test-drb December 2008

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

209 participants
286 discussions

by lehmann＠ans-netz.de

Hi, as someone might remember, I've got some Zilog System 8000 equipment and over the last days I've started resurrecting it. I thought - maybe someone feels interested in the story as well ;) 2 days ago I've built my "custom" frontpanel (just a transition solution) with the remaining stuff I had at home. The "original-like" push button I tried to get in my local electronic distributor was out of stock. So I reused an old circuit board, 11+40 ohm resisitor to get the needed 51 ohm and so on... ;-) The final version will contain the "original-like" push buttons, the LED banks and so on. It will be mounted then at the same position where the original panel sits. When it is then hidden behind the front door it will look nearly like the original one. At least, thats the plan. Until then: http://pics.pofo.de/gallery/v/S8000/Repair/P1070180.JPG.html http://pics.pofo.de/gallery/v/S8000/Repair/P1070181.JPG.html After this was done, I've used an old PC-AT PSU for supplying the required power to the backplane ("POWERFAIL" cable ignored): http://pics.pofo.de/gallery/v/S8000/Repair/P1070182.JPG.html And then put back all together, huck up a nulmodem cable to my PC and - yeah The firmware got loaded and the usual START message was printed: http://pics.pofo.de/gallery/v/S8000/Repair/P1070183.JPG.html http://pics.pofo.de/gallery/v/S8000/Repair/P1070186.JPG.html Pressing the NMI/START switch on my glamorous frontpanel brings up an immediate FATAL ERROR: S8000 Monitor 1.2 - Press START to Load System P *** ERROR #0000 *** FATAL ERROR [ Reading the hardware ref. manual - this means no external RAM - of course, I still don't have the 1MB dynamic memory board. :( Connecting the WDC board to the bus leads to a non-startable system having the BUSACK LED on the CPU board permanently on - probably the WDC is broken and spams the system BUS... But at least this was my first step which was done OK I guess ;) -- Oliver Lehmann http://www.pofo.de/ http://wishlist.ans-netz.de/

15 years, 7 months

Tektronix 4111 Graphic terminal

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

I got a Tektronix 4111 terminal taking space in my house.. I think it needs a 'better' home, it powers up and all the eprom sockets are filled up but further ..? It's complete with keyboard and no manuals.. It's for a small drinking fee or trade for HP-stuff + shipping of cause. I live in the Netherlands (Europe for the people on the other end of the cable) Please react off-list.. -Rik

15 years, 7 months

Mac II's, IIx's, IIci's

by michaelgreen42＠comcast.net

I've got a large number of Mac II's and IIx's sitting around. None of them post (I believe due to dead batteries which I understand is common to them). Most of them are fairly yellow but intact. Is there any interest in these for parts/whatever? I also have some IIci's in similar state

15 years, 7 months

1959 RCA memory device-URL

by cclist＠sydex.com

Beg pardon, forgot the URL: http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/12/18/your-world-of-tomorrow- roomba/#comment-1063686 Cheers, Chuck

15 years, 7 months

1959 RCA memory device

by cclist＠sydex.com

In this 1959 Popular Mechanix report of HECK--RCA's "Home Electronic Center Kid", the following is mentioned: "To speed up the working of electronic computers which assist in such discoveries, the RCA lab recently devised a memory storage plate smaller and thinner than a four-cent postage stamp. It has 256 tiny holes in it and can keep a million facts on file and produce them in any combination or alone in milli-seconds." Does anyone have any additional information about this device? Was it ever commercially deployed? (A couple of interesting asides: Note the "Roomba" in the photo and the description of the about-to-be-produced RCA Nuvistor--and what appears to be a raised floor in the exhibit. And the ghastly "contemporary decor"--could orange shag wall-to-wall carpet be long in coming?) Cheers, Chuck

15 years, 7 months

My return to Classic Cmp - San Diego, software archive, etc.

by vern4wright＠yahoo.com

Over the past four years I've been taking the digests, pulling down the archives and saving them, in the hope that I'd find time to read and perhaps participate. Never found time. Gotta get this out of the way first: some of you may recall that I was Don Maslin's friend, that I promised to rescue the software archive, and that his widow made that impossible. A mutual friend queried me about this recently, and I have to say that so far as I know, Don's archive rests in his garage, untouched. SAD!!! This year I lost another computer addict friend who participated in the early days of the Z80 (and before that as one of the Non-Linear Systems bright lights) - Bill Bailey. Our Old Farts group is getting smaller. I wonder - are there any warm bodies here in San Diego still interested in the old computers we created over 30 years ago? If so, I'd sure like to talk with them. Perhaps reconstitute the Dina-SIG I founded some 20+ years ago as a local activity for celebration of the early personal computer, idea and information exchange, and good fellowship over good beer! Anyway, I intend to try to drop in here daily and join in the daily conversations. Regards, Vern Wright San Diego, CA

15 years, 7 months

Mac II's, IIx's, IIci's

by trag＠io.com

> Send cctech mailing list submissions to > cctech at classiccmp.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > cctech-request at classiccmp.org > > > Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:54:52 -0800 > From: "Michael" <michaelgreen42 at comcast.net> > I've got a large number of Mac II's and IIx's sitting around. None of > them post (I believe due to dead batteries which I understand is common to > them). Most of them are fairly yellow but intact. Is there any interest in > these for parts/whatever? I also have some IIci's in similar state The Mac II and IIx require a working battery in order to trip the power supply. However, the IIci does not. It will power up just fine with a flat battery, because the power supply provides a 5V trickle, which the motherboard makes use of. So any IIci which does not power up has other issues. All those machines are at or past an age where the surface mount electrolytic caps should have leaked corrosive goo all over the logic board. A good cleaning at the least would be a good idea, to prevent further damage. Usually any damage from the leakage is not too hard to repair with careful examination and judicial use of wire wrap (or other tiny wires) and solder. The IIci's logic board power-on circuitry is particularly susceptible to this damage because four of the larger caps (47uF) are sitting on the portion of the board which contains the power-on circuitry. So a common symptom of capacitor-goo damaged IIci's is an inability to power up. Where are you located? Shipping plays a large part in whether there will be interest. The II and IIx are beasts which would cost a lot to ship. The power supply in the IIci was also used in the IIcx, IIvi, IIvx, Quadra 700, Centris 650, Quadra 650 and PowerMac 7100. So at the least, you should find some interest in the IIci power supplies. Jeff Walther

15 years, 7 months

Rare CPUs (was 8008)

by ken＠seefried.com

Steven Hirsch <snhirsch at gmail.com> >On Tue, 16 Dec 2008, William Blair wrote: > > > > Quote from same forum, different thread: "I think the iAPX432 and Nx686 > > are the most wanted cpu in the collectors community." >Are you serious? Were the Nexgen chips really so rare? Nx586 are pretty common. Nx686 aren't, as it was never released beyond the sampling stage before AMD picked up Nexgen and released it as the K6.

15 years, 7 months

Mac II's, IIx's, IIci's

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 12:00 -0600 12/17/08, Michael wrote: >I've got a large number of Mac II's and IIx's sitting around. ... ... err, around where? Hard drives, memory, etc. in place? KB, mice, monitors, etc? -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 7 months

Jean Bartik: the untold story of a remarkable ENIAC programmer

by marvin＠west.net

This is an interesting post on Google Blogspot: Jean Bartik: the untold story of a remarkable ENIAC programmer Jean Bartik: the untold story of a remarkable ENIAC programmer This guest post was written by Kathy Kleiman, who discovered the ENIAC Programmers 20 years ago and founded the ENIAC Programmers Project to record their stories and produce the first feature documentary about their work. More at www.eniacprogrammers.org. ? Ed. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/jean-bartik-untold-story-of-remarkab…

15 years, 7 months

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test-drb December 2008