test-drb October 2015

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

195 participants
329 discussions

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys Sitting here doing the overlays for the 8/e silk screen run. I had a thought. Including all makes of computer old and new. What about a front panel with lights and switches for systems that never had one and could have done with one? Which computer would you nominate? I'm not about to do anything about it. But the answers should be interesting Rod Smallwood

9 years, 1 month

Apple II Rev 2 value?

by unclefalter＠yahoo.ca

I have a rev 4 Apple II in the 38000 s/n range. I'm hoping to, over the years, gradually trade my way up to a Rev 0. I've seen Rev 0 units go on ebay recently for around $3000ish. Below that seems to be a jumble, mostly to do with completeness, originality, etc. Although, no always. Some have had motherboards upgraded to newer versions and still gone for $2500. Anyway, I'm looking to move up. My questions (and I realize this is all opinion): 1) What would my Apple II rev 4 be worth? Again it's serial number is in the 38000 range, black label. It was in France and had its original board replaced with a clone board, and some customization including a small switch for power that was drilled into the back of the case was done. I have installed a Rev 4 board with Integer Basic chips. I also did some repairs on the keyboard and it is fully functional, but the repairs involved a couple of jumper wires to deal with bad traces. 2) What would you be willing to pay for a 12000 range s/n Rev 2 that is in so/so condition, some rusty chip legs and non-functional keyboard? Is a Rev 2 anything special? Thanks!

9 years, 1 month

Lurker no more...

by applecorey＠optonline.net

Well I finally setup a separate email address so I can receive individual messages from cctalk instead of the daily digest which really doesn't lend itself to posting back. Just wanted to say hi. Cheers, Corey corey cohen u??o? ???o?

9 years, 1 month

Gov. & the machine(s) we love

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Brent Hilpert > - ca. 1970: The well-known story of the 4004 is that Busicom .. asked > Intel to manufacture a set of ASIC LSI chips, of Busicom's design, for > a new calculator. .. Hoff, who looked at the multiple chip designs and > conceived instead of a software (firmware) solution running in a > 'computer' processor .. If I have it right, because the MCS-4 family > was developed under the contract to Busicom, Intel had to do some > business wrangling to get the rights back to their MCS-4 design to sell > it as a general-purpose processor independently of Busicom. According to "The Man Behind the Microchip" (by Berlin, the Noyce bio - can highly recommend), Intel had agreed to a price to produce the ASIC's, and Hoff, who was only supposed to be an advisor to the Japanese engineers designing the ASIC's (they arrived at Intel at the end of June, '69), decided they couldn't meet that price point, and dreamed up the uP. Busicom wasn't impressed, but Noyce told him to go ahead as a backup. Later, Busicom execs over-ruled their engineers and went with Intel's approach. When they started to go into production, there was a lot of competition in the calculator business, and Busicom wanted to cut the price from Intel; Intel agreed (in September '71), if they were given the rights to sell it for non-calculator applications. Noel

9 years, 1 month

Gov. & the machine(s) we love

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > Supposedly some of the impetus for integrated circuits came from the > space program -- but I think the first ones (at TI) predate that. "Digital Apollo" (pg. 125) says that Fairchild was first to ship commercially, in 1961 ("Journey to the Moon" puts it in the fall, pg. 19), followed by TI and Signetics. In '62, the Instrumentation Labs produced a prototype AGC using Fairchild ICs (in the To-47 round can - they went to the flat packs in a later version); in November, NASA OK'd their use in the flight computers (replacing discrete transistors). (The Minuteman was also using ICs, but 20 different custom designs - the AGC used all standard NOR gate packages.) In '63, Apollo was using 60% of the ICs produced in the US (pg. 127), both for flight computers, and ground test equipment. "Journey" (pg. 19) says they were the largest consumers of ICs from '61 to '65. Their insistance on quality really helped raise the companies' game (pg. 133); not sure if this also increased yield (and thus lowered costs). Block I (which flew on Apollo's AS-201, 4 and 6; 5, and 7 on used Block II - finally found it, pg. 143) used the round metal cans, Block II used the flat packs; NASA had approved the switch to flat packs for the Block II in December, '63. Both TI and Fairchild had stopped producing the chips Apollo needed before the program ended (they had become obsolete); luckily for Apollo, Philco kept their production line open. "Journey" has a large section on the government's influence on early chip production, see pp. 19-23. Noel

9 years, 1 month

"Demystification" is just as important as "Abstraction" in "Computer Science" (Was: Know any Fortran

by cctalk＠beyondthepale.ie

> > Our industry is saturated with such refusal to understand. Consider > Microsoft's "throw hardware at the software problems" argument that if > their software runs too slowly on your computer, then that shows that YOUR > COMPUTER (and you) is inadequate, and you should get a faster computer. > Seems perfectly logical to me. Microsoft blames your hardware for their bloatware running slowly. You update the hardware and it solves the problem. Then they can ratchet up the bloat level again and convince you that the reason the new version runs so slowly is because the hardware you are running it on is no longer up to it. They were right the first time, so why wouldn't they be right this time? GOTO 10. Writing efficient software to get the best out of the hardware would sure spoil that business model. Regards, Peter Coghlan.

9 years, 1 month

Up for Auction: Memory from the First Computer in Space

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

A core memory unit from Gemini 3 is up for auction: http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2015/10/auction-memory-first-comput…

9 years, 1 month

Gov. & the machine(s) we love

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

What is the role played by the U.S. gov. in helping to create the microcomputer? What money & expertise did it provide? ?Steve Jobs the Movie? doesn?t mention this nor have books written about him and microcomputers in general mentioned this. Not even mine! Do the computers we love owe more to gov. than we care to admit? Granted I'm a Cdn. and 'we' here up north view it somewhat differently than Americans... Happy computing. Murray :)

9 years, 1 month

free: Trifold folder "DIGITAL WindowsNT" floppies/CDs & DEC ServerWORKS CDs

by jpeterson＠chinalake.com

Been collecting dust, free for the cost of shipping. *** Item 1: Trifold folder "DIGITAL WindowsNT" Seems like an incomplete or mixed install set. Photos upon request. 3.5 diskettes: - Microsoft WindowsNT x86 V3.51 Boot Disks 1, 2, 3 - Windows NT 3.51/4.0 configuration Guide for DIGITAL Alpha systems (1997) - ECU Disk V1.8 DEC Alpha for OpenVMS and Digital Unix - Alpha Systems H/W RX23, Alpha XL 300/366 Family, Alpha Station 255, Alpha Server 100 5/xx, 1000A, 2100A, 4100 HW support disk for windows 3.51 - MS Windows NT 3.51 Release Notes for digital Alpha System CDs: - Digital Internet Roadmap for Windows NT CD V2 - CD: Digital Windows NT 3.51 Alpha Generation X86 P/N: AG-PYZVD-BH (assuming it is not alpha ver of NT) *** Item 2: In a ServerWORKS labeled envelope, with the usual upgrade kit readme first pages. Digital ServerWORKS *Manager* CDs V3.3 Apt '98 P/N: AG-QURLH-BH and V3.2 P/N: AG-QURLG-BH These were clearly upgrade kits, but the manifest indicates full versions on CD as usual. No lic key -jim/eastern ma/us

9 years, 1 month

Source for 360k drives?

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

I need to pickup a few more 360k drives. Does anyone know of a source besides eBay - or, have a few they can part with? At this point, form-factor is not critical. I could actually use both full-height and half-height units. --

9 years, 1 month

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test-drb October 2015