test-drb May 2004

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

244 participants
500 discussions

by cb＠mythtech.net

>I don't think it was *that* good. I'm certain it was only three numbers, >not four. It could well have been a 950 - given the dusty dirty skip it >was lying it it's not impossible to believe that dirt made the 5 look >like a 6 :-) What may be tell tale is, did you actually see the name Quadra on it (I came in late, so I responded before without realizing you called it a Quadra). If so, then it is not a 9600. A large tower with Quadra on the name plate would be a 900 or 950 (there were no 96x in the Quadra line, although there were some 6xx, but no 69x and the 6 series were all desktop cases, not towers). Slightly smaller tower would be the 8xx series A Q950 still isn't a bad machine, but not as big of a deal to abondon (I have a WorkGroup Server 95 which is the Quadra 950 with a different software package). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

20 years, 8 months

new finds (Acorn, Sun, Apple)

by cb＠mythtech.net

>> Heh - I don't really know Macs at all. I have '960' stuck in my head, >> but I had a quick look on lowendmac.com and didn't see that listed - I >> swear there was a 9 and a 6 in there (I don't think 690 was listed >> either, so who knows!). UGH... go back and get it. You probably left behind a PowerMac 9600! DAMN good Macs. Fully upgradable to a G4 processor, and it has 6 PCI slots (last Mac to have 6 slots, and one of the few to ever have that many). They sell used for $100 with stock processors (200-350 MHz IIRC). Grab it, buy a $100 G3 or G4 processor upgrade, and have a 6 slot OS X runnable Mac (OS X requires the patch from XLR8 to install, but it will work once installed). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

20 years, 8 months

opinions on very long term storage and references from Google search

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

\begin opinion Seems like the best method for very long term storage in theory is ion beam on iridium disk More practical methods include the following: I have also heard that using archival quality ink in a retrofitted ink jet printer printed on acid-free paper may work for reasonable amounts of time. The plastic ink particles in laser toner are very susceptible to environmental factors. I know that for land surveys that archival ink using a pen plotter on vellum is "best". \end opinion References http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/DL/hedstrom.html Digital preservation: a time bomb for Digital Libraries. www.tims-im.ca/Whitepapers/22010v052p.pdf Preserving Information Forever and a Call for Emulators. Archives: Preserving Bits, Formats, Documents, and Wisdom www.berghell.com/ whitepapers/Archives%20-%20Preserving%20Bits,%20Formats,%20Documents,%20 and%20Wisdom.pdf - Mike

20 years, 8 months

Computer Estate( and collecting)

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

At 02:05 PM 5/17/04 -0400, you wrote: >> 63/37 is the optimal tin/lead alloy; its melting point is a little >> lower than 60/40 alloy. > >I thought the reason 63/37 (or whatever the precise ratio is - I think >it's something like 63.7/36.3, no?) was preferred was that it had a >melting _point_ rather than a melting _range_. (Whether this is tied >to its being the eutectic mixture is something I'm not enough of an >alloy scientist to know.) 63/37 has the lowest melting point and the lowest or close to lowest "plastic" range. The Lyman books on bullet casting have some good explanations and charts on this. Joe

20 years, 8 months

RSTS/E and PDP 11/23

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 17, 17:57, Fred N. van Kempen wrote: > On Mon, 17 May 2004, emanuel stiebler wrote: > > > Both 11/23 and the 11/23+ have 22-bit addresses. Only very early > > revisions of the 11/23 board had 18 bit. > Oh! I learn something every day! I'll check my boards, dunno > whether I have new ones. I do have old ones, since they're Q18. Original 11/23 *backplanes* are 18-bit, though they can be rewired to be 22-bit. AFAIR, the only 18-bit 11/23 CPU was the Rev.A KDF11-A (the first dual-height one). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

20 years, 8 months

IBM AT Free to a Good Home

by bill＠timeguy.com

I have an IBM AT with all original docs and keyboard, in like-new condition from the original owner. It can be yours for the price of shipping. Note that it has an upgrade VGA video card in place of the usual mono or CGA/EGA card, and that it currently will not boot from the hard drive (which is why he finally upgraded to a PC made in the last 20 years). A 14" VGA monitor, IBM ProPrinter, and Okidata 320 printer are also available as part of the bundle. E-mail if you have questions or want the thing. Note that I ship via Mailboxes Etc. so be prepared to pay their packing/shipping rates or arrange to pick it up.

20 years, 8 months

Computer Estate( and collecting)

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

There are many areas of "collectors" that can't give up any parts of their collections. My grandfather had an old corn crib that was full of partial parts and containers of stuff from the orchard and farm. There were tractor parts, mower parts, sprayer parts, wagon parts, and picking bags. You could not just drive to the store for a part when something failed. After he died I looked through it, saved some unique items and it was an education of how farming used to be versus what it is today. I don't think he thought he was a collector just a farmer. Currently I have neighbors who are sailors and their back lots are a collection of boat parts. I have seen more hasty repairs from the collections. The local community would like to clean up "junk" however one person's junk is another's treasure. It's probably related to availability, if you have a broken boat and need a part then the closest part is the best. Then there are the car people! I don't know enough to comment. You have never seen stuff until you meet some "horse people", they have more tack, ribbons and stuff than most. I'm the computer person. The nice thing about computers is they don't eat, and need veterinarians. This weekend is a general community cleanup and I'm keeping my eyes open for any neat computer stuff. Last year I got an HP 7550 pen plotter >from the dumpster. Of course I will have to negotiate with my wife. Mike

20 years, 8 months

Sparc 10 PSU connector pinout anyone?

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Looks like the Ultra doesn't need any more attention to convince me it's working, so I just tried the Sparc 10. The fans spin, and I'm getting good +5 and +12V on the hard disk power connector, but no power LED and no console activity. I notice that (apart from the pin nearest the PSU, which is at +5V), all the other pins along the frontmost row of the PSU connector register no voltage, which *could* be a problem. Anyone have the proper pinout handy? (At least this machine's on topic :-) cheers Jules

20 years, 8 months

Large (?) DEC 2000/x cache in Boston

by fdebros＠verizon.net

Folks, I have the spring cleaning derwish on my back: I have about 8 decstation 2000/x most of them loaded with ram! plus monitors plus cables, kbds, tapes, cdroms and networking and of course expansion boxen to get rid of plus 3 vlc4000 and manuals galore plus an infoserver vax and a vs3100...i think. These are located in downtown Boston. All would fit in a Suburban, just about. better in a van. the only rule: no cherry picking. Any interest now that the MIT swap is back on? Fred 617 723 5768 eves fcfs

20 years, 8 months

Front panel controller

by GOOI＠oce.nl

Alright, I am awake. Several of you are heading to bed ... I will give a short description of my project, then you can decide for yourself which way you want to go. Warning! Sort of longish reply ahead! My design consist of 2 boards, one is called "Core", the other "I/O". Both boards are almost Eurocard size. Power supply: only +5 Volts. Features of the Core board. --------------------------- Chips: 6809, 6821, 6850, 6264, 27128 and 27256, in words: the CPU is the 6809 which is a 8/16 bit quite powerful CPU which has good high-level language support (think of C), and you can read more abt the 6809 in an other recent thread. The 27128 is 16k EPROM at memory C000-FFFF, of which half is filled with a debug monitor and software to control the I/O board. The 27256 is 32k -optional- EPROM at 4000- BFFF. The 6264 is 8k RAM at 2000-3FFF. The 6821 (2x8bit I/O) forms the buffered interface to the I/O board(s). Last, the 6850 is the ACIA, which makes the serial (9600 Bd) connection to *any* host computer. On board level conversion makes it a true RS-232 port. The ACIA and the PIA are mapped in $0080-$00FF, that is legacy from the design around the 6802 (RealConsole Mk I). The serial port can be connected to a terminal (e.g. VT220) and you use the monitor to debug your own (assembler) programs. Or you connect the serial port to a PC, SUN workstation or whatever and control the "thing" via the serial port. My application for it is to control the I/O that drives LEDs and read switches from a home-brew console. I have made some patches in SIMH, and I can *boot* RT11 via my console as if were the real thing. See www.pdp-11.nl , click in the left menu on "homebrew PDP-11". On the opening page click in the top section on "SIMH software", "new design" and "action!" for more ... Features of the I/O board. -------------------------- The I/O board has 3 LS138 (1 to 8 decode chips) and octal latches (373 and 374). One I/O board can have up to *eight* 8-bit output ports and *eight* 8-bit input ports, thus there is on one I/O board 64 outputs and 64 input available, enough to drive a full PDP-11/70 console. The I/O board is connected to the Core board with a simple 20-wire flat cable. If what you want to control is bigger, or perhaps totally different, you can cascade (theoretically) up to 8 I/O boards by just running that flatcable from I/O board to I/O board. A single jumper on the I/O board settles the addressing issues. The practical limit of I/O boards is six (due to fan-out load issues), but if you insist and go outside specifications I guess you could get away with 7 I/O boards. Applications for the Core and I/O board. - First, the mentioned console, but *NOT* limited to PDP-xx/xx consoles! Think of the IBM S3; not a small one, but it can be connected. The console can be home made, but if you have a *real* console laying around, that can be connected too! (I'd prefer a real console to go with a real machine tough ...) - Why limit to "blinkenlights" consoles? You can just as easy connect it to the more modern console like the 11/34 or 11/60 ! The control of the 7-segment displays is of course in software not with hex to 7 segment decoder chips! - Use some I/O to make a parallel I/O port (if you need it). I am not sure if the speed will be sufficient to connect an IDE drive (in PIO mode 1), but that is something I intend to try ... - Whatever project to wanted to do! There is enough I/O capability ... The monitor software is described on the site mentioned. If you know the Motorola Mikbug monitor, this will look familiar. The RealConsole software controls the I/O ports. The input ports are read periodically in an interrupt service routine. The *debounced* data >from the switches is stored in memory locations, so your application can read the switches from those memory locations. Several "hooks" (in fact small subroutines) allow you to control any bit of any output port. There are a few 'special' routines to handle the issues involved with momentary push-buttons, toggles. A depressed toggle and then released would mean that in memory that specific bit would be set for a brief moment and then be reset. To solve that issue, you can specify via a hook on which input port(*s*), which bit(*s*) are connected to toggles. Those bits are processed differently. Once set (by pressing the toggle) that bit remains set until you command (an other hook) to return to zero. So, you can process each toggle when you want, and when that is actually done you reset the "toggle". Some "higher" level commands are e.g. "Axxxxx" where the "x" is a hex number. This command will put xxxxx on the Address LEDs. Likewise, there is a "Dxxxx" command. You figure out what it does :-) Project status -------------- The project was ready to go manufacture the lay-out PCB set prototype tpo build it and check if it does not contain errors. This week I am working on the "upgrade" from the 6802 to the 6809 CPU, because of its better availability. Performance improvement etc. are a nice side effect of this move. When the prototype is checked (within one month), the board sets are "mass produced" in the US. Silkscreened, solder mask, etc. - professional quality. To keep those costs low, it takes 5 weeks to get them made. (could be done in a few days, but don't ask what the compay charges!) You can order the board set (or more I/O Boards than Core boards) either bare, or together with the "difficult" chips, or as a complete kit that contains all components. I am not going to make much profit on it, but when more people join the bigger discount we can get on the parts! For those who rather not solder the boards, I am prepared to do that work and test them (for a fee though). I will write a "manual" that described the software, give a step-by-step DYI building the boards (with fotographs), connection diagrams, multiple I/O Board configuration plus the fan-out load calculations. >From my site you can download the software source code and the changes made to the current version of SIMH. Believe me, I am dedicated to this project! As Vince said, he did the PCB design and solved the routing issues. We try to buy the parts as cheap as possible, so those will probably be bought in the US and not where I Live - The Netherlands. We are working on how to ship it all. It is a little stupid to ship many parts from US to Holland, assemble the kits, anmd the send back some 70% of it all to the US again ... If you have any questions regarding this project, ask! I will try to give an answer as good as I can, as soon as I can. I will help thinking about your specific application. For example, one guy asked for the possibility to connect an 8-bit input port directly to an 8-bit output port and use the combination as a bi-directional 8-bit port. The final idea was building a setup to test M-boards! (BTW, the answer is yes with a minor patch!) kind regards, - Henk, PA8PDP gooi(a)oce.nl

20 years, 8 months

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test-drb May 2004