<> Has anyone here tried to write TK50 boot tapes for NetBSD's VAX
<>port from a Linux box, using dd and a SCSI TK50 drive?
It
s doable if you have the SCSI tk50 or a TLZ30. Beware there are almost
scsi tk50s that pair up only with vs2000s (old scsi spec and the protocal
is off some).
<for some wierd reason. I gather it is possible, but I'm afriad I don't
<know how you would go about it.
I'm short on detail but it would be like any DLT in use if you have the
scsi version(difference is in the eprom on the SCSI adaptor).
Allison
>What boggles the mind is that this is a problem at all. It seems hard to
>believe (in retrospect) that people really did deliberately build software
>with only 2 digit years. I know it saved a few bytes, and yes, I remember
>when a byte of memory was a significant amount, but still. How did
standard
>programming practice come to be so short sighted as to assume that software
>infrastructure would be thrown out and replaced on a regular basis?
>--
>Jim Strickland
What about OS8 (PDP8) that had a 3 bit year field. It has a Y2K issue every
8 years.
Dan
In a message dated 1/4/99 1:13:11 PM Pacific Standard Time,
ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk writes:
>
> The 82072 isn't an ASIC - at least not a custom one. It's a single-chip
> floppy controller - basically a PC/AT floppy interface minus the address
> decoder. I have the data sheets.
>
I thought ASIC was "Application Specific Integrated Circuit" which the floppy
controller would seem to qualify. I agree that it is not a custom chip.
Thanks for the info Tony. What drive sizes does it support?
Paxton
having trouble getting the old DN3500 to boot, with the original hard drive
and the system in service mode I can get it to go a little ways, but when I
try to launch the config and testing programs, it crashes. Nothing on the
screen, but the C & D lights are flashing. Can't seem to find anything on
the web that will tell me what that means. And when I plug in the 780MB
drive, it works fine but the OS isn't installed so all I get is a no
sysboot error. Although I'm told that one of the two 780MB drives has the
Domain/OS install stuff on it, I'm just not sure how to get to it.
--------------------------------------------------------------
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--------------------------------------------------------------
Anthony:
Regarding your year-old posting:
http://www.heydon.org/kevan/mlists/classiccmp/1998-01/msg00022.html
Did you ever find a disk? I've got several such disks, and could help you
out, especially as it appears that you're a local (I'm in Woodinville).
On the flip side, my MD5-AD3 seems to have gone south over the last decade
of non-use, and I'm looking to replace it, or at least find one to
temporarily swap with to confirm that it's indeed the disk controller that's
iffy. Would you know of anyone that might be able to help me out? Thanks.
Bob Atkinson
425-936-5570 (w)
In a message dated 1/3/99 4:07:25 AM Pacific Standard Time, hansp(a)digiweb.com
writes:
> > > On the topic of vintage SCSI: where NCR 5386 datasheet can be found?
> > > Preferably in .PDF? (Tektronix 4336 uses this chip.)
> >
> > I would check http://www.ncr.com/ and http://www.adaptec.com/ (Adaptec
> bought
> > Symbios).
>
> Better to try <htp://www.lsilogic.com/> it was LSI Logic who bought
> Symbios a little while ago... A quick scan showed no obvious links to
> data on the 5386 though :-(
>
The SCSI to Floppy controllers I got from the Biin project use this chip. The
cards were made by NCR (1987) and are labeled SCSI FLEX SE. It is a
SCSI/Floppy only and has an 80188 microprocessor on it also. The NCR chip has
written on the top
NCR/5380
CPO1946
6-1082073
8845A
There is another intel ASIC on the card, labeled P 82072. along with a 27256
EPROM (Z17412 printed on the sticker) and a 6264-12 memory chip. The bad news
is there are two switch blocks, a 4 position and an 8 position, and I have
absolutely no documentation.
The numbers on the card I have in front of me is:
ADP200103117004A
SCHM348-0017864b
I hopes this helps in the search for data. Now I have to reply to the list
members who were interested in purchasing some of theses. The question of how
intelligent the cards were was prominent mentioned so I offered to get numbers
off of them this weekend. I am passing it out now. I will reply shortly to the
members who are intrusted with these particulars.
To those who missed the original posting I am offering theses circuit cards
for $5 each plus shipping. They SCSI Flex SE cards are NEW, mostly sealed
packages. (It is amazing that someone feels the need to open a new package
even if he is one open
Please reply to me directly at
whoagiii(a)aol.com
Thanks again,
Paxton
Portland, Oregon, USA
Been playing with VGB, a game boy emulator for DOS.
Got copy of Star Wars ROM. Applied hex editor.
STAR WARS becomes DEC WARS.
The screwed-up^Wedited ROM image is at ftp://bony.umtec.com/decwars.gb
until someone complains about it. All I did was screw up the text, it
should be fun to play with. Let me know.
-------
I read a little bit about the concepts of the Dynabook, mouse, and other
stuff in Steven Levy's macintosh book Insanely Great. However, I would like
to know more. I have heard on this list that the research at PARC, and
their products, are related to this and that Smalltalk was an attempt at
the sort of operating system/programming language necessary for a true
Dynabook. I also looked on the net and I didn't find a whole lot.
But was the Alto the only such attempt ever made? I am discounting all of
the cheap GUIs based on it like MacOS and GEM. Were there any _real_ ones?
It seems the Apple Newton is somehow related, and I could see why, but I
discount it from coming close because it is an extremely inflexible system,
just like MacOS.
Are there any ongoing projects?
I would appreciate any insight
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
>> And you had to re-solder some inter-board connecting wires on the core
>> memory modules. IIRC these wires were little strips of springy stuff.
>
> I'm not sure I count faults that _I've_ caused. The core memory soldering
> failed when I dismanted a core module to show some people how it worked.
> Had I left it assembled it would probably have carried on working.
Perhaps it would. But that doesn't mean you caused the fault. A dry joint
is still a fault; even if you are the one who makes it lose contact, it
wasn't you who made the joint dry...
Philip.
On Mon, 14 Dec 1998 21:34:45 +0000, Lawrence Walker wrote:
>On 13 Dec 98 at 23:36, Kees Stravers wrote:
>> How about the Philips P2000 family? I have not seen messages about
>> those machines on the list. Z80 system, 48K RAM, 16K ROM in a cart
>> so it was easy to change programs, micro cassette recorder that was
>> operated by the computer so no fiddling with buttons, floppy drives
>> optional, video 40x24 color (viewdata/teletext character set) or
>> 80x24 monochrome. Started life as a dedicated word processor, BASIC
>> cart added later.
>> picture at http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/sroom.html
>Hi Kees, your pages are always interesting. Haven't visited in a while.
>Nice to see the additions.
>You mention that the P2000 started as a dedicated WP. Could this have
>been the Philips Micom 2000 ? If so, any other info ?
I have never heard of the Philips Micom word processor. That's not so
strange, Philips has made a lot of different computer systems, it is an
enormous task to catalogue them all. Sometimes Philips even sold the
same computer under two different names, e.g. their third XT clone was
known as the NMS9100 for the consumer market, but sold as the P3105
by a totally different section of Philips to the professional market,
and it was the exact same machine. I tried several web searches for
'Philips Micom', but all I could come up with were a couple of firms
offering conversion services for its files, and a CV of a Canadian
researcher who mentiones having written software for the thing.
I once saw a very old Philips wordprocessor, with a cabinet a the size
of a cubic metre under the desk, a separate terminal for i/o and a
weird thirteen bit parallel daisywheel printer which had no smarts at all
(the computer had to tell it how many microsteps to turn the roll and move
the head etc) but this machine used magnetic cards the size of a punched
card to save files to, not disks.
The P2000 family I was talking about has four lines that are incompatible
with each other.
- The P2000T (cassette, 40 char video) / P2000M (disk, 80 char video)
which was the most common here in The Netherlands. They were the same
internally but had different video. Most programs were interchangable.
A CP/M card was available for it from the Philips computer club. Also
a floppy disk controller for the T that was compatible with the internal
one in the M.
- The P2000C luggable, the most advanced one, CP/M, even had a 8088
'CoPower' card available for it that could run MSDOS. You could attach
an external hard disk via a SASI interface. It could read and write the
disk formats from all the other members, and of a lot of CP/M systems too.
- The P2000B/P2500, a CP/M disk system with 5.25i disks, monitor and disks
in one cabinet like the P2000M, on top of a passive backplane cabinet
like the Northstar with everything on cards. 8i floppy controller available.
- The P5020/P5040 word processor system. The P5020 was a monster system, an
all-in-one system with a 15 inch 36 line system, two 5.25i drives next
to the monitor, internal card cage with passive backplane (not the same
as the P2500). The entire thing stood on a big tilt/swivel pedestal.
Heavy keyboard made of metal, no plastic exept for the keys. The P5040
was a more modern version, smaller and looking like a PC with separate
monitor and all. There was an add-on machine, called the P5010, which
was a keyboard with a single line lcd display and a cassette drive, which
could be used to enter long texts. You then transported these texts serially
to the P5020 or P5040 for the finishing touches. Maybe this system was the
Micom, I don't know.
Some bright minds in the Philips computer club made a new ROM for the
P5010 so you could write Z80 machine code programs with it. Later there
even was CP/M for the P5020/5040. Multiplan with 36 lines really was a
treat.
I only have pictures of the P2000M and the P2000C on my pages. The other
systems are buried in the garage, it would take quite some digging to
photograph them. I'll go look if I have some magazine pictures of them.
Kees
--
Kees Stravers - Geldrop, The Netherlands - pb0aia(a)iae.nl
Sysadmin and DEC PDP/VAX preservationist - Visit VAXarchive!
http://vaxarchive.ml.org (primary) - http://www.sevensages.org/vax/ (mirror)
See my old computers at http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/
Net-Tamer V 1.08.1 - Registered
