VCF Gazette
Volume 2, Issue 3
A Newsletter for the Vintage Computer Festival
July 4, 2004
We're busier than we've ever been here at the VCF, so this newsletter
will be short...
Vintage Computer Festival East 2.0
Vintage Computer Festival Europa 5.0 Wrap-Up
VCF Creates PDP-1 Replica for National Science Museum of Japan
Latest Additions to the VCF Archives
Vintage Computer Festival East 2.0
----------------------------------
The second Vintage Computer Festival East takes place on Friday, July
16th and Saturday, July 17th, at Burlington, Massachusetts, campus of
Sun Microsystems.
We are honored to have Sun Microsystems as the sponsor for VCF East!
We've got an excellent line up of speakers and exhibits this time
around, with nearly twice the number of exhibits of VCF East 1.0.
Please note that attendees of VCF East 2.0 must register in advance.
You may register here:
http://www.vintage.org/2004/east/register.php
For out of town guests, the VCF has arranged a hotel room block at a
nearby Marriott (within walking distance to Sun's campus). Full
details are available here:
http://www.vintage.org/2004/east/lodging.php
The VCF speaker schedule is as follows:
Friday, July 16
Time Topic Speaker
------- ------------------------------------- -------------------
10:00am Atari 7800 25th Anniversary C. Vendel/S. Golson
11:00am VCF Ramblings Sellam Ismail
12:00pm Preserving Computing's Past... Bob Supnik
1:00pm A Retrospective of Storage Technology Sun Microsystems
Saturday, July 17
Time Topic Speaker
------- ------------------------------------- ------------------
10:00am A Personal History of Computing Art Hill
11:00am Resurrecting an IBM 360/30 Lawrence Wilkinson
12:00pm PDAs 1973-1992 Evan Koblentz
1:00pm Personal Computing in the early 1970s Jon Titus
More information on the VCF East 2.0 speakers can be found here:
http://www.vintage.org/2004/east/speaker.php
Buy, Sell and Trade at the VCF Marketplace
As always, one of the most exciting aspects of the VCF is the
Marketplace, where you can find a large and varied assortment of some
of the most fantastical old computer thingies anywhere. Find that odd
part you've been seeking out for your collection, then touch, smell,
even taste it if you like, before haggling out a deal. There is
simply no better place to buy and sell vintage computers than at the
VCF Marketplace. Vendor booths are still available. For more
information on selling at VCF East 2.0, please visit:
http://www.vintage.org/2004/east/vendor.php
Complete information about VCF East 2.0, including the speaker
schedule and exhibit roster, as well as lodging information and
driving directions, can be found on the VCF East 2.0 web pages:
http://www.vintage.org/2004/east/
Vintage Computer Festival Europa 5.0 Wrap-Up
--------------------------------------------
VCF Europa 5.0 was a smashing success! We had over 300 attendees and
close to 40 exhibitors. Hans Franke served up another fine glass of
VCF, German style.
We'd hoped to have a photo gallery of VCF Europa ready by the time of
this publishing but the last two months have been rather hectic for
us here at VCF central. Read on below to find out why.
In the meantime, the dates for VCF Europa 6.0 has already been set:
April 30 through May 1, 2005. And of course, the location will be
Muenchen (Munich), Germany, though the venue may change from its
traditional location to a larger facility.
We've added another European event to the VCF line-up: VCF Italia 1.0
will be inaugurated this September 4-5. More information will be
posted shortly to the VCF website.
We'll post our VCF Europa 5.0 photo gallery by the end of July, so
stay tuned for that.
VCF Creates PDP-1 Replica for National Science Museum of Japan
--------------------------------------------------------------
The reason we've been so busy of late is because Sellam Ismail, the
main guy behind the VCF, has been busy finishing up a replica of a
PDP-1 that was commissioned for the National Science Museum of Japan.
The NSM needed a PDP-1 for an upcoming exhibit they are unveiling on
Saturday, July 16. They contacted the Computer History Museum, but
they had none to loan out, so they were forwarded to the VCF since we
have experience building quality replicas of vintage computers. The
NSM wanted a functional replica, and so the VCF delivered.
We fabricated a near exact replica of a PDP-1 CPU cabinet and CRT
desk console. It features a functional front panel and a working CRT
playing Spacewar!
http://www.vintage.org/gallery.php?grouptag=PDP1REPLICA
On the inside we have a PC running Linux with Bob Supnik's PDP-1 SIMH
simulator providing the machine emulation and Phil Budne's graphics
display extensions to allow for Spacewar! to play.
The front panel is implemented with a custom-designed front panel
controller (FPC) designed by Andre' LaMothe of Nurve Networks[1]. The
FPC has 128 outputs (lights) and 64 inputs (switches) and connects to
the PC's parallel port. Code was added to SIMH which sends the
internal PDP-1 CPU machine registers (address bus, program counter,
accumulator, etc.) to the FPC, which then populates the appropriate
lamps on the front panel. The switch values are read by additional
code which then populates internal data structures within SIMH to
allow for user input from the front panel switches.
The replica PDP-1 was crated and sent off to Tokyo on Friday, July 2.
It'll go on display for three months beginning on July 16 at the
National Science Museum in Tokyo. The website of the National Science
Museum of Japan is here:
http://www.kahaku.go.jp/english/
Want your own PDP-1 replica? The VCF will be making available for
sale the Front Panel Controller and PDP-1 front panels. Heck, we'll
even make you a complete replica. Please send inquiries to Sellam
Ismail <sellam(a)vintage.org>.
Latest Additions to the VCF Archives
------------------------------------
This edition of the Latest Additions has a moral at the end, so pay
attention.
A couple weeks ago I was searching around in thrift stores in my local
area for some classic Atari joysticks for a friend's project[1]. At
one store I happened upon a nondescript electronic desk calculator.
However, there was something subtle about it that caught my attention.
I gave it a closer look: it was a Unicom 141P calculator. The label
on the back indicated it was made in Japan. It was definitely a 1970s
vintage. "Unicom" sounded familiar to me. I was trying to remember
the name of the calculator company for which Intel initially designed
the 4004 microprocessor (Busicom) but was drawing a blank. At any
rate, the calculator had a $5 sticker on it, so I figured it was worth
buying so I could research it later, and worst case I would have a
nice 1970s desktop calculator to add to the collection.
Well, imagine my surprise when I opened it up and found a 4004 inside
along with all the Intel 4000 series support chips! Rick Bensene, one
of the most prolific calculator collectors out there, provided me with
this information:
"Unicom was a company that was started up as a spinoff of IC maker
American Microsystems (AMI). There's little out there about the
history of the company in its early days, but it's possible that
Unicom initially started out simply OEMing machines from Busicom,
until they had developed their own chips. Busicom for a time had an
exclusive on the 4004 as the result of their joint effort with Intel
to develop a reconfigurable general purpose calculator chipset, which
ended up morphing into a microprocessor.
"I do know that Busicom did OEM their machines to a number of
different marketers of early electronic calculators, and perhaps
Unicom was one of them. Busicom's machine with the 4004 was the 141PF
(they weren't shy about recycling model numbers, as the 141 was a
lower-cost version of Busicom's first machine, the 162, which was
indeed a discrete transistor machine). The 141PF was a printing only
machine. Looking at patent information, the architecture of the
design was such that it could be adapted (part of the whole idea that
spurred the development of the 4004 in the first place) to use a
display rather than a printer.
"So, my guess (and it's just that at this point) is that the machine
you have is an adaptation of the original 141PF design, done either by
Busicom either on their own, or under contract to Unicom, which was
sold under the Unicom brand name in North America. Later, AMI sold
off the Unicom division to Rockwell, and for a while, Rockwell sold
handheld calculators under this brand, then abandoned the Unicom brand
and sold their machines (using their own chips) under the Rockwell
brand, as well as through other OEMs."
So the moral of the story is, don't judge a gift horse by its mouth :)
Many 1970s era calculators have early microprocessors, so even if you
don't find one with a 4004, it may end up containing an interesting
microprocessor contemporaneous with the 4004, or even an interesting
discrete design. But please don't go trashing old calculators just to
rip the microprocessors out of them.
For more great information on old calculators, visit what I consider
to be the best calculator information site on the web, Rick Bensene's
Old Calculator Web Museum:
http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/
[1] Check out Andre' LaMothe's upcoming XGameStation:
http://www.xgamestation.com
That wraps it up for this issue of the VCF Gazette! Until next time...
Best regards,
Sellam Ismail
Producer
Vintage Computer Festival
http://www.vintage.org/
The Vintage Computer Festival is a celebration of computers and their
history. The VCF Gazette goes out to anyone who subscribed to the VCF
mailing list, and is intended to keep those interested in the VCF
informed of the latest VCF events and happenings. The VCF Gazette is
guaranteed to be published in a somewhat irregular manner, though we
will try to maintain a quarterly schedule.
If you would like to be removed from the VCF mailing list, and
therefore not receive any more issues of the VCF Gazette, visit the
following web page:
http://www.vintage.org/remove.php
HAHA ;)
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
Hi Tony,
Some 20 years ago I have had to job with the WAND and
created lot of Barcode-Stickers for the Spareparts in
our company. Now I got again the Job to filter those
parts (Usable-Non usable), but somehow someone must have
trown away the software for the Wand.
At my search in the Nert I found your remarks regarding
some application for an HX-20 (long time ago, study's)
Question: Do you still pocess those software and are
you willing/able to share it with me?
Regards from Germany
Jens
--
"Sie haben neue Mails!" - Die GMX Toolbar informiert Sie beim Surfen!
Jetzt aktivieren unter http://www.gmx.net/info
Dan Kolb <dankolb(a)ox.compsoc.net> wrote:
> I decided to power on my MicroVAX 3800, after it's been idling for a couple of
> years (unfortunately due to lack of time on my part), only to find that it's
> not booting properly. The LED display on the cover/patch panel sits saying 'F'
> (apparently "Waiting for CDOK"); nothing else happens. Anyone got any ideas as
> to what may be wrong, or if it's fixable?
First of all, it's DCOK, not "CDOK". Second, the problem may not be in
the CPU board, it may be the PSU. E.g., it's out of tolerance and does
not assert the DCOK signal. Follow Tony's advice: check the PSU voltages
and the state of the DCOK signal before randomly swapping parts (and
certainly before rushing out to eBay to buy a new KA655 board).
MS
Hello Joe & All,
> Message: 6
> Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 10:00:01 -0400
> From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com>
> Subject: HP Omnibook 430
> To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
>
> I picked up one of these from a surplus store yesterday. Unfortunately
> soembody removed the system card that contains the special version of
> Windows and some other software from it. Does anyone have an xtra system
> card or the external floppy drive for one of these?
>
> Joe
I have one, but not an extra..:). External floppies are very rare, but
you can better use CF cards to transfer files.
Here you can find everything about omnibooks:
http://24.237.160.4/files/omnibook/
And there is an omnibook mailing list archive somewhere...try
googling on it.
Long time ago there was a thread about dumping the original HP card and
copying it to cf to substitute the missing original..never tryed and
no more memories on this...
--
Best regards,
Denever mailto:denever1@freemail.hu
> If I had to do such a "deliberate trip" today, I'd probably do
> something like plug in an iron and a hair dryer - high-draw devices
> that together exceed the breaker's trip point, but not as drastically
> so as a dead short.
The trouble with that is most non-electronic breakers need 100%
overcurrent to trip in <15 seconds, so it would take five 1500W
hair dryers to trip a 15A circuit.
This makes testing 100A three phase breakers interesting.
Lee.
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My favorite: (on-topic, but not computer-related)
Car starter motor is really weak, finally just won't turn
over. Lights dim and all when I turn the key. OK, $65 new battery.
Same symptom. Sigh. Well, battery was old anyway. Must be the
starter motor. $75 new starter motor, and some time under the hood.
Same symptom.
Drat! Now who knows what's broken? Start tracing power
wiring, to see what other boxes are in between....after a few minutes
of this, the positive lead from the battery *comes off in my hand*,
leaving the clamp still attached to the battery post.
Doh.
Put cable back into its little cable-side clamp, tighten down
the nuts, problem solved.
The *real* "Doh" is how I managed to change out the battery
and still not notice the loose cable!
----
Then there was the sticktiony hard drive I was trying to get
to spin up one last time by wobbling (about the spin axis) as it
tried to start up, and grabbed by some part that was live. Got maybe
a 12V shock on my finger, fried some part of the drive and that was
the end of that data.
----
Can I count grounding one of the print-head lines on an
inkjet printer with a multi-meter probe and blowing the fuse on the
power brick, or is that just SOP? Hate it when I do that.
--
- Mark
210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967
I did download the pdf before , but upon reading it, I noticed that the manual
was for the unibus version.
--
You downloaded the wrong manual
I double-checked, and SC0351002-J_SC03tech_Nov84.pdf is the Qbus version.
