test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by dundas＠caltech.edu

I've wondered this for a long time and maybe someone here can shed some light. Back in 1975-76 I was using the PDP-11 and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and they had a thing called "OMSI RT" on their system. It was an RT-11 run time system (RTS) under RSTS. They were selling V1A for $2350 a copy (I still have a copy of the on-line help file giving the information). The product ran the Fortran compiler, MACRO, Pascal, etc., as the later RT-11 environment from DEC did. OMSI RT claimed compatibility with RT-11 V2 and also required a DEC binary license for both RSTS (V5B or later) and RT (V2) My question is: did DEC buy this from OMSI to (improve?) and include in RSTS or was the DEC RT-11 environment created some other way (either developed in-house or purchased from someone else)? Does anyone know the origins of the RT-11 emulation under RSTS? Thanks, John

16 years, 1 month

The Hard Disk That Changed the World - IBM 305 RAMAC

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

Nice IBM sales video and stills: http://gizmodo.com/5494858/ibm-305-ramac-the-grandaddy-of-modern-hard-drives 2006 (50th anniversary) article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/46300 IBM's info: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/storage/storage_350.html 5 MB (approx.) for only $3,200/month ($24,978 in 2009 dollars)! "Disks rotated at 1,200 rpm, tracks (20 to the inch) were recorded at up to 100 bits per inch, and typical head-to-disk spacing was 800 microinches. The execution of a "seek" instruction positioned a read-write head to the track that contained the desired sector and selected the sector for a later read or write operation. Seek time averaged about 600 milliseconds."

16 years, 1 month

Booting a VAXstation

by lproven＠gmail.com

I have a VAXstation 3100 model 38 I bought on eBay for the princely sum of ?0.99. Sadly it came without disks and I have no wide-SCSI disks of <1GB. But I want to get it working & looking at the old dead kit pile. As far as I know you can't boot a traditional VAX from a disk of <1GB... but could I put the core of VMS on a small slow narrow SCSI disk, like an 80MB or something, and put most of it on the only Wide SCSI disk I have, a 10GB...? I was considering either attaching an external SCSI2 disk of 80-120GB, or possibly trying to fit one internally if I can find an appropriate convertor. I have a fast/wide 8GB or 10GB disk I could use for main storage, but I don't think I can boot from it... Can I? My VMS knowledge is /very/ rusty & I was only ever a sysadmin, not a developer. I've never brought up a bare system or anything. Also, I have several external SCSI CD-ROMs, including 2 Apple units. I seem to recall that VAXen want a weird block size, same as Sun kit... is that correct? How would one tell if a certain drive could do this or not? Is it a DIP switch setting or just a SCSI bus command? -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

16 years, 1 month

Flyback for Monochrome Plato Student Terminal.

by woolfson＠telswitch.com

Hi. First time poster. I have a bad flyback transformer on a video board that I've been unable to locate. I've also been unable to find any information about this transformer, or the board that it's on. I have lots of information about what the board is inside of, but nothing on the board itself. It's for a green monochrome Plato Display Terminal, called an AST-1 Student Terminal; even the original designer of the equipment, Jack Stifle at the University of Illinois, does not have any information any more on the video driver board itself. note: The AST-1 Student terminal was supposed to be a lightweight inexpensive replacement for the original Plato IV and Plato V terminals, and was manufactured by the University of Illinois I've been able to find many defails from University of Illinois archives, including all schematics except for the video driver board. The transformer is marked as : VT-521, EIA-528-8521, type sb-1, E36324 I assume EIA 528 means Electronic Industry Association manufacturer 528, with the product (or factory ID) and that's an internal number. The only "cross-reference" is to a SUN microsystems display, but I have ordered that flyback and have found it to be the wrong one... Here are the links to the photos that I've taken of the board: http://customer.telswitch.com/plato/ast001.JPG http://customer.telswitch.com/plato/ast002.JPG The first photo is of the "markings" that the manufacturer must have put on, the second photo is of the actual board itself. The tube that it uses is a Clinton CE745w12h31vrz (which is a standard 745-style tube). Thoughts? Thanks! Aaron

16 years, 1 month

Early apple employees Dick and Cliff Huston selling off collection

by jlobocki＠gmail.com

Ok, Im gonna go get some powerball tickets and cross my fingers! I like the two newton prototypes that look like an early attempt at creating an iPad, this stuff should be in a real museum, not up for sale in my opinion. It would be interesting for a piece on how some creations are created in prototype some 10-20 years before their time. Another good example, look at how long SGI has put stereographic 3D glasses ports on their computers, and have had the capabilities, but now it is finally hitting the consumer TV market. On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 11:37 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > At 11:18 PM -0400 3/16/10, Dave McGuire wrote: > >> On Mar 17, 2010, at 12:04 AM, Zane H. Healy wrote: >> >>> I see a couple items there that I'd be interested in, but no way am I >>> spending that kind of money on anything like that! >>> >> >> I've never seen the general attitude of classiccmp summed up so >> succinctly. ;) >> > > There was a time when I would have considered bidding on at least one of > the items. Now I'm trying to do a massive shrink of my own collection, and > the money I used to spend on Classic Computers is now targeted for more > realistic things. > > The disturbing thing is, while I'm trying to get rid of most of my > collection I'm in the middle of my biggest (and best) Commodore haul ever. > It is free, and slowly being delivered from out of state. Oh, well, I said > I was keeping a lot of the Commodore stuff. :-) > > Zane > > > > -- > | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | > | healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast | > | | Classic Computer Collector | > +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ > | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | > | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | > | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/<http://www.aracnet.com/%7Ehealyzh/> | >

16 years, 1 month

Yamaha V9958?

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Thanks for the tip... figures I wouldn't try eBay for that. ;) I was actually wanting one as an upgrade for my Coleco ADAM. I had installed a TIM board with the 9938 in one back in the day, and wrote some initialization software for it. Was thinking about building my own board to do the same again. -----REPLY---- Hi! The Coleco ADAM is a Z80 computer right? If you are up to some experimenting the other related item at the N8VEM that might be interesting to you is the PropIO. Using a shim socket, the PropIO can be interfaced to the Z80 CPU socket. Then with proper software support it can provide PS/2 keyboard, VGA, and microSD for your computer. Assuming of course the ADAM design is compatible. Basically if the ADAM can access an IO port it should work fine but the best way to be sure is to check the schematic. One of the N8VEM builders has done some experimenting on a Kaypro and a SpectraVideo 728 with the Z80 shim socket to PropIO and it worked fine in both cases. It might be a neat expansion option for you if you are interested. I am looking for some hardware experimenters to test the system out on some various Z80 computers. I am not aware of anything like it for the ADAM but don't follow it too closely either. If you are interested (or anyone else) please let me know. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch PS, the PropIO shim socket approach *should* work for any of the N8VEM expansion boards so if you are interested in expanding your Z80 computer or adding peripherals to your Z80 home brew computer this might be helpful to you since you won't need to reinvent it. It could add simple interfaces such as IDE/FDC (DiskIO) or Zilog Peripherals (CTC, DART, dual PIO) as well as the PropIO.

16 years, 1 month

Booting a VAXstation

by js＠cimmeri.com

> Subject: > Booting a VAXstation > From: > Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> > Date: > Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:20:19 +0000 > To: > "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > > To: > "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > > > I have a VAXstation 3100 model 38 I bought on eBay for the princely > sum of ?0.99. Sadly it came without disks and I have no wide-SCSI > disks of <1GB. Hi, Liam. First thing to do is find yourself a copy of the manual for the machine as you can do a bunch of stuff with it just from built in diagnostics.. I seem to recall them being out on the web.. possibly here: http://deathrow.vistech.net/~cvisors/DEC94MDS/ I know Antonio Carlini had a site with lots of nice docs too.. but my link is dead. Also check out older posts where people were in the same boat.. such as: http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2004-December/036556.html My machine came with a TZ30 drive, an RD54 CD, and hard disk all internally... mine's the M48..same as yours but with bigger case. You might need a special cable for the external SCSI.. as its got a funny connector on the computer end. I found one on ebay. For hard drives, I found that I had to experiment with different ones.. not all would work (even if under 1gb). Most did, however. Enjoy, John Singleton

16 years, 1 month

Yamaha V9958?

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org > [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of geoffrey oltmans > Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 10:50 AM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Yamaha V9958? > > Does anyone know where you can order one of these (AKA MSX-Video?). > Barring that, its earlier cousin the 9938 would be good also. [AJL>] Hi! On the N8VEM project we are getting ready to release a TMS9918/AY-3-8910 Sprite Color Graphic and Sound (SCGS) board. The board is basically done and awaiting the PCB trace route optimization to complete before ordering manufactured PCBs. There are also plans for a follow on V9938 board. V9958 has "issues" that make it less desirable than the V9938 IMO especially since it cannot generate composite video. It can generate RGB video though and has some enhanced scrolling ability. None of these chips can generate VGA compatible video though so be fore warned. http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=Color%2520Graphic s%2520and%2520Sound http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=SCGS As always, constructive comments welcome; send flames and pointless criticisms to /dev/null We've had some luck procuring the chips from leemoom611 on eBay. I've bought several chips now (TMS9918, TMS99118, V9938, V9958) without issue. Seems like a decent guy but I can't say much other than it worked for me. I have no business connections with him other than a satisfied customer. You are welcome to join us on the N8VEM project if you are interested in a TMS9918 or V9938/V9958 home brew computer project or whatever you'd like to do. Regardless, I wish you the best of luck with your project. Please keep us (me?) posted on your progress. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

16 years, 1 month

Caffeine and hacking (was Re: Soldering)

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 16 Mar 2010, at 03:10, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 14 > Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:44:49 -0000 > From: "Andrew Burton" <aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk> > Subject: Re: Caffeine and hacking (was Re: Soldering) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <005201cac490$8be1db90$f0fdf93e at user8459cef6fa> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Teo Zenios" <teoz at neo.rr.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 10:25 PM > Subject: Re: Caffeine and hacking (was Re: Soldering) > > >> I gave up drinking cola with caffeine and now mostly drink 7-up with >> artificial sweeteners (you end up getting a sweet tooth late in the day). >> >> I used to guzzle mountain dew in the morning when I worked and I found if > I >> didn't my mind would be a little cloudy until I did so I gave it up. >> >> Yes, you do lose a bunch of weight when switching to diet pop, but you > gain >> it back slowly when you get a craving for sweets (you body doesn'y like to >> be fooled by fake sweetener). > > > You can say that again (the bit in brackets in the last sentence). If I > drink Diet Cola it makes me sick, as in regurgitating what I ate recently. > So I stay well away from diet drinks... but I have a few other allergies too > (hayfever, asthma, eczema and certain plastics cause irration to my skin > after contact for 5-10 minutes). I suppose I should count myself lucky that > I'm not allergic to sunlight. I'm very sorry to hear that. Two things you might like to consider. Is the Diet Coke in a plastic botttle, and if so is the plasticiser getting into the drink? Of course if you have the same reaction to it in a glass bottle then thats not it. Is it the Aspartame sweetener? Its nasty stuff, affects the pancreas, particularly for diabetics and some experts even think the 'diabetes epidemic' is caused by it. My 87 year old mother had type one diabetes (controlled with tablets). They told her to cut down her sugar intake, so I started to go through what I buy online every week and found lower sugar versions. Coke -> Diet Coke and Robinsons Orange -> No Added Sugar Robinsons Orange etc. Soon her daily sugar measurements were off the scale, the gauge only reads up to about 25 beyond that it just says high. The medics gradually increased her tablets, switched to injecting insulin, saying now it was type 2 diabetes, the dosage went up to 74 units per day. Then one of the 'carers' (who was not medically trained) told me some of her other clients had cut out Diet Coke and become much better. I was sceptical so asked one of the nurses and though she did not want to say so on the record she suggested I cut down my mothers consumption of Aspartame. I've been doing that though some things like orange squash all seem to have it in. Now the medics are gradually reducing her insulin and frequently have to give her chocolate in the morning to get her sugar level UP to four so that they can give her her insulin without causing her to have a fit when they administer it. Try googling Aspartame Diabetes for what one doctor says about it. On the original topic, when I programmed in microcode assembler then assembler and Coral66 then Pascal I drank Ribena : result all my molars have huge fillings which might cause a blip in the mercury price when they need to be replaced :-) Now I program in C++ and have switched to Rose's lime. Of course outside work its bitter ale, either Shepherd Neame Masterbrew or when I'm in London Courage Directors. I can see the site of the old Fremlin's brewery out of my office window, thats the beer from which the word gremlin derive's its name. When I'm finding logic faults on my ICT1301 mainframe its cloudy lemonade and McVities Digestives (plain ones, not chocolate ones) to make up for skipping lunch.

16 years, 1 month

Old Equipment for sale, PDP8 and S100, with manuals

by 1metalguru＠gmail.com

Hi Guys: Just thought I would drop a line and let everyone know that I have some old computer equipment for sale (might even be free to a good home) as listed below: 1. PDP8A system, with programming front panel. Comes with PDP8/A Field Drawings Manual, and I believe it has an A/D peripheral. 2. Somewhere, (I haven't seen them for years) I have a pretty extensive library of PDP8/I manuals on Microfiche. This includes the 32K Disk Subsystem, Hi Speed Paper Tape reader, PDP8/I Math enhancement, Dectape System, etc. Used to have the paper copies, but they were too bulky so I paid to have them put on Microfiche (which was quite pricey as I recall). If anyone is interested, I'll try to come up with more info, including a complete list of the manuals on fiche, and a list of the boards installed in the 8/A. I also have some old modems, including one from an ASR33 TTY, and a 1200 Baud commercial modem from the early 80's. In addition, I have a couple of old S-100 System enclosures with backplanes and power supplies, along with a whole box of S-100 boards including 8085 CPU, memory, A/D, comm cards, and various I/O. Even some manuals to go with... My name is Darrell, and you can contact me at 1MetalGuru(at)gmail.com

16 years, 1 month

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