test-drb March 2021

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

138 participants
84 discussions

by a.carlini＠ntlworld.com

I have three AlphaServer 2100 systems in storage in the UK (Oxfordshire). The storage, however, is due to be demolished (soon, but no fixed date). I won't have room to store these three systems, so if anyone would be interested in offering them a home, then please get in touch! I can probably get some pictures in the next day or two. These systems were SMP Alphas and could sport as many as 4 CPUs. I'm not sure of the configuration of these systems but I can probably find that out soon. They have not been run since ~2003 so they may be in need of some TLC. OTOH they are not rusted to death so you have a chance of getting them back to life. Just so you know what you might be dealing with these systems are about: 700mm H x 430mm W x 810mm L. I can't find the weight in any of my references right now but they are very heavy. Three people can move them up a slight slope with some effort but you would not successfully lift it into a car (assuming that it would fit). I'm planning to dismantle them to move them (i.e. remove PSU/PSUs etc. until they are light enough to move). A tail-lift would probably be the sane way to go (and is, indeed, how they got to their current location. I'm hoping that someone can step forward and offer one or more of these machines a new home. Please contact me off-list (once you're sure you understand what you are getting into :-)). Antonio -- Antonio Carlini antonio at acarlini.com

2 years

H7821 power supply in MicroVAX 3100, SCSI disk enclosures and others

by cctalk＠beyondthepale.ie

The recent discussion on BSC protocol prompted me to dig out my Microvax 3100 with DSH32 synchronous serial interface. It had been idle in storage for several years and it wouldn't power up, only giving a brief flash on the diagnostic LEDs and a quick twitch of the fans. There was a slight smell, like the stale air that comes out of a deflating tyre. I took out the H7821 power supply and found that five identical brown 1800uF 25V electrolytic capacitors on the output side had leaked. The SCSI disk enclosure where the machine's system disk lives required several power cycles to get it to run at all and it died as soon as the disk tried to spin up. It turned out to also contain a H7821 power supply which had a similar issue with the same five brown capacitors, although not as extensive as in the main unit. I found a second disk enclosure which had seen little use and grabbed the power supply out of that to put in the MicroVAX. It worked well enough to test with but there was a ring of goo around the bottom of one of the brown capacitors which was worst affected in the other units. Time to order a batch of replacement capacitors and figure out what else has been damaged. While it is not the worst I have seen, access to these power supplies for repairs is quite difficult and it is really difficult to debug them safely while they are running with the cover off :-( If anyone has anything with H7821 power supplies in them, I suggest checking on these capacitors. If anything with these power supplies is in storage, I suggest ensuring it is stored the normal way up as this should limit the ability of the goo to escape and spread around the power supply. And there I was thought I was being safe enough by removing the nicad battery packs some years ago... Regards, Peter Coghlan.

2 years, 3 months

PDP-11/05 microcode dump?

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

2 years, 10 months

Sovier/Russian 132-pin PGA Ceramic IC Packaging

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

In item https://www.ebay.com/itm/265045229011 I am curious as to whether the gold islands on the top-side are functional test-points giving electrical access to the underside pins? Was there a clip designed to attach to the top-side of these chips for use in circuit analysis? Was this design unique to Russian manufacture (I don't recall ever seeing this design previously)? paul

2 years, 10 months

RSX11D disks on EBAY- anyone interested?

by lee.gleason＠comcast.net

On 3/3/21 11:11 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: >>/On 3/3/21 10:42 AM, Lee Gleason via cctalk wrote: />>//>>>/?? The auction starts at? more than I have in my computer budget this month />>/I went ahead and bought these, but paypal contributions to my email would be helpful />>/this is way more than I can afford as well. / >He listed a 11D utilities source disk over the weekend, so that is on its way now too. >I asked and he says he doesn't have any more 'red labeled' DEC disk packs. Did you notice this auction? Looks like not all of his RSX11D stuff is red labelled. This one looks like it might hold a running system. https://www.ebay.com/itm/PDP-11-RK05-RSX-11D-64K-DEC-Digital-PDP/3534108081… -- Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR Control-G Consultants lee.gleason at comcast.net

3 years

DEC H8575-A DB25 to MMJ

by idinc＠swcp.com

hello all i am looking to purchase qty 2 DEC H8575-A DB25 to MMJ adapters. anybody have some that they can sell? also need a couple of mmj to mmj cables, 10' or longer would work. thanks tim timothy rutherford teor at nmia.com 505-550-5110

3 years

DEC pin

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a picture of the "I've been VAXinated" pin? I know I've seen this pin before, probably at some VCF event. Thanks, Kyle

3 years, 1 month

DEC RX50 disks with mystery content

by david4602＠gmail.com

Hello, DEC enthusiasts - I've got some 5-1/4" disks here that purport to be from a DECmate (probably II) and may have data offloaded from a bigger system. But the disks don't have any recognizable trace of a filesystem on them; just vast swathes of data that looks like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12EO4Lg1Uh7NvCUJksHQ2AUiK550OX7UJ/view?usp=… It seems to be a pattern of a near-zero byte followed by some other byte. It's like they're storing 12-bit words in 16 bits or something. Does anyone recognize this sort of thing, just eyeballing it? - David

3 years, 1 month

head alignment tape

by jos.dreesen＠bluewin.ch

Does this head alignment tape need saving ? https://www.tutti.ch/de/vi/zuerich/computer-zubehoer/komponenten-zubehoer/5… I'd be inclined to think that the alignment tape would suffer to same issues as all old tapes, but then this is rare enough to be mentioned here. Jos

3 years, 1 month

Pro350/"XT" pre-release documents

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2021 21:27:58 -0400 > From: Chris Zach <cz at alembic.crystel.com> > To: dstalk at execulink.com, "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic > Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Pro350/"XT" pre-release documents > Message-ID: <9f8a2890-d268-bb19-1989-e26364c9c7a8 at alembic.crystel.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > Well, what I have is this: > > SPSS/Pro introductory guide > (2) SPSS/Pro for DEC professional/350 > SPSS-X User's guide, third edition (Think telephone book) > 4 disks VOL NAME SPSSPRO1 (to 4) > > > Hey, in one of the manuals there is an additional disk SPSS/Pro > DEMONSTRATION > > I guess I can copy them on my Pro/380 to other disks, but does anyone > have a better way to make a spare copy? They are almost 40 years old at > this point... > > Interesting stuff. > > C Chris, There was also a SPSS-11 for RSX and your SPSS for Pro/350 would likely be a later version. A few years ago I bought the SPSS-11 manual from an Ebay seller. It looks like SPSS-11 ran a lot like the IBM OS/360 version in that it was feed a file of input and it produced a file of output (like a batch job). The Pro 350 version was likely a bit more interactive and I would be very interested in getting a copy of it. As far as the best way to get a copy made, it would be great to read them on a M+ system that has TCP/IP or is at least connected to HECnet so the disk images could be uploaded somewhere. Also, the manuals would be of interest as well. The SPSS-11 manual I have is a relatively thin paperback book. Thanks, Mark

3 years, 1 month

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test-drb March 2021