>
>Subject: Re: Yet Another Old Cyber-Coot
> From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
> Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 00:08:13 +0100 (BST)
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>> >
>> > I am not sure what you mean by 'in one package'. I personally think the
>> > Epson QX10 is one of the nicest CP/M machines ever, but that has a
>> > separate monitor and keyboard so it might not be 'one package'.
>>
>>
>> What I mean by "one package" is that the machine is a complete
>> computer -- monitor and keyboard built in. One plug, one diskette, and
>> you're off... My personal preference is for separates, in computers,
>
>Well, the Epson QX10 meets the second of those criteria. It's 3 units
>(processor box, keyboard, monitor), but there's only one mains cable (the
>monitor, and obviously the keyboard [1] take power from the PSU in the
>processor box).
Visual 1050, main box has two floppies and the monitor sits on top of it.
If you have the hard disk (sasi interface) then it's three. Z80, 128k
with 6502 to do monochrome text and graphics. Runs CP/MV2.2 and CP/M+.
For an all in one box, North*Star Advantage Z80, 128k One or two
floppies and hard disk Runs NS*dos, CP/M2.2 or UCSD PASCAL.
For laptop, PX8 with 120k ramdisk wedge. For totable Kaypro 4/84
with 360k 5.25 floppy, 720/781k 3.5" floppy, Turborom with personality
card, Handyman and Advent 1mb ramdisk.
In the range of sperates, will S100 do? I also have others.
>
>[1] Although I do have a keyboard from a Ramtek graphics unit which does
>have it's own internal mains PSU.
>
>> > I'm also partial to the RML380Z, but mainly becasue that was the first
>> > CP/M machine I used )at school).. And to be honest, CP/M was a let-down
>> > after the LDOS I used at home on my TRS-80 Model 1.
My $.02 is LDOS was later and had some good ideas but the software base
of applications was smaller.
>>
>> Perhaps... But CP/M was a hobbyist O/S that sort of became the
>> industry standard. Cool, in a way. The closest thing to THAT today is
>> Linux, and that's a tad bit complicated (and too good) for hacking it to
>> be much use.
>
>I've always thought the analogy is between CP/M and MSDOS (and not
>because of the obvious technical similarities). Both are pretty minimal
>OSes, both became industry standards, and in both cases there were often
>better choices available.
The biggest reason CP/M succeeded was it was good enough, easily ported to
new hardware and inexpensive. Because I abstracted the hardware sufficiently
the base of software grew as it ran on any machine that could run CP/M.
>> And, truth be told, it's clear that a lot of the people I've seen
>> post in the last 24 hours obviously know a lot more than I do about
>> quite a few things. That is as it should be. Normally, I'm the alpha
>> geek wherever I am, so it's refreshing to think I'll be LEARNING things
>> for a change. So far, it reminds me of the Aloha Computer Club back in
>> the 70s... Everybody is knowledgeable, and some VERY much so, but all
>> experienced in somewhat different areas. Seems like a friendly group,
>> too. I'm a painfully honest person (I know, I know, liars say that,
>> too) so I'll let people know when I don't know something. But, I have
>
>I think you are going to fit in here. I certainly consider that the day I
>stop learning is the day I die. And I think everyone here is basically
>very honset (certainly all the classic computer collectors I've met face
>to face are).
Roger That!
Clipped off the Monroe discussion. Nice machine but memory serves they
were not simple hardware!
Allison
Does anyone have a copy, or preferably a scan, of the Byte article c.
1976 entitled "WADUZITDO"? (It's an interpreted "high-level" language
so named by the author since everyone looked at his Altair or IMSAI
sitting there and asked, "So what does it do"?)
There were two versions (for 6800 and 8080) each of which occupied a
whopping 256 bytes! I recall toggling it into my homebrew 8080 machine
back in '79 and it actually worked and ran simple programs as promised.
I can't find the funny-smelling "wet" photocopy I made at the Computer
Science Center at U. of Md., last seen 25 years ago...
thanks
Charles
EBCDIC had all sorts of representations. The most variation was in the area of
control characters (0x00 to 0x3F). Most of the alpha symbols were pretty
standard. The best help was if you knew how cards were punched. That helped
quite a bit, but there were all sorts of wierdnesses. The most blantant one
was the translation of 0-2-8 (it is labeled that way on an 029 keypunch) into
0xE0. It didn't match the "pattern" at all. I helped design (with logic
gates) a converter from card code to EBCDIC and it wasn't fun. It was before
roms were wide spread which would make the job MUCH easier. Proper card codes
had only a single punch in rows 1-7 (or none) which can be coded as three bits.
The other rows (12, 11, 0, 8, 9) made up the other 5 bits. Shuffle that thru
a 1702 ROM (256 addresses, 8 bits) and you could (with proper programming) get
EBCDIC out the other end. The proper programming of the ROM is left as an
excercise to the reader.
Another observation:
A long time ago I wandered into the DMV to do some menial task, and they had a
big thick book of "taken" vanity plates. Having some time to waste, I looked
thru it and saw the plate "E2C5E7" listed, and also the plate "E2C5E7Y" listed.
Their interpretation is also left as an excercise to the reader.
So EBCDIC lives on in wierd ways, where numbers need to be collated AFTER letters.
--
Tom Watson
tsw at johana.com
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Apparently now that I actually need them, I can't find any of my RX02
controllers. Anyone have a spare RX211? Board is M8256, for a unibus box.
If you do have one available I'd be happy to trade for it or pay reasonable
sums of cash.
Thanks!
Jay West
Scribed by "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>:
> I was going over some old 8" Intel diskettes and discovered some that
> have the legend "MDS is a registered trademark of Mohawk Data Science
> Corporation"
>
> Does anyone remember when Intel started adding the asterisked text to
> "MDS"?
>
> Cheers,
> Chuck
All I know is some history: Mohawk Data Sciences did all sorts of things
in the 60's and 70's. Their main "claim to fame" was a key-to-tape machine
that was to replace keypunches (remember 029 keypunches) with something more
"modern". They did find some place, but I never used one. On the other hand
I was (un)fortunate to interface a Mohawk printer (a model 4330 to be exact) to
a larger computer (A Xerox Sigma 5) and it had (still has on the case) a nice
MDS logo. I suspect that Intel started using MDS as a marketing term and the
lawyers from Mohawk made a nice call on the phone.
Another observation: Later Xerox Sigma CPUs had a sticker (inside the control
panel door) indicating that the term "Sigma" was used under license from some
corporation (Sigma Relays?). They probably got a lawyer call as well.
Sometimes these things take a while (years), but eventually it all works out.
A recent (very bad) example was a guy called Mike Rowe (I think) who wanted to
sell software on the web. He got a "nastygram" from the guys in Redmond who
didn't appreciate it too much. I'm sure you can search for the end result.
Note to wise: If you think you have a trademark, do a little search. It might
save some real money at a later date.
--
Tom Watson
tsw at johana.com
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I have a bunch of spare parts sitting in my house for quite a while, all are good and many unused as these were formerly support spares or inventory left over. anyone interested pls contact me directly, main constraint is all these are located in Singapore so have to find a good way to get them over to whichever corner in the world!
1. MicroVAX II modules:
KA630-AA CPU board with 1MB memory
MS630-BB 4MB Memory
Emulex QD21 ESDI disk controller
DEQNA Ethernet controller
KDA50 SDI disk controller
KFQSA-AA DSSI-to-Qbus adapter
2. Digital VAXstation 3100 model 30 with:
52MB internal SCSI disk
1.3GB external SCSI disk
8MB memory
3. PDP-11/34 UNIBUS board sets:
M7891 (set of 2)
M8265/M8266
M7485/M7486
Emulex SC12 disk controller
Emulex TC13 tape coupler
4. SUN 4/65 SPARCstation 1+ with:
16MB memory
external Shoebox with 150MB QIC tape
327MB SCSI disk
external CDROM drive, Toshiba
external 4GB Baracudda Disk
5. Clearpoint DNX4RAM/8MB 8MB memory for Apollo DN4000 (unused)
6. Clearpoint DNXRAM/2MB 2MB memory for Apollo DN2000 (unused)
7. Clearpoint DCME-V88/16MB 16MB memory for VAX85XX
8. Clearpoint DCME-V78/8MB 8MB memory for VAX780 (unused)
9. Clearpoint DCME-V75/1MB 1MB memory for VAX750 (unused)
10. Clearpoint SNX2RAM/8MB 8MB memory for SUN 4/2XX, 3/2XX, 3/4XX (unused)
11. Camintonn CMX-1211D 12MB memory for MicroVAX 3100 (unused)
12. Camintonn CMX-871 8MB memory for DECstation 5000 200/240 (unused)
13. DATARAM DR650/32MB memory for VAX63X0 - VAX66X0 (unused)
14. DATARAM DR650/64MB memory for VAX63X0 - VAX66X0
15. DATARAM DR650/128MB memory for VAX63X0 - VAX66X0
16. DATARAM DR3100VS/16MB 16MB memory for MicroVAX 3100 (unused)
22. Clearpoint DCMS-TSB VAXBI-to-SCSI Diff tape controller for 8mm (unused)
23. CMD CQ0220A SCSI host adapter for Qbus, single ended
24. CMD CDI4000/SC DSSI-to-SCSI bridge adapter for 5.25" SCSI drives
25. Digital RQDX3 disk controller for Qbus
26. Digital DEQNA Ethernet controller for Qbus
27. Digital DPV11 single line sync comm controller for Qbus
28. Emulex UC06 SCSI host adapter for Qbus, Differential
29. Emulex UC07 SCSI host adapter for Qbus, single-ended
30. Emulex UC08-III Dual SCSI host adapter for VAX4000 Qbus
31. Emulex DA01 SDI Disk Channel Card for HSC controller
32. EXCELAN EXOS1219-08 Intelligent Ethernet controller for MVIII (unused)
33. Emulex P3000 4 port Print Server (unused), LAT/TCP with:
P3KDP Dataproduct I/F
P3KCEN Centronics I/F
P3KPC DB25 I/F
P3KSER Serial I/F
34. Emulex NJ01B-NT+ NetJet Print Server for HP MIO Printers (new), LAT/TCP
35. Emulex NJ01B-NT+ NetJet Print Server for HP MIO Printers, LAT/TCP, used
---------------------------------
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Just saw these listed as "gold scrap", not sure if they are indeed HP
boards, but thought I'd pass it along. Looks like only about an hour and a
half to go on them, unfortunately.
-Toth
I have a qustion about powering the 8" disk drives I have connected to my disk duplicating computer. Specifically, what is the "best" power on sequence?
The drives I use are the Tandon TM848-2E. It requires 24V @ 750mA and 5V @ 450 mA to operate. Pretty easy so far.
I use an external power supply to power the drives. I want to add a relay powered by one of the diskette drive lines from the standard PC supply to turn this power supply on. Again, faily simple.
My question is what is the best order to turn things on. I've always turned the drive on before powering up the PC, and turned the drive off after powering off the PC. Does this really matter? I always make sure there is no disk in the drive before doing any power cycling.
To simplify matters, I could always just put everything on one big switch on the mains. You know, like using the power strip to power on/off.
Any opinions about this? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Kelly
