test-drb August 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

295 participants
726 discussions

by rdd＠smart.net

This afternoon, I ordered, and then picked up, a cable with MMJ connectors on it from Control Cable (they're in Woodlawn, MD) - a nice place to deal with; they specialize in cabling and related products, and what they sell appears to be of very good quality. The cost of the assembled cable was only a few cents different from their cost for a cable and two MMJ connectors, and was under US$5; of course, I had to pay US$5 extra since the order was under US$50, but that was no worse than shipping would have been if I'd ordered them from elsewhere. After connecting the VT320 to the VAX, I reset the system password. Fortunately, this VAX has the "real VMS" (TM) for VAXen on it: VAX/VMS, and it's a reasonably recent version: 5.5, which was close to the lastest version of VMS back when I last worked with a VAX for an employer, back around 1992. :-) This far, I haven't noticed anything truly remarkable with regards to software, although at first glance, it looks like nothing is missing. Fortunately, someone installed kermit, so that will make things, such as installing TCP/IP, easier. :-) There appears to be a fair amount of audio software, which I think may all be for use with that DECVoice system; text to voice software, for example. Since I don't have a T1 telephone connection, alas, it appears that I'm not going to be able to use this DECVoice hardware, and the audio software on this machine. Also, there's a mention of SQL in one of the text files that I looked through, although I didn't notice any database software installed; of course, I don't know the names of databases using SQL for VAXen. DECnet is installed and apparently configured, so I guess this means that I can use my DEC terminal server with this machine... do I need to do anything other than connect the terminal server to the VAX and then use it? I know nothing about DECnet. Of course, there's still the little matter of no tape drive being installed in this system, which is not a good thing. I have a TK70 and a TK50, along with a TKQ70 board. -- Copyright (C) 2001 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals: All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature & rdd(a)rddavis.net 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such http://www.rddavis.net beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.

23 years, 2 months

Reading data from a CDC Hawk Drive

by kevin＠xpuppy.freeserve.co.uk

As part of an emulator project I need to read data from many CDC Hawk packs. I have a drive and I believe it is an SMD interface. The drive also seems to be known as a DD1600. Does anyone have any details on this drive? Two possible options occured to me:- 1. Obtain (?) an SMD controller card for a PC and try to access the drive using this - and an appropriate amount of C. 2. Use a QBUS SMD controller in my PDP11 and get at the data that way. Any thoughts gratefully received. (BTW The machine I am emulating is an old British minicomputer called the Molecular.) Kevin Murrell ------------- www.ps8computing.co.uk

23 years, 2 months

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

by fernande＠internet1.net

I just went to a local computer show today. I was happy to find that a few vendors had components available from disassembled computers or whatever. I picked up a 3com 3C905-TX PCI ethernet card, an ATI Mach64 video card, and a very nice Sound Blaster 16, all used of course. The Mach64 had "Monitor" written in marker on the slot cover. Do office people really need to remind themselves where to plug the monitor in? I have also seen a 3.5" floppy drives marked "hard drive a:" and the 5.25" floppy, marked, "floppy drive b:". What's the deal? I also picked up a new AMD K6-II 500 to replace my IBM 6x86 233, and a nice new heatsink/fan for it too. Hopefully I'll have my re-made socket 7 setup, up and running Linux soon :-) Chad Fernandez Michigan, USA

23 years, 2 months

"Early" 3.5" diskettes (was: Wired covers VCF east

by mbg＠world.std.com

Allison, I'll have to show you the machine... maybe you could identify the drive right off without having to open the case. For a preview, check out the wired.com article pictures... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com | | Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg KB1FCA | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

23 years, 2 months

FT: Alpha Architecture Docs

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

The Alpha was started by DEC in 1988 as a replacement for the VAX, it extends the address space to 64 bits and switches from a CISC architecture to a RISC architecture. I've got a copy the Alpha Architecture Reference Manual (AARM) and the Alpha Architecture Handbook (AAH) which combined give you everything you need to know about the Alpha. They're extras. I'd like to offer them in trade to anyone who has EITHER: KA640 Technical Manual KA680 Technical Manual Also published by Digital. --Chuck

23 years, 2 months

SemiOT: Mourning for Classic Computing

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> >Also, not every programmer produced from personal computing is a bad > >programmer. I've seen quite a number of such people that should be > >forbidden from ever invoking a text editor, but we're not all that way. > >I may not have a lot of field experience (I'm not even out of college > >yet), but I'm a damn good programmer. > > As Iggy mentioned a bit ago, Demo programmers still practice > assembler. I would imagine that there are quite a few talented > programmers in that field. I do not mind that programmers vote Democratic... Seriously, what's a demo programmer? A programmer who writes only demo software? As in mock-ups? Prototypes? And I hate to pick nits, but no one can "practice assembler" anymore than they can "practice compiler". They _write_ assembly language; if it must be shortened, it should be to "assembly", not "assembler". But if I'm stumbling into a British usage vs. American usage, please forgive me, I pick nits, but prefer not to be an errant pedant. And I would not consider people writing in assembly language to be at the bottom rungs, at least not by virture of the language they're using. In fact, I am locally renknowned as one of if not the best assembly language programmer available (again, locally). Too bad the demand has dried up. Regards, -dq

23 years, 3 months

Two DEC LN03 toner / maintenance kits available

by jfoust＠threedee.com

I picked up two each of the toner cart kit and the user maintenance kits, at $2 each. They're available at that cost plus shipping. New in box, unused. - John

23 years, 3 months

Hayes Chronograph on eBay

by rcini＠optonline.net

No bids as of 9pm EST. Item 1266277281. $9.00 I'm not connected to the auction in any way. I was just browsing and throught I'd let everyone know. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

23 years, 3 months

Fujitsu drives (was Re: Service does still exist....)

by Gary.Messick＠itt.com

Didn't Fujitsu just (within the last week) exit the hard disk market? Or was it just desktop (IDE) drives? > -----Original Message----- > From: Master of all that Sucks [mailto:vance@ikickass.org] > Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 10:48 PM > To: Glenatacme(a)aol.com > Cc: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Fujitsu drives (was Re: Service does still exist....) > > > > Well, it usually the large-capacity (4.5+ GB) older > workstation drives. > One good way to find out is to ask Fujitsu. It's the path I normally > take. > > Peace... Sridhar > > On Tue, 14 Aug 2001 Glenatacme(a)aol.com wrote: > > > More information about this, please? If I find a Fujitsu > drive how can I > > tell if the lifetime warranty applies to that drive? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Glen > > 0/0 > > >

23 years, 3 months

[Fwd: Undeliverable Mail]

by RHudson＠esprit.com

Well several of my replys were rejected by classicomp email system so here they all are together... :^) Ethan Dicks wrote: > --- Ron Hudson <rhudson(a)cnonline.net> wrote: > >> I was going to write a simulator for Bell Labs "Cardiac" (cardboard >> slide the slides and move bits be the cpu your self) computer, but >> all I >> can find is the Instruction Set... > > > Do you _have_ a CARDIAC? Do you want one? > > -ethan > > > > __________________________________________________ I don't have one, but the instruction set was listed on the Internet once or twice, 0,input ... What I don't have is the "Wireing" that graphic on the "cpu" side that controlls operation, and there are part that change with the instructions. Yes I would like a cardiac, any donations? (will trade for C coded emulator :^) [ will code for toys?? ] ) I went on to "design" the 8 bit machine described because cardiac won't handle character data, only 3 digit numbers. I also wanted to make use of the a whole 8 bits, and have each instruction use only 8 bits (well some of them do read the next byte via indirect of the PC) Also I think the flag testing at for each instruction is um clever, what do you think. will repost instruction set if desired. I really wanted some of you to look over the instruction set and theory to see if I was obvously missing somthing. Reply to Zane... Thanks for the pointer to the TOPS-10 emulator I will see what I can do with it...

23 years, 3 months

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test-drb August 2001