> [S/34 3-Phase?]
> Naah, can't be. It doesn't have a 3-phase plug. It's a slightly smaller
> version of the round Hubbel plug (3 pins. 3-phase needs 4, right?) on my
> PDP-11 power boxes. Mine has power in the room still, I can power it up, but
You can do three phase on only three wires - most long distance power
lines are done that way - but that would be unearthed, and therefore not
recommended. If it is a 190/208V version rather than a 220/240V version
it is probably expecting two of the three phases plus ground.
> nobody knows a userid/password to IPL it...
> Is there some way around that?
Dunno. Passwords are only 4 letters IIRC so shouldn't be that difficult
to crack if you've got a terminal emulator card in a PC. I'm afraid a
quick glance through the pocket reference hasn't revealed anything
useful :-(
Philip.
> I did actually check this. It says 208. This is not awfully
> informative, AFAIK, because the voltage fluctuates +/- 5 or so anyway
> >Open the side opposite the CE panel, and look down by the 4 twinax
> connectors.
> >There shoud be a label saying what yours is wired for - Mine wants 204V
> AC.
Voltages like 204V and 208V mean it probably wants 3-phase. These are
the phase-to-phase voltages on three phase systems where the phase to
earth voltage is 117V and 120V respectively. It may only require two of
the three phases, in which case you might be able to convert...
The suggestion of using PC power supplies or similar is a good one but
you may need something a bit more powerful. You need to know how much
current it draws on each supply rail.
I seem to recall that someone on this list has a working S/34. Could
this person measure the current under various conditions? NB 5V rail
current could be 100A or more, so don't just stick a multimeter in
series with it! Use a proper shunt and millivoltmeter.
A while back, I mentioned that I have some system/34 pocket references
available to send to anyone with a s/34 who needs them. No-one has yet
replied that I've seen. Any takers? The OS pocket reference is very
thick (nearly 100 pages IIRC).
Philip.
PS Comparing the System/34 and the 8086 is not strictly fair - the 8086
appeared in laboratory tests in 1979 IIRC, while the S/34 was already on
sale in 1977 I think. Things did shrink _very_ fast at that period!
Also the S/34 has disks, - including my favourite floppy drive! - around
256K of memory, and other I/O that would have required several PC style
boxes full of support chips, drives etc. for the 8086 in the late '70s.
<I have acquired an old "kit" computer, circa 1977. The CPU has a =
<trademark like a double script N, slanted to the right, with one =
<superimposed on the other. Most of the other 10 or so smaller chips
<have = the same mark.
National Semiconductor.
<Adjacent to this is the number 804 (the CPU ID?) Other numbers are =
<ISP-8A, /500D and SC/MP.
there is a clue in the markings.
The part numebr is ISP-8A/500D, aka SC/MP. The (D) in the part number
says ceramic package. The part is implmented in an older P-channel MOS 3
voltage technology. A faster and single voltage Nmos version was about a
year later (ISP-8A/600).
<It is the size and shape of a Z80 or 8085
That means it has 40 pins.
<Anyone have any idea what this is?
That is the National Semiconductor SC/MP cpu on likely a evaluation kit
board. there were two versions one had a calculator like terminal and the
oter used rs232/tty interface to a terminal. The rom (5204) was a very
small 512byte monitor. It was a an interesting cpu though that version
was SLOW at 2-10uS per instruction.
I like to collect these(SBCs) as they are interesting though often not
very useful as implemented.
Allison
Joe on Kittyhawk drives:
> Do these drives use a standard interface? They're neat drives, it's a
> shame that HP quit building them.
Gary pointed us at a web site:
> http://www.allelec.com
according to which they are 44-pin IDE the same as most laptop IDE
drives. I'm not quite sure how that would fit in such a small drive,
but...
Philip.
Would anybody with SOrcerer technical information, including user group
newsletters and just about any Sorcerer documentation please contact me
directly? I'm trying to restore a pretty neato homebrew setup here and sure
could use some tech specs.
Includes a 5M hard drive, twin Micropolis drives and about 100+ disks of
software, custom BIOS mods for HD and FD access.... the works.
Cheers
A
>>I have a canon SX320!!
>You didn't mention it in your list. I did get the right machine, didn't
>I? I have a shoe-box full of program listings for it, except they're in
>NZ and the thermal paper has probably faded to nothing by now.
Yes, I checked the number this morning.
My Canon SX320 was inadvertently left out of the list, along with...
Sinclair ZX-81
(I've just ordered three unbuilt kits of these - still available NEW
on the web, would you believe!!)
Sinclair ZX-80
Sinclair Spectrum
Tandy TRS-80 MC-10 (a whacking great 3581 bytes of program memory :)
Canon 1614P (a punched card reading programmable desktop)
A couple of Sorcerers
Atari 800
Compucolor II
Datanumerics DL8A
... I've forgotten what else I've forgotten.
>Do you actually use it? I really can't remember much about it other
>than that you programmed it like a calculator, one function per line,
>and that alphanumeric output like prompts needed one line for each
>character, so program listings tended to get rather long. Did it have a
>tape storage or cartridges or something for programs?
I have not switched this machine on, actually. It is very dusty and sitting
in my office at work. I will be happy to take a pic and place on a website
should anyone be interested. It had a strange sort of tape storage - sort
of like a little toaster oven at the top right of the machine.
Unfortunately, due to multiple moves, I no longer have the tapes for this
unit :(
Cheers
A
My name is Jack Peacock. I'm 42, based in Las Vegas (Nevada, not that other
place in New Mexico). I got started in computers way back in 1971, on a
Univac 1106, with fixed head and moving head FASTRAND drums. Back then the
programming medium of choice was punch cards (yes, I even learned how to
program 026 keypunches using drum cards), and if you were lucky a turn at
the ASR33 teletype. Does anyone still remember that "other" character set
besides Baudot, ASCII and EBCDIC? (Hint, 6 bit Univac character set,
started with an F)
I got started in the hardware side while working for Lockheed, building
environmental monitoring instruments (LIDARs, multi-spectral scanners, low
level radiation sample counters)). We needed a cheap data logger with some
intelligence that could run unattended for long periods of time, or in
aircraft. We had tried HP9830s (ever try flying one in a 2 seater
helicopter?), and looked at National IMP-16s and DG Novas, all too big or
expensive. Then one day a guy brought in the now famous issue of Popular
Electronics, with the Altair kit. We got one, put it together in the lab,
and promptly blew up the CPU board. In the early kits there was a tiny
defect, seems all the gold fingers on the CPU card were shorted together
with a hairline plating error on the card edge, almost too small to see.
Know what happens when you put -12 on the +5 line in an 8080? Pieces of it
almost hit the ceiling. From that point on, whenever we first turned on an
S-100 kit, the warning to everyone else was "Flame On" so they could duck.
MITS replaced the board (when 8080 CPUs were still $400 each) and the Altair
worked! We actually used it for one project, but it was quickly retired
when the IMSAI came out. We bought #17 from IMSAI in December 1975.
The IMSAI was very cheap compared to what the other engineering sections who
still used minis (DEC and DG) were doing in their projects. We outfitted
the IMSAI with a floppy, paper tape, and a VDM CRT display, and we used it
to write 8080 code for several years. The board that went into the
instruments was the single board 8080 eval kit Intel was selling at the time
(SDK-80?). Years later I found out some of the data loggers went more than
10 years in the field without repairs. Intel built good stuff even then.
Freshly overconfident from getting an IMSAI to run at work, I bought one
myself in 1977 after trying out my skills on a National SC/MP eval kit
first. It took a lot of work, and some assistance from the E.E.s at work,
but I got the IMSAI running. Virtually all my knowledge of digital
electronics came from wire wrapping proto boards for the S-100. In my
opinion, it was one of the best platforms for learning real-world electronic
design, especially when it's your own money that goes up in smoke when you
don't double-check the voltages first.
I program for a living these days, incredibly dull accounting applications
and tech support. I still have the S-100s, including that original IMSAI
(even have the CPU chip left from the SC/MP board). I don't have too much
opportunity these days to do electronics, but I keep a hand in designing
8051-based controller boards. Chances are you've seen one of the 8051
boards if you ever come to Las Vegas, they are inside some of the big casino
signs on the Strip.
The collection is modest:
my treasured IMSAI, complete with 22 slot board and front panel, lovingly
hand assembled, running CP/M 3 off a 5MB hard drive, Ithaca Z80B, 256KB RAM
(still used for production once in a while, it's not a museum piece yet)
The rest:
an IMSAI VDP, which I work on once in a while
several generic 8086 and 286 based S-100 boxes running Concurrent DOS
an original IBM AT, circa 1985, upgraded first to a 386 with a Jet adapter,
then to a Cyrix 486DR2 (the world's slowest 486, 8Mhz)
a MicroVax II (KA630) in a BA-23 pedestal, with an RD54 and 16MB, VMS 5.3
a Vax 3600 (KA650) in a BA-123 box (upgraded MV II), 24 MB, VMS 6.2
several generic 386 PC clones, recycled as controllers on router tables in a
machine shop for the moment
Yeah; I'm currently studying with two kids (3 and 1). Believe me... it
will be much much easier now rather than when you have other commitments.
Do it sooner rather than later :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Russ Blakeman <rhblake(a)bbtel.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 6:57 PM
Subject: Re: Demography?
>R. Stricklin (kjaeros) wrote:
>
>> I'm 20 years old and am the sysadmin for Geoworks' (yes, that Geoworks)
>> Seattle design centre. I spent two years at uni but tired of the
>> academic attitude and puerile students so I dropped out to admin full
>> time. I may go back one day, but I can't forsee yet what day it'll be.
>
>With a chance of sounding like an old mother hen since I'm twice as old as
you
>and "been there" - DO go back and don't put it off too long. Anymore they
want
>janitors to have technical degrees in "custodial engineering". Once the
>kiddies get into the picture it's a really SOB to get to where you have the
>time and resources.
Sam Ismail wrote:
> On Sun, 1 Mar 1998, Russ Blakeman wrote:
>
> > Anyone know of a museum/collection site with info on this, or have info
> > on it themselves? I'd like to see what it is before I decide to gut it
> > for the drives or keep ot for my oddities collection.
>
> Do NOT gut this baby. It is truly a classic. I hope Marvin
> (marvin(a)raing.org) pipes up about this because he seems to be the resident
> Vector guru around here, but I haven't seen a post from him in a little
> while.
>
> Add this one to your collection.
>
> Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Hey me too on this one
--------------------------------------------------------------^^^^
Anyway I finally powered it up after jumpering the broken power toggle and it works
as far as the monitor powering and giving me video garbage. The hard drive is a
Seagate 5 mb and the floppy is a Tandon 720k belt drive. It appears to have a
printer port as well and only one open connection in the card cage. Although a
little dirty and dusty she's in beautiful shape needing a good repair and
replacement of the antiglare mesh.
If Marvin doesn't raise his ugly head (so to speak) I'll have to grab him by the
trackball and see what he has to say about it.
Add to my collection? I think not as the dining room is no longer a dining room,
it's a computer docking bay.
Thanks a bunch for the info...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Russ Blakeman
RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144
Phone: (502) 756-1749 / Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991
Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com
Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/
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