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Obscure MIT-spinoff computer (Was: What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Maddox > ECD Micromind That would be the one. Thanks! (A friend of mine worked there, as a tech, but it was aeons ago, and I just could not remember the name!) According to this blog: http://ecdmicromind.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html there is actually one still in existence, and it (sorta) works! Noel

9 years, 4 months

What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

In a message dated 1/11/2017 2:01:05 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, RichA at livingcomputers.org writes: From: Noel Chiappa Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2017 5:40 AM >> From: Eric Smith >> I have a computer of the type that Gates and Allen used for that early >> development. :-) >> I don't have it running, though. > Really? Which model processor; KA, KI, KL? Eric's got a KL. If he had a KA, I would have tracked him down and beaten him to a pulp to lay hands on it--and we're friends. > PS: Apparently Gates and Allen at one point rented time on a commercial > service in Boston to do development; anyone know who that was, and what > machine/OS is was? Nope. They moved to Albuquerque as soon as the deal with MITS was done. (Ed Roberts hired Paul as his VP of software development on the spot.) They rented time from the Albuquerque school district, whose -10 had unused capacity. (Development of the BASIC interpreter was famously done using the Harvard KA-10.) They went from renting time on others' systems to owning their own when they moved from Albuquerque back to Seattle. Their first was a KS under TOPS-20. I have all this not merely from Paul's book, but from another friend who was Microsoft employee #11 (who appears in the famous picture) and others like David Bunnell at our grand opening. Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computers: Museum + Labs 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputers.org http://www.LivingComputers.org/ I had heard Altair code for the roms and stuff was developed on an Intel Intellect 8 system? Is this fact , Fiction or?? Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org)

9 years, 4 months

Boot Loader for 3P+S on IMSAI

by wheagy＠gmail.com

Yes, I was able to run the echo characters test from the solivant site as well as a couple other small upload tests, so I'm thinking it's a delay issue or a configuration problem with the 3P+S and MITS BASIC. Digging back into this on my IMSAI, I'm now remembering the peculiarities of loading MITS BASIC when I was doing it on the Altair. That picture will help. I think I've already spotted something without even having my actual card in front of me. Thanks...Win >Did you verify "echo characters" works? There is a test program in the >solivant site that explains this. If so, then you very well may need to >experiment with character delays when you download BASIC. You can watch >the lights and see when the various loaders load, that might help give you >a clue where the failure point is. >The extra pointers I added were things I found useful, but I was using the >2SIO card. >b

9 years, 4 months

Fwd: Stinky screwdrivers

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I sent this out to some friends at the end of December -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Stinky screwdrivers Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2016 08:51:02 -0800 From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> To: Eric Schlaepfer <schlae at gmail.com>, Kenneth Sumrall <ken at scrapheap.net> CC: Hedley Rainnie <luvhed at gmail.com>, Alvaro <apg88zx at gmail.com> http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-153147.html I've been buying a lot of Xcelite tools lately, and was wondering why some of the handles stunk. Sadly, it looks like the good USA made hand tools will all have their plastic handles crumble eventually though I have two Craftsmen nut drivers I bought in 1975 that are still perfect. Xcelite isn't made in the US anymore. Bought a #0 Super-tru Tip (no longer says USA) and it is absolute crap. -- as an addendum, I just bought a new "Made in USA" Xcelite pliers, and the build quality was an embarrassment. now I understand all the interest in used hand tools on eBay

9 years, 4 months

Stripping an RA80

by ard.p850ug1＠gmail.com

I am probably going to be flamed for this.... My VAX11/730 has an R80 disk drive as you might expect. I dismantled this many years ago to move it and never reassembled it. Over the years (in particular during a house move), the smaller parts (screws, the brackets and clevis pins for the gas struts, and ribbon cables) have got lost. A friend of mine (Philip) was having a clearout and gave me an RA80 (SDI interface, of course). I don't run SDI drives anywhere (I think I have a UDA50 somewhere), but a lot of parts are the same as in the R80. My first thought is to strip this RA80 (that's why I got it!). This will provide me with most of the missing parts (all that I would have to make is the 26 way ribbon to the controller cable -- the 60 way one is still in the R80 chassis). So after stripping I think I would be left with 4 classes of part : 1) Those I need for the R80 -- brackets, screws cables, etc 2) Those that could be useful spares for the R80 : HDA Spindle Motor Belt Belt Tensioner PSU R/W PCB Servo PCB Microprocessor PCB (the ROMs are different, of course, but the the PCB is the same and could be a source of components. I don't swap boards anyway) AC and DC power harnesses Fans Motor capacitor 3) Those that are of no use in the R80, but are not too hard to store Personality board Control panel SDI cabling 4) Those that I don't need and which are a pain to store Cbassis parts. Is there any reason to keep the bare, stripped, chassis, or should I let it go as scrap metal? Does anyone run an RA80 and think any of the bits in list 3 (certainly) or 2 (I may want to keep these, in particular the HDA if it's good) are useful to them? Of course I don't know if the parts are still good. Or should I preserve the RA80 as it is, and just use it as patterns for the missing bits. Try to find a source of the UNC screws, make up the cables, make up brackets, etc. I would only do that if there is a very good reason. -tony

9 years, 4 months

What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

by spereira1952＠comcast.net

> On Jan 11, 2017, at 1:00 PM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 8 > Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 22:09:52 +0000 > From: Andy Cloud <r3trohub at gmail.com <mailto:r3trohub at gmail.com>> > To: "cctalk at classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>" <cctalk at classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>> > Subject: What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do > you own? > Message-ID: > <CAGmukzzmPkTx0D98iSPK41=Y4utY1nxiyfhrGwek=v5VdpQz5A at mail.gmail.com <mailto:CAGmukzzmPkTx0D98iSPK41=Y4utY1nxiyfhrGwek=v5VdpQz5A at mail.gmail.com>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Hi Everyone! > > I thought this would be an interesting question to ask around - What's the > rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own? > > For me, personally, I have a Altair 8800! > > Looking forward to hearing your answers > >> _Andy I recently acquired my ?holy grail?: an Altair 680b. And, with a bit of troubleshooting, I got it up and running, too. smp -- Stephen M. Pereira Bedford, NH 03110 KB1SXE

9 years, 4 months

pdp-11 assembly standards

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

> I've never heard of that '&o' bizzaro-stuff - where did you find that? This one: http://mdfs.net/Software/PDP11/Assembler/AsmPDP.txt Reading more closely, the encoding has some relation back to BBC BASIC. I was beginning to wonder if it was some html character-encoding screwup.

9 years, 4 months

pdp-11 assembly standards

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Brent Hilpert > This one: > ... > Reading more closely, the encoding has some relation back to BBC BASIC. Given this (from the documentation): Assembler directives -------------------- #include <filename> Includes the specified file. #ifndef <label> Continue assembling if <label> is undefined. #ifdef <label> Continue assembling if <label> is defined. #if <value> Continue assembling if <value> is non-zero. #else Toggle assembly. #endif Continue assembling. which is clearly C-related, I wonder if there is some relationship there (the '%o' looks rather printf()-ish). Although I note the documentation says "any valid value recognised by BBC BASIC" - does BBC basic use the leading '%' notation for constants? Noel

9 years, 4 months

What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

by tmanos＠concursive.com

I just gave away my pride and joy: an AT&T 3B2 1000 in perfect condition with just about every accessory you could want and fully configured. It was a dual processor system, and fully maxed out with RAM and ports. It had an ethernet card and SCSI, I collected boards and documentation for many years and had a complete set of original docs, and many, many spares. I was downsizing and ended up giving it away to another denizen of the list along with a couple Sparc 20's and a bunch of other stuff. It completely filled up a rental SUV and traveled from Virginia to a state way out west. Many hundreds of pounds of stuff. It's happily running now. I miss it, but hopefully it's getting more use than I was giving it. On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 5:09 PM, Andy Cloud <r3trohub at gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Everyone! > > I thought this would be an interesting question to ask around - What's the > rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own? > > For me, personally, I have a Altair 8800! > > Looking forward to hearing your answers > >>_Andy

9 years, 4 months

pdp-11 assembly standards

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

9 years, 4 months

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