test-drb February 1999

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

178 participants
709 discussions

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

> I picked up an IBM Displaywriter keyboard unit in a local thrift after eyeing > it for a couple of weeks and finally couldn't resist adding it to my > living-space challenged collection. > I remember seeing mention of it in an old 81 datamation mag and a 50s > style picture of a dedicated secretary busy at work on one and other info in > possibly an old Byte. It was touted as being very popular to the point that it > was touted over the PC and that CP/M programs were being ported to it. > I opened it up and it has only a small I/O board with a 15 pin connector and > takes it's power off that. It looks like an oversized C64. > It obviously doesn't have enough electronics to be more than a keyboard > terminal, but I don't recall seeing a box in the picture. I had understood the > displaywriter to be a stand alone machine. Did it have an additional box or was > it meant to connect to a CRT terminal hooked to a mainframe ? Displaywriter system generally consisted of the following boxes: System unit. PC-sized, half the case == power supply, other half == card cage. Card cage contains system board with 8088 and other cards. Keyboard. The thing you've got Monitor. Very similar to IBM original (mono) PC monitor, I think Printer. Daisywheel, EBCDIC, current loop. Disk drives. Usually a dual 8" unit. Could be SSSD or DSDD iirc. > At present it would seem to be about to join the 3270 monitor I have (can't > remember the model #) as interesting but unusable. > Or could I get gadzillion bucks for it on e-pay ? Any info ? My advice is: keep it against such time someone needs it... Philip.

25 years, 11 months

web archive

by lwalker＠mail.interlog.com

Hi Kevan. I hope you do not kill your archive.It is a thankless task and you deserve kudos for undertaking it. I for one appreciate your efforts greatly, and the alternative would result in increased mail as questions answered in earlier threads were reposted. I also would have to get a bigger hard drive for keepable posts which are numerous on this list. I don't think I have ever received spam related to this mail-list. I did get some mined from the CoCo list and classicmac list I believe but I unsubscribed to those a whle ago for other reasons. Spam is a fact of life for anyone using the net. I use an altered address for newsgroups however, which cut down considerably on the spam I was receiving, but I still get some via other activities. I suspect even Yahoo or Delphi lists etc., are not secure. Surely those who object to archiving could use an altered address. Aren't there also means such as deja news' "no archive" to achieve this ? ciao larry lwalker(a)interlog.com

25 years, 11 months

Atari 1050 mods?

by red＠bears.org

Hi there. I finally scored a piece of disk-based software for Atari 8-bits, so I decided today to test out my atari disk drives to see if any of them actually worked. One 1050 did. The other 1050 doesn't run the seek test when you turn it on, and is invisible to the computer. I removed the actual disk drive from the cabinet and verified that it does in fact work in the other 1050 chassis. While doing this I noticed that the non-working 1050 seemed to have had a modification done (rather sloppily, I might add; I suspect this has something to do with why it doesn't work properly). There is a hand-written silver sticker over what I'm assuming is an EPROM that reads, "Doubler". There is a second Motorola 6810 piggybacked onto the normal 6810, and a couple of jumper wires leading off into the PCB. What was this, and how was it done properly (so I can verify that it's ok)? I have a Percom branded full height disk with Atari SIO connects on that also seems to not work. I think this is because I need to decipher the 4-position DIP switch at the back panel. Any hints? As it is now, the access light repeatedly switches on and goes off again, each accompanied by a moderately loud click. The light is on for a second and then off for maybe two. It doesn't ever stop doing this, and the drive is invisble to the computer. The drive inside is full height, and made by Tandon I believe. ok r.

25 years, 11 months

PDP paper tape - PC04/PC05 (offer to trade)!

by jlwest＠tseinc.com

You wrote... >Just checking that my 8/e and PC0'4' (converted from a PC05) are still >here.. Yes, they are ;-) Yeah, there's been a rash of disappearences, some have reported suspicious 18-wheeler trucks parked in peoples back yards with 12 people moving computer gear ;) >That's probably my info - I converted a PC05 into a PC04 because I >couldn't get the real thing either. Why yes, now that I look it is. Kudo's to you BTW - it's a very nice clean mod. I will do it if I have to, but wanted to check around for the "real thing". There's just something heartsinking about taking a dremmel tool to the front of my PC05 :) One question though - why is the switch needed anyway (I never used the real thing before)? It would seem to me that the PC05 arrangement where power is turned on when data is sent works fine - why put a switch on it? If the switch isn't needed for easy access, it could always be put on the rear or out of site. >You do need to get the DEC Omnibus -> PC04 interface (M840???). That's >the only hard thing to find. The other flip-chip card is quite common. Yup - the previous owner didn't have that either. I'm still hunting for the module, but quite determined. >I suppose the other thing to find would be a 'junker' PC04 and use the >backplane and switch PCB + bezel (and rear label if you really want to be >correct) to convert yours without any real changes. The punch and reader >mechanisms, many of the cards, PSU, etc are the same. True. I'll keep looking for a bit still... THANKS! PS - I hope you didn't mind but someone on the list asked me for a copy of the PC05/4 mod, so I passed on your email address. I apologize in advance if youd've preferred me not to. Regards, Jay West

25 years, 11 months

IBM Sindelfingen Museum

by Jgzabol＠aol.com

In einer eMail vom 03.02.99 12:24:16 MEZ, schreiben Sie: << Jgzabol(a)aol.com wrote: > There is a _WORKING_ 1130 at the IBM Museum in Sindelfingen, Germany. Do you have any contacts there? I would love to visit that place. Regards, _---_--__-_-_----__-_----_-__-__-_-___--_-__--___-__----__--_--__-___- Hans B Pufal Comprehensive Computer Catalogue <mailto:hansp@digiweb.com> <http://digiweb.com/~hansp/ccc> >> The IBM museum there is a very remarkable place indeed. They have a lot of equipment in perfect working condition, beginning with Hollerith equipment more than 100 years old, _WORKING_ 650, _WORKING_ 1401, _WORKING_ 1130, and several other things. Contacts there are Mr. Reimer, or Mr. Spengler, or Mr. Kistermann, +49-711-785 7434 phone. The setup is that IBM pays the building any any direct cost, no salaries, and the people there are all retired IBM employees - having all the knowledge, tools, etc. , contributing their hours !! The address is Bahnhofstrasse 43, Sindelfingen. This is NOT a public place, visit by appointment ONLY. The people there however enjoy very much showing their beautifully kept machines. Regards John G. Zabolitzky

25 years, 11 months

"System Software for Soviet Computers" and more...

by svs＠ropnet.ru

G'day, This publication may be of interest to those willing to collect Soviet computers (I never saw it, just found a reference to it in <URL:http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/gio/paperlist.html>.) 74. Wegner, Peter, J. Nestor, E. Schonberg, S. Smoliar, P.J. Weinberger, G. Wiederhold, and P. Wolcott: System Software for Soviet Computers; FASAC Technical Assessment Report, Science Applications International Corporation, McLean VA, August 1989. Another possible source of information: Charles Babbage Institute of Computer History, National Bureau of Standards collection: <URL:http://www.cbi.umn.edu/inv/nbs3.htm> * ---. Soviet Cybernetics Technology: I. Soviet Cybernetics, 1959- 1962, 1963 Jun. NBS #: 6303048. * ---. Soviet Cybernetics Technology: II. General Characteristics of Several Soviet Computers, 1963 Aug. NBS #: 6303052. * ---. Soviet Cybernetics Technology: III, Programming Elements of the BESM, STRELA, URAL, M-3, and KIEV Computers, 1963 Sep. NBS #: 6326275. * ---. Soviet Cybernetics Technology: V. Soviet Process Control Computers, 1965 Nov. NBS #: 6526276. More: <URL:http://neptune.fedworld.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?waisdocid=1316428519+25+0+…> Chip in the Curtain - Computer Technology in the Soviet Union (1989) <URL:http://neptune.fedworld.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?waisdocid=1316428519+24+0+…> Parallel Processing Research in the Former Soviet Union. (1992) <URL:http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/FRAME/books-fr.htm> "History Computer Science Books" (images of early Soviet computers are linked from this page) <URL:http://www.alink.net/~avg/tetris.c> A remake of Tetris, with look-n-feel of original version. <URL:http://windoms.sitek.net/~fiks/tetris.zip> "Tetris" for the MK-85 calculator. <URL:http://www.zhurnal.ru/1/maslov.htm> "Early days of Internet in Russia" (I know of an ES-1010 that to this day runs MISS.) <URL:http://kulichki.rambler.ru/moshkow/unixhelp/> Some user documentation on Besta-88. Reportedly, Linux <URL:http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=329737050> and NetBSD were ported to this machine. <URL:http://www.vpti.vladimir.ru/rus/archives/humor/es.html> A piece of folklore about ES-10xx series of machines. These are "almost, but not quite, entirely different" :-) clones of IBM 360 series, except ES-1010, which is a clone of Mitra 225, and emulates IBM 360 instruction set in software (if need arises). <URL:nntp://fido7.mo.dec> <URL:nntp://fido7.ru.bigblue> <URL:nntp://fido7.su.mainframe> <URL:nntp://fido7.zx.spectrum> <URL:nntp://fido7.real.speccy> <URL:nntp://fido7.ru.amiga> These are FidoNet echomail conferences, bidirectionally gatewayed to Usenet. See <URL:http://www.fido7.ru/> for details. -- Sergey Svishchev -- svs{at}ropnet{dot}ru

25 years, 11 months

RT-11: ?DIR-F-Invalid directory

by mbg＠world.std.com

>NO!!!! I just tried to run a SYSGEN on my RT-11 system, and I seem to >have lost the filesystem when it started to rebuild the system. I'm able >to boot to another partition (gotta love that WQESD controller), and I >get the following results: > >.dir du2: <-DU2: is my main RT-11 disk > >?DIR-F-Invalid directory What was the last thing you did (exact command, if you can remember it) before you noticed the disk directory was bad - this will help in determining how bad off you are. If it was something trivial, and the directory (blocks 6 to 68) is intact, it probably is something wrong with the home block (block 1). If it wasn't something trivial, then the files may still be there, but it will take some work finding the beginning of them (and it will take your knowledge of what was on the disk). Remember, RT-11 files are contiguous -- once you've found the beginning of one, the whole file will be there (unless it was partially overwritten). >Please tell me there is a way to recover (unfortuanlty I doubt there is). >I wasn't smart enough to make backups and everything I've been working on >was on that partition. As I mentioned, it depends on what you might have done... then again, the controller might have, in a fit of brilliance, written whatever it pleased on the disk... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com | | Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

25 years, 11 months

eBay performance art

by jfoust＠threedee.com

I hate to interrupt the discussion of "how to build a CD player if you're stuck on a desert island with a box of valves and a solder gun," but a friend sent me a note about an interesting eBay auction (sorry, Doug, but you might like it): <http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/ebayisapi.dll?viewitem&item=62692227> Be sure to follow the link under "Read more information about this auction" for The Rest Of The Story. - John

25 years, 11 months

More info available? Was: Re: 1130 has been claimed

by drbilling＠ucdavis.edu

>> ... >> >>The Meta 4 (from Digital Scientific) was a clone of the >>IBM 1130, made in San Diego (ok, maybe Del Mar or Sorrento > >In fact, the Computerwoche article above maintains it is San Diego. I've >seen San Diego in other Meta 4 references I've found like the one Stan >offers below. The headquarters and factory were in the Sorrento Valley, although their mailing address may have been San Diego. I visited their offices once. I supported a DSC Meta-4 for several years, about 1973 to 1976. It replaced an IBM 1130 which it emulated exactly, but was 10 times faster when running IBM 1130 FORTRAN IV programs. It was an elegantly simple machine. The micro controller was truly a RISC machine, I think it had a 3 bit op code, 8 instructions. >>Valley area) around 1970. IIRC it was called an 1130 clone, but >>actually had the extra instruction(s) that would really make it an 1800 >>clone. Yes it had the set/clear memory protection bits. The memory arrays in IBM 1130/1800's were 18 bits ... 16 data bits and 2 parity bits for an 1130 and 16 bits, one parity bit and one memory protect bit for the 1800. >> >>I remember that the Meta 4 had firmware that was implemented on >>boards about 1 foot by 1 foot, with little copper squares of foil about >>the 1/4" by 1/4" ...indicating 1/0 by presence/absence. One problem >>was that the squares would sometimes lift up a bit, so we'd take out >>the boards and press them down again. Yes it was a type of capacitor Read Only Storage with a read cycle of 90 ns. >>I remember we also had APL, on a removable disk cartridge. > >In the pages I've seen so far, the 1130 is said to have a max of 16KWord of >memory but my professors at school were bragging about our machine having >32K of memory (in 1972). Was there in fact an upgrade to 32K _words_ or >were they simply getting 32K bytes and 16K words confoozed? Remember, this >was all quite new to these older age professors then when few >backwater-area colleges our size even had a computer. The 1130/1800 addressed 32K words, but the DSC Meta-4 had a feature so that you could load 64K or RAM, then context switch between two 32K banks. In this manner they developed a multi user 1130 timesharing system. The timesharing control system was in the upper 32K and it swapped out 1130 users. If you had a fixed head disk attached, a feature available only on the DSC Meta-4, not the 1130, you could swap out the whole 32K in some ridiculously short time, like 50 ms., then swap in another 32K user in 50 ms. and pick up where they left off. It really worked, we attached 8 dumb terminals to it and had 8 simultaneous 1130's running for less than the price of a single IBM 1130, and since it was 10 times faster than an 1130, each user could be running at about the same speed as an 1130, if they were compute bound ... not usually because most of the users were pounding the keyboard editing FORTRAN code and compiling. It worked well until we replaced it with a DEC SYSTEM-20 which was 10 to 100 times faster still ... at about the same price. I still have the manuals for the Meta-4, even though I was dumb enough to get rid of all of my 1130 manuals. As an aside, DSC developed the line of National Semiconductor IBM Mainframe clones that are now one of the Japanese lines ... and disappeared. -- Dean =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dean Billing Phone: 530-752-5956 UC Davis FAX: 530-752-6363 IT-CR EMAIL: drbilling(a)ucdavis.edu One Shields Way Davis, CA 95616

25 years, 11 months

Gorilla manual

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Umm. You'd better re-read the message Todd. It for a Gorilla MONITOR manual. Joe At 06:56 PM 2/2/99 -0500, you wrote: >I posted the message about the printer. I found one thanks to someone else's >posting. It does not have a manual, so if you care to part with it, please >let me know. Thanks. > >Todd Osborne >Senior Software Engineer >FMStrategies, Inc. >http://www.fmstrategies.com/ >-------------------------------------------------------- >FMStrategies, Inc: tosborne(a)fmstrategies.com >Internet E-Mail: todd.osborne(a)barnstormer-software.com >-------------------------------------------------------- >Founder of the Virtual Windows Class Library (C++) >http://www.barnstormer-software.com/vwcl/ >-------------------------------------------------------- >Anagrams? (http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/) >Can you figure out this one? Want the answer? E-Mail me. >COCO VERDI MOM (Hint: Think Late 1970's Computer) >-------------------------------------------------------- >Quote: >"The timid die just like the daring, and if you don't take the plunge then >you'll just take the fall" - Michael Longcor > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu >> [mailto:CLASSICCMP-owner@u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Sam Ismail >> Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 1999 6:33 PM >> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers >> Subject: Re: Gorilla manual >> >> >> On Tue, 2 Feb 1999, Joe wrote: >> >> > A couple of weeks ago someone was asking about a Gorilla Banana printer. >> > Today I found the onwer's manual for my old Gorilla monochrome monitor. >> > Does anyone need it? >> >> Speaking of such, I picked up one of said printer yesterday at a thrift >> shop (charity shop for the UK impaired) for $10. >> >> Sellam Alternate e-mail: >> dastar(a)siconic.com >> ------------------------------------------------------------------ >> ------------ >> Always hasslin' the man. >> >> Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 >> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! >> [Last web site update: 01/15/99] >> >> > >

25 years, 11 months

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test-drb February 1999