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101090 discussions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I've been growing up in the age of "IBM era" of computers. The only non-IB <(compatible) computers that I've worked on was an apple //c and a TRS-80 It has it's upsides. <What I'm wondering, is what exactly is a PDP, or a VAX, or an Altair, or an <of the other things that come up frequently on the list. Also - how is on <of the computers (such as the Altair) operated, with all the switches and <indicators? Is there a keyboard or a monitor with it? Jason, Here is a brief snapshot of some of those mentioned. Altair <~1975-->1979>: A very raw machine with a toggle switch and led front pannel. Its based on the 8080 cpu. Unlike PCs there was no rom, no bios (it was being invented around the same time). Boards used a BUS called S100 for the 100 pin connector and a typical board would be a serial port, 8k ram, or maybe a 16line by 64 character video card. No monitor and keyboard like PCs, if you had the bucks a TTY of the mechanical kind (ASR33) and it also allowed paper tape. PDP-8 <~1965--> 1991>: PDP8 was a 12bit archetecture and in the real early days was like the altair with lights, switches and core memory that didn't forget with the power off. By the late 80s the PDP-8 was commonly know as DECMATEII and III and used a CMOS version of the PDP-8 CPU. One of the longest running of the old iron. OSes were created on this machine and would live on others. Best known are RTS-8, OS/8, EDUSYSTEM, MUMPS, COS. used a lot for science(labs), data aquisition and control systems. PDP-11 <~1970--> CURRENT> A 16 bit CPU useing complex instruction types and is the longest running line of the oldies. It started as all TTL small scale integration and the last 15 years of them are chips (J11 is the longest running of the chips). Considered one of the most potent of the 16bit cpus with many rivals. Boxes ranged from the tiny to real monsters. peak perfomance was about 1-2MIPS. Still considered by many to be a great programmers machine. It ran RT-11, DOS, MUMPS, RSTS, RSX, UNIX and many more OSs. Many of the single board versions (over 50,000 at Bridgeport Machine tools alone) were built into NC tools. VAX <~1978--current>: DEC forsaw that 16bits was not enough for high performance computing and created the 32bit VAX-11/780. the VAX-11 was droped for vax but it's part of its roots. It's a very CISC machine, 32bits and is know for 24x365 kinds of operations, they were workhorses and carried the superminicomputer banner for many years. Later versions were of the smaller form with the MicroVAX being the first chip level implmentation. They set a standard for perfomance that is unique (VUP). the common OS is VMS, ULTRIX (DEC BSDversion of unix). VAX was not a front pannel machine and many of the larger ones had a PDP-11 (in the form of an 11/03 or Pro350/380) as the "front end". Their sizes ran from room fillers to the small VS2000 or later 3100 workstation pizza boxes. systems like the nearly 10year old VS3100 are still considered good mailservers and small web servers and do not crash when loaded to the max+1. Hope that helps. Allison

27 years, 7 months

Got a question....PDP? VAX?

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

On Fri, 12 Mar 1999 20:01:24 -0800 "Jason Willgruber" <roblwill(a)usaor.net> writes: >Hi! > >I've been growing up in the age of "IBM era" of computers. The only >non-IBM (compatible) computers that I've worked on was an apple //c and a >TRS-80 model III that nearly caught my basement on fire. Don't forget the Mac Portable you got this past winter (hint, hint). Jeff ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

27 years, 7 months

"The Home Computer Wars"

by ckaiser＠oa.ptloma.edu

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27 years, 7 months

vax, cdrom, disks, etc

by jim＠calico.litterbox.com

A followup. I posted my VMS/vax question to comp.os.vms (imagine that) and am told there is a patch to vms 6.1 that makes it more tolerant of non dec drives by making it set the two bytes in the drive configuration automatically. it's at ftp://service.digital.com it's called vaxscsi03_61.zip Haven't applied it yet. I'll keep you posted. Now to find a cdrom that the vaxstation likes. :) -- Jim Strickland jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vote Meadocrat! Bill and Opus in 2000 - Who ELSE is there? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

27 years, 7 months

Help! Apple //c keyboard & whatnot...

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 11.3.1999 17:01:29 Eastern Standard Time, steverob(a)hotoffice.com writes: > As a former model airplane builder, I have found that the effectiveness of > Superglue varies *tremendously* from brand to brand. There are also several > different types. Some of them are very thin like water. Seems like those > only stick to flesh. Others are more of a Gel and work just the way you'd > expect. > > Before giving up, I'd try a couple of different ones. It sure beats waiting > for epoxy to cure. If helps, I'll see if I can find a source for the "Good" > stuff? > > Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com> i build airplanes as well, and what works good is the thin type glue and then a shot of that funky smelling accelerator. that makes any suprglue setup within seconds. david

27 years, 7 months

18 Classic Computers Delivered, a beaut day.

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

>> Eh? IBM Displaywriter was one of the first platforms to support CP/M86 >> (if not the first!) > > You must be thinking of something else. The IBM DisplayWriter was a > dedicated word processor based on the 8085. I don't think so. Are you sure you're not thinking of the Datamaster (AKA System/23)? My Datamaster (I have the data processing version, not the word processing version, alas) certainly has an 8085 at its heart, but my Displaywriter equally certainly has an 8088. It was indeed designed as a dedicated word processor, but since it loaded system software from disk, it wasn't hard to set it to other tasks. Philip.

27 years, 7 months

Needed: a Video Lab and Video Framer board

by mikeparadiso＠worldnet.att.net

I am looking for an SGI Video Lab board and/or a Video Framer board from the older Power Series systems. If you have one or know someone who might have one, please send me an email mikeparadiso(a)worldnet.att.net Thanks!

27 years, 7 months

AES Data 7100

by foxvideo＠wincom.net

At 07:09 PM 3/11/1999 -0500, you wrote: > >Hi, > >I just bought a strange looking machine at a Salvation Army store. It's >from AES Data Inc., Montreal, Canada. Model # is 7100, which is on the >plate on the front. I haven't brought it home yet because it's too damn >heavy to carry. > >The monitor is attached to the machine via a swivel neck. Two >full-height 5.25" disk drives are attached to the right hand side. The >drives are part of the unit, but they're made to look separate, especially >by their height which is much taller than the rest of the machine. (The >drives are stacked one on top of the other.) > >The port on the back which is labeled "Printer", is a female connector >which has pins arranged in a grid pattern. The connector looks very, very >similar to the game controller connector on a Magnavox Odyssey. > >There's another port on the back which is a male edge connector. I didn't >count the number of pins on it. > >The keyboard uses a wide phone-jack style connector, and it has a >grounding wire which screws to the back of the machine. > >Does anyone know if this is just a strange looking early MS-DOS machine, >or a CP/M beast, or if it's something entirely different? > >I can't wait to get it home and open it up to see what's inside. >Providing I can figure out how to open it. :) > >-- >Doug Spence >ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca >http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/ > > Sounds as if you have found an ICON, aka "The Bionic Beaver", the computer designed by the Ontario government to take over the educational computer market. Unfortunately it came out at the same time as the IBM PC. If you find another one please let me know, as I have been looking in Windsor without success. (The schools have all sent them to the dump.) Regards Charlie Fox Charles E. Fox Chas E. Fox Video Productions 793 Argyle Rd. Windsor N8Y 3J8 Ont. Canada email foxvideo(a)wincom.net Homepage http://www.wincom.net/foxvideo

27 years, 7 months

Interesting to note about Altairs...

by arfonrg＠texas.net

> History will place >a very different value on their Altair because of what Linux will do to >Microsoft, far less than the tens of thousands that I imagine some people >think they may be worth some day. Before I speak, let me point out that I am a rabid supporter of Linux and I wish all bad things to Bill Gates, the powers that drive Micro$oft, Micro$oft and Windblows. Now that I put that disclaimer out, Linux doesn't have a chance against Micro$oft. The vast majority of computer users (now and in the future) are idiots who don't care to learn anything other that 'click on this little picture to make it go'. Linux will do some damage in the server market and other places where you have to have someone with some computer smarts but, most corporate purse strings are again controlled by those same 'click-idiots'. I really wish GNU would take a good command line OS (like CP/M), make it 32/64 bit, and multi-tasking/user and add a GUI and try and compete with Winblows. IMHO Arfon

27 years, 7 months

Help! Apple //c keyboard & whatnot...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 12, 0:55, SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com wrote: > what's the best for ABS plastic? I've found nothing that can glue it back > together with any strength, especially if it wasnt really a clean break or the > plastic got a bit deformed at the breaking point. You can get ABS cement (like PVC pipe cement) from some plumber's suppliers or you could try asking at any small plastics fabricator. Methyl Ethyl Ketone often works if the parts are a good fit; ABS cement is just ABS dissolved in a similar solvent. Commercially, MEK is also used for PVC, and most things intended for rigid PVC work well on ABS. If the parts aren't a good fit because they've been deformed, trim them carefully with a sharp scalpel or craft knife. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

27 years, 7 months

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