test-drb November 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

229 participants
508 discussions

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

Hello all, This may be somewhat off topic, but it certainly is a serious request. A little history first. About a year ago, I got a call from a company close where I live and asked me if I was interested in some old DEC documentation. I collected about an office cupboard full of usefull and less usefull material. Since July this year I work for them, and they now know me and what my hobby is (PDP-11's). I just got a call from the head of the repair dept (they repair a lot of weird things, including old DEC stuff). Basically he told me that management is considering to get rid of most of the older technical documentation archive. I have seen this archive, and it is about 100 meters of documentation, not only DEC stuff, but also some Sun Microsystems, HP and Dell material. Some of the manuals are available in several revisions, some not. All in all about 40 office cupboards in total....... One of the options is just to get rid of it, but another option is more favoured, which is to find a company or someone willing to scan it in. There is a budget, and one very likely possibility is to make the scanned material available for everyone except maybe those documents which are still considered valuable by the respective owner of this docu. So, now I'm looking for leads to individuals or organisation who have the capacity to scan this amount of material in and convert it into PDF formatted documents. If you have any lead or info, please contact me off-list. Thanks, Ed

17 years, 1 month

Timex-Sinclair 1000 with chiclet keyboard

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I found the oddest thing over at my friend James' ACCRC (Alameda County Computer Resource Center) operation. Walking through his office I spotted a Timex-Sinclair 1000. But this was no ordinary TS1000. Instead of a membrane keyboard (i.e. the flat, plastic piece of shit) it had a chiclet keyboard (i.e. the rubberized, raised key type). I have never seen this before. It seems to be an aftermarket add-on. It has an adhesive on the bottom perimeter that sticks over the original membrane keyboard. On the bottom of each key are circular pads that press against the membrane key when the chiclet key is depressed. It's pretty damn cool. Has anyone else ever seen one of these before? -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

17 years, 1 month

more OT sorry: anyone own a Stylistic 1000?

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

e-mail me thanks ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

17 years, 1 month

"Barn" finds - Victor 9000, Rex Microcomputer and Intersil DevelopmentSystem

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: "Barn" finds - Victor 9000, Rex Microcomputer and Intersil DevelopmentSystem > From: JP Hindin <jplist2007 at kiwigeek.com> > Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:03:04 -0600 (CST) > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Snippage>>>>> > >The next is a 'Rex Microcomputer System', model REX-1032, "Manufactured by >Realistic Controls Corporation of Davenport, Iowa". I'm guessing this is a >kit computer that's been put together by this local company, but "Rex >Micrcomputer" gets me nothing via google and breaking it down gives me >screeds of irrelevancies. The machine has a Z80 microprocessor, although >it might have another (ala Rainbow) and I just haven't dug far enough. REX was late like 1979 to early 80s not later than 1985 time frame. They were not seen around my travels and I wondered if they were really vaporware. It's a Z80 CP/M crate. More like Robin not Rainbow. >The last is quite a beasty, weighing plenty thanks to its significantly >hefty linear power supply. Intersil Development System, ISB 80DS 3020-120. >Got six apparently serial ports on the back with what I think is a console >cable hanging out one side. What I like best is the socket mounted in the >front plate for reading/writing 24 pin DIP chips. Two 8" drives with >diskettes in them, God only knows if they're still good after sitting out >for this long. Likely a 6100 (PDP-8 in cmos) powered deveopment system though they sold 1802, 80c85 and 80C88 too. With some TLC they sould still run if rust or corrosion are not evident. Allison

17 years, 1 month

dying DSHD 3.5" floppies

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Whilst going through my box to separate the wheat from the chaff in the 3.5" DSHD diskette department I remembered a tip from ages ago, and durned if it didn't work. Shake the diskette and put it back in the drive. Sounds silly, but it does work sometimes.

17 years, 1 month

Variations on Commodore monitors

by chaosotter76＠gmail.com

As part of the process of getting a second C128 system set up and running, I recently ordered another Commodore 1084 monitor from an eBay seller. The one I have is nice and bright and lets me switch quickly between the composite (40-column) and RGBI (80-column) outputs of the 128, so I was happy to stumble across another one for a reasonable price. It arrived last night, and it's a great little monitor, in even better shape than the one I already had. To my surprise, though, it's also completely different. The case is different, the form factor and positioning of the controls are different -- and, most relevantly, even the connectors are different. My older one (made in 1989) has a DB-9 input for RGBI input. The new arrival (made in 1988, if I recall correctly) has an 8-pin DIN input for RGBI input. Thankfully, I already had a DB-9 to DIN-8 cable in the Big Box of CBM Scraps, so I didn't have to order any cable-making parts from Mouser, but it does bring up a question: how many potentially problematic variations on the same model number did Commodore make? I know that they did a lot of this sort of thing, given the ever-changing appearance of the C2N and 1541, but is there a quick and easy question I can ask a seller to find out exactly what ports to expect on the back of a 1084 (or similar monitor)? "DB-9" and "8-pin DIN" are already way too difficult to explain to somebody just trying to clean out their attack, but if there's a guide out there with a breakdown by manufacturing date or serial number for some of this Commodore equipment, that would be lovely...

17 years, 1 month

Speaking of multiple processors...

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------Original Messages: Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:57:12 -0500 From: Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> Subject: Re: Speaking of multiple processors... > From: M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> > Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 11:29:05 -0500 >Cromemco also had Z80s on their I/O processor boards, and when the later 680x0 >CPU boards dropped the Z80 you could still run your Z80 programs on the I/O card. > >mike This is not uncommon. H89 had two, one for the terminal and the other was the processor for the computer. My NS*Horizon had two when I added the Teletek HDC(hard disk) as that has a local z80. When I added a smart FDC of my own design and later smart printer spooler and other IO with local cpu the nuber fo cpus grew. The Compupro system can easily have three, ZPB, Their mux board and any of the hard disk controllers. I have one that has 68000, 8085 and Z80 (maincpu, mux and Disk3). It's something that isn't unusual as it would seem. Allison ----------Reply: Well, I didn't say or imply that dual-CPUs like Cromemco's DPU and XPU or intelligent I/O co-processors like their IOP and Octart were uncommon; in fact I was just adding Cromemco to the list under discussion which ranged >from CDC big iron down to C-64s, and both C-64s and Cromemcos could easily have 4 or 5 CPUs talking to each other one way or another. But now that you mention it, I did think what Cromemco did when their XXU 68010/20 CPU board finally dropped the Z80 _was_ a little unusual; although the Z80 was gone from the processor board, your Z-80 CDOS or CP/M application could still use the Z80 on the existing I/O board when it wasn't handling I/O traffic. Did anyone else run *application* programs like a word processor or spreadsheet (as opposed to applications like the C-64's disk utilities) on an I/O co-processor board? And that's not quite the same either as e.g. an Apple or the SuperPet, which effectively just used the main system as console and memory for an *added* co-processor. Admittedly, at some point the distinctions do get a little blurred. m

17 years, 1 month

cctalk Digest, Vol 51, Issue 53

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:38:20 -0000 From: "Jim Attfield" <james at attfield.co.uk> Subject: Re: Speaking of multiple processors... <snip> >Absolutey. I have a couple of IOP cards here complete with Z-80, Z80-SIO and >firmware - very nice cards. <snip> >Jim -------- And 16K of RAM; also, that firmware is actually a monitor program which you can access from either side (you can use a terminal on the 'output' side or use the IOPEX program to turn the main computer into a "terminal" talking to the monitor over the S100 bus), and play around in the IOP's memory etc.) Essentially a small SBC in its own right. m

17 years, 1 month

NorthStar disks

by dm561＠torfree.net

20 HS North Star disks in binder on eBay, item # 140179267172 (nothing to do with me)

17 years, 1 month

BBC coverage: Colossus vs. Modern hardware

by cclist＠sydex.com

Here's an interesting little segment I just heard on the Beeb about the Colossus reconstruction at Bletchley Park: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094881.stm Cheers, Chuck

17 years, 1 month

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test-drb November 2007