test-drb April 2006

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

200 participants
412 discussions

by dm561＠torfree.net

-----------Original Message: Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 23:19:17 +0100 (BST) From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) Subject: Re: anyone have a terminal server? >> In article <01C6674D.4F8CAD40 at MSE_D03>, >> M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> writes: >> >> And I've got a bunch of Digital Products NC16/250 NetCommanders. >You don't know anything about older NetCommanders, do you? >I have a unit on my desk here that's got 16 RS232 ports (IIRC it's 8 >plug-in daughterboards with 2 ports on each board). The mainboard has a >Z80A on it I think, and 4 RAM cards (IIRC 256K bytes each). I also have >-- somwhere -- some smaller units with 10 ports (6 serial, 4 parallel), >all on one PCB. >I can dig out model numebrs, etc, if you think you might be able to help >-tony --------- Reply: Sorry, Tony, much as I'd like to repay you for all the contributions you've made, I don't think I can help very much. No info on the old modular units at all, and the '86 price list & brochure I'm looking at doesn't mention any 10 port models either. I don't have any technical info in any case, just the Installation/Reference Manual and the Applications guide for the NC4, NC7, NC8 and NC16. The NC4 (4 serial) & 7 (4 serial, 3 par.) have configuration switches on the front, while the 8 & 16 are programmed from a terminal. If you think there might be anything useful in there, let me know. I do have several boxes full of manuals for terminals & printers, etc. that I haven't looked through for quite a while; if by chance I find anything I'll let you know. BTW, the typical applications are made to order for this list ;-) : -How to connect 10 VT-100s to a 6 port VAX... -How to connect 8 terminals to a VAX and a DG... -How to connect several 9600bd VT-100s to several 1200 bd Hayes modems... -Using it as an e-mail server for dumb terminals or PCs... -Switching between a Laser printer & a plotter... Those were the days... and all that for only US$ 2995 ! mike

18 years, 7 months

Absurd algorithms (was:RE: Programmer's conundrums)

by korpela＠ssl.berkeley.edu

On 4/14/06, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > On Fri, 14 Apr 2006, woodelf wrote: > > a.carlini at ntlworld.com wrote: > > > I'm sure Knuth mentions "random-sort" as being worse (randomly > > > shuffle elements, check if order correct, if not then repeat). > > Sounds like it would have the smallest memory ( data and code) > > footprint around. > > a bit larger than a bubble sort. > But, at least it would tend to be slower. It's called bogosort. It's O(N!) if your random number generator is perfect. Pseudocode from the wikipedia entry: --------------------------------------------------------------------- function bogosort(array) while not is_sorted(array) array := random_permutation(array) --------------------------------------------------------------------- The only worse (speed wise) sorting algorithm that I know of is what I call the infinitysort(). It just waits for random physical processes to sort the array. It is O((BN)!) where B is the size of the objects in bits. pseudocode representation is... --------------------------------------------------------------------- function infinitysort(array) while (not is_sorted(array)) or contains_different_elements(array) wait --------------------------------------------------------------------- You could greatly improve this algorithm by changing wait to "generate a random bit pattern the same size as array" The fastest sort I know of is the O(1) sort called nosort(). It's pseudocode is --------------------------------------------------------------------- function nosort(array) --------------------------------------------------------------------- It's only problem is that its probability of getting the right answer is equal to the probability that the array is already sorted.

18 years, 7 months

"proto" Alpha? - Anyone know what this thing is?

by dave06a＠dunfield.com

RXed this machine on the weekend. It appears to be an Alpha of some sort. Physically looks like a generic ATX PC clone, in a standard ATX case with powers supply - has PS/2 keyboard/mouse, two COM and 1 LPT ports. The board has two standard PCI slots, what appears to be two extended (64 bit?) PCI slots, and two ISA slots. Now the parts that don't look so much like a PC: - The memory consists of an array of 4 DIMMs, which although I haven't counted them, look like 168pin sockets. But the DIMMs are about three times the height of a normal DIMM, and do say "Digital" (as in DEC) on them. - Honkin big ceramic CPU - has studs in it for mounting the heatsink directly to the CPU chip. Under the heatsink is the following printed on the ceramic edge of the CPU: DEC 1026J H 9707 PROTO JD0855 (C) (M) DEC 1995 It was pretty well stripped when I got it - Had installed what looks like a generic S3 PCI video card (ie: looks like a PC card), and some sort of ISA multi-channel video capture card. The mainboard has 2 IDE and 1 floppy connectors although no such drives or cabling were in it - There was a SCSI CD in the enclosure, bit no SCSI controller (however several of the backplates were missing suggesting there might have been additional cards. The two cards that were in it were not actually fastened in - so they may or may not belong with it. Anyone know what this thing might be? Unfortunately it doesn't appear to do anything - No video, no beeps, no serial port activity, no toggeling of status lights on the keyboard - does power-up and down with the front panel button, but does nothing else. (It occurs to me that if the video card were not the correct one, the Alpha obviously would not know how to run the x86 BIOS on a PC card and it might either crash (if it tried to execute it), or get hung up because it doesn't have a video device it can talk to. (I haven't tried the video card in a PC, but I will at some point). It's probably a doorstop, but I wanted to check and see if anyone recognizes it --- the "PROTO" on the CPU seems interesting ... Could this be a prototype of some sort? Regards, Dave -- dave06a (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

18 years, 7 months

OSI Addition to collection

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

Received a nice addition to the collection today. An OSI Challenger 2P with a monitor and a LOT of cassette software. The really nice part for me was the ton of documentation, newsletters and books that came with it! Ok it isn't really a ton but it sure felt like it when I carried it in from the car. Now to spend time sorting and cataloging everything and checking out the system. Add the issues of the TRS-80 newsletter and Softside I received the day before and it's been a fun week. ----- David Williams http://www.trailingedge.com

18 years, 7 months

"proto" Alpha? - Anyone know what this thing is?

by ken＠seefried.com

From: <a.carlini at ntlworld.com> > John Allain wrote: > > Anybody dismiss this as not a Multia yet? > >I didn't think that Multias were ATX format. Correct. > That sounds a lot more like the later 164LX/SX > boards (or the equivalent 3rd party boards). Another possibility are the older PC64 (based on the 21064 or 21064A) boards, which are actually more baby AT format but have PS/2 connectors for mouse/kbd. I've got a PC64-275, which was a scorcher circa 1995.

18 years, 7 months

DUNGEON (Zork) & MIT's 545 Tech. Sq.

by bqt＠update.uu.se

"Eric F." <elf at ucsd.edu> wrote: > Johnny Billquist wrote: > > If ZORK were ever to run on any other machine > > that machine first and foremost would have to > > have MDL. You know if SDS had that? > > A quick scan of my MDL manuals: > > "The MDL Programming Language" by Galley & Pfister > > and > > "The MDL Programming Environment" by Lebling > > (both published by Laboratory for Computer Science @ MIT) > > show that MDL only ran on ITS, Tenex, and TOPS-20. All which are operating systems for the PDP-10, which I hope you know. :-) 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

18 years, 7 months

DUNGEON (Zork) & MIT's 545 Tech. Sq.

by elf＠ucsd.edu

Johnny Billquist wrote: > If ZORK were ever to run on any other machine > that machine first and foremost would have to > have MDL. You know if SDS had that? A quick scan of my MDL manuals: "The MDL Programming Language" by Galley & Pfister and "The MDL Programming Environment" by Lebling (both published by Laboratory for Computer Science @ MIT) show that MDL only ran on ITS, Tenex, and TOPS-20. SDS, on the other hand, ran the CP-V operating system. So I suppose that Zork never did make it onto an SDS machine. I do, however, clearly remember an SDS machine on the 9th floor at 545 Tech Sq. during my tour back in the early 80s. I was a youngin' though, and was just in heaven being so close to all these cool machines which I had only been accessing through a TIP from across the country (via the RAND-TIP in Los Angeles). Furthermore, I only had access to a printing terminal back home (300 baud, thermal paper, acoustic (loose fitting, noisy) coupler) -- so once I was given the tour, and then a seat at a CRT with a 9600 baud connection, well, I don't think I slept for 48 hours... Those were the days... only taking a break at sunrise for a food run with some of the other all-nighters hanging out there. Eventually, the folks at RAND caught up with my (non-authorized) usage -- and politely asked my to cease accessing the TIP. This was my first experience of going through a "withdrawal" syndrome -- I practically lived on those MIT machines (via their Tourist accounts they gave out.) -Eric F.

18 years, 7 months

NCD "secure" keyboard

by dgy＠DakotaCom.Net

Hi, Has anyone ever *seen* one of these? Or, is it a "documentation shortcoming"? Thanks! --don

18 years, 7 months

American Automation emulators?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Jim, I just did a Google search for American Automation EZ-pro and found ebay auction #7590626029. The pod shown in the picture there looks EXACTLY like mine including the slope front but mine doesn't have the CPU number on the box. So it looks like that's what I have. I'll get a more complete list of what I have tomorrow. Thanks for the tip. BTW when I searched for American Amutomation before I did find the link to Arium and I thought that might be what I was looking for but the link was dead! Joe At 05:06 PM 4/26/06 -0700, you wrote: >Joe R. wrote: > >> Is anyone familar with this stuff? I picked up a pile of it a week or >>two back. The pod that I'm looking at right now if for the 6800/02/08 but I >>think the others are for other CPUs. Anyone know what system it's for? The >>interface board uses the same type female connectors as the ss-50 stuff but >>many more pins and much larger circuit card. I found some mentions on the >>net but nothing useful. >> >> Joe >> >> >> >> >I work for arium. What do you have? We are now American Arium, and >I can at least find out what you have it you send photos or descriptions. > >I suspect maybe you either have an analyzer with some trace pods, or >if you have run control, you may have an EZ/Pro system. > >Jim >

18 years, 7 months

Boast of the day

by aw288＠osfn.org

While rummaging around a secret scrapyard, Dan Cohoe and I dug up the remains of an Intel 432/600 micromainframe, based on the ill fated 432 processor. All that was left in the pile was the plastic case parts and front panel, power supply and keyboard. That is all... William Donzelli aw288 at osfn.org

18 years, 7 months

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test-drb April 2006