test-drb June 2006

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

220 participants
447 discussions

are the IBM PCjr and PC JX cartridge compatible?

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

Anyone know? I'd like to own a JX by the way... __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

17 years, 11 months

Semi-OT: IDE & SATA to USB "dongles"

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Chuck Guzis wrote: Don't forget the old CDC 6603-Bryant disk! My most vivd reminder of hydraulic actuators on CDC gear was on the 821 disk. We were running a benchmark with about eight of these things (connected through a QSE). We knew that one was leaking, but the leak wasn't enough to take the thing offline and we had a few hours invested in setting the benchmark up, so we decided to go with it. ---------------------------------- Billy: Through incredible luck, I never had to work on the Bryants. They always seemed to break on shifts that I didn't work. CDC starting buying them in the early '60s. I actually worked on 1604's with Bryant disks. I think the controller was a 1619. They were horrible to work with, and very hard on the hands. For Indutrial Data Products group, we used a few of the old Bryant drums and single platter fixed disks. STC wrote an OS for these drums in the late '60's. They put them all the world with the tracking stations. Last one I saw that was still running was around 1980. Would love to find one now. The model numbers were 8951 and 8952. One of the most reliable peripherals ever made, some ran for 15 years, 24 hours a day, without any maintenance. ------------------------------------ Chuck: At some point, a message pops up on the console that 821 Unit-so-and-such is offline. I run for the thing, forgetting about the lieak, have my hand out ready to punch the "on/off line" button, hit the puddle of fluid and do a wonderful imitation of a swan dive. I collect myself, punch the button and limp back... ------------------------------------ Billy: I don't place the model 821. There was an 841 that might be what you remember. It had the drives two high in an expandable rack. You kept bolting chassis together and then put end panels on it. It was hydraulic too. And leaked like a sieve. The beauty of the two high is that if the top drive leaked, it would drip on the bottom drive and take it out also. Two for the price of one! Had big ten high platter removeable disk stacks and was used on the 3000 systems with a controller called the 3234. ------------------------------------ Chuck: I REALLY don't miss the old hardware. If I wanted to work with heavy machinery, I'd go back to work in a steel mill. I'm sure that Billy has had his share of digging shredded ribbon out of the type train on a CDC 512 pritner, too. Wonderful rewarding job. Cheers, Chuck ------------------------------------- Billy: The 512 was an abomination. It was a rip off of the IBM 1402. To avoid paying fo patents, Rochester re-invented several wheels. The train used slugs that ran in tracks, but had no direct connection to each other (think about a bunch of ICs in a circular tube). Any wear and the timing changed. So you had to tweak the hammer timing almost daily. It ate ribbons. And if the operators tried to be cheap and use one to the last drop of ink, it would disasseble the ribbon and jam the pieces between the slugs and deep into the hammers. Some times a ribbon change could take an entire shift. It also used a paper tape reader for format control. This nasty little kludge used a sprocket drive on early 512s. When it tore the paper tape, usually late at night, it would high speed slew paper through the printer, jam the output stacker, and sometimes break the hammers. The 512 was probably the most hated peripheral CDC ever produced. Billy

17 years, 11 months

Repair methods (was Cromemco 3101/Beehive B150 score)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Repair methods (was Cromemco 3101/Beehive B150 score) > From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 23:21:04 +0100 (BST) > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >> Blech. It's awfully had to do anything *interesting* in Pascal... > >I assume you've enver seen a PERQ running POS ;-) > >-tony Dont know who wrote the first commant about Pascal. My comment is simple. It's a programming language, whatever you do will be interesting or boring in any language. I've seen trash written in every language under the sun and one thing stands out. Trash is trash. Allison

17 years, 11 months

Old computer stuff with 989102 and 989105 chips

by RLAAG＠PACBELL.NET

Just wondering if anyone has description and pinout of the old 989102 and 989105 I.C. chips???

17 years, 11 months

looking for two Kennedy 9100 tape drive terminator cards

by henk.gooijen＠oce.com

Hi all, I thought I have a working Kennedy 9100 open reel tape drive ... I copied files to the tape and could .DIR them. The next day it did not work. Today Edward came for a visit, and I demonstrated the tape drive to show how it fails. But now it did work again, though it was 100% successful. Edward checked the card cage inside of the Kennedy 9100 drive. Two boards are probably missing, and it makes sense *if* the tape was one of several in a chain, because missing are slot #3: "data terminator" and slot 8: "control terminator". So, in a multi-drive setup, I assume these two terminator boards go in the last drive. In a single drive setup, these boards should be in that drive. Is this correct? If so, can somebody help me find these two cards ...? thanks, - Henk. This message and attachment(s) are intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient or agent thereof responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone and with a "reply" message. Thank you for your cooperation.

17 years, 11 months

SBC6120 (a build-it-yourself PDP-8 clone) Last Buy and EndofLife

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: SBC6120 (a build-it-yourself PDP-8 clone) Last Buy and EndofLife > From: William Donzelli <aw288 at osfn.org> > Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:49:06 -0400 (EDT) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >> Oh, and anything you want to be reliable...... > >Also, when sockets are used in large quantities, manufacturing yield takes >a dump. We have all mashed a pin or two in our lifetimes, trying to get >something inserted (anyone that hasn't is a liar!). Now multiply that by >several orders of magnitude on the assembly floor. > >ENgineers should try there best to avoid sockets. Period. > >William Donzelli >aw288 at osfn.org I use them where there are programable parts that can't be blasted in circuit. Sometimes when the part used is a temporary sub (74ls for a 74HCT). My preference is machined pin or the better sidewipe when I have to. However my worst experiences are socketed board for failures that were the socket itself. TI and RN made a edgewipe that was the absolute pits for relibility. By edgewipe I mean the narrow edge of the pin not the wider face. I've desocketed 4 NS* MDS controllers that used them both kit and factory and all had no bad parts but plenty of inop sockets. Allison

17 years, 11 months

Paging Lee Davison...

by philpem＠dsl.pipex.com

Sorry for clogging up folks' bandwidth like this, but I'm trying to get in touch with Lee Davison. Does anyone know if he's still around? I asked him to have a go at fixing my Jupiter Ace a while back, now I want the thing back (to try and fix it myself <VBG>) and he's not replying to my emails (or not receiving them - one or the other)... Lee: can you contact me offlist either on this address or on philpem at philpem.me.uk so we can sort this out? Thanks. -- Phil. | Kitsune: Acorn RiscPC SA202 64M+6G VF+UniPod philpem at dsl.pipex.com | Cheetah: Athlon64 3200+ A8VDeluxeV2 1G+180G http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | Tiger: Toshiba SatPro4600 Celeron700 256M+40G

17 years, 11 months

Cromemco Dazzler value?

by jcwren＠jcwren.com

What's a Dazzler board set with manuals worth these days? --jc

17 years, 11 months

question about ELF executable

by bert＠brothom.nl

Hi all, Is there perhaps anyone here that can answer this question? ELF executables have program segment headers, containing a field p_offset that should refer to the offset in the file where the section of data starts. However, regardless what executable I look at, they all seem to contain a header that contains a p_offset = 0. This would mean the absolute start of the file, exactly where the ELF header itself is located. For example, when I do: $ readelf -a /bin/bash |less I get: Program Headers: Type Offset VirtAddr PhysAddr FileSiz MemSiz Flg Align PHDR 0x000034 0x08048034 0x08048034 0x000e0 0x000e0 R E 0x4 INTERP 0x000114 0x08048114 0x08048114 0x00013 0x00013 R 0x1 [Requesting program interpreter: /lib/ld-linux.so.2] LOAD 0x000000 0x08048000 0x08048000 0x837bc 0x837bc R E 0x1000 LOAD 0x084000 0x080cc000 0x080cc000 0x05350 0x09a94 RW 0x1000 DYNAMIC 0x088fa4 0x080d0fa4 0x080d0fa4 0x000d8 0x000d8 RW 0x4 NOTE 0x000128 0x08048128 0x08048128 0x00020 0x00020 R 0x4 GNU_EH_FRAME 0x083790 0x080cb790 0x080cb790 0x0002c 0x0002c R 0x4 The 3rd header contains an p_offset=0. Why? I don't get it. Bert

17 years, 11 months

IC Sockets was Re: SBC6120 ...

by marvin＠rain.org

Sockets do have their place, but to say no board should be without sockets expresses a *VERY* narrow viewpoint. Many arcade game boards had sockets and gave no end of reliability problems. I would certainly agree that prototype boards probably need sockets, but I would not expand that to a generalization that all boards need sockets. > From: "Alexandre Souza" <alexandre-listas at e-secure.com.br> > No board should be without sockets. Period. > > Even in prototype boards, you should use that. They are cheap comparing > to the price of your time for a future problem diagnose, or for the care of > the board in case you need to change one or two ICs. Sockets are cheap, love > them! ;o) >

17 years, 11 months

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test-drb June 2006