test-drb September 2005

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

212 participants
437 discussions

by leeedavison＠yahoo.co.uk

Digital FR-PCP8E-AA external floppy for P7X notebook. Condition unknown, untested. Postage or collect from Midlands UK. Lee. . ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

18 years, 9 months

Homebrew Circuit Boards: Methods? Supplies?

by trag＠io.com

I imagine this topic has come up before, so my apologies in advance. Do folks have a recommendation for suppliers of circuit board making materials, or a good source of such information? I've found a number of web sites and read them. The difficulty is in knowing which place has better/cheaper/easier supplies than other places--knowledge which generally comes with experience. And several of my other questions are the kinds that generally aren't answered on websites but that one learns from experience. One complication is that I want to make a few different designs which need to be on .050" thick board. Standard board these days is .062", which rules out the affordable proto-type services that I have used in the past. In fact, I have not been able to find precoated board (photoresist coated) in the .050" thickness. So I will either need to use a liquid photoresist or try a toner transfer system. That raises other questions. Are the Toner Transfer Systems reliable (doesn't leave broken/smeared traces)? What resolution (line and spacing thickness) can one generally get with them? The TTS would be simpler. I wouldn't need liquid PR, developer and stripper, plus a UV source. If the TTS is not servicable, then I'll try the liquid photoresist. Would it be better to simply spray on, or should I try to rig a spinner? Do the developer and/or stripper usually turn out to be some commonly (cheaply) available chemical? I would prefer to avoid paying $6+ for a small bottle if I can avoid it. Thank you for any info or pointers to info. Jeff Walther

18 years, 9 months

Available: PDP11 system + disks, crt's, la120's, etc.

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

An unknown PDP-11 system is available in Canada, PQ, Montreal. The description I received was: ------ I have a PDP11 system to sell with 3 unit of disk RL02 + a dozen of disks.of 10 megs. and 2 or 3 VT-100 terminals, plus 2 printers LA120 --------- My impression was it won't be free, but possibly reasonable. I suspect people would be more interested in the software on the disks than anything else. I contacted the person back and they said it was either an 11/23 or 11/44, they weren't sure. I'll take a couple days of responses (off-list), then pick one at random and pass the deal on. Jay

18 years, 9 months

64 pin SIMM (Mac IIFX) Specs?

by trag＠io.com

>Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 21:11:02 +0100 (BST) >From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) >> >Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 00:17:50 +0100 (BST) >> >From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) >> >> >Most, if not all, of the single-bit-wide DRAM chips (4164, 41256, etc) >> >had separate DIN and DOUT pins. >> What is the point in using them separately? Was it for the case >> where the destination of a read is different from the source of a >> write? >YEs, that was the idea. It's no use if you want to link the data pins to >a bidirectional bus. >I suspect the _real_ reason for it was that there was a spare pin on the >package and it didn't ever make life more difficult to have separate DIN >and DOUT pins (oyu could just strap them together externally if you >wanted a bidirectional data pin). I'll be getting a IIfx on Thursday and I can confirm (I hope) that the DIN and DOUT are common on the mother board at that time. Your advice has given me hope that this is much more doable than I feared. If they're tied, then I should be able to build a 16MB SIMM using two 16M X 4 chips. My concern was that the X4 chips do not have separate DIN and DOUT and I wasn't certain if the IIfx actually needed the separation. I think I have some 16M X 1 chips which would work in either case, but my supply of 16M X 1 chips is much smaller. If the DIN and DOUT are common on the MB, and I use 16M X 4 chips, I assume that I should either use the DIN pin or the DOUT pin on the SIMM but not both? Using both could result in different length datapaths which remerge, possibly causing interference from slightly out of phase signals. The difference in length probably wouldn't affect the timing much, but still... It would still be handy if someone has a mechanical drawing of the 64 pin SIMMs. I can derive it from a physical example, but I'm less likely to get the actual center measurement and tolerances correct that way. Hmmm. I'll check around and see if any of the socket manufacturers are still selling a 64 pin SIMM socket. If so, I should be able to derive the SIMM dimensions from the socket datasheet. Jeff Walther

18 years, 9 months

OT: 6.8Ghz Quantum-Optical Notebook

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

>>In a message dated 9/7/2005 12:44:40 PM Eastern Standard Time, >>RMeenaks at OLF.COM writes: >>Don't know if this is a hoax, but they reportedly produced the 1st 6.8GHz >>Quatum-Optical Notebook running Windows XP: >>http://atomchip.com/_wsn/page4.html It's a bullshit hoax.

18 years, 9 months

OT: 6.8Ghz Quantum-Optical Notebook

by RMeenaks＠OLF.COM

Don't know if this is a hoax, but they reportedly produced the 1st 6.8GHz Quatum-Optical Notebook running Windows XP: http://atomchip.com/_wsn/page4.html Ram

18 years, 9 months

Interdata Computer boards ?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

perhaps they were made by Interdata. - you are correct, sir! I'm guessing it's a model 8/16 board set 35-446 on CPU HI should be something to go by in the Interdata print sets.

18 years, 9 months

HP 21xx update

by Tim＠Rikers.org

So, I'm mostly recovered from the move to UT and I've gotten back to working on the HPs I acquired. http://rikers.org/gallery/hardware I've fixed the visible issues with the HP-2116A and powered it up slowly with a variac with a minium of cards installed. Fans spin up ok, I get a couple of the power circuits live, but fuse F8 blows and the rest of the power circuits do no come up. No lights on the front panel etc. I'm reading through the HP-2116B vol2 manual on bitsavers (Thanx Al!): http://bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/2116/02116-9153_2116B_Vol2_Oct70.pdf But there are some differences in the power supply between the 2116A and 2116B. I don't have an A1 card for example, and the core memory is completely different. I'm kinda beating my head against the wall on this one. Still hoping Bob or someone else will dig up a Volume 2 manual for the 2116A sometime soon. =/ In the mean time, I've repaired and powered up the HP-2108A system. Things seem to checkout ok. Now anyone want to suggest a light chaser program to key in for kicks? I don't have any manuals specific to the HP-2108A here, but I suppose I should try some of the memory diagnostics routines from the 2100 or 2116 to check things out. The basics seem to work. I can store/recall values from registers and memory. I've not tried all memory locations or anything yet. I'm hanging out on #classicmp on irc.freenode.net as usual. I was hoping Jay would be around sometime or others that might suggest what to do next. ;-) My paper tape reader seems to spin up ok now, but I've not tried to talk to it in software yet. Also I don't have real tape images for things like the basic1 environment: http://oscar.taurus.com/~jeff/2100/hpbasic/basic1.abs I've got my hacked simh that has ANSI text register displays to test out routines on. That's been very useful. ;-) Any suggestions on getting pc based paper tape images over to real HP hardware? I do have a paper tape punch, but no docs on it. Also I don't currently have any blank media. Thanx! -- Tim Riker - http://Rikers.org/ - TimR at Debian.org Embedded Linux Technologist - http://eLinux.org/ BZFlag maintainer - http://BZFlag.org/ - for fun!

18 years, 9 months

HP Viper and Hyper Viper webpage?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Does anyone know what happened to the Viper and HyperViper webpage that used to be on HP's website? I can't find it. If it's down does anyone have a copy of it? I'm trying to help some guy out with the cards and he knows nothing about them so that page would help give him some background on the cards. Joe

18 years, 9 months

S/36

by ceby2＠csc.com

Scott -- Normally I jump on anything S/36 on the list, but life's kept me busy enough to distract me. I collect S/36 equipment, and I have most of the manuals, some of them scanned. Consider me a resource. A couple of answers to your questions: Q: Is this like the AS/400, where if it doesn't come with an OS and firmware disk it's toast? A: No, thankfully. So long as you get the media, you're alright. There's even a way to hack around security if it's absolutely necessary. Q: What sort of drives does it take? A: As far as I know (and I haven't really explored the topic) it takes model specific drives. The file system seems proprietary to the hardware. Sellam may know different. I defer to the great one on this. Q: Is it 220v only? A: That depends on the country of origin and the model. There were four main series: 5360 - 220v only as it was a datacenter class system, 5362 - this was the deskside type with a country default power requirement 220v/110v, 5363 - another deskside but later and switchable if memory serves, and the 5364 - this one may also have been switchable, it's a desktop unit... mine's in storage or I'd check for you. Q: Any other weirdness? A: Gee... um where to begin. The system's totally unlike VMS/Unix/PDP OSs. I suppose the weirdness depends on your perspective. The basis of comparison is the AS400 since that's what superceded it. AS400 added a relational database system and more systems' management. But the underlying operating systems are rather similar. On the other hand, the hardware's totally different. S/36 (and this is distinct from AS/36) is a 16bit operating system with dual CPUs, one dedicated IO/Memory management. It's a flat address space. The system was targeted as a total office solution, and indeed it offered a very modern set of capabilities. The original strategy of office networking was based on PCs talking to a S/36. Files could be shared, there was e-mail, word processing, and a database/development analogous of non-relational MS-Access. You could pretty rapidly create tables and then build forms around them. It had it's own development language RPG, which was analagous to a VBA as it was really built to further enable the database application development. It originated as a reporting language on earlier IBM systems. Other languages were supported, Basic and Cobol come to mind. Sorry, no C. The whole thing's rather interesting when you're used to the file system based world and open systems. IMHOP its well worth playing around with if you have the wherewithal to do so. If you're into hacking it may be disappointing as it's a very closed and proprietary solution base. But if you get off on clever technology design, the rapid deploy piece of office automation is fascinating, and it does have a number of mainframe centric networking solutions available to it in addition to the twinax native to this range. Regards Colin Eby

18 years, 9 months

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test-drb September 2005