test-drb November 2006

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

220 participants
452 discussions

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I think a wiki would be a nice adjunct. It could become something like > an "annotated bitsavers" if we all put things there. I have been thinking of something like that for a long time. There are lots of little tidbits I've collected on systems that aren't documents. A few show up in the 'pdf' directory because I think they're important (like histories and bibliographies). Problem is I have so many documents backlogged that I never get around to creating the commentary (with REFERENCES d**m it!). That's pretty much why I just update related entries on wikipedia and add pointers to the source documentation on bitsavers. This does bring up the point that expanding the wikipedia entries is a good thing too, and would have a wider audience than a specialty wiki. There is the start of a software related wiki on the Computer History Museum's Software Preservation SIG http://community.computerhistory.org/scc/scwiki But there isn't any content there yet.

17 years, 8 months

Cosmac 1802 Evaluation Kit Rev 2

by erik＠baigar.de

Hi Cosmac experts, recently I got hands on a Cosmac 1802 Evaluation Kit Rev 2 (CDP18S020). There is a a "Cosmac CDP18S021 Micro Terminal" as well. I want to restore this kit and would be very happy to get hands on a user manual with schematics for this! Google did not bring up the desired result. In powering up the unit, the 1802 executes "Wait for DMA or IRQ (0x00)" permanently and thus the micro terminal stays black as well. There is a firmware ROM CDPR522 on the unit and all datasheets are available on the www. Only the chip labeled "RCA 640" within the micro terminal are mystic, but a schematic might help here, too. Any hints where to get the user manual or a copy of it? Best regards, Erik.

17 years, 8 months

Apple Laserwriters

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

I saw a mention of the laserwriters by Roger Holmes in his posting, and remembered I have some to get rid of as well. I have them in Anaheim, Ca. They are free take if you pick them up. Probably no interest for the same reason he chucked his (size and ozone) but better to ask before the act. I originally planned to use them with older sun systems, since they could substitute for the Sun laserwriters, but since have gone to the freebie ghostscript stack to print what .ps files I need. The larger sun laserwriters were fast and clean, but not for the faint hearted to set up. The apple writers matched the lower end ones with the movement similar to the HP laserwriter 2's. I'm also inclined to chuck the Laserwriter 2 I have, if there is interest in that. The Apple laserwriters are untested. The Laserwriter moves paper, but is in need of attention to work. Jim

17 years, 8 months

DEC Unibus 4-SLU (ACT 10015000)

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I've just uploaded the quadrasync and quadrasync/e manuals to bitsavers.org/pdf/able

17 years, 8 months

Mac II's available (Cradley Heath / West Midlands, UK)

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Just had this offer from someone: "I am having a clear out and have a couple of Mac IIs, 2 good colour monitors and various peripherals including a b/w laserwriter and scanner." We've got all the Apple stuff that we need (with the exception of a Lisa 1 ;) but maybe someone else on the list can rescue these. They're free for pickup >from Cradley Heath - yell at me off-list if you want them and I'll pass on contact details... cheers Jules

17 years, 8 months

Discussion of large systems

by dm561＠torfree.net

------------Original Message: From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Discussion of large systems >On 2 Nov 2006 at 10:25, M H Stein wrote: > And considering the cost of CPU time and the fact that input data was > still on punched cards in most cases, it was usually more efficient and > cost-effective to still sort the cards off-line and then copy/merge to/with > tape. I suppose that relibility was about the same--the chance of creating a mangled card in unit-record gear was probably about the same as that of mangling it in a 1442. ------------Reply: Reminds me of my very first night working in a unit record shop: Was running an invoicing job on a 402 with a 514 punching the new summary cards; loaded the feed hoppers with cards and went upstairs for a smoke and a chat with my new boss. Came back down to reload the hoppers about a half hour later, but there were only two or three cards punched in the 514 instead of the 200 or so expected, and one card sticking out from under the machine cover. Opened the cover and the other 197 or so cards literally exploded out of the machine, torn, accordioned and with nice black stripes where they'd passed through the drive gears into the machine's innards instead of into the output stacker. Figured it was going to be a good place to work when the boss joined me in the keypunch room and helped with finding and putting the torn fragments back together in order to manually repunch them. Got pretty good at reading cards that night... m

17 years, 8 months

Terminal needed for commercial shoot this Saturday in NYC

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Some TV bonehead (I've come to realize that anyone who works in TV is a bonehead) e-mailed me last night to tell me he "desperately" needs a "cool looking" computer terminal for a commercial shoot this weekend. If anyone has a terminal they think looks "cool" and would like to earn some cash, e-mail me prontolitiously. Do not reply to this message because I'm not subscribed to the list. If you do reply even after having just been told that I'm not subscribed, you too will be deemed a bonehead. Contact me directly. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

17 years, 8 months

Discussion of large systems

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 2 Nov, 2006, at 18:00, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >>> Does anyone have enough tape drives that they can do the >>> multi-drive merge/sort tape algorithms described in Knuth's >>> Art of Computer Programming? >> >> >> That would be six, I believe. But, why? Just to say one did it? >> In today's world, the way to implement the same algorithm would be to >> use disk files; MUCH faster. With a TERABYTE of screaming fast disk An ICT 1301 can support up to eight half inch tape decks. I actually have 13 decks in total, though currently I only have three of them running. Only one of them can both read and write, though that is the next thing on the list to be sorted out. We need to write an 'All Ones' tape to re- calibrate the read amplifiers (ten per deck). Then hopefully we will not be relying on the error correction circuitry to correct the single bit errors we are currently getting almost all the time. Maybe next year I could get six or seven decks working but our priority is to read the libraries of software recorded on the very old tapes. Surprisingly this seems to be possible, we have already read some data off a tape written 30 years ago or more. At only 300 frames per inch the bits are so much bigger they are less likely to degrade (I hope). There is an engineer's facility to 'Read All Tracks' which we will use to read the entire tape, hopefully without stopping and send all 40MB to a parallel port we are building with a built in FIFO. The data will then hopefully be captured onto a modern machine. We will repeat this two or three times on different decks and then analyse the data to produce the original (up to 10MB of data per reel). There may be some digits we will not be sure of due to multiple bit failures in a single frame, but we will at least know which ones they are. The regular read hardware just says which blocks have one of more frames with multi bit failures. I am hoping to extend the computer room, get both my 1301s assembled and have all 13 decks in a row. There's no plans yet to get the second 1301 running but I want to get it at least bolted together whilst there is a glimmer of a memory in my head as to how to do it. I have a quite a few years to go before senility (I hope), but it is already 30 years since I took that beast apart and the ink on the labels I carefully applied has now faded away to almost nothing. There will be room for a small exhibition of other stuff, props used in the making of the 'Darling Buds of May', some old Apple computers, ][, ][e, ///, Lisa and some older Macs, plus a mechanical calculator, a wind up gramaphone, a 19th century pounds shillings and pence till made by NCR, an Eddison drum (grooves not magnetic) dictating machine and player, and maybe some stuff which is currently in my office, an HP7475 plotter, a big old HP DraftMaster MX+ plotter and various other items I have not had the heart to throw in the skip over the years. Oh and my UK101 computer maybe. It'll only be open one day a year to the general public when we hold a classic car show at the farm.

17 years, 8 months

Discussion of large systems

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Surprisingly this seems to be possible, we have already read some data off a tape written 30 years ago or more. At only 300 frames Per inch the bits are so much bigger they are less likely to degrade (I hope). There is an engineer's facility to 'Read All Tracks' which we will use to read the entire tape, hopefully without stopping and send all 40MB to a parallel port we are building with a built in FIFO. The data will then hopefully be captured onto a modern machine. -- If you are interested, I could probably get you one of these when they're available http://bitsavers.org/tools/wizl/tapewizl/ Paul Pierce built something similar to what you did for recovering 7-track data, and discovered that you really need to recover the data using analog techniques to get any reliability. http://www.piercefuller.com/collect/proj.html

17 years, 8 months

DEC Unibus 4-SLU (ACT 10015000)

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Jay West wrote: > I posted about this board before and one or more people said they had one. > Now I'm curious if anyone has documentation for it :) Ooh, if only you had asked me a few years ago! > This is a 3rd party quad height unibus board and appears to be a 4 port SLU. > The manufacturer is ACT, and the only part numbers I can find on the board > are 10015000, 10015001, and 10015002. These were very common for 20 years as DL11-alikes. You might have better luck if you identified the manufacturer as "Able" instead of "ACT". They call it a "Quadrasync". Tim.

17 years, 8 months

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test-drb November 2006