test-drb August 2008

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

202 participants
323 discussions

Computer collectors are no longer the dweebiest people in the

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Tony blathered: > I don't collect in the hope that I'll be able to sell them later for > more money. No, Tony, I believe you are entirely unique in this regard as everyone else subscribed here is just in it for the money. Weirdo. -- 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, 2 months

More ETH Lilith goodies available

by julianskidmore＠yahoo.com

Hi folks, >CPLD's are cheap and easy to program now days. > I suspect getting high speed 2901's and proms > for any micro-programed machine is tricky. Over the past 6 to 9 months I've become rather intrigued about Lilith. One of the great things about the design of MCode (the Lilith's stack-based bytecode) is that it lends itself to being emulated directly by a Microcontroller, rather than emulating the machine at a Microcode level (170ns / microinstruction). My preliminary calculations imply that a low-end 60MHz ARM Microcontroller attached to 128k (or 256K of RAM) could emulate a Lilith in this way at full-speed even if it didn't have a proper memory bus (i.e you access the RAM via I/O Ports). > I suspect 16bit addressing and data seems to be the limiting > factor of this design. The later Liliths accessed memory as 2 banks of 64KW => 256Kb in total. >>> But can one build the hardware from scratch? >>> None of this software emulation. Well, I suppose the ARM version would be software emulation, but on the other hand, it's a dedicated hardware / software combination and it'd probably give you a Lilith for around $12! ... I wonder if MIT & India would be interested ;-) -cheers from Julz @P

16 years, 2 months

Forgotten PC History

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On Sun, August 10, 2008 1:10 pm, Sridhar Ayengar wrote: > Dave McGuire wrote: >> On Aug 9, 2008, at 3:49 PM, Philip Belben wrote: >>> That makes sense. I think someone said it already: if the chip was a >>> custom job for a lowish-volume contract, Intel wouldn't want to go and >>> find a new packaging contractor for it. >> >> Did they actually outsource their packaging? > > That's actually a fairly common occurrence. I know it is now, but I didn't think it was in the 1960s and early 1970s. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

16 years, 2 months

More ETH Lilith goodies available.

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

Those with an interest in the ETH Lilith Modula-2 should point their FTP clients to ftp://jdreesen.dyndns.org/ftp/lilith where they will find plenty of data concerning that machine. Most important is a binary image of the Lilith Systemdisk, and a directory containing all files ( more then 700..) of that systemdisk. Among these files are : Medos binaries and source code. Modula-2 compiler binaries with source code. Lilith system utilities with source code. Bootfiles and system files. Microcode sources and assembler Manual Also available are hardware docu and some screenshots. Enjoy , Jos Dreesen Server is on a basic DSL line, so download speeds will vary....

16 years, 2 months

Computer collectors are no longer the dweebiest people in the world...

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

No, now we can point at the toaster collectors: http://www.toastermuseum.com Navigate your way over to "SPECIALS" and then "What is it worth?" to read up on toaster pricing. It will seem strangely familiar. -- 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, 2 months

Forgotten PC History

by iamvirtual＠gmail.com

Roy J. Tellason wrote: > There were also those "flatpacks" which I never could figure out. A > precursor > to surface mount? Something else? Eric Smith wrote: > Yes, for military applications. For instance, the Apollo Guidance > Computer is full of chips in flatpacks. > > I'm not an expert on early IC packaging, but AFAIK the flatpack predated > the DIP. Prior to the DIP, most ICs had 10 pins or fewer, and were > offered in flatpacks or round metal cans. Here is a picture of a circuit board which is a flight spare for the Instrumentation Unit of the Saturn V showing the flat packs IBM designed for the Apollo missions: http://www.iamvirtual.ca/collection/space/SaturnVIUBoard.html

16 years, 2 months

NEC Spinwriter thimble

by dm561＠torfree.net

While cleaning out some junk I found a NEC thimble (Tech Math/Times Roman). One of the fingers is a little shorter than the rest, but it doesn't look broken (and the LC char is blank, unlike the rest); is this a normal index key, or is it in fact broken? And if it's OK, does anyone want it? m

16 years, 2 months

Flat Packs (Forgotten PC History)

by James＠jdfogg.com

> > When I worked at Odetics Anaheim,CA in the mid-70s we used tons of the > > "flatpacks" in our Spacebourne black boxes. They came in TTL, CMOS and I > > think even some ECL. The parts were spot welded with the legs straight > out > > to gold posts that protruded slightly off of the PCBs. Expensive stuff, > a > > RAM chip cost about $600 at the time. The parts were real low profile > and > > weighed less than DIPs ( important in spacecraft, weight / space is at a > > premium ). The parts were all MIL-STD and some projects even RAD- > hardened > > parts. Fun stuff. In the 1960's and 70's my mother worked as a bonder for Transitron in Wakefield Massachusetts. They mostly did .gov work and a lot of her work went to NASA and defense work. She would bring home reject work that had not been "capped" (open top, die, pins and bonding wires visible). I remember her making some into jewelry. They were so unusual at the time that they attracted a lot of attention. BTW, a bonder soldered the hair thin gold wire from the "chip" (dice) to the carrier legs (pins). They used stereo microscopes and it was precision work.

16 years, 2 months

AT&T 3B1 Unix PC (WTD: a 67MB version power supply)

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

While we're on this topic, I wanted to mention that I am looking for a 67MB version power supply. I have taken pictures of the two kinds of UNIX PC power supplies should anyone be interested: 67MB UNIX PC Power supply http://vintagecomputer.net/att/3B1/ATT_UNIX-PC_3B1_370429065_pwr_suppl.jpg Earlier "7300" UNIX PC Power Supply. http://vintagecomputer.net/att/7300/ATT_UNIX-PC_7300_pwr-suppl-b.jpg There seems to be some confusion about what you call the 67MB UNIX PC. Is it a 3B1 or a 7300? I also need an earlier 7300 motherboard. For either, please contact me directly. Thanks. Bill

16 years, 2 months

ARCNET

by mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us

At a rescue last week (thanks, Barry), I picked up a pile of ARCNET hardware including 8-bit ISA cards, active hubs and power supplies. Some of it has been claimed by MARCH members, but I still have a batch available for the cost of shipping from 16803: Manuals: Tiara Lancard/A * PC ARCNET User's Manual for CN008AH and CN008TH CNet 120A ARCNET User's Manual (qty 4) Diskette: ARCNET 5.25" MEGA Diskette #75-00790-3000 Cards (8-bit ISA): SMC ARCNET-PC130 (qty 3) Tiara Lancard/A * PC (qty 12) CNet ARCNET 120A (qty 1) Active Hubs: Addtron ARCNET Active Hub, 8-port, ARC800ST (qty 5) CNet Arcnet HUB 008AH, 8-port (qty 2) (The Addtron and CNet hubs have an internal power supply and take a standard power cord) Tiara ARCNET LanHub, 8-port (qty 2), Power Supplies (qty 3) SMC ARCNET Active Hub, 8-port (qty 13), Power Supplies (qty 6) Please contact me off-list if you're interested in any of this lot. Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/

16 years, 2 months

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test-drb August 2008