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

Using vintage computers in the classroom

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

The last time I taught assembly language programming, I decided to include the PDP-11 as an example of addressing modes. This is because Patterson and Hennesey just use MIPS --- it's a good pedagogical method but then when the students hit the real world they wouldn't know an address mode from ??? I also had them think about the VT-40 as an example --- I thought they would like that kind of graphical machine (I was wrong of course). If I was more prepared and had a full graphical simulator, that would have helped.

16 years, 5 months

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SS50 to Exorbus adapter found

by chrise＠pobox.com

I was going through some boxes of parts for my SWTPC 6800 collection and I found an unpopulated PCB with SWTPC logo on it and date 1978 which appears to be an SS50 to Motorola Exorbus adapter. It has SS50 connectors on the bottom edge and the 43/86-pin Exorbus connector footprint on the top edge. Looks like locations for two DIPs, one 20-pin and one 8-pin, a voltage regulator and a few passives. The board is 8" wide by 2" high. I have no idea where this came from or why I have it. Does anyone know what it might be for? ie, does it adapt an Exorbus memory or peripheral to SS50 bus or does it adapt an Exorbus CPU to SS50?? I can send photos of the board to anyone that is interested. It appears to be an authentic SWTPC design/product rather than someone's homebrew project or a third party product. So, I am interested in learning more about it. Chris -- Chris Elmquist

16 years, 5 months

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Leaving computers on... (was Re: Disc analyser news update)

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:00:33 +0100 From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Leaving computers on... (was Re: Disc analyser news update) On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 5:26 AM, Joost van de Griek <gyorpb at gmail.com> wrote: > On 26 March 2010 02:58, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote: > >> On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 7:42 PM, Josh Dersch <derschjo at mail.msu.edu> wrote: >> >>> I was thinking more of the battery in the original Mac Portable (which I >>> know is not what you're referring to). ?The portable weighed 16lbs, due in >>> no small part to the lead-acid battery it used. >> >> Yes, that was my guess, too. Only laptop-/style/ portable I ever even >> heard of with a lead-acid battery. > > PowerBook 100. Basically a repackaged Portable. --------------------------------------------------- The Sharp PC-5000 also had a lead-acid battery; according to them, L-A has a longer shelf life, charges faster, and is actually smaller and lighter for the same power than the NiCds of the day. mike

16 years, 5 months

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Using vintage computers in the classroom

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org > [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Michael Black > Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 4:28 PM > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > Subject: Using vintage computers in the classroom > > Hello cctech community, > > I am a computer science professor and an avid collector and restorer > of old computers, which I routinely use in my classes. (I am also a > long-time lurker on cctech, but haven't posted much yet, I'm afraid.) > I am interested in chatting with other professors and teachers who use > working demonstrations of vintage technology in their classes. I am > aware of many cases where professors have taught courses on computer > history, used pictures and simulations of vintage computers, or took > students on field trips to computer museums. However, I am > particularly interested in examples where professors bring actual > working vintage equipment into the classroom (like a pdp-11 or a > teletype machine) and tried to teach their students to operate it. > Has anybody on this list tried it or know of people who do it? > > Thanks, > Michael Black [AJL>] Hi! You are welcome to use the N8VEM project for educational purposes. I designed it with use in education as its primary purpose. It could be readily used to teach fundamental computer hardware and software principles in an easily illustrated manner. Starting with a blank sheet of paper and building up the basic conceptual elements in a process which results in a simple working microcomputer would be educational and highly entertaining. Add some devices like the ECB backplane and the ECB bus monitor and you can show the CPU operating in single step mode, the effects of reset, and all kinds of computer operation. The N8VEM SBC is simple and inexpensive enough that it can be built by beginners, as many are already, and normally works the first time. It works by itself interfacing to a serial port although it can be expanded to video boards, floppy and IDE disks, and even custom peripherals. http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/ http://groups.google.com/group/n8vem I hope this helps. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

16 years, 5 months

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Disc analyser news update

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

Hi guys, Quick update regarding the disc analyser... Latest news is: * The USB interface is now running properly at full speed. Write-to-buffer has gone from 84Kbytes/sec to over 180 with two small firmware tweaks. Read speed is a little under 250Kbytes/sec, which means the entire 512K buffer can be read out in a shade over two seconds. It's not going to win me any awards, but I think it's plenty fast enough. * It Has A Name! One of my friends suggested "DiscFerret" partly as a slight dig at the Catweasel. The name has stuck to the point where I've... um... registered a .com domain name for it... (hey, it only cost ?12). I'll be setting up the site as soon as I find a nice Wiki package that isn't bloated to the size of a small main-sequence star (*koff* Mediawiki). * Schematics are basically done. I need to test the power supply section, which is on the to-do list for a bit later on. Soldering down the QFN-packaged power regulator IC will be interesting. * There's an external power output for disc drives. It provides +12V at 1.5A and +5V at 1.5A. Perfect for running small 3.5in drives, and saves a mains socket. Haven't decided on a connector, but the +12 is fed directly from the input power supply, so if you connect a 15V PSU you'll see 15V on the EPS output. * Power supply can accept between 9 and 15V, though it is specified to operate with peak efficiency at approx. 12V. Input is reverse-polarity protected with a grounded-gate low-Rds(on) MOSFET. I'll probably be building up a prototype power supply board tonight or tomorrow, and giving that a good beating with a homebrew DC load. I think I've got some MJE3055s and trimpots somewhere, though whether they'll work with Vce=1.2V remains to be seen (I suspect a MOSFET might work better). But first I need to get my paws on some 0.5mm carbide drill bits. There are a couple of vias on that board that are in a really tight spot... I make no secret of the fact that it was designed to be commercially manufactured, not haphazardly assembled by some semi-skilled engineering student in a garden shed (i.e. me!) The plan for those is to drill out the holes, push in a resistor leg flush with one side, solder on one side, cut and file flush on the other side, then solder that side too. I figure that should be a tight enough fit that the wire won't be going anywhere... and if that doesn't work there's always 26SWG tinned copper wire. Cheers, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

16 years, 5 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 79, Issue 56

by marvin＠west.net

From: Josh Dersch <derschjo at mail.msu.edu> > (As a related aside, is there *anywhere* one can get hard-sectored 5.25" > floppies these days?) People have been known to make their own 5 1/4" hard-sectored disks. I don't remember the details, but the basic idea was to take a 5 1/4" disk drive to hold the disk, make an index wheel for the holes, add a hole punch, and then just add time.

16 years, 5 months

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Does a Northstar S-100 Bus Horizon Classify as a Classic

by acheel＠internode.on.net

Hi Dave, Interested to read about your Northstar S100 bus computer I have two of these withdual 51/4 disk drives sitting in my shed here in Adelaide South Australia I think I also have some manuals and software somewhere in the shed as well Are these of any value ? I also have some DEC desktop comuters and screens, disk units and tape units along with some operating software Kind regards Andy Cheel

16 years, 5 months

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Probably offering TC11 controller

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, I'll most probably offer a TC11 controller for sale in the next days. The controller connects to a pdp11's Unibus and can handle up to eight TU55/TU56 tape transports (i.e. four TU56). It is configured for TU56 control levels ("integrated circuit"). Ebay would probably be the easiest way to handle a transaction with overseas buyers. Are there interested persons willing to pay nearly USD 150 for shipping? Regards, Philipp

16 years, 5 months

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IBM Monochrome "Black and White" Parallel card double iimage

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

> This is certainly not a capacitor problem... > > I think this board uses 2144s as the video memory > So my first guess is to replace the RAMs. > > -tony > > ---- > > I'd be looking for a stuck address bit, or possibly a failed RAM chip > My money's on a 74xx chip (possibly a counter, buffer or multiplexer) > that's had an output fail open. > > Phil > > ----- > Along with Phil's suggestion of memory addressing issues resulting in a > double-scan of the memory, the staggering of the images suggests interlacing > might be occurring when it shouldn't be. Sometimes it is possible to tweak the > V/H-hold controls enough on monitors to end up with interlacing occurring when > it shouldn't. Can you discern whether each of the scan images contains a full > set of lines vs half the number of lines? > > I hate to ask, but what sort of monitor is this being displayed on? > IIRC the scan rate for MDA was higher than NTSC and I'm not not sure whether an > NTSC monitor would sync up or sync down to half the scan rate. > > Brent ----------------- Thanks for the feedback. I am using a standard IBM monochrome monitor. I tested the monitor with another known-working card, and I also tried another monitor. The problem is with the display card. This is one of the original black connector versions of the IBM 1904057 XM 407 display cards. It has 9114 RAMs in it, not socketed of course, so I think if I can probe each RAM chip first to ID the bad chip it'd be more efficient. I would similarly have to check the 74L chips. oy! Bill Degnan

16 years, 5 months

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Data I/O29A

by mdelepeleire＠hotmail.com

Hello, I cannot find doc informing how to send ie an .HEX file from Hyper terminal to my programmer, when the programmer sends a file to the cpu the format is a sort of a start character, the address of the first byte and then a series of : HH HH HH HH HH etc where H stands for a hex symbol. Do I need to translate the Intel Hex file or how can I send an OMF-51 file? Do I have to use another communication program?? Thanks if you can help me. Marc De Lepeleire _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft?s powerful SPAM protection. https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969

16 years, 5 months

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slashdotted - home built turing machine

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Did you guys catch this: http://aturingmachine.com/ Cool! Randy _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID27925::T:WLMTAGL:ON:…

16 years, 5 months

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IBM Monochrome "Black and White" Parallel card double

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

> > If it's the original IBM5151 monitor, remember there's no horizontal > oscillator in the monitor. The Hsync (or more correctly HDrv, which is > what IBM called it) output from the MDA card goes to the base of the > horiztoal driver transistor, the collector is then transformer-coupled to > the base of the horizotnal output transistor. > > This means a 5151 will try to run at whatever freqeucny you give it, the > horizotnal output stage is likley to protest if it's way off, though. I > don;t think that if you give it an HDrv of the wrong frequency it will > ever give you a double image. > > -tony > It is a 5151. I was able to reproduce the problem on a newer monochrome monitor. bd

16 years, 5 months

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HP 64000 relocatable file format / assembler

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

All this talk about the HP 64000 has got me thinking... The HP 165xB Inverse Assembler Toolkit includes a DOS-based table assembler that appears to be derived from something used on the HP 64000, and it spits out what the manual calls a "HP 64000 format relocatable object file". This is what the analyser loads to run an IA. Did HP ever publish a spec for the .R (relocatable object) file, or has it ever been successfully reverse engineered? This is one of those "curiosity killed the cat" type projects; I've been wanting to use the HP LA inverse assemblers on a PC since I got my 1651B (mainly because a PC can theoretically handle a much larger symbol table). Writing an assembler / compiler for my own custom format and VM is always an option, I suppose, but I'd rather like to be able to run the HP IAs that I don't have the source code for (ISTR I've got a 68000 one somewhere). Thanks, -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

16 years, 5 months

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Whatever happened to the DG software archive...

by mjkerpan＠kerpan.com

... that was announced by Bruce Ray back in December. The original posting promised details in a few weeks but AFAIK such details never can forward. Did something happen to cancel the deal at the last second or are things just taking longer than originally thought. Mike

16 years, 5 months

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pdp-11 ME11-L core memory system engineering drawings

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

I've aquired the pdp-11 ME11-L core memory system engineering drawings. Before I put it on ebay, if some one is interested, contact me off-list. -Rik

16 years, 5 months

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PDP, TYPESET-8 and linotypes

by michaelkraus1969＠yahoo.com

Linotypes, when driven from paper tape, used the 64 bit, six level TTS or Teletypesetter code. There are two key line ending codes that were always in sequence. One was the?RETURN code and the other was the ELEVATE code. ? On the linotype, the ELEVATE key would end the line and "elevate" the matrixes, as a group, to the caster and eventually to the distributor. ? ?

16 years, 5 months

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Dice (was Leaving computers on... (was Re: Disc analyser news update))

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 26 Mar 2010, at 06:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 8 > Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:58:19 +0000 (GMT) > From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > Subject: Re: OT: Leaving computers on... (was Re: Disc analyser news > update) > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <m1NusG5-000J3xC at p850ug1> > Content-Type: text/plain > >> There is a little test jig that is sometimes used, that holds diagonal >> corners of the die between centers, for a spin. If the die reverses >> direction of rotation right before it settles to a stop, then it fails. > > The 'Pviot test for loads'. There are several other ways to make dice > show numbers with the 'wrong' prboabiltiy, though. Six LCD displays, single chip microcomputer and an orientation sensor? :-) Keeps it on topic anyway. > > Totakky OT, byut 'Scarne on Dice' has a couple of chapters on this. (No, > I don't gamble, but I happen to have said book on my bookshelf) > > -tony >

16 years, 5 months

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DECTalk DTC01

by pontus＠Update.UU.SE

Hi All. I've become curious about the different DECTalk devices. There seems to have been a number of variants. The stand alone DTC01, a UNIBUS version and a PCI card version (DTC07). Do all these sound the same? Or are newer ones more advanced? The number (07) on the PCI version indicate that there has been at least seven versions, what are the others? And finally, does anyone have system over and would consider selling it? (DTC01 seems to be the simplest and is thus preferred) Regards, Pontus.

16 years, 5 months

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Desperately Looking for Honeywell DDP-516 documentation

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi Folks, I recently came across a Honeywell DDP-516 computer. I'm currently resurrecting the system. That basically means assembling the pieces I got and fixing minor issues. The most work comes from missing mounting hardware :-( The system came with a paper tape reader interface. And a paper tape punch interface. I have schematics for the reader interface. --- But I'm desperately looking for the paper tape punch interface schematics! Does anyone have these? Al? Bill? CHM? Someone else? There's also another DDP-516 owner who would like to get hold of these schematics. I have no information about that interface. Only the programming interface is known. And it is not the same interface module as used in the H316. The H316 interface has PTP and PTR in one and uses completely different ?PACs. BTW: I could need some spare ?PACs to fix a memory (so far at least one CM006). Will write a separate post after having checked out the system, listing all I'm looking for. Best wishes, Philipp :-) -- http://www.hachti.de

16 years, 5 months

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Scrapping and re-use (was Re: Talking of old IBM systems)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 11:30 AM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > On 24 Mar 2010 at 9:16, blstuart at bellsouth.net wrote: > >> I don't know about the ocean, but they did send them off to >> scrap yards and stuff to be demolished... > > There's another aspect to the problem, that CDC ran into during the > 70's--that of used parts finding their way into the mainstream. > Apparently, this was enough of a problem that CDC ordered that any > decommissioned system be reduced to unusable junk... DEC had a problem in the 1980s with parts and machines that had been scrapped ending back in the sales stream. The big problems for them were maintaining the perception of quality (much of what got scrapped had failed some aspect of the testing process) and the tax issue of claiming that an item was scrapped but still out in the world. I was told one source of this was the recyclers picking through the bins of scrap coming from DEC and reselling things that were deemed resellable. They were paying by the pound for precious and ferrous metal scrap but making much more from the occasional gem. As the story goes, DEC bought a large shredder (large enough to accept 19" racks!), ensuring that re-use would not be feasible. We had a similar issue at Software Results - obsolete (prototypes and Rev 0 boards) and unrepairable boards were lying around after they'd been scrapped - we couldn't repair them since they'd been written off, so since they were large and green (because of the solder mask), one of our student employees nailed a bunch of them to a wooden frame in an irregular isosceles triangle pattern and made a "COMBOARD Christmas Tree" (using 9-track write rings as ornaments and tractor-feed tearoffs as garlands). Because the boards were rendered more unusable (as computer peripherals) by drilling nail holes in them, it was considered an acceptable re-use. I wish I had a picture of it still. -ethan

16 years, 5 months

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Laugh, it's funny

by evan＠snarc.net

http://www.theonion.com/articles/computer-company-started-in-garage-30-year…

16 years, 5 months

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MIPS CPUs

by classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk

(Taking this into a separate thread, it has nothing to do with disc analysers). Cameron Kaiser wrote: >> As I understand it, you can design a MIPS chip based on the published >> specs and not have to pay any licensing fees. There was a patent on the >> unaligned load/store instructions, but that expired in 2006 AIUI. > > That's probably why the Chinese have jumped on it (Godson/Loongson), not > that they worry excessively about licensing, but anyway. It's probably why there are so many open-source MIPS cores on Opencores too. I've been playing with UCore this evening and tweaked it to run at about 80MHz on an Altera Cyclone II. Unfortunately the feature list on Opencores is for a newer version of the code, which was apparently never uploaded :( I've got a few 'suspended projects' that would benefit from having a reasonably fast (~100MHz would be nice, ideally with a bit of I-cache and D-cache), 32-bit RISC CPU core with decent compiler/RTOS support. Ucore seems to fit the bill (although there are reports that it doesn't work properly) but the "older version" of the code has support for instruction or data caching :( :( (That and I'll need to rig up some form of bus arbitration scheme to merge the Instruction and Data buses together... now won't that be fun.. at least it's WISHBONE compliant, I suppose) -- Phil. classiccmp at philpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

16 years, 5 months

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IBM Monochrome "Black and White" Parallel card double image

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

I am working with an IBM Monochrome "Black and White" Parallel card that is showing a double image. I noticed that the 106 / 16+ tant cap at the top left near where C1 / U47 is printed was broken off the board so I put in a new one. There was no change. I tried another cap, no change. I removed the cap entirely, no change. I am looking for a schematic/docs/suggestions. It looks something like this: ------------------------------------------------- -128K 128K - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------- Thanks.

16 years, 5 months

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IBM Monochrome "Black and White" Parallel card double image

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

>> > This is one of the original black connector versions of the IBM >> > 1904057 XM 407 display cards. It has 9114 RAMs in it, not socketed of >> > course, so I think if I can probe each RAM chip first to ID the bad >> > chip it'd be more efficient. I would similarly have to check the >> > 74L chips. oy! >> > > I know this is a stupid question, but have you scoped the sync > signals from the card? > > --Chuck > > No, I did not. Unfortunately this is not my forte. Bill

16 years, 5 months

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Reusing old floppy *drives*

by lproven＠gmail.com

Noting the discussion on old media, a slightly different question. Please excuse my profound ignorance on matters electronic! I have read, somewhere, that it is possible to connect HD floppy drives to elderly kit that is only expecting DD drives, and use them for just DD operation. More specifically, I'd like to resurrect my ancient Sinclair Spectrum with its MGT DISCiPLE disk interface. Way back in the 1980s, I used 5?" media, as they were still cheaper. However, now, I daresay I won't find any new 5?" media and even 3?" DD media are getting tricky. So what I was considering doing was connecting a pair of old PC floppy drives - 3?" HD (1.4MB) floppies - and quite possibly using 1.4MB media, but only formatting them to 720K and using them as 720K. IIRC, the drives permit this. The track widths are the same - both are 80t drives - it's just that DD used 9 sectors per track and HD 18. Is this likely to work? I realise I'll need to find drives with a unit selection jumper on them, so I can set one as 0 and the other as 1; no twists in the cables this far back, & I'm guessing that a twisted cable wouldn't work with a controller that wasn't expecting it...? -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

16 years, 5 months

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chemistry simulator on Apple ][?

by adamg＠pobox.com

Dave McGuire wrote: > A local friend is looking for an old chemistry simulator program >for the Apple ][. Here's his description: > >> I'm trying to find a "chemistry simulator" program that I used to play >> with on an Apple II way back in the day. I don't remember the name of >> it, but I remember being able to build a decent "lab" out of parts and >> pieces. I remember that the first lesson was an experiment to figure >> out why the fertilizer ship in Texas City exploded after an onboard >> fire. This was called Chem Lab, and I think it was published by Simon & Schuster. -- Adam

16 years, 5 months

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Wanted: Graphics card and drive sled for RS/6000 7046-B50

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:16:50 -0400 From: Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Wanted: Graphics card and drive sled for RS/6000 7046-B50 M H Stein wrote: >> I recently bought an RS/6000 7046-B50. It didn't have a graphics card >> installed (I can use it over a serial console, but I would prefer to be >> able to use a graphical console). It is also missing the drive sleds. >> Does anybody have a graphics card or drive sled that would work with it? > > ---------- > A few days ago I posted here about an RS/6000 available in the Toronto > area but there was no interest either here or elsewhere, so it's being > scrapped on Thursday. > > This is an RS/6000 Power Server 520, Type 7013, Model# 26-10855; > If it has a graphics card would it fit in yours and what would the number be? > And are the sleds compatible? Neither would be compatible. Peace... Sridhar ------------------------------ Thanks for that info, Sridhar; I googled the 7046 and yes, it looks like it's at least ten years newer than mine which I think is one of the very first RS/6000s, and a completely different machine; too bad. mike

16 years, 5 months

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Leaving computers on... (was Re: Disc analyser news update)

by pcoghlan+cctech＠vms.eurokom.ie

> >Another very common one is that the startup resistor of a switch-mode PSU >goes open-circuit while the machine is left on The PSU keeps working as >long as the mains is there, but if it gets turned off, or the mains >fails, of course it won't restart. > >Some terminal servers and the like were very prone to this problem. > >It's a very easy fix once you know which resistor to check. > I've had a slightly related fault in the switch-mode power supply (wall wart) of a Decserver 90 terminal server. A small electrolytic smoothing the supply from the startup resistor had lost capacitance. Lisening closely to the power supply, I could hear a high pitched whine which made me think there was a good chance this was normal vibration of the chopper transformer and threw me right off finding the real problem. When the capacitor was replaced, the whine went away and the power supply worked correctly, for a few weeks before it failed again. I haven't had the heart to investigate further. Regarding Dec equipment, recent experiences are making me speculate that leaving some items turned off for a few months might be bad for them! - An Alpha 3000/300 in continuous use for several years was retired. When I next turned it on several months later, it gave a loud bang and emitted smoke from the PSU. This turned out to be from a VDR which had exploded due to a triac shorting. (This wasn't easy to track down as the VDR had been sleeved with rubber which completely hid the problem.) The function of the triac was to automatically switch between 115V and 230V input. Its shorting left the PSU permanently in 115V mode and the power around here is 230V. Replacing the VDR (after a good bit of fun tracking down a suitable replacement) and snipping out the triac (which I couldn't find a replacement for) solved the problem at the expense of being able to operate on a 115V supply. - A HSZ80 disk controller, like the 3000/300, also failed with a loud bang, without smoke though, making it difficult to figure out which of the many items plugged into the extension lead had blown the house fuse this time. An unmarked item across the mains which looks like a VDR or disc capacitor had shorted. I can't replace it as I have no idea what its spec is. - A Vaxstation 3100, also in continuous use for several years was similarly retired. In service, it had suffered very occasional memory failures but nothing persistent. When I switched it on a few months later, several problems were apparant. Firstly, one of the fans in the PSU ran for a short while and seized. Secondly, the memory power-on test failed to complete. It didn't report an error but the machine reset in the middle of the test and went back to the beginning of the power-on tests in an infinte loop. It's not supposed to do that! Removing both 4MB memory expansion boards got past that problem but resulted in a horrible error from the SCSI driver on attempting to boot, presumably because there was not enough memory on the motherboard. Replacing one memory board (either one!) got by this problem but it then became apparant that the disk was failing with lots of clunking and clicking and various errors reported. Finally, the "compose" light on the keyboard remains lit all the time which as far as I recall may be intended to indicate that all is not well in some part of the system in the event that nothing appears on the graphics console. - A Microvax 3100 model 80 retired for some years was quite happy to perform correctly for a few hours when switched back on. However, after later shutting down and restarting, it died in the middle of the memory test and produced no console output since. It's been a while since I looked at it and I can't remember what indication the diagnostic leds gave. I'm sure if they gave any useful lead I would have followed it up though. Sometime I feel like my kit is failing quicker than I can get around to fixing it. Regards, Peter.

16 years, 5 months

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IBM 7374 and HP Draftmaster II info needed

by starbase89＠gmail.com

I am trying to dig up information on these two plotters to make them more sellable. They are among the flotsam amassed by Infoage, and just take up space. Thanks Joe

16 years, 5 months

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semi-OT: do you routinely attempt projects out of your comfort zone?

by keithvz＠verizon.net

Do you routinely attempt projects out of your comfort zone? While I think it is the right thing to do intellectually to expand my knowledge, I often think that I waste a lot of time trying to do fairly simple tasks in areas where I have limited knowledge or experience. I think challenges can be rewarding, and I enjoy them. "Anything worth doing is hard." I think is the phrase. I try to do the necessary research, background reading, start from the ground up before attempting to do anything. I still find that getting your hands in it, ie learning by doing, seems to help the process along. With all this being said, it sure is frustrating and the rewards come slowly. While I DO like instant gratification, I don't expect it. I do expect that the payoff, it terms of reward vs time spent is reasonable. As my available personal free time has been less and less lately, making sure that I'm not just wasting my time is important to me. Do you find that you spend most of your time on projects that are well within your knowledge and experience, or most of your time learning about new technology/skills/programming language/hardware/etc to facilitate accomplishing a new project? Thanks Keith

16 years, 5 months

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Async logic

by trag＠io.com

> > Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:31:13 -0700 > From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> > On 3/23/10 4:09 AM, Julian Skidmore wrote: >> >> Alexey Toptygin wrote: >> >>> What's wrong with pulse or async logic designs? I personally find them >>> fascinating, but I've never gotten to play with an implementation of >>> one... Are there problems with designing like this that made people >>> switch >>> to sync designs? Anyone know of any good books on non-synchronous logic >>> design? >> >> Probably the best resources are the Amulet resources from Manchester >> University. >> > > Or the work on logical effort by Ivan Sutherland. I did some contract design work for a company called Theseus (Mumble) back around 2000. Their stuff was all non-clocked logic. They used two rails per bit and depending on how the two rails were coded it represented either 0, 1 or ready (or finished?), if I remember correctly. The logic to signal back the completion and readys about doubled the amount of real estate the logic used, but it could run as fast as the gates allowed, did not have a synchronizing pulse, making remote monitoring attacks difficult to impossible and only used as much power as it needed to process the actual data available. The amount of design discipline needed was substantial, making me wonder if just going to the trouble of implementing more traditional power saving techniques wasn't a better option. Jeff Walther

16 years, 5 months

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The Oldest Toshiba Laptop in Portugal

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

There's a contest with a prize of a new Toshiba laptop that goes to the person with the oldest working Toshiba laptop: http://www.facebook.com/toshibaportugal?v=app_7146470109 (it's in Portuguese). You must be a Portuguese citizen. Bill

16 years, 5 months

1
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Leaving computers on...

by bqt＠softjar.se

"Jeremy S. Sharp" <theodric at gmail.com> wrote: > Is there anybody here who keeps classic big(-ish) iron running 24x7? > I've been told a story of a burning PDP-11/34 which has somewhat put > me off any notion of leaving my -8s turned on when I'm not within > reach of a killswitch & fire extinguisher. :) At the moment, nothing more than my 11/93. Current uptime about a month. I used to manage an 11/70 as well. It's still on standby, but powered down most of the time right now because of cooling problems, and electricity bill. (Same with a VAX-8650.) Johnny

16 years, 5 months

1
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Wanted: Graphics card and drive sled for RS/6000 7046-B50

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:04:26 -0600 From: Andrew Warkentin <andreww591 at gmail.com> Subject: Wanted: Graphics card and drive sled for RS/6000 7046-B50 >I recently bought an RS/6000 7046-B50. It didn't have a graphics card >installed (I can use it over a serial console, but I would prefer to be >able to use a graphical console). It is also missing the drive sleds. >Does anybody have a graphics card or drive sled that would work with it? ---------- A few days ago I posted here about an RS/6000 available in the Toronto area but there was no interest either here or elsewhere, so it's being scrapped on Thursday. This is an RS/6000 Power Server 520, Type 7013, Model# 26-10855; If it has a graphics card would it fit in yours and what would the number be? And are the sleds compatible? mike

16 years, 5 months

2
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[BBC-Micro] Re-using floppies

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

On 22/03/2010 19:18, Alex Taylor wrote: > The idea was that reformatting a 1.44MB HD disk in a DD drive will > leave traces of the original formatting behind (as they're always > preformatted for DOS/Windows), causing the unreliability. Using a bulk > eraser is meant to eliminate this problem, as it will turn them into > completely blank disks that can be formatted in a DD drive more > reliably. That won't really matter. When you format a disk you write bit patterns all over it: in the headers, in the data sectors, and even in much of the gaps between them (sync bytes and clock patterns used as markers). Thus there's something there even when you write the first real data, and of course it never lines up exactly, bit for bit. Therefore you still have the problem of interference from the previous "data" even if it's just the dummy data used to fill a "blank" sector, and the sync bytes and markers in the preamble to it. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

16 years, 5 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 79, Issue 44

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

I don't know what the market is like in Europe, but I can still buy new media in 5.25" and 3.5" format easily here in the U.S. Google brings up many places here. If there are no such outlets in the UK, maybe you can get a bulk order together with some local folks to save on the shipping costs? Al From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> Subject: Reusing old floppy *drives* Noting the discussion on old media, a slightly different question. Please excuse my profound ignorance on matters electronic! I have read, somewhere, that it is possible to connect HD floppy drives to elderly kit that is only expecting DD drives, and use them for just DD operation. More specifically, I'd like to resurrect my ancient Sinclair Spectrum with its MGT DISCiPLE disk interface. Way back in the 1980s, I used 5?" media, as they were still cheaper. However, now, I daresay I won't find any new 5?" media and even 3?" DD media are getting tricky. So what I was considering doing was connecting a pair of old PC floppy drives - 3?" HD (1.4MB) floppies - and quite possibly using 1.4MB media, but only formatting them to 720K and using them as 720K. IIRC, the drives permit this. The track widths are the same - both are 80t drives - it's just that DD used 9 sectors per track and HD 18. Is this likely to work? I realise I'll need to find drives with a unit selection jumper on them, so I can set one as 0 and the other as 1; no twists in the cables this far back, & I'm guessing that a twisted cable wouldn't work with a controller that wasn't expecting it...? -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

16 years, 5 months

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Tektronix manuals available

by auringer＠tds.net

Hello, I have the following Tek Instruction Manuals sitting here. I would like to free up the space they are consuming. If someone wants to make it worth my while to spend the time shipping them out, I will entertain offers. Otherwise, I will dump them in the recycling. Preference will go to the fewest number of boxes I have to deal with and, of course, compensation offered. I will accept offers until Sunday (28th) evening. I will ship or recycle Monday. Shipping from 53714. Jon -- 7904 Oscilloscope operators 7904 Oscilloscope Service 7A13 Differential Comparator 7A19 Amplifier 7A26 Dual Trace Amplifier 7B92A Dual Time Base 7B80 Time Base 7B85 Delaying Time Base 7M11 50-Ohm Delay Line S-6 Sampling Head S-52 Pulse Generator Head S-53 Trigger Recognizer Head C-5C Camera 2215 Oscilloscope Service P6056/P6057 Probe P6131 Passive Probe P6460 Data Acquisition Probe K212 Portable Instrument Cart 1240 Workbook I also have "data sheets" for the following items: P6063B Passive Probe 200C Scope-Mobile Cart

16 years, 5 months

1
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mewel

by mcl198＠frontiernet.net

Hello, Does anybody have the source code and libarays for the old MEWEL windows interface? I have been looking for this so the source code for a Juki Pick and Place machine can be updated. If there is a fee for this, just let me know. Thanks, Patrick McLeod McLeod Instruments, Ltd. 928-535-6369

16 years, 5 months

2
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Async logic

by julianskidmore＠yahoo.com

Alexey Toptygin wrote: > What's wrong with pulse or async logic designs? I personally find them > fascinating, but I've never gotten to play with an implementation of > one... Are there problems with designing like this that made people switch > to sync designs? Anyone know of any good books on non-synchronous logic > design? Probably the best resources are the Amulet resources from Manchester University. http://intranet.cs.man.ac.uk/apt/async/ In the late 90s they experimented with Asynchronous ARM processors. The difficulty with asynchronous design is that it's far more prone to race hazards than synchronous design. Also, they found that even the simple handshaking protocol they used limits performance. Nevertheless, they do have some advantages, for example their EMF emmissions tend to be evenly spread across a broad spectrum. Incidently, modern synchronous design is far less synchronous than it used to be; high clock rates mean that CPUs are subdivided into differently clocked domains to avoid clock skew. -cheers from julz @p

16 years, 5 months

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eBay Oz : Collection of DEC Unibus modules including custom wire-wrap

by unibus＠gmail.com

> > Message: 6 > Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:12:10 +1100 > From: Nigel Williams <nigel.d.williams at gmail.com> > Subject: eBay Oz : Collection of DEC Unibus modules including custom > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > All sorts of interesting items: TU-60, CM-11, M792 etc > > http://shop.ebay.com.au/pdp11.caps11/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1 > > not connected with seller, however I did purchase fanfold paper-tape from > this eBayer. > I'm the seller so blame me.... blatant plug follows :-) I have to clear out my shed so I'll be dumping on eBay.com.au various bits and pieces. Predominantly it will be DEC UNIBUS modules, papertape, CAPS-11 operating system, plus technical documentation. Stuff is coming out in random order. E.g. some of the -K series laboratory modules have been listed but I've only just found the panels and some of the cables. Really only of interest to Australians are the heavy/bulky/delicate items like the PDP-11 system with the LPS-11 / TU60, or FABRI-TEK Model 11 Add-On Memory System, etc., that are being listed as local pickup. There will some Heathkit (H10 papertape readers/punches and a 3400A microcomputer trainer) plus should be some HP GPIB gear. The Tektronix gear has already gone. I do not have any CM-11 card readers, just some of the UNIBUS interface modules. Regards, Garry

16 years, 5 months

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Wanted: Graphics card and drive sled for RS/6000 7046-B50

by andreww591＠gmail.com

I recently bought an RS/6000 7046-B50. It didn't have a graphics card installed (I can use it over a serial console, but I would prefer to be able to use a graphical console). It is also missing the drive sleds. Does anybody have a graphics card or drive sled that would work with it?

16 years, 5 months

1
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chemistry simulator on Apple ][?

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

A local friend is looking for an old chemistry simulator program for the Apple ][. Here's his description: > I'm trying to find a "chemistry simulator" program that I used to play > with on an Apple II way back in the day. I don't remember the name of > it, but I remember being able to build a decent "lab" out of parts and > pieces. I remember that the first lesson was an experiment to figure > out why the fertilizer ship in Texas City exploded after an onboard > fire. Does anyone know what this might've been called, or better yet, does anyone have a copy? -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

16 years, 5 months

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Taking offers on PDP-8 (straight-8)

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

A straight-8 has come up for sale. I am representing the seller. I have photos and details. If you're interested please e-mail me and I'll send over some information. Preliminary photos are here: http://siconic.com/computers/PDP-8/ We'll take opening offers and if there's one good enough then we'll cut to a straigt (8) sale. Otherwise, it'll move on to a VCF web auction at a future date. Thanks!! -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

16 years, 5 months

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HP 2671 Graphics ROM

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

I aquired a HP 2671A thermal printer and know that there should be an upgrade ROM to 'upgrade' it to a HP 2671G. Thanks to Tony excelent work on HPCC CDROM i have the schematics and was able to fix the head positioning circuit. One of the driver transistors (TIP 122) was bad after replacing it and cleaning the printer it works fine. But now I want to use it for printing graphics (diagrams) and would be very happy whith an image of the graphics ROM. -Rik PS. don't shoot me if it appears a second time, I used the first time the wrong email address.......:-(

16 years, 5 months

2
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HP 2671 Graphics ROM

by nig.bailey＠virgin.net

I don't know where you are tony, but I have the right pod on my old stag to do 80/8749s I'm in luton.

16 years, 5 months

3
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RGB-VGA Converter -- buy or build?

by stojoskij＠ikomline.net

Hi, I need scematics of RGB to VGA converter. I want to connect Wheel Balancer machine to computer VGA monitor. Old monitor is VALVO VCC93/00 fixed frequency (15KHz) and have R, G, B and common Sync signals. I would be grateful if you can help me! Best regards, Jovica

16 years, 5 months

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Disc analyser news update

by jonas＠otter.se

On Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:38:31 +0000 (GMT), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Subject: Re: Disc analyser news update > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <m1Nt5RK-000J3oC at p850ug1> > Content-Type: text/plain > ... > > Well, OK, please name one change in the last 20 years that has made > _my_ > life better. > > -tony > I don't know what your health is like, but should you get high blood pressure, or a hernia, I can assure you that the medicine/surgery you will get will be much better than what was available 20 years ago. Or even having some procedure done by a dentist. And personally, I find that modern mobile phones and new services available on the Internet (on-line banking, for example) have made *my* life a lot easier (and better). /Jonas

16 years, 5 months

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HP equivalents lists -- warning!

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

I am sure everyone here who fixes old HP stuff knows of the equivalents lists that were published in Bench Briefs (which are now on the web). Today I was looking at aboard from an HP tape drive. I was pretty sure the 40 pin chip with a Motorola logo and an HP 1820-xxxx number was some flavour of 6809, but I couldn't rememebr what speed of whether it was an -E version, so I grabbed the latest equivalent list. I wasn't listed... But I was sure I recognised the number, so I looked in my older list. It was there. A 68B09. I also found a device I was looking at the other day, and which I suspected was a microcontroller (and isn't in the latest list) is listed in the older one as a 68488 ()which is what I deduced it to be after spending several hours downloading data sheets from the web and trying to match up pinouts). Argh! So a warning : Devices are sometimes removed from this equivalents list. You need to check all of them to see if it's listed anywhere. -tony

16 years, 5 months

1
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Help with running RT-11 SAV files under RSTS/E

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

I have been interested, of late, in fixing some of the bugs in MACRO.SAV / CREF.SAV which the documentation shows also run under RSTS/E. In addition to fixing the bug so that the year outputs as 4 digits on the listing, I thought it would be interesting to run MACRO.SAV as a system job. This requires a mapped RT-11 monitor to use VBGEXE.SAV to load and initiate MACRO.SAV since it is obviously not an REL file. However, the goal is to still be compatible running under RSTS/E. My question is how to distinguish between a mapped RT-11 monitor and RSTS/E? Does anyone have sufficient information about the RSTS/E environment to be able to distinguish RT-11 from RSTS/E? TSX-PLUS is trivial since requesting the TSX-PLUS job number is not supported under RT-11, so that problem is solved. Jerome Fine

16 years, 5 months

2
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Solid State Disk replacement for RD53, 54, RK05, RL02/02

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Rob Jarratt wrote: > There was a thread recently on the comp.sys.dec newsgroup which ended up > with the suggestion from David Riley that he would be prepared to build an > FPGA-based board with a QBUS interface on one side and an SD interface on Is there really still interest in it ? I put my design away few years ago, as I didn't see anybody interested enough to buy one. There is the seasonal talk of it for sure, but ... OTOH, they old ones show up on ebay frequently, and they are not that expensive. Remarks ? Cheers

16 years, 5 months

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Mark 8 / Apple I kits

by aek＠bitsavers.org

FYI obtronix has listed several sets of these kits on eBay 120546035352 120546028173

16 years, 5 months

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Finding datasheets on the net (was Disc analyser news update)

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Dave wrote: >On Mar 19, 2010, at 8:44 PM, Ben wrote: >>> And now, I can get datasheets for pretty much any random component in >>> seconds, rather than having to wait for weeks to find a copy of a >>> databook that I don't have. I have nearly three thousand PDF >>> datasheets >>> now, and those are just for parts that I've been interested in for >>> one >>> reason or another. (curiosity, repair, use in new design, found a >>> chip >>> somewhere and wanted to know what it is, etc) I have about 35-40 >>> databooks, and now I have FAR more useful information available to me >>> then when I used to use those databooks regularly. >>> >>> Not all change is automatically bad. >> >> 3 am I want to check a datasheet ... it is 30 seconds including the >> time >> I take to turn on the light switch. >> I need to use windows and the internet it is about 20 minutes later >> I may have the information. > That's because you use Windows. I get it in seconds. Every time. A couple random thoughts: Google goes through phases where searching for a random TTL or CMOS or old microprocessor or transistor part number returns 95%+ sponsored spam links to places that don't have the part but want to sell you the part anyway. At other points Google is working "nicely" and the top couple hits are to the actual datasheet. If the part is a "basic part" that is still available in some commercial form or another I find that going to Mouser or Digikey is often more effective today than going through Google. And I say that being a big Google user. Mouser and Digikey tend to keep parts in their search engines with links to datasheets for maybe a decade or two after they leave special order. And it's useful to know that yes, the CA3146 is being discontinued. Or that the CD4007 is actually the same as the CA3600 :-). Lots of Windows installations have a zillion spyware things running that interfere greatly with downloading the PDF after you find it. Sometimes these things make you believe that they're actually toolbars, but they aren't. Usually the download accelerators fall in this category too... launching 50 simultaneous download sessions to fetch a 3 page datasheet is usually a big loss. I know that I'm being OS-ist when I talk about Windows like that, but really it's the unknowing users getting sucked into thinking "another toolbar? Hey, I want that!" and "another download accelerator? Hey, I want that!" that are at fault. When you see a web browser and literally 75% of the screen is taken up by toolbars and download accelerators that really are actually all spyware, something is seriously out of whack, but I'd estimate that probably 90% of Windows PC's that are not vigilantly patrolled end up that way. Tim.

16 years, 5 months

5
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Datasheets and modern display technology

by shoppa＠trailing-edge.com

I appreciate the old databooks very much... but with bound books keeping them open on the bench to the page you want was always a problem. Anything without a good binding fell apart 30 years ago. Even the ones that are well bound (e.g. the hardback TTL books from TI) don't last forever although they were printed by the millions and are still readily found. What I actually like, is having a big 23" or bigger screen at the bench with web access to the datasheets. That's pretty decent. I can zoom the pinout big enough that I can read it from the other side of the bench, or I can open the pinout and the state table simultaneously in two windows. Pretty good, at least as long as I have my glasses on. But the screen still isn't as good as having the datasheet right there on the bench (flat on the bench) a foot or less away from the circuit. I wonder how a Kindle will do on the bench? Anyone drop their soldering iron on a screen yet? The good pages in the databooks always had solder or food or both on them, that made the good pages easier to find! And don't bother lecturing me about not having food and solder in the same place. We all grew up with solder when we were kids, and everyone knows that WE'RE PERFECTLY NORMAL now that we're adults! Tim.

16 years, 5 months

6
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HP 7937H CS/80 drive free for parts

by js＠cimmeri.com

Folks, I've a 7937H that turns on and passes diag fine, but as soon as I try to access it, I get a servo error. I suspect the HDA assembly but have no spares to swap to confirm. The entire drive is free for pickup from Rockville, MD. If you want small parts shipped, there will be a charge for shipping and handling... Email me if interested. This notice will be in effect for 1 week >from date of posting. After that, please disregard.. Thank you, John Singleton jsk at cimmerik.com (remove all the k's)

16 years, 5 months

1
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great abandonware for your classic PC

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

You guys may already know of this, some perhaps not. All the OS's are there, MSDOS, Concurent CPM, Windows 1 thru 3 Autocad, Orcad, Mathematica, Maple, Matlab Graphics like Dr. Halo Programming languages MASM, Turbo Pascal http://vetusware.com Randy _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID27925::T:WLMTAGL:ON:…

16 years, 5 months

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Finding datasheets on the net (was Disc analyser news update)

by shoppa＠trailing-edge.com

Dave wrote: >Ben wrote: >> And if you are lucky the fifth or sixth hit is a *free* pdf. > I've never seen one that required payment, but I've seen plenty of > places that SUPPOSEDLY have the PDF you're looking for, but actually > don't. Most commonly, I find places that try to sell me parts that haven't been made for 30 or 40 years, but the page is simply a numeric list of every part in some huge number range. How can it be a viable business model to buy google advertising to sell parts that you do not actually have? My guess: counterfeits, esp relabeled counterfeits. Or maybe the advertising cost is so completely negligible that they can afford to put up ads for things they don't have? I remember "too cheap to meter" but that's ridiculous. Tim.

16 years, 5 months

1
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Does a Northstar S-100 Bus Horizon Classify as a Classic

by trebor77＠execpc.com

1. Re: Does a Northstar S-100 Bus Horizon Classify as a Classic > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:05:18 -0400 > From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> > Subject: Re: Does a Northstar S-100 Bus Horizon Classify as a Classic > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <2C8AA3F6-864D-4777-A584-466024E6A276 at neurotica.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed > On Mar 19, 2010, at 1:12 PM, Robert J. Stevens wrote: > >> I have a set of the Steve Ciarcia Circuit Cellar Magazines if >> Anyone is Interested >> Volume I originally cost $8.00 >> Volume II originally cost $12.95 >> Volume III originally cost $16.95 >> Volume IV originally cost $18.95 >> WOW >> Wow indeed. >> Are these in fact "Circuit Cellar Ink" magazines, or are they the >> compendium of Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar columns from BYTE magazine? I was not aware that there were Different Publications of his Work. These are indeed compendiums from BYTE. I guess I should have called them Books. But the are in Pristine Condition Looks like they have never been opened MUCH Bob

16 years, 5 months

2
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Just another homebuilt TTL machine

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

I have put online some pictures and schematics of a rather pathetic homebuilt TTL machine I constructed around 1985 Specs 12 bit wide, 8K ram, 256 word hardware stack. CPU 3 x 74181 Hardcoded instruction set. No blinkenlights, but, almost as good, 4 nixies as display. Since I just cannot be bothered to make a proper homepage, I have just put everyting on my FTP server. Find the goodies here : ftp://jdreesen.dyndns.org/ftp/T3 Jos Dreesen

16 years, 5 months

3
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Disc analyser news update

by julianskidmore＠yahoo.com

Hi folks, > melamy at earthlink.net wrote: > > if you want specs to programming microchip ics, go here... > > > > http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplgIdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1407 > I was under the impression that the FLASH specifications didn't cover > the ICD hardware, but there you go... > But they're handy anyway. I've got a Maplin PIC programmer kicking > around somewhere -- the original software only programmed the 16C84 Despite the horrors of programming PICs; they do have at least one redeeming feature here - they're genuine classic architectures, being designed in the mid-70s for General Instruments ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIC_microcontroller#History -cheers from julz @P

16 years, 5 months

2
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home brew S-100 PCB manufacturing order

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi! I am getting ready to make another manufactured PCB order for some S-100 PCBs. These are the S100Computers.com and/or N8VEM boards. These are the S-100 regular prototyping board, S-100 backplane, S-100 buffered prototyping board, S-100 IDE, and S-100 ASCII keyboard. If you are interested in getting in on the S-100 board order please contact me. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

16 years, 5 months

1
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Old DEC Power Control 861C

by icipasla＠gmail.com

*Many thanks, I found a leaking capacitor just as you have described. I've ordered new ones and will soon be able to replace it. I'll let you know if that fixes the problem (It should!).** Normand *>* Old DEC Power Control 861C Hi, *>* *>* looks like I am not getting the posting in my e-mail but my messages do get *>* posted. * This issue came up a few months back. Apparently gmail filters the replies to your own messages somewhere (and not to somewhere sensible!). Perhaps somebody else can rememebr the details. >* *>* I found this replyto my previous message by Tony Duell *>* <cctalk%40classiccmp.org?Subject=Re%3A%20Old%20DEC%20Power%20Control%20861C&In-Reply-To=%3Cm1NM4jS-000J3uC%40p850ug1%3E>in *>* the archives. *>* *>* To follow-up, the 861C emits a crackling noise for the first few seconds (20 *>* or so) and then I can hear a relay chattering (very noisy!). *>* *>* Also the light on the front panel is flashing continuously (maybe that's *>* normal.) * old DEC neons tend to flicker randomly (and it's truely random). The basic design is for the mains : Mains in--->filter --->Breaker-+--->Unswitched outs | +--->Contactor (big relay)-> Switched outs The contactor is controlled (in the 861) by a reed relay on the little PCB inside. This has a differentially-wound coil to give the 'ground for on' and 'ground for off' functionality on the 3 pin connector. The reed relay coil is powered by a little transformer/rectifier/capacitor circuit, mostly on the PCB. My first suspicioun is that capacitor. Open it up and look for any electrolytics on the PCB inside. -tony

16 years, 5 months

1
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Disc analyser news update

by melamy＠earthlink.net

go here then... http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/51242a.pdf that will at least give you debugging information that Microchip released. Steve "some chap" Thatcher -----Original Message----- >From: Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> >Sent: Mar 19, 2010 2:44 PM >To: cctalk at classiccmp.org >Subject: Re: Disc analyser news update > >> >> On Thursday (03/18/2010 at 12:06AM +0000), Philip Pemberton wrote: >> > >> > You know, there is a reason Microchip released the ICD2, ICD3 and >> > PICKit2 Debug Express. All of the three support in-circuit debugging >> > over the programming pins -- set a code breakpoint (or watchpoint), wait >> > for it to trigger, then dump the program state. >> >> And do those debugger tools run on any OS other than Windows? > >Not that I could see. And the specs that I was pointed to by some chap >here give details on programming the PICs, but nothing on the debugger >commands, so it appers you can't write your own debugging tools. > >> >> > Beats the LEDs-and-switches debugging method, or the "hook a terminal >> > up" trick... >> >> If the answer to the above is No, then it does not beat the "hook a >> terminal up" trick... or an LED trick or plenty of other tricks... >> not by a long shot. > >Exactly. > >-tony

16 years, 5 months

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Does a Northstar S-100 Bus Horizon Classify as a Classic

by trebor77＠execpc.com

I have a S-100 N* Horizon that I have been trying to get to run for years. Is there anyone out there running one or have one or Interested in one. I also have a bunch of S-100 Vector Graphic Cards, CPU, Memory, I/O Cards but no FDC's I am looking for any S-100 Serial I/O cards that I might be able to just in a Test Computer setup so I can test some of the Cards I have. Also Floppy disk controllers for the S-100 Buss. TIA Bob in Wisconsin

16 years, 5 months

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Monroe calculating Machine

by harrychandler1＠mac.com

Do you still have the Monroe 8 N ? Harry Chandler Monroe Service Manager.

16 years, 5 months

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Caffeine and hacking (was Re: Soldering)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 2:02 PM, Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> wrote: > Chuck Guzis wrote: >> >> When Fry's... Jolt cola... bizarre chocolate-flavored diet soda (Canfields)... > > I swear by Bawls, and write a wide variety of languages on a daily basis. Bawls is good, but at my local store, I've run into a variant I like more - "Antarctica" Guarana soda from Brazil. It's stocked in the International aisles at the grocery closest to my own house (a Giant Eagle) and the store closest to a friend's house in Cleveland - so it's not just us. It tastes a bit like Bawls (vs tasting like a cola or lemon/lime drink), but I think it's smoother and less sour. It's around $3.something for a 2L, so not particularly inexpensive, but a nice treat. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaran%C3%A1_Antarctica> I have yet to throw it into the rotation for a serious hacking session, but with a day job sucking up evening hours, too, it's been a while since I've been able to get my head into that mode for extended periods of time. Summer is looking good (since I am consulting in the educational world right now). -ethan

16 years, 5 months

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Disc analyser news update

by melamy＠earthlink.net

if you want specs to programming microchip ics, go here... http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1407 best regards, Steve Thatcher -----Original Message----- >From: Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> >Sent: Mar 18, 2010 3:36 PM >To: cctalk at classiccmp.org >Subject: Re: Disc analyser news update > >> You know, there is a reason Microchip released the ICD2, ICD3 and >> PICKit2 Debug Express. All of the three support in-circuit debugging > >How 'open#' is this internface/specification. Is there enough detail >availble for me to write the host program for a machine/OS of my choice >(becuase I will bet the one Microchip supply doesn't run on the machine I >would want to run it on, or indeed on anythign I own) > >-tony >

16 years, 5 months

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Computer Machinery Corporation?

by genedico＠tampabay.rr.com

I just came across your question about CMC. My personal knowledge is that it was a competitor of my company in 1968 when it came out with a minicomputer-based system with multiple keyboards to replace IBM keypunch machines. Two of its competitors were Inforex and Honeywell. Another competitor at the time was Viatron but that company didn't last long.

16 years, 5 months

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great abandonware for your classic PC

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

>Message: 15 >Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:09:37 -0400 >From: Keith < keithvz at verizon.net > >Subject: Re: great abandonware for your classic PC <snip> >And even if there were some type of agreements, I think the "First Sale" >??Doctrine would have to kick in here somewhere. > >Even Microsoft lost(ok, gave up) their copyright suit when a college kid >??sold his Windows OS disk on ebay. > >Keith Also,? in October of 2009, Autodesk lost its suit against a man who bought a copy of AutoCAD at a garage sale and then tried to sell it on eBay: "US court says software is owned, not licensed" http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/10/06/software_ownership_ruling/

16 years, 5 months

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AWG 30 stripping tools

by glen.slick＠gmail.com

So speaking of AWG 30, what is the best tool for stripping it for wirewrap purposes? Is something like an OK ST-500 a decent tool for around $33? http://media.digikey.com/photos/OK%20Industries%20-%20Jonard%20Photos/ST-50…

16 years, 5 months

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The Hard Disk That Changed the World - IBM 305 RAMAC

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Jos asks: >William Blair wrote: >> 5 MB (approx.) for only $3,200/month ($24,978 in 2009 dollars)! >> > I wonder what use case would justify that kind of expense, or would tape > storage not have been that much cheaper ? Undoubtedly tape is cheaper (not just per byte but also per drive) but it's not random access. Clever things were done with tapes, usually in batch mode. The RAMAC made it possible to think that multiple files (not in the computer sense but in the business sense) could be updated simultaneously in real-time. It is a fallacy to confuse the cost of a storage unit with the value that The data on it provides. Clearly as the cost of storage has dropped new applications that previously weren't economically feasible open up. e.g. When I got started in digital music in the 80's, the most technically advanced mixing systems began using hard drives instead of tape for digital music storage and manipulation. Tim.

16 years, 5 months

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Origin of RT-11 emulation on RSTS

by dundas＠caltech.edu

I've wondered this for a long time and maybe someone here can shed some light. Back in 1975-76 I was using the PDP-11 and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and they had a thing called "OMSI RT" on their system. It was an RT-11 run time system (RTS) under RSTS. They were selling V1A for $2350 a copy (I still have a copy of the on-line help file giving the information). The product ran the Fortran compiler, MACRO, Pascal, etc., as the later RT-11 environment from DEC did. OMSI RT claimed compatibility with RT-11 V2 and also required a DEC binary license for both RSTS (V5B or later) and RT (V2) My question is: did DEC buy this from OMSI to (improve?) and include in RSTS or was the DEC RT-11 environment created some other way (either developed in-house or purchased from someone else)? Does anyone know the origins of the RT-11 emulation under RSTS? Thanks, John

16 years, 5 months

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The Hard Disk That Changed the World - IBM 305 RAMAC

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

Nice IBM sales video and stills: http://gizmodo.com/5494858/ibm-305-ramac-the-grandaddy-of-modern-hard-drives 2006 (50th anniversary) article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/46300 IBM's info: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/storage/storage_350.html 5 MB (approx.) for only $3,200/month ($24,978 in 2009 dollars)! "Disks rotated at 1,200 rpm, tracks (20 to the inch) were recorded at up to 100 bits per inch, and typical head-to-disk spacing was 800 microinches. The execution of a "seek" instruction positioned a read-write head to the track that contained the desired sector and selected the sector for a later read or write operation. Seek time averaged about 600 milliseconds."

16 years, 5 months

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Booting a VAXstation

by lproven＠gmail.com

I have a VAXstation 3100 model 38 I bought on eBay for the princely sum of ?0.99. Sadly it came without disks and I have no wide-SCSI disks of <1GB. But I want to get it working & looking at the old dead kit pile. As far as I know you can't boot a traditional VAX from a disk of <1GB... but could I put the core of VMS on a small slow narrow SCSI disk, like an 80MB or something, and put most of it on the only Wide SCSI disk I have, a 10GB...? I was considering either attaching an external SCSI2 disk of 80-120GB, or possibly trying to fit one internally if I can find an appropriate convertor. I have a fast/wide 8GB or 10GB disk I could use for main storage, but I don't think I can boot from it... Can I? My VMS knowledge is /very/ rusty & I was only ever a sysadmin, not a developer. I've never brought up a bare system or anything. Also, I have several external SCSI CD-ROMs, including 2 Apple units. I seem to recall that VAXen want a weird block size, same as Sun kit... is that correct? How would one tell if a certain drive could do this or not? Is it a DIP switch setting or just a SCSI bus command? -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

16 years, 5 months

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Flyback for Monochrome Plato Student Terminal.

by woolfson＠telswitch.com

Hi. First time poster. I have a bad flyback transformer on a video board that I've been unable to locate. I've also been unable to find any information about this transformer, or the board that it's on. I have lots of information about what the board is inside of, but nothing on the board itself. It's for a green monochrome Plato Display Terminal, called an AST-1 Student Terminal; even the original designer of the equipment, Jack Stifle at the University of Illinois, does not have any information any more on the video driver board itself. note: The AST-1 Student terminal was supposed to be a lightweight inexpensive replacement for the original Plato IV and Plato V terminals, and was manufactured by the University of Illinois I've been able to find many defails from University of Illinois archives, including all schematics except for the video driver board. The transformer is marked as : VT-521, EIA-528-8521, type sb-1, E36324 I assume EIA 528 means Electronic Industry Association manufacturer 528, with the product (or factory ID) and that's an internal number. The only "cross-reference" is to a SUN microsystems display, but I have ordered that flyback and have found it to be the wrong one... Here are the links to the photos that I've taken of the board: http://customer.telswitch.com/plato/ast001.JPG http://customer.telswitch.com/plato/ast002.JPG The first photo is of the "markings" that the manufacturer must have put on, the second photo is of the actual board itself. The tube that it uses is a Clinton CE745w12h31vrz (which is a standard 745-style tube). Thoughts? Thanks! Aaron

16 years, 5 months

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Early apple employees Dick and Cliff Huston selling off collection

by jlobocki＠gmail.com

Ok, Im gonna go get some powerball tickets and cross my fingers! I like the two newton prototypes that look like an early attempt at creating an iPad, this stuff should be in a real museum, not up for sale in my opinion. It would be interesting for a piece on how some creations are created in prototype some 10-20 years before their time. Another good example, look at how long SGI has put stereographic 3D glasses ports on their computers, and have had the capabilities, but now it is finally hitting the consumer TV market. On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 11:37 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > At 11:18 PM -0400 3/16/10, Dave McGuire wrote: > >> On Mar 17, 2010, at 12:04 AM, Zane H. Healy wrote: >> >>> I see a couple items there that I'd be interested in, but no way am I >>> spending that kind of money on anything like that! >>> >> >> I've never seen the general attitude of classiccmp summed up so >> succinctly. ;) >> > > There was a time when I would have considered bidding on at least one of > the items. Now I'm trying to do a massive shrink of my own collection, and > the money I used to spend on Classic Computers is now targeted for more > realistic things. > > The disturbing thing is, while I'm trying to get rid of most of my > collection I'm in the middle of my biggest (and best) Commodore haul ever. > It is free, and slowly being delivered from out of state. Oh, well, I said > I was keeping a lot of the Commodore stuff. :-) > > Zane > > > > -- > | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | > | healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast | > | | Classic Computer Collector | > +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ > | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | > | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | > | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/<http://www.aracnet.com/%7Ehealyzh/> | >

16 years, 5 months

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Yamaha V9958?

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Thanks for the tip... figures I wouldn't try eBay for that. ;) I was actually wanting one as an upgrade for my Coleco ADAM. I had installed a TIM board with the 9938 in one back in the day, and wrote some initialization software for it. Was thinking about building my own board to do the same again. -----REPLY---- Hi! The Coleco ADAM is a Z80 computer right? If you are up to some experimenting the other related item at the N8VEM that might be interesting to you is the PropIO. Using a shim socket, the PropIO can be interfaced to the Z80 CPU socket. Then with proper software support it can provide PS/2 keyboard, VGA, and microSD for your computer. Assuming of course the ADAM design is compatible. Basically if the ADAM can access an IO port it should work fine but the best way to be sure is to check the schematic. One of the N8VEM builders has done some experimenting on a Kaypro and a SpectraVideo 728 with the Z80 shim socket to PropIO and it worked fine in both cases. It might be a neat expansion option for you if you are interested. I am looking for some hardware experimenters to test the system out on some various Z80 computers. I am not aware of anything like it for the ADAM but don't follow it too closely either. If you are interested (or anyone else) please let me know. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch PS, the PropIO shim socket approach *should* work for any of the N8VEM expansion boards so if you are interested in expanding your Z80 computer or adding peripherals to your Z80 home brew computer this might be helpful to you since you won't need to reinvent it. It could add simple interfaces such as IDE/FDC (DiskIO) or Zilog Peripherals (CTC, DART, dual PIO) as well as the PropIO.

16 years, 5 months

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Booting a VAXstation

by js＠cimmeri.com

> Subject: > Booting a VAXstation > From: > Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> > Date: > Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:20:19 +0000 > To: > "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > > To: > "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > > > I have a VAXstation 3100 model 38 I bought on eBay for the princely > sum of ?0.99. Sadly it came without disks and I have no wide-SCSI > disks of <1GB. Hi, Liam. First thing to do is find yourself a copy of the manual for the machine as you can do a bunch of stuff with it just from built in diagnostics.. I seem to recall them being out on the web.. possibly here: http://deathrow.vistech.net/~cvisors/DEC94MDS/ I know Antonio Carlini had a site with lots of nice docs too.. but my link is dead. Also check out older posts where people were in the same boat.. such as: http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2004-December/036556.html My machine came with a TZ30 drive, an RD54 CD, and hard disk all internally... mine's the M48..same as yours but with bigger case. You might need a special cable for the external SCSI.. as its got a funny connector on the computer end. I found one on ebay. For hard drives, I found that I had to experiment with different ones.. not all would work (even if under 1gb). Most did, however. Enjoy, John Singleton

16 years, 5 months

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Yamaha V9958?

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org > [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of geoffrey oltmans > Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 10:50 AM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Yamaha V9958? > > Does anyone know where you can order one of these (AKA MSX-Video?). > Barring that, its earlier cousin the 9938 would be good also. [AJL>] Hi! On the N8VEM project we are getting ready to release a TMS9918/AY-3-8910 Sprite Color Graphic and Sound (SCGS) board. The board is basically done and awaiting the PCB trace route optimization to complete before ordering manufactured PCBs. There are also plans for a follow on V9938 board. V9958 has "issues" that make it less desirable than the V9938 IMO especially since it cannot generate composite video. It can generate RGB video though and has some enhanced scrolling ability. None of these chips can generate VGA compatible video though so be fore warned. http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=Color%2520Graphic s%2520and%2520Sound http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=SCGS As always, constructive comments welcome; send flames and pointless criticisms to /dev/null We've had some luck procuring the chips from leemoom611 on eBay. I've bought several chips now (TMS9918, TMS99118, V9938, V9958) without issue. Seems like a decent guy but I can't say much other than it worked for me. I have no business connections with him other than a satisfied customer. You are welcome to join us on the N8VEM project if you are interested in a TMS9918 or V9938/V9958 home brew computer project or whatever you'd like to do. Regardless, I wish you the best of luck with your project. Please keep us (me?) posted on your progress. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

16 years, 5 months

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Caffeine and hacking (was Re: Soldering)

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 16 Mar 2010, at 03:10, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > Message: 14 > Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:44:49 -0000 > From: "Andrew Burton" <aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk> > Subject: Re: Caffeine and hacking (was Re: Soldering) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <005201cac490$8be1db90$f0fdf93e at user8459cef6fa> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Teo Zenios" <teoz at neo.rr.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 10:25 PM > Subject: Re: Caffeine and hacking (was Re: Soldering) > > >> I gave up drinking cola with caffeine and now mostly drink 7-up with >> artificial sweeteners (you end up getting a sweet tooth late in the day). >> >> I used to guzzle mountain dew in the morning when I worked and I found if > I >> didn't my mind would be a little cloudy until I did so I gave it up. >> >> Yes, you do lose a bunch of weight when switching to diet pop, but you > gain >> it back slowly when you get a craving for sweets (you body doesn'y like to >> be fooled by fake sweetener). > > > You can say that again (the bit in brackets in the last sentence). If I > drink Diet Cola it makes me sick, as in regurgitating what I ate recently. > So I stay well away from diet drinks... but I have a few other allergies too > (hayfever, asthma, eczema and certain plastics cause irration to my skin > after contact for 5-10 minutes). I suppose I should count myself lucky that > I'm not allergic to sunlight. I'm very sorry to hear that. Two things you might like to consider. Is the Diet Coke in a plastic botttle, and if so is the plasticiser getting into the drink? Of course if you have the same reaction to it in a glass bottle then thats not it. Is it the Aspartame sweetener? Its nasty stuff, affects the pancreas, particularly for diabetics and some experts even think the 'diabetes epidemic' is caused by it. My 87 year old mother had type one diabetes (controlled with tablets). They told her to cut down her sugar intake, so I started to go through what I buy online every week and found lower sugar versions. Coke -> Diet Coke and Robinsons Orange -> No Added Sugar Robinsons Orange etc. Soon her daily sugar measurements were off the scale, the gauge only reads up to about 25 beyond that it just says high. The medics gradually increased her tablets, switched to injecting insulin, saying now it was type 2 diabetes, the dosage went up to 74 units per day. Then one of the 'carers' (who was not medically trained) told me some of her other clients had cut out Diet Coke and become much better. I was sceptical so asked one of the nurses and though she did not want to say so on the record she suggested I cut down my mothers consumption of Aspartame. I've been doing that though some things like orange squash all seem to have it in. Now the medics are gradually reducing her insulin and frequently have to give her chocolate in the morning to get her sugar level UP to four so that they can give her her insulin without causing her to have a fit when they administer it. Try googling Aspartame Diabetes for what one doctor says about it. On the original topic, when I programmed in microcode assembler then assembler and Coral66 then Pascal I drank Ribena : result all my molars have huge fillings which might cause a blip in the mercury price when they need to be replaced :-) Now I program in C++ and have switched to Rose's lime. Of course outside work its bitter ale, either Shepherd Neame Masterbrew or when I'm in London Courage Directors. I can see the site of the old Fremlin's brewery out of my office window, thats the beer from which the word gremlin derive's its name. When I'm finding logic faults on my ICT1301 mainframe its cloudy lemonade and McVities Digestives (plain ones, not chocolate ones) to make up for skipping lunch.

16 years, 5 months

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Old Equipment for sale, PDP8 and S100, with manuals

by 1metalguru＠gmail.com

Hi Guys: Just thought I would drop a line and let everyone know that I have some old computer equipment for sale (might even be free to a good home) as listed below: 1. PDP8A system, with programming front panel. Comes with PDP8/A Field Drawings Manual, and I believe it has an A/D peripheral. 2. Somewhere, (I haven't seen them for years) I have a pretty extensive library of PDP8/I manuals on Microfiche. This includes the 32K Disk Subsystem, Hi Speed Paper Tape reader, PDP8/I Math enhancement, Dectape System, etc. Used to have the paper copies, but they were too bulky so I paid to have them put on Microfiche (which was quite pricey as I recall). If anyone is interested, I'll try to come up with more info, including a complete list of the manuals on fiche, and a list of the boards installed in the 8/A. I also have some old modems, including one from an ASR33 TTY, and a 1200 Baud commercial modem from the early 80's. In addition, I have a couple of old S-100 System enclosures with backplanes and power supplies, along with a whole box of S-100 boards including 8085 CPU, memory, A/D, comm cards, and various I/O. Even some manuals to go with... My name is Darrell, and you can contact me at 1MetalGuru(at)gmail.com

16 years, 5 months

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Booting a VAXstation

by pcoghlan+cctech＠vms.eurokom.ie

> >But practically, what this means is: No Money. Ergo, I can't afford to >buy any new bits. The reason I got this machine was its extreme >cheapness! (Under a pound - for Colonial types, that's about a buck >sixty.) > With any luck it may be possible to scrounge an RZ26 for a similar price to the machine. > >Well, what size of disk would I want? I may have some 500MB units >knocking around, possibly bigger. The problem now is finding ones >/small/ enough, not big enough! > I've managed to crowbar a bootable subset of VMS 5.5-2 into 70MB. It was so long ago I don't remember if this included any Decwindows functionality. More recent versions with more fluff will probably need more. 500MB would certainly be worth a try though. Alternatively, use a disk larger than 1GB and hope for the best. You won't have lost anything if it doesn't work. When doing the install, just install the critical items first, with the hope of having everything that is accessed by the firmware ROMs for boot appear below the 1GB mark. Opt not to have a dumpfile. The biggest problem will probably making sure to get the index file (which is used to locate all the other files on the disk) below the 1GB mark. As far as I recall, VMS places the index file in the middle of the disk by default but this can be overridden when the disk is initialised. The only question is whether this option is available when doing an install from scratch. > >Is there any incantation I can type at the firmware monitor to tell me >if it "sees" a device as a CD-ROM? Or is being seen as a CD no >guarantee? > SHOW DEVICE at the >>> should list the devices on the SCSI bus. I don't think it will tell you if the sector size is correct though. The only way to be sure is to try it. As far as I know, CDs containing a bootable and usable version of VAX/VMS were not produced although they were for Alpha/VMS. A VAX would normally boot the standalone backup program from a CD to do a VMS installation rather than booting directly into VMS from the CD. > >I don't wish to question authority, as it were, but the internal >cables are 104 pin (If I'm counting them correctly) and the external >SCSI port on the back is 72-pin mini-D. That *looks* like wide SCSI to >me! If it's not, then what kind of cabling is it? The ordinary >narrow-SCSI stuff I knew from back in the '80s and '90s was 50-way >ribbon cables with 50-pin IDC connectors internally and either 50-pin >Centronics or D25 connectors externally. > The external SCSI connectors on a 3100 are rather strange. They are a narrow SCSI bus presented on a male 68pin connector. It is definately not wide SCSI even though it looks like it. To use it, the first thing you will need is a cable with a female 68pin connector on one end and a 50 pin centronics type connector (or something else reasonable) on the other. Are there connectors for internal SCSI disks? They should be normal 50pin IDC types. > >Yes, but how do I *tell*, that's the question! > I just picked up an IBM labelled CD drive off the floor. It has a jumper at the back labelled "SECTOR SIZE". It's a fair bet that the two sizes available are 512 and 2048. If you find a drive with a sector size jumper, it will probably do. > >When you say "a small-ish drive", what counts as "small" for VMS? Or >rather, what sort of drive should I be looking for to /not/ have to >muck around when installing it? > 1GB is more than adequate to install VAX/VMS. I remember 3100's used to often come with an RZ23 which I think was 109MB. This was generally regarded as too small to install a useful system on. I would have a go on anything bigger than 200MB. Not having to muck about probably involves spending a little to get an appropriate disk. On the other hand, having to muck about a bit may will give you the experience you are looking for. I'd suggest giving it a go with whatever you have. > >My hope is to get the machine booting into DECwindows. I don't plan to >use it as a server, more as sort of glorified X-terminal if anything. > Recent versions of Decwindows are disk and memory hogs, especially on VAX. It is likely that it will be very slow. It may be wiser to concentrate on terminal based access initially at least. Regards, Peter Coghlan.

16 years, 5 months

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VAX stuff

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

This stuff is too new and too big for me - located in Illinois (as per bid site). Note that Craters & Frieghters service is available. Jack ----- Forwarded Message ----- To: "Jack Rubin" <jrubin at spertus.edu> Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 3:09:20 PM Subject: RE: old DEC gear Hi We have a couple of items forsale on ibid. A Vax 6620 and a TU81 tapedrive current price $1.00 each Here is the link http://ibid.illinois.gov is is under the electronics section.

16 years, 5 months

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VAX stuff

by jrubin＠spertus.edu

This stuff is too new and too big for me - located in Illinois (as per bid site). Note that Craters & Frieghters service is available. Jack ----- Forwarded Message ----- To: "Jack Rubin" <jrubin at spertus.edu> Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 3:09:20 PM Subject: RE: old DEC gear Hi We have a couple of items forsale on ibid. A Vax 6620 and a TU81 tapedrive current price $1.00 each Here is the link http://ibid.illinois.gov is is under the electronics section.

16 years, 5 months

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Booting a VAXstation

by pcoghlan+cctech＠vms.eurokom.ie

> >> As far as I know you can't boot a traditional VAX from a disk of >> <1GB... but could I put the core of VMS on a small slow narrow SCSI >> disk, like an >> 80MB or something, and put most of it on the only Wide SCSI disk I >> have, a 10GB...? > > You can use a sub-1GB disk to boot from, yes. Booting is, as I >understand it, the only restriction. > Booting is not the only restriction. As far as I know, the same low level drivers in the ROM that are used for booting are also used for writing crashdumps. The problem is that short (6byte?) SCSI commands are used and the addresses wrap back to zero when trying to address parts of the disk beyond the 1.0something GB point. This means that if a dumpfile is located further out than that point on a large disk that VMS has otherwise successfully been installed on, it is possible to end up getting the lower part of the disk overwritten by a crashdump if the system should crash. It is possible to install a minimal VMS configuration on a small disk and access data on a disk larger than 1GB. However, it is difficult to use the larger disk to expand the VMS system as DEC software often wants to be installed on the system disk, ie the one that booted the system. The difficulties can sometimes be overcome but it may take an experienced VMS hacker to do this. I think the best idea is to get something like an RZ26 disk which is around 1GB and use that. It is also possible to boot the 3100 remotely >from another VMS system but this is probably not an option here. Regards, Peter Coghlan.

16 years, 5 months

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eBay Oz : Collection of DEC Unibus modules including custom wire-wrap

by nigel.d.williams＠gmail.com

All sorts of interesting items: TU-60, CM-11, M792 etc http://shop.ebay.com.au/pdp11.caps11/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1 not connected with seller, however I did purchase fanfold paper-tape from this eBayer.

16 years, 5 months

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More HP microcode & loader rom detective work

by jdbryan＠acm.org

Jay, On Tue Jul 27 2004 at 09:34, Jay West wrote: > I'm finally digging into my 21MX E-series machines in earnest. In > trying to inventory and document what all I may have, I've found a few > things that stump me and my "docs on hand". Perhaps folks here can shed > some light on these. > > [...] > > Microcode roms I can't identify: > > 93585-80006 > 93585-80007 > 93585-80008 OK, I'm a little late in responding (about six years late :-), but these are the E-Series double-integer firmware instructions (.DAD, .DSB, etc.). They are a product from the HP "specials" group, so they weren't on the regular price list. The relevant HP manual is 93585-90007 at Bitsavers. > 18A0580X012 > 18A0580X022 > 18A0580X032 These are another HP "specials" group product: "93578W Special Pascal Library Subroutines" for the E/F-Series. These are microcoded replacements for the bit-field extract, deposit and indexing run-time function calls emitted by the HP Pascal compiler for access to packed arrays and records. I gather these were used to reduce execution time in Pascal programs. I've not found a manual for these. -- Dave

16 years, 5 months

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Computer on eBay probably analogue

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

There's a strange computer in Kansas USA on eBay, wrong side of the pond for me anyway. It appears to be for calculating milling machine feed rates. The seller seems to think its a CNC control box but I'm fairly sure it isn't. I found it interesting anyway, the item number is 320502473280. No connection to the seller.

16 years, 5 months

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RGB-VGA Converter -- buy or build?

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Ive used lots of RGB/VGA converters over the years for various bits of equipment, mainly older 8 bit micros. There never seems to be a one solution to fit every case, and I've found that different converters work best with different systems. Sometimes I've found using two converters works best, eg going from RGB + composite sync to composite video, and then from composite video to VGA. Just my 2c

16 years, 5 months

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books offered

by rtellason＠verizon.net

Got a few here that might be of interest to folks on the list: -- Fundamentals of COBOL Programming (1968, 1973) -- Programs for Electronic Circuit Design (1986), Radio Shack -- How to Build A Working Digital Computer (1969) Hayden -- Writing BASIC Adventure Programs for the TRS-80 (1982) Tab These (along with a couple hundred others) I have listed on Amazon, but feel free to contact me off-list and let me know if you'd like any of them. I'd like to cover shipping costs, and "a little extra" and get them into the hands of somebody that wants them. Oh, and I still have that IBM binder mentioned in an earlier post -- got three replies, wrote three responses to 'em, and so far nobody has gotten back to me yet to answer "What do you care to offer for it", I'm not just gonna eat the postage, etc. :-) -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

16 years, 5 months

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Selling my SBC6120 (PDP8)

by julian＠twinax.org

Just thought I'd let people interested know I'm selling my SBC6120 board, it's a first run, but still quyite useful, when you look at the new ones that run $600 for a kit. It includes the CPU. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300406995665

16 years, 5 months

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Selling my Commodore 128D, if anyone's interested.

by julian＠twinax.org

So, I've decided to part with my 128D, as I already have a flat 128 which I prefer: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem <http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300406951107> &item=300406951107 Julian

16 years, 5 months

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APTEC board

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

I have a little board (2 by 3 inches) with a few TTL chips (7408 and 7474s) with a short ribbon cable terminated with a 14 pin DIP header. No numbers, but the board says APTEC, 1976 REV B, and a "phase 2" symbol. I think this was part of some old microcomputer stuff I used to have. Any ideas what it could be? -- Will

16 years, 5 months

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Soldering (Was: Re: HP-IB, Amigo/cs80 ... )

by trag＠io.com

> > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:07:58 -0700 > From: Ben <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> > Chuck Guzis wrote: > >> Soldering now is far safer than it used to be. I can still recall >> the glorious sensation of picking up an American Beauty 100W >> soldering iron by the wrong end. >> >> I suppose that we should be thankful that we don't use an >> oxyacetylene torch for PCB work... > > I guess that is why BYTE[1] went from a hardware magazine > to software. Some of the best advice I got in college was from an EE professor who told us, "If you drop your soldering iron, don't try to catch it on the way down. Just let it go." Jeff Walther

16 years, 5 months

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test

by chd＠chdickman.com

This is a test. This is only a test. If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed....

16 years, 5 months

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Looking for: VCB02 cable & mouse

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Recently acquired a VCB02 (thanks again, Ulli!) which I hope to get running in my MicroVAX III. I'm looking for the cable that connects >from the bulkhead to the monitor, keyboard and mouse (my research has revealed this to be referred to as "BC18Z-10" in DEC documentation). I have a compatible keyboard, but I'd like to find a mouse as well... Anyone have one to spare, or know of a decent supplier? Thanks, Josh

16 years, 5 months

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SD card on the "obvious" classic bus

by joachim.thiemann＠gmail.com

Hello, with all this talk about SD card for QBUS machines, I was wondering: SD (and SDHC) is easy to interface (if you're not too concerned about speed) and has been attached to pretty much everything under the sun; (well, I guess Jim is still working on the C= version of IEEE-488) so is there anyone making an SD card drive for SCSI? To me that would be a very versatile classic interface; I'd love to have a dead-silent drive for my Amiga, Macs and Sparcs. ST owners would like it too, I'm sure. I know there is one company making SCSI-to-CF interfaces, aimed primarily at old synthesizers (http://www.scsiforsamplers.com/). Unfortunately, the online "search space" is somewhat poisoned due to the fact that most Linux/BSD/whatever OS's use a SCSI emulation to access SD cards - but eyeballing several pages of results I didn't find any SD-to-SCSI devices. I certainly don't have the technical chops to make something like that myself from scratch - but I'd guess a low-speed hack to do it could be accomplished with a Atmel or similar chip with at least 21 IO pins (16 for the SCSI side, 5 for the SD card) but I don't know what kind of line drivers would be needed on the SCSI side. Is anyone aware of such a project in the works? Joe. -- Joachim Thiemann :: http://www.tsp.ece.mcgill.ca/~jthiem

16 years, 5 months

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SD card on the "obvious" classic bus

by julianskidmore＠yahoo.com

Hi folks, Joachim Thiemann wrote: > so is there anyone making an SD card drive for SCSI? A good one to look at is: http://www.circuitgeek.com/the-outstanding-avr-based-scsi-ram-disk/ The above project has also been adapted to work with a standard ATA hard disk and Compact Flash. It's an open development project: you can download the source code to the firmware and schematics. His website seems to be down right now though. And there's also this: http://www.reactivedata.com/Products/SCSI_Bridge_Emulators_to_CF/index.php It seems to me that a good route would be to build, say a QBUS card driven by a microcontroller. Given that even an AVR can handle SCSI comms at a hardware level by itself it can probably handle MSCP and a lot of the interface logic. -cheers from julz @P

16 years, 5 months

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rare and not-so rare systems available

by useddec＠gmail.com

I collect Zeiss equipment, and almost anything optical made brass. But a Hasselblad...hmmm. Paul On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 9:59 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > At 7:44 PM -0800 3/8/10, David Griffith wrote: > >> I'll take your unwanted Model M keyboards. >> > > Hehehe... I only have two, and they're among the very few Classic Computer > items that I want to keep. > > Is anyone in Oregon looking for Classic Hardware? If so what. I'm looking > to start selling off my collection. Though someone with a nice Leica (with > lenses), or Hasselblad or Large Format Lenses might be able to score a good > trade. > > Yes, this includes rare systems. Except for some PDP-11, VAX, Alpha, and > Commodore gear I think I'm looking to unload most of my classic gear. > > The only computer I use at home any more is my Mac. I just don't have time > or interest in Classic Computers any more. > > Zane > > > > -- > | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | > | healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast | > | | Classic Computer Collector | > +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ > | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | > | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | > | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ | >

16 years, 5 months

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calculating electricity costs

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

Suppose my power company claims that the charge is $0.02407 per killowatt/hour. If I have a computer (or anything) that draws maybe 100 watts. that should be 0.1kw/h x 0.02407 x 24 hours = 5.7768 cents per day or $1.73 a month. I've been under the impression for quite some time that it costs $20 a month to run a typical modern desktop computer 24 hours a day for a month. I know there are taxes and fees thrown into the power bill. But what's wrong with my math? Was I wrong before or am I wrong now? I got this kw/h price from the power company web site burried in a pdf somewhere. It looked like the right price to me. Maybe the actual charge is much higher? brian

16 years, 5 months

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Anyone running RTE-M on an HP 21MX series M, E, or F?

by js＠cimmeri.com

Hi. I'm curious if anyone's got RTE-M booting from mini-cartridge (such as 2645A terminal) or 8" floppy (such as 9885M) for their HP 1000 21MX (eg. 2113E). I'm attempting restoration of a 2113E with the extremely kind assistance of J. David Bryan, and would love to find a bootable primary copy. It would also be great to hear what OSes folks are running on these, and which version they like the best. Thanks very much, John Singleton Rockville, MD.

16 years, 5 months

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