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

What are the really unusual or weird computers?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> That reminds me that a very fast cpu chip was designed for very fast > multi-tasking.Poiled I/O is faster than a IRQ could be because you > can change threads very quickly. Ubicom http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/3151/3151.html

19 years, 2 months

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T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines, was: Re:,Simulated CP/M-68K?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Re: T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines, was: Re:,Simulated CP/M-68K? > From: Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> > Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 02:43:26 +0100 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> skrev: > > > > > > > > >Subject: Re: T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines,was: >Re: Simulated CP/M-68K? > > > > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > > > > Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:22:25 -0400 > > > > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" ><cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > > > > > > >On 6/20/07, Roger Ivie <rivie at ridgenet.net> wrote: > > >> >> On Wed, 20 Jun 2007, Allison wrote: > > >>> >> > It's an easy cpu to interface and use... > > > > > > >> >> > > >> >> However, it's not without its obnoxious bits. > > >> >> > > >> >> On the T-11, all writes are performed as read-modify-writes. > > > > > > > >Hmm... was that because of the needs of core memory, or was it just to > > > >simplify some aspect of its internal design? > > > > It's part of the memory to memory design and the way intructions work. > > > > It's annying as micros go but ALL PDP-11s word that way and the T-11 > > is a PDP-11 in LSI. > >No, it isn't. Where did you get that? (And I've just triple checked my >memory by actually reading through parts of the 11/40 and 11/70 manuals.) > >The 11/70 don't even have a read-modify-write cycle defined on the >memory bus. If you write less than 32 bits, the memory box itself must >do the read-modify-write cycle. The CPU and memory bus is totally >unaware of that detail. >On the Unibus, the processor can use both pure write cycles (DATO/B) or >read-modify-write (DATIP followed by DATO/B). Then why is the output address of a DL card differnt from the input address? It doesnt have anthing to do with the read before write does it? >The memory systems can, and must be able to deal with both. Saying that >RMW is a part of the memory to memory design is pure nonsense. And the >same for how instructions work. It depends on wether the instruction >mandates that it's a RMW or not. >Arithmentic instructions for instance, are typical read-modify-write, >while pure writes becomes pure writes on the bus to memory as well. Ok, You attacked me. Why does the T-11 and most all of the Qbus machine do a read before write, or as you say a DATIP before any DATO(B/W)? >So in short: writes on PDP-11 systems in general don't imply a read. >That's a T-11 thing if it does, and is probably related to simplifying >the design (internal) more than anything else. I don't think they did it >with core memories in mind. All Unibus core memories have their own >write-back. That isn't something the CPU bothers with. > >For the Q-bus, I don't even know if any core memories exist. I do as I have two 16k sets (32kW). Allison > Johnny

19 years, 2 months

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T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines, was: Re:, Simulated CP/M-68K?

by bqt＠softjar.se

Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> skrev: > > > > > >Subject: Re: T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines,was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K? > > > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > > > Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:22:25 -0400 > > > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > > > > >On 6/20/07, Roger Ivie <rivie at ridgenet.net> wrote: > >> >> On Wed, 20 Jun 2007, Allison wrote: > >>> >> > It's an easy cpu to interface and use... > > > > >> >> > >> >> However, it's not without its obnoxious bits. > >> >> > >> >> On the T-11, all writes are performed as read-modify-writes. > > > > > >Hmm... was that because of the needs of core memory, or was it just to > > >simplify some aspect of its internal design? > > It's part of the memory to memory design and the way intructions work. > > It's annying as micros go but ALL PDP-11s word that way and the T-11 > is a PDP-11 in LSI. No, it isn't. Where did you get that? (And I've just triple checked my memory by actually reading through parts of the 11/40 and 11/70 manuals.) The 11/70 don't even have a read-modify-write cycle defined on the memory bus. If you write less than 32 bits, the memory box itself must do the read-modify-write cycle. The CPU and memory bus is totally unaware of that detail. On the Unibus, the processor can use both pure write cycles (DATO/B) or read-modify-write (DATIP followed by DATO/B). The memory systems can, and must be able to deal with both. Saying that RMW is a part of the memory to memory design is pure nonsense. And the same for how instructions work. It depends on wether the instruction mandates that it's a RMW or not. Arithmentic instructions for instance, are typical read-modify-write, while pure writes becomes pure writes on the bus to memory as well. So in short: writes on PDP-11 systems in general don't imply a read. That's a T-11 thing if it does, and is probably related to simplifying the design (internal) more than anything else. I don't think they did it with core memories in mind. All Unibus core memories have their own write-back. That isn't something the CPU bothers with. For the Q-bus, I don't even know if any core memories exist. Johnny

19 years, 2 months

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Industrial 14's

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> does anyone on the list collect PDP-14s I'd like to find an Industrial 14 and VT-14 for CHM.

19 years, 2 months

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Your contributions wanted! DEC graphics products

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> OK, I know DEC had some graphics products (VR something? GT something?) DEC had a long history of displays, going back to the Type 30 display on the PDP-1 Type 338, 339, and 340 displays processors for the PDP-8, 9 and 10, respectively DEC's laboratory systems all had point plot scopes (LINC, LINC/8, PDP12) VR was the designation for their CRTs. There were two generations of display list vector processors (VT-11, packaged with a PDP11 CPU as the GT series) and the VS-60 and a 512x512 raster display with a similar instruction set (VS-11) -- The E&S LDS-1 was a peripheral for the KA-10

19 years, 2 months

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Your contributions wanted! DEC graphics products

by legalize＠xmission.com

OK, I know DEC had some graphics products (VR something? GT something?) and I know that some of you out there are much more knowledgable about these than I, so can I get a little help here? Please create a free account on my web site and add information about DEC graphics peripherals for the PDP-8, PDP-11, and DECsystem series of computers. If you know stuff about their workstations that would be great too! <http://www.computergraphicsmuseum.com> Everything is done as a wiki, so it should be easy to edit and add information once you create yourself an account. The whole site is run by me, and I give spammers a quick knee to the groin when I meet them in person, so you know I'm not going to abuse your personal data. Thanks for your help! -- "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/>

19 years, 2 months

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New pcb design for S-100 prototype board available

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, > I can't comment on the quality of their services, I just >happened to have a magazine on the desk with their adverts >in. Thanks for the info, mostly just idle curiosity at the moment. TTFN - Pete.

19 years, 2 months

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Pinging Dan Veeneman

by mokuba＠gmail.com

Tried to reply to your emails but i'm getting message delivery failed responses -- Gary G. Sparkes Jr. KB3HAG

19 years, 2 months

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Baseline H-11 board set?

by oldcpu＠rogerwilco.org

Ethan Dicks said: > What I haven't been able to find online is a list of the boards that > an H-11 typically shipped with. I know it used an LSI-11 (11/03) CPU, > so there's that, plus a console SLU board, probably a Heath one (don't > know the part number), the H-27 host card, and at least 16K of RAM, > I'm figuring, but is there anything else? In particular, I'm thinking > about bus termination... an unremarkable PDP-11/23 board set might be > a KDF-11 + MSV11 + RXV11 + DLV11E + BDV11... that gives you (in order) > CPU, memory, disk, console SLU, and bootstrap/terminator. What's the > equivalent combo for an unremarkable H-11? I'm certainly no expert on Heath gear, or DEC gear for that matter, but I've been lucky enough to snag a couple of H11s in the last year. Here's what are in my two systems: Sytstem 1: - M7270 : KD11-HA : LSI 11/2 CPU - WHA-11-16 : 16KB memory - H-11-5 : Serial I/O - H27 : Floppy I/O - M8028 : DLV11F : Async SLU - WHA-11-16 : 16KB memroy System 2: - M7270 : KD11-HA : LSI 11/2 CPU - MSC 4601 : 16KB memory - H-11-5 : Serial I/O - H27 : Floppy I/O - H-11-5 : Serial I/O - H-11-5 : Serial I/O I haven't been able to test these out yet, though I have gotten as far as reforming the PS capacitors and running the PSs thoroughly. I have some original documentation for the H-11-5 serial boards, and comparing that with the DEC handbook I discovered that the configuration jumpers, etc. are essentially the same as the DLV11. If these two systems are at all 'ordinary' and 'unremarkable' then there you go! Hope this helps! BTW, I might have HT11 on floppies hidden in some boxes. Haven't yet gotten to doing the software inventory. - J

19 years, 2 months

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Tube Logic - homebrew (was Re: Caig ProGold / Stabilant 22)

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Woodelf wrote: > Tim Shoppa wrote: >> My last batch I got from Antique Electronic Supply, on the web at >> http://www.tubesandmore.com/ >> >> The past few years I've been a good enough customer of theirs that >> they sent me some chocolate vacuum tubes at Christmas time :-). > So what have you been buying? I only need a order every other year. Tubes, transformers, chokes. Some ham and audio stuff, but one of my latest projects does digital logic with several dozen 6SN7's. No, it's not actually a "computer" in that it's not programmable but my next thoughts are turning to that arena. The first programmable stuff I might do would end up being plugboard programming, most likely. I've recently been playing with heptodes as logic gates (and gotten many 7036's with IBM labels from AES. They're dirt cheap, and if I do it right each will replace 1 to 3 6SN7's!) Tim.

19 years, 2 months

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Baseline H-11 board set?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Baseline H-11 board set? > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:56:17 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Hi, all, > >I dug out my H-11 and H-27 this week, to take yet another stab at >getting the H-27 drives working. The H-11 itself works fine with >various DEC boards (including an RXV11 + RX01), but I'd like to get it >working as an H-11, not a PDP-11 in a Heath shell. > >What I haven't been able to find online is a list of the boards that >an H-11 typically shipped with. I know it used an LSI-11 (11/03) CPU, >so there's that, plus a console SLU board, probably a Heath one (don't >know the part number), the H-27 host card, and at least 16K of RAM, >I'm figuring, but is there anything else? In particular, I'm thinking >about bus termination... an unremarkable PDP-11/23 board set might be >a KDF-11 + MSV11 + RXV11 + DLV11E + BDV11... that gives you (in order) >CPU, memory, disk, console SLU, and bootstrap/terminator. What's the >equivalent combo for an unremarkable H-11? > >-ethan Barest minimum: LSI-11 16kram (or a partial populated card of 4k) SLU (dl equivilent) Additional items: FDC interface for H27 (the Heath Floppy interface has a BOOT rom) Second serial (usually printer in DEC systems) Parallel for Heath punch reader. A terminator is NOT required for LSI-11 nor a BDV(boot card) as uODT allwos for boot code if needed by hand entry. Allison

19 years, 2 months

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Baseline H-11 board set?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, all, I dug out my H-11 and H-27 this week, to take yet another stab at getting the H-27 drives working. The H-11 itself works fine with various DEC boards (including an RXV11 + RX01), but I'd like to get it working as an H-11, not a PDP-11 in a Heath shell. What I haven't been able to find online is a list of the boards that an H-11 typically shipped with. I know it used an LSI-11 (11/03) CPU, so there's that, plus a console SLU board, probably a Heath one (don't know the part number), the H-27 host card, and at least 16K of RAM, I'm figuring, but is there anything else? In particular, I'm thinking about bus termination... an unremarkable PDP-11/23 board set might be a KDF-11 + MSV11 + RXV11 + DLV11E + BDV11... that gives you (in order) CPU, memory, disk, console SLU, and bootstrap/terminator. What's the equivalent combo for an unremarkable H-11? -ethan

19 years, 2 months

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Caig ProGold / Stabilant 22

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:57:57 -0700 From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> Subject: Caig ProGold / Stabilant 22 The wisdom of using this stuff was being discussed on another mailing list, so I thought I'd see what people knew about it. I suspect it is similar to this: http://www.stabilant.com/techt20h.htm There seems to be almost nothing on the web about what the Caig stuff actually is. Materials safety data sheet lists ingredients as 'trade secret' Reasonable discussion of the Stabilant stuff in patent #4696832 --------------Reply: I've used Stabilant22 for years to coat edge connectors on boards in systems exposed to heavily contaminated industrial environments. Works well; expensive, but a little goes a long way. mike

19 years, 2 months

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What are the really unusual or weird computers?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> What I want to know is, what did they write the original mac os on. Lisa > And is that what they wrote the subsequent versions on? Lisa for the System until roughly the start of MPW when there was a Mac-hosted build environment. The ROM was entirely assembler and could be built on a Mac Plus with HD20 (slowly). Parts of the system converted from Pascal to C through the 80's.

19 years, 2 months

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list of computer architects

by brad＠heeltoe.com

I found this on accident. Thought others here might enjoy it: http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/architects.html It's not complete, but it's interesting. -brad

19 years, 2 months

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Caig ProGold / Stabilant 22

by aek＠bitsavers.org

The wisdom of using this stuff was being discussed on another mailing list, so I thought I'd see what people knew about it. I suspect it is similar to this: http://www.stabilant.com/techt20h.htm There seems to be almost nothing on the web about what the Caig stuff actually is. Materials safety data sheet lists ingredients as 'trade secret' Reasonable discussion of the Stabilant stuff in patent #4696832

19 years, 2 months

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NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi, I noticed in another cctech mailing list thread about the NorthStar Horizon case cover replacements. Recently, I procured a NorthStar Horizon which is missing its original wooden case cover and I was looking to either buy an original replacement or make a new one. I did not get a lot of responses to my queries on other forums for a replacement wooden case cover so I am considering fabricating my own. Apparently, it is common for Horizons to have lost their wooden covers over time for many reasons and others have done what I am considering. Has anyone built replacement NorthStar Horizon case covers before and would be willing to build more? They do not look terribly sophisticated to build provided you have access to a table saw and the proper bits. I was planning on just copying the dimensions from another Horizon wooden case cover I already have. If anyone has a spare NorthStar Horizon wooden case cover, has built new ones, or knows how to build a replacement, I would certainly like to hear >from you. Please email me or post here. Thank you in advance. Andrew Lynch

19 years, 2 months

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2 pieces of Classic gear available in San Diego, California

by elf＠ucsd.edu

Hi folks, I have a couple pieces of Classic Computer gear I'm off-loading. (And there is more to come in the following weeks, so keep your eyes open :-) WHERE THESE ITEMS ARE LOCATED: San Diego, California, USA. SHIPPING: I will not ship, sorry -- local pickup only. I paid dearly for one of these items (the terminal), so I'm looking to get back a bit for it (way less than half of what it cost me, and to have it shipped to me. These terminals are heavy -- on the order of 35lbs-40lbs.) --------- Item (1) --------- Lear Siegler ADM-5 serial terminal WITH original User Manual. I would like $60.00 for this terminal and original User Manual. It DOES work! AND, this terminal DOES NOT suffer from the dreaded screen-rot (a.k.a. mold growing under the protective CRT face plate). Photos: (Note: the screen shot of some characters I took is _blurry_ because of my bad picture taking technique -- the screen produces crisp characters.) http://home.san.rr.com/instep/gear/Lear-Siegler-ADM5 --------- Item (2) --------- Amiga 1000 -- with keyboard -- mouse -- with external 3-1/2 disk drive No monitor. Worked last time I hooked it up to a monitor back in 2004. A bit of yellowing on the casing of all parts, and a bit of grunge (which can be cleaned, I'd imagine.) This is a _freebie_ -- no charge. Photos: http://home.san.rr.com/instep/gear/Amiga-1000/ Contact me OFF-LIST if interested. --ef

19 years, 2 months

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Computer porn book.... :-)

by stanb＠dial.pipex.com

Hi, This week's New Scientist magazine carries a report of a new book called "Core Memory" by Mark Richards & John Alderman, pub. Chronicle Books, ISBN 1780811854429. It's a collection of photographs of vintage computer equiment, inspired by a visit by the author to VCF in 2003. Anyone seen a copy? Is it worth investing in? The New Scientist article has a photo of part of the Apollo Guidance computer, the modules clearly marked "Engineering Prototype". -- Cheers, Stan Barr stanb at dial.pipex.com The future was never like this!

19 years, 2 months

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Article on The Rgister: Keyboards in dishwashers.

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordon at gjcp.net> wrote: > On Wed, 2007-06-20 at 18:21 -0300, Alexandre Souza wrote: > > Nothing incredible here, I do that with my IBM model M, and put it > > on the sun to dry :oD > > *ON* the sun? Jeez, those things are tougher than I thought... > > Gordon He didn't state which model sun though...I suspect it would have to be an Enterprise-class or something, since all the smaller ones blow their hot air out on the *sides* not the top. A SPARCserver 1000 makes an effective hot-air drier (or room heater), let me tell you... but also there you'd have to put anything you want to dry *beside* it; the advantage is that no residual water is going to dribble into it! ;-) -- Arno Kletzander Stud. Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen www.iser.uni-erlangen.de GMX FreeMail: 1 GB Postfach, 5 E-Mail-Adressen, 10 Free SMS. Alle Infos und kostenlose Anmeldung: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/freemail

19 years, 2 months

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PICS: VCF E '07 Photos - PET 30th Anniv - CBM Prototypes

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

I have updated my web site. http://www.vintagecomputer.net Commodore PET 30th Anniversary Commodore Prototype Photos from VCF East 2007 Commodore Midwest Regional Staff Newsletter Archives Herb Johnson's New History of CP/M Web Site Using Toggle Switches to Analyze Memory Lobo MAX 80 Exatron Stringy Floppy Bill D

19 years, 2 months

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Caig ProGold / Stabilant 22

by dkelvey＠hotmail.com

>From: shoppa_classiccmp at trailing-edge.com (Tim Shoppa) > >Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: > > The wisdom of using this stuff was being discussed on another mailing > > list, so I thought I'd see what people knew about it. I suspect it is > > similar to this: > > > > http://www.stabilant.com/techt20h.htm > > > > There seems to be almost nothing on the web about what the Caig stuff > > actually is. Materials safety data sheet lists ingredients as 'trade >secret' > > > > Reasonable discussion of the Stabilant stuff in patent #4696832 > >For a lot of purposes I like Caig DeoxIT. It's definitely better >than the old "tuner cleaners" in terms of being more than a short-term >fix. There's a long catalog of Caig products and I don't think there >are as many actual applications as they have product variants :-). > >Tim. Hi I will again give a pitch for what I've used. I have a TV that the turret contact that were silver plated had warn out, leaving just brass. This was more than 10 years ago. I tried the tuner cleaners but that would only last less than a week. I then tried a little DC#4 silicon grease. To make a long story short, I'm still using that TV today although I only tend to watch once a week now. I did watch most every night for some time. Now if I could only find the intermittent in the vertical drive. I wiggle things and it comes right back. Dwight _________________________________________________________________ Who's that on the Red Carpet? Play & win glamorous prizes. http://club.live.com/red_carpet_reveal.aspx?icid=REDCARPET_hotmailtextlink3

19 years, 2 months

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NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:56:48 -0700 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Orientation of the drive with respect to the power transformer on the >Integrand was important. Changing the position by 90 degrees offered >a substantial improvement, but that wasn't an option, as the panel >was delivered pre-cut for a drive. > >On 21 Jun 2007 at 7:08, Allison wrote: > >> I have an NS* Advantage and they also apparently did it right as the drives >> behave well without steel shield plates. > >It could be that some drives are more sensitive to this sort of thing >than others--and that some monitors orient components in exactly the >wrong way. In the case of the Durango, the monitor was a small 9" >Ball Brothers OEM model and the drives were Micropolis 100 TPI >models. > >The large carriage stepper motor on the integrated printer was less >than an inch away from the B: drive. Another reason to shield >things. ;) there were a lot of design goofs out there. Actually the worst flub is the external drive setups with power supplies independent of the main box. I think there may have been three FDC cards made that suppressed WE/ if the power failed. If there was a disk in the drive.. wave byebye as it did a motor on, head load and write "1" to all drives. >Most "PC" boxes from the 1970's had some sort of basic design >problem; EMI radition being only one of them (Did the Horizon pass >VDE certification?). Most couldn't withstand a hipot attack; very >few could survive a thermal stress or shake table session without >having a component with "flying leads" dismount, or having cards pop >out of the backplane connectors. Most S100 crates could not pass VDE or a serious hipot attack. Don't know if the Horizon did or did not as it predated most of those certifications and likely was grandfathered in like many. Vibration testing, "ya gotta be kiddin", as there isn't a card restraint in 99% of the crates.. Some like the pre-B Altairs flexed so much if lifted by opposing corners the cards would pop out unless they had a one peice mother board. Allison > >Cheers, >Chuck > >

19 years, 2 months

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Article on The Rgister: Keyboards in dishwashers.

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

If you're curious, a Mac USB keyboard successfully cleaned in a dishwasher: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/20/keyboard_dishwash/ -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818 --- AIM - woyciesjes "From there to here, From here to there, Funny things are everywhere." --- Dr. Seuss

19 years, 2 months

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Apple Disk ][ X-Ray

by grant＠stockly.com

This is my attempt at an "art" x-ray. This image includes the entire range of densities. If I were to penetrate the motor I would blow through the plastic. This is a high resolution x-ray. Zoom into the front label and see if you can read the embossed name plates... What COLOR is this actual drive? The answer is in there! ; ) http://www.stockly.com/images2/061231-Disk_II_Drive-120kv6ma15msDG35SFD.jpg This shot was taken with the drive elevated at an angle by foam so that you would get a 3d feeling and not a flat picture. Let me know if its cool. I may x-ray an entire computer next... : ) Grant

19 years, 2 months

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OT: demagnetization

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

How did you magnetise them and what little parts are you referring to? - Andrew B (via mobile phone) --- cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org <dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu> wrote: > > Can someone point me to schematics for a decent homebrewed demagnetizer? > I've accidentally magnetized a bunch of little parts that really shouldn't > have been. > > > -- > 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?

19 years, 2 months

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Floppy Disc Capacities [was Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)]

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

> Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:50:43 -0400 > From: Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far) > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <4676C5F3.40609 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Roy J. Tellason wrote: > > On Sunday 17 June 2007 17:26, Fred Cisin wrote: > >> Oh, well. I guess that it is like selling disks based on their > >> unformatted capacity - a 2.8M ED disk is called "2.88" by IBM, and > >> was called "4 meg" by NeXT. > > > > I have some boxes that had "1.44s" in them branded IBM and > which were > > labeled "2.0MB"... > > Indeed. All of the IBM 2.88's I have are labeled 4.0MB. > > Peace... Sridhar > My first iteration of Windows 95 was on 3.5 inch floppy diskettes. At some point, I wanted to make a backup copy on diskettes but couldn't because the file sizes of the Windows distribution floppies was 1.8-1.9MB each. At the time I thought it was some sort of copy protection. I assume they must have been able to format the discs for a higher capacity - close to 2MB. Does anyone know how?

19 years, 2 months

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Trouble with HP 59309A Digital Clock

by vp＠drexel.edu

"Pat Walsh" <PWalsh at energysolutions.com> wrote: > Just got one of these for a desk clock and need to > know how to set the calendar addressed setting. Hi, I have the manual but I won't be able to get to it for 1-2 months (wrong continent :-). Do you want to know how to use it, or how to repair it? The manual tells you both. NOTE: Before you use it be sure to open the clock to check if the backup 9V battery is still inside. If so, you will hve a lot of cleaning to do. Use lemon juice or vinegar to clean things up. Using it as a desk clock is easy, you jsut power it up, open the metal flap under the display on the front. You then press reset to clear the clock and press the buttons to set he correct day of the year and time. There is also a switch called INT/EXT (or smth) move it to the INT position (internal time reference) If you intend to keep the clock mostly powered off, do not bother to install a battery inside, it will suck it dry in a day or two. Controlling it via the HPIB is also easy, you just send a string over HP-IB to set it and thn you can simply trigger it to read the time. Also check the underside of the clock, it should contain instructions on how to address it and set it remotely. Its pretty easy, depending on what kind of HPIB controller you have. E.g. on the Series 80 you read it with smth like INPUT 706, A$ and set it with , say, OUTPUT 706, "RPDDDDDDDDDDDDHHMMMMMT" R: reset clock DDDDDDDDDDDD: advance teh day to the 12th of the year (Jan 12) HH: advance hour to 2am MMMMM: advance minute to 5, T: start clock at 02:05 on Jan 12 This assumes that the clock is strapped as unit 6 of the HP-IB bus. Most of the above is from memory (just looking at the underside of my 59309A), so there may be some errors. **vp

19 years, 2 months

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NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:56:02 -0700 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 20 Jun 2007 at 8:49, Allison wrote: > >> What made the box notable was floppies in the crate rather than external >> box and only a LED (power on) on the front pannel. It was one of the early >> turnkey systems and became popular with applications/system integrators >> for that reason. The reason being it was now possible to sell a small(then) >> system that was powerful enough to be a complete office accounting system. >> It didn't hurt that the wood cover fit into office decor of the time. >> The wood disappeard when FCC started forcing RFI constraints. By RFI I mean the kind of interferfence from the disgital switching action that could blanket communications bands. >There was a good reason for that. A friend had purchased one of the >Integrand S-100 boxes with a floppy cutout. He'd installed an SA-400 >(IIRC) and complained that it wouldn't work reliably. What I >discovered was that the field from the large power transformer was >playing hob with the drive electronics. I installed a substantial >steel shield around the floppy and the problem abated. NS* Horizon never had a transformer magnetic field problem. And the drives are only a few inches from the transformer. The problem may have been the CVC transfomer used in some Integrand boxes. Those radiate a larger magnetic field. > >When I purchased my own Integrand box, I opted for the drive-less >model. > >Even on the Durango box, we had to shield both the drives and the >small monitor that sat over them to get reliable drive operation. > I have an NS* Advantage and they also apparently did it right as the drives behave well without steel shield plates. Allison >Cheers, >Chuck

19 years, 2 months

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T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines,was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K? > From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> > Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:18:57 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Roger Ivie wrote: > >> I don't know anything about the internals, so I can't say. Although >> AFAIK core was pretty much gone by the time the T-11 happened, it may >> have been based on an earlier design that did interface to core. >I think a read modify write may have made Dynamic ram interface simpler. > No. RMW was PDP11. However some instructions would read, alter the value and write it back. Very useful for autoincrement addressing. It also had to be that way to be compatable with ALL previous PDP11s. Allison

19 years, 2 months

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Massbus simulation

by jam＠magic.com

> Guy Sotomayor wrote: > > > > > > Dave McGuire wrote: > >> On Jun 20, 2007, at 2:49 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote: > >>>> > Even so, I'd think the most obvious consumers of a new Massbus > >>>> > storage device would probably be either the 11/70 crowd, or, more > >>>> > >>>> Indeed. My 11/70 has RP06s. > >>> > >>> Mine have SI9900s, but I'd love to throw an RH70 in one. > >> > >> I've got a pair of Emulex SC72s for mine...The SC72 is a set of > >> boards that plugs into the RH70 slots in an 11/70, and controls SMD > >> drives. I've not installed them yet, but I expect them to be very nice. > > > > They *are* very nice. I have 2 sets in my 11/70. One for controlling > > the Eagles and the other for the CDC 9766's. > > > > I have a couple of SC72s which I hope to use in my 11/70 to hook up > both my CDC 9762, Fujitsu M2284K, and a pair of Seagate (CDC) 9720 Sabre > drives. I'm hoping that the SC72 can handle the data rate of the Sabres. > Does anyone know? I have an SC70 in my 11/70 and a couple of RH70's. I've also got one complete RH11. But, no Massbus peripherals, so I cannot test those out. I'm looking forward to Guy's emulator! RL02's just aren't big enough for real work on an 11/70. James Markevitch

19 years, 2 months

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T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines,was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K? > From: "e.stiebler" <emu at e-bbes.com> > Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:52:25 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Robert Borsuk wrote: >> I've been loosely following this thread and never heard of a T11 from >> DEC. So good'ole Google and Bitsavers saves the day, but it get's me >> thinking. Has anybody done any design's with this processor? Why >> wasn't this processor used instead of the 6100? >> >> Rob > >There is a guy who made his own SBC with a T-11, and even ported Forth >on it. I thought I knew his webpage, but it seems, I lost the bookmark. >But check google groups for "peter mccollum forth t11" and you will find >at least the discussions ... It's an easy cpu to interface and use. One of it's features is that at reset the bus can be configured for 8 or 16 bit wide path, for standard or varible microcycle and static memory or Dram(with refresh). I'd suspect the Dram support would be valuable in a game at a time when large rams were dynamic. Allison

19 years, 2 months

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Emulating old computers on FPGA

by lproven＠gmail.com

Since I see this is coming up, I though folk might be interested in this: http://www.msx.org/One-Chip-MSX-MKII.newspost3805.html Of course, there is also the lovely Jeri Ellsworth's C-One: http://c64upgra.de/c-one/ -- Liam Proven ? Blog, homepage &c: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile 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

19 years, 2 months

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strange Televideo terminal? in Belgium (eBay)

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-TELEVIDEO-PT-100_W0QQitemZ230140614394QQihZ013Q… ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get your own web address. Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL

19 years, 2 months

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T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines,was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K? > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:22:25 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 6/20/07, Roger Ivie <rivie at ridgenet.net> wrote: >> On Wed, 20 Jun 2007, Allison wrote: >> > It's an easy cpu to interface and use... > >> >> However, it's not without its obnoxious bits. >> >> On the T-11, all writes are performed as read-modify-writes. > >Hmm... was that because of the needs of core memory, or was it just to >simplify some aspect of its internal design? It's part of the memory to memory design and the way intructions work. It's annying as micros go but ALL PDP-11s word that way and the T-11 is a PDP-11 in LSI. >RMW cycles are typically no problem with main memory, but I've seen >problems with them in a number of situations involving I/O, typically >involving "clever" peripherals that take a read of some register as a >trigger signal, but also with some 68000-family designs where you >weren't allowed to use instructions in your code which invoked RMW >cycles because they weren't interruptible (intentionally) and could >cause interrupt or instruction-restart problems. Yep the fix is easy. The read address is dirrent from the write address. So when the system doe sthe read before write or Read modify write it only touches the address register for thatread or write as desired. >At least with the 68000, RMW cycles were rarely done by real-world >code, and never accidentally. > >With a from-scratch T-11 SBC, one could, I'd expect, select I/O >peripherals that wouldn't be subject to side-effects (like clearing >status bits on reads), but that's a lot harder when you have a mandate >to use a particular vendor's chip and the chip tries to be clever. Easy, make the read and write different addresses. Just like PDP-11s do. Allison

19 years, 2 months

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T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines,was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K? > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:02:02 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > >Even without 32-bit registers, there are tricks one may employ. >Twenty years ago, I had to implement a high-frequency filter in 286 >assembler as part of an auto-focus routine for a vision system. It >had to be fast, and the company would not pay for a 287 co-pro. The >normal technique for a simple 3x3 kernel is to sum up all the values >in a 3x3 area and divide by 9 to get the average value, then iterate >over the entire frame. Dividing by 9 is expensive for a 286. >Dividing by 8 isn't, and produced acceptable results. > >There are frequently tricks to avoid expensive math operations. Video >games use most of them. > >-ethan I've used the same idea for decimal to bin and bin to decimal as multiply or divide by 10 is costly in 8080/Z80/8048. It was far easier and faster to do a pair of shifts and one add and then do a shift again than a general multiply. The same is true for the reverse though then you do a subtract as needed. The code is linear and faster. It also works well for other non binary constants (3,5,6,7,9,10,11..). Doing it this way is the obvious specific unrolling of a general shift and add multiply routine. One of many tricks. Allison

19 years, 2 months

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looking for a C16 in any condition

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

all I want is the case, so it don't have to work LOL. Actually it would make a curious project to get going even at that. I had heard (or actually read) there was a way of retrofitting (no pun intended hosers) a 6502 into a Commie 64. So why not the same, or a 6510 in a Commie 16. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool. http://autos.yahoo.com/carfinder/

19 years, 2 months

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NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements > From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> > Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:59:36 +0100 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > >Hi > >Even though my main collection is DEC I'd love a Horizon with or with >out its wooden case. I wrote a lot of code on one in CBASIC back in the >70's > >They are somewhat rare in the UK to say the least. >In fact, the case is less of a problem than finding a system in the UK. >I have a retired friend with fully equipped wood working shop. > >Consulting my 1979 copies of Practical Computing (a UK magazine). >They were widely available in the UK. They must be out there somewhere. > >Rod Smallwood For the most part you can do the same on ANY S100 CP/M machine or even SBC (CBASIC stuff). The only thing that sperated the horizon from most S100s was the case had room for two full height 5.25 floppies and had two serial and a parallel port built on the the mother board. However any serial card that used 8251s coud be configured for ports 0/1,2/3 and be transparent. The rest is the NS* MDS controller (either SD or DD version) and that worked fine in most any Z80 S100 crate. What made the box notable was floppies in the crate rather than external box and only a LED (power on) on the front pannel. It was one of the early turnkey systems and became popular with applications/system integrators for that reason. The reason being it was now possible to sell a small(then) system that was powerful enough to be a complete office accounting system. It didn't hurt that the wood cover fit into office decor of the time. The wood disappeard when FCC started forcing RFI constraints. Allison > >-----Original Message----- >From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org >[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison >Sent: 19 June 2007 12:37 >To: cctech at classiccmp.org >Subject: Re: NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements > >> >>Subject: NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements >> From: "Andrew Lynch" <lynchaj at yahoo.com> >> Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:35:13 -0400 >> To: <cctech at classiccmp.org> >> >>Hi, >> >> >> >>I noticed in another cctech mailing list thread about the NorthStar >>Horizon case cover replacements. Recently, I procured a NorthStar >>Horizon which is missing its original wooden case cover and I was >>looking to either buy an original replacement or make a new one. >> >>I did not get a lot of responses to my queries on other forums for a >>replacement wooden case cover so I am considering fabricating my own. >>Apparently, it is common for Horizons to have lost their wooden covers >>over time for many reasons and others have done what I am considering. >> >>Has anyone built replacement NorthStar Horizon case covers before and >>would be willing to build more? They do not look terribly >>sophisticated to build provided you have access to a table saw and the >>proper bits. I was planning on just copying the dimensions from >>another Horizon wooden case cover I already have. >> >>If anyone has a spare NorthStar Horizon wooden case cover, has built >>new ones, or knows how to build a replacement, I would certainly like >>to hear from you. Please email me or post here. >> >>Thank you in advance. >> > >First it's a simple 3 sided thing. with a groove routed (or kerf cut) to >overlap the cover. The corners are mitered, grooved for biscuts and >glued. >I added two 1/2" cleats to the corners of mine when I reglued it. There >are 4 recessed hole for screws to secure it. Nominal material is 3/4 oak >ply though current dimension materials would work as well. There is >nothing special about it or difficulty in making it. > >The metal cover is simple but without a bending brake it's not easy to >do. > > >Allison > >

19 years, 2 months

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Hyperion on eBay (Winnipeg)

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/early-vintage-bytec-dynalogic-HYPERION-LAPTOP-COMPUTER_… ____________________________________________________________________________________ Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=monopolyherenow

19 years, 2 months

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Items for sale In Bel Air, Maryland

by mokuba＠gmail.com

I'm leaving for military service at the end of july, so I'm tidying up and getting rid of everything I don't need or want ... Atari Portfolio with the memory expander plus and smart parallel interface, one 64K memory card - if I can find it, there's a serial interface and another 64K card.... Boxed copy of "Harvard Graphics"... Solaris 8 box kit, Sun Ultra 5 w/o harddrive - IDE system , 270MHz UltraSPARC Iii with 384MB ram Palm IIIxe + cradle DEC 3000-300x with video cable and keyboard / mouse / adapter - OpenVMS was installed but it threw an MCHK error about the ram and I never had time to figure out which module it was ... One SparcClassic with original CPU and a scsi/ethernet sbus card - two modules of ram inside the machine both marked 4x36 ... No harddrive in the machine Numerous sun keyboards and a mouse or two ... About 4-5 apple ADB keyboards Lots of rolls of radioshack thermal fax paper 13W3 video extension cables VGA-> BNC video cables and short adapters SCSI and IDE cables out the wazoo Possibly three IPX's ... Need to check storage for them Tomorrow afternoon I should know if I still have the Indigo2 and O2 for sale, along with a powermac 8500 and a quadra 605 .. Email for information and offers please

19 years, 2 months

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FW: Still LOADS of free computer stuff remaining

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

June 19, 2007 FREE FREE FREE Even though LOADS of stuff has already been picked up, only about HALF the volume has been given away so far. Here is just a SAMPLE of what remains - Scores of modems Lots of ASCII terminals (Mostly Televideo) Hundreds of floppy disk drives As many as 100 printers (Okidata, IBM, NEC, HP, Epson, C.Itoh, Anadex, ALPS, Star Micronics, AST). We may even have some line printers in another location. Laser, dot matrix, ink jet (as well as some supplies) THOUSANDS of dollars in printer repair parts. Repair manuals. More sheet feeders and printer add-on that you have liekly ever seen in one location. A couple of photocopiers Scores of Monitors: NTCS Composite, TTL, RGB, VGA, SVGA Back up, Stand by, and on line power supplies. Lots of PC parts: power supplies, etc. Tape drives and media Over a TON of computer software...much of it never opened! Oddball parts, supplies, cables, jumper boxes Manuals, documentation, driver disks by the dozens. Altos computers, software, cables. Lots of other stuff. This stuff will go to the first person who comes by and assures me that he will responsibly use the materials and that which cannot be used will be shared with others who could use it and the final remainder will be responsibly recycled. It would be a shame for this valuable information and these parts to be 'lost' as there are so many folks who still have vintage/obsolete computers who are crying for this stuff...and it is FREE for the taking and I will help you load it up! I estimate that the remaining volume would easily fill a 24' van type truck. The stuff is located southeast of Indianapolis and northwest of Cincinnati in Shelbyville, Indiana. This is about 100 miles >from Purdue, but don't count on anything remaining by the time the Vintage Computer Show at Purdue takes place. Call me at 317-716-8807 for pick up. It would be great if one party came by and loaded it all up. Tim Deaton No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.9.0/853 - Release Date: 6/18/2007 3:02 PM

19 years, 2 months

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FW: Open VMS Hobbyists Disc

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Well spotted, it does have a .PCSA;1 extension. In the KIT directory is a file called ... Wait for it!! DEC-VAXVMS-TCPIP-V0501-15-1.PCSI;1 I'll read up on PRODUCT INSTALLATION Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rick Murphy Sent: 20 June 2007 11:23 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: FW: Open VMS Hobbyists Disc At 09:05 PM 6/19/2007, Rod Smallwood wrote: >Hi > The above disk having arrived (new version 7.3) I managed to >install VMS on both VAXes with out any problem. >In order to install the other items first the disk has to be mounted. >Again no difficulties. I can list the directories and see their >contents. >@SYS$UPDATE:VMSINSTAL invokes the installer, again normal. > >It then asks I'm satisified withthe backup of the system disk (Default >[YES]) >Next it wants the location of the distribution so I say >DKA100:[TCPIP_VAX051] Finally it needs the product code. So TCPIP051 to >that (they specify the >format) > >It then says it cant find the product. > > >Answers please! You can do it entirely from the command line: $ @sys$update:vmsinstal tcpip051 dka100:[tcpip_vax051.kit] The VMS distribution CDs usually have the savesets in the [.kit] subdirectory. If you don't see tcpip051.a in that directory, it's a PCSA install and you'll need to use PRODUCT INSTALL to install it. The release notes should provide pretty explicit instructions. -Rick

19 years, 2 months

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AMD2901s (was e: Inside old games machines,was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: AMD2901s (was e: Inside old games machines,was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?) > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:30:47 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 6/19/07, woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote: >> Providing the word length is a multiable of 4 bits that is. > >It sure would be "fun" to debug microcode issues with nine of those >puppies chained together. Ignoring race conditions 9 of them are no harder than one. The nasty is propagation delays. A machine that you can microcode single step or slow step makes life easier. I did an "improved 8080" a bunch of years ago using 2 and it was fun. I have a dozen or so 2901Cs that were supposedly the fastest of the TTL flavor. Though the ECL parts were much faster. Allison

19 years, 2 months

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FW: Open VMS Hobbyists Disc

by rick＠rickmurphy.net

At 09:05 PM 6/19/2007, Rod Smallwood wrote: >Hi > The above disk having arrived (new version 7.3) I managed to install >VMS on both VAXes with out any problem. >In order to install the other items first the disk has to be mounted. >Again no difficulties. I can list the directories and see their >contents. >@SYS$UPDATE:VMSINSTAL invokes the installer, again normal. > >It then asks I'm satisified withthe backup of the system disk (Default >[YES]) >Next it wants the location of the distribution so I say >DKA100:[TCPIP_VAX051] >Finally it needs the product code. So TCPIP051 to that (they specify the >format) > >It then says it cant find the product. > > >Answers please! You can do it entirely from the command line: $ @sys$update:vmsinstal tcpip051 dka100:[tcpip_vax051.kit] The VMS distribution CDs usually have the savesets in the [.kit] subdirectory. If you don't see tcpip051.a in that directory, it's a PCSA install and you'll need to use PRODUCT INSTALL to install it. The release notes should provide pretty explicit instructions. -Rick

19 years, 2 months

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NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi Even though my main collection is DEC I'd love a Horizon with or with out its wooden case. I wrote a lot of code on one in CBASIC back in the 70's They are somewhat rare in the UK to say the least. In fact, the case is less of a problem than finding a system in the UK. I have a retired friend with fully equipped wood working shop. Consulting my 1979 copies of Practical Computing (a UK magazine). They were widely available in the UK. They must be out there somewhere. Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison Sent: 19 June 2007 12:37 To: cctech at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements > >Subject: NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements > From: "Andrew Lynch" <lynchaj at yahoo.com> > Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:35:13 -0400 > To: <cctech at classiccmp.org> > >Hi, > > > >I noticed in another cctech mailing list thread about the NorthStar >Horizon case cover replacements. Recently, I procured a NorthStar >Horizon which is missing its original wooden case cover and I was >looking to either buy an original replacement or make a new one. > >I did not get a lot of responses to my queries on other forums for a >replacement wooden case cover so I am considering fabricating my own. >Apparently, it is common for Horizons to have lost their wooden covers >over time for many reasons and others have done what I am considering. > >Has anyone built replacement NorthStar Horizon case covers before and >would be willing to build more? They do not look terribly >sophisticated to build provided you have access to a table saw and the >proper bits. I was planning on just copying the dimensions from >another Horizon wooden case cover I already have. > >If anyone has a spare NorthStar Horizon wooden case cover, has built >new ones, or knows how to build a replacement, I would certainly like >to hear from you. Please email me or post here. > >Thank you in advance. > First it's a simple 3 sided thing. with a groove routed (or kerf cut) to overlap the cover. The corners are mitered, grooved for biscuts and glued. I added two 1/2" cleats to the corners of mine when I reglued it. There are 4 recessed hole for screws to secure it. Nominal material is 3/4 oak ply though current dimension materials would work as well. There is nothing special about it or difficulty in making it. The metal cover is simple but without a bending brake it's not easy to do. Allison

19 years, 2 months

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FW: Open VMS Hobbyists Disc

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

________________________________ From: Rod Smallwood Sent: 20 June 2007 01:55 To: 'cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org' Subject: Open VMS Hobbyists Disc Hi The above disk having arrived (new version 7.3) I managed to install VMS on both VAXes with out any problem. In order to install the other items first the disk has to be mounted. Again no difficulties. I can list the directories and see their contents. @SYS$UPDATE:VMSINSTAL invokes the installer, again normal. It then asks I'm satisified withthe backup of the system disk (Default [YES]) Next it wants the location of the distribution so I say DKA100:[TCPIP_VAX051] Finally it needs the product code. So TCPIP051 to that (they specify the format) It then says it cant find the product. Answers please! Rod Smallwood The DECCollector

19 years, 2 months

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DEC M220 as a board-level bit-slice device (was Re: Inside old games machines)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 6/19/07, Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> wrote: > Before bit-slice chips, the HP 2116 was constructed in 'bit-slice form' from > SSI: 4 boards plugged into the backplane are identical, each board containing > 4 bits of the 16-bit ALU and main registers. I expect other SSI-era minis were > done this way. The PDP-8/L and PDP-8/i used this technique - six identical M220 "major registers" boards provided 2 bits each of the AC, PC, MA, and MB registers and the adders. http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/modules/mSeries/M220.pdf >From a glance at the schematics, it's about 30-some-odd inputs (various enables and adder/shift signals) and almost as many outputs on a dual-height card (72 pins total, including 2 Vcc and 4 GND). Looking at how the logic breaks down, perhaps it might be reimplementable with a pair of 22V10s for the lower part of the flow (combining enables and register bits into the adders), then perhaps a pair of 16V8s for the middle part (shifts and adds), then piped out to, perhaps, one 22V10 and then, if required for fanout, a quad buffer of some type to take the place of the two 7440s - six more modern parts to replace a stack of 7474s, 7483s, 7460s and 7440s and a 7482, of which, I think, only the 7474s are easy to find anymore. I only bring up the M220 at this level because I have a few dead M220s and will need to resort to component level repair or board-level replacement to keep my -8/i and -8/Ls running. From my existing experience, though, I'd start by ensuring my 7474s and 7440s are working as expected - I've replaced several in other boards over the years. They seem to be the two most common ICs to fail in my PDP-8/L. -ethan

19 years, 2 months

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Anyone got a working DEC10 (or a running emulator?)

by gtoal＠gtoal.com

A friend at Edinburgh recovered some binaries, a bit of source code, and a fair bit of documentation for the Imp language running on the Dec 10. We're holding a reunion and historical conference in Edinburgh in a couple of weeks - it occurred to me it might be fun if I could show the folks back home that the old code was running again... Does anyone have a working Dec10, whether a physical or a virtual one? Our recovered code is here: http://history.dcs.ed.ac.uk/archive/dec10/imp/ (also if you pop up a directory there's some more stuff, but not of as immediate interest as getting the compiler to run again!) If you could download any of these binaries and give them a try I'ld be very interested to see the results. I think this ran under tops10/tops20 and the precise version of CPU shouldn't be critical I don't think. A trivial "hello world" imp program might be: %begin print string("Hello world!") newline %end %of %program If anyone can get it running, I'll announce it and credit you at the conference :-) Graham

19 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

OT: demagnetization

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Can someone point me to schematics for a decent homebrewed demagnetizer? I've accidentally magnetized a bunch of little parts that really shouldn't have been. -- 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?

19 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Wanted: Apple ADB keyboard

by zmerch-cctalk＠30below.com

Rumor has it that Richard may have mentioned these words: >In article <9e2403920706171739y297fe37dj6cbe2a1db48b675b at mail.gmail.com>, > "Josef Chessor" <josefcub at gmail.com> writes: > > > On 6/17/07, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote: > > > Based on this, I believe I have a ROM 01 motherboard. It has a memory > > > expansion card in it that appears fully populated. Does it display > > > the amount of memory visible on startup? > > > > Unfortunately, no. You've got to have an Apple ADB keyboard to see > > that (enter the NVRAM setup screens by hitting Ctrl-OpenApple-Escape, > > and select the 'RAM Disk' to do so). > >Anyone got an Apple ADB keyboard laying around they'd like to offload? I believe I do - I'd have to check the attic, tho, to be sure. Dunno if it comes with a cable - would an S-Video cable work? Let me know if you want me to dig it out. Just pay shipping. Laterz, Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers zmerch at 30below.com Hi! I am a .signature virus. Copy me into your .signature to join in!

19 years, 2 months

8
10
0 0

Atari 800XL and 1050 disk drive in Delray Beach, FL

by darin.lory＠gmail.com

NNNNNOOOO!!!! UGH!!! My heart!! SHE THREW AWAY AN ATARI COMPUTER!! Dang! I would have gave her cash money for that!! That's almost as bad as when I came home from college and my Dad THREW out all my COMPUTE! magazines that I had saved up and were in MINT condition. -Darin He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife. - Douglas Adams

19 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Finally fixed it! (was: Re: Complete success, OS/8 is up and running :) not so fast...)

by charlesmorris＠hughes.net

After intensive head scratching and hair pulling (accompanied by appropriate curses and a bit of scope and logic analyzer work ;) I finally found the problem with my 8/A this afternoon. First, of course, it was necessary for me to learn exactly how an M8315 CPU card works! The 7483 adder I suspected was not at fault since the logic analyzer always showed the correct outputs vs. inputs. I finally figured out that if the AC incremented properly, which it did, and was not data pattern sensitive, which it was not, that that ruled out almost all of the register circuitry except for a few gates unique to the MA (address) lines. For the curious, it was a bad 74367 (8097) hex buffer chip at E104 - actually only one section was bad, pins 14 -> 13 (which drives the ADD IN 4 line). Although both output enables were sitting low, every output matched its respective input except one... Even though the bit 4 line was a logic 1 (0 volts on that internal bus), the output was stuck at +5V (logic 0), explaining why on the next CPMA load that bit would always clear itself. Eureka... There was no hard short found, and connecting that line through a milliammeter to ground confirmed that only 5 ma would bring it to below .1 volts, so that current was mostly due to the 1K pullup resistor. The inevitable conclusion was that the output of that 74367 section was not able to pull low at all. I managed to change the chip without destroying the board too much and now all addresses increment properly again. Simple TTY print and keyboard echo programs work too :) Incidentally, I have pretty much given up trying to make a workable image with more than one 2 Mb partition on my RL02 drive. Every attempt to build one and boot it either hangs SIMH entirely, or worse yet, causes it to halt simulation with an error message, for some reason that's beyond my understanding. What the heck, 2 Mb is more than enough just to play around with OS/8 and run text adventure games anyway. If anyone can figure this out, I can email you a copy of my (currently working) image for reBUILDing. Of course the system now still won't boot (I can hear the drive head move, and then the RL02 FAULT light comes on) but it's likely the OS/8 image got clobbered when the chip failed and the CPU started writing to odd places. You can't write-protect the pack either, since OS/8 swaps in and out frequently to maintain such a tiny "footprint" in core. Anyhow I'm leaving tonight for three weeks of vacation in sunny Crete so it can just wait until I get home! -Charles >Naturally, I jinxed it by bragging about my success :( > >The next day, the system wouldn't boot and I could see the FAULT >light flicker as the system halted at address 10107. I initially >thought disk drive problems again, or the pack got clobbered >during swap-out for some reason. > >However, a little investigating quickly showed that even the most >basic ten-word TTY check program would not deposit or run. In >fact, when depositing or examining sequential locations I found >the address display would increment from 0200 to 0001. 0577 would >increment to 0400, etc. So something is wrong with address bit 4. >I pulled all the boards from the backplane except the CPU set and >it still does it. Now I've got to fix the hardware! Sigh. > >Meanwhile I have been SIMH-building a new OS/8 image from scratch >for two drives. After much struggle I have the RL20 handler >installed (which has logical drives R20A,B,C,D; the RL21 handler >with R21A-D, and I had to omit the last 20% (the "E" drives on >RL2E) because OS/8 can only allow fifteen handlers and space is >needed for (at least) the R2SY system handler, TTY, SYS and DSK >also... reminds me of Gates' "640K should be enough for anyone". > >-Charles

19 years, 2 months

6
5
0 0

Trouble with HP 59309A Digital Clock

by PWalsh＠energysolutions.com

Do you know where I can get a manual for this clock? Just started using one and need the technical data and operating instructions. I can scan into a PDF if need be. Thanks Pat

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Trouble with HP 59309A Digital Clock

by PWalsh＠energysolutions.com

Joe, Do you know where I can get a manual for this clock? I can scan one into PDF if need be. Just got one of these for a desk clock and need to know how to set the calendar addressed setting. Many thanks, Pat

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far) > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:11:55 -0700 (PDT) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >> >OB_CC: Where can you get plywood that matches the Northstar Horizon? >> >The "home" stores don't even have the right thickness! > >On Sun, 17 Jun 2007, Allison wrote: >> That grade is for real carpentry not home despot wonder projects. >> The stuff used was real 3/4" finish grade with what appears to be oak >> veneer (mine is). The originals were fairly tough veneer and well >> fitted. Mitered corners and two cleats in the corner for a bit of >> stiffness. The front edge has a routed slot on the inside top and >> two sides to slide over the front pannel plate, The slot is 9/64 >> maybe 5/32" wide. Most of the early machines came with the dark >> stain wood but I'd like to find a metal one (less RFI). > >At one point Northstar was buying at Ashby Lumber, but I don't know for >sure that that was for the Horizon. > >> One of my NS* Horizon is wood cover and the other is missing the >> cover so I have a Lexan cover plate to allow airflow. > >There seem to be a LOT of missing Horizon covers! After about three to four years the glue dries out and you have a kit of cover. ;) Glue and clamps restore it nicely. Allison

19 years, 2 months

5
4
0 0

T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: T11 design WAS - Re: Inside old games machines,was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K? > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:33:29 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 6/19/07, Robert Borsuk <rborsuk at colourfull.com> wrote: >> I've been loosely following this thread and never heard of a T11 from >> DEC. So good'ole Google and Bitsavers saves the day, but it get's >> me thinking. Has anybody done any design's with this processor? > >Yes (see the thread where it appears in a few video games). DEC used >it as a PDP-11-instruction-set-compatible microcontroller. It appears >on a few peripheral boards (the RQDX3 comes to mind), and a few other >places. Falcon card (Qbus SBC), KXT-11 (programmable Qbus slave), The RQDXn (all versions) and also the HSC50. I have one of the rare design guides and a good handful of parts both ES and production. Allison > >For some real boots-on-the-ground history, we turn to Bob Supnik... > >http://simh.trailing-edge.com/semi/t11.html > >(I did not know about his T-11-based RT-11 box - I should ask him about it). > >> Why wasn't this processor used instead of the 6100? > >In what? In video games? the 6100 _might_ have been a competetive >architecture when it was new in the mid-to-late 1970s, but as >competition against an early 8-bit micro, not a 16-bit micro, which >the T-11 is. From looking at the Atari line at the time, it seems >that they were positioning the T-11 against the Motorola 68000. >Presumably there was some engineering or marketing or production >reason to go with the T-11 over the 68000, but, as much as I like the >PDP-11, I can't imagine what that would be. Perhaps the $10/unit cost >that Bob Supnik cites was favorable compared to, say, trying to go >over 8MHz on a 68000, but that's mere speculation. I know that at the >low-point in the 68000 timeline, it was going for about $3 each in >reasonable quantities, but I don't know where that curve compares to >the $10 each for the T-11. The 6100 was PDP-8 and the basic archecture is 4k addressing, 12 bit words and not rom friendly so it was not a contender for rom intensive applications. >I'm not saying you _couldn't_ make a video game based on the IM6100, >but it didn't happen to have been done, and would probably just end up >as a demonstration of engineering prowess, not something that would >have made sense from a business standpoint in 1976. Exactly! The 6120 was faster and incorperated the MEDIC (interrupt and memory expansion similar to PDP-8) but still even at 4k paged and 32k (plus 32k CP memory) it was awkward compared to most micros. Allison

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: NorthStar Horizon Case Cover Replacements > From: "Andrew Lynch" <lynchaj at yahoo.com> > Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:35:13 -0400 > To: <cctech at classiccmp.org> > >Hi, > > > >I noticed in another cctech mailing list thread about the NorthStar Horizon >case cover replacements. Recently, I procured a NorthStar Horizon which is >missing its original wooden case cover and I was looking to either buy an >original replacement or make a new one. > >I did not get a lot of responses to my queries on other forums for a >replacement wooden case cover so I am considering fabricating my own. >Apparently, it is common for Horizons to have lost their wooden covers over >time for many reasons and others have done what I am considering. > >Has anyone built replacement NorthStar Horizon case covers before and would >be willing to build more? They do not look terribly sophisticated to build >provided you have access to a table saw and the proper bits. I was planning >on just copying the dimensions from another Horizon wooden case cover I >already have. > >If anyone has a spare NorthStar Horizon wooden case cover, has built new >ones, or knows how to build a replacement, I would certainly like to hear >from you. Please email me or post here. > >Thank you in advance. > First it's a simple 3 sided thing. with a groove routed (or kerf cut) to overlap the cover. The corners are mitered, grooved for biscuts and glued. I added two 1/2" cleats to the corners of mine when I reglued it. There are 4 recessed hole for screws to secure it. Nominal material is 3/4 oak ply though current dimension materials would work as well. There is nothing special about it or difficulty in making it. The metal cover is simple but without a bending brake it's not easy to do. Allison

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Help on HP 82901 drive

by rbazzano＠alice.it

Hello. I have a partially defective HP 82901 drive. I found the problem on the controller card. I found a service manual on HpMuseum site, named "82901-82902_CEServiceHandbook-Partial_17pages_1982.pdf". Following it, I made all self tests and the problem is on the read circuit. I'm sure about that because the two Tandon drives work fine with another controller card. In this case, the service manual suggest to verify read oscillator frequency. Unfortunately the section VI of the manual describing the procedure is completely missing from the pdf file. Perhaps someone has this manual? I would be very gratefull if someone can help me to fix this drive. Thank you very much. Roberto

19 years, 2 months

7
33
0 0

Floppy Disc Capacities [was Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)]

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

> Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 22:08:44 -0700 > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Subject: Re: Floppy Disc Capacities [was Pictures of My Machine Room > (So Far)] > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <4677026C.408.5FBF8B36 at cclist.sydex.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > On 18 Jun 2007 at 21:36, Wayne Smith wrote: > > > My first iteration of Windows 95 was on 3.5 inch floppy > diskettes. At > > some point, I wanted to make a backup copy on diskettes but couldn't > > because the file sizes of the Windows distribution floppies was > > 1.8-1.9MB each. At the time I thought it was some sort of copy > > protection. I assume they must have been able to format > the discs for a > > higher capacity - close to 2MB. > > > > Does anyone know how? > > Uh-yup. Microsoft used a format they called DMF, for about 1.68MB-- > 21 sectors per track, with a very small gap between sectors. IBM had > a rather more complicated format called XDF, which used one 8K, one > 2K, one 1K and one 512 byte sector on a track for about 1.84MB. > > Handling the DMF format wasn't too hard, although if your drive was > marginal, it could create problems. The XDF actually used larger gap > sizes, but required special drivers. There was also an XDF format > for 5.25 HD that was about 1.6MB and one for 3.5 DSED which was about > 3.84MB. > > If you want to pack an amazing amount of data on a 3.5" DSHD, I > believe that there's a program for the Catweasel that will give you > something close to 4MB using a few tricks. > > Cheers, > Chuck > Cool. Great info. Thanks! -W

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Atari 800XL and 1050 disk drive in Delray Beach, FL

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Please contact Kathy for more information if you're interested: Kathy Knaack <khknaack at bellsouth.net> As far as I know it is free for the taking. -- 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 ]

19 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

odd software request

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Does anyone have any Chebyshev or Butterworth LC filter design/ analysis software in FORTRAN-II or FORTRAN-IV? (don't ask..) My google-fu is failing me on this one. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

manualsplus.com has 50% off all manuals right now

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Some coordination may be in order. It sounded like Richard was going to buy some Tek graphics manuals. I bought most of the orignal 85xx service manuals they had to fill in the holes on bitsavers.

19 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

manualsplus.com has 50% off all manuals right now

by legalize＠xmission.com

I just received email from the people running this business I mentioned the other day <http://www.manualsplus.com>. They are in the process of trying to sell off the business, so they are currently selling all manuals at 50% off. -- "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/>

19 years, 2 months

4
6
0 0

Available - DEC RX-180 AB dual 5-1/4 inch diskette floppy drive.

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I have this DEC RX-180 AB dual 5-1/4 inch diskette floppy drive - why, I don't know. Working condition is unknown. Please make an offer if it suits you to do so. Located in southern California (OC). Paypal accepted! Thanks- Steven T. --------------------------------- Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Computer Flooring

by marvin＠west.net

A friend of mine has about 1200 Sq. Ft. of 2' x 2' aluminum computer flooring available. They were either made by or provided by "Floating Floor, Inc.". The pedastals and stands are not available. I haven't seen them yet, but can find out more if anyone is interested. Apparently the scrap value is about $20.00 each, so any offer would need to be enough more than that to make it worth while. If anyone is interested, let me know ASAP as these will be going to scrap *very* shortly.

19 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

RL02 fault (OS/8)

by charlesmorris＠hughes.net

>Hmm... I don't think filesystem problems will cause the Fault light to >light up, just problems within the drive. You may need to trace back >all of the causes that sum up to "Fault" to see what's going on. I was trying to talk myself out of that one, but I suspect you're right :^P The problem I was thinking hopefully of was a checksum error caused by an aborted or other improper write... but then again the controller card and disk internal logic board probably do restrict writing by complete sectors? I'll have to download a copy of the RL02 manual from bitsavers to read while I'm sunning on my mom's terrace. Remember also that I had that problem occur once before (on my first boot and before the chip failed) but after powering everything down, removing and reinstalling the pack, powering up and rebooting (shades of Micro$hit!) it did boot to the OS/8 "." prompt and was functional at least to the point of displaying a directory... Anyway it'll be easy enough to write a simple program to display the error word on the Programmer's Panel display and backtrack from there... maybe it's a bad pack. Or a bad cable (I spent hours when I first got this drive trying to figure out why the fault light wouldn't go out, and tracked it down to a faulty clock signal from the controller card. More specifically there was a single hair-fine wire strand sticking out the bottom of my IDC connector where it plugged into the controller card and it was touching a passing trace. The original BERG conn. would not have had a clearance problem (to the butt end of cut cable) there. Although the pack (that I copied my SIMH OS/8 image onto) had no bad blocks on it that I could discern under RT-11, I wonder if there could have been some that make a difference to OS/8. I'm getting out of my depth here. Anyhow when I get home, I'll find out exactly what the error is (I never liked that idiot light precisely because it doesn' t tell you WHAT the fault IS!) -Charles

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, > The Z80 was used in Neo Geo MVS games up until a couple years ago. As the "sound" processor, the main CPU was a 68K. TTFN - Pete.

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

HP firmware identification?

by larry_s_harris＠comcast.net

Do you still have the firmware chips that your identified in your Jul 4th, 2004 note? I'm interested in part number 13307-80037. Larry Harris STAR-TEK star-tek at comcast.net

19 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by ploopster＠gmail.com

Most of the hardware hasn't been cabled up yet, and the hardware that's actually running isn't pictured because it's my network core and I won't put pictures of it on the internet for security reasons... BUT... Here are pictures of my machine room. It's a work in progress, but it shows what I've done to reinforce the floor. Because I've *decidedly* exceeded the floor loading capacity. Peace... Sridhar

19 years, 2 months

17
47
0 0

Free computer bits in Montreal, Canada

by joachim.thiemann＠gmail.com

Hello, a few bits that I'd like to get rid of in exchange for empty space that would be more useful to me :-) - A 360k IBM branded full-height floppy drive pulled from an XT, a Tandon TM100-2A - An external 3.5" 720k IBM Type 4865 floppy drive - I think it came >from an early IBM portable PC - A german Apple ][e, with serial card, parallel card, disk II card and 2 drives, Microsoft CP/M card, original Apple DOS disks (3.3, some seem to be localised for germany) as well as the CP/M disk(s). I have no idea if it works, but it should. The power supply is for 220V, and I can't see a simple switch to make it take 110V. I assume putting in a regular north american PS would make it work without problem, but I have no idea if the video circuitry is any different - presumable monochrome should work with minor adjustments. This system was brought over to Canada when friends of the family immigrated, and was used with a simple 110-220V transformer. (I myself modified my C64 by swapping a crystal and replacing the PAL VIC-II with an NTSC VIC-II when I moved) Also comes with many Apple-II disks, some for CP/M - the motherboard of an old Apple ][ clone, with Z80 on the MB. Source of chips, if anything. Joe.

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Simulated CP/M-68K?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I have a working Sage IV and would be glad to help with a simulation project > by providing boot prom dumps, docs, etc. Thanks! Adding dumps of the programmable parts from the machines that you have to your web site would seem to be a good thing independent of any simulation efforts.

19 years, 2 months

6
12
0 0

2G SCSI-wide drives

by rtellason＠verizon.net

I have a number of 2G SCSI-wide drives on hand here (68-pin connector), and in conversation with a list member offlist it was suggested that perhaps these might be of use in certain of the older machines that a bunch of you guys have. Anybody interested in taking some of these off my hands? Feel free to drop me a line offlist... -- 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

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Inside old games machines, was: Re: Simulated CP/M-68K?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Did any of the CPUs we know and love, like the PDP-11 CPUs, find their > way into commercial games machines? Atari System II used the T11 (a giant step backwards from the 68K in the System I IMHO).

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Apple ][gs -- how to tell ROM version without booting?

by legalize＠xmission.com

Subject says it all. I have a ][gs Woz Edition but I read on the net that there are various ROM versions. How can I tell what ROM version I have without booting it up? I don't have the necessary additional hardware to power it on and see the screen or type into it (no RGB cable and no keyboard). -- "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/>

19 years, 2 months

4
6
0 0

Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far) > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 13:00:53 -0700 (PDT) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Fred Cisin writes: > >OB_CC: Where can you get plywood that matches the Northstar Horizon? >The "home" stores don't even have the right thickness! > That grade is for real carpentry not home despot wonder projects. The stuff used was real 3/4" finish grade with what appears to be oak veneer (mine is). The originals were fairly tough veneer and well fitted. Mitered corners and two cleats in the corner for a bit of stiffness. The front edge has a routed slot on the inside top and two sides to slide over the front pannel plate, The slot is 9/64 maybe 5/32" wide. Most of the early machines came with the dark stain wood but I'd like to find a metal one (less RFI). One of my NS* Horizon is wood cover and the other is missing the cover so I have a Lexan cover plate to allow airflow. Allison

19 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Sabre IPI interface hard drives

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

I've recently come into ownership of some Seagate 97229 1.2GB IPI interface hard drives. I just don't have any equipment that can talk to IPI drives. So, I was hoping to be able to convert these drives to work on SMD. Since these look and seem almost identical to the CDC/Seagate/Imprimis drives that I use already, I thought it would be a simple interface board swap. Granted, I don't have any 1.2gig drives, mine are 9720 8xx mb drives. So, here's what I tried. I tried swapping both boards (with believed good boards from a dead disk 8xx drive). The main logic board from the 8xxmb drive fits just fine - one of the connectors underneath has fewer pins, but it mates up. I was hoping that this would just mean the extra heads on the HDA would simply be unused. Wishful thinking I know, but it doesn't work at all - the power supply won't come on - this must cause a dead short. So, tried swapping back the original logic and interface boards, and the drive spins up fine, comes ready and seems OK. I swapped in the control/status panel from the 8xx mb drive - this works just fine, and the one I swapped in has the full LCD and keypad - which work properly. Tried swapping just the interface boards, this time the drive displays a Fault on powerup, and while I can get it to spin like this, it never comes ready. I even tried swapping the firmware ROMs between the boards, still doesn't work. Now, I am imagining here that the incompatibilities in parts are likely because I am using boards and parts >from a different capacity of drive - I know that the logic from a smaller drive would never work properly on a larger one, I was just hoping that it might let me use some of the surfaces. I don't have an SMD interface 1.2gb drive to try this with - so I figured I would ask - has anyone changed the interface of one of these Sabre drives before? I can't imagine how the HDA would be different between a 1.2gb IPI and a 1.2GB SMD, but you never know. I've had luck before swapping controllers between IDE and SCSI drives, and occasional luck going between drives of slightly different capacity. What machines used IPI disks? I know that an IPI controller was available for Sun3 VME based machines (of which I have only ONE). Don't see anything listed in the field guide about a qbus or unibus IPI controller. What about larger Vaxen? -Ian

19 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

warning about dealing with Government Liquidation

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

> Interesting - they do state: "If you still have this item please > contact Government Liquidation within 19 working days to coordinate > the return of this property." So what happens if you do not 'have' > this item any more. This is exactly what End Use Certificates are for. They track the item until it is destroyed. In some cases of the past, with no EUC and the military knocking on the door of someone who scraps an item, the result generally is not horrible - they usually just want the important parts. Extremely rarely does one get the Black Helicopter treatment. -- Will

19 years, 2 months

4
4
0 0

warning about dealing with Government Liquidation

by mross666＠hotmail.com

>From: Al Kossow <aek at spies.com> >Subject: warning about dealing with Government Liquidation > >Apparently, G L sells items that in fact weren't supposed to be sold, >forcing the buyers to return them! > >It only reimburses you for the cost of the item, not the shipping. > >Be VERY careful about what you buy through them! > >Read the fine print on the government as well as GL sales site agreement. > >This is the second incident like this I've heard about in the past week. Hmmmmm 'Sorry guv, it turned out it wasn't what I wanted so I dumpstered it' 'terribly sorry old chap, I've already sold it on' Or any other excuse you care to think up. That's really lousy behaviour - they can't change the rules after you've bought it, surely? And if they're going to add insult to injury by refusing to pay shipping then they can hardly expect cooperation... Mike http://www.corestore.org _________________________________________________________________ PC Magazine?s 2007 editors? choice for best Web mail?award-winning Windows Live Hotmail. http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migrati…

19 years, 2 months

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Raster Scan (or LCD Panel) Used As Vector Display?

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Has anyone on the list emulated one of the old vector scan displays on a modern LCD Screen? Did you go through the raster scan logic or interface directly to the LCD panel electronics? Is anybody working on this idea that you know of? It seems like some of the DEC system enthusiasts would be thinking about this since the original Vector devices are so rare. I have a belief that this is an idea that a lot of list members have thought about; but has anyone put the idea into actual hardware? Billy

19 years, 2 months

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Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by cheri-post＠web.de

Hey Sridhar, is that a DEC 7000 or a VAX 7000 on one of your pictures ? Just out of couriosity... Regards, Pierre > > > Most of the hardware hasn't been cabled up yet, and the hardware that's > actually running isn't pictured because it's my network core and I won't > put pictures of it on the internet for security reasons... BUT... > > Here are pictures of my machine room. It's a work in progress, but it > shows what I've done to reinforce the floor. > > Because I've *decidedly* exceeded the floor loading capacity. > > Peace... Sridhar > _____________________________________________________________________ Der WEB.DE SmartSurfer hilft bis zu 70% Ihrer Onlinekosten zu sparen! http://smartsurfer.web.de/?mc=100071&distributionid=000000000066

19 years, 2 months

2
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Help on HP 82901 drive

by rbazzano＠alice.it

>I guess you're new enough here not to have heards that I don't own a >scanner, annyhting to connect it to, or the nexessary eqipemnet to >maintain the scanenr and machine-to-connect-it-to. Ah, ok, sorry. Anyway, here (http://www.hparchive.com/bench_briefs.htm) I found a few documents with almost all hp parts cross-reference. Roberto

19 years, 2 months

2
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Dial-up suppliers

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi, Urgh... my dial-up ISP of about 4 years has recently had a change in policy. Instead of a monthly payment of ?14.99, Boltblue.com have decided to make it free + local telephone charges (to telephone company). This means paying Boltblue nothing and a bill of ?400 to BT :( What a con, are they trying to force me onto broadband?? Gonna go and search online for another dial-up ISP that does the monthly charge thing. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?? Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 2 months

2
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Strange VT50 Decscope

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Yes, just like all those other Heath(Robinson)kits produced about that time. Ros -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: 16 June 2007 22:33 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Strange VT50 Decscope > > Hi > I vaguely remember a rumour about a cheap kit terminal to go with > the Heathkit LSI-11. > The boards are that paper based stuff you see in consumer electronics. The thing that struck me about the PCBs in the VT5x was that they're single-sided with a _lot_ of wire links. -tony

19 years, 2 months

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Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Ah yes trees.. In the UK we have lots of individual trees, a fair few woods and only a few forests. If we go back to after the last ice age (about 10,000 years ago) the reformed land (The land bridge to Europe went) reverted to Northern forest modified by what my college tutor described as 'Mexican bathwater'. Insofar as the gulf stream originates off the coast of Mexico and is warm. This has the effect of changing the mix of native trees from mainly pines to favour more broad leaved species. Oak, Ash, Willow etc. The only thing that prevents most of lowland UK reverting to mixed forest is the presence of man. If some disaster whiped out the human population in the UK then within fifty years it would be back to forest. Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of woodelf Sent: 17 June 2007 01:14 To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far) Teo Zenios wrote: > Quite a bit of the wood they cut is stuff they planted a long time > ago. The really old trees tend to be in national parks and they do not > get cut down as far as I know. If you have never been to the US there > are huge areas with nothing but trees, we have 300M people but there > is plenty of unused land still (unlike old Europe). Not sure why we > even import trees from Canada, must be cheaper I guess. I am still not sure why Canada imports Trees too. Ikea comes to mind. All we have around here is the cheap MFB stuff. >

19 years, 2 months

1
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Looking for TRS-80 Model II bootroms

by jzg22＠drexel.edu

BTW, in regards to MESS, the MESS team is looking for copies of the various TRS-80 Model II bootroms. The different models of the system cannot be emulated without them, and they're available approximately nowhere that I could find. Jonathan Gevaryahu jzg22 at drexel.edu

19 years, 2 months

1
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Simulated CP/M-68K?

by jzg22＠drexel.edu

> Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:44:49 -0400 > From: "David W. Erhart" <daviderhart at oldzonian.com> > Subject: RE: Simulated CP/M-68K? > To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <16782425.32241181922289640.JavaMail.servlet at perfora> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > >> Someone on comp.os.cpm wanted to fiddle with the Alcyon C compiler >> and asked if there is a simulation of CP/M-68K running under Unix. >> >> After a bit of digging, I couldn't find one, which was surprising. >> >> Does one exist? There are a few simulated 68K systems in MESS, but >> none of them ran CP/M. It looks like a SAGE II simulation could be added >> since the software and docs appear to be out there (doesn't look like >> the SAGE IV boot prom has been dumped) >> >> >> > > I have a working Sage IV and would be glad to help with a simulation project by providing boot prom dumps, docs, etc. > > david. > > --- > http://www.sageandstride.org > > > ------------------------------ > I'd be happy to forward any documentation, boot roms, etc. to the MESS team, if you're ok with that. Jonathan Gevaryahu jzg22 at drexel.edu

19 years, 2 months

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Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by steerex＠mindspring.com

> Quite a bit of the wood they cut is stuff they planted a long time ago. The > really old trees tend to be in national parks and they do not get cut down > as far as I know. If you have never been to the US there are huge areas with > nothing but trees, we have 300M people but there is plenty of unused land > still (unlike old Europe). Not sure why we even import trees from Canada, > must be cheaper I guess. Actually they do cut trees in the National forests for the lumber industry. The Feds and State issue permits to the lumber companies to take a certain number of trees. Most of the trees they take in this area are mature hardwoods (Oak, Ash, etc..). I have seen the helecopters near my home lifting the logs out of the woods. It's expensive to remove them that way but, the environmental impact is lessened. The revenue from the permits goes into a special account for underfunded or economically stressed local school programs. It has really helped the schools in this area (Western North Carolina). This particular program seems to be well managed and has the support of most of the locals. This entire area was logged in the early 1900's so the trees they are removing today aren't really that old. See ya, SteveRob

19 years, 2 months

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PCB CAD Programs

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: I?m working on a 6502 project and I have a PC board CAD recommendation question. I tried out the software that comes with ExpressPCB and it?s kind of bogus. There?s no autorouter, which is exactly what I need (even if it?s a basic router). Does anyone have any recommendations for a reasonably priced schematics capture and layout program for either Windows or Mac OSX that can autoroute do boards up to say 6? x 8?? When I say reasonable, I?m thinking $250 or less. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.altair32.com http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp

19 years, 2 months

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Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by steerex＠mindspring.com

> > why americans (and other people) build houses all of wood :oO > > Greetz from Brazil > > Alexandre Souza On Sat, 16 Jun 2007, Teo Zenios wrote: > Because most houses are not in an earthquake zone, building with wood is > faster and cheaper, and the US and Canada is full of forests. The old addage "When in Rome do as the Romans do" applies here. In a previous life I was a general contractor in South Florida. The vast majority of homes there are Masonary blocks on a concrete foundation with wood truss roof system. The reasons are simple: 1) Termites - Zillions of them! You gotta keep wood away from the soil. Subterrainian termites can do massive damage in a relatively short period of time. 2.) Maintenence - Environmental exposure (Sun / Heat / Humidity) destroys wood. 3.) Insulation... In that climate large R values are not needed in walls or floors. 4.) No basements - Water level is too high. No basement means there's no need for wood flooring systems. 5.) Material availability. The ground in South Florida is largely limestone. It's one of the primary ingredents in concrete and it's easily crushed to make the aggregate (gravel). Concrete is probably cheaper there than anywhere else in the US. 6.) Hurricane protection - A concrete block structure with reinforced concrete tie-beam is MUCH stronger than a wood structure. 7.) Availablity of tradesmen familiar with the materials. I recently moved to North Carolina where almost every home is wood frame construction. Once again "When in Rome..."

19 years, 2 months

2
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warning about dealing with Government Liquidation

by aek＠spies.com

Apparently, G L sells items that in fact weren't supposed to be sold, forcing the buyers to return them! It only reimburses you for the cost of the item, not the shipping. Be VERY careful about what you buy through them! Read the fine print on the government as well as GL sales site agreement. This is the second incident like this I've heard about in the past week. ---- To Whom It May Concern: In Sale xxxx you were the successful bidder for Lot xxxx, Invoice number xxxxxx. Since the close of that sale we have been notified by the Government that the demilitarization code for a DTID in this lot, has changed to DEMIL ?D?, thus we?d like to inform you of the action required by you. Description: DATA PROCESSING SET Quantity: 1 NSN: 5862xxxxxx4434 DTID: SC44xxxxxx00VD Because demilitarization code ?C? items require total destruction of the item and components so as to preclude restoration or repair to a usable condition, we would like to make arrangements for you to return the above DTID to the nearest Government Liquidation site. If you still have this item please contact Government Liquidation within 19 working days to coordinate the return of this property. Once the property is returned to a Site Manager with a copy of this letter, and the site manager signs and provides a copy to your representative showing he/she has received the DTID a credit invoice will be created.

19 years, 2 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 46, Issue 36

by trag＠io.com

Ooops. Apologies to the list for the message with the digest reply-to header. Jeff Walther

19 years, 2 months

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PCB CAD Programs

by trag＠io.com

At 12:02 -0500 06/16/2007, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:31:22 -0400 >From: "Richard A. Cini" <rcini at optonline.net> > I?m working on a 6502 project and I have a PC board CAD recommendation >question. I tried out the software that comes with ExpressPCB and it?s kind >of bogus. There?s no autorouter, which is exactly what I need (even if it?s >a basic router). > > Does anyone have any recommendations for a reasonably priced schematics >capture and layout program for either Windows or Mac OSX that can autoroute >do boards up to say 6? x 8?? When I say reasonable, I?m thinking $250 or >less. Osmond runs on OSX (and earlier Mac OS) and I've found it to be very usable. I have not used the latest version so I can not comment on the quality of the auto-router. However, you can try it for free. If your design's pin (meaning inflection point of traces, I believe) count is below a certain number, you can use it for free. Regardless of your design's pin count, you can lay it out and route it, but if your design reaches into the paying region, you won't be able to output it. Still, that will let you try out the auto-router without investing any money. If you do want to purchase it, I think (IIRC) it is in the $200 region. <http://www.swcp.com/~jchavez/osmond.html> I've used it for a few board designs so far which I've output as Gerber for manufacture and it has worked well. Jeff Walther

19 years, 2 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 46, Issue 36

by trag＠io.com

At 12:02 -0500 06/16/2007, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:31:22 -0400 >From: "Richard A. Cini" <rcini at optonline.net> >Subject: PCB CAD Programs >To: "Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Message-ID: <C298B5AA.6E2A%rcini at optonline.net> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > >All: > > I?m working on a 6502 project and I have a PC board CAD recommendation >question. I tried out the software that comes with ExpressPCB and it?s kind >of bogus. There?s no autorouter, which is exactly what I need (even if it?s >a basic router). > > Does anyone have any recommendations for a reasonably priced schematics >capture and layout program for either Windows or Mac OSX that can autoroute >do boards up to say 6? x 8?? When I say reasonable, I?m thinking $250 or >less. Osmond runs on OSX (and earlier Mac OS) and I've found it to be very usable. I have not used the latest version so I can not comment on the quality of the auto-router. However, you can try it for free. If your design's pin (meaning inflection point of traces, I believe) count is below a certain number, you can use it for free. Regardless of your design's pin count, you can lay it out and route it, but if your design reaches into the paying region, you won't be able to output it. Still, that will let you try out the auto-router without investing any money. If you do want to purchase it, I think (IIRC) it is in the $200 region. <http://www.swcp.com/~jchavez/osmond.html> I've used it for a few board designs so far which I've output as Gerber for manufacture and it has worked well. Jeff Walther

19 years, 2 months

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Boot CD - The last LAP

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi This is all getting a bit complex. Its rather like a peculiar type of English theatrical entertainment which happens around Christmas called a Pantomime. One of the many strange customs is that under direction from the stage one half of the audience shouts "Oh no it isn't!!" and the other half replies "Oh yes it is!!" Don't ask me to explain it any further. The rules of cricket and the plots in Chinese opera are simpler. So back to the original question: If I want to build a Linux system I go to a distribution site (one of many), download an .iso image, burn it into a standard 600Mb CD, boot the CD and create a system. No funny block sizes, no odd file extensions and no special SCSI drives. So what can I not do this for VMS without the pantomime? A step by step known to work checklist would be a start. Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ethan Dicks Sent: 14 June 2007 19:32 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Boot CD - The last LAP On 6/14/07, Antonio Carlini <arcarlini at iee.org> wrote: > Ethan Dicks wrote: > > The joy of operating systems with enforced filename extensions. :-P > > To be fair, this is Nero assuming or enforcing! I can usually override > Windows' defaults. Strictly speaking, yes... but extension rigidity is a Windows mentality. > > That will be the key - to get whatever tool you use to write > > 512-byte blocks, not 2048-byte blocks. > > You cannot do this. The CD is always 2048 bytes per block. It is the > drive that pretends that instead of N 2K blocks you have 4*N 512 byte > blocks so it looks like a disk. Ah... I had thought that the underlying filesystem was part of the equation, not that the drive did all the work. > This made life easier in the earlier days for the OpenVMS and Solaris > (and IRIX?) driver writers ... and threw the rest of us another bump > to trip over in the years to come! I have worked with plenty of "starts up in 512-byte-block mode" issues with old SCSI drives and Solaris - it does make boot code trivial because you don't have to worry about the drive's block size. It was nice with later versions of boot ROMs and such that knew that they could and should send a packet to tell the drive to switch to 512-byte-block mode, removing the need for special models of drives with mode jumpers. Honestly, though, I haven't had to worry about it (except when playing Software Archaeologist) in a long time, but then I don't burn ODS disks often. -ethan

19 years, 2 months

6
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Strange VT50 Decscope

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi I vaguely remember a rumour about a cheap kit terminal to go with the Heathkit LSI-11. The boards are that paper based stuff you see in consumer electronics. Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ashley Carder Sent: 14 June 2007 20:11 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Strange VT50 Decscope >From: Vincent Slyngstad > >A friend of mine who is a former DEC employee once told me a war story >about being given a "prototype" terminal to take home. He said the >PCBs were thin, and kind of flexible, like the cardboard sheets in the >back of a tablet of paper, and the thing was very tempermental -- even >after you got it working again the MTBF was in hours. He said he >eventually threw the accursed thing away. > >I wonder if this is one of those? > > Vince It definitely sounds like one of these, except that the guy said he used this one for about 6 years. I have posted more pictures of this odd terminal. The board in the back is warped and kinda flimsy looking. Check out the pictures: http://www.woffordwitch.com/ProtoVT50.asp Ashley http://www.woffordwitch.com

19 years, 2 months

2
1
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Rainbow outback

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Equipment-Corporation-Rainbow -PC-1982_W0QQitemZ110138804739QQihZ001QQcategoryZ1247 QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Aussies must have something against keyboards. The Tandy 2000 that appeared recently didn't have one either! Apparently this dude is a collector too (look in the background of the 2nd picture). ____________________________________________________________________________________Ready for the edge of your seat? Check out tonight's top picks on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/

19 years, 2 months

1
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Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Pictures of My Machine Room (So Far) > From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> > Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 11:36:25 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Alexandre Souza wrote: > >> Interesting how things are made in USA (?). Here everything is done >> with brick and cement, you don't need usually to do what you did. I >> still wonder why americans (and other people) build houses all of wood :oO > >At one time wood was cheap. So was brick a very long time ago. > >> Greetz from Brazil >> Alexandre Souza In many parts of the USA insulation is required as it's either very cold in the winter or very hot in the summer. In some areas that seasonal change can be exteme. Either way insulation can be easier to do with wood than brick or stone. FYI: I never store anything fragile in my shed out back as hotter than 54C in the summer and colder than -10C in the winter are all too common. Those extremes are not good for electronics. Allison

19 years, 2 months

1
0
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Anyone have a Teleram T-3000?

by andylesley＠aol.com

Any idea what a Telram T-3000 might be worth? Ran across a guy that had 4 or 5 with original boxes, looking for me to make an offer. I think he was looking for $200 or so each, which seemed a bit high to me, but I really have no clue, and I didn't want to miss out if they really are worth that kind of $$. Not sure how old your post was that I googled, but you might have a better idea than I. Thank you! Andrew.

19 years, 2 months

2
1
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Simulated CP/M-68K?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I guess in other words, if you had a 68000 processor with some > attached RAM and a random UART (6551 or Z8530 or 8250/16450/16550), > what else might you need to bring up CP/M-68K? A mass storage device with CP/M bits on it with the right BIOS. Since there are disc images and a boot prom for the Sage, I thought it would be the easiest way to go. The alternative would be to bootstrap it through cross-development tools, since all the sources are available.

19 years, 2 months

6
8
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Boot CD - The last LAP

by rick＠rickmurphy.net

At 03:07 PM 6/15/2007, Jason T wrote: >On 6/15/07, Rick Murphy <rick at rickmurphy.net> wrote: > >>A process known to work (I used this to copy the VMS Hobbyist CD: >> >>dd if=/dev/cdrom of=vmscd.iso bs=32768 >>cdrecord vmscd.iso > >This thread has been educational - I had assumed that VMS and other OS >discs were essentially "uncopyable" under PC software. So will the >above process(es) also work with IRIX, NeXT, MacOSX and other format >discs (sorry I don't know the proper names of those formats?) The low-level format of a CD is defined by a standard that everyone follows. That means that you can use simple low-level tools to copy >from a CD (and copy back on to a blank CD-R). You can do the same thing with SCSI disks for the same reason: it's just a bunch of bits with a standard hardware interface; it doesn't matter what format the OS uses. Using dd to copy from one disk to another works a treat when you're using SCSI devices (modulo bad blocks, etc.) For SCSI disk copying, it's best if the source and destination are the same size. For a CD, that's taken care of. -Rick

19 years, 2 months

2
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