test-drb June 1998

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

158 participants
941 discussions

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

This isn't quite classic, but classic enough. Does anyone have old AOL disks they could e-mail me? Any version before 3.0 for the PC. BTW, when was AOL 1.0 released? Wasn't AOL PC Link before? A program called QuantumLink came with my Commodore a few years ago, and when I called the tech number to see if they're still around, I was forwarded to AOL. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 5 months

"No name" S-100 computer

by ddameron＠earthlink.net

Hello All, I have been working on a "no name" S-100 computer for some time, and finally have gotten it to work! No name = Godbout 12 slot motherboard. Cards: Ithica Audio Z-80 card Seals 8K ram + Godbout 8K (2102 type ram's) Processor Tech CUTS (Cassette tape) Processor Tech GPM (1K ram + ROM board, 1 2K ROM installed) Vector Graphics Flashwriter (16x64 character display) Homebrew card (Input FFH port, etc) All in a modular blue/white metal box with only a lighted power switch and a reset switch. AFAIK, the parts that were not originally mine were not "abused", but was surprised at how much was wrong: 1) The op-amp in the motherboard active terminator was bad. 2) A cap across 5V in one of the RAM boards was shorted. The 2102 rams on this supply didn't like ~0V power, but TTL address and data signals. Luckily they were socketed, and still available fairly cheaply. 3) 3 other 2102 rams were bad. Some on the "GPM" board were marked only "DS9408" 4) There was a "pready" signal conflict. Don't know how it was run with this problem? 5) Bad transistor in the keyboard. 6) 1 or 2 bad 74367 ic's 7) Bad solder joint for one memory pin on the GPM board. It was OK 90% of the time... 8) Bad 4013 ic in the CUTS board- receive data path. Along the way, built a S-100 test jig that was very helpful - one powered edge connector with data, address lines provided by switches, latches, etc. + led's to view data lines. I could test memory chips one at a time with it, find where cards were in address space, until I could get the system to run with a serial terminal (My Heath H-19) and monitor software for further debugging. Finally I loaded Proc. Tech. Basic5 the first time! That cassette tape is about 22 years old. Also "Lunar". My questions: The Processor Tech GPM board I have no documentation, other than what I've figured out. It isn't that complicated. Does anyone have any, such as what are the ROM jumper choices and dip switch positions. (I've figured out about 4) Is there any archive for CUTS software? In the late 70's when I lived in the San Francisco Bay area, there was the "SOLUS" user's group. The third is more general, what determines the value? Obviously if this was a SOL-20 or in a IMSAI box, it would be worth much more on Ebay as well for collectors. In a literal sense, it is more unique and I have design documentation for the mods I've done, dates, reasons, etc. Quess what would be called the fabric. In some cases that's what has the value. (First prototype, etc.) In 10 or ? years, how will I pass it along "to the next generation"? I don't think any public museum would want a "no name" box, and from the museum threads, doesn't sound like a good idea, anyway. I know no one personally that has these "old" computer interests except maybe the speculator type, only this list. Those with private museums, will you be collecting this stuff in say 20 years, or will you be looking to pass it along? To ??? For old radios I can consider the AWA museum, as assume it will be around longer than any individual, but they probably don't want a lot of homebrew stuff. The brand names already "restored" radios are too expensive and rare for me, anyway. Thanks, Dave

26 years, 5 months

EXO Corporation singleboard?

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com> wrote: > There was an EXO CP/M computer way back, but it used 8" drives and I > doubt that your board went with them :) Could be tha same company, > though. Thanks Don. Can you give me a clue about how way back? Not sure what I will find of use but it might be worth checking out to see if I can find any magazine articles, reviews, &c. (Next time I get to where I can get to the magazines, that is!) -Frank McConnell

26 years, 5 months

Hang her from the wall

by drfcline＠netw.com

Pete: Thanks for bringing this to my attention. What a lack of etiquette!!! I had no idea I had posted in HTML. The information in text follows.\: A piece of computer memorabilia well worth mounting on the wall or giving as a gift is a stack memory card from the UNIVAC computer. It is the LAST time the home of a bit of information could actually be seen - a tiny doughnut on a grid of wires. http://www.netw.com/~drfcline/univac.htm >>Any chance that you could post in plain English (ie ASCII) pine chokes on HTML and there are many others on classiccmp who don't use graphical readers. Thanks ;-) Pete Foster W. Cline, M.D. wrote: ><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> ><HTML> ><HEAD> ><META content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 >http-equiv=Content-Type><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 >HTML//EN"><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> ><META content='"MSHTML 4.72.3110.7"' name=GENERATOR> ></HEAD> ><BODY bgColor=#c0c0c0> ><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>A piece of computer memorabilia well >worth >mounting on the wall or giving as a gift is a stack memory card from the >UNIVAC >computer. It is the LAST time the home of a bit of information could >actually be >seen - a tiny doughnut on a grid of wires. </FONT></DIV> ><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV> ><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>See it at <A >href="http://www.netw.com/~drfcline/univac.htm">http://www.netw.com/~drfcli ne/univac.htm</A></FONT></DIV> ><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>

26 years, 5 months

Old computer books (was: Re[2]: Quarter classics (was: Big

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

And then you will be remembered for generations to come as the father of computer collection. In 50 years or so, people will write your biographies and refer to the Technical Manual as the Tony Book. I guess I'd better get your autograph ahead of time... >Well, I guess I'll write some of these technical descriptions one >day, if only to fix in my own mind how the machines work. Some of >them will get distributed to a few interested friends. But I doubt if >any of them will ever be of mainstream interest. > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 5 months

A perfect house - my storage problems solved.

by kevan＠heydon.org

Hi all, I just have to tell everybody some good news, but anybody with a space problem and of a jealous disposition may want to stop reading now... We have just got to sale agreed on a house that has a 41' x 41' garage at the bottom of the garden. That is about 1600 sqft or 11000 cuft of storage space. The garage has solid floors, cavity walls, a good roof and thus dry and clean inside. If you ever here me talking about space problems again, then you have the right to slap me. -- Kevan Old Computer Collector: http://www.heydon.org/kevan/collection/

26 years, 5 months

FW: Fellow wants a VAX, any VAX...

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Found on Usenet. If you can help, please contact this guy directly. Thanks. Attachment follows. -=-=- <snip> -=-=- On Sun, 28 Jun 1998 23:11:32 -0500, in comp.sys.dec you wrote: >>Message-ID: <359713F4.DA351ACA(a)intop.net> >>Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 23:11:32 -0500 >>From: "J. S. Havard" <enigma(a)intop.net> >>Reply-To: enigma(a)intop.net >>Organization: intop.net >>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I) >>MIME-Version: 1.0 >>Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec >>Subject: WANTED: VAX (any variant) >>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >>NNTP-Posting-Host: ppp-dialip074.intop.net >>Lines: 18 >>Path: blushng.jps.net!news.eli.net!uunet!in2.uu.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!204.… >> >>If you are going to throw out a VAX, working or not, and are in >>Mississippi, eastern Louissiana and Arkansas, or western Alabama, please >>let me know and I will look into it. >> >>Also, anybody with any old CDC, Honeywell, Imprimis, or Magnetic >>Peripheral drives, please contact me. I have a Honeywell DPS6 and the >>strange front loading discs have a broken belt. >> >>Thanks in advance, >>John Havard >>-- >>----=(enigma(a)intop.net)=--------------------------------------------- >>A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power >>off and on. Knight, seeing what the student was doing spoke sternly: >>"You can not fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no >>understanding of what is going wrong." Knight turned the machine off >>and on. The machine worked. >>------------------------=(www.intop.net/~enigma/)=------------------- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave (Fido 1:343/272) http://table.jps.net/~kyrrin -- also kyrrin [A-t] Jps {D=o=t} Net Spam is bad. Spam is theft of service. Spam wastes resources. Don't spam, period. I am a WASHINGTON STATE resident. Spam charged $500.00 per incident per Chapter 19 RCW.

26 years, 5 months

OS's In ROM's (was: Re: Mac Classic prob (was Macintoshes..

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 27, 19:34, Doug Yowza wrote: > Subject: Re: OS's In ROM's (was: Re: Mac Classic prob (was Macintoshes.. > On Sun, 28 Jun 1998, Pete Turnbull wrote: > > > On Jun 27, 16:50, Hotze wrote: > > > Most Windows CE devices are based on HP/NEC PA-RISC (IIRC) > > > processors, or SGI MIPS processors. > > > > Or Acorn/Digital StrongARM. > > Are you guys both smoking the same stuff? CE does not exist for PA-RISC > or SGI MIPS, and while it does exist for Acorn/Digital/Intel ARM, it > hasn't shipped on any real hardware platform that I know of. > > It has shipped on a couple of NEC MIPS derivatives and Hitachi SH. MIPS chips are MIPS chips. SGI own MIPS, but don't manufacture the devices. NEC, Philips, Toshiba, amongst others, do, but they didn't design them. The VR4xxx series that NEC use are derivatives of the standard R4000 and R5000 series. You're possibly right about ARM and CE, though. Several companies have licenced the technology, but most of the ARM-based devices (eg the Psion 5, Newton) use Psion's OS or JavaOS, not CE. > There > is also support for ARM, PPC, and x86, but I haven't heard of any hardware > shipping for those platforms. > ObCC-Q: What was the first microprocessor-based box to run Unix? > > ObCC-A: The Z8000-based Onyx C8002 in 1980. What about the 11/23 systems Bell Labs were using in 1978? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 5 months

EXO Corporation singleboard?

by fmc＠reanimators.org

A couple of weeks ago someone thrust this bag into my hands and suggested that I find out about it. In the finest tradition of getting the 'net to do my homework for me, I did a few web searches that gave me a lot of false leads and no real info, and now I'm pestering y'all. So what's in the bag? It's a Z80 singleboard, 4 15/16" x 6 3/4" (12.6cm x 17.1 cm for you metric-threaded folks). Legends in the component-side traces include an "EXO corporation" logo, "(C) 1982" (where (C) is the C-in-circle copyright symbol), and "1010A" which I guess is a part or model number. There's a terminal strip off to one side which I am guessing (from the ICs and a little bit of follow-the-traces that is about the limit of my know-how) is intended to be connections for power, interrupt lines, and a serial port. And there are three 34-pin (2x17) plugs in about the middle of the board. Significant ICs would seem to be an SGS Z80A, a National 2716 EPROM, nine Hitachi HM4864P-2, Zilog Z8410A (DMA) and Z8440A (SIO/O), National MC1489P and two TI SN101057 on the way to that terminal strip, and a couple of what I guess are some sort of programmable logic in 20-pin DIPs whose markings have been removed so that "(C) 1981... EXO SYS. CORP." can be stamped on top. Anybody know what this is, or anything about the company, or any better places to look? I'm guessing "singleboard for control system" but that is pretty much outside my know-how. And how did I get into this fix? I suspect it's karmic payback for something I said a couple hours before at the Foothill swap meet. Someone showed me a 68000 singleboard (not too different) and I said something like "once upon a time I'd have found that a really neat hacker toy, now I don't think I have time for it." There's clues in here somewhere, but I don't think I've figured out which ones I'm supposed to pay attention to. -Frank McConnell

26 years, 5 months

Tomy Tutor

by jpl15＠netcom.com

Well, this month's TRW Swapmeet haul was pretty expens^H^H^H^H good: I found some old computer books, and some electronic music and acoustics texts from the 60s... and a neat HP 1/4" data recorder, four channels, FM, four speeds... nice for my restoration work. And an Edison cylinder recording for $10... (cool!) BUT.... (here's the on-topic part) I found a Tomy 16-Bit Graphics Tutor, along with another Commodore 64 and printer. [Anyone in SoCal want two C-64s, a disk drive and printer? Not really my 'thing'.. free to good home, you pay FedEx shipping...] Anyway.. This unit is slightly larger than the C-64, has a cartridge port on the top, an expansion bus port on the back, as well as a DIN for the cassette and a DB9 marked 'controller', and audio/video/RF RCA jacks. I have yet to plug it in. It is stock # 800, model # TP 1000. Is this thing anything? Is it priceless/worthless? Interesting/boring? I have never run across one in all my years collecting... ALSO: I'm still looking for the vacuum column door for a Kennedy 9300 9trk drive.... if another drive was available within reasonable going-and-getting distance I'd go for that, too. ALSO ALSO: The formatter card for the above, to fit a PDP 11/34a. Cheers John

26 years, 5 months

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test-drb June 1998