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

Data General 5 1/4 in external diskette unit available

by mnusa2＠hotmail.com

Hi All, I found an external 5 1/4 in. diskette unit in a Data General enclosure. Model no 2233 Serial no 5010367 220-240 V unit. Teac drive and teac controller inside. ICs have -84 codes in them. D37 connector in the back. Not tested. Followups by email if anyone is interested. BR. Matti Nummi _________________________________________________________________ Liity perheeseen - Hanki nyt seuraavan sukupolven ilmaiset Windows Live -palvelut http://get.live.com

18 years, 4 months

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Removing side panels of DEC mini rack

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Thanks for the info on TK50 SCSI tapes, I need to think on that... Another quick question. I have a half height DEC rack its probably from the late 80's early 90's. It has brown side panels (and a brown rear panel). I'm wondering if there is a way to remove the side panels, the rear panel comes off easily. Thanks Ian ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

18 years, 4 months

5
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reel to reel

by slawmaster＠gmail.com

So I'm looking at a Teac reel to reel deck going for $25. It comes with 6 tapes, which judging from the prices on ebay is a pretty good deal. What I'm wondering is if anyone can tell me about the kind of life I'd be getting out of these tapes. I don't plan to record too much (I'm not in a band or anything) but my friends and I would probably be making recordings from time to time and I expect that I would eventually want to reuse some of the tapes; how many times can you usually write to these before you start seeing a noticeable degrading in sound quality? John -- Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

18 years, 4 months

4
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reel to reel

by cfox1＠cogeco.ca

At 12:51 AM 4/22/2008, you wrote: >So I'm looking at a Teac reel to reel deck going for $25. It comes >with 6 tapes, which judging from the prices on ebay is a pretty good >deal. What I'm wondering is if anyone can tell me about the kind of >life I'd be getting out of these tapes. I don't plan to record too >much (I'm not in a band or anything) but my friends and I would >probably be making recordings from time to time and I expect that I >would eventually want to reuse some of the tapes; how many times can >you usually write to these before you start seeing a noticeable >degrading in sound quality? > >John >-- >Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn From experience with endless loop tapes, I would say you are safe with several hundred plays. i would also suggest you line up spare capstan belts for your Teac recorder. Charles E. Fox Video Productions 793 Argyle Rd. Windsor, Ontario 519-254-4991 N8Y 3J8 www.chasfoxvideo.com

18 years, 4 months

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Supra 33.6K external modems available

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

Anyone want any of these. Nice old classic modem in extruded aluminum housing. I have power supplies (might have more modems than supplies however). If these don't move, I'm going to reclaim the aluminum. If you want one or more, make an offer, I'm looking to reclaim space. Located in Sharon, MA 02067. -- Curt

18 years, 4 months

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DEC LN03 toner, maintenance kits, and font/etc cartridges

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I have the following: LN03X-TA (qty 3) toner LN03X-AD (qty 2) maintenance kit (I believe this includes toner) LN03X-CR (qty 2) memory font cartridge LN03X-CX (CG Times 24) font cartridge LN03X-CW (CG Times 14 18 18bold) font cartridge LN03X-CY (CG Triumvirate 8 10 10bold 12 12bold) font cartridge LN03X-CB (CG Times 8 10 10bold 10italic 12 12bold) font cartridge I no longer have an LN03. If you are interested in one or more of these items, make an offer. -- Curt

18 years, 4 months

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DEC mini cabinet

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Just a little more info on the DEC cabinet, it does appear to have a part number H9642-DC if that is of any help. The side panels do appear to be quite well 'stuck' and I cant see any obvious bolts, but I did notice that the cross bars on the panels have slots (one is visible). Thanks Ian ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

18 years, 4 months

2
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Colorbus card and cables for SGI Indy

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

anyone have any interest ? -- Curt

18 years, 4 months

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QMS PS810 printer parts

by curtis＠hawkmountain.net

Anyone need any ? mainboard is good, front display is good, fuser gone, power supply unknown. It is my way and I don't want it (I have too many printers already). Let me know ASAP if there is anything you want of it. Free if you pickup (the whole printer). If you want a specific part removed, $10 + actual ship (for as many parts as you want off it, I'll remove what you want and ship it). If you want it and are picking it up, you can pick up in Sharon, MA (evenings/weekends) or Cambridge, MA (days). -- Curt

18 years, 4 months

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VAXstation 3100 and DecWindows

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Very interesting but no reference to my problem I'm afraid. I have gone back to the start, cleared the hard drive, installed VMS 7.3 and registered the license (choosing the right support files etc.) Then I loaded the DW-MOTIF layered product and registered the license. In both cases I followed the install instructions to the letter. 1. It does not come up or even attempt to come up in windows. 2. If you run the IVP and enter the node name or WSA0 (the device name) it simply says "cannot open display" 3. I am exactly where I was on Friday. 4. Until I find out what "Cannot open display" means I'm stuck Regards Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chris H. Sent: 20 April 2008 02:35 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: VAXstation 3100 and DecWindows 2008/4/19, Rod Smallwood <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk>: > Now for my ultimate goal; load and run DECWindows. I ran the install > as per the manual (that's a book that tells you everything you don't > need to know and nothing that you do). - http://icanhaz.com/decw_cookbook (Maybe this could come in handy.)

18 years, 4 months

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duplicate ebay search result email?

by legalize＠xmission.com

Is anyone else noticing that they get a lot of duplicate email from their ebay canned searches? They did something to their categories and search engine, apparently. I used to be able to search in a Commodore category under vintage computers, but that category appears to have disappeared. Since then, I have been getting a lot of duplicate email from my searches all containing the same items. -- "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/>

18 years, 4 months

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TK50 with SCSI

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Sorry if this has been asked before... I have a few spare TK50 drives, and wondered if these could be interfaced in some way to a regular Linux box. I know the PDP's use a special interface card, but I seem to recall it was some kind of SCSI variant. My reason for interfacing is that I have a few TK50's on PDP 11's and it would be useful to be able to transfer software. Ian. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

18 years, 4 months

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S100 archive?

by kelly＠catcorner.org

> Does anyone recognize this archive as a mirror of other spots? > > http://maben.homeip.net:8217/static//S100/index.html > > It seems to be connected to majzel.com, registered to a > Agata Majzel, Flat 22, 27 Hereford Road, London W2 4TQ. > > - John Seems like a case of "My archive is bigger than your archive." I see stuff in here from a lot of different archives and personal web sites. Kelly No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.21.7/1331 - Release Date: 3/16/2008 10:34 AM

18 years, 4 months

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WTB: Emulex MT-02 controller

by cclist＠sydex.com

I've got a bunch of Tandberg QIC-02 interface drives here and would like to box one up as a SCSI unit. The only QIC02-to-SCSI controller that I'm aware of was the Emulex MT-02 used on early Sun workstations, so I'd like to see if anyone has one that they'd like to be rid of. Drop me an email if you've got a candidate. Thanks, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

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are there any 68000 multi-cpu systems out there?

by trag＠io.com

>Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:12:41 -0400 >From: Ray Arachelian <ray at arachelian.com> >Subject: are there any 68000 multi-cpu systems out there? >Just out of curiosity, were there any machines out there that were built >from multiple MC68000's CPU's? There was the MassComp from Massachusets Computer, IIRC. However, it wasn't exactly a multi-CPU system. It used one 68000 for processing and another one to handle the very fancy (at the time) color graphics system. It ran some flavor of Unix. I learned (taught myself) C on that machine. We had several of them at NASA JSC around 1984 - 1985. Jeff Walther

18 years, 4 months

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About Intel386 Family System Builder User's Guide

by huxuelei630＠gmail.com

Dear sir, I am sorry to bother at this time. I have read about your arctile at http://www.classiccmp.org. I wonder whether you have the document Intel386 Family System Builder User's Guide? If you have, could you please send me a copy of it? I have been looking for the document for a long time. Thanks. Huxuelei

18 years, 4 months

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Beginner's capacitor question

by trixter＠oldskool.org

I have a need to record the output of a (5150) speaker. Although I thought that I could just alligator-clip a positive lead to one speaker terminal and the negative to the case/ground, the output was decidedly "buzzy" (I assumed it was too "hot" and overmodulating). I routed it into a mixer and turned it down (speaker is 5v, not sure what line input is) but it still didn't sound right. I found some old directions on hooking up a PC speaker to a line input, and was confused by the use of a capacitor -- I would have thought that a resistor would have been more appropriate, to limit the signal perhaps? In any case, here are the instructions, followed by my question: Parts required: - 6' to 12' shielded cable with RCA plug (male) on one end - Two alligator clips - One 4.7 uf capacitor 1. Connect one alligator clip to the shielded portion of the cable. 2. Connect the (-) minus side of the capacitor to the center conductor of the cable and then connect the (+) side of the capacitor to the second alligator clip. 3. Attach the clip with the capacitor to one of the wires going to your computer's speaker. Attach the other clip to the metal case (ground) somewhere (such as a screw or bolt connection). 4. Connect the RCA plug to the auxiliary input on your stereo system or boom box. While I have read the wikipedia entry on capacitors, I'm missing something obvious. My question: Why the 4.7uf capacitor? Does it serve to limit the signal? Reduce it's voltage? (or increase it?) Filter the signal in some way? -- Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/ Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/

18 years, 4 months

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Help with ICL power supply fault (Farnell SMPS) - now working

by john_a_s2004＠hotmail.com

Hi again, Thanks for the tis on SMPS faults, I have now got it up and running. The first fault was a failed Y suppresion capacitor on the input - this had split open with a 'pop', easy to spot and replace. Then the PSU gave 1.1V on its 5V output, this was because the output was not regulated and went over volts, which triggered an SCR on the 12V rail. I removed the SCR and thought it was faulty, but the replacement had exactly the same resistance (80 ohm from gate to cathode in either polarity) so I fitted it anyway. I checked the voltage at the opto isolator and saw it vary as a changing voltage was applied to the 5V output, so this looked good. I tried drawing a circuit diagram based on the layout, but found this very difficult. However, I found two bad soldering joints when tracing the circuit. These were both at points when a trace on top of the PCB met a component then carried on underneath the PCB - ie the circuit relied on the solder forming a joint both under and on top of the PCB. I then applied varying DC to the input (up to 110V, this is a 230V supply). At around 80V, the board made a loud whistling noise, and the 5V and 12V outputs came up. However, as the input voltage was varied the output varied in step. I then checked the quad comparator chip (CA338, equivalent to LM338) and decided it was faulty. This was soldered in so replacing it with a socket was a pain. Anyway, with a new chip fitted the PSU came up fine. I still don't understand the whole circuit, there were around 5 transistors in an ossicaltor circuit which I couldn't get to grips with. I found the following sites helpful: http://www.sencore.com/custsup/techtips.htm - I used the 'dynamic testing' approach, looking at the SU in blocks. http://www.datasheetarchive.com/ Once back in the machine everything seemed normal again. I dnt seem to have a boot disk, but that is another story! Thanks, John _________________________________________________________________ Get Hotmail on your mobile. Text MSN to 63463 now! http://mobile.uk.msn.com/pc/mail.aspx

18 years, 4 months

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Paratronics Logic Analyzer

by jamesmavery＠mchsi.com

I need a copy of the paratronics PI-540 logic analyzer

18 years, 4 months

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IBM-9000 Computer System

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

> >I'm trying to find one of these systems and so far I am having absolutely no >luck at all. >Aside from some info and a few photos on the Old-Computers.com website I >can't find anything else relavent to this system and so far I can't find >anyone who has even heard of the things let alone seen one. Has anyone here >ever seen or used one and does anyone here even own one? I want to use one >to replace my unreliable VT510 serial terminal as well as try out the >IEEE-488 port. > >Oh yeah, here is a link to that info on the system. >http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1 ><http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=623> &c=623 > > >John. > John, I too have been looking for one of these. There is a detailed article about the 9000's in the special issue of Byte, BYTE Guide to the IBM PC, fall 1984. Page 219 there is an article titled "Number Crunching on IBM's New S9000. "IBM joins with MIT's National Magnet Lab to develop spectrometers for imaging systems" by David J States. I have this as one of my "10 Most Collectible Micro Sleepers" ... http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread_record.cfm?id=94&tid=1 ...which was my response to PC World's article titled "The Most Collectible PCs of All Time" If you find two, let me know! Bill

18 years, 4 months

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IBM 3852 Color Printers

by mbbrutman-cctalk＠brutman.com

I have two of these - a Model 1 and a Model 2. I never used them - it's an interesting project, but I don't have the ability to clean and repair something as delicate as an inkjet nozzle. Does anybody have any interest in these? If so, email me off list. I'm in Rochester, MN (55902) - shipping will be pricey, as these units are heavy. Mike

18 years, 4 months

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Monitors to go

by kenziem＠sympatico.ca

As part of Earth Day celebrations I have a chance to recycle stuff without the normal charges for monitors Sun M19P114 Sun CD1 version C Sun GDM 1604-15 HP 98754A Digital VRT19-ha Nec Multisync Jc1401P3A Unisys - was off of an ICON a bunch of other 12-14" PC/Apple monitors If anyone wants one of these first, let me know before Wednesday evening. They are located in Ottawa, but a few list members do make trips this way. Mike

18 years, 4 months

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are there any 68000 multi-cpu systems out there?

by hardware＠ees1s0.engr.ccny.cuny.edu

My undergrad school had a Stardent with four 68k processors. It ran some sort of Unix. They used it for simulating nonlinear optics. I took posession of the manual before they discarded the whole system. Property accounting bureaucracy prevented me from keeping system hardware. -kurt

18 years, 4 months

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Early spring cleaning...

by derschjo＠msu.edu

Hey all -- I'm trying to free up some space so I have some stuff I'm looking to give away. Local pickup in the Seattle area only, please. Computers: - Commodore PET 8032. Works, someone managed to do a bit of damage to the PCB when replacing a RAM chip or two. Seems to work fine. - Miscellaneous 386 & 486 laptops. Most with 4/8mb ram & hard disks, some missing AC adapters. If you're interested, I can provide more detail - HP 9000/236. W/monitor. Worked last time I powered it up. Missing the "S" key on the keyboard, otherwise in good shape. Terminals: - 2 TRS-80 DT-1 terminals. With dust covers! Powered up the last time I tried them over a year ago. - Wang 2256-C terminal. Heavy. Not sure it's an actual dumb terminal, I get the impression it goes with a word-processing system. As it is it powers up, displays a green screen, and beeps once. (CRT needs a tune-up) Monitors: - Gateway SVGA, 15". Trinitron, works well. - Mitsubishi Diamond Scan something-or-other. CGA/EGA, composite, TTL, etc. 12 or 13". Works, a bit scuffed. Misc: - IBM Microchannel Token Ring cards. Probably work, I don't have any token ring hardware to test with. Let me know if anything strikes your interest... Thanks, Josh

18 years, 4 months

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VAXstation 3100 and DecWindows

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

I have recently restored a VAXStation 3100. The 200Mb drive was replaced by a 1.05Gb (that's the biggest boot drive size) I made up a cable to connect a colour monitor to the 15Way plug on the 3100. Switch on and it ran the diagnostics and gave the familiar three chevron prompt. T 75 reformats the drive. (takes forever) I used the second drive position to connect a RRD-42 CD drive and booted >from my VAX -VMS hobbyists disk. I then loaded VAX-VMS 7.3. So far so good. It works just fine. Now for my ultimate goal; load and run DECWindows. I ran the install as per the manual (that's a book that tells you everything you don't need to know and nothing that you do). It completed. I then ran the IVP as per instructions. Its at this point that the book is a bit ambiguous. its not clear how to tell if the system is a work station or a server and how to start up DECWindows from a VMS $ prompt in either case. If anybody has installed and run DECWindows on a 3100 under VMS 7.3 I'd be very pleased hear how they did it from the point where DECWindows was installed. Rod Smallwood

18 years, 4 months

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IBM-9000 Computer System

by ball.of.john＠gmail.com

I'm trying to find one of these systems and so far I am having absolutely no luck at all. Aside from some info and a few photos on the Old-Computers.com website I can't find anything else relavent to this system and so far I can't find anyone who has even heard of the things let alone seen one. Has anyone here ever seen or used one and does anyone here even own one? I want to use one to replace my unreliable VT510 serial terminal as well as try out the IEEE-488 port. Oh yeah, here is a link to that info on the system. http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1 <http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=623> &c=623 John.

18 years, 4 months

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AT&T/Olivetti terminal? PC? what is it?

by legalize＠xmission.com

Ebay # 130215811399 It looks like it has a motherboard and a single card plugged into it, but I don't know if its really a terminal or not... -- "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/>

18 years, 4 months

5
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Chess

by cclist＠sydex.com

> Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 17:08:17 -0700 (PDT) > From: Chris M > any thoughts on vintage chess games? I used one back in the early 70s that was pretty decent with a nice display. But you needed a CDC 6000-series system to run it; it was a real cycle hog, IIRC. Wonder if anyone bothered to preserve the game? It was by-and-large written in CDC FORTRAN. It originally had its own PP display driver (CHD); later versions used the programmable "T"(on SCOPE 3.3, anyway) DSD screen. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

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Sirius1/Victor 9000

by cclist＠sydex.com

> Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:45:02 -0400 > From: "Roy J. Tellason" > Is any of the stuff typical of such publications available online > someplace? I used to get those, years ago, but never kept any of them. > Some of the occasional bits might be nice to have, though. (As in, it > ain't worth me chasing it down but if you happen to have links handy... > :-) EDN is online only back to about 1996 or so. Electronic Design keeps much less online, perhaps a year or two. IEEE Computer keeps the whole shebang online--you need to be an IEEE CS member to access the content however. Some of the old 1970s-vintage stuff is a lot of fun to read--and is often a way to research a now-forgotten product or company. Nothing like reading about things when they were happening; not at all like relying on (ahem) some gray-haired guy's faulty memory of events. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

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are there any 68000 multi-cpu systems out there?

by cclist＠sydex.com

From: der Mouse: > Were they 68000s, though? All the ones double-fault-fix machines I > know of were, I think, using 68010s. The early Apollo systems were, I believe. I recall talking to one of the "guys behind the table" at Wescon when the 68000 came out. He said that the most commonly asked question by customers concerned using the large addressing space and fault mechainsm on the 68K for virtual memory--and that he was getting tired of saying that it couldn't be done. It was certainly one of the first questions out of my mouth. Although it was kind of a kludge, he was proved wrong if one used two of the beasts. Does anyone remember the speculation that the feature size of the 68K was getting close to the limit of IC fabrication technology? It was, what, 3 micron? Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

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Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

by ray＠arachelian.com

http://waxy.org/2008/04/milliways_infocoms_unreleased_sequel_to_hitchhikers… From an anonymous source close to the company, I've found myself in possession of the "Infocom Drive" ? a complete backup of Infocom's shared network drive from 1989. This is one of the most amazing archives I've ever seen, a treasure chest documenting the rise and fall of the legendary interactive fiction game company. Among the assets included: design documents, email archives, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released /and unreleased/ game Infocom made. For obvious reasons, I can't share the whole Infocom Drive. But I /have to/ share some of the best parts. It's just /too good/. <snip> There are downloads of the Milliways game at the bottom of the web page, right before the comments. You'll need a Z-Machine interpreter to play them, as usual.

18 years, 4 months

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Sirius1/Victor 9000 - has anyone ever seen one working?

by cclist＠sydex.com

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:44:06 -0700 From: Al Kossow > Has anyone ever documented what the encoding and disk format is on > these floppies? I was approached several years ago to decode a pile of Victor 9000 diskettes and got as far as deciphering the GCR. The customer then decided to abandon the project, so I never got any farther than that. I think that I still have the samples I worked with in my collection. GCR wasn't terribly unusual in the 70s. Commodore was definitely not the first to use it on disk drives, in spite of what some may claim (it may have been Sperry/ISS). ISTR that one of the rags (EDN, perhaps) had a great article at the time on exactly how the whole Victor disk thing worked. I never bothered to keep a copy of it, unfortunately. I never liked Victor as a company. Early on, they made it a point to file suit for trademark infringement against any US electronics operation with the name "Victor", including, IIRC, an appliance store owner who had been using the name for 20 years. It was a bullying tactic that I found distasteful. I remember that the sign on their building was quite visible as you drove on highway 17 through Scotts Valley. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

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More on Exabyte 8200

by cclist＠sydex.com

On the Exabyte ftp site, one can find several EPROM images for the 8200 tape drive. They're the files ending in .HEX in the pub/firmware/8mm directory on ftp.exabyte.com. Looks like one servo board PROM image and three firmware PROM images. It's probably a good idea to grab the contents of the exabyte ftp site if you have any of these drives. You never know when these things will suddenly go away. Does anyone have any electronic docs for the Tandberg QIC-24 drives? Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

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HP41 (was Chess)

by cclist＠sydex.com

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:03:31 +0100 (BST) From: (Tony Duell) > No HP calculator ever had a vacuum fluorescent display. And no HP > calculator eeer used nixie tubes. No, but a few TI desktop models did, including one that did hexadecimal math that we used. Personally, I'd love to find one of those in working condition--I could use it today, to supplement my HP 16C, but I suspect they're rarer than hens' teeth. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

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IBM 6094 Lighted Programmable Function Keypad - bulk buy on eBay

by listmailgoeshere＠gmail.com

Hi cctalkers, The 6094 LPFK has been discussed on this list before (see thread "IBM 6094-020 Lighted Program Function Keys"). I notice that there's a bulk lot of 19 of them on ePay (see 180215874744) - now, I don't want 19, but I'd like one. I'm sure there are others on this list who would as well. Who else is game? This seller will only ship to the US, so someone within the US (I'm not) would need to receive them and reship - I'll happily pay a few $ on top of the onward postage for the trouble. Any volunteers? Ed.

18 years, 4 months

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HP thinkjet NIB on epay

by dr.emiel＠xs4all.nl

http://cgi.ebay.nl/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260231490209 Boxed thinkjets with I think good printhead cables. Rik

18 years, 4 months

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video - Turing's Cathedral

by ray＠arachelian.com

I stumbled across this today, if you can get past the light stuttering, it's a fascinating watch. There are some notes here: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dyson05/dyson05_index.html If you want to download this, copy the url below and feed it into keepvid.com. :) http://youtube.com/watch?v=KRBR4W8ft2g&feature=user Added: April 18, 2008 (Less info) Google Tech Talks April, 9 2008 ABSTRACT New Light on the Dawn of Digital Computing, 1945-1958 The digital universe consists of two kinds of bits: differences in space and differences in time. Digital computers translate between these two forms of information--structure and sequence--according to definite rules. Sixty-three years ago, at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, John von Neumann and a small group of nonconformists launched a project to do this at electronic speed. The resulting architecture and coding has descended directly to almost all computers now in use. Von Neumann succeeded in jump-starting the computer revolution by bringing engineers into the den of the mathematicians, rather than by bringing mathematicians into a den of engineers. The stored-program computer, as conceived by Alan Turing and delivered by John von Neumann, broke the distinction between numbers that *mean* things and numbers that *do* things. Our universe would never be the same. With a mere 5 kilobytes of random access memory, von Neumann and colleagues tackled previously intractable problems ranging from thermonuclear explosions, stellar evolution, and long-range weather forecasting to cellular automata, genetic coding, and the origins of life. Programs were small enough to be completely debugged, but hardware could not be counted on to perform consistently from one kilocycle to the next. This situation is now reversed. Speaker: George Dyson Category: People & Blogs Tags: google techtalks techtalk engedu talk talks googletechtalks education

18 years, 4 months

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Sirius1/Victor 9000 - has anyone ever seen one working?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Has anyone ever documented what the encoding and disk format is on these floppies?

18 years, 4 months

4
3
0 0

The Unix Haters' Handbook

by lproven＠gmail.com

I'm sure that the UHH is old news to folk hereabouts. When I was a baby geek, I remember reading about this seminal text, a distillation from a long-active mailing list called UNIX-HATERS. Now, it's available for free: http://research.microsoft.com/~daniel/unix-haters.html (Yes, I know. Don't hold the URL against it.) It's a good & enjoyable read. I'm nearly at the end of it now. It's interesting to look back at this 1991 (-ish) book from the perspective of 2008. How many of the criticisms levelled against Unix were stuff that users of then-older OSs thought was deranged. Today, the same sort of rivalry exists between Unix and Windows people; the stuff before them is nearly forgotten now. I mean, I've been in this business for some 20y (and another 5-10y before that as a hobbyist) and I've never seen TOPS or MULTICS or ITS or anything like them. What I'm wondering is, how many of the criticisms levelled against Unix (and thus, by association, Linux) in this book from 17y ago are still current or valid today. I've been using Linux for 11-12y now, but I still regard myself as something of a beginner, whereas I've known Windows since it was 2 and can make it jump backwards through flaming hoops. A lot's changed. Hardware is much more homogeneous - a modern personal computer is either an IBM-compatible x86 box or something much like it; even later PowerPC Macs, Acorn-compatible RISC OS machines, Amiga clones and stuff like that are very PC-like in many ways. They use the same slots, buses, interfaces, RAM, disks and so on. The old problems that plagued Unix 1980s & 1990s Unix - incompatible keyboard layouts & terminal control codes, untrustworthy filesystems, lousy performance, all sorts of things - have gone away now, obliterated by advances in hardware and software design, increasing consolidation and standardization of the computer industry, and the simple progression of Moore's Law. Once, "Eight Megs And Constantly Swapping" was pejorative; now, an app that uses only 8MB is positively svelte. If you don't already know it, give it a read. I am not really a Linux expert - maybe a power user or competent sysadmin, at best. I do have lots of comparative OS knowledge, but most of it is of systems that came along long after Unix. I'd be really interested to know the thoughts of modern Unix gurus on how much of the criticism in the UHH is still valid today. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat: liamproven at aol.com ? MSN/Messenger: lproven at hotmail.com Yahoo: liamproven at yahoo.co.uk ? Skype: liamproven ? ICQ: 73187508

18 years, 4 months

31
90
0 0

Exabyte 8200 vs. 8205

by cclist＠sydex.com

Ah, no biggie--I have other Exabyte drives that will handle 8205 tapes. The 8200 that I have isn't a bare drive--it's in a "Contemporary Cybernetics" external box, complete with linear PSU and 2-line LCD display. The display seems to be controlled by what looks to be an 8051 connected via a 3-wire cable to the drive. It's interesting--lets you know, for example, how much tape you have left as you're writing, how many MB you've written and the current operation. However, on the subject of compression and 8200/8500 drives, I found the following thread on the Sun Managers list from 1992: http://www.sunmanagers.org/archives/1992/0017.html which mentions external third-party compression modules for the Exabytes. This is the first time I've heard of this--does anyone know anything about it? Nothing like being 16 years behind the time. :) Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Chess

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

any thoughts on vintage chess games? I used to have one for my original Tandy 2000. Dang thing caused a memory parity error right in the middle of a game once. Luckily it was the parity chip that got zonked. I was so proud of myself after I fixed 'er back up. ____________________________________________________________________________________ You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost. http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com

18 years, 4 months

15
22
0 0

Exabyte 8200 vs. 8205

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

Exabyte (now Tandberg Data) still has firmware images for the various drives that support firmware updates. I went there, and grabbed some images for the 8505XLS, in order to fool it into thinking it is an 8200. Be warned: The "EXPERT FOR DOS" utility, for updating firmware has a glitch in it which may leave you with an unuseable drive, if you choose the wrong update the first time around. The program greys-out the "Firmware update" button on drives that don't support firmware updates, such as the 8200. So, if you flash your 8505 with 8200 compatability firmware, EXPERT FOR DOS will read your drive as an 8200, and won't let you re-flash the firmware a second time ! EXPERT will politely show you the HARDWARE model number of your drive to be an 8505, but relies on the ID string that the drive returns, to determine if your drive is a model that supports flashing. A very stupid oversight on their part. So now I have an 8505, that is "sort of" flashed as an 8200, but not with the features I need. What's that you say? Simply re-flash the firmware, using the "special cable" that connects to the back of the drive? Easy enough if you have a 4-pin connector on the back. It's standard RS232. Of course, I have to have the older 3-pin model, which is TTL, and needs a leveling adapter. . . It's cheaper and easier for me to buy a different drive, than it is to assemble the required programming to fix the glitch. T

18 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute

by cclist＠sydex.com

> Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:33:41 -0800 > From: Brent Hilpert > What's the app?, does it really have special requirements? So many op-amp > types have been produced over the years. Perhaps I exagerrate, but they > seem like transistors in that a dozen modern types could cover > substitution for the entire range of types. The audio folks get very picky about brands of op-amps and swear there are audible differences between brands of the same op-amp. My response to those who say "just listen, you can tell" is usually "What?" Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

4
4
0 0

Exabyte 8200 vs. 8205

by cclist＠sydex.com

For you 8mm tape fans out there, is the Exabyte 8205 drive simply an 8200 with different firmware--or are the electronics completely different? In other words, can I upgrade an 8200 to an 8205 without changing the PCB out? More of an item of curiosity now--I've got a bunch of Solaris tapes written on an 8205, but they're written in 8200 mode, so it doesn't really matter. Thanks, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

5
4
0 0

Medos source code recovered.

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

Probably not too important, given that there are next to none running machines left, but I was able to recover source code for Medos 4.2, the operating system fot the ETH Lilith computer. No prizes for guessing that is coded in 100% Modula-2.... Jos Dreesen

18 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

Replacement for QP1008 (HP9816 PSU)

by dr.emiel＠xs4all.nl

I aquired a HP 9816 with a faulty power supply. Thanks to the diagrams of Tony I found out that the switching transistor QP1008 is shorted and a 2n2222 but thats no problem. I googled for it and searched my datbooks but can't find any replacement or datasheet for it. So does somebody knows the specs or a replacement for this transistor ? There was also a second processorboard in it from Newport Digital with a 68020 at 33Mhz, does anybody know these boards? Rik

18 years, 4 months

6
17
0 0

Sirius1/Victor 9000 - has anyone ever seen one working?

by les＠frii.com

I have seen them working. In the day, I worked for a store which sold them, so I saw quite a few working ones. We also added touch screens (with s stylus) to quite a few of them. I remember discovering that the index detector on the floppy drives was not connected, like on an apple 2. The formating was completly soft sectored, which did not rely on a index pulse from the disk. I got in an argument with a Victor rep once about this. He was telling a story about an "idiot" customer, who was using 10 sectored hard sectored floppies (ala Northstar), and he told the customer that this was the problem. After some discussion with him, I opened a unit up, unplugged the wires from the index photosensor, and the unit still worked. He still didn't want to believe me. It also seems like the floppy used different speeds (rpm) on different tracks, running slower on the inside tracks and faster on the outside tracks to keep the same bit density at all places on the disk. There were more sectors on the outside tracks than the inside tracks. This would seem to preclude using a standard floppy drive.

18 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

Anyone know where to find software for an hp 16505a prototype analyzer?

by batata1＠free.fr

Hello I'm french and i've be seen your comments in last year what about hard disk problem of HP 16505A. Can you help me Try to contact me please I search any information about this device thanks Fernando from Paris

18 years, 4 months

3
5
0 0

Atari SLM 804

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

There is an Atari SLM 804 on ebay (item 220224227774), I'm not the seller, but as these are quite rare thought the list should know. The SLM 804 is an early Atari laser printer using the ACSI (DMA style) interface. Ian. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

18 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

cctalk Digest, Vol 56, Issue 26 Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP

by trebor72＠execpc.com

cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:01:54 -0700 > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Subject: Re: Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute > Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:17:07 -0500 > From: "Robert J. Stevens" >> I am Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute. I found >> a Data Sheet but having trouble locating any Parts. I am hoping someone >> has one in their Parts Box TIA Bob in Wisconsin USE trebor07 at execpc.com >> > > My cross-reference charts say that the TI OPA704PA (in current > production and available from Digi-Key) is a drop-in substitute. The > Philips ECG944M may also work. > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:33:41 -0800 > From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> > Subject: Re: Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute > > >> I am Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute. I found >> a Data Sheet but having trouble locating any Parts. >> I am hoping someone has one in their Parts Box >> > > I have several NOS LM4250CN, date code 8121. > The CN in plastic 8-pin DIP, 0C to +70C. > According to the NS book, the H is metal can, -55C to +125C. > > Can throw a couple in the mail from Vancouver, Canada, if you don't find > anything faster/closer. > > What's the app?, does it really have special requirements? So many op-amp types > have been produced over the years. Perhaps I exagerrate, but they seem like > transistors in that a dozen modern types could cover substitution for the > entire range of types. I am trying to build a Clone of the Godbout S-100 Terminator for my Byte-8 Box. Looks like Unicorn may have what I want Thanks for all the replies Bob

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

cctalk Digest, Vol 56, Issue 26

by cclist＠sydex.com

> Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:49:42 -0700 (PDT) > From: "Eric Smith" > The most common error I've seen in Z80 designs is to drive the clock input > directly from a TTL part. The minimum Vih for the Z80 clock input is > higher than the minimum Voh for a TTL part. The Mostek Z80 CPU manual > shows a circuit using a transistor as an active pullup to increase the > clock swing. With the clock driven by standard TTL, Zilog specified a 330 ohm pullup. I've seen lots of instances where the Z80/Z80A clock was driven from an LSTTL or even a "canned" crystal oscillator with no pullups at all. It might be that later steppings were more tolerant of clock voltage. If one had an 8284A in the hellbox, it would also make a good choice; Voh(min) for the CLK output is 4v--but that might not be considered to be "vintage". Some early S100 boards used an 8224 to generate the Z80 clock. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

Scion MicroAngelo S-100 Board

by marvin＠west.net

For anyone that is interested, I just posted the subject board over on Erik's new site, The Vintage Computer and Gaming Marketplace at: http://marketplace.vintage-computer.com/ I'll be starting to list other items there during the coming days as well.

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Mark 1 TR-107

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi, Since this was a) based on the Star Trek Tricorder; b) made in 1996 and; c) the company behind it has gone belly-up, I figured this would be classed as on-topic. "Here's a direct example of life imitating art. The Mark 1 TR-107 tricorder from Vital Technologies was unveiled in 1996 as a real scientific device. It could monitor electromagnetic fields, weather, color and light. The company apparently made 10,000 of them before going out of business. Vital's product was modeled on the tricorders used in the 'Star Trek' series." http://www.news.com/2300-11395_3-6121389-6.html and here's another page about it: http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/0996September/Sparky/tricorder.html I don't suppose anyone here has one of these? Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

18 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

Monroe electromechanical calculators

by hcchandler＠mac.com

I was reading a 3 year old message you had written where you had acquired a Monromatic 8N-3-213 that was "broken". If you still have it I might be able assist you to get it working. Former service manager of Boston,Detroit and Seattle for Monroe. Harry Chandler P.S. I'm a friend of Ernie Jorgens

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

FW: Gerber help sought

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

-----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of der Mouse Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 8:45 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Gerber help sought Prompted by my latest project (a cable pinout sensor - just plug a cable into it and you get the pinout), I want to look into the possibility of having one-off PC boards made. Everyone seems to want Gerbers, but without documenting exactly what they are. I found a PDF describing "RS-274X", which appears to be most of it, but there are lots of conventions it doesn't describe. I've found indications that there exists some open-source software, but extracting documentation from code is a mess. I'm going to be asking various people whose addresses I've found in various places. But you people are documentation packrats, so I'm asking here as well: anyone have any such doc? /~\ The ASCII der Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B -----REPLY----- Hi, I recently had to do something very similar. Maybe I can help you with Gerber file generation. I have recently designed a PCB version of my Z80 home brew computer using a free/open source EDA program called KiCad. The latest version is excellent and now includes an autorouter & optimizer for PCBs. Get the latest versions from the sourceforge site as the "stable" version is pretty stale, I think. Linux and Windows versions are available. http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/ It uses the awesome free PCB routing tool at: http://freerouting.net I have an example circuit board up on my project site. http://groups.google.com/group/n8vem The gerber files are bundled in the ZIP file. KiCad includes a gerber file viewer utility. KiCad and freerouting.net are a great combination and are easy to use and learn. I was able to learn the program from a total cold start to nearly complete project (schematic, PCB layout, part selection, routing traces, gerber file creation, drill file, etc) in just a few days. My plan is to have the PCBs made at (they seem pretty inexpensive, if there are cheaper / better options available, I would like to hear them) https://www.barebonespcb.com/!BB1.asp Thanks and good luck! Andrew Lynch PS, if there are any experienced CCTALK veterans who'd like to review & critique my home brew Z80 SBC design, I would much appreciate your comments. I have completed PCB routing & optimization but haven't placed the order yet. A little peer review from knowledgeable person(s) would definitely be a big help. I'd rather find the faults *before* the boards a cut!

18 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Wed Apr 16 08:11:52 CDT 2008 * Previous message: Atari history * Next message: Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute * Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] ________________________________ I am Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute. I found a Data Sheet but having trouble locating any Parts. I am hoping someone has one in their Parts Box TIA Bob in Wisconsin USE trebor07 at execpc.com <http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk> ________________________________ -----REPLY----- Bob, I bought some a while back from UnicornElectronics.com. They are really cheap parts and it fixed my home brew S-100 bus terminator with no problems. Apparently those op-amps get worn out over time and just die occasionally, I guess. At least replacing the one on mine worked. Thanks and good luck! Andrew Lynch

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Gerber help sought

by mouse＠Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA

Prompted by my latest project (a cable pinout sensor - just plug a cable into it and you get the pinout), I want to look into the possibility of having one-off PC boards made. Everyone seems to want Gerbers, but without documenting exactly what they are. I found a PDF describing "RS-274X", which appears to be most of it, but there are lots of conventions it doesn't describe. I've found indications that there exists some open-source software, but extracting documentation from code is a mess. I'm going to be asking various people whose addresses I've found in various places. But you people are documentation packrats, so I'm asking here as well: anyone have any such doc? /~\ The ASCII der Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

18 years, 4 months

5
10
0 0

Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute

by trebor72＠execpc.com

I am Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute. I found a Data Sheet but having trouble locating any Parts. I am hoping someone has one in their Parts Box TIA Bob in Wisconsin USE trebor07 at execpc.com

18 years, 4 months

3
3
0 0

Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute

by cclist＠sydex.com

Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:17:07 -0500 From: "Robert J. Stevens" > I am Looking for a LM4250H 8 Pin DIP or A real good substitute. I found > a Data Sheet but having trouble locating any Parts. I am hoping someone > has one in their Parts Box TIA Bob in Wisconsin USE trebor07 at execpc.com My cross-reference charts say that the TI OPA704PA (in current production and available from Digi-Key) is a drop-in substitute. The Philips ECG944M may also work. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

The history of the double sided floppy given under oath

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I sent this to my friend Shrikant who worked at Shugart back during this time and this is how he replied: "Yes, I demonstrated and explained the reason why but the decision to use Tandon's technology was a business decision. We swapped the licenses for Tandon's "Bi-compliant" head actuator patent and Xerox/Shugart's "Band Actuator" patent of Warren Dalziel "I will explain more to you when I return.. "One lesson to learn from this episode was that as Goethe said in Faust and I only paraphrase him: One has to work to make one's own what we inherit from our forefathers. "In context of Shugart, the "Tri-compliant" design a la IBM was implemented without knowing its subtleties and slider/spring behaviour. I think Shugart did learn the lesson as far as egos would permit." I'll post the remainder of his reply when I receive it. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Gerber help sought

by les＠frii.com

There are two gerber standards, 274D and 274X. 274X has the aperture information embedded in the gerber file, 274D has a seperate aperture file. I have a program I wrote to merge 274D files and aperture files into a 274X file, as many board houses no longer accept 274D files. The PCB package I use only generates 274D files. http://www.lh1.org/autotrax/autotrax.html I use Protel Autotrax. This is a formerly commercial program, which is now public domain. It is a DOS application. It supports up to eight layer PCBs, with no limit on the number of components or board size (up to 32 inches by 32 inches). It has an autorouter, which I never use. I have created PCBs up to 12 inches by 12 inches with over 1200 components using this package. Although the 274 spec allows multiple layers to be placed in one file, I don't know of any board houses which support that format. I use a standard file naming convention, but board houses usualy like to get a text file listing which file is which layer. Advanced circuits has you assign layers to files when you upload your data. Here is a typical readme file: GERBER TOP LAYER FILE NAME ;FLUXGATE.GTL GERBER BOTTOM LAYER FILE NAME ;FLUXGATE.GBL GERBER TOP SOLDER MASK FILE NAME ;FLUXGATE.GTS GERBER BOTTOM SOLDER MASK FILE NAME ;FLUXGATE.GBS GERBER TOP COMPONENT MASK FILE NAME ;FLUXGATE.GOV GERBER BOTTOM COMP MASK FILE NAME ;FLUXGATE.GBO ASCII NC DRILL FILE NAME ;FLUXGATE.TXT NC DRILL TOOL SIZE FILE NAME ;FLUXGATE.TOL A friend of mine maintains a open source pcb layout program, available at: http://opencircuitdesign.com/pcb/

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Atari history

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

This was pointed to on another list - some great stories and a slightly different perspective on (late) DRI - http://www.dadhacker.com/blog/?s=atari+st Jack No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.0/1379 - Release Date: 4/15/2008 6:10 PM

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

SGI INDY top lid in good condition?

by jlobocki＠gmail.com

hello, I am looking for the lid to an SGI indy, but cant seem to find one anywhere. does anyone have any they could sell me, or know where i could find one? thanks

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Chess

by cclist＠sydex.com

Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:08:06 -0700 > From: "Rick Bensene" > I played this a lot on weekends when I was the Cyber 73 weekend operator > at Tektronix. This was under KRONOS rather than SCOPE. I believe that the > console command was X.CHESS It used both CRT's, the left for a nice vector > display of the game board, and the right for a listing of the moves made > thus far, elapsed time, and for entering moves. I believe that the main > program ran all of the chess processing, and that a PPU program > communicated with the main program. When I got the Chess bootleg release tape from a friendly site analyst (they always got the good stuff first), I had to rework the display driver to work with our own OS, which used much of the PP code from Scope 3.1.6. It wasn't difficult, but the presence of a dedicated display driver required that one EDITLIB the driver into the system library--something you weren't likely to be able to do on someone else's system. I can't say for sure, but I believe that I was the one to modify the code to use the "T" display, so that Chess could be run without any special system modifications. I had to give up one or two fancy display features, but generally, it worked pretty well. > The Cyber 73 had two main CPUs, and 20 PPUs (10 for each CPU). The > CPUs were essentially 6600-design, with some enhancements for certain > types of vector operations, as well as dealing with shared main memory. Small nit, Rick. Depending on the model, the 73 was either a 6400 or 6500 (2 CPU) machine. It was the Cyber 74 that was the 6600 10- functional-unit system. You can check Bitsavers for the docs, but I'm certain of it. The "vector extension" wasn't really one--it was called the "Compare/Move Unit" or CMU. It really didn't do much other than give one the ability to perform non-word aligned moves and compares. It had no arithmetic capabilities (other than the compare). Really, no practical performance benefit on the 6600/74, but it made a difference on the serial-issue 6400/73. The fly in the ointment was that while it was standard on the 73, it was not available on the 74. In the COBOL run-time library, we had some fancy code worked out by Rick James that would check for the CMU (which was triggered by a no-op (46 opcode) with some nonzero bits in the normally-zero operand field. Detecting the thing was interesting. You couldn't say that "if it's not a Cyber 74/6600, then there's a CMU", since you still had the issue that the 6400 and 6500 didn't have it either. The technique was to code a word so that the first parcel was a CMU instruction (didn't matter what flavor), the second parcel was a no-op (46000) and the third and fourth parcels contained an uncondition jump. If a CMU was present, the next instruction would be taken from the next word; if not present, >from the succeeding parcels, which would cause the jump to be taken. Worked just fine until some idiot at Arden Hills decided to work up an FCO to the Cyber 74 to trap "CMU not present". Sigh--after that, it was determined as part of deadstart. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Big fat resistor question

by lee＠geekdot.com

> From the description of the resistor style, can anyone tell > what the wattage might be? A WW2 should be 2.4W. The wattage is n*1.2 Lee.

18 years, 4 months

5
4
0 0

Two recent vintage computer sightings in movies

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Two more sightings of vintage computers in old movies to report. Has anyone seen these already? I was watching This Is Spinal Tap (in-flight movie) for a bit and there is a scene where they're on the tour bus and some dude is playing Missile Command on a TRS-80 Color Computer (the original gr[ea]y model). Right now I'm watching TV (hotel cable) and George Carlin is on (AWESOME!!) and in his set there's an original Macintosh (or it could be a 512 or Plus) in the background. I don't know the name of this set. Isn't someone maintaining a list of these somewhere? -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

18 years, 4 months

6
5
0 0

Beginner's capacitor question

by cclist＠sydex.com

Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:39:35 -0500 From: Tom Peters > You're recording the output of a 5150?? You mean the original IBM PC? Have > we forgotten how the PC generated audio, until real audio cards were > generated? They just toggled a line connected to the speaker-- thereby > pumped square waves at it. Squarewaves are rich in harmonics, and sound > very harsh. They were reliant on the fixed response of the speak to smooth > it out mechanically. Recording that properly will be pretty hard. You need > an RC filter to try and smooth that out, and I'm not sure what that would > look like. Probably a capacitor from the hot lead to ground, with > resistor in the hot lead before the cap. It's still going to be harsh. I'll humbly submit that I believe that Tom has hit the nail on the head, even if he wasn't aiming for it. :) That little speaker in the 5150--and the 5150 case itself--is as much a part of the "sound" as the brutally simple circuitry driving it. If one wants to record the "authentic" 5150 sound, it might be better to use a microphone and place the power supply and any hard disks outside the case to reduce background noise. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

Sirius1/Victor 9000 - has anyone ever seen one working?

by jplist2007＠kiwigeek.com

A very generous chap here (thanks Steve) sent me a bunch of media for my Victor 9000, as I've had no bootable software for it. Most of the new disks are application programmes, but there's one labelled: SYSGEN 5/20/82, CP/M 86 2.2, BACKUP Which I figure should be on the money (although, admittedly, I've never used CP/M before, so I may have it wrong). The Victor has a pair of Tandon TM100-3's, which as far as I can find online are SS/DD - and the diskettes I have are also labelled SS/DD, so that lines up. I have read (in the Vector Tech Ref, thanks BitSavers) that the machine will boot from either diskette drive, which is good since the drive latch mechanism on my left-hand drive is damaged and won't allow the drive to engage. Anyways. I stick in the CP/M floppy and hit the switch. The VDU warms up and, after it checks out the disk drive with the floppy in it, I get a cute little floppy disk logo in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen and next to it is "x 01", as in, "disks times one". From there, nothing. I've tapped all the keys on the keyboard without any apparent change. If I remove the floppy the disk with 'x 01' disappears and I get a blinking floppy logo, so it certainly appears functional in that respect. The Tech Ref manual on BitSavers tells me how to low-level access graphics and helpful things like that - but I need the "Victor9000 for Dummies" guide to tell me what in the heck I'm even looking at. Can anyone help? Thanks much! - JP Iowa

18 years, 4 months

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CEPC s-100 serial card

by jefferwin＠gmail.com

A question for the S-100 experts out there. I have come across a serial I/O card that has 4 serial ports on it. The only markings on the card are: C.E.P.C. 4-SIO-2 Rev 2A The board is in excellent condition. I know of most of the sites that house documentation for the S-100 cards, but I cannot figure out what manufacturer CEPC is. Any clues as to what this card is and where I can find docs for it? Jeff Erwin

18 years, 4 months

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Big fat resistor question

by ethan.dicks＠usap.gov

Hi, all, I'm looking to throw in a current limiting resistor on an LED backlight for an LCD. I'm going through my stash of parts and fished out some power resistors of a style I'm not familiar with. I think they might be suitable, but I can't tell for certain. The LED backlight pulls about 800mA @ 4.2V. The resistors I have are marked "WW2 4 Ohms 5%". The body is about the size of a 1/2W carbon- omposite resistor, all black, with the legend in white paint. I'm guessing that the "WW" means wire-wound, but the resistor looks a little small for me to be sure that "2" might mean 2W (even though I only need 1W). >From the description of the resistor style, can anyone tell what the wattage might be? Thanks, -ethan -- Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 14-Apr-2008 at 23:20 Z South Pole Station PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -71.0 F (-57.2 C) Windchill -109.6 F (-78.7 C) APO AP 96598 Wind 12.5 kts Grid 84 Barometer 682.6 mb (10530 ft) Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html

18 years, 4 months

1
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cctech Digest, Vol 56, Issue 17

by michaelgreen42＠comcast.net

I've got a xceed setup I've been trying to figure out what to do with. Might just end up on Ebay. -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of cctech-request at classiccmp.org Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 10:01 AM To: cctech at classiccmp.org Subject: cctech Digest, Vol 56, Issue 17 Send cctech mailing list submissions to cctech at classiccmp.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to cctech-request at classiccmp.org You can reach the person managing the list at cctech-owner at classiccmp.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of cctech digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Help with ICL power supply fault (Farnell SMPS) (Tony Duell) 2. Re: Mac Plus ozone? (Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.) 3. Re: Schematics and description of an acoustic memory (1k byte, Display terminal, 1969) (pichotjm) 4. RE: modern switching power supply faults (dwight elvey) 5. Re: pcmcia gpib on govliquidation (Richard) 6. Re: govliq: HP-1000 (Mechanicsburg, PA) (Richard) 7. Re: IBM 6094 Lighted Programmable Function Keypad - bulk buy on eBay (Paxton Hoag) 8. Re: Mac Plus ozone? (Chuck Guzis) 9. Re: modern switching power supply faults (Tony Duell) 10. looking for replacement parts - 74S01, 74S73, 2518, 2533 (Eric Smith) 11. Re: looking for replacement parts - 74S01, 74S73, 2518, 2533 (Eric Smith) 12. Re: Schematics and description of an acoustic memory (1k byte, Display terminal, 1969) (Eric Smith) 13. Re: Seeking Xceed Color30 card (Jeff Walther) 14. Re: Seeking Xceed Color30 card (David Griffith) 15. Bay Area collection viewing? (William Donzelli) 16. Re: Seeking Xceed Color30 card (Cameron Kaiser) 17. Big, heavy HP 7974 tape drive at BDI (Bob Rosenbloom) 18. RE: OK, now this is impossible (11/23+ and RL02-RLV12 problem) (Bob Armstrong) 19. RE: modern switching power supply faults (dwight elvey) 20. Re: Seeking Xceed Color30 card (Teo Zenios) 21. Re: looking for replacement parts - 74S01, 74S73, 2518, 2533 (Grant Stockly) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:41:42 +0100 (BST) From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) Subject: Re: Help with ICL power supply fault (Farnell SMPS) To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <m1Jl5H0-000IxtC at p850ug1> Content-Type: text/plain > If you don't mind losing your second channel, you can always apply one input > to channel A and the ground reference to channel B, then set the scope to > "A-B" mode (ChA subtract ChB). Most scopes can do this, and this is exactly > what it's meant for. If you do this, make sure the 'scope can stand a 'common mode voltage' of a few hundred volts, because that's what it's going to be seeing. I would think a fair number of 'scopes will not be happy looking at a signal of a few volts (so the Y attenuators are set to, perhaps, 1V/cm) with a common mode voltage of the full mains. -tony ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:32:36 -0400 From: "Curtis H. Wilbar Jr." <rescue at hawkmountain.net> Subject: Re: Mac Plus ozone? To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <48020B74.1000206 at hawkmountain.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed John Robertson wrote: > Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote: >> >> I was given a Mac Plus a while back... and never tested it.... >> >> Decided to give it a quick test... >> >> Other than needing a boot floppy which I'll have to dig up.... it >> powers on, video >> looks good, monitor is stable and all... >> >> But there is a faint sound (think of it as a cross between crickets >> chirping and clicks) >> and after a while, it smells to me a bit like ozone at the top of the >> Mac. >> I'm thinking maybe high voltage leakage ? >> >> Anyone have any experiences with these old Macs that can point me at >> what to look >> for ? >> >> It might well be OK as it is... but I don't want to risk damage >> occuring as other >> than a few dings and scrapes and a bit of yellowing, it is in >> remarkable condition. >> >> -- Curt >> >> >> > Ozone smell is just the high voltage at work. A slight leakage that > may indicate moisture or excessive dust on the monitor where the HV > lead clips to the side of the picture tube. You might be able to > reduce the smell by opening the case and (after waiting 24 hours to > discharge) clean the glass around the HV Anode clip (may have a rubber > disc protecting the clip) with a red (usually red) fat insulated wire > coming out of the picture tube cone. There is a special coating on the > tube that starts about 2 inches away from the anode clip and coats the > glass cone - do not remove or damage this if possible. It is 1/2 of > the capacitor element of the picture tube Lyden jar type capacitor. Called DAG I believe. I'll have to open this up, probably check it out in a dark room, then I can always discharge with my hv meter or wait patiently for at least a day (and then double check with the hv meter :-) ). > > Alternatively the flyback could be damp or filthy with dust. This is > found at the other end of the fat wire (normally red) leading from the > cone of the picture tube. You can wipe it with a damp cloth, taking > particular care not to rotate or move it relative to the frame - as > this will break wires and cause it to fail. Most flybacks are solid > enough that this is not a concern but in my early B&W video game > monitors the flyback coil was not well secured and subject to failure > from being turned or twisted whilst cleanig or just day to day > bouncing around... > which B&W video games ? Vectors or Rasters ? I have an Asteroids I haven't repaired yet. (I have around 12 vids, aprox half rasters, half vectors) I am the 'repair shop' for them (but sadly get very little time, so several or awaiting repair). Currently (off topic, but possibly of interest to some) on the repair room floor: Star Wars (mathbox probs), Rip Off (sound problems), Tempest (flakes out with large vectors and crashes randomly, might be bad ram socket from a ram someone replaced), Major Havoc (mainboard problems, to be built into a Tempest cab), Xevious (the dreaded Matsushita monitor is slewing video at the edge of the (rotated) screen), and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple. My Joust leaks HV... I think the DAG coating has become damaged (flaked off, or partially 'cleaned' off by someone). Especially if there is moisture in the air, it crackles, and IIRC I observed a faint lighting show around the DAG coating. I believe you can get a coating to redo the DAG, but I haven't researched that far yet. OK.. enough off topic (hrm... maybe not too of topic.. they are essentially computers :-) ). -- Curt > John :-#)# > ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:02:08 +0200 From: "pichotjm" <pichotjm at free.fr> Subject: Re: Schematics and description of an acoustic memory (1k byte, Display terminal, 1969) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <014b01c89d6e$f70fcb70$2601a8c0 at JM3800> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original > Jean-Marie Pichot wrote: >> This display terminal was designed in 1969, [...] Remember, >> in that time, there are no micro-processor, neither RAM chips! It was just to remind the common design context in 1969. There were some registers for computers or military products. I have many young readers... > There were RAM chips in 1969. Most of them stored 16 bits or > less. I have not been able to determine when the first 64-bit RAM > appeared, but it might have occurred by then. Are they named RAM in databooks? or registers? I think i have one, 4 bits but without adress decoding. There are 4 register selects! > Examples of RAM chips available in 1969 were the Fairchild U6A903059X > 8-bit RAM and U6A903359X 16-bit RAM. The base part numbers were 9030 > and 9033, respectively. These were part of the CTuL Complementary > Transistor Logic (CTuL or CTL) family. Don't get confused by that > name; these were complementary *bipolar* transistors, not CMOS. Many > years later Fairchild reused the CTL abbreviation for something entirely > different, Current Transistor Logic. > By the time of the 1972 Fairchild TTL Data Book, the 9033 designation > was changed to 93433. > > The 9030 was used in the KM10 fast memory "option" for the DEC KA10, the > first PDP-10 processor, designed in 1967. Interesting! > For a raster display terminal in 1969, delay line memory was obviously > more practical than semiconductor memory, since the density of available > RAM chips was too low. This started to change in 1970 when Intel > introduced the 1101 static RAM (256 bit) and the 1103 dynamic RAM > (1024 bit), though there were initially a lot of reliability problems > with the latter. I have a lot of MK4007 by Mostek. 256x1 i think similar to the 1101 by Intel. They are used in the Beryllium board: http://pichotjm.free.fr/1975-1980/Beryllium/PICT8117.html > The next generation of raster display terminals used MOS dynamic > shift register memory, which was less expensive than RAM. As far > as I'm aware, not many display terminal designs used RAM chips before > 1977, and MOS shift registers were still being sold into the mid 1980s. I have specification of a 32x4 bit shift register from RTC (FDN 106, 240.00 francs/1 # $50/1) dated 1970. Other specs are for 256x4 512x2 and 1024x1 but unusable for raster scans. In that time (1970) i remember to ask a company to develop a custom 80x8... but the cost was too heavy. Btw, i have specs of TTL used in that design, if anybody need them... (in french!) JMP ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:16:31 -0700 From: dwight elvey <dkelvey at hotmail.com> Subject: RE: modern switching power supply faults To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <BAY138-W132E3CC76D9E194B50669DA3E90 at phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:56:47 -0400 > From: rescue at hawkmountain.net > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: modern switching power supply faults > > > I have two Dell switchers out of P4 based 1U servers. > > The first one has a failure in the startup circuit... pressing the power > button will > lead to a flash of the power light... and that's it. > > The second one failed spectacularly.... > Hi I to have a problem with one. It is similar to your first one. Basically, the first problem is that something is failing to start the switcher feedback. What happens on powerup is that it is given one kick. This gets the 12v going to the regulator circuit. It is then suppose to send pulses through the pulse transformer to fire the switching transistors. It could be most anything in the regulation loop. I fixed one in the past when I found an open wire in the pulse transformer. Still, it could have been anything in the feedback path, including regulator ICs, filter caps, diodes, resistors, etc. Mine is failing on a load related problem. As I connect more load, it fails to powerup. It is funny that it seem to be more sensitive to the loads that use the 12V. It seems to run the 5V loads fine. Your second one has most likely had a failed switching transformer and switching transistor. There could also be a load issue, such as shorted rectifier diodes on the secondary but that is unlikely. This would tend to keep the 12V from coming up and you'd get no pulses to fire the switching transistors. They're unlikely to fail if not turned on. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ More immediate than e-mail? Get instant access with Windows Live Messenger. http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh _instantaccess_042008 ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:23:14 -0600 From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> Subject: Re: pcmcia gpib on govliquidation To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <E1Jl5v9-000256-00 at xmission.xmission.com> In article <4801AC99.4050300 at Rikers.org>, Tim Riker <Tim at rikers.org> writes: > Is there any way to contact those who win an auction on govliquidation? Nope. -- "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/> ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:24:28 -0600 From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> Subject: Re: govliq: HP-1000 (Mechanicsburg, PA) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <E1Jl5wK-0002A7-00 at xmission.xmission.com> In article <200804130758.05630.rtellason at verizon.net>, "Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at verizon.net> writes: > On Saturday 12 April 2008 23:42, Richard wrote: > > <http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=3D1675504&convertTo=3DUS= > D> > > > > Buried in a giant lot of other stuff, 17 pallets, 7000 lbs. > > I'm local to this, though currently hauling 17 pallets is a bit beyond m= > y=20 > capabilities. :-) You can enquire through the location if they allow you to haul it away incrementally, otherwise I guess you have to rent a truck and manually unpack it from the pallets into the truck. -- "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/> ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:44:06 -0700 From: "Paxton Hoag" <innfoclassics at gmail.com> Subject: Re: IBM 6094 Lighted Programmable Function Keypad - bulk buy on eBay To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <ded268c40804131044p1b41db1am5233047d3099642f at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > Did anybody purchase one of these? How about getting it to work on a > machine with a serial port not running AIX? I got both lots. There were 11 people interested and I have filled about 7 of the orders as people pay me for what they want. If you are still interested let me know at paxton.hoag at gmail.com. I have not tinkered with one except to take one with a broken key apart. Parts available if needed. I still have a lot of them. Pax -- Paxton Hoag Astoria, OR USA ------------------------------ Message: 8 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:03:19 -0700 From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Mac Plus ozone? To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <4801E877.150.EBB4D0D at cclist.sydex.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:32:36 -0400 > From: "Curtis H. Wilbar Jr." I believe the proper name for the water-based colloidal graphite suspension used to coat CRT surfaces is "aquadag". "Dag" is probably just a shortened form. Aquadag paint for repair should still be available. Some old HOTs (horizontal output transformers/flyback transformer) in CRT HV supplies develop cracks in the potting material with age and sometimes expose the connection of the winding to the HV anode lead. This can cause a corona discharge and the ozone smell. There can also be arcing from the HV lead to the chassis. A lights-out inspection will sometimes yield the telltale purple glow of corona discharge. Often, the discharge can be heard by young ears as a "hissing" sound. Good old red glyptal HV dope is the most commonly prescribed cure for insulation failures. I think GC still sells the stuff. Cheers, Chuck ------------------------------ Message: 9 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:51:44 +0100 (BST) From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) Subject: Re: modern switching power supply faults To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <m1Jl5Qh-000IxvC at p850ug1> Content-Type: text/plain > > > I have two Dell switchers out of P4 based 1U servers. > > The first one has a failure in the startup circuit... pressing the power > button will > lead to a flash of the power light... and that's it. > > The second one failed spectacularly.... > > There is a wire wound power resistor (5W15RJ) near the AC input... it > cooked... Di U deduyce from that marking that it's a 15 Ohm resistor? Is it possibly part of a soft-start circuit, to be shorted out by a triac or similar once the supply has got going. If so, then if that fails and the resistor is left in circuit, it will overheat. There have been supplies where there's a startup resistor -- to power the control circuitry until the rest of the supply gets going -- which would overheat if said supply took too long to get goiog. The resistor simply couldn't power the circuitry for long on its own. But I would expect such a resistor to be a lot more than 15 ohms > and I do mean cooked. It came out in pieces (with almost no effort), > melted the > nearby capacitor and a nearby relay. It also did a pretty good job of > puckering/burning > the PCB (but not bad enough it could not be used). What is that relay connected to/used for? It doesn't short out the reistor by any chance as part of a soft-start circuit, does it? > > I suspected maybe shorted primary full wave rectifier... but I used the > DVM on > diode test and got what I'd expect. > > Oddly, despite there being a fuse on the primary side... it's still > good... it wasn't > taken out. > > That resistor got hot hot hot. Could that resistor have failed on it's > own ? > I suspect something further down the circuit must have a problem. > > I'd be happy if I could make one power supply out of the two. These are not > simple supplies however. While much of the switching transistors, > regulators, > bridge rectifiers, capacitors and the usual fair in a switcher are > pretty readily > identified, there is a 6" x 1" "brain" board (I'll call it that as it > has adjustment > pots, the ps fan circuit, quite a # of surface mount components on both > side of > it, and it interfaces with the main PCB with 34 connections. > Any recognisable chips on that board? FWIW, there have been some very complicated SMPUs in classic machines. The HP9845B, a complicated machine in all respsects, has a PSU on a 3-dimentional sculpture of PCBs, with 4 chopper transistors, 2 main chopper transformes, and IIRC 17 ICs on the control PCB. -tony ------------------------------ Message: 10 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:58:10 -0700 (PDT) From: "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com> Subject: looking for replacement parts - 74S01, 74S73, 2518, 2533 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <34656.68.121.162.227.1208152690.squirrel at ruckus.brouhaha.com> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 It was recently asserted here that TTL parts aren't hard to find, but I'm having a heck of a time finding the 74S01 and 74S73. As far as I can tell from the data sheets, the 74S103 is functionally and pin-compatible with the 74S73, but a little faster. I wouldn't mind substituting that, but it doesn't seem any easier to find. The 74S03 and 74S107 are non-pin-compatible replacements for the 74S01 and 74S73, but I'd much prefer to stick with pin-compatible parts. I'm also looking for the 2518 and 2533 shift registers. The 2518 is a hex 32-bit static shift register, and the 2533 is a 1024-bit static (not dynamic!) shift register. The original parts were Signetics, but I don't mind using other sources: Signetics 2518 2533 TI TMS3122 TMS3133 Fairchild 3349 3533 National - MM5058 GI - 2533 AMD - Am2833 Eric ------------------------------ Message: 11 Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:36:42 -0700 (PDT) From: "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com> Subject: Re: looking for replacement parts - 74S01, 74S73, 2518, 2533 To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <39040.68.121.162.227.1208158602.squirrel at ruckus.brouhaha.com> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Grant wrote: > Unicorn Electronics can get all of those ICs, but you'll have to > order a minimum quantity. None of them (other than the 74S03, which has the wrong pinout) are listed on their web site. If you mean that they can deal with parts brokers at my request, I've tried dealing with the parts brokers myself, and had poor results. I'm willing to place an order for $250 total, but not for $250 for each line item, which seems to be the minimum the brokers are willing to consider. Eric ------------------------------ Message: 12 Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:51:33 -0700 (PDT) From: "Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com> Subject: Re: Schematics and description of an acoustic memory (1k byte, Display terminal, 1969) To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <45219.68.121.162.227.1208159493.squirrel at ruckus.brouhaha.com> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 JMP wrote: > Are they named RAM in databooks? or registers? The Fairchild 9030 and 9033 are described in the databook as an "8 Bit Memory Cell" and "16 Bit Memory Cell", respectively. They're obviously read/write memory that is randomly addressable, so they are RAM. I'm not sure about the 9030, but the 9033 uses "coincident select", like core memory. You provide a decoded one-of-four row address and a decoded one-of-four column address. "As many as four locations may be addressed simultaneously without destroying stored information." It was common for early RAM chips not to use a linear address. Those that did were often described as "fully decoded RAM". The 9033 is thus a "not fully decoded RAM". Eric ------------------------------ Message: 13 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:02:37 -0500 From: Jeff Walther <trag at io.com> Subject: Re: Seeking Xceed Color30 card To: cctech at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <a04310101c42801b57c55(a)[192.168.1.10]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" >Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:04:29 -0700 (PDT) >From: David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> >On Sat, 12 Apr 2008, Jeff Walther wrote: >> Now, it really shouldn't be that hard to whip something up with an >> FPGA and either some fastish SRAM or an open core DDR2 controller and >> one DDR2 memory chip. >How far did you get with this project? I'd love to see something that >just does greyscale. That and smaller modern parts would allow a lot more >to be crammed into that PDS slot. I would say I'm still in the conceptual stage. I've examined the Is and the Os in the documentation and I pretty much know what I want to build, with a few choices still remaining (e.g. SRAM vs. DDR2). But I'm stymied by the details and by the fact that when I started this I was unemployed and had time, although my motivation was low due to the associated emotional challenges. Now I am wonderfully employed, and very happy, but have very little spare time. I've read through "Designing Cards and Drivers for the Macintosh" (IIRC) but I need to go through in more detail and draw a diagram of the ROM structure. But it seems to me that some of what I need to know is in Inside Macintosh and extracting those tidbits is difficult (for me). Also, some of the information I want to examine is contained in Pascal coding examples, and I don't know Pascal. It will be easy enough to pick up, but it's another step back from the actual project. Of course, all of the Apple documentation assumes that the audience is already an expert at building the component they want to build and only needs the Apple specifics, and I've never designed a video card. I haven't found any kind of book about it anywhere. I picked up whatshisnames book about the video typewriter and the follow up book, but it doesn't seem quite applicable to this application. So I'm in one of those situations where I need bits of information in order to truly understand other bits of information. But I don't know in what order I really need the bits in order to make them comprehensible. Worse, I don't actually know which piece will be in which resource. So I need to find all the pieces of information, fail to understand them as I find them, but identify them, then after they've all been found, reorder them and go back, this time in logical sequence and put it all together. Maybe if I was smarter, one pass would be enough... I'm somewhere late in the finding all the pieces without understanding them yet stage, paused just before doing a quick learn of Pascal so I can examine/understand the examples in Inside Macintosh. But I still lack a resource on the finer points of video card design. I understand the basic fucntion, but there are always details which clever people have worked out, which a latecomer like me can greatly benefit from. For example, the various schemes to avoid drawing the top half of the screen and then using changed data for the bottom half of the screen. I'm familiar with the simple expedient of having two screen buffers. But I understand that there are more elegant solutions in use, otherwise video cards would need twice as much VRAM. Is it really all about tracking updates as they come in and only allowing ones which are earlier in the buffer than the current draw point, and delaying the others until the drawing point passes? If so, one would either hold up the host system, or need an additional buffer for the delayed changes. Yes? No? As far as cramming a lot more into the PDS slot with smaller components... Yes, the thing holding folks back is the time and skill to code, not the available technology. Taken to its logical conclusion, we would take a moderate sized FPGA, emulate the 68030 and FPU on board, put a fast memory interface on the FPGA, add a USB2 chipset and fast ethernet I/O, plus an ATA interface and video outputs, then just use the SE/30 board as an I/O peripheral and home to the Apple ROM, with the built-in 9" screen as one display and a connector for a large color display if desired. Alternatively, use a Coldfire MCU, patch the unimplemented 68030 instructions with the exception handler (there's a library at Freescale for this) and then copy the basic design of the Daystar CPU upgrades which already worked out how to put a faster 68030 into the PDS slot. With a little more work patching the firmware, one could use a Coldfire with built in USB and ethernet, but that's a lot more software work. One also loses the FPU functionality, and if your code calls many of the unimplemented instructions it could be pretty slow. But all those projects are dauntingly large. For now, I'd like a video card. Later, an ATA interface. Maybe USB after that, but frankly, without a more skilled programmer's help, I don't think I will be able/willing to write USB drivers. Eventually, it could all go on one card. Jeff Walther ------------------------------ Message: 14 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:02:26 -0700 (PDT) From: David Griffith <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> Subject: Re: Seeking Xceed Color30 card To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Cc: cctech at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.55.0804131400030.5772 at helios.cs.csubak.edu> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sun, 13 Apr 2008, Jeff Walther wrote: > For now, I'd like a video card. Later, an ATA interface. Maybe > USB after that, but frankly, without a more skilled programmer's > help, I don't think I will be able/willing to write USB drivers. > Eventually, it could all go on one card. I wonder how much trouble it would be to figure out what's inside that custom chip that Micron used. Suitable SCSI drives are fortunately still readily available. I don't think USB was ever available for System 6. -- 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? ------------------------------ Message: 15 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:09:22 -0400 From: "William Donzelli" <wdonzelli at gmail.com> Subject: Bay Area collection viewing? To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <e1d20d630804131609lfc4c4e0rf8f7df4c11f28662 at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Once again, this year I will be in the Bay Area for a few days, basically most of the week of the 4th of May. In the past, a couple of computer collectors opened their doors to me and did a show and tell. Once again, thank you much. So, does anyone else want to show of their machines to an East Coast weenie? Remember, bigger is better. Microcomputers are only shims for real computers. Computers with big blue skins are extra cool. Old is good. Let me know as soon as possible. I will have some email access as I cross the country, but I always like to have things planned out before I leave my driveway. -- Will ------------------------------ Message: 16 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:38:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> Subject: Re: Seeking Xceed Color30 card To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Message-ID: <200804140038.m3E0cd9d012732 at floodgap.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > For now, I'd like a video card. Later, an ATA interface. Maybe > > USB after that, but frankly, without a more skilled programmer's > > help, I don't think I will be able/willing to write USB drivers. > > Eventually, it could all go on one card. > > I wonder how much trouble it would be to figure out what's inside that > custom chip that Micron used. Suitable SCSI drives are fortunately still > readily available. I don't think USB was ever available for System 6. I don't believe I have ever seen USB drivers for System 7 either. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Once used rectally, [it] should not be used orally. --Real thermometer label ------------------------------ Message: 17 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:25:10 -0700 From: Bob Rosenbloom <bobalan at sbcglobal.net> Subject: Big, heavy HP 7974 tape drive at BDI To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <4802B276.9000503 at sbcglobal.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed See: http://www.auctionbdi.com/getpictures.asp?aucid=100131 Bidding ends tonight so if anyone's interested..... Bob ------------------------------ Message: 18 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:21:11 -0700 From: "Bob Armstrong" <bob at jfcl.com> Subject: RE: OK, now this is impossible (11/23+ and RL02-RLV12 problem) To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <000001c89dd6$354537b0$9fcfa710$@com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >It's not that. XXDP runs fine with an RLV12. Thanks, Pete, Guy and Lyle (who phoned me) for the suggestions. After some poking around and much time spent peering into dark corners with a flashlight, it turns out that the RLV12 is the source of the problem. I managed to borrow another RLV12 board and that one works fine, for both RSX and XXDP. So, option #1 is that the first RLV12 is just bad, although oddly so as it apparently works for RSX but not XXDP. However, I notice that the working RLV12 has a couple of ECO wires on it that are absent from the "non-working" RLV12, and I can't help but wonder if that has something to do with it. Does anybody know the ECOs for the RLV12/M8061 and whether they have any bad effects on XXDP? Thanks again, Bob ------------------------------ Message: 19 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:59:20 -0700 From: dwight elvey <dkelvey at hotmail.com> Subject: RE: modern switching power supply faults To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <BAY138-W334CC3BC797AA074CDA546A3E80 at phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" > From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk ---snip--- > > FWIW, there have been some very complicated SMPUs in classic machines. > The HP9845B, a complicated machine in all respsects, has a PSU on a > 3-dimentional sculpture of PCBs, with 4 chopper transistors, 2 main > chopper transformes, and IIRC 17 ICs on the control PCB. Hi Tony I have a HP 21mx. The switcher in there is one of the most complicated that I've ever seen. When I first got it, it took me a while of studying the schematics before I realized it needed the resistor that was suppose to be the thermal sense in the battery pack. This group was great in helping get the right value and connector. I think the switcher the fellow is looking at is the typical type used in most PC's. It does sound like he may be able to get enough parts to put together a working PS. It is at least worth a try. Both cases may have issued in the primary side though. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ Pack up or back upuse SkyDrive to transfer files or keep extra copies. Learn how. hthttp://www.windowslive.com/skydrive/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refres h_skydrive_packup_042008 ------------------------------ Message: 20 Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:56:55 -0400 From: "Teo Zenios" <teoz at neo.rr.com> Subject: Re: Seeking Xceed Color30 card To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <000801c89df4$5897bee0$c600a8c0 at game> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cameron Kaiser" <spectre at floodgap.com> To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 8:38 PM Subject: Re: Seeking Xceed Color30 card > > > For now, I'd like a video card. Later, an ATA interface. Maybe > > > USB after that, but frankly, without a more skilled programmer's > > > help, I don't think I will be able/willing to write USB drivers. > > > Eventually, it could all go on one card. > > > > I wonder how much trouble it would be to figure out what's inside that > > custom chip that Micron used. Suitable SCSI drives are fortunately still > > readily available. I don't think USB was ever available for System 6. > > I don't believe I have ever seen USB drivers for System 7 either. > I think Mac OS 8.5/8.6 was the 1st to enable USB support. ------------------------------ Message: 21 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:28:20 -0800 From: Grant Stockly <grant at stockly.com> Subject: Re: looking for replacement parts - 74S01, 74S73, 2518, 2533 To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <0JZB00JP30R4OIA0 at msgmmp-1.gci.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed At 09:58 PM 4/13/2008, you wrote: >It was recently asserted here that TTL parts aren't hard to find, but >I'm having a heck of a time finding the 74S01 and 74S73. > >As far as I can tell from the data sheets, the 74S103 is functionally >and pin-compatible with the 74S73, but a little faster. I wouldn't mind >substituting that, but it doesn't seem any easier to find. > >The 74S03 and 74S107 are non-pin-compatible replacements for the 74S01 >and 74S73, but I'd much prefer to stick with pin-compatible parts. Unicorn Electronics can get all of those ICs, but you'll have to order a minimum quantity. http://www.unicornelectronics.com/prod.htm End of cctech Digest, Vol 56, Issue 17 **************************************

18 years, 4 months

1
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XXDP

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

On Monday 14 April 2008 08:07, Bob Armstrong wrote: > Lyle, > > > > Thanks for the suggestions on the RLV12 - 11/23+. In case you > haven't seen my posting, it turns out that the RLV12 is to blame, > although I don't know exactly what's wrong with it. Just saw it - after reading this ;-) I just checked uNotes through #115 and no mention of this problem w/RLV12 or ECOs. I checked my two spare RLV12/M8061 boards and there are no ECOs on either of them. I have another in a 11/83 - but it's too difficult to get to it to check (moving racks, etc.). The one in my 11/83 runs XXDP 2.5, RT, RSX and RSTS/E w/o any issues. I would be interesting to investigate what the "ECO" is on your RLV12. In your "spare time" how about tracing it out ;-) > BTW, I did try XXDP v2.2 and v2.5 - same results with either. Interesting... Lyle -- Lyle Bickley Bickley Consulting West Inc. Mountain View, CA http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

18 years, 4 months

1
0
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looking for replacement parts - 74S01, 74S73, 2518, 2533

by grant＠stockly.com

At 11:36 PM 4/13/2008, you wrote: >Grant wrote: > > Unicorn Electronics can get all of those ICs, but you'll have to > > order a minimum quantity. > >None of them (other than the 74S03, which has the wrong pinout) are >listed on their web site. If you mean that they can deal with parts >brokers at my request, I've tried dealing with the parts brokers >myself, and had poor results. I'm willing to place an order for $250 >total, but not for $250 for each line item, which seems to be the >minimum the brokers are willing to consider. Every single part I have bought for my kits has come from Unicorn. Exotic ram, 8008s, L series TTL, 200+ 1702s, etc. TTL L series chips are usually $1 a piece with a 100 quantity minimum. The S series looks cheaper. You'll have to give them a call. The parts brokers in a google search do not have what they list. They buy from someone else and mark the price up.

18 years, 4 months

1
0
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Some information on Micron Optic Rams

by jwallis＠fbiacademy.edu

I'm sorry Jim, but I can't answer your last question. However, I do appreciate the extra information you have provided. The information I have received to date has met my requirements. Thank you very much for the offer of additional project sheets. Once again - Thank You. Jane Wallis -----Original Message----- From: Mr. Sub Micron [mailto:nanoman at stny.rr.com] Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 9:29 PM To: Wallis, Jane ; dave06a at dunfield.com; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Cc: nanoman at stny.rr.com Subject: Some information on Micron Optic Rams Jane, If you are interested. As a student (several decades ago) I developed several 64K and 512K DRAM cameras. I used TI and Intel DRAMs (at the time I was unaware of the Micron opticRAM). In its day, I thought this was pretty cool. The DRAM was attached via tether to my computer and I varied the refresh rate to get gray scale. Assembly language is a beautiful thing (or a nightmare). Of course the real trick was to remove the ceramic package lid and polyimide protective "goop" to reveal the chip die imaging surface (without damaging the die). Anyway, I have attached the covers of Mircro IS32 and IS256 information that I readily found. I believe I may still have the MicronEye Camera and Manual, as well as other information. If you would like copies of this information let me know. I will be out of town for a week or so (and I will have to recall where I have stuff the other information). Why are you interested in the OpticRam? Enjoy, Jim

18 years, 4 months

1
0
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Schematics and description of an acoustic memory (1k byte, Display terminal, 1969)

by pichotjm＠free.fr

Hi,If there are some electronic enginneers here, they may be interested by this descritption of an alphanumeric display terminal using acoutic delay lines. (used in european TV sets)This display terminal was designed in 1969, and uses 32 TV delay lines as memory! The memory size is 16 rows of 80 characters coded in 6 bit ascii: 1280 words (6 bits)If you are interested, have a look there: http://pichotjm.free.fr/DisplayDL/DisplayDLus.htmlYou will find the complete set of schematics and deep explanations. Remember, in that time, there are no micro-processor, neither RAM chips! Only few gates (or, and, nand, JK flip-flop,...) Sorry, i have no photos of the terminal.As you can read, i have a poor english, you can help me in correcting the text.Have a good trip in 1969.Jean-Marie PICHOT

18 years, 4 months

2
3
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looking for replacement parts - 74S01, 74S73, 2518, 2533

by grant＠stockly.com

At 09:58 PM 4/13/2008, you wrote: >It was recently asserted here that TTL parts aren't hard to find, but >I'm having a heck of a time finding the 74S01 and 74S73. > >As far as I can tell from the data sheets, the 74S103 is functionally >and pin-compatible with the 74S73, but a little faster. I wouldn't mind >substituting that, but it doesn't seem any easier to find. > >The 74S03 and 74S107 are non-pin-compatible replacements for the 74S01 >and 74S73, but I'd much prefer to stick with pin-compatible parts. Unicorn Electronics can get all of those ICs, but you'll have to order a minimum quantity. http://www.unicornelectronics.com/prod.htm

18 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

looking for replacement parts - 74S01, 74S73, 2518, 2533

by eric＠brouhaha.com

It was recently asserted here that TTL parts aren't hard to find, but I'm having a heck of a time finding the 74S01 and 74S73. As far as I can tell from the data sheets, the 74S103 is functionally and pin-compatible with the 74S73, but a little faster. I wouldn't mind substituting that, but it doesn't seem any easier to find. The 74S03 and 74S107 are non-pin-compatible replacements for the 74S01 and 74S73, but I'd much prefer to stick with pin-compatible parts. I'm also looking for the 2518 and 2533 shift registers. The 2518 is a hex 32-bit static shift register, and the 2533 is a 1024-bit static (not dynamic!) shift register. The original parts were Signetics, but I don't mind using other sources: Signetics 2518 2533 TI TMS3122 TMS3133 Fairchild 3349 3533 National - MM5058 GI - 2533 AMD - Am2833 Eric

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

modern switching power supply faults

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I have two Dell switchers out of P4 based 1U servers. The first one has a failure in the startup circuit... pressing the power button will lead to a flash of the power light... and that's it. The second one failed spectacularly.... There is a wire wound power resistor (5W15RJ) near the AC input... it cooked... and I do mean cooked. It came out in pieces (with almost no effort), melted the nearby capacitor and a nearby relay. It also did a pretty good job of puckering/burning the PCB (but not bad enough it could not be used). I suspected maybe shorted primary full wave rectifier... but I used the DVM on diode test and got what I'd expect. Oddly, despite there being a fuse on the primary side... it's still good... it wasn't taken out. That resistor got hot hot hot. Could that resistor have failed on it's own ? I suspect something further down the circuit must have a problem. I'd be happy if I could make one power supply out of the two. These are not simple supplies however. While much of the switching transistors, regulators, bridge rectifiers, capacitors and the usual fair in a switcher are pretty readily identified, there is a 6" x 1" "brain" board (I'll call it that as it has adjustment pots, the ps fan circuit, quite a # of surface mount components on both side of it, and it interfaces with the main PCB with 34 connections. These are Dell W5916 supplies. Unsure who really makes these for Dell, only other marking is Model: HP-U280EF3. Both these supplies had been cycled 4 times on/off the mains due to a power failure (power fail, generator cycled on, power restored, generator cycled off, repeat process one more time) within a few minutes of each other. The first one was dead immediately after this (the one that has a problem in the start circuit (or a monitor/etc is shutting it down when it detects a problem during turn on). The second one failed almost two weeks after. I know this isn't particularly classic... but I know that there are those out there much wiser than me in switchmode power supplies. So lets pretend it is 2014 that way the supplies will be 10 years old :-).... -- Curt

18 years, 4 months

3
3
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OK, now this is impossible (11/23+ and RL02-RLV12 problem)

by bob＠jfcl.com

I have this 11/23+ system with an RL02 drive and the RLV12 controller that won't boot XXDP. Attempting to boot XXDP v2.5 either halts at 000154 during the initial boot, or gives ?RD ERR messages from XXDP. The behavior is a little random - sometimes it halts at 154, sometimes you'll get a few ?RD ERRs and then it'll lock up, and sometimes you'll get far enough to get an actual prompt from the XXDP monitor, but even then you can't run anything. You just get more RD ERRs. OK, I know - bad drive or bad pack, right? Well, I've tried two different RL02 drives and two different XXDP packs with the same results. Better yet, I've connected one of those RL02 drives to another -11 (this time a 11/04 w/RL11) and that same drive with those same packs boots and runs with no complaints. The drive even passes all the ZRL??? diagnostics and ZRLM?? can scan the entire pack and finds no bad sectors. Better yet, I have another RL02 pack with RSX-11M v3.5 and that boots and runs on the 11/23 with the same RL02 and RLV12 with no apparent problems. Now that's really impossible - the same drive that won't boot XXDP will boot RSX? How can this be? It almost seems like it has to be a software problem with XXDP, but XXDP obviously works on a 11/23 and the RLV12/RL02. Is there some strange hardware compatibility or ECO issue with the RLV12 or the 11/23+? Is there something XXDP does with the drive that RSX doesn't? I'd run diagnostics on the RL subsystem, but I don't really have any other load path for XXDP on this system. I did pare the system down until there are only three cards in the backplane - CPU, memory and RLV12. No joy. And just on a whim I tried a different cable for the RL02 - still no joy. Thanks much, Bob Armstrong

18 years, 4 months

3
4
0 0

Mac Plus ozone?

by cclist＠sydex.com

Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:32:36 -0400 > From: "Curtis H. Wilbar Jr." I believe the proper name for the water-based colloidal graphite suspension used to coat CRT surfaces is "aquadag". "Dag" is probably just a shortened form. Aquadag paint for repair should still be available. Some old HOTs (horizontal output transformers/flyback transformer) in CRT HV supplies develop cracks in the potting material with age and sometimes expose the connection of the winding to the HV anode lead. This can cause a corona discharge and the ozone smell. There can also be arcing from the HV lead to the chassis. A lights-out inspection will sometimes yield the telltale purple glow of corona discharge. Often, the discharge can be heard by young ears as a "hissing" sound. Good old red glyptal HV dope is the most commonly prescribed cure for insulation failures. I think GC still sells the stuff. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

Bay Area collection viewing?

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

Once again, this year I will be in the Bay Area for a few days, basically most of the week of the 4th of May. In the past, a couple of computer collectors opened their doors to me and did a show and tell. Once again, thank you much. So, does anyone else want to show of their machines to an East Coast weenie? Remember, bigger is better. Microcomputers are only shims for real computers. Computers with big blue skins are extra cool. Old is good. Let me know as soon as possible. I will have some email access as I cross the country, but I always like to have things planned out before I leave my driveway. -- Will

18 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

govliq: HP-1000 (Mechanicsburg, PA)

by legalize＠xmission.com

<http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=1675504&convertTo=USD> Buried in a giant lot of other stuff, 17 pallets, 7000 lbs. -- "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/>

18 years, 4 months

2
2
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pcmcia gpib on govliquidation

by Tim＠Rikers.org

Is there any way to contact those who win an auction on govliquidation? If I read this right, this auction includes approximately 24 pcmcia GB-IP interface cards and cables: http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=1654940 It also includes a ton of other things I don't want. I'd love to get my hands on 2 of those pcmcia card+cables. I don't want to even consider shipping the rest of the lot from Mechanicsburg, PA though. -- Tim Riker - http://Rikers.org/ - TimR at Debian.org Embedded Linux Technologist - http://eLinux.org/ BZFlag maintainer - http://BZFlag.org/ - for fun! ????????u poo? ??n??u??s ?no? u? 8-??n ?u???? s?

18 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

Help with ICL power supply fault (Farnell SMPS)

by john_a_s2004＠hotmail.com

Hi, I have an ICL PC2 CP/M box (like this: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=752) which has a faulty PSU, I am hoping someone here can advise me. The PSU is a Farnell N100/F4190 SMPS, looks like a high quality unit with nice screw terminals for mains in and DC out. When fired up with 240V AC and a dummy load the output voltages are: 12V output=1.1V 5V output=2.3V -12V output=-5.9V The other worrying thing is it is also drawing 100W power (measured with a one of those plug in mains meters from Maplin), whilst the dummy load is around 20W (split between +12V and +5V). I've checked all the capacitors with multimeter and ESR meter, and all seem fine, and none are bulging or obviously overheating, DC resistance on each of the output connections to ground is around 60 ohm. I couldn't find a short so I don't know where all the power is going to, I suspect there is some protection circuit kicking in? I don't have a circuit diagram, so my first plea does any one have one please? The circuit has few ICs, and mostly transistors. There is a CA339E quad comparator chip, and a IL201 opto isolator (I'll try and check these), but no nice single IC controller. My current strategy is to apply +5V to the comparator chip and apply voltages to the output to try and see some feedback, and also apply 50V DC to the input in the hope this is enough to start up the oscillator (I think this is a small group of transistors, resistors and small capacitors near a small torial transformer, which then feeds to the main conversion transformer). Any suggestions gratefully received, Thanks, John _________________________________________________________________ Get Hotmail on your mobile. Text MSN to 63463 now! http://mobile.uk.msn.com/pc/mail.aspx

18 years, 4 months

6
9
0 0

Mac Plus ozone?

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I was given a Mac Plus a while back... and never tested it.... Decided to give it a quick test... Other than needing a boot floppy which I'll have to dig up.... it powers on, video looks good, monitor is stable and all... But there is a faint sound (think of it as a cross between crickets chirping and clicks) and after a while, it smells to me a bit like ozone at the top of the Mac. I'm thinking maybe high voltage leakage ? Anyone have any experiences with these old Macs that can point me at what to look for ? It might well be OK as it is... but I don't want to risk damage occuring as other than a few dings and scrapes and a bit of yellowing, it is in remarkable condition. -- Curt

18 years, 4 months

3
4
0 0

Zenith Z100 user manual with winchester supplement

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I have a Zenith Z100 user manual (with some pages still in shrinkwrap) and a winchester supplement that I've run on Ebay a couple times. Is anyone here who's not on speaking terms with Ebay who'd like this? -- 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?

18 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

PDP-8/E

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi Could anyone out there with an 8/e confirm the following: 1. Knob set to STATE, SR Keys Down 2. Press ADDR LOAD - do MD DIR and DATA CONT light up? 3. Press EXAM - do MD DIR and DATA CONT light up? 4 Raise DEP - do MD DIR and DATA CONT light up? Rod Smallwood

18 years, 4 months

3
2
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Bringing up an older Mac

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 12:00 -0500 4/10/08, David Griffith wrote: >I've just brought up a Mac SE/30 with fresh disks and noticed that the >monitor occasionally gets wavy or shudders. How should I proceed in >fixing this? I had a long, long series of problems with my Mac Plus. They got pretty much cured when I took loose the power cable connecting the Analog/video board to the digital board, cleaned the pins (sanded lightly and wiped with ethanol), and put some silicone oil spray on to inhibit corrosion. I had previously done this at the digital board end, but the resistance (ohms to tens of ohms, and variable, responding to temperature and vibration) was at the analog board end. I finally discovered I could diagnose these by using an ohmmeter between the solder pads on the back sides of the boards at either end of the cable. I don't know how many differences there are between SE/30 and Plus, but some, for sure. Be very careful disconnecting at the analog board end of the cable - pull too hard, and your hand can smack into the thin end of the CRT, letting the vacuum out. I have a .pdf of the Apple Service Manual for the SE/30, which I'll be happy to forward (off-list, obviously). On the Plus, there are also a set of variable resistors on the analog board setting various parameters (width, height, etc.) of the video. Those might also be corroded. Running them back and forth and then back to the original settings might clear that, or some contact cleaner (which is probably a better treatment for the connectors than what I list above) might be a good idea. Finally, capacitors on the analog board might be going bad. An ESR meter could give you some indications there. Additional clues from somebody with an SE/30 would be very valuable! At 12:00 -0500 4/10/08, Ian Primus wrote: >But I have a >book at home, forget the name, but it's a Macintosh >repair guide that has a lot of good info to help >pinpoint failed parts. It has a purple cover. Anyone >remember this book? This is going to drive me nuts all >day. :) The "Dead Mac Scrolls"? "Macintosh Repair and Upgrade Secrets"? Google for Larry Pina, I think he's the most-recognized author in this area. At 12:00 -0500 4/10/08, David Griffith wrote: >It happens perhaps once every ten seconds. The disturbance is something >like a ripple or wave that crawls up the side of the screen. Oh. Probably my advice above is good in general but not specific to this problem. I think the Pina books may well address it though. If Jeff W. is listening, he can probably verify that. -- - 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.

18 years, 4 months

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govliq: HP disk alignment pack (Clearfield, UT)

by legalize＠xmission.com

<http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=1664044&convertTo=USD> If anyone wins this, I can help pick up/ship it for you. -- "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/>

18 years, 4 months

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FS: SGI XZ video for Indy new in box

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I have one of these new in the box, only opened for inspection. Has all SGI docuemntation, boot rom, video board, all new in the original massive box (about 20x20x4). If your interested make an offer. I'm only keeping one of my Indy's, and that one already has XZ so I don't need this new one. -- Curt

18 years, 4 months

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Anyone using an Intel AboveBoard MC on a Model 80?

by derschjo＠msu.edu

Title says it all... I picked up a "new" (still in shrink-wrap) AboveBoard MC with the intent of using it in my PS/2 model 80 and I'm having serious issues getting it to function properly. The Model 80 has 4mb of planar memory installed, and I've been running it with no issues with an Orchid Ramquest 8/32 stocked with 8mb of memory (so 12mb total). In an attempt to get a little more memory, I've tried running with the Orchid replaced by the AboveBoard... The AboveBoard came with 4mb installed (4 1mb simms) which I initially replaced with 32mb (8 4mb simms, known good). I've since tried running with the original RAM, as well as other RAM I have lying around, without any success. I've tried running in different slots (both 32 and 16 bit) with no change. I've also adjusted the ram speed in the configuration page (options are 100ns or 80/85ns) with no change, though it seems slightly happier with 80/85ns selected. The behavior is very random -- sometimes the startup memory count (which is separate from the memory count in the PS/2's BIOS) fails to count all the memory -- on these occasions you can see it "pause" slightly during the count as if it's hitting bad memory and skipping over it. Sometimes it counts all the memory just fine. Regardless, the OS crashes or panics (tried NT & Debian Linux, haven't tried OS/2 yet) eventually. I've run memtest86 on it and what I find is that if the memory count is successful, memtest reports no errors, but attempts to run actual OSes crash after awhile. I've read that the Model 80 has trouble (not sure precisely /what/ trouble) with more than 16mb of memory, but even limiting the AboveBoard to 4mb is problematic. Anyone have any ideas? Similar/different experiences? Thanks, Josh

18 years, 4 months

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The history of the double sided floppy given under oath

by aek＠bitsavers.org

The problems with SA850's eating media was well known at the time, as well as the switch to a bicompliant head. If anyone cares, there are still folks around the Valley that worked on the problem. Apple got around the problem with by putting the heads on opposite ends of the media on the Twiggy, but it had other well-known problems.

18 years, 4 months

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The history of the double sided floppy given under oath

by swtpc6800＠comcast.net

Here is some interesting history on the development of the double sided floppy drive. I Googled for - shugart sa450 1976 Start reading around page 170 In the Matter of "Certain Double-Sided Floppy Disk Drives and Components Thereof" Investigation No. 337-TA-215 USITC Publication 1860 May 1986 United States International Trade Commission, Washington DC Michael Holley www.swtpc.com/mholley

18 years, 4 months

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Seeking Xceed Color30 card

by trag＠io.com

>Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:11:07 +0100 >From: "Liam Proven" <lproven at gmail.com> >> >> I'm trying to find a Micron Xceed Color30 card and Greyscale30 card for a >> Mac SE/30. >It /is/ possible to clone one - q.v. > >http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/microngray.html Actually, that project was just to clone the Grayscale adapter card. It did not include the frame buffer main card. The main card was based on a custom chip by Micron--not an FPGA unfortunately. So the chances of cloning it without having to redesign the bulk of the logic is nill. Now, it really shouldn't be that hard to whip something up with an FPGA and either some fastish SRAM or an open core DDR2 controller and one DDR2 memory chip. However, figuring out all the ins and outs of properly interfacing to the Mac OS of the time has had me slowed and stopped for a while. It's probably not all that difficult, but it is tedious and there is a lot of information to sort through. One of the hardest parts is knowing which information I actually need. For every useful tidbit I find, I've gone through 20 chunks of old Mac knowledge which don't apply but were in the way. Jeff Walther

18 years, 4 months

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a printer oddity

by rtellason＠verizon.net

Some of you may already be aware that I have a whole pile of dot-matrix printers kicking around (http://mysite.verizon.net/rtellason/w4s.html has a list of them on there), and in moving some of them yesterday I noticed some rather odd things about one of them. It's an Okidata 391, one of the few that are wide-carriage, and it's 24-pin as well. Where before I'd had most of them facing front-outwards I now have this one sitting there with the rear facing where I can see it, and have noticed a couple of odd things: First is that right next to the usual parallel connection there's another connector, a DB25. That bit seems to be a little loose, and I'm thinking plug-in board maybe? Something's not quite right. Anyhow, I was wondering if this was a serial interface adapter, and if it might be usable in any of the other units I have on hand as well. I have, unfortunately, no documentation on any of these at the present time. The other thing is that attached to that connector is a little adapter, which has an RJ-45 socket on the back side of it. The plug side of it has only a small number of the 25 pins actually installed. If I can figure out a way to pop the shell open maybe I'll trace it out, otherwise I'll probably take the ohmmeter approach. :-) Was it at all common to use these for serial connections? Anybody have docs on those 300-series Okidata printers? -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

18 years, 4 months

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PDP11/23+, Kennedy 9000, RX02, hard drive for trade

by hardware＠ees1s0.engr.ccny.cuny.edu

Dear cctalk people, We have here three PDP11/23+ machines. One might have had the CPU upgraded. There is also a Kennedy 9000 tape drive. A compatible hard drive is included that supposedly works and supposedly contains RT-11. Also included is a RX02 floppy drive, also supposedly working. The previous owner said that everything was working when it was cleanly shut down several years ago. My interest has shifted more toward analog electronics, particularly old Tektronix stuff, scopes, plugins, etc. If anybody wants to do some kind of trade, that's great. Needless to say, this stuff is heavy, so local pickup is probaly the only practical way. I am in New York City. -kurt

18 years, 4 months

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FS/T: SGI IRIS 4D Boards

by silent700＠gmail.com

My attempt to give away my Iris non-op 4D310/VGX was unsuccessful (although that offer still stands for local pickup in 60074,) so now I'd like to find the individual boards a home. I don't believe there is anything special here - CPU board, RAM board, VGX 3-layer video (with 2 sets of BNCs on panel headers.) I'll take any nominal price for them (seriously - $1 + shipping would do it if you can make use of them) or would be happy to trade for pretty much anything. Don't let these lovely boards meet the dumpster!

18 years, 4 months

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360/30 Console Display in Auckland, NZ

by ljw-cctech＠ljw.me.uk

After many, many years part of the 360/30 has surfaced in the form of the console on display at the University of Auckland Computer Science department. If you follow the link in my signature, you can find a photo of the console display. Of course you will notice it's missing the proper central two-piece knob, so if anyone knows were we can get one then let me know. Thanks to Bob Doran (one of my lecturers way back then) who organised this. If anyone's in Auckland you may want to go and visit it! (As far as I know it's at the City campus, so only a couple of minutes walk from Queen Street.) While you're in Auckland you should also visit MOTAT and see the /40 and other goodies there. -- Lawrence Wilkinson lawrence at ljw.me.uk The IBM 360/30 page http://www.ljw.me.uk/ibm360

18 years, 4 months

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PDP-8/E

by djg＠pdp8online.com

> Could anyone out there with an 8/e confirm the following: > > 1. Knob set to STATE, SR Keys Down > 2. Press ADDR LOAD - do MD DIR and DATA CONT light up? > DATA comes on. If DIR is off it will come on > 3. Press EXAM - do MD DIR and DATA CONT light up? > DATA comes on. If DIR is off it will come on > 4 Raise DEP - do MD DIR and DATA CONT light up? > No change in those lights Not quite sure what is up with DIR. On my online PDP-8 it seems to always be on. The web front panel seems to be working fine (http://www.pdp8.net/run.shtml) which should act the same as the real front panel. I tried to verify with the real front panel but its not operating reliabily. I tried the 8/M and it acted the same except sometimes when I did things on the front panel DIR would change state but not in any obvious pattern. If it was off the ADDR LOAD and EXAM would make it turn on while the switch was held. Looks like more things for the todo list.

18 years, 4 months

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a printer oddity

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

Most of the Okidatas from the period (Microline 320, 520, etc.) had a standard Parallel port built in on the back of the printer. Right next to it is usually a plastic knockout. If you get the RS232 serial port option for this printer, you remove the plastic knockout, and slide the RS232 board into the opening. There is a card-edge connector that it mates with. You don't have to set any switches to use it. I don't really know if it will let you do "dual porting" or not. (i.e., 2 computers printing to it, one via serial, one via parallel.) As for the RJ45 adapter; those are fairly common. The serial port probably only needs 3 pins for printing, Ground, TXD, and RXD . . (7, 2, and 3), although they may have included handshaking signals. Who knows. A standard serial cable to/from your computer should work, as well as a parallel cable. Documentation should be readily downloadable >from the Okidata website. As info. . . . T

18 years, 4 months

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