test-drb August 2009

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

148 participants
169 discussions

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

Am I the only person who has had trouble subscribing to the list? I've attempted a couple of times over the last couple of weeks to subscribe another email address with no success. I don't know if the moderators are just backed up, or if the requests are getting black-holed. --Bill

15 years

DG MP200 / DG6095 info sought

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

The one piece in my collection that is lacking documentation is my Data General micronova MP/200. It has a 2901 based CPU, 16k or 64k dram memory,( 32x DG1100 DRAMS) and loads of ECO wires. Furthermore it has a DG6095-1 diskdrive. One fixed, one cartridge platter. Is this a 5MB platter ( as previously indicated on this list ) or a 10 MB platter (as indicated on a sticker on the device itself ). So : - any schematics out there ? - any cartridges avaliable ( Europe...) - from the farris website i deduced that Diablo 44 cartridges would fit . Correct? - Formatting software available should I find some fitting cartridges ? Jos

15 years

Results from a pickup today...

by mdavidson1963＠gmail.com

I just got back from picking up some nice equipment from a friend of mine... I'm hoping to get some pointers to software and more information. I don't have all the details in front of me, but here's a summary: 1) DECmate III (with display) 2) Altos 586 (main box only with terminal connector cable) 3) DEC Pro/350 (I think) 4) MicroVAX II (no drives) 5) DG MV/4000 DC (which I'm very excited about, being a DG lover) I know a bit about VAXen, but haven't opened this box to see what's inside. The DG supposedly works, but I haven't tried it yet. As for the other boxes, they *should* work, but I don't know much about their working state yet (or what they have inside). More to follow as I dig deeper... Mark

15 years

VCF East 6.0 flyer

by evan＠snarc.net

Cctalkers: please help us advertise the VCF East 6.0 by either printing and distributing our flyer, or posting the flyer link wherever you can: http://www.snarc.net/vcfe6.pdf .... the hobby and we @ VCF thank you!!! - Evan, Sellam & crew

15 years

UNIBUS <-> PCI bridge

by bqt＠softjar.se

Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> wrote: > The most important (and difficult for me) part is to design a PCB with an FPGA that plugs into the > PCI bus. The other ugly part is the cabling from there to the Unibus/Qbus. The rest is programmable. > > Those are the features to expect in an early version: > > * Unibus mapping to PC's memory > * Interrupt forwarding to PCI INTA-INTD > * Interrupt vector interrogation mechanism > > Later then: > > * Unibus arbitration > * Unibus memory > * QBus Reading your other messages... Without Unibus memory you'd be restricted to only interrupt-driven single byte transfer devices, since you have no solution to manage DMA devices on the Unibus. For DMA, you need either to allow the Unibus to get access to the PCs memory (that would imply a Unibus map, which by the way wasn't just used by a VAX. Large Unibus PDP-11 systems also have a Unibus map). A Unibus map is nothing magical by the way. It's just a way to remap the 18-bit Unibus address of a DMA transfer into a larger address of the host. It's usually a simple addition of the Unibus address with a large constant that can be written by the host (usually you have several separate map registers, so that multiple DMA transfers can proceed in parallell. I don't know what you mean by "Unibus mapping to PC's memory". Would that be a Unibus map, or are we just talking about a way for the PC to read data from arbitrary addresses on the Unibus? Interrupt stuff is usually a bit more complicated than what you seem to envision above. You have the interrupt request line, the interrupt grants, which is followed by the vector at the interrupt acknowledge, and then you have the interrupt dismiss stuff, which cause the device to remove the interrupt request, and allow other devices at the same priority, but farther from the bus arbiter to get their interrupt through. And what about Unibus memory? There is nothing special about Unibus memory. It behaves the same way as any other thing on the Unibus, with the additional "restriction" that memory can never be bus master. But that just makes it easier. If you implement enough to communicate with a device on the Unibus, then you will have done enough to talk with memory as well. > Software would initially consist of a "do nothing"-driver for Linux. It would simply find the card > and then export the base address into the kernel name space. Other drivers then could use that. > Probably also some code for interrupt handling. > I am a bit reluctant to register the bridge as a /proc/bus/unibus thing. That would probably only > work without much use, as there are no PnP things on the Unibus. Why do you even bother with questions about how a driver would present the data in a specific OS? That is definitely software that you can change any number of times. You need to figure out how to construct the hardware so that it will work, and after that you can play with software as much as you want to without problem. Oh, and not everything is software. There are some things that are very demanding for precise timing considerations. Software is usually not a good solution for those cases... Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

15 years

Problems with IBM 5150 Power

by starbase89＠gmail.com

I recently acquired a 5150. It is a 16-64k with two drives and color. I have not been able to boot it up yet. I cleaned the inside, and made sure everything was well connected. When I flick the power on, the CPU fan goes, and nothing else. There is power coming out of the motherboard and drive connectors, but there is nothing at the ISA slot. No beeps or anything. I tested the power supply with a modern CD drive. It worked. I removed the motherboard and inspected it for obviously bad components and scorch marks. I then opened the power supply. It was pretty clean, except for the hornet's nest inside. I haven't yet removed that board, but plan to soon. The fuse is intact. Can anyone suggest what to do next? I have PDFs of the Hardware Maintaince manual and the technical service manual. Thanks Joe

15 years

OFFLIST (due to being placed on moderated mode) was Re: Problems with IBM 5150 Power

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

Assuming I read you correctly, the mobo appears to have problems. You should invest in a multimeter. 20$ or so from Radio Shack or even Walmart (probably in the automotive section). This way you can measure the voltages coming off the p/s pins accurately. Yes you sometimes need to "load down" a p/s to determine if it is functioning properly (in other words apply an actual resistance - the circuit it was meant to power or something equivalent. You can plug it into the mobo and test it by say pushing a paper clip into the back of the p/s connector for instance. Sounds like your mobo has issues. You want to start playing with old PCs and stuff - find some replacement mobos and whatnot. I'm too disorganized at the moment to even offer to provide one. Others in the group (MARCH) are bound to. Try Bill Degnan. But he's hours away... Besides swapping boards, try removing the socketed chips (CPU, etc.) and replacing just those. Or using that CPU in another computer or board. You have to have something else that runs an 8088 by now, don't you... Regards and best of luck. P.S - get a copy of "Inside the IBM PC", Peter Norton. Has to be PC-era. Has a picture of a mobo on the cover, but is very green. The earliest addition is not as useful as the slightly larger more commonly known one (i used to have the *newer* one, but have only the older, uglier, less useful addition now. Somewhere). It's a M-U-S-T if you're going to develop a basic understanding of what's going on under duh hood. You need to get a copy. --- On Mon, 7/27/09, Joe Giliberti <starbase89 at gmail.com> wrote: > From: Joe Giliberti <starbase89 at gmail.com> > Subject: Problems with IBM 5150 Power > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Date: Monday, July 27, 2009, 7:03 PM > I recently acquired a 5150. It is a > 16-64k with two drives and color. I have > not been able to boot it up yet. I cleaned the inside, and > made sure > everything was well connected. When I flick the power on, > the CPU fan goes, > and nothing else. There is power coming out of the > motherboard and drive > connectors, but there is nothing at the ISA slot. No beeps > or anything. I > tested the power supply with a modern CD drive. It worked. > I removed the > motherboard and inspected it for obviously bad components > and scorch marks. > I then opened the power supply. It was pretty clean, except > for the hornet's > nest inside. I haven't yet removed that board, but plan to > soon. The fuse is > intact. > > Can anyone suggest what to do next? I have PDFs of the > Hardware Maintaince > manual and the technical service manual. > > Thanks > Joe >

15 years

OT: Linux netbooks?

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

Well, I bought one that isn't Linux, it's XP Home, but I am VERY happy with it. I got it from TigerDirect, it's an Acer Aspire One. It was a "refurb", but I can't tell it from new. 1GB of memory, Atom processor, 8.9" screen, 160GB [real] hard drive .... I paid $199, with $3 shipping. I opened the unit up and increased the RAM to 1.5GB, which is the max for this unit. The chipset on this one is an Intel 945, so it's video system is actually powerful enough to run Vista's "Aero" interface if I wanted to do so. The unit also has a built-in modem, wired Ethernet and WiFi, plus three USB 2.0 ports and a slot that takes many types of flash memory cards. You can find "refub" netbooks VERY cheap ... as low as $149. They are usually some variant of Asus Eee or Acer Aspire One. At the low end, they usually have the 8.9" screen and tiny 4GB SSD's (solid state drives). In general, you can put Linux or XP Home on any of these machines (XP Home is tight fit in a 4GB solid state drive, however ... although it can be done). Some of the sources I would look at to find a cheap netbook: 1. Woot.com 2. Sellout.woot.com 3. TigerDirect 4. Buy.com And there are others. Surprisingly, Wal-Mart has had some good deals on Netbooks (they had the one I bought as a new unit rather than a refurb for $249). Screen size is a matter of choice, the small screen size that I have has fallen out of favor and the 10" screens are now more common .... but the resolution is the same, and the difference is only 1.2" diagonal, but the entire laptop is larger. Keyboard size is also an issue; I'm happy with mine but it's a bit smaller than normal, again, a concession to overall machine size. Some of the Asus Eee's also have an issue, apparently, with a non-standard location of the right shift key (again, size not withstanding). If possible, look for a machine with the "Atom" processor rather than a Celeron; the Atom is faster and also uses less power. Many of the models are offered with a "3-cell" or a "6-cell" battery, obviously the 6-cell battery lasts longer (but, again, is bigger and heavier). Keep in mind that you will probably want to buy an external optical drive if for nothing else than loading software. To do this cheap, salvage a drive >from a dead laptop and get a slimline USB optical drive case on E-Bay (about $12). You can use a burner or even a DVD burner if you want to. I know the original post was about Linux OS models, but I personally prefer and get a lot more use from XP. If you have a model with a "real" hard drive, you can go up to 500GB, although the 160GB drive that mine came with is fine for this type of unit.

15 years

VCF East Keynote Speaker Announcement

by evan＠snarc.net

This year's VCF East (6.0) keynote speaker is Ted Hurewitz. Unlike some of our past keynoters -- Bill Mauchly, Chuck Peddle, David Ahl, etc. -- most collectors probably never heard of Mr. Hurewitz. But he's quite awesome. He was in the engineering group for RCA's Bizmac tube computer, and he worked on the design for the RCA 501. This all went down in Camden, N.J. in the 1950s. Amusing sidebar: one of his employees was Arnold Spielberg -- father of Steven. Some info about Bizmac is here: http://www.cedmagic.com/history/rca-bizmac-computer.html and also here: http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/RCA-Bizmac-1951.htm ...... some info about the 501 is here: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/RCA/RCA.501.1958.10264627… (and in many other places, according to Google.) Hurewitz will give his lecture on the morning of Sat., Sept. 12 (exact time to be determined) followed by audience Q&A.

15 years

UNIBUS <-> PCI bridge

by bqt＠softjar.se

Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> wrote: > I am a bit reluctant to register the bridge as a /proc/bus/unibus thing. That would probably only > work without much use, as there are no PnP things on the Unibus. Oh, yeah. "PnP" for Unibus/Qbus? Yes there are. I think "PnP" for the PC is mostly bollocks. Sounds good, but not that impressive in reality anyway. Anyway, yes. If you start reading through the specs for Unibus address assignments, you'll find that there are rules to it, and if you follow those rules, you can autodetect all devices on the Unibus. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

15 years

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test-drb August 2009