test-drb

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101090 discussions

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Doug writes > I thought the Paragon was a large rack mounted monster, like the > IPSC/860. What I saw in the picture didn't look like anything I > would call a 'SuperComputer'. The item pictured in the URL of the original post, is a micro-based computer+CRT+media drive diagnostic console. ISTR it's x86 based (?386) and runs some commercial Unix of the era (not SCO...). I may be confusing some of the Delta details with the Paragon. Tim.

15 years, 5 months

Looking for a "newer" QIC cartridge drive

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

I sent this over to the rescue list as well - it's probably borderline OT here, but I figured it's worth a shot - so apologies if you get this twice. I need to read some full size QIC tape cartridges that were written in an unknown format, but the tapes themselves are the ones intended for the 2 gig drives. I'm not sure if they're compressed, or what density they were actually written at, but since these things are at least somewhat backward compatible, the 4/8 gig drive should be able to read them too. Anyone have one of these drives they could part with? Note that theses are the full size (DC) QIC carts, not the smaller "floppy-tape" ones. -Ian

15 years, 5 months

Old computers on Superbowl?

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I rented-out a dozen of my old computers to some Hollywood people for use in a Motorola TV commercial, to possibly be shown during the Superbowl. Includes systems from the 70s and 80s, like Sol-20, TRS-80, Osborne 1, SX-64, etc. Keep an eye out for it!

15 years, 5 months

Old computers on Superbowl?

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

15 years, 5 months

Uncommon: Intel Paragon on iOffer

by dj.taylor4＠verizon.net

I thought the Paragon was a large rack mounted monster, like the IPSC/860. What I saw in the picture didn't look like anything I would call a 'SuperComputer'. Doug At 03:48 PM 12/28/2010, you wrote: >I had asked the seller about that terminal and he said he would take $200 + >shipping... I have no idea if that is a good price or not. Any ideas? Dunno >what I'd even do with it. > > >-Josh

15 years, 5 months

RetroChallenge Winter Warmup 2011 starts January 1st

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

The RetroChallenge Winter Warmup 2011 starts on January 1st! If you've not done it before, don't worry, just email me from the link on http://retrochallenge.net/ with a blog URL and what you want to be called and then do as much or little as you can. You'd be surprised what you can fit in over the course of a month. Looking forward to reading about your own corner of 'retro'. *About RetroChallenge* In a nutshell, the RetroChallenge is a loosely disorganised gathering of RetroComputing enthusiasts who collectively do stuff with old computers for a month. The event is very much open to interpretation... individuals set there own challenges, which can range from programming to multimedia work; hardware restoration to exploring legacy networking... or just plain dicking around. It really doesn't matter what you do, just so long as you do it. While the RectroChallenge has its competitive side, it's not really a contest... it's more like global thermonuclear war -- everyone can play, but nobody really wins. Come on... give it a go!

15 years, 5 months

Uncommon: Intel Paragon on iOffer

by helforama＠gmail.com

I had asked the seller about that terminal and he said he would take $200 + shipping... I have no idea if that is a good price or not. Any ideas? Dunno what I'd even do with it. -Josh

15 years, 5 months

Uncommon: Intel Paragon on iOffer

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Chuck writes: > I pointed it out because (a) the Intel i860 was yet another stumble > by Intel to get away from the 8008 architecture (the 432 being only a > slightly earlier one--and one in a diametrically opposite direction) > and the application (cluster) was novel. Personally I always thought the i860 was far from a stumble, because in fact it was the highest MFlops/dollar and MFlops/watt for a considerable length of time and used in a number of high-horsepower applications in the real world. Farms/clusters weren't awful novel, scientists had been assembling their own for a decade before. Intel seeing that it could commercialize a massively parallel computer, yes in some people's eyes that would make it legit (when somehow it wasn't legit whenever anyone did it in the decades before...?) Maybe by some measures i860 was a stumble because it didn't replace x86 but by those measures, everything is a failure. Hardly seems like a good definition of success. Aka "Where Are We Going? Planet Ten! When Are we Going? Real Soon!" Tim.

15 years, 5 months

Wave Mate Jupiter II

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/waveMate more than you ever wanted to know about the Wave Mate Jupiter II

15 years, 5 months

Epson CP/M floppy drives. Was: C64/C128 CP/M Cartridge, Interest?

by fjkraan＠xs4all.nl

>> The HX-20 commands are file based and were issued mainly from Basic. The >> Basic >> extension is also on the boot disk. >> The PX-4/8 commands are sector based and issued from CP/M. > Although IIRC the disk BASIC for the HS20 had DSKI$ and DSKO$ commands > (or something similar) to read/write absolute sectors. The TF-15 and PF-10 implemented a subset of the TF-20 commands. For an overview of the epsp commands: http://www.xs4all.nl/~fjkraan/comp/hx20/epsp.html (the PX-4/8 commands are at the end) > There's also a free program for linux machines to emulate such a drive. > Amazingly it works on my acient linux box, and from what I can remember, > it works with the HX20 and PX4/8 machines. There are several programs. The Px8vfs program for DOS (and OS/2) is written by Will Rose and I got it via Don Maslin a long time ago: http://www.xs4all.nl/~fjkraan/comp/px8/px8vfs/index.html. The other is Vfloppy, originally written by Justin Mitchell and maintained by me: http://www.xs4all.nl/~fjkraan/comp/px4/vfloppy/. The images of the latest version are also usable with the PX-4/8 and QX-10 emulators. > IIRC, at the hardware level it's RS232 voltages, 38400 baud. Probably 8 > bits, no parity, 1 stop. Correct. The fun thing is, the vfloppy program even works with USB-RS232 converters :-) >> The TF-15 and PF-10 are both ROM based. The TF-15 used the same housing >> as the TF-20. As this resembled the QX-10 computer, the origin of the >> TF-15/20 product was probably to provide two extra floppies for this >> computer. > Of coruse the floppy drives in the TF20 (and maybe the TF15, I've never > seen one) are the same voice-coil drives as in a QX10. > > There's a 34 pin header on the nback of the TF20, which would appear to > be for adding a couple of exter external drives. AFAIN, the software > doesn't support it, though. > > More interestingly, there's a parallel interface inside the TF20 (8255 + > header), I can't remember if it's populated, or if the PCB is simply laid > out for it. I have no idea what this was supposed to be used with. > > The serial inbterface in the TF20 is a daughterboard. Whether other > interfaces were planned to fit in place of it I don't know. > > I also have another Epson prodcut in a very similar case. it's called > something liek a 'BM5'. The external interface is a DB25 socket, but it's > not RS232, it's some custom patallel interface. Inside is a PSU, Interesting, like the TF-20. I never figured out how this product has come into being. Too much useless connectors and daugthter boards to be designed as a single consistent design. > controller board and 5.25" floppy drive. But it's not a standard drive at > all. The interface between the cotnroller and drive is a 34 way and a20 > way ribbon cable, the controller board has a _hard disk_ controller IC on > it (one of the NEC ones). I believe the drive interface to be close to > ST412, and the drive to take special floppies (possibly with servo > tracks) and to have a rahter high capacity. I bought this thing 15 or so > years ago (back when Greenweld sold interesting stuff) and have never > been able to fidn out anythign about it. Oh well... It was probably a > peripherals for the QX10 or something, but I have never seen an interface > card for it. Could it be a GPIB interface? There is such a card for the QX-10 (http://www.xs4all.nl/~fjkraan/comp/hx20/epson_codes.txt) and I know HP used this interface for hard disks in the HP9000 / 300 machines. > -tony > Fred Jan

15 years, 5 months

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