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

Mac Classic near death... or at least an OOBE...

by zmerch-cctalk＠30below.com

So, there's a Mac Classic that was dropped off at my friends' store (otherwise headed for the skip/dumpster) and I "rescued" it. Yes, I used quotes, as there was this "weird" bright yellow and purple goo emanating >from the unit. Thinking something completely odd was spilled *into* the unit, I took it apart to find the damage. Turns out, the PRAM battery was in such bad shape that it was the source of both the purple (rust & other dissolved metals) and yellow (still not sure what that is) goo. I had to pry the motherboard out of the unit (slightly destructively) due to the corrosion on the rails on one side of the motherboard rails just to remove the motherboard. Whatever was bent can be unbent, but will need a *lot* of cleaning to refurbish. The contacts for the PRAM battery were completely gone on the (+) side, and gosh-darned near gone on the (-) side (enough so that it couldn't be repaired). I removed the PRAM battery & holder (with a pair of pliers as it was also damaged to an unrepairable state). That said, what do I actually do with the thing? My idea: Disassemble the unit and turn it into a 68K "microcontroller" trainer unit with a recent(ish) Flash ROM and Static RAM. Yes, I have the technology to build that. Or... back to the original destination (bad). Anyone want it for price of shipping? And yes, for those "keeping score" I have now built a "Mac Cracker." Do I get a prize for being the "Last Geek Ever" to build one? ;-) Laterz, "Merch"

15 years, 10 months

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More SCSI Confusion

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Right now I have two disks and one CD-ROM in my Alpha 433au (all attached to the internal ribbon cable, if you have seen my question about the storage shelf, that is not connected in this instance). The SRM recognises them correctly thus: dka0.0.0.1009.0 DKA0 COMPAQ ST32550W 6415 dka400.4.0.1009.0 DKA400 MATSHITA CD-ROM CR-508 XS03 dka600.6.0.1009.0 DKA600 IBM-PSG DDYS-T18350N M S96E However, when I start the Debian installer, during the boot sequence it does a SCSI reset and then only recognises the first disk, thus: scsi(0:0): Resetting SCSI BUS scsi0 : QLogic QLA1040 PCI to SCSI Host Adapter Firmware version: 7.65.06, Driver version 3.26 Vendor: COMPAQ Model: ST32550W Rev: 6415 Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02 So, for whatever reason, the CD-ROM and the other hard disk disappear. I have checked the termination and it *seems* to be correct in that the disks and the CD-ROM are not (or *should* not) terminating anything. There is a terminator at the end of the SCSI cable, and I believe the QLA1040 SCSI adapter does its own termination: >>>sh pk* pka0_host_id 7 pka0_mode ultra pka0_soft_term diff Does anyone have any suggestions why the SCSI reset during boot should make the CD-ROM and the other HDD disappear? Thanks Rob

15 years, 10 months

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S-100 history (was Re: CompuPro CPU-Z with IMSAI and Front Panel issues)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 10/18/10, David Gari <dgari at msn.com> wrote: > > I may be able to help. I've worked for Morrow Designs (Thinker Toys), > Wordstar (MicroPro) and Stoneware (DBMaster). Yes, I am older than Godbout. > I have pwned two Altairs and an IMSAI. I took a tour of the giant (empty) > Cromemco facility back in the day. Sooo much promise. So sad. Sounds like you have a few stories to tell. My only experience with Godbout gear was using a couple of the full-sized boxes loaded with SRAM cards, serial ports (over a dozen lines) and a MC68K processor board - it was a proof-of-concept prototype for an X.25 WAN router that was a logical descendant of the CompuServe PDP-11-based serial I/O nodes (same architect, different company). I don't remember a single problem with the hardware - rock solid. When the company closed, I gave a 4' stack of enclosures to a friend in town. I should ask him if he's ever done anything with them (I am positive he hasn't discarded them - he's not the type). I have a Morrow Designs OEM ADM-20 terminal that I took with me to VCFmw, but I was unable to get more than baud barf out of it. I should hang an HP 4951 off of it to see what it's really doing. Care to share any interesting stories from the S-100 trenches? -ethan

15 years, 10 months

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Joining the list

by dm561＠torfree.net

I see there still are a few folks on Erik's VC forum trying unsuccessfully to sign up on cctalk; wasn't there some talk recently about taking some of the load off Jay's plate and giving approval authority to one or two other people? Or are new members intentionally being discouraged to keep down the volume, etc., as some folks are speculating? mike

15 years, 10 months

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Babbage Analytical Engine - CBC interview

by hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca

For those that can listen to CBC Radio 1 / As-It-Happens show / tonight 6:30-8:00, there is to be an interview with the guy that wants to build the Analytical Engine.

15 years, 10 months

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Total Loss of Memory Re: Dyspeptic archaeologists [was RE: Xerox Alto on ebay (not mine!)]

by chd＠chdickman.com

On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 5:52 PM, Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> wrote: > > Doesn't matter that it's crap if it contains an interesting verb form > not seen before, or mentions an historical fact only known previously > from a single source. > I keep thinking that Today will be lost forever because nobody thinks it is important NOW. Example: My daughter does not save her digital pictures on a computer because it is too much trouble and, besides, there is more room on the memory card. When the room gets too low, she deletes pictures from her camera because they are from last year and who cares about last year.

15 years, 10 months

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Xerox Alto on ebay (not mine!)

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> Emulators are great for a lot > of things (offtopically, especially running WinXP in a sandbox) but > aren't nearly so helpful when trying to get original hardware working > again... I have to disagree. Only last Wednesday I was single shotting my simulator and the real hardware to find where they diverged. It showed up the fault after a few hundred instructions instead of running for a half a second before crashing (by which I mean the hardware stopping because it detected the loading of an instruction where one of the digits was not binary coded decimal). I am also working on a deeper simulator which models the actual gates of the computer and their interconnections. The source code of this describes the computer in great detail and I would say would be better than real hardware from some purposes. It will also allow monitoring of signals with a virtual oscilloscope and maybe one day, the introduction of simulated faults to test the brains of anyone mad enough to want to see how the original engineers would tackle faults. One day it might even have a 3D graphical interface where you can walk around the machine, open covers and connect your virtual 'scope and the original sounds recorded from the real hardware, like the drum running up. Roger Holmes ICT 1301 + many Apples - ][, ///, Lisa, and Mac up to the latest MacBook Pro.

15 years, 10 months

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Babbage Analytical Engine - CBC interview

by ragooman＠gmail.com

-----Original Message----- Date: Monday, October 18, 2010 5:31:40 pm From: "William Donzelli" Even the Romans had something like mass production for their armies. Romans invented the Hamburger :) =Dan

15 years, 10 months

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Applicon VAX 11/751 available

by legalize＠xmission.com

I didn't buy it, but I spotted a VAX 11/751 with Applicon branding on it at a surplus dealer. I will upload some photos I took to a picasa web album tonight. If there is any interest in purchasing it, contact me and I'll put you in touch with the dealer. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

15 years, 10 months

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Tony and museums (was Xerox Alto..)

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2010 12:35:47 +0100 From: Andrew Back <andy at flirble.org> Subject: Re: Xerox Alto on ebay (not mine!) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> On (21:02 15/10/10), Tony Duell wrote: > > > > Teo Zenios wrote: > > > There are many old machines that are worth preserving but are better > > > off > > > in a museum then in somebody's cluttered basement left to rot. > > > > There are cases where that's true - but I know how museums can't > > possibly > > I feel even more strongly about this, having dealt with some particularly > clueless people at musuems and related organisations [1]. To the extent > that no part of my collection is ever going near a museum. Tony, does a week ever pass where you don't feel the inescapable urge to flame those who work at museums, regardless of their knowledge, ability and track record? You are rude and insulting. Yes, damned rude even. How dare you make such sweeping generalisations? If the subject of your disapproval were a particular race or subscribers of a certain religion this would not be tolerated. Yet somehow it is and you get to flap your jaw, spewing out utter nonsense asserting that everyone who works at a museum is an idiot, and we have to put up with it. And *you know full well* that there are plenty of people who work and volunteer at museums on this list. Oh, I'm not one, in case you wondered. ... So, how about this. Have you ever considered that if you slightly adjusted your attitude and learnt to work with people rather than lambasting them, you might actually contribute to the preservation of computer history for future generations. But, no, it's much easier to take the moral high ground and boast about how clever you are and how much of an idiot most everyone else is. Andrew --------------- REPLY: Whoa! Talk about "rude and insulting," and making "sweeping generalizations"... He said he's dealt with "some particularly clueless people at museums;" how did you get "everyone who works at a museum is an idiot" out of that? And if he and Curt decide that based on their bad experiences they won't lend their systems again to a museum, I think that's their choice to make. Finally, to suggest that he hasn't in fact "contributed to the preservation of computer history" is preposterous and highly insulting; I don't see many reverse-engineered HP schematics or extremely helpful posts "working with people" on here with your name on them... Not many of his contributions are relevant to my interests but I for one certainly appreciate the time he spends helping the folks on here, in the HP community and elsewhere (even if his rants are a little repetitive at times) ;-) Sheesh! mike

15 years, 10 months

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Xerox Alto on ebay (not mine!)

by ken＠seefried.com

>(I often think that the downside of ebay is that an item goes to the person > with the deepest pockets, and they're not necessarily the best person to treat > an item nicely)>> >> So eBay is precisely like every other market on the planet.>> >> Shocking. <rolls eyes>><rolls eyes back> I don't think that I claimed that it wasn't. My point was >that it often has a downside when it comes to getting items to people who are >best capable of preserving them for future generations. My appologies, Jules. I had taken your comment as Yet Another instance of the weekly "eBay sucks because people pay more than I would and, as a special snowflake Classic Computer person, I'm an authority and anyone who pays more than I would is an idiot" thread, when in reality it was Yet Another instance of the weekly "eBay sucks because anyone who outbids me is certainly almost possibly definately as far as I'm concerned, as a Special Snowflake classic computer person, unworthy to own it" thread. I sometimes lack the patience to keep track of the multitude of ways that list members condescend to the world at large. My bad.

15 years, 10 months

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ProFiles magazine scans.

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

> >> I've taken this as an opportunity to reorganize the documentation > section of the retroarchive.org site a bit - It's now split between > hardware& software docs instead of being mixed together. > >> > >> http://www.retroarchive.org FWIW, Norton Internet Security 2011 calls http://www.retroarchive.org a "known malicious web site" for a "malformed container violation" which Norton characterizes as a virus. Tom

15 years, 10 months

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OT: definition, Dazzled (was Tony and museums)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 19:58 -0500 10/17/10, Fred wrote: >I remember when the dimmer switch was a button for the left foot. Me too, from last week when I drove my (1968 Plymouth) station wagon. "Dazzled" here in the US has a slight connotation of being befuddled by something wonderful, as opposed to something merely bright. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dazzled illustrates this; although the first (and presumably most common) definition has to do with excessive light, the second definition uses synonyms like "astonish" and "impress" and all three of the example sentences for the verbs have the traditional associations with pretty things (women, gems, splendor). -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 10 months

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CompuPro CPU-Z with IMSAI and Front Panel issues

by js＠cimmeri.com

Well, I know it works, 'cause I've done it myself, but it's been awhile. It doesn't work 100% like an original or a Cromemco ZPU, though. After making all the mods to the CPUZ, you have to bring the CPA itself through all its updates if it hasn't been already, then you have to check the buss lines structure between the two boards to ensure are signals are what they should be... especially the ground lines. This last step is because the CPUZ is S-100 IEEE-696 compliant, whereas the CPA was not... John Singleton Subject: CompuPro CPU-Z with IMSAI and Front Panel issues From: Nick Allen <nick.allen at comcast.net> Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:34:56 -0500 To: cctech at classiccmp.org Anyone have any experience getting the front panel of an IMSAI computer to work with a CompuPro CPU-Z S100 board? I read the documentation (http://maben.homeip.net/static/S100/compupro/cards/CompuPro%20CPU-Z.pdf), and there seems some configuration required, I obviously am missing something as it is not working properly even after I attempt the config in the documentation. If you currently have a board working and can share a photo, or can provide any technical assistance, I would be extremely grateful! Nick

15 years, 10 months

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AT&T 3B1 Boot PROM and system software images?

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

Hi guys, Does anyone have images of the Boot PROM and system software for an AT&T 3B1? I've been skimming the 3B1 tech-ref which Steven Hirsch scanned, and it looks to me like an emulator wouldn't be too difficult a prospect. Take the UAE 68k emulator core, bolt on an emulation of the disc controllers, and write something to emulate the display controller. Link against SDL, add salt and pepper to taste. Problem is, the Boot ROM doesn't seem to have been imaged, and the same applies to the software discs. I've had a quick look on my 'usual haunts' (Bitsavers, the Bluefeathertech archive, and Google) but haven't managed to find anything useful... Have any of these items been imaged? Thanks, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

15 years, 10 months

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AT&T 3B1 Boot PROM and system software images

by djg＠pdp8online.com

> Problem is, the Boot ROM doesn't seem to have been imaged, and the same > applies to the software discs. I've had a quick look on my 'usual > haunts' (Bitsavers, the Bluefeathertech archive, and Google) but haven't > managed to find anything useful. > Disk images here http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/ATT/unixPC/

15 years, 10 months

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Oldest original proper computer (stored program etc)

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> From: Jochen Kunz <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> > >> I'm not counting the Zuse in Germany as its not a stored program >> machine, and anyway I'm not sure if it is a replica or the original. > What Zuse you are refering to? There are "many". > > The Z22 at the ZKM sholud be complete and and operable. (If the people > at the ZKM have not ruined the machine meanwhile.) It is tube based and > was build 1958. It is a stored program machine for sure. Main memory is > a drum with 8192 words. It is original and has been kept in working > condition most if its lifetime. I was referring to a wartime machine, I think it was Z4 with external tape program. As far I recall it can't do loops and uses relay logic. More of a programmable calculator than a computer. Any idea how often Z22 is actually powered up and run? I must read up on it. Thanks for replying. Roger Holmes.

15 years, 10 months

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W. Donzelli on Babbage & Machining

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

A top-notch machinist even of that time probably could make Babbage's machine. The question I have is - What would he use it for? Computing! Murray

15 years, 10 months

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CompuPro CPU-Z with IMSAI and Front Panel issues

by dgari＠msn.com

I may be able to help. I've worked for Morrow Designs (Thinker Toys), Wordstar (MicroPro) and Stoneware (DBMaster). Yes, I am older than Godbout. I have pwned two Altairs and an IMSAI. I took a tour of the giant (empty) Cromemco facility back in the day. Sooo much promise. So sad. If you send me full specs, a case of Seagram's 7, and a detailed symptom of the problem, I will try to help. dgari at msn dot com > Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 08:09:22 -0700 (PDT) > From: Scott LaBombard <labomb_s at yahoo.com> > Subject: Re: CompuPro CPU-Z with IMSAI and Front Panel issues > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <828014.33056.qm at web110803.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > ----- Original Message ---- > > > From: Nick Allen <nick.allen at comcast.net> > > > > Anyone have any experience getting the front panel of an IMSAI computer to work > >with a CompuPro CPU-Z S100 board? > > I read the documentation > >(http://maben.homeip.net/static/S100/compupro/cards/CompuPro%20CPU-Z.pdf), and > >there > > seems some configuration required, I obviously am missing something as it is > >not working properly even after I attempt > > the config in the documentation. > > > > Hi Nick, > > Assuming that you followed the 'Imsai Front Panel Usage' section in the > referenced document, I would also take a look > at S100 bus pins 54 and 20. I haven't touched any of my Imsai's in several > years, but I do recall struggling to get a > CompuPro motherboard working with the front panel. If memory serves, at a > minimum I had to cut the trace leading to > pin 54 (External/Slave Clear) on the front panel PCB itself. I noticed in the > CPU-Z schematic that it is indeed driving > pin 54 on the bus, so that may well be the issue. > > As for pin 20, it is GROUND in the IEEE 696 spec. I can't tell if the CPU-Z is > driving that pin on the bus or not... if it > is, you may want to cut the trace leading to it on the front panel board as > well. > > I have additional notes re. another potential additional change that may be > required (somewhere) ...I'll attempt to find > them. In the mean time, I would try the pin 54 mod first, and then add the pin > 20 mod if necessary. > > > Scott

15 years, 10 months

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The MERT Operating System and the 3B20D

by spedraja＠gmail.com

A comment from MrBill about the *Bell System Technical Journal online*website make me review the last issues of this magazine in PDF available there. The volume 62 issue 1 talks about the MERT Operating System. What's about this OS and platform (3B20D) ? Something availble ? Emulation/Emulators in project or even possible to do ? Sergio 2010/10/18 Bill Bradford <mrbill at mrbill.net> > The telecom nerd in me just exploded. > > Bell System Technical Journal, 1922-1983. > > http://bstj.bell-labs.com/ > > -- > Bill Bradford > Houston, Texas > _______________________________________________ > GEEKS: http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks >

15 years, 10 months

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Oldest original proper computer (stored program etc)

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

My ICT 1301 restoration is now officially a working group of the Computer Conservation Society. The Science Museum's Ferranti Pegasus and Elliott 401 have been shut down for over 18 months and the Harwell Witch project has not returned the machine to a working state yet. Though I don't believe its true, I was told my machine is currently the oldest original working computer. Not counting replicas or machines which don't have stored programs. My machine was installed in 1962 (and designed in the late 1950s). I'm sure some of you know of earlier machines which can still run programs, even if the peripherals don't all work. I would like to establish if mine is the oldest in the UK, in Europe or whatever and where it stands in the world rankings, like is it in the top ten? It looks like the IBM 1620 in the states is probably older but when was that particular machine (rather than the type) first installed? The 1401 of course is another candidate but I think the particular one being restored was first installed in 1964. Are there other? I'm not counting the Zuse in Germany as its not a stored program machine, and anyway I'm not sure if it is a replica or the original. It is surprising if it survived the extensive bombing by the USAF and RAF during WW2 unless it was stored in a bunker/cave/mine. There is an older machine in Australia which was working but apparently it too is currently has not run for some time. Many museums seem to be either afraid of damaging their machine by powering them up or unwilling to pay the operating expenses (electricity, paper, paper tape, punched cards etc). There are machines like the ICT1200/HEC in museums here in the UK but no plans to restore them, and the very early machines were broken up years ago and the CCS has been building replicas of several, including the Manchester Baby. Can anyone on the list help with details of working machine of the first and second generation?

15 years, 10 months

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another alto on ebay

by aek＠bitsavers.org

110599066440 Pretty lame listing. No useful pictures. He CLAIMS it is an Alto I, but you can't tell anything from the listing picture

15 years, 10 months

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Xerox Alto running?

by jws＠jwsss.com

Does anyone have one of these in running (reliable) condition? I found a lot of documentation of an attempt to run one at Digibarn for the 30th anniversary of the Alto, which did not appear to be successful, and that got me to wondering if there was a working one anywhere. Nick would probably be advised to look at that documentation as well as other web pages I've sent him as far as planning what he tries to do with his system. It appears there were maybe 3 sets of spares for the Digibarn one (just >from the video) and the photos showed in the background they went from morning light to darkness trying to get it working before giving up. I am not familiar with the person who was trying the bringup, but assuming he was one familiar with the Alto and with all those resources, it says a lot about getting one of these w/o extensive knowledge (true of any vintage system) and trying to bring it up. It's the nature of some designs they always did something you could nurse along to running, and some, perhaps like the Alto may be pumpkins until a lot of things work, and it can be very difficult to figure out if you are damaging them along the course of the effort (2 steps forward 3 back). http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/xerox-alto/

15 years, 10 months

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Confused by Alpha 433au and SCSI

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have a BA356 shelf with a DS-BA35X-FB personality module. The personality module has two high density connectors on it, I think they are 68-pin. The pins are too small for me to be able to count them reliably, but the cable has a 68-pin SCSI Wide connector on the other end. The second connector on the personality module is not connected to anything, I do not have a terminator for it and I am unsure if I need one. I have connected this to my 433au which has a Qlogic QLA1040 SCSI adapter in it. I have been unable to locate any documentation for either the personality module or the SCSI adapter. I am having problems getting the SRM to recognise the disks in the shelf. Sometimes it will see no devices at all, not even the CD-ROM connected to the internal SCSI cable. Other times it will see a ton of disks as shown in this partial extract from the console: >>>sh dev dka0.0.0.1009.0 DKA0 dka100.1.0.1009.0 DKA100 dka101.1.0.1009.0 DKA101 dka103.1.0.1009.0 DKA103 dka105.1.0.1009.0 DKA105 dka107.1.0.1009.0 DKA107 dka1100.11.0.1009.0 DKA1100 dka1102.11.0.1009.0 DKA1102 Just now I tried with one SBB in slot 0 and I got this: >>>sh dev dka400.4.0.1009.0 DKA400 MATSHITA CD-ROM CR-508 XS03 dva0.0.0.0.1 DVA0 ewa0.0.0.3.0 EWA0 00-00-F8-75-BE-63 pka0.7.0.1009.0 PKA0 SCSI Bus ID 7 5.57 pqa0.0.0.4.0 PQA0 PCI EIDE pqb0.0.1.4.0 PQB0 PCI EIDE When I added a second SBB in slot 1 then I got this: >>>sh dev waiting for pka0.7.0.1009.0 to poll... waiting for pka0.7.0.1009.0 to poll... waiting for pka0.7.0.1009.0 to poll... dva0.0.0.0.1 DVA0 ewa0.0.0.3.0 EWA0 00-00-F8-75-BE-63 pka0.7.0.1009.0 PKA0 SCSI Bus ID 7 5.57 pqa0.0.0.4.0 PQA0 PCI EIDE pqb0.0.1.4.0 PQB0 PCI EIDE >>> I am not quite sure what is going on, what the jumpers on the personality module do, whether I need to insert a terminator on the second personality module connector, or whether there are some jumpers on the QLA1040 adapter that need to be set, or is there something else I need to do. Anyone have any clues? Thanks Rob

15 years, 10 months

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another alto on ebay

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

> > 110599066440 > > Pretty lame listing. No useful pictures. He CLAIMS it is an Alto I, but > you can't tell anything from the listing picture > It's not, it's an Alto II XM, here are pics from a very similar close S/N system taken from VCF MW. You can see from those pictures the chip dates are in the late 70's and therefore the unit on Ebay is also a later version. http://vintagecomputer.net/vcfmw-ECCC_2010/Xerox_Alto-II-XM/ Bill

15 years, 10 months

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CompuPro CPU-Z with IMSAI and Front Panel issues

by nick.allen＠comcast.net

Anyone have any experience getting the front panel of an IMSAI computer to work with a CompuPro CPU-Z S100 board? I read the documentation (http://maben.homeip.net/static/S100/compupro/cards/CompuPro%20CPU-Z.pdf), and there seems some configuration required, I obviously am missing something as it is not working properly even after I attempt the config in the documentation. If you currently have a board working and can share a photo, or can provide any technical assistance, I would be extremely grateful! Nick

15 years, 10 months

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3B1 tech ref scans

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

I have finished scanning both binders. Please contact me private e-mail if you are interested in them. Steve --

15 years, 10 months

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Seeking Commodore SX keyboard and cable

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I acquired a Commodore SX a few years ago, but it lacks a keyboard cable and one of the keyboard latches is broken. Does anyone here have a spare keyboard and cable for the Commodore SX? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

15 years, 10 months

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at&t unix pc

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Hi all, anybody still cares about them? Got a pile of them, so if anybody is looking for something specific, please let me know (will take a while until I get into this pile). Any good web page with hardware information of those? Cheers

15 years, 10 months

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IP Fragments - Worth doing, testing strategies?

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 09/30/10 06:42, "Michael B. Brutman" <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> wrote: > I have been working on my TCP/IP stack for DOS, adding IP fragmentation > support. There are not too many more features that I want to add to > make it 'complete' before I open source the code and IP fragment support > was a big one. > > I am having a terrible time testing it though. It seems that IP > fragments out in the wild are pretty rare. I tried connecting to a slew > of remote FTP sites hoping to find one that was behind a really bad > network, and thus would have fragments coming from it. No joy. > > It seems that there are a lot of tricks out there to prevent fragments > from being created, especially when using TCP. The only way I can test > the code is to send myself oversized UDP packets. If it works for UDP > then it should work for TCP too, but I'd really like to test the TCP > path explicitly. Combine the tricks with modern broadband and getting > fragments is really difficult. > > Why? Are you handling UDP and TCP differently at the IP level??? I've written my own TCP/IP (for a PDP-11), and the fragment reassembly code I mostly tested using ICMP, since that was so easy. The IP code is totally protocol-agnostic, so if it works for one protocol, it will work for any. If you haven't done your code this way, then maybe you should rethink that part. TCP is, as you noted, explicitly trying to avoid fragmentation. So it's not an easy protocol to use to test this. > Even on the home network I am having a hard time getting fragments. I > put a Linux box between the DOS PC and a Windows machine, and set one of > the Ethernet MTUs to 576. Well, that didn't force fragments because the > Windows box is too clever. I could start turning everything off in the > registry, but I really don't want to get that involved. > > Off the top of my head I think I am going to have to get another Linux > box and dumb that down, if it is possible. Dumbing Linux down to turn > off the features and then restoring it to a good state is probably > safer/easier than doing it with Windows. > I doubt that would help you either. If you read through the TCP specs, you'll find how the path MTU, and thus MSS is determined. And I doubt you can turn those knobs off. > Does anybody have a good technique for setting up a simple network that > will result in IP fragments of TCP? > > Nope. And I don't really think that it should be neccesary. > On a related note, is this even worth it? I don't know of anything that > needs to send fragments except for NFS over UDP. There might be other > applications that send big packets over UDP but those would be the only > class of applications that absolutely require fragment support. With > TCP it is nice, but a user should be able to get around any problem by > setting the local MTU to 576. > > Yes, I think it is worth it. Not only can packets be fragmented along the way, but you are not even guaranteed that 576 byte packets will not get fragmented. IP requires that you should always be able to pass through 576 byte packets, but it don't actually say anything about fragmentation in this case. If you dig really deep, you'll find that the guaranteed minimum packet size that IP needs to handle without fragmentation is 65 bytes. All above that could get fragmented, so fragment reassembly is a good thing to have. I think, for instance, SLIP interfaces usually run with an MTU of 296, or something like that. But, with all that said, several IP implementations do take a short cut with regards to fragmentation and either totally skip it, or just implement reassembly, and not fragmentation. You can get away with that most of the time, even though it is breaking the requirements. Johnny

15 years, 10 months

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identifying terminal by escape codes?

by jonnosan＠gmail.com

>The "device control" codes appear to have their familiar uses: > >DC1 = ctrl-Q = reader on >DC2 = ctrl-R = punch on >DC3 = ctrl-S = reader off >DC4 = ctrl-T = punch off >However, it isn't yet clear whether the device being used is truly a >reader/punch, or that these codes are used for some analogous purpose >to turn on/off read/write of another device. That would (to me at least) seem inconsistent with my theory that this is a dialect of Tektronix 4010 control codes - I can't work out any sensible interpretation of the sequence 1) 1D Group Separator 2) 37 7 3) 7F DEL 4) 20 SPACE 5) 40 @ 6) 1F Unit Separator 7) 12 DC2 8) 1D Group Separator 9) 37 7 10) 7F DEL 11) 20 SPACE 12) 40 @ 13) 1F Unit Separator 14) 14 DC4 that would allow for lines 1-6 and 8-13 to be both graphics control codes (positioning the cursor) and lines 7 & 14 to be turning a device on & off. of course, I may be tracing the execution flow wrong, and there could be errors in the dump... >> The escape sequences I see are: >> HEX ASCII >> 1) 1F 26 24 <x y z> : ESC & $ <xyz> >> 2) 1F 26 27 <x y z> : ESC & ' <xyz> >> 3) 1F 26 21 <x y z> : ESC & ! <xyz> >> >> where 1,2,3 are all output at different times, with <x y z> being >> values I haven't yet determined (they are register values i.e. set at >> runtime, whereas the first 3 bytes are hardcoded) >The first value is hex 1B, of course (not 1F). yes - my bad! >The x,y,z values apparently represent a record number (128-byte records). >x is an ASCII digit (30 - 39 hex) >y is an ASCII digit (30 - 39 hex) >z has the range 40 - 5F hex (at sign through underscore)

15 years, 10 months

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Legendary steampunk computer 'should be built' - programmer • The Register

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/05/analytical_engine_build_call/ -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818 --- AIM - woyciesjes --- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.org/ --- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/ Registered Linux user number 464583 "Computers have lots of memory but no imagination." "The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back." - from some guy in the internet.

15 years, 10 months

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identifying terminal by escape codes?

by jam＠magic.com

> >Bears a strong kinship IIRC, to the Beehive Super Bee. > > > >--Chuck > > I cant find a full spec for that terminal, just termcap entries, and a > field service manual for a "mini bee" that I think is related, but > neither seem to fit beyond potential use of "unit seperator (0x1F) as > a "new line" marker (although even that seems a bit iffy, since the > 1F is followed by 0D 0A, i.e. CR/LF) > > I realised I didn't post any actual 'escape' sequences, just uses of > control codes I haven't seen much use of before (US,GS, DC2, DC4). The "device control" codes appear to have their familiar uses: DC1 = ctrl-Q = reader on DC2 = ctrl-R = punch on DC3 = ctrl-S = reader off DC4 = ctrl-T = punch off However, it isn't yet clear whether the device being used is truly a reader/punch, or that these codes are used for some analogous purpose to turn on/off read/write of another device. > The escape sequences I see are: > HEX ASCII > 1) 1F 26 24 <x y z> : ESC & $ <xyz> > 2) 1F 26 27 <x y z> : ESC & ' <xyz> > 3) 1F 26 21 <x y z> : ESC & ! <xyz> > > where 1,2,3 are all output at different times, with <x y z> being > values I haven't yet determined (they are register values i.e. set at > runtime, whereas the first 3 bytes are hardcoded) The first value is hex 1B, of course (not 1F). The x,y,z values apparently represent a record number (128-byte records). x is an ASCII digit (30 - 39 hex) y is an ASCII digit (30 - 39 hex) z has the range 40 - 5F hex (at sign through underscore) James Markevitch

15 years, 10 months

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new vintage web site

by shumaker＠att.net

FYI 10 SEPT 2010: MARYLAND INSTITUTE FOR TECHNOLOGY IN THE HUMANITIES (MITH) LAUNCHES VINTAGE COMPUTING SITE: MITH is very pleased to announce a new Web site <http://mith.umd.edu/vintage-computers/> devoted to its sizable (and growing) collection of vintage computers, retro software, and other artifacts from the early era of personal computing. The centerpiece of the site is a a considered metadata and modeling approach to computing hardware, whereby individual components of the vintage machines are documented, contextualized within their relation to the system as a whole, and expressed using Dublin Core. The site gathers links to other recent MITH projects in born-digital cultural heritage, and serves as a clearing house for our expanding portfolio in this area. It also includes newly written non-specialist's documentation for the FC5025 Floppy Disk Controller, a device used to retrieve data off of obsolescent media formats. The site is presented using the content management tool Omeka. It was researched and designed by Walker Sampson, who recently completed an MLS from the School of Information at the University of Texas; Sampson was in residence at MITH this past summer under the auspices of the IMLS-sponsored Digital Humanities Model Internship Program. MITH's Associate Director Matthew Kirschenbaum comments, "This site demonstrates the role that vintage computing can have in the environment of an active digital humanities center; as born-digital cultural heritage becomes ever more important, centers such as MITH will play a part alongside of libraries and archives in addressing its long-term presentation and curation." SOURCE:http://mith.umd.edu/mith-launches-vintage-computing-site/

15 years, 10 months

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Multimeter recomendations

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

As all of us who do hardware repairs know, a multimeter is an essential piece of test equipment. Until a couple of days ago, I used a Fluke 85 (original series). It did what I wanted, there were 2 parts of the design I didn't like, but apart >from that it was great The 2 thing I didn't like were 1) You have ot dispmantle the meter to change the battery, and it's assembeled with self-tapping screws going into the plastic case. I don't know how many insertions they will stand. 2) The most switch used resistive traces on the PCB with a wiping contact to connect them to an analogue input on the main chip. If that wiper didn't make contact properly, it sometimes got into the wrong mode. It owuld even sometimes power itself up (and flatten the battery) when in the off poosition. Anyway, I was using this iustrument on Saturday (actualy for testing the PSU, etc, in an HP2623 graphics terminal) with no problems. I put it away in my tool drawer. On Sunday I got it out for some other tests and discovered the display had failed. It's totally black for half the height, I asusem the liquid crystal material has leaked out (although the glass is not obviously cracked or broken). AFAIK nothing fell on it in the tool drawer (there are no really heavy tools in there anyway), it wasn't dropped, etc. Just one of those things. Alas Fluke say they can no longer supply the display for this insturment as a spare part. Given that I need the standard functions only (including a good continuity tester!), don't need excessive accuracy, and would like to be able to fix it if anything goes wrong, does anyone have any recomendatins? I am not conviced I should buy another Fluke, BTW. Long shot : Does anyone have a defective original-series Fluke 80 with a good display (maybe the ASIC has died or something). I would be interested in buying it. -tony

15 years, 10 months

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identifying terminal by escape codes?

by jonnosan＠gmail.com

>Bears a strong kinship IIRC, to the Beehive Super Bee. > >--Chuck I cant find a full spec for that terminal, just termcap entries, and a field service manual for a "mini bee" that I think is related, but neither seem to fit beyond potential use of "unit seperator (0x1F) as a "new line" marker (although even that seems a bit iffy, since the 1F is followed by 0D 0A, i.e. CR/LF) I realised I didn't post any actual 'escape' sequences, just uses of control codes I haven't seen much use of before (US,GS, DC2, DC4). The escape sequences I see are: HEX ASCII 1) 1F 26 24 <x y z> : ESC & $ <xyz> 2) 1F 26 27 <x y z> : ESC & ' <xyz> 3) 1F 26 21 <x y z> : ESC & ! <xyz> where 1,2,3 are all output at different times, with <x y z> being values I haven't yet determined (they are register values i.e. set at runtime, whereas the first 3 bytes are hardcoded)

15 years, 10 months

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I-mode phone

by evan＠snarc.net

A curator at the Computer History Museum needs to borrow (or obtain) a first-gen I-mode cell phone. This is for a long-term exhibit on the history of portable computing. I'm involved in the project, so I offered to ask around, including here on cctalk. However they need is * quickly *. If anybody has one they're willing to part with, please email me off-list ASAP.

15 years, 10 months

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identifying terminal by escape codes?

by jonnosan＠gmail.com

I am trying to disassemble some ROM dumps from the SacState 8008 machine (per http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2010-September/291012.html ) I can see a lot of escape codes being sent, but they don't make sense (to me at least) as Tektronix 4023 escape codes, which is the terminal type reported as being used with that machine. For example, the first thing output after a restart is: HEX ASCII 1F Unit Separator 0D CR 0A LF 3F ? pressing the keys "!\h" would generate this sequence: 1D Group Separator 37 7 7F DEL 20 SPACE 40 @ 1F Unit Separator 12 DC2 1D Group Separator 37 7 7F DEL 20 SPACE 40 @ 1F Unit Separator 14 DC4 Does anything there look familiar to anyone at all? this would be some kind of terminal from early to mid 70s. Cheers Jonno

15 years, 10 months

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Apple IIe manuals have been claimed

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Thanks for all the responses! The IIe manuals have sold.

15 years, 10 months

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FS: Apple IIe manuals

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Continuing to clear the bookshelves :) I have a set of original Apple IIe manuals for sale. Apple IIe Owner's Manual, IIe Reference Manual, 80-Column Text Card, Reference Manual Addendum (Monitor Listings), Extended 80-Column Text Card Supplement, DOS Programmer's Manual, ProDOS User's Manual, ProDOS Supplement to the IIe Owner's Manual, AppleWriter II, & Super Serial Card User's Manual. http://s1181.photobucket.com/albums/x426/DrCharlesMorris/?action=view&curre… $20.00 plus 8 lb (Media Mail) postage from zip 65775. Also an original Apple II Reference Manual: http://s1181.photobucket.com/albums/x426/DrCharlesMorris/?action=view&curre… $5.00 plus 1 lb postage. please contact me off-list if interested. I've got the //e also with Duo-Disk floppy drive, but it won't be worth the postage! thanks Charles

15 years, 10 months

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Microwriter MW4 help

by john_a_s2004＠hotmail.com

Thanks, yes a schematic would be great. Can I post it to the web please? I'm sure Tony knows the following, included as background. Here's the adapter I used to read the 2564 in a 2764 programmer: 2564 pins?????? 2764 pins 20 (A11)??????? 23 (A11) 23 (A12)??????? 2 (A12) 2+27(CS1+CS2)?? 22 (OE) 1 (Vpp)???????? 28 (Vcc) 22 (PD/PGM)???? 20 (CE) (NC)??????????? 27 (PGM) All other pins connected straight through. The above can't be always used in the reverse direction (eg using a 2764 in a 2564 socket), as CS1 and CS2 may or may not be tied together depending on the circuit. Also programming a 2564 uses a different algorithm to programming a 2764. For example, on a 2764 Vpp can be left at programming voltage of 21V during a verify cycle, whilst on the 2564 Vpp is at 25V for programming and 5V for verifying / reading (I assume the 25C64 is similar but with a lower Vpp). Regards, John ============================================================== Tony Duell ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk Mon Oct 11 15:29:35 CDT 2010 > I've finally made an adapter to read the 2564 on my programmer (which can o= > nly read the 2764). There were about 5 pins to rewire=2C I'll write some no= > tes later on the differences. > > I've upload the ROM image to: > > http://www.vintagecomputers.btinternet.co.uk/mw4/mw4.zip THanks. I've downloaded it, it unpacks OK. I wondered why the file was larger than ecxpected, but then saw you'd included both hex and binary images. I will probably burn it into a 27C64 (those I have, and my programmer can easily handle them) and make an adapter to use it in the MW4. Then we can see if that gets mine working. I won't be doing this just yet (I've gor various other things to do), but I will let you know how I get on when I do do it. If you are going to disassemble the ROM, do you need schematics of the MW4 hardware? -tony

15 years, 10 months

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IP Fragments - Worth doing, testing strategies?

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 10/01/10 00:22, "Michael B. Brutman" <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com> wrote: > Sean Conner wrote: >> > While I'm familiar wih IP, I haven't tried implementing it, but, what if >> > you were to set an MTU size of around 50 bytes? The IP header (sans >> > options) is 20 bytes, and the TCP header is another 20. I would think >> > setting the MTU to just above 40 might cause some fragmentation (I thought >> > of suggesting an MTU of just above 20, but then you're testing for IP >> > fragmentation, and not TCP fragmentation. >> > >> > I tend to do stupid stuff like that, but then again, I*was* hired to >> > write testing code at my current job ... >> > >> > -spc (In thoery, IP should work with an MTU of 30 bytes, right?) > The IP header is 20 bytes without any IP header options, and the TCP > header is another 20 bytes without any TCP header options. The minimum allowed MTU is actually 68. (I wrote 65 erronously in a previous mail.) See RFC 791, page 24. In addition to the 68 bytes for a single fragment, an IP stack must be able to handle 576 byte packets, but there is no requirement that this isn't sent in fragments. The receiver must, however, always be able to handle atleast 576 byte packets. > My implementation has room for 10 fragments per packet (configurable > with a #define), which is great for a 'normal' MTU size. If I tested > with a ridiculously small MTU it would wind up throwing a lot of things > away, but many implementations do the same thing. You should allocate that stuff dynamically. > My fragment problem is mostly on the source side - the source machines > are too clever about trying to probe and eliminate fragments. > > Linux has also been 'interesting' as a gateway. Some kernel versions > allow TCP fragments through even though they have bad checksums. I > throw away any packet with a bad checksum. Mixing NAT (Network Address > Translation) and fragments was problematic in my setup too - I think > that Linux was completely screwing up the payload checksums for TCP. What are you talking about? IP fragments for TCP don't have checksums of the TCP payload. There is only a checksum for the IP header. Only the final destination reassembles the packet, and can do a checksum of the TCP packet. Johnny

15 years, 10 months

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Seagate ST39173N 9.1GB Narrow SCSI Drive failure

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

Hi, Apologies that my first post to this list for a while is one requesting assistance, but my unjustified faith in hard drive technology has bitten me... The Seagate drive in my VAXstation 4000/90 (running OpenVMS 7.3) failed recently and it hadn't been backed up for quite a while. We had a power surge which tripped the main circuit breaker, and when I reset the breaker and turned the box back on the drive failed to spin up. The drive is recognized by the firmware, except that the capacity column shows ... instead of a figure. An LED on the controller circuit board lights a couple of times reinforcing that the drive electronics are talking across the SCSI bus, but as I say the drive refuses to spin up. The box was running a website dedicated to HECNet (it was at http://www.hecnet.eu) using the WASD webserver and was able to report on issues with the network and current HECnet nodes. My (limited) diagnostic skills would point towards a drive motor controller failure, or less likely sticking heads. Given that the drive has been powered down and up on a number of occasions without issue I'm thinking it is probably a controller failure rather than a head problem, but I'm open to alternative opinions. Does anyone have a Seagate ST39173N drive they would be prepared to part with for a reasonable amount of money? At the moment the only drives I can find are in the region of $150 which is more than I can comfortably part with on the off chance that swapping the controller board might give the drive new life. Many thanks for the help. Mark.

15 years, 10 months

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Old calculators

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I have more calculators accumulated over 30+ years than I'll ever play with, so would like to find new homes for a few. http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x426/DrCharlesMorris/PA030021.jpg >From left to right: -RadioShack EC-220 (Cat No 65-604). Working. -Unitrex "Memory-8". Missing battery compartment cover. Working. -Commodore MM2 "Minuteman 2". Not working. Comes with wall wart. -TI SR-51-II. Not working. Several years ago I put new nicads in the battery pack and it worked then. With case, wart & manual. -Unknown mfg. "4-banger" with LCD display and incandescent backlight. Works but has air bubble partially obscuring LSD's 2/3. This one was written up in "73 Magazine" in the late '70's or early '80's and was available from Meshna, Poly Paks or a similar surplus place. Would like to get $10 for all five, plus shipping from US zip 65775.

15 years, 10 months

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at&t unix pc (big black binder scan)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 5:34 -0500 10/12/10, Mark D. wrote: >If Al could send me the guidelines, I'll happily see what I can do. At 5:34 -0500 10/12/10, Alexandre quoted Dave: > > I for one would thank you wholeheartedly. > > Make that two :) ...three! -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

15 years, 10 months

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VTL/Dutchess logic

by h.j.stegeman＠hccnet.nl

Hi, VTL stands for Vendor Transitor Logic. I (finally) found it in a S/34 hardware manual. VTL is Texas Instrument TTL chips with IBM part numbers. Henk www.ibmsystem3.nl

15 years, 10 months

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OT : RJ45 Telecom wiring

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Can anyone suggest URLs, etc that give the wiring of RJ45 sockets. in telecom applications. Not 10bse<n> (which from what I understand are not strictly RJ45's anyway), or ISDN, but older telecoms. The web pages I've found soe far give the wiring for up to 4 POTS lines on an RJ45, which is, again, not what I am looking for... In particular : What pins would I expect to find a normal 'switched' telephone line on (4 and 5, I think?) What about a 2-wire leased line ('private circuit')? Or a 4-wire one? Why would there be a resistor of about 866 ohms connected between pins 7 and 8? Why would pins 3 anf 6 be shorted together? In case anyone's wondering, I've bought a non-working telephone line simulator, and am trying to make sense of the numerous relays connected to the telephone connectors, which are RJ45s (genuine RJ45s, with the extra polarisation notch). Books on US telcoms practicce are few and far between over here... Thanks in advance for any help... -tony

15 years, 10 months

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Microwriter MW4 help

by john_a_s2004＠hotmail.com

Hi, John S <john_a_s2004 at hotmail.com> wrote: >>> I recently obtained a Microwriter with an LCD display. >>> >>> Else it may be faulty >>> I found Tony's post from 2009 asking for a 'good' EPROM image maybe >>> mine is failing in a similar way. > >Tony wrote: >> FWIW, I am still stuck... I am pretty sure the Firmware EPROM in mine is >> corrupted, some 'chords' do not produce the characters I would expect >My one can generate all the letters, numbers and punctuation marks so fingers crossed the EPROM is>OK. >> IIRC, the EPROM is a 25C64 (which is slightly different to the more common >> 27C64). If you have a programmer capable of reading out that device, it >> would be interesting to compare the ROM in mine with it. >OK, I'll try and read the EPROM. This might take me some time, but I am keen to >do it as there is very little technical stuff about the MW4 on line. I've finally made an adapter to read the 2564 on my programmer (which can only read the 2764). There were about 5 pins to rewire, I'll write some notes later on the differences. I've upload the ROM image to: http://www.vintagecomputers.btinternet.co.uk/mw4/mw4.zip The file looks OK, but there are a lot of FF bytes on the ROM, which hopefully imply that the whole 8K bytes weren't needed rather than the ROM is faulty. Hopefully Tony can compare this with his ROM and come back with any further tips or questions. >I might try and disassemble the code too Not yet tried DASMx <http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pclare/DASMx/> (thanks for the link Phil), maybe one day. Regards, John

15 years, 10 months

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The "death" of GEOS

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

Interesting read since I haven't played with GEOs for a couple of years now. I know people who still used GEOs for the C64, but the PC version has been in limbo for a while http://www.osnews.com/story/23882/The_Death_of_GEOS_

15 years, 10 months

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Monrobot

by evan＠snarc.net

Does anyone know of a good history, online or in print, regarding the Monrobot computers? I found some technical info at Bitsavers and on Ed Thelen's site, but I'm looking for info about the people behind the company in the 1950s.

15 years, 10 months

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VTL/Dutchess logic

by jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com

Greetings; I'm delving deeply into the manuals that came with my IBM System/34 and in the Core section it mentions that the logic is "VTL and Dutchess". TTL, ECL, CMOS sure... but I've never heard of VTL or Dutchess, and Google doesn't seem to be providing (although forest/trees problem exists). Is this just another footnote in our history, does it go by another name, or am I missing something important here? Thanks all; - JP

15 years, 10 months

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Rebuilding Altair 8800b

by nick.allen＠comcast.net

Just recently acquired an Altair 8800b (turnkey model)! Came with case, power supply, back-plane and the front control board, but no other cards. Anyone have any cards for the altair 8800b (cpu, ram, serial, parallel) they are willing to sell or trade? nick dot allen at comcast dot net

15 years, 10 months

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Microwriter MW4 help

by john_a_s2004＠hotmail.com

Hi, I have finally made an adapter to read the 2564 ROM from my Microwriter on my EPROM programmer (which can only read the 2764). There were about 5 pins to rewire, I'll write some notes later on the differences. I've upload the ROM image to: http://www.vintagecomputers.btinternet.co.uk/mw4/mw4.zip The file looks OK, but there are a lot of FF bytes on the ROM, which hopefully implies that the whole 8K bytes weren't needed rather than the ROM is faulty. Hopefully Tony can compare this with his ROM and come back with any further tips or questions. If anyone else has a fully working MW4 please make contact. I haven't tried to disassemble the ROM yet (thanks Phil for the link to DASMx), maybe one day. Regards, John ================================================================== John S john_a_s2004 at hotmail.com Wed Sep 8 15:40:20 CDT 2010 >> I recently obtained a Microwriter with an LCD display. >> >> Else it may be faulty >> I found Tony's post from 2009 asking for a 'good' EPROM image maybe >> mine is failing in a similar way. Tony wrote: > FWIW, I am still stuck... I am pretty sure the Firmware EPROM in mine is > corrupted, some 'chords' do not produce the characters I would expect My one can generate all the letters, numbers and punctuation marks so fingers crossed the EPROM is OK. > IIRC, the EPROM is a 25C64 (which is slightly different to the more common > 27C64). If you have a programmer capable of reading out that device, it > would be interesting to compare the ROM in mine with it. OK, I'll try and read the EPROM. This might take me some time, but I am keen to do it as there is very little technical stuff about the MW4 on line. I might try and disassemble the code too (but I don't think IDA has a 1802 option!) Regards, John

15 years, 10 months

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Compaq luggable, what next?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

I got this gem for $25 today. What would you guys recomend next: ISA ide card for storage, recomendations? Ethernet to get it on line, and what stripped down browser would work? I remember flight simulator was pretty good with the 600x400? graphics Autocad 2.6 too, I dont know yet if I have the math chip installed How could I go wrong for $25? They have another one if anybody wants it (Surplusgizmos.com) Randy

15 years, 10 months

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EPAY DEC Qbus Z-80

by holger.veit＠iais.fraunhofer.de

Am 08.10.2010 17:28, schrieb Holger Veit: > Am 08.10.2010 16:20, schrieb Christian Corti: >> On Fri, 8 Oct 2010, Alexander Voropay wrote: >>> JFYI: I have one non-DEC Q-Bus card, a tape controller with Z80 CPU >> >> I have several non-DEC Q-Bus cards with MC68000 and a non-DEC Q-Bus >> machine with MC68020 ;-)) >> >> Christian > > PCS Cadmus, right? > > Regards > Holger

15 years, 10 months

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Looking for IBM 5250 TwinAx terminal in Australia

by nigel.d.williams＠gmail.com

Cloning JPs request but I'm seeking Twinax terminals in Australia please. Having acquired a clutch of AS/400s, my only true IBM 3197 twinax terminal is dead. If anyone knows the trick about how to open the video section of an IBM 3197 I would be interested in knowing. I removed the two self-thread screws from the bottom which seems to release part of the case but something still holds the top, presumably needs some leverage to unlock. Aside: I was intrigued to see that the logic of the IBM 3197 is powered by an Intel 8088.

15 years, 10 months

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capacitor aging claim

by legalize＠xmission.com

On alt.sys.pdp11 it was recently claimed: > Lack of use speeds up deterioration of things like capacitors > (especially electrolytics). Now I know that capacitors tend to the component most likely to fail on a piece of vintage equipment, but this is the first time I recall seeing it claimed that lack of use accelerates deterioriation of capacitors. Comments? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

15 years, 10 months

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P112 project scrubbed

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I'm sorry, but the effort to make a new run of P112 kits has been scrubbed. I was unable to get more than 12 kits presold when I needed at least 35 to go forward and get the boards made. Since I'm so far behind 35, I decided to start the refunds now. Those of you who preordered should be seeing the refunds roll in over the next week as funds get transferred from my bank account to Paypal. This won't be the last of the P112. I hope to be able to do a run a few months after I land a new job. Hopefully I'll have the money to finance the project without the need to take preorders. Thanks for all your faith in me and interest in this project. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

15 years, 10 months

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Looking for IBM 5250 TwinAx terminal...

by jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com

Anyone in the US (preferably close to Iowa, but I suspect that's wishful thinking) got a 5250 that they might be able to spare? I now have the space to work on bringing my System/34 to working order and it didn't come with a terminal. While I'm at it, anyone particularly familiar with the /34 that would be willing to lend me their ear now and then as I'm working on it? Thanks; - JP

15 years, 10 months

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Repairing Debian on an Alpha 433au

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

The 433au I have came with an instance of Debian which has DECnet installed on it, I am not sure what version of Debian it is. After a power outage the superblock on DKA200 was corrupted. I managed to install another instance of Debian (3.1r0) on DK0 and run e2fsck -p on the DKA200 disk to fix it. However when I try to boot the original Debian instance it says it can't find /dev/sdb3. In the new instance of Debian I can mount the sdb3 disk without issue. Below is the output on the console when it fails to boot. There is a message about the driver sd needing to be updated, but this was a working system so I am not convinced that is the problem. Can anyone offer any insight as to why this will still not boot? Thanks Rob aboot: loading uncompressed vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-alpha-generic... aboot: loading compressed vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-alpha-generic... aboot: zero-filling 854608 bytes at 0xfffffc000167c980 aboot: loading initrd (1421885 bytes/1388 blocks) at 0xfffffc0013d70000 aboot: starting kernel vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-alpha-generic with arguments ro root=/d ev/sdb3 console=ttyS0,9600n1 [ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu [ 0.000000] Linux version 2.6.26-1-alpha-generic (Debian 2.6.26-13) (waldi at de bian.org) (gcc version 4.1.3 20080704 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.2-24)) #1 Sat Jan 10 17:21:47 UTC 2009 [ 0.000000] Booting GENERIC on Miata using machine vector Miata from SRM [ 0.000000] Major Options: MAGIC_SYSRQ [ 0.000000] Command line: ro root=/dev/sdb3 console=ttyS0,9600n1 [ 0.000000] memcluster 0, usage 1, start 0, end 236 [ 0.000000] memcluster 1, usage 0, start 236, end 40959 [ 0.000000] memcluster 2, usage 1, start 40959, end 40960 [ 0.000000] freeing pages 236:2048 [ 0.000000] freeing pages 2985:40959 [ 0.000000] reserving pages 2985:2986 [ 0.000000] Initial ramdisk at: 0xfffffc0013d70000 (1421885 bytes) [ 0.000000] pci: cia revision 1 (pyxis) [ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pag es: 40679 [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: ro root=/dev/sdb3 console=ttyS0,9600n1 [ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 11, 16384 bytes) [ 0.000000] HWRPB cycle frequency bogus. Estimated 433127999 Hz [ 0.000000] Using epoch = 2000 [4194001.855599] Console: colour VGA+ 80x25 [4194001.855599] console [ttyS0] enabled [4194003.204231] Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 524288 bytes) [4194003.294075] Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 262144 bytes) [4194003.414192] Memory: 313552k/327672k available (2158k kernel code, 11952k re served, 3313k data, 304k init) [4194003.551887] Security Framework initialized [4194003.603645] Capability LSM initialized [4194003.650520] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 [4194003.707161] Initializing cgroup subsys ns [4194003.757942] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct [4194003.813606] Initializing cgroup subsys devices [4194003.877082] net_namespace: 1208 bytes [4194003.924934] NET: Registered protocol family 16 [4194003.983528] EISA bus registered [4194004.024543] pci: passed tb register update test [4194004.081184] pci: passed sg loopback i/o read test [4194004.139778] pci: passed pte write cache snoop test [4194004.199348] pci: failed valid tag invalid pte reload test (mcheck; workarou nd available) [4194004.298957] pci: passed pci machine check test [4194004.353645] pci: tbia workaround enabled [4194004.403449] pci: enabling save/restore of SRM state [4194004.468879] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:14.0 [4194004.515754] IO window: 8000-8fff [4194004.557746] MEM window: 0x09000000-0x090fffff [4194004.614387] PREFETCH window: 0x0000000009100000-0x00000000091fffff [4194004.701301] Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay [4194004.785285] NET: Registered protocol family 2 [4194004.850715] IP route cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 32768 bytes) [4194004.937629] TCP established hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 262144 byt es) [4194005.027473] TCP bind hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 131072 bytes) [4194005.109504] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 16384) [4194005.190558] TCP reno registered [4194005.233527] NET: Registered protocol family 1 [4194005.289191] checking if image is initramfs... it is [4194006.371222] Freeing initrd memory: 1388k freed [4194006.430792] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1 [4194006.479620] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 8192 bytes) [4194006.560675] msgmni has been set to 615 [4194006.608526] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 253) [4194006.699347] io scheduler noop registered [4194006.748175] io scheduler anticipatory registered [4194006.805792] io scheduler deadline registered [4194006.859503] io scheduler cfq registered (default) [4194006.918097] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards... [4194007.324346] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found [4194007.417120] Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharin g enabled [4194007.512823] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A [4194007.588018] serial8250: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A [4194007.684698] brd: module loaded [4194007.731573] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1 [4194007.793096] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12 [4194007.858526] mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice [4194007.924932] EISA: Probing bus 0 at eisa.0 [4194007.974737] atkbd.c: keyboard reset failed on isa0060/serio0 [4194008.047979] TCP cubic registered [4194008.088994] NET: Registered protocol family 17 [4194008.145635] registered taskstats version 1 [4194008.197393] drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0) [4194008.275518] Freeing unused kernel memory: 304k freed [4194008.352666] atkbd.c: keyboard reset failed on isa0060/serio1 [4194008.698369] SCSI subsystem initialized [4194008.765752] qla1280: QLA1040 found on PCI bus 1, dev 9 [4194009.400517] scsi(0:0): Resetting SCSI BUS [4194012.454227] scsi0 : QLogic QLA1040 PCI to SCSI Host Adapter [4194012.454227] Firmware version: 7.65.06, Driver version 3.26 [4194012.625125] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods [4194012.704226] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access COMPAQ ST32550W 6415 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 /bin/cat: [4194012.818484] scsi(0:0:0:0): Sync: period 10, offset 12, Wide, Tagg ed queuing: depth 31 /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 1 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 2 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 4 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up [4194018.073364] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 4110000 512-byte hardware sectors (2104 MB) [4194018.160278] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off [4194018.223755] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, s upports DPO and FUA [4194018.332153] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 4110000 512-byte hardware sectors (2104 MB) [4194018.419067] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off [4194018.482544] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, s upports DPO and FUA [4194018.588012] sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 [4194018.657348] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 8 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 16 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Device /sys/block/sdb/dev seems to be down. /bin/mknod: missing operand after `b' Special files require major and minor device numbers. Try `/bin/mknod --help' for more information. /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 1 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 2 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 4 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 8 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 16 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Device /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev seems to be down. /bin/mknod[4194075.827241] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! : missing operand after `b' Special files require major and minor device numbers. Try `/bin/mknod --help' for more information. mount: special device /dev/sdb3 does not exist Switching root ... /usr/lib/yaird/exec/run_init: current directory on the same filesystem as the ro ot: Success

15 years, 10 months

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An interesting development in vintage system emulators

by lproven＠gmail.com

I (re-)discovered a remarkable tool last week, which absorbed a day and a bit. Even if you're not interested in the ZX Spectrum, I think it's worth a look. It's called BASin. There's no good homepage for it, alas. The current "official" one is here but it contains little content: http://sites.google.com/site/pauldunn/ There's also a blog: http://zxdunny.wordpress.com/ You can download it here (although v14c is not a very current version): http://www.worldofspectrum.org/emulators.html The latest stable version I've been able to find mention of is 14d - you can see a record of its deletion in the site activity page of the GooglePages site. I've not managed to find a download of it, though. There was an experimental build, 15.6, which I found a download of somewhere - just the binary, no installer or other resources. Past the EXE on top of the EXE of an installed copy of 14c and it works, though. A little more (obsolete) info: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.sinclair/msg/4eeb4ffc8725beec?pli=1 Essentially, it's a Spectrum emulator for Windows, reworked so that the display and the BASIC editor are 2 separate windows. One is a proper native Sinclair display, with attribute clash and all the other horrors that make Speccy fans nostalgic. The other is a Windows window, in which you get a 128K Spectrum-style editor - typed keywords rather than arcane keystrokes to enter keywords in a single keypress, but with modern Windows niceties: cut & paste, a ruler, a syntax helper, bracket matching, error messages as dialogue boxes with verbose text, line-by-line execution tracing, variable checkpoints, etc. etc. You can set the speed of the emulator, so you need not wait hours to see what a real 3.5MHz Spectrum would do - you can run stuff at an emulated 55MHz (on my PC) to see if it works, then slow it down to real speed to see what genuine hardware would do. The Help file contains the entire Sinclair manual turned into a modern hyperlinked Help system, along with program help. You can zoom the display, change the fonts used in the editor and so on. Files can be loaded and saved into the native Windows filesystem using the menus, but the emulator can still handle cassette-tape images and so on. It is a really pleasant environment to work in: you get the pleasure of working in the old environment, but also the facilities of Windows. It may not encompass all the very best of both worlds, but it is the closest I've ever seen. I really like the way it merges the fun of playing around with an emulated 1980s 8-bit environment with the luxuries of a modern GUI OS. Trying to write code with an emulated Spectrum brings back many of the horrors of working on those machines for real - lousy editors, tiny screens, poor file-storage, instability, slowness, etc. It strikes me that there's no need for this concept to be limited to the Spectrum, although that happens to be my favourite 8-bit machine & the one I'm far and away most familiar with. It would be an interesting way for emulators of almost any vintage system to develop - separating display and code editor, enhancing the editor with modern native-OS facilities while keeping the classic execution and display environment. It might be a little less applicable to text-only terminal-based OSs, but not exclusively so, I think. I'd love to see such an environment for a whole load of the old graphics-oriented 8-bit home computers of the 1980s, though. I'm sure some people would consider it heresy to pollute a classic platform with modernities, but it strikes me as a really productive blending. I'm going to try to resurrect some of my unfinished Speccy projects that were just too painful to try to finish on the original machine. By the way, although it's a Windows 32-bit binary, it runs fine on Windows 7 64-bit, under XP in VirtualBox on Linux, and stably if a bit slowly under WINE on 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04. -- Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

15 years, 10 months

3
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US Library of Congress: Copyright is Destroying Historic Audio

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://www.osnews.com/story/23888/US_Library_of_Congress_Copyright_Is_Destr…

15 years, 10 months

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Evolution of the Apple Mouse

by marvin＠west.net

I saw an article on Mashable with photos of the evolution of the Apple mouse. Kind of interesting. http://mashable.com/2010/09/26/evolution-apple-mouse/ Marvin

15 years, 10 months

40
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EPAY DEC Qbus Z-80

by alexander.voropay＠gmail.com

JFYI: I have one non-DEC Q-Bus card, a tape controller with Z80 CPU

15 years, 10 months

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Ted Nelson autobiography

by evan＠snarc.net

New book .... Ted N.'s autobiography .... *http://tinyurl.com/23ewehv*

15 years, 10 months

2
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An interesting isa card

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

I just picked up one of these: http://www.berkprod.com/Product_Web_Pages/isa_pc_watchdog.aspx >from ebay for $7. It looks like it watches the machine for locked up software, then presses the reset button for you. What else can I do with this? What's the db-9 port for? brian

15 years, 10 months

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Another huge collection for sale

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

> > Message: 17 > Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:50:48 -0600 > From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> > Subject: Re: Another huge collection for sale > To: cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <E1P3coy-0006l0-0x at shell.xmission.com> > > > In article <4CACED38.2000900 at snarc.net>, > Evan Koblentz <evan at snarc.net> writes: > > > See ebay # 170546160874 .... no affiliation. > > All microcomputer stuff that was made in the gazillions of units > quantities. I'm not sure how the owner determined that the value is > "$75K" to collectors. If you're going to list something for more than > $1,000 on ebay, the least you could do is make sure that the listing > is complete when you post it, particularly if you've got only ~30 > hours left on the listing. If this was me, I would sell each item separately, or find someone to do it for me, for the next few years. I'd have two or three items posted per week so that I could answer questions individually. You'll only get a wholesale price with such a huge lot, but I assume the seller is motivated by time. Certainly this is a two feet in the ocean vintage computer collection none the less, even if there are not a lot of really rare items. For all we know the seller is keeping the "good stuff" and purging his more common items. Or, it may be a must sell thing, we all have had our backs against the wall and need to sell of stuff to pay the bills. I wish him well and I hope that these items find themselves in the hands of a person who will keep them in good shape. Bill

15 years, 10 months

2
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3D

by ragooman＠gmail.com

-----Original Message----- Date: Thursday, October 07, 2010 5:15:40 pm To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> From: "Fred Cisin" <cisin at xenosoft.com> Subject: Re: 3D On Thu, 7 Oct 2010, Chuck Guzis wrote: > On 7 Oct 2010 at 21:11, Tony Duell wrote: > > > > THIRTY years ago, CCTV monitors and home TV sets. > > There were (monochrome) high-resolution TV systems 50 years ago. In > particular, the Soviets were fooling around with an 1125-line > technology in 1958: > http://rus.625-net.ru/625/2007/01/tvch.htm And did that come with a mercury delay line frame buffer ? :) =Dan

15 years, 10 months

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Odd Voltage Requirements (was: TU55 an ebay)

by silent700＠gmail.com

Here's an oddball, too: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220676550260 42V, 50hz. Apparently, there were mains lines that delivered those values to special plugs in Russian schools. How would one go about powering such a device in the US? -- jht

15 years, 10 months

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MAC stuff that needs to go

by auringer＠tds.net

I currently have only an LC II, and it is headed to recycle heaven. I have the following MAC stuff that will go that way also, unless someone really wants it. I can't guarantee that all the floppies are readable. Link to photos below. Located in 53714. Make me an offer I can't refuse. -Jon -- Micronet model MS-120x external hard drive with manual and floppy disk - worked last time I tried it Tekalike terminal emulation - complete with manual and case Pile of original disks, including: -several versions of Excel -Pagemaker -MacDraft -Laserwriter -Mac System disks -Fullpaint -Expressionist -MS Basic -Cricket Graph http://www.flickr.com/photos/jja572/sets/72157625115800420

15 years, 10 months

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HP 9845A's Birth

by technobug＠comcast.net

An interesting article on the gestation of the HP 9845A: <http://www.edn.com/article/510813-Brute_force_brings_better_board.php> CRC

15 years, 10 months

1
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Fujitsu Line printer manuals

by auringer＠tds.net

I have come across the following manuals for the Fujitsu M304X Series Line Printer: OEM Manual (good condition other than some notes written inside and on the cover) Operator's Guide (good other than rubber band residue on covers) CE Manual (good other than rubber band residue on covers) Located in 53714. Anyone interested? -Jon

15 years, 10 months

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P112 pre-order deadline

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

The deadline for pre-ordering a P112 kit, October 11, is approaching. I need to have 35 pre-orders before I can go ahead and have the boards made. I've only been able to pre-sell twelve kits. If I can't get 24 more kits sold by then, I'll have to cancel the project. I don't have the spare cash to finance the project entirely on my own. For those who are curious: I set the cutoff to October 11 because that's 60 days after the first order was placed. I can refund Paypal payments and get the fee back only within that window. The minimum of 35 pre-orders was chosen because for that number, I'll have the money to have 100 boards made and get parts for 35 kits. From that point on, the process becomes self-sustaining. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

15 years, 10 months

1
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Another huge collection for sale

by evan＠snarc.net

See ebay # 170546160874 .... no affiliation. (A few people asked me if this is Sellam's. The answer is no.)

15 years, 10 months

2
1
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Spec of Memory for a DEC Alpha 433au

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I am trying to work out what kind of memory to look for to fit in my 433au. I can see it need 168-pin ECC SDRAM, but I am not clear if it can be unbuffered or if it must be registered and whether I need PC100 or PC133. I can also see that the notches on the side to hold the DIMMs in place seem to be higher up than on most of the DIMMs I can find, not sure if there is a particular technical term I should include in my searches for this. Can anyone tell me the required spec? Thanks Rob

15 years, 10 months

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Anyone have docs for a Digital Engineering Retro-Graphics ("VT640") board?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, Jack Rubin sent me a Retro-Graphics upgrade board and cage that seem to have had an unpleasant interaction with mud daubers (I only have the boards, but the report is that the PSU of its former host did not survive). I'd like to clean an resurrect it, and I'd like to find any tech docs to go with. The closest I've found so far is a manual on Bitsavers for a version of the product for an ADM-3A terminal: http://computer-refuge.org/bitsavers/pdf/digitalEngineering/RG-512_Users_Ma… I found a query from John Wilson (D-Bit) some months back where he's seeking a programmers' manual, so it appears there are more questors than answers. Does anyone have anything on this device? It's a DEC-quad-height-sized card, with connectors appropriate for a VT100 enclosure, a few cables (PSU and data to/from the main VT100 board) and a metal cage, possibly just the standard DEC cage from a VT100. I think I can see how to plug it all in, but beyond cleaning and checking for dead shorts, I'd like to know something about it before I apply voltage. Some very nice photos can be found here: http://www.fairlightcmi.com/VT640-board-set-eBay-photos.html Googling has so far only returned references to its use with the Synclavier II synthesizer (and its modern replacement, a "VT640" emulator for MacOS X) and various science and engineering apps from the heyday of VMS and dumb terminals. No technical data beyond a few control sequences. I know how to drive a Tektronix 4000-series graphics terminal (and have some nice Tek files from some recent research on my Tek 4105), but I'm really looking for hardware docs more than just lists of command sequences. Thanks for any assistance -ethan

15 years, 10 months

1
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TU55 an ebay

by aswood＠t-online.de

Hello, there is a tu55 DecTape at ebay item 260670657286. I'm quite surprised - this is the second tu55 within four weeks. I've never seen any on ebay before. I'm not associated with the seller. --

15 years, 10 months

7
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IKOS system manual

by auringer＠tds.net

I have a User's Guide for the "IKOS Systems AT Host", which is apparently a logic validation system. It happens to be in a binder labeled Graphics Plus GP-220 from Northwest Digital Systems. Both are in good condition. If either of these items is of interest, make me an offer to keep it from the recycle bin. Shipping will be from 53714 -Jon

15 years, 10 months

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Manuals for printers & plotters available (omission)

by auringer＠tds.net

I neglected to mention that shipping is from 53714. -Jon

15 years, 10 months

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Manuals for printers & plotters available

by auringer＠tds.net

I have the following manuals that I am willing to save from the recycle bin, if they are worth something to someone. Offers above shipping cost will be required to make it worth my time. All are in good condition, unless otherwise noted. HP 7580B, 7585B and 7586B Drafting plotters Operators manual HP 7580B, 7585B and 7586B Drafting plotters Interfacing and Programming manual (fair condition) Citizen MSP-40/45 User's Manual Dataproducts Model 9030/9040 Operating Guide Comrex ComRiter IIE User's Guide Star Gemini-10X/15X User's Manual Panasonic KX-P3151 Operating Instructions Star radix-10 pc radix-15 pc Users's Manual (good condition w/writing on cover) Mannesmann Tally Spirit-80 Operator's Manual Star Gemini-15 Operation Manual [preliminary] (photocopy, fair condition) -Jon

15 years, 10 months

1
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Mike Ross Contact Info

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

If Mike is still on this mail list: yr email at mike<AT>corestore<DOT>org has been bouncing for about a week now, with a "Sorry, I wasn't able to establish an SMTP connection. (#4.4.1) message. Does anyone have an alternate email address for Mike? Tom

15 years, 10 months

1
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Royal calculator available

by auringer＠tds.net

For the calculator collector: Royal 8HPD battery operated handheld printing calculator. It seems to be fully functional. Comes with two rolls of paper. I will accept the first decent offer above shipping costs from 53714. See a picture here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jja572/sets/72157625108629242 -Jon Jon Auringer

15 years, 10 months

1
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EPAY DEC Qbus Z-80

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Steve asks: > With my limited exposure to the DEC/PDP stuff, this looks strange... > Z-80 chips on a QBus card? Is it noteworthy? worth bidding on? > unusual? just plain junk? What would it work with/in /on? > item no 250693741192 These were circa early 80's and this board was 4 CP/M systems. I think there were single and double boards too. There were some bizarre hooks between the CP/M BIOS and the Unibus (usually VAX/VMS... but there may have been others) filesystems that I never really grokked. The relationship to VMS printers was more straightforward. But yeah, you need some specialized drivers etc. probably not updated since VMS 3.x to use this. We had these in the 80's and the secretaries would connect to the VAX, then connect to the embedded CP/M system, and edit files using CP/M word processor, then print to printers on the VAX. Pretty convoluted. Later on the same secretaries used an emulated IBM PC inside the VAX. Tim.

15 years, 10 months

1
0
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IBM 5022

by robin＠hx-20.com

Hello Does anyone have a serviceable IBM 5022 disk drive unit, or perhaps have technical documentation on this drive that they would be prepared to scan and email? I have a single-platter disk pack (written in 1974) that I'd like to read. I believe it was written by a System/7. Am based in UK and US (MN). Thanks Robin

15 years, 10 months

1
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EPAY DEC Qbus Z-80

by shumaker＠att.net

With my limited exposure to the DEC/PDP stuff, this looks strange... Z-80 chips on a QBus card? Is it noteworthy? worth bidding on? unusual? just plain junk? What would it work with/in /on? item no 250693741192 steve

15 years, 10 months

6
7
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Tadpole/RDI UltraBook NVRAM problem...

by erik＠baigar.de

Dear Vintage-Computer experts, over the last year I "lost" two Tadpole/RDI UltraBook notebooks. These are Ultra Sparc based machines available in various configurations. Both machines refuse to boot, i.e. they pass all tests and print the right messages, but after initializing the memory they fail to load the kernel (boot disk) or do not send any network messages (boot net). I noticed, that there appear strange strings in the environment variables for hardware-revision for example and further investigation shows that the NVRAM (DS1643) must have lost a part of its content which are filled with e.g. 55 hexadecimal now. My question is, whether someone out there has got such an UltraBook up and running and is willing to read out the NVRAM and send me the contents. The machine has not to be opened to do this since the contents can be listed via the OpenBoot firmware. As most of the bytes should contain 00 it would for example be sufficient to take some low resolution photographs of the hex dump pages containing non-zero bytes and I'd be happy to type them into a hex editor myself... I'd post step by step instructions how the NVRAM's contents can be displayed... Best regards, Erik. P.S. The two UltraBooks are of the following type: U20-14-9-512P, Part No MU20014PCI36, Serial U20/1040, Serial ID 8527455. This one has got THREE hard drives. U200-14-3-128P, Part No MU20014PCI36, Serial U20-1253, Serial ID8526256 with two hard drive bays and one for the battery.

15 years, 10 months

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How much would you reckon a Mac Performa 630 is worth?

by lproven＠gmail.com

25MHz 680LC40, 36MB RAM, MacOS 8.1. TV and Ethernet cards. Because to my astounded delight, I just got ?50 for mine, from a chap who found me via eBay. The auction he was originally interested in, for an LC475, ended for just ?8. But then, that chap only wants the hard disk drive... -- Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

15 years, 10 months

5
8
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Free LA-100 posting

by cclist＠sydex.com

Fellow is posting an LA100 for shipping on Eric's VCF: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?22269-FREE-DEC- LA100-LetterWriter --Chuck

15 years, 10 months

1
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IS501 sensor -- my solution

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Some days ago I was asking about a source for an IS50 OPIC optical sensor used in the shaft encoder of my Olivetti Sparkjet printer. And it appears this device is unobtainium In an earlier message tonigth I mentioned I had recently bought a cheap PS/2 mouse, and that it is now very dead. These 2 events are connected... The reason I boguth a cheap mouse is that it was optomechancial, rather than optical. And the reason it was PS/2 is that that was the cheapest one I could find. The salesdroid in Maplin thought I was craxy when I daid I didn't care what the interface was. On the other hamd, trying to ecplain classic computing to him was going to take too long, so I simply said that PS/2 was what I wanted... And of coruse the reason I wanted an optomechancial mouse is that it contains a pair of dual phototranssitor sensors to sense the motion of the encoder wheels. Of ocurse I took the mouse apart. It was very cheaply made, with the slotted disks and spindles moulded in one piece, then clipped into 'bearings' moudlded in the base of the mouse. Ouch. But I didn't care about that. I soon desoldered the sensorts which appear to be dual phototransistors with a common collector connection. And the pitch of the slots in the mouse's encoder disks was very close to that in the disk in my Sparkjet printer. Next job was to carefully remove and dismantle the encoder in the Sparkjet. I desoldered the OPIC, which shed a couple of pins in the process, but I cared more about the PCB. I also removed the dual resistor assockated with the OPIC> I then fitted one of the mouse sensors in place of it, common collector to the +5V tack. And with a little cut and muper, I routed the 2 emitter connections to pads that had held the dual resistor. I carefully ressembled the sensor and fitted 10k resisotrs in placeof the dual resistor assembly. That would do as an emitter load for testing. Turning the spindle produced a change in voltage, but it was close to +5V all the time. Dropping the resistors would help, in the end I foudn that 470 ohms (yes, that low) was ideal. I added a 74LS14 schmitt trigger IC on a bit of stripboard to clean up the signals, conneted the outputs to the pins on the connector to the printer's main board and gave it a try. Using the logicDart I could get a display of the wavefortms, and by adjusting the encoder PCB position I got a pretty good pair of quadrature signals. Doing the self-test on the printer got the carriage jiggling about is it should do (the printer was dismantled so that there was no platten, HV generartor, carriage rails, stc, so I couldn't see if it was preinting anything, but I coudlsee the montion of the carriage drive). Alas evey so often it would miscount and the carriage would jump in position. Much gabbing of signals with the LogicDart later, I spotted the odd glitch in one of the output waveforms. No idea what was causing it, but a 1nF camacitor in parallel with the 470R resistor on each phototransitor cleared it up. And cleaered up the posiiton problem Now 'all' I have to do is align the carriage rails properly. Iv'e refitted the rest of the printer mechansim, and it does print, but it fades out after few lines, to recover only wne I clean the end of the ink cartridge. I suspect the spark is flying in slightly the wrong direction and putting carbon ('ink') on the end of the cartridge, causing HV leakage. So, the replacement for the IS501 consisted of the sensor from a cheap mouse and a 74LS14, a couple of R's and a couple of C's from my junk box... -tony

15 years, 10 months

2
4
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Sparcstation Voyager media?

by IanK＠vulcan.com

Hey folks, This is a question about a piece I have in my personal collection: a Sparcstation SS240 Voyager. It's a sun4m architecture luggable workstation with an LCD screen. The whole thing fits into a large shoulder bag - large enough it wouldn't be accepted for carryon luggage. It's cute, and it runs (after I replaced the NVRAM chip). When I got it, the machine had been set up with NetBSD, but being the masochistic sort I am I wanted to restore it to its original software. It just so happens I had Solaris 2.6 and gave it a crack. Solaris starts up just fine, but the device won't go into CDE, claiming that it can't find the framebuffer driver. Looking at the firmware, I see that it identifies a device called bwthree. Solaris 2.6 has a driver for bwtwo, but I've been unable to find a bwthree anywhere. (Google gives me pages and pages of "BW3," refusing to believe I want what I typed. Sometimes software is too helpful.) The original documentation for the Voyager describes custom install media - which presumably includes this driver. Does anyone happen to have such a CDROM? Can you confirm for me that there is in fact a driver so named? And if you have a running Voyager, is that what's in your /platform/kernel/drv directory? Otherwise, I guess I could just run NetBSD, but it's just not as fun. :) Thanks - Ian

15 years, 10 months

5
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200+ vintage computers for sale - LaCrosse, WI

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I am posting this on behalf of Carl - see below: -------------------------------------- Carl W. Thurston writes: I have about 1500 cubic feet of classic computer systems, peripherals, manuals, software, and parts for sale. Nearly every Apple, Atari, Amiga, Compaq, Commodore, to mention a few. Some notable models like: Calcomp Terrac, DEC Rainbow, Kaypro, Osborne 1, IBM PC luggable, Zenith luggable,etc. Lots of NOS parts, service manuals, and Diagnostics. Would like to sell entire collection (was part of a Technology Museum), contact me about particulars or questions. See big list here: http://popbottlecaps.com/temp/accession.html Contact: Carl W. Thurston Western Technical College La Crosse, WI 54601 ThurstonC at westerntc.edu --------------------------------------

15 years, 10 months

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Looking for HP LaserJet part

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I now have a HP LaserJet IIp Plus printer, (initially free, and I got it working at a cost about equal to buying a good used one, but that's another story)... anyhow, I am trying to find the "Optional Lower Cassette" that holds 250 sheets of paper and fits underneath the printer (instead of feeding them 20-30 at a time through the front door). No luck in the usual places. Does anyone have a "parts" IIp from which I can buy the cassette & paper tray? thanks Charles

15 years, 10 months

2
1
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Tandy DeskMate floppies

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I uncovered some "vintage" Tandy DeskMate software on five 3.5" floppies. Labeled (Radio Shack?) Catalog No. 25-3551, (C) 1984, 1990. Anyone want them for $5.00 plus Media Mail postage from 65775... please contact me offlist. thanks.

15 years, 10 months

1
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IP Fragments - Worth doing, testing strategies?

by mbbrutman-cctalk＠brutman.com

I have been working on my TCP/IP stack for DOS, adding IP fragmentation support. There are not too many more features that I want to add to make it 'complete' before I open source the code and IP fragment support was a big one. I am having a terrible time testing it though. It seems that IP fragments out in the wild are pretty rare. I tried connecting to a slew of remote FTP sites hoping to find one that was behind a really bad network, and thus would have fragments coming from it. No joy. It seems that there are a lot of tricks out there to prevent fragments >from being created, especially when using TCP. The only way I can test the code is to send myself oversized UDP packets. If it works for UDP then it should work for TCP too, but I'd really like to test the TCP path explicitly. Combine the tricks with modern broadband and getting fragments is really difficult. Even on the home network I am having a hard time getting fragments. I put a Linux box between the DOS PC and a Windows machine, and set one of the Ethernet MTUs to 576. Well, that didn't force fragments because the Windows box is too clever. I could start turning everything off in the registry, but I really don't want to get that involved. Off the top of my head I think I am going to have to get another Linux box and dumb that down, if it is possible. Dumbing Linux down to turn off the features and then restoring it to a good state is probably safer/easier than doing it with Windows. Does anybody have a good technique for setting up a simple network that will result in IP fragments of TCP? On a related note, is this even worth it? I don't know of anything that needs to send fragments except for NFS over UDP. There might be other applications that send big packets over UDP but those would be the only class of applications that absolutely require fragment support. With TCP it is nice, but a user should be able to get around any problem by setting the local MTU to 576. Mike

15 years, 10 months

7
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iPad? Really? (was RE: Voice recognition will never kill the keyboard was: Re: Evolution)

by IanK＠vulcan.com

Please, I just ate.... The iPad is another Apple marketing success, but it isn't "defining" in any sense. Just because the bleating masses bought a bunch of them doesn't mean it's a meaningful step in any direction except profit. It just means that the marketeers at Apple are without peer. That's not a compliment. Keep in mind that I'm typing this on a PowerBook - I'm not anti-Mac. I own and really enjoy a 7" Android tablet device - I'm not anti-tablet. (I also own a Fujitsu Stylistic Tablet PC that I bought a long time ago, and if you want to sit down over a couple of beers I'd be happy to talk about its strengths and weaknesses and why the "Tablet PC" was ultimately doomed.) I'm not anti-"device", as I've been saying for some time that the "Personal Computer" has had its day and will be supplanted by "devices" that are not recognizable as computers - and it's happening, with the proliferation of mobile devices as the primary mechanism for consumption of information technology for millions of people around the world. (Why does Microsoft do so poorly in this market? Because it's in their DNA to tie it to the Personal Computer.) But the iPad? Yuppie status symbol. Yet another expression of Steve Jobs' control freak personality. Dead end. IMHO -- Ian ________________________________________ From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Liam Proven [lproven at gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 9:15 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only Subject: Re: Voice recognition will never kill the keyboard was: Re: Evolution On 2 October 2010 19:59, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: >> For the existing apps that are mouse-centric, I see touchscreens >> replacing them, but for things that are text-centric I don't see that >> as a good transition. > > TOuchscreens have been tried in the past (the most obviosu example is the > HP150 'Touchscreen PC') and I think they were always found to be less > convenient to use than a mouse or trackball. You have to move your hand > further (keyboard to screen rather than keyboard to mouse on desk near > keybaord), and you arm/hand is not supported (e.g. by resting it on the > desk) when you are doing the pointing. Well, yes, in 1983 they quite definitely weren't viable yet. :?) The iPad is the defining device of this technology, at least so far. It isn't a desktop computer and doesn't try to be. It's not a Mac, it's not Mac-compatible. It has no windows, no desktop, no menu bar, no Dock or trashcan. No keyboard, no screen, no system unit, no removable media, no hard disk or floppy drive. It is a *device*, not a "computer". (Even though it runs Unix.) It sits in cradled in your lap or held in your hands as you operate it with your thumbs. The screen /is/ the computer. It weighs under a kilo and the battery lasts a day of use. And despite it being nothing like anything anyone is used to, it sold about three million devices in its first month or so. -- Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

15 years, 10 months

9
13
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Janus programming language for CP/M-86

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I came across a set of disks labeled "Janus CP/M-86 Compiler", "Janus CP/M-86 Linker" and "Janus CP/M-86 Support" from RR Software. I presume these have nothing to do with the Janus lanuage created in 1990[1], but instead has something to do with reversible computing, if Wikipedia is accurate on this. How rare is this find? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus_(programming_language) -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

15 years, 10 months

2
3
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1981 Xitan S-100 system for sale - Norwalk, CA

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I am posting this on behalf of Todd - see below: ------------------------------------- I have a Xitan XOR-100, which is an S-100 bus system with 8-inch floppy drives running CP/M. Along with that is a Televideo TVI-950 terminal. I have most of the manuals and other documentation. I also have a non-booting Apple Macintosh SE (10MB internal disk) with a third-party external 20MB SCSI drive. toddlitwin at charter.net -------------------------------------

15 years, 10 months

1
0
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Another 935 shot...

by mdavidson1963＠gmail.com

Ok, can't resist. I'm just so happy to have this machine! Mark http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5153811&l=e3d7fbce9f&id=734972117 http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5153808&l=e4aaef5843&id=734972117

15 years, 10 months

13
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anyone coming up through MD towards (or to, or beyond) MA sometime this year ?

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

Have a BA23 pedestal enclosure I'd like to get from Rockville MD area.... and the local UPS store down there wan'ts $60ish for packing materials/packing charge (the $30+ to ship). So, thought I'd see if anyone was making a run through that area up this way per chance. Probably not, but thought I'd check anyway. Let me know if you are. Thanks, -- Curt

15 years, 10 months

2
1
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TI calculator battery packs cont'd

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I just found another great site in Germany: http://www.stschmid.de/calculators/ in which he redesigned the dc-dc converter board inside the BP-8 with surface-mount components, and even sells them... for $25 plus $12 postage :( Guess I'll be using 9V batteries, or perhaps tuck a rechargeable one (which is really only 8.4 volts) inside the plastic case with a suitable diode and resistor for charging from the wall-wart.

15 years, 10 months

2
1
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