test-drb June 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

196 participants
290 discussions

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Fritz Mueller fritzm at fritzm.org > Are DEC ECO's available online anywhere? ... I am particularly > interested in ECO's related to the KB11-A (11/45). I have a DEC Field Circus handbook arriving today that allegedly contains some ECO information; if there's anything on the KB11-A, I'll see if I can get it scanned. Noel

8 years, 6 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 24, Issue 22

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 18:08:49 -0700 > From: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: PDP-11/40 modified to be a PDP-11/23 > > What boards exactly? Are you sure it's not an M7133 11/24 board instead? > > From front to back in the AB slots: - M8186, KDF11-A, 11/23 CPU, 18-bit addressing only - M8044-DM, MSV11-DD, 32-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM - M8043, DLVJ1-M, 4-Line Asynchronous Interface - M7940, DLV11, Serial Line Unit (SLU, Async) A custom interface to the front panel is in the CD connectors of the first slot. I will post pictures of the boards on the RICM WWW site. -- Michael Thompson

8 years, 6 months

Data General 8000-series logic in my Nova 3?!

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

The testing that I've been doing so far to get the 6045 hard drive working on my Nova 3 suggests that the interface card receives commands over the IO channel (i.e., I can command seeks and get the expected clunking sounds from the drive). But the interface card does not appear to be responding back to the CPU so far, since attempts to read the three IO registers or the busy/done flags always return zeros. So, I'll need to move on to component-level debugging of the interface card now. I'll need to have access to the interface card, of course. The first step was to swap the positions of my Nova rack and my VAX-11/730 to get the right side of the Nova away from the wall. This wasn't easy in the tiny, cluttered room that they live in. Next, I lowered the Nova 2 rack units, because it was in the top rack position and I couldn't get access to all of the top cover screws to get the top cover off. Damn, that thing is heavy! I pressed my hydraulic lift hand truck into service. There was a 2U filler panel under the Nova that can now live at the top of the rack, so there will be no need to raise the Nova back up later. With the top of the Nova accessible, I removed the quad serial mux in slot 12 to expose the component side of the disk interface card in slot 11. There are 6 empty slots under the interface card, so I have good access to both sides of the interface card, as well as the backplane. Now I should be able to do things such as running a tight loop reading or writing a controller card register while I probe the logic. Should be simple, right? Well, it would be if I had a schematic diagram of the interface card. So, I'm doing this in hard mode. I decided to do a little preliminary trace identification on the card before going to bed tonight, and that's when I discovered that this game is in very hard mode: Most of the ICs on the controller card are marked with a DG logo and an 8000-series number, and I have no documentation about those chips yet. The busy/done flags come out of a DG 8109, but what the heck is that? I hope that they'll end up being rebadged 7400 series chips or something like that so I'll have some chance of finding replacements, but I'll need to figure out how to identify these DG chips before I can make much progress debugging the card. I've been looking through the documentation that I have, as well as looking in documents on Bitsavers for DG gear other than the Nova 3 in hopes of finding anything identifying these 8000-series chips. I haven't found the decoder key so far. If anybody out there in cctalk land knows about DG-marked 8000-series logic chips, I would appreciate any help very much! -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

8 years, 6 months

PDP-11/40 modified to be a PDP-11/23

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

The RICM just picked up a PDP-11/40 chassis that was modified to accept a PDP-11/23 board set. It also contains a custom board to interface the PDP-11/23 to the original PDP-11/40 front panel. It is quite an accomplishment to get the Q-Bus board set working in the Unibus chassis. -- Michael Thompson

8 years, 6 months

CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Swift Griggs > I see a lot of traffic about them on the list and I went out to > discover "why so cool?" One word - 'crunch'. The 6600 especially, but also its successors (7600, etc) were _the_ number-crunching monsters of their day. For everyone who had a scientific/engineering application that needed lots of cycles - especially floating-point - that was _the_ machine to have. IBM tried to outdo them, but spent a fortune, and didn't really get there - the 360/9x was essentially a failure - only 15 /91's and 2 /95's were ever built. (And IBM was later sued for predatory sales practices for announcing them before they knew they could make them.) IBM just couldn't match Seymour Cray. Speaking of whom, the 6600 was the source of the famous Watson memory (and Cray's sarcastic response) - Google it! Noel

8 years, 6 months

Still ISO: Infotek MX-30 Memory boards for Infotek FP-30 (HP 9830 upgrade)

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hey all -- Several years ago (well, three years ago, anyway) I stumbled upon a beat-up, incomplete HP 9830 desktop computer/calculator that had been upgraded with an Infotek FP-30 CPU upgrade. Unfortunately, it's missing the special memory boards (the MX-30) the system requires. I asked around back then and had no luck, I figured I'd try again. If anyone has any parts for this rare beast, drop me a line. Alternately, if someone else has a need for the parts I do have, let me know and maybe we can work something out. It would be nice to get a working system (even if it's not mine) out of this stuff. Thanks! Josh

8 years, 6 months

CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> the 6600 was the source of the famous Watson memory Oops, typo; 'memo'. Noel

8 years, 6 months

Found cleaning out stuff from before gray hairs and needing glasses

by pete＠petelancashire.com

http://petelancashire.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=7139

8 years, 6 months

old friend is slimming down the warehouse

by sales＠elecplus.com

An old friend of mine in GA is slimming down his warehouse. I know a long time ago people sent me some pics and lists of things wanted, but that was a long time ago. If you are looking for old servers, big blue IBM things, DEC stuff, etc., please take a few minutes to send the following info to oldthingswantednow at gmail.com The name of the item A short description A link to a pic, or attach a pic What you want to pay for it The expected condition (tested, old and dirty is fine, etc.) His health is not the best, but he wants this stuff to go to people who will appreciate it, rather than by the pound. He will do his best to answer everyone. Inventory ranges from old typewriters to mainframes, and everything in between. Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus

8 years, 6 months

HP Series-80 computers - PRM-85 board case? ... maybe!

by ball.of.john＠gmail.com

>Anyone with a 3d printer want to make one for us? > >J Not only do I also own a PRM-85 but I do have part-time access to a 3D printer. If I can get the prototyped models (and the model itself fits within the limits of the printer bed)I can verify that they fit together in an HP 80 series machine (85 in my case)and that the board itself fits inside the enclosure however due to membership restrictions at our local makerspace I cannot use the printer to fulfill any orders, plus they will eat up a lot of filament. -John

8 years, 6 months

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test-drb June 2016