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101090 discussions

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

>> A lot of people don't like key clicks. I do. When I worked at IBM I >> received a lot of dirty looks for typing on a 3279 terminal, in an open > > Not half as bad as the looks _I_ got for using a Flexowriter to punch a > tape in a public terminal room at Cambridge University about 10 years ago > (everybody else was using _silent_ video terminals, mostly BBC micros). Was I there? I don't recall the incident. >> plan office, without turning off the key clicker. Now that really was >> loud! > > I have a keyboard somewhere with a little solenoid in it that hits the > metal baseplate for a keyclick. Now that is loud! 3278 and 3279 were similar, except that it wasn't the metal base plate. I never dismantled one, but it sounded like one of those plastic resonators you get in some toy guns. Philip.

27 years, 9 months

Front Panel Theory

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< know about is the Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1. It's pretty! And it's th < only one I've seen that had breakpoint capability. It was a "soft" front pannel where the switches interacted with a limited amount of rom like the altair 8800B. The Heath H8 and several others did nearly the same thing but used an octal keypad. Allison

27 years, 9 months

Into the modern age

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>One thing I'm a bit surprised by is the speed of the video being much >faster than I'd imagined it would be. Now to get some software to run >on it; I've found some stuff already, but can someone point me at some >share/freeware software to run under DecWindows (besides the DECUS >archives)? In particular, I remember using an ephemeris program in school >that I could swear was freely distributed. A lot of precompiled binaries are available by anonymous ftp >from ftp.cenaath.cena.dgac.fr - but many (most?) of these are available more conveniently from one of the DECUS collections. Just about anything that runs under X-windows on a Unix platform will run under DECWindows on VMS. Generally the difficulties in porting are comparable to porting between two different Unix platforms. (That's what that endless maze of "#ifdef"'s is in there for in the first place!) >Does the DECUS hobbyist license cover all versions of VMS/DECWindows? That's a good question, and I thought the license terms itself would say. But the copy I have from http://www.montagar.com/hobbyist/license_terms.html is silent on the subject! Comments on comp.os.vms tend to indicate that 6.1 is covered, but that 6.2 isn't (because 6.2 is still "currently supported" commercially.) >I'm running 5.2 on this machine; would upgrading to 6.1 noticeably degrade >performance? Would additional features balance out any slowdowns? Besides >new features, my entire manual set is for 6.1... I forget how much RAM you have, but if you have more than 16 Mbytes you won't have any problems. If you have 16 Mbytes or less, you might be a bit tight on memory and would incur some paging/swapping, depending on what you're doing. Tim. (shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com)

27 years, 9 months

Into the modern age

by A_Finney＠wfi-inc.com

I finally got a monitor for my VS3100 m38 and was playing with DecWindows all night. Really cool. One thing I'm a bit surprised by is the speed of the video being much faster than I'd imagined it would be. Now to get some software to run on it; I've found some stuff already, but can someone point me at some share/freeware software to run under DecWindows (besides the DECUS archives)? In particular, I remember using an ephemeris program in school that I could swear was freely distributed. And a couple more questions for the experts: Does the DECUS hobbyist license cover all versions of VMS/DECWindows? I'm running 5.2 on this machine; would upgrading to 6.1 noticeably degrade performance? Would additional features balance out any slowdowns? Besides new features, my entire manual set is for 6.1... Aaron

27 years, 9 months

FW: H-11 (LSI-11) for trade or sale (SF Bay Area)

by kyrrin＠my-dejanews.com

Heads up folks! This fellow's got an H11 for sale/trade in the Bay Area. You want, get in touch with him directly. -=-=- <snip> -=-=- On 25 Nov 1998 22:27:15 -0800, in alt.sys.pdp11 you wrote: >>From: John Mock <kd6pag(a)qsl.net> >>Newsgroups: alt.sys.pdp11 >>Subject: H-11 (LSI-11) for trade or sale (SF Bay Area) >>Date: 25 Nov 1998 22:27:15 -0800 >>Organization: Spam Haters >>Lines: 15 >>Message-ID: <87ogpvt1do.fsf(a)mongrel.kd6pag.ampr.org> >>NNTP-Posting-Host: op204.value.net >>X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.2 >>Path: blushng.jps.net!news.pbi.net!205.252.116.205!howland.erols.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news1.best.com!vnetnews.value.net!not-for-mail >> >>Would like to trade for amateur radio gear (non-HF) or test equipment (non- >>boat-anchor due to space considerations). I think it includes manuals, >>drawings, and various paper-tape crud; 'was always too busy to do anything >>with it. I'm now in much too small of a place to keep it, and it's just >>occupying space in the van waiting for a new home. Too much stuff to ship >>but will happily deliver to most parts of the Bay Area (especially Sonoma >>Co., where someone [whose e-mail address was lost] had expressed interest >>before). Or perhaps the Sacramento region, as i'd like finally to make it >>to the snow country this year and the stuff's in the way of that. >> >>Please make an offer, including destination, as this time, i need to deal >>with this quickly. >> >> -- KD6PAG (or in UUCP notation, 'qsl.net!kd6pag' >> to evade the spammers) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies -- kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech [dot] com Web: http://www.bluefeathertech.com "...No matter how we may wish otherwise, our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot possibly define any of them..."

27 years, 9 months

Need DTC brand Qbus SCSI board info

by cfandt＠netsync.net

I have what is believed to be a SCSI board from DTC. It is a dual-wide Qbus module. "DTC" is silk-screened on the component side plus a FAB number, ASSY number, REV number and S/N. Nothing on the ejector tab. Those numbers likely do not mean anything to a search of DTC SCSI board info files but here they are anyway: FAB 007-00003, ASSY 007-00002, REV 02, S/N 3028C2. No LSI chips on board; only two ROM chips (82S123N's with paper labels "LSH 1" and LSD0" typed on them) plus others are typical 74xxx-series chips (LS, S and 7400-series) except bus I/F chips are the typical DS8641N's. It is suspected to be SCSI as there is a 50-pin pin connector on the ejector end and a tag on the antistatic bag has "Probably SCSI" written on it by what is apparently a DEC dealer/reseller in Pittsburgh. Absolutely no part or type number on the component side and nothing on the solder side. Searching the DTC website was useless as the only thing they talked about in the Support area was all their PC-type SCSI boards. Nothing on any web search turned up anything either (figures, it's such a relatively old thing) unless there's actually a website the search engines could not see . . . It could be an earlier SASI type board too as the date codes on the chips run from mid-1982 to a few from the first weeks of 1983. IIRC, that's around the tail end of the SASI protocol days and beginning of the SCSI protocol. Anyway, I need to get info on this to see if it could be used on either my MicroVAX II or MicroPDP-11/73. Anybody have any ideas on this? Any old DTC or independant DEC reseller catalogs from the early 80's have any info on this? Thanks in advance. Happy Thanksgiving to the Stateside gang!! In addition to the good things we are given in life such as family, friends and the life we have, give thanks for our ability to keep and study the old computer and electronic technology: hobbies we are fortunate to enjoy. Regards, Chris -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/

27 years, 9 months

Tektronix 4051

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Hi all, More progress on the 4051. I finally tracked down the original manuals and was able to get them. Man, are they in sorry shape. Not just mold and mildew but even termites in them! I spent all day cleaning them page by page. I was able to save most of them. The worst damage is confined to the outer pages and the edges so most of the real info is intact. Here's what I ended up with, besides the two books that I mentioned early. (Book 1) 4051 Service ROM Pack 067-0962-00, 4051R05 Binary Program Loader, 4051E01 ROM Expander Instruction Manual, 4051 Option 1 Data Communications Interface 021-0188-00, Data Communications Inteface Unit Instruction Manual 021-0065-00, 4051 Option 10 RS-232 Printer Interface 021-0189-00. (Book 2) Graphic System Reference Manual 070-2056-00 (Book 3) 4051 Graphic System Service Manual Vol I 070-2065-00, 4051 Graphic System Service Manual Vol II 070-2086-00, RS 232 Printer Interface for 4051 (data sheet) 021-0189-00, 4051R01/4051R05/4051R06 data sheet 062-3106-00. (Book 4) 4907 File Manager Operator's Manual 070-2360-00. (Book 5) Plot 50 ????? (title page missing), Plot 50 Introduction to Graphic Programming in BASIC 070-2059-00. (Book 6) 4051 Editor 4051R06 070-2170-00. BTW Paxton and Phillip were right, the model of the disk drives is 4907 not 4097. Happy weekend everybody and happy Thanksgiving to the ones of us here in the US. Joe

27 years, 9 months

Front Panel Theory

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< If you're suggesting that the breakpoint capability of the DPS-1 < front-panel was merely something that tickled a ROM monitor and told it < drop a software breakpoint, then BZZZT! That would be cheating. It was a mix of rom and some hardware but, yes! < >From the hardware description, it looks like it was a real ICE-like < hardware breakpoint, and you could break on address, data, or status < conditions. If I could recognize the part numbers in the schematic, I < might even be able to pretend I know how it works. :-) That was the part hardware part. Compared to ICE is was far more crude. Allison

27 years, 9 months

Vaxstation 3100 basics

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< The box is a model VS42A and has a 3.5" floppy and 2 X 100Mb internal SC < hard drives. It has what looks like 8Mb of RAM to me, whatever is on th < main board plus a 4Mb extension. Ok you have a 3100, with 12mb ram (VMS runs in 4 or more). This is plenty. The two RZ23l drives are plenty of space for VMS. < < On powering up it says KA 42-A v1.3, does a hex countdown and finishes w < a ">>>" prompt. < < Command "b" causes it to display ESA0 and stop. < Command "?" gives an error message. < Command "c" causes a drive to start. It then displays an error message " < ERR PC=00000000" and then lists a table I can't decipher that seems t < list drives and includes "VMS/VMB" and "Ultrix" along the top. It then h < prompt " [ESA0:] >>> ". < At that point command "b" results in a series of errors: < 83 BOOT SYS < ?41 DEVASSIGN,B < 84 FAIL ESA0 is the eithernet. So it was trying to NETBOOT! The boot device is likely DKA300. DKA is disk, scsi bus A X00 is the device number. < How can I find out if it has an operating system? or have I already prov < it hasn't? Try booting! >>> B DKA000 through 700 see if they all fail. < It looks like it is at least NEARLY 10 years old. 9 max. depending on model maybe less than 5. Though KA42A is likely a 3100 M30 nice little box actually. Allison

27 years, 9 months

Front Panel Theory

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Do you mean if you execute a HALT instruction? If you do that, the Z80 < behaves as if it's continuously executing HALT instructions, performing < repeated bus cycles, including the RFSH signal part. No. Halt is a instruction. WAIT/ is a device pin. WAIT/ will hold cpu operation at the point where a read write or IO( read or write) operation takes place an freezes it until released. Most hardware front pannels used wait/ (or ready/) to stop the cpu. the WAIT/ state on z80 does not generate refresh as it's a extended T2 state and refresh is not output until the cpu proceds to the T3 state. so for those front pannels operatios were done this way: read an address; waiting that that address with data and address leds as the would be for bus contents. CPU is waiting in M1 state for z80 case (instruction read). Write data: Same as read case but the contents of the data switches are written to the current ram address. the write pulse is from the front pannel (cpu still waiting). RUN: remove wait/, operation procedes from where you are. STOP: Assert wait/ LOAD ADDRESS: JAM jump to address into cpu. the jump instuction is a buffer with it's imputs hard wired to C3h (JP in z80) and the address bytes that follow gated off the 16 front pannel switchs. Wait is re asserted to stop after the jump. LEDs will now contain the new address and data from the address in the switches. hardware front pannels are generally a lot of chips but no smarts. Allison

27 years, 9 months

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