copy of this? Best wishes, ??? Michael

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

VAX 4000/300 start up / KA670 issues

by Aaron.Jackson＠nottingham.ac.uk

Hi I've had a VAX 4000/300 sitting around for the past couple of years. The second time I tried to switch it on there was a bit pop from the power supply. The 12v module of the H7874 PSU is completely dead and despite my best efforts I have not been able to fix it. Tonight I decided to remove that module and just use the PSU to provide the 5v, with -12 and 12v supplied from external supplies. Surprisingly this worked, as long as the 12v rails are up before you turn on the H7874 (so if you have a dead H7874 you might want to try this...). After some messing around with MMJ cables and various serial adapters, I finally got some stuff printing to a terminal (I have abbreviated this slightly because I don't want to type it out. ]] KA670-A V3.4, VMB 2.12 ]] Performing normal system tests. ]] 66..65.. ... 51.. ]] 50..49.. ... 35.. ]] 34..33.. ... 19.. ]] 18..17.. ... 11.. ]] ]] ?5F 2 0F 44 0000 0000 07 ; SUBTEST_5F_0D, DE_SGEC.LIS ]] P1=00000000 P2=00000000 P3=00000000 P4=00000000 P5=00000000 ]] P6=00000000 P7=00000000 P8=00000000 P9=0000080A P10=00000003 ]] r0=00000054 r1=20084001 r2=00000000 r3=00000000 r4=00000000 ]] r5=1FFFFFFC r6=C0000001 r7=00000000 r8=00004000 EPC=00000000 ]] 10.. ]] ]] ?5C 2 06 FF 0000 0001 00 ; SUBTEST_5C_06, DE_SHAC.LIS ]] P1=00000001 P2=00000000 P3=00000000 P4=00000000 P5=00000000 ]] P6=00000000 P7=00000000 P8=00000000 P9=0000080A P10=00000003 ]] r0=00000054 r1=0000002E r2=0000005C r3=20140784 r4=2005FFF8 ]] r5=20060028 r6=20065224 r7=20004000 r8=00000000 EPC=00000000 ]] 09..08..07..05..04..03.. ]] Normal operation not possible. ]] ]] >>> It allows me to type at this point but does not appear to do anything with the input. I've looked through the KA670 manual and found a listing of the error codes. 5F = SGEC (Second Generation Ethernet Controller) "loopback_type no_ram_tests" 5C = SHAC (Single Host Adapter Chip) "shac_number" I'm not sure if it is relevant but I removed the TOY battery when I got it to prevent it eating everything. I've not taken apart the console door thing but perhaps it was too late. The SGEC might refer to the ethernet controller installed on that door? If anyone is better at understanding these error messages I'd greatly appreciate any info you could give. Cheers, Aaron P.S. Apologies for the absurd footer appended by my university. You can probably ignore it... The list does not accept mail from my personal mail server for some reason. This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where permitted by law.

5 years, 6 months

4
8
0 0

Kennett Classic Anniversary Event and Outdoor Swap 9/26/2020

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

If you're in the Philadelphia / Baltimore area September 26th, please consider visiting us for our 1 year anniversary / outdoor swap day. We are debuting two new exhibit rooms that day. Because we can admit a limited number of persons inside at a time, we will also run an outdoor swap meet spanning from the outside front door, down the side of the building and into the back parking lot so people can congregate outside. There are a number of outdoor restaurants nearby and we're going to attempt a covid-friendly group dinner afterwards. Swap spaces remain, let me know privately to reserve your place. Kennett Classic is located in Kennett Square, PA. We're fostering a growing local interest in vintage computing. There might be "new stuff" for sale just because there are new-to-the-hobby persons in attendance and we have been publicizing the event locally. For more directions/details see https://www.kennettclassic.com/kennett-classic-in-two-weeks-sept-26-2020/ Thanks Bill 484 732 7041 (shop number) kennettclasic.com

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Flyback transformer for Televideo TVI-9xx terminal

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

I am looking for replacement flyback transformers for Televideo TVI-912B terminals. The flyback transformer is labelled "KFS-00093" on the actual part and also in the schematic. This same flyback was used in a range of Televideo terminals (TVI-912B, TVI-920, etc). Does anyone know of a source for these? Google found the link below, but the photo looks very different from the actual flyback in the terminal: https://www.tedss.com/2023000453 I confirmed with the supplier that the photo on their website is from the actual part they sell. Unfortunately they don't have a datasheet for the flyback or even a specification sheet. The part is cheap, but they have a US$25 minimum order and then the shipping to Australia is just silly expensive at US$59.10. I could spend US$84.10 just to find out it is the wrong part. Any ideas? Thanks and regards Tom Hunter

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Seeking "MEGATEK" Sun 3/4 era (?) VME Graphics accelerator information and driver

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

I picked up a pair (1 set) of these very neat old graphics boards. Alas I have no idea what they are or if there is hope of using them. One is a dual slot 9U VME board that has gobs of video ram all over it, including a board labeled Z buffer. The only output are (3) BNC connectors (R,G, and B) and a 50 pin connector marked P4. The other is a single slot 9UVME board with (8) 30 pin SIMM slots with 1mb SIMM in them, a couple of Weitek chips, another 50 pin connector labeled P4, jumpered with a baby backplane to the other board, and 6 led on the front. Anyone know what these are and where to get drivers? They appear to be Sun 3 era, and the boards are labeled ?Sun OHC? with a megatek sticker. They do not appear to work out-of-box in my 3/260 as console devices- the Kernel does not identify them correctly. Thanks.

5 years, 6 months

4
5
0 0

What's the secret to LK201 leaf springs?

by athornton＠gmail.com

I got an LK201 recently that was a little damaged in transit. A couple of the keycap assemblies and their corresponding leaf springs have come off. I can see how the leaf springs fit on the little posts on the keycap assemblies, and I can see where those snap into the board, but what I don?t see is how to get that put together and then keep it together while I turn it over and then get it in place. Clearly there is some simple trick I am missing. What is it? Adam

5 years, 6 months

4
3
0 0

What's the secret to LK201 leaf springs?

by marvin＠west.net

One thing I've tried and seems to work quite well (on another application) is UV curable plastic. The last thing I fixed was when the post holding one side of the exit paper tray broke off, and I used the UV curable plastic to fix it (still working just fine.) The trade name is Bondic, and I ran across it on a YouTube ad (first time EVER I bought something from an unknown YouTube ad!) This apparently is the same type of UV curable "glue" used by Dentists. It cures in about 4 seconds! > My guess is that the formed over part has broken off (you might find > some little white disks of plastic, about 1/8" diameter, rattling > about inside the case). Alas I have never found a way to re-fix them. > There's not enough plastic in the housing to drill it out and fit > screws/nuts. There is no way of gluing something to the ends of the > posts that would be strong enough, > > -tony

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Fwd: [GreenKeys] Teletype 33 near Phoenix AZ

by jfoust＠threedee.com

> >From: Joe Clanin <macbax1 at gmail.com> >Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2020 04:56:27 -0500 >To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net >Subject: [GreenKeys] 28KSR, 26, 33 For Sale Near Phoenix, AZ > >I have no affiliation with the seller, just passing it along. > >28:? <https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ele/d/mesa-teletype-model-28/7194476271.…>https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ele/d/mesa-teletype-model-28/7194476271.… > >26:? https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ele/d/mesa-teletype-model-26/7194473134.… > >33:? <https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/sys/d/mesa-teletype-model-33-ksr/7184200…>https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/sys/d/mesa-teletype-model-33-ksr/7184200… > >-Joe >__________

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

What I've been doing lately

by dave.dunfield＠gmail.com

Hi everyone, Might not be exactly classic computer related, but I know many of you have been following my progress through my recovery (thanks for the many kind words), and I do think many of you might find this a tad interesting. What I've been doing for the past little while - check out my latest project "Dunfield Virtual Machine" on my personal web site: http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com Regards, Dave -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personal site: http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

article on TRS-80 in Nuts and Volts

by w2hx＠w2hx.com

Don't know if anyone gets/reads this old rag but I thought I'd share an article I came across: https://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/the-trs-80-model-1 73 Eugene W2HX

5 years, 6 months

2
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Old DEC mice for sale

by sales＠elecplus.com

My friend Lidan at Continental Computers found some old DEC mice in his warehouse for me. These are in California. 3x VS10X-EA - $120 each (used complete) 1x VS10X-EA - $75 (missing 3 button caps) 1x VSXXX-AA - $125 (NEW in box) 3x VSXXX-AA - $75 (used complete) Lidan Sadon Sales Manager Continental Computers D - 310/906-3553 C - 818/554-8856 lidan at conticomp.com Please contact him directly if you want to order these. I had no idea old DEC mice were so expensive! Cindy -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

5 years, 6 months

1
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Virtual VCFMW Schedule Posted

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

aww damn ill be 30miles in the bush at work for 3 days On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 4:12 PM Lawrence Wilkinson via cctech < cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > -------- Forwarded Message -------- > Subject: Virtual VCFMW Schedule Posted > Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2020 16:08:39 -0500 > From: Jason T via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Reply-To: Jason T <silent700 at gmail.com> > > > > Hi folks - we're doing this thing! The schedule is up, with links to > the individual videos being filled in by tomorrow evening: > > https://mailchi.mp/222b57fb03dc/virtual-vcfmw-schedule-posted > > The videos will be presented in sequence using YouTube's "Premiere" > function, which means there will be a live chat on the YT page where > (ideally) the video creator will chat along and conduct a Q&A during > and after. There is also an all-day open chat on a linked IRC/Discord > channel. Details are on our page here: > > http://vcfmw.org/virtual.html > > Hope you can join us online for a day of chatting and classiccmp video fun! > > -jt >

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Virtual VCFMW Schedule Posted

by silent700＠gmail.com

Hi folks - we're doing this thing! The schedule is up, with links to the individual videos being filled in by tomorrow evening: https://mailchi.mp/222b57fb03dc/virtual-vcfmw-schedule-posted The videos will be presented in sequence using YouTube's "Premiere" function, which means there will be a live chat on the YT page where (ideally) the video creator will chat along and conduct a Q&A during and after. There is also an all-day open chat on a linked IRC/Discord channel. Details are on our page here: http://vcfmw.org/virtual.html Hope you can join us online for a day of chatting and classiccmp video fun! -jt

5 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- I was fortunate enough to be able to complete my VAXstation 100 setup this week, after a years-long search for parts. (In particular the M7452 fiber optic interface and the fiber optic cabling itself.) After futzing with the 4.3bsd kernel and compiling X10R4 on my VAX-11/750, I actually have it running! (See the below for a picture) https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aqb36sqnCIfMo_cUO4EiMWOHZVk8yg I'm kind of amazed that it all just worked after all this time. As you can see, I'm using an LCD for the display, and that just won't do. The official monitor for the VS100 was the VR100; a 19" monochrome CRT with BNC inputs on the rear for H and V sync and the video signal (ttl level signaling). Anyone have one of these? I'm also looking for earlier releases of X to run on this -- the VS100 was the development platform for X (and W ran on it at one point as well). I haven't been able to track down anything prior to X10R3. Does anyone know of an archive of these earlier releases? While I'm at it -- anyone know precisely what I need to use this under VMS? I believe 4.7 was the last VMS release that supported it, but there were additional packages that needed to be installed to support it, and I'm not entirely sure what they are. Thanks as always, Josh

5 years, 6 months

6
6
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Matsushita 310JLB4 CRT datasheet

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

Has anybody got a datasheet for the 12" black&white CRT made by Matsushita (Panasonic) with part number 310JLB4 (N)? Thanks Tom Hunter

5 years, 6 months

1
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AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

On 9/7/20 2:26 AM, Veit, Holger wrote: > Could this be a PGC card clone? > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Graphics_Controller That had crossed my mind at one point, but there's no horsepower to this card at all - it's just TTL, RAM, BIOS and the 6845. The color output *appears* to be TTL level - or, at least, that's what it's using at power-on. It's not impossible, I suppose, for it to be switchable to some kind of analog mode, thereby giving more color depth. I'm wondering if it doesn't have some form of high-resolution bitmap mode for visualization, i.e. display construction would be processor-intensive and intended for static images/diagrams. I don't know if that really makes sense though because it would also imply having to switch the monitor - i.e. starting the machine with a CGA type display plugged in, then physically moving to something else later. On the back of that, I just found this thread too which refers to an identical board: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?48718-3-Weird-Video-Cards-any-ide… ... nothing there really "helps", but someone's comment about the medical field and a higher-resolution display via the RCA jack is interesting - that would at least get around the need to switch monitors (well, unless there was some special autodetecting analog/digital monitor that was sold to go with the hardware, I suppose). It's a shame that the hard disk in the machine is either snafu or has been wiped - the contents would have helped shed light on things. There's an EPROM as part of the video hardware; anyone know of a DOS-based util to poke at the contents and/or snarf them into a file on disk? It's possible I suppose that there might be some useful strings hidden away in there. cheers Jules

5 years, 6 months

5
17
0 0

NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5

by cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net

Does anyone have any idea where I can get install media at various support pack levels and / or support pack install files for NetWare 5.1 and / or BorderManager 3.5? I'm playing with some old things in VMs and can't get BorderManager 3.5 (sp0?) to work on 5.1sp7 / 5.1sp8. I need older 5.1spX or newer BorderManager. BorderManager patches would be bm35sp2.exe or bm35sp3.exe. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

5 years, 6 months

4
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cctech Digest, Vol 72, Issue 9

by peter＠vanpeborgh.eu

Thanks -----Original Message----- From: cctech <cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of cctech-request at classiccmp.org Sent: 09 September 2020 18:00 To: cctech at classiccmp.org Subject: cctech Digest, Vol 72, Issue 9 Send cctech mailing list submissions to cctech at classiccmp.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to cctech-request at classiccmp.org You can reach the person managing the list at cctech-owner at classiccmp.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of cctech digest..." Today's Topics: 1. ftgh 95 ohm coax (Don Stalkowski) 2. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Jules Richardson) 3. Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases (Matt Burke) 4. Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 (Liam Proven) 5. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Liam Proven) 6. RE: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases (Electronics Plus) 7. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Fred Cisin) 8. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Doug Jackson) 9. Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? (Fred Cisin) 10. Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 (Grant Taylor) 11. Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases (jim stephens) 12. Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 (Grant Taylor) 13. Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 (Liam Proven) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 12:33:07 -0400 (EDT) From: dstalk at execulink.com (Don Stalkowski) To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: ftgh 95 ohm coax Message-ID: <20200908163307.241BDBEEAD4 at cel2.x> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii ftgh: a few lengths of 95 ohm coax pickup-only here in London, ON ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 16:12:09 -0500 From: Jules Richardson <jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> To: Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <30e83f7c-26ee-0ad0-907d-cd6a3efa4e56 at gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15; format=flowed On 9/7/20 6:18 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > Floppy boot seems like the next step. OK, it boots off a DOS 3.3 floppy if that floppy is inserted before it attempts to boot from the hard disk. If I wait for it to do its "system file not found" bit, followed by a subsequent prompt to insert boot media and press a key, it attempts to access the floppy drive but then goes off into la-la land. Odd. But anyway, taking the successful floppy boot route, I can certainly access the hard disk in terms of bringing up directory listings and TYPEing files to the display. So far, attempts to run anything from the drive just result in a lock-up (keyboard immediately unresponsive, hard reset required). There appear to be DOS utils on the drive, and command.com, but I've not checked for hidden system files yet. fdisk shows the partition as active. > Got an IBM "Advanced Diagnostics" floppy to try? No, but I see that the minuszerodegrees site has an image, so I'll write that out and see what happens. Looking at the drive contents, incidentally, I didn't see anything that explains (or interacts with) that unusual video hardware - it basically just holds DOS and a bunch of documents written by the original owner. Maybe they got suckered into buying this fancy graphics hardware without having any actual need for it, and then of course EGA and VGA came along and rendered it obsolete anyway. > XT controllers tended to NOT be interchangeable, even between various > OEMs of Xebec! Yes - something that people often seem to forget, too. I've run into that quite often, where someone will hang onto an old drive because of the contents, but they'll dump the controller that it was formatted against. > I don't know what the incompatability was. I don't think there was any kind of standard at all for what the low level looked like - vendors were free to do what they wanted in terms of what values they used for flags and how they actually ordered things within the sector header. I suppose there were some tweaks made over time for optimization or reliability (or at least, recovery) reasons, too, which is why even a single vendor had a few different incompatible formats. I expect it was the same in the SCSI and IDE worlds, but of course with those "the controller" which handles formatting is really part of the package, so it wasn't an issue. Jules ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 23:11:01 +0100 From: Matt Burke <matt at 9track.net> To: Josh Dersch via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases Message-ID: <91d46a24-04df-20c7-d154-d17064116c6f at 9track.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 On 05/09/2020 20:19, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: > While I'm at it -- anyone know > precisely what I need to use this under VMS? I believe 4.7 was the > last VMS release that supported it, but there were additional packages > that needed to be installed to support it, and I'm not entirely sure > what they are. To use the VAXstation 100 with VMS you need to install the "VAXstation Software" layered product. I have not come across any original copies however DEC later contributed the source code to the DECUS library under submission V00376. The submission consists of a CMS library and some other source files. The only place you can reliably get this from is DECUServe as you need to get the files whilst preserving their RMS attributes. Then you need to compile the code and create an installation kit to use the software. The good news is that I've already done all of this so here is a link to the source and installation kit on Simh tap files: http://www.9track.net/bits/dec/vs100/v00376.zip http://www.9track.net/bits/dec/vs100/vsta012.zip This was built on VAX/VMS V4.4 with: Bliss-32 V4.3 FORTRAN V4.7 Pascal V3.7 CMS V2.3 MMS V2.2 I also have a VAXstation 100 that I hope to get working some day but I need the M7452 card and a VS10X-EA mouse. I did win an M7452 on eBay about 10 years ago but the seller then said that he had already sold it. I've not seen another one since (well not one for an affordable price. I did find a reseller that wanted $1000 for one). Matt ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2020 00:42:19 +0200 From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 Message-ID: <CAMTenCFtWq=TCgFb22jS4GhH2i=qgWEnFSVBqkSpSdr97TUwbw at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Tue, 8 Sep 2020 at 08:18, Grant Taylor via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Does anyone have any idea where I can get install media at various > support pack levels and / or support pack install files for NetWare > 5.1 and / or BorderManager 3.5? Something like this any help? https://winworldpc.com/product/netware/5x I have physical media of this somewhere: https://archive.org/details/Netware_5_Operating_System_3_User_Demo_Novell -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053 ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2020 00:46:18 +0200 From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <CAMTenCHotTw2=rULsgbg1LWKF4vBnoz5BeyoV9N2TjaTNJcdmQ at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Tue, 8 Sep 2020 at 06:47, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > 1) If the drive is larger than 32MB, then boot with DOs 3.31 or newer. > Although even with the older ones, you can still do quite a bit. 3.31 is > the first where DOS supports a partition larger than 32MB > MS-DOS 5.00 is first where debug commands have a "/?" option to get a > short reminder of usage. Agreed. (Like I'd dare to differ with Fred.) My 2?'s worth is just: for an XT, if you want to fit a CF card or something, try DR-DOS 3.41. It's out there in various places. RAM usage as small as MS-DOS 3.3 but offers most of the benefits of MS-DOS 4 and some of MS-DOS 5 (both of which take a *lot* more RAM on an XT-class machine.) -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053 ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 17:48:37 -0500 From: "Electronics Plus" <sales at elecplus.com> To: "'Matt Burke'" <matt at 9track.net>, "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: RE: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases Message-ID: <007501d68632$30c06410$92412c30$@com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" There is a DEC dealer in the UK that has M7452 cards listed as in-stock. Contact Spencer Dye at sales at swancomp.co.uk. Old mouse I have located, but he has to check if it is actually in stock, and if it works. Cindy -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Matt Burke via cctalk Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2020 5:11 PM To: Josh Dersch via cctalk Subject: Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases On 05/09/2020 20:19, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: > While I'm at it -- anyone know > precisely what I need to use this under VMS? I believe 4.7 was the last > VMS release that supported it, but there were additional packages that > needed to be installed to support it, and I'm not entirely sure what they > are. To use the VAXstation 100 with VMS you need to install the "VAXstation Software" layered product. I have not come across any original copies however DEC later contributed the source code to the DECUS library under submission V00376. The submission consists of a CMS library and some other source files. The only place you can reliably get this from is DECUServe as you need to get the files whilst preserving their RMS attributes. Then you need to compile the code and create an installation kit to use the software. The good news is that I've already done all of this so here is a link to the source and installation kit on Simh tap files: http://www.9track.net/bits/dec/vs100/v00376.zip http://www.9track.net/bits/dec/vs100/vsta012.zip This was built on VAX/VMS V4.4 with: Bliss-32 V4.3 FORTRAN V4.7 Pascal V3.7 CMS V2.3 MMS V2.2 I also have a VAXstation 100 that I hope to get working some day but I need the M7452 card and a VS10X-EA mouse. I did win an M7452 on eBay about 10 years ago but the seller then said that he had already sold it. I've not seen another one since (well not one for an affordable price. I did find a reseller that wanted $1000 for one). Matt ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 16:04:44 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.2009081521250.17983 at shell.lmi.net> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed On Tue, 8 Sep 2020, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote: > OK, it boots off a DOS 3.3 floppy if that floppy is inserted before it > attempts to boot from the hard disk. If I wait for it to do its "system file > not found" bit, followed by a subsequent prompt to insert boot media and > press a key, it attempts to access the floppy drive but then goes off into > la-la land. Odd. How large is the drive? If it is over 32MB, then try to find DOS 3.31 or newer. MY preference is MS-DOS 6.22 > But anyway, taking the successful floppy boot route, I can certainly access > the hard disk in terms of bringing up directory listings and TYPEing files to > the display. So far, attempts to run anything from the drive just result in a > lock-up (keyboard immediately unresponsive, hard reset required). There > appear to be DOS utils on the drive, and command.com, but I've not checked > for hidden system files yet. fdisk shows the partition as active. Date and time of Command.com and any other DOS files will identify the version number. DIR /A or DIR /A:H will let you see the hidden files (presumably IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS; PC-DOS had IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM instead) Can you COPY files from the HDD to floppy? Being able to access contents of files, but not RUN them seems odd. IF the DOS on the floppy misunderstands the partition table, then root directory might look OK, but sub-directories might not be where it thinks they are, . . . >> Got an IBM "Advanced Diagnostics" floppy to try? > No, but I see that the minuszerodegrees site has an image, so I'll write that > out and see what happens. NOT a big deal. It's merely the only method directly from IBM for doing low level format. In most cases, Speedstor is more useful for LLF. > Looking at the drive contents, incidentally, I didn't see anything that > explains (or interacts with) that unusual video hardware - it basically just > holds DOS and a bunch of documents written by the original owner. Maybe they > got suckered into buying this fancy graphics hardware without having any > actual need for it, and then of course EGA and VGA came along and rendered it > obsolete anyway. It is probably completely CGA compatible, unless you invoke of of its other modes. The ROM on the video card may be a BIOS extension, in which case access to extended modes may be handled internally in various programs. For instance Windows 3.x, PC PAint, Pagemaker, and Xerox Ventura let you configure for a variety of video hardware. Otherwise, check to see if CONFIG.SYS has DEVICE commands to load any device drivers, usually .SYS, although sometimes .COM >> XT controllers tended to NOT be interchangeable, even between various OEMs >> of Xebec! > Yes - something that people often seem to forget, too. I've run into that > quite often, where someone will hang onto an old drive because of the > contents, but they'll dump the controller that it was formatted against. It always seemed counter-intuitive that makers of HDD hardware for XT didn't slavishly mimic IBM's XT HDD. And especially counter-intuitive that different vendor Xebec controllers didn't always interchange. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com ------------------------------ Message: 8 Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2020 09:16:42 +1000 From: Doug Jackson <doug at doughq.com> To: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>, "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <CAM_9E61O0gf_8_jPRCHfKfZMcA-1Okbdhvt-vT=ufVTChcC6PA at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" I recall some of the high end cards in the CGA / EGA era had adon boards that were connected with a 20 or 36 pin jumper cable across the top of the boards - They also ran more than 64K or ram, such as the ATI Wonder boards. Maybe it's like that - the ATI boards had 256K so they could page. Kindest regards, Doug Jackson em: doug at doughq.com ph: 0414 986878 Check out my awesome clocks at www.dougswordclocks.com Follow my amateur radio adventures at vk1zdj.net ----------------------------------------------------------- Just like an old fashioned letter, this email and any files transmitted with it should probably be treated as confidential and intended solely for your own use. Please note that any interesting spelling is usually my own and may have been caused by fat thumbs on a tiny tiny keyboard. Should any part of this message prove to be useful in the event of the imminent Zombie Apocalypse then the sender bears no personal, legal, or moral responsibility for any outcome resulting from its usage unless the result of said usage is the unlikely defeat of the Zombie Hordes in which case the sender takes full credit without any theoretical or actual legal liability. :-) Be nice to your parents. Go outside and do something awesome - Draw, paint, walk, setup a radio station, go fishing or sailing - just do something that makes you happy. ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G- In more laid back days this line would literally sing ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G ^G On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 9:04 AM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > On Tue, 8 Sep 2020, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote: > > OK, it boots off a DOS 3.3 floppy if that floppy is inserted before it > > attempts to boot from the hard disk. If I wait for it to do its "system > file > > not found" bit, followed by a subsequent prompt to insert boot media and > > press a key, it attempts to access the floppy drive but then goes off > into > > la-la land. Odd. > > How large is the drive? > If it is over 32MB, then try to find DOS 3.31 or newer. > MY preference is MS-DOS 6.22 > > > > But anyway, taking the successful floppy boot route, I can certainly > access > > the hard disk in terms of bringing up directory listings and TYPEing > files to > > the display. So far, attempts to run anything from the drive just result > in a > > lock-up (keyboard immediately unresponsive, hard reset required). There > > appear to be DOS utils on the drive, and command.com, but I've not > checked > > for hidden system files yet. fdisk shows the partition as active. > > Date and time of Command.com and any other DOS files will identify the > version number. > > DIR /A or > DIR /A:H > will let you see the hidden files (presumably IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS; PC-DOS > had IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM instead) > > Can you COPY files from the HDD to floppy? > > Being able to access contents of files, but not RUN them seems odd. > IF the DOS on the floppy misunderstands the partition table, then root > directory might look OK, but sub-directories might not be where it thinks > they are, . . . > > > >> Got an IBM "Advanced Diagnostics" floppy to try? > > No, but I see that the minuszerodegrees site has an image, so I'll write > that > > out and see what happens. > > NOT a big deal. It's merely the only method directly from IBM for doing > low level format. > In most cases, Speedstor is more useful for LLF. > > > Looking at the drive contents, incidentally, I didn't see anything that > > explains (or interacts with) that unusual video hardware - it basically > just > > holds DOS and a bunch of documents written by the original owner. Maybe > they > > got suckered into buying this fancy graphics hardware without having any > > actual need for it, and then of course EGA and VGA came along and > rendered it > > obsolete anyway. > > It is probably completely CGA compatible, unless you invoke of of its > other modes. > > The ROM on the video card may be a BIOS extension, in which case access to > extended modes may be handled internally in various programs. For > instance Windows 3.x, PC PAint, Pagemaker, and Xerox Ventura let you > configure for a variety of video hardware. > Otherwise, check to see if CONFIG.SYS has DEVICE commands to load any > device drivers, usually .SYS, although sometimes .COM > > >> XT controllers tended to NOT be interchangeable, even between various > OEMs > >> of Xebec! > > Yes - something that people often seem to forget, too. I've run into > that > > quite often, where someone will hang onto an old drive because of the > > contents, but they'll dump the controller that it was formatted against. > > It always seemed counter-intuitive that makers of HDD hardware for XT > didn't slavishly mimic IBM's XT HDD. And especially counter-intuitive > that different vendor Xebec controllers didn't always interchange. > > > -- > Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com > ------------------------------ Message: 9 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 16:28:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: AW: CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM? Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.2009081624080.17983 at shell.lmi.net> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed On Wed, 9 Sep 2020, Doug Jackson wrote: > I recall some of the high end cards in the CGA / EGA era had adon boards > that were connected with a 20 or 36 pin jumper cable across the top of the > boards - They also ran more than 64K or ram, such as the ATI Wonder > boards. Maybe it's like that - the ATI boards had 256K so they could page. I had a CGA "double board" that did 640x400 or 640x200 by more colors. It was not the same as this one, but might have been internally similar. But I don't remember ATI premium CGA. ATI had some interesting EGA boards, including one that had an add-on that included the mid-board connector for Compaq luggable internal video! Otherwise, you were stuck with Compaq CGA or Compaq EGA. ------------------------------ Message: 10 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 19:18:04 -0600 From: Grant Taylor <cctalk at gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 Message-ID: <9cbe174f-7eb1-bd77-88d9-a433449278f6 at spamtrap.tnetconsulting.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed On 9/8/20 4:42 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: > Something like this any help? > > https://winworldpc.com/product/netware/5x I'm very familiar with WinWorld and VetusWare. I quite like them. They are on the short list to find things like this. There is high overlap between a number of these places. That being said, I haven't tested that specific ISO. But that's mostly because I've long had a version of NetWare 5.1. Now that I'm looking for specific things, particularly patches, I decided to send a broadcast message. > I have physical media of this somewhere: > > https://archive.org/details/Netware_5_Operating_System_3_User_Demo_Novell I've been focusing on 5.1 and I've not yet broadened my net to include 5(.0). I was sort of hoping that someone might have had the support pack files tucked away somewhere. I'm currently working on re-organizing my 48 GB of Novell software. Partially to normalize the names and location, as well as to be able to tell what I do and do not have. Thank you for the reply Liam. You re-enforced the fact that I need to get a better understanding of what /specific/ versions I have and the things I know about are. -- Grant. . . . unix || die ------------------------------ Message: 11 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 20:25:19 -0700 From: jim stephens <jwsmail at jwsss.com> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: ISO: DEC VR100 and early X releases Message-ID: <7487c5f1-bfe6-0d6d-8b37-ee0668c2540c at jwsss.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed On 9/8/2020 3:48 PM, Electronics Plus via cctalk wrote: > Old mouse I have located, but he has to check if it is actually in stock, and if it works. They aren't the "normal" DEC hockey puck mice.? it's sort of like a PS2 mouse with I think an odd ball.? I had hands on Josh's and one for Paul Birkel (for too long, but they have them now), and the mouse was odd. I don't know how Josh is doing, since is is working, but the cabling on the mouse cord had degraded and had goo on it like the black crap you get form the wrong type of rubber when it turns tar like. Glad Josh got his going, pulling for Paul to get his running.? And interesting they may be a third one. So cool Cameron Kaiser collected two and passed them along. thanks Jim ------------------------------ Message: 12 Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2020 22:33:47 -0600 From: Grant Taylor <cctalk at gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 Message-ID: <1668c3d3-f0c9-c574-e30f-e879893223a0 at spamtrap.tnetconsulting.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed On 9/8/20 7:18 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote: > I haven't tested that specific ISO. The particular ISO that you linked to is Novell NetWare 5.1 (Support Pack 0). So it needs support packs installed on it. I've learned that there are different Support Packs, "Domestic" and "International" having to do with the 128-bit vs 56-bit encryption woes of the '90s. -- Grant. . . . unix || die ------------------------------ Message: 13 Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2020 13:08:43 +0200 From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5 Message-ID: <CAMTenCEQu_=MTZHP+o9e4Ho5Y+7Uk-XBhn1dSbcJyu1uwS65Tw at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Wed, 9 Sep 2020 at 06:34, Grant Taylor via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > On 9/8/20 7:18 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote: > > I haven't tested that specific ISO. > > The particular ISO that you linked to is Novell NetWare 5.1 (Support > Pack 0). So it needs support packs installed on it. But that's good, isn't it? I confess I may have misread your original message as being "I need NW5.1 with no SPs." Was that wrong? But if you have SP0, no bugfixes, then surely you can just install the SPs on top of it to get to whatever level you want? My $DAYJOB was part of Novell until about a year ago. I _may_ be able to find internal download links still but I am not confident. Want me to start asking around? I may need some fairly specific info as there are few Netware folk left now. E.g. how many separate SPs did NW5.1 get? Do you need both US and ROW versions? > I've learned that there are different Support Packs, "Domestic" and > "International" having to do with the 128-bit vs 56-bit encryption woes > of the '90s. Oh dear... TBH I have a suspicion nobody may have kept stuff like that, even inside Novell... :( -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053 End of cctech Digest, Vol 72, Issue 9 *************************************

5 years, 6 months

1
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SunBlade 100 with USB type 7 keyboard

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

My Sunblade works fine with a generic USB keyboard, but does not recognize the Type 7 USB keyboard I bought for it. OpenBoot prom reports "no keyboard detected". If I boot with my generic keyboard plugged in and then plug in the type 7, it sees it fine in OpenBSD. It is the openboot prom that doesn't see it. Can anyone steer me to the most current openboot prom update for the SunBlade 100? I've looked like crazy on Oracle's site and all I find are the instructions on how to apply an update, but not the actual update. This problem is firmware, not software or hardware. The Type 7 keyboard works fine on my PC, or if plugged into the Sunblade once it has booted/started to boot. Best, Jeff

5 years, 6 months

1
0
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ftgh 95 ohm coax

by dstalk＠execulink.com

ftgh: a few lengths of 95 ohm coax pickup-only here in London, ON

5 years, 6 months

1
0
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CMU Andrew system (and wm) preservation

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

On Sep 7, 2020, at 6:24 AM, dstalk at execulink.com wrote: > > The description I have for AUIS (6.3.1) is: > > "AUIS (Andrew User Interface System) - compound document > environment offering a word processor, mail/bulletin board > reader/writer, drawing editor, spreadsheet, font editor, > application builder, and many other facilities" > > Again, an application, not a windowing system per se. Yes, the Andrew environment implemented proper layering, so ATK was made to work atop X and the applications (messages, ez, console, typescript, etc.) came along. At Carnegie Mellon in the early 1990s, you could (with only a little work, to use a console rather than graphical login) use either X or wm on some of the campus workstations. On a DECstation 3100 running Ultrix, if you weren?t going to run any X applications wm was *much* more responsive. I wasn?t around when the clusters had Sun-3 or IBM RT hardware but I can imagine the differences there were even more pronounced. (With wm, a DECstation felt as much faster than a Mac II as it actually was?) Applications built against ATK could run atop either wm or X; I don?t know if there were distinct builds of ATK or if the conditional logic was in the framework itself, but the applications themselves worked just fine with either since Andrew implemented a shared library mechanism. (Yes, even on Ultrix.) The publicly-released Andrew distributions don?t include the wm code, only the X version. I don?t know if they?ll actually build against the wm headers and libraries if they?re present, or if by the time CMU was releasing them publicly they had stripped that code out entirely. ? Chris

5 years, 6 months

6
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Looking for suggestions for this

by trash80＠internode.on.net

Hi folks - quite some time ago I picked up this little beauty (well I'm sure some may agree or disagree with me) off of ePAY. I happen to like black IBMs of any type. Of course I got gouged at the checkout paying the princely sum of $1.04 AUD - some might say I got robbed. In the photo with the other machines it's the big one. Included was the machine of course, the tape drive, the monitor (the keyboard is somewhere) and a heap of connectors and cables - and I did get the key with it too. What was missing were the HDDs (which they trashed to get rid of the data) and all the documentation (which they tossed before they realised that they could flog it on ePAY and get someone else to take it away). http://koken.advancedimaging.com.au/index.php?/albums/as400/ But as I rationalise space in my increasingly small collection facility I need to make some decisions about things so I'm looking for some suggestions as to what I can do with this machine. At the risk of being applauded for some ideas and being flamed for others some suggestions are: 1. Do nothing - it's a very interesting conversation piece and its worth preserving. 2. Someone is looking for one of these for parts and will pay me a fortune. 3. Dump it. 4. Donate it to a museum - they'll need a truck and four big guys. 5. Trade it for scrap value. 6. Get it running - now there's a big leap I suspect!! I did manage to procure some HDDs from another AS/400 but as to whether they are suitable or this would even work is not even remotely my bailiwick. 7. Gut it and build a cluster inside it so at least it looks and runs like a big computer so I can get some WOW factor from those who don't know any different. 8. Gut it and turn it into a bar fridge. 9. Anything else... Thank you Kevin Parker

5 years, 6 months

2
1
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Clicking SCSI disks

by a.carlini＠ntlworld.com

I have a number of old (2000-era) DEC StorageWorks disks that fail to mount under VMS. They report MEDIUM OFFLINE. They power up in a similar way to other disks that do work, but they persistently click ina? "something isn't right" manner. I've tried reorienting some of the disks to see if that makes any difference, and for the ones I've tried, it didn't help. I've read about the "freezer" trick, but mostly I've seen negative opinions. However, those opinions mostly come from data recovery specialists! So I thought I'd tap the wisdom of the list. Is there any way that people have used to successfully recover data from RZ28, RZ29 disks (which all worked in 2003 :-))? Has anyone tried freezing a double bagged drive? Was it successful? If so, how long did you freeze it for? These disks are in StorageWorks containers ... should I remove them before freezing? Antonio -- Antonio Carlini antonio at acarlini.com

5 years, 6 months

4
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VAX 11-780 Rack Available

by w2hx＠w2hx.com

Hi friends. This rack is available for free. I am located in 10510 happy to drive, up to say 1.5 hours to meet up to transfer vehicles? https://w2hx.com/ForSale/DEC%20Rack/20200719_114742.jpg https://w2hx.com/ForSale/DEC%20Rack/20200719_114751.jpg it is in very nice condition. Comes with wheels/casters, no panels. It is, I believe 24" wide, but it has a set of vertical rails at 19" in addition to 24" I think the space on the right would carry cables etc? Regardless, it will work fine with 19" equipment. Just the perfect think you need to complete your DEC VAX or other DEC set up! Contact me directly. 73 Eugene W2HX PS Please pass onto any other list you may belong to that might have an interest in this rack. Thank you

5 years, 6 months

1
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TZ8x DLT III cartridge - torn leader

by a.carlini＠ntlworld.com

I've been trying to read data from some ~2000 era DLT III cartridges that were written on a TZ87. The first one read OK. But the second one failed and it seems that the leader was torn off. I tried a new drive and a second cartridge has failed the same way (the leader was there, now it's not). My immediate problem is that I now have two drives (a TZ88 and a TZ870 that fail POST (all LEDs blink). I guess I need to open them up, fish out the stray leader and fix them up somehow. Does anyone have any experience of doing this? My second problem is that I'd quite like to stop this from happening again. I'm guessing that it happened because the cartridge mechanism was jammed. I've just played around with a TK50-K cartridge and if I jam the two release mechanisms (using the "nose" of two pliers), open the "tape hatch" and gently pull the tape, it moves. Then I can "rewind" it and it's back to the way it was. I'm wondering whether this is safe to do on the DLT III tapes I still want to recover? Is it likely to at least tell me which tapes are likely to fail and which might load properly? My third problem i that I have two cartridges without a leader. Is this something that can be rectified? Thanks for any useful information. Antonio -- Antonio Carlini antonio at acarlini.com

5 years, 6 months

2
3
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IBM 5160 math copro switch

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Sifting through my XTs and clones... I've had three so far with no math copro (8087) fitted, but switch 2 of SW1 is set to off. IBM docs say off is "math copro installed" and on is the "installed" position, i.e. the reverse of what I'm seeing (the minuszerodegrees site repeats this, although I expect that just copied what's in the manual, too). These three machines (two are 5160's, the other a clone) came from completely different sources - it seems unlikely that all three had 8087's fitted which were pulled at some point. Googling a few more system board images, ones with 8087's have that switch on - but for boards without, the setting seems to be pretty much 50/50. Did the meaning of the switch perhaps change at some point (both of my 5160's are late model 256-640 boards), and rather than being a simple installed / not installed it was more along the lines of "software should use it if present / software should never use it"? After all, it's not like the BIOS will do anything with an 8087; it's only there for software specifically coded to make use of it. I suppose it's also possible that users were in the habit of first setting all the switches to off when configuring a machine, then setting the relevant ones to on according to their memory/floppy/video config - and the copro setting just got overlooked. Weird, anyway. Jules

5 years, 6 months

2
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CGA card (Mitsubishi Electric) with 192K RAM?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Digging through old PCs, on a battery-removal spree... came across a Sperry 3070 XT-a-like (I wouldn't quite call it a clone, it's a bit goofy) which has a Mitsubishi Electric system board, RAM expansion, and video hardware. The video hardware is... odd. It's actually two full-length boards, joined with a large IDC cable along the top edge as well as via the ISA bus. The only "complex" IC is a 6845 - other than that it's masses of TTL. Output is via a DE9, and pinouts seem consistent with CGA (15.7KHz on pin 8, 60Hz on pin 9, 3/4/5 at TTL levels and 1/2 ground). There's also an RCA jack on the backplate, and that 6845 IC... it all seems very CGA-like, except that total video memory is 192KB. CGA was normally 16KB, I believe. Hercules and EGA 64KB, although I think toward the end of EGA's existence there was a 192KB option. Physical outputs aren't consistent with EGA's two bits per pixel, though. Does this ring any bells with anyone? I don't know why it needs such a large amount of RAM if it's stuck with CGA capabilities. One board is branded WECD10 and the other WECD11, but there's no "model" or anything. cheers Jules

5 years, 6 months

3
3
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CMU Andrew system (and wm) preservation

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

Back before X11 took off, IBM funded CMU's development of Andrew, which had its own complete window system represented by its "wm" window manager. One of the many things that led to X's prevalence was that to get ahold of Andrew and wm, you had to license it from IBM, whereas X was licensed freely by MIT and available via FTP, tape, etc. When I was at CMU in the early through mid 1990s, the CMU Computer Club continued to maintain a fork of "wm" called "wmc" that was available to club members, including source code. While I'm pretty sure I have an archive of this code on a Zip disk somewhere, I thought I'd put out the call to the community to see if anyone else had preserved early Andrew bits since they're both historically important and architecturally interesting. What's architecturally interesting about them? Among other things, CMU created their own shared library mechanism for Andrew, and their own object oriented dialect of C (implemented via a separate preprocessor) that was surprisingly similar to Objective-C. The entire Andrew system was also component-oriented, such that it supported embedding components for handling different media types within each other, while keeping the embedded ones editable -- most of what developers got later with OLE and OpenDoc. So it'd be great if this stuff was archived in such a way that it could be used with contemporary systems, whether emulated or real hardware. Has anyone done any of this yet? -- Chris

5 years, 7 months

2
2
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Micro Memory VME card info? MM-6316

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

I have a Micro Memory Inc. 16MB VME DRAM card MM-6316 but unlike many other Micro Memory products I can?t find a user?s manual. Does anyone know anything about the jumpers/switches for this board? ? Chris Sent from my iPad

5 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

domains available (FTGH)

by john＠ziaspace.com

>> Over the years I've snagged a few domains related to classic computing with >> the best intentions of doing something with them. I have not, so I will be >> letting the following expire: >> >> decvax.org >> >> dgeclipse.org >> >> dgnova.org >> >> hp1000.org >> >> hp2000.org >> >> pdp11.org >> >> rt-11.org For anyone here with an interest in any of these domains, I'm happy to offer free hosting for at least as long as I'm alive (working on finding volunteers to take care of things after that). I've hosted some of my accounts and sites since the '90s and can provide email, web, dynamic web, development, gopher, mailman and more. I have real colocated servers, not purchased services, and the servers are, if nothing else, interesting. The collection include an AlphaServer DS25, a Sun Fire v254, an AMD Ryzen box (with ECC), a 1U Amiga 1200, and a 1U VAX. John Klos

5 years, 7 months

3
6
0 0

Brittle plastic

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

I don't have a way to make plastic new, but I've had good results with WD40 for restoring surfaces with WD40. Some plastics get dusty and highly ablative on the surface with age and environment. Plastic LOVES WD40, if it is 'thirsty' Coat the plastic with WD40, and wait. It will soak in, sometimes it takes an overnight. Repeat this until the plastic no longer 'drinks' the WD40. You've done all you can do now with this method. I don't know that it restores the original strength of plastic, I doubt that, but it sure helps with the surfaces' appearance and wear resistence. Best, Jeff

5 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Brittle plastic

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

Today I was working on a very nice 1995 vintage SPARCstation LX with CDROM and QIC-150 tape drive (3 lunchbox type units). I was trying to install a newer version of NetBSD on it than was already installed. The stack of 3 units was stored in a museum grade glass display cabinet. Sadly all 3 units have a small degree of yellowing but more importantly the plastic cases have become very brittle and bits just break off with minimal mechanical strain. Is there any process to reverse the brittleness which could be used to preserve the cases? Thanks Tom Hunter

5 years, 7 months

7
7
0 0

domains available (FTGH)

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Please - Would love t he hp2000 domain Jay. Thanks Ed# On Thursday, September 3, 2020 jwest--- via cctalk <jwest at classiccmp.org; cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: Over the years I've snagged a few domains related to classic computing with the best intentions of doing something with them. I have not, so I will be letting the following expire: decvax.org dgeclipse.org dgnova.org hp1000.org hp2000.org pdp11.org rt-11.org You can of course wait to get them until they expire via your registrar of choice. If you want them sooner, let me know and after a week or so I'll subjectively decide who to approve a transfer to their registrar. Best, J

5 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

domains available (FTGH)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Over the years I've snagged a few domains related to classic computing with the best intentions of doing something with them. I have not, so I will be letting the following expire: decvax.org dgeclipse.org dgnova.org hp1000.org hp2000.org pdp11.org rt-11.org You can of course wait to get them until they expire via your registrar of choice. If you want them sooner, let me know and after a week or so I'll subjectively decide who to approve a transfer to their registrar. Best, J

5 years, 7 months

4
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