test-drb April 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

122 participants
678 discussions

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-04-05 14:35:36 EDT, you write: << Has anyone actually seen a 2.88 MB floppy drive? >> certain 95xx ps2 models such as my 9577 and a few older thinkpadss had 2.88 drives. i think i saw some aftermarket 2.88 drives a few years ago, but nothing since. david

27 years, 3 months

Cadnetix help needed

by aaron＠wfi-inc.com

Hi all, I picked up the "Sun" workstation that appeared for free here a couple of weeks back and was pleasantly surprised at the haul, and a little perplexed. What I got: Cadnetix box with big colour monitor Cipher C880 tape unit (Big sucker) CItoh 1550B DM printer A 286 workstation Optical mice/pads and keyboards All the thick-ethernet cabling and hardware for the PC nodes About 30 10" tapes containing schematics for their legacy products About 30 8" diskettes (Dysan!) with really neat 2-pack 3-ring holders About 100 5 1/4" diskettes with SCO stuff on them Since it was supposedly working when pulled, I plugged everything in and just fired it up (Well, I looked into the top of the case first to make sure there wasn't any sign of rust or water damage). So far, nothing. I finally figured out how to get the case apart (very tricky little latch that has to be pulled from the *inside*) and have examined it in more detail. I believe it's a 68020 machine, and the manual says it runs a "Cadnetix-modified" version of Berkley Unix 4.2. There are two large HD's which are extremely inaccessable, but I may have to pull them to look since they make a lot of noise. There is a 6-slot vertical backplane with 4 cards; what I believe is the memory board, the 68020 board, one marked "Graphic Ram J177 Rev C", and one that is attached to the last with ribbon cables. The keyboard plugs into the back of the display and the mouse into the keyboard. Oh yeah, and there are three 5" fans screaming away in there. BTW, it's been powered on for 20 minutes or so with no display. My Sun 3/50 with 12 megs of ram only takes 5. The display is just black, although on power on/off I can see signs of life (red/blue/white lines for an instant). Anyone have any technical info on this monster? I have the system users guide, but no technical data on it whatsoever. Thanks, Aaron PS - I think my wife was thinking divorce when I kept carrying boxes into the house; I don't want to eat my pride and find that I can't get this working....

27 years, 3 months

new hamfest additions

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

for those of you that goto hamfests/radio rallies, here is a tip. if possible, see if you can get in the night before under the premise of "setting up" i actually did buy a table to sell some things, but me and another guy were able to get inthe night before and set up our table and get our tickets. we were also able to scope out other's tables and get the best stuff. unfortunately, i missed out on a table of small hard drives for $4 each, and was a minute late to get a home based robot called robie for $20. (grrrrrr) best thing to do is scan everyone else's things all the time and buy what you see. nobody refused to sell to us. i didnt sell much but here's what i bought: 4 mac adb keyboards, not tested $1 kaypro II with matching printer in great shape with original books and system disks $10 nec scsi card for ps2 $4 apple ][+ with enhanced encoder board, ssc, and videx videoterm with dual floppy drives. also got a box labeled applemouse, but it had 6 mouse cards in it, but no mouses! also got hayes micromodem and dos/pascal manuals. apple cd drive, two scsi cases, one with drive, one blank , $1 each ps2 xga card profile drive, no controller card, may have a lead on two lisas from the guy i got it from. also got some late model things cheap that arent worth mentioning. this may be old hat, but i've noticed that it's worth mentioning you are interested in old computers and are looking for X computer. that's how i got the lead on the lisas. david

27 years, 3 months

Nice Find

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

><Yeah, but with extra RAM, etc. it could very well benchmark as a higher o ><lower MHz, even with today's Winbench's. > >Lower mhz yes faster never. Faster means a timer error or the program is >broken. The 386 implmentation on that card is very vanilla and no cache. Ok. Than what the heck is all this about AMD's and Cyrix's having LOWER megahertz (the Cyrix PR233's only 187.5) and actually benchmarking and performing like an Intel at a higher speed? >Besides it's checkes out on mine at 16 using norton, QAFE+ and a few >others. OK. If there's one thing that I've learned, what chip manufacturers put on chips means nearly NOTHING. It's the software, RAM, bus and how they work together that makes performance/lack thereof. ><Linux won't run XF86 even in mono mode with less than 8MB RAM, which make ><zero sense because any PC that shipped with 8MB RAM and a mono card was > >Whatever you do don't tell my 386sx/33 that! It might stop working. OK. At our school, we've got some NICE 386's. SVGA video cards w/2MB RAM, 16MB RAM each, and an interesting way to put a 3.5" drive in a 5" bay. Now, I really need a small IDE HDD or a 3.5" MFM HDD and controller for one... >< There are several projects going on to have Linux run on 286 and lowe ><machines, and, of course, lowering RAM consumption. There's an 8MB ><distribution that only requires 512K (I believe) RAM, if you give it enou ><swap space (in that case, it would be 3.5MB) > >Look up ELKS. That's one, but there are many others. You could recompile them to be optimized for a 386, though. ><>Windows 3.1 does run on it with the 1meg. ><It'll run, but in my experience, Windows 3.1 doesn't do to much with it. ><friends 286 (they were still using it last summer when they moved, but i ><was retrofit with MY 210MB HDD, and a SVGA monitor and graphics card) Yo ><can't extract files, run most software that was designed for Windows 3.1 > >Runs good and most software that will fit in 1meg runs ok. Swapping is >heavy though so a fast disk helps. Yeah, but how much Windows 3.1 software fits on a meg? I'd say at least 2. I ran Windows 3.1 from 1993 to 1997, and I'd have to say that most programs that I ran were fairly large, most in double-digit MB's. >3.0 is ok but it will not run some apps at all! Yeah, and Windows 3.1 won't run a lot of apps. It really all depends on the owner, what they want to do, how they want to do it, and what SW they already have. BTW, where can I get a lisence+docs, disks for Windows 2.x? I need one for the above computer... ><I'd go with 3.0, if I had a choice. If I was you, I would just upgrade t ><DOS 5.0 or so. It'll run loads of software, and is more consistent with > >I'm running 6.22 and LW had 5.x on his. I like DOS. It's a good OS. If it were kept more alive today... ><hardware that you have, minus the 386CPU. And, it's smaller, so you coul ><actually have more software on it. Come to think of it, I believe that ><Windows 3.1 is like 25MB, plus the DOS 5.0 that's required to run it, whi ><fits on 5 720K floppies, I believe. > >Huh? I had 6.22, win3.1, procomm+, and a few other things and had about >4.5mb free on a 20mb drive. DO5.0 would reduce it some but not alot, 3.3 >would be far smaller and still run w3.1. Really? 3.3? BTW, did you ever get that Linux box working? I just started w/Linux in Jan. and since then, I've installed, removed, reformated and ran 7 or so distributions. If you want, I can help, although I doubt my usefulnes past my own machines... If Linux/UNIX clones were really wnated, Minix is free for personal use... a older version, if it can be found, would probably work. Tim D. Hotze

27 years, 3 months

Nice Find

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

>I have a bunch of 80 MB mac hard drives. would an old PC SCSI card >run them? Depends. If it was designed for a Mac specifically, then it won't work. But 9/10 SCSI devices will work indescriminately on a Mac, PC, or Unix machine, provided that drivers exist, if required. >>HUH? Neither of these are an helped/hindered by the 386. SCSI is not >>needed to run 1.44/1.2 FDDs. You can put scsi in there even when it >was >>an plain xt. To run the bigger floppies you need a controller that >will, >>most XT controllers will not. JDR and JAMCO sell a board that will do >up >>to 2.88 drives in a XT slot. >Has anyone actually seen a 2.88 MB floppy drive? I have. Almost got one. They were $7 new, black, from IBM. Actually, I don't really like 2.88MB drives: The meida STILL costs about $3-$4 a disk, and when you can just get 2 or 3 $0.25 or LESS 1.44MB disks, and then use a program to cut files down, you end up with better prices. So, unless you had a specific use, or REALLY wanted to cut down on total disk #'s, I can't say that I want one, especially not now, when Castle Wood's (http://www.castlewoodsystems.com) coming out with a $199 ORB drive, that can outperform Jaz drives, and hold 100MB more for $30 a piece on 2.1GB media. THAT'S innovation: New technology, low price, and a cool name. Ciao, Tim D. Hotze

27 years, 3 months

Nice Find

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

> > ><up comes an Intel flashscreen >< Inboard 386 PC >< Vers 1.1 02/17/89 >< Intel Corporation > >Same beast I have in my Leading Edge XT. > ><recognize Very rudimentary Auto and Config usual but with inbrdpc.sys >< Of course I quickly pop it open No HD !!?? > >Don't lose those files! > ><Snooper tells me it has 2 ser ports and 2 paral. configured and bench-mar ><20mhz ( don't know how accurate Snoop's bench is but this sure beats an X > >It's warped. It's a 386/16 and that's all. How accurate are those diags anyway? Are they to be trusted? > >That's been going on for a while and there was a AT (286) version as well. > >< The possibilities are interesting. I'm wondering if I could beef up the ><Put in an Extended Graphics Adapter (not Array) and hook up my 3270 ><type IBM monitor (5272). There's an interesting section in Que's "Upgradi > >IF it's ISA-8 you likely can. > >< It would be neat if I could run Linux on it. >< Excuse my blathering but I'm like a kid with an amazing new toy. > Although this certainly is a cool toy (I'd love to have an XT I could do something wiht), you shouldn't be able to put Linux on it. For one thing, it seems to need drivers, and Linux doesn't have them. Also, the fact that it's an ISA card could reduce performance. Lastly, the thing may not run at full 32 bits,protected mode. > >Windows 3.1 does run on it with the 1meg. Yes, but no windows programs except the ones that came with it. > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 3 months

VAXstation 3100 M30

by emu＠ecubics.com

Hi, ---------- > From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com> > To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > > Anyway, the result was I pulled my VT420 out of storage, hunted up a cable > for the terminal, and powered it on. It seems to be working just fine, and > much to my surprise and pleasure it has 16Mb of RAM. Of course it's only > running VMS 5.3 on a pair of RZ-23's, but hey it's faster, smaller and > quieter than my MV2! Now to get a better Hard Drive, and add a CD-ROM. & try NetBSD .... cheers, emanuel

27 years, 3 months

Nice Find

by lwalker＠mail.interlog.com

Today I picked up from the garbage a 9pin Epson and what I first thought was a big old IBM XT figuring I could always off it to someone after I checked out it's peripherals. When I got home I found it was a 5150. I noticed it had a paste-on sticker "Intel Inboard 386" Someone's attempt at humor I thought since the 5150 was the first IBM PC IIRC and likely had only 256k RAM. It had the DIN plugs for kb and cassette and two full-ht. IBM fdds; couldn't see a Hdd. The 5 expansion slots seemed full tho and I was getting more interested. I hooked up a monitor and kb and fired it up without opening it up first (I know-risky). Started up fine, flashing cursor checked the drives and up comes an Intel flashscreen Inboard 386 PC Vers 1.1 02/17/89 Intel Corporation conv. mem. init. 640 k ext mem. 256 k Initial Op. Speed Very Fast system BIOS 32-bit RAM EGA BIOS ROM iNBRDPC Dev. Driver installed I hit a key and up comes a C:\ prompt.! Nothing too interesting on the HD , usual WP5.1 and Lotus a few others i don't recognize Very rudimentary Auto and Config usual but with inbrdpc.sys Of course I quickly pop it open No HD !!?? It turns out it has a 20 Meg "Plus Development" Hard Card . The Intel card is a 16mhz and it has an empty socket for a 387 The small serial port card has f - 15 pin and 25 pin sockets. Small Herc. type card video and prtr.ports The floppy controller card has a f-35 pin ext. socket ? Snooper tells me it has 2 ser ports and 2 paral. configured and bench-marks 20mhz ( don't know how accurate Snoop's bench is but this sure beats an XT) I was blown away I didn't think an XT much less a PC could be upgraded without replacing the MB. And the Hard Card was gravy The possibilities are interesting. I'm wondering if I could beef up the RAM Put in an Extended Graphics Adapter (not Array) and hook up my 3270 type IBM monitor (5272). There's an interesting section in Que's "Upgrading and Repairing PCs" on the 3270PC BTW. I wonder also what the cassette and 35 pin I/Os offer in the way of interfacing According to Snooper there's 16 Irq's.and I could free up a exp. socket by pulling the hard card if I could put in a bigger HD. Would a SCSI card be an option so I could put in 1.2 and /or 1.44 fdds ? It would be neat if I could run Linux on it. Excuse my blathering but I'm like a kid with an amazing new toy. ciao larry lwalker(a)interlog.com

27 years, 3 months

Nice Find

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

><up comes an Intel flashscreen >< Inboard 386 PC >< Vers 1.1 02/17/89 >< Intel Corporation > >Same beast I have in my Leading Edge XT. That would be cool to have. ><Snooper tells me it has 2 ser ports and 2 paral. configured and bench-mar ><20mhz ( don't know how accurate Snoop's bench is but this sure beats an X > >It's warped. It's a 386/16 and that's all. Yeah, but with extra RAM, etc. it could very well benchmark as a higher or lower MHz, even with today's Winbench's. >< I was blown away I didn't think an XT much less a PC could be upgraded ><without replacing the MB. And the Hard Card was gravy > >That's been going on for a while and there was a AT (286) version as well. > >< The possibilities are interesting. I'm wondering if I could beef up the ><Put in an Extended Graphics Adapter (not Array) and hook up my 3270 ><type IBM monitor (5272). There's an interesting section in Que's "Upgradi > >IF it's ISA-8 you likely can. > >< It would be neat if I could run Linux on it. >< Excuse my blathering but I'm like a kid with an amazing new toy. > >No way! All the ram you have is the 1meg on the inboard and I think it >used the 256k (maximum) on the mother as expanded mem. If yu can find the >memory card that piggy backs to it you can add either a meg or maybe two >to it. Nomantter what linux in less than 4meg would be poor and >completely unrunable in under 2mb. Linux won't run XF86 even in mono mode with less than 8MB RAM, which makes zero sense because any PC that shipped with 8MB RAM and a mono card was either: 1) Something like a NeXT machine 2) A graphics machine, but was DEFINATELY NOT A GENERAL-USE PC! There are several projects going on to have Linux run on 286 and lower machines, and, of course, lowering RAM consumption. There's an 8MB distribution that only requires 512K (I believe) RAM, if you give it enough swap space (in that case, it would be 3.5MB) >Windows 3.1 does run on it with the 1meg. It'll run, but in my experience, Windows 3.1 doesn't do to much with it. My friends 286 (they were still using it last summer when they moved, but it was retrofit with MY 210MB HDD, and a SVGA monitor and graphics card) You can't extract files, run most software that was designed for Windows 3.1. I'd go with 3.0, if I had a choice. If I was you, I would just upgrade to DOS 5.0 or so. It'll run loads of software, and is more consistent with the hardware that you have, minus the 386CPU. And, it's smaller, so you could actually have more software on it. Come to think of it, I believe that Windows 3.1 is like 25MB, plus the DOS 5.0 that's required to run it, which fits on 5 720K floppies, I believe. Ciao, Tim D. Hotze >Allison >

27 years, 3 months

Nice Find

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<up comes an Intel flashscreen < Inboard 386 PC < Vers 1.1 02/17/89 < Intel Corporation Same beast I have in my Leading Edge XT. <recognize Very rudimentary Auto and Config usual but with inbrdpc.sys < Of course I quickly pop it open No HD !!?? Don't lose those files! <Snooper tells me it has 2 ser ports and 2 paral. configured and bench-mar <20mhz ( don't know how accurate Snoop's bench is but this sure beats an X It's warped. It's a 386/16 and that's all. < I was blown away I didn't think an XT much less a PC could be upgraded <without replacing the MB. And the Hard Card was gravy That's been going on for a while and there was a AT (286) version as well. < The possibilities are interesting. I'm wondering if I could beef up the <Put in an Extended Graphics Adapter (not Array) and hook up my 3270 <type IBM monitor (5272). There's an interesting section in Que's "Upgradi IF it's ISA-8 you likely can. < It would be neat if I could run Linux on it. < Excuse my blathering but I'm like a kid with an amazing new toy. No way! All the ram you have is the 1meg on the inboard and I think it used the 256k (maximum) on the mother as expanded mem. If yu can find the memory card that piggy backs to it you can add either a meg or maybe two to it. Nomantter what linux in less than 4meg would be poor and completely unrunable in under 2mb. Windows 3.1 does run on it with the 1meg. Allison

27 years, 3 months

Nice Find

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> Would a SCSI card be an option so I could put in 1.2 and/or 1.44 fdds HUH? Neither of these are an helped/hindered by the 386. SCSI is not needed to run 1.44/1.2 FDDs. You can put scsi in there even when it was an plain xt. To run the bigger floppies you need a controller that will, most XT controllers will not. JDR and JAMCO sell a board that will do up to 2.88 drives in a XT slot. FYI I've hacked the leading edge (xt) I have to include most of what you mention including a 20meg WD hardcard. It's MONO/herc, 20meg hardcard, 1.44 floppy, multi-IO (two serial, two LPT, game). Runs dos6.22 and I've had windows3.1 to prove it runs. Allison

27 years, 3 months

Nice Find

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Are you saying that a 486 is only faster than a 286 because of the <cache? No I'm saying without the cache is run as slow as a 286! The reson is it has to wait for ram data at the ram data rates. That's 70ns in my 486 and the faster 286s used 80ns ram so the end up running about the same speed. The cache is to allow near continious reading fo ram data even when the processor is not reading in in advance of need. By doing that and using fast page read mode data can be fed to the cpu to support the higher speed. <>Funny I have unix v7 running on a PDP11 with only 256kb of ram. it can <be done. <Isn't v7 the latest UNIX distribution? No. It's PDP-11 circa 1980ish. It was followed later by 2.9bsd and 2.11bsd. <I once had an old 386 with a 20MB MFM hard drive and 2MB RAM. Windows <ran OK, but Word 2.0 ran very poorly. Strange that I've never seen <3.0. Is it rare? Not so much rare as short lifetime between it'release and 3.1s release. <Actually, Windows 3.0 came with a copy of MS-DOS executive, the <precursor to the program manager, while 3.1 didn't. That's not Funny my copy of 3.0 has program manager. MSDOS executive is a different tool. It compete against Quarterdedk, and Norton commander. <have to disable it for Windows 95, which needs at least 7.0. I have <DOS 3.3, and it's a good DOS. If only it had MOVE...I can send anyone <who wants them some copies. I THINK I have four more boxes. Five are <already spoken for. I have 3.3, 5.0 and 6.22. Move from 5.0 runs under 3.3. Allison

27 years, 3 months

More cool stuff

by dastar＠wco.com

Well, today's hunting turned up some good stuff. A Tandy 100 with manual for $15. A compact Monolithic Systems rack-mount computer. It's multi-bus based with a Z-80 CPU. It came with complete manuals, an extender card, a dual 8" drive unit, and a couple 2716/2764 (or was that 2704/2716?) EPROM programmer cards. I also got the Teletype ASR-33 that was used with this system. It had a stand, a current loop to RS-232 converter, and the complete manual set (including service manuals). The complete setup for $45. I then happened upon an AIM 65 authentically mounted to a piece of plywood. This was an amazing find in that I got the original box with all the manuals and sales literature (with technical specs). This unit also came with the optional BASIC ROMs. The manuals included were: BASIC Language Reference Manual 8K BASIC Reference Card R6500 Hardware Manual R6500 Programming Manual R6500 Users Guide AUM-65 Summary Card Also in the box was a fold-out schematic for the AIM-65 and the warranty card. Much thanks to Frank McConnell & Company for not engaging me in a bidding war over this as we discovered it at the same time. I got this for $40. The same guy also had a very rare Morrow portable I'd been searching out for a long time. A local surplus shop has one but refuses to sell it to me because they claim all their original records were stored on it. No attempt at begging or coercion would get them to sell it to me, so it was nice to finally find one. Its a portable made by Morrow which runs CP/M. I think the model is a C3P. It has two 5.25" HH floppies and a funky-looking wide screen. The guy also threw in a complete run of BAMDUA (Bay Area Micro Decision User's Group) which was a newsletter for the Morrow Micro-Decision here in the Bay Area. Also a complete run of "Morrow Owner's Review", which was a Morrow magazine for users of the Micro-Decision. Oddly enough the magazine ceased publication as late as December 1987 (I would've thought it would have ceased well before that). I also got a photo-copied service manual for the Micro-Decision which is cool since I have a flaky MD-2 that needs attention. Plus a bunch of 5.25" disks, some books (Best of Micro Vol. II & III, Ciarca's Circuit Cellar Vol. III) and some Morrow and Kaypro marketing literature. This was another $39. I also got the Sept. 83 issue of Byte from which I culled these interesting tibits: The editorial on page 4 covered the issue of FAA regulations banning the use of portables on airline flights. I wonder when this ban was overturned? Its interesting in that it mirrors the same concern over cellular phones interfering with air-to-ground communications, all of which is a bunch of hooey. Page 12 had a letter from a reader concerned about the proliferation of mice as a pointing device. "I am sorry to see Apple, Visicorp, and possibly Microsoft jump onto the Xerox bandwagon and introduce a mouse into their new integrated computing software," he writes. "The mouse is an inherently bad pointing device for at least three reasons: it consumes one to two square feet of flat desk space; it requires users to move their hands one to two feet from the keyboard in order to point at a screen object; and, because the mouse is not in a fixed place relative to the keyboard, users must look away from their work to find the mouse whenever it is to be used." He then goes on to espouse the virtues of a trackball. Needless to say I'm sure this guy died off with CP/M :) In an article on portables, an inline quote says, "Any computer can be transportable if you have a big enough truck." Ladies & Gentlemen, finally a definition of "portable". Lastly, there's an article for an S-100 PC, of all things. IBM compatibility in an S-100 bus. The funny thing is the article promises "with its S100 bus expansion capability, your system will never be outdated." How ironic :) A couple other things I got included a Voice Processing module for the strange Convergent Technologies system I have ($1) and an 8080/8085 emulator (circa 1984) in a hard-shelled carrying case ($20). I managed to find room in the garage to store the new stuff, but I don't know how much longer I can hold out. You'd think a 3-car garage would hold more. I guess the pool table will have to go soon. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!

27 years, 3 months

ISA-PCI Conversion possible? (About MS's PC 98 Specs)

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

OK.. I've been thinking about this for a while. ISA's going to die, at least according to MS's PC '98 specs. Knowing how most designers comply to MS's hardware design, it looks like ISA's future is dim. Now, on top of all the old ISA cards I've collected, I just got an AWE 64, and my scanner and PCMCIA cards are ISA-based. So, is it possible to make a device that will make an ISA card fit into a PCI socket? Is anyone making them? Thanks, Tim D. Hotze

27 years, 3 months

Good Finds

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

This week has been pretty good and I picked up over 40 items, what follows is just a short list of the items I think are worth mentioning. PC1512DD Amstrad system complete with monitor, kb, and manuals not tested yet; IBM PS/2 8580-121 tower not tested yet; digital PC278-A DecMate II with two system diskettes not tested yet; Compaq Portable II not tested yet; Apple Mono Monitor IIe Platinum new in box with all papers and cords; Prim LTS300 Terminal Server; The Designer Pencil cartridge; HP 9121 not test yet; Apple High resolution Mono works great; IBM terminal 8535150 I think is the number; AED Colorware 767 TT; digital monitor VR290-DA; PixelView II monitor by Mirror; Toshiba T1000XE with everything manual, extra new batteries, etc; Portac unit; Sharp CE-150 printer and cassette unit; Sharp CE-159 program module; Many other items that will go into the museum someday. Keep Computing !! John

27 years, 3 months

what do I do with a Multibus?

by rexstout＠uswest.net

Just picked up an interesting unit at a hamfest, there was a box with a large power supply, a long tube with BNC connectors at each end(some sort of attenuator I suppose), and a large jumble of cards inside a backplane. Well, when I just got home now I dug through it, and found a few interesting things inside. The first card is from Intel, with an 8086 CPU and some other stuff. Attached to the CPU board are two daughterboards, one with a connector and an 8272 chip, and another with an 8203 and a bunch of EPROMs, as well as a lithium battery. There are a 50pin and 26pin edge connector on the top of the CPU board. The second board is a Netronix "Multibus PC Network Adapter" card, with an F-type connector. I don't know much about this type of network system except I don't have anything to hook into it. Third card is another one from Intel, labeled "iSBC 576", with another 8086, two connectors on the top, and an SBC576 daughtercard. Fourth card is a PROSE 2000, with a 26-pin edge connector and another connector, and a bunch of EPROMs marked "Speech Plus (c)1983", and yet another 8086 chip. Looks like the company name is Speech Plus Inc. I guess this is a speech synth. The last two cards appear to be memory expansion, made by Memtech, and have a large (50 pin) connector on the top, and "ISBC254S" silkscreened into the board. So, does anyone know what to do with this thing? How do I set it up? What kind of OS does it run? I'm thinking it may have been a repeater controller(I did find this at a hamfest...), which would make sense, with the speech synth being the automatic ID'er. Where do I find info on all this multibus stuff? Thanks -------------------------------------------------------------- | http://members.tripod.com/~jrollins/index.html - Computers | | http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/1681/ - Star Trek | | orham(a)qth.net list admin KD7BCY | --------------------------------------------------------------

27 years, 3 months

ISA-PCI Conversion possible? (About MS's PC 98 Specs)

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-04-04 03:45:54 EST, you write: << OK.. I've been thinking about this for a while. ISA's going to die, at least according to MS's PC '98 specs. Knowing how most designers comply to MS's hardware design, it looks like ISA's future is dim. Now, on top of all the old ISA cards I've collected, I just got an AWE 64, and my scanner and PCMCIA cards are ISA-based. So, is it possible to make a device that will make an ISA card fit into a PCI socket? Is anyone making them? >> this question seems to be similar to another problem; people want to use isa cards in a mca machine, and it's just not possible. best just to keep a legacy machine around since it seems there will always be isa cards around. gee, gotta love that pc97 criteria. silent posting and no memory count? harrrrumph, really good for problem determination! 8-\ david

27 years, 3 months

PS/2 M30 available...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<People are moving to Texas and don't wanna have to haul it. <IBM PS/3 model 30, VGA monitor, a whole box of software, <printer of some sort. Any takers? <They want about $50, but will take any reasonable offer. They are kidding. It's an 8mhz 8086, ISA8 two floppies and it may have a color monitor of the older coarse dot pitch. Not worth 50$, 10 or 15 maybe. It would cost too much ship it or I'd be interested in it for the monitor. (I'd keep the box as it's small and a robust design turbo XT) Allison

27 years, 3 months

VAXstation 3100 M30

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

> Basically I've got a really stupid question, does the external SCSI bus > HAVE to be terminated? If so any idea's on how to go about doing that > without finding a DEC terminator? Yes, it needs termination, unless there's nothing connected *and the cable between the controller and the last socket* is extrememly short -- which it often isn't. This rule applies to SASI, SCSI (aka SCSI-1), SCSI-2, and SCSI-3. Otherwise, you'll get signal reflections, which, at best, will limit the speed the bus can run at. There should be a terminator at each end of the bus. There are two kinds of terminators: active and passive. In passive types, each signal has a 220 ohm resistor to +5V and a 330 ohm resistor to ground. They hold the voltage on an idle line at about 3 volts, and (assuming the power supply impedance is negligible) form an effective impedance of 132 ohms. The ideal impedance depends on the cable, but it's generally about 110 ohms. It's this terminating impedance that prevents reflections. Active terminators do the same job, but each signal line is connected via a 110 ohm resistor to a 2.85V supply. These are a somewhat better impedance match and often have a better high-speed response, so they're recommended for faster SCSI busses. Being exceedingly stingy, I built an active terminator using a pile of miniature resistors, a voltage regulator, a couple of capacitors, and a plug. Oh, and an LED for show. I don't believe any electronic device should be LED-less, and if it flashes, so much the better :-) I would recommend buying a terminator, though; building mine was quite fiddly and time-consuming. > I'd like to be able to run it without the terminater, since I don't have > one, but would like to know if it's possible before I go digging up the > rest of the stuff I need to see if it works. If your bus ends at a 68-pin socket (which is a DEC special, not part of the SCSI spec, unless it's Wide SCSI), it might be relatively hard to find a terminator plug. But most devices have provision for terminating resistors on the the device itself. All the RZ drives and CD ROM drives I've seen do. Usually these are in the form of three single-inline resistor packs, each with 8 pins, and containing six pairs of 220/330 ohm resistors. Toshiba CD-ROM drives use two 11-pin networks, though. They cost about 40 pence each from electronics suppliers in the UK; I expect they cost about the same in the States. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

27 years, 3 months

PS/2 M30 available...

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

People are moving to Texas and don't wanna have to haul it. IBM PS/3 model 30, VGA monitor, a whole box of software, printer of some sort. Any takers? They want about $50, but will take any reasonable offer. If it doesn't get sold, it gets dumpstered. (I have no room for it...) -------

27 years, 3 months

Epson HX-20

by TOwad＠aol.com

Hello, I bought an Epson HX-20 at a Hamfest a weekend or two ago. It's a very neat system. Somebody cut a piece of foam to fit in their suitcase, and then cut holes in it to fit the computer, modem, power supply, and cassettes. It looks like something you'd see on the old "Get Smart" TV show. :-) Unfortunately, it won't power on. The battery charges to 4.5v, but no farther. Is that what's needed? The printer will not turn on, either. I'm thinking its the battery, but want to get a second opinion before buying a new one. Anybody? Thanks, Tom P.S. Any offers? In addition to the above mentioned, I have a several of manuals, a bunch of printer ribbons and paper, and about 7 cassettes.

27 years, 3 months

Old Data

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

This struck a chord with me... >protection of data/software contained on the machine or disks. If you buy a >camcorder at a consignment or pawn shop and the last owners left a tape of >their after-hours playtime in the camcorder, is it my responsibility to erase, >safeguard or return it? I think not. I feel the same should apply to personal ABSOLUTELY it is your responsibility. We lost the first 3 months tape of our son's birth, homecoming and grandparents meeting, due to the theft of a camcorder with the tape still inside. The camcorder was stored at work, in a locked and alarmed office. It still got stolen. Probably it ended up in a pawn shop somewhere. I didn't care about the recorder, but the tape was priceless. You just never know about data, and in the above situation I think it is your primary responsibility to make SURE you don't have something you shouldn't. We were heartbroken at our data loss. Just because it's in a pawn shop, or consignment, or in the dumpster - doesn't invalidate copyright, or give you a right to do what you will with it. If you found a personal videotape or data and make no effort to determine if it is important to the original owner, then I think you are abrogating your responsibilities as a good citizen. Cheers A

27 years, 3 months

MacCharlie info

by pb14＠leicester.ac.uk

Last year I acquired a 1985 Dayna MacCharlie w/o docs or software. The MacCharlie is a DOS box that hooks up to a compact Mac and aside from that I know virtually nothing about it. Can anyone advise on:- Locating software/docs ? Which Mac models does it work with (128, 512, Plus?) ? Anything? Phil ************************************************************** Phil Beesley -- Computer Officer -- Distributed Systems Suppport University of Leicester Tel (0)116 252-2231 E-Mail pb14(a)le.ac.uk

27 years, 3 months

TI Silent 700

by PB14＠leicester.ac.uk

Somebody asked about pinouts for the 700 series. I have the manual for the International Model 745 sitting on my desk (I have the actual machine at home) so if anyone has any specific questions I'll try to help. Phil ************************************************************** Phil Beesley -- Computer Officer -- Distributed Systems Suppport University of Leicester Tel (0)116 252-2231 E-Mail pb14(a)le.ac.uk

27 years, 3 months

big $$$ PAID for 8" floppy

by foxvideo＠wincom.net

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc, prb(a)students.cs.mu.oz.au (P. Bocchi) wrote: >I work for a company who needs to extract information from several >8 inch floppy disks and put the info onto 3.5 inch disks. >If anyone is able to do this, or is able to point me in the right >direction there could be some good financial rewards. >thanks.

27 years, 3 months

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test-drb April 1998