test-drb July 2014

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

181 participants
190 discussions

by rmx44＠aim.com

i happen to have acquired a compaq c120 running windows ce 2.0. i got it with no accessories other then a few extra stylus and a 16mb pcmcia memory storage card. i am on a hunt to find programs for it and even any other accessories. i did find a site that had updates for it but when i tried to run them in windows ce it said they weren't windows ce compatible programs. maybe someone out there knows what i can do. maybe someone has accessories for this thing

10 years, 5 months

PDP-8 VT8-E

by chd＠chdickman.com

On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 1:59 AM, Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> wrote: > The VT14 was specifically a terminal to program a PDP-14 using ladder > logic, had ROM firmware that only did that, It would be interesting to have a copy of that firmware. -chuck

10 years, 5 months

Paper Tape Image Manipulation Utility

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

As previously threatened in the "Encoding of BASIC source code on punched tape" topic, I'm working on a Python utility for manipulating paper tape images. It will be a refactor of my previous silly paper tape renderer that I had written in C++, with added features for the manipulations I've recently found necessary since I've become interested in retrocomputing. I haven't determined how I'll specify interactions with actual tape punch/reader hardware like my GNT 4604 yet, but here is the "--help" output to show how I anticipate the user will interact with the utility to perform useful manipulations of paper tape images. I'd appreciate some input about what features are missing to make it helpful with tape formats and systems that I'm not familiar with yet. For example, I haven't yet included a feature to handle sequences like CR-XOFF-DEL-DEL, but I have a place-holder feature to pad each CR-LF with two DEL chars. I haven't decided the best way to cleanly handle various line-ending translations yet, to be generally useful without being too arcane or cumbersome. This will be written in Python, will be open-source, and will include modules and classes to make it (hopefully) easy to re-use the code for special purposes that I didn't implement in the command-line utility. While the main focus here would be on 8-bit ASCII tapes, I'm also including some support for 5-bit Baudot tape handling due to my interest in RTTY (radio teletype). -------- 8< cut here 8< -------- ...src/papertape% ./tapeutil.py --help usage: tapeutil.py [-h] [--clear] [--load FILENAME] [--append FILENAME] [--save FILENAME] [--hexdump] [--trim] [--add_leader INCHES] [--add_trailer INCHES] [--strip_nul] [--strip_del] [--set_msb] [--clear_msb] [--pad_crlf] [--title TITLE] [--rot_title TITLE] [--ascii2baudot] [--baudot2ascii] [--render_ascii WIDTH] [--render_pbm WIDTH FILENAME] Punched paper tape image utility version 2.0.0-ALPHA Arguments are processed in the order encountered, with cumulative effects upon the tape image buffer. The tape image buffer is discarded at program exit, so the final argument should generally be one which outputs the buffer to a file, the screen, or a tape punch. Arguments may be abbreviated. optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit --clear Clear the tape image buffer. --load FILENAME Load tape image buffer from file, replacing previous buffer contents. --append FILENAME Load tape image buffer from file, appending to previous buffer contents. --save FILENAME Save tape image buffer to file. --hexdump Print a hex dump to stdout. Most significant bit (bit number ) will be ignored for the ASCII representation. --trim Trim leader and trailer of NUL chars from buffer. --add_leader INCHES Add NUL leader to buffer. --add_trailer INCHES Add NUL trailer to buffer. --strip_nul Remove all NUL chars from buffer. --strip_del Remove all DEL chars from buffer. --set_msb Set most significant bit (bit number 7) of all chars in buffer. --clear_msb Clear most significant bit (bit number 7) of all chars in buffer. --pad_crlf Add two DEL chars after each CR-LF sequence in buffer. --title TITLE Add human-readable title to beginning of buffer, using a font composed of 5x7 punched hole patterns. --rot_title TITLE Add human-readable title to beginning of buffer, using a font composed of 5x7 punched hole patterns. Rotate the letters for use on a 5-bit tape. --ascii2baudot Translate entire buffer from ASCII to Baudot coding. --baudot2ascii Translate entire buffer from Baudot to ASCII coding. --render_ascii WIDTH Create an ASCII art rendering of a punched tape, in a style similar to the bcd(1) program. WIDTH specifies the tape width in bits, and must be 5 or 8. Rendering will be printed to stdout. Leading edge of tape will be at top. --render_pbm WIDTH FILENAME Create a rendering of a punched tape in Portable Bitmap (.pbm) format, with each pixel representing 0.01 inches. WIDTH specifies the tape width in bits, and must be 5 or 8. Leading edge of tape will be at top. Example: tapeutil.py --load myfile.txt --pad_crlf --set_msb \ --add_leader 2 --title "MY TAPE" \ --add_leader 5 --add_trailer 5 --save myfile.tap -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

10 years, 5 months

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by cisin＠xenosoft.com

On Sat, 19 Jul 2014, Enrico Lazzerini wrote: > I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is > . . . > checsum, then BIOSUTIL devides BIOS into EVEN and ODD file so i can finally > program them into two 27256 150nS eprom. Does the 5170 accept 27256 150ns EPROMs? Perhaps, burn an UNMODIFIED copy, and confirm that that works. THEN modify and burn the modified copy.

10 years, 5 months

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> > I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is > here: 30aprile1989 (list here: > http://ibm-pc.org/firmware/ibm/5170/5170.htm) > In practice I have manually added the number of cylinders, heads, and sect > / trk that allow the machine to recognise a disk IBM 250MB. At this point > regularly boots DOS. > But I wish to program these data permanently in the bios. Does anyone know > what program to use and give me the procedure? I tried with BIOSUTL, but > the new EPROM do not boot the machine. When I did this, I used a couple of 8Kbyte EPROMs and fitted them into the spare sockets on the motehrboard. I then added a bit more logic (I think just one IC) to disanble the top 8K words of the origian BIOS ROMs and enable the extra EPROMs. This was relatively easy, since the enable lines are o nthe DIP shunt at the rear edge of the motherboard. There was no real reason to do this, it just meant I could use 2764s from my junk box, whereas I would have had to order the 27256s. I didn't bother with any program other than a hex editor. I simply editied the values in the ROM image, recalculated the checksum (OK, I think I wrote a program for that), then took the last 8K words of the new image, split them into odd and even bytes, then programmed the ERPOMs. I had no trouble at all. -tony

10 years, 5 months

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by enrico.lazzerini＠email.it

Thanks Paul for your suggestions. I try to provide some answers. The original IBM AT BIOS that I have on my TYPE 1 motherboard has two prom labelled: 6181028 and 6181029. The present drive in my IBM PC AT is a 3.5" 720K and the boot is not made ??by it or rather I think the bios expects to have an A drive as 1.2 MB which I have not. Therefore I downloaded from here: http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/bios/bios.htm an AMI BIOS SUITABLE FOR 5170 (Dated 30MAR89) which made available the only position 47 to add hard drives. Biosutil works well: I read the bios AMI, i save it in the file, allows you to change the position 47 with the geometry inserted for the new hard disk, recalculates the checksum of the file and save it to a even file and an odd file 32KB each . The saved file is BIN type and not hex. I am not in a position to know whether the calculated CheckSum is correct with respect to the expected one. With the AMI bios at boot i heard a beep and then it boot from the hard disk, but with the bios changed to make the geometry of the hard disk to a permanent position 47 nothing happens. no reply. I thought I had reversed the two EPROM, inverting them it does not change the result. Not being able to load the dos disk with the biosutil from my 720kb drive and i not having to drive 1.2 mb I can not boot dos and biosuil with original firmware. But it could not be true that biosutil allows you to edit an existing position. Dear Fritz, I can not fully understand how to use an EPROM with a network card and XTide. Why an unmodified AT bios at its boot if it can not boot from any drive, it should load the contents from an EPROM of the network card and run it? And what should I save in the EPROM of the network adapter so that it allows to see my hard drive? Enrico

10 years, 5 months

Open source Nova 3 assembler

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I have a Nova3 with dual 8" floppy, but unfortunately no diskette with OS. To try to recreate a set of disks, I had the idea to try to create a tool similar to VTSERVER for PDP11, This piece of software runs on a PC, connected to the DG Nova on terminal port. At boot the software emulate a punch tape reader and can be used to copy a small program in the memory of the Nova and to execute it. This software should allow access to IO peripherals and memory via the terminal port, using a command / acknowledge operation, thus allowing the PC to read / write disks, tapes, and so on. This is a sort of bridge between Nova hardware and PC. Of course this piece of software had to be developed and complied on PC, and the controlling software for the PC as well. With the help of Bruce Ray and some patience in reading many DG manuals kindly provided, I started the development of a tool using Python, that allows to perform many tasks, using python IDLE console: - load / save memory images with PL/APL/raw binary format - load / save ASM listings - assemble from loaded ASM listing to binary data - disassemble from binary data to ASM listing The development is almost done (only some stuff regarding labels handling still has to be done). Basically the tool handles one or more memory areas, and allows the user to do listed tasks in a wanted sequence, for example load a file containing an APL dump, disassembling it to create a ASM listing, save it to text file. I'm using this tool to assemble the bridge software, of course I had to write the listing before... The bridge will allow the PC to perform "remotely" any kind of IO operation, executing single IO opcodes one-by-one. All the parameters can be controlled from the PC, so access to any kind of peripheral is virtually possible. The bridge also allow to read / write on the Nova memory using variable size data blocks; this allows handling operations on peripherals that use DMA. This tool has been developed to 99%, but it hasn't been debugged yet. I would try to use SIMH with telnet on the terminal port, to emulate the Nova, and to use Python to develop the controlling software, scriptable so different peripheral support can be added at any time easily. I'm encountering problems with this task on SIMH3.9: - emulation of program load operation (starting CPU from peripheral defined via switch/levers position) is described in the manual, but effectively it doesn't works - the terminal emulation (TTI/TTO) seems to work only at 7bit, while we need 8bit I need to patch SIMH, anybody is in willing to help? After bridge debug , the next step is to write down the controlling software, and scripts to handle wanted peripherals. Andrea

10 years, 5 months

[SPAM key] - Re: PDP-8 VT8-E

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Eric Smith wrote: >>For the PDP-11 Qbus environment, DEC produced a >>VT100 with a 4 x 4 Qbus backplane inside and named >>it the VT103. >> >> >[...] > > >>The point of the above information is that DEC seems to >>have used some of the popular (at the time) terminals to >>be integrated as combination terminal and popular PDP >>(Program Data Processor >> >The situation with the VT14 is *much* different than the VT103, though. >The VT103 is intended for use running PDP-11 software. >While the VT14 contains a PDP-8, it isn't intended for running PDP-8 software. > I am totally unfamiliar with the PDP-8, so my question and observations could be entirely out of the ball park. Although the VT14 was not intended to run PDP-8 software, was or would it have been possible? If so, did that ever happen? May computer systems were used for projects which were totally unanticipated by the individuals or the companies which produced the computer systems in the first place. For example, my first contact with the VT103 was as a diagnostic station which, although the code was PDP-11 and there was a standard DEC PDP-11 CPU, had the code on an EPROM and the code was totally different from any other PDP-11 software that I have even seen. In addition, from what I understand, all DEC variants of the VT103 arrived with an 18 bit backplane which, in my opinion, resulted in a system that could be compared to a human with an IQ of a shoe size. With only 256 KB of memory available, there was almost never enough memory for most anything that was significant. Since upgrading the backplane to 22 bits was actually quite simple, that made the primary difference when a J11 based CPU was installed. Jerome Fine

10 years, 5 months

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by fritz_chwolka＠t-online.de

Am 19.07.2014 23:08, schrieb Enrico Lazzerini: > I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is > here: 30aprile1989 (list here: > http://ibm-pc.org/firmware/ibm/5170/5170.htm) > In practice I have manually added the number of cylinders, heads, and sect > / trk that allow the machine to recognise a disk IBM 250MB. At this point > regularly boots DOS. > But I wish to program these data permanently in the bios. Does anyone know > what program to use and give me the procedure? I tried with BIOSUTL, but > the new EPROM do not boot the machine. > With BIOSUTL i made what follow: read actual BIOS, you can add new disk > geometry parameters at free 47 position, then you have to recalculate bios > checsum, then BIOSUTIL devides BIOS into EVEN and ODD file so i can finally > program them into two 27256 150nS eprom. > Thank you > Enrico > > Hi.. the biosutil maybe one way. The version I use told me: Biosutil V1.1 InfoMatrix Bios utilities for the AT BIOS. Brad Gibson Copyright (C) 1990 by Secret Software and I believe there's no other version. here is an other way. You can easily ad an enhanced bios if you have an free rom place in a network card like a ISA 3com etherlink. Look here for https://code.google.com/p/xtideuniversalbios/ The xtide bios works on most xt/at. Greetings fritz

10 years, 5 months

PDP-8 VT8-E

by legalize＠xmission.com

Does anyone have one of these? <http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/index.php/DEC_VT8-E> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://ComputerGraphicsMuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://LegalizeAdulthood.wordpress.com>

10 years, 5 months

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test-drb July 2014