test-drb November 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

255 participants
692 discussions

by vp＠cs.drexel.edu

A California bankruptcy court will sell Interex's membership database to the highest bidder to help satisfy creditor demands of the bankrupt user group, according to recently filed court papers. The Hewlett-Packard Co. user group claimed about 100,000 members before filing in August for bankruptcy. http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/… **vp

18 years, 7 months

OT: Lowest-power small server solutions( wandering farther )

by ken＠seefried.com

From: Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> > Bert Thomas wrote: >> McFadden, Mike, A wrote: > > > > ... from an engineering film. >> >> What is an engineering film? > > > It's the film leftover in a bathtub after you fill it with engineers and > then drain it. Funny...I thought it was what you skimmed off when you boiled a big pot full of engineers. At least...that's what the cajuns told me... <ObJustinWilson> HooooooWeeee...I gar-un-teeee! Ken

18 years, 7 months

TRS-80 Mod 16

by Alwrcker82＠wmconnect.com

Help needed on TRS-80 Mod 16. I am getting a TRS-80 Mod 16 but no keyboard > wonder if it will work till I find one for > the Mod 16. > Thanks for any help, Al DePermentier > >

18 years, 7 months

Circuit Diagram

by ploopster＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a decent, clear and bold softcopy circuit diagram of a three-phase rectifier suitable for a poster? Peace... Sridhar

18 years, 7 months

help - 11/34 console problem

by henk.gooijen＠oce.com

> This suggests it is correctly counting the digits you enter > (or shifting them into a register), but is not displaying > them correctly. And it is only updating the bottom 8 bits. Yes, I got that feeling too. That is why I am puzzled, because the 8008 'seems' to execute its program ... sort of. > Alas DEC didn't publish a source listing (or even a binary > dump) of the console firmware in the printset. This is going > to make troubleshooting a little harder, since you probably > don't know what it should be doing. It is clearly running a > program, and that program is reading the keyboard and > scanning the display. So it is somewhat correct. Well, in the Maintenance Manual of the KY11-LB that I have *is* the 8008 software, there is even a chapter that describes the 8008 instruction set (IIRC, I skipped that chapter). > What does it do if you press 4 repeatedly? Does it flash the > bottom 3 or bottom 2 digits? If it's only updating the bottom > 8 bits, you see, then only 2 digits will flash from 0. I will check that tonight! I remember that pressing the '7' key does not have any effect at all. No display flash, nothing. > > AFAIK, the entry of the digits, for example the numeric > > entry '165020' does *not* need the UNIBUS, but only sets up > > an internal register. The 'LAD' button, and 'DIS AD' will > > start a UNIBUS cycle (to access a memory location). Correct? > > I think so. Ok. I am working on a theory. My first step (already done) is to minimalize the system. It is now just the PSU (...) and the DD11-PK backplane. I removed the cache and FP11 option. The backplane now only holds the 2 CPU boards, and the M9312, M9302, the SLU and the KY11-LB. All other slots have in position C-D a G7273 grant-cont card. The symptoms are still the same, btw. The theory is as follows. If the KY11-LB does not do UNIBUS accesses when just the keypad is used, you could have the KY11-LB the *only* board in the backplane via an extender to make measurements to pins easy ... Going to the attick to get the printset from the big pile! Since I removed all boards, thus unplugged several flat cables, to clean the BA11K thoroughly, it might have developed a problem in the wiring. Perhaps the printset will give insight in this strange behaviour. > > BTW, the voltage on the CPU backplane (DD11-PK) is 5.08 V. and > > the +15 and -15 read +/-15.x V. (Can't remember the exact value). Come to think of it ... I did not check ACLO and DCLO. I will ahve to see if the KY11-LB uses them or not! > > I have an other 11/34 with an M7958, but never powered up that box. > > I took that M7859 and installed it in the 11/34C. The display stays > > dark. According to the M7859 doc, that basically means that > > the board is dead. So much for board swapping. Sorry, could not > resist to try an easy success. I don't have other spare M7859 ... > You may find the totally dead board easier to debug. At least > you can check for a clock at the 8008, and for activity on > the internal bus to the firmware ROM, etc. The KY11-LB manual says that this is the hardest to solve case :-) But then, that was for a field engineer ... I assume that the board was simply swapped and continue from there. I have put the 'dead' KY11-lB back in the box where it came from, but added a label to it saying "DEAD ??". For later ... :-) > -tony Thanks Tony. I will test the keypad response. Ah, I remember one more thing. Pressing the 'LSR' button does turn on the 'SR DISP' LED. One more thing that makes it like it is working, almost ... thanks, I will post updates! - Henk, PA8PDP This message and attachment(s) are intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient or agent thereof responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone and with a "reply" message. Thank you for your cooperation.

18 years, 7 months

HP 9133 (Matthews, Phil)

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

> Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 08:36:11 -0400 > From: "Matthews, Phil" <Phil_Matthews at DRSOptronics.com> > Subject: HP 9133 > To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: > <53CB7766CBAB9148BCB56ABC56F408CF051921D4 at california.drso.biz> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hi, > > I have been looking at your cctalk bulletin board and it > appears that Frank McConnell is someone who knows a lot about > old HP computers. I have been tasked to replace the HP 9133 > computer on some of our test equipment with new PC's. I was > hoping to contact somebody who might know if this is possible > and how to do it. So I was wondering if you knew how I could > contact Frank McConnell or somebody who might know. > > Sincerely > Phil Matthews > DRS Optronics Inc > Electrical Engineer > (321) 309-2124 > phil_matthews at drsoptronics.com A 9133 is a hard disk/floppy disk combo drive - there's no CPU. The CPU is in a separate box - probably something like a 9920, 9000/217, 9000/300, etc. Joe Rigdon is also a good bet for advice on this stuff.

18 years, 7 months

FPGA VAX update

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: FPGA VAX update > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 16:13:45 -0800 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >On 11/2/2005 at 6:31 PM Allison wrote: > >>Valves are harder due to power, heat and most importantly size. A few >>hundred >>miniature duo-triodes will fill several racks. > >I used to buy old mil-surplus boards that each contained six wired-in >subminiature (Raytheon CK something or the other) dual triodes--no sockets, >the tubes were equipped with wire lead bases and were about the size of >those suminiature tubes in the old Motorola Pixie radio. At the time, I >wasn't that interested in computers, but the triodes made for some great >VHF circuits. Ah 5899 5636 and 6111 come to mind. I have a bunch and have build radios around them. >What surprises me about the home-built computers from scratch is the lack >of imagination when it comes to architecture. Most are basically >one-address-cum-accumulator designs. It would seem that larger register >files are much easier to build nowadays and would open up the door to some >2 and 3-address designs. That would be an area where performance can be found with even simple instruction sets. >I've always thought that 24 bits is a nice word size for a small computer. >Divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 12 bits. An instruction could use 6 bits >for opcode and 3 register addresses out of a 64 register file... > >Variable word length, dataflow, all sorts of possibilities--why be limited >by implementing something that resembles an already existing machine? one word... SOFTWARE. >But then why go to the trouble of wiring the thing up? Write a >simulator--it'll probably run faster anyway. A friend suggested that sims are just software on a bloated wintel box. Eh, nice for creating software for the iron. Me, I'd rather fight with the iron and have something that has heft and is real. Allison

18 years, 7 months

FPGA VAX update

by dwight＠ca2h0430.amd.com

>From: "Allison" <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> ---snip--- >>Depending on how much 'from scratch' people feel is necessary, it's also interesting to roll your own computer using an off-the-shelf processor (or multiples). I have a simple 8088-based SBC design wired up and waiting for motivation to put together some test firmware. The main thing that has kept me >from bringing it up is the difficulty in getting x86-based machine language development tools going. I'm used to little 4 and 8-bit assemblers where you can plop down a few ORG statements and have it all resident in a ROM, and almost all the x86 asm tools start from the assumption you are running on DOS and have no direct control of the memory map. Hi Of course you could learn Forth and use a program called TCOM that runs under FPC. Both are in the public domain. While FPC is specifically to run on a PC, TCOM can be used to target most any processor and memory arrangement. TCOM was originally written to create small *.COM files from Forth source but it became quickly obvious that one could us it as a basic target compiler. There are several examples of doing just that that are also available. I've used it to create both assembly and Forth code for Z80's and 186/188's. I mostly use it to bring up a Forth interpreter on some other machine but it could be used to create most any application as well. To do much useful work at using it as a target compiler/assembler, one does need to have a good understanding of Forth in general and some inside familiarity with FPC as well. For many of the more familiar processors, someone has already written an assembler that runs under TCOM. Since these are just Forth based assemblers, it doesn't take much to create an assembler for some specific processor, as long as one knows the machine code for it. Dwight

18 years, 7 months

FPGA VAX update

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: FPGA VAX update > From: spc at conman.org > Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 18:32:47 -0500 (EST) > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >It was rumored that The Great Scott Stevens once said: >> >> Depending on how much 'from scratch' people feel is necessary, it's also >> interesting to roll your own computer using an off-the-shelf processor (or >> multiples). I have a simple 8088-based SBC design wired up and waiting >> for motivation to put together some test firmware. The main thing that >> has kept me from bringing it up is the difficulty in getting x86-based >> machine language development tools going. I'm used to little 4 and 8-bit >> assemblers where you can plop down a few ORG statements and have it all >> resident in a ROM, and almost all the x86 asm tools start from the >> assumption you are running on DOS and have no direct control of the memory >> map. > > Have you looked at Nasm? It's an x86-based assembler and one of the >formats it supports (for output) is a pure-binary format. Free, source code >(in C) available and should compile cleanly on anything with at least an >ANSI C compiler. It uses the Intel mnemonics and while not 100% source >compatible with MASM, it's pretty easy to use. > > -spc (I've used it from time to time ... ) Interesting. I've used a few 8086 assemblers and none were out of control but it was handy running them under dos. An alaternate is Smallc or microC for 8088 project that are slighly larger than a monitor program. Allison

18 years, 7 months

OT: Lowest-power small server solutions

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: OT: Lowest-power small server solutions > From: Scott Stevens <chenmel at earthlink.net> > Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 18:01:50 -0500 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 12:10:56 -0500 >Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> wrote: > >> > >> >Subject: Re: OT: Lowest-power small server solutions >> > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> >> > Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:42:40 -0800 >> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org >> > >> >On 11/1/2005 at 8:38 PM Scott Stevens wrote: >> > >> >>Any suggestions of a better battery (cheaper, mostly) to 'strap on' to Sun >> >>NVRAMs? I am going to use AAA lithiums on this machine, which should last >> >>forever, but they're a bit pricey. >> > >> >Why not just some plain old AA alkalines? You should get a couple of years >> >(i.e. shelf life)out of each set. >> > >> >--Chuck >> > >> >> Why not use a 2032 3V lithium coin cell? They are cheap and small too. >> For that backup use they should last years. >> >> Allison >That's probably what I should do. I even have a number of scrap motherboards with the 2032 size battery holder on them. That will superglue nicely on top of the NVRAM module. > >It's a bother reprogramming the NVRAM contents (you lose the MAC address, etc.) and I want a quasi-permanent solution, which the bigger AAA batteries represents. But it gets expensive putting a $5 pair of AAA lithium batteries in each machine when you have a lot of Sparcs. (the NVRAM FAQ says "it's best just to spend the $20 on a new NVRAM," but that's from an era when these Sun boxes were Big Bux and people didn't have a pile of them to maintain. $20 multipies out to a big number here, and just buying another 48c02 module sets me up for another $20 sooner than I'd want) > >Backup batteries in general is a topic worth pondering with 'vintage' computer hardware. > I've done the DS1287 replace the battery gig more than a few times on PCs. A 2032 will outlast the original by many years. The real trick is having a copy of the CMOS contents on other than the affected system just in case. Allison

18 years, 7 months

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test-drb November 2005