test-drb March 2011

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

146 participants
225 discussions

OT: Can someone help me pick out a desktop machine?

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

I've not been paying attention to computer hardware for a while, and all of the marketing terms have gotten away from me. It has to come >from Office Depot. My wife was able to get roughly $650 for free, so I need to get it from there. I'd prefer to build my own, but money is short and this deal is too good. It looks like they have HP/Compaq (yuk), Acer, and Lenovo. I'm going to aim for a machine with quad cores and 8 gigs of ram. I can spend a little more than the $650, but not by much. My main problem with picking out a machine is that I don't understand the differences in processors beyond the number of cores. In the good old days, they'd list the processor speed and that was all you needed. Now even that's not a good measure. Can anyone suggest some must-have or must-avoid specs for these machines?

13 years, 9 months

OT: Can someone help me pick out a desktop machine?

by a50mhzham＠gmail.com

>short and this deal is too good. It looks like they have HP/Compaq >(yuk), Acer, and Lenovo. I'm going to aim for a machine with quad We use lots of HPaq machines at work, what's the matter with them? >cores and 8 gigs of ram. I can spend a little more than the $650, but >not by much. My main problem with picking out a machine is that I >don't understand the differences in processors beyond the number of >cores. In the good old days, they'd list the processor speed and that Link below: CPU comparison charts, ranked by PassMark score. Yes, I know, not everyone thinks the PassMark benchmark is completely valid; lots of people swear by them, others swear at them. But it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Some of these charts were updated today. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/ There are (presently) four brackets of CPU charted - high-end, mid to high, low to mid, and low-end. They have prices listed for many of the chips that are still current. Since they keep some chips on there for historical comparison, and since computing capacity seems to mostly go up, most of the ones on the low-end chart have no prices and are no longer available new. The Intel Atom parts are the exceptions. Then there are 12 charts over in total. 204 . [Philosophy] "Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity. It eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation." --Johnny Hart NEW: a50mhzham at gmail.com ? N9QQB (amateur radio) "HEY YOU" (loud shouting) ? Second Tops (Set Dancing) ? FIND ME ON FACEBOOK 43? 7' 17.2" N by 88? 6' 28.9" W ? Elevation 815' ? Grid Square EN53wc LAN/Telecom Analyst ? Open-source Dude ? Musician ? Registered Linux User 385531

13 years, 9 months

DECwhatzits

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

> The racks are what the US Navy uses on board ship. ?I have my suspicions, > I've sent the link to someone that might know something. My guess is the > thing with the TK50 is a VAX. Yes, and I notices the F/A-18something sticker on one of the pieces. Probably a test set. -- Will

13 years, 9 months

road trip score: AViiON, Microdata 1600

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Yesterday my girlfriend and I returned from a hastily-scheduled road trip to Maryland; we went to see a friend who is gravely ill. While we were in town, we took the opportunity to visit a few other people. Another friend up there is preparing to move, and he dropped a few things in my lap since I was there with a mostly-empty car. The first was a Data General Aviion AV300 workstation. This is one of the few machines built around the Motorola 88K CPU. It came with its original keyboard, mouse, monitor, and a full set of DG-UX manuals. I don't yet know if it's functional, but according to my friend it was running a few years ago. The second is something I'm REALLY excited about. We went to his garage and he pointed me at two dusty card-cages full of boards, and told me that he picked them up from a college loading dock twenty years ago, and that he had no idea of what they were, but there were core memory boards in them. Oh, and there's this lights-and-switches front panel that goes with them. (!) Upon getting them home and digging around, it appears to be a nearly complete Microdata 1600 CPU. I have the two backplanes with card cages and boards, and the front panel, along with some cables. I lack the power supply, but I can build one of those...with that, I think I have enough to resurrect the basic CPU. Neat stuff! -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

13 years, 9 months

Digital archiving tools

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Friends don't let friends store their archives on a media that requires physical contact > with a read/write head. As a data point: All of bitsavers fits on 27 DVD-R's. I'm told that Blu-Ray recordables store 25GB (single layer) or 50 GB (dual layer) but I'm not at the leading edge of media adoption. Only in the past year have I grudgingly admitted that DVD-R might be halfway decent for everyday use, but I still don't trust anything but Gold CD-R for longer term use. The mainframe people use cartridge-loaded WORM media which is 60 GB per cart. I think it's magneto-optical but who knows, maybe it's really closer to Blu-Ray type technology. For a while (back in the 600 Mbyte/cart era) I was a big fan of the 5.25" magneto optical carts but CD-R and DVD-R is so easy that I have a hard time going back.

13 years, 9 months

FS: TRS-80 Model 16 & 6000

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Hey all -- I'm attempting to clear out some space and fund a wildly-out-of-control car restoration project, so I'm looking at parting with some of my TRS-80 gear. This stuff is in Seattle. I have both a Model 16 and a Model 6000. Here's the stats (some of the details are from memory, if you want 100% confirmation, let me know and I can clarify). Model 16: - Technically a Model 6000 (has the 6000 CPU board installed) - 768K of RAM - 5.25" hard drive controller - 20MB hard disk (in 12MB enclosure) with Xenix 1.3 installed - Two half-height 8" drives - In great shape, everything is working great, monitor is crisp & clear. Model 6000: - I believe it has at least 512K of RAM - 5.25" hard drive controller - Two half-height 8" drives - Another 20MB hard disk, with Xenix 1.3 (never did find a complete set of 3.0 disks...) - In good shape, but missing the back panel covering the expansion slots - Keyboard is... very rough. Keys need to be refoamed and it's very beat up. In addition, I have a pile of manuals and software (somewhere around 100 8" floppies with all sorts of random stuff) and a couple extra external hard drive enclosures (without drives). I also have an external 8mb 8" hard drive (but it's a secondary drive, so you'll need another 8" drive with controller to run it). Anyone interested? Make me an offer. I'll consider shipping for really really good offers, but there's a *lot* of heavy stuff here so it's not going to be cheap -- obviously I'd much prefer local pickup. I'd be willing to drive a ways to meet someone halfway. Thanks, Josh

13 years, 9 months

VCF East exhibitor registration -- fixed!

by evan＠snarc.net

Go forth and register! The VCF exhibit registration system is finally fixed. (But inform me ASAP if you encounter bugs.) - Evan

13 years, 9 months

Osborne video cable pinout

by mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us

I have an Osborne external video monitor, with no cable: http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/Osborne/OsborneMonitor-1L.jpg I need the pinout for the cable which connects this to the Osborne 1 system. A schematic for the monitor would be helpful, as well. Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/

13 years, 9 months

hardware multiply/divide functionality in CPUs (6809)

by julianskidmore＠yahoo.com

> > the bottom n bits. Thus the 6809's MUL instruction produces the correct > > answer to A = -20 * B = -3 as it will store -60 in the B register. > > -20*-3=-60 ? > (((-20) * (-3)) .EQ. (-60)) ? > > if (-20 * -3 == -60) printf("always knew there was something > fundamentally wrong with the universe"); Ooops! If A=-20 and B=-3, then MUL stores 60 in the B register (the full answer being 0xe93c) ;-) If A=-20 and B=3, then MUL stores -60 in B (the full answer being 0x2c4)! MUL does in fact perform 8-bit x 8-bit => 8-bit signed multiplication. However I don't always type correctly! -cheers from julz @P

13 years, 9 months

Foxboro systems/ was Re: PDP-11 Operating Systems

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> I wonder what he means by 'cardboard' circuit boards though I think it was a dig at Sylvania's (indeed the industry-wide) standard PCB technology of the time. Today we are very used to etched PC boards with a fiberglass epoxy substrate and copper traces that were etched. But the original consumer-type PCB technology was more often formica or phenolic-type circuit boards with traces that were stamped from sheet foil and then glued to the phenolic. (There was also a mil-spec type of PCB that was a ceramic base with silvered traces essentially painted on - you see stuff like this in Tek scopes of the 50's and 60's.) Not surprising to see Sylvania mentioned in the same breath because of course Sylvania used the phenolic PCB technology across many of their consumer TV's and radios. The cheap 50's and 60's phenolic PC boards are indeed like plasticized chipboard/cardboard. I'm 99% sure that phenolic is still being widely used in consumer electronics (although it is a higher grade than that from Sylvania's 60 PCB's and you might not know it's really plasticized chipboard until you break it.). DEC modules from the 60's were most often a high grade (for the time) phenolic PCB. Glass Epoxy really took off in the 70's. I'm thinking the Foxboro 1 pictures are from the early 70's and represent a later implementation of the Sylvania architecture. Fingers on phenolic PCB's are far less durable than fingers on glass epoxy PCB's. I never used a Fox 1, my earliest exposure was the Fox 2/30. Tim.

13 years, 9 months

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test-drb March 2011