>Jerome H. Fine wrote:
> >Terry Stewart wrote:
>
>> I'm engaged in a Retrochallenge project where I'm recoding my
>> classic-computers.org.nz site to make it suitable for mobile
>> platforms. I
>> want to modernise the code as well, making it as close to HTML5
>> standard as
>> I can
>>
>> The RetroChallenge blog site is here.
>> http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2015-06-29-recoding-classic-comput…
>
>
> I checked this site under WinXP and found no problems. The software
> is very old, but a quick search did not locate the version.
As I mentioned, I backup up my Win98SE system, then accessed all
of the links under Netscape 7.2 without any problems.
>> In doing this, I will probably need to say goodbye to old browser
>> compatibility. As in old I mean Netscape 4 or earlier, and other
>> pre-2000
>> browsers (and possibly IE 6, as it's not very standard).
>
> As I noted in the statistics, I am one of the VERY, VERY, VERY few
> still using 32-bit Win98SE and Netscape 7.2 for e-mail and sending this
> reply. While I prefer to stay with Win98SE, I may upgrade to 64-bit Win7
> so I can use a faster computer to run the emulator that I use: Ersatz-11.
I understand that Netscape has been replaced by Mozilla. HOWEVER,
since CHROME seems to be the most widely used, would CHROME
be able to support the retention of ALL of my old e-mails and posts
>from usenet? Over the past 15 years, I probably have accumulated
over 100,000 e-mails and posts in about 130 folders! So I would like
an easy upgrade path which supports being able to view and modify those
old e-mails and usenet posts. Can CHROME support that?
>> The website does have a few articles and resources of interest to
>> vintage
>> computer hobbyists, which I wouldn't want to make inaccessible. The
>> question is, how many guys like us, those who dabble with old tech, are
>> likely to use ancient browsers as their ONLY source of web content. I
>> suspect not many. Should I worry about it? Any comments welcome.
>>
>> On a related note, I'd be interested if anyone on the list CAN'T read
>> this
>> page properly:
>> http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/temp.html
>
> This link also found no problems under WinXP.
>
> I have not checked out either of the links under Netscape 7.2 since
> any problems might be difficult to correct. After I perform a backup
> of my C: drive and it will be possible to easily restore my system, I
> will try them.
As I mentioned, I backup up my C: drive, then accessed all of the
links via Netscape 7.2 and found then all without any problems.
>> It's a new blog page template I've developed using HTML5 and is mobile
>> friendly. If it doesn't show up properly I'll be interested to know
>> what
>> browser you're using.
>>
>> Please be kind about the HTML5 and CCS code. I don't do this for a job,
>> and it's a big learning curve for me.
>>
>> P.S. Here are some interesting stats. For myself, I've been a Chrome
>> user
>> for a number of years now.
>> http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
>>
>> Terry (Tez)
>
> Obviously, I am in the negligible category for still using Win98SE and
> Netscape 7.2 along with 1280 by 1024 for my video display. However,
> at least I upgraded to a flat screen monitor after both of my previous
> tube monitors died a few years ago. As I mentioned above, I will access
> the 3 links you provide after I backup my C: drive. I normally avoid any
> links to the internet on this Win98SE system and always restore the
> C: drive after I do so. If there is a link that looks interesting, I
> send
> an e-mail to the WinXP system and check the link there.
And just in case, I did perform a restore to my C: drive again. However,
under Netscape 7.2, I am able to CLEAN CACHE and that did seem
to restore everything back to before I accessed the links. At the very
least, all of the files that were placed into the \cache\ sub-driectory
were removed and the total number of files and sub-directories
reduced to the original value from before the links were accessed.
I don't know if making sure that there are no extra files and sub-
directories around after I use Netscape 7.2 to download my e-mail,
but I use that criteria to determine if anything that should not be
present has been added to the C: drive. I realize that pre-existing
files could have been corrupted, but I can't monitor everything.
Also, after I download the incoming e-mails, I physically disconnect
the cable to the router so that any e-mails with links that could be
activated to files that might cause a problem can't be completed
without the internet being available.
If anyone who has read this far has any comments or suggestions,
they would be very much appreciated!
> Under WinXP, I looked over your page on emulators. I don't know
> if you consider the PDP-11 and the VAX as classic, but they were not
> included. The PDP-11 has many emulators including Ersatz-11 produced
> by John Wilson at dbit. The SimH emulator also supports the PDP-11 along
> with the VAX and a number of other hardware platforms.
>
> Do you not consider the PDP-11 a classic system? I realize that most of
> the software is still legally proprietary, but hobby users are allowed to
> legally use early versions of the software under SimH. Mentec, who
> acquired most of the frequently used software from DEC, is no longer
> active with the PDP-11. The software IP seems to be with another,
> but that is difficult to verify, let alone to confirm whom to contact.
Terry, I have not seem any response yet. Did you see my reply?
Jerome Fine
>
> Date: Wed, 08 Jul 2015 00:25:01 +0100
> From: Antonio Carlini <a.carlini at ntlworld.com>
> Subject: Re: VAX-11/750 registry (Was: Reviving a VAX-11/750)
>
> If the intention is to avoid a huge list then excluding MicroVAXes and
> VAXstations should produce a list of VAXen
> that you probably cannot easily simply carry home on the bus.
>
> That would unfortunately exclude the VAXstation 8000, which is pretty
> rare AFAIK. It would also exclude the VAXstation I,
> which I imagine is also relatively rare these days.
>
> I don't think you can easily come up with a simple set of criteria based
> on power connectors or buses or similar.
>
> Perhaps "too big to hug" is what you really want :-)
>
> Antonio
>
My VAXstation 8000 (Missing the E&S chassis) is too big and heavy to carry
home on a bus.
--
Michael Thompson
>Perhaps SDI is a typo for SBI, as in the 11/780?
Yeah, exactly. Sometimes the fingers are faster than the brain :-)
Synchronous Backplane Interconnect - the system bus used on the 78x and
some of the 8000 machines.
Bob
>Johnny Billquist bqt at update.uu.se wrote:
>some of the 8000-series stuff are probably the biggest ...
Not all of them. The 82xx/83xx family was just one 10-1/2" chassis for
the CPU - the same physical size as a 11/730, yet they were genuine single
or dual CPU BI bus VAXen. Of course, many of their brothers were quite a
bit bigger.
And don't forget the VAXstation-8000...
Bob
On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 1:00 PM, <cctech-request at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Having the primary CPU just stall, and have the second CPU normally just
> be idle until a page fault happens on the other hand is something I can see
> how it could be done.
?Indeed that is exactly how it was done on the Masscomp MC-500 and I
believe the original Apollo - this was know as "Forest Baskett Mode" - who
wrote up the idea in a letter/comment to one of the architecture groups in
the late 1970s when the chip was first released.
The primary processor is called the "executor" and the second ?is called
the "fixer." The fixer is either halted or runs a small loop keeping the
translation buffer (TB) full. When the TB logic detects a fault for the
executor, it is put in wait state and the fixer is restarted (if ned be)
and refills the TB. When it's valid the executor is allowed to come out
of wait state (a very slow memory fill).
When the 68010 was released we make a small change the CPU board (a couple
of PALs) and allowed the executor to actually fault. But the fixer still
did the TB fill. But the executor could do a task switch and run some
other code, while the fill was taking place.
I'm not sure if Apollo updated their original CPU board or just designed a
new one with the 68010, I would have to ask some one like Les Crudele to
find out for sure. And Sun never did the Forest Baskett dual 68K trick.
Sun-1's with 68000 ran a V7 version of swapping Unix (originally from
Unisoft) until the 68010 came out when they could support VM on the "SUN-2"
and Joy et all moved BSD 4.1 to it.
One other note about the MC-500. If was the first commercial
Multiprocessor UNIX (predating the 386 bases symmetric boxes but a few
years) as well as being the first real time UNIX box. I still have working
one in my basement. It has 4 CPU boards in it with a 68010 and 68000 on
each, plus a 68000 in the display processor, a number of 29000's in the FP
and APP's units, more 29000 logic in the Data Acq Unit, as well as 80186 in
the network processor. All in all, a pretty neat federation of processors
each doing their thing.
Pretty cool for early 1980s'
Clem
Well, I am once again re-subscribed to this list. Why it or its moderators
decide to unceremoniously unsubscribe me every few months without warning
is beyond me. Especially annoying when subscription requests always take
2-3 days to process. It would be _really_ nice to do a warning message to
people who haven't broken any list rules and haven't asked to be removed
before dumping them, especially if this is an automatically-triggered event
based on the member's lack of posting activity.
Just my two cents.
I have the docs and the ROM images from Nigel, but not the source.
I did my share of googling, nothing but a piece or two, and not the whole thing.
Anybody have this?
Thanks,
Randy
I recently picked up a full rack (
https://instagram.com/p/4yEZlYNSxx/?taken-by=tr1nitr0n)
It was an awesome project, now that I have a home where I can install 220v.
Unfortunately, one of the 4x R4400 @ 150mhz boards is shot, and the System
Controller is shot. I borrowed the latter from another Onyx system, but
don't like leaving systems in inoperable states.
Does anyone have these or other ONYX parts they'd be willing to part with
or sell?
Thanks!
- Ian
--
Ian Finder
(206) 395-MIPS
ian.finder at gmail.com
On 7/7/2015 5:43 PM, Lyndon Nerenberg wrote:
> On Jul 7, 2015, at 3:43 PM, jwsmobile <jws at jwsss.com> wrote:
>
>> If there were a technical reason to keep it in a simple format that would be fine, but as Al K pointed out quite some time ago, Google already indexes all of this quite fine as it and most search engines do, so the list is text searchable.
> There are (at least) two fallacies here:
>
> 1) The entire planet has 24x7 ubiquitous and effectively free internet connectivity, and
>
> 2) All the visually impaired have software that can cleanly, accurately, and efficiently scrape the browser results these various web search pages display, and can articulate them clearly in an alternate format. This also goes for figuring out how to use the search pages to begin with.
>
> --lyndon
>
Not sure what fallacy you see here. The list goes to a location online
that is searchable. Search engines index the information from there.
Near as I can tell Jay plans on it being online 24/7 and there are no
blocks to search engines reading the information and including it in
their indexes.
Nothing about html format prevents search engines from capturing the
information as accurately as text formatting. My point is, that keeping
it in text format is not a requirement to make put it in a form that it
can be indexed.
And I pointed out that some people had warned that all of our
discussions were being included in search engines <Google>, as a
possible source of objection. I only included that point because the
same people lobbying for text form may also be the ones who may not want
list traffic in search engines, and I conceded that is a separate
point. Apologies to Al for dragging his name into the thread.
Not sure where your 2 points came from.
thanks
Jim
>P Gebhardt p.gebhardt at ymail.com wrote:
> wonder how the ratio of VAX 6000s and 7000s in enthusiasts' hands
> compared of VAX 11's in terms of numbers is? I guess that /780 and
> larger systems are rare, but I'd guess that there are some more /730
> and /750 around. No idea if my gut feeling reflects facts, though.
I know there are several people around with the larger VAXes in storage.
That's why I asked about the "working condition" - I'm sure the number of
big VAXes that could be switched on, say, this afternoon, is quite a bit
smaller.
FWIW, most 6000 machines weren't even that big. They're smaller than a
780 by quite a bit. I don't know about a 7000 or 10000 - I never actually
used one of those in real life.
Bob