I played with the serial <> RDOS transfer a little bit more
this evening.
I was able to transfer an image of CDOS + INIT into the machine
and start it up directly from memory - however in order to make
sure that this is doable on a Cromemco bank switched memory card,
I have to keep it within 32k ... I discovered that CDOS won't INIT
a DS/DD disk when it's gen'd for 32k (I get a weird error about a
non-existant drive 'h') ... It works fine if gen'd for 48k or 64k.
It will however INIT a SS/SD disk when it's gen'd for 32k ... so
it's going to be a bit of a multi-step process. First, you download
CDOS+INIT to memory and INIT a SS/SD disk - then you transfer a
SS/SD disk image with 48k gen'd CDOS and INIT - this will let you
INIT any type of disk. Once you INIT a DS/DD disk, then you can
transfer the full CDOS and Cromix images.
I'm doing this with 5.25" drives - I assume most people will be
able to dig up a 5.25" drive to bootstrap, even if their machine
as 8" drives - I'm genning the CDOS to have Drives A=Small B=Large
C=Small and D=Large - that way you should be able to INIT the
right type of drive on a system with either two small or two
large drives.
Regards,
Dave
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
Okay here's the deal. I bought this Commodore 202 adding machine from
Goodwill a few years ago, I think for $2.00. I promised it to someone
for 7.00 plus shipping, but I never got around to making it happen. I
can't recall who I promised it to, Though. If I promised to you, please
let me know if you still want it, or not. I want to get it out of my
way .... I box it up and ship it this time!
It does have a piece broken out of the case by the plug. I don't know
if it works as I've never tried plugging it in.
Free:
2 72-pin 4 meg simms, marked "ASSY IN USA POWMEM"
1 IBM 7024-113 wide scsi case, that I think is only good for 3.5" single
ended drives. The board that has the external connectors on it says
"Single Ended EPOW". It's dis-assembled. The inside bottom part of the
chassis has some corrosion on it.... not rust, it's whitish and is from
when I tried soaking off some sticky stuff off of it, it should clean
up. I never did get all the sticky stuff off. The rest of it is very
nice. I'd use it myself, but I need a case for 5.25" FH drives, not a
3.5" drive.
Please respond privately.
Chad Fernandez
Michigan, USA
http://www.tcf-nj.org (returns this year to Trenton State College, now
called "The College of New Jersey")
Special exhibit: MARCH (Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists) and the New
Jersey Antique Radio Club
-----------------------------------------
Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: www.snarc.net
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>Subject: Re: Some said they have CDOS and Cromemco disks
> From: "Randy McLaughlin" <cctalk at randy482.com>
>Adding a "single-density" drive to a PC does not give you the ability to
>read single density.
There is for all intents no such animal as a "single density drive".
>The PC itself is what needs to be able to handle FM.
Some can, some can't. The 765 FDC core knows both and and *should*
but with the bare 765 chip that requires a bit of external logic around
clocks and data seperators. For the later integrated 765 cores like
the 37C65 it's more a programming issue. One caveat on that is the
slowest rate (125kb/s 5.25 SD) is often not available however if you
have a standalone XT or AT class clard the typical 16mhz clock on the
board can be replaced with a 8mhz (move all the data rates down by 50%).
I have such a hacked board as it was an older one using a 765A and
came with a rare thing, a schematic. However bios support for
such a thing is NOT there and you have to do all the work and even
for an unhacked board the bios may be less than helpful.
Allison
Below is a thread (from Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers) on some ICL
manuals. It would be great if one of our UK friends could get these
(and/or a copy) to some of the archivists for everyone's benefits. Can
anyone follow up on this?
Billy Pettit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan J. Wylie Apr 13, 1:49 pm show options
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: a... at wylie.me.uk (Alan J. Wylie) - Find messages by this author
Date: 13 Apr 2005 21:49:09 +0100
Local: Wed,Apr 13 2005 1:49 pm
Subject: Re: IBM's last tabulator (last unit-record punch card machine)?
Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show
original | Report Abuse
On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 09:46:25 +0100, Brian W Spoor <b... at fcs.eu.com> said:
> I already have cross-links with Rod between his 1300 site and my
> 1900 site
On the subject of 1900's:
A long, long time ago (late 1975/early 1976), Computer Weekly[1] ran a
"Win-A-Computer" competition for schools. My school (the then Keswick
Grammar) entered a project analysing Cumbrian Stone Circles using a HP
9830A[2]. We came second. The first prize was a DEC Classic
minicomputer. The day of the prize-giving clashed with one of my
"A"-level exams, so I missed out on getting my photo in print and
meeting Patrick Moore.
Soon afterwards, a firm that was retiring its old 1900 donated it as a
"second prize" to our school, just as I was leaving. My brother played
with the bits and pieces (what on earth were a bunch of school
children supposed to do with them?) and preserved some of them. A
couple of weeks ago I helped him to clear out his loft, and rescued a
box of manuals.
I note your posting here of 2005-02-26[3], so if you are interested in
any of the below, let me know. I'll look after them, and make sure
they aren't lost to posterity.
Inventory:
ICT E.S.O. Machine Manual for Central Processors
Type 1941/3 6us 16K sotre serial no 405
ICL 1902-3 Training Manual
ICT Program Specification Standard Executive 1902/3
ICL System Manual - Volume I Central Processors
- Volume II Basic Peripherals
ICT Engineering Services Manual Type 1902, volumes 1,3,4 and 5,
plus two binders of circuit diagrams, etc.
ICL 1902-3 System Programmes
Logic Diagrams - Type 1915 and 1916 paper tape readers
1925 paper tape punch
Type 1902 Central Processor
[1] http://www.computerweekly.com/
[2] http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp9830?.htm
[3]
http://groups.google.co.uk/gro?ups?selm=M7qdnSuy-ZUuf73fRVnyv?g%40eclip...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Billy Apr 14, 8:30 pm show options
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: "Billy" <bpett... at comcast.net> - Find messages by this author
Date: 14 Apr 2005 20:30:25 -0700
Local: Thurs,Apr 14 2005 8:30 pm
Subject: Re: IBM's last tabulator (last unit-record punch card machine)?
Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show
original | Remove | Report Abuse
They are several sites that will scan old manuals available and make
them available on archivist sites. Most noteable is bitsavers:
http://computer-refuge.org/bit?savers/
If you will allow me to forward your message to some of these
archivists, we can find a way to preserve these manuals for the benefit
of all. I've been getting all my old CDC manuals ready to put up on
the net. Other oldtimers have done the same.
Your treasure trove would make a wonderful addition to the online
library. The manuals could be returned to you after scanning.
Billy Pettit
Reply
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan J. Wylie Apr 14, 11:55 pm show options
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: a... at wylie.me.uk (Alan J. Wylie) - Find messages by this author
Date: 15 Apr 2005 07:55:42 +0100
Local: Thurs,Apr 14 2005 11:55 pm
Subject: Re: IBM's last tabulator (last unit-record punch card machine)?
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original | Report Abuse
On 14 Apr 2005 20:30:25 -0700, "Billy" <bpett... at comcast.net> said:
> If you will allow me to forward your message to some of these
> archivists, we can find a way to preserve these manuals for the
> benefit of all.
Of course - that's my primary motivation for rescuing the box -
to make sure that the information is preserved for posterity.
I'm in Yorkshire, UK.
--
- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Alan J. Wylie
http://www.wylie.me.uk/
"Perfection [in design] is achieved not when there is nothing left to add,
but rather when there is nothing left to take away."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Reply
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian W Spoor Apr 15, 1:51 am show options
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: Brian W Spoor <b... at fcs.eu.com> - Find messages by this author
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 09:51:45 +0100
Local: Fri,Apr 15 2005 1:51 am
Subject: Re: IBM's last tabulator (last unit-record punch card machine)?
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- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Alan J. Wylie wrote:
> I note your posting here of 2005-02-26[3], so if you are interested in
> any of the below, let me know. I'll look after them, and make sure
> they aren't lost to posterity.
> Inventory:
> ICT E.S.O. Machine Manual for Central Processors
> Type 1941/3 6us 16K sotre serial no 405
> ICL 1902-3 Training Manual
> ICT Program Specification Standard Executive 1902/3
> ICL System Manual - Volume I Central Processors
> - Volume II Basic Peripherals
> ICT Engineering Services Manual Type 1902, volumes 1,3,4 and 5,
> plus two binders of circuit diagrams, etc.
> ICL 1902-3 System Programmes
> Logic Diagrams - Type 1915 and 1916 paper tape readers
> 1925 paper tape punch
> Type 1902 Central Processor
I'm interested in any IC1900 related manuals to either borrow or add to
my collection, with the intention of making them available online as PDF
files. See:
http://www.fcs.eu.com/techlib/?index.html
and
http://www.fcs.eu.com/icl1900/?library.html
Did you get my email?
So for a couple years I'd been suffering from a rather tiresome problem.
I used to have a separate e-mail address for receiving CC mail but it got
annoying having to log in to a separate account to read it, plus people
would send me e-mail at that address and I'd have to forward them to my
primary address because I like to have all communications in one place.
So I ditched that account and figured out how to use PINE to filter
messages into their own folders.
But then something funny started to happen, and I didn't associate it with
this new configuration. Groups of messages from the CC mailing list would
show up in my mailbox over and over (and over and over and sometimes over
and over and over again). It was rather obnoxious. Messages I'd already
read and deleted hours or days ago would suddenly re-appear as new again.
I'd have to go through and delete all these messages to get to the actual
new ones. Sometimes there'd be repeats, then new messages, then the same
repeats plus the new messages repeated and then newer messages, etc.
I dealt with it for a while. I blamed Jay. A couple times. Even though
he denied it was a problem with the CC server, I had my suspicions :) I
decided to leave Jay alone finally and focus on my server. I figured it
was screwy. It's old and running low on HD space anyway. But I still
didn't know why it was doing this and didn't have the foggiest idea where
to begin looking.
So recently I subscribed to several of the local FreeCycle mailing lists
and set PINE filters to route those messages into their own folder. And I
began to receive a flood of messages. And repeats. It was then that I
finally realized that PINE was the culprit. I deleted the PINE filters
for FreeCycle and instead added some rules to my .procmailrc. Sure
enough, the duplicates stopped. I then deleted my filters for the CC list
and added rules to .procmailrc for the CC list and the duplicates FINALLY
stopped there as well. It's been a few days like this and I feel
confident saying the problem is solved.
I still don't know why this was happening, but the moral of the story is
that PINE's filtering sucks and should not be used. If you're having a
problem such as I describe, turn off PINE filters and use procmail
instead. It might be the version I'm using, which is somewhat old (4.33)
though I'm not sure if this has been fixed in later versions.
I hope this helps someone else return to sanity.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
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>Subject: Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?)
> From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 22:00:43 -0400
>> Oh, along the way the 85C30 was a far better part.
>
>Do tell. I have a number of machines that use the Z8530 (Sun, Mac,
>Amiga A-Max board, COMBOARD...) and quite a few loose chips, but do
>not know any differences with the 85C30.
First off subbing in an 85C30 isn't going to improve those systems.
The bigger differces is first the 85C30 is cmos and far lower in power.
The DMA support is better with a 10x19 fifo for status and a 14 bit counter.
The Softwaare interrupt ack feature is there (not in the NMOS part).
It's about twice faster and easily support T1 trunk. There are subtle
small changes that impact SDLC management. It's esscentally a pin
compatable improved part.
Thsi is why I have miles of shelf space, so if the brain fails
I can look it up.
Allison
My AIM 65 has been sitting in the original box since about 1985. I
think it was working when I packed it up, the only reason I packed it
up was I got my first Mac and didn't have room on my desk for both, so
the AIM got packed.
Anyway, I got out my power supply, checked it out, sure enough +5v was
still +5v and +24 v was still +24v. I then unpacked the AIM, trying to
be as "static sensitive" as possible, then visually inspected it for
obvious problems (anti-static material stuck on pins) and then did a
little re-seat of all the socketed ICs. plugged in the keybaord,
connected the +5v only and applied power... Nothing, no display,
nothing I checked the +5 at a TP on the board and it appeared OK.. I
then checked the ICs again and appllied power again... nothing. Well,
it then thought I would see what happens if I apply the +24v and +5v.
Connected it up turned it on, nothing... upon turining it off the
printer cycled ( think it was just an electro-mechanical thing, not
control).
Well, remove power, inspect the board again, blow off any dust,
gently, partly remove all the socketed ICs (not out of the sockets) in
hopes that maybe if there was some oxidation it would wipe it off.
Connected the +5v only and turned it on again... nothing, nada, zilch
(bummer)
I don't have a scope or anything, I only have a VOM, so my testing is
rather limited, I don't even know anyone who still has an o'scope.
Any ideas of what I could try?
Any ideas of a way I can get it repaired in So. CA?
Thanks for any and all help or ideas,
Andy
>
>Subject: Re: Z8530 (was Re: Navtel 9460 Protocol Analyzer info?)
> From: "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com>
> Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 10:13:26 -0700 (PDT)
>I think Allison meant that the 8530 had the DRQ/DACK signals needed to
>make it easily work with a DMA controller. Most simpler UART chips
>didn't have those.
No Eric, when I said it had DMA I ment the bus master and the data
counters. Sheesh, I have disks near as old as me then drop more bits
but munging info like that is a major brain fart. Oh well least I
have the data books and the parts to correct myself.
Oh, along the way the 85C30 was a far better part.
Allison