-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Sunday, 17 May 1998 23:29
Subject: Re: North Star Horizon [Rare systems]
>> > > I'll have to finish that database. Oh yeah, just remembered the
Compal-80
>> > > (mid 70s S-100 box, very small, I'm sure some of the old hackers like
>> > > Allison have heard of it though).
>> >
>> > Sure! COMputer Power And Light.
>>
>> That's exactly right. An obscure (by today's standards for sure, but
>> don't know about back then...the references in the trade literature of
the
>> era are scarce) company that made S-100 boxes in the '75-'77(?)
timeframe.
>
>That's the wonderful thing about S-100 stuff; there were literally
>hundreds of small companies etching PC boards in the basement and
>selling them bare or with parts as kits. With this *huge* variety of
>boards available, what amazes me is that all the "serious collectors"
>and "serious museums" (where "serious"="have lots of money to spend")
>insist on pure Altair boardsets or pure IMSAI boardsets when I sell them
>restored machines.
>
>Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)
>
email: desieh(a)southcom.com.au
desieh(a)bigfoot.com
museum_curator(a)hotmail.com
Apple Lisa Web Page:
http://www.southcom.com.au/~desieh/index.htm
this is getting abit of track here but nobody seems to mind:
well im in australia and ive got some mechines that i bet you guys have
never heard of:
LabTam 3000
(from around 1980, Z80, 8086, huge thing with 12" greeney 8", 5 1/4" hard
drive 5MB i think)
Dick Smith System 80
(TRS-80 model 1 clone)
UNIVAC
(CPM box, looks like a terminal)
OSI C4P
(looks like a SOL termianl computer, dont know anything else about it?
anybody else know anything about it??)
This is a TA79 HSC 9-track in a large wheeled rack. I am planning to
gut it and mount other stuff in the rack. But it's very clean, and the
guy I got it from swears it works fine. So, before I start yanking
everything out of it, I'll give anyone who wants to hook it up to their
VAX, a chance to come pick it up instead. Or if you think you can use
any of the removed pieces, let me know.
--
mor(a)crl.com
http://www.crl.com/~mor/tps/
Anyone know or has hacked NS* dosV5.2 single density for more than 35
tracks?
I'm considering using it with 80 track single sided drives if I can hack
all the locations that tell the dos max disk size. The idea of 200k on
current media with the older single density controller is appealing. The
alternate is to get the 2D controllers I have going (800k per drive is
better!). It would allow me to free up many of the SD/SS disks I have
rather than a search (or make) for new 10sector media.
Allison
On May 18, 0:16, Tony Duell wrote:
> I'd now like to ask a question in return. Can anyone provide me with the
> pinouts of the 8291/8292/8293 GPIB chips? Just a list of the 40 (or
> whatever) pins and their names. I don't seem to have them in any of my
> databooks, and I'm trying to sort out a unit which uses them
all Plug and Play!!! Just as a =
>matter of curiousity, how much were they asking for it?
It was sitting next to a sign that said "Free ! take this junk away!"
>Kirk Scott
>scottk5(a)ibm.net
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Which means?
>It is a CSU/DSU of some sort. I see the things quite a bit, still in
>service - there are still lots of 56K lines still in use, but one by
one
>they are being decommissioned.
>
>William Donzelli
>william(a)ans.net
>
>
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
I saw a very cool thing today. I stopped off at a garage sale and found
some old computer books (a couple on UCSD Pascal, the p-system, a FORTH
book). The old lady tending the cash box said her husband had a big old
Apple that they wanted to get rid of. Thinking it just might be a Lisa I
followed up on this lead and went and got the old man. He took me to his
other house where he had it stored. It turned out it was an Apple ][+,
but it did have something cool about it. The old man told me that the ][+
was his son's and he used it when he was at Stanford. Around the time a
local bank was selling off a bunch of IBM Selectric typewriters that were
being used as computer printers. They had an external box which provided
the control mechanism for the computer. The son had a friend who was an
electronics wiz and so he built an interface card for the Apple to drive
the control box, thereby allowing the Apple to use the Selectric as a
printer. Pretty cool. I dug through his manuals and found the schemtic
for the adaptor card. I passed on it because I already had enough stuff
for the day and the beast isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I'll
probably go back for it someday (just the control box, the Selectric and
the interface card).
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
September 26 & 27...Vintage Computer Festival 2
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
[Last web page update: 05/11/98]
On Sat, 16 May 1998 jpero(a)mail.cgo.wave.ca wrote:
> Did it have the battery at all?
No battery.
> first: hook up the voltmeter to the 74xxxx chip for 5v and ground.
I'm reading around 3.2V, which would make sense for a laptop.
> second: hook up that power jack with right size coaxial plug and to
> veriable regulated power supply at least 600mA limited
My variable regulated supply is in my other suit (I really do have one,
just not here), so I used a bunch of different wall warts instead (center-
negative isn't nearly as popular as center-postive, it seems).
> third: start at 6V and chank up in 1V steps until it starts to work
> properly especially for the display's crisp startup lamps.
Well, the good news is that there's no smoke. But I'm not getting any
lights either. I'll try to find a real power supply tomorrow and try
again.
Thanks for the help. My diagnostic skills are now floating above zero
thanks to you guys.
-- Doug
At 02:44 PM 17-05-98 -0500, Doug Yowza wrote:
>On Sun, 17 May 1998, Sam Ismail wrote:
>
>> Bzzt. Unix was created in 1974 at Bell Labs on a PDP-7.
>
>Proof by assertion *and* buzzer is my favorite kind of proof. At least
>the guy that wrote the UNIX FAQ disagrees with you, but I'm sure your
>buzzer is bigger than his :-)
>
> http://www.ee.byu.edu/unix-faq/subsection3_8_2.html
Well I don't care how nicely formatted the page is, it's wrong. Unix was
definitely originally written in assembler for the PDP-7. I'm sure I've got
the reference at home.
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the
Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"
what was the difference between the 4004 and the 4040? Presumably the
<4040 was faster / more flexible, but was it a completely different
<architecture?
Faster, larger register set and stack, increased instruction set fully
compatable with 4004.
Allison
