On 27 May, Pete Turnbull wrote:
>
> > If yours is a copy of the GR RXV21 then it should not only be able to
> > format disks,
> BINGO!
> tic, tic, tic, tic, ...
> Can you hear this?
> It is the MXV21 formating a disk. :-)
:-)
> simply do a
> d/p/w 20001E78 109
> d/p/w 20001E7A 92
> at the VAX console and the drive starts to format. OK. The next step is
> to write data to the medium and read them back.
> [a bit later]
> Ahhh, reading / writing and DMA from / to memory does work also. :-)))
Excellent! If you need any more info from the GR manual, just ask.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
I've just been offered one of these. I was thinking it was
a size similar to the 3100 I have sitting on the VAXstation
II, how far off am I?
This past weekend I added a beige TI 99 with expansion box
and printer, an Atari 800, a zenith easy PC, and I broke
down and paid $4 for a Northern Telecom display phone.
And got a lead on a TRS80 model 1. Still looking for a
S-100.
On May 28, Mike Kenzie wrote:
> I've just been offered one of these. I was thinking it was
> a size similar to the 3100 I have sitting on the VAXstation
> II, how far off am I?
Pretty far off. The 4000/300 is in a chassis about the size of a
small end table. Definitely a nice machine, though; I'd recommend
grabbing it. Contrary to popular belief, they don't pull that much
power, and are relatively quiet.
-Dave McGuire
> Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 17:54:07 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Greg Linder <glinder(a)ews.uiuc.edu>
> Subject: Digital AXP 150 questions-
>
> I picked up two Digital DECpc AXP150's from a buddy. He pulled the
> ram, but they still have everything else. I pulled some old simms from
> some other dumpseter trips, but can't seem to get anything to come
> up. When I power them on, the LED indicators either tell me there is
> problem in RAM bank one, or else all LED's on when I power it on with no
> RAM in it. Does anyone have any of these things in an operating state? Can
> anyone offer any advise on gettin these up? I have always wanted an Alpha
> to run VMS on, and I think these will do it. Any advise? Thank you very
> much!
Hi Greg,
I've got one complete with books etc, and I also have the Systems and
Options catalogues that they were featured in. If you don't get any joy
elsewhere contact me off-list and I'll get the info for you
cheers
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the Online Computer Museum
0:OK, 0:1
On May 28, 18:41, Hans Franke wrote:
> Also no RISC machines in my heap (alas a
> friend got several)
I have an Archimedes A540 (badged R260, but it has a third-party SCSI card
so won't boot RISC iX, only RISC OS) which I might be persuaded to part
with. Maybe.
> Of course an Atom is also on the whish
> list, but here I know they are not common as flies.
I'm still looking for the lower half of the case for mine.
> P.S.: A nice (at least with manuals) GB QL would be
> wellcome ... I have already a German, an Italian
> and a Spanish Unit.
I have a faulty GB one -- looks fine, just doesn't boot (also needs work on
the keyboard membrane). All the socketed chips (ULAs, ROMs, processor etc)
are fine. You can have it for cost of shipping/postage. I don't think I
have a spare manual, though.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
> Besides, the UK doesn't seem all that well off according
> to what I've read.
Can't comment on the electrical aspects of this, but
you're bang-on if you mean we're not very well off
when it comes to finding classic computers :-)
You folk in the US seem to be finding cool stuff every
day, I'm lucky if I have more than a couple of worthwhile
finds a year :-)
Al
>Subject: How it all began!!
>
>
> > An old, bearded shepherd with a crooked staff walked up to a stone
> > pulpit and said, "And lo, it came to pass that the trader by the
> > name of
> >
> > Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot.
> >
> > And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg.
> > Indeed, she had been called Amazon Dot Com.. And she said unto
> > Abraham, her husband, "Why doth thou travel far, from town to town,
> > with
> > thy goods when thou can trade without ever leaving thy tent?"
> >
> > And Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags
> > short
> > of a camel load, but simply said, "How, Dear?" And Dot replied, "I
> > will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send
> > messages
> > saying what you have for sale and they will reply telling you which
> > hath
> >
> > the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery
> > made
> > by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."
> >
> > Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with
> > the
> > drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success.
> > Abraham sold all the goods he had, at the top price, without ever
> > moving
> > from his tent. But this success did arouse envy.
> >
> > A man named Maccabia did secret himself inside Abraham's drum and
> > was
> > accused of insider trading. And the young man did take to Dot
> > Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They
> > were
> > called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Siderites, or NERDS
> > for short.
> >
> > And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the
> > deafening sound of drums, that no one noticed that the real riches
> > were
> > going
> > to the drum maker, one Brother William of Gates, who bought up every
> >
> > drum company in the land. And indeed did insist on making drums that
> >
> > would work only if you bought Brother Gates' drumsticks.
> >
> > And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken
> > over
> > by others." And as Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or as
> >
> > it came to be known "eBay," he said, "we need a name that reflects
> > what
> > we are," and Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner
> > Operators." "Whoopee!", said Abraham. "No, YAHOO!" said Dot Com. and
> >
> > that is how it all began.
> >
> > It wasn't Al Gore after all.
> >
On May 27, 22:25, jkunz(a)unixag-kl.fh-kl.de wrote:
> It is no original DEC RXV21. It is a third paty product, "MXV21" made by
> "MDA". There is all the stuff on it to make it a complete controller.
> Read/write circuit, 2 x AM2901 with all the AM29xx stuff around it,
> TMS4044 SRAM, ... It has the usual 50 pin connector for 8" floppy
> drives. If I plug it into one of my QBus VAXen it is shown as RXV21 by
> the "show qbus" command.
Then it might actually have a formatter built in to its firmware, like the
Plessey and GR ones I mentioned in my earlier reply. Several companies
seem to have copied the GR system, and your description matches (though
that's probably not surprising).
On an RXV21, there are three bits in the CSR which determine the operation
to be performed when the CSR is written to. The commands in binary are:
000 fill buffer (ie transfer data from host to controler)
001 empty buffer (ie transfer data from controller to host)
010 write sector (using the contents of the controller buffer)
011 read sector (from floppy into controler buffer)
100 set media density -- see below
101 read status (updates the controller registers with drive etc status)
110 write deleted data (like 010 except with a special address mark)
111 read error code (used to access extended status registers)
On a DEC RXV21, the 100 code to set media density is only used to alter SD
to DD or vice-versa (according to whether bit 8, the DENSITY bit, is set in
the CSR or not). To do this, you set/clear the appropriate bits in the CSR
according to which drive you want, which density, etc, and at the same time
set bits 1-3 (the command bits) to 100. Then you poll the CSR until the TR
(Transfer Request, bit 8) is set. When it is, you write the value
(octal)111. The drive then rewrites the headers to indicate the
appropriate density, and writes zeros in the data fields. The disk has to
already have a valid format on it.
However, if you use a GR or Plessey RXV21, and reply with the value
(octal)222 instead of (octal)111, it formats the disk, which needn't have
previously had any recognisable format on it at all.
If yours is a copy of the GR RXV21 then it should not only be able to
format disks, but will work with double-sided disks or up to 4 single-sided
disks, not just two single-sided.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
> Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 01:58:15 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Eric Dittman <dittman(a)dittman.net>
> Subject: Re: OT-Re: Microwave oven collectors?
>
> I always wonder if the people that have something like "This is
> a RARE! TRS-80 Model 4 in perfect condition. You won't find
> another of these in this fine condition ANYWHERE! Don't let
> this one pass you by! It will sell high!" in their auctions
> are either stupid, deceitful, or clueless. Esp. when their
> auction is in the middle of about fifteen other items that are
> exactly the same.
I've a page dedicated to people like that on my museum site, which now
should be compatible with all graphic browsers according to the W3C. Lynx
I'm not sure about yet since I stopped working on a text-friendly version
when I lost my job!
It's at http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk under the 'WOW*RARE*L@@K' section
:)
cheers,
Free to a good home. You pick it up or pay shipping. Located in Chardon, OH, about 20 miles E of Cleveland.
Model number HMM-1900. I think this is the correct description of this monitor:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/monitors/Ehman01.html
It has a crisp paper-white screen. Input connector is a 9-pin D-shell with 6 pins populated.
Although I was able to use this with a PC VGA card at 1024 X 768, it is *not* a multi-sync monitor. You can get it to lock by fiddling the adjustments in the back. When the machine boots or blue-screens at 640X480 you cannot see the picture. You can have the VGA adapter cable I built for this purpose if you want it.
I don't know that much about MacIntoshes, so I can't tell you what machines it might work with.
I needed a huge monitor for a computer I was building for a partially sighted neighbor, but then I scrounged a 21" color monitor, so I don't need this any more.
--
Jonathan Engdahl Rockwell Automation
Principal Research Engineer 24800 Tungsten Road
Advanced Technology Euclid, OH 44117 USA
Euclid Labs http://users.safeaccess.com/engdahl
