test-drb February 2010

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
221 discussions

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 22:10 -0600 2/2/10, Cameron Kaiser wrote: >I'm going to go ahead and finish this thread: anyone who doesn't use a Mac >is Hitler and Windows users are Nazis, etc. ROFLMAO! This may become a .sig on my email program, for classic-cmp replies at least. Well done, Sir! -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 5 months

Poly8813 on ebay

by marvin＠west.net

> From: dwight elvey > > Hi > I thought I'd mention that there is a Poly 8813 ( actually a 8812 ) > on ebay. One of the pictures shows me with a working machine > but the machine on ebay is not my machine ( although it might > be thought as being mine ). It is one of the two machine that mine > was one of that is mentioned on one of the web pages and serial > numbers. I tend to think his asking price ($8000) is WAY too high in spite of the condition since it doesn't include any docs or disks. But if anyone decides to buy it, I can supply a copy of the manuals and other board documentation if they aren't already online. But for a mere $4000, I'd be more than happy to provide a working Poly 8813 (not 8812) with documentation and boot disks as I currently have at least two :). And for a mere $4000, I can do the same with a working Poly 88 AKA the Orange Toaster :) as I currently have maybe four or five. FWIW, only two Polymorphic items have closed on ebay in the last 90 days; a set of four Poly S-100 boards (two memory boards, CPU, and ???) at $225.00 and a Poly 88 flyer at $9.99 not sold. I love ebay (NOT) :). Marvin

15 years, 5 months

Available: IBM Displaywriter in Weldon, NC

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Not my system, please contact Margaret if interested: > I have an IBM Displaywriter I purchased in 1983. > The Displaywriter still works and has a Selectric Printer. > I also have all eleven "Dick and Jane" instruction manuals > That came with the machine. > > mhofmann at 3rddoor.com > > Not my system, please contact Margaret if interested ^^ I believe that she wishes to donate it.

15 years, 5 months

off topic: video processing for quality picture reasons from SD source.

by jpero＠sympatico.ca

Hi anyone, I have been researching and trying some softwaresolutions and hardware with poor success and output to a 1080 LCD TV (high end) thus bypassing the TV's scaler and display direct without processing. Canada still do SD stuff till Aug 12 20011 HDTV switch over. flat panel TVs with built in tuner do rather hack job of SD video that I knew these should do good job. Ditto with composite and s-video. But there is bit of unique issues that will be addressed below. I have tried three video capture cards and software solutions, constant fussing and long start up, average picture quality, tend to be darker. And second issue is EIA608 is closed caption (CC) decoding for SD and displaying does not exist or erratic working in many software and hardware. I already tried a JVC HM-DT100U and it has tuner and output on component or HDMI but internal video processing for SD is not up to standard and as bad as youtube quality with heavy artifacts. Video processors, DVDO Edge does not have CC capability. I sent email to Anchor Bay Tech of their product and they do not implement this at all. If it was, that would be end of the story and bought the 800 buck video processor. But I'm still not sure of their quality. So I still exploring options and thinking of solutions. I intend to use a old S-VHS VCR as tuner and output on S-video. I have not found a decent a device that has high quality processing and output on HDMI or all analog circuitry and output on component to take advantage of higher quality A/D coverters found in TVs than composite or s-video. Options: 1. Buy DVDO Edge and s-video CC decoder. But I'm not sure on DVDO Edge's performance. 2. Buy up broadcaster quality equipment: Obtain RF demodulator (channel selectable via keypad or remote control of some type (remote or PC) with SDI output box (some can deal with CC onboard which is nice), or same idea except output on component if there's one. If it is SDI output and no CC, buy SDI CC decoder with CC overlay box, and get Blackmagic Design's "Monitoring HDLink Pro DVI" to hook all up. I have found one or two on some of these but cost for new one is way over 2,000 to 5,000. Ouch. Used source is best option but where to go? I tried broadcasting engineering forum and smartcow both does not address what I'm trying to find and get suggestions. Another reason I really like broadcaster equipment concept is these have deep bandwidth and little processing (selectively is good) and easily plugs together, setup and forget it, just punch in channels. I'm that fussy. CRT on SD quality is excellent and I use cable, built in video processors in TV threw away too much, soften and lose details to brother me so much enough to get me in a tizzy. I know broadcaster digitize all in and out feeds but quality is much higher. Cheers, Wizard

15 years, 5 months

For Trade: SGI 4D series boards, memory, etc

by mjohnson＠simconsultants.com

Hi Mark, I know you posted this many years ago but I was wondering if you still have any of the SGI SAMZ audio modules for sale (030-0753-005). Best Regards, Marty Johnson CentraTech Corp

15 years, 5 months

[Fwd: [BBC-Micro] UK Vintage Computer Festival 2010]

by philpem＠philpem.me.uk

Hi guys, I spotted this on the BBC-Micro mailing list -- figured a few UK-based classiccmp'ers might be interested... It looks like the VCF has finally made its way across the pond. Them ferries sure are slow! :) "David Hunt" <dm.hunt at ntlworld.com> said: > Hi Folks, > > I am involved with the National Museum Of Computing at Bletchley Park and we > have been working hard on bringing the VCF to the UK. We are pleased to > announce the event to take place this June. There will be an emphasis on > British computers. I hope many people from this list and the STH list will > attend the event, it'll be great! > > Cheers > > Dave > > ----------- > > "Britain's largest celebration of vintage computing is to be held at The > National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) in Bletchley Park from 19-20 June 2010. > > Originating ten years ago in California's Silicon Valley, to celebrate our > computing heritage, Vintage Computing Festivals are now regular events held > across the USA and in Germany. The June 2010 event at TNMOC will be the > first in the UK and will pay particular tribute to the British contribution > to the development of computing. > > The festival, which is open to the general public and welcomes private > exhibitors, will have exhibition stands, a full lecture programme, machine > demonstrations, computer games and challenges, bring-and-buy sale, and > performances of electronic music. > > Kevin Murrell, VCF co-ordinator and a trustee and director of TNMOC said: > "The enthusiasm for this festival is already remarkable and we have only > just started to publicise the event. The historic and spacious setting of > Bletchley Park is perfect for the event - and with The National Museum of > Computing on the same site, it will surely draw visitors from overseas as > well as from across Britain. With visitor numbers expected to exceed one > thousand, the Festival offers a great opportunity for potential sponsors." > > Exhibitions already committed include Acorn, Amiga, Atari, PDP11, Retro > Computer Museum, Sinclair, and Sundown Demoparty. There will be performances > by Pixelh8 and a guest appearance by one of the pioneers of British > synthpop. > > Lots more will be announced soon. To keep up-to-date, see www.vcf-gb.org. > > For general enquiries and to join the mailing list, email Simon Hewitt/Kevin > Murrell at vcf at tnmoc.org. > > Potential sponsors should contact Kevin Murrell of TNMOC at > kevin.murrell at tnmoc.org. > > Media and PR enquiries please contact Stephen Fleming of Palam > Communications at sfleming at palam.co.uk. -- Phil. philpem at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

15 years, 5 months

IBM PCAM info needed

by bmachacek＠pcisys.net

Hi, I am applying to the VA for disability benefits based on a hearing problem that occurred while I was in the Air Force (early '60s). I worked in a very noisy PCAM room with lots of IBM 407s, repro punched card machines, and sorters. I have been trying to find articles or people who can verify these machines were sufficiently noisy to cause hearing problems. The VA turned down my first basic request, so now I need more details in just how loud these machines were. I know we have quite a few "old timers" on this board and I'm hoping someone can help me find the information I'm looking for. Let me know offline the names of any books, magazines or people that I may look for or contact concerning this issue or if you know of any websites that may contain this information. This note may not be quite "on topic", but I've run out of places to look for this information. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.... Bill Machacek Colo. Springs, CO bmachacek at pcisys.net

15 years, 5 months

pdp11 bus - how long can it go?

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

As I slowly dig into "my" new 11/34A, I'm amazed by the bus configuration. Starting from the CPU, the main BA11 chassis has a double (9-slot) system unit, joined to a single (4-slot) SU by an?M9202 jumper. From the last slot in the chassis, a Unibus cable runs to a junction block on the cabinet back door. A second cable runs from there to a remote BA11, also with 2 SUs. A third cable runs back to the rack door/junction block (labled "bus station", BTW) and finally a fourth cable runs to a small rack mounted I/O box with a single SU and?an M9302 terminator in the last slot. Cable runs must be about 20-25 feet total. At first, I was worried that the length was too long (though it was a working system in use for several years) but after a quick websearch (www.psych.usyd.edu/pdp-11/unibus.html), I see that the bus can be up to FIFTY FEET before a repeater is needed. My short term plan is to pull all the cables and move the 9302 into the system box for testing. Now I'm worried that the bus might be too short - do I need to look for one of the "new" jumpers with two feet of cable or should it work with my old M9202 jumper block? Jack

15 years, 5 months

Classic Epson printer emulators

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

I haven't seen one but its not difficult to write one for yourself. I had one for H.P. RTL which we used for testing our large format printer drivers a few years ago. I think I still have an Epson manual which summarises their different small printer command codes I could copy, if you fancy writing something. I don't know if there is a collection of printer and plotter manuals online anywhere. BitSavers seems very light on them, I checked recently to see if I could free up the six feet of shelf space occupied by such manuals at my office but no such luck, so I will have to keep hold of them for now. Al seems to be snowed under at the moment, I scanned and sent him the ICT1301 programmers reference manual 12 months ago but it has not appeared yet. Roger. On 31 Jan 2010, at 10:59, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:00:43 -0500 > From: Michael Kerpan <madcrow.maxwell at gmail.com> > Subject: Classic Epson printer emulators? > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: > <8dd2d95c1001301000o2b1de736ge2ae894ed58efb94 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Are there any free or open-source programs that can convert raw ESC/P > (Epson printer code) data into bitmap images or PDFs or something? > Many classic home computer programs rely on having a printer of this > sort in order to print, and while many emulators have a way to dump > serial or parallel output to a file, the only interpreters I can find > to turn that raw data into something useful are commercial programs > that I can't really justify the purchase of, given my student > budget... > > Any help on this front would be much appreciated, > Mike

15 years, 5 months

WW sockets

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

I have a few packs of wire wrap sockets - all 40 pin Texas Instruments - maybe about 45 pieces total. Free for postage from 10512. Inquire off list, please. -- Will

15 years, 5 months

6809 SBC

by jonas＠otter.se

On 31 Jan 2010 , Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com> wrote: >I am really puzzled by this. The ACIA has no hardware reset line, but >it's very easy to send it a master reset command in software. In fact, >you have to do that to clear the hardware reset condition after a power >up, because the ACIA stays in the inactive/reset condition until you >program it. > >Charlie, you weren't using GTE 68C50s, were you? They did have a few >weird bugs. > I seem to remember having to send three consecutive software reset commands to something or other, quite possibly 6850:s, and probably Motorola ones. If you sent only one, the chip did not reset, you had to send three at once. /Jonas

15 years, 5 months

Reminder for Workshop: Installing CP/M on your S-100 computer , signup begins today Feb.1st

by ragooman＠comcast.net

Reminder: Installing CP/M on your S-100 computer workshop signup begins today Feb.1st For the vintage computer enthusiasts, in conjunction with the MARCH Computer Museum and the Delaware Hackerspace group, we like to invite you to a new workshop this year involving vintage computers. This new workshop is about CP/M and it will teach you how to install, build and configure CP/M on your vintage S-100 computer system. All the necessary steps are shown during the lecture and afterward is a hands-on training session which will let you upgrade your S-100 computer with a floppy disk based system and CP/M. Instruction and lecture will be provided by Rich Cini of the Altair32 emulator project. Please look at the link below about the workshop checklist for a detailed list of requirements about this workshop. You'll need to know what to prepare beforehand to get ready for this workshop. Ask any questions you have about getting ready before the start of the workshop. A knowledge of assembly programming, S-100 hardware, and CP/M operation is required for this workshop. Please do not come unprepared. We currently have seats for 12 workbenches for those who want the hands-on training. An additional 10 seats are available for those who like to watch and learn. If we happen to get more requests for this workshop, we will try to accommodate as many people as possible. This is a first come, first serve event, sorry, but we cannot accommodate latecomers. Once the registration opens, please specify which seat you like to reserve. The workshop is located very close to I-95 for those that are drivng. More information can be found at the Delaware Hackerspace website below. Workshop Checklist - view message thread http://www.vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=310 Address: 103 W. 7th St. Wilmington, DE 19801 Registration opens: Feb. 1st, 2010 Signup deadline: Apr. 1st, 2010 Workshop Date: Apr. 10th, 2010 hours: Sat: 12noon - 7pm SPONSORS: Bill Degnan http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ Delaware Hackerspace http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Delaware_Hackerspace Altair32 emulator project http://www.altair32.com/ MARCH Computer Museum http://www.midatlanticretro.org/ Please send any questions offline. Dan Roganti ragooman at comcast.net see you there ! -- http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ragooman/

15 years, 5 months

Heurikon HK68/M130 or M140 manuals?

by ken＠seefried.com

Long shot, but would anyone have manuals for the Heurikon HK68/M130 or M140 (or both)? These are pretty nice 680[34]0 based Multibus-1 boards. KJ

15 years, 5 months

Mentec SBC M70 Usermanual

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

Found during cleanup, a Mentec SBC M70 Usermanual in pristine condition. First edition from November 1st, 1987. It is A4 format with a spiral ring spine and comes >from Dublin, Ireland. Make me an offer off-list. -- Certified : VCP 3.x, SCSI 3.x SCSA S10, SCNA S10 www.groenenberg.net www.witte-kat-batterijen.nl

15 years, 5 months

Minimig

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was my understanding that the Minimig was only a partial reimplementation of the Amiga 500 hardware. When last I checked the website, which is now down... much work was left to be done to fully implement all the video modes, sprites, collision detection and other parts of the custom chip functionality. I think that floppy support had yet to be implemented, so one had to make images on a real Amiga and transfer them via SDCard to the Minimig. I'd love a modern reimplementation of classic Amiga 1000 - 2000 class hardware. I was following the Minimig until it was sold to another company, and am still following the Natami project. I no longer have an Amiga 500, but will probably look for one in the next few months. I still have a working, though bare Amiga 1000 system. And was recently given an Atari-ST Mega 2 system with hard drive. Since I have that, I'm probably going to be selling the SH502 Atari Drive case (complete except for software and drive, the DMA Cable, power supply, case and ASCSI to SCSI adapter is there) on eBay. My original Jan 1979 TRS-80 Model I took a fall during the move and is now damaged. The case is cracked and is missing chips, and two keys broke off the keypad. I'm not even going to try to apply power to the system until I open it up and check it over carefully. That system has a lot of the mods from "TRS-80 and Other Mysteries" by Dennis Kitsz. It has an Electric Pencil Lowercase mod. The Speedup mod from the book, which automatically throttles down during disk or cassette access, composite out, easily reachable reset switch, built-in Alpha Compatible Joystick port, and an external keyboard port my friend added so we could play 2 player games (He wired up a surplus Coco Chiclet keyboard that Tandy used to sell off the rack, on a long ribbon cable.) I was able to snag an LNW-80 Model I two years ago, but I'd like to get my old system running and setup on a desk in my new house for old-time's sake. Since the LNW will run CP/M besides TRS-DOS compatible OS'es, it would be nice to get it going too. If I spot a Model 4 at a flea someday, I might grab one of those too. I really miss those days. Micros were a lot more fun in the early 80's than they are today. I used to wait for each new issue of 80-Micro with the latest hardware mod, or NewDos zap article with anticipation. Al Hartman Keansburg, NJ

15 years, 5 months

new non-x86 mobos

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

A couple weeks ago I was grousing about there being nothing in the realm of non x86/amd64 motherboards. I stumbled across something new while looking at the Minimig board: the X1000. Its appears to be a multicore Power of some sort with ideas from the old Amiga machines mixed in. See http://www.a-eon.com/ or http://www.a-eon.com/6.html if you don't want to play the hide-and-seek game. -- 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?

15 years, 5 months

Classic Epson printer emulators?

by madcrow.maxwell＠gmail.com

Are there any free or open-source programs that can convert raw ESC/P (Epson printer code) data into bitmap images or PDFs or something? Many classic home computer programs rely on having a printer of this sort in order to print, and while many emulators have a way to dump serial or parallel output to a file, the only interpreters I can find to turn that raw data into something useful are commercial programs that I can't really justify the purchase of, given my student budget... Any help on this front would be much appreciated, Mike

15 years, 5 months

Free for pickup

by ddsnyder＠zoominternet.net

Oops, forgot to mention my location, Butler, PA, USA, near Pittsburgh, PA On Sun 01/31/10 9:01 PM , Mark Davidson mdavidson1963 at gmail.com sent: If you said this before, I somehow missed it... where are you located? Thanks. Mark On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 9:59 AM, Daniel Snyder wrote: > Still thinning my vintage stuff.. > Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielDSnyder [2] for a look, category is: Old > stuff looking for a new home > > Available is: > > 1 - Centronics 761 KSR - serial > 1 - Centronics 779 - parallel > 1 - Centronics 781 - serial? > 1 - IBM PS/2 TV - complete > 2 - IBM PS/2 model 30-286 > 1 - IBM PS/2 model 25 B&W > 1 - IBM PS/2 model 50 > 2 - IBM PS/2 model 70 386 & 486 > 1 - IBM PS/2 model 80 with Kingston 486 > 1 - IBM PS/2 B&W monitor > 2 - IBM PS/2 keyboards > > Contact me offine. I really do not want to ship this stuff, but I am willing > to relay > the stuff and at this moment there is no time limit, I am not going to toss > the stuff.. > > Note all items have been stored in my home and have been known to work. I > know for a fact the Centronics printers have been in my home for almost 30 > years. > > I need the space, would like to pass the items to someone else to enjoy.. > whatever > the reason may be, I have narrowed my focus to VAX, Alpha and Integrity > based VMS > boxes. This is one of the few constants in my career in the last 31 years. > > Dan Snyder > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Al Hartman" > To: > Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 9:00 AM > Subject: Re: Free for pickup > > >> Of the items I posted earlier, the following is still available: >> >> Qty 2 - HP Laserjet IIIP Printers >> >> Box of Misc Network Adapter cards, ISA mixed 8 and 16 bit. Mostly 16 bit. >> All are Novell, Windows 3.x, Windows 95 and Lantastic Compatible. >> >> I have the following to add: >> >> 1 ZIP 100 Drive and Power Supply >> 1 Ditto Tape Backup Drive (Not sure if it still works due to age of rubber >> rollers) >> 1 Apple Imagewriter II >> >> Items are located in Keansburg, NJ 07734 >> >> Contact me off-list via PM. >> >> Thanks! >> >> Al Hartman >> >> > > Links: ------ [1] mailto:ddsnyder at zoominternet.net [2] https://webmail2.agoc.com/parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.… [3] mailto:alhartman at yahoo.com [4] mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org

15 years, 5 months

6809 SBC

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> Tony Duell wrote: > >> Having learned assembly language programming on the beautifully > >> simple architecture and instruction set of the 6800, the Byte magazine > >> article linked to below that I read when it was originally published > >> really impressed me.? In the 6809 they made one of the earliest efforts > >> I know of to really tweak an already great uP instruction set based upon > >> an analysis of existing software: > > > > I found the 6809 to be by far the nicest 8-bit CPU I ever worked with. > > The instruction set was simple and very orthogonal, the fact that you had > > various relative addressing modes meant you could write truely > > position-independant code, there were 2 stack points, and so on. Unlike > > certain chips I could name, there were no major misfeatures that I came > > across. > > > > Of course the problem (as we all know) is that it came out too late. By > > that tine everybody was using the Z80 or 6502. Oh well. > > > > It always suprised me that hre BBC micro used the 6502 rather than the > > 6809. By the time the Beeb was designed, Acorn had made a 6809 processor > > board for their System machines, so they must have had experience with > > the chip. THe Beeb is nice, but a Beeb with a 6809 processor would have > > been something else :-) > > > > -tony > > > When I moved from the 6800 to the 6809 (in assembly language - *many* > years ago) I was sort of astounded and at the same time very pleased by > the way many of the little subroutines I had written for the 6800 became > one instruction in the 6809.? I think it will always be my favorite > 8-bit CPU.? My only annoyance at the time was the fact that there was no > way for the software to reset the companion UART chip, whose number I've > completely forgotten by now.? 6821 maybe??? > Later, > Charlie Carothers I was so impressed I even took a photo of it. A photo of the die of an Atmel EF6809CV is a short way down my page here: http://diephotos.blogspot.com/

15 years, 5 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 77, Issue 68

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote: > > William Blair wrote: > > I was so impressed I even took a photo of it.? A photo of the die? > > of an Atmel EF6809CV is a short way down my page here: > > > > http://diephotos.blogspot.com/ > > ???Those images are nothing short of breathtaking. > > ? ? ? ? ???-Dave Thanks. Thousands of people did 99.999% of the job, I just took a photo of their absolutely beautiful and incredibly useful product.

15 years, 5 months

Free Osborne Stuff

by grant＠stockly.com

I have a 30lb or so box of Osborne manuals and software. I also have a non-working Osborne. The disk drive is probably dirty, it can't read disks. If anyone wants these, they are available for the cost of shipping. International is OK. Let me know ASAP because I want this stuff gone. ^^ Grant

15 years, 5 months

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test-drb February 2010