Hi all --
I picked up a Tri-Data Cartrifile 4096 at VCF West last year and since I'm
suddenly going to have more time on my hands, I thought it'd be fun to see
if I can get it running again. The Cartrifile is a tape drive that uses
cartridges containing continuous-loop 1/4" tape in various lengths, much
like 8-track tape though in slightly different packaging and with a fixed
head. 10ips, 600bpi. (There's a brochure on Bitsavers at
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/tridata/Tri-Data_4096_Brochure_Feb69.pdf)
The unit I have has a PDP-8 compatible interface, though I only have the
cabling and rear-bulkhead for posibus systems. (My 8/I is currently
negibus, so some work will need to be done there.)
It's in pretty decent shape and I think I should be able to get it to work
again. I also have a stack of cartridges and it remains to be seen how
they hold up. If they're anything like 8-track tapes, the EOT marker will
probably fall off and the tape ends will need to be reconnected as well
:). At minimum I hope to be able to recover the data off the tapes I have.
Curious if anyone out there has one of these, has any spare parts, or
interface parts (there was at one point an Omnibus interface available, and
having the negibus interface would be extremely handy.)
Thanks as always,
Josh
At 10:41 AM 6/25/2020, Dave Dunfield via cctalk wrote:
>I originally wrote it for my own use, but it has proven SO useful that I took
>a little time to clean it up and post it at my personal site.:
Downloading http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com/dos/sw/ddw2020.zip
gets flagged by Windows Defender on Windows 10 Pro (1909)
as "Worm:Win32/Spybot".
- John
Hi,
Don't know if anyone is interested, but I'd guess that a lot of you like
me have collected a big pile of digital "stuff" over the years, and also if
like me, it may have gotten away from you a bit with a lot of duplication
etc.
Having some spare time, I've been organizing my collected documentation,
software, drivers and other files. As part of this process I wrote "Duplicate
File Finder", a WIn32/64 tool which can look at a VERY large file collection
(can even be across many drives etc.) and produce a nice summary of what is
duplicated and where all the duplicates are.
I originally wrote it for my own use, but it has proven SO useful that I took
a little time to clean it up and post it at my personal site.:
http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com
If this sounds useful, have a look and grab the program. Hopefully it will
be as useful to you as it has to me.
Dave
--
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Personal site: http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com
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I've been processing some PDP-11 9 track (800 NRZI) tapes and run across
something that I don't recognize.
Every file on the tape consists of a number of 512 byte blocks (okay,
that's normal) but at the head of each file, there's a short block of 14
bytes.
Usually, a short record like this is discarded as "noise" on many
mainframe tape systems, but here it's consistently present. Here's what
one of the records looks like:
15 34 fe 51 fe 76 01 01 00 00 01 80 10 00
Doesn't seem like a file name in RAD50 format, so I'm puzzled.
Inquiring minds want to know...
Thanks,
Chuck
So I'm working on this RSX11M+ system here and while working I ran
myself out of file headers. Using the HOME /MXF command I was able to
increase the number of headers, but only up to 4090. or so. Trying to go
to 4100 gave me an error saying there were not enough system blocks or
something. Currently I have 830 headers, but that's not enough in the
long term.
The volume has 541,944 blocks total, with 150655 in use. This is a
system I generated on a smaller disk, then copied to the pdp11, then
backed up with BRU MU0:=DU0: then restored to a larger blank disk.
I guess the question is can I extend the number of blocks without having
to re-init the system disk? I suppose I could flatten it by taking the
system down to single user (shutdown, then p to start with the volume
dismounted, mount the volume /for, then BRU mu0:=du0:), then format the
volume with a really big assed MXF value, then restoring the tape, but
would that flatten the volume info? Or do I need to just man up, put a
second ESDI drive on this monster, copy the files to the second drive
then format the first (big) volume right, copy the files with PIP, and
do a VMR again to write the boot block?
Or is there a better way to backup and restore the volume without doing
an image backup using /for?
Been a long time since I've done this stuff. Thanks!
C
I found somewhat fascinating pictures in a PDP8 small computer handbook. It is a KV graphics system. According to the book it was used to design new computer circuit boards. So I got very curious to that KV system. I found a maintenance manual about the system. It even had a joystick! I wonder if any of that PCB software has been rescued?
Regards, Roland
https://ibb.co/WVKCfMzhttps://ibb.co/TvYpP2vhttps://ibb.co/6mSZkdh
While going through my assortment of old vacuum tubes looking for audio
treasures, I found a handful of IBM branded ones. Mostly 5965, but
there's one 5963 mixed in.
These are dual triodes with the same pinout as common small-signal audio
tubes such as 12AX7/7025/ECC83, but characteristics closer to 12AT7 or
12AU7. My RCA Receiving Tube Manual says they're designed to withstand
being held in cutoff for long periods of time, and mentions digital
applications.
Anyone know what kind of IBM machine these would have been used in?
