test-drb May 2014

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

171 participants
188 discussions

(PDP-8) RK05 problems. Anyone have the source to RKUTIL?

by cramcram＠gmail.com

My RK05's are acting up again. They first acted like this when I was bringing them up after a 30 year nap. The symptom then was that one of the Maindecs for disk testing would complain that it couldn't write because a CE disk was in the drive! (Which brings up the quesiton: Why would it think that? Is there a wire on the disk interface bus that is pulled down when a either a CE disk (how??) or else the disk alignment suitcase is plugged in?) Anyway, now that I can run RKUTIL I have a new problem that just happened this weekend. I can no longer select option 4 (read/write test). It simply reprints the prompt, no error message at all! I assume this is the CE present problem rearing it's ugly head again. RKTUTIL worked fine up until this weekend. Anyway, I'd like to look at the RKUTIL source but can't find it anywhere. Does anyone have a pointer to this? Also, if anyone knows what triggers the CE present condition I'd like to know about that too. Thanks, Marc

10 years, 1 month

Basic Four 410 / Microdata 1600

by ad＠ardiehl.de

Hi, i recently got a MAI Basic Four 210 from the Netherlands. The CPU now powers up, have not yet tried the 14" Piram harddisk. I would like to know if the CPU is working. It seems to be based on a microdata 1600 but equiped with dram and cmos ROMs. The machine has switches were it can be set to boot standard/alternate >from disk, tape or from a serial terminal. Since the tape drive has a capstan roller transformed to liquid and i have not yet tested the disk i would like to know how to boot from a terminal. I have not yet read the microcode proms nor have i checked if they are soldered or on sockets. Does someone out there have access to the cpu manuals that are stated in the service manual ? 1300 CPU Technical Manual, Document No. SM 1200 M1300 Series CPU Organisation and Description Reference Manual Pictures from the machine are here: http://www.ardiehl.de/basicfour/mai210/pics/small/ and the manuals are on bitsavers in pdf/mai, the service manual also contains the cpu schematics, the ones for the tape controller and the disk controller are included in the tape / disk service manuals. What do you think are the chances to get the disk up and running. (since i have no tapes of other software) All seems to be stored dry, no rust, nor a lot of dirt in the machine. Seemd to be powered on the last time more than 15 years ago. Armin

10 years, 1 month

Halt and Catch Fire and Women (was Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 129, Issue 42)

by isking＠uw.edu

On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 10:00 AM, <cctalk-request at classiccmp.org> wrote: > Send cctalk mailing list submissions to > cctalk at classiccmp.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > cctalk-request at classiccmp.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > cctalk-owner at classiccmp.org > > Message: 7 > Date: Tue, 27 May 2014 00:05:43 -0700 > From: Josh Dersch <derschjo at gmail.com> > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Catch and Halt Fire - Drama set in early days of personal > computing > Message-ID: <53843947.3090006 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > On 5/26/2014 11:03 PM, Eric Smith wrote: > > On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 4:12 PM, Josh Dersch <derschjo at gmail.com> wrote: > > > >> Yes, it's insane to think that someone could be intelligent *and* female > >> *and* have fashion sense at the same time. > >> God forbid, especially in this industry. > > > > I'm reasonably certain that Sellam was talking about how things > *actually* > > were back in the early 1980s, not how they should have been, or how they > > might be now, or how we might want the early 1980s portrayed in 21st > > century television programs. > > I've no doubt that women were in the minority in the computer biz in the > 1980s (as they remain today). I do take umbrage with Sellam's > supposition that there were no women at all with technical knowledge (or > if there were, they were all apparently ugly) -- this is demonstrably > untrue and it seems an odd point to bring up as a criticism of the show > (I mean, it has so many other flaws that he didn't even see, since he > admits to only watching 3 minutes of it...). Were there are lot of > women in the industry? No. Does the show have a woman in it? Yep. Is > this particularly unrealistic? Nah. > > (Really, I'd like to give the show a chance; I feel like I'm > experiencing what every doctor or lawyer goes through when watching a > medical or legal drama on TV or in the theater...) > > At any rate, just me spouting off my mouth when I ought best have said > nothing at all :). > > - Josh > > > > > As with most generalizations, perhaps Sellam's wasn't 100% accurate, but > it > > was damn close. Unfortunately. > > > > Yes, I remember the early 1980s and working in a small shop that did primarily what we would now call embedded systems with 6800 microprocessors, but also some larger business systems based on minicomputers. We had a very attractive young woman who did programming on the business stuff, and we insensitive males referred to her (out of her earshot) as "software". She dressed well, she was sweet and friendly (and obviously, tolerant!) and she could code. Back further, in the 1970s there was a young woman in my FORTRAN class I dated briefly. She was also on the high school swim team, and I started attending meets. :-) Yes, things were more gender-imbalanced than they are today, but making any gender-based assumptions (appearance, fashion sense, etc.) about the women who *were* involved in the industry is not particularly useful, meaningful or accurate. As I remember things.... -- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS Ph.D. Candidate The Information School University of Washington Madness takes its toll - please have exact change.

10 years, 1 month

Question about SIMH .TAP files

by cclist＠sydex.com

I've been reading the SIMH TAP file specification and there's something that's not clear to me. Perhaps someone can volunteer their knowledge. I've got a tape where about half the records (blocks) are an odd number of bytes long. The SIMH document says that a block is padded to an even number of bytes in this case. However, it doesn't say if the record length (32-bit) word is adjusted to reflect this--or if the byte count is rounded up to the nearest even byte. It seems to me that the former would be the way to go, but I'm not sure. If the latter course is taken, the information that the block is an odd number of bytes long is gone. Does anyone know for certain? Thanks, Chuck

10 years, 1 month

Listing of 60s mainframes/minis with CRT displays?

by billdeg＠buzz1.com

> Interesting Minis with displays... There are a lot listed in the Communications of the ACM journals. Taking a random May 1967.....NCR 315 family, SDS (Sigma 7,5), Burroughs 500, Univac 1108...at least to get an idea of what systems look like so you can hunt down the terminal/vector/display types. Don't forget plotters and terminal printers. What percent used these as the primary display? Or is that not what you want? Bill

10 years, 1 month

Vt330 graphics test file?

by roe＠liveblockauctions.com

I unpacked a nice vt330 this morning, and I'm trying to find some demo REGIS/sixel files I can send the terminal to show off the graphics hardware. Thanks in advance.

10 years, 1 month

Listing of 60s mainframes/minis with CRT displays?

by elson＠pico-systems.com

From: Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at Update.UU.SE> > There was quite a bit actually. The LINC, LINC-8, PDP-1 and > PDP-12 all had vector displays. There was also an add-on for the > original PDP-8 and PDP-6, display 340 or something like that. > > No, they were point displays, no capability to draw a vector. The LINC, LINC-8 and PDP-12 at least had character generators that would draw a 2 x 6 grid of dots from a 12-bit word. Two of those grids would draw a 4x6 dot matrix character on the screen. So, a character could be drawn with a small number of instructions. Jon

10 years, 1 month

Catch and Halt Fire - Drama set in early days of personal computing

by mtapley＠swri.edu

On May 26, 2014, at 11:36 PM, Chuck wrote: > Ted Sturgeon really did have it right. I?m always reminded of Young?s corollary: ?111% of crap is everything." - Mark

10 years, 1 month

Listing of 60s mainframes/minis with CRT displays?

by elson＠pico-systems.com

From: Martin Goldberg<wgungfu at gmail.com> Hey guys, we're on the next phase of our paper we're presenting at a conference soon and are hoping to collect a listing of 1960s era mainframes and minis that had CRT displays available for them. We're obviously already aware of the various DEC models released in the 60s that had them, but we're looking for other brands now. Don't forget the LINC, a major feature was the character display. It could also display limited graphics (due to CPU speed) and waveforms. The early LINCs were made with DEC parts, but were assembled by grad students at a summer session. We had a PDP-5 which had a very similar system on it that was apparently made by DEC, or at least it seemed to be factory-made. Jon

10 years, 1 month

HP7974 Tape Drive Video

by leec2124＠gmail.com

HI all, I have started putting together some overview videos documenting my classic HP3000. Purpose is to just give people a flavor of what classic mini-computing was like in the 1970s/1980s. My first video on the HP7974 tape drive is posted at Youtube: http://youtu.be/mDnNZuDNJfg Production values are *low* - just me riffing on the item, shot with my cell phone camera, and edited with iMovie. I just want to get some done while I have time. Take a look, suggestions appreciated. Thanks! -- Lee Courtney

10 years, 1 month

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test-drb May 2014