test-drb April 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

203 participants
299 discussions

Favorite Resolution && favorite monitor, sound, video, and capture (retro)

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

Since I doubt I'm the only one on the list with failing eyes. I thought I'd ask about monitors. Now, I'll preface this with the fact that I have some macular degeneration in my retinae. So, I prefer lower resolution monitors (so that fonts can't get too tiny). I also prefer as many NITs, CD/M2, candlepower, or whatever you like to call "brightness" as I can get (again, it's my eye issues). I was curious what folks liked? Since I mess with a lot of consoles and still occasionally play with the Amiga or MiST, I like to have the option to do composite video. Keep in mind is all geared toward retro users. I konw there is "better" gear than this, now. Favorite LCD Monitor line: NEC Multisync, Dell Ultrasharp Favorite CRT Monitor line: Iiyama (Sony Trinitron as a runner up) Favorite Video Resolutions: 1280x1024 4:3 and 1280x720 (16:9) Favorite display Devices: SGI O2 CRM graphics, The Voodoo3 for PC, The VillageTronic Picasso IV for the Amiga. Favorite retro NTSC/PAL Video capture devices: SGI Indy built-in composite/s-video, SGI O2 A/V option, Amiga Newtek Video Toaster Flyer, Quadra 880AV option for Macs, and the Matrox Rainbow Runner for desktop PeeCee. Favorite Retro Sound Cards: Gravis Ultrasound for PC, Sound Blaster emu10k ("Pro" PCI cards), Amiga Studio 16, SGI DM8 for SGI/IRIX, Pro Audio Spectrum for 68k macs. If we are going further back to the 90's I'd say I liked 640x480 for all the great artwork done in that res on various platforms and MCGA 320x200 for games (mainly because they finally got 8-bit color that way). The biggest downside to the NEC monitors is that few of them support composite or S-Video. The biggest upside is that most of them perfectly support sync-on-green. Another good monitor in terms of flexibility for retro use is the Dell 2007FP Ultrasharp. It's 20" I think, but has a plethora of ports and features. I also own a Sony Trinitron PVM-20M2MDU medical monitor for my Genesis, SNES, and Neo Geo MVS conversion system. It's around 50 pounds (22 kilos), but at 20" it's small enough to keep around. It's tough to beat these for any type of non-HD video. I'm getting interested in projectors, too. However, I'm doubting I'll find one that's bright enough and will do all the video modes I want (ie.. mix of sync-on-green with composite etc..) -Swift

8 years, 8 months

Britain's first mass-produced business computer is now on display

by wulfman＠wulfman.com

http://www.gizmag.com/britain-computer-mass-produced-first-public/42595/

8 years, 8 months

PCP11-E board

by jws＠jwsss.com

I have a PCP-11E board, which I'd like people to comment on, perhaps point me at some documentation if you know of any. Google is saturated with references for the three letter acronym for a controlled substance, nothing much has showed up, and the manufacturer was not very proud of the board, so that won't reduce ambiguity in searching for info. It has a z80, and a couple of Parallel I/O chips as well as a Zilog CTC on it, so it is smelling like some sort of equipment interface or perhaps a Laser printer or high speed printer board. Probably has a 2716 chip on it for code, would like to get it imaged and disassembled. http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2016/02/pcp11e-qbus-board.html I did a quick look at the thing and there are pictures of the overall board as well as closeups. I guess one could hope to play with CPM on it if nothing else. thanks Jim

8 years, 8 months

Looking for RSX-11M V4.2 images

by supervinx＠libero.it

I'm looking for RSX-11M V4.2, not plus. Thanks

8 years, 8 months

RSX-11M trouble

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> The SYSVMR.CMD shows that the Indirect Command Processor is named ICP.TSK. > Sadly, ICP.TSK is one of the four tasks that have read issues... > > I need another info: BAD is destructive or not destructive? > BAD is destructive to the data on the disk! If there are only four tasks that have read issues you may be able to move just those tasks over from a good version of RSX-11M with Kermit which you mentioned you had. > Here I am! > RSX-11M V4.2 BL38B > > I have two RX50 disk units and Kermit. > 512kb and one RD51 fixed disk. > I planned to archive separately every [*,*] and image the disks. > I tried and can write back and read RX50 disks with a properly setup PC. > I need only RSX-11M installation disks images but I'm confident they can be found somewhere on the net. > I'll give a look to BRU... A RD51 drive holds about 10 MB which is about the minimum for a RSX-11M system. The RX50 disks could load a version of Micro RSX which was a pre-GENed RSX-11M system. I used it one time to recover a non-bootable RSX system disk where someone deleted the RSX11M.SYS file that the boot block pointed to. I have not seem those RX50 images of Micro RSX on the internet so far. Since you can read and write the RX50 disks with a PC. Get a copy of PUTR from John Wilson Dbit site http://www.dbit.com/pub/putr/ to be able to write RX50s in RT-11 which can be read in RSX-11M with FLX. Then get a copy of Simh >from the GitHub: https://github.com/simh/simh Once you have a working Simh PDP-11 emulator (e.g. pdp11.exe) then get a bootable baseline RSX11M disk image ftp://ftp.trailing-edge.com/pub/rsx_dists/rsxm70.dsk.bz2 (Note: this disk image is actually RSX11M V4.8 The Simh will need a configuration file (e.g. sim.ini) that describes the PDP-11 system it is emulating like this: sim> do sim.ini set console log=./console.log set cpu 11/23, 256K set cpu idle set tto 8b set rq0 rd54 attach rq0 rsxm70.dsk sim>show rq sim> show rq RQ address=17772150-17772153, no vector, RQDX3, 4 units RQ0 159MB, not attached, write enabled RD54, autosize, SIMH format RQ1 159MB, not attached, write enabled RD54, autosize, SIMH format RQ2 159MB, not attached, write enabled RD54, autosize, SIMH format RQ3 800KB, not attached, write enabled RX50, autosize, SIMH format sim> b rq0 and it will boot RSX11M where this will bring up a baseline RSX11M system. DU3 should be a virtual RX50 that will create a disk image that can be read with PUTR and moved to a real RX50 or you could use Linux DD to image the RX50. At any rate the emulated RSX11M system will have the tasks that should be compatible on your real PDP-11. You might also be able to kermit from the simulated to the physical PDP-11. At any rate having a virtual RSX11M system to experiment with will help you a great deal in getting your real system running. If this is too complicated, I could try sending you an RX50 disk image with the tasks you need, but I only have RSX11M V4.8 (I mostly use RSX11M+ V4.6) handy so we'd have to try those .TSKs to see if they might work. > Well, let me understand better... > > 1) VFY reports errors on some files (-4 and -101), but ELI DU0:/SH > reports no soft or hard errors. > I have a defective disk or the file system is broken? > > 2) No ICX.TSK. Only ICP.TSK, (-4 and -101 errors with VFY) > > 3) I've found only tape images for RSX-11M. I have no tape unit. If you are not getting errors on the disk, then the disk is probably ok and the file system has some corruption. Remember that an RSX11M system should be shut down by running shut up to make sure all files are closed etc. >RUN SHUTUP BRU can do disk to disk copies but with only one RD51 and no tape it won't help much. In my RSX work I use a SCSI disk controller like a Emulex UC07 with the SCSI2SD card that emulates unto 4 DU disks on one microSD card. This makes it very easy to move large disk images from Simh on a PC to be bootable RSX disks on the PDP-11. It is easy to back up and very reliable. The SCSI2SD card is only $65 but Qbus SCSI cards are a bit pricey. By the way which CPU is in the PDP-11, a 11/23? Good Luck, Mark

8 years, 8 months

USB on a TURBOchannel {VAX,DECstation,Alpha}

by abs＠absd.org

For anyone who has ever felt the urge to have a USB port on their VAX (or similar) http://www.flxd.de/tc-usb/ Now if only we could find someone who wanted to write a lot of VMS driver code.... :-p

8 years, 8 months

Original HP 2116A is running again!

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I remember part of the history mentioning they wanted it to be known as an instrument controller at first.... Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 4/3/2016 12:12:19 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, nw at retrocomputingtasmania.com writes: Good work on getting the 2116A working again. Anyone care to speculate on the initial low sales of the 2116A? was it because HP weren't well known for producing computers at the time or was the $22K asking price too high compared with say DEC's less than $10K for a PDP-8?

8 years, 8 months

Mac SE/30 pincushioning and flicker

by dave＠661.org

I recapped a Mac SE/30 a few months back and only just now put it back together. After a false start with dirty contacts on the ROM simm and resulting irregular vertical bars, the machine is working again. There are no more zipping sounds coming out of the speaker. Two problems remain: 1) There is slight pincushioning along the bottom of the CRT, about a third of the way in from the left. 2) The CRT produces a rather noticable and irritating flicker. I don't remember the one-piece Macs flickering like this. I think a cleverly-placed magnet might fix the pincushioning and recapping the analogue board would remedy the flicker. Can I get some thoughts, commentary, and suggestions on this? -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

8 years, 8 months

Original HP 2116A is running again!

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

hardware or software manuals Bill? Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 4/2/2016 3:23:55 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, billdegnan at gmail.com writes: On Sat, Apr 2, 2016 at 4:29 PM, Jon Johnston <jondjohnston at hotmail.com> wrote: > Just in time for her 50th birthday in November: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kko526UpHsM&feature=youtu.be > > www.hpmuseum.net > > > Thanks for that. I could not find much about the 2116A (2114/15) software on Bitsavers or the HP museum site. Where else does one go for these manuals? -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

8 years, 8 months

Original HP 2116A is running again!

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Yahoo! congrats! In a message dated 4/2/2016 1:29:56 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jondjohnston at hotmail.com writes: Just in time for her 50th birthday in November: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kko526UpHsM&feature=youtu.be www.hpmuseum.net

8 years, 8 months

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test-drb April 2016