March 2012 - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

by jws＠jwsss.com

If you go to epay and put in "intel development confidential" (minus the quotes) you will get a glimpse into Intel's development methods. Looks like bondout versions of their chips with everything on the chip run out to pads for testing. The seller is in Israel, where a lot of the design work is done for Intel. Jim

13 years, 3 months

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Fwd: Query Any TI-961 experts?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

The guy at Comco, the tape drive repair place, is looking for an expert on 21-track TI-961 drives who can set up a drive in Cairo. - John

13 years, 3 months

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more on strange PCB "short", fixed!

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

I've fixed the short problem. It was my mistake. It wasn't a bug in PCB (thank heaven) but PCB's short detection/highlighting code sent me all over the place looking for it. I'm not sure if there's a better way to handle that or not. Basically a component on the other side of the board, an 0805 resistor, was supposed to have one of its pads connected to 3.3V. Instead it was connected to GND. Tired eyes and a tough deadline is what I blame. :) For some details (which I actually started typing as I narrowed this down, before I found the problem, so it'll read weird) see below. Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions! -Dave I deleted the 3.3V and GND planes, and narrowed it down to an 0805 resistor. One of its pads is highlighted in orange. If I delete that resistor, the short goes away. When I put it back (by placing a fresh 0805 from the library and giving it the same refdes) the short comes back. One pad of the resistor is connected to GND. It goes nowhere near 3.3V. I've deleted and redrawn the traces going to that resistor, checking for the short after every move. I've narrowed it down to one of that resistors pads; the one that gets highlighted in orange. That's the one that connects to GND. If I delete the trace that connects that pad to GND, the short goes away. BUT!! I've delete the GND plane, and the via w/thermal that connected that trace to that plane. It connected to another resistor's pad, which was erroneously connected to the GND net, when it was supposed to be connected to 3.3V. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

13 years, 3 months

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Fast Eproms CY7C291 Data?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

I want to bould my own PDP11 some day but in an other way as other people here :-) I want to build an Bit Slice CPU out of AM2901 Chips to emulate the PDP11 CPU. As a prt of the design I'LL need some very fast Proms for the microcode and I've found the AM27C291,TMS27C291 and CY7C291 Chips, they are fast and big enough (2Kx8 and 25-35ns). I'mm looking now for a data sheet from the CY7C291 that describes the programming algorithm, getting a datasheet is easy on http://www.datasheetarchive.com/ but there is this sentence in the text: "Programming Information Programming Support is available from Cypress as well as from a number of third party software vendors. For detailed programming information, including a listing of software packages, please see the PROM Programming Information located at the end of this section. Programming algorithms can be obtained from any Cypress repesentative." Ok, so far so good. I don't know of what end of which section I schould look for the programming information, since I don't know from where the datasheet was scanned from. I've contacted Cypress itself some time before..to make it short: they failed. The sold the entire Eprom bussines years agao (forgot to which company) but wheter cypress nor the new company has the required information or want to share them. So please: Maybe someone has this old databook from cypress and could look "at the end of this section"? I got the algorithm for the TMS in a datasheet, but according the german company "Conitec" that makes programmers (have a GALEP-III from them) that seems to be not the same on the CY7C291. The guy there couldn't program my samples I've sent to him. Any help? Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

13 years, 3 months

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Programma 101

by jws＠jwsss.com

oops http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400276267489 sort of sad to have to joke about it. This scrapper has his spotters for vintage equipment in the wrong part of the building. Jim

13 years, 3 months

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Browsers for OS/2 2.1?

by cclist＠sydex.com

On a whim, I installed OS/2 2.1 on a P1 system last night (Hint: it helps to have a multi-boot setup with a network-capable OS on one partition--saves a lot of floppy work). I could get MS Lanman for OS/2 working okay, but then I ran into a problem--it seems that FreeTCP and most browsers for OS/2 say "Warp 3 or later". And getting a browser-suitable TCP/IP stack seems to be no small issue. IBM Web explorer seems to want Warp as well. Lanman has a TCP/IP stack of sorts, but it's undocumented and apparently used only for NetBEUI protocol. The only TCP/IP program that uses it seems to be the "ping" packaged with Lanman. Has anyone ever gotten a browser to work on 2.1 over an ethernet TCP/IP connection? If so, how? Thanks, Chuck

13 years, 3 months

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MOSAID MS2200

by wim＠hackbox.be

I've just picked up a device named "MS2200 Memory Tester" made by MOSAID. It came with abox called "M22110" to connect the RAM chip under test (I guess). It seems functional. Using the front panel, I can run tests and even get a sort of raster image on a scope in X-Y mode. But I have no clue how to connect a RAM chip. I can't find any docs at all. Anyone knows anything about this thing? Thanks, Wim.

13 years, 3 months

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Basic V01B-02

by iamvirtual＠gmail.com

Does anybody have a copy of the PDP-11 Basic V01B-02 distribution tapes for RT-11 v2C? There should be 2 DecTapes (TU-56). My understanding is that the tapes should be labelled: DEC-11-LBACA-C-UC1 DEC-11-LBACA-C-UC2 There is a copy of the first tape on Bitsavers ( http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/dectape/BS/basv1b.dta) which does include a runnable copy of Basic, but I would like to rebuild the system. The source portions (BASICL.MAC, and BASICH.MAC) are not on the tape. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. --barrym

13 years, 3 months

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An interesting claim: Olivetti made the first ever PC,

by stevew＠ka6s.com

Well - I'm going to vote for Calculator - though I learned to program on one of these back in the early 70s. I wrote a couple of simulators for them to learn Fortran - and still remember a few details. 1) The machine had a total of 120 instructions if you used up the upper registers with instructions (so it WAS possible to carefully do self modifying code if you were so daring.) 2) When you used needed those registers - it would be 60 instructions. The machine was very useful as a training vehicle for preparation to run into things like the Altair with 256 bytes, etc. I look upon the P101 with a lot of fondness! Steve

13 years, 3 months

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old == worthless.

by robert＠irrelevant.com

Bl@@dy ebay sellers... I bid on, and won, a Tandata TD4000, complete with what looks like a matching branded monitor. Cost me the grand sum of 99 pence - nobody else wanted it. Called yesterday to arrange collection, got "oh, we got it out for you and it looks like it was broken when we moved house". How broken? "a crack, and there's a cable missing." told them no worries, would still have it, should be able to fix it. "but my husband has put it out to be thrown away". Told her to go check if it was still about, I did still want it! Got a call back today, "it was put with some old PCs and they've all been taken away this morning.." Would they have done the same if it had been an iPad? Or it it had sold for more than a pittance? I'd certainly have paid more! The problem is, old == worthless, and if it's worthless (reinforced by it selling for almost nothing, even though that's all they asked for) then it doesn't matter. OK, it's not like it was a set of backup discs from Prestel itself, just a terminal to access it, but it's still galling. (The other, I'd drive to the other end of the country to kick down their door if I thought it would put me on the trail of them!) Sigh.. Anyway rant over. Wonder if I can justify leaving them a Neg...

13 years, 3 months

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An interesting claim: Olivetti made the first ever PC,

by tom94022＠comcast.net

Anyone have any more information on the magnetic card and its reader? Tom

13 years, 3 months

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Discferret Broken?

by jgevaryahu＠gmail.com

Christian Bartsch | Kryoflux LTD. (cb at kryoflux.com) wrote on Tue Mar 6 02:30:32 CST 2012: Hi Tony, ... >/ 2) Is there any truth to the comments about a 'conflict of interests' if />/ somebody wants to devleop both for your device and the Diskferret? / Suggestions like that (the original statement, not your question here) would you get thrown out of my house for sure. Why would any large, big, mighty institution be hindered by us to look at a competitive product? Why would they let us hinder them? If they could get something better that would be completely free, why would they want to take the solution that needs to be paid for? How could I stop them from using publically available sources? Christian, if there's no anti-compete clause in the license, then please explain what exactly clauses 3.a.v and particularly 3.a.vi do. Also, for third party/open-source IPF stuff (other than the potential for GPL software to be used commercially, already expressly forbidden by 3.a.v), clauses 3.d.i and 3.d.ii would also seem to expressly forbid it? 3.d.ii seems to imply that it violates the license to even convert an IPF to other formats, which makes IPF images entirely useless as a general preservation format because of the legal minefield they're stuck in. This is one of the most deceptive licenses I've ever read; the top preamble implies it gives the user great freedom but instead it almost totally locks everything they've done and can do down to "a SPS product defined by SPS". I'm going to stay far, far away from any products Kryoflux LTD./SPS puts out unless you seriously rethink your licensing, since by contributing to the Discferret project I'm apparently already in violation of it. No wonder none of the organizations you sold your CTA analyzer to want anything to do with Phil's product, the license expressly forbids them >from even considering it. For reference: 2. LICENCE. I. LICENCE for IPF SUPPORT LIBRARY SPS hereby grants you (each licensee is addressed as "you") a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Technology, on the following terms and only for private, non-profit purposes (see Section 3 below). You may: ... c. inspect ("understand") the source code (if provided); and ... 3.LIMITATIONS ON LICENCE.The licence grantedin Section 2 is subject to the followingrestrictions: a.The Technology is to be used onlyfor non-profit purposesunless you obtain prior written consent fromSPS.Prohibited for-profit and commercial purposesinclude, but arenot limitedto: ... (v) Using the Technology to develop a similar application on any platform for commercial distribution, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law; or (vi) Using the Technology in any manner that is generally competitive with a SPS product as defined by SPS, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law. ... d. You may not modify, combine commercial applications with the Technology. You may not prepare derivative works of the Technology, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law. Derivative works are defined as but not limited to: (i) Alternative support libraries. We are open to porting to other platforms, and so third parties doing such is unnecessary and violates the terms of this licence. If you want to port the library, please contact us. We will host it on our site and ensure that only the latest version is being distributed. (ii) Alternative tools that operate on files of the format as defined by the Technology. This includes but is not limited to: mastering tools(tools that enable Content to be written back to physical media like a floppy disk). Reproducing Content provided through or by the Technology to any other kind of media, such as alternative content provider technology(this also covers any kind of converter with the intention of extracting the Content to held by any other alternate media format that represents the same independently working Content). Additions, removals or other modification of data contained by the images. ... To anyone who wants to read further, the license text can be seen in full as "LICENCE.txt" in the "Download the latest software" archives at http://www.kryoflux.com/ -- Jonathan Gevaryahu AKA Lord Nightmare jgevaryahu at gmail.com jgevaryahu at hotmail.com

13 years, 3 months

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Chips that changed the world

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: For those interested, IEEE has an article about the 25 chips that changed the world. The NE555 is #1 and the 6502 is #2. http://spectrum.ieee.org/may09/8747 Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.altair32.com http://www.classiccmp.org/cini

13 years, 3 months

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SPS licence (was: Re:Discferret broken?)

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> Christian, if there's no anti-compete clause in the license, then please > explain what exactly clauses 3.a.v and particularly 3.a.vi do. > Also, for third party/open-source IPF stuff (other than the potential > for GPL software to be used commercially, already expressly forbidden by > 3.a.v), clauses 3.d.i and 3.d.ii would also seem to expressly forbid it? > 3.d.ii seems to imply that it violates the license to even convert an > IPF to other formats, which makes IPF images entirely useless as a > general preservation format because of the legal minefield they're stuck in. Jonathan, I think you misunderstood what this is about. Before I go into detail here, it does make sense to see how "the technology" is defined: "The program's object code, source code and documentation are collectively referred to as the "Technology"". Please note that there is no reference to the file format itself. It just clearly states one thing: You can not take a piece of our software and use it to make another piece of software, except for the exclusions listed. It does not say you can not invent something on our own or work with a CatFerret or DiskWeasel or whatever device comes to mind. It is also correct that you could not take the capsimg.dll and put it into a competing product. You can of course write your own code, or you could - if it's not a commercial thing - just take a look at our source distribution. It comes with a different (adapted MAME) licence! Please take a look yourself: http://www.kryoflux.com/download/ipfdec_source4.2.zip This was released to make sure the format is a) fully documented, b) portable and c) data is not buried. The reasons for the tight restrictions of the original (old) licence were e.g. some companies selling game compilation CDs of questionable origin, which usually did not give credit or pay royalties to the legitimate copyright holders (=game devs). We did not want to support such things. Not being able to use IPF for these (or extract the data with our enabler) meant ADFs were used, which usually sported cracker intros or similar, making people aware of what they had bought. > This is one of the most deceptive licenses I've ever read; the top > preamble implies it gives the user great freedom but instead it almost > totally locks everything they've done and can do down to "a SPS product > defined by SPS". I'm going to stay far, far away from any products > Kryoflux LTD./SPS puts out unless you seriously rethink your licensing, > since by contributing to the Discferret project I'm apparently already > in violation of it. No, you are not (I think). Unless you take parts of our product to enhance a competitive product, all is fine. In other (unpleasant) words: If you make your own and don't steal, I don't see any problem there. > No wonder none of the organizations you sold your CTA analyzer to want > anything to do with Phil's product, the license expressly forbids them > from even considering it. Absolutely not. If they were using this very same licence (which they don't, as it excludes commercial use) they could of course use other products. They just could not put parts of our product into the other.

13 years, 3 months

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An interesting claim: Olivetti made the first ever PC, in 1962

by lproven＠gmail.com

The "Program 101": http://english.pravda.ru/history/07-03-2012/120702-Program_101_first_person… Thoughts? I've never even heard of this product before. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

13 years, 3 months

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Discferret broken?

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> If this is how you think about others who are trying to preserve data and history, I don't think you should be involved in preservation at all. Thanks for making up my mind in regards to your product. Dave, to be honest, going back to your very first email... I really looks like you had made it up right from the beginning. I have no clue what preservation and the right to do it or not has to do with one's right to stand up against a competitive claim that has proven not to be an issue at all. I also don't know what either product has to do with preservation per definition apart from ingesting data. Preservation is much more than reading some bits, it's making sure the data you have is authentic and valid and can be recreated physically and in emulation any time.

13 years, 3 months

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Put on the hip waders

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220970605899 This ICBM COMPUTER is one of ONLY 10 that were armed and ready to fire at Russia or anyone else if necessary during the cold war arms race. These are credited for stopping the soviet union from placing nuclear missiles in CUBA in 1960 to 1962. They were decommissioned by the strategic are command and the hard drive and memory banks were erased. This is the first personnel computer that could run with commands on its' own. The movie Dr. Strangelove was a scary horror comedy about these missiles and the people that might push the button, and not be able to stop if needed. -- This this is clearly a dangerous munition, so I've reported it to eBay. I would suggest others do the same, for the safely of our children and our precious bodily essence.

13 years, 3 months

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On Programa P101

by bdamer＠digitalspace.com

In concurrence with Rick here, I was interviewed last year by some Italians making a documentary about the Olivetti P101 trying to shoehorn their claim it was the first "personal computer". I categorically stated that it was simply a programmable calculator and not a computer. I noted to them the features of the 1962 LINC (OS, languages, removable storage, interactive programming/display, peripherals) which was described by Alan Kay and Gordon Bell as "the first personal workstation" or "where the experience of personal computing was first possible". Seemed to fall on deaf ears. Did their documentary ever come out? bruce ever the CC lurker

13 years, 3 months

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SPS licence (was: Re: Discferret broken?)

by cb＠kryoflux.com

>> > You can't make 'competing products'. > ...no, you can't use "the Technology" to make competing products. > jgevaryahu didn't post enough for me to be sure what "the Technology" > means - and I would check if I cared - but I would expect it to refer > to KryoFlux's work and nothing more, in which case this strikes me as > eminently reasonable. > > In the stuff jgevaryahu posted, most the restrictions cited are of this > nature. I do see one glaring exception, that being 3.d(ii); if I were > doing data preservation any such clause in the license for a tool would > completely eliminate that tool from consideration for me. No, because the moment you would be able to put data into an IPF, you would also have the tool to extract it again, you would not use parts of the free distribution to do that. And you would of course have your original data in the first place. As outlined in another reply this mainly addresses companies releasing bogus compilation CDs which we did not intend to support. And apart from that: Our source distribution comes with a different (adapted MAME) licence! http://www.kryoflux.com/download/ipfdec_source4.2.zip This was released to make sure the format is a) fully documented, b) portable and c) data is not buried. > It most certainly would cause me to include them out of anything I > might do as an individual. Closed file formats - and this is an even > more egregious form of "closed" than most - are nonstarters for me. And for this reason, and many others, there source is out there.

13 years, 3 months

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Wanted: TRS-80 8-Megabyte drive

by eric＠brouhaha.com

I have a TRS-80 Model 16 with an 8 Megabyte drive, but unfortunately the drive is a secondary, not a primary, so it doesn't contain a controller and I can't actually use it with the Model 16 at the moment. Does anyone have an extra 8MB primary drive they'd care to part with? Or the controller board from inside an 8MB primary drive? (Or, for that matter, another secondary?) The Model 16 (or Model II) with the original hard disk interface[*] will ONLY work with 8MB drives, and not with the later 5, 12, 35, or 70 MB drives. Similarly, the 8MB drives will only work on the Model II or 16 with that original interface, and not on the Model I, III, 4, etc. The pinout and signals of the cable between the interface card in the computer and the controller in the primary drive is different than all of the later ones. Both the old and new TRS-80 hard drive interfaces use a 50-pin cable with signals similar to those used by a WD1000 controller, but neither are actually directly compatible with the WD1000 or each other. Radio Shack added some functionality beyond what the standard WD1000 has, and changed the pinout. Thanks, Eric [*] The original Model II/16 hard disk interface can be recognized by the red power distribution strips under the DIP ICs.

13 years, 3 months

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Free Sinclair stuff on Twitter

by lproven＠gmail.com

@DeltaNC: If anyone would like a ZX81, a Rubberkey or a Plus let me know. I have one of each and they're getting skipped otherwise. Untested, no PSUs. @DeltaNC: Reading an old Spectrum instruction manual, specifically about loading software. You "App Store" kids don't know how good you have it! That's https://twitter.com/#!/DeltaNC if you don't speak Tweet. Anyone interested? I think they're in Glasgow. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

13 years, 3 months

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KryoFlux power rail (was: Re: Discferret broken?)

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> > Though I was not specifically responding to the concerns over KryoFlux, > I would refer not to the input protection response, but this one: "and > there's lack of protection overall, especially in the power supply.". Like ZoomFloppy KryoFlux does not need external power at all. It is a bus-powered device. However, we added the option to feed in external power (just in case). There are two options for this power rail: protected (the user feeds 7-9 volts via the low voltagee connector or +12 via the molex, both are exactly regulated to +5V for the +5V rail and secured with a diode) or unprotected. Users are advised not to use the unprotected rail (needs changing a jumper) unless they know what they are doing. >> > I would really like to avoid the impression something is broken. It's >> > not, it's working. > I think it would be helpful to address the power supply protection > concern. Rightly or otherwise, prospective customers could conjecture > that this might impact or damage their precious disk drive mechanisms or > electronics. As I said... it's bus powered. And protected with voltage regulators and diodes. How much can you do with 500mA and +5V? I don't see any risk for the drive attached. Of course you can always be more protective, but at what cost? If you look a popular electronics you will find that there are some things you simply rely on. Like the correct voltage coming out of the USB port, a switching PSU or the correct polarity of a PSU. I found a friend's SNES dead because it simply has no protection diode. He'd attached a replacement PSU and soldered the connector himself? Wrong polarity. Oops. I am not saying that completely leaving that out was a wise idea, but it works for them. I am pretty satisfied with what we have. In other words? an airbag is fine. Putting the whole car in some kind of styrofoam makes driving a hassle. > > I took my position from > "http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3#p1230. At least with > ZoomFloppy, people expect to both image and write disks with the > product. From the FAQ, I see that DTC will not write file back to disk, > but Analyzer can. If the FAQ is wrong, I based my concern on invalid > information. Thanks for pointing this out. DTC has evolved and, by now, also supports writing of IPF and ADF back to disk. More to come. You would need the Analyser to create IPF files as this is beyond the capabilities of DTC. IPFs are not the result of a conversion process, instead it's an auto scripting feature that will, for most disks, describe the mastering data. The rest needs manual adjustments. > I do have to handle feedback and questions for such a product, and I > understand it's a pain at times. However, since your tool images more > obscure formats and drive mechanisms, I struggle with the idea that > there are a huge number of uninterested folks who want the tool but > aren't savvy enough to learn it. This is, admittedly, a very elite > group in this space. Well? we do support so many systems by now? without doing anything, I have a dozen of tickets popping up. Every day? As I said before, this is something very special and it was never meant to be for "mass-consumption". That does not mean we don't give people access. There's actually people out there using it. > I think your "does not demand a response" itself is a response. When > people "google" for this thread, they'll no doubt find this response. I > can't carry the ball further here, I have no horse in this race. I > think simply responding to it puts the focus back on others. Thanks for asking.

13 years, 3 months

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IBM, DEC and a backache

by silent700＠gmail.com

So once again I heed the call of classiccmp in distress and once again the mini-truck was packed to the brim and riding low. We cleaned out a storeroom of a small college last weekend and finally got everything unloaded last night - everything that would fit, that is. Had to leave some TRS-80s behind (always painful) but fortunately they were scooped up later the same night by another local collector. Here's my haul: https://picasaweb.google.com/102190732096693814506/March1Haul The incomplete inventory: - 5x IBM RT systems: 3x 6150 towers, 2x 6151 desktops - some variances in name and badging amongst all these which will have to be explored - 6x IBM RT monitors: 4x 5081 "Megapel" displays, 2x 6154 "Advanced Color Graphics Display" (I don't know which, if any, of the RTs have the necessary Megapel card) - 2x IBM 6157 Streaming Tape drives, one apparently NIB - IBM 8228 Token Ring MAU, NIB - IBM RT 8-port serial cards and break-out boxes, some boxed - DEC half-rack - DEC PDP 11/23 Plus system to be inventoried soon - quick check shows 11/73 CPU upgrade and Emulex SCSI card - Emulex PE02 Medley drive - Boxed DEC VT220 terminal (not sure if it's unused or not) - Boxed DEC LK201 terminal keyboard - IBM RT keyboards, not enough for all these systems - Various IBM RT docs, some in box - Various ISA cards to be ID'd later I already owned an RT desktop (6151 of some sort) and a small monochrome display which, if I went downstairs to check, would probably turn out to be a 5151, so I'm marginally familiar with RT stuff. But now that this load has appeared, more opportunities are opened...especially when it comes to graphics. It will take some weeks to ID all this stuff and figure out what's what, but I'd love to see the "Megapel" system in action. There are a few disks in the documentation box but I don't believe there is an OS. Anyone know if there are images out there? I think these things use regular PC floppy drives so hopefully the disk format is writable with the tools out there. Or, did the OS come on tape instead? If I read the right FAQ, RTs used ESDI drives. Imaging these drives will be a priority. I have an ISA ESDI controller (somewhere) that I could possibly put into a Linux box. I have no idea what filesystem early AIX used or if there is a way to mount it in another Unix. If the RTs work (or at least one does,) I could dump to tape or some other removable media instead. Despite the size of this haul....no mice. And of course, like the keyboards, IBM RT mice are proprietary, or at least the connectors are. I'll have to check the FAQs and such out there to see if anyone has adapted a PS/2 mouse to it. If these did have the graphics boards, I'd expect to have seen mice with them. But thanks to their size and relative uselessness, those mice were probably the first things to get tossed out :( Now on to the PDP...haven't dug into the cards inside yet but I do see an Emulex SCSI board, so that is automatic win. Can anyone ID the PE02 drive? I can't tell if that's 1/4" tape or what? Google isn't helpful. Taking on that half-rack is the reason for my post for the free SA600 rack (no takers yet on that, btw.) Despite what the realtor told me, the basement is a finite space. I am trying to find more info on what these machines did. I was told the PDP was used for students learning Pascal. Stuffed into its case was a printout with instructions on booting it into UNIX, so that's probably what it ran. The RTs did some sort of administration task at the college, so I am expecting to find AIX on them rather than AOS, the "Academic Operating System" that was used on some RTs in educational settings. I've found the RT FAQ and pcrt.info (which looks like a spam site) so far....any other RT experts or resources will be appreciated. With some luck and work, VCFMW's on-site server may be running AIX 1.x this year ;) -- jht

13 years, 3 months

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Free DEC SA600 Rack - Illinois

by silent700＠gmail.com

Thanks to the recent adoption of yet-another-DEC-halfrack, a DEC SA600 rack needs to go. Here are some pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/102190732096693814506/DECSA600Rack The cable frame and the SDI cables on it are no longer here. It's a bit of an odd rack, having held the massive RA90 hard drives in its previous life. I believe once those brackets are removed, normal rack holes remain, but I can't be certain. As seen in the pics, I cleaned it of most of its rust and it looks pretty good. Purists will want to repaint it. Local pickup only in the NW Chicago suburbs. It's about 5' high and weighs a lot more than it looks like it should. Be prepared for a battle getting it up the stairs. -j

13 years, 3 months

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Minor ImageDisk update has been posted

by dave12＠dunfield.com

Just an FYI : I've posted a minor ImageDisk update to my site (It's been a while!) Nothing major: - Added IMDA (ImageDisk Analyze) utility to examine a .IMD image and suggest drive types and settings that can be used to write it (a lot of people seem to have trouble with this) - Added a couple of batch file to automate presetting a .IMD comment from a text file, and extracting/editing/replacing the .IMD comment. - Enhance DMK2IMD to detect and provide a work-around for images with bad address marks apparently produced by some emulators. - Update .IMD file format specification to provide for representing disks with non-standard sector sizes or mixed sector sizes within a track. - Minor documentation and help files updates. I've also posted a raw binary floppy image (suitable for XDISK, Winimage etc.) to create a 1.44M bootable ImageDisk floppy that: - Has USB mass-storage and CD/CVD support. - Allows you to set a RAMdisk size when it boots, and runs from the RAMdisk after boot - so you can boot from a floppy and then read/write images to and from the RAMdisk (and USB mass storage). - Has tools to move files to/from the RAMdisk via: Network** (FTP, TFTP, DDLINK) Serial or LPT (DDLINK, XMODEM) **Over 100 network drivers are on the disk. - Can be used for a bootable CD/DVD. This might be useful to anyone who doesn't want to dedicate a DOS partition. -- dave12 (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com (dot) com Classic computers: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/

13 years, 3 months

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The Sprow MiniB

by lproven＠gmail.com

I'd not met this before. Apologies if it's general knowledge. A small single-board recreation of an Acorn BBC Micro model B. http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/minib.htm -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

13 years, 3 months

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re Olivetti made the first ever PC, in 1962, Audit 5

by dave.thearchivist＠gmail.com

Has anyone got /seen an Olivetti Audit 5 I assume its just a later version of the 101 I have the magnetic cards from one that was used locally in a clothes shop Dave Caroline

13 years, 3 months

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Cosmac Elf on breadboard

by jonas＠otter.se

> Hi > It is not true that the joint has to be mechanically sound before > soldering. > It really depends on the amount of stress you expect the joint > to withstand. > If you are soldering 30 ga. wire wrap wire, tack soldering > will last for a hunderd years if no one yanks on it. > I've done many projects with tack soldering and never had > one fail. > What do you think surfice mount is? > Dwight Point taken, at least partially :-) My information is from an old book about reliable production methods for electronic hardware. Surface mount wasn't invented when it was written. The bit about the joint being mechanically sound refers to wires soldered to tags, lugs etc, where strain or vibration could cause the solder joint to break if the wire wasn't mechanically fastened before it was soldered. For devices built for use in vehicles or industrial environments I think the argument is valid, for office environments probably less so. Also, I am under the impression that heavier surface mount items would be glued down as well as soldered? Obviously, whether the solder will hold or not depends on the weight of the item being soldered and the stresses the device is subjected to. I recently bought a signal generator off the 'net which arrived non-working, because a large (about 2 cm diameter by 10 cm high) electrolytic capacitor had broken loose at one of the solder joints. It was only held by the solder joints. Another problem I have seen, which relates to surface mount devices, is that the instrument cluster on my car (a 1996 BMW) goes dead every now and then, only to come alive again after a moment. A number of people have reported that this appears to be due to bad solder joints on the PCB, which has a number of surface mount devices. /Jonas

13 years, 3 months

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EDN 4th Annual Microprocessor Directory, Nov 1977

by chrise＠pobox.com

I've been going through folders, files, listings and other things I received from the estate of a local OP who passed away several years ago. He had saved this EDN article from the November 20, 1977 issue titled "EDN's Fourth Annual Microprocessor Directory". I scanned it including the ads because it's kinda fun to see what was selling back then. You can see a little about the GI CP-1600 which was recently discussed on this list too. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6A73VHTVh23eWdNRUxHRkVUbXlDZHBRMGJRbmRkdw Chris -- Chris Elmquist

13 years, 3 months

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Discferret broken?

by cb＠kryoflux.com

Hey Tony, > > VIrtually every open-sourc program (includign all those under the GPL) > come with the statement that they are _NOT_ supported. You can't expect > soembody to work for you for nothing. You have the soruce code, fx it > yourself! > Good idea. What do you do when you are unable to write or modify a program? We deliver something that works, out of the box. It's for the 95% that don't know how to program and the 95% of the 5% left that have no idea about fluxes, disk coding or what pre-compensation means. No need to fix it, it's working! Since 2010, and we're constantly adding features. > I have been pleasanylu supprised by the support I get from open-source > software authors, but I don't exxpect them to do work for me for nothing. > I might e0-mail them a comment and/or a change I've made to do something > I want to do, Or I might ask them 'what is going one here' so that I can > fixx the problem. I always seem to get a helpful reply. You would also get a helpful reply from us. We really like to help. We have over 600 users out there. Look how much negative feedback there is on the forums. Forums are usually littered with complaints as people tend to only write something when things are bad. > > >> board. I can't look into the future, but you would still be able to=20 >> access the data ingested because the formats are documented. What I can=20 >> say is that we don't have plans to let it fade into oblivion, so my=20 > > So say 99% of other ahrdware and softwre mnufacutrers about their > products. Doesn't mean it doens't happen. ?does not mean it has to happen. > > I disagree. If there is a claer technicla point, as here, I feel a > developer or a simialr product is perhaps the best to raise it. > So it does not feel strange to you that the only person that ever complained about this is he who must not be named? > > To use your analony. If I fvisited your home I would not comment on your > style of deoor, your furniture, ro anythign like that. But if I saw > somethign that I considered to be dangerous to you, your family, or > others, I certianly would comment. If I saw you had some exxpensive > objects and that your door lock was a really cheap and simple one that > anyone could open with a paperclip I'd tell you about that too. You bet I > would. > No, you come to my place and give everyone around the impression that the food I serve is bad. I politely ask you to stop, you refuse, you get thrown out. Days later, everyone is still fine, the food was delicious and everyone enjoyed the evening very much, except for your visit. > It would appear from your comments that the only sort of message you > allow on your facebook page is one in favour of your product. That means > the page is essentially worthless .I want a see a balanced set of > comments. If soemthign is poorly doen, Iwant to know about it. I would > agree that a comment like 'This product is crap' helps nobody. An > explainatio of whay a particualr chip is a poor choice does. > So prove me wrong: there are more than 600 units in circulation, some are used every day for dozens of disks. Some have read tenths of thousands of disks. It is working fine. Did you ever think about that parts were chosen for a reason? Why would I change my design because a competitor thinks I should? > I've been on many forums and mailing lists over the years. I feel the > only things that should get you thrown off are inciitng crimes (and > racism, homophobia, etc) and posting wildily off-topic mesages. Not > positing reasonaed criticism of the device under discussion. Here I am. We have nothing to hide. I still tidy up the Facebook page from time to time. >> >>> 2) Is there any truth to the comments about a 'conflict of interests' i= >> f >>> somebody wants to devleop both for your device and the Diskferret? >> >> Suggestions like that (the original statement, not your question here)=20 >> would you get thrown out of my house for sure. Why would any large, big,=20 > > I fdeel that this attitudew is good for your bottom line now, but is not > godo for data preservation in general, and it's not good for the classic > computing hobby. A lot more gets done when inforation ant techniques arwe > shared. Yes, you don't maek the profit, but more data is preserved. Which > is more important? Data can be preserved - that's what the unit was made for. You get the STREAM data, that's your disk. You mess up preservation and the fact how we market our device. These are different things. Visit our site http://www.softpres.org We have lots of information to share. Our technology is based on this information. It's all free and we share it. Since 2001. Enjoy.

13 years, 3 months

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HP calculators

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Does anyone here collect HP calculators? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

13 years, 3 months

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Movie of ETH Lilith Comdex demo

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

I put op a movie of the demo that Diser displayed at Comdex to advertise the Lilith. It give a decent display of its capabilities. Too bad I don't know which year's Comdex it was.... Find the movie LilithComdexDemo.mpg at ftp://jdreesen.dyndns.org/ Its a 30MB download, 5 min long, and created with my Lilith emulator. A complete and compilable Medos V4.2 should be available in a few weeks time. Enjoy, Jos

13 years, 3 months

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Apple II convention "KansasFest" opens for registration

by pr＠kansasfest.org

KANSAS CITY, MO -- March 7, 2012 -- KansasFest, the 23rd annual convention dedicated to the Apple II computer, is now open for registration. Users, programmers, hobbyists, and retrocomputing enthusiasts are invited to Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, from Tuesday, July 17, through Sunday, July 22, for six days and five nights of sessions, demos, announcements, contests, and camaraderie. The week kicks off with a keynote speech John Romero, co-founder of id Software and creator of Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, and nearly a hundred other popular computer and video games. Romero will be available immediately afterward for a Q&A and autograph session. The week then offers a variety of presentations and workshops, including but not limited to: * The history of AppleWorks, presented by Randy Brandt * Andy Molloy looks at the best of the Apple II demo scene * Apple II Road Show -- Tony Diaz shows you how to tell authentic hardware from a fake * Build your own Apple II WordPress site with Ken Gagne * Learn to program interactive fiction in Inform 7 with Carrington Vanston * A Kickstarter brainstorming session * HackFest, an annual programming challenge open to coders of all skill levels * A vendor fair and exhibit hall for attendees and the general public to show off, play with, and buy and sell new or unusual hardware and software Attendees are encouraged to share their knowledge by presenting their own hardware and software sessions, especially of the Apple II but including Macintosh, Windows, Linux, iOS, and others. All KansasFest sessions are presented by the attendees, who are known for unscheduled events and debuts, too. Whether it's a behind-the-scenes look at new software, preorder opportunities for new hardware, a live-action text adventure, a podcast recording session, GShisen and Dueltris tournaments, or an athletic round of Bite the Bag, there are experiences to be had and memories made at KansasFest that aren't possible except in the company of surprising, brilliant, diehard Apple II fans. Register before June 1 to guarantee a price of $375 for a double room or $445 for a single, which includes admission to all sessions as well as most meals. Official KansasFest shirts are extra and optional and must be ordered by May 31; registration for staying on-site closes July 8. Veterans of the event are invited to bring a first-time attendee; if each indicates the other's name on the registration form, both will receive a $25 referral rebate at the event. To register, please visit the official Web site at http://www.kansasfest.org/ KansasFest sponsor 16 Sector invites any and all Apple II users, fans, and friends to attend the world's only annual Apple II conference. For photos, videos, schedules, and presentations from past year's events, to sign up for the email list and for inquiries, please visit the event's Web site. CONTACT: Email: http://www.kansasfest.org/contact/ Register: http://www.kansasfest.org/register/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/kansasfest Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/382225585123061/

13 years, 3 months

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Discferret Broken?

by jgevaryahu＠gmail.com

Christian Bartsch | Kryoflux LTD. (cb at kryoflux.com) wrote on Tue Mar 6 02:30:32 CST 2012: Hi Tony, ... >/ 2) Is there any truth to the comments about a 'conflict of interests' if />/ somebody wants to devleop both for your device and the Diskferret? / Suggestions like that (the original statement, not your question here) would you get thrown out of my house for sure. Why would any large, big, mighty institution be hindered by us to look at a competitive product? Why would they let us hinder them? If they could get something better that would be completely free, why would they want to take the solution that needs to be paid for? How could I stop them from using publically available sources? Christian, if there's no anti-compete clause in the license, then please explain what exactly clauses 3.a.v and particularly 3.a.vi do. Also, for third party/open-source IPF stuff (other than the potential for GPL software to be used commercially, already expressly forbidden by 3.a.v), clauses 3.d.i and 3.d.ii would also seem to expressly forbid it? 3.d.ii seems to imply that it violates the license to even convert an IPF to other formats, which makes IPF images entirely useless as a general preservation format because of the legal minefield they're stuck in. This is one of the most deceptive licenses I've ever read; the top preamble implies it gives the user great freedom but instead it almost totally locks everything they've done and can do down to "a SPS product defined by SPS". I'm going to stay far, far away from any products Kryoflux LTD./SPS puts out unless you seriously rethink your licensing, since by contributing to the Discferret project I'm apparently already in violation of it. No wonder none of the organizations you sold your CTA analyzer to want anything to do with Phil's product, the license expressly forbids them >from even considering it. For reference: 2. LICENCE. I. LICENCE for IPF SUPPORT LIBRARY SPS hereby grants you (each licensee is addressed as "you") a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Technology, on the following terms and only for private, non-profit purposes (see Section 3 below). You may: ... c. inspect ("understand") the source code (if provided); and ... 3.LIMITATIONS ON LICENCE.The licence grantedin Section 2 is subject to the followingrestrictions: a.The Technology is to be used onlyfor non-profit purposesunless you obtain prior written consent fromSPS.Prohibited for-profit and commercial purposesinclude, but arenot limitedto: ... (v) Using the Technology to develop a similar application on any platform for commercial distribution, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law; or (vi) Using the Technology in any manner that is generally competitive with a SPS product as defined by SPS, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law. ... d. You may not modify, combine commercial applications with the Technology. You may not prepare derivative works of the Technology, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law. Derivative works are defined as but not limited to: (i) Alternative support libraries. We are open to porting to other platforms, and so third parties doing such is unnecessary and violates the terms of this licence. If you want to port the library, please contact us. We will host it on our site and ensure that only the latest version is being distributed. (ii) Alternative tools that operate on files of the format as defined by the Technology. This includes but is not limited to: mastering tools(tools that enable Content to be written back to physical media like a floppy disk). Reproducing Content provided through or by the Technology to any other kind of media, such as alternative content provider technology(this also covers any kind of converter with the intention of extracting the Content to held by any other alternate media format that represents the same independently working Content). Additions, removals or other modification of data contained by the images. ... To anyone who wants to read further, the license text can be seen in full as "LICENCE.txt" in the "Download the latest software" archives at http://www.kryoflux.com/ -- Jonathan Gevaryahu AKA Lord Nightmare jgevaryahu at gmail.com jgevaryahu at hotmail.com

13 years, 3 months

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PDP 11/04 w/RX01 and spares available, Cambs UK

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Folks, I know a few people who'll be interested in this, given my recent need to find a new home (again) for me and my collection I need to shift more DEC stuff, in this case a PDP 11/04 with boxes of spare core etc and a complete RX01 floppy drive. The machine's PSU is toast (and set to 110V, beware!) which is why we got it at work in the first place, but that's all that's wrong with it. Shipping isn't an option unless you've got deep pockets I guess, so collection from Cambs in the UK, postcode CB6 please. Cheers! -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

13 years, 3 months

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Moving DEC racks (was Re: Free DEC SA600 Rack - Illinois)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 1:23 PM, Jochen Kunz <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote: > On Tue, 6 Mar 2012 17:59:21 -0500 > Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > >> In the end I did succeed, but had the rack slipped (which it almost >> did do!) I would probably have severely regretted the consequences. > > Well. Remove everything that you can remove easyly so that only the > four posts, bottom and top are left over. Lay the rack on its left or > right side. Step _into_ the rack so that you look at the bottom. Pick > it up, so that the posts stay horizontal. You have to try a bit to find > the right position to grab to have the whole thing in balance. Now > walk. Surprisingly easy. I even got a rack upstairs that way. I understand the technique, and for a straight stairway, I think it would work just fine. In the 100-year-old house I was doing this in, there's a landing and a 90 degree turn to the left in the middle. The top of the rack would hit the wall while the bottom of the rack was still 3-4 stairs from the landing. Oh... and there was a stained-glass window at the landing as well (not broken by me, but later, when someone was moving a mattress, the window did not fare well). The rack had to go up the stairs nearly perfectly upright, except for the middle of the stairs, when it had to be tipped back about 10 degrees to clear the sloped ceiling. Again... I will never repeat that experience solo. I almost ended up at the bottom of the stairs under the rack. >> Is there clearance between the side of the H960 and the grey sides for >> the M6 bolt heads, or does your rack lack the hang-on metal sides? > There is plenty of space. The rivertrs aren't that small too. > > Ohhh, sorry. I just noticed that my racks are not H960. They look much > more than the aforementioned SA600 rack. That confused me. So they may > be of the H9612 / H9613 variety. Actually the H960 is welded. My > PDP-11/34A came in a H960. I had to leave the rack behind as I could > not dismount it. It didn't fit my car... :-( Gotcha. I remembered that some racks had the cluster of large pop rivets and some were welded but I wasn't sure which were which by model number. I spend more time in front of the machines than figuring out how to move the empty racks up impossible inclines or into impossibly small automobiles. A VW Microbus, BTW, can haul two H960s if you drop the rear seat and remove the middle seat - you just slide them in one at a time and load the middle area where the bench seat used to be with all the CPUs and disks you just removed from the racks. Easiest time ever. *That* works solo. Second easiest move was a VAX-11/750 in an Astro Minivan with no middle seats. The only hitch was the swivel chair mounts were taller than the casters, so the bottom of the VAX hung up on insertion and removal. Even so, it was still possible (and safe) solo. An 11/750 is mostly air and not as heavy as some things of similar size (like tape drives). -ethan

13 years, 3 months

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Discferret broken?

by cb＠kryoflux.com

Hi Brian, > * I do cost reduce solutions. However, I feel designs should "do no > harm". In other words, the cost reduction might create units that > do not function, but they should never adversely affect the target > vintage equipment. I can assure you that our choice of parts does not harm anything. Unless you actively want to damage the unit (try hot plugging the drive; I still do this all the time), I don't see an issue here. Ask ten architects about how to build a house and I am sure you will get varying results. I would really like to avoid the impression something is broken. It's not, it's working. > * As a fellow enthusiast, I share David's concern over the closed and > guarded nature of the KryoFlux Analyzer. I don't buy the arguments > in the FAQ. I see no issue with letting anyone creating IPFs, as I > feel the community will self select the people who do it well. As > well, it's been my experience that there are lots of very > intelligent people in this community, and one delude themselves > thinking a "complex" solution is not useful to others without > extensive training/education. We have two separate products for this, one is KryoFlux with DTC (the disk tool console) that will completely satisfy many private users. The other is our Analyser that will aid a preservationist to verify authenticity and integrity of data ingested. This is aimed at institutions. We might change that in the future due to many requests, however, we still have to figure out to make sure it's understood as an IDE and that you need to understand how disk coding works, otherwise it's useless. Someone not familiar with C++ also won't have much fun with an IDE for that. If you would have to handle all the feedback and questions, you might see this in a different light. It helps discouraging those that have no serious interest, users that really want it usually just contact us and we arrange for something. As a side note: Everyone is free to come up with their own format or do their own Analyser, no one is forced buying into our solution. > * I disagree with Christian's "audit" response. I don't think the OP > was lamenting the fact that he/she could not audit the source, but > that a closed source product can never be truly "audited", as the > author can always doctor the version provided for audit. And, even > if I am wrong and it can, it creates a perception problem. I can't argue against that. However, it would require criminal energy to pimp or change a version meant for audit. And I don't see why we'd break something in the official version that would only work in the audit version. > * The legal concerns about "conflict of interest" do concern me. > There are precious few people in this area of expertise, I think > it's the responsibility of hardware and software vendors to ensure > such a product or offering does not fragment the group. Christian's > response did not clear things up. I don't understand how " > > What I find interesting is that several of my UK, European and Japanese > contacts (at various computer museums in those countries) were scared > off of working with the DiscFerret. Nearly every one of them cited the > same reason: "conflicts of interest" between assisting with DiscFerret > and using commercial versions of the Kryoflux analysis software (which I > suspect would be CTA or a variant thereof). > > " would get one "thrown out of the 'house'". While it's an unsavory > topic, it's one that demands some type of response. If someone said > that to me, I believe I would send a note to the individual and > request he/she forward it on, assuring them that they can work on > both projects without fear of litigation. There's nothing to clear up, and it does not demand a response. I am not aware of any issues, except what I heard via a mailing list from a competitive developer. To me this is not a trusted source of information. I am in contact with our customers directly. As I said in another reply: There is no NDA involved, no contract, nothing. If someone is scared working with a competitive product that maybe has to do with the quality of the product or the demeanour of the person representing it. If I was to damage a project's reputation in public, such created scenario would for sure fit pretty well. > * I agree that you're paying someone not to develop a solution, but to > *NOT* do something else. I'm a good example. I give up weeknights > and weekends to develop products because I get paid to do so. I > could enjoy another hobby if I was so inclined. That's very well worded and hits the nail on the head. It happens that our "hobby", preserving software, is very costly because it's hard to find a game (or application) in good shape for a decent price these days.

13 years, 3 months

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In defense of wire-wrap; was: Cosmac Elf on breadboard

by technobug＠comcast.net

On 6 Mar 2012 at 20:15, David Riley wrote: > I should also point out that all of the original Macintosh > prototypes were wire-wrapped, which should probably indicate that it's > a pretty sound methodology for assembling microcomputers. It worked > well enough in '83, anyway. In the latter half of the '70s, I ran a Modcomp II that was mounted in a trailer. The computer, with the exception of the power supplies, was entirely wire-wrapped. During the 10k miles that we put on the beast, the only failures were the capacitors in the power supplies coming unscrewed and a bad lot of 74S172s. That computer was the easiest machine I have ever worked on to maintain. -> CRC

13 years, 3 months

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John Many Jars <john@yoyodyne-propulsion.net>

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 2012-03-06 12.45, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 7:36 PM, David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> wrote: >> > I know they had at least Zork I. ?I sold a command summary card for it a >> > while ago. ?I probably shouldn't have done that. > I have an image of a PDP 11 RSTS/E with Dungeon (zork 1 -3) installed. > > It's also available to play online... on a "real" emulated PDP 11... Well, that is technically a reimplementation of the original Zork for the PDP-10. It is not the same as Zork 1-3, although there are similarities. The original Zork was way too big, when Infocom was founded and they wanted to release Zork for microcomputers. So they split Zork into three parts. Zork 1 is pretty much most of the original Zork, but without parts on the other side of the river (if I remember right). Zork 2 is parts of the other side of the river, and then lots of totally new stuff that does not exist in PDP-10 Zork. Zork 3 is more new stuff that don't exist in PDP-10 Zork, and then also the endgame, which I remember as being pretty much straight off the same. Johnny

13 years, 3 months

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Cosmac Elf on breadboard

by jonas＠otter.se

> I wonder, which one is more reliable, wire-wrapping or soldering on a > vero/stripboard? I fancy learning wire wrapping but it's expensive. IIRC wire wrapping is supposed to be more reliable. I certainly remember that it is supposed to be easier to see whether a wrapped joint is good or bad than it is to see whether a soldered joint is good or bad. For a soldered joint to have maximum reliability, among other things the parts to be soldered must be solidly joined before soldering, and not held together by the solder. It is not hard to learn to wire wrap, certainly not with an electrical tool. You more or less just do it. I have never tried wrapping with an unpowered tool. I doubt that would be much more difficult, just harder on your hands. /Jonas

13 years, 3 months

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DEC and Osborne Infocom Games

by rickthornquist＠gmail.com

All - Since everybody has been so helpful with my previous queries, I have one more... In 1983/84, DEC came out with their own versions of the Infocom games. They were in DEC's 'Digital Classified Software' line and were for the Rainbow and the DECMate II (and perhaps other systems). They came in large gray sleeves that were different than the usual Infocom packaging. Here's an example: http://yois.if-legends.org/vault.php?id=553 I've been having a heck of a time finding someone who still has these things. I'd very much like to scan the covers to use with the book. If anyone has any of these, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Also, I understand there was a version of Deadline that came with the Osborne. If anyone has this I'd like to hear from them as well. Thanks! - Rick

13 years, 3 months

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DEC and Osborne Infocom Games

by rickthornquist＠gmail.com

Zane, Ethan's list of PDP-11 games agrees with mine. Note that the PDP-11 games would have come in Infocom's regular packaging, not the DEC gray sleeve packaging. Stefan, I have a press release which mentions that Infocom was going to do games for the Professional, but I haven't actually found any nor are any listed in their catalogs. - Rick

13 years, 3 months

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Latest VCF East update

by evan＠snarc.net

Here's the majority of the lecture and workshop lineup for Vintage Computer Festival East 8.0, May 5-6, Wall, N.J. (we will announce one more lecture in the near future): On the lecture front: - Saturday opening: me - History of Commodore part 2: Bil Herd - Life, Death, and Afterlife of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2: Marcin Wichary - The Invention of BASIC: Thomas Kurtz - Sunday opening: me - History and Impact of Analog Computing: Kent Lundford - Apple's Early Years: Dan Kottke On the workshop front, we've got: - Intro to Vintage Software Restoration: Bill Degnan - Intro to Minicomputer Care & Feeding: Dave McGuire - How it's Done: 8-Bit Chiptune Music: Don Miller & friends - Intro to Commodore 8-Bit Maintenance: Bil Herd - Intro to Apple II Maintenance: Mike Willegal - Intro to S-100 Zen & Innerworkings: Jon Chapman - Build a Vector Graphics Kit: Dan Roganti

13 years, 3 months

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Discferret broken?

by cb＠kryoflux.com

Hi Tony, > I beleive that for the Diskferret I can get sources for everything (of > course soembody might write closed-source softwre to work with it). For > your device, which parts can I get the soruce for, and which can I not > get it for? Are there any file formats involved that are not fully > docuemtned? You get the schematics for the hardware (PDF) and you get the software (binary). Both are free for private, non-commercial usage. You also have access to our own formats, STREAM (as documentation) and IPF (storing the mastering data, created by us; comes as fully documented source and you have the forums with more information as well). That means you have full control over the data you ingested. > No, I think you misunderstood me here. I was talking aobut modifying > the hardware to talk to other types of drives, other devices even. Not > hadnling unusual ewncoding schems on devices (such as flopy drives) > that are supported by the hardware. You can of course modify the hardware you built, or ours, as needed, as you will know where the signals go to. You would however need to work with us, to make us support the new formats. Nevertheless this would mean going beyond what it does now and what it was designed for. > That is correct (well, actually, I can't be sure becuase I don;t know who > is in yor organisation)/ You would for sure have noticed, as the team working on KryoFlux is pretty small (Istv?n, Kieron, two porters (Adam, Alex), me). I still hold on to my opinion that if someone does not know someone else, how can he make statements about them or their work ethic? > That is not what I am doing at all. I feel that money is not a motivator > at all (or at beast a very minor motivator) for good programmers and > designers. And thus that there's no correlation between whether or not > something costs money and how well-designed it is. I interpretted your > original message as implying that you clained your device was better than > the Diskferret becuase it was commercial amd you employed commerical > progrmmers. My ecperience suggests that is faulty reasoning. Then why do people get paid in their daytime job? I do like my daytime job, I get paid for it. But how could I afford leaving it for a week, working for free, to make something happen? This has grown beyond a hobby. We already support the formats we ever needed or wanted. We do enjoy doing this, but I don't see why I would assign someone to reverse and implement a format (take Emulator I+II for example), which takes a lot of expertise and manpower, to e.g. support a commercial studio that wants to recover sampling data from their old floppies. These people pay for the unpaid leave from daytime work, we make it happen, and private users enjoy the updates they get for free. I see no evil in this. > I fail to see how an open-source program cna be discontinmued. Ok, let's call it stalled then. I've "heard" the following pretty often: "Look, there's only one main developer, and he's so busy. Maybe if you would donate..?". I think it's really overestimated how many people would have the knowledge to continue with such a project. And how many of them would want to work on this? There aren't many floppy controller projects around apparently. Does that ring a bell? > Does this design inovle any programmed parts (microcontrollers, FPGAs, > etc)? If so, do you relase the code that goes into them? If not, then > presuambly I buy them from you, and toy do 'make a cent from me'. We don't have any. KryoFlux is so versatile and simple by design that all the magic happens in the microcontroller. The firmware is uploaded into RAM each time you use it, you don't even notice. It's included with the software distribution as a firmware.bin. No flashing needed. > > That is preceisely what I don't want or need. I want the information to > solve the problems myself. The reason is simple, you (and your company) > will not be around for ever, waht happens when I have problems in 10 > years time? If this was the case you'd have to write your own software for the board you have, but maybe USB would also not be around anymore to attach the board. I can't look into the future, but you would still be able to access the data ingested because the formats are documented. What I can say is that we don't have plans to let it fade into oblivion, so my understandig is that should we ever decide to not continue with the project, we'd pass it on and / or open it up or even make the latter happen before. We just don't have any intentions doing this now as this would discourage those that can help funding it. We're obviously not as exposed as a top notch browser or similar that would get large donations >from companies, financially, or by assigning engineers to it. As a sidenote: Even if you only had the binary and some STREAM dumps in the future, you could still decide to run it in emulation, like I do today for my Amiga stuff. Why you would want to do this: KryoFlux has a hardware independent, deviceless mode. It is able to "replay" any STREAM file and treat it like the data was coming in from the hardware this very moment. Because of this you can always use the software to transform any STREAM dump to a sector dump of your choice. > >> > Again, you never worked with us. How insulted would you feel if someone >> > judged about you in public, without ever having worked with you? > It happens all the tiem, I can assure you... That's sad but I don't see how this could be my or our fault. > Now, let me ask some spcific questions beased on statements that have > been made on this list and which you have not commetned on : > > 1) Did you use a 74HC244 buffer is the receiver for the drive cable. Did > you then cause Phil (I think) to be thrown off a forum/facebook group > when he commented on this? If you browse the net, you will find many comments on KryoFlux by Phil and maybe none on his solution by me/us. We really try to avoid this.The reason is we don't comment on competitive products as, being professional or not, your view is always biased to some extent. I call doing so bad style. I believe in word of mouth and others doing the comparison. If you'd come to my house and you continuously make fancy statements and suggest things (and have done so in other places in the past) it might happen you get thrown out for not behaving politely. We therefore make use of our householder's rights as needed. This also applies to our Facebook wall. > 2) Is there any truth to the comments about a 'conflict of interests' if > somebody wants to devleop both for your device and the Diskferret? Suggestions like that (the original statement, not your question here) would you get thrown out of my house for sure. Why would any large, big, mighty institution be hindered by us to look at a competitive product? Why would they let us hinder them? If they could get something better that would be completely free, why would they want to take the solution that needs to be paid for? How could I stop them from using publically available sources? This makes no sense. It really helps looking at this >from their point of view. I did not comment on this (and other statements) because I was under the impression that such a statement speaks for itself.

13 years, 3 months

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Fancy a Lisa?

by lproven＠gmail.com

Same friend who is selling the SAM Coup? and the UK101 also has a Lisa for sale: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230756673113 By the way, yes, he will ship internationally, at cost. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

13 years, 3 months

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Discferret broken?

by cb＠kryoflux.com

>> I do like my daytime job, I get paid for it. But how could I afford >> leaving it for a week, working for free, to make something happen? > > I don't know. Perhaps _you_ can't. But people regularly do build > things for no direct pay as a side-line, either while working for pay > or while between for-pay jobs. I, for example, worked for the second > half of '02 at a job that paid well enough I lived on the resulting > money for all of '03, which time I spent, in large part, creating > software to give away because I felt like it. > Mouse, I really envy you. I've I/we would be in this position, we'd enjoy this very much. If we could afford doing this because this would be funded somehow, we'd love to give it away for free, with GPL and all kinds of stuff. As prince charming did not come along yet, we still fund the preservation work we do, e.g. buying games to preserve them, with our own private money and what comes in via sales. > > Indeed. Was it lack of politesse, though, or was it criticism? There > is a very important difference. (I haven't seen any of the text in > question, so I don't know whether it was a questino of politeness. But > my experience has also been that honest technical criticism (and > pointing out a choice to use inappropriate line drivers/receivers is > that, even if it is also rude) usually is not impolite. The rabid > flamers generally don't have valid technical points. It's all about how you address things. You can send things in an email, or you can suggest something somewhere in public that will give people that don't have the skills the impression something is completely wrong. > >> Why would any large, big, mighty institution be hindered by us to >> look at a competitive product? Why would they let us hinder them? > > Perhaps they wouldn't. But if you consider it a conflict, and I have > seen companies take very similar stances often enough, then they would > have to choose between the two of you. (As a simple example of such a > conflict, it is extremely hard to find a restaurant, at least around > here, that serves products of both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola - the only > explanation I have heard suggested is that, in order for either to be > willing to sell to a restaurant, it has to agree to not deal with the > other.) Yes that's because both of them will require you to sign a contract that will not allow competing beverages to be sold. You also depend on them because the finance some of your interior. We don't have NDAs, and I don't see why we'd need those. We don't sell by telling stories about someone else, or by hindering someone to look at the competition. We sell because we care, and because we deliver.

13 years, 3 months

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programmer for 8755

by kfergason＠gmail.com

Can anyone point me to a reasonably priced programmer for the 8755? Lots of programmers but none seem to program this chip. The one I have found is pretty expensive, as in out of my range ( a couple of Elnec at $1k and more). Was the 8755 that different? Thanks in advance, Kelly

13 years, 3 months

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DEC and Osborne Infocom Games

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 2012-03-06 12.45, Ethan Dicks<ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > > On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 12:48 PM, Stefan Skoglund > <cpuser_stefskog at bredband.net> wrote: >> > On Tue, 6 Mar 2012 09:21:09 -0800,healyzh at aracnet.com wrote: >>>> >>> In 1983/84, DEC came out with their own versions of the Infocom games. >>>> >>> ?They were in DEC's 'Digital Classified Software' line and were for the >>>> >>> Rainbow and the DECMate II (and perhaps other systems). ?They came in >>>> >>> large >>>> >>> gray sleeves that were different than the usual Infocom packaging. ?Here's >>>> >>> an example: >>> >> >>> >> Do you have examples of the games they released for the PDP-11? >> > >> > Hmm, would they work on P/OS ?? > Infocom's releases for the PDP-11 ran on RT-11. I know you can run > RT-11 binaries under RSTS/E, but I can't remember if there was a way > to do that with RSX-11 (which is what P/OS descends from). You could > get RT-11 for the DECprofessional, so the hardware can do it, but I > only ever used P/OS at the menu level. There was this product called RTEM, which allows you to run an RT-11 environment under RSX. But that might not work under P/OS. Besides, that is more complex than the RT-11 runtime system under RSTS/E. >> > ANY GAMES for DEC Professional series ? > I don't remember for certain, but I don't think so, at least not > packaged games that were advertised for the machine. There were often > playable games that came as part of various operating systems, and, of > course, written by users and shared via DECUS and Usenet and such. There might have been a few around the time when P/OS was recently announced, but I doubt they sold many, and I would very much doubt you'd have much luck finding any of those today. There is atleast a Chess program for the windowing system for P/OS that DEC released. Johnny

13 years, 3 months

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DEC and Osborne Infocom Games

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 2012-03-06 12.45, Stefan Skoglund<cpuser_stefskog at bredband.net> wrote: > > On Tue, 6 Mar 2012 09:21:09 -0800,healyzh at aracnet.com wrote: >>> >> In 1983/84, DEC came out with their own versions of the Infocom games. >>> >> They were in DEC's 'Digital Classified Software' line and were for the >>> >> Rainbow and the DECMate II (and perhaps other systems). They came in >>> >> large >>> >> gray sleeves that were different than the usual Infocom packaging. Here's >>> >> an example: >> > >> > Do you have examples of the games they released for the PDP-11? >> > >> > Zane > Hmm, would they work on P/OS ?? Most anything for RSX would also work on P/OS. That said, Infocom never released anything for RSX. They only did an RT-11 version of their games as far as I know. > ANY GAMES for DEC Professional series ? Any? Sure. ZEMU should work just fine under P/OS for one (well, maybe you need to change one thing or two, and recompile it, but it I think that the actual basic task, with no shared libraries and stuff should just work as is as well). Apart from that, I know I saw some weird graphic game for P/OS when I worked at DEC in the 80s, which I've never seen since, but which I'd like to find out more about. If I remember right, it was sortof a grid base, on which you had a robot which you moved around, and which fought others things. I'm very fuzzy on the details, since it was so long ago since I saw it, and I never played it myself, only watched other playing it. Looked cool though. You might find some stuff in the DECUS library, and as long as you are satisfied with text based stuff, almost anything for RSX will work as well. Johnny

13 years, 3 months

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DEC Systems available

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

I had someone lined up to take my DEC systems, but it fell through. So, here we go again. Any interest in: Alpha UP2000+ system Large tower case, 2 x 700MHz. 21264 CPU, 512MB of memory. Onboard chipset is succumbing to electro-migration and will not drive more than one bank of memory - thus the 512MB (board can take 2G). Has Tru64 installed on an internal SCSI drive. Alpha PC64 system Medium tower case, 1 x 266Mhz 21164 CPU, 256MB of memory. Has Tru64 installed on internal RAID array. DecStation 5000 Bare-bones system, but worked the last time I fired it up (10+ years ago) VaxStation 3100 I know very little about this unit, but believe it's operational. 2 x Multia These are little mini-format machines using the 21066 CPU @ 166Mhz. I have (somewhere) a 266Mhz. upgrade motherboard also - unknown whether it functions. Other odds and ends: A couple of Alpha motherboards, misc parts. I'm located in Burlington, VT. No reasonable offer refused, I need the space. No, I will not ship them. I don't have the time to deal with packing and/or any associated shipping damage issues. Life is too short. Steve --

13 years, 3 months

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test-drb March 2012