test-drb April 2021

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

104 participants
75 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

In search of RLX blade software

by camiel.vanderhoeven＠vmssoftware.com

I?ve been given a couple of RLX blade server chassis loaded with blades (one with Transmeta Crusoe cpu?s, and one with Pentium III cpu?s). I hope you?ll allow me to count these as ?vintage? because of their interesting origin: the Pentium III loaded chassis was part of a 768 node computer cluster at the Sanger Institute in the UK, and was used in the last stretch of the DNA sequencing computations for the Human Genome Project. I?d like to build a compute cluster out of these, but I don?t have the rpm?s they supplied to customize Linux for their blades. Ideally, I?d hope to find a copy of their ?Control Tower? blade management software, and their customized Linux installation images, but just the bare rpm?s would do for now. From the RLX platform guide, I?d hope to find: kernel-*rlx*.i386.rpm kernel-headers-*rlx*.i386.rpm devfsd-*rlx*.i386.rpm ucd-snmp-*rlx*.i386.rpm net-snmp-*rlx*.i386.rpm ucd-snmp-utils-*rlx*.i386.rpm net-snmp-utils-*rlx*.i386.rpm bootctl-*rlx*.i386.rpm atftp-*rlx*.i386.rpm lm_sensors-*-*rlx*.i386.rpm lm_sensors-drivers-*-*rlx*.i386.rpm lm_sensors-devel-*-*rlx*.i386.rpm base-utils-*rlx*.i386.rpm runctl-*rlx*.noarch.rpm networkcfg-*rlx*.noarch.rpm mgmtmode-*rlx*.noarch.rpm namedcfg-*rlx*.noarch.rpm dhcpdcfg-*rlx*.noarch.rpm lilo-*rlx*.i386.rpm grub-*rlx*.i386.rpm rlx-clientpm-*rlx*.i386.rpm This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain privileged, confidential, proprietary, private, copyrighted, or other legally protected information. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual or entity designated above. If you are not the intended recipient (even if the e-mail address above is yours), please notify us by return e-mail immediately, and delete the message and any attachments. Any disclosure, reproduction, distribution or other use of this message or any attachments by an individual or entity other than the intended recipient is prohibited.

2 years, 9 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

Looking for VAXSET Software Engineering Tools for VMS 4.x

by mdehling＠gmail.com

Dear all, I am looking for a version of the VAXSET Software Engineering Tools to run on (Micro)VMS 4.7. The oldest version I have found so far is VAXSET010 which requires VMS 5.3 to run (this was on CSD 1991/05.) VAXSET is a bundle of the following components (and more in newer versions): - CMS (Code Management System) - LSE (Language Sensitive Editor) - SCA (Source Code Analyzer) - MMS (Module Management System) - PCA (Performance Coverage Analyzer) - DTM (DEC/Test Manager) I have found versions of CMS and MMS seperately that run on VMS 4.x. If anyone has old versions of the other components and is willing to share, that would be much appreciated :-) Cheers, Malte -- Malte Dehling <mdehling at gmail.com>

2 years, 11 months

DEC PDP-11/45 backplane +5 ECO

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Hi Josh, Among the pictures linked from your message about the H742a parts, there is one picture of you backplane. I have been looking for some time for information about the following 11/45 ECO: > KB11-00001 CODE: D May-72 [ECO] > > Problem: Etch carrying +5V current from Mate-n-Lock pins to backpanel pins is not heavy enough to carry required current. Correction: Run 24AWG wire in parallel with etch on panels which already have Mat-n-Lock assembly installed. Increase thickness of conductor with solder bead if Mate-n-Lock assembly not installed. PDP-11/45 system serial number 101 and later. The wiring arrangements at the top of your backplane look to be a bit different from mine, and I believe you may have this ECO implemented. While you have your backplane out, could I ask that you take some closeups around the Mate-n-Locks along the top? I'd be very interested to see the board traces and the details of the red bus wiring there. Pictures of the toasted 11/45 suggest that the original machine had the older power wiring scheme (distribution panel mounted vertically on back of cabinet instead of horizontally at top of cabinet, etc.) although your KB11A serial number badge is >2000, which is curious...

2 years, 11 months

DEC RF08/RS08 module placement info

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- In addition to the 11/45 project I'm also working on restoring an RF08/RS08 fixed head disk/controller (in the vain hopes of one day running TSS/8 on my PDP-8/I). I have the power supply repaired and running and I'm getting ready to power the logic up (the disc itself will be a project all its own, once it arrives). I'd like to double-check that all the flip chips are in their right places; I have no cause to think they've been shuffled around but I want to be sure. The engineering docs have detailed schematics but no placement chart for the modules themselves. Given enough time with the schematics I could derive this chart but I'm saving that as a last resort. So, two possibilities here: 1) Does anyone know of a document I've overlooked that includes module placement? 2) Can someone with an RF08 and/or RS08 take a few detailed pictures of the logic (from the handle side, of course) so I can compare? (Note: the available RF08/RS08 pictures on the 'net are of the unit currently in my possession, so are not useful in this regard!) Thanks! - Josh

2 years, 12 months

Free assorted manuals

by geniibuntu＠gmail.com

Spring cleaning. Will be recycled otherwise. While most are probably not of interest to this group it's possible someone may want the SCSI related items like the ES-1000C flatbed scanner manual or Yamaha CRW8424SX manual or the Adaptec stuff. I'm in downtown Toronto, Canada. On Freenode IRC my nick is genii imgur gallery of the stuff https://imgur.com/a/USejVEv -- "..we are dwarfs astride the shoulders of giants. We master their wisdom and move beyond it. Due to their wisdom we grow wise and are able to say all that we say, but not because we are greater than they." Isaiah di Trani

2 years, 12 months

DEC PDP-11/45 backplane +5 ECO

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Eric Smith > The KB11-B (original 11/70) and KB11-C (later 11/70) have essentially > the same changes as from the KB11-A to KB11-D Speaking of which, two of the boards that are different in the KB11-D, from the -A, are _identical_ to boards in the KB11-C - the M8123 ROM & ROM control and the M8132 instruction register decode! (The M8123 is also different from the M8133 board in the KB11-B.) Pretty wierd that the -11/45 and -11/70 CPUs share two boards, but true! (The FP11 boards are the same in both, too.) > It sure would be nice to get backplane wirelists for all four (KB11-A, > -B, -C, and -D). ISTR a previous, un-fulfilled request for the -11/70 wirelist, so it's been missing for a while. We _might_ have the -11/45 wirelist: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1145/1145_System_Engineering_Drawing… but it's short (pp. 128-132), so maybe it's not complete)? Two other print sets seem to have the same list: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1145/1145_System_Engineering_Drawing… http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1155/MP00039_1155vol1_Mar76.pdf (pp. 45-49 and pp 131-135 respectively). > Also, I'm looking for a Field Maintenance Print Set for the RH70. Heh. I didn't see it online; the manual: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/unibus/CSS-MO-F-5.2-27_RH70_Option_Descrip… is a CSS document, which makes no sense, because the CPU backplane is laid out to have room for four, so it's an integral part of the /70 CPU - so why is it a CSS product? Anyway, the print set listed there seems like it might be a CSS thing, too. I see that the CHM seems to have a set: https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102749003 so maybe Al will take pity on us and scan it! I looked in my /70 print set, and although it contains all sorts of odds and ends (including MJ11 prints - which kind of half makes sense, since that was the only main memory option on early /70's), it doesn't have the RH70. (I didn't see the MJ11 prints on BitSavers, so I was thinking I was going to have to scan them, but on further looking I found them on deramp.com.) Noel

2 years, 12 months

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test-drb April 2021