I am sure many on the list will painfully recognise this scenario:
http://wrttn.in/04af1a
"I had naively hoped digitization would solve our problems forever. My
manager was reading a dense book about it that I picked up out of
curiosity. It had seemed persuasive.
But, the old-fashioned phone and email tree worked a bit better. The
old research division is still mostly intact, and their physical library
exists. ... The paper documents tauntingly sport IDs announcing that
they had been digitized by Big Digitization Corp at some point in the
past. Who knows what happened to that archive."
--Toby
What's the best way to do this?
I believe I have vintage PCs with ISA slots and ST-506 hard drive
controllers, so that may be an option.
However, the drives I want to archive are not from a PC system, but
have the ST-506 electrical interface.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 version available for download
<http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>
I've got a small Viewdate (PRestel) terminal on the bench at the momnet, a
Tandata TD1100.
I've made a few modifications, in particular I've removed the RF
modualtor (which I find to be a pain), added the RGB oupt ucomponents,
and fitted a 3 pin DIN socket in place of the redundant RF output socket
with the pins wired to the audio signal, compostie video and ground. So I
can now use it with compoite or RGB monitors. I've also added the printer
port components.
[For reference, the RGB output components are the ones hidden by the
modulator can. The IC is a 74LS364, there are 4 resistors, all 220 Ohm, 5
picofuses to protect the telephone line agians a breakdown i nthe monitor
wihci puts a high voltage on the input pins, 8 5.6V zener diodes and the
5 pin DIN socket. Fit the link F-D to get TTL sync.
For the compopstie output, fit 10uF or 47uF capacitors in the 2 spaces
hiddle by the modulator. Reduse the seires reissotr in the compostie
signal (I think it's R9 on the PCB) from 1k to 220 Ohms. Fit a DIN socket
in place of the RF output socket (the fibreglass insualtor of the latter
can be drileld ot take a single-hole mountign DIN socket) and wire the
pins to ground, the right hand hole of R5 (audio) and hole E (video).
For the pritner prot, the 3 missign chips are 74LS374, a 74LS365 and a
74LS74. Since these have different numebrs of pins, it's obvious which
goes where. The outptu conenctor is a DA15, you have yo cut a regtasnlge
out of the back panel.]
anyway, it does seem to work. I've conencted it to another modem[1] --
neither needs any DC line 'battery' so just connecting them together was
enough. I've discovered that from the 'dialer' screen, presing '#'
energises the line relay and conencts the lien audio to the audio output.
If it then detecs a carrier from the remote modem, it goes into on-line
mode, it then disables audio fro mthe line to the audio output and turns
on tis transmit carrier. Obviosuly trasmit ias at 75 buard, receive is at
1200 baud, it's 7 bits, even parity (and it cares about the parity).
[1] An old Miracle WS2000, the black box with 3 knovbs on the front that
weas commonly used with the BBC micor. It's an AM7910 and not much else,
I like it because it can be controlled from the front paenl rotary
swiches, and I Know exactly waht it's going to do. Since I only use it on
a private system (my line simulator), I've eneabled the Bell modes by
remove the pin from the rotary switch. I'd love to find the autodial and
answer boards for it, but no chance...
So far, so good. But one thing I can''t figure out on this TD1100 is the
dialer. The dialer scrren shows 6 telehone numbers which I beleive are
stored in battery-backed RAM inside the unit. at this screen, typing in
1 to 6 followed by a '#' dials that number foem the list and then goes
itn othe on-line mode. As I said, a plain '# gopes into that mode iwthout
dialing. Most other keys give a 'Please Try Again' error message. A 'P'
(must be upper case, and note that caps lock is cleaered whenever you get
to this screen) goes ota printer setup page (3 options). What I can't do
is figure out hoe to set the numbers and/or dial an arbitrary number
entered from the keyboard (ad since the battery in my unit is long dead
and I've removed it, all the numbers on the lsit are strigns of zeros,
not that useful!). I really don't want ot have to disassemble the firmware.
Another thing that would be useful, but I probably can figure this out,
is the ppinout of the DA15 pritnr conenctor. It's clearly TTL level
parallel. There are 2 opuptu ports, oen 8 bits (data I assume), one 2
bits (I guess one of thsoe is strobe, what the other is I don't know) and
3 inputs (one is conencted to a pusle-stretcher, adn is prsumably Ack/,
one of the others is probably Busy).
Any ideas?
-tony
According to what I've read, the Burroughs B5000 and Manchester Atlas
were both Harvard architecture and the GE-645 was von Neumann. Am I
correct in my understanding?
Peace... Sridhar
There were a bunch of documents that used to be mirrored on vt100.net.
Someone sent me a tarball with a partial backup and I found another
place on the net that had a backup copy of the mirrored documents.
I've transferred them over to manx.classiccmp.org and you can browse
them here:
<http://manx.classiccmp.org/mirror/>
I've also grabbed some stuff from vt100.net in case that content
disappears again.
At some point the manx database will have its URLs updated, but that
is a lower priority item at the moment.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 version available for download
<http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>
I've been more seriously contemplating my QBUS multi-purpose card idea now that one of my other major projects is nearly done. I've been unable to find any official or even quasi-official mechanical specs for DEC cards (QBUS, UNIBUS, etc). I'm obviously looking in the wrong places, since there's a wide degree of uniformity; I'm looking for things like board outlines, edge bevels, component clearances and the like. The electrical specs are in quite a few places, so I'm not worried about that.
Interestingly enough, my Douglas CAD software for my old Mac has DEC card outline templates pre-stored. However, I'm not even entirely sure Douglas makes PCBs anymore, and I imagine they can't beat my preferred board house on price (I'd love to be wrong).
- Dave
Those SGIs seem to have taken quite a beating. the bigger question is, how
many of the lightbars still work in the octanes? Ive got mine modded with
"incandescent white" LEDs.
On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 10:26 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> At 5:31 PM -0700 12/2/11, Richard wrote:
>
>> I've moved the collection of the Computer Graphics Museum to its new
>> home in Salt Lake City and now I'm organizing the collection. Here
>> are some pics of everything sprawled out over the floor during the
>> initial move: <http://manx.classiccmp.org/**collections/cgm/index.html<http://manx.classiccmp.org/collections/cgm/index.html>
>> >
>>
>
> Good Heavens! And I thought I had storage problems! :-)
>
> What really stands out is some very serious SGI Hardware. I'm envious of
> those Octanes. I only have a pair of o2's.
>
> Zane
>
>
>
> --
> | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
> | healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
> | | Photographer |
> +-----------------------------**-----+------------------------**----+
> | My flickr Photostream |
> | http://www.flickr.com/photos/**33848088 at N03/<http://www.flickr.com/photos/33848088 at N03/> |
>
Almost 100 copies were pre-sold through Kickstarter, but you can still buy
a copy of this First Edition / Special Kickstarter Edition - with very
limited supplies. Please email me directly if you're interested. Thanks!
http://www.classiccomputing.com/CC/HB_Book.html
Best,
David Greelish, Computer Historian
President, Atlanta Historical Computing Society
Classic Computing
The Home of Computer History Nostalgia
http://www.classiccomputing.com
Classic Computing Blog
Retro Computing Roundtable podcast
"Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer" audiobook podcast
Classic Computing Show video podcast
Vintage "Systems Engineering Laboratories" S.E.L. 810A computer from approx. 1967 is for sale.
That's all I know.
Contact Sonia for more information:
Sonia Perich
itsusperich2 at gmail.com
Upload your pictures once you buy it.
Thanks-
Steve.
On 11/30/2011 01:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
>Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:27:07 -0500
>From: Jim Scheef <scheefj at netscape.net>
>To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>Subject: Microsoft OS/2 1.1 on eBay
>
>Did anyone on the list win the Microsoft OS/2 1.1 auction that closed a
>few weeks ago? I would dearly like to get images of those disks...
>
>Jim
I rummaged around some more and found 7 3.5" 2MB floppies
of IBM OS/2 V1.10 (c) 1988 (IBM and Microsoft)
1- Installation Diskette
4- Operating System
2 -Patches (Corrective Service XR03020)
Does someone want these? (for postage)
I have a ton of "vintage" DOS and Windows ware.
I haven't figured out where/how to dispose of.
Dave.
