test-drb October 2007

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Vintage computer photogallery - Time Magazine

by classiccmp.org＠stellar.eclipse.co.uk

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1670168_1461055,00.html

17 years, 2 months

LF: Microvax 3100 power supply technical information.

by dave06a＠dunfield.com

Hi Guys, I have a "VAXserver 3100" which afaik is the same hardware as a Microvax 3100. This unit has a bad power supply. The power supply is labled: MODEL H7822-00 Anyone have schematics or other technical information? In case anyone has run into this before - the symptoms: This supply appears to be two "mostly separate" supplies in one box. Both boards have connection to AC power. One board generates +5, -5, +12 and -12v, which is the sent via jumper wires to the second board - There it appears to be monitored by a "power good" circuit, and passes directly to the connector for the VAX mainboard, and one of the two disk drive power connectors. All of these rails look good. The second supply generates +5 and +12v which is applied only to the second disk drive power connector. This supply constantly starts and stops - with or without a load. I can see the output voltages coming on, then going off over and over. Since this supply drives only the second disk drive power connector, the system shoud come up, however it does not - I believe the reason for this is that the power monitor is either holding the system in reset, or providing a "bad power" indication which otherwise halts the system because the second drive supply voltages are not stable. The connector to the VAX mainboard looks like this (viewing end of power supply cable) -12 +5 Gnd +12 Gnd +5 [Key ] Gnd Gnd [Tab ] +5 Gnd [Here] +5 -5 ?1 ?2 The ?1 and ?2 signals appeare to be control signals. All power rails look good. With a supply borrowed >from a Vaxstation 3100 (smaller supply without the extra drive connector/supply, but same main pinout), I see 4+ volts on ?2 and some low but non-zero voltage on ?1 - with the bad supply, both ?1 and ?2 are at 0v. Can anyone tell me the names and description of function for the ?1 and ?2 signals - I'd like to know exactly what these are supposed to do as the supply comes up. Any other technical information and/or ideas would be very much appreciated. Regards, Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html

17 years, 2 months

Alternative Hardware Design for Floppy Interface

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Alternative Hardware Design for Floppy Interface > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:24:10 -0700 (PDT) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On Mon, 22 Oct 2007, M H Stein wrote: >> Ummm... not entirely facetiously: I've got some bubble memory cartridges >> (MS-DOS) that I wouldn't mind archiving... > >Which format? > >I may still have some Gavilan ones. I have a bunch too save for I have two Intel BPK72 to use them in. Allison

17 years, 2 months

Alternative Hardware Design for Floppy Interface

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:21:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Subject: Re: Alternative Hardware Design for Floppy Interface > > Aside from 2", 2.5", 2.9" varieties, which additional floppy sizes would > > you like to add? >Mag cards of various types. >also flash memory, including Toshiba printer cards, Atari Portfolio memory >cards, etc. >Prob'ly oughta include a versatile ROM reader, . . . Ummm... not entirely facetiously: I've got some bubble memory cartridges (MS-DOS) that I wouldn't mind archiving... mike

17 years, 2 months

An old dream come true: Iris Indigo!

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

>> - Are the monitor frequencies suitable for a modern PC monitor? > > They aren't. It's sync-on-green, so you either need a good monitor and > you definitively need an adaptor. > The LG1 and LG2 (Entry 8-bit 2D graphics options) have DE15 VGA connectors alongside the 13W3, it isn't multisync but does do the PC-standard 1024x768. Express graphics (XS, XS-[24, 24Z], XZ, Elan) have sync-on-green 13W3 output in more resolutions (and 24-bit for XS-24 and up). > You should be able to run any MIPS based/IRIX software for SGIs. I > don't know what IRIX release you'll need; perhaps someone else can > provide that info. For the Indigo R3k (33MHz R3000/3010, which uses proprietary SIMMS in sets of 4) you'll probably want IRIX 5.3 (and you can download the development option from ftp.sgi.com for free). The other possible option would be IRIX 4.0.5F if you want to be old-school. Any other functional IRIX release will not be as satisfactory (you can't run IRIX 3.3.x on LG or Express graphics, and R3000 support was dropped in any version of IRIX 6). For the Indigo R4k you can run IRIX 6.5.22 (get any version of the IRIX 6.5 disks at 6.5.22 or earlier and you can download the overlays for free from Supportfolio at SGI), IRIX 6.2 (if it's a low-end configuration with 128MB or less of RAM this would be better), or IRIX 5.3 (which can run the older ECOFF binaries from IRIX 4). You can also run IRIX 4.0.5F if you want, but the newer the IRIX the more standard it is and the more software there is. IRIX 6.2 headers and the MIPSpro toolchain can be downloaded from ftp.sgi.com (no compilers, though), and for IRIX 6.5 the headers/toolchain is included in the CD-ROM distribution. The Indigo R4k can have either a R4000 at 100MHz (will show as 50MHz in the PROM 'hinv') or a R4400 at 150MHz (will show as 'R4000' at 75MHz in the PROM hinv). The IP20 uses parity 72-pin (36-bit) SIMMS in groups of 4. Ray wrote: > I have plugged a PC kybd/mouse into a SGI Crimson and an Octane > and they seemed to work OK. Octane, yep. Crimson, definitely not (uses a DA15 keyboard port) Onyx2, maybe- since that uses a PS/2 interface (along with Indigo2, Indy, Octane, O2 and all things newer _except_ the original Onyx. All of the SGI-proprietary keyboards/mice (apart from being very well built) use the same signalling and protocol so you can use one with plug converters to DA15 (Professional IRIS, PowerSeries, Crimson), DE-9 (Personal IRIS 4D/2x), and the Mini-DIN 6 (Personal IRIS 4D/3x, Indigo, Onyx1).

17 years, 2 months

SGI workstation sequence

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

> I think it goes like this, someone please correct me if I'm wrong: > > 1984 IRIS (terminal/workstation) These were fairly beefy desksides in the 15-slot workstation guise. I think they might have been a little earlier, at least for terminals. Bear (www.typewritten.org) has a 1984 date for version 1.3 of the IRIS terminal manuals. > 1988? Personal Iris The /2x series. The /3x series came out about the same time as Indigo. > 1990 Indigo Indigo came later-1991. R4k Indigo was in 1992. > 1992 Indigo^2 1993. It was a bit earlier than Indy, but not a whole year. > 1993 Indy > 1996 O2 > 1999 Octane Way earlier, 1997 for Octane > 2000 Octane2 Not really new, just a marketing rebadge. If you're counting this you should count Indigo2 IMPACT. > 2002 Fuel > 2003 Tezro > ASD stuff: Professional IRIS: 1986 PowerSeries: 1987 Crimson: 1992 Onyx/Challenge: 1993

17 years, 2 months

SGI workstation sequence

by legalize＠xmission.com

I think it goes like this, someone please correct me if I'm wrong: 1984 IRIS (terminal/workstation) 1988? Personal Iris 1990 Indigo 1992 Indigo^2 1993 Indy 1996 O2 1999 Octane 2000 Octane2 2002 Fuel 2003 Tezro I'm not including any of the x86 based stuff, nor any of the stuff that required a large deskside or rack cabinet. -- "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/>

17 years, 2 months

IBM junk

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

>In a message dated 10/22/2007 6:34:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ploopster at gmail.com >writes: >William Donzelli wrote: >> * Another interesting thing that he explicitly said was unique was his >> IBM Office-on-the-Go. This neat assembly puts a PS/2 N51x laptop and a >> 5183 printer in a nice Italian briefcase, with a built in power unit, >> and pockets for all sorts of extra things, like cables and printer >> cartridges. He said he was doing the test marketing, but it did not go >> anywhere. >BTW, if the hard drive fails, you might be in trouble. If memory >serves, the N51SX uses a 2.5" ESDI (!) drive. >Peace... Sridhar The Thinkpad 700 also uses an ESDI drive. ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

17 years, 2 months

IBM junk

by zmerch-cctalk＠30below.com

Rumor has it that William Donzelli may have mentioned these words: >Lots of new IBM things today, but all basically PC related. > >Does anyone here have a 5182 Color Printer? This was one of the >goodies today, from an ex-IBM salesman that was finally clearing out >the closet. He said it was a very unsuccessful product from the XT/AT >era, and may have never been for sale to the public. He said they were >probably internal use only. > >The 5182 is a dot matrix printer with a four color ribbon. Kludge on a stick. I can't verify that it was an actual "5182" but I did work with an IBM branded 9-pin DM color printer (4 color bands, yellow, blue, red & black) built like a tank (like everything from IBM of that era) on an IBM AT (512K RAM, 20G HD) back when I was 17.... so this was 23 years ago... in the dinky town of Sault Ste. Marie. So if we had one here, chances are IBM made more than one! AFAIK, the company I worked for _never_ used the color aspect of the computer, so 3/4 of the nice expensive ribbon got wasted. A quick google search shows that the 5182 was commercially available, if not 'viable': ;-) http://www.computerreset.com/images/ibm5182.jpg Which brings another ontopic response: Wholly Crap! Computer Reset is still in business? I remember when they sold peripherals for Tandy model 100s & advertised in "Deforestation Monthly." ;-) The web page lists 'em for sale for $99... but at the bottom of the page, I see this: Sale list Date 3/13/2004 Laterz, Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger | A new truth in advertising slogan SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers | for MicroSoft: "We're not the oxy... zmerch at 30below.com | ...in oxymoron!"

17 years, 2 months

Alternative Hardware Design for Floppy Interface

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Alternative Hardware Design for Floppy Interface dwight elvey dkelvey at hotmail.com <mailto:cctalk%40classiccmp.org?Subject=Alternative%20Hardware%20Design%20fo r%20Floppy%20Interface&In-Reply-To=000001c8133f%244fb839c0%24a903a8c0%40andr ewdesktop> Sun Oct 21 22:47:07 CDT 2007 * Previous message: Alternative Hardware Design for Floppy Interface * Next message: Alternative Hardware Design for Floppy Interface * Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] ________________________________ [snip] Hi Most of us have older PC's that will read most standard formats. That isn't the issue. The Catweasel is the closest thing out there but it is, as Dave D. says, not open documented. [snip] Unless I were to get something like the CatWeasel, I can't read the double density hard sectored disk I currently have that I'd like to archieve. I don't know of anything else that will plug into a PC that will do the job. Dwight ________________________________ -----REPLY----- Dwight, There seems to be a lot of misinformation about the Catweasel circulation about. Hopefully this can clear some of it up. These are things I believe to be true about Catweasel: The Catweasel is well documented. The design is easy to write software for. F/OSS Linux drivers exist. F/OSS MS-DOS & Linux software exists. The Catweasel is documented at the register level. There is a developers forum available. The developer of the Catweasel is accessible and very helpful. There are experienced developers on CCTALK which can answer questions. The Catweasel is commercially available from stock in both PCI and ISA versions. I do not know for a fact, but I am confident based on my dealings with Jens that if you needed additional information about the FPGA firmware for some reason you could just ask and get what information you need. True, software development has not been integrated and is fragmented but that is mostly organizational issues. The content does exist. Here is a recent post on CCTALK which lists some of the many Catweasel resources available on the internet. (not by me but other another respected CCTALK member) http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2007-April/077150.html As an aside, if it were me designing a small portable floppy reader, I would use something like to this in a small case with a 5.25" floppy drive and CF for storage: http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS6085572550.html It is only a small stretch from what I am presently using: an old PC with a Catweasel to read NorthStar (DSDD, SSDD, SSSD, and mixed) and Heath (SSSD and DSSD) hard sector disks. The Tim Mann CW2DMK software pretty much covers the soft sector format. There are many other formats supported. My whole Catweasel station cost less than $200 is working right now in my basement. It has Ethernet, PCI, USB, IDE, serial, parallel, VGA, PS/2, floppy drive interfaces in addition to the Catweasel. It can run several Operating Systems. There are still slots available to add more interfaces if you'd like. There is another machine next to it with ISA slots, a different Catweasel, and SCSI interfaces. I have had ST506/ST412 interfaces working on it. All parts for both systems are commercially available for low cost. Yes, Catweasel is restricted to PCI or ISA but if you "wrap" it with a dedicated PC you do not have to deal with it. Also, the raw format the Catweasel produces is literally magnetic flux transition times and whether an index hole is present or not. It doesn't get much more basic than than when reading a floppy disk. The hard part of ANY universal floppy reader will be the writing of the specific format decoders. That is where the investment is truly needed. My only wish for Catweasel is for it to be supported by excellent software like ImageDisk in an open and documented format like ImageDisk does. I believe the extensions to at least ImageDisk would be trivial to implement once the specifics of the interface were well known. Thanks! Andrew Lynch

17 years, 2 months

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test-drb October 2007