test-drb January 2017

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

198 participants
283 discussions

by steve＠stephenmerrony.co.uk

Does anyone have (a scan of) a manual that covers programming the MV-era MTB tape controller? I have a 1980 "Peripherals" manual (014-000632-01) from the "Programmer's Reference Series" which covers the MTA type, but it seems that the MTB behaves a bit differently and I am missing some information for my current project. Thanks, Steve -- /Stephen Merrony Email: steve at stephenmerrony.co.uk http://www.stephenmerrony.co.uk/dg/

7 years, 2 months

Rack-mounting a TU56

by ard.p850ug1＠gmail.com

I have been given an H960 rack :-). I intend to use it for my PDP8/e system (currently piled up, not connected), which consists of the : PDP8/e processor, Full of cards, memory extension, EAE, 32KW core, boot diode matrix ROM, RK8e, RD8e, RX8e, PC8e, etc. PC04 paper tape punch/reader (acutally, I converted a PC05, but that doesn't matter here) RK05 (well, there's an RK8e in the backplane and I have a spare RK05 so I might as well use it) RX01 TU56 (single drive version, ths is not a TU55 as some have suggested!). Various PSUs and step-down transformer for the TU56 and PC04 I think I have the right slide rails for the first 4 units too... Anyway, does anyone have experience of rack-mounting a TU56? It clearly doesn't go on slide rails, it bolts directly to the rack (hinge down the front panel for access). I have the manuals from Bitsavers, they imply there is some kind of spacer block that goes under the TU56. Does anyone know what that is exactly so I can attempt to make one if it is needed. -tony

7 years, 2 months

What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

by rickb＠bensene.com

A selection of some of my more unusual computer-related stuff: - A Tektronix 4132 Unix workstation using a National 32016 CPU and a 4.2bsd port called UTek - A Digital Equipment PDP 8/e system with 2 RK05 drives, high speed paper tape reader/punch, RX01 Dual 8" floppy drives, 16K of DEC core memory(commonly runs with a 32K NVRAM board), 2 serial ports, EAE, RTC, Memory Extension/Timeshare board, Diode boot board (RK05 boot) - Wang 300-series calculator field service parts kit (two wooden briefcases) - Friden 6010 Computyper Diagnostic Console - Friden Electronics Training Course manuals (1960s) - Wyle Laboratories WS-02 punched card programmable electronic calculator (1964) - Busicom 207 punched card programmable electronic calculator - Altair 8800 with Altair dual 8" disk drives - IMSAI 8080 kit built in high school as a school project in 1976/1977 - Televideo Personal Terminal - GE transistorised current loop acoustic coupler modem (110 baud) - Hewlett Packard 9100A and 9100B programmable electronic calculators - Tektronix mini-Board Bucket computer and many boards for it (EPROM Blaster, TI TMS9918-Based Video Board w/RTC, SASI Interface, 6809 CPU, 6809 ICE CPU. 32K Static and 64K Dynamic RAM Boards, 300-Baud Modem Board, 5 1/4" Floppy Controller - SWTPC TV Typewriter - A large format (4'x5') Summagraphics digitizing tablet with GPIB interface - A Tektronix 4052 desktop computer (bit-slice implementation of Motorola 6800 CPU) with very rare RAM Disk module installed under keyboard - Wang Laboratories dual-cassette drive for 700 series calculator - An old fluorescent-lighted, two sided sign advertising Denon electronic calculators - Some original Digital Equipment System Modules (Used by DEC for making some of their early computers) --- Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com

7 years, 2 months

Paper tape carriers and paper tape

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

I don't know if anyone here has the interest or capability to do it, but creating a replica of the blue tape trays with the clear overlay that one could sell for a few bucks with some random fanfold copies of DEC or other diagnostics would be nice. Perhaps if there were a ready source of replicas with a perpetual listing or 10 to overwhelm the auctions with 100 and 300 dollar auctions for the genuine originals the originals would be listed and sold for a reasonable amount. I'm sure there there are things going to people with no idea what they have which would have been nice to image and save. I would think someone with vacuum molding and some skill with plastics could do the trays. not sure about the source of tapes to sell with them, maybe that does justify some extra expense. People with working readers and libraries of tapes might like them as well. thanks Jim

7 years, 2 months

DEC VT100/220 line wrapping semantics sought

by mattiase＠acm.org

Would someone with a real DEC VT terminal be so kind and help settle, once and for all, the question about how they behave with respect to line-wrapping, exactly? It is something that isn't covered by any standard, nor by any of DEC's manuals, and there is a scarcity of information online that is not vague repetition of folklore. There are emulators, of course, but these do not agree with one another to the point that they can be trusted, and are probably just copying each other in any case. It seems that some ground truth would be welcome, for the benefit of both application and emulator writers. First, the problem: A VT100, when in "auto-wrap" mode, will wrap text from one line to the next in a peculiar way, sometimes called "soft-wrap" or "the VT100 glitch". When the terminal receives a printable character with the cursor in the last column, the character is put at that location but the cursor remains in place. Instead, the terminal enters a pending wrap state, which causes the cursor to wrap before next printable character is displayed. This behaviour is widely known. What isn't widely known are the finer points: * What control codes will cancel the wrap state? * What cursor position is reported in the wrap state? * Do any operations behave differently in the wrap state? * Is the wrap state saved/restored by the save/restore cursor codes? and so on. Every emulator programmer seems to have a different answer to these questions. If you have a VT100, VT220 or later model (compatibles like Wyse are also of interest) and have a spare moment, I'd be most grateful if you would download and run https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mattiase/wraptest/master/wraptest.c in that terminal, and send me the resulting output. (Redirect stdout to save the report.) The test program is not comprehensive but would give us a good idea of the rules. Current results, right now only from various emulators, are found in https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mattiase/wraptest/master/results.txt

7 years, 2 months

FW: Y Combinator is restoring one of Alan Kay's Xerox Alto machines

by curiousmarc3＠gmail.com

Video of session 6 is up: https://youtu.be/b7yVhMT7tr4 Found our first bad IC. Probably not our last one. On 9/3/16 11:08 PM, curiousmarc3 at gmail.com wrote: Episode 5, still does not boot, but we are starting to follow long why: https://youtu.be/Wr7vDZpniNIr Marc On Jul 31, 2016, at 6:12 PM, CuriousMarc <mailto:curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> <curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> wrote: Next Episode: https://youtu.be/EDw8U1a6s78 http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day_31.html Marc From: Curious Marc [mailto:curiousmarc3 at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2016 2:01 AM To: Curious Marc; cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Y Combinator is restoring one of Alan Kay's Xerox Alto machines Ken's in-depth blog post to go with the previous video http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day_11.html On Jul 5, 2016, at 2:46 PM, Curious Marc <mailto:curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> <curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> wrote: Video from yesterday?s work on the Diablo cartridge disc: https://youtu.be/PR5LkQugBE0 Should be up in a few minutes. We were tickled pink to have official representation from PARC (former Xerox Parc) at the session. Marc Ken?s new post on the monitor repair to go with my previous video. http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day.html Al Kossow got us a new CRT tube, so we are probably going to try that this week-end. Marc Latest entry from Ken Shirriff, trying out BCPL (ancestor of C). On the emulator, not yet on the real machine: http://www.righto.com/2016/06/hello-world-in-bcpl-language-on-xerox.html Marc There are only two entries right now: http://www.righto.com/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-restoring.html http://www.righto.com/2016/06/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day.html Marc

7 years, 2 months

LMI Lambda?

by dseagrav＠lunar-tokyo.net

If there is anyone out there who has access to or knows someone who has access to an LMI Lambda in any condition or configuration, please contact me.

7 years, 2 months

Wanted: AT&T 3B2 systems & software

by lists＠loomcom.com

(n.b.: Sorry for the "wanted" spam from me. I think this is the last one for a while!) I have access to a friend's AT&T 3B2 Model 400 for exploratory and reverse-engineering work, but I would really like to get a system of my own. To that end, if you have an AT&T 3B2 you'd like to part with, please drop me a line. Happy to pay fair market prices, or consider some trades if you prefer that (I have a lot of DEC Qbus stuff) I'm also still looking for more documentation. I especially wish I had schematics, and any docs related to writing drivers. Anything that would be useful in documenting the 3B2 internals would be lovely. Thanks! -Seth

7 years, 2 months

[cctalk-request@classiccmp.org: confirm 38290c8a992491eda604beff5a06ff20cd7e85f5]

by ams＠gnu.org

Can someone please fix the mailing list software? This has been reported every once in a while by a bunch of people for over ten years. These are a just the last bounces I got: 20-Jan cctalk-request at classiccmp [78] confirm fd5d1f938a6c920c61c094802694d0194e87f1a4 25-Jan cctalk-request at classiccmp [78] confirm e01809296377d0fd3033b4ab27394ca7dc0fae71 31-Jan cctalk-request at classiccmp [78] confirm 38290c8a992491eda604beff5a06ff20cd7e85f5

7 years, 3 months

Please identify this circuit board

by ilcohn3＠gmail.com

Hi, Can someone identify this circuit board? It's some sort of magnetic core memory. I've had this for ages and I've always wondered what it is and where it comes from. http://lookpic.com/O/i2/366/iAFq4mLF.jpeg Best regards

7 years, 3 months

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test-drb January 2017