test-drb August 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

295 participants
726 discussions

Personal Computer World magazine: RML 380Z

by celigne＠tinyworld.co.uk

I've just received some issues of PCW magazine, from 1978 and 1979. Pages and pages of adverts and articles about machines that I'd previously only heard about on this list, including the Exidy Sorceror and the SOL. I really considered that I'd struck gold when I came across adverts for the Research Machines 380Z because I had been wanting to know how much this machine cost for ages. There are several pages on the Web which quote prices for this machine, but never with any indication of the source and rarely with details of the configuration. The non-historians who put these pages up might as well have picked a figure out of the air! Does anyone have Vol. 1, No. 2 of this magazine, dated June 1978? They reviewed the 380Z in that issue. I know this because No. 6 includes the following update, partially quoted here for the benefit of the other 380Z owners on this list: --quote-- There have been several changes in the Research Machines 380Z since the PCW review of it in the June (No. 2) issue. The standard operating system has been extended so that the following are standard on all 380Z and 280Z systems. Normal cassette I/O is now at 1200 baud, but the option of 300 baud (standard CUTS) is retained. The screen output, unless selected otherwise, is scrolled one page at a time, the next page being called by typing any key. Continuous scrolling and scrolling one line at a time are also possible and all the different modes can be selected under program control. Printer and Serial Interface driving routines are now also included in the operating system, and direct connection may be made to parallel interface printers such as the PR40 or Centronics 700 range. Research Machines themselves are distributing the Centronics 779 and 701 and the Trend 800. Several specific criticisms or suggestions in the PCW review have been acted on: the fast cassette I/O is assumed as the normal rate, when the page is full in page mode the cursor blinks on and off, and loading can now be interrupted by a single key stroke at all times. The housing is completely new; a strong and attractive instrument case is used. There is the same room for system expansion and the case will fit into a standard 19" rack. Further features have been added to the BASIC Interpreters. A version is available which included the ability to read and write data files on cassette. It utilises the RML cassette file system and can be used with one or two cassette recorders. The RML Interactive Text Editor and the RML Absolute Assembler have been released. The Text Editor is character oriented and may be used in immediate mode; its uses include source program or data preparation. The Z80 assembler uses Zilog mnemonics and produces object code in either the industry standard 'Intel' format or the RML binary format. It contains its own text editor which uses a subset of the commands available in RML's full Text Editor. --end quote-- One of the other issues contains a tiny picture of the 380Z in its original white case. No piccies of the 280Z though. I'll put the rest of the 380Z stuff up on my site soon. I won't be doing much more typing today -- it's up to Olympia to the Great British Beer Festival for me! Regards, Paul

22 years, 10 months

Z8000

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Eric J. Korpela <korpela(a)ssl.berkeley.edu> >a Z8000. I toyed around a while with building an S100 bus processor card >for Z8000 (long after the both the chip and systems using the bus were no longer >in general production.) Never came to anything. I still have to processor >technical manual on my shelf. It's an interesting chip, but was a bit slower >than it needed to be. I have both Z8001(segmented) and Z8002(nonsegmented) parts both good for 10mhz. Not bad for parts in my bin fromt he mid80s. So much for speed. They are far better than 8088 programming wise. Allison

22 years, 10 months

Ebay madness

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On August 3, Messick, Gary wrote: > Is it just me? What are the odds this guy gets it? > > http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1260881309 It sure doesn't hurt to gamble. I personally admire his audacity. Some stupid person with way too much money might buy it, having read about the "classic computer craze" in the Wall Street Journal or something. Capitalizing on the stupid might not boost one's karma, but I personally have very little patience for the stupid...so more power to the guy. I hope he gets his money. It does irritate me just a little, though, because I've wanted an H8 very badly nearly all my life, and will likely NEVER get one if this one sells at that price. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Laurel, MD

22 years, 10 months

Fw: O.T. But a good SBC deal for my PS/2 friends

by rhblake＠bigfoot.com

"LaVasseur" <lavasseur(a)aol.com> wrote in message news:<20010804150755.14916.00004361(a)ng-cg1.aol.com>... > Hi Gang, > > I found a dumpster FULL of brand-new in-box Single board computers (SBCs) Made > by Texas Micro Now (Radisys) I have over 140 Intel pentium 100 Cpu's with 16 > megs of RAM on each, they have on-board SCSI, IDE, Floppy controllers and two > serial ports and paralell port. They come 5 to a case and have drivers and docs > and floppy cables. They come from a company that used to manufacture IP > telephony equipment using rackmount cases and passive backplane motherboards. > > The model name is P575/90/120 but I can't seem to find them on the Radisys > web-site the board says "greyhound 2 > > Sorry, I know this it off topic, but I know a lot of you tinker with other IBM > compatibles and other hardware hacks . These would be great for Linux MP3 > players and such. Check out the link below. > > http://www.maximumpc.com/route66/howto1_3.html > > I'm selling them for $50 per case or $10 each plus shipping . the CPU and > memory alone are well worth that. I'm in the USA, and I don't mind shipping > them overseas. I take paypal "lavasseur(a)aol.com" > > Once again I apoligize for the off-topic post but you guys have been great > friends over the years and I really wanted to pass this along.( alright, and I > want to make a couple of bucks :-) > > > > >

22 years, 10 months

VCF East makes The Economist

by vcf＠siconic.com

Here's the web edition of an article on VCF East in The Economist: http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=719262 I don't know if the article is any longer in the print edition. Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

22 years, 10 months

MO drives...

by mark_k＠totalise.co.uk

Hi, On Tue, 31 Jul 2001 Roger Merchberger wrote: > I'd love to find one (or a few) of the 3.5" 128Meg (or 256Meg) drives for > my classic computing needs - great archival capabilities, and with > 8-bitters, you don't really worry much about the speed... Both SCSI and IDE models are on eBay all the time. Used 128MB and 230MB drives (compatible with 128MB disks) usually go for $10-$30. New media is also cheap; 128MB & 230MB disks cost about ?2.20 each (+VAT) in the UK. They certainly make way more sense than buying a Zip drive. You probably didn't mean to write 256MB. There are two types of 256MB MO drives, neither of which is very common. Canon made the NeXT MO drive as well as a standalone model (which does not seem to be compatible with NeXT disks). They use 5.25" disks with 256MB per side. MOST (Mass Optical Storage Technologies, now out of business) used to make 3.5" MO drives. The RMD-5100-S used 128MB disks. The RMD-5200-S could also use 256MB disks, which as far as I know were only sold by MOST. The RMD-5300-S could use 128MB, 256MB and 384MB disks. 384MB disks are covered by an ECMA standard, but as with the 256MB ones only MOST made them. I have RMD-5200-S and RMD-5300-S drives, bought mainly out of curiosity. IF ANYONE HAS JUMPER SETTING INFO FOR THESE, PLEASE CONTACT ME! I would also like to get hold of technical manuals for these drives. > The only thing you have to watch for with the 5.25" drives is sector size. > The 600Meg platters are 512-byte sectors, IIRC the 650Meg platters are > 2048-byte sectors [[but don't quote me]]... Nope, 650MB disks have 1024-byte sectors. > 650Meg disks will *not* work in a 600Meg drive, They work fine. The main reason for having two disks with slightly different capacities is that some computers/OSes only work with media that has 512-byte sectors. If you have 650MB disks which won't work in a "600MB" drive, it's probably a software problem. > but thankfully my MaxOptics takes it's "special" 1G disks, but also > reads/writes to the 600Meg disks. (which is good, because the 1G disk seemed > to be bad. It wouldn't format without a *lot* of bad sectors.) Did you try cleaning the surface of the disk? That can help for disks which have been heavily used, and so have become dusty/dirty. -- Mark

22 years, 10 months

PDP-11/23 PLUS commercial instruction set (CIS)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Megan <mbg(a)world.std.com> >and the CIS carrier actually has 6 chips. > >As I mentioned in a prior post, I have an 11/23+ with CPU, MMU, >FPU and CIS, so I can prove it exists... I also have one like that plus another with the FFPU, a quad board that is a 2901C implmentation of the FPU and faster too. Allison

22 years, 10 months

Epson HX-20

by marko＠engia.se

Hi folks! I am quite new to this mailing-list, so it might be that my question has been asked before. Execuse me if so. I got one old (is there any new =) ) Epson HX-20 and i wonder if there is some manual or some other information about how to program it in assembler? Is there any hardware information so that i could know on which addresses the periphal is on and how to access it? Best regards Marko Krejic

22 years, 10 months

PDP-11/23 PLUS commercial instruction set (CIS)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Aug 3, 21:56, wanderer wrote: > Hmm, > > I have an 11/24 board here with a twice the size of the regular cpu > chips mounted in socket 4 & 5. Socket 3 is empty, while the standard > setup contains 3 chips in socket 1,2 & 3. Would this be the CIS chip? Yes, it is. It's six control chips mounted in one "double-width" 40-pin package. Socket 1 is the MMU, 2 is the Data and Control package of the CPU, 3 is the Floating Point. The CIS can go in 4+5 or 5+6, and 7 (or anything unused by CIS) is "spare". I don't know if there was ever any other "microms" for an 11/23 or 11/24. Anyone seen any? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

22 years, 10 months

Ebay madness

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On August 3, David L Kuhn wrote: > Whoooooo, looks like a bargain for $25K. I'll take two! I wish eBay had a "wish bid" system...if the starting bid is Just Too Ridiculous, a non-binding "bid" that could be entered as an "in case you don't get any opening bids for this" situation. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Laurel, MD

22 years, 10 months

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test-drb August 2001