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

Anyone have a copy of XXDP for the PDP-11/40?

by RichA＠vulcan.com

We are having an issue (a progressive issue, at that), with the PDP-11/40 front end in our DECSYSTEM-2065. There are no diagnostics for the front end on the diagnostics pack (KLAD), only a couple of programs for formatting an RP06 disk pack. All other PDP-11 programs on the KLAD are tests for the main processor's hardware prior to loading microcode and running PDP-10 programs to test it further. The PDP-11 diagnostic suite, collectively called XXDP, comes in different variants based on the actual processor (or processor family). We happen to have a set of XXDP diskettes for the 11/34, but that chokes (as one might imagine) on an 11/40. So. Does anyone on the list happen to have a copy of the 11/40 version of XXDP? We would very much like to borrow and duplicate it if you are willing to allow us to do so. Thanks, Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Vulcan, Inc. 505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104 mailto:RichA at vulcan.com mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

13 years, 11 months

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"RTTY Electronics" - Teletype Machines, Parts and Service

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Recently stumbled-upon this guys website who lives in El Sobrante, California (near San Francisco). He has "literally 100,000's of Teletype parts, some new, organized, indexed, and available for purchase by Teletype restorers, rescuers, and users of Teletype machines of yesteryear." http://www.johnwhitney.com/misc/paul-rtty.htm

13 years, 11 months

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Anyone have a copy of XXDP for the PDP-11/40?

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

I think you could use SIM-H with the image on bitsavers to create floppy images with the files you need for your machine. Then maybe you could transfer the images to real floppies using VTserver... I did so with my 11/23... Andrea

13 years, 11 months

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Regarding SATA vs. SAS/FibreChannel

by fraveydank＠gmail.com

As long as we're on the subject, here's an interesting article I saw just today about the performance and data safety aspects of SATA vs. SAS/FibreChannel/SCSI disks. http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2367378 It's by Marshall McKusick, who is a man who ought to know his filesystem and disk stuff. For those who don't like going to web articles, it basically boils down to the fact that while SATA is perfectly capable of supporting proper tag queueing, most bottom-dollar drives don't and basically all other higher-end transports (including SAS, FibreChannel, and parallel SCSI) do. There's a lot of other neat stuff in the article, but I thought it might be interesting while we're bashing PATA and giving SATA a "meh" around these parts. - Dave

13 years, 11 months

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ASR-33 on eBay in Melbourne

by thrashbarg＠kaput.homeunix.org

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Teletype-ASR33-/160878867797 $50 at the moment. Just a heads up. Alexis.

13 years, 11 months

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Origins of term "laptop" computer was Re: Bill Moggridge

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 9 >Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 17:37:01 -0400 >From: Evan Koblentz < evan at snarc.net > > >Osborne never did ship a battery, though. Wrong! See my previous post (I have one). Bob

13 years, 11 months

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Origins of term "laptop" computer was Re: Bill Moggridge

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 2 >Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:01:11 -0700 (PDT) >From: Fred Cisin < cisin at xenosoft.com > > >On the Osborne 1, Lee Felsenstein designed in a connector for external >battery power! ?When queried about how large the battery would be, Lee Measuring mine (including case) , it's a bout 155mm wide x 115mm deep x 190mm high, 3.6kg :-P Bob >answered, "How big is your CAR? ?It is not intended for portable use on >batteries." ? I thought that that interchange was on Computer Chronicles, >but I can't find it. >So, he wasn't competing for the "first ridiculous laptop" title. >(BTW, Lee was driving a 1977 Honda Accord) > >-- >Grumpy Ol' Fred ? ? ???????????????? cisin at xenosoft.com

13 years, 11 months

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Netscape 7.2 Mirgration

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I am currently using Netscape 7.2 under Windows 98SE. Has anyone any experience migrating all of the files to a 32 bit Windows XP? I have over ten years worth of e-mails and posts from previous versions of Netscape as well as the current version that I very much wish to retain as is. In addition, I just tested the Win32 variant (a 32 bit program, of course) of V6.0 Ersatz-11 under a 64 bit Windows 7. It seemed to work very well running at about twice the speed of an older system which was running under Windows XP. Does anyone have any experience in a migration of Netscape 7.2 to a 64 bit Windows 7 system? If Netscape 7.2 and Ersatz-11 can work well using a 64 bit Windows 7 system, then I may skip all the in-between OSs from Microsoft and go directly to a 64 bit Windows 7. I know that there are many (and much better systems) than Microsoft, but at 74 years old, I don't feel like taking the time and effort to learn them well enough to set up. My son will set up a system for me and I can just do the migration. I would much rather stay with RT-11, but I don't believe that it can do a reasonable job with e-mail, if at all. PLUS, under that 64 bit Windows 7 system, RT-11 running under Ersatz-11 has a speed of about 150 times a PDP-11/93. Jerome Fine

13 years, 11 months

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TRS-80 Model I

by dgy＠einfo-net.com

Anyone near N.E. PA interested in buying my TRS-80 Model I? -Dave

13 years, 11 months

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TI Microlaser toner, Netware books

by ray＠arachelian.com

While cleaning up, I found some toner for the TI Microlaser. (I no longer have the printer as it died a long time ago.) Also have some Netware books. Contact me off list if you're interested.

13 years, 11 months

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Anyone with a manual or repair reference for Corvallis Microtechnology (CMT PC-5) (pc5-eb)

by barythrin＠gmail.com

I'm not easily finding any good references to repair/disassembly for these PC-5 systems. They're a hand held computer that apparently has a minimal dos 5.0 load and an 8088? chip so it's "compatible" with already compiled programs you could technically transfer to it via the serial port and kermit protocol (one I have works and counts 640K ram which is amusing) the other just makes a horrid buzzing noise when plugged into a power source. Obviously I'm guessing the battery or a cap is shot inside but was hoping to look at some guide to repairing these. Unfortunately most of what I find leads to the fairly nondescript corvallis website which no longer references these units and certainly seems like they used to just have you ship them the unit and fix it for hundreds of dollars. Anyone play with one of these? This http://www.cmtinc.com/techhelp/pc5faq.html is pretty much the most information I've come across so far but nothing really about the insides. They have an ftp I looked briefly through but it also seems to concentrate on using the newer models and not anything regarding repair that I could find. Really I would think they'd have something somewhere on replacing the battery as an FRU but perhaps they weren't intended to be field replaceable? It seems like it was popular with folks doing geological and forestry studies. Certainly looks more like something you'd find in a warehouse than a home though.

13 years, 11 months

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Mr. Iam Primus

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

remember this post? --- On Sat, 5/1/10, Chris M <chrism3667 at yahoo.com> wrote: >? Also picked up a big huge square HP monitor. Don't know > the part # offhand, but has a datecode of 1984. First time > I've seen one of these. And I've seen a lot of monitors. I'm > sure I'm hoping in vain that it takes digital rgb. Awesome score! I've been looking for one of those for years. It's a fixed frequency analog RGB monitor, and was used by several flavors of workstations (IBM, SUN and HP, I do believe). Awesome picture on that thing. -Ian Strange for me to be asking you, but if you know what kind of monitor this is, and have specific details (scan rates preferably, digital or analog inputs), I would greatly appreciate it. Strange that I didn't provide the model number (this much distinguishes it from every other workstation monitor I've seen, it's a big burly rectangle), but it might be for the same reason I can't get to it now, it's buried, and very heavy, and I got no business lifting anything really. I'll get to it soon though. ?God I hope it's an early digital monitor. I plugged something into it before I buried it, and even the tech who I bought it from said he didn't get any positive results from it. I know I'm a goon. This I know.

13 years, 11 months

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to the gentleman w/gobs of 7220s, please send me a private

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

with your requested price and location.

13 years, 11 months

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multi-layer circuit boards

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

are you supposed to be able to tell just by looking at them if they have multiple layers? Assuming you have one w/multiple layers, and I guess I already know the answer, it's a huge headache to try and draw up schematics (or duplicate the artwork rather) w/only photographs of the top and bottom of the board? You'd need knowledge of the ic's, which isn't that huge a deal perhaps, being I'm questioning this w/regard to very standard ic's and glue. ?I want my APC back. I need to create copies of the cpu and disk controller cards. I don't have ready access to these. Each of these boards is nearly the size of a IBM 5150 mobo, so would it make sense that they are anything but single layer boards? And the APC had 2 video boards, each w/it's own pd7220. ?I got to find that yogi guy.

13 years, 11 months

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Selling AMT DAP 610

by rborsuk＠colourfull.com

Hi All, I'm interested in selling my AMT DAP 610 and I thought I would offer it up here first before ebay. Here's a quick pic http://www.borsuk.info/ebay/dap.jpg The unit is located in Port Huron, MI. 48060. I have a ton of manuals , software and even the Sun workstations that hook to it. I'm not giving it away but if you would like to shoot me over an offer I'm willing to talk. I'm unemployed right now and have been for the past couple of months so unfortunately I have to pair down some of my things. The DAP has been stored inside and I'm the second owner of it. Anyways, if anyone has an interest, please let me know. Rob Robert Borsuk rborsuk at colourfull.com Colourfull Creations http://www.colourfull.com

13 years, 11 months

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Surplus monitor

by kevenm＠reeltapetransfer.com

While cleaning up some, I've found I have an HP Monochrome Graphics Display E Ordering# D1181W Serial# 2919Y03783 pwr input CGA input (DB9 plug) about 19 lbs (plus packaging weight) If anyone has interest, $hipping cost only. Orem UT 84097 Keven Miller

13 years, 11 months

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Looking for schematics for Data General MV/4000 DC Power Supply

by tommie＠fox.se

Do any of you have the following schematics for a Data General MV/4000 DC (or MV/4000 SC or MV/7800 DCX): Modular Power Supply, part number 5 021847. This power supply is a 15 inch board and is probably used on other systems as well. 300 VNR module circuit board, part number 5 21838. The MV/4000 DC http://www.foxdata.com/blog/?p=702 Tommie Mademark My Data General blog: http://www.foxdata.com/blog/

13 years, 11 months

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Free TU80 tape drives

by doc＠vaxen.net

I have 3 DEC TU80 9-track drives that need to get gone. They are located in Austin TX and have been in storage since 2009. If you want them and can either pick them up, arrange to have them picked up, or pay for me to do so, they're yours. I would much prefer that they go as a set, but this beggar won't be choosy. Unfortunately, I need to dispose of them before September 24. I can no longer afford two storage units and that's the release date on the one that I'm closing. If nobody wants these drives, I'll have to scrap them. One was in fairly regular use until 2009, one other passed its internal diagnostics and tested good for read/write against the other at that time. The the plexiglas cover of the third one is broken and I never got around to replacing that so I've never powered it on. All three are in their original short racks. I have at least one Unibus controller and cable, maybe a couple of each, and a good handful of untested tapes with write rings. Doc PS - If you want the drives but can't pick them up before the 24th and are willing to pay a nominal amount on my storage until you can get here, we can work that out too. That's more a matter of "earnest money" than anything else.

13 years, 11 months

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which 8" drive are most likely to work w/a stock high density controller?

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

one other question - shouldn't it be relatively easy to write a program that recognizes another IBM pseudo compatible's MS-DOS format? If for instance you wanted to read NEC APC disks on a Canon AS-100. The Leading Edge Model M (fully peecee s/w compatible) tech ref manual states it not only can use quads but 8" drives. I forget the specifics, but it has an 8272/NEC pd765 (so does the NEC APC. Funny that the aftermarket board/5 1/4" drive set that I have for it uses a WD chip).

13 years, 11 months

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looking for an APC BBU/UPS 48VDC battery voltage, 220 AC, Don't need the batteries

by useddec＠gmail.com

If you have one please contact me off list. Thanks, Paul

13 years, 11 months

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Flippies (Was: Reading Floppies

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

that jig was later to become known as a nibble notcher. I still got mine. ------------------------------ On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 8:27 AM PDT Fred Cisin wrote: >On Mon, 10 Sep 2012, Jose carlos Valle wrote: >> I am curator of Museu do Computador, Brazil , Jose Carlos Valle >> Thera are 2 kinds of floppies an 360 kb and another in High density 1.2 Mb. >> But, with a tool, I cut a small hole at left floppy and I double the >> floppy. goes to 720 at total >> I have that tool in my Museu. > >Are you talking about a jig to modify a single sided diskette, so that you >can flip it over and use the other side as a single sided diskette? >(called a "flippy" disk) > >Are you just punching an additional write-protect notch (suitable >for Apple, Commodore, Atari) or are you punching an additional set of >index hole access holes? > >The first such jig that I'm aware of was sold by Don? French. >(sheet metal with tabs to hold the disk against) >The second one was the Berkeley Microcomputer Flip-Jig. >(plexiglass pocket jig) > > >-- >Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

13 years, 11 months

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Cambridge Digital 11/73 system questions

by jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com

Greetings; I have a Cambridge Digital "94/23-70S" that I'm trying to bring back to the land of the living, filled with cards I can find little information about. I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction. QBus cardcage with: Chrislin Industries CI-1173-EDC Emulex SU0210401 Technical Magic Inc 4S I think it's fairly clear the Chrislin is an 11/73 SBC, I know the Emulex is an SMD controller, and the 4S is a four-port serial card. I can't find manuals on either the Chrislin or the Emulex, and although I can't find a manual specifically for the 4S 4-port serial card, BitSavers has one for its bigger brother - the 8S 8-port card. Hopefully they're close enough. System also comes with a CPI tape drive (BY5A3-B) and an 8" Fujitsu M2312K. I'd really like some PSU pinouts so I can test it prior to plugging the cardcage in and seeing if it works. The boards are also covered in a fairly thick layer of mold, which is something I'm not used to seeing. Trying to decide what I can use to safely clean them - possibly Isopropyl, a QTip and some patience. Any help would be greatly appreciated; - JP

13 years, 11 months

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Reading Floppies

by cool1＠thecoolbears.org

Hey Everybody, Is there anybody in the San Francisco Bay Area that could create images of three 5.25" floppies for me? I think that they are 720k with 256 byte sectors, but I'm not sure. In any case, I've not been able to read them so far.

13 years, 11 months

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Bill Moggridge died

by evan＠snarc.net

>>> I'd be curious to see any examples of prior art. >> Although not exactly the same, Kay's "Dynabook" concept would surely be closely related prior art. No, I meant prior art of clamshell designs. If I wanted merely prior art of a laptop computer, then there commercial examples before the Compass, such as the Husky Hunter (1981). Beside, and as you noted, Dynabook is only a concept. Not to insult PARC, but you might as well have cited something from Star Trek.

13 years, 11 months

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DOS era chatterbot nonsense-generator

by fjkraan＠xs4all.nl

>> >> The basic patter of this program was to ingest text, mix it up, and >> emit >> something that sounds like the original, but turned into a word >> salad. >> Using a Shakespeare play and something from Ian Flemming as input >> files >> would result in stuff that looks like a Shakespearean spy thriller >> to >> varying degrees depending on how you set the input proportions. > Waffle? (http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-tools/the-waffle-generator/) Fred Jan

13 years, 11 months

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DOS era chatterbot nonsense-generator

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I'm trying to remember and locate a chatterbot program from the heyday of DOS. I think it was called "jabber". What made it particularly interesting is that you could feed three text files of stuff (like novels, scientific papers, etc) and then control the proportions of how much of each input file made it to the output. When all were set to zero, it would just emit "jabber" over and over. Google isn't particularly helpful in finding this. I'm getting false hits on the Jabber IM protocol and denial of service attacks. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

13 years, 11 months

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Kaypro PC ? == Micro 1

by dflowers＠gmail.com

I don't know if anyone is still interested in this. I have a Kaypro Micro1 with monitor and keyboard. It has a 10 MB hard drive and runs on MS DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. It has 2 3.5" floppy drives. I've never seen another one anyplace. Dave

13 years, 11 months

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68k Mac diagnostics?

by fraveydank＠gmail.com

Hello all, I have a Quadra 700 which I've mentioned before which is in a poor state. I've finally gotten it to power on with a replaced power supply, but it dies with the chimes of death at various points before and after the boot chime; it never appears to initialize the video. I'm aware that the Q700 is quite reliant on the monitor sense pins, so I'm using an Apple 12" RGB monitor that I've verified working on an Apple IIgs. Since I can't see any video (there is no activity on any of the pins on the monitor port, not even sync pins), I'm wondering if there's another diagnostic tool that can be used aside from building something to hook into the '040 PDS and attach to a logic analyzer. I suppose it would be too much to hope that it can be made to spit something out on a serial port? The fact that the chimes come at different points in the process, and that it seems to change when I poke things on the board, leads me to believe it may be beyond help, but if there's something simple I can do to check it out, I'd be glad to. I've already tried swapping out for a known-good '040 and removed all the RAM (so it runs on internal RAM) to no avail. - Dave

13 years, 11 months

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DOS era chatterbot nonsense-generator

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 20 >Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:36:52 +0100 (BST) >From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > >I remember an article in Byte about soemthing a bit like this. The word >'Travesty' is coming to mind, but I am not sure why. But I thought that >only took one input file and amy a piece of 'similar' text from it. > >-tony Byte, V9 No12, November 1984. Also at http://www.scribd.com/doc/99613420/Travesty-in-Byte Bob

13 years, 11 months

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Reading Floppies

by cool1＠thecoolbears.org

> > Is there anybody in the San Francisco Bay Area that could create images of > > three 5.25" floppies for me? I think that they are 720k with 256 byte > > sectors, but I'm not sure. In any case, I've not been able to read them so > > far. > > 1) Do you know what computer created them? > > 2) FM? MFM? GCR? (Sirius/Victor 9000?) > > 3) What have you triesd so far? > What messages do you get? > The difference between "General Failure" and "Sector Not Found" IS > significant. I believe that they were created on an OS-9 68000 (the Microware, not the Apple variety). I don't have the computer any more, just the floppies. I tried to image them. If they are what I expect them to be, then they would be 720k MFM. I've tried to read them with a 1.2M 5.25 drive, using fdutils, on a LINUX box, but I'm not sure that I've got my drive strapped to spin at the correct RPM. In any case, fdutils reports an error 40. I'm not sure that the hardware I'm using will even talk to a 720k floppy.

13 years, 11 months

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NEC APC 8" computer

by concad＠wwt.net

Hello, Found an old post. We have one with all software but no user manual. Do you know if any exist on PDF? Regards, Jerry

13 years, 11 months

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Why 'park' drive heads

by elson＠pico-systems.com

> From: Alexey Toptygin <alexeyt at freeshell.org> > So, what drives actually need to be 'parked'? My understanding was that if > you de-energize the spindle motor and the voice coil that positions the > heads and the same time, the heads will have plenty of time to retract and > lock before the platters slow down enough for the heads to land. Was it > only needed on drives that used stepper motors for head positioning? > Either way, in what technology generation and/or time frame did the > requirement go away? > Most drives today either have springs, aerodynamic forcers (wings) or extract energy from the spindle motor to send the heads to the park position. Still, landing the heads on the platters is a lot harder on them that lifting the heads like in the "old days". I've seen plenty of drives where the heads were WELDED to the platters by old head lube that had either degraded over time or spread from the landing zone to the rest of the platter. Not sure if they are still using that landing zone lube or not. Anyway, all drives that are supposed to be parked can be assumed to handle it autonomously when power is removed, for nearly the last 20 years. Jon

13 years, 11 months

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DECwriter II LA36 being given away

by Gary＠realtimecomp.com

________________________________ From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org on behalf of Tony Duell Sent: Fri 9/7/2012 5:15 PM Subject: Re: DECwriter II LA36 being given away >> I'm looking for a couple of keys for mine, If you end up parting it out, c= >> ould I get the R and X keys from it? >I would rather a complete machine was not parted out, not even an LA36 :-) > >Somewhere I have a lot of LA36 bits. I probably have a keyboard PCBm adn >could remove keycaps if you cna't get them any other waye. Aren't they >the same as VT100 keycpas? The keyboard is much the same design. I agree, and would not wish him to part one out. However, if the alternative is that he's going to send it to the scrapper.... Also, I don't believe the key caps are the same as the VT-100. If you get a chance, and have a spare KBD assembly, I'd be interested! Gary

13 years, 11 months

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DECWriter II LA36 being given away - Update

by corey＠electricware.com

The DECWriter II has been picked up. Thanks to all who replied. There were 5 replies which makes me glad I saved it from being thrown away. Thanks, Corey.

13 years, 11 months

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Hard-drive diagnostic program

by Hollandia＠ccountry.net

Will someone name a program that will do "checkup" on a hard drive, that could warn of an impending failure? Thanks, Kurt

13 years, 11 months

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cctalk delay?

by chrise＠pobox.com

Curious what causes a several day delay in mail getting out of classicmp.org? I typically see people's replies to postings other have made a day or more before I see the original posting. Postings about gear for sale or trade show up long after the gear is gone. What causes the bottleneck? How do some people see postings and are able to reply to them while some of us incur the delay? One example, Received: from huey.classiccmp.org (huey.classiccmp.org [209.145.140.19]) by azure.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 71DCC40A3E8; Mon, 10 Sep 2012 08:59:51 -0400 (EDT) Received: from huey.classiccmp.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by huey.classiccmp.org (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q8ACxGmi065486; Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:59:16 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org) Received: from billy.ezwind.net (host-209-145-140-29.ezwind.net [209.145.140.29] (may be forged)) by huey.classiccmp.org (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q88MpUSX042100 for <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; Sat, 8 Sep 2012 17:51:30 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from mc68010 at gmail.com) Received: from mail-pz0-f51.google.com (mail-pz0-f51.google.com [209.85.210.51]) by billy.ezwind.net (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id q88MpNgW039919 for <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; Sat, 8 Sep 2012 17:51:29 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from mc68010 at gmail.com) Received: by dajt11 with SMTP id t11so765659daj.38 for <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; Sat, 08 Sep 2012 15:51:23 -0700 (PDT) The mail was received at huey.classiccmp.org on Sat, 8 Sep 2012 17:51:30 -0500 (CDT) but then didn't move to the next step at huey until Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:59:16 -0500 (CDT) Not intending to bash anyone or anything here-- just wanting to understand the issue. Chris -- Chris Elmquist

13 years, 11 months

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Century Data Systems binders available

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello everybody, did some cleaning this weekend and it turned out that I had some duplicates of CDS Trident Series disk drive binders. Contact me, if you're interested in them, I give them away. For pick-up or I can send them, if you pay the shipping costs. I'm located in Germany. documents list: 76200-202 : Models T200 & T300: Installation & Operation 76200-400?: Models T200 & T300: Field Parts Catalog 76205-005 Rev3?: Models T25, T50, T80 Field Parts Catalog 76203-101 Rev1: Model T2000B: Exerciser Technical Manual Model T80 :schematics & logic, book 1/2 Model T300 :complete schematics & logic (twice of this one are available) Please contact me off-list. Kind regards, Pierre ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers : http://classic-computing.dyndns.org/?

13 years, 11 months

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DEC MS11-J (MOS memory) question

by lists＠loomcom.com

Here's a puzzler. One of the two memory boards from my PDP-11/35 is short four ICs. See: http://www.loomcom.com/projects/pdp11-35/ms11_j.jpg It looks like it was an 8KW board that was user-expanded to 16KW, and if I'm reading the switches correctly it was configured for starting address 000000. (The other 16KW board I have is configured to start at address 100000) Those four missing ICs seem weird, though. The other board is is fully populated. Were they just pulled before the PDP was trashed? Or is that a valid configuration? -Seth

13 years, 11 months

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OT: Does anyone have the need for...

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

All -- I'm trying to clear unneeded gear from my shop and I have the following three somewhat modern pieces of server hardware available to a good home. I'm just tripping on them so they need to go. * Compaq ProLiant PL1600 5U rack server. Dual Pentium 3 with 6-drive integrated RAID (86gb). Boot hard drive is bad (9gb SCSI). With some spare parts/rack stuff. I used this as one of my first servers in my house before I shifted to NAS and micro-servers. Great machine until the boot hard drive bit the dust?ran Windows NT Server then Windows 2000 Server. * Snap Server N4100. Early NAS RAID. 1U rack size. 4-drive/750gb. Works fine but has inter-operability issues with XP/Vista/7 (due to change in SMB authentication protocol I remember reading). Missing front faceplate (may be in the shop somewhere). * Sony AIT-162 16-tape AIT2 library (16x50g uncompressed). 2U rack size. Comes with tapes/bar code labels. I have the software somewhere. Worked the last time I used it but when the server died I changed everything around. Because of the size/weight, it would be pickup only from Nassau County, LI (11791). If anyone's interested, please contact me off-list and we can arrange something. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

13 years, 11 months

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Wanted: DEC PDP-8/A power transformer and backplane

by bobvines00＠gmail.com

In the 01 Sep 2012, cctalk Digest, Vol 109, Issue 1, Topic #2, Brenton Bryant wrote: "Recently I found an incomplete PDP-8/a and need the transformer and backplane to start working on it. If anyone has one or both then please let me know." What type of (incomplete) you PDP-8/A do you have? The power supply is different for the core vs. semiconductor memories and different backplanes used in these machines. There are three different power supplies available, depending on the backplane and the memory. The chassis you have should have a label telling what it is. The PDP-8/A uses the ?76? Power Supply AssembIy which includes: ?9192 Omnibus (10 module slots) G801? Power Supply Module (Semiconductor Memory) Power board Transformer AssembIy Line Set Operator's ????l The PDP-8?100, 8?400, 8?600, & 8?800 use the ?9?00 Chassis AssembIy which includes: ?9194 Omnibus (12 slots) G8016 Power Supply Module (Semiconductor ??????) OR G8018 Power Supply Module (Core ?emor?) Transformer AssembIy Line Set Operator's ????l The PDP-8?420, 8?620, & 8?820 use the ??8-? Expander Chassis AssembIy which includes: ?9195 Omnibus (20 slots) 2 G8018 Power Supply Modules (Core Memory) Transformer AssembIy Line Set Operator's ????l Power Distribution Assembly The above information is from the "PDP8A Minicomputer Handbook 1976-77." (http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp8/handbooks/MinicomputerHandbook_1976.p…) Paul Anderson *may* be able to provide what you need -- he had a PDP-8/A chassis available at the end of last year and it *may* have what you need (i.e., power supply & backplane). So, what (incomplete) model PDP-8/A do you have? Thanks, Bob

13 years, 11 months

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DEC module handles stampings and revisions

by chd＠chdickman.com

Does anyone know how to interpret the letters stamped on the side of DEC module handles? I remember reading that these were FCO and/or Revision marks, but can't find the reference any more. -chuck

13 years, 11 months

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DECwriter II LA36 being given away

by Gary＠realtimecomp.com

>From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org on behalf of Corey Anderson >Sent: Fri 9/7/2012 2:45 AM >If nobody is interested in the whole thing and wants parts only, I will consider >parting it out and shipping things at your expense. > >Contact me if interested and want pictures or more info. Corey, I'm looking for a couple of keys for mine, If you end up parting it out, could I get the R and X keys from it? Gary Gary at Realtimecomp.com

13 years, 11 months

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Supposed eBay "PDP-8/S" listing...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

I contacted the seller of item #200814830163 "Vintage Computer Equipment / Pertec T6840-9-45 U2 / DEC PDP8/S Digital Equipment" and asked that since I didn't see a PDP8/S in any of the pictures if one was included in the auction (per the description). Here is the seller's reply: "This auction is not for the PDP8/S (no PDP8/S included), but this is part of the PDP8/S equipment. Comparable Example: 1997 Ford Explorer / O2 Sensor / Oxygen Sensor Thanks for your interest, and good luck with your bidding!" It is highly unlikely (impossible?) that a slow PDP-8/S would have peripherals as such as two RK05's and a PERTEC 6840. Sigh.. Cheers, Lyle -- Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

13 years, 11 months

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DECwriter II LA36 being given away

by corey＠electricware.com

I recently rescued a DECwriter II (LA36) that needs a good home. I personally never used it, I merely saved it from being sent to landfill. It does have some yellowing to it, but other than dust and spider webs, appears to be in good shape. It has all its keys and the tractor feed and the carriage all move. I have not tried to plug it in. I collect Teletypes so I just couldn't stand the thought of this being tossed, thinking that someone out there would probably want it. If interested, it's yours. Otherwise it's going to be summarily recycled. I am not really interested in trying to ship it since I'd have no idea how to. I'd be willing to drive a little to help it find a home, but not more than 50 miles. I live in the Portland, Oregon area. If nobody is interested in the whole thing and wants parts only, I will consider parting it out and shipping things at your expense. Contact me if interested and want pictures or more info. Thanks, Corey.

13 years, 11 months

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Kaypro PC ? == Micro 1

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 25 >Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2012 11:55:13 +0100 >From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> > >On 7 September 2012 08:38, Jason T <silent700 at gmail.com> wrote: >> Interesting - that was an 8086 machine IIRC. Or am I forgetting that >> an XT could run Win 3.1? > >I am trying to remember if there was a magic incantation to get it to >start if you had an NEC V30 chip or something, but I am not at all >sure. I suspect that for an actual Intel 8086, Windows 3.0 was the >latest - and you still couldn't run in VGA mode. (You only got VGA if >you had an NEC V30; the VGA driver used 286 instructions.) > You are limited to Windows 3.0 or lower on a 8088, 8086 or 80186. Windows 3.1 dropped Real Mode support, so it needs an 80286 or better. I have run Windows 3.0 on a Poqet (8088) and HPLX 200 (80186) using the CGA drivers. Bob

13 years, 11 months

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booting RSTS-11

by bqt＠update.uu.se

On 2012-09-06 08:48, B M<iamvirtual at gmail.com> wrote: > > I managed to get RSTS-11 (circa 1974) installed on an RK05 drive for my > PDP-11/10. The M873-YA bootstrap loader does not seem to be able to boot > the disk. > > I can boot the drive via a manual bootstrap routine. > > I saw on a site that some bootloaders will refuse to boot a drive unless > the first byte is 240(8). On RSTS-11, the first byte is 300(8). > > Any ideas why the bootstrap card is picky? That's a way to try and protect you from booting random garbage. On some newer PDP-11s you can disable that check if you want to. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

13 years, 11 months

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Hard-drive diagnostic program

by Hollandia＠ccountry.net

Hi again, A program that I was sent long ago gave the following info for the drive I am thinking of: Read Hard Disk Parameters Copyright 1995, Sydex, Inc. All Rights Reserved. An AT controller was found For ESDI/IDE Drive 0: Cylinders 2358 Heads 16 Sectors/Track 63 Buffer Size 64K Total Sectors 2376864 Drive supports DMA Drive supports LBA Firmware Revision: 99C60LE7 Model Number: IBM-DPRA-21215 Serial Number: 1L47L4V2902 It is operated under DOS 5 and Windows 3.1. The drive does the same thing in Windows and in DOS. I don't know who has encountered the Commodore 1541 drive. Thise who have will recall the hammering noise it made at turn-on and also when it encountered a difficulty with a disk it was reading. The drive under consideration is, I think, doing the same thing. It periodically makes a noise that sounds like an impact. This noise is being encountered with increasing frequency; I wonder if the the drive is headed for a failure. I have other drives I can put in its place, if need be. I don't understand the reference to "popcorn"...what is the meaning here? Thanks, Kurt

13 years, 11 months

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OLD Sony Trinitron Monitor Problems

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I am still using a Sony Trinitron Multisacn E400 Monitor with a ten year old system. When I first boot the computer in the morning, the monitor manages to support normal boot operations (I use 1280 by 1024 as a standard pixel setting). But if another full screen window is used, the monitor will cut out in a manner I don't know how to describe - other than it stops all display. The simple solution is to power off, then on and I have been doing this for the past two months. I realize that with a ten year old (or perhaps older) monitor, it will eventually have to be replaced or repaired. The latter option is almost certainly NOT cost effective since I have neither the tools nor the knowledge to do the repair myself. I do have two questions: (a) Is there any possibility of either damage to the other components or even myself if I continue to use the monitor until it completely fails? (b) Is there any point in waiting 15 minutes (approximately) that the monitor seems to need to warm up completely to prevent the problem in the first place, i.e. will preventing the problem from happening by providing enough time for the monitor to completely warm up prolong the limited expected life of the monitor at this point? Any other comments would be appreciated, especially in respect of questions that I do not know to even ask. Jerome Fine

13 years, 11 months

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IBM 3494 Tape Library

by wackyvorlon＠me.com

The university I attend, University of Windsor, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada has an IBM 3494 tape library they are planning to get rid of. I was wondering if anyone on this list would be interested, if it doesn't find a new home it'll be going to the electronics recyclers. The machine is very big, and is in working condition. It won't be coming with any tapes, the tapes that are in it right now will be destroyed. If you're interested, let me know and I'll put you in touch with the relevant people. -------- Paul Anderson -- VE3HOP

13 years, 11 months

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booting RSTS-11

by iamvirtual＠gmail.com

I managed to get RSTS-11 (circa 1974) installed on an RK05 drive for my PDP-11/10. The M873-YA bootstrap loader does not seem to be able to boot the disk. I can boot the drive via a manual bootstrap routine. I saw on a site that some bootloaders will refuse to boot a drive unless the first byte is 240(8). On RSTS-11, the first byte is 300(8). Any ideas why the bootstrap card is picky? Thanks! --barrym

13 years, 11 months

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sortof-OT: bare metal R?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Joachim writes: >> The R? has gotten a mixed reception 'round here Al writes: > The problem I see with the Cambridge examples is students don't LEARN anything > about what they're programming on. They're given a bunch of magic recipes and > don't learn what they're for. What you end up with is what you > could have done with 10 lines of Z80 assembly talking to a terminal through a > UART, but in the example you have to make your own terminal, talking to a big > blob of USB stack and graphics coprocessor glue. It's ironic that it seems increasingly hard to do anything "bare metal" without a graphical UI IDE on a desktop and a USB stack on the "bare metal". I ran across this (probably inadvertent, possibly sly, but still funny and relevant) quote on Wikipedia: "By the late 1960s change was coming: as operating systems and programming language compilers evolved, software production costs were dramatically increasing."

13 years, 11 months

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Atlantic Research Comstate manual wanted

by greg_sz＠videotron.ca

Are you still lookin for thaat manual ? I have copy of manual of Interview Comstate 2 and Interview 4600. I can copy it and sent to you if you pay the cost. But they are much more sophisticated than Comstate 1 You should be capable to use it without manual is rather simple. If it works correctly. The manuals I mentioned are almost 1" thick each so cost may be significant. Let me know Regards Greg Szymsiak -- Using Opera's revolutionary email client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

13 years, 11 months

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VCF Midwest 7

by silent700＠gmail.com

Three weeks to go until the seventh annual Vintage Computer Festival Midwest! I am told there are still a few rooms left at the hotel for those coming in from out of town. Mention "Commodore Expo" for the $69/night convention rate. And of course, the show is free of charge whether you're there to shop, show or sell. September 22-23, 2012 in Lombard, IL (Western suburbs of Chicago, right off a major highway I-355) More information and updates at http://vcfmw.org

13 years, 11 months

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GNU and the BSD kernel

by lproven＠gmail.com

I am sure I've found reference to this in the past, but my Google-fu is failing me. IIRC in the fairly early stages of the GNU OS project, they looked at and considered using the kernel from BSD - 4.3 Net/1 or thereabouts, I think. I'm looking for more detail or a web reference. I've even found mention of them considering and discarding the UZI kernel, which is what Allison was mentioning in the thread about CP/M-compatible OSs the other day. Could anyone give me a pointer, at all? -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

13 years, 11 months

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sortof-OT: bare metal Rπ

by joachim.thiemann＠gmail.com

The R? has gotten a mixed reception 'round here, but here is something interesting: a tutorial of programming the thing (which makes this sort-of kinda on-topic) in bare-metal Assembly; including talking to the graphics chip as a plain bitmapped framebuffer and input from the USB port (the latter using a library, I think). I haven't received mine yet, but I really want to try that out... http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/freshers/raspberrypi/tutorials/os/ -- Joachim Thiemann :: http://jthiem.bitbucket.org :: http://signalsprocessed.blogspot.com

13 years, 11 months

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CP/M clones & compatible OSes

by jce＠seasip.demon.co.uk

> Any more CP/M-compatible Z80 OSs? ZCN on the Amstrad NC100 portable. Notable because the NC100 used the Z80 NMI, which you can't normally use on a CP/M system what with it being in the middle of the default File Control Block at 5Ch. So ZCN has to go through some elaborate gymnastics involving saving that byte of the FCB and sticking a RST instruction there instead. -- John Elliott

13 years, 11 months

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Mystery Motorola Chip SC80951S

by asc135＠gmail.com

Every so often, since the beginning of the "interweb," I've wasted a few hours scouring the vast stores of information for a glimmer of data on the Motorola SC80951S chip. All I find are the part pimps peddling them for sums which they'll only disclose if you file a formal RFQ. No datasheets or even a simple description of the part's function can be found anywhere. I amuse myself by wondering if I had somehow acquired some super secret component that played a crucial part in the downfall of the Eastern Bloc. Eventually reality kicks in and I realize it wouldn't have a Motorola logo on it if that was the case. So here I am, before what probably amounts to the most comprehensive brain trust in vintage compute technology, to ask if any of you folks know what this thing is. Here is a link to a photograph: http://www.aximel.com/files/SC80951S.jpg Though I could not focus close enough to get a picture of the wafer, it appears to have some regions that suggest an EPROM memory array, some smaller regions that might be SRAM, and various other complicated looking shapes that may just be a CPU of some sort. I'm mostly interested in learning what it is. But if you can find me a data sheet I'll gladly share half a dozen of them with you. :-)

13 years, 11 months

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6809 vs 6809E

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

Does anyone know if Motorola ever made 6809s that could function either as 6809 or 6809E depending on some external signal, or perhaps depending on how they were bonded out? The reason I ask is that I've been playing with an SBC designed around a 6809E. While working on writing the monitor on the first prototype, it died with what looked like a bad CPU. So I ordered a replacement, and while I was at it, ordered the parts to populate another board. Both the board with the replacement CPU and the other freshly populated board behaved the same way. After a little digging it appeared that the E and Q clock signals that should be externally driven for a 6809E were being driven by the CPU like for a 6809. I took a chance and rewired it like a 6809 and sure enough it's working now. But after numerous double checks, the chips definitely say MC68B09E/00TA6/HEQB0014. Has anyone seen anything like this? Did I end up getting a couple of chips that were mismarked? Is there a way to make them behave as 6809Es? Thanks in advance, BLS

13 years, 11 months

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Teletype

by dareckgorecki＠gmail.com

Hello. I'm looking for a teletype in ontario and was wondering if you could recommend someone here in Canada to speak with. Its a very peculiar interest and came across your thread. Any direction is of interest. Thanks.

13 years, 11 months

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Power supply capacitor tolerances

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- Working on recapping an old (failed) 5V supply in that Microkit machine I picked up last week; the main filter capacitor is rated at 16,000uF 15V, axial. So far in my searches an exact (or even close) match in an Axial form-factor seems to be unobtainium. I can find snap-in or screw-in types but those are going to be clumsy to retro-fit given the space it has to occupy. (plus they're pretty expensive.) How far off the original capacitance value can I stray before it compromises the original design? Thanks, Josh

13 years, 11 months

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Ideal storage conditions

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> So I finally have one of them fancy dehumidifiers that has a finely > adjustable humidi-stat in the basement to keep the collection dry. Required listening, the Traveling Wilburys "Cool Dry Place". > What's the ideal setting? I know too dry isn't a good thing, for neither > the collection nor my house. Right now I've got it set to 40% and it's > running pretty aggressively. My basement hovers between 55 and 60 degrees > Fahrenheit throughout the year, and the dehumidifier figures out relative > humidity for you. I think 40% is a little too aggressively low and my dehumidifier would run pretty much continuously May-September if I had it set that low. 60% is a better ballpark and only during the most humid parts of summer does my basement dehumidifier run more than a few hours a day. I will sometimes go as low as 30% setting during the summer but only when I want to demonstrate my Wimshurst machine :-) Tim.

13 years, 11 months

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Microkit 8/16 info?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Anyone know anything about the Microkit 8/16 computer? I just snagged one off eBay (item 390461957738) -- it looked too cool to resist. Looks to be from the mid-70s, 8080-based, and all I can find on the 'net is very basic information. Anyone have manuals or software? There were two others on eBay, but they appear to have been snatched up in the three minutes I spent composing this mail... - Josh

13 years, 11 months

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Teletype

by cfox1＠cogeco.ca

At 11:05 AM 02/09/2012, you wrote: >Hello. I'm looking for a teletype in ontario and was wondering if you could >recommend someone here in Canada to speak with. Its a very peculiar >interest and came across your thread. Any direction is of interest. Thanks. If you find two, please let me know. I am also looking for one. Charlie Fox Charles E. Fox 793 Argyle Rd. Windsor Ont. 519-254-4991 N8Y3j8 www.chasfoxvideo.com

13 years, 11 months

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COSMAC ROM file

by nick.allen＠comcast.net

Hi everyone, Does anyone have the ROM file for the COSMAC (boots into basic OS with ability to load/write to tape, etc). Which model PROM was used with the original COSMAC?

13 years, 11 months

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Intel multibus disk and ethernet manuals

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I finally turned up copies of the rare iSBC 215 disk controller and 522 ethernet controller manuals. http://bitsavers.org/pdf/intel/iSBC/144780-002_iSBC_215_Generic_Winchester_… http://bitsavers.org/pdf/intel/iSBC/122141-002_iSBC522_Ethernet_Hardware_Re… The 215 was the basis for the DSD/Qualogy board used in the SGI Iris. From memory, the guys that did the Intel board left and went to work for DSD (it is software compatible with the iSBC 215) http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dsd/040040-01_5215_UG_Apr84.pdf http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dsd/040069-01_5217_UsersAdden.pdf http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dsd/040074-01_6214-6217_UG.pdf

13 years, 11 months

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Wanted: DEC PDP-8/A power transformer and backplane

by john.ralb＠gmail.com

Recently I found an incomplete PDP-8/a and need the transformer and backplane to start working on it. If anyone has one or both then please let me know.

13 years, 11 months

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XT-IDE V2 PCBs are here!

by LYNCHAJ＠yahoo.com

Hi! The XT-IDE V2 PCBs have arrived! They are identical to the previous boards. http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showwiki.php?title=XTIDE+Rev2 They are $12 each plus $2 shipping in the US and $5 elsewhere. Please send a PayPal to LYNCHAJ at YAHOO.COM and I will send your board(s) right away. Thanks in advance and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch PS, please make sure to mention XT-IDE and your *current shipping address* in your PayPal. Relying on my frazzled memory is hazardous!

13 years, 11 months

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ISO Viewlogic Workview

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Someone is trying to look at some old schematics from around 1992 and asked me if I had a copy.

13 years, 11 months

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Micropolis 1203 Re: Reviving a PERQ 1a

by rickb＠bensene.com

The Micropolis 1203 has an epoxy encapsulated 16 pin (IIRC) plug that had jumpers in it that controlled low-level things like sector size and header information and some aspects of the transfers to the host. I believe that Tek used some non-standard settings in this plug for the 85xx MDP systems. Years ago I had a couple of these drives and wanted to make them work with a homebrew system that I had built. I had no success in making them work until I stumbled across some data on the drives on microfiche aperture cards at Tek that documented the nature of what was inside this encapsulated jumper block. Once I had this information, I was able to build a DIP header with jumpers in it that allowed me to make the drives work the way that the generic drive docs said they should work. It appears that Tek had ordered the drives in a non-standard configuration to lock folks into using Tek service and replacement drives. This could be why ex-8560 drives do not want to play nice with other computers like the PERQ. Sadly all of was many years ago and the specifics are long gone from my memory and the prints that I.got out of the aperture card readers that had the data about the plug were long ago thrown out. But, I figured that I would mention it here in that it may trigger more detailed information in someone's memory. Rick Bensene -----Original Message----- From: Al Kossow [aek at bitsavers.org] Received: Friday, 31 Aug 2012, 2:42pm To: cctalk at classiccmp.org [cctalk at classiccmp.org] Subject: Micropolis 1203 Re: Reviving a PERQ 1a On 8/31/12 11:42 AM, Tony Duell wrote: > What sort of drive is it? THe Microposls 1203 (8") was used in the 2T1, > the 1300 series (5.25") were used in soem 2T2s. > It is a 1203. I guess we need to keep an eye out for the 1203 manual, since it sounds like you don't have a copy either. I will probably need this at some point to try to figure out why the 12xx series drives out of the Tek 8550 aren't working. I'll have to look in my email to see if I can find the PAL equations you sent. Sometimes things get forgotten if I get busy dealing with other things.

13 years, 11 months

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Panasonic HHC technical information

by rrr_lopes＠yahoo.com.br

Hello, I'm trying to understand the intriguing Panasonic HHC. Does somebody have additional technical information beside the contents of the User's Manual? I'm particularlly searching for the SnapFORTH ROM image and manual, any hardware schematics, and the expansion connector pinout. I'm also trying to understand the Cassette Tape audio file format. Any information on that will be nice too. Ricardo P.S. Sorry about my limited English vocabulary and eventual (unnoticed) lack of politeness. I'm from Brazil and not English native.

13 years, 11 months

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Immutable standards (was Re: CP/M clones & compatible OSes)

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

>> I believe both units were made long befroe there _were_ CF or SD cards, >> so I don't see how they could have used them :-) > They were, yes, but then again, there are SD and CF interfaces for > earlier devices such as the ZX Spectrum now, so it is doable. >> Both have RS232 ports, don't they? Surely you can get text off them that >> way? > As I said - an /easy/ way to move data. As I have said before, to your > bemusement or incredulity, I really detest RS232 and have done for > about 25 years now. [...] I really like USB for this. I would propose, as an immutable standard medium for cctalk-relevant micros and some minis, neither SD, nor CF, nor USB. I would propose 110 Baud ASCII via 20mA current loop. Of course that starts off the religious wars as to whether that key in the left corner of the Model 33 ASR is properly labeled "ESC" or "Alt Mode". Tim.

13 years, 11 months

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Autofax Corp Imager, backup PC to VCR tape

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> I've got this old 8-bit ISA card on my "interesting to try out" list. > Corvus had a videotape backup and then later a device called the Bank, > but the processing for what hardware I saw was "dumb" just support > logic. The cpu of the PC did the heavy lifting. > The Bank used a corvus network node, I think to communicate, so there > was only a corvus net card in the backup server and software to support > the bank hardware. > I think Alpha Micro had a product too. Their surplus showed up here in > Orange County for a while when they crashed and burned but no software, > sorry, also they had no coprocessor either. And a little higher up on the mini scale, Digidata had a product called the "Gigastore" that was a VHS tape unit interfaced by a Q-bus card and a variant of the Pertec Formatted (two 50 pin cable) tape interface popular for 9-track and some other drives. I used and recovered data from these way back in the 90's. Tim.

13 years, 11 months

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Autofax Corp Imager, backup PC to VCR tape

by stephen.hunt＠iname.com

I've got this old 8-bit ISA card on my "interesting to try out" list. It's a z80 based "backup to VCR" card by Autofax Corp Imager. The only problem is I've got no software for it. Can anyone help? Interestingly, a dump of the eprom show the text "'MaBr[2.4] (C) 1983-Corvus Systems". Most of the references on the web for this are just adverts http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0...page&q&f=false http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0DsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=%22auto…

13 years, 11 months

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monitor arcing?

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

nicotine stained fingers? ------------------------------ On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 2:47 PM PDT Fred Cisin wrote: >> > dark powdery residue around power switch. 1986. Simple arcing or an >> > indication of something worse? >> It might also be dried up contact grease.Dwight > >grimy users? > > >

13 years, 11 months

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monitor arcing?

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

dark powdery residue around power switch. 1986. Simple arcing or an indication of something worse?

13 years, 11 months

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Wall warts (was Re: LPC1768 tiny terminal emulator)

by jonas＠otter.se

On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:28:07 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Of course wall-warts are country specfic in that the mains voltage and > conenctor are different in differnet countries. So I've probably never > seen a modern one intended for use in the USA and thus UL listed > > But the ones we get over here have no protective devices at all. No fuse, > no thermal fuse. If you are lucky, the resistors in a swithc-mode wall > wart are fusible, flameproof types. Most of the time they are not. In Europe, mains devices have to be CE-certified and display the CE mark. But the manufacturers certify themselves that their products are compatible with the regulations, nobody actually tests them unless it is necessary to prove that they do not comply, e.g. if a competitor reports them to the authorities as being non-compatible, or they are suspected of being the cause of an accident, or they are suspected of being fake. Devices made in China may show the "China Export" symbol, which is very like the CE mark and may be easily confused with it (= is meant to be confused with it?) http://www.icqc.co.uk/en/china-export.php but does not mean that the device complies with EU regulations. /Jonas

13 years, 11 months

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Forward Electronics KS1-NCD 123KEY SUN TYPE 5 Keyboard

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

Anyone have any experience with these keyboards? I'd be interested in knowing whether the differ significantly in feel compared to the standard type 5. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Forward-Electronics-KS1-NCD-123KEY-SUN-TYPE-5-Key… Thanks, Mark -- http://www.wickensonline.co.uk http://declegacy.org.uk

13 years, 11 months

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N8 PCB availability

by LYNCHAJ＠YAHOO.COM

Hi Only one of the N8 PCBs remain. Several builders have their and have them working. It is going well so far. Here are some photos of Martin's N8 build http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder <http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=N8-2312%20Mart in%20Lukasek> &param=N8-2312%20Martin%20Lukasek and some more general information here http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/page/54039670/N8%20announcement If you would like to get your own N8 PCB please contact me. I will be gathering up boards for another PCB order soon. The PCBs are $20 each plus $3 shipping in the US and $6 elsewhere. Please send me an email at LYNCHAJ at YAHOO.COM Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

13 years, 11 months

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Acorn Atom - more ebay craziness

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Of course, you know how using ebay for determining the market goes. First sells for exponentially more than common. Another turns up and watch it end at 57.00. ;-)

13 years, 11 months

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Wall warts (was Re: LPC1768 tiny terminal emulator)

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> For linear wall-warts, the transformer primary is _supposed_ > to burn out in a safe manner if the thing is overloaded. My > (accindental) experience is that they do not. The transformer > can get hot enough to soften the plastic case, but it does not burn out. I thought that many (most?) wall warts were "impedance protected". i.e. the winding resistance + inductance of the device is set such that thing might get hot and buzz in a short circuit but will not catch on fire. Like those small AC motor windings. Some folks think UL rating means that the device is reliable, or well engineered in some hypothetical sense, but really what it means is that it won't start a fire. Impedance protection is one of the reasons why unregulated wall warts have such high delta between loaded and unloaded voltage (often as much as a factor of two). They are designed with high internal resistance to provide the impedance protection.

13 years, 11 months

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Acorn Atom - more ebay craziness

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

http://search.ebay.com/251105620795 Hardly Apple I territory, but 1,100.00 GBP (~ 1700 USD) is an incredible amount for a home computer which occupied the middle ground: not as ubiquitous or famous as the Spectrum, C64, BBC micro etc., but not as rare or desirable as those which came before it (ZX80, Acorn System 1 etc.) It's not as though it's an early release or one of the ones sold in kit form. The lack of serial number on the case raises the possibility that the case and PCB weren't paired at the factory (which surely makes it non-original and a mongrel :-) I can't even begin to make sense of most ebay sales, but what do people think? Just someone with rather deep pockets? Or perhaps the seller buying it back themselves in order to create an inflated sense of 'market value' (and with the intention of re-listing it under a different account in a few months)? cheers Jules

13 years, 11 months

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MINC DECLAB23 complete system and documentation

by fgara＠comcast.net

Please find pictures of the MINC/DECLAB23 in my possession. I am interested in selling all, preferably, or part of the following: http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/2537/img0020lm.jpg http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/6893/img0022gu.jpg http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/7195/img0025n.jpg http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/4470/img0026tk.jpg Boards in the MINC DECLAB23 Chassis: DEC-LAB 1) MINCAG PREAMP 2) MNCAD A/D CONVERTER 3) MNCAA D/A CONVERTER 4) MNCDO DIGITAL OUT 5) MNCDI DIGITAL IN 6) MNCKW CLOCK CPU 1) M7954 2) M8043 3) M8014 4) M8013 5) M8044DC 6) M8044DH 7) M8186 Extras: SPARE 1) M7071 (Wave Generator) 2) M8659 The complete system includes: 1) VT-105 with Graphic Package 2) RL01 2-Bay Hard Drive (Cartridge Type) 3) LA 120 DECWriter III Terminal 4) All Original Manuals (RT-11 and DECLab23), all software Dispatch documentation 5) No. 20 Software Cartridge Disks, No. 3 New Cartridge Disks (all for RL01) For more information please send inquiries to fgara at comcast.net

13 years, 11 months

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The fall of CP/M?

by alanp＠snowmoose.com

On 8/27/12 10:00 AM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > On Mon, 27 Aug 2012, Jim Brain wrote: >> >Can you cite some sources for this position? Sources I have note that >> >Patterson wrote a new OS to go with the Seattle Computer Products 8086 >> >kit and used CP/Ms API to aid in porting apps, but the internals were >> >significantly different. If true, I'm not sure I'd call that a "port". >> >If so, then Linux is a "port" of BSD or ATT UNIX. > I will concede that "port" is a poor choice of terms. > Patterson wrote it as a placeholder. The intent was that they would go to > CP/M-86 when that was ready, and QDOS ("Quick and Dirty Operating System") > was intended as a temporary substitute until then. So, I'm hesitant to > call it a "new OS" > Could you at least spell Tim's last name correctly? It is 'Paterson'. And a recent code analysis indicates that QDOS was not stolen from CP/M - http://m.spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/did-bill-gates-steal-the-hear… If he didn't copy it from CP/M, why isn't it a "new OS"? alan

13 years, 12 months

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recreation of a nearly 30 year old environment.....

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

For those who are in an exploring mindset, try 'telnet nexus-core.xs4all.nl 10001' uid/pwd guest1/guest1 Ed -- Dit is een HTML vrije email / This is an HTML free email. Zeg NEE tegen de 'slimme' meter.

13 years, 12 months

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LPC1768 tiny terminal emulator

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Anyone know of any attempts to turn something like this into a tiny terminal emulator? http://www.ebay.com/itm/271016835321 It might also make a cute little simulated front panel for an emulator.

13 years, 12 months

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LPC1768 tiny terminal emulator

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>On 8/26/12 10:08 AM, Al Kossow wrote: > http://www.ebay.com/itm/190702111630 > > for example, is $75 (incl shipping) for a whole computer with 7" LCD > > What I was looking for was something really small to lug around when I have to stick > something on a serial port in the back of a rack. I haven't been following this thread too closely, but couldn't you use an HP palmtop (HPLX 200 or HPLX 95)? IIRC, Tony does that with an LX95. Screen is smaller than 7", but they are definitely something "really small" and easy to carry. Also, no need for external power, as they use 2 AA batteries. Bob

13 years, 12 months

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Ideal storage conditions

by jbmcb1＠gmail.com

So I finally have one of them fancy dehumidifiers that has a finely adjustable humidi-stat in the basement to keep the collection dry. What's the ideal setting? I know too dry isn't a good thing, for neither the collection nor my house. Right now I've got it set to 40% and it's running pretty aggressively. My basement hovers between 55 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year, and the dehumidifier figures out relative humidity for you.

13 years, 12 months

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DSDD in a Kaypro II

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I have a Kaypro II whos previous owner swapped the two full-height drives for a pair of half-height units and made the resulting space into a cubbyhole for disks and other things. Last time I had a good look at it, I thought the drives were double-sided. Was it possible to get double-sided drives to work with the Kaypro II? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

13 years, 12 months

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Netboot (Was: The best CP/M machine ever?)

by abs＠absd.org

On 23 August 2012 23:16, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote: [...] > True about the boot code, but the 9512 has a parallel port as well as > its expansion bus connector. > > I've got a serial port cartridge for mine, which I planned to hook up > to my VAXstation as a terminal - only the eBayer who sold me the > VAXstation kept not only the disk, but also the cradle and cable, > replacing which will cost me 30-40? the cost of the VAX. :?( Is it one of the models which uses a non-standard SCSI connection to the board? :/ You could always netboot the VAX and run it diskless (which may also drop the ambient noise by a couple of DBs depending on the vintage of SCSI drive you have :) Over the years I've been an enormous fan of netbootable hardware, including the 90's when I used to netboot, disk format and os re-install suns from another continent... Of course I'm currently using my VAXstation as a netboot and network file server rather than client, but I guess I'm just a little perverse like that... David

13 years, 12 months

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The best CP/M machine ever? was Re: Kaypro II

by FJGJR1＠aol.com

Totally agree, but not earlier !!! Incredible ! Frank In a message dated 8/27/2012 9:04:50 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, cisin at xenosoft.com writes: On Mon, 27 Aug 2012 FJGJR1 at aol.com wrote: > Kaypro / Non - Linear Systems [NLS] were very well run / well known > international companies, that also provided electronic instruments even to the > military & meeting their so very strict standards.. Great stuff. I also loved my NLS215 scope. As to "very well run", . . . how about the "circus tent inventory" issues?

13 years, 12 months

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DG Nova 3 front panel levers

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello. I have a Data General Nova 3 computer, unfortunately the front panel is missing all of the yellow plastic levers. Anybody has some spare to sell at reasonable price? In the case I cannot find the original levers, I could try to realize a mold to reproduce it using model-casting resins. I would need however some kind of mechanical drawings, or also some good picture made together with a ruler, so dimensions can be somehow measured on the picture itself. An idea could be to use a scanner as imaging device, as it will not deform the image, and to scan the lever, specially on the side. Anybody can help? Thanks in advance Andrea

13 years, 12 months

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The best CP/M machine ever? was Re: Kaypro II

by FJGJR1＠aol.com

I am late getting to these so voluminous threads on Kaypros and CP/M, since I was very busy on many other projects in retirement. But can add my ? two [2] cents from the extensive info I have, if you are interested. =============================================================== I was surprised I did not find a reference to _WWW.VINTAGE-COMPUTER.COM_ (http://www.vintage-computer.com/) site in these posts. A lot of what these threads presented have already been exhaustively explored on that site. In fact we have a very extensive ? knowledgebase on Kaypros? we developed there. As far as selling Kaypros, you are right, certainly less than $100, some for only shipping, since they weigh almost 30 pounds because of the metal case and many for free + many just going to the dumpster. That site has a ?free? [what a nice ?F? four letter word !] marketplace for sales / buying a lot of vintage items. I think eBay does not hit the specific ?target group? for vintage computers like this site does. But you get a lot of global exposure sure + scams that would be quickly exposed on the vintage site.. You just can do a search of that site for a great deal of specific information on so many related topics. Comparing vintage computers to modern ones may be like comparing the ever so popular Ford Model T?s for the commodity market at that time to modern cars today. I have a free download of just a ? draft ? of my extensive book on the early vintage computer era, including Osborne, Kaypro, etc. and many related topics. My presentation at the 2008 Trenton Computer Festival is based on that book and is on their Festival CD. ================================================================= If you want to use just ? sales ? for determining the best, no other computer is even close for the market segment the Kaypro was specifically designed for ? very large common market personal, portable computer ?complete ? - all you needed right out of the box, including software, for a reasonable price ? ?the ordinary computer user ? ? a commodity product. There were many others, but much smaller, less popular and did not last long. ============================================================== Simply, the issue was ?hypergrowth? that is the title of Osborne?s book. Production for both very popular Ocbornes and Kaypros was one shipped every 5 - minutes ? many already paid for and long backlogged ! CP/M was ?the? system at that time, until Gates came along. The real big factor was Compaq ?legally cloning? the IBM system, including the ever so important operating system. Briefly, in the last year before bankruptcy, despite their incredible best efforts, Kaypro lost 89% of their sales and Compaq set a record of $12 million profit of any computer company at that time. Game over ! A new era of computing took off ? I use the image of the? relay race ? ? passing the baton of success to the next better competitor. ? Very bitter memories ?s of such times for many ! But little could be done. Lifespan of many sci ? tech companies is just very short as better products by others continue to evolve ? e.g. evolution ? survival of the fittest =================================================================! Kaypro / Non - Linear Systems [NLS] were very well run / well known international companies, that also provided electronic instruments even to the military & meeting their so very strict standards.. We continue to discover many incredible Kaypros in countries around the world ? specific country names are even on the back panel - how about the German Kaypro with German language on the Kaypro screen ! Many stories to tell. The all metal, practical & well designed case is one reason Kaypros are still around.. You can even stand on them ! The basic case design did not change very much thru all their CP/M models. This is all part of many patterns of my decades of STS ? NSF research [Science, Technology & Society ? National Science Foundation partial funding].. We are seeing it so dramatically today in so many global ways ? HP, Dell, Lenovo, IBM, Mircrosoft, Apple, etc .just in computing alone. A great time of ferment / change, etc. ! Very expected & predictable. The issues are simply better understanding and managing the process, so you can apply it to your everyday lives. Eventually as downsizing / cleaning out in retirement of a very successful, productive, wide ranging career [ never could have ever dreamed of !], my six [6] Kaypro ?8?s ? will be put up for auction as ?packages? with much extra parts, software, accessories, etc. Whatever they bring, that is the then ?fair market value? ? at least they will not go to the dumpster. I will well promote these auctions so all seriously interested can bid. Best might be a ? group ? who would then just ? part them out ? for those seriously interested. I do not have the time with all my STS-NSF research. So all the best in your continued vintage computing exploration. Frank P.S. Post as GADFRAN on above web site. Just do your own research and post it for the benefit of us all ! There is no ? one ? right answer, but many depending on many factors to such complex issues with so many ?tradeoff? that depend on so many other issues. In a message dated 8/25/2012 9:18:55 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, ajp166 at verizon.net writes: On 08/25/2012 05:22 AM, Rick Murphy wrote: > At 11:14 AM 8/24/2012, Allison wrote: >> David Gesswein wrote: >>> On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 12:21:57PM -0400, Allison wrote: >>> >>>> Unlike many when CP/M came about in the mid 70s I'd experience >>>> with OS/8 and TOPS-10 and wished that CP/M was more. >>>> >>>> >>> I haven't used CP/M. What was the significant items that were better >>> about OS/8 than CP/M? I had thought they were similar in capability >>> (and even shared some command names). >>> >> The biggest difference was OS/8 was multi-task/multi-user. > > OS/8 on the DEC PDP-8 was most definitely single-task, single-user. > There were other PDP-8 operating systems such as TSS-8 (EDUsystem-50) > which were multi-task/multi-user, as well as time-sharing systems that > were multitasking. > > You may be thinking about the fact that OS/8 could be run as a > background job as part of RTS-8. > Indeed it can and also under TSS-8. >> It also existed and was more powerful than CP/M years earlier on >> a CPU (PDP-8) that was more primitive. > > I don't know how anyone could call OS/8 more powerful than CP/M. OS/8 > was a very, very simple system. > So Is CP/M. > OS/8 does just a few things: it allows you to read/write files, has a > command decoder, and a keyboard monitor (command line). It has no > services for critical things like console terminal input/output, has a > rudimentary file system, and basically doesn't do much. > And the difference is? > Now, if you replace the "OS/8" above with "RT-11" I'd be in agreement. > RT11 I could consider that almost true. Save for the file system is actually more primitive as it cannot do scatter gather and CP/M does. A partially used RT11 disk with deleted files needs to be compacted to get back the large contiguous spaces same as NS* dos. But it does many other things very nicely. Allison > -Rick > >

13 years, 12 months

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The best CP/M machine ever? was Re: Kaypro II

by barythrin＠gmail.com

To answer your question regarding an original altair price, an 8800 generally sells around $1800 to $3000 depending on what's included and if its shown to work. Quite expensive. I've heard Grant Stockly (hope I'm not missing an 'e' there) is also going to resume his Altair replicas. They're beautiful systems and exact clones but with that level of work it also demands a higher price tag. I think they were running around 1200? So vince's microaltair was a nice clone and smaller on purpose but also a more affordable price. I'm not sure if cpm was available for the apple 1 but thatd be another cheaper option is a replica-1 running cpm.

13 years, 12 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 108, Issue 47

by jce＠seasip.demon.co.uk

Tony Duell wrote: > Using the 8041 as a boot ROM would be problematic IMHO. There could be > code i nthere to preset the boot ROM bytes one at a time on a noraml read > cycle I suppose -- i nfact that could eb why the PROG pin is conencted to > a signal o nteh SIC alled NBOOT. Readign the ROM directly involves > overvoltaging one of the 8041 pins, I can't eee the circuitry to do that. Jacob Nevins describes the boot process as the Z80 sees it, here: <http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~jacobn/cpm/pcwboot.html> Here's the code the 8041 executes at startup: mov r2, #6 ;6 byte prefix mov r0, #prefix call data2z80 mov r1, #0 write_data: mov a, #0edh call byte2z80 mov a, #0a0h ;LDI call byte2z80 mov a, r1 movp3 a, @a ;Followed by the byte to write inc r1 call byte2z80 djnz r2, write_data mov r2, #5 ;5 byte suffix call data2z80 jmp mainloop ;Start doing printer control things. ; data2z80: mov a, r0 movp a, @a ;Next byte to send to the Z80 inc r0 call byte2z80 ;Transmit it djnz r2, data2z80 ret ; byte2z80: jobf byte2z80 ;Wait for Z80 to read the buffer out dbb, a ;Set the byte to write mov a, #0ffh anld p7, a ret ; ; 6-byte prefix: ; prefix: db 0AFh ; XOR A db 0D3h, 0F0h ; OUT (0F0H), A ;Page in RAM at 0000 db 11h, 02h, 00h ; LD DE, 2 ;Start writing data at 2 ; ; 5-byte suffix: ; db 0C3h, 0, 0 ; JP 0 ;Jump to the boot image in RAM db 0D3h, 0F8h ; OUT (0F8h), A ;And stop reading bytes from ;the 8041 -- John Elliott

13 years, 12 months

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Not so classic Compaq keyboard help

by trash80＠internode.on.net

Apologies if this is not classic enough :-) Very quick story - I'm a rather eclectic collector and have a range of very nice early Compaq server gear (couple of servers, a KVM and a hub etc) which go back a way and thought it would all look good sitting in a rack. Recently got lucky and picked up a Compaq rack for free. More recently got even luckier and a friend said her work was throwing out some stuff including a keyboard in a tray. I said I'd have it (like any collector, without knowing exactly what it was - better I have it than its find its way into a bin) - turned out to be a Compaq keyboard (158649-001) in a 1U rack mount keyboard tray - bonus. But when they removed it from the rack instead of removing it gracefully they just cut the cable. Grrrrr - how often does that happen when people are "removing" stuff! The keyboard has a single cable coming out of it with a Y piece that's splits into to 2 PS2 plugs. They cut off the Y piece and the plugs so I'm left with a single cable and no ends. Have been scouring the net for quite a while looking for any specific info on this keyboard to see if I can repair it but no joy. Be most grateful if anyone can point me somewhere I may not have covered. Thank you!!! ++++++++++ Kevin Parker ++++++++++

13 years, 12 months

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identification

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Can anyone identify any of these unidentified computers at http://starringthecomputer.com/help.php? Sometime a year or two ago we identified a bunch. Let's try it again. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

13 years, 12 months

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relatively recent IBM crt monitor conundrum

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

it's just bugging me. They may not have used them for close to 10 years, but I always used to see these relatively large, I think, 17" IBM monitors at the customer service desk at Walmarts (here in NJ anyway). I don't believe I've seen them anywhere else. Anyone have a clue as to the specifics?

13 years, 12 months

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Need Older PDP-8/I Schematics

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> From: Vincent Slyngstad <vrs at msn.com> > Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 02:00:35 -0700 > Subject: Re: Need Older PDP-8/I Schematics >> >> We are debugging an interrupt problem with the PDP-8/I at the RICM. >> Today we found that the INT RQST signal is not routed through the M117 >> module in slot F11 as shown on page 7 in the >> PDP8-I_CPU_blueprints_1969.pdf. >> >> Does anyone have a set of prints where page 7 is older than revision L? > > > Yes. I have a schematic in which INT_RQST goes to F21D1, F_SET goes to F21E1, and the result from F21F1 goes to the flip-flop at E33J1. > > The ECO added KEY_LAEXDEP_L to the NAND, which required the M117 instead > of the M113. > > The PDF is called "dec-8i-hr2a-d-pr (PDP8i Schematics -- OLD).pdf" on my box, but I'm not sure where I got it. > > Ah. I found it here: > http://pdp-8.org/scans/highgate/pdp8i-docs/dec-8i-hr2a-d-pr.pdf > > Hope that helps! > > Vince Perfect. Thanks! -- Michael Thompson

13 years, 12 months

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New S100 mini front panel project

by rich.cini＠verizon.net

Fellow vintage computing hobbyists -- Don Caprio and I have been working for a few months on a project that's an S-100 card size front panel. Styled after common front panels from the day, it's scaled to fit a standard S-100 card format (5.3" x 10") and includes the usual switches and blinkenlights. Eventually we will open-up the project page (http://fpmini.pbworks.com/w/page/39529866/FP%20Mini) once we clean it up a bit. We just received the latest prototype boards and are going to be building and testing them shortly. We're planning on selling boards and possibly a "switch package" that are miniaturized versions of IMSAI-style paddle switches from NKK. Our goal is to get enough orders to get the board cost down to the $20-25 range. We're also trying to work a deal on switch sets. Although the base of the required switches are pretty common, the bat handle colors aren't (blue and red) and require large minimum order quantities. This is something we're trying to work through with the vendor. In volume, we expect that a full switch set will be in the [$100] range or possibly lower. More info to come on this. So that we can get an idea as to how many boards we may need to make during the initial production run, we'd like to gauge people's interest. There is no commitment at this point ? only an expression of general interest so we can gauge demand and board order quantities. If anyone is interested, please contact me off-list and I'll keep your emails handy. You can also check out the project page (shown above) to get updates. Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

13 years, 12 months

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Need Older PDP-8/I Schematics

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

We are debugging an interrupt problem with the PDP-8/I at the RICM. Today we found that the INT RQST signal is not routed through the M117 module in slot F11 as shown on page 7 in the PDP8-I_CPU_blueprints_1969.pdf. Does anyone have a set of prints where page 7 is older than revision L? -- Michael Thompson

13 years, 12 months

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