test-drb March 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

189 participants
229 discussions

Does anyone have docs for a Ventel brand MD212-plus modem?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, A friend of mine just returned a modem he got from me decades ago, a Ventel MD212-plus. It's an early-1980s non-AT-command-set autodialling modem. The settings are adjusted via a pair of 10-pin DIP switches accessible from the back. I've checked the web and bitsavers. So far, all I've found is some old Usenet articles and a couple of pictures, but no manual or jumper guide. One "feature" is that it lacks a modular jack to plug into the phone system. Fortunately, my friend kept the proprietary DA15 cable. I've never seen that choice of connectors on any other modem. Does anyone have any Ventel docs? Thanks, -ethan

6 years, 8 months

It's BASIC Week again!

by fozztexx＠fozztexx.com

I do a regular contest on RetroBattlestations called BASIC Week which is a sort of tribute to the days when it was common for programs to be published in books and magazines and people would type them into their computers. One of the neat things about distributing software through type-in listings is that there?s no need for working disk drives or tape drives, or to do complicated things like get a serial connection working and find a way to transfer files. If a computer has built-in BASIC just turn it on and start typing! Past programs have displayed vector graphics, silly text screen animations, and a couple of games. This time around the program is called Winchester Drive and the concept is to explore a mansion to see what you can find. I decided this time around to try out true sprites and made a version for both the Apple II and Commodore 128. I wanted to do a Commodore 64 version but couldn't find any line drawing routines written in assembly anywhere! I thought for sure in the last 33 years some book or magazine somewhere would have written a couple of simple routines to clear the graphics screen and draw some lines that you could POKE in and then call with SYS. Oh well, I will leave the C64 version to someone else. :-) The challenge is more about honor and glory and getting an excuse to show off old computers and/or skills with porting, but I do give out vinyl decals & stickers for prizes (http://imgur.com/a/iAS5T). I know that the TI-99/4A, Atari 400/800, Coleco Adam, MSX, and maybe some others also had sprites. Sprites aren?t really needed for porting to other systems, they?re just an easy way to move the player around the screen. The program could definitely be ported to systems that use simple character graphics or even plain text screens. The complete source code has been posted to github, and you can see the full rules and check out other submissions here: https://redd.it/3ko0nd -- Follow me on twitter: @FozzTexx Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com

6 years, 10 months

Digital archiving tools

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

Many of us maintain large collections of bits that we'd like to preserve over a long time, and distribute, replicate, and migrate via unreliable storage media and networks. As disk sizes (and archive sizes) have increased, the probability of corruption undetected or uncorrected by the mechanisms normally built into disk drives, network protocols, and filesystems has increased to a level that warrants great concern. I would be interested to know if there exists an archive format that has the following desirable properties: 1) It is well-documented, and relatively simple, to facilitate its implementation on many platforms present and future. 2) It supports some degree of incremental updating, but need not be particularly efficient about it. An explicit compaction operation is preferable to an overly complex format. It is adequate to use append-only strategies appropriate for write-once media. 3) Insertion and extraction of files, copying of the archives, and other archive-manipulation utilities support end-to-end verification that identical bits have been stably recorded to the media, bypassing or defeating platform-level or hardware-level caching mechanisms. Where this is not possible, the limits must be carefully delineated, with some basis for determining the properties of the platform and certifying reliability properties where possible. 4) The format should provide for superior error detection capability, designed to avoid common failure modes with mechanisms typically used in hardware. For example, use a document-level cryptographic checksum rather than a block-level CRC. 5) The format should include a high degree of internal redundancy and recoverability, say, along the lines of a virtual RAID-array. Just as biological organisms constantly correct DNA transcription errors, the idea is to have a format that is robust across long-term exposure to imperfect copying and transmission channels. Does anything like this exist? --Bill

6 years, 11 months

assembler, disassembler for Intel 8089?

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Before I write my own, does anyone happen to have an assembler and/or a disassembler for the Intel 8089 I/O processor?

6 years, 11 months

ROM dumps of Intel MDS-2 IOC

by fulivi＠tiscali.it

Hi everyone, I'm looking for the images of ROMs installed on the IOC (I/O controller) board of Intel MDS-2 development systems. In particular I'm looking for the content of the character generator ROM (A19-2708) and of firmware ROMs (A50 to A53-4x2716). So far I had no success in googling them. My goal would be to contribute a good emulation of MDS systems to MESS, especially for what regards the look of the video terminal. Well, this is the plan, when "real-life" is not inteferring too much... Thanks a lot. -- F.Ulivi

6 years, 11 months

WTD: S100 Static RAM card

by philip＠neoncluster.com

Hi all, I?ve been struggling getting a 64k Dynamic RAM card back up and working in my IMSAI 8080. In fact I?m giving up on the DRAM card in this system and have decided to start looking for a SRAM card that can get the IMSAI up to 56k. In terms if SRAM cards, I presently have: 2 x Problem solver RAM16 cards - both seem to be working. 2 x 8K RAM cards - both seem to be working. Less cards generating heat, and putting stress on the old power supply is obviously best, so I?d be looking for either: - 1 x 16k SRAM card (for a total of 4 RAM cards (3 x 16k + 1 x 8k) in my system). A PSS RAM16 would be preferred for sake of consistency, but obviously not crucial. - 1 x 32k SRAM card (for a total of 3 RAM cards (1 x 32k, 1 x 16k + 1 x 8k) in my system) - 1 x 64k SRAM card that can have the last 8k bank turned off I would love to hear from anyone with one of the above cards who would be willing to pass it on. Much thanks for your time. Best regards Philip

7 years, 3 months

Scraping DEC Equipment

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message ----- > Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 22:56:32 -0500 > From: Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> > Subject: Re: Scraping DEC Equipment > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <C7A98127-DFF4-41B1-A6AF-5DFCA234D286 at lunar-tokyo.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > I need a tractor feed assembly for a LA100, are the ones on the 120 > compatible? ----- Reply: Apparently not, but I might have one for an LA100. mike

7 years, 4 months

Tektronix 4404 servcie manuals needed

by g-wright＠att.net

I would like to get a Tek 4404 computer going but lack any service manuals. The system turns on but has no curser on the screen. Has good power from the Power supply and heater is on in the CRT. Has a row of LEDs on the mother board. Does anyone know how to read these. - Thanks, Jerry

7 years, 4 months

Servant .953

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 7 May 2010, at 08:25, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 06 May 2010 16:06:37 -0700 > From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> > Subject: Re: Servant .953 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <4BE34B7D.6060902 at bitsavers.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > On 5/6/10 2:23 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: >>> Al Kossow wrote: >>>> I am interviewing Andy Hertzfeld tomorrow, and had hoped to talk about >>>> Servant, but I can't find a copy of it around anywhere tonight. > > A huge thank you to Nigel Williams who forwarded a working copy of .951 five > minutes before Bill and Andy arrived. We spent an hour talking about MacPaint > and Quickdraw (Apple has finally given CHM approval to make the sources available) > then another hour on Alice, Dali Clock, Servant, Hypercard, and Magic Cap. Could you please clarify, the QuickDraw source is available for what purpose? Could developers modify it any include it in heir commercial 64 bit Intel applications for instance? Is the source Pascal, Assembler, C or something else? Roger Holmes, Director of Microspot who has a Carbon application which compiles with over 10,000 warnings about deprecated QuickDraw calls.

7 years, 4 months

PDP11 M9301-Yx ROM dumps

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

OK, so we already had a dump of the M9301-YA ROMs, but were (apparently) missing the others? So I fnally got one of my UNIBUS 11's running, and whipped up a small program to dump the ROM contents, and now have the -YB, -YF and -YH ROMs dumped. I'm in the process of disassembling them now. (If anyone needs the contents in binary format, to blow new ROMs, let me know, and I can probably produce them if you give me the details on the format you need the data in.) Does anyone have any of the others - YC, YD, YE and YJ? If you're not up to dumping them, I can send you my small program (currently in .LDA format, but I can convert it to a script - it is not very long at all - for the console emulator in the M9301 series), which will do it - it produces packed octal output, 8 words/line, so a very small output. Noel

7 years, 4 months

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test-drb March 2016