test-drb December 2000

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

192 participants
490 discussions

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Is there an online reference anywhere that describes how to use the 11/34 console? (either the octal keypad console or the monitor?) --Chuck

25 years

The debate on what per say is a mini...

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Minicomputers = a class of computers now referred to as "midrange", except that people tend to class some random Intel-based garbage in there sometimes _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

25 years

Kaypro-4 differences

by rdd＠smart.net

Greetings, Today I collected a Kaypro-4 that I notice is different from my present Kaypro-4. If it makes any difference, there's a rounf "84" sticker following Kaypro-4... is this a Kaypro-4 "84", whatever that is? In addition to two serial, and one parallel, ports, has a reset button and a fan in the back panel. Haven't time to open it up and look inside yet, but I wonder what other differences I'll discover - >from what I could quickly tell with a flashlight, it didn't appear too unusual. Alas, it didn't come with floppies. Other finds: an Apple Macintosn LC with an RGB monitor and an IBM PC Aptiva model S15 (I know, this doesn't qualify as a classic... I think it was made in 1994), which I bought primarily since the price was lower than the value of the Soundblaster-16 board, WD Caviar 2700 hard drive and 4x CD-ROM. Didn't determine the CPU in it yet, as the silicone between the IC and heat-sink was covering it up. -- Copyright (C) 2000 R. D. Davis "The best way to gain a true understanding of All Rights Reserved Wile E. Coyote on the Roadrunner cartoons is to rdd(a)perqlogic.com 410-744-4900 fly, head-first, off a horse into something like http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd a fence or a tree; trust me, this works." --RDD

25 years

PDP-11/34 questions

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

I got another PDP-11/34 today, this one is a bit more modern but with less stuff in it. It has an RL11 interface connected to an RL02 drive. It has the newer switching PSU (vs the original boat anchor PSU) and I powered it up with some SLU's installed for load. It came up fine and all the voltages are spot on. I put all the cards back in and confirmed I could start and stop the CPU >from the control panel. However I don't know enough about operating the 11/34's operator panel to be able to input a program. CNTRL/BOOT starts the bootstrap. I opened up the RL02 drive and it has a pack marked "RSX-11M 3.2SYS" in it. I vacuumed out all the dust I could, checked around and it seems fine. So I buttoned it back up and tried to load the pack. It powers on (the fan blows) but popping the LOAD switch has no effect. No lights (not even fault) light up and the drive doesn't seem to spin at all. (yes it is terminated) So my first question is, what to check on the RL02 to see why it may not be spinning up? The console SLU has a male DB25 on it. Since I didn't have a compatible terminal where it was I don't know yet what the output, if any is, to the serial line. Suggestions? Steps for entering a simple program into the programmers console? --Chuck

25 years

G4IDE and ][GS disks

by agraham＠ccat.co.uk

> Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 20:20:52 +0000 (GMT) > From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > Subject: Re: Apricot & G4IDE > > The other possibility is that this is some kind of timing card (the > counters would give that impression) and that the audio > signal from the > radio receiver is fed into the Cassette Input of the ZX81. > You may have > the complete unit apart from the software. > > Have you considered looking him up in the callbook (assuming > he's in it) > and writing to him to ask what the unit is? I did a google search for him and found him in Boston, Lincs. It IS a timing card but it's for the Spectrum, not ZX81, despite the edge connector. The software was called RTTY and he can't remember that much about it since it was so long ago, but it received weather FAX data by radio and RTTY graphed it up on a Speccy......cool :) As an aside I've just won an Apple 5 1/4 drive (still in its plastic bag :) that will go nicely on my Woz GS. The problem I now have is getting the disk images off one of my Macs and onto a 5 1/4" disk! Any clues? I don't yet have a suitable drive on the PC but getting one won't be too difficult....... adrian/witchy www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the Online Computer Museum

25 years

Fortune Systems / freezer trick for hard drives

by kapteynr＠cboe.com

Seriously, the freezer trick might be worth trying :-) The spindle bearings on my drive make weird noises that change pitch as the drive heats up. After a while, it gets really loud and the drive stops working. I think when the drive is cold, the bearings tighten a little -- due to themal contraction. If the head actually crashed, I don't think there is any hope, however. I have a little thermoelectric cooler/fan for a CPU chip. I have thought about sticking it to the drive with some heat-sink compound. Continuing on the other topic -- Data interchange with my Fortune is a pain because the 5-1/4 floppies have their own unique format which nothing else will read. Last time I looked at my floppies, it looked like they had a very thin layer of mold growing on them. (I think I had them in a damp place for a while) Anyone have experience reading moldy floppies ? -Rob -----Original Message----- From: Sellam Ismail [SMTP:foo@siconic.com] Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 1:43 PM To: 'classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org' Subject: RE: Anyone else with an interest in Fortune Systems ? On Sat, 16 Dec 2000, Rob Kapteyn wrote: > My Fortune is complete and basically works, except that it has a > really flaky hard drive. (It makes lots of noise and runs about 15 > minutes before warms up and quits working). Sounds like you need to stick it in the freezer :) Try adding some more fans to the box to help keep the drive cool. It'll probably run stably for great lengths of time (until it just up and crashes). I have a Fortune 32:16 as well. The only one I've ever seen. I guess that makes it uncommon too, by my own standards :) The floppy mechanism on mine needs work. I have a Fortune terminal but I don't think it's the special kind that was mentioned was required to interface with it. I don't have a keyboard either. Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

25 years

VCF East Survey

by LFessen106＠aol.com

<<Sellam has a very good idea! I know that there are several members on the list in the Central NJ area. Anyone care for an impromtu meeting after the Holidays? We might want to take this off list.>> Eastern PA here.. May want to come out myself! -Linc Fessenden

25 years

The debate on what per say is a mini...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 15, 11:51, Sellam Ismail wrote: > You can also get fairly robust PCs, with dual hot-swap power supplies, > dual (or more) CPUs, mirrored hard drives (or RAID), error-correcting > RAM, etc. Indeed. I can tell you a story about that... A few years ago, our Department tendered for a Novell server, to act as file and mail server for our student network. The tender was won by A Well-Known PC Company with 4 letters in their name (how appropriate, as it turned out) who supplied the hardware and on-site maintenance. Well, the on-site maintenance came in the form of trained monkeys who were moderately capabable of, say, swapping a disk drive, and not very good at solving problems when the system went wrong -- as it did, rather frequently. So frequently, in fact, that for a while the Department insisted a rota for support staff "on call", something which as far as I know, has never been done before. After many "discussions" with the trained monkeys and their management, who insisted that our experienced and qualified staff must not taper with "their" hardware, we stopped calling them, and did some tests. Basically, the power supply couldn't cope with the sum of the disks and RAM. To solve the problem properly (after adding a second PSU and moving all the disks to separate housings) it was decided that we'd buy a replacement system, from another Computer Company of high repute (this one with six letters in its name). The new, overkill, spec was for dual-processor, two banks of ECC RAM, triple redundant hot-swappable power supplies, hot-swappable RAID disks, two network interfaces, and a UPS. And just for good measure, we wanted a pair of these, linked directly by a crossover cable on the second network interfaces, and running some smart software that allowed one to mirror the other. In theory, if the "live" server failed, the other would adopt its IP address and take over. In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are different. In practice, our network turns out not to like duplicate IP addresses, that is, two devices with different MAC addresses but using the same IP address -- and the second machine was not always perfectly silent. In practice, the backup server was always a bit too enthusiastic. The live server would see a glitch on the RAID disks and report it, and the backup would try to take over. But the live one wouldn't let go, and they'd fight. Almost daily, partly because the RAID system was perfectly capable of correcting errors much of time, but its controller was perfectly capable of generating them as well. In the end, we found it better to switch one off. The live one fails only occasionally, usually when doing an overnight backup. And we have a heavy box to prop open the machine room door. Or run VMware from time to time. Moral: there is such a thing as overkill, and such a thing as over-engineering. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years

The debate on what per say is a mini...

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

I just spec'd a new fileserver for our office: Dell PowerEdge 2400 Dual hot-swap power supplies 6-bay hot-swappable drives RAID 1 & 5 512MB ECC SDRAM My boss will sh*t when he finds out we're buying a mainframe... :-) -dq > ---------- > From: Sellam Ismail > Reply To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Sent: Friday, December 15, 2000 2:51 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: The debate on what per say is a mini... > > On Fri, 15 Dec 2000, Jim Strickland wrote: > > > in the world for modern mainframes - IBM still makes them - because > > some jobs require more computing horsepower and reliability than > > modern pcs can deliver, and hooking one clydsdale to a big job instead > > of 400 squirrels is alot easier and cost effective to manage. > > I think it would be much more entertaining to watch 400 squirrels. Put my > vote in for the squirrels :) > > > And as for reliability, let me draw my line in the sand and say that I > > think using PCs for mission critical servers is not a good idea. > > Even if you put a decent OS on them - Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, etc, > > they're not designed or supported the way a real mini or mainframe is. > > 'course the flip side is you can keep another machine around for a > > spare for a reasonable cost... > > You can also get fairly robust PCs, with dual hot-swap power supplies, > dual (or more) CPUs, mirrored hard drives (or RAID), error-correcting > RAM, etc. > > Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer > Festival > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---- > International Man of Intrigue and Danger > http://www.vintage.org >

25 years

Professors worry that engineering students don't tinker enough...

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

When I was a grad student at Caltech I heard some professors offering some similar worries as much as 10 years ago.... See the full article at http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2659964,00.html An excerpt: And then, someone shouted, "Let's put a computer together with all this stuff!" But could they? Could a handful of engineering majors, circa 2000, actually make a computer out of assorted parts? It's a question that has professors tossing and turning at night. It also has many of them rethinking basic college curriculum, trying to prepare a new breed of students for a new economy screaming for high-tech talent. Used to be, engineering majors would come to college fresh from childhoods of tinkering with car engines and taking apart and putting together radios. No more. "Students have never taken a toaster oven apart, certainly never built a radio," said Lynn Abbott, associate professor of computer and electrical engineering at Virginia Tech. "They've never changed the oil in the car, never seem to have gotten their hands dirty with how things work. That has had an impact on how we have to teach the courses." Tim. (who was weaned on big bags of parts from Poly Paks, anxiously ordered from ads in the back of _Radio-Electronics_...)

25 years

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test-drb December 2000