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

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Al wrote: >> Yup, redirected to trailing-edge.com. >> > >That is really bad. Tim will not be pleased. It's not so bad. I'm quite used to getting slashdotted. The net bandwidth out of my site is really tiny but it's fundamentally there to serve good stuff up, and without a doubt bitsavers is good stuff. I suspect folks trying to download, oh, say the 1981 Tektronix catalog would be very dissatsifed with the bandwidth out of my site, if they want the document in faster than a couple hours. Occasionally we get into discussions about mirroring for geographic redundancy and I support all efforts to do so, even if it sucks up my bandwidth. Only rarely do I stay up at night worried about bandwidth. But I do stay up at night worrying about what would happen if some server filled with good stuff became suddenly unavailable. We have archive.org and Google's cache as good starts but I think they don't necessarily suck up tape images. I do notice that google has sometimes been building its indices with OCR from scanned PDF documents. Tim.

17 years, 3 months

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IMSAI 8080 for sale....

by imsaicollector＠yahoo.com

Hi all ?? Those of you who know me, know that I have a rule that basically make me attempt to get rid of stuff that I have not used after a certain period of time. ?? I have a second fully functional IMSAI-8080 (http://www.michael-george-hart.com/computerscience/imsai8080-z80.html) that has been sitting around doing nothing since completed my last IMSAI-8080 project (http://www.michael-george-hart.com/computerscience/imsai8080-8088.html) ?? Given my other S-100 projects, ALTAIR 8800b repair and restoration, and porting LINUX to my CS-250 I don't foresee really doing anything with this particular IMSAI-8080 for at least another year to two years maybe as much as three years from now. ?? I have had this IMSAI-8080 since 1996/1997, which I got from a Electronic parts/component store. The store used it to maintain their inventory along, mail, billing etc from about 1975/1976 until it simply stopped working. (That was the story told to me.) It sat in their store from the day it stopped working until I came across it in 1996/1997. I made some simple repairs to the memory and its been working since that time. ?? The only issue with it is there are some minor alignment problems with the between the floppy drives. Other than that the system has always booted without issue. ?? The person who purchase the system from me will get all the manuals for all the boards in the system and the floppy drives. Also to be included is the IMSAI-8080 Manual and a number of IMSAI-8080 period related fliers. I will be sending the 50 or so floppies that originally came with the system when I first took possession of it . ? Again this is a fully functional IMSAI-8080 in near mint condition. http://www.michael-george-hart.com/image/s-100/imsai-1/dsc02565.jpg http://www.michael-george-hart.com/image/s-100/imsai-1/dsc02567.jpg http://www.michael-george-hart.com/image/s-100/imsai-1/dsc02572.jpg I am looking to get $2000. If no one is interested I will put it on e-bay and see what the market tolerate. I think that my price is a good deal consider the crap that I see people paying $1600 to $2500 on e-bay for systems that don't even work or can boot into CP/M-80 I intend to place the system on e-bay Wednesday morning is no one here gives a my expected price. Let me know if you are interested Michael Michael Hart 201-290-3796 michael.george.hart at gmail.com PS. ?? The total weight is about 100lbs. I will probably have to ship everything I mentioned above in 5 different boxes. You pay for shipping cost. If possible I would prefer whomever purchases the system come an pick it up the system so they can confirm the functionality to their satisfaction for themselves. I still don't trust UPS/FedEx or USPS for safely get the system no matter how well I pack the system.

17 years, 3 months

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DEC VT05 with OS/8 -- basic system rebuild?

by bqt＠softjar.se

"bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca" <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote: > Johnny Billquist wrote: > >> > (And to make it clear: hardware flow control is definitely not possible >> > towards a PDP8) > > I use it all the time ... serial device is turned *ON* or *OFF*. :) Nothing prevents the PDP8 from sending data even if your serial device is turned off. :-) > What is needed is the reader run relay more likely than not. Hmm. The paper tape of the ASR33... Was there some signal run in parallel for the reader run? What did you hook the other end to then? The KL8-JA (and KL8-E) don't have any more signals that I can remember offhand. There was an option for the KL8-JA (called KL8-M I think) which implemented partial modem signaling, if you needed that. Never seen one in real life, and I can't remember if I ever read any documentation of it. But you'd most likely need software to actually implement the signaling anyway. It won't be a hardware-only solution... Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 3 months

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DEC VT05 with OS/8 -- basic system rebuild?

by bqt＠softjar.se

Rick Murphy <rick at rickmurphy.net> wrote: > At 05:17 AM 5/17/2009, Johnny Billquist wrote: >> Chris Elmquist <chrise at pobox.com> wrote: >> >>> I may have missed some facts earlier in this thread-- but does the >>> system >>> obey hardware flow control such as CTS? ie, if CTS is low, will it be >>> blocked from transmitting? If that is obeyed by all of your OS and >>> software, then it is not hard to build a microcontroller that would sit >>> between the system and the terminal, adding the delays you need on <cr> >>> while buffering for and hardware flow controlling back toward the PDP-8. >> In general, when talking about DEC equipment, the answer to that >> question is *always* no, for the simple fact that DEC didn't do >> hardware flow control. Hardware flow control is actually against the >> RS-232 spec, and DEC didn't abuse standards (unlike most other companies). > > And, of course, there's a pretty good chance that this VT05 is > connected via 20ma, not RS232. > (Assumption based on the fact that there's an easy fix in the KL8-JA; > given that this hasn't been used to fix the problem, it's probably not > an omnibus computer. Pre-8/E serial devices were often current loop.) Assumption wrong. :-) The original posted have a KL8-E, which is software compatible with the KL8-JA, but don't have the filler fix that the KL8-JA have. They are both omnibus devices. The KL8-E is actually kindof cool, since it implements a UART in discrete logic. One side effect of that implementation is that you can send a break character, since the transmit shift register is always loaded immideately, even is a character is currently being transmitted, and the stop bit is also shifted through the register, thus you can "overwrite" the stop bit with additional data. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 3 months

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Help contacting: Michael Green

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

I had been working on a deal with him for an apple iigs and some other things. I sent him some money though paypal, then nothing happened. Last I heard he had moved to Austin Texas. I'm not sure whether that's true or not. After 30 days I disputed the transaction and paypal sent me back the money which was enough to get him to respond to my emails. He sent me an apologetic email and said he still had the computer if I was still interested. (I'm not) The email address you have is the same one I have which he used to send me the email from Austin. I'm not sure if they have comcast in Austin, but I sort of doubt it. I can think of a few technical scenarios where this is possible. But my guess is that he still lives in Washington. brian On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 10:37 AM, Mark Tapley <mtapley at swri.edu> wrote: > Hello all, > ? ? ? ?I lost contact in the middle part (at the most embarassing moment) of > a deal for a Mac IIci with a Michael Green, last known email (account no > longer exists) > > ? ? ? ?michaelgreen42 at comcast.net > > last known address > > ? ? ? ?4409 67th Ave. E Fife Wa 98424 > > but said to be moving shortly. Any assistance reestablishing contact would > be well appreciated. > -- > ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?- Mark ? ? 210-379-4635 > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Large Asteroids headed toward planets > inhabited by beings that don't have > technology adequate to stop them: > > ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward. >

17 years, 3 months

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Help contacting: Michael Green

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Hello all, I lost contact in the middle part (at the most embarassing moment) of a deal for a Mac IIci with a Michael Green, last known email (account no longer exists) michaelgreen42 at comcast.net last known address 4409 67th Ave. E Fife Wa 98424 but said to be moving shortly. Any assistance reestablishing contact would be well appreciated. -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

17 years, 3 months

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MicroRSX (was: Re: Archiving RX50s with PUTR)

by bqt＠softjar.se

"js at cimmeri.com" <js at cimmeri.com> wrote: > Going a bit OT from archiving RX50's... I wonder how MicroRSX differed > from full RSX11-M, which itself was quite compact? Don't be fooled by the "Micro" in MicroRSX. It is a referral to that the OS was custom adapted for the MicroPDP-11. MicroRSX is actually rather big. It's a customized version of RSX-11M-PLUS for a specific set of hardware. As such, it is delivered pre-compiled, and you cannot run SYSGEN. Instead, it has a configuration program that runs on boot, which can adapt it to the specific needs you have. But the possibility of adaptations are limited. You don't get any sources, and if I remember right, you don't even get MACRO-11 or TKB with it. Those were options you'd have to pay extra for. It's more of a turnkey system for a specific task. You bought a MicroPDP-11, MicroRSX, some application that you wanted to use, and just used it. > It's truly amazing what was once done (in this case, by David Cutler) > with so little memory. Back in 1999, Lars Poulsen wrote: > > "RSX-11D soon grew too large to fit on a 32KB (16KW) machine. > David Cutler decided that it was possible to implement the same > services with much less code, starting from scratch, and went on > to do just that. In 18 months, he basically wrote and debugged > the RSX-11M kernel. The system was released in source form, and > with conditional assembly could be configured at compile time > for any hardware from 8KW 11/05 to a full-house 11/45. > Over the years I worked on RSX-11M based system integration, > I eventually got to take a look at most of the modules of 11M, > and Dave Cutler's name was in the header of each one! " Yeah, RSX-11M is really nice, small and beautiful. And yes, Cutlers name is all over the sources. RSX-11M-PLUS, which is a superset of -11M also share the same code base. Johnny > > Then, to hear Mr. Cutler talking as he does here, was quite a surprise: > > http://www.amd.com/us-en/Weblets/0,,7832_8366_7823_8718%5E7839,00.html > > jS > > > > > Tobias Russell wrote: >> > I've put up the microRSX-11 distribution floppies for anyone who is >> > interested. They can be found here: >> > >> > http://www.pdp11.co.uk/2009/05/17/microrsx-11-rx50-distribution/ >> > >> > I've started to play with getting this up and running on simh. It seems >> > to boot the install floppy ok, although it hung after I selected install >> > from the menus. If anyone has better success, please let me know as I >> > would like to get this up and running. >> > >> > All the best, >> > Toby -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 3 months

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Looking for a Datac 1000 SBC

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

I am looking for a DATAC 1000 SBC. Anyone have one? These were popular with members of the Philadelphia Area Computer Society (PACS) in 1977-1978. I would like to learn more about what kinds of projects people did with them. Maybe get a few pictures. I have a few articles on this trainer/SBC but not much else. I have already spoken with some PACS members about it, but none has one. Bill

17 years, 3 months

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S-100 power supply transformer

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: S-100 power supply transformer > From: "Andrew Lynch" <lynchaj at yahoo.com> > Date: Sun, 17 May 2009 16:51:44 -0400 > To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Hi! Does anyone know of an available transformer suitable for making an >S-100 power supply? I need 120VAC input and 10VAC output and +/- 18VAC >outputs. > >The best I solution I can find is two separate 80VA transformers; one >parallel 10VAC output and another 36VCT output which can be configured for >+/-18VAC outputs. Try closer to 8V RMS rectified that will be more depending on load. Same to the other two. Look up the calulations and see. FYI you also talking for the 8V line 60,000 to 150,000microfarads (at 15-25V) and the other two more like 10,000 to 20,000 (at 30V min) microfarad capacitors.. Also consider a 240 primary to 16V which on 120 will do 8V then. However common (standard) voltages are 6.3, 12.6, 25.4 and 48 then there are control transformers like 10V, 18V and 24 and sometimes 36. >I would prefer a single transformer rather than dual transformers because >they are the most expensive part of a linear power supply. You will have better luck with two but you may get lucky. FYI the early Altair used two. > >I know Northstar and Vector Graphic used similar dual output transformers >but I cannot find anything like them after searching the usual vendors like >Digikey, Mouser, Jameco, etc. Even transformer manufacturers don't seem to >carry a stock product of this configuration although you can order custom >units. Thos are honking big and intended for the then loaded bus of more that a few cards. We talking a +8V good for 25-35A. More practical systems especially those osing newer 64K (on one card) memories tended to require far less power. Try digikey and mouser. In this day and age those are not common and during the golden age of S100 they were still a bit oddball and not cheap. Allison > >Thanks in advance for any help. Your ideas greatly appreciated. > >Thanks and have a nice day! > >Andrew Lynch

17 years, 3 months

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Looking for M4 Data 9905 manual or diagnostic program code listing

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

I'm trying to get an old M4 9905 tape drive running with my PDP-11/73's Pertec interface and I'm not having a ton of luck. Currently attempting to boot from known-good media spins the reels a bit and then gives me an "Error 21 - Drive Error" from the 11. I want to check that the drive is configured correctly. There are evidently settings that can be tweaked by running internal diagnostic programs from the front panel, but I don't know what the codes are. I haven't had much luck finding a manual on the 'net (Bitsavers has manuals for the 9914, which is similar but not similar enough that the diagnostic programs are the same.) Anyone have a manual or a diagnostic listing for this drive? Thanks, Josh

17 years, 3 months

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Touch tone pads and the like...

by tsw-cc＠johana.com

Ethan Disck Wrote: > 35Y3D / Apr 1977 - 7 wires as previously described > 35AF4A / Jan 1081 - 11 wires as previously described Yes, there are a couple of different Touch Tone Pads floating around. The main difference between them is a couple of things. The ones with more wires are designed for use with SpeakerPhones ("List 3" and the like for those reading BSP's at home). The extra wires do a couple of things. One set mutes the speaker a bit (an extra set of contacts) when dialing so you won't get blasted with the tones on the speaker (normal use is to really send LOUD tones down to the central office). The other wires provide power to the oscillator when using it "hands free". Normal power is derived from the telephone line, but with speaker phones, it is a bit different. Hopefully this will explain things. My problem is that I have a couple of "solid state" (non-coil) pads (they use an IC) and they are only compatible with non speakerphone telephone sets. Here at my parents house, they have three 2565 sets, one which is with a speakerphone. I would like to replace the old single transistor L-C pads (they turn on tones a bit mushy) with more modern ones, but they don't have all the wires. One of these days I'll figure out how to make do. Ackk! another "project"...

17 years, 3 months

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Tektronix 611 display manual

by djg＠pdp8.net

>I'm interested in knowing what the "remote program" connector shown on >the back of the display does. > I have the maintenance manual. Pin 1,2 and 14 Optional connection for X axis signal input. Disconnect the coaxial cable from the X axis BNC connector. Connect the center conductor of the coaxial cable to pin 1 and the shild to pins 2 and 4 (I think the 4 is a type, should be 14). Pin 3,15 and 16 Option connection for the Y axis signal input. Disconnect the coaxial cable from the Y axis BNC connector. Connect the center conductor of the coaxial cable to pin 15 and the shield to pins 3 and 16. Pin 4,5, and 17 Optional connector for the Z axis signal input. Disconnect the coaxial cable from the Z axis BNC connector. Connect the center conductor to pin 4 and the shild to pins 5 and 17. 6 NON-STORE is a function which is forced by grounding pin 6 to pin 19 (except when using the TEST SPIRAL switch). 7 ERASE INTERVAL is a signal output that goes from +10V to +0.3V during the interval of erasure. 8 WRITE THRU is accomplished by grounding pin 8 to pin 19 and exciting the Z axis. 18 ERASE FUNCTION is obtained by grounding pin 18 to pin 19. 19 PROGRAM GND is the ground reference for remotely connected external functions. 20 VIEW MODE is a function that is forced to exist as long as pin 20 is grounded to pin 19.

17 years, 3 months

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bitsavers mirror

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Several people replied to me privately about my previous post on bitsavers, and apparently got the impression that bandwidth was tight on the server. It is not a case of bandwidth being tight at all, far from it. It's a matter of fairness, the bandwidth is to be distributed among all the mirrors. If you're not prepared to take some real bandwidth, you probably shouldn't be mirroring it. We've got truckloads of available bandwidth. In the past I had throttled bitsavers down because I couldn't find a good fair way to share bandwidth amongst the mirrors. Now that I have such a way, bandwidth restrictions have been completely lifted. Enjoy :) Jay

17 years, 3 months

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Archiving RX50s with PUTR

by bqt＠softjar.se

Tobias Russell <toby at coreware.co.uk> wrote: > Thanks for the advice. I had already started by the time I ready your > reply so I have images for now, although it would be easy to go the > extra step by mounting my images and extracting the individual files. I > might have a hunt to see if there are any linux/unix utilities out there > so I can automate exracting the individual files from RT-11 images. Count me as a voice against extracting the individual files. It's way better to make copies of the whole floppies. You can easily do the extraction afterwards if you have a program that understands the file system. And it will preserve the actual floppies as well, which can then be recreated by someone who don't have the tools either. Also, if you have some bug in the extraction software, you still have the original around to repeat the process if you want to. Also, there are file systems that PUTR don't understand, not to mention that there can be issues with preserving some kind of information when extracting files to another type of file system. > > If anyone is interested, the fruits of my labours can be seen here: > > http://www.pdp11.co.uk/2009/05/17/rt-11-rx50-disk-images/ > > Quite a few of the files probably already exist in other archives but > some of the stuff is probably new. I've not had a chance yet to look > through the disks in detail but will annotate up the contents when I get > a chance. Nice. Keep up the good work. > I've just been given a set of microRSX 1.0 distribution RX50s so I will > put those up next. That's something you don't want to point PUTR towards... Johnny > > Thanks, > Toby > > > > On Sat, 2009-05-16 at 17:38 -0700, Lyle Bickley wrote: >> > Toby, >> > >> > On Saturday 16 May 2009, Tobias Russell wrote: >>> > > I have a large box of RX50 disks that I would like to archive onto >>> > > modern media to ensure they are preserved. I've built up a machine with >>> > > a 5.25" floppy drive and install DOS and PUTR. >>> > > >>> > > Is the best method to archive them to: >>> > > >>> > > MOUNT B: /FOREIGN /RX50 >>> > > >>> > > followed by: >>> > > >>> > > COPY/DEV/FILE B: [filename] >>> > > >>> > > for each of the disks I insert? >>> > > >>> > > I was pondering whether I should use the /BINARY flag on the copy, but >>> > > I've not seen this mentioned on other webpages I have read. >> > >> > Since PUTR "understands" multiple filetypes, I have found it is much better to >> > save the contents of each floppy (RX50) to a separate directory - but NOT as an >> > image file, but rather as individual files. That way you can later use PUTR to >> > create logical media of any form - say RL02, RX01, etc. from the captured >> > files. >> > >> > Assuming drive "B:" is your 5.25" drive, and the OS is RT11 you would do the >> > following: >> > >> > MOUNT B: /RT11 /RX50 >> > then >> > COPY B:*.* . >> > and you will have captured the individual files that were on the RX50. >> > >> > When you reverse the process to recreate a diskette (RX50, RX23, RX01, etc.) be >> > sure to use a SET B: type; i.e., SET B: RX23 >> > then >> > FORMAT B: /RT11 /RX23 (or whatever) >> > then >> > COPY *.* B: >> > >> > NOTE: Be absolutely sure to SET COPY BINARY before you do anything. For some >> > unknown reason, the PUTR default is ASCII. (I have a SET COPY BINARY in PUTR's >> > initialization file - to be sure I never forget to do it ;-) >> > >> > Cheers, >> > Lyle >> > -- >> > Lyle Bickley >> > Bickley Consulting West Inc. >> > http://bickleywest.com >> > "Black holes are were God is dividing by zero" >> > > -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 3 months

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Tektronix 611 display manual

by legalize＠xmission.com

Is it online anywhere? Bitsavers doesn't have any manuals for the storage display products (601, 611), just the terminals based on the same kind of storage display. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 3 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 69, Issue 29

by bqt＠softjar.se

cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 26 > Date: Sat, 16 May 2009 12:31:25 -0400 > From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: DEC ST506 Interface Adapter Part No 54-17003-01 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: > <f4eb766f0905160931veb8ff8ax6957d5c2abd0d432 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Julian Skidmore > <julianskidmore at yahoo.com> wrote: >>> >> I thought it could only format "known" disk types, not arbitrary disks >>> >> (a firmware limitation in the formatter application, not a hardware >>> >> limitation). >> > >> > Surely, it's possible to hack an RQDX3 controller's ROM to support arbitrary geometries? > > The geometries aren't in the RQDXn ROMs - the formatter application > writes them to the disk during the formatter process. > > There are three VAX formatters I know of - the ROMs on a VS/uV2000, > the Customer Runnable Diagnostics (CRD) and the Field Service > diagnostics. > > I know the CRD formatter only allows you to select known drives from a > menu table and the Field Service formatter allows you to enter > arbitrary values (i.e., has a menu plus a fill-in page). The > ROM-based formatter on the VS/uV2000 was the one I appear to have > mis-remembered the capabilities of. > > No hacking of the RQDX3 is required, just selection of the right > formatter application. However, all information is not just located on the disk either. The RQDX1 and RQDX2 use a format that is incompatible with the RQDX3. In order to use an RD52 (for instance) that has been formatted on a RQDX2 on a RQDX3, you need to reformat it... Also, an RQDX1 or RQDX2 cannot control an RD54. No matter what formatting program you use. You need the RQDX3 for that. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 3 months

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Vintage Processors in Santa Cruz, CA?

by mdavidson1963＠gmail.com

Has anyone ever dealt with Vintage Processors in Santa Cruz, CA? They have an EBay store at http://stores.ebay.com/Vintage-Processors I ask because some of the prices that are listed struck me as a bit 'over the top' (such as a DG Eclipse S/120 for $1000?). Just curious... Mark Davidson mdavidson1963 at gmail.com

17 years, 3 months

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S-100 backplane prototype PCB still available

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi! Although there hasn't been much interest here in my S-100 backplane prototype project on CCTALK progress is continuing. Thankfully I have found several brave volunteers to test these initial units and help share the cost of the manufacturing run with me. I appreciate their help immensely. Of the eight initial units, I've shipped six and one more is committed. I still have one PCB left if there is anyone on CCTALK that would like to join the project. Much of the testing has already been done and some things have been improved but the basic design is proving to be functional and everything basically works. There are some improvements I am keeping track of such as better labeling on the PCB silkscreen but nothing which yet warrants a "respin." Drawings of the N8VEM S-100 backplane prototype are available on the wiki. The N8VEM S-100 backplane prototype PCBs are $32 each plus $2 shipping in the US. Shipping overseas is typically $5. http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder <http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=S100> &param=S100 In addition to the S-100 backplane prototype PCB there are drawings for the N8VEM S-100 prototyping board which I am developing. There have been several revisions and I am not done with it yet. If anyone is interested please contact me off list. I do not have a firm estimate on the price of the N8VEM S-100 prototyping board but I believe it will be in the mid $20 range probably around $25 each plus shipping. Any comments, suggestions, or questions are welcome. Please be constructive and postive! Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

17 years, 3 months

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bitsavers redirecting to the mirrors

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Is anyone else seeing bitsavers.org or www.bitsavers.org being redirected to the mirror sites?

17 years, 3 months

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DEC ST506 Interface Adapter Part No 54-17003-01

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Robert Jarratt <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> wrote: > Looks like it is for a VAXstation 2000. Knowing that, does anyone know if > such a thing could fit (and work) in one of the two machines I mention > above? I have a couple of uVAX 2000s (same box, move a jumper and don't attach a tube). The unexpanded box has connectors on the motherboard and comes with cables to attach one drive. I've seen them usually with RD53s and RD54s, but RD31s and RD32s should work fine, or IIRC, any drive you can manage to format on an RQDX3 using the Field Service formatter (not the Customer Runnable Diagnostics formatter). You can format known models of drive (RD31, RD32, RD53, RD54, and perhaps others) in the uVAX2000 box, too, but I don't think there's a way to format non-DEC-geometry drives there. So... unexpanded, you get a 20-pin and a 34-pin cable from the mainboard to the drive. What this expansion *might* be is a replacement cable that extends past the drive and goes out an access plate on the bottom of the box, then to a connector on a "skirt" (that should also be included) to give you a (ISTR) DD50P that you can cable to an external drive. There may also be a small circuit board in the skirt for the drive, it's been years since I've opened mine. There's also room in the skirt for external connector for the 8-port serial expander (DHT32?). I have one of those too, but haven't gotten the external cabling to use it. So... there _is_ a kit for adding an external disk connector to a MicroVAX/VAXstation 2000, but I have no idea if this part number is what it is. The *controller* is built into every uV/VS2000, but not the cabling for an external drive. -ethan

17 years, 3 months

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DEC VT05 with OS/8 -- basic system rebuild?

by bqt＠softjar.se

Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> wrote: Hi. As a first general comment, I should point out that is was years since I played with this, so all I write is from hazy memories. I could check it all out, but that would take some time, so I'll just write away for now, and hopefully this will be enough to set you on the right path yourself. :-) >>> I just try to get a VT05 working with my PDP-8/e. >>> Having a tuned KL8E interface at 2400 baud. > And I begin to think about switching everything to 300 baud :-( In a way, that is your only option, yes. Sad as it might seem. >>> I need fill characters.... >>> Found a KL8E.PA in the OS/8 V3D sources. It is a two page handler and >>> works. > Yes, it works with applications using the TTY handler It works with applications that don't do explicit termimal I/O, but instead do file I/O and the output (or input) is actually the terminal. That's the only situation where the terminal driver is involved. The terminal driver is really not adapted to use as a general terminal I/O handler, but only to use as one output/input alternative when you do file I/O. So it will never be, or do, what you want in this situation. >> You need to use BUILD to make a new system image, with your device >> driver included. However, you also need to understand many programs do >> I/O to the console without going through that device driver, but talks >> directly with the console. >> So it might be that there is no easy solution to your problem. > And the very first of these "bad" programs is the OS/8 keyboard monitor! That's just the beginning of it, however... > Yes, the keyboard monitor doesn't use a handler, it just uses TLS to print what it wants to print. > This explains why my DIRECT output works fine with the KL8E handler with delay turned on. But I > don't get the prompt properly (sometimes). The keyboard monitor implementation looks very straight > forward. > So there are a few new problems on my way to a working 2400 baud VT05: > > How to correctly assemble the keyboard monitor? There is at least one undefined symbol in the source > code (V3D). Can't make any comments on that. I think I have all the sources somewhere, and they are also probably on the internet, but I have never tried building the whole system from scratch. > When I have the binary - how to put that onto my system device? That's another story. I can't remember for sure, but I think you can do this with build. > The software support manual, OS/8 manual and "Introduction to programming" did not really help me. > They explain *some* procedures, but only in a step by step way. They tell about building from paper > tape using "CODNFIG" tapes (what IS that???) or the build program. They reference paper tapes that > contain "several binaries" - but don't explain WHICH binaries. Just that the user has to load all of > them... So in the end I did not find out how an OS/8 system is initally built. In your case, you probably want to use BUILD. > The BUILD program can do it, I know. But where does it take the keyboard monitor from? The "OS8.BN" > binary is not included in the installation - but I can spawn new systems using BUILD. So it must > somehow *contain* the OS/8 binary. > I could imagine that one has to load several binaries on top of each other to pull together the core > image that comes as BUILD.SV. But where can I find the instructions? All the relevant bits and pieces are in the OS/8 handbook. But in short, build can take a current system image and use as a base for the new one if I remember correctly. So it don't contain the OS/8 binary itself. That would be pretty dumb, by the way. It would make upgrading difficult, since you'd have to match BUILD.SV to whatever OS image you were using. BUILD can also replace device drivers in your system. That is fixed blocks on the system disk, I think. > All in all I cannot understand why I'm getting in such deep trouble while trying to get my VT05 > working. It is a VT05 B with the "high speed" option, sold for $$$ by DEC. > Their TTY handler also supports the odd ends of the VT05 - but why doesn't the keyboard monitor? > Either I am completely wrong or their software really did not fit their hardware. > In other places (VR14 display), they have built in the strangest device drivers into their software, > just ready to use and plug and play. Why shouldn't they have supported their high speed VT05? It is > from 1974, OS/8 V3D is newer than that... To make a long story short. The PDP-8 wasn't exactly a top of the line product by the time the VT05 came out. OS/8 was written before this, and it is those limitations that you are hitting. V3D wasn't exactly a redesign of the system. Just some fixes. The problem you are looking at goes straight to the core of the system design. There is nothing you could do about that short of totally rewriting the whole system. And then it wouldn't be OS/8 any more. In short, all programs that do terminal I/O specifically in OS/8 do it themself. No device driver is ever involved. And all programs knows this. So there is no way you can change that paradigm. All programs would still do it that way, even if you did redesign the monitor. There is possibly one path to relief, however. Unless my memory fails me, the KL8-JA (and maybe the KL8-E as well) have a jumper to insert 4 (I think it was) fillers after a LF. This is a hardware fix for your problem, and is what DEC did. In short, there is no software solution to the problem within OS/8. But there is a hardware solution (unless my memory fails me). > Best wishes, currently a bit frustated, > > Philipp :-) :-) Funny that noone else around seems to be able to answer. I thought there were atleast some people with experience from older systems around. :-) Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 3 months

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DEC ST506 Interface Adapter Part No 54-17003-01

by julianskidmore＠yahoo.com

> I thought it could only format "known" disk types, not arbitrary disks > (a firmware limitation in the formatter application, not a hardware > limitation). Surely, it's possible to hack an RQDX3 controller's ROM to support arbitrary geometries? I have an old ST506 MFM drive hanging around here I keep toying with using. Does someone have a listing for the ROM? -cheers from Julz @p

17 years, 3 months

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WTB - VAX 4000 tape sled / bracket

by ddsnyder＠zoominternet.net

I recently aquired a couple of VAX 4000-705a's from a recycler and am looking for: TK70 or TK85 Tape bracketing, sleds and one faceplate I have several drive rail sets for a BA213 to trade or would be willing to buy. Dan Snyder view my stuff at http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielDSnyder

17 years, 3 months

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marginal OT: Mozilla for Mac OS 9

by spectre＠floodgap.com

This is marginally off-topic, but I'd like to hear from anyone who was building Mozilla for Mac OS 9 back in the day successfully -- I have a few questions for you. They can be off list to avoid topic drift if you like. Thanks :) -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Point to ponder: without sponges, how much deeper would the ocean be? ------

17 years, 3 months

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ZENITH EASY PC

by dragonsdied20＠gmail.com

Dear Jean Allread, I saw your post about a zenith easy PC and i, always have wanted to have an "old fashioned" computer thought that this was my chance! I would enjoy owning the Zenith Easy PC and would take constant care of it. I would like to hear back from you. Sincerely, Abe Dickinson

17 years, 3 months

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vt100 add ons?

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Does anyone have any add on boards for the VT-100 like the regis graphics board, or other upgrades for sale? Please contact of list. Cheers.

17 years, 3 months

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Northgate OmniKey Ultra

by LWhetton＠usbr.gov

What are you selling it for? Linda Whetton Environmental Resources Division 125 S. State Street, Room 6107 Salt Lake City UT 84138-1147 Tel: 801-524-3880 Fax: 801-524-3858 EM: lwhetton at usbr.gov

17 years, 3 months

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DEC ST506 Interface Adapter Part No 54-17003-01

by pcoghlan+cctech＠vms.eurokom.ie

Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > >> the Box was expanable to a second similar sized on to add either TK50 using >> the sasi (sorta scsi) bus... > >Is it _really_ SASI? ISTR there's a 5380 chip in there, but I could >be thinking of the TK50Z-FA board. I did once download and burn a set >of EPROMs to try to boot a (slow) SCSI disk in the MV2000, but I don't >think I ever got as far as loading a disk. I have a 200MB 3.5" >Embedded SCSI drive ready to drop into a machine if I ever get a >chance to pick that project back up. I know the interface won't be >fast, but it would allow me to use more modern disks, and that's >really, really handy, no matter how slow. > I think there is an NCR5380 in the VS2000 but I don't remember for sure. However, I do know that I have used Wolfgang J. Moeller's PK2K SCSI drivers for VS/MV2000 successfully to access directly connected SCSI disks on my VS2000 while booted from either an RD54 or another cluster member. I have never tried replacing the ROMs in order to be able to boot from a SCSI disk though. (I have also formatted and used a number of random MFM disks pulled from PCs on my VS2000.) Regards, Peter

17 years, 3 months

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Documation or equivalent

by spedraja＠ono.com

Where can I obtain a Documation card reader/puncher or similar device ? Kind Regards Sergio

17 years, 3 months

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DEC VT05 with OS/8 -- basic system rebuild?

by bqt＠softjar.se

Charles H Dickman <chd_1 at nktelco.net> wrote: > Philipp Hachtmann wrote: >> > Hi Charles, >> > >>> >> The OS8 Handbook and the documents you mentioned have about all the >>> >> information you should need. >> > But.. I asked here because it's not always easy to actually FIND the >> > information needed. >> > By the way I did not yet find out how to rebuild OS/8 from scratch >> > (including reassembly). >> > >> > Philipp >> > > I don't think that I understood the source of your troubles. I think > that the basic problem is that most of the OS/8 system did its own > thing with the console. There is no getting around that. True, and which I pointed out already at the start of this thread. :-) > I suspect that it is impossible to rebuild OS/8 today. I would be > surprised if OS/8 was actually maintained on a PDP-8. All of the > diagnostic listing, for example, were generated using PAL10 on a PDP-10. I very much suspect you're wrong. I also happen to know that atleast some of the software was definitely written and maintained on a PDP-8. The reason being that the code was converted from PAL-8 to MACREL... And that compiler isn't totally compatible with PAL-8, even through it's a superset. And MACREL don't even exist on a PDP-10. Talk with Charles Lasner about it, if you want to hear a really long comment about the stupidity of DEC, and the problems it caused (sliding towards OS/78 and OS/278 here). > I have tried to find a coherent set of binaries and this can be > difficult too. SET is especially problematical because it requires > intimate knowledge of the handler it is going to patch. I have the > opinion that the the suggestions about using SET to change things in the > KL8-E hander are a red herring, they were probably never added to SET. SET is definitely a red herring. If nothing else, than just for the fact that the TTY: driver isn't enough by far for this problem. DEC's solution was the KL8-JA, which did this in hardware. That made it work for all occasions, no matter what software, driver or OS you used. Another solution would be to use the terminal under MULTOS, or something similar, since then you actually have a device driver in the bottom, which you can fix this in. (And then it will work for OS/8 as well, although at a slight performance penalty sometimes.) Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 3 months

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DEC ST506 Interface Adapter Part No 54-17003-01

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk- > bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jarratt > Sent: 14 May 2009 00:21 > To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' > Subject: DEC ST506 Interface Adapter Part No 54-17003-01 > > One of these is on eBay at the moment. I am looking for an ST506 > adapter to > go into a MicroVAX 3100 Model 80 or a VAXStation 3100 M38. Trouble is I > can't find any technical information on the part number, just who has > this > item in stock. Can anyone tell me if this is the part I need? > > > > Thanks > > > > Rob Looks like it is for a VAXstation 2000. Knowing that, does anyone know if such a thing could fit (and work) in one of the two machines I mention above? Thanks Rob

17 years, 3 months

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DEC VT05 with OS/8 -- System handler?

by bqt＠softjar.se

Philipp Hachtmann <hachti at hachti.de> wrote: > Hi, > > I just try to get a VT05 working with my PDP-8/e. > Having a tuned KL8E interface at 2400 baud. > > I need fill characters.... > Found a KL8E.PA in the OS/8 V3D sources. It is a two page handler and works. > But how do I get my system to use it as terminal handler? Or is there another one? > > Best wishes, > > Philipp :-) You need to use BUILD to make a new system image, with your device driver included. However, you also need to understand many programs do I/O to the console without going through that device driver, but talks directly with the console. So it might be that there is no easy solution to your problem. Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

17 years, 3 months

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DEC VT05 with OS/8 -- basic system rebuild?

by charlesleecourtney＠yahoo.com

Hi Rich, Any news on the Sigma front? Lee Courtney 2124 Ashton Avenue Menlo Park, CA 94025 650-704-3934 cell --- On Wed, 5/13/09, Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> wrote: > From: Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> > Subject: RE: DEC VT05 with OS/8 -- basic system rebuild? > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Date: Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 6:56 PM > From: Charles H Dickman > Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 4:07 PM > > > I suspect that it is impossible to rebuild OS/8 today. > I would be > > surprised if OS/8 was actually maintained on a PDP-8. > All of the > > diagnostic listing, for example, were generated using > PAL10 on a PDP-10. > > That is easily remedied.? We can certainly host PAL10 > and any other PDP-10 > based tools (PAL11, for example) on either the Tops-10 2065 > or the TOPS-20 > Toad-1 at PDPplanet.? Let me know what you need, and > I'll try to track it > down. > > > Rich Alderson > Vintage Computing Server Engineer > Vulcan, Inc. > 505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900 > Seattle, WA 98104 > > mailto:RichA at vulcan.com > (206) 342-2239 > (206) 465-2916 cell > > http://www.pdpplanet.org/ >

17 years, 3 months

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anti-uv eprom labels

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Does anyone know who sells sheets of uv-blocking labels for eproms? Google keeps returning stuff about prom dresses. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

17 years, 3 months

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DEC ST506 Interface Adapter Part No 54-17003-01

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

One of these is on eBay at the moment. I am looking for an ST506 adapter to go into a MicroVAX 3100 Model 80 or a VAXStation 3100 M38. Trouble is I can't find any technical information on the part number, just who has this item in stock. Can anyone tell me if this is the part I need? Thanks Rob

17 years, 3 months

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PDP things on Ebay

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

So, you're browsing Ebay and you're interested in PDP things. What do you do? Select "Computers and Networking" then punch in "pdp". What do you see? PDP11 boards, PDP8 books, the occasional full computer -- good. You also see lots of Compaq power supplies with the string "pdp" in their model name. Also, some plasma displays. pdp == plasma display panel? Okay, I guess those belong in there too. I should have limited the search to "Vintage Computers". But check out this item: 160332833428. Checking further, it appears that this guy lists all 161 of his items under "Computers and Networking -> Other". What does he sell? Just take a look. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

17 years, 3 months

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SMD-E specification wanted

by eric＠brouhaha.com

Does anyone have a copy of the SMD-E Interface Specification, which is CDC/Imprimis/Seagate document 64712402? The spec for the earlier SMD interface is on Bitsavers, but it doesn't look like the SMD-E spec is there. Thanks! Eric

17 years, 3 months

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Anyone got a PACE system? Or software, docs?

by eric＠brouhaha.com

I'm interested in talking to anyone who has or had a National Semiconductor PACE or INS8900 system, or documentation or software for one. In order to have something halfway interesting to run on the homebrew IMP-16 system John List designed and built, I decided to start from PACE software, since the PACE architecture is derived from (but not binary-compatible with) the IMP-16, which itself was inspired by the Data General Nova. A few years ago a friend gave me a copy of the fig-FORTH listing for the PACE, which turned out to be missing a page. The listing is on Bitsavers, but a complete listing is now available on the fig-FORTH implementations page on forth.org: http://www.forth.org/fig-forth/contents.html Over the course of the last week, I typed in the fig-FORTH listing (both source and object code), wrote a PACE cross-assembler, assembled fig-FORTH and compared the generated object to what I typed in, fixed the errors, wrote a PACE simulator, and fixed the fatal bug in the "U/" word of the fig-FORTH listing. (Maybe no one other than the author ever actually ran PACE fig-FORTH?) Now that it's working I've just started trying to translate it for the IMP-16, which doesn't have the RADC and SUBB instructions of the PACE, and which has somewhat different shift, rotate, and flag instructions. Google doesn't turn up much about the PACE other than the few manuals and datasheets already on Bitsavers. I know that a paper tape based resident assembler existed, as well as a disk operating system with a resident assembler. There may have also been a BASIC interpreter. Eric

17 years, 3 months

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Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format?

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 12:18:22 -0400 From: Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org> Subject: Re: Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format? On Sunday 10 May 2009, js at cimmeri.com wrote: > Likewise, I'm starting to get tired of the sense of entitlement and > whining behaviors you've had on display lately over when people here > don't provide you with what you need, or fast enough. I'm not sure how you whine over an email, but I thought that the point of mailing lists was to talk to other people, and in part to get help on things that you don't understand or don't know. > If I posted a question here every time I hit the most minor of snags, > I would EXPECT some people to get annoyed with me. I'm pretty sure that not eveyone here has the same knowledge or skill set, so what's minor to you is probably not to other people that have no knowledge of it. In any case, I've learned that IT people can't communicate well, and can be a pain in the ass to deal with because we generally have bad interpersonal skills. You can do a lot of hard work and try to please people here, but you still get yelled at for doing a "disservice" or "not a good enough job". Even if you work out your differences, it wears down on you over time. It's dumb arguments like this one that drive people like me away from this community. Pat -- Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/ The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org ************************ Reply: What dumb argument? Yes, one of the points of a list like this is to ask for and give help, but even in this day and age concepts like "please" and "thank you" and showing appreciation instead of complaining and taking others and their contributions for granted still have some value. The OP asked for information and help about 22disk and IMD and despite the denigrating tone of his questions the authors of both of these programs took the time to answer his questions at length and in detail, enabling him to resolve his issues, and apparently someone on this list also took the time to send him the TD disks that he asked for. What are his final words on the issue? Appreciation for those people and this list which gave him access to them? No, now that he got what he needed from the list he tells us, "I'm getting real, real tired of the tone on this list and will probably take a break from any posting here. Now I'm beginning to understand why folks like Sellam left." Not surprising; as I recall some people were also annoyed by Sellam's rude and insulting attitude and language and not entirely sorry to see *him* leave. If Chuck and Dave and the person who sent the disks had the same attitude and had left the list (and, considering the crap that Dave has had to put up with in the past I wouldn't blame him at all) then OP would still be staring at his 820 paperweight. When someone suggests to OP that his negative tone and attitude might annoy some people who might then be less eager to help him next time, then that might be seen as an opportunity to improve those "bad interpersonal skills" that you mention, instead of evoking a defensive response... m

17 years, 3 months

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GSA: CM5 from NASA

by legalize＠xmission.com

It says "residual rack", not really sure what that means, but how often does anything Connection Machine come up? Lot 91QSCI09092716 <http://gsaauctions.gov> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 3 months

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list server

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

btw - just a few days ago I noticed there was a speed/duplex type mismatch on the classiccmp server. It had no transmit or receive errors, but was sporadically send/receiving very slow. That has been corrected and it flies now :) Jay

17 years, 3 months

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SGI Iris Crimson "grey door panel" skins?

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Anyone out there with spare Crimson skins? I have a Crimson in my office I'm bringing back to life and it's complete, but missing the grey door that covers the drive bays. Obviously not vital, but it'd be nice to have. Anyone have spares of these lying around? Thanks! Josh

17 years, 3 months

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pdp 11/23 to PC conversion wanted, then hardware is available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Got the following email, if interested in the conversion work please contact me off-list. He who does the conversion can collect and do whatever they wish with the hardware: ------------------------------ Hi I have a working DEC 11/23. it is actually a Marquette 8000 Holter system http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=458 The monitor is fading and the computer is a relic and takes up a lot of space However, it s a very good Holter system since there are c programs on it that are very good for research. I would like to transfer the entire system to a PC. and would gladly give you guys the hardware, but I would need to first transfer the functionality to a new PC. I read in url above that the terminal may be special and there may be special board in the computer I am a developer but I am not a hardware tech. Any suggestions?

17 years, 3 months

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8 bit SBC with floppy controller for disk archiving [was Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format]

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

On 10 May 2009 at 23:21, Andrew Lynch wrote: > Hi! I sent this message earlier but it seems to have gotten drowned > in all the unpleasantness. Hopefully we can move on to something more > constructive. If anyone would like to discuss disk archiving legacy > formats with an existing low cost home brew Z80 CP/M SBC and Disk IO > board I think the N8VEM project would make a great starting point. > > It does everything described by Jules and is common enough now to have > a decent support base. There are at least one hundred N8VEM SBC > owners so that might be helpful in using it to archive disks. It uses > a standard Intel 8272/NEC 765A FDC with some extensions for use with > formats other than the usual 5.25"/3.5" DSDD/DSHD. Especially when > paired with an IDE CF adapter I think it would be a very useful tool. By "extensions" what do you mean, Andrew? Will it archive Victor 9000 diskettes? --Chuck -----REPLY----- Hi Chuck! Thanks! By extensions, I mean the Disk IO has a regular Shugart mini-disk interface with all the usual signals and options. It also has the "feature" interface which imports/exports the rest of the NEC765/i8272 signals necessary for 8" and other drive support. An 8" drive cable with what signals are needed for that drive could be fabricated using the Shugart mini-disk interface plus whatever signals/options are needed from the feature connector. The 8" drive cable would be custom to Disk IO and that drive but there are multiple 8" drive interfaces so that seemed to me to be the most flexible way to provide support in a limited PCB space format. Please check out the Disk IO schematic on the N8VEM wiki for illustration of what I mean. http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=Disk%2520IO The Disk IO also brings to the feature connector intermediate signals for external processing like RAWREAD, /INDEX, the decoded FM/MFM stream from the FDC9229, etc. It also has VCC and GND for easy extension into "smart cables" to allow external processing of the intermediate signals. A uC or PC interface could tap off the RAWREAD and /INDEX signals and decode the disk directly or use the FDC9229 data separator to decode FM/MFM data. I think hard sector disks could be supported using this technique and even more exotic formats such as M2FM, etc. I don't know if the N8VEM SBC + Disk IO board could decode a Victor 9000 disk as I don't know anything about the format. However, with the Shugart mini-disk interface and the feature connector by themselves it may be possible. It's very likely (IMO) by using the intermediate signals fed to an external uC or PC for high speed sampling/decoding using the Z80/i8272 as a mode controller. I am not suggesting the plain 4MHz or 8MHz Z80 has enough bandwidth to decode raw read disk flux transitions like a Catweasel does. What I am suggesting is if someone were interested in pursuing such a serial port based floppy disk archiving project is to use the N8VEM SBC and Disk IO as a starting point since much of the work has already been done. Starting over from scratch would add a lot of unnecessary work and probably some marginal benefit when done, if it lasts that long. Using the N8VEM SBC and Disk IO board the project could launch in days or weeks rather than months with a "clean sheet" design. If the really exotic stuff were desired which required a uC or PC interface that could still leverage the existing N8VEM design as infrastructure and focus on just the disk sampler/decoder using signals and power supplied from the Disk IO board. I hope this helps! Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

17 years, 3 months

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FREE: original IBM 5151 monochrome monitor (works)

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Pick-up or pay shipping. Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

17 years, 3 months

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govliq: Gould Concept/32 model 32/67 & Kennedy 9-track tape (Jacksonville, FL)

by legalize＠xmission.com

<http://www.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=2332173&convertTo=USD> GOULD CHASSIS CONCEPT/ 32 SERIAL #285015, . MUTILATION NOT REQUIRED. <http://www.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=2332177&convertTo=USD> GOULD KENNEDY TAPE DRIVE MODEL #9220, SERIAL #VGM-02039, . MUTILATION NOT REQUIRED. Looks fairly intact from the pictures. Auction ends 5/11, tommorrow. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 3 months

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Scored an SGI 4D/480 VGX

by legalize＠xmission.com

<http://www.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=2332176> I was surprised noone else bid on it. The skins look in good condition. This is the biggest model of the 4D series ever made. Yummy :-) -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 3 months

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Update of Apollo Computer Wikipedia page

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I added a model and system software release table to the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Computer If someone happens to have the release dates of the computers, that would make a nice addition. Also, there are still some software releases that I haven't found dates for.

17 years, 3 months

1
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Intergraph clipper docs?

by legalize＠xmission.com

Anyone got some? I've got 4 Intergraph Clipper RISC based workstations, but no docs. Wikipedia says that the systems used CLIX, a Un*x SysV variant. I'm looking for user manuals, hardware manuals, OS manuals, etc. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 3 months

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SGI, the name lives on

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

Those who are into SGI may like this... http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/sgi-lives-or-at-least-its-name-doe…

17 years, 3 months

2
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8 bit SBC with floppy controller for disk archiving [was Xerox820system disks in Teledisk format]

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: 8 bit SBC with floppy controller for disk archiving [was Xerox820system disks in Teledisk format] > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 20:12:32 -0700 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 11 May 2009 at 22:26, Andrew Lynch wrote: > >> Hi Chuck! Thanks! By extensions, I mean the Disk IO has a regular >> Shugart mini-disk interface with all the usual signals and options. >> It also has the "feature" interface which imports/exports the rest of >> the NEC765/i8272 signals necessary for 8" and other drive support. An >> 8" drive cable with what signals are needed for that drive could be >> fabricated using the Shugart mini-disk interface plus whatever >> signals/options are needed from the feature connector. The 8" drive >> cable would be custom to Disk IO and that drive but there are multiple >> 8" drive interfaces so that seemed to me to be the most flexible way >> to provide support in a limited PCB space format. > >Hi Andrew, > >Good work! > >I did check out your schematic (I think)--FDC_A.jpg and FDC_B.jpg and >I don't see the "special feature" connector anywhere. > >Here are my comments on what I see, they're only speculation and >opinion, so please don't take them for anything more than that. I'm >certain that you had good reasons for doing what you did the way you >did it! > >One of the problems with using a 4MHz Z80 on a raw data stream is >that the Z80A isn't fast enough to handle it. While a uC might do >that, the simplest seems to be the Catweasel's use of a 128K time- >domain memory. Leave it to the host processor to crunch the data >later. One could well more easily hook up a uC to the raw disk >interface, don't you think? To do NS*, Victor and Heath hard sector and other odd formats would be outside the range of Z80 even at 10mhz. Most of those had unique external hardware to assist. >How does one derive the RWC/TG43 signal that some 8" drives require? >If there's an 8" connector, why is HDL not brought to it? The 765 does support that its' implmentation that determines if its brought to a connector. >One thing that I'm not certain of is the use of the US0 and US1 pins >for select. The PC uses a separate register for select and leaves >US0 and US1 NC. I suspect that this bears on some aspect of 5.25" >operation and the 765's polling mode, but I'm not certain. 765 has unit select and head select. Typically when it's polling unit select is active for the four drive poll (ready line). When a drive is selected for read or wrie head (HDL) is enabled with internal timers and a read or write will take place. The PC uses a seperate register for that and side steps that feature. >Would it be better to multiplex the READY signal to a set of jumpers >that allows one to select either the drive's own ready (all 8" drives >and most 5.25" have this) or a tied-high READY? The full out designs for 765 do that but most simplify to cust chip/cost and usually that is the first to go. >FWIW, the Victor 9000 disk format is variable datarate (or CLV, >depending on how you want to look at it). It's also very unique to Victor and even when a new thing like so many other non portable formats caused the user great pain in importing new software available to those that had more generic formats. Allison >Best regards as always, >Chuck > > >

17 years, 3 months

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list of nordisk data books and floppy disks

by bert＠brothom.nl

If you need access to one of these, contact me an urge me to make a deal. Keep pushing, as pushing raises priority with me. Books: NOTIS-BG User Guide NOTIS-RG New functions in the E-version NOTIS-DS User's guide Introduction to ND Office Systems The SPRINT User Guide Documentation Catalogue SINTRAN III Real Time Loader Dialogue-UNIQUE-II User Guide Operator Environment User Guide NOTIS-WP Brief Introduction User Environment Reference Manual NOTIS-WP Reference Manual COSMOS User Guide User Environment Reference Manual SINTRAN III Utilities Manual (3x) ND-110 Instruction Set The Database System SIBAS II ND User Manual SIBAS II Operator Manual NOTIS-DS Introduction (2x) Sintran III Real Time Guide NOTIS-DS Supervisor Guide (2x) ACCESS User Guide File Manager Introduction (2x, one in shrink-wrap) NOMIS Norwegian Medical Information System SINTRAN III COMMANDS Reference Manual SINTRAN III Monitor Calls (2x) Symbolic Debugger User Guide Examples for NOTIS-RG Version B SINTRAN-III Release Information K-version NOTIS-TF Macro Guide (new in shrink wrap) BACKUP User Guide (3x) SINTRAN III System Supervisor Operator Environment User Guide ND-110 COMPACT Operator Guide (contains several quick reference cards) SINTRAN III User Guide BRF-Linker User Manual NOTIS-TF User Guide User Environment Library Routines NOTIS-RG Reference Manual Test Program Description for ND-100/ND-110 ordner with following description: course program the supervisor's responsibility Handbook of Useful information examples of LOAD-MODE etc. telefix customer information miscellaneous materials MEDITEBS (in dutch) bunch of unknown listings a document with information on SCSI on ND ACCESS DBA manual NOTIS-TF text formatter reference manual partly dutch presentation with general user info SINTRAN III Timesharing/Batch guide some dutch documentation on MEDITEBS datasheets of several ND products, such as software packages, computers and accessoiries Floppies: (each floppy or set of floppies contains a few pages of information) SINTRAN III K GENERATION 312 CONF.D VSX, 2 disks (2 sets) PATCH-SIN-K-5400 (2 sets) SINTRAN III Configuration Program SUBSYSTEM PACKAGE 32 BITS FLOATING FORMAT SINTRAN III VSE/VSX Utility Programs ACCOUNTING System for SINTRAN III BACKUP-SYSTEM X-MESSAGE TELEFIX FILES FOR USER SITES SUBSYSTEM PACKAGE II VTM terminal tables USER ENVIRONMENT (3 disks) TEST PROGRAMS FOR ND-100/110 TEST PROGRAMS FOR ND-100/110/120 (2 disks) JEC job execution control ND-10634A MEMORY TO FLOPPY NOTIS-WP FOR ND-100 (4 disks) SIBAS-II for ND-100 (2 disks with pretty much the same label) ACCESS FOR ND-100 (dito) NOTIS-RG for ND-100 norwegian NOTIS-DS for ND-100 (3 disks) NOTIS-DS for ND-100 48-bit floating point (3 disks with pretty much the same label) NOTIS-BG-for ND-100 norwegian version 32 bits fl NOTIS-BG-for ND-100 32 bits fl NOTIS-BG-for ND-100 (business grafics) 32 bits fl PR for ND-100 (Norwegian version) BRF-Linker for ND-100 SINTRAN III MONITOR CALL Pack. SPRINT Spooling System (3 disks) MEDITEBS specials Mass Storage Utilities OPERATOR ENVIRONMENT (4 disks) Disk Restore (3 disks) TESTPROGRAMS FOR ND-100/110/120 (2 disks, both labeled PART 1 OF 2) UNIQUE-II SIBAS for ND-100 UNIQUE TEXT SYSTEM UNIQUE-II SIBAS ND-100 (hand-written label) SOFTWARE KEY DISCETTE

17 years, 3 months

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Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format?

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

Title says it. I can only find them in Imagedisk format, but IMD does not recognize my Compaticard IV (why on earth does it restrict you to drives A-D??). Can someone help me out here? Steve --

17 years, 3 months

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List behavior (spinoff from Re: Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format?)

by dm561＠torfree.net

-------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 13:37:14 -0400 From: Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org> Subject: Re: List behavior (spinoff from Re: Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format?) Wow, I wish I had as much time to waste complaining about pointless issues as you guys. Then I'd actually have time to work on my hobbies... Pat --------------Reply: LOL! Good one! Considering that *you*'re the one that wasted your time writing the original *complaint* that I replied to, why *don't* you in fact just work on your hobbies instead of wasting even more of your valuable time with rude and pointless notes like that one and blaming me/us for it? What *is* it about the suggestion that a little politeness and appreciation might be a good idea when asking for help that bothers you enough to take the time to object? I don't care if the OP is offended and leaves the list, or if his attitude causes some folks to make a mental note to not lift a finger to help him next time; that's his choice. The *point* is that enough criticism and lack of appreciation etc. might prompt folks like Dave to leave the list or stop sharing his contributions with us; that concerns me, even if OP doesn't care now that his problem has been solved. I know that Dave at least has already asked himself a few times why the hell he bothered, especially with IMD... m

17 years, 3 months

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Available PDP-11/35

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

Forgot to tell that the machine is not for free, make an offer off-list. Hate to part it out, but can be done if needed. Box serialno on paper label and metal adhesive label match. Shipping is possible, but machine is wired for 220V single phase and is heavy!. If to be shipped, it will be boxed in a plywood box for transport. Pickup is possible of course. Ed > Hello All, > > I have available one PDP 11/35 in BA-23 box configuration. > Processor comes with base CPU, MMU & stacklimit register. > No EIS, FIS or RTC is included. > This machine is the last spare we had for a customer. > 2 others have already found a good home and are well cared for. > > Contact me off list for more details if needed. > > Pictures to be seen at www.groenenberg.net/download/junk > > > -- > Certified : VCP 3.x, SCSI 3.x SCSA S10, SCNA S10 > > -- Certified : VCP 3.x, SCSI 3.x SCSA S10, SCNA S10

17 years, 3 months

4
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Casio AI-1000 info...

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

Does anyone have any detailed information on the Casio AI-1000? This is (was) a pocket-sized computer in the vein of those old BASIC handhelds, except it's programmable in Lisp, of all things... I'm interested in what it's capable of, it just looks like a neat little device but there's not a lot of detail out there other than basic hardware specs. And of course if anyone has one they're just gonna throw away, drop me a line :). Josh

17 years, 3 months

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8 bit SBC with floppy controller for disk archiving [was Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format]

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Andrew Lynch wrote: > Hi! I sent this message earlier but it seems to have gotten drowned in all > the unpleasantness. Sometimes, this list is weird. > Hopefully we can move on to something more > constructive. If anyone would like to discuss disk archiving legacy formats> with an existing low cost home brew Z80 CP/M SBC and Disk IO board I think > the N8VEM project would make a great starting point. I was wondering about it too, and waiting for you to come up ;-) Anyway, I hope you don't mind if I post the links to two pictures which hopefully show how it could work: a.) the cpu board http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/f/IMG_5762.jpg b.) the fdc http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/f/IMG_8632.JPG So, if you use a right angled power-connector on the cpu, you could probably just stack those two board on top of each other, without the need of the bus backplane. My thoughts to all of this: 1.) I don't care about the sd-flash, Not sure if it really helps. After all, we still talk about floppies, so a decent V24 should be good enough to send /receive data from a floppy. 2.) The board is missing the 8" floppy connector, which is bad. Would make it easier to get the people playing with it. I know, you can wire it up easily, but you probably like to get the software people on board too ? ;-) Cheers STANDARD DISCLAIMER : (SORRY, I'M NOT INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT AT ALL, BUT I'M WATCHING IT FOR A WHILE. LIKED TO PLAY WITH CP/M AND Z80 BEFORE) -----REPLY----- Hi! Some N8VEM builders have skipped the ECB backplane connectors and just direct connected the boards together as you suggest. That certainly is possible. Alternatively you could make a small ECB bus using IDC DIN 41612 connectors and 64 conductor ribbon cable. Some N8VEM builders have done that too. Although the Disk IO board does not have an explicit 8" connector all the signals are present for one. The Disk IO has a Shugart mini-disk interface 5.25"/3.5" and with the "feature" connector it has all the signals necessary. The builder can make a special cable for 8" drives if they are needed. There are different kinds of 8" drive interfaces with different signal requirements. They can be selected as options to make the signals present or not for the drives. In addition, the feature connector has signals normally buried in the FDC such as RAWREAD, /INDEX, and the MFM/FM decoded data stream straight from the FDC9229 data separator chip. These signals could be fed to an external uC or PC for direct sampling or processing similar to how a Catweasel works. The SBC and Disk IO would still be in the loop as a controller if not doing direct reads. Right now most of the software for the Disk IO board is focused on the IDE section. That supports quite a number of devices including CF adapters and regular IDE hard drives, ATAPI devices and the like. I have some very crude floppy drive "disk monitor" software available but that is as far as I got with it. I was able to read and write sectors, format tracks, move the heads, manipulate the i8272 registers and latch, etc all the things necessary for writing a CP/M CBIOS or disk utility. Some of the N8VEM builders are taking what I've done and are extending it but as you can imagine the floppy drive CBIOS is the most complex part. The software source code is available and open source as is all the hardware and software design information. Everything is publically available on wiki and mailing list. Some builders have proposed that the Disk 1A CBIOS could be modified to support this controller since they are somewhat similar. They are not exact though so it would be some work to make it happen. Even though the N8VEM SBC + Disk IO board is an incomplete solution it does have all the basic pieces necessary for this project. The PCBs and parts all exist and are obtainable fairly easily. There is quite a bit of software already in existence such as updated ROMs, CP/M archives, development tools, etc. However, the application software does not exist and would need to be written to make this practical. Obviously I am biased towards the N8VEM project as it is my own home brew system released in to the world. I think it could do this job if there were interested builders. I am now working on other projects such as completing the N8VEM 6809 host processor, the S-100 backplane, S-100 prototype board, the XT-IDE controller, and some other side projects. I hope this helps! Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch PS, you are welcome to join us on the mailing list and wiki regardless of this project. Feel free to stop by and join up!

17 years, 3 months

1
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non-DEC-compat HW to read RX02's?

by shoppa＠trailing-edge.com

What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read RX02's? Obviously the original RX02 drive can read RX02's... as can all the DSD, Sigma, etc. Q-bus, Unibus, Omnibus compatible controllers. But what can read RX02's using a generic SA801-type drive and a PC-clone? Several years back I built a doohickey that plugged into a PC's parallel port and allowed me to step floppy drives and read bit-timing-information, a track at a time, into a RAM buffer, which I then dumped into the parallel port and wrote some software to analyze arbitrary disk formats. I wired the index/sector hole detector to the MSB RAM line and used it with great success to analyze and read several 8" and 5.25" hard-sector floppy formats and eventually pumped a few thousand disks through the scheme. Not bad for something thrown together on a solderless breadboard using random TTL chips I had lying around the basement :-). Obviously similar devices have been discussed here in the past decade or two. Is there anything available off the shelf that can plug into a USB port and let me do similar? Right now the thought of traveling with a 8" HH floppy drive and a laptop has a certain appeal as opposed to hauling around a BA23 and a DSD440 :-). Tim.

17 years, 3 months

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govliq: Gould Concept/32 model 32/67 & Kennedy 9-track

by ken＠seefried.com

From: Al Kossow > I hope someone can pick this up. Gould Series 32 machines are getting > pretty rare. I should have paid better attention. I'll be in Jax tomorrow morning and decided not to bring the truck. What software is still around for a Concept/32? KJ

17 years, 3 months

1
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Wanted: Corvus Z80 "Universal" Transporter

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

I used to work for a Corvus Distributor in Brooklyn, NY in the 1980's and never heard of this item. If you find one, I hope you post details on this list as I'd be interested to learn more about it. Al ---------- Steven Hirsch <snhirsch at gmail.com> Wrote: I'm still looking for one of the above. This was a daughterboard designed to sandwich between a Z80 and its socket. It carried the Corvus proprietary chipset and permitted any CP/M machine to become a client on their Omninet network. If anyone even knows who has one, I'd appreciate a lead. In a pinch, given good photos I can likely reverse engineer the PCB and build my own (have a slew of Apple 2 transporters to harvest the chips from). The device is mentioned in one of the Appendices to DRI's CP/NET technical docs, FWIW. Steve

17 years, 3 months

1
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Classic A/V equipment

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

See a reply from Tore below regarding the video link he provided recently. You need VLC (available here: http://www.videolan.org/ ) or other compatible software to view the video (and audio). The current version 0.9.9 for Windows works pretty well (I love setting the speed to 1.9x for chipmunk speech!), though there is a slight bug with the time display on Windows 2K SP4 (it displays total time correctly, but time played/left is invalid!) Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk --- On Mon, 11/5/09, Tore Sinding Bekkedal <toresbe at ifi.uio.no> wrote: From: Tore Sinding Bekkedal <toresbe at ifi.uio.no> Subject: Re: Classic A/V equipment To: aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk Date: Monday, 11 May, 2009, 3:01 PM Andrew Burton wrote: > > * off-list reply * > > > Actually, unless you have fixed it, there is no video in the file: > > http://gunkies.org/stuff/vax11-782.mpg > I tried viewing it with Windows Media Player and RealPlayer but only get audio. I know atleast one other list member also has the same problem as me. > Has the codec been set up correctly?? Have you actually seen the video, and if you have what did you use? > I suggest a more sane media player - VLC, for example. -Tore :)

17 years, 3 months

1
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IBM 11c typewriter

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

too bad they're virtually worthless. Just picked one off the side of the road - fresh. woe is me. There's 1 on eBay right now, bin, 26$ US. There's something wrong w/the world...

17 years, 3 months

2
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FREE: QIC-40/-80 Internal Tape Drive

by cmthielen＠ucdavis.edu

Lee Courtney, Is your QIC-40 internal tape drive still available? I have need for one here at UC Davis. Thanks -- Chris Thielen <cmthielen at ucdavis.edu> Systems Administrator History Department University of California Davis (530) 752-6043

17 years, 3 months

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8 bit SBC with floppy controller for disk archiving [was: Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format?]

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi! I sent this message earlier but it seems to have gotten drowned in all the unpleasantness. Hopefully we can move on to something more constructive. If anyone would like to discuss disk archiving legacy formats with an existing low cost home brew Z80 CP/M SBC and Disk IO board I think the N8VEM project would make a great starting point. It does everything described by Jules and is common enough now to have a decent support base. There are at least one hundred N8VEM SBC owners so that might be helpful in using it to archive disks. It uses a standard Intel 8272/NEC 765A FDC with some extensions for use with formats other than the usual 5.25"/3.5" DSDD/DSHD. Especially when paired with an IDE CF adapter I think it would be a very useful tool. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Guzis Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 5:35 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format? On 7 May 2009 at 13:47, Jules Richardson wrote: > No, I suppose not. I wonder if they ever toyed with the idea of > rolling their own - perhaps a board containing a little 8-bitter which > was responsible for a few other useful functions (RS232, parallel > maybe) too. I suppose RAM/ROM costs around then made it unworkable > even if they had the skills readily on-tap (not to mention that it > probably wouldn't fit in with the idea of what the PC was supposed to > be!) Commodore 1541? Actually, they'd done that one already. Think about the IBM 5100/5110 with the 5114 diskette drive unit. I don't think they even wanted to think about putting something like that on a "personal computer"... --Chuck -----REPLY----- Hi Chuck, Jules! At least in theory, the N8VEM SBC mated with its Disk IO board provides this capability right now. The N8VEM SBC has 512K SRAM for immediate storage, the Disk IO supports IDE and NEC765 FDC capability. Attach a IDE to CF adapter (several varieties of those have been demonstrated to work or just use an old IDE hard drive) for storage and use the SBC serial port for operator IO. Connect the SBC to the Disk IO board via a 64 pin DIN 41612 IDC connector and short 64 conductor ribbon cable for a nice and compact two board (stacked Eurocard) solution powered by 5VDC only. The SBC boots CP/M 2.2 from its ROM drive which could be easily augmented with CP/M applications to manage the floppy disk transfer functionality. I designed the system with something like this in mind and there are at least the beginnings of the software necessary to accomplish it. The Disk IO board even includes special control and data signal access for raw disk reads and 8" floppy drive manipulation if someone were *REALLY* ambitious. I spent quite a bit of time working on this design along those lines but the Disk IO was such a beast I rather burned out on it. Since the PCBs and parts are all available now if someone wanted to pick this up the hardware is essentially completed, some of the software, and you're most of the way there. It would "only" take someone with the desire to write the software to make this happen -- basically comfortable old CP/M and Z80 assembler. I've moved on to other things in the N8VEM project. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

17 years, 3 months

3
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Available PDP-11/35

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

Hello Christian, Yep, it's a BA-11 not an BA23 (it was Monday morning when I typed the msg ;) Otherwise it would indeed be difficult to mount the frontpanel onto it. Ed > On Mon, 11 May 2009, Ed Groenenberg wrote: >> Forgot to tell that the machine is not for free, make an offer off-list. > > ... and that the 11/35 (like a 11/40) shouldn't be in a BA23 box. I wonder > how you fit the frontpanel to a BA23. > > Christian > -- Certified : VCP 3.x, SCSI 3.x SCSA S10, SCNA S10

17 years, 3 months

1
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Available PDP-11/35

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

I think he may have meant "PDP-11/53" . . . assuming it is in a BA23 chassis. . .

17 years, 3 months

1
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Available PDP-11/35

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

That wasn't supposed to be to go on the list, but hey, it's Monday morning... > Hello Pontus, > -- Certified : VCP 3.x, SCSI 3.x SCSA S10, SCNA S10

17 years, 3 months

1
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Available PDP-11/35

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

Hello Pontus, It's near Arnhem, and it's to heavy to ship, unless you want to pay for it. BTW, the machine is not for free, I'll send an update to the list. Make me an offer if still interested but I'll wait for some time before it will go to the highest offer as I need the money for finishing our new house. Best regards, Ed > On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 09:37:33AM +0200, Ed Groenenberg wrote: >> Hello All, >> >> I have available one PDP 11/35 in BA-23 box configuration. >> Processor comes with base CPU, MMU & stacklimit register. >> No EIS, FIS or RTC is included. >> This machine is the last spare we had for a customer. >> 2 others have already found a good home and are well cared for. >> >> Contact me off list for more details if needed. >> >> Pictures to be seen at www.groenenberg.net/download/junk >> > > > I guess this is in the Netherlands? Amsterdam maybe? > > I would take it, but I doubt I can arrange the shipping. Any chance you > will travel to sweden soon :) ? > > Kind Regards, > Pontus. > -- Certified : VCP 3.x, SCSI 3.x SCSA S10, SCNA S10

17 years, 3 months

2
1
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Available PDP-11/35

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

Hello All, I have available one PDP 11/35 in BA-23 box configuration. Processor comes with base CPU, MMU & stacklimit register. No EIS, FIS or RTC is included. This machine is the last spare we had for a customer. 2 others have already found a good home and are well cared for. Contact me off list for more details if needed. Pictures to be seen at www.groenenberg.net/download/junk -- Certified : VCP 3.x, SCSI 3.x SCSA S10, SCNA S10

17 years, 3 months

2
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S-100 prototyping board project

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi! As a compliment to the N8VEM S-100 backplane project, I am designing an S-100 card edge connector in KiCAD. As a demonstration I am including it in an S-100 prototyping board. Please take a look and thorough review. Any comments, suggestions, and/or questions are welcome. If there is sufficient interest I may do a small PCB manufacturing run. I estimate each PCB would be in the $25 range depending on quantity. The initial run would be primarily for testing purposes so would be rather small. I still have 4 of the 8 initial N8VEM S-100 backplane PCBs so if anyone would like to get involved that would be great. The PCBs are $32 each plus $2 shipping in the US. The good news is that by waiting you now know the parts all fit, that it seems to work, the active terminator circuit appears to be working correctly; the S-100 connectors are installed and seem to have all the proper voltages. In other words, your risk of a total dud project has been dramatically reduced. There are two new files in the N8VEM S-100 wiki; one is the "blank" board with outline of an S-100 board and the edge connector as a template for KiCAD and the other is an S-100 prototyping board which uses the template. I have compared the template against IEEE-696 and also several S-100 boards in my collection. I have to admit I am a bit disturbed by how much variation there is in S-100 mechanical tolerances. They all seem to fit but the variations are quite large between manufacturers, the standard, versions of PCBs, etc. http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=S100 Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

17 years, 3 months

1
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The IBM (I've Been Mulling) PC

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

> I am sure somebody would have coded Lotus to some other > desktop x86 type PC and it would have taken off. 123 was modified to run on a number of pseudo-compatibles. None of them took off. Were taken off the desktop oftentimes, and replaced w/an IBM or close-clone. The Apple > II took off just because of visivcalc. I view the apps as > being more important then the hardware. Apps can't run w/o h/w. H/w can't run w/o apps. You can have a really nice app, but no good h/w to run it on (ironically Jobs wrote the BASIC interpreter for the Apple 1 before the h/w was designed). And you can have really nifty h/w wit no apps. It's a matter of what platform the apps are going to be written for.The market to a large degree decides this, but the hardwarez got something to do w/i too. The IBM PC became a > huge hit because it was an open architecture and it had IBM > backing, the clones just made it more universal with > companies having the expensive IBM and Compaq machines and > home users had the lesser clones. I don't think the PC > explosion would have come about without the clones. Explosion are inevitable. Hopefully your particular piece of hardware didn't explode (too often). Mine did from time to time. The microcomputer explosion was inevitable. But what the market needed was a fine StrongMan to take control and guide is into brainless compatibility. And what a fine time to have such a brilliant teleprompt reciter in the White House to guide us into becoming mindless liberal drones.

17 years, 3 months

2
1
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The IBM (I've Been Mulling) PC

by alhartman＠yahoo.com

In the beginning, there were several early PC Clones and work-alikes. A friend of mine had the Columbia MPC. By the time we were done with it, it had a Vide0-7 VGA card (that had a Micro-channel interface if you flipped the board the other way.), a Lightning 286 upgrade card, a Trackstar 128 Apple II on a board. I was really sorry when he trashed it. That was a nice, reliable machine. Zebra Systems had several like the Eagle PC seen over Stewart's shoulder in the Wall Street Journal video, which was a turbo XT clone. We also had a Televideo box which was an MS-DOS Compatible box that used an intelligent terminal rather than a keyboard and MGA/CGA display. I ran Wordstar, dBase II, and Fancy Font on that machine to do our ads. It replaced our IMSAI 8080 (with a Z-80 card) as our main system for order processing (using dBase II). I worked for a time for a company that sold American XT clones from a guys house. They were exact clones of the 5150 and 5160 in that you could burn a set of IBM Bios ROMs and the machine would be 100% compatible with a PC/XT and have BASIC in ROM if you put those chips in too. My first PC was an XT clone with Phoenix BIOS that had turbo mode and a V-20 chip which made it much faster than a stock PC. It had two 13mb Seagate drives and I ran my BBS off it until I sold it in favor of a 286 clone I built from parts. It had a neat flip-top case (like a car hood). I still have the keyboard from it, because it was a great keyboard and I continued to use it on the 286. I had a rear panel reset and turbo switch in a bracket as the case didn't have up-front lights or buttons. I miss those days. Al Phila, PA (Formerly of Brooklyn, NY)

17 years, 3 months

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Wanted: Corvus Z80 "Universal" Transporter

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

I'm still looking for one of the above. This was a daughterboard designed to sandwich between a Z80 and its socket. It carried the Corvus proprietary chipset and permitted any CP/M machine to become a client on their Omninet network. If anyone even knows who has one, I'd appreciate a lead. In a pinch, given good photos I can likely reverse engineer the PCB and build my own (have a slew of Apple 2 transporters to harvest the chips from). The device is mentioned in one of the Appendices to DRI's CP/NET technical docs, FWIW. Steve --

17 years, 3 months

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P112 mailing list

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

FYI, if you were on the P112 mailing list previously (like back in 2006-2007), you'll need to resub again. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

17 years, 3 months

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FS: IBM Mainframe supplies

by silent700＠gmail.com

Or at least items found near a mainframe. $10+shipping gets you: 3420 Field Tester - appears to be a tape drive exerciser. 4248 Login Probe - in box with manual IBM P/N 6428316 Kit, ESD Handling - official IBM ESD safety mat.

17 years, 3 months

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FS: DEC LA12 Correspondent

by silent700＠gmail.com

It's Springtime, and that means it's time to pare down the collection. Next up is this lovely DEC portable printing terminal, the LA12-A. This model has the DB25 port, the acoustic coupler and the 300/1200bps internal modem. It's yellowed and a bit dusty, but appears to be working. It responds to keypresses in local mode, at least, and it will print out its config page. I can't get it to talk to my PC via the serial port, but I may not be configuring it correctly. No time for that now, must clean the garage! Asking $25+shipping from 60074. A must for any DEC or terminal (or old yellowed plastic) collector! -- jht

17 years, 3 months

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Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format?

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

what are the particulars of a Compaticard's hardware?

17 years, 3 months

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non-DEC-compat HW to read RX02's?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: non-DEC-compat HW to read RX02's? > From: "Nico de Jong" <nico at farumdata.dk> > Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 19:47:11 +0200 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >>> What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read RX02's? >>> >>> Obviously the original RX02 drive can read RX02's... as can all the >>> DSD, Sigma, etc. Q-bus, Unibus, Omnibus compatible controllers. >>> >>> But what can read RX02's using a generic SA801-type drive and a >>> PC-clone? >> >> I'm pretty sure that you're supposed to be able to do this with a >> Catweasel and the utils that make a DMK out of them (Tim Mann's name >> comes to mind). >> > >I checked my Octopus system, and it says it supports the following DEC >formats: > >RSX 5.25" 400k > >VMS 3.5" 1.4M >VMS 5,25" 400K >VMS 8" 251K > >VT180 5.25" 180K > >RT11 5.25" 400K >RT11 3.5" 720K >RT11 5.25" 1.2M > >Is RX02 identical to one of the formats mentioned above ? > >You can also take a look at InterMedias site at >http://www.intermedia.uk.com/disklist.htm#D > >Nico No VMS 8" 251K is RX01. All of the others are fairly generic floppy controllers in the host system as DEC generally used the 1793 or SMC chips that did formats reasonable and common. RX02 is very unique. Allison

17 years, 3 months

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FFS: AST 386 Upgrade Board

by silent700＠gmail.com

I can't find a model number on this board. It was in a box with AST SixPakPlus and AST SuperPak manuals (which I have scanned) yet it doesn't appear to be either of those boards. It's an ISA card with a 386 chip, a 387 socket and some RAM on it. There is a ribbon cable ending in either an 8088 or 80286 pin array (it's been a while since I've seen them.) If someone out there wants it, just pay for shipping >from 60074 zip. Here are a couple pics: Board: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiclassiccomp/3515081211/sizes/o/in/set-72157… Connector: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiclassiccomp/3515081109/in/set-7215760407020… -- silent700.blogspot.com Retrocomputing and collecting in the Chicago area: http://chiclassiccomp.org

17 years, 3 months

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The IBM (I've Been Mulling) PC

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

--- On Fri, 5/8/09, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > VisiCalc > Easy Writer > and didn't IBM sell a MICROS~1 port of Adventure? (Colossal > Cave) > > What more could anybody want? (no, that WAS > sarcasm) I wish I still had the copy of Advent for the peecee. That's what I want. I could get big buckos for it on ePay.

17 years, 3 months

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The IBM (I've Been Mulling) PC

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

--- On Fri, 5/8/09, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > From: Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> I > imagine that if IBM had > acquired Microsoft, we'd all be running some flavor of Unix > now. and in public you're willing to confess openly that you ain't run a UNIX flava?

17 years, 3 months

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The IBM (I've Been Mulling) PC

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

--- On Fri, 5/8/09, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > If we had been left with IBM as the only proponent of the > PC, it > might well have been just a memory, like the 5100. If the clone hadn't manages to capture so great a portion of the market (and keep in mind that people bought clones because they were peecee compatible), eventually the price would have dropped and likely many people would have bought one anyway, though granted not as fast as the clone prices did. Would something else have stepped in and rivaled the pc? Possibly, but I really don't think it would be the Amiga or Atari STs. The Amiga had that funky interlaced video thing, and Ataris were, well Ataris. This isn't to run down either, and you could have either for significantly less money then a real IBM. But both were by companies that made game machines. It was the air of professionalism (and again the huge amount of s/w available) that made their market so robust. You were getting a *real* computer, no simply a glorified toy (at least in many people's minds that's what they were). The 5150 became the 5160 before long. Disappear from the market? Oh I really don't think so.

17 years, 3 months

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The IBM (I've Been Mulling) PC

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

--- On Thu, 5/7/09, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > Actually, it wasn't the IBM PC, XT, AT or PS/2 that > established the > market, but rather the proliferation of cheap far east > clones. A > Taiwanese "XT" couldn't be touched as far as bang for the > buck. Despite 10,000 s/w packages as of 1985-86? Up until that point, I don't remember seeing too many anything but IBM's on desks wherever I looked. Even the public library had a True Blue. Subsequent to that people started buying named clones, followed eventually by cheaper clones, but I think that was mainly in the 286-386 era.

17 years, 3 months

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non-DEC-compat HW to read RX02's?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: non-DEC-compat HW to read RX02's? > From: shoppa at trailing-edge.com (Tim Shoppa) > Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 08:32:25 -0400 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read RX02's? DSD880 and a few of the floppy contoller replacement boards. >Obviously the original RX02 drive can read RX02's... as can all the >DSD, Sigma, etc. Q-bus, Unibus, Omnibus compatible controllers. > >But what can read RX02's using a generic SA801-type drive and a PC-clone? Sigma, and DSD. Those used generic drives. The problem is not using a generic drive its the encoding by the controller the drive connects to and generic PC controller (ala 765) is MFM and the DD mode of RX02 is M2FM a different thing. Add to that the RX02 uses mixed SD and DD on the same track means none of the available (then or now) integrated FDCs can produce or read that format. >Several years back I built a doohickey that plugged into a PC's >parallel port and allowed me to step floppy drives and read >bit-timing-information, a track at a time, into a RAM buffer, which >I then dumped into the parallel port and wrote some software >to analyze arbitrary disk formats. I wired the index/sector hole >detector to the MSB RAM line and used it with great success to >analyze and read several 8" and 5.25" hard-sector >floppy formats and eventually pumped a few thousand disks through >the scheme. Not bad for something thrown together on a solderless >breadboard using random TTL chips I had lying around the basement :-). That is what you would need. >Obviously similar devices have been discussed here in the past >decade or two. Is there anything available off the shelf that >can plug into a USB port and let me do similar? Right now the >thought of traveling with a 8" HH floppy drive and a laptop >has a certain appeal as opposed to hauling around a BA23 and >a DSD440 :-). No, not without custom programming. Allison

17 years, 3 months

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ebay : 'rare' pdp 11/24 frontpanel

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

A ridiculous price for a standard PDP-11/24 frontpanel. Buy it now for just only GBP 49,998.99 and there isn't even a picture. item 180353721346 -- Certified : VCP 3.x, SCSI 3.x SCSA S10, SCNA S10

17 years, 3 months

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Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format?

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

-----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Guzis Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 5:35 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format? On 7 May 2009 at 13:47, Jules Richardson wrote: > No, I suppose not. I wonder if they ever toyed with the idea of > rolling their own - perhaps a board containing a little 8-bitter which > was responsible for a few other useful functions (RS232, parallel > maybe) too. I suppose RAM/ROM costs around then made it unworkable > even if they had the skills readily on-tap (not to mention that it > probably wouldn't fit in with the idea of what the PC was supposed to > be!) Commodore 1541? Actually, they'd done that one already. Think about the IBM 5100/5110 with the 5114 diskette drive unit. I don't think they even wanted to think about putting something like that on a "personal computer"... --Chuck -----REPLY----- Hi Chuck, Jules! At least in theory, the N8VEM SBC mated with its Disk IO board provides this capability right now. The N8VEM SBC has 512K SRAM for immediate storage, the Disk IO supports IDE and NEC765 FDC capability. Attach a IDE to CF adapter (several varieties of those have been demonstrated to work or just use an old IDE hard drive) for storage and use the SBC serial port for operator IO. Connect the SBC to the Disk IO board via a 64 pin DIN 41612 IDC connector and short 64 conductor ribbon cable for a nice and compact two board (stacked Eurocard) solution powered by 5VDC only. The SBC boots CP/M 2.2 from its ROM drive which could be easily augmented with CP/M applications to manage the floppy disk transfer functionality. I designed the system with something like this in mind and there are at least the beginnings of the software necessary to accomplish it. The Disk IO board even includes special control and data signal access for raw disk reads and 8" floppy drive manipulation if someone were *REALLY* ambitious. I spent quite a bit of time working on this design along those lines but the Disk IO was such a beast I rather burned out on it. Since the PCBs and parts are all available now if someone wanted to pick this up the hardware is essentially completed, some of the software, and you're most of the way there. It would "only" take someone with the desire to write the software to make this happen -- basically comfortable old CP/M and Z80 assembler. I've moved on to other things in the N8VEM project. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

17 years, 3 months

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Tons of vintage boxed computers and software for sale

by sbolton＠bfree.on.ca

Hey folks! Syd from the Personal Computer Museum here. Just wanted everyone to know that we are having our huge 3rd Annual "Spring Cleanup" at the Personal Computer Museum (Brantford, Ontario, Canada) on May 23rd from 10am to 4pm. This year we are featuring STAR WARS so if you are a Star Wars fan, come see the villains from the 501st dressed in full costume as you browse through the museum and our displays. In addition to taking all your old electronics, software, and video games for safe and proper reuse or/recycling we are also selling some of our extra machines and software programs. VINTAGE COMPUTERS in BOXED (and unboxed) condition will be available. Lots of old BYTE magazines (as well as other publications) and TONS of old boxed DOS software will be available. If you are anywhere CLOSE to Brantford (around an hour's drive from Toronto) you should make an effort to come by and see what we are doing. More information on the event (for example there is a traditional community garage sale going on around us for those people who have friends/partners not as interested in old computers) can be found at our website, http://www.pcmuseum.ca. THANKS ---------------------------- Powered by Execulink Webmail http://www.execulink.com/

17 years, 3 months

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OpenVMS seminars (TNMoC, UK)

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I was asked to forward details of this on... The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley, UK, have a series of OpenVMS seminars coming up; some folk here may well be interested in attending. Details at: http://tnmoc.org/36/section.aspx/78 cheers, Jules

17 years, 3 months

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Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format? > From: "bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca" <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> > Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 14:52:18 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Allison wrote: > >> >> You need to add Zilog Z280 to that list of split I&D space cpus. > >I was looking at the 1978 ... 1983 time line... > >> Allison >PS. I like the 6809 and OS/9... > Yes, in the 8bit world the 6809 is an impressive cpu. OS/9 I have no experience with those though I have a 6809 COCOIII and a homebrew 6809 running CUBIX. It's the closest thing I've used and programmed to a PDP11 that is not 68000 or 32 bits. Allison

17 years, 3 months

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Extracting a 8049 (ROM) program

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

couldn't you *force* such a chip to yield up it's internal code by utilizing all of a keypad's functions? A combination of that and *watching* the outputs of pins upon startup. I have this thing in my head, I'm having, obviously, a bit of an awkward time putting it in print. Some sort of logic analyzer would be necessary, but even a home brewed job would seem to be in the trivial category by today's speeds. ?In Hacking the Xbox ,I believe (it's been a while) Bunnie Huang did something like this. The dude I obtained a stack of Tandy 2000s years ago said he had worked on a mod that would spy on interrupts as they were generated (via a pal chip) and revert to a different set of routines that would, according to him, make the 2000 completely pc compatible. He never finished. An extremely interesting premise though. --- On Wed, 5/6/09, John Robertson <jrr at flippers.com> wrote: From: John Robertson <jrr at flippers.com> Subject: Re: Extracting a 8049 (ROM) program To: General at invalid.domain, "On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 1:39 PM Alexandre Souza wrote: > >? ? Dear friends, > >? ? Anyone has a clue of how to extract a 8049 program? > >? ? This is for a Kenwood TS-430 radio. It uses a 8049 for entire rig control, but got one fried. It would help a lot if I could extract a program from a known good TS-430 and program a 8749 with that. > >? ? Thanks >? ? Alexandre > > > The 8049 appears to have the same pinout as the 8041 and as such probably can be read on my Xeltek burner...I just don't have an 8049 to check... The 8041 ROM code is not protected and can be read with any Eprom Programmer that handles that series. My Xeltek SuperPro can handle that as can any other burner that shows the 8041 in its list of supported devices. John :-#)# -- John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, VideoGames) ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? www.flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out"

17 years, 3 months

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PDP-11 taking over the world (was Re: Xerox 820 system disks in Teledisk format?)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 5:40 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > On 7 May 2009 at 13:30, bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca wrote: > > >> For a alternate world ... Had the PDP 11 been reduced to a simple IC >> design and operation code set, DEC may have got the PC market. Ben. > > Didn't the Soviets have their own versions of the LSI 11 and even put > on in a calculator? Yep, and at least one handheld LCD-based "game", IIRC. Once they had the chip, it found its way into smaller and cheaper things. I was even in Russia 10 years ago, but didn't happen to run across any of that sort of gear where I was. >?I do know that they had "personal computers" built around the architecture. Yep. Also somewhat popular for the market. > But when the PeeCee came out, they happily went for the x86. Not right away, I think. Back in the early 1980s, even the home market in the US didn't leap right on the 5150. I was working at a childrens' game company in 1984 and we debated supporting the PC because the numbers weren't on our side yet to develop for that platform given our audience. There were plenty of PCs in offices, but the home penetration hadn't exceeded the installed base of Ataris and C-64s yet. In the end, we did support the PC, but it represented a minority of our sales. I'm sure 2-3 years later the numbers would have looked very different. -ethan

17 years, 3 months

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MC3418 CVSD Encoding (Was: Re: Looking for IBM PS/2 or PCjr SpeechAdapter Tech Ref

by julianskidmore＠yahoo.com

Michael B. Brutman wrote: > I understand the > principle behind CVSD encoding and decoding, but not enough to start > writing code. I want to write some code takes CVSD encoded data and > displays the waveform on a screen, for a sound editor. CVSD decoding is a simple algorithm, here's a version which works one bit at a time: typedef unsigned short ushort; typedef unsigned short bit; // should be a range 0..1. #define kCvsdMaxGain 8 #define kCvsdIntegrator 15 ushort gCvsdDecGain=1, gCvsdDecRefSample=32768; ushort gCvsdDecRecentBits=0xaaaa; ushort CvsdDec(bit aBit) { gCvsdDecRecentBits=(gCvsdDecRecentBits<<1)|aBit; gCvsdDecRefSample+= (aBit==1)? gCvsdDecGain:-gCvsdDecGain; if(((gCvsdDecRecentBits&kCvsdIntegrator)==kCvsdIntegrator) || ((gCvsdDecRecentBits&7)==0) ) { if(gCvsdDecGain<kCvsdMaxGain) gCvsdDecGain<<=1; } else kCvsdMaxGain=(kCvsdMaxGain+1)>>1; return gCvsdDecRefSample; } All you have to do is pick the right maximum gain and integrator. Somewhat wrong values will still produce something recognisable. -cheers from julz @P

17 years, 3 months

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Datex floppy drive emulator - flash based replacement for magnetic media

by john_a_s2004＠hotmail.com

Hi, I came across this product on the web: http://www.datexdsm.com/emulator/docs/DTX200en.html with a review here: http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/disk/datastorage-floppy-disk-drive-em… This is exactly the device which has been often talked about on this forum - namely a solid state drop-in replacement for a floppy disk drive. I have no idea how well it works (and at only 450 euro each if you buy 2 or more am not likely to find out in a hurry). Some random questions: - anyone here involved with developing this product? - can it emulate a hard sector floppy? - how does it compare with SVD (semi virtual diskette)? Apologies if this has been discussed at length already, any pointers to the cctalk archive appreciated. Regards, John _________________________________________________________________ Share your photos with Windows Live Photos ? Free. http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/134665338/direct/01/

17 years, 3 months

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Datex floppy drive emulator - flash based replacement for magnetic media

by amouses＠gmail.com

Regarding Datex. My initial elation at finally finding a drop in, commercially available solid state replacement floppy or MFM hard disk emulator, was like everybody else shorted out when I saw the prices. I have commented on this before in this forum. And, as before I'll comment that I maintain a listing of all such products. It is here: http://maben.homeip.net:8217/static/S100/DISK/index.html If you think the Datex floppy emulator is expensive, just ask for a quote on the MFM hard drive emulator :-( In summary, Datex claims to have a floppy and MFM hard disk emulator but due to reasons of cost I've never been able to contact anybody who actually had one. Many other Floppy disk and even some MFM hard drive emulators are out there as enthusiast builds, but are generally not available, or are not drop in replacements, or only support particular hardware e.g. Commodore Amiga. All ends up in a lot of frustration if you ask me! I am not sure which is more evil: posting up a device that does just what I want (but I can't buy), or one that I can buy (but I can't afford). regards marcus b.

17 years, 3 months

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driving a Kaypro CRT

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I'm pondering gutting a Kaypro to put a P112 inside. This would necessarily require coming up with a way to drive a CRT. Has anyone here done such a thing? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

17 years, 3 months

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FREE CP/M hardware,software,manuals in Southern California (OC)

by bpettitx＠comcast.net

Steve, I am coming down to Leguna Woods next weekend. We have a house there and need to clean it up some for resale. If nobody else claims them, I will bring everything back and have Al Kossaw scan the material for bitsavers. Billy Pettit

17 years, 3 months

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FREE CP/M hardware,software,manuals in Southern California (OC)

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I have some old hardware, software, manuals to donate to whoever will pick them up ASAP. Some names: Morrow Design Zenith TeleVideo Fujitsu Kaypro II CP/M software,manuals Thanks- Steve in Aliso Viejo 92656

17 years, 3 months

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Panasonic PD LM-R650J

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 06:23 PM 5/6/2009, Rich Alderson wrote: >Just out of curiosity, who's the manufacturer of the DVD-RAM drives used >in the first G4 Macintosh systems? My 9 year old drive works just fine, >if that helps at all. Matsushita LF-D211A in mine, date 10/2000. - John

17 years, 3 months

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S-100 chassis development

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi! Is anyone interested in making a sheet metal chassis for the home brew S-100 backplane project? Obviously, you'd need sheet metal design and fabrication skills, facilities, etc. If anyone is interested please contact me. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

17 years, 3 months

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Panasonic PD LM-R650J

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

I am looking for info on "Panasonic PD LM-R650J" optical media, and on what kind of drives can read it. I gather it is a 650MB Cartridge of some sort. Zane

17 years, 3 months

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