test-drb October 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
1141 discussions

by mbg＠world.std.com

>> I used to know the speed of light in Furlongs per Fortnight. > >The attoparsec/microfortnight is remarkably close to the inch/second. >Quite useful for quoting tape speeds :-) IIRC, the GT40 lunar lander program had comments about measuring things in furlongs per fortnight. I'll have to check the source... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com | | Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

26 years, 1 month

Fairchild Channel F

by fauradon＠pclink.com

Hi, I finally got around to going to the thrift store and picked up that Channel F. It cost me $10 and has Carts number 12 Baseball and 16 Dodge it. Whoever wanted it please respond to fauradon(a)pclink.com Francois ------------------------------------------------------------- Visit the desperately in need of update Sanctuary at: http://www.pclink.com/fauradon/

26 years, 1 month

Anyone Have Pinout for M8047-AA SLU Ports???

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>I am looking for the pinout of the 2 serial ports. They are 10 pin IDC >headers, with one pin removed to ensure correct polarity. >The headers look like: > > o o o o o > o o X o o

26 years, 1 month

64bit data 128Bit address...Re: Building a Z-80 (64bit!!!)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I guess I don't have $1000 to bet, but I wouldn't be quite that sure. No application _requires_ any number of bits > 1. It's a question of performance. After all, a Z80 could have 512M RAM, just not contiguously (and would probably require a lot of hardware to access it). There are plenty of tasks that can use up much more than 4GB ram, most notably databases and various graphics. 1GB is currently the amount of RAM a high-end server can be expected to have, and in CGI and engineering applications, even this isn't enough. To sum up, volume always fills capacity, as the highway engineers that are tearing up boston haven't learned yet. But, what's the amount of RAM a 128-bit processor can access? >I beg to differ, and I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is. I'm >willing to bet $1000 that there will be no practical applications requiring >processors with 128-bit addressing by October 24, 2003. Any takers? > >> Yep. Short-sightedness (and history) is seemingly repeating on this list. > >We'll see. > >This is not the same shortsightedness as the old series of claims: > > You'll never need more than 1K of RAM. > You'll never need more than 4K of RAM. > You'll never need more than 16K of RAM. > You'll never need more than 32K of RAM. > You'll never need more than 64K of RAM. > You'll never need more than 128K of RAM. > You'll never need more than 256K of RAM. > You'll never need more than 512K of RAM. > You'll never need more than 640K of RAM. > You'll never need more than 1M of RAM. > You'll never need more than 4M of RAM. > You'll never need more than 16M of RAM. > You'll never need more than 64M of RAM. > You'll never need more than 256M of RAM. > >And yes, I've heard every single one of these statements made at one >time or another. I haven't yet heard anyone claim that I'll never need >more than 512M of RAM. My current Linux workstation has 384M of RAM, >of which I routinely use more than 300M for large compiles (and I do mean >LARGE compiles, some require over 500M virtual) and for image processing. > >Eric > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

More thoughts on building a Z-80 (64bit!!!)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< I was just pointing out that it's _possible_ to make high-speed stuff at < home given a lot of care and a bit of knowledge. The myth that it's < impossible to homebrew at above 10MHz is just that - a myth. It's not < easy, but it's possible. Having also done it I know that it's not for the faint of heart. You have to have an idea about fast pulses and RF in real life circuits to know what works and what may not. FYI: My favorite breadboard technique is dead bug. Take a sheet of copper clad and call that ground, mount devices inverted (legs up!) and bend any pins that are gound to ground. Small cap from Vcc to the ground plane and start wiring. Critical lead lengths can be very short. I've used this trick for over 20 years and into the GHz region successfully. Looks ugly but it goes together fast and works better than a PC layout! It's also non fussy in that it applies well to RF as digital circuits. Allison

26 years, 1 month

Items sold

by kyrrin＠jps.net

The H89 system I advertised in here a while back has been sold. A fellow out of Jacksonville, FL was the lucky buyer (and you don't want to know what the shipping cost!) The DECMate III floppies and card have also been claimed. Thanks to all for your interest. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) (Web: http://table.jps.net/~kyrrin) SysOp: The Dragon's Cave (Fido 1:343/272, 253-639-9905) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

26 years, 1 month

old IBM calculator questions

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

What kind of speed gain? > >On Sat, 24 Oct 1998, Max Eskin wrote: > >> Here are a couple of questions inspired by my encounter with the >> IBM Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator Mark I. >> For one thing, if this thing could perform all of the basic >> calculations to many decimal places in a short time, why build an >> ENIAC, many times bigger, and less reliable, when this machine >> could have been scaled if necessary? It had been in development, and >> I'm sure the military was working on relay-based machines as well. >> So why the choice of digital with vacuum tubes? > >Speed for one. > >Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Ever onward. > > Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 > See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! > [Last web site update: 09/21/98] > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

Zenith Luggable

by lwalker＠mail.interlog.com

I have a Zenith luggable ZFA-161-52 with the popup fdds. I've dug into Dejanews archives but haven't found too much on it. I know the model # indicates a Z(enith) F( 48 TPI double sided) A( amber screen ) 161 model 5 (slots) 2 (fdds'). There's 2 Zenith newsgroups , one of which seems devoted to newer machines and the other Z-100 which is mainly porn spam. There's also a program archive on Oakland. There also seems to be some confusion as to what is a Z-100 machine which sometimes refers to only the 110 and 120 models and other times to anything with a 100 #. Apparently some of the models ran CP/M and had a S-100 bus and also ran ZDOS ,compatible with MSDOS. Mine has some 1983 and 1984 dates on it and boots from DOS as apparently all would. The built-in monitor system indicates 320k Ram. It has an 8088 CPU on one of the cards but I don't see another processor for CP/M. Any pointers to a source of info or info on this machine would be appreciated. ciao larry lwalker(a)interlog.com

26 years, 1 month

old IBM calculator questions

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Here are a couple of questions inspired by my encounter with the IBM Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator Mark I. For one thing, if this thing could perform all of the basic calculations to many decimal places in a short time, why build an ENIAC, many times bigger, and less reliable, when this machine could have been scaled if necessary? It had been in development, and I'm sure the military was working on relay-based machines as well. So why the choice of digital with vacuum tubes? Also, the plaque at the Mark I said that it was decimal. I am slightly familiar with flip-flops and stuff, but what would be a way to make a decimal computer? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

Bid list

by franke＠sbs.de

>> these things are headed for landfill big time. Along about 2010 or 2015 and >> trying to put together a representative 486 system from the "early 90's" is >> going to be damn near impossible. Look at the PDP-8's which spanned 15 >> years of production and are now pretty difficult to get hold of. > That's because only several thousand PDP-8's were ever produced. Trust > me, I don't think you're EVER going to have problems finding a 486 > motherboard, at least not in the next millenium. There has been a time when I thougt that picking up a ZX80 from dirt is not worth ... and now ? Also PET - have you seen the PETs on ePay ? I got most of my PET/CBMs way below USD 50 - and now ? Hard to finde won at a reasonable price. Gruss Hans -- Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut HRK

26 years, 1 month

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test-drb October 1998