> Woah. That is a huge deal! I can't imagine the amount of time &
> patience that went into making this agreement.
The exciting thing is this is the most comprehensive agreenment we've ever
been able to get from a computer manufacturer, and we're hoping we can use
it as an example for other systems.
Anna Mancini, the HP corporate archivist, along with the corporate PR department has always been very aware of and friendly to historians and hobbyists. For example they're allowing me to republish the 1979 Gordon Dickson story, "Thank you, Beep" which they commissioned for an issue of the HP Calculator Journal -- the article was never published elsewhere or online. So I am happy, but definitely not surprised, to hear this news about the manuals.
On 2/11/07 09:35, "Gordon JC Pearce" <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote:
> That's it exactly. It was the Akai S612 - or more specifically, the Akai
> MD280 external disk drive. IIRC the sampler could be bought without the
> drive, and either send and receive samples over sysex or from tape. I
> *think* it had 48k of memory.
>
> I passed up the chance to buy one, with the drive and a large library of
> disks, for 50 quid in a music shop in Inverness a few years ago. Oh well.
>
> Gordon
Great little piece of kit. The samples were 12-bit (from memory) and there
was *the best* interface for trimming samples I've ever encountered -
basically two sliders representing 0 - 100% of the sample length. The top
represented "start" and the bottom "end". If the "start" slider was further
along than the "end" slider it would play the sample in reverse, still
obeying the trim length - genius! MIDI compatible too....
I'm ashamed to say I threw mine out a few years ago after the disk unit got
crushed (still functional, mind you). The right hand side of the disk unit
was just red metal diagonal slots for storing the diskettes - pure 80's
chic!
-Austin.
I have an old Xerox Memorywriter 630 typewriter. It works great except for the fact that it needs a new set of membranes in the keyboard. I can get a set of the membranes but I have no idea how to install them. Any help out there?
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Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2007 15:43:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu>
Subject: modern serial terminal
I'm thinking of a device about the size of a couple CD jewel cases that
has two serial ports, a ps/2 or usb port, VGA port, power jack, and
perhaps a JTAG header concealed within. This device is a regular RS232
serial terminal. Plug in a monitor, keyboard, and something talking rs232
and you're ready to go. Inside there would be a microprocessor, some ram,
some flash, and an FPGA to take care of glue logic and talking to the VGA
port. The FPGA would be loaded with the digital schematics of a
particular terminal and its firmware, for instance, a Wyse 85 or 99GT (my
favorites). That would get you most of the usual emulations.
How hard would it be to create something like this? How much would it
cost?
---------------------------
Take an old Laptop, remove the screen and you're in business. Probably
wouldn't cost anything, especially if the screen's broken; boot & run
>from floppy or USB if the HD's bad.
You've even got a built-in keyboard for those times you can't find the main one.
(and, if it's still got a parallel port, a parallel ASCII keyboard if you need one),
And you could probably listen to your favourite CD while you're working...
A little bigger than two jewel cases but a cinch to upgrade...
Not to mention one less land-fill item...
m
I got a file box full of 30-pin 9-bit 4 megabyte SIMMs if anyone has
need of them.
Most are 80nS, going down to 60nS, and even a few 3-chip "why bothers"
(curiously with Sun numbering). Many 9-chip Sun 501-1739 parts if you
want original
Unsorted or semi-sorted chips (same-manufacturer, I went through many
bags to come up with enough Toshibas to max out my Personal IRIS 4D/25)
are free for shipping. If you want a matched set or guaranteed 70nS (or
60nS) kick in a little more to make it worth my while to sort through
the bin.
Probably not a high-interest item, but thought I'd pass them on if
needed. In Renton, WA.
Alexandre Souza wrote:
>> They were used on some MSX home computers, although I have only ever read
>> about them (and seen pictures). I don't think they were commonplace
>> outside of Japan and Korea. They were sort of a cross between tape and
>> disk media; data was written sequentially in a spiral pattern on the disk.
>
> MSX with 3.25 disks? Is that the QD drive?
No. QD disks are 2.8". Several drives are mentioned here: <http://www.faq.msxnet.org/hardware.html>
,xtG
tsooJ
Please bear with me one more time... What was that URL to the stuff about
the mythic 3.25" floppy disk? (the one that looked like a shrunken 5.25"
and loaded onto a tray).
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
Re: Looking for IMI drives for a Cromemco:
Another solution would be to find an STDC HD controller; then you could
use most ST406/512 drives, and they'd also be quite a bit faster (and it
would be a lot cheaper to ship ;-). I'm running two 150MB Maxtors and
two 20MB IMIs on the same system BTW.
I don't believe there are any CDOS drivers for it though, so you'd have
to run any CDOS or CP/M programs in Cromix.
As an aside, there's also an ESDI/SCSI controller; they're pretty scarce
and your card set wouldn't support one AFAIK, but there is at least one
person out there putting a 1.2GB disk into his Cromemco (you know who
you are); not sure if it's working yet though, looks like the drive may be bad.
mike
-------------Original Messages:
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:41:24 -0000
From: "Jim Attfield" <james at attfield.co.uk>
Subject: RE: WTB/WTT S-100 Chassis (UK/Europe only)
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:57:19 -0400
From: M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net>
Subject: WTB/WTT S-100 Chassis (UK/Europe only)
------------Reply:
I have several IMI 20MB (and 5MB) drives, but they're also on the wrong side
of the Atlantic (Toronto). Also, I'm not sure at this point how many are
still
working reliably or how many I can spare (if any). I have scrapped a few
though,
so if you happen to find an ST-412/506 version (they were used in some PCs)
I could probably send you the PCBs to convert it.
Why not just build a nice custom case & PS?
mike
------------------------------
Hi Mike, glad to see they are still around to be had. Shipping a 20Mb IMI
wouldn't be as bad as shipping a Z2D lol Nice tip on the PC drives although
I believe I have only ever seen Seagate, Rodime, Micropolis, IBM etc. but
I'll look more carefully from now on. Please keep me in mind, though, as
soon as I have a chassis of some sort organised I'll want to run up the
WDI-II (was a working pull from my old CS1-H, no longer with me, along with
the DPU , 16-FDC and 256KZ) and get Cromix back on the go.
Jim
I'll be heading up to VCF tomorrow and will be bringing quite a bit of stuff. A
partial list can be found at:
http://www.west.net/~marvin/2007vcf.txt
Also, for those of you who either live in the area or will be attending VCF, the
Livermore swapmeet is Sunday starting at about 6:30AM or so. My intention right
now is to go there with a selling spot ... it makes a great place to meet people
AND store stuff bought there :) ... and head back to VCF about 10:30AM or so.
Livermore is approximately 30 minutes or so from the CHM. If anyone is
interested and needs a ride, see me at VCF.
