test-drb September 2006

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

200 participants
374 discussions

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: CompuPro floppy controller differences > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 11:32:01 -0700 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >On 9/16/2006 at 4:30 PM Allison wrote: > >>Ah, it's using the definitive PC FDC. It was developed well before >>PCs standardized. PCs however don't offer much choice and if they did >>keep all the FDC features you could put a 8" on a PC and read SSSD! > >You could?!? (if I'm parsing your statement correctly). IIRC, the original >PC FDC card had IBM's proprietary data separator on it (several hybrid >packagaes) and couldn't read SD/FM to save its life. It also had the 8272 >(non "A") part, so it had other problems with "alien" formats. Many can. The original IBM PC version was a an abortion. I'd always felt they worked hard making that mess. As to the A/nonA part thats less a problem than often thought. If it really was a problem you could change out the part. I have a few mid range ISA-8 FDC boards that use the 9216 data sep and they do read SD 8" and a bunch more. >Unless, of course, we're talking about PCs in the generic sense and not the >5150 per se. There, it's a crapshoot as to what capabilites any given FDC >card has. In my original statement I was refering to the generic and as "Standard" its still anything but. When you consider the number of drives and configurations the floppy whent though on PCs over the years it's a big mess. It's only that it's all behind us that was know where the bodies lie and we can assemble it from known history. but it lead to 3.5" drives with out drive select jumpers/switches and other "innovations". Over the lifetime of PCs I've worked with: 5.25 180k single sided 5.25 360k 2 sided 5.25 720k 2 sided 80 track 3.5" 720k 3.5" 1.44mb 3.5" 2.88mb Syquest, Zip, Jazz and other higher density removeables The only thing they didn't do stock was 8" SSSD and 8"DSDD, and hard sector! The aftermarket added those! Standard, really, more like a computer version of a leatherman.. ;) Allison

17 years, 9 months

SCSI CD burner

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

For a while, I thought it was a requirement that the laser be turned off at least when the drive was open, so power-down circutry was required. Not sure if this requirement was relaxed.

17 years, 9 months

bad keys on terminals

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

So, I'm fooling around with my Tandy PT-210 printing terminal again. Upon disassembly, these switches are revealed to have rubber domes inside that electrically connect two isolated semicircles by pressing a circle of conductive rubber. Wiping with alcohol and blowing them out gives a closed resistance of around 300 ohms, which is good enough to trigger the keyboard circuitry. I've come to one that refuses to work at all, regardless of how I clean it. So, I have two choices: 1) Glue tiny discs of aluminum to the bottoms of the rubber domes. A preliminary test of this using water as "glue" suggests this won't work for long. 2) Find some switches with the same footprint, height, and cross-shaped acutator. The first two seem easy to get. Mouser lists absolutely no switches with a cross top. So, has anyone here any pointers? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

17 years, 9 months

Bet you didn't know...(PDP-11)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Bet you didn't know...(PDP-11) > From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> > Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 08:30:40 -0700 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>, > cctech at classiccmp.org > >At 7:09 AM -0400 9/19/06, Allison wrote: >> > >>>Subject: Bet you didn't know...(PDP-11) >>> From: Julian Wolfe <fireflyst at earthlink.net> >>> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:07:49 -0500 >>> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" >>><cctalk at classiccmp.org> >>> >>>As of September 30, 2006, the last PDP-11 that rolled off the line >>>will finally be 10 years old. >>> >>>The PDP-11 EOL was actually September 30,1996. >> >>Mentec continued it and you can still buy new 11 based boards. >> >>Allison > >Is Mentec still selling them? From the last time I looked at the >website, it looked like they were only reselling emulators instead of >real hardware now. > >Still up until recently they were selling new boards. > > Zane They may well have stopped cpu production but only recently.The only CPUs that have been around near as long in production are: PDP-8 (cmos 6100 and 6120) 1802 Z80 Allison

17 years, 9 months

LGA CPU feature (may or may not be on-topic) (REPOST)

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Found a USIIi/440, went to put it in, my PROM didn't support it, had to have an update using a 300-333 MHz CPU. So it goes. Anyway, that's not a problem. I took a second look at the old card and got it working. For some computers that are almost on topic now, there's a bit of a hidden catch on the CPUs- they aren't firmly attached, and on some of them (I know that SGI PMT5 modules do not fall into this category, but HP PA-8000s and USIIis do) the connection is effected with a sheet of something with conductive rubber blips on it (sound familiar? Wonder how these will work in ~20 years). If you are not careful to go round-and-round the merry-go-round with the device to snug up the heatsink, the processor becomes canted and does not make good contact, and becomes generally unhappy and huffy and will not work (how's that for a run-on!) End of story- I now have an OT Sun Ultra 10 440MHz with Solaris 10 on it- Solaris is much happier on SPARCs than PCs. Western Digital IDE drives from the late '90s to early 2000s seem to be going bad at shocking rates now, also. Beware.

17 years, 9 months

Bet you didn't know...(PDP-11)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Bet you didn't know...(PDP-11) > From: Julian Wolfe <fireflyst at earthlink.net> > Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:07:49 -0500 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >As of September 30, 2006, the last PDP-11 that rolled off the line >will finally be 10 years old. > >The PDP-11 EOL was actually September 30,1996. Mentec continued it and you can still buy new 11 based boards. Allison

17 years, 9 months

UK Science Museum Exhibition features PDP-1?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Does anyone know if this is a real working PDP-1 It is a non working machine on loan from the Computer History Museum.

17 years, 9 months

ATT 3b1 mouse

by innfoclassics＠gmail.com

> > > Does anyone know what sort of interface the AT&T 3b2 uses for its mouse? > > > I found one which is missing its mouse. > Sorry. I meant the 3b1 (aka Unix PC) I think it was a logitech two button rectangular wedge shaped mouse used by lots of vendors. They came in both serial and parallel, I think the AT&T one was serial. It has been a long time. Both had a D 9 pin connector. A picture search on google "3b1" brought up a poor picture of the mouse with one. Hard to see what it actuually is. I had several 3B1s go through my hands in the early 1990s.

17 years, 9 months

CompuPro floppy controller differences

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: CompuPro floppy controller differences > From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave06a at dunfield.com> > Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:45:43 -0500 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >> >> You would need quite the desktop case to house an 8" floppy >> >> drive! :) > >> What is more interesting is what a PC with two 8" drives would >> weigh in at! Most of the good 8" drives were a very solid hunk >> of aluminum. > >There *IS* a (somewhat) PC with dual full-sized 8" drives mounted >in it - the Nec APC: > > http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/nec/index.htm > >I can tell you that this thing is big and HEAVY - especially the >color one. Having used a color one it was a much better machine than the PCxt (this is back when they were both new). The Color CRT besides being big was way over my lift limit! Allison

17 years, 9 months

CP/M for Fairchild F8 ?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: CP/M for Fairchild F8 ? > From: Jos Dreesen / Marian Capel <jos.mar at bluewin.ch> > Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:15:05 +0200 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > >I found a scrapped box today at work : > >2 8" floppydrives , RS232 and printer interfaces. Internally an F8 >chipset ( F3850 / F3852 / F3854) with a WD1771 fdc. >Strangely enough a set of floppies lay on top, labeled Cp/M, Basic CP/m >Pascal etc. > >Was there ever a CP/M version for the F8 ?? > > Jos Dreesen No. The F8 at best was a microcontroller. If anything the unit was a smart floppy controller for a CP/M system. Allison

17 years, 9 months

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test-drb September 2006