test-drb December 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

235 participants
580 discussions

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 14:25:45 -0600 From: "Jim Isbell, W5JAI" <jim.isbell at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Real Old School Programming (was: Re: Where to buy a Selectric?) >Well, using a key punch was a sissy add on that came later. In the >beginning we moved wire jumpers from here to there and then later in >the NEW age, we flipped 20 switches up or down then pressed a >"deposit" button. Key punches were for sissy's. -------------- Burroughs had a better idea on some of their systems: they had illuminated multicoloured push buttons that displayed the various registers; to change a bit you just pushed the corresponding button. Still have one of their panels somewhere; also a much less interesting operator console from a B2700 IIRC. m

18 years, 12 months

AMD Bit-slice machines

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

SGI IRIS graphics have a handfull of either 2901 or 2903s in them (not as the geometry processor, but in some sort of control function) Main processor is the 68020 or 010, though.

18 years, 12 months

parts pages updated

by rtellason＠blazenet.net

I've just uploaded some updated versions of my parts pages: http://yourpage.blazenet.net/rtellason/parts.html Perhaps some of you folks might find this information useful. -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

18 years, 12 months

Changing the clock frequency slightly (PDP-11)?

by charlesmorris＠direcway.com

>A common trick to change the frequence of a crystal, is to put a capacitor >in parallel with it You can "pull" a 27 MHz crystal (a few tens of KHz at most), but that won't work with these integrated oscillators. They only have three functional pins: +5, Gnd, Out... Anyhow, while searching the junkbox for something completely unrelated, I found a 30.000 MHz oscillator can. From the previous discussion I figured it'd be worth a try... I tacked it in place and voila - the RUN light lit briefly, and ODT promptly came up to the "@" prompt! :) I can examine and change locations so at least the CPU and console port are working. If anyone's got a short RAM test program I can key in via ODT I'd appreciate it. The RAM is a Clearpoint card that appears to be 2 Mbytes/1 Mword. (I don't know PDP-11 assembly language, or machine code, so it's time to get out the manuals!) Also the Fault light on the RL02 is still on, don't know if the problem is in the drive or the RLV12 card yet. Guess I can swap the other RL02 (working on the 8/A) and see what happens... -Charles

18 years, 12 months

New Toy- 8088 SBC

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

Nice acquisition. Vesta also designed the 80188 based robot brain from Radio Electronics circa 1987. I was successful in obtaining the FORTH and BASIC/BIOS rom images (theyre still around). It took 2 tries. It pays to be persistent. I dont imagine your kit came with the circuit board artwork? And is there a floppy interface (if so, which chip?). --- cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org <chenmel at earthlink.net> wrote: > I competed in the horserace called eBay last week and acquired what to me is a wonderful piece of hardware- A commercially produced 8088 single board computer that uses ALL TTL logic except for the 8088 processor itself. It has a compliment of 8 bit input and output ports made with 20-pin TTL chips, and the docs include full schematics. I can now adapt the design to other 8088 SBC computer ideas I have. It has a BASIC interpreter in ROM and the console is over a serial port. It apparently can burn EPROMs on-board and has about five open sockets for adding code. It's all on about a 5"x7" card and hails from the year 1992. It has, uh, all the power of a current-generation PIC from Microchip, but in a much neater package. > > It's a Vesta Technology, Inc. SBC88A. __________________________________________ Yahoo! DSL ? Something to write home about. Just $16.99/mo. or less. dsl.yahoo.com

18 years, 12 months

1802 Problems

by infomagic＠localisp.com

Tony, It's been 20+ years since I built an interface to my ELFII bus for two 4K SWTech memory boards (32x1(?) dynamic rams in white ceramic DIPs). I can't tell you specifically why SC1 is sending high signals, but back then dynamic RAMs were very common. I seem to remember that SC1 could be used for dynamic RAM refresh. I'll have to dig a bit to come up with more info - if I find it, I'll post again. -John M.

18 years, 12 months

2 Inmac 7724 Rigid Media 2.5 MB Disc Cartridges NOS NIB

by legalize＠xmission.com

Item: 8744955990 on ebay These look like RL01 packs, but RL01s are 5 MB ea. and these are reportedly 2.5 MB ea. What drive are they for? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>

18 years, 12 months

Coding forms & stuff

by dm561＠torfree.net

>Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:41:47 -0500 (EST) >From: bpope at wordstock.com (Bryan Pope) >Subject: Real Old School Programming (was: Re: Where to buy a Selectric?) >> 3. Code up your task using a no. 2 pencil on a pile of coding forms. >What do these coding forms look like? >Cheers, >Bryan --------------- Want some? RPG, Cobol (your choice of green or blue) or (_really_ obscure) Burroughs SL5 Assembler? I use the backs for scratch pads... Ah yes, the detritus from my past... How about some line printer layout forms, complete with carriage control tape layout down the left side? Flow-chart forms & templates? Edge-punched cards? (Like 80 col punched cards but smaller and fan-folded, to be read & punched with PPT equipment). 96-"column" cards? (About 1/3 the size of an 80 col card, with binary punches similar to PPT). Mag cards (same size as 80 col card, but made of same stuff as floppy disks)? Also 2 readers for same? Digital cassettes (with the flip-over write protect tabs & BOT/EOT holes) and a drive for same? Some mag stripe ledger cards (_DUAL_ stripe, at that! - fond memories of loading programs with ledger cards...)? A SLAFAC (Striped-Ledger- Automatic-Form-Aligning-Carriage) to go with them? BTW, anybody else out there have any experience working with mag-stripe ledger systems? They actually had some advantages over disk-based systems, especially the ability to look up data off-line (assuming of course that you have an auto-reader and tape or disk storage as well). A friend of mine works in an office that actually still uses a manual ledger system. I thought it would be a neat project to emulate a mag-stripe system: print bar codes on the cards, install a little scanner on the printer to look up the corresponding data on disk as the card feeds in and away you go. Unfortunately, I can't talk her management into it... :) mike

18 years, 12 months

Where to buy a Selectric?

by dm561＠torfree.net

Anybody willing to pay shipping from Toronto? ... didn't think so... mike

18 years, 12 months

Eclipse MV/7800-U Mini Advice?

by josefcub＠gmail.com

Hi List, I am the proud owner of what appears by the papers glued to the CPU rack cabinet to be a Data General Eclipse MV-7800/U Mini. It's in twin rack units, the CPU on one side, the Cipher Data 800/1600 tape drive and twin Century Data M315-1 fixed disk units on the other. Problem is, I've found very little information online. There's one Italian site that contains quite a few goodies relating to Novas and Eclipses in general, and one German description of a similar machine. But nothing really in-depth... I've also got an interesting quandary: The CPU rack unit is from a DG Nova 4 (Turquoise stickers and all), yet the primary CPU board seems to match an Italian site picture of an MV7800's. The whole assembly was packaged by World Computer Corporation (Serial Number 303), the DG faceplates removed, and everything but the tape drive covered in smoked plexiglass front panels. This brings me to my primary point to the e-mail: Is there anyone here familiar with these computers still? I'm currently working on inventorying the machine physically, taking snapshots and marking cables, cleaning everything, along with trying to find any information online before I run the power cables (~55 amps seem to be required) and begin trying to revive it. I can post the contents of most of the external paperwork I've found on the unit, along with some pictures, if it's needed -- I'm trying to keep very thorough notes as I go along. This is an interesting challenge for me, especially since I've primarily been refurbishing older microcomputers (1976 to 1990-era machines). I'd like to get in touch with people who know the machine and its peripherals, and might offer helpful advice as I go about the literally back-breaking tasks. Josef -- "I laugh because I dare not cry. This is a crazy world and the only way to enjoy it is to treat it as a joke." -- Hilda "Sharpie" Burroughs, "The Number of the Beast" by Robert A. Heinlein

18 years, 12 months

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test-drb December 2005