test-drb April 1997

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

60 participants
150 discussions

by strzecha＠kis.p.lodz.pl

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27 years, 7 months

PET to S100 bus interface

by ds_spenc＠alcor.concordia.ca

I'd just like to make an update for all who may be interested in that potential PET to S100 bus device that I had sitting in storage. I pulled it out tonight instead of studying for exams, and it is indeed what was suspected. The "motherboard" (if that is the correct term) is a Vector Graphic Inc. S100 bus board. The RAM board that was being used for the PET, is a Vector Graphic Inc. 16K Static RAM board with a date of 1977 on it. The power supply says "KIMSI-PLUS Power Supply" on the back, 1977 from Forethought Products. This is all very wild, because I had no idea there was S100 stuff in this house. Anyway, the really interesting piece of circuitry is the PET to S100 interface board. It's the same size as the RAM board, and of course plugs into the S100 bus. At the top of the board is a 50-pin connector that plugs into a cable, that in turn plugs into the side memory expansion connector on the PET 2001. In white lettering, it says .----------. |_| | | |_|| | | |_| | || (<-- my cheezy attempt at duplicating the company .----------' logo with ASCII, it's HUH surrounded by a question .ELECTRONICS mark.) S100 MPA and etched into the board it says "COPYRIGHT 1978 BY HUH" and "S100 MPA REV A". The board isn't very heavily populated, compared to the RAM board, and most of the chips are 74LSxx chips. Anyone out there know more than I do about this thing? Doug Spence ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca

27 years, 7 months

by scott＠saskatoon.com

> *** Preliminary Announcement *** > > First Annual Classic Computer Collector Conference Sounds like fun. > Classic Computer Pioneer - every year an > Nominees: Gary Kildall, creator of > CP/M; Steve Wozniak; ??? How about Chuck Peddle? ------------------------------------------------------------ Walde Techonology http://scott.cprompt.sk.ca Box 7284 finger: scott(a)cprompt.sk.ca Saskatoon, SK S7K 4J2 email: scott(a)cprompt.sk.ca CANADA email: walde(a)dlcwest.com -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS d- s:+>: a- C++++$ UL++++$ !P L++ E- W+++$ N+ o? K? w$ O- M-- V PS+ PE++ Y+ PGP->++ t+ 5 X+ !R tv- b+ DI++++ D+ G e* h r++ y- ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

27 years, 7 months

BBSes on old hardware and SuperVIC

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

| ---------- | From: Doug Spence[SMTP:ds_spenc@alcor.concordia.ca] | Actually, I also want to build a kind of "SuperVIC" machine. I want it to | ba a luggable like my TeleVideo or Kaypro II Um, isn't that a Commodore SX-64? Kai

27 years, 7 months

emulator board help

by zmerch＠northernway.net

Whilst in a self-induced trance, hellige happened to blather: >On 28-Apr-97, classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu wrote: > >>I seem to recall that Definicon made coprocessor boards (68000 series, and >>maybe 32016 series as well) for PC's. You rean special language compilers >>on the PC that converted your high-level source into machine code for the >>68000 or whatever, and ran it on the coprocessor board > > What would be the point in doing this though, if the board didn't emulate a >specific 68000 series computer? Jeff, It's way past my bedtime, but I just had to comment on this post... Believe it or not, the board doesn't have to emulate a specific 68K computer... it *is* a specific 68K computer! The board quite possibly was a system that would just use the PeeCee's hard/floppy/parallel/serial (etc.) ports and would run OS-9/68K or another viable 68K operating system of the day (Xenix?). This in itself is not new... shortly after the IBM-PC came out there was a 68000 board for it that ran OS-9. Remember, the 68K was first, and by then already had several super-powerful (compared to MS-Dog) OS's available for the platform. I have a review of one in an old copy of Byte laying around somewhere around here. BTW, put away the asbestos... it's not a flame! I'm just tired (& cranky) and don't have a bad case of run-on fingers like usual! See ya, "Merch" -- Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed, Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not* zmerch(a)northernway.net | be your first career choice.

27 years, 7 months

Software database for you collector-types

by marcw＠lightside.com

Howdy, I just thought of something. Are any of you using a database to catalogue what software you use/have for these old machines? I've got a database that came on a Big Blue Disk back around '88 called Software Indexer. It's small and all but has some nice features including cascading menus with a lot of pre-defined categories. These can be edited/deleted/added to. There's not much data entry because of the menus/pick-lists. Once you type in the name of the program everything else is a matter of choosing what's there except for the comments field. Here's examples that may interest you (jeez I sound like I'm spamming a new product here). Example/sample of menu selections: System Macintosh MFS (Old format) HFS (Current format) Lisa Office System Apple II Series Apple ProDOS 8 Apple ProDOS 16 Apple DOS 3.3 Apple DOS 3.2 Apple CP/M Apple Pascal Apple GEOS Apple /// (SOS) CP/M CP/M-80 CP/M-86 CP/M-68K Orphan Machines Timex/Sinclair TI 99/4 TI Professional Osborne Exidy Sorcerer CompuColor 2 SOL-20 Ohio Scientific Altair Cromemco Mainframes DecSystem-10/PDP-10 DecSystem-20 RSTS Multics Minicomputers IBM System 34/36 DEC VAX (VMS) PDP-11 Video Game Systems Atari VCS (2600) Atari 5200 Atari 7800 ColecoVision Magnavox Odyssey 2 Sega Master System (more) Medium 5.25" floppy Double-density High-density Single-sided "Flippy" 8" floppy "Twiggy" (old Lisa) And all the other stuff. Atari's, Amiga's, Commodore's, Intel x86, etc. Other categories/menus are Distribution & Category. All customizable 'til you run out of menu space (easy to do). Anyhind, if anyone's interested I can zip it up and send it to whoever's interested. It is/was shareware. I used to get Big Blue Disk but don't remember if I got this from there or from a BBS way back when. Marc -- >> ANIME SENSHI << Marc D. Williams marcw(a)lightside.com (finger at: marcw(a)mail.lightside.com) marc.williams(a)mb.fidonet.org http://www.agate.net/~tvdog/internet.html

27 years, 7 months

Osborne 1 prices (was: On Generations of People and Computers )

by BigLouS＠aol.com

> A guy at my > work is supposed to give me his, which he says is a ][, but he's not > always all there, so it could just be a ][+. But I would say a ][ is > probably worth about $100 with some accessories, like a disk drive and > monitor and the language card. I just swapped a bare II/E for a Bare II. Going price for a bare IIE is about $20 on the Apple newsgroups. Apple II's don't seem to be valued very much in the Apple II newsgroup or for sale group. Lou

27 years, 7 months

Osborne 1 prices (was: On Generations of People and Computers )

by BigLouS＠aol.com

In a message dated 97-04-26 20:44:04 EDT, you write: > I also remember seeing Apple III's and Atari 800's on sale at Weinstock's. > There was a strange time for a while in the late 70's and early 80's when > many department stores had a "computer department". This was the case > in Sacramento, was it like that in other cities? > > --pec > Yes Macy's in New York had a computer section in its electronic's department. Lou

27 years, 7 months

Regular Posting: FAQ

by bill＠booster.bothell.washington.edu

ClassicCmp - The Classic Computers Discussion List FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) v1.0 1.1 What is ClassicCmp? 1.2 Why is ClassicCmp? 1.3 What's a Classic Computer? 1.4 Who runs this thing? 1.5 Don't you know you're duplicating what others have done? 2.1 What can I talk about? 2.2 Can I talk about PCs? 2.3 Can I talk about Mini/MainFrames? 2.4 Can I post advertisments? 2.5 Can I ask people to give me their computers? 2.6 Can I ask for help fixing item x? 2.7 Where should I look before posting a dumb question? 3.1 How many subscribers are there? 3.2 How many subscribers use machine x? 4.1 Does ClassicCmp have a Web Site? 4.2 How come the Web Site is so ugly? 5.1 Where can I find Classic Computers? 5.2 How much is machine x worth? 5.3 Will 1000's of innocent machines be scrapped if I don't save them? 1.1 What is ClassicCmp? It's a mailing list for the discussion of classic computers. Topics center on collection (just hoarding), restoration, and operation. It is also an appropriate place for stories and reminiscences of classic computers. 1.2 Why is ClassicCmp? Uh, why not? There are lots of people who love these old machines and it seems like a fun idea to get together and talk about them. 1.3 What is a Classic Computer? Any computer that has not been manufactured for 10 years is a classic. This definition is one I made up and it's entirely arbitrary. It seems to work OK, so I've kept it. 1.4 Who runs this thing? That would be me, Bill Whitson. I'm a network administrator at the University of Washington. This is one of my hobbies and I got tired of waiting for someone else to create a list like this. I can be reached at bcw(a)u.washington.edu. 1.5 Do you know you're just duplicating work other people have done. Damn straight. That's what the internet's all about. 2.1 What can I talk about? Anything related to classic computers as defined above. There are many people on this list that really know what they're talking about, so you might want to check facts before you start shooting off messages. 2.2 Can I talk about PCs? Yes. PCs which haven't been manufactured for 10 years. Even then be aware that in many cases you would get a better response posting to PC newsgroups. 2.3 Can I talk about Minis/MainFrames? Yep. Lots of bulky computer folks here. 2.4 Can I post advertisements? Sure. As long as they're related to _classic_ computers. And, of course, use your brain - don't post repeatedly. 2.5 Can I ask people to sell/give me their computers? Sure. But you're not likely to get a very nice response. Mine, for example, would be: Get your own f***ing computer! There are several people on usenet who will vouch for this. 2.6 Can I ask for help fixing item x. Yes. Be aware that it may be difficult to help you fix things if you don't have much knowledge of how computers work or of how to use basic electronics tools (DMM, soldering iron, EPROM burner, etc). 2.7 Where can I look before posting a dumb question? It might be a good idea to take a look at what's available in the Archive section of the ClassicCmp web site (see below). 3.1 How many subscribers are there? Around 200, fluxing daily. 3.2 How many subscribers use machine x? Don't bother asking me. If you really want to know go ahead and post to the list. I really don't know what having a number will do for you... 4.1 Does ClassicCmp have a web site? Yep. http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bcw/ccl.html 4.2 How come the web site is so ugly? How come a PET is so ugly? Who cares as long as it works? 5.1 Where can I find classic computers? The best places seem to be thrift stores and swap meets. These are closely followed by pawn shops and mom and pop computer stores. The holy grails are electronics scrap yards - but they tend to be wary of individual pick-and-choosers. Oh yeah - garage sales! 5.2 How much is machine x worth? Precisely as much as you'll pay for it. Oh, you're selling it? Then , precisely as much as I'll pay for it. 5.3 Will 1000's of innocent machines be scrapped if I don't save them? Yes. This is the impetus behind every collectors tireless and selfless effort. Each machine we fail to save has it's gold parts mercilessly hacked off and sold (just like rhino horns - and look at the rhinos). The remainder is then sent to China to be made into bicycle spokes. Save a computer! Act now! Remind you wife of the rhino and cuter, furrier animals. It might work.

27 years, 7 months

BBSes running on old computers...

by haleyk＠okstate.edu

The IEEE student group that I belong to here at Oklahoma State just ran across an old z-80 based machine called a paraDynamics PRONTO. It seems to be a CP/M machine (we have a box of floppies for the twin 8" drives, and some are marked CP/M 86 and Microsoft Basic, etc.) The guy who was gonna chunk it in the trash said it had a USRobotics 1200 Baud modem and a 20 Meg HD along with 64K or RAM. He threw in a VT and soon as we can jumper around the rusty keyswitch, we hope to get some type of neat program to run on it for the heck of it, we threw around the idea of a BBS (albeit a slow one) possibly written in the BASIC that came with the machine. Has anyone used such a machine? Lets definately keep up the thread on BBSes and if we write it in a 4gl language, maybe a second list can be set up for the distribution of source code. BTW: we also got an IBM 5130.... It boots on a READY prompt, but we have NO CLUE what to do with it! We think the printer could be used as a boat anchor. hasta scott

27 years, 7 months

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test-drb April 1997