Dr. Dobbs was pretty cool... up until the IBM PC came out and
dominated everything. By the mid 80's all the Dr. Dobbs articles
were the-latest-TSR-to-do-something-in-MSDOS and it wasn't really
worth the effort for me to even look for something interesting
in it. That may have marked my turning point towards classic
computing, in fact :-).
Tim.
-- "james" <james at jdfogg.com> wrote:
>> Here are some pics of a Novell file server circa 1987.
>> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/novell/68k_file_server
>>
>> Was wondering if anyone had documentation or software for
>> this. I had some of the external dual drive scsi boxes for
>> these at one point.
>
>
>This reminds me of a similar oddity I used to support years
>ago. 3Com made a server, and an OS called 3+ Open. As I
>recall, it was an OS/2 - LAN Manager derivative.
Ah yes, the era of the 3Server is forever seared into my
brain; my first *real* job in the computer business involved
the care and feeding of several generations of these beasties.
The Original 3Server (about the same vintage as the Novell
unit pictured earlier) used an 80188 and a heavily modified
version of MS-DOS. It used an early SCSI implementation,
which was closer to SASI, to attach MFM disks and QIC tapes
via Adaptec bridge boards.
Because there were neither video nor ISA bus, there was more
room for contiguous DOS memory; something over 700k, which
pertty cool at the time. They originally were equipped with
30MB drives, but then the 3Server70 had an 80Mb (unformatted)
unit by Vertex.
These early boxes had the (optional) QIC tape in an external
box; the 3Server3 introduced in 1986 (IIRC) had disk and tape
in one box; in addition the 3Server3 could be interfaced with
appletalk, and also sported the then-new LIM memory used to
speed up the operating system.
These 80188 systems all used either 3+Share or EtherSeries
NOS's for basic drive sharing. IN addition, 3+Mail, 3+Route
(for routing e-mail between sites), 3+Backup and other network
applications were supported under the 3+Share NOS (in <1Mb
RAM).
These were followed by the 3S400 & 3S500 machines, which are
not interesing as they are little more than stock ISA 80386
machines running at 16MHz. These guys could run 3+Share, or
3+Open (a.k.a. OS/2 LanMan as pointed out above). ISTR that
they added TCP/IP late in that products life.
Then Novell took over the world and all of the above 'stuff'
died in obscurity.
It was at this point where I learned in my life that I had a
knack for picking losers.
I need a stiff drink now . . . .
____________________________________________________________
Wasting money? Stop, now. Click here for top online coupon websites.
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I'm trying to recover some files off of a couple of Atari SH204 hard
drives but I only have a 520ST and need to find an external floppy
drive to bootstrap my system. Does anyone have a spare Atari SF314
floppy drive around that they'd be willing to part with? I don't have
much classic stuff left so I guess this will have to be a sale rather
than a trade.
Thanks,
David
Hi,
I have a couple of uPDP-11 boxes (BA23) with failed power supplies.
Being no expert on repairing switch mode power supplies (and to be frank
slighly scared of trying), is there any reason why I shouldn't adapt a
ATX power supply from a PC to provide the required voltages?
Most ATX power supplies offer pretty meaty 5V and 12V feeds plus a
fairly small -12V (~0.3A) feed.
Will I need to generate a LTC/BEVENT L signal if I go down this route?
Finally, does anyone know of any good guides on repairing switch modes?
Whilst not keen, I guess I should bite the bullet (hopefully not
literally) and learn how to repair them.
Thanks,
Toby
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
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believed to be clean.
Dan,
My first comment is - watch your back!
--- On Thu, 1/15/09, Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com> wrote:
> From: Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Old Software rights (was content rights)
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
> Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009, 8:48 AM
> In an unrelated topic,
>
> I have a bunch of old programs from my University days,
> back in the late 70's, early 80's
> all Vax/VMS code, in various languages, etc.
>
> In those days we never put "(C)" or copyright
> notices on code.
> I'm just wondering if it's generally "ok"
> to release this code to the public?
>
> It's been 30 some years (longer than copyright would
> apply anyhow).
> I have searched for 20 years for some of the authors and
> never found anyone.
>
> 14 years ago I posted pieces of it, and said "if
> anyone objects to this, please contact me"
> and never got any response from anyone.
Just an experience I recall observing.
A guy was posting old games on USENET (don't recall which group), from the CP/M to early IBM PC era - games for which no owner could he could find, games that seemed to be abandoned.
And then one day he announced that he would no longer be doing this, having been warned by his ISP and having received a cease and desist notice from a law firm.
> The system and associated parts used for the development
> are long gone.
Copyright is a can of worms, particularly with the obscenely long period that has been recently legislated. And there will always be someone willing to threaten action.
Your examples seem safe, but I would be quick to be responsive to any request to "desist".
> But another age old question, who has rights to code
> developed on the universities equipment?
> I know it's a common question these days, but
> "back in the day" such considerations never
> occurred,
> it was a different era.
I well recall those days when software was free, included in the rental of the mainframe. Until unbundling and the "Program Product" which would rent or sell independently from the machine. IIRC, IBM's H Assembler for OS/360, first NEW product issued under the unbundling agreement, rented for $250/mo. in 1970 - which would be something more significant these days.
Those days really ended around 1970.
It's particularly annoying in the area of OS's for our classic computers, which remain under copyright to companies which may have gone belly-up, been absorbed and forgotten by their buyers, etc. Getting an old CP/M machine without the OS, and not having a legal source for it, makes 'criminals' of us all.
And it's damned unfair!
> Everyone from that era has also vanished with the wind, I
> know, I've looked.
>
> So is it fairly safely abandoned?
> Another way to look at it - If it was your code, some small
> silly thing you wrote, would you care?
Now that is a very GOOD question. There are a lot of things I've written that I would NEVER want seen - by ANYONE; guess they're in the class of 'silly'.
Most of my serious software belongs to entities (alive or dead), under 'work for hire'. If it were distributed with their blessings, it wouldn't bother me; I've been paid - though never enough :)
OTOH, I have several proprietary systems I have written for the use of my own business AND I WOULD EXPRESS SERIOUS ANNOYANCE if they were somehow obtained and distributed. But they have never been shared, and the likelihood of it happening seems small.
That said, good fortune.
Vern Wright
> Dan.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
>Subject: Stack Depth requirements for CP/M 2.2 CBIOS
> From: "ROBO5.8" <robo58 at optonline.net>
> Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:08:49 -0500
> To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only'" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
>
>Hello,
>
>I have rewritten my old systems CP/M 2.2 CBIOS to add an IDE Drive.
>
>I've run into a problem that has me stumped. Everything works as long as I
>don't try and copy or assemble a large Assembly file (>80KB).
>
>I will be going along fine and then out of nowhere I will see CP/M request
>access to Drive "T". My debug info says SELDSK is requesting Drive 0FF00h.
>
Ok this is easy. CP/M 2.x (2.2 nominal) can only address 16 logical drives
so that's limitation one. Each drive is limited to 8Mb (65525sectors*128bytes).
If you use one of the CP/M like imperoved work a likes this is less an issue
and logical drives can be much larger (up to 1gb).
>I have added debug code to all the CBIOS routines so that they report what
>they are doing to the console (slow but nice).
>
>I've gone through my code many times and tested each routine via an embedded
>debug monitor. I believe I have added every CP/M 2.2 patch (1-6 and 9)that
>is specific to the CBIOS including those dealing with Blocking/Deblocking.
Good but likely not the problem itself.
>
>In the back of my mind I kept wondering if I was exceeding CP/M's Stack
>Depth. I can find no information on the web or in my doc's that specifies
>what the maximum Stack usage is for a CBIOS.
This does not could like a stack size issue. That tends to be very static
for any disk size.
>Do any of you have any thoughts on my Stack Question? Are there other
>issues with Blocking/Deblocking that become visible with large Disk Drives,
>and that are not covered in any of the published DRI patches?
Wrong plase to look.
Likely areas of breakage:
More than 16 drives
Alloc storage areas inadaquately sized or overlapping
BIOS local variables being trashed.
Bios logic in error (deblock, sector addressing other??)
Allison
>Thanks for your assistance.
>Robo
I am looking for volunteers to help reverse-engineer and document Apple
II VisiCalc.
Besides documenting this for future historians
--I plan to give all this work to the Smithsonian--
I'd like to get Apple II VisiCalc running in emulation.
Right now this isn't possible because of the copy protection.
(BTW the PC DOS version is available on the web, and doesn't have copy
protection).
I have three versions of the Apple II software. I know one of them
still boots (1983?)
and have some confidence that the other two versions (1979 and 1981)
work too.
I have been in contact with both Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin.
Of course you ask, well then why do you need volunteers?
The answer is because no one can find the sources.
Bob and I plan to dig around his garage when the weather gets warmer,
but there are no guarantees, and the 30th anniversary is in October 2009.
--Tim McNerney
http://www.4004.com
Relisted with reduced buy-it-now ebay item # 260354394197
'course since the last listing expired with no bids, you could
probably low-bid on this and get the two cards with no competition.
I guess people aren't really collecting Apollo workstation stuff. A
shame, really.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
On Fri, 30 Jan 2009 Chuck Guzis said:
> Read about it:
>
> http://www.smpstech.com/filter00.htm
>
> Interestingly, the real-world example cited is the addition of an
> input filter to a PDP 11/40...
The part of this that really amazes me is where it says something like "long
power supply input lines" can also cause problems or oscillation. I suppose
this includes for example all the wiring in my house or at the office, over
which I have no control and very little detailed knowledge. I wonder if the
effective length of the AC input line is all the way back to the transformer
on the pole or wherever? If my guesses are correct then it is sort of scary
to plug in any SMPS anywhere! I would hope that most SMPS these days have
an input circuit that is reasonably immune to most of these problems, but I
certainly don't know that.
BTW, I have been reading the digest form of this group for a couple of years
now but I think this is the first time I have posted a reply of any sort.
If I goofed it up, profuse apologies in advance!
Later,
Charlie C.
