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101090 discussions

Weird discussions, was Crucifixion (was Re: Fragility in the floppy world (was Re: TRS-80 Model II Manuals))

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2010 08:28:03 -0800 (PST) From: Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> Subject: Re: Weird discussions, was Crucifixion (was Re: Fragility in the floppy world (was Re: TRS-80 Model II Manuals)) > > I once dated a girl who was a DEC geek (she grew up > > around PDPs), and she wanted to have, erm, "physical > > relations" atop my VAX 8700. > > Now we know the "real" reason the Cray-1 was C-shaped. > > A whole new classification of computers! > > - if you can have physical relations inside it, it's > a mainframe > - if you can have physical relations on top of it, > it's a mini-computer > > - if you can get involved with someone who would > like to test those characteristics you're amazingly > lucky Dr Pepper -> keyboard +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Not to brag, but in my experience the Cray-1 would be much harder to find (and maybe more desirable in the long run...)

15 years, 5 months

Virtual memory

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> > >>> I'm not familiar with the B5000 implementation (did I miss it in the >>> thread already?), but I did try to avoid restricting the def to that >>> of paging. >> >> The B5000, circa 1961 was an amazing bit of equipment. Read about it >> here, then compare with later systems. >> >> http://www.ajwm.net/amayer/papers/B5000.html The above says the first delivery was in 1963. I believe that is the date which matters. Ideas and plans for computers are around for a long time before they come to fruition and can maybe be traced back for many years but the one date you can rely on is when a customer accepted a machine as working to its specification and paid for it. According to: http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/literature/news/1962.htm the Ferranti Atlas was working at Manchester University in 1962. I understand it had virtual memory. I wouldn't have wanted to pay for the quarter megawatt electricity bill !

15 years, 5 months

Backups in the modern world

by jonas＠otter.se

Tony Duell wrote: > The classic case of that is a demountable hard disk with headcrash > problem. It will damage any disk inserted into it, and those damaged disks > will then casue headcrashes on any other drive they're tried im. > Some indiots end up damaging every head and disk in the building.. That actually happened to a friend of mine years ago. He is/was far from an idiot, just unlucky. The first headcrash was silent, so he did not realize there had been one, put the pack in another drive, went on to copy another pack and moved that one to a third drive. By that time, the first pack had started to destroy the second drive, as witnessed by nasty sounds coming from it. But by then it was too late, the other drives started making nasty noises as well, and 60 heads and three packs had been destroyed. DECs entire stock of replacement heads was exhausted at once and they had to wait for a week while more heads were shipped in and the techs worked repairing the drives. A whole department of programmers was idle for a week. And as I said, the damage wasn't noticeable until after a little while when it was too late. /Jonas

15 years, 5 months

AlphaServer 2100

by pontus＠Update.UU.SE

On Mon, Nov 08, 2010 at 11:38:56AM +0000, Peter Coghlan wrote: > If it is not possible to save them all intact, I would be interested in some > CPU and I/O boards and possibly the backplane and memory boards if someone near > the machines is willing to extract boards and ship them to me in Ireland. I > would of course pay for shipping plus a small bonus to you and to the person > shipping them, whatever you think is appropriate. I can ask, it seems to be a nice enough guy. > As a matter of interest, do you have a ballpark price for shipping the > machines intact? A lowball estimate for _one_ machine to me in Uppsala from Lule? is 1300 SEK, but I suspect it will be closer to 2000 SEK. I'll leave conversion as an exercise for the reader. Regards, Pontus

15 years, 5 months

AlphaServer 2100

by pontus＠Update.UU.SE

Hi I'm guessing the chance is pretty slim, but if anyone in Lule? or close by wants an AlphaServer 2100 pedistal there are three available for free. They are on the way to the scrapper. I would love to pick these up but they are to far away. If anyone near Uppsala would like to share the shipping costs that would be a possibility. Regards, Pontus.

15 years, 5 months

Terak 8510/c Info?

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Hi all - Just got myself a Terak 8510/c workstation, in pretty decent shape. I'm going over it, and preparing to power it up (after testing the power supply). Anyone know any details about this particular model? (And what technical differences there are between the /a and the /c?) There appears to be a good amount of information about the 8510/a, but I can't find a thing about the /c variant. The /c appears to be considerably newer (mine dates from around 1982 and is branded Calcomp on the front), seems to have replaced the single internal 8" drive with two half height 8" drives, and the keyboard and monitor are completely different. A service manual would be extremely helpful -- a few of the double-height QBus cards came loose during shipping and were banging around and I'm not sure yet what the order is supposed to be (I guess I'll have to figure out whether the backplane is serpentine or not... shouldn't be too hard) and it'd be useful to know what the power supply pinouts are so I can test the voltages. And while I'm at it -- has anyone archived any Terak floppies? There's nothing on Bitsavers and I can't find anything anywhere else. Be nice to have some software to run on this thing after I get it running again :). Thanks as always, Josh

15 years, 5 months

"Crosspost" of system rescue...

by zmerch-cctalk＠30below.com

As seen on the CoCo list (hosted by MaltedMedia): http://five.pairlist.net/pipermail/coco/2010-November/052008.html In short: 2 each Gimix 6809 multiuser systems, SS-50 based. These are quite rare critters, it would be a shame to see them go. I put a reply on that list & will echo the sentiment here: The systems are in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The owner says that shipping might be possible to the US *if* they arrange their own Customs brokerage. I'd be happy to help if I can, so even though I live in the US, I'm in a border town (I can see Canada from my bedroom window) so instead of dealing with Customs, if "the lucky rescuer" can arrange shipping to (or near, lets say 50km) Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, I'll drive across the border, get the units, bring them into the US [1], and then reship them from the local UPS depot to their destination. [2] [1] As I'm fairly sure the units were made in the US, there *shouldn't* be any duty -- If there's any sticker or documentation that states the fact, that would be much easier to prove. [2] I reserve the right to look at the units for a few minutes -- I remember wanting one of these ever since I saw the ads in Rainbow & HotCoCo... I'll be sure to wear a bib, just in case I drool... ;-) It's much easier to deal with Customs in person, instead of "Hopefully the correct documentation (but probably not) taped to a box (but probably not) and waiting 2-3 weeks for Customs to actually find it (but probably not)." ;-) Winnipeg is about 13-14 hour drive (one way) from where I live, and my pocketbook won't stop hemorrhaging until next February (and something tells me Winnipeg in February ain't the most fun to drive...) so if this were next June, I could prolly find the time (and the $300 in gasoline/petrol) but he's indicated that his timeframe won't allow that. Just tryin' to spread the word, Roger "Merch" Merchberger

15 years, 5 months

W00T! SGI is in da house! :oD

by pu1bzz.listas＠gmail.com

Well, this is more than a child?s dream. This THE child?s dream :D Got today an Ozone with 1 proc, 768MB RAM and no hard disks :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) It is working, I already downloaded the Irix install media and found some 36GB HDs that seems to fit :D Just want to share it with you :D :D :D I?m so happy!!! It may be a toy, but I ALWAYS wanted to have a SGI computer :D I even got the original granite SGI keyboard. So bad I wasn?t able to find the matching mouse :( Now I just need to find a proper sled (at least one) for the hard disks. I think I can order one from ebay. W00T!!! I?ll play DOOM on that!!! :D :D :D Uhuuuu! :D Alexandre (happy as a child on xmas with a brand new toy :D) (photos soon, as soon as I have some free time)

15 years, 5 months

A3311A SCSI hard drive enclosure - Sleds?

by pu1bzz.listas＠gmail.com

Well, incluiding the HUGE pack of hardware I got today (and the SGI =D) I got an A3311A SCSI hard drive enclosure from HP. How hard is it to find drive sleds? It has three, a pair of 9,1GB drive and a 18GB drive. I want to find at least four drive sleds (ideally 5) so I can put my 4 36GB drives on it, and make it avaiable for the SGI, Ultra 60 or HP9000 BTW, is there such a thing like a SCSI selector, so I can direct the scsi array for one computer or another? Thanks Alexandre

15 years, 5 months

commercial scsi target mode product

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://www.virtualscsi.com/

15 years, 5 months

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