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

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

On Jan 5, 2020, at 7:02 AM, Liam Proven via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > Sun *did* do a full port of OpenStep to Solaris, but while I know > people who saw it, I am not sure if it got a full commercial release. Not quite! Sun was a participant in creating the OpenStep standard (the NS class prefix stands for ?NeXT/Sun?) and *created their own implementation* of OpenStep for Solaris. (Just as GNUstep is an independent implementation of the OpenStep spec under the FSF umbrella, and OPENSTEP/Mach and OPENSTEP/Enterprise were NeXT?s implementations.) OpenStep Solaris was released, both the user and developer environment, and you should be able to find them today and install them on Solaris 2.5 or later. I think OpenStep will run on everything through Solaris 7 or Solaris 8, but at some point it stopped working because it required Display PostScript in the window server. > Sun also bought a number of NeXTstep software houses, including > Lighthouse, but didn't release the code. Indeed, that was post-OpenStep; they weren?t buying companies like Lighthouse to get a suite of applications for OpenStep Solaris, they were buying them to port their stuff to Java (since Java was based rather heavily on Objective-C, and some aspects of the Java frameworks? designs on OpenStep). ? Chris

5 years, 4 months

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One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes

by sieler＠allegro.com

Re: > Subject: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > ... > Palo Alto Fry?s closing < > https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-locations-Frys-Electronics-…> > . > Wow, how important little words are! The URL for the SFGate article is misleadingly "...Bay-Area-locations-Frys-Electronics-closed" ... which is wrong. The CCtalk thread is "One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes" The original SFGate article's title (click on link above to see) is: "One of Bay Area's few Fry's Electronics stores closes" Each means something different. ("one of...last" is more dire than "one of ...few"). Isn't English interesting? Keep that in mind while reading political reporting, too :) Stan

5 years, 4 months

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Motorola app notes

by aek＠bitsavers.org

did anyone copy the moto app notes that were once at http://www.shrubbery.net/~heas/willem/PDF/Motorola/apnoteindex.html ?

5 years, 4 months

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SCO software box last chance

by mark.tapley＠swri.org

?spoken for. have not yet brought myself to throw away this big box of SCO software. Last call, though. - Mark 210-522-6025 office 210-379-4635 cell

5 years, 4 months

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Mach

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

On Jan 5, 2020, at 2:30 PM, Guy Sotomayor via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > ?It did seem for a while that a lot of things were based on Mach, but >> >> very few seemed to make it to market. NeXTstep and OSF/1, the only >> version of which to ship AFAIK was DEC OSF/1 AXP, later Digital UNIX, >> later Tru64. > > Yes, a lot of things were based on Mach. One OS that you're forgetting > is OS X. That is based upon Mach 2.5. Nope, Mac OS X 10.0 was significantly upgraded and based on Mach 4 and BSD 4.4 content (via FreeBSD among other sources). It was NeXT that never got beyond Mach 2.5 and BSD 4.2. (I know, distinction without a difference, but this is an issue of historicity.) I think only some of the changes from Mach 2.5?3?4 made it into Mac OS X Server 1.0 (aka Rhapsody) so maybe that?s what you?re remembering. >> MkLinux didn't get very far, either, did it? >> > > I think that was the original Linux port for PPC. It was the original Linux port for NuBus PowerPC Macs at least. It was never really intended to ?get very far? in the first place, it was more of an experimental system that a few people at Apple threw together and managed to allow the release of to the public. MkLinux was interesting for two reasons: It documented the NuBus PowerMac hardware such that others could port their OSes to it, and it enabled some direct performance comparisons of things like running the kernel in a Mach task versus running it colocated with the microkernel (and thus turning all of its IPCs into function calls). Turns out running the kernel as an independent Mach task cost 10-15% overhead, which was significant on a system with a clock under 100MHz. Keep in mind too that this was in the early Linux 2.x days where Linux ?threads? were implemented via fork()? I don?t recall if anyone ever did any ?multi-server? experiments with it like were done at CMU, where the monolithic kernel were broken up into multiple cooperating tasks by responsibility. It would have been interesting to see whether the overhead stayed relatively constant, grew, or shrank, and how division of responsibility affected that. ? Chris

5 years, 4 months

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Taligent

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

On Jan 5, 2020, at 12:56 AM, Jeffrey S. Worley via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > Does Talingent Pink sound familiar? OS/2 was ported to powerPC, and so > was Netware iirc. The field was quite busy with hopeful Microsoft > killers. OS/2 was to be morphed into a cross-platform o/s, to wean > folks from dos/x86..... Then PPC kills the x86 and we all get a decent > os. That was the plan anyway. I never saw OS2 for PPC or Netware for > OS/2, thought I know both to have shipped. Pink was the C++ operating system project at Apple that became Taligent. I know a couple of people who did a developer kitchen for Pink pre-Taligent, and I also know a number of folks who worked on the Taligent system and tools?and have personally seen a demo of the Taligent Application Environment running on AIX. I?ve even seen a CD set for Taligent Application Environment (TalAE) 1.0 on AIX, and I have a beta developer and user documentation set. Unfortunately my understanding is that the CD sets given to employees to commemorate shipping TalAE were all *blank*?the rumor I?ve heard is that IBM considered it too valuable to give them the actual software that they had worked for years on. (Maybe there were tax implications because of what IBM valued the license at, and the fact that it would have to be considered compensation?) Taligent itself was only one component of IBM?s Workplace/OS strategy, which was a plan to rebase everything atop Mach so you could run AIX and OS/2 and Taligent all at once on the same hardware without quite using virtual machines for it all. The idea is that Apple would do pretty much the same with Copland and Taligent atop NuKernel rather than Mach. It would be really great to actually get the shipping Taligent environment and tools archived somewhere. While only bits and pieces of it are still in use?for example, ICU?a lot of important and influential work was done as part of the project. For example, the design of most of the unit testing frameworks today actually comes from *Taligent*, since Kent Beck wrote SUnit to re-create it in Smalltalk, and JUnit and OCUnit were based on SUnit?s design and everything else derived from JUnit? ? Chris

5 years, 4 months

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HP 1670E logic analyzer QUESTION ??

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

This equipment is said to have an internal 2 Go HD. Who knows what KIND of HD? ??? HP SCSI? ?? Thanks

5 years, 4 months

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SCO software box last chance

by mark.tapley＠swri.org

All, have not yet brought myself to throw away this big box of SCO software. Last call, though. I?ll pay media rate to get it to you in the US, just let me know that you want it and where to ship it. If you are abroad, email me and we can split postage, depending on total price. SCO OpenServer (TM) Development System Documentation Package Version 5.0 Part Number: 505-000-101 Model Number: MC105-UX00-5.0 Order Number: 87873506 Big Aqua-colored bocx that says, SCO: It?s Business Critical,. It?s SCO. - Mark 210-522-6025 office 210-379-4635 cell

5 years, 4 months

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DEC flat cables

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2020 08:57:40 -0500 > From: David Gesswein <djg at pdp8online.com> > Subject: DEC flat cables > > Has anyone found a good method for repairing the DEC flat cables? > The ones with flat wires with plastic laminated to each side. The glue > holding the plastic on fails and you end up with two sheets of plastic and > loose wires. > For low speed signals. I just replaced the flexprint with modern ribbon cable. Seems to work just fine. -- Michael Thompson

5 years, 4 months

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IBM RS/6000 Model 320 (7012-320) SCSI cabling

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

Does anyone have a spare internal or external SCSI cable for the IBM RS/6000 Model 320 with the IBM MCA SCSI-1 card (3-1)? For those who don?t know/remember, this card uses a pair of edge connectors (like MFM/ESDI) rather than an IDC connector to connect to its internal two-drop cable, and its external connector is a **sixty-pin** higher-density Centronics connector. I can make an IDC cable adapter pretty easily but if anyone knows where to acquire working original cables, that?d be preferable to my relative lack of mechanical skill. -- Chris

5 years, 4 months

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Odd vintage computer sellers

by treen0＠gmail.com

> I've been after a manual for months. There is one up on eBay for $520, > it's been there for months.? A few weeks ago the seller sent out an > offer to anyone watching, with an offer of $399, I sent a counter > offer of $99.? I just bought a copy that turned up yesterday for $20. > Zane I see the same thing all the time on Amazon and various other used booksellers, it's a malfunction of using an automated pricing system.? My uncle has spent years importing college textbooks and explained it to me about fifteen years ago, the system is fairly simplistic and sets prices automatically based on other seller's prices.? The sellers have no idea what anything is worth, so they trust the automated system rather than the buyer.? One person comes in and prices an old manual at some randomized, arbitrary amount in the hundreds of dollars (or a computer in the thousands), and the entire market adjusts to selling at that price without any human interaction.? The systems then ignore the lowball prices set by sellers who run smaller businesses and need to move inventory or sellers who understand the actual value of the item. This leads to situations where an old paperback about an obsolete programming language gets priced at $455 and a half dozen other sellers under-cut it by pennies. If you want to see how this same sort of thing affects various other markets, look into high speed trading firms.

5 years, 4 months

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Some new text adventure stuff for 2.11BSD

by athornton＠gmail.com

I'm having a party on Saturday January 11 (and if any of you are in Tucson, or want to come to Tucson for it, you're invited; email me for the address and time). Although the party is Elvis-themed, it's really about boardgaming and classic videogaming. So I kind of wanted to put a general-purpose Z-machine interpreter on my PiDP-11, so that people could play Infocom (and community) games on a real terminal. Turns out there wasn't really one, so I ported the venerable ZIP (which I have renamed "zterp" for obvious reasons) to 2.11BSD on the PDP-11, and I also wrote a little utility I call "tmenu" to take a directory (and an optional command applying to files in the directory) and make a numbered menu, so that my guests who are not familiar with Actual Bourne Shell can play games too. These things are at: https://github.com/athornton/pdp11-zterp and https://github.com/athornton/pdp11-tmenu/ Both are K&R C, and compile with the 2.11BSD system C compiler. My biggest disappointment is that the memory map of Trinity, my favorite Infocom game, is weird and even though it's only a V5 game, I can't allocate enough memory to start it. Other than that, V5 and below seem to work mostly fine; V8 is in theory supported but no game that I've tried has little enough low memory that I can malloc() it using C on 2.11BSD. Adam

5 years, 4 months

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Odd vintage computer sellers

by aperry＠snowmoose.com

Most of us who collect vintage computers probably have our own stories like this, but I find this so amusing that I just have to share it. Last year I did an exhibit on SPARC clones for VCF PNW and wanted to include a Solbourne in it. Unable to cajole Cameron into loaning me one :-), I went looking for one to buy on eBay. There was a seller with, among other Solbourne hardware, a listing for some number of IDT S4000DXs. They had started with 6 and were down to 4-5 when I started looking. IIRC, the base Buy-It-Now (BIN) price was around $225, but, when they didn't sell, they were relisted with a varying discount. In relistings, the BIN was as low as $167. In a relisting where the discounted price was $195 BIN, I offered $175. The seller didn't accept and, in the counter offer exchange, eventually went above the discounted price. I didn't go for that. Then, in the next relisting, the discounted price was $167. I bought one. They were being sold with a HDD and a Solbourne frame buffer (Sun frame buffers don't work in S4000DXs), but no keyboard or mouse (Solbournes use proprietary keyboards and mice). The one that I got had a dead Sun0424 (Seagate ST1480N) HDD and, I found out later, a broken frame buffer. I put in a SD2SCSI and installed OS/MP (Solbourne's version of BSD SunOS). From the serial console, it worked fine and I included the system in my VCF PNW exhibit. After the show, I spent some time trying to make a Solbourne to Sun keyboard adapter, but couldn't get it to work. I have had it up for sale for a few months (my attention is now focused on the barn-find Sun 3/260 that I hope to have working for this year's VCF PNW). But, back to the seller that I got the S4000DX from ... The seller is still trying to sell 2 of the original 6 S4000DXs (that at one point included the one that I have). However, the pricing has changed. Now, instead of the old base price of around $225, the base price is now $3060. Yes, $3000. But they are being offered with an 83% discount, so one can get a S4000DX for the low, low price of just under $500. I find this amazing and odd. alan

5 years, 4 months

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DEC flat cables

by djg＠pdp8online.com

Has anyone found a good method for repairing the DEC flat cables? The ones with flat wires with plastic laminated to each side. The glue holding the plastic on fails and you end up with two sheets of plastic and loose wires. I had some success with contact cement but it only glues the plastic to the flat wires since it doesn't have any body. I tried one of the rubbery adhesives but it wouldn't set. I assume the plastic prevented evaporation of the solvent. I assume the air cure products would have the same issue. I assume two part or UV cure products if UV makes it through the plastic might work better since they come thick enough to fill between the wires. I've never used any of these to know if they may be a better choice. Desirable would be reasonably quick set.

5 years, 4 months

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IBM RS/6000 Model 320 (7012-320) and AIX 3.2.5

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

I have an IBM RS/6000 POWERstation 320 (original 7012-320) with plenty of RAM and SCSI storage. I?d like to install AIX 3.2.5 on it. Here?s the hardware setup: - POWERstation 320 - 8MB RAM currently, soon to be 72MB - Serial port adapter so I can use a terminal - Correct IBM keyboard (not working at the moment, hence the terminal) - Correct IBM mouse - MCA Color Display Adapter (1-1) - MCA Ethernet Adapter (2-1) - MCA SCSI-1 Adapter (4-1) - AIX 3.2.0 floppy images, including boot floppy images - AIX 3.2.5 CD-ROM images - External SCSI DAT (DDS-1) and CD-ROM drives The CD images appear to be ISO-9660 format, containing piles of ?AIX backup/restore format file? archives; the floppy images are also identified as being that format (no filesystems, just archive content). I?ve seen some stuff online that talks about installing from tape using DAT, so it seems like in theory I should be able to just push the CD contents to a tape and go. Can I use the 3.2.0 boot floppy images with a couple of DDS-1 tapes containing the files from the 3.2.5 CDs to directly install AIX 3.2.5? In what order should the files be put on the tapes? Or do I really need to do a complete install of 3.2.0 first? Another important question: Will I need some sort of key to use the included AIXwindows and xlc, or should this stuff just work? Finally, is there a complete set of post-release patches for AIX 3.2.5 online somewhere? I know 3.2.5 itself was primarily a patch roll-up release, I assume that with Y2K remediation and other bug fixes in the mid- and late-2000s there were a few additional patches released over time. -- Chris

5 years, 4 months

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FS : IBM Magnetic cards for IBM selectric "compocarte" (?)

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

A guy, in Europ, sells a box of IBM magnetic cards, used on IBM "Compcarte" ( sorry, french "name" ) They seems in medium state, at least,? but I think these are pretty rare. So, if somebody is interested ..... https://www.ebay.fr/itm/gro%C3%9Frechner-wechseldatentr%C3%A4ger-magnetkart…

5 years, 4 months

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Corvus Concept

by curt＠atarimuseum.com

Hi everyone, Happy New Years... Got into a convo with a local friend regarding Concepts. I sold mine nearly 15 years ago to Al Kossow and regretted it ever since. (Nothing to do with Al, he?s a great guy... just regret selling it) Anyone on the list have one that they might consider selling/trading for? Thanks, Curt

5 years, 4 months

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One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes

by t.gardner＠computer.org

Palo Alto Fry?s closing <https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-locations-Frys-Electronics-…> . Sad, but not the end of an era ? apparently the loss of lease I remember visiting an early Fry?s (first?) in Sunnyvale (541 Lakeside Dr?, near Oakmead and around the corner from Shugart Associates where I then worked). I marveled at the selection of steaks, diet cokes, resistors, capacitors, ICs, etc. They had partially converted a supermarket into an electronics store but I heard they at first kept the food to keep some cash flow. I think I bought steaks J The engineers and technicians at Shugart more than once ran over there to get breadboard parts.

5 years, 4 months

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VCF PNW 2020: Exhibitors, volunteers and speakers needed!

by mbbrutman＠brutman.com

What: Vintage Computer Festival Pacific Northwest 2020 When: Saturday March 21st and Sunday March 22nd Where: Living Computers:Museum+Labs in Seattle, Washington. Web site: http://vcfed.org/vcf-pnw Why ? So you can share your favorite old computers and projects in person with like-minded others for two full days at a great venue. This is one of the many ways we celebrate computing history while reaching out to a larger audience, and hopefully inspiring others. As of this writing we have seven exhibitors, three speakers, and a handful of volunteers signed up. We are looking for 20 to 25 exhibitors in total, another speaker or two, and a few more volunteers. While returning exhibits are welcome, we want to encourage first-timers to step up and try it out. (It is fun and rewarding!) If you know that you can bring an exhibit please look at http://vcfed.org/vcf-pnw/exhibitor-registration and then fill in the registration form. (Potential volunteers and speakers - send me an email instead, as there is no form.) If you are ?on the fence? or just have questions please send me an email and I will get things sorted out for you. The registration deadline is January 31st but if you know you can commit now it will make project planning easier. A description of the event can be found at http://vcfed.org/vcf-pnw . General information for exhibitors including links to pictures from last year, a link to the registration form, and a FAQ can be found at http://vcfed.org/vcf-pnw/exhibitor-registration . Feel free to email me with questions. Thanks, Mike mbbrutman at brutman.com or michael at vcfed.org PS: Not exhibiting at the event but interested in unloading some tonnage? We're doing a consignment area again and that is open to everybody. Now is a good time to start cleaning and testing things that you might want to sell. You bring your treasures and we?ll bring the buyers. Check http://vcfed.org/vcf-pnw/consignment/ for details.

5 years, 4 months

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First Internet message

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I?m not familiar with U.S. law but didn?t Xerox ?own? the patent(s) to GUI technology? Again to my knowledge Microsoft and Apple both ?appropriated? and/or ?misapproriated?, depending on your point-of-view, this exact technology! Does commercial-use, read profit, subsume legal rights eventually in the U.S. and I suppose elsewhere in the capitalist world? Given what has happened in the past 45 yrs. or so, and the almost equal value of Microsoft and Apple(determined by the stock exchange), has the marketplace prevailed? Have we the consumer benefited the most or more accurately the 2 richest high-tech, transnational corporations? Happy computing - and best wishes for a prosperous New Year for all. Murray ?

5 years, 4 months

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Large Batch of Macintosh (SE/II to iMac) RAM for Sale

by sellam.ismail＠gmail.com

Hello Fellow Vintage Computing Aficionados. I have a large batch of RAM specific to the Macintosh (from Mac II/SE series up through iMac). Please inquire about any of the listings below. I apologize if I did not provide enough information, please contact me for additional specifications. These modules have been carefully stored away in anti-static bags, and some are still sealed/old-new stock. Pricing is for single (1), double (2), or quadruple (2) sets of modules, plus shipping. Shipping can be included with orders of multiple sets. Added up the asking price for everything in this listing is $400. I'll take $300 for the entire batch and will give such a sale priority over individual sales. A more readable listing (in spreadsheet format) can be found here ==> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I53wxarLHlNmlPVf_HJ5oMKuab4zrApI_hi… Cubig 16MB 72-pin SIMM Sealed in anti-static bag. $6.00 Cubig 16MB 72-pin SIMM (2) 4X362S $12.00 Cubig 16MB 72-pin SIMM 4Mx36 $6.00 Fairchild 1MB 30-pin SIMM (2) 1Mx8 70ns $15.00 Hyundai 16MB 168-pin DIMM (2) HYM564224 AXG-60 $14.00 Hyundai 128MB PC-66 SDRAM HYM7V641601 TFG-10 $5.00 Kingston 128MB PC-100 SDRAM (2) KTA-G3100/128-CE $10.00 LG Semicon 4MB 72-pin SIMM (2) E71042 LG1; GMM7322000BN $10.00 Lifetime Memory 8MB 72-pin SIMM 10155A $5.00 Micron 128MB PC-100 SDRAM IH61959; PC100-222-620 $5.00 Mitsubishi 256K 72-pin SIMM (VRAM) 256Kx8; VRAM for Quadra 840av $12.00 Mitsubishi 4MB 30-pin SIMM (2) 4Mx8 $20.00 Mitsubishi 8MB 72-pin SIMM (2) 2MX32; MH12816AJ-8 $12.00 Mitsubishi 16MB 168-pin DIMM (2) 2Mx64 MH2M64CZPJ-6; MSAI AP168N9B-C $14.00 Motorola 1MB 72-pin SIMM MCM32256AS70, 256Kx32; for Macintosh LC 575 $6.00 Motorola 8MB 72-pin SIMM MCM32230SH60; 2MBx32 $6.00 NEC 8MB 168-pin DIMM (2) MC-421000AA64FB-70; 604 class $12.00 Panasonic 16MB 30-pin SIMM KJY-0364; 16X8-60; new in sealed anti-static pouch $10.00 RMR 16MB 72-pin SIMM (2) 4X32-60; sealed in anti-static bag $18.00 RMR 16MB 72-pin DIMM (2) HY5117400B 4Mx4 $15.00 RMR 32MB 168-pin DIMM 105174B; 604 class $7.00 SEC 32MB 168-pin DIMM KMM364E410BK-6; 604 class $5.00 Samsung 4MB 72-pin SIMM KMM5322000BV-6; for Quadra 840AV $6.00 Southland 32MB 72-pin SIMM (2) SGE 8X32T6 non-parity 60ns; in sealed anti-static bags in Southland container $20.00 Spectrum Engineering DT77 16MB 30-pin SIMM (4) 16MB modules for Macintosh II series $30.00 Spectrum Engineering DT77 16MB 30-pin SIMM (2) 16MB modules for Macintosh II series $18.00 Spectrum Engineering DT77 16MB 30-pin SIMM (1) 16MB modules for Macintosh II series $10.00 Spectrum DT220 4MB 30-pin SIMM (4) 4MB SIMM modules for Macintosh IIsi or IIc $30.00 Spectrum DT220 4MB 30-pin SIMM (2) 4MB SIMM modules for Macintosh IIsi or IIc $17.00 Spectrum DT220 4MB 30-pin SIMM (1) 4MB SIMM modules for Macintosh IIsi or IIc $9.00 TechWorks 4MB 30-pin SIMM (2) 4Mx8, 70ns; sealed in anti-static bags $15.00 TechWorks 16MB 72-pin SIMM 4x32-60 $6.00 Texas Instruments 4MB 72-pin SIMM (2) 1MX32 TM124BBK32U-70 $10.00 ZTECH 128MB PC-100 SDRAM KO-9013 KM44S16030CT-GL $5.00 Please contact me by e-mail to inquire. Thanks! Sellam

5 years, 4 months

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Portlock Storage Manager?

by BHuntsman＠mail2.cu-portland.edu

Anyone on here remember NetWare? :P There used to (fairly recently) be a company called Portlock that made a utility called Portlock Storage manager, which was really excellent, for dealing with storage volumes. Their website was portlock.com. But they seem to be gone now. Does anyone know what happened to them? They used to publish license keys that would expire after about 6 months on their page, but I really hope they didn't go out of business. Thanks!

5 years, 4 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 64, Issue 1

by mark＠markesystems.com

>>> I ordered two from Mouser this week. >> >> And paid in much in S&H (if not more) to buy the two from Mouser then it >> would have cost to get 50 from China... ;) > > And what would I do with 50 when I need 2? I often order from DigiKey or Mouser, but I build ("manufacture") some electronic products in small batches, and I can often piggy-back some personal items onto one of those orders to save shipping. I also frequently order items will-call from Jameco, which is located about two miles from my house. They certainly don't have the huge stock or up-to-date parts that DigiKey and Mouser do, and their web site is atrocious, but I certainly can't beat the convenience. They have a far larger variety of stock than Fry's or Radio Shack ever did, and they're generally a lot cheaper than a retail store, or even DK or M. Surprisingly, there's still an old-school electronics store in the area, too: Sam Mateo Electronics. They even have an old-style drug store tube tester, although they don't stock tubes any more (I think). When I'm buying parts, or almost anything except for tools, I usually order more than I need. Over the (many, many) years, this has resulted in me having a range of parts and other material "in stock" that I would have totally envied in my younger years. I've now reached the point where I'm trying to adapt my designs to make do with the parts I have in stock, rather than having to order new ones. Unlike in earlier years, this isn't due to cost, but rather to try to use up all of the *stuff* I've accumulated over the years... ~~ Mark Moulding

5 years, 4 months

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Replacing Electrolytic Capacitors on VAXmate Video Board

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have my VAXmate in pieces at the moment because the PSU has failed. I am still working on finding the fault there, although it seems to be the crowbar circuit that is shutting it down. To work out the problem I am going to buy a DSO (Rigol DS1054Z) as my regular scope is analog and not much use in detecting one-off events. It is an odd fault because there was a definite bad smell after the failure, but I can't find any blown components. Whatever blew up has presumably taken something on the PSU board with it, but I don't know what yet. The PSU shuts down even with none of the other VAXmate boards attached (and using a scratch HDD as a load). Anyway, while I have the machine open, I thought I would look at the video board capacitors too. Before the PSU failed, I noticed a bit of an occasional wobble in the screen image and a narrowing of the image at the top of the screen. I have measured ESR on all the electrolytics. All the larger capacitors seem to have a low ESR compared to the table printed on my ESR meter, some of the small ones (15uF/16V sort of size) have an ESR closer to the values printed on my ESR meter. I don't really want to replace everything if I don't have to, but equally I don't want any kind of failure to ruin an irreplaceable component like the transformer. Should I just re-cap the lot, or just the physically smaller capacitors? Thanks Rob

5 years, 4 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 64, Issue 1

by athornton＠gmail.com

I remember chatting a bit with John Fry who saw the sales margins in electronics and compared them to food sales his family's supermarket chain. He figured that the marketing that worked so well in the grocery business would be a winner in electronics sales. Because of his family's connections, he could also offer popular food items. High volume and low margins. That answers my question about why Fry's the supermarket chain (acquired by Kroger's a few years ago) has a logo like the electronics store. The Fry's down near NASA in Houston was also a creepy ghost town a month or so ago. Micro Center in Houston seemed to be doing fine. On Wed, Jan 1, 2020 at 11:00 AM <cctech-request at classiccmp.org> wrote: > Send cctech mailing list submissions to > cctech at classiccmp.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > cctech-request at classiccmp.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > cctech-owner at classiccmp.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of cctech digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > (Tom Gardner) > 2. Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > (Chuck Guzis) > 3. Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > (Fred Cisin) > 4. Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes (Ali) > 5. RE: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes (Ali) > 6. Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > (jim stephens) > 7. Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > (Fred Cisin) > 8. Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > (John Herron) > 9. New Member Introduction (Mike Begley) > 10. RE: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > (Mike Begley) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 10:34:27 -0800 > From: "Tom Gardner" <t.gardner at computer.org> > To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > Message-ID: <002301d5c008$ef5ba650$ce12f2f0$(a)computer.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Palo Alto Fry?s closing < > https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-locations-Frys-Electronics-…> > . Sad, but not the end of an era ? apparently the loss of lease > > > > I remember visiting an early Fry?s (first?) in Sunnyvale (541 Lakeside > Dr?, near Oakmead and around the corner from Shugart Associates where I > then worked). I marveled at the selection of steaks, diet cokes, > resistors, capacitors, ICs, etc. They had partially converted a > supermarket into an electronics store but I heard they at first kept the > food to keep some cash flow. I think I bought steaks J The engineers and > technicians at Shugart more than once ran over there to get breadboard > parts. > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 11:24:27 -0800 > From: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > Message-ID: <fa07b790-23ac-5492-48f6-631358c69d0a at sydex.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > On 12/31/19 10:34 AM, Tom Gardner via cctalk wrote: > > Palo Alto Fry?s closing > > < > https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-locations-Frys-Electronics-… > > > > . Sad, but not the end of an era ? apparently the loss of lease > > > > > > I remember visiting an early Fry?s (first?) in Sunnyvale (541 > > Lakeside Dr?, near Oakmead and around the corner from Shugart > > Associates where I then worked). I marveled at the selection of > > steaks, diet cokes, resistors, capacitors, ICs, etc. They had > > partially converted a supermarket into an electronics store but I > > heard they at first kept the food to keep some cash flow. I think I > > bought steaks J The engineers and technicians at Shugart more than > > once ran over there to get breadboard parts. > > I was at the grand opening of the Sunnyvale Fry's. A great place to > purchase Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge soda, which was all the rage > back then. A friend purchased it by the caselot. > > I remember chatting a bit with John Fry who saw the sales margins in > electronics and compared them to food sales his family's supermarket > chain. He figured that the marketing that worked so well in the grocery > business would be a winner in electronics sales. Because of his > family's connections, he could also offer popular food items. High > volume and low margins. > > Sigh. It was a time when factory reps would come and give live > presentations of their good stuff. And rows and rows of pegboard with > plastic bags of components with red-and-white labels. At some point > they got some sort of deal with Everex (which was in Fremont) and they > had piles of that stuff cheap for sale. In that department, however, > their tech support was close to non-existent. ("Doesn't work? Here's > another one to try" approach). > > But then, the area had lots of surplus electronics places back then, > probably because things were actually manufactured in the Santa Clara > valley. > > The Palo Alto store was after my time. > > --Chuck > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 13:08:54 -0800 (PST) > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.1912311301460.24943 at shell.lmi.net> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=X-UNKNOWN; FORMAT=flowed > > Fry's says that they are doing fine. > BUT, that they are moving to a "consignment" model - they now plan to pay > their suppliers only AFTER the merchandise sells. > > Or at least that is what they are telling their creditors. > > They could revitalize the stores, if they would add Jolt Cola, Canfield's > Diet Chocolate Fudge soda, potato chips, cookies, toothpaste, rosin-core > lead solder, and electronic components. Maybe even collaborate with > Fat-Brain to open a computer literacy bookstore. > > -- > Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com > > >> Palo Alto Fry???s closing < > https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-locations-Frys-Electronics-…> > . Sad, but not the end of an era ??? apparently the loss of lease > > > > When I last visited a couple months ago, the one in Wilsonville, Oregon > hadn???t done any restocking to speak of (except a couple video games) for > months. The shelves were largely bare, and all the places they used to > store excess stock were empty. I might be down that way in a few weeks, if > so I???ll try to check on the status of the store. I know in October there > was a news article or two claiming they were in the process of restocking, > but based on my last visit, they seem dead. > > > > Zane > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 13:28:16 -0800 > From: Ali <cctalk at ibm51xx.net> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > Message-ID: <1MfprR-1jNMVN4Btx-00gIGd at mrelay.perfora.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > > -------- Original message --------From: Fred Cisin?Fry's says that they > are doing fine.BUT, that they are moving to a "consignment" model - they > now plan to pay their suppliers only AFTER the merchandise sells.Or at > least that is what they are telling their creditors.They could revitalize > the stores, if they would add Jolt Cola, Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge > soda, potato chips, cookies, toothpaste, rosin-core lead solder, and > electronic components.? Maybe even collaborate with Fat-Brain to open a > computer literacy bookstore.--No. They are closing: > http://www.tonetoatl.com/2019/12/Frys-Electronics-Closed-Duluth-Gwinnett-Pl… > really can't see any manufacturers lining up behind the Fry's BS. They just > don't have the foot traffic for it.?Now as Fred says if they went back to > filling a niche that is very empty (i.e. an electronics part retailer with > stock of hard to get goods on hand) that may work. I hate having to order > 50 capacitors from China everytime I need one....? > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 13:32:42 -0800 > From: "Ali" <cctalk at ibm51xx.net> > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: RE: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > Message-ID: <016901d5c021$d6407560$82c16020$@net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Re-sending for legibility... > > >Fry's says that they > > are doing fine.BUT, that they are moving to a "consignment" model - > > they now plan to pay their suppliers only AFTER the merchandise > > sells.Or at least that is what they are telling their creditors.They > > could revitalize the stores, if they would add Jolt Cola, Canfield's > > Diet Chocolate Fudge soda, potato chips, cookies, toothpaste, rosin- > > core lead solder, and electronic components. Maybe even collaborate > > with Fat-Brain to open a computer literacy bookstore.-- > > > No. They are closing: > http://www.tonetoatl.com/2019/12/Frys-Electronics-Closed-Duluth-Gwinnett-Pl… > > > I really can't see any manufacturers lining up behind the Fry's BS. They > just don't have the foot traffic for it. Now as Fred says if they went back > to filling a niche that is very empty (i.e. an electronics part retailer > with stock of hard to get goods on hand) that may work. I hate having to > order 50 capacitors from China every time I need one.... > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 6 > Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 13:53:16 -0800 > From: jim stephens <jwsmail at jwsss.com> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > Message-ID: <e4b87d92-ab2b-de42-6975-33888b5cc384 at jwsss.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > > > On 12/31/2019 1:32 PM, Ali via cctalk wrote: > > Re-sending for legibility... > > > >> Fry's says that they > >> are doing fine.BUT, that they are moving to a "consignment" model - > >> they now plan to pay their suppliers only AFTER the merchandise > >> sells.Or at least that is what they are telling their creditors.They > >> could revitalize the stores, if they would add Jolt Cola, Canfield's > >> Diet Chocolate Fudge soda, potato chips, cookies, toothpaste, rosin- > >> core lead solder, and electronic components. Maybe even collaborate > >> with Fat-Brain to open a computer literacy bookstore.-- > > > > No. They are closing: > http://www.tonetoatl.com/2019/12/Frys-Electronics-Closed-Duluth-Gwinnett-Pl… > > > > > > I really can't see any manufacturers lining up behind the Fry's BS. They > just don't have the foot traffic for it. Now as Fred says if they went back > to filling a niche that is very empty (i.e. an electronics part retailer > with stock of hard to get goods on hand) that may work. I hate having to > order 50 capacitors from China every time I need one.... > They actually were changing to a way of flooring the merchandise closer > to the food industry.? Many things on the shelf in larger supermarkets > are actually managed and stocked at the expense of the people who have > the shelfspace.? So that becomes critical. > > Years ago a drug chain called Zody's used the same method, but for > entire areas of stock, not by item. > > A friend had a pitabread business and went into Ralphs (Krogers in > Southern ,CA).? The buyin for about 2' of space was about $500,000 then > you had to supply the stock.? Payback came to you when you shipped more > to them than they returned or discarded stale (or put in markdown). > > Frito-Lay as well as some of the alcohol aisle actually send in > personnel twice a day to do the stocking.? The store staff doesn't touch > it. > > Anyway it doesn't seem to be happening, i heard the story Fred has 3 > months ago, and it doesn't take this long to do the deal if it's going > to work. > > Years ago when they expanded a friend who had a similar electronics > business said that the electronics side of Fry's was done with large > amounts of debt.? My friend's store was well positioned to expand, but > they wouldn't do the debt model Fry's did. > > That said, either Fry's is profitable, or they've paid down their debt > to where they can withstand what is going on.? If it were a business > with a large debt load the banks wouldn't let them take a week, must > less 3 months and counting to do what is going on. > > And those 100,000sf store rent keeps on ticking full or empty. > > thanks > Jim > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 7 > Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 14:02:13 -0800 (PST) > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.1912311359300.24943 at shell.lmi.net> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed > > Who else, but Fry's, has had the impact that third parties have posted > Fry's employment applications? > > jhttp://homepage.smc.edu/engfer_mark/frys.htm > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 8 > Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 16:28:34 -0600 > From: John Herron <barythrin at gmail.com> > To: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com>, "General Discussion: On-Topic > and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > Message-ID: > < > CAEOGs+hu+qFbb--rJKLdA8PK7Lk8jfFzOCPXQE5krx76Ber+JQ at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Two brilliant minds on this list drinking Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge > soda? Guess I need to hop on this mystery band wagon. > > Our Fry's in Austin has also suffered over months of almost nothing on > shelves. Definitely doesn't have the feeling of a company doing well. > They've lost several sales from friends and myself that would have bought > an item if we could see it in person and had it "now". > > Ashame they (and online shopping?) knocked out almost all the other > retailers and competition from town. > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 9 > Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2020 04:24:03 +0000 > From: Mike Begley <spam at hell.org> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: New Member Introduction > Message-ID: > < > MWHPR1801MB1870FFAA07F9ED7D333F4A96AC210 at MWHPR1801MB1870.namprd18.prod.outlook.com > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Hello! New member to cctalk here. I am located in Seattle, and in the > past have worked for a couple largish companies in the Seattle area you've > heard of. > > Through the 80s and 90s I had accumulated a fairly sizable collection of > classic (and not yet classic) computers. Mostly this was along two > branches of machines - Atari 8 bit computers and 80s-era minicomputers & > workstations, including a couple smaller VAXen, a PDP-8 and a large stack > of HP9000/300 machines. Also I had a couple of no-name S-100 machines and > a pretty nice one from California Computer Systems. > > When I moved from the Midwest following college I had to abandon much of > that collection. In the last several years I have started to reconstitute > that collection, at least in the basics. I'm still looking for a genuine > VT100 (or stretch goal - VT278), and in 2020 I'm planning to finally bring > up a simulated VAX cluster using Raspberry Pis and SIMH, since original > hardware is pretty much impossible to find anymore (and fragile when you > can find it). It's frustrating to be hunting for things I had three or > four of at one point... > > Happy to be here, > -mike begley > spam at hell.org > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 10 > Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2020 04:38:35 +0000 > From: Mike Begley <spam at hell.org> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: RE: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes > Message-ID: > < > MWHPR1801MB1870BB1A1A2E01BB2D6ECC06AC210 at MWHPR1801MB1870.namprd18.prod.outlook.com > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > >> > >> Palo Alto Fry?s closing < > https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-locations-Frys-Electronics-… > >> . Sad, but not the end of an era ? apparently the loss of lease > > > > When I last visited a couple months ago, the one in Wilsonville, Oregon > hadn?t done any restocking to speak of > > (except a couple video games) for months. The shelves were largely > bare, and all the places they used to store > > excess stock were empty. I might be down that way in a few weeks, if so > I?ll try to check on the status of the > > store. I know in October there was a news article or two claiming they > were in the process of restocking, > > but based on my last visit, they seem dead. > > I went to the one outside Seattle a few months ago, and the shelves were > perhaps 15-20% full, at best. It was kinda creepy and kinda sad. We > chatted with one of the stockers, and they said that they just didn't have > the traffic to bring in inventory, so it's the chicken & the egg problem. > They're were also allocating part of the store to do online fulfillment, > and just trying to ramp up their online presence. > > I doubt they'll last until spring. There's no way they can afford the > rent, inventory and payroll on the amount of customers they have these days. > > -mike > spam at hell.org > > > > > End of cctech Digest, Vol 64, Issue 1 > ************************************* >

5 years, 4 months

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New Member Introduction

by spam＠hell.org

Hello! New member to cctalk here. I am located in Seattle, and in the past have worked for a couple largish companies in the Seattle area you've heard of. Through the 80s and 90s I had accumulated a fairly sizable collection of classic (and not yet classic) computers. Mostly this was along two branches of machines - Atari 8 bit computers and 80s-era minicomputers & workstations, including a couple smaller VAXen, a PDP-8 and a large stack of HP9000/300 machines. Also I had a couple of no-name S-100 machines and a pretty nice one from California Computer Systems. When I moved from the Midwest following college I had to abandon much of that collection. In the last several years I have started to reconstitute that collection, at least in the basics. I'm still looking for a genuine VT100 (or stretch goal - VT278), and in 2020 I'm planning to finally bring up a simulated VAX cluster using Raspberry Pis and SIMH, since original hardware is pretty much impossible to find anymore (and fragile when you can find it). It's frustrating to be hunting for things I had three or four of at one point... Happy to be here, -mike begley spam at hell.org

5 years, 4 months

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Fwd: Your Vale Coaches order has been received!

by mark.darvill＠mac.com

Good news! After a bit of a configuration nightmare (it is more complicated than Worldpay) I have got it working. I will test a couple more times and then figure out what we need to do to make it live. Mark > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Vale Coaches - Office <office at valecoaches.com> > Subject: Your Vale Coaches order has been received! > Date: 31 December 2019 at 14:11:32 GMT > To: mark.darvill at mac.com > Reply-To: Vale Coaches <office at valecoaches.com> > > > > Thank you for your order > Hi Mark, > > Just to let you know ? we've received your order #10075, and it is now being processed: > > [Order #10075] (31st December 2019) > > Product Quantity Price > RHS Cardiff Flower Show - Saturday 18th April 2020 > Pickup Point: > Sturminster Newton > Packed Lunch Sandwich: > Egg & cress on brown > Packed Lunch Drink: > Apple Juice > 1 ?69.00 > Subtotal: ?69.00 > Payment method: Barclaycard > Total: ?69.00 > Billing address > > Mark Darvill > Test > April Cotatge > Sackmore Lane, Marnhull > Sturminster Newton > Dorset > DT10 1PN > 01258 820871 > mark.darvill at mac.com > Thanks for using valecoaches.com! > > Vale Coaches > Site built by Marnhull Computers Marnhull Computers <mailto:mark at marnhullcomputers.com>

5 years, 4 months

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First Internet message and ...

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

On Mon, 2019-12-23 at 12:00 -0600, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Re: First Internet message and ... I read the caselaw in the GUI war cases of the 80's. Microsoft and apple were battling over features and everyone else was being weighed. There are nice comparative tables, TOS/GEM vs OS/2, vs Amiga, vs, Windows..... Vs. Smalltalk. The Xerox btw, comes out ahead of everyone. Jeff

5 years, 4 months

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HPIB HDA low-level format?

by bear＠typewritten.org

Is there a way to get an HP-IB disk unit with an ST412 or ESDI type HDA inside to perform a low-level format? I think this is what 'mediainit' is maybe supposed to do (based on being able to change the interleave) but I don't see any way to map bad blocks (etc.) using it. The -r 'recertify' option is apparently only valid for tape. I have a 7946A with a Vertex V170 that needs some new blocks marked bad. There's nothing on it I need to keep, but if I use 'mediainit' on it, it fails pretty quick with an I/O error. From the sounds it makes, it's hitting the first defect (at block 64) and giving up. # ioscan -f Class H/W Path Driver H/W Status S/W Status ================================================= hpib 7 98624 ok(0x301) ok disk 7.0 cs80 ok(0x220) ok tape_drive 7.0 cs80 ok(0x220) ok serial 9 98626 ok(0x10) ok scsi 14 98265 ok(0x313) ok disk 14.2 scsi ok(0x202) ok lan 21 lla ok(0x30f) ok # mediainit -v -i 1 /dev/rdsk/c7d0s0 mediainit: initialization process starting mediainit: locking the volume mediainit: performing a describe command mediainit: running diagnostics mediainit: initializing media mediainit: initialize media command failed - I/O error # I know it's doing something to the disk because the data that was in the first 64 blocks is now zeroed out. # dd if=/dev/dsk/c7d0s0 count=64 | od -x 0000000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 * 64+0 records in 64+0 records out 0100000 # dd if=/users/bear/7946A.dd count=1 | od -x 0000000 0030 7375 2e72 0032 0000 0200 0000 0000 0000020 0000 0100 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000040 0000 0000 1190 1202 0644 0000 0000 0000 0000060 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 * 64+0 records in 64+0 records out 0100000 # ok bear. -- until further notice

5 years, 4 months

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TALOS is back online :-)

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Well, I've been working on all these RL02 drives and such in an effort to repair the pdp11/73 that I used to bring to science fiction conventions in the 1980's and 1990's. TALOS was the new system, BALCON (after Balticon) was the older system that ran on RL01's and would require me hauling a 6 foot rack of gear in a 1971 station wagon. Oh those were the days, splitting power with the laser frobs and running multi-player games back in the late 80's.... Anyway, Talos suffered a failure a long time ago and has been dead since. Now that I have time and space I've been working on fixing it. First step was to find out if anything worked, turned out one of my RL02 controllers was flakey and one of my RL02 drives had a very naughty head that resulted in the destruction of my RSXM38 boot pack. And the memory was unhappy. But the 11/73 CPU was sound. After fixing that junk I was able to boot RT11 and install it on one of the partitions of the Fujitsu ESDI disk (MTI controller, has two partitions per disk each about 70mb in size). So finally the system and drive logic was working but trying to boot the RSX11M image just gave me a trap to zero fault. First step was to fix a RSX11M 4.2 system disk. Did a quick sysgen on SIMH, built to a RL02 pack image, then once that was up and working with DU: driver support (the out of the box disks do not support DU:) I was able to transfer the image over serial using pdp11GUI (great tool!) to the RL02 drive. Now I could boot RSX11M on the RL02. However I knew that I had only one shot to fix the Fuji drive, and I wished I had a backup. Wait! I can make a backup of the Fuji drive using PDP11GUI! Upped the baud rate on the 11/73 from 9600 to 38400, loaded the drivers, fired it up, and let it run for 7 hours to copy the disk image. Really interesting that there were no errors, meaning the disk image itself was not the problem. Hm.... Then I made a copy on my laptop (took less than a second, sigh) and realized I could boot the RSX11M image on SIMH *and* mount the Fuji volume copy to find out what was up. Booted the image, mounted the disk, and took a look. Found it pretty quickly: Back in 1997 I was doing a cleanup of the system and did a purge of old versions of files in [1,54]. I must have had a later version of RSX11M there from a VMR operation that I never committed to disk, and when I purged the older version it was the one that the boot block was trying to reference. Thus the system ran fine but when I shut it down and booted it a few years later it could not find the deleted file and crashed out. Simple. Solution was to set the default to DU2:[1,54], then boot du2:rsx11m, hit G when the XDT debugger came up, then type SAV /WB to re-write the boot block with the correct version of the RSX11m file. Sure enough, the system booted up, complained about not finding the DZV11 cards (I had removed them for testing) and was working. Shut down the RL02 drive, did a cold restart, and TALOS came up and online :-) Now I need to figure out what to do with it. I think it has DecNet 11/M 4.0 on it, so I could do a Phase II link with another system over serial ports/tcpip to serial gateways. If I can find the later versions of Decnet 11/M I could probably gen an Ethernet card and do a gateway to TCP/IP systems. Anyone want to peer with this old system? Overall this was an interesting little project: It required me to dust off my hardware, software, and OS level troubleshooting skills. Now that the system is up I can start working on hooking up the RX01 drives to get the PDT11/150 some fixed disks, then start thinking about the 20/20 core in the shed..... Never dull, and thank you everyone for the help and the tools.

5 years, 4 months

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Question about a PDP-11 Rack I would like to sell

by gtaylor＠tnetconsulting.net

On 12/30/19 12:47 PM, Eric Hernandez wrote: > Hi , > > My name is Eric (engr.eric at gmail.com), I'm from Long Beach, California, > USA. I have an original PDP-11 Rack (just the one rack with the Digital > logo and no other components). I absolutely love this Rack and the > vintage logo/sign across the top, but I have to find a new home for > it and I can't bring myself to just craigslist it for it's usage as > a general equipment rack or to just ebay the logo at the top. I was > wondering if anyone here knew where I can sell it to a good home or > what a fair asking price would be for it? Thanks for any insight you > could provide. Cross posting to a wider audience. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

5 years, 4 months

1
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FTGH - S100

by trash80＠internode.on.net

FTGH - S100 This was a rescue (so its neither tested or power up) and some docs came with it so I assume they belong to this machine (see pics). http://koken.advancedimaging.com.au/index.php?/albums/s100-rescue-1/ The machine is located in Mortlake in the south west of Victoria (Australia) and will need to be collected from there. Alternatively I will be in Melbourne (Australia), more precisely Tullamarine, at various times during January 2020 and it could be collected from there. http://koken.advancedimaging.com.au/index.php?/albums/s100-rescue-1/ Kevin Parker

5 years, 4 months

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Repairing RL02 disks, directories of RSX11M 4.2 gen packs

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Hi! As I work to repair my RL02 collection I need to check and fix the files on the five disks in the original boot collection. Question: Does anyone know which directories/files went on which RL02 disk pack? Goal is to get the packs back to the point where I can do a good old fashioned sysgen again. Thanks! Chris

5 years, 4 months

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Mystery mid-70's keyboards

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Hey all, I was wondering if anyone knows what system either of these two keyboards came from: 1) APL keyboard made by Maxi-switch, IC date codes in 1976, p/n 2129-009, keyboard encoder has "NKBD-452 03-004-05": http://www.classiccmp.org/acornia/tmp/maxi.jpg 2) Keyboard branded as Licon 55-500129, IC date codes in 1973 and '74. Has three blank white keys, one blank gray key, and one blank black key, also "home mem", "marg set" and "video rvs": http://www.classiccmp.org/acornia/tmp/licon.jpg I picked up both hoping that at least one would be simple parallel output and so useful for homebrew stuff, but I am curious about what they originally came from. cheers Jules

5 years, 4 months

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DEC Rainbow / Pro video on VGA monitors?

by imp＠bsdimp.com

Greetings, I'm trying to find a way to get my DEC Rainbow's monochrome output onto a newer monitor than my aging VR201 (especially since I zapped something in it and my diagnostic efforts to date haven't fixed it). So, I found the bit in the Rainbow docs that said the output was DC Coupled RS-170 signals and to convert to RS-170 (NTSC black and white) I needed to put a 10uF cap inline to make it RS-170. So I did this, and fed it into a generic NTSC composite video to VGA thing, and got only a little joy. The first few lines seem to be missing, then the next few are OK and then nothing else. I tried to google this, but found nothing. My google foo has failed me. Does anybody else have a working setup? Warner

5 years, 4 months

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Two dead LK201 keyboards

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

Gentlepeople, I'm doing some work with my Pro 380 over the holidays, but have run into a snag because both my LK201 keyboards are dead. They fail poweron self test -- LEDs stay on and no response to any keypresses. The odd thing is that the circuit board itself seems ok; I had a spare board that tests fine by itself, so I installed it as a replacement control board on one of those keyboards and now it fails. So that suggests there's something wrong with the key array that breaks selftest. I don't understand that because the documentation says a stuck key would produce a selftest pass along with an indication reporting stuck key. And while I know LK201 keyboards don't like spilled liquids, one of those keyboards definitely hasn't been abused that way and I don't see signs the other one has, either. So having both fail the same way is puzzling. Any ideas? I'm considering building a PC keyboard LK201 emulation, should be a fairly simple bit of Arduino code. paul

5 years, 4 months

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ODS-1 structure examiner

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Lee was looking for info on RSX ODS-1 earlier this year Looks like he's made progress groking it http://rsx11.blogspot.com/2019/12/opind-rsx11-ods-1-disk-structure-utility.…

5 years, 4 months

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Lockheed MAC-16

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Are there any surviving Lockheed MAC-16 machines anywhere? And/or does anyone have a good photo of the front? (All I've been able to find online is the angled shot that's on the wikipedia page, plus a few grainy images >from marketing info). I rescued a couple of panels a little while ago, but all I have are the PCB, switch and bulb-holder assemblies; it might be fun at some point to mock up a surrounding bezel/overlay, but I'd need some good quality reference material for that. cheers Jules

5 years, 4 months

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Wanted: 3B2/1000 login!

by web＠loomcom.com

Hi folks, Maybe a long shot, but does anyone have a 3B2/1000 running SVR 3.2.3 that I could get an account on? Specifically, I need one with a compiler installed. There's a publicly accessible one at the Living Computer Museum, but unfortunately there are no compilers or assemblers installed on it at all :( I'm working on adding 3B2/1000 support to my 3B2 emulator, and need to run some tests against a real one to be sure my behavior is correct. All the best, -Seth -- Seth Morabito web at loomcom.com

5 years, 4 months

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ORNL ORACLE story

by brain＠jbrain.com

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3490398/no-silent-night.html?utm_sour… Jim

5 years, 4 months

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Looking for Voyetra Plus II or III

by ethan＠757.org

Looking for an old midi sequencer called Voyetra Sequencer. The Gold version for DOS is all over the internet, which was a later version. I have a Yamaha C1 laptop now running after repairs, and from the demo disk another collector published I have the MIDI driver for Voyetra Sequencer Plus. But the driver I have from the demo disk is too old for the Gold version of the software. Looking for Voyetra Plus II or III. The increase in number matches the increase in allowed number of channels. Any leads appreciated. -- : Ethan O'Toole

5 years, 4 months

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4K memory board

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

I'm curious if anyone recognizes the system this board went to. Has an? E with a circle spot and a CM-8 badge on the carrier board. A core board on the carrier is probably a 4k board made by Standard Memories, Santa Ana, CA. I put up photos of the board on my toy blog. https://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2019/12/4k-or-8k-core-board.html

5 years, 4 months

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First Internet message and ...

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com *Wrote:* *?More worrisome is that Murray is NOT A "NEWCOMER" who will be "scared off" * *by corrections of his facts! This is not the first time that he has * *needed to be admonished to be VERY specific about what was "FIRST" about * *something. He wrote about the exact same event three weeks ago, on the * *correct date, with much more accurate details, other than calling it "the * *first inter-computer communication". Not sure where he got the November * *21 date, nor the "SIXTY years ago" (probably a simple misteak)* *He is quite capable of some fairly good writing. I don't remember any * *prior time that he had to be reminded to "PICK A TOPIC!" rather than * *string together eight unrelated concepts into four sentences.* *On the other hand, if his confusion was recreational, that's OK, too.* *Let's have a toast with him to the people who got the idea to work, * *disunirregardless of who was "first".?* ********** * Things we historians talk about are ?firsts? and ?facts?. If we go to original source(s) maybe then we will get things right. I guess the best that can be said is we agree to disagree. A sad commentary in this age of what my ?facts? and your ?facts? are, are not the same but we historians should do our best to state ?firsts? and ?facts? are indeed that to the best of our knowledge. The 60 yrs. as noted was a math error and here I spent years as a BASIC, C and C++ programmer as isn?t mathematics the basis for all programming languages? Let's indeed toast to all micro-computing progenitors for making our hobby possible. I?ve been a hobbyist and experimenter since the 1970s though I worked on mini-computers(PDP-8/11) in the 1960s. I got to work on them in high school; I know we were rather privileged. For microcomputers it began in April 1978 when I built the Heathkit H8($2500 Cdn.) a computer based on the PDP-11 with 4K(B) of an 8K(B) card; now $2500 will buy a truly powerful home computer with 16/32GB of memory. My second, the Coleco ADAM, computer was Aug. 1984. A bit more powerful and more useful to be sure. Finally in 1989 I moved into the IBM PC world ? the Compaq Deskpro 386 which ran DOS, Lotus 1-2-3 and Windows 2 that could run Word and Excel. Wow! Notebooks followed. And now(well Aug. 2019 to be precise) I built my own custom Mini-ITX PC >from parts sourced here and there for $750 Cdn. This makes me nostalgic for the old days of computing we talk about on cctalk. Happy computing. Murray ?

5 years, 4 months

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FS : Diablo 630 Print Wheels ( x4 )

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

Any Diablo 630 printer owners around ? You might be interested by : lot of 4 daisy wheels, one sligtly damaged ? $20 https://www.ebay.fr/itm/274154371418?ul_noapp=true Not affiliated??? etc .......

5 years, 4 months

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Nixdorf computer AG boards rechner 154

by roelof_klaas＠yahoo.com

Hello everyone, I've got these Nixdorf boards since recently. Does anyone know to what kind of machine this belongs? The word "Kernspeicher" clearly points to magnetic core memory. And when I look to the amount of power transistors it seems to be 12 bit. I really wonder from what kind of machine these were. The boards date from early seventies... And I wonder if anyone could actually use them to repair such a machine. Regards, Roland Some pictures of the boards on VCFED: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?72836-Nixdorf-computer-AG-boards-…

5 years, 4 months

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WTB: wire wrap tools

by joezatarski＠gmail.com

I'm looking to pick up a set of at least some hand tools for wire wrap, though I'm interested in wrap guns/bits as well. I'm specifically looking for hand tools for 26awg wire, as well as 22 and 24awg. I already have a hand tool for 30awg. Mainly interested in tools for .045" square posts rather than the .025" for those sizes of wire. These tools were commonly used for telephony wire wrap. I'm interested in those sizes for wrap guns as well, but additionally would be interested in 30awg/.025" post bits as well. I'm not entirely opposed to 26awg/.025" post, but that seems like a bit thick of wire for that size post, IMO. Feel free to contact me on or off list. Best Regards, Joe Zatarski

5 years, 4 months

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RL02 head replacement, disk back online

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So after looking at the mess the mice had made of my third RL02 drive I decided it would probably be better to pull the heads and put them in my second drive (the one with the bad top head and plugged filter). Getting heads out was simple, and I decided to put them side to side with the heads in drive 2. The following images show some interesting details. https://i.imgur.com/tcmkUmO.jpg Note that O is original (the heads from drive 2) and the top heads are >from drive 3. First, the heads on the third drive were in pretty good shape and looked clean. Under the loupe though I could see some fragments of gunk that needed to be removed. More importantly I did a side view comparison between the bad top head in #2 and the top head in #3: https://i.imgur.com/D6HOxND.jpg This was a really tough picture to take, and you have to zoom in on the heads in the upper right. But what you can clearly see here is that the better head from #3 (left one) is pretty much rectangle shaped while the crashing head from #2 (right one) is shaped like a wedge, with the top part being narrower than the bottom. https://i.imgur.com/fEGuOFE.jpg And of course the filter removed from #2. Note the silicon sludge, I think this is 100% blocked (and was why the drive made a lot of air/wind noises when spun up, the fan was cavitating) This sums it up: I think what happened is the unit was run in a very dirty environment, the absolute air filter plugged up, and the heads don't fly as well without that blast of clean air coming in. So they dragged on the disk, and the ceramic rubbed off (and onto the packs) which led to the eventual disk damage. Moral: Change filters. I cleaned up the #3 heads, put the heads from #3 into unit #2, put the air filter from #3 into #2, and fired it up with the test pack. Goes to ready no problem, will do a full dir/bad with RT11 later this afternoon to see if I still have two errors on the pack. It is interesting to note that the bottom head from drive 2 didn't look too bad, and did not pick up any dirt/oxide from the disk after I replaced the filter. It was probably flying very close to the platter but had just enough airflow to make it fly. Still, I'll put it in the spares pile and think about it for awhile... Otherwise, back in business. I'll be checking the filter on #1 just to be on the safe side. It was my RL02 drive from 30 years ago and was not one of the Solarex ones. Then I'll put fixing this third RL02 on the calendar (will need new wiring, long ribbon cable, filter, heads, and a massive clean-up inside), and start working on restoring my darn RSX11M 4.2 disk packs...

5 years, 4 months

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VAXmate Technical Reference Manual Volume 2

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have a POST error on my VAXmate, which I think is related to the hard disk. I get error codes 81 or 82 depending on whether my MFM emulator is running or not. I suspect the hard disk controller itself may be faulty, because I don't see much activity on the MFM emulator itself (it is the David Gesswein one). >From the table of contents in Volume 1 of the Technical Reference Manual it looks like the error codes might be in Volume 2. Only Volume 1 appears to be available online, does anyone have Volume 2, ideally scanned, or failing that, who can tell me what those codes mean? Thanks Rob

5 years, 4 months

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Looking at a Youtube video

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

It is called The History of the Personal Computer part 2 He goes to the Xerox building to find the first graphic interface. He walks around and then stops an puts his hand on a Dioblo 30 hard disk drive. I think he might have missed something. Dwight

5 years, 4 months

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RL02 repair, thoughts on storage

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So I got the third RL02 out of the shed this afternoon and after cleaning the outside I brought it in to disassemble and check out. Being in an outdoor shed for 15 years is not good for technology, I could see debris behind the front panel and just knew that mice had gotten into the unit. The question is how far... Taking it apart gave me some clues. On the positive side there was no infestations or dirt/debris/anything past the absolute air filter. As a bonus, the filter was very clean and there was no debris past the motor air impeller. This is good, and it gives me a clean air filter with which to test the other drive to see if the heads will fly (my other drive had a 100% clogged filter. I need to take some pics) Bad news is I can see mouse debris down the four tubes on the intake. It looks like they made a little house under the power supply, which is where the intake is to the high pressure air system. So I think I'm going to be pulling the whole AC/DC power supply out and do a major cleaning.... Hopefully they did not chew the wires. Never dull.

5 years, 4 months

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Value of Altair 8800b

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

Trying to figure out a fair value for the following: Altair 8800b with two Altair floppy drives. System is clean but hasn't been turned on since the 70s. No software or manuals available. Contains the follow boards: 1 CPU 2 Floppy disk controller 3 MITS 16k dynamic memory boards (48k ram total) 1 MITS 8800 Disk BD1 Rev 0 x4 1 SIO board with 2 serial ports 1 MITS 8800 PMC Rev01 2k Prom Board Can reply off list. Thanks. David

5 years, 4 months

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Chuck Peddle passed away

by cliendo＠gmail.com

https://www.team6502.org/ This was on the Team 6502 facebook page ==================================================================== I just received an email from Bill Mensch that Chuck Peddle has died. He died on December 15. Chuck Peddle was one of the team of eight Motorola employees and engineers who worked on the 6800 microprocessor and left the company for MOS Technology in 1974 along with Harry Bawcom, Wil Mathys, Rod Orgill, Ray Hirt, Mike Janes, Terry Holdt, and Bill Mensch. Peddle considered the $300 price point of the 6800 a disadvantage, and urged Motorola management to pursue a more affordable microprocessor that could be used in a wider array of applications. When they refused, Peddle convinced seven other Motorola employees, including my father Terry Holdt, to pack up their homes and move across the country to begin work on what would become the 6502 microprocessor at MOS Technology, a wafer-fab company in Valley Forge, PA founded by a former colleague of his from General Electric, John Paivinen. After Commodore Business Machines purchased MOS Technology in 1976, Peddle oversaw the creation of the Commodore PET computer, the predecessor of the Commodore 64, the best-selling personal computer of all time. While curating the information for the team6502.org website, one of my favorite anecdotes comes from MOS Technology employee, Frank Slattery, who wrote: "What a great bunch of guys the Motorola eight were. I was the manager of the layout people and it was my duty to make sure that the Motorola eight had every opportunity to do their design work with no problems. I was standing next to Chuck Peddle when he said to Jack Tramiel, the CEO of Commodore Business Machines, 'With this chip we can build a personal computer.' It was the first time I ever heard the words, 'Personal Computer.'" The rest, as they say, is history... Chuck was one of the giants of the personal computing industry. Now he belongs to the ages.

5 years, 4 months

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8048 Family Applications Handbook

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

Hi All, I have a copy of this Intel book, 8048 Family Applications Handbook, January 1980. Does anyone know if scans of this book are online anywhere? I did a quick Google search and didn't find this particular book. If it isn't available anywhere I would like to get it scanned and posted somewhere (bitsavers?), but the only way I have to do a decent scan is destructive. A picture of the cover is here: http://wrcooke.net/DSC01633.JPG Thanks, Will "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The names of global variables should start with // " -- https://isocpp.org

5 years, 4 months

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FW: [GreenKeys] DURA Selectric ASR terminals free

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

I wonder if there is any interest here... -----Original Message----- From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net <greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of John Lawson Sent: 10 December 2019 17:41 To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net Subject: [GreenKeys] DURA Selectric ASR terminals free Greetings List! I have a couple of "DURA" Selectric ASR terminals. I also have some limited documentation on them. Neither of them work as far as I know. I tried to run the one in the pic when I first got it, but it's jammed - so on the shelf it went. They appear to be an 8-level code, dunno if ASCII, EBCDIC, or what. These are joining the ever-expanding list of "Projects Never to be Completed", so if anyone is interested, lemme know. They are free, you pay shipping, they are about 50 pounds each and will require some thoughtful packing. Local pickup is happily offered, and I could possibly be bribed into delivering them within a day's drive of Carson City (weather permitting). Cheers John KB6SCO Carson City

5 years, 4 months

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Bad heads on RL02: Worth replacing

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So one of my RL02 drives (bought on Ebay years ago) is eating RL02 packs. Makes tings, then the disks have errors in my other RL02 drive. Took a bit to figure out which drive was eating what, but I'm 100% certain it's this newer drive. So pulled the heads. The top one had significant gunk on it, the bottom one a bit. Pics below. Top: https://i.imgur.com/FELhF9X.jpg Bottom: https://i.imgur.com/Tmsf5Nd.jpg With alcohol and lintless swabs I managed to clean both of the heads up. Top: https://i.imgur.com/gmACM4R.jpg Bottom: https://i.imgur.com/SfZQV5F.jpg Then put them back in the drive and mounted a scratch pack. With finger on the load/run I let the drive spin up and when I heard tinging I immediately spun down. Hopefully I didn't trash my scratch pack. Top head has gunk, bottom one had a few flecks, but looks pretty ok. Top: https://i.imgur.com/EAvgmuH.jpg Bottom: (picture didn't upload) Obviously the head is crashing, any idea why and if it's worth replacing the head or should I put this drive out for parts? Yes I cleaned the RL02 pack before putting it in. Never dull. CZ

5 years, 4 months

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Odd Symptom PDP 8e Running Programs

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Hi - I am looking for some help. I have had a PDP 8e with RK05 drives that has run pretty reliably for many years, but after moving it a strange symptom has come up, preventing it >from operating correctly. I am hoping someone can advise. Here is an example 1. Power up drives and PDP 8e 2. Load OS/8 3. Load ADVENT 4. Program loads, asks if I want instructions. I can enter Y or N and the system responds. The familiar scrolling light pattern appears on the front panel to indicate awaiting input 5. As soon as I attempt an action such as "S" (with no quotes) the front panel freezes and I have to CTRL+C to exit ADVENT, dumping me to the dot prompt. Similar issue when running the MUSIC.SV program. I can load the program and get up to the point of entering a song, but when I enter a song name the system freezes on the first note. BASIC works fine however. Which tells me that I have a CPU problem, not a RAM problem but this is just my hunch. Any ideas how to diagnose this? Running MAINDEC programs is always frustrating. I am attempting to load the main DECX8 SYSTEM EXERCISER to see if there are any clues from this as to the cause of the freezing system. . https://www.pdp8online.com/os/os8/os8_cmd.shtml#DECX8 Thanks Bill

5 years, 4 months

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ISO: Service info for an ADDS Envoy 580

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Got me an ADDS Envoy 580 (at least, I'm pretty sure it is -- it has no model designation apart from "Envoy" but looks identical to Jim's pictures at http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2016/05/adds-envoy-portable-terminal.html ). It's non-functional at the moment so it's going to need some repairs, and I can't find much on it -- anyone have anything? Thanks, Josh

5 years, 4 months

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RCA 1802s available

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Harris still manufactures the RCA/Intersil/Harris 1802 processor. I do not know if the Silicon on Sapphire (SoS) process versions (Sandia Labs, radiation hardened) are still used by DoD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_1802 Alltronics Harris CDP1802ACE (3.2 MHz, 5 Volts) $4.95 https://www.alltronics.com//cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=CDP1802ACE Harris CDP1852CE, Parallel, 8-bit, PIO : $3.95 https://www.alltronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=CDP1852CE Intersil CDP1802 Spec Sheet (1997) https://www.alltronics.com/alltronics_assets/acrobat/CDP1802ACE.pdf Lee Hart sells the Bare PC boards for his 1802 Membership Card. Josh Bensadon has ELF-LINK for parallel port control/access http://www.sunrise-ev.com/1802.htm For the 40th anniversary, in 2016, VCF Midwest hosted the VCF ?COSMIC ELF project? with generous donations of time and materials by Lee A. Hart, Josh Bensadon, Ed Keefe, Dave Ruske, Walter Miraglia, Chuck Yakym, Bill Rowe, and Norm Nelson; and to our many advisors and volunteer builders. http://www.sunrise-ev.com/vcf-elf.htm After 18 years, Dave Ruske announced in October that maintenance of the Cosmic ELF group (cosmic elf.com) is being assumed by Josh Bensadon. http://www.cosmacelf.com/news/new-cosmac-elf-group-owner.html greg, w9gb chicago == Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2019 11:30:55 -0600 (CST) From: wrcooke at wrcooke.net To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: RCA 1802s available An ad was emailed to me today with an interesting item: RCA 1802 processors. I thought there may be some folks here interested: https://www.bgmicro.com/9z1509.aspx Not affiliated in any way other than a customer. Will ==

5 years, 4 months

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RCA 1802s available

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

An ad was emailed to me today with an interesting item: RCA 1802 processors. I thought there may be some folks here interested: https://www.bgmicro.com/9z1509.aspx Not affiliated in any way other than a customer. Will

5 years, 4 months

5
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Tap, tap, tap, is this working???

by ucespamdump＠gmail.com

Signed up this new account exclusively for CCtech and CCchat. Hopefully its working. Why do this? I had to shut off the other subscription for spam reasons. Allison

5 years, 4 months

4
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Tapestar for DOS

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

Hello, Can anyone please point me towards a copy of the Tapestar utility package for DOS? I have already contacted Qualstar and they cannot help. TIA! -Ali

5 years, 4 months

2
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Seeking information on the CSTS Timesharing service

by jfehlinger＠comcast.net

On Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 8:42 PM jim stephens via cctalk wrote: > > Does anyone have any information on Infonet, which was a timesharing > which CSC put out? I've got some info that it had a timesharing service > called CSTS and would like info on that. https://web.archive.org/web/20170421223052/https://wiki.cc.gatech.edu/folkl… ------ Jerry Reich has brought to my attention the operating systems written by Computer Science Corporation (CSC) for its Infonet time-sharing network. In the late 1960s, CSC developed CSCX, which was a highly modified EXEC II [*] with time-sharing and multiprogramming capabilities. CSCX later evolved into the CSTS time-sharing system used on the Infonet 1100s throughout the 1970s. Commercial time-sharing networks were widespread during the 1960s and 1970s. ==== [*] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_EXEC_II ------ EXEC II is a discontinued operating system developed for the UNIVAC 1107 by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) while under contract to UNIVAC to develop the machine's COBOL compiler. They developed EXEC II because Univac's EXEC I operating system development was late. . . EXEC II is a batch processing operating system that supports a single job stream with concurrent spooling. ==== I have reason to believe that my very first exposure to digital computers (in the spring of 1969, at a high school in northern Delaware taking advantage of a Federal grant to equip a room with some teletype machines and acoustic couplers) was to "Conversational Fortran V" running on a Univac 1108 at Computer Sciences Corporation. Presumably the operating system was CSC's own modified version of Exec II (CSCX) rather than Exec 8, but I believe the Fortran V language processor would have been the same in either case. That taste of high-end timesharing was a luxurious experience, never to be repeated -- the following year, those same teletype machines were connected to an overloaded IBM 1130 at the University of Delaware running BASIC. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED126934.pdf ------ Walzl, F. Neil The Development and Implementation of a District Computer Education Program. Final Report. Newark School District, Del. Nov 75 . . . During the 1968-69 school year, three major activities were conducted. . . Computer time was purchased >from the Philco Ford Company, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and the Computer Sciences Corporation, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. . . ==== https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/why-python-best ------ For you Fortran folks, I need to explain Fortran V. Based on Fortran IV, Fortran V was implemented on Univac 1100-series hardware (and probably other Univac systems such as the 494) by Computer Sciences Corporation in the late 1960s. It extended Fortran to include parameter statements?basically a way to define constants, conditional compilation, and statement functions?basically macros that produced in-line code. In 1970, I went to work for Computer Sciences Corporation working on systems testing of a new timesharing system they were developing called CSTS. While some of my work was done in assembly language, the majority was done in Fortran V. For me, it was the "best scripting language" I had available. (It was also the only language I had available on CSTS itself for a while.) ====

5 years, 4 months

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Seeking information on the CSTS Timesharing service

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

Does anyone have any information on Infonet, which was a timesharing which CSC put out?? I've got some info that it had a timesharing service called CSTS and would like info on that. I've got info on the original version of the Pick system which IP was owned by TRW and was called GIM.? The CSTS Infonet service provided access in some way to IGIM, which is in a manual I just obtained. So I want to know if there is any CSTS manuals or documents (ideally) anyone may have. Secondly it looks like rather than IBM mainframes for timeshare, the systems that Infonet shared were Univac 1108s.? So looking for verifying that. Especially if the systems were all Univac was IGIM running on the 1108. The time frame for the manual is 1974.? GIM dates from 69 to 70 from a TRW contract.? Actual product was obviously running in one form in 1974.? There is information that it ran on PDP 11s as well in another form. While searching for information with Google, I found some court proceedings, including a precedent related to RICO charges on individuals in Infonet.? If anyone finds the original indictment, or can get to it on pacer, I'd appreciate a copy to read, or send message, I'll supply the citation.? A better source like Pacer probably will retrieve the original indictment.? I only find a decision which was reversed related to the indictment.? I suspect there would be a lot of history in the indictment around the 1980 ish timeframe of the indictment about how CSC ran Infonet. Short story on what you will find online a lot of spots is a precedent set by the 4th Circuit of Appeals which resolved a technicality about whether individuals and corporations were the same WRT charges.? The ruling that RICO applied to individuals and not corporations was filed by a trial court.? But the appeals court said that the actions if they constituted RICO by individuals could be go back on the corporation they operated in was the precedent. Obviously not a good one for corporations. Thanks, Jim

5 years, 4 months

2
1
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Is IBM RPG classic?

by decguy＠songdog.eskimo.com

Is it classic enough to ask about on this list? A friend of mine finds himself in the awkward position of being asked to take on some RPG programming, but knows nothing about it. Can anyone here suggest some good resources for a crash course in RPG? Yes, any web search engine will throw up a lot of hits, but I'm hoping someone here can help select the most useful ones.

5 years, 4 months

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Zetaco SCSI Controller

by skelly＠bowerandbailey.co.uk

Hi, Would anyone happen to have or know the whereabouts of a technical manual and/or schematics for a Zetaco SCZ-2 controller? Or the same for any other Zetaco SCZ (hoping that they all used the same back-plane presentation :) ) Many thanks Sean (www.datageneral.uk) Bower & Bailey LLP Please don't reply to e-mails purporting to ask for our bank account details to be changed. Always speak to the lawyer acting for you to check any changes to payment arrangements. We will also require independent verification of changes to any bank account to which we are asked to send money. Bower & Bailey LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under registered number OC353093 and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, (SRA number 534676). The registered office is at Willow House, 2 Heynes Place, Station Lane, Witney, OX28 4YN at which a full list of members is available for inspection. We use the word 'partner' to refer to a member of Bower & Bailey LLP (or employee of equivalent status). The content of this email (and any attachment) is confidential, may be legally privileged and intended solely for the person or organisation to whom it was addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not copy, distribute, store or take any action in reliance upon it or any attachment. If you have received this email and any attachment in error, please notify the sender by replying by email and then delete the email entirely from your system. Where the content of this email (and any attachment) is personal, or otherwise unconnected with the firm or its business, Bower & Bailey LLP accepts no responsibility or liability for such content. We do not accept service of legal process by email. Whilst Bower & Bailey LLP has anti-virus protection systems installed, we accept no liability for any loss or damage which may be caused by viruses or interception/interruption of this email or any attachments. You should carry out your own virus check before opening any attachment. Personal Information that we obtain or hold about individuals is processed in accordance with our Privacy Notice which is available to view on our website. Offices at: Banbury, Oxford, Swindon and Witney For further information please visit our website: www.bowerandbailey.co.uk

5 years, 4 months

1
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PBX (or something) for modem testing

by brain＠jbrain.com

To continue validating modem functionality, I think it makes sense to set up a closed loop phone system in my lab that will function well enough to allow modems to connect to each other (dial tone, ringing, busy signal, etc.). I know I can probably whip something up with a 9 v battery and a piece of cable with rj11s, but I think that will fall short. That said, I went out to eBay to see if I could source a 2-8 line something to help, and got smacked around with my lack of telephone system knowledge. So, any ideas (or links to eBay auctions) of brands/models/etc. I should focus on? Also, if anyone has any modems lying around gathering dust, I probably should source a few more models. tcpser handles Hayes "+++" spec correctly, but I should probably support TIES as well, to cite one example. Jim -- Jim Brain brain at jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

5 years, 4 months

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FS: System/36 Kansas City

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

In case any one is interested.. https://www.facebook.com/groups/retrocomputers/permalink/3042809669082227/ Dave Wade G4UGM & EA7KAE

5 years, 4 months

4
5
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WANTED: DEC TU56 DECtape drive

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Thomas Moss > Probably a long-shot, but I'm looking for a DECtape drive for my > PDP-8/e. Long shot indeed! DECtape drives are one of the rarest DEC peripheral, and un-surprisingly, one of the most valuable. (A TU56 sold on eBait for $7K back in 2015.) Would a TU55 do, or does it have to be a TU56? (The interface is basically compatible, I think, but I have yet to dig into the details, so I can't say for certain. But I think I recall seeing systems with one or the other, and AFAIK the controllers aren't drive-type specific - the cabling might be, though.) Noel

5 years, 4 months

1
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Looking for a Motorola Universal Data Systems 212A/D manual

by mbbrutman＠brutman.com

I ran across this modem (circa 1982) and saved it, but I have no idea on how to control it. Bitsavers doesn't seem to have a manual for it. It's a big, blue plastic box and it looks wonderful. There is an array of 8 lights and 6 buttons; the HS button enables 1200 bps operation, otherwise it is 300 bps. It echoes characters and responds correctly to DataTerminalReady not being asserted, so I think that if I can find the command set it might be functional. It's a little more primitive than my original Hayes 1200 that I first got in 1984. (I'm not expecting a standard command set.) A picture of it can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zWBPimcpZNUch6G28 Thanks, Mike

5 years, 4 months

3
3
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8 inch floppies

by aek＠bitsavers.org

anyone know what system these floppies are for? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-33-8-034-Floppy-Disks-/184071352445

5 years, 4 months

9
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Mac 3.5" floppies for anyone who wants them

by david＠kdbarto.org

A collection just came to me. These are the original disks, with whatever labels are on them. As a set. First come first served. If you are in San Diego I?ll arrange a swap with you locally. If remote, we can arrange shipping. 1.44MB unless otherwise noted. Copyright years noted so version number might be determined along with what version of Mac it might support. GRAVIS Mac Blackhawk Version 1.0 (2 disk) ClarisWorks 4.0 (6 disks) ClarisWorks Small Business Solutions Pack. Correct Grammar For Mac Version 3.0 (2 disks) APS PowerTools V 1.3.1 Mac ally Port Xpander Driver Program (copyright 1995-1997) Welltris, Spectrum Holobyte (800K disks, S/N 013045, 2 disks) MicroSoft Excel Version 4.0. (800K disks, 7 Disks, copyright 85-92) MicroSoft PowerPoint (800K disks, 4 disks, copyright 87-89) MicroSoft Mail Version 2.0 (800k?, Copyright 85-89) Conflict Catcher 3 (800K 1 disk) dantz Retrospect (2 disks, copyright 97) Suitcase II, (400K disk, S/N 4200-0103685 Copyright 86) Hayden Books - The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh Disk. Contains: Eudora 1.4 Fetch 2.1.1 InterSLIP 1.0 MacTCP 2.2 Stuffit Expander 3.03 TurboGopher 1.07 Nova Development - American Handbook of Business Letters (800k?, Copyright 90) Aladdin Stuffit Lite (800k?, Copyright 87-92) Aladdin Spring Cleaning (Copyright 96) Connectix Ram Doubler (800k?, 1.5.1 hand written on disk, copyright 94) CTSNET Macintosh Internet Signup Since my Father in law as Mac Only, I had no idea where these came from Windows Syquest SCSI installation Diskette 1, copyright 94 Windows 95 Syquest Installation diskette 2 DOS/Windows & OS/2 SCSI installation diskette 3

5 years, 4 months

3
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SMD disk specifications

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I also was searching about a clear SMD specification years ago, I found something in disk documentation from CDC, but doubts remain, because some disks call the interface SMD, some other CMD, never understood the difference... Andrea

5 years, 4 months

5
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SMD disk specifications

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, well maybe my memory has blank spots. I have two CDC Lark Disk modules I would like to revive, they are in good shape, but only one has a cartridge included, and they are not identical. Not sure if the other one could be employed without cartridge. I never found a manual with exact model correspondence, I found years ago a manual for very similar drives. IIRC there was a sort of adapter board between SMD and (xxx blank spot) interface. There was a description of the interface, it was really similar to SMD, but wasn't SMD... Maybe I should check again the Lark model number. Andrea

5 years, 5 months

4
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M906 flip chip boards wanted (2x)

by roelof_klaas＠yahoo.com

Hello everyone,? Can anyone help me to get two M906terminator flip chip boards?? Thanks in advance,?Roland Huisman

5 years, 5 months

1
0
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SMD disk specifications

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, I?ve been trying to find *detailed* specifications (mainly detailed signal timings) for the SMD disk interface but all I?ve found so far are the interface specifications for individual disks (CDC, Fujitsu, etc). I?ve looked in the usual places (bitsavers mostly) and haven?t found the spec itself. If anyone has any pointers, I?d appreciate it. Thanks. TTFN - Guy

5 years, 5 months

3
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WANTED: DEC TU56 DECtape drive

by mosst＠SDF.ORG

Hi All, Probably a long-shot, but I'm looking for a DECtape drive for my PDP-8/e. Either to buy or to trade with something. (PDP-8/11 parts, 11/34, Intel MDS, ASR-33?) I'm in South-West England but also have an address near LA. Can travel to pick-up. Regards, -Tom mosst at sdf.lonestar.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

5 years, 5 months

1
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P112

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

Let's try again with the right name in the Subject line! It's not really classic (although it does try to pretend to be but does anyone here do anything with the P112 SBC? I am trying to get 8" disks running on it but I am seeing some rather strange behavior. bill

5 years, 5 months

20
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Large List of Commodore 64 Games and Software from Sellam's Collection

by sellam.ismail＠gmail.com

Winter is upon us. Time to snuggle up in front of your Commodore 64 with some old timey games and applications, and I've got plenty of them to keep you busy throughout the holidays. The complete list is too long to reproduce here, so please go to the following link, which will take you directly to the Commodore 64 Software section of my Virtual Warehouse of Computing Wonders: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I53wxarLHlNmlPVf_HJ5oMKuab4zrApI_hi… The disks are untested. I can test upon demand but then the price will go up for my time involved. Otherwise they are sold as is. They were all stored under proper conditions, with many of the packages having been stored in ziplock bags. Some of the manuals have highlighting in them from the previous owner but otherwise most everything is in very good to excellent condition, as indicated for each listing. Photographs accompany each listing (the link under the Additional Information column). Rather than attempt to price these individually, I'll simply take offers on one, some, many, or all of these titles. Preference and priority will go to the larger orders. Please direct any questions to me directly via e-mail. Thanks! Sellam

5 years, 5 months

1
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WANTED: Cromemco EXC extender board...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

Hi All, I would like to buy, but I will borrow/rent if I have to for VCF East 2020. I'm looking for ONLY the Cromemco EXC, no others. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

5 years, 5 months

2
2
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Canon MDD210

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

I've got a thoroughly tested and working Canon Mdd210 5.25" floppy mechanism here. I don't need such a special mech, any 360k drive would do. If you want this particular mechanism for some reason, just let me know and we can arrange a trade for a more ordinary one. Best, Jeff

5 years, 5 months

1
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Converting C for KCC on TOPS20

by dave＠661.org

I'm trying to convert some C code[1] so it'll compile on TOPS20 with KCC. KCC is mostly ANSI compliant, but it needs to use the TOPS20 linker, which has a limit of six case-insentive characters. Adam Thornton wrote a Perl script[2] that successfully does this for Frotz 2.32. The Frotz codebase has evolved past what was done there and so 2.50 no longer works with Adam's script. So I've been expanding that script into something of my own, which I call "snavig"[3]. It seems to be gradually working more and more, but I fear the problem is starting to rapidly diverge because it still doesn't yield compilable code even on Unix. Does anyone here have any knowledge of existing tools or techniques to do what I'm trying to do? This is part of a project to get Infocom and other Z-machine games running once again on PDP10 mainframes, either real or emulated. First up is to get the bare minimum of a current Z-machine emulator running on TOPS20. Then we can work on screen-handling, a disk pager[4], and porting to other PDP10 operating systems. I'm hoping that this will lead to fun exhibits wherever PDP10s are displayed in museum or faire settings. [1] https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz [2] https://github.com/athornton/gnusto-frotz-tops20 [3] Change an objects shape. [4] Infocom's Z-machine emulators paged zcode from disk, but Frotz simply sucks the whole zcode file into memory. -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

5 years, 5 months

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ZedRipper

by rtomek＠ceti.pl

Hello, Surfaced on Ycombinator. This one looks good. Something old, something new, etc. Like my kind of project :-) :: ZedRipper: A 16-core Z80 laptop http://www.chrisfenton.com/the-zedripper-part-1/ and some comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21756243 -- Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com **

5 years, 5 months

1
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FTGH - SORD Keyboard

by trash80＠internode.on.net

Was going through a box of stuff someone gave me ages ago in keeping with my philosophy of grab first ask questions later. At the bottom found a SORD keyboard (regrettably not the whole thing) - looks like it comes from a M68. Photo: http://koken.advancedimaging.com.au/index.php?/albums/interesting-finds/con… As this is all I have of a SORD (so I am unable to test it) I figure it may be of use to someone else on this list. (Would appreciate coverage of package and postage from Mortlake Victoria Australia 3272 please. Please note that its the size of a keyboard and is a little weighty so you'll need to factor that in. Alternatively I will be in Melbourne in January 2020 if someone more "local" wants it). Thank you. Kevin Parker

5 years, 5 months

2
1
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getting your data from yahoo

by aek＠bitsavers.org

someone just posted this on twitter they seem to have sent an email to everyone and didn't bother to mention this https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/getmydata

5 years, 5 months

16
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Zilog 8000 system replacement boards

by zilogz80.swing＠yahoo.ca

Original asked by : Evan Koblentz?cctalk at snarc.net On Thu Jul 19 14:36:27 CDT 2018..Zilog 8000 system (model 20 and model 32) replacement boards ..As far as the System 8000 model 20 are conserved their microprocessor board schematics and firmware can be found on the internet but the microprocessor and the MMU's might be hard to get. ? (out of production for some time now). .. As far as the MMU's are concerned some System 8000 clones used a different MMU with a custom mapping PROM and or others use a Intelligent MCU to emulate the Zilog MMU's....As far as the Model 32 is concerned that a little different, without the original microprocessor board you could always down grade it to a lesser model. It would be easy to get the Z8001 microprocessor on to a 32 bit data bus.? Just some extra data latches if you could find some one to make a custom microprocessor PCB.Use the Z8001 microprocessor pins Bit//word, AD0, AD1 for data bus size signals.AD1 is for data bits 17 to 24 and data bits 17 to 32 depending on the status of Bit//Word and AD0 singals.AD0 is for data bits 0 to 16 with the correct status of Bit//word and AD0 signal.??Bit//Word with AD0 controllers either a upper byte/Lower byte or 16-bit word transfers...Memory greater that 16M with the Z8001 microprocessor on a full 32-bit address bus is possible with a paged memory management circuit. Drivers ?? by who ??..With the model 32 (and some if its clones) on board firmware and or operating enhancements where used for Z8001 ( and some Z80,000)? microprocessor compatibility.? The only other solution is to reverse design a AT&T 3B2 computer back to the Zilog System 8000 bus or use a custom made ARM based microprocessor card with Z8001 emulation in ROM.?..Most of the Z8000 based microprocessor system I have dealt with are newer than the model 32 or are older then the Zilog MMU's chips.?..Any feed back on this email is welcome at ZilogZ80.swingatYahoo.ca? ? ?At=@ please have a subject (Anti spam)..

5 years, 5 months

2
1
0 0

TRS-80 Model IV PALs

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I have a TRS-80 Model III with a IV upgrade in it (non gate array). I have a hunch that one or two of the HALs are bad (the primary one being 8075208). Anyone have the JED files to program any of these HALs into PALs or GALs ? Anyone know a source for these ? Anyone know if these can be read, or if they are protected (for example, if I were able to borrow some working ones, could they be duplicated ?) ? Thanks, -- Curt

5 years, 5 months

3
4
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HP 7220C plotter port settings

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Hi all, I picked up an HP 7220C flatbed plotter the other day which (after freeing the stuck carriage) is responding to panel commands in 'local' mode. For the terminal RS-232 interface, does anyone happen to know: a) The character size (7 or 8 bits)? b) If the connection between terminal and plotter is supposed to be straight through (i.e. 1:1 pin mapping), null modem, or something else entirely? I'm not sure if the plotter considers itself DTE or DCE, given that it has a modem output port (i.e. it sits partway along in the chain of things). Oh, there's a "conf test" switch setting on the back - does anyone know the purpose of that? I'm wondering if it's supposed to echo back to the terminal any data that's sent to the plotter, but that's purely a guess. Sadly there don't seem to be any docs online (or much in the way of any info, to be honest). thanks, Jules

5 years, 5 months

2
2
0 0

DEC CR11

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

Can the DEC M8291 CR11/CM11 controller card work with a DEC branded Documation M600 reader as well as the M200? -- Will

5 years, 5 months

3
2
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PBX (or something) for modem testing

by dave＠mitton.com

Jim, FWIW: Last time I had company money to deal with this issue I bought a similar model of this: A Viking DLE-200 https://www.amazon.com/Viking-DLE-200B-Two-Way-Line-Simulator/dp/B004PXK314 Dave. Sent from Mail for Windows 10 Message: 18 Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2019 22:35:40 -0600 From: Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> ? To continue validating modem functionality, I think it makes sense to set up a closed loop phone system in my lab that will function well enough to allow modems to connect to each other (dial tone, ringing, busy signal, etc.). I know I can probably whip something up with a 9 v battery and a piece of cable with rj11s, but I think that will fall short. That said, I went out to eBay to see if I could source a 2-8 line something to help, and got smacked around with my lack of telephone system knowledge. So, any ideas (or links to eBay auctions) of brands/models/etc. I should focus on? Also, if anyone has any modems lying around gathering dust, I probably should source a few more models. tcpser handles Hayes "+++" spec correctly, but I should probably support TIES as well, to cite one example. Jim -- Jim Brain brain at jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

5 years, 5 months

1
0
0 0

DEC CR11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Donzelli > My manual only mentions the M200, but it may be an early edition What is it, and what date is it? DEC-11-HCRB-D, avilable online, is March, '72. DEC-11-HCRMA-C-D is June, '73. I see that EK-CR11-TM-004 is also available online: http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/www.computer.museum.uq.edu.au/… It's from July '75, and also mentions the M600. > From: Bill Degnan > I believe I have the engineering drawings document if this is not > otherwise available. Bitsavers has the August '71 edition; if yours is later than that, it would be useful, _particularly_ if it has the M8291, which is the later card. Noel

5 years, 5 months

1
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DEC CR11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Donzelli > Can the DEC M8291 CR11/CM11 controller card work with a DEC branded > Documation M600 reader as well as the M200? Should do; the 'CR11/CM11 system manual' (DEC-11-HCRMA-C-D) mentions it, although it doesn't provide extensive coverage. I guess that version of the CR11 manual isn't available online; please let me know if you need me to scan it. Noel

5 years, 5 months

3
2
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FS: VAX-11/780 w/ CSPI array processor

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

Unfortunately I need to sell my VAX - an original 11/780, but with a CSPI array processor hidden in a third matching DECcabinet. This was used to control an xray crystallography machine years ago, so the VAX itself is fairly minimal, but with quite a lot of number crunching horsepower. It has not been powered up in perhaps 15 years, but is in fantastic condition. The only real flaw is that at one point some water dripped on the top, so the blue paint marred in one spot. The easy way to take care of that is to simply replace the sheet metal with a nice one from another standard DEC cabinet. Or stack a few books on top! I have tapes with the CSPI software (does Al need it?). Lots of DECdocs as well. Throw me a number if you are interested. This is not a fire sale, so be reasonable. I will work on getting some pictures. There are no drives with this. I suppose eventually this will go on Ebay - but I really hate Ebay at this point. The only issue is that right now is not the time to move the beast. Snow snow snow, and cleaning the dock is a big job, so shipping might have to wait until spring. -- Will, IBM land in the Hudson Valley

5 years, 5 months

1
0
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P112

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

On 12/3/19 11:00 PM, Lamar Owen wrote: > > > On Dec 3, 2019 8:55 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctech > <cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Especially RSX180 as I have some other plans for that one. > > RSX180?? Learn about something new everyday!? This tidbit alone was > worth watching the thread. > Well, glad it helped. And here's more... I have succeeded in getting RSX-180 installed on a hard disk. In doing so I have learned some things that others might consider valuable as well. Disk sizes and formats are more important than one might realize >from reading the support page. Oversized hard disk partitions cause really strange behavior totally unrelated to disk I/O. When I tried to use a disk partition that was too big the system merely spewed garbage to the screen. But the second lesson is even more important. The Support Page states: "For best performance format the floppy first under CP/M, so the sectors will have the optimum interleave value for the P112 hardware. Otherwise, disk accesses will be very slow." This is not accurate. When I used a brand new pre-formatted floppy without formatting it under CP/M it booted but many of the commands failed to work and even th4e directory could not be seen. Formatting on CP/M and then using rawrite to place the image on the floppy fixed that. I have been having a problem getting CP/M 3 to boot and now suspect it may be the same problem. Again, I used a pre-formatted brand new floppy and rawrite. When I try to boot it starts loading and then spews what looks like random garbage to the screen. I am going to try using a CP/M formatted floppy and I actually expect it will fix the problem. bill

5 years, 5 months

1
0
0 0

P112

by cruff＠ruffspot.net

Just in case someone else hasn't already responded, the P112 does not use DOS style fdisk partitioning for a hard disk. It is done in the BIOS image, and then the logical disks have to be initialized. This is described in the "P112 GIDE Construction.pdf" document. I've only used 3.5" floppies, which work fine. You can also attach a PATA CD-ROM drive and access disks with a program that escapes my memory at the moment.

5 years, 5 months

4
4
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Scanning docs for bitsavers

by aperry＠snowmoose.com

I am going through stuff in my office and found that I have some SCSI device docs that aren't on bitsavers. As far as multi-page documents, it seems as if my scanner (or its software) only does uncompressed TIFF. At bitsaver's recommended 400 dpi, that means about 4M per page. What should I do? Scan the docs in and find a tool to convert to lossless compression. Scan the docs in and just submit the huge files? Something else? The docs that I have are copies, not originals. Does anyone here want them after I scan them? alan

5 years, 5 months

10
14
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Scanning docs for bitsavers

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Dunphy > JBIG2 .. introduces so many actual factual errors (typically > substituted letters and numbers) It's probably worth noting that there are often errors _in the original documents_, too - so even a perfect image doesn't guarantee no errors. The most recent one (of many) which I found (although I only had a PDF to work from, so maybe it's a 'scanning induced error') is described at the bottom here: https://gunkies.org/wiki/KS10 Although looking again at the PDF, the two digits in question are quite clear and crisp, and don't seem like they could be scanning errors. Noel

5 years, 5 months

3
2
0 0

Scanning docs for bitsavers

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 01:57 PM 2/12/2019 -0700, you wrote: >On Tue, Nov 26, 2019 at 8:51 PM Jay Jaeger via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >wrote: > >> When I corresponded with Al Kossow about format several years ago, he >> indicated that CCITT Group 4 lossless compression was their standard. >> > >There are newer bilevel encodings that are somewhat more efficient than G4 >(ITU-T T.6), such as JBIG (T.82) and JBIG2 (T.88), but they are not as >widely supported, and AFAIK JBIG2 is still patent encumbered. As a result, >G4 is still arguably the best bilevel encoding for general-purpose use. PDF >has natively supported G4 for ages, though it gained JBIG and JBIG2 support >in more recent versions. > >Back in 2001, support for G4 encoding in open source software was really >awful; where it existed at all, it was horribly slow. There was no good >reason for G4 encoding to be slow, which was part of my motivation in >writing my own G4 encoder for tumble (an image-to-PDF utility). However, G4 >support is generally much better now. Mentioning JBIG2 (or any of its predecessors) without noting that it is completely unacceptable as a scanned document compression scheme, demonstrates a lack of awareness of the defects it introduces in encoded documents. See http://everist.org/NobLog/20131122_an_actual_knob.htm#jbig2 JBIG2 typically produces visually appalling results, and also introduces so many actual factual errors (typically substituted letters and numbers) that documents encoded with it have been ruled inadmissible as evidence in court. Sucks to be an engineering or financial institution, which scanned all its archives with JBIG2 then shredded the paper originals to save space. The fuzzyness of JBIG is adjustable, but fundamentally there will always be some degree of visible patchyness and risk of incorrect substitution. As for G4 bilevel encoding, the only reasons it isn't treated with the same disdain as JBIG2, are: 1. Bandwaggon effect - "It must be OK because so many people use it." 2. People with little or zero awareness of typography, the visual quality of text, and anything to do with preservation of historical character of printed works. For them "I can read it OK" is the sole requirement. G4 compression was invented for fax machines. No one cared much about visual quality of faxes, they just had to be readable. Also the technology of fax machines was only capable of two-tone B&W reproduction, so that's what G4 encoding provided. Thinking these kinds of visual degradation of quality are acceptable when scanning documents for long term preservation, is both short sighted and ignorant of what can already be achieved with better technique. For example, B&W text and line diagram material can be presented very nicely using 16-level gray shading, That's enough to visually preserve all the line and edge quality. The PNG compression scheme provides a color indexed 4 bits/pixel format, combining with PNG's run-length coding. When documents are scanned with sensible thresholds plus post-processed to ensure all white paper is actually #FFFFFF, and solid blacks are actually #0, but edges retain adequate gray shading, PNG achieves an excellent level of filesize compression. The visual results are _far_ superior to G4 and JBIG2 coding, and surprisingly the file sizes can actually be smaller. It's easy to achieve on-screen results that are visually indistinguishable from looking at the paper original, with quite acceptable filesizes. And that's the way it should be. Which brings us to PDF, that most people love because they use it all the time, never looked into the details of its internals, and can't imagine anything better. Just one point here. PDF does not support PNG image encoding. *All* the image compression schemes PDF does support, are flawed in various cases. But because PDF structuring is opaque to users, very few are aware of this and its other problems. And therefore why PDF isn't acceptable as a container for long term archiving of _scanned_ documents for historical purposes. Even though PDF was at least extended to include an 'archival' form in which all the font definitions must be included. When I scan things I'm generally doing it in an experimental sense, still exploring solutions to various issues such as the best way to deal with screened print images and cases where ink screening for tonal images has been overlaid with fine detail line art and text. Which makes processing to a high quality digital image quite difficult. But PDF literally cannot be used as a wrapper for the results, since it doesn't incorporate the required image compression formats. This is why I use things like html structuring, wrapped as either a zip file or RARbook format. Because there is no other option at present. There will be eventually. Just not yet. PDF has to be either greatly extended, or replaced. And that's why I get upset when people physically destroy rare old documents during or after scanning them currently. It happens so frequently, that by the time we have a technically adequate document coding scheme, a lot of old documents won't have any surviving paper copies. They'll be gone forever, with only really crap quality scans surviving. Guy

5 years, 5 months

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One old Sol, Two old names...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I've just had the pleasure of taking a new machine into my collection, a Sol 20. It's particularly interesting for several reasons. First, it was once in the possession of Jim Willing (zoom into the label next to the control key): http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/fixed_sol/20191125_195224.jpg For those that don't know, Jim was a very early collector of vintage computers and one of the first collectors to put up a web site with pictures of his collection, scans of documents and the like. Also, he was one of the first posters to the original classic computer mailing list: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/cctalk/ That's the first old name. Other interesting things about the Sol include that it has an 80/64 video modification (with patches all over): http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/fixed_sol/20191125_202606.jpg and a patched personality module socket with a custom ROM: http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/fixed_sol/20191125_195249.jpg which leads to the second old name. One that I don't know: http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/fixed_sol/20191125_211019.jpg Every time that the machine boots it displays that banner: *** DAN CETRONE *** I've done some googling but I can't find out anything about him. I've started to disassemble the contents of the ROM. There are some blocks that look like the Micro Complex ROM, but other sections don't match. I'll publish it when I'm done. Anyway, I don't know if Dan was the author or just wanted to uniquely identify his Sol. If anyone knows, knew, knew about, Dan, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

5 years, 5 months

3
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Scanning docs for bitsavers

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 01:20 AM 3/12/2019 -0200, you wrote: >I cannot understand your problems with PDF files. >I've created lots and lots of PDFs, with treated and untreated scanned >material. All of them are very readable and in use for years. Of course, >garbage in, garbage out. I take the utmost care in my scans to have good >enough source files, so I can create great PDFs. > >Of course, Guy's commens are very informative and I'll learn more from it. >But I still believe in good preservation using PDF files. FOR ME it is the >best we have in encapsulating info. Forget HTMLs. I don't propose html as a viable alternative. It has massive inadequacies for representing physical documents. I just use it for experimenting and and as a temporary wrapper, because it's entirely transparent and maleable. ie I have total control over the result (within the bounds of what html can do.) >Please, take a look at this PDF, and tell me: Isn't that good enough for >preservation/use? >https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7yahi4JC3juSVVkOEhwRWdUR1E/view OK, not too bad in comparison to many others. But a few comments: * The images are fax-mode, and although the resolution is high enough for there to be no ambiguities, it still looks bad and stylistically greatly differs from the original. Pity I don't have a copy of the original, to make demonstration scans of a few illustrations to show what it could be like, for similar file size. * The text is OCR, with a font I expect likely approximates the original fairly well. Though I'd like to see the original. I suspect the PDF font is a bit 'thic' due to incorrect gray threshold. Also it's searchable, except that the OCR process included paper blemishes as 'characters' so if you copy-paste the text elsewhere you have to carefully vet it. And not all searches will work. This is an illustration of the point that till we achieve human-leval AI, it's never going to be possible to go from images to abstracted OCR text automatically without considerable human oversight and proof-reading. And... human-level AI won't _want_ to do drudgery like that. * Your automated PDF generation process did a lot of silly things, like chaotic attempts to OCR 'elements' of diagrams. Just try moving a text selection box over the diagrams, you'll see what I mean. Try several diagrams, it's very random. * The PCB layouts, for eg PDF page #s 28, 29 - I bet the original used light shading to represent copper, and details over the copper were clearly visible. But when you scanned it in bi-level all that is lost. These _have_ to be in gray scale, and preferably post-processed to posterize the flat shading areas (for better compression as well as visual accuracy.) * Why are all the diagram pages variously different widths? I expect the original pages (foldouts?) had common sizes. This variation is because either you didn't use a fixed recipee for scanning and processing, or your PDF generation utility 'handled' that automatically (and messed up.) * You don't have control of what was OCR'd and what wasn't. For instance, why OCR table contents, if the text selection results are garbage? For eg, select the entire block at the bottom of PDF page 48. Does the highlighting create a sense of confidence this is going to work? Now copy and paste into a text editor. Is the result useful? (No.) OCR can be over-used. * 'ownership' As well as your introduction page, you put your tag on every single page. Pretty much everyone does something like this. As if by transcribing the source material you acquired some kind of ownership or bragging rights. But no, others put a very great deal of effort into creating that work, and you just made a digital copy. That the originators probably would consider an aesthetic insult to their efforts. So, why the proud tags everywhere? Summary: It's fine as a working copy for practical use. Better to have made it than not, so long as you didn't destroy the paper original in the process. But if you're talking about an archival historical record, that someone can look at in 500 years (or 5000) and know what the original actually looked like, how much effort went into making that ink crisp and accurate, then no. It's not good enough. To be fair, I've never yet seen any PDF scan of any document that I'd consider good enough. Works created originally in PDF as line art are a different class, and typically OK. Though some other flaws of PDF do come into play. Difficulty of content export, problems with global page parameters, font failures, sequential vs content page numbers, etc. With scanning there are multiple points of failure right through the whole process at present, ranging from misunderstandings of the technology among people doing scanning, problems with scanners (why are edge scanners so rare!?), lack of critical capabilities in post-processing utilities (line art on top of ink screening, it's a nightmare, also most people can't use Photoshop well, and it's necessary), failings built unavoidably into PDF, and not so great PDF viewer utilities. Apart from the intrinsic issues (aside from a few advantages) with on-screen display and controls compared to paper. I hope I have not offended you. Btw my pickiness comes from growing up in a family with commercial art, typography, printing and technical art involvement. And having in later years assisted a little with such things. So at least I know how much effort goes into such things. Keep the original. Methods and utilities will improve, and in 10 or 20 years it may be possible to make a visually perfect digital copy (with minimal effort), worthy of becoming a sole record of that thing (if history goes that way.) Guy

5 years, 5 months

1
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InfoWorld - May 11, 1992 (3" disk formats)

by sellam.ismail＠gmail.com

I thought this was fun; stumbled upon it while looking for what words of wisdom Fred had to share about the format of 3" disks: https://books.google.com/books?id=7D0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=3%22+flo… Hopefully Fred will see this and tell me whether the 3" disk format was MFM or GCR given that the Orwellipedia says the 3" disk format was initially designed to work with the Apple ][ floppy drive interface. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_floppy_disk?fbclid=IwAR2atb2Z_… Sellam

5 years, 5 months

3
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