<Which one is that? I remember the Teraks being fairly small, and I thin
<I've seen a small MicroVAX, but was there a small portable PDP-11?
I have an 11/23, 256k ram, dlv11j and MRV11 in a ba11va shoebox. that's
a 11x13x4 inch box with 4 dual slots. I use it with a tu58 dectape in
a box of the same size small and light system running rt11. Often the
same box can be found with a 11/2, two MXV11 nultifunction cards and a
RX02 controller. The floppy (RX02) is about 4 times the volume of the
CPU!
Allison
Please everyone, do not echo that nasty subject line.
<IIRC, the Tandy modifications were the L2 basic board, 16K RAM, Numeric
<keypad, and the lower case mod. All others were 3rd party. I could make a
<slight case that 3rd party mods are slightly less original, but I'm not
<going to press the point. I don't think Tandy ever offered a *2 speedup.
The *2 speed up was not RS, however the concession was that machine
modified with those in for repair would be serviced at normal rates if
the mod was unrelated to the problem. If a new logic was required do to
extensive damage the pricing was different (expensive).
<They may well have offered various fixes to the cassette interface - I
<don't know.
They did! The best one was a little board with a 4040/4001 on it.
<There were many 3rd party mods. I've seen a M1 with 48K RAM in the
<keyboard unit. I've even seen one (much hacked) power up with a CASS?
<prompt. Yes, it was running M3 BASIC.
there were some rally nice mods too.
Allison
Wanted:
I have an Okidata Okimate 20 that presently has a Commodore
"plug-n-print" interface in it and I'm in need of the IBM/Centronics
"plug-n-print" interface for it. If someone has an IBM fitted Oki 20 but
wants a Commodore interface (not likely) I'd like to evenly swap
interfaces or if someone has just an interface for it for IBM I'd like
to trade them something or buy it directly.
Anyone? I need this for use with my portable PS/2 P70 when I go on jobs
or such and need to print things of importance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Russ Blakeman
RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144
Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991
Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com
Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/
ICQ # 1714857
* Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers*
--------------------------------------------------------------------
<Hmmm... No flmes intended (and I hope we can agree to differ on this),
Same here. Of the 25+ machines in my room all are operable at a moments
notice some requiring being pluged in or a terminal plugged in.
<but I really can't see the point in collecting non-working computers _and
<keeping them that way_. Sure I get a lot of non-working machines, but the
<first thing I do is attempt to find a technical manual or scheamatic and
<repair them. Working machines are a lot more interesting. The case
Same here. Though I do have some that while now are working and stored
SBCs are less interesting to others. But a non-working system when
aquired is always tested, fixed if possible then I decide if I care to
have it in a location for easy use and access. If not I tend to pull it
out and periodically run it to insure it stays operable.
<I collect for many reasons, amongst them :
<
<1) The fun and mental challenge of restoring/repairing them. Fault
<finding can be interesting, you know
Same here, good mental exercise and what I learn can help others.
<2) Finding out what the machines I grew up dreaming of were really like.
<And the machines that came before them. I could never afford them when
<new, now I can play with them
Big time! Some were way out of my reach back when.
<3) Doing things that you can't do on a modern machine. Many classics,
<even minicomputers nd workstations are simple enough to understand
<completely. It's fun to rewrite microcode. It's fun to trace data through
<an ALU into the registers using a logic probe and 'scope. It's fun to
<debug a floppy controller at gate level. And it's fun to boot a machine
<from paper tape after toggling in the bootstrap from the panel
I'll add that some of my older machines are working hardware in that they
support a project or run software that I've not duplicated on the PC for
performance or usability.
<4) Tracing the history of certain features. To take a trivial example,
<IOBYTE at location 3 on CP/M can be traced back to the Intellec MCS8i. It
<was at location 3 on that machine (with the same format of 4 2-bit
<fields) as locations 0-2 were reserved for the reset jump instruction, so
<this was the first free RAM location.
Or interfaces like SCSI when it was SASI. Or 8" floppies.
Allison
<I have had too many 3.5" disks go bad, some my own, some not, not
<to ask why. I mean, is it just a property of 3.5" disks to be
<unreliable, or is something else? Are there any "industrial quality"
<drives/disks that are reasonably reliable?
It's something your doing as I've found 3.5" media to be about as
reliable as I can ask for meaning they are amoung the best. Then
again I also have 20year old 8" media that's still in use. There is no
such thing as industrial strength drives or media.
Heat and dirt are the biggest killers. All my systems use sony or teac
drive as they are a bit better constructed and were available. However I
ahve a 19$ drive that has been in use for about five years and refuses to
quit! Im not timid about blowing out the dust and cleaning vents either!
Allison
In a message dated 98-04-12 15:33:58 EDT, you write:
<< It seems to me that there is a Historical solution for this problem, that I
gather worked very well in the far distant past.
Enrico has become SUCH a pain, and it seems like most of the traffic of
late is a result of his insistence not to let this drop. While he may or
may not have a valid problem, I no longer care, and based on the way he's
acting I would suspect the problem is on his end. Because of all of this
I'd like to propose a rather drastic solution >>
I'm tired of hearing him whine like a little kindergartner.
Welcome to my killfile, Enrico! *PLONK*
Lets get back to topic!
Just another reminder that many email programs have killfiles and mail
filters. Every time there is a spate of off-topic flaming or otherwise
unnecessary verbage in this list, my list of mail filters grows a little
longer. I now get almost no messages with profanity. It's also
possible to filter out any individual who goes over the line in your
estimation.
I think this preferable to having additional "private lists". Of
course, individuals can have correspondence with whomever they
wish at any time, using personal mailing lists.
Dave
I'm only going to say this once. I will make no replies to this post
outside of private E-mail, and I will accept no arguments from those
involved in the current flame-war that even HINT at attempted justification
for their cluttering of the list.
I have changed receipt of CLASSICCMP to 'ack' (non-digest) on my end so
that I may easily killfile/filter the entire childish flame-war polluting
this list, which the perpetrators of seem unwilling to take to private
E-mail as should have happened when the thing first lit up.
I am tired of reading about who's right, who's wrong, who's a con-artist
and who's not, and who's doing what to whom and for how much. I am here for
one purpose; to share knowledge of old hardware and software, specifically
DECish stuff. Others, I'm going to assume, are here for the purpose of
sharing knowledge of the systems they have interest in.
I do not believe that anyone is here to share a flame-war. If the
flame-war traffic continues in the form of list postings, I will begin
filtering by author rather than by subject thread. This could cause me to
miss something I value, or to fail to respond to a question that I could
answer, but at this point I feel that risk is justified.
Read my typing. TAKE YOUR STUPID FLAME-WAR TO E-MAIL! PLEASE!
Thank you.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net)
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
Folks,
I'm still digesting all the responces from Allison, Tony, and
Pete... but I wanted to thank you guys for satiating my
curiosity. I'm clueless, but not thankless. :-)
--jmg
Sorry, but this has been bugging me for quite some time. In Star Trek, they
use "Isolinear" based memory circuts to store information in both the short
and long term. So, from the looks of it, it's some kind of crystal, and can
transmit it's data very quickly, and with no moving parts, so I'm guessing
that it's similiar to today's RAM. Now, for the hard part: It can hold
entire encyclopedia's in tiny amounts. In one episiode, they had nanites,
little robot-bugs that could hold "gigabytes of information," and were
microscopic. Furthermore, in some episodes, they find Chodak and T'Kon
ruins, between 900,000 to 700,000 years old, with half or more of the data
intact.
Was crystaline storage ever attempted like this? Is it possible?
Feasable?
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
