- test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org - classiccmp.org

by supervinx＠libero.it

Well, I need some help. I got an ICL Quattro PC I repaired the PSU. It powers up, the HD spins and seems to load something. Then no led activity, may be it's waiting for user input. I have no ICL terminals. I tried to connect with a straight serial cable and a terminal emulator, 9600, 8,N,1 No answer in either port. Tried also a null modem cable. Same stuff. The DB25 ports have a female connector, so I tried a straight cable, first. The straight cable shows some random and spurious characters. But there's also a DB15 female port. Do you know how to connect to this old beast? I'm getting no answer just because the Quattro is not working or I'm wrong somehow? Thanks! -- Vincenzo (aka Supervinx) --==ooOoo==-- My computer collection: http://www.supervinx.com/Retrocomputer --==ooOoo==-- You can reach me at: www.supervinx.com www.facebook.com/supervinx http://www.youtube.com/user/supervinx http://www.myspace.com/supervinx

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

11/34 up! (sort of)

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

On Mon Jan 26 21:42:02 CST 2015, Jacob Ritorto wrote: > I initially had, but mysteriously lost the console emulator/ODT > functionality, seems it's starting at 165000 instead of 165200 at poweron. > Maybe a 9312 switch mis-set... So I'm booting from the panel by calling > the address of the ODT or the rl02 boot rom, which does the trick. I think it's supposed to be at 165020. Check switch-pack 1, and make sure that 7 is On. I think the default for the switch-pack is: 1, 2, and 7 = On. Everything else = Off. T

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

1983 IBM Hardware & Software price list

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

This has been floating around here for ages, and figured I should scan & share it out before it's lost for good. It's two JPEGs inside a ZIP archive; I was too lazy to merge them into a single image. IBM Hardware & Software Price List - March 8th, 1983 Tried sending this to the list as an attachment, but it was too large. You can download it here: http://nerp.net/~legendre/greenkeys/IBM_Price_List_8-MAR-1983.zip

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Home-made 8-bit portable computer

by lproven＠gmail.com

Maker describes it as a cross between a C64 and an HX-20. http://www.grappendorf.net/projects/6502-home-computer -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

11 years, 6 months

3
3
0 0

MSV11-D debugging question

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

OK, so I'm back to debugging busted memory cards. Again, I have a sitation where a bit is stuck on, and I'm curious to see if anyone has any insight into which chip (of 3) might be causing it (in an attempt to not have to try replacing them at random :-). Looking at the line from the memory chips (two chips - E26 and E27, if anyone cares - have outputs wire-or'd together) to the input of an octal tri-state latch (E40, an S373), that line goes to about +2V when the machine is powered on (which is similar to what other bits do); then, when I run a two-instruction read loop, (after writing 0 into that location), the line goes to +5V and stays there (which is distinctly unlike how other bits behave). Any guesses as to whether the culprit is the S373 or one of the memory chips? Noel

11 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Digital PDP11/10 PDP 11/20 Price List Dec 15, 1969

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: B Degnan > there was a "rev 1" PDP11/10 that was used as a process control system. > You could buy the 11/20 version that had the front panel. Otherwise > they were very similar/same systems. According to my 1971 11/20-15-R20 handbook, the 11/15 (the 'rev 1' 11/10, KC11 processor) did have one significant difference from the 11/20, which is that it only supported one interrupt level, instead of four (see table pg. 2). I seem to recall reading that in other places, too. Of course, according to that table, the 11/05 (KD11-B) also only supported one interrupt level, so maybe that table is confused. Noel

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

ANSWER: Weekly Classic Computer Trivia Question (20150121)

by dpi＠dustyoldcomputers.com

And this question must have been too obscure to elicit any response. The answer is C) 50. After posting the trivia question I came up with a way on the PDP8 to measure time events to a resolution of 1.5 microseconds and went back and retested the High Speed Paper tape reader hardware. The earlier version could only measure to 3.0 microseconds resolution. Here is the 1.5 microsecond version of the program: / ADVANCED HIGH SPEED PAPER TAPE TIMING PROGRAM / / USES FIELD 1 AND LINK/AC TO MEASURE TIME DELAY / WITH INTERRUPTS. *0000 .-. / INTERRUPT ENTRY POINT RSF / MAKE CERTAIN IT WAS A HSR INTERRUPT HLT / HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM DCA I AUTO0 / SAVE COUNT AND LINK AS A 24 BIT RAL DCA I AUTO0 / SAVE LINK JMP MORE *0010 AUTO0, .-. / MORE, ISZ Z FRM1 / CHECK FOR DONE JMP NEXT / EXIT INTERRUPT AND CONTINUE TIMING TAD Z COUNTS / POINT AT START OF ARRAY DCA Z AUTO0 TAD Z CNTS / GET BACK ORIGINAL COUNT OF SAMPLES DCA Z FRM1 TLS / PRIME THE PUMP PRLP, TAD I Z AUTO0 / GET 12 BIT PART DCA Z BASE TAD I Z AUTO0 / GET LINK PART CLL RAR / RESTORE THE LINK TAD Z BASE / COUNT IS IN LINK AND AC TAD Z C0002 / ADD 2 WHICH CORRECTS TIMING FOR START DELAY DCA Z BASE / SAVE FOR PRINTING RAL / PRINT THE LEADING OCTAL DIGIT TAD Z CHZERO / ADD IN '0' TO GET LEADING DIGIT JMS PRINT / AND WE DONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE LINK ANYMORE TAD Z M0004 / INITIALIZE DIGIT COUNTER DCA Z DIGCNT DIGLP, TAD Z BASE / OCTAL DIGIT IS IN UPPER 3 BITS RTL RAL DCA Z BASE / NEXT DIGIT IS IN UPPER 3 BITS TAD Z BASE / NEED TO SHIFT ONCE MORE TO GET IN LOWER 3 BITS RAL AND Z C0007 / KEEP JUST THE LOWER 3 BITS TAD Z CHZERO / ADD IN THE OFFSET FOR ASCII 0 CHARACTER JMS PRINT / AND GO PRINT IT ISZ Z DIGCNT JMP DIGLP TAD Z CHSPC / PRINT A SPACE JMS PRINT TAD Z CHCR / PRINT CR JMS PRINT TAD Z CHLF / PRINT LF JMS PRINT ISZ Z FRM1 / ARE WE DONE? JMP PRLP / NO HLT / ALL DONE JMP START / GO AGAIN NEXT, CLA CLL / LINK AND AC MAKE A 13 BIT COUNTER ION / INTERRUPTS ON. CIF THAT FOLLOWS DELAYS THIS CIF 10 / SWITCH TO FIELD 1 AT THE JMP I CZERO RFC / START THE NEXT READ JMP I C0000 / START COUNTING (ADDS 2 TO THE ACTUAL COUNT) PRINT, .-. / PRINT THE CHARACTER IN THE AC TSF / WAIT FOR LAST CHARACTER TO FINISH PRINTING JMP .-1 / WAIT TLS / SHIP IT CLA CLL / RETURN WITH AC CLEAR JMP I PRINT / RETURN / CONSTANTS C0000, 0 C0002, 2 C0007, 0007 / MASK CIAC, IAC / IAC CONSTANT CHLF, 0012 / CONSTANT FOR LINE FEED CHCR, 0015 / CONSTANT FOR CARRIAGE RETURN CHSPC, 0040 / CONSTANT FOR A SPACE CHARACTER CHZERO, 0260 / CONSTANT FOR '0' CHARACTER COUNTS, ARRAY-1 / POINTER TO COUNTS ARRAY-1 FOR AUTO INCREMENT INITIALIZE M0004, -4 / VARIABLES FRM1, 0000 / FRAME COUNT KEPT HERE CNTS, 0000 / COPY OF FRAME COUNT READ FROM SWITCHES BASE, 0000 / TEMPORARY STORAGE OF WORD BEING PRINTED DIGCNT, 0000 / COUNT OF DIGITS WHEN PRINTING *0200 START, CLA DCA FRM1 / FILL ALL OF FIELD 1 WITH IAC INSTRUCTIONS CDF 10 FILL, TAD CIAC / GET THE CIAC INSTRUCTION DCA I FRM1 / PUT IT ON FIELD 1 ISZ FRM1 / BUMP AND CHECK FOR DONE JMP FILL / NOT DONE CDF 00 / RESTORE TO FIELD ZERO AGAIN, LAS / READ SR CMA / INITIALIZE FRAME COUNT FROM SR FOR ISZ DCA Z FRM1 TAD Z FRM1 DCA Z CNTS / KEEP A COPY FOR USE WHEN PRINTING TAD Z COUNTS / INITIALIZE THE AUTO INCREMENT REGISTER DCA Z AUTO0 JMP NEXT / AND GO MAKE A PASS *0400 ARRAY, .-. /STORE THE COUNTS HERE $ The program fills field 1 with IAC instructions and then reads the switch register to find out how many frames to process. Each frame is timed and the result stored in words pairs starting at 0400. Counts are 0-8191 which on a straight 8 would represent 0 - 12286.5 microseconds. The actual time is 2 counts more than this because of the JMP I C0000 to switch fields and start execution of the timer. Once the switch register count of frames is reached the contents of the array plus 2 is dumped out as 5 octal digits to the teletype. In the case of the Type 750 and PC01 the first character read sets the flag immediately so the first entry in the table shows as 2 which for the purpose of my emulator I fixed the first entry. My emulator of course gives the same answers as the 8 but then it has to because it uses the table generated by the real 8. The only other place I ran it was on Sim8 which always gives 0145 as the answer which is not even close. I will come up with something of more general interest for the next trivia question. I have something in mind already. Doug Ingraham PDP-8 S/N 1175 On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 11:27 PM, Doug Ingraham <dpi at dustyoldcomputers.com> wrote: > Many of us on this list are collectors of one sort of computer or > another. I don't think of myself as a collector so much as a caretaker of > my PDP-8. Of the things it has been fairly easy to get in recent years are > the CPU and its related cards for the models that were produced in fairly > large numbers. What is not easy to get are peripherals for these > machines. So here is a question relating to the Type 750 high speed paper > tape reader found on the early models. A few years back we were working on > getting the CPU back in good working order. We needed to read in the > diagnostic paper tapes but the reader was not reliable. Went through the > tuning procedure and found that it was trying to read the tape at nearly > 450 cps. After tuning it up the full speed now sits at 342 cps. > > The question is how many frames does it have to read before it reaches > full speed? > > A) 1 > B) 10 > C) 50 > D) 100 > > This is probably a somewhat squishy number and would depend somewhat on > tuning. I wrote a couple of programs to determine this so I could add > correct delays to my emulator. I was able to obtain a 3 microsecond > resolution count of the delay. How that was accomplished might make for > another trivia question. > > > > > -- Doug Ingraham PDP-8 SN 1175

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

RA81 removal

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > If that was the case, then the previous user was sloppy. In addition to > that latch, you are also supposed to screw in four (I think it is) > screws from the rail to the drive there too. Yup, manual confirms 4. Anyway, maybe that's why they got rid of that feature on the RA81 - people were being lazy and depending on the latches, and not putting in the screws. Noel

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

RA81 removal

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > You are supposed to remove the two tiny screws that holds the slide to > the drive when you remove it. Yeah, that seems to be the conclusion. What's odd is that RL0x's use almost identical (maybe they are identical) slides, but on the RLOx's, there _is_ (I think) a way to take the drive out without undoing screws; there's a little latch at the very front of the slide, and it looks like if one trips that latch, the rail along the side of the drive case will slide out out of the slides. I wonder why they didn't do that on the RA8x's as well? Maybe because those weigh so much more? Noel

11 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

RA81 removal

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > you then have some additional small locks and tricks if you want to > extend them beyond their normal point, as needed if you actually plan > to remove them from the slides. Sorry, I was not clear enough: that is exactly what I want to do - remove them from their slides (i.e. from the cabinet). I do know how to do that by taking out the two machine screws in each side which secure the slides to the disk case. However, is there some way to remove the drive completely, without doing that? I.e. a way to separate the slide into two parts, one of which stays with the cabinet, and one with the disk drive? Noel

11 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Digital PDP11/10 PDP 11/20 Price List Dec 15, 1969

by billdeg＠buzz1.com

I scanned some info on the launch of the Digital PDP11. As the documents show, there was a "rev 1" PDP11/10 that was used as a process control system. You could buy the 11/20 version that had the front panel. Otherwise they were very similar/same systems. The "rev 2" PDP11/10 is the unit most people are more familiar with, the core system is interchangeable with the 11/05. Most references I have seen on the WWW do not include the original PDP11/10, anyone have one? http://vintagecomputer.org/browse_thread.cfm?id=593 Bill

11 years, 6 months

3
2
0 0

RA81 removal

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > You mean sliding them out on their rails or removing them from the > rails? Sliding them out on their rails. (Removing them from their rails I've figured out how to do! :-) Noel

11 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

found a 1702

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I found a 1702 EPROM rattling around in the bottom of one of my boxes of stuff. I have no idea what's on it. Can someone give me some advice on just reading the thing with a TL866? If/when I decide I want to program it, I'll make something like this: http://www.tronola.com/html/1702a_prom_programmer.html -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

RA81 removal

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, does anyone know how to take an RA81 on slides _out_ of the cabinet? The manual gives a lot of directions on how to _install_ it, but nothing on how to _remove_ one once one has it in. I had to take a pair of RA81's out of some cabinets, and I could not for the life of me find the trick! I finally resorted to undoing the two machine screws that hold the slides onto the RA81 case, which I consider sort of cheating (although from looking at that manual, that may be the correct, official way...) Noel

11 years, 6 months

3
2
0 0

HP 21MX Computer

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mike Loewen > He's been trying to sell that for months. Mmm. Didn't know that. I just passed the URL along because it seemed like a not totally unreasonable price for what's there (seems to be quite a few boards, no idea if it's a complete board set) - older minicomputers seem to be going for $1-2K in open auctions (the last two PDP-8's both went for $2K). Noel

11 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

somewhat sad tek4015-1

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

Hi, I pulled my tek4015-1 from storage (~10 years, dry but cold, had been working perfectly then) and brought it home to my living room, much to the dismay of my significant other. I plugged it in. it squealed a bit, zapped a little and lit up with that signature green expanding circle. I was able to get the line/local light to behave reasonably and it seemed to go into local mode ok. Was hoping to echo characters to the screen, but no love. The screen is really bright. It's as if the whole thing was in the lit-up state. PAGE key does blink the screen, but I remember it flashing brightly whilst erasing in the past. Now it looks like it's just staying bright all the time. I wiggled the boards in the cage around and managed to get it to repeat control-g feeps (while holding those keys down), but it's only able to do it intermittently, seems related to the positioning (or complete absence) of the display driver board. Still no characters showing up. Does anyone know how to work on these? thx jake

11 years, 6 months

2
2
0 0

DEC PDP-11/70 Wire Lists

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Birkel > Wire Lists for any/all of the following: > > KB11-C 11/70 Processor (or the older KB11-B) > FP11-C 11/70 Floating-point processor (or the older FP11-B, also used > in 11/45 and 11/50) > RH70 MASSBUS controller I don't know for sure about the 11/70 (I never looked at one closely), but for the 11/45 FPP, IIRC that was part of an integral multi-unit backplane assembly with the CPU, i.e. it was wired as part of a large wire mat that included the wiring for the CPU. So I don't think there's a separate wire list for the FPP. I would guess the same is true of the RH70. DEC generally included the wire lists in the engineering drawings; do the 11/70 prints not include the wire list? Noel

11 years, 6 months

3
2
0 0

DEC PDP-11/70 Wire Lists

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

All; I'm hoping that someone here has a back-room shoebox of DEC microfiche (or even hardcopy!) that includes Wire Lists for any/all of the following: KB11-C 11/70 Processor (or the older KB11-B) FP11-C 11/70 Floating-point processor (or the older FP11-B, also used in 11/45 and 11/50) RH70 MASSBUS controller MJ11-A Core memory I'd like to get these scanned and into Bitsavers. Please contact me off list, soonest, if you think that you can help me out. I'd be _very_ much obliged. Thanks, paul [PS: Of course, if they are already online somewhere that I've overlooked, or simply already-digital but not online, please educate me further :->.]

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

HP 21MX Computer

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

For all you HP fans: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111471510213 Noel

11 years, 6 months

4
4
0 0

HP tape drive novel repair

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I?m in the process of building another HP2000/Access TSB system. I pulled a 7970E tape drive out of a shipping container (I had not opened the shipping container since I bought it about 8 years ago). When I got the unit on the bench to give it a going over, while it looked pristine ? someone had dropped something very heavy (heavy enough to severely deform ?? steel) on the top of the unit. My thought (given there?s not a shortage of open space inside the chassis) was to put a car jack inside and jack it up thus pushing out the top. My concern there was that there would be an ?equal and opposite reaction?). Perhaps a 2x4 that goes side to side under the jack would alleviate this. But on freenode #classiccmp (where I hang out pretty much every night), PJustice and Sark both had similar ideas for an alternative approach that took advantage of the fact that the top of the chassis has a lot of vent holes on top. I implemented their approach and it worked very well so I thought I?d document it with pictures and post here. I should note that this approach only works because the angle iron I used was 14ga. Anything less would just bend itself. If I had facilities to cut the angle iron, I would have put a piece on top and on the bottom but I don?t. Failing that, I just had to pick specific spots on top to ?pull out? more carefully. As you know when steel bends it stretches so it would be impossible to get it back 100% perfect but I?m pretty pleased with the results. If you want to use this method and don?t have convenient holes already present from the manufacturer, you could always drill one or two holes to make it work. Note that without the wood blocks you can pull it straight but it might bend back (albeit less so), but with the wood blocks you can pull it further than straight so it bounces back ?mostly straight?. http://www.ezwind.net/hp2000/7970E/ And if you want to follow the build of the 2000/Access IO-rack (which holds tape, terminal controller and bulkhead, and disk controller subsystem): http://www.ezwind.net/hp2000/IO-Rack/ THANKS SARK AND PJUSTICE J J

11 years, 6 months

4
6
0 0

Shipping antique computers

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Actually I need to learn more about this. What do they exactly do when they "palletize" things? Does that include wrapping/protecting the item and lifting/anchoring it on the pallet? How small and how large an item can they deal with? How much does the service cost? How do you "unpalletize it" at the other end? Do you need a forklift or a hydraulic pallet moving thingy on the receiving end? Marc >> On 01/17/2015 11:09 AM, Noel Chiappa wrote: >> I know palletization's not cheap

11 years, 6 months

6
6
0 0

Sugru (moldable rubber) for ???

by jfoust＠threedee.com

I haven't ever played with official Sugru, but how does it differ >from ordinary relatively inexpensive Shoe Goo? Is Sugru like slightly dried-out Shoe Goo? I find that a tube of Shoe Goo dries out a bit after a few years and becomes a more easily worked substance. - John

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Maxtor XT-2190

by tsw-cc＠johana.com

The discussion about servos on the XT2190 prompted me to turn on a machine (Altos ACS 68000) that I have with one of these nice drives in it.? The initial sounds of the drive is it re-calibrating using a stepping sequence.? This may be done by the drive controller to find track zero, or the drive itself (I really don't know).? Since the stepping (and subsequent servo lock) happens at a low frequency, it is the sound you hear.? Sometimes it takes a couple of times to get its act together, but it works well.? This was a machine that had been off for a bunch of years (over 10?) and it came back to life nicely.? I couldn't say much about the terminal I had attached as the dust that had accumulated made some keys not function so well, but I'll take some canned air and "blow it out" to get it working well. I note that the MFM interface does not have any "microstep" capability, only a simple step function.? I believe that the SMD interface did (it has been a few years, I never used it in my work), and the ESDI might (I never worked with that one). Soon I'll get the MFM drive simulator working and go "solid state".

11 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Atari 800XL RF cable (and I/O cable availability?)

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I picked up a little Atari 800XL bundle the other day (system, pair of 1050 drives, and an 850 expansion box) - cheap because it was missing cables and power supplies. 1) When hooking this up to a TV via the RF input - is there any "magic" involved, or will a suitable braided co-ax TV cable with a phono connector added at the Atari end do? I know it "works" because I lashed one up quickly (and I do mean quickly, no soldering involved) and ran the machine >from a stray +5V PSU, which obviously resulted in a fuzzy picture - but then when it came to making a good one, I got to thinking about those little antenna switch boxes that US machines often seemed to come with, and wondering if there were a bunch of passive components in there which make a difference to the signal quality. 2) Does anyone have any spare I/O cables, or know of a source of the connectors so I can make my own? (I suppose while I'm here I may as well ask if anyone just happens to know what voltage power supplies the 1050's and 850 need, but I'm sure I can dig the answers to that up online if needed) cheers Jules

11 years, 6 months

6
11
0 0

HP16500B Logicanalyzator on ebay

by aswood＠t-online.de

http://www.ebay.de/itm/HP-Agilent-16500B-Modular-Logic-Analysis-System-Main… Wrong side of the pond. Seller is also offering a lot of Tek scopes, Kaypro and some other interesting equipment. Had a Convex SPP1200CD - also wrong side of the pond - I'd have love to get the board, even the Vicor DC-DC converter on the boards.... -- Andreas

11 years, 6 months

3
2
0 0

calling all HP7970 tape owners....

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Jay wrote... ---- Here is a link to pictures of the bracket, in case someone has it laying around but doesn't realize "this is what that's for"... www.ezwind.net/hp2000/7970E/ The bracket is pictures 0520 through 0525 ---- I see. It's a more involved bracket than I thought, with 3D bends in heavy gauge steel. It will need to be bent by hand since it's not worth making a fixture for so few. It's going to be an interesting calculation for the hole position if they drill them pre-bend, they might not get it right first time. Let us know what you find out. Marc

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Atari 800XL RF cable (and I/O cable availability?)

by cctalk＠beyondthepale.ie

> > > 1) When hooking this up to a TV via the RF input - is there any "magic" > > involved, or will a suitable braided co-ax TV cable with a phono connector > > added at the Atari end do? I know it "works" because I lashed one up > > Maybe... The modulator output is nominally 75 ohm, and should be linked to > such a piece of coax. European TVs have a 75 ohm aerial input, often on what > we call a 'Belling-Lee coax socket', so it's just a cable. US TVs, I am told, may have > either a 75 ohm coax input, often on an F connector, or a 300 ohm balanced input > (for parallel twin feeder cable) on a pair of screw terminals. For the former, just > connect it up. For the latter you may need a matching transformer, aka a 'balun' > (BALanced to UNbalanced converter). I am pretty sure you can buy these, but > it must be possible to wind one if you can get a suitable core > I don't know whether some US televisions do this too but I have a Japanese radio that has two screw terminals for a 300 Ohm balanced feeder and alternatively allows a 75 Ohm unbalanced feeder to be connected between one of those terminals and a ground terminal which is also provided. Regards, Peter Coghlan.

11 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

calling all HP7970 tape owners....

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Need input from anyone that has a HP7970 tape drive mounted in a rack. Fortunately, all my 7970's have come with the special mounting bracket. This is not a part of the 7970 itself. It is a long flat metal bar that mounts on the left of the rack. It bolts in from the front, and provides threaded holes on the side further back in the rack. While the right side of the 7970 is bolted into the rack from the front, on the left side - you open the chassis and bolt from inside the chassis on the left wall into the threaded holes provided by this mounting bracket. Given that, it would appear to me that mounting a 7970 WITHOUT that special mounting bracket would not be easily done. I'd like to know if anyone has mounted a 7970 in a rack without said bracket and if so - how did they do it? Since I've always used HP racks and the special 7970 mounting bracket my experience is probably blinded, but I don't see a way to do it without the bracket. Best, J

11 years, 6 months

8
11
0 0

Wanted: Apple II Plus escape key

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I have an Apple II Plus at home with a broken escape key - does anyone happen to have a basket-case keyboard that they'd be able to salvage one >from for me? There's a little bit of stem left on the keyswitch, so I think I could possibly make it work with just the keycap, although (assuming the machine's keyboard even uses individual switches, I've not actually dismantled to check) I probably wouldn't say no to the associated keyswitch, too. It's an ex-school machine, so I wonder if it was broken off intentionally (i.e. to stop kids quitting out of some software that they weren't supposed to) - the system's in great cosmetic shape otherwise. cheers Jules

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Equipment Available (more)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Just received the following "equipment available" email.. Vax 8600 MicroVax II 8mm & 4mm SCSI tape drives 6250 tape drive Dec 64 bit unix first DEC PC (Rainbow) with graphics card (1984) a lot of manuals an IBM AIX box too Location is Houston, TX. DO NOT EMAIL ME ASKING FOR MORE SPECIFICS. If you are interested in *ALL* of the gear, contact me off list and I'll put you in direct contact with the owner. If you want just PART of the gear, do not email me. Email whoever winds up getting the gear and work it out with them. Best, J

11 years, 6 months

4
6
0 0

Apple Lisas on Craigslist

by mark＠markesystems.com

I don?t really do Apple, but this seems like a pretty good trade for someone. I emailed the seller (trader?), and he responded, so I think it?s a real deal... http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sop/4845748625.html ~~ Mark Moulding

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

found 8"floppies

by simski＠dds.nl

hello all, received a box with a shugart 800-2 drive and some 8" floppies containing IBM system/1 software and one from intel with ISIS-II is this already online available or should I try to make images of them? ibm disks: rps pascal (2 of 2 ptf 5719-pc6-brg1 (2of 2) s1-IWSRPS-RPS-VOL (1 of 1) rps data entry system (5 of 5) s/1 rps realtime pgmm sys v6 (1 of 1) rps index acces method v2 (2of2) s/1 rps realtime pgmm sys v6 (disks 21-24 of 24) refresh-01-sm1 (1of1) rps pgm preparation subsys v (disk 24 of 28) the isis-II is version 3.4 -- Met vriendelijke Groet, Simon Claessen drukknop.nl

11 years, 6 months

5
8
0 0

MEM11 Status Update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > The KI10, which is the one that pops into my mind here, have a > different panel, as the cabinets are wider. The KA10 had a mixture of narrow and wide cabinets. The two main CPU bays were wide (as were the display panels at the top - the one I have is 48 lights wide), as was the MA10 (I think) and MF10 (pretty sure about that one). Other bays (such as the DF10) were narrower (I think standard 19"). I didn't see much of KI10's, so I can't say for sure, but I suspect the same was true of them: I'm pretty sure they used the same DF10, etc as the KA10. Noel PS: Speaking of KI10's, does anyone know the story behind the bizarro images of the 'KI10 Indicator Panels' in the DECsystem-10 System Reference Manual (DEC-10-XSRMA-A-D; 3rd Edition, August 1974 - although other editions may have them too), pg. F1-5? Were those just placeholders that got by editorial control, or was that some sort of complicated in-joke?

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

equipment available

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jay West > The "two 11/73 machines" deal has been claimed. Just out of interest, what kind of disks did the machines have? Noel

11 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

MEM11 Status Update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > It is the generic bulb panel they used for all of the 8/11/15 panels on > the top of the racks. I think for the -10, too (and that was possibly the initial use, given the 36 wide lamp array - or, at least, they had the -10 usage in mind when they did it). I looked at my DECsystem-10 manual, and I suspect that at least the DF10 (channel), RP10 and TM10 controllers used it (4 rows of 36 lights, in the same aspect ratio), and maybe some of the memory cabinets (MB10, MD10) too - they have the right size, etc but have 4 switches in the lower left corner. Noel

11 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

equipment available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I received the offer below, contact me off-list if interested. J I have two MicroPDP 11/73 computers I would like to sell. Last time I checked (5 years ago) they were working just fine. They have hard drives, no tape drives and were running DCL. I have no manuals and no console terminal. They are very heavy, so shipping is not an option. I am located in Eastern Pennsylvania, between Allentown and Philadelphia.

11 years, 6 months

1
1
0 0

MEM11 Status Update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Sotomayor > I'm building a "LED" board that attaches to the MEM11. ... I couldn't > resist more blinkin lights. Oh frabjous day! Das blinken-litz!! Excellent!!! Now I'm _really_ going to want a stack of these... :-) > The LED board will display all of the indicators for the RF11 > controller in a layout similar to what was on a real RF11. ... > It's optional and will connect to the MEM11 with a small cable (I plan > on using RS485 drivers for the cable) so the LED board can be a fair > distance away. Hmm. Looking at the original RF11 display panel, some of it may be impossible to really emulate; e.g. it displays the contents of the shift register used to assemble words from the bit stream being read from the disk; it's probably not feasible to emulate that... And of course, many of the error bits only make sense with an actual disk (e.g. the various Timing Track errors). How much bandwidth will you have from the board to the display panel anyway? I assume there will be latches on the display panel, and one sends commands down the link to turn given latches on/off? Looking at the original display panel, although it had the extended memory bits, it didn't show the memory address (it does have the disk address). Maybe we could put that where the shift register display used to be? (And speaking of the original display, I couldn't find a picture of one - does someone have one, or, better yet, an actual RF11, so as to copy the look of it as closely as possible?) > (I haven't looked at doing an overlay to make it look pretty) Oh, yes, please do!!! > it'll be somewhat generic (4 rows of 36 LEDs). I counted up (no doubt you did the same :-), and on the longest row (at the top), there are 30 lights, plus 4 empty spaces for the gaps between blocks, so 36 is good. Will you be grouping them in 3's, with slightly larger gaps between each group of 3? That would really maximize the ability to look just like the old RF11 display panel. And warm white LED's, please (of course :-). I'm really going to have to get going on my UNIBUS PDP-11's. I've mostly been working on the QBUS ones, but if I can have blinking lights... :-) I'm already planning on how I can put /, /bin and the pipe device on separate RF platters, so I can watch the lights and see what the machine is up to.. :-) Noel

11 years, 6 months

4
3
0 0

MEM11 Status Update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Sotomayor > the way that it works is that 144 bits will be shifted out and then > all latched at once. Ah. That will limit the rate at which you can update the lights, though, right? I mean, you won't (be able to) update the panel after every word, will you? Although I suppose even if you only do it after each transfer, that's probably still going to give much the same visual effect. > Will you be grouping them in 3's, with slightly larger gaps between > each group of 3? That would really maximize the ability to look just > like the old RF11 display panel. > No, it'll be just like the DEC panels. All of the LEDs (in this case) > will be evenly spaced. The overlay masked the bulbs that weren't used. Ah, I was faked out by the illustration (not a picture, alas!) in the RF11 manual, it looked like they were grouped. I wasn't sure if the larger spaces between various fields were just bulbs they didn't wire up, or if they were also masked by the overlay; I just looked at some of my KA-11 overlays (now _there's_ a machine with blinking lights! :-), and they are indeed blanked in the overlay, so I would guess/asssume they did the same on the RF11. > From: Bob Rosenbloom > I have an indicator panel that's labeled "Peripheral Indicator Panel > 5406458A" > No overlays or anything to indicate what it was used for. Is it > possibly the disk indicator panel? That sure looks like it. Too bad you don't have the overlay... Now that I think about it, I wonder if that panel was originally used on the KA? The 36 bits are certainly suggestive... I'll have to see if I can find a picture of the disk/tape controller display panel from the KA and see if that could have been it. Noel

11 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Building an 8008 SBC with modern components

by computerdoc＠sc.rr.com

Hi Guys, Has anyone ever built an 8008 SBC using modern components like CPLDs and/or FPGAs in place of the ancient hard to get parts used in the first 8008 based microcomputer? I'm looking at trying to do it on a small PCB, but obviously not sure of the exact size yet. Any ideas, thoughts anyone? Kip Koon <mailto:computerdoc at sc.rr.com> computerdoc at sc.rr.com <http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Weekly Classic Computer Trivia Question (20150121)

by dpi＠dustyoldcomputers.com

Many of us on this list are collectors of one sort of computer or another. I don't think of myself as a collector so much as a caretaker of my PDP-8. Of the things it has been fairly easy to get in recent years are the CPU and its related cards for the models that were produced in fairly large numbers. What is not easy to get are peripherals for these machines. So here is a question relating to the Type 750 high speed paper tape reader found on the early models. A few years back we were working on getting the CPU back in good working order. We needed to read in the diagnostic paper tapes but the reader was not reliable. Went through the tuning procedure and found that it was trying to read the tape at nearly 450 cps. After tuning it up the full speed now sits at 342 cps. The question is how many frames does it have to read before it reaches full speed? A) 1 B) 10 C) 50 D) 100 This is probably a somewhat squishy number and would depend somewhat on tuning. I wrote a couple of programs to determine this so I could add correct delays to my emulator. I was able to obtain a 3 microsecond resolution count of the delay. How that was accomplished might make for another trivia question.

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Sugru (moldable rubber) for ???

by j＠ckrubin.us

This seems like some pretty cool stuff that might be useful in restoration work. Has anyone tried it? http://sugru.com/about

11 years, 7 months

4
3
0 0

Releasing Cover Off of Nashua RL02 Pack?

by leec2124＠gmail.com

I have a couple of Nashua brand third-party RL02 packs I'd like to remove the cover from, shown here: https://plus.google.com/photos/104239531634140817575/albums/610685195575310… The DEC RL02 packs have a slider release on the handle that one can use to remove the bottom cover before inserting the pack in the RL02 drive. However, the Nashua packs are missing this mechanism, and just lifting the handle does not release the bottom cover. Any hints on how to release the bottom cover off these packs? Thanks! Lee Courtney

11 years, 7 months

4
4
0 0

Maxtor XT-2190

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Al writes: > On 1/19/15 10:43 AM, Tom Gardner wrote: >> FWIW, microstepping goes back to at least the CDC SMD of the mid-70s >> and even some stepper motor drives were microstepped. So there is no >> question the XT2190 can do it. > Obviously, though with the limited documentation it would take some reverse engineering of the Maxtor servo system to do it. There is no way provided to do it from the 34 pin edge connector that I can see. My belief (perhaps unfounded) always was that when a XT2190 begins emitting "squeals and beeps" it is because the MFM interface has asserted "recovery mode" and it is microstepping. Oh, 20 years I was abandoning XT2190's whenever I could! I dreaded walking into the lab to find the RD54's emitting squeaks and beeps indicating problems reading them. Are the squeals and beeps from the head positioner, or is there a separate piezo element for those? It was really loud and obvious and would not be surprised if there was a piezo beeper just for making them. Then again firmware in the drive may have known how to make the head positioner squeal too. Perhaps the squeals and beeps were not recovery mode but simply re-calibrating on track zero.

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

HP tape drive novel repair

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

"Nice rack", as they say. I have an HP 7970E and was wondering what to put it into. That is the right solution... I've seen in pictures that HP also had some special desk-like looking furniture to put the early 7970's in, with a slanted panel in which the tape drive would go. Never seen one of these in the flesh. Marc >From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> >And if you want to follow the build of the 2000/Access IO-rack (which holds >tape, terminal controller and bulkhead, and disk controller subsystem): >http://www.ezwind.net/hp2000/IO-Rack/ >J

11 years, 7 months

6
14
0 0

Genrad/Futuredata and HP 64000/64700 documentation

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Thanks to Lyle mentioning Manuals Plus, I acquired all of the docs that they still had on the Futuredata 2300, which is now up under http://bitsavers.org/pdf/futuredata If anyone still has a 2300, 01, or 02 I would like to archive the prom and floppies from them. I've also been working through or rescanning at a higher resolution, 64100/110 docs. Information on the 64120/64000-UX system would be interesting to find. In addition I've made progress on the 64700A/B. There is very little information on the earlier 64700A on line. Surviving software for those emulators would be good to find. I did pick up a B3763-14604 CD from 1997 which appears to have the PC version of the software (and the flash files). We'll see what happens when I try to get a 68030 pod working on a 64700B that had a 68332 pod on it.

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Data Products 2230 manual - desperation....

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi again, no one has that manual part one?!? I'm getting depressed :-( Nobody has an idea who could have it? Regards Philipp

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

HP modern peripherals (was RE: HP tape drive novel repair

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Mike wrote... ---- Someone needs to come up with the hardware equivalent of HPDrive so we don't need to dedicate an entire Windoze system just to emulate a drive. ---- To which I replied... ---- I am not 100% positive, but I think this was already done [snip] ---- Here is the magic: http://newton.freehostia.com/hp/ Note that this implementation uses a standard off the shelf dup reg board. That choice has major pluses, but the downside means you have to write a driver for any OS you want to use it with (RTE, HP2K, etc.). Maybe it's a starting point anyways.... J

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

RF Shield for the A1200 Needed

by brain＠jbrain.com

ANyone have a part like this: "you might have the item i am looking for (from your vast collection of parts) which is the RF Shield for the A1200. Looking for only the UPPER or even UPPER/LOWER." I don't have Amiga parts, but would like to help this person.

11 years, 7 months

8
10
0 0

MEM11 Status Update (Guy Sotomayor)

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:27:59 -0800 > From: Guy Sotomayor <ggs at shiresoft.com> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: MEM11 Status Update > > As some of you know I've been working (on and off again) a > multi-function Unibus board that contains all of the more difficult > items to allow a PDP-11/20 to run Unix V1 entirely within the CPU > chassis. Other than the CPU and the RK11-D controller, everything else > will be on the MEM11 board. Here's the background on what the MEM11 is > and the current progress. > > What's on the board is the following: > > * Up to 124KW of non-volatile memory > * Console Emulator ROM > * 4 Boot ROMs selected from 32 images on the board > * 2 DL11 SLUs > * RF11 controller with non-volatile memory emulating 8 RS11 drives > * KE11 EAE > * KW11K > * KW11L > * KW11P > * KW11W > > > TTFN - Guy > > ****************** > I am working on a similar project for the Omnibus. I am connecting a Microsemi SmartFusion FPGA to the Omnibus, and doing the peripheral emulation in a combination of the FPGA and Linux running on the ARM Cortex-M3 hard core in the FPGA. Anything with timing restrictions goes in the FPGA. Everything else goes in Linux as a combination of a device driver and an application. For simplicity, I am starting with programmed I/O devices, with the paper tape reader/punch first. I should be able to add serial ports, printer ports, analog I/O, diskettes, card reader, and maybe DECtape. Later I will add data break (DMA) and add disks and mag tape. I am planning to keep the disk images in flash, load them into RAM and run from there, and save them back to flash if the processor is halted. The MI8E bootloader wiggles the same Omnibus signals as the front panel. I could have the FPGA do the same, and load any one of a selection of bootloaders. I am not adding memory, because a nice 32kW RAM board already exists. -- Michael Thompson

11 years, 7 months

4
3
0 0

Operating systems of the 1970s handling dates beyond the year 2000

by kspt.tor＠gmail.com

On 20 January 2015 at 17:38, David Brownlee <abs at absd.org> wrote: > IIRC there was a bug filed against VMS to the effect that dates past > 9999 were not supported. Have to be impressed by that belief in future > engineering :) There are, or were, some other forward-thinking people out there.. >from Wikipedia: "St. James's Gate Brewery (Irish: Gr?dlann Gheata Naomh S?amuis) is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. [..] The main product of the brewery is Guinness Draught.[..] Originally leased in 1759 to Arthur Guinness at ?45 per year for 9,000 years" (So although it looks like our decendants may run out of Guinness before VMS runs into date problems, no worries, they've since bought out the originally leased property. But good thinking still.) -Tor

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Sending 0377 via KL8JA

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

I am noticing something odd in SimH when sending a 0377 (all ones) character. It seems to be duplicating the byte. I haven't read anything regarding this behavior. I'm away from my hardware PDP-8 at the moment, so I can't confirm that this is not the behavior that I would experience on the real thing. Here's how I reproduced it: test.pal: *200 CLA OSR JMS SEND JMP 200 SEND, 0 6416 6411 JMP .-1 CLA JMP I SEND $ pdp8.ini: at ttix 2222 set ttox0 8b load test.bin br 200 d sr 0377 Run 'nc localhost 2222 | od -to1' in a terminal, then 'go 200' and repeatedly press 'c', seeing how many times it takes to generate a line of characters in 'od'. Then, 'd sr 0376' and confirm that it takes twice as many presses, indicating half as many characters being sent per TLS instruction with the latter. Can anyone else confirm this for me? Thanks, Kyle

11 years, 7 months

4
4
0 0

SimH PDP-8 ttox device help

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

I've been attempting to interface with SimH in the least invasive way possible, by connecting two programs together via a pseudo-TTY created by socat connected to one of the telnet ports of a TTIX device. Something like this: TTIX -> telnet port -> socat -> /dev/ttyPDP (pty) This works fine for the console port. I personally like having minicom pulled up for the serial terminal but keep the other window cluttered with SimH backend commands. I have been able to manipulate EDIT.SV with a simple C program to transfer text files, character by character, which is neat. I wanted to extend this to a VC8-E emulator, again in the simplest way possible. I am sending out the X- and Y-coordinates for the point over TTOX0, but seem to be encountering some problems. I noticed that it likes to get hung up on a TSF (6411) instruction, causing it to keep looping even in single-step mode! Assuming everything is buffered, I would be under the assumption that TSF would almost always skip with a successful device send. [...] Step expired, PC: 00313 (IOT 411) \ a lot more of these (~50) Step expired, PC: 00314 (JMP 313) / Step expired, PC: 00313 (IOT 411) Step expired, PC: 00314 (JMP 313) Step expired, PC: 00313 (IOT 411) Step expired, PC: 00314 (JMP 313) Step expired, PC: 00313 (IOT 411) Step expired, PC: 00315 (IOT 416) <- finally skips! By the way, I am initializing the device with a CLA; TLS (6416) at the beginning of the program. I noticed David Gesswein opened up a somewhat related issue, now marked as closed, in October 2013. https://github.com/simh/simh/issues/85 Once I'm back to the real hardware, I intend to try it there to verify. I am running V3.9-0, by the way. Any insight into what might be holding TSF up would be much appreciated. Thanks, Kyle

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

MEM11 Status Update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Henk Gooijen > but RP11 will never be possible, isn't that MASSBUSS!? Maybe you're thinking of the RH70, the MASSBUS <-> PDP-11/70 memory bus interface? But there was also the RH11, a MASSBUS <-> UNIBUS interface, which supported all the same devices (RP04-6, etc) as the RH70, but plugged into a UNIBUS. (The two were programming-wise almost identical, the RH70 had an extra register for the extended memory address bits, plus a 'CSR3'.) But I was speaking of the RP11, a UNIBUS interface for the RP03 (different beast from the RH11, although very similar). Noel

11 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

IMSAI PCS-80/15

by spereira1952＠comcast.net

Hello from a lurker here, I am looking for a pointer to where I might be able to obtain the assembly / reference / user manual for the IMSAI PCS-80/15. Printed form or electronic copy, either way will be fine with me. Thanks very much, in advance, for your attention, and, hopefully, positive response! smp - - - Stephen Pereira Bedford, NH 03110 KB1SXE

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Maxtor XT-2190

by djg＠pdp8online.com

Someone was using my MFM reader to read a Maxtor XT-2190 and was having problems. From the looks of it the heads are out of alignment. Does anyone know if this drive has a microstep mode like some Seagates have? I didn't find any mention in the manuals I could find. Some heads are mostly unreadable, some heads are mostly ok and some were unreadable on cylinder 0 and on other cylinders the header says they are one cylinder less than where it stepped to. Some of the other heads headers said the cylinder is what was expected.

11 years, 7 months

5
8
0 0

MEM11 Status Update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Sotomayor > a multi-function Unibus board that contains all of the more difficult > items to allow a PDP-11/20 to run Unix V1 entirely within the CPU > chassis. Other than the CPU and the RK11-D controller, everything else > will be on the MEM11 board. > ... > What's on the board is the following: > ... > RF11 controller with non-volatile memory emulating 8 RS11 drives What form is the NVM in - an SD card, or just a chip, or what? I assume it's flash memory of some kind? (What's the limit on the number of write cycles with current flash memory, I wonder...) BTW, a removable card would be great - that would provide a way to get bits into the machine, other than loading them all in over a serial line. I'm kind of curious about your decision to only have an RF11, given the capacity of contemporary flash memory chips/cards. Why not an RK11 too? (You may have plenty of RK controllers/drives, but some of the rest of us aren't so lucky... :-) Is there not enough room in the 16K code block to do that too? And how about an RP11 too, for those of us running these cards in later PDP-11's? :-) (Oh, speaking of the 16K limit - any way to increase the size? Probably not without munging the J1 architecture, I would guess - I need to go grab it and read it. But limited addresses spaces always turn out to bit you where it hurts... :-) > As I was competing the configuration UI, I found that I couldn't have > both the configuration UI and the emulation code both fit in 16K > (strings take up a lot of space). I seem to recall this problem from my days of writing packet switches for PDP-11's... :-) The code was famous for log messages that left out all the vowels, to save space.. :-) Please, make the UI as cryptic as needed to make all the features (e.g. more disk controllers :-) fit - documentation can explain what all the cryptic names are. (Or perhaps even a front-end running on a PC which is connected to the MEM11 over the serial line.) Don't take any of this to mean I don't think this is really, really neat, and very impressive - it's both! Needless (perhaps) to say, I'll be buying a stack of these when they are ready! :-) Noel

11 years, 7 months

6
5
0 0

Operating systems of the 1970s handling dates beyond the year 2000

by cubexyz＠gmail.com

After trying to get Unix v5 to understand dates beyond the year 2000 I had to wonder if any of the older operating systems from the 1970s or older could do this. So, did any operating system programmers from this time period have the foresight to use 4 digits for the year? I just checked APL/360 and it seems that it does not. Mark L

11 years, 7 months

9
12
0 0

MEM11 Status Update

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jay West > My hope is to drop one of these boards in my 11/45. The only issue is > I'm afraid even though it will give the /45 maximum memory Well, there is that board (by Able?) that allowed a /45 to have up to 2MB of main memory. I know they exist[ed], we had one on our 11/45 at MIT 'BITD'. It didn't require any mods, it was a simple plugin - although my memory doesn't recall how the bus from the board to the memory worked, whether it used an over-the-back connector, or if the expansion board, and memory, plugged into a custom backplane (I have this vague memory that it could use Extended UNIBUS memory, a la 11/44, so maybe it was a custom backplane). I do recall that it had a whole separate set of mapping registers, to map the entire 'outbound' (from the CPU) UNIBUS to the larger memory, and also a UNIBUS map for the 'inbound' UNIBUS (from the devices) to map into the memory - i.e., it did not have access to the CPU mode/space signals, so it didn't have K/S/I PARs. One had to set up the mapping registers in the 11 as well. We used a static mapping where User I and D went to fixed chunks of address space in the 'outbound' UNIBUS, and the expansion MMU then mapped those chunks (variably) into the larger main memory. IIRC, we just changed the definition of the address of the User PAR registers (but kept the User PDRs), and the UNIBUS map registers (although maybe those were at the same locations as those in the 11/70), and then re-compiled the affected kernel modules. (The assembler startup required a bunch of changes, too.) I should have all that code on my backup tapes... That might not have supported I+D for K, S and I (since together they need 128KB*3 bytes, more than a complete UNIBUS address space), but it worked OK for the early Unix we were running. > I think I have too many pdp11 racks and it could be time to thin the > herd before too long. Or maybe I just need to get more space. Yah, > that's the ticket! Please put me on the list for an -11 stuff you get rid of... ;-) Noel

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Data Products 2230 manual?

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, my Data Products 2230 drum printer recently stopped working. The trouble began a few years ago: Startup went wrong from time to time so that the printer control logic was stuck after power on. Repowering helped. But now it does not help anymore. I found the DP2230 service manual 2 on bitsavers. It contains the machine's schematics. That already helped me to trace the problem - a bit. It looks like the buffer/interface logic does mad stuff. At this point it gets quite difficult to understand the logic without any explanation. Does anyone have the service manual part ONE? I assume that this contains info about state machines, test points and procedures, explanations etc. A (probably pdf) copy of that manual would help me a lot. I would very much appreciate to get hold of it. Kind regards Philipp :-)

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Shipping antique computers

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Thank you Todd. Very useful info. Marc >From: Todd Goodman <tsg at bonedaddy.net> >Subject: Re: Shipping antique computers >Message-ID: <20150118203355.GG4901 at ns1.bonedaddy.net> >I've palletized and shipped computer stuff as well as pinball machines >as well as received both on pallets. >[...] >Just my experience with it. >Todd

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

IBM Mainframe/Peripherals on eBay...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

There's what looks to be a nice collection of IBM Mainframe goodies on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IBM-Computer-Mainframe-Lot-with-2-printers-… or Item #161566683205 Local Pickup, Huntington, New York NOT my listing - just "stumbled" across it today Cheers, Lyle -- Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

11 years, 7 months

4
3
0 0

Operating systems of the 1970s handling dates beyond the year 2000

by cctalk＠beyondthepale.ie

> >> After trying to get Unix v5 to understand dates beyond the year 2000 I >> had to wonder if any of the older operating systems from the 1970s or >> older could do this. >> >> So, did any operating system programmers from this time period have >> the foresight to use 4 digits for the year? I just checked APL/360 and >> it seems that it does not. >> > > TOPS-20? VMS? > It was very near the end of the 1970s but VMS made a really good effort to handle times and dates well from the beginning. A single 64 bit time format is used throughout the operating system and operating system routines are provided to manipulate it and convert to and from well chosen standardised display formats with no ambiguities such as two digit years or easily mixed up numbers for days and months. Everything [*] displays and accepts the same time and date formats and shortcuts such as YESTERDAY, TODAY and TOMORROW. No messing about trying to figure out what format a particular utility wants the date specified in and no wondering whether a unitless time displayed by something is days, hours or minutes. The areas where I think it could have been done better still are to have stored the time internally in UTC rather than local time while displaying local time and to have chosen an earlier base date than 17 November 1858. Also, there was originally a rule that time differences could not be larger than 10000 days which was poorly enforced and eventually had to be scrapped - this should have been handled much more gracefully. [*] A few system parameters are specified in seconds and TIMEPROMPTWAIT is specified in microfortnights with tongue in cheek. Regards, Peter Coghlan.

11 years, 7 months

4
3
0 0

Operating systems of the 1970s handling dates beyond the year 2000

by johnwallace4＠yahoo.co.uk

"an *awesome* cover letter that DEC sent out with the fix, assuring everyone that the libraries were now good internally until some crazy year like 31078, but there was still formatting code that assumed years fit in four digits so there would be Y10K bugs; but don't worry, DEC will issue a patch to VMS at that time." Sounds a little bit like (but maybe not identical with?) the well known Stan Rabinowicz Leap Year Software Performance Report (SPR) response in 1983 for VMS V3.2? Stashed in various places which search engines should find, currently including HP's website and http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/decly.htm Have a lot of fun John

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Operating systems of the 1970s handling dates beyond the year 2000

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mark Longridge > I had to wonder if any of the older operating systems from the 1970s or > older could do this. > So, did any operating system programmers from this time period have > the foresight to use 4 digits for the year? It's probably worth distinguishing between the internal clock, the ability to set dates > 1999, the ability to print dates > 1999, etc. For instance, both Multics and Unix had an internal clock that ran correctly past the century end. (Although they do run out / roll over not too much later - in Multics' case, in 2039. For the Multics one, see here: http://www.multicians.org/jhs-clock.html for more.) However, in the case of Unix, both date setting and the canonical routine for date printing (separate code) didn't handle dates after 1999; for input, the year was only two digits, and for output, the first two digits were hard-coded to '19'. However, for calculating dates (which returned a vector of numbers), that part did theoretically work correctly for years after 1999 (it returned [$YEAR-1970]), but... There was a separate bug that caused the year calculation to fail in the closing months of 1999. Whether the person who wrote the code knew of the bug - it's a fairly simple one, an overflow of a short integer - I don't know, but it's possible they did, and on calculating when it would happen, decided that the fact that it would coincidentally also happen at century end meant it could be ignored at that point. However, once that was fixed, the date calcuation routine returned the correct year (without needing to change the interface). I don't know whether date input/calculation/output on Multics had similar issues: if you google "Multics leap year" it shows the source code for a couple of routines dealing with dates, but alas it's all in 645/6180 assembler, so I can't really grok it! It looks like it _might_ work, though (it seems to calculate the number of years since Multics' epoch - 1901 - and add that to 1901). If I had more time to expend, I could look at ITS too... :-( Noel

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

the old VHS series on the history of computing

by sales＠elecplus.com

http://waxy.org/2008/06/the_machine_that_changed_the_world/ He found all 5 episodes, digitized them, and uploaded them. Cindy Croxton

11 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

Sending 0377 via KL8JA

by cctalk＠beyondthepale.ie

> >I am noticing something odd in SimH when sending a 0377 (all ones) >character. It seems to be duplicating the byte. I haven't read anything >regarding this behavior. I'm away from my hardware PDP-8 at the moment, so >I can't confirm that this is not the behavior that I would experience on >the real thing. > It's not really that clear whether a telnet type connection is in use here but could it be something that does telnet negotiation is sending data to something which is not telnet negotiation aware? 0377 octal (FF hex) corresponds to IAC which would get sent as IAC IAC. Maybe monitoring the data on the network would confirm? > >Run 'nc localhost 2222 | od -to1' in a terminal, then 'go 200' and >repeatedly press 'c', seeing how many times it takes to generate a line of >characters in 'od'. Then, 'd sr 0376' and confirm that it takes twice as >many presses, indicating half as many characters being sent per TLS >instruction with the latter. > >Can anyone else confirm this for me? > Sorry - I don't follow that at all and figuring it out is probably above my pay grade :-) Regards, Peter Coghlan.

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

more documentation...

by useddec＠gmail.com

I just looking for offers + shipping. Please contact me off list for more info or questions. I told Al he could have whatever he wants for free and I would pay shipping. Al, I hate typing, please take it all... NCR 801-0009975 801-0009981 powertec inc for GDI 3m lups module crt Buscher 0l400-3015r/4015r fisher controls type cp250 model sps-1878a allen-bradley 635344 ps cdc 83322310 54359803, maybe others... computer products (unipower) pwr div 800w multiple sc001-1442 MISC PWR SUPPLIES: tryger electronics uaro lear siegler GE century data condor Thanks, Paul

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

TMS9918 (was Re: Seeking... TI TMS9902 ICs)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

On Sat, Jan 17, 2015 at 9:22 PM, Randy Dawson <rdawson16 at hotmail.com> wrote: > Later found their video chip 9918 Speaking of which, does anyone have the data sheet and/or user manual for the original TMS9918, *NOT* the improved 9918A? All my internet searches that turn up 9918 without an A suffix are in fact actually for the A part.

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Mystery ICs - AB 36D1024

by drlegendre＠gmail.com

Can't search up any data on these chips, they're marked with the Allen Bradley logo, and the code is 36D1024. Date codes are mid-1974. I have about 30 pcs. of them. But what are they?

11 years, 7 months

4
5
0 0

Shipping antique computers

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

Wow. Nice collection in a nice setting. I love the view of your commute. Where is your new shop located, still near Silicon Valley (near me ;-) )? Marc >Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 10:07:53 -0800 >From: Guy Sotomayor <ggs at shiresoft.com> >Here are some pictures of the stuff after I've moved it into my new shop but still on the pallets: >http://www.shiresoft.com/new-shop/Shiresoft/Almost_moved.html. > >TTFN - Guy

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Recovering Win3.1 Data

by dj.taylor4＠verizon.net

In the mid-90's I had a Packard Bell computer that ran Windows for workgroups 3.11. The computer is long gone, but I saved the disk. It is a 420 MB Conner. I recently tried to recover the data by attaching it to one of those IDE/SATA to USB devices and read it under Windows7, didn't work. I am able to copy files to floppy, but the stuff I want to save won't fit on a floppy. I put the disk in an old PC and it will boot to DOS, it tries to start WIN3.1 but exits because of some missing sound card hardware. What is the path of least resistance here? Is linux any help?

11 years, 7 months

14
18
0 0

VT100 Monitor Alignment Tool

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

The horizontal width on my VT101 needs adjusting, so I am in need of a monitor alignment tool (PN 29-23190-00). I have tried searching the web to see if I can found out what they look like so that I can improvise something but I have failed to find a picture of the DEC one. Does anyone have a picture of one? Is it just a long thin screwdriver? Is it the same as a generic monitor alignment tool like this one: http://eu.suzohapp.com/product/H92-0196-00/universal-monitor-alignment-tool- kit? Even so the picture on that site makes it hard for me to tell what I need to improvise something. Regards Rob PS The VT101 is partly working, I think the monitor control side is fine, but the terminal controller board seems to have problems, I only get random characters displayed when I power it up and it does not respond to any keys, not even SETUP L

11 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

Seeking... TI TMS9902 ICs

by scaron＠umich.edu

Hi all, I'm looking to pick up a few TI TMS9902 ICs... this is an asynchronous communications chip for TMS9900 based systems. I'm considering the architecture for my next retro-SBC as I get closer to wrapping up my 6502 SBC, so, trying to put all the pieces together. Willing to pay a fair price. Thanks! Sean

11 years, 7 months

6
11
0 0

Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: js > as a frequent buyer, it also highly annoys me when systems on eBay or > Craiglist are found and rebroadcasted here. Now, my chance find has > been made aware to a much wider audience, the competition shoots way > up, and I have to pay more. Since I'm one of the people who has been doing this (e.g. recent PDP-8 postings), I'd like to weigh in with a few thoughts on this topic. To begin, as to the point that it's costing you more money, I'm afraid I don't find that a big factor, for several reasons. First, as Mark Tapley explained down-thread: http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2015-January/002533.html >from the point of view of saving history, higher prices are better. If people start to think of these older machines as possibly collectable items of some value, they are less likely to toss them into the trash without further ado. (Yes, yes, I know, not all old computers are worth saving - just like not all old cars are, either. But unless you ask someone who knows, you don't know whether your old junker is a clunker or a jewel in the rough.) Second, you're only getting that item 'for cheap' because some other collector, to whom it might be even more emotionally important, doesn't know of it. I do have more sympathy with the point of view that says 'I spent a lot of time trawling through eBay, etc listings looking for that one diamond in a sea of pebbles; why should all my work be devalued by someone who just posts the listing so everyone can get on board?' I have some sympathy for that take (especially since I myself spend a fair amount of time looking through eBay for PDP-11 stuff :-), but for me it's out-weighed by the 'hey, I have this information, it's no use to me, I'd like to share it with people for whom it might be highly useful'. > Auctions are not collegial -- they're competitive, and since when is > competition a negative? I'm not sure of your point here (the second part seems to be at odds with the first), but I will say that I think widely-attended auctions, starting at a modest price, are desirable: they are the best way to set the _true_ value of something. Too many items on eBay have some incredibly high Buy-It-Now price, and they sit forever, until someone really desperate buys it - which just encourages other sellers to ask for un-realistic amounts. So I applaud the sellers who put things up for real auctions. Noel

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Restoring a Compaq Portable

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

In my further adventures in restoring a Compaq Portable, I have these problems: 1) Missing brightness knob. Solution: I posted earlier about this. A few people in #classiccmp think they may have one. 2) Capacitive disks under the keys are rotten. Solution: http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/sol_keys.html sounds good, except I'll use 3M 77 spray. 3) I can't get the keyboard to respond at all. I tried touching the capacitive pads with bare fingers, anti-static bag material, etc. Nothing works. Solution: I don't know. I suspect the scan driver and/or the sense amp chips may be bad. These are Exar 22-950-3B (sense driver) and 22-908-93A (sense amp). Does anyone here know a decent source of these and/or data sheets? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

11 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

FTGH: Pioneer DRM-602X 6-CD changer

by mouse＠Rodents-Montreal.ORG

I have this six-disc CD changer by Pioneer which I do not expect to have further use for - or, more precisely, the chance of future use is small enough I don't consider it worth the space it takes to store it. It's a SCSI device. I hooked it up and it showed up as six drives at ID 6, one at each LUN from 0 through 5, and accessing two of the drives gave me the contents of the two discs I put in the magazine, so it seems to work at least minimally. (IIRC there's a switch which controls the ID.) The box trumpets it as "THE ONLY SIX-DISC DOUBLE-SPEED CD-ROM CHANGER", which may give some idea of its age. Here's what autoconfig printed for it: probe(esp0:6:0): max sync rate 8.33Mb/s scsipi_inqmatch: 2/5/1 <, , > cd0 at scsibus0 targ 6 lun 0: <PIONEER, CD-ROM DRM-602X, 2902> SCSI2 5/cdrom removable scsipi_inqmatch: 2/5/1 <, , > cd1 at scsibus0 targ 6 lun 1: <PIONEER, CD-ROM DRM-602X, 2902> SCSI2 5/cdrom removable scsipi_inqmatch: 2/5/1 <, , > cd2 at scsibus0 targ 6 lun 2: <PIONEER, CD-ROM DRM-602X, 2902> SCSI2 5/cdrom removable scsipi_inqmatch: 2/5/1 <, , > cd3 at scsibus0 targ 6 lun 3: <PIONEER, CD-ROM DRM-602X, 2902> SCSI2 5/cdrom removable scsipi_inqmatch: 2/5/1 <, , > cd4 at scsibus0 targ 6 lun 4: <PIONEER, CD-ROM DRM-602X, 2902> SCSI2 5/cdrom removable scsipi_inqmatch: 2/5/1 <, , > cd5 at scsibus0 targ 6 lun 5: <PIONEER, CD-ROM DRM-602X, 2902> SCSI2 5/cdrom removable I have the box, interior packing foam, and one 6-disc magazine for it. I don't think I have anything else that may have come with it (maybe a rudimentary user's guide, not sure). The box has a sticker on it saying it includes a "PC SCSI Interface" and "SIX EXCITING CD-ROM TITLES"; none of those are actually present any longer. It's in /earth/northamerica/canada/ontario/ottawa. The box is moderately large, about 11 by 15 by 22 inches, and is somewhat beat-up (scuffs, small tears) but basically intact. Free to a good home. Pick-up preferred; I could probably wrap another layer of paper around this and ship it, but the bother factor is high enough it would take some persuading. /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

11 years, 7 months

4
5
0 0

Another VCF East update - Wes Clark

by evan＠snarc.net

There are still three months until VCF East (April 17-19), but we are charging toward it at full steam! What's going on at the show? - There will be 16 technical classes on Friday. - We're at 18 exhibits and counting (30-ish expected) - We have four very special events planned: 1. Restored Straight-8 debut (Friday lunchtime); 2. Ted Nelson lecture (Saturday morning); 3. Just announced: Wes Clark lecture (Saturday night dinner -- very limited tickets available); and 4. Bob Frankston lecture (Sunday morning).

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Info about Scenic Computer Systems Corp. Model One

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- Was given this machine today, it's a Scenic Comptuer Systems Corporation Model One. It's a 68000 based machine with a custom (I assume) 44-pin bus with two 8" dual-sided floppies and four serial ports. And it was built right here in Seattle, WA :). The serial number on the CPU board is 9, which makes me wonder how many of these were produced. I powered it up after giving it an examination and I get a boot monitor prompt out of it. I can't find much information at all on this machine, a brief writeup in an Infoworld magazine from '83 indicates that it was a UCSD Pascal machine, but that's about all I know. Anyone have any info on this thing? Better yet, anyone know of any surviving software? (Well, I can dream...) Thanks as always, Josh

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

HP 9836 Available in the Houston TX area

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

Anyone here interested in an HP 9836? One of the keys is broken off but present. It boots up but reports some memory issue. I've had it for a long time but don't have the time nor interest any more to work with it. Heavy box so local pickup preferred but if you want to arrange and pay for shipping we can try. Located in Houston TX. David Williams www.trailingedge.com

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Shipping antique computers

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Sotomayor > http://www.shiresoft.com/new-shop/Shiresoft/Almost_moved.html Doesn't work (for me) as a deep link; I had to go through: http://www.shiresoft.com/new-shop/Shiresoft/New_Shop.html first. I have to say, you've probably made 99.9% of the list green with envy with those photos... :-) > I've shipped stuff with both "white glove" movers and just regular > freight companies. ... It all depends upon what you're moving and how > it's packed for shipping. If you don't have it packed/packaged, then > "white glove" is the way to go especially if it's just "big stuff". More importantly, I'm not sure the commercial people will _take_ stuff unless it's on a pallet. I originally tried to ship a group of DEC corporate cabinets (with stuff in them - ~400 lbs per) via non-white-glove people. (I didn't care if things got dinged a bit during shipping, and hey, it was on wheels, right? And although I didn't have a loading dock, they said they could send a lift-gate truck, and I was happy with kerb-side delivery.) Then they found out it wasn't on pallets, and they wouldn't take it; I then had to switch to a white-glove firm. And that's when I got the bad news - it cost twice as much, for the same volume/weight. (They send a team, not just one driver.) So white-glove has a major downside, IMO. Noel

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Testing VT101 Power Supply

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I am looking to test the power supply board of my VT101 before connecting it all up and switching it on. Reading to the Pocket Service Manual it seems to suggest that you can check the outputs of the power supply board with the terminal controller board and the video monitor board both disconnected. This would mean no load on the power supply. Does this seem wise? Regards Rob

11 years, 7 months

3
3
0 0

Shipping antique computers

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, I've recently shipped an antique computer across-country (in the USA), and for those who need to do this, I can point out the shipper (well, technically, a broker - they work with a range of companies who actually do the work) which/whom I used: Shiphawk 805-335-2432 http://shiphawk.com Having learned (with me :-) a number of lessons about the potholes and pitfalls of shipping antique computers, they should be pretty well up to speed if someone else needs to do some shipping of same. Key point: shipping of largish things is much cheaper if the item is palletized. There are two kinds of shippers: cargo/freight people (I forget the exact term), who only deal in palletized things, and so-called 'white glove' shippers, who will move anything (they usually do furniture, hence the name). I know palletization's not cheap, but you'll probably save more in shipping than you spend on the preparation. Noel

11 years, 7 months

4
4
0 0

Diablo disk unit

by alexandre.tabajara＠gmail.com

Can anyone shed a light on this? http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-616158449-diablo-series-unidade-de-d… Thanks! Alexandre

11 years, 7 months

4
3
0 0

Subject: Knowledge Base

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

> I'm in. But instead of repair/restoration logs, I'd like to also contribute > with specific knowledge which I believe to be more searcheable and a better > contribution than just logs. Maybe we could have both (logs and knowledge base)? They serve different purposes. In my other group we have a mail list, a wiki for basic knowledge and a build logs threads in a Forum based package. The build logs are searchable. It works really well. The least frequently contributed to is the wiki, however it's the most helpful for new members. But it's a lot of work and makes things more complicated. Just food for thoughts, as I said the current mailing list is simple yet immensely useful, nothing wrong with it. And God bless bitsavers.

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Paper tape standard

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

I hadn't spotted this before, and it may be of interest to some here : http://www.polyomino.org.uk/computer/ECMA-10/ It's the ECMA standard for paper tape. -tony

11 years, 7 months

7
8
0 0

Lanier Model 103 Word Processor

by phil＠viscom.net

All, Recently picked me up a new project ($0 projects are the best), a Lanier Model 103 word processing system, complete with printer, but void of any diskettes. I'm going to have a rummage around here at work, but it would appear that AES used hard-sectored 5.25" floppies in the machine. Apparently it'll boot the AES word processing suite, or alternatively CP/M (It's an 8080 based machine). Something had eaten(!) the ceramic suppression caps off the video card, so I replaced those and the tantalum beads for good measure. Now when I power it up I get a raster instead of a horizontal line. It's a bit stretched vertically, so I've got the video circuitry module out to redo the electrolytics in that next. Unfortunately none of the adjustments on the board are marked as to their function. I'm going to take a few guesses as to what's what, and experiment a little. I need to get me a hex tool for what I'm guessing is the width coil. There are 2 adjustable inductors and 4 variable resistors. A question- being as I currently do not have any discs for it, does anyone: 1) Know what this should display if you power it up without a floppy in? (If anything at all, would be useful to see if the thing even has a sane heartbeat in some fashion). 2) Have a service manual for one? 3) Know of a source of discs (either AES, copies, or even just CP/M)? I know 3 is a hugely long shot. It's not a badly built machine, and it would be nice to get repaired and be able to use it to write things on. --Phil

11 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Convergent NGEN storage hardware manuals

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/convergent/ngen/hardware uploaded yesterday This is the first time that I've come across any real hardware documentation on the NGEN. It's already helped the guy working on the simulation in MESS.

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Updated Spacewar for the PDP-8/I, 8/E, etc....

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

I just updated D.E. Wrege's Spacewar as follows: 1. Correctly supports slow monitors attached to a VC8/E interface by correcting mistakes made in the VC8/E driver code. The code now follows DEC's recommended method of waiting on the VC8/E. 2. Starts up with spaceships (as opposed to UFO's) per the original Spacewar! by Steve Russell. 3. Now supports the DK8-EC Crystal Clock Items 1 & 2 were released by me previously - but support for the DK8-EC is brand new. The new source and listing can be picked up via anonymous FTP to bickleywest.com and the pdp8_spcwar directory. Most browsers (not IE) will support this: ftp://bickleywest.com/pdp8_spcwar/ Cheers, Lyle -- Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

HP Interex

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I had posted to the list a while back that I had saved the HP/Interex and HP1000 CSL site before it went dark and put them up on the classiccmp server. Just got an email from the folks in the HP/DSD alumni group that they are enjoying that content being available again. That REALLY makes me feel good J WOOHOO! Along those lines, the copy of the Interex/CSL that I saved originally included not just the files, but also the html and jpg that made up the site itself. Over years, I lost the html and jpg files. Not a huge concern as the data files that the site served up are all present. But.. If anyone happens to have the .html, .jpg, etc files (and if it doesn't infringe) I'd be happy to add them back so it has the original "look & feel". J

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Tabajara Labs working again

by alexandre.tabajara＠gmail.com

So, the site is back :) I'd like to Thank Jay West for the kind offer of space for my site. Saved my bacon! Hope you all can enjoy www.tabalabs.com.br - it is mostly in portuguese, but google translator is your friend, and the pics are nice :) Also, there are lots of brazilian hardware pictured there, for the curious Greetings from Brazil! Alexandre Souza --- Enviado do meu Apple IIGS (pq eu sou chique) Meu site: http://www.tabalabs.com.br Meu blog: http://tabajara-labs.blogspot.com

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Paging Mouse@rodents-montreal

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Mouse; I've tried to send you an email off-list, but both of the mail server infrastructures here (one unix, one windows) can't seem to get through to your mail server. More to the point, I recall seeing a notice or two over time that the classiccmp mail server has trouble getting to you and disables your subscription automatically and I re-enable it any time I notice it. Can you email me a different email address for you that's on a different server perhaps? J

11 years, 7 months

3
3
0 0

Subject: Knowledge Base

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Marc wrote.... ---- [snip] Thank you Jay and others for doing this and contributing a professional grade infrastructure. ---- Most welcome - but it's not just me. There's a lot of folks who help. ---- The wiki is an idea, but an alternative that I wish would exist is a repository for restoration logs. [snip] ---- The conversation makes things come back to me from old memory :) Now that I think about it - that was the primary "con" thought that most listmembers had about a "wiki". It basically competed with the mailing list as a resource and many of the folks here weren't going to go "graphical" so it would just result in a fracture/fork and dilution of the community. As a result, we went with a "Knowledge Base" package for pretty much the exact reasons you list in your post. The one we had used was "Andy's PHP Knowledge Base". I would be happy to try it again if listmembers would agree to substantially contribute. The only thing worse than not having one is having one that doesn't really have great content (and I'm positive the listmembers have great content to contribute). The only criteria I'd have from my side is that it be php/mysql based. We do have a flock of windows servers in the infrastructure, but I'd prefer if it was FAMP based. I haven't seen where the development of Andy's package has gone over the years, so I'd appreciate any suggestions folks may have as to a good php/mysql knowledge base type of package. I personally like the idea of a knowledgebase, but as Marc says - it'd be nice to have a place for people to post their restoration logs. Many people do this on their own sites and it's a great thing but I'm sure many people (me included) generally don't have the time to create an entire site to post the progress of each restoration project. Maybe if something in this site would allow easy subsection creation ("John Smiths PDP7 restoration project") that could be of help to both restorers and interested people wanting to learn. There is a site for people restoring/customizing Jon boats that I've spent a lot of time on where each person can create their own section documenting their restoration project. That type of thing would be a great resource here in addition to a "knowledge base". Let me know if there's interest. Thoughts? J

11 years, 7 months

5
4
0 0

SimH Help, was Re: Announcing TCP/IP for RSX-11M-PLUS

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 9:47 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote: > There have been lots of positive comments, and obviously some people have > even tested using the software. > I shall echo the sentiments of others; thanks for releasing this! So - same as before. Disk image and tape image are available at > Madame.Update.UU.SE. Use anonymous ftp. > Disk image is also available at ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/pdp11/rsx/tcpip > . > The disk image is a virtual RL02 disk. Can be used with any emulator, or > also directly inside RSX if you have virtual devices available. Johnny, you mentioned you're running under E11. Has anyone tried it under SimH yet? I put together an 11/70 1MB system under the PDP-11 emulator (built with Ethernet support under OS X 10.9) and have installed RSX-11M-PLUS 4.6. When I was installing, SYSGEN reported 512k of RAM instead of 1M, which alarmed me. I went into manual mode and told it explicitly 1M. That's been my only hiccup so far, and that's about where I'm at. If anyone has any suggestions for a newcomer to RSX, I'd certainly appreciate it. I'd be more than willing to write up a tutorial if someone can help me the rest of the way. Thanks, Kyle

11 years, 7 months

2
4
0 0

Restoration Best Practice RE: Subject: Knowledge Base (was RE: Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000]

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

I try and blog my restorations here:- http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/blog.php?18268-g4ugm but I often forget. Actually recording what you have done is really important and is often forgotten or over looked. The last thing you want to do when you wife drags you away from the home workshop is write up what you have done mot it is really important. I also try and change things in a reversible manner. If I replace capacitors I keep and record where they came from. I don't suppose this will ever be of interest to any one else, but it might be... Dave G4UGM -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Marc Verdiell Sent: 16 January 2015 09:02 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Subject: Knowledge Base (was RE: Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000] I am relatively new here but joining this mailing list has helped me almost immediately. Thank you Jay and others for doing this and contributing a professional grade infrastructure. The wiki is an idea, but an alternative that I wish would exist is a repository for restoration logs. Something that you could follow and comment on, and that allows attachment of slightly richer media to posts (photos, docs) in the context of someone's specific restoration project. You learn so much from these. I know people already do it individually, but not in a centralized searchable place (you have to chance upon them), and often in an annoying reverse chronology "blog" format that's ill adapted for this usage. Or a museum style static website that does not relate the problem solving path (including things that fail) that a restoration is. In other "build oriented" groups I belong to, we do this very successfully by encouraging individual build log threads in a Forum format. That's in addition to a catch-all "string of consciousness" mailing list like this one. Is that anything that could be considered? Marc > Message: 21 > Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 14:42:34 -0600 > From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Knowledge Base (was RE: Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay > Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000] > Message-ID: <004a01d0303a$a11eefa0$e35ccee0$(a)classiccmp.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > So.. about this "knowledgebase" of restoration techniques. > > Apparently new folks don't know and some older listmembers don't remember... > > We did start a "wiki" for people to post restoration tips, repair tips, etc. > This was done about 8 years ago. When I first brought up the idea > there was a lot of discussion on the list as to if it was a good idea > or not. Many people had very good thoughts as to why it would be > wonderful, and many other people had equally good thoughts as to why it would not be wonderful. > > In any case, I set it up. We found that there was an initial flurry of > posting, and then virtually nothing. Statistics showed it was not used > very much at all. There were a handful of issues as I recall (not my > implementation of it, but in the general idea of a > repair/troubleshooting/restoration "wiki"). I only remember one of > them at the moment... and that was that someone would post an article > without really having detailed expertise in that given area and then > someone that DID have expertise in that area would (for lack of a > better term) contramand that article or write a separate one with > conflicting info which made it hard for a novice to really sift > through the information. In short, everyone has an opinion and at > times the articles directly conflicted with another and someone seeking knowledge wouldn't know who to believe. > > That being said, if people really want to give this another try, I > would be happy to turn on the old classiccmp knowledge base (I'm 99% > sure it's stored but just not turned on), or I could easily have one > of my support staff dump a wiki installation to a folder there (under > classiccmp) and we could give it a try again. I'm all for it, but for > it to be successful - it has to be due to contribution/acceptance by > the membership at large. My proclivity at this point would be to > install a new wiki and then pull articles already posted in the old "wiki" into it. > > And yes, if it's to be in the classiccmp.org domain, I'd have to host > it. I have not yet seen a scenario where we'd be willing to point an > a-record off-site (but that's not to say some future situation might > get a different response). > > Best, > J

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Subject: Knowledge Base (was RE: Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000]

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

I am relatively new here but joining this mailing list has helped me almost immediately. Thank you Jay and others for doing this and contributing a professional grade infrastructure. The wiki is an idea, but an alternative that I wish would exist is a repository for restoration logs. Something that you could follow and comment on, and that allows attachment of slightly richer media to posts (photos, docs) in the context of someone's specific restoration project. You learn so much from these. I know people already do it individually, but not in a centralized searchable place (you have to chance upon them), and often in an annoying reverse chronology "blog" format that's ill adapted for this usage. Or a museum style static website that does not relate the problem solving path (including things that fail) that a restoration is. In other "build oriented" groups I belong to, we do this very successfully by encouraging individual build log threads in a Forum format. That's in addition to a catch-all "string of consciousness" mailing list like this one. Is that anything that could be considered? Marc > Message: 21 > Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 14:42:34 -0600 > From: "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Knowledge Base (was RE: Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay > Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000] > Message-ID: <004a01d0303a$a11eefa0$e35ccee0$(a)classiccmp.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > So.. about this "knowledgebase" of restoration techniques. > > Apparently new folks don't know and some older listmembers don't remember... > > We did start a "wiki" for people to post restoration tips, repair tips, etc. > This was done about 8 years ago. When I first brought up the idea there was > a lot of discussion on the list as to if it was a good idea or not. Many > people had very good thoughts as to why it would be wonderful, and many > other people had equally good thoughts as to why it would not be wonderful. > > In any case, I set it up. We found that there was an initial flurry of > posting, and then virtually nothing. Statistics showed it was not used very > much at all. There were a handful of issues as I recall (not my > implementation of it, but in the general idea of a > repair/troubleshooting/restoration "wiki"). I only remember one of them at > the moment... and that was that someone would post an article without really > having detailed expertise in that given area and then someone that DID have > expertise in that area would (for lack of a better term) contramand that > article or write a separate one with conflicting info which made it hard for > a novice to really sift through the information. In short, everyone has an > opinion and at times the articles directly conflicted with another and > someone seeking knowledge wouldn't know who to believe. > > That being said, if people really want to give this another try, I would be > happy to turn on the old classiccmp knowledge base (I'm 99% sure it's stored > but just not turned on), or I could easily have one of my support staff dump > a wiki installation to a folder there (under classiccmp) and we could give > it a try again. I'm all for it, but for it to be successful - it has to be > due to contribution/acceptance by the membership at large. My proclivity at > this point would be to install a new wiki and then pull articles already > posted in the old "wiki" into it. > > And yes, if it's to be in the classiccmp.org domain, I'd have to host it. I > have not yet seen a scenario where we'd be willing to point an a-record > off-site (but that's not to say some future situation might get a different > response). > > Best, > J

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Netware/IP 1.1

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

Just curious, anyone on here ever work with Netware/IP 1.1? Don't laugh, but anyone still have an old copy for sale? :) Thanks!

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000]

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Sean Caron > This, too, is something I'd be willing potentially to host gratis, > given the same caveats that I offered Alexandre... Please do! I will volunteer to start contributing content as soon as it's up. > not totally a commercial datacenter in terms of available bandwidth I can't imagine a wiki on the topic of classic computers would draw _that_ much traffic? :-) > I wouldn't have a problem supporting Mediawiki or common back-end > technologies in general i.e. PHP, MySQL... Please get yourself totally up to speed to run a wiki, then! :-) > I can host DNS if someone wanted to get a domain name for it... Why do we need a new domain name? Why not call it "wiki.classiccmp.org"? Pick out one of your statics, let Jay know it, and if he can update the DNS config file for the classiccmp.org zone we're done! Noel

11 years, 7 months

16
34
0 0

IBM System/36 follow up

by tots＠matinino.com

Hi everyone, Back to you guys with a small gallery of pictures of the machine via Dropbox. It is a 5360 system ( 1m? / 700 pounds), with french labeled panel. I have not tried to open its guts yet. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fiyipqf9p92mery/AACAXjdASRhVNHM9sPCzh6DVa?dl=0 The system is located in Martinique (French West Indies). It had only one owner, a Medical Laboratory that bought it between 1985-1987 I think and used it on a network with at least 4 maybe 5 terminals and a printer. The system used a software sold by a Paris based company that still exist and keeps on selling software solutions on AS/400 architecture. The Laboratory migrated to new hardware. Later it moved and left the 5360 in the old place. I have no clue about the configuration but I know it had a hard drive and it supported floppy disk banks. From what I've been told, there is no way it can shipped by boat to North America. Simply because you have to fill up a container to be able to make a cargo shipment, and very very few stuff goes this direction so it would take a long while before fullfilling the requirement. The only easy shipping option to North-America is by airplane which is quite a proposition for a 1m? / 320kg box. To send it as a whole to Europe instead is quite easy. There is freight boarding every week and containers are on heavy rotation. Shipping to the main port destination which is "Le Havre, France" would in the vinicity of 500 euros, though some taxes in arrival are to be expected (20% on the items value). I will search the place so more, maybe I can find some documentation. Truly Yours, Hector

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Fw: Thin skins [Was: Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000]]

by mhs.stein＠gmail.com

Sorry; meant to send that privately. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Stein" <mhs.stein at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2015 1:34 PM Subject: Re: Thin skins [Was: Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000]] > From: "Sean Caron" <scaron at umich.edu> > Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2015 11:23 AM > Subject: Re: Thin skins [Was: Restoration technique [Was: Re: Bay Area: > IBM 4341 and HP3000]] > >> You can read yourself all the threads and decide for yourself, if they >> were >> being written to you, would you find them offensive? > > No. > > It is always *our* choice how to interpret and feel about things we read > and hear and whether to make the effort to understand rather than just > react. > > All Jay said is that his setup, collective experience etc. is perhaps more > suited to this sort of thing than yours but he welcomes you and anyone who > wants to add to the resources available to this community. > > What does offend me is your Straw Man arguments and name calling; Jay a > "bully" ? > > --- > Description of Straw Man > > The Straw Man fallacy is committed when a person simply ignores a person's > actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented > version of that position. > --- > > 'nuff said. > > m

11 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

front panel LED help sought

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Yep, I'm still working on "restoration" of the Microdata Reality. I say "restoration", because due to another restoration project that actually has a deadline, I only have time to clean up the microdata and repair just obvious visual brokenness, not actually start testing/repairing it electronically. That will come after the "deadline project" J As most know, schematics and detailed documentation are nonexistent for this machine. I've done the rack, the disc drive, the tape drive, and the power supply. On to the last item, the front panel. Virtually all of the LED's on the front panel board had so much mouse pee that the leads on the LEDS actually corroded through, so I need to replace them all. Without schematics, can anyone suggest how I might go about determining a suitable replacement LED from an electrical perspective? Pictures at www.ezwind.net/microdata/restoration Best, J

11 years, 7 months

6
9
0 0

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb