Speaking of PDP-8s, and now PDP-10s - a thought that passed my mind:
Is there a good reason why DEC did not use the PDP-8 architecture in the
PDP-10, for proper channel controllers? Cheap, versatile, sixbit, and when
the KA10 came out, already designed. I would have thought it to be an
obvious "drop-in" solution.
Any thoughts?
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
Someone passed this on to me a while back, I'm not sure if I posted it here
or not yet. If I did, I apologize for the second post.
When I read this, I kept thinking of all the great classiccmp list debates
and just got a few good chuckles:
How many internet mail list subscribers does it take to change a light
bulb?
Answer: 1,331:
1 to change the light bulb and to post to the mail list that the light bulb
has been changed
14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light
bulb could have been changed differently.
7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.
27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light
bulbs.
53 to flame the spell checkers
156 to write to the list administrator complaining about the light bulb
discussion and its inappropriateness to this mail list.
41 to correct spelling in the spelling/grammar flames.
109 to post that this list is not about light bulbs and to please take this
email exchange to alt.lite.bulb
203 to demand that cross posting to alt.grammar, alt.spelling and
alt.punctuation about changing light bulbs be stopped.
111 to defend the posting to this list saying that we are all use light
bulbs and therefore the posts **are** relevant to this mail list.
306 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to
buy
the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this
technique, and what brands are faulty.
27 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs
14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly, and to post corrected
URLs.
3 to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this
list which makes light bulbs relevant to this list.
33 to concatenate all posts to date, then quote them including all headers
and footers, and then add "Me Too."
12 to post to the list that they are unsubscribing because they cannot
handle the light bulb controversey.
19 to quote the "Me Too's" to say, "Me Three."
4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ.
1 to propose new alt.change.lite.bulb newsgroup.
47 to say this is just what alt.physics.cold_fusion was meant for, leave it
here.
143 votes for alt.lite.bulb.
Hello Joe,
you have selled a.o. the HP 9805 calculator on eBay on January 2003,
please could you write me the achieved price of HP 9805 at eBay? I have
the same HP and I want to sell it on eBay in the near future too.
Thank you very much for your help in advance.
Best regards,
Michael
Joe cctech at classiccmp.org wrote:
>> FYI: I just threw some stuff on E-bay including a HP 9805 Statistics
calculator, two volumes of model 33 Teletype manuals, a Teletype tool, a
programmer's panel and an Apple computer Module ID book. The auctions
are for 5 days only so don't delay. I will be adding more tomorrow.
Hello all,
I recently acquired a Microlog PC-107 8" disk controller, with manual
and software disk. This is an 8-bit ISA card intended to go in a PC
5150, and allow the user to access 8" drives with DOS. Back in the
5150 days, having 1.2MB of storage was a big deal when 5.25" floppies
were 160KB. There is also some note in the manual about reading SSSD
CP/M disks and copying files.
The only bad news is that it is intended to work only with DOS 1.1,
and it actually patches DOS to set its hooks in the system. I'd like
to try it with a more modern DOS, but it will require some work :-(.
The good news is that the disk that came with it was readable :-), and
contains a file called BIOS.A86, which has the following comment at
the top:
;****************************************************************
;* *
;* BIOS FOR IBM-PC DOS 1.1 *
;* *
;****************************************************************
TITLE 'BIOS FOR IBM-PC DOS 1.1 WITH MICROLOG 8" DRIVERS'
This appears to be the source for part of the standard DOS 1.1, with
Microlog's patches.
Theoretically, then, I can deduce how the card works, and maybe make
it work with a newer DOS.
I was wondering:
1) is anyone is using the same controller successfully with DOS 1.1?
2) has anyone already ported this to a newer DOS version?
3) is anyone else interested in the port if I do it?
Thanks!
Rich B.
>
>Subject: Re: MITS 8800B CPU Board
> From: Tom Jennings <tomj at wps.com>
> Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 11:51:33 -0700 (PDT)
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
> Cc: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>On Mon, 13 Jun 2005, Allison wrote:
>
>> Yes, you will have to have rom at 0000h though and Mwrite
>> was derived and delivered from the front pannel if memory
>> serves. So that means ram will have to be set up to not
>> require Mwrite. Either that or you will have to through
>> something small together to create Mwrite.
>>
>> As to mapping rom out once operational, thats a later problem.
>> It's fairly easy to do.
>
>My S100 system has a homemade EPROM card that powers up into the
>address space, on top of RAM, where the Z80 jumps to it and
>executes from it.
>
>The first thing the EPROM code does is copy itself, in place. This
>reads from EPROM, writes to RAM (well, to EPROM too, but the write
>line is ignored by the EPROM board).
>
>There is a flip-flop set by the RESET line that enables the EPROM
>board. Any I/O instruction (eg. address not decoded) resets the
>flip-flop, disabling the board.
>
>Therefore, right after the EPROM monitor copies itself to RAM, it
>jumps to the serial port init code, and any old IN or OUT
>instruction disables the EPROM card, leaving the full 64K address
>space available.
>
>My EPROM monitor occupies the top 2K? of the first 32K of address
>space. It fits in the lower 32K static memory card. Hitting reset
>does not disturb CP/M (up at ef00h), and leaves "most" TPA
>programs intact.
>
>The board was designed/made by Tom Campbell, who I worked for way
>back when. It's elegantly simple.
>
>
>
> di ; everyone shut up, please
> lxi h, epromstartaddress ; EPROM address
> lxi d, epromstartaddress ; likewise, I'm sure,
> lxi b, 2048 ; BC=EPROM size
> ldir ; whirl!
> in 0 ; disables EPROM
> ...
>
Only one detail... the proposed cpu was 8080 (MITS 8800B)!
di ; everyone shut up, please
loop: lxi h, epromstartaddress ; EPROM address
lxi d, epromstartaddress ; likewise, I'm sure,
lxi b, 2048 ; BC=EPROM size
; ldir ; whirl! ;replace with..
DCX B
MOV a,b
ORA c
JNZ loop
; back to original program
in 0 ; disables EPROM
Horrid as it's mixed 8080/z80 code.
Allison
I received an email about a PDP system being available. This system MAY be
spoken for tentatively, but because the guy is in a hurry I wanted to get
the word out in case the current candidate doesn't want it.... System
description:
------------------
The PDP-11/73 is 19" rack mounted (rack not included). It consists of the
main cabinet (CPU, RAM, I/O, RM02 100 MB disk), expansion unit with
two 300 MB Disk (at least one of them OK) and another unit with a 1/2"
tape drive.
RAM: 512 kb (not quite sure about it, can be less),
I/O: Ethernet, 4 x rs-232, real-time clock card, GPIB controller(NI),
ADC (NI), parallel port, CAMAC interface.
It was running RSX-11M 4.2 and DECnet (don't remember version).
We have all manuals (RSX+DECnet) and tapes with the OS software.
Please let me know if there is anybody interested a.s.a.p. - I can't
store the system much longer.
--------------------
And... the system is located in Uppsala, Sweden. While the subject of price
hasn't been broached, I am under the impression it's available for the
carting away, but there may be a small fee. If anyone is interested, drop me
a line and if the primary candidate doesn't want it, I'll draw numbers out
of a hat :) This system must be picked up immediately!
Jay
I will be in Austin to pick up some donations on Saturday June 18th and if
any list members have any items for me still, drop me a private email. We
could meet up once I finish loading the trailer. Thanks John
I will be in Austin to pick up some donations on Saturday June 18th and if
any list members have any items for me still, drop me a private email. We
could meet up once I finish loading the trailer. Thanks John
