test-drb June 2000

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

160 participants
580 discussions

the other side of the equation - your SO/spouse

by mbg＠world.std.com

>> We had an agreement that if anything new came in, >> something had to go out. This has limited my collecting for a little >> while. >I had the same agreement... Some new "stuff" came in so, I tossed the old >"stuff" out. Now I live alone :-) Whoops... :-) Megan

24 years, 5 months

DEC Rainbow Saved

by bbrown＠harper.cc.il.us

I saved a DEC rainbow from the landfill this morning. I have the system, the monitor but no keyboard. Any idea where I can get a keyboard and possibly some software for it? thanks! Since I don't have a keyboard, I don't konw if there is anything on the hard drive. -Bob

24 years, 5 months

Intel i960 evaluation board

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>i960, or i860? I wasn't aware that any i960 Unix boxes had been shipped. > >The i960 family was the stripped-down commercial version of the ill-fated >Gemini (P7) 33-bit (not a typo!) processor, a collaboration between Intel >and Siemens. The two companies created a workstation company called BiiN >to sell the workstations, and although they shipped some prerelease >machines, AFAIK they never offered any for sale. It also grew from the 8089 (20 bit) and the 8751(8bit) for embedded processing tasks like engine controls. Allison

24 years, 6 months

Price of our hobby

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Well I can't be silent on this one... I'm broke as all hell, but I don't care.. I should probably be in college right now but I'd rather spend 3K to get a bunch of Interdata's and Perkin-Elmers... my other car is taken apart and I ought to spend money on fixing it but I don't.. Sure, maybe these aren't "good" choices, but whats important is that they ARE choices, I CHOSE to spend my money in such a way, and I live with it. But I work, I pay my bills, and hey, I could easily go to college if I'd get off my ass and work at it.. If you want to just to sit around and bitch about how poor you are, go for it, you won't get my sympathy. I know its entirely in my own power to determine how much money I have/make, so I don't complain.. If you're complaining, you probably don't understand that.. Besides, you could have loads of money if you spent the time you spend bitching working instead... Just my 2K worth... Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

24 years, 6 months

The Original MS-DOS 4.0

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Well, I never heared about the version you are refering to, but > DOS was basicly starting from 2.0 able to do task switching. > All Informations necersary where contained within a series of > structures with a single root. The only missing thing was a > table of task pointers to switch between - and a service to > store and restore the screen content. There have been several > products offering this service. And with DOS 4 MS supplied the > infamous shell, capable of doing this. You could load several > applications and switch via a hot key combination. Windows is > still today (at least Win9x) based on this very same mechanism > for context switching. Also the functions for 'background' > applications/drivers where designed to support application > switching. The famous TSR mechanism was not only ment to steal > some memory for crude interrupt handlers, but also for true > serviceprovider tasks within the OS ... well, I guess most > programmers never realized the potential offered and kept > limited to a simple one programm state of mind. > > All this was already available starting with DOS 2.x, just > it has never been 'official' until DOS 4.x I'd have to differ with you a bit on this. A co-worker and I spent 6 months writing a DOS 2.0-compatible file system for our own application which contained its own home-rolled multitasker; we had to write the file system because the DOS file system calls were (and through at least 3.3) were not serially-reentrant. Even then, the performance was so poor (we had just moved to deploying on iAPX286 machines) that we ditched the full-task model and created what we today would call "threads", although we simply called them lightweight processes back then. The context switching you're referring to revolves around switching some data structures, such as the file handle table; but you have to wait until a file system call is done before you can swap to the next task. Not useful when (like us) you're developing real-time software. As an aside, this was for the last firm for which I worked as a programmer; I left in '90, and dropped in for a visit in '95; at that time, they told me the system I'd designed was running in a DOS box under the Alpha-release of Win95 and was beating a comparable application running on a VAX. I felt very good that day... -doug q

24 years, 6 months

New find: HP 1000 E series

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Carlos Murillo <cem14(a)cornell.edu> wrote: > Well, I made the cable and plugged it into a terminal. The > right voltages appear on the correct lines. However, > the card never asserts DTR or RTS when I turn the computer on. I think that makes sense -- it looks like DTR and RTS are under program control (i.e. it's up to software to set the appropriate control register bits). > I also discovered that the HD in the 7946 is busted > (haven't opened it yet)-the "online" light doesn't come on, > but the "fault" light does. It seems to have trouble > spinning up. So, loading an OS is out of the question > for a while. Is it possible to at least run some tests > and have it output diagnostics to one of the BACI cards? I suspect it depends on what loader ROMs are installed in the computer. There is a loader ROM that supports booting from cartridge tape drives in an attached 264X terminal. In the meantime, I've keyed in the sample program from the manual (at the end of this message). Turning it into executable code and loading that into the 1000E is left as an exercise for the reader, at least 'til I find time to figure out how to do that sort of thing. Others who know are welcome to chime in! > There is a sheet of paper glued to the front panel with instructions > on how to reboot the system; it says to load the S/s register > with ones in bits 15,14,9, and 6, then hit the store, preset, > some other button, then preset again and finally the run button. Unfortunately, most of the 21xx documentation I have here at home right now is for 2100s, not 21MXs (which are a whole lot closer to 1000s), so I'm just guessing as to what that tells the machine to do, but I expect it's instructions for selecting a given loader ROM (and maybe device) and starting the boot. So...I'll try to keep this in mind for the next foray into storage. What I probably need to look for is the 21MX or 1000 E-Series operating and reference manual, instead of the installation and service manual that I have in front of me. --- cut here --- ASMB,A,B,L,T ORG 100B * ****12966 SAMPLE PROGRAM************************* *THE PROGRAM BEGINS BY CLEARING ALL ADDRESSES OF THE *SPECIAL CHARACTER RAM TO ZEROS.THE 12966 THEN IS *ENABLED TO RECEIVE MODE,1200 BAUD.THE USER ENTERS A *MINIMUM OF 64 CHARACTERS FROM THE TERMINAL KEYBOARD *(HP2640 OR SIMILAR TERMINAL). WHEN BUFFER HALF FULL *(64 CHARS.) IS DETECTED,THE CHARS. ARE TRANSFER FROM *THE FIFO BUFFER OF THE 12966 TO THE CPU. WHEN THIS *TRANSFER IS COMPLETE THE CPU HALTS (HLT 01).THE USER *PRESSES 'PRESET' & 'RUN', THE 12966 GOES INTO THE *TRANSMIT MODE. THE CPU BUFFER (64 CHARS.) IS SENT TO *THE 12966 FIFO BUFFER. WHEN THIS TRANSFER IS COMPLETED *THE 12966 TRANSMITS TO THE TERMINAL UNTIL BUFFER EMPTY *STATUS FLAG SETS. THE CPU NOW HALTS (HLT 02),PRESSING *'RUN' RESETARTS THE PROGRAM. * * A EQU 0 B EQU 1 SCT EQU 12B 12966 IS IN SELECT CODE 12B SAVA BSS 1 SAVB BSS 1 COUNT BSS 1 SIZE DEC 64 64 CHARACTERS BHF OCT 1000 CW3 OCT 030023 CW4R OCT 040011 CW4T OCT 140411 CW5 OCT 050077 CW6 OCT 060000 PAT OCT 777 DAB. DEF DAB CLEAR OCT 060400 ORG 1000B DAB BSS 400 * * ORG 200B START LDA CW4T MASTER RESET,INITIALIZE TRANSMIT OTA SCT LDA CW6 CLEAR OUT SPECIAL CHAR RAM R1 OTA SCT INA CPA CLEAR CHECK IF SPECIAL CHAR RAM IS CLEAR RSS YES IT IS,CONTINUE WITH PROGRAM JMP R1 NO IT ISN'T,CONTINUE CLEARING OVER LDA SIZE SETUP AND INITIALIZE CHAR COUNTER CMA,INA 2'S COMP. STA COUNT LDA CW5 LOAD WORD 5,CLEAR FLAGS OTA SCT LDA CW3 LOAD WORD 3,1 STOP BIT,8 DATA BITS OTA SCT ECHO ON,NO PARITY LDA CW4R LOAD WORD 4,RECEIVE MODE,1200 BAUD OTA SCT CHECK STC SCT,C SET CONTROL 12966 SFS SCT CHECK IF STATUS FLAG SET JMP *-1 NO,NONE IS SET,CONTINUE CLC SCT YES,FLAG HAS SET LIA SCT GET STATUS WORD AND BHF CHECK FOR BUFFER HALF FULL SZA,RSS JMP CHECK BHF NOT SET AS YET LDA CW5 BHF SET,CLEAR STATUS FLAGS OTA SCT LDB DAB. SETUP CPU BUFFER ADDRESS STC SCT,C SET CONTROL 12966 T1 LIA SCT GET A CHARACTER FROM FIFO AND PAT MASK OUT UNWANTED BITS STA B,I STORE CHAR INTO CPU BUFFER INB ISZ COUNT INCREMENT COUNT,COUNT=64? JMP T1 NO,GET NEXT CHARACTER HLT 01 YES,CPU BUFFER IS FULL ***PRESS 'PRESET' AND 'RUN' TO PUT 12966 INTO TRANSMIT *MODE. * NOP LDA CW4T SETUP 12966 TO TRANSMIT @1200 BAUD OTA SCT LDA CW5 CLEAR BUFFERS OTA SCT LDA SIZE SETUP CHAR COUNTER CMA,INA 2'S COMP. STA COUNT LDB DAB. SETUP BUFFER ADDRESS STC SCT,C T2 LDA B,I GET A CHARACTER OTA SCT PUT IT IN THE FIFO BUFFER INB ISZ COUNT INCREMENT COUNT,COUNT=64? JMP T2 NO GET NEXT CHAR!!! LDA CW5 YES,LOAD W TO CLEAR BUFF OTA SCT HALF FULL STC SCT,C SET CONTROL,START TRANSMIT SFS SCT IS BUFFER EMPTY? JMP *-1 NO,CONTINUE SENDING HLT 02 YES, IT IS EMPTY,HALT CPU!! JMP START RESTART 12966 END --- cut here --- -Frank McConnell

24 years, 6 months

languages

by edick＠idcomm.com

English is my second language, though I've been using it as my primary language since I was 6. Because I learned it as my second language, I've developed into one who's somewhat stilted in his usage of the language, and also one who's very much aware of the application of grammar, syntax, and orthography. I am, therefore, thoroughly convinced that American English, if it follows the current trend, will degenerate into a sequence of monosyllabic grunts and whines by the time another couple or three generations have passed. Just look at the more recent additions to the Webster International Lexicon of the English language: words like "duuhh" ... Dick -----Original Message----- From: Gary Hildebrand <ghldbrd(a)ccp.com> To: classiccmp <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Wednesday, March 08, 2000 9:37 PM Subject: languages >Interesting dialog on languages . . . . > >I myself have barely mastered English, american style. Somewhere along the >way I took three years of French in High School, the result being that my >English grades shot through the roof. Seems learning a foreign language >helps one master English grammar. Maybe the problem is that one can't >speak correct English in the first place. > >As for the Morse code, I've talked to many people who's answer was "I don't >think I can learn the code." It isn't a matter of skill -- five year old >kids have learned Morse code. I call it a case of 'wanna'. If you wanna >you can learn anything. But since the FCC deregulated the Amateur licencing >structure, getting 5 wpm is fairly easy, if you wanna. > >Gary Hildebrand WA7KKP >

24 years, 6 months

Archives of OS/360-ish public domain software?

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

Are there any on-line archives of OS/360 software in the public domain? I'm thinking not only of operating system software distributions (which are rumored to be in the public domain), but also of user-group collections of software for these beasts. I'm also interested in software for previous generations of old iron, like IBM 1401's, etc. I've asked around at a couple of prominent computer museums, but they all just shrug their shoulders when I ask them how they archive and index the original software, like they've never considered it to be important. I really feel like I'm talking to all the wrong curators, because they seem to have no interest in the subject at all. I've heard of the Hercules emulator project, but I don't know what software they have archived so far, or what efforts they are currently making. If someone could point me towards an index of their software archives I'd appreciate it. I consider myself to be an expert at archiving DEC-related software, and often am involved in all sorts of projects in that sphere that benefit everyone from hobbyists to those with legal cases, but I know little to nothing about what archives of old IBM stuff are available. -- 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

24 years, 6 months

Your dream computer room.

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 30, 11:11, John Honniball wrote: > > On Thu, 29 Jun 2000 12:54:54 -0700 Mike Ford > <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com> wrote: > > Generally a couple good outlets (AC and 10bt) > > Do you mean 10-base-T? Telephone wire? > > Surely not! Any proper machine room needs lots of thick > yellow EtherHose and vampire taps! :-) The new cables and fittings in mine are a mixture of Cat 5e and Cat 6, but I'm keeping the proper yellow stuff and the blue drops. I suspect the microVax would be offended otherwise :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

24 years, 6 months

Your dream computer room

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

I'd like a detached small building with the following. 1. a raised tile floor, 2. anachoic tile on the walls and ceiling, kind of like egg shell foam which absorbs noise. 3. 4 plex power boxes under every other tile 4. Non fluorescent lighting 5. air-conditioning through the floor 6. 1 window overlooking the lake 7. Separate shop area 8. Separate storage area with steel shelves accessible from front and back 9. Loading dock area 10. workbench with power strip along entire front edge 11. Small van to haul/pickup stuff When I was growing up on the farm we had outbuildings for everything. Chicken coop, granery, tool shed, pump house, shop, garage, dog house, and a barn. Seemed to keep stuff located somewhat together. Mike Dreaming not working mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

24 years, 6 months

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test-drb June 2000