test-drb June 1999

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

164 participants
610 discussions

by dann＠greycat.com

A few days ago, I was in a local used electronics/Junque (only high-class stuff here :-)) and found a rackmount case with PS, SCSI cables, and three devices for five bucks. Took it home, blew the dust out, and found I'd gotten a Exabyte 8mm tape that worked perfectly with my VAXCluster (once I'd reseated the cards, blew the dust out and ran a cleaning tape through it), an Archive 160 meg QIC drive (have no use for this, anyone want it?) and a 5.25 in floppy with what claims to be an NCR SCSI intereface bolted to it. It's this last I need info on. This interface board is the same size as the drive; at one end is the power plug (it appears to be powered independently of the floppy) and the SCSI header. The other end has a 34 pin header with a standard cable going back to the 34-pin edge connector on the floppy. Has an NCR 5380 and an Intel 85272 as the main chips, with a lot of glue, as well as a 80188 CPU with ROM. There are two switch pack, one 4-pos, one 8-pos. The 4-pos pack has the first three positions labeled FT and the last position is labeled EXT PF. The 8-position pack has the last three switches labeled ID (almost certainly the SCSI address). Anyway, anyone ever seen one of these before? I'm a little scared to just plug it in; I've seen lots of tape drives but this is the only SCSI floppy I've ever seen, and I want to take good care of it :-). Any info greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! Dann Lunsford

25 years, 6 months

Aesthetics

by Jgzabol＠aol.com

As far as aesthetic appeal goes, to my taste absolutely nothing beats a Cray-2 !! Next would be the CDC 3000 series with its tinted glass panels, next the Cray-1. (Ranking according to my personal taste, of course). There are quite a few more aesthetically interesting supercomputers; maybe if you spend so many millions of US$ (and in particular since buying supercomputers is or has been mostly a prestige matter) aesthetically pleasing design can be expected. John G. Zabolitzky

25 years, 6 months

Top 150 Collectible Microcomputers

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> A RCA COSMAC 1802 is a microprocessor, right? And I still <> have not find any evidence that there was a kit for the ELF, <> the Popular Electronics ELF was just plans in a magazine. <> You could say "ELF II/Super ELF". Quest Electornics, ELF as per the PE article. I have one. Allison

25 years, 6 months

Top 150 Collectible Microcomputers

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- KFergason(a)aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 6/20/99 12:26:19 AM Central Daylight Time, > mranalog(a)home.com writes: > > > > 4) Available from a manufacturer (not just plans in a magazine) > > > RCA COSMAC 1802 / ELF / Super ELF > > > > A RCA COSMAC 1802 is a microprocessor, right? Right. > > And I still have not find any evidence that there was a kit for the ELF, > > the Popular Electronics ELF was just plans in a magazine. I have a Quest Elf that I built from a kit as a kid. It was the Popular Science design, pre-1861 video chip. It has a speaker, a Q LED, 8 toggle switches for data, DMA/EF4 pushbutton, RUN/LOAD/MEMPROT toggles and the original TIL311 latching hex displays. My PCB is rev 2.1, 1979. I bought just the PCB and assembly plans for $35 around 1980. The entire kit was available for $99. > > You could say "ELF II/Super ELF". The Elf II was a different manufacturer, Netronics, IIRC. Quest made the Elf and Super ELF. > It should probably say RCA COSMAC VIP, as I have several of them. Right. An entirely different beast - keypad, ROM, 1861 video, I/O expansion slot, up to 4Kb on the board, system expansion slot, cassette interface. I have one, too. -ethan _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

25 years, 6 months

7900A drive platters

by jlwest＠tseinc.com

Thanks to all the folks who replied with suggestions and advice on my 7900A drive! I had previously written: >>He said I could use any 14" disk media that was the right >>thickness. Can't remember if it was 50 mils or 75 mils. I >>think it's the same as the RK05. I'll find out the mils number >>tonight when I compare my 7900 cartridge with my 7905/6 >>one. The 7900A platters are 50mils. So that I can keep an eye out for cartridges that I could steal the media out of, does anyone know which commonly available cartriges use a 50mil 14" platter? I thought the 75mil platters were much more common, but don't know for sure. Thanks in advance! Jay West

25 years, 6 months

OT: Quick Q about uploading to website.

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<All are very reliable. To your surprise I'm sure. Win9x problems <caused by addons that u don't need and many downloads s/w (recent one W95 is not as robust as Linux however, it can be. I have 4 w95 (all Build 950-C with FAT32) print servers and one of they is also a DOCument server along with the 3 w/Nt3.51 servers. Down time is near zero (power failure caused last down time). However the hardware is all very tried and proven Pent 133s and 166s and updated device drivers. Heck the Domain and mail server is a 486dx/100! Junk apps will however kill you. Way to little ram, 32mb is enough though. What will really kill you is if there is not enough space on the disk, between temporaries and swap space I've seen systems go unstable with 100mb of free space. Also failing to install updates and service packs doesn't help any. I happen to really dislike MS and their products but they can and do work. Allison

25 years, 6 months

Altair 8800bt, IMSAIs, and friends looking for a good home

by wts＠exo.com

Hello, Today I met a gentleman in Orange, CA that had the good fortune to acquire an 8800bt, three IMSAIs, a couple IMSAI floppy cabinets, and a few S100 boards. He also has a MITS hard disk drive and controller. The equipment may end up on ebay, however I thought you might like an opportunity to make him an offer he can't resist. Here is his contact information: Bob Muse Machine-Tech Engineering Orange, CA 714-633-2960 mtebob(a)earthlink.net Regards, Tom Sanderson Virtual Altair Museum

25 years, 6 months

OT: Quick Q about uploading to website.

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< For C, you can't beat _The C Programming Language_ by Kernighan and <Ritchie (creators of the C langauge). It covers the entire language and <does include exercises to work on. It is perhaps the best book on C. I have that and the original Bell labs report (internal) describing C and the basics of programming with it. Good book K&R did, small too! Allison

25 years, 6 months

Hamfest goodies..

by a2k＠one.net

I got a few fun bits from the Milford Amateur Radio Club Hamfest today... besides a nice 386 laptop w/ docking station for $20 (which I probably shouldn't mention.. don't think it's over 10.) I also got a TRS-80 model 2 with one floppy drive... my first machine (now sadle departed..) was a model 3. I would like to do something with this machine... just about anything ;) as I don't have any software for it. Any sources? Can a Pc floppy drive read/write TRS-80 disks? And where can I get a serial cable to hook it up to a modem / one of the serial ports on my Linux machine? Thanks, Kevin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It's you isn't it? THE BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL!" "In the flesh, on the phone and in your account..." -- BOFH #3

25 years, 6 months

Altair 8800bt, IMSAIs, and friends looking for a good home

by kstumpf＠unusual.on.ca

>On Mon, 21 Jun 1999, W. Tom Sanderson wrote: > >> Today I met a gentleman in Orange, CA that had the good fortune to >> acquire an 8800bt, three IMSAIs, a couple IMSAI floppy cabinets, and a > >"Good fortune" being because these are historically significant machines, >or "Good fortune" being because he can whore them on ebay for a quick >buck? > >Pfeh. > >Sellam > What's all the fuss Sellam? Good fortune here probably means precisely that, in the sense of "how many of us had the opportunity to acquire such computers." Lighten up, and as a Canadian I am obligated to say, please. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- Kevin Stumpf * Unusual systems * www.unusual.on.ca +1.519.744.2900 * EST/EDT GMT - 5 Collector - Commercial Mainframes & Minicomputers from the 50s, 60s, & 70s and control panels and consoles. Author & Publisher - A Guide to Collecting Computers & Computer Collectibles * ISBN 0-9684244-0-6 .

25 years, 6 months

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test-drb June 1999