test-drb November 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

165 participants
224 discussions

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Don North > Track 0 is not used by standard DEC software I wonder why DEC did't use track 0. The thing is small enough (256KB in the original single-density) that even 1% is a good chunk to throw away. Does anyone know? (I had a look online, but couldn't turn anything up.) If I had to _guess_, one possibility would be that track 0 is the innermost track, where the media is moving the slowest, and as a result it's more error-prone. Another is that IBM used track 0 for something special, and DEC tried to conform with that. But those are pure guesses, I would love to know for sure. Noel

8 years, 1 month

FTGH: "Screw Terminal/Signal Conditioning" panel

by useddec＠gmail.com

Have a few minutes? Paul

8 years, 1 month

Unknown DEC indicator panel

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, the CHM has an RSTS-11 brochure: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/DEC/pdp-11/Digital.PDP-11… which shows in a couple of places (front cover, page 6, 7, 10, 11) an indicator panel which I haven't been able to identify: it's the one where there are four full-length light rows on the left, and the lower right row of lights is broken up in the three groups - small, large, small. (The other indicator panel is known, it's an an RF11). I have been searching for these panels for quite a while now, and have a page for them: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/DECIndicatorPanels.html _but_ ... I have never seen that panel. I am quite sure that it is _NOT_ an RK11-C panel; although no image of such has ever been found (I think because it was never produced - no DEC manual or print set refers to it), the RK11-C prints show the wiring for the connector to the indicator panel (which would presumably have been a standard DEC 19" x 5-1/4" panel of the kind documented on the page above), and from that it's possible to predict what it would look like, as shown here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/RK11-C_inlay.txt http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/RK11-C_inlay.pdf Can anyone shed any light (no pun intended :-) on what this is? The RF11 engineering drawings list (on page 187/188) all the inserts available (as of that date) for the standard 19" x 5-1/4" indicator panel, and I don't have pictures of all of them, so it's possible this is one of them. (It's clear from the brochure that this wasn't necessarily a working system, since it appears in a number of different configurations. So maybe they just grabbed up a random indicator panel and plugged it in to make the system look cool.) One possibility is that it's a prototype that was never produced - or perhaps it was the indicator panel for an earlier RK11 controller (although I can't find any mention of an RK11-B or RK11-A, and the list above doesn't contain an RK11 entry). Anyone have any ideas? Noel

8 years, 1 month

FTGH: "Screw Terminal/Signal Conditioning" panel

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I have a "Screw Terminal/Signal Conditioning" panel made by Data Translation; includes some cables and mongo connectors: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/jpg/CablePanel.jpg FTGH. Again, no idea what it does, I have't bothered to look for info, since I'm sure I have no use for it! Please, take this and the video controller: http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2016-November/029102.html off my hands! Noel

8 years, 1 month

Unknown DEC indicator panel

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Steven Malikoff > I have been looking but not yet found a picture of the DEC-trimmed RC11 > ... If anyone could point me to a photo of the RC11/RS64 DECdisk panel > to be honest I don't know if it even had one? I'm not sure it did. The list of available inserts (in the Indicator Panel Assembly drawings, available in the RF11 prints, pp. 186-190) doesn't list an RC11 insert, and that list does include the RF11, which is a later controller than the RC11. I tried looking online for RC11 engineering drawings, to see if it included an indicator panel connector (the way the RK11-C does), but I could not find _anything_ substantial about the RC11 online. > From: Jon Elson > These look VERY posed, so don't be sure ANYTHING in the picture was a > fully working system. Yeah, I'd come to that conclusion... > If those panels look like something off a KA10 controller Well, I'm not sure. Most PDP-10 gear had rows of 36 lights, which is the full width of these 19" indicator panels (i.e. every light in a row - like the top row of the RP11 panel, see the page for an image), and I don't see that in this one. But I suppose I should try and round up images of 19" x 5-1/4" PDP-10 panels, too (ISTR that there are a few). Noel

8 years, 1 month

Passing of Bunnell & Machrone

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

David Bunnell and Bill Machrone of PC Magazine have passed on. They both were involved in promoting computers in its earliest day. Both will sadly be missed. Murray--

8 years, 1 month

What the heck is the deal with this eBay item

by vintagecomputer＠bettercomputing.net

I've been wondering about that one myself. ?Very odd. ?That's not the first time I've seen that either. Along with stuff that 'sells' for absurd amounts of money. At first I though the absurd sales were attempts to manipulate the market.. but it doesn't seem worth the effort or ebay fees. ?I almost kind of wonder with some of them if something more sinister is going on.. like money laundering. ?That'd be a fairly obscure way to do it.. Sent from my Samsung device -------- Original message -------- From: Corey Cohen <AppleCorey at optonline.net> Date: 2016-11-01 4:43 PM (GMT-08:00) To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: What the heck is the deal with this eBay item https://www.ebay.com/itm/272433760795 This Helios II has been "sold" multiple times for varying amounts and then suddenly hours later appears for sale again.? I'm done bidding on this each time it appears, because if I won, who knows what I'd receive or if the seller would cancel the auction.? corey cohen u??o? ???o?

8 years, 1 month

cctech Digest, Vol 29, Issue 1

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2016 10:48:56 -0400 > From: Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: For sale 128K Core RAM Industrial PDP 11/40 Massbus > System > Message-ID: <A0F4A035-0EAA-4343-87DC-86495173458F at comcast.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > >> On Oct 31, 2016, at 10:26 AM, william degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Given 128K core, wouldn't one be able to save the OS in core, no need to >> load what would need to "get started" from a diskpak? The data would be on >> the tape drives, and something on stand by to re-load the OS back into core. > > Only if the OS implements the ability to resume from a power failure without reloading from disk or tape. Few do. Perhaps some flavors of RSX, I don't know. RSTS V4A, when built with the power fail handling option, could do so. Later versions do not; they unconditionally reboot (from disk) at powerup. > > paul RSX-11M and M+ did resume from power failures very robustly. I had a PDP-11/44 with batteries for the MOS RAM (and fans to cool it) with RK07 drives. I can remember testing it by pulling the power with a number of applications runnings including editors etc. The disks would yank the heads back and spin down, then when the power was restored and the drives spun up, it was like it never happened. I might see an entry or two in the error log file about a disk retry, and a user might loose a keystroke on the file they were editing but it absolutely was solid. I don't know of a single modern operating system that can do that today. RSX-11M+ can run TCP/IP today with Johnny Billquist's BQTCP package but it dies require I/D space processors. M+ itself can run on a 11/23+ or 11/24 but it really needs more than 128KW and the lack of I/D space really limits its capabilities. Mark

8 years, 1 month

Has anyone here seen a 8H070 external floppy?

by isking＠uw.edu

I bought one of these on eBay thinking it was the standard 37-pin D-connector that connects to an ISA floppy controller. No, it's a 25-pin D-connector. I can't find any references in Google aside from people selling them. I'm wondering if it might be something like a printer-port-connected device, in which case I'm probably out of luck trying to find its driver.... -- Ian -- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu> Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical Narrative Through a Design Lens Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org> Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org> University of Washington There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."

8 years, 1 month

Soundblaster Live Card with Midi interface daughterboard, UK

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

Can anyone use a Soundblaster Live card with midi daughterboard? For the cost of postage? ?4.99 in the UK. Thanks, Mark.

8 years, 1 month

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test-drb November 2016