At 12:30 PM 12/13/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Interesting item on ebay. I hadn't heard of it but it looks like it is an
>interesting part of early computer history! The URL is:
>http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=47803992
>
>
I do remember seeing ads for it (Edmund scientific?), if I can find what it
cost then, I will post it.
I just checked, the bid is now $76, too much for me. I have actually managed
to buy no computer items yet on ebay, did get within 1 minute on one item.
I would be interested in what the minivac did? There are 6 relays, one pole
maybe used as a latch? I forgot what it takes in relays for a 1 bit adder, a
single relay coil can be an exclusive or, foe example.
My point is that I can still find relays for US$1 each, so building
something like this isn't out of the question. The "speculation" value is
less interesting to me... if I had one, under what circumstances would I
sell it? Besides, a homebrew could be modified/improved without the
speculation factor.
-Dave
> No, I think this comes more from a lack of integrity. He also implied it
> was an S100 emulator. Like I said, this item had nothing to do with
> emulating an S-100 bus, and didn't really have much to do with an Altair
> or IMSAI for that matter either.
Let's see - if you wanted to emulate early S-100 stuff, I guess this'd
be the way that it'd go:
1. Find an ad in the back of a 1975-1978 BYTE magazine for a neat
memory board.
2. Place order for board.
3. Begin assembling board. Supplier gives you low-grade chips; you must
test all 2102's by hand before installing.
4. Plug board into system. Front panel freezes up.
5. Hack around the front panel, changing RC constants in one-shots.
6. Discover you have to cut a couple traces on your CPU board, wire
in some JK Flip-Flops to synchronize the timing to what the memory
board expects.
7. Congratulations! After months of time, and weeks of effort, you now
have enough memory to play Trek under MBASIC!
OK, OK, I'm exaggerating a little bit. By the late 70's there were some
pretty solid S-100 based systems out there, if you were willing to
spend the bucks to get the good stuff (i.e. Godbout/Compupro/Cromemco/usw.)
But if you played it cheap, you got what you paid for!
Tim.
>>Hmm - it looks like they do Phase IV, SET HOST, and FAL, which I think
>>is all you need.
>>
>>It looks like they've only done extensive testing under VMS, so it's
>>possible that some of their tools assume VMS-ism's not present under
>>RSX. But you won't know till you try!
>I've spent a good chunk of the day trying to get this working, and finally
>gave up and spent some time redoing my one VAX so it doesn't have to have
>ALL the disks online when it is used. The end result is as follows:
>
> VAX VMS 6.1 talks to Linux 2.0.34
> Linux 2.0.34 talks to VAX VMS 6.1
>
> VAX VMS 6.1 talks to RSX-11M 4.2
> RSX-11M 4.2 talks to VAX VMS 6.1
>
> Linux DOES NOT talk to RSX
> RSX DOES NOT talk to Linux
Let's back up just a little bit, Zane. If I understand your original
post, you want to use Linux/DECNET to move some files to and from
a RSX system, right? If so, why not just move the RSX disk to the
VMS system, MOUNT it under VMS, use DECNET between the Linux
box and the VAX, and then move the disk back to the PDP-11 when
you're done?
(Note that RSX disks larger than 512 Mbytes may not be mountable
under VMS, due to a divergence between RSX, VMS, and IAS about how
to enlarge the ODS-1 cluster factor. But disks smaller than 512
Mbytes are just plain old ODS-1 filesystems and VMS and RSX agree
about how to talk to these.)
Things are even better if the drive in question is dual ported -
that way you can have it physically attached to the VAX and the
PDP-11 at the same time (very handy for some development).
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
While trying to get to the SOL in the back of the warehouse I came across a
spare Data General card set. It is a 1210 CPU card and an 8K core memory card.
I believe they would work if plugged in. It was a spare board set for a bunch
of systems that we scrapped about 8 years ago.
This is just a two card set in an anti stat box. Written on the box is
"Replacement value $12,000, 1977"
I am open to all offers.
Paxton
In a message dated 12/13/98 4:29:03 PM Pacific Standard Time,
healyzh(a)aracnet.com writes:
> >Where is the list of the top Supercomputers?
>
> Good question, I hit a link from slashdot last week, but didn't bother to
> bookmark it.
www.netlib.org
Kelly
I found this while digging through a surplus store. AT&T external SCSI
drive model DM/300S. It's a white metal box about 11" square and 4" high.
Does anyone know what machine/system it's for or the specs for it? It has
two round co-axial connectors on the back marked "Power" and "Control".
Anyone know what they're for? It has a socket for an AC power cord so the
"Power" connection isn't for powering the drive.
Joe
>Here is the URL for the 'DECnet for Linux' Homepage. I'm in the process
>of getting the latest version installed at this momnet. It looks like
>they've made some serious improvements.
>http://linux.dreamtime.org/decnet/
Hmm - it looks like they do Phase IV, SET HOST, and FAL, which I think
is all you need.
It looks like they've only done extensive testing under VMS, so it's
possible that some of their tools assume VMS-ism's not present under
RSX. But you won't know till you try!
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
I have a few floppies, both 8-inch and 5.25-inch, whose outer sleeves
have been warped or bent due to various reasons over the years.
Although it appears that the inner, flexible media are OK, I am
reluctant to try to read and copy these without taking some sort of
precautions.
When I try to manually rotate the inner media, it is either very
difficult or impossible without doing some harm to the floppy.
(Usually, you can do this manually with only a little effort.) I
worry that putting them into a drive may totally destroy the floppy.
Some of these floppies (especially the 8-inchers) are up to 20 years
old and contain what I now consider to be valuable material. I have
successfully read and copied other floppies of the same vintage (and
probably same origin) as these warped ones with no problems.
So, what do I do? Is it conceivable to open and remove the inner
media from the warped sleeves? Should I just try putting them under
a pile of books to see if the warps decrease? Any ideas or practical
experience with this would be greatly appreciated.
Just for reference, in case the particulars help any, the 8-inch
floppies are single-sided, single-density and were written on a
DEC RX01 or equivalent. Most of the 5.25-inch floppies were written
on an Apple II.
Thanks,
Dave
