test-drb October 2015

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

195 participants
329 discussions

by philip＠neoncluster.com

Hi all, I?ve been struggling getting a 64k Dynamic RAM card back up and working in my IMSAI 8080. In fact I?m giving up on the DRAM card in this system and have decided to start looking for a SRAM card that can get the IMSAI up to 56k. In terms if SRAM cards, I presently have: 2 x Problem solver RAM16 cards - both seem to be working. 2 x 8K RAM cards - both seem to be working. Less cards generating heat, and putting stress on the old power supply is obviously best, so I?d be looking for either: - 1 x 16k SRAM card (for a total of 4 RAM cards (3 x 16k + 1 x 8k) in my system). A PSS RAM16 would be preferred for sake of consistency, but obviously not crucial. - 1 x 32k SRAM card (for a total of 3 RAM cards (1 x 32k, 1 x 16k + 1 x 8k) in my system) - 1 x 64k SRAM card that can have the last 8k bank turned off I would love to hear from anyone with one of the above cards who would be willing to pass it on. Much thanks for your time. Best regards Philip

7 years, 10 months

Scraping DEC Equipment

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message ----- > Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 22:56:32 -0500 > From: Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> > Subject: Re: Scraping DEC Equipment > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <C7A98127-DFF4-41B1-A6AF-5DFCA234D286 at lunar-tokyo.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > I need a tractor feed assembly for a LA100, are the ones on the 120 > compatible? ----- Reply: Apparently not, but I might have one for an LA100. mike

7 years, 10 months

Tektronix 4404 servcie manuals needed

by g-wright＠att.net

I would like to get a Tek 4404 computer going but lack any service manuals. The system turns on but has no curser on the screen. Has good power from the Power supply and heater is on in the CRT. Has a row of LEDs on the mother board. Does anyone know how to read these. - Thanks, Jerry

7 years, 10 months

Servant .953

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 7 May 2010, at 08:25, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 06 May 2010 16:06:37 -0700 > From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> > Subject: Re: Servant .953 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <4BE34B7D.6060902 at bitsavers.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > On 5/6/10 2:23 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: >>> Al Kossow wrote: >>>> I am interviewing Andy Hertzfeld tomorrow, and had hoped to talk about >>>> Servant, but I can't find a copy of it around anywhere tonight. > > A huge thank you to Nigel Williams who forwarded a working copy of .951 five > minutes before Bill and Andy arrived. We spent an hour talking about MacPaint > and Quickdraw (Apple has finally given CHM approval to make the sources available) > then another hour on Alice, Dali Clock, Servant, Hypercard, and Magic Cap. Could you please clarify, the QuickDraw source is available for what purpose? Could developers modify it any include it in heir commercial 64 bit Intel applications for instance? Is the source Pascal, Assembler, C or something else? Roger Holmes, Director of Microspot who has a Carbon application which compiles with over 10,000 warnings about deprecated QuickDraw calls.

7 years, 10 months

Reviving a VAX-11/750

by mattislind＠gmail.com

The revival process of the 11/750 continues. The power supplies is working good and then I started testing the actual machine. But that was not a very smooth journey to success. I have in total at least three complete CPU board sets and just after quite a lot of board swapping it got running (I think). I had error like: * Bright red error light * No response at all on the console * %C microverify error * %O microverify error * An hexdump prompt which non like above bot still not correct. * etc Finally I had the %% which meant that it passed microverify. Then I used the (second) RDM module (the first one had RAM error) to run the DPM and MIC test which passed. The I ran the "Hardcore VAX instruction test" / TU58#7 which also passed fine. BUT the Cache / TB diag, TU58#5, give me this: %% 00000000 16 >>>B %% @?ECKAL -- VAX 11/750 Cache/TB Diagnostic 00003488 06 >>> I am running a BE-S198Q-DE tape image. Anyone has a listing or description for the ECKAL diagnostic? Is there any know incompatibilities with certain revisions of boards? Or known bugs? The machine manage to boot the console tape so I get the BOOT58> prompt. But I am not sure if that indicate that it is indeed working or not. So, some help with the Cache/TB diagnostic would be very much appreciated. /Mattis

7 years, 11 months

websites on the classiccmp server

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

8 years

Any word on the Multics revival front?

by madcrow.maxwell＠gmail.com

When Multics was officially released as free software a couple of years ago, there was a flurry of activity aimed at getting some sort of emulator up and running to run it. Did anything ever come of that or did folks just lose interest (or find out that the needed GE/Honeywell hardware was too poorly-documented to write an emulator of) Mike

8 years, 1 month

Oddball floppies for trade - 8", HS (outer edge), weird cutout

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I have two "flippy organizers" (that's around 20 floppies each) full of these oddball floppies. Picture at https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02/22020178558/in/dateposted/ They are 8", hard sectored, and the sectors are on the outer edge rather than the hub, and there is an odd cutout on one edge that goes inside the drive. I know I don't have a machine that uses these, so they are available for trade. J

8 years, 2 months

Substituting DSHD for DSDD disks (or DS2D if you prefer)

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

I know Chuck Guzis has written about this, but I don't see that he's done so publicly in the last few years, so I thought I'd ask here about his and others' views on the perennial question of whether (some) 3.5" DSHD disks can be reliably used in DSDD-only drives. The oft-repeated claim is that writing can appear to work just fine, but that even a few months later read errors will occur. On <http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/guzis.html> Chuck was quoted as (actually, correct me if I'm wrong -- it's a little hard to be sure this was Chuck's words) as saying "Usually, they're just fine, with the error rate approximately the same, whether or not 2D or HD media was used." Just before that, he said "I think that the overall quality of DSHD 3.5" media isn't what it used to be, so that might contribute to the general impression that 3.5" HD diskettes used as 2D aren't reliable. I have problems enough finding reliable 3.5" DSHD floppies used as such." Chuck et al., what's your feeling now, both on the overall reliability of HD disks in DD drives, and on whether it depends on how recently the disks were produced? Elsewhere on the page (I don't recall now if it was Herb or Chuck that said it) it was conjectured that HD disks that have never been formatted as HD, -OR- disks that have gone through a good degaussing, will have better luck retaining data. What does everyone think about this? And would an electromagnetic library security system (the kind that's like a tube through which checked-out materials are put; often with a caution not to put tapes or floppies through it) be a suitable degausser? -- Eric Christopherson

8 years, 2 months

M9301-YB Bootstrap/Terminator ROM dumps / listings?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist bqt at update.uu.se > The per-device code are in separate PROMs that are used in both the > 9301 and 9312. Those are the ones with the device code as constants in > the beginning of memory space for the PROM, by the way. As I mentioned, the M9301-YA, at least, does not have this code. (See the listing.) Also, again on the M9301-YA, the various bootstraps, diagnostics, and console, are scattered through both banks (ditto), so one can't just replace a PROM or two to chance the supported devices; one would have to replace the entire set of 4 PROMs. > I hope you also are aware that both the M9301 and the M9312 have > different boot roms for some machines. I know that the 11/70 use > different roms with other tests than other PDP-11s, and I seem to > remember that one or two others do as well. (The 11/60 keeps popping up > in my brain...) I have yet to investigate the M9312's in depth, but I did know there are quite a few different versions of the M9301 (which amount to different ROMs: I know there are two different etch revisions of the card itself, but I think they are programming-wise identical). I don't know of any good list of the variants, but here are the versions I know of (device codes abbreviated to save typing): M9301-YA /04 and /34 OEM version; has basic diagnostics, console emulator, boots from various devices (RK, RP, TC, TM, DL, PC, TA, RX), supports auto-boot on power on, and also power-fail restart M9301-YB /04 and /34 end user version; has basic diagnostics, console emulator, boots from various devices (RK, RP, TC, TM, TA, RX, DL, PC, RJS, RJP, TJU), also power-fail restart M9301-YC /70 version; contains basic CPU, cache and memory diagnostics, boots from various devices (TM, TC, RK, RP, RK06, RJS, RJP, TJU, RX) M9301-YD All models; contains code to allow a terminal attached to the machine to be a terminal on some other line; also has boot code for RX and DDCMP M9301-YE All models; has basic diagnostics, console emulator; boots from low speed paper tape or DECnet; supports auto-boot on power on, and also power-fail restart M9301-YF All models (auto-start not available on /45, /50); has basic diagnostics, console emulator, boots from various devices (RK, RK06, RP, TC, TM, TA, RX, DL, PC, RJS, RJP, TJU) supports auto-boot on power on, and also power-fail restart M9301-YH /60 and /70 version; contains basic CPU, cache and memory diagnostics, boots from various devices (TM, TC, RK, RP, RK06, RJS, RJP, TJU, RX, PC) M9301-YH All models; has basic diagnostics, console emulator; boots from DECnet, and various devices (RX, TU, DL, DMC), also power-fail restart The -YA is the only one I have examined in detail. Noel

8 years, 3 months

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test-drb October 2015