test-drb June 2004

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

281 participants
616 discussions

What's the weirdest thing that you've ever found inside a computer?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

I went scrounging a few days ago and opened up a junction box and found a set of wire leads with the mini-grabbers and a plastic wire frame from a HP logic analyzer that someone had left inside. Wahoo! These always come in handy! I've previously found screwdrivers, knives, various plugs, connectors and gender menders. But I got to wondering what is the strangest thing that anyone has ever found inside a computer or similar piece of electronics gear. Joe

20 years, 6 months

Macs: Billions and Billions sold.

by cb＠mythtech.net

>This is a >perfectly useful machine - has 192 mb RAM - I figure I'll install OS 10.3.4 >on it and use it to write and to cruise the web. OS X will perform like poop with only 192 MB of ram. Doable, but you will be MUCH MUCH happier going beyond 256 MB. The catch with the Rev A boards is, they don't "officially" support 256 MB SO-DIMS. 128's are the largest they are supposed to handle. However, as long as you get 8x64 chips (as opposed to the newer 8x32), they seem to work fine. Also, watch out when you buy RAM, anything that goes in the lower RAM slot must be Low Profile SO-DIMMs. Larger ones won't fit. And also, some of the ram slots have metal retaining clips, those have been known to touch the pins on the ram chips keeping them from being seen. If you have one with metal clips, just tape off the edge of the ram chip to keep the clips from shorting them. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

20 years, 6 months

for sale etiquette?

by d_cymbal＠hotmail.com

What is the view of folks posting items for sale on the list? I've posted forsale items to the list before, but recently I've been putting more free items and some auctions up on VCM so I am hesitant to re-post them here and turn this into a SPAM fest. Then again, I'd like to get as wide an audience as possible. Do most readers of the list also frequent VCM (my guess is a definite maybe)? What if VCM posted a summary of all new items received for sale/auction at the end of each day? That would only add 1 msg to the list that people could quickly kill if they weren't interested but would insure available stuff was getting as wide an audience as possible for those people that don't frequent VCM regularly. Just a thought. _________________________________________________________________ Learn to simplify your finances and your life in Streamline Your Life from MSN Money. http://special.msn.com/money/0405streamline.armx

20 years, 6 months

Expando-RAM Information Needed

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

I need a manual for an "Expando-RAM" 64k S-100 memory card (sold by S.D. Sales). There were several variants of this card, the one that I have is Revision E, it has two DIP switches at the top, the one at "U1" is 4 position, the one at U2 is 8 position (many of these have a smaller DIP switch at U2). Also, there are various jumpers all over the board, a dozen or more. Thanks for any help that you can provide, Barry Watzman Watzman(a)neo.rr.com

20 years, 6 months

OSI

by earlj＠qix.net

Hello Dave, Did you ever find a home for your OSI machine? I have a lot of OSI literature to give away. Earl Morris

20 years, 6 months

Datapoint 2200 going cheap on Ebay

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

This machine figures prominently in the history of the 8008 microprocessor, though it in fact uses a TTL implementation of that architecture. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5100920655 --Bill

20 years, 6 months

Qbus hard disk controller

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 13, 23:04, der Mouse wrote: >On Jun 13, 21:27, Jerome H. Fine wrote: > > Here is the MSCP boot code from the System Release Notes of V05.00 > > page 4-9 in Chapter 4: [...] > > > If really interested, we can provide the equivalent instructions in > > MACRO-11. > > 076000: clr r0 [005000] [ ... ] > 076152: mov @100000(r2),r4 [017204 100000] Thanks for that, both. I actually have the reconstruction of the MACRO code: ;This is the MSCP bootstrap as listed in the RT-11 5.6 INS manual ... ; along with its disassembly (by hand!). Additional comments and ; attempts to make "nicer" assembly by ; Bob Schor bschor(a)vms.cis.pitt.edu (412) 647-2116 (w) ; ;Missing word (at 76102) and most of the explanation supplied by ; Jim Crapuchettes jimc(a)netcom.com 408-732-0569 ; .asect . = 42 .word 1000 ;-; Set stack pointer for RT-11 - don't "toggle" in . = 76000 ; The contents of R0 must be the MSCP unit number. Although it is set to 0 ; below, it could be manually set to some other value and then execution ; started at 76002. start: clr r0 ;76000/5000 ;; Preset register to 0 (unit) mov #172150, r1 ;76002/12701 ;; Point to IP register ;76004/172150 1$: mov #itabl, r4 ;76006/12704 ;; Point to init/cmd params ;76010/76156 mov #4000, r5 ;76012/12705 ;; Set init step to 1 ;76014/4000 ; Do 4-step controller initialization. Begin by writing any value to IP to ; reset the controller; all the rest of initialization is done through SA. mov r1, r2 ;76016/10102 ;; Copy IP address, write to mov r0, (r2)+ ;76020/10022 ;; IP to init & bump to SA 2$: tst (r2) ;76022/5712 ;; Test for error bit in SA bmi 1$ ;76024/100770 ;; Error = start init again bit (r2), r5 ;76026/31205 ;; Test step bit in SA br 3$ ;76030/401 ;; ????, appears to skip next bic (r1)+, (r5)+ ;76032/42125 ;; ????, seems to be skipped 3$: beq 2$ ;76034/1772 ;; Wait for next step ready mov -(r4),(r2) ;76036/14412 ;; Next init param to SA asl r5 ;76040/6305 ;; Move to next init step bpl 2$ ;76042/100367 ;; Loop thru 4 steps ; Bring unit on-line, read bootstrap (block 0) from the disk and start it up. 4$: tstb -(r4) ;76044/105744 ;; Point to next cmd byte bne 5$ ;76046/1002 ;; Loop thru commands mov pc, r4 ;76050/10704 ;; Point r4 to "clr pc" and clr pc ;76052/5007 ;; go start at location 0 5$: clr r2 ;76054/5002 ;; Init for clearing memory 6$: clr (r2)+ ;76056/5022 ;; Clear memory from loc 0 cmp r2, #17204 ;76060/20227 ;; thru loc 17202 ;76062/17204 blo 6$ ;76064/103774 ;; Loop until done incb @#17101 ;76066/105237 ;; Packet length = 400 bytes ;76070/17101 mov r0, @#17110 ;76072/10037 ;; Set unit number = 0 ;76074/17110 movb (r4), @#17114 ;76076/111437 ;; Move command to cmd pkt ;76100/17114 movb -(r4), @#17121 ;76102/114437 ;; Set parameter from table ;76104/17121 mov #17004, (r2)+ ;76106/12722 ;; Set response packet de- ;76110/17004 ;; scriptor: low 16 address mov r5, (r2)+ ;76112/10522 ;; bits & PortOwn bit mov #17104, (r2)+ ;76114/12722 ;; Set command packet de- ;76116/17104 ;; scriptor: low 16 address mov r5, (r2) ;76120/10512 ;; bits & PortOwn bit cmp -(r2),-(r2) ;76122/24242 ;; Point back to resp desc tst (r1) ;76124/5711 ;; Poll controller to start 7$: tst (r2) ;76126/5712 ;; Wait for resp desc PO bit bmi 7$ ;76130/100776 ;; => 0 == response received tst @#17016 ;76132/5737 ;; Status byte = success (0)? ;76134/17016 beq 4$ ;76136/1742 ;; Yes, go to next command stop: halt ;76140/0 ;; No, stop here... ; NOTE: This table MUST be - immediately preceeded by a zero byte (the HALT ; instruction) because it is the "end-of-table" marker; and immediately ; precede the Initialization Step Parameter table since a single register ; points first to the IStep Params (1 word each) and then to the commands ; (1 byte for the command, 1 byte for the parameter), passing through them ; in reverse. .byte 2 ;; Set byte count to 1000 for OP.RD .byte 41 ;; OP.RD = ReaD .byte 0 ;; 0 parameter for OP.ONL .byte 11 ;; OP.ONL = ON Line ;; .word 20402 ;76142/20402 ;; .word 4400 ;76144/4400 .word 1 ;76146/1 ;; IS4: GO bit .word 0 ;76150/0 ;; IS3: Ring base high address .word 17204 ;76152/17204 ;; IS2: Ring base low address .word 100000 ;76154/100000 ;; IS1: bits- ;; [15] = 1, [14] (WR) = 0, [13:11] (cmd ring ;; size) = 0, [10:8] (resp ring size) = 0, [7] ;; (IE) = 0, [6:0] (int vect/4) = 0 :: command ;; and response rings = 1 element, no inter- ;; rupts and no interrupt vector. itabl =: . ;need pointer to end of table ;76000g to start ODT .end stop ;For RT-11 only, don't "toggle" in IIRC, the wierdness at 076026 is because the original RT11 code was broken. Around 5.3 it got patched to work with the RQDX3 (which sometimes sets more than one bit in the SA). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

20 years, 6 months

[SPAM] - Re: Qbus hard disk controller - Found word(s) error XXX in the Text body.

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 10, 20:38, SHAUN RIPLEY wrote: > > --- "Jerome H. Fine" <jhfinexgs2(a)compsys.to> wrote: > > ... > > > > Note that none of the RQDXn have any BOOT ROMS, > > which > > is standard for a DEC controller as opposed to 3rd > > party controllers > > which usually have BOOT ROMS. And even the RQDX3 > > I have a question about BOOT ROMS. Does a MSCP > compatible disk controller need a boot rom to boot > from a HD connected to it? I am ingorant about this > issue. Yes, it does. For Q-Bus machines, the processor card (if it's a quad-height, ie KDF11B or KDJ11B) should have boot ROMs that can handle MSCP, though the older ones might not behave well with bigger/later drives. The MXV11B-2 boot ROMs can do it, and they also fit the MRV11D. DEC boot ROMs may not always work with third-party MSCP controllers, but such 3P controllers often have their own boot ROMs. You could enter an MSCP boot via ODT, but it's VERY long! -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

20 years, 6 months

OSI

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 6/11/2004 11:33:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time, earlj(a)qix.net writes: Did you ever find a home for your OSI machine? I have a lot of OSI literature to give away. I loaned one out to a mutual collector. what kind of documents do you have? Any OSI stuff sounds interesting. -- I am not willing to give up my liberties for the appearance of 'security'

20 years, 6 months

Macs: Billions and Billions sold.

by sml49＠comcast.net

On 6/10 Chris wrote: > >> None of the goodwill/salvation army stores near my home in NE Massachusetts >> will even accept computers of any kind for donations. That really annoys >> me, both from a donatig and a collecting perspective. > > The one near me had the same policy. They would refuse them, and if they > were left when the place was closed, they would chuck the CPU in the > dumpster and sell whatever parts and software was left. I happened to be cruising past the recycling area at my town disposal area Saturday and scored a tangerine-colored iMac someone had put out, keyboard, mouse and all. Apparently it had been slightly bastardized at some point - it has a 233 mhz G3 Rev A motherboard swapped in instead of the 266 rev B it should have, also no hard drive but otherwise fine; booted from an OS 9 CD without a hitch. I wondered when I'd start to see machines of this vintage (early 1999) being chucked - now I have my answer. I'll leave it at a place where I do a little consulting once I install a drive and it'll save me dragging my heavy old 1997-vintage PowerBook back and forth. This is a perfectly useful machine - has 192 mb RAM - I figure I'll install OS 10.3.4 on it and use it to write and to cruise the web. Hardly a scratch on the case, too. A bargain even after buying it an 80 gig drive and a 3-button mouse.

20 years, 6 months

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test-drb June 2004