As far as commonality of old machines goes, most airports have
old machines. Public libraries do as well. The boston public
library just replaced some Vaxen with Alpha machines. I couldn't
get them to tell me what they did with the old stuff.
In general, I would say that the amount of old machines is greater
than a given reasonable estimate (ie there's always one more).
Also, I'm wondering how many simple cash registers will have to be
taken out of service.
>
>Hmmm... And Sam, you have an interesting thought. But I wonder actually
how
>many old systems you refer to are actually are still in use?
>
>Anybody who's got a better handle on the present population of minis
and
>mainframes still in service want to give an opinion on this?
>
>One drawback for me (maybe others here too): my wife will kill me if I
drag
>home a second or third big-iron machine ;-) We just moved into a new
house
>and I can say for sure that we are only _half-moved_ at the moment. The
>other stuff yet to move is my collections, library, workshop, tools,
>equipment, parts, stuff, etc, etc, etc.. I am tired and sore already.
>Thank heaven the old and new house are only about a mile apart!
>
>At 14:05 23-04-98 -0700, Kip wrote:
>>At 09:27 4/23/98 -0700, Sam wrote:
>>>I'm sure this is not even an original thought, but the Year 2000
presents
>>>a special opportunity for collectors like us.
>>
>>See ANALYTICAL ENGINE Volume 1, Number 2, October 1993 ;-) If we
think
>>we've got a space crisis NOW....
>>__________________________________________
>>Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
>> http://www.chac.org/index.html
>>Computer History Association of California
>>
>Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
>Jamestown, NY USA
>Member of Antique Wireless Association
> URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
< :> I have: 1802, SC/MP, 6800, 6809, NEC D78PG11, 8748/9, 8751,
< :>8080/8085, z80, z180, z280, z8002, z8001, 808x, 8018x, 80286,
< :>80386, 80486 and the micro version of minis 6100(pdp-8),
< :>6120(PDP-8+EMA) TI9900, PDP11(T-11, F11, J-11).
<
< :Showoff :-) No 8008? I always wanted a 4004 (anyone listening out
< :there, that's a hint) and an SC/MP. Anybody remember Fairchild F8's
The 8008 doesn't count as it's not operational. I only have the cpu card
out of my first design. ;-) Same for the 2901/2911 based hardware and the
29116 board.
I also have an ADVICE, thats a VAX (78032 chip) on a board for in circuit
emulation. I keep forgetting it. Strange board!
F8/3870 yes, never desgned with it but I had to know it to compete.
Allison
Pardon my forwarding this from the "Team Amiga" mailing list, but I figure
some people here might find this very interesting.
Zane
>Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 00:54:25 -0400 (EDT)
>To: <teamamiga(a)thule.no>
>From: Dave Haynie <dhaynie(a)jersey.net>
>Subject: Re: Commodore 900
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Sender: owner-teamamiga(a)thule.no
>Precedence: bulk
>Reply-To: teamamiga(a)thule.no
>
>On Thu, 23 Apr 1998 23:55:49 +0500, amorel <amorel(a)xs4all.nl> jammed all
>night, and by sunrise was overheard remarking:
>
>>> When Commodore Holland went bust, there stuff got sold to different
>> traders. At a fair in Nov. 1995, in Holland(HCC beurs) I bought an
>> interesting machine, called the Commodore 900.
>
>Cool! I would love to have one of those.
>
>The C900 was the Commodore "next generation" machine, before we bought
>Amiga. It had unfortunately been through a few different design teams
>before it really worked. I never worked on it -- I was on the C128 at
>the time. George Robbins and Bob Welland really got it going; the same
>guys who created the A500 architecture. The C900 was about ready to ship
>when we bought the Amiga. Commodore was hurtin' then -- we had been
>through four rounds of layoffs, the only time it got worse was in later
>'93/early '94 when they bought the farm. C= put everything behind the
>Amiga -- emotionally, in retrospect, the right thing to do. But I can't
>help but wonder if the C900 might not have gone gangbusters, especially
>in Europe. At the time, the only megapixel UNIX workstations came from
>Sun and Apollo...
>
>> The machine is a Unix workstation.
>
>It actually ran Coherent, a UNIX clone from Mark-Williams.
>
>> Inside there is a shitload of electronics. At least there's no room for
>> a lot more, like extension cards.
>
>Actually, it did take expansion cards, but kind of a novel design --
>they stacked, one on top of the other. If you've ever seen PC/104 cards,
>you'll get the idea. The 8563 chip, the 80 column chip in the C128, was
>originally designed as a "dumb terminal" display chip for the C900.
>Apparently, the idea was to have this chip, and a 6502 or some-such, and
>an RS-232 chip (like the 6551), togther in a character-based monitor,
>for cheap multiuser systems built up around the C900. There was also a
>blitter based graphics card (the built-in monochrome display has no
>blitter), with a Welland-done blitter (a bit more sophisticated in some
>places than the Amiga, for example, like AAA, it would work in real
>pixel coordinates, rather than offset/modulo).
>
>> The motherboard has Zilog 16 bit CPU (16 bit version of the Z80?)
>
>The Z8000. It wasn't a 16-bit version of the Z-80, but something new. It
>wasn't quite as cool as the 68000, since the model was definitely
>16-bit. But much better than the 8086/8088 of the time.
>
>> and one which might be scsi and more.
>
>The DMA chip on the A2090/A2090A controllers for the Amiga, was
>originally designed for this system.
>
>> The great thing is, it even works! :-)
>
>Cool!
>
>> Anyway, has anyone any info about this?
>
>You know pretty much what I know. I don't know if there's anything else,
>I can ask around, see if George has any details. Gimme a direct mail if
>you'd like to continue offline.
>
>> Until now I have not had any sign of anyone on internet who knows
>> about this.
>
>Rarer than the A3000+, I suspect. A definite collector's item.
>
>Dave Haynie | V.P. Technology, PIOS Computer | http://www.pios.de
>Be Dev #2024 | DMX2000 Powered! | Amiga 2000, 3000, 4000, PIOS One
> Buy my house! Take the tour at http://www.jersey.net/~dhaynie
>
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
What really came to my mind was an ancient McDonalds thing I saw
once. They were 50's style rounded video monitors, awful text.
They looked like something from "Brazil". I was wondering how those
would tolerate it. Also, those UPS hand-held things
>
>> In general, I would say that the amount of old machines is greater
>> than a given reasonable estimate (ie there's always one more).
>> Also, I'm wondering how many simple cash registers will have to be
>> taken out of service.
>
>The _simple_ cash registers will keep plugging along doing what they
>do best. As far as I can tell, they're not particularly sensitive
>to what century they're in. The complex fancy new-fangled registers
>are a whole nother story -- anybody know what types of systems are
>most used at the other end of the cables attached to the laser
>bar-code readers? Not an industry I've dealt with much except as a
>consumer. (I know damned well there are a few NCR registers still
>in service from the 19th century -- they should make the transition
>to the 21st without a hickup.)
>--
>Ward Griffiths
>They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
>Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
> Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Just turned up a Commodore 3 1/2" drive -- didn't know they existed! Anyone
interested?
Also, some strange thing with 4 hand held units with 4 buttons each, which
plugs into the joystick port. No software.
manney(a)lrbcg.com
On Apr 24, 19:55, Bob Withers wrote:
The original poster stated that he was passing a NULL POINTER to strcpy.
You replied that it should be OK to copy from a NUL STRING. I understand
the difference and was trying to casually point out that you were not
addressing the question asked. Sorry if I ruffled some feathers.
You didn't. I just normally write in that tone of voice (if you see what I
mean :-)) -- and I hadn't quite thought it through.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Somebody's been reading that LA Times article again...
Kai
-----Original Message-----
From: Sam Ismail [mailto:dastar@wco.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 1998 12:54 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Osborne 1 for $1000?
Anyone want to buy an Osborne 1 for $1000? Didn't think so. However, if
you're interested in trying to talk this guy down to reality, I have the
contact info.
Sam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Don't blame me...I voted for Satan.
Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
[Last web page update: 04/23/98]
On Apr 24, 20:32, Captain Napalm wrote:
> It was thus said that the Great Pete Turnbull once stated:
> > Yes, but that's not what I wrote. A null string is an empty string (no
> > characters). A NUL string would be a string with a single ASCII NUL
> > character in it
> And what I was talking about was NULL pointers, which strcpy() doesn't
> like.
>
> -spc (and it's a NULL POINTER that strtok() will return, not a NULL
> string.)
Oops. Too much gin in the tonic water tonight.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
The original poster stated that he was passing a NULL POINTER to strcpy. You replied that it should be OK to copy from a NUL STRING. I understand the difference and was trying to casually point out that you were not addressing the question asked. Sorry if I ruffled some feathers.
Bob
----------
From: Pete Turnbull[SMTP:pete@dunnington.u-net.com]
Sent: Friday, April 24, 1998 7:39 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: [getting old punched cards read]
On Apr 24, 17:10, Bob Withers wrote:
> There's a big difference between a NUL string and a NULL pointer.
Yes, but that's not what I wrote. A null string is an empty string (no
characters). A NUL string would be a string with a single ASCII NUL
character in it -- and rather hard to manipulate in C, since NULs mark the
ends. Nevertheless, they do exist, though that wasn't what I was talking
about.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Anyone want to buy an Osborne 1 for $1000? Didn't think so. However, if
you're interested in trying to talk this guy down to reality, I have the
contact info.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't blame me...I voted for Satan.
Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
[Last web page update: 04/23/98]
