test-drb December 2017

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

127 participants
147 discussions

by sofubicollectibles＠gmail.com

Hi, I'm brand new to vintage computing and would love any advice. I'm thinking of putting together a SM EVM A131-10 and would appreciate any advice/knowledge on the unit.?

6 years, 3 months

DEC quad board rack

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, I've been making wooden racks to hold a lot of my DEC boards, and I've finally come up with a nice design for one, which holds quad boards: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/jpg/QuadRack.jpg which holds them vertically. It's much better than the dual rack next to it, which holds them horizontally, which has the issue that the distance between the sides needs to be absolutely perfect, otherwise the boards tend to drop out of their slots. With the boards held vertically, it's much less sensitive. If anyone's interested in building one, I can whip up a drawing. (Note that the slots are offset slightly to the left because one needs different clearances for the solder and component sides.) The one shown uses 3 pieces of 1"x8"x6' (not sure what that translates to in that new-fangled French stuff :-). It would be tricky to make without a radial-arm saw, though - although I suppose a router with a small bit could be used, albeit tedious. Noel

6 years, 3 months

Computing from 1976

by gerhard.kreuzer＠liftoff.at

Hi, I was working 1976 as a volunteer at a research center near Vienna in Austria writing FORTRAN programs on a PDP8a. We also have a PDP8/e there. Now I am collecting DEC stuff. Happy new year !!!!!!!!!!!! Gerhard -----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht----- Von: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] Im Auftrag von cctalk-request at classiccmp.org Gesendet: Sonntag, 31. Dezember 2017 19:00 An: cctalk at classiccmp.org Betreff: cctalk Digest, Vol 39, Issue 30 Send cctalk mailing list submissions to cctalk at classiccmp.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to cctalk-request at classiccmp.org You can reach the person managing the list at cctalk-owner at classiccmp.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of cctalk digest..."

6 years, 3 months

Attaching SIMH devices without halting simulation?

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

I've been experimenting with the SIMH VAX simulators a lot lately. The only way I know of to mount a tape, disk pack, CD-ROM, etc. after boot time is to halt the simulation with ^e to get to the SIMH command prompt, ATTACH the desired image, and then resume the simulation with CONTINUE. Is there any way to attach/detach media images in SIMH without halting the simulation? I've tried putting the system console on a telnet port so it doesn't occupy SIMH's controlling terminal, and I found that it's still necessary to halt the simulation to get back to the SIMH command prompt. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

6 years, 3 months

Non-Yahoo MTS Mailing Lists

by lyndon＠orthanc.ca

Are any of you aware of an MTS mailing list that lives outside of the execrable Yahoo groups environment? And if not, is there any interest in starting one? Meanwhile, if there are any MTS hacks on the list, I have a question: When running *SAV or *SVW, what are the labels the system is expecting for the FSnnnn tapes? I tried the obvious - FS2001 for the FS2001 tape prompted for - but no luck there. Then again, maybe I'm not labeling the tapes properly. This is under Hercules. hetinit -d fs2001.aws FS2001 MTS doesn't cut it. I also tried running *lbh against that tape (to give it the same label), but no luck there, either. The MTS operator's guide doesn't have anything to say about daily/weekly backups, other than the cryptic notes on the *SAV and *SVW files, and I can't find anything else as I dig through the rest of the online system docs. $HELP ? --lyndon

6 years, 3 months

VAX/VMS & IBM 360 manuals from mid 1980s

by sieler＠allegro.com

Hi, A friend, probably in Ohio, tells me his father has 3 boxes (about 150 pounds) of manuals for VAX/VMS and IBM 360 from the mid 1980s. If anyone's interested in following up, email me and I'll send you the contact info. thanks, and Happy New Year! Stan Sieler

6 years, 3 months

Slightly Meta: Travel tips for people traveling internationally with vintage equipment?

by mbbrutman＠brutman.com

I'm actively working on show planning for VCF PNW and I'm noticing that we have a few international travelers planning to attend and exhibit their machines/projects. I'd like to put together a FAQ for the logistics of traveling with vintage equipment across the US border. If you have ideas please let me know. For example: Should I plan on providing letters in advance stating that a person is a registered exhibitor at our show, including details like the show location, dates, times, and contact information in case there is a question about why somebody is carrying strange looking equipment into the US? Is there any sort of paperwork or customs form needed even if nothing is being sold or left in the US? Any other gotchas to look for? Thanks, Mike

6 years, 3 months

RT-11 idle light pattern

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > RSTS-11 V4, which had a major reliability problem ... As part of trying > to keep the customer placated, DEC supplied full OS sources, 5 > dectapes. ... We printed them ... I still have copies of those files. Is that version available online? If not, maybe an OCR project? (Although I know other versions of RSTS-11 are available, so maybe it's not rare enough to make the tedium of OCR worth it. That has been used on a number of systems; notably CTSS, but also the IMP code and the Apollo Guidance Computer, that I know of. I'm currently looking into getting an early version of MERT, and that may also come down to OCR - if we're lucky!) > Stranger still is the "fancy" lights in RSTS ... "Fancy" because it > produces a rotating pattern not just in the data lights which is easy, > but also in the address lights. It runs in supervisor mode Ah; it must busy loop at loops spread across the address space? Clever! (Perhaps using the mapping hardware so that it doesn't use too much _actual_ memory.) Is the source available? Noel

6 years, 3 months

Standalone X/Y/ZMODEM for non-PC x86

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All ? ??????????????? I?m looking for some x86 source code for what I?ll call a standalone version of an X/Y/ZModem (or any combination thereof) for use with a non-IBM/PC x86 machine. Many versions exist on Simtel and other archives but they are executable programs rather than source. ??????????????? The reason for the odd request is that the system that it will be used on is a Seattle Gazelle replica I built based on the one in the VCFE inventory, and the constraints are hardware/OS imposed. None of the I/O ports are at PC-compatible addresses and it has no INT-callable system BIOS. The system does run both MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 but the standard character I/O devices other than CON: (LPT and AUX) are mapped to parallel ports on one of the boards. COM1 and COM2 devices don?t exist. ??????????????? Ideally it should just take two command line parameters ? the file name and whether it?s a transmit/upload or receive/download transaction. I know that the protocol is fairly simple but I was looking to adapt something rather than starting from scratch. I found an implementation of XMODEM in Microsoft BASIC, but it relies on opening the COM1 device to work. I am looking into writing direct hardware access using PEEK/POKE, but I?m not there on it yet. ??????????????? If anyone has something usable in their archives, please let me know. Thanks, and Happy New Year to all! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

6 years, 3 months

Computing from 1976

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I was perusing my old computer magazine collection the other day and came across an article entitled: ?Fast-Growing new hobby, Real Computers you assemble yourself?, Dec. 1976. It was about MITS, Sphere, IMSAI and SWT. 4K memory was $500. Yikes! Even more here in Canada. Now this is true Classic Computing. Have a Happy New Year everyone. May the computing gods shine down on us all in 2018. Happy computing. Murray :)

6 years, 3 months

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test-drb December 2017