test-drb October 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

196 participants
268 discussions

by brain＠jbrain.com

I have been fortunate to acquire a Kaypro system that appears to be in great condition and looks to work. It looks exactly like this: http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/Kaypro-I-Micro.htm Thus, it says Kaypro 1 on the artwork Still, the sticker on the rear says Kaypro 2, so I'm confused. In any event, I have no system disks for it (There is a slight possibility they are part of the stash with which the Kaypro was bundled, but it's 100 sq ft of stuff). Thus, I'm wondering if there is a kind soul who might be able to ship me a set of disks. (I'll pay shipping, of course). I also am the proud owner of 2 Obsorne machines (one works, the other seems to have drive issues. They are the redesigned units, but (as I suspected) the systems disks won't work on the Kaypro. Jim -- Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X) brain at jbrain.com Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times! Home: http://www.jbrain.com

11 years, 8 months

CMD CQD-220 ROM fixes

by fraveydank＠gmail.com

A while back, I mentioned that I'd found and potentially fixed the "bricking" problem with the CQD-220. To recap, for those that werent following, the problem lies in the code for the on-board 8086 when you set the number of both disks and tapes to zero. The 8086, during its routine to load the values from the EEPROM, loads the total number of disks and tapes and executes a loop with a counter predecrement; if the counter is loaded as 0, it effectively runs through the loop 256 times instead of 7 (the max), which spins out of control and blows away some RAM somewhere before crashing. Fortunately, through a compiler bug or some such, there are 5 bytes available from a totally redundant instruction (loading a value into a register where the same value is already loaded) in just the right place to test the total number of devices and jump to the "uninitialized device table in EEPROM" section of the routine if it is zero. With one byte to spare! (good thing NOP is only a byte in 8086) This applies to the A7A revision of the ROM, anyway; I haven't gotten to the A8 version yet, though I know it exhibits the same bug. Hopefully it also has the same redundant instruction. In any case, I should be able to find and fix it quickly once I have the time, because I know where to look. So, here's the thing; I've finally gotten the time to test the fixed ROM image (was temporarily short of 27256 chips, but that's been resolved) and I'd like to get the fixed images somewhere they'll be easy to find if anyone else runs into the same problem (this took me over a year of sporadic attention to fix). Does anyone know where I should post this? There's my own website, which is really not a thing anymore, but there are probably lots of places Google is more likely to find. Also, are there copyright implications to consider? I know CMD is long gone, but I still worry about these things. Last thing: does anyone know the difference between the A7A ROM and the A8? I've not found anything different; I assume it's probably an obscure bugfix. The images are only 64K total, so I shouldn't imagine they'll be bandwidth intensive. - Dave

11 years, 8 months

A Complete History Of Mainframe Computing

by lproven＠gmail.com

Tom's Hardware - a popular site for PC hardware tweakers and overclockers - has done an ambitious article on the development of the mainframe: http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/508-mainframe-computer-history.html It's a little American-centric but it's not at all bad. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

11 years, 8 months

PCjr Telnet Server Test

by mbbrutman-cctalk＠brutman.com

It's running! Telnet to 97.86.233.68 to take a look and help me test it. You can use the standard Windows telnet program, Putty, Linux, or whatever you have handy. Around 10 users can be on at the same time. When you sign on (no password required) there will be a little menu to help you waste some time. Some things you can do are see who else is on the server, view the machine type, ROM BIOS date and DOS version, check the TCP/IP statistics to see how much traffic it is handling, etc. There are some upgrades since the last time I ran this test (in Dec 2007): - The TCP/IP stack is much better - I'm doing 'telnet' negotiation to figure out the terminal type, turn echoing on, etc - Crude line editing has been added Right now it is running on my PCjr using a Xircom PE3 10BT. I plan to leave it up as long as it runs, or three days, whichever comes first. It is a PCjr so if there is a momentary delay, don't panic - it's probably just doing disk I/O. Backspace is a little dodgy .. it really wants ASCII 8 and a lot of terminals and emulators do ASCII 127 instead. Try variations with the shift and control keys if it doesn't work. Thanks, Mike

11 years, 8 months

VCF East pictures

by mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us

http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/VCF-East2012/ Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/

11 years, 10 months

any interest in an IBM Displaywriter

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

I payed 100$, and had to pick it up in Queens/Nassau. I'll take 50$ plus shipping, from 08758. It works, but there is noticeable screen burn even when off. I have some disks, and the 8" drive cabinet.

11 years, 10 months

Wait! There's more including MS-DOS 1.25!!!! was Sanyo MBC-550 (Yuck!) software available

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I'm still digging. I found more 550 stuff. I think this is everything that came with the 550. Here's a chance for you 550 owner's to get the whole set at one shot! Original DS-DOS box and invoice. Original Sanyo Easywriter ver 1.3 disk Original Sanyo disk box with 550 dos ver 2.11 and BASIC 1.25, two original Sanyo disk for InfoStar (set B disk 2 and 3 of 4; disks 1 and 4 are below), original Sanyo disk for DOS 1.25 and BASIC ver 1.1 Original Sanyo disk box with all three original disk of set A, WordStar and CalcStar and a backup copy of DS-DOS. Two card board dummy disks used to protect the floppy drives duing shipment. Joe > >A few weeks ago we were talking about the Sanyo 550 series and someone mentioned one of the alternates operating systems that supported 80 track drives in the 550. I said that was DS-DOS by Michtron. > > Today I found an old Sanyo disk package with four disks for the 550. One of them is DS DOS 2.11, one is InfoStar, one is MailMerge/SpellStar and the other is a disk of misc utilities. The first three are original disks. In additon, the InfoStar, MailMerge/SpellStar are Sanyo labeled disks that came with the 550. If anyone wants them, trade me something I can use and they're all your's. > > Joe

11 years, 11 months

ValueWord & ValueNotes

by marcogb＠xs4all.nl

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

11 years, 11 months

WTT/WTB: SGI IP59 quad-processor CPU board

by marcogb＠xs4all.nl

Does anyone have this, willing to sell or --- more ideally, for me --- willing to trade a SGI IP59 quad-processor CPU/node- board? (P/N: 030-1989-003) I have several (non-SGI) systems of interest, Alphas (PWS 500au's and DS10s), but also Sun SPARCs (e.g. Ultra 10) and also at least one HP Integrity rx2620 "Montecito" (largely maxed out, with 24 Gbytes RAM) to trade. All of the above are max'ed out, in terms of 'specs' & configurations, plus there are many (PCI, PCI-X, AGP, etc.) options available. I also have an IP53 dual-processor CPU/node-board, as a possible 'replacement' (in case an IP59 board would have to be removed from a working system) and may even have a quad-processor one (i.e. the one I currently have installed). I'd also like to emphasize, to avoid confusion, that these are things I have to offer. Not so much things I'd like (or deem sensible) to trade 1:1. The reason I'm looking for this part, as well as other parts, is because I'm trying to get as much out of my system as possible, as I'm working on my portfolio as a graphic designer. Either way, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'm open to ideas and offers. Thanks in advance. - MG

11 years, 11 months

WTT/WTB: SGI DMediaPro DM2/DM3 LVDS cables

by marcogb＠xs4all.nl

Does anyone have a complete set of SGI DMediaPro DM2/DM3 LVDS cables, willing to trade/sell? (See my other WTT/WTB thread, for the IP59 board, for possible items of interest to trade.) I'm specifically looking for both a white (P/N: 018-0985-001) and black (P/N: 018-0946-001) LVDS cable, to connect a DM3 to a VBOB. Thanks in advance. - MG

11 years, 11 months

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test-drb October 2012