I've recently heard of someone who told me about an 8080 laptop from
someone who has been into computers longer than I have. He said that
there was a laptop... in the 1970's, that was smaller than the origional
Compaq. It was soupossed to only have a little RAM, and it was used by
journalists, who would connect with a modem an upload the files. Is
this true? If so, what on earth ever happened to these? (Does this
sound like something else... H/PC come to mind?
Hi,
I _THINK_ I found the problem that I was having. It appears that the HD
cables weren't attached, only the power (weird that). Just prior to this I
found out about the LED counter on the back of the unit and found that it
was sitting on "1" despite the fact the counter on the screen was "2".
According to the Hardware manual this means that the bootstrap device might
not contain bootable system software.
OK, now I've got the HD plugged in and am hoping things will go better.
Foolish me. Now it just sits there on "2". Doesn't even give me the "?54
RETRY" message, it simply sounds like it starts to spin down the HD, and
then immediatly spins it back up. It's been sitting like this for a while
now. Nothing. Even the LED on the back says "2".
Oh, at least I found out I've got an RD53-A HD. Is there any difference
between a RD53 HD and a RD53-A HD, or are they the same thing?
Anyone have any ideas on this? It's starting to look to me as if someone
pulled out the original HD to put in a machine that needed a good one.
Then they put the bad on in this machine, but for some reason took the time
to plug in the power.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
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At 03:34 11/8/97 GMT, you wrote:
>....in my experience
>with IBM network cards, if they're a round (i.e. BNC) connector,
>they're probably the old "baseband" stuff that uses lots of coax cable
>and a hub/amplifier, and work only with IBM PC-LAN Program and
>NetBEUI....the number 2Mb/sec comes
>to mind....
Are we talking about Arcnet here? When I think 2Mb/sec, BNC connector, and
8-bit bus, I think Arcnet, but there may have been others....
____________________________________________________________
Kip Crosby, honcho, mechanic and sole proprietor, Kip's Garage
http://www.kipsgarage.com: rumors, tech tips and philosophy for the trenches
Coming Spring '98: The Windows 98 Bible by Kip Crosby and Fred Davis!
At 01:45 11/8/97 -0600, you wrote:
>HP 75D with 9114 disk drive -- $25
>....Anyway, if anyone has *any* info about it, I'd love to hear from you. I
>tried HP's site and all I got was that it's discontinued, not supported, and
>replaced by a newer handheld....
The 75D, demonstrating a logic rare in HP model numbers, is the immediate
successor of the 75C, often described as "HP's first fully portable
computer." They were, IIRC, made in Singapore and not anywhere near as
common as the later HP handhelds; this was one of those cases where HP saw
the light bulb before the customers did.
The 75x is not pricey, as you discovered, but not easy to find, and
undoubtedly significant.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
<From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com>
<Loading system software.
< 2..
<?54 RETRY
< 2..
No device or bad media.
<When it's coming up it sounds like the HD spins up, and then as soon as it
<hits the "Loading system software" it sounds like it spins down.
Sounds like the rd54 or 53 has a case of spin down disease. Bad drive.
<thing. If I'm doing it correctly the only one that it seems to try to rea
<is 525993. Sounds like I'm out of luck.
Goddess knows whats on that tape. The number is a date code!
My guess is you have a bad drive and lots of media with nothing of value.
The uVAX-II can also boot off DECnet from another VMS or Ultrix host.
Allison
Hello, I was wondering if you knew where I could get
documentation for the old Altair 8800 system. Plans/kit
would be cool, too, but I don't really expect to find that.
thanks. :)
<It's an MCS8i, and it's based on the 8080 (40 pin ceramic DIP package -
<IIRC the 8008 has only 18 pins). The _CPU board_ carries a 1972 copyright
Yes the 8008 was 18 and the 8080 was 40. However the 8080 was not
available in 1972.
<date in the etch. Of course it could have been designed in 1972, and
<then sold later when the 8080 was produced, but it's still a pretty
<early design
The etch was likely not the copyright so much as the MCS8 written on it.
The MCS was their first shot boards for the 8008 and the 8080.
According to my research plus being in the industry during that time the
8008 was introduced in December 1971 and the 8080 was first sampled in
December 1973. Source, Intel literature I have. The 8080 was not even
operational in the lab during 1972. It's important to note that
significant qunatities of either were some 6 months later and very
expensive.
Additionally it was during 1973 (late summer) that Gary Kildall started
working on an operating system for the 8080 which was done mostly by cross
assemble and simulation and was run on the first die that was probed and
found functional.
Allison
<> That was 64bits of internal storage and that is different from a 64bit
<> parallel CPU. Also 613khz is slow.
<
<Not that slow. Depends what you do with the clock. Remember that a
<Motorola 6809 running at .8 Mhz (800 Khz) could always beat an Intel
<8088 running at 4.77 Mhz by at least 25% and usually 50% in tests I
<used.
It is when you compare it to contemporary 64bitters runiing at typical
clocks. The HP being aimed at calculator like apps didn't need speed.
As to the 6809 vs 8088 there is a big difference in how the clock is used
to time the cpu and how many clock cycles it takes to execute a given task.
The classic case is the 6502 at 2mhz against the 6800 at the same speed.
This is generally why I don't compare clocks. But 613khz is by most
respects slow, how slow is not relevent as for that application it was fast
enough.
Allison
Yes it has the side pins and based your other information it is a controller
unit. I getting orders for the boards now, but will be letting them go by
the end of this week. On the 14th or 15th I will start e-mail to all who
have asked for one. John
At 06:11 AM 11/6/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>On Tue, 4 Nov 1997, John R. Keys Jr. wrote:
>
>> Hello to all
>> Had a pretty slow week last week only a few finds will later in week. Today
>> I got a box load of SYM-1's somewere betweeen 15 and 20 of them.
>
>That's exceptionally cool. When do you start taking orders? :)
>
>> I also got something called a IVS TRUMPCARD 500 by Interactive Video System
>> and have no idea what it is, any help out there ?
>
>Does it have a female 86-pin edge connector on it?
>
>>From the name I suspect it's a hard drive controller and RAM card for the
>Amiga 500. External. I base my guess on:
>
>1) "TrumpCard" - This was definitely the name of some hardcards for the
> A2000, and I think there were A500 models as well.
>
>2) "Interactive Video System" - With a name like that, there's a darn good
> chance the company was in the Amiga
> market.
>
>3) 500 - As in Amiga 500.
>
>Of course, as usual, I'm separated from my magazines so I can't go poking
>around looking. I think I'll have to move a representative sample into my
>room so that this situation is less likely in future.
>
>
>Doug Spence
>ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
>
>
>
I have a copy let me know what you need. John
At 08:06 AM 11/5/97 -0500, you wrote:
> Not yet a classic, but does anyone have a {spare} copy of the "Technical
>Reference Personal Computer AT"? This is the tech ref guide for the original
>IBM PC/AT, published by IBM (I'm guessing in a gray fabric binder).
>
> TIA!
>
>Rich Cini/WUGNET
><rcini(a)msn.com>
> Charter ClubWin! Member
> MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
