>
>> I've got a SCSI scanner plugged in to a MicroVAX 4000. Using the open source
>> "sane" portable scanning package, suitably tweaked for VMS, I can scan quite
>
>That 'suitably tweaked for VMS' worries me a little. I am not a
>programmer, I am not sure I could do things like that.
>
I'm not a programmer either but I never let that stop me.
I added about 270 lines to sanei_scsi.c (including blank lines, (few) comments,
debugging, error checking and assorted fluff) to implement a VMS version of the
routine sanei_scsi_cmd2(), some of which I copied from the existing routine and
to add routines vms_open_device() and vms_close_device(). The added code
doesn't do anything more complicated than call system routines such as
sys$assign(), sys$qiow() and sys$dassgn() and was practically lifted from
"Generic SCSI Class Driver Programming Example" in the VMS I/O Users Reference
Manual: Part I. I also added another 76 lines to do a quick hack translate of
calls to syslog() into calls to sys$sndopr() as VMS doesn't have syslog().
Finally, I created a suitable config.h containing mainly #defines and gruesome
hacks. The rest pretty much compiled as-is. (I didn't compile all of sane -
just the bits I needed to for my scanner). It won't win any awards, but it
seems to work.
Besides, you don't have to do it - I've already done it!
(If you want software for a PERQ, maybe someone else can help)
>
>In any case there are really only 2 clases of VAXen I would want to try
>running. One is the 11/780 and its brothers (11/782, 11/785), the other
>is the 11/730 (and I guess 11/725). The former is too large for me to
>accomodate at the moment, so it would have to be the latter. And I
>suspect Unibus SCSI cards are not easy to find anyway...
>
You could always build one :-)
>
>In any case, thos diesn;t get round the problem (for me) of fidnign a
>scanner I could repair.
>
I think we've addressed all the other difficulties. We can't be expected to
cover everything :-)
Regards,
Peter Coghlan.
--- On Thursday, April 19, 2012 8:46 PM, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>
> I assume that NICAM stereo
> sound is also dead ;-(. Pity, I
> enjoyed
> building and aligning the Maplin > decoder kit many years ago.
i haven't heard the phrase NICAM stereo since the 90's.
It's all Dolby Surround sound now - though i personally don't care for it.
Regards,
Andrew B
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk
Dear cctech folks;
I have 2: ISA card controllers for PCMCIA cards
that I want to get running again.
I need the software &
just the essentials of the manual (switch & jumper settings).
1)
DATABOOK ThinCard DRIVE
model TMD-100-03 rev C
2) 16 bit ISA card:
MMCD-D2 Rev 2.0 ?? 1994 SCM Microsystem GMBH
Photos are here:
http://ferretronix.com/march/thincard/
thanks in advance
Jeff Jonas
jeffj at panix.com
>
>> >In any case there are really only 2 clases of VAXen I would want to try
>> >running. One is the 11/780 and its brothers (11/782, 11/785), the other
>> >is the 11/730 (and I guess 11/725). The former is too large for me to
>> >accomodate at the moment, so it would have to be the latter. And I
>> >suspect Unibus SCSI cards are not easy to find anyway...
>> >
>>
>> You could always build one :-)
>
>Err, yes.... Building a n 11/780 wouldn't solve the space problem (it
>would be about the same size). I guess I could try to re-implelent the
>11/730 with statci RAM i nthe control store, but it's not somehting I
>have time for at the momnent.
>
I was suggesting that you might build a Unibus SCSI card if it proved too
difficult or expensive to get one by other means.
Regards,
Peter Coghlan.
Wow, what a funny subject line to ask for help with a generation leap in storage. !!! I did use Zip's in the 90's as an interchange medium and they weren't the worst thing in the world for that... but at most they had to hold their data for a week or two in the shipping lanes and that's not asking much.
> Funny,
> as the OP I asked for the ZIP drive spec in order to be able to use them as a replacement for the old, slow & unreliable 10 MB cartridge drive for my ETH Lilith.
> Those zips are, despite their faults, the closests thing to it, still available in plentiful supply. CF cards just doesn't seem right.
Most reliable 10MB removable drive ever was the RL02. But generation wise that's probably a step backwards in time not forward.
CDC made a number of SMD-descended mini-cartridge drives with capacities in that range but they all sucked rocks.
Jumping forward a couple generations in the mid-90's there were very good MO drives. The 5.25" drives (650 MB/1.3GB/2.6GB were industry standard sizes and some bigger as well too) were most often seen with SCSI interfaces and in fact Sony still makes and sells new media because there are several niche markets that rely on this format for interchange and archiving. 3.25" MO drives (128 MB but most often 230 MB) existed as well, with either SCSI and ATA interfaces, but these were never as reliable as their bigger brother (still several orders of magnitude more reliable than ZIPs). If this were the 90's I'd have no problem recommending 5.25" MO as an update. But this isn't the 90's anymore.
Today in 2012? I have a hard time seeing how to use anything except CF as an interface standard that will exist going ahead for at least a decade maybe two in wide usage. The other format to choose is a USB keychain drive. If like me you think the CF format is just too physically tiny, epoxy a CF device to an old Lilith D120 style cart and have it slide into a reader that you've milled into the original D120 or D140 slot :-)
Tim.
From: allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> To: General Discussion: On-Topic
Posts Only <cctech at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: VAX on Reddit
Message-ID: <4F933A05.3030205 at verizon.net> Content-Type: text/plain;
CHARSET=US-ASCII; format=flowed On 04/21/2012 08:59 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
> > Shocking headline: "23 year old computer still in daily use at a
> > silver mine. MicroVAX 3100 running openVMS on 12mb memory."
> >
A number of years ago I went out to a plastic molding company to look
at a Microvax installation that had been hit by lightning and advise how
to rewire the place to avoid similar damage in the future. They took me
into their compute room and I was stunned at the contraption they had
running there. I stood there gasping and asking "What the HECK is THAT?"
Turns out they had this thing that was an off-brand clone of an
IBM 1800 running all their presses. I gathered it was a TTL
re-implementation of the 1800, but a very old machine at least.
(The microvax ran their accounting system.)
Jon
Jon
On Apr 21, 2012, at 10:09 PM, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
> This 1983 InfoWorld has a few articles about Obsolete Computers. It covers
> the Altair and other S-100 machines. There is a story about someone making
> an upgrade ROM board for the Processor Technology SOL-20. The Computer
> Museum was still in Boston. It asks "Will today's Lisas and Radio Shack
> Model 100s be as priceless to the computer industry as are the Crown Jewels
> are to England?"
>
> InfoWorld June 6, 1983. Pages 27 - 37
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=zy8EAAAAMBAJ
Very cool, and an interesting article, especially from a 1983 perspective. Did you notice also that the article was co-written by John C. Dvorak?
Best,
David Greelish, Computer Historian
President, Atlanta Historical Computing Society
- Author, "The Complete Historically Brewed"
- "Classic Computing Show" podcast
- "Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer" audiobook podcast
- "Retro Computing Roundtable" podcast
- "Not Another Apple Podcast"
ClassicComputing.com | atlhcs.org
I just had a multics front panel come in from Nick Allen, and have to
say there is something that makes the house smell nice from the old
equipment.
Sort of like Cosmoline, only not old machinery or guns.
Jim
This 1983 InfoWorld has a few articles about Obsolete Computers. It covers
the Altair and other S-100 machines. There is a story about someone making
an upgrade ROM board for the Processor Technology SOL-20. The Computer
Museum was still in Boston. It asks "Will today's Lisas and Radio Shack
Model 100s be as priceless to the computer industry as are the Crown Jewels
are to England?"
InfoWorld June 6, 1983. Pages 27 - 37
http://books.google.com/books?id=zy8EAAAAMBAJ
<http://books.google.com/books?id=zy8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA27> &pg=PA27
Michael Holley
I need to replace a transistor in my H7140 PSU for my PDP11/24. The
transistor is marked GPSA55J3 and the printset identifies it as "XA 55 PNP
500MW SI 60 50 P", it is in a TO-92 package. I have tried to find specs for
an A55 and can only find partial matches, so I am not sure what today's
equivalent would be. Can anyone help me work out what the equivalent today
would be?
Thanks
Rob
