test-drb August 2009

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

148 participants
169 discussions

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Thanks to all of you who participated in the logic probe group buy. The cases are now at the post office. Because I overestimated the domestic postage, everyone will see a partial refund in their Paypal accounts by now. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

14 years, 11 months

Searching for IBM 1620 software images

by bob＠jfcl.com

I'd like to find some software images - SPS, FORTRAN, FORTRAN-II, GOTRAN, (gasp) Disk Monitor! - to use with the simh 1620 simulator. Curiously there aren't any 1620 software kits included with simh, and I've searched the web and there just don't seem to be any for that machine, anywhere. It's ironic that simh can simulate a complete 1620 system, including the 1311 disk drives, but there's nothing to run on it. I don't mind writing a little program to massage file formats if what you have isn't in the right format for simh - just let me know. And I don't even mind OCRing and correcting a listing, if you have one and you're willing to scan it. Yes, I know the CHM has a 1620 and a lot of software, but I've talked with them about it and they just aren't ready to release what they have, so that avenue is a non-starter. Thanks, Bob Armstrong

14 years, 11 months

Lisa 2 (Mac XL) Screen showing multiple images

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> > Roger Holmes wrote: >> Was there ever any other interface cards which fitted into the three >> slots? > The Dual Parallel card is the most common one. > There was a quad port serial for use with Xenix > There was the SunRem SCSI card, which sometimes was attached to an > actual SCSI card (that would eat up two slots worth of space) but > would > only work for Macworks > There was some sort of network card for it as well, but that never > made > it, and yes, with MacWorks you can use LocalTalk on serial port B > instead. > > There may have been others. One guy has some strange 3 port Parallel > Card, but no drivers for it. Thank you. >> I suppose I might leave Mac OS on it and load up MacWrite and MacPlot >> (which I wrote) or even an early MacDraft (for which we were European >> distributors and which I still maintain). Maybe I will put Lisa OS on >> the other Lisa when I retrieve it from my brother's shop where I had >> it running stock control, reading from a bar code reader and >> controlling a till (cash register) drawer and printing receipts to an >> Apple dot matrix printer until the whole system was retired. >> Incidentally it replaced an Apple /// doing the same job using a >> floppy auto-changer with five 1.2MB floppy disks in it instead of a >> hard drive. The bar code reader was a one bit input device originally >> hooked up to an Apple ][ but re-connected to parallel cards on >> the /// >> and then the Lisa and the device driver re-written. > You could always split the hard drive in half and use the environments > window to switch between Lisa Office and MacWorks if you want both. Maybe, though first thought from a 2009 perspective, 10MB does sound somewhat small to split in half, but I suppose its no worse than a 5MB Profile and a lot better than a pair of Twiggy drives. > > > Did you write the bar code driver yourself? Was it for MacOS or Lisa > Office System? Thinking about it, I'm fairly sure it was in MacOS by the time Lisas were cheap enough for my brother's budget. Getting at a one bit input >from MacOS was easier too. I think I had it generate an interrupt every time there was a change from black to white or vice-versa and used the system clock to measure the time, and hence the distance assuming a reasonably constant acceleration. It used the guard bars at each end to find the start and end speeds and assumed constant acceleration in between. The decoding algorithm was based on the Apple ][ code which came with the reader, which I disassembled and re- coded, probably in 68k assembler, but maybe Pascal. The Apple ][ code just polled the games port and you had to call it when you expected a bar code to be read. The MacOS version just processed interrupts whenever they occurred and when it found a valid 8 or 13 digit EANA code or a local 6 digit item number of the locally printed labels, it told the host application. I think it generated key events including a carriage return so the app thought the user had typed a bar code in, which they could do by hand if necessary. Roger Holmes.

14 years, 11 months

HP 2000 Timesharing BASIC source

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

A fellow has contacted me about the HP 2116 / 2000 Timesharing BASIC. Apparently he used to work on the software and has some source code listings of the dual-processor 2000 TSB software. I know a couple of people here have, or are interested in, getting a 2000 system going (Jay..). Perhaps the source listing should make it's way to Al, if such a listing is not already archived. Regardless, he would be interested in communicating with others working on 2000 TSB. If anyone is interested I will forward addresses. -------- <QUOTE> I had noticed on this web site: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/HP21xx/HP2116CSys/index.html#requests that you were interested in software to run. I noticed some of the memory dumps with BASIC keywords on the page. I'm not sure if I can be all that much help, but I did happen to work on those machines back around 1973-1975 and I have a complete source code listing for the 2116 part of the 2000F timesharing system (which I extensively modified, back then.) I do not know where (I did get copies at one point) the source code listings for the I/O processor (I think it was a 2114) are at, though. Might be in some box, might be thrown away. (The I/O could be rewritten, if necessary. It wouldn't need to support the lineprinter, which it used to support, and a lot of it was wrapped around handling 32 separate user buffers. So even if it is lost to me, it's possible to tinker things without facing a horrible job to do it.) I'm located in Portland Oregon, not far away. </QUOTE> <QUOTE> By the way, I'm pretty familiar with the internals of it and the 2116 assembly language itself, as I modified the system to include timeshared assembly services and added many commands to the system. It would be very interesting to me to participate in some useful way in getting such a system operational. Not merely out of nostalgia, by the way. HP 2000F BASIC was actually an impressive software design on almost every level. It included some of the very best practices in the numerical approaches used for the transcendentals; practices which are rarely bettered even today. It included matrix operations that were impressive in design. It's performance in terms of users was also impressive -- especially so when one considers the limitations in memory and processor speed and features -- a level that is also very rarely achieved today, even with processors much, much more capable. Much of the kind of combined skill sets that were applied so well in developing a system like this remain rare and rarely understood. Having an operational system would provide a hands-on experience to show others what can be done so well and with so little, and perhaps provide benchmark that others trying their own hands on modern processors may find instructive. I've often wished that I could find a working system to buy and bring up, too. </QUOTE>

14 years, 11 months

Late-Summer cleaning!

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

So about 5 months ago I converted some unused attic space into storage and moved a bunch of my computer collection up there (not quite enough to bring down the ceiling, but close :)). Since then I haven't touched most of it, which made me realize I'm just hoarding this stuff for no good reason. So I'm looking to get rid of it. I'll be listing this stuff on the VCM forums as well. Stuff is free unless otherwise noted. Stuff is As-Is. I'm trying to be as accurate as possible here, if you need more clarification feel free to ask. PICKUP ONLY in the Seattle, WA area (I live about 15 mi north of Seattle). I'm happy to drive out a ways (say, 2-3 hours) to meet you halfway if that helps. I will not ship. (I suck at it, and I just don't have the time.) Thanks, Josh The Stuff! ---------- Computers: --------------- - 2x Compaq Portable. Neither work, but enough parts between the two to build one working machine. - TRS-80 Model II with 8" drive expansion box (with 2 drives populated). I have M16 upgrade cards that should work with it. Works, but could use a cap kit. - HP-1000 E-Series. Needs power supply repair, bare system with just the main system planar/motherboard and front panel (which does work, last I tested it.) - Commodore PET 8032 and 4032. One 4040 drive. Cabling, should you need it. (4032 had some parts scavenged from the system board.) - HP 9000/236 (works, but floppy controller is not happy) - SGI Personal Iris 4D/35. Does not power up, slightly dirty. I have some RAM for it. Otherwise complete. - Misc Macintosh II/IIx systems. Very dirty, do not power up. (Possibly just need new PRAM batteries.) - Misc Macintosh Portables. Some power up (if a new battery is in place) but have lines missing from LCDs or other issues. None have working hard drives. (Sorry.) - HP C100/9000 (PA-RISC). Works, to the best of my knowledge. - Sun Ultra Enterprise II. 2xUltraSparc IIi (233Mhz?). 512mb ram. - DEC MicroVax II boardset w/16mb ram. - DEC MicroVax I boardset. Monitors: --------- - Commodore 1702. Works. - Amdek Color II. Works. - Apple II color. Works. - NeXT 17" and 21" color displays. 21" is a bit beat up. Misc: ----- - Beehive terminal. (I believe it is a Super Bee) No keyboard. Needs repair. 8008 CPU! - HP LaserJet 5P. Works great, relatively new toner cartridge. Missing rear-side panels. - 2x Teletype M43 for repair (both power up but print head does not move). Need new ribbons (of course.) - Various SCSI enclosures (full and half-height...) Whew, that's it. Again, ask if there are any questions, and no, honestly, please no, I can't ship any of this.

14 years, 11 months

Lisa 2 (Mac XL) Screen showing multiple images

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 7 Aug 2009, at 18:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:13:53 -0400 > From: Ray Arachelian <ray at arachelian.com> > > Roger Holmes wrote: >> I've taken my old Lisa 2 home after a few years disuse and tried it >> out. It currently has MacWorks installed on the hard disc and it >> booted fine but the screen has a problem, it shows three smudged menu >> bars equally spaced down the screen and it also has fairly bright fly >> back lines at about 30 degree angles. >> >> I have the official spares kit for it but never went on the training >> course as I programmed them, someone else who has now left the >> company, repaired them. >> >> Is this likely to be a minor logic fault in the video generation >> circuitry, presumably on the I/O board, or there is a small board in >> the spares kit which handles the high tension for the screen, is it >> more likely to be that? >> >> How do I get at the HT board? Do I have to remove the four screws at >> the front of the CRT? It seems unlikely Apple would have made >> engineers do that but how else can I get into the HT enclosure? > Unplug all cables from the back. > Unlock the back panel by twisting the two screw locks, and pull it > down. > Next find the two thumb indentations under the Lisa display in the > front, push up and remove the front panel. > Next remove the top of the case. > > You'll find the analog card right behind the CRT. It's accessible > from > the top. > > You can crush a small bit of cardboard - a small crumpled slice of one > of those fall out subscription cards from magazines will work nicely. > > Reconnect the power & mouse. > > In the front, there's a small power cut off switch around where the > thumb indentation on the front of the case is, jam the bit cardboard > in > there. There's another one in the back near where one of the thumb > screw locks is. Doing so will allow you to turn the Lisa on with the > case off and adjust the pots on the analog board. > > If you've had the screen modification kit (ROM version will show as > 3A/88 or 3A/A8), you may have a transformer between the analog board > and > the CRT. Perhaps this is related to the issue. > > Problems could be anywhere from the VS ROM on the I/O board, or the > signals from the I/O board going out through the motherboard to the > analogboard, and also in the power supply. > > Before you do much else, I'd disconnect the I/O board, and motherboard > and clean out the contacts. Ditto for the power supply. Usual > anti-static precautions apply to the card cage/motherboard. > After you do that, and whatever you've used to clean the contacts is > dry > and clean, play with the pots on the analog board (I've had good luck > with DeOxit, other stuff works too, as does a rubber eraser - but > caution there as these can cause static buildup and might scrape the > contacts off if they're worn.) > > The pots on the analog board are usually glued down so note their > position before touching them, and be careful not to crack them, or > you'll have yet another part to replace. :-) wiggling them around > with > a screw driver gently is best - if you can find a plastic tipped > one, so > much the better, or if not shave down a plastic knife into the shape > of > a flathead screwdriver so you don't electrocute yourself, or short > something out by accident. (I've personally used metal ones and have > been careful, so YMMV.) > > If it's not a 2/10 (if it has an external parallel port on the > motherboard) make sure it no longer has the AA NiCad batteries, if it > does and they've leaked, they could have damaged the I/O board. > > Usual warnings about electrocution and causing damage to the Lisa > through shorts apply, but you sound like you know what you're doing so > I'll spare the usual broiler plate babble about the dangers of > touching > the wrong items while the machine is powered on and frying yourself, > etc. > > :) > > Have fun. Thank, I now have a fairly solid picture. For a while I thought I had zapped it with static as I was getting random patterns on the screen and no disk activity. I cleaned all the edge connectors twice, swapped the two RAM boards and gave it one last try and it started working again. The machine is just loaded with Mac OS, MacPaint and MacWrite. I'll try out the floppy drive next, if it works I'll probably load the Lisa OS and all the Apps. I have the full set of about ten manuals with the floppy disks in the back, I hope they are readable. Not that I really used Lisa OS, I used the development environment to write software, first for Lisa and later for Mac. In the early days there didn't seem to be any libraries for doing things like menus and I even wrote the code to save the original pixels then draw a pull down menu and do the highlighting as the mouse moved down the menu. Apple supplied QuickDraw and the memory management system and the debugger. I think there was a 3D library which was useless so we wrote our own, including hidden line removal, both on screen and for output to pen plotters hung off one of the serial ports or sometimes off a parallel card. Was there ever any other interface cards which fitted into the three slots? I suppose I might leave Mac OS on it and load up MacWrite and MacPlot (which I wrote) or even an early MacDraft (for which we were European distributors and which I still maintain). Maybe I will put Lisa OS on the other Lisa when I retrieve it from my brother's shop where I had it running stock control, reading from a bar code reader and controlling a till (cash register) drawer and printing receipts to an Apple dot matrix printer until the whole system was retired. Incidentally it replaced an Apple /// doing the same job using a floppy auto-changer with five 1.2MB floppy disks in it instead of a hard drive. The bar code reader was a one bit input device originally hooked up to an Apple ][ but re-connected to parallel cards on the /// and then the Lisa and the device driver re-written. Roger Holmes. > >

14 years, 11 months

Fwd: FW: P390/500 to give away - in Israel

by cube1＠charter.net

FYI, a posting recently to IBM-MAIN... I have no personal knowledge of the individual and the machine. Jay -----Original Message----- >From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN at bama.ua.edu] On >Behalf Of Binyamin Dissen >Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 12:42 PM >To: IBM-MAIN at bama.ua.edu >Subject: P390/500 to give away - in Israel > >It was working before I put it in storage a few years ago. > >-- >Binyamin Dissen <bdissen at dissensoftware.com> >http://www.dissensoftware.com > >Director, Dissen Software, Bar & Grill - Israel > > >Should you use the mailblocks package and expect a response from me, >you should preauthorize the dissensoftware.com domain. > >I very rarely bother responding to challenge/response systems, >especially those from irresponsible companies. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >send email to listserv at bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO >Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html --- Jay R. Jaeger The Computer Collection cube1 at charter.net

14 years, 11 months

Looking for TK-50 (and a few TK-70) tapes

by sethm＠loomcom.com

Hi folks, Does anyone have any TK-50 (CompacTape) tapes that they'd be willing to let go of? I need maybe six to ten of them. I'd also welcome some TK-70 (CompacTape II) tapes, but my need of TK-50s is more pressing. Thanks much! -Seth -- Seth Morabito Union City, CA, USA sethm at loomcom.com

14 years, 11 months

contact lubricant

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Hi all, so, after all this cleaning of contacts on old computers, is there anything really good to put on the contact surface to protect it ? Grease/Lubricants/etc. ? Thanks

14 years, 11 months

N8VEM floppy CBIOS in the making

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi! There is good news on the N8VEM home brew computing project. At long last it appears a true floppy drive CBIOS is going to be available soon. One of the builders has been building a FDC CBIOS for the N8VEM SBC and Disk IO board. As of now there is a new floppy disk monitor (FDCMON) which does most everything my original did but much better organized and easier to work on. Just tonight I got a crude disk format feature working so now it can format floppy disks. Also there is a draft CBIOS available on the wiki. It currently supports 720K DSDD 3.5" floppy disks. The plan is to build up the infrastructure with a single model and mode as its core functionality. The 3.5" DSDD is the most straight forward and easiest to make work since it can use the polling mode. Certainly other formats and disks are possible with later revisions. Things appear quite promising. If anyone would like to join in this exciting phase of the project to see the N8VEM SBC boot CP/M 2.2 from a real floppy drive please contact me off list. You can also join the N8VEM mailing list and/or wiki to see what's happening. We are always looking for talented and motivated developers to have fun building home brew computers! Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch PS, please join us on the N8VEM mailing list and wiki. There are several other N8VEM home brew computing PCBs available. More are in development at present. <http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/> http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/ <http://groups.google.com/group/n8vem> http://groups.google.com/group/n8vem

14 years, 11 months

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test-drb August 2009