test-drb March 2018

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

158 participants
173 discussions

M837 (KM8-E Memory Extension and Time-Share) available

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So I have an M837 (KM8-E Memory Extension and Time-Share option for the PDP-8/E, -8/F & -8/M) available; got it with a group of other cards, and I have no use for it. Anyone want it, and have (or can acquire :-) anything PDP-11ish (boards, mounting hardware, manuals, prints, I'm not picky - although it has to be something I need/want, I'm already knee-deep in DL11's :-) to trade for it? Noel

6 years, 9 months

NEC TK-80A Ref Manual Wanted

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Looking for a reference manual to the NEC TK-80A trainer. Rev A. This one: http://bugbookmuseum.blogspot.com/2015/12/computer-tk-80-single-board-8080.… Thanks Bill

6 years, 9 months

QSIC update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Hey, all, a quick update on recent progress. I now have a working prototype to match Dave's (although he's still doing all the real work), and we've made a minor improvement in them (re-wired things so we can use shorter cables to the FPGA daughter-card). I got my indicator panel working, it looks quite nice: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/QSIC/jpg/DasBlinken2F.jpg http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/QSIC/jpg/DasBlinken2NF.jpg The inlay is an original from a TS08 that I happened to have lying around; Rod S has made us a large batch of new blanks, but silk-screening of the captions on the front of those is yet to happen. The bezel is also an original. (I have a large stock of those, so it'll be a while before we need to work out how to make new ones - probably resin casting, although 3D printing will be an option too.) However, the guts are all new, and as you can see, the result looks just like the real originals. Dave has also worked out how to connect up the RKV12 (our name for the 22-bit RK controller, by analogy with the RLV11/RLV12) to the internal 'block' RAM in the FPGA, and then did the stuff to connect it to both the uSD card and the internal RAM at the same time, with one drive connected to the RAM, so things like swapping, etc don't 'waste' uSD writes. Both of these are working quite reliably; the exciser/tester runs until we get tired of the noise, and turn the machines off! :-) His current project is to work out how to talk to the larger external RAM on the FPGA daughter-board (the internal RAM isn't large enough for even a single complete RK pack). I'm so looking forward to putting swapping, /tmp, pipes, etc all on different platters, so as the system (Unix V6, natch :-) runs I can watch the lights and see _exactly_ what's going on! After that: turning the RK into an 'RPV12' (which should be pretty easy, the RK11 and RP11 are very similar), and adding a mux so that the two controllers can share the storage devices, etc. Those should both be done soon after the external RAM (and maybe before, if Dave needs a break from that :-). We also intend to do an 'extended RP11' (name not yet chosen, although I like 'RPV-12D - DEC's last was the RP11-C), which extends all the disk address fields in the register to use the unused bits, giving us pretty massive storage capability. With 16 bits of cylinder (up 7), 8 bits of surface (up 3), 4 bits of sector, that gives 28 bits of block number per drive; and with 8 drives per extended RP11, that's a total of 31 bits of block number per controller. Convert the blocks to bytes, that's 9 bits more, so 2^40 bytes per extended RP11, or 1TB! Very shortly now we'll need to turn to starting on the design of the 'production' hardware. Noel

6 years, 9 months

Membrain Software

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

In doing some research on the operating system for MU5, MUSS, I have been told that a UK company called Membrain may have acquired it at some point in the late 70's. Membrain were based in the South of England and made Automatic Test Equipment. Does anyone have any information on Membrain? Any software artefacts? Source code even? I have had a look on BitSavers and Membrain does not feature at all. Thanks Rob

6 years, 9 months

Some fun: who can identify this ?

by pete＠petelancashire.com

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ww7KPnPVexGJiqyE3

6 years, 9 months

Someone had asked me about they were looking for Claude Shannon Bell Labs publications for a display? Please email me off list Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Someone had ?asked me ?about ?they were looking ?for Claude Shannon Bell ?Labs ? ?publications ?for a ?display? Please email me ?off?list Thanks ?Ed Sharpe archivist? for SMECC

6 years, 9 months

EF50 was Re: radar history

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Donzelli > Germany often gets the short end of the stick when it come to radar > tech in World War 2 For those who are interested in German radar, there's a good book: David Pritchard, "The Radar War: Germany's Pioneering Achievement 1904-45", 1989 which covers their systems in some detail. There's also: Martin Streetly, "Confound and Destroy: 100 Group and the Bomber Support Campaign", 1978 which contains a very interesting chapter about an exercise called "Post Mortem", run immediately after the close of hostilities, from 25 June to 7 July, 1945, in which the Allies observed (from inside) the workings of the German air warning network, including things like how well it coped with various kind of jamming (window, as well as active). Noel

6 years, 9 months

radar history

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chuck Guzis > the magnetron was made out to be a super-secret device, yet there's a > clear explanation of it in my 1942 "Radio Handbook". Ordinary magnetrons had indeed been around for a while; they were invented in 1920. The British invention was the _cavity magnetron_, a quite different beast; it was kind of a cross between a magnetron and a klystron, with the best features of each. Buderi (which is indeed an excellent history, perhaps the best in the radar section of my library) has a good explanation of how it works. Noel

6 years, 9 months

Heathkit card cage with DEC cards available

by useddec＠gmail.com

I recently found a Heathkit card cage ( 85-2001 121476 on backplane ) with a DEC M7270, M8044, M7946, and M8043. I still have a few Heathkit boards buried here sonewhere. Please contact me off list if you have any questions or wish to make an offer. Thanks, Paul

6 years, 9 months

FTGH: Pair of unknown extender cards

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Fritz Mueller > Spring cleaning, Noel? :-) Yeah, sort of! These came with a bunch of PDP-11 boards I bought on eBay, and they're just clutter. More stuff coming soon! Noel

6 years, 9 months

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test-drb March 2018