test-drb September 2021

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

125 participants
76 discussions

by me＠larbob.org

Hey all, According to http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/hp/9000_200/9000-200_periphSupp_Dec8… (see PDF page 2), it seems as if HP-UX 5.1 should work on the 9000/217. http://hparchive.com/Catalogs/HP-Catalog-1986.pdf also seems to confirm this (PDF page 71 under Series 200 Bundled Systems, it's mentioned that the Model 217 can run single-user HP-UX). However, there seems to be conflicted information based on people that I've talked to and the hpmuseum page with a copy of HP-UX 5.1 whether it should work at all, whether 5.1 is a unified release where the boot floppy should work on both series 200 and 300, or whether there's another boot floppy for series 200 which apparently has not been archived. I recently obtained a Model 217 and would like to know if anyone has more info on this, the two people that I know of that have tried it get a hang on boot. Thanks, Larkin

3 years, 2 months

Microcomputing nostalgia & cctalk

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

Nostalgia is great for aging baby-boomers as me. Back in 1978 I along with a friend bought a Heathkit H1 and spent many leisure hours constructing it and getting it to boot up! By 1984 I moved on to the Coleco ADAM and learned BASIC(Well more accurately APPLE Basic) spending too much time on it rather than on my PhD studies. Trying to write my dissertation using Writer was a challenge as was getting it to print on the included daisy-wheel printer ? all that clacking. Noise! Noise! as the Grinch says. But I did get my doctorate but had to go to S. Korea and Univ. of Education(TESOL program) to use it. Microsoft?s monopoly began in the earliest days of microcomputing. Read Gate?s letter to programmers /hobbyists to see how a monopolist thinks. Linux has come along and poked Microsoft in the eye but hasn?t done too much damage according to this writer. As written here a nostalgia for the early years may be what we classic computer-philes find so compelling in cctalk. And to be honest I?ll move to WIN 11 because the choice(s) are somewhat limited. Happy computing. Murray ?

3 years, 2 months

An American perspective on the late great Sir Clive Sinclair, from Fast Company

by lproven＠gmail.com

I found this interesting for perspective. The British media (and AFAICS of Australia, New Zealand and several bits of Europe) have been saturated with coverage of a much-loved, widely-celebrated and revered hero of tech. As FC points out, even the American _tech_ media barely noticed. ? The prescient, quirky legacy of U.K. gadget inventor Clive Sinclair Little known in the U.S., Sinclair democratized computing with his dirt-cheap 1980s PCs. Even his many failures were decades ahead of their time. ? https://www.fastcompany.com/90680349/clive-sinclair-obituary -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053

3 years, 2 months

Programming Bipolar PROMs

by ccth6600＠gmail.com

While restoring and repairing a Data General Nova 2/10 I found a bad bipolar PROM on the CPU board. The PROM has open-collector outputs and is organized as 32 words by 8 bits. It appears that one of the open-collector driver transistors is faulty (but it could also be that a fuse has "healed"). The part is an Intersil IM5600CP, but these were also made by others, for example Signetics and Philips made the 82S23 and TI and NTE made the faster SN74S188N. Some vendors still sell these parts and there are even a few on Ebay. How do I program these PROMs? I found one somewhat obscure description of the algorithm in the NTE datasheet, but I suspect that each manufacturer had (somewhat) different algorithms. Is there an affordable commercial programmer out there which can program these PROMs? Is there a simple design out there which I could breadboard for a one-off programming job (maybe using an Arduino to control the programming sequence)? Thanks and best regards Tom Hunter

3 years, 2 months

CCtalk on Linux vs Windows

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I quite agree that one OS isn?t better than another. It is one?s personal choice. However, it would be amiss of me not to acknowledge that some people prefer one over another and will do so until someone proves otherwise. My dear friend and I don?t let this situation get in the way of our relationship though. In the past I have run both WIN and Linux on my machine ? a dual-boot situation I will not carry forward with WIN 11 ? and find Linux does some things better than Windows particularly when I run an emulator(It is based on a Coleco ADAM I?ve had since1984.) Happy computing. Murray ?

3 years, 2 months

Looking for older versions of MatLab for Unix / VMS

by mdehling＠gmail.com

Dear List, I am looking for older versions of MatLab (3.x, 4.x, and 5.x) for Unix and (Open)VMS. I'm happy to pay a reasonable price for media kits, or, alternatively, images of the installation media would suffice. The media for Windows or Mac can be found on the various abandonware sites, but I've had no luck finding MatLab for Unix / VMS so far. Cheers Malte -- Malte Dehling <mdehling at gmail.com>

3 years, 2 months

WTB Sparcserver

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Hi Looking for a Sparcserver 1000/2000 to add to the sun collection. I?ve never seen one of these in the UK, but hopefully there might be one around. Happy to buy / pickup as I know they are heavy in the UK. Outside UK I might be able to arrange for collection. Thanks.

3 years, 2 months

Burnable, patched Microvax-2000 SCSI-boot EPROM images?

by kiwi_jonathan＠yahoo.com

I recently rescued two Microvax-2000s but both have dead RD53s.? Does anyone have a ROMable image of the Microvax 2000/Vaxstation 2000 boot-PROM patches from Wolfgang Moeller at?http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/vms/pk2k/??? ?I'm looking to install NetBSD, not VMS and I don't have any VMS systems on which to run PATCH.? ?Microvax 2000 specs say it can sustain 3.3MB/s I/O, which has to be via the SCSI interface.? So a SCSI emulator should be significantly higher performance than an MFM drive (either 30+ year old drive, or emulator). Web-searching shows a Sean O'Banion has burned the PROMs successfully; I haven't yet found other names. If someone is willing to burn at least one set of EPROMs for me, I'd pay for the service (either ship EPROMS, or pay for them). ?

3 years, 2 months

OpenVMS/VAX license expiration

by athornton＠gmail.com

You might want to search the Github repositories of a certain "athornton" looking for something called "yarr". Obviously it would be wrong to use it. So don't. Adam

3 years, 2 months

Setting up a VMS system

by compoobah＠gmail.com

On Fri, 2021-09-24 at 12:00 -0500, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > supported by any release licensed by VSI, and they changed the > > PRODUCER > > key so you can't use those PAKs on DEC/CPQ/HP variants of VMS. > > Part of their licensing agreement with HPE which prohibits them from > selling/licensing any previous version of OpenVMS that they haven't > worked on. > > > HP stopped issuing new hobbyist PAKs back very early in 2020. I put > > in > > for a renew March or so and never got it. They were so > > disinterested in > > the program that they didn't mention stopping it, so I guess it > > isn't > > surprising that the page is still up. > > If it's a VAX PAK you need, contact me and I can send you a copy of > the last VAX OpenVMS Hobbyist PAK sent out.? Note that it expires on > 1-JAN-2022 so it's good only for a few more months. Yeah, would have been nice if they would have handed it off to Montegar again for VAX/early Alpha with the understanding that (a) it would be the same restrictions that DEC/CPQ/HP had and (b) they weren't bugged about it ever again. Sigh. Fits into the HP model of "buy and bury" I guess. At least VAX has other options. Anyone succeeded in patching the DCL security hole for VAX? I know it wasn't officially fixed.

3 years, 2 months

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test-drb September 2021