<> > BTW, what is a DEC Professional 350? I passed on both that and a Rai
<> > or two (they had a huge stack of Rainbows, but no monitors or keyboar
<> > sight). I really want to go back, and would tomorrow I think, but th
<> > weather is turning bad, and I'm supposed to be elsewhere :^(
The PRO350 is a member of the PDP-11 family. The processor is the F-11,
that's the same one as the 11/23 and they could carry up to 1meg of ram.
The bus physically is unique to the pro but it is similar to q-bus in
signals and timing.
As to options:
RX50 floppy
RD50/51/52 hard disks(rd51 10meg was common)
various memory options
APUs for 8088 or z80s
eithernet interface
Color graphics
Operating system was POS and was a modified version of RSX and is a
multitasking os. RT-11 was also available. Many programming languages
were available. Venix is available on the net for this box.
Speed, the PRO350 was slightly faster than the 11/23 though the disk
interfaces were slower. It did make a good workstation.
Versions, There was a PRO380 which used the J-11 (11/73 11/83) processor
which was faster and also the design carried more memory. Same box.
I have one and they are neat small machines. You need a monitor and
keyboard to make it complete.
Allison
Hello. From what I've heard, XT's practally line the streets in some
places. But, not here. :-( But, I've got most of an XT here. If anyone
has some spare parts, that they're willing to donate/sell, than that would
be great.
What I need:
a HDD, as after testing the one that came with mine on 2 machines, it
doesn't work. It sounds bad, too. Preferably, one that's a 10MB, like the
origional IBM. I don't have any SW, so it would be handy if you could just
take one out. But, if not, I can try other things.
A Controller, one that can handle Big Blue's origional 360K
A second one, that can handle the above hard drive. (May not be needed)
A video card. I need to figure out what's wrong with my XT monitor, as it
doesn't seem to be working. But, I could just use my CGA.
And, yes, I'm sure that I need all these. I've tried every part, and
none of them work. I tested my monitor on a friends CGA graphics card (but
set to mono), and the picture was CLEAR.
I'm willing to pay for these, as they'd make my first working classic.
And, I know that beggers can't be choosers.
<> >First programable calc
<>
<> Then there is the "first solid state electronic calc" which I think goe
<> the Busicom from Japan that employed the first production run of the in
<> 4000 chip set: the 4001 (2048 bit ROM), 4002 (320 bit RAM), 4003 (10 bi
No, this was not the first by a long means. I vaguely remember a desktop
HP job that was years earlier.
There were designs that were RTL and utililogic and even earlier designs
that were about the size of a desk drawer that were both totally
electronic and to some extent programable.
Allison
At 01:53 PM 1/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> Get an HP-IB cable or two if they have them but don't let them overcharge
>> you for them. A lot of people act like they're made of gold.
>
>That is because they are, at least to the test engineering world. These
>people spend large amounts for just about everything ($500 power supplies,
>$3000 signal generators, etc.), so a $20 cable is nothing to them. The
>dealers know they can get a large amount for HPIB cables, so they do.
>
>William Donzelli
>william(a)ans.net
$20 HA! Some of the dealers want $50+ plus for used ones around here.
OTOH I have been given bunches of them and there are tons of them
available. I just meant to warn him not to let them stick it to him for a
cable or let the price of the cable stand in the way of buying the HP IPC.
Joe
>
>
At 01:44 PM 1/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> >First programable calc
>>
>> Then there is the "first solid state electronic calc" which I think goes to
>> the Busicom from Japan that employed the first production run of the intel
>> 4000 chip set: the 4001 (2048 bit ROM), 4002 (320 bit RAM), 4003 (10 bit
>> shift register), and the 4004 (4 bit CPU). That chip set was shipped to
>> Busicom in March 1971 according to Michael S. Malone's "The
Microprocessor:
>> A Biography" ISBN 0-387-94342-0
>
>Wang's first (or quite near their first) product was an all electronic
>calculator, introduced in the late 1960s. They are big, but could be
>lugged around. The best part about them is the core memory! No
>microprocessors here (in fact, it may be discrete transistors - I better
>open the thing up a check).
>
>William Donzelli
>william(a)ans.net
>
HP's first calculator, the 9100a, was introduced in 1967 or 68. It had
no ICs, used core memories, and used logic gates made of diodes and
resistors. It did have transistors but they were mainly used as amplifiers
for the core memory. I guess it still qualifies as "solid state".) It was
fully proggramable and used RPN. I have a 9100B with a 1969 date code.
I believe the Japanese Busicom calculator is even older and dates from
about 1966.
Joe
>
>
OK, pardon my myriad of questions tonite, but I'm learning something
totally foriegn here. I've done some hunting, and it appears that I was
right, the pair of small PDP-11's aren't 23's their 73's. I wan't to see
if I can get them to boot, however, I'm wondering how I should connect the
terminal. Do I use a straight serial cable 9600 8-N-1, null modem cable,
or what.
I'm already getting the impression that I'm going to end up building a
cable for the VAXstation 2000. Based on what I've been able to find out on
that. Hopefully the snow tonite isn't to bad, I don't think I've got any
spare connectors laying around right now. Probably a good thing, I'd be
tempted to build the cable right now :^) Is this the correct penout for
the VS2000 console cable?
2<->3, 3<->2, 7<->7
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
I got back from the Portland sale, pretty cool. Seems like most of the
people there were Hams, with some possible camara buffs. Most people
looking at the computers were interested in stuff for modern systems.
There were at least four other people there into the classics though.
I went a bit crazy, and ended up with the following:
PDP-11/44:
Rack 1: 2 RL02's and what appears to be the connections for terminals
Rack 2: CPU, dual floppies (8" I think), those funny little tape
drives
I've heard mentioned, and a Battery Backup
I'm questioning the identity of these two, it's how they were labled, but
they don't have a DEC nameplate.
PDP-11/23: 8" disk and 20Mb HD
PDP-11/23: 5.25" disk and 20Mb HD
Kaypro II: I'm hoping the floppies are in good shape, I've really been
wanting to get one of these.
VAXstation 2000
S-100 bus cards: ~6 floppy controllers, ~1 I/O controller, a lot of RAM cards
Q-Bus cards: ESDI floppy controller (YES!!!), 2 8Mb RAM cards, a whole pile
that looked interesting and I honestly don't have any idea what they are.
I think at least a couple are for a MircoPDP-11, and I'm wondering if one
isn't a CPU for the MicroPDP-11. I'll probably have questions on what some
of these are later, thankfully a couple days ago I found a pretty good
Excel Spreadsheet on the net that will hopefully help me to identify them!
A shrinkwraped copy of CP/M for the Rainbow 100, one of the manuals and
another expansion unit for the Tek workstation I picked up a couple days
ago, and maybe one or two other minor items I can't think of now.
What can I say I'm pooped, I got my Dad to go, so I could use his Suburban,
but I didn't think about how little he can lift nowdays. If it wasn't for
Jim Willing, and the guy selling the stuff helping I don't think I'd have
gotten the Rack with the 11/40 CPU in the truck. Unfortunately we couldn't
figure out how to get the CPU out of the rack :^(
I've gotten everything except the 11/40 out of his truck, that's going to
have to wait. Unfortuntaly it's starting to snow, so it's probably going
to wait until next weekend.
No idea if anything works, I'm going to start playing tonite after I get
done taking a break.
As for the place having the sale, it was incredible, piles of old
computers, tons of S-100 bus cards and computers. O-Scopes, ham junk, old
camera equipment, etc., etc., etc. Of course to my thinking the prime
stuff was was the PDP-11/44 and the VAX 11/730, with those around it was
hard to see anything else. I'd have liked to get the VAX, but in all
honesty now that I've got the /44 I think I'll stick to MicroVaxes, they're
easier to move.
I passed up a couple of Bell & Howell Apples (the black ones), they were
trashed and didn't have the floppies, I'd have loved them for my Apple
collection, but they were to far gone. I really should have picked up a
VT220 or one of the other terminals that they had. They had a lot of
Televideo stuff, but I didn't recognize what it was.
BTW, what is a DEC Professional 350? I passed on both that and a Rainbow
or two (they had a huge stack of Rainbows, but no monitors or keyboards in
sight). I really want to go back, and would tomorrow I think, but the
weather is turning bad, and I'm supposed to be elsewhere :^(
Well, that's it for now, I want to start checking stuff out!
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
I was wondering if anyone knew how to install a Hayes 9600 modem into
an XT (Ogivar Tech.). There are a MASSIVE 21 megs in the hard drive,
and a 5.25 " drive. This is just a learning computer for a friend
who will buy up if this one can work. I'm on a non-graphical internet
account and the XT has a program already loaded on it to dial out,
but the modem isn't being recognized. All I've done is physically put
it into the slot ( it fits perfectly inside) and I haven't touched any
switches or the autoexec.bat at all. I have no idea it those things
are what I'd need to do anyway. Could someone help me out? Keep the
information in English, not tech-ese, I'm still learning too!
Thank you!
I picked up an Amigo computer today from a thrift store. Now, this is
something cool as I have never seen one before and it is an interesting
design for its time.
The CPU and CRT are in one unit. In fact, at first I thought this was
simply a dumb terminal because normally when you had a computer with
integrated CPU/CRT it was a lot bulkier than this one is. The motherboard
on this is tucked right under the tube. It has a Z-80 CPU and a 6502 (I'm
assuming the 6502 is for the video display). The keyboard is an IBM XT
keyboard (same key layout) but it has a 1/4" phono plug that connects to
the front of the CRT/CPU (just like the Apple Lisa keyboard). I also got
a dual half-height disk drive unit for it and two boxes of 5.25" floppies
with programs such as WordStar, Supercalc, etc. I got a couple CP/M
master disks with it as well.
It powers up and on the screen it says:
V.10 BOOT Insert system diskette in lower drive.
I can hear the drive spinning as if its trying to boot from the disk but
none of the system disks I have seem to work. Perhaps they are bad, or
the drive heads need cleaning.
What I really want to know is if anyone has ever seen or worked with one
of these, and if you've got any information on it.
Thanks!
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
