Sam:
could you please tell me what isbn number and the publisher was on the
"Computer power for small business" book though I could try and track it
down in some used book syores around here.
thanx
Chris
At 10:25 AM 06/02/98 -0800, you wrote:
>
>I added another 37 volumes to my vintage computer library yesterday.
>
>By far the most valuable from a historical standpoint is the book
>_Computer Power for the Small Business_ from 1979. It is a buyer's guide
>for microcomputers of the mid- to late -0's era. Talk about a treasure.
>This book has pictures and decriptions of many computers I've never even
>heard of.
>
>It contains information on systems we know much of, such as the Atari's,
>Apple, PETs, Radio Shack, etc. But it also has blurbs on systems that
>I've not seen mentioned anywhere else (at least not in a way that is
>looking back on these systems with a historical perspective) like the RCA
>Cosmac VIP, the Sol-20, Exidy Sorcerer, Heathkit H-8 and H-11, Intecolor
>8031.
>
>The best part is the descriptions of systems I've never knew about before.
>Has anyone ever heard of an Outpost computer? Its a fully integrated
>package with keyboard, display and 5.25" drive, but its almost three feet
>wide, with the two 5.25" drive bays to the side of the display! How about
>the PeCos One from APF Electronics. I have a pong machine made by APF but
>who would've thought they once made computers? How about The Renaissance
>Machine (aka Compucolor II)? There's also mention of the Teal SHC-8000,
>which is sort of like a pet with display, keyboard and cassette player in
>one unit.
>
>It then has a listing with about 40 different system descriptions,
>including CPU, memory, external storage, input (ie. keyboard, lightpen),
>output (ie. display, printer) and basic cost. There's also the company
>address which is extremely valuable for research.
>
>Here's an interesting tidbit. Apparently Data General made a line of
>computers dubbed "The Digital Group". According to this entry in the
>table, they were systems based on the Z-80, 8080A, 9080A, 6800 and 6502
>processors; they had 2K of main memory; they used cassettes for storage.
>Can anyone verify this?
>
>I also got another similar book entitled _The Peter McWilliams Personal
>Computer Buying Guide_ circa 1985. I haven't had a chance to go through
>it in much detail but it is basically more nice descriptions of early- to
>mid-80's computers, again some of which I've never heard of. I'll do a
>review later.
>
>In my travels I also picked up a Victor 800 electric adding machine. I
>don't collect adding machines and only rare grab them for specific
>reasons. In this case, this is the same Victor as the Victor 9000
>computer. I knew right away because the 'o' in the "Victor" emblem was
>that striped-circle that is telling of a Victor product (plus it had a
>Scott's Valley, CA address on the back).
>
>Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
>
> Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
> See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
>
>
>
> That sounds right. In fact, the readers are even labeled
< > "DECtape55"s. How much do these hold?
Around 185-230k 12bit words depending on how formatted.
1464 blocks of 128 words, randomly block addressable with an index.
Another scheme used 129 word blocks with over 1400 available. It was
low cost disk like and moderatly fast storage. One tape could hold a
complete OS and utilities along with a language.
Allison
< >Standard paper tape stores 10 characters/inch. Each row of holes across
< >the tape is an 8-bit character, with a small 'sprocket' hole which is
< >either used to drag the tape through the reader, or to provide a strobe
< >pulse.
<
< Is that enough to actually do some decent stuff with the PDP-8.
Humph, PC mentality... Back beofre Gates could stand there were computers
and programmers programmed such that tens of kilobyte requirements for OSs
were inconceiveable as being bloated.
Considering the basic PDP-8 has 4k 12 bit words. Yes.
< I also have some reels of film-like tape. What's the proper name for it?
< How does it compare to the paper tape?
There are two things, mylar tape (does not decay around oils) and if the
tapes have a 4" hub and say dectape then it's a old low cost magtape.
Allison
>> >A full reel of tape was 1000' I think. That's about 100K of data (to give
>> >an order of magnitude). A full box of fanfold tape would be about the same.
>>
>> I also have some reels of film-like tape. What's the proper name for it?
>> How does it compare to the paper tape?
>
>Are these little reels about 4" in diameter of 3/4" magnetic tape? If so,
>they're the original DECtapes.
That sounds right. In fact, the readers are even labeled
"DECtape55"s. How much do these hold?
What is used to 'punch' the paper tape? My reader certainly doesn't
look like it's capable.
Thanks.
Tom Owad
--
Sysop of Caesarville Online
Client software at: <http://home.earthlink.net/~tomowad/>
On Fri, 17 Jul 1998 05:54:31 -0800 (PDT), Tim Shoppa
<shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca> wrote:
>It's probably not too far off target. The original QDOS was certainly
>developed on a S-100 CP/M-80 system - Tim Paterson's articles in _BYTE_
>make this much obvious - but most Microsoft products
>of the era were cross-compiled from one of several DEC minicomputers
>that Microsoft owned or "leased" time on. I know that most of their early
>Macintosh products were developed on a TOPS-10 system, in particular.
>I would guess that after they bought QDOS, Microsoft moved development
>to a TOPS-10 platform.
>Tim.
Do you have copies of those articles handy? I'd really like to get
copies of them.
Thanks.
Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com>
- ClubWin! Charter Member
- MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
- Preserver of "classic" computers
<<<< ========== reply separator ========== >>>>>
> Right now only one of the drives is hooked up, set to drive '0'.
>It will boot and run the UCSD stuff and it will boot RT-11(V2.0)....
>except that, in 7 out of the 7 packs with RT-11.... it is as if KMON
>was missing or damaged; it boots up to the dot prompt and then
>returns the ?ILL? message no matter which command I give it. I have
>RT-11(V5.0) on my 11/73 and it is fully functional, so I have had
>some cursory (N.P.I.) experience with the OS.
Ah... you're playing with an RT-11 which didn't have DCL... there are
no quick shortcuts to accomplish things. To get a directory of
your disk:
R PIP
*RK0:/L
*^C
There is no 'HELP' command... each utility has to be run explicitly.
There is no BUP, DUP, DIR... the functions that were split out into
DUP and DIR are still in PIP...
Back when I first used V2... I wrote what I called a supplementary
command scanner which was invoked if KMON couldn't otherwise identify
the command. So I had a sort of CCL way back in 1976 or so (when I
was at WPI).
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
(1978-1992)
User of RT-11 since 1975
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of ' ' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
Hello, all:
While going through the old Popular Electronics magazines that I
recently got, I found two article series that I would like to have complete,
but I'm missing two issues...bummer.
Does anyone have the following and would be willing to mail me a copy:
1. Popular Electronics, March 1977, Part 3 of the "Build the
Cosmac Elf" construction article.
2. Popular Electronics, November, 1981, Part 3 of the "Designing
with the 8080 uP" article.
I'd be more than happy to reimburse for copying/postage. Thanks.
Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com>
- ClubWin! Charter Member
- MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
- Preserver of "classic" computers
<<<< ========== reply separator ========== >>>>>
I ran across a consignment store that has a large supply of shrink-wrapped MSDOS 6.x they are selling for $1 each. Probably be about $5 including postage. Please let me know if anyone is interested.
Regards,
Bob
Those of you interested I have been doing some updating to my Commodore pages.
Let me see if I can give you a list:
* Added a better 'original PET' graphic to the PET page
(Yeah Doug, that picture does look awfully familiar, hope you don't mind..)
* Added a picture of my Pet Rock (as a link in the PET page)
* Added to the PET FAQ two sub-pages on PET BASIC (one small, one REALLY BIG)
both are adapted from the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference text
from Project 64 with changes/additions to be PET specific.
also a nother question or two
* Started a Commdore 8-bit Troubleshooting Guide
(stuff like don't put things to close or to the left of monitors, etc)
I have a couple 64 and 1541 fixer charts I plan to add someday too.
* P500 Page has all new pics! (with close-up of the back panel)
much re-wording (also found a pic of an Ultimax to add) Unfortunately
my QuickCam can't do a screen-shot, the monitor refresh
through the camera is too messy.
* Did a bit of work on the BBS history, still have to add a link
over to the CBBS North West page (4th BBS in the U.S!)...
If any of that sounds interesting, click on the link below and check it out.
(BTW I know the long PET BASIC page 4.0 command portion is incomplete, I got
lazy, what can I say.)
--
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Larry Anderson - Sysop of Silicon Realms BBS (300-2400bd) (209) 754-1363
Visit my Commodore 8-Bit web page at:
http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/commodore.html
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