From: Bill Pechter <pechter at gmail.com>
> I wish I had the sources for it and Pyramid's OS/x...
We had a Pyramid 90x when I was at GaTech. Really nifty box, but exceptionally obscure now. Sorta like our Kendall Square Reasearch machine (KSR/1).
>
>Subject: Re: BASIC's question mark and PRINT
> From: Jim Battle <frustum at pacbell.net>
> Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 13:03:31 -0600
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>tim lindner wrote:
>> In BASIC, where did the short cut of '?' for PRINT originate?
>>
>> After following a discussion on the CoCo list I thought I'd ask here.
>>
>
>Here are some bounds and data points.
>
>The Dartmouth BASIC specification does not have ? as an abbrevation (circa 1964).
>
>I think all versions of Microsoft BASIC have this shortcut (circa 1975).
>
>Palo Alto Tiny BASIC (li chen wang) didn't use this convention -- instead it
>used "P.".
>
>Wang BASIC (circa 1972) didn't use this convention.
>
> From what I can tell, DEC BASIC didn't use this abbreviation.
The ? was adopted by convention from the fact that early MS basic
(MITS BASIC) the ? was also the same value as the token for print.
Most of the non-compiled 8bit basics were tokenized in memory for
execution and storage and when "LIST"ed were detokenized to list as
Basic we know.
Allison
>>In a message dated 11/23/2005 7:15:58 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>>tponsford at theriver.com writes:
>>I just rescued a complete IBM RT PC. It includes all the documentation.
>>AIX 2.x software, extra keyboards, extra cards, extra HDD;s and extra
>>tape drives. It also has an extra ESDI hard drive labeled Reno 4.3.
>>Was there a port of 4.x BSD to the ROMP processor? I thought that it was
>>tried but not completed.
>>There is also a backup tape labeled AOS?
>>The whole system looks like its in pretty good condition. And maybe
>>after consuming mass quantities of turkey tomorrow, I'll see if it boots
up.
>>Cheers
>>Tom
Sounds like mine. Mine also has AIX 2.2.1 on it. I have some RT diagnostic
disks that might be copyable if anyone needs them. I think I have what's known
as a megapel card but I dont have a free slot to put it in or a display to
connect it to.
> I've just come across my first OS9 system, and know absolutely
> nothing about
> OS9 other than that it's vaguely UNIX-like. Before I try hooking
> the hard disk
> up and seeing if it actually works, obvious questions follow:
>
> 1) I assume there's a login process. Of course I don't know any
> account
> details for the system; are there any tricks to breaking in as
> there often are
> with old UNIX systems?
The stock "login" utility provided by Microware was very, very basic
(not even encrypted passwords; it was designed just as a front end
for selecting user IDs for the super user). An example /dd/sys/
password file would have "super" for the user name, and "user" for
the password. You could even type them both at the login prompt:
Login? super user
But no one should have ever shipped a system with that in place ;-)
> 2) Assuming I can't log in at this stage, is it possible to cleanly
> shut the
> system down? e.g. some magic keypress or login name (as there is
> with Apollo
> machines)
Power off at will! OS-9 was designed for embedded use and except for
potential disk caching issues if you powered down during a write,
there is no "shutdown" sequence for OS-9.
> 3) If I can login somehow, how do I then shut the system down
> properly? Is
> there a shutdown command in OS9, or is it something else entirely?
Not needed :-) Just make sure nothing is writing to the disk.
> On the plus side, the interface between host and disk unit is SASI,
> so there's
> a chance I can do a raw backup of the drive via a modern system. On
> the minus
> side, the physical drive is an ST506 type via an OMTI bridge board,
> so I can't
> easily go from raw backup to working system without proper low-
> level format
> utils (which I don't have, although I'm still sorting through
> floppies that
> came in the same haul)
You can do a web search and find disk utilities for PC and maybe
Linux (and maybe Mac) that will read/write to an OS-9 disk image.
> Of course all of this assumes that a) the hard drive isn't toast
> already and
> b) that the hard drive which came in the pile of stuff actually
> belongs with
> this system in the first place :)
You can also find the OS-9 Technical I/O manual online at the CD-i
Association website (netsearch; I don't know the address) and it has
the disk structure in there. Worst case: disk zapper ;-)
-- Allen
http://os9al.com
I'd posted here a while ago looking for info on a Tally 420PR tape
punch and have built a driver board to interface it to a PDP-8A.
But there is a problem with consistent punching/feeding (the
result is often a longitudinal tear instead of holes) even with
the pulse widths set to the recommended 4.5 ms +- 0.5 ms, -24
volts, and the feed mechanism intermittently binds up too.
Currently I'm running it with only the sprocket and feed drivers
hooked up, and simulated punch commands from a 555 timer, so the
result should be continuously feeding tape with just sprocket
holes punched in it.
I suspect the problem is that the feed pulse starts immediately on
the falling edge of the punch pulse, so the pin hasn't cleared the
tape as the feed mechanism starts to move. It also tends to stick
in that position with the tape not moving (you can hear the
solenoids buzzing but the feed sprocket is not moving until
tweaked backwards a few degrees by hand). According to the
schematic, the escapement solenoid (which allows the tape to feed
one row per pulse) is supposed to be actuated internally by
contacts on the feed solenoid so there shouldn't be a timing issue
there.
Does anyone have more info on this punch model, or experience with
these asynchronous mechanisms in general? Is there a requirement
for a delay between punching the holes and pulsing the feed
solenoid? How long does it take for the pins to move up or down
after drive is applied/removed?
thanks
Charles
On Nov 23 2005, 13:18, Julian Wolfe wrote:
> Interesting, I was never aware that the 11/03 and 23 had different
boxen
> than the 11/23plus, though I knew the power supplies were different.
> Speaking to my local DEC salvage dealer, he told me he used to get
whole
> 11/780s just for the power supplies in the front end 11/03s.
However,
> judging from the number of 23plus systems that were sold (and have
recently
> hit, if not flooded, the used market)I'd say it should be fairly easy
to
> find a cheap H7861 supply.
Probably, and as Allison pointed out, if there's a lot of damage a
replacement may, for once, be better than attempting a repair. BTW, if
you've not already found it, my web page (actually it's a flat-ASCII
text file) describing the different QBus boxes and backplanes and such
may be of interest to you:
http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/PDP-11/QBus_chassis
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
I've done some calling around looking for an NSC800x-4 CPU chip (4 MHz
National Z80-type) and am coming up zeroes.
Does anyone have one that they'd be willing to part with? Either DIP or
PLCC is fine.
Thanks,
Chuck
>
>Subject: RE: Mouse Pissed! Need power supply help
> From: "Julian Wolfe" <fireflyst at earthlink.net>
> Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 13:18:02 -0600
> To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>Interesting, I was never aware that the 11/03 and 23 had different boxen
>than the 11/23plus, though I knew the power supplies were different.
>Speaking to my local DEC salvage dealer, he told me he used to get whole
>11/780s just for the power supplies in the front end 11/03s. However,
>judging from the number of 23plus systems that were sold (and have recently
>hit, if not flooded, the used market)I'd say it should be fairly easy to
>find a cheap H7861 supply.
There were four major boxes used, and a few oddballs as well.
The majors were:
BA11-m with the H780 on the side. smaller cage.
BA11-N H786 in the front
BA11-S H7861 in the front
A good PC power supply will do the DC needs of a modest system
but the signals BDCok, BPok, Bhalt, Bevent (ltc), Srun need
to be created.
Allison
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org]
>> On Behalf Of Pete Turnbull
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 11:52 AM
>> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>> Subject: Re: Mouse Pissed! Need power supply help
>>
>> On Nov 23 2005, 10:51, Charles wrote:
>> > I've found the reason why my PDP-11 power supply (H7861) is not
>> > putting out POK and DCOK signals.
>> [ ... ]
>> > Unfortunately the H780 schematic does not match closely (they use
>> > 74123's while this one uses 555's, for example) so it'll be hard
>> > to figure out the missing or unreadable parts anyway!
>>
>> The H7861 is a reworked version of the H786 design, which is fairly
>> different from the H780. The H786 is used in the BA11-N box commonly
>> used for PDP-11/03 and 11/23 systems, and the H7861 is used in the
>> BA11-S box commonly used for 11/23plus and 11/73S systems, so you
>> should be able to find the schemeatics amongst the BA11-{N,S} drawings.
>>
>> --
>> Pete Peter Turnbull
>> Network Manager
>> University of York
>
On Nov 23 2005, 10:51, Charles wrote:
> I've found the reason why my PDP-11 power supply (H7861) is not
> putting out POK and DCOK signals.
[ ... ]
> Unfortunately the H780 schematic does not match closely (they use
> 74123's while this one uses 555's, for example) so it'll be hard
> to figure out the missing or unreadable parts anyway!
The H7861 is a reworked version of the H786 design, which is fairly
different from the H780. The H786 is used in the BA11-N box commonly
used for PDP-11/03 and 11/23 systems, and the H7861 is used in the
BA11-S box commonly used for 11/23plus and 11/73S systems, so you
should be able to find the schemeatics amongst the BA11-{N,S} drawings.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
