test-drb October 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
1141 discussions

by headcase＠eclipse.co.uk

I posted the following - now translated message - on 23 October '98 Having had my wrist slapped, I apologise to all for such a very basic lack of knowledge and understanding. No doubt the same applies to the message When collecting vintage/classic computers it would seem to me that the apparently much sort after Altair 8800 is the Model T to the Intellec's R.R. Silver Ghost. At the time - 1974 - I thought the Altair was a very very cheap copy of my very very very expensive Intellec - and I still do! But then I would, wouldn't I? Have I fallen for all the eBay hype or have I've been wrong all these years? Jim Bunting - headcase(a)eclipse.co.uk M.V. Great Gull, Double Locks Hotel, Canal Banks, Exeter Ship Canal, Exeter, Devon, U.K. EX2 6LT. Phone No. 44 (0) 1392 493311 (On Board)

25 years, 9 months

FS in UK - Intel & Cromemco Etc. circa 1974 & 1980

by headcase＠eclipse.co.uk

To anybody who couldn't read my original message because of html etc:- I thought it best to post it again - but then I would wouldn't I? Thanks to all those of you who replied about the computer equipment I'm selling I read all the replies up to about second week in September but lost those together with a massive pile of un-read mail up to a few weeks back.. If you havent had a reply - sorry - over confidence or Bill's bugs - I still haven't figured out which I've sorted through all my computers and equipment and listed them on my web pages .http://www.eclipse.co.uk/great-gull/ together with photos etc The Intell, Addmaster, Roytron, Mesonix etc. stuff is on http://www.eclipse.co.uk/great-gull/sellintel.htm I have listed all the information I have, together with photographs of each item. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the folder containing all the original documentation but most of the stuff is circa 74/75. The Cromemcos and software stuff are on http://www.eclipse.co.uk/great-gull/sellcromemco.htm There are three working Cromemco Systems circa 1978 to 1984 - two System Three's and one Z-2H - together with a pile of instruction and technical manuals. I have listed some of the more interesting software on some of the one hundred and fifty (approx) 8" disks. There may be some software or manuals that are needed by subscribers to this list - that shouldn't be bundled for sale with the equipment. If having seen my web site - it's not bad for someone who never progressed past machine code - you think I have, or even might have, something you want e-mail me and I will try to reply promptly. Unfortunately most of the stuff is stored 150 miles north of here in Worcester, so I won't get the chance to delve deeper very often. It may offend some sensibilities that I will be listing most of the stuff on eBay just as soon as I have time. Those of you who think I should be less grasping should remember that I bought all this stuff new before most of you were born. In the mean time I'm open to any offers and and will pay/arrange shipping to most countries Otherwise see it on eBay in due course. Jim Bunting - headcase(a)eclipse.co.uk M.V. Great Gull, Double Locks Hotel, Canal Banks, Exeter Ship Canal, Exeter, Devon, U.K. EX2 6LT. Phone No. 44 (0) 1392 493311 (On Board)

25 years, 9 months

How is a microprocessor made?

by oajones＠bright.net

I've always wanted to ask this question. How is a microprocessor made? Can someone here on the list answer this question? --Alan oajones(a)bright.net

25 years, 9 months

In case you thought Ebay couldn't get more ridiculous...

by aaron＠wfi-inc.com

What the fu... http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=37155064

25 years, 9 months

Starting from Scratch (was Re: OT: Modern college educa

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 24, 9:53, Sam Ismail wrote: > Subject: Re: Starting from Scratch (was Re: OT: Modern college educa > On Fri, 23 Oct 1998, Ethan Dicks wrote: > > > can provide one. It depends on logical statements working as follows: > > The statement C=(A>B) would set C to 0 if A weren't greater than B, and > > would set C=-1 if A were greater than B. Not all micro BASICs support this. > > I'm pretty sure Applesoft is onethat does _not_. > > AppleSoft would logically return a +1 for the above statement rather than > a -1. Why the PET returns a -1 is beyond me. Couldn't they have added > one more machine instruction to strip off the sign bit? The PET is actually following the more common convention. The bitwise complement of 0 (all zero bits) is -1 (all one bits), at least in a 2's-complement environment. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years, 9 months

old IBM calculator

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Today, I briefly attended an Earthwatch conference at the Harvard Science Center. It wasn't as good as it could have been, but what was interesting was the IBM Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator, Mark I. This was apparently used by Harvard since 1946 or so. Now, it's in the lobby, or at least most of it. It's an electromechanical machine, no electronic components. Very fun to look at! The plaque said that in modern terms, it would have been 52 Hz and 1.7K RAM. It has one constant panel (dozens of rotary switches), an enormous array of relays, a missing multiplication module, a paper tape module (for output), a paper tape sequencer module (input), two typewriters (input and output), and a punched card device. It was shut off, except for flourescent lights, but I bet it could probably run...it was about 2 m tall and less than 1 m deep. The photos showed that it originally had a lot of pulleys on the back for dealing with paper tape. It is driven by a motor shaft that extends through the whole machine, spinning at 4 rpm. This acted as a clock and drove the tape mechanisms. Seems very easy to use, with proper instructions. I wouldn't mind having this in a hypothetical basement. On the plaque, it says it was used for ray tracing for lens design. Just thought someone would like to know :) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

25 years, 9 months

Starting from Scratch (was Re: OT: Modern college educa

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 23, 16:03, Hans Franke wrote: > >> My Lord Hammurabi, I beg to report to you that this year we > >> have produced 1,000 transistors and 400 rallods of copper > >> wire. > > Surplus shops have taken 215 transistors. > > Do you want to buy or sell source code? That brings back some fond memories :-) > Where is my copy of '101 basic games' ? Probably same place mine went: loaned, not returned. I still have ":More BASIC Computer Games: 84 Fabulous Games for Your Personal Computer", though. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years, 9 months

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

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

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25 years, 9 months

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

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< I have made double-sided boards that ran at 100MHz+. The trick was to us < (a) one side entirely unetched as a ground plane, (b) design all the < tracks as striplines, (c) know the characteristics of the PCB material, < (d) use 100% SMD components with the shortest possible ground < connections, (e) use carefully designed twisted pair lines to carry < signals about if you couldn't route the tracks, (f) terminate everything < properly and (g) take a lot of care and think about what you are doing. (h) accept lower component density on the board to do that. It's very doable but, a 4-6 layer makes it so much less painful for a production system. Allison

25 years, 9 months

Starting from Scratch (was Re: OT: Modern college education

by hhacker＠gte.net

I do not need to have messages like this sent to me dozens of times! William R. Buckley -----Original Message----- From: Ethan Dicks <erd(a)infinet.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Friday, October 23, 1998 5:50 AM Subject: Re: Starting from Scratch (was Re: OT: Modern college education >> >> > You play the game like this: >> > 1) Scout for a surface deposit of Coal and start mining coal. >. >.

25 years, 9 months

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test-drb October 1998