test-drb December 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

243 participants
1096 discussions

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/20/01 7:21:17 AM Eastern Standard Time, wpointon(a)earthlink.net writes: << unfortunately i dont have a site and i am limited to slow rural dial up net access -- any help would be appreciated if some one has the space and time to leave it up for a while --- thanks -billp >> I've got 140 megs worth of free space on my domain. would that be enough?

23 years

MITS 2SIO serial chip?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca> >I suspect this is because > >1) All registers but the PC are 8 bit. Total number of bits including storage for status were about 1/3 that of Z80 (208). >2) Instructions grouped into fewer internal states per clock. Yes, and instructions were simpler in construction. Some Z80 instructions like the block moves and searches (ex LDIR) and a complete set of IO instuctions (not present on 6502) made for a great difference in size and complexity of the instruction set. > I think a z80 instruction could have 17+ states where a >6502 used up to 5 states. Actually Z80 went as far as 22states. Allison

23 years

Smoking around computers

by blacklord＠telstra.com

----- Original Message ----- From: Carlos Murillo <cmurillo(a)emtelsa.multi.net.co> Date: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 0:24 am Subject: Re: Smoking around computers > One of the worst odors I've experienced was created when lots of > cat hair were toasted inside the power supply of a friend's > computer. The hairs finally got the fan stuck and temperature > went up very quickly. Argghhh.. I said to myself, "that's > no magic smoke!" . I had a cockroach crawl into my then 3 day old Amiga 1000 & fry itself on a circuit board in the power supply - stunk to high hell - but at least the machine was self-debugging <grin> Lance ---------------- Powered by telstra.com

23 years

URL for "The Wench Bench"

by CLeyson＠aol.com

Jeff@ubertechnoid wrote > Nope. This winged, rocket-propelled, and tv-guided bomb sank an Italian > battleship late in the war. The British called it the 'Chase me Charlie' > bomb. It was pretty effective when used by a trained crew. It was guided > from the launching aircraft by an operator with a joystick. Thanks Jeff, it's a while since I read the Wireless World article on the "Chase me Charlie" bomb and I think your're right about the sinking of an Italian battleship. I know it's off topic, but it's quite a feat of engineering stuffing tubes (valves) into shells or bombs. I'm still curious as to how the RF proximity fuses worked. Missile guidance computers are probably a valid topic for discussion on classiccmp. Anybody read Jack Volders paper on the Cordic algorithm ? A true classic. BTW would a "classic algorithm" thread be a valid topic for classiccmp ? It would make a good read and it would be educational too. Chris

23 years

"Geeks" and licensing

by pechter＠ureach.com

---- On Sat, 15 Dec 2001, Robert Schaefer (rschaefe(a)gcfn.org) wrote: > > > > > I'd also include Geeks who program any machine that could > accidentally > > > kill someone > > > > That has been documented. I believe the machine in question was > called > > the Thorac and it irradiated two people to death. I'm too sleepy to > > search on Google right now or I'd provide more information. > > I watched this, too. Seems if they edited one blank, went down and > filled > in another, then went back up and changes the prevoius blank, it would > ignore the intensity settings and jsut go straight to glow-in-the-dark. > Hell of a way to buy it. > > > > > -- > > Jeffrey S. Sharp > > Bob > > > > And it's a classic PDP11 driving the whole thing with RT11... I remember the lawsuit and DEC's saying we can't comment on it. The code for the application was less than operator fail safe... Hell, less than fail-resistant. Bill

23 years

DEC bus driver/receiver chips

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 20, 12:55, Carlini, Antonio wrote: > The obvious places to look > would be www.pdp8.net and www.pdp8.org > but neither seem to have that particular > printset. David has very kindly scanned the M8650 (Asynchronous Data Interface) and related parts printset and put them up on www.pdp8.net. Now I think I know what is wrong with my board, and I'm off to fix it :-) > I do have access to a 600dpi scanner > that can do up to 11"x17" and I've > scanned printsets with it successfully. > But I don't have that one - or anything > PDP-8 related ... anyone have WT78 > printsets or docs? :-) That would be nice -- I have a VT/78 but no docs. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years

Heath h-8

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk [mailto:ard@p850ug1.demon.co.uk] > > So, how rare are the peripherals? In the absence of a > heath floppy drive, > > what else might I use(and how...)? Anyone know where I can get one? > The H17 should be able to use any normal 5.25" floppy drive. > The Heathkit > ones were (IIRC) 40 cylinder single sided. I would suspect > you could link > up a PC 360K drive and get it to work. You might have to cut the > connection to the side select pin (which will then be pulled > high by the > termiating resistors in the drive) so that it behaves as a > single-sided > unit. And there may be some issue with the drive select pins. But it > should be possible to get it to work. So hard sectors aren't required, then? I don't have a cable for it yet, so I'll just have to plan on cutting a wire. :) > If you have such a drive and a PSU to run it off, I'll dig > out the H17 > schematic (it's used in my Z90...) and see what needs to be fiddled. I do have extra floppy drives, which I'd be willing to toy with for it. Power supply wouldn't be a problem. > > Another interesting question is this: My H-8 has a strange > wire-wrapped > > breadboard, on top of what appears to be a normal 8080 CPU > Sounds like a homebrew Z80 modification board. Useful, but > I'd probably > go back to the 8080 if it was my machine.... Yep, my guess is that it's definitely a homebrew z80 modification. :) I might consider switching to 8080 again, but I do like the z80, and the home-made daughtercard is amusing, so I probably won't remove it permanently until I decide how it actually works. > > toying around? (Did CP/M ever run on these?) > > Isn't there some issue about the H8 having ROM at location 0 > (standard > CP/M needs RAM there)? I seem to remember there were special I believe you're right that the H8 has ROM there. It may be possible to change that with jumpers or switches. My systems has something which could be an "extended configuration" board, which is mentioned on one of the previous web-pages as allowing you to run CP/M. I'm not sure what it does to allow it, though. > CP/M will run on an 8080 BTW. But a fair number of 'normal' > CP/M programs > need a Z80. I see -- didn't know that. Regards, Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

23 years

MITS 2SIO serial chip?

by pechter＠ureach.com

---- On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, Allison (ajp166(a)bellatlantic.net) wrote: > 8251 was an OK chip, it had bugs, FYI there are three versions > and each has it's oddities! I have tons of them and use them > but, you do have to be aware of the oddities. The worst ones > are initial programming after reset (buffer clear bug) and the > repeats last character on /cts false if TX shifter is not empty > (8251A). However the 2SIO didn't use it. > > > NS* did use them as did many others. The worst chip was > the 8250. > > Allison IIRC the Intel 8251 did full Sync as well as Async which was a plus. It's annoying drawback -- (DEC used it in the Robin and Rainbow) was the lack of modem flow control support. I'd have killed for an 8251 with CTS/RTS/DSR/DTR and DCD all on chip. Perhaps it should've been done on two chips if Intel couldn't get it on one. Bill

23 years

Nile 150

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

! -----Original Message----- ! From: Jeffrey S. Sharp [mailto:jss@subatomix.com] ! ! > ! # Anyone know where this jewel is located? ! > ! ! > ! Dallas. :( That's too far from Ohio for me. Altho, if ! > ! anyone wants to deliver it, I'll happily accept it... ! > ! > Hmmm, well, you're closer than New Haven, CT... Delivery would ! > probably cost an arm and a leg... Bummer... ! ! Do I need to make Yet Another Trip To Texas again? It looks like someone down there spoke up for it... --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 905818

23 years

Hardest to Find Classic Computers (Was: RE: Way OT: Just say no t o squirrels & Pascal question)

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Douglas Quebbeman [mailto:dhquebbeman@theestopinalgroup.com] > Also not intended as the thrust of the topic: > Systems you most of all want Well, you really can't get away from writing about systems you want, since you couldn't claim they're hard to find unless you've been looking. ;) That said, here I go... > These systems might be generally available, and might > go for a price you can afford, but you just can't *find* > them where you're at. > Around here for me, it would be PDP-8's and Lisa's. S-100 based CP/M machines seem to be very rare where I am. MVME-bus machines of any type have been difficult for me to locate. Acorn Archimedes systems are difficult, too, I assume because they were never really popular in the US. NeXT hardware of any type has been difficult for me to locate as well, especially recently. It seems that everybody would like to have it and there's not enough surplus left. Amiga systems are generally in the same boat as NeXT. Once in a while you find somebody who'll actually part with an Amiga, but it's rare. Most people still use them. I've never met a scrap AS/400 in person, though some of them show up on eBay once in a while, so I don't know if this will count. I've been looking for a TRS-80 Color Computer 3 setup for a very long time and haven't found one yet. I assume those are mostly just setting in peoples' closets and will appear in scrapyards and yard-sales eventually. Do peripherals count too? If so, try finding a 9-track drive that doesn't take up as much room as your fridge. Any EDSI hardware and controllers have been very elusive to me as well. Machines with front-panels are very rare. I have one, a Heath H-8. (You can select an address using the keypad and type programs in octal -- talk about an intuitive interface! I think we should replace the GUI with this... :) It's the only one I've ever met, honestly. (Speaking of which, I must eventually get it to do something interesting. :) I remember from old "Hot CoCo" magazines a few systems, namely the Dragon, and the "Micro Color Computer," which I have not seen since. It is difficult for me to find people who've even heard of, much less seen, much less know where I can get, a Symbolics system. The same applies to any of the Cray systems -- even when they were made in relatively high-volume. The SGI m68k machines are also relatively "unknown." (The Iris 2000/3000s) I'm sure there are more. Regards, Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

23 years

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test-drb December 2001