>Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2019 17:18:26 -0400
>From: Murray McCullough <c.murray.mccullough at gmail.com>
>Back in 1965 Jack Kilby, Jerry Merryman and James Van Tassel at texas
>Instruments
Merryman died on February 27.
>From the New York Times (March 7, 2019):
Jerry Merryman, Co-Inventor of the Pocket Calculator, Dies at 86
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/obituaries/jerry-merryman-dead.html
Bob
> From: Brent Hilpert
>>> Back in 1965 Jack Kilby, Jerry Merryman and James Van Tassel at texas
>>> Instruments created an integrated circuit designed to replace the
>>> calulator. Historians, though not all, credit this development as the
>>> beginning of the electronic-computing revolution that was truly underway
>>> by the mid-70s.
>> Scotty, more power to the Reality Distortion Field!
> It's not an out-to-lunch suggestion.
> The digital pocket calculator was the first mass-market digital electronic
> device to be put in the hands of the consumer.
It's not clear which element of the original post that Al was referring to; I
saw several things I might disagree with:
- Unless you look at the date carefully, the notion that TI's work developing
chips was intended to replace the calculator.
- The notion that it was calculators that drove the development of micros;
Intel had actually started work on a micro for Datapoint, which was
eventually released as the 8008, _before_ they started on the 4004 for
Busicom.
I'd have to think long and hard before I rendered a judgement on how
important digital pocket calculators were to where we are today.
My initial reaction is to say 'not very', though - early personal computers,
centered on Silicon Valley, were mostly driven by having, well, a personal
computer. It's not clear that widespread ownership of personal calculators
did anything to drive that.
Noel
Does anyone have schematic for a Trio Labs PSU made in 1975
https://i.imgur.com/MTwcpRA.jpg
It is a primary side switcher made in 1975 outputting 100 Amps 5Volt.
Quite early for being primary switcher I would guess.
I used to work at UBC in Pharmacology in the
1980's and had a few talks with Bill Webb about
Unix but, unfortunately, for the data acquisition
we were doing Unix was far too slow and I did
everything in optimized PDP-11 assembler. Of
course, we didn't have a PDP-11/45 like Bill had
and had to make do with a slower PDP-11/34. Bill
had hacked Unix considerably and it was locally
known as Webbix on campus. Played around with
Unix and Webbix back then but don't think I have the tapes anymore.
One of the RL01 or RLO2 disks I picked up at SERF
in the 1990's (along with a MINC system)
contained a copy of Webbix but I'm not sure I
copied it. Gave away the MINC and 2 RLO1 or RLO2
drives to a guy in Seattle about 2006 and hopefully he's copied them.
Boris Gimbarzevsky
>I recovered several pieces of Unix media ? all
>of whichh I think made it into TUHS/PUPS
>collection - at UBC in the mid-1990???s while I was working at TRIUMF.
>
>Those Unix disks and tapes came from a SERF sale
>(Surplus Equipment Recycling Facility) on UBC
>main campus, not from TRIUMF. Bill Webb was a
>common thread for Unix use in the biology department at UBC.
>
>TRIUMF extensively used Data General Nova, then
>Eclipse (both 16 and 32 bit), computers from
>opening through the 1990???s for both cyclotron
>control systems and data acquisition for
>experiments. They also had a fair number of
>PDP-11???s and VAXen running RSX-11, RT-11, and
>VMS. I myself had an Alpha workstation on my
>desk for the two users I was at TRIUMF.
>
>One of my favorite connections between TRIUMF
>and UBC, was the underground pneumatic tube used
>to rapidly carry short lived isotopes produced
>in the cyclotron to the main campus for biology
>and medical uses. It should not come as a
>surprise to anyone that I still work in moving
>things and people through underground tunnels ????
>
>Tim N3QE
Another VCF is upon us ...
VCF PNW 2019 takes place March 23rd and 24th at Living
Computers:Museum+Labs in Seattle. We have 30 exhibits (up from 20 last
year) and six speakers, including Joe Decuir, IEEE Fellow. Our exhibits
include:
Josh Dersch with Three Rivers PERQ workstations
David Cooper with a VAX cluster
Vince Slyngstad demonstrating PDP-8 reapirs
Foone Turing with his collection of floppy and optical disks
Joerg Hoppe with BlinkenBone and UniBone (w/ Josh)
Oscar Vermuelen with his replicas of the PDP-8, 11, and LGP-30
Ian Finder, over-achieving with two exhibits and helping on third
Alan Perry with his SPARC clones
Some rif-raff with their 8 bit home machines. ;-0
Admission is free once you pay to get into the museum. And of course the
museum is worth checking out even without us, but we are going to make it
that much better.
We'll have a consignment room if you want to do some treasure hunting. (If
you are looking to sell some treasure, that works too - you don't have to
participate in the event to use the consignment room.)
Full details can be found at http://vcfed.org/vcf-pnw/ . Or email me
directly if you have questions.
-Mike
Today's tape recovery gem. UBC's PDP-11 UNIX tools distribution ca. 1983 which includes UBC BASIC and their RT-11
emulation. It has a couple of bad blocks, but I couldn't find another copy of this anywhere.
http://bitsavers.org/bits/UBC/
If anyone has a complete copy, it would be good to replace it, but most is better than none of it.
For your interest:
MARCH 8, 2019 ? KansasFest 2019, the 31st annual Apple II convention, is scheduled for July 16 ? 21 in Kansas City, Missouri. Mark Pelczarski of Penguin Software, well-known for numerous graphics utilities, books, and games, will join us with a keynote presentation to celebrate the Apple II.
Pelczarski began publishing graphics-related Apple II software in 1978 while in his early 20?s under the brands Penguin Software and Polarware <http://graphicsmagician.com/polarware/index.htm>. He is an entrepreneur, author, programmer, consultant, and professional educator. Mark is well known for the Graphics Magician <http://graphicsmagician.com/polarware/graphics.htm> software, a toolkit for creating graphics that includes over 50 major software publishers as customers including Random House, Sierra Online, Spinnaker, and Mattel. He wrote monthly columns for Softalk and the book Graphically Speaking. Besides pioneering computer graphics, Polarware published numerous games including Transylvania <http://graphicsmagician.com/polarware/adventures.htm>, The Coveted Mirror <http://graphicsmagician.com/polarware/adventures.htm>, and Spy?s Demise <http://graphicsmagician.com/polarware/arcade.htm>. After leaving Polarware in 1987, Mark turned his attention to computer music and to online courses. Mark once said ?I like to make computers do things,? <https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-03-01-8501120306-story.html> so he?ll surely fit in at KansasFest.
KansasFest is an annual convention offering Apple II users and retrocomputing enthusiasts the opportunity to engage in beginner and technical sessions, programming contests, exhibition halls, and camaraderie. KansasFest was originally hosted by Resource Central and has been brought to you by the KFest committee since 1995. Any and all Apple II users, fans, and friends are invited to attend this year's event. Registration details will be announced on the KansasFest Web site, and registration will open on March 31. For photos, videos, and presentations from past KansasFests, please visit the event's official Website <http://www.kansasfest.org/>.
CONTACT:
KansasFest 2019
http://www.kansasfest.org/
<http://www.kansasfest.org/>http://twitter.com/kansasfest/ <http://twitter.com/kansasfest/>
https://www.facebook.com/events/2286816188228271/ <https://www.facebook.com/events/2286816188228271/>
--------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Weyhrich <IX0YE>?<
I recovered several pieces of Unix media ? all of which I think made it into TUHS/PUPS collection - at UBC in the mid-1990?s while I was working at TRIUMF.
Those Unix disks and tapes came from a SERF sale (Surplus Equipment Recycling Facility) on UBC main campus, not from TRIUMF. Bill Webb was a common thread for Unix use in the biology department at UBC.
TRIUMF extensively used Data General Nova, then Eclipse (both 16 and 32 bit), computers from opening through the 1990?s for both cyclotron control systems and data acquisition for experiments. They also had a fair number of PDP-11?s and VAXen running RSX-11, RT-11, and VMS. I myself had an Alpha workstation on my desk for the two users I was at TRIUMF.
One of my favorite connections between TRIUMF and UBC, was the underground pneumatic tube used to rapidly carry short lived isotopes produced in the cyclotron to the main campus for biology and medical uses. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that I still work in moving things and people through underground tunnels ?
Tim N3QE
We interviewed TRS-80 designer Steve Leininger on the latest TRS-80 Trash Talk podcast.
http://www.trs80trashtalk.com <http://www.trs80trashtalk.com/>
Although he does not have the same recognition, Steve?s contribution to the history of personal computing is on par with Steve Wozniak (Apple I/II) at Apple and Check Peddle (PET 2001) at Commodore.
Classic Computer Fans,
I posted this to the IBM-Legacy-Hercules mailing list. I just realized it
probably wouldn't hurt to post it here too.
I'm finally in possession of a box that hopefully is capable or can be made
capable of connecting a real terminal to Hercules. It's a 3174 11L. It was
retired last year where I work. I finally got the okay to save it from
being sent to a scrapper. I love the build quality of older IBM gear,
except when I'm trying to move such gear. Between the 3174 and a 9406-520 I
also acquired, I pulled or strained something in my left arm moving them
into place.
It's currently wired to run on 220v. I think I've seen mentioned somewhere
that it can be changed to run on 110v. If that's the case, does anyone have
a pointer to documentation on what's involved?
It has dual floppy drives. At least one drive is a 2.4MB drive. But, all
the microcode disks I have are at level B 4.6. Does anyone know where I can
get a set of C 6.4 control and control extension disks. From what I've
heard those are what's needed to enable an attached terminal to connect to
other systems via telnet.
It has a token ring card. I will probably be able to get the MAU it was
connected to, and possibly the router that acted as a token ring to Ethernet
bridge.
I'm not sure how much memory it has. Does anyone have any tips on
determining the amount of memory it has, and/or identifying its boards?
These are the numbers on its boards:
9210
9351
9052 z2
9053
9501
Plus the boards for coax connections.
--
Kevin
http://www.RawFedDogs.nethttp://www.Lassie.xyzhttp://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX
What's the definition of a legacy system? One that works!
Errare humanum est, ignoscere caninum.
------------------------------------
Posted by: Kevin Monceaux <Kevin at RawFedDogs.net>
------------------------------------
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Kevin
http://www.RawFedDogs.nethttp://www.Lassie.xyzhttp://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX
What's the definition of a legacy system? One that works!
Errare humanum est, ignoscere caninum.
