From: "Hotze" <photze(a)batelco.com.bh>
<Good to hear that. If I do get a computer, it will have an AMD processor.
<If memory serves, Intel cut off the 386 at 20 mhz.
At a bare minimum intel went to 33mhz, I know as I have both the DX and
SX versions.
<Do you know where I can get any of this software? Also, I need to know
<how to rig it up so that I can get nultiple connections over one phone lin
<(my computer has one dedicated line already), also, if I can use one modem
<(say a 33,600) to divide up to several 4800 connections.
What your referring to is making one physical circuit look like multiple
virtual circuits, aka networking. For PCs and minicomputers that is
possible between each other but, not as a computer to phone line
interface(caveats exist). For phone modems sharing it between phone lines
is not an option.
For BBSing you need one modem and one phone line for every user you wish to
have on line at the same time. The modems do not have to be the same speed
and even slow ones can eb useful.
Allison
How many computer collectors does it take to change a light bulb?
Forty.
One to change the light bulb and thirty-nine to chat about how good the old
one was.
Yours in good faith.
Kevin Stumpf
Remember, mainframes used to be really big.
+1.519.744.2900 (EST/EDT GMT-5)
Okay, I'll get you the motherboard ASAP, and computers DON'T make mistakes;
programmers do.
>Glad to take it!
I'll ship the 486/33 processor to you, but if it is alright, can I have a
slightly higher discount on shiping on which ever computer I end up taking?
I don't know how much the 486/66 processor w/board w/16 MB RAM is worth,
you could tell me, and then whatever you think the 486/33 is worth. But
remember, the 33 is a SX, so it has no math processor. The 66 is a DX2.
>The VIC-20 was Commodore's first computer...2K of RAM (I think), did
sounds
>and color TV screen stuff.
>Commodore 64
>Apple II C (I think).
Well, I'm not sure which I'll take, but I don't really need the Apple II C,
maybe the Commodore 64, or the VIC 20.
I have a TV screen, I even have one in the guest
>bedroom that's used once in a blue moon. Didn't the older Apples up to
the
>IIGS have attached monitors?
>>The Post Office tells me that 44 lbs will cost $89 US to send to you. If
>you
>>have a TV screen, you can save on the cost of shipping a monitor for an
>>Apple/Commodore/anything else. (The IBM will work a TV screen with the
>right
>>card, but colors are funny).
How much does the Commodore 64 or the VIC-20 weigh? (That might make a
difference in what I chose.), but it'll probably be the VIC 20. I have a
friend who might buy the C64 from you. In your next e-mail, tell me how
much you would sell the C64 for, so I can tell him.
Thanks again,
Tim D. Hotze
Good to hear that. If I do get a computer, it will have an AMD processor.
If memory serves, Intel cut off the 386 at 20 mhz.
Do you know where I can get any of this software? Also, I need to know
how to rig it up so that I can get nultiple connections over one phone line
(my computer has one dedicated line already), also, if I can use one modem
(say a 33,600) to divide up to several 4800 connections.
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Bruce Lane <kyrrin2(a)wizards.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Fido lives!
Date: Saturday, November 01, 1997 11:30 AM
At least, it lives as far as I can tell. ;-) If Tom Jennings did indeed
'pull the plug,' I've seen no indication of it whatsoever at my end. If
anything, traffic on the echos I carry is higher than normal.
To answer an earlier question about hardware; my DOS-based BBS has been
running very happily, since 1990, on a 386DX-40 (AMD processor, of course!)
and 8 MB RAM. I use RemoteAccess 2.01 for the base BBS package, Portal of
Power 0.62 for the front-end mailer, and FastEcho for the mail processor.
Scott Samet's XLAXNODE handles my weekly nodelist compilation.
The system has been extremely trouble-free, and has been pretty much
self-maintaining since 1994. The only things I need to do with it are to
pick up my mail every week and check for new users every so often.
As long as I continue to see a NODEDIFF each week, and as long as I
continue to pay dues to my local group for echo traffic, I will assume that
FidoNet still lives.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin2(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"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..."
Hi To Everyone on the list
I have been following this list for a couple of months now
and here is a Short list of my finds so far.
Commodore 128 1902 moniter 2 1571 drives and Okidate Plug N Print 10.
Texas Instruments tI994a with Biege plastic Cover and tape Deck
Color Computer 2 with cassette deck
Atari 800 and Tape deck
and my latest find a Amiga 1000 with 1080 moniter and 512k memory
anyone have more information on expansion of this computer??
Bruce James
ejames(a)newwave.net
At least, it lives as far as I can tell. ;-) If Tom Jennings did indeed
'pull the plug,' I've seen no indication of it whatsoever at my end. If
anything, traffic on the echos I carry is higher than normal.
To answer an earlier question about hardware; my DOS-based BBS has been
running very happily, since 1990, on a 386DX-40 (AMD processor, of course!)
and 8 MB RAM. I use RemoteAccess 2.01 for the base BBS package, Portal of
Power 0.62 for the front-end mailer, and FastEcho for the mail processor.
Scott Samet's XLAXNODE handles my weekly nodelist compilation.
The system has been extremely trouble-free, and has been pretty much
self-maintaining since 1994. The only things I need to do with it are to
pick up my mail every week and check for new users every so often.
As long as I continue to see a NODEDIFF each week, and as long as I
continue to pay dues to my local group for echo traffic, I will assume that
FidoNet still lives.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin2(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"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..."
Hi,
Last night I acquired a Corvus Concept CPU box and hard disk unit. Does
anybody have any information about these? More specifically I am
missing the monitor and keyboard and have no documentation on the
specifications of these. They are both 9pin D connectors and that is
all I know.
--
Kevan
Old Computer Collector: http://staff.motiv.co.uk/~kevan/
kevan(a)heydon.org wrote:
> Last night I acquired a Corvus Concept CPU box and hard disk unit. Does
> anybody have any information about these? More specifically I am
> missing the monitor and keyboard and have no documentation on the
> specifications of these. They are both 9pin D connectors and that is
> all I know.
Well, I am sitting here looking at a little book with title
HARDWARE
DESCRIPTION
THE CORVUS CONCEPT
You might think that with a title like that it would have connector
pinouts, but, um, not quite. Well, it does have the pinout for the
bus slots, which are like Apple ][ slots less DMA support.
So what can I find about video?
The display area is supposed to be 560 x 720 dots. The monitor used
by Corvus was a Ball HD series monitor (so says the manual) in a
Corvus-peculiar case (so says me).
It looks like all the timing is derived from a 16.364 MHz clock that
is generated on the memory board. That gets divided by the
"horizontal counter" (74163s at U202 then U203 and U204) to produce a
34.669 KHz clock that is the horizontal scanning frequency. There is
also a "vertical counter" (at U301) to produce a 50 Hz or 60 Hz
vertical sync clock.
"The video shift registers comprise 74S299 U106, U206 and 74ls299
U306..U806 for video data. The data is shifted at 16 MHz in two
pairs of registers. The output of one register is fed directly
into a 74S157 multiplexer U104 which is switched between two inputs
at a 16 MHz rate. The other register feeds a 74S112 flipflop
U103 which delays the data by 30 ms and then feeds it to the multiplexer.
This makes a data rate of 32 MHz."
I'm not much of a hardware guy, but I hope that gives you some clues
for board-tracing and monitor selection.
Note that the system can run the monitor in either landscape or
portrait mode (hence the peculiar case, with slots for the base on two
sides). I think you are supposed to tell it how you've got the
monitor positioned with the VERT/HORIZ switch on the back. That
doesn't change the video timing, it changes how the software draws
into the memory.
Now what about the keyboard?
I gather there is a 6551 UART at U310 that receives keycodes, one for
each key-down or key-up. Key-down codes have the most-significant-bit
set; key-up codes have it clear but are otherwise identical to key-down
codes.
...
Some other notes.
Jeff Kaneko wrote that the operating system was "Unix-like". I don't
know, I haven't seen it run much less try to hack on it, but from
reading the manuals I'd say it was more p-System like, except that it
runs 68000 code instead of p-Machine code.
The hard disk(s) could be hooked up over the Omninet (in which case the
disk box was connected to an Omninet-attached disk server box) or via a
hard-disk interface that sat in one of the Concept's expansion slots.
There were also expansion cards to control 8" and 5.25" diskette
drives.
I'm not sure exactly how the VCR-backup stuff works. From reading
another manual (the Disk Drive Installation Guide) it looks like there
is an option for the disk to have a "Mirror" built-in. There are
four DIP switches on the back that need to be set different ways for
different circumstances:
no Mirror built in => all closed
Mirror built in, NTSC VCR => all open
Mirror built in, PAL/SECAM VCR => 1 closed, 2-4 open
...
Well, I hope that helps a bit. Yes, I have one of these. No, I haven't
done anything with it as yet, save haul the CPU, monitor, and keyboard
up to VCF for folks to gawk at.
-Frank McConnell
----------
From: Brett <danjo(a)xnet.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: BBS Box
Date: Saturday, November 01, 1997 4:35 AM
On Fri, 31 Oct 1997, Hotze wrote:
Huh? I hope you mean text based versus graphics here 8-)
Anything will be fine, but I want as much graphics cabilities as possible.
> I'm really ready to learn, but at
> this time of writing, I only have the 486/66, and an 080880/8Mhz, which
> dosn't work. I really just want to make something for my friends and I
to
> meet on... here, Internet is still expensive, and most people refust to
> upgrade to anything past Netscape 2.0. I need really to know about
> multiple phone/modems. The phone isn't a problem, the modem is. How
much
> do the 4800's run for? I've already got two modems, one a 2400
sendf/9600
> recieve, and another a 33.6 both ways. I really need to know what to do,
> the whole smackum, as I'm very "computer literate", in DOS and Windows,
but
> rather inexperianced with this kind of stuff.
> Ciao,
>
> Tim D. Hotze
>Tim - go right for Linux! Don't even think of FIDO - well think about it
>8-)
I only have a 28.8 connection, and I don't know where I can get an
inexpensive Linux OS. Maybe you can help me. OR CAN ANYONE ELSE HERE HELP
ME?
>If you get UUCP support, you can acutally become a local provider. If your
>buddies want web pages and a shell account to play with Linux is your best
>bet. You can - with UUCP - even allow Internet EMail - and even even
>access other systems if you set up your system correctly. You can send and
>recieve email and files - oh say 4-8 times a day - more frequently if you
>want and all of them will transfer in one shot so it is *like* FIDOnet.
Can you help me with that? Explain more. That's very interesting.
>I run Linux 2.0.28/9 on two machines - one is my dedicated comms server
>with diald to make the connection and it has a HTTP server with EMail.
>We only connect with one modem and everybody uses the same connection at
>the same time.
Yeah, but here, a dedicated connection costs about $10,000 a month. I
don't even want to think of that. Possibly I could just connect then
disconnect really quickly.
>Get whatever modems you want to use - a multiple port serial card will
>let you run as many modems as you can afford 8-) 16-32 way too many
>phones lines to afford! DO NOT use internals - even with M$ stuff!
Okay, no internals. But don't worry about the phone lines. 1: it's only
5, and 2. I can get them free.
>FIDO net was set up to allow home computers to run like UUCP machines
>(when they were the *rage*) so why not use the real thing?
Why not? But I want to do this on my home computer :-)
Just my $0.48 worth 8-)
BC
Well, I really want to just have about 5 connections. I don't want to be
using the machine for my own purposes, but rather to "join in" on the BBS
itself. I think that a 4800 connection would be good... about twice as
fast as a 28800 internet connection. I'm really ready to learn, but at
this time of writing, I only have the 486/66, and an 080880/8Mhz, which
dosn't work. I really just want to make something for my friends and I to
meet on... here, Internet is still expensive, and most people refust to
upgrade to anything past Netscape 2.0. I need really to know about
multiple phone/modems. The phone isn't a problem, the modem is. How much
do the 4800's run for? I've already got two modems, one a 2400 sendf/9600
recieve, and another a 33.6 both ways. I really need to know what to do,
the whole smackum, as I'm very "computer literate", in DOS and Windows, but
rather inexperianced with this kind of stuff.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
----------
From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch(a)northernway.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: BBS Box
Date: Friday, October 31, 1997 6:46 PM
Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, Hotze said:
> Oh, yeah, I have one more question. If I want to make a BBS (regardless
>or software), what type of hardware should I have to handle multiple
>connections? I believe that my computer is BBS-server-sufficent for DOS
(2
>GB HDD, 28 MB RAM, 486/66 processor), as that's twice as fast as a server
>would be in 1990, with DOS at it's peak, before Windows started ruining
the
>whole thing :-) .
How many multiple connections? What kind of speed per connection? Do you
also want to use the machine for yourself at the same time? These do make a
difference, for you could run 2 connections at 2400 baud on a 2Mhz CoCo 3
w/512K RAM. All you need is a way to interface the ports (or build your
own.) Under OS-9, you may even have enough CPU over to play Rogue (tho not
quickly). With a 6309 processor and NitrOS-9, you could most easily do this
setup and still use the machine for yourself.
(And yes, someone *has* designed an overclocking circuit to run a 6x09 at
4Mhz, except during memory accesses which does gain you a fair amount of
speed... ;-)
In the IBM world, I'd say for 4 dial up lines at 9600/14.4 you'd need a
minimum of a 386DX 25 w/8 Megs RAM, running Dos/Linux (Windows not spoken
here... too much overhead) and decent BBS software and you'd have no
problem whatsoever. (Again, with Linux, you may still be able to use the
machine for background tasks for yourself without harming that speed... but
not big jobs, of course.)
Anyway, YMMV, HTH, HSIYE (Here's Spit In Your Eye... ;-) and all that jazz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | Why does Hershey's put nutritional
Programmer, NorthernWay | information on their candy bar wrappers
zmerch(a)northernway.net | when there's no nutritional value within?