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Dumping Images of my VAX-11/730's Drives?

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

This thread is a parallel discussion to a VCF thread that I started last night: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?51653-Dumping-Images-of-my-VAX-11… With today being cold and rainy, it seems like a good excuse to turn on my VAX-11/730. I can boot either VMS 5.2 off the RL02 or OpenVMS 7.3 off the R80, if I recall the version numbers correctly. Several months have passed since the last time I worked on the machine. In my last session I began trying to bring up TCP/IP networking, without success. I want to get raw images of the system's drives off the machine and onto my modern systems. I can think of several approaches, and still more approaches have already been suggested in that VCF thread. I have a number of questions, and I'm also keeping my eyes open for hardware that might help me out. I'm not presently talking to eBay, so that limits my options. First of all, if I manage to get TCP/IP networking up and running today, is there some way under VMS for me to dump raw disk blocks over the network to one of my UNIX-like systems? Alternately, if I manage to cobble together a Linux box running an older DECNET-aware distribution and bring up DECNET on the VAX, would that give me a way to dump raw disk blocks to a file on it across the network? I'm still quite clumsy under VMS. One of these network-based approaches seem like the only options that I would have any chance of achieving today, assuming that the networking hardware on my 11/730 is even in working order. I don't think I have the patience to dump an R80 drive across an async serial port, but if I did have the patience, is there some way to accomplish this under a stock VMS 5.2/7.3 installation? Ditto for the RL02 and 9-track tapes. I have a couple of broken Kennedy 9610 9-track drives in my pile. One has a SCSI interface, so I might be able to interface it to one of my newer machines that have both SCSI and a way to talk to my modern machines, such as my Sun Ultra 60 or my Amiga 3000. Both drives have hub motor drive problems that need to be diagnosed and repaired, though. This might end up being part of my best data path from the VAX to modern machines, but it'll take some time and work. I can think of a few possible approaches if somebody here has suitable hardware for sale or trade: * With an MSCP-emulating UNIBUS SCSI card, I might be able to hang a SCSI2SD off my VAX. These seem to be expensive and hard to find, though. I see a UC17 on eBay for $949 OBO. That's a lot more than I'm presently willing to spend, and I'm not on speaking terms with eBay/PayPal right now anyway. I do hope to find a suitable UNIBUS SCSI adapter at a good price, both for possible use in the VAX and for eventual use in my long-term PDP-11/44 project. * With an M8061 RLV12 card, I might be able to borrow the VAX's RL02 and dump packs on my little PDP-11 half-rack. I already have a QBUS SCSI card for it that I procured a while back. I also have four more RL02 drives out in the pile in the barn for eventual use, but I'd initially borrow the known-working RL02 drive from the VAX, which also happens to be in the same room as my little PDP-11. I don't think I already have an RLV12, but I'll dig through my QBUS cards again today to see if I have one I've forgotten about. * With some sort of Pertec tape adapter for one of my newer computers, I might be able to borrow the TU80 drive from my VAX (I think it has a Pertec interface; not positive yet) and use it to read/write tapes. It could also eventually get used with one of the Kennedy drives, but the TU80 already works. I might be able to use a PCI card in the Sun Ultra 60 if Solaris 8 can talk to it. Or an MCA card in a PS/2 65 that I recently acquired, running OS/2 Warp Connect 4, also assuming I can get suitable software. Or a SCSI to Pertec interface connected to the Ultra 60 or my Amiga 3000. Or even an ISA card in my crusty 386 clone running DOS 6.22. It would be ultimately nice to connect a 9-track to one of my modern Macs, but I don't expect that to be easy. * It was suggested that I might be able to cluster the 11/730 with a MicroVAX, and then transfer data onto some SCSI device on the MicroVAX such as a SCSI2SD. I think I'd need to find a fairly turnkey MicroVAX, though, to avoid a bring-up problem that's even bigger than the data transfer problem I'm trying to solve. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

9 years, 2 months

Olivetti 3MB ST506-interface drive?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Does anyone recall an Olivetti ST506-interface drive with a colossal 3MB capacity? Apparently a full-height 5.25" unit with 4 heads and two platters. I'm just curious; I always thought that capacities either equaled or surpassed the 5MB of Seagate's ST506 after they introduced it, so I was a bit surprised to hear of a drive with < 5MB. For context, Acorn apparently used them during development of their external Winchester units for BBC micros (Acorn SASI board, Adaptec SASI-ST506 bridge, ST506 drive). Production units that I'm aware of had either a 10MB or 30MB drive fitted (BASF typically, I think). We're talking 1983, or maybe late '82, so considerably after the introduction of the original Seagate drive. The only Olivetti drives I'm finding mention of are a 10MB single-platter drive and a 20MB dual-platter drive. Acorn had close ties with Olivetti, of course, so I did wonder if Acorn acquired some pre-production drives - but it seems like a bit of a leap to go from a 3MB dual-platter prototype to a 20MB one. cheers Jules

9 years, 2 months

Sun 4/260

by theevilapplepie＠gmail.com

Howdy there folks, I've been kicking myself for giving away a dying Sun4/260 due to space issues and moving about 15 years ago and since then my life has settled I've started looking occasionally to see if I can find another one. Has anyone seen any of these units in a workable condition that are for sale or possibly even loan? I never got a good chance to dig into the one I had and I regret it, just looking to recoup lost time :) Thanks, James

9 years, 2 months

PDP-11/23 Troubles Again

by ben＠bensinclair.com

In the previous episode, I was trying to get my M8013 and M8014 RL02 controller pair to pass the diskless controller test, and discovered it had some sort of stuck bit. Repairing that seemed a little out of my scope, so I recently found an M8061, and I tried to give it another go today. However, my system has decided to be flakey again after not running for a couple months. I removed the '13 and '14 and started up the memory and CPU diagnostics just to make sure I was in a good starting position. The memory passes just fine, but the JKDBD0 test no longer starts, and turns off the run light. Previously that was because of bad memory, (and it doesn't run at all with too little memory), but using two tested good M8044's got everything working. I reseated everything, and am running with the M8186, two M8044s, M8043, and the M8012, which was my previous good configuration. The power test points on the M8012 are good. I only have two (good, at least before) M8044s for memory, so I don't have anything handy to swap in. I think this particular machine just hates me, but assuming it doesn't, does anyone have other suggestions? Thanks! -- Ben Sinclair ben at bensinclair.com

9 years, 2 months

Why the National Archives needs punch-card readers (Fwd by SMECC)

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Scruffy Millennials covet old record players because they dig the format; the National Archives and Records Administration keeps old file players around because legacy digital data demand them. "I am preserving every file format that has ever existed on the web, or that any of you have ever used in your work on a daily basis," said Leslie Johnston, NARA's director of digital preservation, who spoke at a March 10 FedScoop event. "In one transfer from one agency, we received not only their email, their Word documents, their PDFs, their PowerPoints -- we actually received the entire contents of their hard drives." http://bit.ly/1QVLam4 enjoy - Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC

9 years, 2 months

Which RT-11 for an 11/03

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

Is there a listing somewhere of what versions of RT-11 work with which CPUs? The Heath H11 uses the LSI-11 which I think is an 11/03 equivalent. Is there a specific version (or maximum version) designed for this CPU? I tried v4 using a method I found on-line (modifying with SIMH to make it bootable as a TU58 image rather than an RK) but it doesn't work so I wanted to first eliminate the system version as the potential problem. Thanks! Rich Sent from my iPhone

9 years, 2 months

Honneywell multics? from panels. the inline phots in this message folks -smecc

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2016 07:27:18 -0800 > From: Charles Anthony <charles.unix.pro at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: Honneywell multics? from panels. the inline phots in this > message folks -smecc > > The panels labeled IOM are Input Output Managers; they connected the SCUs > to peripheral devices; also sometimes 'IOP' (Input Output Processor). > > -- Charles > I believe that the IOMs are Input/Output *Multiplexers.* -- Michael Thompson

9 years, 2 months

Introduction and Alpha Micro AM-1200 query

by rsponholtz＠hotmail.com

Hi Everyone, I just subscribed on the cctalk mailing list, I thought I?d introduce myself.? The first computer that I ever used was an Alpha Micro AM-100 at my high school, where I had the extra project of figuring out Pascal and explaining it to the teacher.? I?m pretty excited about Eric and Al?s decapping project ? I?m imagining a FPGA-based AM-100 emulator in the future! In fact, I recently picked up an Alpha Micro AM-1200 that I?d like to get running.?It?s giving a selftest error indicating a memory problem that hopefully I can figure out how to track down. After that, I?ll need to get an OS on an appropriate disk (I don?t think the disk is working). Does anyone here have any info or documentation on these machines, or maybe even some software? The info out on the ?net on these things seems pretty minimal. Back to the intro: I went to University of Colorado Boulder for Computer Science back in the mid-80s, graduating in 88 after doing a lot of work under VMS and various Unix machines.? I now work for Microsoft (in cloud pre-sales tech), and have a small collection of old computers ? AM-1200, Microvax, Mac SE and HP 9000/300.? I recently picked up a nice ADM-3a that I got working by replacing some RAM chips. ? Anyway, thanks for your help, and love the conversation! Ross Sponholtz rsponholtz at hotmail.com

9 years, 2 months

Which RT-11 for an 11/03

by Gary＠realtimecomp.com

There is no difference in the LSI-11 board on an H-11 and a pdp-11/03. What DEC did do was cripple Heath's version of RT-11 (called HT-11). It would only work with Heath's H-27 floppy drive unit. The Heath serial, parallel, and memory cards were all compatible with DEC's offerings, AFAIK. That being said, I personally don't have experience with true RT-11 on the H-11. -------- Original message -------- From: Richard Cini Date:03/10/2016 4:09 PM (GMT-05:00) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" Subject: Re: Which RT-11 for an 11/03 If I have time tonight I'll log the session with "verbose" set on the TU58EM. Again, I'm trying the trick of booting from a TU58 emulator and an RK image with DD as the boot target (supposedly can work but maybe slow). I can see the blocks being read in but it stops and doesn't give me the sign-on banner. Rich Sent from my iPhone

9 years, 2 months

Apple Disk II

by pchatt30＠gmail.com

Hi, Dose anybody have a reasonably priced Apple Disk II drive and controller card in the uk? The shipping costs from the US are a too much. Thanks

9 years, 2 months

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