test-drb September 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

220 participants
406 discussions

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Look further down the list for a post entitled "Re: New acquisition" This guy has the the most boo-ti-ful DS570 Decdatasystem I have ever seen. All the right periperials, LA36 console priner, VT crt and what looks like an LP11 line printer. Get a load of that lights and switches front panel. I think the DS570 is the 11/70 version. Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rod Smallwood Sent: 17 September 2007 17:39 To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only Subject: RE: Help identifying a PDP-11 A couple of other things have come to mind. DEC DataSystem usually indicated that it supported *DIBOL running under OS/8, RT11 or VMS They were intended to be a business package system ready run and often included training, installation and maintenance. There's a possible confusion here 'DEC System' refered to a DEC10 or DEC20 and DEC DataSystem to one of these package jobs. *Program Structure like COBOL. Syntax like Fortran/BASIC. BCD Arithmetic Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tim Shoppa Sent: 17 September 2007 13:50 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Help identifying a PDP-11 > Can anyone help me identify my latest PDP-11 rescue. Not been able to > get a good look at it yet as it is in a room packed (and I mean > packed) with junk. Machine consists of a DEC Datasystems cab (about > 35-40U with a blue bottom panel, pretty similar to light blue cabs here: > http://www.computermuseum.li/Liste/Digital/PDP11.70.4.html) > I'm not familiar with the DEC Datasystems versions of PDP-11s. Does > anyone have any background information on them? > Also, I'm pretty sure I've not lucked out and found an 11/70 as no > toggle switch console, any ideas on what other models were fitted to > these cabs. I'm guessing 11/34. That is an 11/70, but with the "remote diagnostics console". You will find a M8255 KY11-RE in there to connect up a modem to give remote console access. Probably hooked up to a modem that was owned by DEC maintenance org and leased as part of the maintenance agreement. I'm sure that sometimes they asked for the modem and console back if the maintenance contract was terminated but as a practical matter I find that they hardly ever reclaimed the equipment. Tim.

16 years, 9 months

New acquisition

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, I just wanted to let y'all know that I recently acquired a DEC 2065. I put up a quick web page of how my shop is being reorganized to accommodate the new "toy". Warning this is not a permanent location (ie if you link to it you may not find it in a month). http://web.mac.com/ggs17/site -- TTFN - Guy

16 years, 9 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 49, Issue 51

by dm561＠torfree.net

----------------Original message: Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:57:59 +0100 (BST) From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) Subject: Re: PS/2 Interface (was: Wang 300 Calc] >> When I think about it, the MITS 8800 had connector punchouts for DB25 >> *only* in the back panel. DB25 seemed to be the lingua franca back >> then for hobbyist interfaces. If one had an 8" floppy drive, one ran >> the ribbon cable right through the crack between the back panel and >> the case cover directly to the controller card(s). No DD50s. >I have an S100 amchine called a CASU Super C. It contains a Cromemco CPU >board, some other stnadard 64K RAM bvoard, a Micromation Doubler disk >controller and CASU-designed boot ROM and seiral interface boards. >The disk drive (a Persci) is in a separate box. The 50 wire interface >cable is split down the middle adn connected to a pair of DB25s... >-tony ---------------Reply: Cromemco did the same thing with their external 8" IMI hard disks; the Z-2 could have one internal (sacrificing half the slots to make room) but if you wanted more you got a 2-drive HDD cabinet the same size as the Z-2 connected through 2 DB25s. mike

16 years, 9 months

[SPAM(date)] Tore's website

by toresbe＠ifi.uio.no

http://gunkies.org/stuff/CV.html

16 years, 9 months

Catweasel Mk1-3 not suitable for archiving - why?

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi, I've been doing some more work on the FDD reader/writer, and I came across an interesting note on the Software Preservation Society website: > We cannot yet support the Catweasel for technical reasons, primarily because > it does not yet enable us to read disks in sufficient detail for dumping, nor > does it allow writing IPF files back to disk. And while it does seem that the > Mk4 would be suited to the job, current models are still running Mk3 firmware > and drivers, meaning that we are still no closer forward in this regard. > > As soon as Mk4 firmware is available for these cards, we will do our best to > obtain one with a view to support it for these purposes. Until then, our hands > are tied. [http://www.softpres.org/glossary:catweasel] Now what I'd like to know is, what part of the Catweasel's design prevents it >from being used for archiving discs? From what I remember, the Amiga FDD controller is a bog-standard raw reader with an MFM sync detector. All it does is sync up to a bitstream and read it >from the disc as a raw stream until it gets told to A) shut up or B) receives another MFM sync. From what I've read, the Catweasel differs only in that it measures the timing between bits, and can do MFM pre-decoding. So what part of its design makes it such a bad choice for this kind of work? FWIW, I'm almost at the point where I can start thinking about doing the PCB designs for the USB floppy disc reader/writer. I've found a solution to the lack of I/Os on the microcontroller (which involves adding a second CPLD to act as an bus expander - probably over I2C). I'm going to do some testing on the bus expander Verilog code tonight, and update the schematics, then any spare time I get next week will probably be spent working on the PCB artwork. My intention is to take a weekend off work at some point in the next month to build up the prototype and do some coding and testing. If all goes well, I might do a small production run in November, depending on interest. -- Phil. | (\_/) This is Bunny. Copy and paste Bunny classiccmp at philpem.me.uk | (='.'=) into your signature to help him gain http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | (")_(") world domination. Phil, I have seen the SPS website you mentioned and read this thread but for the life of me I cannot understand why the Catweasel would be unsuitable for archiving vintage computer floppy disks. If fact, I think a Catweasels raw "bit dump" would be the idea archiving format since it records all the details found on the track. Maybe wrap the raw data in a container format with metadata like the DMK. With Catweasel, you can see everything on the track clock, data, junk, etc. Whatever is there you can see it in the raw data. Once you have the raw bit dump you could make near identical copies or write programs to extract the data files, work with emulators, etc. Regardless of the SPS position, I know some people are already using the Catweasel for archiving vintage computers. Tim Mann's software pretty much covers the almost the whole soft sector disk format spectrum and Jim Battle made a SOL-20/PTDOS hard sector disk imaging program. I think someone else made a program to archive Data General disks. Catweasel seems like the way to go to me. If there is something else out there as good, especially for the hard sector disks, I would certainly like to hear about it. Has anyone tried Disk2FDI on any hard sector formats? It sounds interesting and inexpensive if it works. Thanks! Andrew Lynch

16 years, 9 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 49, Issue 46, Message 18, PS/2 Interface (was: Wang 300 Calc]

by mike＠brickfieldspark.org

Try www.bulgin.co.uk and go for the General Connectors page (http://www.bulgin.co.uk/Products/GenPurpose_Connectors/GenPurpose_Connector…) Many type on that page but I think you should see what is described towards the bottm. Mike. > Anyway, the connectors I am thinking of were part of as series. They were > circular, most of them were chassis mouting plugs and cable sockets. The > plug was recessed into the panel, and the socket part fitted into it. > There were 1.5A and 5A versions with 2, 3, or 6 pins. Polaraision was > acheaived by a groove down the side of the socket part and a > corresponding ridge in the recessed plug. In many cases the wire > terminals on the socket part were covered by a simple screw-on cap which > means they're not not approved for use above 50V (since you can unscrew > said cap and get access to live parts without the use of a tool). There > were later mocels of some of the sockets with the cover held on by > screws, AFAIK those are still OK for mains use. > > If you like I can tey to find the part numbers for them. > > -tony > >

16 years, 9 months

PS/2 Interface (was: Wang 300 Calc]

by dm561＠torfree.net

--------------Original Message: Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:09:17 +0100 (BST) From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) Subject: Re: Wang 300 Calc > > On 13/09/2007, Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote: > > > It still doesn't excuse having a physically-but-not-functionally > > interchangeable connector for PS/2 mice and keyboards, though. That is > > where USB has a big win. > > Absolutely 100% concur. That was criminally stupid. IIRC, the PS/2 mouse interface and PS/2 keyboard interface are very similar. Both are TTL level interfaces with clock and data lines, both have 4 signals on the connector (+5V, ground, clock, data), and the data transfer protocol is much the same. IIRC, the pin assignemts of the 2 interfaces is the same too, and it's possible to make a device where you can plug the mouse and keyboard into either connector, and detect what sort of device is plugged into a given socket. The fact that most PCs didn't let you do that is not the fault of the interface. So why not use the same connector for the 2 interfaces? -tony -----------------Reply: Why not indeed; old Compaq laptops have a single connector which will accept either a mouse or an external keyboard (an external key_pad_ used a submini earphone-type connector). IBM allowed for both together; a mouse or external keypad connected directly to the single connector while an external keyboard required a Y adapter which routed the keyboard clock & data signals to the two unused pins. And then there are the dual-mode mice which put RS-232 on the unused pins and came with an adapter so they could be used either way... Laptops were probably also a reason for reducing the size of the connector. "Criminally stupid"? I suppose you'd also want incompatible connectors for the right & left channels of your stereo? ;-) Funny how on the one hand I read the sentiment here that people should be required to pass a course in advanced computer science before being allowed to plug in a computer, and then that they should be so simple to hook up that a retarded^H^H^H^H mentally-challenged blind^H^H^H vision-impaired chimpanzee could do it; just no pleasing some folks... m

16 years, 9 months

Computer rescue -- Honeywell DDP-116 pictures

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

I've put up some more pictures of the Honeywell DDP-116s >from my recent rescue at www.ddp116.org . --Bill

16 years, 9 months

Catweasel Mk1-3 not suitable for archiving - why?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

>> The FDI format (google "Disk2FDI") is open and complete, and there's a >> few emulators supporting it (WinUAE, others that are also non-Amiga). >> Doesn't require a catweasel either. > > Wow, looks like it can handle both raw bitstreams, and decoded bitstreams too, > not to mention fully decoded sectors... It doesn't appear they've ever has do deal with anything but soft-sectored formats though.

16 years, 9 months

Catweasel Mk1-3 not suitable for archiving - why?

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

16 years, 9 months

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test-drb September 2007