Folks,
Just to say I did end up doing a re-install of OS/2 on a smaller drive, which took most of today, but the P390 software is now installed and I have loaded VM/CMS and IPL'd a simple 3-pack system copied from Hercules. The readme that comes with the P/390 V2.5 software explains how to set up the systems so PCOMMS can talk to it. I still don't have the screen resolution working at 1024 x 768 which the manual says it should. Oh and PMVNC also runs so I can remote control the beast. It was all a bit of a slog, mostly because OS/2 is a bit of a slog. The P/390 was the easy part.
Thanks to all who helped,
Dave
I don't see a manual for the HP 12661A DVS (Digital Voltage Source)
interface card on bitsavers, or hpmuseum.net, or anywhere else.
The only reference I have found is in a list of not scanned manuals here:
http://rikers.org/hp2100/jeff/iocards/iocards2.txt
---------- 12661 DIG VOLT SOURCE ----------
MANUAL FOR DIGITAL VOLTAGE SOURCE PROGRAMMER
INTERFACE KIT HP 12661A
MANUAL NO. 12661-90004
APRIL 1971
[Cards #12661-6001 and 12661-6002, connector 02116-6178]
This is the interface card that would be used in an HP 1000 to control
an HP 6130A Digital Voltage Source. See Hewlett-Packard Journal, June
1968.
There is the 14902A BCS driver as listed in
5950-9226_HP_Software_Catalog_Aug1973.pdf
Source code for that driver is available as 14902-80001_Rev-A.src in
the bitsavers HP_1000_software_collection Master Files, Type 4.
Mainly just curious because I have a couple of HP 12661A interface
cards without manuals that I have never tried to use and I was
reminded about them when an HP 6130A made a brief appearance in Marc's
latest Weird Stuff video.
ever wanted to own your own set?McGraw-Hill's Compilation of Open Systems Standards (McGraw-Hill data communications book series) (1991-01-30)?Hardcoverdrop me a line? ?off list...? thx? ? ? Ed#
Any Zenith Z-90 owners out there (which appears to be the same thing as a
Z-89 / Heath H89, but with a DD soft-sectored disk controller)?
I was given one up a couple of days ago which isn't giving the expected
"H:" prompt at power-on - but it *does* give a blinking cursor, and hitting
off-line lets me type, and characters get echoed to the screen.
Right-shift-reset clears the screen and gets me back to the cursor.
Before I dig deeper, I'd like to verify that this isn't a feature, i.e.
that it's not auto-magically dropping into "terminal mode" at startup :-)
Unfortunately while I have masses of documentation for the machine, I'm
lacking a basic user guide which might shed light on any such mode; some of
the more detailed documentation that I have talks about rerouting the port
cabling to use the system purely as a terminal, but doesn't mention doing
any other configuration.
cheers
Jules
> Date: Fri, 11 May 2018 23:11:57 -0500
> From: "Sam O'nella" <barythrin at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Sparc Laptops
>
> Yes the IBMs are worth tracking down. I always keep my eye out but rarely
> see them come up for sale but it'd be fun to have an RS/6000 that doesn't
> cause a hernia to move. My only similar one is a tadpole but I don't recall
> the version. I used a universal power supply to get it to run for a little
> while but then I'm pretty sure the backlight on the lcd popped and went
> out. So I'm also a member of the almost but not quite functioning owners
> club. :-) Would gladly get rid of some Ultras if I could upgrade to a
> portable.
>
The Tadpole with the 50MHz PowerPC processor was sold as an IBM N40.
I have one of those too.
--
Michael Thompson
So I've just realized that the KB11-B (the earlier -11/70 CPU, the KB11-C
being the later) FMPS is not online; I couldn't find them (but then my
Google-fu is notoriously weak, q.v. the Motorola 4015 - thanks all, BTW), but
Manx also says:
http://manx-docs.org/details.php/1,9214
they aren't available.
So, I have a set (got it not too long ago on eBait). Does anyone need these?
Only my 8x11 scanner has auto-feed, so I'm not up to doing the whole thing,
but I'm prepared to go through and scan the things that are different from the
KB11-C (the prints for which _are_ available); the M8133 and M8138, and
whatever else is different (flow diagrams, etc).
Noel
Folks,
I am rebuilding a Microchannel server with a P/390 card. It must have come
with a licence for OS/2 Communications Manager as its required to get the
P390 working but despite having several boxes of CDs and Floppy Disks I
can't find a copy of this software anywhere. If anyone has a copy of CM 2.11
they are not using and would be prepared to sell me., I would be pleased to
pay for it.
Dave Wade
G4UGM & EA7KAE
Drums were used as main memory in a number of early computers, and as secondary memory for a while longer. I wonder how fast real ones (actually constructed) managed to be.
What prompted this question is reading an interesting document: https://ir.cwi.nl/pub/9603 (in Dutch), "Principles of electronic calculating machines, course notes February 1948" by Prof. A. van Wijngaarden at the Mathematical Center (now CWI) in Amsterdam. It's quite a fascinating short introduction into computing technology of that era. (One comment in the intro: "The field is new. At the moment, the Eniac is the only working machine..." -- probably not quite accurate given some classified machines, but not too far wrong.)
The section on main memory describes a bunch of different technoly possibilities, one of them drum memory. He writes that a drum of 8 cm diameter (a bit over 3 inches) and "a couple of decimeters height" could hold maybe 100k bits, with a track pitch of "a few millimeters". So far so good. He goes on to suggest that such a drum might spin at 1000 revolutions per second, i.e., 60,000 rpm. That seems amazingly high. I could see it being physically possible for a drum of only 40 mm radius, but it sure doesn't sound easy. It's a good goal to strive for given that the logic, even in the days of vacuum tubes, can run at cycle times of just a couple of microseconds. As one more way to speed things up he suggests having multiple rows of read/write heads, where the addressed word would be picked up by whichever head sees it soonest. 10 rows and 60k rpm would give you 50 microseconds average access time which "even for a parallel computer would be a very attractive number". (Pages 17-18)
I'm wondering what the reality of fast drum memories looked like, and whether anyone came even close to these numbers. Also, am I right in thinking they are at least in principle achievable? I know I could run the stress numbers, but haven't done so.
paul
