test-drb October 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

196 participants
268 discussions

PCS CADMUS 9700 System power-up difficulties

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello list, ? some years ago, I got a CADMUS 9700 computer, a rather heavy system of the 80's from a german manufacturer called PCS. The system is built around the DEC QBUS, but uses a Motorolla 68000 type CPU. Finally, I found some time to have a look at it. Unfortunately, I didn't went far with my exploration. After having taken an hour to find out how to open this thing (plastic covers without screws are NOT fun, when they seem stuck), I cleaned it as it was horribly dusty und rusty. It must have spent some time in an humid environment. Deconnecting the drives and?applying power to?the switching supply turned on?the blinkening?kight of the ?green "RUN" button, but pressing it did not do anything. Afterwards, I deconnected the supply, checked that power connectors within the chassis were correctly seated and reconnected the power plug to the power-supply. Now, the green light did not blink anymore. In fact, since then, nothing ever happended again. The system just seems dead. I guess that the supply has a problem. It's difficult to check it, though, without schematics. It has a small ribbon cable which connects to a small PCB with several ICs on which can be found the "RUN"-button. I have no idea, which signals that supply needs in order to enter a state at which it should be on. The small PCB with the buttons and ICs could also be defective. ?There is also a key-switch, but I played with both positions and it does not influence anything on my system. The systems seem rare. At least, I could find only little information on the net and not documentation at all.Has anybody a clue on how to power-up this thing?Are there other owners of PCS systems, who can tell me who the system behaves upon applying power to the PSU and if it is sufficient to press the RUN-button to turn it on? ? Kind regards, Pierre ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers : http://classic-computing.dyndns.org/

12 years, 2 months

Altos OASIS

by cc＠informatik.uni-stuttgart.de

Hi, I'd like to play with the OASIS operating system for the Altos 5-15 (downloaded from Dave's site). After logging in I get the '>' prompt. Apparently, they use some kind of stack within their CLI as I can use it as an RPN calculator (just like FORTH in OpenBoot environments). The usual candidates like DIR, CAT etc. aren't recognized, LIST gives 'File name missing', LIST * gives 'File extenstion missing', and LIST *.* gives, well, nothing. So, does anybody have (preferrably a scan of) the OASIS user's manual? Christian

12 years, 2 months

The Most Wonderfully Ridiculous Movie Computers of All Time

by mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us

My AN/FSQ-7 computer tribute site received a bit of publicity in Wired Magazine: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/10/movie-computers/ My web server is heating up. :-) Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/

12 years, 2 months

Central Point Option Boards available

by cesarla＠yahoo.com

Hi, have you a Central Point Option Deluxe Board with the software copy II PC??? Thanx ? C?sar L?pez A. "Hasta que gozamos de la oportunidad de amar a alg?n animal, una parte del alma permanece dormida"

12 years, 2 months

PDP1 Music / Record sold

by jws＠jwsss.com

The fellow who posted the record some time back which was titled to be PDP1 music reposted the record for $299 and sold it. the reason to note anything about it is that I had emailed him about taking a capture of it and passing it along before selling the record The ebay listing up right now has a track you can download as long as it stays up. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170923504018 Here is the link to the song as well. http://ampnoise.com/mp3/MusicOnThePDP-1X_Pinafore.mp3 I thought it was nice of him to do that, as many people who list things on ebay would have bothered. I would say that it was just to sell the record, but I think the rarity of it to record collectors and a lower price is why it sold. Jim

12 years, 2 months

Discrete Transistor Laptop (Was: unibus to modern disk interface?)

by rickb＠bensene.com

> On Mon, 15 Oct 2012, Rick Bensene wrote: > > A Pentium 166 MMX chip, which was a common chip with mobility > >features used in some early Pentium-based laptops uses roughly 4.5M transistors. And Fred replied: > Is it supported by current software? Kind of. It'd probably run Windows 98(it would definitely run Window 95) OK, but nothing newer from Microsoft as far as I can tell. Memory limitations within the confines of a P166MMX laptop of the day wouldn't allow anything newer to run. However, it would run various flavors of Linux or BSD without much fuss. I picked the 166MMX for my example as I have an old Dell laptop with a 166MMX, 640x480x256 color LCD, CDROM drive, 64MB of RAM, serial & parallel ports, as well as an early Soundblaster-compatible sound system in it that I use as a console for my PDP 8/e and PDP 11/34A systems. It is rock-solid reliable, and runs an older (late-90's) Red Hat Linux just fine. Don't know how it'd do on a current *BSD or Linux, though...if stripped down to eliminate all the GUI stuff, it just might be able to run something current, though it'd be pretty stripped. I think that if we never developed large-scale MOS and CMOS devices, and were stuck tech-wise with either small discrete transistor, or small-scale bipolar IC technology, we'd probably be lugging around "backpack" computers that have the rough computing power of a mid-1970's minicomputer, that'd run batteries that could be carried around for a few minutes -- enough time to perhaps to move between power outlets without shutting down. You'd end up having pretty well-developed leg, lower back, and shoulder musculature carrying such a beast around. TCP/IP Networking (not to mention wireless) not included. Of course, without the tech that came from LSI, we wouldn't have high-resolution LCD displays, either. Nothing like lugging a CRT around. The display would probably be a CRT or some kind of character-oriented plasma panel (Burroughs Self-Scan?) -- both big power hogs. Maybe the world would be better this way :-) At least we wouldn't have people trying to read their Email and TXTs on a cell phone while driving.

12 years, 2 months

ValueWord & ValueNotes

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Do you remember what type of system it was or what operating system? ------Original Message------ From: MG Sender: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org To: cctalk at classiccmp.org ReplyTo: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: ValueWord & ValueNotes Sent: Oct 9, 2012 7:44 PM This was software me my parents used in the 1980s on our family computer. Does anyone know how and where to obtain this, for old time's sake? Thanks in advance. - MG

12 years, 2 months

IDE Disk Test Stand?

by dj.taylor4＠verizon.net

Does anyone know the story behind this device listed currently on ebay? I've never seen anything like this... Item number 290668689315 , under the title "Miniature Hard Disk Drive IDE Spinstand for Testing/Development/Data Recovery" Just curious, I'm not the seller. Doug

12 years, 2 months

HP calculator R->

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Hey HP gurus, trying to read printouts from HP 67 programs and run them on my new HP35s Does this R-> in the printout mean an enter keypress? In general is there an interpretation of HP 65 program printouts to the associated keys? Randy

12 years, 2 months

Apollo Monitors Free, Kent. Wa. USA

by g-wright＠att.net

I have 3 Apollo Monitors with cables -8398 low res. color 19" -8399 Hi res. black and white 19" -01070 Hi res color 19" All did work a few years ago. All off DN3xxx, DN4XXX and DN5XXX work stations No shipping. very heavy - Jerry

12 years, 2 months

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test-drb October 2012