I don't know if this memoir is well-known or not, but I thought it
might interest.
?
The Burroughs B5900 and E-Mode
A bridge to 21st Century Computing
By Jack Allweiss Copyright 2010
My name is Jack A. Allweiss, also known as ?The Father of the B5900
System?. I did not give myself that title, my friends and co-workers
at Burroughs Corporation did, and I consider it a great honor. This
true story is about the B5900, and why it was an important milestone
for Burroughs and later Unisys, as well as the computer industry in
general.
?
http://jack.hoa.org/hoajaa/BurrMain.html
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)
Perhaps my google skills are challenged (probably so), but I can't find
this.
Is there a modern source of nut bars that one could order with specific
thread size and # of holes (NEMA pattern)? Yeah, I know I'm being OCD and
can just use individual nuts. But after you keep losing a handful of
standard nuts in the bottom of the rack, I see why they used nut bars. In
some cases, nut bars are very preferable to cage/clipon nuts.
J
Does anyone have any idea what drive/system an 8-sector decpack would have been used with? We have a few of them on our shelves at the LCM and I can't find any reference that mentions 8-sector packs. (Just the usual 12 and 16-sector ones.)
They're clearly labeled "decpack 1100 BPI - 8" and the sector ring marks out eight sectors. These are RK05 (IBM 2315) style packs.
Thanks,
Josh
Sr. Vintage Software Engineer
Living Computer Museum
www.livingcomputermuseum.org<http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org>
At 07:59 PM 10/15/2015, drlegendre . wrote:
>Sounds like another nice freebie M15 just popped up on the greenkeys list..
>though it's stateside, and once again in St. Louis!
There ought to be plenty of the 15-RO units kicking around in the States. Time was when every almost radio station in the country had one (or sometimes two in larger markets) for AP or UPI. I have an ex-UPI 15-RO that I would like to get rid of. I once thought of restoring it, but I have too many other more useful things awaiting restoration.
Dale H. Cook, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
Osborne 1 / Kaypro 4-84 / Kaypro 1 / Amstrad PPC-640
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radios/index.html
> From: Liam Proven
> I don't know if this memoir is well-known or not, but I thought it
> might interest.
> ...
> http://jack.hoa.org/hoajaa/BurrMain.html
Wow! What a fabulous story/writeup! Highly recommend to everyone.
Noel
Hey all --
Anyone have a copy of the ULTRIX-11 3.0 or 3.1 manuals lying around?
I've got the 11/44 up and running with an SMD disk and a SCSI 9-track
tape drive and I have ULTRIX-11 3.1 installed. (Yay!) But there are
issues (Boo.)
Unfortunately, the "setup" tool (and *what* a tool it is!) doesn't seem
to be able to access the tape drive to install optional software. (I
know it's working -- the files are there in /dev, mt talks to it fine
and I can dd files off of it no problem). Of course, in a very un-UNIXy
move on DEC's part, "setup" is an executable, not a shell script so I
can't see what the heck it's trying to do. And in a *very* UNIXy move,
"setup" provides no actionable diagnostics whatsoever. It immediately
fails (having made no attempt to access the drive as far as I can tell)
and prints "Open of distribution device FAILED: Try again <y or n>?"
I'd like to be able to restore the rest of the optional software and
whatnot; the files on the tape appear to be tar archives so I can just
do it manually (and tediously) and I imagine that that's what the setup
tool does *anyway*, but I'd like to at least *try* to do it the official
way. Anyone have any experience here?
Also, having an actual manual would be useful, ULTRIX-11 3.X seems to be
considerably different than 2.0 (at least in that it has this wonderful
new "setup" program I'm having so much fun with), which is all I've been
able to find.
Thanks as always,
Josh
I'll be picking up a huge lot of DEC and some DG keyboards( no part numbers
yet) over the next few days. I know what some of the DEC gear is and the
condition of it, but not of the VTs. I would expect some power supply
problems, but have no idea of tube rot/burn or cosmetics, except that all
are complete.
I don't really want to have to ship any, but I have reached out to one list
member and will ship to him any possibly others. Boxing them, putting them
in a gaylord and putting them on a pallet is the best I can come up with.
This will be costly and labor intense, and if I have to ship, with one
exception, I would prefer 4 to 6 units at a time.
When I get home in a week or so I'll be putting out a list of unibus
options which include the backplane and boards- like DB11-A bus repeater,
DR11B, DH11s, a lot of com options, RH11, etc.
Any questions, please contact me off list.
Thanks, Paul
Be patient. 75 dollar 33s still exist
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
-------- Original message --------
From: "drlegendre ." <drlegendre at gmail.com>
Date: 10/14/2015 16:34 (GMT-07:00)
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Fair price and ways to find a teletype
Brad,
A few montns ago, with a fair bit of help of the folks on this list, I did
up an Altair 8800 rebuild. And apparently you & I both saw the same videos,
as I got all hot and bothered about getting an ASR33 and using it to load
software - BASIC, for starters - into? the Altair. And again, on members'
suggestion, I joined the Greenkeys list.
Too bad, but I was totally +shocked+ at the 'value' placed on ASR33 these
days!! Thousand dollars and more, not all all unusual.. and my resources
just can't justify that level of expenditure for what is generally a
'cheap' DIY hobby of sorts. Meanwhile, a Greenkeys member in St. Louis, MO
popped up with a very nice M15 (ex-Bell) that was Free to Good Home. I have
(or at least had, ha!) a good friend in St. Louis, and he was able to take
care of the pickup for me - and several months later, i arranged to have it
delivered to my house by a relative.
Now the M15 isn't a 33ASR, and lacks the paper tape punch & reader (though
devices do exist). But what it is, is a truly fantastic piece of
electro-mechanical engineering that borders on the "tight metal" genre of
some earlier business machines, such as the Felt & Tarrant Comptometer. If
you have general mechanical experience, I'd say the M15 is roughly on a par
with a 2-spd or even 3-spd automatic transmission, in terms of mechanical
complexity (the the tranny will have a higher parts count.. I think!).
So while they can be worked with, and documentation is plentiful, they are
a bit intimidating the first time you see one in action - or inaction, as
it may be - and they do NOT respond kindly to false moves or other
ham-fistery. But they are well worth learning, and don't yet seem to have
joined their later progeny in the financial stratosphere.
-Bill
On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 2:39 PM, william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com>
wrote:
> You can ship these in a box if you detach the pedestal and put it on its
> side, making sure the main unit is well padded and there is a weight
> balance to the box, as you never know from what angle the box will
> sit/fall/land/be carried.? I shrink wrap the main TTY to ensure it stays
> secure, then wrap in layers of bubble wrap and foam.? I have shipped five
> or six that way.? You can also use two boxes.? It's very easy to re-attach
> the main unit from the pedestal, many have a reader motor in the pedestal,
> but you just unscrew it.
>
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 3:28 PM, ben <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote:
>
> > On 10/14/2015 12:48 PM, Brad wrote:
> >
> >> How heavy are these things?? They look like solid steel in pictures.
> >> That's one of the things that presents a big problem for me up here in
> >> Canada... shipping from the US has gotten outrageously expensive.
> >>
> >
> > Well for big things shipping I think it is about the same for the last
> few
> > years.
> > It is the US mail that is strange ... $3.00* for 3 weeks or $60 for
> > overnight. I expect still cheaper shipping than when new. Note you still
> > need a truck to get from the shippers warehouse.
> > Ben.
> > * I think books still send that way.
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Bill
>