test-drb December 2015

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

191 participants
268 discussions

10 forgotten wonders of 1980s homes

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Interesting just brought the old magnavox ghetto blaster I had in the computer room at computer exchange inc... put 4 cells and a jumper to start it in half voltage for a while.... it lives! went to all 8 batteries... it peels plaster off the walls! but wait i go to the oldies station and .. . Crowded House- Don't Dream Its Over Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield 2 of the songs I would crank LOUD! Hey had slick raised tiles... things sounded real loud in there! But.... damn these are .... oldies now I remember when that oldies station would just mainly play 60's stuff.... Here is someone else's write up on this... for tech details.. <http://www.vintagevolts.com/the-magnavox-d8443-boombox/> this thing had set in relatives storage shed for probably 15 years or maybe 22 ..... it had need 23 years since I saw it last....and storage sheds are damn hot here in az.. it looks good... it plays good! it plays LOUD good to have it back! In a message dated 12/29/2015 12:23:38 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim, js at cimmeri.com writes: On 12/29/2015 2:08 PM, Jules Richardson wrote: > I've wondered occasionally what > happened to ghetto blasters - despite > finding other audio equipment of the > time every once in a while, I don't > think I've seen one anywhere in over > 25 years. Were they exceptionally > fragile or something, and so they all > got tossed long ago instead of finding > their way into attics and garages like > everything else? > > cheers > Jules I still have mine, circa 1979. Amazingly still works -- with no caps replacement yet -- except for tape deck -- rubber bands have dried up. - J.

8 years, 4 months

Software for DEC MINC systems

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

On Dec 29, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2015 17:51:45 -0600 > From: Jay Jaeger <cube1 at charter.net> > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Software for DEC MINC systems > Message-ID: <5681CB11.4090101 at charter.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 > > On 12/27/2015 10:15 PM, Mark Matlock wrote: >> >> The software I am looking for are the MINC software packages FEP (Fortran Enhancement Package) V2.1 and FRP (Fortran Real_time Package) V1.0. Also SSP V1.3 (Scientific Subroutines Package) and LSP V1.2 (Laboratory Subroutines Package) would be great to find as well. These all run under RT-11 and I understand that there was also a version (V1.1) of FEP and V1.0 of FRP that ran under RSX11M which would be fantastic to find as I am more interested in RSX11M. This is based on documents in the MINC folder in the bitsavers online archives. >> >> Mark >> > > I have some MINC hardware (also a MINC/23 I think) and software, but it > does not look like I have what you are looking for. > > What I do have images of (except for the one marked "(Bad)" that seem > likely MINC related: > > RX01: > > CONTENTS COMMENT > LAB Applications-11 Library V3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YB, NSUM=41906 > LAB Applications-11 Lib Source 1 of 3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YA1, NSUM=56190 > LAB Applications-11 Lib Source 2 of 3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YA2, NSUM=28900 > LAB Applications-11 Lib Source 3 of 3 DEC-11-SLABA-C-YA3, NSUM=65055 > > CONTENTS COMMENT > PLOT, Ver June '80 DECUS 11-381 RT-11 Media(KA) (Bad) > MINC BASIC/FORTRAN IV VIR TERM DECUS 11-417 RT-11, NSUM=22281 > PLOTTING PKG For RT-11 FORTRAN DECUS 11-431 RT-11, NSUM=12228 > LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 1 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=15424 > LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 2 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=1369 > LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 3 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=2841 > LABORATORY APPLICATIONS-11 4 of 4, (KD) DECUS 11-448 RT-11, NSUM=21353 > FEP2: FINITE ELEMENT PROG 3DIM 1 of 2 KB DECUS 11-461 RT-11, NSUM=14187 > FEP2: FINITE ELEMENT PROG 3DIM 2 of 2 KB DECUS 11-461 RT-11, NSUM=26552 > > > RX02: > > CONTENTS COMMENT > MINC MA DEMO/23 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-J837B-BC, NSUM=04649 > MINC MA DEMO/03 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-H107D-BC, NSUM=58263 > MINC MA SYS/23 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-J836B-BC, NSUM=17510 > MINC MA SYS/03 V2.0 BIN RX2 BA-H106D-BC, NSUM=61253 Jay, Wow! It would be great to get copies of those DEC and DECUS floppies! Almost all DECUS software include the sources and a good example of source code is worth many pages of references manuals. Please contact me directly and we can discuss how to transfer them. Several of those titles sound very interesting! The MINC systems are great hardware platforms, but I was very afraid that much of the software had been lost. This is very encouraging! Thanks! Mark On Dec 29, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > From: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa) > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Cc: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu > Subject: Re: Software for DEC MINC systems > Message-ID: <20151228152030.26E4518C0B2 at mercury.lcs.mit.edu> > >> From: Mark Matlock > >> either 11/23 or 11/73 CPUs (limited to 256KB by the MINC Q18 bus) > > Have you thought about upgrading the backplane/bus to 22 bits (shouldn't be > too hard) - or do you want to keep it original? > > Noel Noel, I actually have two MINC boxes, one labelled as a MINC-23 and one labelled as MINC-11. As far as I can tell from the engineering drawings there is no difference in the back plane. I am hoping to wire the MINC-23 to Q22 in the future to be able to run RSX11M+ on it with the 11/73 and a decent amount of memory. As far as I can tell there MINC cards would not have a problem with the Q22 bus and the modification to the BDV11 is pretty easy. The MINC-11 I plan to keep as a RT-11 system but with the 11/23 CPU and 256 KB RAM. Mark On Dec 29, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2015 11:27:17 -0800 > From: "Ian S. King" <isking at uw.edu> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Software for DEC MINC systems > > I started such a project a while back, and grad school intervened. :-) > But with all this interest, I'll see if I can't disinter my MINC and try it > again. I'm pretty sure I have these packages and a lot more, and I really > need to get them imaged of RX02s before the oxide starts falling off. :-) > > I have a MINC-11, but I put an 11/23 processor in it - 18-bit addressing, > though, and I DO want to keep it stock so I'm not going to modify the > backplane for 22-bit addressing, as much as I'd like that extra working > store space! Ian, As we discussed offline, I'll be very interested to see the titles of the RX02s that you have "in the basement". It would be great to get as many of these DEC and DECUS MINC related software packages together in one collection so it doesn't get lost forever. Thanks and Best regards, Mark On Dec 28, 2015, at 12:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 18 > Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2015 20:35:54 -0800 > From: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Software for DEC MINC systems > > I have an RX02 floppy labeled: > BA-L796C-BC > RT-11/FEP V2.2 INSTL BIN RX2 > (C) 1983 > > I don't know if that would help. I'll have to look and see if I have > already created an image of this disk. If not it might take some time > before I get setup again to create RX02 disk images. > > -Glen Glen, I would very much be interested in a copy of that RX02! That is one subversion higher (V2.2 vs V2.1) than the documentation I found so its probably one of the last releases. Please email me privately if you find the image. Thanks a bunch!! Mark

8 years, 4 months

Trivial to adapt C64 1902 monitor output to s-video?

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 12:10 PM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > [...] I am (mainly) a Commodore enthusiast). > This discussion bumped my memory a little and I was wanting to do it. Has anyone tried this or does anyone have knowledge of why it should or shouldn't work? -thx jake

8 years, 4 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, 4 months

Old VCF East/West videos are going online

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Woohoo! Thanks to everyone involved in the efforts!

8 years, 4 months

Reinstalling SunOS 4.1.4 without CD drive

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

A very generous list member just gave me a SPARCStation 20 with SunOS 4.1.4 on it. I thought the first thing I would do would be to image its hard drive in my Linux PC, in case I ever wanted to start fresh. I assume that if I make a bitwise copy of it, I can later write those same bits out. But now I'm wondering what would happen if the disk developed marked bad sectors; would that make an exact image impossible to write onto it? I have a disc image of that release, but unfortunately no SCSI CD-ROM. It occurs to me that I could perhaps make a SunOS filesystem on Linux and untar things from either the install CD or the image of the original HD into it, but I don't know if that would produce something actually bootable. I'm hoping there would be some way within Linux to capture the actual format of the filesystem to use as a skeleton. Does anyone know if this is possible (viz. creating a valid, bootable filesystem and untarring files into it)? Or should I just invest in a CD-ROM drive? -- Eric Christopherson

8 years, 4 months

The KGB, the Computer, and Me

by dugo＠xs4all.nl

On December 29 08:35 Brent Hilpert wrote: > In 1985 I was setting up our new email system at CERN, and the email > system had a security flaw that allowed the users' mail access > passwords to be seen. > This in of itself wasn't too big deal as there was little a hacker > could do with it (only get access to mail pickup, and you'd need a > system that talked X.400, which weren't prevalent). > What made it a big security problem, of course, was that users tended > to use their login password for their mail password, so once the > hackers uncovered the mail password they ipso-facto often got a login > password. > The hacking was noticed and I was told they were networking in from > Germany. > > Given the commonalities: time proximity (85-86), hacker source > (Germany) and hacking targets (HEP/nuclear/research community), I > wonder now if it was the same group of hackers. Check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR9HVZ8qHHo Fast forward to 5:26 for a '87 sitelist mentioning CERN.

8 years, 4 months

New Commodore 64 is Finally Here--For Real! PC MAG Snip

by barythrin＠gmail.com

They sold some units of the c64x. I think there are still some on our local austin craigslist but like most folks said hardware isn't really interesting enough to me to justify the cost. ? I cant remember where or who also produced a small (eepc? Or mini asus laptop running linux but badges with the commodore logo.? The latest relicense grab I'm aware of is only available in Europe but is a phone calling itself the commodore pet?http://commodoresmart.com/ i imagine they're probably trying to work out the legal purchase from commodore usa to use the logo if they care for a US release.?

8 years, 4 months

disassembling Western Digital microcode (PDP-11, WD16, Pascal Microengine)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

The first cut at a microcode disassembler for the CP16xx/WD21xx chipsets, written in Python 3, is now on github: https://github.com/brouhaha/cp16dis The disassembler uses hexadecimal, in C notation, rather than octal as used by DEC. Branch targets are labeled as L with the three-digit hex address. The disassembler doesn't know about branch targets only reached from the control chip translation PLA. The disassembler probably needs a lot of work to be truly usable. It does not even attempt to produce code that could be assembled by DEC's "MICRO" microassembler that is in the KUV11 writable control store support software, or any other assembler or microassembler. (I don't have the KUV11 support software, but would *really* like to obtain a copy!) The register names decoded are specific to the LSI-11 microcode. I don't yet know what the Pascal Microengine registers are used for, so I don't have suitable names for them. Here's an excerpt from the LSI-11 microcode at address 0x018 where you can see one of the techniques for a computed jump, with entry occuring at 0x20: L018: jmp L101 ;018: 000101 jmp L161 ;019: 000161 jmp L192 ;01a: 000192 jmp L0f5 ;01b: 0000f5 jmp L0a5 ;01c: 0000a5 jmp L19e ;01d: 00019e jmp L192 ;01e: 000192 jmp L192 ;01f: 000192 mi RIRL,RIRH ;020: 00ec89 jmp L018 ;021: 000018 This is used by an implicit jump caused by the translation array in the control chip to location 0x20. The mi instruction causes the instruction register (RIRH) to be OR'd into both bytes of the next microinstruction, which is a jump to L018. Presumably before jumping to the mi, all of the bits of the instruction register have been masked off, except for the least significant three. It's also possible that it's been shifted before masking. Also possible, not all of the bits might be masked off, and there might be more of the jump table elsewhere, depending on those bits. Note that if the most significant five bits are not masked off, this could even change the jump instruction at 0x21 to a different kind of instruction. Eric

8 years, 4 months

Software for DEC MINC systems

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

I have a MINC-23 that I am in the process of restoring. On the hardware side, I modified the BDV11 ROMs with some help from Malcolm Macleod on the boot eprom images so that I could boot a DU device directly from a 11/23 (not plus). It boots an Emulex UC07 and a SCSI2SD so I can load various images on to the microSD card. I found a microSD to normal SD adapter which I plan to mount through one of the MINC blank front panels (with a blinking drive activity LED of course), so that changing disks is convenient. Currently, the SCSI2SD is formatted as four RD54 drives which are a convenient size to load individual images with the dd command on Linux or Mac OSX. Currently, I can boot both RT-11 or RSX11M with either 11/23 or 11/73 CPUs (limited to 256KB by the MINC Q18 bus). The software I am looking for are the MINC software packages FEP (Fortran Enhancement Package) V2.1 and FRP (Fortran Real_time Package) V1.0. Also SSP V1.3 (Scientific Subroutines Package) and LSP V1.2 (Laboratory Subroutines Package) would be great to find as well. These all run under RT-11 and I understand that there was also a version (V1.1) of FEP and V1.0 of FRP that ran under RSX11M which would be fantastic to find as I am more interested in RSX11M. This is based on documents in the MINC folder in the bitsavers online archives. Please contact me if you have any of these packages or would just like to compare notes on the MINC hardware. I am still gathering diagnostics and documentation to check out the analog to digital, programable clock, digital to analog, and digital I/O cards. Someone mentioned earlier the "Minicomputer in the Laboratory" book by James Cooper and I have found it to be very helpful as well. Thanks and Happy New Year! Mark

8 years, 4 months

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test-drb December 2015