-----Original Message-----
From: Ward Donald Griffiths III <gram(a)cnct.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Saturday, 14 November 1998 15:46
Subject: Re: Minimum hardware requirements (Was: Old, but not "Classic"
>What you had there was as I recall one of the first commercial
>platforms to run Xenix,
Hmm, doubtless worthy of preservation. Actually, now that I think about it,
I think it was Xenix it ran. But I know I saw SCO mentioned in it
somewhere.
>The Altos 486 was so called because it supported 4 users on an '86.
Ok, that explains the name, anyway. Thanks for that.
Cheers
Geoff
Computer Room Internet Cafe
Port Pirie
South Australia.
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
I picked up some more odd-ball manuals. One of the ones that I got is for
the Motorola EXORset 30 XDOS Operating System. From the description in the
introduction, the system appears to be a development system with two SS 5
1/4" floppy drives and 16K of RAM. Is anyone familar with this system?
Anyone need the manuals?
Hmmm. Just found a couple of more manuals for this. These manuals are for
a GPIB card and an Input Output card. Lots of schematics and hardware
descriptions in these manuals. The pictures show large cards similar to
S-100 cards but with 86 contacts. The descriptions mention 8" discs
containing 6809 code.
Joe
> I picked up some more odd-ball manuals. One of the ones that I got is for
> the Motorola EXORset 30 XDOS Operating System. From the description in the
> introduction, the system appears to be a development system with two SS 5
> 1/4" floppy drives and 16K of RAM. Is anyone familar with this system?
> Anyone need the manuals?
I have a EXORset over here. Its a huge unit with two 8" FD drives.
Very variable due completly based on cards. Mine has 64 K of mem.
The system was intended to be used as 68xx development system for
Motorola products, but I've also seen an 8080 Assembler :)
Gruss
hans
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
-----Original Message-----
From: John Ruschmeyer <jruschme(a)exit109.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Saturday, 14 November 1998 11:57
Subject: Re: Minimum hardware requirements (Was: Old, but not "Classic"
>> it would be wonderful to have an OS that multitasks with no
>> problem on an 8086.
I saw a strange machine here a couple weeks ago.
It was called an Altos 486, and a guy brought it into the shop because it
had a password and he couldn't get past it.
He thought it was a 486 PC obviously, but when he brought it in, he brought
a serial terminal in with it! When we eventually fired it up, it turned out
to be
running SCO Unix (somewhat trimmed!) on an 8086, with (I think) 512k of RAM.
It also had z80's on there, port controllers I think.
Evidently it multitasked pretty well, it had 4 terminal ports and was
bundled with a business package, that did debtors & creditors, stock control
and word processing etc.
I'm trying to get him to part with it. The guy is about smart enough to
turn on a light switch without written instructions, but I tried teaching
him enough about it to make it useable for his (very) simple purposes (just
some record keeping) but it was a hopeless cause.
I'm going to do up an old 386 with a VGA monitor and see if he'll swap it
for the Altos.
Seems he bought it at auction (thought it was a pc because it said 486) for
A$40.
Anybody here got any more info on it? Couldn't find a date on the machine
itself, but the
chips seem to be circa 1979. The terminal was also an Altos and was
ansi/vt100 based.
It also had a Wyse 50 term with it.
Cheers
Geoff
Computer Room Internet Cafe
Port Pirie
South Australia.
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
>There was a ST3144A that liberally screamed in loud howling noise
>when it went through it's death throes.
At a lab I once worked at, a Fuji 2284 (14") drive in the computer
room developed bad bearings and started screeching. We call
System Industries field service, they log into the disk control
unit remotely via a modem, check the error logs, and tell us
there's nothing wrong :-)
Tim.
In '86 (in another life) I was a Systems Analyst for the
deregulated side of GTE... I was also the MIS department, the LAN
cable stringer-crimper, and I got to explain RS-232 to ex-PBX
salespeople who trying to make a buck in the Brave New World...
Anyway, my expensive 3Com server began to 'whistle' at about
10kHtz one day, and by the next morning it was screeching and
warbling and quite obviously dying quickly. While it *was* backed up
(the entire sales and marketing division was running in those 300
MBytes) I still had throughput goals to achieve, so I got the 3Com
tech-rep out. By the time he arrived people were coming in my office
to see what that awful noise was... I couldn't believe it was still
*spinning*... let alone reading and writing.
"Yup." He said. "No problem.."
It was the absolute filter in the top cover of the drive. They
offered to fix it... not under warranty!!! because it was not
mis-performing... just annoying the hell out of all and sundry.
Two whiny childish tantrums later... I got a new drive, which
poor me had to format and restore to... all one Saturday... it was
apparently a common problem w/that particular line of (Seagate??)
drives.
Cheers
John
>
>Actually, I wouldn't mind one...
>
>As for docs.. I have the DSD-880/20 manual. If that would help, I'll
>make a copy of it for you...
>
I will have to check the total model info and what hard drives are in them.
I have 4 to 6 complete chassis but no controllers. I don't even know what
they are supposed to use for a controller. Then to I may have the
controller and don't even know it.:)
Dan
>I have a few DSD880's here if you need one. I have no docs but would
>like to get some if you managed to hang on to a copy.
Actually, I wouldn't mind one...
As for docs.. I have the DSD-880/20 manual. If that would help, I'll
make a copy of it for you...
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 |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
I have a few DSD880's here if you need one. I have no docs but would like
to get some if you managed to hang on to a copy.
Dan
dburrows(a)netpath.net
>When I was working in the RT-11 development group at Digital, I
>had a DSD-880. This was an RL02-lookalike and an RX02-lookalike.
>But where true RX01s and RX02s from Digital didn't actually write
>formatting information, this unit could.
>
>I also had a floppy disk which was mounted on the side of a
>file cabinet using a large ring magnet (as is found in some
>DEC disk drives). People always figured it was a bad disk
>until I took it off the cabinet, put it in the DSD880, formatted
>it (for real) and then used it under RT before putting it back
>on the cabinet...
>
>It was just fun to see their eyes when I told them it was still
>usable...
>
> 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 |
>+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
>
