test-drb September 2019

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

131 participants
100 discussions

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mattis Lind > Thanks Noel for sorting this out. Eh, de nada. But thank you. >> I wonder if the ucode in the two versions is identical? The uROM chip >> numbers should give it, (if they are the same on both versions, albeit >> in different locations on the board), but I have yet to check. Does >> anyone happen to know? OK, so the situation here is pretty complicated. To start with / make things worse, that CPU uses lots of PROMs. Lots and lots and lots and lots of PROMs. For the data paths board (M7260), both major versions appear to contain the same PROMs (going by the DEC part numbers), but the chip location (Exx) numbers are all different. For the control board (M7261), the C, E ('early' version) and F ('late' version) etch revisions each contain mostly the same PROMs, but apparently with slight differences between the sets of PROMs in each (as reflected in different DEC part numbers). For details see: http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/05#Control_PROMs to which I have just added all the gory details. As to getting the contents of all of them dumped in machine-readable form - oi vey! >> on the earlier version (prints for that version are in the GT40 prints >> online It turns out that I have hard-copy prints for the "C" etch revision of the M7261, which do not yet appear to be online; the GT40 prints have the "E" etch revision. I will scan the pages for that revision of the board, and put them up 'soon'. (I'm not doing the whole print set, it's about 1" thick, and most of them are for other things anyway, like MM11-L memory, etc.) Noel

3 years, 3 months

Font for DEC indicator panels

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Toby Thain > To get closer I'd need better images of the panels. Hi, I borrowed a DEC inlay from someone (a KA10 CPU bay) and scanned a chunk of it (as much as I could fit into my A4 scanner :-) at 200 dpi: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/jpg/KACPUPanel.jpg I have a TC08 inlay, but it's currently being used in my QSIC display (until we can get the RKV11-F/RPV11-D inlay done :-), and I didn't want to yank it out. As far as I can tell, it's the same font on the two of them. > the closest I know of off the top of my head is Akzidenz Grotesk. The Akzidenz Grotesk Medium is indeed very, very close (other than the zero). Do you happen to know if that font available for use in non-commercial settings? Thanks! Noel

3 years, 11 months

Motorola EXORciser M6800 System

by osi.superboard＠gmail.com

Since a few days, my EXORciser Development System is finally able to boot from floppy diskettes. Previous attempts have shown that the Motorola EXORciser M68SFDC1 floppy disk board used has a special modified ROM version. This was probably written for an 8-inch drive, in which the Write protect and Direction signal were inverted. For the sake of simplicity, I have used free inverter on the board to invert the signals accordingly. After adjusting the PLL frequency, reads and writes from the card are now error-free. And all without FDC, only clever programming by Motorola software engineers in the early 76? Originally, the EXORdisk system was a dual drive with two 8 "units. This I have replaced with a double drive of two 5.25 inch units. An Epson and a TEAC, which can be jumpered to 360 rpm. Luckily, 2HD floppy disks are easy to R&W. I also got a GOTEK floppy emulator running, which I can boot from. Thanks to Roland Huisman, Bitsaver has some interesting floppy disks that convert to HFE format work perfectly. This format makes the Gotek drive most reliable. Now to my question. The vintage computer forum at http://www.vcfed.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-44638.html mentioned some interesting manuals. Archive.org has some manuals, Bitsaver does not have manuals about the M6800 development system. If someone already owns scanned manuals to the following list M6800 Basic Interpreter Reference Manual M6800 Macro Assembler reference Manual M68SFDU Exordisk 11/111 Disk `Drive Unit Maintenance Manual M6800 Exorciser 11 User's Guide M6800 Exorciser User's Guide MEX68PP1 PROM Programmer Module Supplement M6800 Exorciser User's Guide I would welcome any feedback or questions --THOMAS

4 years, 5 months

anybody have MOVIE.BYU?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

The famous Brigham Young University 3D graphics program, by Dr. Hank Christensen. I am looking for the fortran source, it should be 7 files: DISPLAY SECTION UTILITY TITLE COMPOSE UPDATE MOSAIC Any docs related too. Thanks for letting me beg. Randy

4 years, 5 months

DEC Rainbow / Pro video on VGA monitors?

by imp＠bsdimp.com

Greetings, I'm trying to find a way to get my DEC Rainbow's monochrome output onto a newer monitor than my aging VR201 (especially since I zapped something in it and my diagnostic efforts to date haven't fixed it). So, I found the bit in the Rainbow docs that said the output was DC Coupled RS-170 signals and to convert to RS-170 (NTSC black and white) I needed to put a 10uF cap inline to make it RS-170. So I did this, and fed it into a generic NTSC composite video to VGA thing, and got only a little joy. The first few lines seem to be missing, then the next few are OK and then nothing else. I tried to google this, but found nothing. My google foo has failed me. Does anybody else have a working setup? Warner

4 years, 9 months

DEC KA650 VAX memory troubleshooting (video)

by joezatarski＠gmail.com

Hey Everyone, I just thought I'd share a video of how I'm going about troubleshooting the bad DRAMs on my MS650 memory board. https://youtu.be/eDMhdAEFEgc I apologize for the shaky-cam, I don't have a tripod, and I needed to do a lot of panning anyway. I will be sharing my notes on the MS650 once I have a chance to write them up properly as well. I wasn't able to find a printset for the RAM card itself, so I assume one doesn't exist in digital form yet. I have documented what bit and memory range each DRAM on the card corresponds to, which may help someone troubleshooting in the future Regards, Joe Zatarski

4 years, 10 months

TurboDOS for S-100, IMS or L/F Technologies

by new_castle_j＠yahoo.com

I'm restoring an IMS - L/F Technologies S-100 Bus computer.? I've got all the pieces except for the Operating System.? I'm hoping that someone here may have a disk stashed away.? From the literature I have read, I would need TurboDOS version 1.40a or 1.41c from IMS or L/F Technologies.? I've seen TurboDOS 1.3 versions out in the wild from IMS, but the 1.4 version was greatly enhanced and offered better compatibility with my specific hardware.? I'd be much obliged if anyone can help. Thanks, Jonathan new_castle_j at yahoo

4 years, 10 months

Connecting LK250 to VAXmate

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I recently acquired a VAXmate with an LK250 keyboard. The problem is the keyboard came without the cable. It uses an 8-pin SDL connector and the usual tiny MMJ-like connector at the keyboard end. I don't know the pinout and I don't have the necessary crimping tools, is there any source for such a cable? Thanks Rob

4 years, 10 months

Free to a good home: Honeywell/Bull DPS-6 workstation / server (Seattle, WA)

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- I picked this DPS-6 up over the summer and it's just taking up space (quite a bit of space) in the corner of my basement. This is a custom 16-bit, bitsliced, microcoded CPU from the early 80s with (I believe) 8mb of memory, and ethernet. It would originally have run a version of GCOS. It's about the size of a large-ish minifridge, but a bit deeper. It's also quite heavy! It's a neat machine, but it's very obscure and unfortunately incomplete (it is missing both mass storage and storage controllers). Otherwise, it is complete and in good condition (albeit a bit dirty). So you can see why you'd really want to have it in your collection . If anyone's up for a project, drop me a line. Local pick up in Seattle, WA. Thanks, Josh

4 years, 11 months

Tandem Minicomputers

by silent700＠gmail.com

Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. -j

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test-drb September 2019