test-drb August 2008

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

202 participants
323 discussions

Aim-65 Listed on Vintage Computer and Gaming Marketplace Listings

by marvin＠west.net

I am starting to put stuff up for sale on the Vintage Computer and Gaming Marketplace: http://marketplace.vintage-computer.com/index.php? Included are an Aim-65 and a Pro-Log 900 Prom Programmer. More stuff will be added as time permits.

16 years, 4 months

Upgrading early BIOS

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:49:22 -0700 From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Upgrading early BIOS On 13 Aug 2008 at 15:36, M H Stein wrote: >> AFAIK cable select has always been an option with Parallel ATA drives, >> although it was rarely used in pre-UDMA days; the cable was obviously >> different (40 conductors with standard connectors vs. 80 conductors and >> unique special connectors) and the order of the drives was usually reversed >> (i.e. the slave on the end of the cable). >Nope--I've got a couple of very early Conner and Maxtor drives (less >than 100 MB)--CS isn't an option on the jumpers. If you'd read more carefully, you'd have seen that I *did* say that "not all drives supported the CS option;" in fact, quite a few of the older drives did not. I was responding to the posted statement that CS "had not been invented" in the 486 days, when AFAIK, it was part of the early ATA specs (although rarely implemented in practice). > It's the motherboard that determines the cable type and mode from pin 34, > which is grounded at the mobo end in a UDMA cable, so if the mobo isn't > UDMA-aware I don't think the drives would be, and the cable wouldn't matter. > Also, not all drives supported CS. >Read the Wiki article you cited: >"Pin 34: >Pin 34 is connected to ground inside the blue connector of an 80 >conductor cable but not attached to any conductor of the cable. It is >attached normally on the gray and black connectors". >On UDMA-66 capable drives, it's the cable, not the mobo that dictates >speed. Put an ordinary 40 conductor cable on a UDMA-capable drive >and mobo, and the configuration won't take advantage of it. When the >changeover was in progress, we used to get support calls quite often >on the subject of UDMA cables and drives on non-UDMA mobos. Well, I never knew that just replacing the cable in my 386 and 486 systems would speed things up; live and learn. I always thought that if the mobo wasn't pin 34 aware and UDMA capable then the cable wouldn't have much effect on the transfer mode. AFAIK in order to use UDMA all three items have to be UDMA capable, the mobo, the cable and the drives, although I'd say that, assuming it's UDMA aware, the mobo controls the speed depending on what kind of cable and drives it sees. Semantics? You said that with a UDMA cable, any UDMA capable drive will operate in UDMA mode (presumably regardless of the mobo); how does a drive know what kind of cable is connected? I always assumed that only the mobo can tell from pin 34. BTW, a UDMA cable certainly works with non-UDMA drives and/or mobos, although you have to remember that it is also a CS cable, but I don't think it'll be any faster. >Similarly: >"With the 40-wire cable it was very common to implement cable select >by simply cutting the pin 28 wire between the two device connectors; >putting the slave device at the end of the cable, and the master on >the "middle" connector. This arrangement eventually was standardized >in later versions. If there is just one device on the cable, this >results in an unused "stub" of cable, which is undesirable for >physical convenience and electrical reasons. The stub causes signal >reflections, particularly at higher transfer rates." >Bottom line is that if you use a non-CS-capable (i.e. 40 conductor >"straight through") cable, it won't work. Depending on what the >mobo/controller end does with pin 28, you'll have either two masters >or two slaves on the same cable. Agreed; I took it for granted, but with our detour into UDMA the most important point to be made relevant to the OP is that Cable Select needs a special cable and with pre-UDMA drives & mobos you're probably better off using Master/Slave and a standard cable. >Cheers, >Chuck m

16 years, 4 months

Speak and Spell

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Somewhere, I have a kit that someone made for connecting a Speak & Spell to a computer to act as a voice synthesizer. I can't remember if it was for the TRS-80 or S-100 bus systems. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

16 years, 4 months

Bernoulli Box controller?

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I've successfully connected a 20MB Bernoulli Box to a PC using drivers found off the web. The configuration is an active part of my main data conversion system, so I'd be happy to pass along the configuration to anyone who e-mails me directly. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

16 years, 4 months

Speak and Swear

by jzg22＠drexel.edu

Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:00:04 -0700 From: "Scanning" <steven.alan.canning at verizon.net> Subject: Re: Speak and Swear To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <001101c90036$e0942910$0301a8c0 at hal9000> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Little known ( I think... ) Speak & Spell trivia fact; The very first original S & Ss ( circa 1978 ?? ) with the hard molded buttons had swear words that the programmers had sneaked into the voice code ROMs. On mine you could access these by selecting the module ( with no ROM module plugged in ) and select level D. It would then say " Spell .... a bunch of garbage words, and then swear words" at the end . I have a .wav and an MP3 example of this little S & S Easter Egg... TI found out ( of course ) and recalled as many units as they could. If you can find one now they are quite rare and very entertaining. A special ed teacher I know used S & Ss to help her kids and was wondering why they kept laughing uncontrollably. They had figured out how to access the "special" words .... Best regards, Steven I have a 1978 (raised button) speak & spell here, and I tried what you said. While it does glitch out randomly (the speech rom is apparently accessing open bus instead of the module, and is saying gibberish which occasionally points to the valid internal rom), I'm not hearing anything that could be considered swear words. yet. Also, afaik the US speak&spell only had two rom revisions: CD2300/TMC0351 plus CD2301/TMC0352 in the 1978 one with the raised buttons (32KiB of total rom, 16KiB per chip) and CD2350 in the 1980 one with the membrane/flat keypad (16KiB total rom, probably a cost-cutting measure, only has half as many words I think) Which version was supposedly recalled? the earlier one? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lord_Nightmare (scroll down) to see all the CDxxxx chips I know of, and which ones have had their contents read out. (if you have any I'm missing, such as the UK speak&spell 78, or the italian grillo parlante, or the german 'buddy', email me off list) -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu(@t)hotmail(d0t)com jzg22(@t)drexel(d0t)edu

16 years, 4 months

HP64000 System, Books, Software available

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

With a heavy heart and ever-diminishing storage space, I'm going to part with my HP64000 development system. This is a soup-to-nuts setup including: - HP64000 desktop unit (all-in-one w/ keyboard and floppy drives) - External HPIB hard disk (from an HP9000, i.e. physically small) - CPU Pods for 68000, 68010, Z80, 8085, 8088 and 8051. I do not have the interface boards for everything and have never used them. Some look to be brand new. - More interface and emulation boards (for internal card frame) than I know what to do with. Spares for just about everything. - Several EPROM programmer adapters (mount in main system unit). - Tape drive mechanism (internal mount, was replaced by diskette drives) - Two 4ft. shelves full of manuals - hardware and software - Complete cross-assembler and cross-compiler software for every 1978-1982 CPU you have ever heard of and perhaps some you haven't. Probably 2-3 linear feet of 5-1/4" diskettes, most the original distribution media. The last time I fired it up, the main unit worked fine. It boots from the attached HPIB drive and was able to access the floppy drives without error. I won't even consider shipping it, you will need to pick it up in Burlington, VT and must take everything with you. Note that I haven't mentioned price. That's because there isn't any. Terms are simple: Free to the first person who makes arrangements with me for pickup and appears at my door. Steve --

16 years, 4 months

IBM 4702

by dbetz＠xlisper.com

Anyone know what an IBM 4702 is? I found one in the trash at my local dump. It's a cube shaped box with a couple of 5.25" floppy drives on the front. Would this be of interest to anyone? If so, I'll pick it up (free) but you'll have to come by and get it at my home in Bedford, NH.

16 years, 4 months

Digital Select Info Sys 5 1/4 floppies

by trebor72＠execpc.com

I have 3 Digital Select Info Sys 5 1/4 floppies and two working copies. In a package can be shipped Media Mail "Select /V2.30 Master Bin RX18" "Select /V2.30 Install/Tch Bin RX18" "Select /V2.30 Superspl Bin RX18" Make Me an Offer Bob in Wisconsin

16 years, 4 months

WANTED: IBM drivers for LPFK (P/N 39F8224/39F8225)

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

Hi guys, My LPFK reverse engineering attempts have drawn a blank -- does anyone happen to have a copy of the PC drivers for this thing? IBM part numbers were 39F8224 and 39F8225, for 3.5" and 5.25" format respectively. These discs contained diagnostic software and drivers used to connect the LPFK to a PS/2, PC-XT or PC-AT. Rumour has it there was also a connection pack, #4025, which consisted of the diagnostic disc, serial cable and power supply. There's also a document referenced in the RS/6000 Graphics Handbook -- "IBM 6094-020 LPFK Options Instructions, GA23-2403". Does anyone have a copy of this, and is there any useful information in it? At this point, I don't think there's anything else I can really do without either some software that can talk to the LPFK (and maybe a disassembler...), or some actual protocol documentation. Thanks, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

16 years, 4 months

Speak and Spell

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

Back in the early 80's, I remember that something I wanted very badly was a product someone was selling that you could mod a Speak and Spell with, and use it as a voice synthesiser for a computer. I know it was out for the TRS-80. But, I don't remember if it worked on other platforms. It must, I would think. Anyone else remember this? Al Phila, PA

16 years, 4 months

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test-drb August 2008