test-drb November 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

229 participants
508 discussions

SGI Onyx - Three Phase to Two Phase conversion

by jplist2007＠kiwigeek.com

Greetings all; I'm reading up on the Onyx (rackmount, original Onyx) and the manual says that units with three power supplies (OLS') are configured for three phase, and units with two OLS' are configured for two phase. While my machine does have the optional lower VME card cage and also the second SCSI box (thus necessitating the 3 OLS'), I won't be likely to use either of them. 220v I can do (handy-dandy nearby 40A circuit for a stove) - 3 phase would require wiring changes in the building. Is anyone aware if there was an established procedure to go from 3 phase back to 3 phase on these units? Could I be lucky enough to have someone here who has done it? Thanks! JP Hindin

16 years, 8 months

Last call : Flexowriter model 2309 to be scrapped.

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

Unless someone takes it off me, a basket case Friden Flexowriter will hit the big smelter in the sky. It is a later model 2309. Location : Zurich Switzerland. Shipping is a no-no. I bought it on ebay for 10$, but it turned out to be more effort to repair than I am willing to invest. BTW the seller compensated me with a nice, functional ASR-33 AND an SWTPC CT1024... Jos

16 years, 8 months

WTB: LIM/EMS/XMS 16-bit ISA memory expansion board

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: WTB: LIM/EMS/XMS 16-bit ISA memory expansion board > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:03:21 -0800 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 3 Nov 2007 at 20:25, Allison wrote: > >> Sounds like someone looking for an ASk 6Pak Pro. > >Do you mean "AST"? Yep. Finally retired the nasty keyboard. > No, not really--I don't need all the other glarf; ;) Well I was hoping.. >just the memory. There was a plethora of makers of memory expansion >boards for the 286. I like the Intel Aboveboards, myself and avoid >the Everex versions, for example. Aboveboard was a good one. I have one paired with with my Intel Inboard386. Allison >Cheers, >Chuck

16 years, 8 months

Kaypro 4/84 questions

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Kaypro 4/84 questions > From: Brian Wheeler <bdwheele at indiana.edu> > Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:13:40 -0500 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >I recently acquired a Kaypro 4/84 and I'm in the process of cleaning it >up and getting it happy. > >There are a couple of problems with it that maybe someone can shed some >light on: >* one of the keyboard latches is broken. Anyone know a good substitute >and/or workaround? I don't care so much about it, but it'd be nice to >be able to lug it into the kitchen and carry something else at the same >time :) > >* They keyboard cable is missing, but I substituted a keyboard cable >from a DEC terminal keyboard and it seems to work. The tech manual I >found online says that using a phone cord causes dropped characters due >to the smaller wire gauge, so I'm hoping that this cable will be sturdy >enough. The DEC cable is about the best choice available. >* There is a screw in the 2nd floppy drive opening. I've tried removing >the drive sled (via the screws on the bottom), but alas it seems like >the drives have to come out of the front individually. The screws are >pretty solidly inserted and I cannot get them loose without stripping >them. I'm not able to get to the inner ones easily without removing the >motherboard and the monitor. Is it possible to take the bezel off of >the drive and then slide the cage backward and then out? The drives are >the shugart ones. Mine had screws top and bottom. They tended to vary things. >* I'd like to replace the 2nd drive with a 3.5" floppy. I've found a >Sony HD drive along with a power and plug converter. Knowing that PCs >use a twisted cable scheme, what things should I be aware of when >cabling in this new drive? Will it be supported in some manner by the >software? Its not a big deal if it turns out to be a 360K 3.5" floppy, >as long as its readable by my linux box. I've done this using a 3.5" to 5.25" adaptor. The software will not utilize the full 80 tracks of the 3.5" floppy and possibly both sides if the roms are not updated. The Advent turborom with disk personality card and likely others support this. The drives I used had the 1-4 jumper like 5.25" floppies so it was a matter of pin to card edge adaptor, power adaptor and drive select jumper. For later drives you make have no choice but to make a "funny cable" to do drive select. the reason for that is those drives are locked to cable select. Allison

16 years, 8 months

PC AT ROM Patch?

by cclist＠sydex.com

I can boot my 10 MHz AT clone with the IBM Version 1 (01/10/84) ROM just fine, but the Version 3 (11/15/85) beeps out a system board error (long-short). I seem to recall that the Version 3 BIOS checked for an 8MHz CPU clock and complained if it was anythng else. I know that the Ver. 2 BIOS checked for a 6MHz clock. Is my memory correct--and does anyone know of a patch? I could do a little digging into the POST code, but I'd rather not duplicate someone else's effort. Cheers, Chuck

16 years, 8 months

SGI workstation sequence

by jvdg＠sparcpark.net

Sridhar Ayengar wrote: > David Griffith wrote: >>> 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 seem to recall the O2 coming out in 1999, roughly at the same time as >> the Octane. > > Didn't the O2, O20 (Octane), O200 and O2000 come out at roughly the same > time? More or less. Besides that, the Indigo2 and Indy represent a split in the low-end line, both being offspring of the Indigo, with O2 being Indy's successor and Octane being Indigo2's successor. The O200 was the offspring of the Challenge S (and M) low-end server offering. The Fuel and Tezro are also pretty much complementary machines. Also, since Octane sported the Cube logo, I seriously doubt that 1999 introduction date. The logo was changed in 1997/1998 and debuted on the Octane2/O2+ in the IRIS workstation line. Here's the family tree, then: /-> Indigo2 -> Octane -> Octane2 -> Tezro Personal Iris -> Indigo -< \-> Indy -> O2 -> O2+ -> Fuel ,xtG tsooJ

16 years, 8 months

List Issues

by ploopster＠gmail.com

Did anyone else just get a flood of older unread emails from the list all at once within the last few hours? Peace... Sridhar

16 years, 8 months

An old dream come true: Iris Indigo!

by robinson＠shlrc.mq.edu.au

Hi gang, > > > Can I use a PC mouse/keyboard with that? > > > > You cannot. You need to use a SGI keyboard and mouse. > I have plugged a PC kybd/mouse into a SGI Crimson and an Octane and they seemed to work OK. > > > 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. > Needed a special cable so I used a Sun cable on the SGI monitor. Worked OK. Have not tried any other monitors. Regards Ray vk2ilv

16 years, 8 months

VCFX

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

I have posted some VCFX photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Joy.Wayne/VintageComputerFestivalX Labels to follow.

16 years, 8 months

8" disk drive project - maybe 3.5" project too???

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: 8" disk drive project - maybe 3.5" project too??? > From: Grant Stockly <grant at stockly.com> > Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:32:34 -0900 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > > >>Write trim erase is a signal to the head assembly (driver) that turns on >>the erase segment of the head for erasing the area either side of the head. >>It's also called tunnel erase. This gives some tolerence to off track reading >>as the intertrack gaps are "clean". Tunnel erase is still part of all >>floppy drives but is activated by Write-enable and you never "hear" of it. >> >>In 1976 all this was new and magical until Sugart came out with the much >>simplified 5.25 SA400. > > From reading the information on the Internet I have pretty much >guessed that much, that it was done automatically on new drives. > >> >Any comments or ideas on the idea? Is it worth trying? I've got a >> >very weird tarbell card that formats and uses 3.5" disks as a 70k >> >mini floppy. I guess anything is possible. : ) >> >>Myself I'd persue something using a 5.25 or 3.5" drive with a current >>softsector interface to the drive and enough CPU smarts to fake looking >>like the Altair interface which was dumb as a rock and depended on the >>8080 to do most everything. > >That is what I was thinking about too. I was thinking about a >controller that hot wired into the existing drive card set. Drive 1 >would activate the fake 3.5" disk or flash memory and drive 0 would >activate the 8" drive for example. That would allow for easy >migration from 8" to a different format. If you can that works. >It would also be nice to have a media readable on a PC. A 3.5" disk >with the fake hard sector formatting wouldn't be possible... Thats impostant as most users will find the availble on media offerings a bit thin is you go with hard sector (faked or real). >What do you think about drive RPM? Should I be able to fake the 32 >hard sectors at any rate I want as long as its as fast or slower than >the 8" drive? I won't touch that. It's one of many warrens and burrows to dive into. >The 3.5" disk should be writing the bits at whatever >bit rate is requested, right? The only reason I want to do the 3.5" >disk interface with faking 32 hard sectors is because it would be a >fast way to get going. Hardly any hardware development required. Drive rpm is always a problem. Even for soft sector the data sep has to deal with that. Faked hard sector is just causing additional pain. Take it from someone that uses a NS* hard sector system where the media and the controller are far more common and pretty reliable and it's a major pain. Media is hard to get and hard sector always was a closed gate to transfering software. I felt the nonportable media was always a major pain and handicap. I still maintain a "stock NS* Horizon" as an artifact but due to media availability and portability my second Horizon that I do use a lot has a softsector controller and hard disk as primary storage. I'd suggest two things: Do complete Altair disk and drives and 1 floppy with it and make additional media the users problem like in 1976, 1980, 1985 and more so now. Or a completely new controller (non replica) that acts like the Altair part (runs unaltered altair basic and all) but is normal softsector using easier to get 5.25 or 3.5 media with portability (and PC as a disk generator) in mind. This would make the system more easily shown and used. Also the user can than have CP/M as well as it was also historically important to any Altair user of the time. Like the 8800BT I have the few that had the Altair contoller usually added a Tarbell or other later on to gain access to the larger software market. Those that started with the base Altair and were slower to go to floppy often didn't even bother with the altair disk and use NS*, Tarbel or one of a handful of others with NS*dos or CP/M as the OS platform. It would be interesting to see how many Altairs (all versions of the 8800) wer sold and then how many disk controllers. I suspect based on my experince of the time it will be something like 20:1 likely greater. The reason was at that time by 1977 the cost differential was fairly great to have Altair floppy disk over brand-x and CP/M was seen a cleary the up and comming OS. It also was a factor that long shipping delays by MITS at times and problems experinced by some tended to push some more toward the after market add ons. My experience, I built and tested the first Altair FDC sold on LI for a company. Just my opinion. Allison >Thanks! > >Grant

16 years, 8 months

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test-drb November 2007