test-drb May 2015

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

199 participants
259 discussions

by fulivi＠tiscali.it

Hi, is there someone who can send me the executable/floppy image of BASIC-80 for ISIS-II operating system, please? I've a few old BASIC programs that I'd like to try on the MESS-based MDS-2 emulator. Thanks a lot! -- F.Ulivi

10 years, 10 months

Need Corvus 'A2CPM.1' diskette

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

Hi, I'm trying to setup Apple CP/M on a Corvus Constellation II network drive. This requires a support diskette labeled 'A2CPM.1' that I'm unable to find anywhere. It is most likely in Apple Pascal format and contains a file named 'A2.DRVR.CPM.221' (along with several others). I'm reasonably sure that the Pascal volume name will be 'A2CPM.1:', or perhaps just 'A2CPM:'. (It is also possible that there are additional A2CPM.2 or .3 diskettes) NOTE: There are (2) Corvus diskette images floating around the web under various names that are NOT the correct ones (they're for an older version of the Constellation software): 1. Apple Pascal format, volume name 'CSCPM:' 2. Apple CP/M format with BIOS source and a few utilities Again, neither of these is the correct one. I can handle any type of Apple image file format. Would greatly appreciate it if someone has these elusive items. Steve --

10 years, 10 months

PDP-8 ceremony video from VCF East last month

by evan＠snarc.net

Quick-and-dirty edit .... enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM38IVT8zHc

10 years, 10 months

old control data drives

by PLauridsen＠wm.com

I have three old control data 604 drives is there interest in them, I hate to just throw them away Let me know Peder Lauridsen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Recycling is a good thing. Please recycle any printed emails.

10 years, 10 months

HP 1331A X-Y display service

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Anyone happen to have a service manual for an HP 1331A X-Y display? I've got a complete wreck of one here rescued from a scrap pile which is arcing somewhere between the tube and the shielding - I expect that nothing can be done for it, but if I can work out how to pull the tube (short of a complete disassembly, but HP of that era were usually smarter than that) then I can clean it up and better assess things. cheers Jules

10 years, 10 months

FREE: Working Victor 9000 in Denver, CO

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Don from Denver writes, contact him for more info:================================================== Anyone know of a way for me to donate a working Victor 9000 before I take it to an electronics recycler? Don, huberdon at aol.com ??? ==================================================

10 years, 10 months

Sun SparcStation 4 - Need Help to Hook up cables, & Docs

by computerdoc＠sc.rr.com

Hi Guys, I obtained a Sun SparcStation 4 at the CoCoFEST for which I need some information on the proper hook up of the cables. The SCSI cables I can guess, but the PS/2 cables I'm not so sure of. There is one PS/2 connector on the back of the Monitor labeled A/B and on the SparcStstion itself is a DB25 pin connector labeled Serial A/B. Do these connect together? One PS/2 connector exists on the Sparcstation so how does both the PS/2 connector on the Keyboard and the mouse connect to the SparcStation? Also I understand that it is password protected so I need the "Super-secret" procedure to remove the password. I was told this is possible. Documentation in any form is quite necessary as well. Any leads as to where to obtain these as well? I haven't looked at sun.com yet, but I most certainly will. Your help is most appreciated. Thank you in advance for any help you can give. Take care my friends. Kip Koon <mailto:computerdoc at sc.rr.com> computerdoc at sc.rr.com <http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon

10 years, 10 months

360/50 microcode listing

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Comments on where the 360s went... When I was in the used computer business in the early 80s when gold and silver did the big climb there arose a large group of people aside from the usual scrappers, that were going about the nation specifically targeting old 360s and earlier for scrap. Even the scrappers that did not break the entire computers down and process them would sell countess containers of early computers to the Taiwanese metal brokers that would come over here to purchase material. yes..... shiploads of containers... The younger people here and those that were not in the biz back then do not realize how many truck load after truck load were scrapped. Knowing some of the scrappers was a good deal for me as a Computer dealer though as a small PDP-8 or the likes did not have enough tonnage to interest them and sometimes they would just let me have them gratis. Hate to say how may HP 2116, 2114, and 2115 hit the process especially in the late 80s to early 90s where there was not much market for them. Even today, you can go down to one of the local Evil Ironworks and see a wonderful old device on the scrap pile... there are still things coming out of warehouses but.... in no ways like the early 80s... Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC ( CEO of Computer Exchange Inc. <<long since retired>> In a message dated 5/7/2015 10:33:33 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, tmfdmike at gmail.com writes: 1. IBM would very often lease rather than sell, and take back machines when customers upgraded; it was obviously in their interests to control or eliminate where possible the market in used machines. 2. Gold. A lot of gold in old IBM kit. I knew a scrap dealer in Chelmsford UK that did nothing but break old IBM mainframes (only ever big boring grey boxes when I was there in mid to late 1990s though!) Mike On 7 May 2015 13:16, "Jon Elson" <elson at pico-systems.com> wrote: > On 03/13/2015 01:32 PM, Al Kossow wrote: > >> CHM was able to obtain volumes 18-20 of the IBM 2050 drawings, which are >> the microcode charts and ROS dump. I got them scanned and uploaded >> yesterday >> to http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/fe/2050 >> >> This was one of the things that I had been trying to locate for a while >> now. >> >> >> Just a curious thing I've noticed. Given the historic significance, and > the large number of machines produced, I'm kind of amazed at the incredibly > small number of 360's that apparently exist. > > Yes, I know, any would-be collector could drag home a PDP-8 and put it in > his garage, even a whole rack mount system with an RK02 (or 3), dectape and > paper tape reader, and still get his car in the garage. And, the system > could be run off normal mains power. > > You can't do that with a real 360 (some 360/20's were pretty small), even > a 360/30 was a pretty big box. And, you can't run a 360 off normal > residential power, either. Many of the peripherals used 3-phase motors, > and hacking the converter/inverter to run off single phase would not be a > task for any but the most experienced EE. > > But, it sure is a shame that there appear to be a tiny number of machines > in existence. One list shows 15 or 16 machines, excluding the model 20. > Probably there are a couple more hidden somewhere, like the B1900 that came > to light so recently. > > As fas as I can tell, NONE of these systems is complete enough to ever > run, with the possible exception of the 360/30 at the CHM, which does seem > to have a complement of peripherals, and maybe control units, too. > > Given the number of DEC 10's that are actually up and running, this seems > a bit of a surprise. there might be some emotional attachments that are > behind this disparity. > Anybody have some comments? > > Jon >

10 years, 10 months

Sun dead battery / unresponsive openboot

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

The PROM battery appears to have died in my Sun U1 (Ethernet address and host ID all ff's etc.). I can hack a new battery into it at some point - but can anyone confirm whether the openboot environment should be responsive even while the battery is hosed? Via a serial console, I can send a break and get an OK prompt back, but then it appears to go unresponsive and won't accept commands (no key presses aren't echoed back to the screen). Using the same terminal emulator / cabling is fine with my other Sun (a U2), so I'm reasonably confident that the environment is OK, and that the problem is local to the U1 machine. cheers Jules

10 years, 11 months

VAX/VMS 5.1A documentation set to give away

by richardlo＠admin.athabascau.ca

Hi computer fans, I have been asked to dispose of the VMS version 5 documentation set in my office. This consists of 40 grey binders and all their contents. They are located in Alberta Canada. This is a large and heavy load with or without the binders. But who knows, maybe somebody out there wants such an artifact? I also have some spare boards and other parts for a VAX 4000 Model 500 if anybody has an interest in such things. They are smaller and lighter than the doc set. -- Richard Loken VE6BSV, Unix System Administrator : "Anybody can be a father Athabasca University : but you have to earn Athabasca, Alberta Canada : the title of 'daddy'" ** richardlo at admin.athabascau.ca ** : - Lynn Johnston

10 years, 11 months

Free stuff in London (Mostly DEC)

by williams.dan＠gmail.com

Hi, Due to a change in circumstances, I need to downsize my collection. Most of this stuff has been given to me free by other members of this group. It is first come first served, but if you gave it to me and want it back, obviously you have first shot. It is located in Piccadilly in London, and for the bigger stuff will need to be picked up before 11am any day inc. weekends. I also need to move it within 3 weeks. I have a busted hip at the moment so I can't help lift anything and they are located on the 2nd Floor. Now thats dealt with here's what I have : aMicrovax 3400 2x Vax 4000-200 (One has a broken PSU) Hp zx6000 (No drives) SGI GDM17e11 CRT 2x DECserver 300 5x DECsystem 3100 (Think they are all dead, have never managed to get them to go past diagnostics) 5x Gould os 3500 Oscilloscopes - All working but not been calibrated for years. Sgi Indy Massive box of DEC Cables, mostly DSSI Intel MDS - Non working, powers up but nothing happens 2x Alphaserver ES45 - These are HEAVY Let me know if you want it.. Dan

10 years, 11 months

A DIY card reader, FYA

by mhs.stein＠gmail.com

Added pics of an EPC-capable PPT perf and reader; obviously you'd normally only use one or the other: http://s1056.photobucket.com/user/dm561/library/?view=recent&page=1

10 years, 11 months

HP2100 core memory boards.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

In this (swedish) forum thread there is bidding going on for two core memory boards for what I think is a HP2100A/S. The current bid is 200 SEK. But it has to be fetched in Karlskoga. http://elektronikforumet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=77378 /Mattis

10 years, 11 months

Fwd: [rescue] 2 x Sun Netra T1's for free, London, UK

by venture37＠gmail.com

While we're on the subject of London & giveaways :) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jasper Wallace <jasper at pointless.net> Date: 5 May 2015 at 18:10 Subject: [rescue] 2 x Sun Netra T1's for free, London, UK To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org> Hi, I'm hopeing to find a new home for 2 Sun Netra T1's, they are in London Hackspace on Hackney road near cambridge heath station, specs: 1st: Netra t1 (UltraSPARC-IIi 440MHz) 512 MB 2nd: Netra T1 200 (UltraSPARC-IIe 500MHz) 1Gb ram There are 4 x 17Gb drives and 2 x 36Gb drives with them, the 36Gb drives might be dodgey, but they where happy when i dd'd /dev/zero over them... Please contact me off list if you want to arrange pickup. -- [http://pointless.net/] [0x2ECA0975] _______________________________________________ rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

10 years, 11 months

RS/6000 (AIX) password reset - Linux?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

So, I got a couple of RS/6000 systems (7043-140's) from another listmember a while back, which I've finally got around to looking at. Both appear to be working (one had a bad cache RAM connection, now fixed), although I only have one drive between the two, which has AIX 4.3.2 installed. I don't have install media, and I don't know the root password; question is, can anyone tell me if Linux can mount AIX's filesystem, so that I can reset it? I'm seeing a whole bunch of conflicting reports about that, in particular that Linux' idea of JFS is based on that in OS/2, which is a different animal to that which existed in AIX. (reason for asking rather than just trying is that I don't actually have a PC-based SCSI board here with me; I'd have to put the AIX drive in one of my Sun or SGI systems, snarf raw data into a file via dd and FTP it across to mount it via a loopback device under Linux - then do the reverse to get the modified image back onto the disk) If it comes to it, I can try scanning the raw disk blocks for root's entry in the passwd file, removing the password (which I assume will just be a single-character indicator to use a shadow file anyway) and making up the slack in the comment field - which will hopefully work. But it would be far easier to just access the file directly. cheers Jules

10 years, 11 months

London collector clearing out

by lproven＠gmail.com

http://www.reddit.com/r/computercollecting/comments/34u6m1/free_machines_of… -- 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)

10 years, 11 months

Vintage Computer Fest South East

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

For those of you that went. Did anyone post pictures?

10 years, 11 months

DEC manufacturing locations

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ian McLaughlin > It would be neat to find open/close dates, pictures, etc for each > location. I recently acquired a mildly interesting book, "Images of America: Digital Equipment Corporation", by Alan R. Earls, which gives the opening year for a lot of DEC facilities (and pictures of quite a few). I'm not sure where his data is from, but that might be a start. Noel

10 years, 11 months

Cassette tape data recovery

by evan.linwood＠eastek.com.au

I'm wondering if anyone on the list has much experience recovering data from old cassette tapes? The tape to be read is a single cold-start tape that was found sitting the B1900 system picked up by Noel Chiappa just recently. Given the tape's importance, I'd rather not fry it or blow limited opportunities by attempting it myself! - Evan

10 years, 11 months

Creating a floppy drive exerciser

by alexandre.tabajara＠gmail.com

Well, things came to a point I have NO 360K drive I can attest it is working properly and aligned. I have some AAD alignement diskettes, but I need something to exercise the drive. Google seems not to know what a "floppy drive exerciser" is. Do people have some tips of schematics, programs, or will I have to roll my own? :) Thanks! --- Enviado do meu Apple IIGS (pq eu sou chique) Meu site: http://www.tabalabs.com.br Meu blog: http://tabajara-labs.blogspot.com

10 years, 11 months

Hex to Octal (3 digit) converer

by philip＠neoncluster.com

Hi, I?m looking for a program (or preferably an online conversion site, as I use Macintosh) that can convert a long stream of Hex, to 3 digit Octal. I have found one site that works ok (http://www.kjetil-hartveit.com/blog/10/hex-binary-decimal-octal-and-ascii-c… <http://www.kjetil-hartveit.com/blog/10/hex-binary-decimal-octal-and-ascii-c…>), but the octal it outputs is not always 3 digits long. Unfortunately I then need to manually add the missing ?0?s, which can be a huge pain for long listings, and open to human error. For example the above site does?. Entering this: 0E 09 11 1B 01 CD 05 00 Outputs this: 16 11 21 33 1 315 5 0 But I want this: 016 011 021 033 001 315 005 000 Does anyone know of a good site (or some good software)? Much thanks Phil

10 years, 11 months

TD Systems TDL-11 QBUS (SCSI?) card

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Seth Morabito > Well now I have egg on my face... Don't worry, you're not the only one... :-) > No, actually it DOES work. Wow. Live and learn. Or maybe actually DMA indeed _doesn't_ work with the CPU stopped, and what happened was that the DMA request was waiting in the card, and as soon as the processor started, it did the DMA? But how did the first instruction fetch produce a valid instruction? Unless the first DMA cycle (to 01000) happened before the processor fetched the first instruction? I'll have to try throwing a 'scope on a QBUS and manually (via ODT) starting a DMA transfer, with the CPU halted... see what (if anything) happens. Noel

10 years, 11 months

OS-9 Disks

by david＠thecoolbears.org

I have a few 5.25 floppies, about 4, that I would really like to have imaged. I *think* that they are OS-9 (Microware not Apple) format. I don't have a way to do it my self. Is there anyone out there who could help out?

10 years, 11 months

Computers_With_BASIC_in_ROM

by james＠attfield.co.uk

> However, with the Atari 400 and 800 and the Exidy sorceror, the BASIC ROM > module was, IIRC, included with the > machine in the standard configuration (i.e. if you bought an off-the-shelf > boxed version of one of those, you > got a BASIC module). Is that really any different from having the ROMs fitted > to the main PCB? > My Sorcerer came with the BASIC cartridge supplied as standard as did the one a colleague got. I also recall that this was the standard offering. James

10 years, 11 months

IBM Mainframe

by FRED＠MISER.MISERNET.NET

>I just received my first IBM mainframe. It's an IBM Multiprise 3000 >model 7060-H30. It's a a P/390 class machine. It has 6 18GB drives and >3 9 GB drives. I'll be posting some pictures on my website soon. *drool* I was watching that also on ebay. Almost went for it. Almost. :) I am glad it went to a good home. Fred

10 years, 11 months

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test-drb May 2015