test-drb October 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

259 participants
770 discussions

Wait! There's more including MS-DOS 1.25!!!! was Sanyo MBC-550 (Yuck!) software available

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I'm still digging. I found more 550 stuff. I think this is everything that came with the 550. Here's a chance for you 550 owner's to get the whole set at one shot! Original DS-DOS box and invoice. Original Sanyo Easywriter ver 1.3 disk Original Sanyo disk box with 550 dos ver 2.11 and BASIC 1.25, two original Sanyo disk for InfoStar (set B disk 2 and 3 of 4; disks 1 and 4 are below), original Sanyo disk for DOS 1.25 and BASIC ver 1.1 Original Sanyo disk box with all three original disk of set A, WordStar and CalcStar and a backup copy of DS-DOS. Two card board dummy disks used to protect the floppy drives duing shipment. Joe > >A few weeks ago we were talking about the Sanyo 550 series and someone mentioned one of the alternates operating systems that supported 80 track drives in the 550. I said that was DS-DOS by Michtron. > > Today I found an old Sanyo disk package with four disks for the 550. One of them is DS DOS 2.11, one is InfoStar, one is MailMerge/SpellStar and the other is a disk of misc utilities. The first three are original disks. In additon, the InfoStar, MailMerge/SpellStar are Sanyo labeled disks that came with the 550. If anyone wants them, trade me something I can use and they're all your's. > > Joe

12 years, 4 months

Quadram Quadboard

by geoffr＠zipcon.net

Does anyone have docs for this beastie? it's an apple-II on a card that goes into an XT... or does anyone have any interest in it? it's been sitting on my shelf for ~ 12 years now...

17 years, 6 months

Osborne OCC1

by CochraneS＠sgstool.com

I have come across an Osborne model OCC1 Serial # 134033. This unit has the 300 baud modem. It also has 5 1/4 disk with it. (SuperCalc, WordStar, Qbasic) The unit boots up and runs the software but after about 15 to 20 minutes it starts to overheat.(smoke) My question is - What is the selling price for a unit like this and where would be the best place to sell it? Thanks for your help, Steve Cochrane Director of Information Technology SGS Tool Company PO Box 187 Munroe Falls, OH 44262 (330)686.4194 ########################################### This message has been scanned by F-Secure Anti-Virus for Microsoft Exchange. For more information, connect to http://www.F-Secure.com/

22 years, 4 months

Interesting Book: "The Digital Dictionary"

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

Yesterday I finally got a couple books I'd gotten on eBay a couple weeks ago, obviously "VAXcluster Principles" is an interesting book, but I was surprised how good of a book "The Digital Dictionary" is. I got the 2nd Edition (the first was mainly internal use). It's a dictionary of all the different terms that were in use around 1986. As such it contains info on the PDP-10, PDP-11, and VAX, as well as DECmate's, Rainbows, and Professionals. As well as the Apps, Languages, and OS's. Great book if you want to know what a specific term or acronym means. Well worth picking up if you are in to DEC stuff and can find a copy! Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

22 years, 8 months

Info on the Dynalogic Hyperion

by lbutzel＠home.com

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: The machine still boots but no image is displayed on its 7" diag screen. Hence I am looking for service info and/or persons who have worked on the machine. Any leads would be most appreciated. Leo Butzel Seattle, WA lbutzel(a)home.com

22 years, 8 months

Plato terminal

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> This is two years late, but the terminal the original poster describes > sounds like an IST (model 1), a CRT-based CDC product, vintage about 1978. > There was a later edition called the IST-II, also CDC. It had two 8" drives > and a Z-80 CPU, as well as connectivity to CDC PLATO mainframe systems, > either by dialup modem (1200 bps) or multiplexer. Actually, I was the original poster; a reply to me mentioned the terminal you're describing. > The IST is not the oldest PLATO terminal, but it is the oldest that CDC > manufactured, I suspect. Even my PLATO IV (Magnavox, 1971) is not the > oldest, but only the first mass-produced machine. The earliest ones date to > about 1961 and there are probably only two or three still in existence, if > we're lucky enough to have that many. A precursor to these would be Norman > Crowder's Auto-Tutor, vintage about 1958, which has characteristics very > similar to the PLATO terminals (though it is not a computer terminal, it > operates on filmstrip media), and PLATO's mechanisms are said to have been > influenced by this machine. It's one of the mid-70s Magnavox plasma displays I'm looking for... Say, are you able to connect to NovaNET with the magnavox terminal? if so, we should meet for a game of Empire or Avatar some time (although I'm sure you'll wipe me out).... or maybe a more civilized game of chess... Regards, -doug quebbeman

22 years, 9 months

VAX 11/730 Problem

by ms＠silke.rt.schwaben.de

Hello to all VAXenfolks, i do have a problem with a VAX-11/730 that i have reconstructed (cleaned, resoldered, replaced cable, everything. Pictures on www.vaxcluster.de. Yes, i am a bit proud of it... But sorry for the bad web-page design!) over the last few months. It is now willing to boot and tries to load it's microcode tape from the TU-58 drives. I even have a microcode tape which looks like it could be still readable. But the TU-58's are so battered that i have not been able to read the tape. I have repaced the rubber rollers, but the read/write-heads look, ummm, bad! I have found somewhere some TU-58 simulator software for DOS which looks like a promising alternative; i would place a mini-DOS-computer inside a VT-102 and route some additional cables to the VAX and bee fine. BUT: How do i get the contents of the microcode tape of the tape, into a DOS file without access to a working TU-58? Is someone on this list able to read the tape? Has someone already made a tape image i could just use? I mean, i have a original DEC tape, with serial number and all. I might even come up with a license document, if i search long enough... Any help would be greatly welcomed. This old lady is just to beautifull to use it as an electric heater only... Thank you ms -- Michael Schneider email: ms(a)silke.rt.schwaben.de Germany http://www.vaxcluster.de People disagree with me. I just ignore them. (Linus Torvalds)

22 years, 9 months

Almost on topic - Cassette I/O

by bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca

I am building a FPGA ( Field programmable gate array ) computer in the style of the early computers that had a front panel and TTY for I/O. While I don't have have a front panel working the Hardware serial bootstrap does work on my prototype. Since I have a few LOGIC cells left in my FPGA to play with I was thinking adding a cassette interface. Does anybody know of schematics on the web that I can get ideas from. Ben Franchuk. -- Standard Disclaimer : 97% speculation 2% bad grammar 1% facts. "Pre-historic Cpu's" http://www.jetnet.ab.ca/users/bfranchuk Now with schematics.

23 years

Diablo 3200

by vcf＠siconic.com

On Mon, 14 May 2001, George Leo Rachor Jr. wrote: > Stay of execution on this Diablo 3200..... > > We have bought a bit of time as my wife has convinced them not to hack it > up until I get to see this critter. Cool! > Obviously we have no software for the machine and I'm assuming you don't > either. Actually, I do. I got the original OS disks as well as a bunch of floppies with various bits of accounting type software and useless data. > The computer recycler has agreed not to remove the original components > until it can be determined if the box is usuable in some rudimentry > function as is. (They were going to gut the original components and > replace the guts with something more modern). Silly. Were they planning to use the same CRT and keyboard? I don't know how. If all they wanted was a nice desk for a computer then maybe they should go to Office Depot? > Now the challenge is to find software that might boot the machine up. I can make copies for you. Mine supposedly boots. Here is a picture of mine. http://www.siconic.com/computers/Diablo%203200.jpg Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

23 years

What Computer is This and Who is This Guy?

by d_l_mcd＠hotmail.com

Here's a picture from 1966 of an IBM computer at the IBM computing center on Manhattan (New York City, New York USA). The text for the photo says that the computer is being used to make a payroll calculation. Visible are 4 big-fridge-sized reel-reel tape devices, the console with operator seated at it, and some other things in the background. What's the computer model? Does anybody know who this guy (operator) is/was? Just a neat photo. It's about a 150k jpg file at this url: http://www.sover.net/~danm/computer_room.jpg _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

23 years, 1 month

I need an RM03...

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

I need an RM03, preferrably within sane driving distance of Peoria, IL. Having a KS10 as a paperweight is absolutely no fun. I can trade PDP-11 stuff for one, I have all sorts of 11 kit that I'd be more than willing to trade for KS10 stuff. Also, if anyone has the 120V-AC plug that goes in a TM02, I am short one of those as well - I have the 220 volt version (but the rest of the drive is all 120 volt parts; Odd!) Basically, I'm sick of using the KS10 as just emulation validation and I want to get it running. ^_^ -------

23 years, 2 months

Collections vs. accumulations, was Re: How many collectors?

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > > Does anyone know what sort of machine is in the car's > > > onboard controller? A few pictures I've found make them > > > look like PC104's. These machines are hitting zero value > > > quickly and may not last 10 years unless picked up now. > > > > What car? They don't all use the same controllers, you know... > > Want a fuel injection "brain" from a 1968 VW Squareback? Had Bosch come up with EFI already by 1968? Every VW (and Audi & MB, etc) of that vintage that I've seen used CIS, which was a purely mechanical system. I have seen a 1969 Audi Super 90 (wagon) that had an aftermarket Capacitative Discharge Ignition (CDI) System... by 1974, Audis had those as stock, while CIS was still 1 year off... My 1986 Audi 5000 CS Turbo Quattro uses a Motorola 6802-based controller... very simple to upgrade, too.... ;-) -dq

23 years, 3 months

Punch cards, punch & mag tapes (Toronto)

by mhstein＠usa.net

Sorry, a little overwhelmed by all this at the moment; will get back to ya. Ethan, AIM65 stuff is ready to go. John, still waiting to hear what you need for the Cromemcos. Will be off 'Net till Monday. mike ---------------Original Message----------------- Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 09:32:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Ethan Dicks <erd_6502(a)yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Punch cards, punch & mag tapes (Toronto) - --- "John R. Keys Jr." <jrkeys(a)concentric.net> wrote: > Has anyone claimed these yet ? If not I will take them. I tried to. Haven't heard back. Don't know who the lucky winner is, but I suspect several people expressed interest. - -ethan

23 years, 3 months

Stan Veit's History of the PC Books - Blow Out - $4 Shipped!

by MTPro＠aol.com

I have a number of brand new copies I'd like to move out. This is a super deal just for classiccmp subscribers. Please e-mail me! For more info on the book, see: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1289515294 Best, David David Greelish Classic Computing www.classiccomputing.com "classiccomputing" on eBay

23 years, 3 months

Heath/Zenith stuff

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

------Original Message------ From: Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks(a)yahoo.com> --- Bill Gunshannon <bill(a)cs.scranton.edu> wrote: > Your thinking of the Heath H11 which was in fact an LSI-11/02. But it had It shipped as an LSI-11/03 CPU and heath made memory and IO. My H-11 came with a KDF-11 CPU (11/23), but I don't know if it was shipped that way or if my boss (who bought it new) upgraded it himself. Yep, never shipped with 11/23 (KDF-11A). It was discontinued by then if anything. I have a couple of the Heath serial cards (one unsoldered!), the H-27 disk controller, the 8" floppies and a pile of misc DEC cards (memory, BDV-11 boot card, etc). The heath seriial card was a fairly flexible card copared to the usual DEC DL-11. to debug the H-27 (he never used it). Except for the monsterous holes he blew in the side to mount additional fans, and the holes in the front he added for external console baud rate switches, it resembles its original form once again. The fans and switches were a common mod and handy too. Allison __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

23 years, 4 months

HP Composite Video Interface Card

by fmc＠reanimators.org

"Wayne M. Smith" <wmsmith(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > I am using an HP composite video card (98204A) in a > 9000/200 series and am getting a very small multiple > image on the screen. Is there something special about > HP composite video or is this just a bad card? I've > tried the card in both a 9000/200 and 9000/220 with the > same result. Any ideas? Just a wild guess, but if you have an HP 35731A monochrome monitor, try it with that. That wants composite video but with a horizontal frequency of 30KHz instead of the more usual 15KHz. HP used that on several different systems. There may also be a jumper on the video card to select the horizontal frequency, but the only thing I ever saw this on was the HP Multimode Display Adapter for the Vectra (sort of a combination of the IBM MDA and CGA that was good for confusing "smart" software). -Frank McConnell

23 years, 5 months

hard-sector 5 1/4 disk

by jdonogh1＠prodigy.net

Anybody ever see anything that uses hard sector 5 1/4 disks? I've only ever seen one in my lifetime - just curious if they were ever used anywhere else (the one I saw was used to load microcode into a mainframe CPU)

23 years, 5 months

Adventure for 8080

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Hello, all: I want to do something fun with the Altair Emulator. Does anyone have a binary for Adventure? I don't yet have the ability to complie programs in the emulator (because of problems booting CP/M), so I could use a memory image. If someone has one, please contact me off line. Thanks. Rich ========================== Richard A. Cini, Jr. Congress Financial Corporation 1133 Avenue of the Americas 30th Floor New York, NY 10036 (212) 545-4402 (212) 840-6259 (facsimile)

23 years, 6 months

Available: DG Eclipse S/140 Programmer's Reference

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

In my latest box of DEC docs came a "Programmer's Reference Series" manual for an Eclipse S/140, circa 1981 or so. useful to anyone? bill -- Bill Bradford mrbill(a)mrbill.net Austin, TX

23 years, 6 months

OT: Playstation 2 opinion?

by cfandt＠netsync.net

Please reply OFF list since this is decidedly off topic. I figure there are at least several gamers on the list who could offer their feelings on the questions we have, hence my approaching the list. Anyway, Beverly and I are thinking of getting our 8-yr-old a Playstation 2 for Christmas or his early February birthday. I'm not really into video games at all so we could use some feedback. I just understand some of the technology :-) We've had a Nintendo 64 for the past year and its likeable. I do admit having fun with a Donkey Kong and a couple different Super Mario games. They are indeed challenging from a hand-eye coordination, memory and limited intellectual standpoint, so I begrudgingly admit there is some value for Matt to play them. However, Bev has found that most of Matt's friends have Playstation I's and II's and that the game selection is somewhat better than N64. Matt also expresses a slight preference for the PS games. So, we're shopping. Bev understands DVD's can be played on the PS 2 unit. Are these movie DVD's they're talking about? Audio DVD's? How is the playback quality? Comparable to an average DVD player? Any advice on prices? Usual price at Wal-Mart, Ames and other dept. stores is $299 so we figure that's that unless a sale pops up. Thanks in advance. -Chris -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/

23 years, 6 months

value of scrap

by dec.parts＠verizon.net

Hello John and others, > I think I could pay scrap (.gt. free ) value. The scrap from commercial systems is actually valuable. Scrappers can get up to $2.00 per pound for it. I had 8 racks of cards ( non-DEC very proprietary stuff ) that didn't seem to want to sell individually, so I sold to a scrapper. That batch totaled 880 pounds, and I got $660.00 ( $.75 per pound ) and that scrapper wouldn't have been buying it unless he was making good money on it too. It just about paid for the 16' beavertail flatbed trailer I bought from the same fellow. So when Heinz says ... > It sucks that these people would rather scrap out a machine > than let a collector have it for free. It translates to ... "it sucks that people won't give away free money" Bennett

23 years, 6 months

CPU design at the gate level

by bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca

>What's unfortunate, at least from where I sit, is that though some sources give >you a schematic or an HDL of a CPU, yet they don't tell you WHY the choices made >in its design were made. Normally such decisions are normally driven by >requirements, be it for performance, or for specific addressing modes, chip >size, or whatever. It seems we never see light shed on such matters. Sometimes you can find this information on the web. Now that many of the older computers are of historical value people are writing things down. >One caution is certainly warranted, however. Fully synchronous design became >the default method of designing circuits of anysubstance in the mid-late '80's. >One result, of course, was that signal races were easily avoided, and, with the >use of pipelining, it allowed for the acceleration of some processes at the cost >of increased latency. The use of fully sunchronous design drove up CPU cost, >however, and was not an automatically assumed strategy in the early '70's, so >you've got to consider WHEN a design was specified before making any assumptions >about why things were done in a given way. I thought that that was due more to the fact (core) memory was asynchronous with a wide range of cycle times as well as I/O transfers. Only with memory being in the same box as the cpu does a more synchronous system make sense. >Classic CPU's were mostly NOT fully synchronous, as fully synchronous design >required the use of costlier faster logic families throughout a design when that >wasn't necessarily warranted. Today's FPGA and CPLD devices, when used to host >a classic CPU design, eliminate the justifications for asynchronous design >strategies that were popular in the early '70's - late '80's. Their use >essentially requires the design be synchronous, not only because signal >distribution/routing resources are limited, but because propagation delays are >so different from wht they were in the original discrete version. What is so different a F/F is still a F/F, a gate is still a gate. It is only that routing delays are a unknown so you can't use logic that requires timing delays or or oneshots. It is only that the programs can't discover when logic can or cannot change like a designer can but must use worse case assumptions .It is only in the case when you have a single clock that timing calculations are the most accurate. How ever I suspect most CPU design starts with a clean sheet of paper lays out goals and basic design parameters. A good block diagram often can tell you how complex your system is. While gates are important the quantify and packaging of the gates define just how your system can be laid out. Only after the instruction set is defined do you look at the logic need to produce the Computer System, and once you lay things out you have good idea of what instructions are needed. Of course everything gets revised again and again. http://www.ulib.org/webRoot/Books/Saving_Bell_Books for some interesting reading. Also "CMOS circuit design,layout and simulation" ISBN 0-7803-3416-7 is very good reading for CPU design at the real gate level. Ben Franchuk. -- Standard Disclaimer : 97% speculation 2% bad grammar 1% facts. "Pre-historic Cpu's" http://www.jetnet.ab.ca/users/bfranchuk Now with schematics.

23 years, 6 months

Dec & Sun stuff available in Houston TX

by dlw＠trailingedge.com

I have just spent the last few weeks living a computer collector's nightmare.... moving. The entire collection had to be packed up, loaded, moved and unloaded. The good part is I now have a larger place and I'm taking the time to organize and get a better, newer inventory. During which I've decided to pass along some things I have extras of or will never get around to working with. There is more to come but I'll start off with some of the larger items. Item 1 - DEC PDP-8 stuff. Two card cages with various boards (not sure what all is in there at the moment), power distribution strip, and two RK05 drives. I think I have a PDP-8A front panel that went with all of it here too. All is in unknown condition. I thought I'd have time to try and do something with all this once but I know now I won't. Item 2 - Sun 3/50. System plus two 19" monitors, 2 keyboards and a mouse. Unknown condition. Item 3 - Box of various Sun OS tapes. If you have something you'd like to trade me I'll be happy to consider it but otherwise they're free for pick up in Houston TX. I often drive up to Austin (doing so this weekend in fact) and might be convinced to tote them along but can't promise. If nobody wants them then it's off to the local scrapper I guess. Other stuff available soon as I sort through all these systems and boxes. ----- "What is, is what?" "When the mind is free of any thought or judgement, then and only then can we know things as they are." David Williams - Computer Packrat dlw(a)trailingedge.com http://www.trailingedge.com

23 years, 6 months

RD54 and RT-11 5.4D

by dittman＠dittman.net

I recently swapped the MV II CPU and memory in my BA23 with a PDP-11/73 CPU and memory. I booted RT-11 V5.4D and attempted to init the RD54, which failed: .init /segment:5 du0: DU0:/Initialize; Are you sure? Y ?DUP-F-Directory output error DU0: . The drive was working just fine as a ODS-2 volume. I don't have to low-level format, do I? -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/

23 years, 6 months

Price guide for vintage computers

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> >Luckily, some manner of salvation is on its way in the form of a price > >guide. No, I'm not writing it, but the person who is will make it known > >very soon. > > Maybe it will make some money for the author, but prices are just too > variable and too fast changing for a printed guide to be of much practical > use. What I would rather see is a hunters handbook, say 125 pages with the > top 500 things to look for, each item getting an average of a 1/4 page for > a photo, or maybe a shared photo, with a description and price range. Sell > one to every scrapper in the world, and those 500 things become a LOT more > available. > > working title, "How much money did you throw away today?" In any hobby, a price guide is both a blessing and a curse. When I owned a sports card shop I became aware of the potential effects of price fixing and other forms of market manipulation. Specifically, if the publisher of a price guide had a bunch of Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax cards to dump, those players would book high until he dumped his cards. Additionally, advertiser pressure influenced prices listed in these books. For vintage computers, a price guide published 2-4 times yearly, listing maybe 500 computers, might work. It could be advantageous to only include photos for 50 of these computers in each issue, rotating through all 500. This would encourage people to buy the next issue, with photos of 50 *different* machines. We have Ebay now, and other auction sites, from which to draw data. The publication might also consider any documentable, verifiable report from private buyers and sellers when compiling the price guide. And since when can your average scrapper read, anyway? Just my two cents . . . Glen 0/0

23 years, 6 months

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test-drb October 2001