test-drb July 2018

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

148 participants
163 discussions

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mark Matlock > With the 11/83 the position of the memory board ... above the CPU uses > PMI Yes, through the C-D interconnect; described in detail here: http://gunkies.org/wiki/CD_interconnect#Use_by_PMI The 'above' is because the CD interconnect is not a true bus, it only interconnected pairs of slots. > In the 11/84 the CPU is above the MSV11-JE memory The PMI is still on the CD connector in this machine, but the PMI is wired as a true bus on the backplane, allowing that ordering. > there are 3 Bus slots in the 11/84 above the Unibus map board, would it > be possible to put a dual width Q22 I/O board in the second memory slot > (not the PMI side of the slot) and have it able to DMA into the > MSV11-JE? It is speculated that this should be possible, but there are jumpers on the backplane you'd need to pull. See the writeup here: http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/84#QBUS_slots Noel

5 years, 9 months

Landfill?

by joezatarski＠gmail.com

> I also have a few boxes of old books and IBM slip-case manuals (techRef, > etc.), 3" and 3.25" drives, at least one bundle of hard sector disks, half > a dozen HP "pinch to close shutter" 3.5" disks, a Shugart 3.5" from before > they HAD shutters, a Sony 600RPM 3.5" (if I can find it), . . . > ('course all of THAT will look like Generic PC Crap to people unfamiliar, > . . . ) > > I'm not healthy enough (last year I had another TURP surgery, instead of > VCF, eclipse, and Concourse D'Lemons) to dig out the 8" drives, or to > really load up, so, it's gonna be a much lesser quantity of what I can > manage. > > -- > Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com <http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk> If you turn it up, I might be interested in getting that Sony 600 RPM drive, but I won't be at VCF East. I need one to replace the broken one in my HP logic analyzer. Let me know price/shipping if it turns up. Joe Zatarski

5 years, 9 months

TRS-80 floppy

by w2hx＠w2hx.com

Not mine, just thought it might interest some here https://www.ebay.com/itm/202376723756 73 Eugene W2HX

5 years, 9 months

any data on death of Mark E Rorvig? - Microcomputers in Libraries etc

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Mark E. Rorvig , Denton, associate professor of library and information sciences, 1995-2002. Rorvig was nationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of information retrieval. From 1990 to 1995, while serving as an adjunct professor at UNT, he worked as a computer engineer for NASA at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. His research focused on deciphering large amounts of information and finding new ways to piece it together. He produced four U.S. patents on information retrieval algorithms. Rorvig earned a bachelor's degree in English at Seattle University, a master's in library service from Columbia University and a doctorate in information studies from the University of California at Berkeley. At UNT, he led the master's program in information systems.any? ? one? know? him? I took? some? photos? for a? book he? did on microcomputers in libraries? and? took an into? to dp? class? from him? when I started? ?Computer Exchange in? AZ? ? ?I had? talked? ?into? course years? before? ?from someone else? but thought hey? good? to take it now things have changed and I am going into the biz! ? I talked to? him again? years? ago and? thanked? him? for admitting me? to an already? full class...but in looking him? up? to? get some data? from him? find? he? had? passed but? ?almost nothing out there....in the? way? of? info except? ?for the? brief? info in? google.? I? remember? ?during that? class period? I? got? first? pdp-8? m or? f ?? ?and? brought it into class and? showed? the students? how? I would? toggle it.... ? Funny? this is when I? got? to first? play on the HP2000 F I later to own? surplus? form the college that? shaped? my entire? future? business? ( still have it under glass at? SMECC) ? ? Having that? PDP 8 was? great? as a tty? tester!? Sold? many ttys? in the? early? days.... ? thanks? ed sharpe archivist for smecc ?

5 years, 9 months

Strange third party board in PDP-11/45

by mattislind＠gmail.com

s?ndag 22 juli 2018 skrev Paul Birkel <pbirkel at gmail.com>: > 26 bits (or 13 bits) doesn't make any sense on a 16-bit machine; makes > more sense as a high-speed I/O buffer. One can note that it is actually two different types of 1k chips. 16 chips are 94L415 and 10 chips are 93415. As far as I understand the L is the slower variant. This could mean that 16 bit data is in the L chips while the faster chips are used for a 10 bit cache tag. Maybe 8 address bits plus some valid bit and possibly a dirty bit? The switch is marked ON/OFF which could simply cache on/off. The handwritten label on the board says that it is not in use and should sit in slot 21. And of course those two I/O connectors don't belong on a cache. Those IO connectors are connected to two double height boards in 26 /27 AB. They are also made by ACT and contain a few TTL chips. So it pulls out some signals out of both Unibuses but 20 + 10 signals at most it not much of a complete bus so I wonder what kind of signals go there. > While odd to use slot 21 (Fastbus) for something other than memory I don't > know why a fast memory-mapped I/O channel couldn't go there. > Also note all of the signals employed on tabs C-D-E-F? > It may not even employ the Fastbus; just talk to Unibus B. > Unfortunately there's not much documentation for the MS11. > It seems likely that A-B isn't anything like the usual Unibus signals, and > who knows where the Fastbus signals are routed. > On my backplane D-E are essentially unused whereas A-B-F are busiest. > > I see the marking "copyrighted 1976", which is rather earlier than the ACT > / ABLE documentation online. > > From Bitsavers see the ABLE documents for the SCAT/45: > Able_Computer_Product_Summary.pdf - page 3 > Able_Computer_Product_Brochures_1982.pdf - pages 16-17 > > The PN 10003 doesn't seem to match anything documented from ACT, however > it's consistent with them. > The original QBus Univerter is PN 10001, and is dated 1976. There are some documentation to get with the machine so the manual for the board might turn up. > > What are the pair of DIP24 ICs on the lower-left? Fairchild 9308 Dual 4 bit latches. > > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Paul > Anderson via cctalk > Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2018 6:54 PM > To: Mattis Lind; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Re: Strange third party board in PDP-11/45 > > I think it's Applied Computer Technologies, and I think they made cache > and several other options. They were popular back in the day. I have a > bunch of their boards here. > > Paul > > On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 1:37 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk < > cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > This board was sitting in slot 21 of the backplane in a 11/45 > > > > https://i.imgur.com/ZYWZQCo.jpg > > > > What kind of board is this? > > > > It has 26 bipolar RAMS. Fairchild 93415 1kbit SRAM. > > > > The manufacturer might be ACT whatever that is. > > > > My guess is that it is some kind of cache board? It is connected to both > > unibuses in the machine. > > > > Better ideas? Documentation? > > > > /Mattis > > > >

5 years, 9 months

Strange third party board in PDP-11/45

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Birkel > ABLE Computer Technology. Their first product was PN 10001 ... the > A.C.T. Univerter This board is not shown in any of the Able brochures we have: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/able/brochures/ However, Able info is _very_ thin on the ground, now... Noel

5 years, 9 months

Strange third party board in PDP-11/45

by mattislind＠gmail.com

This board was sitting in slot 21 of the backplane in a 11/45 https://i.imgur.com/ZYWZQCo.jpg What kind of board is this? It has 26 bipolar RAMS. Fairchild 93415 1kbit SRAM. The manufacturer might be ACT whatever that is. My guess is that it is some kind of cache board? It is connected to both unibuses in the machine. Better ideas? Documentation? /Mattis

5 years, 9 months

AIM 65 Cassette Test Program

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

Bill, I?m not familiar with the program they mention for the AIM65, but in Section 9 of the User?s manual on bitsavers is a good description of how to set up cassette recorders with the AIM65. If the recorder has a pause input the AIM65 can control the tape both during read and write. If two cassette tapes were available It could read assembly source code from one and write object to the other. (When the computer came with 1K Ram expandable to 4K you did stuff like that. On page 9-13 they do have two short test programs ?SYN Write? and ?SYN Read? that can be used to adjust record and playback volume as well as the VR1 pot on the AIM. If they are just looking for ways to save and load programs the best way was to utilize Teletype interface that is described on page 9-26. The described interface is for the current loop that ASR33?s had but that is pretty easy to change to RS232 with some external chips. With that interface 240 characters per second could be read or written. If you upgraded the RAM a bit with an external board the AIM was quite a nice 6502 development tool. I built a number of things with it. 1. Instrument to measure the stability of vegetable oils. (See ?Oil Stability Index?) This analytical method is still used today but with more modern systems. It used a ICL7109 12 bit A/D, 16 relays, a pen plotter, and a home built conductivity circuit with 32KB Ram with software burned to 2532 EPROMs. We wrote the source on a PDP-11/24 and loaded it into the AIM65 for local assembly and store to RAM. We used 2K Byte battery backed up RAM (MK48Z02B-25) on the AIM till debugged then burned an EPROM. 2. A data acquisition system for a Perkin Elmer AA / Graphite Furnace. 3. A converter to change 66.67 baud 6 bit ticker tape code to 9600 baud ASCII. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticker_tape <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticker_tape> ) Believe or not there was one commodity exchange still transmitting their data in this format in the 1980s and Our PDP-11/44?s DZ11 interface could do 50,75,110 and higher baud but could read this data. This used a 6522 to generate 16 times the 66.67 baud and was fed to a UART to read it. 64 byte program, and 64 byte look-up table. 4. A remote monitor that provided video output, and RS232 data recording from 9 digital temperature meters. The meters were read by counting their clock pulses during the down slope of the dual slope meter allowing each meter to be read with three wires (Ground, Clock, Gate) that were switched with 74150 Chips. So I have found memories of the AIM65 and the last time I had it set up about 2 years ago it still ran fine. Mark Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2018 11:27:36 -0400 From: Bill Degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> To: cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> Subject: AIM 65 Cassette Test Program Hi all...I got the following through my web site. Does anyone have a good known-working test program for an AIM 65 cassette that I can attempt and or send in response? I still have to set mine up and attempt to reproduce, but someone here likely has more experience, it has been at least 5 years since I powered mine on. Also, the article this guy references from MICRO April 1979 volume 11 is not present in my copy of MICRO, he may be mistaken in his reference. I don't know what cassette program he is referencing. I do know that the cassette test program that comes in the Rockwell AIM 65 manual is in error, but I don't have the corrections. I also know that one needs the correct (optional otherwise) power lines when using cassette. Bill VintageComputer.net Inquiry - I am one of the founders of the Computer Museum in Basel (CMBB/CMGB). We have 2 AIM 65 units that seem functional. However, we're experiencing problems with the cassette drive when trying to read back. We tried to record using cassette recorders and also a modern PC through line in and the audio signals are clearly recognizable (from pin M). A connection to pin L and using the corrected program to test readback from "micro_11_apr_1979_text_syn_read_program_AIM65.pdf" only displays the "N" on either AIM 65 system. The cassette interface potentiometers are sealed in one of the units by the manufacturer and have never been changed as far as we can tell. Is there anything we could try to get reading from tape to work? We are running our of ideas. Is there any way to visualize the incoming signal through a small program other than the one from the magazine?

5 years, 9 months

Kenwood VC-1H SSTV communicator pricing request

by henry.bnd＠gmail.com

Hi Gang, I have a Kenwood communicator, I can't imagine many of these were sold in the UK, I have the box, manual, warranty card, data cable. It runs of four double As. Quite a weirdly niche gadget, if not strictly computers. Does anyone have an idea of what a good condition one of these is to buy? I doubt I've made base rate inflation with it mind. I'll email photos for anyone interested in seeing either an SSTV image or the device itself. And yes, you'll need an amateur radio license to use it. Henry

5 years, 9 months

AIM 65 Cassette Test Program

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Hi all...I got the following through my web site. Does anyone have a good known-working test program for an AIM 65 cassette that I can attempt and or send in response? I still have to set mine up and attempt to reproduce, but someone here likely has more experience, it has been at least 5 years since I powered mine on. Also, the article this guy references from MICRO April 1979 volume 11 is not present in my copy of MICRO, he may be mistaken in his reference. I don't know what cassette program he is referencing. I do know that the cassette test program that comes in the Rockwell AIM 65 manual is in error, but I don't have the corrections. I also know that one needs the correct (optional otherwise) power lines when using cassette. Bill VintageComputer.net Inquiry - I am one of the founders of the Computer Museum in Basel (CMBB/CMGB). We have 2 AIM 65 units that seem functional. However, we're experiencing problems with the cassette drive when trying to read back. We tried to record using cassette recorders and also a modern PC through line in and the audio signals are clearly recognizable (from pin M). A connection to pin L and using the corrected program to test readback from "micro_11_apr_1979_text_syn_read_program_AIM65.pdf" only displays the "N" on either AIM 65 system. The cassette interface potentiometers are sealed in one of the units by the manufacturer and have never been changed as far as we can tell. Is there anything we could try to get reading from tape to work? We are running our of ideas. Is there any way to visualize the incoming signal through a small program other than the one from the magazine?

5 years, 9 months

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test-drb July 2018