test-drb October 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

259 participants
770 discussions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 20, 21:22, Jay West wrote: > Thanks for your patience & understanding as we improve our infrastructure. This is perhaps an opportune moment to thank you for all the time, effort and resources you have put into hosting the list and the archive. Some time ago, there was a discussion about address munging. I've noticed recently (ie the last few months) a large increase in spam arriving here, possibly correlated to my postings to the list. It not a really big deal, but I wondered if it's possible to anti-spamify my email address in list postings? > We will also be updating the software that > pulls all the classiccmp posts into the archive at www.classiccmp.org > and I think the new version has a search function built in. That would be nice! -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 1 month

Adventure in Ersatz-11

by GOOI＠oce.nl

Hi all. I have a problem when I try to run Advent in Ersatz-11. I guess it is trivial, but I am in the learning phase... Running RT-11, when entering "run advent", I get the response: ?KMON-F-Insufficient memory. For information here are some screen "dumps" of entered commands. .SH MEM ------- Extended Memory ------- Address Module Words Type ------- ------ ----- ---- 17760000 IOPAGE 4096. HDW 00760000 MEMTOP 00166200 ...... 96704. 00160000 SL 1600. PVT ------ Low Memory ------- Address Module Words ------- ------ ----- 155434 DL 626. 122216 RMON 6983. 111154 USR 2321. 001000 ..BG.. 18486. .SHOW CONF RT-11XM (S) V05.03 Booted from DL0:RT11XM USR is set NOSWAP EXIT is set SWAP KMON is set NOIND TT is set NOQUIET ERROR is set ERROR SL is set OFF EDIT is set KEX KMON nesting depth is 3 Global .SCCA flag is disabled PDP 11/35,40 Processor 248KB of memory Extended Instruction Set (EIS) Memory Management Unit 50 Cycle System Clock Device I/O time-out support FPU support

24 years, 1 month

DEC Lab 11/40

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Thursday I took possession of a DEC Lab 11/40 system. I've not had time to clean it up and check it out yet, but it was reputedly working when last used (well, I suppose it would have been, wouldn't it?). Actually, that's not quite true, as I'm told someone plugged a terminal in the wrong way, apparently blew something up, and got no output -- I hope they mean something simple like the RS232 line drivers have gone. The system consists of two racks about 4' high. One contains the 11/40 in a 12U box, with a power controller below and an LPS11 above. The other contains a pair of RK05 drives and power controller. There's a GT11 display on the top of the 11/40 rack, and a TS03 magtape unit on the other. The system came with stacks of documentation but only one RK05 pack. I've not had time to make a thorough inventory of the docs yet, but they seem to include most of the processor/memory/interface engineering drawings and maintenance manuals, and something like four complete or almost complete sets of RT-11 manuals, for various vintages from 2.0 to 4.0. Also a pile of printed MAINDEC listings (no microfiche, sadly. Anybody got any microfiche they want to pass on?) I've not had time to do anything yet, apart from check the boards in the 11/40 (pretty standard, with EIS but not FIS, no stack limit register or MMU, no KM11, but it does have the KW11-L programmable LTC). It has a DL11-A (20mA interface for console) and a DL11-something (RS232), 2 x 16KW core sets in one backplane, a DUP11-A synchronous interface (what can I use this for?), a TMB11 tape controller, and an RK11-D controller for the drives. The last backplane in the box contains cards not listed in the Field Guide (neither are the memory cards in this machine, so I'll send Megan an update) but I think they're for the GT11: M7014-YA, A320, and M7013, all hex-height. I've had a very cursory look over the machine, and the only things I notice that want some attention before I think about powering it up are a section of frayed insulation on the power loom to the BA-11 box, a lot of dust everywhere (how surprising!), and some kinks in the unibus cable that connects to the RK05s. I plan to vacuum out the dust, ix the insulation, and check the PSUs before I do anything else. I'm no Unibus or RK05 expert; most of my -11s are Q-bus. What else should I look for before I go too far? I mentioned I only got one disk pack -- it's an original RT-11 distribution and I don't want to risk that in an unknown drive. Anyway, I know for a fact it's been dropped (the owner told me). I have since acquired 4 more packs, three of which came from the same machine originally. Anything I should look out for before trying them? I thought it might be wise to check the RK05 heads and perhaps clena them with IPA before I do anything else. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 1 month

List Maintenance

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>Some time ago, there was a discussion about address munging. I've noticed >recently (ie the last few months) a large increase in spam arriving here, >possibly correlated to my postings to the list. It not a really big deal, >but I wondered if it's possible to anti-spamify my email address in list >postings? This (mine) email address is ONLY used for list subscriptions. I recieve NO outside spam to this address. That tells me that no one has harvested addresses from the list (or any list I am on). HOWEVER... I do recieve >from time to time spam addressed TO the list (and thus it ends up at this address). No amount of address obscuring to solve that, as it isn't addressed to "you" but to the list, and thus proxied to you. Not that I am against address obscuring (since this list replies to the list, and not to the person, so it doesn't become an annoyance). Just thought I would mention my findings on the topic. Unsubscribing the spammer might slow them down a bit (at least then, their messages would be bounced first) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 1 month

Tektronix 4041 GPIB controller

by mikem＠open.com.au

There were a number of posts on this list over the last year on the topic of the Tek 4041 GPIB controller. Ive got one of these suckers now, plus a number of Tek plugins with GPIB interfaces, and Im interested in making them all play together. I havent got a keyboard, and I recall some posts from Joe Rigdon? saying keyboards are very hard to find. In the meantime, Ive figured out the keyboard electrical interface characteristics and made a rs232-keyboard converter. So I can talk to it now, and give it little BASIC commands, and see the results on the LED display Ive figured out much of the BASIC dialect it speaks, but I cant yet figure out how to open the printer, serial port or tape for IO, nor have I got the docs yet. Can anyone shed some light on the exact syntax for the BASIC open call used by the 4041 and the get() function for reading GPIB devices? Cheers.

24 years, 1 month

Sterling Cypher IV 8073 board info

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

Rich, I have data on the NS version of the 8073 board and the chip itself. However I have to dig for it. the sterling Cypher is different than the NS board though the chip (8073) is fairly standard in what it expects in that regard. Allison -----Original Message----- From: Richard A. Cini, Jr. <rcini(a)optonline.net> To: ClassCompList <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Monday, October 22, 2001 11:11 PM Subject: Sterling Cypher IV 8073 board info Hello, all: I mentioned a while ago that I got these boards, and I actually received them last week. To do a refresh, this board is an INS8073-based SBC with lots of I/O in a compact 4x5 size. Someone mentioned that they may have access to the manual but I can't find that message. I need some info on these more than I thought. The kit comes with the board and parts and nothing more. The silk screen on the board only has parts designations (i.e., R1, C1, U1) but not the values. Some I can guess at but not enough to make it work. The only info that I have is on the 8073 specifically and not the board itself. A search doesn't turn up much. Any help appreciated. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

24 years, 1 month

65816/65802 cpu programming books offer

by claudew＠videotron.ca

Hi I found these sorting out stuff today. Programming the 65816 (W.Libiak, Sybex) 65816/65802 Ass. Lang. Programming (M.Fischer, McGraw/Hill) Both very clean. Trades and offers welcome or dumpster for these... Thanks Claude http://computer_collector.tripod.com

24 years, 1 month

klesi / rc25 question

by oliv555＠arrl.net

I'm trying to get this combo running on a mvIII+ (ba23) I just put together. /sho dev/ picks it up as UQSSP Tape Controller 0 (774500). I know this can also be used as a tape controller but is there any jumpering required for use with the rc25? (no other mscp devs present) Also, the person who wanted the mvII boards from my recent "garagesale" changed his mind. So 2-M7606 1-M7608 and 2-M7609s are still avail (free - U pay postage). All bds just tested good. -nick

24 years, 1 month

RS6000 7012-320H

by pechter＠ureach.com

---- On Tue, 16 Oct 2001, r. 'bear' stricklin (red(a)bears.org) wrote: > On Tue, 16 Oct 2001, One Without Reason wrote: > > > OS/2 JFS is AIX JFS. They are the same. > > When did OS/2 start supporting JFS? It was still all HPFS as of Warp > 3.0 > > ok > r. > > > > The OS/2 Warp Server 4.x (IIRC) had HPFS support and JFS support. -- Bill Pechter Systems Administrator uReach Technologies 732-335-5432 (Work) 877-661-2126 (Fax)

24 years, 1 month

Did someone FedEx me something?

by dittman＠dittman.net

First of all, I got my DNS straightened out, which is good. Second, FedEx tried to deliver a COD package to me today but I wasn't home. Did someone from the list send me something? -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/

24 years, 1 month

List Maintenance

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

Thats how my old address was destroyed. Likely this one too in time. Does little good to have a valid address if the address has to be dumped due to being a spam trap. Allison -----Original Message----- From: Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Monday, October 22, 2001 9:12 PM Subject: Re: List Maintenance >On Oct 22, 12:39, Sellam Ismail wrote: > >> But for people using the archives for research it would be nice to be >able >> to e-mail the original poster (unless the address obscuring we're talking >> about will not completely remove the e-mail address from the message). > >I agree; it's been useful to me on a number of occasions, both when I've >searched for something and when someone else has found me through the list. > I wouldn't want my address removed, just altered enough so automatic >spambots won't get my address too often. > >OTOH, it's possible that my additional spam collection has come from Usenet >trawling rather than list archives, I suppose. > >-- >Pete Peter Turnbull > Network Manager > University of York

24 years, 1 month

electronics/computer surplus in Virginia?

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

I don't know of any dedicated electronics/cpmputer surpluse tores in that area. However, I suggest to you that if you ever run across any CHKD (Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters) Thrift stores to go there. Why, you ask? Very simple, I've been there on many occasions and see lots of computers (most are PC) but I had to pass on an Atari 520ST and (just yesterday!) had to pass on an Amiga 2000 (the whole setup cost less than $30!) just bacuse I live on ship, and have no room for this stuff. ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/ Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, MPS-801. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A, TI Speech Synthesizer. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3, Disto 512K RAM board. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. "Butterfly": Tandy Model 200, PDD, CCR-82. "Shapeshifter": Epson QX-10, Titan graphics & MS-DOS board, Comrex HDD. "Scout": Otrona Attache. ____________________________________________________________ >From: "Brian Knittel" <brian(a)quarterbyte.com> >Reply-To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org >To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org >Subject: electronics/computer surplus in Virginia? >Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 17:32:15 -0700 > >Does anyone know of any electronics / computer surplus >and/or computer / electronics recycling companies >in the greater Portsmouth - Norfolk - Virginia Beach - >Suffolk - Chesapeake, Virginia area? > >Thanks, >Brian > >=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >_| _| _| Brian Knittel / Quarterbyte Systems, Inc. >_| _| _| Tel: 1-510-559-7930 Fax: 1-510-525-6889 >_| _| _| Email: brian(a)quarterbyte.com >_| _| _| http://www.quarterbyte.com _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

24 years, 1 month

List Maintenance

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 22, 12:39, Sellam Ismail wrote: > But for people using the archives for research it would be nice to be able > to e-mail the original poster (unless the address obscuring we're talking > about will not completely remove the e-mail address from the message). I agree; it's been useful to me on a number of occasions, both when I've searched for something and when someone else has found me through the list. I wouldn't want my address removed, just altered enough so automatic spambots won't get my address too often. OTOH, it's possible that my additional spam collection has come from Usenet trawling rather than list archives, I suppose. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 1 month

Self-combusting Speccy

by optimus＠canit.se

So I find this nice little program called "Toot", which "toots" Spectrum snapshots into the earphone socket of said machine. What happens when I plug the machine in? A hideous smell, that's what. Now I'm back at square one. No working Speccy. All I get is a black screen. When fine- tuning the receiver, the border is sometimes visible. Is there something irreplacable, like the ULA, which has broken, or is it the CPU (I've got plenty of those) or just some discrete component? -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6a. "I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time..." Bill Gates 1988

24 years, 1 month

SGI Indigo keyboard and mouse wanted!

by marino13＠btinternet.com

Hi all... Have been trying to find these for ages now but may be worth a re-ask! I have an old SGI Indigo Personal Iris minus keyboard and mouse. Does anyone have one of these spare they would be willing to sell? Its a specific Personal Iris set of hardware that was changed for the later machines - the mouse is plugged into the side of the keyboard, then the keyboard to the back of the machine, pass thru fashion. I have tried keyboards from later machines but they arent recognised on boot up. If anyone can help me out I would be extremely grateful. Cheers! Shaun

24 years, 1 month

Portables wanted.

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

Does anyone here have a GRiDCASE 3 (or similar) or a Lexmark Lexbook MB10 that they want to get rid of. If so, hit me up off the list, and let's make a deal! ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/ Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, MPS-801. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A, TI Speech Synthesizer. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3, Disto 512K RAM board. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. "Butterfly": Tandy Model 200, PDD, CCR-82. "Shapeshifter": Epson QX-10, Titan graphics & MS-DOS board, Comrex HDD. "Scout": Otrona Attache. ____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

24 years, 1 month

Are office people really that, umm shall we say...slow?

by alan.pearson＠cramer.com

> This is correct, the primary problem lies w/ teachers spewing GIGO, > good teachers is percious few. Too true... my brother-in-law was doing a C++ course earlier this year and sent me one of his assignments to have a look at. Imagine my horror when I looked at the bit of code his teacher had given him to work from and the first 5 lines were "#include <whatever.cpp>" ... There have been an alarming number of interviews where I've asked a graddie (who's supposedly been studying Java for a year) what the significance of java.lang.Object was, only to be greeted by incomprehension. What do they teach these people? At least they've moved towards Java now, 5 years ago I used to ask graddies who "knew C++" what a pointer was and get answers like "it's that arrow thing on the screen that you move around with the mouse". And Tony Blair wants to make us a nation of IT excellence :-) Hmmm. -al

24 years, 1 month

PCjr Stuff

by mbbrutman＠magnaspeed.net

There were a few 3rd parties that made hard drives for the PCjr, both MFM and SCSI versions. The SCSI ones are really interesting to me - there was a Future Domain TMC850Jr controller that PC Enterprises sold that attached on the side, and a card sold as part of an upgrade package by RIM that went in the internal modem slot. Unfortunately, I have neither - and I'd love to have one. I imagine that the SCSI solutions can be faked into using a SCSI Zip drive, which would be awesome .. Jr heads ... here is my contribution to the web: http://mail.magnaspeed.net/~mbbrutman/PCjr/pcjr.html I have the tech ref, the service book, and other goodies. I also wrote a cartridge & system ROM dumping program - might be handy if anybody ever decides to start copying the old cartridges. (Email me for source & .EXE) Mike

24 years, 1 month

DEC Lab 11/40

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 21, 20:52, Tony Duell wrote: > > On Thursday I took possession of a DEC Lab 11/40 system. > Nice!. I've seen one once. AFAIK, it is (almost?) all standard DEC parts > -- an 11/40 CPU, VT11 graphics display, LPS11 lab I/O, RK05 + RK11-D > drives, etc. Yes, I can't see anything in it that's not original DEC -- except a couple of RK05 packs that turned up later, which are Scotch-branded rather than DEC. > Well, DL11 cards are simple enough to repair. If it is the RS232 chips, > they're just 1488s and 1489s, so no real problem to get replacements. Agreed -- I have umpteen sets of them. And I've previously upgraded -YAs to RS232, so no problem there either. The machine usedf to be used with an LA120, but I had to leave that behind as I simply have no room :-( > Yes, VT11 board set. [...] I have prints if you are missing them. I've found the manuals but not the print sets. > It's the same ribbon cable (BC11) as is used for Unibus, but it certainly > doesn't carry unibus singals here. It's a raw data interface to the drives. Yeah, I knew that, though I wan't clear in what I wrote. I just meant it's the same type of cable -- so if it *is* damaged, it can be replaced relatively easily. > > and check the PSUs before I do anything else. I'm no Unibus or RK05 > > expert; most of my -11s are Q-bus. What else should I look for before I go > > too far? > > Read the printsets. Read them again. Then, as ever, check the power > [...] Thanks! That's exactly the detailed practical advice I was hoping for :-) A quick look at the RK05s shows the foam ring on the blower is disintegrating. I imagine this needs replaced with some similar high-density foam before I put any packs in there. Any other places I need to look? I seem to have all the relevant maintenance manuals and engineering drawings print sets, plus several extra photocopies and some updates. I also have several copies of The Software Despatch for RT-11, and the original Site Maintenance Manual for the machine, with the original shipping notes, Field Service logs, etc. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 1 month

Searching one TK50

by dittman＠directlink.net

> Hi, Eric. Mmm... Where this could be applicable ? > One DEC PDP ? One Microvax ? One PC with Scsi > board ? It is a SCSI drive, so anything with a SCSI interface and drivers. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/

24 years, 1 month

Altair32 2.10b released

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Hello, all: This weekend I posted the latest code release for the Altair32 Emulator. Right now, it's feature-complete except for the Altair Integrated Debugger, a fully-integrated debugger based on the one used by Jim Battle in his Sol emulator. There are a few known issues with this release: * Programatic access to the paper tape doesn't work properly for some unknown reason. So, for example, using the toggle-in bootstrap loader to load and run Altair BASIC 3.2 from tape doesn't work. Execution is never transferred to BASIC. Loading BASIC in the form of a memory image still works fine. Tape access has been sped-up by fully buffering the tape in a buffer and reading from the buffer. * Other BASIC versions, such as 8k (4.0) and Disk Extended BASIC, don't work properly. They seem to crash the emulator after the "MEMORY SIZE?" prompt. A quick trace of 8k BASIC shows some possibly strange IO port usage. * Emulated floppy access with the included disk images doesn't work properly. I can boot the emulator to CP/M and are able to see the console output but the CP/M BIOS doesn't seem to register console input. I've asked for a copy of the CBIOS source that relates to the CP/M image (borrowed with permission from the Sysun on-line computer museum) so that I can track this one down. I suspect that it's a problem with the emulated status register for the console serial port. Enjoy! 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)

24 years, 1 month

DEC Lab 11/40

by djg＠drs-esg.com

You had already gotten a bunch of good responses, you noticed all the foam was falling apart like in mine, I cleaned it all out so bits of stuff wouldn't be floating around. I used some furniture foam where I needed thick and soft weather stripping foam for areas like the air feed to the disk pack. If you pull the fan to replace the foam check to see that the duck bill which cools power supplies doesn't have dust blocking the end. I also had to replace the nicad battery pack which retracts the heads when power fails. If it isn't leaking you can see if it took a charge after the drive has been running a while or try charging if you got a power supply and then load test. You can also test by carefully pulling the head forward with the drive powered off. It will suddenly yank it back when you hit the switch (watch the fingers). Don't pull it far enough that it starts to get to the head load ramp, it should pull back before that. If you think you might have some dropped packs what I do is with cover off watch the reflection of something at the edge of the disk where the head loads. Blip the run switch to start the pack spinning and as it slows down watch for the reflection to move. If so the edge is bent. I don't know how much is safe, I have a couple I declared unsafe and a couple with just a slight change which worked fine. For packs that weren't stored in bags I clean them before using. I use alchohol wipes then "air" can and a lens brush to remove all I can. Look at various angles, the proper lighting angle makes the dust visible. I then let sit in the drive for a while, spin it up then run a program which quickly steps through all tracks. Frequently I get a little ping on a track on the first pass or two but the moving head seems to knock the dust bits off. If the head isn't moving it can sit pinging at a track which doesn't seem like a good thing. If after two passes the disk isn't quiet I try cleaning again or put it in the trouble stack. Check/clean heads after this. Also keep the finger on the load button and hit it if things sound too loud. I also have some PM procedures on my site which a company wrote for maintaining their drives. Search for RK05 http://www.pdp8.net/pdp8cgi/query_docs/query.pl David Gesswein http://www.pdp8.net/ -- Run an old computer with blinkenlights.

24 years, 1 month

NetCommander - was Network protocols - RS232 Serial

by mhstein＠usa.net

-------------Original Message-------------- Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2001 00:06:28 -0400 From: "Glen Goodwin" <acme_ent(a)bellsouth.net> Subject: Re: Network protocols - RS232 Serial Hey Mike: > Anybody have a use for one or more Data Products Inc. NC16/250 NetCommanders (Not to be confused with Diamond's NetCommander ISDN adapter)? Yes. > Need to talk to your 15 vintage RS232 systems in the garage from one terminal? Yes! How much??? Glen 0/0 ---------------- Hey Glen: Will let ya know as soon as I've had a chance to look at them. Sorry to all for delays, kinda hectic here at the moment. mike

24 years, 1 month

That awful Spectrum keyboard

by alan.pearson＠cramer.com

> So far I've worked out how to generate all characters on the keytops (letters, > keywords and symbols) using CAPS SHIFT or SYMBOL SHIFT. I've also discovered > how to print the keywords listed above each key, by pressing both SHIFT keys > in order to enter the "E" input mode. But I'm lost as to how to print the > keywords and characters listed below the keys. No combinations of SHIFT keys > seem to work out. Go into Extended Mode (both shifts down at once to get the "E" cursor), then press the command key you want while keeping Symbol Shift held down. Good old Sinclair keyboards... the keyword entry thing worked ok on the ZX80/ZX81 IMHO because they were such horrible "key"boards. Not so sure about the Spectrum, there were just too many keywords to find, even if you knew where to look it was still a pain to type in a listing from a magazine :-) I recently got hold of one of the 128K Spectrum+ machines - the ones with the QL-style keyboard. Firing up the 128K BASIC allows you to type in a program character by character - I would have thought that would be an improvement, but I find it to be just as nasty as the 48K BASIC's keyword mechanism because the keyboard layout is non-standard. I ask you, putting the " on it's own key :-) -al

24 years, 1 month

Network protocols - RS232 Serial

by mhstein＠usa.net

-------------Original Message----------------- Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 23:17:52 +0100 (BST) From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) Subject: Re: Network protocols - RS232 Serial > Sorry, typon on my part. Mine also says 'Digital Products Inc' on it. > I've got a couple of different models here. ----------------------------------------------------- Well, I guess Product*S* is appropriate after all... They did indeed make quite a few different combinations, as well as the PrintDirector and DeviceDirector Printer/Terminal port sharing units, but I don't see yours listed in any of my literature; musta been older or newer than mine. I do see an NC7 (4S/3P) and some of the MultiSpool Print Directors were S/P combos. These are serial-only single-board babies, 16 RJ-45's along the back of the board, using standard DIP 256x1 RAMs. When you look at it, it sure doesn't look like $3000 worth... Now if they'd put some LED's on the front panel, say 4 per port, all blinking away merrily... We used them in two applications: One was collecting data from a bunch of AIM65's (later replaced by PC's) monitoring stock thickness in a brass rolling mill and sending it to a central Cromemco (also later replaced by a PC), and the other was a bond trader who used them to broadcast news of a new issue to his clients over dedicated lines, so some of them have been modified to simultaneously broadcast 1 port to the other 15 ('cause ya couldn't have one client getting the news before another, even at 9600 baud; that's how hectic the bond business is). mike

24 years, 1 month

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test-drb October 2001