*Eric Smith *writes:
> On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 11:18 AM Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org <http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech>> wrote:
>
> >/Does it have the 800 bpi option board? />//
> I haven't yet unboxed it. I took photos of the outside of the destroyed box
> to send to the shipper. The front bottom left corner of the 88780 is
> visible through a hole in the box, and is visibly mangled.
>
I acquired mine as a piece of decommissioned hardware where I worked.?
It came home with me in my car.
Some time later (mid 90s) I loaned it to a friend for some contract work
at <a likely-bankrupt public utility in San Francisco>.? I drove it up
there and delivered it on a cart.? The stars, however, did not align for
getting it back to me the same way so they shipped it to me where I
worked.? There was some damage to the plastic front cover and control
panel mounts.? I was able to repair or work around most of it, and the
unit still works fine to this day. (Well, the plastic take-up reel is
loose...)
Pretty much everything I have that could go in a rack I fetched myself
rather than having it shipped to me.? While one can't always do that, I
recently carted home an HP 3455A multimeter from Los Angeles, some 400
miles.? I was already in the area, otherwise I don't think I'd've made
the round trip just for it.
> Based on the service manual, it appears that option 800 requires:
> * buffer PCA 07980-6xx14 (512K) or 07980-6xx34 (1M)
> * read/write/formatter PCA 07980-6xx31
>
Mine has the 800 bpi option.? Not by inspection, but by operation.
--
Jeff Woolsey {{woolsey,jlw}@jlw,first.last@{gmail,jlw}}.com
Nature abhors straight antennas, clean lenses, and empty storage.
"Delete! Delete! OK!" -Dr. Bronner on disk space management
Card-sorting, Joel. -Crow on solitaire
Hey Kyle.
You can narrow things down a bit by removing the optional Z-buffer and
additional bitplane memory (ZB3 and BP4). While that removes those two
masses of memory out of the equation that still leaves the still massive
amount of ZIPP base video memory. for the later Onyx systems I've only seen
pinstriping when the video memory or supporting glue has been allowed to
overheat. I can't recall if it tests the graphics as well but have you tried
running the ide diagnostics in case that refines the error a little?
-John
>I've got a graphics issue in my 4D/35, and I suspect it's a VRAM chip. I've
>got vertical lines appearing on the screen, but not everywhere on the
>screen; that seems to hint at an issue with one buffer having bad memory.
>It was especially evident in the flight simulator demo, where alternating
>frames flashed with and without lines.
>
>The ever helpful self test says, "ERROR: Failure detected in the
>Electronics Module (graphics). press <Enter> to continue".
>
>The system is equipped with the ZB3 and BP4 on a GR1.2.
>
>How can I better diagnose this issue? There are so many RAM chips soldered
>on these three boards. Tracking it down to a single chip sure would be
>nice.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Kyle
although? ?I? think? ?most? production? ? for? switch gear? ?was? ?done? ?with the later? ?32? bit? ?unit
Ed#
In a message dated 2/10/2019 12:49:36 PM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at classiccmp.org writes:
telephone? gear?
ed#
In a message dated 2/10/2019 12:26:20 PM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at classiccmp.org writes:Bringing up a bit of an old thread here, as I just picked up one of theseyesterday. Typed in some example programs, which took far too long thanksto a bouncy keypad. But hey, at least it works!
Were there any real applications for the MAC-8? Haven't been able to findmuch.
Thanks,
Kyle
> From: Jerry Weiss
> it is impressive that UNIX booted successfully without tripping over a
> boundary.
Well, V6 is (or can be configured to be) extraordinarily small, so I'm not
surprised it booted OK without going over the 0170000 mark.
I have this persistent memory that the -11/40 in the CSR group at MIT had only
3 banks of MM-L (@16KB each) when I first got there! Which is plausible; the
smallest V6 config would have about 22KB of core text, and about 2KB of
initialized data. If you cut all the parameters to the bone (minimal number of
disk buffers, etc) you could probably get away with say 6KB of un-initialized
data. That would leave you 18KB for user programs on such a system, a bit less
than their recommendation of 24KB minimum for users, but probably minimally
useable.
We quickly added more memory, I'm sure, but I don't now remember how/what!
Later on it was converted to an -11/45, and then we got an Able ENABLE, but
that would have been a couple of years later.
Noel
> From: Jerry Weiss
> Though not a disk controller, the DEC DR11-B/DA11-B would not cross 64K
> boundaries.
Interesting! What's odd is that the DR11-B uses the Bus Interface card (M7219)
>from the RC11 controller, and that _can_ cross moby boundaries, so clearly it
has the right overflow output; someone just decided not to implement it - the
DR11-B sets ERROR instead on an address overflow. Wierd.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if RSTS operates correctly once this
problem is fixed...
Noel
Greetings to the List -
I am mounting a couple of heavy (130-pounds each) HP7970e tape drives
to a 19" rack.
The screw holes that mate to the standard spaced holes on the right
side of the drive after you open the case are visible and obvious.
However, the holes on the left are hidden under the heavy die-cast(?)
frame of the drive.
Anyone know how to get to those three screw holes with a horrible disassembly.
There has to be a trick to this that I don't see (so what else is new? :)
Best,
Jack
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Harper, President
Secure Outcomes Inc
2942 Evergreen Parkway, Suite 300
Evergreen, Colorado 80439 USA
303.670.8375
303.670.3750 (fax)
http://www.secureoutcomes.net for Product Info.
> From: Fritz Mueller
> If, as you are suspecting, we find damning evidence pointing
> specifically to the RK11
I got an update from Fritz. As you all will recall, the problem seemed to be
a corrupted 'pure text'. So the question was 'when was it damaged, and how'.
After some confusion caused by different OS images (the 'Ritchie' and
'Wellsch' distros), he managed to get a look at the text in main memory after
it was first read in from the file system, and before it was swapped out (it
was showing up damaged after a swap out/in cycle); it looked good at that
point. The copy written out to the swap disk however, not so good.
A look at the RK11 registers after the swap-out showed an anomaly; something
about the extended memory address bits? (Maybe a multi-block transfer than
crosses a 64KB boundary? That would explain the address sensitivity we were
seeing.) Hopefully he'll track it to its lair shortly.
We also need to characterize exactly what the fault is, because the DEC RK11
diagnostics weren't finding it, so it seems the diagnostic suite could use an
enhancement....
Noel
> From: Alan Frisbie
> Harbor Freight sells a nice hydraulic lift table for under $200 that I
> have found very useful for that sort of thing. It doesn't go up very high
> (like for the top of a rack), but I used it with some wood blocks
Thanks for the tip! I got one on sale for about US$140; it's _very_ sturdy.
And the top is just large enough to hold two milk crates (available at
Home Depot, BTW), so it's guite easy to build up a stack as high as one
needs to reach the top of a 6' rack.
Noel
> From: Jon Elson
> Likely some disk controllers did NOT SUPPORT crossing 64K boundaries!
No; the RK11 spec says "[the two extended memory bits] make up a two-bit
counter that increments each time the RKBA overflows".
The actual error turns out to be slightly different to my guess; there's
a spurious overflow from the low 16-bit register to these bits at 0170000.
I can see how the diags didn't catch that one! Unless you try a multi-block
xfer that walks across the boundary.... A perfect example of Vonada #12.
Noel
All boards are corroded.
May be some can be saved ?
I am offering :
12002 B XL Ctrl 512 Kb 51x0-013 x = ? Pictures available
12001 C CPU 12001-80001 Has the 1AB5-6001 "HP SoS processor" with Two EPROM ( 12001-80006 and 80007 )
Any interest in imaging these ? BUT, ** I ** cannot do it !
A ser Qty TWO 12005-60010 Has the 1AF5-6001 "HP SoS processor"
HP_IB 12009-6x00 x=? with 1AA6-6004 and 1AC5-6001
12021A Cntrl R 12021-60001 has the 3 Eprom
and Nec P16175-12 / Intel D8291A / ? FD1791A
Eprom : 2116, white ceramic, labeled : 5180 - 0144, 0137, 0136 ( U43, U53, U63 )
Any interest in imaging these ? BUT, ** I ** cannot do it !
Backplane 2 column, 4 row .... a slight scrubbing may be enough
Card Cage, if needed : Fine
Power supply seems in great condition. Will check more closely, if needed.
Battery board !!!!! Only the relays and buzzer can be saved !
Case ?? Who would like a case ?? ;-)
TERMS :
Remember : I live in France ( shipping ..... )
Small item ... free
Medium items ( cards ) ..... shipping cost
Large items .... shipping cost plus a fee for packing material and my time.
Will wait a full week, to see if BOARDS are asked for, before making PARTS available.
