This is an update to my earlier post regarding the availability of
VAXStation 4000 VLC's. It is being posted to both CLASSICCMP
and port-vax(a)netbsd.org.
The interest in these beasties has been strong, and I had some
inquiries as to further details about the unit's innards and specs.
With that in mind, here's what I've gotten so far.
They are indeed VLC's. Actual model number: VS48K-CA
Quantity available: 20. Each unit includes an LK401 keyboard
and DEC three-button mouse (not the 'Hockey Puck' style... looks
more like a rebadged Logitech).
(Also available: One ea. VAXStation 4000/90, condition (like
the others): Uknown, pulled from working setup).
Installed memory: At least 24 MB. These units appear to use
standard 72-pin FPM Parity SIMMs.
Video subsystem: Difficult for me to tell. The video board has a
bank of 16 each Toshiba part #TC524258BZ-10 memory chips
installed. I -think- this means there's 4MB of video memory...
someone check me on that, please? 1MB per bank of four chips?
Anyway... more details on the video. The board has a 130.808
MHz oscillator, and sports the Bt RAMDAC and chip set. This
could be good, bad, or indifferent... I don't know enough about such
things to say. Chip numbers are Bt458LPJ135 for the RAMDAC,
and Bt438K for the other chip.
There do not appear to be any hard drives in any of the units,
though I could be mistaken (I didn't examine them all). It does
appear that the hard drive mounting brackets were left in, so putting
a drive in the thing would not be a huge hassle.
Price: $50.00 or best offer per unit plus shipping. Local pickup
also available.
Contact: Mark Dabek, RE-PC, Tukwila, WA. Phone is 206-575-
8737. Hours are Monday-Saturday, 10:00 - 19:00 Pacific time.
Web is www.repc.com.
Please tell him I referred you if you go and buy one or more. He
likes to know where his business comes from.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner/Head Honcho,
Blue Feather Technologies (www.bluefeathertech.com)
kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com
"SCSI Users, Unite! Beware the IDEs of March!"
I've already asked ... heck, told... Sellam that I don't want to
continue the thread regarding what happened to Haltek. That still
holds true. What I would like to add here, now that I've cooled down
a bit, is some background on why I reacted as I did.
I see the whole Bay Area mess -- skyrocketing housing prices,
demand outpacing supply, etc. -- as only one symptom of a much
larger pattern of badly distorted values and priorities that, to my
eyes, has been developing at least since the mid-80's.
That pattern is one of a culture that has, in large part, come to
value money above all else. Above family, above skills, above the
ability to create something that's truly an innovation (and I do NOT
mean web-enabled refrigerators!), and above the ability to take
something old, but still usable, and give it new life.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not in any way against making a
comfortable living, nor am I against a business making a fair profit.
That would be as silly as expecting honest behavior out of White
House politicians.
What I do have a problem with is the pattern I see is "make as
much money as you can in as short a time as you can, and to
blazes with whoever you might screw, or what you might do to the
long-term picture for the planet along the way, because money is
the ONLY important thing!"
That kind of thinking is as destructive, in the long term, to this
world and everyone on it as a nuclear blast would be in the short
term.
I do not agree with such a warped philosophy. I do not
subscribe to it. I will fight it in any way that I can, anywhere I can,
in this world or wherever I end up in when my number comes up.
I currently do so in many different ways, one of which is by
preserving and using older technology that might otherwise serve to
choke a landfill even higher than it already is. I think a lot of the
list's members are the same way.
Every surplus dealer that goes under represents, to my eyes,
that much more possible content in the landfills, that much less of
an opportunity for a budding hobbyist to learn what real "hacking"
is, and that much more of a win for a the mindset of "Plug-and-Play-
and-ThrowItAway" rather than doing a 'Quality Job.'
Given the above, is it any wonder that I got ticked off when I
learned of Haltek's demise, and (more specifically) how they'd
come to an end?
If Sellam, or anyone else on the list, wants to judge me as
short-sighted, or lacking "perspective" because of these beliefs,
then I can only say "Guilty as charged, and thanks for sharing your
opinion."
I'm not out to offend anyone, and I'm certainly not crazy enough
to think that everyone is going to agree with me. That would be
really dumb. All I was trying to do was express my disgust that a
place I considered as a valued resource had been, in my view,
unfairly forced out of business. If that did offend anyone, I apologize.
Whatever the case, I think I will keep "death notices," as it
were, on my web site instead of in the group.
Thanks for reading.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner/Head Honcho,
Blue Feather Technologies (www.bluefeathertech.com)
kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com
"SCSI Users, Unite! Beware the IDEs of March!"
From: SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com>
>a minute. if you want networking, go get warp connect. i've been told that
>it's been tweaked a little after warp 3.0 came out. i have it running on a
Where would I find that? I'm not warp savy, barely PC savy.
>PS/2 server 95 with 48meg with scsi and i get full multimedia and can
connect
Hummm... How would that run on a 386sx/16 with 5mb? If not that a 486dx2/66
with 12mb.
Allison
Does anyone have (or know where to find) the specs for the Apple
DiskCopy 4.2 disk image format? I know the specs were published (unlike
the new Apple Disk Copy 6.x NDIF format), but searches with Altavista,
Google, and Ask didn't turn them up.
I have some raw disk images of 720K and 1440K diskettes on my web site,
and I want to write a Linux program to take a raw image and turn it into
an ADC4.2 image, so people with Macs can more easily deal with them.
Eric
Close, but not quite correct.
GPF is a general protection fault, the most common problem is a bad or
uninitialized pointer.
What makes a DLL get loaded, or paged in, is a page fault. Its the same
mechanism that causes a swapped out page to be swapped back in on a 4K
boundary.
At 02:56 PM 5/26/00 -0400, you wrote:
> > Don't forget that OS/2 was written by Gordon Letwin
> > AT MICROSOFT!
> >
> >
> > You might enjoy reading "Inside OS/2" by Gordon Letwin; from Microsoft
> > Press.
>
>While I agree OS/2 is a better operating system than Windows, this
>book depressed me due to Gordon's wrongheaded-belief that a GPF
>should always be considered an indicator of a programming problem.
>
>Since Intel didn't give us a pointer fault, the GPF is the only
>proper way to implement dynamic linking. As they shipped, OS/2
>from version 1.0 to 1.2 never did properly implement dynamic linking;
>and Windows inherits the wrong way from OS/2.
>
>Strangely, Ed Iacobucci (who was Gordon Letwin's counterpart at IBM)
>wrote an article that appeared in a magazine that described OS/2's
>dynamic linking as operating the way it should.
>
>The key difference is this: in real dynamic linking, CALL instructions
>that are supposed to invoke procedures in a DLL are constructed in the
>executable image such that when the processor executes the CALL, it
>causes a GPF [pointer fault]; then the GPF handler looks at the faulting
>instruction. If the pointer is a faulted pointer to a routine in a DLL,
>then snap the link [map the DLL into memory and then modify the faulting
>instruction to point to the entry point of the routine as described in
>the DLL's export table], and restart the instruction. Otherwise, it's a bug
>and you signal a condition which somehere generates an error message.
>In this scenario, programs start up much faster because the OS is not
>reading and linking every routine in the executable's import table. If
>you never use feature <X> in the program, and if feature <X> resides
>tottally in a separate DLL, then that DLL never gets mapped into RAM.
>MUCH, MUCH better execution, more robust operation, in particular, the
>machine wouldn't thrash at startup dur to all those programs in your
>startup folder.
>
>Due to Ed's article, I always assumed that there was a turf was between
>IBM and Microsoft on this and other salient technical points. MS won
>and was wrong.
>
>So, having said that, you might see why I'm not a big fan of Letwin's.
>
>Shew! Glad I got _that_ off my chest again.
>
>respectfully submitted,
>-doug quebbeman
- Steve Mastrianni
In an effort to preserve all my miscellaneous driver floppies I've been
copying them to CD-rom. I figured I should also do this for my DOS 6.3
disks but realized that I don't know how to create a bootable DOS 6.3
system disk from the disk itself. I've considered using dd(1) on unix to
create just the disk image that I can later use dd to copy back out but
was wondering if perhaps there was a better way.
--Chuck
>Yes, seems more and more people here have been watching "Wall Street" (the
>movie and the real thing) and embracing Sam Geckoe's motto, "Greed . . . is
>good." Seems to be the way of the new millenium, starting with the gas
>pumps.
Nah, the move was a late comer, the gas gag was done 28 years ago and
then pulled out every 12-15 for another try. They get away with it every
time.
Allison
I have a Lisa 2/5 that doesn't want to work. Here's some things that I've
found out in the process of troubleshooting it.
(1) The PS in the 2/5 and the 2/10 are interchangeable but the 2/5 PS has
a lower capacity. (2/10 and the Mac XL hardware are the same).
(2) The card cage must be installed in a before the PS will turn on but
the memory and I/O cards need not be installed.
(3) The CPU does not have to be installed for the PS to work but if it's
not installed the PS will keep resetting and will make a chirping sound.
(4) The card cages for the 2/5 and 2/10 have different brackets and don't
appear to be interchangeable.
(5) An I/O card from a 2/10 will work in a 2/5, at least properly enough
to power it on and get a display.
>(6) A "bad" I/O card in a 2/5 will prevent the PS from turning on and will
cause the PS to appear defective.< (see note 2!)
My 2/5 will not power on. I installed a known good PS from a 2/10 and
it still doesn't work. The 2/5 PS DOES work in the 2/10 so it is good. The
2/5 will power up with an I/O board from a 2/10 or with no I/O board
installed so the problem appears to be in the I/O board. The battery
condition seems to not matter. Does anyone have a schematic of the
interlocks and interconnects for the Lisa 2/5 or know what signals the
power supply gets from the I/O board?
Joe
>OS/2 was modified at 2.0 to include a flat memory model. Apps and DLLs went
>to 32-bit flat model code. Legacy apps got their APIs thunked to 32-bits.
>It was also possible to use legacy DLLs from 32-bit apps, which got their
>APIs thunked 32 to 16 and back. Some called it a hack, for IBM it was a way
>to get legacy 1.x apps to run in 2.x. Older DOS and Win apps were run the
>V86 mode, each with their own 1MB sandbox.
>
>Of course none of that matters now. 8-)
As I happen to have an IBM OS/2 warp V3 kit with bonus pak it makes me
want to play again with it. I did in the last outing try installing it and
it went well
but I found the interface feeling a bit strange. It sounds like it has
attributes
that would make it ideal for smaller 486s and any 386s with enough ram
but unlike some that want Multimedia I'd want IP (eithernet) networking.
Allison
CC'd to Port-VAX and Classiccmp...
Hi, folks,
The local (Seattle) used computer place I work with on
occasion has turned up a whole stack of DEC VAXStation 4000's
(desktop/'pizza box' configuration). I think these are the VLC model.
Very little is known about them, though I also saw a whole pile
of in-the-box LK401 keyboards with them. I'm pretty sure the owner
of the place would let 'em go pretty cheap, especially since they're
mainly a PC store.
If there's any interest in these, let me know and I'll go over one
or more in detail.
Now, on the MultiBus front: The Seattle store has turned up a
MultiBus computer that's full of boards, and at least one tape drive.
It's in a rack chassis, pretty light for its size, and has a whole slew
of serial ports (9-pinners) on the backside. It also has an SMD disk
controller, and what appears to be a SCSI adapter (at least it's tied
to a SCSI/QIC-xx bridge board to run the cartridge tape drive).
Again, if there's any interest, let me know (and please include
any offers -- don't be shy!) and I'll see what I can do to rescue the
beastie.
Thanks much.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner/Head Honcho,
Blue Feather Technologies (www.bluefeathertech.com)
kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com
"SCSI Users, Unite! Beware the IDEs of March!"
