test-drb October 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
1141 discussions

by dastar＠ncal.verio.com

Who's the Canadian guy who said he wanted the box of 3480 1/2" tape carthridges and was supposed to send me shipping dough for them? I haven't heard from you since we last spoke. (Sorry, I forgot who you were). But this message is also to solicit anyone else who needs these. I've got a couple hundred. Used once, maybe twice, but otherwise they may as well be new. I think one application for these is an IBM AS/400. Just pay me shipping and they're yours. Otherwise I'll find some creative way to auction them on eBay and make a small fortune. 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]

26 years, 2 months

Apple power supply problems

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< I can't think of a reliable troubleshooting technique that invloves < feeding unlimited current through the device. The next part to smoke may < not be the problem at all... I'd go further to say doing that assures the single point problem is not a multiple point problem assuming the damage is now not beyond repairable. Toasting chokes and transformers generally assures the tech a really nasty task of trying to find one compared to an easy one finding caps, resistors and semiconductors. Allison

26 years, 2 months

Misc.

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

Kai said: > 1. The Altair prototype that was to be the cover photo for Popular > Electronics but was lost in shipment > 2. Xerox Alto > 3. Mark 8 > 4. Scelbi 8H > 5. Kenbak-1 > 6. Micral 8008 > 7. Apple I > 8. An unassembled Altair 8800 Kit > 9. Busicom Japan Intel 4004-based Calculator > 10. IBM 5100 You need to add my favorite - Intersil's Intercept Jr. Allison said: >7. Intel prompt-48 I have one of those I could trade. The only docs I have are 5 pages in the back of the MCS-48 manual. Never have tried powering it up. ========================================= Doug Coward Press Start Inc. Sunnyvale,CA =========================================

26 years, 2 months

Regarding PDP-11/ and rt11 too

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< The binaries are pretty much useless if you want to run on real hardware < In order to reconfigure unix you have to recompile from the sources. The < sources, though are affordable, and certainly some versions include < drivers for a lot of DEC drives, etc. But I think you need an MMU, so no < chance of running on an 11/03 Yep! depending on version you your really need sources. I have an 11/73 with RQDX3 and two RD52s and V7 running on a 10mb RL02 cart. Without sources all of the other disks unless older RK05s are useless. Also it doesn't use all the avalable ram. Fairly useless other than it's real unix. < > The question is however is there something else? I know fuzzball is < > around but I don't know if that is a option for most -11 users. < < IIRC Fuzzball needs an RT11 system to provide a lot of utilities (things < like PIP), the assembler, etc. It's not really stand-alone. Also problematic. Almost begs a new PD OS that is on the simple scale, buildable and patterned after RT or OS/8. Porting CPM68 (c source) to PDP-11 may be doable for a simple 64k memory (16bit). Porting C sources is not my area of expertize. Allison

26 years, 2 months

Regarding PDP-11/ and rt11 too

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 9, 10:00, David C. Jenner wrote: > This is a critical question. If there were only a small OS that ran > on a minimal -11 with floppies, there could be many more usable systems > out there. > > There are several other possibilities. The last two of these have > fairly liberal licensing restrictions (maybe none): > > - HT-11, the Heathkit version of RT-11 > - Xinu, which runs on an 11/03, but [...] > - FORTH, which is available in several different versions There's also a version of the UCSD p-System, which runs on a minimal -11, but that probably has licensing restrictions, too. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 2 months

Help with AES computer?

by rax＠warbaby.com

Can anyone help this guy? >Professor Dr Hans Rollmann, who supervises one of the more elegant and >elaborate sites on the WorldWideWeb for the Department of Religious Studies >at Memorial University in Newfoundland, has found some important primary >data that he hopes to mount with other texts on the site. These data are >imprisoned on 8-inch computer disks that were made on an AES computer, >apparently in the 1980s. No printed record of the material survives; only >the 8-inch disks remain. No AES computer or 8-inch drive exists at Memorial >University; the technical services people from the Computing Sciences >Department tried to build an 8-inch drive from spare parts, but came up >short. The intellectual content frozen in this "obsolete" technology >remains unreadable. > >Does anyone know the whereabouts of an intact AES computer? Failing that, >is there any available information about these machines? What did the >acronym AES stand for? Where was it built? Most important, what operating >system did it use? What word processing software might have been loaded? > >Has anyone preserved any computer with an 8-inch disk drive? As I recall, >both Commodore and Atari used 8-inch drives. > >Anyone who has useful information on this problem can communicate with >Professor Rollmann at > > hrollman(a)morgan.ucs.mun.ca > >Those who may be interested in his religious studies web site can begin >sifting through its many layers at > > http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~hrollman > >Professor Rollmann will be grateful for any assistance anyone can offer. >The rest of us need to be sure that any intellectual material we >"catalogue" can also be "read." -- Warbaby The WebSite. The Domain. The Empire. http://www.warbaby.com The MonkeyPool WebSite Content Development http://www.monkeypool.com Once you get the nose on, the rest is just makeup.

26 years, 2 months

World Power Systems scam

by bobstek＠ix15.ix.netcom.com

Kai - Please don't confuse Morrow (a "good" guy) with the Xitan scammers. TDL made a Z-80 board and then some decent software, and then some Xitan computer systems. TDL got into trouble using some bad memory chips and had cash flow problems. Some "business consultants" were brought in who dissolved TDL and started Xitan and heavily promoted an advanced Z80 system, the General. They took orders and disappeared in '78. But George Morrow wasn't involved - he was in California, and TDL / Xitan was in New Jersey. Bob Stek bobstek(a)ix.netcom.com Saver of Lost SOLs

26 years, 2 months

"David Williams" North Star Horizon Help

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

RE: "David Williams" North Star Horizon Help I keep meaning to write up a Horizon troubleshooting guide because it seem that someone has these same problems about every 6 months. But I can't even seem to find the time to sit down and just design a logo graphic for my museum. OK here is a quick shoot at it. >Ok, I have a few minutes now to play around with the N* Horizon >I've been fixing up. I've tried to power it up and it seems to hit the >disk drive and then nothing. Good, if the drive light is coming on that saves some steps. On a normal load the drive light should be on for about 12 seconds. The first step would be to see if you are getting a READ error on the drive. 1. According to the MDS-A-D controller manual you can test for a read error at location 7C pin 6. This is the DI-GATE line and on a read error there will be a continuous stream of pulses on this line. This chip is 7 columns from the left side and 3 rows >from the top and should be a 74LS00. I tried this out this morning. I could'nt find my logic probe so I used a voltmeter. With NO disk error 7C pin 6 stayed at 4.55 VDC. With a disk error this pin dropped to 1.91 VDC indicating pulses. If you are getting disk errors, it could be: * a blank or bad disk * a single density disk * a faulty disk drive * or a fault in the read circuit of the controller. Also check that the head carriage guide is in the spiral groove on the stepper motor cam of the disk drive. If you are not getting a disk error then it's narrowed down to a unpersonalized disk or serial communcations problems. 2. It would help for the next step to have a bus monitor card. These are like gold if you are dealing with S-100 bus systems on a regular basis. But you can also just use a bus extender card to allow you to get to the bus signals with your voltmeter. This morning I looked at the address bus after booting with a working DOS disk and with a unpersonalized DOS disk. With the standard version that loads at $2000, the I/O routines are normally placed at $2900-$2A00. The unpersonalized DOS has it I/O vectors pointing to themself like this: $200D C30D20 COUT JMP COUT THIS IS THE CHARACTER OUTPUT ROUTINE * Character must be in the B register. Device # may be in the ACC, if * desired. On return the character must also be in the ACC. No other * registers can be modified. Your routine must do a RET. * $2010 C31020 CIN JMP CIN THIS IS THE CHARACTER INPUT ROUTINE * Device # may be in the ACC, if desired. The 7 bit ascii code must be * returned in the ACC. No other registers can be modified. Your routine * must do a RET. * $2013 C31320 TINIT JMP TINIT THIS IS THE TERMINAL INIT ROUTINE * All registers can be used. If not needed, point to a RET. * $2016 C31620 CONC JMP CONC THIS IS THE CONTROL C DETECTION ROUTINE * Returns Z set if control C is typed, else returns Z cleared if other * character or no character is typed. All registers can be used. In both cases bit 13 of the address bus is alway active ($2000). With the unpersonalized disk the 8 lower bits were the ONLY other active lines. But with the working disk, bits 8-11 were also active. So, checking address bits 8-11 for activity should show you if DOS is really trying to communicate with your terminal. 3. I still can't find my manual for the Horizon that shows how to set the DIP headers (the "plugs" are called DIP headers). Here a RS-232 break-out box would be handy. If you don't have one, I would try setting the Horizon to 300 baud (with that switch in the back) and your terminal to 9600 baud. That should give you a couple of lines of garbage if any thing comes across the line. Remember to set your terminal to 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no flow control, and if you are using your PC as a terminal which would be best, emulate just a standard ANSI-BBS terminal. When I use my PC as a terminal, I use a straight through 25 wire ribbon cable, but try your Null Modem cable too. If you get the garbage then set your terminal to the same speed as the Horizon. And remember that the Horizon may not boot when powered on, you may have to hit the reset switch in the back. Let me know what you find. And I'll send the games to you next week (have to work this weekend). ========================================= Doug Coward Press Start Inc. Sunnyvale,CA =========================================

26 years, 2 months

6502 vs. 6800 (was Re: kits, definitions, prices...)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< When IBM was developing the 1401 emulation for the 360/30, they discover < that many customers were in fact using and dependent on undefined behavi < of the 1401. They had to emulate a lot of things that were never docume This was also true for undocumented PDP-8 series microcoded OPR instructions. In the later 8E and 8A and cmons parts there would be support for some of them. Other cpus with undocumented instruction are 8085, z80 and I'll bet a slew more. Those however the undocumented instructions were also copied and assured to work by licensed and non-licensed copies of the parts. Allison

26 years, 2 months

Old HP disk drives (HP 7925) available

by sieler2＠allegro.com

Hi, David Largent, at Largent(a)MBRNET.INTEREX.ORG, has some old HP disk drives available (in Muncie, Indiana). The HP 7925 is a 120 MB disk with an HP-IB interface (removable disk pack). The HP 7933 is a 400 MB disk with an HP-IB interface (non-removable, although extremely closely related to the HP 7935, which is removable). The drives are about the size of a 2-drawer filing cabinet ... and heavier. If you're interested in them, contact him ... not me! His posting: > OK. With all this talk about the old venerable 7925 and 7933 disc > drives, it makes me realize that I still have a pair (a master and a > slave) of 7925s sitting here in a corner with boxes stacked on top of > them. They're left over from a 3000/42 that we sold years ago, and > were fully operational when they were disconneted. I think I even > have the manuals for them! > > We're going to be relocating our offices in a few weeks, and it makes > no sense to move them. Thus a few questions... > > - Does anybody want them? They're your's if you pay to get them > delivered to you. (We _might_ [read: probably not] even be willing > to share in the cost if you can offer a good home and there's not too > much cost involved.) > > - Assuming nobody wants them (or parts of them), what should I do w/ > them? A few ideas come to mind... > > - Haul them to the junk yard for scrap metal. > - Sell them for "precious metal". (Is there any in it???!) > - Leave them in the old building and let the new occupents > figure out what to do w/ them. (hehehe) > > Being the pack rat that I am, and a long-time, loyal HP customer, > it's difficult to think about simply hauling them off to the junk > yard. Seems like they at least deserve a burial or something! > > Now I'll sit back and wait for those "creative" (or real) suggestions > to start coming my way from the list. :-) > > -dll > > David L. Largent "My thoughts are my own, > Information Services Manager unless I choose to share them!" > The Gilbert Companies, Inc. Telephone: 765/284-4461 > P.O. Box 1032 Facsimile: 765/288-2079 > Muncie, Indiana 47308-1032 Email: Largent(a)MbrNet.Interex.Org > -- Stan Sieler sieler(a)allegro.com http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html

26 years, 2 months

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test-drb October 1998