I just picked up a couple of Intel MDS units last week and now I'm not quite sure what to do with them. I have an MDS-225 with an MDS-230 keyboard. The unit is dated 7/80. I also have an MDS-120 with an MDS-120 keyboard. This unit also includes an ICE 86A BB Intellec module which is attached. I have no documentation to go with these items and as far as I can tell, they were taken out of operation many years ago and just stored. I have no way of verifying if they are working or not. Is there a market for these units? They are pretty heavy. I can strip them myself if need be, but if there is someone who can put these to good use, I'd rather see them go there. Any ideas, thoughts will be appreciated.
Bill Machacek
Colo. Springs, CO
I guess everybody already knows about this:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/Digital/DECMuseum.htm
Since I haven't used or seen DEC gear since the 1970s I found many things
of interest on the page, specifically "Digital at Work" in PDF.
Unfortunately many of the pictures are almost illegible. Still a good read.
--
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Vintage Coder America Online ivagntrpbqre at nby.pbz <ROT13> |
| |
| Collecting: DOS assemblers, compilers, & books (Z80, M68K, 6502, 808X) |
| Software & doc for IBM S/360 through OS/390 |
| |
| Wants: Ada 95 compilers for MVS/ESA & Solaris SPARC |
| PL/I X Optimizing Compiler for MVS, APL/SV for MVS |
| Stony Brook Modula-2 for Solaris SPARC |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| Powered by Slackware 64 Intel and Solaris 10 SPARC |
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| PGP Key 4096R 0x1CB84BEFC73ACB32 Encrypted email preferred |
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A while back, when I was restoring my HP 9825B, I found a great site with lots of beautiful pictures of HP classic computers in various states of disassembly.? I believe it was called "Computer Asylum" at www.bohemiae.com.? Now the site seems to have disappeared.? Did it get relocated, or hidden intentionally by the "warden" of the asylum, or is the site just gone?? It would be a shame if so.? Did anybody happen to archive some of those images and pages?
Thanks for any info,
Dave
At 12:00 -0600 11/17/11, David R. wrote:
>I guess it's possible... does SmartMedia format as FAT[12|16|32]?
Questions that prompted some more research. Disk Utility (see
below) thinks MS-DOS File System (FAT16).
>Probably a good idea to make a backup image of the card before you
>do any experiments, though. If you have access to a UNIX-y machine
>that can access the card, dd should do the job. I don't know what
>to use on Windows.
(Thanks also to Liam and Ian, both also suggesting the same thing.)
My normal process was to read the card using a SmartMedia to
PCMCIA adapter on a PowerBook G4. Stage 1 of the disaster happened
when I got impatient as OS X.4's driver was re-writing the directory,
and manually ejected the PCMCIA adapter. At that point, the
SmartMedia became un-mountable either on the camera or on the
Mac/adapter. Stage 2 happened when I asked the camera to use its
little hammer-icon process on the card, hoping that would allow me to
edit - no such luck. It reformatted.
I did make a .dmg clone of the SmartMedia after re-formatting
it, using a freeware called "Exif Untrasher". There are some odd
things about that (like, parts of very very old images still left on
the card, and images that I'm surprised were ever on that card).
Also, the 128MB card was mostly full, but the Exif-U .dmg is only
62.5 MB. I'm thinking maybe I copied the wrong card?
Just now, I repeated that process and came up with a 125 MB
file (more what I expected). I also made a copy using DiskUtility,
also 125 MB.
What's the correct incantation for a dd command under OS X.4
Tiger? The naive
dd if=/Volumes/Untitled/ of=clone128M.bin conv=noerror
gets only 8k bytes.
On the resulting files, Exif Untrasher finds nothing. That
makes some sense, as examining the files (both the Exif-U generated
and the Disk Utility generated) shows mostly 00's, with the
occasional block of FF, and a few random things at the start like
"DOS FAT 16" and "this resource fork intentionally left blank"
(probably written when I put the card into my OS9 Powerbook 3400's PC
slot).
I think the camera's format was a real "format" format, ie
rewrote all the flash memory to 0.
I'm hoping for something that will read residual charge left
in the flash even after a format/reset ... and hoping the bill for
that isn't something that only a three-letter agency would be
interested in.
--
- 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.
Does anyone have any information on the Philips / Mullard (/
Signetics?) SAA5070 ('Lucy') chip)? It's a 40 pin DIL package that
contains much of the elctronics of a 1200/75 baud modem and I believe
some other I/O ports.
The usual data sheet sites don't seem to have it, my old databook has the
other ICs in the familiy (like the SAA5050 character generator), but not
this one. I am pretty sure I saw a data sheet on it years ago, so I
think the data was published
A full data sheet would be ideal, but even just a pinout would be a great
help.
Thanks in advnace for any help
-tony
> I have a 128 MB Smart Media card from my camera which I
>inadvertently formatted, erasing a whole pile of really good photos
>from Yellowstone Park, in mid-June 2009. It recently re-surfaced in
>my pile of things to do.
>
>1) Is there any hope at all that the original images are recoverable?
>
>2) Any recommendations on where to go to get that done?
Yes, I think you stand a good chance of getting something back.?
Assuming you're on a unix-like system:? First take
an image of the card with dd or something similar.? Then compile this
program:? http://www.digitalforensicssolutions.com/Scalpel/
If your photos are jpegs, edit the config file to enable jpeg and then run it
against the disk image.? If they're some less common format, you might have
to open a sample file in a hex editor and see if it has a recognizable header,
and add that header to the config file.
The program does a string search through the image and pulls out anything
which starts with a particular header.? Obviously this makes it useless for
recovering files that don't start with a recognizable sequence of bytes, and
also for fragmented files. Please feel free to email me off list if you need a hand.
I think the chkdsk-like tools others have suggested could work too, but what's
neat about this method is that it is filesystem agnostic (although susceptible to
fragmentation).
John Finigan
I noticed that there is no copy of the Processor_Technology 8KRA assembly
and test instructions manual online (includes jumpers, schematic, test
code), so I made a scan and posted a copy. Feel free to download/mirror
elsewhere. Note my copy is Rev C.
http://vintagecomputer.net/processor_tech/Processor_Technology_8KRA_revC.pdf
Bill Degnan
All,
I have a 128 MB Smart Media card from my camera which I
inadvertently formatted, erasing a whole pile of really good photos
>from Yellowstone Park, in mid-June 2009. It recently re-surfaced in
my pile of things to do.
1) Is there any hope at all that the original images are recoverable?
2) Any recommendations on where to go to get that done?
OT-ness is that it applies to a (now) 10-year-old camera,
which is a pretty tenuous thread. However, I think I dimly recall a
discussion on this topic here recently, so if anyone can help me,
please do! Private email is fine, if the topic is not deemed of
general interest.
--
- 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.
Does anyone here have DECstation 5000 memory that they would be
willing to part with? I'd prefer 32mb modules, of course, but I'll
take 8mb modules.
The best price that I can find, through resellers, is ~?55 + shipping
_per module_ for the 32mb modules. I'd hope to do better than that.
For shipping purposes, I'm located in Queenstown, MD, USA, zip 21658.
Thanks!
- Alex
