test-drb November 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

229 participants
508 discussions

"Barn" finds - Victor 9000, Rex Microcomputer and Intersil Development System

by jplist2007＠kiwigeek.com

Hey all; My wife's grandfather started a company that made the first digital meter for propane (and other gaseous) distribution and they're clearing out their old facility (which the family calls the Car Barn, for his collection of vintage Packards now stored there). Couple of goodies, but I'm afraid I'm having trouble finding much on some of them, thought perhaps those out there might be able to help. The first is a Victor 9000 which I found some descriptions of and, thanks to Al, a manual on BitSavers. I'll dig into that one later. 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. 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. I'll give all of the above a good part of the day to warm back up (20F last night in Iowa and they sat out in my car, the boards are now sufficiently slick with condensation in my office) and see what I get. I have a monitor for the Victor and the Rex (a rather adorable 8" Sanyo TV), we'll see what happens on the Intersil. I'd love to hear from anyone who is famaliar with these, on or off-list, your choice. JP Hindin Iowa

16 years, 8 months

S100 Floppy Controller Question

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: S100 Floppy Controller Question > From: M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> > Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:13:48 -0500 > To: "'cctalk at classiccmp.org'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >---------------Original Message: > >Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:51:09 -0500 >From: Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> >Subject: Re: S100 Floppy Controller Question >To: cctech at classiccmp.org >Message-ID: <0JRD004G7656LL73 at vms044.mailsrvcs.net> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 > >> >>Subject: Re: S100 Floppy Controller Question >> From: M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> >> Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:33:20 -0500 >> To: "'cctalk at classiccmp.org'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > ><snip> >>I think Tim's point was that if your controller's smart enough to deal with a >>relatively modern 8" drive like a TM848 it could probably deal equally >>well with a 5.25" HD drive and you could transparently restore an 8" image >>(if you have one) to the 5.25" disk. The controller (and CP/M) would not >>even know that it's a 5.25 instead of an 8"; my Cromemcos certainly don't, >>although a different FDC might well require some mods to the BIOS. > >Different FDC WILL require a different bios. Same for SERIAL IO. > >Allison > >-----------Reply: > >I think you might have misunderstood, Allison; sounds like you thought I was >talking about replacing an FDC with one other than what the BIOS is configured >for; obviously that will require mods to the BIOS. Ok, then same fdc but sufficiently differnt drive requires new (modified) bios. Changes that affect a bios: Motor on/motor runs continiously. Step rate, head load delay, motor on delay Different on disk format (likely with 8 to 5") >What I was responding to was a previous post that suggested replacing an 8" >drive with a 5 1/4" HD drive might require mods to the BIOS, and I just wanted >to mention that this is not the case with a Cromemco 16/64FDC, to which a >TM848 and a JU475 appear identical as long as the jumpers on the 5 1/4 drive >are set correctly and it supplies /READY, and that this may also apply to some >other controllers. Also, if the controller has both 8" and 5 1/4 connectors and >they are effectively in parallel as they are on the Cromemco, you may not >even need a 50<>34 pin adapter cable. if the drive supplies ready _MAYBE_. If the Drive has the same step rate. >Nevertheless, controllers meant for some of the older, non-'standard' 8" drives >probably will require changes to the BIOS, and likely also hardware mods. BTDT, drive changes ultimately a BIOS and in few cases the mods are small and most not interchangeable. Allison > >mike

16 years, 8 months

Who keeps buying DECTalks?

by dm561＠torfree.net

-------------Original Message(s): Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:25:13 -0800 From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: On 11 Nov 2007 at 20:49, Jim Leonard wrote: > The digitized examples (Kennedy, etc.) weren't that much better > either... I wonder, with modern computers making the FFT analysis, could > the computalker produce intelligible output? I can only assume that the > original analysis was limited by the speed of its day. I don't know--the CT was a strange board. I do recall at one point having a Votrax Type'n'Talk RS-232 text-to-speech box installed on a terminal. To this day, I still say "ok" (rhymes with "sock")... ;) Cheers, Chuck -----------------Reply; Same here; one of the Cromemcos had a Votrax on a dedicated port that announced the user's name and port no. when he/she logged in, and for many years I've had a PC set up with an RS-232 speech card that announces the caller's name and number when my phone rings, as well as logging the call. mike

16 years, 8 months

S100 Floppy Controller Question

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:51:09 -0500 From: Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> Subject: Re: S100 Floppy Controller Question To: cctech at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <0JRD004G7656LL73 at vms044.mailsrvcs.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 > >Subject: Re: S100 Floppy Controller Question > From: M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> > Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:33:20 -0500 > To: "'cctalk at classiccmp.org'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> <snip> >I think Tim's point was that if your controller's smart enough to deal with a >relatively modern 8" drive like a TM848 it could probably deal equally >well with a 5.25" HD drive and you could transparently restore an 8" image >(if you have one) to the 5.25" disk. The controller (and CP/M) would not >even know that it's a 5.25 instead of an 8"; my Cromemcos certainly don't, >although a different FDC might well require some mods to the BIOS. Different FDC WILL require a different bios. Same for SERIAL IO. Allison -----------Reply: I think you might have misunderstood, Allison; sounds like you thought I was talking about replacing an FDC with one other than what the BIOS is configured for; obviously that will require mods to the BIOS. What I was responding to was a previous post that suggested replacing an 8" drive with a 5 1/4" HD drive might require mods to the BIOS, and I just wanted to mention that this is not the case with a Cromemco 16/64FDC, to which a TM848 and a JU475 appear identical as long as the jumpers on the 5 1/4 drive are set correctly and it supplies /READY, and that this may also apply to some other controllers. Also, if the controller has both 8" and 5 1/4 connectors and they are effectively in parallel as they are on the Cromemco, you may not even need a 50<>34 pin adapter cable. Nevertheless, controllers meant for some of the older, non-'standard' 8" drives probably will require changes to the BIOS, and likely also hardware mods. mike

16 years, 8 months

MIT provides MULTICS source and documentation

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, I don't know if anyone else noticed but MIT has released the source (and documentation) to MULTICS. The link is: http://web.mit.edu/multics-history/ I haven't gone through it (yet) but thought I should bring this great news to everyone's attention. -- TTFN - Guy

16 years, 8 months

Docs for Chipcom ONline System Concentrator and Online NCS

by steve＠radiorobots.com

Hi, Trying to re-create, at least on paper, a system I used in the early '90s. Looking for docs for Chipcom ONline concentrator and NCS. Thanks, Steve

16 years, 8 months

More pollution- Onyx (1) in California, also free

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

http://forums.nekochan.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16005 Don't know if he'll ship, but move fast if you're interested.

16 years, 8 months

beckmen industrial circuitmate 9020 osilloscope operaters manual

by thenicnics＠tiscali.co.uk

Hi Dan Please would you contact me if you still have a Beckman industrial circuitmate 9020 oscilloscope operators manual MANY THANKS Gary Nicholson

16 years, 8 months

DEC sun3 gear available in Ottawa

by dave06a＠dunfield.com

Hi Guys, A friend of mine is cleaning his basement, and offers up some equipment, located near Ottawa, Ontario Canada. Please see: http://www.ba23.org/blog/2007/11/12/index.html#free > Free gear available for pick-up in Ottawa. Will consider shipping > if you are willing to pay packaging and shipping costs. > > I need to get this stuff out of my basement. > > - Sun 3/50 and Sun 3/160 > - MicroVAX-II in a BA123 enclosure > - DEC RL02 drives > - AlphaServer 2100 > - DECstation 3100 > - SPARCstation IPC > - VT100 Tempest > > > There will be more gear available. I will update this webpage as > I sort out the gear -- http://www.ba23.org/page0290.html -- 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

16 years, 8 months

MIT provides MULTICS source and documentation

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

From: Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> > > Brian L. Stuart wrote: > > segmentation structure. Unfortunately, it's only got 32-bit > > addresses. Even in the 60s, the Multics machines had 36. > > Pardon my ignorance, but were there any places where the top four bits > were actually used? I mean, I don't believe there was a machine back > then capable of running MULTICS and also having more than 8Gb primary > storage. Wouldn't it be possible to fake it by just chopping off the > four most-significant bits and using the remaining 32? It's the virtual addresses you really care about. So the limit of physical memory is really a diffent issue. The address was used in 2 18-bit parts. The upper part was the segment number and the lower the offset into the segment. That meant segments could be no more the 256K and you could have no more than 256K of them. Because there was a one-to-one correspondence between files and segments, that would have limited files to 256K. They did some "stuff" to get around that, but I don't think it's what you'd do if you were starting from scratch, or maybe even doing a fresh port. If you divided the 32-bit address into a 14-bit segment number and 18-bit offset, then you could keep the same segment size and the only limit would be that a process could use no more than 16K segments. All in all, it'd be a whole lot more fun to use a 64-bit machine and divide it into 32 and 32. BLS

16 years, 8 months

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test-drb November 2007