It sounds like my house is similar to others on this list....
Anyway, while extracting an off-topic device, I came across a ring
binder that I had labelled 'HP9831 Manual' Inside were the 2 volumes of
user documentation for that machine -- the Operating/Programming Manual
and the I/O Manual.
[The HP9831 has similar hardware to the 9825, but has BASIC, not HPL, in ROM]
A couple of things struck me from reading said documentation
1) There were 2 ROM modules made for the 9831 -- a Matrix/Plotter ROM
(which came in 2 versions to support either the 9862 or 9872 plotters)
and a Flexible Disk ROM. I have neither, alas. Has anyone ever seen them?
2) The I/O manual describes all the peripherals available for the machine
_including the 9877 External Tape Memory_. It appears that the 9831
firmware supports this device for loading/saving BASIC programs and data
files (although not for doing bit-level copies of tapes, etc).
Unfortunately it says nothing about the actually interface for the 9877
-- for all other peripherals (printers, card reader, paper tape punch,
paper tape reader), it says that the interface is a 98032 16 bit parallel
module with the approriate 'option' (cable and link settings). Does
anyone know if the 9877 _definietly_ connected via a 98032 as well? Even
better, does anyone know the wiring?
-tony
Does anyone know the pinout of the V25 interface (DB25 connector)? No,
this is not a typo for V24, which I know ot be much the same as RS232.
V25 seems ot be an interfce for autodiallers.
-tony
>
>Subject: Re: Bit of CP/M trivia needed
> From: "Dwight K. Elvey" <dwight.elvey at amd.com>
> Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 14:40:18 -0700 (PDT)
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>>From: "Allison" <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net>
>>
>>>
>>>Subject: Bit of CP/M trivia needed
>>> From: "Brian Knittel" <brian at quarterbyte.com>
>>> Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 00:58:01 -0700
>>> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>>>
>>>Hi all,
>>>
>>>Does anybody out there know for certain when the
>>>term BIOS was coined? I believe it was Gary Kildall,
>>>and from what I can find, it was around 1978 that
>>>he abstracted the I/O and localized it in what
>>>he called the BIOS. Anyone know differently?
>>
>>The term BIOS is older, early '77. It came into use with
>>V1.3 I think and for cetertain in V1.4.
>>
>>>Also -- was the BIOS stored on the CP/M
>>>floppy, or was it in ROM/EPROM? If not, how
>>>did CP/M machines boot? Was there a dedicated
>>>boot ROM that was used just for startup, and
>>>then the BIOS took over? I had one back in
>>>the day, but I sure can't remember this detail.
>>
>>The easy answer is yes. Tranditional CP/M systems the
>>CCP/BDOS and BIOS were on the first two reserved tracks
>>of the floppy (8" SSSD) and those were loaded by a boot
>>rom.
>
>Hi
> My understanding was that the first ones had no ROM
>and used a DMA controller that loaded bootstrapping
>code from the first sector on reset. I have such a
>controller on my machine. All RAM, no ROMs.
>Dwight
While possible even the DMA controller needed logic to get
it going. The earliest machines (8080) used front pannels
to manually enter a small boot into ram.
Most of the Intel machines however had at least minimal
rom if only there to boot a booter.
As it would turn out a DMA controller before the 8257
(LSI device) was a lot of electronics in itself. They
were rare and not often seen in micros as it represents
a lot of hardware even in minimal form.
Identify that machine you have and it's vintage.
Allison
On Friday FedEx delivered a box containing a ROBOSAPIEN robot that was my
prize for entering photos of my HERO-Jr in a contest they ran back in June
and ended this month. You were to send pictures and a little write-up about
what your robot could do. Now if I could just win Publisher's Clearing
house.
On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 Simon Fryer <fryers at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 12:16:22, Joe R. <rigdonj at cfl.rr.com> wrote:
> > Does anyone recognize this card?
> > <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/Stuff%20Found%20at%20Rogers/network%20card.jpg
>
> Cabling looks like SDI.
Barely. It's true that SDI internally are four thin coax cables, but
neither connectors, nor much else looks like SDI here.
> > > I found it in a PDP-11/44 but I couldn't find a model number or
> > manufacturer's name on it. The other end of the four red cables connect to
> > four BNC connectors on the back of the cabinet and are marked Network
> > Ports. see
> > <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/Stuff%20Found%20at%20Rogers/back3.jpg>
>
> The BNC connectors are a bit novel if it is SDI.
It's not SDI.
Hard to tell much from the information given, since the cards don't have
any identifiers.
But was the the DMP-11 or DMR-11 which used coax? It could be one of
those. Max 1 Mb/s interface, also for network.
Johnny
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at update.uu.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
At 11:55 27/08/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>My Altair is configured for 8N1 as is the terminal (a Windows PC). For some
>reason when I LIST a BASIC program I see >127 on some characters (mostly
>punctuation). Typing in produces the right screen characters.
>
>Maybe there's something else wrong?
Try configuring your PC to 7 bits, plus SPACE parity - this should always
TX a 0 in outgoing B7, and ignore incoming B7 ...
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
>
>Subject: RE: Anyone got a plain ASCII Windows font?
> From: "Richard A. Cini" <rcini at optonline.net>
> Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 11:55:15 -0400
> To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>My Altair is configured for 8N1 as is the terminal (a Windows PC). For some
>reason when I LIST a BASIC program I see >127 on some characters (mostly
>punctuation). Typing in produces the right screen characters.
>
>Maybe there's something else wrong?
I always used 7bit IO for terminals in that era. The base ASCII charset was
0-127 and bit 7 was often used by many programs to signal a format effector
or binary data. Some software actually translated the chars with bit 7 set
a set of control characters and reverse screen characters. The driver I used
for my VDM-1 did that (reverse or cursor required bit 7 to be set).
As a consequence all of my terminal drivers then and now for the 8bit world
(Altair basic and CP/M etal) mask bit 7 to Zero on recieve. If I needed a
8bit terminal IO I'd then use IObyte to select a different driver that
didn't mask.
Allison
During my cleanup, I found a Norsk Data Verification data pack.
It's the 80Mb CDC type, blue transparent plastic.
There is also a 2nd pack (smoke colored plastic), I don't know
what's on it, but it has a 'WANG" label on it.
Available for the cost of shipping.
Ed
Cleanup time again :
Anybody interested in 60 RX02 floppies? They are all XXDP+, and are a
mix of various revisions. It is not a complete set btw.
All but one are in sleeves.
Yours for the cost of shipping (from the Netherlands)
I have also a set of XXDP+ floppies on RX01's, this set contains 83
floppies and is near complete. I'm asking $25 + shipping for this.
Ed
