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Peripherals and Interfacing handbook pdp-11

by db＠db.net

Up for grabs free for postage, 1971 version. -- - db at FreeBSD.org db at db.net http://artemis.db.net/~db

7 years, 10 months

Rolm computers

by peter＠vanpeborgh.eu

I would be interested in any Rolm items you might have. (no promises.) Thanks, Peter VP || | | | | | | | | Peter Van Peborgh 62 St Mary's Rise Writhlington Radstock Somerset BA3 3PD UK 01761 439 234 || | | | | | | | |

7 years, 10 months

DG Eclipse S-130 Front Panel Needed

by g-wright＠att.net

I just rescued? a? DG S-130 from a scrapper.?? The rack was being pulled out of a trailer with a Excavator.? So the nice rack and the? hard drive where crushed.? The S-130 seems to be repairable, with? mostly sheet metal damage. The? front panels where both crushed. I would guess these are hard to come by? ??? but I thought I would at least ask if anyone had a spare they would part with. I'm guessing its a S-130? by the blue and white front panel and switches. The upper front panel which has the Model number is missing. Not sure? how to read the? Label on the back. It? has 8461 after the model. Thanks, Jerry

7 years, 10 months

Fwd: Microsoft-Paul Allen

by jim.manley＠gmail.com

[ Accidentally only sent to Eric originally ] On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 3:41 PM Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> wrote: > On Sat, Oct 20, 2018, 01:46 Jim Manley via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > wrote: > >> The Softcard was a Z-80 based single-board >> computer > > > It wasn't. It was only a processor card. > Eric, I'm going to stand by my assertion that the Softcard was a single-board computer on the technicality that it did have its own RAM - you apparently forget that registers are a form of RAM - HA! They're memory, they're addressed over a bus (that just happens to be within the microprocessor), and you can directly access any register at any time (random access). As for I/O, that's what the Apple ][ bus was for, right? As Opus from Bloom County, among other comic characters, was known to utter, "PBBBBBBTTTTTT!!! ? Microsoft did offer a RAM expansion board specifically to allow the Softcard to access 64K of RAM dedicated to CP/M, and the Premium Softcard //e provided on-board RAM to CP/M for the Apple //e, as you noted. All models of the Softcard could output 80 x 24 text, not only through third-party cards, but Apple's own 64K RAM and 80 x 24 video combo card, which was often offered in packages, especially through dealers that supported business customers (that's how my system came delivered). The "etc." I mentioned was the functionality provided through the glueware logic on the Softcard that enabled RAM and 80 x 24 text output, as well as other I/O over the Apple ][ slots bus. When I was in the Navy, our ship called at HMS Tamar in Hong Kong, and I followed verbal directions (26 stops on the then-new subway under the harbor into the New Territories) to the basement level of a shopping center. There, I found clones of everything from Apple ][s and //es to every expansion board and peripheral available in the early 1980s, including both the original Softcard and the Premium Softcard //e. Everything came complete with the floppy disks and every page of the documentation, not just photocopied, but professionally typeset and offset-printed. In your missing-the-forest-for-the-trees response, you completely missed the point of my post - that the Softcard was an extremely important early product for Microsoft, the critical connection between the Softcard and the QDOS prototype for x86 MS/PC-DOS, through Seattle Computer Products, and that the number of CP/M licenses was much larger on Apple computers than S-100 systems. For those that cited the Amstrad systems, I was referring to the S-100 and Softcard timeframe. CP/M was only provided with the Amstrad CPC664 and 6128 floppy-disk based models, and the DDI-1 disk expansion unit for the 464 (only CP/M 2.2 with the 664, and 2.2 and 3.1 with the 6128). The Amstrads came along four years after the Softcard was introduced, and three years after the release of the IBM PC. By that time, Digital Research's influence had faded into insignificance, despite the full release of CP/M-86 within six months of the IBM PC's debut (albeit at six times the price of MS/PC-DOS). I do know that CP/M was used in European banking systems well into the late 1990s, mostly because it wasn't broken and didn't need to be "fixed". It probably would have remained in use well past 1999 if it weren't for Y2K's impetus for massive upgrades to current technology for 2000 and beyond. All the Best, Jim On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 3:41 PM Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> wrote: > On Sat, Oct 20, 2018, 01:46 Jim Manley via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > wrote: > >> The Softcard was a Z-80 based single-board >> computer > > > It wasn't. It was only a processor card. > > that plugged into an Apple ][ slot, equipped with its own >> 80x24 character x line black-and-white video output, > > > No version of the Softcard had it's own video output. It used normal Apple > video output. If you wanted 80x24, you had to use a separate third-party > 80-column card, or (later) and Apple IIe, IIc, IIc+, or IIgs. > > RAM, etc., >> > > I'm not sure what you're referring to by "etc.", but the vast majority of > Softcards and their clones did not have their own RAM, and used that of the > Apple II. > > The PCPI Applicard and it's clones had their own RAM. Some very late > models of the Softcard had their own RAM. > >

7 years, 10 months

Rolm Computers: 1602, 1602A, 1602B, 1666, MSExx (was Data General Nova Star Trek)

by thollowell＠designdata.com

Hi Eric, My name is Tom Hollowell. I took the US support of Rolm in 1998. PWA assumed the international. I noticed that you have some ROLM hardware. I may be interested in finding out what you have. Let me know, Thanks, Tom Sent from my iPhone

7 years, 10 months

Data books available in Aachen

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I received this message this morning, if someone in Germany would like a data book collection "The computer club at the RWTH Aachen University has to move from a larger collection of semiconductor data books. These are 2..3 steel cabinets full of data books of various manufacturers, for which there is no more space in the new premises. I have seen your website and that you are dealing with the archiving / digitization of such books. Would you be interested in taking over this data book inventory? You would otherwise have to go to the waste paper ..." -- From: Alfred Arnold <alfred at ccac.rwth-aachen.de> Guten Tag, der Computerclub an der RWTH Aachen mu? sich im Zuge eines Umzugs von einer gr??eren Sammlung an Halbleiter-Datenb?chern trennen. Dabei handelt es sich um 2..3 Stahlschr?nke voll von Datenb?chern verschiedenster Hersteller, f?r die in den neuen R?umlichkeiten kein Platz mehr ist. Ich habe Ihre Webseite gesehen und da? Sie sich mit der Archivierung/Digitalisierung solcher B?cher besch?ftigen. Best?nde eventuell Interesse an der ?bernahme dieses Datenbuch-Bestandes? Sie m??ten wohl ansonsten ins Altpapier gehen... Viele Gr??e Alfred Arnold -- Alfred Arnold E-Mail: alfred at ccac.rwth-aachen.de Computer Club at the http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/alf/ Technical University Phone: +49-241-406526 of Aachen

7 years, 10 months

1970s CDC disk drive (Craigslist, Washington DC)

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

it's too bad that I am on the other side of the great pond . I would have been very interested in it :-( Pierre ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers moved to: http://www.digitalheritage.de -------------------------------------------- Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> schrieb am Mo, 22.10.2018: Betreff: Re: 1970s CDC disk drive (Craigslist, Washington DC) An: "Ken Shirriff via cctalk" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Datum: Montag, 22. Oktober, 2018 08:16 Uhr On 10/21/18 7:12 PM, Ken Shirriff via cctalk wrote: > Someone pointed out this CDC disk drive on Craigslist in the Washington DC > area: > https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/zip/d/early-computer-era-rolling/67… > > I have no connection to this, and don't know anything about it, but figured > someone on cctalk might want to pick it up, rather than it getting scrapped. > Looks like a 9746. --Chuck

7 years, 10 months

1970s CDC disk drive (Craigslist, Washington DC)

by ken.shirriff＠gmail.com

Someone pointed out this CDC disk drive on Craigslist in the Washington DC area: https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/zip/d/early-computer-era-rolling/67… I have no connection to this, and don't know anything about it, but figured someone on cctalk might want to pick it up, rather than it getting scrapped. Ken

7 years, 10 months

PDP8A Power Distribution Board

by marco＠familie-rauhut.eu

Hello alltogether, i am restoring a PDP8A at the moment. The machine got a problem in the Powersupply. I think one of the emergency ciruits trigger a shutdown of PSU. In tracing this isue i hab two questions. My 8A`s manufacturing year is 1977. It`s model is 8A620. On Bitsavers i found a matching shematic for the BA8C Power distribution Board from 1976 (File: EK-8A002-MM-002_PDP-8A_Miniprocessor_Users_Manual_Dec76.pdf page 597). The Board Number is 5412000-0-1. My first question is if somone has the Board Layout with it's component locations? My second question is about the DEC4011 Chips. As i inspected the Board i found the DEC4011 Chips. First i think they are the standard CMOS 4011 quad two-input NAND`s. In the shematic it look more like a four Transistor array. Did anyone know somthing aput these Chips? Are there any equivalent parts? Have anyone a Datasheet of it? Marco

7 years, 10 months

Selling keyboards without the terminal

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > The quality of modern keycaps is poor. > These guys are after mechanical boards with double-shot keytops. There's something I'm still not quite grasping. I can see two reasons for people liking the old keyboards: - i) Higher quality construction - ii) Connection, through a historial artifact, to an earlier age Am I missing any? I can definitely see the first (I myself find many modern keyboards to be complete crap), but if that's _all_ it is, I'd think there'd be a market for modern production of quality keyboards - not a large market, true, but I'd think it would be large enough to be worth servicing? (Unless the cost to produce such would be so high that there wouldn't be any buyers - but that seems at odd with some of the prices being mentioned.) So maybe people _only_ want keyboards that have both i) and ii)? Noel

7 years, 10 months

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