test-drb May 2012

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

189 participants
220 discussions

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi, I have 2 Q-Bus Memory Boards from "ROI", one is an 256KiB the other an 1MB Double size Board. Both are equipped with an AM2964 Memory Controller and the 1MB Board seams to be the successor of the 256KiB Board, small changes besides the Memory. Both Boards have 4x9 Memory Chips (4164/41256) and two 74S280 Parity Generators on it. I've tested the memories with some xxdp Tests, some of them are complaining that there are no parity Registers on the Boards and are aborting. VMSACO tests both boards w/o Errors but mentiones that there are no Paritiy Registers. What have they build here? Has anyone documentation for that Boards? The 256KB Board has only "ROI RAM1" on the PCB, the 1MB one has ROI "MRL-11" on it and a sticker with "M1M10311". Than I have another ROI Board, It has two rows of blinkenlights on the front, displaying the state of some BUS Signals, but there is also a 10 Pin Berg Connector on it. The board mostly consists of an empty Pin hole area but there is also an Xtal-Oszillator with 5.0688Mhz, a GAL, a 74HC39, an 74HC74, an 74HC4040 and an 74HC04 on it. This Board is Labeled "ROI BSB11". I think that the berg connector provides some access for Reset and Halt Switches, Electonics possibly are for the DCOK and ACOK Signals? Does anyone know more? Kind 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

12 years, 2 months

cctalk@classiccmp.org

by paco.linux＠gmail.com

Very bad year: http://semiaccurate.com/2012/05/04/amds-chuck-moore-has-passed-away/ Paco -- |_|0|_| |_|_|0| ??? |0|0|0|

12 years, 2 months

MicroSD: one good ripoff deserves another / Iomega Zip's

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>From: Dave McGuire < mcguire at neurotica.com > > >On 04/23/2012 05:59 PM, joe lobocki wrote: >> I use a SD to CF adapter in my canon digital rebel without an issue, as I >> can no longer find CF (I also haven't tried a camera store but they are >> probably a ripoff...) > >Where do you live that you cannot find CF cards?! That's insane. I >bought a handful a couple of weeks ago, and the guy I'm crashing with >here in FL this week has three brand new ones sitting on his kitchen table. I was just at my local Office Depot (a chain of large office supply stores, for those not in the US) in downtown Chicago and they have Lexar 4 GB CF cards for $25 and 8 GB cards for $40, in stock. Bob

12 years, 2 months

Tek 856x floppy images

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Sat, 12 May 2012 00:54:43 -0700 From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > If you have an old PC system with a National Semi 8473 or 8473, you've got > the best of the lot. But what if you've got an 8473 instead? ;-)

12 years, 2 months

DigiDesign DSP cards

by fraveydank＠gmail.com

I recently acquired a PowerMac 9600/233 with a bunch of DigiDesign DSP Farm cards in it. I have no intention of using this machine for Pro Tools, but I can think of a few fun things to do with some PCI cards full of DSP56k chips. Does anyone know anything about where to get technical details of the cards? DigiDesign is, understandably, rather mum on the internals, but I can't imagine it's all that complex. Worst case, I can probably reverse-engineer the drivers, but that's rather labor-intensive. - Dave

12 years, 2 months

Users of KED / KEX on the PDP-11

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I would appreciate suggestions along with any information in regard to the uses of KED / KEX This note is addressed to those users who still make modifications to text files via KED / KEX. The number of such users may be so small (zero) that there is no interest in my five aspects of the proposed set of specifications at the very end of this post. Any and all comments will be appreciated. However, Johnny Billquist recently mentioned that the VT420 supports up to 48 vertical lines. This has provided the incentive along with the justification to support at least that many vertical lines under KED / KEX. After all, if an ALL DEC hardware system is being used, then even though a VT420 with 48 lines is not a supported hardware feature, often such new hardware does work. Normally, when I use a PDP-11 environment, I run the Ersatz-11 emulator. My video card, monitor, the rest of the hardware and the operating system (so far Windows 98SE and Windows XP) can support a full screen mode with the DOS version with either 50 vertical lines by 80 columns or 44 vertical lines by 132 columns. When the Win32 version is used, it is possible to initiate as: E11 /CONSIZE:80x60 to have a screen of either 60 vertical lines by 80 columns or 60 vertical lines by 132 columns. For both the DOS and the Win32 version, using the wide screen command (under KED / KEX): SET SCREEN 132 changes the number of columns to 132 text characters with the DOS version of E11 then reverting to 44 vertical lines (full screen mode must be used for 132 columns) while the Win32 version of E11 retains the same number of vertical lines (allowing up to 60 vertical lines - fewer vertical lines are allowed and the default is 24 vertical lines). While there might be valid reasons for using either the DOS version or the Win32 versions of Ersatz-11 with more than 24 vertical lines, but less then 44 vertical lines, I really do not see much point in doing so. Increasing the number of vertical lines by less than 20 lines does not seem like much of an advantage. If subsequent testing shows that other options of vertical line number between 24 lines and 44 lines can run correctly, then that will be considered a bonus. Unless there is a specific request for a specific option of lines by columns that is not listed below, no additions will be made to that list. NOTE that not all hardware / software combinations of a PC support 132 character text lines under the DOS version of E11. I searched for quite some time to find a video controller / monitor / cable connection to run under Windows XP which would support 132 character text lines. As far as I know, all Win32 versions of E11 support 132 character text lines. Depending on the screen setting for the monitor (i.e. the number of pixels), 24 lines can always be supported and around 48 lines can be supported with using screens of 1280 by 1024 pixels. If 60 lines are to be supported, a larger pixel count is required. A screen of 1800 by 1440 pixels has been found to easily support 60 lines under the Win32 version of Erstaz-11. But, before I freeze the specs for the changes to KED / KEX, some feedback from other users would be helpful. Just how many vertical lines would be useful? Is a somewhat compressed character set (only when using the DOS full screen version) a sufficient deterrent to having 50 vertical lines as opposed to 24 vertical lines? Of course, Ersatz-11 would need to be checked out to determine if 60 vertical lines are supported when KED / KEX are used. And, of course, there is always the possibility that technical considerations might prohibit support of 60 vertical lines when KED / KEX are used. And finally, is it essential that the version of KED / KEX which supports 60 vertical lines also support terminals with only 24 vertical lines? Or is it reasonable that the user know the physical characteristics of the terminal such as when a VT52 is used with K52.SAV and a VT100 is used with KED.SAV? Obviously, the current versions of KED / KEX will not support 60 vertical lines or I would not be writing this note. But, it might be very difficult to have KED / KEX support both 24 vertical lines and 60 vertical lines with the same code. In addition, a buffer must be present within KED / KEX which is large enough to hold all of the characters being displayed on the screen. When the maximum number of characters is 3168 characters (=24*132), that buffer is reasonable to accommodate. If the maximum number of characters is 7920 (=60*132), there may be insufficient room left for other requirements. The solution might be to locate the screen buffer elsewhere since, in particular, with the KEX version, there are some memory address locations which are not being used. One more point. Most of the time, I run 4 system jobs under RT-11 using KEX. The low memory required for each job is 801 words. This seems like substantially more than should be required. If the required number of words could be reduced by 352 words to just 449 words, would that be helpful? In summary, here are the specs thus far: (a) Enhance KED / KEX to support at least 50 vertical lines and up to 60 vertical lines if possible (b) If possible, the same versions of KED / KEX should support any number of vertical lines up to 60 vertical lines (c) If possible, the modified versions of KED / KEX should have as few differences as possible from the versions of KED / KED which support only 24 vertical lines (d) Support for different vertical lines will specifically include: - the standard DEC VT100 screens of: o 24 lines by 80 columns o 24 lines by 132 columns o 14 lines by 132 columns (no avo option) - the video cards on a PC running a PDP-11 under the DOS version of Ersatz-11 which supports these full screen options: o 24 lines of 80 columns o 24 lines of 132 columns o 50 lines of 80 columns o 44 lines by 132 columns - the normal windows support on a PC running a PDP-11 under the Win32 version of Ersatz-11 (tested on Windows 98SE and XP): o 24 lines by 80 columns o 24 lines by 132 columns o from 44 to 60 lines by 80 columns o from 44 to 60 lines by 132 columns - additional screen configurations if suggested - however, only two column sizes, 80 and 132 columns, will be supported (e) Reduce the low memory words required from 801 to 449 words for system jobs under a mapped RT-11 monitor as in: SRUN KEX.REL/LEVEL:n/TERMINAL:n/NAME:Kn (n = 1 to 6) Suggestions and any other information would be very much appreciated. Jerome Fine

12 years, 2 months

Bubble Memory "IBM 256KB Memory Card" P/N 6407740 ?

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

There was some debate at VCF East whether this "IBM 256KB Memory Card" P/N 6407740 is a bubble memory card (pic below). The card was on display with my IBM PC 5150 exhibit. I originally pulled it from an IBM 5155 portable. http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ibm/5155/ibm_256KB_memory_card_6407740.jpg Typically you don't see 32-pin 64K RAM chips on a ISA card. That does not make it bubble memory though, so I put this out to the esteemed CCTECH community for answers/ideas. I do not have a technical reference manual, but I do have the IBM 64/256KB Memory Expansion Option manual. That ain't it. Date codes on some of the chips are from 1984. The memory chips are marked 6119927 IBM-14 PQ ESD 1 H28 708016 I found this from a web search for IBM 6407740: IBM-14 PQ ESD 64KB 32-PIN MEMORY MODULE 5150/5175 ...so, whadda we gots ? Thanks Bill

12 years, 2 months

Bubble Memory "IBM 256KB Memory Card" P/N 6407740 ?

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

>> >> There was some debate at VCF East whether this "IBM 256KB Memory >> Card" P/N 6407740 is a bubble memory card (pic below). The card was >> on display with my IBM PC 5150 exhibit. I originally pulled it from >> an IBM 5155 portable. >> >> http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ibm/5155/ibm_256KB_memory_card_6407740.jpg >> >> Typically you don't see 32-pin 64K RAM chips on a ISA card. That >> does not make it bubble memory though, so I put this out to the >> esteemed CCTECH community for answers/ideas. > >I doubt very much if it's bubble memory, for sevrral reasons. > > >I do wonder why it existed. It is trivial to put 640K on the motherboard >of a 5155, jsut as in a 5160 (XT). It's a matter of putting the right >TAMs in (41256s in banks 0 and 1, 4164s in banks 2 and 3), adding a >74S158 (or 74F158) in the enpty socket towards the front and jumpering E1 >to E2. UPDATE: I did not find the card listed in any manuals that I have, but I did find a reference to the 32-pin DRAM. If I were to guess, you'll find this card as an option specific to the IBM 5155 portable, to boost the system up to 512K. It's a small card, perfect for the smaller 5155 chassis. I should mention that I got this particular 5155 with the 256KB RAM card from an old IBM tech who wanted to find a home for some of his bench gear. Bill

12 years, 2 months

fbr format

by aek＠bitsavers.org

8560 MUSDU System Reference Manual FBR(5) ___________________________________________________________________________ FBR(5) NAME fbr - file backup and restore format SYNTAX #include <sys/types.h> #include <fbr.h> DESCRIPTION Fbr saves and restores directories and files on a floppy disk archive, preserving aliases (multiple links to the same file). The archive consists of: Boot block - Block zero is reserved for a copy of a stand-alone boot program. Directory area - This area contains directory information for all files and directories on the archive. The first entry in this area is dedicated to the archive label. Data area - The data of all files on the archive is stored here. The format of a directory entry (as given in the include file) fol- lows. To increase the portability of archives, this structure is read and written in PDP-11 format regardless of what machine fbr_is running on. #define PATHLEN 106 /* space for path */ struct fbrent { char fbr_path[PATHLEN]; /* pathname */ unsigned short fbr_mode; short fbr_uid; /* owner's userI^AD */ short fbr_gid; /* owner's groupID */ off_t fbr_size; /* size in bytes */ time_t fbr_acct; /* access date-time */ time_t fbr_modt; /* modify date-time */ unsigned fbr_fblk; /* firs^At data block */ char fbr_zero; /* unused */ char fbr_chks; /* checksum */ }; The path field is the pathname of the file when archived, less any redundant slashes or initial './'. It is null-terminated if less than PATHLEN bytes long. The mode, uid, gid, size, and access and modifi- cation date-times are in the same format as their corresponding i-node fields. As in the file system, an available entry has a mode of zero. The fblk field contains the block number of the first data block allo- cated to this file. The zero field is unused. The checksum field contains a number such that the sum of the first 127 bytes of the 1 FBR(5) 8560 MUSDU System Reference Manual ___________________________________________________________________________ directory entry and the complement of the checksum is zero. Each file's data starts on a block boundary and occupies max(1,((size + 511) / 512) contiguous blocks. At least one archive block is allo- cated to each archived file or directory so that aliases (multiple links) can be properly recorded. Each directory archived is treated as an empty file (I.E. no directory's data is stored). All entries representing links to a given file are identical. In particular, the fblk field in each link's entry contains the same block number. The archive label directory entry contains the following information: path A comment about this archive. mode Set by fbr to a file readable/writeable/executable by all. Other- wise unused. uid The userID of the user who created this archive. gid The groupID of the same. size The total number of bytes in the data area of the archive. This field in combination with the fblk field, records the size of both the directory area and the entire archive. acct The date-time that this archive was created - not its access time. modt The date-time that this archive was last altered. fblk The block number of the first archive block following the direc- tory area. checksum (same as any other directory entry.) SEE_ALSO fbr(1), stat(2).

12 years, 2 months

FW: OLD-COMPUTERS.COM // donation mailing for the UK collectors

by witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Folks, I don?t have room for these and in fact have to slim down my own collection, particularly my PETs, but anyone in the UK fancy a Superbrain and an Acorn R140? That machine?s worth collecting purely for the BSD side, AFAIK it was the only Acorn unix box. If Andrew is local-ish to me (Cambs, Suffolk) I can collect and store for a bit. Cheers A -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection? ------ Forwarded Message From: Olivier Boisseau <olivier at old-computers.com> Date: Sun, 6 May 2012 14:17:36 +0200 To: Olivier Boisseau <olivier at old-computers.com> Subject: OLD-COMPUTERS.COM // donation mailing for the UK collectors Hi A kind visitor proposed to donate us an Intertec Superbrain, Amstrad PC-1512, Acorn R140 and Acorn RiscPC (see original email below). We don't need this donation right now at?old-computers.com <http://old-computers.com/> . Do you want it ? If so please email DIRECTLY Andrew Bell at evoludo at gmail.com You must also agree with these important rules: * ?also this is a donation you will have to pay shipping costs or pick-up the donation at the donor's place * ?you must provide?www.old-computers.com <http://www.old-computers.com/> ?with interesting pictures, info, etc. you might get from this donation * ?you must tell me when you finally get the donation as I can know if donation mailings are working and helpful * ?be nice and polite with this kind person This is a donation mailing sent to several collectors subscribed to?www.old-computers.com <http://www.old-computers.com/> ?collectors list. Your are not alone on this proposition, so be quick! Best regards --- ORIGINAL EMAIL FROM Andrew Bell ---- I have several machines that I'm being forced to get rid of. It's sad to see them go, but I just don't have the space for my collection anymore. I have: Intertec Superbrain Amstrad PC-1512 Acorn R140 Acorn RiscPC These are all (afaik) full systems, including original VDU, keyboard, and (in the case of the RiscPC and Amstrad) mouse. I live in the UK, and would prefer to send these to collectors in the UK, so if you have a mailing list, would you be able to post these to it? This is urgent, as I've been given a deadline of a few days to get rid of these machines, or they will be going to the dump. The R140 is particularly interesting, as it ran an Acorn variant of BSD. These were my first computers, and I'd be heartbroken if I had to throw them away. Many thanks, Andrew Bell -- <http://www.old-computers.com/> <http://www.facebook.com/oldcomputers> ------ End of Forwarded Message

12 years, 2 months

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test-drb May 2012