My 88-ACR is currently "bare". Can anyone with an Altair try playing this
tape image?
I'm using a Sony stereo cassette deck with dc servo controlled motors. I'm
trying to get the best copy of these tapes that I can. I want to start a
free library of actual audio cassette recordings. I guess once these
recordings have been "verified", we can regenerate perfect sound images by
recording the direct output of the 88-ACR. Until then... :)
The only thing I am worried about is the Dolby NR (filter) was
enabled. I'm not sure if this is bad or not.
I have not adjusted any dynamics yet. You may have to turn up the volume...
If the MP3 is not good enough, I have the raw 32bit 44100Hz
available... (30MB RAR'd)
http://www.altairkit.com/software/
This is what is on the tape:
ALTAIR 8K BASIC
VERSION 4.0 MARCH 1977
COPYRIGHT 1976 BY MITS INC.
2400/1850 HZ
Grant
NOTE TO ARCHIVE: This file may not exist forever, it is a beta file. :
) Look for other posts. : )
I just picked up an interesting portable terminal from ebay for $0.99
I guess there aren't really any other terminal collectors out there!
Anyway, this is a nice little unit. 80x24 LCD screen, NiCad battery
pack for portable operation, wall wart for AC operation. However,
what's interesting about this puppy is that it has a docking station
that contains an inkjet printer and a numeric keypad for data entry.
The manufacturing label indicates manufacture in 1989. The terminal
is VT220 compatible. There is a handle on the docking station so that
you can carry the printer+terminal combination around. The whole
bundle comes in a special TI black cloth bag that lets you lug it
around to various locations.
I have another terminal that is similar to this, but isn't as fancy
with the printer dock: the Random Colleague. I purchased two Random
Colleagues in a dovebid auction. One had a damaged case and the other
had a damaged LCD screen. I've swapped the good screen into the good
case and now I just need a little digikey ordering to connect the
ribbon cable for the screen back up to the main board. The Random
Colleague has a hard briefcase like case that lets you take it to
various locations.
Anyone else out there have either of these?
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
Brent Hilpert wrote:
I have a web page (<http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/gates/index.html>)
where I'm accumulating the diversity of symbols that have been used for
logic gates. If you have a scan or reference for the Cray/6600 symbols I'd
be
interested in adding them.
---------------------------
I'll be glad to if I can find one over Christmas. I'm flying to the Bay
area on Saturday, so I'll look next week. I know I have the plastic drawing
guides for the 1604, 3000 and 6000 logic symbols. And I think I have some
scans of the legends of several schematics I'll send you.
But my all time favorite was the logic drawings of the Bendix G-15. They
were drawn by an artist. Every page is clean, neat and easy to read. Lots
of comments. I still think they are the prettiest schematics ever produced
in the industry. Even if it was a valve (vacuum tube) machine.
The ugliest, hands down winner, are the IBM early machine drawing schematics
or logic manuals for the System 360. They were done by a badly timed line
printer with an exceptonally bad ribbon.
Billy
can someone please tell me how to unsubscribe from this list??
Help!!
________________________________
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org on behalf of James B. DiGriz
Sent: Tue 12/19/2006 7:59 PM
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Storage Buildings
On Tue, 19 Dec 2006 12:14:34 -0800 (PST)
"Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> Or there is always the option of getting old Freight containers (the
> type they use on cargo ships).
>
> Zane
>
They're cheap enough (as low as $200 or so), and the port is only 20
miles away. FOB only, though. You need to have a flatbed or hire one,
which adds to the expense. There is one unit right next door that might
conceivably become available. There is another problem, though, as
containers tend to receive undue attention from the vigilant eye of
code enforcement here, unlike some other enlightened areas of the
country, particularly if you attempt to build any kind of actual
structure out of them. In my case I would have to. Freight containers
are not really big enough for decent shop facilities.
jbdigriz
I'm in Sydney for the week, departing Christmas Day (Newtonsday ;-)
and was curious if there were any members of the list who are close
enough to the Sydney CBD to warrant getting together for a beer and
some classic computer conversation. I'm paying for wireless by the
hour here :-/ so it would probably be better to call my mobile at
0420755794 if interested.
I'm back to NZ for a few days next week, then finally back home to
Ohio where I can a) look for work, and b) spend some indoor time
getting various projects to a state of completion before the weather
turns nice, eventually.
Cheers,
-ethan
Jeff Walther wrote
Is there a guide somewhere to the different families of logic, such
as RTL, TTL, LSTTL (never heard of that one) and CMOS?
Try this one:
http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Logic_Family_Selection.html
It's a little general but gives a good high level view.
Billy
On Sat, 2006-12-16 at 13:35 -0500, Dave McGuire wrote:
> On Dec 15, 2006, at 10:18 PM, Chris M wrote:
> > Is it a *recent* development of compilers that as an
> > intermediate step the source code will first be
> > reduced to assembler mnemonics, before being reduced
> > to object code?
>
> Absolutely not. The UNIX world, at least, has been doing it that
> way for decades.
Right. Also, from the micro world, two words: Small C. I love the
approach. Among other benefits, it allows one to write something in C
to get the algorithm correct, and then re-write and/or optimize the
generated assembly to speed up inner loops, and frequently executed
code, as needed.
Peace,
Warren E. Wolfe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
Most of the early compilers at CDC worked this way. The intermediate
language was assembly and could be used to clean up the final code. It
could be saved as a separate file and also be used as sub-routines. It was
a very fast way to create a compiler.
Then there was another method called interpreters, where final machine code
never really exists. The compiler generates a list of psuedo ops that would
be executed by a series of macros. Was fast to write, but incredibly
ineffecient.
And there was a really fascinating one on the IBM 1401 that kept the high
level langauage in the core, and brought in sequential routines from the
tape unit. Each rountine would perform one process on the source. At the
end, what remained in core was the machine language program. It was a true
single pass compiler. But it worked in serial mode, bringing in each
routine in order (63 different ones, if I remember correctly) even if wasn't
needed.
It was probably the slowest compiler I ever worked with, but the concept was
interesting.
Billy
--- Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
**>> snip <<**
>
> Well, let's see...
>
> I can either spend $10 on a set of rubber parts an
d
> take an afternoon
> putting them in (at which point, said VCR will be
> good for another 2
> years) or I can spend $89 and take an afternoon
> going to the shop,
> bringing a new unit home, and figuring out how to
> connect it up and use
> it. At which point I have a device assembled with
> lead-free solder,
> soldered at too low a temperature, so it gets dry
> joints within a few
> months. With plastic mechanical parts made from th
e
> cheapest plastic
> imaginable that make a freebie toy look solid. I'd
> be lucky if that $89
> machine lasted for a couple of weeks after the
> warrenty period...
>
> Now guess which I am going to do...
>
> -tony
>
That's a very good point.
Just out of interest, my dad still has the first
VCR VHS recorder he bought around 1979 (no
typo). It's very heavy, largely due to the fact
that it's all mechanisms and levers inside.
(No I don't have the model name/number at
hand - I believe it's been put in the attic)
It was working fine up until around 1998/9
when it wouldn't record very well anymore. i
believe that's when we got our first modern
VHS recorder. The new one lasted 3 or 4 years
before it started playing up (won't rewind
tape without messing it up, but plays/records
fine!) and my parents got another one.
The one my brother bought around 2001 works
ok, but is hardly used.
Regards,
Andrew D. Burton
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk
Those interested in running Scelbal, the old Basic for the Scelbi-8 8008
based system, can download the following file :( windows executable, ca
6.5 M )
http://mypage.bluewin.ch/dreesen/I8008.zip
It is an emulation of a 8008 machine I might build, (Time
Permitting...), and comes with very a very terse help in the form of the
"scelbal.txt" file.
This tells you how to start Scelbal.
The emulator is rather crude, but was only intended as a proof of
concept. Some source code is provided.
Looking through the Scelbal source code really shows you how limited the
i8008 is. You need 8K to implement a Basic that is on a par with a 4K
TRS80 Basic... You are forever shuffling around pointers, incrementing
and decrementing them "by hand" .
Jos Dreesen
