test-drb April 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

203 participants
299 discussions

by cctalk＠snarc.net

Here are some photos from last weekend's show. Bill Degnan -- http://www.vintagecomputer.net/vcf11/ Herb Johnson -- http://www.retrotechnology.com/vcfe11/ Mike Loewen -- http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/VCF-East2016/

8 years, 8 months

High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 20:08:56 -0400 > From: Toby Thain <toby at telegraphics.com.au> > Subject: Re: High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - > was Re: SGI ONYX > > On 2016-04-20 8:02 PM, Michael Thompson wrote: > > > > I have a quad-860 VME board for Sun systems in my collection. > > > > Do you have the development environment for it? > > --Toby > Yes, but it is on a Sun 4/260 that us buried in my collection. -- Michael Thompson

8 years, 8 months

Resolved: VAX-11/750 ECKAL (Cache/TB) Diagnostic failure

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hey all -- I resolved the weird failure I was seeing on my 11/750 with the Cache/TB diagnostic and since it was fairly random I thought I'd share it to save people from the future (hi, people from the future!) from going through the same machinations I did. Issue: ECKAL diagnostic loads, prints banner and halts after about a second with: 00003488 06 No other diagnostic is provided, and since there don't appear to be any listings or real documents covering the test, it's not particularly helpful. What I tried (prior to tonight): - Checked voltages. - Double-checked backplane for bent/shorted pins. - Cleaned and reseated every socketed chip (especially the gate arrays). On *all* boards. - Swapped in a spare L0003 (after cleaning, as above). - Swapped in all the other spares I have (one at a time, again, after cleaning). - Cleaned backplane with contact cleaner. - Removed 2nd UNIBUS card. - Tried a *third* L0003 card (labeled "GOOD" as of 1996 :)). No change in behavior whatsoever. Very odd. Very frustrating. So tonight I thought, hey, why not disconnect the UNIBUS just in case something odd is going on there. Pulled the Unibus jumper connecting the two backplanes, replaced with terminator. ECKAL diagnostic now runs and passes. So: This particular fault (at least in this case) is due to some oddity on the UNIBUS. I suspect a problem with NPG grants, but I'm going to have to go over this with a fine-toothed comb, it could be a bad controller in there doing something mean. Hope this helps someone at some future date... - Josh

8 years, 8 months

Harris H800 Computer

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

Back when I spent a couple of years at UNLV in the late 80s, I had a class in which I was forced to use an account on a Harris H800 computer, if my memory serves me correctly. Being a BSD snob, I felt that was a terrible imposition, much like being forced to calculate compound interest on a stone-age abacus made from partially petrified dinosaur turds. *Without gloves.* Now, of course, I'm a lot more easy-going, and downright curious about things that might not have been my first choice for a computing environment. Even VMS! So, does anybody here know anything about that family of computers? I seem to recall getting a tour of the computer room once, and the two front panels of the machine were swung open to reveal two thick, mattress-like beds of twisted pair wires. That seemed nauseatingly primitive to me at the time, but now the memory seems fascinating. I also seem to remember an operator's console with two round CRTs on it, but I might have fabricated that memory from whole cloth. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

8 years, 8 months

Using a Gotek-type flash floppy emulator inside a C1581

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

I wonder if there are any Commodore people out here who could tell me what practical differences would result from using a Gotek-type flash-memory-based floppy emulator in place of the C1581's mechanism, vs. using Jim Brain's uIEC-SD or similar. I don't know if the thing would even work in a 1581 case, or if Commodore DOS or JiffyDOS would work with it; but if so, I wonder if the DOS would work slightly more like the real thing, because it would be actual C=/JiffyDOS running on an actual 6502, instead of something new running on a microcontroller. I understand that you wouldn't get any of the directory-changing commands et al. from the SD2IEC firmware. -- Eric Christopherson

8 years, 8 months

High performance coprocessor boards of the 80s and 90s - was Re: SGI ONYX

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Josh Dersch > It's actually a SCSI device the size of a refrigerator. Given all the largish machines you have, you must have either i) a warehouse, or ii) a very large basement and a tolerant SO! :-) Noel

8 years, 8 months

[OT] Alternatives to eBay

by sales＠elecplus.com

I have spent over 100 hours looking for viable alternatives to selling computer stuff. Vintage does not have its own place. Bonanza.com is gaining popularity, but it is not really IT or electronics oriented. Pricewatch.com and similar sites only deal in reasonably current equipment. VCF does have a marketplace section, but (and please don't take offense) it is so rudimentary, and the listings are so outdated, that is does not seem to be of much use. How do you find what is still available? True auction or ecommerce software would eliminate stale WTB and WTS listings. There are many free places to send XML product lists to be added to their comparison shopping engines, and all of those are very well indexed by Google. If you make it easy for people to see that it is an open place to buy and sell, 1 page registration, etc., then it will probably grow quite well. If you really want it to grow, you can get free press releases with many of the computer related online magazines and communities. If you don't try it, you will never know J Thoughts? Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus

8 years, 8 months

strangest systems I've sent email from

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 7:24 AM, Rod Smallwood <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> wrote: > Extreme Mailing > > What is the most unusual place you have sent mail from? Lake Hoare, Dry Valleys, Antarctica, November, 1995, after I installed a Ritron "radio phone" and a dialup modem at the Field Camp... http://penguincentral.com/pics/gallery/hoare/camp.jpg http://penguincentral.com/pics/gallery/hoare/hoare1.jpg It's a one-hour helo ride from McMurdo, one of several Field Camps in the region. (There are 20 times the number of people who go to/through the South Pole each year than ever see the Dry Valleys, so that's not as "unusual", I'd say, but it's a runner-up) -ethan

8 years, 8 months

VMS consulting gig?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I have an associate that is working with a large Fortune500 company and is having issues connecting his stuff to "legacy" technology there. Apparently, a company called "Synergex" has a "screen scraper" type program that presents a gui to a windows desktop user from a character based application (VMS or OpenVMS). So if anyone has general expertise with both OpenVMS and the Synergex "GUI on VMS programs" application, drop me a line off list and we'll get you involved. Best, J

8 years, 8 months

Imlac PDS-1 source code

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Josh Dersch > I have an Imlac PDS-1D ... > There's precious little software out there for this thing Did a copy of Mazewar for the Imlac survive? There are partal file system dumps of some of the MIT machines, but IIRC Mazewar was only on MIT-DM, and I'm not sure its files are still accessible (although they will be on backup tape at MIT). Noel

8 years, 8 months

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test-drb April 2016