test-drb March 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

167 participants
859 discussions

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

whatever happened to going private with stuff like this?! this is more off topic than anything else. In a message dated 98-03-02 02:46:52 EST, somebody started flaming: << Enrico: I have many Model 1 computers... as a matter of fact, I sent one to you! So don't think you just made a great 'caught-me' remark. I do have many. I don't, however, have a damn 4k Model 1 without the keypad on the right. That is what you're looking for, isn't it? Oh, I suppose you changed your mind -- again!?! Gees, Enrico, you never stop do you? I am being completely honest with you, what is it that you think I am hiding anyway? Black and white: I have model 1 computers, many of them. I have 0 Model 1 computers that you are looking for!! Figure it out!! Not Black and white: Why you are a complete idiot!?! Leave me alone until I e-mail you and tell you I have a Model 1 computer, circa 1978, with 4k of memory, and no keypad, ok? Damn, Enrico, I was even doing you a favor and looking for one for you.... You really know how to spoil someone's day, CORD >>

27 years, 4 months

More 34

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

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. >------- > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 4 months

More 34

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Today was my first major interaction with the system/34, unfortunately on 1/2 hour long. Next monday, I can stay there 2-8 PM if I want to... I made the following discoveries: a)It's on casters b)It has a 65MB hard drive c)It's not all that dusty. By virtue of a, I moved it to reveal the CE panel, which had all of the floppies and a little error code booklet tucked inside. This booklet is fairly useless now that IBM doesn't support the 34, but it does list all of the parts and their names. There is a thing that I saw called the DC distribution panel. I was thinking that I might switch the power supply's outputs with the outputs for a normal PC AT PSU, of course not powering the drives. The booklet does imply that the PSU outputs -4, -5, 5,6,8.5,-12,12,-24, and 24 volts. Knowing this I ought to be able to get a couple of PC psus and run it. Next step: finding a room that has power to it - this one doesn't... ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 4 months

More 34

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Yes, it is. That's the reason for all this trouble, that I don't know how to get it to run without a 220 volt outlet (it's in a storage room) Now, my question is a bit dumb, I suppose, but why is it that when Intel made the 8086 (which I heard was about as powerful as the 34), IBM made this huge half-ton box only to leave it mostly empty anyway? >Just curious, isn't the S/34 a 220v box? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 4 months

Thanks and TRS-80 Score (was Re: Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week))

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> The first trap is that this monitor has a live (hot) chassis, or at lea <> the 115V models do. The video input is opto-isolated so that the TRS-80 <> itself can be grounded/floating. This means that you need to be more BIG TIME!!!! Take all the care in the world with this one. FYI the monitor is isolated from the trs80 via opto isolators so there is no DC or AC connection between the two. The optos are pressed real hard to run at video (luminance) rates so they can sometime be a cause of porr video. <> careful than usual when working inside this unit - mains on all the <> exposed metalwork is a good way to get killed! In fact, I'd say that yo <> shouldn't attempt to repair this unit unless (a) you have an isolation <> transformer and (b) you know why you should use one. Having worked on these at Tandy I can say first hand that is no lie! I've been wacked a few time over the years, it hurts...if your lucky! <I've done some simple work (replacing flybacks, logic boards, etc) on <VT100's previously - if I do decide to open this thing up, rather than Vt100s are line isolated and a bit safer save for the hi-volts on the CRT. Allison

27 years, 4 months

Epson QX-10 / AT&T 3B1

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

[tony duell] :> yes. shame about VALDOCS really. it seems to have killed forth's :> reputation for all time. it was reputedly an integrated package :>written in forth - unfortunately, it seems, the people who wrote :I thought it was written in Stoic, which although a threaded :stack-based language like Forth, was somewhat different in the :details. not that different. we have a source listing for stoic on our hard drive at the moment (you want it? we'll mail it) and the major differences >from forth were (a) it used a file system with 6 letter names, (b) it compiled everything, even immediate stuff, into a temporary buffer then executed the buffer, (c) you pushed textual words using 'xxxx rather than forth's method of having "WORD" pick up the next word in the input stream. :Not forgetting HP's RPL language which is Forth done even better. :You can push _anything_ onto the stack - integers, reals, strings, :even programs :-) I think the HP28 is now 10 years old, so we can :mention it here. ah, yes... we finally got hold of the dos development suite for this. it's a lovely language, but it departs somewhat from the simplicity and directness we like in forth. on the other hand, it's great for its chosen application, and if you're a lisp fan too... (yes, we are. symbolics 3600 on offer, anyone...? ;> ) what we'd like to see, though, is a forth effectively incorporating the concepts in smalltalk (ie everything on the stack is an object, possibly with a tag bit to differentiate between integers and anything else). have to start hacking one... -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her... Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

27 years, 4 months

Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

To everyone: Some judicious snipping of quoted email replies would make it MUCH easier to read, and really is common net-etiquette these days. As far as want-list; Me, I'm open to trades - I have a spare Exidy Sorcerer and assorted oddities. I'd like some of the early single boards - such as sym, etc. Andrew

27 years, 4 months

lurker bio

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From: John Lawson <jpl15(a)netcom.com> <fantasy of running Music IV (or Csound) under Unix on the PDP 15 with <period DACs providing signals to the Moog.... a living early 70's <music research lab. Maybe the Minc-11.... naw, never mind. Forget unix or music from a -15 it was more suited to industrial control. I did do some serious hacking with music back some using the altair to drive a string of smal 8085 based boards(one per voice). <about two weeks away from getting a pilot's license, *if* the <examiner and the weather are co-incident and *if* I pass the damn <checkride... oops, off topic. sorry. Well if you don't pass the check ride the instructor should be shot for sending you unprepared. I have a license for 20 years and a Cessna150 to enjoy it in. Docs for systems, board and the like are a resource that is underestimated. There are so many s100 systems and boards that are mostly useless without docs as it's impossible to set them up or use them. Allison

27 years, 4 months

Wanted stuff (Was: Pretty good week)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

> >> >> >> >> ah, if we're going to get on to the "what do i wish for?" list... > >Well, I don't recomend killing me to get your hands on my little >collection... And I rarely sell machines. > >> a perq. any perq. please, PLEASE!!!... > >Keep looking... There are still some out there. No, my 4 (!) are not for >sale... What is a perq and why is it good? >> >> any system based on the 32xxx (a ceres would be nice, but we doubt >> they're available...) > >More practically, there are still a number of Whitechapel MG1's about. >Repairing one is not hard - the main problem is the NiCd battery used for >starting it. A Technical manual does exist... > >> >> an original archimedes, with the original arthur os and the gui in basic > >Hmm... I still have my Arthur programmer's reference manuals, but I doubt >I could find a set of the ROMs, alas... > >> >> a dg nova > >Again, keep looking. They were popular in embedded control systems at one >time. Mine came off an electron microscope.... Speaking of novas, I finished Soul of a New Machine. Great book! >> a linn rekursiv (wouldn't you? ;> ) > >Ooooh... Now that's a machine I don't have, and would like! Is the machine as weird as the name? >> >> one of the two machines we know about that ever used a z8000 (olivetti >> m20 or onyx..?) > >What about a Zilog 8000 ? It was/is (there's at least one still >operational) a Z8000-based unix box. Mine has an SMD disk controller and >a QIC tape drive. It's built in slices about 2' square - the bottom slice >is empty, the next contains just the RS223 port distribution panel, the >next contains the drives, and the top slice contains the cardcage. >There's the CPU card, a memory card (some machines had ECC memory, I >think), and assorted device controllers. > > >> >> a perq > >Does the fact that you've listed 'perq' about 4 times mean that you want >one from each series? > >> >> an original cp/m system or three (hm systems; the minstrel always >> appealed) > >What do you mean by 'original'? If you mean a machine designed to run >CP/M, then there must still be some RML 380Z's (very solid UK CP/M >machines used in schools) about. Ditto for DEC rainbows, Amstrads >(although I don't like those myself), BBC Z80 second processors, Epson >QX10's (IMHO one of the nicest CP/M machines ever built), etc. Was CP/M made for any specific machine originally, kind of like DOS was made for a PC (leaving Seattle Computers aside for a moment) >MDS800, then good luck in finding one. > >> >> any really weird 70s mini (small honeywell machine, perhaps? tony duell >> speaks highly of the philips p850...? maybe an icl thingy...?) - must be I believe the system/34 was a Mini. I think that's what those UPS tractor-trailers are for :) >of it, although as it was the machine that got me into computer >collecting, I do have a somewhat biased love of it. Mind you, with 2K >(max) of memory, 16 CPU registers, a strange instruction set, and a CPU >based on a hard-wired state machine rather than microcode, it must be >worth saving. Isn't microcode hard-wired anyway? >Philips P800 series machines are not at all common, alas... > >> nice to put forth on, though >> >> oh, did we mention that if someone would provide us with a perq at >> reasonable cost and proximity to bradford, we would be quite delighted >> and mount a one-person campaign to get him or her canonised? > >Which reminds me... I must Canon-ise my PERQ again - that is, repair the >Canon laser printer port. The crystal oscillator lost its legs, and while >I was trying to repair it, the local cat stepped on the device and the >quartz crystal plate is now in about 100 pieces... I must try to obtain a >29.8MHz xtal. > >Just out of curiousity, why aren't you looking for the following >machines? > >DEC PDP8, PDP11, Vax, any other PDP's? What does PDP mean, exactly? Is it something like the PC standard? >AMT DAP (Distributed Array Processor) Which is? >Anything transputer-based Which is? >The Xerox D-machines (somewhat PERQ-like in many ways) - Brian Rosen was >involved in the design of both AFAIK. The only problem with these is that >low level hardware/software docs seem to be next-to-impossible to obtain. >The PERQ has the advantage that there are some _very_ clueful enthusiasts >(not me, alas) who will help you with just about any problem. > >Torch XXX, quadX, etc I can just imagine "Sabrina's jungle dungeon - hosted on a Torch XXX" >Tiger. Now there's a strange machine.. A Z80 + 64K RAM, a 6809 + 8K RAM, >RS232, parallel, cassette ports, 1200/75 baud modem, 7220 graphics chip + >96K RAM, etc, etc, etc. It was going to be sold as a home computer... So, how much RAM total? > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 4 months

Demography?

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

I have a canon SX320!! >I think the first 'computer' I programmed seriously was a Canon SX320 >calculator, which was a desktop machine with a full keyboard and 40? col >printer. I also did Fortran and Algol-W programming at highschool.

27 years, 4 months

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test-drb March 1998