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UNIBUS extension card/cable sets Was: Looking for info on National Semiconductor RAM board (VAX 11/730)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: tony duell > a 'Unibus Out', you can plug a Unibus cable in there to link to an > expansion box. The official way involved special dual-height cards at > each end with 3 40-way Berg-type cables linking them. So I'm trying to look into this (BC11 cables being unobtainium these days, at least at prices which are less their weight in gold). I see 'three' different kinds of 'UNIBUS to cables' cards listed: M9014 UNIBUS to 3 H854s M9015 3 H854s to UNIBUS M9031 UNIBUS to 3 3M cables for 11/74 M9042 UNIBUS to 3 H854, Dual I assume the M9014/M9015 are a pair, one used at the start of the cable, and one at the end? Does anyone know the difference between these three, and is my guess about the M9014/M9015 being a pair correct? (I did look for documentation to answer these, but couldn't find any - although maybe I didn't look in the right places.) Noel

11 years, 1 month

Tru64 LSM

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

Hi there! Anyone remember much about Tru64 + LSM? It's been a while since I've done much with Tru64, and I never used LSM before. I got some new 36GB disks and am doing a fresh install, and wanted to mirror them with LSM, as the SCSI controller is not a RAID card. Initially, the installer picked really stupid defaults, choosing to use only about 3GB of the 36GB available. I was hoping to do something like have the LSM be in total control of the disk, with all filesystems and swap being on LSM volumes. The LSM documentation says this would be called a "sliced" disk. I'm a little rusty on my disklabel specifics, but the Tru64 docs seem to suggest that the 'a' slice is usually used for the / filesystem, 'c' is the whole disk, and g or h is usually used for the LSM private data. So, my questions are: 1. Is it possible to install to and boot from an LSM sliced disk (as opposed to an LSM "simple" disk)? 2. Is it possible to have swap be on an LSM volume, or does it have to be on a slice (like dsk0b or something) 3. Is the 'a' slice strictly required for anything? 4. Would the best (or a good) way to go be to do something like a & b unused, c whole disk, g all the space except 2MB, and h 2MB for LSM data? Thanks and sorry for the stupid questions! -Ben

11 years, 1 month

UNIBUS extension card/cable sets Was: Looking fo

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: John Wilson > I've seen M9014s only at the far end of the UBAs on a KS10, so it > wasn't taking the place of a BC11. ??? If it wasn't take the place of a BC11 (i.e. proving a path for the UNIBUS out), what was it doing? > it'd certainly be easy to make replacements for the M9014 and/or M9015. Indeed. Probably more feasible than trying to make more BC11's. Which is another aspect of my interest in these things. Noel

11 years, 1 month

XH558 - was Re: using new technology etc

by mhs.stein＠gmail.com

----- Original Message ----- From: "William Donzelli" <wdonzelli at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Friday, June 19, 2015 8:43 PM Subject: Re: XH558 - was Re: using new technology etc >> Don't forget Cromemco: > > I think we can forget Cromemco. > > The original poster wanted examples of minis > "setup and used on one". > I doubt a Cromemco would survive long in flight > service. This is why I > also pointed out "combat service", as opposed to > being part of a test > set in an air and power conditioned hangar. > > Military aircraft (and marine) service is > *really* hard on equipment. > > -- > Will ----- Reply----- Well, regarding marine service, from one of many histories of Cromemco, e.g.: http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/3-5-CROMEMCO.ht… "The Z-2 line was the first commercially marketed microcomputer certified for use by the U.S. Navy for use aboard ships without major modification." Memory's not what it used to be and I could be misremembering, but I'm pretty certain that some Z-2s were installed in military aircraft for data collection (admittedly not in combat service); ISTR one of those appearing on eBay a few years ago, bristling with many-conductor cables and military-style Cannon connectors. I'll dig through the literature to see if I can find an official reference. m.

11 years, 1 month

HP 2113e Battery resistor

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer Glen. I have looked in more detail into my machine and its rear connectors. It's a 21MX (2112A), and it has two battery holders at the back. The old batteries even came with it (!). On this machine the battery connectors are just two pronged, + and -, so no thermistor connection apparently. At first glance I thought two other 9 pin connectors were similar to the ones you described and needed to be wired up with the thermistors. But they apparently are totally different things, labeled POWER CONT IN and POWER CONT OUT. After a bit of bitsaver hunting, I gather these are for power control interconnection with optional I/O racks extensions. So I think I am thermistor free. I just need to find new small 12V lead batteries that fit. They are an odd "construction brick" form factor, standard modern gel batteries are too tall. Marc ------------------------------ Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> said: Subject: Re: HP 2113e Battery resistor I have only looked at the "B" version of the power supply as that is what I have in my 2117F. (Now that I think of it I'm not sure what version of the power supply I have in my 2113B). The details for that are covered in the 5061-1356 section of the 92851-90001_Jun79_9.pdf manual referenced below starting on page 84 of the PDF. As described in section 3-9 on page 105 of the PDF the Power Fail Recovery System (PFRS) option consists of the Battery Charger Board (A3A3) and the Battery Backup Board (A3A4) which are mounted internally in the power supply, and the external mounted Battery/Status Assembly. If the PFRS option is not present the Jumper Board (A3A4) is installed internally in the power supply instead of the Battery Charger Board (A3A3) and the Battery Backup Board (A3A4). If you open up your system far enough to remove the lid on the power supply you can visually inspect the installed boards to determine whether or not the PFRS option is installed in the power supply. The battery pack over-temperature thermistor is integrated into the battery pack. It ends up being connected to the TEMP1 and TEMP2 signals shown on the Battery Charger Board (A3A3) schematic Sheet 6 on page 136 of the PDF. If the PFRS option is not installed the Battery Charger Board (A3A3) is not present and there is nothing that would connect to the battery pack thermistor so it is not necessary for the operation of the power supply. If the PFRS option is installed but the thermistor or resistor equivalent is not connected the CPU will power on but will not be functional. I think all of the front panel lights turn on and none of the switches have any effect. It's been a long time since I looked at that in detail to figure out what was going on. I think some of the voltages are at the correct level, but maybe the memory voltages are not, and some of the power supply status signals (PSU?, PON?) indicate the power supply is not ready and that holds the system in the inactive state. -Glen ------------------------------

11 years, 1 month

PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

The LINK indicator light on the front panel of the PDP-12 failed two weeks ago. The indicator light bulb failed, briefly shorted, and destroyed the transistor that turns the indicator on. An new transistor and bulb, and all is well. We have been chasing a transient problem in the PDP-12 core memory for a few weeks. We checked the timing last week, and it was OK. This time we checked the core voltage and it was a little low. We increased the core memory power supply voltage until the checkerboard starting working without errors. Next time we will explore the high and low limits of the core voltage to find a reasonable center voltage for both core stacks. The next step is to run all of the processor diagnostics and make sure that everything is works. If the diags run OK, it is time to fix the TU56 tape drive and see if the drive and controller work. We visited the RCS/RI crew today to look at their LINC-8 and both PDP-12s. Both PDP-12s are earlier than ours. One has floating-point and an RK05. The other has a really interesting RAM buffered AD converter. -- Michael Thompson

11 years, 1 month

Place for a build log?

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

>> And I have not found the equivalent of our "Builder Logs Thread" on the >> Vintage Computer Forums which I just "discovered". >Maybe Erik would consider adding a category on VCF for build logs? That's a good suggestion. On the R2 group, the Builders Log section was actually added after I suggested it. It is now the most viewed section. But on VCF (that's how you call it?), I think I am way too new to make such a proposal and have it taken seriously... And I don't have yet a good sense of the VCF constituents and interests to understand if this proposal would have any traction either. Someone else would have to ask for me... Where do people that do "heavy duty" or longer lived restoration projects (mainframes, minis, pre-1970 machines) gather on the web? Here I guess :-)?

11 years, 1 month

Looking for info on National Semiconductor RAM board (VAX 11/730)

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

I am looking for any information on a National Semiconductor RAM board that I think goes in a VAX 11/730. My 11/730 (which admittedly I have not run) has 2 DEC MS730 boards and 2 of these NatSemi boards, I found another one while unpacking stuff today. It's a hex height DEC-type board with the ejector handles. Connections to fingers on A and B as you might expect, also the grant continuity strapping on C and D, grounds on D (only) and a couple of signals on C (I've not figured out what yet). The only identification I can find on it is in the etch : PWB 551109464-002 B PWA 980109464 (I assume the first is the part number for the bare PCB, the second for the stuffed board) There seems to be one RAM too many!. The main RAM array is 4 rows each of 32 4164-like DRAMs. There is a second block of 28 such DRAMs, presumably 7 bits for each row of the main array to provide the ECC bits. And then a further single RAM off to one side. The DEC MS730 doesn't seem to have this, and I wonder what on earth it is for. Rest of the board is TTL drivers, etc. There are 2 LEDs, one green, one yellow. And a momentary pushbutton switch. I have no idea of the functions of those. Does anyone recognise this board? A related point, I am thinking of removing the TSU05 from my 11/730 and putting an expansion box in place of the tape drive in the rack. In which case I can install this memory board. Is 5MBytes (the maximum an 11/730 can take) worth having over 4MBytes? -tony

11 years, 1 month

Place for a build log?

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

I like to do build logs for my more complex and long lived restorations or builds, so people can inspire themselves from what I do, and give advice (and encouragement, that helps too!). In one of my many other hobbies (hum, R2-D2 robot replica building, yes, there is such a thing), everyone puts their build log as a thread on a Forum. Very easy to search and follow. Members of the forum also have a place to store files. The best build logs get a lot of hits. Do you have an equivalent for classic computer restorations? I see some people have their own blog on regular blog sites. But I dislike the format - it's posted reverse latest first, you can only see the latest posts at once. Not anywhere as good as a thread. Or people have their own website, which is a bit of a pain as you have to discover them one by one - and spend time making a web site. And I have not found the equivalent of our "Builder Logs Thread" on the Vintage Computer Forums which I just "discovered". Any other/better/smarter solutions you can point me to? - Marc

11 years, 1 month

Components Data Books

by radiotest＠juno.com

At 12:30 PM 6/16/2015, Mattis Lind wrote: >I have compiled a list of them, mostly for my self, so that I somewhat easier would find what I look for. That is a nice list, and includes many that are not among my ~80 (which does not include my ~60 vacuum tube manuals). Could you post the original spreadsheet somewhere? It would be a reference that would be much easier to use than the online version. Dale H. Cook, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA Osborne 1 / Kaypro 4-84 / Kaypro 1 / Amstrad PPC-640 http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/radios/index.html

11 years, 1 month

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