test-drb January 2008

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

221 participants
430 discussions

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

I've more of these than anyone will need and they're all brand new. 3 packs of Bernoulli 5.25 44meg disks KAO 5.25 88meg syquest disks. The label inside says they are formatted for Macs but includes software for wintel machines also. $1 each plus whatever for shipping and they're yours. Just say how many you want. -- I am not willing to give up my privacy for the false promise of 'security'

16 years, 5 months

microvax 3800 available in NE ohio

by vax9000＠gmail.com

Hello people, I am dumping my small collection. If anybody is interested and is able to pick it up, you are welcome to get it. I do not ship or store. It was a complete microvax 3800 (upgraded to 3900) but I took the KA655 to fix my barebone 3900. You get the computer with RA7? DISK, DSSI disk controller, memory, ethernet card, tape card and tape drive. Plug in a KA655 and it is ready to go. vax9000 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ever watched "American Beauty"?

16 years, 8 months

IBM RT 6150?

by silent700＠gmail.com

Hi all - I've got a line on this old AIX box, with the monitor, books, etc (not sure about O/S media but I think that can be "found.") Any opinions on it? Any historical significance ("first machine run ____," etc?) It's cheap, but it will have to be shipped, which may not be cheap. -- j

16 years, 9 months

Group buy of 1541-III PCB's?

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

I know there was some interest in 1541-III PCB's recently. Vincent Slyngstad and I have been discussing this since that time, and he has done up schematic in Eagle CAD and has the initial board layout done (actually three different versions using different SD Sockets). The big difference between this and the original design is that it uses through the hole parts wherever possible rather than surface mount parts. I'm trying to find out if anyone here will be interested in boards. I have a design question or two for anyone that is interested. Additionally, I'm looking for anyone familiar with SD Sockets, as neither Vince nor I are, and a couple questions have come up on the socket placement. Information on the 1541-III can be found at the creator, Jan Derogee's website http://jderogee.tripod.com/ Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

16 years, 9 months

GAL16V8 as a modern substitute for a 7447?

by ethan.dicks＠usap.gov

Hi, all, Has anyone here worked with or ever plotted silently to create a moderish 7-segment decoder/driver from a GAL16V8? I'm working on a project made >from classic parts, and am trying to reduce part count rather aggresively, since I'm going to hand-wire it. One thought was to attempt to combine a 7490 _and_ a 7447 in a single GAL16V8. I have blown hundreds of PALs, but have much less experience in designing with them, so I'm not even sure that it's possible to mash together that much logic internally in a 16V8. I know all the outputs are optionally registered, so presuming one has 4 assignable flip-flops, one could theoretically make a counter on the output pins, but what's less clear to me is if you could then take those terms and internally decode them to a 7-segment display. After the large amounts of replies about this 8-way digital switch, I don't necessarily want to clog the list with discissions of what is and isn't possible for a GAL16V8, so if you can remember, please make any suggestions and comments to me directly, not the list. Thanks for any nudges towards a solution. -ethan -- Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 8-Dec-2007 at 15:40 Z South Pole Station PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -25.4 F (-31.9 C) Windchill -52.5 F (-47.0 C) APO AP 96598 Wind 13.7 kts Grid 12 Barometer 678.8 mb (10674 ft) Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html

16 years, 9 months

Last call: Wyse WY-55 manual, Introduction to the Sirius 1 Computer - FTGH (UK)

by listmailgoeshere＠gmail.com

Hi list, The above need to find a new home within about a week or they get recycled. Free, but you pay shipping. Will ship to anywhere in the world. Please reply directly to me as list traffic is still a bit funny for me atm. Thanks, Ed.

16 years, 10 months

How compatible were "MS-DOS Compatible" machines?

by trixter＠oldskool.org

(Since the whole point of collecting and restoring old computers is to demonstrate and *use* them, I hope Jay will find this programming question on-topic...) I am currently in the middle of programming some vintage-era MS-DOS software that has the following requirements: - Manipulate the speaker to produce arbitrary tones - Update the screen in arbitrary locations (text mode; multiple screen pages if available) - Get single-key input from the user, including sensing keypresses from "inert" keys like shift and capslock (by themselves as well as in conjunction with other keypresses) I know how to do all of that, both high-level (DOS and BIOS calls, ANSI calls, etc.) and low-level (writing directly to b800:0000, screwing with the 8253 timer, hooking IRQ 9 and monitoring port 60h, etc.). My problem is that I'm not sure how much I can "get away" with doing things low-level and still have it work on machines that were less-than-100% IBM PC-compatible. If anyone who programmed for early IBM PC semi-compatible machines from 1981-1985 (Dave? Chuck?), I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice on what to watch out for. Obviously I'd love to code it ALL low-level, since that will result in the fastest program performance for the user, but not if it will lock out 20% or more of all clones made before 1986. For example, let's say I go completely low-level, all direct hardware access, compiling and testing on my IBM 5160 with CGA. Based on my past experience with clones, I am pretty sure of the following behavior: - IBM PC 5160: Should work perfectly - IBM PC 5150: Should work perfectly - AT&T PC 6300/Olivetti M24: Should work perfectly, although certain key combinations are known to "stick" without special handling - Sperry PC: Keyboard scan codes might be different? - Tandy 1000: Keyboard scan codes differ in 2 or 3 places - IBM PCjr: Keyboard scan codes are *definitely* different - DEC Rainbow: Keyboard different? Heard that display was vector-graphics based; would direct screen writes in text mode even work? - Tandy 2000: Again, wasn't the screen vector-based? ...etc. That kind of thing. I guess what I'm asking is something like, "Is it worth attempting to support 'MS-DOS only' machines made before Compaq, or were they just too goofy and limited to bother with?" Maybe a follow-up question is, "How many MS-DOS-only machines were made before 99.9% IBM PC compatibility became the norm after Compaq's example?" PS: I'm on a deadline for this project, which is why I care about wasting time trying to support four different ways of doing the same thing (like screen access, for example: 1. ansi.sys, 2. DOS calls, 3. BIOS calls, 4. direct screen writes). -- Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/ Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/

16 years, 10 months

How compatible were "MS-DOS Compatible" machines?

by cclist＠sydex.com

> Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:40:04 -0600 > From: Jim Leonard <trixter at oldskool.org> > - Manipulate the speaker to produce arbitrary tones > - Update the screen in arbitrary locations (text mode; multiple screen > pages if available) - Get single-key input from the user, including > sensing keypresses from "inert" keys like shift and capslock (by > themselves as well as in conjunction with other keypresses) It depends on what you want to call "MS-DOS ompatible". NEC 9801 series machines have a completely different I/O port and memory layout; the CRT controller is a world unto itself and the BIOS interface is different. But the things run MS-DOS, albeit with 1,024 byte sector diskettes, and have an x86 CPU in them--some with Intel; others with NEC V-series CPUs. I think the family went as far as a 486 equivalent. For that matter, I believe a number of configurations of the S-100 Compupro boxes could run MS-DOS. I know of other MS-DOS compatible machines that do not have memory- mapped displays but rather interface to a serial terminal (no graphics capabilities). There are others with non-PC memory layouts that will give you most of a megabyte of contiguous RAM to work with. My point is, that "MS-DOS compatible" covers a huge amount of territory. On the other hand, "something that will boot from a PC- DOS 3.31 diskette" is quite a bit more restrictive. FWIW, Chuck

16 years, 10 months

Any word on OS/2 for PDP-11?

by shoppa＠trailing-edge.com

I don't follow the mailing list closely, but earlier this month folks were talking about a tape supposedly labeled "OS/2" for the PDP-11. My gut feeling is that this is something like how "ASCII" sometimes becomes "ASC-eleven" or even "ASC2" among those who don't know what's a roman numeral vs digits vs whatever. Possibly DOS-11 became D OS-11 became OS/2 :-). But DOS-11 on a TK50 would be unusual in any event! Finding, say, a late version of RT-11 or RSX-11 or RSTS/E or Ultrix-11 on a TK50 seems far more likely. Almost all PDP-11 OS's have an "11" in the name, usually at the end, and it's easy to see how this could become a "2" in the mind of someone who thinks that there is a VAX named Saul or SOL. Tim.

16 years, 10 months

Digitalker Information

by brain＠jbrain.com

My son and I watched War Games a few nights back, and I pulled out my old Jameco JE520 speech synthesizer. We played with it a bit tonight, and it has a bad EPROM #2, so the upper half of the first word set is garbled. Questions: * Anyone have a JE520 that could copy the ROM? * Or, anyone have other ROMs for the DIGITALKER (soft copies, that is)? * Anyone have a datasheet on this device? NS54104 Jim

16 years, 10 months

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test-drb January 2008