An event in London on Thursday 10th February that may be of interest, that
has ex-BBC speakers that were involved with the creation of the BBC Micro
and the BBC Domesday project:
http://oshug.org/event/7
Regards,
Andrew
There are two older systems currently listed on Ebay, both with low
bids (for now). The first is apparently a Northstar Advantage (item
#320639197081, currently at $15), and the second is a Monroe OC8820
(item #170589045980, currently at $59). The Northstar has 2 bids, the
Monroe none.
The Monroe was listed earlier at a price of $99. It got zero bids and
the seller relisted it. I tried to find some info about the Monroe
(even though my significant other would have a cow if another computer
showed up at the house) and all I could find were references to people
having fits trying to create the properly-formatted floppies for it.
Anyone know anything about the Monroe? I thought I'd point these two
machines out on the list in case anyone was interested in them.
Mark Davidson
mdavidson1963 at gmail.com
> Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2011 19:18:46 +0000 (GMT)
> From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
> Subject: Re: Single sided HDDs [was Re: HP drives]
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
> Message-ID: <m1Pc0mv-000J48C at p850ug1>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> > FWIW, there was a period about the turn of this century when most of
>
> Far too modern for me to have seen, let alone worked on... :-)
>
> > Maxtor's production was a single disk drive with only one side used. In
> > addition to saving the head assembly there were enuf other cost savings
> > make it worthwhile. One example is that it is relatively easy to
> > load/unload a bottom head on the ID, thereby making the higher capacity
> > OD real estate available.
>
> Did this drive lift the head off the platter on power-down (e.g, by using
> some kind of ramp)? The most modern drive I pulled apart, admittedly
> about 5 years older, landed the heads on the platter (as the older
> winchesters I've repaired did). If it lands the head(s) on the platter, I
> can't see any mechanical benefit to having only one head, even if it does
> use the inner cylinder as the landing area.
>
> -tony
I never saw the drives but I was told they had a head lifting ramp mechanism
on the baseplate at the ID. Makes for a very simple mechanism compared to
other head lifters.
Tom
Has anyone come across, or more importantly does anyone have any
technicla data on, an HP interface called PCIB (Personal Computer
Instrument Bus, I think).
It was used to link some simple-ish measuring insturments to a personal
computer host (either an ISA sloted thing or an HP150).
I've read the apporpriate HP journal and the manuals for the insturments
nad host PCBs. I understnad it consisted of a high-ish speed parallel bus
and a serial link on the same connector, the latter being opto-isolated
at the instrument end.
I would love to have a pinout of the interface conenctor, signal
specifications, timing diagrams, etc. Does that exist anywhere?
-tony
Available for one who wants it, a Dec H960 rack.
No sidepanels, nor a masthead.
Note, the rack is in the Netherlands.
Will go to the scrappers at the end of June.
--
Dit is een HTML vrije email / This is an HTML free email.
Came out of an SA600 rack where it was probably feeding RA90s. Model
# is 881A. Sent to you for the cost of shipping from 60074.
Also have the companion UPS for it, which is of course really heavy.
-j
--
silent700.blogspot.com
Retrocomputing and collecting in the Chicago area:
http://chiclassiccomp.org
All:
There's a posting over at Erik's VC Forum from someone with some
vintage HP color samples, complete with documentation:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?23397
I don't know if they're of interest, but I figure that it's more
likely that vintage HP folks are more likely to hang out here.
FWIW,
Chuck
I have a VT220 as the console terminal for my PDP-11/23+, running at
19200 baud. For the occasions when I want to print something, I have
connected a KSR43 Teletype (300 baud) to the VT220 printer port. It
works well, if slowly, after straightening out the usual RS232 control
line issues.
Is there a keyboard sequence to turn the printer on and off, without
going into the VT Setup menu? (If I just turn off the TTY it hangs the
VT220, presumably waiting for a RTS/CTS). I can't find the VT220
User's Guide online and the available Installation (and Technical)
manuals don't seem to have any discussion.
thanks
Charles
> Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 20:13:16 +0000 (GMT)
> From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
> Subject: Re: HP drives
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
> Message-ID: <m1PbfA8-000J3yC at p850ug1>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> > > Alas they don't :-(. I've heard the term 'track' used for hard drives
> > > when they meant 'cylinders'. ARGH!!!
> > > -tony
> >
> > I thought you could only read/write to the top layer of the harddrive
> > platter, or do some drives allow writing to both sides?
>
> Except for a ferw very odd ones (e.g. hard drives which record analagoue
> singals such as analogue video [1]) every hard disk I've worked on has
> used both sides of all platters for something. Maybe not user data
> storage (for excample, it may contain servo information only), but there
> will be a head on it.
<snip>
> -tony
FWIW, there was a period about the turn of this century when most of
Maxtor's production was a single disk drive with only one side used. In
addition to saving the head assembly there were enuf other cost savings to
make it worthwhile. One example is that it is relatively easy to
load/unload a bottom head on the ID, thereby making the higher capacity OD
real estate available.
Tom
