>> *Compaq recommends that all other customers purchase Compaq's In-
>> *stallation Services. These services provide for installation of the
>> *software product by an experienced Compaq Software Specialist.
>
>> If you want to see how much a "Compaq Software Specialist" knows about
>> the PDP-11 OS's, just look at some recent postings to vmsnet.pdp-11 where
>> a Compaq employee is trying to ask how to run BRU under RSX-11.
>Hell, my office didn't know how to install and sysgen RT11 in 1986.
For quite some time, when DEC decides that they fired/laid off/re-assigned
the personnel that knew how to do the job, they've been going to outside
sources (such as Mentec), and these outside sources often been hiring
outside consultants. The markup after going through this chain of
"resellers" is truly amazing; in some cases the customer has ended up
paying $10K just for installation of a RSX11M+-with-TCPIP upgrade, for
example.
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
>>we'll see manuals labeled "Compaq RT-11" or Compaq VMS").
>I doubt the RT-11 also
The RT-11 5.7 SPD has been out for over half a year now, and begins:
* COMPAQ
*
*Software
*Product
*Description
*
*___________________________________________________________________
*
*PRODUCT NAME: RT-11, Version 5.7 SPD 12.01.41
* (Single-User Operating System)
*
*DESCRIPTION
*
*RT-11 is a software product of Mentec, Inc. and is licensed under Com-
*paq Computer Corporation's Standard Terms and Conditions.
If you browse down a bit further, you see:
*This very fast, multi-volume backup/restore facility supports the stream-
*ing capabilities of Compaq's TK25, TSV05, TSU05, TK50, TU80, and TU81+
*tape drives.
And to top it all off:
*Compaq recommends that all other customers purchase Compaq's In-
*stallation Services. These services provide for installation of the
*software product by an experienced Compaq Software Specialist.
If you want to see how much a "Compaq Software Specialist" knows about
the PDP-11 OS's, just look at some recent postings to vmsnet.pdp-11 where
a Compaq employee is trying to ask how to run BRU under RSX-11.
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
>Farzino, just about everything OpenVMS runs on Linux runs on. (I doubt
>we'll see manuals labeled "Compaq RT-11" or Compaq VMS").
As for RT-11, you're right... because it is handled by Mentec now. But
for VMS... don't be so sure... At work yesterday I saw a box of VMS
manuals which was being distributed to the VMS support group... they
clearly had "Compaq OpenVMS" on them...
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 |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
Has anybody here ever heard a relay machine running, like one
of the early Zuse machines or the Harvard Mark-1? It occurred
to me (please don't ridicule me too much for this*) that the
sound of the robot in the old "Lost in Space" TV series may
have been intended to sound like a relay machine. I've heard
descriptions of them sounding like a thousand women knitting,
which could sort-of describe that robot sound-effect as well...
Cheers,
Bill.
* I guess you should ridicule me just the right amount. :-)
In a message dated 3/31/99 8:42:47 PM Eastern Standard Time,
rigdonj(a)intellistar.net writes:
> That's exactly right. A lot of the vendors have sold their stuff and
> left by 1:30. That why you found piles of trash that they'd left. I
> usually register as a vendor and pay the extra fee just so I can get in
> ahead of the public. I can tell you for a fact that the BEST deals happen
> long before the public gets in the door. If I couldn't get there before
> 1:30 I would bother going even if it was across the street!
agreed. there's a hamfest thats coming up in two weeks here and a friend and i
are going as vendors with a small cache of junk to sell. the best deals can be
found the night before when everyone is still setting up. still havent gotten
over being 30 seconds too late buying a small robot...
I finally got one of my Teraks setup again, and started going over the old
software collection. Played a game of Asteroids, perhaps i'll try rogue
next. I dont think the guys who were working on PacMan ever completed
that game for the Terak, Dang it. I suppose that one was pretty tough
to animate on a LSI-11, 70's based computer system.
Does anyone know if there are any ftp sites that contain Terak software,
or perhaps RT11 for the Terak? I have a few operating systems, a couple
UCSD P-system versions and of course MMOS (Minnesota Microcomputer
Operating System which is strongly based on the UCSD code). I might have
a Basic compiler, and possibly FORTRAN, but i'm not sure if they are
complete or usable.
-Lawrence LeMay
lemay(a)cs.umn.edu
I told him I'd pass this on to the list, so contact him, not me.
Zane
>Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 15:23:32 -0500
>To: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh(a)aracnet.com>
>From: Don Gray <dong(a)bioanalytical.com>
>I looked at your web site (computer side), it's very nice. I do have some
>other older computer stuff that I was going to eventually e-bay, but would
>just sell if you know anyone who might be able to use it.
>- at&t unix computer circa 1982 (i think it is a 3b2 or something [at work
>so cant check now]) this is a largish desktop cpu and I have about a
>4-foot stack of manuals and 5.25 disks for the unix and utilities. [I just
>got this last week and haven't tried it out yet] I don't have a monitor or
>keyboard, but it does have docs for a 5260(i think) dot-mapped display
>(dmp). Also have a bunch of cabling for this.
>- microvax 2000 with tk-50 drive and a bunch of tk-50 tapes, including vms
>[also haven't had time to fire this up yet]
>
>Also, is there a usenet group or a web-site that deals with buy/sell/trade
>of this kind of "obsolete" equipment?
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
Doesn't someone already have a "classic computer rescuers list" on their
web site? I think that it's divided up by state.
I can put a name/address page on my site -- just give me the info!
[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
[ ClubWin!/CW7
[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
[ Collector of "classic" computers
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
<---------------------------- reply separator
<I believe that's just an attenation control; puts a 75 ohm resistor before
<the monitor.. Like the Pad control on a sound mixer I think, just brings
<the level down to avoid damaging things... or something ;P
<
<Kevin
No! It's for those system that use terminated cables rather than random
impedences. For long cables they should be matches at each end to the
nominal impedence of the cable and the swich turns on the resistor that does
that. Just like the loads used for thin eithernet(or thick).
Allison
I doubt that any of the old stuff I have, much of which, incidentally is
older than the 21-year-old to which you referred, will run at that 10MHz
rate, though I once used an ordinary Z-80A at 12 MHz with a BUNCH of 2147's
(that's power-hungry, basement-heating, fast, static RAM). Unfortunately,
almost no peripherals would talk to it without half a dozen or so
wait-states. That was in a hand-wired application and not in an S-100,
where, although you can interface the processor, RAM, and ROM with just a
gate or two, the bus interface takes about a hundred. (not really, but quite
a few!)
If I go the route of hand-wiring something for the S-100, I'll probably use
one of the WD1002-series bridge controllers I still have lying about. I
once lived for about three years on my earnings from that little
daughterboard I made which had the Z-80 and a few (4) TTL MSI and SSI parts
on it. It provided an interface to a WD-100x-series HDC or HDC/FDC. That
way I don't have to go blind wiring all the parts. At my age, that's a
serious consideration.
First, though, I'll have to fire up that big, old, chassis with the 8" HDD
in it, since, though I had several and have bought several cases of beer
with the $$$ I got for the bunches of high-quality scrap aluminum they
yielded, I've never actually made one of the old SHUGART 1004's work. It
always seemed appealing, since it had exactly 256 cylinders, and if you use
32-byte sectors, they also have exactly 256 bytes. It seems made for the
Z-80's OTIR and INIR instructions . . . it's just that the 5.25" drives, for
which I was designing controllers at the time, and which had to be bought at
the time anyway, were so much easier to interface with the S-100 controllers
I already had. (I stole from everyone, an equal opportunity
reverse-engineer . . . ) It's spent a couple of winters outdoors now, and I
wonder if the fans will even work. I do recall, you couldn't hear the HDD
above the fans.
About ten years ago, Someone gave me several of the XCOMP STS board pairs,
but tuned for 8" rather than 5.25" drives' data rate. I imagine they spent
a lot of time in someone's desk drawer, in order to keep the boss from
learning he'd paid for yet another item they couldn't use. Those might be
interesting to try out.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Allison J Parent <allisonp(a)world.std.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, April 01, 1999 5:36 PM
Subject: Re: Rebirth of IMSAI
><I'm just about to consider firing up one of my old CP/M S-100 boxes just
fo
><spite and to see if I can get it to run the way I want. It starts with
><wanting the CPU board, and I'll probably have to try several, to run the 8
><MHz Z-80H I still have lying about somewhere. Then I want to run the 8"
>
>I say go for it.
>
>FYI, Murph the NS* horizon turned 21 this year. It's NS* box, and cpu(@
>8mhz), compupro ram, my 765 based floppy and a Teltek MFM controller.
>
>I also have a compupro with 512k of static runnign at 6mhz.
>
>the killer system however is using a 84c050 z80/10mhz, MMU with 512k static
>ram (no waits) smart floppy and smart HDC. The floppy and hdc system are
>8085 powered and have their own DMA (Ieee696 TMA) interfaces. I started
>that system back in 81 and for years it was the PC killer.
>
>Allison
>
