DEC 3100 seris system had RX24(720k) and RX23(1.44) compatable floppies.
They had a SCSI interface as well. I believe the drives were stock drives
with a SCSI->Floppy bridge.
Allison
>
>Is the hard disk on the same SCSI bus as the floppy?
>
Yes. When I set the floppy ID to [0], I get errors coming out the patooey.
>Right. I still wonder what chips are on that interface board...
>
I'll have to take it apart again. That won't be until tomorrow, though.
>Now, whether you can use a different type of floppy depends on how clever
>that ROM firmware is. If it's dumb (as I expect) then it'll only work
>with the SCSI->floppy card you have, and with the 360K drive. If it's a
>bit more intellegent it might work with a 720K drive.
>
I'd say that it's fairly intelligent. In the manual, it says that a 360k
5.25", 720k 3.5", and 1.2MB 5.25" drive were available. It claims that any
one or all the drives could be connected. It says nothing about a 1.44MB
3.5", though (were 1.44MB drives around in 1986?). It supposedly can
support 9 devices, including the internal HD. What devices, other than the
three floppies, I'm not sure.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
On Fri, 25 Dec 1998 healyzh(a)aracnet.com wrote:
> Yes. I'm thinking that the NeXT slabs used 2.88Mb SCSI floppies, but...
> Can't think of any other instances at the moment, but I have heard of such
> a beast before.
The PS/2 55SX (a 386 SCSI MCA machine) also had 2.88Mb SCSI floppies.
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
The Biin Computer was a joint project of Intel and Siemens to manufacture a
fault tolerant computer for Online Transaction Processing about 1989. It used
multiple custom processors i860 or i960 based, I'm not sure which. Memory was
32 or 64 Meg from the factory. It's operating system resided on a 5 1/4 FH 300
Meg Siemens HD. Data resided on one or more IPI interfaced 9" 800 Meg HDs. VME
Bus, SCSI peripherals. Unix based I think.
The story was to build 100 prototypes, put them out for testing and see where
it went. Biin wanted to compete with IBM and Tandem. After several years,
problems with split management and, not the least, too small of hard drives
they had spent $5 million. When they were going to have to spend at least 3
times that to ramp up production they pulled the plug, called in the machines
and liquidated the company. I suspect they couldn't generate sales.
Biin scrapped the machines. We bought and sold the IPI drives, memory 1300
DC600 tapes and much of the new part inventory. Under a certified destruction
contract we scrapped the remaining chassis. These were very interesting, about
20 "W X 30"H X 36"D. NEW! They had been shipped Air freight from Germany.
Fully assembled, ready to have drives and cards installed. Very well made, It
took a skilled person 4 hours to disassemble one to component parts. I hated
doing it, they were extremely nice machines, great German workmanship.
I was wondering if any of the machines might have escaped from Biin's grip?
Maybe in Germany?
Culled from the 1300 tapes is a complete factory set of Biin Software. If
there were a machine around it might be useful to keep.
Much later I was able to obtain the pinboard tester for the main CPU card. It
came with a prototype card, test manual and SW for the tester.
Anyway I was wondering if anyone has seen, used or has one of these computers?
The Biin is definitely rare and about 10 yrs old. If any exist it would be
collectable.
>I'm quite sure that things like SPARCbooks are normally considered to be
>both laptops and workstations....
>
SPARCbooks had a network connector, didn't they? The WANG only has a
RS-232C and a modem (300baud? I never even got it working yet.)
>
>Quite possible. What chips are on the interface board? Does it appear to
>have enough smarts to be a scsi->floppy controller (SCSI chip, FDC chip,
>CPU, RAM/EPROM probably), or is it fairly simple? Is it known that the
>host interface is SCSI, or is it just a 50 pin cable (which could be a
>lot of things).
>
It's definitely SCSI, because when I once forgot to connect the HD
(internal), it came up with a message "SCSI controller failure at address
[0]", or something like that. It's got a SCSI terminator on the non-used
plug on the floppy, too.
>
>A 720K drive should go straight in, unless the software is totally broken
>(the hardware interface is the same, apart from the drive having 80
tracks).
>
Software? No software driving anything on this machine, except for the WANG
video to CGA converter and PC-emulator. Everything else is hardware. If it
was software-controlled, there would be absolutely no way to initialize the
system, since according to the manual, The computer came with a clean,
unformatted HD. You would boot from the floppy, initialize the HD,
partition it, format it, then install the system software, and configure it
to what you needed. From what it sounded like, it was the type of computer
for more experienced computer users.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
In a message dated 12/25/98 7:44:25 AM Pacific Standard Time,
KFergason(a)aol.com writes:
>
> > >
> > > I found an amusing listing tonight on ebay for a Kaypro 2 listed at
> $1000.
> >
> > >
> > With that kind of asking / starting price I bet he gets no bids.
> > Paxton
>
> you obviously did not check it out, but you are correct. the bidding had
> closed
> with no bids.
>
> Merry Christmas!
>
Interesting. When I looked at it, shortly after it was mentioned on the list,
it had 5 days left before closing. I wonder why the lister pulled the ad? I
believe you still have to pay your listing fees. Did anyone contact the
seller?
Paxton
A quick lo-bandwidth reminder to all and sundry who might be in
the Los Angeles area this weekend: The monthly TRW Ham Radio and
Electronics swapmeet will be held tomorrow, Saturday, 26 Dec, from
7:30 until 11:30 am in El Segundo... see previous post for
directions or e-mail me privately.
Have a __________________________ ______________________!
(congratulatory adjective) (winter solstice fest)
John
>Many of the dual adapter Adaptec had floppy controllers, MFM of course. The
only
>machine I've ever seen with SCSI floppies was a workstation, and although
I'm
>sure it wasn't a NeXT, I don't recall what brand it was.
>
Only problem is that the WANG isn't a workstation it's not even a desktop.
It's a *laptop*. It's and 8086 with 1 MB RAM, and a 10 MB HD. There's no
place to install a new SCSI controller card. I dismantled the external
floppy (there is no internal floppy), which is nearly the size of the
computer, and it appears to have a standard 360k floppy, connected to
another board, which is connected to the dual SCSI socket on the back of the
unit (centronics? look like a big printer connector- on the printer end).
The drive ID dial is also connected to the board. Where would I be able to
find some drives (1.2 MB, 720k, 1.44MB, HD's) that would be fairly cheap
(with cables)? I'm not sure if the controller that's in the drive box now
is capable of running a higher density drive, but I'd like to keep it
original (when the drive is being accessed, the light flashes like HD
light).
If anyone would like a picture to see what it looks like, just send me a
personal email, and I'll send you a picture (about 40k).
Happy Holidaze,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
I don't want to turn this into a debate on Clinton, and for that reason I will ***NOT*** argue the matter on this message board, in any way, at all (I've done that on other forums, but this is not the place for it).
But I do want to make it clear that those who support his ouster speak for themselves only, and that many others disagree with their positions and their logic/arguments.
Opinions here are greatly divided, ranging from those who believe he should be forcibly removed from office and possibly even imprisoned to those who think he's one of the better presidents of the 20th century (I'm in the latter group).
History will judge with more and probably better perspective than any of us can currently apply. It will also judge those who work towards and favor his removal.
That's all.
Barry Watzman
On Dec 24, 16:58, Allison J Parent wrote:
> Subject: Re: Unsoldering
>
> <I've tried using a heat gun to unsolder things, and I can't get it to =
> <work. Either the solder doesn't melt, or the board gets too hot an bad
=
>
> I use that trick to get parts off board where I don't care about the
board.
> Sometimes I apply a propane torch. I get good parts but the boards a
mess.
I suspect Hans may be using a thermostatically controlled hot air gun;
Steinel make a very nice one which is intended for this sort of work, but
it costs about 3 times the price of a normal paint stripper. They're easy
to find in DIY stores in Austria, so I imagine they're fairly common in
Germany too.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
