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

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I'm not one that ever advocates tearing apart classic gear. But in this case I think it's warranted and I'd like some advice. I have more than a few RA81's that are all clearly labled "BAD HDA", and the person I got them from confirmed "these are all dead". I grabbed them anyways as they had to be taken as part of "the deal". I am not familiar with these drives at all. From what I've heard over the years, they have a fairly high failure rate and thus people who use them are often looking for HDA assemblies. This makes me think that it's unlikely that I'll be able to just pull the bad HDA's out and obtain good ones to put in. Plus I don't need this many drives at all, so I think it's time to tear them apart and scrap them. Since I don't know anything about RA81's yet (have never used them or opened one up), and because I do intend to keep one or two of the drives running (a few don't say "bad hda" on them), can someone tell me what parts I should scavange off the dead ones that are worth keeping as spares? I know the obvious like the light bulbs and drive select plugs, but what about components on the inside that "those in the know" would advise I not just pitch with the drives? Lastly, are the casings for the RA81's mostly steel, or aluminum? I'm pondering putting them in the van and taking to a scrap metal dealer. I wouldn't do this, but they are clearly dead, HDA's not likely to appear, no one wants them, and I need the space. Jay West

19 years, 10 months

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PolyPaks (was Re: OT: Where have electronics hobby stores gone?)

by James＠jdfogg.com

> > I'd like to see the ads again. > > The adverisments really defined just how people saw the techology. > > I think I still have a Poly Paks data sheet for a uA709 > op-amp (TO- 99). Was pretty amazing stuff back then. I grew up in Wakefield Massachusetts. I used to ride my bike over to PolyPaks and raid their dumpster on a regular basis. It looks like they used to get all sorts of stuff for evaluation that they'd toss. Sometimes I'd have money to spend there too.

19 years, 10 months

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OT: Where have electronics hobby stores gone?

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > On 11/5/06, Roger Merchberger > <zmerch-cctalk at 30below.com> wrote: > > Under the IC listing, I found an $80 8Mhz Moto > 68000!?!?!?! > > Ye gods!!! > > Wow! I'm Rich! > > Personally, I'd queal if I had to pay more than > $5-$10 for a 68000-8. > > -ethan > Well, I paid about $10 USD (?5 GBP) for 3 68000 processors and that included P&P to the UK. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 10 months

2
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fyi: new superPET doc

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

I've added the SuperPET Waterloo APL manual on my site. http://www.trailingedge.com/cbm8/ (Warning it is 38 meg) ----- David Williams http://www.trailingedge.com

19 years, 10 months

1
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11/44 memory question

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

It would appear that the slots designated "MEMORY" in the 11/44 (slots 9-12 in the *system* backplane) are actually "Extended Unibus" slots. My reading is that these slots allow 22 bits of memory addressing instead of 18. So, of they are still "unibus" slots, does that mean that if there is one board in slot 9, that slots 10-12 should have grant continuity cards (G727)? If they are unibus slots I would certainly think so, but they are designated for memory only... and I can't find any reference to using grant cards there for non-populated memory slots. Anyone know off the top of their head? Jay

19 years, 10 months

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PolyPaks (was Re: OT: Where have electronics hobby stores gone?)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 11/5/06, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > On 4 Nov 2006 at 11:19, woodelf wrote: > > > We want poly-packs back ... how do I get my 2 cent 7400's with 3 working gates > > each for my next big project. :) > > When ICs were very dear, PP wasn't such a bad deal, even if they > offered mostly floor sweepings. I was surprised at how many ICs in > one of their assortments didn't even have plating on the pins. > > But I last bought from PP when RTL and DTL were all the rage. Back in that era, I wasn't buying too many parts, but I remember looking over all the stuff they would cram in their ads and wishing I had a few bucks to scrape together. -ethan

19 years, 10 months

4
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Radio Shack Science Fair manuals

by magneticsciguy＠yahoo.com

Do you know of a group(s) exchanging Radio Shack Science Fair manuals? I'm thinking of rolling all of these into torrent(s) as I get them collected. I have manuals (that I can scan in, in a few phases) for: 28-249 "200 in 1" 28-267 "75 in One" & need manuals 28-245 "20 in 1" 28-259 "130 in One" Thanks much! Brian P.S. Radio Shack itself has a scattered few like (280-0161) "30-in-1" http://support.radioshack.com/support_games/doc18/18973.htm ----------------------------------- "Going back to 2003 and a post you made about the Radio Shack Science Fair 10 in 1... :) I have a manual for the 28-225 if you would like a scanned copy. Just let me know." http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2005-June/196536.html ____________________________________________________________________________________ Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail (http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/)

19 years, 10 months

1
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TI 99/4a Manual

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Robert Borsuk <rborsuk at colourfull.com> wrote: > Hi, > Anyone interested in a TI 99/4a Editor / Assemble r > manual and two > floppies? (no cartridges) > Figure $8 priority mail shipping. > > If no one claims it, it's going in the trash. > > Rob > If no-one claims it by next Saturday the I'll take them. I don't have a TI 99/4a at present, but might end up with one in the future :) Even if I don't, the manual will be an interesting read ;) Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 10 months

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fyi: New Exidy Sorcerer docs

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

Added some new Exidy Sorcerer docs up today. The Sorcerer S-100 Expansion Unit Technical Manual and the Software Internals Manual for the Sorcerer. They're in my Exidy section on my site at http://www.trailingedge.com/exidy/ ----- David Williams http://www.trailingedge.com

19 years, 10 months

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Disk image needed

by teoz＠neo.rr.com

Looking for a disk image for a dead floppy. The disk is WATCOM VX-REXX Version 2.0, made in 1994 for OS/2. I just need an Image of disk 2/2. Can provide an image of my original disks and manuals if you like. Winimage format is fine, contact me offlist. Thanks, TZ

19 years, 10 months

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TI 99/4a Manual

by rborsuk＠colourfull.com

Hi, Anyone interested in a TI 99/4a Editor / Assembler manual and two floppies? (no cartridges) Figure $8 priority mail shipping. If no one claims it, it's going in the trash. Rob

19 years, 10 months

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Fw: Tandy PDD2 Portable Disk Drive 2 - Mint Cond

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Check out this auction ----- Original Message ----- From: "Neil Morrison" <neilsmorr at gmail.com> To: "M100 List" <m100 at list.30below.com> Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 11:44 AM Subject: eBay: Tandy PDD2 Portable Disk Drive 2 - Mint Cond > > http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150051417513 > > Winning bid: US $306.00 > > Glad I got mine long ago!! > > Neil > > >

19 years, 10 months

2
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Time to purge - pickup only in the NW Indiana/Chicago area.

by nerdware＠ctgonline.org

The time has come for me to let go of the collection - I want my basement and garage back, and I just lost interest and don't have the time any more. I have an assortment of stuff, inlcuding a complete PCJr, a Kaypro II with bunches of disks, some Tandy stuff, and a couple of older Macs, along with several boxes of old Byte magazines. I donated a big lot of it to another collector several years ago, and this is what I had kept. But now it's time for even that to go - I'm keeping my first VIC-20 and my Amigas, along with one Mac SE/30 just for fun. I started listing stuff on *bay, but I no longer have time or easy access to the place where I used to ship from, and I'm just too busy to do it now anyway. If this interests you, please email me offline and I can give you some more details. If I don't hear from anyone in a week, I'm afraid it's going to the recycler. -- Paul Braun Valparaiso, IN "There's a fine line between stupid, and clever." - David St. Hubbins "Enjoy every sandwich." - Warren Zevon "The Fountain of Youth is a state of mind." - The Ides of March

19 years, 10 months

1
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Discussion of large systems

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > On Fri, 3 Nov 2006, Robert Feldman wrote: > > No, quipus were to record information, not perfo rm > computations or logic. > > Also, they appeared a couple of thousand years > after Stonehenge. Most quipus > > are Inka, which date them after ca. 1100 AD, > although, IIRC, there are Wari > > quipus (ca 500AD). The Moche (200 BC-400AD) > possibly used colored beans in a > > similar way (the first bean counters!). > > Oldest found so far is about 3000BC ! > > http://archaeology.about.com/od/ancientwriting/a/c aralquipu.htm > Wow, that is old. All this talk of quipu's reminds me of one of my favourite cartoon shows from the early 80's - Mysterious Cities Of Gold. I don't suppose anyone knows of any games based on it? Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 10 months

2
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test

by dm561＠torfree.net

What say we give the Jay West test fest a rest... m

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk wrote: Wow, that is old. All this talk of quipu's reminds me of one of my favourite cartoon shows from the early 80's - Mysterious Cities Of Gold. I don't suppose anyone knows of any games based on it? Regards, Andrew B ------------------------------------------------------------- I share your love of the series. It only showed up for one run in the US. Just didn't draw and audience. Apparently the DVD set is out in the original French. And there are a lot of DVDs in English that come up on eBay. But they are rips and of very poor quality. Plus none of the commentary. I've seen a game a couple of times on eBay. But it seemed to be a children's game and was in French. You might point your eBay preferences to include the French auctions. If they ever release it in an authorized DVD, I'll certainly buy it. Right now, I have some poor mpg2's that I found on a black IRC channel a few years ago. Billy

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by dm561＠torfree.net

Speaking of unit record equipment, another candidate for the "first" programmed "computer"?: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/switch.html m

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by dm561＠torfree.net

-------------Original Message: From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Discussion of large systems No matter how you cut it, sorting on tape beat sorting cards on unit record equipment... Cheers, Chuck --------------Reply: Mind you, an 082/083 sorter with cards feeding across and dropping into their compartments is as much a part of the "old computer" image as spinning tape reels... And considering the cost of CPU time and the fact that input data was still on punched cards in most cases, it was usually more efficient and cost-effective to still sort the cards off-line and then copy/merge to/with tape. Ah, fond memories of carrying stacks of 5-6000 cards across the room to the collator (or, later, the high-speed card reader), not to mention the inevitable day when you bumped into someone and scattered half a megabyte of data across the data centre floor and under the machinery; now _that_'s fragmentation! m

19 years, 10 months

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Classiccmp wiki, et al, for dummies...

by evan＠snarc.net

All this fuss is idiotic. A knowledge base and a wiki are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS. There was already a recent discussion about whether classiccmp should have a wiki, and the concensus was "not at this time" as Jay already noted. Further discussion is always welcome in an environment like cctalk, but geez, people should read up on the recent history before spouting about the same old things without adding anything new. Meanwhile lots of people are complaining that the existing KB is lame and sparse. Those people should sign off from their email and go add something constructive to the KB instead of critizing what Jay and others have already done for it. It's the fault of users, not the underlying technology, if nobody adds to the database -- no amount of CMS or wiki or anything else will help with that.

19 years, 10 months

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Classiccmp Wiki

by aek＠bitsavers.org

A related and remarkable resource, which is less a Wiki and more of a blog, is Paul McJones' "Dusty Decks" page: http://www.mcjones.org/dustydecks/ This is so monumentally great and exactly what should be done at this point in computer/software/emulation history, taking advantage of the web in exactly the right way. ----- Abosolutely! He's one of the cornerstones of CHM's software preservation SIG I really wish there was more work of this quality going on.

19 years, 10 months

1
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Early Sun manuals

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> In particular any manuals concerning the maintenance of early monitors (the > monochrome monitor that was attached to the old Sun-1) Moniterm or Philips? Sun bought generic Multibus cases for the original desktop units. The most common monitors in them were made by either Moniterm or Philips. Moniterm monitors are notorious for flyback failures.

19 years, 10 months

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Classiccmp Wiki

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

A related and remarkable resource, which is less a Wiki and more of a blog, is Paul McJones' "Dusty Decks" page: http://www.mcjones.org/dustydecks/ He does a very excellent job of tying together multiple resources around the web, relating them to real computer history of wide general interest. Paul brings together several ingredients here: 1. A genuine interest in computer and especially software history in the context of the entire industry. 2. Knowledge of many others around the world who are doing solid work on the subject, including collecting/storing/making available hardcopy documents, reading old media, emulating old systems, etc. 3. Links to the others who are doing the work, often showing the output of the work. 4. A blog-type format that show shis personal interest but also shows that the work being done is relevant and important. 5. Incorporating comments/replies/etc. into his page. This is so monumentally great and exactly what should be done at this point in computer/software/emulation history, taking advantage of the web in exactly the right way. I should point out that there are some more scholarly and museum-like efforts going on at the same time, but none present the work and details and results nearly as openly and vividly as Paul does. Tim.

19 years, 10 months

1
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Early Sun manuals

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

MessageHi, Looking for any of the early Sun manuals - eg the multibus Sun-1 era. In particular any manuals concerning the maintenance of early monitors (the monochrome monitor that was attached to the old Sun-1) and/or the early multibus Sun processor boards/FP board/CG1 board. Many thanks! Ian. --------------------------------- Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.

19 years, 10 months

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Anyone around tonight in VCF land?

by evan＠snarc.net

Arrived today from New Jersey. Staying in Mountain View. Open to meeting other collectors tonight / tomorrow for fun times, computer chat, drinks, etc. .... cell-able at 646-546-9999. - Evan

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by dm561＠torfree.net

Another part of computing history that seems almost completely forgotten is ledger card systems, which is what many small offices (if they weren't doing things manually) were using before PCs came along and for quite a few years afterwards. With magnetic stripes on the back of the cards, paper tape I/O and/or high speed digital cassette drives, automatic feeder/stackers, (relatively) high-speed card readers, and datacomm capabilities, they were certainly true computers by any criterion. I recall one of my Burroughs L installations which would have 4 cassette drives randomly zipping back and forth (much quieter than your tape drives, actually quite pleasant to listen to) and an auto-reader going through a deck of ledger cards, while another set of cards was being fed into the printing console, stripe read and updated, printed (along with 2 reports being printed simultaneously on the same independent-dual-carriage 255x10cpi 2-colour dot-matrix printer), and stacked in the back, all without any operator intervention; fun to watch. I'll have to dig around & see if I can find the core memory card from an E series machine that I used to have lying around somewhere... m

19 years, 10 months

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anyone got xylogic terminal server cables?

by legalize＠xmission.com

I have a terminal server (NIB) but it didn't come with any of the cabling for connecting a gaggle of serial devices to the server. I could always make one, but its pretty tedious. I'd consider buying them for a reasonable price from someone who has some they're not using. Thanks! -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>

19 years, 10 months

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New monitors on old machines

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: I have a question. I'm getting a Tandy 2000 that doesn't have a color monitor (it comes with a VM-1 monochrome). I've read that you could use a third-party (i.e., non-Tandy) color monitor like the old NEC Multi-Sync, but I was wondering if a modern VGA monitor could be used if I made a 9-pin to 15-pin adapter. Thanks for any hints. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator Web site: <http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/> http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ Web site: http://www.altair32.com/ /***************************************************/

19 years, 10 months

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new email for william donzelli?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Anyone know if William Donzelli change his email address? Everything I send there bounces... Jay

19 years, 10 months

2
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Discussion of large systems

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 2 Nov, 2006, at 18:00, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > The Versatec V80 electrostatic printer is another odd beast -- it > builds up a charge image on special paper and then flows liquid toner > over it (yes, I have one, and not just beacuae it was one printer > supported on the PERQ). We used to have a V80 on long term loan from Versatec so we could develop a 'GreenSheet' interface card for the NuBus slots in the older Macs along with driver software to drive their wide (up to six foot) electrostatic and Laser printers. It never gave us any problems, so few moving parts to give trouble. I wonder, can you still get the bottles of toner or do you mix your own? On the subject of peripherals, my 1301 has a card reader, card punch, line printer, paper tape reader (Elliott type) and a non standard paper tape punch (Teletype BRPE). I'm not sure if the drums really count as peripherals, but I have two connected, 12000 words by 48 bits and of course the mag tape drives from my recent e-mail. The second machine has card reader, card punch, printer, one drum and more tape decks (13 in total). More modern, I have an Apple Imagewriter 2 and some of the older Apple parallel printers made by C.Itoh to connect to the Apple 3 and the Lisa. Shortly before I joined the list we chucked out one of the original Apple Laserwriters and their DaisyWheel printer. They both still worked but took up too much space (and the LaserWriter made a lot of Ozone). If anyone has one of the old HP electrostatics printers (A1 size or D size to the guys in the states), I still have some bits from it, the ink pump, the big transformer and some rollers. I have quite a few manuals for pen plotters and some printers from the eighties if anyone is lacking a manual for their plotter.

19 years, 10 months

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Classiccmp Wiki

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Jim Battle <frustum at pacbell.net> wrote: > aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk wrote: > ... > > Can we *please* stop acting like kids? As I > > figure (forgive me if I'm wrong) it most of you > > guys are in your 50's/60's. The only exceptions > > I know of are myself (27, before you ask) > > and Cameron Kaiser (Cameron, I got a copy > > of Robert Bernardo's footage from both > > CommVEx 2005 & 2006 and would like to say > > that even though I don't own a C64 I love > > the intro to Geotrope). > > > > Andrew -- > > There are many people (hundreds) under 50 on this > list. A couple years > ago there was a thread about demographics. You > should also be aware > that there are > 1000 people on the list, even if > most don't post very > often. > Ahhh, ok. *feels this >< big* I didn't know the list had >1000 members. I thought it was more around the 500 mark. Either way, it's still alot of people. That said, the demographics have probably changed slightly. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 10 months

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Classiccmp Wiki

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> On Nov 2, 2006, at 12:47 PM, woodelf wrote: > >> Not to be argumentative, but you sound exactly like someone who's > >> never > >> really participated in a wiki-centric community. > >> If you tried it (and correct me if you have), you might find you > >> like it. > > > > Well I like email-lists ( other than send.me.spam :) ) since I > > don't have to navigate thru a web site. How soon do you expect the > > wiki will have 'Pee Cee' stuff on it, my guess is 15 minutes or > > a sex ad posted. > > Yep. It's rare for a community survive a mailing list -> wiki > transition. Things that start out as wikis seem to do ok, but they > tend to attract a slightly different crowd...those who think a web > browser is "how you access the Internet". ;) > > -Dave And I think that if those wanting classiccmp to "go wiki" would try some classic computer searches at wikipedia.org (assuming they haven't already done so), they'd find that there's already a tremendous amount of technical and historical information there with more easily added by anyone who desires to. And, of course, new topics can be created if some system you have expertise on isn't represented. Of course, I might be misunderstanding their request since I'm not familiar with wiki sites being used as substitutes for email groups. Perhaps there's some great advantage of which I'm not aware. However, since the wiki topic has apparently been discussed here before at length and didn't meet with approval, I'll go with those previous conclusions. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Check out the New Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster. (http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta)

19 years, 10 months

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SCSI-I cables; 10Base2 cables

by cclist＠sydex.com

I've got a bunch (maybe 10) of the 50 pin blue-ribbon connector SCSI- 1 cables. Most are about a foot long, though some are longer. I've also got a bunch of 10base2 50 ohm RG-58/U coax cables with BNC's on each end. Several are 10 foot, a couple are longer. Heck, I'll even throw in a bunch of terminators and tees. Anyone interested in the whole lot for the cost of postage? Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 10 months

1
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Discussion of large systems

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> > Tony Duell wrote: > > > > > You do. It saved them having to fit a tokenising routine into the ROM. > > > > > > So how do you distinguish 'calculator' from 'computer'? > > They work better as a door jam. :) > > Except that a common name for the ZX81 over here was the 'black > doorwedge' :-) > > -tony That's what Commodore used them for: "Under this steady promotional blitz [of the C64], plus a trade-in option that offered a $100 rebate on any other computer or video game console (a clever New York chain called Crazy Eddy started selling the cheap Timex Sinclair 1000, an Americanised Sinclair ZX-81, for $10 so that users could get the rebate; Commodore donated most of them to charity but kept some, reportedly, for doorstops!), sales skyrocketed and the C64 eclipsed its older sibling within a short time." http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/secret/history.html ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get your email and see which of your friends are online - Right on the New Yahoo.com (http://www.yahoo.com/preview)

19 years, 10 months

1
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Classiccmp Wiki

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Julian Wolfe <fireflyst at earthlink.net> wrote: > > > > NO ONE SAID THAT CLASSICCMP WAS GOING TO BECOME A > WIKI, AND > > STOP BEING A MAILING LIST. > > > > NO ONE. > > Starting Monday, it will only be available via WAI S. > Huh?! I hope you are joking Julian, as it is Jay in charge of this list. I have no desire to move to Wiki. I enjoy reading emails from the list. Can we *please* stop acting like kids? As I figure (forgive me if I'm wrong) it most of you guys are in your 50's/60's. The only exceptions I know of are myself (27, before you ask) and Cameron Kaiser (Cameron, I got a copy of Robert Bernardo's footage from both CommVEx 2005 & 2006 and would like to say that even though I don't own a C64 I love the intro to Geotrope). Sheesh...... Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 10 months

2
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Laserwriter select paper tray

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I have a paper tray for an Apple Laserwriter Select, free for price of postage. -- 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, 10 months

1
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Classiccmp Wiki

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I think a wiki would be a nice adjunct. It could become something like > an "annotated bitsavers" if we all put things there. I have been thinking of something like that for a long time. There are lots of little tidbits I've collected on systems that aren't documents. A few show up in the 'pdf' directory because I think they're important (like histories and bibliographies). Problem is I have so many documents backlogged that I never get around to creating the commentary (with REFERENCES d**m it!). That's pretty much why I just update related entries on wikipedia and add pointers to the source documentation on bitsavers. This does bring up the point that expanding the wikipedia entries is a good thing too, and would have a wider audience than a specialty wiki. There is the start of a software related wiki on the Computer History Museum's Software Preservation SIG http://community.computerhistory.org/scc/scwiki But there isn't any content there yet.

19 years, 10 months

1
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Cosmac 1802 Evaluation Kit Rev 2

by erik＠baigar.de

Hi Cosmac experts, recently I got hands on a Cosmac 1802 Evaluation Kit Rev 2 (CDP18S020). There is a a "Cosmac CDP18S021 Micro Terminal" as well. I want to restore this kit and would be very happy to get hands on a user manual with schematics for this! Google did not bring up the desired result. In powering up the unit, the 1802 executes "Wait for DMA or IRQ (0x00)" permanently and thus the micro terminal stays black as well. There is a firmware ROM CDPR522 on the unit and all datasheets are available on the www. Only the chip labeled "RCA 640" within the micro terminal are mystic, but a schematic might help here, too. Any hints where to get the user manual or a copy of it? Best regards, Erik.

19 years, 10 months

1
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Apple Laserwriters

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

I saw a mention of the laserwriters by Roger Holmes in his posting, and remembered I have some to get rid of as well. I have them in Anaheim, Ca. They are free take if you pick them up. Probably no interest for the same reason he chucked his (size and ozone) but better to ask before the act. I originally planned to use them with older sun systems, since they could substitute for the Sun laserwriters, but since have gone to the freebie ghostscript stack to print what .ps files I need. The larger sun laserwriters were fast and clean, but not for the faint hearted to set up. The apple writers matched the lower end ones with the movement similar to the HP laserwriter 2's. I'm also inclined to chuck the Laserwriter 2 I have, if there is interest in that. The Apple laserwriters are untested. The Laserwriter moves paper, but is in need of attention to work. Jim

19 years, 10 months

1
0
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DEC Unibus 4-SLU (ACT 10015000)

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I've just uploaded the quadrasync and quadrasync/e manuals to bitsavers.org/pdf/able

19 years, 10 months

2
1
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Mac II's available (Cradley Heath / West Midlands, UK)

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Just had this offer from someone: "I am having a clear out and have a couple of Mac IIs, 2 good colour monitors and various peripherals including a b/w laserwriter and scanner." We've got all the Apple stuff that we need (with the exception of a Lisa 1 ;) but maybe someone else on the list can rescue these. They're free for pickup >from Cradley Heath - yell at me off-list if you want them and I'll pass on contact details... cheers Jules

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by dm561＠torfree.net

------------Original Message: From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Discussion of large systems >On 2 Nov 2006 at 10:25, M H Stein wrote: > And considering the cost of CPU time and the fact that input data was > still on punched cards in most cases, it was usually more efficient and > cost-effective to still sort the cards off-line and then copy/merge to/with > tape. I suppose that relibility was about the same--the chance of creating a mangled card in unit-record gear was probably about the same as that of mangling it in a 1442. ------------Reply: Reminds me of my very first night working in a unit record shop: Was running an invoicing job on a 402 with a 514 punching the new summary cards; loaded the feed hoppers with cards and went upstairs for a smoke and a chat with my new boss. Came back down to reload the hoppers about a half hour later, but there were only two or three cards punched in the 514 instead of the 200 or so expected, and one card sticking out from under the machine cover. Opened the cover and the other 197 or so cards literally exploded out of the machine, torn, accordioned and with nice black stripes where they'd passed through the drive gears into the machine's innards instead of into the output stacker. Figured it was going to be a good place to work when the boss joined me in the keypunch room and helped with finding and putting the torn fragments back together in order to manually repunch them. Got pretty good at reading cards that night... m

19 years, 10 months

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Terminal needed for commercial shoot this Saturday in NYC

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Some TV bonehead (I've come to realize that anyone who works in TV is a bonehead) e-mailed me last night to tell me he "desperately" needs a "cool looking" computer terminal for a commercial shoot this weekend. If anyone has a terminal they think looks "cool" and would like to earn some cash, e-mail me prontolitiously. Do not reply to this message because I'm not subscribed to the list. If you do reply even after having just been told that I'm not subscribed, you too will be deemed a bonehead. Contact me directly. -- 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, 10 months

1
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Discussion of large systems

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 2 Nov, 2006, at 18:00, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >>> Does anyone have enough tape drives that they can do the >>> multi-drive merge/sort tape algorithms described in Knuth's >>> Art of Computer Programming? >> >> >> That would be six, I believe. But, why? Just to say one did it? >> In today's world, the way to implement the same algorithm would be to >> use disk files; MUCH faster. With a TERABYTE of screaming fast disk An ICT 1301 can support up to eight half inch tape decks. I actually have 13 decks in total, though currently I only have three of them running. Only one of them can both read and write, though that is the next thing on the list to be sorted out. We need to write an 'All Ones' tape to re- calibrate the read amplifiers (ten per deck). Then hopefully we will not be relying on the error correction circuitry to correct the single bit errors we are currently getting almost all the time. Maybe next year I could get six or seven decks working but our priority is to read the libraries of software recorded on the very old tapes. Surprisingly this seems to be possible, we have already read some data off a tape written 30 years ago or more. At only 300 frames per inch the bits are so much bigger they are less likely to degrade (I hope). There is an engineer's facility to 'Read All Tracks' which we will use to read the entire tape, hopefully without stopping and send all 40MB to a parallel port we are building with a built in FIFO. The data will then hopefully be captured onto a modern machine. We will repeat this two or three times on different decks and then analyse the data to produce the original (up to 10MB of data per reel). There may be some digits we will not be sure of due to multiple bit failures in a single frame, but we will at least know which ones they are. The regular read hardware just says which blocks have one of more frames with multi bit failures. I am hoping to extend the computer room, get both my 1301s assembled and have all 13 decks in a row. There's no plans yet to get the second 1301 running but I want to get it at least bolted together whilst there is a glimmer of a memory in my head as to how to do it. I have a quite a few years to go before senility (I hope), but it is already 30 years since I took that beast apart and the ink on the labels I carefully applied has now faded away to almost nothing. There will be room for a small exhibition of other stuff, props used in the making of the 'Darling Buds of May', some old Apple computers, ][, ][e, ///, Lisa and some older Macs, plus a mechanical calculator, a wind up gramaphone, a 19th century pounds shillings and pence till made by NCR, an Eddison drum (grooves not magnetic) dictating machine and player, and maybe some stuff which is currently in my office, an HP7475 plotter, a big old HP DraftMaster MX+ plotter and various other items I have not had the heart to throw in the skip over the years. Oh and my UK101 computer maybe. It'll only be open one day a year to the general public when we hold a classic car show at the farm.

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Surprisingly this seems to be possible, we have already read some data off a tape written 30 years ago or more. At only 300 frames Per inch the bits are so much bigger they are less likely to degrade (I hope). There is an engineer's facility to 'Read All Tracks' which we will use to read the entire tape, hopefully without stopping and send all 40MB to a parallel port we are building with a built in FIFO. The data will then hopefully be captured onto a modern machine. -- If you are interested, I could probably get you one of these when they're available http://bitsavers.org/tools/wizl/tapewizl/ Paul Pierce built something similar to what you did for recovering 7-track data, and discovered that you really need to recover the data using analog techniques to get any reliability. http://www.piercefuller.com/collect/proj.html

19 years, 10 months

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DEC Unibus 4-SLU (ACT 10015000)

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Jay West wrote: > I posted about this board before and one or more people said they had one. > Now I'm curious if anyone has documentation for it :) Ooh, if only you had asked me a few years ago! > This is a 3rd party quad height unibus board and appears to be a 4 port SLU. > The manufacturer is ACT, and the only part numbers I can find on the board > are 10015000, 10015001, and 10015002. These were very common for 20 years as DL11-alikes. You might have better luck if you identified the manufacturer as "Able" instead of "ACT". They call it a "Quadrasync". Tim.

19 years, 10 months

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DEC Unibus 4-SLU (ACT 10015000)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I posted about this board before and one or more people said they had one. Now I'm curious if anyone has documentation for it :) This is a 3rd party quad height unibus board and appears to be a 4 port SLU. The manufacturer is ACT, and the only part numbers I can find on the board are 10015000, 10015001, and 10015002. There are 4 rotary dials (my guess is baud rate), and one 10 position switch bank (priority & address?). I'm curious what all the dip switch settings are, can it start at the normal console address and thus replace an M7856, does it have an LTC capability, etc. Pinouts for the port (berg) connectors would be good. I can't seem to find anything about it on bitsavers or googling. Any pointers appreciated! Jay West

19 years, 10 months

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"All in one" Early PCs

by cclist＠sydex.com

All: Since I couldn't find much on the web about it, I decided to snap a couple of photos and put the information on my Durango F-85 system on a web page. http://www.sydex.com/durango/durango.html I've actually got two of these things; the second has the integrated hard disk but is otherwise the same. Does anyone think a photo of the external hard drive (SA-4008) would be worthwhile including? How about an old (and worthless) Durango stock certificate? Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 10 months

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FYI: Data General 9-track tape drive (looks like Nova colors?)

by legalize＠xmission.com

Lot description: <http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=1020372&convertTo=USD> Pic: <http://web.govliquidation.com/auction/view_photo?eventId=2607&lotNumber=340…> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>

19 years, 10 months

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1
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EBCDIC

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

I was at work and needed an EBCDIC code, came across this. A useful link if you are using the old hardware and need a old code. http://www.lookuptables.com/ Billy

19 years, 10 months

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sources for older bipolar proms, etc.

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Since several people have asked... the last batch of 82S131's I bought was >from www.arcadechips.com I also exchanged a few emails with the proprietor. He was very helpful, overly considerate... and emailed me after the order came just to make sure I got it and it was all to my satisfaction. I gotta give this guy a high rating. Prices were good too. As an additional resource, I have also bought fairly large (to me) quantities of the above (and similar) proms from another place at www.mikesarcade.com I received the same unusually high level of service and good prices from the second source as well. Jay West

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Chuck Guzis wrote: Plowing through very short records (physical blocks) on an old drive makes all sorts of interesting noise, too as the drive stops and starts in the IRGs. I remember running a particular COBOL acceptance test on CDC 607's that you could hear in the next county... Cheers, Chuck --------------------------- It was wonderful wasn't it? And on the batch programs, all the attached tapes would rewind at the end of a job. You could feel the noise with your feet on the raised floor. I think the ulitmate was one night at CERN. Some jackass was playing and rewound all 36 tape drives at the same time. CERN was running the 1" 627's at the time. People went streaming out of the computer room. The idiot was banned from the 6600 permanently. Billy

19 years, 10 months

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Apple Macintosh LC complete offered

by wpileggi＠juno.com

An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available URL: <http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/20061030/932f7bba/at…>

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Chuck Guzis wrote: I suspect that the Japanese printer makers were pressed to come out with a better product because of the need for higher print resolution when printing Kanji characters. Cheers, Chuck ------------------------------- Absolutely. That was certainly the case when I worked at Fujitsu. The 9 wire printers were only sold in the US, weren't considered good enough for Japan. 24 wire was standard in Japan for a few years before being sold in the US. And it was one of the driving forces to develp the laser printer technology. Japan had to have the finer resolution. I think that even today, most laser engines are developed in Japan and OEM'd out. Billy

19 years, 10 months

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Collections of (physically) large computers

by vp＠drexel.edu

sorry I couldn't resist ... ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > I think the distinction I normally use is often called 'keeper'. That's a > pun on 'Key Per Function' meaning a calcultor has, say, a key labelled > 'SIN', whereas on a computer you spell it out. Byt that definition the > HP41 is a calculator (although you _can_ spell out the function names if > you want to), the HP9830 most vertainly isn't. so what does this make the Sinclair ZX-80, ZX-81 and Spectrum systems? (I am not even sure you *could* type in the commands, I think you *had* to press the appropriate function key). **vp

19 years, 10 months

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Spectrums (was Re: Collections of (physically) large computers)

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Adrian Graham <witchy at binarydinosaurs.co.uk> wr ote: > On 1/11/06 11:05, "Jules Richardson" > <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > > >> You do. It saved them having to fit a tokenisin g > routine into the ROM. > > > > to nit-pick: > > > > a) didn't the later Spectrums (128, +2, +3) with > '128 BASIC' let you type the > > commands without the keyword system? > > Yep, from the Investronica 128 (the first > 'toastrack' edition with the Big > Metal Heatsink?) to the +3, 128 mode let you just > type and make your own > mistakes. > Yes, you could type the keywords, but no you couldn't make mistakes (atleast, not on my Spectrum 128 +2) as you were forced to correct any syntax errors before you could type in the next line of BASIC. Or atleast that's the case for 128K BASIC. I never used the 48K BASIC mode. >> snip << > > Heck, back to Spectrums, I remember that the +2 > had a built-in calculator > > application... (what were the other main menu > options? 128 BASIC, Spectrum > > BASIC, Calculator, but I'm sure there was at lea st > one other) > > Tape tester..... > Err. not on my Spectrum. From top to bottom it was: Loader (load in tape games - equivalent to typing Load "", IIRC) 128K BASIC Calculator 48K BASIC > -- > Adrian/Witchy > Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator > Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest priva te > home computer > collection? > > For the record I still have my Spectrum in it's original box. I had the light gun games 6-pack version sold in the early 90's. The games were: Robot Attack Operation Wolf (published by Ocean) Missile Ground Zero Bullseye ? (some target range in the wild with 4 levels?) Toy Bizarre My mum, however, put it somewhere "safe" sometime last year. It has the SNES game Super Mario World (with all 96 levels accessed) in with it too which I wanted to play earlier this year to a) recharge the battery back-up and b) cause it's great fun to play. Needless to say we couldn't find it :( The Spectrum manual, thankfully, is on my shelf here in my bedroom. I read it through thoroughly (start to finish) atleast twice in the early 90's as I wanted to make great games. Just as back then, I still have lot's of imagination and idea's for games and software. Thanks to my Amiga and AMOS BASIC I have been able to realise some of them. I do have plenty more stuff to come :) Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 10 months

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COI Linc Tape II

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I can't seem to find any docs on this unit and it's unibus controller. Anyone have docs I could copy or better yet, electronic format? Thanks! Jay

19 years, 10 months

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Large Peripherals on Large Systems (was Re: Discussion of large systems)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 11/1/06, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote: > I agree, which is why I started collecting in two areas: serial > terminals and graphics boxes. "Graphics boxes" includes things like > dial boxes, button boxes and graphics tablets and even plotters. Cool. I've always been fascinated by dial boxes and button boxes, but, DECUS aside, never got the chance to play with many. I know they were big with SGI systems, but my experiences tended to run to DEC and Sun more than SGI. (here's an ASCIIfied doc I found on the VAX 8000 dial box - very cool... now I want one ;-) http://deathrow.vistech.net/~cvisors/DEC94MDS/vsxdatm1.txt > However, I see things like large line printers and other such early > printing peripherals seem to be rare. They only seem to appear in > people's collections if they were part of a big bundle. I have a LP05-type line printer and several smaller DEC printers (LA-180, LA36...) The LP05 is awaiting some attention, but my first LA-180 saw a lot of use its first few years... I bought it from Newman Computer Exchange in the mid-1980s to hang off of my PDP-8/a when they sent me a "free shipping on your next order" coupon. I looked through their catalog and picked out the heaviest item I thought I could get some use out of. A few days later, a van shows up with a palletized printer. Fortunately for me, a couple of years later, I got a contract job writing PDP-11 software and really _needed_ that printer (and equally fortunately, the $300 PDP-11/23 I picked up to do the work already had an LPV11 installed). I can't say that I had as much need for a true line printer fifteen years later, but they are cool to watch work. > Any other peripheral collectors out there? I collect CPUs _and_ peripherals, if that counts. -ethan

19 years, 10 months

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2
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M9312 boot roms

by jwest＠ezwind.net

To all who wanted M9312 boot roms burned, I've completed that today. I'll have them out in the mail by the end of the week. Expect an email after they are sent with total cost. Jay

19 years, 10 months

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A question regarding floppy drives functionality..

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: A question regarding floppy drives functionality.. > From: Marian Capel <marian.capel at bluewin.ch> > Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:26:22 +0100 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Since this list has a number of people that are very knowledgable on the >subject : > >Am i correct in thinking that, given a custom FDC, i could run a modern >1.44 floppy in FM mode, and at much lower data rates i.e. (say 50 KHz.) ? You may not be able to run that slow but you could test by recording square waves of varying frequencies and look at what comes back. >Background : I am musing on how to give a small amount of storage, say >around 100kb, to a very small low tech cpu. >I do not care about speed and efficiency. Myself for 100k I'd use a EEprom. Eprom or even 128k ram with a battery. >I am aware that IDE-based solutions are simpler, both hard- and software >wise, but I would prefer a floppy based solution. FYI the slowest floppies are the oldest 5.25 like the SA400 and TM100 as they will reach down to 64khz, I did some testing once. I'd suspect some of the later 360k drives would do well (slow data) too. I do know that most of the 360k drives work fine at FM (single density) data rates (125khz). Allison

19 years, 10 months

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2
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dec /34a issue

by jwest＠ezwind.net

I just brought up my /34a and apparently it's sick. It has one DD11-PK. Configuration is as follows: 1 - M8266 (A-F) 2 - M8265 (A-F) 3 - M9312 (A-B), M7859 (C-F) 4 - M7891 (A-F) 5 - Grant (D) 6 - Grant (D) 7 - Grant (D) 8 - Grant (D) 9 - M9302 (A-B), Grant (D) What works: Storing & retreiving various patterns from ram via the front panel works fine in all cases. Looping on CLR PC loops as expected Looping on BR . loops as expected Trap catcher works (first pass halts at 1030 filling ram, then a BR . loops as expected). The memory address test program fails though. It halts at 246 indicating a memory addressing error. R1 points to 422. Examining memory via the front panel shows the following: 420 420 422 177355 424 177353 426 177351 430 177347 So it looks to me like it is able to store 420 in 420, but nothing after that. I would normally think there is a problem with the memory board (M7891). However, I have replaced that board with 2 others, and all 3 boards fail at the same address AND with the same values. I find that likely to rule out the memory board as really being bad. In addition, I can deposit and examine values to locations 420 through 430 via the front panel just fine. It's my understanding that the KY11-LB puts data in memory via the unibus, so I would think this makes it somewhat unlikely to be a backplane issue. Is it a strong likelyhood that the problem is the cpu set itself then, as that's what would be writing the values to memory during the address test? And as I type this, I just noticed something interesting. The numbers stored in ram at 422 through 430 are the right numbers, just inverted logic. More specifically if you invert all the bits in 177355 you get 422, if you invert all the bits in 177353 you get 424, inverting 177351 gives 426 (all the latter values being what I'd expect). I'm guessing there's a dead inverter on the cpu set somewhere perhaps? But if that's the case, why does 420 get set to 420 correctly?? Any advice is most appreciated :) Jay West

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Now that you have the only purely German mainframe (TR-440), is there any > software with it, like BSM or PS440 or TEXAS etc.? Any software for the > Zuse machines? CHM won't have the machines until early December. The material on the TR 440 that I've put up on bitsavers was from the existing corporate archive. There is one entire container of documentation and software, and there were Telefunken tapes and documentation there. A simulation would be an obvious thing to attempt. It will be difficult to do here, though, since most of the documentation will be in German.

19 years, 10 months

1
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Printer Heads: How To Clean Without Wasting Ink

by safehaus＠webhart.net

Hi Is there a way to clean printer heads from the outside, rather than allowing so much ink to be wasted by the machine blowing the ink through the heads to clean them. (This must be in a FAQ. I just need to be pointed to where this has been discussed a thousand times already.) A bit of background: I have an Epson CX6600 printer/scanner that has suddenly quit printing. The company sent the machine to me to replace an earlier model that developed the same problem. Maybe this machine has the same problem, or maybe it just needs head a more aggressive cleaning. I've "blown the jets" a few times, using over half the ink in the cartridges to do it, and the machine still barely leaves an image on the paper. (I keep a towel over my printers when I don't use them, and no one smokes in the house.) I'm hoping to avoid taking the time to crate and ship this machine as well. I'm not really interested in another replacement anyway. Thanks in advance for any help. Greg P.

19 years, 10 months

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EBCDIC

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Zane H. Healy wrote: You mean you don't have how to create your own EBCDIC table memorized? I memorized it over 16 years ago, and oddly enough I still remember it. Zane Sorry. I grew up in the world of BCD and 6 bit characters. CDC finally started cutting in ASCII in the late 60's, but with little enthusiasm. EBCDIC is something I only encounter when restoring old IBM et al machines. And even then, usually it is just the codes that were perverted into vendor unique control characters that I have to question. Billy

19 years, 10 months

2
1
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dude...yer gettin' a Dell

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

or it's progenitor rather: http://cgi.ebay.com/Collectible-Personal-Computer-PCs-Limited-brand_W0QQite… funny, you can get a new Dell for less cash though. Ouch. And that appears to be a goofy Tandy monitor sitting atop. Don't that really sweeten the pot. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com)

19 years, 10 months

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More ePay items

by cclist＠sydex.com

If anyone's interested, I've just listed a NIB Micro Solutions 3.5" Backpack drive and a NIB CompatiCard IV for auction. Thanks, Chuck

19 years, 10 months

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A question regarding floppy drives functionality..

by marian.capel＠bluewin.ch

Since this list has a number of people that are very knowledgable on the subject : Am i correct in thinking that, given a custom FDC, i could run a modern 1.44 floppy in FM mode, and at much lower data rates i.e. (say 50 KHz.) ? Background : I am musing on how to give a small amount of storage, say around 100kb, to a very small low tech cpu. I do not care about speed and efficiency. I am aware that IDE-based solutions are simpler, both hard- and software wise, but I would prefer a floppy based solution. Jos Dreesen

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

>>Surviving systems from before 1975 are very rare animals, esp mainframes, >>since so many of them have been scrapped for precious metals. Sadly, there >>is even less software that has survived. CHM didn't start seriously >>collecting documentation nor software prior to the move to the West Coast in >>the 90's. While they have an impressive collection of hardware, and a pretty >>decent collection of US computer documentation now, the software holdings >>pre 1975 are minimal. How many 1970s era or earlier mainframes are actually up and running (or in working condition) somewhere? I have not really followed mainframe collecting, although I did work on IBM 370 and 30xx mainframes in the 1980s. Ashley

19 years, 10 months

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Collections of (physically) large computers

by cctech＠retro.co.za

Hi Jules and all >I suppose my Acorn System One is probably my smallest system - two Eurocards, Sharp PC 1500. Used it while studying. Had all my formulas in there, from integration to hex conversion. "Tricked it out" by adding a 32K ram on a PCB in the place of the normal 16K memory module. I have the manuals to program the thing in assembler so it definitely counts as a computer not a programmable calculator (I do regard the smaller Sharp jobbies as glorified calculators even if they have BASIC and a full mini-keyboard. W

19 years, 10 months

2
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RX02 Controller Boards available

by stimpy.u.idiot＠gmail.com

I've got 3 16"x9" (approx) boards here, 2 of which are RX02 related, the other I'm not so sure. The first 2: M7744 RX02 Floppy Disk Controller M7745 RX02 R/W Control . The 3rd, covered in (mostly) 74xxx logic with 5 berg connectors, no DEC style letter+4 digit code, just the words 'DRIVE LOGIC' screened onto side 2. No idea if they are working boards. As I don't have any other kit they might conceivably be useful for, all are free to anyone prepared to cover postage, bear in mind I'm in Chester, UK. Cheers, Pete -- Pete Edwards "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future" - Niels Bohr

19 years, 10 months

1
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Anyone near Goddard Space Flight Center? (Greenbelt, MD)

by legalize＠xmission.com

This VT50 needs rescuing! <http://sales.gsfc.nasa.gov/web/sales/dsp_viewByCatalog.cfm?sSaleNumber=8032…> <http://sales.gsfc.nasa.gov/web/images/lots/80322620070013/lot019.jpg> These seem to be pretty rare these days, whereas VT-100's are fairly common. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>

19 years, 10 months

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Collections of (physically) small computers

by josefcub＠gmail.com

On 10/29/06, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > :-) > I suppose my Acorn System One is probably my smallest system - two Eurocards, > about 100 x 160 x 30mm in size, complete with built-in keypad, display, tape, > and expansion interfaces. > > My Sinclair ZX81 is probably next - but of course lacks a display so needs a > TV in order to really be useful... > > cheers > > Jules > Would my Microchip PIC18F1320s count? They're 18-pin DIP packages with built-in serial port (USART), RAM, EEPROM data storage... But of course it requires a tiny amount of support circuitry and a PC to burn useful software onto it. (I did, however, have one hooked up to a terminal to play Tic Tac Toe, though ;) My actual smallest whole computer are probably my Apple Newton MessagePads (OMP, 110, or 130). Second to that is my Dauphin DTR-1 with keyboard and pen, and the last of the complete small systems are probably my Epson PX-8s, and my TRS-80 Model 100s. I miss my Timex Sinclair 1000. Poor thing got stepped on by a careless friend one day... Josef -- "I laugh because I dare not cry. This is a crazy world and the only way to enjoy it is to treat it as a joke." -- Hilda "Sharpie" Burroughs, "The Number of the Beast" by Robert A. Heinlein

19 years, 10 months

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Question regarding floppy drive functionality.

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

Since this list has a number of people that are very knowledgable on the subject : Am i correct in thinking that, given a custom FDC, i could run a modern 1.44 floppy in FM mode, and at much lower data rates i.e. (say 50 KHz.) ? Background : I am musing on how to give a small amount of storage, say around 100kb, to a very small low tech cpu. I do not care about speed and efficiency. I am aware that IDE-based solutions are simpler, both hard- and software wise, but I would prefer a floppy based solution. Jos Dreesen

19 years, 10 months

3
2
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Discussion of large systems

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 31 Oct, 2006, at 18:01, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > But when I think of mainframe I think of > processor + storage along with a bunch of terminals attached; both > of those > systems are more data processors (albeit general purpose ones) than > something > capable of supporting several human users. Except the older ones did not have terminals, sometimes not even for the operator. Surely anything which predates the Minicomputer is by definition a mainframe, unless it was designed as a peripheral processor rather than intended as a central processor. That would let out things like the CDC 1700 which is the first machine I learnt assembler code on as it was no longer needed to read cards and send the data to the main 6600 which was several miles away.

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> The machine had no stack, so I wrote one for it, and > developed a stack oriented p-machine for it. Do you still have this? There is a version of SCOPE/Hustler running in simulation.

19 years, 10 months

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HP 3000 Magnetic Tape

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Does anyone here have the necessary hardware > and software to read a magnetic tape in HP 3000 Store Format? I have the equipment to read the tape at the block level at the Museum. We are looking for early verions of MPE (that would run on Series II or III) as well.

19 years, 10 months

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Waduzitdo?

by cctech＠retro.co.za

Hi all >Does anyone have a copy, or preferably a scan, of the Byte article c. >1976 entitled "WADUZITDO"? I have, but it's in storage. Bug me if you don't come right elsewhere. >Is it this? > > http://www.geocities.com/connorbd/tarpit/waduzitdo/wdzref.html Yes. W

19 years, 10 months

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Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 News

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 Saturday, November 4 through Sunday, November 5 Computer History Museum Mountain View, California http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/ Howdy Folks! Just a few more days of meaningless toil and then you'll be in vintage computing heaven at VCF 9.0! Here are some new developments of which you might want to be aware... Workshop Schedule Correction The correct date for Vince Briel's Replica 1 SE Workshop is Saturday, November 4 at 10:00am. The workshop was previously listed as being on Sunday, November 5 on the workshop description page. We apologize if the misleading time has caused you any inconvenience. The reason we have the Replica 1 SE Workshop scheduled for Saturday at 10:00am is so that workshop attendees can have their completed Replica 1 SE ready to get signed by Woz after the Apple 30 Year Anniversary Celebration at 1:00pm on Saturday. The following workshop slots are still available: XGS Pico Edition Workshop - 5 COSMAC Elf 2000 Workshop - 6 Replica 1 SE Workhop - FULL Don't delay, sign up today! Slots are filling fast! http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/workshop.php Vintage Computer Film Festival This year we are launching the Vintage Computer Film Festival at the VCF. The VCFF is a showcase of films with a vintage computing or retro-technology theme. The screening schedule has been posted on the VCF 9.0 website: http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/film.php The Vintage Computer Film Festival is available to all VCF attendees as part of your regular admission. Sponsored by Oddball Film+Video: http://www.oddballfilm.com APL "1 CLEANSPACE" Anniversary Talk Added The APL BUG (APL Bay Area User's Group) in conjunction with the VCF is presenting a talk by Larry Breed on the origins of the programming language APL. The talk has been scheduled for 3:00pm on Saturday, November 4. APL BUG members wishing to attend only this session will not be required to pay admission to the VCF, though they are welcome to do so if they wish to enjoy the rest of the VCF festivities. Check the session schedule for complete session times and information: http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/session.php !!! Prizes and Giveaways !!! Processor Technology Sol-20 The Processor Technology Sol-20 "Terminal Computer", designed by Silicon Valley legend Lee Felsenstein, was one of the earliest fully integrated personal computers on the market, featuring the main processor, RAM, ROM, keyboard, video interface, serial and parallel ports, and cassette tape storage interface as standard features. Stan Sieler of Allego Consultants, a regular exhibitor, exhibit judge and VCF volunteer, has kindly donated a Sol-20 to give away at the Sol-20 celebration at 1:00pm on Sunday, November 5. Check the session schedule on the VCF 9.0 web pages for complete information. Located in San Jose, California, Allegro Consultants specializes in software, services, and consulting for clients with Hewlett-Packard PA-RISC based computers, the HP 3000 and HP 9000. http://www.allegro.com/ Briel Computers Replica 1 SE The Replica 1 SE is a functional clone of the original Apple 1 designed by Steve Wozniak. Vince Briel of Briel Computers has donated a Replica 1 SE to be given away at the Apple 30 Year Anniversary Celebration at 1:00pm on Saturday, November 4. Briel Computers offers more build-it-yourself vintage computer replica kits on their website: http://www.brielcomputers.com/ Minds On Toys Digi-Comp 1 (v2.0) Mechanical Computer Kit Tim Walker of Minds On Toys has created a build-it-yourself replica of the classic Digi-Comp 1, a 3-bit mechanical binary computer. The Digi-Comp 1 was originally sold in the 1960s and was made from cast plastic. The updated version sold by Minds On Toys is constructed >from sturdy paper stock. Minds On Toys has donated a Digi-Comp 1 v2.0 to be given away at the VCF. Visit Minds On Toys on the web at: http://www.mindsontoys.com/kits.htm You Can Still Be An Exhibitor! Exhibit registration closes on November 1st. If you wanted to be an exhibitor at this year's VCF, now is the time to register before it's too late: http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/exhibit.php VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! We are in need of several volunteers for Friday evening setup and Sunday evening teardown. Setup on Friday begins at 8pm, and teardown on Sunday begins as soon as the VCF ends. Even if you can provide only fifteen minutes of your time, we can still use you. We've got a lot of work to do in a very short period of time this year so any help we can get would be greatly appreciated. We also need an audio/visual specialist to manage the projectors and recording equipment in the session chambers. This is a very important role so we need someone with experience working data projectors and MP3 players. We'll reward our gallant volunteer with free admission, t-shirts, and other goodies. To volunteer in any of these roles, please contact me directly (and soon) at <sellam at vintage.org>. Thanks! See You There! Complete information about VCF 9.0, including the speaker schedule, exhibit roster, end everything else can be found on the VCF 9.0 web pages: http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/ Best regards, Sellam Ismail Producer Vintage Computer Festival ;) -- 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, 10 months

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PDP11/35 or 40 RK05F and J, etc

by useddec＠gmail.com

I just picked up another full van load this weekend, docs, parts, boards, > options, etc. The 11/35 can be delivered in the midwest, palletized, or > shipped padded van. Please feel free to contact me off list. Thanks, Paul Anderson 217-586-5361

19 years, 10 months

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MINC-11 (was Re: Collections of (physically) large computers)

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 10/30/06, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > And my PDP11/45 (2 6' racks, 2 free-standing RK07s, and what started out > as a MINC contianing 2 RL01s, with the realtime I/O of the MINC linked to > the PDP11/45 via a DW11-B Unibus-Qbus interface). Niiiice. What I/O modules do you have, and are you using them for anything? I have a MINC-11 (that's just a MINC), but only one or two lab modules. I really can't do much with it in its present configuration except use it as a rather ordinary RT-11 box. I've always wanted to find some of the modules and do something "interesting" but I can't imagine what that might be without a pile of boards staring me in the face imploring me to find a use. -ethan

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

> Al Kossow said: >There are VERY VERY few people that have such systems. I only know of at >most a dozen in the US, and most of them do not participate in on-line >discussions. A few rarely use email. .... >Surviving systems from before 1975 are very rare animals, esp mainframes, >since so many of them have been scrapped for precious metals. Sadly, there >is even less software that has survived. CHM didn't start seriously >collecting documentation nor software prior to the move to the West Coast in >the 90's. While they have an impressive collection of hardware, and a pretty >decent collection of US computer documentation now, the software holdings >pre 1975 are minimal. > >I will be giving a talk at VCF this Saturday on the CHM software collection. > Al, can you get someone to record your talk and put it on DVD or somewhere that I can see it? As much as I would love to attend the VCF, I am on the other side of the country and busy as hell right now with my job and other things. I own a number of fully functional early-to-mid 1970s blinking light PDP-11 systems and have an 11/40 set up with a replica of my college's 1977-79 era academic computer center, running a timesharing operating system and software of the period, and complete with ASR-33, LA36, LA120, VT52, and VT05 teminals, all fully functional. Other than the operating system, much of the software came from an RK05 disk pack that I had saved since 1978, and from printouts of every program on our system in 1977-78. It has RK05, RL01, RL02, RX01, and RX02 drives. I would very much like to see and hear your presentation. If it is recorded, I would like to get a copy. Hopefully I can make it out to the west coast next year. Ashley Carder Leesville, SC

19 years, 10 months

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Discussion of large systems

by aek＠bitsavers.org

" Al, can you get someone to record your talk and put it on DVD or somewhere that I can see it?" I don't know. Check with Sellam. Since two people have asked now, what I'll be talking about will be extracted from material I presented at the CHM's "Attic and Parlor" workshop last spring, with a bunch of updates based on my last 6 months of work at CHM, and on some things that we've added to the collection since then. I'll try to get a paper version up somewhere (probably on bitsavers) after the talk.

19 years, 10 months

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Collections of (physically) large computers

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 29 Oct, 2006, at 09:07, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:37:01 -0400 > From: "William Donzelli" <wdonzelli at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: Collections of (physically) large computers > >> OK, so how much floor space does his largest computer use? > > I am not sure, but from some pictures I have seen, he has a LOT of > stuff for his two IBM 709s. And then there is the 7094 system. And the > S/370 system. Each system may take up 500 square feet. I am impressed, the very first computer I wrote a program for was a 7094 installed at Imperial College, London. Later on I got to see it and they had a disc drive hooked up to it. There was a story about a disk platter shattering and the computer room being blasted with shrapnel. I remember it being unavailable for several months whilst they replaced every electrolytic capacitor in it. We got to use the CDC 6600 at the ULCC (University of London Computer Centre) whilst it was being repaired. We used the small Fortran compiler PUFFT (Purdue University Fast Fortran Translator) on the 7094. The size was certainly comparable with Flossie. Keeping one machine of this size running is a lot of work, the thought of keeping three running is daunting. > > For that matter, if I were to get all the stuff together for my > Hitachi AS/6 (A Japanese 3032 clone), it would probably not fit in 500 > square feet either. The processor is 21 feet long by three feet wide, > and does not contain any RAM or the channel I/O hardware. The six > spindle 3330 DASD string is 15 feet long by 4 feet wide. Then the > three tapes with controller is another 12 by 3 feet, then the card > reader and punch take up two more three by six footprints, then the > network box, then the 1403N printer, then the comm controller at five > by four, then the other comm controller at 3 by 3, then some more junk > I could hang off it if I wanted to. When you add this all up, then > figure in the space needed to open the doors and gates for servicing - > well, it is a large plot of land. Yes with access space it adds up. So I'm not the only nutter! > I think Sridhar is in the same boat. For that matter. that 4381 system > that sold on Ebay six months or so back would also fits (and sinks) in > that boat, having a couple good DASD strings. Ok so you do know different. Why is there so little discussion of these on the list? Is there a more appropriate list? Maybe as we all have different manufacturer's kit we have little to talk about, but we still face similar problems, thing like tracking down media, repairing peripherals, fault finding logic, keeping the machine clean and stopping them rusting, keeping the offline support stuff working - keypunches, Flexowriters, Teletypes etc, though maybe that is not a problem for you as your machine has a comms controller. > >> Flossie has well over 4,000 printed circuit >> boards and weighs about five tons. > > Pictures please! I don't think I'm supposed to post pictures to the list and I don't have a web site so the best I can do is to refer you to a picture someone else has made available. It is also very difficult to get a picture of all of Flossie as it is so very cramped in the barn. Here is an old picture of a very similar machine to mine, except it has four one inch tape decks whereas Flossie has six half inch decks. Also Flossie has paper tape I/O and three drums instead of one in the machine pictured. http://www.mikecurley-worked.netfirms.com/P3-2.jpg > > I am actually trying to buy a building so I can get all this junk > in one place. I am trying to extend my building so I can reassemble the second machine which will also give Flossie more space. No plans yet to get the second machine actually running, but maybe one day.

19 years, 10 months

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Collections of (physically) large computers

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 28 Oct, 2006, at 06:51, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > From: "William Donzelli" <wdonzelli at gmail.com> > >> (Who has at home what might be a collection of the largest >> computers in private ownership - unless you know different >> as Esther Rantzen used to say on "That's Life"). > > That is a dangerous claim to make. But hopefully start an interesting discussion. > > Paul Pierce would be laughing. > > -- > Will OK, so how much floor space does his largest computer use? > From: "Evan Koblentz" <evan at snarc.net> > > If he meant physically largest, Indeed. > then I know a guy here in New Jersey who has > a Burroughs mainframe which requires an 18-wheeler truck (or two) > to move. When I moved Flossie we used one articulated lorry (I did not count the wheels) and one rigid truck with a tail lift. > And let's not forget Indiana's Jim Curry who has a vast collect of > Cray > supercomputers. The pictures of Cray computers I've seen have no peripherals, just a CPU, which is smaller than the fixed part of Flossie. Much more powerful of course than my Germanium giant which is about the power of a 6502, though it is slightly better handling big numbers. The installation requirements say it needs 700 square feet, though I have one squeezed into 500 square feet. The other (Arthur) is disassembled, some packed around Flossie and some in another part of the barn. > I have an impressive collection of the * smallest * computers. :) Very good, the list as a whole covers most machine types. I lost interest in my mainframes for a few years and moved onto a UK101 then I changed job and programmed the Apple ][, //e, ///, Lisa then just about every Mac, and I'm writing this on an Intel core duo Mac laptop. > > From: "Witchy" <witchy at binarydinosaurs.co.uk> > On Fri, October 27, 2006 6:34 pm, Roger Holmes said: >> >> (Who has at home what might be a collection of the largest >> computers in private ownership - unless you know different >> as Esther Rantzen used to say on "That's Life"). > > I used to think I did (in the UK), but that's only based on no web > evidence found to prove otherwise :) I know there's far bigger > collections > than mine in Europe and the US..... > > -- > adrian/witchy > Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator > www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UKs biggest home computer collection? I do not have the largest number of computers, I am asking are the computers at my home the largest in a private collection? My machines are not even home computers, they cost 247,000 pounds new, though I paid 200 pounds for one and 150 for the slightly smaller one which included loads of spare parts (almost another computer). They contain almost no gold, just some platinum in some relays (which are not part of the logic), hence the scrap price being so low (they cost much less than the cost of transporting them, not counting dismantling which took a week and reassembly which took several months back when I was in my twenties and had more energy and more spare time). Flossie has well over 4,000 printed circuit boards and weighs about five tons. She does not require air conditioning, though the seven Ampex TM4 mag tape drives officially do need it. She uses 13kVA three phase electricity. I showed some of the documentation to a young chap recently and he what he found surprising that the computer comes with a floor plan in the installation instructions. I did not show him the details of the floor loading, nor the requirement for a separate one inch copper braid wired back to the building's mains power inlet earth connection. Roger Holmes.

19 years, 10 months

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Resistor-protected-fuses

by cclist＠sydex.com

While repairing a floppy drive with a shorted a bypass cap, I noticed that the manufacturer had very thoughtfully inserted a picofuse in the DC supply line. Predictably, it was the 10 ohm resistor in series with the voltage regulator that turned to toast. The fuse is none the worse for wear. This brought to mind an old friend who earned her living as a field engineer for DEC. At one point, she mentioned that resistor- and transistor-protected fuses were a regular pattern for DEC equipment. This would be back in the early 70's, BTW. Did her observation reflect reality? Are there any other manufacturers that routinely engaged in this practice? Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 10 months

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cctech Digest, Vol 38, Issue 44

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 29 Oct, 2006, at 09:07, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 25 > Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 00:48:52 +0100 (BST) > From: "Witchy" <witchy at binarydinosaurs.co.uk> > Subject: Re: ict1301.co.uk > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <1189.192.168.0.4.1162079332.squirrel at vorbis.demon.co.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 > > > On Sun, October 29, 2006 12:03 am, Al Kossow said: >> >> >> http://ict1301.co.uk/13012006.htm >> >> A bit more up to date than the previous url > > Hm, I'm driving through Kent later on today, I wonder if I could > call in > and have a visit? :) > > > -- > adrian/witchy > Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator > www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UKs biggest home computer collection? I wish I'd seen your e-mail yesterday, you would have been very welcome to come. Sorry. I'm about eight miles from M20 junction 9 (Ashford West). If you come my way again, or anyone else on the list is in my neck of the woods and would like a look, could you e-mail me directly to save the delay of getting the digest, and try to give me a little advanced warning. I do not power Flossie up when the temperature is below about 13 degrees C as Germanium transistors are only rated down to 10 C and they are all now very old. Getting new GET872 transistors is almost impossible and even OA5 diodes are getting rare, the last I saw in the RadioSpares catalogue were a pound ($1.60 approx) each, and the machine has them by the thousand. Every word in the core store has two, so thats 4000 in each machine even before even thinking about the logic. If it wasn't for the price dropping when the supply rises I could be close to being a millionaire on the value of components alone! By the way, the above URL does have pictures of Flossie but it is very difficult to get a good picture at the moment - just not enough room around the machine. To access some parts is a major problem moving things around to make space so you can open the covers and get a scope and your body close to the machine. By the way, the storage scope probably has more processing power than the computer!

19 years, 10 months

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ict1301.co.uk

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://ict1301.co.uk/13012006.htm A bit more up to date than the previous url

19 years, 10 months

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Cleaning out the garage.

by sdc695＠yahoo.com

On Sat, 28 Oct 2006 Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Wrote: > On Sat, 28 Oct 2006, Jim Isbell, W5JAI wrote: > > My wife sais, "you havent used it in 5 years junk it." I agreed. > My ex used to say that (except "SIX MONTHS"!) > I handed her the fire extinguisher. If you want to compete with someone who wants to dispose of your "Stuff" (there is a George Carlin goodie about this), just go to the female clothes closet and do a dated inventory. Those that are clothes conscious want to believe that things eventually will come back in fashion. Typically it takes MORE than five years (by my estimates). Then there are things that don't fit (NEVER respond to "Do I look fat in this?", you will lose!). Just about the only thing that goes obsolete as quickly as computers is high fashion. -- Tom Watson tsw at johana.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail (http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/)

19 years, 10 months

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Compaq SLT286 available (south-east UK)

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Any interest in a Compaq SLT286 'laptop'? We've been offered one, but as we have enough PC machines of this class I don't think there's any need for us to have it. The current owner's located in Chalfont St. Peter, although it sounds like he may be prepared to deliver within a reasonable distance. (A machine like this was my first exposure to the PC world - IDE disk, mono VGA display, 10MHz CPU I think, floppy drive, detachable keyboard; it was a pretty nice system I seem to recall) cheers Jules -- If you've ever wondered how you get triangles from a cow You need buttermilk and cheese, and an equilateral chainsaw

19 years, 10 months

1
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Collections of (physically) small computers

by evan＠snarc.net

No, wasn't me who wrote that. -Evan

19 years, 10 months

1
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Only a few weeks left to save items

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Winter is coming fast and the donor in GA will not hold on too much longer. The museum still needs the help of about 145 people to donate $10 each to save the computer collection in GA from going to the scraper. You can learn more about the items we are trying save on our website www.houstoncomputermuseum.org. We are a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit and can send you a tax receipt for your donation. If you do not have $10 send us whatever you can be it one dollar or two, heck we will take your $2 winning lottery ticket. Thanks again to everyone that has helped us in the past in our effort to save classic computers and related items. If you would like to donate hardware, manuals, pictures, or whatever contact us. Thanks John

19 years, 10 months

3
2
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I'm back! (plus power component questions)

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > > > > > > > --- Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > > > The first one is what I have dubbed the "pow er > > > > towers" and they look like vertical batterie s. > > > > Usually come in groups of 5. Can anyone tell > > > > me there name and/or what they do? > > > > > > Sound like electrolytic capacitors. They act a s > > > energy storage devices, > > > > ahhhh. I thought I felt a little electric charge > > when I held my finger on the top of one for > > a few seconds (power was off at the time, > > but it had been on about 10 minutes earlier). > > You want to be careful here. A common tyoe of powe r > supply, called a > switch-mode power supply starts out by rectifying > (using diodes) and > smoothing (using electrolytic capacitors) the main s, > producing about 350V > DC. When the power supply is connected to the main s, > that voltage can > easily kill you. Even when the machine is unplugge d, > the stored charge in > those capacitors can be unpleasant, and may cause > injury/damage. > > People who know mw know I have little time for daf t > safety rules, but I > do treat the mains side of a switch-mode power > supply with great respect. > > -tony > Yeah, after touching it the first time I thought that that should be the last time. How would you go about replacing them, if you needed to? Would it be safe after a week of no power, or would the risk of electricution be just as bad? Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 10 months

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I'm back! (plus power component questions)

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > The first one is what I have dubbed the "power > > towers" and they look like vertical batteries. > > Usually come in groups of 5. Can anyone tell > > me there name and/or what they do? > > Sound like electrolytic capacitors. They act as > energy storage devices, ahhhh. I thought I felt a little electric charge when I held my finger on the top of one for a few seconds (power was off at the time, but it had been on about 10 minutes earlier). > to smooth out fluctuations in voltage (for example > the output of a > rectifier cricuit is pulsating DC, a capacitor wil l > smooth that out). An > electrolytic capacitor has a high value of > capacitance for its size, but > it also has other characteristics (for esample, it 's > 'polarised', one > side must be positive wrt the other or the capacit or > will be damaged. And > a eelatively high self-inductance) that make it le ss > suitable for some > other applications. > > > > > The second thing is the erm... plastic(?) "polo > > I owuld think that's actually ferrite (a magnetic > material) > > > mint" that has what appears to be copper > > wire wrapped around it. Can anyone give me > > (or send me in the right direction to find) > > any information on it. > > Sounds like a torroidal inductor. Used for filteri ng > DC power lines, as > the energy storage device in switching regulators, > etc. > > I recomend you read a book called 'The Art of > Electronics' by Horrowitz > and Hill. While it won't specifically answer these > questions, it's a > very good introduction to electronics. The only > downside is that it's not > cheap. > > -tony > Thanks for that Tony. I have been making a list of books (and recommended bookselling websites) that people have mentioned on here. I'll try and track some of them down soon ;) Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 10 months

2
1
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The Origins of DOS

by charlesmorris＠hughes.net

On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 12:01:01 -0600 (CST), you wrote: >Well, I had similar experience with a doctor that I consulted for, not >about RS vs >CPM, but just in general in that doctors will not take direction. >They have been trained that they are Gods and therefore must make all >their own decisions. Just in general you're full of crap. It's nice to see that you conclude that all 570,000 of us won't take direction from programmers or anyone else, based on your large, well-designed trial with 1 physician. Admittedly there are indeed some doctors who think that because they can make life and death decisions that they are good at making other decisions too. Unfortunately I must have missed the class where they taught us how to be "Gods". Incidentally that attitude is not, of course, limited to doctors. Maybe some programmers think they're the only ones who know how to write code that works, too. Charles Morris, MD WB3JOK

19 years, 10 months

2
1
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Collections of (physically) large computers

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Collections of (physically) large computers > From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> > Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 05:46:33 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >The question of who has the smallest computer might be an interesting one. >Whilst in later years the technology allowed machines to pack a lot more >electronics into the case, the physical size didn't really decrease much - and >in a lot of cases got bigger (quite often due to built-ins like disk drives >that didn't *need* to be part of the main system). > >I suppose my Acorn System One is probably my smallest system - two Eurocards, >about 100 x 160 x 30mm in size, complete with built-in keypad, display, tape, >and expansion interfaces. > >My Sinclair ZX81 is probably next - but of course lacks a display so needs a >TV in order to really be useful... > >cheers > >Jules Embedded ELF with serial/RTC/disk(128mb CF), Video(80x24), GPIO (PS2keyboard and 8255) in a stack filling a cube less than 5x5x4". Biggest comment is there is NO surface mount parts. The 5" crt monitor is fully three times the volume!! Second to that is my Z80 minimax. Z80, 64k ram, 128k romdisk, 128k ramdisk 2 serial ports running CP/M. All CMOS and very low power use. Both are way smaller than the PDP-11/73 with RL02, RX02 and 3 RD53in a 50" rack. Allison

19 years, 10 months

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Large machines in private hands

by aek＠bitsavers.org

>> I've been pondering the fact there is so little communications with the UK >> old iron folks recently. > > By and large they're a quiet bunch :) I'm keeping tabs on quite a few big > systems in private hands at the moment - they're out there and being looked > after, but the owners aren't interested in the publicity. -- The same appears to be true over here. I know of very few big iron collectors here. I thought I'd here about more working at CHM, but if they're out there, they don't have any contacts with the Museum either. I keep hoping someone has some private stash of mainframe software, but it hasn't surfaced yet. It was interesting to talk to Doron while he was here about the relationship between the Science Museum and CCS.

19 years, 10 months

1
0
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The Origins of DOS

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: The Origins of DOS > From: "Chandra Bajpai" <cbajpai at comcast.net> > Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 11:10:20 -0400 > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > >How big was the TRS-80 Market to support all thoses DOSes? In the first year of sales the total was over 250,000 units. I'd suspect that by in year three (1981) there were at least 25-50,000 of those capable of supporting a disk and possibly more. The big three of disk based systems were: CP/M (multiple platforms) Apple (appledos) TRS-80 (TRSDOS, Newdos, LDOS) NS* Horizon (s100) NS*DOS (also cp/m) Not in any order. There wer others but volumes were generally far lower. >I remember when NewDOS/80 and I just remember it being fast. Any idea who >wrote that? That was the Apparat version if memory serves. Allison >-Chandra > > >-----Original Message----- >From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] >On Behalf Of Fred Cisin >Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 10:24 PM >To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts >Subject: Re: The Origins of DOS > >On Fri, 27 Oct 2006, Warren Wolfe wrote: >> [TRS-DOS] >> It was its own universe, Jim. The links and questionable parentage >> of the original version of DOS are tied directly to CP/M, which was the >> first O/S for personal computers that any significant number of >> businesses embraced. And, Windows came out of the DOS world, and now >> dominates as few products have dominated before. (Note: I am NOT >> claiming this is a GOOD thing.) >> >> From what I can tell, TRSDOS was not a rip-off of anyone's software, >> and nobody bothered to rip it off, so it's pretty much out of the world >> of O/S scandal. > >There WERE several imitators of TRS-DOS (although still for TRS-80), >including NEWDOS, DOSPLUS, and the semi-legitimate offspring LDOS. > >> It actually was pretty decent, and had a few ideas of >> merit that didn't make it into the mainstream world for a while. It was >> just totally tied to Radio Shack computing, and suffered a mortal wound >> when IBM came out with their PC. No fault of its own. > >Rasio Shack AVOIDED expanding TRS-DOS into other semi-related hardware >platforms. > >-- >Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

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Roger Holmes mystery machine (Flossie) is..

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://web.onetel.com/~rodritab/open_day.htm ICT 1301 Nice pics of the Ampex drives at the bottom. I've been pondering the fact there is so little communications with the UK old iron folks recently. It is nice that the CCS archives are on line http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/CCS/

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Coincidence or not?

by evan＠snarc.net

I was just watching "Building the Ultimate" on the Science Channel. They were explaining how truckers use high-tech communications systems. They showed a portable terminal that drivers use inside the cab and .... it looked quite similar to a Convergent Workslate! Anyone else see that?

19 years, 10 months

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H960 question, and part available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

One of my H960's actually came to me with a fan already installed in the top. I have a few loose fans, and my other H960 has no fan so I'm getting ready to install one of those condor fans in my H960. I am wondering if the H960 fans at the top are supposed to pull air in, or push air out? I'm more interested in how DEC actually shipped them rather than "it'll work either way". I checked my H960 and it's set to pull air in from the outside downward into the rack. Of course I have no way of knowing if that's how it originally was, or if some collector/scrap person put it in backwards themselves. Anyone set me straight on this? I suspect that's how it's supposed to be given the channel on top for an air filter of some type. Also, I'm working on the last H960 for my collection, and I have leftover one of the antitip feet that stick out the front. If you're standing in front of the front of the rack facing it - it's the right leg. Anyone wants it - cost = shipping. Jay West

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CCS newsletters

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Argh.. The top link is broken http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/CCS/res/ Works for the newsletters.

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