>
>I was just wondering --- Could I have an APC IV? Three of the teachers
that
>have seen it have either called it an APC IV, or "The pain in the neck".
>Some of the descriptions that I've seen don't sound like the computer I
>have. Although it does say "APCIII" on the front panel.
>--
The APC III's and IV's look much the same. If anything the III looks more
modern as it is a smaller neater case, but it dates from 1984. The IV's are
286's and are fully IBM compatible with a Phoenix based bios. They have a
normal ISA bus while the III's have different shaped cards that are
installed in horizontal slots.
>>The APC III was not IBM compatible at all in it's original form. It had a
>>special version of DOS and the floppy drives are _Quad_ density not double
>>density.
>>
>Not at all??? It's got an AMD 8086 and a Intel 8087 directly on the
>motherboard.
>
>About the only thing that I can see that is non-standard is the bus
>archetecture. It's got a standard (looking) floppy, and an MFM (or RLL)
HD.
>
Having familiar looking hardware doesn't mean it is IBM compatible. It was
the bios that counted in those days. NEC did it's own thing here rather than
go to Phoenix.
Doug wrote:
<<
OK, I think I have a candidate for the first computer with blinkenlights.
This is from David Richie's The Computer Pioneers:
<<
As he sat in his kitchen, one November evening in 1937, [...] Stibitz went
into his workshop, took some relays salvaged from Bell Labs' junk pile,
[...] and devised a few circuits. Input consisted of strips of metal cut
from coffee cans. Output was a pair of flashlights bulbs that lit up or
stayed dark to indicate the results of binary calculations.
>>
Stibitz is generally credited with creating one of the first digital
computers. I think this date is earlier than both Zuse's Z1 (1938) and
Atanasoff's ABC (1939), so I guess blinkenlights were there from the
start!
>>
Now that is really thorough digging! Good find, thank you.
John G. Zabolitzky
To my knowledge the blinking lights go back to the UNIVAC 1, 1951.
They became famous - and therefore made their way to almost any computer
of that time - due to the successful 1952 US presidential election prediction
on TV. It is rumoured that the TV crew wired up a few more lights than
actually part of the computer.
John G. Zabolitzky
Yeah and it's "n'est ce pas" and "mais oui"
Oh well I can't help it I'm from France
-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph S. Barrera III <joe(a)barrera.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Friday, February 26, 1999 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: Ooops, Typo!
>> Tre cool, ne c'est pas? Ooo, mai oui!.
>
>You misspelled "Tres." ;-)
>
How much would you want for the parts? I'm trying to get this computer
running for a school project (the computer belongs to my school)
I was just wondering --- Could I have an APC IV? Three of the teachers that
have seen it have either called it an APC IV, or "The pain in the neck".
Some of the descriptions that I've seen don't sound like the computer I
have. Although it does say "APCIII" on the front panel.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
-----Original Message-----
From: Les Berry <lfb107(a)psu.edu>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Friday, February 26, 1999 10:25 AM
Subject: NEC APCIII
>
>I had similar problems with my pair of APCIII's. Frustrated, and in
>need of extra space, I threw them out, but I managed to save most
>anything that wasn't permanently attached to the case. I've got a
>few of the memory boards that slid in the back as well as a few
>parallel cards I think. I also (think) that I have a few of those NLE
>cards that plugged in the front. The two that i had also had another
>smaller (memory?) card that plugged in to a special slot at the front,
>an external HD connector (and a HD.... SCSI?), and a special keyboard
>with special buttons for graphic functions. Not surprising since they
>booted up with the DOS 2.11 version of AutoCAD. I couldn't, for
>the life of me, get them to run anything else! If anyone needs any parts
>let me know, I haven't got much use for them.
>
>Les
>lfb107(a)psu.edu
>
>
>The APC III was not IBM compatible at all in it's original form. It had a
>special version of DOS and the floppy drives are _Quad_ density not double
>density.
>
Not at all??? It's got an AMD 8086 and a Intel 8087 directly on the
motherboard.
About the only thing that I can see that is non-standard is the bus
archetecture. It's got a standard (looking) floppy, and an MFM (or RLL) HD.
>When NEC later saw the error of their ways, they offered a special card
>called an SLE that when installed allowed the machine to run standard IBM
>compatible software. This came with another version of DOS, which I think
>was also specific to this machine for booting purposes. SLE stood for
>Software Library Extender.
>
>I think the special card had it's own 8088 cpu.
>
>APC III's were heavily marketed here in Australia and were once very easy
to
>find. I have a number in deep storage (ie too deep to get out and look at
>easily). NEC also provided financial incentives for software developers
here
>and I have come across several cases of startup companies built on these
>incentives, all now gone though.
>
>I think NEC learned about compatibility the hard way.
>
>To get your machine going the first question is whether you have the SLE
>card or not.
>The second question is whether you have the correct monitor. I don't think
>normal IBM style monitors will work.
>
It's got either an CGA or EGA (made by NEC) on it. It works on an old Tandy
1000, so, I'd say the monitor is standard.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
This one has 2.11. It half-boots from the HD then locks.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
-----Original Message-----
From: Computer Room Internet Cafe <netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, February 25, 1999 7:51 PM
Subject: Re: Another NEC APCIII question.
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jason Willgruber <roblwill(a)usaor.net>
>To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
><classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
>Date: Friday, 26 February 1999 15:06
>Subject: Another NEC APCIII question.
>
>
>>I got the NEC to seek the floppy. Sort of....
>>
>>Does the APC III Use a special version of DOS?
>
>Yeah, I think it does.
>
>>If so, what version? I
>
>3.3 IIRC.
>I've got one here somewhere, I'll dig it out over the weekend and have a
>look.
>I might be able to do you a disk image of the boot disk.
>>tried 5.0, and it won't work.
>
>I think only the NEC 'version' of the OS will work.
>
>Cheers
>Geoff Roberts
>Computer Room Internet Cafe
>Port Pirie
>South Australia.
>netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
>
>
> Greetings, Classic Computer Fans,
Hello Rick! This is definitely the place to be!
> I have a few older computers that I've run across, mostly as orphans.
> These include a Tandy 100 (who doesn't have one of these?), a Tandy 600, a
> Sun 3/50, a Sun 4/360, A couple of Tektronix 6130's, a Tektronix 4132, and
> a Tektronix 4319. I worked at Tektronix for 13 years, from '77 through '90,
> so I have a particular affection for Tektronix equipment.
Do you know anything about the 4050 series? Joe Rigdon (who made sarcastic
remarks about Tek 31 calculators) has a 4051 (as do one or two others on the
list) and I have a 4052 and we are both avidly hunting useful info and/or
documentation.
> I'm looking forward to sharing memories with the list, and, as mentioned,
> hearing about your memories, and all the great collector finds out there.
You'll certainly have fun, then.
Welcome to the list.
Philip.
Upon the date 12:40 PM 2/26/99 -0800, Sellam Ismail said something like:
>
>Does anybody know when Hewlett-Packard made the Model 130C oscilloscope?
>Its tube based. The serial number is 503-03353.
Sometime just after the 3rd week of 1965.
Rule for deciphering HP SN's in the above format as tought to me by a
couple of different HP service engineers and other written sources:
Take the numbers preceding the hyphen and add 6000. Result gives the first
two digits as the year and the second pair is (usually) the week of
production. Numbers after the hyphen are the serialized number.
1834A-xxxxxx is some unit built around 34th week of 1978, for example. Note
the "A". Can't recall when, but the nation of manufacture is depicted by
that alpha character. A is USA, J is Japan for example.
