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

by retrojoe＠stateoftheark.ca

Hi All. I've recently come into a really nice VT-320 terminal, but am having a hell of a time getting it to communicate with the outside world (mainly my PiDP-8 and PiDP-11). I've gone to the lowest common denominator, using a USB serial cable and terminal software to verify everything is working before digging into making simh output to a serial terminal. The VT320 only has the DEC-423 MMJ, no RS-232. I found a number of guides that show how to wire up the DEC-423 connector to a DB-9 RS-232, but so far I have struck out. It will receive text from the remote computer, but I do not see anything on the remote when I type on the VT-320. I have loop backed the TX to RX on the VT-320 terminal, and it does work. TX=RX Baud rate? in the VT320 settings, and the data bits, parity, & stop bits match. DEC-423 (lock tab bottom right, pin one on the left, 6 on the right) 1??? DTR 2??? TXD 3??? TXD- 4??? RXD- 5??? RXD 6??? DSR For a cross over cable: 423 #2 goes to DB9 #2 (TX to RX) 423 #3 & #4 to DB9 #5 (TXD- and RXD- to GND) 423 #5 goes to DB9 #3 (RX to TX) 423 #1 to DB9 #6 (DTR to DSR) 423 #6 to DB9 #4 (DSR to DTR) Does this look like it should work? It does leave DB9 RTS and CTS unconnected. Thanks!

5 years, 1 month

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Floppy pressure pad replacement?

by mattislind＠gmail.com

Does anyone have some good hints on what and how to replace them? I have a CDC 8 inch floppy drive with a missing pressure pad. Tried to put some half a millimeter felt cloth with some double adhesive tape to replace it. But it didn't work very well. If I gently pushed the upper pressure pad arm it started to read at least. But it looks like it is possible to over-do it. I added more padding and then it probably got too thick since it now failed again. I guess that if there is a bit too much pressure the signal might be too high in the input amplifier leading to distortion? What is the best pressure pad material and what are you usually replacing it with? /Mattis

5 years, 1 month

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Microvax 3100 VMS 7.3 password reset

by dick.curtis＠ymail.com

> I picked up a microvax 3100 this past weekend from a office that was > shutting down. >> I was able to start the system up, it boots up to a login prompt for VMS > VAX 7.3. >> I do not have any login info for this machine, is there a procedure i can > follow to reset a password to an account? I beg to differ with HP's recommendation (in their doc set) for Devin'ssituation.? HP's description is meant for customer sites to have a copyof usernames/passwords to which they can revert for nasty situationssuch as a corrupted SYSUAF.DAT.? *If* this system has the 'alternate'file, it should have the same problem as the original, of unknownpasswords.? What Devin needs is instructions to break into the system. I happen to know how to do that (used to work in OpenVMS Engineering).Is that something that should be discussed here? Thanks,Dick

5 years, 1 month

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Soldering DB connectors

by rsmilward＠frontier.com

Something that's always worked for me: when soldering a male DB connector (DB9, DB25, whatever -- or really any male/pin style connector), plug it into a mating female connector first. That will hold the pins securely in place and prevent them from sagging in the plastic of the body if your soldering iron is too hot or you hold it on too long. -- **Richard

5 years, 1 month

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Way off topic: posting to the list using default Samsung Android Mail Client

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

I am wondering if anyone else has tried using an Android Phone (a Note 10 in my case) with the default Samsung email client to post to this list? Whenever I post, even though the message is correctly formatted on my device, all the CR/LF are removed from my messages. See below for an example: ------- > Can it still be registered?>Is the Author find able? Do he still have 8" floppies? > *** Will it NOT be lost in the mail with COVID 19 ***A deep googlefu might find the author... just saying...;) ------- However, when I sent it, it looked like this: > Can it still be registered? >Is the Author find able? Do he still have 8" floppies? > *** Will it NOT be lost in the mail with COVID 19 *** A deep googlefu might find the author... just saying...;) Sending from trusty old Outlook 2007 on Win 7 works fine with the list and emailing people back directly from the phone seems to work fine as well. It is only when I am replying to the list that the issue occurs. Any ideas/suggestions? TIA! -Ali

5 years, 1 month

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Microvax 3100 VMS 7.3 password reset.

by lyokoboy0＠gmail.com

I picked up a microvax 3100 this past weekend from a office that was shutting down. I was able to start the system up, it boots up to a login prompt for VMS VAX 7.3. I do not have any login info for this machine, is there a procedure i can follow to reset a password to an account? Image of system : https://i.postimg.cc/43bG0nSx/20201111-090018.jpg

5 years, 1 month

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Looking for PDP-11/23+ parts for museum restoration

by stephenbuck＠mac.com

Hi All, I'm working on restoring a DEC PDP-11/23+ for the University of Colorado computer museum and I'm struggling to find a few parts, working or not, needed to complete the system. Please let me know if you have any of these items and would be willing to donate or sell them. You can see a blog I'm keeping of the restoration at?https://headspinlabs.wordpress.com/dec-pdp-11 When finished, it will be on display at?https://mediaarchaeologylab.com/visit Thanks, Steve

5 years, 1 month

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Looking for a boot disk or software...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

...for a Northern Telcom (Telecom?) Spectron Datascope 4000: https://i.imgur.com/qb4VTpO.jpg Fingers crossed that someone here knows where it can be had. Thanks! g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

5 years, 1 month

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Wanted: PDP-8/f or m (with or without cards)

by mosst＠SDF.ORG

Hi All, I'm looking for a PDP-8/f or m. At a minimum I'd like the chassis with PSU, front panel, and backplane as I already have enough spare OMNIBUS boards to build up a basic system, although I'd still be interested in the boards if you have any. Depending on the configuration and condition there's a few things I'd consider trading, namely my PDP-11/34a, AlphaStation DS10, Intel MDS 231, and KIM-1. If the price it right I'd be happy to buy it too. I'm in the UK but would be prepared to ship some of the systems internationally; I can build crates and such. Regards, -Tom mosst at sdf.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org

5 years, 1 month

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Syquest druve owner in 541 area code? (Usa)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 08:17 PM 11/8/2020, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > Thus came into my site, if you can help contact me privatelthanks >... > I have an old Syquest 5.25" removable cartridge (44MB) and am >trying to find a service that will get the graphics data off the cartridge >for me. If you have any suggestions I'd LOVE to hear them. It seems >impossible to find anyone with a functioning drive to read this thing. I was thinking about firing up the old (late 80s?) drive I have in storage and trying to image the carts I have. What should I watch for? Any typical failure mode? - John

5 years, 1 month

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Syquest druve owner in 541 area code? (Usa)

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Thus came into my site, if you can help contact me privatelthanks Bill VintageComputer.net Inquiry Contact Information Name: Robert Email: robwynia at ------ Phone: 541967---- ------------------------- Comments: I have an old Syquest 5.25" removable cartridge (44MB) and am trying to find a service that will get the graphics data off the cartridge for me. If you have any suggestions I'd LOVE to hear them. It seems impossible to find anyone with a functioning drive to read this thing. Thanks for your time,

5 years, 1 month

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R: Floppy disk: one drive per face

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chuck Guzis > Perhaps my mistake with 22Disk was not putting a line in that said "Me > fecit Carolus Guzis Anno MCMLXXXVII" or some such. Love the Michaelangelo reference. I'm curious as to how many others on the list got it. (It's carved into the strap on the Pieta. Apparently when it was first put on display, there was some question as to who'd made, or something like that.) Noel

5 years, 1 month

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Vintage Computer Federation Swap Meet 11/7/2020

by sieler＠allegro.com

Hi, Please remember ... TRIM YOUR DARN POSTS! No one needs to see a hundred+ lines of quoted post just to see a one line reply, no matter what kind of sandwich it was! (And, the guy getting the sandwich had the better deal, IMHO :) thanks, Stan (the other grumpy guy?) Sieler

5 years, 1 month

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Vintage Computer Federation Swap Meet 11/7/2020

by jeffrey＠vcfed.org

The Vintage Computer Federation is having its first Swap Meet event. This swap meet is for vintage computers, radios, TVs, ham radios and related items. FREE FOR BUYERS! VENDORS $20 FOR 1ST SPACE, $10 FOR EACH ADDITIONAL SPACE DATE: November 7, 2020 (RAIN DATE: November 8, 2020) TIME: 9AM to 6PM ADDRESS: Huge Parking lot on Monmouth Boulevard, Wall, NJ between Watson Road and Taft Street Across from InfoAge Museum and Brookdale College GPS location: 40.1848793,-74.0630848 Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/40%C2%B011'05.6%22N+74%C2%B003'47.1%22W/@40.1832946,-74.0661625,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d40.1848793!4d-74.0630848 Satellite Map: http://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Swap_Meet_Map.png Flyer ? http://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Swap_Meet_Flyer-1.png Flyer ? http://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/VCF_Swap_Meet_2020_Flyer.pdf WEBSITE: http://vcfed.org/wp/vcf-swap-meet If you are interested in renting a space, please fill out this https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftdpkFQo0CBCatGfqt1OICP-_g22n8nAj… -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey at vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

5 years, 1 month

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FTGH: 3 VAX DATATRIEVE binders

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

Hi, Offered these in a post last year. 1) VAX DATATRIEVE Reference manual AA-K079E-TE (this is online but version KE079G?) 2) VAX DATATRIEVE Handbook AA-W675B-TE (Does not seem to be online? Willing to scan) 3) VAX DATATRIEVE Guide to Writing Reports AA-P862C-TE For Datatrieve version 4.1 Versions online seem to be for version 3.0? Willing to scan Very clean condition: https://imgur.com/a/w9a3YEY Can post for shipping cost from Toronto ON, Canada. --Toby

5 years, 1 month

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Strange magtape anecdote

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://mnembler.com/computers_mini_stories.html "George Dragner always wore a belt with a metal dragon buckle. He was a colorful character known for pissing off management. His most famous act was tossing a chair through the window at a customer site. The customer refused to believe that the lack of humidity in the room was screwing up his magnetic tape media. As the tape heads depend on the moisture from the air to prevent the magnetic oxide from being torn off the media from the friction during a rewind. George broke the window to prove his point. He was right ! " There is a minimum RH specified for tape, but "tape heads depend on the moisture from the air" ??

5 years, 1 month

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removing melting rubber from metal?

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 12:14 PM 27/10/2020 -0500, you wrote: >Hi All, > >I have an EP-1 eprom programmer from BP Microsystems. > >The rubber feet melted. It was in my closet. I have no clue how it got >that hot, or if they >are just some composition for them to melt. > >My question is how do I clean this up? Acetone, paint thinner? I scraped >off the feet, so there is >just a few 'streams' of melted rubber down the sides, and a bit that >somehow got inside (also on the side, not on the electronics). > >Just looking for some ideas before I start applying chemicals... > >Thanks, >Kelly It's not heat. Just some rubber types degrade chemically over time. Cross links between the long chain hydrocarbons break, and the solid turns to a semi-liquid. Very sticky liquid. I presume the body of your eprom programmer is painted metal or plastic. So 'acetone and hot air' - NO! The gunky stuff is not terribly soluble. Mineral turps on a tissue pad, rubbing, kind of works. Mechanically scrape off what you can first. Use wooden or plastic spatula to avoid scratching paint. The rub with the pad. Solvents like turps, acetone, IPA etc - always try a little on your surface first to check the material isn't damaged by the solvent. Guy

5 years, 1 month

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removing melting rubber from metal?

by kfergason＠gmail.com

Hi All, I have an EP-1 eprom programmer from BP Microsystems. The rubber feet melted. It was in my closet. I have no clue how it got that hot, or if they are just some composition for them to melt. My question is how do I clean this up? Acetone, paint thinner? I scraped off the feet, so there is just a few 'streams' of melted rubber down the sides, and a bit that somehow got inside (also on the side, not on the electronics). Just looking for some ideas before I start applying chemicals... Thanks, Kelly

5 years, 1 month

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removing melting rubber from metal?

by dennis.grevenstein＠gmail.com

> The rubber feet melted. [?] > I have no clue how it got that hot, or if they are just some composition for them to melt. My question is how do I clean this up? It is probably not heat that melted the rubber. It?s likely degradation. Some rubber parts get dry and break, some parts sort of ?melt? and turn into this sticky, nasty glue. You already got some hints on how to clean this, but if you are nervous, you could start off with just isopropanol (that?s the main ingredient in disinfectant). The advantage here would be that you can?t harm plastic or electronics with that. You could use the common medical grade disinfectant, just don?t drink it ;-) Dennis

5 years, 1 month

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ibm clone break out box

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

so i got a test point box of some sort for the EVM M4030 system curious on what ibm documents i should be looking on how these things would of been used? since russian ones would be useles with out knowing how to read russian. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-police-stabbings-1.5785…

5 years, 1 month

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MOP boot files

by abs＠absd.org

I've been helping dreamlayers with his cleanup of the NetBSD/Linux mopd, ( https://github.com/dreamlayers/netbsd-mopd ) and we were looking at how it handled different a.out MOP files, specifically where the files may be little endian For non MID zero files its easy enough, but little endian MID 0 files are potentially more complicated. https://github.com/abs0/netbsd-mopd/commit/6ab8555817f3dff23c506464d302d1a4… It can netboot Ultrix and the vast panoply of NetBSD MOP boot files in the various a.out and ELF incarnations http://mop.absd.org/netbsd/ (those that are not broken that is :/ ) I was wondering if anyone had links to hand for any other good sources of MOP files? Thanks David

5 years, 1 month

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DG Nova panel font?

by rsmilward＠frontier.com

Speaking of DEC fonts, does anyone know what was used on the Data General Nova machines? Thanks! **Richard IBM 1620 > IBM 1130 > S/360 Model 40 > DG Nova > ...

5 years, 1 month

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Font for DEC indicator panels

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Toby Thain > To get closer I'd need better images of the panels. Hi, I borrowed a DEC inlay from someone (a KA10 CPU bay) and scanned a chunk of it (as much as I could fit into my A4 scanner :-) at 200 dpi: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/jpg/KACPUPanel.jpg I have a TC08 inlay, but it's currently being used in my QSIC display (until we can get the RKV11-F/RPV11-D inlay done :-), and I didn't want to yank it out. As far as I can tell, it's the same font on the two of them. > the closest I know of off the top of my head is Akzidenz Grotesk. The Akzidenz Grotesk Medium is indeed very, very close (other than the zero). Do you happen to know if that font available for use in non-commercial settings? Thanks! Noel

5 years, 1 month

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?--Working-ish!

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > The last board is a new style 11/24 and it doesn't do anything but it > does have three switch packs. So I just need to find the manual for it Appendix D in the 003 rev of the /24 TM has the details of the -YA.. > In the meantime the UNIBUS problem also appears to be fixed: The > problem was that sure enough: One of the memory slot SPC's (4) did not > have the DMA jumper. Checking grant line continuity is part of system setup for me; the fact than on many backplanes, the DMA grant jumpering is wirewrap on the back of the backplane is a PITA, but back when it wasn't that big a deal. (Heck, configuration jumpering on boards was all soldered wires BITD!) The need for grant continuity is actually a characteristic of the _CPU_, not the bus. I was astonished the first time I played with an /04 (or naybe it was a /34, I forget), because on them, I'm pretty sure (I can't find it in the documentation, but I'm pretty sure I remember it) that on power-on, the CPU checks for grant continuity, and won't work without it. (They all require the M9302 teminator or equivalent, which has active circuitry to turn around an unclaimed grant onto the BSACK line.) When the CPU powers up, it sends grants down the grant lines and expects to see them back on SACK (from the M9302), and it won't operate if this doesn't happen. That floored me when I ran across it, because on the older UNIBUS CPUs I'd worked with BITD (/40's, etc) it was the done thing to be able to leave a gap in the grant _downtream_ of the last card that could do interrupts; no possible operational problem. I'm not sure why DEC added that 'feature'; probably somebody thought it would make systems more robust, but I bet all it did was generate a bunch of Field Circus calls. (Kind of like the LSI-11 'feature' where ODT won't start unless there's working memory at 0 - another wonderful little Easter Egg.) Ironically, although the QBUS uses _exactly_ the same kind of bus grant lines, no QBUS processor seems to check their continuity in this way; I habitually run my QBUS machines without all the slots filled, and F11 and J11 processors all run fine with open grant lines (after the last card that uses interrupts). I guess DEC found out the hard way that that check wasn't useful! But this, as I said, is a characteristic of the CPU, not the bus. > Anyone even know why Q-Bus doesn't need termination QBUS documentation has long ediscussions of maximum cable lengths between backplane sections, but little about cases where termination on both ends is not needed. One exception is in the " pdp11 bus hanbook", pg. 128: If nore than 20 AC loads are included [on a single bacplane], the other end of the bus must be terminated with 120 ohms. The clear implication is that with <20 AC loads, termination at the second end is not needed. No explanation is given as to why, but I had the same thoughts as Patrick Finnegan - that it's down to the very short bus lengths. (With a short bus, the reflection from the un-terminated end will be very close in time - the line length for the lines on a single backplane is spec'd at a max od about 14"; so about 1 nsec. That's on the order of magnitude of the bus signal rise times.) If you think about it, every time you plug in a card, you've added a short branch to the bus on every bus line (since they aren't normally terminated at the transmitter/reveiver chips). But very short branches, so their reflections are even closer in time. Noel

5 years, 1 month

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?--Memory sad!

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

Those sound like ram chip 4116, quite common once, and still available. I have a couple dozen tested ones handy if you want them. (From Atari 800 16k ram modules). 250ns to 350ns, depending. best, Jeff On Tue, 2020-10-27 at 12:00 -0500, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Re: Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?--Memory sad!

5 years, 1 month

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R65F11

by decguy＠songdog.eskimo.com

Anyone remember the R65F11? It's a Forth microcontroller: 6502 processor with a Forth kernel in ROM, from the mid '80s. I was going through some old stuff in storage (looking for something else) and found an R65F11 with the development ROM and some documentation for building a development board. Looks like a fun little project... I have plenty of projects. If anyone is interested, it's free for actual cost of shipping (could probably go in a U.S. Priority Mail envelope or small box, not sure about overseas options). The backstory: in 1984 I was working for a startup company, and we were looking at various microprocessors for use in a new product. Being a fairly skilled journeyman Forth programmer, I was advocating for the R65F11. I managed to talk the Rockwell sales rep into giving us the development ROM (usually not easily available). We ended up going with a 68000 for the project, and I ended up with the R65F11.

5 years, 1 month

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > Next up is the 11/24, this is one of the 5.25 inch rack mounts with a > CPU, KT24, and no memory. > First question: Will ODT respond at all with no memory on the Unibus? My _guess_ is probably, since on other KDF11 CPU's, ODT works with no memory, but I haven't confirmed that. My PDP-11/24 chassis (a 5-1/4" BA11-L, like yours) I took apart to get the backplane out, so I could work out how the busses work (see below), and I'd need to put it back together before I could try my -12/24.to confirm it. If you could take some pictures of the insides of your BA11-L, that would be both a help to the re-assemblhy, and ancentive to do so. > Can a 128kw memory board from an 11/34 work in an 11/24? Yes and no. See: https://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/24 for more. Note "The top 256 Kbytes of the CPU's address space were devoted to the UNIBUS". So an MS11-L or similar UNIBUS memory can probably be read/written by the CPU, but it won't appear at 0 in the CPU's address space. > Or do I need one of the 11/44 boards to make it go? Whether a KDF11-U will work with no memory at physical 0 is unknown: it would need at least a special bootstrap (since most assume working memory at 0) and a special OS load (ditto). Also, I seem to recall that on the -11/45, with mapping enabled, interrupt vectors are in Kernel D space, so once running, that machine could operate with no working memory at physical 0, but I don't know if KDF11 CPU's use mapped Kernel space for vectors. If you're interested, I can run an test on a KDF11-A and see. Noel

5 years, 1 month

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IBM 360/30 panel, animated, restored

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

This popped up on the radar tonight (on mine anyway). IBM System 360 30 Console animated mainframe CPU Console 360/30 https://www.ebay.com/itm/324348449949 A bit pricey, but pretty. Luckily I landed one of the boards to run Larry W's emulation of the 2030 , which will be satisfying for me.? (And thanks for releasing that work). Thanks Jim

5 years, 1 month

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DEC mouse

by decguy＠songdog.eskimo.com

Looking to complete a period-correct DEC workstation? Missing the right mouse? Have I got a deal for you! Digital 3-button mouse part number 30-44445-01 rev. C02. PS/2 connector, ball mechanism (not one of those fancy new things with the red light on the bottom). Free for actual cost of shipping. This wasn't what I was looking for in storage either.

5 years, 1 month

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DEC RTM book

by dstalk＠execulink.com

I've searched for this but couldn't find it... Does anyone know if the DEC book "RTM: Register Transfer Modules" published in 1973 is available online? It's an 8.5 x 11 book with red cover and has 50 pages. I think it came with their RTM kit. Don

5 years, 1 month

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non-shunting jumpers?

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

Hi all, Oddball question here: has anyone ever seen a way to cap off or protect standard 0.1" pin header jumpers? Maybe there exist jumper plugs that *don't *conduct across the two pins? I'm looking at a piece of hardware that has some jumper pins on top of the PC board and I'd like to protect against anything accidentally making contact. I have seen surface mount 0.05 pitch pin headers come from their manufacturer with protective caps, but I haven't been able to find anything to apply to 0.1" pin headers that I could by aftermarket. Any ideas would be appreciated! thanks brian

5 years, 1 month

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Now I'm starting to look through boxes to see if I have another 11/24 CPU. I seem to recall picking a second one up somewhere, I also want to see if I still have the driver board for the second Plessy core memory. Might be around, might have been pitched. So far I did find a box of DZ11's. Not sure why I have a dozen of them, they might have been from the USPS haul in days of yore. Anyone need a couple of DZ11's? The real weird one is a quad board H216. I thought it was a Unibus core memory board, but it's 8k*19 bits, which means it came from one place: An MA10 memory box. The only one I may have been exposed to was AI (the original KA10). So question: Did AI use MA10 memory boxes? Did any of that stuff survive? Anyplace else it might have come from? Weird stuff. Got a lot of it.... CZ

5 years, 1 month

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> (Whether that's all done on the companion driver boards, and the H21x > card would just bring the wiring of the two banks out to the edge > connector in parallel, letting the driver board do what it wants, I > don't know - you'd have to look at the MM11-L engineering drawings/TM.) > The other possibility is that the PDP-10 memory used these boards in > pairs. It's not either! First, I looked at the MM11-L TM, and it talks about how the H214 has "mats" (2D arrays of cores), 1 mat per bit; the H214 has 16 mats. So definitely no effectively 36+ bit wide variant. So, pairs? Well, I looked to see what PDP-10 memory TM's were extant, and there's one for the MF10 (A-MN-MF10-0-MAN-1); and glancing in it, it _does_ use the H216 - with "19 mats" to produce "19-bit word memory banks"! (Exactly how, I didn't have time to stop and read. It's got to be pairs, but at the bank level, not board.) So our guess as to which generation of PDP-10 memories it was used in might have been wrong... Noel

5 years, 1 month

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FYI sunhelp.org down

by macro＠linux-mips.org

Hi, I posted to <rescue at sunhelp.org> and saw my message got stuck in the mail queue. Upon a further inspection I saw that the domain has expired along with `mrbill.net' where the nameservers used to reside and both have been taken by someone else, taking the name service down for `sunhelp.org'. I can still reach Bill Bradford's personal page when I connect to the server by its IPv4 address at: <http://184.94.207.190/>. I do hope nothing bad has really happened to Bill in these difficult times. Anybody knows? Maciej

5 years, 1 month

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > My guess is the H215 has two more core fields on it I uploaded a (crappy - sigh) image of an H215 I have to here: https://gunkies.org/wiki/File:H215-core-memory-board.jpg and it's clearly not symmetrical, but does have a slightly bugger blank space than yours. It has a label that says "18x8K" (so 16 bits plus byte parity - for DATOB bus write operations to one byte at a time), which sounds orrect. > Odd they could fit up to 20 bits, maybe an early ECC (16b+4 ECC?) No, this way pre-dates ECC memory (the cost of the extra bits - more cores to string in - was probably more than it was worth), and probably before ECC disks too (I think the first DEC ECC disk was the RP04). > I'll bet that it could work in the 11/05 if one of those boards ever > blow out. That's my guess too; _but_ there might be some jumpering/etc issues to adjust the word width. I.e. the PDP-11 parity H215 is 18 bits wide, which is right for 16-bit words, whereas PDP-10 parity memory would be 36+1 parity bit = 37 bits wide. So there might be 2 banks on one of those cards, and the PDP-11 memory treats them as separate banks, whereas on a -10 they'd be ganged together in parallel. (Whether that's all done on the companion driver boards, and the H21x card would just bring the wiring of the two banks out to the edge connector in parallel, letting the driver board do what it wants, I don't know - you'd have to look at the MM11-L engineering drawings/TM.) The other possibility is that the PDP-10 memory used these boards in pairs. We do have the MA10 Maint Manual, but in a quick look it looks like it doesn't use these boards. So maybe a later -10 memory system? Noel

5 years, 1 month

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non-shunting jumpers?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 01:30 PM 10/22/2020, you wrote: >I have seen surface mount 0.05 pitch >pin headers come from their manufacturer with protective caps, but I >haven't been able to find anything to apply to 0.1" pin headers that I >could by aftermarket. I'd use two jumpers. Hang one off one pin, hang the other off the other. If you wanted to get fancy, superglue them in the middle. - John

5 years, 1 month

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by rshepprd＠gmail.com

There?s a piece of core on eBay https://www.ebay.com/itm/DEC-Digital-H214-Digital-Equipment-Core-Memory-Lit… which claims to be H214. The interesting thing is the label says 8K x 16 but the silkscreen says 8K x 19. Sent from Mail for Windows 10

5 years, 1 month

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The weird stuff I keep finding: 19 bit core memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Richard Sheppard > There's a piece of core on eBay .. which claims to be H214. The interesting > thing is the label says 8K x 16 but the silkscreen says 8K x 19. DEC did that a lot; used one silkscreen (and etch) for two different modules, with differing componet sets to produce two different boards (e.g the MSV11-D and -E: http://gunkies.org/wiki/MSV11-D_MOS_memory M8044 and M8045 respectively; the boards all say 'M8045' in the etch, you have to look at the handles). The H214 is the 16-bit wide version of this board, used in the MM11-L UNIBUS memory: https://gunkies.org/wiki/MM11-L_core_memory The parity MM11-LP uses the H215 (an 18-bit wide version), and a G109 instead of the G110 (again, same etch, some components left off for the G110. There's also an H213, used in the MM11-K: https://gunkies.org/wiki/MM11-K_core_memory which is an 8KB version; the H213 looks identical to the H214 at first glance, but if you look closely the core mats are only half as dense. Noel

5 years, 1 month

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ClassicCmp FTP Access?

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

Hello,Is anyone else having trouble accessing their FTP/Web space on ClassicCmp? I can still access HTML and files i have uploaded but not FTP in for new files. Thanks.-Ali

5 years, 1 month

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Control Data 449 Special Miniature Computer from 1967?

by steven＠malikoff.com

I was idly browsing early editions of Computer World journal on Google newspapers and found an announcement and picture of the '449', an experimental aerospace computer built by Control Data in 1967 and touted as "the world's smallest computer" at 4" x 4" x 9", of which the logic part is a 4" cube and the rest is the battery. It's on page 3 of Computer World Sep 20 1967: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=v_xunPV0uK0C&dat=19670920&printsec=f… It seems to me it may have been an analogous machine to the Apollo AGS perhaps and would like to know a bit more about it, but I've only been able to find a brief mention of the '449-2 Special Miniature Computer' and that's it. Archive.org hasn't turned up anything. I'm just curious about the tech used, no doubt it used DIPs or flatpack micrologic and a tiny core plane? Steve.

5 years, 1 month

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Vintage Transputer Collection in Tucson

by pschow＠gmail.com

US $16K, located in Tucson, AZ, USA. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Extraordinary-Transputer-collection-Museum-quality… >From listing: ---------------------------------- Unmatched collection of vintage Transputer based systems includes 2 (TWO) Parsytec X-plorer 16-node "desktop supercomputer" systems Tested working, both units can be linked together (cable included) for a 32 node system, tested with Helios 2 x PC (ISA) interface card (IBM meganode) includes on-board transputer 1 x BBK-PCI interface card with dual Parsytec style connectors + super rare cable Parsytec P-CUBE system with 8 nodes So rare that no (other :-) ) images of this unit can even be found on the internet 2 (TWO) Parsys Supernode SN1000 units (original cost ~$500000) Includes a total of 128 transputer nodes, and a scsi disk based operating system Tested working with an included Sun workstation with VME Transputer interface board With original invoices, user manuals, installation DAT tape ++++ 14 (Fourteen) Parsytec dual cpu (power PPC + Transputer) Eurocard boards 6 (Six) CSA Quad transputer boards (PART.1) + 7-slot EISA board and ATX power adaptor (these boards only need the power pins on the ISA connectors to function) Set of "red box" Inmos toolkits/compilers Misc Transputer conference proceedings Spare 4 slot Eurocard backplane and power supply with Transputer link connectors installed Copies of all the major Transputer operating systems (Helios, Idris, TDS, Parix, Taos, Virtuoso, Strand, Paros etc) This is a very large lot so shipping will be expensive, pay no attention to the ebay estimate contact us for a realistic quote Will consider delivering "at cost" (van hire + fuel + 2 overnight motel stops) to the Southwest states (CA, AZ, NM, UT, CO) if pre-paid by cashiers cheque.

5 years, 1 month

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Saving old paper labels on keyboards

by sales＠elecplus.com

Perhaps something like silly putty would work? Although as a precautionary tale, the silly putty from the 60s also removed part of the original ink. I do not know what the current formula would do. As kids, we used to have fun getting reverse images of the colorful comics in the Sunday paper :-) -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > Unibus can get annoyed at a lot of things .. Q-Bus is much simpler Not sure I'd concur with that latter. In analog terms the UNIBUS and QBUS are almost identical (which is why the same driver chips such as 8641's are used with both), and at the digital level they essentially identical (asynchronous interlocked request/response for read and write; interrupts using daisy-chained grant lines, with transmitted vectors; DMA, using the basic read/write protocol to transfer data). The (not very) big differences are that the QBUS multiplexes address and data onto a single set of lines, and the more complex multi-level interrupt using a shared single grant line; in both, more complex than the UNIBUS. Perhaps you meant 'easier to use', and that may be so, since most QBUS systems are much smaller (physically). > If I could disable them I could do a normal DL11 and see what I see Looking at the docs, I don't see any way to disable the on-board serial lines. You could probably cut etches to disable them, but I would advise against that, because there are easier/better ways to go. It should be quite easy to investigatwe where the problem is: look at the 'read receive 1 CSR' line, on pin 15 of E106 (with the 'halt' switch on). If that's not hopping around, the CPU isn't running. So then we'd need to look at the basic clock, and see if that's running; if so, then the CPU chip may be failed; we'd need to look at the PAX lines to confirm that. If that CSR line is active, there's a fault somewhere in the console serial line hardware; first step would be to feed characters into the machine, and see if they're coming out the UART. If you don't want to mess with all that, there are CPU boards on eBait for not too much money. (I'd be interested in buying the non-working CPU board, if you go that way.) Noel

5 years, 1 month

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Well Heeled "Rescue"

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

Since I'm a bit short of change I thought I'd pass this along. https://www.ebay.com/itm/APPLE-1-Original-1976-Computer-System-1st-Steve-Wo… Will "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The names of global variables should start with// " --?https://isocpp.org

5 years, 1 month

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RL02 Disk and maybe pdp11 something at auction.

by Wayne.Sudol＠hotmail.com

I spotted this for an auction from the FORMER OYSTER CREEK NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION. Looks like a pair of RL02 with a pdp something in the middle. I can't make out what model it is from the photo. Anyone know? I'm not bidding as it's too far away from me in Los Angeles but someone else might like it. Small stuff usually sells real cheap on this site as the sellers are usually just trying to get rid of it. Also, there's no current bid. I just would not want it to go to a scrapper. https://www.bidspotter.com/en-us/auction-catalogues/bscunited/catalogue-id-… Wayne

5 years, 1 month

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > still nothing coming out of the serial port. Figured I would document > the settings and see if anyone with an 11/24 can cross-check my settings. Time to stop trying random things and drop the (metaphorical) Big Hammer. Look at the bus, and see if it's trying to talk to the console (i.e. ODT is running). Alas, I looked at the -11/24 Tech Manual - latest rev here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/dload/EK-11024-TM-003.pdf and it sez (pg. 4-25): "Internal addresses; i.e. serial line unit registers .. There is no external bus cycle performed for an internal address." So you can't look on the UNIBUS. At least we have a set of prints for it: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1124/MP01018_1124schem_Aug80.pdf CPU prints start on pg. 145; the TM will tell you what signals to look for. Noel

5 years, 1 month

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RL02 Disk and maybe pdp11 something at auction.

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Sotomayor ggs at shiresoft.com > It looks like it's 11/84 from the badge on the front. In a 10-1/2" box. Seen them in the docs (forget the model number), never seen a real one. Noel

5 years, 1 month

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[HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] FS: S-100 stuff, electronic stuff, model railroad stuff, books and magazines!

by mechanic_2＠charter.net

Hello all, The S-100 stuff is sold and paid for. GOD Bless and Thanks, rich! On 10/18/2020 9:46 PM, Richard R. Pope wrote: > Hello all, > It looks like the S-100 stuff is available again. Sorry for the > confusion! > GOD Bless and Thanks, > rich! > > On 10/18/2020 12:36 AM, Richard Pope via cctalk wrote: >> Hello all, >> The S-100 stuff is sold pending payment. I appreciate the >> interest and help! >> GOD Bless and Thanks, >> rich! >> >> On 10/17/2020 10:44 PM, Bruce wrote: >>> I believe there is an S-100 meuseum - think they specialize in Altare >>> - but they woul probably be a good home for the stuff >>> >>> Cheers! >>> >>> Bruce >>> >>> Quoting Jeff George <driftwoodturning at gmail.com>: >>> >>>> Hi there, I?m sorry to hear about your expected diagnosis, that?s a >>>> tough >>>> one. My neighbor Had cancer of the liver last year, he tried the ?Rick >>>> Simpson oil? treatment along with standard chemo and is cancer free >>>> today. >>>> Maybe look into it? >>>> >>>> On a selfish note, Im a high school physics teacher in Tn and would >>>> love to >>>> find good price on some equipment so that my students could get >>>> their feet >>>> wet with some actual good equipment. Scopes, frequency generators, >>>> vtvm?s, >>>> dmm?s, etc.. I am a ham radio operator and tinkerer, some skills at >>>> repairing equipment but not a whole lot. >>>> >>>> Please let me know if you have anything appropriate for my students >>>> at a >>>> high school budget. Happy to give you my info so that you can >>>> verify my >>>> employment. >>>> >>>> Jeff >>>> >>>> On Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 10:14 PM Richard R. Pope >>>> <mechanic_2 at charter.net> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hello all. >>>>> I have 22 S-100 boards for sale. There are two backplanes. >>>>> One is a >>>>> 9 slot bare board and the other is a 19 slot fully populated >>>>> board. Both >>>>> boards have active termination. There are 8080, Z80, FDC, HDC, >>>>> Serial, >>>>> 68030, a Display board, a Front Panel board. There are also 3 Mean >>>>> Well >>>>> power supplies supplying the +9VDC and the +_16VDC. There are also >>>>> voltmeters and amp meters . I want $500 plus shipping for all of >>>>> it. I >>>>> can provide a full inventory and pictures for anyone who is truly >>>>> interested. >>>>> I probably have cancer and if I do I am dying. I want all of >>>>> this >>>>> to go to a good home and not to the landfill. If anyone is >>>>> interested I >>>>> have some test equipment, electronic components, and model railroad >>>>> equipment Please only serious inquires for I tire very easily. >>>>> GOD Bless and Thanks, >>>>> rich! >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>> Paying Attention, Not a Tutor! >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. > View/Reply Online (#110958): > https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/message/110958 > Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/77650950/89555 > Group Owner: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment+owner at groups.io > Unsubscribe: > https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/leave/3011123/1140944146/… > [mechanic_2 at charter.net] > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > >

5 years, 1 month

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11/84 print set

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> anyone willing to chip in some money to help me pay for this? I sent a chunk too. This is a totally great acquisition: I have a KDJ11-B board that has a bad bus driver chip; I was going to apply an ohmmeter to find the guilty party, but just looking at the prints will be so much easier. I see it also includes MSV11-R prints, which is wonderful, since we don't have prints for those either. Too bad it doesn't include the MSV11-J prints (also missing), since the -R's are rare and the -J's are relatively common. Noel

5 years, 1 month

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11/84 print set

by Flash688＠flying-disk.com

Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: > anyone willing to chip in some money to help me pay for this? > https://www.ebay.com/itm/303733340900 I don't have a PDP-11/84 and likely never will but I just sent you $150. Bitsavers has saved my bacon multiple times and it's only right that I support you. In about a month I hope to be able to deliver the 7-track tape drive to you. Details later. Alan Frisbie

5 years, 1 month

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11/84 print set

by aek＠bitsavers.org

anyone willing to chip in some money to help me pay for this? https://www.ebay.com/itm/303733340900

5 years, 1 month

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[HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] S-100 stuff, electronic stuff, model railroad stuff, books and magazines!

by mechanic_2＠charter.net

Hello all, The S-100 stuff is sold pending payment. I appreciate the interest and help! GOD Bless and Thanks, rich! On 10/17/2020 10:44 PM, Bruce wrote: > I believe there is an S-100 meuseum - think they specialize in Altare > - but they woul probably be a good home for the stuff > > Cheers! > > Bruce > > Quoting Jeff George <driftwoodturning at gmail.com>: > >> Hi there, I?m sorry to hear about your expected diagnosis, that?s a >> tough >> one. My neighbor Had cancer of the liver last year, he tried the ?Rick >> Simpson oil? treatment along with standard chemo and is cancer free >> today. >> Maybe look into it? >> >> On a selfish note, Im a high school physics teacher in Tn and would >> love to >> find good price on some equipment so that my students could get their >> feet >> wet with some actual good equipment. Scopes, frequency generators, >> vtvm?s, >> dmm?s, etc.. I am a ham radio operator and tinkerer, some skills at >> repairing equipment but not a whole lot. >> >> Please let me know if you have anything appropriate for my students at a >> high school budget. Happy to give you my info so that you can verify my >> employment. >> >> Jeff >> >> On Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 10:14 PM Richard R. Pope >> <mechanic_2 at charter.net> >> wrote: >> >>> Hello all. >>> I have 22 S-100 boards for sale. There are two backplanes. One >>> is a >>> 9 slot bare board and the other is a 19 slot fully populated board. >>> Both >>> boards have active termination. There are 8080, Z80, FDC, HDC, Serial, >>> 68030, a Display board, a Front Panel board. There are also 3 Mean Well >>> power supplies supplying the +9VDC and the +_16VDC. There are also >>> voltmeters and amp meters . I want $500 plus shipping for all of it. I >>> can provide a full inventory and pictures for anyone who is truly >>> interested. >>> I probably have cancer and if I do I am dying. I want all of this >>> to go to a good home and not to the landfill. If anyone is interested I >>> have some test equipment, electronic components, and model railroad >>> equipment Please only serious inquires for I tire very easily. >>> GOD Bless and Thanks, >>> rich! >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >> Paying Attention, Not a Tutor! >> >> >> > > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. > View/Reply Online (#110932): > https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/message/110932 > Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/77630695/89555 > Group Owner: HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment+owner at groups.io > Unsubscribe: > https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/leave/3011123/1140944146/… > [mechanic_2 at charter.net] > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > >

5 years, 1 month

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VAX 6000 in Linwood NC on Facebook

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

No affiliation, its been there a while so may be scrapped https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2854584287984635/ you will need a facebook id to contact. Dave

5 years, 1 month

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DEC ADV11-D Analog to Digital converter with DMA

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

Paul, Jerry, Thanks for the suggestion to take a look at DataTranslation! Looking in the bitsavers folder for DataTranslation, I found a 239 page July 1986 Data Translation manual for the DT3362 series of A/Ds. There are 23 sub-models of that board but the DT3362-16SE/8DI specifications matches the ADV11-D (A1008). The best part is that chapter 8 of this manual has 5 programming examples, two of which use the DMA capability.With a bit of research (and some luck) I think this will give me the info I need. Thanks again, Mark Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2020 02:06:25 -0500 From: Paul Anderson <useddec at gmail.com> I think they were made by Data Translation. On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 8:00 PM Jerry Weiss via cctech < cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > I just picked a AAV11-D D/A Board for which documentation is also > scarce. The general design may be similar. I should be able to reverse > engineer the analog/digital output section for pin-outs. Lacking > manuals/source code, if someone has an existing driver or software in > binary, I would be willing to disassemble that for its secrets. Perhaps > these boards mimic the methods used by ADAC or Data Translation used for > their Qbus products. Their documentation may also give some insight on > how to setup these CSR's. > > Regards, > Jerry >

5 years, 1 month

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Toaster Flyer - proprietary drives?

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I've been talking to the guy in NYC who has the storage portion of what appears to have been part of a Toaster Flyer setup (I forget who, but someone on the list forwarded details a few months ago) - two 5.25" full-height SCSI drives, a 3.5" SCSI drive, passive ISA backplane, and some form of TBC card (made by DPS). I'm not sure who made the 3.5" drive, but the two FH ones appear to be 9GB Seagate Elites (I'm assuming they were the two video stores, and the 3.5" was for audio). The big question is whether in a Flyer environment the drives run custom microcode or will have been LLFed to something other than a "standard" 512 byte block size - I believe that the Flyer was really pushing the boundaries of what was possible when it was current, and the majority of drives on the market just didn't have the necessary throughput (I see a "Newtek approved" sticker on one of the Seagates). I know that the storage was considered "proprietary", but I don't know if that just means that the filesystem was Flyer-specific (i.e. not AFFS), or if there was more to it than that. cheers Jules

5 years, 1 month

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S-100 stuff, electronic stuff, model railroad stuff, books and magazines!

by mechanic_2＠charter.net

Hello all. I have 22 S-100 boards for sale. There are two backplanes. One is a 9 slot bare board and the other is a 19 slot fully populated board. Both boards have active termination. There are 8080, Z80, FDC, HDC, Serial, 68030, a Display board, a Front Panel board. There are also 3 Mean Well power supplies supplying the +9VDC and the +_16VDC. There are also voltmeters and amp meters . I want $500 plus shipping for all of it. I can provide a full inventory and pictures for anyone who is truly interested. I probably have cancer and if I do I am dying. I want all of this to go to a good home and not to the landfill. If anyone is interested I have some test equipment, electronic components, and model railroad equipment Please only serious inquires for I tire very easily. GOD Bless and Thanks, rich!

5 years, 1 month

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Configuring an MS11-L for an 11/24

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So I'm working on this old MS11-L board I have had sitting around forever. M7891 DK. Goal is to use it in my 11/24 with KT24 MMU. I've switched the jumpers so it will run on a +12 supply instead of a +15, and so it will run in an extended Unibus slot as opposed to a normal unibus. However I'm stumped regarding the +5v and +5 BBU supply lines. The problem is the manual says to set the jumper that is above C12 (bottom of board, two capacitors next to each other, pretty easy to spot) so that W3 is in and W7 is out if you just have +5v. On this board, W3 is out, W7 is in, but there are two other jumpers right above them (nothing is labelled on the board). So.... Is it the bottom jumper that is +5 or the bottom and the one above that need to be moved? This might be why this board never worked right, if the memory refresh is expecting power on the BBU line and I don't have that then it's not going to work very much :-) But which jumper is the right one to use? Thanks! Chris

5 years, 1 month

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DEC Edu magazine

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Issues 6,7 and 8 are up on eBay now at $20 ea Too much for me and he won't take a lower offer

5 years, 1 month

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Identifying a Mystery ISA Card

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Sean - You might get lucky, IF Jameco still has documentation & software for the board. I would guess circa 1982-1985 (after IBM XT introduction with 256 kB standard). ? Japan in 1970s and Taiwan in 1980s ... had major production issues with PCB fabrication and assembly (required higher QC in source materials). ?After-sale? (under warranty) Component-level service bench techs ? were frequently heard ?swearing? at the incompetence across the Pacific. ? Thru-hole ?vias? for double-sided boards frequently failed. Solder alloy and Flux formulations (Asia didn?t want to buy Weller or Ersin/Multicore) were especially troublesome. In many instances, the old solder has to be removed (difficult de-soldering due to impurities in Asian solder). These problems continued through 1980s, until the ?bad shops? closed or changed their production operations. ? Using a Quality 63/37 or 60/40 ?RA? solder (like Kester ?44?), resolves most issue, other than copper solder trace failures. greg === From: Sean Ellis <seanellis9 at gmail.com> To: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com>, "ClassicCMP? <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Identifying a Mystery ISA Card Well, thanks for all the help guys - Finally narrowed it down to a JE1078 on Stason: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/io-cards/I-L/JAMECO-ELECTRONIC-COMPONENTS-Mult… I can believe this thing was made in Taiwan - I had to repair probably 1/4 of all the joints on the card because they all had gone dry or had holes in the joints. Have you ever seen solder bubble like boiling water? That's how bad the original solder on this card was. It also absolutely stank the whole way through...

5 years, 1 month

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Manuals for Imprimis/Seagate 5" Elite SMD/IPI drives

by aek＠bitsavers.org

one of the white whales. anyone have OEM documentation for their 5" Elite SMD or IPI drives? The only thing I've ever been able to find was an installation manual for the SMD verison

5 years, 1 month

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ISO OSF/1 books

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I have a small collection of the Prentice-Hall OSF/1 book series, does anyone have copies they don't need?

5 years, 1 month

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DEC ADV11-D Analog to Digital converter with DMA

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

I recently acquired an ADV11-D Qbus A/D board and having been working on a RSX11M+ driver for it. It is similar enough to the ADV11-C that the driver I wrote for the -C works ok, but the -D is DMA capable. It seems to have two extra CSR registers in addition to the CSR, and read buffer. Does anyone have documentation for this board? It is mentioned in the Oct. 88 Microsystems Option Guide and both RSX and VMS supported it. It was also mentioned in the Dec 92 Real Time Products Technical manual. It has a 40 pin IDC connector that appears to have some amount of differences from the ADV11-C and no where have I seen any info on the DMA capability. Does anyone have a ADV11-D user manual or XXDP source code for testing it? Thanks, Mark

5 years, 1 month

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Identifying a Mystery ISA Card

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Sean, Fred, and Glen ? Sorry, late to this ISA card thread. I worked in Tech Support for an Apple/IBM/HP/Novell retail computer dealer, during summers in early 1980s, when in Graduate school. So I saw the ?wide selection? of add-in cards for IBM PC/XT and compatibles. == This is a ?Taiwanese generic 6-Pak? Add-In (8-bit ISA) expansion card. RAM 384 kB; Serial port, Parallel port, Game port, AND Real Time Clock ! Glen is CORRECT, the National Semiconductor MM58167 is the RTC IC. Texas Instruments bought out National in 2011, data-sheet still available. The ?solder-in? B1 battery has been cutout (open space below/left of MM58167). Replacement battery (likely ~ 3 to 3.6 Volt) can be acquired from Digi-Key. Take measurements and closeup photo of ?B1? Area, to CONFIRM Model and Size. ? My Quick Guess ? Tadiran TL series 1/2 AA with Axial pins, 3.6V High Capacity Cylindrical battery http://www.tadiranbat.com/assets/tll-5902.pdf Tadiran TL-5902/P .... $6.65 https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/tadiran-batteries/TL-5902-P/5125… greg, w9gb chicago === Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2020 17:34:58 -0700 From: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Identifying a Mystery ISA Card On Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:24 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: >> On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Sean Ellis via cctalk wrote: >> I got this (currently exploded) mystery RAM, RTC, and I/O board out of >> a dead Sanyo luggable the other night, and once I replace the burned >> up tantalums I'd like to put it in my 5150 so I can get a full 640k of >> RAM. >> Question is, does anyone know what this board is? It's a completely >> anonymous board with not even an FCC ID to go off of. I'm assuming the >> RAM is at least strapped right; all the banks are full which should be >> 384k, and the Sanyo was a 256k machine = 640k. >> Here's a couple pictures; one's an actual picture of the card and the >> other is a simplified TULARC/TH99-esque vector of what's on the board. >> https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg >> https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png > > It resembles, although doesn't match, the AST Six-Pack. > But the AST Six-pack had a clock circuit. Isn't the 24-pin DIP part number MM58167 ,shown in the images referenced above, an RTC chip?

5 years, 1 month

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Firing up the pdt11

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

I'm back to working on the PDT11/150 again, the bottom floppy is weird: It doesn't read rx01 disks, period. Top one is fine. So I tried swapping all of the connectors on the control board so the top one was PD1: and the bottom was PD0: Sure enough the top drive works fine as PD1: and bottom is still dead so it's a drive issue. Pull the drive, put in a spare, button it up, and sure enough it still doesn't work. Any ideas? Also I recall my MiniMinc/150 (which is in parts in my shed) had EIS and FIS, but this one only reports FIS. Did DEC make pdp11/03 expansion chips that only had FIS? C

5 years, 1 month

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PDP 8/L & 8/I G228 warning

by djg＠pdp8online.com

Noticed in another thread an 8L is upcoming on the persons restoration list. Making separate post so more visible. The G228's have a 20 uF 50V electrolytic capacitor on them. I have had two short. When they short its a race between the trace on the board burning up or the backplane 30 AWG wirewrap wire burning up. One was on an 8/I I was restoring where the backplane wire providing the power burnt up at power on. Wasn't shorted before power on. The other was I saw one G228 had a burnt track while I was washing the cards in an 8/L. I had not applied power at that point so that was old damage. Usage history is unknown. As a minimum I would recommend applying current limited 30V to the capacitor on each card out of the machine before initial power on. Low enough limit may allow the capacitor to reform without shorting. The same part # capacitor is still available for protective replacement. The capacitors don't read shorted before power is applied. Unknown if they will short if the machine is powered on periodically. I've head lots of reports of all the failures in 8/L's. I replaced the one G228 and some bulbs but otherwise the machine was fine. It did need a lot of cleaning and I did do my normal power supply reform and checkout.

5 years, 1 month

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AOL CD and other old PC software...

by peter＠vanpeborgh.eu

I have a collection of British magazine CDs and DVDs from the mid-1995ish to 2013ish. They contain tools, programs, etc. I tried 5 and they mounted under Win10 so they should work on old win releases: XP,7,8? Would anyone be interested in acquiring these? Talk to me and we can work out how. peter || | | | | | | | | Peter Van Peborgh 62 St Mary's Rise Writhlington Radstock Somerset BA3 3PD UK 01761 439 234 "Our times are in God's wise and loving hands" || | | | | | | | |

5 years, 1 month

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ethan Dicks > ODT works from my 11/34 with bad RAM, ?? The -11/34 doesn't have 'real' ODT (like the one in the LSI-11's, KDF11's, KDJ11's), which is in microcode). The M9301 and M9312 bootstrap ROM boars contain a console emulator, but it's in macrocode. Noel

5 years, 1 month

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AOL CD and other old PC software...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

Like most of us, as a result of COVID, I've been mostly stuck at home. Consequently, I've been going through and organizing a lot of boxes of old stuff that just accumulated and I did not consider to be part of my vintage computing collection. However, I have noticed (and chuckled over) the fact that others are collecting computers and software that I "just used". Anyway, I'm finding stuff that I think others may appreciate more than I and I'm wondering about its value. First, I have what I believe is a pretty early AOL CD and I understand that it may be collectable. It includes the original silver, blue and red cardboard sleeve that reads (in part): America Online CD-ROM! IT'S NEW! IT'S FREE! Now with World Wide Web Browser! Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Most of what I find with Google seems to be related to a boom about five years ago. I have also found boxes full of other software, along with their original packaging. Original DOOM, original Lemmings, Wing Commander, Wing Commander II, Falcon, several old Microsoft Flight Sims, etc., etc. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

5 years, 1 month

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Next project: 11/24. Does it need memory?

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Ok, with the PDT and the RX02's out of the way I'm running down to the wire on fixing stuff before I tackle the 8/L's. Next up is the 11/24, this is one of the 5.25 inch rack mounts with a CPU, KT24, and no memory. First question: Will ODT respond at all with no memory on the Unibus? Second question: Can a 128kw memory board from an 11/34 work in an 11/24? Or do I need one of the 11/44 boards to make it go?

5 years, 1 month

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Identifying a Mystery ISA Card

by seanellis9＠gmail.com

Hey all, I got this (currently exploded) mystery RAM, RTC, and I/O board out of a dead Sanyo luggable the other night, and once I replace the burned up tantalums I'd like to put it in my 5150 so I can get a full 640k of RAM. Question is, does anyone know what this board is? It's a completely anonymous board with not even an FCC ID to go off of. I'm assuming the RAM is at least strapped right; all the banks are full which should be 384k, and the Sanyo was a 256k machine = 640k. Here's a couple pictures; one's an actual picture of the card and the other is a simplified TULARC/TH99-esque vector of what's on the board. https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png

5 years, 1 month

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FIRE SALE!

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?77118-Fire-sale-PDP-11-stuff

5 years, 1 month

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Informix for SCO XENIX

by seanellis9＠gmail.com

Just wanted to let you all know that I've found a copy of Informix 3.11 for SCO XENIX on the Lisa 2... anyone interested?

5 years, 1 month

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cctalk Digest, Vol 73, Issue 13

by athornton＠gmail.com

I agree that whether a student learns has much more to do with the student than what in particular they're studying. I quit my undergraduate physics degree when I had a moment of clarity that even if I managed to squeak through my Partial Differential Equations class with a C (I did) I'd still be on a trajectory where _solving PDEs was what I would be doing with my life_. My undergrad degree is in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations. My MA is in History (but, hey, the History of Computing). I dropped out of the Ph.D. program I was in for a variety of reasons, to be honest crushing depression probably chief among them, but also because I was a fairly decent practitioner, and I had more fun playing with computers than I did writing stories about people who'd played with computers a couple generations before I had. It being the late 90s, my job prospects were decidedly better on the Not A Professional Historian side of the fence. That was 22-ish years ago. I'd been making beer money all through college and grad school with IT jobs, and I've stayed in IT-related fields ever since. Consulting, systems administration and engineering, these days software development-but-also-devops. My lack of appropriate degrees probably only didn't hurt because I started a not-unsuccessful consulting business with my mentor after I quit grad school, and by the time I was ready to move on from that, I had enough years of broadly varied experience under my belt that it didn't really matter. But that's tangential. The actual point was: the fuzzy stuff is only contemptible if you've got Physicists' Disease. History is hard, and it has a lot more in common with debugging that is obvious at first glance. In both cases you are presented with "Here's what happened," and it's your job to figure out "why?" In both cases, the ability to break the end-state down into a set of much smaller components which contribute to it is key--and although that ability probably _does_ have a lot to do with innate personality or preference, it's also very, very much a learned (and trained!) skill. The thing with debugging is that you usually are afforded the opportunity the repeat the experiment while changing parameters. With history, you're not so lucky, and thus you never _really_ know the root causes (you also usually don't know "what really happened", but by cross-referencing your sources you may be able to emerge with some sort of decent-consensus guess), but you can make more or less plausible and persuasive hypotheses about them. The idea that you are interrogating a recalcitrant witness is common to both history (and I would guess many of the humanities and social sciences) and creating and maintaining working software. I'll grant that it's _harder_ to surf blithely through an engineering degree than it is through a liberal arts degree, mostly because there are less-subjective metrics (particularly in lab courses) as to whether you actually learned something about what you're supposed to be doing. If I were being snarky, perish the thought, I'd say that the engineers who didn't really want to understand what they were doing were pre-meds. Nevertheless, a degree--and particularly an advanced one--is indeed much more about the discipline to put your head down and swallow what's put in front of you than about smarts. I was told a couple of decades ago I'd regret not having stuck it out for my Ph.D. I'm still waiting for that regret to kick in; in the meantime, many others have come and gone. Adam

5 years, 2 months

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FYI sunhelp.org down

by john＠ziaspace.com

> I posted to <rescue at sunhelp.org> and saw my message got stuck in the mail > queue. Upon a further inspection I saw that the domain has expired along > with `mrbill.net' where the nameservers used to reside and both have been > taken by someone else, taking the name service down for `sunhelp.org'. I > can still reach Bill Bradford's personal page when I connect to the server > by its IPv4 address at: <http://184.94.207.190/>. I noticed this, too. Since sunhelp.org uses mrbill.net DNS servers, and because the server at 184.94.207.190 is still up, we can still see the content if we make our own DNS, so I configured my server at 192.80.49.4 (athena.zia.io) to answer for mrbill.net, for sunhelp.org, for fiftieshouse.com, and for lispmachine.net, so if you want to see any of these, temporarily set your DNS server to 192.80.49.4. I did this in part to mirror sunhelp.org, but I suspect there are already mirrors out there. Sorry to hear about Bill :( John Klos

5 years, 2 months

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Searching for (DOS?) Backup Software

by poc＠pocnet.net

Hello, anyone heard of Genoa GenWare Backup Software and probably has a copy floating around? Someone was asking me to restore tapes, and the original diskettes aren't readable anymore. https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Books/Business/IDX/1987-04-O… :wq! PoC PGP-Key: DDD3 4ABF 6413 38DE - https://www.pocnet.net/poc-key.asc

5 years, 2 months

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Looking For Computer Automation LSI-3/05 Documentation

by tangentdelta＠protonmail.com

Hello. I have two card cages out of a pair of Linotron 202 phototypesetting machines, and have been hunting for documentation for the Naked Mini systems used in them for over a year now. The Computer Automation CPU boards in the systems have been a complete mystery to me until recently. To make a long story short, I happened to stumble across the patent for the machine (https://patents.google.com/patent/US4254468A/en), which has the same bus configuration as my card cages, and also provides some good evidence that "Naked Milli" 3/05 CPU boards were used. I've found documentation for the LSI 3/05's instruction set and an informative brochure, but nothing technical. Bitsavers has been a great help in my efforts to uncover more information about this processor, but there's still a lot of technical information that has eluded me (such as the autoload ROM, and how its data is arranged). The LSI-series computer handbook mentions a dedicated manual for the LSI 3/05, but I haven't found anything else about it online. If anyone has any information about the LSI 3/05, or where I might look for the manual, it'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

5 years, 2 months

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Maynard MaynStream

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

I have a Maynard MaynStream tape backup unit from the 1980's. It uses audio-format cassettes with 1/4" tape, but it's a different tape composition, and the cassette has a notch in it to tell the device it's not just plain audio tape. The capacity was 80 MB per cassette. I also have four ISA controller cards, four cables, and several cassettes. We used it for backup with IBM PC/AT boxes many years ago. Does anybody want it? It seems a shame to throw it in the e-waste bin. Van Snyder van.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 2 months

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<Hardware plug> HP1000 A990, A900, & A600 systems, parts, pieces, cable, panels, connectors... etc for sale

by jesse＠cypress-tech.com

I'm getting in a lot of the HP1000 systems and parts in next week. If anyone needs any 1k A990, A900, & A600 systems, CPU, memory & interface cards, cables, panels, connectors or anything else associated with those lines, let me know as I probably have them. Just note that I'm a re-seller and not a hobbyist and am selling these items as part of an end-user consignment deal.. two types of complete HP1000 A990 and A600 are below. Let me know if you need anything, want pictures, or have any questions. A990 Server 14-slot Micro 1000 Server (Configured with) 1 x 12990x A990 CPU 1 x 12221B 8MB Memory 1 x C2490A 2GB SE SCSI Internal disk drive 1 x xxxxx? DDS DAT Internal Tape Drive 1 x 12016A SCSI Controller board 1 x 12009A HP-IB Interface board 1 x 12005A Serial Interface board 1 x 12006A Parallel interface board 1 x 12040A Asynchronous Multiplexer Interface (MUX) board 1 x 02430x Voltage Jumper Board 1 x 12230A Front-plane memory connector (CPU to memory connector) $3,500.00 A600 Server 14-slot Micro 1000 Server (Configured with) 1 x 12105x A600 CPU 1 x 12101B Memory Controller 1 x 12103D 1MB Memory 1 x 12103C 512kb Memory 1 x 12022x disk controller board 1 x xxxxx? floppy drive 1 x C2490A 2GB SE SCSI Internal disk drive 1 x 12016A SCSI Controller board 1 x 12009A HP-IB Interface board 1 x 12005A Serial Interface board 1 x 12040A Asynchronous Multiplexer Interface (MUX) board 2 x 12038x Jumper board 1 x 02430x Voltage Jumper Board $2,500.00 Feel free to email direct at jesse(at)cypress-tech.com Thanks Jesse Cypress Technology Inc

5 years, 2 months

1
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college study

by sales＠elecplus.com

My grandfather wrote a book, "This is the Way to Study" SQ3R was the system Study, Question, Read, Write, Review Look over the chapter, read the captions of the pics, look at the bold text then make notes of questions for things that pop up Then Read the chapter through Write down more questions read again to find your answers then do the problems at the end of the chapter look over everything again, and see if u understand it all have someone else quiz u, if needed then review it all, and u should have a good grasp on it My college friend says Wow, that is a LOT of work! Is there an expectation now that being educated is NOT a lot of work? -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

5 years, 2 months

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Tutor needed for college student

by sales＠elecplus.com

If anyone has spare time, and is familiar with discrete mathematics, I have a friend who is a young college kid and desperately needs a tutor. His prof just says to read the book, and take online quizzes. He is failing. If you can help, please email me. He is in Delaware. -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

5 years, 2 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 73, Issue 11

by mark＠markesystems.com

>>> I suspect much of the electronics is fine. It would be good for someone >>> wanting backup cards. >> You must be joking. Those cards are done. Any chip that is still >> operational will likely fail upon or shortly after power is applied. > Most components can stand soldering temperatures. It is clear > that it was only hot enough to melt plastics. That isn't even hot > enough to damage boards. I have physically seen the equipment in question, in the warehouse. A few of the cards in the cage may still be salvageable - maybe, with some very powerful juju. But much of the hardware is damaged *far* beyond any hope of recovery. As Jim says, the ~~ Mark Moulding

5 years, 2 months

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Mystery QBUS memory card

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Hi, I'm trying to ID this: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/jpg/QBUSMystMem.jpg mystery QBUS memory card. I think it's a 64KB card, so not very important, but it's bugging me. The company logo (lower left corner) looks familiar, but I'm not good with off-brand logos; I'm hoping someone will recognize it. (It we can locate a manual for it, so much the better; I'm not up to playing with it to work out what the switches do!) Noel

5 years, 2 months

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Old mainframes in Finland

by sales＠elecplus.com

I received permission to share this link. These are in a personal collection in Finland. Don't drool too hard :-) https://imgur.com/gallery/7TKl5YH -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

5 years, 2 months

9
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Remote job submission from PDP-11

by petermallan＠gmail.com

Hi folks, I am looking for the following software products for a PDP-11, ideally to be run on RSX-11M. RJE/HASP 2780/3780 Protocol Emulator My aim is to be able to submit a remote job from a simulated PDP-11 on simh to a simulated IBM/370 on Hercules. The products that I mentioned seem the obvious way to do this, but anything that works would be helpful. Cheers Peter Allan

5 years, 2 months

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8 inch floppy head pad adjustment

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

I've not worked on 8" floppy drives, but have on tons of 5.25" single- sided drives. Older single-sided ones (usually 35-track from the 70's) had load solenoids for the pressure pads, as with a double-sided unit. The pad is to provide good contact between the media surface and the head beneath. I think older media must have ablated more than latter- day media does, as it is rare to find a single-sided 5.25" drive with a load solenoid. The pad is always in contact whenever the drive door is closed. Double-sided drives of course retained the head-load solenoid for some years, but eventually those were done away with. So, I think that unless you are using a drive 24/7, a pad in contact with the disk should not be a serious concern. That the pad IS properly in contact is important of course, and pads should be inspected to see that there is enough 'meat' left on them to provide the pressure needed. Aft of the pad, at the base of the head-sled pressure arm is a notch into which the end of the spring rides. Close examination of the sled will probably show some higher and lower notches into which you can move the end of the spring, to provide more or less pressure as needed, to tune a particular drive. In the old days, someone running a drive on a BBS or other heavy application might wear a pad out. We'd just steal one from a cassette tape and stick it on the arm. The cassette tape pad was square and the originals were round, but it never seemed to make any difference. These days there are no cassettes floating around to cannibalize, so I buy felt pads for furniture from Amazon, trim them with a razor and stick them on a drive I'm refurbishing. Atari, Commodore, Tandy... Many of the 80's 8-bits used this very scheme on their single-sided drives and this solution is good for all of them. I had someone insist to me recently that the felt pads I was buying were acrylic and the originals were Rabbit Hair and that it was crucial that the replacements be made of rabbit hair. In practice, and that is 40 years of practice, any old pad will do just fine. If it looks like the right thing it will serve the purpose. Just pick off the old nub of a pad and stick on your newly cut one and go. Common faults I've been noticing are that disk drives made in the 70's, 80's, and 90's are failing in common ways. I attribute these failures mostly to lack of lubrication. After 30 years they get a bit gummy and the actuators have to work harder to move the head sled, which puts a greater load on the darlington drivers which power the actuators, which causes the drivers to fail. Replacing the drivers will often restore the drive to working order, but they will fail again in short order if the original probelm is not resolved. I simply clean the rails and stepper bands, touch a little wd40 to the rails to free the head sled, cycle the head back and forth a buncha times manually to exercise it and distribute the lubricant, then follow that will a little white lithium grease for a longer-lived lube. Not only will the drive run better and a lot quieter when lubricated, the loads on the actuators and their associated electronics are greatly reduced, making for a like-new drive. The second thing that is happening quite often is electrolytic capacitors are failing, leaking or not. I had a pair of drives the other day which made quite a racket when spinning free even without media installed. Replacing the electrolytics on the spindle motor's board got rid of the noise and made it possible to properly tune the RPM's, which had been just all over the map. best, Jeff

5 years, 2 months

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Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E?

by mosst＠SDF.ORG

> Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2020 02:29:46 -0400 > From: Bob Vines <bobvines00 at gmail.com> > To: cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E? > I don't have a TU56 & TD8E _yet_, but really hope to get one fairly soon -- > if successful, they will most assuredly require troubleshooting & repairs. > Where did you find the source for TDFRMT? Also, where did you find the > MAINDEC document that matches your version of the TD8E MAINDEC? I ask > because I've had _great_ difficulty finding MAINDEC docs that actually > match whatever MAINDEC images I've tried to use. Bob, The source for TDFRMT, as well as the rest of OS/8 can be found here: https://tangentsoft.com/pidp8i/file?name=src/os8/ock/CUSPS/TDFRMT.PA https://tangentsoft.com/pidp8i/dir?ci=tip&name=src/os8 Several versions of the TD8E MAINDEC can be found here: http://so-much-stuff.com/pdp8/software/maindec.php Only one of them has a PDF, and I haven't checked to see if they fully match up with the binaries, but the starting addresses of the tests I'd been checking at least seem to match up with the DHTDAB.DG binary found here: www.pdp8.net/pdp8cgi/os8_html?act=dir;fn=images/os8/diagpack2.rk05 Regards, -Tom mosst at sdf.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org

5 years, 2 months

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Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E?

by bobvines00＠gmail.com

> > Message: 8 > Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2020 05:59:40 +0000 (UTC) > From: Thomas Moss <mosst at SDF.ORG> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E? > ... > I've recently bought a TU56 for my PDP-8/e, and am looking for some > advice on getting it to work. > ... > ... I found a copy of the source for TDFRMT so I could see what > exactly was causing the "SETUP?" error. > ... Tom, I don't have a TU56 & TD8E _yet_, but really hope to get one fairly soon -- if successful, they will most assuredly require troubleshooting & repairs. Where did you find the source for TDFRMT? Also, where did you find the MAINDEC document that matches your version of the TD8E MAINDEC? I ask because I've had _great_ difficulty finding MAINDEC docs that actually match whatever MAINDEC images I've tried to use. Thanks, Bob

5 years, 2 months

2
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Remote job submission from PDP-11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ethan Dicks > a DEC sync serial board since that part is nowhere to be found right > now. I dunno, I see them fairly often on eBait (well, often compared to some other things, e.g. TU56 parts... :-) QBUS or UNIBUS? And there are lots of different ones, which I confess I don't fully understand the difference between (e.g. DP11, DQ11, DU11, DUP11, DV11) - some of it's single-line/multi-line, and DMA/programmed I/O, but from what few details I looked at - while doing: http://gunkies.org/wiki/DP11-A_synchronous_serial_line_interface http://gunkies.org/wiki/DUP11_synchronous_serial_line_interface there are also differences in exactly which protocools are supported, etc, etc, etc, etc. Noel

5 years, 2 months

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Remote job submission from PDP-11

by dave＠mitton.com

>Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2020 11:29:43 -0700 >From: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> >Subject: Re: Remote job submission from PDP-11 > >On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 11:04 AM Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote: > > > > > On Oct 7, 2020, at 12:06 PM, Glen Slick via cctalk > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > > > ... > > > I was curious about this DEC M8704 DMS11-DA that sold cheap a few days > > > ago. It has eight SMC COM5025 "Multi-Protocol Universal Synchronous > > > Receiver/Transmitter USYNR/T" chips: > > > > > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/373243388363 > > > > > > Apparently it can't do anything on its own. It needs to be connected > > > to a UNIBUS through a companion KMC11 processor board, which might not > > > be too common if someone wanted to put together a working > > > configuration. > > > > That model number isn't familiar. > > > > A KMC-11 is simply a microprocessor that sits on the Unibus and > does Unibus cycles to another device on behalf of the host. The > idea is to offload operations so the host can ask for block > transfers and the KMC does the individual character I/O operations needed. > > > > That said, it clearly is not correct that "it can't do anything > on its own". The KMC-11 reaches into the device via its Unibus > CSRs. If you can find a description of its operation, or reverse > engineer it, you can clearly write a device driver for it that > doesn't rely on a KMC-11. > > > > paul > >Well it does appear that M8704 DMS11-DA "can't do anything on its own" >directly through the UNIBUS. From a quick visual inspection it only >has power and grant continuity traces on the card edge connectors. The >connection to the controlling KMC-11 is through the 40-pin Berg >connector. So without a KMC-11 an alternate interface through the >40-pin Berg connector would be needed. My first job at DEC was to release the KMC-11 Programmer's Tools support for RSX-11. (I didn't write them from scratch, two other engineers did that, but I did do final debug and QA) We provided two firmware kit products; the CommIOP-DUP and DZ, which controlled the DUP-11 and DZ-11 respectively. The KMC-11 could do NPR bus transfers to/from the devices, and the CommIOP-DUP firmware could do Bisync or X.25 type framing so that you got an RSX-11 driver with a packet interface, vs byte at a time. The CommIO-DZ firmware provided various customizable state driven things as you might want for a line driven terminal concentrator. I'm pretty sure the packages came with the "source" code, so you could customize it if you could understand it. The DMC-11 did DDMCP support and was basically a KMC with ROM in the control store. And it did use that external connector to the proprietary network interface card, DMC-11DA. In later years, I wrote and released a KMC Tools package for VMS-11. That came with a VMS DMA LP-11 line printer driver I authored. I don't remember if the CommIOP tools were supported. Some VMS engineers didn't like these products. (another story) (That didn't stop the Lab products guys in Marlboro from using them for their applications) There was a later version called the KMC-11B which doubled the memory and probably ran faster too. It was the same board as the DMP-11 product which was an improved version of the DMC-11. These were quad Unibus boards. In the Q bus world, there was a 6502 based I/O processor card developed (outside of Networks) (as one-chip micros became available) as well. I have a KMC-11 Programmer's Manual here... I think you'll need a print set to figure out that connector. Dave.

5 years, 2 months

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Books I no longer need

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

So far, two people have asked for "Varian Data 620/i Systems Computer Manual." So that I don't have to decide who gets it, I've put it on EBay for a7- day auction with a starting bid of $0.99. https://www.ebay.com/itm/224184671124 id="-x-evo-selection-start-marker"> Van Snydervan.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 2 months

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IBM 1130 simulator

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

In about 1974, for my senior undergraduate project, I wrote microcode to convince a Varian V70 that it was actually an IBM 1130. Being substantially more modern hardware, it was much faster than a real 1130. If anybody wants microcode and flow diagrams, and listings for the I/O simulation (which ran in 620/f mode), I'm happy to send them. Van Snyder van.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 2 months

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Books I no longer need

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

So far, two people have asked for "Programming HP 21MX Computers." So that I don't have to decide who gets it, I've put it on EBay for a 7-day auction with a starting bid of $0.99. https://www.ebay.com/itm/224184669206 It has a cheap "perfect" binding, and it's 3-hold punched, so it could be disassembled and scanned, but I don't want to be the one who does this. Van Snyder van.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 2 months

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Finnish museum needs financial help

by sales＠elecplus.com

https://pt.gofundme.com/f/exhibition-of-agora-computing They really need donations so they can get going again. Can anyone help? -- Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 direct

5 years, 2 months

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Microsoft C 6.0 manuals

by tomas＠basun.net

Hi again, Am also looking for the manuals for Microsoft C 6.0, preferably in a digital format. /Tomas

5 years, 2 months

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Handheld systems archive CD-ROM

by tomas＠basun.net

Hi all, Am wondering if anybody knows how to find a copy of the "Handheld Systems Archives CD-ROM" that was sold through the domain cdpubs.com 20-30 ywars ago. /Tomas

5 years, 2 months

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Tips on reviving a TU56 + TD8E?

by mosst＠SDF.ORG

Hi All, I've recently bought a TU56 for my PDP-8/e, and am looking for some advice on getting it to work. Over the course of a few weeks I fixed odds and ends with the drive (motor run capacitors, damaged wires, transistors, etc.), and for a few days the right drive worked very reliably. I could read existing tapes, write to them, and format fresh tapes. (A write-up to this point is here: www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?76935) (A good source for new motor run capacitors: https://www.ebay.com/itm/142631210678) However, this changed when I wrote a file to an existing tape, only to find that the directory structure had somehow been corrupted in the process. Out of curiosity I mounted a scratch tape that I knew I could format before and tried to format it again, the result was a BLOCK NUMBER ERROR PHASE 4. When running the TD8E MAINDEC it's apparent why - when set to display the block number in the accumulator for the tape I tried to format, every third bit appears to stick or glitch out. The tape I think I corrupted however appears to count up and down the blocks correctly. (Video here: https://streamable.com/bh8f7p) I tried swapping the G888s around to see if it made any difference, but nothing changed. I then turned my attention to the cabling and the TD8E. Somewhere along the line things got worse, and now running TDFRMT just results in a "SETUP?" error when trying to format a tape. I've tried running the TD8E MAINDEC (DHTDAB), and managed to get it to pass the following tests: -Operator Intervention -Data Register -Command Register -Initialize -SDLC, SDLD, SDRC, and SDRC and AC Clear -Single Line Skip Instruction and Logic Test -Quad Line Skip Instruction and Logic Test However, once it reaches the Timing Error Skip Instruction and Logic Test, it fails with the following: >TIMING ERROR SKIP INSTRUCTION AND LOGIC >TIMING ERROR STATUS BIT NOT SET IN COMMAND REGISTER > >TIMING ERROR DOES NOT CLEAR WRITE FLIP/FLOP I also found some tests that check the Data and Command Registers by accepting input from the switches and displaying the result in the MQ. These work fine, although though doing so I discovered that I had stuck bits on the MQ on one of my Major Registers boards. I swapped with a spare for now and will look at that later. Lastly I found a copy of the source for TDFRMT so I could see what exactly was causing the "SETUP?" error. I noticed there's several things that can cause that error (the JMPs to ERCHK), so I replaced the first JMP ERCHK with a halt and sure enough it did halt there. /SEE IF THE DRIVE IS OK 003224 6774 RSTSM, SDLC /LOAD CR TO CLEAR TIMEING ERROR 003225 6775 SDLD /LOAD DATA BUFFER TO CLEAR S Q FLAGS 003226 1162 TAD DT0400 /SET WRITE 003227 1027 TAD DTA /GET UNIT 003230 3257 DCA SAV /STORE IT AWAY 003231 1257 TAD SAV 003232 6771 SDSS 003233 5232 JMP .-1 003234 6774 SDLC 003235 1257 TAD SAV 003236 6774 SDLC /LOAD THE TRANSPORT 003237 6776 SDRC /READ THE COMMAND REGISTER AND CHECK IT 003240 7006 RTL 003241 7004 RAL 003242 7500 SMA /CHECK WRITE TO BE SET 003243 5260 JMP ERCHK /WRITE IS NOT SET <<<---Halts here if changed to HLT. 003244 7004 RAL /CHECK WLO 003245 7510 SPA 003246 5260 JMP ERCHK /WLO 003247 7004 RAL /CHECK SELECT AND TIMING ERROR 003250 7710 SPA CLA 003251 5260 JMP ERCHK /SELECT OR TIMING ERROR 003252 4777' JMS NUDTA /CHECK OTHER DRIVE IF ANY 003253 5213 JMP RSTSM-11 /CHECK OTHER DRIVE 003254 5655 JMP I .+1 003255 1400 STMK 003256 0000 CNTERL, 0 003257 0000 SAV, 0 Does anyone have any hints on what I should check from here? Regards, -Tom mosst at sdf.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - https://sdf.org

5 years, 2 months

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8 inch floppy head pad adjustment

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Working on cleaning up my RX02 drives: I've taken the 8 inch floppy units out of the case/chassis and have been cleaning dust and such off the whole assemblies. One thing I noticed: There is a pad opposite the head that comes down when a solenoid is energized to provide pressure against the read head. Makes sense, it also has a pad that presses against the floppy disc itself, probably to keep it from jittering. However I noticed on both heads that the bracket is adjusted all the way down. This means that even when the solenoid is not energized the head pad is pressing against the disk and pushing the disk against the head. Is this normal? I would think this would result in the floppy always being pressed against the head and quickly wearing out the disk. The whole point is to let the disk float against the head, only letting the pad push things into contact when doing a read. Do I have this right, and is adjusting that that assembly proper when the pad puck is not touching the disk when up, but is touching it when down? C

5 years, 2 months

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Books I no longer need

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

I have some books I no longer need. Is this a good place to offer them? WordPerfect Wiorkbook for IBM Personal Computers Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 User's Guide and Reference Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Getting Started WordPerfect Version 6.0 DOS Reference (along with a CD) WordPerfect Add-Ons Catalog WordPerfect Software Product Catalog WordPerfect Version 6.0 DOS Getting Started for the New User WordPerfect Shell Version 4.0 DOS User's Guide WordPerfect Version 6.0 DOS Learning WordPerfect WordPerfect for UNIX 7 Installation and Administration Guide WordPerfect for UNIX 7 User Guide WordPerfect for UNIX 7 Clipart Guide Van Snyder van.snyder at sbcglobal.net

5 years, 2 months

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Apple Lisa Software List

by seanellis9＠gmail.com

Hey all, the past couple of weeks I've been working on compiling a list of all known Lisa software, and trying to determine if it was for the 1 or 2, if it ran on Office System, XENIX, UniPlus, etc. and the dumped status of each title. If anyone's got any tips or pointers, let me know and I'll get the list updated. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1STG0Le_8dMHRLf026x6YfXzRQm2hD0igeZV…

5 years, 2 months

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Vintage 1976 Digital Computer Controls, Inc. D-116 Computer Maintenance Manual

by microtechdart＠gmail.com

Just wondering if anyone here might have been the winning bidder on this one... https://entrex480.blogspot.com/2020/10/vintage-1976-digital-computer-contro… https://www.ebay.com/itm/284026555447 -- Best always, AJ Palmgren http://Entrex480.com

5 years, 2 months

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