test-drb May 2000

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

172 participants
541 discussions

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

I seem to remember that back in the good old days (BITGOD) the cruise missile programmers at McDonnell Douglas were required to punch a Mylar version of a paper tape that was the guidance load for each missile and then it was stored in a vault. I guess that you could decode the holes in the tape to "prove" that the guidance load was correct. Somewhere I have a tape fragment, not from a missile but from some game code. I think this tape was not fan folded but rolled for storage. Mike

23 years, 11 months

OS/2

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Eh? You're both wrong. OS/2 used the protected-mode multi-segment > support of the x86, but recall that OS/2 was originally released on the > 286 -- it didn't have any paging support. It's easy to distinguish a > fault during a CS load from a GPF, and no page fault is involved. There is another factor complicating this history lesson. The most extant machine that was OS/2 capable at the time of its launch was the IBM PC/AT. Most of the PC/AT models shipped with mask C of the 80286 processor. There was a flaw in the C mask chip that caused the CX register to be trashed on a GPF. That meant for OS/2 to take advantage of this hardware feature would have required a processor upgrade (they were socketed, PGA) for all these machines. Still, how hard would it have been to include a chip in the package? -dq

23 years, 11 months

Prime Parts: was "Documenting how old computers..."

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

Ok, I'm looking for a SCSI controller (7110 or 7210 are the only two models I know of), and a LHC300 ethernet controller. Got one? Also, looking for an 8mm streaming tape drive. Do you have a manual for PL1/G? -doug q -----Original Message----- From: Steve Robertson [mailto:steverob@hotoffice.com] Sent: Friday, May 26, 2000 4:46 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Prime Parts: was "Documenting how old computers..." I've got a small Pr1me buried somewhere in my garage. I'm not prositive but, I *think* it's a 2550. It's a complete system but, it has a bad CPU. That being the case, I'll make any of the parts available for anyone that's looking to resurrect one. Let me know exactly what parts you need and I'll see if I have them. I'm really not too familiar with that hardware so, you'll have be *real* specific about the parts you need. I also have a bunch of Pr1me DOCs (many still in the shrink wrap) if someone needs them. I'd like to get a token fee for the parts and of course you'd have to pay shipping from South Florida. Later, Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com> > -----Original Message----- > From: Douglas Quebbeman [ mailto:dhquebbeman@theestopinalgroup.com <mailto:dhquebbeman@theestopinalgroup.com> ] > Sent: Friday, May 26, 2000 3:23 PM > To: 'classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org' > Subject: RE: Documenting how old computers were used > > > I'm working on some sources for spares; but I'm not even sure > what I'll find in the machine. The owner had a stroke around > Christmas, and some things are returning more slowly than others. > > But I'll definitely be needed either a 7110 or 7210 SCSI controller > and an LHC300 ethernet controller. > > So, what's a Xyplex? > > -doug q >

23 years, 11 months

Documenting how old computers were used

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> I'd be interested to know what other list members are doing, and how > important you think the information being lost is. I'm glad you posted this. I'm effecting a rescue of a Prime 2455 system, which I should receive in a week. As it stands, I think this already may be parts of different systems, but I'll do as you suggest, and make note of what was installed on it when I first fire it up. Any other Pr1me fans hanging out here??? -doug q

23 years, 11 months

Defining Disk Image Dump Standard

by mark_k＠iname.com

On Fri, 26 May 2000 Vintage Computer GAWD! wrote: > On Fri, 26 May 2000, John Foust wrote: > > > Below is the section from the manual that describes their > > file format. > > > > Each sector written to the file is optionally preceded by an > > 8-byte header record of the following form: > > > > > > +------+------+------+------+------+------+----------+ > > | ACYL | ASID | LCYL | LSID | LSEC | LLEN | COUNT | > > +------+------+------+------+------+------+----------+ > > > > ACYL Actual cylinder, 1 byte > > ASID Actual side, 1 byte > > LCYL Logical cylinder; cylinder as read, 1 byte > > LSID Logical side; or side as read, 1 byte > > LSEC Sector number as read, 1 byte > > LLEN Length code as read, 1 byte > > COUNT Byte count of data to follow, 2 bytes. If zero, > > no data is contained in this sector. > > > > All sectors occurring on a side will be grouped together; > > however, they will appear in the same order as they occurred on > > the diskette. Therefore, if an 8 sector-per-track diskette were > > scanned which had a physical interleave of 2:1, the sectors might > > appear in the order 1,5,2,6,3,7,4,8 in the DOS dump file. > > > > After the last specified cylinder has been written to the DOS > > file, AnaDisk returns to the Main Menu. > > This is a good start. The header should include a byte that contains a > flag indicating the status of the sector (good, bad, etc). This seems rather "high level" if you are wanting to preserve the exact disk contents. Though it may be all you can do using a standard PC floppy controller. > What about odd formats? I take my experience from the Apple ][. You had > stuff like half-tracks and quarter-tracks (the head was stepped half-way > or half of half-way between tracks to store data), odd disk formats > (custom sector sizes, custom sector layouts, etc.), synchronization > between tracks (one copy protection scheme was to write a two tracks so > that if a seek was done from one track to the other, a specific sector > would be expected under the head as soon as it got to the next track). I would like to be proved wrong, but there is no way to account for every possible strange thing that could be done in terms of custom formats, copy-protection etc., at least in a high level file format that doesn't just sample the bits coming from the disk. It would be possible to construct a device for archiving disks at a very low level. I guess this would be similar to commercial floppy disk duplicators, except writing data to a file instead of another floppy. The bit stream from the disk would be sampled at a very high rate to allow for various tricks that could be done. Or by modifying a floppy drive, the analogue signal from the read head could be sampled. Tricks like "pulsing" the drive motor during a write to vary rotation rate, changing the data rate mid-write (e.g. 2us vs 4us per bit cell), changing precompensation values mid write, using custom non-MFM-or-GCR coding methods, reducing drive motor speed for some tracks (thus writing long tracks which cannot be duplicated on an unmodified drive/computer),... [Long tracks are a common form of copy-protection on Amiga games.] Such a low-level dump of raw data would at least preserve all (or almost all) information on the disk. Successfully writing an exact duplicate back to another floppy would depend on the capabilities of your disk controller. Still, such as image file could be easily supported by emulators. Also bad sectors would be preserved, meaning that recovery of most of the data from them would be possible. > The AnaDisk software doesn't seem to accomodate copy protected or > custom-format disks. The standard will have to address these disks as > well. You may know that Amiga computers have very flexible floppy controller hardware. There are several programs on the Amiga that are intended to image/archive disks at a low level. These read the raw bits from an entire track in one pass, and store that (from index to index, plus some). This is independent of the coding method used (MFM, GCR or whatever), and of course preserves sector order, distance between sectors etc. It should be possible to successfully archive almost any PC floppy disk that way, protected or not. I don't have many copy-protected PC floppies. Was any famously "evil" type of disk-based copy-protection used for PC software? I would quite like to try making a working backup of a disk like this. The Catweasel disk controller hardware (available as an ISA card for PCs) is capable of similar things. However due to its developer (stupidly IMO) refusing to release details on how to program it directly, this would be of no use; you're stuck with the provided drivers which are apparently pretty poor. -- Mark

23 years, 11 months

Someone needs Dynalogic Hyperion info

by vcf＠siconic.com

Can anyone help this guy out? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 22:04:26 -0700 From: Leo Butzel <lbutzel(a)home.com> Subject: Updated e-mail address needed for Archives Hope I not repeating myself ! Looking for info on the Dynalogic Hyperion, a "portable" DOS machine manufactures around 1983. At least the one I have is 1983. it was designed and initially built in Ottawa, Canada. Hyperion was acquired in about 1983 by Bytec, who was later bought by I think a Quebec company called Comterm. Anyway, mine has stopped working: Hence I am looking for service info and/or persons who have worked on the machine. Thanks very much for any leads you might provide. Leo Butzel Seattle, WA lbutzel(a)home.com Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!

23 years, 11 months

Geeks and quality of life (was Re: A moment of silence...)

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- sjm <sethm(a)loomcom.com> wrote: > I love the Bay Area. I was born in San Francisco, I really > consider this place home despite my family roots in New England > (which is just too hot in the summer, and too cold in the winter)... > > Or, I can afford a four bedroom home in the nicest suburb of > Columbus, Ohio. (Yes, I realise Columbus Ohio fails my weather test. > Otherwise, I'd be there :) What ever made you pick Columbus as your touchstone? If you prefer Bay Area weather, I guarantee that it fails your weather test, but, yes, the housing prices are quite moderate (with salaries to match ;-) On the plus side, a nice house in one of the very desirable sections of town goes from $225K to $350K, new houses in a modest neighborhood are more like $160K to $180K, and in my neighborhood (near Ohio State University, so city schools for those folks that care), it's closer to $110K to $150K for a 50-70 year-old two-to-three bedroom house. On my mother's street (three blocks from OSU), the houses are 4-bedroom brick, pre-WWI, and run around $125K. It's a huge range, depending on where you want to live, how long you want it to take to get to work (since the geek jobs are concentrated on the NW side of the city, in and near Dublin (think "Memorial Tournament")). I drive 12.5 miles to get to work only because I take surface streets and avoid the freeway which is under massive construction all around the part of town that has a high concentration of tech jobs. Now... the other side of the coin: the coin. My experience around here is that a 10+ year UNIX administrator can get between $50K - $100K, depending on salary vs. contract, size of employer, quality of negotiating skills, etc. NT and Novell admins get about 75%-80% of that. Programmers can get anywhere >from $40K - $100K, depending on the esoteric nature of the work, project based vs product based, language, etc. I do not know any geeks personally in this market who I know to be making a bunch over $100K, but I do know a lot of people earning between $50K and $75K. I used to say that I would never personally take a Bay Area job for less than $125K/year. I would be lowering my standard of living. Given the nature of the housing market there, I might have to revise my number. I don't think I want to try to buy a $600K+ house. This is not meant as an advertisement for Columbus. It's some numbers to put the California experience into some perspective. I wouldn't mind visiting, but I wouldn't want to live there. I'm sure Hans and other Europeans here will have some interesting comments on the difference bewteen housing and energy costs between the two continents. -ethan ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites. http://invites.yahoo.com/

23 years, 11 months

Get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? [Was: Re: Notes on repairing the Apple Lisa power supply]

by mgregory＠vantageresearch.com

-----Original Message----- From: R. D. Davis <rdd(a)smart.net> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Thursday, May 25, 2000 3:02 PM Subject: Re: Notes on repairing the Apple Lisa power supply <snip> >Hmmm... have you considered computer preservation as a hobby instead >of computer demolition? > <snip> > >Shouldn't you have tried to find that out before swapping things >around without knowing what you were doing? > >-- >R. D. Davis >rdd(a)perqlogic.com >http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd >410-744-4900 > On the whole, your reply seemed remarkably snotty and unhelpful, and didn't add much useful information to help solve the problem. And for relatively common computers, component swapping is a perfectly valid way of isolating a fault quickly. Let's assume the worst case: he had fried his other Lisa. Would that have been a tragic loss to history? There are hundreds (thousands?) of other preserved Lisas out there. Even with blown components, he could still have sold them for hundreds "as-is" on eBay, where they would provide parts to revive other Lisas. Not every classic computer should be treated like a priceless antique. Get some perspective. Just my 2 cents. Mark.

23 years, 11 months

ASCII art

by mranalog＠home.com

"McFadden, Mike" <mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu> wrote: > Example: > picture value array 1 array2 array3 > 0 space space space > 1 period space space > 2 colon space space > 3 plus space space > . > . > . > 9 0 W M A couple of years ago, after reading the chapter on ASCII art in "The New RTTY Handbook", I wrote a quick and dirty program to to convert .BMP files into non-overstrike ASCII pictures I could send in emails. From the book, I created my levels of "gray" in 8 levels with this character array: M H I : " , . [SP] (from dark to light) I'm curious as to the rest of the characters in your arrays. Do you remember which characters you used? --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 ====================================================

23 years, 11 months

VAX emulator

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

Check out www.charon-vax.com. Interesting - software VAX emulator for Windows NT / 2000. Bill -- +--------------------+-------------------+ | Bill Bradford | Austin, Texas | +--------------------+-------------------+ | mrbill(a)sunhelp.org | mrbill(a)mrbill.net | +--------------------+-------------------+

23 years, 11 months

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test-drb May 2000