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

by steve＠tronola.com

> For anyone that cares, my vintage computer sites have moved: > My personal collection: >http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/ > The AN/FSQ-7 on TV and in the Movies: >http://q7.neurotica.com/Q7/ > Please update your bookmarks. --- Very cool websites, Mike. Many thanks. Steve Lafferty

12 years

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Vintage computer web site move

by mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us

For anyone that cares, my vintage computer sites have moved: My personal collection: http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/ The AN/FSQ-7 on TV and in the Movies: http://q7.neurotica.com/Q7/ Please update your bookmarks. Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/

12 years

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5 Lear Siegler ADM-3/3A in Novato, CA (ebay)

by legalize＠xmission.com

Not affiliated with seller. 5 baby blue ADM-3/3A terms, local pickup only <http://www.ebay.com/itm/291197498815> It's a steal at $99 opening bid for the lot of 5. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://ComputerGraphicsMuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://LegalizeAdulthood.wordpress.com>

12 years

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Tektronix VT220 compatible keyboard - information needed

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

I have a Tektronix VT220 compatible keyboard as pictured here: http://deskthority.net/resources/image/12676 Can anyone provide any information/links/technical specs? I suspect it is off either a character terminal or an X-terminal. If I can't find anything about the protocol the plan will be to replace the controller, an Intel p8049ah with an Arduino to do the row/column scanning. The keyboard was made by NMB and contains Hi-Tek 'space invader' key switches. The cable ends in a 6 pin mini-din connector. The pins of the cable are labelled as follows: 1. Clock 2. Data 3. N.C. 4. IG GND 5. +5V 6. CHASSIS GND I didn't think this would be PS/2 compatible, and it doesn't look like it as the signals don't tie up with a 6 pin MINI-DIN PS/2 pin out. Thanks! Mark.

12 years

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Perkin-Elmer 68k Micro Model 7350

by pechter＠gmail.com

They also had a version of SystemV for them called MicroXelos System V. UniPlus did their System III. Perhaps the SysV as well. They also had idris available. They were standard Multibus chassis, IIRC,.b I had a 16 port version in a tower called an XF200 running a news feed for a while. There was a 16 port card... I found an old post on them. http://marc.info/?l=classiccmp&m=104957799225097&w=2 I had a crap pile of them at one time. Dumped them all at Trenton Computer Festival's dumpster and my trash cans in Lakewood since no one wanted them. The MFM drives were fairly slow and their screen handling was lousy. They did emulate a Perkin-Elmer 1251 terminal IIRC on their screen with full blockmode. Sorry about the top post... pulled these both out of gmail and attempted to reformat and quote. I think they were a Perkin-Elmer product that was merged into the Interdata/Concurrent manufacturing. Perkin-Elmer eventually stopped paying for Concurrent to build them. One of the few computers made in New Jersey. It was in dhrystone outputs back in the day, * CCC 7350A 68000-8MHz UniSoft V.2 cc 821 875 Trident (3rd party maintenanve place) showed they had the XF200 power supply... 8-) Bill > Yes, these only have two serial ports on the back but they do have$ > blanks in the panel for two more. $ > > Now I'm hoping the drives weren't wiped (but they probably were considering $ > the defense contractor it came from.)$ > $ > Todd$ -- d|i|g|i|t|a|l had it THEN. Don't you wish you could still buy it now! pechter-at-gmail.com

12 years

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PDP-11/34 available in Edmonton, Alberta

by andreww591＠gmail.com

My hackerspace (ENTS; http://ents.ca/) recently got a large donation of equipment and components from an automation company. Most of it was test equipment but there was also a PDP-11/34 with two RL01 drives. An LP11 and a DZ11 are also installed. Several RL cartridges are included, although some are RL02 cartridges, and one is a VMS 3.0 distribution cartridge. There are also a few boxes of documentation that we haven't gone through yet (although I'd be surprised if there were anything there that's not on Bitsavers). It draws a bit too much power for us to run it there, so we are looking to sell it. I am not quite sure what is a reasonable price is, but I'm thinking somewhere around $200-$300. However, we are open to offers. I just don't want to see it scrapped. The buyer would have to either pick it up or pay for shipping themselves. Labels of included RL cartridges: BC-M951G-BC (RSX-1M+ pregenned dist kit) (RL02) BC-V981E-BC (RSX-11M+ 2.1 MPU21E dist kit; has note saying it has errors) (RL02) AX-D820B-BC (BSC-11/IAS-RSX V2 bin) (RL01) AX-J624A-BC (KED/RSX 1.0 bin) (RL01) VAX/VMS 3.0 required (RL02) Northwest Digital Sales - CTOS - Version 4.0 RSX Demonstration Disk (RL01) (not quite sure what this is) "Scratch Disk" (RL01) "Editors" (RL01) one more disk may be in one of the drives since there is a spare cover, but I'm not sure Next time I go there I should really go through the documentation and see if there are cartridges in either of the drives.

12 years

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Does Anyone Have the Source Code for PDP-8 Disassembler DCP16.BN?

by bobvines00＠gmail.com

Does anyone have the source code for the PDP-8 disassembler "dcp16.bn" or know where it can be found? One place where dcp16.bn can be found is at http://www.dbit.com/pub/pdp8/nickel/utils/dcp/os8/. John's "from" directory says that the files came from "DECTAPE/DT42" -- does that mean anything to anyone? Thanks, Bov

12 years

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IBM 5150, 5160, AST, Compac, AT&T, Allen Bradley, Cuttler Hammer

by useddec＠gmail.com

5150 sys board 5160 64/256K old style sys board 5160 async com card The IBM boards are sealed in static bags and boxed. The boxes had a description but not an IBM number on them. These could be unused, possibly refurbed. I probably picked up everything on this page from a 3ed party maintenance company over 10 years ago as surplus inventory. Only a few boxes were open and what I did look at looked like new. I'm not an IBM person, but I can look for actual part numbers upon request although I might have to open the sealed bags. I have quantity mostly on the 64/256 board. I should have a qty of power supplies, PS2 and other parts here yet. AST Megaplus MG-064-P new in box AT&T Z3A Async Data unit new in box Compac async card boxes of nib Allen Bradley and Cutler Hammer parts Feel free to contact me off list if you are interested. Shipping from 61853. Thanks, Paul

12 years

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microcode store (was Re: Looking to get into a Mini Computer...)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

On Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 4:21 PM, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > [1] The VAX11/730 also loads the CPU microcode at power-up, but from what > I rememebr, ther eare some hardware features that optimise it for the VAX > instruction set. While it is possible to give it a differnet instruciton > set, I think it wopuld be a lot less efficient. All of the microcoded processors DEC designed, whether they had loadable microcode or only ROM, had hardware that was substantially oriented toward the normal DEC macroinstruction set(s), and would have been very inefficient at implementing other instruction sets. The VAX-11/7xx series hardware was designed for efficient execution of both VAX and PDP-11 instruction sets, but the other machines were designed for a single instruction set only. Even the machines that officially supported user-written microcode (PDP-11/03, PDP-11/60, some VAXen) were generally unsuited to implementing entirely different instruction sets, and user-added instructions were expected to have similar structure to standard instructions. The Western Digital chip set used in the PDP-11/03 was used for at least two other instruction sets, the WD16 used by Alpha Micro, which was very similar to the PDP-11, and the Pascal Microengine, which executed UCSD p-System p-code. The latter was not a very efficient use of the microarchitecture, and consequently the Pascal Microengine was not much faster than the UCSD p-System running on the fastest general-purpose microprocessors available at its introduction. Since general-purpose microprocessors were evolving quickly, soon it was too slow to be taken seriously. Early on, it was very expensive to use fast RAM chips for a microcode store, so DEC used bipolar PROMs except on relatively high-priced machines (e.g., KL10 and KS10), and if serious bugs were found, the microcode PROMs had to be replaced. For the KS10, it was considered that the RAM chips used in the control store were unreliable, so they did parity checking on the control store, and if there was an error, the CPU would halt and the console processor would reload the control store. They patented that: http://www.google.co.in/patents/US4231089 The VAX-11/780 introduced the concept of patchable control store, where most of the control store was PROM but there was a small amount of patch RAM. Costs of high speed RAM declined quickly enough that most later non-microprocessor VAXen used entirely RAM control store. With the advent of VAX microprocessors, the larger die area required for RAM vs ROM shifted the economics shifted back to favor ROM with a small RAM patch area.

12 years

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Fwd: Free Sun 3/470 (sun3x) stuff []Northern SF Bay area]

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

Forwarding. This is very nice hardware, I hope someone can rescue it. --Toby -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Free Sun 3/470 (sun3x) stuff Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 09:17:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeremy Cooper <jeremy at baymoo.org> To: port-sun3 at netbsd.org, port-mvme68k at netbsd.org I have the parts to a full 3/470 "Pegasus" machine ready to give away or it will have to be recycled. I never got a chance to learn all the names of these pieces, nor their exact part numbers. They include: * A 12-slot desk-side 9U (three connector) VME chasis. It is not the original Sun chasis, it's a clone. * About five memory boards. * 3/470 "3400" main CPU board * A couple of SCSI boards * A color framebuffer board. There are a couple of interesting feature on this sun3x machine that never made it into NetBSD: the block copy accelerator and the page-zeroing accelerator. It would be great if some kind NetBSD developer could take this machine and use it to incorporate support for these devices into NetBSD/sun3x, but I will gladly give the machine, or parts, to anyone who asks. The machine is located in the Northern San Francisco Bay Area. I can drive the chasis around the Bay Area (but no further). The boards, which are perhaps more rare, still have their most recent shipping boxes and packaging. These I will ship to anywhere in the US or Canada for free. If you aren't interested in this hardware but know someone who might be, please forward this message to them. Thanks! -Jeremy

12 years

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Z80 CPU bugs?

by thrashbarg＠kaput.homeunix.org

Hello List, I've been developing my own Z80 SBC kit computer (who hasn't?) and have been debugging CP/M 3 on it. I seem to have come across an interesting problem with the LDIR instruction which appears on some 10MHz Z80 CPU's I bought from Farnell, but not on what are probably Chinese fakes which are supposed to be 20MHz. I'm running the system at 6.75MHz. The problem is when I execute the LDIR instruction, it writes an additional zero to memory. Say if I transfer 16 bytes, it'll transfer them correctly but overwrite the 17th address with a zero. Does anyone know anything about this? I've looked for a list of revisions or bug fixes from Zilog but haven't come up with anything. The Z80's in question are marked: zilog Z84C0010PEG Z80 CPU 1209 Thanks, Alexis K.

12 years

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cctalk Digest, Vol 131, Issue 40

by elson＠pico-systems.com

On Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 10:22 PM, Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> wrote: >> >... >> >The VAX-11/780 introduced the concept of patchable control store, >> >where most of the control store was PROM but there was a small amount >> >of patch RAM. Costs of high speed RAM declined quickly enough that >> >most later non-microprocessor VAXen used entirely RAM control store. >> >With the advent of VAX microprocessors, the larger die area required >> >for RAM vs ROM shifted the economics shifted back to favor ROM with a >> >small RAM patch area. >> > > The 370/145 had entirely writable control store, loaded from a floppy every time the machine was powered on. I'm pretty sure the 370/15x and 370/16x also had at least partially writable control store that could also be loaded from floppy, for diagnostic purposes, and to have firmware emulation of older machines. Some models of the 360 family had alterable control store in the form of patterned cards. The 360/30 had mylar cards that could actually be punched on a keypunch to create custom microcode. These cards had one plate of a capacitor plus the dielectric material, and by punching out the plate, you made a zero at that location. The 360/50 and 360/65 had a scheme where there was a word line board and a bit line board with traces at right angles, and a solid mylar sheet between them. The bit line board traces had wide flags on either a 1 line or a zero line, depending on what the bit at that position was to be. So, the board etch pattern was changed to alter the firmware. I think most modern, high performance CPUs do not use microcode, as the two-stage instruction execution would be slower than just doing the decode in pure logic. Also, modern CPUs are so massively pipelined, and most microcode implementations are pretty much uniprocessor-like, I don't know how you'd handle all the pipelining with microcode. They may use some microcoded functions to handle special cases, though. My main point to respond to was that alterable microcode predates the VAX 11/780 by quite a bit. I'm pretty sure Burroughs also had machines with writable control store earlier. Jon

12 years

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microcode store (was Re: Looking to get into a Mini Computer...)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 7:38 PM, jwsmobile <jws at jwsss.com> wrote: > Also, the NSA is likely to just sign a contract with Intel to get the > patches and pay for them. I think that's unlikely. They don't want their to be a paper trail that people could find. They're more likely to steal the necessary technical information and private key. There are a lot of ways that they could do that, depending on how many Intel employees they're willing to have "in the know" about it. > I don't believe they could or would bother trying > to crack the encryption. It's 2048-bit RSA, which is probably beyond their ability to crack. They'd steal it. > The surprise is that people are shocked this is going on. Agreed!

12 years

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Malicious microcode patches (was Re: microcode store)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 11:24 AM, Rob Doyle <radioengr at gmail.com> wrote: > It has been widely speculated (and supported by the Snowden documents) that > the NSA can defeat the Intel random number generator - and therefore any > crypto based on that RNG) with a microcode patch. Based on what's been leaked so far, the NSA seems to prefer to modify products after they leave the manufacturer's control, rather that have the manufacturer complicit, presumably in order to reduce the number of people who are aware of the alteration. It's certainly possible that the NSA installs custom microcode updates in the BIOS of machines they modify. In the case of x86 CPUs, they might have sufficient motivation to get their modifications into the standard vendor microcode update releases. I would expect that if they do that at all, they put in modifications far beyond just compromising the RNG. A huge percentage of x86 CPUs are used to run a relatively limited number of NT, MacOS, or RHEL kernels, so it seems possible that malicious microcode could recognize certain kernel addresses or instruction sequences and introduce exploitable bugs that can never be found in the kernel source code or even by disassembly of the object code. This might be a point in favor of RISC processors, which typically don't have any microcode, let alone a microcode patch area. It's not impossible that such a back door might be present in a RISC processor, but it would have to be designed in from the outset, not installed after manufacture. I'm going to go put on my tin foil hat [*] now, and watch the new Weird Al video "FOIL" again. Eric * I have it on good authority that only true tin foil is usable to block the mind control rays, and that's why you can't buy actual tin foil at the supermarket, only aluminum foil.

12 years

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microcode store (was Re: Looking to get into a Mini Computer...)

by rickb＠bensene.com

A similar ROM was used in Wang Laboratories' 700-series calculators (as well as later 500 and 600-series) as the microcode store. Also, quite a bit earlier, another electronic calculator, the Wanderer Werke Conti calculator (designed by Nixdorf) used a wire rope ROM as a microsequencer store. Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com -----Original Message----- From: Eric Smith [spacewar at gmail.com] Received: Friday, 25 Jul 2014, 10:45AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts [cctalk at classiccmp.org] Subject: Re: microcode store (was Re: Looking to get into a Mini Computer...) On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 6:04 AM, Michael Thompson <michael.99.thompson at gmail.com> wrote: > The PDP-9 uses transformers to store it's microcode. > You can change the microcode by changing the routing of the wires > through the transformers. DEC also made that available as one of the building blocks of the PDP-16 family. The technology is commonly known as "core rope memory" or "wire braid memory". It is also used for the control store of the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) and one level of the control store of the HP-9100 desktop programmable calculator (the other level being an inductively-coupled PC board memory). It can be viewed as a smaller-scale, simplified version of IBM Transformer Read-Only Store (TROS), as used in the System/360 Models 20 and 40 and the 2841 DASD (disk) control unit. TROS was designed for better manufacturability.

12 years

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microcode store (was Re: Looking to get into a Mini Computer...)

by seefriek＠gmail.com

> > From: Paul Birkel <pbirkel at gmail.com> > > Intel started supporting a RAM patch area, I believe, after the Pentium bug > so that they could field-update during the low-level boot process to > (quietly!) overcome any similar problem in the future. Does anyone have > more specifics on this feature, and does this capability currently exist in > any of their more modern CPU architectures? > Intel still has the microcode patch functionality in (at least) their mainline processors (Celeron, Pentium, Core, i-series and Xeon) and Atom. The process is documented in section 9.11 of the Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Developer's Manual, Vol. 3A. Tl;dr: The patch can be loaded at boot time by the BIOS, or later by the operating system, via writing the updates virtual address to a privileged MSR called IA32_UCODE_WRITE. BTW...as I recall (it's been a while), the big problem with the Pentium DIV bug was that the error was in the hard-wired logic and couldn't be patched by a microcode update. KJ

12 years

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microcode store (was Re: Looking to get into a Mini Computer...)

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From: Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> > Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 20:22:30 -0600 > Subject: microcode store (was Re: Looking to get into a Mini Computer...) > > Early on, it was very expensive to use fast RAM chips for a microcode > store, so DEC used bipolar PROMs except on relatively high-priced > machines (e.g., KL10 and KS10), and if serious bugs were found, the > microcode PROMs had to be replaced. The PDP-9 uses transformers to store it's microcode. You can change the microcode by changing the routing of the wires through the transformers. http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-9/pdp-9-restoration/… -- Michael Thompson

12 years

2
1
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ZoomFloppy and HPIB Interfacing

by fozztexx＠fozztexx.com

I just got one of the ZoomFloppy USB converters with the HPIB interface included. I decided to get that one because of all the open source USB to HPIB converters, it was the cheapest. However so far I can't find any information that anyone has used one to talk to anything except Commodore GPIB devices. Right now I'd like to see if it's possible to use the ZoomFloppy to read from my old HP 9133. After that it would be nice to see if I can use it to diagnose the 7958 where the fault light comes on. My ultimate goal is to be able to use the ZoomFloppy to emulate an HPIB disk drive, either with the HPDrive project or something else. I don't have the time at the moment to try to write any software and I'm hoping someone else has tried it and can give me some pointers. If there's really nothing out there I will probably try to write my own software, but I don't know how soon I can get to it.

12 years

2
1
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cctalk Digest, Vol 131, Issue 39

by jonsmg＠gmail.com

I actually have one of those Alpha Micros with the WD16. My dad bought it new to run his accounting firm off of, then retired it several years later when the hard drive died, and it turned out to be rather expensive to replace. It's stored in an attic right now, and hasn't been fired up since the 80s. Guess it's time to bring it down. Jon > Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 20:22:30 -0600 > From: Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: microcode store (was Re: Looking to get into a Mini > Computer...) > Message-ID: > < > CAFrGgTRxyPb6QG+c0WtQM2M5018WkOwK1Cq-0azN8Nert0J9WQ at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > On Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 4:21 PM, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> > wrote: > > [1] The VAX11/730 also loads the CPU microcode at power-up, but from what > > I rememebr, ther eare some hardware features that optimise it for the VAX > > instruction set. While it is possible to give it a differnet instruciton > > set, I think it wopuld be a lot less efficient. > > All of the microcoded processors DEC designed, whether they had > loadable microcode or only ROM, had hardware that was substantially > oriented toward the normal DEC macroinstruction set(s), and would have > been very inefficient at implementing other instruction sets. The > VAX-11/7xx series hardware was designed for efficient execution of > both VAX and PDP-11 instruction sets, but the other machines were > designed for a single instruction set only. Even the machines that > officially supported user-written microcode (PDP-11/03, PDP-11/60, > some VAXen) were generally unsuited to implementing entirely different > instruction sets, and user-added instructions were expected to have > similar structure to standard instructions. The Western Digital chip > set used in the PDP-11/03 was used for at least two other instruction > sets, the WD16 used by Alpha Micro, which was very similar to the > PDP-11, and the Pascal Microengine, which executed UCSD p-System > p-code. The latter was not a very efficient use of the > microarchitecture, and consequently the Pascal Microengine was not > much faster than the UCSD p-System running on the fastest > general-purpose microprocessors available at its introduction. Since > general-purpose microprocessors were evolving quickly, soon it was too > slow to be taken seriously. > > Early on, it was very expensive to use fast RAM chips for a microcode > store, so DEC used bipolar PROMs except on relatively high-priced > machines (e.g., KL10 and KS10), and if serious bugs were found, the > microcode PROMs had to be replaced. > > For the KS10, it was considered that the RAM chips used in the control > store were unreliable, so they did parity checking on the control > store, and if there was an error, the CPU would halt and the console > processor would reload the control store. They patented that: > http://www.google.co.in/patents/US4231089 > > The VAX-11/780 introduced the concept of patchable control store, > where most of the control store was PROM but there was a small amount > of patch RAM. Costs of high speed RAM declined quickly enough that > most later non-microprocessor VAXen used entirely RAM control store. > With the advent of VAX microprocessors, the larger die area required > for RAM vs ROM shifted the economics shifted back to favor ROM with a > small RAM patch area. > > >

12 years

1
0
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PDP-11/34 & RL01 slide rail release

by iamvirtual＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a reference to how to release the slide rails on an RL01 drive that is in a DECSystem corporate cabinet? At the same time, I also need to remove the PDP-11/34 from the rack as well. I am trying to remove the entire drive from the rack. I can extend the drive all of the way out to the maintenance position, but I just cannot figure out what I need to do to release the slide so that I can remove the drive entirely out of the rack. I need to move the system into my basement, so I want to remove the drives to make the move manageable. Thanks! --barrym

12 years

3
2
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IBM 5170 : BIOS question

by enrico.lazzerini＠email.it

Thanks to Jim, a world was opened for me. Using the original BIOS of my IBM AT type1 motherboard that consists of 2 PROM each with 32KB I used BIOSUTIL to add the geometry of my hard disk to position 15 (the 1st free position) by recalculating the checksum with BIOSUTIL (this time understanding how it works) . The difference between the original BIOS and the BIOS modified compared with WinHex is as follows: Offsets: hexadec.    E4F1:       00        68        0368h=872cylinders  E4F2:       00        03  E4F3:       00        10        Head=16  E4F6:       00        FF  E4F7:       00        FF  E4FD:       00        68        0368h=872landing zone  E4FE:       00        03  E4FF:       00        24        36 sector/track  FFFF:       AD      A5   9 difference (s) found.   The table with the disk’s descriptions begins with disk 1 from E400 ending with the disc 47 to E6EF while from E4F1 to E4FF were inserted the values of the new Hard Disk. BIOSUTIL has taken steps to change just only the byte FFFF from AD (1010 0101) to A5 (1010 1101) so that the checksum of the file with the modified bios is identical  (?) to the contents of the original file of the PROM.     All to means: BIOSUTUL works fine with original IBM BIOS bun NOT with AMI BIOS.   The problem seems to be solved for the table discs, but as with the original BIOS to power had always the same datas: date, time, type drive A, 512KB DRAM, now all these values vary at each switch on (eg, the base memory is to 0KB instead 512KB).     How can I insert data into the BIOS for to have the correct ones stable for final configuration of the machine that I have?   Enrico -- Z-Light e Z-Pro: servizi zimbra per caselle con dominio email.it, per tutti i dettagli Clicca qui http://posta.email.it/caselle-di-posta-email-it/?utm_campaign=email_Zlight_… Sponsor: Idee regalo classiche o alternative? Trova l'offerta migliore in un click Clicca qui: http://adv.email.it/cgi-bin/foclick.cgi?mid=13327&d=23-7

12 years

2
1
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More detail teletype parts and GE Terminet 1200

by billdeg＠buzz1.com

A few weeks ago I sent some photos of teletype parts units and a GE Terminet 1200 that I had available, so I could get an idea of interest/pricing. I have added paypal links to parts, with better pictures so people can order whatever they want. The pricing is based on offers I received privately. First come first served. I will mark items as SOLD but leave them online. http://vintagecomputer.net/itemsavailable/2014/ Directions on this site. Bill

12 years

2
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curious to know if anyone knows what computer this is

by Wayne.Smith＠warnerbros.com

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 06:36:32 -0700 From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: curious to know if anyone knows what computer this is Message-ID: <53CE68E0.4020007 at bitsavers.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed On 7/21/14 7:34 PM, Lori Emerson wrote: > Hi all, you might have seen this going around online today - but I can't > for the life of me figure out what kind of computer Mickey is posing with. > Anyone know? > > http://parksandresorts.wdpromedia.com/media/disneyparks/blog/wp-content/upl… > > Lori > Below is a link to an article from the 11/1/82 issue of ComputerWorld about "Epcot Computer Central" and Sperry Univac's sponsorship of the exhibit. The story indicates that they had four Univac V77 minicomputers there, in various configurations, as well as six VAXes. I imagine your photo relates to that. http://books.google.com/books?id=OrmcqtZUTMoC&pg=PA19&dq=%22mickey+mouse%22… You can also watch a video of the opening ceremony of Epcot Computer Central (10/18/82) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3lZW39D1pQ - featuring what was known as "The Computer Song" There is a photo looking into the processing center at Epcot here: http://www.solarius.com/dvp/wdw/communicore.htm - I think you can see some Sperry terminals on the right.

12 years

2
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VCFMW Modem Demo

by slandon110＠gmail.com

Yes I will have a MacroPlexus 16 Extension PBX there, itll also have a google voice interconnect so you can call out as well. Ill also be bringing a 1A2 Key System tied in with the MacroPlexus. Time to play some Dial Up DOOM or some other dial up games :)

12 years

1
0
0 0

Looking to get into a Mini Computer, PDP or something like that

by slandon110＠gmail.com

I just want something I can learn, I do love the blinkenlights and switches, something about actually flipping a switch instead of a keyboard I love. One of my dream machines is an Altair or an IMSAI 8080, but those are out of reach. I really dont know what I want to do on it yet, looks like there is so much to learn. My son is 9 and starting to learn unix and old nix. So something that could run an old version of unix would be really cool :). Something perhaps I could tie into our vintage telephone system as well. Im a total noob at mini's, but the thrill of the regular stuff has kind of waned, Ive put my amiga online, my c64, my IIGS, everythign I got goes online and games. and thats all I do with it. Most of it has sat in storage. Thanks for all the input guys

12 years

1
0
0 0

DOS disk read test program

by djg＠pdp8online.com

I'm looking for a program that runs under DOS 3.1 and will tell me CHS for all unreadable hard disk sectors. Anybody know where one is I can download? I can't find search keywords that filters out the modern stuff. A read write test would also be useful.

12 years

6
11
0 0

IEEE commemorates Kildall and CP/M

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

Hello all, I remember quite well CP/M days. It is indeed good news to hear that Gary Kildall has been given the recognition due. His contribution to 8-bit/16-bit world of computing was seminal. Murray :)

12 years

1
0
0 0

RKV11-D, loaded MINC

by useddec＠gmail.com

We just found a MICE and about 10 or 12 MINC boards for it, and a RKV11-D, no front panel yet. Any interest, please contact me off list. Shipping from 61853. Thanks, Paul

12 years

1
0
0 0

VCFMW Modem Demo

by slandon110＠gmail.com

Hey Guys Im bringing a Modem Demo this year, so for those of you who want to bring out machines with modems and call eachother you can. I am going to have a dial up linux box too so you can connect your machines to the internet. Lets make some modem noise.

12 years

2
1
0 0

curious to know if anyone knows what computer this is

by earl＠baugh.org

> > Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 21:13:28 -0600 > From: Lori Emerson <lori.emerson at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: curious to know if anyone knows what computer this is > > thanks everyone!! much appreciated. you have much better eyes than I do. > And, I gather, maybe model UTS 400. > > yrs, Lori > > Ok, if nobody else is going to take it, I will... Whatever type of terminal it is, it sure has a LARGE mouse :-) Earl

12 years

4
3
0 0

Yet Another FPGA VAX Discussion

by krfkeith＠gmail.com

Basically, my question is what are the major obstacles (besides the breadth of the project) to implementing the VAX in an FPGA, as compared to any other ISA?

12 years

17
41
0 0

curious to know if anyone knows what computer this is

by lori.emerson＠gmail.com

Hi all, you might have seen this going around online today - but I can't for the life of me figure out what kind of computer Mickey is posing with. Anyone know? http://parksandresorts.wdpromedia.com/media/disneyparks/blog/wp-content/upl… Lori -- Lori Emerson Assistant Professor | Director, Media Archaeology Lab Department of English, University of Colorado at Boulder Hellems 101, 226 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0226 loriemerson.net | mediaarchaeologylab.com

12 years

14
17
0 0

IEEE commemorates Kildall and CP/M

by joachim.thiemann＠gmail.com

I figure this article in the IEEE Institute Online might be of interest to others: http://theinstitute.ieee.org/technology-focus/technology-history/groundbrea… Basically, a plaque was unveiled in Pacific Grove to honour Gary Kildall marking CP/M as a milestone in the development of computing. Cheers, Joachim. -- Joachim Thiemann :: http://jthiem.bitbucket.org :: http://signalsprocessed.blogspot.com

12 years

1
0
0 0

TI Silent 700 model 725 service/maint manual?

by chrise＠pobox.com

Is anyone aware of the existance of a maintanance / service manual for the old TI "portable" data terminal, model 725? Note that is is one of the very early (and very large) thermal printing terminals from TI, http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/index.php/File:Silent700_725ad.jpg I have several here that I am trying to keep running but have never had technical information that would include schematics or other parts information. Chris -- Chris Elmquist

12 years

5
10
0 0

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by fritz_chwolka＠t-online.de

Am 19.07.2014 23:08, schrieb Enrico Lazzerini: > I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is > here: 30aprile1989 (list here: > http://ibm-pc.org/firmware/ibm/5170/5170.htm) > In practice I have manually added the number of cylinders, heads, and sect > / trk that allow the machine to recognise a disk IBM 250MB. At this point > regularly boots DOS. > But I wish to program these data permanently in the bios. Does anyone know > what program to use and give me the procedure? I tried with BIOSUTL, but > the new EPROM do not boot the machine. > With BIOSUTL i made what follow: read actual BIOS, you can add new disk > geometry parameters at free 47 position, then you have to recalculate bios > checsum, then BIOSUTIL devides BIOS into EVEN and ODD file so i can finally > program them into two 27256 150nS eprom. > Thank you > Enrico > > Hi.. the biosutil maybe one way. The version I use told me: Biosutil V1.1 InfoMatrix Bios utilities for the AT BIOS. Brad Gibson Copyright (C) 1990 by Secret Software and I believe there's no other version. *----------------------------------------* Other idea It maybee better to add a enhanced bios to your PC. There is the xtide bios at https://code.google.com/p/xtideuniversalbios/ The xtide bios works on most xt/at. You can easily ad an enhanced bios if you have an free rom place in a network card like a ISA 3com etherlink. As Im from germany and my english isn't as good as it should be here is an explanation from http://flint.cs.yale.edu/feng/research/BIOS/BIOS-report.pdf The IBM BIOS gains much of its versatility by being an extendable BIOS. That is, the full extent of the BIOS is not cast forever in the silicon of the single PROM chip holding the firmware. The IBM BIOS can accept additional code as its own into one integrated whole. Hence additional PROM chips containing BIOS routines can be added to the PC. The BIOS will incorporate these new routines. The key for making BIOS extendable is a Firmware routine that enables the BIOS to look for add-in code. During the boot up, BIOS code reads through the address range that is set aside for firmware looking for codes stored on add-in boards. If a valid section of code is found, the instructions are added to the BIOS repertory. For instance a new interrupt routine can be added or the functions of existing routines can be changed. During POST after interrupt vectors have been loaded into RAM, the resident BIOS code instructs the computer to check its ROM memory for the occurrence of the special preamble bytes, that mark the beginning of add-in BIOS routines. The BIOS searches for these preamble bytes in the absolute address range 0C8000 - 0F4000. Here the XTIDE BIOS is found and added so you can use it. Greetings fritz

12 years

1
0
0 0

DEC Y and W series boards

by useddec＠gmail.com

Anybody out there older than me whose memory works better than mine or younger but smart enough to figure out what these were used in? More digging... Any interest? Y048 Bell tape controller with cable Y051 Bell Binary to ASCII converter Y064 Card reader Y185 Stare 3 ??? Y197 DMA interface W742 Universal digital input W743 Universal digital input W950 Wire wrap module- unused W968 Collage mounting board- unused Thanks, Paul

12 years

3
2
0 0

PDP-8 VT8-E

by rick＠rickmurphy.net

At 12:00 AM 7/21/2014, Eric Smith wrote: >On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 8:10 PM, Rick Murphy <rick at rickmurphy.net> wrote: > > I don't know anyting about a PDP-14, > >The machine is question is a VT14, not a PDP-14. The VT14 is a >specialized terminal used to develop ladder logic programs for a >PDP-14. > > > but it it used a VT8-E, > >It didn't. Full circle. There seem to be two sets of assertions here. One that a VT14 used the VT8-E board set, and another that it used a different set for video. You're asserting that it's not a VT8-E, which means that many of my assumptions were wrong. In one of it's modes, which would allow it to be a good display device, the VT8-E uses DMA from main memory to drive a bitmap display. That memory has to be on the Omnibus, and has to be read/write to be of any value. That causes the following assumption: > > it had to be an Omnibus machine with Omnibus memory, > >It was. > > > so it could easily be turned into a PDP-8/E > >That doesn't necessarily follow, any more than it would follow that >because some sort of embedded device contains a Z80 CPU chip, it can >easily be turned into a CP/M system. You have a KK8-E cpu and the standard Omnibus which can accept a range of peripherals. You can't usually plug extra hardware into an embedded system. > > with the right CPU card set. > >It had a KK8-E CPU card set. To get it to run general-purpose PDP-8 >software, you're going to have to replace the memory, as the MR8-F >isn't too useful for that. I see. Perhaps it's the case that the VT14 doesn't have Omnibus RAM, and only has a MR8-F which the KK8-E CPU uses to run the code that manages the display. This is the first I've heard of the MR8-F, which apparently has onboard RAM to provide the read/write memory needed. (The older Ombibus ROM devices shadowed core.) >The power supply isn't suitable for core >memory, but it might be for semiconductor. The keyboard and display >are going to be useless. The backplane, CPU, power supply, and >teletype interface are the only parts of the VT14 that you're going to >end up using. I wouldn't call that "easy", nor would I call the >result a "PDP-8/E". Yes, and the power supply isn't useful unless you're using something other than core. And how many slots does the backplane have? Yes, it's possible, but given what I know now it's not easy. It's a source for a donor CPU board set, and maybe a TTY interface (assuming it's KL8 compatible) and that's about it. Possibly workable with the recent semiconductor memory boards. Oh, and of course, no front panel, making it hard to do anything useful unless you reprogram the MR8-F. -Rick

12 years

3
2
0 0

Open source Nova 3 assembler

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello Mark, well I suppose it would be very useful for this kind of operations. And as the whole read operation would be in the control of the PC, you could retrieve the whole disk, or a part, or a single sector.. whatever you want. The first step is to debug it and let it work with SIMH. Then I will try it with my 8" double floppy unit. At this time, adding support for any other drive would be a matter of knowing the peripheral control registers and producing a set of scripts from these informations. I will keep you informed about it. Thanks Andrea

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by jws＠jwsss.com

On 7/19/2014 2:08 PM, Enrico Lazzerini wrote: > I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is > here: 30aprile1989 (list here: > http://ibm-pc.org/firmware/ibm/5170/5170.htm) > In practice I have manually added the number of cylinders, heads, and sect > / trk that allow the machine to recognise a disk IBM 250MB. At this point > regularly boots DOS. > But I wish to program these data permanently in the bios. Does anyone know > what program to use and give me the procedure? I tried with BIOSUTL, but > the new EPROM do not boot the machine. > With BIOSUTL i made what follow: read actual BIOS, you can add new disk > geometry parameters at free 47 position, then you have to recalculate bios > checsum, then BIOSUTIL devides BIOS into EVEN and ODD file so i can finally > program them into two 27256 150nS eprom. > Thank you > Enrico > Enrico, I suspect you do not have a good checksum on your image, unless you took pains to change that as well as the table Once you have modified your table, you have to bring the sum which will be visible in the bios space at F000:0 thru F000:ffff back to 0. A simple checksum of the data is all that the bios does. See below. I have patched numerous bios images, but always have to add a fudge in some byte somewhere to bring the simple sum below back to 0 overall. Jim I used a copy from bitsavers for the listing below. Had to clean up the OCR a bit :-) http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/pc/at/1502494_PC_AT_Technical_Re… If you look at the PC At tech reference, bios listing you can see what they do: On page 5-36, during startup ROS_CHECKSUM is called to check the roms. On page 5-67 (PDF file page 205 on bitsavers) EXTRN ROM_ERR: NEAR ;---------------------------------------- ; ROS CHECKSUM SUBROUTINE ; ;---------------------------------------- ASSUME CS;CODE, DS:ABSO POST3: ROS_CHECKSUM PROC NEAR ; NEXT ROS MODULE SUB CX,CX ; NUMBER OF BYTES TO ADD IS 64K ROS_CHECKSUM_CNT: ; ENTRY FOR OPTIONAL ROS TEST XOR AL,AL C26: ADD AL,DS:[BX] INC BX ;POINT TO NEXT BYTE LOOP C6 ; ADD ALL BYTES IN ROS MODULE OR AL,AL ; SUM = O? RET ROS_CHECKSUM ENDP

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

PDP-8 VT8-E

by rick＠rickmurphy.net

At 02:34 PM 7/20/2014, Eric Smith wrote: >On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 5:46 AM, Jerome H. Fine ><jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> wrote: > > My question was not intended to be limited to the VT14 AS SUPPLIED! > >Nor was my answer. > > > Rather, could the VT14 have been relatively easily modified (i.e. > without > > major changes AND without having to reverse the changes OTHER than > > to removing them with ONLY a screwdriver or other similar tool within > > about 30 minutes) to be able to run PDP-8 software. The VT8-E was a set of modules that turned a PDP-8 into a terminal. In one mode, it DMA'd a chunk of memory and displayed the contents. Interesting to fire it off when running memory checks, but that's about it. It also had a bitmap font generator. You could run an OS with the VT8-E running, but you couldn't run anything like OS/8 with the VT8-E as the console as it ate too much memory and wasn't in any way KL8 compatible. I don't know anyting about a PDP-14, but it it used a VT8-E, it had to be an Omnibus machine with Omnibus memory, so it could easily be turned into a PDP-8/E with the right CPU card set. -Rick

12 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

I've got some VAXStation VLCs available

by chuck.mcmanis＠gmail.com

This the smallest VAX you can own :-) I've got 6 or 7 I would like to get adopted. Available free for local pickup (Sunnyvale, CA) or if you're willing to pay packing and postage I can take them to the local shipping shore and have them sent off to you. --Chuck

12 years, 1 month

6
6
0 0

windows ce/compaq c120

by rmx44＠aim.com

i happen to have acquired a compaq c120 running windows ce 2.0. i got it with no accessories other then a few extra stylus and a 16mb pcmcia memory storage card. i am on a hunt to find programs for it and even any other accessories. i did find a site that had updates for it but when i tried to run them in windows ce it said they weren't windows ce compatible programs. maybe someone out there knows what i can do. maybe someone has accessories for this thing

12 years, 1 month

6
9
0 0

PDP-8 VT8-E

by chd＠chdickman.com

On Sun, Jul 20, 2014 at 1:59 AM, Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> wrote: > The VT14 was specifically a terminal to program a PDP-14 using ladder > logic, had ROM firmware that only did that, It would be interesting to have a copy of that firmware. -chuck

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Paper Tape Image Manipulation Utility

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

As previously threatened in the "Encoding of BASIC source code on punched tape" topic, I'm working on a Python utility for manipulating paper tape images. It will be a refactor of my previous silly paper tape renderer that I had written in C++, with added features for the manipulations I've recently found necessary since I've become interested in retrocomputing. I haven't determined how I'll specify interactions with actual tape punch/reader hardware like my GNT 4604 yet, but here is the "--help" output to show how I anticipate the user will interact with the utility to perform useful manipulations of paper tape images. I'd appreciate some input about what features are missing to make it helpful with tape formats and systems that I'm not familiar with yet. For example, I haven't yet included a feature to handle sequences like CR-XOFF-DEL-DEL, but I have a place-holder feature to pad each CR-LF with two DEL chars. I haven't decided the best way to cleanly handle various line-ending translations yet, to be generally useful without being too arcane or cumbersome. This will be written in Python, will be open-source, and will include modules and classes to make it (hopefully) easy to re-use the code for special purposes that I didn't implement in the command-line utility. While the main focus here would be on 8-bit ASCII tapes, I'm also including some support for 5-bit Baudot tape handling due to my interest in RTTY (radio teletype). -------- 8< cut here 8< -------- ...src/papertape% ./tapeutil.py --help usage: tapeutil.py [-h] [--clear] [--load FILENAME] [--append FILENAME] [--save FILENAME] [--hexdump] [--trim] [--add_leader INCHES] [--add_trailer INCHES] [--strip_nul] [--strip_del] [--set_msb] [--clear_msb] [--pad_crlf] [--title TITLE] [--rot_title TITLE] [--ascii2baudot] [--baudot2ascii] [--render_ascii WIDTH] [--render_pbm WIDTH FILENAME] Punched paper tape image utility version 2.0.0-ALPHA Arguments are processed in the order encountered, with cumulative effects upon the tape image buffer. The tape image buffer is discarded at program exit, so the final argument should generally be one which outputs the buffer to a file, the screen, or a tape punch. Arguments may be abbreviated. optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit --clear Clear the tape image buffer. --load FILENAME Load tape image buffer from file, replacing previous buffer contents. --append FILENAME Load tape image buffer from file, appending to previous buffer contents. --save FILENAME Save tape image buffer to file. --hexdump Print a hex dump to stdout. Most significant bit (bit number ) will be ignored for the ASCII representation. --trim Trim leader and trailer of NUL chars from buffer. --add_leader INCHES Add NUL leader to buffer. --add_trailer INCHES Add NUL trailer to buffer. --strip_nul Remove all NUL chars from buffer. --strip_del Remove all DEL chars from buffer. --set_msb Set most significant bit (bit number 7) of all chars in buffer. --clear_msb Clear most significant bit (bit number 7) of all chars in buffer. --pad_crlf Add two DEL chars after each CR-LF sequence in buffer. --title TITLE Add human-readable title to beginning of buffer, using a font composed of 5x7 punched hole patterns. --rot_title TITLE Add human-readable title to beginning of buffer, using a font composed of 5x7 punched hole patterns. Rotate the letters for use on a 5-bit tape. --ascii2baudot Translate entire buffer from ASCII to Baudot coding. --baudot2ascii Translate entire buffer from Baudot to ASCII coding. --render_ascii WIDTH Create an ASCII art rendering of a punched tape, in a style similar to the bcd(1) program. WIDTH specifies the tape width in bits, and must be 5 or 8. Rendering will be printed to stdout. Leading edge of tape will be at top. --render_pbm WIDTH FILENAME Create a rendering of a punched tape in Portable Bitmap (.pbm) format, with each pixel representing 0.01 inches. WIDTH specifies the tape width in bits, and must be 5 or 8. Leading edge of tape will be at top. Example: tapeutil.py --load myfile.txt --pad_crlf --set_msb \ --add_leader 2 --title "MY TAPE" \ --add_leader 5 --add_trailer 5 --save myfile.tap -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

12 years, 1 month

2
3
0 0

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by cisin＠xenosoft.com

On Sat, 19 Jul 2014, Enrico Lazzerini wrote: > I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is > . . . > checsum, then BIOSUTIL devides BIOS into EVEN and ODD file so i can finally > program them into two 27256 150nS eprom. Does the 5170 accept 27256 150ns EPROMs? Perhaps, burn an UNMODIFIED copy, and confirm that that works. THEN modify and burn the modified copy.

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> > I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is > here: 30aprile1989 (list here: > http://ibm-pc.org/firmware/ibm/5170/5170.htm) > In practice I have manually added the number of cylinders, heads, and sect > / trk that allow the machine to recognise a disk IBM 250MB. At this point > regularly boots DOS. > But I wish to program these data permanently in the bios. Does anyone know > what program to use and give me the procedure? I tried with BIOSUTL, but > the new EPROM do not boot the machine. When I did this, I used a couple of 8Kbyte EPROMs and fitted them into the spare sockets on the motehrboard. I then added a bit more logic (I think just one IC) to disanble the top 8K words of the origian BIOS ROMs and enable the extra EPROMs. This was relatively easy, since the enable lines are o nthe DIP shunt at the rear edge of the motherboard. There was no real reason to do this, it just meant I could use 2764s from my junk box, whereas I would have had to order the 27256s. I didn't bother with any program other than a hex editor. I simply editied the values in the ROM image, recalculated the checksum (OK, I think I wrote a program for that), then took the last 8K words of the new image, split them into odd and even bytes, then programmed the ERPOMs. I had no trouble at all. -tony

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by enrico.lazzerini＠email.it

Thanks Paul for your suggestions. I try to provide some answers. The original IBM AT BIOS that I have on my TYPE 1 motherboard has two prom labelled: 6181028 and 6181029. The present drive in my IBM PC AT is a 3.5" 720K and the boot is not made ??by it or rather I think the bios expects to have an A drive as 1.2 MB which I have not. Therefore I downloaded from here: http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/bios/bios.htm an AMI BIOS SUITABLE FOR 5170 (Dated 30MAR89) which made available the only position 47 to add hard drives. Biosutil works well: I read the bios AMI, i save it in the file, allows you to change the position 47 with the geometry inserted for the new hard disk, recalculates the checksum of the file and save it to a even file and an odd file 32KB each . The saved file is BIN type and not hex. I am not in a position to know whether the calculated CheckSum is correct with respect to the expected one. With the AMI bios at boot i heard a beep and then it boot from the hard disk, but with the bios changed to make the geometry of the hard disk to a permanent position 47 nothing happens. no reply. I thought I had reversed the two EPROM, inverting them it does not change the result. Not being able to load the dos disk with the biosutil from my 720kb drive and i not having to drive 1.2 mb I can not boot dos and biosuil with original firmware. But it could not be true that biosutil allows you to edit an existing position. Dear Fritz, I can not fully understand how to use an EPROM with a network card and XTide. Why an unmodified AT bios at its boot if it can not boot from any drive, it should load the contents from an EPROM of the network card and run it? And what should I save in the EPROM of the network adapter so that it allows to see my hard drive? Enrico

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Open source Nova 3 assembler

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I have a Nova3 with dual 8" floppy, but unfortunately no diskette with OS. To try to recreate a set of disks, I had the idea to try to create a tool similar to VTSERVER for PDP11, This piece of software runs on a PC, connected to the DG Nova on terminal port. At boot the software emulate a punch tape reader and can be used to copy a small program in the memory of the Nova and to execute it. This software should allow access to IO peripherals and memory via the terminal port, using a command / acknowledge operation, thus allowing the PC to read / write disks, tapes, and so on. This is a sort of bridge between Nova hardware and PC. Of course this piece of software had to be developed and complied on PC, and the controlling software for the PC as well. With the help of Bruce Ray and some patience in reading many DG manuals kindly provided, I started the development of a tool using Python, that allows to perform many tasks, using python IDLE console: - load / save memory images with PL/APL/raw binary format - load / save ASM listings - assemble from loaded ASM listing to binary data - disassemble from binary data to ASM listing The development is almost done (only some stuff regarding labels handling still has to be done). Basically the tool handles one or more memory areas, and allows the user to do listed tasks in a wanted sequence, for example load a file containing an APL dump, disassembling it to create a ASM listing, save it to text file. I'm using this tool to assemble the bridge software, of course I had to write the listing before... The bridge will allow the PC to perform "remotely" any kind of IO operation, executing single IO opcodes one-by-one. All the parameters can be controlled from the PC, so access to any kind of peripheral is virtually possible. The bridge also allow to read / write on the Nova memory using variable size data blocks; this allows handling operations on peripherals that use DMA. This tool has been developed to 99%, but it hasn't been debugged yet. I would try to use SIMH with telnet on the terminal port, to emulate the Nova, and to use Python to develop the controlling software, scriptable so different peripheral support can be added at any time easily. I'm encountering problems with this task on SIMH3.9: - emulation of program load operation (starting CPU from peripheral defined via switch/levers position) is described in the manual, but effectively it doesn't works - the terminal emulation (TTI/TTO) seems to work only at 7bit, while we need 8bit I need to patch SIMH, anybody is in willing to help? After bridge debug , the next step is to write down the controlling software, and scripts to handle wanted peripherals. Andrea

12 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

[SPAM key] - Re: PDP-8 VT8-E

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Eric Smith wrote: >>For the PDP-11 Qbus environment, DEC produced a >>VT100 with a 4 x 4 Qbus backplane inside and named >>it the VT103. >> >> >[...] > > >>The point of the above information is that DEC seems to >>have used some of the popular (at the time) terminals to >>be integrated as combination terminal and popular PDP >>(Program Data Processor >> >The situation with the VT14 is *much* different than the VT103, though. >The VT103 is intended for use running PDP-11 software. >While the VT14 contains a PDP-8, it isn't intended for running PDP-8 software. > I am totally unfamiliar with the PDP-8, so my question and observations could be entirely out of the ball park. Although the VT14 was not intended to run PDP-8 software, was or would it have been possible? If so, did that ever happen? May computer systems were used for projects which were totally unanticipated by the individuals or the companies which produced the computer systems in the first place. For example, my first contact with the VT103 was as a diagnostic station which, although the code was PDP-11 and there was a standard DEC PDP-11 CPU, had the code on an EPROM and the code was totally different from any other PDP-11 software that I have even seen. In addition, from what I understand, all DEC variants of the VT103 arrived with an 18 bit backplane which, in my opinion, resulted in a system that could be compared to a human with an IQ of a shoe size. With only 256 KB of memory available, there was almost never enough memory for most anything that was significant. Since upgrading the backplane to 22 bits was actually quite simple, that made the primary difference when a J11 based CPU was installed. Jerome Fine

12 years, 1 month

4
7
0 0

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by fritz_chwolka＠t-online.de

Am 19.07.2014 23:08, schrieb Enrico Lazzerini: > I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is > here: 30aprile1989 (list here: > http://ibm-pc.org/firmware/ibm/5170/5170.htm) > In practice I have manually added the number of cylinders, heads, and sect > / trk that allow the machine to recognise a disk IBM 250MB. At this point > regularly boots DOS. > But I wish to program these data permanently in the bios. Does anyone know > what program to use and give me the procedure? I tried with BIOSUTL, but > the new EPROM do not boot the machine. > With BIOSUTL i made what follow: read actual BIOS, you can add new disk > geometry parameters at free 47 position, then you have to recalculate bios > checsum, then BIOSUTIL devides BIOS into EVEN and ODD file so i can finally > program them into two 27256 150nS eprom. > Thank you > Enrico > > Hi.. the biosutil maybe one way. The version I use told me: Biosutil V1.1 InfoMatrix Bios utilities for the AT BIOS. Brad Gibson Copyright (C) 1990 by Secret Software and I believe there's no other version. here is an other way. You can easily ad an enhanced bios if you have an free rom place in a network card like a ISA 3com etherlink. Look here for https://code.google.com/p/xtideuniversalbios/ The xtide bios works on most xt/at. Greetings fritz

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

PDP-8 VT8-E

by legalize＠xmission.com

Does anyone have one of these? <http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/index.php/DEC_VT8-E> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://ComputerGraphicsMuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://LegalizeAdulthood.wordpress.com>

12 years, 1 month

5
6
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IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by phb.hfx＠gmail.com

On 2014-07-19 6:08 PM, Enrico Lazzerini wrote: > I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is > here: 30aprile1989 (list here: > http://ibm-pc.org/firmware/ibm/5170/5170.htm) > In practice I have manually added the number of cylinders, heads, and sect > / trk that allow the machine to recognise a disk IBM 250MB. At this point > regularly boots DOS. > But I wish to program these data permanently in the bios. Does anyone know > what program to use and give me the procedure? I tried with BIOSUTL, but > the new EPROM do not boot the machine. > With BIOSUTL i made what follow: read actual BIOS, you can add new disk > geometry parameters at free 47 position, then you have to recalculate bios > checsum, then BIOSUTIL devides BIOS into EVEN and ODD file so i can finally > program them into two 27256 150nS eprom. > Thank you > Enrico > I have done this before manually, I did not use the position 47 but rather altered one of the existing table entries, but that should not make any difference as long as the parameters in the table are correct. Did you check the output from this BIOSUTIL to make sure that the table entry looks correct? Other than that the only other important thing is to make sure the checksum is correct, I seem to recall that the algorithm used to checksum the ROM expects the last byte (word?) to roll the sum over to 0, but it is a long time since I did this and I may not be remembering this correctly, nor do I remember if the AT does the sum in bytes or words. What happens when you try to boot the new ROM? Do you get any response from it? If you get nothing two things come to mind, the BIOS image you downloaded is no good or you interchanged the high and low byte ROMs. If the checksum is wrong it will post an error message, if it seems to do its memory check ok but won't boot off the disk that might suggest that you are not pointing at the correct drive table entry or some parameter in the table is not correct. If it was me I would not be downloading a ROM image off the web I would just dump my existing BIOS and make whatever changes where necessary to it. Paul.

12 years, 1 month

1
0
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DEC LAxx,RX, and VT1xx parts VAX 780/5 pwr sup

by useddec＠gmail.com

Had a cool day in Illinois today and my crew brought down boxes of parts including: M7744 RX02 controller M7745 RX02 R/W H7110 LA120 ps M7081 LA120 pwr/logic bd LA36 and LA180 pwr and logic boards, encoder motors, heads, numeric kybds, etc add on logic and option boards for the LA36- these are getting hard to find... I have a few LA36s which have been upgraded to 120cps and plan on restoring them to original configuration There are boxes to go through yet. They are close to 6 or so VAX 11/780 pwr supplies. if someone is interested in them I can try to have them pulled tomorrow. Found some VT 100 or 101 pwr supplies ,and more logic boards. Feel free to contact me off list with offers. 61853, IL Thanks, Paul

12 years, 1 month

5
12
0 0

IBM 5170 AT 286 bios: how to add a new HARD disk

by enrico.lazzerini＠email.it

I managed to find a bios for an IBM 5170 AT 286 Type1 Mainboard. It is here: 30aprile1989 (list here: http://ibm-pc.org/firmware/ibm/5170/5170.htm) In practice I have manually added the number of cylinders, heads, and sect / trk that allow the machine to recognise a disk IBM 250MB. At this point regularly boots DOS. But I wish to program these data permanently in the bios. Does anyone know what program to use and give me the procedure? I tried with BIOSUTL, but the new EPROM do not boot the machine. With BIOSUTL i made what follow: read actual BIOS, you can add new disk geometry parameters at free 47 position, then you have to recalculate bios checsum, then BIOSUTIL devides BIOS into EVEN and ODD file so i can finally program them into two 27256 150nS eprom. Thank you Enrico

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

HP 9836 & 9836U

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Was the only difference between those two the 68000 vs 68010? Thanks

12 years, 1 month

3
13
0 0

Solaris 8 Sparc

by jws＠jwsss.com

I need an ISO if someone can spare a copy. Need to load up a system for some testing. Sparc 32 bit. media. I have a lot of intel, but low on Sparc stuff. Also am going to give some Tadpoles a run with it, hopefully. thanks Jim

12 years, 1 month

6
7
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PDP8 Omnibus to usb interface

by gaslaurence＠gmail.com

Dear Phillip, I came across your correspondence regarding an interface card to the PDP8 Omnibus. Did anything come of this and if so, are there any cards left? Stephern Laurence, Preston, UK (Owner of 4 non-working PDP8s but I hope to get them going!) -- Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

12 years, 1 month

5
7
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Encoding of BASIC source code on punched tape

by rwiker＠gmail.com

On 18 Jul 2014, at 20:45 , Chuck McManis <chuck.mcmanis at gmail.com> wrote: > So you could put one, two, or even a > hundred DEL characters at the end of the line and it wouldn't matter > semantically.. So those DEL characters became a way of providing a safe > 'delay' that would allow a machine without any flow control to accurately > read in the paper tape. I'm pretty sure that some of the 8-bit microcomputer systems used NULs for this exact purpose, when loading data through the serial port; specifically, I think I heard about NUL padding for the UK-101 and KIM-1.

12 years, 1 month

3
2
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Manual wanted for GNT 4604 Reader/Punch Station

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

I'm looking for a technical manual for a GNT model 4604 paper tape punch/reader. I have a scanned brochure which includes helpful information such as DIP switch settings, but I'd also like to find more detailed documentation, particularly including its handling of control characters and escape sequences, so that I can write a utility that talks to it. I can do basic I/O already, but I think it may have other features that I would like to use. If anybody can help me find an original, photocopy or scan, I'd appreciate that. For reference, I found the brochure here: http://www.cryptomuseum.com/telex/santec/gnt4606/files/gnt4604_brochure.pdf There are pictures of the very similar GNT 4606 here: http://www.cryptomuseum.com/telex/santec/gnt4606/index.htm I'll probably post about the machine on my web page eventually. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

12 years, 1 month

1
1
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Encoding of BASIC source code on punched tape

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

I recently bought a few punched paper tapes from an eBay seller. They were said to have been from an IMSAI system, and I found BASIC source code on them. Except for the leaders at both ends consisting of NULs, the rest of the bytes on each tape have the most significant bit set. As I understand it, Teletype model 33 ASR units are conventionally configured with MARK parity keyboards when used with PDP-8 systems, and I gather that it's conventional to encode PDP-8 source code tapes with MARK parity. I'm guessing that the same convention was used on the IMSAI, or at least was used by the original creator of these tapes. I just received a GNT model 4604 tape punch/reader yesterday, and today I got it working after making a few repairs. Then, I set to work reading in these tapes and converting the raw binary images (which I saved separately) to plain ASCII text by clearing the MSBs, and dropping any NUL and DEL characters. One tape included a splice which the creator marked with red ink. Each line was terminated by the sequence CR-LF-DEL-DEL. I presume that the two DELs after each line were there to give a 33 ASR (or similarly slow printer) time to return the carriage before the next line starts printing. Here is my question: Is it conventional and/or important to include the two DELs after each line when creating a source tape which is to be read in to a BASIC interpreter, or is that just an artifact of how the tapes were created (i.e., by printing source code out to a 33 ASR printer)? I ask because I want to know if I should include the DELs if I ever create new tapes from the extracted text files. The tapes were marked with 1976 dates, and were named: STRTRK DIET BLUFF I'll share their contents on my web site soon, and I'll also try running them in a BASIC interpreter sometime. -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

12 years, 1 month

5
12
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WTB DEC VT100 flyback transformer

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I have a VT100 to repair, I need a 16-16463-00 flyback transformer, but these seem to be unavailable... Anyone has to sell? Thanks Andrea

12 years, 1 month

2
1
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cctech Digest, Vol 131, Issue 26

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From: Kevin Keith <krfkeith at gmail.com> > Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 13:51:56 -0600 > Subject: Re: Yet Another FPGA VAX Discussion > Ha! > > "[Futurebus] intended to replace all local bus connections in a > computer, including the CPU, memory, plug-in cards and even, to some > extent, LAN links between machines." > > How accurate is that statement? There doesn't appear to be any citation. > > -- > Thanks, > Kevin At the time it was developed Futurebus+ was probably the most advanced and highest performance bus. It had very advanced protocols that did a great job of handling distributed cache coherency, and a very nice distributed priority resolution circuitry. DEC could have build a complete VAX or Alpha on Futurebus+ and made a very high performance system. SCI (Scalable Coherent Interface) would be the best choice for interconnecting Futurebus+ systems. Unfortunately the NAVY's NGCR program, that was one of the big target markets for Futurebus+, was defunded and support for Futurebus+ evaporated. High speed serial buses were also getting fast enough to be competitive with parallel buses, and much easier to implement than a 64/128/256 bit wide bus. -- Michael Thompson

12 years, 1 month

1
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Any US IBM System 34 or 36 owners out there?

by cclist＠sydex.com

I received a call from a gentleman who'd like to get a listing of the contents of a couple of System 34 floppy magazines. Seems he wrote some business applications a years ago and would like to have a printed record of the source. If you are willing to tackle this (for money that you'd negotiate for, of couse), drop me a line and I'll hook you up. --Chuck P.S. I do know that you can open the magazines and retrieve the floppies one by one, but if you've got the IBM gear, it would be so much simpler.

12 years, 1 month

1
0
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Yet Another FPGA VAX Discussion

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From: Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> > Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 17:33:02 -0400 > Subject: Re: Yet Another FPGA VAX Discussion > > Also Futurebus. Or did that never make it out the door? I remember a pile of work on that. Very strange bus, not well named. :-) > > paul I worked on the original IEEE-896 Futurebus standard and the updated Futurebus+ that DEC used. I think that it was used on the VAX 10000 and 7000. They made the DWLAA Futurebus+ bridge and the DEFAA-YA FDDI board for Futurebus+. I have the DEC tutorial book on Futurebus+. -- Michael Thompson

12 years, 1 month

4
5
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RetroComputing talk at CircleCityCon

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

One person's take on retro computing older Unix machines.? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qkuRiDS-gU

12 years, 1 month

15
21
0 0

ThinkPad 860 / 850 1.2GB HD

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

Anyone here have an extra/parts machine ThinkPad 860 or 850 with a working 1.2GB hard drive in the caddy? I'm having terrible luck finding one. So I'll throw out a bounty :) I'll offer $100 for just the drive and caddy... Thanks in advance! -Ben

12 years, 1 month

1
0
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Recent prices for Vintage computers ( yes I know this is a COW (can of worms) )

by earl＠baugh.org

I've been helping in some restorations recently (both my own, and someone I know's Sun 1...) and one of the questions that have come up is valuation (say for insurance, etc, or acquiring another system...) Is there some sort of collected list of values of some of vintage machines that have sold, either ebay, privately, auction, etc.? I know that something is worth only what someone will pay for it, but for insurance purposes at least you'd need some sort of benchmark to give to the insurance company... I know you don't get a good valuation if you let them do it... Thanks. Earl

12 years, 1 month

2
1
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Recent prices for Vintage computers ( yes I know this is a COW (can of worms) )

by cctech＠beyondthepale.ie

> >I've been helping in some restorations recently (both my own, and someone I >know's Sun 1...) and one of the questions >that have come up is valuation (say for insurance, etc, or acquiring >another system...) > >Is there some sort of collected list of values of some of vintage machines >that have sold, either ebay, privately, >auction, etc.? > >I know that something is worth only what someone will pay for it, but for >insurance purposes at least you'd need >some sort of benchmark to give to the insurance company... I know you don't >get a good valuation if you let them do it... > When considering insurance, I think the questions to ask are if the system is a total loss, would it be possible to replace it with an acceptable equivelant and if so, how much would it cost to do this. However difficult this is to calculate in a way acceptable to the insurance company now, bear in mind that in the event of a claim, they are probably going to go over values with a fine toothed comb and by then, costs and availablilty may well have changed. If it isn't possible to replace it, then there is no point in insuring it. Someone who regards classic computers as some sort of investment would probably disagree but I don't think that's what we are about here. Museums would probably disagree for different reasons. Regards, Peter Coghlan.

12 years, 1 month

3
2
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PDP-8/S Incompatibilities......

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

I've had my PDP-8/S up and running for some time - but have recently experienced failures using some PDP-8 software. My 8/S passes all the DEC diagnostics - and it runs FOCAL-69 and 71 perfectly. So I decided to track down what was causing some programs to fail - and I discovered that the problem is PDP-8/S incompatibilities. PDP-8/S "Reality" ----------------- The PDP-8/S User Manual lies! It makes the following claim regarding Group 1 Operate Instructions: "The only restriction on combining OPR 1 (Group 1) operations within one instruction, other than logical conflicts, is that a rotate operation (bits 8, 9 or 10) may not be combined with the increment AC operation (bit 11) since they are executed during the same bit times." I decided to test that claim on my PDP-8/S and got the following results (via single stepping through the test program below.) The "8/S" column is Link AC contents (L AAAA): *200 Page 1 1 0200 *200 2 /AC 8/S NOTES 3 00200 7200 CLA /0 0 0000 4 00201 7201 CLA IAC /1 0 0001 5 00202 7326 CLA CLL CML RTL /2 0 0002 6 00203 7325 CLA CLL CML IAC RAL /3 1 0003 8/I AND UP 7 00204 7307 CLA CLL IAC RTL /4 1 0001 8/I AND UP 8 00205 7327 CLA CLL CML IAC RTL /6 1 0003 8/I AND UP 9 00206 7215 CLA IAC RAL RAR /10 1 0003 6120 10 00207 7203 CLA IAC BSW /100 1 0001 8/E AND UP 11 00210 7332 CLA CLL CML RTR /2000 0 2000 12 00211 7354 CLA CLL CMA RAR RAL /3776 1 7777 8/I OR 8/L 13 00212 7350 CLA CLL CMA RAR /3777 1 7777 14 00213 7330 CLA CLL CML RAR /4000 0 4000 15 00214 7352 CLA CLL CMA RTR /5777 1 7777 16 00215 7333 CLA CLL CML IAC RTR /6000 1 0003 8/I AND UP 17 00216 7346 CLA CLL CMA RTL /7775 1 7777 18 00217 7344 CLA CLL CMA RAL /7776 1 7777 19 00220 7240 CLA CMA /7777 ? 7777 20 00221 7402 HLT 21 $ No detected errors No links generated Note that all of the CMA shift instructions failed - even though the test (from Programming Languages) thought they should work in pre-8/I machines. At first I thought my PDP-8/S was failing - until I found the following from the PDP-8/S FAQ (What is a PDP-8/S?): "Compatibility: The core of the PDP-8 instruction set is present, but there are a sufficient number of incompatibilities that, as with the PDP-5, many otherwise portable "Family of 8" programs will not run on the PDP-8/S. Perhaps the worst incompatibility is that the Group 1 OPR instruction CMA cannot be combined with any of the rotate instructions; as with the PDP-8, IAC also cannot be combined with rotate." I decided to understand WHY this happens - and the answer is in the PDP-8/S Maintenance Manual and the PDP-8/S schematics. I've abreviated the sequence of execution below. (The "Ax" references are bit timimg): Group 1 Instruction Sequencing ------------------------------ Fetch ----- A12 Set or Clear Link, Clear AC per instruction Execute ------- A00 For right rotation (A00-01), shift AC+L together once or twice per instruction A(00-11) IAC: Adds one to AC CMA: Complements the AC IAC*CMA: Complement and add one to AC Left Rotate: AC+L shifted right 11 or 12 times per instruction A12 IAC: Complements L on overflow (CMA appears in gating, but has no effect) As can be seen, while the system clears the AC and clears or sets the Link during Fetch - it rotates right BEFORE complementing the AC! It also attempts to execute a complement of the AC at the SAME TIME as a left rotate - which simply does not work! Finally, just to verify the correctness of the test program, I single stepped it on my PDP-8/E and got the same results as the SIMH trace below: SIMH PDP8 Trace of the above: ----------------------------- sim> sh cpu history PC L AC MQ ea IR 00200 1 7777 0000 CLA 00201 1 0000 0000 CLA IAC 00202 1 0001 0000 CLA CLL CML RTL 00203 0 0002 0000 CLA CLL CML IAC RAL 00204 0 0003 0000 CLA CLL IAC RTL 00205 0 0004 0000 CLA CLL CML IAC RTL 00206 0 0006 0000 CLA IAC RAL RAR 00207 0 0001 0000 CLA IAC BSW 00210 0 0100 0000 CLA CLL CML RTR 00211 0 2000 0000 CLA CLL CMA RAL RAR 00212 0 7354 0000 CLA CLL CMA RAR 00213 1 3777 0000 CLA CLL CML RAR 00214 0 4000 0000 CLA CLL CMA RTR 00215 1 5777 0000 CLA CLL CML IAC RTR 00216 0 6000 0000 CLA CLL CMA RTL 00217 1 7775 0000 CLA CLL CMA RAL 00220 1 7776 0000 STA 00221 1 7777 0000 HLT sim> Cheers, Lyle -- Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

12 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Recent prices for Vintage computers

by billdeg＠buzz1.com

> Subject: Recent prices for Vintage computers ( yes I know this is a COW (can of worms) ) > Is there some sort of collected list of values of some of vintage machines that have sold, either ebay, privately, auction, etc.? > I know that something is worth only what someone will pay for it, but for insurance purposes at least you'd need some sort of benchmark to give to the insurance company... I know you don't get a good valuation if you let them do it... For insurance prices you need the replacement cost. Has to be documented. You need good photos of the item insured "before" and you need purchase receipts and/or documentation of a similar item on Ebay. Using Ebay is good because these tend to be retail prices. For oddball collectibles, which is what the insurance business considers a niche like vintage computers, you need a lot of documentation to back up your claims, bottom line. Also be sure your items have been stored at least 6 inches above the floor. I have a small policy with the expectation that I will not lose everything at once, and that it will be hard to get 100% of what I paid for anything. Forget about your labor. There is an older book by M Nadeau called "Collectible Microcomputers". The low prices are a reflection of the year the book was compiled, but the book helps establish a valuation trend, a point of reference in time. It would be nice if this were updated. Bill

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

culling my collection

by dgahling＠hotmail.com

I need to clear out. Vaxstations Suns Etc It sells or gets scrapped. Last chance on all my stuff Dan

12 years, 1 month

7
9
0 0

Kontron PSI 9068

by earl＠baugh.org

I'm trying to find some information on the Kontron PSI 9068 which I believe was manufactured in 1983-ish. Does anyone have pictures, docs, etc? Didn't see any in the usual places... Earl

12 years, 1 month

4
4
0 0

VAXBI (was Re: Yet Another FPGA VAX Discussion)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 4:12 PM, David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote: > - VAXBI (super-proprietary with little known documentation) I think Al just posted something a couple days ago, and I may have some design docs in the basement from when Software Results got a VAXBI license (we made a prototype run of boards - they worked but the market had moved on so we never sold out of that first run). I did the firmware for that product and its driver for VMS from the ground up. It was super-proprietary (and rigidly licensed). You essentially had to work from DEC's PCB template files (they supported multiple design packages IIRC) and add your circuit to the "BI Corner" which they maintained with an iron fist. There's a double-row of VIAs, and you just ran your signals to the right place and the bus area was taken care of for you. There are no "unauthorized" peripherals for the BI that I'm aware of. You *had* to buy BIICs (BI Interface Chips) >from DEC. We got one or two when we got our license, then for the prototype run, I was able to pick up used 2MB boards from the reseller market for about $50 and pull the BIICs (they were socketed) instead of buying new $350 chips. Between that and "refurbed" (used) RAM and CPUs, I got the manufacturing price down $500 per board from the initial numbers. I have a couple VAXBI COMBOARDs in my 8300 in the basement (along with a few of those 2MB (T1008) boards). Generically, they are built around a 68010 CPU with a 16-bit-32-bit discrete bus adapter (reading/writing 1/4 of the '010 address space triggers a bus read or write including upper/lower word latching) with 2MB of local RAM, a Z8530 serial rigged for sync operation (pins 15 and 17 for external data clock) and 64KB of local ROM. The driver works with the firmware to upload a payload application into RAM, but if one could fit all the code into the ROMs, that functionality could be deprecated. > - SBI (is that even separate from VAXBI?) SBI is 11/78x and entirely separate. -ethan

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Clearout of PDP-11 and other DEC bits (in UK)

by toby＠pdp11.co.uk

Hi, I've lost my storage for the remainder of my vintage computer collection and so I'm going to have to clear out much of what remains. I've listed some of the more interesting items on ebay ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/siliconjunkie/m.html?item=121385278641&hash=item1… to see the list), including an 11/44, an 11/34 and a VT05 I also have some stuff going free to a good home including: QBUS backplanes Lots of DEC cables and manuals Some Vax chassis DEC Rainbows RZ (and possibly RF) DEC Winchesters Lots of misc detritus Alas the clock is ticking though and anything left by end of the month will most likely get skipped for lack of anywhere else to send it. All the best, Toby

12 years, 1 month

7
6
0 0

DG NOVA in Verilog

by jan＠janadelsbach.com

Hi all, I've implemented a DG NOVA in Verilog, at the current state it implements all basic instructions, the only thing the main CPU is lacking is interrupt support which I will add when I have the time. The main problem with the whole thing is the sheer lack of any OSes aside from RDOS. It would be nice if anyone had some smaller/more basic OSes or bootstrappable standalone diagnostic software for me to test things with. (RDOS when manually loaded into memory executes until it tries to load something from disc, which I haven't yet implemented) The Verilog is synthezisable, aside from the IO debugger, Disassembler and device 077 which is currently hacked together. You can find some documentation and download here; http://janadelsbach.com/nova.html - Jan

12 years, 1 month

5
4
0 0

Altos 586/586T firmware

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Has anyone dumped the firmware from these machines? I'm working through uploading a set of 486/586 documentation and I am about to dump the firmware from the 486 I have and thought it would be nice to have the 586 as well. I know Dave Dunfield had a bunch of 586s at one point, and imaged their floppies, but I didn't see the firmware anywhere.

12 years, 1 month

2
2
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ATT 3B1, Unisys U6000 Unix--common source?

by cclist＠sydex.com

I've noticed a lot of commonalities, such as the volume header block structure, between SysV Unix for the AT&T Unix PC 7300 and the Unisys U6000 series of servers. Was the Unix port for both (one 68010, the other x86) done by the same outfit (Convergent?)? Anyone know for sure? --Chuck

12 years, 1 month

2
3
0 0

DEC PC 104 keyboard?

by segin2005＠gmail.com

I have a PS/2 keyboard for IBM PeeCees that bears the Digital Equipment Corporation logo. It's an PC 104, US QWERTY layout keyboard with "Windows" keys and a Menu key. I can mail pictures on request (two JPEGs, 3.9MiB each). Does this count as genuine DEC equipment? (PS. I haven't posted in this mailing list in a half-decade. Please don't kill me.) -- Kirn Gill II Mobile: +1 417-763-8638 VoIP: +1 813-704-0420 BBM: 7B963E04 Email: segin2005 at gmail.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kirn-gill/32/49a/9a6

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Some new Convergent scans

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Tried posting this on the Yahoo group https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ctos/ , but nothing was posted. There are some new CTOS manuals on bitsavers, including some early 90's documents Also, we received one manual for CTIX, the driver writer manual. Would be nice to find more Mighty/MegaFrame docs.

12 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Model M Keyboards (was Re: best dos machine)

by earl＠baugh.org

> On Fri, 11 Jul 2014, Paul Berger wrote: > >> On 2014-07-11 6:07 AM, Derrick Meury wrote: >>> i do know the model m also had a phone cable type connector. i >>> happen to like anything made exclusively by ibm and not by any other >>> company. >>> >> The model M keyboard was used on some terminal products as well on >> that comes to mind is the 3151 ASCII terminal >> and the keyboard connector on it was either RJ11 or RJ45. >> >> You will find that later model M keyboards where made by Lexmark >> which was the spin off from IBM of the Lexington Ky plant. It is >> perhaps fitting they made keyboards, when IBM was in the electric >> typewriter business the Lexington plant built all the typewriters for >> the US market, and the well loved IBM selectric keyboard became the >> model for IBM keyboards including the keyboards used on PC up until >> the model M. >> > That plant is still in operation, making the successor to the Model M. > http://www.pckeyboard.com/ > > g. > Thanks for posting that I had no idea that the model M was still in production, after the PS/2 it seemed that IBM switched to keyboards of a poorer design, and I had thought that the production of these keyboards just went away. I see they are still even making APL keytops. Actually as someone who has one, I'd say they're "reasonable facilimies" Not real Model M's. Aren't quite made of the same materials, nor the same feedback. They're probably my #2 choice after a REAL Model M. Unicomp bought the molds, etc. >from Lexmark after they had bought them from IBM. Still made at the same factory as Lexmark.... I wish they'd make them "exactly" the same as IBM/Lexmark... For all of the machines in my rack via a KVM, I use one (since I sometimes "do" need some of the extra PC/Mac keys that weren't on the Model M...) I will also point out a cctalk member (Maxx) does an EXCELLENT job refurbishing Model M's (and sells them as well). He's done 3 of mine recently, all A++ when they came back (and I even "pimp'ed" one out with a RED backing plate... and then went to Unicomp (the pckeyboard.com site) for red lettered key caps, and added swapped out the LEDs for red versions as well). http://phosphorglow.net/ On the front page, you can see some of the colored plates... another way to keep them from rusting... Unicomp has some other colors as well (which you could use with Maxx's colored plates). A fun way to "refresh" the cosmetics of the Model M. There are also a few sites (Maxx's included) that have the Model M connector cables that go directly to USB (in both black and tan). I've gotten them from the maker on ebay as well. They actually are a significant improvement over adapters. Earl (a VERY happy Model M user since at least '88)

12 years, 1 month

2
1
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Keyboards

by earl＠baugh.org

I always wondered about this because I could swear that I saw at least one XT Model M in the day... Does anyone know if you can identify a switchable Model M from the keyboard cable being terminated into a modular type jack on the keyboard side? Or was going from the modular jack to a hard-wired PS/2 cord just a cost reduction at some point in time after the keyboard was introduced? Best, Sean I have a model M with the XT style connector. However, it's for either an AT or XT/286 (I have the later). The cable is all that is different (same modular jack on the keyboard side) I haven't tried it on a PC, but from what I know it shouldn't work. Earl

12 years, 1 month

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best dos machine

by rmx44＠aim.com

i have been thinking of running a good dos machine or finding one. i find that each machine is different from the hardware to the way it runs the software. some have the use of a hard drive and some don't i have thought of wanting a sorta high end dos machine one that has the use of a hard drive and can run any program that dos can run and not have issues. i remember with dos some programs would run to fast on some machines but with others they would run just fine or to slow. around in seattle its hard for me to find a good dos machine since most of the older machines that became unwanted got sent to a computer ecycler where it got stripped down and killed off for free or that the store sells the stuff for more then what its worth as a whole. maybe one of you might have something or know some stuff.

12 years, 1 month

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Copy of DEC Standard 057 (VAXBI Standard)

by krfkeith＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a copy of this? It doesn't appear to be on bitsavers, or anywhere else for that matter. Information in general on VAXBI seems to be difficult to come by, so any is welcomed.

12 years, 1 month

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Message subjects

by ljw-cctech＠ljw.me.uk

Hello all, As moderator of cctech, and also looking after cctalk, the amount of spam I'm dealing with is becoming extreme. There are about four times as many spam mails which I need to reject as there are proper postings. So could I ask that you choose subject lines sensibly, or you may find they never get through to the list. Subjects like "Look at this" or "For sale" aren't a good idea. That's all, keep up the good work! -- Lawrence Wilkinson lawrence at ljw.me.uk The IBM 360/30 page http://www.ljw.me.uk/ibm360

12 years, 1 month

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FS: Corel Netwinder 275 free to good home

by hugh＠blemings.org

Hi, I have two Netwinder 275s with Power Supplies. One lacks the daughtercard that provided the serial port and second ethernet adaptor. I think I have one of the original keyboards as well. First in best dressed for one or both, free for the cost of postage/shipping from Canberra, Australia. Both were working last time I fired them up. Cheers, Hugh

12 years, 1 month

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MUMPS compiler/interpreter preservation

by chocolatejollis38＠gmail.com

I don't know how many of you fine people are familiar with the MUMPS programming language, but MUMPS development accounts for about 50% of my income. Considering that it has as storied of a background as UNIX (having been first implemented in ~1966), and is old, I'm wondering if any of you have any thoughts about it. Also, I'm wondering if any private collections have any older MUMPS implementations around, not necessarily so that I can try to get them, but so that I can find out if they've been preserved. Since InterSystems bought out Digital Standard MUMPS, as well as contemporaries from Micronetics and DataTree, these old implementations seem rare and hard to find. I've long wanted to get ahold of a VAX-based MUMPS implementation, but the closest thing I've ever found is an installed copy of DSM for Alpha on a cluster I picked up, with no media. Any thoughts or information? jpw

12 years, 1 month

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Message subjects

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message ----- Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 15:07:47 +0100 From: Peter Corlett <abuse at cabal.org.uk> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" >...So what you're saying is that you want to butt into a busy community to ask them for help, but aren't prepared to actually participate or give back? And you then wonder why they have their mailing lists configured to discourage this behaviour? ----- Reply ----- Gee, I thought what he was saying is that he thought that at least some members of this "busy community" would be generous enough with their time and knowledge to be willing to help a fellow hobbyist without demanding something in return (as many indeed are!)... As Fred mentions elsewhere, it works both ways; on several occasions a Google search has popped up a request on some list looking for a part or documentation that I happen to have, but when I saw what I'd have to go through just in order to reply I decided to pass... Even if there were indeed flamewars 25 years ago, that doesn't mean that we can't be patient, civil and even friendly today, especially with fellow members of a rather unique community and list of which the main raison d'etre is to share and help each other... m

12 years, 1 month

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HP 9100B schematics and flowcharts

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/9100

12 years, 1 month

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MUMPS compiler/interpreter preservation

by isking＠uw.edu

On Sat, Jul 12, 2014 at 10:00 AM, <cctalk-request at classiccmp.org> wrote: > Send cctalk mailing list submissions to > cctalk at classiccmp.org > > Message: 8 > Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 20:04:06 -0600 > From: John Willis <chocolatejollis38 at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: MUMPS compiler/interpreter preservation > Message-ID: > <CAOPi=7BNKTUE0mNr==1GpEXgDbG-N_1UJuWQR3= > rT0ECuo4Xsg at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > I don't know how many of you fine people are familiar with the MUMPS > programming language, but MUMPS development accounts for about 50% of > my income. Considering that it has as storied of a background as UNIX > (having been first implemented in ~1966), and is old, I'm wondering if > any of you have any thoughts about it. > > Also, I'm wondering if any private collections have any older MUMPS > implementations around, not necessarily so that I can try to get them, > but so that I can find out if they've been preserved. Since > InterSystems bought out Digital Standard MUMPS, as well as > contemporaries from Micronetics and DataTree, these old > implementations seem rare and hard to find. I've long wanted to get > ahold of a VAX-based MUMPS implementation, but the closest thing I've > ever found is an installed copy of DSM for Alpha on a cluster I picked > up, with no media. > > Any thoughts or information? > > jpw > > > When I was at Living Computer Museum, I found some RLs that contained DSM for PDP-11. Also, Kevin Murrell at TNMOC and I discussed MUMPS but I'm not sure what he/they might have. Since LCM has a working PDP-7, I was always looking for a copy of the original MUMPS. If this email thread surfaces such a find, please let Rich at LCM know! -- Ian -- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS Ph.D. Candidate The Information School University of Washington Madness takes its toll - please have exact change.

12 years, 1 month

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How many addressing modes does the VAX actually have?

by krfkeith＠gmail.com

I've seen 16, 22, and 24 cited as the official number. The VAX architecture manual seems to suggest 24. If the number is indeed more than 16, how are they encoded? Seeing as how the manual says 4 bits are used for specifying the specific mode, and 4 for the register selection, and seems to imply that the operand specifier is always a byte long. Sorry for the potentially dumb question.

12 years, 1 month

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I've got some VAXStation VLCs available

by chuck.mcmanis＠gmail.com

They all have drives, they are all set for serial console operation (four of them were a small 4 node cluster at one point) I believe they have 16MB of memory but they may have 24MB (that was the max for those machines). Not sure what postage to Portland would be, I'm shipping one to Eric Smith so I'll have a good number on that. I shipped a VT340 to a guy in Colorado and packed and shipped with that giant keyboard they came with came out to $72 so I'm guessing it will be about 1/2 that (given its volume). They are easy to MOP boot (which makes netbsd on them pretty easy or a network install of VMS) if you use a SCSI CDROM you of course need one that will read as 512 byte sectors. I'm also throwing in an AUI <-> 10BaseT adapter (they all had one) since its a pain to find AUI ethernet hubs these days. --Chuck On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 5:51 PM, Benjamin Huntsman < BHuntsman at mail2.cu-portland.edu> wrote: > How much do you think shipping would be to 97601? > I'd take at least one if you haven't sold them all off yet... > > Thanks! > > -Ben > > ________________________________________ > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] on > behalf of Jason T [silent700 at gmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 5:40 PM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only > Subject: Re: I've got some VAXStation VLCs available > > On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 12:51 PM, Chuck McManis <chuck.mcmanis at gmail.com> > wrote: > > This the smallest VAX you can own :-) I've got 6 or 7 I would like to > > get adopted. Available free for local pickup (Sunnyvale, CA) or if > > you're willing to pay packing and postage I can take them to the local > > shipping shore and have them sent off to you. > > AKA the 4000/30, IIRC. A nice little desktop. > > Are there drives, memory? > > -j >

12 years, 1 month

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AU/X thoughts

by seefriek＠gmail.com

I wrote this a while back, but found it in the drafts bucket so I apparently never sent it... > A/UX has (had?) its warts... Warts like a toad with skin cancer. It was based on SVR2 (another quick-n-dirty port from Unisoft, the goto guys for "I got an mc68k, I need to ship Unix next week and the budget is tight"), which was already 4 years old when A/UX was released (SVR4 shipped a couple of months after A/UX). Various bits of SVR3 and BSD were bolted on with different degrees of frankensteinisms. Some apps were newish versions, some were ancient R2 versions (like UUCP, important at the time), so moving between Unixes was frustrating. The native dev tools were pretty awful, networking was flaky (NFS was particularly fun in a dev environment) and the filesystem seemed to be moderately unstable for most of it's run. It didn't actually implement all of POSIX (or a bunch of other things) so porting software was always an adventure. And whenever I tried to use some neeto-keeno Apple-ism slapped on the top, I was always tripping over some new-and-different showstopping bug. That's just what I remember 20+ years down the road. So, yeah...pretty warty. The company I worked for at the time hacked our TCSEC B-level technology into that mess so that Apple could extend the "see...we got POSIX" line to "see, we got Orange Book evaluated" so they could sell to military & intelligence customers. So lot's of crawling around in the kernel. Not pretty. But enough sold to justify the contract. > Not the best UNIX implementation compared to what we > have nowadays but in light of its contemporaries it was > probably no worse than average. When A/UX came out in 1988, it went up against the likes of SunOS 3.5, Sony NEWS-OS 3, SGI IRIX 3 and Ultrix 4. I would argue every one of them is a much better Unix implementation than A/UX. So much better it's really not even a contest. My daily-driver-at-the-time Sun 3/160 w/ SunOS 3.5 was so much faster, functional and stable it was physically painful to think "time to muck with A/UX". Even SVR3.2 was more consistent and stable, if not as feature-filled (and I really thought layers+dmd5620 was wonderfully clever, but that's a wild tangent). To really get to contemporary levels of crappy, you've got to go down to Xenix. And unlike A/UX, Xenix could run Microsoft Word well. When A/UX was finally put out of it's misery in 1995, it still ran only on mc68k, still based on SVR2.2, and was up against Solaris 2.4, OSF/1, Irix 6, UnixWare 2, AIX 4, Ultrix 4.5 and eminently usable versions of Linux and *BSD, all running on platforms a order of magnitude or two faster than what A/UX ran on. > The Mac OS GUI was still single-threaded, cooperative- > multitasking, no protected-memory System 7.0 with some > application compatibility issues... so the benefits of UNIX > weren't really extended throughout. The much vaunted MacOS emulation layer didn't really show up till version 3, and didn't work particularly well if you didn't have the latest versions of your applications from mainstream vendors. More than "some" application issues (as in anything that wasn't written 32-bit clean was a coin toss you usually lost). > That all said, I don't see why A/UX would have been any less > suitable a foundation for Apple's next-generation operating > system than NeXTstep? Mercifully no one at Apple even considered going down that road. A/UX existed so Apple could sell hardware to the Federal sector. Even though the A/UX team looked around for other markets, it was a checkbox product and it never had any more mindshare with Apple senior management than that. And it shows.

12 years, 1 month

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best DOS machine

by dave＠mitton.com

On 2014-07-09 02:22, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2014 14:22:40 -0700 (PDT) > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: best dos machine > Message-ID: <20140708142144.O37762 at shell.lmi.net> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > (IBM never called it "motherboard" due to use of the word "mother..." <snip> Fixed drive (IBM didn't called it a "hard" drive) On Tue, 8 Jul 2014, A. P. Garcia wrote: > and don't forget to use our favorite numbering system, hexidecimal, because ibm was too prudent to call it sexadecimal... "FIXED" disk?? "FIXED" In a veterinary context??!? No - "Fixed" as opposed to "Removable" Remember big-boy machines had disk packs (Winchesters, etc) that you swapped in and out. In DEC speak: RK05s, RP0x and so forth. And btw: the IBM XT originally came with 5.25" floppies the fixed hard drive came later. Dave.

12 years, 1 month

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More Geek Porn...

by leec2124＠gmail.com

I posted a couple more vintage computing videos to Youtube: 1. http://youtu.be/N12pQBiRd7A Raw video of John Maniotes of Purdue-Calumet describing the IBM 1620 software library donated to the IBM 1620 Restoration Project at CHM. 2. http://youtu.be/ZQzDSOXHd70 Video of a XDS Sigma-9 and Sigma-6 mainframes with associated peripherals. Enjoy! -- Lee Courtney

12 years, 1 month

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AIX 4.1.5

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

By any chance, does anyone have a copy of AIX 4.1.5 for Clients they'd be willing to part with? A regular 4.1.5 would work too... Thanks in advance!!

12 years, 1 month

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best dos machine

by seefriek＠gmail.com

From: John Wilson <wilson at dbit.com> > It seems as if 32-bit API support for PAE kind of didn't happen -- wasn't > AWE32 supposed to be a thing on Win32? I couldn't make it work in real > life. And I couldn't find a Linux equivalent. John...I probably don't understand your use case, but Linux has had pretty robust PAE kernel support for a while. User space apps are of course still limited to 4G-ish, but the kernel can see up to 64G. I've used it on bigmem servers that had to run legacy apps that had heartburn with 64-bit distros. There were a couple of things that were weird (I seem to recall issues with vmalloc()...it's been a while), but generally worked as expected. KJ

12 years, 1 month

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I've got a Seagate ST-506 drive available

by chuck.mcmanis＠gmail.com

I don't know what is on it, or if it even works, but it is an ST-506 as opposed to ST-506 compatible :-) Free for postage or pickup. --Chuck

12 years, 1 month

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OSI fun as part of Retrochallenge

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Hi, I realise not everyone on this list is into events like this but I must admit to having fun exploring my OSI C4P as part of this competition. Some classiccmp people have already helped me with this (e.g. Dave, Philip Lord) and progress thus far has been good. Anyway, I thought I'd post the link showing the sequence of events here for those who might be interested (warning..it's long and will get longer). http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2014-06-30-fixing-C4P-ram-expansio… When I started this project, I had some difficulty figuring out those jumpers on the 527 RAM board. By chance, I was flipping through "The first book of the Ohio Scientific Computer" last night and lo and behold, there was a few pages devoted to this. However, these pages were not mentioned in the index, which is why I missed it! In fact, there is a whole section missing from the index! Had I known that section was there it would have saved me much head-scratching. Gotta love OSI's rough and ready documentation! Terry (Tez)

12 years, 1 month

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Computer Collecting Sub-Reddit

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

I know some people don't take kindly to people posting advertisements about things they wish to sell. Also sometimes they don't like postings that are not considered "on-topic" So I created a sub-reddit on reddit for people to look and post items for computer collecting.? http://www.reddit.com/r/computercollecting/ You will see events, sub reddits and lots of craigslist and other ads for machines that are for sale. There are two other sub-reddits that may be of interest The Vintage Computing Sub-Reddit ============================================ http://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/ The Retro Battle Stations Sub-Reddit ============================================= https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/ Please feel free to come and contribute.?

12 years, 1 month

7
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best dos machine

by cctech＠beyondthepale.ie

> >P.S., and not for the OP: Flames about top-posting will be redirected >to /dev/null. Take your flames to Google for making it the Gmail >default and making cut-and-paste so unusable on Android. > My grandfather used to say "A bad workman blames his tools". Regards, Peter Coghlan.

12 years, 1 month

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test-drb