I?m just going to guess (I have no experience with this architecture) ? would that mean either file corruption ? or possibly the last record needs to be padded out with ?empty? blocks to be the same size as the others?
Hi All,
somebody scanned documents for me in .pdfs.
Looking into them, they are pages of jpgs embedded in .pdf ..
(100 pages resulting in 350MBytes ...)
Any easy way to convert them into some b/w .pdf file?
It is all text, no drawings ...
Pointers?
Thanks
Being stuck at home, was musing the idea to look into some graphics
software from the '70's, or early 80's ...
Looking for some wire frames, hidden line removal, 3d graphics...
Any pointers?
View month ago or longer, somebody on this list recovered some large
package of FORTRAN code, and wanted to invest it, but I think it was
posted under a wrong subject, so I can't find it anymore ...
THANKS!
Subject line says it all. The Lambda uses this as its disk controller and
it's looking like the one in mine needs some debugging. There doesn't seem
to be any documentation for this controller out there. There are docs for
the Interphase SMD 2180 on Bitsavers but it appears to be a very different
board.
Thanks!
Josh
> From: Neil Thompson <albiorix at gmail.com>
>
> I'm convinced that Dijksta (and anyone else who came out with similar
> comments were full of horseshit. In my opinion, it's the ability to
> translate a real world "thing" into an algorithm that is the essense of
> programming, and anyone who has managed to learn (particularly on their
> own, as many of us did) that ability has learned something that transcends
> the language (or tool) you use to implement the algorithm.
There's definitely truth to this. The main thing that makes a good
programmer isn't memorization of language features or syntax, it's
good mental organization and thinking habits; the ability and practice
of really *thinking through* the steps involved in solving a problem,
building a solid mental model of the relevant data structures and
algorithms, and then breaking those down into component steps until
one arrives at a suitable representation in native-language
operations. If someone has a good understanding of that, they can
apply it (with varying amounts of blood, sweat, and tears) in any
language; if they don't, there's no language in the world that can
impart it to them (no matter *what* the flavor-of-the-decade Savior Of
All Programming Forever is - "Try Swift! It's the new Pascal!")
*That said,* there are definitely some languages that are more
conducive to building these habits than others (and, within each
group, many that emphasize different aspects more or less strongly.) I
can't speak to COBOL as I've never had cause to get any experience
with it, but I would say that BASIC (as in, the old-school,
unstructured BASICs of the Bad Old Days) really does teach you a bunch
of habits that you end up needing to un-learn as soon as you start
working with better languages (not even *newer* languages - ALGOL and
Lisp both predate it.)
Line-#-and-GOTO programming imposes the same burden of bookkeeping and
space-management on the programmer as direct machine-code monitor
hacking and the most primitive assemblers, but without any rational
explanation as to why, so that any novice attempting to create a
program of any real complexity ends up being instilled with a
superstitious dread over the ludicrous non-question of where to put
things - do I space statements N numbers apart? What if I need to add
more than N-1 intervening statements later!? Should I place my
subroutines on even 1000s for easy reference? Will the line numbers
even go high enough!? - the lack of scoped/local variables or any
parameter-passing mechanism for GOSUB makes any non-trivial
modularization nearly impossible, and the READ/DATA structure is just
flat-out demented.
And all that mental exhaustion *before* the newbie even gets to the
*real* challenges of learning to program!
Now, Dijkstra was a self-important ponce given to wild all-or-nothing
proclamations and manifestos (manifestes? Manifesti?) and even if we
give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that his statements
quoted here were meant tongue-in-cheek they're still pretty
ridiculous. And God knows the Appointed Language Messiah in that great
holy war, Pascal, was its own special breed of Hell for novices and
experts alike (array size as type qualifier? Just kill me now...) And
it's definitely true that plenty of people can and did learn to
program in BASIC and still went on to learn better and do Good Things
down the line. But there absolutely are such things as bad programming
languages.
On Apr 6, 2020, at 10:00 AM, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
>
> They play with the
> pennies to discover that they can roll around, and learn that they're not
> food or nasal suppositories,
I was with you up till here, but wait, what?
I?m one of those kids who was just the right age.
Five years older and I would have been in the Car Club, and would have ended up being a damn good mechanic without a lot of career opportunities.
Five years later and not every damn computer on the planet would have come with a BASIC interpreter in ROM and who knows what my tinkering instinct would have led to.
But I, born in 1971, had an Atari 2600 and its BASIC programming cartridge, and in the fall on 1982 I got a VIC-20, and sometime in 1983 my parent bought me an Apple //e.
So I did grow up with Microsoft BASIC as my first language, and, sure, it doesn?t lend itself well to structured programming, but then when I wanted to know ?well how do you do _that_?? I ended up in 6502 assembly, and picked up P-System PASCAL and Logo along the way. Then in the summer of ?89 I interned in a physics department, and got OK at Turbo Pascal and sort-of-vaguely-able-to-write C.
College brought REXX on (IBM VM/CMS; I didn?t get an Amiga until the 2010s, well after its relevance) and Perl and Scheme and SPARC assembly, and grad school (both for irrelevant degrees: Ancient Mediterranean Civilization and History?but wait, there?s a footnote) 680x0 assembly and Java. (The footnote is, well history of computing, so I got a lot of deep-dive stuff into other languages and architectures.) Since then, whatever I needed to learn when I needed to learn it. I?ve programmed COBOL for money, which has joined the ranks of things I?m not super-proud to have done for money but hey it paid the bills when I needed it.
Since then?Python, C, Go, TypeScript, whatever was needed. These days it?s mostly Python.
But really what it was was that I was lucky enough to be in that small age window where computers were, one the one hand, something middle-class families could afford while still being capable of doing cool things, and on the other hand, simple enough that a smart adolescent could pretty much understand them more-or-less in their entirety.
Adam
At 16:12 05-04-20, you wrote:
>On 4/5/20 6:28 PM, geneb via cctalk wrote:
>>On Sun, 5 Apr 2020, Neil Thompson via cctalk wrote:
>>
>>>I'm convinced that Dijksta (and anyone else who came out with similar
>>>comments were full of horseshit.? In my opinion, it's the ability to
>>>translate a real world "thing" into an algorithm that is the essense of
>>>programming, and anyone who has managed to learn (particularly on their
>>>own, as many of us did) that ability has learned something that transcends
>>>the language (or tool) you use to implement the algorithm.? When I first
>>>started programming professionally, we had "programmers" (or sometimes
>>>designers) who specified the algorithms and "coders" who implemented them.
>>>That never worked well
>>Yep.? You can write horrible code in /any/ language. ;)
>>BTW, I scanned & uploaded this last week.? Oddly relevant.
>>https://archive.org/details/cobolcodingform
>
>I still have lots of them. And Printer Output Forms. And Fortran
>Programming Forms. And all kinds of other Programming forms. And
>Flow Chart Forms. You know all that stuff we actually used to
>engineer programs before the software engineers came along and said
>we were all doing wrong.
>
>bill
Ran into a bunch of my FORTRAN programs from over
50 years ago as well as the obligatory flowcharts
I would do first before writing a single line of
code. Code written in pencil so could erase
errors and only then would I use a keypunch for
final version. Also a few FORTRAN coding
forms. Back then, with sometimes a 48 hour delay
between submitting my card deck and getting
program output, it was well worth spending an
hour or two to print out contents of cards and
carefully check that there weren't missing commas
and or other errors that would mean correcting
the stupid mistake and resubmitting ones card deck.
Never got into COBOL as my main interest was
real-time computing and so next step up was
access to PDP-8 which had FOCAL and quickly
learned that programming in assembler was the way
to go. Still like assembly language programming
and suspect my early experience of learning to
code in an environment where there wasn't really
a dividing line between software and hardware
(people would build custom boards for
PDP-8's/PDP-11's to speed up data acquisition)
that the biggest change I made in my programming
style was to switch to VB as it allowed me to
easily create the graphical interface I needed
but still let me link to C or Assembler routines
in my VB6 code until windoze became too locked
down to be of any use. Still haven't got all my
VB6 programs running under Wine on Linux but at least Linux has FORTRAN and C.
Part of what I've noticed is that I can't sit
down at a keyboard and write code (as one is
supposed to do nowadays) and it turns into a
total mess. I still use flowcharts when I'm
dealing with tricky code and the nice thing about
flowcharts is that one can easily create a
hardware state machine from them. Was nice in
1970's, but now a Propeller chip, even using
interperted Spin code, works far faster than the
TTL state machines I used to make. Other
paleo-programmer related deficits include being
totally unable to use RDB and still make use of
linked lists and hash tables to create my
databases as have been doing this for 50
years. Software Tools was probably the most
important book I read in 1983 as it got me out of
my rut of writing a massive FORTRAN program to do
a specific task that I'd have no idea how to
modify even 6 months later to small useful tools
that could be strung together. Back then
engineers I worked with would have total disdain
for Comp-Sci types who would still be working out
their code indentation scheme while we would
already be using a quickly written throwaway
program to perform a particular task.
The other thing I should bring up is that my wife
is after me to get rid of a lot of my old
books. While rumaging through the attic of my
shop found boxes of old computer books which I'd
like to keep but have been told that if I haven't
looked at them in 15 years that it's unlikely I
will in future. Will check in see if some of
them have been scanned onto bitsavers or other
sites but have 68000 programming books, 6502 and
other microprocessor related books as well as
lots of Mac books when I just had to get into the
guts of a Mac to do what I wanted. Have a number
of PDP-11 Unibus cards which likely won't use and
will have to get all of that sorted out. Once
have a list of what I've got will post it on my
web site. I live in Kamloops, BC if there's
anyone on this list who lives close by who's interested.
A few hours ago I started looking at three "smart" light switches that
need LEDs replaced, and switched on the soldering iron, and ... nope.
It's a Weller WP80 and it seems the sensor in the heating element has
died. I discovered that only after resetting and then dismantling the
control unit to check it out with a DVM, of course.
Clearly I need either a new WP80 element, or a new soldering iron. I
could get a WSP80 for far less than the cost of a new element for the
WP80, but I'd get the element faster. So which, if any, is the better
iron? What would you guys do?
I begrudge paying UKP 92 for a new element. That's the cheapest I could
find -- /half/ the most expensive price -- but just seems ludicrously
extortionate for what amounts to a piece of swaged stainless steel tube
with a short length of resistance wire and an even shorter length of
thermocouple wire inside it. I could buy a whole new solder station
with more bells and whistles, albeit of a "lesser brand", for less.
--
Pete
Pete Turnbull
For those interested in playing with Jim's emulator, a few resources:
Bitsavers has some doco and bits:
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/prime/http://bitsavers.org/bits/Prime/
I have been assembling what I hope will be the definitive Prime info
site. It's not complete, but contains manuals scanned by, among
others, AEK and Jim Wilcoxson, as well as material from my Prime-using
past, etc. I have more documentation and software to add as I have
time.
https://sysovl.info/reference_prime.html
Of particular use might be this writeup on installing PRIMOS Revs 22 or
23 on the emulator. It's set up for the old demo version of the
emulator, so needs a fair amount of updating, but may help get you
started. I'll work on it soonish.
https://sysovl.info/reference_prime_drb_installing_primos.html
De
From: Tom Uban
> Does anyone have information on having a replacement PDP-11/05 key made?
Google is your friend; here:
https://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/05#Keys
I don't recall if there's anough info there to create new keys without an
original to copy. At one point I made a run of copies (after posting a call
here); I suppose I could do so again.
Noel
>According to the Ref Manual, that's the one I was looking for.
>Now to mount the RL on RSTS and see what it takes to build it
>there. I'll let the list know how I make out in case someone
>else is interested.
>
>bill
The RL02 image is RSX Files-11, and I?m not sure if you can mount that with RSTS. I could move it to a RT-11 formatted RL02 or if your RSTS system is on HECnet I can put it where you could get it that way. I looked for the original DOS-11 formatted DEC distribution tape but can?t find it at this time. Let me know if you need anything.
Mark
I mistakenly bought some memory thinking it was for a VAXstation 4000 VLC.
It turns out that it isn't. It physically fits a VAXstation 4000 Model 60,
but putting it in that machine the machine fails to power up. The part
number is 50-19464-02, and I am unable to identify what machine it works in.
Can anyone tell me where to find out?
Thanks
Rob
I'm working on restoring an LMI Lambda, which is missing both its tape
drive and its disk drive. If anyone has a Cipher F880 9-track drive or a
Fujitsu Eagle SMD drive, drop me a line. Be nice if they were in working
condition, but so long as they're repairable I can work with 'em.
Thanks!
Josh
This might be of interest to many of the people on the list.
paul
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>
>> Also, ACM has currently opened up all of its digital archives during these pandemic times, ... https://dl.acm.org/action/doSearch
I know this doesn't count as a general purpose computer, but does
anybody have detailed technical information about the Monroe 7860
business calculator/printer? I think it was produced in the early 1980's.
Specifically, I'm looking for information about the rom OS for this
machine. e.g. are there more built-in commands like "dir". Maybe,
is there a basic interpreter I can get at?
On the hardware side, does anybody know about the mag stripe paper
that the machine is supposed to work with? It appears to store user
data on the mag stripe on the paper that it prints on...interesting
idea, although limited.
Thanks.
Bill Newman
Just in the middle of getting a fresh OpenVMS install set up on my
VAXStation (the original having been done years ago when I barely had
any idea what I was doing,) and looking through various repositories
for interesting software to put on there, and I got to thinking about
something I recalled reading about a few years back.
I know from the book "Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice"
- http://sdmeta.gforge.inria.fr/FreeBooks/BitsOfHistory/BitsOfHistory.pdf
- that, back when, there were two implementations of Smalltalk-80 for
VAXen - the first was Unix-based, done by an independent research
group, while the second ran under VMS and was actually developed
within DEC. This version - VAX/Smalltalk-80 - was headed up by Stoney
Ballard and Stephen Shirron; anybody know if there's a surviving copy
out there, if it was ever available outside DEC to begin with?
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2020 10:58:46 -0400
> From: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at hotmail.com <mailto:bill.gunshannon at hotmail.com>>
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>>
> Subject: APL-11
> Message-ID:
> <MWHPR22MB0878D888143DFB8F78B81AE2EDCB0 at MWHPR22MB0878.namprd22.prod.outlook.com <mailto:MWHPR22MB0878D888143DFB8F78B81AE2EDCB0 at MWHPR22MB0878.namprd22.prod.outlook.com>>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
>
> Haven't given up on DIBOL. May try installing the RT-11 version and
> see if it runs.
>
> But now another language of interest has reared its ugly head. :-)
>
> Anybody have an image of the tape for APL-11? Manual claims it
> runs on all of the PDP-11 OSes and it is another language from
> my past that I haven't touched (other than to read some programs
> out of curiosity) in more than two decades.
Bill,
I have the APL-11 V2.1 source files on a RL02 disk image. I will make it available at http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.zip <http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.zip>
Once you mount the disk image with Simh, the are two ready to run task images that will run under RSX11M or M+
In [201,200]APL6OK.TSK and APL7OK.TSK that are the REAL*4 and REAL*8 versions of APL-11. On the disk are the
Original .MAC sources as well as files from a RSX SIG tape that modified APL-11 for I/D under RSX11M+ that increased
The workspace (.BXWA from ~30000 to ~60000 bytes). It also contains a character set for Vt220 for the APL character set.
When you install the APL task experiment with the /INC to maximize the available workspace, On my system, I can
INS APL6.TSK/INC=37000 to max the workspace for the single precision version.
Also, the scanned APL-11 reference manual can be downloaded at http://www.rsx11m.com/APL-11-Ref-Man.pdf <http://www.rsx11m.com/APL-11-Ref-Man.pdf>
and the APL11 installation guide at http://www.rsx11m.com/APL11ins.pdf <http://www.rsx11m.com/APL11ins.pdf>
The RSX SIG files that have the info to change APL-11 to an I/D RSX11M+ task are at [370,360] on the RL02 disk. I remember having this work back in the mid-1980s butI have not been able to get it to work today. If I link it with ODT it seems to blow up when the first overlay is loaded. If anyone could help with that I?d really appreciate it!
Best,
Mark
>
> I have the source to something called APL-11 for Unix but it is
> not the same thing. Actually, not even close. :-)
>
> Would love to see a few pointers.
>
> Oh, and in case anyone is curious about my endeavors....
> The SIMH system I am using now is based on the 11/70 and was built
> with only 2M of memory. Why you would do that under SIMH where there
> is really no memory constraint at all, I can not fathom. I used to
> have a bunch of 11/44's and that has been my favorite since my original
> 11/24 system died long, long ago./ I am going to configure a SIMH
> System using the 11/44 as my model and then reinstall everything in
> order to have a really good system for playing with this stuff.
>
> Sure wish there was a way to find some of the third party stuff from
> the sourcebooks. A lot of nice software that should have been saved
> for historical reasons, if nothing else, has been lost.
>
> bill
There's been a lot of discussion of late about replacing power supply
capacitors in DEC power supplies. I have a BA123 and I believe that it uses
an H7260 power supply. I feel like it might be a good idea to replace the
capacitors before a disaster occurs. I haven't been able to find a
schematic for the H7260 and I'm wondering which/how many caps need to be
replaced. Does anyone know what specific part# to replace them with? I'd
prefer to purchase the replacements before I dig in to the machine, that
way I don't have to remove the power supply twice.
I also own a BA23. Does anyone know if that power supply uses the same caps
as the H7260 and how many are required for that supply?
Does anybody have a maintenance print or service manual for the DEC H7874?
This is the power supply used in the BA4xx and R400x cabinets. As you might
guess, I have one that tries to power up but shuts down after a second.
Probably a bad capacitor (or several), but this thing is ridiculously
complicated and not all that easy to disassemble, either. I'd like to be
able to trouble shoot it rather than just firing the proverbial parts cannon
at it. FWIW, none of the electrolytic (of which there are many) have
obviously failed - no leaking, no bulges, etc. Of course, that proves
fairly little.
Thanks,
Bob Armstrong
>Problem with that is all the files get jumbled into one directory
>and I am sure the build will want them in the right proj,uid locations
>in order to work. I am thinking a backup tape may do the job. SPD's
>seem to say that later versions of RSX and RSTS had compatible BACKUP
>formats. We'll see. If that don't work there is always kermit. :-)
>It must be possible because the installation manual says the
>installation tape works for all four PDP-11 OSes.
Bill,
I?ve looked extensively to see if I can find the original distribution tape image and can?t find it.
At one point DEC donated the APL-11 to DECUS and I think that is when I got it back in 1984 or so. The files I have include the Macro-11 source code which as near as I can tell was not on the DEC distribution when it was a layered product. I now think that the copy of APL-11 I have must have come from a restored backup tape from my old system.
In the DEC distribution, it was a DOS-11 tape which could be read by all the PDP-11 OSes as you say. I just attempted to create a DOS-11 tape similar to the DEC distribution, but when I try to run the installation against it I get a task build of APL that doesn?t work. It immediately exits and I think is due to some differences between the auto overlay code in RSX11M+ V4.6 and the V2.1 M+ that I used to have. I added the .MAC files and .CMD files (for assembly, and linking) to the tape and make it available at:
http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.tap <http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.tap>
Let me know if that works for you. It may build under RSTS fine.
A backup plan to make it available is that also on the same web site are two disk images for the PiDP-11/70 folks that is a complete RSX11M+ V4.6 ready to run under Simh. On the DU1 disk image in [201,50] and [201,200] are all the APL-11 files I have. That system also installs a working APL-11 for RSX.
Mark
Bill,
The APL-11 files on DECUS RSX85A are not a complete distribution but a modified version that was intended to run under I/D on M+.
I have the APL-11 V2.1 source files on a RL02 disk image. I will make it available at http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.zip
Once you mount the disk image with Simh, the are two ready to run task images that will run under RSX11M or M+
In [201,200]APL6OK.TSK and APL7OK.TSK that are the REAL*4 and REAL*8 versions of APL-11. On the disk are the
Original .MAC sources as well as files from a RSX SIG tape that modified APL-11 for I/D under RSX11M+ that increased
The workspace (.BXWA from ~30000 to ~60000 bytes). It also contains a character set for Vt220 for the APL character set.
When you install the APL task experiment with the /INC to maximize the available workspace, On my system, I can
INS APL6.TSK/INC=37000 to max the workspace for the single precision version.
Also, the scanned APL-11 reference manual can be downloaded at http://www.rsx11m.com/APL-11-Ref-Man.pdf
and the APL11 installation guide at http://www.rsx11m.com/APL11ins.pdf
The RSX SIG files that have the info to change APL-11 to an I/D RSX11M+ task from RSX85A are also at [370,360] on the RL02 disk. I remember having this work back in the mid-1980s but I have not been able to get it to work today. If I link it with ODT it seems to blow up when the first overlay is loaded. If anyone could help with that I?d really appreciate it!
Best,
Mark
Here in NZ and around the world many of us are in lockdown and spending more time on our computers, if that were possible. I have just completed the restoration of a PDP-8 Straight 8 which I believe is the only one in New Zealand. You can view the restoration story and find appropriate resources here: https://pdp-8.nz <https://pdp-8.nz/>
While it plays Chess, it would be great if someone wanted to write (say) a Prime Number Generator, or some other application and email it to me off list. I have Focal-69 and can probably source other languages for this wonderful old machine with 4K of memory.
--------------//----------------
brendan at mcneill.co.nz
+64 21 881 883
Haven't given up on DIBOL. May try installing the RT-11 version and
see if it runs.
But now another language of interest has reared its ugly head. :-)
Anybody have an image of the tape for APL-11? Manual claims it
runs on all of the PDP-11 OSes and it is another language from
my past that I haven't touched (other than to read some programs
out of curiosity) in more than two decades.
I have the source to something called APL-11 for Unix but it is
not the same thing. Actually, not even close. :-)
Would love to see a few pointers.
Oh, and in case anyone is curious about my endeavors....
The SIMH system I am using now is based on the 11/70 and was built
with only 2M of memory. Why you would do that under SIMH where there
is really no memory constraint at all, I can not fathom. I used to
have a bunch of 11/44's and that has been my favorite since my original
11/24 system died long, long ago./ I am going to configure a SIMH
System using the 11/44 as my model and then reinstall everything in
order to have a really good system for playing with this stuff.
Sure wish there was a way to find some of the third party stuff from
the sourcebooks. A lot of nice software that should have been saved
for historical reasons, if nothing else, has been lost.
bill
I just stumbled over https://legacyos.org/ and checking here for what
you say about it only to find out that it seems like you missed it.
Have you all missed it or is it just not interesting ?
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Techwiz, Peter Sjoberg GPG key (42DDDDDD) on keyserver & homepage
Key fingerprint = EB81 3135 1636 576A DA83 826B 2455 0E88 42DD DDDD
Homepage: http://www.techwiz.ca/~peters
Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/henahadu/
Enigma: http://meinEnigma.com
Since I am forced to stay at home more than I would like I though I would
check some more PSUs. One I wanted to check was the H7109-C from one of my
VAXstation 4000 VLC machines. I found a leaked capacitor and some other high
ESR ones, so I will replace those. However, I also noticed a ceramic disk
capacitor that appears to be split all around the edge. Is that a known
failure mode?
Regards
Rob
Hello list,
I have a scan of a manual with schematics for a ?ISS Sperry Univac Driver Exerciser for 7330 and 843x type of disk drives that was kindly scanned and provided to me by Mark from the Computer History Archivies Project, since he and myself happen to come accross such exercisers. I contacted two times Al via email for access credentials to upload the document as I did in the past years for numerous scans, but I never got an answer. He is probably very busy during the last months. In case anybody has access for uploading documents on this list, can you contact me so that we can make this document available to everybody?
Best regards,
Pierre
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.digitalheritage.de
Does anyone have a .tap image of a DIBOL install tape for RSTS?
And while I am at it, was there ever RPG for RSTS?
I am so bored I have decided to really load up a SIMH system
and just live in the past for a while. I have Fortran-IV,
Fortran-77, COBOL-81 and C installed now as well as BASIC and
MACRO. But I haven't had the chance to do any DIBOL or RPG
for quite some time and would love to try them again.
bill
>Patrick Finnegan pat at vax11.net Tue Mar 24 18:14:05 CDT 2020
>
>It looks like the magic that updates the 5-digit number in the URL doesn't
>work after the classiccmp.org recovery. Try:
>http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img54306/imd118.zip
>
>The rest of the things should be in the same directory.
>>On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 1:47 PM Christian Groessler
>> Hi,
>>
>> the link on http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/index.htm for
>> "ImageDisk 1.18" doesn't work. Apparently most (or all) links on this
>> page don't work.
The "magic" is me, it has nothing to do with the classiccmo recovery.
The links are something I update manually from time to time, and I've
recently updated some pages to correct links to my now expired
commercial site, and failed to amend these with the current transient
page.
Should be fixed now - may have to refresh your browser if It cached
the bad links.
Dave
In the "Dataproducts (300/600 LPM) Line Printers Maintenance Guide"
(1984) at (23Mb)
https://www.wang2200.org/docs/fiche/742-0432.MNL.2273LinePrinterMaintenance…
Table 1-2. 300 LPM Character Band & PROM Set Kits p. 1-10 (p. 30-31 in
PDF) &
Table 1-3 600 LPM .... p1-12 (p. 32-33 in PDF)
List
"Country/Language","Character Band Number","PROM Number"."Number of
Printable Characters","Description","Font Style","Spacing"
Band???????????????? Desc????????????????? Font Style
250035-019 64 Utility?? ? ? ? ?? ???? DPC-C
250042-022 96 Upper/Lower???? DPC-B/C
250045-022 96 Upper/Lower???? DPC-C
250088-039 96 ASCII/Modified? DPC-B
"Number of Print..." is 64 or 96 ... except for an Arabic one
"Spacing in characters per inch" is always 10, except for 4, 15 pitches
"Font Style" is either DPC-B, DPC-B/C, DPC-C, DPC-15, DPC-D for Thai, Arabic
Are there fonts available for the common Font Styles (DPC-B. DPC-B/C,
DPC-C)?
The fonts for the Dataproducts (64-char) drum printers may be in that set.
It's possible that the Dataproducts laser printers may have provided the
fonts, but googling
hasn't shown anything, the Dataproducts website is on archive.org,
and my searches showed that the Computer History Museum has a printer
and a few bands.
The HP2614A Drum printer we had in 1980 was probably one of those and we
had band printers later.
I should look through my printouts ...
There's a font for the IBM 1403
http://ibm-1401.info/IBM140310Pitch-Regular.otf
"Chainprinter Regular Font" at
http://legionfonts.com/fonts/chainprinter-regular
may be related to the IBM 1403 one too.
This assumes that fonts might be useful for OCR at some stage, or for
checking retyped data,
or for fun on SIMH.
Hi all,
I have 4000/90 which behaves funny. It only starts, after switching on
twice. The first time, all LEDs stay on, flipping the switch off/on, it
boots happily.
Any insight?
THANKS!
Hi,
the link on http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/index.htm for
"ImageDisk 1.18" doesn't work. Apparently most (or all) links on this
page don't work.
Where can I get the latest ImageDisk version?
regards,
chris
For those interested, HPE has finally, formally announced the end of their participation in the OpenVMS Hobbyist Program.? A number of people have received the below message from HPE, probably everyone they have on record as having current Hobbyist licenses.
If you have any current or future ( at least before the end of 2021 ) interest in Hobbyist licenses for any version of OpenVMS from 5.0 through 8.4 for VAX ( only up to 7.3) or Alpha and Itanium, then register now.? HPE is looking to find out how many are interested in Hobbyist offerings and even though the new license will be good through 2021, I don't expect them to be generating them past the end of 2020 and maybe sooner.
Register for Hobbyist PAKs at one of the following (I suggest the HPE address first):
https://www.hpe.com/h41268/live/index_e.aspx?qid=24548http://plato.ccsscorp.com/hobbyist_registration.php
Note the underscore between hobbyist and registration in hobbyist_registration.
One Hobbyist user reports this:
I?ve just received an update from the OpenVMS Customer lab:
Here?s the message from the OpenVMS team.? The idea was that hobbyists would visit the site and renew their licenses, and in response, we would provide the final set of licenses,
explaining the scenario:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
? As we approach the end of the HPE OpenVMS V8.4 standard support period, HPE
??plans to conclude the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program.
? The HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses we are issuing in 2020 will be the last set.
??Subsequently, HPE will not issue new HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses. Attached
??is the final set of the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses. These final licenses
??are valid through December 31st, 2021. We hope that this additional validity
??period will enable users to plan for the future.
? Users who wish to avail of HPE OpenVMS long term licenses are encouraged to
??purchase permanent licenses at standard prices. You may contact [Fellman, Jon]
??<jon.fellman at hpe.com <mailto:jon.fellman at hpe.com>> for the same.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Cheers, Wiz!!
John H. Reinhardt
*From:*owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] *On Behalf Of *David Moylan
*Sent:* Saturday, 7 March 2020 4:14 PM
*To:* hecnet at Update.UU.SE
*Subject:* [HECnet] HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing
Hi all,
Just received the e-mail below. I?ve hunted around all the various Hobbyist locations and licensing pages and can?t find any additional information.
I?ve already replied back to ask what the impact of Hobbyist renewal licensing will be. I have no further information at this stage.
Have others received this as well? Does anyone have any further knowledge on this?
I can see a few people have forwarded/posted the same message on comp.os.vms.
Cheers, Wiz!!
*From:*OpenVMS Customer Lab [mailto:openvmscustomerlab at hpe.com]
*Sent:* Saturday, 7 March 2020 3:13 PM
*Cc:* OpenVMS Customer Lab
*Subject:* OpenVMS Hobbyist Notification
Dear HPE OpenVMS hobbyist,
This is to inform you that HPE is concluding the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program in alignment with the HPE OpenVMS support roadmap.
If you wish to understand more details, please reach out to us at the earliest through the usual license renewal webpage.
Thank you.
HPE OpenVMS team
Hello all, I hope you are all staying safe and healthy in current times.? Forgive the cold email, I got your email addresses as collectors of DEC computer history.?The reason for email is that I am clearing out some of my stuff as we are thinking of moving house, I live in Wakefield.?In February 2019 I salvaged a PDP11 which was used in a simulator for a coal fired power station steam turbine unit at DRAX Power Station, where I was working as a contractor up until Dec 2019.In the same building I was also allowed to take a DecWriter II, some manuals and a couple of VT320s with some other smaller hand held kit.?I have supporting documentation from the power station to state that these items are now mine.?They were all in working order as the simulator was last powered up in Nov 2019.? I am not in a position to power up the PDP 11 at home, but have plugged in the VT320s and the DEC Writer and they all work.? The dec Writer has 1 sticky key, and has the original product/shipping notice stuck inside the unit dated 1977 !! I even bought some new ink and ribbons, as my intention was to get these and the PDP11 setup and working in my office.? I used the Dec Writer in school, many many years ago, my first introduction to computers, paper tape and punched cards, a foam modem through to the college from my secondary school ! (Fortran IV)?I simply could not let these items go to scrap, which is where they were heading, so I approached the manager of the building at Drax and agreed to remove these items from site at zero cost to Drax.? The entire simulator, all it?s hand built boards and electronics were simply heading for the skip as they were demolishing the entire training centre in favour of new Gas turbine plant.? ?I am wondering if you know any forums or contacts that might be interested in purchasing these items, I am not asking silly money as these need to go to a collector and preserved, the issue will be shipping or I might even transport them myself, as they are extremely heavy items.?If not, I will google a little more and failing that, contact a UK museum to see if they would be interested in these historic pieces.?Thank you for reading.?PhilSent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
It looks there is some decnet on the disk.
Exec list gives phase-III router:
$ mc ncp
NCP>show exec char
Node Volatile Characteristics as of 21-MAR-2020 15:16:42
Executor node = 0
Identification = DECnet-VAX V3.0, VMS V3.0
Management version = V3.0.0
Incoming timer = 45
Outgoing timer = 45
NSP version = V3.2.0
Maximum links = 32
Delay factor = 64
Delay weight = 2
Inactivity timer = 60
Retransmit factor = 10
Routing version = V1.3.0
Type = routing
Routing timer = 600
Maximum address = 1
Maximum circuits = 0
Maximum cost = 1023
Maximum hops = 31
Maximum visits = 63
Maximum buffers = 2
Buffer size = 1000
Default access = incoming and outgoing
So ..... playtime ....?
R.V.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of R. Voorhorst
Sent: Saturday, 21 March, 2020 14:48
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE; 'Ray Jewhurst' <raywjewhurst at gmail.com>; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Cc: 'simh' <simH at trailing-edge.com>; 'John Dundas' <dundas at caltech.edu>
Subject: RE: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download --> boot on Vax8600/50
Boot on Vax8600:
HK0: 'F:\Shares\Distribution\VMS\Vms_30\VAXVMSV3.0-26APR1982\vmsv30.rk07' Contains ODS2 File system
HK0: Volume Name: VAXVMSRL3 Format: DECFILE11B Sectors In Volume: 53790
sim> b hk0
Loading boot code from internal vmb.exe
%SYSBOOT-W-ECO or microcode version less than minimum required for VMS.
%SYSBOOT-E-Unable to locate file SYSLOA
SC.EXE
HALT instruction, PC: 0000325A (CLRQ R8)
sim>
So some work to do or not (very well) possible.
So it will run on Vax11/780 the original workhorse from then.
Somewhere a Decnet-3.0 around for Vms to make it complete?
Best regards,
R.V.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of Paul Birkel
Sent: Saturday, 21 March, 2020 13:56
To: 'Ray Jewhurst' <raywjewhurst at gmail.com>; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; hecnet at update.uu.se
Cc: 'simh' <simH at trailing-edge.com>; 'John Dundas' <dundas at caltech.edu>
Subject: RE: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download
According to the Release Notes it works on the 11/750 and 11/730 as well.
See: AA-D015D-TE
https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_decvaxvms3leaseNotesV3.0May82_5458871…
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ray Jewhurst via cctalk
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2020 8:34 AM
To: hecnet at update.uu.se
Cc: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts; simh; John Dundas
Subject: Re: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download
>From 1982 I see. I know that this will run on the 780/785 but what about the other VAX-11s or the 8600? I am purely a simulator and have never used the real thing and I am not sure what years the models in question were released. Sorry if my questions seem ignorant.
Ray
On Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 8:08 AM Supratim Sanyal <supratim at riseup.net> wrote:
> John Dundas' distribution of VAX/VMS version 3.0 (April 1982) can now
> be downloaded from my Dropbox.
>
> The SYSTEM password is MANAGER.
>
> Note: Dropbox does not force you to create an account, if you look
> carefully you will see a "Continue to view" link at the bottom of that
> pop-up.
>
> Here's what it boots into:
>
>
> VAX/VMS Version V3.0 26-APR-1982 16:21
>
>
> PLEASE ENTER DATE AND TIME (DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM) 21-MAR-2020 11:58
> %JBC-I-NEWQUEUE, new queue file created %OPCOM, 21-MAR-2020
> 11:58:34.51, logfile initialized by operator OPA0
> logfile is SYS$MANAGER:OPERATOR.LOG
> Login quotas - Interactive limit=64, Current interactive value=0
> SYSTEM job terminated at 21-MAR-2020 11:58:39.91
>
> Username: SYSTEM
> Password:
> Welcome to VAX/VMS version V3.0 $ $
>
> Grab it from https://bit.ly/vaxvms30
>
> Regards,
> Supratim
>
> --
> Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT
> 39.19151 N, 77.23432 W
> QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet
>
>
Boot on Vax8600:
HK0: 'F:\Shares\Distribution\VMS\Vms_30\VAXVMSV3.0-26APR1982\vmsv30.rk07' Contains ODS2 File system
HK0: Volume Name: VAXVMSRL3 Format: DECFILE11B Sectors In Volume: 53790
sim> b hk0
Loading boot code from internal vmb.exe
%SYSBOOT-W-ECO or microcode version less than minimum required for VMS.
%SYSBOOT-E-Unable to locate file SYSLOA
SC.EXE
HALT instruction, PC: 0000325A (CLRQ R8)
sim>
So some work to do or not (very well) possible.
So it will run on Vax11/780 the original workhorse from then.
Somewhere a Decnet-3.0 around for Vms to make it complete?
Best regards,
R.V.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of Paul Birkel
Sent: Saturday, 21 March, 2020 13:56
To: 'Ray Jewhurst' <raywjewhurst at gmail.com>; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; hecnet at update.uu.se
Cc: 'simh' <simH at trailing-edge.com>; 'John Dundas' <dundas at caltech.edu>
Subject: RE: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download
According to the Release Notes it works on the 11/750 and 11/730 as well.
See: AA-D015D-TE
https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_decvaxvms3leaseNotesV3.0May82_5458871…
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ray Jewhurst via cctalk
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2020 8:34 AM
To: hecnet at update.uu.se
Cc: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts; simh; John Dundas
Subject: Re: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download
>From 1982 I see. I know that this will run on the 780/785 but what about the other VAX-11s or the 8600? I am purely a simulator and have never used the real thing and I am not sure what years the models in question were released. Sorry if my questions seem ignorant.
Ray
On Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 8:08 AM Supratim Sanyal <supratim at riseup.net> wrote:
> John Dundas' distribution of VAX/VMS version 3.0 (April 1982) can now
> be downloaded from my Dropbox.
>
> The SYSTEM password is MANAGER.
>
> Note: Dropbox does not force you to create an account, if you look
> carefully you will see a "Continue to view" link at the bottom of that
> pop-up.
>
> Here's what it boots into:
>
>
> VAX/VMS Version V3.0 26-APR-1982 16:21
>
>
> PLEASE ENTER DATE AND TIME (DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM) 21-MAR-2020 11:58
> %JBC-I-NEWQUEUE, new queue file created %OPCOM, 21-MAR-2020
> 11:58:34.51, logfile initialized by operator OPA0
> logfile is SYS$MANAGER:OPERATOR.LOG
> Login quotas - Interactive limit=64, Current interactive value=0
> SYSTEM job terminated at 21-MAR-2020 11:58:39.91
>
> Username: SYSTEM
> Password:
> Welcome to VAX/VMS version V3.0 $ $
>
> Grab it from https://bit.ly/vaxvms30
>
> Regards,
> Supratim
>
> --
> Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT
> 39.19151 N, 77.23432 W
> QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet
>
>
John Dundas' distribution of VAX/VMS version 3.0 (April 1982) can now be
downloaded from my Dropbox.
The SYSTEM password is MANAGER.
Note: Dropbox does not force you to create an account, if you look
carefully you will see a "Continue to view" link at the bottom of that
pop-up.
Here's what it boots into:
? VAX/VMS Version V3.0 26-APR-1982 16:21
PLEASE ENTER DATE AND TIME (DD-MMM-YYYY? HH:MM) 21-MAR-2020 11:58
%JBC-I-NEWQUEUE, new queue file created
%OPCOM, 21-MAR-2020 11:58:34.51, logfile initialized by operator OPA0
??????? logfile is SYS$MANAGER:OPERATOR.LOG
? Login quotas - Interactive limit=64, Current interactive value=0
? SYSTEM?????? job terminated at 21-MAR-2020 11:58:39.91
Username: SYSTEM
Password:
??????? Welcome to VAX/VMS version V3.0
$
$
Grab it from https://bit.ly/vaxvms30
Regards,
Supratim
--
Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT
39.19151 N, 77.23432 W
QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet
I?ve been rehabilitating a SparcStation Voyager when I get time (of which I seem to have some now). The display did work off and on but doesn?t show anything now. As per the troubleshooting docs, I check the DC/DC board voltages but the service manual (from oracle!) has wire colors that bear no resemblance to my board. I found a pin that starts out at 12v but decays fairly quickly.
Does anyone know if the pin3=12v, 4=5v, 5=5v, 6,7,8=gnd and 9=3.3 from the manual is correct?
This one voltage that drops to zero after initially showing 12v - is that a reasonable symptom for a bad power supply? Is that kind of thing fixable? I don?t expect I?ll be able to find a replacement board. I don?t see any blown capacitors or expressed smoke.
I?m not sure how the pin counting is supposed to go for this 10 pin molex power connector. The female side on the main board looks from the top like:
OOOOO
OOOOO
\-/
Where the little thing at the bottom is the locking tab. The power board itself has a line of wires coming out, and they are numbered 1-11 with #10 not connected. But again, the color of those wires don?t seem to bear any resemblance to the manual.
On the off chance: anybody have a spare DC/DC converter for a Sparcstation Voyager that they want to unload cheap? Part number is, I think 300-1234.
Cheers,
?sma
Hello Everyone,
I recently moved and just got my storage unit of stuff transported to
the new house. I'm starting to go through it all because I know there's
a good mixture of stuff I want and stuff I don't want but may be useful
to someone else.
I've started inventorying a lot of the stuff I'd like to pass on here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19vhF-o6vx9g7l-D8cvLJ5OPJzpdmU9PTTkn…
I'm not looking to get much out of any of this, pretty much just recover
whatever I paid for it plus effort for shipping (generally should be 50%
or less ebay value, plus cost of shipping). Alternatively, I'm in the
west suburbs of chicago if anyone local wants to pick something up.
Quick run down of what I've got posted so far:
-a couple DEC Alpha items (RAM and SCSI caddy stuff, possibly a couple
drives later)
-HP jetdirects for laserjet 4/5 (standalone to come later)
-a KVM or two (more to come)
-Mac network cards (nubus and one for IIsi or SE/30) as well as a couple
other accessories (Dayna Mini Etherprint, AAUI transceiver, more
accessories to come)
-misc cables/adapters, if you have something specific in mind, let me know
-PSU - mostly just some random ATX PSUs
-a few telephone accessories (more to come)
-ISA, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe cards (network, video, SCSI, FC)
-possibly notable, Compaq ELSA GLoria Synergy graphics cards for Alpha PWS?
If anyone has further questions, wants pics, more description, testing
of item before sale, etc. feel free to contact me on or off list (if on
list, please CC me, I'll see it quicker) or on Freenode IRC (nick is joe_z).
As I recently moved, I don't have 24/7 internet available as of right
now, but once I do I'll have a bouncer on IRC 24/7.
Best Regards,
Joe Z
In the midst of cleaning up, I came across this board. Can't seem to find
any info online about it. There's another board from another company, not
SWTPC, with the same name?apparently a timekeeping board for an Apple II.
https://imgur.com/a/j8pyqMZ
I assume this is a way to generate a composite video signal with the
current time displayed? Anyone have schematics or a parts list?
Thanks, and stay healthy!
Kyle
Hi All
With the upcoming demise of VMS/VAX I thought I might give NetBSD/vax a try.
Downloading a bootable image and burning it onto a CD was not a problem.
On the 3100 with attached RRD42 and SCSI drive RZ26l the CD duly booted
ito the NetBSD install menu.
All of versions 7,8 and 9. failed after partitioning at the point where
the system is copied to the hard disk.
Has anybody successfuly installed NetBSD on a VAX.? If which version on
which VAX
Rod Smallwood
--
I have it running on a MicroVAX 3100/90, but I can't for the life of
me remember what version it is (current was 7-ish when I set it up,
but I may have had to drop back to an earlier version.) I'll have to
check when I have a chance. It's definitely not a speed demon, but it
works reasonably well. OpenBSD on the other hand was utterly unusable;
it took minutes just to respond to input over the serial port.
> It includes a table which says which chip each bit in the memory is
> stored in
Oh, there's an entry (well, actually two) missing from the table, which is the
parity bits (2; byte parity); I'll work them out and add them. (I know, by
elimination, which two columns of chips are the parity bits; I just don't know
which is for the high byte, and which for the low.)
The flippping documentation doesn't say whether it's even or odd parity,
though! I'm assuming odd (which seems to be the usual: probably so that
totally failed memory - all 0's - generates an error), but now that I think
about it, it should be pretty easy to work out. I'll just store a '0' word,
and looking at either parity bit should give me whether it's using even/odd;
storing '-1' should confirm.
Then I can do byte writes to work out which chips the high/low parity bits
are in.
I'm assuming the DEC memory diagnostics (for people using them, not their own)
will call out parity failures, and high/low, so people will know which chips
to replace.
Noel
Not exactly the same thing, but I've run several different versions of
NetBSD on both a real 3900 and on SIMH. I have not tried current, but I
have tried the 3 series, the 4 series and the 5 series - all seem to
work well. In this context, "well" is defined as (in order of decreasing
importance):
The ability to run colossal cave adventure (the 350 point version)
The ability to boot into multi-user
The ability to TELNET to remote hosts, e.g., oath.com
The ability to TELNET to local hosts
The ability to run "vi"
The ability to compile/link/run "hello.c"
I have not tried to recompile the kernel
I have not tried to compile other more obscure/exotic, but less useful
operating systems like emacs
The only problem I've come across is that the hash function on passwords is
VERY slow on the new versions of netbsd (> the 3 series).
So, a while back someone had a broken MSV11-Q QBUS memory card, and needed
info on them. I said I'd provide same, but then got distracted. Well, I
finally got to it, and it's been added to the CHW page for them:
https://gunkies.org/wiki/MSV11-Q_QBUS_memory
It includes a table which says which chip each bit in the memory is stored
in (which is what one needs to fix one which is basically working, but has
some bad bits).
While working out that table, I ran into a hitch, which is a good part of why
it took so long. The hitch, when solved, revealed something mildly interesting.
The hitch was in my process for finding out which bit was stored in which chip.
I whipped up a simple loop to store a word with a single '1' bit, and the
rest 0's; I set that running, and used a 'scope probe on the DIn pins to find
out which column of chips held bit 0, etc. So far, so good. I then looked on the
-Wr pin, to find out which row of chips held which banks.
Not so good! There were pulses on -Wr for _all_ the banks, no matter which
address I tried to write to.
Eventually I worked out what was going on: when writing data, the MSV11-Q
sends a 'write' signal to _all_ the banks, and selects the one to _actually_
use by use of the RAS signal. I'm not certain why DEC did this, but since
there is no explicit 'read' signal on the DRAM chip, and likely the data
outputs from all the banks are wire-OR'd together, use of RAS to select the
desired bank works for read, and also for write.
Has anyone else seen this trick used anywhere else?
Noel
Hello all,
This is probably a long-shot, but does anyone have any advice for testing the End-of-Tape sensor on a QIC drive?
I've recently restored a Wangtek 5125ES (well, "restored" is a bit strong, I just replaced the capstan roller) and after about 5 tape passes, it completely lost its End-of-Tape sensor. I'm not entirely sure whether or not it's producing IR, pr of the sensors are dirty, or what.
-Seth
--
Seth Morabito
Poulsbo, WA
web at loomcom.com
I am helping a guy with a dead IBM 3279 terminal
The PSU does not seem to work. But as usual it is impossible to find any
schematic online for IBM stuff. Just interconnection diagram and high level
drawings.
Anyone?
Now the PSU circuit seems to be quite simple with just one IC in it. A chip
marked 4216092.
https://i.imgur.com/WMe7DgU.jpg
>From the look of mold I guess that the manufacturer is Texas Instruments.
At least it matches very well with other TI chips manufactured in the same
time frame.
The rest is looking like a quite simple flyback mode PSU: A transformer
with air gaps, no output filter inductors and one single power transistor.
Is there a cross reference list available for IBM numbers to standard chips?
It shouldn't be that hard to figure from the how it connected, though,
since it is most likely a standard chip. It can be a TL494 or SG3524
perhaps?
/Mattis
I've successfully managed to get a simulated TOPS20 environment going with
networking. Now there's a new strange hitch: the behavior of make. Would
someone please look at this and tell me what I'm doing wrong?
For a simple Makefile, it works fine if I just type "make", but if I type
"make <target>", I get the commands sent to the command line, but no
responses. The display then stalls at the eighth source file. Strangely,
if I scroll up in the xterm, it gets dragged back down as if more stuff is
being printed.
Just typing "make", I get this:
@make
cc -c buffer.c -o buffer.rel
PANDA TOPS-20 Command processor 7.1(4453)-4
@cc -c buffer.c -o buffer.rel
KCC: BUFFER
<DAVE.FROTZ>BUFFER.PRE.3
<DAVE.FROTZ>BUFFER.FAI.3
FAIL: BUFFER
@
@POP
... and so on until this:
@POP
cc -o dfrotz.exe buffer.rel err.rel fastme.rel files.rel getopt.rel
... more .rel files
LINK: Loading
@
@POP
@
and we're done. dfrotz.exe is in the current directory and it works.
Here's the strange behavior I can't explain:
@make dumb
cc -c buffer.c -o buffer.rel
?Unrecognized command - Does not match switch or keyword - "dumb"
cc -c err.c -o err.rel
cc -c fastme.c -o fastme.rel
cc -c files.c -o files.rel
cc -c getopt.c -o getopt.rel
cc -c hotkey.c -o hotkey.rel
cc -c input.c -o input.rel
cc -c main.c -o main.rel
The process stalls at this point, jerking back the terminal to the bottom
if I scroll up. Hitting ^C once or repeatedly doesn't seem to do
anything. Logging into the from a different terminal, I can see that no
.rel files were generated from this operation.
Typing "make foobar" results in this:
@make foobar
?MAKE: Don't know how to make foobar
perror() says: No such file or directory
@
Amusingly, "make love" returns this classic reply:
@make love
Not war!
?MAKE: Don't know how to make love
perror() says: No such file or directory
@
Here's the Makefile:
CC = cc
NAME = frotz
C = .c
O = .rel
E = .exe
DFROTZ = d$(NAME)$(E)
OBJ = buffer$(O) err$(O) fastme$(O) files$(O) getopt$(O) hotkey$(O) \
input$(O) main$(O) math$(O) missin$(O) object$(O) \
proces$(O) quetza$(O) random$(O) redire$(O) screen$(O) \
sound$(O) stream$(O) table$(O) text$(O) variab$(O) \
dblorb$(O) dinit$(O) dinput$(O) doutpu$(O) dpic$(O)
dumb: $(DFROTZ)
dfrotz: $(DFROTZ)
$(DFROTZ): $(OBJ)
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $(DFROTZ) $(OBJ)
.c.rel:
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $@
clean:
delete *.rel
delete *.exe
.SUFFIXES: .exe .rel .c *.h
This whole thing can be found at https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz/
in the tops20 branch.
--
David Griffith
dave at 661.org
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?
I thought that I had sent a message to the list a few months ago showing the procedure to use the software DDCMP driver in RSTS V10.1. That's a standard feature, but undocumented and probably unsupported. It works well and interoperates with PyDECnet and with the DDCMP implementation in SIMH. Presumably it will talk to the software DDCMP in RSX, though I have not tried that.
Attached are the instructions and the program mentioned.
paul
Hello,
A small group of volunteers are working on restoring JOSS-II, the PDP-6
version, to a working state. We are typing in a program listing
provided by the RAND corporation. The listing is the supervisor, which
is a large part of the system. So far good news.
The bad news is that it's not a complete system. The Computer History
Museum seems to have additional program listings here:
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102734547
But they have not been scanned. They archvists are willing to let us
see the collection, but no one of us lives near the museum. Is there
anyone interested in this kind of thing that are willing to help out?
I have paper copies of a few manuals I have no use for. Most of these
are single-sided photocopies made by others and sent to me for scanning
years ago. These are not originals. Almost all of them appear to be
available on bitsavers, but if you have a penchant for paper, this might
be your chance. Available by post (for whatever it costs to send them
plus the paypal fee) or by arrangement in Reading, UK.
MicroVAX Troubleshooting and Diagnostics. EK-O19AE-SG-005
MicroVAX Dual-Host Systems. EK-338AC-DH-003
VAX-11/780 Unibus Adaptor Technical Description. EK-DW780-TD.001
VAX-11/730 Diagnostic System User's Guide. EK-DS780-UG.002
VAX-11/780 Installation Manual. EK-SI780-IN-002
Translation Buffer Cache and SBI Control Technical Description.
EK-MM780-TD.001
VAX-11/780 Hardware User's Guide. EK-11780-UG-001
VAX-11/780 Console Interface Board Technical Description. EK-KC780-TD.001
FB780 Floating-Point Accelerator. EK-FP780-TD.001
MS780 Memory System Technical Description. EK-MS780-TD.001
* KA780 Centraler Processor Technical Description. EK-KA780-TD.001
* KA655 CPU System Maintenance. EK-306AA-MG.001
The last two (marked *) do not currently appear to be on bitsavers. They
do appear in my index of local files so I'll make them available to Al
sometime soon.
Send emails off-list please.
Antonio
--
Antonio Carlini
antonio at acarlini.com
Hey all - We have had soft-launched it on our website calendar a few months
ago but I wanted to confirm that yes on October 16 - 18 2020 the first
annual "Kennett Classic" weekend is scheduled and a GO; venue booked and
implementation is under way.
The centerpiece of the weekend will be a contest between teams of vintage
computer hobbyists competing for the Kennett Classic Cup, an award to the
team with the best network of vintage hardware based on up-time and
connectivity. There will be a substantial prize awarded to the winning
team. We're really excited to share the details of this event, but stand
by for now. In addition to the on-site teams, we will open the contest to
any qualifying team worldwide. This is a first-of-its-kind world-wide
vintage computing networking event!
We're working on the registration pages now, and once they're live we'll
share all of the details. Think of the Kennett Classic Cup as a car rally
for vintage computers. We have many other activities planned for that
weekend, stay tuned.
Interested?
We look forward to making this a huge success.
Bill Degnan
Kennett Classic
Kennett Square, PA
https://www.kennettclassic.com
Hello,
Does anyone have the "Extended Industry Standard Architecture Revision 3.10"
specification either in printed/book form that they are willing to separate
>from or in some sort of electronic format ala PDF? I am mostly interested in
the sections on the syntax for EISA CFG files. TIA!
-Ali
Hi - I am looking for an IMSAI PCS 80-30 ROM image made for with the
Tarbell 1011 controller and Persci 277..anyone have this? I received a
system and drive but I think the ROM was replaced and since then I was told
the system would no longer boot.
In the meantime I am going to find a drive and controller that is
compatible.
Or, ug, have to try to edit the ROM I have (version 1.1) to operate with
this hardware. I would not having a copy of ROM 1.0 at least to start from
scratch with.
Thanks
Bill Degnan
One shot in the dark if anyone has the DSP development or interface toolkit for
NI's TMS320C30 Nubus cards. I have a bunch of boards but never found any software
to use with them. This is probably LabView 2 or 3 timeframe.
I see NI, who is normally pretty good with keeping manuals around doesn't even
have them online any more for boards like the DSP2300
Hi,
I have access to some DEC items for a month or two before a house is
sold. Photographs are linked here:
https://imgur.com/a/HqxI4JA
I can locate and forward any items, if still available, for actual
shipping costs and any nominal packaging material costs.
Summary:
Hitachi ESDI drives
RX50 drives (many)
TK50 tapes (many)
DEC Professional magazine 1987-1994
DECUS software abstracts
DECUS software catalogues
Controlling Software Projects (DeMARCO)
Programming in C with Let's C (Vine)
Surefire Programming in C (Stewart)
PDP-11 Systems and Options Catalogs 1983-1989
Various databooks, DECdirect, etc
DECUScope magazines
Copies of RT-11 SIG newsletter(s)
issues of digital Canadian Digest, 1980s
DECUS Canada mailings
digital news & review magazines ("The Independent Newspaper & Test Lab
of Open Computing for DEC Sites")
various PDU units (see pic)
RD52/RD53 drives
various empty chassis/backplanes (see pics)
BA23 shells (2)
various tapes, drives (see pics)
As I said, last call, gone in 1-2 months.
--Toby
I have my Sun-4/110C set up and running SunOS 4.1.4.
Were there any fun SunView applications or hacks back in the day?
Other than the demos, the only stuff I currently have is emacstool (built as part of emacs 18.59) and the PLATO client (which I haven?t actually built yet). I know I can read through the comp.sources.unix archives but I figure maybe some folks might remember things to look for.
-- Chris
Hello folks;
I've recently had some free time and decided to look at some hardware
failures in my small collection.? I fixed a couple of analog boards in
the compact Mac department, and a failed scsi disk in one of them
prompted me to test the small stash of such drives that I have.? Turns
out, about half of those marked as "working" in 2015 have failed now in
many different ways.? Oh well... sucks, but it was to be expected...
I decided to image some of the still working ones, both in the stash and
in working machines.?? The one in the vaxstation 2000 (a 1GB scsi with
5.5-2) turned out to have file system corruption (probably from? AC
power failures), which has taken a while to fix.? And then, I remembered
that said system originally came with an RD53 that has sat elsewhere for
25 years.? It passed a read test in 2005.? So I tried to see if I could
read it and maybe image it now, but no go. The disk spins up, initiates
a seek (the arm is not stuck in a gooey stop pad; I've read that this is
a common failure mechanism for Micropolis 1325's; I opened it and saw
the arm move) but then the arm returns violently (clacking) to the rest
position; it does this a number of times (two to four, usually) and then
it spins down. Applied voltages and currents remain ok as this happens.
I've seen plenty of internet content about solving the stuck arm
problem, but not this.
Advice, please?
Carlos.
Here is a strange question. Does anyone happen to know how long unused Laser Printer and Ink Jet transparencies last? Do they go bad, or break down? I have a stack of them, still in the boxes, a lot are unopened. I scavenged them about 10 years ago, when people were getting rid of them.
I wanted them for a Photography Project, that I?ve never had time to try. At this point, I?d like to know if I?m wasting space storing them.
Zane
Never mind, I just realised there was a little "+" sign well away from the
symbol that allowed me to select it. It looks like the symbol is somehow
much bigger that how I have drawn it. I should be able to work it out now.
Regards
Rob
From: Rob Jarratt <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com>
Sent: 07 March 2020 17:12
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts (cctalk at classiccmp.org)
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Can't Select a Custom Device in Eagle
I have been using Eagle to reverse engineer a PSU schematic. I decided I
needed to make a custom device in Eagle for the transformer. I have done
this and it seems to be fine, except that when I put the symbol on a
schematic, after I have confirmed its position, I can't select it, so I
can't move it or anything.
I have done some web searches but I can't find anything about this. Anyone
know what the problem might be?
I am using the free version, and I am on version 7.2.0. Looks like later
versions are subscription only and I am reluctant to do that because they
could take away access at any time.
Thanks
Rob
I have been using Eagle to reverse engineer a PSU schematic. I decided I
needed to make a custom device in Eagle for the transformer. I have done
this and it seems to be fine, except that when I put the symbol on a
schematic, after I have confirmed its position, I can't select it, so I
can't move it or anything.
I have done some web searches but I can't find anything about this. Anyone
know what the problem might be?
I am using the free version, and I am on version 7.2.0. Looks like later
versions are subscription only and I am reluctant to do that because they
could take away access at any time.
Thanks
Rob
Hopefully collective wisdom can help on this one - does anyone have a clue
what system this core board was from:
http://www.classiccmp.org/acornia/tmp/coresmall.jpg
The curved edge connectors (presumably to make board insertion easier) are
quite distinctive, plus the way the power's fed in via an edge connector on
the "far" side of the board. What's interesting to me is the core ring
size; the TTL ICs on the board have 1970 date codes, but I didn't think
that the rings got quite that small until right at the end of core's era,
more toward the end of the decade.
It seems to be 8 blocks of 64x64, i.e. 4KB. p/n on the main board of
2001000755, and just hidden from view under the core daughterboard is a
logo that says "LEC", which I suppose might be meaningful.
There's a bigger (2181x1863) image as "coreboard.jpg" in the same dir if
more detail helps (I doubt it), but it's 2.4MB so maybe save Jay's
bandwidth by only looking at that one if you absolutely have to :-)
thanks,
Jules
> On Mar 5, 2020, at 05:20, Plamen Mihaylov via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> ? Does anyone have such machine ? I miss the PSU adapter as well as the Sbus
> framebuffer which connects the LCD panel to the mainboard. Any info is
> appreciated.
I had one, but sold it to someone on this list last year.
I used a generic power supply, one with multiple cord tips and selectable output. However, when I exhibited the BriteLite and had it running all day, the power supply died after a day and a half.
Good luck on finding a frame buffer for it. I don?t remember the details about it, but I took lots of photos of it.
alan
>
> Best regards,
> Plamen
> Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2020 14:23:30 +0200
> From: Plamen Mihaylov <plamenspam at afterpeople.com>
> Subject: RDI BriteLite
>
> Does anyone have such machine ? I miss the PSU adapter as well as the Sbus
> framebuffer which connects the LCD panel to the mainboard. Any info is
> appreciated.
>
> Best regards,
> Plamen
>
I have several BriteLites, including IPC, IPX, and LX versions.
I will see what power supplies go with them.
The Sbus video board is something special for the LCD panel.
--
Michael Thompson
Looking at the datasheet for the 6809 (specifically, the 6809E that
needs incoming quadrature clock), I read that !HALT can be asserted
200nS (for 1MHz part) before falling Q and the CPU will finish the
existing instruction and then go into a HALT state as long as the HALT
line is low during the falling edge of Q.
That's the store from the datasheet, but when I am testing it, I see
that, even if I pull HALT low at the very beginning of the last cycle of
an instruction, the 6809 will not acknowledge the HALT until executing
the next instruction.
My logic is watching for IO address $ff61.? When found, it drops Q
so, to start the HALT condition, I need only:
lda $ff61
Not that the trigger is being performed by the code, so the current
instruction (the lda) should complete and then the CPU should go into
HiZ.? What I see is:
lda $ff61
lda $ff60 <- the next instruction
executed, and THEN the CPU goes into HiZ.
I can deal with this (Yes, I should just look at BS=BA=1, which tell
when to safely use the bus, but I don't have access to those signals for
this project), but I thought I'd see if this was known by all, or if
there is something I am missing.
Jim
--
Jim Brain
brain at jbrain.comwww.jbrain.com
Now that I have my SWTPC 6800 loading and saving programs with paper tape, cassette, and floppy disk (using the Percom LFD-400 controller and their MiniDOS and MPX ?operating systems?), the next logical step is getting FLEX up and running. Unfortunately, I only have the Percom floppy controller and I don?t know if FLEX compatible disk drivers and boot code were ever written for it. Before I go create Percom support for FLEX from scratch, does anyone have any leads?
Mike
On 3/3/20 4:26 PM, Joe George wrote:
>
> Yup! Single sided, single density, 32 hard sectors. And the Wang 2200 had apparently some weird insert orientation, the ?Wang? labels are on the back of the diskettes, opposite side of the manufacturer sticker.
>
> Cheers,
My recollection is that the 8" floppy drives (in a lowboy floor-standing
unit) were vertically mounted and placed to the right of the operator.
The floppy eject button was then closest to the operator and any disk
inserted would be visible from the "rear" of the floppy.
Not nearly as weird as the Altos ACS8000, for example, that mounted the
floppy drives upside-down and horizontally, such that the eject button
was topmost. Those disks do have content labels placed on what we'd
consider the "backside" of the floppy for obvious reasons.
Did any 5.25" floppy-equipped systems do this?
--Chuck
I was watching this video on highway construction in the 1960's (as you do) and noticed what appears to be
a System 360 console, that I couldn't place. Presumably it's some peripheral or CE maintenance panel. I didn't
find it in the Physical Planning Guide (not that that's comprehensive) nor from perusing google images.
I'm a little curious as to what it is.
It's at 23:13 in https://youtu.be/apWSa6QlrTg?t=1393
Thanks
Steve.
>
> On Sun, 1 Mar 2020 at 17:58, Joseph Zatarski via cctalk
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> > I've started inventorying a lot of the stuff I'd like to pass on here:
> >
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19vhF-o6vx9g7l-D8cvLJ5OPJzpdmU9PTTkn…
>
> I can't see these in the Google sheet, for some reason:
>
> > -Mac network cards (nubus and one for IIsi or SE/30) as well as a couple
> > other accessories (Dayna Mini Etherprint, AAUI transceiver, more
> > accessories to come)
>
> I am interested in an SE/30 NIC and associated bits (transciever,
> AppleTalk bridge).
>
> I am happy to pay international postage. I'm in Prague.
> --
> Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com
> Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven
> UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
Hello Liam,
The NICs I have are Asante brand. They are located in the Apple/Macintosh
category.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19vhF-o6vx9g7l-D8cvLJ5OPJzpdmU9PTTkn…
Unfortunately for you, sale is pending on the SE/30 NIC. If the sale falls
through, you are in line behind one other person. I'm fairly confident that
even if the first buyer falls through, the second in line will not.
If you're still interested in the other accessories, I can have a look when
I get home, get a few pictures put up for you, and we can continue from
there. International shipping should not be an issue, filling out a customs
form is not very hard.
Best Regards,
Joe Zatarski
*TOPS-20*
The set of config files you need to edit in TOPS-20 is found here, about
halfway down the page:
http://www.ldx.ca/notes/tops-20-notes.html
I'll paste it here:
Configuring the system
The *Panda Distribution* README has this to say about initial configuration:
You?ll need to edit the following files. EMACS is installed on this system,
along with TECO and EDIT. [More on these editors later.]
SYSTEM:7-1-CONFIG.CMD to set your timezone
SYSTEM:HOSTS.TXT to define your local host name and network
SYSTEM:INTERNET.ADDRESS to define (again!) your IP address ? must be the
same as in klt20.ini. Also define your netmask here as LOGICAL-HOST-MASK
SYSTEM:INTERNET.GATEWAYS to define your IP gateway
SYSTEM:INTERNET.NAMESERVERS Don?t bother with SYSTEM:INTERNET.NAMESERVERS.
That is the configuration file for DEC?s resolver; although it?s simpler it
has some interoperability problems with MMAILR which haven?t been resolved
yet.
SYSTEM:MONNAM.TXT to define your system name
DOMAIN:RESOLV.CONFIG to define your DNS servers, your default domain
(replacing MYDOMAIN.COM) and any users in addition to OPERATOR who can send
control messages to the resolver.
To actually edit any of those, you'll probably need to ENABLE first, eg:
@ena
$
The dollar-sign ($) prompt indicates that your privileges are enabled.
*Linux Host*
On the host side, I like to convert my ethernet to a bridge so I can add
virtual interfaces easily. Here's the script I use (requires sudo, and
that the user running it be in group adm, and that the tuntap devices be
owned by and writeable by group adm):
#!/bin/sh
eth0text=$(/sbin/ifconfig eth0 | grep "inet ")
HOSTIP=$(echo "${eth0text}" | awk '{print $2}')
HOSTNETMASK=$(echo "${eth0text}" | awk '{print $4}')
HOSTBCASTADDR=$(echo "${eth0text}" | awk '{print $6}')
HOSTDEFAULTGATEWAY=$(/sbin/route -n | grep ^0.0.0.0 | awk '{ print $2 }')
# Change as we add more guest OSes with network stacks
_maxtap=2
#
for i in $(seq 0 ${_maxtap}); do
/usr/bin/tunctl -t tap${i} -u adam -g adm
/sbin/ifconfig tap${i} up
done
#
# Now convert eth0 to a bridge and bridge it with the TAP interfaces
/sbin/brctl addbr bridge0
sleep 1
/sbin/brctl addif bridge0 eth0
sleep 1
/sbin/brctl setfd bridge0 0
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0
/sbin/ifconfig bridge0 $HOSTIP netmask $HOSTNETMASK broadcast
$HOSTBCASTADDR up
# set the default route to the bridge0 interface
/sbin/route add -net 0.0.0.0/0 gw $HOSTDEFAULTGATEWAY
#
# bridge in the tap devices
for i in $(seq 0 ${_maxtap}); do
/sbin/brctl addif bridge0 tap${i}
/sbin/ifconfig tap${i} 0.0.0.0
done
For some reason this seems to work even though that should be group
netdev. I guess because "adam," who is running the emulator, owns the
tun/tap devices.
I have this in /etc/udev/rules.d/99_net_tun.rules:
KERNEL=="tun", GROUP="netdev", MODE="0660", OPTIONS+="static_node=net/tun"
I don't think that's standard; I think I added that at some point.
And then in klt20.ini, I have a statement that looks like:
devdef ni0 564 ni20 ifc=bridge0 ipaddr=192.168.248.249 dedic=false
And then finally the dnpni20 executable is setuid root.
All of this together gives me a TCP/IP stack on klh10 that allows the
emulator to run as me, not as root, and bridges the TOPS-20 host into my
real network.
Adam
I'm having loads of trouble getting networking going with the Panda
Distribution of TOPS20 and KLH10. Could someone point me to a
step-by-step guide on doing this?
--
David Griffith
dave at 661.org
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?
>>
>> Hi.
>>
>> I forgot to mention it?s an eye phone
>> 11 PRO 256gb.
>
> I may be missing something -- *what's* an "eye phone"? I thought you
> were listing vintage kit, not smartphones?
>
> --
> Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com
> Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven
> UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
I believe Kevin replied to the wrong e-mail by mistake. He must be
selling something himself and had a similar subject line.
That said, no hits on my post yet? what, nobody needs nubus ethernet
cards? or various ISA/PCI/PCI-X expansion cards? a dozen computer mice?
DEC Alpha 4100 RAM? some nice combination SCSI/fastethernet cards?
OK, I get that it's mostly junk ;), but no attention at all so far. Keep
checking, getting more stuff in the list every day. I added a recent
section so people can keep up on the recent additions without having to
check the whole list.
As before, I'm in the west suburbs of chicago in case anyone is local
and sees some stuff they want.
I bought some 8? diskette cases and they arrived with a bunch of old software for a Wang 2200 in them. One of the boxes HP was badly water damaged, and the diskettes are shot, but those look like backups of some company software. Diskettes that look like they may still viable include 2 marked ?WANG 2200 MVP Operating System v2.6.2? and one marked ?2200 MVP (Multi-user) BASIC-2 System Platter Release 2.5?. There?s also a box of diskettes of what look like source for something ?GBS Mod 1 Diskette Version?.
I?m not a Wang person and I can?t use these diskettes for anything, does anyone on the list have any interest in them? Is the software worth rescuing or is it already archived somewhere?
If anyone wants them, drop me an email off list. Gimme a couple of bucks to cover shipping and I?ll send you all the ones that look viable.
Joe
> On Feb 29, 2020, at 11:00 AM, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
>
>> Anyway, my Googling turned up nothing on the OS, although I did find a Robert Knight at Princeton, but no information on stuff he's done. I will likely email him to ask about it, but wanted to ask here first if anyone knows anything about it.
>>
When you do, please tell him Adam Thornton says ?hi.?
I worked for him at Princeton for a while. IIRC he wrote the LPR RFC.
Adam
National didn't document the opcodes for the HPC in the data sheets. Does anyone have the users manual?
I found the DOS disks for the cross-assembler and c compiler tonight
http://bitsavers.org/components/national/hpc
All,
Next to go is a home-office setup.
Mac Performa 6214CD, PowerPC CPU, 3.5? floppy and CD drive on front face
Apple Extended Keyboard II (NO ADB CABLE)
Apple Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II (round)
Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display (matching, includes cable)
APS external SCSI hard drive enclosure and cable (Centronix on the hard drive end, DB-25 on the Mac end)
Epson Stylus Color 740 ink-jet printer with a spare (unopened) cartridge
UMAX Astra 1220S flat-bed SCSI scanner (NO CABLE - DB-25 connector)
Pile of accompanying software including at least:
DeltaGraph
Now Up-To-Date and Contact
Sad Macs, Bombs and disasters
Retrospect Backup
Astra Scanner Driver
All Free to a Good Home.
You want this if:
a) you can afford shipping or pickup from San Antonio, TX, 78254, and
b) 15 years after ?Take this job and shove it? came out you finally acted on it, quit your job and set up your own home office and accounting business, and now you want to relive your glory days.
All items working when decommissioned, about 15 years back. Fred?s ingenious guarantee (?Guaranteed not to work, double your money back if it does work?) applies. Please, please, please take this as a group, I really don?t want to split it up. If I locate the missing ADB or DB25 SCSI cables in time, I?ll include them, but I?ll double the price :-).
FWIW, this was a companion of the Palm Pilot in my other post.
- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell
Reading through the April 85 issue of Byte, I came across a reference to the "S1 Operating System." In Jerry Pournelle's column on pg 361 he talks about this mysterious OS. Here is a small excerpt:
Robert Knight. formerly of
Princeton's computer laboratories. is
an old fan of my books and columns
as well as the creator of SI. which he
had running on an IBM Instruments
CS9000
Anyway, my Googling turned up nothing on the OS, although I did find a Robert Knight at Princeton, but no information on stuff he's done. I will likely email him to ask about it, but wanted to ask here first if anyone knows anything about it.
Thanks,
Will
Googling for "multisolutions inc. s1 operating system" turned up several mentions from ComputerWorld, an S1 operating system pin at Etsy, plus this blog post:
http://mathisliberalarts.blogspot.com/2012/03/?m=0
> One day at Burroughs I received a phone call from a recruiter. Usually I don?t give these headhunters the time of day, but this one mentioned a startup company. It was either intrigue or boredom but I decided to interview. Then I was hired to write compilers which I had been doing for about six years at Burroughs.
>
> The company was a small startup in Lawrenceville, NJ. The CTO was a charismatic engineer named Robert Knight. The CEO was a wealthy businessman, Charles Lombardo, who provided most of the company?s funding. Somehow, maybe because Lombardo?s wife worked on Wall Street, our tiny company, MultiSolutions Inc., actually went public. Even though they actually did not have a product or a revenue stream.
>
> The product, under development, was an Operating System called S1. The marketing department used the slogan ?Unix is a dinosaur, MS-DOS is a toy.? This was in 1984 and it was true that there was an opportunity for a new OS in the marketplace.
>
> To kill any suspense, the OS never caught on. ...
>
Paul
> On Feb 28, 2020, at 10:00 AM, wrcooke at wrcooke.net wrote:
>
> Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2020 19:20:06 -0600 (CST)
> From: wrcooke at wrcooke.net <mailto:wrcooke at wrcooke.net>
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: Anyone heard of the S1 Operating System
>
> Reading through the April 85 issue of Byte, I came across a reference to the "S1 Operating System." In Jerry Pournelle's column on pg 361 he talks about this mysterious OS. Here is a small excerpt:
> Robert Knight. formerly of
> Princeton's computer laboratories. is
> an old fan of my books and columns
> as well as the creator of SI. which he
> had running on an IBM Instruments
> CS9000
>
> Anyway, my Googling turned up nothing on the OS, although I did find a Robert Knight at Princeton, but no information on stuff he's done. I will likely email him to ask about it, but wanted to ask here first if anyone knows anything about it.
>
> Thanks,
> Will
I work at an astronomy facility. I get to do some fun dumpster diving.
I recently have pulled out of the trash a plugboard with a male and a
female D-Sub 52 connector. 3 rows of pins, 17-18-17. I took the
connectors off the board: there's nothing back there, so this thing only
ever existed so you could plug the random cable you found into it and its
friends to see what the cable fit.
I can't find much evidence that a 52-pin D-Sub ever existed.
Is this just Yet Another Physics Experiment thing where, hey, if your
instrument already costs three million dollars, what's a couple of grand
for machining custom connectors? Or was it once a thing?
(also posted to COFF)
Adam
?Thanks for all the replies to my original post.
I sold the heads separately along with a set of replacement cards and the remote display for $400.
>From It?s operational days I know one of my drum?s long channels (not a register) is bad. The coating ?looks? ok but it?s been exposed (indoors) for decades with ample touching etc but there are no dents or scratches other than the bad channel. As some have said it ?seems? like a durable coating but I have no idea if it would work. I read somewhere there are 2 timing tracks put down at the factory. I have my doubts about this info (I thought the timing circuit laid down the reference tracks in the final stage of power up) but if true I would not expect my drum to work. I have the drum connected to a small motor and belt to spin it (slowly) for demo purposes.
Anybody know what non-magnetic metal forms the drum? Stainless? Nickel?
Cheers
Barry
original post:
> Does anyone have an idea as to the value of a Bendix G15 Drum? Its time to pass mine to another caring collector who would appreciate it but I am not sure how of its value. Obviously it is rare but the market demand is unclear to me.
ANyone interested in a kind of beat up but complete model 32, and you're in
cincinnati to get it today or this weekend let me know by sending me a
message through my web site
https://www.vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm
This is the fairest way, it takes the requests with a timestamp. I will
forward your info to the donor immediately, in order of receipt. He can
send photos if you need them. On a scale of one to 10 it's in "4-7"
condition depending on your taste. Has a built in phone and reader.
(baudout)
You must be able to physically go to this guy and pick it up this weekend.
Bill
(Just reposting this as it did not appear to appear on the list - there
was about a two week period when I didn't see any CCMP emails for some
reason - apologies if it has already appeared for others).
I apologize if this is OT but I'm hoping someone on the list can help me
fill a gap in my knowledge.
Quick back story - in 1995 my wife and I published a book on her family
history. For anyone interested in genealogy, details are here
https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2416803
I think we may have done the whole job end-to-end on a 486 before
sending a file to the book printers (we published 500 copies) but my
memory is vague on that point.
Of course the last job I did on the book I backed up the whole thing
(database files, image files, record and document scans etc) to a DC2120
tape. I've even found the tape:
http://koken.advancedimaging.com.au/index.php?/albums/interesting-finds/con…
The wife says that its time for an update to the book so that means drop
all other projects and see if you can get it back off the tape (with an
implied now).
I know that I used a software app called ResQ120 to run the tape drive.
I can't find it (or any info) on-line other than the software came from
Alloy but I suspect I have it here somewhere on a floppy disk so its
only matter of time before I find that assuming the disk is still
readable. Of course over time I have acquired other tape drives from
various salvage/rescue sources but I believe this is the one I used:
http://koken.advancedimaging.com.au/index.php?/albums/interesting-finds/con…
What I'm missing is this - I recall that despite the PC having a floppy
controller I added a separate floppy (or similar or other) controller
(card) for the tape drive (it might have even run on the same interrupt
- I can't remember). As with most stuff, being a prolific rescuer I have
acquired many ISA based cards over the years that appear to be floppy
controllers but I have no idea what I'm looking for to run this tape
drive.
Any clues, info etc would greatly appreciated because I don't want to
have to tell her that it can't be done and you wouldn't want to be
around if she had to hear that :-)
Thank you!!
Kevin Parker
Does anyone have an idea as to the value of a Bendix G15 Drum? Its time to pass mine to another caring collector who would appreciate it but I am not sure how of its value. Obviously it is rare but the market demand is unclear to me.
thank you
?
As previously discussed here, I have a Sun 3/260 that connects to a Sun external storage subsystem containing two 8? SMD drives. The external cabling is a 0.7m D-sub 25-pin (male both ends) data cable for each drive and a paired set of 0.7m D-sub 25- and 37-pin (male both ends) command cables. These cables are straight through connections between internal ribbon cables from the drives (CDC 9720-368 and Fujitsu M2372) to the controller board (Xylogics 451 on a VME adapter).
For reasons described below, I have been unable to buy the original Sun cables. Should off-the-shelf D-sub 25- and 37-pin cables work? I guess electrical shielding/noise could be a concern?
As to why I am looking for alternatives, MemoryX has been my source for this kind of stuff, but they have lost my trust. I ordered a full set of cables from them on 2 Jan and they have gone silent responding to my queries on that order. Then this month they were selling a couple sets of the control cables on eBay. I bought the second set. They marked it shipped, left positive comments about the transaction on eBay, but the cable set didn?t arrive as scheduled last Friday and yesterday they cancelled the eBay auction and refunded what I paid, all without any explanation. They still list the cables on their website, each $100 more than what they were when I ordered them on 2 Jan.
alan
Good afternoon all;
I picked up a ZDS Z183-92 laptop over the weekend alongside a Kodak
Diconix 150 portable inkjet printer.
The prior owner doesn't think he ever had a power supply for the Z183,
although he discovered that it does power up sort-of from the Diconix
power supply wallwart(!)
The underside of the laptop has "12V" - and nothing else - so my
assumption is I need to find a 12V pack of suitable amperage. The Diconix
supply is 9VDC. The 9VDC is enough to bring up the LCD and at least some
of the internals (presumably the +5v ones) to have it _appear_ to POST,
but neither of the disks sound like they're running (either the internal
HDD or the 3.5" drive). I presume the internal HDD requires the +12v to
spin up, but I haven't dug into it yet.
Anywho - if anyone had any documentation on this machine I would very much
appreciate a scan. Or just confirmation what the power supply is supposed
to be outputting would be very helpful.
Thank you!
- JP
50441
Hello list,
this might be of interest for list members located in France (Normandie) or close to it:
There is seller who offers different types of classic systems. Micros as well as larger systems andwhat appears to be a punched card sorter from the 50s. He writes that he has more stuff and that he can send pictures upon request.
Descriptions are in French, but google translate might help out...
https://www.leboncoin.fr/recherche/?text=Informatique%20vintage&locations=B…
Cheers,
Pierre
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.digitalheritage.de
Hi All,
I am using an HP 9000 Series 360 with a "Thin LAN" coax card to run a
piece of equipment. The LAN connection is not currently being used.? I'm
wondering if it's possible to connect it to a modern ethernet network??
If so, what could I do with it? I found an adapter on Amazon. I would
like to be able to transfer files and possibly print.? The file systems
are not compatible except for maybe ASCII files.? Anyone have any
thoughts?? Even if I could transfer files into another HP 9000 system it
would be beneficial.
Thank you,
Roger A.
FWIW I have a copy of Version 3.11 from BCPR Services 1990 spec. Contact me
off list if you're interested.
Frank Tuccio KC2QQN
frank at tuccio.net
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2020 04:14:37 -0800
From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org>
To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Looking for Extended Industry Standard Architecture
Revision 3.10 Specification
Message-ID: <2dcdf609-2997-b458-eb2a-115fec80f6a3 at bitsavers.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
On 2/22/20 11:45 PM, Ali wrote:
> I am surprised that after thirty or so years and many of the original
"gang of nine" being gone the standard has not made its way into the
wild.....
I was as well, which was why I tried digging for it as much as I did
Global Engineering's standards search is really bad. I wasn't able to
determine if they actually still sell it
and I assume BCPR is long gone.
End of cctalk Digest, Vol 65, Issue 16
**************************************
The Panasonic KX-D4930 is a ?Laptop Data Terminal?, which includes both a (non-backlit) LCD screen and a thermal printer in a laptop-like package. It was obviously intended to supplant the Silent-700, and in fact appears to do so quite nicely. It has an internal modem (Bell 212) as well as a 25-pin EIA connection, and can even be run from an internal 12-volt battery.
However, either my Google-fu is exceptionally poor, or there?s truly no copy of its manual available on the Web. I do have the manual for the KX-D20, which is a VT-100 emulation cartridge for the terminal, but not the manual for the base unit itself. Specifically, I?m looking for the (non-VT-100) escape sequences that can control the terminal, if there are any.
If anyone has a paper copy of the manual that could be scanned, I?d certainly appreciate it. In an ideal world, there would also be a service manual with schematics, but that?s probably too much to hope for...
TIA!
~~
Mark Moulding
Come join us at Living Computers:Museum+Labs next month for VCF PNW 2020!
Here is what you can look forward to:
- 24 exhibits, ranging from big iron to 8 bitters
- 6 presentations including one from Bil Herd and one from Joe Decuir
- Our first vintage computer typing contest! (Yes, it will be hilarious)
- A consignment area for buying and selling treasure
- The museum. A very nice museum at that.
Details can be found at http://vcfed.org/vcf-pnw .
Mike