Hey all. I think its about time I de-lurk and introduce myself.
My name is Bill, and I'm very interested in SwTPC and SSB stuff.
We had a couple SwTPC 6800 systems in my high school way back when,
and I'd love to see one again (or own one!).
After signing up for the Classic Computer Rescue Squad, I started
thinking, if a big old machine actually needed a rescue, what
would we do? I mean, maybe we should collect info on how big
these old things are, in terms of floor-space, tonnage, time to
dismantle, and so on. Then, when a rescue call comes in, we
could maybe decide if we can feasibly deal with it, and if anyone
actually wants the thing. If only three guys show up to dismantle
200 tons of vacuum tubes, it isn't gonna happen on-schedule. And
it's one thing to keep a mini in a corner, but not all of us can
arrange space for, say, a 360. So there are legitimate (if sad)
reasons that we might have to pass up a find.
Also, would it be good to have a rescue checklist? I can think
of a dozen things that might be good to do during a rescue, but
I'll bet I wouldn't think of half of it in the excitement of
rescue-day. I guess I'm volunteering to collect this, if you
all think it's a good idea and want to suggest things.
Okay, I'll close with the obligatory lists:
Want:
SwTPC 6800, CT-64, CT-VM, MF-68
EPROM burner
Have (willing to trade away):
DecScope terminal (ie: vt52), works
DecMate-III (don't yet know if it works)
Apple //c with monochrome monitor, some manuals, works
Radio Shack CoCo 2's, work
Defaced (ie: no faceplate) Amiga something-or-other,
with no monitor, keyboard, docs, or anything,
probably doesn't work
Have (and will keep!):
Radio Shack CoCo 1's and a CoCo 3, tech manual
IBM PC-XT clone
SwTPC S/09 (down with disk problems)
Lear-Seigler ADM-31 terminal (bought today!)
Of course, some of this stuff would have significant shipping costs
associated with it, unless you live nearby (central NC).
Cheers,
Bill.
<Also, a trackstar E for use with Tandy/IBM compatibles (Apple //e emulator
Trackstar 128
Funny I have one of them, haven't figured out what to do with it yet.
Not being an apple user it's an odd item in my collection.
Allison
> another weird feature on Wyse 286 that can show time and
>date, mhz display like 8mhz, 12mhz and backlighted! :)
Hey, I just had one of those come in for repair! The hard drive table aldo
has double digit numbers, something I've never seen before.
>Well, what did the PC/AT have that the PC/XT didn't? 1.2MB
>minifloppies (although I saw those retrofit onto XT-class PCs), 16-bit
>slots, a cascaded interrupt controller to handle the additional
>interrupt request lines...and the A20 gate that let you get at another
>little chunk of RAM up above the 1MB boundary while still in real
>mode.
...and the hard drive info in ROM.
But, you're right. The 286-386 jump was more significant than the 8088-286
jump, even though so of those 286 changes that you mentioned are still with
us that Pentiums are "AT" (not 386) class machines.
>Hey, for years one of the standard excuses for getting a home computer
>was "Hey, we can keep recipes on it". For that of course, you really
>want a membrane keyboard -- pasta sauce in a Keytronics is fatal.
I always _loved_ seeing the adverts of smiling Mom (no flour on her hands,
natch!) booting up the family PC to get her recipes. Some of those early
recipe programs would specify oddities such as "5/48 tsp chives".
>
>And _of course_ a similarly protected laptop belongs in the bathroom,
>when you're setting down to do some serious Usenet reading.
Hey, I used to program in the bath with my HP-71!
>And so, the dilemma... do I open the disks and crank this critter up? Or
>just pack it all away as another classic 'artifact'? (or leave it until I
>have a fair amount of time to spend with it)
Open it up -- play with it -- computers are meant to be _used_.
> Rainbow machine is very quirky demanding
> weird hardware and quirky disks in both format and hardsectored. :(
Bear in mind that from the perspective of us CP/M folks, demanding absolutely
rigid hardware compatibility is quirky...
> IBM produced
> excellent PS/2 '87 era series that can be ripped apart with bare
> hands except for motherboard and PSU screws.
FWIW, my absolute favorite box of all time is the VAXstation 4000/60 or /96;
you can get everything out of the box quickly with no tools. In contrast,
it's only been in the last few years that I've gotten coordinated enough to
keep from mutilating my knuckles every time I go into a VAXstation 2000...
Roger Ivie
ivie(a)cc.usu.edu
At 15:42 11/17/97 +0000, you wrote:
>This is what I like about the Zip IDE drives it's a right design like
>the floppy drive machism. But I wished Iomega sell one in SCSI
>version as well which means we have to press for it!
er....There are SCSI Zip drives, both int and ext. I've got an internal
here, use it to store the techno and ambient I listen to through an AWE32.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Allison wrote:
> <> acceptable OS. Although CP/M running native on a Pentium 133 is pretty
> <> cool, and fast! By collecting Non-PC's there a tons of OS's to play with
>
> CP/M-80 running on a 16mhz z180 is far more interesting. ;-)
Bear in mind:
- Z180s now do up to 33MHz
- The average 128Kx8 15 ns SRAM
- is fast enough to run at 33MHz with no wait states
- contains enough on-board logic to do address decoding in a simple
Z180 system
Sigh; I see ads in Circuit Cellar for folks that take 68HC12s in
surface-mount packages and mount them on an adapter board for folks that
want through-hole parts. Anyone know of someone doing the same thing with
either the Z182 (or, better yet, the Z195) or at least generic footprints
of the appropriate size?
Roger Ivie
ivie(a)cc.usu.edu
<A little bit of head banging and we realized that to read paper tape, all y
<need is a hand scanner, dark background, some kind of rig to hold the scann
<in position above a 1" channel and, well, programming as appropriate.
smashing ants with atomic cannon.
The simplest form of scanner is 9 photocells(photo transistor or diode)
lined up under the tape, light above and the 9th (sproket hole connectd to
the data available(or ack) of a parallel port such as the PC printer port.
Tape movement, pull by hand. should be good for 300->3000 char sec easily.
It's trivial hardware.
Program:
Copy LPT: file.tap
Done.
Allison
