test-drb October 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

228 participants
467 discussions

SGI Crimson Questions & hardware request

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

The power cable can be either 240V or 110V, but it will need either 15 or 20A depending on config AFAIK. It's only the later Onyx multi-CPU+RealityEngine that requires 240V power. Can't tell you where to get the cable, didn't even see them in Boeing when they were selling off Onyxs. If you have an Indigo/Onyx keyboard (Mini-DIN 6 but not PS/2) it's a simple plug adapter to use it in 4D/Crimson/PI machines - look at the 4D/FAQ (search for "This Old SGI") The Crimson uses the DA-15 connector rather than the early PIs DE-9, but this is the only difference. For IRIX, you'll get the best support for modern applications with IRIX 6.2, but you will need to partition/label the disk in fx on another machine or using the fx that comes with IRIX 4 or IRIX 5, as fx.IP17 is broken on IRIX 6.2, IRIX 5.3 will give you the option of running older ECOFF binaries built for IRIX 4, however, and if your Crimson has GTX graphics rather than PowerVision or RealityEngine you will need to use 5.3. Less than 96MB you'll probably get better performance from 5.3, other than that it's your call - 6.2 has the POSIX pthreads patches available and n32 binary support (and some newer freeware- 2001 was the last 6.2 build on freeware.sgi.com, and there's an offshoot of Nekoware for 6.2 (tgcware, perhaps they have some 5.3 builds available).

16 years, 7 months

TI 990 architecture

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

Subject: Re: TI 990 architecture From: Cameron Kaiser <spectre (at) floodgap.com> Message-id: 200710021957.l92Jv8RK013898 (at) floodgap.com Date: 2007-10-02 21:57:08 >> If I remember right, the architecure of the ti chip >> it used a pointer to ram as the internal registers. That would really >> bog down on byte wide bus. > > But then chips like the 9995 do very well on a 8-bit data bus. IMHO the > bigger problems with the 9900 implementation in the 99/4A were the external > scratch pad (made internal for the 9995) and the presence of GROMs, > requiring their own interpretation step and murderously slow serial access. > > Compare this to a system like the Tomy Tutor, which has a 9995 on an 8-bit > bus too, but is significantly faster than the 99/4A despite being clocked > slightly slower (10.7MHz os Rather than rely on sometimes parity afflicted memory I pulled down a spare board (TI99/4A black) and the TI system manuals and prints.. 10.738625mhz is the Video clock (TMS9918) 12.000 is the CPU clock. (4phase 3MHz) The print set indicates FOUR wait states (1.33uS) for every 8bit bus access (to GROM, 9918 and Peripheral expansion). The 16bit bus has 128Words of scratch ram and 4kWords of system rom(GPL interpreter) and no wait states. Since most of the active IO to memory space is to GROM or 9918 on the console that speed cost overhead is both wait states and interpretive language. The TI99/4 series is clearly not representative of TI9900 cpu performance. However the idea of an interpretive system does reoccur in the computing world (JAVA, UCSD PASCAL). Allison

16 years, 7 months

FS: Zenrom for HP-41 calculator

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

<http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110177346792>

16 years, 7 months

lead-free solder

by mike＠brickfieldspark.org

> Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 18:12:48 +0100 > From: "Antonio Carlini" <arcarlini at iee.org> > Subject: RE: lead-free solder > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" > > When last I looked CPC still had leaded solder for sale. > It is (AFAIK) perfectly OK to purchase and use. Theoretically > there may be some issues if you decide to produce new widgets at > home in order to sell (or even give) them to others, but in practice > I think you'd have to ring the HSE and beg to get them to come round > and prosecute. Leaded solder is still on sale in the UK, but you cannot use it for new production, that has to be lead free. Leaded solder can be used to repair old leaded product which can still be sold if they are spares for old equipment, that is manufactured prior to the lead free cut off date. Some processes, product and organisations are exempt but there are not many. In practice you would have to get somebody annoyed enough for them to want to have your product tested for lead as it can be an expensive process.

16 years, 7 months

MMJ connectors

by drb＠msu.edu

Got a note from Digi-Key today saying Tyco/AMP are discontinuing their 6p6c MMJ connectors (AMP #5-555236-2, Digi-Key #A24919-ND). Which leads me to the (somewhat rhetorical) question: are these things starting to vanish from the new market? DK doesn't seem to have any others, based on a quick web search. Mouser carries one brand. De

16 years, 7 months

TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies > From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> > Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:04:51 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Peter C. Wallace wrote: > >> The registers-in-memory architecture might be suitable for a FPGA CPU >> where BlockRAM (as system memory) is almost as fast as registers. Why >> not have registers in memory instead of simulatiing it badly (and >> expensively power wise) via caching, that is, why move data if you dont >> have to? There was a late version of 9900 that was done in I think bipolar or some strange combo process that was many times faster than the earlier machine be they NMOS or TTL. TI was not a MOS house for the most part and were ahead by doing like PDP-8 and PDP11 putting their earlier TTL machine on a chip. What they did wrong was to lag severely in marketing and advancing the technology. The 9900 was slow becuase at the time 2102s (fast ones were 400ns) were slow. By 4 years later ram would be down to 45NS (2147 and 2167 as examples). If the 9900 were to ramp up the clock as did the 8085 and Z80 by 1980 it would have gone from 2mhz to around 6-8mhz and that speed increase would have made it from a pure performance standpoint, fast. The speed would ahve been aciveable as the total transistor count on the die was far lower than most (few registers) and the complexity was fairly low. The sad story is they didn't. The TI99/4a was a sad detour that really didn't show off the CPU but did embody some interesing ideas. Grom was one. >Simple registers are expensive. Look at the PDP-5. This is the 1960's >when most architectures where developed. Even the PDP-10 I think Registers were costly when a FlipFlop was an entire board. Then they started to get two in a 16legged chip the cost was way lower and the advantage of having more registers was nowhere near as costly. Also PDP-5 was mid 60s and and we had PDP-10, PDP-11, CDC monsters UNIVAC 1180s and VAX ahead of us at that date. >was designed to use core memory as registers unless you want the >optional module for F/F registers. >Ben. Your thinking pdp6 and earlier. Allison

16 years, 7 months

Utilogic II (was these RTL or what?)

by aek＠bitsavers.org

>> I ran across some data in the pile of what I've been collecting, and there's >> some stuff there apparently by Signetics (?) referring to what they're >> calling "Utilogic II" -- is this stuff RTL or what? It doesn't say. Dates >> are in the late 1960s, and it looks like it, but I figured I'd ask in >> here... > > Goggle finds only a few hits for utilogic,and is mostly a odd chip for sale. > I suspect more TTL rather than DTL. Ben. look under http://bitsavers.org/pdf/signetics/_dataBooks/

16 years, 7 months

Tribute to Jim Butterfield at the Vintage Computer Festival (VCF X), November 4, 2007

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

There will be a session at the upcoming Vintage Computer Festival in Mountainview, California, to honor Jim's memory and the contributions he made to the community of computer hobbyists. Please join us if you can - http://www.vintage.org/2007/main/session.php#53 I hope this will be a chance to get together and share memories and stories - this will be a "gathering" rather than a "presentation". If you have videos, stories, artifacts, or ??? that you would like to share during this time, please let me know. And of course, please pass this information along to anyone who might be interested in joining us, either in person or in thought. Jack jack.rubin at ameritech.net 847.424.7320 days No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.13.39/1045 - Release Date: 10/2/2007 6:43 PM

16 years, 7 months

Cromemco Z-2D free to a good home

by matt.valerio＠gmail.com

Hey everybody, I acquired a Cromemco Z-2D for $2 at a garage sale a few years ago thinking "Holy cow that's a sweet rack-mount case". It's been sitting in my basement and I could use the space, so I figured I'd look into donating it to a good home where it would be appreciated (instead of just scrapping the parts fot the case like what I was going to do). Being a grad student right now doesn't give me much spare time to futz around with it, either. If there's anyone out there in the Columbus, OH area that wants it, just let me know! Have a good one, -Matt

16 years, 7 months

TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies

by kerobaros＠gmail.com

On Oct 3, 2007, at 12:48PM, Dave McGuire wrote: > On Oct 2, 2007, at 3:47 PM, Martin Scott Goldberg wrote: > >> There are really three 99/4 home computers, original with chiclet > >> keys, the > >> second and most common with a really nice keyboard and the whie > >> version that > >> is really the same thing with a few board level cost reductions. > > > > Actually, there's one TI-99/4 and two TI-99/4a models. > > What are the differences between them, does anyone know offhand? > > -Dave Apparently, I'm one of the resident TI-99 experts! The differences are almost exactly as Martin said; the 99/4 is the first computer he described, and the 4As are the second two. The 4's only benefit was the built-in 'Equation Calculator' mode; sure mark of TI's educational division. The 4As had, other than a better keyboard, the ability to use 'lowercase' (just small caps), and not much else. More info can be found at Thierry Nouspikel's pages, which are currently at <http://www.nouspikel.com/ti99/titech.htm>, and at the Mainbyte pages, at <http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/>. And now I'm out the door! ~Matt

16 years, 7 months

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test-drb October 2007