test-drb December 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

168 participants
844 discussions

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>>> had the (somewhat rare) 6809 CPU. >> >> I have a sales brochure here for the Acorn System 1,2 & 3. Inside it there >> is an 'Advance Information' flyer describing the 6809 card. I quote: what machines were the 6809's used in? I believe I still have a box of these somewhere - were they drop-in replacements for the 6502 then, but with an extended instruction set or something? cheers Jules > >

26 years

Packet Radio (was:Re: Modem tones over television or radio)

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/18/98 1:10:45 AM EST, marvin(a)rain.org writes: << What you are looking for is called a TNC (Terminal Node Controller.) And surprise, surprise, this is all on topic as I have several TNCs designed for the C-64 (no, I'm not interested in getting rid of them.) Years ago, I sold a friend of mine an IBM PC (yes, PC) with two floppy drives that he used up to last year to monitor packet radio here in Santa Barbara. There is also a device/software IIRC called Baycom that can be connected to the serial or parallel port and will work for packet radio. I might add you also need a radio to monitor packet radio :) and a ham license to utilize it. >> at every radio rally i've been to, there is always someone displaying a TNC for the C64 that appears to directly plug into the computer. I have seen one TNC for sale, and it was ~$60. Unfortunately, i dont know anything about TNCs like if there's just one type that plugs into a serial port or whether there are other styles, but i do know you need a 2 meter radio and the license to run it. packet radio seems to run at 2400, but i almost certainly remember being told once that some were running at 9600.

26 years

Another ~1960 computer kit - Philips?

by Innfogra＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/17/98 4:54:01 PM Pacific Standard Time, yowza(a)yowza.com writes: > I think there were other "real" computers that also > used magnetic drum for primary storage. My first home computer was a Litton 1259 (maybe 1251, it was a while ago) It had dual Drum memories of 200K each. The system had 5 3'X4' interconnected cabinets, the CPU and console, the 2 drum memories, a printer and a paper tape reader and punch. It took half of the Living room when I moved it in. It came with a punch tape to generate snoopy calendars off the printer. The Litton had worked for The State of Oregon General Services doing inventory >from 1969 till 1979. I think I got it in 1981. Paul Pierce has a Litton 1231, same but with a single drum, saved. He is planning to have it set up in his museum. Paxton

26 years

RT-11 IND - Curious Error Message

by jhfine＠idirect.com

I have been asked to modify a medium sized IND control file in order to upgrade a system to Y2K compliance. The specifications call for testing a specific file on the old data diskette and replacing it with a new version. In the course of making the changes, I have had a problem! Rather than post the complete IND control file, I have retained the statements which are causing the problem. And they have been modified so as to be generalized. Please be aware that while these statements serve no useful purpose by themselves, all but their essence was removed so as to produce this example in which the problem still appears. Most are from the original control file and a few are present due to the new specifications. So PLEASE don't just respond that the control files shown serve no useful purpose - 99% is missing and only the part which causes the problem has been retained. Someone taking a quick look at the problem might dismiss it as useless. I have 2 questions: (a) Is my understanding of IND incorrect and am I using IND in an incorrect manner? (b) Is there a bug in IND which is causing the problem? I have attached 2 files. The first is the minimum which causes the problem. The second provides a control test situation which does seem to work at first, but not under the conditions which are present in the "minimum" test file. Anyone out there who is still working with RT-11? Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine

26 years

Vax Rescue in Adelaide.

by netcafe＠pirie.mtx.net.au

Hi all, Just had a chat yesterday with the VMS System Manager at a big national company in Adelaide. He used to admin the Vax system we have at my School, when it was with it's original owners. Heard about this on the unofficial S.A. VMS Managers "old boy" network, a wonderful resource, and it was mentioned I should contact him as his company is retiring a Vax 6410/6240 Cluster next month. It's just come off DEC maintainance and is still in service at the moment. I expressed an interest, and it now seems likely, pending final approval by the PTB at his company, that it will be ours gratis. Just pickup and take away. They dropped a couple of others at a scrap yard last month as well. Probably could've had them too if we'd known. Seems there are a couple of HSC70's and a mixed bag of RA70's, 90's and 92's in the haul. Plus a TA79. I did a deal with a scrapyard earlier for 2 "spares" boxes, a 6440 with a full XMI card fit, including the CI, Ethernet and DSSI cards, (it has no BI backplane at all). 128Mb of RAM. Also a very beatup, (front door torn off) but probably still functional 6240, with ditto ram and a more low end BI card fit. (CI, TK70, Ethernet etc) I have to pick that up end of next month too. At this rate, I'll have more 6000 spares than Digi^H^H^H^H Compaq. The 6440's card fit (or perhaps the 6440) will migrate to the 6320 box at the school, and give it a big boost in performance, and the 6240 will move in as a standby/testbed box. (This leaves a 6220 and 6320 for me to play with here. :^) I'm still looking for a PDP11, Vax 11/780 or similar, and IBM and Prime Mainframes of some description for the "Hall of the Dinosaurs" Computer Museum I intend to start here. I'll include some smaller stuff, Microvax's and the like, but that's being done in several places already, so I'm going to concentrate on the real big stuff. FWIW, I'm using a VAX 8530 + CIBCI Cabinet and a TA78/TU78 as a room divider in the cafe, and a HSC50 and another same size cabinet with 3 RA81's in it as a counter. They get some very interested looks, and some classic double takes too. Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Room Internet Cafe Port Pirie South Australia. netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au

26 years

KIM/MOS-Tech

by rcini＠email.msn.com

On Mon, 31 Aug 1998 19:23:11 +1, "Hans Franke" <franke(a)sbs.de> wrote: >>does anybody know who has right now the rights for >>the KIM-1 design and the respective ROM code? >>Or more in general - is there any successor for >>the Commodore Semiconductor divison ? I did some research on this about 18 months ago in preparation for contacting Commodore's bankruptcy counsel to see about purchasing the rights to Commodore's 8-bit technology. Even though I read the Chapter 11 reorganization plan and Chapter 7 liquidation motion, and my corporate counsel looked at the docs, it's really hard to trace the chain of asset transfers, since I could not find a specific list of those assets sold; only broad "all intellectual property" language was used. Collectively, Commodore's assets were sold to Escom (a German computer manufacturer) for $14 million, $4 million of which realted to CBM and $10 million related to Commodore International Bahamas, Ltd. an affiliate of CBM. The former CSG operation located at 950 Rittenhouse Road in Norristown PA was purchased by GMT Microelectronics Corp., a company formed by former CSG management in order to purchase the chip-making assets. The purchase price was $4.3 million plus another $1 million to clear EPA liens. Assets included the plant, equipment, other inventory items at that location. Last year, I made a field trip to GMT and verified that they exist and are operating out of the old CSG building. The non-CSG assets stayed with Escom until they filed for receivership (bankruptcy), in 1996. The assets were then sold to a Netherlands-based company (Commodore NL??), who then sold the Amiga assets to Gateway (the Holstein cow people). I don't think that anyone truly knows who owns the old 8-bit assets. Commodore NL sells PeeCee compatible machines under the Commodore name, so I'd bank on Gateway owning them. If anyone on this list knows anyone at Gateway, now may be the time to use the relationship. Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> - ClubWin/CW7 - MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking - Preserver of "classic" computers <<<< ========== reply separator ========== >>>>>

26 years

Free IBM 4997 rack in Portland, OR

by rexstout＠uswest.net

Come and get it, it's a bare IBM 4997. No side panels, no power strip, no mounting rails... Just a plain rack. Free to the first person who can come pick it up in north Portland(not too far off of I-5). -------------------------------------------------------------- | http://members.tripod.com/~jrollins/index.html - Computers | | http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/1681/ - Star Trek | | orham(a)qth.net list admin KD7BCY | | ham-mac(a)qth.net Portland, OR | --------------------------------------------------------------

26 years

Packet Radio (was:Re: Modem tones over television or radio)

by netcafe＠pirie.mtx.net.au

-----Original Message----- From: SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Saturday, 19 December 1998 0:37 Subject: Re: Packet Radio (was:Re: Modem tones over television or radio) >packet radio seems to run at 2400, but i almost certainly remember >being told once that some were running at 9600. The user end of the packet network runs at 1200 baud mostly, at least in this country. However, the digipeaters and BBS's are linked by 4800 and 9600 bps backbones. Higher speeds are more widespread in the US. By way of interest, the Russian Space Station Mir has a couple of Packet setups, one is the 1200bps terrestrial system, in the 2m amateur band, which I have worked a couple of times, using just my normal 1/4wave on the roof. They also have a more sophisticated G3RUH 9600 BPS modem which I think is on a 70cm radio with their SSTV gear. Cheers Geoff Roberts VK5KDR Computer Room Internet Cafe Port Pirie South Australia. netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au

26 years

Packet Radio (was:Re: Modem tones over television or radio)

by netcafe＠pirie.mtx.net.au

-----Original Message----- From: Marvin <marvin(a)rain.org> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Friday, 18 December 1998 17:41 Subject: Re: Packet Radio (was:Re: Modem tones over television or radio) >What you are looking for is called a TNC (Terminal Node Controller.) And >surprise, surprise, this is all on topic as I have several TNCs designed for >the C-64 (no, I'm not interested in getting rid of them.) Years ago, I sold >a friend of mine an IBM PC (yes, PC) with two floppy drives that he used up >to last year to monitor packet radio here in Santa Barbara. There is also a >device/software IIRC called Baycom that can be connected to the serial or >parallel port and will work for packet radio. I have a Baycom modem that I made by converting a Sendata C64 Dumb modem. (Hey, that makes this msg on topic even, it dates from about 1983!) Basically, it works with driver software, either eprom based in the 64, (can't think of the name offhand) or device drivers and and a terminal, on a pc. Provided the PC was quick enough, (an XT will do for the genuine Baycom software) the effect is that it emulates a tnc at a fraction of the cost, significant, since tnc manufacturers are the biggest thieves out IMHO, charging $300 for the equivalent of a 1200 baud half duplex modem, with very simple firmware. There are now several different drivers for baycom modems, including some for Windows and Win95, which was always a no-no because of interrupt latency, but the new machines are so quick that it's not a big factor at 1200 anymore. Linux also has native support for both AX25 packet and Baycom modems. I still use my converted C64 modem on 2M packet, though it now talks to a P100 running Win95 rather than the original XT with Dos 3.3 >I might add you also need a radio to monitor packet radio :) >and a ham license to utilize it. I have seen packet activity in Sydney (some years ago now) on the 476mhz CB Band. It's illegal to do it there of course, but I have never heard of anyone being prosecuted for it either. It is still going on in some places. I have heard there is some activity using 300baud packet, AMTOR and RTTY on the 27Mhz CB band as well, though I've not heard it myself. Cheers Geoff Roberts VK5KDR Computer Room Internet Cafe Port Pirie South Australia. netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au

26 years

Language and wiered people

by netcafe＠pirie.mtx.net.au

-----Original Message----- From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Friday, 18 December 1998 9:53 Subject: Re: Language and wiered people >> If we were born 30 years earlier, we'd probably have been >> collectors/restorers of antique >> cars or aeroplanes or steam engines instead. > >What do you mean 'would have been' ? > >You mean there are people here who _don't_ love other forms of ancient >machinery? I am (seriously) very supprised - I've never met a classic >computer enthusiast face-to-face who doesn't also love steam engines or >vintage cars, or antique clocks/watches or old cameras, or something like >that (those are all _inclusive_ ORs, of course). You still haven't. I LOVE the stuff you mentioned. I was speaking in a "if there were no old computers to collect" mode. I have a weakness for clocks, watches and teleprinters. I also like classic cars and aircraft (I used to fly quite a bit when I was younger) I'm in mourning at the moment because the RAAF is retiring it's last Dakota's in a couple of weeks. I'm an Air Force Cadet Officer and Instructor, and have been on a few rides in the old Dak's with cadets. Alas, no more.... (I am restoring a 3cm radar off a commercial ship at the moment, for use by our cadets. Very different.) My first ever ride in an aircraft was in an Ansett ANA DC3, around 1961. I'd have one in my collection, but I can't figure how to get it past my wife..;^) Steam engines? Yes, I have been on the Pichi Richi railway here in S.A. and also Puffing Billy in the Melbourne area, and the Funicular Railway in the Blue Mountains. I can still remember the steamers coming down the main street. (the rail line ran down the centre for many years, gone now unfortunately) Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Room Internet Cafe Port Pirie South Australia. netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au

26 years

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test-drb December 1998