test-drb June 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

221 participants
681 discussions

by dieymir＠yahoo.es

>> I'm looking for a copy of Compaq DOS 3.31 rev. G (circa 1990) >> Anybody has this at hand ?? > I have the Compaq disks that come with a Portable III, I think it's DOS > 3.31. I also have the Compaq diag disk to set the > BIOS in the Portable III and other models. Fine, but Will be 'rev. G'?? DOS 3.31 was released in November 87 and Compaq was using it until 5.0 (they skipped 4.0), AFAIK 'rev. G' was the last iteration (1990), probably an update (somthing like IBM's CSD) was available from compaq but I suppose that they have forgotten this. Anybody knows something about ?? > I need to dupe these disks anyways, I can make a set > for you too. I need to install a 5 1/4 disk in a > modern machine first. There are DOS proggies able to do the job, my favorite is DiskXpress (it even can convert boot disk images to another sizes). I really prefer to use DOS to do the job since Windoze trash the boot record OEM id. > Now the big question.... > Can I still buy 5 1/4 disk blanks? Making a bit of cleaning I've found a bunch of DD 5.25" with junk, they where 320KB formated ... All had bad sectors!! :-( > And do you need 5 1/4 or 3 1/2? OR - can you use a dd > copy (disk image) that will allow you to make your own? Don't worry use 3.5" ones. Thanks a lot. ______________________________________________ Renovamos el Correo Yahoo! Nuevos servicios, m?s seguridad http://correo.yahoo.es

19 years, 2 months

Rescue of data from Pioneer 10 & 11 tapes at JPL needed.

by technobug＠comcast.net

On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 16:01:32 -0400 "Bill Dawson" <whdawson at localisps.net> wrote: > I came across this very interesting, on topic story about > the detection of an anomalous acceleration, the need to > recover data which "exists on a few hundred ancient 7- and > 9-track magnetic tapes", and the imminent scrapping of the > original computers at: > > http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/pioneer_anomaly1_0510.html > [...] The U of Arizona had the imaging experiments on the two spacecraft and a friend worked on the data reduction team. I got the following >from him: The tracking stations recorded the data on analog tape and then converted it to digital and transmitted it to JPL which then retransmitted it to Ames (and possibly Goddard) which had spacecraft responsibility. He believed the analog data was kept for some time at the tracking stations (he had some data retransmitted occasionally up to 3 months after reception), but does not know how long. Ames had a program called SOLDPS (sp?) that received the data, recorded it, and divided it up between experimental teams utilizing an IBM 360/90 pair. The UofA got 7-track tapes in fixed block, ASCII, stranger tapes that were taken apart on the local CDC (which only had 7-track tapes). He believed other teams received both 7-track and 9- track tapes written in IBM EBSIDC standard form as require by the local computer systems. The point he made is that each experimenter knew what their data meant and had their own analysis programs - a virtual tower of Babel... He believed that the Pioneers were unique at that time in that they used the received carrier to generate the transmitted carrier. This created an interferometer which, if he remembers correctly, placed the distance to the spacecraft to a meter or so. Tucked away in one of his storage modules he has the Space Craft Bible for those beasts and he promises to pull it out one of these days - should be interesting reading. CRC

19 years, 2 months

Mr. Franke!

by news＠computercollector.com

Nice to see you emerge from the shadows of cctalk. What's up? ----------------------------------------- Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: http://www.snarc.net Also see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/ *** Tell your friends about the (free!) Computer Collector Newsletter - 740 readers and no spam / Publishes every Monday / Write for us! - Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all - W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news at computercollector.com

19 years, 2 months

Altair 8800b received

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Altair 8800b received > From: "Randy McLaughlin" <cctalk at randy482.com> > Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 22:22:38 -0500 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >From: "Richard A. Cini" <rcini at optonline.net> >Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 8:39 PM > > >> All: >> >> Today I received the Altair 8800b that I won on eBay last week. I >> honestly say that this is the first machine that I'm honestly afraid to >plug >> in. It was billed as "working but in need of a good cleaning" which is an >> understatement. The interior is filled with greasy dust. >> >> Among the other atrocities buried therein: >> >> * two bus connectors (out of 10) have destroyed pins >> * poor repairs/lifted traces on the display control board >> * repairs on the other boards (CPU and two memory boards) in need >> of a solder reflow >> * the main filter cap was replaced with two smaller (but equivalent >> uF) caps which were unsecured, >> banging around the inside. These broke one of the card >> supports. >> * the top cover has three 3/16" holes drilled into it >> >> I've asked the seller to give me a rundown of the history of the >> machine if he knows it. On a positive note, the switches appear to be >intact >> and the panel graphics seem to be OK. >> >> Now, I remember someone asked me to look at the CPU board for some >> sort of identification. The CPU board has the following designation: "MITS >> 8800b CPU REV 0". >> >> For those who keep track, this unit is labeled SN#5400280K. >> >> Rich >> >> Rich Cini >> Collector of classic computers >> Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project >> Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ >> /************************************************************/ > >Just in case you are unfamiliar it is best to take a pair of vise grips and >break up the bad S100 connectors. After that you can remove the pins one >pin at a time. It is very very bad to heat up the Motherboard and by >removing the plastic and just leaving the 100 metal pins that means you need >to apply less heat. This even applies if you have a desoldering station. >Trying to remove multiple pins at once is near impossible, 100 pins is >impossible. Some are of softer plastic and dont crack. I hate impossible. ;) My solution to pulling bad S100 connectors was a copper bar of the correct dimensions to heat all 100 at the same time. The correct dimension is wider than the solder pins and slotted to recieve the pins. Takes three ungar 47watt elements to heat it evenly and a special Teflon handle for the whole mess. The whole mess sits in a copper trough of solder to keep it tinned. Works very well. Why do that? Back when some of the vendors used tinplate and gold over copper for edge connectors. Some socket vandors also cheaped out using nickle. For those that don't know gold over copper requires a nickle over copper first or you get old that turns greenish black in a while and high resistance contacts. Metal ion migration is a bad thing. The end result was shakewell disease. Shakewell is when to get the system to run you have to pull and reinsert every card before every use or the system crashes. I learned of this after the S100 connectors of the NS* Horizon were contaminated by this. I had to replace all the connectors, and junk out 5 8k and one 16k memory card, and some of the MITS (tinplated connectors) PIO cards I'd used that caused the grief. The only connectors that were ok had the CPU, MDS disk controller and my VDM-1. I've had to do a backplane replacement really nice ATI S100 I'd aquired due to this. plus tossing scrapping the board in it. When I pulled them out the pins of some connectors and most of the boards were greenish black. The only thing more annoying is some brands of IC sockets that loose their spring or also get a surface corrosion, very difficult to troubleshoot the intermittnt signals or worse. Allison

19 years, 2 months

8 inch floppies available

by ISC277＠CLCILLINOIS.EDU

I'll take 50, I have a DEC RX02 I have no media for :( -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of SUPRDAVE at aol.com Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2005 8:22 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: 8 inch floppies available I've just over 200 8inch floppy disks available for anyone interested. They're work disks from a paper company from 1985. All disks appear to be in good shape with no deterioration or mold that I can see from the random samples I looked at. Most are IBM brand. There's also some system master disks for an old XYCOM CP/M computer. Pay for shipping and you can add any extra if they're worth anything to you. Also got USCD p-system disks, Protem, some Micropro software with manuals and some original digital research master disks. I might keep these for bargaining purposes later.

19 years, 2 months

Televideo Personal Mini

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

Anyone got one? What about just the software? I'd be interested in hearing from anyone that knows about or better yet has used this early multi-user system. __________________________________ Discover Yahoo! Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM and more. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/online.html

19 years, 2 months

Simulated disk drive for RT-11?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Simulated disk drive for RT-11? > From: "Jerome H. Fine" <jhfinexgs2 at compsys.to> > Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 20:37:27 -0400 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > >Allison wrote: > >>>Jerome Fine replies: >>> >>>As far as I understand, a 22 bit PDP-11/23 and all >>>PDP-11/73 systems use the same memory as the uVAX-I. >>>That would seem to indicate that the same backplane >>>can be used for either CPU in a BA23 box. As for a >>>uVAX-II, I can remember using the SAME box for BOTH >>>a PDP-11/73 and a uVAX-II system at least 5 years ago. >>> >>> >> >>There were Q22 and Q18. >> >>The CD side of the indicated backplanes were notably different. >>It's my uderstanding the uVAX-1 had a special backplane to >>accomodate non-PMI memory and there were some power wiring >>differences that were dangerous to AB wired cards. >> >>One BA23 I got has a Q22 with all slot pairs AB/CB wired Q22 >>in a serpentine pattern. >> >>All three BA23s came from internal to DEC. >> >Jerome Fine replies: > >That would explain the situation since no one else seems >to have ever seen a pure Q22 backplane for a BA23. It's possible, I've done it and it fits well. The Q22 18slot (M9275) is a nice backplane for non-PMI based systems. >Since I can use a BA23 box with a PDP-11/73 with BOTH >normal memory below the CPU and PMI memory above the >CPU (actually, it can even be the same memory), the >uVAX-I should also be able to do so as well. However, >for a pure Q22 backplane will all slots wired AB /AB >(I presume that is what you really meant to write), Yep. >PMI memory would not be possible for the PDP-11/83. >I presume that would also preclude a uVAX-II which I >assume also needs AB / CD slots as well. Yes to that as well. >On the other hand, if all the slots were wired as >AB / CD as in an BA213 box (is BA213 correct - that >would be for a uVAX-III) which has only AB / CD, the >PDP-11/73 should also work along with the PDP-11/83 Yes and mVII as well. Though you forget the AB/CD, AB/AB mix of the BA123. >although I have never hear of anyone using these >boxes for PDP-11 CPUs since they require different >boards which likely are not available to be used with >the PDP-11 in most cases. Tony, do you have a UVAX-III >box or can anyone else comment? Never saw a BA213 with a other than a uVAX. >Note that a BA11-S box is a 22 bit 4 * 9 backplane and >wired AB / CD for all 9 Qbus slots. One of these years >I will try using a PDP-11/83 and PMI memory to test >the situation. M9275 18 AB slots (ab/ab), M9276 9ab/cb slots. That works. However I have BA-11S and BA11Ns with a mix of oddball non standard backplanes of my doing. Most are the H9275 type and do watch the backplane jumpers. The BA11N boxes are actually hybrids of 11S and I only do Qbus 11s. I have: H11 KD11-L in Heath backplane with serial and 16k ram 11/2 KD-11 (with eis/fis)in H9281-AB 8slot AB (dual width) 11/23 KDF-11 on 9281-AC 12slot AB (11/23 overclocked, (4)8059 256kram, DLV11J, RQDX3, RX33, RD52, VK170/LK02) 11/23 KDF-11A in a BA11VA 11/23 KDF-11B in a modded BA-11S 11/23 KDF-11B with Hardware FPU (M8189) in BA-11S 11/73 KDJ-11A in modded BA-11N Never mind having at least one of every backplane used for Qbus 11s in BA-11 or BA23. Allison

19 years, 2 months

IMSAI Score update/Spare BYTEs/Got an Altair too

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

At 08:29 04/06/2005 -0700, you wrote: >On Fri, 3 Jun 2005, Dave Dunfield wrote: > >> >> >OK, I pulled the front panel appart tonight and I found out that whoever >> >> >owned this model colored the silkscreen with magic marker. Bogus! >> >> > >> >> >Anyway, I can get a new photomask from Todd Fischer for $20. Well worth >> >> >it. >> >> >> >> I was afraid of that ... Although it's good that you can get a replacement, >> >> keeping it all original has merit as well - depending on the marker used, >> >> you might be able to carefully remove it. Try a Q-tip with some whiteboard >> >> cleaner and move up to stronger solutions as required. >> > >> >Oh for ****'s sake. >> > >> >How is cleaning off the ink any different from replacing the strip? You >> >just said, "keeping it all original has merit as well". I guess attacking >> >it with whiteboard cleaner is not considered a modification to the >> >original? >> >> I don't recall using the verb "attack" ... if he's lucky, the marker used was >> a soluable one, and it will clean up nicely with no damage to the original >> strip - if you can do that, then why not clean it up and keep it all original. >> As Rich noted in a later message, the replacement he can get is not identical >> to the original... >> >> Have you never cleaned up a computer that you really wanted to restore to >> original condition? > >You never defined "original condition". This could mean the condition it >was in when it left the factory, or the condition it was in when it left >the nth generation owner. > >At any rate, this is all getting a bit nazi. If Rich wanted to saw it in >half so he could display the innards then that would be his perogative. I'm sorry, but I really don't know what your problem is with my postings. Rich's asking on the list how to fix the IMSAI logo seemed like enough evidence to me that he wants it visible like when it left the factory and not blacked-out as done by the previous owner (he would not have had to ask how to keep it blacked out as it was already done). Are you suggesting that I am a Nazi for giving my opinion that there is merit in keeping the original artwork if it is reasonably possible instead of replacing it (which he had indicated that he was considering). At no time on any of my postings did I attempt to coerce Rich into doing anything (or not doing anything) with his machine that he didn't want to do - I simply gave my suggestions and opinions in response to his inquiry. I was unaware that this would cause a problem. How does one determine what suggestions and opinions are considered acceptable to this list? >> Obviously any cleanup should be attempted with great care, and if it's not >> going to work, then by all means get the replacement, and keep the original >> in a safe place.... but that doesn't mean you shouldn't at least investigate >> restoring the original first. > >Everything has a story. You have to decide if you are going to continue >writing the story where the last guy left off by removing the ink or >considering it complete and leaving the computer as is. Rich decided to >continue the story. Yes, thats how I understood his postings, which is why I offered what I considered to be helpful suggestions to that end. Just recently, a thread went by where opinions were given as to the merit of keeping original screws in machine - I don't recall anyone bashing the person with that option - how is it different to discuss the options in replacing or not replacing front panel artwork? ... In other words, what did I do to incur the "Wrath of Sellam"? (hey, we could make a movie with that for a title!) Enough already. If I touched on a sore spot, I do apologize - I had no intention of getting anyone upset, I just wanted to assist in the restoration of one of my favorite 8080 machines. I will not further clutter the list with this matter, however I will respond to email if you would like to continue the discussion. 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

19 years, 2 months

Dec boards- what are they?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 7 2005, 8:56, Tom Peters wrote: > I figured out what most of my stray DEC boards are-- DLV11 and such. These > two baffle me. One might not even be a Q-Bus board like the rest. > > Mystery board #1: > > Pull-tab numbers: M7721 (Magenta) [ .. ] > Terminator? For what? It's cut for Q-Bus, but it's short. Boards for Omnibus, Unibus, Q-bus, etc are all built to the same basic dimensions, so you cazn't tell that way. As it happens, that board is none of the above. It's part of the internal logic of an LA30 (Decwriter). > Mystery board #2: > > Unpopulated (except for U8, the only 28 pin IC on board, a Motorola > MC3242A) in other words, empty sockets. Most of the sockets are 14 or 16 > pin, except for one 8-pin. 16 of the 16 pin sockets are laid out in two > neat rows, which makes me think of memory. There's voltage inverter or > charge-pump type chip at U20. > Markings: Solder side: "Copyright 1978 by Heath Company" "85-2195" "100478" > Component side: "81-2195-3" and "ADDRESS SELECTION" next to 8 jumper pads. > Gotta be a Q-Bus memory card, right? Yes it is. It's for an H-11 system. That MC3242A is a refresh counter and address multioplexer for 4116 DRAMs. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

19 years, 2 months

HP 5181A (based on 9915) on eBay - what does it do though???

by john_a_s2004＠hotmail.com

Hi, There is an HP 5181A currently on eBay for $50: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7521170381 This looks to be exactly the same as the HP 9915A (ie the industrial version of the HP 85A, part of the series 80), with the tape interface but sadly no operator interface (ie no video out and keyboard connector). I guess it has some special software on EPROM though. Has anyone on this list any info on using this machine, I can't see from the photos for example how it connects to the X-Y display it is attached to for example. Thanks, John _________________________________________________________________ It's fast, it's easy and it's free. Get MSN Messenger 7.0 today! http://messenger.msn.co.uk

19 years, 2 months

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test-drb June 2005