test-drb

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101090 discussions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Is there any specific information out there about W.D.'s implementation <of XT-IDE? It is documented some in the QUE book Upgrading and repairing PCs 3rd edition I have. Allison

27 years, 8 months

Indiana Jones and the...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<The original design for the Altair as presented in those fateful issues of <"Popular Electronics" had no bus or backplane, but was just four circuit <boards wired together with ribbon cable. (as shown in a picture in part on <of the article) < <It would seem, that true seekers of the 'Holy Grail' would be trying to <determine if any machines in that original configuration were ever actuall <shipped! And then the task would be to find one of those! There were only a few and they were the prototypes. <Now, THAT would be on a par with the Apple I ! Eh? No that would exceed the Apple I as they are like flies (it was a production machine) compared to prototypes. Allison

27 years, 8 months

tube CD player (was Re: sizes (was Re: vacuum tube computer))

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

On Tue, 2 Feb 1999 18:44:35 +0000 (GMT) ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) writes: >> >> Tony Duell wrote: >> > A photomultiplier isn't that bad to use. OK, it needs a kilovolt >or so of >> > EHT. But apart from that it's a fairly easy device to connect up >and get >> > a useable signal from. There should be a lot of them still about, >and >> > small ones aren't that expensive second-hand. >> >> The tricky part is how to mate this with the mechanical assembly. >Even >> the laserdisc players that used a HeNe laser still used a >semiconductor >> photodetector that was directly mounted on the sled. > >I assume the HeNe tube didn't move with the sled, right (far to much >mass, the servo would never lock). Couldn't you do something similar >with >the photomultiplier - mount it on the chassis and somehow direct the >light beam onto it? Actually, I saw a prototype laserdisk player in a museum somewhere (I think it was in the LA Museum of Science , but it was a long time ago) that had the following arrangement: The HeNe laser tube was bolted down, along with some optics, and a spinning platter/servo motor mounted on a carriage. The *PLATTER* moved during seeks! It was really quite bizarre to watch. They used a *BIG* servo motor to move the carriage, if memory serves. 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, 8 months

Gorilla manual

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

A couple of weeks ago someone was asking about a Gorilla Banana printer. Today I found the onwer's manual for my old Gorilla monochrome monitor. Does anyone need it? Joe

27 years, 8 months

PDP paper tape - PC04/PC05 (offer to trade)!

by jlwest＠tseinc.com

Don't know if anyone can help on this, but wanted to post this query to the kind folks here... I have a PDP-8E system, but it appears that the previous owner got many of the parts from different sources. The system has a paper tape reader/punch, but it's for a PDP-11 (PC05) not for a PDP-8 (PC04). I have some information that shows how to convert a PC05 into a PC04 so I can use it with the 8E, but I would prefer to not have to do the conversion unless absolutely necessary (I don't like to mess with historical accuracy if at all possible). So - does anyone have a working PC04 paper tape reader/punch that they would want to trade for a working PC05 paper tape reader/punch? Thanks mucho! Jay West

27 years, 8 months

Indiana Jones and the...

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

At 11:31 PM 2/1/99 -0800, Sam wrote: >On Tue, 2 Feb 1999, Doug wrote: > > >You dumb-ass! Geez, Sam, it's too early for April fool's day! Joe

27 years, 8 months

Honeywell DPS 6 Hard drives

by enigma＠intop.net

I have a Honeywell DPS 6, nice computer, really, but I've got a problem. There is one of these weird fixed disk/removable cartridge drives (yes that is a fixed disk and removable cartridge in one) that has a broken belt that runs between the drive spindle and the motor. It is this weird small v-belt. There is also this large hard drive in another cabinet that connects to the thing using DB37 connectors, IIRC. I'm not sure of how to connect it to the computer, nor do I have the cables. I do know the box runs GCOS6, which from what I hear is a cross between GCOS and Unix. Hooray for me, if I can get it working. Although it is supposedly not y2k compliant, but I think that is just a ploy so Bull can get you to spend money on an upgrade. :-) Any hints or tips or free belts for that thing, or places to get belts for that thing, would be appreciated. Any help on running GCOS6 would be nice, as in how do I get the super user account on it? How do I add users, etc. On a different note, I may start a list for buying and selling old computer stuff, everything but PCs, pretty soon, if interest is good enough. Please email me personally at "enigma(a)intop.net" if you would like to see something like that. Regards, J.S. Havard

27 years, 8 months

Euro on old computers

by fmc＠reanimators.org

"Hans Franke" <Hans.Franke(a)mch20.sbs.de> wrote: > BTW: this E symbol is one of the 4 most stupid ideas around > the euro - a typical pice of shit like most ideas developed > by politicians. Don't get me wrong, the Euro is a good idea, > but they tried to make it as stupid as possible. The cynic in me wonders whether the funny-looking E isn't something pushed either before or after the political accomplishment by computer companies wanting to churn the installed base. I mean, Y2K has a definite sell-by date. So does this but I think it's another couple years out, right? ObCC: so what did you UKans do to get your funny-looking L on computers, terminals, and printers imported from ASCII-speaking countries? -Frank McConnell

27 years, 8 months

tube CD player (was Re: sizes (was Re: vacuum tube computer))

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 1, 23:30, Eric Smith wrote: > Of course. It would use a HeNe laser, just like the early laser video > disc players. > > The part I haven't figured out is the photodetector. Even those early LD > players used a phototransistor for the detector. Would a selenium cell be fast enough? A CdS photresistor probably wouldn't be, I think. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

27 years, 8 months

vacuum tube computer

by Jgzabol＠aol.com

In einer eMail vom 31.01.1999 23:58:22, schreiben Sie: << I wonder if bit-serial would be simpler (less data path, more control logic, basically). A lot of the valved machines were bit-serial for this reason. [...] I simply find bit-serial AWFUL - so much time wasted !!! Anything should be designed to get the max. performance out of given technology/budget, in my opinion; bit-serial certainly then would be a good solution for a LONG word, like 30-60 bit, doing floating point, if and only if budget limits do not allow paralell, but not for smaller things. THAT is the reason for the historic machines - they wanted floating point, therefore long words, therefore serial because of budget/size/etc constraints. > Am amazed you couls build a computer like this with ~400 cards ~800 tubes. > That is similar to building a complete computer with 200 SSI TTL chips like > a 7400. Especially since a 24 bit latch could use 24 of the cards. I tried This doesn't sound out of line. The CPU of the PDP8/e on my desk is 3 quad cards of TTL, mostly simple gates. Perhapes 250chips total. OK, some of them are more complex (like full adder circuits), but there's nothing that big in there. > a design once (on paper) with MSI ic's like 74193 counters, and it quickly > got out of hand, 100's of ic's. If you're going to allow anything in the TTL data book, then you can trivially make a CPU in 200 chips. You have to cheat slightly (74181 ALUs, small PROMs, etc), but it can be done. It has been done - many times. -tony >> The big difference is in the basic AND-OR-INVERT tube gate used: only one half tube (the INVERT, one triode section out of a dual triode tube) is used, but a lot of diodes doing the ANDs and ORs, so that one tube section is equivalent to MORE than a standard SSI 74xx IC. Typically, I would say one AND-OR-INVERT, i.e. one tube section plus associated diodes and resistors is equivalent to about one entire 74xx package, so one tube is equivalent to about two packages, on the average. John G. Zabolitzky

27 years, 8 months

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