test-drb August 1999

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

161 participants
565 discussions

by g＠kurico.com

Longshot here but ... Anyone happen to have the software for this guy? Of course Dayna was of no use (esp now that they've been sucked up by Inhel). Also pinouts for the connecting serial cable would be nice, though I believe it just uses a standard (for the early Macs) serial cable. TIA George

25 years, 4 months

suggestions on backplane cleaning? (or, HP2100 continued)

by jlwest＠tseinc.com

One major problem with my 2100A has been solved (sort of). I had a card that wouldn't work properly in a particular slot, finally got the bright idea to move it to a different slot (I'm using polled mode, not interrupt, so this is possible). The card works great. Problem solved? No..... In the troubleshooting process I noticed a few slots that no cards would quite work right in. I checked the back of the backplane (it is a hand-wired backplane), no loose wires, etc. After very close inspection of the backplane slots, I determined the problem is the contacts are dirty/corroded/whatever. I tried the best I could to clean the contacts inside the slot, but this is virtually impossible. I also cleaned the card edge with an eraser just to be sure. Bingo - card now works fine but only in the cleaned slot (or one that worked previously). So, given that it's a delicate hand-wired backplane, does anyone have any magic tricks for how to clean the gold contacts inside of the backplane edge card connectors? I'm afraid to experiment and looking for wisdom... :) Thanks! Jay West

25 years, 4 months

186 (was: CompuGraphics Question)

by edick＠idcomm.com

I've been persuaded (by a couple of the guys who worked on the Boca-Raton development of the PC) that Intel provided them with a prototype board used in the development of the '188 and that it became the hardware model for the PC motherboard. It's hard to dispute, considering that the timers, DMAC's, etc would have been prototyped using "real" hardware. That would also explain some of the stupidity surrounding interrupts on the PC. Not even IBM would have done something so silly as to use positive-going interrupts, except perhaps out of fear that fixing it would break something. They were on a tight schedule, you know. Dick -----Original Message----- From: allisonp(a)world.std.com <allisonp(a)world.std.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 10:55 AM Subject: RE: 186 (was: CompuGraphics Question) > >> > 186 ? Interesting ... it seams that there are way more 186 beaste >> > than I have asumed... This could be a collecting theme on their own. >> >> Every DEC TQK50/TUK50 (Q/U-bus TK50 tape drive interface) has an 80186 on it. >> I've also seen them as drive controllers on several different brands >> of SCSI drives. They seem to be rather common in the device/embedded >> market. > >Since it was aimed specifically at the embedded controller market, that's >no surprize. It didn't do well as an 8088/8086 upgrade as the peripherals >on chip were not PC compatable though they are better than the PC >implmentations. > >Allison >

25 years, 4 months

186 (was: CompuGraphics Question)

by edick＠idcomm.com

The '18x series was the first, and possibly last, evidence I ever saw that Intel could build something fairly sensible. I think the '18x series was designed for military applications, originally. The disk-drive applications I've seen normally use the '188, since they offer byte-wide interfaces up to the EIDE types. It's entirely conceivable that the '186 was used as well. I saw one on a WD ESDI controller for the PC. Dick -----Original Message----- From: CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com <CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 10:33 AM Subject: RE: 186 (was: CompuGraphics Question) >> 186 ? Interesting ... it seams that there are way more 186 beaste >> than I have asumed... This could be a collecting theme on their own. > >Every DEC TQK50/TUK50 (Q/U-bus TK50 tape drive interface) has an 80186 on it. >I've also seen them as drive controllers on several different brands >of SCSI drives. They seem to be rather common in the device/embedded >market. > >-- > 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

25 years, 4 months

186 (was: CompuGraphics Question)

by edick＠idcomm.com

My very first 'x86 machine was based on a board called a "Slicer" which later was offered as a two-board system. It had a 6 MHz '186 and enough of those weird stackable memory sockets which allowed you to put two 16-pin RAM packages in what was essentially a single 18-pin site, to accomodate 128K-bytes of the 64K DRAMS. It provided a little serial I/O and little else other than the FDC. The add-on card, which was offered later, had a SCSI port and some parallel I/O (?) It's been a long time, but I think it added another 128K bytes of RAM. Dick -----Original Message----- From: John Honniball <John.Honniball(a)uwe.ac.uk> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 10:08 AM Subject: Re: 186 (was: CompuGraphics Question) > >On Wed, 4 Aug 1999 17:49:28 +1 Hans Franke ><Hans.Franke(a)mch20.sbs.de> wrote: >> > The machines I worked on were dual-floppy based, 1 Meg RAM, 80186 for the >> > processor, >... >> 186 ? Interesting ... it seams that there are way more 186 beaste >> than I have asumed... This could be a collecting theme on their own. > >The first laptop PC that I ever used was a dual-floppy >system called the Tava Flyer. It had an 80186 CPU, but I >can't remember how fast. > >-- >John Honniball >Email: John.Honniball(a)uwe.ac.uk >University of the West of England >

25 years, 4 months

AT/370 and XT/370

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> We have a 3270 machine somewhere, but I haven't gotten around to see if > it's complete. IBM also issued a software package to turn their PC's > into 370 terminals. > > On Wed, 4 Aug 1999, Mike Ford wrote: > >> The PS/2 newsgroup has been talking about the AT and XT models that >> included a pair of cards that allowed fairly complete, if a bit slow, 370 >> mainframe emulation. Anybody every run across any of these? I don't think the 3270PC was what Mike meant. There was a PC with a couple of boards in it that became a self contained machine running the 370 instruction set. It was intended as a 3270 variant, though - developers would download their code to the PC, debug it on the local processor, and upload the next version, freeing the big machine (of which many companies had only one, after all) for users who wouldn't grab oodles of processor time with an incorrectly terminated loop or whatever. I, like Hans, have never come across one of these, although I heard of them back at IBM in '85 or '86. But I recall a rumour from another source that the 370 emulation was based on the 68000 circuitry but with custom microcode. These machines would run VM but not MVS, I think. Philip. ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept for the presence of computer viruses. Power Technology Centre, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottingham, NG11 0EE, UK Tel: +44 (0)115 936 2000 http://www.powertech.co.uk **********************************************************************

25 years, 4 months

IBM TPC 4 pictures

by dastar＠ncal.verio.com

I've posted pictures of the IBM TPC 4 for those who are interested: Shows a close-up of the extended connectors in back http://www.siconic.com/crap/TPC4-1.jpg Shows the front of the unit http://www.siconic.com/crap/TPC4-2.jpg Shows a close-up of the front http://www.siconic.com/crap/TPC4-3.jpg Shows a close-up of the back connectors http://www.siconic.com/crap/TPC4-4.jpg Shows the unit from the top with the cover removed http://www.siconic.com/crap/TPC4-5.jpg Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 05/25/99]

25 years, 4 months

AT/370 and XT/370

by peter.pachla＠vectrex.freeserve.co.uk

Hi, >The PS/2 newsgroup has been talking about the AT and XT >models that included a pair of cards that allowed fairly complete, >if a bit slow, 370 mainframe emulation. Anybody every run >across any of these? Yes, I can't get at it right now but I picked up an XT/370 a few years ago at a radio rally. Unfortunately the machine had been fairly comprehensively rebuilt with a '286 motherboard and some sort of half height hard drive (despite having a full height "IBM" hard drive front plate on the front). I managed to get the original motherboard (broken expansion connector) and tape streamer out of the guy, but the monitor, keyboard, cards, etc were already gone.... :-( TTFN - Pete. -- Hardware & Software Engineer. Sound Engineer. Collector of Arcade Machines, Games Consoles & Obsolete Computers (esp DEC) peter.pachla(a)virgin.net | peter.pachla(a)vectrex.freeserve.co.uk | peter.pachla(a)wintermute.free-online.co.uk | www.wintermute.free-online.co.uk --

25 years, 4 months

RX02 Repair {Follow Up}

by steve.lubbers＠barco.com

Thanks All for the suggestions I've received so far. To answer a few of the additional questions that cropped up: I've had the drive for about 11 years. About 5 years ago it worked correctly, so I'm assuming that internal switch settings are correct (though I don't have a reference to verify them), and the controller/drive match. I have a huge collection of disks, some marked RX01, some RX02, none will boot. I am currently working with an RX02 disk that was used to boot another PDP-11, then sent to me. I checked that both drive belts are in place, and used a scope on the photo transistor that detects the hole. The drive RPM was correct. tony- This would help >>>There are some things you can try. Firstly (if you have the programming >>>info - if not I'll find it), you can try transfering 256 bytes from the >>>PDP11 to the sector buffer and then transfering it back again (without >>>going via the disk). This will test most of the controller logic and the >>>sector buffer RAM. My guess is that this will fail. >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: steve.lubbers(a)barco.com [mailto:steve.lubbers@barco.com] >>> Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 1999 8:51 AM >>> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers >>> Subject: RX02 Repair >>> >>> >>> I've been trying to bring my old RX02 drive back to life, >>> with little >>> success. >>> >>> I just received a good bootable floppy, and get the same >>> results as with all >>> my old disks, so now I'm looking for hardware problems. >>> >>> On a PDP-11/03, With RXV21 controller, and an RX02 drive, the RX02 >>> initializes, attempts to read the boot block, and crashes >>> to ODT at 000600. >>> >>> >>> > In examining what my system reads as it attempts to boot, >>> it looks like I >>> > read every other 128 byte chunk correctly. I haven't >>> figured out a >>> pattern >>> > to the corrupt sections. >>> >>> >>> Does anyone have any RX02 diagnostics, or hardware trouble >>> shooting tips? >>> >>> >>> Steve >>> >>>

25 years, 4 months

Orange County Computer Works

by dastar＠ncal.verio.com

Here's the Computer Works for the Orange County area. Mike? You reading this? http://santana.ocgoodwill.org/computer_works/index.html Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 05/25/99]

25 years, 4 months

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test-drb August 1999