test-drb December 2008

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

209 participants
286 discussions

by nico＠farumdata.dk

I also found a small VDU, model PTS 6387, 220-240 VAC. This one takes RS-232. The screen is 6". IIRC, it writes 12 x 40 characters Overall size : 10" W x 9" deep x 6" high (excl. feet). Free for P&P from Denmark Nico

15 years, 5 months

ECMA-34

by nico＠farumdata.dk

Still cleaning-up. I found some Philips cassette drives, using digital cassettes similar to audio cassettes. Every cassette accomodates about 250K. The format used is ECMA-34, IIRC. Size : 9" deep, 5" wide and 4" high One drive is loaded horizontally (think of the Exabyte 8505 etc), and the other like the old Exabyte 8200. The rubber bands are dired out / pulverized Any interest ? Nico

15 years, 5 months

ETH Lilith Emulator available

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

Emulith, my ETH Lilith emulator, is ready for download at : ftp://jdreesen.dyndns.org/ftp/Emulith Emulith is a register-level emulation, in C & X11-xlib, of the Lilith hardware. Documentation, sourcecode and two diskimages are supplied, I will try to offer some more in the future. You will need a reasonably fast PC running Linux and having at least 1280x1024 resolution. First feedback I got shows that it also runs on OS-X ( altough I would like to know how he mapped three buttons onto one....) Enjoy, Jos Dreesen Warning : server sits on a basic ADSL line.

15 years, 5 months

ETH Lilith emulator available.

by jos.dreesen＠bluewin.ch

15 years, 5 months

Machine reliability - was: Sources for 8b TTL keyboards (Keytronics)

by doug＠stillhq.com

Message: 22 Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 23:04:12 +0100 From: Angel Martin Alganza <ama at ugr.es> Subject: Re: Sources for 8b TTL keyboards (Keytronics) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <20081207220412.GJ31191 at darwin.ugr.es> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 On Sun, Dec 07, 2008 at 05:27:51PM -0200, Alexandre Souza wrote: > > I think I'm one of the only people in universe that has a stable > > windows. My windows installation NEVER breaks. I have no trouble > > with that. Period. But: > > - I know how it works sufficiently not to install things that > > will make that uninstable > > - I have a good antivirus, this is the first program I install > > when I boot windows at first time > > - I have a set of services to disable > > - I use process explorer to see what is running and disable > > uneeded programs/services > > - I don't instal dubious programs (e.g.: I know what I'm running) > > - I have an ORIGINAL copy of windows > > - I NEVER EVER EVER install windows updates, automatic or manual > > - I NEVER EVER EVER let outlook express download images or open > > automatically attachments > > - I NEVER EVER EVER let MSN open automatically anything, run > > things I don't know or install "emoticon packs" > > > > Tony, trust me. I have a WORKABLE and PLEASURE TO USE copy of > > windows XP. Of course I have now a sizeable machine (Core 2 quad, > > 4GB RAM, Geforce 8600, 22" LCD) but it worked just as well with my > > old athlon 1800/512 ram. It is a matter of KNOWING what you do with > > your windows. > >That is simply and absolutely ridiculous. Having such a powerful >beast with so many absurd restrictions to get it to somehow work is >outrageous. Such powerful boxes are to do intensive calculations on >servers running real operating systems, or to just do gaming using the >aberrant wannabe operating system. Working (reliably and comfortably, >as Tony and many of us want) and Windowing are not compatible. :-) I thought I would chime in at this point. In the Mid 80's, my College had a perfectly functional PDP11 system. It used provided support for RSTS-E, was well appreciated, reliable, and the workhorse for all of the computing programs throughout the school. The machine was in the computer room, its front panel was out in the open, and nobody did anything bad to it. the most malicious piece of software that was run was a program that I wrote that output human readable character patterns sideways on paper tape. In about 1988 (or so), the powers that be decided to replace it with a Prime computer. All of a sudden, the student body was not very happy about the replacement. The Unix like operating system didn't look like RSTS-E, the terminals were HORRIBLE (They took away our beloved VT52's), the editor EMACS, was not very friendly at all. All of our code was GONE! Agreed that the machine was Bigger (tm), Faster (tm), More Functional (tm), than the PDP we had, but the user experience was woeful. Needles to say, that the student body decided that they had to find ways to break the thing. Malicious software was created, the machine was regularly halted from the front panel, and reliability went through the floor. Eventually, they made a physical cage for the machine to reside in that even the longest broom handle couldn't manipulate the front panel switches !! At least the reboots stopped. What am I trying to say here... You can get faster hardware, but if it is operated in a HOSTILE environment, then you will have a bad time. To a point, I agree with the snapshot concept of not installing arbitrary software, and leaving an environment in a working state. If you are patient, you *can* get a windows machine to operate reliably. But the *last* thing you do is to install yet another random upgrade for yet another piece of software without careful testing. The windows concept simply does not translate to the classic computer environment. There is no way that I can impact the operating system of my CP/M system by simply running a terminal program (unless I specifically perform a download). Likewise, there is no concept of downloading a device driver that hasn't been tested on any of my PDP11 machines. The machine base was simply too small and too well controlled. The modern environment is radically different, there are hundreds of manufacturers of cards and motherboards, and other hardware, and millions of equipment combinations possible. And, there is the dreaded concept of BACKWARDS COMPATABILITY. Woe is me, as a manufacturer, I have to support arcane cards in systems where they simply may not work.... (Could somebody please explain why having an ISA bus slot in a PCI system was a good idea!) In summary - you can have a 'powerful beast' and have it work. you just have to adopt a 'professional' attitude to running it, and not download arbitrary software willy nilly. How do you do that when the modern browsers are designed to download and execute arbitrary code??? By not doing that! Just my 0.02 worth. Doug

15 years, 5 months

Open source, stand alone, ASCII terminal project

by bob＠jfcl.com

I and a couple of other people thought it would be fun to build our own stand alone video terminal. The prototype is a 3x5" PCB that is completely self contained - all you need to connect is a VGA monitor, a PS/2 keyboard, 12V power, and a RS-232 connection to a host computer of your choice. The idea is that you could easily stick one inside the case of an old VGA monitor, add a keyboard, and then have an ASCII terminal. No PC required :-) I did the hardware design and PC boards, and James Markevitch did the lion's share of the firmware, with help from David Betz, Ethan Dicks and Dave McGuire. The firmware is all open source, GPL licensed, and is managed as a Source Forge project. The microprocessors (yes, there are two used) are 8051 cores and the firmware for both is written mostly in C using the SDCC compiler. SDCC and the other development tools we're using are all FREE, mostly open source, and the primary MCU can be in system programmed using a regular PC and an ordinary serial connection. No expensive development tools or special hardware programmers are needed. Enough firmware finished now to be a functional VT220 clone - it can run EDT and vi already - but there's still lots to be done. We'd like to find a couple more people to join the development team and help us finish off version 1. In particular, some of the major things that still need doing include - Fonts (a VT220 has a surprisingly large number of DEC specific fonts) Serial EEPROM drivers for saving setup and configuration data Documentation, users manual and web pages (on SourceForge) and of course testing Some of the things we're thinking about working on after V1 is finished - Emulating other ASCII terminals (ADM, TeleVideo, Wyse, maybe more) Adding graphics (Tek 4006/4010/4014 emulation, ReGIS, maybe more) If you're interested, I have two more of the prototype PC boards that I can sell. And if you really want, you can always wire wrap your own without a PC board - the schematics are available as part of the project documentation. email me and let me know if you are interested in working on the project. Right now I'd prefer that the PC boards go to people who have the time to actually help out with the project in the short term, so if so if you'd just like to have one of the terminals but don't have time to help then please stand by. There'll be another announcement when we have one ready for release. Bob

15 years, 5 months

UK DEC Meeting in North West, Autumn 2009 - expression of interest please

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, Well, I've been banding this idea around to a few fellow DECheads in the UK, and thought it was about time I moved on to stage 2. I am thinking about organising a meeting for people interested in the line of computers created by Digital Equipment Corporation. It is likely that the meeting will be autumn next year, and would be run over a Saturday and Sunday in Windermere, Cumbria, UK. This is in the very early stages of planning, and I'm initially looking to get an idea of numbers who might be interested. This is to ensure that I can organise the event without loss. In terms of numbers I would be looking for between 10 and 20 people to exhibit computers, and then another up to maybe 50 people as non-exhibitors. I'm sure we could get some interesting speakers involved. Cost is likely to be in the order of GBP 10 for the two days, although we can discuss the option of providing catering if there is interest. I would be looking for firm commitment to buy a ticket say 3 months in advance. So in the first instance, could anyone interested email me at: mark at wickensonline dot co dot uk. By emailing you agree for me to keep your email address on file so that I can inform you of any progress. Please feel free to make suggestions either on this mailing list or direct by email. Kind regards, Mark Wickens -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkk3wecACgkQR0vMj/mgdjaeAQCgoiTAk9YqL9PJIbiXFpJxpJgg 8skAoMSCQ0cgLUB6xMiFXxgpSnMmw30J =wa/6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

15 years, 5 months

Paging Al Kossow

by nico＠farumdata.dk

A long time ago, we talked about diagrams for the Qualstar 3412. For some reason or another, they were never sent. Are you still interested? Nico

15 years, 5 months

Making an RT-11 TU58 Image

by toby＠coreware.co.uk

Hi, I've just managed to get a TU58 emulator compiled up and running under Linux and confirmed its working by booting Will Kranz's XXDP images (http://www.fpns.net/willy/pdp11/tu58-emu.htm) I'd now like to get an RT-11 TU58 image so I can run a boot into a real operating system on my disk-less -11s. Whats the best way to go about making a suitable image? I have a working RT11 v5 setup under SIMH. Is it possible to make a suitable image via this? One thought is to make a RX01 boot image and but with a TU58 boot block and then use this on the emulator. Thanks, Toby -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

15 years, 5 months

Making an RT-11 TU58 Image

by oldcpu2＠rogerwilco.org

On Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:27:59 Tobias Russell said: > I've just managed to get a TU58 emulator compiled up > and running under Linux and confirmed its working by > booting Will Kranz's XXDP images > (http://www.fpns.net/willy/pdp11/tu58-emu.htm) I use Will's emulator under MSDOS and works great for me too! With my first PDP-11, this was the only means I had for backing up a handful of RL02 disk carts... > > I'd now like to get an RT-11 TU58 image so I can run > a boot into a real operating system on my disk-less > -11s. Whats the best way to go about making a suitable > image? > > I have a working RT11 v5 setup under SIMH. Is it > possible to make a suitable image via this? One > thought is to make a RX01 boot image and but with a > TU58 boot block and then use this on the emulator. Yes, it's quite easy. You can build an RX image, or as hinted at above, you can create an entire RL02-sized image and use it with the TU58 driver (DD). It turns out that RT11's DD driver only cares about size of the media when it *writes*, but it can read any properly initialized media of any size. As you suggest, using SIMH, mount up a blank 'disk' of whatever variety you want (RX01 would be fine, but a little small for working with RT11 easily, I'd suggest an RL01 or RL02), and initialize it, copy over the files you want, and just as you say, do a COPY/BOOT with the TU58 driver (DD), such as: .COPY/BOOT:DD DL0:RT11SJ.SYS DL0: to put the TU58 driver in the boot block of a RL0x. At this point you'll need to physically cable your Linux box running the TU58 emulator and the PDP-11 with a simple null-modem cable. When you fire up the PDP-11 hardware, you'll have to enter the TU58 bootstrap (which Will gives in his emulator documentation). At that point you should be home free. It won't be fast, but it will certainly function fine. If you do create a non-TU58-sized virtual disk image, you'll want to again refer to Will's docs where he gives you a patch to the DD.SYS driver, setting the number of blocks allowed. This will allow you to read and write to a larger (than standard TU58) disk image. Good luck! - Jared

15 years, 5 months

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test-drb December 2008