test-drb October 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

259 participants
770 discussions

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

! > If you have electric heating anyway, then it shouldn't make much ! > difference to the overall electricity bill, surely... ! > ! Well, a heat pump (an air conditioner that runs in reverse) ! does work a little more efficiently than TTL logic for heating ! the house. My biggest problem is coming up with a way to duct ! the heat from the 11/70 to the rest of the house. It still seems ! that I end up with the heat on in the house, and the windows ! open in the room with the 11/70. What about something like an exhaust hood over the 11/70, and a fan? --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818

22 years, 6 months

hard-sector 5 1/4 disk

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> 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) Some models (maybe all?) of the Heath-Zenith H-89 or H-90? used them... -dq

22 years, 6 months

Do we have a VAX organization?

by gunther＠aurora.regenstrief.org

Hi, I usually hate organizational issues, but I think us VAX collectors need at least a semi-formal organizaton. Why? - Most importantly this could help convince those that either decomission or scrap VAX hardware to give it away instead. (Yes, the last wave of decommissioned VAX 6000-600 and 7000/10000 is coming up, plus the tail of older models that might occasionally still be in use.) Also think of all the overpriced DEC hardware suppliers who soon have to get rid of their stocks that no business customer needs anymore. - Second this would give one point where we could organize trades and consolidate shipment issues ("VAX trecks") - It could help us negotiate good truck rental rates. Penske has perhaps the best rate you can get, but not everyone gets the best rate (i.e. 10 cents per mile) because that's for business customers only, normally. But usually with an organization (and a little ad on the web-site) you can get good deals on vehicle rentals. And it goes on. - We could promote semi-public collections like little private museums that some of us are building. - Finally it could help in right out fundraising for covering such expenses as electricity and internet connectivity for cyber- museums and public use VAXen. We don't have to start all over but can take something that already exists. (I'm also not looking to become a chairman of anything, one of the typical incentives for people suggesting new organizations :-) For example, I think this can start with a web site. Some of us already have vax related domain names which we can use, like Isildur's vaxpower.org. So, a www.vaxpower.org could be it. There's also the VAX rescue squad, put in my several futile attempts to sign up I realized that this project seems rather dead. I don't know if this should be anything tightly connected with DECUS, because DECUS is (a) too COMPAQ or whatever.com oriented, (b) too VMS oriented, and (c) seems to have too much overhead (organizational structure, membership fees, unrelated agenda items). But I could be wrong about that. Another question is if this should not be a DEC/VAX only group but rather a vintage computer stuff group, like Sellam Ismail's site. May be this could be it. What's important is that this site would help accomplish above-mentioned goals, and that it would be a showcase of our VAX collections and simply an address book of the kind that the VAX rescue squad wanted to be. Something you can point to when negotiating with a source. A network of friends you can call up and ask for help in rescuing someting in an otherwise remote area. Also a set of rules of conduct dealing with shared hauls, (like what if: you agree to help with a haul from a friend accross the country and agree on keeping certain things, but suddenly a PDP-8 shows up in that lot? These are things that could help maintain friendship and integrity and reduce grief.) So, what do you think? regards -Gunther -- Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow(a)regenstrief.org Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org

22 years, 6 months

email/browser for DOS or C64/128?

by pbboy＠mindspring.com

Arachne DOS browser www.arachne.cz

22 years, 6 months

hard-sector 5 1/4 disk

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>>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) >I've got a Northstar Advantage that uses them...anyone know where to get >hard sector disks these days? I was just about to say, I seem to recall that my old Northstar used them (although I can't remember if it was an Advantage or a Horizon, it was a black boxie CPM machine with screen, keyboard and floppy drive all in one unit). I also think the Apple II had a hard sector option (had to load a special disk to activate it... or was that 13 sector... or are they the same thing?) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

22 years, 6 months

OT: Playstation 2 opinion?

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Mike Ford <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com> > PS2 is last year, by Xmas all his friends will be talking about Xbox and > GameCube. We have N64, and I resisted forever getting one, and relented > only as the price dropped to about $150 with a game (he just HAD to have > Zelda). Keep in mind this is a razor blade industry, regardless of the high > price of the console, the real money and costs will be in games etc. > > My recommendation is to forget the console, and put together a gaming PC. > Better intelligence to the games, and immensely greater selection and > usefullness. Are you talking about a MS Windows box here??? As a PC builder I must say that if I were into serious gaming I would absolutely buy a game console. Say you buy 3 pricey, high-quality games for your PC. Chances are one of them won't like your video card. Or the version of DirectX you're running. Or the gamepad you're using. Or the motherboard's chipset. Or it'll step on another game by replacing DLLs. Or it'll change the sound settings so the other games have problems. Not my idea of *fun*. On the other hand I suppose you could consider the "real" game to be getting more than 3 high-quality games to run on the same Wintel box ;>) Glen 0/0

22 years, 6 months

first step getting VAX 6000-400 booted ...

by gunther＠aurora.regenstrief.org

Hi, after my pretty good VAX treck last weekend (more details coming up on my project web site at a later time) I finally have SDI disks. I hooked one up last night and did all the checking as per the RA9x manual (yes I have one plus many more, will scan those at some time...) and it seems to be O.K. (even though it was pretty messed up stored in a barn among lots of birds for many years). Here is one para about where I am at and then I have some specific questions for Geoff Roberts or Ragge or anyone who has had experienced any luck with getting a 6000 up to operation. I have bootable tape for Ultrix 4.1 and VMS 5.3 both TK50. None of them work. I seem to have no luck with the TK70 and I have no way finding out what's wrong. I tried to boot from that RA90 disk, even though I don't know what's on it. It has unit #0, so I thought it might be a system disk. But that too failed with some I/O error very early in the process. I also have a TU81+ and VMS bootable tape on 9-track, maybe that's more reliable? Tonight's project is to move the TU81+ into the basement and hook it up. I'm afraid I'll get stuck there too and what then? Network booting? Here's some more detail and questions: The TK50 boot proceeds for quite a while, although it never shows any message on the console about where it is at before it halts due to some unspecified error. However, about one or two minutes into the tape running the system-panel's FAULT light comes on and at the same time both yellow and green LEDs on the TKB70 board extinguish. That's for about a second or two. Then the lights go back to normal and the fault light turned off. Another 30 seconds to a minute tape streaming and the same light-spiel happens again: fault on, TKB70 LEDs off, and back to normal. Now a shorter time (like 10 seconds) of tape streaming and again. From now on that repeats for about 4 or 5 more cycles and finally the system is halted and console says: system halted due to previous error. However, no error message is being printed. I have no idea where I am in the process. I have tried cleaning the TK70 read/write head of course. I have tried a different copy of that Ultrix tape. It's always the same. Is this bliking of fault and shutting off of both TBK70 LEDs normal for media read errors or does it indicate something more serious? How can I tell where in the process I am? Is there an error flag somewhere in memory that I could EXAMINE to find out what is wrong? BTW: at first I had my CIBCA cards in and the boot process would halt earlier: system would say "insufficient memory for CI" and "10% or more of the memory is bad". Who is checking memory there? I could not find anything in Ultrix 4.2 sources that would generate such a message. And why would it anyway, because my system check tells me that I have 512 MB of memory OK. Or does it speak of 10% of the CIBCA's internal memory? Is there a boot flag that I could turn on that would cause the loader etc. to be more verbose? Has anyone tried booting Ultrix over the network? I am going to try that but all I have is Ultrix on TK50 (that doesn't work) and sources without any VAX running to compile them on. Is there a cross compiler suite? I'd like to compile with the DEBUG flag set. Thanks for your suggestions, -Gunther -- Gunther_Schadow-------------------------------http://aurora.rg.iupui.edu Regenstrief Institute for Health Care 1050 Wishard Blvd., Indianapolis IN 46202, Phone: (317) 630 7960 schadow(a)aurora.rg.iupui.edu------------------#include <usual/disclaimer>

22 years, 6 months

Epson QX-10 to good home

by vcf＠vintage.org

Walter has an Epson QX-10 that he wants to find a good home for. Please contact him directly. Reply-to: <wdthompsonjr(a)myexcel.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 20:51:19 -0500 From: Walter David Thompson Jr <wdthompsonjr(a)myexcel.com> To: vcf(a)vintage.org Subject: Query Hi, I have an Epson QX-10 in excellent condition, including the 300 baud modem and the 8088 sisterboard upgrade, monitor, keyboard, software, technical manuals, etc., along with a second cpu box for parts. Any thoughts on the best way to find a collector who might be interested? Thanks for your help. Walter Who is Walter From Virginia, Anyway? http://www.greatestnetworker.com/comunity/myface.tcl?is=6121 --- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

22 years, 6 months

How to disassemble an HSC90?

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

> Gunther Schadow wrote: >Yup, that's how it works with the TU81. Those brackets can be easily >removed by loosening up the screws and lifing the metal pieces up and >away. Then the side walls can be yanked off by a good pull straight up. >That's how it appears to be with the HSC initially: in fact, there are >two similar metal pieces in the front that can be unfastened and pushed >inward. Yet, after this is done the sidewalls don't move any easier. >They are stuck as if glued or welded on! This is like a magic chinese >woodbox. May be there is a magic thing you have to know so everything >resolves in ease, but so far this transcendental knowledge has not >been revealed to earthly beings by the gods who dwelleth on the Mt. >Manynard or their prophets who service the fields. :-) I've not followed this from the start so I don't know how deep into the HSC90 you want to go, but the steps for upgrading an HSC90 to an HSC95 may help. 1. Power off. 2. Turn the nylon catches on the card cage cover 1/4 turn each and pull cover up and out. 3. Swap modules to taste. For removing the rear door: 1. Open door. 2. Release hinge pin by pulling down on release lever. 3. Slide door out and lift up: do not bend bottom pin. I've never (knowingly) seen an HSC6x or HSC9x so all I can say is that it sounds pretty easy so I assume you are doing something other than swapping modules? The IPB suggests that the side panels "hang" on the sides and, once the top is off, will slide upwards until they are clear of their "hooks". There may be some obvious screws involved too (it's not immediately clear whether this is a different cab variant/rev or not). Antonio

22 years, 6 months

A couple old books, 6502 and Mostek

by mhstein＠usa.net

Gee, I've been doing this all wrong; I offered several boxes of data & related books for free, but had no replies at all - just found a box that I overlooked when I tossed 'em out, so let me try adding a handling charge & offer them for $4.95 ea. & shipping :) Zilog Microcomputer Components Data Book Feb 1980 Intel Microcomputer Systems Data Book 1976 (SBC's &c) Intel Component Data Catalog 1980 Intel 8048 Family Applications Handbook Jan 1980 (Apps & Assembler listings) Intel 8080 Microcomputer Systems User's Manual Sep 1975 (Apps & data sheets) Rockwell Electronics Devices data catalog 1981 (AIM65, RM65, System65, R68000, PPS-4/1, modems &c AIM65 4 Manual sets: User, Programming, Chipset & Monitor Listing The Elementary Apple 1983, Wm. B. Sanders (Datamost) (Beginners's User/Programming) And some Mostek & Synertek sheets as well; they were mostly into F8's and Z80's; you're probably thinking of MOS Technology for the 6502, and I just happen to have the MOS Microcomputers Programming Manual so after you get your $5.00, just send me 4.95 <g> m -------------------Original Message------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 23:18:47 -0800 From: Mike Ford <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com> Subject: A couple old books, 6502 and Mostek I found a couple books while digging in boxes at TRW. Beyond Games: Systems Software for your 6502 Personal Computer. Ken Skier This is a very early book, copyright 1981, covering a series of articles >from BYTE magazine. Lots of low level nuts and bolts software, a monitor, assembler, text, printing etc., but with a very basic approach, and over half the book are reference listings etc. Has a few specifics for each of Pet, Apple, Atari, and other 6502 computers. Mostek, MOS Integrated Circuit Guide. Magazine sized, 138 page, blue and silver book, copyright is 1975, but the only microprocess it mentions is the F8, and I was expecting 6502. Covers several early memory chips and some consumer calculator chips, very nice condition. I am thinking about $5 for either book, but best offer and postage gets it.

22 years, 6 months

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test-drb October 2001