> On Fri, 28 Jul 2000, John Honniball wrote:
>
> > Oh, and if you try to boot a non-bootable disk, you get a
> > nice friendly message about that disk being a data disk --
> > now why couldn't they make it say something when there's NO
> > disk??
I've seen boot blocks that contain enough code to print out a message that
you've tried to boot a data disc. Trying to boot an unformatted disk in
such a machine will likely result in the endless seek. Eventually,
manufacturers moved that functionality into the ROM/BIOS code, but in the
PDP-11 days, you could boot a system by writing bits manually into
device registers to initiate a transfer of the first part of the disk
into low core. I used to know the exact ODT sequence to boot an RL-11
in an 11/24 because I didn't own RL02 boot ROMs. It was about three or
four commands. It worked because it takes a human a finite amount of
time to enter in all the commands and that gives the drive time to read
the block between, like, the third and fourth steps, removing the need
to write a boot block that initiates a transfer and loops until the
controller shows that the operation is complete.
It all comes down to how smart you want the machine to be at boot time
versus how flexible you want the booting scheme.
-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/
"I might suggest that several of us get together to buy a Canon, but that
probably is only sensible for some of us in the same geographic area.
Anyone else in Silly Valley interested?"
see my previous post.
If you have 1000 sheets to scan, there are services that do this
for around 6 cents / scanned frame on the fiche (prices vary on
resolution). I had some samples made from a few DEC fiche, and
300dpi effective is the MINIMUM scan that is usable.
Because of the thousands of sheets of fiche that I have, I'm
thinking of buying a Canon fiche viewer/scanner in early fall
(around 10K).
If you have DEC fiche that you're thinking of scanning, you may
want to check with me before spending any money on having yours
scanned.
> Finally, do *any* scanners have documented interfaces? i.e. say I find
myself
> a nice SCSI-connected high-speed high-resolution scanner. Am I going to
be
> reduced to point-and-drool with Windows 98, or can I actually hook the
> scanner up to a real computer? We're talking about many tens or hundreds
> of gigabytes of data here, so I'm willing to invest some effort to
automate
> the acquire/compress/archive process.
TWAIN.
-dq
--- "Charles P. Hobbs (SoCalTip)" <transit(a)lerctr.org> wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, 28 Jul 2000, Ethan Dicks wrote:
>
> > I just had a PET 4016 (9" screen) shipped from SoCal. It was
> > $35, but considering it was from the Physics Department at the college in
> > Santa Barbara,
>
> Hey, I might have used that Pet back in 1985 or so.
Cool. Any way to identify it for sure? This one has the tape drive
bolted to the top of the CRT housing and a huge red plastic-coated cable
attached at the rear to lock it down to the table. The Lab I/O module has
a gray box with jacks to connect to the outside world.
How did you guys use it? Do you have *any* docs lying around (not a silly
question - I still have all my notes from several college classes and I
went from 1984 - 1989).
> One of our lab experiments involved that interface, but I forgot
> exactly what the experiment was supposed to be about (It either
> had to do with a laser, or an EKG machine...)
Sounds cool.
> The physics lab had several PET's, but their keyboards were kind of
> thrashed. They also had an OSI computer in a clear plastic case,
> as a demonstration "what's inside the computer".
Neat.
Thanks for speaking up.
-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/
Chuck,
Sorry to not be of much help, but what exactly is
an M9715? I couldn't find it in the field guide.
Doug
On Wed, 26 Jul 2000, Chuck McManis wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'm trying to find out the DEC part number for the cable that connects
> between an M9715 paddle board and the KA660 CPU card (or a KA640 CPU). It
> should have a 50 pin socket on one end (standard .1" dual row) and a high
> density socket on the other end. (plug on the paddle board is marked
> "Honda" and "RPS-50LM") If anyone has an extra one that would be great,
> I'll settle for the part number though.
>
> --Chuck
>
I picked up a BIT90 today. I have never seen one before other than on a
couple of computer museums on the web. Unfortunately the unit came into
the thrift shop as the bare system unit, no power supply, nothing else
at all.
I would appreciate any information on power requirements and power pin
out (a compatible power supply from another micro?). I know it takes
ColecoVision cartridges from www.zock.com/8-Bit/D_Bit90.HTML, which is
the best site I have found (out of just a few in all).
Thanks
Phil
(Brisbane, Australia)
Anyone know what a memory card marked "4 MB Memory Option" built by DEC
with the number 5419051-AA and 5019050-01 A1-P2 on its edges might go to?
Would anyone care to have it? (it doesn't seem to be a VAX memory board at all)
--Chuck
Well, I have my PDP 8/e partially restored. I realized that I had the correct
replacement bulbs for the front panel 'in stock', in that I obtained
a bunch of used ones in some junk DEC peripheral parts earlier this summer.
Is this dumb luck, or just the Computer Gods manipulating Fate again?
Obviously, I'm a man of Science, so I'm leaning towards the Computer
Gods scenario...
All the panel lights are working, except the least significant bit (switch 12)
on the lower display. There is some evidence that someone has replaced
an IC on the front panel display board sometime in the past.
I have 8K of core installed and I'm running the "initial operating
check" from chapter 2 of the maintenance manual. So far so good.
Does anyone have any small test routines that I might toggle in to
futher test the core?
I did switch in a different M8310/M8300 set, and that one panel light is
still dead (and obviously I tried 2 working bulbs before i proceeded
to more complicated stuff).
Stuff I still need: 2-3 yellow switch handles, and possibly one switch to
replace the EXTD ADDR LOAD switch someday. that switch does work, but it
doesnt feel at all right... Also, I need some serial cables, as i dont have
a single one... And I still want to find a supplier to buy some new
front panel lamps from, at a reasonable price...
I think I bought a PDP 8/e,f,m small computer handbook once, so I better
go look that up! Anyone with a good suggestion on how to printout the small
scans of that book thats on Highgate, so that it wills a Letter size
sheet of paper, should contact me ;)
-Lawrence (extraordinarily pleased with himself) LeMay
"David C. Jenner" <djenner(a)halcyon.com> writes:
>Anyone know where I can find a (probably QuickTime) file
>containing the entire 60-second version of the "Big Brother"
>commercial for the Macintosh that played during the 1984
>Super Bowl?
http://www.chiatday.com/product/historical_work/tv/1984/1984.html
Sean Case
