I got everything cleaned up and after a scary session adjusting the horizontal hold near the hot end of the CRT, booted it into CDOS 4.1. The CDP18S801 Floppy Drive System (RCA Cosmac badged but from Pertec) is run off the parallel card of the computer. That seems to make them maybe portable across different systems. I can't do much with the machine however because all the disks that I have for it although bootable, don't have any of the other CDOS files. They all contain what appears to be EPROM dump files. Does anyone have any software for this system? God, I hope so...
;)
- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
The machine isn't the lame duck that I first thought. I just finished
reading the UT21 Utility Commands There's a great monitor down there with
easy disk access and a "bios (including uart)" Woo Hoo! It beckons...
;)
- Mike: dogas@leading,net
On Thu, 27 Apr 2000 21:26:15 +0100 (BST) Tony Duell
<ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Tell me about it :-). I've never managed to recover a lead-acid battery
> that's been discharged and then left -- there's no 'zapping'-type trick
> that works. If anyone has any ideas on recovery methods, I'd be
> interested to hear them.
I have a World-War-II era book called "Accumulator
Charging", which goes into some detail on lead-acid
batteries. I expect it'll say what to do, but it may also
assume that you're willing and able to dismantle the
battery, fix it and then reassemble -- in the case of a 12V
battery, repeat for all six cells!
I'll dig out the book and take a look -- I won't be able to
supply an ISBN, though, because it's too old for that sort
of thing!
--
John Honniball
Email: John.Honniball(a)uwe.ac.uk
University of the West of England
There is a 2 CD compilation of Raymond Scott's electronic works (from
the 50's and 60's) being released, which can be had before the official
release date through raymondscott.com. Thought there'd be more than a few
people on this list interested - my copy's on it's way. If you don't
remember who he is, he's the guy who wrote all that cool Warner Brother's
cartoon music, like Powerhouse and Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry
Cannibals.
For those not interested in experimental electronic music (and to stay
slightly on topic for the list), he inadvertantly contributed to computers
as well with several patents on magnetic tape positioning equipment and
sound generators. I know that IBM, HP, Atari, and others used his ideas in
their own designs, sometimes years after he implemented them.
Cheers,
Aaron
>Okay... I'm getting accustomed to the VMS directory structure, and have
Dir dka0:[000000...] ;)
>even installed a few apps from one of the CD's, which (of course) failed
>the tail-end of the install due to my not having a DECUS membership number
>yet (pending) or VMS hobbyist license (also pending, and will get right
>after DECUS gets back to me.)
Not failed, just not licensed.
>Now, will that license be good for anything I install as far as software,
>or will I have to get a license for every type of program I want to run? (I
>sincerely hope the former... ;-) Mainly, I just want to do some C and
>BASIC programming for now.
that license covers a set of programs that happens to be on the hobbiest CD
including C, Pascal, TCP/IP networking and a bunch of other things.
VMS itself includes a fairly nice editor (TPU) and a raft of goodies. With
DCL
(command language{script}) you can do most anything.
>And one other question which I've not found or figured out myself... How do
>I get a directory listing of *just the subdirectories*? I've figured out
>how to search for a particular filename or extension recursively thru the
>subdirectories, but what's the VMS equivalent to DOS's dir /ad or linux's
>ls -lAF|grep '/$' ???
{there are lexical functions in DCL with would do things that grep can do}
Dir *.dir works! Directories have the extension .DIR.
Dir [...]foo*.asm Will find anything in the current or subordinate
directories
that match that pattern.
Dir [-]FOO??.A?M A ? is a single character wild card and the "[-]" says
search
the directory level above the current one.
VMS directories start at [000000] and decend from there. so dir
dka300:[000000]
will get you the top level directoy of the SCSI drive on bus A with ID 3.
Help dir will get you info.
VMS is known for the rather rich set of operators that modify the basic
action.
My favorite device modifier...
Set device=flamethrower/temperature:plasma
You get the picture.
I have a list of DCL functions, ailiases, and logicals that I use to make
things friendlier.
Most often used are:
UP same as SET DEF [-] {cd ..}
DO*WN decend to either list of availabile directories or create a new
one.
{only one level down from current} same asCD FOO or
mkdir
At some point once I have a web page going I should make the DCL scripts
I use frequently available as they can be handy.
No law says you can't create a ailias to do exactly what MKDIR, CD, REMDIR
and friends do in the unix world. Implement them in DCL and insert the
code/defs
in the login.com file.
Hint, system is a dangerous account like root. Create a user account with
some privs as a safety net. Also every account should have a login.com
which is like a DOS autoexec.bat though DCL is more powerful.
Allison
On Apr 27, 13:08, Scott Hall wrote:
> Thanks for the reply, Mark. This PI is on circa 1994 Irix 5.3. Nope,
> this cut of Blender is IrisGL, so I don't think that's it.
>
> Certain stock Irix 5.3 demos don't work. Launching the MahJong is fine,
> so is the flight sim. Launching the mandelbrot fractal maker is a no
> go--says 24-bit is needed. The Porsche driving sim. comes up but puts
> up an error message that says "gconfig: not enough bitplanes for RGB
> mode."
Some of the demos are intended specifically to show off capabilities, or
demonstrate how to program, the 24-bit or Z-buffered systems, so I wouldn't
expect them all to work or even compile on an entry-level graphics system
(if you only have entry-level graphics, some of the headers and libraries
will not be there).
> Mark Green wrote:
>
> > > > A student of mine has a circa 1990 SGI Personal Iris with GR1.2
> > > > graphics--apparently less than 8-bit. He wants to run Blender on
> > it
> > > > <www.blender.nl> and he'll need at least 8-bit graphics to do
> > that.
> > >
> > > Anybody have a PI graphics board that's 8-bit or better to give or
> > sell
> > > to him?
> > >
> >
> > There's something wrong here. I know of no SGI with less
> > than 8 bits of graphics, all the PIs have at least 8 bit
> > graphics, and most of them have 24. So the problem must
> > be somewhere else.
Mark is right: GR1.2 is 8-bit. Some GR1.2 boards are apparently
upgradable to TG (the next level), if the big chip in the middle is
socketed rather than soldered (you replace it with a TG piggyback board).
I *think* all versions can be upgraded to 24-bit. Whether you'd find an
upgrade now is another matter, of course.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
In a message dated 4/27/00 09:54:59 Central Daylight Time, ernestls(a)home.com
writes:
> These disks were produced by an old CP/M user group, and they are labeled by
> disk number (5a, 5b, 28a, 28b for example,) and they are a confusing mess.
> Some of the programs have files scattered between numerous disks, mixed in
> with bits and pieces of other programs. Sheesh. It's going to take some
> time to sort this headache out. I must be out of my mind.
>
> Ernest
If the old CPMUG is still functioning (I think it is), get a copy of their
catalog. Most of the public domain stuff was in that data base at one time.
I bought some disks from them in 1996 so I know they were still around them.
There was a CPMUG on Compuserve also. Try that bunch for sure as they had
several folks knowledgable in CP/M 2.2 and CP/M 3.0.
Good Luck.
Mike
>I have a bajangle[1] of VMS CD's (from a friend) but only one boots
>(labeled VMS 7.1 Binaries)... It seems to boot VMS (for the very little
>I've ever seen of VMS -- Why didn't I pay attention over the last few
>years... ;-) but it's a very stripped VMS as the only command that seems to
>exist is the "b" command, which seems to invoke some form of backup command
>that can take a "/IMAGE" parameter that I can't seem to get working...
Ok I don't have the paper handy but thats the disk you want. the bootable
image is standalone backup and is used to copy and start the real install.
>Does VMS install from a backup type file, or do I not have any actual
>install CD's?
Yes, from a backup. Sounds like you have the right disk. All you needs is a
license and instructions. The license see the DECUS.org site for and also
check Montagar.com as they supply a $30 VMS 7.1 cd for those that don't
have.
>BTW, main disk is DKA0, subdisk is DKA200, floppy is DKA500, and CDROM is
>DKB400.
Ok... DKAnnn means SCSI A disk 0->7 as in 0, 100, 200...700. DKBnnn
is the second scsi bus.
The typical drive IDs are any other than 6 (thats the vax). What device is
the default boot is based on a SET command. You can have no default set in
which case it powers up to the system command prompt, making and addressable
device (disk, tape, network) bootable using the correct >>> B {device}.
>Ultrix seems to run fine from DKA200, but seems kinda slow... (of course,
>this is in comparison to running Linux on a dual-processor P2-350 w/256Meg
>RAM, but in these days of instant gratification... ;-)
Well keeping mind the 3100 you have was fast when 386dx33s and 486DX33s
were the hot stuff. You'll find that in some ways it's faster than that
dual P350!
Just load it down and then ask it do do a directory...
>BTW, when the machine boots (to the ROM monitor) I get the F...E...D...
>etc.. with all dots until it gets to (IIRC, machine home, me work):
>
>3_..2_..1?..
>
>and then spits out what appears to be a memory address. Ethernet's not
Fairly normal selftest (like PC post). There is a list somewhere for wehat
that means. Also the boot monitor has a fairly long list of commands for
doing things like INITing disks and such. Check some of the links at the
NetBSD VAX-port
area. The 3100 series is pretty popular and lots of them around.
>hooked up -- any chance one of those is the network interface saying
>"Hello... Anybody out there?" and any speculation as if the machine might
>have some heartburn?
Yes, Sounds like that one has the ESA0 (eithernet) set to boot using DEC
MOP protocal. Yes, once VMS is on it you can have that one MOP load
another(or even install to it!)!
Allison
"Mike" <dogas(a)leading.net> said:
> Wow. UPS just delivered and opening the boxes was better than sex. =
> Newly aquired: a complete COSMAC Development System IV. =20
>
> Check out:=20
> http://users.leading.net/~dogas/classiccmp/cosmac/cosmac.htm
>
> Included with the pile were also about 65 original RCA documents =
> covering Cosmac systems and options (that are listed in the above URL.) =
> If anyone needs any related into looked up or copied...
Mike,
I just wanted to publicly, that this is damn nice of you to offer this
information. I've been able to find plenty of information on all of my
ELF computers, but the development systems is another story.
I'll do the rest of my groveling offline. :)
--Doug
====================================================
Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com (work)
Sr. Software Eng. mranalog(a)home.com (home)
Press Start Inc. http://www.pressstart.com
Sunnyvale,CA
Curator
Analog Computer Museum and History Center
http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog
====================================================
There is a VAX 11/730 available in Minneapolis. Obviously i'm not shipping
it, or having anything to do with it. if you want it, and can come tpick it
up in minneapolis, i can put you in contact with the person who has it.
Otherwise, i will of course attempt to grab any useful boards and such
before it goes to the recyclers. At that time, i would then post what
is available to the list.
-Lawrence LeMay
lemay(a)cs.umn.edu
