Hello,
I've been asked to post this notice.
We are liquidating, as a lot, all or part, the largest DEC
computer collection in private hands (that we know of).
Includes several pdp8 systems, pdp11's, many VAXen, a rare
Pro-380 integrated desk system, rainbows, KIMS box, decmate or
vaxmate, as well as peripherals, software on paper tape, dectape,
8" and 5.25 floppys, spare boards, parts, etc., cables, loot and
booty, even the sacred |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| speakers' podium from the
DEC ACT in Dallas, Texas and the DEC 'bricks' which used to adorn
the wall in the reception area. Also, for contrast, a pleasing
assortment of other systems including a diverse collection of
early (floppy only) laptops, (including several sony SMC-210's
which are made of unobtanium), several IBM Mainframe test boxes,
beehive terminals, floppy disk drive tester, Tektronix 4014
graphics terminal, the original analog disk drive fromt the first
Ampex slo-mo instant replay system installed at Cowboys Stadium,
you name it, Osborne 1, Apples, commodores, compaq luggables,
IMSAI 8080 with lots of spares, SWTPC computer, maybe 10 VT100
types, TI Professional portable, everything right down to the
nuts and bolts. Has been stored in a 30x40 climate controlled
building which is packed. Most all of it was working when
removed, and has been stored. There's more I can't think of right
now, but have a look at the web page (its' incomplete too, but it
is what it is):
http://www.montagar.com/~patj/hcsale/index.html
The collection is available for $8000 all or part FOB Dallas,
Texas. We estimate 2-3 moving vans. Viewing reccommended and by
appointment please.
Best regards,
Patrick Jankowiak
I have been playing around with a collection of old Flip Chips that I
have and put together a VC8/I compatible scope controller for my PDP8/e.
You can find a page about it here http://www.chd.dyndns.org/pdp8/VC8/
The only reason this was possible was because I had two 10-bit D/A
converters (A618), the rest of the modules are pretty common.
Thanks to David Gesswein for some test programs.
-chuck
I finally got an hour free to dig back into my /45 restoration. Thanks to
some spare boards to help test and some very good "CE quickdocs" (thanks a
million ashley!), I got a little further. However, it brings me to two
questions.
1) In the absence of full docs on the MF11-L... I'm not sure about the
following. It looks like the 1st slot of the MF11-L backplan gets a unibus
in (A-B) from the last slot of the cpu backplane. The 2nd slot is my G110,
the 3rd is my G231, and the 4th slot has my H214 (C-F) in it. But looking at
some of the docs, it appears that an H214 can be in slots 1, 4, and a few
others per the diagram. My system arrived with one H214 in slot 4. Should it
be first... in slot 1 under the unibus in? Since I had a spare from ashley,
I put one in slot 1 and one in slot 4. I know the jumpers on the other
boards may not reflect 16K, but I figured it might change things. So if I
have just 8K set up, should the H214 be in slot 1, 4, or does it matter?
2) My front panel has an oddity (to me). If I select say address 10000 and
hit load addr the address lights respond correctly with 10000. I then hit
examine and get nothing (blank data lights). Whatever... but here's the
interesting part. If I keep pressing examine over and over again, the
address lights count up just like they should - except they skip bit zero
(the rightmost bit, either 0 or 15 whatever dec nomenclature is). I don't
mean that the rightmost bit just isn't displaying correctly, the actual
counting sequence acts like the rightmost bit is the 2nd light from the
right. I can tell it's not just a bulb problem because I don't have to hit
load addr twice to "move on", the count is smooth and sequential without the
rightmost bit. Any thoughts offhand?
I know my memory system is likely not jumpered right. I'm looking through
those jumpers either tonight or tomorrow and verify them.
Thanks for any thoughts!
Jay
Dunno who put me back on this list, after a about a year;
maybe the list was restored from a really old backup.
But I really don't have the time nor storage space to keep
up with it.
Please take me back off the list.
Dale
The LK201-BA is a standard LK201-AA with keycaps to use with
the DEC WPS operating system. If it's working correctly, it
works fine as a standard keyboard. The "Orange" PF1 key was
GOLD when it left the factory. Hence the various WPS versions
were known as "GOLD KEY" word processing. Most commonly,
those keyboards were sold with the DECmate II & III (PDP-8
based) personal computers.
Dale
>
> From: Paul Koning <pkoning at equallogic.com>
> Date: 2005/02/28 Mon PM 12:37:32 EST
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
> CC: (Unparsable address -- End of addresses in middle of :...;
> group: "General Discussion:On-Topic and Off-Topic
> Posts<cctalk at classiccmp.org>_^_")
> Subject: Re: lk201 question
>
> >>>>> "Kevin" == Kevin Handy <kth at srv.net> writes:
>
> Kevin> Mike wrote:
> >> I just picked up a lk201 keyboard today that wouldn't work with a
> >> vt320
> >>
> >> Unlike my other lk201's this one has blue strip across the top, an
> >> orange pf1 key, f20 is labeled Hyph Push
> >>
> >> PN: LK201BA
> >>
> >> One site selling them says it is a word processing keyboard.
> >>
> >>
> Kevin> There were several word processing keyboards, depending on
> Kevin> which software you were using. DecWord, WordPerfect,
> Kevin> All-In-One, etc.
>
> I doubt that DEC ever made keyboards for WordPerfect. And I haven't
> heard of All-In-One keyboards either. The keyboard Mike mentioned is
> a DECword keyboard.
>
> Kevin> Check the keyboard-terminal cable. Check for stuck keys.
>
> One possibility: you could make an adapter to plug it into a UART
> port, then write a test program to see what's wrong with it. The
> protocol is simple (4800 baud 8 bit messages) and well documented in
> the Pro 300 series technical manual.
>
> Then again, if it's a stuck key or something like that, the keyboard
> is beyond repair. LK201 keyboards are cheesy low quality membrane
> switches that cannot be disassembled or cleaned or repaired. If
> moisture ever gets in them, your only option is to scrap the board. I
> found this out the hard way.
>
> paul
>
>
I have an old Matrox video card that I can't find out much about. It's
actually two cards sandwiched together. It looks vaguely like a VME card
but has connectors on the side and not on the edge of the card. The
connectors look like S-bus connectors like those used in Sun computers.
There is one connector in the middle along one edge and a second identical
connector offset to one side. The video connector in on the metal mounting
plate on the opposite of the card from the S-bus connectors. It's a 13W3
type connector like those used on many SUN, HP and SGI computers. The card
is marked Matrox Electronics Systems SG3-1152B/BASE 0385-06-02 Made in
Canada Copyright 1990". The only reference that I could find on the net says
"I found an old triple-width,
> dual-sbus slot graphics card made by Matrox and labelled an SG3.
> When booting NetBSD/sparc is identifies it as a cgtwelve."
Anybody know any more about it?
Joe
More S-bus cards for SUN systems.
QLogic 3701703 Single Ended Wide SCSI controller.
SUN 5011902 Differential SCSI/Ethernet controller. 3 ea.
Cisco Ethernet s-bus card. Marked "CDDI/MLT-3". Status and Ringop
Indicator lights. Model WA-C303TA.
SUN 370-3328 FDDI Interface. See
<http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Devices/Communication/COMM_FDDI_S_SAS_
4.html>
joe
Well, since my C4P-MF has been rock solid stable since I
fitted the new power supply and cleaned the drive head,
I've been going through a bunch of 25 (and more) year old
diskettes to see just what I have.
Lo-and-behold!
On a diskette simply labeled OS65D 3.2 (not originally mine,
acquired I don't know where), I found really nice machine
code implementations of Space Invaders and Asteriods! You
don't usually see machine code programs on OSI diskettes, the
OS was too crude to have a simple binary loader. Diskettes
usually have BASIC programs, with maybe a couple of USR$
sub-routines in data statements. To load and execute the
programs, you have to EXIT from BASIC into the sub-monitor and
then load the diskette tracks into memory one at a time. Once
you have it loaded, then you GO to the starting address. I
think that these programs might have been originally intended
to be loaded from casette tape. Fortunately, the diskette had
two BASIC programs, each of which PRINTs the instructions for
loading the machine code programs. I'm really happy about this!
People usually see OSI boxes running rather slow interpreted
BASIC programs. These two programs show just what an OSI box
can do. There is no attribution for the Asteriods program, but
the Space Invaders is copyright 1980 by Michael Kincaid.
Can't wait to show these at TCF!
Bill
> It could be interesting to know the age"spread" of thist list contributors,
> and how long we've had the computer virus under our skin.
I am 43, born in 1961.
I got a small amount of exposure to coding in BASIC and FORTRAN in a
summer "computer camp" for high school students, but my serious hands-on
experience with computing really got underway when I built an IMSAI 8080
>from a kit in 1977. I attended college at Carnegie-Mellon University,
which was a hard-core DEC shopw during the time I was there, with
PDP-10s, DECSYSTEM-20s, PDP-11s, and VAXen everywhere. I also got to
play with the Altos and the PERQs, the latter sometimes more than I
cared to. I've had a longstanding interest in computer history, and
obtained my first classic machine, a PDP-8, while I was still living in
Pittsburgh. I put it in storage shortly thereafter, however, and moved
to California for graduate studies. I ended up staying and working in
the Silicon Valley, and for almost 20 years my historical interests
remained purely academic. VCF 6.0 changed that, and reawakened my
interest with the realization that not only were old computers more fun
back then, but they still are today! I started collecting old machines
again a little over a year ago, and haven't looked back.
Strangely, but like a few others here, my nostalgia is reserved
primarily for machines *earlier* than the ones I used. Switches and
blinkenlights, core memory, hardwired control, no LSI -- that kind of
thing. I think that I balk at thinking of anything I remember well as
being truly *old*. ;)
--Bill
At 11:48 PM 2/24/2005, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
>Actually, it'd be interesting to see what some user interface gurus and
>human-computer interface types (i.e. people who study these issues in
>depth, including the psychology, physics, physiology, etc.) would say
>about this. From what little research I've done, I'll bet they'd say that
>top posting is inefficient and confusing in general.
I went looking to see if Tog ever talked about it. All I found
were these interesting and funny links.
http://www.asktog.com/Bughouse/bhWindows.htmlhttp://inconnu.isu.edu/~ken/sigs_page.html
- John
